// Kathryn ‘Katdog’ Hughes

Kathryn ‘Katdog’ Hughes

- Paint It Kat -
Kathryn Hughes, Kat Dog to her mates, is becoming a well-known face around the comps of Queensland.
A junior for now, Kat’s knocking on the doors of the open division and her results are proving that when she’s reached the age of admission, she’s going to be snapping at the heals of her over-18 counterparts.
(Photo: © Chelsea Hadley)
As with most grommets of today, a certain amount of parental influence swayed Kathryn’s tendencies toward an oceanic existence.
Mark, Kat Dog’s father, has been equally as passionate about surfing since long before his daughter twinkled in his eye.
The president of Caloundra’s Mal Club, Mark anointed Kathryn into the world of surf as soon as she was walking on her ten nose-hangers. By the age of eight, the little wahine was sitting in the dunes, watching pops styling on the waves of Moffatt’s Beach and other local spots and getting lured into the breakers.
Her early steps were on an old clunker, but it gave her a taste of the ocean and she knew it was a love for life. Fairly soon Kat Dog was wanting to be just like dad and her old beater just wasn’t going to cut it.
Never much being one for the shortboards, stating ‘I can’t ride a shortboard. It’s got a negative about it to me’, Kat Dog ventured through our doors for a new mal. As her local waves have a little more punch about them, and with Justin Healey and Grant Thomas sharing her lineup, she edged toward the more performance craft, the Performer and 4567 models complimenting her style perfectly. The 4567 Model gave Kat Dog the open versatility she was really looking for, coupling performance out of the tail with a flatter, more nose-rideable front section for those ‘soul’ moments, while the Performer gave her the speed and adrenalin rush in quicker, steeper waves.
This is only one aspect of Kat Dog’s luminous personality though. Her land-locked alter-ego is a paint-stained artist, a TAFE course beckoning in the near future for the budding Van Gogh.
Kat Dog’s artwork has been adorning the decks of the surfboards of friends and family for some time, her flair for vivid, semi abstract designs reflecting a certain aquatic impression. Floral images blend with kelp-like leaves, swirls of colour uniting more refined aspects of her creations, creating a finished piece that brightens the otherwise monochromatic surface of a surfboard while remaining still distinctly evocative of the spirit of surfing.
Kathryn sees the two sides of her personality as inseparable: ‘surfing, art, freedom – it’s all the same thing to me.’
And that same thing is going to continue well into the future. Solid placings at the Noosa Festival and a Junior division first place at the ’09 Malfunction have seen Kathryn making a big name for herself this year, and her plans are to keep the momentum flowing into 2010. Likewise, her art is going to come on in leaps and bounds, with TAFE giving her a more formal ucation and her plans to start a website and establish a gallery being very much at the forefront of her ambitions.