It was a test of endurance unlike any other.
For about two hours, Kelsey Pfendler stood on a wooden platform at the Hawaii Yacht Club and individually greeted a line of fans and well-wishers who hoped for a word with the California-to-Hawaii solo rowing record-holder.
Some hailed from Oahu, some from Neighbor Islands and some from parts well beyond like Pfendler, a native of Upstate New York.
As she signed autographs and posed for photos July 10 — a week after her arrival in Ala Wai Harbor from (Monterrey, Calif.) in 43 days, 17 hours, 55 minutes, 59 seconds — Pfendler’s enthusiasm never appeared to wane. That was after delivering a question-and-answer session of more than an hour.
She shattered the previous record for a woman, held by Lia Ditton at more than 86 days in 2020. She also broke the overall record of more than 52 days held by Rob Eustace in 2014.
Since her life-changing endeavor, Pfendler has been contacted by many. But her most cherished interactions have been at everyday places like coffee shops and food trucks.
“I think honestly just talking to normal people,” Pfendler, 32, told Spectrum News of the outreach that has been the most meaningful. “Seeing how much it impacted other people has been really big for me.”
Many of those who’ve approached her have been women and girls who checked in on her voyage regularly through Pfendler’s social media posts out on the open ocean.
“I’ve had some new moms struggling with becoming a new mom and finding their own space in that. And moms and daughters that have connected over my row,” Pfendler said. “And that’s a really thing to special thing to realize that I was able to do that for these women. That’s been really, really cool for me to understand.”
Pfendler, who works as a river rapids guide and an EMT in Colorado, did not row in high school or college. But her day job in the Grand Canyon translated well to open-ocean rowing and she was part of a four-person venture to Kauai in 2024 that was the catalyst for her return voyage. She knew she’d row to Oahu to honor the previous record.
In her postings to her Instagram followers of nearly 800,000, Pfendler has spoken of figuring out what her next difficult endeavor will be as she planned to remain in Hawaii for the immediate future.
She told Spectrum News on July 10 that she is still in no rush to figure it out, but she knows that she can’t rest on what she’s done.
“I’ve already been thinking about my next game plan and things I want to do,” Pfendler said. “I’ve still got some ideas that aren’t fully baked, so I have to feel them out and look at the feasibility of it all. But I never stop looking forward to the future, what I want, because it’s so core to my personality that I want to keep doing these things.”
Kelsey Pfendler, right, shared her experiences with young fans who lined up at Hawaii Yacht Club on July 10. (Spectrum News/Brian McInnis)
Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source spectrumlocalnews.com ’
