Eva Shockey said she's not pretending to be a man when she goes hunting — she's just being herself and enjoying any opportunity to be outdoors.I am standing among throngs of people in a long line that does not seem to move. The Archery Trade Association show is in full swing in Louisville, and the Kentucky Exposition Center is packed to the gills for the January 2016 event.
As I have never been good at waiting for anything, I am considering bolting from the line before someone can say: "Hey! Don't you want to see Eva Shockey?"
Well, duh, of course I want to see Eva Shockey! There is a guy next to me in the crowd telling no one in particular how beautiful she is, for the fifth time. Another admirer in front of me is giving a running commentary of her career in the outdoors and hunting industry, and he seems to know a lot. I fight the urge to take notes.
Then, like a cottontail rabbit kicked out of a brush pile, I spring full speed down the crowded aisle. I'm a big coward. I am supposed to procure an interview with Shockey, and I have chickened out again.
The 28-year-old Canadian has become the face of the women in hunting movement, and that is a big deal. There have been exactly two women to grace the cover of Field & Stream magazine in the past hundred years. The first was Queen Elizabeth II in 1976. Shockey is the other, appearing in camouflage with her bow in May 2014.
The National Shooting Sports Foundation reports the increase in hunting participation from 2008 to 2012 among males was only 1.9 percent. Among women it was 10 percent, from 3.04 to 3.35 million female hunters.
Did Shockey have anything to do with that? Many would say yes.
Being the daughter of Outdoor Channel icon Jim Shockey does not hurt when it comes getting your start, even though she did not begin hunting until she was 21. She got her beginning in the outdoors industry by appearing with her dad on his programs, but she seems to have gone on and developed her own niche, her own aura in the hunting world.
Now she is Eva Shockey, women's hunting advocate superstar - not just Jim's daughter.
I see this time and again as I walk the aisles at the archery trade show. I pass by a booth where Shockey is signing autographs and having pictures taken with adoring fans, many of them of them young girls.
She seems to have a special bond with them. You can see it in their eyes: "She is so cool! I can be a pretty girl and be a hunter!"
I didn't think there was much hope in landing an interview with Shockey, but I have made a call to a woman in the outdoors industry who seems to know everybody.
"Be over here at our booth at 4:30," she says nonchalantly. "You've got fifteen minutes for an interview."
I show up early, still not believing it, and in a few minutes here comes Shockey, pretty as you please, with her manager.
They are as nice and polite and gracious as can be. To be honest, maybe not what I expected.
In case you didn't know it, there are celebrities in the outdoors world who act like they are well, rock stars. This is not the case here, and soon Shockey and I are sitting at a table talking as if we were sitting on the front porch having sweet tea.
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Larry Case: What is your life like right now?
Eva Shockey: My life is really busy and very exciting right now, because I literally get to wake up every single day and look forward to learning about new things, talking to new people and learning about new products. There seems to be something new going on every day, and I enjoy hearing about that. I just got married in June - I have a really wonderful husband, Tim Brent, who is also a hunter and he is a professional hockey player (for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, a Philadelphia Flyers minor league affiliate). So between his hockey schedule and mine, it is pretty hectic.
LC: Did you grow up hunting?
ES: I grew up around hunting. My dad has been a hunter my whole life, and we have had our hunting program for 15 years, so I was always going on hunting trips whether filming for the show or whatever. I didn't actually start hunting very serious until after college, when I went on my first big game hunt in South Africa, and after that I have not stopped.
LC: And you liked hunting from the start?
ES: I loved it. I was curious about it, and I wanted to do something to spend time with my dad, because obviously he is very passionate about it, and I wanted to see what it was he loved about it so much. The first animal I hunted was a warthog (laughs) because I was not sure I would like it, so I wanted to hunt something that was kind of ugly (laughs again). After that I was hooked, and I got into all of this rather quickly. I didn't intend at first for this to become my career or job, I just wanted to spend time with my dad, and it just turned into what it is today.
LC: Do you enjoy archery and bow hunting?
ES: Yes, I love archery. I have been shooting a bow for a while, but in the past three years or so I have been making more time for it and becoming more serious about it, because anyone that bow hunts knows that it takes more time to bow hunt and be prepared for it than it does to gun hunt. I love both, and I am basically happy with anything that will get you outdoors, but I am getting more and more in love with shooting my bow. I now do about 50/50 on bow and gun hunts.
LC: You travel all over the country making appearances and talking to young women. What do you hear from them and what do you tell them?
ES: The amount of girls that are involved in the hunting industry has really increased, just from about seven years ago when I really started getting more involved in hunting. It's amazing the number of girls that are involved now. Basically the girls that come up and talk to me say that they appreciate that I am a lady and I can still hunt. Like I am not pretending to be a guy, I don't want to be a guy. I don't turn into a man when I go into the woods and start swearing and spitting. I stay as much as I can as my true self, ladylike as I can (laughs), classy as I can. I'm still me, I'm just wearing camo. That's my biggest thing - you don't have to be masculine to hunt, and you can just be yourself and love the outdoors.
LC: That really hits home with the girls out there, I bet.
ES: I think so. There are all different kinds of girls that hunt, but for me that is just who I am, and I don't think you have to apologize for being a woman who loves being in the woods and wearing camo and doing the same things that any guy out there can do.
Indeed, she doesn't have to apologize. Eva Shockey is the face and the voice of the greatest force to reach the outdoor and hunting arena in the past century - female hunters.
They are very lucky to have her.
"The Trail Less Traveled" is written by Larry Case, who lives in Fayette County, W.Va., has been a devoted outdoorsman all of his life and is a contributing columnist for The Times Free Press. You can write to him at larryocase3@gmail.com.