Leif ’23 Embarks on Unique Hunting & Fishing Course, Connects with Norwegian Roots

Written By: Gena Wynkoop, Editorial Content Manager

Seattle Academy alumnus Leif Loklingholm ’23 recently walked across the McCaw Hall stage for his high school graduation and while most young adults his age are preparing for the traditional four-year college route, Leif is doing something completely unique that pays homage to a deep-seated family heritage.

Leif is getting on a plane, flying to Alta, Norway where he will live for the next year to engage in what the Norwegians call Folkehogskøle and English speakers call Folk High School.

“Basically, after you graduate from high school you can have an ‘experiential year’ where they teach you a skill,” said Leif. “There are fashion ones and mechanical ones and then there are fishing and hunting ones.”

And that’s what Leif is studying: Hunting and Fishing. He’s heading to the Arctic to learn these skills (which he will likely come by naturally) and explore a family lineage that takes him directly to Norway where the connection to fishing runs deep.

“Back in the ’60s, my grandfather was the first one of our family to come over here from Norway. He moved over to fish in Alaska and he got lucky because he was a really good fisherman,” recalls Leif. “He also was in the right place at the right time for just about every budding fishing industry.”

Leif’s grandfather, Gunnleiv, whom Leif is named after was one of the first King Crab fisherman of the modern crab industry and was the top producer of many seafood during his time in Alaska.

“He’s like famous up there,” smiles Leif. “I am proudly named after him and he has this huge legacy up there that I’m trying to uncover and learn and also continue.”

Leif has always been a fisherman.

“The first time I went fishing was with my grandpa. The first fish I recall catching was the biggest trout any of us had ever seen. I was about five or six years old and the fish was about as big as me.”

When Leif first joined SAAS he was interested in pursuing a career in mechanics or engineering and knew that fishing would always be a hobby. Things changed the summer before his senior year when he had the opportunity to live and work on a fishing boat in Alaska.

“After living and working up in Alaska, I was like, ‘Okay, I’m really going to buckle down and focus on this because this is a very real possibility of something I could do. After doing that, I realized that being on a boat is where I need to be. It is my calling.”

Leif redirected his interest from cars and mechanics and went all in on fishing. While he was in Alaska fishing for the summer, he discovered how much of a fishing legend his grandfather really was. Leif’s grandfather sadly passed away in 2016.

“I would introduce myself to people up in Alaska and they would do a double take and be like, “Are you related to Gunnleiv?’ and would then tell me stories,” remembers Leif.

With the trip to Alaska and also wanting to connect more with his Norwegian roots, he looked into the Hunting and Fishing program through Folk School and knew this was his next adventure.

The Hunting and Fishing course is in Alta, Norway which has a population of 12,000 and is on the furthest northern tip of the country. Located by the Arctic Circle, it’s going to be very cold and pretty much dark for three months of winter.

“The course I’m going to is less about big game hunting and is more focused on smaller game and fox trapping like grouse and hare.”

For electives, Leif will be taking knifemaking and sharpshooting and will learn how to free-dive fish for King Crab.

“We will swim down in the Arctic Sea with a spear and literally learn to fish that way,” said Leif. “They also will have just about every other type of fishing with pots, rods and nets and we will learn different techniques that come with.”

A big part of the course will just be learning how to track the natural cycles of nature and how to interpret those patterns. “We will learn how it all works,” said Leif. “What you’re supposed to do and where you are supposed to be, when. All knowledge is good knowledge.”

One thing Leif is excited to learn is how to fish for cod and how to use a jig.

“That type of fishing is what my grandpa was kind of known for. He was called the cod killer, so that’s one thing I want to get good at.”

Additionally, the Hunting & Fishing course teaches the students how to survive and how to provide out in the wild.

“I also want to get good at all the survival skills that go along with this type of fishing,” said Leif. “The water gets really cold up there and crab can be at just about any depth so learning about water temperatures and survival will be beneficial.”

It will no doubt be a challenge–not to mention the fact that all classes and experiences will be taught in Norwegian. Although he can understand a bit of Norwegian, it’s going to be a crash course.

As the Alaska fishing trip was truly the catalyst that pushed him into imagining a career as a fisherman, it was also the experience of working on the ship heavily featured in “The Deadliest Catch”-- which Leif was coincidentally, briefly featured on an episode that summer.

“When I was in Alaska, I worked on a boat called the Northwestern which is the original Deadliest Catch Boat. It’s the only boat that’s been on every season,” recalls Leif. “I was in Alaska for the first half of the salmon season and at that time they were working in the crab industry the year before it basically crashed, so Sig Hansen went over to Norway to fish King Crab.”

“When he went to Norway, Sig turned that into his own mini-series called ‘Deadliest Catch: The Viking Returns.’ In one of the final bonus episodes, he comes back to Alaska to check on us during the summer season,” said Leif.

Sig Hansen’s character on the show is known for being a bit more hot-headed.

“He had high expectations for his boat and would get mad over small things but we knew not to take it personally. I remember he got on the boat after I had been working on it and he said that he had never seen the boat so clean in his life. I had spent about an hour with a knife cleaning the gunk off the floors and making everything perfect. He couldn’t find a single thing wrong and those were his words,” Leif smiles.

He even got some air time on the show, although his entire speaking part was cut out. “They cut me out of the show,” laughs Leif. “I probably would have been in there for a solid 20 seconds but I’m only in there for a split second.”

It all really comes full circle when Sig mentions Leif’s grandfather in one of the episodes of the series. “In one of the earlier episodes [of the miniseries] Sig mentions that my grandfather is one of his biggest inspirations. It was pretty cool.”

The Alaska trip was a summer to remember for Leif and made him realize his compass points towards Norway.  “I’m so excited to be in a place I love and do what I love for an entire year,” said Leif. “It’s beautiful up there, I can’t wait to see the Northern lights with frequency. I’m just excited about the whole thing, really.”