Re: [Paddlewise] Not young, never will be

At 08:02 AM 10/15/99 EDT, Outfit3029_at_aol.com wrote:
>Age is not all that relevant to kayaking ability.  With proper technique, 
>appropriate trips and reasonable health and conditioning; an individual 
>should be able to kayak indefinitely.  Our paddling group consists of four 
>paddlers.  Ages are 67, 65, 64 and me at 42.  
<snip>
Something I've observed about aging: active people tend to stay healthy to
a much older age than folks that have a sedentary life style.  This was
really drawn to my attention several years ago when I was taking
photography classes at a local college.  There were a number of retired
folks in the class who were in there 70s.  These guys were routinely going
and hiking Utah and Arizona and bringing back beautiful pictures.

More anecdotal evidence: A friend of mine's father still dives and he's in
his mid 80's.  My own grandfather spent all his life working on his farm
lived to be in his mid 90s and was active up until the last couple of years
of his life.  Ditto for my grandmother.

My thesis based on this anecdotal evidence is: not only can you keep
kayaking (or any other active sport for that matter) as you get into to
your 60s and beyond, kayaking will improve the quality of life in those years.

                   Luke (who's 42 and testing his thesis on himself)
--------------------------------------------------------
Luke Hoffman
lhoffman_at_colsa.com
COLSA Corporation
In the great human comedy, one day we're
spectators, the next day we're performers.
                  Garrison Keillor 

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