Turning 45 and Celebrating
Last year’s birthday and this year’s birthday– quite a difference! Last year, I sat in the pontoon and had a moment of looking back on my teen years and crying. At the age of 44, I figured the best years were over with. No one was barefoot water skiing on the lake anymore and even the younger generation wasn’t taking up the sport.
Then the hubby sent me a fateful link to Judy Myers, the “Old Lady” who is now 67-years-old and competes in barefoot water ski tournaments. In fact, she’s in Germany right now, competing in the World Barefoot Tournament. Earlier this year, I went down to the World Barefoot Center and met Judy and Keith St. Onge and as soon as I put my feet on the water, I was bitten by the barefoot bug again.
I have been working up in Michigan this week and every day, I’ve been barefooting. I accomplished one successful deep water start this week, my fourth one this summer (one step forward, twenty steps back, but I’m getting there!) Yesterday, I managed to pull a muscle in my back on my second run– I lost my balance on the kneeboard just as David hit the throttle and silly me, I pulled back trying to salvage the start. Ouch.
The best part of getting back into barefooting has been a surprising one. My older friends are starting to rethink the process of getting older and changing some choices– they’re looking ahead with hope and inspiration– instead of the same resignation that I experienced last year. I tell them stories about the 61-, 67-, 75-, 82- year olds that are out on the water. And about Banana George who barefooted at the age of 94. Inspiration is like a ripple: start one and the ripple goes on. The stories aren’t about barefooting, they’re about challenging the “I-can’t-do-that-because-I’m-too-old” mentality.
Next week, I will be barefooting with 61-year-old Joann O’Conner, who learned to barefoot backwards just a year ago! How’s that for inspiration? And to top it off, she has a fused ankle!
So this year, I won’t be crying in the boat. Instead, I’m going to calculate how many Motrin it’ll take to hit the water again.
Save to Browser Favorites
Ask
backflip
blinklist
BlogBookmark
Bloglines
BlogMarks
Blogsvine
BUMPzee!
CiteULike
co.mments
Connotea
del.icio.us
DotNetKicks
Digg
diigo
dropjack.com
dzone
Facebook
Fark
Faves
Feed Me Links
Friendsite
folkd.com
Furl
Google
Hugg
Jeqq
Kaboodle
linkaGoGo
LinksMarker
Ma.gnolia
Mister Wong
Mixx
MySpace
MyWeb
Netvouz
Newsvine
PlugIM
popcurrent
Propeller
Reddit
Rojo
Segnalo
Shoutwire
Simpy
sk*rt
Slashdot
Sphere
Sphinn
Spurl.net
Squidoo
StumbleUpon
Technorati
ThisNext
Webride
Windows Live
Yahoo!
Email This to a Friend
If you like this then please subscribe to the 
What about, “I can’t barefoot because I’m too clumsy?”
You are an inspiration! I don’t waterski, but I do downhill skiing (snow)- I hope I can still ski when I’m 80!
Leah, keep up the snow skiing! If we keep ourselves in shape, there’s no reason we can’t continue to enjoy sports late into life!
Wow, you inspire me! This is such a great post, and what many of us need to hear. You go girl — both with the great writing and the barefootin’!
THAT is SO COOL!!
I love this post.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say again – don’t let age stop you.
I started playing capoeira at 44, and loved it. And just last week I started learning to surf, aged 48.
I’d love to learn how to barefoot!
Having said that….warming up before is more important than ever, and yeah, some Ibuprofen comes in real handy when the endorphins wear off!