Senior still hitting the rapids at 96
Nike may want to hire Surrey’s Hazel Amos as its spokeswoman.
“Just do it,” the 96-year-old daredevil says. “It keeps you young. And don’t be afraid.”
She’s talking specifically about her annual Class 4 whitewater rafting trip on the Thompson River at Lytton. More generally, she’s giving a pep talk to her peers and young ’uns in their 70s and 80s.
“Anybody can go to the park,” she said. “But this is way more fun.”
Amos began whitewater rafting in the 1970s as a way for her and her daughter to spend a day with her son Robert, who worked upcountry for the railway.
When she travels to Lytton on July 21 for this year’s adventure, it will be at least her 26th whitewater rafting trip.
“After I got married, had kids, we forgot about it for a while,” said Margaret Connors, Amos’ daughter. “Then for mom’s 90th birthday there was a PowerPoint presentation highlighting what she’s done in life, and when the photos of her rafting came up my daughters called out, ‘Gramma, you should river-raft for your 90th birthday!’
“I told them to be quiet, but she’s done it every year since 90 except last year when we moved her. I asked if this year will be her last year, she said, ‘Oh no, I’m going to try to keep going until I turn 100.’”
That doesn’t surprise Bernie Fandrich, who founded Kumsheen Rafting in Lytton in 1974.
“She’s so gung-ho,” said Fandrich, who guided Amos on her first whitewater trip in 1975. “There’s always a sparkle in her eye.”
Her son Robert and son-in-law Brent sit on each side of Amos, holding onto her at the back of the raft. Capsizings of the powered rafts are extremely rare, Fandrich said. He can think of only a couple in the 44 years of Kumsheen’s existence. He has reached out to the folks at Guinness World Records to see if anyone as old as 96 has rafted a Class 4 river.
Degrees of difficulty range from Class 1 (easy) to Class 6 (extreme and dangerous, rescue may be impossible), as classified by the American international scale of river difficulty. A Class 4 river is considered “advanced,” with intense and powerful, but predictable, rapids that often require complex “must-make” manoeuvres in fast currents.
“As far as I know, she may have the world record for Class 4,” Fandrich said.
“She’s definitely the oldest on the Thompson (River) and probably the oldest in B.C. No one has come forward and said, ‘I’m 102 and I did it.’ ”
Fandrich said he hopes to hear back from Guinness in September. The previous Thompson River record was 93 years old, he said.
The day is always a family-and-friends affair, with anywhere from a handful to three dozen or more joining the white-haired, whitewater warrior.
Amos’ daughter has told her mom that she doesn’t need to keep doing it every year, that she already has the local record.
“Mom said, ‘If you don’t want to take me up there, I’ll take the bus,’” Connors said.