PHYSICAL
lectual stimulation and learning have been found to fend off or delay the development of dementia. That doesn’t mean just sitting around and playing Scrabble with the same person every night. Doing something novel builds stronger connections.”
Beck’s latters words come as welcome surprise because lately I’ve been on a learning whirl. Nowhere near competent at many of the things I’ve tried, it’s good to know that there is an inherent gain in the pain of taking on something new. And when it comes to the three categories of stimulation she mentions – physical, interpersonal, intellectual – I believe I’ve checked off all the boxes.
As it turns out, kiteboarding is physically far more challenging than I’d first thought. I made the mistake of likening it to waterskiing wherein balance, agility and strength are key, but you certainly don’t have to know how to drive a boat. With kiteboarding, however, your sole source of power is the kite, so learning how to rig, launch and control it is critical.
My handful of lessons, which took place on the shores of Lake Ontario, then while on a trip to Prince Edward Island and, most recently, as part of a vacation in the Dominican Republic, revolved around learning kite-flying skills, beginning with a two-metre trainer and evolving to a 13-metre beast. Frustrated that I still hadn’t progressed to actually hopping on a board and getting out onto the water, I asked Gerhard Marsch, 51, the owner of ukiteboard, a school based in Keswick, Ont., if perhaps I was, at 53 – cringe – a tad too old for this. Marsch, having taught students ranging in age from 12 to 67, assured me that there was hope. “Older students are more cautious at first, but once they gain confidence with the kite, they perform as well as anyone.”
Luckily, there are plenty of places to kiteboard in Canada with schools popping up coast to coast. And because the skill set parlays onto ice, I can continue to practise all winter –snowkiting sees riders skimming across frozen lakes.
INTERPERSONAL
If you’ve ever seen me teetering along on a bicycle, you’ll understand why my friends were shocked when I told them late last summer that I’d signed up for a motorcycle course. Questions ranged from “Are you suffering a mid- life crisis?” to “Geez, are you trying to get yourself killed?” I assured them the course instills safety as its biggest priority, and I’m myriad lessons away from ever hitting the open road – but still people want to know why.
The truth? I wanted to face my fear of riding a powerful machine and, yes, the biker chick ideal appeals to me, but mostly I was drawn to the social aspect of the sport. Here’s the thing: our family cottage is situated on Lakeshore Road on Lake Erie, which happens to be a well-travelled route for motorcyclists. From my deck, I watch them whiz by in packs, and every time I make a milk run into town, I see them gathered around laughing and chatting, soaking up the sunshine. I thought it’d be nice to be part of something like that.
Sharron St. Croix, 49, the executive director at Rider Training Institute in Toronto, the school at which I took the course, says that there are two types of boomers signing up – those who used to ride but traded in their motorcycles for mortgages and minivans and now want to return to the sport, and those who have never ridden but have always longed to do so. For both, the social side of the ride is a huge attraction.