# Getting Older and Running Class 5



## dgoods (Jul 15, 2013)

Yup, kinda bored and thinking about the upcoming season. Here in Colorado things are looking kinda grim-grim in most places- and my two favorite runs- the Piedra and Upper Animas are pretty much destined to have short seasons. I'll be heading to Idaho to run some non-permitted goodness-and some permitted goodness in June...

I'm 45 and I've been enjoying class 4/5 whitewater for the past 18 years-running most of it in a cataraft. I still really like it, but have found that it sure is getting harder to find folks who still enjoy the rush, focus, and commitment to running rivers that demand respect and a high level of skill. 

No huge point to this post, just kinda wondering who else out there is also "gettin up there" and still gettin after it.


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## spencerhenry (Jun 21, 2004)

i am 44. i do not consider my age "getting up there". i run the good stuff, and want more all the time.

i have seen older friends whose wives have told me that "he can't do those things anymore". Bullshit! when you stop doing, that is when you get old!


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## Whetstone (May 17, 2013)

You youngsters! Hey Dgoods, if your healthy and you love it, do it! If your contemporaries are bailing on you so be it. There are plenty of us over 40 folks on the river. I'm 56 and getting bolder with age yet more cautious. I'm willing to make the run still but not with the careless abandon I once had. Taking a smarter not harder approach to things these days. 

When you get to Idaho, give a shout and we'll go give it hell on a river or two. Old School!

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## jamesthomas (Sep 12, 2010)

I turn 56 this year and am trying to up my game as I got into the white water thing later in life.(about 5 years ago) I love it. Ran numbers last spring in my 16' cat. Intense experience, you becha. Want more? You becha. Kids are grown and stable time to crank up the fun meter. I would love to raft with any of you guys.


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## Phil U. (Feb 7, 2009)

Shite! I didn't start boating till I was 46 and this will be my 20th season. I've always been very calculating on the water but I've got plenty in my posse still getting after it. Low impact on the body, high reward for the spirit. Love this sport.


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## Whetstone (May 17, 2013)

Everything you guys say is true plus when some young hard chargers get their asses in a tight spot and need help, on or off the river, it's generally some "Old Dude" with the experience and a cool head that puts things right. . 


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## [email protected] (Jun 1, 2010)

My first trip was about 54 years ago on the Yampa. Rowed my own boat 2010 down the GC. Only thing that has changed is the size of my Social Security check the last few years. I try to do 3-4 class 4+ trips a year and several float fish trips. I figure anyone under 60 should be just getting warmed up for the next couple of decades of river fun and anyone over 72 should not have to do groover duty anymore. I raft with guy's older than me. Dying on a couch watching TV is not in my plans.


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## Phil U. (Feb 7, 2009)

[email protected] said:


> My first trip was about 54 years ago on the Yampa. Rowed my own boat 2010 down the GC. Only thing that has changed is the size of my Social Security check the last few years. I try to do 3-4 class 4+ trips a year and several float fish trips. I figure anyone under 60 should be just getting warmed up for the next couple of decades of river fun and anyone over 72 should not have to do groover duty anymore. I raft with guy's older than me. Dying on a couch watching TV is not in my plans.


Nice. I assume you are 72.


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## kikii875 (Oct 25, 2010)

I have been rafting for 45 years. A year and a half ago at 59 I started kayaking. I did some of the Grand last may in a kayak and my goal is to progress to the point of running the entire grand in my kayak.


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## soggy_tortillas (Jul 22, 2014)

You guys kick ass. I can only hope that I'll be able to paddle into a super ripe age and senile state of mind  Seriously though, shit like this makes me happy. It also makes me question why anyone would want to push themselves to class V in their second year of paddling... got your whole damn life ahead of you. 
Anyway, keep kickin ass!


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## richp (Feb 27, 2005)

Hi,

Most recently, at age 66, I rowed a 20' cat down the Grand. 

Sixty eight now, and still entering the lottery to get a GC permit. I want to do a solo before my health and all the perishable skills are gone.

FWIW.

Rich Phillips


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## kikii875 (Oct 25, 2010)

soggy_tortillas said:


> You guys kick ass. I can only hope that I'll be able to paddle into a super ripe age and senile state of mind  Seriously though, shit like this makes me happy. It also makes me question why anyone would want to push themselves to class V in their second year of paddling... got your whole damn life ahead of you.
> Anyway, keep kickin ass!


I have the pleasure of running support for a group of kayakers. So I carry my kayak on the raft and only get in it where I am comfortable. Believe me it will take me some years to work up to running Lava et. al. Now hermit is another matter, I have swam it, and run it multiple times in an IK. ( although each time in an IK I ended up swimming the second half )


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## maddog61 (Jun 1, 2008)

*growing older but not up*

Been boating for 43 years and just passed mid 50.Ran the big south last year and ran the fuatleufu this year. Eventually a jet ski off of Poudre falls. If I live, I win. If I die, I win. Mind over matter.


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## Osseous (Jan 13, 2012)

Love this thread

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## swiftwater15 (Feb 23, 2009)

54, boating 34 years. I have better cars and boats now. On my 55th birthday I will be eligible for AARP. Instead, I plan to run the class IV V Wind River with some gentlemen in the a.m. and ski some double black on my bionic pins in the p.m. RETIRE THAT. . . .Bitches.

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## wildh2onriver (Jul 21, 2009)

swiftwater15 said:


> 54, boating 34 years. I have better cars and boats now. On my 55th birthday I will be eligible for AARP. Instead, I plan to run the class IV V Wind River with some gentlemen in the a.m. and ski some double black on my bionic pins in the p.m. RETIRE THAT. . . .Bitches.
> 
> Sent from my HTC One using Mountain Buzz mobile app



Good shit, I'm right behind you except that I snowboard...


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## Phil U. (Feb 7, 2009)

Good stuff. I'm gonna expand on what I said. I mostly kayak class 3/4 but still have the skills to run Bailey etc. I can't say I'm boating class 5 and looking to charge as hard as I have in the past. I spent 10 days on the Futa after my 2nd season of boating at 49 with my 14 yr old son. Had a stylely time. I've been kayak self supporting as much as I can lately, Deso/Gray last fall. 6 days on the Lower Dolores into Professor Valley last spring. Pretty dialed with that now. Breakdown fire pan, groover tube, precooked meals/dry ice fresh veggies. 

I've been aiming at the Grand for 20 years and never been there. I said in a different thread that I've boated on 4 continents, but still, not the Grand. Been invited on multiple self support Grand trips but I don't think I want to see it that way the first time, especially not in the winter when many of those trips seem to happen, and I'm not sure I want to ask my body to do that. I've got very little river rafting experience. Some, been on multiple trips with very experienced people on easy rios, many were kid trips with me kayaking. I rowed a fully rigged 16'er on the San Juan when she monsooned to 12K. I know oars and rowing well from flat water dingy use on the coast of Maine for almost 40 years and I can read water but that's about it for my experience. I'll be 65 when I launch for my first Grand trip rowing my own raft with my lady friend on a private trip this summer. I'll be training, rowing on the Ark and probably Westwater, and working on my cardio by mtnbiking more between now and then. I'm fit and healthy, time to do it while I can. People always tell me, "The Grand will change your life". I always believed that to be true. Interesting that just saying yes to this trip and arranging my life, and training, and researching and getting inspired has changed it/me 5 months before I've even launched. So psyched. 

I don't mind feedback but I have some solid experienced support in this and I know what I am biting off.


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## kikii875 (Oct 25, 2010)

richp said:


> Hi,
> 
> Most recently, at age 66, I rowed a 20' cat down the Grand.
> 
> ...


Rich,
We should put together a 60+ trip.
Tom Hansen


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## dweiss (Sep 17, 2013)

a lot of old tyme rafters here . I am old tyme kayker 48 with boating partner 58 going on 23rd season paddling ... just remembering old school days when if you do 360 pirroette at the NO 4 @ the numbers made you king at camp... but then a t-canyon was a platboat


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## Ken Vanatta (May 29, 2004)

*Just keep boating. Just keep boating.*

You don't quit kayaking when you get old. You get old when you quit kayaking. 55 and still the person employed to rescue others. I agree that finding others to kayak 4/5, and with my schedule, is not always easy, but that doesn't always stop me. Although not recommended, soloing is convenient and sometimes less dangerous. Even at my age, soloing Pine Creek/Numbers and the Upper Taos Box is not out of the realm of my enjoyment. Who knows how long that lasts, but multi-day desert rafting until 90 is certainly not out of the realm of expectations. As long as my seasons allows me to get started early and boat often to get my head in the game and get practiced up each year. High water and class V is always a head game. Boat early/boat often is the cure.

Carpe Vita!

Ken


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## [email protected] (Jun 1, 2010)

Phil U. said:


> Nice. I assume you are 72.


 I'm Just 68, but planning ahead.


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## MtnGuyXC (Jul 20, 2006)

*Age is just a number.......*

This feels like a tooting of our own horn type post but what the hec..Why not?
I'm 57. Didn't start Kayaking till I was 49 to supplement my rock & ice climbing , Mtn biking, trail running with my 3 Australian Cattle dogs etc. Generally playing with folks 20+ years younger. Don't consider myself a solid class 5 river runner but typically have run plenty of class 5 rapids & generally get on Escalante, Upper A, Granite thru the Numbers, all kinds of stuff on the East coast, did the Grand a couple years ago, Middle fork high water etc.etc. Unfortunately I just broke my colarbone dirt biking a week or so ago & will miss most of this kayak season. Boo hoo..

I encourage everyone to not give much thought to age. As long as you are out there having fun keeping in shape with your sports no matter what they are & what level or degree more Power to ya! That's what keeps ya young! And then you can just laugh at those youngsters who think they are starting to get old as they approach 40


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## Whetstone (May 17, 2013)

MtnGuyXC said:


> This feels like a tooting of our own horn type post but what the hec..Why not?
> I'm 57.


Yeah, but I love it! Mostly because I figured most of you guys were 28 until this thread started. Now I understand the Buzzards part of Mtnbuzz much clearer


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## jeffsssmith (Mar 31, 2007)

I'm 53 and still kayak Class V. Ran Black Canyon of the Gunnison for the 10th time last season. Still showing young guys how to do it and enjoy being a mentor and partner to them. What hasn't been mentioned in this thread that is something that I enjoy the most about boating (and backcountry skiing) at this age is the wisdom that I have gained about skills, judgement, planning, safety, fear and life in general. As long as my body holds out I will continue to run the shit and ski the big lines. Life is good as a 50 something boater/backcountry skier. 


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## Andy H. (Oct 13, 2003)

Back in 2010 AW devoted an issue of the Journal to the topic "Boating Beyond Youth" and had a shot of Blair Samuelson on the cover floating on the Grand Canyon on our spring '09 trip. That was 6 years ago, Blair just finished another Grand trip a few weeks ago.

Click here to download a PDF of that issue.

Keep on Boatin'

-AH


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## cahatch52 (Jan 6, 2010)

[email protected] said:


> My first trip was about 54 years ago on the Yampa. Rowed my own boat 2010 down the GC. Only thing that has changed is the size of my Social Security check the last few years. I try to do 3-4 class 4+ trips a year and several float fish trips. I figure anyone under 60 should be just getting warmed up for the next couple of decades of river fun and anyone over 72 should not have to do groover duty anymore. I raft with guy's older than me. Dying on a couch watching TV is not in my plans.


Damn. I was hoping that when I hit Medicare in December I would be exempt groover duty. Seven more years kind of sucks. You would be one of the few that had a chance to see the Yampa before it was over run with boaters and Federal regulations. A phone call to the Monument headquarters to let them know you were launching was the only requirement in those days.. I am pretty sure that my first Yampa was 1955 or 56.


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## richp (Feb 27, 2005)

Hi Tom,

Yeah, a Geezer Cruise would be just the thing. Sit around the fire, trade orthopedic surgery stories and brag about getting medicare to pay for a power stair lift -- what could be better?

Rich Phillips


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## kikii875 (Oct 25, 2010)

richp said:


> Hi Tom,
> 
> Yeah, a Geezer Cruise would be just the thing. Sit around the fire, trade orthopedic surgery stories and brag about getting medicare to pay for a power stair lift -- what could be better?
> 
> Rich Phillips


LOL
We could be like that scene from Jaws and sit around comparing river injuries and scars.
Tom Hansen


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## fullmer (Aug 23, 2006)

OK kiddos, I'll join the old folks bragging/commiserating club. I just turned 47, and I've been kayaking since 1985.

Last year I kayaked Vallecito 30 times and the Bakers Box section of the Animas 30 times. I kayaked Vallecito four times in one day. I also did numerous runs on Gore Canyon at 3,000 cfs, and ran the North Fork of the Payette many times at 2,000 cfs. I had a total of 119 days paddling in 2014.

Three years ago I kayaked the Middle Kings--that entails hauling 80+ pounds of gear 12 miles over 12,000 foot Bishop's Pass, and then self-support kayaking stout Class V for five days.

I've adopted mantras and maxims about running rivers to stay youthful, and I've contemplated the difficulties of boating harder whitewater while getting older. I've stopped and felt serenity amidst the liquid chaos of the eddy at the bottom of Plunger, and I've found solace in the agonizing footsteps of the UTB hike. For me, kayaking is about being in the world, experiencing the moment, feeling momentarily satiated, and then getting ready for the next day on the river. This hasn't changed in 30 years.


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## mikepart (Jul 7, 2009)

I am not even that old, but I have gotten a bit out of shape in the last few years. Last year I took a swiftwater class and I was surprisingly winded after our first mandatory rapid swim. 10-15 years ago, I would have took a shot of tequila and jumped into that rapid just for the hell of it. It made me think a little bit. 

There is a difference between having lots of big water experience and being in the physical condition to handle big swims and self rescue. Things like raising kids and changing occupations can have a big effect on your physical condition and you do have to remember who you are right now, and not who you used to be.

I'm fine with boating class 5, I just don't want to swim it.


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## [email protected] (Jun 1, 2010)

cahatch52 said:


> Damn. I was hoping that when I hit Medicare in December I would be exempt groover duty. Seven more years kind of sucks. You would be one of the few that had a chance to see the Yampa before it was over run with boaters and Federal regulations. A phone call to the Monument headquarters to let them know you were launching was the only requirement in those days.. I am pretty sure that my first Yampa was 1955 or 56.


 "O" shit I was supposed to call first, I'm Bad. No groover, no permit, no life jackets, no Warm springs rapid and it goes with out saying no brains. I would rather be lucky than good any day.


You must remember crawling it to the cave to cool off at echo park.


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## Gnome79 (Mar 17, 2012)

I boat with a guy in the PNW that I think is probably now 66. He would never post on the Buzz about what he's running so I'll do it for him. He's a Colorado transplant that came out here a few years ago and started picking off some of the NW classics. He eventually worked his way up to running the Little White Salmon at 65. 

I'm 36 and it gives me hope that I will still be running challenging water (not the LWS or anything close) 30 years from now. Many of the guys in the group I paddle with are in their 50's and still ripping. I've noticed that after many years of boating, they have an innate sense of the water, can see the best lines and move through the challenging rapids with about half the strokes I take. I like to think that like a fine wine, paddlers get better with age. 


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