FUJISAWA, Japan (AP) — A hectic corporate proprietor for the early a part of his existence, Seiichi Sano started anew at 80 via mountaineering Mt. Fuji. It appears now not challenged sufficient via Japan’s easiest height, he virtually right away took up browsing.
Sano turns 90 later this yr, and after being known via Guinness International Information because the oldest male to surf, he’s in a position for different exams.
“Perhaps I’ll check out bouldering,” he stated, suggesting he would possibly do it first in a gymnasium. “Out of doors it could be a little bit bad.”
He dominated out bungee-jumping. “Too horrifying,” he stated.
Or possibly he’ll simply keep on with what he is aware of.
“I believe it will be attention-grabbing to take a look at to surf till I’m 100,” Sano stated. “I believe I take higher care of myself when I’ve objectives like this. Even now, I take higher care of myself than I did earlier than.”
Sano lives about 20 mins from Yokohama and will get out maximum weekends at the black-sand seaside close to Enoshima, the small island that hosted crusing for the new Tokyo Olympics, and was once the harbor for the 1964 Video games.
He stated he was once impressed via an worker at his native financial institution, who was once all the time tan and didn’t appear to be a standard banker. His secret, he stated, was once browsing. So Sano adopted up and located a instructor.
“I don’t believe myself an previous guy,” he stated in his rainy go well with, board status along. “I’ve by no means considered myself as an previous particular person. I all the time really feel that I will be able to nonetheless transfer ahead. I will be able to nonetheless do it. I will be able to nonetheless revel in it.”
Enoshima is a space of small waves, which fits Sano. He joined masses of different surfers on Thursday, looking ahead to the bigger waves to come back. The entire surfers had been more youthful, in fact. A number of had been basic college or junior top age who additionally paintings with Sano’s surf trainer, 46-year-old Kazuto Shimizu.
They couldn’t wait to gloat about their, so that you could talk, “nice grandfather.”
“I believe age doesn’t subject in browsing,” 12-year-old Iroha Shimabukuro stated.
Added her dual sister, Fuka: “He’s extra like a circle of relatives member without reference to age.”
“I believe he’s wonderful,” stated their more youthful brother, Shua.
Rokka Saito, the opposite younger surfer within the pack of 4, summed it up.
“I appreciate him,” she stated.
Sano paddles out and waits for a wave to means. He catches it and stands, tries to do a couple of tips at the board, and incessantly tumbles over into the shallow water on the seaside’s edge.
“I will be able to best say that I simply revel in myself and do what I would like with out stressing out,” he stated. “So in the event you you ought to be too just right at it, or suppose that you must do it this manner or that means, I believe you lose the joys.
“I revel in being swept up within the wave,” he added. “It’s not that i am a just right surfer. So I name myself a ‘small-wave surfer’ — out of appreciate for many who surf neatly.”
Sano nonetheless runs a trade that provides bushes to building corporations, and nonetheless works 9-to-5 on the process. The browsing is a pressure reliever, obvious as he is taking a destroy a ways from shore and floats on his again together with his legs draped over his blue and white board.
“To be truthful, I used to be stunned via his age,” stated Shimizu, his trainer. “I used to be maximum frightened that he would get injured. I didn’t understand how have compatibility he was once, bodily. So once I heard he was once 80, I assumed it will be a little bit tricky to consider whether or not my very own grandfather may surf. I used to be stunned he was once ready to do it in addition to more youthful other people.”
Sano joked about browsing within the behind schedule Tokyo Video games, held just below two years in the past.
“I used to be hoping to take part within the Tokyo Olympics, now not as a competitor however as an old-age demonstrator,” he stated.
Sano is going via a significant stretching regimen earlier than going out; legs splayed 120 levels, and arms touching his feet. When he stands, he’s instantly as his board — despite the fact that at 5-feet-4 (1.65 meters), a ways shorter.
“Other people incessantly say that browsing is existence, itself,” he stated. “If I describe it in a single phrase, I believe it in point of fact applies to me at this time.”
Related Press video journalist Koji Ueda contributed to this document.
