At the North Coast Harbor Boat Show a few weeks ago, I manned my tented booth and answered questions for those who stopped by to talk about our electric flying surfboard.
On the last day, just a couple hours before closing, my cell phone rang.
“Hey! My name is Charlotte. I saw you whizzing by on that surfboard at the boat show yesterday, and I said to myself, ‘I have to try it!’ Can I come by this afternoon to take a lesson?” she said.
I jotted down her name, and we set a time to meet and get her ready for eFoiling during our last open time slot. When she arrived in a one-piece black Speedo swimsuit with a beaming smile, I could hardly believe my eyes. She was an older petite woman who wasn’t afraid to try something new. I gave her the waiver form to fill out, which included a field to enter her birthday.
“If you don’t mind me asking, how old are you?” I asked.
“74.”
She was about to be the oldest person we gave a lesson to in Ohio, perhaps even the oldest in the entire U.S., and she could not have been more excited about it.
She jokingly asked for a locker room, which we didn’t have at the outdoor boat show. I promised to keep an eye on her belongings and store them behind the table while she took a lesson.
Her instructor Wassim walked with her to the launch area by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and she practiced standing up on the board while they were on land. After she was comfortable with the basic movements, Charlotte put on her helmet and prepared for the water. She cruised around on her stomach, very slowly at first -- a little too slow at first -- which is what riders learn about during their first experience. The eFoil needs to maintain a certain amount of speed to maneuver.
“Steady, even speed on the trigger,” Wassim instructed her. “Go a little bit faster now.”
She moved from her stomach to her knees and started to get the hang of it. Then Wassim asked her if she was ready to try standing. She nodded. She slowly shifted her weight upward before feeling unsteady and falling off to the side of the board, arms outstretched on either side of her. It was a perfect bail, as we call it, and all part of learning during the first lesson.
After she fell for the first time, Wassim asked her if she still wanted to keep going, without hesitation, she nodded her head “yes” and with determination in her eye, she got back on the board. She stood up a little faster, and cruised a little bit longer, before declaring that she’d had enough.
“Once I stood up, I went “ahhhh” and then I fell,” she said to me afterward. “It was a lot of fun. You made it look so easy when I saw you.”
I asked her if she’s always this adventurous, and if she has friends who like to try new things as well?
“They are all wimps,” she quipped. “Most 40-year-olds wouldn’t even try something like this.”
Her husband picked her up at the marina afterward, and he just shook his head and smiled when I asked him if Charlotte is always this adventurous.
“I’ve been shaking my head for 50 years.”
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