Eighty-nine-year-old Gunter Gutsche can’t wait to get out the door each day.
“The good thing about boarding is you have to walk,” said the Nanaimo resident.
“The doctor says after supper you have to go for a walk.”
The Nanaimo senior is keeping fit as he nears 90 by freestyle longboarding through his north Nanaimo neighbourhood every day.
Carving around corners, catching air as he whizzes downhill and smiling every moment that he’s up there.
“Yeah he’s been doing it for years,” said Gutsche’s neighbour Steve Lessard.
“He goes up to the mailbox and back down. Says it keeps him young.”
“I like to live my life the way I want to,” said Gutsche.
“And I do, I longboard because it’s a fantastic experience. You have to keep your balance, you have to have a certain foresight, so you’re totally absorbed in the experience.”
The retired cabinet maker says it sparks a fountain of youth in him just as it did when he first tried the sport 30 years ago.
“It’s a spark and then its a fire,” said Gutsche.
“I have a short fire you see,” he said laughing.
Gutsche’s wife of 28 years says this is the man she fell in love with and age hasn’t changed him.
“His age doesn’t reflect what he does,” said Melinda Gutsche.
“He’s younger than his age.”
“I’m the oldest teenager in Nanaimo,” said Gutsche.
Lessard says he’s taking notes and is one of many around Gutsche’s north Nanaimo neighbourhood now trying to be more like Gunter.
“I was starting to slow down but when I saw him I started moving again,” said Lessard.
“It gives us hope,” he said.
Skye Ryan
