My Perspective - 'Don't let the old man in'

By Jim Palmer

An old interview between Toby Keith and Clint Eastwood resurfaced recently. In it, Keith asked Eastwood how he stayed active at the ripe age of 88 (at the time). Eastwood responded, “I try to get up and be productive and don’t let the old man in.” The phrase connected with Keith, and he went home that night and wrote a song called “Don’t Let the Old Man In.” That song was released in 2018. I hadn’t thought about that phrase since then, but it came back into my head last month while on a family vacation in San Diego.

When we arrived in south California in late July, the boys immediately asked about going to the beach. A few hours later, our toes were in the sand at Mission Beach (just outside of San Diego).

We rented some body boards (also called boogie boards) and started wading into the Pacific Ocean. Like past visits to the ocean, I joined the boys, who are now ages 16, 19 and 21. Body boards are easy to handle and are fun to try to ride waves back to shore. Despite getting knocked over and taking large amounts of salt water in my nose and eyes, it was a fun time.

A few days later, at the request of the boys, we found another beach called La Jolla Shores. We picked that beach because we had some free passes for surfboard rentals there.

The beach was ranked one of the better ones in the area, but there were also some side comments to the ranking. La Jolla had made the news recently because hundreds of pregnant leopard sharks converge on the beach about this time each summer. It was a regular occurrence that the locals called “Shark Week.” The sharks like the beach because of its warm, shallow waters. Leopard sharks are apparently non-aggressive so there was no real concern by the locals, although they are still sharks so I couldn’t help but think of it as I walked into the ocean.

An interesting news article I didn’t see until after we got home from the trip -- there was a nine-foot Great White Shark spotted at La Jolla Shores at the end of June. If I would have found that article prior to our beach day, I would have been even more hesitant to get in the water.

The sharks really aren’t the heart of this story... but they were on my mind as we approached the water.

When I was younger, I thought it would be fun to try surfing. Surfers were always portrayed as the “cool” ones -- usually with longer hair, muscular frames, and a “chill” vibe surrounding them. I didn’t really possess those traits when I was younger and certainly don’t possess them now in my 50s. Surfing looked fun and it looked challenging, two things I’ve always been drawn to. But I never tried it. Until now.

A surfboard is much larger and heavier than a body board, so getting the board out far enough in the ocean to be able to surf was my first test. As the waves hit the board, it would push back hard. If the board was in front of me and sideways... it would move me back about 5-10 feet. If I wasn’t standing square or not paying attention, I would get hit by a wave and fall over and flop around for a few seconds.

Once I got out far enough in the water, I now needed to think fast. When the perfect wave arrived, I needed to be ready to turn my board around and hop on top of it. Making it more interesting, the board is about belly high and moving with the waves. Even though I thought I was ready to make my move, most of my attempts were quickly aborted. Sometimes it was because the wave crashed a little too soon or was crashing too late, and sometimes it was because I was only half way on the board when the wave crashed on me. Often times, I would get one leg up before I would have to bail out. Getting up on a floating board in a short amount of time isn’t something my body is built for anymore.

As for my boys, after a handful of failed attempts, they were hopping up on their board and surfing for 3, 5, 10 and sometimes 20 seconds. They figured it out. Me... not so much.

But I was determined.

After about a half hour of struggles, I was able to get up on the board (sort of) and stand up for one full second before falling off the side. When my wife stopped over and started to take videos of us surfing, she got there just in time to get a video of me standing up for my second “successful” surf. In this attempt, I was on the board for about one second and then face planted into the water directly in front of my board. And good news for the enjoyment of my family... my wife got it on video.

About 10 minutes more of trying, I called it a day. In the end, I got up on my board for an accumulated three seconds (one second each time).

I left the beach battered and bruised, literally, because of the board hitting and rubbing against my body. I had scrapes on my forearm, my stomach, and my ankle. But I also left the beach with a sense of accomplishment. Even though what I did didn’t really look like surfing, I went for it. I tried something that I had wanted to do since I was a kid. That felt good.

And best of all... On this day, I feel like I made Clint Eastwood proud. I didn’t let the old man in.