A companion article to “Sea Kayaking After 60 – Twelve Tips to Keep Paddling in Your 70s and 80s” by Jerry Kaye
While researching my Sea Kayaking After 60 articles, one tip kept surfacing in nearly every conversation: Programmed Nudges — the little pushes that get us off the sofa and onto the water. Chief among those nudges? Surrounding yourself with active, glass-half-full friends who inspire, encourage, nag, and occasionally beg you to get out there. People who swap stories about their adventures, not their ailments. People who fire off a text on a grey Tuesday morning asking if you’re up for a paddle — and then greet you at the put-in with smiles, laughter, and the kind of easy conversation that makes you wonder why you ever considered staying home.
At 81, Paul Flynne has that kind of active friend group well sorted. In fact, he built one from scratch — and he didn’t start until he was 74.
Father of the Club
Paul took up kayaking when he retired, buying a couple of boats with his wife to poke around the waters near Sidney. “Just to have some fun,” as he puts it. But the bug bit hard. He connected with a handful of like-minded souls through SISKA (the South Island Sea Kayak Association). All local, all newly retired or thereabouts, all quietly hungry for something more.
Four paddlers became a crew, and a crew became a community. The deeper they immersed themselves (Paul’s word, offered with an apologetic grin for the pun) the more enthusiastic they became, and the more they came to rely on each other just to show up.
The word ‘geriatric’ in the group name doesn’t mean ‘we’re old and winding down.’ It’s a badge of defiance. As in: ‘we may be older, but we’re still bad-ass paddlers in tippy Greenland kayaks getting out there more than you are, so take that!’
Case in point: group member Elizabeth Purdon circumnavigated Vancouver Island by sea kayak in 2018 — at age 60. She has a 2020 YouTube video about Baja paddling with Freya Hoffmeister, and in June 2024 delivered a presentation to SKABC about her 14 trips to Baja. The club’s reputation may sound a little intimidating from the outside, but by all accounts, the vibe is warm and social.
Group members don’t just paddle together — they’ve committed. Rescue courses, rolling clinics, First Aid, surf sessions. Everyone carries at least a Level 2 Paddle Canada certification. There’s a culture of always pushing each other to keep improving — a kind of continuing education program, cheerfully enforced. Which turns out to be necessary, because club members occasionally head out into, or unexpectedly stumble upon, conditions Paul diplomatically calls “pretty spicy.”
Today, the Sidney North Saanich Geriatric Paddling Group has roughly 25 people on the mailing list. Most are in their seventies, some in their sixties, and a few — like Paul himself — have crossed into their eighties. He turned 81 last year. His birthday party, by all accounts, was not a quiet affair.
They paddle every week, year-round, weather permitting. Most outings draw 8 to 10 people — a sweet spot, as larger groups get unwieldy at landings and complicate safety management. When a storm blows in and discretion wins the day, someone finds a coffee shop. Knot-tying practice has been known to happen. In summer, there are camping trips.
Why It Works
What Paul has built is the formula behind a hundred successful senior paddling communities around the world.
It’s not about fitness metrics. It’s not about kilometres logged or how sharp your brace is. It’s about belonging to a group of active, interesting, like-minded people. As Paul says, that sense of belonging is “worth its weight in gold.”
For Elizabeth, the frequent outings have another big draw: “We were out around Portland Island in the sunshine yesterday. Paddling keeps us young!”
The weekly paddle on the calendar is a nudge. A commitment. A reason to get out of bed on a grey Tuesday morning in January when the sofa is whispering your name. When the paddle is scheduled and your friends are expecting you, the calculation changes. You go. And once you’re out there — threading past islands, watching a heron lift off, breathing cold salt air — you remember why you do this, every single time.
The Saanich Peninsula is, frankly, one of the finest backyards a paddler could ask for: Portland Island, Sidney Spit, D’Arcy Island, the Discovery Islands, the Gulf Islands a little further out, and the San Juans beyond. Wildlife everywhere. Sheltered enough for year-round paddling, dramatic enough for genuine adventure.
The Romans had a phrase for it: Mens sana in corpore sano — a sound mind in a sound body. Paul quotes it naturally, as someone who has lived it. Physical activity and solid friendships, he says, are the best tools we have for keeping our bodies and minds sharp as the years roll past.
Hard to argue with a man who took up sea kayaking at 74 and hasn’t stopped since.
Propinquity
You might think your ability to make friends comes down to your dazzling personality and general irresistibility. The research, however, says otherwise. Structural factors matter more than personal ones — and one structural factor matters most of all: propinquity (my favourite new word this year, guaranteed to score big points in Scrabble).
Propinquity refers to the friendships that form out of recurrent contact — built on physical proximity, shared time, and common identities or interests. In social psychology, the ‘propinquity effect’ shows that we’re far more likely to become friends with people we encounter regularly. It’s the structure of repeated interaction that does the heavy lifting, not your personal charm (sorry).
Notice that paddling clubs tick literally every propinquity box. Recurrent meet ups. Check. Shared time together. Check. Common identities and interests, Check. If you want to make friends and stay active after 60, join one near you. And if there isn’t one — follow Paul’s lead and build your own.
Your Move
If you live in or near Victoria and hold a Level 2 Paddle Canada certification, BC Marine Trails can facilitate an introduction to Paul Flynne and Elizabeth Purdon, who helped bring this group to our attention.
If you’re somewhere else in BC — or anywhere else in the world — the blueprint is right here. Paul started with four people and a shared love of the outdoors. Post a note at your local kayak shop. Float the idea in your club newsletter. Reach out through BC Marine Trails.
The “geriatric” label, worn with affection and a healthy dose of defiance, is the whole point: this is a club that looks the passage of time square in the eye and then goes paddling anyway.
There is always a kayak waiting for you at the shore.
The only question is whether you’re going to get off the sofa.
Want to connect with the Sidney North Saanich Geriatric Paddling Group? BC Marine Trails can facilitate introductions to Paul Flynne and Elizabeth Purdon. Contact us through the BC Marine Trails website. For links to SKABC, SISKA and BC’s other paddling clubs, click here.
