84-year-old woman surfs for first time at Seniors Beach Day

CAROLINA BEACH, NC (WWAY) — You’ve heard the old saying age is just a number, but that was proved especially true Saturday at the Sunny Seniors Beach Day when an 84-year-old woman took advantage of the day and went surfing for the first time.

Liberty Senior Living’s Brightmore of Wilmington and Ocean Cure teamed up to make a fun day at the beach happen for many.

President of Ocean Cure Kevin Murphy says, “We are just showing how handicap accessible Carolina Beach is and we are helping people who haven’t been to the beach in many years get back down, enjoy the sand, build sandcastles, get in the water and swim. Some even will go out and go surfing with us.”

Betty Rorie says there are plenty of activities to do at Brightmore, “really, we could sit around and do nothing if we wanted to, but who wants to do that?”

Rorie said, “They told us a few days again that we were going to go out for a day of sun and surfing. I said surfing for us? Good grief! I want to see what that’s all about!”

A group of Ocean Cure instructors went out with Rorie to help her catch a wave.

“I thought, is this going to go on forever?” she laughed. “It was really great. I had all kinds of support from the young guys and gals. They said if you roll over, we’ll catch you!” said Rorie.

Murphy said “We have provided them with a little boardwalk area for them to come down, but it’s also showing them the new Carolina Beach boardwalk and how nice it is, how accessible it is, and how much room and space there is. They are absolutely loving it by walking all over the boardwalk and seeing all the new stuff. They are just enjoying the day.”

Several other ladies followed Rorie and caught a wave themselves.

For those who didn’t feel comfortable getting in the water, they had plenty of beach games to play in the sand.