ROCK STARS OF AGING ® Harry and Artis Price have been competitve water skiers for more than 50 years.
WATER WARRIORS In Their Late 80s, Couple Still Competing for National Titles. By Marc Middleton
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he temperature outside is higher than their age, which means 88-year-old Harry Price and his 85-year-old wife, Artis, are up extra early to get in a few water-ski practice runs on the lake behind their home in DeLeon Springs, Florida. They ski every other day, but their focus is extra sharp today because they’re preparing for the U.S. National Water Ski Championships, an elite competition they know a little something about. “Let’s see, this will be my 56th nationals,” says Harry. “And Artis is skiing in her 55th.” “I’m a year behind because I had a baby,” Artis says. “When our daughter, Katherine, was born, I took the year off.” Both Harry and Artis are the defending national champions in their age group and have skied in and won more U.S. Nationals than any man and woman in history. They not only compete against others their age, they compete against history. “We ski against our world records and all of the other age groups ski against their world records,” says Harry. “Whoever comes closest, percentage wise, wins the big trophy.” 12 G R O W I N G B O L D E R
“And Harry’s won it twice,” Artis adds. Harry and Artis met on a diving board in the early 1950s, when the great Olympic swimming champion Adolph Kiefer asked Harry to give an English teacher diving lessons. Harry declined. “Don’t saddle me with an old English teacher,” he remembers saying. A short while later he met Artis, the English teacher, on the diving board — and quickly realized his mistake. Not only did Artis learn to dive, Harry taught her to water ski before they were married. And they haven’t stopped since. It’s been a 60-year love affair with one another, and with the water. Over the years, they’ve won just about every title available, including prestigious Awards of Distinction from the Water Ski Hall of Fame. They’ll be eligible for induction into the Hall of Fame when they retire, but that’s the catch — they never want to retire. “I hope to ski to 100,” says Harry. “I expect to ski to 100.” Harry and Artis eat a plant-based diet and start each day with a special routine. “We have a specific thing we do each
morning,” says Harry. “It’s called H-H. We hug and then we hang. The first thing we do is hug, and then go out on the back porch and hang on our inversion table. That gets our spines lined up, our blood flowing and gets us ready for the day.” Of course, getting up and getting going isn’t always easy. Like most people their age, Harry and Artis have had to fight through countless aches, pains, injuries and stiffness. But they don’t want to live on the couch when they can live on the water — so they always push through their physical setbacks. “We know that after we’re done skiing we’ll feel much better,” says Artis. “We do have to push each other a little bit, but we know we need to do it so we hold each other accountable.” These two water-skiing icons say the secret to staying active is, well, staying active. “It’s really nothing more than that,” says Harry. “Just get up and get going, because the guy with the big scythe, the Grim Reaper, is behind you. If you keep going he won’t catch up.” Editor's note: Just before going to press, we learned that both Harry and Artis won the overall Gold Medals in the 85+ age group at the U.S. National Championship. Harry was 1st overall, 2nd in tricks and 1st in slalom. Artis was 1st overall, 1st in tricks and 1st in slalom.
GB EXTRA Visit GrowingBolderMagazine.com to watch our feature story on Harry and Artis Price and see these two skiing all-stars in action.
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015