MfD: Snowboarding lessons for elderly in Jeseníky mountains

Prague, Feb 7 (CTK) - The elderly can learn snowboarding in Kouty nad Desnou, in the Jeseniky mountains, north Moravia, in the first course of this kind in Europe, and probably in the world, its organiser and instructor Vaclav Michalek said in yesterday's issue of the daily Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD).

Michalek, 69, became enthused by snowboarding only seven years ago.

Now he is training a group of other seniors in snowboarding, a winter sport that is popular mainly among teenagers and the youth in general, the paper writes.

The youngest participant in Michalek's course is 61 years old and the oldest is 69.

Some of them do not have much experience with downhill or cross-country skiing either, MfD writes.

The beginning is very hard, but Michalek says he hopes that his "pupils" will be able to turn on a snowboard and then go down the slope safely after a couple of lessons.

Michalek recalls that he was inspired by an article.

"I read that there was no experience with snowboarding training of the elderly so I told myself that someone must begin to gain it," he told the paper.

Luckily he has friends of the same age who like to learn something new and have fun. He persuaded them to join his snowboarding course, MfD notes.

"According to what I have read, we may be the first (snowboarding) course for the elderly in Europe and possibly in the world," Michalek said in MfD.