5 May, 2021

84-year-old unafraid to break the ice

Alan Graham is probably the only skater who recognises the music coming out of the sound system at the pop-up ice rink in Takapuna.

“It’s Strauss – the Blue Danube Waltz… with music like this what is there not to like about ice skating?” says the 84-year-old, who fell in love with the activity when he was 15, and attended a ‘Hot Ice’ performance at the St James Theatre in Wellington.

“I was delighted with what I saw – it was something I wanted to do.”

Graham skated in Auckland in the early 50s when he was at university, and then when studying in California.

He continued later at the Paradice rink in Avondale – and now that he can’t drive he still makes the “not particularly pleasant” journey on public transport once a week to skate, a trip that can take one-and-a-half hours each way.

The last couple of weeks with a local rink at Takapuna have “been really special,” says Graham.

And he’s made the most of it, catching the 814 bus from his home at Ryman’s William Sanders village to skate three times a week. He skates for around 90 minutes.

He’s so well known to the Paradice staff, they give him time on the ice by himself before the rink opens and the school holiday hordes arrive.

But Graham doesn’t seem to mind the crowds. “I enjoy passing on some tips to the beginners,” says the former Takapuna Grammar maths teacher.

Few of the young skaters would know he has already had a chilly start to the day. Seven days a week, Graham walks to Narrow Neck just after 6am for a swim. He aims to be in the sea by 6.30 am and swims a length of the beach. He’s generally in the water for around 50 minutes.

“I’ve done it every day when I’ve been in Devonport over the last 40 years.”

He’s always kept fit with walking and jogging – and skiing, when he lived in Ohakune for 10 years.

But now he sticks to his daily dips and ice skating.

“It’s a smooth action – a bit like swimming and at my age the transition to movement is much easier on your knees and legs.”

While Graham’s energy is an inspiration, to people half his age, he admits his attempts to “convert a few people at Ryman” to give ice skating a go have so far been unsuccessful… “but I’ll keep trying.”