Just compiling the list was exhausting, even for us relative youngsters. While originally we planned to focus on 50-plussers who paddle at least 20 times a year, we quickly realized that thousands fit that bill. So we upped it to those over 60 and still had a hard time narrowing down the candidates. But what all the following share, in addition to receding hairlines and pensions, is, thanks to a regular paddling routine, a suppleness of body and more importantly, spirit. In fact, save for a little bit of weathering, they’re some of the youngest people we’ve met.

It’s not all training that got Cathy and Davey Hearn to a total of five Olympics in whitewater slalom, and their brother Billy to the U.S. Whitewater team. A lot of it is genetics. Just look at their father, Carter, who, at 70, has nearly as many river miles as all three of his children combined. "It’s still a constant learning experience," says Hearn, who has been paddling for 53 years. "Every time I go out I discover something new."

A long-time racer himself—no doubt expounding at the family dinner table the finer attributes of running gates—Hearn has managed to do what many can only dream about: combine his profession with paddling. An active field geologist, he ventures west every year to such favorite wilderness runs as the Missouri Breaks and Middle Fork of the Flathead where he reads the rocks as well as the river. Helping him broaden his scope even more is his sparkplug of a wife, Ursy. Just as the elder Hearn instilled paddling in his children, it’s been Ursy who’s nudged him into his new love of expedition paddling. The two go on an extended paddling trip overseas every year, most recently returning from Ecuador where Hearn paddled a dugout on the Amazon’s Tano River. As well as paddling all over the U.S., they’ve dipped blade to water in France, Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica and Chile. "Having taken care of our adult responsibilities, it’s now our turn to be kids," maintains Ursy. "And Carter’s pretty much still a kid at heart."