Member Spotlight: Neil Brand

NAC member, Neil Brand, insists he’s not inspirational.

And definitely not compared to other NAC members. But how is learning a completely new sport at the age of 89 not inspirational? In fact, Neil has lead a very cool life — trying new things, falling in love and then immersing himself in them. First sailing, then cycling, then rowing, and just a few months ago outrigger paddling.

Neil’s wife, Peggy, grew up an avid sailor and continuously tried to get him out on a boat after they married. He joked that as someone from Brooklyn, New York, he “didn’t even know what a sailboat looked like.” And after finding every excuse to not try, he finally did and he promptly fell in love with it. He bought a small 14-foot sail boat the next week. They both got very serious about sailing, even travelling across the country, toting their young children along, and go race in regattas every weekend.

Neil & Peggy sailing

Their new goal was to go sail the world when they retired. They kept that goal always in the back of their minds as their children grew up, through cross-county moves, and owning different sailboats throughout their lives. After retiring and settling down in Southern California, they bought a 27-foot sail boat out of Dana Point. Here, Neil went through Navigation School, got some more licenses, but still something always held them back from taking the leap to sailing the world like they had always wanted. Until one day, in his late sixties, after a conversation with a friend — who also couldn’t make the the sailing trip happen — he made up his mind. It was about the fifth time he’d heard that kind of story from different people with the same goal and he decided it was now or never.

“So I said to my wife: we’re never gonna have enough money. We’re never gonna know enough. The boat’s never gonna be ready. And we took off two weeks later. And we ended up spending three years living on a boat in the Caribbean.”

Neil sailing

At this point in talking with Neil I started to notice a pattern. “A week later, I bought a sail boat…” and“Two weeks later we sailed off around the world…” He takes those leaps and goes for it!

Neil, and his equally adventurous wife were also serious cyclists as well as sailors. But after two bad cycling crashes, Neil was told he had to stop. Thus he had to look for “the next thing to do”. A good friend, Charlie Matter, mentioned to Neil that he had rowed in college and that they should try it out. They came down to NAC and took a rowing lesson from Billy himself! It took longer to fall in love with rowing than it had with sailing or cycling, but fall in love he did. Within a year and a half he bought his own single scull and became a rowing fixture here at NAC. He sold, donated and bought more sculls over the years — even co-owing two with NAC member Lauren Signol.

He kept rowing, even as it got harder mobility wise to look over his shoulder to see the way. He joked that, “every buoy out there has a mark for my boat. I don’t think I’ve missed any of them!” After one last encounter with a buoy, where he seriously injured his leg, Neil realized that it was time to find the next thing.

Neil rowing

After resting up for a couple weeks, at the ripe age of 89, he came back down to NAC, spoke different outrigger Paddlers, and decided to try it out! He took out club canoes and found that it was quite different from rowing, and that another lesson was in store — so eighteen years after that initial lesson where Billy taught him how to row, they were both back down at the shore, this time with an OC1 (single Outrigger Canoe). After the lesson, Neil began to really enjoy paddling, so following the same pattern with his other adventures he bought his own canoe and goes out every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

“With paddling, I can visit the buoys I used to hit,” he laughed. Telling me that he would wave to each one, calling out, “I hit you!” as he passed, now being able to see them clearly.

When I asked him if he’s interested in joining any of the outrigger races he politely said no. He loves being on the water alone, in the quiet, and enjoying the Back Bay nature. He told me it’s not him being anti-social, he enjoys the solitude and mentions how therapeutic being on the water is. And although he has been paddling alone he mentioned how friendly, social and welcoming the other paddlers have been to him.

We talked more about mileage goals and how he’s working his way up to doing Lido laps for each workout, and again I told him that I find him very inspirational for starting a new sport at his age. “Just coming down here is very inspirational to me!” he said, still dodging my compliment. Instead he mentions how seeing everyone from the kids at the summer camps, to the junior and WOW rowers, and now all the outrigger paddlers inspires him and keeps him healthy.

Neil paddling his OC1

Neil did give in to me a little and agree that trying something new was pretty cool but wanted to give credit to everyone at NAC who helped him figure it out. From Max helping him with club boats, to Billy giving the lesson, to Kelly finding a canoe to buy, to Bruce, Jose, Robbie and the whole team. “You know, where do you find people like that who take the time? It’s more likely to be “here it is…you’ll figure it out on your own!” I cannot tell you how helpful everyone here is. They’ve changed my life. They helped me.”

See you on the water, Neil!

Bobbie Reichenstein