Highflying Octogenarian Conquers the Waves

In pearl earrings, apricot toenail polish and a black wetsuit, Mary Murphy is the picture of graceful aging. At 84, she is about to ride a modified ski to Santa Catalina Island and back, a 62-mile journey.

Tall and athletic, she has an elegant bearing for a woman wearing rubber. At the uncivilized hour of 7:30 a.m., she bobs in the chilly water off Long Beach, signaling to the boat driver she is ready by chirping “yoo hoo.”

She’s perched on a seat mounted on a platform that resembles a snowboard. Below the water, an attached hydrofoil helps elevate her out of the water.

She cruises by the Queen Mary at 20 mph and leaves the still-sleepy downtown pleasure boat harbor behind.

Five hours and 17 minutes later, Murphy has established a world record for age and endurance, according to the World Flight Assn., a Canyon Lake organization for hydrofoil enthusiasts.

Beyond her glory ride in the solitary field of 80-somethings riding hydrofoils was invaluable publicity for a big West Coast boat show this weekend. Among the vendors at the Long Beach Convention Center show will be her son, Mike, selling the Sky Ski on which she set her record.

Truth is, Mary Murphy has done this trip by hydrofoil three times before as an octogenarian. The Guinness Book of World Records did not show up three years ago, the one time that someone called. Bob Brown, a publicist for the Southern California Marine Assn., said the water-ski world cares more about speed than the impressive stamina of a great-grandmother who does not act her age.

Murphy has had far more interesting ski trips to and from the island. When she was younger, she, her husband and their four children used to water-ski over for breakfast on weekends.

“Remember the time we were skiing back and the shark hit the engine prop and rolled over between us?” her son Mike asked last week, recalling a trip 45 years ago when the toothy animal floated up amid their water skis.

Those are the kind of Murphy family trips one remembers.

“She was an ordinary mom,” said Tom Wolfe, who grew up with the Murphy children in Compton and still water-skis with them weekly in Long Beach. “If you can call anyone in the Murphy family ordinary.”

Murphy’s sons Mike, 54, and Nick Jr., 53, have won world championships and now compete in seniors divisions. Son Patrick, 55, was a champion power boat racer. Mike Murphy co-patented the Sky Ski hydrofoil that Mary rode to Catalina. Only her daughter, Lee, 60, has retired from the sport.

Last month during a competition in Parker, Ariz., four generations of Murphys hydrofoiled together--until the matriarch wiped out and took down with her several family members along with costly boat and ski rigging. She now has a trophy for “best crash,” Patrick Murphy noted.

“One of the great family stories is that after my sister was born, the neighbor lady wanted to adopt her,” said Mike Murphy, “because she thought my mom carrying the baby on a Harley might kill her.”

This was back in Ohio, when Mary Murphy was a new mother. She had met her husband at an aircraft plant where she assembled parts. “I had to marry him,” she said, “to get the Harley.”

Murphy grew up near the water in a small town in Wisconsin. She didn’t start water-skiing until she was 38, and living in Compton. The family spent weekends at Long Beach’s Marine Stadium, a Southern California boat racing and water-ski mecca near Belmont Shore.

Although they look similar, water-skiing is far more physically demanding than what Murphy did Thursday to set her world record.

The contraption she rode, patented by her son with a former partner, has a seat with a lap strap. A board with painted flames slides up and down a center post like a barber chair. At the base is the shaped metal hydrofoil that remains submerged even while the foiler rides several feet above the water.

The hydrofoil dictates the rider’s elevation, based on the angle at which it moves through water.

In “the hydrofoil community,” as one Web site calls it, athletes on wake boards can perform dramatic jumps, somersaults, back flips, helicopter spins and even a new trick, the submarine, in which the rider completely submerges.

At least one of the world’s top pro surfers has equipped his board with a hydrofoil to help him ride mountainous waves.

Perhaps the biggest benefactor, however, is the water-skier who is past age 20. That sport requires arm and leg stamina and strong knees, which must absorb the bouncing of the ski against choppy water or boat wake.

With a hydrofoil, the rider is spared the wear and tear of bouncing over waves. That’s why Murphy can make the Catalina trip 75 feet behind a power boat and five hours later be ready to go again.

Massive thickets of seaweed caused her to fall about 10 times, but that only slowed her down. She had no problem waving like a pageant winner as she neared TV crews on another boat.

“I’m not tired,” she said after her ride was over. “It gets me out of the house.”

Her three oldest children and assorted spouses and friends were on hand for her ride last week.

“I told someone yesterday that I was getting up at 5 a.m. today to go with my grandmother when she skied to Catalina and back,” said grandson Sam Murphy, 29, watching from a boat as Murphy gazed around her at frolicking dolphins.

“They were like, ‘Whoooaa! What?!’ I guess to everyone else it would seem crazy to have your grandma do this. But I’ve grown up this way. Every weekend my whole life we have always water-skied together, and grandma barbecued hamburgers and hot dogs afterward.”

On the shore, an onlooker said what a lot of people were probably thinking: “I hope I’m like her when I’m 84--my son sitting on the beach with me after a day of water-skiing.”

Murphy’s oldest son, Patrick, replied with a grin: “Don’t we all.”