There aren’t many 91-year-olds who can accrue more than 132,000 views on YouTube (at the time of this writing), but then again, John Carter isn’t your typical grandfather.
The man from Trail, British Columbia, who’s more active than many people in their 20s and 30s, enjoys biking, snoeshowing, fishing and participating in a range of other sports. However, his biggest thrill comes from practicing his dives from the 3-meter springboard at the local pool.
Carter hits the gym at 8:00 pm five days per week to lift weights for half-an-hour, and then take to the diving board.
“I usually have three or four people watching me,” he told Daybreak South. “They’ll come and ask me, how old are you? It is kind of cute and I just want to keep doing it and having fun. I don’t want to get old.”
Carter can do backflips, frontflips and enter the water headfirst without using his arms. But, when he really wants to show off, he’ll pull out a “trick” he knows will make people’s stomach’s turn upside down.
“…I do a back flop. I’ll land in the water, 10 feet below, flat on my back, and it just echoes…I did it recently. My back was red for about three hours, and sure it stung, but everybody enjoyed it,” he said in the video his grandson-in-law, Devin Graham, made titled “World’s Most Extreme Grandpa.”
The glee Carter exudes as he talks about his back flop (at the 2:20 mark in the clip) is what makes his little stunt even more entertaining.
Carter stays active so he can feel young. According to Daybreak South, he feels like he’s 65 or 70 rather than decades older.
Earlier in life, he and his late wife of 62 years ran a sewing and fabric business. She passed away due to complications from a brain tumor, but Carter has continued living life to the fullest.
In fact, one young boy who was watching Carter dive recently hit the nail on the head when it comes to describing him.
“He [A boy of about six years old] said to the lifeguard, ‘I think he’s a lifeguard disguised as an old man,'” Carter relayed.
And that statement was music to Carter’s ears.
