March 25, 2004 Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry is off the slopes and back on the campaign trail this week after a six-day vacation in Sun Valley, Idaho, where he spent his days snowboarding, skiing, and schmoozing with the press.
The Massachusetts senator is well known for hitting the snow in his home state—and while President George W. Bush pounds the pavement in sneakers (he's been featured jogging on the cover of Runner's World and reportedly has a treadmill on Air Force One)—Kerry might well be America's first "extreme" presidential candidate.
Kerry has dabbled in a number of standard team sports like hockey and soccer (he considers his best accomplishment to be a collegiate hat trick), but he's also a fan of sailing, cycling, and kiteboarding.
"I hope America is ready for somebody who honestly appreciates doing the things that he or she does," Kerry told The Boston Globe in 2001. "[Extreme sports] are things I love to do and have done.... Obviously, if I were to be president, it would be harder to go out and do those things. I understand that."
One of Kerry's favorite sports is windsurfing. "I find in windsurfing there's a combination of skills as well as emotions and sensation," he told Windsurfing magazine. "It's a mixture of skiing, flying, sailing, and the great challenge of walking on water. But it's also a form of meditation, because of the concentration and the mix of managing water, wind, and obstacles. It all fits into that exhilaration that comes from the combination of these forces coming together."
Kerry was featured on the cover of Windsurfing in 1998 and has windsurfed from Cape Cod to Nantucket in his home state of Massachusetts not once, but four times.
"It takes about six hours," the 60-year-old senator told Sports Illustrated. "When you get tired, you just drop your sail and sit for a minute. Or if you get dunked, you drop your sail too."
The presidential hopeful is also a certified private pilot with a number of ratings, and enjoys boating and riding his Harley-Davidson motorcycle.
''Like most pilots, I'll fly anything I can get my hands on that I'm licensed to or allowed to,'' Kerry told the Globe. ''I have a commercial, instrument [pilot's licenses], and glider rating and also a seaplane rating. I've flown now for 35 years since I got my license back in '66. ''
So what would happen if the presidential election came down to a test of athletic prowess?
"He's a better runner. I'm a better hockey player," Kerry said of Bush in Sports Illustrated. "We'd have to compete on neither ice nor asphalt—how about windsurfing?"
