FUJISAWA, Japan >> A busy business owner for the early part of his life, Seiichi Sano began anew at 80 by climbing Mount Fuji. Apparently not challenged enough by Japan’s highest peak, he almost immediately took up surfing.

Now 89 and recognized by Guinness World Records as the oldest male to surf, Sano is ready for other tests.

“Maybe I’ll try bouldering,” he said, suggesting he might do it first in a gym. “Outside, it might be a bit dangerous.”

He ruled out bungee jumping. “Too scary,” he said.

Or maybe he’ll just stick with what he knows.

“I think it would be interesting to try to surf until I’m 100,” Sano said. “I think I take better care of myself when I have goals like this. Even now I take better care of myself than I did before.”

Sano lives about 20 minutes from Yokohama and gets out most weekends on the black-sand beach near Enoshima, the small island that hosted sailing for the recent Tokyo Olympics and was the harbor for the 1964 Games.

He said he was inspired by an employee at his local bank, who was always tan and didn’t look like a typical banker. His secret, the man said, was surfing. So Sano followed up and found a teacher.

“I don’t consider myself an old man,” he said in his wet suit, board standing alongside. “I have never thought of myself as an old person. I always feel that I can still move forward. I can still do it. I can still enjoy it.”

Enoshima is an area of small waves, which suits Sano. He joined hundreds of other surfers recently, waiting for the larger waves to come. All the surfers were younger, of course. Several were elementary or junior high students who also work with Sano’s surf instructor, 46-year-old Kazuto Shimizu.

They couldn’t wait to brag about their, so to speak, “great-grandfather.”

“I think age doesn’t matter in surfing,” said 12-year-old Iroha Shimabukuro.

Added her twin sister, Fuka, “He’s more like a family member regardless of age.”

“I think he’s amazing,” said their younger brother, Shua.

Rokka Saito, the other young surfer in the pack of four, summed it up.

“I respect him,” she said.

Meanwhile, Sano was paddling out and waiting for waves to approach. He caught a few and stood, tried to do a few tricks on the board and often tumbled over into the shallow water at the beach’s edge.

“I can only say that I just enjoy myself and do what I want without stressing out,” he said. “So if you try to be too good at it, or think that you have to do it this way or that way, I think you lose the fun.

“I enjoy being swept up in the wave,” he added. “I am not a good surfer. So I call myself a small-wave surfer — out of respect for those who surf well.”

Sano still runs a business that supplies timber to construction companies, and still works 9-to-5 at the job. Surfing is a stress reliever, apparent as he takes a break far from shore and floats on his back with his legs draped over his blue and white board.

“To be honest, I was surprised by his age,” said Shimizu, his instructor. “I was most worried that he would get injured. I did not know how fit he was, physically. … I was surprised he was able to do it as well as younger people.”

Sano goes through a serious stretching routine before going out, legs splayed 120 degrees and hands touching his toes. When he stands, he’s straight as his board — though at 5-feet-4, far shorter.

“People often say that surfing is life itself,” he said. “If I describe it in one word, I think it really applies to me right now.”

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Associated Press video journalist Koji Ueda contributed to this report.