The odd thing? Lenihan is 69 and calls himself "The Old Dude on Blades." But while his moniker shows that he doesn't take himself too seriously, his activities prove that he's a dedicated teacher with a passion for life.

"I've always heard that you should live your life as if your age was your shoe size," he says.

After a recent skin cancer scare, Lenihan is sticking true to his own creed. While semi-retired from the hi-tech publishing, he still indulges his personal interests. He plays bagpipes in the Los Gatos-Monte Sereno Police Pipes and Drums group and brews his own beer. He also married wife Beverly on Valentine's Day this year.

While others feel over the hill at 40, Lenihan decided to take up running at that age. The activity damaged his knees, however, and in 1991 he took up in-line skating when it was at the height of its popularity. "It has a much softer impact because the wheels are plastic or rubber, and you slide," he says.

Lenihan has experience teaching in an academic setting—he taught advertising at De Anza College—but only considered becoming a in-line skatinginstructor in 1997. "People kept asking me to show them how to skate!" he says, and he took his interest to the next level.

He took a rigorous program through the International Inline Skating Association and achieved his Level 1 certification for basic in-line skatinging instruction. He has since returned to get certified for the next two levels, which involve analyzing skaters' problems and dancing on in-line skates.

The city of Cupertino didn't include in-line skating instruction on its Parks & Recreation schedule until Lenihan approached them in 1997. For the first two years, he only taught adults. But he then audited a class that a friend taught for children in Menlo Park, and decided to expand his repertoire. "The adult class is very structured. They have specific things they want to learn," he says. "In the kids program, we play lots of games and use obstacle courses. They love to beat me in soccer. It's another opportunity to teach them, but they don't know it."

Seven-year-old Samantha Esenwein loved her recent lesson so much that she wants her parents to build an obstacle course in their backyard, says mom Mary. "She had regular roller skates and didn't like them, so her dad bought her in-line skates," Mary says. "She really liked the course a lot."

Samantha concurs. "I liked the part where we learned how to jump," she says. "I liked our teacher. He taught us how to skate and he was funny."

One thing Samantha learned, as do all of Lenihan's students, is the importance of safety. One of the first things he teaches is how to stop appropriately and how to fall forward onto pads. He refuses to teach anyone who doesn't come to class with the proper gear, and with good reason. His helmet once saved him from a nasty spill in San Francisco. "I destroyed one helmet when I caught a crack in the sidewalk," he says. "My head bounced twice on the sidewalk."

Lenihan makes all of his students promise to wear the proper equipment, and even gives his young skaters smiley face stickers to place on their helmets as a reminder of their pledge and his slogan: "The future is bright. Be there. Wear a helmet!"

His interest in in-line skating never ceases. Lenihan's passion has taken him to various marathons, to Pac Bell Park as a blader-for-hire and to the streets of San Francisco in an elf costume during a Christmas parade. But he's also learned that "there's an enormous pleasure from teaching anyone anything."

Lenihan teaches classes through the Saratoga and Los Gatos recreation departments in addition to Cupertino, where he has lived since 1986. His next Cupertino classes, for both kids and adults, are scheduled for Oct. 4. For more information, call Cupertino Parks and Recreation at 408.777.3120.