Santa Cruz Good Times

Saturday
May 25th
Text size
  • Increase font size
  • Default font size
  • Decrease font size

Best Health & Fitness 2009

Friday, 02 October 2009 11:11 GTWebmaster Santa Cruz - Best Of Santa Cruz ’09
 E-mail

best_heallth_pacedgeBest Outdoor Sports School
Pacific Edge

 

Aerobics instructor
Lee Pate
Clearly the hottest rage right now in Santa Cruz and beyond, Zumba has taken Santa Cruz by its feet and made the town start dancing. And at the helm of this effervescent and motivating exercise routine is local Zumba instructor Lee Pate, who teaches at Dance Synergy in Aptos on Fridays and at Spa Fitness in Capitola on Mondays and Saturdays. Pate, who’s been teaching fitness for 15 years, obviously has got a thing for fancy footwork. Here are your ABC’s about Zumba: According to Pate’s website, “Zumba combines Latin and international rhythms with cardio respiratory endurance exercise to create an ‘aerobics’ class … a high-energy workout … while doing salsa, merengue, cumbia, calypso, flamenco, samba and reggaeton dances.” Intriguing, huh? “I have the best job in the world,” Pate notes.  (Watch exclusive video of Pate, her class and a GT staffer on our new online video channel, GTv, at gtweekly.com.) Zumba Santa Cruz, 6:45 p.m. Mondays and 4:30 p.m. Saturdays at Spa Fitness, Capitola; 5:30 p.m. Fridays at Dance Synergy, Aptos.
Runners up
Joy Smith
Paige Nutt

Acupuncture
Five Branches California Acupuncture,Oriental Medicine school, San Jose and Santa Cruz
I used to fake an ear ache from time to time to get out of going to school. My Polish mother, bless her heart, would heat some oil, rub it on a cotton ball and stick it in my ear and voila! … I’d have another day free from my strict fourth grade teacher. (Looking back, the teacher really wasn’t that strict at all—I was just craving some attention.) That’s what people get at Five Branches. I see it as the mother of all healing portals around these parts—it’s always there whenever you need it. While cotton balls must be in stock, what intrigues me is how beautifully this place has a grasp on Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM): acupuncture, Chinese medical herbs, energetics, dietetics and Tuina massage. A good place to learn, and/or be totally rejuvenated—from the inside. 200 7th Ave. Suite 115, Santa Cruz, 476-8211
Runners up
Grass Roots
Lee Holden
Martha Benedict

Bike trail
Wilder Ranch
We can’t seem to wander far from this one. But there’s a reason Wilder Ranch continues to win us over. With its mix of fire roads and single tracks, it boasts more than 40 miles of trails that reward the uphill effort with stunning vistas and views.  This is one of the best, unspoiled mountain biking paradises around. But you already know that. (Newbies and advanced cyclists welcome!) 1401 Coast Road, Santa Cruz, 423-9703
Runners up
Nisene Marks
West Cliff Drive

Day spa
Well Within
Where else can you get your own private spa, a massage, and relax in charming Japanese garden surroundings complete with waterfall and koi pond all without ever stepping foot outside of Santa Cruz? Well, there are a few places, but none, apparently, so apt at capturing your attention the way Well Within has this year—and, let’s point out, so many years before. Keep divin’ in. 417 Cedar St., Santa Cruz, 458-9355
Runners up
Caress
Kiva
Chaminade
Tonic

Fitness center 
Toadal Fitness
Most still refer to it as Frog Fitness but this bountiful, friendly fitness club is perfect for burning calories and staying in shape. Free towel service is a plus; smiles from staff members even better. Great locations throughout the county, with a new center opening in Capitola, make access easy. Not bad for an institution that has evolved quite nicely since it opened its doors in 1996. Santa Cruz: 113 Lincoln St.,Santa Cruz, 423-3764; Live Oak: 1200 17th Ave., Suite 108, Santa Cruz, 464-3764;
Runners up
Spa Fitness
24 Hour
Pacific Edge
Crossfit

Fitness trainer
Steve Hodgert (Weight Room)
Runners up
Rebecca Rovay-Hazelton (Toadal)
Paige Nutt (Studio 831)

Golf Course
De Laveaga
Runners up
Pasatiempo
Seascape
Boulder Creek
Casserly

Hiking Trail
Nisene Marks
Runners up
Big Basin
Henry Cowell
Pogonip
Wilder Ranch

Jogging/Running Trail
West Cliff Drive
Runners up
Nisene Marks
Pogonip
Twin Lakes
UCSC campus

Martial Arts Instructor
Augie Gonzalez (Spa Fitness Watsonville)
Runner up
Dio Santiago

Outdoor Sports School
Pacific Edge
Oh the irony. This year’s Best Outdoor Sports goes to a business with a tin roof over its head. But what a hot tin roof it is. Of course, the climbers crimping on plastic holds indoors are, after all, having a whole lot of fun gaining the necessary strength to be outdoors on the full-blown stone. That’s the whole point, because no self-respecting climber wants to be humbled by being out of climbing shape. The real stone provides plenty of opportunity for humbleness. So to the gym they go, and in the process Pacific Edge is a community unto itself. Climbers not only gain core, pull-down fitness, but can practice the fine balancing act of yoga and mat pilates, partake in climbing seminars (everything from teaching the ropes to aid climbing) and meet potential partners and not exactly in the climbing-dude-in-ripped-Carhart-pants-meets-climbing-girl-in-hot-Patagonia-tank-top way, although that’s been known to happen. The gym caters to every ability level, from the newbie learning to tie a figure-eight knot, to climbers that defile and chew up the rules of gravity for lunch. And there’s a lot of space to hone your climbing chops. Pacific Edge features 50-foot high walls and more than 14,000 feet of terrain accentuated by thoughtful route-setters. Never to put too fine a point on it (oh, what the hell) but it could be said that Pacific Edge is really the outdoors within. 104 Bronson St. #12, Santa Cruz. 454-9254
Runners up
Adventure Out
Crossfit
Santa Cruz Surf School
Aqua Safari

Skateboard Park
Ken Wormhoudt Skatepark / Santa Cruz
Runners up
Scotts Valley
Derby

Swimming Pool
Simpkins Family Swim Center
Runners up
Harvey West
Spa Fitness
Seascape
24 Hour Fitness

Surf School
Richard Schmidt
Runners up
Santa Cruz Surf School
Club Ed
Adventure Out

Surfing Spot
Pleasure Point
Runners up
Steamer Lane
Cowell's
Manresa
Davenport

Women's Gym
Spa Fitness
Runners up
Toadal Fitness
Curves

Yoga Instructor
Delana Thompson (Pacific Cultural Center)
Runners up
Don Bard (UCSC)
Victor Dubin
Mark Stephens

Yoga Studio
Yoga Center
Runners up
Village Yoga
Om Room
Pacific Cultural Center
Vets Hall

< Prev
 

Share this on your social networks

Bookmark and Share

Share this

Bookmark and Share

  • Search

    •  

    Free Angela

    Political activist and UC Santa Cruz Professor Emerita Angela Davis commands the spotlight in a riveting new documentary. PLUS:  UCSC’s Bettina Aptheker opens up about the political upheavals of the ’60s and ’70s—and today. Angela Davis is not a human being who can be easily summed up in several sentences or paragraphs—books maybe, but, even then, capturing the political activist, scholar and author in the most comprehensive light is downright complex. That’s because Davis is an undeniably unique political creature, one who should be seen and heard to be fully absorbed and downloaded. Which is what makes Free Angela and All Political Prisoners, the new documentary about Davis and the turbulent political upheavals she faced during the late-1960s and ’70s, so inviting. In it, filmmaker Shola Lynch marks the 40th anniversary of Davis’ acquittal on charges of murder, kidnapping and conspiracy with a historical vérité style of filmmaking to illuminate a side of Davis few may have seen (or can recall), and captures the events that thrust the woman into one of the most fascinating orbits of notoriety and political intrigue of the 20th century.

     

    No Big Surprises

    The highly anticipated draft Environmental Impact Report for desal is finally out. Will it change anything? When scwd2, the group pursuing the proposed joint desalination plant for the Santa Cruz Water Department and Soquel Creek Water District, set up a booth at the Santa Cruz Earth Day festival in 2012, its reception was less than warm. Signature gathering for Measure P, the “right to vote” on desal ballot measure, was in full swing, as were tensions over the controversial project, which would produce up to 2.5 million gallons per day of desalinated water and cost an estimated $100 million. What were representatives of an energy-intensive desal plant doing among the recycling and conservation booths? That was the attitude Melanie Mow Schumacher, public outreach coordinator for scwd2 (pronounced “squid squared”), remembers sensing.

     

    The Maya-Ixil Move Forward

    Local nonprofit works to educate and create opportunity for indigenous communities in Guatemala In an isolated region of the Guatemala mountains called Ixil, the indigenous Maya population was devastated by a civil war between the government and leftist guerrilla factions that spanned 1960 to 1996. During that 36-year war, the Guatemalan military eradicated entire Mayan communities. In what amounted to genocide, soldiers burned Mayan farmlands and homes, raped and tortured the people, and scattered families. By the end of the war, 200,000 Mayans had been killed, 7,000 of whom were Maya-Ixil.

     

    Public Thinking

    Watsonville teens host TEDx event Santa Cruz County is no stranger to the TED brand. TED—which stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design—talks have come to the area through independently organized events 10 times since 2011. This month, the gathering returns to the county with a new twist, thanks to the Watsonville Youth City Council. TEDxYouth@Watsonville, which will take place Sunday, May 19 at the Henry J. Mello Center for the Performing Arts in Watsonville, will feature only speakers younger than 19 years old and will traverse topics from racial stereotypes and renewable energy to traditional Mexican dance.

     

    Transoceana

    Danny Moriarty’s musical influences have been known to impact his life beyond his local rock band, Transoceana. “I went through two periods,” confesses the singer, guitarist and songwriter. “I borrowed Bono’s mullet look from the ’80s for a while, and then I dressed like I was from the ’70s and had big hair like Jimmy Page.” Bono and Page are also symbolic of Transoceana’s evolution as a band during their three years together.

     

    Cruzin’ for Inspiration

    Former resident pays homage to Santa Cruz with locally shot thesis film When he left Santa Cruz for the University of Southern California’s graduate film program in 2010, Christopher Guerrero had completed the film major at UC Santa Cruz in 2008 and worked on campus in the film and digital media department. It wasn’t until he headed south, that Guerrero began to reminisce about the coastal town. “It was really really hard when I moved to L.A., to acclimate and find friends,” he says, adding that—counter to the philosophical, conversational culture of Santa Cruz—he found nowhere in his new town where he could simply sit and talk about life with someone. “I didn’t really realize why I love [Santa Cruz] so much until it was gone.”

     

    Beck to the Future

    In celebration of Beck’s solo acoustic show at The Rio, GT explores Song Reader, the alternative rock icon’s most ambitious interactive art piece yet. Here’s an odd little paradox of the digital revolution: The more sophisticated our technology gets, the more our musical milieu begins to resemble that of a bygone era, when song ideas were passed around from musician to musician, perpetually taking on new twists. Dozens of different YouTube users might try their hand at setting somebody’s rant about cats or double rainbows to music, or you might hear the Belgian musician Gotye turning the many and varied covers of his song “Somebody That I Used to Know” into a virtual orchestra (see below).

     

    Growing Berries Without Bromide

    Researchers test a new alternative to a controversial chemical The scarecrows perched in Santa Cruz strawberry fields do little to scare away the birds, much less the insects and fungi harbored in the soil. Everything likes to eat strawberries, which makes growing them a risky business. This predicament led UC Santa Cruz professor Carol Shennan to take an unconventional approach to pest management. Nine years ago, the fatal plant disease Verticillium wilt was wiping out strawberry plants at the university farm. Chemicals hardly phase the pathogen, and Shennan saw little improvement with crop rotation, which is typically used to treat infested fields. A visiting plant pathologist from the Netherlands recommended a little-known organic technique called anaerobic soil disinfestation, and, with so few other options, Shennan decided to give it a try. 

     

    Uniting All That Has Been Separated

     

    Legal Battles Drag On

    More than a year after the 75 River St. occupation, four defendants remain embroiled in ongoing case  More than a year and a half since a group occupied the former Wells Fargo building on River Street in an act of protest, felony charges linger on for four of the original defendants and a trial may be imminent. Gabriella Ripley-Phipps, Brent Adams, Cameron Laurendeau and Franklin Alcantara were scheduled to begin trial May 13 in connection with the late 2011 protest. That trial now has been pushed back to September due to scheduling conflicts. The four face a felony charge of vandalism and a misdemeanor for trespassing.
    GTemail_tileTomorow's GTW Today.
    Sign up for Tomorrow's Good Times Today
    Upcoming arts & events

      Latest Comments

       

      The Pleasure of Süda

      Süda is a happening place. As my friend Jan and I were enjoying dinner, every table in the restaurant filled up and nearly all the outdoor seating was occupied as well. Located in the Pleasure Point area, Süda is a magnet for just about everybody hanging out in that neck of the woods.

       

      The Power of Conversation

      Local author Cecile Andrews emphasizes importance of community engagement in newest book Cecile Andrews, author of the new book “Living Room Revolution: A Handbook for Conversation, Community and the Common Good,” probably wouldn’t get along too well with Larry David’s character from HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm, known for hiding his face and avoiding communication with anyone he runs into on the street. Andrews is a longstanding part-time Santa Cruz (part-time Seattle) resident who says something that’s struck her about this town over the years is people's willingness to participate in a practice she’s dubbed the “Stop and Chat”—which is exactly what it sounds like.

       

      What do you know about Monsanto?

      Santa Cruz | Self Employed  

       

      Best of Santa Cruz County

      The 2013 Santa Cruz County Readers' Poll and Critics’ Picks It’s our biggest issue of the year, and in it, your votes—more than 6,500 of them—determined the winners of The Best of Santa Cruz County Readers’ Poll. New to the long list of local restaurants, shops and other notables that captured your interest: Best Beer Selection, Best Locally Owned Business, Best Customer Service and Best Marijuana Dispensary. In the meantime, many readers were ever so chatty online about potential new categories. Some of the suggestions that stood out: Best Teen Program and Best Web Design/Designer. But what about: Dog Park, Church, Hotel, Local Farm, Therapist (I second that!) or Sports Bar—not to be confused with Bra. Our favorite suggestion: Best Act of Kindness—one reader noted Café Gratitude and the free meals it offered to the Santa Cruz Police Department in the aftermath of recent crimes. Perhaps some of these can be woven into next year’s ballot, so stay tuned. In the meantime, enjoy the following pages and take note of our Critics’ Picks, too, beginning on page 91. A big thanks for voting—and for reading—and an even bigger congratulations to all of the winners. Enjoy.  -Greg Archer, EditorBest of Santa Cruz County Readers’ Poll INDEX | Shops | Food & Drink | Arts & Entertainment | Health & Fitness | Professionals | The Rest |

       

      Poetic Cellars

      Poetic Cellars makes the most romantic wines. With a verse or two of beautiful poetry on every label, mostly poems of love and romance, this is the perfect wine to open up over dinner with your sweetheart. I particularly love winemaker Katy Lovell’s Syrah ($28) with its voluptuous velvety textures and dark fruit flavors.

       

      The Gypsy

      French-born jazz vocalist Cyrille Aimée lives for musical freedom and improvisation Cyrille Aimée is a musical gypsy. Her sound incorporates elements of Latin American, American, Brazilian and other styles of jazz, she has recorded albums as a duet with Diego Figueiredo, she currently performs with the Surreal (same pronunciation as her first name) Band, and she is working on a new album with yet another band. As it happens, Aimée can actually blame gypsies for her love of jazz. “I grew up in Samois-sur-Seine, which is a little town in France where Django Reinhardt used to live,” she says. “Every year they have the Django Festival in his honor, and so gypsies from all parts of Europe come and honor him and play guitar. I started hanging out with the gypsies and became obsessed with their music, their way of living, their freedom. What drew me to jazz music was the freedom of it, all the improvisation, and the fact that it’s a style of music that is constantly changing.”

       

      May Day in the Alps

      When my daughter returns to Santa Cruz from her new home in Los Angeles, she comments on how quiet it is here. It was even more so during a trip to Ben Lomond, when we set out for a sample of her second favorite macaroni and cheese. Sitting at the front of the Tyrolean Inn restaurant, the green tarp with plastic windows kept out the chill as well as the noise of an occasional passing car. A new draft beer celebrating the German spring, Maibok ($6) was refreshing, served in a hefty glass stein, but specialty cocktails are unique as well.

       

      Exposed

      David Cay Johnston’s new book explains how big companies rob us blind In his late teens David Cay Johnston started to ask questions. “Why do we have these guys in uniforms with guns driving around in cars all day?” “Why is the Santa Cruz County Courthouse being built in such an unusual shape?” He wrote an article, while still living in his hometown of Santa Cruz, proving that the off-kilter courthouse building, which officials had promised would save money, actually cost more than a conventional building.

       

      What are you a total sucker for?

      A cold beer after a long bike ride, gossip, and fighting over politics. Kyle McKinley Santa Cruz | Lecturer