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Best Health & Fitness 2009

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

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What’s your secret to avoiding the summer swarms?