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5 WAG


11 Mercedes + RRC


16 Local sports October 2015 SMART BIZ The door to opportunity in Manitoba


Scam Skate ramping


things up Skateboard manufacturers grinding away


Good things afloat at Jellyfish Float Spa


Derek Gagnon F


or Gavin Barret and Joel Baker, the daily grind is something they actually enjoy. Not because their jobs as owners of local skateboarding com-


pany Scam Skate are difficult or tedious. Rather, it’s because they can literally do a grind, or a flip, on their skateboards on the mini pipe and rail they have set up in the back of their shop on Graham Ave. Having grown out of their previous location in a ga-


rage they were renting, they’ve been able to move into their new location where they continue to make boards of different shapes and sizes. Tey have also continued their first business that they began as teenagers in Portage la Prairie. “In high school we were printing shirts as a hobby.


We started selling them to our friends and people were really buying them,” said Gavin. After both Gavin and Joel gave post secondary education a try, they decided to renew their efforts and start making skateboards as well. “We decided to dive in and see if we could make it work, we began making boards out of the garage and people started buying them.” Tere has been a lot of learning and evolution since


they got into making the boards, as at first they were cutting using a jigsaw and using spray paint to put the Scam Skate page 10


Roi Jones welcomes you to the Jellyfish Float Spa where helping you to relax is their business. By Derek Gagnon


T


he first thing you notice when you step through the doors of Jellyfish Float Spa is the calmness of the place, from the colours on the walls to the staff


working inside. Roi Jones, who co-owns the business along with his wife


Elizabeth and their business partner Meer Janjua, gave me a brief tour of the building. Each sensory deprivation pod has its own private room and private shower. Ten he got me set up to float. He picked the longest pod, because the last thing you


want to do when you’re in there is be bouncing off the walls, and at 6’8”, I’d need all the room I could get. After setting the timer on the musical alarm inside the tank, he left me to myself. I took a quick shower, as instructed, and got into the tank.


Tere is a about a foot of water in it, and it is regulated to stay at skin temperature, so you don’t feel hot or cold. In fact you don’t feel much of anything. I decided to skip the supplied earplugs, as I felt I would focus on them too much, and I really didn’t want to feel anything once inside. I got in the pod, getting into a crouch to close the door behind me and entered a world of darkness. I decided to scoot myself backwards toward the back of


the tank, only to instantly rise Te Epsom salts make it remarkably easy to float. I would


The sensory deprivation pod.


imagine that even those with no swimming experience would find it quite easy, as it really is as simple as just lay- ing back and existing. A word of advice I can offer for potential floaters is that


while it is very dark in the tank, do not attempt to see if you can see your hands in front of your face. Your hands will be dripping salt water and that is something you don’t want to get in your eyes if you’re trying to relax. As I lay back and relaxed, letting my head dip back so that my ears were just under the water, I began to think Jellyfish page 9


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