What’s the weirdest thing that’s ever happened at your fitness facility?
I mean really weird. Weirder than the time your boss got tired of the club’s name and held an Internet contest to change it. Weirder than the time a member died in the sauna and no one found him until the next morning. Weirder than the time a Hazmat team stormed the pool deck and carted lifeguards off to the hospital after a chemical leak. Even weirder than the time a member grunted so loud it made national news.
Garden Fitness, Monterey, Calif., may just have your story beat. One gorgeous California afternoon a member drove her BMW into the club’s swimming pool. Luckily, it was unoccupied at the time and the driver was unhurt. Damage to the clubs aquatic facility and its surrounding fence was unreported.
Beat that.
So, does Garden Fitness take the prize? Or do you have a story that makes a car in the pool look as normal as a club dedicated to the American Gladiators television show?
Spill it — what is the weirdest thing that has happened at your club?
6 comments:
That is a tough one to beat.
Most of the odd things that happen at our club involve strange personalities. I guess the best was the member who was a paranoid schizophrenic. He tried to counsel all of us one day, while dressed in full winter gear (parka, snow boots, etc) in July, that we should all stay away from crack cocaine.
Good advice.
Then he asked if any of us wanted wrestle him.
Rob Bishop
Elevations Health Club
Scotrun, PA
A small group of ladies were seeking shelter in the foyer peering through the glass as we waged combat on the intruder. With 24 foot ceilings he was flying all about, sometimes buzzing members' heads just six feet above the deck. I exited the utility room with a pellet gun to take aim, which horrified one club member. For fifteen minutes the flying menace made both men and women seek cover in fear. I then tossed a wet hand towel in mid-flight knocking it to the floor. Two summers in a row gave us a bat attack.
Randal Gerhart
Full Circle Fitness
Delano, MN
Randal -
I need to interject a comment here just to thank you for the bat-trapping tip. I get bats in my house every summer and it's usually a scene straight out of The Great Outdoors — complete with garbage cans on heads and tennis racquets in hands.
A wet towel makes so much sense, and it will now be added to my personal bat attack arsenal.
Rob -
Well?!? I'm dying to know ... did you wrestle him?
And are there pictures?
Uhmmm, no. No one would wrestle him. As you might imagine, someone who works out in winter clothes, in July, develops a certain body odor. You'd never be able to wash that off.
Rob Bishop
Elevations Health Club
There is one effective way of dispatching a bat, though difficult, and one easy, humane way that I don't think I could manage.
The first, and the one I used twice in my old house, was a tennis racquet. They are tough to hit (less so with modern racquets), but when you do hit them, the problem is solved instantaneously.
The humane way is to prop up a roll of wrapping paper in the room, leave the lights on, and close the door. When you return, the bat will have found refuge in the roll...take it outside and swing it once, and the bat will fly out. Theoretically. Could never bring myself to try it.
The down side of the humane way is that if you have a bat in your house (or club), it means there's a way back in. Eventually you'll have to grab another wrapping paper roll or tennis racquet.
What a bat professional does is find the gaps in your building (often just an eighth of an inch); drape netting from your roof so the bats fly out, fall, and then can't fly back in because of the way they navigate with sonar; wait a week or two; and then caulk up all the gaps.
And now, back to some posts about club management.
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