Dance & Fitness Studio for Women in Oakville

September 2nd, 2010 Comment button No Comments »

Aradia Fitness studio for womenAradia Fitness

Aradia is a fitness studio for women located on Kerr St. in Oakville.

The phone rings. Twice. A chirpy young woman picks up and voices over the receiving end that she would love to answer questions about pole dancing. “I am a little busy at the moment though,” says Jane Wilson, owner of the Aradia Fitness in Oakville. “I am about to perform.” Awkwardness fills the air and she abruptly responds mid-sentence while giggling, “Oh! By the way, I’m not performing on stage, if you know what I mean? It’s for charity”.

For most, the initial thought of a woman performing the art of seduction by way of a pole in a room full of spectators, usually leads them to places where there is an abundance of one dollar bills, neon lights and gold bikini’s. This is something that Jane is well aware of and the kind of thinking she is working to eradicate. For two years now, she has managed to successfully open up women’s minds and their bodies with Aradia’s specially designed Pole Dancing for Fitness program.

Jane admits to being a part of the recurrent judgments passed down on the untraditional workout method. Her first reaction to pole dancing as a way to work off the extra 40 pounds that crept up on her after giving birth to her second child, was not a favourable one. “At first, I thought real mommy’s don’t pole dance. I can’t do this; I’m not supposed to do be sexy.” But, after her first lesson at the Aradia’s Burlington branch, she was hooked.

Not only do the pole dancing routines help in toning and strengthening, she says, but it also allows women to think differently about their body and their sexuality.

“A lot of ladies that come in don’t realize that pole dancing is not just about getting a great workout. It’s about creating bonds, sisterhood and building up self-esteem. The wonderful by-product that they gain is self-esteem and empowerment.”

The fitness group offers a range of interesting classes to help women build their upper body strength through the use of brass poles. The instructors, who are former students of Aradia, provide lessons on how to condition your body, to perform sensual stretches, as well as burlesque inspired choreography. Specialty classes where Jane teaches women how to walk in stiletto heels, among other boot camps, will open up in the fall.

For more information on how to attend classes, workshops or book a private function, visit their website or contact Aradia Fitness in Oakville at (905) 844 7746.

Location

Address: 393 Kerr Street, Oakville, Ontario
Telephone: 905-844-7746

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New stats on theft and property damage in Oakville

September 1st, 2010 Comment button 1 Comment »

Oakville.com has received new stats from the Halton Regional Police Service regarding theft and property damage charges laid in the Oakville and Halton area so far in 2010.

“It would be dangerous to say that the problems are all caused by youth.”

“There is no way to link these specially to youth crime, these are just the numbers, it could be any age,” said Sergeant Brian Carr, Media Relations Officer for the Halton Regional Police Service.

From the Niche Records Management System these statistics were collected between January 1st to August 24th of 2010:

  • 705 charges were laid regarding theft from auto, an increase from the 636 charges laid in 2009.
  • 332 incidents of theft under $500.00, another increase from the 302 reported in 2009.
  • 440 incidents of property damage under $5,000, which has gone down from the 572 charges laid in 2009.

[Statistics that would link these charges based on age were not available.]

Mischief, property damage, and general rowdiness has been a hot topic of discussion this summer between residents and town council.

“My take is that there is a large amount of youth in Oakville are finding less to do, so they amuse themselves in other ways,” Ward 5 Councillor Marc Grant said in a Oakville.com report on July 26th.

Although statistics have shown that incidents have been reduced in some cases, feedback from residents has been mixed.

A solution to some of the challenges faced by Oakville residents is the hiring of a Community Development Officer, and the installation of security lights and cameras that would cost the town $170,000.

Councillor Grant said that the issue would be discussed further by Oakville Town Council in November.

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Oakville resident Scott Kress summits six of world’s tallest summits

August 31st, 2010 Comment button 2 Comments »

Scott Kress

Scott Kress, Oakville’s resident mountaineer, recently returned from Russia this summer reaching the summit of Mount Elbrus, an inactive volcano and the tallest mountain in Europe.

Kress has now reached the summit of six of the seven tallest summits in the world, which includes Mount Everest located in Tibet, and Mount Kilimanjaro of Tanzania.

“What makes this climb different is just being in Russia, and the whole Russian cultural experience,” Kress said.

What was once a career for Kress has now turned into a hobby – picking up 22 years of climbing experience, and the drive to climb the highest summit of every continent.

He now works as a leadership instructor with businesses, focusing on leadership development and team building.

“The climb itself isn’t overly technical but it’s long and you have the potential for bad weather and avalanches.”

Mount Elbrus stands at 5,642 meters tall and its summit is the highest point in all of Europe.

Kress and his team of climbers encountered 35-40 km winds throughout the climb, and once they moved closer to the summit heavy snow reduced their visibility.

“When we got to the summit you couldn’t see anything,” Kress said.

“We took pictures but it was all just white behind us. So we didn’t get the view of the mountain range, which would have been nice. It was kind of a traumatic summit in that winds were driving the snow and we had very little visibility.”

Kress and his team later experienced a terrorist hijacking during their flight in Moscow.

“We sat on the Tarmac for 4 hours and the flight attendants wouldn’t tell us what was happening.”

Kress noticed that the Russian military and media had surrounded the plane and he began to think that something might be wrong.

“All of this was transpiring up in first class and it was really quite amazing it didn’t filter back to where we were sitting.”

Moscow had been experiencing a heat wave at the time, and the terrorist who had taken over the plane allowed doctors aboard to tend to those who fell ill due to heat stroke.

The doctors were actually Russian Special Forces and they soon ended the hijacking.

“Life is fragile,” Kress said. “For my kids I’m demonstrating to them you can do whatever you want, you just have to set a goal and figure out how to make it happen.”

“If there is something you want to do you just have to do it, because you might not be around tomorrow,” he said.

Kress plans on climbing Mount Vinson Massif located in Antarctica in 2011. He will be a part of a small group of Canadian climbers who have reached the tallest summit of every continent.

You can learn more about Scott at scottkress.com.

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Oakville hosts 40th annual Novice Swim Meet

August 30th, 2010 Comment button No Comments »

Swimming at Brookdale poolStaff/Oakville.com

Swimming at Brookdale outdoor pool in Oakville.

The Town of Oakville will host the 40th annual Novice Swim Meet on Tuesday, August 31, 2010, from 9 a.m. to noon at Brookdale Pool, 1215 Bridge Road.

With a “Wild Wild West” theme, swimmers aged four to 14 representing six different town pools will compete in a friendly “pool versus pool” competition for the championship!

“The Novice Swim Meet is hugely popular with the community and is a fun event for families,” said Nina de Vaal, director of Recreation and Culture for the Town of Oakville. “Once again, we’re raising money for the Lifesaving Society’s Water Smart Campaign, which promotes water safety and teaches essential drowning prevention techniques.”

Oakville residents are invited to take advantage of family-friendly games and activities in the park including an appearance by Buddy the Lifeguard Dog from the Lifesaving Society. Barbecued goodies and refreshments will be available with all proceeds to the Lifesaving Society’s Water Smart Program.

To register, contact your local town pool. For more information on pool locations and contact information visit www.oakville.ca or call Brookdale Pool at 905-827-1475.

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Great day at Kinoak skateboard contest

August 26th, 2010 Comment button No Comments »

Skateboarders during competition at Kinoaks Skateboard ParkJennifer Horn/Oakville.com

Skateboarders line up on the ramp, getting ready to perform tricks during the competition at Kinoaks Indoor Skateboard Park in Oakville.

With this weekend’s skies full of clouds and spurts of rain, the youth of Oakville found refuge in the town’s first indoor skateboarding park where a series of competitions kept them active and dry.

Kinoak Indoor Skateboard Park held it’s first all ages contest on August 21, 2010 where kids and young adults of Oakville were able to skate and compete for five hours in order to win prizes sponsored by Hustler and Flat Spots skateboarding stores.

A number of contests were set up for the 25 participants, the first being ‘Best Trick’ where skaters would tackle three different obstacles and whoever managed to perform the most technically difficult trick took home a prize. The second contest, called S.K.A.T.E, resembled that of basketball’s H.O.R.S.E. Skateboarders would set up a trick and the next participant would have to duplicate it. If they were unsuccessful they would get a letter. The person with each letter of the word ‘skate’ was eliminated from the competition and the last man standing would win the prize. The third and last contest involved skaters performing tricks during a minute long run and once the best runs had been decided, the judges would give prizes to the top three.

Josh Ranells and Josh GoulartJennifer Horn/Oakville.com

Organisers of the competition, Josh Ranells and Josh Goulart, stand outside the Kinoaks Indoor Skateboard Park in Oakville waiting for the next competition to begin.

The organizers of the event, Josh Ranells and Josh Goulart, wanted to create an event that would bring the community together. The construction of the indoor park provided a perfect outlet to do just that. Goulart, who helped build the skate park in June, wanted to start running contests and events for the kids, for the community and also his friends.

“It’s awesome for the town to build this sort of facility for kids to skate,” said Ranells, co-organiser of the event and manager of Hustler. “Usually they would be on the streets skating, so this is great for the kids. It’s pretty much unheard of for a town to build an indoor skate park for kids and then to allow us to bring in a contest.”

Oakville skateboarder Cameron TarhanJennifer Horn/Oakville.com

Oakville skateboarder Cameron Tarhan, 11, skates toward a ramp in order to perform a trick at the Kinoaks Indoor Skateboard Park on Saturday..

For Cameron Tarhan, 11, skateboarding became his favourite thing to do throughout the summer. It was two years ago when he picked up his first skateboard. The young boy came to the indoor park the first month it opened and hasn’t stopped since.

“Once you do a trick you just can’t stop. You just keep progressing and you keep trying new tricks,” said Tarhan. “The competition today is really great. I like the ‘Best Tricks’ the most.”

When asked about the dismantling of the West Oak Trails skateboard park, Ranells was concerned with the amount of money the town spent in doing so.

”I was there for the council meetings when they decided what to do and I feel that the town probably should have researched a little more into where they were going to put it in the first place, before spending a lot of money to tear down the park and then build a new one. It probably would have saved a lot of our tax dollars.”

Kinoak Indoor Skateboard Park plans to continue opening the venue for skateboarders in the summer. It hopes to open a few months earlier next year to allow time for kids to spend more summer days skating and less in the rain.

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