Something in the world of floating have you stumped?
Show Highlights
Graham and Ashkahn talk about the different situations they’ve encountered with elderly floaters.
Listen to Just the Audio
Transcription of this episode… (in case you prefer reading)
Graham: … and today’s question for you or, I guess, for us is, “is there an upper age limit on floating?”
Ashkahn: Upper age limit on floating. What is the oldest age someone can float?
Graham: Is allowed to float.
Ashkahn: Is allowed to float. I see. It’s an interesting one, because you can’t really apply the same logic you apply to like youngest age. For youth, you can just use real numbers, I think, because there’s like laws and there’s … But with old age, I feel like that it’s much more contextual, about the person and kind of what state their body is in and stuff like that. Like it almost has less to do with actual specific age and more to do with their physical state.
Graham: Yeah, and I guess the concerns would be that like either someone’s mentally not there and something’s going to go wrong, or they’re just not going to be like … I remember hearing a horror story about someone with dementia floating and coming to in the float tank and her not realizing where she was, or like how she’d gotten there, which is kind of crazy.
Ashkahn: Wow. Yeah, interesting.
Graham: So there’s like mentally not being there, and then also just on the physical side, right? Being a little more fragile, or … You know, we have a lot of slippery salt water, so the idea of someone slipping and breaking their bones just becomes more of a concern the older they get.
Ashkahn: Or not being able to get out, you know?
Graham: Yeah.
Ashkahn: Like your body just got used to not dealing with gravity for a little bit …
Graham: And then saying it’s done. I’m never going to deal with gravity again.
Ashkahn: And, I mean, incontinence, I guess, is the last thing on the list.
Graham: Sure, yep.
Ashkahn: Those are probably like the main concerns, I would say.
Graham: And again, none of these are specific to age, which I guess makes it an interesting question, right?
Ashkahn: Right.
Graham: Like you can imagine a 20-year-old who has some or all of those problems as well.
Ashkahn: Uh-huh, yeah.
Graham: And you can picture like a 90-year-old who’s able to get around and who we have no trouble putting in a float tank.
Ashkahn: Right. So, yeah. I guess you can’t really just set an age limit like that, can you?
Graham: And then, at least in Float On, we really don’t have one. We more have like, I guess, a mobility limit or something like that.
Ashkahn: Yeah. Like we make sure if you have mobility questions, we make sure to clarify that we cannot help you get in and out of the float tank, like our staff’s not trained to do that. We can’t take on the liability of something like that, especially if it’s for someone who has trouble physically getting in and out of a float tank.
Graham: Until I saw this question, I guess I’d never really thought about our upper age limit on floating, but I guess we tackle it more on the like condition side, or actually addressing those worries that we have rather than actually putting any kind of age limit on there.
Ashkahn: Right. And again, it doesn’t come up super often. We’re not getting like a bunch of people coming in, lining up and like demanding to float, we’re like, “You’re too old. You can’t float.”
Graham: Yep. I should say, I just took a look at our stats on our ages of floaters that we’ve received over the years and our oldest floaters, self-reported on the books, are 117 years old, so … And they’re doing just fine.
Ashkahn: Yeah. Okay, all right. Well, that makes sense, so alright, I guess if they can do it anyone can do it, huh?
Graham: And next below that’s 103, so yeah. That’s doing good.
Ashkahn: That would have been impressive if it had not been for the 117-year-old.
Graham: Two of them.
Ashkahn: Two? There’s two people who are 117?
Graham: Two 117-year-olds, yeah.
Ashkahn: A husband and wife that came in?
Graham: Just because they’re married doesn’t mean they’re the same age.
Ashkahn: All right, two twins who both lived that long?
Graham: Just because someone’s twins doesn’t … Okay, so we addressed the kind of mobility side of things. I guess we don’t really address the incontinence side.
Ashkahn: I mean, in my experience, if this comes up they ask about it from their perspective. Like if someone’s coming in who may have some concerns, they’ll ask on the phone when they’re making their appointment or stuff like that. That’s almost always been the case for me, so I’ll just include it in my list. I’m like, “Hey, well, you have to get in and out of the float tanks. They can be slippery, it can be kind of difficult, so you’ve got to make sure you’re physically fit enough to do that. And you’re in there for a long period of time. You can’t have any sort of incontinence issues or stuff like that.”
And have I even heard of someone before being like, “Oh, okay. Well, nevermind. I probably shouldn’t do it then,” and kind of realizing their own limits. It’s, I guess, a little bit of a delicate situation, but I feel like just often they ask when they’re booking appointments, and you just kind of be honest and list the things that make it difficult.
Graham: Yeah, for sure. And then, I guess the mental side as well is who’s kind of on there, which I guess, once again, it’s like if people are able to go out and interact with the normal world in a way that’s not difficult for them or the people around them, that’s fine. If someone has a caregiver, we usually request that a caregiver actually come in. We’ve had people with even like not extreme autism but definitely far enough along the spectrum that they’re not interacting with the outside world on their own every day and stuff like that, and that’s gone fine, we just actually have the caregiver stay in the room in that case.
Ashkahn: Yeah.
Graham: And that actually ends up being the solution for mobility too, is we request that if they do have mobility issues and still want to use the tanks, we have an ADA room and we just require them to bring in someone who can help them in and out of the tank or be that person.
Ashkahn: Yeah.
Graham: So there you have it. No actual age limit, more like controls to make sure that the stuff that might go wrong doesn’t become a problem.
Ashkahn: Yep. Okay? Cool. Well, if you guys have any further questions for us, you can hop over to floattanksolutions.com/podcast, put them in there and we will take a look at them, and if we deem them worthy they will be answered.
Recent Podcast Episodes
Floating with Intention – DSP 205
Not every float is going to be pure bliss. Sometimes the anxiety doesn’t go away. Sometimes that back pain is still there. Are there ways to float with intention to help control the outcome of a float?
Graham and Ashkahn share their thoughts on techniques intended on getting the most out of your float and things that may work, as well as the perils of trying to control how your float goes.
Different Reasons for Writing a Float Center Business Plan – DSP 204
Writing a business plan can often feel like you’re throwing hard work into the void. If you’re not getting a bank loan, who’s going to see it? What’s the point of it if all the numbers are going to be different?
Graham and Ashkahn break down their experiences of starting Float On without a business plan and how useful it was writing one later, as well as how they’ve used that business plan to help dozens of other centers get funding and open their doors.
Is there any Reason to Not Let Someone Float during Menstruation? – DSP 203
Some float centers include a restriction in their wavers stating that people can’t or shouldn’t float during their menstrual cycles. Is there a valid reason for this?
Graham and Ashkahn clear up the confusion around this situation and why float centers started doing this and what every center should know about policies like this.
How Many Times Should A Float Center E-mail about Deals? – DSP 202
Let’s say you’ve got a discount going on and you’re counting on your email mailing list to get some traction. How many times should you email? A lot? A little? Well, the answer depends on who you ask and your own business philosophy.
Ashkahn and Graham share Float On’s philosophy on reaching out to mailing lists and how they reached those conclusions.
Should my Float Center Have Dynamic Pricing? – DSP 201
Dynamic pricing AKA changing prices based on demand or availability, is a pretty common tactic in certain industries. Airlines do it with tickets. Restaurants and bars do it with “happy hour” to get people to come in during slow times.
Graham and Ashkahn weigh in on this practice as it pertains to the float industry and, if you are going to do it, how to do it right so you get the most bang for your buck without confusing your customers.
Latest Blog Posts
The Many Floaty Things We Are Looking Forward To…
Although we encourage people to live in the current moment, the team here at Float Tank Solutions is anxiously looking forward to what’s coming up at the 2015 Float Conference on August 13-17th. Admittedly, we’re a little spoiled being allowed behind the scenes access...
The 2015 State of the Float Industry Survey
Prior to the 2014 Float Conference we set out to get a snapshot of the floatation industry while we had the majority of the community in one place. From that survey we gathered the only statistics we have on floatation and publicly released those findings in our 2014...
Finding the Right Temperature for Your Floaters
What is the Perfect Float Temperature? I am sure we have all heard of the skin receptor neutral temperature that float centers preach. The sacred 93.5 degrees Fahrenheit. It seems to be the temperature that most centers set their tanks’ water to. We even do it at...
How to Properly Wake a Floater
aka What to Do when You’ve Got a “Sinker” There are multiple ways to let your floaters know that it is time to get out of the tank. According to float lore, the first centers to open back in the 70’s used to wake people up by popping open the hatch and giving the...
