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
Doing Float Center Construction Yourself – DSP 75
Construction and buildout are likely going to be some of the largest expenses for any float center. Possibly even more than the float tanks themselves in some situations. Most float center owners aren’t millionaires, and when faced with these large expenditures, it can be difficult to decide what to cut to keep your costs down. Doing your own construction can be an effective way to go about that, but with so much technical work needed to go into building a float center, is that really the right thing to do?
Graham and Ashkahn lay down some knowledge on this, having both worked on a lot of their buildout themselves initially, as well as hired out workers for repairs and upgrades.
Is print/TV/radio advertising dead? – DSP 74
Marketing is a big gamble for any industry. You have to invest in a strategy on a platform and just hope that it pays off. It’s certainly one of the most essential investments for your business, but how do you know what will work and what won’t? This problem seems especially aggravated for float centers. Whatever marketing you do needs to tell people more than just that you exist, it also needs to explain what floating is and why people need it. How do you overcome these hurdles? And are traditional mediums even viable?
How to reach out to wellness professionals – DSP 73
Getting together with other wellness businesses seems like a slam dunk for float centers. Or at least it should be. Floating seems to have a special sort of synergy with things like yoga, massage, acupuncture, or what have you, but that doesn’t always mean that other wellness practitioners are going to be your greatest advocates. How do you turn that acupuncturist across the street into your biggest advocate?
Graham and Ashkahn have tried it all and worked closely with tons of businesses in joint marketing ventures as well as referral programs. They share what has worked best for them, and some of the surprises they’ve found with stuff they thought would work that just totally didn’t.
How do you prioritize what to work on in your center? – DSP 72
It’s human nature to suck at planning. we can’t help having inefficient mental systems for establishing the importance of a project when we’re working on it. This problem can be especially bad for float centers too, given that certain projects, if not addressed quickly, can dramatically become exponentially worse, like with salt damage.
Graham and Ashkahn face these exact same problems when they undertake any project, but still manage to find ways to be productive. In this episode, they share some of their tips as well as personal philosophies on work. Plus, Ashkahn’s strong desire to have a waterslide.
What do you put in your email newsletter? – DSP 71
If you’re running a float center, you definitely have a newsletter. Right? If you don’t, then you should. Most businesses these days have them. Establishing a newsletter can be a daunting undertaking if you’re unfamiliar with the process. What goes in a newsletter? How frequent is too frequent to send it out? Who are you sending it to?
Graham and Ashkahn dole out some wisdom on the importance of this correspondence method. Give it a listen.
Latest Blog Posts
No Results Found
The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.
