Something in the world of floating have you stumped?
Show Highlights
Ashkahn and Graham thoroughly debunk the myth of a “best” float position. The Float On boys explicate their philosophy that there is no right way to float and instead talk about all the different positions they enjoy floating in. They learn more about each other than they expected to in the process.
Listen to Just the Audio
Transcription of this episode… (in case you prefer reading)
Graham: Alright hey everybody, Graham and Ashkahn here
Ashkahn: Welcome to another episode. It’s like these things just come out every day or something.
Graham: It’s crazy. So I am Graham.
Ashkahn: And I am Ashkahn.
Graham: And today’s question is: “What’s the best position to float in?”
Ashkahn: Easy. Handstand.
Graham: The easy handstand? Yeah I agree. I would say there is not a best position.
Ashkahn: Yeah except for one, which we will reveal at the end of this episode.
Graham: At the end of our entire podcast series. So keep listening if you want to find out.
Ashkahn: Keep listening it will be there, a little surprise.
Graham: But no right, just like there is no right way to float in general, I’d say there is no right position for your body inside the float tank.
Ashkahn: Yeah and I switch up positions all the time.
Graham: Yeah, in fact, I make it a point to never use the same position twice.
Ashkahn: Two fingers together in the left hand. Well so the interesting thing about positions is that it kinda changes the center of gravity on your body in there. It’s not just like “it’s comfortable for my arm to be this way” It’s like as you move limbs and stuff around into different places your shifting kinda how your body sits in the float tank.
Graham: What’s the “and stuff” in that scenario?
Ashkahn: Hair. Switch your hair from one side to the other.
Graham: Yep, I’ll allow it.
Ashkahn: So there’s the common, like arms down by your side, and then, if I were to have a default position it would be arms up by my side.
Graham: And I think a lot of people that is actually what ends up being there default position.
Ashkahn: That’s like the most common position, the most time that I am in a single position in a tank is that, arms up by side for me.
Graham: And weirdly, I’ll spend a decent amount of a lot of my floats with my legs crossed.
Ashkahn: I’ll actually, another common one for me is legs crossed and arms crossed. I’ll get into this like Vampire-
Graham: Arms crossed in the front of your chest kinda thing?
Ashkahn: As opposed to behind my back?
Graham: Yeah.
Ashkahn: I’ll do that sometimes too actually.
Graham: Cause I do arms crossed behind my back for a little bit too.
Ashkahn: Sometimes you’ll put your finger down and you’ll just lightly touch the bottom and you can move your whole body around, rotating on one finger.
Graham: Don’t use the words “you” when you’re describing that. Can you just say “I”?
Ashkahn: Generally, this is the thing that people do. Anyways its fun. You should try it
Graham: The universal “You” huh? You’re like reading John Lilly’s books, just him taking personal experiences and extrapolating to the masses.
Ashkahn: Before we go in, lets talk for a second about arms up because I think its super common. I feel its-
Graham: When you say “let’s” if you can just say “I’m going to talk about it” that would be great.
Ashkahn: Yeah, I’m going to talk about us talking about arms up. I find that it is, first of all, its really hard for me to not do these positions physically right now as I’m talking about this.
Graham: He is, he’s just doing all of them even though it doesn’t matter. I get a nice visual I know exactly what he’s talking about.
Ashkahn: With your arms up I feel like it just kinda arches your neck a little bit less and I just feel like my whole shoulders up. My shoulder feels a little bit in a nicer spot, my neck feels in a nicer spot, my head feels in a nicer spot when my arms are up, as opposed to down. My guess is that’s the reason why so many people like that position. It kinda just like takes the very upper part of your body and makes it little bit more in a comfortable position in there with the buoyancy.
Graham: And so many of our daily activities as human beings now do the opposite right? They curl our neck forward, they kinda hunch our backs over. It’s not like when we are talking about posture positions for Americans its because so many people are just leaning back so far with their neck just kinda tilted up towards the sky and that’s how their going through the day you know? It’s because we are hunched over computers and hunched over books, and a lot of our culture involves hunching so I think it does feel really good to have those arms up and expand out both your chest and your back. It makes me want to hope in a float tank right now actually.
Ashkahn: I wonder if ornithologists really like having their arms down and getting that contrast?
Graham: You mean because their busy flapping through the sky all day long?
Ashkahn: Yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s what they do.
Graham: Or just looking up at trees is what you meant. I understand.
Ashkahn: Yeah, that’s what I meant.
Graham: Good one. Good one.
Ashkahn: Alright so we can go back to what you were saying now.
Graham: Legs crossed, arms behind the back sometimes is really nice.
Ashkahn: I don’t know why I like arms in front, it just like tucks everything in I feel like.
Graham: When you says arm in front do you mean like on the stomach or on the front of your chest?
Ashkahn: On the stomach’s nice, like fingers crossed right about the belly button.
Graham: That’s my starting position.
Ashkahn: That’s how you start? You just know when you get in the float tank you’re going to go-
Graham: Ready, set, arms on stomach, float! So here’s the deal, I like to keep my hands out of the salt water for about the first two minutes that I’m in the float tank. Just in case I have like an extra drip of water coming down, or I get a random itch I don’t want to have to deal with like drying my hands off of salt water for that little bit. So when I first get in I settle back into the water and without ever having gotten my hands salty I put them carefully onto my stomach and kinda cross the fingers, you know like interlace the fingers because then even my fingers although they are resting on a little bit of a salty stomach just rest on my non-salty hands and then if I have an itch then I can do it. Then after about two minutes I’m like okay its safe and I kinda take the next position.
Ashkahn: I just dive in like I’m ready to go.
Graham: You just full body face first?
Ashkahn: Full body Head dive! No, the first thing I do is usually take water and splash it up over my chest. Really cause the whole top of your body-
Graham: So we were wrong when we said this. There are right and wrong ways to float. For example, I think mine is very logical and maybe the right way to float. Just going in and splashing yourself.
Ashkahn: Not like splash, but you like pull water over the front half of your body so it gets all nice and warm otherwise you’re whole top half is kinda like chilled and not wet. I like feeling like I have a bit of submersion.
Graham: You can’t tell, but our audio engineer is just shaking his head vigorously
Ashkahn: You’re both wrong. You guys are both wrong. You’re saying your stomach just like never gets wet the entire time.
Graham: No, I’m just saying I don’t go out of my way to get it wet.
Ashkahn: I gotta do a full splash all the way. Get a nice coating.
Graham: Do you do the same for like your face?
Ashkahn: Not my face, I don’t splash my face but I get a coating on the rest of my body. That’s how I start.
Graham: We’re learning a lot about each other here, actually. So here’s the thing, there is absolutely no right position. Not only that, I don’t think there’s even a right position for a single person or a single float. Mine change float to float. If we talk to our regular members they like trying out different positions.
Ashkahn: You stretch in there, there’s a lot of positions for like stretching, I can put both knees to one side or the other in it does a nice stretch on the back.
Graham: So play around figure out what you like and don’t feel like you always have to go in there and do the same thing. Just kinda let whatever feels right at the time kinda be the way that you float you know?
Ashkahn: I do weird things in there sometimes, like full on spinning karate kick sorta things. I’ll hunch my legs and arms up and I’ll try to kick off the side and see if I can do a full spin without hitting the side. You do that? you guys do that?
Graham: I kinda Mermaid in there. Get your hands above your head and shimmy back and forth with your legs together and the ripples that it sends out, kinda like almost like hula dancing but with your hand up above your head. And then you stop for a second and that creates such cool little ripples you can just kinda feel them going wawawawawa all around you.
Ashkahn: I do that the other way. I do that lengthwise. I’ll push back and forth and I’ll feel like a wave just go like-
Graham: Like you’re flopping your hands and legs
Ashkahn: I’m not flopping, I’m using my whole body to go back and forth in the tank and then I’ll stop and I’ll feel a wave start at my feet and just go like all the way up my body.
Graham: Yeah, I see like pushing your body back and forth vertically. [crosstalk 00:08:42] Like a human wave machine.
Ashkahn: I used to do that in the tub. Exactly. That was a common tub activity for me as a child. Until like half the tub water was out in the bathroom and my parents got mad at me.
Graham: Some other honorable mentions, people do do stomach-down floats which you can do with a pool noodle or something like that to support you or even sometimes with your arms, or you can actually have a full on snorkel and do face-down floats.
Ashkahn: Which is pretty intense.
Graham: I’ve heard good things about it. Once you get used to it.
Ashkahn: Yeah, but if you get the salt water in the snorkel.
Graham: Oh for sure, yeah there are dangers associated with it. Just the general Superman, laying on your back with your arms outstretched above you with your feet kinda down below, actually full on above you as opposed to just elbows at a 90 degree angle out by your side.
Ashkahn: Yeah, break dancing. Doing spins in there.
Graham: Yeah, Sick moves in the tank, that’s definitely a thing. Play around have fun. If we didn’t name your favorite float position feel free to send it off to us and we give it another honorable mention on a different episode. If you have your own questions don’t hesitate take advantage of it now, go to floattanksolutions.com/podcast.
Ashkahn: Right now. We’re watching you.
Graham: We’re really creepy, if you want us to stop watching you send us a little submission on that form.
Ashkahn: We’ll leave you alone after that.
Graham: Thanks everybody.
Ashkahn: Bye.
Recent Podcast Episodes
Benefits of a Free Float Giveaway – DSP 315
Float On has been known throughout the years for pulling off outlandish marketing stunts with mixed success. For example, we ran a giveaway on social media back in 2014 for a full year of free floats to our lucky winner.
Derek and Ashkahn provide a follow up on the success of that campaign and talk about the primary, secondary, and tertiary benefits that came from doing such a major giveaway.
The Importance of Social Media – DSP 314
Social media seems to be the only marketing platform that anyone talks about anymore. How to do facebook ads, when to post on Instagram, how to improve Google SEO… it’s a broad topic that seems to dominate the conversation in marketing.
Ashkahn and Derek explain not only why it seems this way, but the misconception of relying too heavily on social media in marketing strategies, as well as a defense of social media as a platform.
How to not be salesy selling memberships – DSP 313
Derek and Ashkahn give the low down on pitching memberships to customers. A lot of float center owners don’t want to come off as pushy sales people after people get out of their floats.
Ashkahn sympathizes with this a lot, since that’s exactly how he felt when he first started selling memberships for Float On. He and Derek suggest a perspective shift on the idea of memberships, as lots of customers end up being appreciative of the opportunity, and don’t feel like they’re being overly pitched to.
Why is Water Treatment Important? – DSP 312
If float tank water is safe, in part because of all the salt, then why is there such a huge emphasis in the industry for water treatment? After all, there haven’t been any reports of anyone getting sick because of floating.
Ashkahn and Graham tackle this question and challenge the idea on its face, because, well, just because something hasn’t been reported doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen, and given how little is known about water treatment in float tanks, it’s a good idea, as an industry, to minimize the risk of infections and illness as much as possible. Really, there’s a lot of reasons, from peace of mind, complying with health regulation standards, and even marketing, to maintain your float tank solution to as high a standard that you can.
Soundproofing Windows of Your Float Center – DSP 311
Graham and Ashkahn discuss soundproofing windows of a float center, but first they talk about which situations may even warrant soundproofing in the first place. It may be that soundproofing is better prioritized elsewhere.
If you do decide to soundproof your window, the guys give you some tips on how best to do it and what to look for when picking out which type of glaze you may want along with a few other options.
Latest Blog Posts
What? Another Product Announcement? The New and Improved About Float Tanks Guide!
We’ve learned a lot since then, so has the industry and the rest of the world. Floating is no longer considered some obscure practice. The industry has become very well established the world over and is continuing to grow. As such, the About Float Tanks Guide in particular desperately needed updating.
There has been new research, new standards in manufacturing, and as an industry, we have a much better understanding of all things float tank.
Download the latest version today!
Announcing: The 2017 Float Tank Industry Report
In 2014 we started gathering answers to a survey that would eventually become the very first State of the Float Industry Report. We've released one every year since, and this year we (once again) have the most contributions that we've ever had. In total, 193 existing...
Working with a Landlord
If you’re planning on opening up a float center, it’s likely that you’ll end up renting and, therefore, working closely with a landlord. Like any business relationship, it takes communication, discernment, and openness to make a renter-landlord relationship feel truly comfortable.
Everyone involved is taking a risk and the reality is that, when it comes to floating, it’s probably more risk than your average small business – craft shop, bar, hair salon, law office, what-have-you.
This piece also includes a free download – a compilation of support letters from float center landlords!
Employees vs. Independent Contractors. Which is better when offering additional services?
Part of what makes all of this so confusing is there isn’t a one-size-fits-all set of actions that differentiates a standard employee from an independent contractor. Your State regulators, the federal Department of Labor, and the IRS all have their own criteria for what constitutes an “independent contractor”. Here, we’ll just be using the IRS definitions as a sort of jumping off point to the issue. If the status of employees is ever challenged, the IRS determines the status on a case-by-case basis over several criteria by a panel of judges, very similar to American Idol.
Basically it comes down to who is in control of the work. How much control does the company have over the type of job being done vs. how much control does the person providing the service. This manifests in different ways, but to fit the definition of an independent contractor, a service provider really does have to be independent. Beyond just using this guide, you should always consult an HR lawyer if you feel like there’s any confusion or ambiguity.
Basically, the rules fall into three main categories…
