As Yoga Australia hosts its annual conference on the Gold Coast, the city is fast becoming a leading location in the growth of an ancient practice that is now a modern phenomenon, not to mention big business.
It’s probably not surprising that the Gold Coast can boast to be an Aussie hot-spot (or should we say cool spot) for Stand-Up Paddleboard Yoga (SUP yoga for short). The city has taken to SUP like the proverbial duck to water, in the same way it has all but owned surfing in Australia. It’s a natural affinity with water, and an active, yet chilled lifestyle.
“The Gold Coast environment just lends itself to outdoor yoga, including SUP yoga, and we’ve seen a lot of surfers taking up yoga therapy to help supplement their training and avoid injuries,” says Leanne Davis, President of Yoga Australia.
“Taking your practice to the unsteady surface of a stand-up paddle board pushes you to slow down, move mindfully and stop taking life (and Yoga) so seriously. This practice is about playfulness,” says Darci Charli Dee of dyoga, who teaches on both dry land and water, and also trains SUP Yoga teachers.
SUP Yoga is one of the fastest growing novelty segments of a wellness practice (not a sport) that has enjoyed by 36 million Americans (up from 20.4 million in 2012 with 28 percent of all Americans having done a yoga class at some point*), with Aussies not far behind in percentage terms.
According to IBIS World, yoga and pilates studios are now a billion dollar industry in Australia (and according to the global Yoga Alliance, a $27 billion sector in the US).
Darci, dyoga
-
And while yoga may not be as synonymous with the Gold Coast as surfing, or even SUP, the city is fast cementing its credentials within yoga and the broader wellness world – making it an ideal location for Yoga Australia’s annual conference, attracting more than 200 yogis.
“There’s Byron Bay as the mecca of yoga in Australia,” says Leanne. “And the Gold Coast has similar ingredients for the strong growth we’re seeing in yoga, with the appeal of outstanding opportunities to practice outdoors that aren’t so available in capital cities.”
“We’ve added aqua yoga to our conference program and we are excited to integrate with the community-based yoga that is so readily available here.”
Yoga is now the largest activity offered through the city’s Active & Healthy Program with over 25 free and low-cost classes weekly, attracting between 30 and 90 people to each class. Yoga and meditation workshops are also popular as part of an ever-expanding wellbeing program.
Leanne Davis, Yoga Australia President
Darci yoga (image courtesy Michael Byrne)
@thefloatinglotusstudio
Zen Soul Life beach class
It’s a far cry from when Madonna Williams first started teaching just 2 or 3 students in a local hall in 2002.
Having practised for 23 years, this fit and flexible 50-years-young yogi is testament to the benefits – she initially used yoga and its meditation practices to help recover from a horse riding accident and has been passionate ever since.
“I just want to do all I can to encourage a yogic lifestyle and it’s what so many people want – that holistic approach to mind, body and spirit,” says Madonna.
With yoga really picking up in popularity around a decade ago, it’s only been in the last five years that Madonna, who offers both studio and community classes in beautiful foreshore parks, has been able to make her Zen Soul Life business a full-time endeavour.
She’s authored a book, creates on-line yoga videos and produces a stunning calendar where the Gold Coast is the beautiful backdrop for amazing postures. She also runs retreats, is branching into corporate yoga and wellness, and will soon embark on her first teacher-training program.
“The Gold Coast yoga community is really growing – we’re seeing big events like International Yoga Day and we have this incredible environment for outdoor yoga that people from overseas just rave about,” says Madonna.
Madonna Williams leads Main Beach class
@yogamadonna
@yogamadonna
Madonna leads Namaste for Nepal fundraising class
Hot trend
Within studios the hottest yoga trend in recent years has been just that – hot yoga – now being nicely balanced with the growth of yin yoga, a slow and restorative practice that melds meditation with long-hold postures aimed at ridding students of the stress and stiffness of modern life.
Fire Shaper is a global player headquartered on the Gold Coast, having expanded from the US – where it boasts four studios in New York and New Jersey – to build its Bundall wellness centre base; add two studios in Brisbane, a second franchised studio at Oxenford and another franchise in Perth, along with a growing teacher training program.
In an industry that is still dominated by small, independent players, Fire Shaper is leaving a sizeable, sweaty footprint on thousands of yoga mats as it reimagines wellness.
It’s not surprising given co-owner and US native Dr John Surie has almost 20 years experience as a chiropractor in the US and Australia and a huge depth of wellness knowledge, while wife Natalie, originally from the Gold Coast, underwent extensive training in the Bikram tradition to establish the business in 2002, before they innovated to evolve their own hot yoga brand.
“The hot yoga is really an entrée to a well-rounded wellness experience,” says Dr Surie.
“We are all about helping our students to live full, healthy lives through providing different class styles as well as dietary support, nutritional cleansing and expertise in healing and lifestyle practices,” says Natalie Surie.
Natalie Surie Fireshaper Yoga
Hot Yoga - John Surie
John Surie chiropractor
John Surie yoga class
This increasingly holistic approach is seeing the medicalization of yoga, which according to Leanne Davis represents a strong future for yoga as modern science ‘catches up’ with ancient tradition.
“Yoga therapy is becoming mainstream,” she says “We are seeing an individualized approach to yoga – private and small group classes and more integration into treatment for patients by both alternative and western medical practitioners.”
“Recently we’ve seen acupuncture become a Health Science degree qualification with practitioners now regulated under AHPRA (Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency), and the evolution of yoga in this direction is inevitable.”
“Yoga’s popularity has grown out of the overall fitness trend, which has been great for introducing new students and it’s perfectly fine for people to have an exercise focus, however we are really pleased to see how many are going deeper and understanding that yoga is meditation and mindfulness, it’s ethics and philosophy – it’s a whole way of life.”
While pleased to see the evolution of yoga from its Indian traditions to continue to have relevance in modern life, Dr Surie says the benefits of creativity and fun need to be balanced with a depth of science and traditional yogic understanding.
“Adding yoga classes to a gym schedule opens up the ancient practice to more people, however students need to know that there should be an overall structure to classes, regardless of the style and who is teaching. They should also understand that ‘heated’ yoga is not the same as a ‘Hot Yoga’ class with a controlled heating system and specific postures,” says Dr Surie.
The real opportunity, according to Dr Surie, lies in systemizing the growth of yoga classes within fitness centres so that students can be assured of standards even in hybrid-style classes (Koga – kickboxing with yoga is one new variation), and in building strong and ethical brands that yogis can trust.
“We cater for all ages and levels and will increasingly look to tailor class packages to suit people’s varying lifestyles as well as constantly value-adding to our student’s wellness goals, above and beyond yoga,” says Dr Surie.
Madonna Williams
-
What’s next
Alongside Koga are a range of novelty trends such as aerial yoga (in a swing), Doga (that’s yoga with your dog) and underwater yoga (defying imagination).
“Acro yoga is really popular because it is playful and people are seeking that human connection, away from technology,” says Madonna (it is practised in pairs, with one person acting as a base and the other as a ‘flyer’).
Traditional hatha yoga remains strong, alongside hot yoga, vinyasa flow and the athletic Ashtanga style for advanced practitioners.
And alongside the rise of yin yoga, Madonna predicts Kundalini yoga, with its strong spiritual focus countering stress, will grow rapidly.
Fireshaper offers some 65 classes per week (mostly hot yoga) across the two Gold Coast studios – and growing – while another major player Essence of Living offers almost 120 non-hot yoga, pilates and meditation classes in two locations, as well as teacher training, workshops and online classes. New studios are opening regularly.
@essenceofliving - Clare Merrifield
@dyogadarci
Yoga at any age @dyogadarci
Roma Blair, 80th birthday (credit From Prison to Paradise, Bree Robertson)
Indeed the growth story seems a certainty with the Gold Coast is poised to play a big part in the narrative, through wellness tourism and events, community wellness programs, continued expansion in studios and within fitness centres, and a rise in yoga for the next generation, our children.
“We’re very pleased to see yoga and meditation being more available to children, especially in schools, so they can hopefully make it a lifelong beneficial practice,” says Leanne. “We’ve just registered a 50 hour post-graduate course so teachers can identify themselves with this extra qualification.”
“The benefits of yoga are clear – there is plenty of evidence-based research,” says Leanne.
In an Instagram age where #yoga seems to be all about wonderful (and weird) shapes, it’s heartening to foresee a deeper, holistic and healing future for yoga as an integral part of preventative health and people’s happiness.
Madonna speaks of witnessing transformations in students: “Even watching people arrive at class and then observing them after class, we see a beautiful, calm and uplifting shift in energy.”
“People want to feel like part of a community, a family really, that values wellness and yoga is the glue that brings and keeps them together,” says Fireshaper’s Natalie.
No doubt the late Gold Coast identity and yoga pioneer Roma Blair, a pioneer of yoga in the west with a long running yoga program on Australian television in the 60’s and 70’s would be proud. She lived to a grand old age of 90, healthy and flexible almost right to the end.
That’s got to be incentive to roll out a mat.
Related Articles
The Wellness wave – how Gold Coast companies are adopting the megatrend
Obstacle course racing
Active & Healthy – calling all girls
*Yoga in America, 2015, Yoga Alliance
The post The Gold Coast’s yen for yoga appeared first on More Gold Coast.