EVERYONE needs to switch off and de-stress once in a while.

New family business Float Fremantle gives customers the opportunity to tune out while immersing themselves in 1000 litres of water with more than 500kg of dissolved epsom salts.

Savanna Pont manages the business she opened with her parents in September. She says they’ve been “floating” for years. The family imported four large pods from Singapore which are heated to skin temperature so customers can barely tell where their bodies end and the water starts.

Eliminate chronic pain

“They were using this method 20 years ago and then when it kicked off again they decided to open the business here in Fremantle as it’s got the perfect client base,” Ms Pont said of her parents.

“With the over-stimulation of technology these days, people need to switch off and relax and floating is like a disk defragmenter for the brain,” she says.

People float to relieve stress, recover from muscle fatigue, injuries, fight addiction, eliminate chronic pain and much more.

Floating allows everyone to reach a deep level of meditation quicker and much easier, she says, as the experience sends theta brain waves pinging.

Customers spend one or two hours in the pods while the outside world disappears.

Ms Pont says floating suppresses the sympathetic nervous system (‘fight or flight’ response) and activates the parasympathetic system (relaxation) which helps decrease muscle tension, lowers cortisol levels and lowers heart rate.

Since opening, Float Fremantle has seen a number of Fremantle Dockers players come through their doors for recovery.

Float 2IC Ashley Stephens reckons floating is the “most underestimated form of pain relief”, with the beneficial effects lasting days.

The client has total control of the pod when inside, and can open the door and continue the session ‘alfresco’ if they’re feeling claustrophobic.

by HOLLY COOMEY

Float Fremantle
36 Holdsworth Street, Fremantle
Phone: 6113 1229
Open Tues-Sun 9am-7pm
http://www.floatfremantle.com.au