Pool Pi-yo will make its first dip into the CWU aquatic center on Saturday Feb. 10 from 11 a.m. to noon.  Pool Pi-yo is a mix of Pilates and yoga with the added challenge of balancing on a stand-up paddleboard in a pool.

Students will be able to register online through Outdoor Pursuits and Rentals (OPR) and the Recreation Center. Students can register by phone or in person. Coordinator of the Physical Education (PE) program Debra D’Acquisto said that it is best to register early.

There will be two different prices for the class. The prices are not for the program, but to help pay for the lifeguard and to help pay the student staff who bring the boards to the pool and take them back to OPR.

The fee for the class will be $3 for people who want to watch or participate by doing yoga and pilates on the deck of the pool. The $5 fee will guarantee each participant a paddle board and space in the water, but there will only be 12 paddle boards available.

The class is broken down into 20 minute intervals. The first 20 minutes will be for the students to get a feel for the boards in the water.  and the next 20 minutes will be for the Pilates and yoga instruction. For the last 20 minutes, the students in the water can choose to share their boards with students on the deck.

Some of the benefits of this class according to D’Acquisto are that the pool can be used for more than just swimming. There are different classes students can take in the water, but the program also has a few courses that are for yoga and Pilates.

There are benefits for the human body as well.

“It can be a lifelong experience because sometimes families buy one paddle board and take it out to the lakes and have fun,” D’Acquisto said. “It’s cross-generational, it will give you the confidence, it challenges your balance a little bit. It’s something you could do with friends because you can get more than one person on a board.”

D’Acquisto created this class and will be one of two instructors. The second instructor is Gabrielle McNeillie, a lecturer in the PE, School Health and Movement Studies (PESHMS). She also teaches dance.

McNeillie is a licensed Pilates teacher and teaches a Pilates class three quarters of the year. D’Acquisto got the idea to create the class after taking a master class in Arizona last year.

“[I] thought it would be just awesome to bring to Central. We have the paddle boards at OPR, we have the instructors myself and Gabby McNeillie to teach the Pilates and the yoga. We thought, what are we going to do on a weekend in the winter if you don’t snowshoe or ski, let’s use the pool, put it together,” D’Acquisto said.

D’Acquisto and McNeillie both hope that this will be a fun activity and will hopefully make more people come to the pool to take classes.

“[Doing] Pilates and yoga on the paddle boards creates more instability, so it’s going to be more challenging,” McNeillie said. “I think them being able to experience that in the pool will hopefully encourage them to discover other classes that we have on campus.”

Currently, there is no class that works with paddle boards so this may be a good experience for students to try them. Students can also rent boards from OPR to use on their own time as well.

“We rent the paddle boards. You could take them year round, but really our season for them is summer, so starting in April or May, we’ll [rent] them out to people and [continue] all the way through September,” OPR student manager Nick Poprawski said.

If this class is successful, there is a chance the class will happen again in the future, potentially once a quarter.