Luxury Spa Finder - May/June 2008 - (Page 24)

(PulsePoints ENCOUNTER WHAT' S NEW AND NOTEWORTHY AT LUXURY SPAS Going with the Flow HAD ON MY JOURNALIST' S HAT WHEN I STOPPED AT HARBIN HOT SPRINGS, GREAT DEAL The Healthy Jump-Start at California' s OAKS AT OJAI includes seven nights' accommodation, all meals and ﬁtness classes, and two spa treatments, all for a daily rate of US$185Ð less than the price of a massage at many spas. From US$1,295 per person, 800-753-6257, www.oaksspa.com I just north of Napa Valley, three years ago. I was writing a history of Watsu (water shiatsu) and had come to interview Harold Dull, who invented the modality at Harbin nearly 30 years before. As he tells the story, he spontaneously invited his Zen Shiatsu students to practice in the warm natural pools and discovered that with the body' s weight off the vertebrae, the massage was more effective. In 1985 he started the School of Shiatsu and Massage, just up the road from Harbin, where he still teaches today, between guest appearances all over the world. Although he doesn' t regularly take appointments, he occasionally performs sessions at community pools. I' d tried Watsu at several spas and believed in its therapeutic effects. I was especially interested in the way those effects were compounded by the intimate relationship between practitioner and client. (You' re literally cradled in the therapist' s arms as he stretches and spins you through the water.) Dull, then a vigorous 70year-old with gentle blue eyes, carried himself like a hippie elder statesman. Walking to the pool, I felt like a teenager who gets to go backstage and hang with the band or an acolyte who ﬁnally meets her guru. But soon I snapped back into Brenda Starr mode: At the water' s edge, I turned on my tape recorder and started ﬁring off questions. Dull was amused, then gently said, ª Let' s do the interview after the Watsu.º I just nodded. More than any practitioner I' ve seen since, Dull conveyed Watsu' s shiatsu originsÐ his style is less ﬂowy than most, and he pressed points along all my body' s major meridians. Afterward, we talked about San Francisco in the 1950s and about his ﬁrst massageÐ it didn' t occur until he was 40 and was clearly a life-changing experience. In the end, I didn' t ask most of my technical questions. Dull had explained everything in the pool. Ð ALEXIA BRUE THE DETAILS US$100± $150, to inquire about booking, e-mail pavana@waba.edu NEW ARRIVAL The RITZ-CARLTON KAPALUA in Maui emerges from a US$160 million renovation with a new 17,500square-foot spa in May. (Below, the lobby.) Many of the 15 treatment rooms have private gardens, and the menu includes lomilomi massage and other locally inﬂected treatments from therapists trained by a respected Hawaiian kumu (teacher). 800-241-3333, www.ritzcarlton.com 24 may· june 2008 http://www.oaksspa.com http://www.ritzcarlton.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Luxury Spa Finder - May/June 2008

Luxury Spa Finder - May/June 2008 Contents Editor's Note Ask Susie Pulse Points Spa Road Trip Beauty & Brains Pound Wise Private Label Real Estate New Tuscan Trio The Real Bora Bora The Spa Collection The Insider's Guide: Ireland Spa Rx From the Sparchives

Luxury Spa Finder - May/June 2008

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