The Roanoker - January/February 2020 - 14

the gist

Float Your
Stress Away
Still Water Floatation offers a new wellness
service in Roanoke.

14

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2020

ABOVE:
Roanoke's first
sensory deprivation
tank is one of about
a dozen in the state.
AT LEFT:
Owners David
Landes and Tabitha
Cain are excited to
offer a new way to
relax.

reducing stress and anxiety.
Landes discovered floating in 2016, as he
traveled the country on a quest to find a new
direction for his life. He paused, for a time, in
Portland, Ore., where he not only learned to
love floating but decided to find a way to bring
this deep relaxation of mind and muscle back to
Roanoke.
"I really want to be part of something bigger,
something that puts people before profits," he says.
In 2018 Landes bought a single float tank and
placed it in what is today Still Water's lounge.
That's where Cain tried her first float.
"I developed a real passion about being able to
share this with people," she explains.
It's also where Landes invited doctors, athletes
and patients to experience what floating was all
about.
Educating Roanokers is still part of the job.
But every person who samples and is smitten by
floating is one more convert, one more customer.
"There's a cumulative effect," Landes says. "The
more often you float, the quicker you can get your
mind settled. It's a practice, like yoga."

CHRISTINA NIFONG

TO STEP INSIDE Still Water Floatation's historic
brick walls is to instantly sense your shoulders drop. It's
warm, with a walk-on-the-beach-salt-spray kind of feel.
Owners David Landes and Tabitha Cain have
spent years thinking through every detail of the
recently opened float center - from the look of the
rolling ocean floor to the 10 1/2-inch-thick walls
that block out sound to the cup of tea waiting for
you after your session.
Their hope is that it all adds up to 90 minutes
of relaxation, healing, refueling of mind and body,
absolute bliss.
"So much heart and soul went into building this
place," says Cain.
Still Water is Roanoke's first "sensory deprivation"
tank, and one of about a dozen in Virginia. First
developed in the 1950s by a U.S. physician and
neuroscientist, a wave of modern float tanks began
in the 2010s, on the West Coast. They've been
making their way East since; more than 300 now
operate in stand-alone centers nationwide - even
more are featured in spa settings.
A visit to a float center typically goes like this:
Make an online or by-phone appointment. Shower
before stepping into the pod of your choice. (Still
Water offers four different shapes and sizes to
accommodate various needs and desires). Adjust
the lighting and music to your taste - there are a
variety of colors, as well as complete darkness or
tiny pinpricks of light that resemble stars.
Then lie back, naked, in a foot of bodytemperature water infused with 1,000 pounds of
Epsom salts. With little to no light or sound, limbs
completely suspended, the brain switches into
another gear. The result, say people who've floated,
is something like the best sleep you've ever had/
an amazing meditation session/yoga on steroids.
Research on floating's benefits is small but
growing. It has shown positive results for Post
Traumatic Stress Disorder sufferers, for those
who live with chronic pain, and for healing after
injuries.
F loating - also known as Restr icted
Environmental Stimulation Therapy or REST -
has gained a following among those interested
in creating wellness, bolstering immunity and

-CHRISTINA NIFONG

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The Roanoker - January/February 2020

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