You could call him the Masseur to the Stars. His healing hands have worked on the sore muscles of Wakeboarding’s elite athletes. However, Justin Candelora, of Own2Hands, is not one to knead and tell. In fact, he was very coy when I asked him to name names. Suffice to say that, if it’s good enough for Amber Wing (and Dallas Friday, and Hayley Smith, and almost all of the Pro Women), it is good enough for me.
Justin got his calling at the age of five. There was a massage therapist that lived across the street from him, and he used to go over and massage the knots out of her neck. The first time Justin did this, his neighbor came over afterwards and told Justin’s mom “Make SURE he becomes a massage therapist.” You can say that he has the magic touch.
As an athlete himself, Justin saw a need for sports massage. He claims that “we all break down the same way, athletes just do it a lot faster and with a lot more trauma.” He is trying to integrate the benefits of therapeutic massage into the world of sports. The goal of regular sports massage is to make the body move with less effort, remove adhesions and increase the range of motion.
A lot of sports injuries may be prevented with the proper sports massage techniques. Justin mentions that a lot of the pro women understand the importance of taking care of their bodies, and he’s trying to get through to the pro men the fact that stretching and massage has to become part of their regimen in order to prevent certain types of injuries.
Even non-athletes can benefit from sports massage. As Justin says, “Life’s a sport. Don’t play hurt.” As a desk jockey, I can attest that his healing hands work wonders on us common folk! To book an appointment, call Justin at 407-616-4756 or visit his website. You will be glad you did.
I can’t believe that another year has gone by. It seems that a few weeks ago it was April, and we had just launched this site. I think it was fate that brought us to launch in 2009, which has turned out to be the best year for women’s wakeboarding and wakeskating so far. Like any other sport, women’s wake sports go through cycles: one year, women are the talk of the town and everyone is pumped about them, and the next year, women are fighting tooth and nail to get recognition. I really feel that this time it is different. Women have accomplished so much and are pushing the sport so hard, I see us riding this wave of firsts for many years to come. Some of our favorite highlights from 2009 include:
