KEKAHA — Seven-year-old Chase Batalucco of Koloa knows his way around CrossFit and on Saturday, he wasn’t shy about finding his favorite things in Kekaha’s new gym.
“I’ve been at CrossFit before,” he said at the Saturday opening of the Keala Foundation’s CrossFit gym in Kekaha. “I like swinging on the ropes the best.”
About a hundred adults and kids attended the opening. Chase was one of the many kids who were swinging like Tarzan in every direction from ropes suspended from the ceiling.
The keiki that weren’t vying for a rope were swinging on hanging rings or playing on the treadmill.
Uneven bars lined the walls, a couple of rowing machines were available in the corner, and a welcome desk was right in the center.
Kids weren’t the only ones excited for opening of the second kids-focused CrossFit on the island, which is free to the community thanks to Keala Foundation and its co-directors Aaron Hoff and Rory Zambard.
The facility is the second for Keala Foundation, which operates a free place for youth to exercise and be part of a community.
The new gym provides much closer opportunities for kids who have been traveling for sports and fitness activities, like 3-year-old Blake Vidinha, who has been putting in a lot of drive time to attend gymnastics around the island.
She’ll be going to the CrossFit gym now, her mother said. And from across the room, Chase’s parents watched the high-energy activity, happy their family has more options for physical activity as well.
“We go to the CrossFit in Poipu,” said Chase’s dad, Greg Batalucco. “My oldest, he plays baseball in Kekaha and we’re hoping the baseball team can do some practicing in here.”
That’s the goal for the keiki CrossFit — giving kids a place to exercise and practice their skills, as well as a chance at a positive path and an alternative to drugs and alcohol.
Hoff, who was raised on Kauai, has personal experience with choosing and overcoming substance abuse in his youth, and his way out of the lifestyle was through physical fitness.
“It’s so exciting, look at the kids,” Zambard said at the opening, pointing to the controlled chaos of children ping-ponging around the room.
The CrossFit program has been providing that kind of outlet successfully for many island kids, including Batalucco’s family, and everyone at the opening was excited to have the facility in Kekaha.
“Going has helped physically and mentally,” he said. “And it’s a place to develop community. It’s helped my kids a lot.”
When I took writing in school, the first rule in reporting was where, why, when.
This article leaves out the location other than Kekaha .
Is it in the Waimea Canyon Plaza? Where in Kekaha?