Hello and Welcome to the Online Certification!
We're glad you are here, and excited that you're interested in training on GlideFIT boards- the best inflatable instability boards on the market!
This course will guide you through everything you need to know to become a successful coach, trainer, and leader. It take a while to complete but by the end, you will understand why there's so much excitement about stability training.
At the end of the lessons and topics, there will be a final test. You need to get 85% or more in order to achieve your certification requirements.
This program will be most beneficial if you already have a personal training certification and experience teaching group classes, or personal training.
We are available to answer any questions and are here to help you succeed!
So without further ado, we welcome you to the GlideFit course.
About Glide SUP
Glide has a humble & unique history with the water. Lead shaper, designer, and managing partner Ken Driscoll entered the world of stand up paddle boarding after breaking his back and ending his career as a professional kayaker. Still wanting to explore the water in a recreational way with lower impact activity, Ken explored new shapes in stand up paddle board design. Glide grew from a garage project to a small warehouse, to what it is today – the largest manufacturer and distributor of paddle boards in the Americas. Glide is committed to ethical and eco–friendly production and is unique among SUP companies for adhering to our three core values: excel in design and performance, maintain ultra-durability, and cultivate environmental consciousness.
Glide has been an innovator in the fields of SUP Yoga & Fitness, partnering with pioneers in the sport to design a yoga specific board in 2012, when SUP Yoga was just starting to gain momentum in the SUP industry.
Over the years, our commitment to creating an ultra stable, ultra durable, beautiful and comfortable stand up paddle board for yoga has brought notice from the SUP world. In 2014, we launched the first SUP Yoga ambassador program, which sought yogis from around the country and in turn grew internationally in 2015.
As we worked towards developing the best education program possible for SUP Yoga, we found many parallels between SUP Yoga and SUP Fitness. Here began the evolution in innovating and designing one of the first products designed specifically for balance training and core stabilization on the water - the GlideFit.
It's good to know exactly what you are going to be teaching on, and why we stand behind our product, starting with the superior technology of Fit construction.
FIT CONSTRUCTION-
Drop stitch construction is a technology developed for military applications that allowed an inflatable craft to become much stronger, more durable and lighter. It also allows designers to make the shapes of inflatables more hydrodynamic. Originally created to make inflatable aircraft wings, the rafting industry adopted drop stitch and it proved to be excellent for inflatable watercraft.
Thousands of polyester threads allow the craft to be made with two flat surfaces that are in tension with each other- without the threads, inflatables would bulge out like balloons and be much less rigid. The threads are sewn between two pieces of support fabric woven from polyester. Up to 400 needles are used, each sewing evenly spaced threads back and forth between the two pieces of fabric. This process essentially binds the two pieces together so that when inflated they are held in tension at the length of the threads- 6” threads make a 6” thick Fit. Inflatables without drop stitching can fold like tacos when inflated to max pressure. Drop stitch allows us to build the Fit to be perfectly flat and rock hard when inflated.
The next step of Fit construction is Fusion. In the past, the outer layer of the inflatable (PVC, Neoprene, Hypalon) would be hand-glued to the drop stitch cloth, then, in turn, the seams would be glued together as well. This process was vulnerable to errors during the gluing, which would then lead to the failure of the inflatable. Fusion is the mechanical process of layering hot liquid PVC onto the drop stitch which creates a fused single material and eliminates hand gluing. The seams of the FIT are then joined by plastic welding which also eliminates gluing. The Fusion process results in up to 20% less weight in the final product and a 50% gain in structural rigidity.