Is it possible that one of the greatest benefits of the “hot water experience” also happens to be one of the trickiest to talk about?
For the sake of discussion let’s call it “personal intimacy.” We all know what that means and it’s no secret that certain adult behaviors are part and parcel to the hot water experience. Yet, as an industry focused on health and family togetherness, the behavior of couples in spas/hot tubs almost always remains unspoken.
I delicately bring this up having just recently completed work on a set of articles for AQUA’s “Hot Water Issue,” a process that led me further than ever into the world of spas/hot tubs and hydrotherapy.
One of those stories involved the current state of wooden-barrel hot tubs, arguably the modern progenitors for the portable spa industry and the vessel most traditionally associated with indulgent behavior. In those discussions, and others centered on hot water environments, the products’ past associations with the 1970s lifestyle and sexual revolution are always present as a sort of murky backdrop or unspoken precursor. Without question, that aspect of hot water, including in today’s wooden barrel segment, has been firmly replaced in recent years with discussions about wellness, stay-cations, luxury and the good life in general.
Nonetheless, the debauchery once associated with hot water does remain part of our cultural landscape. In the recent hit movie “Hot Tub Time Machine” and its sequel, we’ve been comically reminded of the party vibe that once roiled in hot tubs like the water itself. Entertaining though it may be, that’s certainly not the way that spas/hot tubs are considered and marketed by the industry.
I’ll get to my point, but let me first be crystal clear, this is not a call for any kind of salacious marketing or playing to the prurient interest harbored in the dark recesses of some of our customers’ personalities. No, what I’m talking about is something different: a way to look at hot water and the personal intimacy it affords from a more wholesome perspective.
About 10 years ago I attended a press conference at a trade show that was presented by a major portable spa manufacturer. The company had just introduced a line of spas that was overtly created for couples. When I showed up to the booth, a certified marriage counselor who was in charge of the proceedings greeted me and immediately started talking about how this new line of spas enhanced the marital experience. I’ll leave most of the details off the page, some of which were frankly surprisingly erotic in nature, but there was one point the gentleman made that stuck in my mind for a different reason.
He said that in his practice working with couples he often suggested they should spend time together in a spa because it was his belief that people rarely if ever argue in that setting.
Now that was a great point that certainly rang true. I’d never really thought of it that way before but, indeed, in all my decades immersing my bones in hot water with others, romantically or otherwise, I can’t think of a single time when arguing, with anyone, was part of the scene.
Fast-forward to just a few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of interviewing industry icon Alice Cunningham, founder of Olympic Hot Tubs, in her Seattle office. Much of our discussion focused on the many aspects of wellness and at one point she raised the same issue – hot tubs are good for relationships!
In a follow up email in support of that point, Alice shared this quote from Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist based in La Mesa, Calif. “It gives you quiet time. Nobody has an argument in a hot tub. People relax, they laugh, and the playfulness comes out. There’s no other place that has the physiological [effect] of breaking down the social barriers that exist between people. It literally relaxes you psychologically.”
In that sense, perhaps it’s entirely appropriate to consider and even talk about the benefits the hot water experience can afford couples. Maybe that too is part of the wellness found in the comfort and at times, intimacy of hot water?
