The Story of HYPE - Why We Are Here.

This is a personal account of how much it means to me to be working with all of you.

This is one of the biggest moments of my life and something I’ve worked every single day for the past 7 years to make happen. This is a story to share my experiences of the past 7 years on why I am so excited to work with you, and to show you this is all to create a better fitness experience that we all deserve. 

And it started with you guys.

This is a story of consistency, caring, infinite work ethic, saving for what you believe in, having good friendships and partnerships, integrity, action, taking risks, and execution.

I felt I was mistreated at one time in my life where a bit of nurturing was all I needed, and I knew I never wanted a single customer to feel the way I felt.

That is why we are here.

April 13, 2013. 

Remember that date as I’ll bring it up later on.

It’s currently 1:39am in the morning as I walk home from the gym writing this to everyone. 

Tara took the truck home to get home at a reasonable hour, as I wanted to stay and continue cleaning and organizing making sure tomorrow starts off on the right foot for everyone.

I also wanted time to reflect on the first two days (now two weeks) of us being open and coming together as one big family.

And what I’m left with is a deeper understanding of what this process of opening HYPE and running this gym to get this point has really meant to me.

Now... 

what less than 3 people know are the actual reasons I wanted to open HYPE, and do it in Boca, exactly where we did..... and I’ll share that with you so you can understand how passionate I am about bringing these worlds together..

2011 I was living in Massachusetts, just retired from attempting to play professional golf at the age of 21, and was semi-coaching my motocross rider friends on and off the track. I wanted to open a gym, but I had no real way to do so in my home town and I knew I wanted to go back to where I was training for golf, in south Florida.

In November of 2012 I had just gotten my CF L1 a few months prior with Ben Bergeron and James Hobart at CrossFit New England. it was cold on the motocross track, and the golf course, so I made the call, I’m applying for coaching positions in south Florida.

The deal was this, either find a coaching position by January 1st, or Im going to rent a 1,000sqft garage and create a strength gym.

December 2012, I sent out 10 emails asking about coaching opportunities, of which 3 of the emails were to various CrossFit Hardcores.

I received 0 replies from any of them.. not even a “no” to be had.. no problem, let’s figure it out..

I saw a mere posting on Craigslist about a coach for hire... Riptide CrossFit rang and they needed a coach to help open the gym from scratch and run this thing...

December 30th I drove straight to Fort Lauderdale and got the job. One day before I would have made the call to open a small place of my own.

6 months later, after coaching every hour of every day I could to help get Riptide off the ground. Tara had moved to Florida and just started CrossFit. We were training together and we saw a post + received a flyer about a team competition held in Deerfield Beach ... for which neither of us were really sure about and very scared to commit to... but we lived in Boca, because we liked the area and felt it was best for us to be up here.. and said damn, we should just do the event... it will be our first competition ever and it’s right down the street.

April 13, 2013.

7 years ago almost to the day. 

CrossFit Hardcore ran the SUP BOX BATTLE. A competition held on the beach with a stand up paddle board workout, where its bigger focus was to bring their members together from different gyms to compete against one another.

We signed up.

“If you sign up for our event, you can come in and train for free the week prior at any of our gyms to test the workouts!” The flyer read.

Awesome. 

Wednesday before the event, I wasn’t coaching in the morning at Riptide, and Tara wasn’t working, and we decided we would go into Hardcore and try a workout, just like the registration suggested..  go to a new gym we’ve never been to.. both very new and very excited as we were living on a shoe string doing what we can to figure it out down here.. we didn’t have $200 to our name while trying to work to pay high rent with her serving tables down the street and me making $15 per hour to coach classes. So we were excited to try a workout in a cool place, meet some of the people, learn something new, and get ready for our event.

Wednesday we got up. We put our Nano 2.0’s on, and we drove over to Hardcore the station from our “Mizner on the green” apartment.

Walked in. Saw a few people in the gym about to get warm. 

There was no one behind the desk. Someone saw us, they turned around and sat behind the desk and asked what we wanted.

“Yes?”

“Hey! I’m Rob. My girlfriend and I signed up for your SUP BOX BATTLE and would love to get one of your workouts in”

“Ok, that will be $20 each”

“Oh! I’m a coach in Fort Lauderdale and we signed up for your event, would love to test one of your workouts”

“Yes it’s $20 each for a drop in”

“Oh ok, let us go get our money in the car”

Nothing crazy. Was very simple…. But there wasn’t a “hello”. There wasn’t a “where are you from, what’s your training look like, awesome to have you”. ...on the flyer I thought it was clear what was up. I understand making money, and understand business... but at Riptide, anyone that was a coach we let train for free just to throwdown with us and learn from them... because we knew the grind first hand... I wasn’t given any of the service and respect I try to give out every day... and also didn’t have any money to pay for a drop in because we paid for the event and needed to eat that week..

So we walked to the car and was forced to drive home looking like assholes leaving without being able to pay...

Might be small, but that walk made me feel a a type of way I never wanted to let a single person feel again.

Knowing how big Hardcore was and how many gyms they had... I couldn’t understand how I was treated...

And from that day on... I said I’m staying in boca...

all we have to do... is just treat people how we would expect to be treated. 

Fitness and friendships over money. 

Relationships over structure. 

And that will create a tight enough bond that we can not lose.

Mix that with comprehensive training methods, sociable/educated/hard working coaches who earn their way in, not just buying degrees, and a 365 day consistency of service...

Don’t worry about money. Create great relationships and people will be more than happy to pay full asking price. You won’t have to ask for it, they’ll give it to you. No official free trials. No discounts. Just take your time to get comfortable so I can prove we’re worth it... and then they’ll stay forever.

That is how we run.

I left my family to come down here. My friends. My career. Started with nothing. and thought I had earned something by stepping up… That is why I felt the way I felt.

Now to the event:

Everyone was fit, and seemed cool, and we wanted to be in on that crowd. Everyone had their friends, looked incredible. That was why we were here…. We loved the competition. We loved the people. But we didn’t love how we were treated at the gym.... so something had to change. (Side note : We came in 2nd in the competition, winning the paddle board event)

And that is what birthed HYPE. 

To create a service, and place to workout,  with fit, friendly people, that are “competitive”... A gym that took care of them first... if you didn’t have the money that day no worries, I’m going to lift heavier than you right now, type vibes... 

and have done just that every single day, 365 days a year for 9 years straight, … 7 years at HYPE.. because I wanted those people inside of my gym.

I wanted to workout with those bad ass competition people I knew lived here.

I am those people, and I want those people around me. Always.

7 years ago I said I would have those people.

We risked everything. 

Ben and I met at Riptide. He came in to see what it was about just a few months after we opened. The second we met, we understood each other right away. We Had the exact same goals of knowing we wanted to offer a different service that existed. He was in the restaurant industry, working endless hours for people that never gave him respect. I was working endless hours with no return… we wanted change, and I had a plan…

He has supported every decision I have ever made. Never questioned it. and mounted up ready for the fight without even asking. The truest teammate I have ever encountered, or ever heard of.

We are the team that did this.

We had 3 months to break even in the high rent, small spot, on Palmetto Park Road… To get out in front on the main strip, all glass windows on the way to the beach, and let people know WE ARE HERE NOW. 

$11,000 a month for 2,500 square feet just for rent, $33,000 deposit to get into that property on day 1.  brand new equipment, and 0 members locally… Money that we didn’t have and was loaned to us en-lieu of dropping out of college to follow our dreams … And we knew….. this is it…. This is our only shot. We don’t come from money. We come from work ethic. And we believed in ourselves.

And now we’re here. This entire time has been in search of finding all of us, and putting us all together.

A lot have come to us in search of the same thing...

A place to feel accepted on their journey of finding themselves.

I was looking for myself, alone, broke, and hungry… and I was turned away.

And now we have come to you...

This entire time, has been in search of all you people..

So to say I’m excited to add to our family, you have no idea.

We focus on one person at a time, and We are excited to work with all of you, and give you what we have felt was deserved this whole time.

We are growing, and we reinvest everything we have.

We don’t have side jobs. We do this. And we are going to make these places incredible.

In Boca, we have already locked in another 2500sqft right next to our swimming pool neighbors to create an elite level open gym / private training / strength & conditioning space for us to all use whenever we want. We also can go rip it up by Atlantic Ave and go hit HYPE DELRAY before you hit the beach on the weekend.

We are going to prove to you our worth. Make sure you love it. And keep coming back..

Because remember, this has been for you guys this entire time.

Those of you new to HYPE, You have all been sent login info for WODIFY to see our workouts (CrossFit, Strength, Performance, Endurance) and the schedules with the ability to log in to all classes. 

It’s a place that we are creating an online digital leaderboard for us to have our own “CrossFit OPEN” every single day... Delray is now on our system entirely and we will all be essentially working out with each other every single day..

Our schedules have grown as well.

and to say the least… we’re open.

Understanding everyone is on their own schedule, we will try to accommodate everyone.

Let me know if you have any questions and how I can help. We are always here to help.

My next message I will tell you about our programming, how it works, and how we succeed.

Until then, See you in there tomorrow.

Your head coach - @HYPE.ROB