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Lift at Next Level Floats

Lift at Next Level Floats

Faith Woodard, 26, of Deer Park, enters the
Faith Woodard, 26, of Deer Park, enters the ocean float tank for an hour session at Lift in Huntington on Feb. 3. Credit: Randee Daddona

Slightly claustrophobic, we never dreamed we would turn up in a float therapy tank (this, a euphemism for sensory deprivation tank) but the folks at two-year-old Lift/Next Level Floats, an outpost of the original one that operates in Brooklyn, were gently reassuring, dubbing the experience as “gravity-free bliss” and a chance to relax and reset.

The place, dimly lit, offers four distinctly separate “ocean” float rooms (not pods) — with heated floors. First, you shower and then plop into a tank filled with 10 inches of warmish water that is loaded with 1,000 pounds of Epsom salts. The company suggests floating sans a bathing suit “so that your body is free from tactile distractions.” Yeeks. To be honest, our nerves were on edge.

Co-owner Gina Antioco, 39, helped squelch them with this piece of advice: “When you get in the tank, spread your arms out and say, ‘This is my time.’” A small, open door beckons, (you’re supposed to close it all the way. We did not). Instead of the darkened, coffin-like tank we expected, the inside was pretty — a white almost mini-room with some twinkling starry lights on the ceiling (the tank is 7-feet high, so phew to that) and lavender lighting generated from below.

How’d we feel? Proud that we conquered a fear, rested and relaxed like we took a real break and even after showering for a second time, still salty, though our skin felt soft.

Details: One-hour float for newcomers is $59; after that it’s $85 per session and there are several packages. Towels, earplugs, shampoo and soap are provided for customers. On an upbeat note in hard times, Antico says, “We recently implemented a ‘community floats’ program which offers discounted float sessions to anyone financially impacted from COVID.” (42 Gerard St., Huntington, 631-923-3099)

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