Riptide Fitness Centre

Best wishes to everyone who works there. ..

Basic gym — not so basic view.
Equipment is nothing special — actually outdated — but who can complain when your literally watching the waves roll in and out while doing the row machine?

THis gym smells terrible is dirty and the equipment is old and tatty! Even if you are unhappy with the gym they will try and hold you to a contract that is actually with a national company called Hartlands who will try and hound you for payments! You have been warned!

If I were to own a gym I’d want it to be just like Riptide but I’d change the equipment. Good old school feel with the wood floors, exposed brick walls and old columns. The major issue I had was there was only one long bar for the whole gym. The dumbbells also only go up to 35kg. It has all the basic machines and cardio equipment to get the job done while your here for a brief stay, but I wouldn’t sign on long-​term unless they add more long bars, get another squat rack, replace the benches, and upgrade the dumbbells.

I was a member of this gym for only a few months and didn’t quite use it as much as I’d intended. I suppose this is because it was over the summer months and I just ended up going swimming since the beach is just a stones throw away.
Still, if you want to get fit using Cardio Vascular Equipment, Weights, Treadmills, Resistance Equipment and all the other machines they have here, then this could be a good bet as it’s cheap as chips compared to the other gyms — £39 + £10 Joining Fee. Prepare for it to be busy at peak times though.

Riptide is brilliantly situated as has a very old school gym feel about it. Although you won’t find a sauna and swim option here like many other gyms, it’s a great way to bring the beach right into your weekly routine. It has a good range of machine and a very good weights section, plus its never too full that you can’t get on anything, perhaps due to the manic marketing and restrictive contracts you get in the bigger chains. I went here to enquire about just having a months membership, but if you will only get a deal on a longer contract, which didn’t work for me, I am far too fickle with my work out routine. Plus I now have a Wii-​fit, which works surprisingly well. Only thing is you need those big machines at riptide to get ripped, if that’s what you are after.

I’ve recently just become a member of this gym and I think so far I have been pretty happy with my first week.
RipTide is located right, right right bang smack in the middle part of the arches. Walk straight down from West Street, descend the steps from the pavement, and you are at Riptide, couldn’t really be much easier, and the location also adds to the pretty dull experience of running on a treadmill, because the view of the sea is amazing.
However in the summer, the view of the sea is quite often obscured by the view of people looking in, at the view of you, or me, or whoever’s in the gym, attempting to enjoy the view.
The gym itself is on two floors, with all the weights, running machines and general hardware downstairs with the exercise mats and balls, and a wall of mirrors to stretch and preen infront of.
I just hoined on a 3 month deal, which is going for £99 and although admittedly it’s not as cheap as just running around in the elements, it’s a really good deal, which can be used throughout the day. Not sure how long it lasts though so give em a call if your interested.