Looking for “playground legends”
Ninja Nation opening its first arena in Lafayette
Ninja followers know Geoff Britten as the guy who became the first American Ninja Warrior in 2015 by virtue of being the first competitor in seven seasons to complete all four stages at the season finale. This summer, he will have a different focus in the Ninja world.
Four months ago, Britten moved here from Maryland with his family to work as the creative director for Ninja Nation, a Colorado company that will open the first of 100 planned gyms across the country in Lafayette on June 30. Britten’s job is to oversee the design of all of the “arenas,” including layouts and obstacles.
“Opening these gyms is so exciting,” Britten said last week while leading a tour of the Lafayette facility as a handful of mini Ninjas gave the shiny new obstacles a few trial runs. “I still get little goosebumps when I walk in the door and see it. You see we have kids in the facility now. They’re all smiling, they’re laughing, they’re getting a workout but they’re enjoying it. That just warms my heart, and I can’t wait to see this place filled with kids.”
Britten helped write the company’s operational playbook and curriculum for the arenas. Another wellknown Ninja, “Captain NBC” Jamie Rahn, will be the
head coach at the Lafayette location. Rahn is appearing on season 10 of the series, which began May 30.
The founder and chief executive of Ninja Nation, Colorado’s Wayne Cavanaugh, has three arenas currently in development. After Lafayette, another will open in Englewood toward the end of the summer, along with one in Frisco, Texas. With expansions into Arizona, Las Vegas and California, the hope is to have 15 in operation by the end of 2019.
“This is a category we like to call ‘Sportainment,’ ” said Cavanaugh, who lives in Castle Pines. “The way we see sports evolving is into something that’s got kind of a ‘wow’ factor to it, which is why you see what you see in this facility with great lighting, great equipment, a beautiful, safe, open, airy facility targeting youth and adults.
“And it’s got a great message to it,” he continued. “As a sport, you’ve got the emphasis of what you see on all obstacle-course racing shows, which is a focus on persistence, confidence, agility, strength. It’s a really confidence-building type of event and sport for kids.”
Ninja Nation didn’t invent the concept of gyms for aspiring Ninjas, but Britten — who came to the sport after a background in rock climbing — sees it bringing Ninja training to the next level.
“As a climber, I grew up seeing climbing gyms from the early to late ’90s and they were a little bit dark, a little bit dirty, dingy; kind of hole-in-the- walls,” Britten said. “You really just had the purists training there. Ninja is kind of the same thing. A lot of the first-generation gyms are very dark, dirty, there are cobwebs on the ceiling. Guys are doing it out of the spirit in their hearts, not in a business sense.
“This is really the first level of gyms that are opening up where you have this professional appeal. We provide this amazing arena where parents feel safe, the kids are safe and it looks amazing. You walk in here and you want to go play.”
The Lafayette arena has sideby-side courses with island hops, dueling zip-lines, swinging rings, tilting traverse boxes, monkey bars, cliffhanger ledges, warp walls, swoop sliders, spider jumps, a Tarzan swing into a cargo net and salmon ladders.
“I grew up in Hawaii, running on the beach, climbing through trees, being old-school kids, just go outside and play all day,” Britten said. “I think Ninja is bringing that back, where kids are playground legends. You’ve got these kids who are the superstars of the playground; they can come in here and really excel.”
Britten said they can learn and gain functional strength in a safe, supervised environment, getting a workout without feeling like they’re working at it because it’s fun.
“One of the benefits of training as a Ninja, especially for the youth, is that it really (builds) all of your stabilizer muscles,” Britten said. “A lot of times if you’re in a gym working out, you’re lifting straight up. In this you’re never doing that. You’re always moving around, left and right. If they can get through the first six months with a good coach and a healthy program, they come out of it so strong and so injury proof. They learn how to fall, they learn how to protect themselves.”
It’s not just about physical training, though.
“Our slogan and our mission is, ‘One Million Heroes,’ “Cavanaugh said. “We can provide access to a fun, terrific sport that really gives people the opportunity to find the best in themselves — overcoming challenges, overcoming obstacles and being part of a community that helps them do that.”