Sparklehaus

Santa Monica Gymnastics Center: Culver City Years

This next section in the Santa Monica Gymnastics Center Photo Blog covers our Culver City location. I am going to limit my posts here since Coach Michael has really covered this location. You may visit his blog if you are interested in watching great videos of our loyal patrons. He also has lots of photos that cover the more recent years.

This photo collage is of Amanda Hunter at Level 8 Regional in 2003:

This photo collage is of Cara Bickers, also from 2003 Level 8 Regionals.

These are team photos from competitions from our earlier years in Culver City:

Anger vs Depth

I have been thinking a lot about how angry people are. Just driving down the street people roll their eyes at me and and scoff because I drive a minivan. Really? That is what is going wrong in your day? My minivan is ruining your day. That is so sad.

Then I pay someone for something and say Thank You and they just look at me like "I gave you change, leave now". I understand the service industry makes you angry. I worked it for years. People are rude self righteous jerks.... but if they said thank you I always acknowledged it.

I have been talking with people about anger lately. I have had a lot of angry people in my life. I used to be one of them. Ask anyone from before the year 2002 and they will tell you I was pretty angry and unhappy. One by one I have distanced my self from angry people in my life. It is okay to be angry because monks are being assassinated in Burma. Taking that anger and turning it towards action by spreading the word, signing petitions and donating money to support the cause is great. Being angry because I drive a minivan or some piece of your life is falling apart does not warrant anger.

In my discussions with people I have been asking them if they have angry people in their lives. Most say I used too.  The ones who say they do usually are people who hold a lot of anger inside anyways.  One lady I spoke with last year at a coffee shop said something that has stuck with me. This man was freaking out on the barista, complaining to other people about the barista and how much he hated the coffee shop. All he was doing was trying to get people on board with his anger. I looked at this lady, who was about 25 years older then me, and found this calmness in her eyes. She smiled at me like she was very wise. This made me feel wise too. She quietly said "I will never understand why people think anger creates depth."

Wow. Anger and depth. Anger does not create depth. My life got good as soon as I worked on not dealing with things in anger. Anger is so ugly. It makes you ugly and demonic. It is so self serving and selfish to deal with everyday problems with anger.  All it does it create more anger. It frustrates people around and creates this ripple effect of dysfunction.

I do not support people in anger and never will.  I will support them in trying to find positive solutions.  I will challenge them to find their own personal breathe and depth. If you are angry and acting with negative actions you can never find your depth as a person. Good things happen when you open yourself up to positive action. Anger just keeps you where you are or pushes you farther away from your true self. Whenever someone rolls their eyes at me and looks at me in disbelief that I have the nerve to drive a minivan in front of them, I will just take a deep breath and send a smile their way.

Santa Monica Beach Gymfest Photos: 1970's-1980's

The next group of photos is golden. These are the from the Santa Monica Beach Gymfest. This was a great gymnastics competition that was held every  Labor Day Weekend. Anyone could compete as long as you had a routine. It was quite a big deal! People traveled  pretty far to come to this event every year. Santa Monica Gymnastics Center was always very involved in this event.  My dad competed in this in his youth and then passed the tradition onto his team. I will try to do this as orderly as possible. I will start with some magazine articles...I am not sure if they will be clear enough to read....but I will give it a go.

I think that is Laurie Donaldson? I am not sure. That style of leotard was super famous at the time. All the team moms would embroider them. I wish we could bring that back.

You can see coach Al Luber in third place in the center of the page.

Can you see my mom Linda Luber? She is in the front row with short hair and without the hat. I do believe  my aunt liz is on the other end...I think  Al is next to Liz.

There is Al Luber in the UCLA shirt in the middle of the page.

This was a poster in one of the gymnastic publications at the time. Maybe IG or Gymnast Magazine?  Not sure. It was a famous fold out poster that everyone wanted. The world famous embroidered leotards of the seventies.  Al Luber is pulling the springboard away while she does her mount for her bar routine. This really captures the gymfest feel of the 70's.

Raquel Zamora on the beam.

Jill Lucky on the balance beam!

Robin Stone performing a floor routine!

Yuri Hinson flying through the air!

I love this picture of my mom.

My sister, Karen Luber, being a spectator!

That is me on the balance beam.

I think if my parents could have a gymnastics school on the beach they would be living a dream...as long as beach volleyball courts were nearby!

Santa Monica Gymnastics Center: Alohafest and West LA Gym

These are some photos from when we moved from Santa Monica to West LA. We never changed our name because we had a strong reputation under this name. When we moved to Culver City we still kept this name. It can be confusing to those who do not know our history.

I am also posting photos of the Alohafest. This is the first one we went to.... I think. I think it was around 1978? I look about 2 yrs old so that is my estimate.

Recreational Gymnastics Class Photos:

Coach Al Luber hard at work.

Here is my mom Linda Luber teaching a kindergym class. These are the classes I teach know....talk about turning into you mother!

I am pretty sure this is me. It could be my sister Karen... but I think it is me. Also... how cute is the little outfit. I think this is when we moved into the Purdue location.

The Purdue gym started out half this size. We grew and knocked down the wall and doubled in size! It was pretty awesome when we knocked the wall out. I wish we had photos of that.

These are from the Sleepover.  We have been hosting the Sleepover for years! A reward for those who raised  money to support the gym! We used to have foam pits....this is the kind of foam that was used before pits got fancy. It would cover you in foam bits. People ask us why we don't have foam pits. I guess the answer is been there-done that. We have porta pits now that serve the same purpose...without the mess.

 

This next set of photos is from the Alohafest in Hawaii. I believe they are from around 1978. These photos are pretty awesome. They really capture gymnastics in the 1970's. Note the wooden balance beams, Uneven Bars very close together, and the folding panel mat floor they used as a floor!

A little cliff jumping and flipping during down time!

I was always well taken care of!

Coach Al Luber demonstrating a nice handstand!

Santa Monica Gymnastics Center: Photo Blog

Here are some more photos of the West Los Angeles Gym. The dates the 1970's and  1980's. Some of these may be from the first gym in Santa Monica. These are all team photos.

 

Pogo balls! I remember this day. We did  demonstration back in the 80's and Pogo Balls were there being promoted. I thought that was so cool! Ahh...the things we did before the internet.

 

Some names I recall in the photos from above. Sorry if anyone has changed their name...I am just listing as I remember: Maya Kato, Robin Stone, Yuri Hinson, Danielle Lonky, Sabrina Bassett, Jill Lucky, Jessica Hochberg, Lauren Eckert, Anne Kitabayashi (not sure how to spell or if the last name is correct), Leslie Goldberg, Raquel Zamora, Dena Lemul (may have gotten last name wrong...sorry), Cathy Diaz, Laurie Donaldson, Stephanie Grimes....the names are on the tip of my tounge...can anyone help fill them in? Just add names in a comment to this portion of the blog.

Coming up next are some photos from the west la gym. I also believe I have the first trip we took to Hawaii as a team.... we used to compete in the Alohafest.

Santa Monica Gymnastics Center: The Early Years

Here are some photos of Al Luber, owner of Santa Monica Gymnastics Center in his early years competing for UCLA. I believe they are from around 1967.

A few years after graduating from UCLA with a degree in Engineering,

Al and Linda Luber opened our first gym. We started out in downtown Santa Monica near the Santa Monica Place.

Here are some photos of the first gym.... i think...

I love this picture...I believe this is Maya Kato and she is on a wooden balance beam competing at the Santa Monica Beach Gymfest. I like how the beam has our gym name stickered onto it! Check out Al's sideburns!

My sister and I were used as promotional material for the gym when we were younger.  We have lots of family gymnastics photos:

This is me, Carol Luber, in my younger years... now I teach kids this size! These were all taken at our second location in West Los Angeles.

       Here is my sister Karen Luber.

This photo is a treasure. The SMGC Van. This van was the SMGC mascot for years! Also, this is what  I had to learn to drive in! Are you kidding me, it was so hard to maneuver! Do you like my mom's leg warmers?

We always hung out at the gym. I wish I still had that t shirt.

That is it for the first installation of Vintage Santa Monica Gymnastics Center photos! Up next is Santa Monica Beach Meet photos. It was also called the Gymfest. We have lots of photos covering many years. I will also begin sorting through old team photos from the various years. They style of leotards changed so much!

Santa Monica Gymnastics Center: The best gymnastics school in Los Angeles!

I was recently reviewing my dad's old photographs from our gymnastics school, Santa Monica Gymnastics Center. People ask me why I believe our school is the best all the time. My answers always come back to our history. We have been through so much since we opened our doors over 30 years ago. Gymnastics has always had a rise and fall of popularity each decade.

My parents, Al and Linda, have been running a fun gymnastics program for years. The reason it is fun is due to the passion for the sport that my dad has. There is no one in this city who know more about gymnastics then he does. His knowledge of the sport is almost photographic. He can name every gymnast from before his era through now. He knows the people who made this sport dynamic. He has the same passion for coaching young students that he has had for coaching a top level gymnast in the World Championships. He knows the challenges of the sport and has changed the lives of many talented youth and guided them towards art, strength, discipline, and self respect... receiving nothing in return except the knowledge of a job well done.

Looking through these photographs strikes an emotional cord in me. He has archives of photos of gymnasts from every competition he has attended with a camera. Olympians, Santa Monica Beach Meets or Gymfests, world champions, collegiate level, and a plethora of photos from all the girls and guys he has coached through the years.

I am going to begin posting these photos here on my blog in the most organized fashion that I can. We have been in 3 locations and the photos cover a time span from 1967 to the present. So I apologize if I can not always decipher when the photo was from or who is in them. My memory is not as sharp as my fathers. If you came across these photos and you recognize yourself....send me a comment! I will re-tag them as the information comes in.

Some of the photos are really cool.

I enjoy any input or comments!