About SurfShelf
SurfShelf - Making Exercise Fun
At SurfShelf, we want you to have fun, really. In fact, that’s how we got started.
I built the original SurfShelf out of a piece of plywood in my garage workshop (see the picture below). Before building a company around the idea, I was simply looking for a way to be entertained while using my treadmill.
Reading magazines got old fast and there was no television hookup in my home gym (i.e. the garage). However, I did have a laptop and a wireless Internet connection (and a piece of plywood, a table saw, a drill…). And being an engineer, I jumped at the excuse to use my power tools.
After I started using my plywood SurfShelf, my workouts tripled! I actually looked forward to getting on my treadmill everyday to watch the TV shows I had heard so much about (like Heroes, NCIS, Chuck, etc.) but did not have time to watch at night. An hour-long TV show lasts about 45 minutes online (15 minutes less commercials than on regular TV) which is perfect. Sometimes if I don’t finish a show during one workout, then it’s like “to be continued” and I look forward to finishing it up the next day.
I also like to check my favorite sports highlights and breaking news online, but I soon realized that in order to do so I was forced to type in different website addresses (like espn.com or nytimes.com) and use my mouse to launch the videos. And this required that I either slow way down or step to the side thus pausing my workout. Well, that was no fun, so we created www.In-Gym.com to streamline this process.
In-Gym.com has an entertainment guide that is navigated using only your arrow keys — no typing or mouse required. It currently has seven categories (news, sports, entertainment, health & lifestyle, music videos, online TV and lots of fun stuff for teens) with each category having twelve video channels (so that’s 84 video sites total). Just use your arrow keys to choose the video site you wish to view (using the arrow keys is easy to do while exercising) and press ENTER. Your show will then launch automatically and begin playing hands-free. For more information regarding In-Gym.com, please go to our “About In-Gym.com” page.
So, whether you want to watch your favorite TV shows online, catch the latest sports highlights or breaking news, watch DVDs or even check your email, your workout will never be boring again.
Just like me, our users have found that with a SurfShelf, they actually look forward to their workouts. And if you look forward to your workout, well, that’s a huge step in the right direction to living a happy and healthy lifestyle.
Please let me know what you think — I’d love to hear from you. Submissions using our Contact Us page will come directly to me.
Have fun!
Randy Fenton
Founder and President
SurfShelf, LLC
In-Gym Media, LLC
