Last fall, I discovered Pole Spin magazine quite accidentally when someone left it behind in a bar where I was having a cocktail. Since I posted about the publication a couple of times, Tinu, the single-named lady behind the American Pole Fitness Association and Pole Spin magazine, invited me to the American Pole Fitness Championships, held in New York City on Friday. It was… interesting.

First of all, the event was held at the Manhattan Center, which was hosting two events that evening: The pole dancers were upstairs, but downstairs in the Hammerstein Ballroom, the Omega Institute was having a Dharma Talk. So there were ladies in super high heels heading upstairs and bald Buddhist monks in brown robes milling around downstairs. Very surreal.