Moon over my hammy

Stretch your hamstrings and more at Lincoln City’s New Moon Yoga

By Gretchen Ammerman

Oregon Coast TODAY

If you are anything like me, you know all the things you need to do to have a healthy body — but sometimes would rather go to the dentist than do them.

Yoga is one of those things — every time I take a class, I leave absolutely committed to making it a regular routine only to wonder, six months later, “What happened to THAT idea?”

Thankfully there are people that are committed enough to the practice to ensure that those in need of a yoga class can easilly find one.

New Moon Yoga, housed within the Lincoln City Cultural Center, began in 2014 when a small group of regular practitioners lost the venue where they had been attending yoga classes together.

“We knew we wanted to keep our practices going,” said original member Gray Eubank. “Five of us formed a group, rented a space and hired instructors. We had to go far afield at that time, like to Tillamook and Newport because there were no longer any local instructors. Even now, two of our instructors come from Pacific City, though the rest live here.”

After moving through a few sites, the group found some that was just right when they were offered a studio in the cultural center.

“This spot was great for us,” Eubank said. “It had advantages over places we had rented before, like being centrally located and having ample parking. Things were going great until COVID shut us down. This activity is a perfect incubator for everything wrong about COVID and we weren’t going to take any chances.”

Partnering with the cultural center allowed New Moon Yoga to hang on to its studio space until the group was ready to safely offer classes again. The partnership also helped support the idea of New Moon Yoga as a community resource rather than a business. 

“We try to keep the prices as low as we can,” Eubank said. “It’s extremely rare to find places that charge a $10 drop-in fee these days, but this is not here as a money-making venture. We want classes to be available to anyone who wants them. I’ve always considered this to be more of a club, but because of state regulations, you can’t license a club and pay the teachers.”

For Eubank, now in his 60s, finding yoga later in life was a revelation.

“When I first started doing it I thought, ‘This is the fountain of youth,’” he said. “There’s this image of yoga as an activity only for young, energetic, highly flexible people, but it really is good for people of all ages — in some ways it’s actually better for older people.”

After a few months of doing it regularly, Eubank knew his body was changing.

“I woke up one morning and I thought, ‘Something’s wrong,’” he said. “I thought about it some more and realized, it's that nothing hurts.”

Regular yogini and New Moon Yoga fan Jain Sekuler seconds Eubank’s endorsement of the practice.

“Before I came here I couldn’t walk around my bed without using my hands to hold me up,” she said. “Now I can. It was after doing yoga for a few months that I really understood the word ‘Wellness.’”

Laura Seide is one of the group’s long-time instructors and has a devoted following, Sekuler included.

“I feel like Laura changed my thinking about what is possible for me,” she said. “I have never left a class not feeling better than when I walked in.”

New Moon Yoga classes are adaptable to most skill levels and experience. Some are geared more towards learning and improving poses while others are designed to give a good physical workout. Classes run at least one hour and some run longer.

Occasionally, the instructor will tailor the class based on the participants, as instructor Steph Litberg did on the day I showed up for her class.

I arrived to an uncharacteristically small group of two regulars, who welcomed me warmly and assured me that her class was mostly gentle and that my fears about coming back to yoga after an embarrassingly long absence were unfounded.

After an hour of a few laughs, some gentle guidance and a very good workout, I mentioned that the class was a little harder than I had been led to believe.

Easing my mind, Litberg explained that she will often take a reading of the room before she plans the hour.

“The class was actually a little more advanced than usual today,” she said.

After seeing what regular practice did for my two classmates, I’m even more determined not to let another six months pass before my next class. Unless I have a dentist appointment of course.

New Moon Yoga is currently on summer schedule, with classes held Monday through Friday. Lincoln City Cultural Center is located at 540 NE Hwy. 101. For more information, go to lincolncity-culturalcenter.org or call 541-994-9994.