During 25-26 April, the UK's first-ever national Aufguss Championship contest took place at

luxury UK hotel and destination spa Rudding Park in Harrogate, North Yorkshire.

Growing in popularity globally, the aufguss sauna ritual involves an aufguss master waving a towel to distribute the sauna’s heat and often essential oils, with corresponding music and lighting. The top sauna masters can get very creative, weaving in storylines, costumes and complex movements to enhance the experience.

After fierce competition, Pavel Poliacek – a sauna master from Galgorm in Northern Ireland – was crowned as the winner of the individual category and the first-ever UK Aufguss Champion. He’ll now go on to represent the UK in the Aufguss World Championships at Satama Sauna Resort in Germany from 11-17 September 2023.

The event drew a large audience of sweat enthusiasts and was comprised of the great and the good from the spa and sauna world, with guests even jetting in from as far as Japan.

Robert Zidek and Eliska Zidek Blazek, world champion aufguss masters from the Czech Republic, also jetted in to perform exhibition aufguss at the two-day event.

The UK championship was judged by:• Head judge Lasse Eriksen (vice president, Aufguss WM).

• Lay Pang Ong (Art of Aufguss champion).• Heonsok Kim (vice president of Japan Sauna & Spa Association).

• Deborah Carr (aufguss training provider from Anada Spa and Wellness).

The awards ceremony took place in Rudding Park Chapel and the Rudding Park spa team also had reason to celebrate as its senior spa therapist Jena Robinson placed second in the competition. Robinson will now go on to the next stage of playoffs at Farris Bad in Norway in September.

Renato Neto, Rudding Park spa duty manager, will join Robinson as they take their Team Aufguss performance – ‘a Tribute to Queen Elizabeth’ – to the playoffs.

Sarah Johnson, head of spa at Rudding Park, said: “As the first UK spa to introduce aufguss, we were thrilled to host this prestigious event and it was wonderful to see the creativity and passion of all the competitors.

“Aufguss is an experience we’ve been offering to our guests forseveralf years now and, together with the British Sauna Society we’re keen to increase awareness of the ritual within the industry and to spa-goers throughout the country.”