About Us
In the heart of Santa Monica, a city crowded with corporate gyms and studios, lies a truly independent health club co-owned and operated by Gina and Bernard Baski. TRIFIT is the largest independent family-owned health club in the Santa Monica, Brentwood, Pacific Palisades areas. Santa Monica residents voted, and its mayor awarded TRIFIT the city's Most Loved Gym in 2019 and 2020.
Fitness to Inspire
Our mission is to instill knowledge, ignite enthusiasm, and create new fitness opportunities for our members as they discover their athletic potential. We want our members to pursue fitness activities that provide them with a sense of accomplishment, instill discipline, and most importantly, are enjoyable.
Our hope is that everyone who walks through our doors will leave TRIFIT with the tools they need to lead a healthier, happier, and more productive lifestyle.
Meet Our Team
Gina Baski
Founder
Gina’s athletic roots began in her early years as a gymnast and competitive swimmer. In her 20s, Gina worked as an adjunct college professor and senior technical writer in San Diego, CA. Shortly after meeting Bernard, she left San Diego for LA to pursue her lifelong dream of becoming a health and fitness professional. In addition to serving as Managing Partner of TRIFIT, Gina is committed to helping people create a healthy and active lifestyle. She's competed in Ironman Triathlons and various other multi-sport races, as training and racing provide her balance, enjoyment, and a sanctuary from the craziness of running a business while raising a family.
Jimmy Guerrero
Personal Training / Group Fitness
Competing in soccer, BJJ, and wrestling in his youth, Jimmy has had a passion for movement his entire life. After majoring in Kinesiology with a focus in Exercise Science at CSUN, he gained valuable experience working in several physical therapy clinics throughout LA. Jimmy believes in a balanced approach to fitness, combining both mobility and strength training for all his students. He believes in providing a fun, positive training experience to improve quality of life. When he isn’t at the gym, you can find him trail running, hiking, backpacking, attending music festivals and live sports, traveling the world, and spending time with his family.
Lindsey Ruggles
Group Fitness
Lindsey learned to row at age 7 and immediately fell in love with the sport. After winning National Championships her senior year of high school, she headed off to Harvard University, where she discovered her love of endurance running and triathlon. Since then, she has competed in dozens of races, including Ironman 70.3 World Championships and Ironman Lake Placid, but never goes too long without finding her way back to an erg or boat. She is thrilled to bring rowing to the TriFit community in a fun and accessible way and share the sport's incredible ability to increase strength, tone, and mobility within the body.
Luana Elliot
Personal Training/Group Fitness
Luana's background started in classical ballet which gave me a strong foundation on the importance of posture, form, flexibility, and mobility. Thanks to ballet, she became obsessed with postural corrections, which has helped her to assist her clients proficiently. In 2012, she stepped up on bodybuilding stages in Los Angeles, revealing a transformed physique accomplished by weight training and specific nutrition. After her first competition, she found a new passion in weight training. She dedicated herself on the study of physical training modalities and then earned her certification as a personal trainer. Today, she manages an outstanding portfolio of hundreds of
people.
Bernard Baski
Founder
Sports and fitness have always been at the center of Bernard’s life, which began with fifteen years of amateur and professional hockey training with Canada’s top coaches. His desire to help other young up-and-coming hockey players excel was the turning point of his career. His devotion to the sport of hockey motivated him to pursue a career as a trainer and a coach at one of Canada’s top internationally renowned training camps. His experience with aerobic, anaerobic, and strength training allowed him to develop a successful training formula for athletes of all ability levels.
Rob Phillips
Yoga
Rob approaches his yoga classes with an emphasis on simplicity, precision, and attention to the present moment. Even when you're working really hard, you'll be doing so from a place of calm awareness. His flow classes draw inspiration from classic styles like Ashtanga and Iyengar but infused with an awareness of functional anatomy and organic movement. He also specializes in the much slower practice of Yin Yoga, which uses long-held poses to access deeper tissues and provides an ideal place to learn mindfulness.
Yasmin Shirangi
Yoga
Yasmin was introduced to Iyengar yoga in 2008 at the Iyengar Yoga Institute of Tehran, Iran. She was fascinated by the technicality and precision of the Iyengar method and the fact that it is a never-ending path that always evolves. She started teaching in 2016. Yasmin had the opportunity to study and practice with senior teachers in multiple countries, learning various ways of sequencing, which she likes to share with her students to provide individualized care and guidance.
Hunter Jakupko
Personal Training/Group Fitness
Originally from Manasquan, New Jersey, Hunter recently relocated to sunny Santa Monica! He specializes in functional training and incorporating calisthenics into his workouts. Being a vegetarian since birth, he follows a lacto-ovo plant based diet, including eggs & dairy products but no other animal proteins. With a Bachelor's degree in Nutrition & Food Science, his goal is to educate clients on how to enjoy hearty meals without sacrificing progress as they work towards their fitness goals.
Moses Wolfe-Polgar
Performance Testing & Coaching
A lifetime athlete from NorCal, Moses discovered his love of triathlon while attending UC Davis, where he was a USAT All-American triathlete and graduated with a major in Biochemistry and minor in Exercise Biology. Moses worked at the UC Davis Sports Medicine Center, before going on to study human performance at the University of Michigan, where he earned a Master's in Kinesiology, helping to develop programs for injury prevention and recovery. Moses is a Level 1 USAT Triathlon coach and successful age group racer. He is available by appointment for biometrics screenings, metabolic testing, bike fitting, race programming, and one-on-one coaching.
Kimberly Vandenberg
Group Fitness/Yoga
Kim Vandenberg is an Olympic bronze medalist in swimming from the 2008 Beijing Games. Specializing in butterfly and freestyle, she has over 30 years of competitive swimming experience and 20 years of coaching all levels of swimmers. After competing in the Olympics, she trained in Europe with international swimmers and coaches, gaining valuable knowledge of stroke technique and the elite athletic mindset. She is also a Vinyasa yoga teacher and is currently pursuing her master’s degree in Psychology to compliment her coaching style. Her focus is a holistic approach emphasizing the mind-body connection in order to reach the highest level of performance.
Dara Joseph
Yoga
Los Angeles based Personal trainer, yoga instructor, and mind body wellness practitioner dedicated to helping people become their best self. A calm yet uplifting energy, Dara believes to achieve one's optimal level of health the body, the mind, and soul must work together. She also believes fitness should be fun! She wants everyone to be motivated to show up day after day, and truly believes In empowering others through movement and mindfulness. Whether working together one on one, or taking class, you will feel supported in creating your best, most happy, healthier you.
Ben Hawkinson
Personal Training/Functional Training
Born and raised in California, Ben has always had a passion for being active outdoors and through his journey as an athlete came to find a career in sports performance, strength training, and corrective exercise. Ben has a degree in Exercise Science and is certified as a strength coach, movement specialist, and holistic lifestyle coach just to name a few. His classes focus on proper technique and improving range of motion, while blending in mobility and strength training to balance the daily grind of being a modern day human.
