Naden Athletic Centre

Negative experience: Naden Athletic Centre used to be the face of the Navy. It’s time someone put the hammer on the nail because Naden’s Prime days are over. We are left with a cesspool of mismanaged taxpayer funds, an under-motivated PSP staff, and lacklustre at best; Real Property Operations Unit. This detrimental team from the depths of Davy Jone’s Locker has left the Naden Athletic Centre, the once pinnacle of Naval Athleticism, on the brink of collapse. With broken facilities, shower heads & tiles, hazardous water fountains, and buried weightlifting equipment. It’s a far cry from ‘state of the art’. Nowadays, the only room worth mentioning in a conversation; is the Reconditioning room. Unfortunately, this particular room is also the only one managed directly by staff for personal training and/or physio. Whilst other rooms and their weights are maintained rarely by reception and/or gym goers. At one point PSP staff, due to the lack of support personnel, requested help from the participants themselves to assist in moving the heavier weights into their designated areas. Rules are never followed and weights are misplaced all the time! Do better Navy! The sailors, aviators, soldiers, and civilians using this facility all deserve better, working equipment soonest! Thank you.

Fantastic experience: It gets a little busy at 10am when the fire department is there.

Fantastic experience: If you’re at cfb esquimalt this is your gym. Bring your id to get in. Bring a lock, there’s also cubbies in the weight room.

Negative experience: This is the most disappointing experience I had on the island in terms of services and attitude - we called this place twice and enquired kid swimming lessons and was asked to drive to site to book; And when we arrived, the front desk woman, whom we do not know her name, obviously has no clue on what she was doing - she tried to show us the catalogue but she cannot find the page where swimming lessons were - then we asked the if swim 1, 2, 3 and 4 means different levels and she said no- she said clearly to us that they just mean different times! So so we paid and registered our kid to swim 3; and in the end she forgot to ask for the waiver as well until we reminded her as she told us on the phone we need to sign a waiver. 1 hour after we left the place, we got an email says they registered our kid to the wrong level and we have to "Physically go back to site to get a refund" When we drove all the way (literally killed our whole day) back there and see the the lady - same lady who registered our kid, who started to give me attitude when I questioned "Why did she not know the swim 3 means level3"; she stated to act odd and said "you should read the catalogue your self" and started to say I raised my voice which was not the case at all as other standby peoples can attest - she was just being upset that anyone challenges her ability to do her work

Positive experience: Great gym.

Positive experience: Very reasonable drop in pricing and lots of different things to do here!

Negative experience: Used it for 6 years never had any issue with any staff cause they were very friendly and helpful. And there this new guy came in at front desk said hello and showed ID multiple times and not even a single time he said a word back just look at u. Very professional wow.

Fantastic experience: Clean gym, all the necessary equipment, can't ask for anything more.

Fantastic experience: Great place for swimming

Fantastic experience: We have been running our Rex Sports Capital Basketball League (CBL) out of Naden Athletic Centre since 2019. It has been an absolute pleasure working and continuing to work with the staff at Naden. Matthew Kingstone has been fantastic setting up our rentals over the years and the front desk staff are supportive, kind, and very helpful. We look forward to running our programs for many years to come at Naden!

Fantastic experience: Such a great facility, two basketball courts separate weight and cardio rooms loved the vibe .. no natural light in gym as it's in the basement but was still nice

Fantastic experience: Drop in basketball almost any time for a great price!

Positive experience: Arena is in a shambles, just maintaining , conditions vary wildly and little to now building maint bieng done. The rec center itself closes too early.

Negative experience: Pool dirty and today the lifeguard decided to close early just because it wasn’t originally his shift. No accountability. Selfish of him. I asked why and it was clear he didn’t care. At least get someone to cover who can take the entire shift.

Negative experience: I recommend going to the esquimalt rec center and pay the fee. It's worth it, its open 530am-10pm every single day, you can use the pool and sauna whenever you want. I have anxiety/ptsd so the gym is where I go to be able to cope- it is my coping mechanism. However, with these hours, especially being a shift worker who starts early and finishes late, it's borderline impossible to keep a steady schedule without compromising/missing days. The equipment is great, despite the fact that the people who use the weights do not care to put them back where they belong so you're in a constant struggle of finding weights while your 60 seconds between rest and getting ready for your next set is ticking. I'd love if the sauna was detached, because it's good for me, but if the pools closed (which is often) then you'll never be able to use it the sauna. I average about one sauna visit a month and I go to the gymnasium every day.

Fantastic experience: Naden Gym has Great Staff and a Facility with Complete Workout Gym, Cardio Room and more. Variety of Court Sports such as Basketball, Badminton, Volleyball and Indoor Racket Courts. The Place is Huge. Lots of Lockers. Filtered Water Fill Station is well accepted.

Positive experience: Great gym, busy at times but what gym isn't? Has cardio room, weight rooms, pool, racquet courts and 2 basketball courts. Outside has running track and sand volleyball courts plus workout equipment. Open early, only downside is not much parking.

Positive experience: Men's change room, Ice cold showers , been like that for years , Apart from that ,tons of very good equipment and two gym floors, also cardio room, grappling, squash, volleyball, badminton, weightlifting, basketball. Nice pool, hot tub, steam room. For the most part it all exists for the military., but some civilians go there too. And there is a hockey rink across the road

Fantastic experience: Awesome facility

Fantastic experience: Great value for a pass and it has amazing amenities!

Fantastic experience: Great facility

Fantastic experience: Wish they would post a drop in basketball schedule online instead of calling but thank you for providing a gym for hoopers.

Fantastic experience: First class employees and great ice maintenance

Fantastic experience: Cool

Positive experience: ...very disappointed , constant lack of respect and discipline, lack of education on psychiatric service dogs for post traumatic stress disorder. I have experienced a lot of discrimination,and irespectful bavahour ,agressivity comments and harassment from several Canadian sailors his people are supposed to represent our country very sad. The PSP staff is very Nice people, reason a give 3 stars, maybe more disciplined that not a bad Idea lot of member left the pound, the bench ect... Every where ... the security staff very good too generaly .

Fantastic experience: Love our CFB Esquimalt training center!

Fantastic experience: Great resource for the community.

Positive experience: It is a very nice place with gym, indoor and outdoor sports, swimming pool, sauna inside CFB.

Fantastic experience: This is where I always get my sweat on. My second home

Fantastic experience: Amazing staff and great facility. Even though older, the team has done some excellent work to ensure the best equipment and well laid out work rooms. Pool is amazing!

Fantastic experience: Perfect social distance

Positive experience: Fair and good staff

Positive experience: confusing

Positive experience: I had a good experience with my workout also I felt very safe as there was adequate safety guards in place to make me feel comfortable. I look forward in coming back!

Positive experience: Great facilities for CFB Esquimalt.

Fantastic experience: Mandatory fun. Highly recommend.

Fantastic experience: A great place to be not ordered to go to

Fantastic experience: Like basketball or Hockey. Bring your kids here. Awesome place to training your Athletes.

Fantastic experience: Have only used the squash facilities so far but they are great and reasonably priced! $5.50 for a drop in and you can borrow a racquet for free with an ID as collateral. The pool looked nice and clean and the gym was full of hustle and bustle. If you live in the area this is a nice gym that gets overlooked by the non CAF community!

Positive experience: Good gym, kind of sad that the pool has been out of commission for... Quite a while now and there isn't a planned date of return yet.

Fantastic experience: Military gym accessible via the main gate with ID.

Fantastic experience: Free for military members.

Fantastic experience: Weights are always put back, equipment is clean and well maintained, never gets crazy busy, staff are all friendly, and the kind of place that you can leave your locker unlocked without worrying about your stuff.

Fantastic experience: Over priced and snobby staff at times

Fantastic experience: It's one of my favorite places to workout, granted I might be biased because I get to train here for free, but that doesn't take away from the great facilities, equipment, staff, and trainers that this place has to offer. If you ever get a chance to take a class here or participate in some event, I highly recommend you try it out.

Fantastic experience: Great military gym. Has PSP on site to help members out with their fitness goals.

Fantastic experience: Buff it up here at the military gym! Good staff and lots of options!!!

Fantastic experience: Really great facility.

Fantastic experience: Weights are always put back, equipment is clean and well maintained, never gets crazy busy, staff are all friendly, and the kind of place that you can leave your locker unlocked without worrying about your stuff.

Positive experience: Good place to workout has many different types of exercise equipment. Only thing is that the pool hours aren't really great, with no evening swims anymore.

Fantastic experience: Over priced and snobby staff at times

Fantastic experience: This is on the base and is super well looked after. No food or drinks just vending machines. Being on the base they are a lot more tight with rules in the building. No dogs allowed unlike some of the other centres in and around Victoria that have a open policy with bring your dog in.

Fantastic experience: Everything you could ask for in a recreation centre. Amount of equipment, various classes, personal training, various sports, swimming, excellent staff, etc. Highly recommended place for non-military individuals to join.

Fantastic experience: This has to be the best well kept secret recipe center in Victoria. Thumbs up to what it can and does offer

Positive experience: Convenient on the base. Would be good if they had longer hours on the pool though.

Positive experience: Hard for me to comment on the civilian perspective of this (my membership is free as a military member) but overall is a good gym IMO. Just updated the crossfit area with a bunch of new things to monkey around on and swing from, good space for outdoor working out too. Good spot for drop in sports depending on the time of year and sport too.

Positive experience: Great place...but need membership or be military

Fantastic experience: Gets busy at lunch but it's a good cheap place to workout.

Negative experience: Great facility, all the equipment I need or use available as well as rentals. Friendly professional staff. Edit* As of late the gym is more consistently opening late leaving you standing in the cold sometimes so late (15-20min) that I have just drove over to dockyard gym instead. The Facebook is not updated enough with special hours holiday hours etc. so you can drive 15-20 minutes to find out the gym is closed and the only way to get consistent information is the CAF site. This is our resource for fitness and a better stream of information is necessary.

Positive experience: Great prices.. shhh but don't tell too many people. Although, I do wish the pool were open more often.

Positive experience: Gymnasium and pool at Naden Navy base.

Fantastic experience: Great facility. Good programs.

Fantastic experience: Clean plenty of equipment

Positive experience: Friendly staff. Easy to access coaching and personal training