Team

I was lucky to meet my wonderful Romanian wife in Dubai twelve years ago when I went to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. After that ended for me, she urged me to help her bring CrossFit to Romania six years ago, because it didn’t exist here.

I was born in New York City, but I lived with my military family around the world -from Germany to Japan to Iceland to Venezuela. I have played sports all my life starting with American football, baseball, track & field at school. Lots of running. When I was 17 years old, I tricked my Mom to sign papers, so I could skydive. It was the most fun I ever had flying through the air. I went on to SCUBA diving, bungee jumping, rock climbing, skiing, fencing, mountain & glacier ice climbing and more.

I come from a family of strong athletes. My Grandfather was a professional baseball player in Cuba and my Father was a world-class fencer and famous Coach for U.S. College Teams. Before CrossFit was invented, I ran ultra-marathons, triathlons and maxed the U.S. Marines Physical Fitness Test year after year. Exercise is life and there’s nothing better (except, maybe skydiving) than seeing others become physically fit, too.

When I came to Romania, we started doing CrossFit in Parcul Carol. We had a blast doing pull ups outside on playground equipment, running around the football courts, jumping on the bleacher benches. And we ran through the park with a rock boulder carried in our arms like a baby that we passed to each other. That baby was very heavy.

I chose to be active all my life. I am a lot slower these days, but I still show up and do the work. It's harder, but that's what makes it so much more rewarding. My motto is, “If I can do it, so can you.”

Join my awesome wife and me and the other great members who enjoy CrossFit with us. It would be a pleasure to train with you.

After graduating from Bucharest's University of Letters, I moved to Dubai with $80 borrowed dollars in my pocket. I worked several jobs including logistics. I didn't know anyone there and started from zero.

At the age of 27 years old and having never set foot in a gym before, nor being athletic in any way, naughty Santa Clause suprised me with a one-year gym membership. The rest is history. I took to it like a duck to water. My newly found passion drove me to educate myself on anatomy, nutrition, health & wellbeing and I turned my passion into a career.

In 2012, I moved back to Romania with one purpose only: CrossFit. We started in a park, then we moved inside a traditional gym and afterwards we opened the first CrossFit Box at Piata Muncii with others. That didn't go well. The experience delivered many harsh lessons, but eventually created the best possible outcome for us. We won the battle in court, we sold our share and never looked back. 

At Replay CrossFit, I get to wear many hats: coach, customer service, admin, social media & marketing strategist, photographer, part-time accountant, event planner & occasional babysitter to our members :). Not all hats fit perfectly, but I make progress every day.

If there's one thing you should know about me: I'm 100% committed to creating a great CrossFit Box for our awesome community.

Coaching Credentials:
CrossFit Level 2 Trainer (CF-L2) (Amsterdam)
CrossFit Level 1 Trainer (CF-L1) (New York)
CrossFit Gymnastics Trainer (Vienna)
CrossFit Mobility Trainer (Vienna)
CrossFit Aerobic Capacity Trainer (New Jersey)
CrossFit Speciality Course: Weightlifting (Bucharest)
CrossFit Anatomy Course (CF Online)
CrossFit Scaling Trainer (CF Online)
CrossFit Judge (CF Online)
STOTT Pilates- Intensive Mat & Reformer Trainer (Dubai)
American Council of Exercise (Dubai)
Health Fitness and Association (HFPA) Level 1 & 2 (Dubai)

Coach Geo has a long, wonderful history with us. He began CrossFit training years ago when we first started in Romania and has stayed with us ever since the beginning. He is a shining example of true loyalty and gratitude, which - as you know- are quite rare to find these days.

One of our finest coaches, Geo excels in all of our classes, but particularly with all beginners in JumpStart by showing great empathy and patience. Overcoming one’s fear to begin CrossFit training is not an easy task, but Geo makes new members feel comfortable with his quiet, caring demeanor and appropriate exercise progressions.

In addition to having a full time job with a national environmental agency, Geo manages to run triathlons all around the country, coaches a full schedule of Replay classes and also offers Personal Training sessions to our members. 

And the next time you train, look around for a moment and note how well everything is built and maintained, because Geo helped design and build our Box. He keeps everything from lights to barbells in good working order.

We are SO fortunate to have him on our Replay Team.

Coaching Credentials: 

CrossFit Level 1 Trainer Attnd. (CF-L1) (Barcelona)
CrossFit Specialty Course: Weightlifting Attnd. (Bucharest)
CrossFit Judge (CF Online)
Fitness Instructor, Move on Fitness Education (Bucharest)

Elena is a remarkable person in so many ways. It’s hard to know where to begin describing her. First of all, very few Boxes in the world have a front desk person to help athletes with their many questions about memberships, class schedules or even to provide a bottle of water. We're one of the lucky ones. She does it all - and more - and has the most incredibly positive attitude about her work at Replay. 

You wouldn’t know that she has traveled all the way across town by Metro from another highly demanding full-time job in logistics. It can’t be easy juggling two jobs and public transportation every day, but she does it with a smile.

And she trains, too. And runs Spartan Races. And makes it look easy.
Never one to complain (almost ), Elena is tremendously loyal and hardworking and is often the first face people see when they enter our Box.

Exceptionally helpful and detail oriented, her performance shows how much she cares about our Replay Community and our Staff. She can always be relied on to get the job done with good humor and an easy smile.

And who would imagine she has a law degree, too.