Poland’s Karolina Jarzabek is the first woman to be crowned top aufguss master in the world at the Aufguss World Championships, held at the new Spa Berendonck in The Netherlands recently.

Aufguss is an entertaining, communal sauna ritual that – at its simplest – involves an aufguss master waving a towel to distribute the sauna’s heat, usually set to music and with essential oil fragrances adding to the experience. But the top sauna masters get very creative, weaving in storylines, costumes, and complex movements.

Jarzabek’s performance of ‘Magic Night – the story of the puppet who came to life once every 7,000 years’, earned top honours in the singles category.

“The secret to the perfect aufguss is just to be yourself, my show was from the heart and did just that,” Jarzabek tells Spa Business. “It’s been a tough year for me getting divorced, becoming a single parent and having problems at home and work and I drew inspiration from my favourite songs, smells and the night sky full of stars (which I love too) for the ‘transformations’ in my performance.”

Jarzabek started her aufguss adventure three years ago at Chocholowskie Thermal Baths in south Poland, which is owned by her father and uncle. She admits to being a complete novice “I’d never been to a sauna before, I came to training in a dress and high heels.” But she grew in confidence after getting some tips from fellow Polish aufguss champion Rob Keijzer. She’s based in Chocholowskie the majority of the time but also travels to spas across Europe.

Of being the first female aufguss champion she says: “Nothing but hard work and patience will lead you to where you are and when you’re there it doesn’t matter whether you’re a man or a woman.

“It’s a very special thing for me because aufguss is just at the beginning of its history and I’ll definitely be a part of a it for a long time.”

Poland also won in doubles, as Katarzyna Klajn and Lukasz Dluzniewki’s humour-filled interpretation of the Spanish masterpiece Don Quixote, inspired the international jury.

Over 350 participants from national qualifier events took part in the 7th annual Aufguss World Championships, and the final included almost 100 participants from 11 qualifying countries.

The best teams and shows were presented in a 200-person sauna. The five-day battle attracted sweat enthusiasts from around the world, including representatives from the Japanese Sauna Association and Russia, with daily guests topping out at 1,200.

Jury member Lasse Eriksen says an increasing number of professional dancers, artists and actors are joining the aufguss profession and that the waving techniques and shows are getting more creative. Other shows this year included an interpretation of the film Billy Elliot and the story of the Suffragettes.

The 2020 Aufguss World Championships will take place on 7-13 September at the Palac Saturna hotel with Pompeii-inspired Roman baths in Czeladz, south Poland.