After decades of moving with her family for her husband’s football career, Erin Canada found home on Topsail Island and built Paradise Pilates into a community of its own.
Photography by Geaninie Jamison
On a cold, cloudy day in January 2024, Erin Canada had no interest in leaving her cozy North Topsail Beach home. Her husband, Matt Canada, however, had a destination in mind. He drove her to the exact area of Surf City where she had long imagined opening a Pilates studio and pointed to a storefront with a for-rent sign.
“There’s your sign right there,” he told her.
For years, Erin had said she would open a Pilates studio only if the location felt exactly right. Suddenly, her conditions were met. She called about the space, secured it and opened Paradise Pilates that April.
For Erin, the studio was the beginning of a new chapter in a place that had already become home.
The Canada family had owned a home on Topsail Island since 2014, spending summer breaks and quieter stretches of December and January there. Matt’s coaching career of more than 30 years took the family to college programs around the country and eventually to the NFL’s Pittsburgh Steelers, requiring them to move often.
By 2017, Erin and Matt had changed their licenses and address, certain that Topsail would eventually become home base.
The moves shaped the entire family. Their daughter, now 28 and working for MetLife in New York City, and their son, now 26 and working in construction in Clearwater, Florida, learned to enter new places and make connections quickly. Their son was married on Topsail Island, another sign of how firmly the island has become part of the family’s story.
When Matt’s last coaching chapter ended, the couple did not have to wonder where to go. They had already remodeled the beach house into a full-time home. And after years of a family life shaped largely by football, the next chapter would be Erin’s.
Erin’s route to opening a Pilates studio was circuitous. She taught high school English for about 10 years and earned two English degrees. Pilates had been part of her life since her 20s, when chronic back pain could make everyday tasks, from lifting a laundry basket to putting on shoes, difficult.
“I came to Pilates through years of chronic back pain and eventually back surgery, and it became such an important part of rebuilding my strength,” Erin says. “With my background in education, teaching Pilates became a natural extension of something I had always loved doing: teaching people.”
Living on North Topsail also exposed a gap. To attend a Pilates class, Erin had to drive to Wilmington, an hour each way for an hour-long session. She knew she could not be the only person who wanted movement so often recommended by doctors and physical therapists without committing three hours to the trip.
Opening Paradise Pilates in Surf City was a dream come true for Erin, and her education background translated naturally to the studio.
“I have two English degrees, and now I’m explaining the physics of ropes and springs,” she says.
The response to her first studio was immediate. Erin initially taught the classes, checked in clients, ran the business and cleaned the studio. When summer traffic turned a 20-minute drive from Sneads Ferry into 45 minutes and waitlists formed in Surf City, Erin saw another opening. A Sneads Ferry studio followed, then Hampstead in May 2025.
“We opened all three locations in about 16 months, which was pretty radical,” Erin says.
Today, each location of Paradise Pilates has 10 reformers. The studios operate seven days a week, with classes beginning as early as 5 am and continuing into the evening. They also train instructors.
“Today I lead our 500-hour comprehensive teacher training program, giving future instructors the opportunity to become comprehensively trained right here in the Topsail area,” Erin says. “I still think of myself as a teacher — the classroom just looks very different now!”
Erin still teaches at all three locations and leads the teacher-training program. Most of Paradise Pilates’ 15 to 16 instructors trained with her, and the broader team, including front-desk and part-time employees, has grown to nearly 30.
“Watching people come in for Pilates and ultimately find friendships, connection and a place where they belong has been one of the most meaningful parts of building this business,” Erin says.
As Paradise has grown, Matt has become one of Erin’s most trusted sounding boards behind the scenes. Around the studios, his unofficial title is simpler: the “Paradise Pilates husband.”
Erin measures the studios’ success by more than growth and numbers. She remembers arriving as a part-time resident and wondering whether she could live in a place where she knew so few people. Many clients have shared that same feeling, including newcomers, second-home owners who became full-time residents and military spouses rebuilding their circles. They came to move safely and grow stronger; they also formed book clubs, Bible study groups, mom groups and friendships.
“They’ve found some people here, and they’ve found community,” Erin says.
“The community that Paradise Pilates has built is really, really an awesome thing,” Matt adds. “It’s hard to measure, but it is certainly one of the most important things.”
For Erin, Paradise Pilates “is both a dream and a place where people feel seen, heard and welcomed.”
After years of moving, the Canadas always knew North Topsail Beach would be home. Now, through the community Erin is building, Paradise Pilates is helping others feel at home here, too.
STRONG & BALANCED
Paradise Pilates
(910) 330-1874
hello@paradisepilatesti.com
paradisepilatesti.com
104 Charlie Medlin Drive, Unit E, Surf City
1064 N.C. Highway 210, Unit 6, Sneads Ferry
43 Shuckin Street, Suite 103, Hampstead
