The Business
Hello. I’m Luke, and I’m building a co-operative adventure club from exactly zero. The website may suggest an established institution. Our groundskeeper’s reports suggest otherwise.
The joke is the front door. The ambition behind it is real.
Why another club?
We have enough running clubs. I want a club that actually goes on adventures together. Rather than booking a trip and going home, we can help shape the places we want to return to. The time, ideas and effort people put in should help build the Society and its shared spaces.
One suitcase, no phone
When I landed in Vancouver, I had one suitcase, no phone and very little idea where I would end up. I found a basement to sleep in for a couple of months while I got my bearings.
I went upstairs to meet the owners. The first question was, ‘What football team do you support?’ I gave my answer. The next thing I heard was, ‘We’re going sailing. You should come along.’ Their friends had a simple belief: be welcoming to new people and open to opportunities.
The invitation that started it
We sailed towards the Sunshine Coast, stopping by waterfront cottages and cooking along the way. At the end of the trip, my host said something that stayed with me: an incredible view or adventure is not worth keeping to yourself.
Being open to one invitation had taken me from a stranger’s basement to sailing between cottages. I wanted to do it again, and to share it with people who would help make it happen. There is little point building a place like that if we only use it once a year.
What we want to build
If you have wandered through this website, you have met the fictional clubhouse: the roof is in disrepair, the hot tub has made a strong case for being called a cold plunge, and the Membership Secretary is still somewhere at sea. That is the joke. The clubhouses, boat and island access described here are ambitions, not facilities already waiting for members.
The plan is to build a Vancouver clubhouse, find a boat to take us out of the city, and work towards waterfront land where we can create a cottage together. I want the people who come along to help decide what these places become, and for the energy we put in to go back into the adventures and community we share.
There is no grand estate behind the curtain. There is an invitation to help build one another’s version of a good weekend.