the Sweats of 2014

It’s been such a busy year it’s almost hard to remember all the great sauna sessions we’ve had.

We started the year with the Saunatruck in residence backing onto Falaise park near Rupert skytrain station in deep east Vancouver. Our enthusiastic hosts kept the sauna hot every Sunday, with special sessions like a steamy sledding night on the hill behind the house after an uncommonly large snowfall. In January our friend Jen came by for a visit to produce a video segment on the sauna society for Shaw TV.

2013 saw premature ends to two amazing sauna residencies, so we came up with a design that could solve some of the problems we’d been having with saunatruck access and bylaw issues. Our new tent sauna design could be set up in a carport, on a deck, or in a 10’x10′ popup, and it’s modular structure could be transported in a cargo van and set up in a few hours. Construction was started in George Rahi’s shop, and after a very cold month we had our first test sweat in February in time for our book launch event for our publication, “Mobile Saunas”. Karlis gave a small talk and presented a slideshow about the book and about various mobile saunas around the world. The book can be ordered online from Amazon and our website. George and Robyn have continued to host weekly sauna sessions from their studio/shop near commercial drive.

Meanwhile, we were introduced to Blake McAndless who had been hosting epic sauna-less sauna sessions in Strathcona (one block from our original location). Everything else was in place: a backyard campfire, urban oasis backyard, fenced in parking, acoustic jams, wood fired bathtub, and an amazing hosting talent. We moved the saunatruck behind his house, set up the shower, and since then he’s been hosting 2 sessions a week, on sundays and wednesdays. It’s amazing how this location combines the best elements of our last few years of residencies. Blake and his roommates are thoroughly enjoying the hosting experience, crafting their own tradition while at the same time the vibe will feel completely familiar to long time sauna regulars. Blake recently hosted a (hot) Boxing Day sweat and a New Years session to sweat in the new year and the BCMSS’s 14 year anniversary.

That original sauna is still heating up on Gabriola Island, where host Megan and the local crew enjoy sweats in the forest every Sunday. This year we replaced the cast iron burner which finally retired after burning through an estimated 4000 lbs of propane over the years. We’re happy to know the saunavan is still going strong.

As we were getting ready for the summer, BCMSS vice-president Adrian Sinclair and Andrea Curtis bought George Rahi’s old camperized schoolbus for their event production business, and the decided it would be great to turn 8′ of the 40′ bus into a sauna. We got to work on a horsefarm out in Tswwassen in May, and in June took the completed sauna with a crew of people up to Hollyhock on Cortes Island. The inaugural sweat was followed by a bunch of sauna missions during the rest of the year, including an installation at the dragonboat festival, an epic weekend at Basscoast in Merritt, an private 2-night event in Manning Park, another trip to Cortes, and a sweat on Burnaby mountain in support of the Enbridge pipeline protests. Transformation Projects continues to rent out their new bus and recently hosted an all-day sweat at Spanish Banks for the January 1 polar bear swim.

In June our enthusiastic Funkoree sauna crew built another “dirt sauna” this year. It’s a dome of canvas over cedar and willow branches erected on the banks of the Elaho river outside of Squamish. I’m always a little surprised how much people enjoy rolling around in the sand and jumping in the river after a long night of dancing under the stars. Even with our comfortable saunas in the city, the dirt sauna experience is a tradition many have come look forward to every year.

Our friend Ryan commissioned a custom sauna bus from us this fall. We first sweat with Ryan back in 2006, and have been bringing saunas to his summer staff events for the last few years. This year his winter staff afterparty featured his new bussauna next to a cozy spa zone in the company parking garage, and we set up the new sauna tent as well. The success of this 2-sauna indoor spa is inspiring us to work on new installation ideas for similar events next year.

With such an eventful and successful year, we’ve been planning lots of new projects and new missions, and we’re all very excited about the year to come.