BC Mobile Sauna Society

As per tradition we celebrated New Years Day with a sweat commemorating our 13th January 1 saunasession. Some of the crew posed for an after-sweat photo, you can tell there’s some steam involved.

Here’s Megan and Sauna Chicken learning how to fire up the sauna. Yesterday we relocated our Gabriola Island sauna outstation to a new residency at Megan’s place. Sauna Chicken came by but was a bit too enthusiastic and tried to climb up into the stove. Whoa, the sauna door is at the back, buddy! That’s what happens when you miss the first part of the tour. Also, feathers and fur are not permitted in the sauna.

 

 

You might think it’s all sweat and games here at the BC Mobile Sauna Society, but being mobile sometimes means going where no sauna has gone before. Last week our sauna site prep team took down a fence and did some aggressive fig tree pruning to get our new location ready for sauna season. It’s one of the nicest and most central locations we’ve ever been and we’re very excited to move the truck in and get our sweat on.

During our amazing stay at the @Gropps Collective House – Michael Undem, George Rahi, Foss, Ari Feder, and Sawmon + (and many others) pitched in to make a bunch of much needed upgrades to the interior of the truck. With the amount of use the truck was getting weekly it began to show its age. But this  obvious aging turned out to provide an opportunity to evolve the design of the inner spaces of the truck and give an opportunity for the sauna community to give back to the truck that got them sweaty every week.

New cubby-holes, re-enforced benches, new shoe storage, additional space for manoeuvring around the inner door, fixes to the buckling yellow cedar ceiling and right wall (due to moisture) and new cedar finishing to the right side of the exit door. Wow – that was a lot of fixes. Huge thanks to Michael Undem for taking the lead on these improvements, and big thanks to the sauna community for your weekly donations that bought the Marine Plywood and other things used in the construction efforts. Also thanks to George Rahi for the cedar donation and thanks to Gropps for use of the magnificent tool shed. And now for pictures…

 

Here’s Adrian pondering the next move in our latest contruction project. Our new spring residency at the Rainbow Connection has been very exciting to say the least but the entrance connection to the sauna needed some work. It’s a complicated affair, with the grubby alley, the loading bay and the parking limitations. We decided at a docking bridge from the loading bay right to the sauna door would work best in the circumstances. We added some handrails and on Sunday nights we rig up a privacy screen so it’s right from the sauna into the loading bay and thence the shower. It’s actually very lovely. Thanks to the RC crew for all their understanding and support during our residency! Next month we’ll start our (partial) summer hiatus, but first there’s some work to be done on the Hino.

The latest newsletter that we’ll be spamming all our members with is now available. In this issue:
Letter to supporters
The Hammock Story
SaunaTruck Update
Mobile Sauna Book
Gabriola Island Sauna
Bike Trailer Sauna
Society News
Support the BCMSS

Download the awesome pdf version or wait for the email!

Baw-room-room-ROOM!Kaw-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra
If you know the truck then you know that sound! The “white cloud of death” is finally gone, our fuel injector is finally rebuilt and installed properly, and we’re back on the road. The crew at Hino Vancouver helped us get the pump installation issues sorted out. The engine hasn’t sounded this good since 2008! Huge thanks for your donations over the past year that enabled us to do this, because 40-year-old trucks are kinda needy.

Anyway, now that the truck moves, what of it? If you’re down with the sunday nights you probably already know we’re at Gropps Gallery off Main St this season until April. Contact us if you need more details. The Gropps crew is super rad, you know those artist types, there’s always something new going on. Adrian is also planning some Spanish Banks mobile missions now that we’re mobile again, so stay tuned for updates.

If you read the newsletter last winter you’d know we were working on getting a mobile sauna over to Gabriola Island. One of our first pre-saunasessions saunasessions was on Gabriola Island back in 1997, so it seemed like a good place to continue with our island invasion plan. Remember our epic New Years mission to Vancouver Island?

Anyway with the beginning of sauna season in September, saunasessions auxiliaries Gabe, Sal and Lincoln hitched up Lincoln’s truck (which smokes almost as much as the Hino) to the trailer containing our original 2001 sauna. The new trailer jack got bent in the removal from yard (and the neighbour’s lawns got some tire treatments),during a a very tricky extraction procedure. A perilous and remarkable ride to Horseshoe Bay elicited many shouts and honks (of support and goodwill, we presume) before the truck and trailer made it on the ferry to Nanaimo and then the Quinsam to Gabriola. This location is fantastic, in the forest, outdoor shower under the moon and the stars. If some sunday you are on Gabriola, or plan to be, contact one of the crew for details on attending a session.