Wave and Range Cortes Island Broadening Out Into The Community

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - Wave and Range Cortes Island has decided it's time to go public.

“This year we're going to be putting on the Cortes adventure challenge, essentially a Cortes triathlon: It's a kayak or a canoe, a swim and a trek. We've got a short course, and a long course. That'll be on the 12th and the 21st of July, tentaively. I'll need to confirm those dates with you, but we'll advertise that. We'll do a little bit of lead up training for that,” explained Kay Hope.

“There's an opportunity with where we live to have not so much a love affair, but like a marriage with the physical place that we live in. I think a majority of us are really disconnected from our biophysical reality. All sorts of things have unfortunately corrupted a lot of people away from a connection with their body and the environment. I'm just trying to foray back into that. I think there's a big opportunity for all of us to just keep doubling down on hiking up Easter Bluff, going to Mansons Lagoon, getting a sweat on, but then exploring in, around and up Desolation Sound. The beauty we have around us, it's really underutilized by us as a community together. I don't want to go out and just be exploring by myself. I'd love to go out on the weekend and see more kayaks than I see power boaters. That's my wish, and my wish for my baby boy.”

“I've traveled to so many different places and the stuff that's just in our backyard here, it's world class. The longer term plan is just to connect more Cortesians to get outside together, and to get away from these damn screens and all the internet fights.”

“I've been interacting with Cortes for over 15 years now. We're living in Vancouver for the most part and coming here in the summers. My partner Tiana grew up here and we moved here a bit over two years ago.”

“I'm pretty busy. I've got a young son, the business to run and that sort of thing, but I'm really passionate about this sort of stuff. I've been getting people outdoors for a long time. I run a business in Vancouver helping people do that.”

“Essentially we looked at what Quadra Island was doing. They have the Quadra Island Outdoor Club. It's essentially a member led club. They do trips outdoors, hiking, skiing, kayaking, all that sort of stuff.

“We incorporated Wave and Range in April 2024. We get insurance through the BC Federation of Mountain Clubs as a nonprofit. There's myself, Jordan Best and Tiana on the Board right now. We're looking for more board members and more people to get involved. We are a bit over 20 members.”

“We've done maybe 32 plus trips. We've been canoeing and hiking. I've been putting on strength and mobility classes at the hall for our members as well, for people to build up the strength and mobility they need to go adventuring.”

“Josh Bannister does some of the hiking stuff. Aaron Ellingsen is going to be there and Sanchez is going to be there. Trevor Bass , Kenny and Evie have been coming to the strength and mobility classes. Kate Madigan and Mike Moore are coming out on the canoe. It's just cool to interact with those people, and listen to the sea lions carrying on down at Mary's Point and getting to know the different places.”

“I've got a big 22 foot, eight person canoe. I've done a bunch of canoeing and adventure trips, as much as I can with running a business. We canoed up from Vancouver to Cortes. I brought some of my coaches a few years back. Just a couple of years back, we canoed from Cortes and climbed up Mount Denman, which was really cool. Last season, Jordan Best, one of the board members and I kayaked around the Redondas in two days. We're both busy fathers, and we crammed that in.”