The Good Air Society

The Why

Life gets busy. The good stuff slips.

Careers pick up. Families form. Calendars tighten. The default friend group from school and post-secondary disperses. Outdoor weekends become rare. None of it is dramatic — and that is the problem. Quiet drift is the story most men's bodies, friendships, and outdoor habits tell over the decade from 30 to 40. The fix is consistent action, not crisis response.

~10%

Loss of cardiorespiratory fitness per decade after age 30 in untrained adults — but the decline can be arrested or reversed at any age.

Mandsager et al., JAMA Network Open 2018 →

3×

Adherence advantage for group exercise versus solo. Men are roughly three times more likely to stick with a workout when it is social — even when the workout itself is identical.

Group-exercise adherence research →

Top 2

Of all modifiable factors in adulthood, strong social ties consistently rank in the top two — alongside regular exercise — for impact on long-term health and longevity.

Holt-Lunstad et al., PLOS Medicine 2010 →

None of this is news. What's new is having a place to actually do something about it — week after week, in your own community.

The How

Three pillars. One simple idea.

Men open up while walking, paddling, and working with their hands more readily than while sitting across a table. So we do things together — and the conversation finds us.

Pillar 1

Move

Weeknight programs designed for accessibility, consistency, and a schedule that respects your weekends. No fitness minimum, no specialized gear, social pace, no-drop policy.

Wednesday Evening Ride · 10–40 km
Friday Run Club · 3–8 km, year-round
First Sunday Cold Plunge · Cultus Lake

Pillar 2

Wilderness

The trips that build the deepest bonds — and require the most rigorous planning. Trained leaders, satellite communicators, no surprises.

Monthly long hike or overnight · May–Oct
The Hytte Weekend · February

Pillar 3

Gather

Indoor and shoulder-season programming that keeps the Society alive through the dark months. Slower spaces, hands busy, conversations easier.

Quarterly Fix-It Night
Winter Cook-Together Nights

All sober-friendly. All low-pressure. No fitness minimum. No prior introductions required.

A Sample Week

What it actually looks like.

The defining feature is consistency. A Wednesday ride and a Friday run that happen every week, plus a monthly cold plunge that lands on the first Sunday of every month year-round, are worth a hundred one-off retreats. Weekends are family-first. Here's what an average month looks like once we're up and running.

Wednesday

Evening Ride — 10–40 km, social pace, good weather only.

6:00 PM

Friday

Run Club — 3–8 km, all together or by pace group depending on numbers.

6:30 PM

First Sunday

Cold Plunge at Cultus Lake — year-round, every month. Coffee or hot chocolate after.

Monthly

Weekends

Family-first. Optional, member-organized trail walk + coffee for those who can join.

—

Once a month

Long hike or overnight camping — Cultus Lake, Chilliwack Lake, or Sasquatch Park. Campfire when fire conditions allow.

May–Oct

Once a year

The Hytte Weekend — a cabin, board games, slow cooking, snowshoes, no agenda.

February

Built for the Fraser Valley — and for your weekends

Weeknight programming is the default because weekends belong to your family. The Wednesday ride and the Friday run land in the part of the calendar most men actually have free, and the marquee monthly ritual — the First Sunday Cold Plunge at Cultus Lake — is a short Sunday-morning anchor that doesn't compete with kids' soccer or in-laws over for brunch.

Most outdoor clubs go quiet from October to March. We don't. The Norwegians have a saying — there is no bad weather, only bad clothing. The Cold Plunge runs every first Sunday of every month, year-round. The Hytte Weekend is the marquee event of the dark months. By Year 2 we'll have a small gear library so a rain shell and a headlamp aren't your excuse.

And nothing happens at random. The activities are chosen because they're among the most effective ways to maintain and improve cardiorespiratory fitness — the strongest modifiable predictor of long-term health for men in this age range.

The Two Levers

Pulling on what actually moves the needle.

Cardiorespiratory fitness

Your VO2 max — the body's maximum rate of oxygen uptake — is one of the strongest objective predictors of long-term health and survival. It declines roughly 10% per decade after 30 in untrained adults. The good news: that decline is reversible with consistent aerobic and strength work, and the dividend is largest exactly in your thirties and forties.

Mandsager K, Harb S, Cremer P, et al. Association of Cardiorespiratory Fitness With Long-term Mortality. JAMA Network Open, 2018 →

Social connection

Adults with weak social ties die at the same elevated rate as those who smoke about 15 cigarettes a day, controlling for everything researchers know how to control for. Yet most men over 30 say their friendships are thinner now than they were at 22. A reliable Saturday walk is one of the most cost-effective interventions in this category that exists.

Holt-Lunstad J, Smith TB, Layton JB. Social Relationships and Mortality Risk: A Meta-analytic Review. PLOS Medicine, 2010 →

How We Operate

Five things we won't compromise on.

Show up.

The most important thing we do is exist consistently. A Wednesday ride, a Friday run, and a first-Sunday cold plunge that happen every single time, year after year, build the kind of trust no marketing can manufacture.

Side by side, not face to face.

Men open up while walking, riding, or working with their hands. Conversation is a byproduct, never the requirement.

Low barrier, high welcome.

No application. No minimum fitness. No required disclosure. Show up to your first event having told no one and known no one.

Sober-friendly by default.

Anyone not drinking is never the odd one out — for whatever reason. Alcohol is permitted at some adult events but never central.

Move with purpose.

Running, cycling, hiking, camping. Activities aren't chosen at random — they're chosen because they happen to be the most effective at what we're trying to do.

Why we're starting this

A note from the founder.

Steven Alexander, Founder of The Good Air Society

I'm starting The Good Air Society because, somewhere in the late twenties, the default friend group dissolves. Career picks up. Family arrives. Calendars get dense. Friends move. None of it is anyone's fault — it's just what happens when life starts demanding more of you. The good news is that the fix is straightforward: a few good friends, a few regular reasons to be outside, and the discipline to actually show up.

The Fraser Valley has everything we need. Mountains within an hour. Rivers, trails, lakes, more campsites than men to fill them. What we don't have, as far as I can tell, is a society putting men back together with one another. So we're building one.

The first goal is small and specific: get a Wednesday evening ride and a Friday evening run running in Chilliwack, every week, no matter what. Then add a First Sunday Cold Plunge at Cultus Lake — short, year-round, the marquee monthly ritual. Then a long hike or overnight every month in the warmer half of the year. Then a cabin weekend in February with people you'd take a winter weekend with. Weekends stay family-first. From there we'll see what wants to be built.

If any of that sounds like something you'd show up to — or help build — please drop your email below. We're aiming to launch programming in late 2026. Founding members and founding board prospects are welcome to reach out directly.

— Steven Alexander Founder · Chilliwack, BC

Questions you might have

Frequently asked.

When are you actually launching?

Programming starts in late 2026 with a soft launch of the Saturday Trail Walk, followed by Run Club and the Evening Ride in subsequent weeks. The full calendar including Wilderness-pillar overnights comes online in spring 2027. We'll email the launch list when each program goes live.

How is this funded?

A mix of modest annual membership fees ($75 standard, bursaries available no-questions-asked), founding donor contributions, local community grants, and — once we have an operating track record — provincial and national grants for community health and physical activity. Registered charity status with the CRA is a long-term goal that we will pursue when the Society is ready, not against a fixed schedule.

Do I need to be fit?

No. Every Move-pillar program runs at a social pace with a no-drop policy. The Friday Run Club starts as short as 3 km and the Wednesday Evening Ride starts as short as 10 km. If you can ride a bike for an hour or run a few kilometres at a conversational pace, you can be a member. Fitness is a destination of the work, not an entry requirement.

Do I need to bring my own gear?

For the weekly programs: just decent shoes, weather-appropriate clothing, and a water bottle. For the Wilderness pillar (overnights and the Hytte Weekend), a basic kit list will be circulated in advance, and we plan to build a small gear-loaner library by Year 2 so you don't need to buy anything to participate.

Can I show up without committing to anything?

Yes. The first event is always free, no questions asked, no membership form required. The Saturday Trail Walk is the easiest entry point — just turn up at the trailhead. Membership and program fees only come into play if you stick around.

What's a typical group size?

Once we're up and running, expect 8–15 men at a Wednesday ride or Friday run, and 10–20 at a First Sunday Cold Plunge. The Wilderness-pillar trips are smaller — 8–12 men per overnight — and built for closer connection.

What about weekends?

Weekends are family-first by design. The Society's weekly programs land on weekdays so they don't compete with kids' soccer, Saturday-morning routines, or in-laws over for brunch. An optional, member-organized trail walk + coffee runs informally on weekends for guys who can join. The monthly hike or overnight (May–Oct) and the annual February Hytte Weekend are the only intentional weekend events, and they're spaced out enough to be planned around.

What if I'm a bit older or younger than 25–45?

Programs are designed with the 25-45 cohort in mind because that is the demographic with the strongest case for the VO2-max-and-friendship work. But age is not checked at the trailhead. If you are 23 or 52 and the description fits, come along.

Are you a registered charity? Can I get a tax receipt?

Not yet. The Society will incorporate as a BC non-profit in 2026. Federal charity registration is a long-term goal — we will pursue it when the Society is operationally and financially ready, rather than against a fixed schedule. Tax-receipted donations will be available from the date CRA confirms charity status; founding contributions made before that point will be gratefully acknowledged but cannot be receipted.

I want to help, but I am not in Chilliwack.

For now, the work is hyper-local to Chilliwack. If the model proves out, expansion to other Fraser Valley communities will be considered. Drop us a line if you would be interested in helping start something in your community - we will share what we learn.

Good air. Hard miles. Real friends.

Mission and Vision.