West Shore sauna lovers fret not: Wildwood Saunas is not going anywhere any time soon, having secured a new location at Royal Beach for the next six months.
Josh Dupuis and his team are set to start regular hours at the new location Friday (April 21), and after a short pause in community sauna and ocean dip operations on the West Shore, he is looking forward to welcoming customers once again.
“We are going to be here Thursday to Sunday for the next six months with our square sauna, typically from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., but that might vary a little bit,” said Dupuis. “It feels really amazing. I feel like I can breathe for six months at least because I have always been kind of waiting to see what happens next. Are we going to get shut down next week? Now it feels a lot better knowing we have a spot secured and we can really dial things in to give a great customer experience.”
The move to Royal Beach comes several weeks after the company had to vacate its temporary spot on the Esquimalt Lagoon. They had been operating there on a temporary permit from the City of Colwood since January while the city evaluated community interest in such an experience, but council ultimately established an end date of April 2 over concerns about the commercialization of the sensitive natural site.
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Council expressed a desire to shift such businesses to Royal Beach as the area and nearby Royal Bay continues to grow, and Dupuis and the Royal Beach team started talks to make that a reality.
He said some initial concerns over insurance delayed the transition, but those have been resolved and the sauna is back in business.
“Honestly, the people are great everywhere, and a lot of them have asked us to stay on the West Shore,” said Dupuis. “Ideally, I would like to be everywhere. I would like to be in Victoria, I would like to be here on the West Shore, Duncan. But for the time being, it’s about where can we go and this opened up.”
Noting the beach access is a little trickier at Royal Beach than it was at the lagoon, especially when the weather makes for rough seas, Dupuis said he is going to look into building several soaking tubs filled with sea water for those clients who want to enjoy a more accessible ocean dip in between sauna sessions.
Even so, he expects demand will quickly return to the high he saw at the lagoon, with reservations filling up every day he is open.
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