A brand new studio in New West is making wellness seem as fun as a weekend bash.
At Sea2Sky Wellness Club, which opened in early March, you can get a full-body workout, perfect your down dog postures or spend a slow spa day with your friends.
“This is a perfect space right here for a bachelorette party,” said Oxana Kirsanova, founder of the wellness centre.
An alternative to the standard drink-and-dance revelry, the day could include an aerial yoga session, spa, hot and cold plunges, massage and more — depending on what the group wants.
The wellness studio will morph with ease to accommodate a yoga-themed bachelorette party, a Mother’s Day special soiree, or even just a networking event to discuss nutrition, as per Kirsanova.
The space has few restrictions on how it should be used — as far as it's being used to spread some TLC. "Wellness should be 'cool' because it's coming from a place of love and care. Rather than saying ‘I have to go to the gym or a fitness class,’ what if you could go somewhere where you want to be?" she said.
The club aims to be that kind of a hangout spot.
“You can come take a class and just sit around for the rest of the day here. We don't care. It’s just a happy place.”
One studio for yoga, fitness and networking
Located in the space that used to be Santosha Yoga, the centre sits bang opposite the Columbia SkyTrain Station.
The studio had been empty for almost two years before Kirsanova decided to move in.
“When I came in for the first time and looked around, it was a disaster,” she said. While her first thought was “I don’t think it’s going to work,” she decided to think outside the mat.
Kirsanova had previously run another yoga studio called the Yoga Bar in White Rock and Yaletown before it was shuttered during the pandemic.
While the Yoga Bar only offered yoga and fitness, Sea2Sky offers a lot more — from hot yoga to Pilates, booty blast (a glute activation class), spin, barre, meditation, breathwork, cupping massage (where suction cups are used to create negative pressure on the skin and muscles), retreats, teacher training and more.
“My goal is to offer everything under one membership,” she said. That way, people don't have to go to different places to take different classes, she added.
Inside the centre, a large space is allocated for social meetups; walk past it, and you enter a hot yoga room with black panels and infrared heaters. Further inside is a room for aerial yoga and TRX (a suspension training), a hot and cold therapy room, a massage area, a space for personal training and private classes, a biking room, and yet another private room for counselling, meditation, energy healing and more.
The studio is open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., with Saturday evenings reserved for social events like sound bath meditation, aerial yoga beginners workshops, wellness retreats and more.
“Every day, we wear different hats — we can be counsellors, nurses, yoga teachers…,” said Kirsanova.
“We just want people to feel better when they leave than when they come in.”
Ironically, Kirsanova's first taste of yoga was nothing like it.
From being a lawyer to a yogi
When Kirsanova moved from Russia to Canada in 2003, starting a yoga studio was never in the plan. A lawyer who majored in criminology, she wanted to continue in the field, but in 2007 she was in a car accident, and ended up with a concussion, and spinal and soft-tissue injuries.
“I was not even able to move,” she said.
For Kirsanova, who had always been physically active – playing basketball and volleyball in high school, doing a lot of cross-country skiing and dancing her whole life – the immobility was hard to accept. She tried physiotherapy and went to multiple chiropractors, but found that the sessions were only fixing the symptoms of pain but not the root of the problem.
She tried hot yoga on the suggestion of a friend.
“I did not like it,” she said.
“The lights were on, the teacher was yelling; it was hot, sweaty and stinky.”
But Kirsanova decided to return to it when, one day, she found herself unable to move her right arm.
“With tears, I packed my bag for hot yoga and I walked up into the yoga studio. After that, I never stopped going.”
A couple of months into it, Kirsanova noticed a huge difference in her body. “I was healing; none of the chiropractors or physical therapists could do anything to match that.”
She wanted to pass the teachings to others who could benefit from it like she did.
Starting a studio in New West
For Kirsanova, a resident of White Rock, starting a business in New West was "scary."
"I had no idea what New West was like.”
But she soon learned that she had nothing to fear. “Everybody was so supportive, polite and always on my side, and always educating me on how things needed to be done — right from business owners to the (New Westminster) Chamber of Commerce. It's been incredible. Sometimes I have to take a deep breath and actually remind myself ‘This is real!’”
“I have never had business owners stopping by, giving us cookies, and saying ‘We love you guys.’”
A recent open-house weekend saw close to 80 people show up at the studio for a range of classes; the club has already signed up to do a retreat as part of the Women in Business Series — an event supported by the New West Chamber and the Scotiabank.
While the reception has been positive in New West, people in general are more aware about self-care since COVID, said Kirsanova.
“Pretty much every client who walks in, says ‘I have not done anything (fitness related) in the last two-and-a-half years,’ and ‘I've been so isolated and so alone; I need a safe place.’”
To all those who feel so, Kirsanova wants to say: “Let's help you with your physical health. Let's get you socialized..."
"Let's heal together.”
Sea2Sky Wellness Club is located at 428 Columbia St. The grand opening is scheduled for May 12, 13 and 14.
