Meet Chris Alves of Eagle Rock Yacht Club in North Hollywood

Today we’d like to introduce you to Chris Alves.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Back in 2007, I had signed up to play dodgeball with my friend, Craig Fower, in another rec dodgeball league. As the season progressed Craig and I had noticed that there were local kids hanging around the gym watching us warm up before our weekly dodgeball games. It quickly became apparent to me that the time we were spending playing dodgeball was taking away from the local youth. If we weren’t playing dodgeball, they would most likely be using the gym to play basketball or indoor soccer. We were essentially displacing them.

I went to the leadership of the organization and asked if they would be interested in giving back to the community that was providing us with a place to play dodgeball. Specifically, could we host youth dodgeball games on a different night? Needless to say, the leadership didn’t seem very interested in taking on such a role. Although discouraged I never gave up on the idea of offering something fun for local youth to participate in.

As weeks went by and Craig and I tried to make friends out of fellow dodgeball players we never really felt welcomed. The format of the league pitted well-aquatinted players that had been playing together for years against hodgepodge groupings of players that had never played dodgeball before. We were sitting duck!

In 2008, having seen the energy and love for dodgeball, Craig and I saw a possibility for positive change through dodgeball in our local communities. So we set out to start our own dodgeball league with 3 basic principals:

1. No Teams: we wanted everyone to feel welcomed and part of the group so we didn’t want people to pick their own teams. Everyone signs up as an individual and is placed on a team.

2. Give Back to the community: We wanted to support the parks that allow us to play a game we love. We began hosting free dodgeball games for youth on Friday nights and also teamed up with the rec center staff to provide funding or supplies for things they needed.

3. Community: We aimed to host social events outside of dodgeball that gave our players a real sense of community.

These three things are what drove our motto: “Dodgeball, Drinking, and the Common Good”

Has it been a smooth road?
Well, a lot of people do have a negative association with dodgeball. I think all those years of getting beat on by the bigger kids has a lot of young adults cringing when they think of playing dodgeball. We’ve done a lot of work to make people feel welcome and even have a pretty well-known #1 rule: Don’t Be a Dick!

In the beginning, we ran into some issues trying to secure gym time and get insurance for a game like a dodgeball– hard to believe no one wanted to insure a game where you hurl balls at each other, huh? But outside of that, it’s been pretty smooth.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Eagle Rock Yacht Club story. Tell us more about the business.
We establish and run adult dodgeball leagues while partnering with the local rec center to develop original programs for children for adults in under-resourced communities in Los Angeles. Our programs — Yacht Grub (kids cooking), Yacht Plot (community gardening), Yacht Pix (kids photography) and our flagship program, Yacht Crew (kids dodgeball)–have been created to provide kids with fun, safe and creative experiences that go beyond what they might have access to at school. And we are able to do this by drawing from the single greatest resource at our disposal — our players.

The Yacht Club provides an outlet and vehicle for connectedness through dodgeball, weekly meetups, and social gatherings. But we’d like to think we do much more than that. We also provide the initial opportunities for our players to become active citizens and volunteers. Over time, our players become more invested in the neighborhoods where they play and want to do more good for them; it’s our flywheel toward the common good. When our players actively participate and do good for Los Angeles, they feel more invested in Los Angeles. When our players feel more invested in Los Angeles, they want to work toward greater common good. We want Los Angeles to be a better city for everyone and believe that dodgeball is a great entry point for creating a more connected LA.

How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
Rec sports are huge and there are always going to be new trends. We’re just trying to keep things interesting along the way.

Pricing:

• 10 weeks of dodgeball for $55, includes a seasons gift– gifts in the past have included: Flasks, Hats, Fanny Packs, Pint Glasses
• Our news league Westwood, is going to kick off in January of 2017, we’re offing a special price of $35 for new players.

Contact Info:

• Address: 834 S. Broadway #1002
  Los Angeles, CA 90014

  This address is not public

• Website: theyachtclub.org
• Phone: (213) 373-1439
• Email: hello@theyachtclub.org
• Instagram: instagram.com/theyachtclub
• Facebook: facebook.com/theyachtclub
• Twitter: twitter.com/theeryc
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/eagle-rock-yacht-club-los-angeles-2

Image Credit:
Imad Bolotok, Rainbeau Tharp, Brian Faini