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The Heart of the Club: the Lacroix Family’s Fourteen Year Journey with ABC

From a weatherworn blue shack in a sea of tarped boats to a hypermodern climate-controlled facility, fourteen summers have begun the same way for Dave Lacroix and his family — with Aqua Boat Club ready to carry them onto the lake.

The best days start at the lake’s edge.

It’s a quintessential Okanagan scorcher at Aqua Boat Club, the early-afternoon temperature already climbing past the 30-degree mark. A bright swath of sunshine glitters on the water’s surface, unfettered by the handful of clouds scattered across the sky. Dave Lacroix stands next to the driver’s seat of his Cobalt A29 with the keys in one hand, his grandson Tymes’s small fingers curled around the other.

The motorized Con-o-Lift rumbles into view as the rest of his family gets settled, securing the large blue tube to the back and choosing their seats. Max Handley, ABC’s lead supervisor, hands over a bag of ice and signals the all-clear.

And so the day begins like so many other summer days over the past fourteen years, with Dave and his family ferried towards the Cook Road boat launch by the Aqua Boat Club team, set to head out for an incredible day on the water.

How a commitment to the lake began:

For Dave, commitment seems to be a constant. He and his wife, Kris, have shared thirty-three years of marriage, raising two daughters and now welcoming son-in-laws, grandbabies, and even grand-puppies into the fold. Back in 2011, their family’s summers looked a little different: teenagers Shae and Autumn were restless by the pool at Playa Del Sol, the family’s condo across from what was then Aqua Boat Club’s sprawling tarp-covered boatyard. Boating seemed like the natural next step for the Alberta-based couple’s Okanagan summers.  

After picking up a 21-foot Cobalt and hauling it on a trailer back to Playa Del Sol, Dave’s thoughts soon strayed to the boatyard across the street. “Because we were at the condo across the street,” Dave explains, “we had nowhere to put the boat”. Furthermore, trailering the boat, finding parking, launching all seemed like a hassle, especially for a first-time boating family. “So,” Dave recalls thinking about ABC’s moorage and valet offering, “let’s give it a try and see what happens.”

Fourteen years later, that decision has become a tradition woven firmly into the rhythm of the family’s summers.

The beloved ‘smurf shack’ as it stood when the Lacroix family began their membership at ABC (then called Aqua Marine Valet or ‘AMV’)

The Lacroix clan, pictured from left to right: Tymes, Chase, Dave, Shae, Autumn, and Kris

The more things change...the more summer stays the same.

What began with the girls wakeboarding (the fad du jour in the early 2000s and tubing has shifted a little over time. Today, boating often means long, easy afternoons on the water: Dave at the helm, Kris curating charcuterie and watermelon, and the family (including son-in-law Chase and grandson Tymes) spread out across the deck.

“There’s such a peace of mind out there that’s unexplainable until you’re on the water,” Kris says. “Time together in the sun, jumping in the water…just enjoying that time together.” With fondness, Dave recalls a day from earlier this summer, where their new, larger Cobalt played host to a full house of 10 adults and two babies.

“The weather was great, the water was calm, it was just sort of…perfect.”

In 2022, the Lacroix family bought a house in Kelowna — a summer retreat designed to hold their growing family, a central place where they could all come together from their individual lives in Alberta, Florida, and Victoria, B.C. Though their new house doesn’t have quite the same across-the-street proximity to ABC as their old condo at Playa Del Sol, when they upgraded to their new Cobalt in 2024, they made a deliberate choice: no trailer this time. “The reason we didn’t take a trailer,” Dave grins widely, “is because you guys aren’t getting rid of us.”

Dave, Grandson Tymes, and wife Kris aboard their Cobalt A29

 

Dave’s devotion is easy to spot. Whether it’s the way he speaks about Kris and their more than three-decade long partnership, or the pride in watching his daughters, son-in-law, and grandson gather on the boat, his love is written all over his face.

Fourteen summers, countless memories.

That same longstanding affection is reflected when he speaks about Aqua Boat Club. There’s a clear belief as he speaks that moments on the water can anchor generations of a family.

Fourteen summers on, the Lacroix family’s story is proof that commitment leaves a wake; one that stretches across water, through generations, and into the future they continue to build as a family at Aqua Boat Club. And it’s a commitment that extends both ways: when asked about what originally drew him to the club, Dave smiles. “Really, all we had to do was show up,” he says simply. “We’ve been here this long, and have absolutely no intention of going anywhere else.”