How It All Started
Back in 2018, I was teaching MMA classes out of a cramped community center basement that smelled like old socks and broken dreams. Had maybe eight people showing up consistently, but man, the energy was there. We'd finish sessions sitting on the floor, talking about how Vancouver needed a place where you could throw down in the octagon one day and lift heavy the next without feeling like you're switching gyms or personalities.
Started saving every dollar from those classes. My partner thought I'd lost it when I signed the lease on this warehouse space on Burrard - it was literally just concrete and pigeons. Spent six months renovating it ourselves, calling in favors, working nights after teaching. My hands were so torn up I couldn't make a proper fist for weeks.
The name came from a late-night conversation with one of my first students. She said training here felt like exploring uncharted territory in herself - finding strength she didn't know existed. Jade for resilience, Valor for courage, Frontier for that edge we're all pushing toward. Cheesy? Maybe. But it stuck.
We opened doors in January 2019 with 23 founding members. Today we've got over 400 people who call this place home. Still smells like sweat, but now it's the good kind.
