Newbies Club bringing Canyon Lakers together

By Brad Morton
Canyon Lake Newbies and Social Club

Here’s the reality: Canyon Lake is an epic place to live. Canyon Lake is a community like no other. This past Sunday was yet another example of why we believe this. From start to finish, it was a “Canyon Lake kinda day.”

But first, a brief history. Like many of you, when my wife Jonda and I moved here, we didn’t know anyone. Having moved up from San Diego, we had zero local friends. We stood on the sidelines and looked on eagerly at all the people having fun together and enjoying the community. It looked like an awesome time. But, we were on the outside looking in. It was frustrating, especially to two social people like ourselves with historically-active social lives.

Canyon Lake Newbies hosted a Comedy Show at the Town Center. Photo provided by Brad Morton

Once the COVID-19 shutdown hit, we truly got hooked on the restricted “no life” inside of Canyon Lake. It became clear to us we’d never move back outside the gates. Armed by this revelation, we decided to get serious about meeting new friends and started the Facebook group, Canyon Lake (CA) Newbie & Social Club.

This brings us to a valid question. Why attend a Canyon Lake (CA) Newbie & Social Club event? To us, the answer can be found with “Any Given Sunday” here at Canyon Lake. The highlights of our past Sunday follows.

The day started lazily, just as a good Sunday should. We slept in after a late night at a neighbor’s house party. We’ve learned Mustang Court is always rocking! Good times over there!

Finally finding our motivation, we enjoyed Bloody Marys at brunch with 11 other Canyon Lakers. During the conversation, the group came up with a brilliant plan. We’re going to take a group trip to the Venetian in Las Vegas in March.

Canyon Lake Newbies held an event on the water with members.

By sunset, our little group of wanna-be degenerate gamblers had grown to 14 people for this particular mission. Boom! We will surely bring Vegas to its knees. The final death blow! Headlines will read, “Canyon Lakers Finish what COVID-19 Started. Vegas Bankrupt!”

Hmm…perhaps home equity line of credit money well spent. Alas, I digress. We disbanded our brunch so our designated ace gamblers could study a new roulette strategy code-named: Foolproof.

Next, our neighbors swung their pontoon by our dock for a relaxing afternoon on the lake. After a couple more stops, there were nine of us aboard. The sun was warm as spring was in the air. Days like this remind us all that summer will be here soon. And don’t forget, good neighbors don’t let neighbors float alone! Soon it will be time to boat party.

At 3:10 p.m., a text arrived from yet another neighbor with three words: “I’m cooking curry.” As the sun set over the lake, the few became many as curry became Karaoke. As I said, Canyon Lakers are epic!

More than 70 people attended the Canyon Lake Newsbies Comedy Show.

Perhaps at the end of the day, the better question is, what makes an irreplaceable neighborhood? My wife and I believe the answer is irreplaceable neighbors. We’ve found them here and we hope you also do. Each of the neighbors mentioned above became our friends because of our little fledgling social club, now 422 members strong.

So, don’t be shy! Roll the dice! Join the club and come to an event. No matter what your age, recreational interests or flag preferences. Regardless if you are single or married or how long you’ve lived here. It doesn’t matter. After all, now that you’ve found your community, you need to find your people.

To that end, we have hosted six official social club events to date. The friendships made at these events have organically sparked countless smaller club member house parties, meet-ups, boat parties, golf outings and barbecues.

Our official club events have included a truly hilarious comedy show attended by over 70 members, a champagne brunch, two boat parties during Concerts at the Lake, cocktail hour, and our first annual family-friendly fall picnic featuring “Operation Care Package,” which included a barbecue lunch, face painting and epic Nerf gun battles for the kids. During “Operation Care Package,” new friendships were made as club members assembled 43 care packages sent to service members worldwide.

Upcoming events will include a good old-fashioned “meet and greet” cocktail hour followed by dinner tomorrow (Saturday) night with likely 60 to 70 attendees. Next month will be our second comedy show brought back by popular demand. Only this time, we are adding a cancer fundraiser for one of the Comedian’s father, Johnny Herrera, Sr. The comedy show promises to be even bigger and better than the last one.

Also, based on club member feedback provided within Facebook group polls, it appears a party bus wine tour is on the horizon along with plenty more boat parties, a Happy Camp RV rally with live music, and surprisingly (or perhaps not as this is Canyon Lake), an outing to a gun range for shooting and gun safety instruction. A true expert and club member will teach this class. He is a patriot and ex-special forces veteran who, along with his lovely wife, just so happen to be some of our closest friends from San Diego. We recently convinced them Canyon Lake life is the best life. So, as we say, welcome to the right side of the gate. You are natural-born Lakers!

Why not take a risk, shuffle your social deck, join the party, play nice and make a few new friends along the way? You never know. Your version of an “Any Given Sunday” story might be right around the corner.

In the meantime, we’ll lift our glasses to you and say, “Cheers, Canyon Lakers! May your sunsets be inspiring, your beer cold, your golf cart fast and your boat always afloat. Bottoms up!”