The Board Walks is a 5-mile walk for people who are quietly starving for a real conversation.
That's the whole thing...
And also not the whole thing.
On the surface:
Every Saturday, in 15+ cities, strangers meet at a trailhead, leave their phones in their pockets, and walk five miles together while talking about the stuff most of us only think about at 2 AM and rarely say out loud.
Underneath:
It's a response to something most people are feeling and can't quite name.
You can be surrounded and still feel completely alone. You can have a full calendar and a thin life. We built a room — a moving one — where that stops being true for a couple of hours.
No pitching. No dating. No phones.
In two words: no agenda.
Just curious humans, a good question, and the particular kind of honesty that only seems to come out when you're walking shoulder to shoulder instead of staring across a table.
People have called it the place I hear myself most clearly. A non-negotiable for my week. The family I chose for myself. We didn't ask them to say those things. They just kept saying them.
It started with eight people in Austin, Texas, in July 2022.
It has grown to more than 20,000 humans, across more than 15 cities, entirely by word of mouth.
Not a dollar on ads.
People come, something shifts, they bring someone they love.
This is the front door.
Behind it, there's more: a newsletter, a media home, a private layer for people who want to go deeper, and a quiet philosophy holding the whole thing up.
It all starts with Saturday morning.
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Austin Walk #1
San Francisco, CA
Austin Walk #100
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Detroit, Michigan
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Aveiro, Portugal
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London, UK
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Atlanta, Georgia
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Boone, NC
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Columbus, Ohio
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Sacramento, CA
The world, in one glance:
The Board Walks are where it happens.
The Friday Debrief is where we tell you what happened.
Whimsy World is our media home for great conversations.
The Board is the private room.
Our founder Elle shares her inner world, and Cam contemplates.
And underneath all of it is one idea:
The right environment changes who you get to be.
Izzy Quane
“I’ve built deeper friendships in 13 weeks of hosting this walk than in 3 years of living in Detroit. This is the 'Friends the TV show' community I've always wanted but could never find, no matter how hard I tried. One regular is quitting her job because they're making her work on Saturdays, and she doesn't want to miss the walk."
Arth Vidyarthi
"The people I've met have become lifelong friends and mentors. They've guided me in so many ways, given me constructive criticism, called me out when I needed it, and kept me from going off the deep end. The person I've grown into as a result of countless conversations on the walk have massively shaped who I am today."
Brian Schuster
"The walk isn't in my city yet. So every single time I travel to Austin, I always make sure my trip overlaps with the walk. Hands down, the most interesting people and the best connections always happen here. If you haven't done it, you're really missing out. This community is something special."
Cristina Espinal
"Everyone shared gratitude for a space where nothing needed to be fixed, where truth and complexity was welcome, and where people could speak honestly. Aliveness doesn't only come from big milestones, but from what's already here, in the ordinary moments we tend to overlook."
Your turn to walk, talk, and float:
