Sunshine Coast Business Magazine by The Local

BUSINESS

SUNSHINE COAST

Spring 2016 • Vol. 03 No. 01

MAGAZINE

NOT JUST

a hill of beans... New brews enter lucrative local coffee market PAGE 10

Art FORCE The

A PROFILE OF LINDA WILLIAMS PAGE 21

WEST COAST LOG HOMES Local Company, Global Profile PAGE 16

Kayak Crazy Coast

A PADDLER’S PARADISE PAGE 26

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< Sunshine Coast Business Magazine • Spring 2016 Designed specifically for high traffic wall

FROM THE PUBLISHER’S DESK...

on’t let anyone ever tell you we don’t live in a vibrant thriving community. Sunshine Coast Business Magazine continues to pursue the stories on our businesses, our people, our newcomers and our entrepreneurs. And in this edition, our third year of publication, we haven’t even scratched the surface of the stories we can share. From coffee crafters to returning to real food, from our local builders gone global, to our coastal tourism, from our tours on the water to flying high with the eagles, our stories reveal how we make a life for ourselves on the Sunshine Coast. We share stories on arts and culture, on volunteering, on commitment to self and community. We are blessed

to be able to work and live on the beautiful Sunshine Coast and work with such an energetic and inspiring group of people. Another pleasure SCBM has is to source out talented writers who live and work here and provide them with an opportunity to further share their craft. This edition we introduce Donna McMahon an astute observer who is no beginner to the written word and Caitlin Hicks who is always devoted to her craft and her fellow writers, both new and seasoned. Donna writes about two major businesses on the Coast; Langdale’s West Coast Log Homes and Dakota Ridge Builders who share their story with us from local custom builds, to a theme park in Florida, to one of

the largest castles in Wales. Donna also met with Paul at Egmont’s West Coast Wilderness Lodge who shared with us his unique waterfront property and the expansion soon to come for this family business. Caitlin penned her features about Laurie McConnell and Linda Williams whose names are associated with Sunshine Coast tourism, the arts and volunteer work. Thank you to Rik our seasoned business writer and editor, to our sales staff and our advertisers, whose support is very much appreciated, and to our graphics and production person Christina whose talent makes our layouts and stories shine on the page. Welcome to Spring 2016!

THE SUNSHINE COAST BUSINESS MAGAZINE IS PUBLISHED TWICE A YEAR BY THE LOCAL WEEKLY NEWSPAPER.

CONTRIBUTORS...

Publisher, Editor

Contributing Writer, Editor

Production, Graphic Design

Contributing Writer

Susan Attiana is Publisher of the Local Weekly and the Sunshine Coast Business Magazine. She has 30+ years experience in the newspaper, media and magazine industry in Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver. She lives in Sechelt.

Rik Jespersen is a journalist, editor and television producer who has worked with various print, online and broadcast media across Canada over the past 30 years. He lives in Roberts Creek.

Christina Johnstone is a Graphic Designer with 11+ yrs experience in the news industry. She produces the White Rock Real Estate Advisor, the Local Weekly, as well as the Sunshine Coast Business Magazine. She spends her time between Sechelt and White Rock.

Caitlin Hicks is an author, international playwright, and acclaimed performer. Her debut novel A THEORY OF EXPANDED LOVE was published in 2015. She worked as a writer for CBS & NBC radio & has performed her fiction & non-fiction for CBC national radio.

Donna McMahon has wideranging writing experience which includes freelance journalism, business plans, plain language legal publications, newsletters, novels and short fiction. She lives in Elphinstone.

Sunshine Coast Business Magazine • Spring 2016

WHAT’S INSIDE? >> TABLE OF CONTENTS

INNOVATIONS ISLAND’S GRAHAM TRUAX Business advice worth taking - and it’s free.

21 THE ART FORCE A proﬁle of Linda Williams.

ALVAREZ & CO. Make accounting work for businesses.

23 SLOCAT TOURS Take a tour of Pender Harbour.

10 NOT JUST A HILL OF BEANS New brews enter lucrative local coffee market. 13 IN CONVERSATION WITH SHERRY STRONG What is good for the body is good for the planet. 16 WEST COAST LOG HOMES Local company, global proﬁle. 19 LAURIE MCCONNELL The best of tech and tourism.

24 WEST COAST WILDERNESS LODGE Number one wilderness lodge for six years running. 26 KAYAK CRAZY COAST A paddler’s paradise. 28 FLYING WITH THE EAGLES New adventure sport takes off on the Sunshine Coast.

#213 - 5710 Teredo Street, Sechelt, BC, V0N 3A0 Phone: 604-885-3134 Fax: 604-885-3194 Email: publisher@thelocalweekly.ca www.thelocalweekly.ca This material written or artistic may not be re-printed or electronically reproduced in any way without the written consent of the Publisher. The opinions and statements in articles, columns and advertising are not necessarily those of the Publisher or staff of the Local Weekly. It is agreed by any display advertiser requesting space that the ownerʼs responsibility, if any, for errors or omissions of any kind, is limited to the amount paid by the advertiser for that portion of the space as occupied by the incorrect item and there shall be no liability in any event greater than the amount paid for the advertisement.

The Sunshine Coast Business Magazine is published twice a year by The Local Weekly Newspaper.

Cover Photo courtesy of: West Coast Log Homes Featuring: Gibsons Wharf Gazebo

Sunshine Coast Business Magazine • Spring 2016

An Interview

WITH INNOVATION ISLAND’S

Graham Truax

Business advice worth taking – and it’s free.

nnovation Island offers a complimentary business advisory service to entrepreneurs in knowledge-based industries on the Sunshine Coast and beyond. Sunshine Coast Business Magazine caught up with Innovation Island’s Executive in Residence and Business Advisor, Graham Truax, during one of his many routine visits to the Coast. Sunshine Coast Business Magazine: I think a lot of people have heard of Innovation Island, but they don’t necessarily know exactly what it is. Graham Truax: We are a non-profit industry association. We’re not a company, we’re not here to sell anything. We have two primary mandates, one with the province through BC Innovation Council (BCIC), and the other through the feds—through the National Research Council Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP). I wear two hats. One Interviewed by: is as the EIR, or the Executive in Residence, with Rik the BC Innovation Council, dealing with their Jespersen Venture Acceleration Program. We call it the VAP. We help companies get ready for financing and direct them to financing options. The province and the federal government, from time to time, have different programs. Understanding fundraising landscape, or how to structure and how to fund, is what we coach and advocate for, whatever the fit or the need is. We’re also not typically brokers of funding. We don’t do that. A lot of people think we do, and I do need to clarify that.

Graham Truax - Executive in Residence / Business Advisor. PHOTO SUBMITTED

Sunshine Coast Business Magazine • Spring 2016

Clients that meet the qualifications and are accepted into our program are basically subsidized by the province. They pay a nominal fee, just to show some commitment that they’ll actually do the work. I work with these types of clients weekly or monthly, based on agreed needs and objectives. We don’t write cheques, we don’t fund, we don’t take equity. We work with companies over a longer period of time to provide the same level of skills and, hopefully, expertise, to help them meet their objectives. Under the federal IRAP program, I do what they call business advisory work with companies of various sizes, big going-concern companies to small start-ups. I’m asked to use my discretion in helping them do what they want to do. It’s at no cost. We cover a pretty wide range of companies in our whole region, which is everything on the Island (excluding Victoria), the Sunshine Coast, and the Gulf Islands. We have this large geography, small population, and we’re trying to bring that together as a regional focus. As a function of doing this work on the Sunshine Coast for example, over the last year, we now have two companies in our Venture Acceleration Program that are based here. One of them is in Gibsons, called Session Wire (Sessionwire.com). The other is Kranked Electric Bikes (Krankedbikes.com). For the Venture Acceleration Program, companies have to prove that they have some intellectual property (IP). Not necessarily patents, but some proprietary IP. Then they’d have to prove that what they’re doing is scalable to large, basically international markets. The criteria are pretty high for that program. But then on the flip side—the business advisory—there really are no criteria. I work with large, multimillion-dollar companies that are doing weird things, as well as people that just have plans written out on napkins. I help them take the napkin and maybe get it on paper a little bit, but that allows us, like I said, to cover a really wide range. SCBM: Still, there must be criteria for the kinds of companies that you will deal with. Would you take on a typical retailer such as, say, a coffee shop? Graham Truax: No. If somebody wants to start a coffee shop, we’ll send them to Small Business BC, or to Community Futures, or we’ll send them to other agencies. We do lean, as our name suggests, to innovative-type things or tech-type things. But what we found within the region is that tech speaks to almost everything. Somebody is using tech or working with tech in almost any industry. That doesn’t mean that just because a coffee shop is creating a mobile app to order things they fit in our program, but... SCBM: But the app developer might fit? Graham Truax: Yeah, exactly. Our window is a little wider because of that. Kranked is a great example of one end of the spectrum. He has some intellectual property in the process. He has proprietary stuff tied to innovations that he is actually engineering in his product. He has two parts to his product. One is a licensed component from somebody else but another one is stuff which he hasn’t unveiled quite as much. That is what has allowed him to kind of get into our program because of that. If he was just saying “Hey, I’m buying parts from this guy over here and I’m putting them together and I’m selling these cool bikes,” it wouldn’t work. But it was like “No, no, I’m doing some things over here back in the shop or with some engineers that are kind of interesting.” That met the muster of what we need to then go back to the province and say “Would you subsidize this guy to come into our program?” We have to do a little bit of check and balance on that. SCBM: So how do companies find out if they’re a fit with Innovation Island? How do they approach you? Graham Truax: We’re now doing community engagement programs throughout the whole region where we meet and discuss things with the local mayor and council or development groups, like Sunshine Coast Tech Hub. Each community has their own way they deal with that.

Also, our website has a page for the Venture Acceleration Program with an application form. The complimentary business advisory service also has a little application form, just so I have some data. Then that’s how we start. If somebody came, and said, “Hey, I want to be in the Acceleration Program,” but they’re not really developing anything, we’ll maybe give them some resources and then send them to a different agency that might help them do what they’re trying to do. But, if they said, “I figured out how to gather some data for how much coffee people drink and that goes into the water requirement system and that speaks to ...” you get the idea. Then we’ll say, “Okay, let’s talk about that a little bit more.” That’s kind of how that works.

“I work with large, multimillion-dollar companies that are doing weird things, as well as people that just have plans written out on napkins.” SCBM: Do you have some basic pieces of advice for somebody considering a tech or innovation start-up? Is there a checklist they should go through before they even go into it? Graham Truax: Okay. Simple question, big question. But in the best practices right now in the tech sector, there’s a concept called “lean startup methodology.” That advocates you figuring out what would be called your minimum viable product, MVP. It’s like someone might say, “I’ve got this app. I could do a thousand cool things with it.” We say, “Okay, what are the three or four things that are most important, that could speak to the first 10 people that you talk to. What are those things? Go figure that out. Then let’s go talk to those 10 people and see if it works. If it does, then we’ll maybe go talk to 100, and then we’ll tweak it. Then, if that seems to be pretty good, then we’ll see if somebody will pay money for it.” It’s very small steps from just a rough napkin idea, to actually making something, getting something done. We push people from “I’ve got this idea” to their minimum viable product. Or we’ll help them figure out what a minimum viable product is. That’s part of the lean start-up methodology. I’ve found, and a lot of my colleagues agree within the system, that a good old-fashioned SWOT analysis—Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats—is an awesome first step. I’ve done investing. I’ve done start-ups and all these things, and I’ve also advised venture capital firms. To me, SWOT is all I’m really doing. No business plan, no nothing. You do a SWOT analysis and you’re going to understand the competitive landscape. You’re going to understand what you’re good at and what you’re not good at. What the other guys are good at and what they’re not good at. Then we’ll know if you got something. I would argue it’s one of the most powerful first set of things that anybody could do, because if you can’t convince yourself or have a pretty solid SWOT analysis, then go back to the drawing board. I like to save people time, because a lot of people get all mystical, starry-eyed, “Oh, I’m going to be rich and famous and nobody’s doing this. I have no competition.” We hear that a lot. We say, “Oh, really?” Then we say, “Go back. You do that worksheet for me, and then we’ll talk.” Between the minimum viable product and the concept of a SWOT analysis, those are really awesome starting points.

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ALVAREZ & CO. MAKES ACCOUNTING WORK FOR BUSINESS

ike most people, Nelson Alvarez did not spend his childhood dreaming of becoming an accountant. “Accounting has the reputation of being boring,” he said, grinning, “but when you actually get into it, you realize that it’s not, and you can help people. That’s what I find most rewarding--helping people.” Nelson and his wife, Pia, run Alvarez & Co., a full serWritten by: vice CPA accounting firm Donna that provides bookkeeping, McMahon tax preparation, financial statement preparation and consulting services for private corporations. Alvarez, who is a CPA and CGA, specializes in income tax, especially tax planning for privately owned corporations and their shareholders. “A lot of business owners don’t get detailed

Nelson Alvarez.

PHOTO SUBMITTED

financial information until they prepare their statements at year end,” said Alvarez. “But by then it’s too late to make informed business decisions. It’s like trying to bowl down an alley with a curtain in front of you, and having somebody tell you how many pins you missed.” That’s why Alvarez is a big proponent of cloud-based accounting, which automates a lot of data entry work and integrates information. Cloud-based systems can upload information from banks and point-of-sale systems, providing reports as often as they’re wanted. “You can have your numbers constantly at your fingertips on your phone or pad,” said Alvarez. “You can even perform tasks like invoicing customers while travelling on the ferry. And it’s an ideal way to communicate with your accountant.” When living in the Lower Mainland, Nelson

and Pia found that they were spending more time commuting than with their family, so an opportunity to purchase and run a business on the Coast was a “no brainer.” They bought an accounting practice from Karen Esplen and moved to Gibsons in 2013. It’s a busy practice, and Nelson and Pia presently employ five staff as well as themselves. “We haven’t looked back,” said Alvarez, adding: “This is a good place to raise children. And the community has been so welcoming!” He joined Gibsons Rotary and is also on the board of Community Futures. “A lot of an accountant’s job is to be proactive, looking into a client’s business and suggesting better ways of doing things. Often people don’t know what they can do,” said Alvarez. His number one tip for business owners is: Don’t be afraid to seek advice. A CPA can help you to improve the way you run your business. It’s a smart investment.

The staff of Alvarez & Co.

PHOTO SUBMITTED

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Sunshine Coast Business Magazine • Spring 2016

HILL st a u j t No

OF BEANS... New brews enter lucrative local coffee market

Freshly roasted beans are swirled to cool down in the bin beneath Strait Coffee’s roaster.

PEOPLE ON THE COAST DO LOVE THEIR COFFEE.

“Other brands try to be everything to everybody and I’m not looking to do that,” said DesRosiers, a 35-yearold married father of two. “I wanted to do one thing really well. The blend has a specific proprietary ratio of those three beans and a specific roast profile for each one.”

o surprise, then, that business for the biggest local roaster, Strait Coffee, is still growing after nearly 20 years on the scene, and also no surprise that a few new brands are hoping to break into the thirsty Sunshine Coast market. Meanwhile, one long-time wholesaler says he has finally roasted his last batch of beans.

Written by:

Rik Jespersen

The new brands include the unique three-bean blend that is Beachcomber— already on local grocery shelves—and Spirit Bear, which expects to have its line of coffees in stores by this summer.

Interestingly, this is occurring as a little more room has suddenly opened up in the market. More than 20 years of coffee roasting and tea distribution quietly ended in January with the closure of Twentyman Tea and Coffee Inc. of Garden Bay. Fourth-generation caffeine purveyor David Twentyman, now in his early 70s, admitted, “sadly,” that there is no fifth generation to carry on the tradition. Nonetheless, it’s time to retire. “I’d got to the point where I wanted to do other things and enjoy life with my wife and do some travelling,” Twentyman told Sunshine Coast Business. Like his great-grandfather, grandfather and father before him, British-born Twentyman started in the tea business in London. After stints on tea estates in India, then as a buyer for Nabob, he moved to the Coast in the early 90s to start filling those distinctive green bags with his own coffees and teas. Alas, not anymore. “Once the stock that’s on the shelf [in local groceries] is gone, that’s it,” Twentyman said.

BEACHCOMBER Newcomer Beachcomber is the creation of Gibsons entrepreneur Martin DesRosiers, who said he decided to get into the business and then “fell down the rabbit hole” that is the byzantine world of coffee. He tasted and tested for several months before coming up with a blend of beans from Brazil, Costa Rica and Guatemala. Beachcomber is only sold as whole beans and only in that one blend.

Sunshine Coast Business Magazine • Spring 2016

RIK JESPERSEN PHOTO

Prior to launching Beachcomber, named as an homage to the CBC TV series shot in Gibsons, DesRosiers said he spent months tasting beans from every coffee-producing country in the world before settling on product from those three from Latin America.

Gibsons’ Martin DesRosiers’ Beachcombers blend is among the new Coast brands. PHOTO SUBMITTED

“It’s pretty complex. I picked a combination and profile based on what I felt I could drink every day.” Although the coffee is roasted in an exclusive and eco-friendly electric “dry roaster” in Vancouver, his primary target market is the Sunshine Coast. “My first retail was in IGA in Gibsons and Wilson Creek,” Desrosiers said. “It’s also available at London Drugs and Super Value. It’s selling really well on the Coast.”

SPIRIT BEAR Those same local retailers will soon be asked to make room on their shelves for another new brand with a Coast connection. By this summer, Spirit Bear coffee is expected to be available in light, medium and dark roast whole bean, and in 100-per-cent compostable single-serving K-cups, according to Dean Walford, president of the company’s retail division. Spirit Bear has, up to now, been widely available as brewed coffee in more than 300 hotels, resorts and restaurants, said Walford, 48, a past president of the Gibsons Chamber of Commerce and

Gibsons Rotary. Walford said Spirit Bear is a majority aboriginally owned company founded in 2006, and as the name suggests, maintains a connection to the Kermode or Spirit Bear by helping sponsor the Kitasoo First Nations Spirit Bear Conservation Foundation and the Raincoast Conservation Foundation. The move to retail shelves has been delayed by development of the compostable K-cup, but it’s now good to go. “Single-serving is the fastest growing segment in the market right now, so we’d be remiss to go to retail without it,” Walford said.

STRAIT COFFEE By far, the dominant Sunshine Coast player in the business is Strait Coffee, which cooks up more than 5,000 pounds a month at its roastery and warehouse just off Field Road in Sechelt. Most of that wholebean and pre-ground volume goes to local grocery retailers, but a lot of beans also move through the company’s own perennially popular restaurant in Wilson Creek Plaza. Lyle Mufford acquired the coffee shop—then also a small-scale roastery—in the mid-90s when it was in its previous location at the other end of the L-shaped mall. A few years later, Grace Bland bought in as a partner and they haven’t looked back. They’ve been too busy to. “The business still has a growth curve, which is astounding to me,” said Mufford, standing amidst dozens of stacked burlap bags full of coffee from every corner of the planet.

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“It’s just grown, grown, grown, every single year,” she said. Oddly, the growth has come despite Mufford and Bland having no overarching ambition to make Strait Coffee a Coast-conquering brand. It’s just happened. “We never really pursued the wholesale business,” Mufford said. “We have customers off-Coast, up the Coast, on the Island. Some in Vancouver. But we never actively pursued it.” Despite their success, Mufford estimated that Strait Coffee has only a modest share of the local market. “I bet we sell about 10 per cent of the coffee, or less, that’s bought here. The amount of coffee that’s sold is huge.” If he’s right, that could mean some 50,000 pounds a month are sold here, among about 29,000 men, women and children. People on the Coast do love their coffee.

Gibsons Park Plaza (Near Marketplace IGA) 108-1100 Sunshine Coast Hwy, Gibsons, BC V0N 1V7 604.886.7724

www.theseasonedkitchen.ca Sunshine Coast Business Magazine • Spring 2016

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Sunshine Coast Business Magazine • Spring 2016

MADEIRA PARK

12887 Madeira Park Road 604.883.9100

In Conversation with

Sherry Strong, RETURN TO FOOD author and food philosopher.

Sherry Strong “What is good for the body is good for the planet”

herry Strong is a food philosopher, chef and nutritionist who has travelled around the globe to do diet and lifestyle makeovers, and has worked with celebrities, elite athletes, Fortune 500 CEOs, billionaires, and Jamie Oliver and his Fifteen Foundation. Her philosophies and simple strategies help people feel better and live their best life by developing a healthy relationship with food and their body. She was the Victorian Chair of Nutrition Australia, the Melbourne Head of Slow Food, Curator and Co-Founder of the World Wellness Project Summit and founder of the Return to Food Academy. She was a guest speaker at one of the PowHERhouse events in Sechelt and she told us her story. In her own words Sherry shares her journey from excessive dieting to becoming a global food philosopher.

Here is her story: In the Beginning: The first diet Sherry tried was instigated by a Special K commercial, which convinced her at age 13, that she wasn’t thin enough because she could ‘pinch an inch’. She despised dieting from the onset - obsessed with what she couldn’t eat, unable to lose weight and eventually she felt like a total failure. This set in motion decades of struggle with self-acceptance. Despite her deep sense of awareness that it was the wrong approach, she kept yoyo dieting until she was twice her current size, (size 16 in a 5’2 body). She says she wasn’t just overweight, but was sick, in pain and depressed. Finding her Niche In her early 20’s, Sherry traveled to Australia and ended up working as a chef in some of Melbourne’s top restaurants. She went on

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to become the Melbourne President of Slow Food and the Victorian Chair of Nutrition Australia, as well as speaking at conferences and on television as a food expert. Interestingly, she started to see critical errors that called her to question the industry-influenced nutritional food guides. As a nutritionist, she discovered that the practitioner model was broken and was failing to help people with long-term sustainable change. She finally halved her dress size by doing just the opposite of what diets preached. In 1997, she started teaching what she now calls the Anti-Diet philosophy; simply eating real food. Mother Nature – Real Food Sherry says; “our current relationship with food, our body, and the planet is messed up. Many foods we’re eating daily are processed similarly to the way coca leaves are turned into cocaine. The antidote is not a diet, pill or potion - it is about going back to eating real food: in season, locally grown, organic and whole. The solution is relatively simple but getting people who have been conditioned to eat processed food for generations requires behavioral changes that calls for a shift in the way we think”. Over the following thirteen years, Sherry continued on page 14...

Sunshine Coast Business Magazine • Spring 2016

...continued from page 13 developed philosophies like Nature’s Principle, the Consumption Concept, the Lethal Recipe and We Are Meant to Eat Together. These philosophies formed the foundation of a transformational coaching model that received unprecedented success - attracting leading business people, celebrities, and elite athletes like Mariel Hemingway (who wrote the foreword for Return to Food book), W. Brett Wilson and Theo Fluery. Sherry’s philosophical approach eliminates nutritional confusion and empowers people to stop guessing, and trust what is right for them. She teaches without exception, “what is good for the body is good for the planet and what is good for the planet, is good for the body.” Today and the future As Sherry shared these philosophies and success stories in presentations around the world, people would approach her to learn more about how to do what she did. So, after a 22 year ‘working holiday’ in Australia, she returned to Canada on an intuitive hunch to develop the Return to Food Academy and train food coaches to inspire and help people develop a healthy natural relationship with food

One of the Core Philosophies in Return to Food - the life-changing anti-diet - Nature’s Principle “Nature tells us what to eat and the quantities to eat, by how easily (and when) it is obtained in nature. That which is most abundant, we are meant to eat the most of. If it’s harder to obtain in nature, we require less of it. If you cannot get it in nature, not only do we not need it, it is most likely harmful to the body and the environment.” and discover how real food can be delicious, in every sense of the word. Sherry’s book Return to Food - the life-changing anti-diet and programs based on her work can be found at www.returntofood.com. Sherry has offered a prize of a Return to Food 7 Day

Put an end to your sugar cravings with a Sweet Chia Pudding - recipes and more in Seven Recipes For Life e-book online at www.returntofood.com PHOTO SUBMITTED

Challenge to a randomly selected Business Magazine reader who subscribes to her website. Receive the Seven Recipes for Life when you sign up for the Return to Food newsletter. (Sherry Strong went to high school on Vancouver Island and now lives in West Vancouver.)

Sherry celebrates with a group of Return to Food grads in 2015. PHOTO SUBMITTED

We carry the largest selection of natural care & beauty products on the Coast

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Wilson Creek Plaza • 604-740-5813 Open Mon. - Fri. 9am - 5:30pm • Sat. 10 am - 2 pm 14

Sunshine Coast Business Magazine • Spring 2016

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Sunshine Coast Business Magazine • Spring 2016

WEST COAST LOG HOMES Local Company, Global Profile

Gibsons Warf Gazebo.

nyone who has lived on the Sunshine Coast for even a short time will recognize the signature style of West Coast Log Homes in beautiful buildings such as the Harbour Authority oﬃce on Gibsons Wharf, the gazebo on Davis Bay Pier, the gazebo housing the Sechelt Band’s Residential school monument, and many private homes. What people may not realize is that this Langdale-based company sells their unique craftsmanship worldwide. They build structures in their yard near Langdale, dissassemble them, and ship them to destinations as distant as the US, China, Japan, Germany and Chile. Written by: This year, the low Canadian dollar has cooled domestic sales, but it has given the company an Donna extra edge in the export market. Owner Andy KoMcMahon berwitz is especially excited about a key project building 26 homes, a restaurant and a pool bar for a major theme park in Florida. The buildings are being constructed by WCLH, then disassembled and shipped south. Koberwitz is also closing in on a big UK contract. The largest castle in Wales, Gwrych Castle, is being renovated as a luxury hotel, and WCLH will build 100 cabins clustered around it. Andy Koberwitz came to the Sunshine Coast from Germany twenty-eight years ago, and started West Coast Log Homes in 1999. In 2007 he also founded Dakota Ridge Builders, a custom home building and contracting company. Koberwitz builds with red cedar, an extraordinary wood which con-

Gwrych Castle, the larges castle in Wales.

WEST COAST LOG HOMES PHOTO

Sunshine Coast Business Magazine • Spring 2016

WEST COAST LOG HOMES PHOTO

tains natural oils that preserve the wood and inhibit insects. Its tight, straight grain resists splitting, and it handles moisture so well that it’s used in saunas worldwide. WCLH pressure washes the bark off the logs, leaving the surface smooth and shiny. Several coats of stain and a top coat of sealer are applied, leaving a satiny finish that glows with warm colour and resists dust and stains. The company’s custom homes are works of art, each entirely unique. Finishing touches often include rock chimneys or wood carvings, created by skilled local artisans. Recently Dakota Ridge Builders has started a renovation division and is getting requests to build contemporary style homes, incorporating more glass and steel in their designs. They built part of the new RCMP station in Gibsons in a style which blends West Coast wood with modern materials.

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Koberwitz says that relationships are crucial to running a successful business on the Sunshine Coast. He is quick to praise Terminal Forest Products, who lease him a property next to their log sort, and the Community Forest, who provide many of his logs. “We work very well together,” said Koberwitz. He also maintains strong ties with the Sechelt Nation. Good staff is also integral to the company’s success. Koberwitz employs fourteen permanent staff at his site in Langdale, plus more on contract. Some have been with him since he started. He looks for people who share in the company’s vision, work well as a team, and are committed to superior client service. There’s always something new. The company just received a 700-yearold log from Vancouver Island, which they’ll be slicing horizontally into slabs to make conference tables for China. The log is so big that they’ve had to have a special saw made with a nine foot saw blade and motors at each end. “What we do is not like regular logging,” said Koberwitz. “We are creating a value added product, and bringing in money from outside the coast. We also use this beautiful wood in a way that ensures it will be enjoyed for generations.”

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604-886-4279 dakotaridgebuilders.com westcoastloghomes.com WEST COAST LOG HOMES PHOTO

Sunshine Coast Business Magazine • Spring 2016

Sechelt and District

Chamber of Commerce

s the leading independent voice of business in our community the Sechelt Chamber of Commerce wants to stimulate sustainable economic growth in our community. The focus should not only be on present realities, but also on ensuring future generations will inherit a stronger and more prosperous Sechelt. To that end, the Chamber encourages and supports economic development activities and initiatives in Sechelt and area that are broadly developed and widely supported, and consistent with the following ideals: • A comprehensive strategic plan is needed now to provide direction for economic development. The plan must articulate the unique features and opportunities that differentiate our community from others, and describe objectives and priorities along with associated strategies and action plans. These will help form benchmarks by which to monitor performance of the plan, the work of staff, and the overall success of economic development efforts. • Our approach to sustained economic growth should not be one-dimensional but should look to building diversity and resilience in the com-

munity’s economy. How we grow matters as much as how much we grow. The plan must strive for a balance between attracting new business and investment, and ensuring the strength, vitality and growth of existing businesses. Here in Sechelt we have several members, including SSC Properties, Vanta Pacific Ltd., Haley GM and Blue Ocean Golf, who are working on projects that will enhance the economy of Sechelt in a variety of ways. • Because economic growth on the Sunshine Coast will inevitably lead to economic success in Sechelt (and vice versa), we should look for opportunities to partner and support growth in adjacent communities including the Sechelt Indian Government. • The plan should ensure an integration of the economic, social, cultural and environmental components of our community. In particular, we must recognize that our natural environment and our natural resources are key contributors to our quality of life and to a sustainable economy.

• Resilient local leadership with a strong community vision is essential. Leadership does not imply one person or local government, but rather the engagement of an array of community minded citizens, business leaders, and representatives of key stakeholder organizations to collectively participate and drive the economic development process through a shared sense of ownership. The Chamber of Commerce is committed to realizing the ultimate goal of making Sechelt a renowned community for building a business, pursuing a career, and fostering entrepreneurship. In other words, a great place to live, work, play and do business!

Kim Darwin President Sechelt and District Chamber of Commerce

Tsain-Ko Native Gift Shop & Art Gallery

West Coast Native Art, Sechelt, BC

A warm & personal welcome The warm and friendly greeting that Welcome Wagon delivers is brought into over 400,000 homes a year, where the hand of friendship is extended personally and with heart. Whether you are purchasing or renting, newcomers to the Sunshine Coast are always delighted with our basket of Community Information and gifts from participating local businesses. WE ALSO VISIT FAMILIES WITH NEW BABIES!

For your personal welcome to the Sunshine Coast please contact JUDITH JUDITH JACQUELINE 604.886.9896 604.989.6997 604.886.9896 (From Gibsons to Halfmoon Bay)

welcome2sunshinecoast@gmail.com 18

Sunshine Coast Business Magazine • Spring 2016

GIFTS FOR EVERY OCCASION! Weddings, Birthdays, Mother’s Day and any day! Great selection of Gift Ideas, check us out on Facebook to see our albums of pictures.

OPEN: Monday - Saturday 10am - 5pm 5555 Hwy 101, Sechelt • 604-885-4592 Located next door to the Raven’s Cry Theatre

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LAURIE

McConnell THE BEST OF TECH & TOURISM

Original art by Dean Schutz which appears on a wall on Teredo Street in Sechelt.

aurie McConnell, a passionate tourism techie whose love for the Sunshine Coast began as a brownie at Camp Olave as a young girl, is at a crossroads. In her 17 years at Bad Dog Design and Bigpacific.com, McConnell has been a major player in the growing and transformation of tourism on the Sunshine Coast. And it’s all been hand-in-hand with the digital revolution. The Bed & Breakfast association, the Tourism Association (http:// www.sunshinecoastcanada.com), online newspapers, Facebook, social media, Airbnb & Trip Advisor and the rise of blogging – it’s all changed the landscape of communication as it intersects with Tourism. McConnell developed Big Pacific and Bad Dog Design while on maternity leave from a Written by: production job in 1995 when her co-workers at Caitlin Hicks The Press unionized and the paper closed. Seeing the excitement over ‘the internet thing’ she decided to teach herself HTML. As a member of global newsgroups she tired of hearing the ‘Sunshine Coast’ of South Africa, California, Florida or Australia and started Bigpacific.com. “By 1997 I started adding information to Bigpacific about local accommodations (from ferry rack cards) and those businesses started calling, ‘I have no idea who you are or what the web is, but I just got a booking through you’. Bigpacific took off, almost entirely through word of mouth.” She spent the next 17 years as the go-to link for the Sunshine Coast. But it’s 2016, and if the technical revolution is about anything, it’s change. “Bigpacific.com will become my personal space for blogging about life as a Coastie - interesting ideas, people and synergies” she explains. Bigpacific Creative Digital Strategy & Web Design (replacing Bad Dog Design) will work with businesses involving Wordpress, Squarespace, closed social networks and online meeting spaces – “to create deeply engaging communities around ideas and people”. Part of this forward trend, a mix of in-person and online conversations, is a digital campaign pilot ThisistheCoast.ca (May - August 2015), led by a group of private funders wanting a grassroots campaign to attract young adults and families to relocate or return to the Sunshine Coast. The Project Lead was Richard Hoath, founder of the Sunshine Coast Tech Hub.

CAROLYN CLARKE PHOTOGRAPHY PHOTO

“In November 2014, we held a design jam day with a group of Coast creatives, and we proposed a site/campaign completely free of commercial, sponsor or governmental messaging or branding,” says McConnell. “That set us apart and we decided instead to share the real stories and advice of recently-arrived Sunshine Coasters in our target demographic. Then we connected them to real people in the community through our Coastie Ambassadors network - to talk about what life on the Coast is really like. No relentlessly positive hype, no ‘controlling the message’, just grassroots authentic conversations that helped people come to a yes or no on moving here. Then we created a welcoming network to assist in integrating them when they arrived. “We used innovative storytelling - twitter serialized tweets story, hashtag communication (#freerangelivingsc), curated social conversations and in-person meetups - to connect people to each other in a deeply personal way. “It was hugely successful, garnering media attention, web traﬃc, social discussion, and many offers to help from volunteer Coastie Ambassadors. Ultimately a number of families chose to relocate here. The pilot project is complete and the original steering group, of which I am a member, is currently in strategizing mode for next stages.” As the former go-to person at Bigpacific, McConnell is an ‘enthusiast’ – “I drop myself into a great many little burbling pots on the Coast to learn about what people are doing I love connecting the dots and putting people together.”

Laurie McConnell.

CAROLYN CLARKE PHOTOGRAPHY PHOTO

Sunshine Coast Business Magazine • Spring 2016

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www.willgoosewood.com 20

Sunshine Coast Business Magazine • Spring 2016

Art FORCE The

A PROFILE OF LINDA WILLIAMS

Written by:

Caitlin Hicks

inda Williams juggles more than six volunteer positions in the arts and somehow manages to squeeze more than 24 hours out of a day. She’s a member of the SCRD’s Strategic Planning committee, We Envision. She’s on the board of Sunshine Coast Tourism, helps to coordinate The Gibson’s Music in the Landing series and Jazz Festival, produces the website and Arts & Culture Calendar for Coast Cultural Alliance and Purple Banner Studio & Gallery Guide as well as the annual Art Crawl. Almost unbelievably, Williams fits in practice in two musical performing groups: Knotty Dotters, a Marimba band and Sokole, an all-women’s Balkan singing group. Williams trained in serious multi-tasking before coming to the Sunshine Coast in 1994 from a 500-goat dairy farm in Abbotsford. There she milked goats in the morning before going to work at a Langely newspaper, and came home to tend to farm and family. Her volunteer work included organizing an international band festival. “ For fifteen years, I survived on three hours sleep,” she confessed. Linda’s hard work has raised the bar for The Arts in all sectors and Sunshine Coast artists

have prospered as a result of her efforts. The impressive Art Crawl, last October clocked 27,000 artists studio visits, direct sales of over $218,000 with additional $75,000 in commissions – for the artists. This and tourism spinoffs makes this event a vital financial event for the Sunshine Coast. “The SCRD acknowledged the importance of Art on the Sunshine Coast, by defining The Art Crawl as ‘economic development’ in their funding budget. We moved out of grant-inaid,” Linda comments.

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In 2009, the CCA partnered with Daniel Kingsbury and Waking Life Records to create an endowment for youth called Music for Youth. “With Daniel’s passing last year, the name was changed to Daniel Kingsbury Music for Youth Endowment Fund. Each year, the fund

In addition to web, graphic design and grant applications, Linda is also an ambassador. “My work involves a lot of advocacy for the arts and physically presenting to local government councils, from Langdale to Lund: Town of Gibsons, the District of Sechelt, Sechelt Indian Band, SCRD, and Powell River Arts Council. Since that’s been happening, both business and governments realize the arts are an economic driver on the Sunshine Coast. Not just a destination for outdoor activities, we are a vibrant arts community with activities yearround.” The Coast Cultural Alliance (CCA), became a non-profit society in 1998 and now has 51 business memberships, 43 non-profits, four museums and 253 individual members. “We started the website in 2000. Now the CCA is a hub for all these creative communities.” Linda states. “The Artesia Coffee House – a once per month showcase for music, spoken word and performance, has been operating since 2003.

Linda playing the Bass Marimba.

water to sewer to recreation to food. And arts & culture is a big part of that.”

“On a Sunshine Coast-wide level, Arts & Culture is now considered an important part of the whole picture. Strategic Plans like the SCRD We Envision involve everything from

Linda playing the Hoshos.

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awards money to young people who don’t have the support and opportunities in music. This year we awarded $1,500. “Currently we are developing closer partnerships with the aboriginal community, including listings in our calendars and the Purple Banner Guide. But it started with The Art Crawl with Tems Swiya Museum and Shishalh Long House participating. “I volunteer because I believe in giving service back to my community, and I enjoy it. Because you’re not being paid for it, you can be more creative. The results are enjoyed by everybody attending and participating including musicians, performers, sponsors, audience.”

Sunshine Coast Business Magazine • Spring 2016

Pender Harbour / Madeira Park government wharf (old forestry boat rendezvous)

he Pender Harbour and District Chamber of Commerce is an association of businesses, not-for-profit volunteer groups and individual residents working to ensure our area is an outstanding place to live and work. We partner with fellow Chambers to improve the economic health of the Sunshine Coast, and our initiatives receive financial support from the SCRD. Because people are enthusiastic about living here, they volunteer willingly on Chamber projects. While we encourage growth across all age groups, the Chamber has a special interest in attracting more young people and families to our community. Pender Harbour is blessed with a beautiful environment, a great climate, and easy recreational access to the forests, lakes and ocean. Outdoor adventures in Pender Harbour can be safe and relaxing or a little more challenging, as people choose. The area is a natural destination for tourists. Once visitors realize what a treasure we have here, they keep coming back, and often they start scheming to become residents. We just wish they would be more open with their friends and acquaintances and spread the word, instead of keeping the secret to themselves so they don’t have to share! We have seen recent enhancements to local tourist services. February brought the reopening of the Pender Harbour Hotel and Marina, with the Grasshopper Pub, restaurant and liquor store. The old hotel, a fixture on the highway since the1940s, burned down in November, 2013. Owner Bikram Brar has rebuilt with some fine new touches. Floor-to-ceiling windows in the pub and restaurant adjoin an enlarged deck with outstanding western views of Pender Harbour and the Coast mountains. Sixteen hotel rooms on the second floor offer the same outlook. Marina facilities below the hotel provide service for visiting boaters. It may not be Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel fresco, but now Pender Harbour has its own masterpiece: a map of the harbour covering the entire ceiling of the hotel’s enlarged liquor store. Below the map, aficionados of BC wines will find interesting stock on display. In Garden Bay, new owner Allyson Nelson is preparing for the tourist season at Fisherman’s Resort and John Henry’s store and marina. She has hired Stephen Beagle to manage the two businesses and plans to improve off-season moorage and availability of the dockside rental cottages. Please visit our web Site at: www.penderharbour.ca And follow us on facebook at: www.facebook.com/penderharbouranddistrict

Leonard Lee, President

Sunshine Coast Business Magazine • Spring 2016

PENDER HARBOUR CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL 2016

he Sunshine Coast is blessed with music, every kind of music. For classical music enthusiasts, the annual Pender Harbour Chamber Music Festival is a glorious gift. As we approach our 12th season—August 7th through August 10th—we anticipate a wonderful mix of traditional and contemporary repertoire, a weekend of musical pleasures. Every summer world-class musicians come to play together in the beautiful performance space overlooking the harbour in Madeira Park. This year we will welcome back some old friends—Joyce Lai (violin), Ian Clarke (viola), Simon Fryer (cello), and our Artistic Director (and extraordinary pianist) Alexander Tselyakov— and look forward to hearing Mark Fewer (violin), David Gillham (violin), and the harp/ cello duo Couloir (Heidi Krutzen and Ariel Barnes). We are excited about this year’s Rising Tide concert featuring young musicians, including the Coast’s own Hanna Crudele (violin); Hanna will be joined by Rae Gallimore (viola) and Jenny Dou (piano). The Festival is grateful for support from its cohort of Friends and from the community at large. Many audience members have been with us since our first season. Watch for our brochures in late spring! For more information about ticket sales and programme details, visit our website: www.penderharbourmusic.ca We hope to see you this coming August!

SLOCAT.CA PHOTO

our vacation to the Sunshine Coast would not be complete without a tour on one of the favorite family attractions, Pender Harbour’s SloCat Tours. Touring the waterways of Pender Harbour offers spectacular scenery in calm, protected waters. Owner and tour host Mark Brezer shares the elaborate history of the area from First Written by: Nation settlements to the eras of logging and fishing. Susan Chances are you will be able to view incredible wildlife up Attiana close. Mark took over the wheel at SloCat Tours in 2013. With a well-rounded education and background in tourism and entertainment, his passion for learning led him all over the world and since 2005 he has called the Sunshine Coast

home. A passionate musician and performer and local radio personality, Mark doesn’t slow down. He is a lifetime student of learning new things and most recently added a real estate license to his portfolio. His knowledge and love of the Pender Harbour area resonates through his tour dialogue. As soon as you step on board one of SloCat cruise boats you will be greeted with experienced staff and enjoy a 90 minute narrated tour of Pender’s vibrant and historic harbor. Summers on the Sunshine Coast are even better on the water. Along with daily tours, SloCat also accommodates weddings birthday celebrations, graduations and family gatherings. Others write that “Mark’s tour is not just a geography tour of the harbor but also a historical and political tour. He tells stories about shipwrecks, the Coast Salish and the fluctuation in the area’s economy, through eras of fishing,

logging, and ultimately, tourism”. Travel Bloggers do not hesitate to mention their visits to the beautiful Sunshine Coast where they highlight SloCat Harbour Tours as a must see. Visit SloCat Tours website for more exciting news on this must see tourist attraction. www.slocat.ca.

Owner Mark Brezer with the Slo Cat II.

SLOCAT.CA PHOTO

THE BEST WAY TO SEE PENDER HARBOUR IS TO SEE IT FROM THE WATER!

Step on board and enjoy the 90 minute narrated tour of Pender’s vibrant and historic harbour with friends and family!

Our experienced staff and expert tour guides work hard to ensure you capture the true essence of Pender Harbour’s past, present and future every time you set sail on one of our vessels.

TOURS & RATES: Return trips starts four times per day, from the Government Dock in Madeira Park on beautiful Pender Harbour.

604-741-3796

TOURS:

RATES:

EVENTS:

11:00 am 01:00 pm 03:00 pm Sunset tour (departure times vary depending on the time of year)

Kids 3 and under: Free Kids under 12: $15 Kids over 12: $35 Peak boat tour season is from March 21st to September 21st.

Weddings Birthdays Graduations Family gatherings Please call to set up a reservation 604-741-3796

Call for availability during shoulder & off-peak seasons. Charter rates may apply. Sunshine Coast Business Magazine • Spring 2016

WILDERNESS LODGE EXPANDS

“

West Coast Wilderness Lodge.

I want people to know that Egmont is open for business,” says Paul Hansen, owner of the West Coast Wilderness Lodge. Last year was the resort’s best year ever, with an occupancy rate of 93% in July and 97% in August.

When the Business Magazine visited Hansen in February, he was already 40% booked for August and the phone at the front desk kept ringWritten by: ing. “I’m turning away Donna business,” he said.

McMahon

“Sixty percent of my visitors are European,” Hansen explained, noting that he has hosted wedding parties from India, Africa, and the Middle East. He also holds corporate retreats for law firms, banks and tech companies, among others. Each retreat is tailored to the client’s needs, often incorporating team building exercises in the outdoors with more sedentary planning sessions. Right now Hansen’s business is limited by his

West Coast Wilderness Lodge sunset view.

26 bed capacity. Overflow from larger events fills hotels and B&Bs as far south as Pender Harbour. This is why Hansen is currently negotiating the purchase of a nearby waterfront property which will allow him to substantially expand his guest rooms, meeting space and facilities. Phase one, slated to open in 2016, will be a Wellness Centre hosting practitioners and programs that blend the outdoors, health, exercise, nutrition, and spirituality.

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tors as they do.” The Lodge is only 40 minutes from Vancouver by air, and in summer he gets twice daily flights from Seattle, 75 air minutes south.

Egmont is an ecological hot spot. Marine life is amazingly prolific, due to the huge volume of nutrient-rich seawater forced daily through Skookumchuck Narrows. The tidal rapids nourish an entire wildlife chain, including sea lions, orcas, hump back whales, “This is the Tofino of the inner coast,” says cormorants, eagles, and bears. All this is set Hansen. “We should be getting as many visiagainst a spectacular backdrop of rugged mountains plunging into the deepest waters in coastal BC.

Paul and Patti Hansen with their son Lucas.

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Sunshine Coast Business Magazine • Spring 2016

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Wedding at West Coast Wilderness Lodge.

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It’s a spectacular area for wildlife viewing, kayaking, and diving. The Lodge also offers heli-hiking, canoeing, archery and mountain biking. Adventurers can follow up an active day with a massage, a relaxing soak, and delicious West Coast cuisine prepared by executive chef, Tim Kozody, who Hansen describes as “incredible.” This summer local residents can sample the Lodge’s magic with Adventure Lunch Specials. Half day and full day specials will feature guided kayaking or a zodiak tour of waterfalls, wildlife, petroglyphs, and tidal rapids, along with lunch. Find out why Georgia Strait readers have voted this the #1 Wilderness Lodge for six years running.

West Coast Wilderness Lodge zodiak tour.

West Coast Wilderness Lodge kayaking tours.

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West Coast Wilderness Lodge patio sunset view.

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West Coast Wilderness Lodge OCEANFRONT RESORT & RESTAURANT EGMONT

Choose your adventure, have fun – then lunch at the Lodge > Kayak rental with lunch in our dining room $36 > Guided kayaking tour with lunch in our dining room $56 > Zodiac tour of the inlets with lunch in our dining room $66 > Princess Louisa Inlet Tour – an all-day tour of the world famous destination – enjoy fjords, petroglyphs, waterfalls & wildlife $159

> Full Day of Adventure ($109, children $89) – a two-hour guided kayak tour with lunch at the Lodge then an exciting Zodiac boat tour – searching for wildlife and riding the famous Skookumchuck Rapids.

1.877.988.3838 | www.wcwl.com | 6649 Maple Road, Egmont, Sunshine Coast Sunshine Coast Business Magazine • Spring 2016

Kayak-crazy Coast A PADDLER’S PARADISE

PHOTO COURTESY OF CANDACE CAMPO, TALAYSAY TOURS

ike so many seaside communities in southwestern B.C., the Sunshine Coast is one kayak-crazy place. Looking out over the calmer waters off Gibsons, in Sechelt Inlet, Secret Cove or around Pender Harbour on a nice day, you’ll see a scattering of the sleek, brightly coloured, one or two-person fibreglass boats wending about—at any time of year. “Rentals always pick up as soon as the sun shines,” said Loretta Corbeil, of Sunshine Kayaking in Gibsons. “It’s very weather-dependent, but we’ve had paddlers all winter.” Corbeil and Greg Suidy, her business and domestic partner, bought the 25-year-old business four years ago, and have expanded the company’s services from kayak and paddleboard rentals to include fishing and diving charters as well as sailing and harbour tours. Still, true to its name, the company’s 45 pointy-ended boats are Sunshine Kayaking’s mainstay. “I’d say still 60 to 70 per cent of the business is kayaking,” said Corbeil, from Written by: the company’s storefront just above the harbour on Molly’s Lane. Rik Jespersen And why not? What an ideal location for a paddling business. Boaters can cross quickly to Keats Island or out into the Strait of Georgia. A frequent destination is the channel between Keats and Bowen Island, “there are about 11 little islands in there so that’s a great place to go kayaking. A lot of people will go in and around them and circumnavigate Keats. It’s about four to five hours and very popular,” Corbeil said. “We also get a lot of people come and rent kayaks for the weekend and go camping over at Plumper Cove on Keats. Or go for a week, or even two, camping along the Marine Trail to Squamish.”

Sunshine Coast Business Magazine • Spring 2016

TALAYSAY TOURS Kayak, canoe and paddleboard rentals are also a big part of Talaysay Tours’ business, but since its inception in 2002, the company has always been synonymous with aboriginal tourism. “Our niche is definitely authentic cultural experiences,” said Candace Campo, a member of the shíshálh First Nation and one of three co-owners of Talaysay, along with husband and Squamish First Nation member Larry Campo, and Candace’s brother, Jonathan Clark, Sr. “The one thing we do provide in the business is the long, extended history and culture of the area and the region, an oral history that goes back thousands of years. We have a lot of great things to share with our clients,” said Campo. In addition to rentals, Talaysay offers single-day and multi-day guided kayaking tours. Campo herself also provides “Talking Tree Hikes” in Porpoise Bay Provincial Park—the company’s base on the Sunshine Coast—and at Smuggler’s Cove. As with most local kayak companies, business is good and it employs more than a dozen people in the summer high season. “We went through some skinnier years after the 2008 economic recession, but the last couple of years have been extremely exciting for us and we’re planning for growth.” Campo has also forged alliances with other companies, including Halfmoon Sea Kayaks. “Most of the companies on the Coast work very collaboratively. We share clients and provide visitors the best experience by referring each other,” Campo said. “I’m very comfortable in that working environment because our niche is so distinct.”

PEDALS AND PADDLES Further up the east side of Sechelt Inlet just north of Tillicum Bay Marina, Pedals and Paddles has its own 78-acre waterfront spread, where it offers rentals of recreational kayaks, sea kayaks, canoe and

paddleboards, along with lessons and courses on their safe use. It also launches twohour guided kayak tours, and specializes in multi-day guided kayak and camping trips for school groups. For those extended trips, Pedals and Paddles, which has been doing business since 1991, promises spectacular scenery and free use of nine, boat-access-only, wilderness marine parks maintained by BC Parks, with tent pads, fire rings, outhouses and bear caches. The company also has introduced powerboat tours on its 22-foot rigid-hulled Zodiac, which can hold six to eight adults and is outfitted with racks that can hold up to four kayaks. P&P offers a variety of fixed Zodiac tours but also is willing to organize customized charters to order.

six-to-eight-hour day tours and an evening “Full Moon” tour. And for the hard-core kayaker, there’s the Sunshine Coast’s Paddler’s Challenge, a summer Wednesday evening specialty starting in early July, “to explore eight great paddling areas between Howe Sound and Skookumchuck Narrows.” Although the company says it does provide service year-round, it’s primarily up and running seven days a week from mid-May until Labour Day.

tion—with a second, summer-only kayaking location in Madeira Park—has a full range of kayak, canoe and paddleboard services: sales, rentals, lessons, day trips and overnight trips. Kayakers are invited to try the Day Explorer Tour, the Sunset Tour or the Full Moon Tour.

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Owners Jamie and Sara Mani are both professional teachers and guides.

The convenient Wilson Creek Plaza opera-

The two- or three-day trips have fully-catered or self-catered options, and are conducted in Sechelt Inlet or the Thormanby Islands, just off Halfmoon Bay on the Strait of Georgia.

HALFMOON SEA KAYAKS Halfmoon Sea Kayaks also offers the full menu of equipment rentals: kayak, canoe and paddleboard and its two locations: on Ole’s Cove Road, north of Secret Cove on the Strait of Georgia, and on Sechelt Inlet, just west of the Lighthouse Pub boat ramp’s day-parking area. The company’s tour menu includes a three-hour morning tour in Sechelt Inlet; a four-hour afternoon trip in Halfmoon Bay;

PHOTO COURTESY OF CANDACE CAMPO, TALAYSAY TOURS

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604-885-6440 • 1-866-885-6440 7425 Sechelt Inlet Road • www.PedalsPaddles.com Check our Calendar Regularly for Events! Sunshine Coast Business Magazine • Spring 2016

Flying

EAGLES WITH THE

NEW ADVENTURE SPORT TAKES OFF ON THE SUNSHINE COAST

W Written by:

Donna McMahon

Miguel Roberts and the Coast Paragliding team.

hen Miguel Roberts moved to the Sunshine Coast in 1990, he was the only licensed paraglider pilot here. He hiked up local trails and drove up logging roads, looking for potential launch sites. Now that the sport is taking off (there are close to a million licensed pilots worldwide), the sight of brightly coloured

nylon sails soaring in blue coastal skies is becoming commonplace.

cord for a single unpowered flight is over 500 kilometres.

Roberts, a contractor and businessman, took up paragliding when he lived in Whistler, then became head pilot at First Flight Paragliding on Grouse Mountain in North Vancouver. He ran that business for six years before selling it. Last year he started Coast Paragliding, offering tandem flights and lessons from a base in Sechelt Inlet.

Unlike hang gliders, which have a rigid frame and weigh about 70 pounds, paragliders weigh as little as 12 pounds are carried in a backpack. Pilots can launch from a high ridge or mountain top, or they can be towed up behind a motorboat and then released. With favourable winds or thermals, pilots can soar for hours.

For the uninitiated, paragliding is where a pilot sits in a harness suspended from a fabric wing, which is inflated by the force of air flowing over it, like a high tech parachute. In the last twenty-five years the technology has advanced tremendously. Early wings had a glide ratio of four horizontal feet for every one foot of vertical descent. Today’s wings have a ratio of 11 to one, and the world re-

PHOTO SUBMITTED

Sunshine Coast Business Magazine • Spring 2016

“There are really no barriers to being able to paraglide,” said Roberts. “I’ve seen 13 to 80 year olds flying solo, including 400 pound people and paraplegics.” Flying in tandem with a licensed pilot, the sport is safe for almost anyone to try. Roberts has taken passengers as young as 3 and as old as 83. He calls it “Serious Fun for Everyone.”

PHOTO SUBMITTED

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2 Waters Publishing Coast Paragliding launches from a beach. A NEWCOMER’S GUIDE TO THE LOWER SUNSHINE COAST concept 2 design 2 creation Passengers, secured in a harness in front of 1.877.299.9492 • www.newcoastermagazine.com www.2waterspublishing.com the pilot, walk forward only a few step before they are airborne, towed by a slowly releasPROOF ing line behind the boat. They canADVERTISEMENT ascend as This is firstfeet, proofand of your advertisement in newCOASTER Magazine for your approval. If you would like any high asthe 3000 released at any point or approve of the ad as is, please let us know within two days of receipt of this proof. and flchanges y free tomade, go search for thermals. Thank you again for advertising with newCOASTER Magazine.

“This is not necessarily an extreme sport but we can turn up the adrenalin factor if desired,” said Roberts. “What most people love is the serenity of soaring in silence with no barrier between yourself and the sky. I’ve literally flown with eagles. There’s nothing else like it.”

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forested mountains of Sechelt Inlet, a landing near the Lighthouse Pub, and then dinner watching the sunset from on a deck by the water. Paradise.

finish with a spectacular flight between the

To see some flying videos check ‘soaringman’ on YouTube.

STER

ve of the ad as is, please let us know within two days of receipt of this proof. A perfect day on the Sunshine Coast may Roberts is working with Magazine. the Hang k you again for advertising withclosely newCOASTER

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PHOTO SUBMITTED

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Sunshine Coast Business Magazine • Spring 2016

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