BCBusiness

64 BCBusiness nOVEmBER 2018 "I've done trips into Desolation Sound, and depending on how the wind's blowing and how the tide's either working for you or against you, it's not hard to get in 20 kilometres of paddling in a day," he says. Thanks to his surf- ing experience, he understands how to read weather and waves, plus the importance of checking marine fore- casts before heading out each day. "Depending on whether you're a glutton for punishment or not, you don't want to be pad- dling all day into the wind against a tide," Litwin notes. "Sometimes you can split the di erence. If you're working against one, you want to make sure the other is working for you. But the ideal is, when you're doing the full-day paddles, you plan your movements around maximizing both of them at the same time, if you can." His board, which can carry about 90 pounds of gear, has a displacement hull shaped somewhat like a boat's, which helps it cut through chop, stay direc- tional in a strong cross- wind and travel faster than a standard board. "You can put in some serious kilometres and get to some really unusual, remote places that some- times not even boats can pull into," Litwin says. He brings his …shing rod and catches salmon, rock…sh, cod and snapper from his board. "It's under your own steam, so it's pretty gratifying when you get to a beach and then you can fry up your own …sh over a camp…re." Litwin paddles o the east and west coasts of Vancouver Island. He and a friend once took a …ve- day trip from Bam…eld to the Deer Group Islands, where they set up a base camp, and one of his all- time favourites was a night paddle from Squirrel Cove on Cortes Island back to their campsite in Copeland Islands Marine Provincial Park, north of Lund. "There was no moon, just the stars were out, and it was Žat calm," he recalls. "We paddled for about nine kilometres in the dark in an ocean that was completely Žuores- cent with phosphores- cence. I've never been in total silence for a couple of hours on a Žat ocean where it's just completely iridescent with phospho- rescence under your feet and you're just carving your way through it." Sounds of nature sometimes punctuate the silence. "All of a sudden you'll hear a whale blow- ing, maybe 20 feet away from you," Litwin says. "Not that you always see the whale, but you would never hear that if you were just buzzing by in a boat." ( quality time ) A F T E R HO U R S distilled Wisdom so, you think you'd like to become a craft distiller. the Distillery school offers a five-day hands-on program for a class of just three students. Learn to mill, mash, distill, bottle, label and clean alongside the pros at north Vancouver's sons of vancouver distillery, plus pick up tips on practices from budgeting and licensing to sales and distribution. graduates have gone on to launch Fernie Distillers, Monashee spirits Craft Distillery in Revelstoke and the Woods spirit Co. in north Van, with more in the works. there's a class november 5 to 9, and another in January. $2,999 Make your Mark the Make it craft show doesn't take place until december, but its founder, Vancouver-based Jenna herbut, has written a book that comes out this month. Make It Happen: The Creative Entrepreneur's Guide to Transforming Your Dreams Into Reality includes pointers, case studies and exercises for turning an idea into a business. Page two Books 227 pages, paperback, $19.95 COURtEsY Of sOns Of VanCOUVER Become part of Canada's largest electric vehicle charging network. flo.ca/business INDUSTRY-LEADING RELIABILITY RUGGED STATIONS Made in Canada FLEXIBLE PLANS AVAILABLE FUTURE-PROOF YOUR BUSINESS WITH ELECTRIC VEHICLE CHARGING STATIONS

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