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Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1296256
ADAM BLASBERG SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020 BCBUSINESS 73 R ight around the time he made the biggest career move of his life, Erin Gibault took up cycling. Sure, that could have had more to do with age than anything, as the then-35-year-old Richmond native found that running was getting hard on his knees. But the UBC commerce grad- uate was still relatively early in his career, as an industrial brokerage specialist at the Van- couver office of Colliers, when he quit the real estate services giant to start property manage- ment firm Headwater Projects in 2007. "Right at the start of the financial crisis," he says, laugh- ing, over a video call. "Left to go start a company, had some resources available, a lot of ambitious ideas—in your mid- 30s, you're just young enough to make something of yourself but not old enough to under- stand the risk you're about to take on." More than a decade later, Headwater is still operating, and Gibault is still cycling. In fact, both the business (see sidebar) and his hobby have levelled up since. He's now on his third bicycle—the 800 Se- ries Trek Madone, billed by its maker as the "ultimate super- bike"—and he talks about riding to the top of Cypress Bowl Road from his West Vancouver home like it's walking around the block for a cup of coffee. "I can be home in 15 minutes, which is nice." Fair enough; after all, Gibault is something of a cy- cling veteran. Usually, he tries to ride as many of B.C.'s seven annual Gran Fondo races as he can. Though most of this year's fondos have been cancelled thanks to the COVID-19 pandem- ic, he placed 519th in the 2019 Whistler race, which had close to 4,000 competitors. He's also done multi-day cycling camps in California, as well as on Mount Baker, a 160-kilometre climb that he calls a "European-style stage ride, fantastic for anybody, and probably a little safer than doing the Whistler Sea to Sky Highway, outside of a fondo [when the route is specifically tailored for cyclists]." Erin Gibault runs property management company Headwater by day and (seemingly) spends the rest of his time cycling by Nathan Caddell W E E K E N D WA R R IOR WARRIOR SPOTLIGHT Erin Gibault started Headwater Projects in 2007. "It was really just a blank piece of paper," he recalls. Since then, the company has grown to 24 employees and manages about 25 residential and commercial properties from Victoria to Whistler. "The bulk of our activ- ity is serving customers, tenants, residential and commercial," Gibault says. "Trying to navigate property management, residential suite turnover and coordinating main- tenance of the portfolio has been challenging. We couldn't wait for a rule book to come out, so we had to make it up as we went along." Headwater must now do the same dur- ing COVID-19, but Gibault believes things are getting back to normal there. "You look at the much larger landlords and other com- panies leading by example, and to [provincial health officer] Bonnie Henry, who is doing a fantastic job, for guidance. A lot of it has to do with customers and clients, and what their comfort level is." –N.C. COFFEE BRAKE When he's not in his downtown office, Gibault gets pedalling Wheel Estate O FF T H E C LO C K ( quality time )