Squamish, British Columbia, resident Norm Hann just completed an epic 385-kilometre journey on a stand up paddleboard through Canada's Great Bear Rainforest to protest pipeline project.

Norm's unique mission was to help bring awareness to the environmental threat the proposed Enbridge oil pipeline and tanker traffic will have on the rainforest, its people and wildlife. The expedition explored vital food harvesting areas along the tanker route and documented the importance of these areas to First Nations and the Great Bear Rainforest.

The Great Bear Rainforest stretches from Vancouver Island to southeast Alaska. It is one of the largest remaining tracts of unspoiled temperate rainforest in the world and is one of the most prolific areas for marine and terrestrial wildlife anywhere in the world. Hann's journey was evidence of that as he saw humpback whales, otters, eagles and even a 600-pound black bear.

Hann runs Mountain Surf Adventures in Squamish and has been a professional outdoor guide in the Great Bear Rainforest for ten years and is very connected to the land and its people. As a fishing, kayaking, wildlife and bear viewing guide he has introduced people from all over the world to the Great Bear Rainforest.

"I have learned that what is here - the traditional food harvesting areas, the wildlife, and the philosophies of living in harmony with the earth is something special and rare that cannot be lost," Hann said. "I feel indebted to what this amazing place has provided me with and I cannot imagine a people, with thousands of years of connection to their land not having this way of life."

Hann's also met with the renowned conservationists David Suzuki and Dr. Riki Ott, an Alaskan marine biologist, at an anti-oil rally in Kitamaat Village last Saturday to stop this pipeline project.

Hann's was the recipient of the Be First sponsorship program by First Ascent for his 385km Stand Up Paddleboard (S.U.P.) expedition through Canada's Great Bear Rainforest. First Ascent is a line of world-class expedition gear created by Eddie Bauer, whose Be First sponsorship program is given to a group or individual that endeavors to accomplish what has never been done, challenge the limits of what is possible, and embodies the drive to be first. A SUP expedition was a voyage of this magnitude has never previously been attempted on a S.U.P anywhere in Canada before.