Making Life One Long Weekend

The Life of Founder Albert Schrik

September 29th, 1956 - March 11th, 2018

Albert Schrik

1956 - 2018

"There are two ways to live in your life. One as is though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle." - Albert Einstein

Albert was born in the town of Emmen, province of Drenthe, Holland to Meindert Klaas Schrik and Jantina Roffel on September 29th, 1956. He grew up in the village of Emmer-Compascuum of approx. 8000, part of the Emmen municipality, together with his brothers Gary and Johan, and sisters Anneke and Ina. Albert spent weekends with his mom and dad on the canals on their cruiser boat, which Albert’s dad built by himself. Albert shared many fond memories growing up, always speaking lovingly of his mom and dad. Frozen canals were the perfect surface for spending every free minute on his skates. Albert was also an avid and competitive swimmer and windsurfer. Albert proudly served in the Dutch Military at the age of 18 in 1974 for 17 months. He received two diplomas in electronic techniques and carpentry.

Family. Where life begins and love never ends.

On January 25th, 1985, Albert immigrated to Canada. Shortly thereafter, he met and married the love of his life, Karin Johanna, on May 21, 1988 in Salmon Arm, BC. Karin’s son Markus came into Albert’s life when he was only 4 years old. On Friday, December 13th, 1991 they welcomed their baby boy Nicolas Johan to their family. Being a loving husband and rock to Karin and father to both of his sons was Albert’s most important and favorite role, giving them unconditional love. The family grew in 2006 with Markus’ marriage to his love Kaarina and in 2015 with Nicolas meeting his special girl Shanaya. Being called “Opa” for 14 years by grandchildren Isaac, Matthew, and Amy was Albert’s greatest blessing.

After residing over 20 wonderful years together in Salmon Arm, the family moved in 2006 to Kelowna, located in the heart of the beautiful Okanagan Valley, British Columbia.

From all the books in the world,
the best stories are found between the pages of a passport.

Albert’s love for fast and beautiful cars was evident when he purchased his first Porsche before the age of 40, three more different models followed soon after.

Albert and Karin’s love for travel took them to many wonderful places. But always, first and most important was travelling annually to Europe, visiting their families in Holland, Austria and Switzerland, together with their sons as they grew up. Many of their travels were planned around their passion for windsurfing, scuba diving, skiing, dirt biking, tennis tournaments, other sporting events, concerts and/or business, including to Palm Springs, Las Vegas, San Diego and their favorite “big” city of Vancouver. Other destinations visited over the years included: Dominican Republic, Martinique and St. Thomas, Mexico, Maui, Northern Italy, London, Shanghai, Freetown in Sierra Leone/Africa, Seoul/South Korea, Cambodia and Vietnam. In January of 2018 Albert travelled to Egypt for two weeks of kite-boarding lessons and received his Level 3 Kiteboarding License after successfully completing body drag and water start.

Work Hard. Play Harder.

Albert and Karin‘s passion and love for boating allowed them to make many special memories with their family and friends in the 30 years of boating together. In December of 2016, Albert and Karin purchased their Four Winns 318 Vista Cabin Cruiser - a long-time dream full-filled and still a special place for Karin to reflect, enjoy and share many lovely days with family and friends.

Don't worry when you're not recognized, but strive to be worthy of recognition.

Albert was always an entrepreneur at heart with many years in the retail business, from the Wind and Bike Shop to the Boathouse Marine and Leisure. In 2003 Albert and Karin incorporated their company Nicma International Holdings Ltd. (“Nic” for Nicolas, “ma” for Markus), which today is doing business as INSTA Container Modification, wholesaling container modification parts to over 200 dealers throughout North America. With pride, perseverance, determination and innovation (winning the Innovation’s Award at the annual NPSA, National Portable Storage Association Expo in Las Vegas in 2014 for his design on the company’s INSTA Divider Walls) Albert made INSTA Container Modifications what it is today.