{"id":55579,"date":"2017-09-23T19:47:22","date_gmt":"2017-09-23T19:47:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.glaciermediadigital.ca\/?p=55579"},"modified":"2019-09-06T10:25:28","modified_gmt":"2019-09-06T10:25:28","slug":"an-interview-with-skater-bob","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lodestardigital.ca\/index.php\/2017\/09\/23\/an-interview-with-skater-bob\/","title":{"rendered":"An Interview With Skater Bob"},"content":{"rendered":"

Written by Samantha Matheson<\/strong><\/p>\n

Apart from my\u00a0brief but defining time in Japan, I have mostly lived my life in Vancouver. Admittedly, I\u2019m so used to life here that sometimes, days go by and I barely notice the so-called \u201cstruggle.\u201d But inevitably, I do hear the complaints about, the prices, the rain, the flaky people, the lack of much of a nightlife etc\u2026 And though I recognize that this is partially because we are still a relatively young city with not nearly the history or population density of a place like say \u2013 New York, I\u2019m thrilled that there are those of us still here willing to do our part to make Vancouver awesome. In particular, I\u2019m overjoyed that Bob Kronbauer<\/strong>, the founder and editor-in-chief of Vancouver Is Awesome<\/a>, has joined our team at Glacier Media.<\/p>\n

In the spirit of 500 Coffees<\/u><\/span><\/a>, I\u2019m actually sitting here enjoying a morning coffee with him in our very own community kitchen. In my mind, he is one of Vancouver\u2019s great advocates for arts and culture, but in his humility, Bob would probably never quite say it like that.<\/p>\n

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Delighted by the fact that our coffee machine doles out lattes and not just a regular cup of drip, Bob finally sits down where he becomes instantly fascinated by my DSLR camera. \u201cI actually used to work as a portrait photographer for a number of years for magazines when I lived in L.A. When I moved back to Vancouver I did some stuff for magazines like Nuvo<\/span><\/a>. But I also did some fine art photography as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bob has lived a skater-punks dream \u2013 like Bart Simpson all grown up.<\/p>\n

He will openly tell you that though he barely got through high school, he was also just never afraid to live his life. Thus he found himself in L.A. freelancing and eventually working at Girl Skateboards<\/a> in the art department. There, he got to meet famous director Spike Jonze<\/a> who is also the co-owner of Girl Skateboards. Spike mentored Bob and helped out with a lot of the shoots he was involved in.<\/p>\n

In spite these experiences it only took about 6 years before he started to miss his life in Vancouver. Bob grew up surrounded by the beauty of our mountains, camping and fishing every weekend and he missed his close community of friends in Vancouver. \u201cAll of the stereotypes about LA become true if you spend enough time there,\u201d he confesses. \u201cAnd it suddenly dawned on me that I could still work with my clients while working remotely in Vancouver.\u201d So in 2004, Bob moved back to Vancouver where the turn-of-phrase \u201cNo-fun-city\u201d had become a thing and the louder voices you heard about Vancouver were the negative kind. \u201cI use to visit a website called cuteoverload.com<\/span><\/a> to sorta cleanse my palate at the end of the day,\u201d says Bob. \u201cI wanted to make something that talked about all the great things in Vancouver. I liked this sentiment of really fuzzy happy, puppy dogs and rainbows and so I turned it into this thing that is Vancouver is Awesome as a response to all the negative stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Bob tells me that in the very beginning it was 30 friends, totally unorganized and Bob would sign them up to share something awesome. \u201cI only had two rules: no nudity because I didn\u2019t want anything that contributed to the objectification of women on the internet and just no negativity. So, in the beginning, it was fun, but within a few months, it just started taking up half of my workday. I never thought it would make money. It was a side project, an outlet for positive news. But because it was taking up so much of my time I had to figure out a business plan… so it has been amazing to have the opportunity to grow and to utilize the resources that are here at Glacier Media. It\u2019s also cool to look back.”<\/p>\n

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Ever wondered how and why we got started sharing Vancouver’s awesomeness almost a decade ago? Read the feature about our founder @bobkronbauer and how we came to be, in this week’s @vancouriernews. Link in our bio. \ud83d\udcf7: @dtoulgoet<\/a><\/p>\n

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