Community Highlight: Bobby Aarsen
Our community is an integral part of the success of our company. HAVN’s vision and vitality are brought to life with the support from our community members helping us work towards achieving this dream. It is our pleasure to highlight some of our members, to showcase their incredible talents, hard work, and creativity in our weekly segments.
Bobby Aarsen is our woodworking wizard for windows and doors. He is a true artist in his craft, always creating beautiful and functional pieces that leave us in awe. What truly makes Bobby unique is his passion for hip hop, which he unleashes with pizazz whenever he takes to the stage. Having opened for Mac Miller, he's a true hidden hip hop legend, with a talent that is as unexpected as it is impressive.
Beyond his many talents, what really sets him apart is his warm and welcoming demeanour, always quick with a joke and a smile. He values good friendships above all else and is truly considerate of others. Onboard HAVN, Bobby inspires us with his crafting of all the wooden doors, as well as seamless glass corner windows, for the ultimate sea to sky view.
Q: What are you working on for the HAVN project?
I am building all of the wooden doors and sauna windows on the boat.
Q: Is there anything you’re excited to be working on for this project or anything new that you’re learning?
I got to build seamless corner windows which I’ve never done before. I was using structural sealant to melt the corners of the windows together so that was something new and really cool to be able to do. I really enjoyed doing that, there were a lot of complicated angles to figure out, working on things that I haven’t quite done before. I actually found it a lot easier than I thought it was going to be, it really wasn’t a struggle and I was very happy about that.
Q: Did you think that HAVN was going to get approved?
I definitely thought it would, I had a lot of hope, but it was definitely a very tense three and a half hours in City Hall that night. It was a roller coaster for sure.
Q: What is your background and how did you end up working here?
I went to Camosun College for Fine Furniture when I was 19 and then I walked straight out of there, had a weekend off, and then started a job at a little wood window shop called Oak Ridge Doors and Windows. I worked there for 15 years and while I was working there I met Nick through a mutual friend. He needed help working on his house and he asked if I would be willing to teach him how to do all of it himself. We built a friendship that way and I helped him install everything and it went really well. When he came up with the idea for this project he came to me right away. My mom was the one who got me into this trade. One day she signed me up for the course at Camosun because I was always really good at woodworking in high school, so I tried it and absolutely loved it.
Q: Do you have any other passion projects or hobbies you’re currently working on or want to pursue in the future?
Now that I’ve been doing this project I would like to venture out on my own after because there’s not a lot of people doing this work in the city. There are probably like four or five companies that do it pretty well and I’d like to take a piece of that and do it myself. I do a lot of furniture building and fun projects on the side for friends and family and to have my own shop where I can make a business building doors and windows and other items would be amazing. I would love to also have my own space on the side to build whatever it is I want to build. I could build these items for commercial, residential, or even one off fancy high end items that others don’t know how to do so they come to people like me and I would have to figure it out. The company I worked for previously, about 12 years ago, we were the first company on the Island that could build German engineered lift and slide doors. No companies on the Island were doing it so we wanted to tap into that market. We got all the plans and they were all in German so I had to completely re-draft and re-engineer everything into imperial measurements and I don’t know how to read German but I just figured it out. After that I kind of became the guy for people or companies that had that style of door. I was going out to sites and fixing them as well because I knew every little intricate detail and why they would fail.
Q: What are some things you love about working on the West Coast and in Victoria?
The ocean is incredible. The fact that we have the ocean and the mountains surrounding us is pretty amazing. I also grew up in Victoria so it’s pretty cool to be working in the community that I grew up in and actually do something to contribute to it. It makes me feel very connected to the city.
Q: What are some fun facts about you or interests you have?
I’m a hip hop DJ and I’m also a rapper. I kind of grew up in Victoria making the local underground scene with my friends. We started a weekly freestyle cipher just after high school where we’d all get together and it ran for about 10 years solid. I’m also an avid video game nerd. I am 36 and I’m still playing Pokemon and I love it. I have a bunch of Tetris and Mario tattoos.
Q: What are you most excited about when HAVN opens?
I think having this space that is going to be very natural looking and organic in the downtown harbour is going to be really good for bringing a little bit of life back into the harbour. After covid, a lot of small businesses got pushed out and couldn’t survive and this is a local small business that I think is going to thrive and do really well. I am also excited to just be able to use the facility, it’s going to be a pretty amazing place, and not only that but I’ll get to see my work when I am there as well.
Follow us on Instagram if you want to see more photos of Bobby, the construction progress, and other HAVN content. Stay tuned for more HAVN community highlights to come! We hope you enjoyed :)