Introduction
Born in North Yorkshire, Robbie Conder grew up in a military family; his father was an army officer and his mother an occupational therapist. Educated in the UK, he developed an early interest in the outdoors, travel, and mountain culture.
At eighteen, Robbie moved to North Wales where, outside of work, he spent much of his time exploring the crags and ridges of the Llanberis Pass. These years laid the foundations for a lifelong connection with sports and adventure travel.
By the age of twenty-one he had relocated to France, beginning a series of seasonal jobs centred around mountain and beach culture. He worked as a barman and snowboard repair technician in Flaine, taught snowboarding in Kirchberg, and later worked as a beach photographer on Pampelonne Beach near Saint-Tropez.
During the early 1990s he joined Oxbow and spent the next eight years immersed in the growing European snowboard and surf scene. Working across events, sales, marketing, and athlete relations, he travelled extensively throughout France and Europe helping to promote the brand during a formative period for boardsports culture.
His work ranged from coordinating snowboard, surf, and longboard events to assisting at trade shows, sales seminars, and grassroots promotional campaigns. Between 1995 and 1999 he also worked as snowboard sales representative for the Paris region, building relationships with retailers while helping develop Oxbow’s presence within the rapidly expanding market.
In 1999, after nearly a decade living and working within the boardsports industry, Robbie chose a change of direction and moved to Morocco for a year with only a laptop and a digital camera.
Travelling extensively throughout the country by camping-car and motobike, he refined his digital workflow in photography, image editing, website development, and online publishing at a time when remote working and mobile internet were still in their infancy.
Alongside documenting his travels through his blog, he worked on website development and online content management projects for a local holiday company, helping to develop tourism and adventure activities for international visitors. Working remotely via a 14kbit/s mobile phone connection, he regularly updated websites and online content directly from the field.
Returning from Morocco with new ideas and experience, Robbie established his own UK-based internet consultancy specialising in website development, optimisation, and digital publishing. Over the following twenty years, the same robbieflow.com blog continued to evolve, documenting projects, travel, photography, and life experiences along the way.
In 2020, due to Brexit, changes were needed. To continue living and working in France, Robbie undertook the process of acquiring French nationality — collecting official documents, passing the B1 French language examination, and completing the "mammoth" administrative process.
On 24 December 2020, France gained a new citizen..
Robbie now lives and works in France where he continues to work across website and eco-friendly product development. His work also includes brand communication, visual content creation, and online promotion.
