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Jim Gilbert: Editor, Journalist, Author

Introduction to Jim Gilbert. 5:53 min. Interview: Jim Gilbert. Video Editing & Production: Kevin Dieujuste. Music: Sofia Rosenblatt. Recorded via Zoom, 1/5/2021, Mazatlan, Mexico.

JIM GILBERT’s 35-year career as a journalist and publisher is notable in that he was always able to write about things he truly enjoyed while living in places he genuinely loved. His career began as a weekly reporter and editor on Cape Cod for the Provincetown Advocate, then shifted to San Juan, Puerto Rico, Newport, RI, and finally to Ft. Lauderdale, FL, where he was the founding editor-in-chief and ultimately owner of ShowBoats International, which he started in 1988. ShowBoats quickly became the most prestigious magazine in the world of superyachts. A dedicated surfer, sailor and fisherman, Gilbert parlayed his love for the sea into the International SeaKeepers Society, raising more than $10 million from his yacht-owning readers for a “save the sea tax” to fund critical ocean research and data. Upon the sale of his magazine in 2005, he became the president of two international yacht-building companies, and in-between wrote his first novel, The Admiral (Christopher Matthews Press), a swashbuckling fantasy about a mid-ocean community riding out the ravaging impacts of climate change. “We have lived in a golden era of human existence,” he says, “a world of wealth and easy travel to the planet’s farthest reaches. But this era was built on borrowed time and resources, gargantuan loans that are just now coming due.”

The videos below were recorded via Zoom, are organized by topic, and run between 30 seconds and 5 minutes. Click on any video. You must be connected to the Internet to view the videos.

INSIGHT & INSPIRATION: 1:53 min.

Where did you grow up, and what’s your earliest memory of art of any discipline?

VALUES FIRST-RATE EDUCATION: 3:50 min.

Where did you go to school, and what did you learn in school that still informs you today?

SEIZES OPPORTUNITIES: 1:15 min.

Tell us what it was like being one of the early surfers on the East Coast? How did you meet other surfers?

SEIZES OPPORTUNITIES: 3:16 min.

Talk a little about being a pioneer surfer on Cape Cod. How did you even get a board to surf on?

INSIGHT & INSPIRATION: 5:50 min.

What was your transition from surfing to journalism?

SELF-CONFIDENCE: 1:52 min.

Did you ever consider going to journalism school?

DEVELOP A VOICE: 3:19 min.

I believe that our mutual friend Greg Katz, who had a distinguished career in journalism, and died in 2020 from Covid-19 while he was the AP Bureau Chief in London, also started out at the Provincetown Advocate without a degree in journalism.

STRONG DRIVE FOR ACHIEVEMENT: 4:22 min.

Why did you move to Puerto Rico in 1979?

UNDERSTANDS THE BUSINESS OF ART: 8:10 min.

Describe the evolution from having an idea for a magazine — “Showboats International” — to publishing the first issues to being purchased by a major international publishing house.

EXPOSURE TO BROAD INFLUENCES: 8:36 min.