‘When I woke up in Elmvale and looked at the thermometer, it was -17 inside the van,’ says local content creator of his recent adventure
A former York Region school board employee turned successful YouTube personality put his “stealth” lifestyle to the ultimate test earlier this month, surviving a bone-chilling night in his minivan as temperatures in Elmvale plummeted to a frigid -17 C.
Ken Domik, the creator behind the popular YouTube channel KBDProductionsTV, swapped his steady career in the education sector for a life on the road, documenting his “van life” adventures for more than 660,000 subscribers.
One of his recent videos featured a stop in Elmvale, about 20 minutes north of Barrie, for his “Christmas special.”
Following a quick tour of the village to get his bearings and search for a secure place to park for the night, Domik enjoyed a piping-hot French onion soup and shepherd’s pie at Rumi’s Grillhouse on Queen Street West, followed by an exploratory walk-around amid a brewing snowstorm.
The Gilford resident, who spent Dec. 28 in Stayner and Dec. 29 in Coldwater, said he attempts to find where a storm is going to hit the worst and then hits the road in an effort to get there before it gets too bad.
“It’s also about the location and what restaurants I want to cover,” he said. “People laugh at me because I call it a job, and they think doing YouTube is just a fun thing to do. It is fun, but I get paid to do it.”
Domik has been creating these videos, including his recent Christmas special in Elmvale, since 2006, and ultimately left his full-time job with the York Region District School Board communications department for good in April 2013.
“As I went through that time off, my channel started to grow exponentially,” he said.
Since then, he has created hundreds of videos, which collectively have garnered hundreds of thousands of views.
“At the time, I didn’t think I was going to be a YouTuber. I just thought I was going to have my own video production company.”
Ken Domik, a Simcoe County-based YouTuber, recently spent the night sleeping in his van in Elmvale. | Image supplied
About three weeks ago, Domik travelled to Elmvale, where he spent the night in his converted 2011 Town and Country minivan, and enjoyed a brief walkabout to admire the century homes and local cuisine.
“I look around me and I get so many comments from people from Europe and all over the place and they love watching these small-town videos. Elmvale was on my radar,” he said.
While he tends to do a little bit of research before travelling to a new location, Domik says he always looks for “mom-and-pop shops” to feature.
“Those are always my go-to because people always like that I support those people,” he said. “If we don’t support our local mom-and-pop shops, they will be gone and then every small town will only have a Subway and a Tim Hortons. I am trying to really push to go out to those places. We can’t afford to lose them.
“I really wanted to try the bakery, but it was closed. Unfortunately, if I have to shoot on a Monday, I know most of the stores and restaurants are going to be closed because they were open Saturday and Sunday,” Domik added.
Domik has even heard of viewers travelling to Canada with the main focus of their visit being to check out some of the small-town spots he has featured in his videos.
“That part is really neat,” he admitted.
After exploring more of the village on foot, Domik drove to his overnight parking spot near the Subway plaza on Yonge Street South, where he settled in for the night.
While he’s accustomed to experiencing cold temperatures during his shoots — a shoot last year in Penetanguishene nearly left him frozen inside his vehicle — Domik said waking up the next morning to find the thermometer inside the van had hit -17 C was a definite shock to the system.
“I think that’s the coldest I can remember. There are three temperatures I always try to push: the real temperature, the windchill and the temperature inside my van when I wake up in the morning or before I go to bed,” he said.
“When I woke up in Elmvale and looked at the thermometer, it was -17 inside the van. Luckily, I have learned through talking to other YouTubers and Mountain Equipment Co-op, what to do about fuel and water if I don’t want it to freeze.”
In an effort to create both privacy and insulation inside the van, Domik made some window coverings using duct work foam wrap covered in black duct tape.
“That’s for privacy, but the whole stealth thing is that you want someone to walk past your vehicle and not think that there is someone sleeping in there,” he said.
Domik says he is enjoying life on the road, and adds he could only have hoped he would experience the kind of success that he has so far.
“Every once in a while I shake my head, but it’s what people want on my channel. When you have a YouTube channel, you do what you want to do, but the views and the money also start to sway you a certain way. You just always hope it doesn’t sway you in the wrong direction where you don’t want to do that kind of content.
“If I hated sleeping in my van but that’s what people watched, then you’d be able to tell if I didn’t like doing it. I enjoy it.”
In fact, the nights Domik sleeps in his van — which is decked out with a platform and mattress, a small propane heater and pretty much everything he could need for his brief adventure — are often the only times he gets a proper night’s sleep, he says.
“We have a Calico cat and she wakes us up every morning at like 6 a.m. When I have a van sleep, I actually get to sleep in a little bit,” he said, noting he usually films once a week.
As for where his next adventure will take him, Domik says it all depends on the weather.
“It depends on where the storm is going to be,” he said.
Ken Domik, a Simcoe County-based YouTuber, recently spent the night sleeping in his van in Elmvale. | Image supplied