The idea for Lakelubbers was born six years after Brian and Lisa Raub, co-founders, moved to Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia in 2001. They created travel-related websites about vacation rentals (A1Vacations) and Smith Mountain Lake in 1998, and Watauga Lake, Tennessee in 2006. In 2007, they began building a worldwide database of lakes for lake enthusiasts like themselves, drawing on lessons learned and knowledge gained from their earlier websites. This lakes database became the foundation for their latest web-based project: "Lakelubbers, for Lake Lovers".
This website opened in May 2008 and now has 500 lakes described in our database. Lakelubbers features the world's most interesting lakes with lake statistics, lake comparisons, messaging forums, free classifieds, restaurant and marina and real estate guides, fishing reports, and much more. We will help you to find your next vacation destinations or a waterfront retirement home -- near inland lakes that are not threatened by global warming.
In its "final" form (2011 or so), Lakelubbers will describe vacation and retirement opportunities at thousands of lakes throughout the world. We're starting with lakes in the USA, and now include lakes from every US state. In 2009, we will add more US lakes plus lakes in other countries.
Because of the enormity of our task -- gathering detailed, accurate information about thousands of lakes worldwide -- we encourage visitors like you to suggest lakes, contribute information about the lakes you know, to identify restaurants and marinas and real estate professionals that serve your favorite lakes, and to participate in Lakelubbers.com in many other ways.
Lakelubbers will offer "non-intrusive" advertising opportunities for local real estate companies near each lake, and for companies that provide boating and sporting equipment for lakes throughout the USA and the world. Please call us for details.
Lakelubbers looks forward to making you a "lake enthusiast", and to providing you with the information you need to plan your next lake vacation -- or to retire to a beautiful spot with a lake view -- somewhere in the world.
What is a lake? Lakelubbers.com defines a lake as a natural or man-made inland body of water that provides significant recreational or residential opportunities. Most lakes initially included in our database will include at least 640 acres (1 square mile) of water surface at normal water levels, and will be accessible to the general public.
What's a LakeLubber? A LakeLubber is a person who loves lakes -- a connoisseur of inland bodies of water. LakeLubber is not yet in any dictionary ("landlubber" is), but we'll try to remedy that by 2020!
We need lake writers -- and "lake moderators" to help us build Lakelubbers. Please see Lakelubbers Jobs.
Lisa Raub, President - Co-founded Lakelubbers in 2007. Raised in Greenville PA, Lisa earned her BA in Psychology from Yale University (1975) and her PhD in Counseling Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania (1981). Lisa was the president of A1Vacations from 1999-2005, when it was acquired by HomeAway. Lisa manages day-to-day operations at Lakelubbers -- and writes about lakes.
Paul Glover, Programmer & Network Administrator - Joined Raub's Internet for Business LLC in 2005. Originally from Lisburn, Northern Ireland, Paul earned his BSC in Information & Communications Technology from Queens University in Belfast, Ireland (1996). Paul previously worked in software development for Aepona Group Ltd. & Northbook Technology, in Belfast. Paul moved to Smith Mountain Lake in March 2005 when he married Kelli Glover. Paul is the ColdFusion/SQL/HTML programmer and administers networks at Lakelubbers.
Erin Raub, Lake Researcher and Writer - Joined Raub's Internet for Business LLC in 2005. Raised in Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania, Erin earned her BA in Anthropology with a minor in Spanish from the University of Virginia (2005). Erin lives and travels in Central America. Through the wonder of the Internet, she works for Lakelubbers from Costa Rica.
Ron Gordon, Lake Researcher and Writer - Joined Lakelubbers in 2008. Raised all over the USA, Ron earned his Bachelors of Mechanical Engineering from General Motors Institute of Technology, was faculty advisor for an online college and earned his Master of Science in Information Management from International School of Information Management. He moved to Smith Mountain Lake in 2007.
Jennifer Merritt, Lake Researcher and Writer - Joined Lakelubbers in 2008. Originally from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Jennifer earned a BFA in Ceramics from Penn State University and has done graduate study in Architecture at Virginia Tech. She moved to Smith Mountain Lake in 1994 and currently lives on Spring Lake, a 16 acre farm pond in Moneta, with her husband and three young sons.
Sarah Enquist, Lake Researcher and Writer - Joined Lakelubbers in 2008. Sarah grew up in Roanoke, Virginia and earned an Associate degree at Virginia Western Community College. She currently lives in Tazewell County, Virginia with her husband and two sons.
Brian Raub, Planning Manager - Co-founded Lakelubbers in 2007. Raised in Greenville PA, Brian earned his BA in Political Science from Yale University (1975) and his MBA from Harvard Business School (1977). He founded A1Vacations (1998), which became one of the world's largest vacation rental advertising services. Brian manages planning at Lakelubbers and Raub's Internet for Business LLC. He also writes about lakes.
Please link to us with this HTML code:
<a href="http://www.Lakelubbers.com/">Lakelubbers Guide to Recreational Lakes</a> - for Lake Lovers.
If you copy and paste the above HTML code, it should look like this on your links page:
Lakelubbers Guide to Recreational Lakes - for Lake Lovers.
The Raubs develop travel-related websites. Their best-known internet venture to date is A1Vacations, created in 1998 and sold in 2005. A1Vacations advertises about 30,000 "by-owner" weekly vacation rentals, worldwide. Lakelubbers is part of Raub's Internet for Business LLC -- a member of the Smith Mountain Lake Chamber of Commerce.
Raub's Internet for Business LLC