YouTube user Floridian Elevators (formerly Superduper Julien), or by his real name Julien, is an Elevator Filmer based in Central Florida, In particular, Orlando, FL and Tampa, FL. He is well known in the Community for his love of Vintage and Antique Elevators, as well as New Mitsubishi Elevators and Foreign style elevators, along with High-Speed Elevators in hotels and office buildings. He is also very well known for his hatred on KONE EcoDisc Elevators, MRL Hydros and many modern generic elevator fixtures and brands as well as elevator modernization.
While based in Florida, he has filmed a lot in many other states throughout the USA including California, Oregon, Washington, Washington D.C., Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Georgia, Kentucky, South and North Carolina, Nevada, New York, Virginia, and several other US states. He has also filmed in the Canadian Provinces of Quebec, British Columbia and Ontario. He currently has over 3,000,000 views and over 5000 subscribers.
His favorite types of elevators are Otis with Touch Sensitive, Black Buttons, Lexan, Pop Out or Vanity buttons, and Series 1, 2, 3 and 4, and Autotronic and Elevonic 401 and 411 models. He also love Vintage 60's Dovers with the Black Buttons, The 70s Black Traditional, and older Westinghouse and Haughton Elevators from the 70s and prior as well as 80s-2000s era Fujitecs. His favorite kind of elevators of all time however are Manually Controlled Elevators, and while he isn't a huge fan of modern elevators, his favorite modern elevators are Mitsubishis, followed by Schindler and Otis.
Story[]
Julien has loved elevators since he was very little back in 2006. His First elevator he remembers riding was the elevator at the Wyndham Plantation Resort in Villa Rica, GA. He was 4 years old at the time, and his mom said we would ride the elevator. After pressing the floor, doors closing and reopening 30 seconds later, he wanted to learn all about elevators. He thought of them as magic. He later realized they were not after riding the Glass Montgomery Elevators at Gatlinburg Town Square in Gatlinburg, TN shortly after, but he still has loved elevators since then.
Around 2008, he discovered people who film elevators on YouTube. He was so glad to know he wasn't alone in loving elevators, and he wanted to film some himself. On June 10th, 2010, his mom filmed him riding the Otis Series 4 Elevonic 411 Elevators at The Renaissance Norfolk Portsmouth Waterfront Hotel in Norfolk, VA. His mom later filmed him after that on the Series 1 Parking Elevators.
Then, in July of 2010, he filmed his first video himself of riding the Elevators at the Newly Renovated Holiday Inn, Wilkes Barre, PA. He filmed a few videos from 2010-2013. But after he filmed a video of the Elevator at the Springhill Suites in Pensacola Beach, FL, He didn't see the point in filming elevators as he had nobody to share of with as he was still too young to be on YouTube at the time.
On Christmas of 2014, he later opened his YouTube channel SuperDuper Julien. He got the name from a comic superhero he created. He wanted to make an elevator channel, but his dad was so against him filming elevators. He filmed quite a few elevator videos in 2015, but he did other types of videos as he couldn't run a successful elevator channel at the time. He did vlogs and lip sync videos. But they didnt get many views and they had hate. He didn't enjoy making them much either, but he wanted to run a successful channel, and he didn't get to film much elevators at the time.
In February 2016, just a week before his dad passed away, he rebranded his channel to Floridian Elevators. He now has more freedom to film elevators, and has already done multiple vacations since then and met many other enthusiasts. He created a website called floridianelevators.weebly.com (which was deleted as of 2020). Since then, he has gotten to film many elevators and is continuing to do so, and he now occasionally is now doing Aviation, Transit, Hotel Tours & other kinds of transportation & travel related videos. Julien has stated that he plans to make transit and aviation more regular uploads on his channel in addition to elevators, beginning with his April 2022 Quebec/Ontario trip.
As of 2022, he has met up with O Town Elevators, upanddownadventures, Airplane&Elevatorfan8150, AdazElevatorz, Elevating Florida, ElevatorMan227, Genessee Trains & Elevators, SPS8-elevatorsoflakecounty, ElementElevators, Vancity Elevators, DanielMar1228, BigElevatorDude707, UpLift Vancouver, ems318, Northeast Elevators and plans to meet up with many more in the future.
Other Interests[]
In addition to elevators, Julien loves Aviation (Airplanes, Jets, Helicopters, and Gliders), Trains and Railroads, Cars, Hotels, Rollercoasters & Theme Parks, Architecture, Old Buildings and Skyscrapers. He is also an avid gamer, and he also enjoys hiking and swimming. He also has a strong interest in technology, and is often the one who gets called whenever someone in his family has computer problems. He originally planned to be an Elevator Technician/designer/engineer, or a Pilot or Architect when he grew up, but as of September of 2021, he joined the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) to pursue a career as an Electrician.
Fun Facts[]
- Before creating his current YouTube channel in Christmas 2014, he used a channel under his mom's name that he never made videos on, but rarely commented.
- Julien's very first elevator was a 1970s Westinghouse Selectomatic Elevator at Chesapeake Regional Medical Center in Chesapeake, VA. The elevators were since modernized by Otis with Series M2 in the early 2010s.
- He loves any type of Vintage and Antique Elevator, especially Otis, Westinghouse and Haughton.
- He has discovered a large variety of different generic elevator brands in different cities he has travelled to.
- His favorite old elevator manufacturer is Otis, while his favorite modern elevator manufacturer is Mitsubishi.
- Julien loves to travel, and hopes to visit all major countries and cities in the world one day
- His favorite cities he's filmed elevators in are Montreal, Seattle, San Francisco, Denver (and the surrounding areas), Buffalo and Chattanooga. This is due to the fact that most buildings in the aforementioned cities are relatively easy to access and the fact that there are so many original pre 1980s elevators in these cities.
- In January of 2018, Julien's channel hit 1,000 subscribers, and in late 2021, it hit 5,000 subscribers.
- His current channel profile photo was custom made by a friend of Genessee Trains & Elevators named Haris. Prior to that, his profile photos were of a Manual American Elevator in Avon Park, FL and before that, a Manual Turnbull Freight Elevators at a building in Montreal, QC.
- He loves high rise elevators.
- Julien doesn't just like vintage elevators, but he loves architecture and exploring the building that houses it.
- Julien also loves Hotels, especially Marriott, Hilton, Starwood and Hyatt hotel chains. He also likes Club Wyndham Resorts as well as funky & retro independently owned properties.
- Just like many other users in the community, he has Asperger Syndrome and ADHD. He was diagnosed in March 2010, just 3 months prior to his first elevator video being taken.
- He also loves exploring skyscrapers and other buildings.
- His favorite rollercoaster companies are B&M (older) & Rocky Mountain Construction (RMC) (newer) and his favorite rollercoasters are Intimidator 305 at King's Dominion, Leviathan at Canada's Wonderland and Iron Gwazi at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay.
Camera History[]
Primary Cameras:[]
- Canon Powershot A700 (June 2010-August 2013)
- Nikon CoolPix S33 (May 2015-March 2016)
- Sony RX100 (April 2016-December 2019)
- Sony Handycam HDR-CX440 (December 2019-June 2021)
- Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5G (July 2021-December 2021)
- Sony Handycam FDR-AX43 (December 2021-present)
Secondary Cameras:[]
- Apple iPod Touch 5th Generation (May 2015-May 2016)
- Samsung Galaxy J3 2016 (Amp Prime) (May 2016-May 2018)
- GoPro Hero 6 (December 2017-present; used very rarely)
- Samsung Galaxy S9+ (May 2018-July 2021)
- Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5G (December 2021-July 2022)
- Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (July 2022-present)