BUDS DIGEST 008 / FEATURE
RAINBOW SURF CAMP
DOES PANAMA
Interviewed by BUDS DIGEST
Photographed by BEN TOUSLEY & BRÁULIO AMADO
REGGIE HOLDNER photographed in Playa Venao, Panama during the inaugural edition of Rainbow Surf Camp. November 2022.
Buds Digest connects with organizers of Rainbow Surf Camp, a new, international, all queer surfing retreat whose second iteration occurs this week in Imsouane, Morocco.
The retreat’s main production players, RICH OVERGAARD and STEVEN REDANT, met over Instagram in 2020 and instinctively began to bring the idea to life. Their first outing took place at Beach Break Surf Camp in Playa Venao, Panama in November 2022, much to the enrichment of its attendees, as expressed by REGGIE HOLDNER, a savvy surfer from Southern California who joins the conversation.
REDANT and OVERGAARD keep things DIY, both separately visiting rad and welcoming surfing sites around the globe to scope out the energy and negotiate accommodations for a group of queer boarders at all skill levels. “That's how I learned to surf,” REDANT says of his own education. “Having those multiple days in a row of just surfing and learning and connecting and getting the video analysis. I just thought, ‘What a cool thing to do with other gay folks.’”
Read on to hear about the history and future of Rainbow Surf Camp. For more information about future outings, click here.
RICH and ADAN celebrate a beautiful sunset. Playa Venao, Panama. November 2022.
BUDS DIGEST: Rich can you give us a little bit of background Rainbow Surf Camp. Tell us kind of how it got started.
RICH: It started with the Instagram account that I launched. I think it's three years ago now, January, 2020. I came home from a trip to Mexico super sick. Maybe it was Covid, who knows. I lost my voice. I was stuck at home. I was just so bored and I was just kind of wondering, where are all the gay surfers at? Where's the queer surf community? There's been websites, gaysurfers.net, there’s that Out in the Lineup documentary. There's been effort throughout the years to sort of talk about surfing and gay surfers and the LGBTQ community but everything sort of fizzled out. Something would happen and then it would fizzle out. I remember creating an account years ago for gaysurfers.net. I encountered Steven in different social spaces like Facebook and things like that. It had just sort of been bubbling along. Where is this community? Obviously we're all there. I had been on a trip to Costa Rica where I learned to surf and half of my trip were other gay surfers, so I knew everyone was out there. It just felt like there was not a place where people were connecting. I created an Instagram and started reaching out to people, searching hashtags, different versions of the hashtags, to find people and say, “Hey, I'm doing this. Send me pictures. We're gonna give this a go.” One of the first people I connected with was Steven and a few people in the San Diego/LA corridor. I just started pitching around the idea. Does anyone want to put an effort into actually getting us together and going somewhere? That was my experience learning to surf. I live in the Pacific Northwest. To go from Vancouver to the nearest surf spot is a four hour journey. You gotta take a ferry and drive for two hours to get to Tofino. Surfing in Vancouver, even though we’re right on the ocean, isn't really an accessible option. So, I often go south to Mexico or Central America. That's how I learned to surf, was on retreat, having those multiple days in a row of just surfing and learning and connecting and getting the video analysis. And I just thought what a cool thing to do to do with other gay folks.
BD: So interesting.
RICH: So Steven and I finally just started to get serious and talk about it. We connected and started doing FaceTimes and getting really serious about committing to saying yes and doing it and organizing. There's other people that have tried. Marta in Brazil has been trying to run camps. Obviously Covid was very disruptive. There's a group in Europe that tried to do some things in the Canary Islands and of course there's another group of people in the UK who have started a really cool network. So, it feels like it was just the right moment in time where all of a sudden there was momentum behind people saying, “Hey, I'm here and I'm out there and I'm surfing, or I wanna learn to surf. This looks really cool.” And you see now a whole community forming in Southern California, which Reggie, I'm sure you could speak more to, but it just feels like people are more “out there.”
BD: What was the time span for from the time that you had the idea to the time that we did the first one in Panama?
RICH: The first real conversation was when things started to open up after those first couple years of the pandemic. I'd say we got really serious, in the spring of 2022, about trying to find a location and picking dates. Then we wanted to make sure that everything was ready to launch, to try to recruit folks in by the summer for that November/December trip. Once we got going, it came together really quick.
BD: And here we are getting ready to go on the second one.
RICH: I know and the third one is already scheduled.
“There’s so much to control [with surfing.] And the fact that you actually control it, even for those three seconds, that is the rush. That’s when you’re hooked.”
BD: Like wildfire. Reggie, Steven and Rich, what has drawn you to surfing and how did you get started?
REGGIE: I grew up really close to the beach in San Diego and it was a really good surf spot. I grew up in the water as much as I could be. I body surfed a lot but I didn't actually start surfing until I was about 11 or 12. Me and my brother just went out together, got some used boards and decided we were going to try to learn how to surf. We never took any lessons or anything. We just started going a bunch and the rest is history. I just kept surfing after that. I think I started surfing even earlier than that, but it was halfway me and my best friend kind of playing in the water, you know, nothing really structured but practicing getting up and riding whitewater. I think actually piling out to the lineup was when I was about 12.
I surfed a bunch for the first few years and then I got involved in other kinds of sports that kind of took me away from it, but I always would go back because I was right there by the beach. So, whenever I could, I would surf. I loved it.
It was hard, being one of the few girls in the lineup at the time because that was 1994-ish, 95. A lot of times I'd be the only girl in the lineup which was hard, especially with Southern California-surf-dude-bros, who were not the friendliest. It's been amazing to see how much more accepted and in the pro scene women have become over those years. The same thing seeing more gay folks and queer folks in the lineup too, which I never even imagined would be a thing. It was hard to imagine having a bunch of women pro surfers, nonetheless, queer surfers. So, my surfing experience has waxed and waned over the years depending on my location to the beach, but I've always come back to it because it's just that feeling of stoked that I know you guys know is – you can't deny it.
BD: Totally. You're hooked.
STEVEN: When I was 40 I hit a really big wall; a midlife crisis with depression and addictions and all that shit. I had to make a choice so I picked up surfing. And surfing literally saved my life. I don't think I'd be here if it wasn't for surfing and that is absolutely serious. It's because you can't combine both. Suddenly surfing became more important than my DJ career. I was looking for gigs that were close to surf spots and then I couldn't party at night. I just could work because the next day, I wanted to go surfing. That's how I got into surfing. I was dabbling into it before. A couple of days here and there, but nothing really excessive. As soon as I hit 40, I was like, yeah, this is gonna be it from now on.
BD: Amazing.
RICH: I was late to surfing too. I'm 44 now and 2015 was when I did my first learn to surf trip. I was well into my thirties by the time I actually properly learned to surf. I'd always grab a surfboard on a beach if I was in Mexico or something and gone out and maybe surfed, maybe not – I don't know – stood up on a board here or there in the whitewash, but a friend of mine organized a trip in 2015 to Costa Rica with a group of people. It was a 12 day drive around Costa Rica. We had the van and we had the surfboards on the roof of the van and we'd get flat tires and crazy thunderstorms and it was the total adventure of that experience, of being with a group of people and driving across a country; crazy roads and floods. The whole thing was every day we surfed and every day we did that conversation and we talked etiquette and we learned about the science of the waves, which is so important to surfing. We learned about the etiquette of the lineup. Also, every day, we had chances to be coached and get that technique better and better. When I left that trip I was like, “Fuck, I feel like a surfer.” That whole experience is hard to get out. You gotta work hard to get past the break, you gotta get past that whitewash, past the waves to then catch one. And sometimes it's three seconds, sometimes it's ten seconds, but that rush of actually surfing is worth all that hard work. I found a lot of solidarity with the people I was with in that effort. It was a really cool feeling because then you just want to go and chat about it. I think you all experienced that. It's addictive. You come back, you sit down, you have a smoothie and you just wanna talk about it. That's part of that camaraderie and to have that with other gay and queer folks is so cool because otherwise it can be intimidating. The lineup in other places, sometimes there's some really hardcore bro stuff going on that feels like a hockey change room of my youth, you know, where it just doesn't feel cool and comfortable. I love the feeling of the debrief and the laughs and the storytelling that comes after surfing as well.
RICH, PATRICK, BRÁULIO and surf instructor ALEXIS hit the waves.
STEVEN: Don't you feel like sometimes we're like old people talking about golf?
RICH: It's the same thing, right?
STEVEN: My mother, as soon as she started with golf, it was like three quarters of the conversation was that. The whole thing of getting the group together, for example, what Rich is saying, those 10 seconds of surfing, you know, they've done studies on that. Why it is so satisfying. The first part is that it is very hard to catch that wave and the less experienced you are, the harder it is. But the wave itself, it's actually the feeling of falling. You know when you tilt back your chair and you go just a little too far and you've got that rush of adrenaline when you recover? That is the continuous feeling that you get when you're surfing. They've done research on that. The sliding, the gliding itself is what gives you that enormous rush. I would also say the fact that it is hard, the fact that there are so many moving objects. You have the water, you have the wind, you have your board. There's so much to control. And the fact that you actually control it, even for those three seconds, that is the rush. That's when you're hooked.
REGGIE: Yeah, that's “the stoke” I was talking about, you get that stoke and I think that's what's also feeding everyone afterwards, too. They're just all so stoked that they rode these waves and did that thing and made that happen. Like Steven says, it's addictive.
STEVEN: The community feeling of it is a very big part of it. It's like an instant family, which is worldwide, because as soon as you're in the lineups, as soon as you walk out to a beach, you know who's really into it for the feeling. And I'm not gonna say the “real surfer” because it feels like that's somebody who can actually surf – but it's not. That's not important. It's that real feeling that you can connect with anybody who's just as stoked as you. It's not the level of surfing that's important. It's the level of stoke that's important. You can travel by yourself, arrive in a town – a surf town – and within half an hour you're already singing at a table with 12 people and you're just part of it. That's it, no questions asked. That's also what I really love about it.
BD: Would you be able to talk about kind of your experiences until the point of starting a gay specific community for that? Why did you feel like you needed to bring gay people together for it?
STEVEN: So, there's always a lot of testosterone going on in the lineup. When you're hear back home, you're surfing with girls, it's just all fun and laughs; somebody drops in on a wave, nobody gets angry. But then the whole bro culture, I don't get it. I don’t get why you get mad when you're allowed to play in the water as an adult and it's still considered cool. That was, for me, one part of why we needed to be able to do this with gay people. There's a lot of less testosterone and to create that community feeling. The second part of that is when you're doing it with a gay crowd, you kind of automatically weed out all the kids, the 20 somethings. They're so annoying! They can drink until four in the morning and be on a board at seven and still cut like crazy. There's a lot of things you don't need explained. We felt it in Panama. I already went on gay ski trips and had a little bit of that feeling, but the way we had it in Panama, it surprised even me. I personally wasn't in the best moment of my life and that surf trip just knocked all the problems out of me. You could connect. I'm sure most people think like, oh I'm gonna fool around with hot surfers. And then as soon as they get there, you go, oh no, this is just a sisterhood of the surfing community and it's fun.
JOAO returns from a ride.
ADAN impresses the group with a special talent.
REGGIE: For me, finding a queer community of surfers was super important for a few reasons. One big reason, like Steven was talking about, is that bro culture that's in the lineup. When I was suddenly passing, it felt like, am I supposed to be a part of this bro culture now? I don't really know gay people that are surfing. I used to surf with lesbians all the time, which I can still do, right? But I've wanted more of a community around that and not to just be associated with that toxic masculinity when I'm out in the lineup. That could be an assumption if I’m presenting as a guy, right? Then the other thing for me is giving more access to it for the gay community. I feel like some folks, because of that toxic masculinity that's in the lineup, might not even think about surfing or give it a try because that’s there. But if they know there's a community of people that's gonna be there with them, I feel like it gives more access to people who maybe otherwise wouldn't have tried it. To just have a lineup of like-people who we're gonna be able to bounce things off of each other and have a carefree attitude and be there to enjoy it, is super important. I was seeking that. I was so happy that it actually existed. I didn't know that it existed.
RICH: I love listening to those perspectives. Reggie, yours especially just hits me, makes me emotional. I grew up, as an eventual gay person, with a ton of privilege, even as a gay person in the sense that I was always athletic. Even as a closeted teenager and young adult, I was always athletic. I grew up as a Canadian. I grew up in the hockey dressing room. My whole family, we were hockey players. That was the quintessential Canadian experience. I grew up in that dressing room and locker room talk. Like it's real, you know? It's toxic and it’s bullshit and can be an ugly place to be and you make it through. I made it through those spaces because I was good, because I was a natural athlete. I had that privilege for whatever reason, whatever genetics, disposition. I was a jock. Then in university I was a varsity rower and competed internationally. I mean, here we are, we're wet and covered in spandex. I mean it's kind of the gayest thing that could ever happen with a bunch of like six foot plus muscle dudes in a boat together. But, even there, it just didn't feel like you could be authentic. When I came out and found my family and all that stuff in terms of my circle of friends, I played volleyball in the gay community. That is a joyful space. It is competitive. It is fierce. The gay volleyball community in North America is intense and fierce. They take it really seriously. There are tournaments all over the country, and hundreds and hundreds of people show up for the national championships. But there's also cheers and there's joy and there's laughter and there's parties and there's all the fun that comes with playing a sport. From that volleyball experience and NAGVA, the North American Gay Volleyball Association, I was like, why isn't there something like this for surfing? That's when I really started to dream, when I had gone on that surf trip to Costa Rica. I just always had it in the back of my head and it wasn't until the Instagram account and then meeting Steven where I was like, someone has to do it.
BD: I'm curious, maybe we can talk a little bit more specifically about Panama and our experience there. What were you anticipating from it? Were there any surprises or reactions from the first time doing it? Anything you'd wanna change?
PATRICK, MARK, PETE, instructor BRETT, RICH and BRAULIO prepare to go out from the Beach Break Surf Camp home base.
REGGIE: I really had no idea what to expect. Some of my fears were that it was gonna be a certain type of looking gay men that were gonna be there and they was gonna be this certain fitness level and maybe everyone was gonna be really good. When I got there and I saw that there was such a cool diverse cast of characters that was there, that part of it was huge for me, that everybody brought their authentic selves and they brought something rad to the table. It made the trip. I was scared, being a trans person. I didn't know how I would be received. Trans guys aren't always received well in the cis gay male community. That is always a variable. I was also really happy to see that it was about surfing, because that's why I came. I came to surf and I was really pleased that that's what everyone else was there for too.
RICH: Two of the guys on the trip, Steven knew, had an existing relationship with. I had met one of the people before, but everyone else basically came through Instagram. Whether it was Steven's posts or my posts or the @surfergays post or the @longboardzaddy post, the group of 12 came together through Instagram. That's wild to me. We didn't spend any money. We just used social connections. I would be checking in with the host camp being like, “Hey, anyone register?” And he'd be like, “Yeah, this one, this one just came through, this one.” I'd go into these deep dives on Instagram to be like, who is this person? Where did they come from? How did they find us? That's rad because to form a community with a bunch of people that, as you say Reggie, was a diverse cast of characters, I think it was partly the space. I think we picked a good space. That natural environment is stunning. It's beautiful. The cute little pool where we could be in community together that we kind of took over. That space was right too. And that was important that we were all sort of in that. I just think that people came with the right attitude. We got lucky, but also there was intention behind the day that this is a surf camp and whether you're like Jeff who was a rockstar or Ben and Braulio who are brand new to this! Everyone left as surfers and that was my goal. I wanted everyone to experience what I experienced in 2015, which was to leave feeling like fuck I'm a surfer, I can surf and to make some community along the way. It exceeded my expectations. I'm really proud. I was really proud of how it came together. I really feel great about Beach Break Surf Camp and their staff and how they welcomed us even when there was a little request to one of the surf coaches to be less intense. But they received that really well. He was like, “I'm just trying to keep everybody safe.” And we're like, “Yep! And we want to giggle and laugh a little bit more.” They totally received that really well. Everything came together really just exceptional it exceeded my expectations for sure.
STEVEN: For me, it exceeded my expectations by a lot. I've done a couple surf camps and the age thing for me was a problem because I started when I was 40 and I was always surrounded by about a bunch of 20 year olds – they're annoying. For me it was the North Americans. How am I, as a European, gonna be able to cope with that? That's true. It sounds like a joke, but it's a very different attitude. For example, Rich, you feel that it was necessary to create this. For me, as a European, it was just like, yeah, sure, let's do this! it wasn't out of a necessity. It was just more out of a community thing. Like, okay, let's do this. It'll be fun. I feel like in North America, it lives more as a necessity to have this space where it's gay-normative. That was the best thing of this whole camp, it's gay-normative. You don't need to explain jack shit. It's just whatever. We all get it. Everybody just gets it. That was extremely nice.The mix of people also exceeded what I was hoping for. It takes all kinds to make a world and it takes all of this kind to make it beautiful. Mark was fantastic. It's true what Rich says. The space invites you to be like this. It was this tiny hotel. We barely got out of it. It was just this protected little bubble. That was really good. Remember, Rich, when you came to me like, “I think the other people are adapting to us.” The other patrons were just like, “Okay, they're ruling this place.” That's a great feeling. That lifts you up. It lifts you up and it lets your hair down. That was good. Meeting you Reggie, that was, for me, was something very special. It took me two days to realize before you were the trans guy. I had to ask Rich, “Who's the trans guy here?” You were just one of the gays and that was it. I feel like everybody was like that. So it exceeded – emotionally exceeded a lot of my expectations. That will be the trip that changed a lot for me.
RICH: I took so much joy in watching the six of the folks who were newer to surfing. I just loved going out and being there when you all came out of the water after your morning session. Just being part of that experience – just beaming and celebrating and high fiving. Even just that first two sessions where it was just catching tiny little whitewater stuff. It's so inviting, the joy of that. I loved catching those moments and just observing. It was so reminiscent of my feelings of learning to surf too. It was really great that way. Steven, I give huge credit to, because he went full in on trusting me, who he'd never met and to validate the space. That's because I had been to Beach Break Surf Camp in Playa Venao, Panama before. It was one of the bigger trips I did right before the pandemic. I went with a buddy of mine who's a straight guy and we had a really great week. So when Steve and I started talking like, “Where do we do this?” I said, you know, let me talk to John and Brent at Beach Break. It's the right space. You walk out your hotel room door onto the beach. There's a restaurant, there's the pool, it's contained. John is this amazing dude. He's so chill and so cool. He is trying to create something really almost spiritual that reflects his own passion for surfing and community. Steven, to his credit, was like, “Okay, I trust you man.” I phoned up Beach Break and we had a long chat and they were like, “Listen, we're cool. It is Panama. It is Central America. There are issues, struggles for gay marriage and equal rights.” Stuff like that throughout the region. He's like, “I can't vouch for our guests, but we’ll damn well make sure that the staff here know what's up and are welcoming. We just want to create a cool vibe for you.” And I was like, that's what we want. So, to have had that sort of check-in and conversations with them and them being really cool, but I knew that because I had experienced them. So, Steven with Morocco coming up, has sort of vetted the space. We can't just go anywhere because we're responsible. If we're organizing these retreats, we are responsible in a way for making sure that the community can actually build and sustain itself where we go. So, going and pre-visiting these places and talking to folks is part of making sure that we can create the safe space for community building, especially in parts of the world, like Central America or Morocco, that may be unaccustomed to a bunch of queer folks running around, having a great time.
STEVEN: I've actually had guys that said, “Okay, we're not gonna do Morocco because of this and this and this.” This was before I went for the second time. The first time I went alone. You don't really feel the whole community thing. But the second time around, I went to the hotel where we're going. It's the best feeling ever when they really don't care. Like not, “Mm-hmm.” Not that they don't care about you as a customer. They really don't care who you fall in love with. They were so used to it. I'm pretty confident it's gonna go great. I want to create something that people can trust. Like, next time, Reggie and you Ben, you went the leap of faith that I've had with Rich. You're taking the same leap of faith with me and Morocco. So, I think it's important. By the way, this is also something that exceeded my expectations. We’re forgetting the best part: those waves were insane!
REGGIE: We got lucky dude.
STEVEN: I was not expecting a Beach Break, that good. I did hang fives there. I was cross stepping on that board. It was insane. The surf itself was magical.
REGGIE: Yeah, it was super fun.
STEVEN: And that water is so warm.
BD: I'm sure it would've been different had we not been able to get the surf.
RICH: Surf requires a lot of cooperation and assistance from Mother Nature too. So, we got lucky because apparently the week after we left the swell died for like two weeks.
REGGIE: Oh, wow.
STEVEN: That could happen in Morocco, too boys.
RICH: Yeah, it happens. It's Mother nature. There's nothing we can do.
REGGIE: I think the reason I decided to do Morocco – I was a little on the fence too because it's illegal to be gay there – was the experience I had in Panama. Like you said Rich, seeing the beginners go and you feed off of that joy and you remember, oh yeah, this is why I'm here because it feels so good. That exceeded my expectations, too. The whole cast of characters that were there. The fact that I did feel safe makes me feel like, all right, yeah, I wanna go again. I'm gonna go to Morocco. That wave looks awesome. I was watching YouTube videos of it this morning. You guys created a really cool thing.
STEVEN: In Morocco the last two weeks, well the whole of the Atlantic have been swells of like 3, 4, 5 meters. I haven't stopped surfing for the last two weeks. I'm wrecked.
REGGIE: I’m so jealous.
STEVEN: I'm going like every two days to the physiotherapist just to be able to survive the next day in the waves. That's something that I would like to incorporate more in the next retreats, is to link the theory lessons of wave reading or attitude in the lineup or the way we access or the way we work with the wave to what happens in life. Because surfing has taught me a lot about life. First of all, for example, it taught me to be patient – which is very strange because we're all these adrenaline junkies going into the water – but it also teaches peace and quiet. So that is something I would love to incorporate at the family dinners. That is something that I absolutely loved in Panama. Those nights when we just all got together to sit at the table. It’s just stories about surfing and about life. They're the same stories, but it's just, you know, different settings. I love that.
REGGIE: And just our presence there as a group of gay people. We're here. We’re having this big dinner at this restaurant and just making ourselves visible, but not worrying about it or not caring. Just saying like, we're here, we're enjoying ourselves, you know? That was rad.
STEVEN: Dinner. That's what I love the most.
BD: Truly beautiful. On a personal note, I fully agree. And you guys are encapsulating this all in such a beautiful way.
What comes next for Rainbow Surfer Retreat? We'll be in Morocco when this article comes out. I know we have another one in Panama already in the works for the fall. What's on the horizon and what do you wanna do with it? Do you wanna keep it kind of this level of hopping around? Do you wanna change locations? Do you wanna take over the world?
STEVEN: No, I don't wanna take over the world. I tried that as a DJ. That sucks. We talked about this with Rich. I would love to do anywhere between four to six retreats a year, always in a different location. Somewhere you wouldn't go normally. As a group, we are stronger and we will feel safer. Somewhere Rich, or whoever, will have visited before so that you're in a welcoming environment. I would love to do one this summer on one of my islands. There are eight islands here. I would love to do one in Sayulita, which is less touristy but still very busy. Then in October I'm going to Sri Lanka with a friend.
JEFFREY and STEVEN discuss the day’s waves.
REGGIE: Oh, no way.
STEVEN: We call it scouting for location. It's a job. Somebody has to do it. Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Brazil. I have a great spot in Brazil too, so there's like a lot of spots. Basically, it is like this, I take a spot where I would really love to go. I'm a longboarder. Longboarder spots normally are also great for beginners. I have an endless list of spots that I want to visit. I pick a spot, I go and visit and then I just set it up, just to share the joy that I feel for this; the peace that surfing has given me. The joy that it brings to my life. My whole goal of this Rainbow Surf Retreat is to share that with as many people as possible. Even though I don't want big groups because I like the one-on-one contact, just to share that joy, to make them realize how beautiful life is and can be.
And the whole goal of the Rainbow Surf Retreats, for me from the very beginning, is to send people home happier, more fulfilled, and more sure of themselves than when they arrived. That's the whole thing. Surfing is a great gateway for that, but as we've heard here in this conversation, the peripheral activity around that is just as important. Reggie walked in and I'm sure he walked out a lot more sure of himself, feeling part of a community, and a better surfer maybe seven days later, right?
REGGIE: Yeah. I had had a really, really difficult year and going there, when I left Panama, I felt totally different. I was on cloud nine. I had a smile from ear to ear and I felt so much better. And I actually received some really tragic news when I returned from that trip and I don't think I would've been able to withstand that if I hadn't been on that trip beforehand. It set me up to be in a better place to receive that news. What your goal was, Steve, was huge for me. You brought me that joy and that sense of feeling whole in myself again.
STEVEN: I just had that horrible breakup so I wasn't myself completely. The team building was completely left over to Rich. He did an incredible, incredible, incredible job. When I hear you Reggie, you made my day, my week, my year. That's it. If can do that just for one person with every camp, I think my life is fulfilled.
RICH: Those first few days Steven and I would be up early in the morning processing what Steven was going through. Then he was like, “I just gotta surf man. Are you okay?” I'm like, dude, I got this, this is cool. This is what I do. We're good. I run a 100 person, three day long summer camp party in British Columbia every year that I organize all by myself. I was like, we're good. I can handle community building with 12 people. You go catch some waves, heal up and come back when you're ready. That's magic, too. For Steven and I to have never met each other in person.
MARK, STEVEN, PATRICK, JAMES, RICH, JEFFREY, BEN and OREN return from a hike.
STEVEN: That first Zoom call we connected right away. It might sound stupid, but I could see by his personal Instagram account and mine. Oh, yeah, this is good. This is gonna be a fun one. This is my people.
RICH: That would've been a disaster for all of you if Steven and I turned out not to like each other or get along. We were also really forming our own in-person bond as we went through this experience with all of you. That it was a bit of a role of the dice too. For me, what's next is, and Steven and I talk about this, I have my normal career, which is busy and crazy and this is a passion of mine for off the side of my desk. I am always kind of committed to one a year and I love Panama and I love that space in Panama and I'm happy for that to be an anchor that's predictable for people around the year. It's a really good anchor experience that is great for new folks. I think it's a really great place to learn to surf. There's other places around the world where this sort of experience of traveling and doing the Rainbow Retreats can evolve in different ways, but I love that space in Panama for that learn to surf moment. I think that could be sort of an anchor for me into the future as an anchor space that can help keep that sort of consistency. We're already booked in, the dates are locked for the end of November, early December. Again, we've asked them to basically take over. So we've asked for 20 spaces for the coming retreat in Panama at the end of November. We're just in the middle of final negotiations to lock down what all that looks like so that we can then fill it up and be ready to go. The goal is by the time the social media posts in Morocco are fast and furious, that we can take advantage of that and have the registration ready to go either around then or shortly thereafter so that people are inspired by what's happening in Morocco to then register for Panama. I've already received emails from people on Instagram saying, “Well what about this place? And what about this place?” There's an account called SurfTaiwan. They've reached out to me and said, “Hey, this is what I do. I put trips together in Taiwan!” He's a gay person himself and he is like, I'd love to host you guys. Let's have a conversation. Steven, I haven't even talked to you about this yet. It just happened.
STEVEN: There's a guy in Indonesia. I've told him this year it won't be possible and he still writes to me every two days!
RICH: People are feeling that. They felt the vibe and the stoke coming off our social media posts as a collective. Plus Adan from Mexico and @surfhula and everything that he does. He's now starting up a program in Mexico. There's lots of potential. We just gonna ride the wave. How's that for a pun?
PATRICK and BRAULIO heading back into the water.
