So now we continue with the story of the OTRO MODO surf camp.
I had already in the last post a few anecdotes of the first real Soulsurfers, I was allowed to get to know. By the way, this soul surfer was the coordinator of the first surf camp I worked for. We are going on a journey back in time to the year 2000.
In the last article I already described how Rollo, who felt for me the age of my parents had (by no means their admonishing reason possessed) through the tent camp in the French pine forest. Always busy carrying things from A to B and probably also mind-beating hooking things from C to D ...
Rollo was always on the move and so it should be its environment. With the environment, I explicitly mean the people around him and, above all, the surf camp staff.
Behind Rollos partially manic urge to move, a friendly employee once even suspected an amphetamine addiction. I was and am of the opposite opinion.
I believe in his restless body lived a restless spirit. Constantly busy the many small tasks and steps that resulted in a tent camp with 100 people in a kind of inner map to put together a navigation-compatible route.
As a joyous person he was, eager for any distraction, his path between tents and trees almost certainly changed as often as his thoughts.
We too were entrusted with tasks that, in addition to such dazzling activities as surf instructor, chef or surf camp leader, were related to keeping the infrastructure of the camp going.
Unlike other campsite surf camps, however, we had a lot more to do to meet the needs of the roller blind in maintaining its surf camp.
There was a simple reason for this: Rollo was (and still is) the most thrifty person I have ever met.
When I write that his frugality took on grotesque features, it does not do justice to the extent of what this man thought of in order to save money.
The many small things that we had to pay attention to a very creative spirit, which as written above rarely rested.
The first impression of this thrift I got right on the day of my very first season.
After 36 hours on the bus, Rollo had a lot of assignments for each of us team members. One of my orders was to knock on old tent pegs again.
The organizer of the surf camp bought some new tents each year and so there were also many new tent pegs. However, Rollo's use seemed to be raised for a special time.
So I brought old tent herring back into shape and was busy in the coming weeks several times to spend the not only boxes with new herring to different new storage stations.
Next, I learned that there was only drinking water for Teamer. The many colorful Lidl Coke cans were intended exclusively for sale to guests.
So far so good. But you also have to buy drinking water in bottles in many countries. This state of affairs was very reluctant to Rollo, and he was more than happy to discover, after a few years, that drinking water was flowing from the tap at the Biarritz lighthouse.
From now on, the tour guide entrusted with the day trip to Biarritz had a second, at least as responsible task: He was responsible for filling a weekly supply of drinking water for 9 adults in old 5 liter water tanks and transporting them back to the campsite by car.
It was quite so the Rollo this austerity completely breathed and lived. A friend who met him a few years later during a winter motorhome vacation in Morocco used water absent-mindedly to wash his hands out of a tub of Rollo's mobile home.
This was almost frantically interrupted by Rollo with the request not to use the "good Biarritzwasser" for washing hands.
In defense of Rollo, I must say that as an employer, he could really be generous. For all the years I've worked for him, at the end of the summer I always felt that my work was valued and I went home feeling good and with more money than I expected.
Because it gives me great pleasure, in the next post about the history of our surfcamp I will stay in France for a bit :)
Until next week
Your Christof