The Birth of Rapture Camps

During the northern hemisphere winter of 2003/2004, two very different people meet each other whilst on holiday in Northern Africa. These two very different people had one thing in common, they both loved surfing. And not just the sport or act of surfing but the lifestlye, the travel and adventure involved in the search for new places to surf in far off countries and diverse cultures.

These two guys could not have been more different, Josh coming from one of the worlds birthplaces of modern surfing, Australia. He was born and bread with the ocean on his door step, and started surfing at a very young age, competing in contests and went on to become one of Sydney´s top surf photographers, and later one of Portugals most respected big wave water photographers.

Simon on the other hand, hailed from Austria, land locked on all sides. Without the ocean nearby, from an early age his afternoons and weekends were instead spent snowboarding and in the summer wakeboarding. It was not until later in life that he was blessed with the love for surfing, that consumes so many of us. But this passion, while it arrived later in life, was still by all means a very strong love affair, one that was pursued at all opportunities.

Simon and Josh were both entrepreneurs in the own rights, and when they meet whilst surfing and traveling in Morocco, it was fate they should put their heads together and find a way to do what they loved in life for ever. To live and surf great waves for the rest of ones life, is the dream of all surfers. If only there was a way to do this and to make enough money to live this wonderful lifestyle, hence Rapture Camps was born.

With Simon´s internet know-how and Josh´s bussiness savy, they meet at the end of the next summer, and packed a van with everything that they might need for 6 months in Morocco, and headed south. The camp was set up in a large house in a quiet and peacefull village close to the famous but very busy Taghazout. This village was called Tamraght, here they meet Fatiha and Youssef whom still work in the camp, and who both played a major role in helping establish the camps strong hold here.

Their plan was simple, to set up a surf camp that allowed all surfers to travel to safely and surf in exotic countries, ultimately it had to be affordable for everyone. This would inturn allow them to surf more often and themselves live in these beautiful countries around the world. They thing that set these two individuals apart from other bussiness founders was that monetary wealth was not the goal, instead their belief in a happy lifestyle and their love for surfing was what propelled them.

After that first season in Morocco, 2004/2005, Simon traveled to Bali and Josh to Portugal were another camps were born. These three camps are still around today. A snow camp this year 2009 was the latest addtion to this ever growing love of board sports. The Rapture founders have had help along the way, we should not forget this. The endless stream of friends and family that have helped in what ever way they could. Simon´s friends from Austria, and Josh´s mates from Australia, and all the others that they have meet along the way, whether it be managing the camps, to sourcing vehicles, to teaching surf lessons.

Thank you!

Josh now lives in Bali where he manages the very successful Camp at Padang Padang with his lovely wife that he did indeed meet whilst running the camp in Morocco. Simon prefers to stay in Austria where he operates the head office of Rapture Camps, with regular trips to Morocco and Portugal to surf and over see the camps

Hopefully after reading this you will see the Rapture Camps the way that we see it, as the homes of these two friends, and not just another surf camp.