“You can high five and hug, and that’s so often missing from heterosexual male spaces.”
Since he could remember, Steven Redant, co-founder of Rainbow Surf Retreats, “gay surf retreats all over the world”, was always told to talk quietly in his native Belgium. So he did what any proper soprano would do, he moved to Spain, a place where even the librarians bellow. And Stephen is an international DJ, so he also needed an airport with a global hub.
But the Yellow Brick intercontinental DJ roads outta Barcelona are paved with a perfect mixture of fairy dust, Peruvian Marching powder and Scooby Snax.
And Steven dipped in the vices. His DJ career was extremely successful. But his personal life suffered.
“I was going through a divorce. I had some problems with substances and I wasn’t behaving well.”
Steven’s agent suggest he spend some time with him in Florianopolis Brazil. There, surfing took him immediately.
“I’m pretty sure if I didn’t have surfing, I would have overdosed by now.”
Steven wanted to open a surf house. A place where other people needed healing through surfing, but he felt it was a lil impersonal, so he waited.
Rich Overgaard is the second half of Rainbow Surf Retreats. Rich came home from a surf trip to Mexico and was laid up in bed due an illness. He was bored and asked himself,
“Where are all the queer surfers?”‘
So he created the @surfergays Instagram account. He started searching for people and sending them little messages. Like, “Hey, can I feature you?”
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That’s how he and Steven first connected.
“So many of us come from challenges and struggles in youth and then learn to emerge into a place of joy. In the surf space too, that joy just comes through when it’s a bunch of queer folks. There’s more solidarity, there’s more fun, there’s more laughter while doing this [objectively] challenging thing. You don’t feel like you have to code switch. You can high five and hug, and that’s so often missing from heterosexual male spaces.”
Rainbow Surf Retreats’ main objective is to create a place where queer folk can feel free to be themselves and to build a camaraderie with each other through surfing and travel.
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Steven posts messages on the Rainbow Surf Retreats Insta page.
His look, approach and voice are soothing, authentic and inviting. Made me wanna speak to him and get a lil more of the story on a personal level.
Turns out his phone voice is just as candy-apple as his Insta posts. We spoke over the phone while he was at his home base in the lunar landscapes of the Canary Islands while I was in an an open concept outside dungeon in Jersey City.
I ask for a lil bio.
“It’s amazing how successful you can be in your professional life, and I was extremely successful as a DJ, but how miserable you can be in your personal life at the same time. My agent knew something bad was going to happen to me. He took me to Brazil to get away. I wont say ‘surfing saved my life’ thats a little cliche. but i can tell you this: without surfing i would have overdosed by now.…”
Tell me a lil about Rainbow Retreats.
“I quickly realized the healing power of surf. I wanted to help other people get through similar dark times that I experienced with surfing as a tool. We booked our first retreat to Panama. It took less than a week to fill all 15 spots. For some, it was their first time surfing. And this was something I HAD to do. Because I lived it. And I was close to death. And I needed, not wanted, to help people.”
Tell me about the palling around?
“We keep it small, about 15 people. It’s about a feeling of belonging, not fitting in. We had a guy come with us that said ‘I cant wait to hook up with all these surfer guys.’ Ya know, when you’re on Tinder or Grinder, you’re looking for differences to pick out. On the retreat, you’re looking for the same thing. By the end of the trip, this guy could care less about hook-ups.
“He was just happy to be there with us. Line-ups in the straight world, they are so competative, people fighting for inside position and a lot of aggression. All we do is cheer each other on.”/
