We nearly did not run it.
Camp No. 01 was Benidorm, November 2025, eight people, and it worked in the way a first thing works: everyone had a good time and none of us could have told you why, exactly. Eight people is a dinner party with a net. It proves affection. It does not prove a business.
So when Ibiza came up for May, the honest conversation was whether we were building something or just organising nice trips for people who already liked us.
We ran it. 18 people came. It is August now, the Crete campaign is in its fifth week, and this feels like the right moment to look back at May properly, before the season swallows it.
What Ibiza was
Five days, 19 to 24 May. A all-inclusive secluded hotel in one of the top Ibiza beaches listed coast, beach courts, crystal clear water, hiking routes, yoga stretching spots all just a walk away, all meals/drinks included, Milos and Mladen coaching together with a local stars, and a group from 7 countries: some pairs, some friends who signed up together, and a good handful who booked entirely on their own and turned out to be the connective tissue of the whole week.
The shape of the day was the one we still use: stretch and breath in the morning, volleyball by level, a protected siesta in the afternoon, a golden hour session, then a long table. Two sunset nights, one quiet, one loud.
If you want the full walkthrough of how a camp day runs, it is here → . This post is about the other thing.
The moment it stopped being a trip
For us it was [day three, at the table / insert the real moment].
Somewhere around the middle of the week, we stopped hosting. The group had taken over. People were organising their own swims, sorting out who was cooking what, deciding among themselves which court they wanted. Somebody had made a playlist. Nobody asked us for the schedule.
That is the whole thesis of this company, and it is not a thing you can manufacture. You can only build the conditions for it and then get out of the way at the right moment. The uncomfortable truth of that week is that our best decision was to stop directing on Wednesday.
The second sign came later. The WhatsApp group did not go quiet. Group chats from trips always go quiet, usually within eleven days of the last photo dump. That one [is still going in August], which is [three months] of people who met on a beach still talking about nothing in particular. We did not design that. It is the only thing we have made that we would be sad to lose.
What actually worked
Beginners in their own group with their own coach. [Roughly half] the room had never played. Putting them in a separate group with real coaching, rather than folding them into the back of a session, is the single decision that made the week work for the widest range of people. Ex-players got their level. Beginners got a first proper serve and something to be proud of by Friday.
The protected siesta. We were nervous this would read as a gap in the programme. It was the most appreciated block of the day. People worked, slept, swam, and came to the evening session actually able to move.
One table, every night. No seating plan, no assigned groups. Everything that mattered socially happened at that table.
Skills sharing. People talked about what they actually do. [Insert what came of it: the collaboration, the introduction, the hire.] The pitch evenings sound like the most corporate item on the agenda and they are consistently one of the two nights people mention afterwards.
What we got wrong
Being straight about this, because the strategy of this company is that we do not exaggerate.
We undersold the arrival. People trickled in across a whole afternoon and evening, and the first two hours were more awkward than they needed to be. Crete has a proper welcome block on arrival day now: pick-up, tapas and drinks together, a first walk on the beach. That change came directly from May.
We did not capture enough proof. Sixteen people, a beautiful week, and we came home with far less usable footage and far fewer written testimonials than we should have. We were participating instead of documenting. Crete has a photographer booked and a plan.
Five days is short. By the time the group hit its stride it was already Friday. Crete is seven days for exactly this reason, and days five to seven are the ones we are most curious about.
We were still five brands in a trench coat. SandChampions, Sand People, Not Another Sports Camp, NAS Camp, and a domain nobody could spell. Anyone who liked a reel in May had to do the assembly work themselves. That is being fixed now, and Ibiza is what made it obvious.
Eight, eighteen, forty
That is the arithmetic of this thing so far. Benidorm eight. Ibiza sixteen. Crete built for forty, three weeks out [update at publication], then Brazil in February, then the Adriatic.
Doubling is a nice line for a sponsor deck. What the number actually measures is whether people who came once will vouch for it to someone they like, because that is where most of the growth comes from and it is the only endorsement we would trust.
By that measure, Ibiza was the week the company started.
If you were there: thank you, and [there is a code with your name on it for Crete → link]. If you were not: forty is still small enough that you will know everyone’s name by Wednesday.
Crete, 27 September to 3 October, Plakias.
Come alone. Leave with a crew.
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