Do What You Love interview – Ocean Pitch

1. How are you leading a life ‘doing what you love’?

Lou and I have taken on a summer campsite in our favourite coastal village of Croyde. We both grew up by the sea so ultimately we knew that this is where we wanted to be. I’m from sunny Norfolk and I’m a keen surfer. During the holidays at university I worked as a lifeguard for the RNLI. Lou is from Pembrokshire, Wales, UK, and she loves the beach. The ocean in her blood.

2. How have you managed to do this? Tell us about your journey to here…

I met Lou at Bristol University where we both studied business. We enjoyed plenty of trips to Devon during ‘term-time’ when we were meant to be in lectures and funnily enough, every time we went to Croyde Bay, surf conditions were perfect… I may have had something to do with that! During one of our day trips we both agreed that one day we’d move back to the coast.

After university I went to Australia for four months to chase waves. At Christmas I had a call from my mum to say it was time to come home and get a real job, so I moved in with Lou in London. She already had a job in fashion working for Fred Perry UK. As both of us were working for big multinational companies we had smart cars, money, and everything else that goes with it. However we couldn’t shake the feeling that we were just cogs in big machines that didn’t really care about us.

16 months in we realised that city life just wasn’t for us and we moved to the country. We ended up in Buckingham, which meant I could still comment to London and Lou got a job in HR for Amazon HQ near Milton Keynes. But still life seemed stressful. We were working all hours only to come home and get ready to do it all again and surf trips became less and less frequent. We were tired of living for the weekend. For us that’s not what life’s about!

After another year flew by we had both realised that we would only be truly happy if we moved to the coast, so we started looking for new jobs, and a new home. I was lucky enough to find something quite quickly and while Lou was scouring Rightmove for a new home to rent she stumbled across a campsite/land for sale in Croyde. We had a 30-minute chat and, despite having no experience running a campsite, talked ourselves into it.

We sold anything worth any money, put together a 45-page business plan and went to the bank for a loan. They told us ‘no’ three times; apparently a small campsite/surf hire business wouldn’t work in the UK. Then finally, on our fourth attempt, they agreed to give us a loan and Ocean Pitch was born. To be safe, once we moved to Devon, Lou continued to work at Amazon HQ while we prepared to open the campsite. She drove there every Monday morning at 3am and worked there for three days driving back to Devon on Wednesday night and working from home Thursday and Friday. In our first season I  worked a full-time job doing marketing for BMW in Cornwall and Devon as well as running the campsite with Lou in mornings evenings and at weekends.

Now we’re fully up and running we both work at the campsite full time in the summer for five months. And then we follow the waves in the winter.

3. What excites and motivates you most about combining your passions and interests with running your own business?

It’s hard work, but the way of life is so rewarding. Lou and I have never wanted to get up to go to work in the past, we always enjoyed our free time, but this is a different type of work. It’s more of a lifestyle. It is exhausting but rewarding at the same time.

4. What changes have you made to Ocean Pitch? How have you improved people’s experience?

For us, the most important thing to do is create a chilled out vibe. Each year the business evolves and we combine people’s feedback with our own plans to improve the place, for example we now offer VW glamping.

5. What have been your biggest challenges to date? And what lessons have you learnt?

At the end of each season we have to take all our facility blocks off the campsite – the reception, shower block and toilets – with a tractor and store them all on a farm. This gives us chance to do any maintenance work and spruce them up before the next season. Each one is the size of an 18 tonne lorry and the set-up/dismantle process is a real challenge!

The big lesson we’ve learnt is to take our time and think like a camper. What do they want/need? What will make things easier for them on holiday? What would be their idea of a perfect pitch? We have to put ourselves in their shoes not just do what we think looks sweet.

6. You’re incredibly passionate about what you do. How does this passion inform all your decisions – both in life and in business?

We are both motivated by success rather than money, so yes, passion plays a big part in everything we do. We feel passionately about being the best at what we do and so sometimes if making a crazy decision means that we’ll stand out from the rest, we’ll do it.

7. Financially, how do you manage running a seasonal business?

One day we’ll hopefully be able to make enough to live through the winter on summer earnings, but while we pay the bank back for the land, we get winter jobs to pay bills. We’ve definitely had to think outside the box to generate more income, i.e. offering glamping and surf hire which generates more income than the camping side of the business.

8. How do your days differ between peak summer season and the cold, wet winter? 

On a typical summer’s day: It’s a 6.30am start. We begin by cleaning the toilets and showers, emptying the bins and tidying the outside washing up area. Then we open the Reception, set up surf hire and re-stock the fridge. Next we prepare and deliver continetal breakfasts to our glampers – usually three different parties. Then our days our spent checking campers in, cleaning toilets and showers every 30 minutes, checking people in and out of their surf hire equipment. We usually close up at 11pm on weekdays and 2am at weekends. Our summer season lasts five months.

On a typical Winter’s day: Between October and December we follow the waves all over the world on our surf travels. We see family, work on the house and do other projects. We always tend to run out of money come Christmas so we spend January to Easter we doing part-time jobs to support ourselves and pay the bills. Our philosophy is enjoy life – you only live once!

9. What is it like living and working together?

We love it! We never argue ever, but three weeks prior to opening, while we were getting the campsite ready for business we didn’t get much sleep so we argued quite a bit! We got 12 months’ arguing out in two weeks!

10. What are you enjoying working on at the moment? And what’s worst part about being your own boss?

The best part is providing a place for people to stay on their holidays. People tend to be happier when they’re relaxing away from home and the stress and strains of everyday life. The worst part about being own boss is that we only have ourselves to blame if things don’t work out.

11. What are you most proud of?

In 2015 The Guardian listed us as one of 15 pitch perfect campsites in Great Britain and in 2016, The Telegraph put us eighth in 25 Britain’s Coolest Campsites. We also featured in Red Bull’s 10 Beachside Campsites in UK. #Stoked

12. What do the words ‘freedom’ and ‘success’ mean to you?

Doing what we love! You only live once in life so wake up every day with a smile on your face and do it for you and the family!

13. What advice would you give someone who wants to be doing what they love?

You only have one life so go out and live it! What’s the worst that can happen? There will always be a job to fall back on if it doesn’t work out.

For more information about Benny, Lou and Ocean Pitch visit the website. You can also connect on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

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