Photo: OneWave
On an otherwise grey winter morning at Manly Beach, Australia, a group of surfers stood on the sand before paddling out in Day-Glo outfits. One rocked a Lycra onesie made of fluorescent polka dot and zebra striped patterns. Another wore brightly colored pajama pants. A few girls and even one young man sported glittered and extremely tight spandex pants. Another had a bright orange Modern longboard. Copious amounts of neon Zinca were spread around the group.
While it may have look like a dare from a group of friends or a bet gone wrong, the crew from One Wave Is All It Takes met at the beach to surf in brightly colored costumes for a much bigger reason. Started by surfer Grant Trebilco, and friend Sam Schumacher, OneWave is an organization that aims to bring smiles and raise awareness about depression, bi-polar, anxiety and other forms of mental illness.
“The message of One Wave is simple: to give people hope that they can beat mental illness, and reduce the stigma around it,” said One Wave co-founder Grant Tribilco, a longtime surfer who was diagnosed with bi-polar in 2012.
Sheer stoke… and bright Day Glo vibes. Photo: Shelby Stanger
Mental disorders are common in the United States as well as internationally. An estimated 26.2 percent of Americans ages 18 and older (about one in four adults) suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year. In Australia, the stat is similar. According to the Black Dog Institute, one in five (20%) of Australians ages 16 to 85 experience a mental illness in any year. Almost half (45%) of Australians will experience a mental illness in their lifetime.
Born in New Zealand, Grant started surfing at 14. His father, also a surfer who lives with bi-polar, pushed him into the surf as soon as Grant could swim. Throughout Grant’s life, surfing was always his favorite hobby, and a salve that helped Grant through every major hiccup in life. Although it ran in his family, it wasn’t until Grant was arrested and taken to a hospital after taking a surf rescue board and paddling around the women’s final during the Australian Open of Surfing in Manly Beach (he said he was paddling for charity), that he was first diagnosed with bi-polar.
It was a treacherous ten days at the hospital where Grant learned a lot about why he experienced such highs and lows, and also learned how many others struggled with mental illness disorders, many whom he would have never thought. After those ten days, Grant moved back to New Zealand to be with his dad. They surfed together for three months straight.
“Surfing got me through. If I could just catch one good wave that day, I knew I could get through another day.”
