We surf in ridiculous outfits, because it’s time to kick the stigmas of mental health!

It was about 10pm on a Thursday night in Feb last year, when I got home after a few beers and I was thinking…how the hell can we get more people talking about ONEWAVE and mental health? I had never surfed in a business suit, so I thought lets do this. I thought I had a fluro green one from Bali but I couldn’t find that…shit! I worked out my other suit was at the dry cleaner…bugger! I managed to find a shirt & tie… so boardies and shirt & tie it was.

At 6.30am the next morning I rocked down to Bondi by myself with my board meeting kit on –party on the bottom, business at the top. I was quietly shitting myself but on the other hand I was pumped. At last it felt like I had bipolar for a reason…to try and get more people talking about mental health.  I remember getting these weird looks from people and once I got into the surf the comments went from “Straight from the cross for a surf ay bro?” to  “Big night mate?” “Did ya lose a bet buddy?” My response to the first few was “nah got an early meeting – haven’t got time to change” Then I built up the courage to say “I’m dressed up for the ONEWAVE board meeting – we are raising awareness for mental health through surfing”. The reaction I got from some of the surfers when I said this deadset changed my life. You can surf the same break as someone for 10 years and have the usual convos about “how was ya weekend man?” “how was the Indo trip” but you actually don’t get to know how they are actually feeling. Surfers all look so relaxed, like they don’t have a problem in the world. Once you have one conversation with someone in the surf about there mental health, you actually get to meet the real person behind the chilled out surfer and that conversation, might just change someone’s life.  Walking back from the surf that day I was a mix of frothing and emotional… I thought maybe if we dress up in crazy outfits every week, we can actually spark more conversations about mental health.

Thanks to Sammy Samsum. Joel Pilgrim and a bunch of amazing humans we have kept the ridiculous outfits rolling every Fluro Friday at 6.30am, since Feb last year and the ONEWAVE crew keeps getting bigger. The outfits have now changed from board meeting attire to fluro radness…anything from Stretcheyz fluro onezies, matchy matchy flamingos, retro getup, animal suits, fluro budgee smugs...anything goes. We keep getting out of bed early because dressing in fluro and surfing with your mates is so much fun, but the big driver is smashing the stigma of mental health. 

If we were dressed in normal wetsuits people wouldn’t ask us what the hell we were dressed up for and we wouldn’t have the chance to spark a conversation about mental health.  Once you start opening up to people, it is so scary how many good humans, just like you and me have been affected. 1/5 people are affected by mental illness, which means there is a good chance some of your friends and family that are doing it tough, that you don't know about. There is one way we can change this and that is by being open and talking about it.  There is no better place to do this than in the ocean – ONEWAVE is all it takes to give you hope, that you can beat the funks of mental illness. So get your most epic fluro outfit ready and ya favourite craft and come and join the ONEWAVE crew for Fluro Friday - 6.30am at Bondi or Manly.

Thank you for your amazing support and making me feel that having bipolar is actually pretty damn rad. Lets go surf real soon. 

MahaloJ

BIG BEAR HUG

Don't fight the feelings..

The day I worked out it’s actually ok not to be happy all of the time, is the day I started living.

When I used to get down the old me would have been thinking “Why the hell am I not happy? I have a rad family, sweet job, so many good humans in my life. I thought I had no reason to be sad” That just made it so much worse because the negative vibes just kept building up…I was fighting the feelings instead of just feeling them and letting my feelings do their thing.

This resulted in me hiding just how depressed I actually was from my friends and family. I wanted them to still see me as this happy dude who loves life and I certainly didn’t want to go and see a doctor and admit I was suffering from the big black dog. Mum and Dad asked a bunch of times if I wanted to go see a doctor and I would always say “nah don’t worry I will be sweet”.

I didn’t realise at the time that if I had listened to my Mum & Dad then, I could have avoided being hit with crazy anxiety and depression on a trip to Mexico, where I nearly didn’t make it back. I could have avoided days and days of pretending I was happy when I was hurting like hell. I could have avoided being put on the wrong medication, which led to a manic episode at the Aussie surf open and 10 days in the mental health ward of Manly hospital. But hey they say everything happens for a reason, and yep sometimes these things hurt like hell...but at least now I know I have bipolar and everyday I’m learning how to live life as a bipolar bear.

Quite a few people ask me what bipolar actually is. The way I see it is that everyone experiences highs and lows in life and if you have bipolar like me the lows are a bit lower than most people and the highs are a bit higher. It’s all about finding the right recipe to stay balanced, so you can make the most of the good things about having bipolar. One part of my recipe I have discovered is feeling the feelings instead of fighting them. If I’m feeling down, I’m like shit I need to do something to get the positive vibes going instead of getting frustrated at myself.  So I grab my  board and go for a surf or hang with my family or friends and talk about whats going on or sometimes I just wanna chill by myself. The one thing I know is that with time the negative vibes will pass, I just need to ride it out.

One of the important things for me is realizing that it’s ok to have shit days because it makes the good days even radder. It just feels good to be yourself and you realise pretty quick who the good humans in your life are. Feelings are there to be felt, so let them flow and the good vibes will follow.

BIG BEAR HUG

THANKS to you rad humans, 2013 has been the year I have...embraced having bipolar and I have got nothing but big love and kindness in return.

In Feb this year when we launched Onewave I started to open up more about having bipolar. If people asked why we started Onewave, I would tell them how I had been diagnosed with bipolar and how surfing had helped me get through a funk.  I didn’t know what the reaction would be. I didn’t know whether people would freak out or just wouldn’t know what to say.

I have been so lucky that I have had the most amazing humans around me this year – family, friends and strangers. Not only have you made me feel it is ok to have bipolar, but you have inspired me to keep sharing my story. THANK YOU for your rad love and support- you have given me the confidence back to be myself again and that feels effin radJ

Since putting myself out there, I have discovered that there are so many other people, just like you and me, who are impacted by mental illness. We don’t pick mental illness it chooses us and sometimes it is the people you least expect that it hits. Some people are open about it and others choose to hide it from their friends and family because there is still so much social stigma out there. The crazy thing is, we are all trying to find a way to beat it, because it hurts like hell, but it is so damn hard, because we don’t talk about it.

If your lucky you might find the right doctor and pych straight away, but if you are like me you might struggle for months to find the right help. I used to really struggle going to sit in those shit little rooms and talking to a pych, who never really seemed to understand me. I mean it made me feel good for a bit, but then the hour was up and I had to leave and pay $150 and I was left wondering what next?

What did make me feel bloody good was talking to someone who also been affected by mental illness.  I was so lucky to meet a few good humans through Onewave who also have bipolar and always having my Dad to talk to. It was like talking to a long lost brother. Being able to go out for a surf and talk to a mate about how they coped with bipolar was the best therapy for me. Just knowing that I wasn’t the only one and I had other bipolar bears to call up if I needed help was unreal.

I didn’t choose to have bipolar, it chose me but thanks to my rad friends and family 2013 has been the year I have learn’t that it doesn’t matter who you are or what you have, if you embrace it and put yourself out there, you will get a whole lot of love and kindness back.

THANK YOU legends for making this happen:)) If you ever need anyone to talk to about anything, I am here anytime.

Happy New Year y'all...Hope you all have a RAD RAD 2014!!! 

PEACE, LOVE & BIG BEAR HUGs XX

ONEWAVE is all it takes...

When I was 14 and my Dad Brucey taught me how to surf, I didn’t realise that one-day surfing would save my life. When I was diagnosed with bipolar and moved back to New Zealand, I struggled to find doctors I could trust and I struggled to find the right medication. One thing that always made me feel better was being in the ocean.  The ocean was the one place I could forget about all the bad vibes from my manic episode and I could just chill the fuck out. It didn’t take long for me to work out that I had discovered the raddest doctor going round…his name is Huey and he dials up these things called waves and once you catch a fun one you can't stop grinning. Surfing gave me hope, that things could get better and I could beat the funk I was in. I call it saltwater therapy and it honestly changed my life.  

I knew from the time I was diagnosed with bipolar that I wanted to do something to get more people talking about mental health. I decided the only way I would ever get over having bipolar was by trying to help others. I didn’t want my friends and family to experience what I did. I had a few ideas, but after some advice from a few wise humans, I decided I should probably focus on getting myself better first.

After a short trip to the States to see my little bro, I moved back to Sydney in June last year. I was so stoked to get back at first, but then I struggled big-time. It brought so many bad memories, I had no job and all my family were in NZ. I was so lucky to have some really amazing friends who had my back. These legends and surfing pulled me through the tough times.

The game changer for me while staying in Sydney and beating the funk was bumping into Sammy Samsum in October, when I was coming out of the surf in Bondi. Sam was the bar manager from the Backroom where I got super loose, the night before I ended up in hospital. I didn’t know Sammy that well then. We had had shared a fair few tequila shots at Backroom, so were pretty much party friends.  I told him the full story about what had happened to me and how I was super keen to start something to kick the stigma of mental health. Sammy the legend was really keen to get involved from the get go. Yeww thanks brother!!!

We surfed a bunch over the next few months and started throwing around some ideas around about what we could do to raise awareness for mental health. It was out in the surf one day that we realised - I had personal experience of tackling bipolar through surfing and Sammy's was a surf instructor, who had experienced how stoked people got from catching their first wave.  We decided lets combine the two and start teaching people how to surf and share the positive effect surfing can have on mental health.

In Feb this year we launched ONEWAVE Surf Community on Instagram @onewaveisallittakes and www.facebook.com/onewaveisallittakes with the following description – ONEWAVE is a non-profit surf community, taking depression and other funks by the balls and throwing them into a Waimea shorey. Let’s do this!

We want people surfing more, talking more and smiling more to help tackle the funk of mental health issues.  ONEWAVE is all it takes… to make your day, make your week or even change your life.

We decided the best way to get people talking about mental health, was by surfing in random attire.  So I got up early on the Friday morning and rocked a shirt and tie with my boardies. I got some random looks, some smiles but mostly people were keen to find out why I was dressed like I was off to a board meeting on the top and party on the bottom. I explained we were doing it to raise awareness for mental health and shared my story with a few people. I was blown away by the amazing support. We decided every Friday morning at 6.30am we would hold a ONEWAVE board meeting…on a surfboard where all board meetings should be.

The first board meeting we were lucky that Beau Jones (SOBO Image) and UGE (Aquabumps) were down shooting. UGE captured the image above.  Thanks to these guys sharing the board meeting pictures we got people asking what the hell is ONEWAVE all about? One of these legends is Joel Pilgrim aka Yewwman. I had never met Joel until ONEWAVE Board Meeting #2. I rocked down to South Bondi with my bowtie on and then this absolute frother comes down the hill with a tuxedo on. We just hugged it out, fuck why not? Joel couldn’t even surf because his back was screwed, but he worked as a Ocupational Therapist in mental health and he was psyched on helping kick the stigma of mental health.  Yewwman you absolute legend!!

Every Friday the crew got bigger and the dress up gold wilder and then we discovered fluro zinc on Anzac Day. The next day board meetings became Fluro Fridays. Now every Friday at 6.30am the ONEWAVE community hits Bondi Beach and Manly for Fluro Fridays. Thanks to the support of some amazing people Fluro Fridays have now taken place at… Tathra, Byron Bay, Jan Juc, Newcastle, WA, NZ, Indonesia, Hawaii, LA, NY, Spain, Fiji, Tahiti.

Thanks to all you legends, we now have this epic little community, who are tackling the funk of mental health issues with surfing, fluro, good vibes and a whole lot of love. ONEWAVE at a time, we are making it easier for people to open up about mental health issues and we are only just getting started. OW!

I heard a guy saying on the radio late last year, that when you start helping others, you forget about your own problems. At the time I was still struggling to deal with my bipolar and coping with working a full time job. Not long after this I quit my job so we could launch ONEWAVE. Every week since then I have started to feel better and better. Sure I still have my down days, but that is just life. I use to get angry about everything I lost because of bipolar. Now I feel I have bipolar for a reason and that is to share my story and my recipe for beating bipolar, so hopefully I can make it a little easier for others dealing with the funk of mental illness. Thanks for all your amazing support...love you long time!!