5 years ago, US President for Ulysse Nardin, Francois-Xavier (FX) Hotier and several retired US Navy SEALS gathered together in a little bar in Coronado, California. After a round of burgers and beers, they emerged with the design of the UN Diver Deep Dive ‘One More Wave’ Limited Edition. It was the beginning of a partnership between Ulysse Nardin and One More Wave, a non-profit organization that seeks to help wounded and disabled veterans with the aid of Surf Therapy.

One More Wave was started in 2015 by Alex West, a retired US Navy SEAL whose career spanned over 20 years and 15 combat deployments. The goal of One More Wave is to help wounded and disabled veterans who are struggling with wounds that are both physical as well as psychological. The way that they accomplish that mission is through surfing. Fast forward to today, and the daily operations are handled by Managing Director Rob Garnett, himself a retired US Navy SEAL as well. In its nearly 10 years of existence, One More Wave has given away hundreds of surf boards to veterans in need, many of them customized to suit unique physical needs of their recipients.

Recent research has illustrated that surf therapy can provide meaningful help for those struggling with depression, anxiety, and PTSD. For many veterans who have suffered major injuries, such as TBI or the loss of limbs, standard surf boards are not always safe or even functional. Thus, whenever an applicant is selected to receive a board, Garnett works directly with them to understand what they’ve been through, what their struggles are, and what sort of special adaptations their board might need in order to function properly and get that person in the water.

Further personal touches and customization have also been done to the boards, like including unit insignias, mottoes, or other meaningful design details, making these boards deeply personal and meaningful. But that is far from where One More Wave’s involvement ends. When someone receives a board, they become a part of a community of people – active duty military, veterans and civilians alike – who take care of one another, connecting through a mutual love of surfing, by way of surfing meetups throughout the country.

The Waves

Recently I found myself in San Diego with FX Hotier and Rob Garnett, learning all about the work that One More Wave does. We started the day early at a beach in La Jolla just south of San Diego. It had been easily 20 years since I’d last gone surfing, but as serendipity would have it, that last time was at this very same beach. While my morning was spent mostly getting tossed around by waves and struggling to catch any of them (as one might expect) the major take away was just how present I was in the water.

I wasn’t thinking about anything other than what we were doing – no work stress, no deadlines, no pressures from the rest of life. All that existed was the smell of the sea air and the salty sting of the water as it flooded my sinuses with every passing attempt to catch a wave. As someone who has struggled with anxiety and depression for most of my life, it makes perfect sense why surfing can be so therapeutic. Sometimes, oftentimes, all you need is that moment of respite where your brain can reset and remind itself that everything is and will be okay. While you’re in the water you can’t focus on anything else even if you want to – its surprisingly meditative. In that moment of paradoxical peace and exertion, everything is okay.

After the water warmed and the waves cooled out, we spent the rest of the day going around Garnett’s old stomping grounds in Coronado, where he completed his BUDs training, becoming a Navy SEAL. We headed to the workshop where the boards are all designed and built by hand, the walls adorned with photos, emblems, and unit insignias that have been included on boards that One More Wave has provided. It was astonishing to me to see the amount of work that is coming out of such a relatively small space and with just a few people doing all of it.

We ended up in that same bar where the first collaboration was designed – the bar where countless active duty and retired Frogmen go to wind down. It’s an unassuming hole in the wall, the kind of spot that if you didn’t know you might walk right by. But once inside it’s a powerful place. Out of respect, I didn’t take any photos. But the walls were adorned with memories and mementos, of friends, brothers, husbands, teammates – flags and photos of men who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country – after 20 years of war where the special operations community carried more than its fair share of the weight, there were far too many photos on those walls.

The Watches and The Work

Thus far, Ulysse Nardin has made two collaboration watches for the benefit of One More Wave. The first was the Diver Deep ‘Diver One More Wave’ LE – a big, beefy, badass dive watch with 1000m depth rating and all sorts of tacti-cool design details. The second was the Diver One More Wave LE. While the first watch definitely leaned more into the tactical and military aesthetic, the second felt much more like an all-purpose sport watch, incorporating One More Wave’s signature teal colors into the design, and of course with UN’s own unique flair. Both pieces were limited to just 100 examples sold through rapidly.

But the watches are not where Ulysse Nardin’s support ends. They have organized fundraising events, supported meetups, and held private dinners for clients and collectors to get to know the organization and the folks behind it. The vast majority of this work is done behind the scenes, the goal being to focus on One More Wave, and not on Ulysse Nardin. This is philanthropy done right – it’s about the work, not about the accolades that the work can provide.

When it comes time to build a board, Garnett personally handles the planning and interaction, genuinely getting to know the person and welcoming them into the network of support that One More Wave is built upon. Just how thorough Garnett gets with each recipient of their boards, the amount of work that goes into crafting them and adapting the boards to their needs, is truly remarkable. But it doesn’t end there. There’s a personal element that goes along with it, not because its mandated, but because he truly cares.

This is all to say, the support doesn’t end once the board is received – Garnett keeps in touch with the recipients, checking in regularly to see how they’re doing, not only on the waves but in their lives. How he is able to keep up with checking in on so many people while also running an ever growing charitable organization, is a testament to just how important this work is and how much he cares.

One such recipient is Jose Martinez, a US army veteran who became a triple amputee after stepping on an IED in Afghanistan. His story is incredible, and deserves its own full article (if not a full book). But since the darkest days of his recovery, where life seemed no longer worth living, to today where he is one of the top adaptive surfers in the world who inspires people with his achievements and his , Martinez has become the poster child for a One More Wave success story, with his sights set on getting adaptive surfing into the Paralympics at the 2028 World Games.

And he is not the only one – getting adaptive surfing into the games will be a central goal of One More Wave and Ulysse Nardin in the coming years. As US brand president FX Hotier puts it, “One More Wave has proven that adaptive surfing can be a life-saving therapy for disabled veterans * those suffering from PTSD. Now it’s time for UN and other sponsors to ask the Olympic Committee to make it a Paralympic discipline at the LA games in 2028.”

It’s all too easy, in this cynical time, to see a watch company sponsoring a charity and immediately think the worst – it’s a publicity stunt, a source for a tax write off, or an attempt to glom onto a community. Despite that pessimistic outlook, or perhaps because of it, I found myself all the more inspired by the partnership between Ulysse Nardin and One More Wave.

This is the kind of thing that watch companies need to do more of – supporting causes and initiatives because the people at the company itself genuinely believe in and resonate with the mission of that charity, utilizing their position, resources and connections, to make meaningful impacts for the people who need it the most. Perhaps the most surprising thing, (apart from how much harder surfing is now in my mid 30s than when I was 15), was how much support UN has provided to One More Wave over the years, that hasn’t been widely reported. But that is what truly encapsulates the spirit of altruism – doing good not for the praise, but because it’s the right thing to do.

For more information on One More Wave, head to their website here.