Wipeout Dementia

Dementia is becoming a wide spread health challenge around the world. Dementia is a brain disease, which decreases memory, emotions, motivation and language functions. Changes in the body can cause loss of brain function, such as diseases that affect blood circulation. In Alzheimer’s disease (most common type of dementia) little plaques of protien accumulate in the brain. This loss of brain function happens as we age but dementia consumes the brain much faster than ageing. “As more people live longer, dementia is becoming more common in the population as a whole ” (Wikipedia) The population of aging people 65 and older is at a higher risk of dementia yet some younger people at 40 can develop an early onset dementia. “Dementia slowly degreases the functions of the brain with a shortened life of 8-12 years (www.alz.org) People with the dementia need professional providers to care for the daily needs, a cost not covered by health insurance.

For the start of the Australian winter I was honored to help in a fundraiser for dementia research. I judged the tag team event with Steve Harrison from Global Surf Tag. The event featured 18 surfers that raised over $90,000 for the charity “Wipeout Dementia”. The ambassadors who surfed in the event for charity were: Richard Grellman former ASP CEO (now WSL), Wayne “Rabbit” Bartholomew former World Champ of the WSL and Tony Abbott the Prime Minister of Australia. The event ran in solid 6 to 8 foot south swell at Queenscliff Beach with two teams of 9 guys surfing in a 1-hour and half and counting their best one wave adding to the team’s total score. Keeping to the theme of the fundraiser, the boys took on the surf with epic rides and even more epic “wipeouts”. This charity is a great way to contribute and create a change for the future of friends or family members that may have dementia. If you are interested in supporting into research for dementia that will help all over the world please check out cheba.unsw.edu.au Some extra highlights of the event can be found at www.smh.com.au