‘One Last Wave Project’ Honors the Dead

Dan Fischer found comfort after his father’s death by returning to surfing.

Grief-stricken by the loss of his father and best friend, 42-year-old Dan Fischer took to the ocean in January to find healing. After emerging from the frigid Rhode Island waters, Fischer realized he could share the uplifting results he’d experienced, and offered to include others on social media: They could submit their loved ones’ names and stories. Then, he would etch their names into his surfboard and take them out with him for “one last wave” — a common phrase among surfers seeking one final ride before turning in. Thus, the One Last Wave Project was born.

Dan Fischer, who started the One Last
Wave Project
Credit: onelastwaveproject.com

Since Fischer’s first social media post, thousands of people have reached out with names and stories — including Jennifer Lawnicki, whose 4-year-old daughter Peyton Avery died of leukemia. “She loved water and dolphins,” Lawnicki wrote to Fischer on TikTok. “I couldn’t get her to the ocean before she died.” Fischer added Avery’s name to his board, and created a video to share with Lawnicki; something Lawnicki found very moving, according to CNN. Fischer has since filled three surfboards with hundreds of names, and started on a fourth.

According to the Associated Press, Fischer was close to his father, Karl, They had shared adventures beyond surfing, such as climbing Mount Kilimanjaro and paragliding in Alaska. Before he died from pancreatic cancer at age 70, Karl had been a successful architect who grew up in Hungary. To make matters worse, not long after his death, Fischer’s 15-year-old dog, Rudy, also died. So on January 4, Fischer added his father’s name to his surfboard and went surfing.

The Power of One Last Wave

“Having him out there on one last adventure finally made me feel connected to him again in a positive way, not through pain,” Fischer told the AP. “It was at the peak of COVID, there was so much isolation. I thought people may be feeling the same way I was.”

Credit: onelastwaveproject.com

Fischer was right. Jonah Raisner, who took up surfing in honor of his father’s love for the sport, met with Fischer in Newport to surf on his father’s birthday, the AP reported. Raisner lost his father at the age of 7, and took the board with his father’s name on it while Fischer used another. “Once I was out there, reading all those names, it really felt like not only just my dad, but everyone else was out there surfing with me,” Raisner told the AP. “It felt real. I definitely felt his presence.”

Fischer has found extending healing to others to be a powerful experience, as well. “It’s had a really profound impact on me,” he told CNN in March. “Being able to combine a passion of surfing with helping other individuals heal is something that took precedence over everything else in the last few weeks.”

To include your loved one in the One Last Wave Project, submit their first and last name (or a nickname), along with a brief story, to info@onelastwaveproject.com.