THE BEGINNING OF TORO & TIDES
EVAN'S STORY
The reality of life after a brain injury.
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THE ACCIDENT
In 2019, Evan's life changed in seconds.
He was on his way to a sales meeting when a semi-truck lost its rear wheel and it came through his windshield. The crash caused devastating injuries, including a fractured skull, brain bleeding, a broken vertebra, and multiple other broken bones. He spent time in a coma in ICU, and for a while the question was not what recovery would look like, but whether he would survive at all.
He did survive. But the version of survival people see from the outside rarely tells the full story.
Evan was left with a severe traumatic brain injury, debilitating migraines, seizures, nerve pain, and memory loss. The accident set in motion a long, exhausting reality that would reshape nearly every part of his life.
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A NEW REALITY
Evan moved through 19 rehabilitation programs, numerous emergency room visits, neurological testing, seizures, chronic pain and significant cognitive changes. Memory became unreliable. Everyday tasks required more effort. Relationships changed. Work changed. His sense of identity changed with them.
A brain injury is often described in terms of what someone has “recovered.” Evan's experience, like that of many other survivors, was far less linear. Some periods brought progress. Others brought setbacks, exhaustion, frustration and the realization that there may never be a return to the person or life that existed before the accident.
Much of the hardest part happened after the immediate medical crisis had passed. The outside world kept moving while Evan was learning how to function inside a brain and body that felt unfamiliar. He had to navigate fragmented care, limited long-term resources, and a system that often focused on the immediate injury without offering a clear path for everything that came after.
Eventually, there was only so much more formal rehabilitation could offer, yet he was still left with the enormous task of figuring out how to build a life around an injury that continued to affect him every day. There was no roadmap for what came next.
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FINDING PURPOSE
That process reshaped more than his health. It changed the way he saw resilience, independence, success and what it means to move forward.
Evan is still living with the effects of his injury. The pain did not simply disappear. The cognitive challenges did not end when formal rehabilitation did. There was no clean finish line. But his life did not end there either.
Moving forward was no longer about recreating the life he had before the crash. Evan's story became one of learning how to build something meaningful from a life that took an entirely different direction, while being honest about how difficult that can be.
That experience became the foundation of Toro & Tides, a platform built around the realities of life after brain injury, the stories that too often go unheard, and the belief that people deserve better support long after the emergency is over.
HOW TORO & TIDES CAME ABOUT
Born from experience.
Built for a bigger purpose.
Evan’s experience showed him that rebuilding a life after brain injury is rarely straightforward. Toro & Tides grew from that reality, creating a more inclusive world through storytelling, advocacy, conversation, and community.
THE TORO
RESILIENCE
The part of you that keeps going, showing up, doing the work, and finding a way forward.
THE TIDES
THE EBB & FLOW
There are good days, setbacks, periods of rest, and times when you can push forward again.
SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS
From setback to purpose
Evan’s story began with a traumatic brain injury, but the themes reach far beyond it. He speaks about resilience, identity, perseverance, uncertainty, and rebuilding when life takes an unexpected turn, offering audiences a real-world perspective on how to keep moving forward when the original plan no longer applies.
FOR AUDIENCES INCLUDING
Conferences
Organizations & Associations
Businesses & Corporate Teams
Schools & Universities
Sports Teams & Clubs
Community & Nonprofit Events
BRAIN TO BRAIN PODCAST
Making space for stories that are often missed
Evan’s background in journalism shaped the way he listens, asks questions, and tells other people’s stories. After his own brain injury, those skills took on a much more personal purpose.
Today, Evan is using what happened to him to create some of the things he wished had existed when he was trying to find his way forward. Through Brain to Brain, he gives survivors, caregivers, clinicians, and advocates a place to share the realities of life after brain injury. Those conversations are helping build a community around the parts of brain injury that are often hardest to explain.
ADVOCACY
Pushing for what was missing
Evan’s advocacy grew directly from the gaps he experienced after his injury: fragmented care, limited long-term resources, a lack of support once rehabilitation ended, and the difficult reality of having to navigate what came next largely on his own.
Today, he uses that experience to push for better systems for the brain injury community, from advocating on Capitol Hill with BIAA, to developing a return-to-school policy proposal now moving through the Puerto Rico Legislature, serving on the board of the Brain Injury Clubhouse of Florida, and spearheading a new clubhouse in Austin, TX.
MORE THAN A T-SHIRT.
Apparel is where Toro & Tides began as a way to connect with the brain injury community. We create pieces that make people ask questions, and help survivors feel seen in experiences that are often hard to explain.
Today, the shop is one part of a much bigger mission. Every purchase helps support the work behind Toro & Tides, from storytelling and advocacy to building new ways for the brain injury community to feel seen and understood.