SANTA MONICA - On a Sunday morning last fall, a group of women gathered at the Santa Monica Pier for the American Cancer Society's Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk. They wore matching shirts, moved together through the crowd, and met up afterward the way people do when they've been through something together that most people haven't.
They call themselves The Breast Goddess (TBG) – Circle of Friendship — and their doctor was walking with them.
Dr. Tiffany Grunwald is the Division Vice Chief of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Providence Saint John's Health Center on Santa Monica Boulevard. She established the hospital’s Women’s Health and Wellness Institute as Executive Medical Director and now acts as advisor to all of the Institute of Saint John’s. She has been on Saint John's board of directors and chairs its surgical review committee for patient safety, holds a seat on the Santa Monica College Foundation board, and has been nationally recognized as one of America's Top Breast Surgeons. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of North Carolina, earned her M.D. from USC's Keck School of Medicine — where she was ranked top in her class for clinical skills — and later picked up a Master of Education from USC's Rossier School of Education while working as a clinical instructor.
She has also, for more than a decade, been insisting that paddleboards and bike rides are part of the treatment plan.
"The goal of reconstruction is more than just building breasts," Grunwald has said. "It's to help women feel strong and beautiful, like a warrior — to help them love and trust their body again and to own the courage that got them through breast cancer treatment."
That conviction is the engine behind TBG – Circle of Friendship, a community she founded for breast cancer survivors and previvors in the Los Angeles area. What began as a small circle of patients has grown into a full calendar of athletic and social events spread across the Westside — paddleboarding in Marina del Rey, cycling down the coast from Santa Monica to Manhattan Beach, relay racing in Malibu, beach walks at Zuma, and organized walks at the Santa Monica Pier.
On the water
The Champion Paddle is the group's signature monthly event — a guided stand-up paddleboard or kayak glide through the calm, protected waters of Marina del Rey, designed for post-surgical wellness, coastal connection, and the simple pleasure of being on the water. It has run monthly since 2014, hosted at Pro SUP Shop at Mother's Beach, where the shop reduces its rental fees for Team TBG participants.
The event draws beginners and regulars alike. The flat-water conditions are intentional: women recovering from surgery may be months out from having had their chest muscles cut and stretched, and paddleboarding — which builds upper-body strength gradually, without impact — is precisely the kind of activity most post-surgical physical therapy programs never think to prescribe.
"Standing on a board feels like strength and courage – and it is." Grunwald said.
Each participant is also asked to bring a donated item to the paddle. Those items get assembled into gift baskets and delivered to women recently diagnosed, in active treatment, or struggling through recovery. In October, TBG holds a special BRA Day Champion Paddle — celebrating Breast Reconstruction Awareness Day — where participants are encouraged to show up "busty, proud, and paddling in our boldest bras."
It is, by design, impossible to take too seriously. That's the point.
On the road
This July 19, TBG is adding a new event to its calendar: a coastal bike ride departing from Helen’s Cycles at 2501 Broadway in Santa Monica, heading south along the oceanfront path to Manhattan Beach and back. The ride is open to riders of all levels and framed as a morning for survivors to move alongside people who understand what they've been through. "Ride with a friend, a partner, a daughter, a caregiver," the event listing reads. "Join us for this shared morning where support moves forward together."
The cycling event reflects the group's broader evolution. TBG started as a paddleboard community. It has since become a year-round athletic program that meets women where they are — on the water, on a bike, on a beach, at a pier — and gives them somewhere to show up.
On the racecourse
Since 2012, Team TBG has fielded relay teams at the Malibu Triathlon at Zuma Beach, covering a 1.5K swim, a 40K bike ride, and a 10K run. What started as Grunwald and her patient care coordinator, Sheila Young, racing in tribute to their patients has grown to 30 teams made up of breast cancer survivors, supporters, and friends. More than 60 percent of participants are Grunwald's own patients. The teams have raised money for Children's Hospital, St. John's Breast Center, the Pink Lotus Foundation, and First Descents — totaling $8,700 in a single year at one point.
In August, TBG is launching a new event: the TBG Beach Relay at the Venice Fishing Pier, born from the same spirit as the Malibu Triathlon and designed to bring that same energy to a new venue closer to home.
A doctor who shows up
What distinguishes Grunwald's approach from conventional post-surgical care isn't just the programming — it's the participation. She doesn't organize these events from a distance. She's at the Champion Paddle. She races in the Malibu Triathlon. She walked the pier in October. Her presence is the message.
The Women's Health and Wellness Institute she leads at Saint John's has been outspoken about a troubling gap in breast cancer care: roughly 60 percent of women facing mastectomy or lumpectomy are never offered the option of immediate breast reconstruction — a failure that leaves women without information they are legally entitled to under federal law. Grunwald has made fixing that a part of her public role, using the BRA Day paddles and related events as platforms for awareness.
She opened her private practice at 1301 20th Street in Santa Monica in 2007. Almost 20 years later, she's still seeing patients in the morning — and paddling with them on Sunday.
TBG's 2026 calendar includes the following upcoming events: TBG Bike Ride on July 19 at Helen’s Cycles in Santa Monica, the TBG Beach Relay on Aug. 15 at the Venice Pier, the Champion Paddle on Sept. 13 at Pro SUP Shop in Marina del Rey and the Making Strides walk on Oct. 25 at the Santa Monica Pier. All events are open to survivors, previvors, and supporters. Full schedule at thebreastgoddess.com. Dr. Grunwald's office can be reached at (310) 828-4646 for more information.
