He Lost His Sight—but Not His Passion for Skateboarding

[film winding]

[bright chime]

[light pensive music]

[gentle skateboard thud]

[humming a tune]

[wheels rolling]

[skateboard crashes]

Whew! A little grindy.

My love for skateboarding is everything.

It's saved my life so many times.

[skateboard wheels rolling]

[metallic clacking]

Come on do a trick!

Blunt

right-hand grab,

to no stall thing?

Yeah.

The fuck?

What do you even call that?

I don't know.

[laughing]

Failure's the most important thing in life.

That was fucking crazy.

Try one more time for it.

You got it.

Nothing means anything if you got it first try.

[skateboard crashes and body slamming]

[thuds against wood]

[alarm beeping]

My childhood was just nonstop, running,

playing, baseball, hockey.

Non-stop movement.

A lot of freedom, a lot of room to explore.

When I was eight, I got my eyes checked

they were like, yeah, you have retinitis pigmentosa.

One day you'll go blind.

That means nothing to an eight year old.

A neighbor kid was skating in front of his house,

when I saw him ollie up a curb,

it was the coolest thing I've ever seen,

so I just wanted to do that.

I traded Pokemon cards for a Santa Cruz skateboard

and just slammed in the curb until I learned how to ollie.

First time I entered a competition,

I went to the park for a month straight,

I practiced one run over and over.

I got first place.

When I got sponsored,

it was cool.

It was a fun time,

it felt good to stand out.

The plan was to never stop.

Wasn't until like 19, when I got in a car accident,

I was like, all right, I gotta go to the eye doctor,

and he's going to make me legally blind.

I had to quit my job,

I can still skate, I can still see people,

I'm just not allowed to drive.

I knew the timeline was getting shorter.

It was just a mad dash to max out your talent

before you lose your sight.

When I was 25, one day at the skate park

I missed a rail and I was just missing a lot of stuff,

and just running into stuff.

Tried to look at my feet and I couldn't see my feet anymore,

just blurs.

I've never told them--

On the way home, someone had their basketball court up

and I just walked right into it.

[crying]

Laid there for a minute and then yeah,

I went home and broke down to my dad.

[crying]

I'm sorry.

Pretty much lived in my room for weeks

drinking every night.

It was just numb,

it was nothingness.

I didn't know I can still live.

I always promised myself when I lost my sight,

I would never stop.

I would never stop skateboarding.

[whooshing flame]

[fire crackling]

I broke that promise.

Skateboarding was gone,

didn't want to do anything

I feel a lot of times people see that cane

and think you're helpless.

[smartphone accessibility assistant voice reading text]

[phone ping]

[phone accessibility assistant voice reading text]

But one day,

my dad came in the room and he's like from here on out,

we're done.

He understood that I had to grieve for my eyes.

I loved you

thank you for letting me see what I could,

you're dead now, but I'm not.

Learning the bus,

walking on the streets and getting comfortable.

I had so many people picking me up telling me to go, go.

Life starts again.

I haven't been on a skateboard in almost four years,

I didn't want it to hurt me emotionally again.

I figured out life,

and I don't want this to bring stuff back up.

Just out of nowhere my buddy Jericho,

was like dude, do you think you can still drop in?

No, I'm done skateboarding it's just not me anymore.

He's like, I bet you can still do it,

just muscle memory, and he says come on, man, come on.

And I was like, all right, I'll just do it,

I'll drop in for you.

Stood on the edge of the coping,

got ready to drop in.

[light tensive music]

[thud]

[skateboard wheels rolling]

It was the best feeling ever,

came up on the other side of the mini ramp

and got hung up and just slammed to the ground,

and I'm just laughing and smiling and crying

'cause all the emotions just hit me.

I missed falling,

it was four years since I took a fall.

When you get hurt, you feel alive.

My vision, I got past it,

it happened, it was a bad time,

but my life is dope now, you know?

Like it never changed, my life never changed,

it was just the way I was looking at it changed.

[skateboard wheels]

All right, right here.

[skateboard wheels]

[thud]

Ahh! [laughs]

[hands clapping]

All good

Yeah dude.

Within 24 hours, bought a skateboard

and I just knew like,

I don't care what I can do,

I just, I never want to let you go again.

[laughs]

[chatter]

That's when I felt like a skateboarder again,

like game on,

we're learning shit now.

That's when I realized I could be

what I was when I had sight.

Pfft!

Yeah get it!

[skateboard wheels rolling]

[metallic clicks]

[skateboard wheels rolling]

Fuck yeah!

Yes dude.

Some things will never be the same,

it's all about not what tricks you can do

but always breaking your next level,

always breaking through the next level of your skill.

When I lost my sight and I was learning

how to use a microwave

or get to the mailbox,

I would just fail.

Defrost your food and not fully cook it.

Get on the wrong bus.

I failed, I failed, I failed, I failed,

I landed it!

I used the microwave correctly,

I got to the mailbox!

Skateboarding taught me that's life,

you fail.

Like how cool is that?

Yeah.

Some people only get to learn

how to kick flip once in their life,

but I got to learn how to kick flip two times in my life

once with sight, and once without sight.

No one gets to learn kick flips twice.

[girl laughing]

Like, do I want this Llama?

I got the Lama.

[laughing]

[skateboard rolling and thumping]

There it is!

Oh yeah.

[thud]

[skateboard wheels rolling]

[skateboard wheels roaring]

It's nice to be recognized,

but the main reason is to just,

push blind skateboarding,

visually impaired skateboarding as far as we can.

[laughing]

[evocative music]

[cheering]

I'm ready to take breaks.

I'm little old for skateboarding now.

Hi

Yo what's up Sergio? Fist bump! Dude.

How you doing man?

Good, you?

I'm doing good man, you ready to learn

how to skateboard today?

Yeah.

Oh awesome, awesome.

But I want kids to know,

when you lose your sight or if you're blind right now,

we got this.

That one's perfect, and then yep,

you're gonna do good.

And so here I'll grab this hand,

and then a kick and push.

Whoa!

[skateboard wheels rolling]

[laughing]

I left too fast.

Yeah, I know got a massive kick off that one.

Got you brother, gotcha.

You're gonna fall again, the falls never stop.

Yeah you gotta fall.

Yeah, you're gonna be falling a lot.

Can you do that, make that motion?

I know it feels weird.

I feel like spiderman or something.

Yeah.

Yes yes!

There you go, there you go.

There you go, brother, yes!

We're just gonna put a little bit of pressure

on the back tail and then try to shuffle, shuffle.

Yes!

So back foot on the tail,

and then sit on the tail,

Boom! And then down.

Yeah, dude!

And you wanna try it again?

Yeah.

Back foot,

sit on it, sit on it,

there you go! And then, down!

[emotive music]