If you asked your parents to name one skateboarder, maybe they’d say Shaun White, but more likely than not, the answer they’d come up with is Tony Hawk. He’s essentially the Michael Jordan of the sport, so if he’s impressed by some skateboarding thing, then it’s probably pretty sweet. He recently tweeted a video of Dan Mancina warming up at an event Hawk hosted in Detroit, and in many ways, this guy is more impressive than Hawk. The video shows Mancina doing a simple 50/50 grind, but what makes it awesome is that Mancina is blind (via Twisted Sifter).
Favorite moment of our Detroit demo today: Dan Mancina’s warmup 50/50 (yes, he’s blind) pic.twitter.com/zzk64zQGu8
— Tony Hawk (@tonyhawk) June 9, 2018
Mancina said in an interview last year that he has a hereditary degenerative disease known as RP, or retinitis pigmentosa, which has slowly deteriorated his vision from the outside in, mostly over the last few years for Mancina. In the same interview, he explained his process, saying that he uses his cane and context clues to figure out what his environment is like:
“I got inspired one day and built a box [for grinding], then I was just like I’m gonna see what I can do. Originally I was doing it without my cane but the cane gives it such a dramatic effect. It’s hilarious, like, ‘Whoa, is that dude blind?’ I’ll take the box to a tennis court and put it along the white line in front of a crack. I’ll pop over the crack and know the box is coming up, and I feel the box with my cane and just hit it from there. I haven’t done any street skating, which is what I really want to do. It’s gonna have to be more creative than dropping hammers. I have a million ideas I want to try but it’s the same as when I was sighted. You have all these ideas and you get to a spot and you’re like, ‘Yeah, I’m not going to be able to do that.'”
What do you think of Mancina’s story? Share your thoughts down in the comments!
Featured image: jenkemmag/YouTube
More awesomely nerdy stuff:
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- How Microsoft is making gaming more accessible.
- A legally blind astronomer has super night vision.
- AÂ student builds his own prosthetic arm with LEGO.
