- 4 hours ago
skate tales s01e03 13
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00:00Bro, you know what's more scary about being blind?
00:03What?
00:03I'll never be able to see your beautiful face.
00:06I'm Matterzaps, and I'm on a mission to explore skateboarding's outside edge.
00:10Hop in as we travel the globe meeting skateboarding's mavericks to find out what skating means to them.
00:36Detroit Rock City, USA!
00:40Here we are, gonna meet up with Dan Mancina and Justin Bishop.
00:45Two skaters who cannot see at all, but they skate.
01:10Just a new boy.
01:14He's new to Babygoon, do you want me to meet the girls and also have a real furry fique?
01:20You want me to walk?
01:25You want me to walk?
01:26Look at that one and see what they're talking about.
01:28I love you, love you.
01:29I love you, love you.
01:29I love you.
01:32We did a little session in the streets of Detroit, and now we're going to go meet Dan.
01:37And I'm super excited because there's nothing more inspirational than a blind skateboarder.
01:45After being diagnosed with retinal degenerative disease at age 13, Dan Mancina lost his sight
01:51at 22 and said goodbye to one of his great passions, skateboarding.
01:56But that's not the end of the story.
01:57In fact, it was just the beginning.
02:01Dan and fellow blind skater Justin Bishop invited us to America to ride with them
02:06and learn how they are building connections to one another and ride around the world.
02:11So this is where Dan lives.
02:18Knock, knock.
02:20Hello.
02:20Hey.
02:21Hi.
02:22How are you?
02:23Good.
02:23What's up, man? Good to meet you, brother.
02:25Good to meet you, too.
02:26How you doing?
02:27I'm good.
02:28Should I take my shoes off?
02:29Oh, no.
02:30You're good.
02:30You're chill.
02:31Can I get a hug?
02:32Yes.
02:32We're happy to go.
02:34Yeah, dog.
02:36So that's your new cane right there, or what?
02:39This one, man.
02:41The brand new cane.
02:42Broke one yesterday.
02:45You broke it?
02:46Yesterday.
02:46I was diagnosed when I was 13 with a hereditary eye disease called retinitis pigmentosa.
02:52It's called, like, RP.
02:53I'm pretty much told that my sight would slowly deteriorate throughout time until I was eventually
02:59blind or a little over six months ago.
03:02I lost the rest of my vision.
03:04In my mid-20s is when it really started to affect, like, my lifestyle, when I stopped
03:08driving.
03:10That's just the most annoying thing for me, you know?
03:13How do people treat you?
03:15People think you can't, like, do anything or, like, even, like, just all the small things.
03:20Yeah, you know, when you travel, if I'm ever with somebody, you know, like, especially
03:23like, in the, like, security line or something, they'll be like, you know, does he have his
03:27ID or does he have his passport?
03:28And it's like, yeah, I'm right here, you know?
03:37Hi, bro.
03:38Nice to meet you.
03:39What's going on?
03:39What's going on, bro?
03:40Nice to meet you.
03:40How's the flight?
03:41Ah, just long.
03:42How's it?
03:43How you doing?
03:43I'm doing good.
03:44I'm doing good, bro.
03:45How you doing?
03:46Good flight?
03:47Ah, good.
03:48The van is ready.
03:49So we just picked up Justin Bishop, and we're going to go skate.
03:57Yay!
03:58What?
04:01Oh, that's a tiny, whoa!
04:02That one's just a tiny one, but I have, like, bigger ones that are more for size.
04:06I put it in front of a pole so I can get close to that pole and not hit it
04:10and then be far
04:11enough away from other poles, and I kind of want to just ollie into this bank, so it kind
04:16kind of gives me, like, a little bit of awareness where everything's at.
04:26That was close to the wall.
04:28That was close to the wall, man.
04:30I'll turn it on.
04:39That's close to the wall, man.
04:50That's close to the wall.
04:52Yeah, that was close to the wall.
04:54I want to turn it right.
04:55Yeah, that's close to the wall.
05:01I messed up my knee, so it's going to be thrashed all weekend.
05:04It's like grip tape straight to the leg, right?
05:07Yeah, it's grip tape.
05:08So, I mean, because when you do the trick, it's like, ugh.
05:23Oh, what is that?
05:24Are you going to explode?
05:24I don't know.
05:25It's just letting me know that I had it.
05:27It's a Nixon watch, so when you do that, like, if you have a rough fall, it explodes like that.
05:32Really?
05:33Yeah.
05:34That's got to sit.
05:46I'm still getting massage.
05:48Ah.
05:49That feels amazing.
05:51So, been a long day skating, so tomorrow we're going to wake up again.
05:55And we've got Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday.
05:59We've got a couple days here.
06:09Yeah, I grew up skating, filling parts, uh, throughout high school and stuff like that, middle school.
06:14And then, like, a full-length part was in, uh, super shoes.
06:20Everybody!
06:28I moved to Cali right down to high school, just to, just to live off skating, you know?
06:35Be, uh, I guess to be pro. Sounds weird to say, but...
06:39Is this park pretty chill on a Saturday morning?
06:42Uh, I haven't been here on a Saturday in probably ten years.
06:49So, we're warming up at Riley Skate Park, right by 8 Mile.
06:53Apparently, this is Eminem's stomping grounds.
06:56And walked around the skate park with Justin, because he'd never been here before.
06:59So, I helped him show, see, and visualize how the skate park looks like.
07:04Oh, shoot back.
07:09Oh, shoot back.
07:42All right, let's go.
08:22All right, good to see you, man.
08:29I used to always see him around back in the day,
08:32whether it was down at Hart Plaza or around the city.
08:36He skates, like, it doesn't seem like it affected him.
08:41It's really weird, like, he can still skate good
08:43even though he can't see.
08:51I moved back to Michigan and, you know, having a kid
08:54and dealing with my blindness and all that stuff.
08:56So, I mean, yeah, there was definitely a time
08:58when I was kind of, you know, bummed down or whatever.
09:01Some kind of, you know, figure out who I was again,
09:05kind of had to refine myself.
09:06Just being sick of the way people treated me
09:09and the low expectations and stuff like that.
09:12And then just slowly eventually realized that, like,
09:16I'm just way happier and just a better person
09:20when I'm on my board.
09:25No stopping, no hesitation, straightforward motivation.
09:58I made a mistake earlier.
10:00I thought that, yeah, you're going straight, you're going straight.
10:02And then he ended up jumping into the rail, like, gnarly far.
10:08It felt so bad.
10:22Almost got ran over by the car, but he did it.
10:25Oh, I thanked him for making me do it.
10:26I'm scared of grinding and moving,
10:28so I wouldn't have done it unless matters told me to.
10:32Let's take the hillbomb.
10:33Are you ready?
10:37Over there, like, there's a bunch of nothing.
10:41Big, big Canadian flag across.
10:44Downtown Detroit, a bunch of classic
10:46Detroit, Michigan spots here.
10:49Glad to see what Mars can do.
11:13Got to eat.
11:23We work with people that are blind, vision impaired in the people's homes.
11:27We generally don't do it here.
11:29This is the only exception upstairs.
11:36And what he does is he teaches them in skills
11:38to give them the ability to be independent.
11:41And he's got a great story to tell
11:43because he tells about how he lost his vision.
11:46He tells about what it took him to come back.
11:50And that's the most important thing with vision loss,
11:52is the ability to come back,
11:54to decide that your life isn't over.
11:58That's the biggest crisis that people that are blind face
12:02is that they've had vision and they lose it.
12:06Then it's a big crime for them
12:08because you start to think of everything you can do
12:12and then you think of everything you've lost.
12:14That's why it's so amazing that he can skateboard
12:18because he's come back through that.
12:20They gave him purpose again.
12:23As he said it, he wanted to be a professional skateboarder
12:26before he lost his vision
12:28and then he lost his vision
12:29and he became a professional skateboarder
12:31which is the amazing thing
12:32is that he accomplished a goal
12:34that he wanted before he lost his vision
12:37and he got it after he lost his vision
12:39which is, when you think about that, that's amazing.
12:44What a great day.
12:56What a great day.
12:59What a great day.
13:00What a great day.
13:00What a great day.
13:01What a great day.
13:01What a great day.
13:01What a great day.
13:02What a great day.
13:03What a great day.
13:03What a great day.
13:05What a great day.
13:06What a great day.
13:10What a great day.
13:21We're here at the one and only Detroit DIY spot, the WIG, short for the Wiggle Park.
13:27Me and Mars are trying to get it in before it starts raining.
13:31The real guys were in town and that's when they presented me with the Action Realize
13:35Braille board, so it just gave this place a little bit more meaning to me for sure.
13:58My favorite thing about Dan is honestly just how humble he is.
14:01As far as being a skater, sometimes I forget that he even is blind.
14:06I mean, we'll go to a spot and I'll be like, oh, you should try this.
14:11Come on, dude, that's lame.
14:12You know what I mean?
14:12So it's like he doesn't let it get to him.
14:15He's super humble about it.
14:17He's himself.
14:18He hasn't let him being blind change who he is.
14:22That's rad.
14:29When I was younger, my life was just more positive.
14:33Everything about it.
14:34And then losing it, it was like negative in my mindset.
14:38Not all negative, but just something missing, you know?
14:41But ever since I've been back on my board, it's just good things happen.
14:47It just feels like it's where I'm supposed to be and what I'm supposed to be doing.
14:55Chili, cheese, mustard, onion.
14:58And these are corny dogs and chili cheese fries.
15:03All right.
15:03Here we go.
15:04Here we go.
15:14I'm gonna need to order another one.
15:25Yes.
15:30What does the braille say on the board?
15:33So it says, Dan Mancino.
15:36And then the bigger braille is R-E-A-L, real.
15:40And then skateboards.
15:42Are we getting there?
15:43Yeah.
15:44I don't even care.
15:44That's just gnarly.
15:46Seriously.
15:48It means a lot.
15:48It means a lot to meet you.
15:50And I love what you do.
15:57I got that, right?
16:00Backside 5-0 slash in the deep end.
16:02So good.
16:04Justin Bishop.
16:06Getting it done.
16:11I wonder if Dan is gonna land his first kickflip.
16:13Because if he doesn't land his first kickflip,
16:16he's gonna need to do some push-ups.
16:22Hey, you used the cane.
16:23No push-ups for me today.
16:24You used the cane.
16:25You used the cane to balance up.
16:27You used your eyes, dude.
16:28You used the cane.
16:31You used the cane.
16:33Yeah.
16:34Yeah.
16:39Oh boy.
17:00We are trying to do a double handshake, going downhill in the parking lot because it's raining
17:08outside.
17:15Yeah, it's the first time doing a handstand downhill, so hopefully I can get one.
17:34No release, man.
17:54I mean, I like to see myself skating for as long as possible.
17:57Man, just travel as much as I can, be in the van as much as I can with the boys.
18:04It pushes me a lot, you know, just seeing those guys, what they're doing.
18:08And seeing you skate, see what you do, it's like, man, motivates me to keep going.
18:18I'm going to try out the blind skateboarding.
18:25Too much higher.
18:30Are you regular or do you feel free?
18:31A regular.
18:33That's what I do, so stick it far so you have plenty of time to know where the drop is.
18:40I'm going to try to alley it without my cane.
18:41And the minute you feel that, it's falling.
18:48I'm going to try to alley it without my cane.
18:55Without the cane.
19:04It's fun if you realize the dangers of it.
19:31I've probably been skating with no vision for about three years, four years now.
19:36Actually, when Dan's Red Bull thing came out, my friends were telling me that he's in the street because I
19:43use that as an excuse.
19:44I'm like, I can't street skate. I can't do any of that. I can go back and forth. I can
19:49feel transition and coping and stuff.
19:52And that's when I was like, holy shit, there's another blind skater that also has RP.
19:59And we're the same age, too. It's insane.
20:03Do you ever lose your eyesight? Are you going to give up skateboarding?
20:07Probably not. Yeah. No way.
20:49What is skateboarding for you?
20:50I've always seen it as a way to express myself, you know, especially now more than ever as a blind
20:56person.
20:57It's like I said, it gives me a way to show people who I am in the way that I
21:03want to be seen.
21:04Right. As somebody who's capable and not as somebody who's handicapped or disabled or anything like that.
21:09People meet me like they're, like he said, they're like happy and stoked as opposed to have some kind of
21:16pity or feel sorry for me or something like that.
21:19You know, blindness isn't the worst thing that can happen to you.
21:22They say a bad day in the lake is better than a good day in the office, you know?
21:25I got it pretty easy compared to, you know, other disabilities and stuff like that.
21:32But, I mean, I've just going through my vision loss and trying to like figure out what does a blind
21:39person do and then realizing like, you know, it's more about what does Dan want to do.
21:44So, don't let other people, especially people who don't understand what you're going through, dictate your lifestyle and choose your
21:56path in life and tell you what you should do or shouldn't do.
22:00I mean, it's really, it's up to you to figure out, you know, what makes you happy and figure out
22:06exactly what you're supposed to be doing.
22:08Um, and you gotta just keep, like, the best thing for me to do was like, I never stopped searching
22:16for something.
22:17Whatever it is, I was always, I was always moving forward.
22:20He's alright.
22:21Go tell your papa I'm coming for him, huh?
22:25Dan Mancina is a skater who lost his sight but not his vision.
22:30A remarkable story, he made it back from the pits of despair to become a worldwide inspiration.
22:35Plus, he is ripping.
22:38Dan's example fired up other blind skaters like Justin Bishops to overcome the cards life dealt them.
22:44And now they rip together.
22:46Maybe we can all take some of that energy and use it in our own lives.
22:50Inside skating and out.
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