Skateboarding is undeniably a challenging sport to take up, but Dan Mancina is always one up for a challenge.
Dan has a degenerative eye disease that has taken nearly all of his eyesight in the last 4 years, and he will eventually be blind. He currently has 5% of his eyesight left and is able to see shadows and light.
With some ingenuity, Dan has figured out a way to make skateboarding – a longtime passion of his – possible.
“I got inspired one day and built a box, then I was just like I’m gonna see what I can do.”
All Dan needs for skateboarding is the box, a cane, a big space, and lots of determination. He explains: “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.”
Besides skateboarding, Dan regularly uploads videos of him doing other activities like chopping wood or playing beer pong. And he has a reason for sharing these videos: “To change the perspective of what you think a blind person is.”
Dan notes that people often behave differently around him: they are either afraid to approach or talk to him, or going out of their way to help him. “I carry around this cane and people treat me differently,” he shares. “So it’s pretty much living a life of proving myself. That’s kind of where the videos come from.”
“I’m literally the exact same person I was before I was blind.”
As for skateboarding, Dan is eager to relearn stunts that he was able to do before going blind. He’s definitely one to look out for.
Check out this video below to see how Dan performs his stunts:
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