{"id":244528,"date":"2019-12-10T08:36:49","date_gmt":"2019-12-10T08:36:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress-458273-1435032.cloudwaysapps.com\/?page_id=244528"},"modified":"2023-06-28T15:22:38","modified_gmt":"2023-06-28T15:22:38","slug":"dan-mancina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nocomplynetwork.com\/dan-mancina\/","title":{"rendered":"Dan Mancina"},"content":{"rendered":"
Dan Mancina is a blind skateboarder who does gnarly tricks and tech ledge moves. But that\u2019s not the only thing that defines his story. Dan’s passion to pursue challenges is unending.<\/strong><\/p>\n His lack of sight hasn\u2019t slowed down his ability to experience new things, have fun and get sponsored. <\/strong>After he gradually lost his sight in his mid-20s Dan reconnected with skateboarding and after attempting to relearn what he lost he eventually got sponsored by Real skateboards and Adidas to do it again.<\/strong><\/p>\n Now that Dan has joined The No Comply Network, we caught up to find out how he learnt to skate with no sight, getting a signature board on Action REALised, meeting Jim Thiebaud, Real, Paul Shier, adidas, his company Keep Pushing incorporated, adaptive skateboarding and how he rediscovered himself through rolling on his board.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n I’m originally from Detroit, Michigan.\u00a0I grew up in a little town called Livonia just outside there.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n My childhood was a mix of going up north to go camping and being near the lake and then coming back to the suburbs and skating round there.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n I started pushing on a board when I was about seven years of age but that was just pushing around.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t til I wabout thirteen that I started skating properly.<\/p>\n I met a group of friends in middle school and we all became consumed by skateboarding.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n My skate crew was in High School, we called ourself the Bushwick Skate Mafia!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n There weren\u2019t any parks, all we had was a ledge spot that had some manny pads.<\/p>\n I always tried to skate random stuff though that other people wouldn’t skate, just like anything from a rock, to a pole jam sticking out the wall.<\/p>\n That was when that whole suburban skate videos like Josh Stewart<\/a>‘ Static series were taking off in the early 00s and myself and our whole crew were really influenced by that.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n I was the typical skate rat, coming up. I worked at a skate shop called Push, just outside of Detroit, Michigan, they are still open today.<\/p>\n I skated there a handful of times when I was younger but Detroit wasn\u2019t my go-to city to skate.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n We always had a really good scene, and some great filmers.<\/p>\n That was the era when new skate videos were a huge thing, all the Zero videos were coming out, everybody was buying stacks of VHS tapes.<\/p>\n It was so expensive!\u00a0Our one buddy would get all the videos and we’d go to his house to watch them.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n My favourite video from that era was Transworld’s In Bloom, DVS Skate More and Bag of Suck was the real deal, I was really into that and of course Chomp On This.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n When I was around 24, my vision got so bad I had to stop driving, then I couldn\u2019t ride a bike.<\/p>\n Then eventually walking outside became difficult and I was unable to leave the house without assistance.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n It took a year or two from seeing to not seeing.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n I got tired of not knowing what I wanted and trying to figure out what a blind person is and what a blind person does and going through that process.<\/p>\n Eventually I realised I needed to worry about what I wanted to do instead of worrying about it all.\u00a0It was a process and also being annoyed at people treating me differently.<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t like that people were sad and were not approaching me.\u00a0I like having a way to be controlled and having a way to make myself happy.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Skateboarding has changed me over the years.<\/p>\n I started skating again as a way to redefine myself and take back control of my identity.<\/p>\n People kept viewing me as a blind person, someone to pity, now I see a difference in the way people treat me and talk to me since I got back on a board.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n I wanted to change people\u2019s perception of the blind and myself.<\/p>\n I started an Instagram<\/a> and I started doing stuff that you would not expect blind people to be doing like beer pong, hitting a bullseye in darts, chopping wood.<\/p>\n I made all these videos of myself doing all these random things to show people that blind people can do it too.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n One day I thought about skating and building a bench.<\/p>\n I built a bench and I did a little front board on it and to see what was possilble.<\/p>\n No reason other than just to do it, another video to do.<\/p>\n At that point I wasn\u2019t skating a lot, I wouldnt even consider myself a skater at that point.<\/p>\n I hadn’t touched a board in years.<\/p>\n Then I shared the video of the front board and it got shared by the Tony Hawk Foundation and it had a good reception.<\/p>\n So I kept making more videos and they increasingly got more attention.<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t know if I could skate the way I wanted to and enjoy it but I found out that\u2019s what I was enjoying the most and it all made me remember how much I loved skating.<\/p>\n Through skating I regained myself and rediscovered what I like to do.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n It was trial and error.<\/p>\n I use the cane for walking so it was a natural progression for skating.<\/p>\n I used to have a little more vision where I could see shadows out of my right peripheral so I could use my cane to reassure myself about where things where but in the last year I don\u2019t have anymore functional vision.<\/p>\n I use my hand a lot and I use the cane to give myself another point of reference to know exactly where the thing is that I\u2019m skating is.<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t want to use my cane at first<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n I thought it would be a distraction in the footage, like this weird thing but now I can\u2019t skate without it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Gaps are super sketchy, just skating in a straight line is the hardest thing to do.<\/p>\n Anything you have to be precise on.<\/p>\n Everything’s super challenging really.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been skating for five years as a blind person.<\/p>\n I need to skate everyday to be on point, to be my best, at least 2-3 times a week to feel comfortable and to feel confident.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n No but I\u2019ve been looking for a rail!<\/p>\n My next part that i’m working on is going to be crazy.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve stacked a few clips that I think are technically way further than I ever thought I could go, so if I can keep up this momentum and stay healthy hopefully we can put it together.<\/p>\n I\u2019m super stoked so far.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n It started with basic interviews and then eventually turned into people asking me if I wanted to come out and do a talk. going into blind schools and working with kids, are the funnest ones to do.<\/p>\n I\u2019m just trying to change the perception of the blind anyway that I can.<\/p>\n I did a talk at the Ohio state school for the Blind and they recieved 100 complete setups from Real Skateboards<\/a> and they have skateboarding class in their PE classes now.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n I do a handful every year.<\/p>\n I’ve just finished my masters and with everything in skating going I\u2019m pretty spent!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n I studied Vision Rehabilitation Teaching at Western Michigan University.<\/p>\n The aim of the course was to help the impaired to get the skills they need to be independent and getting the skills to transition their lives to being as back to normal as possible.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a year course and I\u2019ve just finished. I\u2019m doing my internship right now.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Education is valuable on all levels but a big reason I did the course is to find a way to support myself, I can\u2019t just rely on skating to get by in future.<\/p>\n Also studying the course is helping me to build my foundation Keep Pushing Incorporated<\/a>, which aims to build adaptive skateparks and environments for the visually impaired around America and the world.<\/p>\n The degree helps to legitimise everything in terms of the project so its helping me to bring it all together.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Adaptive skateboarding is building skateparks with blind and visually impaired people in mind but making it good enough for everybody.<\/p>\n The Keep Pushing Incorporated site will have the 3d rendered images of the concept parks too.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n I went to a few parks and not having a park that was easy for me to skate was problem, so I thought I could do something to change that.<\/p>\n So I partnered up with Real and we did the Braille board and the proceeds for the board go to Keep Pushing.<\/p>\n The aim of a true adaptive skatepark is that its not just a place for blind skaters but an easy access skatepark for skaters who have conditions like that or similar.<\/p>\n Hopefully that influences builders to make parks more accessible for everyone.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n I started reaching out to Jim Thiebaud<\/a>, he sent me some board and then he through their campaign ‘Action REALised’ we came up with the braille board.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t consider myself to be pro yet, the board has created a weird grey area but I don\u2019t think that I\u2019m pro for Real just yet.<\/p>\n To me having a signature board for Real, feels unreal.<\/p>\n I\u2019m stoked that I\u2019m getting Real boards and I’m part of the team.<\/p>\n Real is a company I\u2019ve always resepcted and I\u2019m so grateful to Jim for helping me out and changing the whole skating world for me.<\/p>\n Partnering with Real has opened up the doors for me.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\nWhere<\/strong> did you grow up Dan?<\/h1>\n
<\/h1>\n
What’s it like growing up there?<\/h1>\n
Who did you skate with?<\/h1>\n
What was the name of your first skate crew?<\/h1>\n
Jokes. What were you skating at the time?<\/h1>\n
What was Detroit like to skate?<\/h1>\n
What was the scene like though?<\/h1>\n
What’s your favourite skate video?<\/h1>\n
Agreed. So, when did you start to experience issues with your vision?<\/h1>\n
So it was gradual<\/h1>\n
When did you start to skate again?<\/h1>\n
How do you mean?<\/h1>\n
How long after losing your vision did your skating first get noticed?<\/h1>\n
First skate clip you filmed?<\/h1>\n
When did you start skating using your cane?<\/h1>\n
Why?<\/h1>\n
Hardest thing to skate for you?<\/h1>\n
Have you ever tried a handrail?<\/h1>\n
That’s sick. You’ve worked as a motivational speaker. How did you start doing that?<\/h1>\n
How many speeches have you done?<\/h1>\n
So, what are you studying?<\/h1>\n
Sick.Why did you want to study it?<\/h1>\n
What is adaptive skateboarding?<\/h1>\n
Why did you start Keep Pushing Inc?<\/h1>\n
How did you get a signature board on Action REALised?<\/h1>\n
When did you get on Adidas?<\/h1>\n