(skateboard rolling) (footsteps running) - Am I close?

- Uh, directly backwards.

Keep going.

Keep going.

Hard left!

Right there you got it.

Oh!

Ah Turn around Spin 180.

Now take a diagonal to the left!

Yup!

Yeah yeah.

(BEEP) ♪ (somber orchestral music) ♪ - How would I define my vision?

- [Steve] Yeah.

- It's not completely blank in any, any means at all.

I see basically like, almost like the fuzziness of a TV, like when it's, you know, not no signal, you know, that fuzzy staticky (mimic TV static) it's like that, but all those little tiny fuzz pieces are like even smaller and change color.

They're like almost like the size of sand and change color, like so rapidly and so quickly.

Then it's kind of like Northern Lights waving through it with almost a lightning storm behind it, just all flashing and twisting and mixed in with like a kaleidoscope.

I actually get fatigued from it sometimes just cause it's, it's there 24/7.

But my vision hasn't always been this way.

(birds chirping) I grew up kind of in the country, riding dirt bikes four wheelers and, always trying to get around from like, not going to school or not doing anything besides what your, you know, what your friends are doing.

And then skate park popped up like a firestorm went through my mind.

It was just endless possibilities.

You could stand on it any way you could flip it any way you want.

That's all I could think about.

(cassette player clicks) (upbeat music) That was the beginning of everything.

You know, skating.

The whole atmosphere just grabbed me immediately.

I was just like, this is what I want to do.

I want to fly around as fast as I can and spin and, whip around.

Skateboarding was that one thing.

(crowd cheers) You know its' something that you just, it's something that that you love.

My whole life all the way up until I got sick, was just flying around as fast as I could.

(TV static) (crickets chirping) One day I was just out with my filmer, Steve.

We went to this like old broken down warehouse to get this clip.

The ground was just horrible.

And there was probably like a two and a half, three inch crack the bottom of the bank, man.

I hit the crack and my front wheels flew through the air and hit the ground.

(skateboard crashing) Safe!

(yells out in pain) Got a road rash from like my knee to my hip.

Then something so tiny exploded into something so large.

MRSA is a flesh eating staph infection.

It just moved through my blood system.

And, I guess like it was, I was turning into like critical condition and I guess I was just getting worse and worse and worse.

And the staph infection was moving all over through my body.

They ended up putting me into a pre induced coma for a month and a half.

The doctor was basically like telling my father that even if I do make it out of it, I'm going to be like brain dead.

And I'm basically going to be like a vegetable for the rest of my life.

And then the next thing is like, yeah, he's only got like 1% chance to live.

So you might as well just say your goodbyes tonight because he's not going to make it through the morning.

They were just completely expecting like, yeah this dude's dead.

He's not gonna make it at all.

That next morning.

My liver and kidneys started right back up that morning.

Like it just all kicked back on.

I didn't really know what happened, but when I woke up, I just had longer hair and I was super skinny.

Couldn't move my arms.

Couldn't move my legs, couldn't, couldn't do anything.

Couldn't even talk.

Come to find out it made its way into my brain tissue.

And then into my optic nerve, peeled the retinas off the back of my eyeballs like wet wallpaper and all the that I had all the, vision that I had all the, everything it was just, just gone.

I, I honestly thought I was like, well, can't see now.

I have no money.

I have no job.

I have no work history.

I don't know how to take care of myself being a young kid.

You know, it was really hard.

I got really scared and didn't know what to do.

So I just sank into my bed one day and laid there for probably about three months.

Barely ate, slept all the time.

Didn't care, hated everything, hated God.

(nervous chuckle) I just gave up.

I just gave up.

Laying in my bed.

And one day I just remember sitting up and laughing.

Just, kind of like, what the (BEEP) am I doing?

Like, I still have my arms and legs.

I could still walk.

I can still breathe.

I can still talk.

I could still think, I just can't see.

Still here so, what am I going to do?

Lay in bed and cry and mope and be sad, whine.

And actually have somebody take care of me because I am such a (BEEP) that I'm just going to lay in bed and let my life fall apart?

Because I have no willpower or anything?

Can't do it.

There's no way.

There's no way in hell.

(laughs) Just kind of, I don't know.

That one day just made me snap.

I wasn't going through a physical rehab or anything because I was stubborn.

So I had to do something.

So I'd go to the park.

And just stand on my board in the corner, you know, whatever.

And I just remember hearing like the wheels on the skateboard, people popping their board, doing a long grind and landing and, remembering that satisfaction of like trying a trick so many times when you finally roll away from it.

I got it a little bit jealous one day cause my friends were skating half-pipe and that, I mean half-pipe was always my favorite That day I, I wasn't even thinking about it.

I wasn't thinking about falling.

I wasn't thinking about getting hurt.

I just, I just wanted to make it to the other side.

Put my front foot on, slam the front wheels down, made it up to the other side of the ramp, And I was like yup, it's on.

dropped in rock to fakie got to fifties and then after that, Storm.

Of just blunts, blunts, blunts, blunts, blunts, blunts.

That was it.

After I got the blunts, I started going ape-(BEEP).

♪ (grunge music intro) ♪ Spinning into grinds, spinning out of grinds, I didn't know what the hell I was doing I was just shoving myself into the moment.

I started taking off, I started doing all the stuff that I was doing when I, had vision.

My friends were, (laughs) you know honestly, I don't know, I don't know if they even knew what to think.

After a while they were like, legit he's doing it, I mean, Okay.

That's it man, repetition.

You can try it so many times eventually it'll come around.

(upbeat piano) Basically it's just all muscle memory and it's just that barrier of not being able to see what I'm doing.

I'm just trusting it and flying around and, letting what my body has learned in the past just kind of do its thing.

I'm not thinking about tricks.

I'm just thinking about what feels natural next.

It's just a beautiful thing kind of.

(chuckle) - [Steve] How long do you think you'll skate for?

- Till my legs fall off.

(chuckle) It's a good way to get out of your minds to actually be free.

The world doesn't exist around you.

It's just that moment where time stands still and it's just you and the thing that you love.