Brett the amazing BLIND skater!?

Alright guys, we are here today with Brett and he is a blind skater. Yeah. So tell your whole story. Alright. So Hippie Mike told me that you do like inspirational talks at school. I do, yeah. And in that story, in my inspirational speaks, I tell my whole story as well. My name is Brett Develo. I go by TBK, the blind kid. Bert, my friends call me that. Logan calls me Brev, you don't know Logan. TBK, the blind kid. Yeah, I lost my vision when I was 16 on November 23, 2011. Wow. And we're coming up on 13 years in about a week and a half or two weeks here. Yeah, about a week actually. Wow. Yeah, so I was sitting in the middle of history class, writing the notes on the overhead. If you remember overheads, that was like the light box and it could be all out of focus. Yeah. So I'm sitting there writing the notes. I thought it was out of focus. So I'm like, done, sign in the cut. I'm not writing any more notes. Because whatever, it was history class. Yeah. And the lights went on and everything else was out of focus too. Wow. So then I'm like, oh. Just instantly. Yeah, instantly gone, just in the middle of class. And I looked at the person on my left, I'm like, can you read that? She's like, yeah. And I'm like, hmm. So then I walked to the eye doctor by myself in town because I grew up in a small town, right? Yeah. And so I knew the way. Yeah. In my head, I wasn't like, oh no, I'm blind. This is, everything's over. I don't know what to do. I was just like, okay, something's wrong. It's probably with these old peepers and I should probably make it to the eye doctor. My eye doctor's only in town once, one day every five weeks. And she was there. Wow. Perfect timing in a sense. Yes. I went in, I'm like, can I get an appointment? And she's like, yeah, come back at 2.30. And I'm like, okay. Instead of going, actually, I'm blind. Can I do it now? Yeah. I went back to school. Yes. And I had a note. And you know when you're a kid in school and you think, oh man, the guys with the notes probably are always going somewhere cool, man. I wish I had a note to leave class. And then I had a note. Not that cool. I remember going up to my teacher and I'm like, can I get out of here? I got to go to an eye doctor. And he's like, oh yeah, are you okay? I'm like, yeah, I just can't see. So I walked back down there and she has me in the chair doing the tests and stuff like that. And I'm like failing them all. Whoa. And I'm like, you know, like the big E at the top of the chart? Yeah. Couldn't see the big E at the top of the chart. Whoa. And she's like, you went from 2050 vision, like 2020, like 2050 is really close to 2020. You can drive with like low prescription glasses. Yeah. And I had my license out of my own car. And she's like, you went from 2050 to 25,000 in a matter of seconds. How? How is that possible? It was a DNA mutation. And it took them eight months to diagnose me, by the way. First of all, she called my mom then. And I'm like, oh no, I'm in trouble now. That was my first thought. I'm in trouble. But it was a DNA mutation called Lieber's hereditary optical neuropathy, which is a mouthful and a long way of saying a rare genetic mutation that gets passed down from women. So I can't give it on, which is really cool. So my kids won't be blind due to me. Wow. A rare genetic mutation that just, in the middle of history class, just boom, you're blind. Yeah. So like DNA is made up of millions and millions of numbers. One of those numbers is wrong. That's all it takes. What in the world? So they don't have any cure for this right now. And it took them eight months to diagnose me. So they tested me for everything. I saw ophthalmologist, ophthalmologist, optometrist, specialist, neurologist, all of that. Some guy literally was doing nerve testing. So he's just poking me with his finger in a paper clip. He's like, let me know which one you think it is. And I nailed that test. So he's like, not that. What does that mean? I don't even know what he was testing for. Like to see where the nerves might be damaged or something. It's like seeing if it was going to be something to do with like my optic nerve that was damaged due to it. Maybe. I don't know. That was my assumption. Yeah. So really, I didn't understand that then. I'm just thinking I aced that test finally. Yes. It took them a while. And since then, that was when I was 16. I had my license. I had my own car. Yeah. And they took away my license three years after I went blind, by the way. Wow. I kept signing for it and renewing it. But you weren't driving. No. Definitely not. What's your blind percent? You said 98? Yeah, I'm 98% blind, man. I got like 2% visions, meaning I can see like contrast. So light on dark sometimes. Not all the time. No colors left. Maybe like the color blue sometimes, but not enough to make a difference. So like right now, there's the camera right there. Hi, camera. And Chloe. So I can tell it's there, but that's just because it's a dark blur. You can see a dark blur. Yeah, just a dark ball because the rest of the park is white behind it, right? Right. It might be gray. It might be whatever. But it is not on the dark side of the contrast line. Right. And like you right here, because it's all lots of shadows around you. So I can't really see where you are, but I know you're there because we're talking. Okay. But like I can tell you're wearing dark pants. Yes. That's about it. That's right. I can tell I'm wearing three quarters of dark pants. So that's how much I can see. Yeah. So say like when I'm skateboarding, which I started doing when I was four. And honestly, I never thought about being blind as stopping me from skating. I just wanted to skate because I knew that's what makes me feel good. Yes. It makes me feel free. It makes me something that I can control. No one can tell me how to do it. There's all these adaptive sports, which is great for people who love sports. But I'm not competitive. Right. And I just always loved skating. And like skating didn't change. Right. That's cool. Nothing changed about skating. Yeah. And I lived in Manitoba, so there was snow on the ground everywhere. So I had to wait because I went blind in November. So I had to wait until like February, the earliest. And I still just had to shovel the sidewalk to see if I could skate. Threw my board down. That's when I knew it. You know. Yeah. I was home again. Things would be OK. Yes. Right. Because mentally, that's a very difficult thing to go through. Where were you like? What was that like for you? It was rough. Yeah. It was rough. Like I didn't have much of a chance for it to be rough either, though, because I was 16. There's a lot going on at that age. Yeah. And as soon as I went blind and they went through all of the testing and I finally realized I could skate again. Yeah. I started getting a decent amount of attention in a sense of telling my story. I got asked to do speeches at school because I love to talk. Can you tell? So they were like, come do that in front of all these people. Yeah. I'm like, cool. I don't have to get nervous. Yeah. Do your speech. Tell your whole story. I love it. I want the inspirational speech. So this is the first half of it. I started out doing all that skating. When I was a kid, I loved skating because I started skating when I was four. I got my first boards from Costco or something for a birthday. They weren't even popsicle shaped. They're like the fish with the wide tail and the round front. They were kind of a skateboard. Right. And I loved it, though. I didn't care. I'm like, cool. I can go on my feet on a piece of wood on wheels fast? That's amazing. Yes. And I was just four. And then I got a Spider-Man board. Didn't know that it wasn't a pro board. I didn't know what pro boards were. Didn't know the difference. I just got a board and I was, older kids are doing things? I want to do that. I'm on this little Walmart deck going down eight-foot ramps, hitting fun boxes, getting six feet of air, and gapping nine feet. Just ridiculous stuff for a 10-year-old. I can still see them, but that was the love of it. I just didn't understand that there was a difference. And then I got my first pro deck. I loved it. It wasn't even that pro. I think it was anti-hero or something. How old were you at that time period? That was about eight or nine or ten. Okay. And then fast forward a few years, just living a normal life, and it was exactly that normal day. And it was just like every other day. Get on the bus, put my pants on the same way as you, two feet at a time. Right. Same as you, two feet at a time. Yeah. Go straight to school and sit in class. It was just gone. That is so wild. It's amazing that life can just change that fast, just in an instant. My mindset was I had to roll with the punches. I didn't have a choice. I don't know. I obviously look back now and I realize there was choices to give up, but in my mindset there wasn't a choice to give up. Right. There wasn't a choice to slow down. There wasn't a choice to do anything other than live my life exactly how I'd still live it. Yes. So I would be going in front of these schools and telling my story to the students, and it feels amazing I got to do that. And then immediately after I went blind, my mom and everyone, my first thought was how can I get a job? What am I going to do for my life? Yes. And my mom came home from work one day and she was like, you should start a clothing line called Visually Impaired Not Drunk. Because people would think when I was walking around town not waving back at them across the street that I'm just drunk or something other than that, you know? Yes. And I'm like, you need to get a shirt that just says, no, I'm blind. So when she said that, I'm like, that's not the worst idea, but maybe a better name. Yes. So I started the Blind Kid clothing line because when I was walking around class and around halls and stuff, people would be always whispering behind my back going, there goes the Blind Kid. Yes. There goes the Blind Kid. Oh, man. Remember, I'm not your deaf kid. But my mindset again has always been, roll with it. Yes. They were bullying. They weren't saying nice things, you know? Yes. But I didn't see that. I was just like, heck yeah, I'm the Blind Kid, what's up? Yes. So I started TBK, the Blind Kid clothing line. And the first thing I decided to do with that is turn it into something better than just a t-shirt line. Yes. Way to make a good situation out of a bad situation. It feels great because what I got to do with that is I started a foundation with it as well. So proceeds from my clothing line went to get iPads for blind kids. Because I got given an iPad from people who put money together and got me an iPad when I went blind. Right. Because it has screen reader software on it. Right. It does this. It's like it can read to you. Everything I touch on the phone gets read out. Wow. And it goes fast now, but I can slow it down and then you gradually pick up the speed. Yeah. Because I want to do things as fast as you. Yeah, that's cool. So with the iPads, I started getting iPads together and I would go blind kid hunting is the best way to say it. Just trying to find blind kids that needed help. Yes. And I went through the education board for disabilities and I'd find students who needed help and I'd be like, don't tell them. I'd call their mom or dad, their parent or guardian. Yeah. And I'd be like, hey, my name's the blind kid. They're probably thinking immediately like, no, that's my son. That's what we call my kid. But I'm like, does your kid have an iPad or software to help them with school? And they're like, no, I'm like, I'm going to give them one tomorrow. Don't tell them it's a secret. Oh, that's cool. And then I go to their school. Oh, I call the principal and say, can I come into school and do this? Yeah. And they're like, yeah, of course. I come into school. I go to the class. I knock on the door and I'm like, hey, is so and so here? Jacob here? And they're like, yeah. I'm like, Jacob, where are you? Make some noise so I can find you. And I go up to them and I'm like, hey, man, my name is Brad the blind kid. Here's an iPad to help you with school. Your EA or TA will be able to teach you how to use it. It's got a screen reader software on it called VoiceOver. I'm going to get out of here. And I just, I'm out. Wow, that's cool. I don't, I'd never filmed it. I didn't do any of that stuff. I didn't want to. It wasn't about that. It's about helping. That's right. And I did it like quietly. I didn't tell anybody I'm going in either other than like, I'm out of there. Yes. And then sometimes I get asked to stay to do a speech to the school. They literally pull an assembly together and I just tell my story about skating, how skating brought me to meeting Tony Hawk and like stuff like that. Yeah, tell the story. It was really just a meet and greet at his horse shed. But when I got to meet him, somehow he already heard of me, which blew my mind. Because at that point, I was really tied into flip tricks and I was working on lasers over a bank. No way, lasers over a bank? Wow, that's really good. I landed it a couple times. I couldn't do it right now because I took a little bit of time focusing on music. But now I'm getting, going hard back into it. So that's my goal is to get back to that. Yeah. But I guess he literally said, I'm like, hi, my name is Brett, the blind kid. I skate. And he's like, are you that blind kid that can land laser flips? I'm like, I just landed that first time like yesterday, bro. How did you know? But it was because somebody met me at the skate park that day, saw that, ran into Tony Hawk in the airport, and told him all about me immediately. So his first thing was like, yeah. And then it was when he was doing that big vert ramp demo at Sports Check parking lots, and with Mitchie Bruschi and Corby from the Axe Games was announcing it. So I'm just skating in the parking lot, and they get me into the VIP area. I'm like five feet away from the ramp. I can't even see it. And I'm just like listening, you know? Yeah. And it was just so cool. Yeah. So, so cool. And yeah, so it went from doing all those things and giving the iPads to blind kids, and it's been so fulfilling doing that, giving the iPads away, because I get to just do something nice and run away. Yeah, I love it. After that, I got the diagnosis of being blind about eight months after losing my vision. The diagnosis was pretty rough, to be honest. Yeah. I was going to say, what was that like? That was probably the worst part, because at this point, I still thought there might be hope. Yeah. It might come back, you know? Right. And I got blood work, and they're like, oh, we'll test him for this. I'm already sick and tired of getting needles at this point. Yeah. So I'm like, fine, just poke me and get it over with. Test me. They test me, they're like, but don't worry. This one comes back, go buy a lottery ticket, because this one's very, very rare. Like, very rare. I'm like, okay, cool. We'll just play the elimination game. We'll try and get it off the table. Right. I'm like, okay, cool, whatever. They're like, we'll get your results within two to four weeks. I'm like, fantastic. Eight weeks later. Oh, wow. My mom and dad come into my room together, and that just never happened, you know? Right. I'm just sitting on the bed listening to tunes or something. Not much else I could do. They come in together, and I'm like, oh, no. You came back, didn't you? The results came in, right? And they're like, yeah. And I can just hear in their voice, I'm like, positive? They're like, yeah. I'm like, well, that's pretty negative. Yeah. And so what that means is I came down with the ‑‑ I came down. I got diagnosed with Leber's Hereditary Optical Neuropathy, LHOM, the 3460 line, which is a strain. And they've got four strains. One that's very, very rare that will never get your vision back ever, and that's the most rare version of it. Like 5% of people have that one. Yeah. That's what I say. Wow. Never get your vision back ever. Not spontaneously. It won't just come back. And right now they're working on some cures and stuff like that. They're getting into human trials with some things. It's all a genetic mutation where they'd be, like, shooting mutated DNA into my eyeballs with needles. Oh. Yeah. I'm like, I'll wait. Yeah, yeah. I'm good on that. Thanks. I'll wait. I'm good. I'm still fine. And they started ‑‑ when I heard about that, they're starting to do that. They're, like, giving it, like, two weeks of needles too. I'm like, not just one? Yeah. And guess how much it costs? How much? $750,000 for a needle in your eyeball to maybe see. No way. I'm like, I'm good. And, yeah, so when they told me that, I was, like, I was pretty bummed, dude, to be honest, because at that point I still had hope. It's devastating. Devastating. But the first thing I did was, well, can you take me to the skate park? Yeah, I was going to say, you skated. Yep, that's what I did. Because just rolling with it, man. It's, like, I was feeling it. Yeah. Did it take your attention off of, like, all the ‑‑ Oh, yeah. Tell me about it. Well, you as a skater fully know the feeling of going fast, landing things, feeling it, and just being in the zone of skating, the flow state of nothing else matters, dude. Yeah. And that's ‑‑ when I went to, like, my local park, I knew that park, and I would just cruise around, all in on the box, tray in the bank, ferry in the bank, whatever, the quarters, anything, and hitting the rail, because I knew it. Right. And it just felt good. Right. Felt great. I wasn't worried about nothing anymore until I hit the wall. I wasn't worried about nothing anymore. I just knew that everything was going to be fine. Yeah. If I got my board, I got my two feet, heartbeat, anything could be worse, dude. Wow. I got my skateboard and my cane. I know where I'm going. Yeah. Things are all right. And I'd be flying around town with my cane in front of me just cruising on the sidewalks with my board, like, because I knew where I was going. So you went to the skate park, and you already knew the terrain so well that you just, like, rolled in. Yeah. And you just, they just told you, hey, you're blind, you're never getting your vision back ever. And you went straight to the park, and you just rolled right in and could go around. Yeah, I needed to, man. Yeah. There was no other option. There wasn't a choice in my mind. There wasn't a choice of doing anything else. There wasn't a choice of sitting there and just crying about it and whining about it. My choice was skateboard, feel good. And then when I was doing that, people started to kind of, like, see it and get inspired by it. Yeah, I love that. That blew my mind, dude. That is very, very inspiring. It blew my mind, because I've always just been the quiet kid, kind of like the loser and the loner on the side. I was always skating alone because when I grew up it wasn't really the cool thing to do. I just, you love what you love, man. You don't get to pick it. Yeah, that's right. And I'm glad I love skating. That's awesome. Yeah, and then after all of that, I started traveling around a little bit for skating and went to this camp in Los Angeles called Extreme Mobility, and it's a camp for blind people to do extreme sports. Wow, Extreme Mobility, that's cool. They take blind kids to go surfing. I showed up with a cast, by the way, when I showed up. I got accepted into this camp when I didn't have any broken bones. And then a week before I fly out, I broke my hand here. Skateboarding? Yeah. What were you doing? It was silly. I was going up a quarter pipe, overturned it, and it was the narrowest, steepest quarter pipe you've ever seen, went off the edge and just landed on the edge of the concrete like that and got up. I kept skating because I didn't think it was just showing it off. That was a bad idea. But I didn't think it was broken, so I just kept skating. And then two days later, it's like... Oh, wow. So I'm like, yeah, I should go get an x-ray. And then it got to the point where the x-ray ladies followed me on Twitter because they just knew I'd be back eventually. And I came back a couple years later. I tweeted about it. I'm like, I think I might have broken my hand. And I showed up. They're like, I knew you'd be here soon. Yeah. We saw your tweet. Welcome back. Literally, it was so important. But I showed up to Extreme Mobility. They teach us how to go surfing. They take us surfing. They take us wakeboarding, jet skiing. And they weren't teaching us go-karting. They weren't teaching us how to skate. But I always bring my skateboard everywhere. So I had kids there who were wanting to learn how to skate, and they're blind as hell. They're blinder than I was. Some of them didn't have any eyes. Wow. And I'm like, you want to learn? They're like, yeah. I'm like, let's go. That's cool. We all went out front on the street, and I had them all on my board. I brought another board. I went and bought another board at Target. Some of them went and bought their own immediately because I loved it. And I'm like, oh, this is the coolest thing ever, man. That is so cool. It was so cool. So I got to teach a handful of blind kids how to skate. And I learned how to teach them better because, well, I didn't realize that if you tell them to stand on and do a kick, and they're going to do a full force sometimes because they've never, ever seen someone do a slow and needing to control and put your foot back on. So I had to literally catch this kid because he went, lay it out, and I'm like, oh, my God. You know? Yes. You've seen it, I'm sure, dude. Yes. And it was wild. But I got them ollieing. I got them, like, because I'd just go down and move their feet to where it should be. Yeah, right. And the first thing I do, I'm like, here's the board. Feel it out. Get to know it. Yeah. I mean, ollieing is already hard enough, being able to see everything. Imagine trying to ollie for your first time ever, seeing a board, not seeing. Never seeing it, feeling it. Never seeing, just feeling a board. Yeah. That's wild. It was amazing, dude. They inspired me because I was able to skate when I could see, dude. Yeah. But, no, honestly, I'll be real with you, never as good as I was blind. Like, I got so much better after going blind. Really? Mm-hmm. When Hippy Mike, by the way, I want to say something about Hippy Mike. Yeah. That dude is the best. Yeah. He's the coolest person in the world. Yeah. When I started skating with him, my life changed, to be completely honest, and it was literally this year. Wow. I was making music for, like, eight years. I made hip hop. I made music. Like, it's just really stuff to skate to. Yeah. And, like, I got a song called Nike's For My Chucks with another blind skater on it. Wow. And he's from down in Texas. Nice. And he's cool with it, you know. He's nice with it. Yeah. And I was making music for years, so I didn't really, I put the board on, like, I still skate. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Can't get me wrong. Never stopped. But I was focused on the music because there's always shows and there's always studio time. And I went, pretty much, I went until I hit my peak. I made an album with Stevie Wonder's producer, and I'm like, done. That's cool. Like, I just, but then the scene started to get really messy and it just wasn't fun anymore. I'm like, yeah, this sucks. I'm going to go back into what's fulfilling in life, dude. I want to go back to the things that make me happy. Right. Which is giving skating my all. Going back into doing motivational speaking to the schools and stuff. And I revamped my clothing line. I rebranded this year. Like, it's all, I brought it all back this year and it all came, like, so serendipitously together because I did that and I found this local skate park, or this local skate shop in Langley, where I live now. Me and my wife have a house in Langley. And I just wanted to find a local shop because I'm getting back into it. So I'm going to find a local place and see if they can help me get a setup together. I love it. And I go to this place called, I think it was called Five-O. And I'm like, hey man, are you guys looking to sponsor anybody, pretty much? Because I'm broke. And I'm like, or I was broke and I'm like, but I needed a board. Yeah. And they're like, yeah? Is it you? And I'm like, yeah. They're like, yes. Here's, I'm like, whoa, whoa. Don't just give me things. Watch my skate video first, at least. Yeah, there you go. So I put my video up from 2016, which is still a while back, but it was the last time I had a videographer and I was going hard. Where do we see this video? It's on my YouTube channel, TheBlindKidTBK, or TBK The Blind Kid. You'll find me anywhere you look up that. Like on Instagram, TBK The Blind Kid, TBK, TBK The Blind Kid. But you've got to put the letter. Follow him on there. Thank you. TBK The Blind Kid. Yeah. Instagram. My website is TheBlindKidTBK.com. You can get all my links from there. My YouTube is TBK The Blind Kid. And I've got my skate video on there. It is from 2016, because again, that was the last time I had a videographer before we're doing our video, our filming now. Yeah, I love it. And I showed them the video and they're like, oh yeah, definitely take this deck. Take this shirt, dude, right? And I'm like, cool. So I set my board up and I started skating. But the guy who ran that shop texted me one day and he's like, I'm going out to this indoor park and it was starting to rain and snow and it was like getting bad out, so I couldn't skate until the end of that season. So he's like, I'm going out to this indoor. I'm like, there's an indoor? He's like, do you want to come? I'm like, yes, pick me up, let's go. So he picks me up, takes me out to Hippie Mike Industries. Oh wow. That I never heard of before. Yeah. And I go to Hippie Mike Industries, we're skating, and that's actually where I ripped these pants, I'm pretty sure, to make them into three quarters. This isn't cut, this isn't manufactured. This is skated, skated so hard and I didn't want to go back and change, so I just ripped the rest off. But, we're at Hippie Mike's and this is one of the most favorite, this is my favorite day in my entire life, right? Yeah. I go out there and I get to ride as many and my favorite trick growing up, or a trick I've been trying for probably 18 years at that point was a hand plant. Yeah. I just thought they looked so cool. Yes. I've been trying them forever and never understood how it just either fell in my head, rolled out, didn't understand how to catch my board afterwards, whatever. It just never worked. And Mike saw me trying it and he's like, are you trying a hand plant? Yeah. Yeah? He's like, hey, let me teach you how. Come here. You're about this point on the ground. This is where you go down and grab your board first. I'm like, well that was my first problem. Yeah, grab the board. Yeah, grab it first. And then he's like, okay, then you plant your hand here and go over yourself. I'm like, okay. So then I'm trying it and not landing it and the sponsor that brought me down there, he's like, give me your board, I'll show you. And he's trying to be like, oh yeah, I'm good, I'll do it. Yeah. And before this, by the way, we were talking about our pants and he's wearing like these $90 Harley-Davidson pants that he's bragging about. And I'm wearing these and Mike's wearing what Mike wears, the jogging pants. And he's like, I'm wearing cut-up joggers, bro. So, Britt was the guy we were talking about. He ripped his brand new pants. Oh, wow. We laughed at him. Then, he also didn't land it. And then Mike, teach me how, I go down, I land it the first time, or not first time, like probably eighth try, but I land it. And it was the coolest thing ever. So, then I bought the last pair of Hippy Mike shoes because I had to buy something to solidify that day. Yeah, that's awesome. And after that, I wanted to go back to that park any chance I could get. Yeah. And I didn't get a chance for probably like a year because no one wanted to drive me an hour and a half away just to go skate. Right. And indoor. Until I found a couple of people who love skating and whatever and they started driving me out there and I started going out there as much as I could. I'm starting to convince people, you know. I'm starting to tell people, no, this is serious, man. I'm taking this back. I need to, this means a lot to me. This makes me feel good. I started, people saw a change in me from when I was just kind of pissed off making hip hop music to smiling again. Oh, yeah. Being blind is rough and when you're only in dark, dingy studios all the time and dark clubs all the time, everything's just sad. Everyone's just sad in the hip hop scene. Everyone's just, everyone's sad or angry. Yeah. And no one skates. And I'm like, that's probably the problem. Yeah, we need to get them all skating. Yeah. And then first try, no warm up. That's right. That's just unreal. And so then when I started going to Hippie Mike's more, he kind of like, he must have seen something in me or I felt like he saw something in me. Yeah. Which he's told me since he has, but like, I felt, I just felt something good there and he started teaching me things. Every time I was there, he'd teach me something new because I'm committed, man. He saw that I'm like, I'm not going to stop until I break something and even then I might not unless it's my feet or I, or I land it and then I want the next thing to learn. That's cool. And so he's starting to teach me things that I've never done before. Most of these tricks I've never done even, because I didn't know how. Right. Didn't know what they were. Yeah. And he taught me the hand plant, all those things. And after that, he, I started going there like every week and it led up to my birthday on August 21st and I'm out there, I already, I'm starting to be friends with him, right? Yeah. Which is crazy because at this point, I'm learning how much of a legend this guy is. Yeah, Hippie Mike is a legend. Unbelievable. Legendary. Huge legend. Like in the scene, in the industry, in the world, he's just a legend. Yeah. And I just, I couldn't believe that I'm like friends with Hippie Mike, you know? Yeah. So I'm like, hey man, now that we're friends, just want to let you guys know, I'm cool with pranking the blind kid, you know? Because if I had blind friends, I'll tell you right now, I'd prank them. Why? This is fun. What would you, what, okay, what prank would you do on the blind kid? Well, let's imagine giving a blind person a shirt that can't read a shirt. Yeah. Would you tell them what's written on it? No. Exactly. Okay, so what, what is it going to be written on the shirt? Well, okay, so for example, I was, this is literally what happened when he sponsored me. I go out there thinking, because I told them, I don't know, you can write like asshole on my shirt, it doesn't matter, whatever, something I don't know what it is, you can write whatever this guy sucks on my shirt and I'm thinking it's going to be a new HMI shirt. Yeah. But my buddy has this shirt. New HMI shirt. My buddy has a hat that is a Bass Pro Shop hat. Yeah. Like I said, that's my bro stop. Yeah. Bass Pro Shop. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Take the B away and he, so I'm wearing this hat thinking it's a joke, so I'm just like, it's not this one, obviously, I got it down, I'm like, and the mic's like, come out here, I want to get a picture of you. I'm like, it's my birthday, I'm like, okay, so I go into the middle of the park and Taylor, my buddy and my wife, Natalie, she saw it and she's like, what's going to happen? I'm in the mindset that they're going to prank me right now. Yeah. I'm thinking that he's going to give me this shirt that says whatever across it. Yeah. And I'm like, he's like, stand right here, hold this shirt and I'm going to take a picture of you. I'm like, okay, I'm holding it up, I'm like, big cheese because I got this stupid hat facing forwards too. Yeah. And I'm thinking this is going to be a stupid shirt too. I'm like, he goes, said you want to ride for me? And I'm like, what? He's like, yeah, you want to be on the team? I'm like, your team? He's like, yeah. I'm like, I dropped everything and I just jumped him with a hug, I didn't care. Oh, that's great. And I'm like, yes, please. So I got put on, that was when I got put on the team and I'm like, what's the shirt say? Yeah. It's just Heavy Mic Industries, man. And it was like one that he sprayed paint tie-dyed it for me and it was like, oh yeah, cool. So it was my Heavy Mic shirt. That's awesome. That was it and it was just the coolest thing ever because now I'm on the Heavy Mic team. And now you're working on a video part? Yeah, well we're working on a video called This Is Us and it's all being shot inside the skate park and just in the skate park so all the people on the team are hitting parts in there and I've got a few cool things. He taught me some new stuff for the video. I did a frontside 5-0 which I've never done. I got the backsides on lock no matter what. I never thought of going the other way. And then 30 Nerdy's hand plant, many pipes, just a couple of stalls. And then he taught me a disaster on a bank after I did the have you seen the clip? Do you know the wall? With the rail going into it? Yes. So I go over that wall or over that rail on the wall and when he taught me that it was terrifying dude. Yeah, that is terrifying. I fell off that wall like multiple times. Yeah. And overturned and ended up into the other wall multiple times until I finally got it but now I got it. After I did that I went up and did a frontside or backside 180 into disaster on the bank and just never done that. I learned that so I got that for the video. I got a a shove it a fakie big spin and a 180 over this small three stair which is like kind of like a one block. Okay, nice. And then we also put a rail over that. Yeah. And rails aren't my expertise. Yeah. Big shock. Yeah. I've definitely bounced my face off the concrete before doing those. Oh yeah. Yeah, that one's on Instagram it's pretty funny actually. But we put the rail down the ramp. He taught me how to do it. But first he taught me how to do it down not over stairs but over just a drop and when he taught me that it was a lot shorter like just four feet I did half of it. Right. And I kept missing it kept missing it but he brings me aside and he's like stop breathe visualize it Yeah. And then he just puts his hand on my back and goes now lean forward into it lean forward into it and I'm like oh okay that makes sense. Three tries later I landed. Boom. That's awesome. The backside board slide over it then we moved it into over the stairs but instead of doing just half of it four feet I'm like let's do the whole eight. Yeah. So we got the whole eight and it took me a bunch of takes like I broke my ribs on it they still hurt. Oh wow. But I got it though and I got the board slide over the stairs rode it out and turned it out. Yeah. And I bailed a bunch of times purely because it had like one of those thick feet on it and I just kept clipping the foot on the way out if it was a flat foot I would have been fine. But that's an excuse and I don't like that. Yeah. I got to do it no matter what. Yeah that's right. So I landed it I made sure I got it but yeah man it's just so amazing being able to be say I'm on the Heavy Mike Industries team That's awesome. And then the day that I talked to you on the phone actually Yeah. I won't be mean to you again don't worry. I just want to know why Braille and no blind skaters anyway. Oh yeah. I talked to him on the phone and he says Braille has no blind skaters what's up with that? And then I told him the whole story of where the name Braille came from and how it all works. And I already knew that because my name was Braille and when you're skating hard you're feeling it baby. That's right. You're feeling it. About two minutes before you were on the phone or while you were on the phone with him I just landed in my first power rally and it was off the tailgate of a truck. Wow that's awesome. Because Mike taught me how to do it right there. Okay that's cool. That's cool. And yeah man it's just been skating has just been perfect man. Yeah that's awesome. It's just been life changing and I really appreciate your time listening to my story dude. Yeah thank you. Thank you. any more questions I'd love to answer them if I didn't answer everything. Well tell all the kids tell them whatever you can say that's going to be inspirational because you know some people out there are going through whatever they're going through in life or they're trying to learn a trick or they're having a really hard time. What inspiration can you give them from your perspective from your story? There's a lot of people in this world who are going to make you think that their life is perfect they'll land a trick every single time and their hand of cards is all aces you know. Nobody has a good deck of cards no one has a good hand of cards everyone's faking it. You just got to learn how to play the ones you got or love the ones you got and play the ones you hate. You can't just think everything is good dude. Live with it love it roll with it because you know what you can go blind you can primo and break your ankle it doesn't mean you're going to stop. I didn't you don't got to. Roll with every punch that's given to you just eat it you know just take it and roll with it and feel it man make sure you're always feeling it because that's always been the way. I love it well thank you so much thanks for telling your story and keep inspiring. Man if you ever feel like you got to stop or something's trying to stop you find a way. That's right. There's always a way. That's right. Just got to find it. Keep pushing. Let's go. Thanks Aaron dude. Yeah thank you.