Academy Skateboard Collective and Dan Mancina welcome visually impaired and blind participants aged 11-20 to a workshop on adaptive skateboarding at Millennium skatepark. By sharing his own story and providing guidance, Dan helps participants gain confidence in standing on skateboards. As they progress, the program focuses on teaching essential skills such as pushing, rolling, turning, and pumping their boards, fostering accessibility and inclusivity in the sport. Through mentorship, training, and community outreach, Academy Skateboard Collective connects marginalized populations to their communities, promoting engagement and support in school-based skateboard programming.
About: Dan Mancina
Keep Pushing Inc. was founded by Dan Mancina, an accomplished skateboarder who happens to be blind. Dan also holds a Master’s degree in Vision Rehabilitation Therapy (VRT), which helps to teach adaptive life skills to those dealing with vision loss. Keep Pushing is a non-profit that combines Dan’s two passions by introducing the blind/visually impaired (VI) community to the inclusive culture of skateboarding.
Through his own journey with vision loss, Dan has found the lack of accessibility in current skateparks.
The goal of his foundation is to build the first fully adaptive skatepark and to host skateboard workshops for the blind and VI using what he has learned on the skateboard and through his VRT training. Dan has teamed up with an experienced skatepark design company, New Line. Using New Line’s design expertise and Dan’s knowledge of adaptive skating to create the safest and most accessible skate park ever!
Using adaptive methods, such as increasing the size of obstacles, adding contrast to obstacles, tactile ground, auditory cues for echolocation, 3-D models, and a spacious layout. Once the facility is built Dan plans to host monthly skate workshops and skateboard lessons for local youth/adults who are blind and VI, annual adaptive contests to help push for skateboarding the Paralympics, as well as use park adaptations to influence future public skateparks.
Supported by: Government of Alberta, City of Calgary, Red Bull, Keep Pushing it Inc, Skate Bats,Β Funded by the Government of Canada
