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Justin: I have a disease called
retinitis pigmentosa.


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I'm fully blind in this eye


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and this eye, my retina 
is detaching right now


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so I can see shapes and shadows


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out of the corner of this
eye, like right there.


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Carol: Skateboarding's everything to Justin.


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It's really important to him,


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it's not just a hobby.


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Justin: Before I lost my vision


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skating was the best thing ever.


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It consumed my life.


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For me, it was interesting
'cause I would see him everyday


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at the skate park


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eventually he stopped showing up.


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Jeff: When he found out that he was
starting to lose the vision,


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he was really depressed.


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You know, I was depressed too,
I, you know, you curse God


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and you go why'd you
make this happen to him?


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But then you realize, it happened to him


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because he can handle it.


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Mick: Absurdity Projects are a by-product


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of our infatuation at Not Impossible


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of solving things that we
see just have to be solved.


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Mikela: The Absurdity Project came about


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after Mick had spoke at
our March 2018 all hands.


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I remember he had mentioned briefly


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that he had rode a skateboard.


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Kind of hit home for Mick also,


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to know what it's like,
to know the feeling.


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Mick: We launched an initiative
called the Absurdity Project


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which is crowd sourcing,
going out to the crowd


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and asking people what is absurd


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and who is your one.


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We have an employee here,


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actually works on my team,


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is a videographer named Jovahn


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who's a skateboarder,
an amazing skateboarder.


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Mick: Joe's absurdity was is
there a way that Justin


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can go back to skating
the way that he used to


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because he was an incredible skater.


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Tyler: He was on a trajectory
to go pro, he was amazing.


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I think I remember telling him


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like I think we're gonna change the world,


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I think we're gonna make
a really big difference


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in the world and it starts here.


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(wheel spinning sound)


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Mick: We began this project
in late summer of 2018.


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What's up Justin?


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How do you feel man, what do you think of this place?


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We'd been looking at different
ways that we could develop


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this solution that would
give Justin the perspective


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and the ability to
understand his environment.


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Tony: Trying to make a sort of structure


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sound environment


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so that as Justin goes
through the skate park,


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he has, like geographical
markers that he can use.


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(beeping)


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Justin: Wow! Am I on it?


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Mick: In the end, what we created was


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(beeping)


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this sound array.


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(upbeat jazzy music)


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Tony: We've created these little speakers


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that create a directional beam of sound


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so it acts as a, really kind
of focused acoustical marker.


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Justin: I call it, kinda like soundscape


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because like, I can map out
what I'm skating in my head


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by the different sounds and
how it's hitting my ears.


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Justin: Right about here.


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Mick: You're on a fast moving surface


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that's coming up to very hard surfaces


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in a very rapid way


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so there is this need
to be able to navigate


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the world rapidly and precisely.


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(laughing)


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You can get really fixated
as, again as a skateboarder,


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as an athlete, in this one thing


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and you can see that
obviously with Justin,


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like I've seen him just
go for the same trick


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over and over and over.


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And do it usually, like, which is crazy.


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Jovahn:  Since this technology
has kinda came into place,


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like if anything is getting better,


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he's not just skating from
a place of muscle memory


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of, you know, prior to losing his vision,


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it's now, you know, I
have this technology,


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I have the confidence in this,
let's learn new stuff too.


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The technology that Not Impossible


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is creating for me to skate,


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it is... dangerous


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because they got me back in the air,


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kinda flying again.


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Jeff: His patience is unbelievable.


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He has this perspective, if I
can do something being blind,


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you can do it with your sight


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and we're gonna get through it together.


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Carol: I think that he is just
a really good example.


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Justin: I haven't done that since I could see.


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Carol: I know!


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He motivates me on a daily basis.


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I wanna be a sponsored skater again.


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I miss that and you know,


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it's not about getting free stuff,


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it was just about being valued


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and all this hard work that
you're putting into it,


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it just shows that
somebody appreciates it,


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someone notices it.


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You gotta have goals, kind of
way out there for a reason.


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Tyler: At first I thought the
output would be the technology


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but really the output of the project


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is Justin.


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He's the one that can lead to many,


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that I think is really exciting.


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(cheering)