For Brandon White, skateboarding feels like “an earthquake going through my board”

DES MOINES, Iowa – Brandon White has been deaf since a young age, but that hasn’t affected his ability to skate, or his positive outlook.

“I’m a good skateboarder, I have two good eyes,” White said. “I love my life.”

White said that skating is still a unique sensory experience despite being unable to hear.

White’s skills and the story caught Dom DeLuca’s attention, who owns the professional skateboarding team Brooklyn Projects in Los Angeles.

“People are starting to notice him,” DeLuca said. “They look beyond him being impaired to like, ‘Wow, this guy’s an insane skater.'”

After participating in a few skate competitions during the pandemic, he finally caught his break.

“I was planning on retiring honestly,” White said. “I was getting pretty frustrated because no one was noticing me.”

For the first time, the 2021 Dew Tour has an adaptive skateboarding division. That’s where White, who is deaf, is competing.

“I did like eight or nine skate contests since the fall for adaptive and that’s how I met the USA Skateboarding team,” White said.

White got an email inviting him to participate two weeks before the event.

“I’m just grateful to be here to show the deaf community anything is possible. Never doubt yourself.”

Never expecting to make it this far and to compete in the Dew Tour, White said it’s now time to move the goal post.

“My goal is to set up a deaf division shortly,” White said. “It would be amazing.”

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