We love comeback stories, and there’s been no comeback story more popular here at Purpose2Play than that of legendary skateboarder John Cardiel.
The 1992 Skateboarder of the Year was struck by a trailer truck while skateboarding in Australia, and suffered a major spinal cord injury.
“I was told by the doctors that I would never walk again and my response was ‘F that. I’m walking out of here,'” he told us in 2014. “As a skateboarder, whenever somebody told me I couldn’t do something, it just made me want to do it even more. Learning to walk again was like accomplishing the biggest trick of my life.”
He spent six months in the hospital, and regained some feeling in his legs. He went from wheelchair to walker to cane, and after one full year, he was able to stand up without assistance.
Then four years after the accident, he was back on a board shooting an ad for Anti-Hero Skateboards.
“Everything I did those four years was to get back on a board,” Cardiel said. “Skateboarding has been my whole life. Everything I know had been integrated in skateboarding to be able to express myself in the free manner which I wanted too. I wanted to do the ad to give back to the skateboarding community and to those who supported and believed in me.”
Upon seeing what’s new with Cardiel, we came across “All Hail Cardiel” from Vans’ Loveletters, which provides archived footage of the skater along with some great commentary.
It’s time to get to know this legend even better. Enjoy:
