SEAN RYAN

For such a talented skateboarder, it’s perplexing that Sean Ryan has been cruising under the radar for this long. As the following pages attest, the dude’s got natural ability, a unique bag of tricks and a remarkably hefty pop. He’s also insanely modest, super well-spoken and more than half blind. As it happens, Sean lost one of his eyes in a horrific surfing accident at the age of 13. But, as he told me in the interview, “I’ve never skated with two eyes, so I don’t really know what it’s like.”

Over a sketchy Skype call with a slight delay, Sean shared all the gory details of his eye explosion, explained his move from his hometown of Newy to the big smoke of Sydney, and educated me on the subject of biomedical science. As far as I can tell, he was quite the lone ranger, having spent a whole year on solo street skating missions, and he doesn’t seem to care much about acclaim. Having said that, people have started to notice his ability on the board, and you should keep your eyes peeled for footage from Sean Ryan. Until then, here are some photos and words from the man himself.

So you’re at Sydney Uni right now. What are you studying?

Yeah, I just got out of class. I study biomedical engineering. I’ve still got a little while to go; I’ll have another two and a half years after this semester.

For those of us who don’t know what that means, what exactly is biomedical engineering?

Well, it’s pretty broad. It could be anything from making surgical equipment or implantable devices like hip replacements or knee replacements or nerve stimulators or cochlear implants. And then on the other end of the spectrum, you can get into tissue engineering. It’s all very cool; it’s very interesting.

So it’s basically creating artificial body parts. Was that hard to get into?

I didn’t get the mark to get into this course, but a few months after I applied, Sydney University