ERNIE ILBARRA: Skateboarding has always been a part of my life.
ERNIE ILBARRA: My first skateboard I ever got was when I was 3 years old and that’s, kind of, when it started.
ERNIE ILBARRA: I am always happy. You know, I don’t like to be a sad guy.
ERNIE ILBARRA: I always like to be the funny guy in the group or the crazy one.
ERNIE ILBARRA: Everybody always called me ‘Krazie Legz’; that was my nickname.
ERNIE ILBARRA: I was born with the disability called Caudal Regression Syndrome. My condition is pretty
much, I have half of my back I want to say from T1 to T6, which is all my upper bones and my lower bones from L1
to L7 I don’t have in my back. My legs are a little different.
ERNIE ILBARRA: They are smaller than normal as you can see. I wear size 13 in taller shoes.
ERNIE ILBARRA: I have never met nobody like me before. So I mean, I guess it’s pretty rare.
I have only known of one person to have it.
ERNIE ILBARRA: I walk a lot on my hands. Sometimes it gets tiring but a lot of the time, I'm on my skateboard.
That helps a lot.
ERNIE ILBARRA: Usually use my right hand for my braking and my gas and my left for my steering wheel.
When I got my driver’s licence, the lady told me that I drive better than most people would with legs you know.
I was like, ‘Nice!’
ERNIE ILBARRA: Growing up with my condition wasn’t bad.
ERNIE ILBA RRA: I had a lot of friends.
ERNIE ILBARRA: People made fun of me and pointed at me or laughed at me.
But I had those friends that always had my back.
ERNIE ILBARRA: As an adult sometimes it gets me because you know, I am out in places and I get people
that treat me differently you know. And so then it affects me and I break down, you know, and I cry.
ERNIE ILBARRA: I have had a couple of occasions on where they’ve done it on purpose you know.
ERNIE ILBARRA: I have had a lady follow me in a Walmart one time trying to record me and I was on my
skateboard and I just felt weird. It didn’t feel right you know. I felt like, she made me feel like a freak.
ERNIE ILBARRA: I went to my wife and I said, ‘Let’s go.’ You know, I had to leave. I don’t know.
I just didn’t like it you know. It made me feel not normal.
ERNIE ILBARRA: My wife has helped me out a lot with my condition everyday. She knows everything about me
you know. I hide nothing from her.
She knows every secret, every, what every scar is, she knows everything you know, everything.
VANESSA ILBARRA: I didn’t know anything about Ernie’s condition when I first met him. I thought he was cute.
Yeah! I just thought he was a little cute guy.
VANESSA ILBARRA: Ernie is really good with my kids. He has been there since forever. They were little babies
when we met. He helps them a lot.
ANDREW CASANOVA: My dad inspires me a lot. Sometimes when we go skating, he inspires me by some
tricks that I don’t think I could do. He like, tries to push me to do it.
ERNIE ILBARRA: I have always rode a skateboard.
ERNIE ILBARRA: It makes me feel free.
ERNIE ILBARRA: I feel like anything is possible. I feel like a normal person. When I am out there in the skate park
and people come and watch me, it doesn’t freak me out you know. That makes me want to try different things.
AIRIK CASANOVA: I am proud of how he is getting sponsored by people and he’s got skateboarding like,
he is followed by Tony Hawk. I hope he gets sponsored by him now.
ERNIE ILBARRA: If somebody told me I couldn’t do something because of my condition, I don’t think I would
tell them anything. I think I would try to show them that I can do it.
ERNIE ILBARRA: As I have gotten older, I guess I have learnt what my body can and can’t do.
But for the most part I guess I do all right.
VANESSA ILBARRA: I am very proud of him for everything that he has achieved. When I first met him,
I would say he was insecure. He was maybe more scared of the world than he is now.
ERNIE ILBARRA: I have overcome a lot of stuff that people think I wouldn’t have. So I am grateful for it.
Skateboarding has helped improve my self-confidence a lot. It makes me feel good you know.
It makes me feel like I am doing something right. I love it.