Gabriel Salva is a badass, he's an inspiration, an adventurer, and he's blind.
Over the last 10 years Gabriel has been losing his sight due to a genetic and degenerative disease called retinitis pugmentosa. He's now got about 5% vision remaining and is traveling the world in order to see and experience as much as he can before his vision is lost completely.
When we met him he told us how he used to ride motorbikes all his life and he missed it greatly. We figured that in the right location, with the right amount of light, we could help him drive one more time. San Isidro in the Philippines was just the right place.
You can follow Gabriel on Instagram here - @gasalbo
Typhoon Ursula, or Phanfone, hit the island of Boracay in the Philippines on Christmas day 2019. We were there and experienced it first-hand.
The reports leading up to the morning were that it wasn't going to be a powerful storm, so we made plans to go for breakfast once it had passed. The day ended up being far different than we, or anyone else we knew, expected.
At around 9am we began to realize this storm was much stronger and more powerful than we were ready for. Luckily we had a concrete structure to keep us safe, but that didn't stop our roof and doors from being blown off. Our neighbours weren't as lucky, many lost their roofs completely, and some lost their homes, but from all accounts they stayed safe. Thankfully. It quickly went from being exciting to frightening as you can hear in the sound of my voice through the evolution of the video. The awe and curiosity on my part was palpable after the wind had died down.
The moment the winds slowed was when the community began to rebuild, that was incredible and inspiring to watch.
