“My focal range now is about a five-cent-piece worth,” says Richard Moore through a FaceTime call from Adelaide. “Even looking at you on the screen, I’m probably only getting about a third of the screen in focus, then the brain tries to fill in the rest.”
Richard is a skater from Adelaide who has Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP). This rare hereditary disease has degenerated his eyesight to the point where he has lost about 95 per cent of his vision. He’s legally blind, but he skates with a cane, and despite his condition, he’s determined to keep living a full life. We spent an hour chatting about the challenges of RP, his forthcoming trip to The States to skate with Dan Mancina and co., and what it feels like to skate with minimal vision.
What’s Retinitis Pigmentosa?
It’s a relatively rare hereditary disease and it’s a