My name is Manuel Esquina. I’m a 37-year-old amputee originally from the Bronx with a Dominican heritage. I am the founder and owner of Luna Performance. I lost my leg on my 29th birthday while living in my current state of North Carolina. At the time I was young and reckless with my health. The struggles of having to pay my bills came before taking care of me. Needless to say, one thing led to another and ended up getting an infection in my bones of both of my legs from uncared wounds that invoked the amputation of one leg and toes on the other. This was also at the beginning of my
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riding career. When I first learned how to ride it was on an old Honda cruiser with an automatic transmission. I fell in love with riding after that first turn, I made on it. It lit an empty part of my soul and it never went away or died down. Riding opened my heart and made me feel free. It made me feel carefree and unbothered. The wind, the freedom, the speed, and the adrenaline completed me. Unfortunately, with me losing my leg right at just a few months of learning how to ride the hopelessness of not being able to ride again started dawning on me. After I lost my leg, I
had retreated back into the countryside in Mount Olive, NC and stayed with my mother until I could recover and receive a prosthetic to start learning how to walk again. In the midst of my recovery, I went through a lot of mental struggles and difficult battles. As you can see to this day, I conquered them even if it was by barely nothing. I had an old Honda CBR F4 that I started riding and learning on in the sports bike class. After I lost my leg, I didn’t see it for months and I felt empty. It was finally brought to me and with my walker every morning I would get up and slowly go down the stairs and
