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Ryan Sheckler: The Youngest Winner of X Games | E65 · In Search Of Excellence

• 0:00
  Ryan Sheckler: No matter what your background is, no matter who you are what you do, like if you're on a board I relate with you, you don't have to speak the language we speak skateboarding, which requires a lot of pain to learn.
• 0:10
  Randall Kaplan: My guest today is Ryan Sheckler. Ryan is an entrepreneur, former reality TV star and philanthropist, and is most well known as one of the greatest skateboarders of all time. He turned pro when he was 13 years old. And that same year, he became the youngest gold medalist and next games history. At 17. He was the star of his own MTV reality show the life of Ryan. And in 2008, he created the Szekler foundation whose goal is to support and enrich the lives of children and injured action sports athletes.
• 0:37
  Randall Kaplan: Ryan, it's awesome to have you on my show. Welcome to Search of Excellence.
• 0:48
  Ryan Sheckler: Thank you for having me, man. It's super good to be here. And what an intro. I appreciate that. Sometimes I forget, man, I forget that. You know, I've had such a full life.
• 1:00
  Ryan Sheckler: I very much try to live on a day to day basis and not get too far ahead of myself or actually go too far back. So every once in a while when I hear some of the accolades and things that have happened in my life. It makes me smile, man, it's good stuff.
• 1:16
  Randall Kaplan: Well, let's start by going all the way back.
• 1:18
  Randall Kaplan: And I talked about this board you found in your garage, you tell us about the board? How old you were and what you did when you saw it for the first time.
• 1:29
  Ryan Sheckler: Yeah, man, that's the crazy thing is I actually don't remember, I was so young.
• 1:31
  Ryan Sheckler: You know, I think I was 18 months old. And the only reason I know it's around that timeframe is because we have you know, home videos. And the skateboard was just intriguing to me. You know, I think I was a, I was a wild kid. I definitely moved around a lot. I did not stop. And the skateboard. skateboard wheels were what was the most intriguing and I think I flipped it over one day. And you know, my dad was there, my mom and I just kind of crawled onto the thing and figured out that I could put my front arms on the front of the board and one leg on the back and then use my other leg, which would have been my right leg to start pushing around. And that's where it started. You know, I started walking at nine months old. So like, I gradually just, I wanted to go fast. I think I think I always enjoyed going fast and being thrown up in the air. My dad would always grabbed me and throw me up in the air and catch me and I gotta rush out of that.
• 2:29
  Ryan Sheckler: You know, and I think looking back at it now it's like, that's a huge reason of why I do things on my skateboard that I do today was just from growing up and actually being exposed to adrenaline, very early, safe adrenaline, I guess you could say. But yeah, the skateboard was intriguing. And so I just got on it. And I started going and then naturally took it to the next level and stood up on it and started actually skating.
• 2:59
  Randall Kaplan: What was the first time you stood up without your dad or your mom? Fold your hand.
• 3:05
  Ryan Sheckler: Yeah, probably around three years old. Three years old, just kind of goofing around in the garage. But all my neighbors skated. And all my neighbors were three, four years older than me. So they were they were the big kids, you know, and kind of whatever they were doing, I wanted to do, and they were all skating. And so for me the natural progression of what it was was like to get good and, and then my competitive nature kicked in. And then I wanted to be better than, you know, the kids on the block. And I just kind of strive for that goal.
• 3:37
  Randall Kaplan: You said a while back that you love the feeling of free falling. I think a lot of us have that feeling for the first time when we're on a roller coaster or the stomach is just up in your up in your face up in your throat. But you had it at a young age was that what fuel do every time you got on the board? You just wanted that rush of adrenaline and energy as you got going?
• 3:58
  Ryan Sheckler: Yeah, I would. I would say it was the the experience of the freefall pit in my stomach, for sure. But then also like, speed, you know, and I think at a really young age, I realized that a consequence of speed and of trying to skate things that were bigger and outside of my means.
• 4:20
  Ryan Sheckler: And my parents were super rad didn't and still are super rad.
• 4:25
  Ryan Sheckler: And I think the main thing that helped me be able to achieve goals and to actually get to this point in my life was the way that they reacted when I got hurt. Or when me and my brothers got hurt. They never freaked out. They never were over the top. Definitely not like helicopter parents of like, oh, well gee, you know, like freaking out. They just stayed super calm. And so in my mind, even as a young kid, it showed me like, Oh, I'm okay. You know, like, I'm okay, I'm hurt. I broke my arm. But, you know, I'm looking at my mom and my dad for reaction and they're just cool and calm and got me to the hospital and got the bone say got the cast on. And you know, I remember breaking my arm when I was like five years old, four years old. And it was a traumatic experience for sure.
• 5:13
  Randall Kaplan: Jumping over a fisher price picnic table. Yeah, I have that right.
• 5:17
  Ryan Sheckler: Yeah, you do. You got it, right. All my neighbors were doing it and I was like, Man, I can do that. And I couldn't do it. And I broke my arm. That was the first time I broke it. I think it's one to five on the left arm. But I remember getting a cast it up.
• 5:31
  Ryan Sheckler: And I just asked the doctor like, can I skate again? He said, Yeah. And then I looked at my parents and they said, Yeah, and so I was like, Alright, this is fine. Like, I can get hurt and be okay. So I mean, that played a huge part of my life.
• 5:45
  Ryan Sheckler: I've been hurt a lot.
• 5:48
  Randall Kaplan: Did you wear the pads? When you started skating?
• 5:52
  Randall Kaplan: My son Charlie, I skated when I was a kid. Nothing like you. And then Charlie, my son who's 19 loves you. By the way. I just went to the park. What's that?
• 6:03
  Ryan Sheckler: I said, What up, Charlie?
• 6:05
  Randall Kaplan: He's not here right now. But he'll see it. Oh, he's totally gonna see it. He's super psyched. So I took him to a park. We live in Los Angeles, I took him to one of these flat parks and held his hand right.
• 6:18
  Randall Kaplan: And he's skating along. And this is actually super funny. We're Skating, skating, skating, let go. And it happened so fast, where he ran over this two year old kid with a mom standing there were like, ooh. And it's just one of these super funny moments that that was his first time letting go as he actually hit a kid. Kid didn't get hurt, just cried. But when I took him to the park, and He skated Venice, and he go to the COVID, every day after school, but I was terrified when he fell for the first time. And he was wearing pads. I was terrified and hoping I mean, I was the parent that your parents were not. And I was hoping he fall once or twice. I'm thinking he's not that tough, you know, never want to play football. He just kept going. He just kept going back and back and back. And it got finally got to the point where he was too cool to wear the pads. Were you wearing pads, or you just took them off right out of the gate?
• 7:18
  Ryan Sheckler: No, I'm actually pretty big advocate for helmets and pads for kids that are starting to learn how to skateboard. I think it's very important. I think that your neck is not strong enough, especially when you do fall off the board. And like you said, you know, skateboarding happens in milliseconds, split seconds.
• 7:37
  Ryan Sheckler: And so if you're not prepared, and if you're not focused, and you fall, sometimes as a kid, you're not ready for that whiplash. And I think I think the helmets are super important.
• 7:48
  Ryan Sheckler: elbow pads, knee pads, it's kind of up to the parents discretion at that point, because you got to remember, like, these are still kids, you know, the parents can still have a say, in the safety of their child. And for me, I didn't stop wearing a helmet until I was almost 14 years old. You know, for me, maybe the knee pads and elbow pads, they kind of they left a little bit quicker. But that's because I was skating Street and the difference between Park and st is like, in the park, you can fall you know, and if you have any pads on, that's all good.
• 8:22
  Ryan Sheckler: You can slide out and fall but if you start going and skating Street, the concrete the asphalt, the stairs, like you do not want to be stuck in the habit. I did not want to be stuck in the habit of falling to my knees on the concrete. And especially when you start taking them off. You don't want to do the head at all. Yeah, so for me, it wasn't about being cool.
• 8:43
  Ryan Sheckler: It wasn't a cool thing. For me.
• 8:47
  Ryan Sheckler: It was it was more of a comfortability thing. At that point, I needed a little bit more kind of free flow with my body when I was in the streets, but I still wear a helmet because I understood that my neck was not strong enough. And still to this day, I can get smoked for sure. Like I can go skate and not pay attention for half a second and I could end up on the ground hit my head, you know. So it's a calculated risk that I take, but I don't think it's important. Why I think it's actually really important for kids to wear helmets, until you feel comfortable enough, or you know, you have discussion with your parents or whatever it may be. But don't worry about being cool. Skateboarding is like super accepting. And people understand everybody on skateboard started in one place.
• 9:35
  Ryan Sheckler: We all started at the same place. We all started not being able to do what we wanted to do.
• 9:39
  Ryan Sheckler: We fought through it, we trudged through it. And we just kept him being persistent on the board to get to where you want to be whatever level that may be. So especially kids when they're at the park and they're wearing a helmet, I'm stoked. I'm stoked that they're being smart, you know, and I should wear a helmet sometimes do honestly like I really should. And I think about it all the time, and especially now being a dad, I'm like men.
• 10:02
  Ryan Sheckler: Some of these risks are, are getting a little crazy. But at the end of the day, I can't stop skating. And I can't stop pushing myself. So,
• 10:15
  Randall Kaplan: so much of the non helmet movement, I think is you're growing up, or you grew up in a little different day.
• 10:21
  Randall Kaplan: And then the kids today, we're social media. It's all about the social media, right? So you're going to the park, you got your friend. I mean, I was Charlie's photographer. So we go to parks, we drove in all over. La, we went to Detroit wants to go to Tony Hawks park there, they built downtown in the city city.
• 10:41
  Randall Kaplan: I mean, it was not a safe neighborhood to even get on the car. But he wanted to go there.
• 10:45
  Randall Kaplan: But it's all about the social media. And you got these kids event escape park without the helmets because everyone's filming them. So just give give the advice to all the kids listening, or are the weekend warriors, even people my age, the social media thing, you got to forget it, and you got to wear the helmet.
• 11:05
  Ryan Sheckler: Yeah, do you know social media is a it's a fickle beast, you know, it can work with you, or it can absolutely work against you. And what I've realized happening now is a lot of comparison going on, you know, so maybe you'll watch a trick that I did. And you're like, Oh, that was you know, that was what it was, I want to do that. And but I don't want to wear a helmet. And I want to look like that. Well, the difference is, is that like I've put my whole life into this craft. And I understand the risks that I'm taking by not wearing protective gear, a kid that doesn't know or hasn't been skating as long as I have or as committed. So say, doesn't know how he's gonna fall or how it's going to react or what the board's gonna do. So, I think with social media, you kind of you kind of got to ignore it.
• 11:59
  Ryan Sheckler: Like you said, man, it's like, who cares? If you look cool, but you're in a coma? You know, like, who cares about that?
• 12:07
  Ryan Sheckler: That's not cool. So it's tough, dude, it's a fine line. It's a fine balance, you know, and I think, I think social media is, is it can be good and bad. You know, I think kids don't actually really get to explore and figure out what they what they want to do. I think the internet tells kids what they should be doing and how they should be doing something instead of firsthand learning.
• 12:33
  Ryan Sheckler: And so for me, especially over here at sandlot times, you know, my new skateboard company, like, I'm here to let the kids learn and let whoever gets on the team, like, learn your craft, learn it the way you want to do it. It doesn't have to be done a certain way. And we have a huge sticker in the skate park. And it just says change the narrative. And that can mean a million different things. But for me change the narrative is just like, you don't have to do something the same way everybody else does it. There's no rules to skateboarding. There's no rules to a skateboard business.
• 13:05
  Ryan Sheckler: There's it's all feel, you know, you got to feel it. And you got to listen to your intuition. So if you're a kid, or a young adult, or weekend warrior, as you said, and you're getting ready to go skate, and something in your mind tells you to put pads on, put them on, listen to that, you know. I think it's important.
• 13:28
  Randall Kaplan: Yeah. And you've seen a lot of bad stuff I've seen not as much bad stuff as you have. But I remember going to Venice skate park and you take turns, right, so you get the riders and then you wait for someone else, you know, they get their turn. And I think this kid was 14 years old, whatever. And he, you know, you get motivated as someone before you goes and they're really good, then you want to go and you want to show off your stuff. And it's a Saturday, there's 500 people there five people deep and the kid who was you know, not that good. I mean, it was fine. If you get around the bowl he just had and the kid just passed out and everyone is standing around.
• 14:05
  Randall Kaplan: We went down to the bowl, I was on the edge. I went down there and you know, it's a steep drop, right? So you're sliding on your ass going down there and the kid would move and like oh, fuck, and so I ran the lifeguard tower event, his beach was, I don't know half mile and there's no police around either. You're looking for one right there walking up and down the Venice bar. And, you know, I was I probably ran the fastest half mile that I've run in my life and I hadn't run in a long time.
• 14:30
  Randall Kaplan: But you know, just yelling and screaming for them to come over.
• 14:33
  Randall Kaplan: And, you know, they came over and you know, it's not like they ran right away either. You know, you got a knock on the door and the kid ended up waking up but and he didn't die. But there's really the first time I saw someone really pop their head.
• 14:47
  Randall Kaplan: You know, my son would come home with you. Okay, now I got a concussion. What happened? I've had all skaters are skaters.
• 14:54
  Randall Kaplan: They want to keep going right no matter what. We'll talk we'll talk about the fear are in a while, but let's go back. I'm Tony Hawk icon. Some consider the best ever. You're in that conversation as well. But it gave me a birthday party when you're six years old. How'd that happen?
• 15:14
  Ryan Sheckler: Yeah, I mean, we were me and my brother were obsessed with Tony Hawk in obsessed with skateboarding period. And we knew that He skated at the YMCA. Back in the day of the YMCA skate camp, but it was just the YMCA skate park in Encinitas. And Shane's birthday was coming up. So we were going to celebrate a kind of a joint birthday. And we wanted Tony Hawk and my dad found his email, emailed him directly, and asked him if he would come. And Tony replied, You know, and said he would come for, I think it was like a $500 appearance fee and some chocolate cake, you know. So at the end of the day, thinking about it now, where I'm sure his appearance fee is probably half a million dollars. You know, it's like, we got him for 500 bucks. And he ate cake. And he brought a bunch of pro skaters and they skated. And we watched him, and they hung out with us.
• 16:09
  Ryan Sheckler: And they signed autographs for me and my bro and all of our friends that came. And, you know, that was a really awesome experience for me, because Tony was super cool. And it's a life lesson that I learned very young that like somebody I looked up to, and somebody I was intrigued with, at the time of day to be cool to me. And that's always stuck with me. That will never leave me. And that's the way I treat people that come up to me or kids that I see when I'm out skating that come up. I've also had experiences where I've looked up to people and thought they were epic, and met him in person, and they really bummed me out. And so I've had the I've had the spectrum of both sides, for sure. On on treatment in skateboarding, and I want to be, I want to be the guy that's, that's nice. And not because I'm trying to be nice, just because I care about skateboarding. Like I absolutely care and love skateboarding. I love the passion that a new skateboarder has watching a kid land their first kickflip their first Ollie, there's nothing better for me.
• 17:22
  Randall Kaplan: Tell us about the kid from Cuba.
• 17:25
  Ryan Sheckler: from Cuba.
• 17:26
  Randall Kaplan: Did you give a board to a kid from Cuba who needed a board one day?
• 17:31
  Ryan Sheckler: Dude, that's a craziest I don't even know what how you came up with that? Yes, did I so I went I was actually in Cuba on a on a red board trip years and years ago. And we started off in Panama and and I brought a ton of shoes and wheels and trucks and boards and, and brought them over to Cuba because the skate scene there is actually epic, it's it's insane. You know, they will create a board out of whatever means they can build these crazy skateboard presses used glue that we don't use today and build their own skateboards. And it was very, like old school, you know, there was like roller skate trucks that they would take off and put on the board.
• 18:18
  Ryan Sheckler: So it'd be like a full sized board with really small trucks.
• 18:21
  Ryan Sheckler: And I was just like, blown away.
• 18:21
  Ryan Sheckler: When we got to Cuba and saw how many incredible skateboarders there were, and especially on what they were skating, so we I actually left everything that I brought all my clothes, my bag, I went to Cuba with a huge duffel bag, and left with just my backpack and like, I think one pair of boxers and pair of socks in case the flight got messed up. But um, that for me, is what it's all about. You know, that's why we do check the foundation now. It's like, we want to introduce skateboarding we want to show what skateboarding can bring the feeling it can bring the actual practice of perseverance, you know, like you're not gonna get skateboarding first try you're not like nobody will. You cannot not be a skateboarder get on and master skateboarding. Honestly, you can't even master skateboarding. It's always changing. It's forever changing.
• 19:14
  Ryan Sheckler: And there's always a new trick.
• 19:18
  Ryan Sheckler: Somebody's always going to be better than you. And that's okay. Once you accept that you're like, it's totally fine.
• 19:24
  Ryan Sheckler: But you have the Cuba trip. I haven't thought about that trip in a long time. That was a cool trip.
• 20:24
  Randall Kaplan: You know when you've done well, you've had tremendous success I've I've done okay. And my son loves the new board right kids got to get a new board is five new boards a year I mean, every birthday or non birthday Dad, I need a new board. What's wrong with your board? You know, it's three months old or whatever. So we had, I don't know 12 boards in the garage. And my kids I'm very big on teach them to get back they all volunteered at the food pantry in Santa Monica. And as you know, a lot of the skaters have no money right are there and some of them look homeless, and volunteering at the food pantry. And there was a guy in line who saw it at the skate park. And so he took as a super proud moment as a dad, he took, I think he gave him a couple of boards and said daddy came home.
• 21:12
  Randall Kaplan: He said, I don't know. You know, I looked at him. I didn't know if I should say something. He felt uncomfortable. Because he didn't know what he should say.
• 21:19
  Randall Kaplan: And it was eye opening moment for Charlie, because I think he was at the time. 16 years old.
• 21:27
  Randall Kaplan: He said, hey, you know, gotta give, gotta give him some stuff.
• 21:30
  Randall Kaplan: And and he did. So. Definitely a very given community for sure. I mean, I hung out with a lot of those kids. And a lot of the moms love the dads, but it's a special community when you're a skater.
• 21:44
  Ryan Sheckler: Yeah, it really is special. It's special in the sense that that it's all love, you know, it's all love and, and I've got to travel the world as a skateboarder. And I travel to places where there's a complete language barrier, but it doesn't matter. Because the second I jump on my board, and I'm at the skate shop, or I'm just skating around the street and you hear I can hear skateboard wheels from a mile away. I know, like immediately here a skateboard.
• 22:12
  Ryan Sheckler: I'm like, oh, and I relate with that person. No matter what your background is, no matter who you are, what you do, like, if you're on a board, I relate with you, because I know what it took to even be able to push down the street like that, like, oh, and I can always kind of tell to like, how good a skater is by how they push how comfortable they are just like on one foot, or what their push looks like, or how they kind of go around a corner, you know, and you don't have to speak the language we speak skateboarding, which requires a lot of pain to learn.
• 22:45
  Ryan Sheckler: And so for me in my life, you know, a lot of my main lessons and biggest lessons in life, whether it be you know, actual injury or emotional had been through pain. And I think pain is something that a lot of kids get scared of. I think pain is is what kind of separates the, you know, weekend warrior from someone who's obsessed, whether that be skateboarding or anything. If you're obsessed with something, if you're super passionate about it, no matter what the circumstances is, or are, you are going to continue that. And for me, it's skateboarding, I can get hurt.
• 23:25
  Ryan Sheckler: And I've been really hurt 12 broken bones, you know, ligaments for days, and surgeries and pins and, and the whole process and not once have I ever thought how maybe I shouldn't skate, you know, it's more like, Man, I cannot believe I was not paying attention for that one second, that you know, spun my ankle backwards, like whatever it may be. It's all passion, skateboarding is passion. So wherever I go in the world, and like get on your son, dude, like get on your son for doing that, that that comes from his heart. You know, he didn't have to do that. And some people think they have to do it. And they'll do it. And then they'll film it for social media. And it's like, Hey, look at me do this. It's like, we want to do good works in in silence. You know, we want to do good works when people aren't looking at us. And make that a habit of just like doing good things for people. And it doesn't matter.
• 24:21
  Ryan Sheckler: If social media or anybody sees you doing that, you know, in your heart that you're actually going out to do it because you want to help. And I don't know, I've just always kind of I just feel led to do very similar things that your son did. So proud of him for that. That's really cool.
• 24:41
  Randall Kaplan: Thank you. He's gonna be probably just at me.
• 24:45
  Randall Kaplan: And I know I mentioned so I'll just say, hey, try sorry, and kind of really, really great.
• 24:49
  Randall Kaplan: Tony Hawk story. So my son had a bar mitzvah, and it was a skateboarding theme party. So it was super cool. He had a new company that he started called, shred on hat company designed the logo is super cool hat but I put together this video montage of his whole life from you know, first moment born right up until the party and I had all these famous people say Happy Birthday SVA Charlie, and sometimes I would run into them or I'd be at a charity function. I track them down. Hey, can you share this i Tom Brady and Dustin Johnson and Matthew Stafford I'm a huge lions fan. I'm in Detroit and Klay Thompson and I want to get Tony Hawk. You know, Tony is the big one, right? Skateboard party. Charlie is all about skating. So like you I just called up. Right? I said, Hey, having a skateboarding party for my son would Tony just film a little video? And at that point, his sister was running the foundation. I forget her first name. amazing woman, and she sent this video, Tony at his personal Park. I don't know how big this dropping was 4040 feet, telling him to go on HLA This one's for you and up and down.
• 26:07
  Randall Kaplan: And I mean, he was flipping all over the place upside down is, you know, for, for round trippers, and then he finished, like, heavy permits for Charlie.
• 26:20
  Randall Kaplan: And that's how we ended the video. And it's it's like, you know, when when people are good, and they're great, they're just good and great. I mean, he didn't ask for a donation. He it was just all good. Right? And it's, it's that went down as a moment for me, of amazing leadership giving back being a role model. Just huge, right?
• 26:42
  Randall Kaplan: That that just fires you up, and it makes you believe in great things as a kid.
• 26:50
  Ryan Sheckler: Yeah, for sure.
• 26:50
  Ryan Sheckler: For sure. And I feel like did you post that? Someone seen that?
• 26:58
  Randall Kaplan: I didn't. If I want to send it to you, and I probably should post it. Really cool. It's epic, by the way.
• 27:09
  Ryan Sheckler: Yeah, I love that word. Um, I think you should post that dude. I think you should post it and show people you know, that like, some of their their heroes, their favorite dudes, like, are actually super selfless and will do something cool like that for for someone they don't know. You know, and that's the whole point, dude. It's like, I'm not unique, in the sense that I'm a professional athlete. Like, I'm not unique, because I skateboard. There's nothing about me that's unique. And I and I accept that. And when I when I know that, and I understand that it makes life so much easier. Man, I'm living life on life's terms. If I run into someone that needs help, I'm gonna help them. If I'm going to the skate park, and he wants to learn how to kickflip I'm going to help him before I start doing my session. That the older that I'm getting in, the more life that is going by, just the more selfless I want to be.
• 28:02
  Ryan Sheckler: I just want to do things. For others. I want to do things for my wife, for my kid. For my family, you know, it's not a bout me when I when I take myself out of the way and think about others first, crazy doors open up the end up being for me.
• 28:21
  Ryan Sheckler: But if I'm stuck in my will, and stuck trying to trying to finesse my life and make it make it go the way I want. I'm miserable when I kind of just sit back and let life happen.
• 28:36
  Ryan Sheckler: That's all right.
• 28:42
  Randall Kaplan: So you know there's there's times in all of our lives, right? When some weird things go down, you're not expecting it and you think some things are just not happening. I had a friend at work at Fox is probably 15 years ago Fox had nothing online, no content. You know, the the net was taking off and Fox was nowhere. And they had had some senior people there. Really just do nothing.
• 29:02
  Randall Kaplan: And my friend gets a call his phone rings. This is Rupert Murdoch. And I'd like to have lunch with you today. Click. The guy calls back. I said it's Rupert Murdoch. I'd like to have lunch today. And he said, you know, who is this fucking with me. And he hung up again. Then phone rings a third time and he says this is Rupert Murdoch. I'd like to meet you in the Executive Lounge at noon today.
• 29:34
  Randall Kaplan: And it was Rupert Murdoch. Tell us about Robbie Marlon, and who he is and you star 6090 him and the impact he had in your life.
• 29:44
  Ryan Sheckler: Yeah, that was crazy. You know, thinking about that? It's so funny. Like right when he started talking about that story, my brain snapped to like my Rodney Mullen story.
• 29:56
  Ryan Sheckler: Ronnie Moreland, how do you even explain him, dude. He's the best skateboarder alive. Ever.
• 30:06
  Randall Kaplan: Still, to this day,
• 30:08
  Ryan Sheckler: for sure. He'll always be the best, he'll always be the best because He created all of these tricks that everybody does now. Tony, sorry, Rodney was the first to do them was the first to create them.
• 30:18
  Ryan Sheckler: The kickflip 360 flip everything. So I attribute and look at Rodney as you know, the forefather of skateboarding for sure it for me. And I've always looked up to Rodney. I've always respected Rodney and there was a period of my life where I was writing for World Industries, which is skateboard company and Rodney and DeJuan who definitely deserve to be mentioned in the same Breath DeJuan song is absolutely incredible and might be just as just as gnarly as Rodney. So the two of them were starting a skateboard company called almost. And I was just getting ready to turn pro for World Industries. I had a boards that were like ready to come out but never did. And I was sitting at home and my, the house phone rang. So there's no caller ID.
• 31:20
  Ryan Sheckler: And my dad answered the phone.
• 31:26
  Ryan Sheckler: And Rodney who has very calm, like, very subtle voice, say, hey, it's Rodney Mullen is your son there and my dad hung up the phone. Just like I was like, Hey, who's that? He was like, some guy pretending to be Rodney Mullen. And I was like, Dad, if it's actually Rodney, like, you gotta call him back, dude. And so we start 69 to him. And he answered the phone. And my dad kind of vetted him out for a little bit, and then kind of realized it was him. And the second I heard his voice, when I got on the phone, I knew it was Ronnie. And Ronnie asked me if I wanted to ride for his new company. And for me, dude, that whole period of my life right there like that 1010 to 13 was out of my wildest dreams and actually wasn't even a dream.
• 32:17
  Ryan Sheckler: You know, I thought, when I was skating with all my neighbors, and all the kids, like when I was growing up, you know, I talked about growing up like five to five to 10. I had tried skating so hard, and I was skating every day and was making it a passion. I was obsessed with skateboarding. But I knew well, what I thought I knew was that it was going to take me until I was like, 21 to be pro because skating was so hard. And I was like, man, there's no way I'm going to be professional at skateboarding. Anytime before I'm 21, like, I'm gonna have to put in this much work and skateboarding to turn pro. And, you know, I was still going to contests. I went to contests every other month. I was winning a lot of contests. I really enjoyed competition, skateboarding. And yeah, Rodney hit me up, dude. He hit me up and wanted me on his team. And I said, Yes, of course. Of course.
• 33:09
  Ryan Sheckler: And I got to travel with him. I got to travel with him for you know, four years, three or four years. We've been on a trip with him is incredible. Everybody would skate he would be there.
• 33:22
  Ryan Sheckler: He wouldn't skate. And then once everyone kind of got back to the hotel, kind of checked in chilled out, you know, right around like one o'clock in the morning, Rodney would get the filmer and go find a parking garage, and just go skate flat ground for hours. And I kind of started figuring out, that's what he was doing. And so I would just kind of shadow him and I wouldn't skate, I would just watch him skate. And some of the craziest skateboarding I've ever seen, but also the most intact mental that I've ever seen. He had a plan, he was going to do this trick until he landed it, and then he was gonna land it 10 times. And I learned a lot from Rodney, I learned a lot from Rodney, especially like bodyweight, where my shoulders need to be for a lot of tricks.
• 34:13
  Ryan Sheckler: And being taught a trick from a guy who created the trick.
• 34:20
  Ryan Sheckler: That's why some of the tricks I do today are the way they are, because I learned how to perfect them from the guy who created them. And it was just a trip, dude, it's a trip. And, you know, I don't get to talk to Romney, as much as I would like.
• 34:35
  Ryan Sheckler: We still are friends, we still you know, stay in contact. I'll see him maybe once a year, something like that. But the impact he had on my life is immeasurable.
• 34:49
  Randall Kaplan: You're 13 you're going to go pro at 21. And as a rookie, you want every contest that you're that you were in, including the X Games, was the X gas, easily the biggest crowd you've ever seen? And how do you respond to the pressure? And once you're there, and you're getting the gold medal on the stand? What are you? What are you saying to yourself? I mean, I watch the Olympics and X Games and Shaun White and it's Yeah, they've been up there before, right? I mean, even the first time but you're 13 years old, and you're looking around what what are you thinking?
• 35:24
  Ryan Sheckler: It was crazy man.
• 35:24
  Ryan Sheckler: getting invited to X Games was the craziest thing. To start it off, you know, I didn't know. I didn't know I was gonna get invited to X Games. I just enjoyed skateboarding contests.
• 35:35
  Ryan Sheckler: So I would skate contests and I would take it very seriously. If I didn't when I was crying, and I was very bummed. Obviously I would congratulate the winner because I had respect but internally for myself I was on I was kicking my butt dude, I was bummed out. And I was trying to figure out immediately, like, how can I be better? How can I actually, how can I win the next one? So with that, you know, mentality. Skating contests, like, I got the opportunity to go to X Games, and I had watched X Games for years. And we ended up showing up there, and I started skating the practice.
• 36:20
  Ryan Sheckler: The whole thing was crazy, actually, like checking in as an athlete to X Games was gnarly.
• 36:22
  Ryan Sheckler: You know, I'm like in the athlete, check in and there's Brian Deegan, there's Travis Prasanna, you know, there's Tony Hawk, and Bob Burnquist. And Jamie Bestwick, and Ryan Nyquist. And all of these superstar athletes that like, I'm, I'm a fan of them. Now. I'm in the same room, checking in on the same computer that, you know, Tony just touched. And I'm like, Man, this is crazy. This is crazy. And then like Eric Koston, would walk in, I was like, Man, that's Eric Causton.
• 36:51
  Ryan Sheckler: Like, how am I going to actually compete with these guys, but I didn't, I wasn't in that mindset yet. Because I was just stoked to be there. And I think just being stoked to be there is what actually got me to the victory.
• 37:05
  Ryan Sheckler: So once I started skating practice, I loved the course, you know, the course was super small, super tight. But I was super small. And I was like, I was a kid, you know. So like, I can make it around this park with with ease, and I loved it.
• 37:19
  Ryan Sheckler: And all of the tricks that I wanted to do, were working, and even a couple that I didn't plan on doing worked really well. And I just remember the feeling of like, looking up into the crowd.
• 37:31
  Ryan Sheckler: I saw my parents saw my grandma, you know, like, holding signs.
• 37:36
  Ryan Sheckler: And like, people were stoked, like, couple people knew who I was. And I got a lot of cheers, you know, and I think I got a lot of cheers just because I was the young kid that was there, you know, by far the youngest.
• 37:45
  Ryan Sheckler: And I just remember landing my run. And like not really thinking anything more than just like, I landed it, you know, like, an X Games was cool, because you got instant scoring.
• 37:57
  Ryan Sheckler: So it kind of threw my name up on the board with my score. And it was above everybody else's.
• 38:06
  Ryan Sheckler: And I was like, Man, that's crazy. And I had one more run to do. And I don't think I bettered my score. I think I stayed in first after my either after my first or second round, I stayed, I stayed in first. And then the contest was over. Didn't I just remember all my friends, like, the skateboarders that I looked up to like, came over and picked me up. And I don't think it actually made sense to me what had happened. They put the metal around my neck, and I just remember, like, thinking about what to do with it. And so I like put it in my mouth gloves.
• 38:40
  Ryan Sheckler: Like I've seen other people, you know, put the metals in their mouth, like, is that what you're supposed to do? Like, I didn't know what to do. But my my initial thought after I want to was like, I was just so stoked to go to school the next day, you know, I was like, on a Sunday. And I had to go to school the next day, and I was going to take the metal, and I did. And you know, I thought maybe like I would just show a couple friends like, Hey, check this out, you know, but like, I forgot X Games is on TV. You know, when people watch the X Games? Yeah. And I'm from San Clemente, you know. So it's like Surf Skate community. Like, that's what we do down here. And everybody watched it. Everybody watched it. My teachers watched it, like, people watched it. And that feeling was crazy. That feeling was great. So it was always a trip to me when my teachers didn't work with me when I needed to go on a trip.
• 39:32
  Ryan Sheckler: And they would give me homework and then, you know, some worked with me some didn't. And that's a whole nother story. But
• 39:41
  Randall Kaplan: well, let's let's let's get into this. Yeah, I mean, let's get into it.
• 39:43
  Randall Kaplan: Because that's where I was going next. You know, you your family.
• 39:45
  Randall Kaplan: The values are you finished what you start? You know, tell us about how wrestling helped you what you learned. I think you took wrestling your freshman year of high school, and, and what it was like, because you didn't really finish and then you didn't go to high school anymore. You were homeschool. So tell us tell us about all that.
• 40:08
  Ryan Sheckler: Yeah, it was just a crazy time. It was a crazy time in my life. You know, I was I had just turned pro just won the X Games. And then obviously the rest of that summer there was three three more events, Slam City jam and Vancouver.
• 40:23
  Ryan Sheckler: There was advanced triple crown.
• 40:23
  Ryan Sheckler: There was another one I forget what it was, but there was like four main Gravity Games and in Ohio. There's these four competitions and my rookie year of being a pro. I want all four of these and traveling and doing that whole thing was kind of crazy. So I was like, Alright, I still like want to be somewhat of a kid like I have good friends at at at home and I really enjoyed being at the beach and like just hanging out so I made the decision to go to freshman year of high school, not homeschool, like actually go. And I remember sitting in PE, and I had the uniform on I'm like sitting on on a number on the ground, you know, it's like one through 100. And I'm just sitting there and I was really second guessing. Being at school like, Man, this is like, this is PE like, I should be skating right now. Like, I have contests coming up, like I should definitely be skating. And then my buddy, Carl was like walking by and he saw me sitting there.
• 41:26
  Ryan Sheckler: He's like, What are you doing here? Like, you're not doing PE like Come with me. And so I attributed a lot to my buddy Carl, we call no Heya. He pulled me out of PE and I was like scared, I was gonna get in trouble. And he like walked me into the wrestling room. And then that's where I saw the adrenaline and like, fast pace of wrestling. And I was like, Oh, this is actually really cool. So I started wrestling that day. And I took to it pretty quickly. I took to it pretty quickly. I really enjoyed it. I absolutely loved it. It gave me the same feeling. When I was in a wrestling match that like I got before I skated where I got super nervous, almost on the borderline of like, crying, you know, because my mind. I was so focused, I was just so focused, and I wanted to win.
• 42:15
  Ryan Sheckler: And that helped me win a few few wrestling matches that year. And you know, contribute to the school, which was cool. But the biggest thing wrestling did for me was teach me how to roll out of tricks that I'm falling on on the ground. I learned so much control of being able to just fall backwards and actually roll out of it and then get back to my feet. And without wrestling, I think I'd have a lot more injuries. Absolutely a lot more injuries. So it's kind of something I recommend. If you know kids are interested in trying something new is like you're taking skateboarding serious. You should definitely start grappling or jujitsu or wrestling something of that nature to and it's also a great outlet. It's a great outlet. But um, it helped me with skateboarding.