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Ryan Sheckler: When Success Takes Its Toll, The Tough Game Begins | E66 · In Search Of Excellence

• 0:00
  Ryan Sheckler: One of my big things is visualization. So whether that's a trick or a run by the time I get there, I've already done it 1000 times, like no matter what, when I got to the spot or where I was gonna go, it was going to happen that day, I guess
• 0:11
  Randall Kaplan: today is Ryan Sheckler. Ryan is an entrepreneur, former reality TV star and philanthropist 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.
• 0:25
  Randall Kaplan: 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.
• 0:36
  Randall Kaplan: Brian, it's awesome to have you on my show. Welcome to In Search of Excellence. So let's talk about some of the other things that really helped you along the way. And at some point, some of the best things turn out to be maybe some of the worst things.
• 0:53
  Randall Kaplan: And we'll talk about reality TV, which now is an everyday thing, right? I mean, there are so many reality TV shows. It's there's a new one every week a new something. You were on a show you they created the show for you that that went, I think two and a half seasons, and they made you do all kinds of shit.
• 1:12
  Randall Kaplan: You didn't want to do it cause problems with you, your family.
• 1:16
  Randall Kaplan: And they basically made you break up with a girlfriend. Tell us about all that. The good and the bad. And then crying Ryan?
• 1:31
  Ryan Sheckler: Yeah, I mean, that's a lot to unpack right there. For sure. But yeah, the MTV show, to me, when it was when it was being talked about, I was hanging out with Rob Dyrdek, a lot. And Rob had already had a show on I think he was doing Robin big at that point is before fantasy factory.
• 1:53
  Ryan Sheckler: And I was just always around Rob. And he told me, like, he just saw kind of how crazy my life was. And he's like, You need a TV show. Like your friends are great. Your family is great. Like, you guys need a TV show, you're doing good and competition. Like there's something there. And I kind of took it to heart and talk to my agent, talk to my mom, you know, and like, let's see, you know, let's see if they're interested.
• 2:16
  Ryan Sheckler: And then we eventually kind of shopped it around a little bit.
• 2:19
  Ryan Sheckler: And our producer, who we ended up going with Jason Carbone liked the idea. And he had created, you know, Ron's house, and he had done a few cool reality shows that I liked. And so we started doing it. And at first it was like, I didn't have time to think about what I was doing. We were just doing it, you know, and like, the first season was super fun. It was super fun. Some things were a little cringy. Now, if I look back at it, but at the time, I was, you know, 17 years old, and I didn't really think about it, I wasn't really thinking about anybody else, except for myself, you know, for being honest, I was just a selfish teenager, who had a crazy ego, and it was just trying to feed it. And so we fed it. And long story short, did the show in three seasons. And it stopped at three seasons, because I was absolutely over it. I was over, not having what felt like control of my life control of my days, there was a couple of instances where I had to, like you said, a breakup with a girl. They didn't film it right. So I had to break up with her again, same day, on camera.
• 3:33
  Ryan Sheckler: And for me, that's not who I am.
• 3:38
  Ryan Sheckler: It's not my person. It's not my personality. And some things just started rubbing me completely the wrong way when we were filming. And, you know, crying Ryan came about because I love my family, and loved the family unit together. That's what I've known my whole life.
• 3:58
  Ryan Sheckler: And you know, there was no way to that would that wasn't something that was planned. It was just life. It was life on life's terms. And that's when it happened. It's so happened that my parents, you know, split up when we were mid season. And I've been used to my family around my whole life up until that point. And so that rocked me like my family is everything.
• 4:21
  Ryan Sheckler: And so yeah, I cried when I heard the information. You know, I cried. And you know, skateboarding being skateboarding, which I like don't hold a grudge against or whatever. I even made a board that said grind Ryan that sold very well.
• 4:40
  Randall Kaplan: So you know, every single bought embrace motion
• 4:43
  Ryan Sheckler: at that point, but you know, now I can I can shrug it off, you know, as a 17 year old, vulnerable teenager who's a little bit angry, little bit confused, super emotional, super sad. I took it very personally, you know, I thought skateboarding hated me and skateboarding was like, out to get me, you know, and the only way I could prove my point or, you know, get the noise to stop was to just go crazy in the streets, and just film and film gnarly skateboarding. And just kind of pushed the boundaries of what I thought I was even capable of. And so that's what I did. You know, and slowly, but surely, I got the love of, you know, the skateboard community back and, and it's been pretty, pretty great ever since, you know, there's always someone that has something to say, but that's what anything, you know, so let them yeah, let them you know, at the end of the day, man, it's like, if you have a problem with me, and you actually think about it long enough, and you want to write a comment about it, you know, and I happen to see it, you know, I don't respond. And at the end of the day, I'm praying for you, you know, whoever you are, and, you know, if I see it on Instagram, or wherever, you know, I like, I've had a lot of growth in my life. And so I just pray for these people. Now.
• 6:09
  Ryan Sheckler: Instead of let it get to me, you know, I don't know what they're going through, you know, I don't know what anyone's going through, really. So if, if it's enough for someone who wants to write something super hateful to me, and take the time out of their day to like, to bash me, I can only assume they have something going on with themselves that, that someone doesn't understand. So I just pray for him. Just pray for these people now. And, and it's, and it's all good. But I think I think what we were talking about was like the show, you know, what are the pros and cons?
• 6:42
  Ryan Sheckler: Well, the pros, the pros, were getting skateboarding into homes, where kids might not have ever thought they wanted to try skateboarding, you know, in some way or another, I might have made skateboarding look appealing to to a non skater.
• 7:00
  Ryan Sheckler: Which in turn, you know, I never told the kids to go by my boards. I just don't try to skate, you know. So like, these kids are going millions of kids are going out. And you know, buying skateboards, not my boards, they're buying other pro skateboarders, boards, they're buying other shoes, they're buying gear, and supporting everybody in skateboarding as a whole. And so that was really cool. At the time, what was the con? You know, the con was just I think it messed with my ego. I think it really messed with my ego, if I had my ego in check.
• 7:36
  Ryan Sheckler: And I didn't really care what people thought. And I had a little bit more control, actually a lot more control of the show, and kind of the direction we went. And what we talked about, or maybe people we helped, I could have probably stayed on, but it just started trending in a direction that was was becoming scripted. And that was it. That was enough time for me, you know, three seasons 10s of millions of views. And that was before social media, you know, so it's crazy.
• 8:07
  Randall Kaplan: Well, let's, let's talk about the millions because you're making a shit ton of money at a young age. You're having lots of cool people you've got Barry Bonds, playing beer pong in your garage Machine Gun Kelly hanging out with you.
• 8:22
  Randall Kaplan: Vanilla Ice comes over for your 20th birthday party. And you're playing next to a brand new Ferrari you bought when you're 18 years old. You've got guys doing burnouts on Harley Davidson motorcycles and sell your house or smoke everywhere.
• 8:36
  Randall Kaplan: That's crazy live tell us what that was like. Did you have any self control at that point? And and I can't even imagine what that life would be like at any age, let alone 1718 1920
• 9:46
  Ryan Sheckler: Yeah, dude, I mean it's crazy thinking about that now compared to where my life is currently today and has been and what I've been working towards over the last you know, five years. But yeah, 1717 to about 21 was full of that it was crazy because I was like doing really well in competitions. And so I was almost using these competitions as as a trophy not in the literal sense, but just like in the in the mental sense of like, okay, cool. I did good at this contest. That gives me the ability and the power and the okay to go crazy to go have you know, these parties at my house, my old house, you know, to I'm gonna go buy a Ferrari just because I want to be seen in a Ferrari. And I was 18 and it was like, you know, when you have you know, at that point, too, it was like everything was being bought on the American next But like the black card, I got the black card when I was 17. And back then that was like, a crazy thing, you know. And so
• 11:00
  Randall Kaplan: there's still it's crazy to have a black card 17
• 11:03
  Ryan Sheckler: Yeah, I mean, it was, you know, but like, I'm just, I just don't want to glorify those days, like those days were a learning experience, for sure. I made a lot of bad decisions, I made a few good decisions. But like I talked about before, it was just like feeding this ego, it was feeding a person I didn't know, I didn't know who I was, I only knew that like, Okay, I skateboard, I try to win, have this MTV show, there's this perception of who I am, from the world from skateboarding. And so this voice is so loud, of what people expected me to be and thought I was and wanted me to be that I believe that. So like, I turned into this character, I was a character pretty much. And I got super lost, I just got super lost in that character. And I thought people wanted me to be the bad guy, and that I was supposed to be this guy. And, and I, you know, I played the part until I like, couldn't do it anymore. It was absolutely exhausting. And it was taking, it was taking life away from me, for sure. And something had to change, dude, something had to change. And, you know, obviously, like, I feel like we're about to talk about it anyways, you know, like, I use alcohol a lot, you know, like, I drank a lot of alcohol. And, and that was the way in my mind to kind of quiet the noise. And it got to a point where, like, it just didn't get quiet. I just want to get quiet anymore. And that was after years, you know, of, of being out and being at parties and just wasting money and living a life that like thinking about an hour is absolutely crazy. I shouldn't be alive. You know, like some some of those situations and some of those scenarios that we won't get into, but like, you know, I shouldn't be alive. You know?
• 12:56
  Ryan Sheckler: God, God's always had a plan for me, for sure. And I believe that wholeheartedly. And I just needed to get out of my own way.
• 13:06
  Ryan Sheckler: So I could start seeing what what Jesus wanted to do in my life. And now it's, you know, the fruit of what my life is, is so much more. So much more exciting. So much more peaceful.
• 13:19
  Ryan Sheckler: But yeah, David, I don't know, I know, you want to try to get into it. The old the old life, but
• 13:29
  Randall Kaplan: Well, it was great. What I yeah, I mean, what I really want to get into, and you have such a great story. And you talk about this. And I think I've had a lot of people on the show who have been in AAA, substance abuse, near death experiences. A lot of people, and it doesn't matter if they're athletes, CEOs, whatever. But I think it's really important to share the stories with people.
• 13:50
  Randall Kaplan: Because I had a girlfriend, for example, for two and a half years alcoholic she would drink is like poison in the blood is in a ton of meetings with her right? I'd go I was supportive.
• 14:01
  Randall Kaplan: You know, you think you have if you're a successful person or not successful and you're super strong personnel you've done well, you've a Master of the Universe syndrome, right? You think you can help anybody and you go to these meetings? And, you know, it's amazing who you see in these meetings, obviously, they're extremely confidential. But I saw my next door neighbor there. I saw the CEO of an investment bank there.
• 14:23
  Randall Kaplan: Right, right across from my office. You know, I live in Brentwood. I'm there, but I think I would like get again into it, if you would, in terms of what was the progression of the drinking? You know, when did you start? How did it progress?
• 14:36
  Randall Kaplan: And I know you don't want to go there. But I'm going to ask you to go there. You can obviously say no, but you know, a couple a couple the couple of the really tough ones where he said, Oh my god, like I could have died had I not? You know, and and I'm lucky because there's people listening out there, right? I promise you who are either going through something like this and at some point, it's like, like you had enough. And I think sharing your stories will really motivating motivate people to get better.
• 15:05
  Ryan Sheckler: Jonathan helps definitely. Yeah, for sure. And it's definitely powerful. If it helps one person then you know, I've done I've done my job. So, you know, I think I started drinking it around 1717 and I bought a house when I was 18 On the day like on the dot. I was in a team three storey 5000 square foot home party clubhouse, pretty much and for me, the drinking would it started kind of slow. You know, it started kind of slow. I you know, obviously I wasn't 21 So I couldn't go out to clubs or bars. You know, some of my friends have fake IDs I did not I could not get a fake ID because people knew who I was.
• 15:55
  Ryan Sheckler: And so we would do, you know, little parties at the house on the weekend and, you know, everyone drank and whatever. And it kind of went like that for first year. It's kind of mellow couple of nights were kind of crazy. But like, nothing, nothing out of the ordinary, what you started seeing with like, the motorcycles in the house, and you know, I'd have trapeze? Yeah. All of their motorcycles, you know, and like, all of a sudden this whole house is, is you know, people are burning out in the kitchen and, and everywhere else. And it was just absolute debauchery. And I think what I think what the crazy thing is, is like alcohol does not care who you are, what you do, where you live, where you're from, it does not care.
• 16:49
  Ryan Sheckler: It wants to kill you. And it wanted to kill me. And it kept telling me and I, when I say it, I'm talking about alcohol, like it just kept telling me like, No, you're, you're fine, you actually have a good tolerance, you have a good tolerance, like, I always noticed, I could drink more than my friends. I always knew that I'm an all or nothing type of human being. So like, I didn't want to drink to be buzz, like I wanted to drink to drink.
• 17:17
  Ryan Sheckler: You know, I wanted to feel something and. And it was just bad, dude, it was just bad. And like, it would start slowly and be like, Okay, maybe maybe a Friday and a Saturday. And then it would turn into like, well, there's something going on Wednesday. And this is over a period of like two years. And then all of a sudden it was like, well, we're gonna do a party on Tuesday night. And then we'll do one on Wednesday, and then Thursday, and Friday. And Saturday, then we'll take Sunday off and Monday and like, then we'll pick it back up again. And then it was like, introduced to the day drinking and then day drinking started. And then I kind of liked that because I could start drinking early, take a nap, reset, and then party again that night. So I was I was abusing drinking. Absolutely. I was abusing it. And I was abusing my body. And I was actually taking myself away from my craft. And the actual thing that got me to this point to have a home at 1819 20. Like I'm throwing it completely away. And that's when I started realizing my family was getting and I'm not even 21 yet. Like I wasn't even 21 yet. And then 21 came around. And and it was gnarly to do my birthday is December 30.
• 18:37
  Ryan Sheckler: And so for forever, I've always thought that I have had a two day party because I get to party on my birthday. And then I get to party on New Year's. So it was always like, super easy for anyone to come to my actual birthday party because everybody was always in town. I think where I started realizing it was a problem was when you know people would stop drinking at a function or wherever we were.
• 19:06
  Ryan Sheckler: And I couldn't stop. I just kept drinking. I was escaping, I was absolutely escaping a lot of feelings that I had a lot of confusion about who I was or like who I was supposed to be.
• 19:21
  Ryan Sheckler: You know, and thank God, there was no social media, then.
• 19:27
  Ryan Sheckler: Because I don't know if I would have been able to handle what people thought that openly and publicly on a on a platform. I got to talk to from people I loved and people that loved me, personally, one on one, you know, and there wasn't a really crazy amount of noise from the outside world. The outside world really didn't know what was going on. Because how would they it wasn't there's no Instagram, I think there was like MySpace, but that wasn't a platform that was like about that anyways, so you know, and I think that's, that's something that's kind of crazy now that these kids have to deal with is like, you know, some people glorify this party lifestyle. And I'm not I'm not naysaying it didn't, it didn't work for me does not work for me at all. And everyone has to kind of figure that out on their own, you know, like I can, I can want to help you. But if you don't care, and you don't want to change, you won't until something happens. And hopefully it's not death. You know, been in the program as long as I have now. I see people dropping like flies all the time. And it's super sad. You know, it's super sad. There'll be in here for a couple of weeks, months year, and then think they got it, go back out and die. And dude, it happens a lot. You know, we had a buddy passed away a couple of weeks ago, and it was gnarly, dude, he had it, he had it going on. But this alcohol is crazy.
• 21:13
  Ryan Sheckler: It's absolutely crazy. And I think God daily do that I that I don't drink anymore. But if I don't put the work in to my program, and into my sobriety that first drinks, right around the corner. And I don't want that, you know, so as hard as I skate, and what I do, in my, you know, my training with skating, that same training I do with my recovery, you know, this is forever, I have to work on my recovery forever. Because I don't know why it happens to some people and not to others, and why some people can go have a glass of wine, and others have to have the whole bottle like, I don't know, but I'm the whole bottle guy. And I'm just very thankful that I'm aware of it.
• 22:05
  Ryan Sheckler: And that I have people in my corner, that love me and care about me, and that the group that I hang out with and meet with, you know, two, three times a week, got my back and have been through situations that are exactly the same. Yeah, it's crazy, dude, it's crazy, the amount of support that you get, once you actually kind of surrender. Try to live this kind of cleaner lifestyle. It's pretty dope. But like I said before, you have to want it. You know, like, I had to want it. I thought I wanted it for a while.
• 22:40
  Ryan Sheckler: Didn't work. But then I really knew I wanted it. Because I actually was scared of dying. I was scared of making a wrong decision. You know, that would that would in my life and take me away from my family. I didn't want that. So I stopped. It was hard. But I stopped.
• 23:03
  Randall Kaplan: Let's talk about you being in Norway. Tell us about the call with your mom and the fright you had and how scared you are. And then it does take a lot of work. Like you said, I mean, you got to keep up with it. You relapse, and then you went back again. So can you just talk about how important it is for your family and your friends and loved one the intervention you have for the second time? Because I've been a part of those are some of my friends and man they're they're brutal.
• 23:33
  Ryan Sheckler: Yeah, it's it's a it's a tricky thing. You know?
• 23:36
  Ryan Sheckler: Yeah, I was in Norway. X Games.
• 23:36
  Ryan Sheckler: I was 25 Yeah, I was 25. And I don't know, just life life was happening to me beforehand. And I was I was just bombed out on, on my scenario and my situation, and possibly a relationship that that had just ended. And it was kind of a talk, it was actually a toxic relationship. And I remember getting invited to X Games and knew it was coming up and started flying. start flying to Oslo. But you know, at LAX beforehand, had a bunch of drinks, got on the plane. Didn't sleep drink the whole way there, which is a far flight. And when we landed Yeah, when we landed, it was like three o'clock in the afternoon in Norway, and I just like kept drinking day was out.
• 24:34
  Ryan Sheckler: Light was out, I kept drinking.
• 24:34
  Ryan Sheckler: And that led into that night gives me the chills now thinking about it just like the the the damage that I was doing to my body. But anyways, like, I think I finally made it to bed at like, three 3am I've been up for, I don't know, 2024 plus hours, and had practice the next day ended up getting super sick, probably alcohol poisoning. And miss practice, just kind of stayed in the fetal position all day long. And I had sponsors there and people there that were counting on me to do good in this event or just to show face at this event. And I remember, you know, missing that first day of practice next day was qualifying. And in as much pain as I was in, I still ended up drinking the night before qualifying. Just to maybe like try to even an hour I don't know what I was thinking. But I made it. I made it to the to the qualifier and started competing.
• 25:41
  Ryan Sheckler: And I just remember getting ready to drop in and I was praying to God to make me fall.
• 25:50
  Ryan Sheckler: Like just let me fall I do not want to make my run. I do not want to be here. I don't want to like, I don't even know if I want to skate. You know, like, I don't think I want to skate anymore. I'm just over it. And exactly what I asked for happen.
• 26:05
  Ryan Sheckler: You know, I started doing my run. And actually I started like landing my tricks. And kind of midway through my round, I was like, I just tried to put one down. And I ended up falling on the last trick, and I missed qualifying by one point. And, you know, Jesus talks about it, and the Bible talks about it, you have not because you ask not. And I asked to not qualify.
• 26:29
  Ryan Sheckler: And it happened. That absolutely happened. And, you know, I think that was the start of my, like, my refound relationship with with Christ was in that moment.
• 26:38
  Ryan Sheckler: Because he answered my prayer.
• 26:45
  Ryan Sheckler: It wasn't what I wanted. But he answered my prayer. And so that night, I ended up drinking again. And I had had enough and I was emotionally just completely rocked, and I call my mom. And God bless her, because getting that call from your son halfway across the world. I could not imagine what that's like. I can't even fathom it as especially being a dad now, like, in the love I have for my daughter. Like, I can't imagine it. She's been the strongest woman in my life, hands down, will continue to be. I have put that woman through more than she deserves to have gone through.
• 27:31
  Ryan Sheckler: And she's remained strong and never. Nor they just never faltered, man, no judgment, no, nothing. That's trip. She's, she's the best for sure. But I called her and I freaked out.
• 27:52
  Ryan Sheckler: And she just told me just pour it out, just pour it out. And I poured it out. And that lasted for like 10 minutes, and I left and bought another bottle and just kept drinking. And then I flew home that next morning. And when I landed at LAX, she picked me up, which never happens. I always had a driver. And she picked me up and we started going, we started going north, I live south, I live far south from LAX, we started going north up to Malibu, and I was confused and Nasr, where we were going, and I was going to treatment.
• 28:32
  Ryan Sheckler: And that was super scary. And I gave a little bit of resistance.
• 28:36
  Ryan Sheckler: But then, you know, I went, I went anyways. And whatever, you know, I checked in I kind of went through the whole intake process of what my actions had been like and what my behavior was. And my mom was in there with me and kind of heard things that she probably didn't want to hear or need to hear. But you know, I trusted her and obviously wanted her to know where I was and why my actions were the way they were. And so I checked in and I just remember her giving me a hug and it was time for her to go and she was driving down this long hallway or long driveway and I was panicking and super scared. And the second she turned right and I couldn't see her car anymore.
• 29:20
  Ryan Sheckler: I had this like overwhelming sense of warmth. And like this just feeling come over me where I knew I was with the Lord. Like I knew the Lord was with me and that this is exactly where I was supposed to be at the time I was supposed to be there. And I just knew immediately that this was going to be okay. Like this is where I needed to be. And so I buckled in do I strapped in and I I went for 30 days and I went to every class every every counselor appointment, every everything I did all the steps.
• 29:52
  Ryan Sheckler: I was just working. I was grinding in there. And I got out. And you know, that lasted almost for four years. You know, but I didn't go to meetings. I wasn't going I wasn't I wasn't up keeping my program that I had learned in there just trying to do it on my own. And eventually it it collapsed. You know, it collapsed and I had no defense to the drink. I had no defense to to anything. And so yeah, I went on like a vacation trip.
• 30:22
  Ryan Sheckler: That was supposed to be rad. And for some reason thought it was a good idea to Oh, it's been enough time. You know, I've never taken a break from drinking. So I was like, oh, maybe I'll be a normal drinker.
• 30:30
  Ryan Sheckler: And I'm not I'm not a normal drinker, and nor will I ever be and I'm okay with that because my life is so much better without it like so much better.
• 30:41
  Ryan Sheckler: But what I was talking about before, is if I do not run my program and make the calls to my fellow brothers, it Every day the possibility of me slipping increases tenfold daily. Daily, you have to maintain this, like I have to be on top of my program I have to. Because I know what happens if I don't. I know, dude, I've been down that road. That road scares me to death. I do not want to lose my wife, I don't want to lose my daughter, my family, like, I never want my daughter to ever see me in a state where she doesn't understand or know who I am. You know, like, why is he doing that? I'd never like no, no. I can't do it, you can't do it. I know what that life looks like. I've been there. I've been there. And by the grace of God, I'm out of it. And I'm gonna do everything in my will to stay out of it.
• 31:53
  Randall Kaplan: I appreciate you sharing that. I think you're gonna help a lot of people. And I encourage all the people listening out there are watching. If you think you have a problem, you probably do have a problem and go get help. I think you'll be very surprised at all the people who who want to help you. Let's talk about the importance of having friends who will sometimes give you great advice or kick you in the ass a little bit to kind of get to where you need to go. Where you got hurt all these times you actually grew up with Klay Thompson, and he called you a couple of times want to know what he had to say to you. And then you got a call from Michael Phelps. Can you tell us about those guys?
• 32:37
  Ryan Sheckler: Yeah, you know, Clay clays a stud. You know, I went to San Clemente high, he went to Santa Santa Margarita.
• 32:44
  Ryan Sheckler: It's not too far from each other. And we weren't like hanging out on like a daily basis. Like he was friends with my friend Tony, who plays basketball and Phil. So that was my connection through my my two best friends. We're friends with clay and so I kind of just started tagging along and you know, but this is before Clay was clay. He was just he was a stud. But he wasn't. He wasn't you know, warriors clay, he was just clay. He was the he was the homie. And still to this day is the homie dude, I love clay. I love clay. I love what he represents and what he does and his tenacity to come through two catastrophic injuries that normally would take somebody out. And he had them back to back, which I'm no stranger to I understand what that's like. And we talked a lot during that recovery phase for him about what it was going to look like, what it felt like, and how to stay focused. Clearly, you didn't need me to tell him to stay focused. But it helps when you have a friend who's been through a similar situation that you can just understand and know that your situation is not unique, you know, people have gone through before people have come back from these situations.
• 33:54
  Ryan Sheckler: So yeah, you know, clay is one of those guys, that's super.
• 33:58
  Ryan Sheckler: He's just super rad. Dude, I see him when he comes into town. And other than that we touch base every, every month or so. And just make sure everybody's good families good and mentals correct. And, and we leave it at that. As far as Michael Phelps, you know, that was crazy. When I was at rehab, you know, I got in contact with him, and kind of got to hear a little bit about his story. And to me it was it was insane that you know, a person who seemingly was on top of the the world, the most winning gold medal human being Aquaman was having questions about his life. And so I definitely didn't feel alone. I was like, Oh, wow. And a super gnarly athlete is going through something, or made it through something that I'm about to go through. So it just gave me motivation, gave me motivation to like I said before, just know I'm not alone. This is not a unique situation where I'm the only one on the planet that's ever gone through this. I think once you get your mind wrapped around that fact that it's not just you like someone else has gone through this before and they made it through it. It makes that goal a lot more obtainable. And that's, that's something huge that I practice and you know, the kids that that I have coming up right now under me, like I'm just sharing what I've learned from someone that saved my life, and then I'm just trying to pass it on. Whether they hold on to that information or take it to heart that's up to you. But at the end of the day, most To the situations that we think are unfathomable, and that nobody's been through, somebody has somebody's made it through it. And so just gives me motivation that that I can to.
• 36:05
  Randall Kaplan: So we talked a little bit before about the difference of Park, skating and street skating. You fall in a bowl and you can slide out you're taught to do that you fall on your knees. I know that may seem weird to people who don't skate. But if you're wearing knee pads or not knee pads, the bowl is so steep that you kind of do slide down to that clearly you want to hit Yeah, if you're street skating, you're going on a set of stairs, you know, and you hit a corner or something. You're not in a bowl, like you said, asphalt.
• 36:37
  Randall Kaplan: You've done some crazy shit screens on the streets getting front and in sort of one of the goals and you've talked about this before it's getting chased by the police. Now, I think most of us don't want to get chased by the police. And certainly, we're not condoning that at all.
• 36:52
  Randall Kaplan: But on the streetscaping front is kind of a little bit of a badge of honor. You've done some crazy things. Let's talk about the Costco jump. And what happened in Taiwan? I mean, you got the red bull head on. So you got to talk about Taiwan.
• 37:08
  Ryan Sheckler: Oh, for sure.
• 37:08
  Ryan Sheckler: Yeah, the Costco the Costco gap is just one of those things that it's been a spot that's been in in Orange County for forever, you know, I guess ever since that whole Costco development was was put in and you just go on YouTube and just type in Ryan Sheckler, Costco GAAP, it'll, it'll pop up pretty quickly. But so it's from the top street, there's like a main there's a main street above, and there's a sidewalk and it goes up and then flat. And then that just looks like you're looking down into a second storey parking lot. It's to the normal human being. It's not anything to be messed with, or even to second look at it.
• 37:48
  Ryan Sheckler: But as a skateboarder, it's like, wow, that that's like right on the edge of being the biggest, like, impact that my body can take. And so you have to take off, you would have to go, it's like four feet out with a foot and a half high fence, and then a 14 and a half foot drop on the other side, into a parking lot. And for me, I don't know, I just like, like I talked about right at the start of this thing. It's that adrenaline of like being thrown up in the air and that fall, and like being okay with that some people are not okay with that. I love that feeling. And I always did when I was 14 or 15. And then it just sat in my mind, it sat in my mind the spot just like the Costco gap, it just it rented space. And it just stayed there for years. And I always knew there was something else to be done there for me. But I knew I didn't have the strength or or like, wasn't ready to take the impact of what I wanted to do.
• 38:48
  Ryan Sheckler: Until I got a little bit stronger. And so, you know, right around, I think it was 18 or 19. I just called up I called up the boys. And I had a whole crew and we all showed up. And I told myself that if I all you did first try, which like just all over made it
• 39:10
  Randall Kaplan: what what is that? What does that mean? For people who don't know what that is? Who don't know what an ollie is.
• 39:16
  Ryan Sheckler: So I'll yeah, the always the most like basic skateboarding maneuver is just when you have two feet on the board, and you hit the tail off the ground jump, get all four wheels off, and then back to the ground. Very simple. It's is what you will learn when you first start skateboarding. So I did that. I did that over it.
• 39:35
  Ryan Sheckler: And I landed in first tribe. And so I was fired up and I was like, Alright, cool, today's the day. And then I just kind of got into my, my zone of like, not leaving here until I land this today, no matter what it looks like. And sometimes that works for me. And other times it's gotten me into a lot of trouble.
• 39:54
  Ryan Sheckler: Physically, just trouble getting injured. But this day was different. It didn't didn't even cross my mind. And four tries later, I was doing kickflip, which is another right now I will call it basic, but it's not it's took me the kickflip took me probably the longest to learn out of any trick because it's one of the first flip tricks that you'll actually learn. So that's when the board pops, spins completely around, and then back to the wheels and rolls away. And there's a lot that goes into that trick. But once you get it, you never lose it. It's like riding a bike once you can kickflip you'll kickflip forever, for sure. And I landed it and I didn't really understand, you know the significance of that trick had had or was going to have in skateboarding, but it it lives forever. It lives now, and it's probably one of the biggest kick flips I've ever We're done.
• 40:52
  Ryan Sheckler: Actually, I think it is the biggest kickflip I've ever done.
• 40:57
  Ryan Sheckler: And just like some of these spots, I get so stoked that I never have to go back to him.
• 41:05
  Ryan Sheckler: Like I never have to go back spots done tricks done. And can check that one off the box.
• 41:15
  Ryan Sheckler: That's one of them.
• 41:17
  Randall Kaplan: Taiwan.
• 41:19
  Ryan Sheckler: Taiwan was gnarly, just because it was it was more of the surroundings, it wasn't so much the trick, the trick was fine. And some would maybe not even call it a trick they would just like it was just a tail drop in in, and I had just healed from from a knee surgery. And I was like, asking our our tour guide, I said, What's, what's the craziest spot that you have in Taipei, Taiwan that people don't skate, or you've always wanted to see somebody skate any pull up this photo of this, like, perfect 20 foot, quarter pipe transition.
• 42:03
  Ryan Sheckler: And then there's a 10 foot wall that's completely vertical. And when I'm looking at the transition, it looked like it was about, you know, looks like it was like two feet wide, which as a guy, it's kind of crazy. I ended up getting there. And it was like three and a half, maybe four foot, which makes a huge difference. But it's the overpass of this underground tunnel. So like I said, from where I took off to where they asphalt was was 30 feet. And I had to drop in and perfectly make it down this 10 feet, and onto this three and a half foot kind of runway and then make it out of the 20 foot transition.
• 42:42
  Ryan Sheckler: And I thought I could do it. I knew I could do it. And we went there to check it out. It turns out it was what the road is going under is the military base. And I guess there was like a miscommunication. I just thought it was an airport. I didn't know it was like actual military, you know, like, so there's cameras everywhere. I didn't notice them. I was like so focused on this thing. And I'm kind of I'd like crapped myself over the wall and shimmy down and then like, jumped down it. And then all sudden, I'm in the middle of the, you know, in the middle of the road to a two lane, two lane highway on both sides, you know, going back and forth. And I'm like, okay, cool.
• 43:28
  Ryan Sheckler: It's not that bad. The transition was perfect. It was like everything was perfect. And as I'm walking up the median, I hear all of these, like, I had been hearing the siren, but like I didn't understand what it was it was like a trespassing siren pretty much. And I didn't understand. And no one around me and even our translator like didn't know what's going on. So I'm like walking up the median.
• 43:49
  Ryan Sheckler: And then all of these police officers on like little mopeds, which is like, hard to kind of take them serious, you know, because there's just like beeping, their moped like BB BB going hunting and fire truck and ambulance and all of these people showing up and it's like, they surrounded me, they just like got off their bikes and got out of the fire truck and like surrounding me, and I was stuck in the center of all these people and they were like trying to grab on me and like asking me if I was okay, like I kept hearing like, okay, okay, okay, like, and I'm like, I don't know, and I kind of just put my hands up and like, made it through the crowd and like, walked up, and I was just trying to get to my translator. Like, that's all I was trying to get to. So like, if I'm in trouble.
• 44:33
  Ryan Sheckler: Okay, cool, but just like, let me know exactly what's going on.
• 44:37
  Ryan Sheckler: I don't want to be like alone in this situation. Like, it didn't feel right. So I like made it to my friend. And he was trying to tell the police that that I was not suicidal. And I'm like suicidal. What do you think about someone? Like a bystander because skateboard, they I guess they don't really see much skateboarding in Taiwan. So there was a bystander that ended up calling the police and said that, you know, an American was about to kill himself on the bridge. So everybody showed up, and they told me never to come back and blah, blah, blah, and we're trying to give us a ticket but we kind of like got out of there smooth and didn't get a ticket and and I was so bummed out dude, I was so bummed because I had gotten myself mentally to this place where I was like, okay, with whatever was going to happen. When I say that, I mean the trick, like whether I was going to land or not, that's I was like, Alright, I'm in 100%. And once you get yourself to, once I get myself to this, this part where my like, I'm so focused, and I'm so zoned in and my adrenaline is like exactly where it needs to be. And like, I'm just Sharp just feel sharp. And that you take that away. It's like that adrenaline dump. But without anything to celebrate, you know, you're just like, I was bombed, I was bombed for six hours, didn't eat food, didn't really even talk to anyone. And then my filmer was like, Hey, do you want to just go back and like, let's go get it. And I was like, Yeah, let's go right now. And so just me, a photographer. And my filmer went back in a cab. And I practice the tail drop across the street for a little bit, just make sure my boy was feeling good. And my adrenaline was going crazy. And then we all gave each other a big hug, and said, Whatever happens happens, and they ran across the street first and set up. And then I came behind them. They skated down. And then I heard that alarm going again, like we were trespassing, which we weren't, we weren't, it was like a main road. I heard the alarm again.
• 46:46
  Ryan Sheckler: So they definitely saw us on the camera. And I put my board up there. And I just focus for a second, looked at one of the spotters, and the spotter was like, Yeah, you're good. And I went off in the second I hit the ground, all I could see my peripheral was, was like a truck, like a big truck. And so I landed, and like, you'll see my hand kind of goes over because it caught me off guard, I thought it was gonna be open.
• 47:10
  Ryan Sheckler: But at the end of the day, having that truck zoom through as I'm landing makes the clip, you know, so that was a, that was a crazy experience. For sure. I felt I felt a lot of adrenaline. And I felt a lot of relief once that was done. But yeah, once I got home, there was like a warrant there, they put out a warrant for my arrest.
• 47:39
  Ryan Sheckler: Which we handled, and it was all right. And I guess at the end of the day, it was the equivalent of like a speeding ticket. So thank you Red Bull, for handling that. And I believe I'm allowed to go back to Taiwan. One of the elements
• 48:00
  Randall Kaplan: of success for me has always been I prepare everybody, I'm always the most prepared person in the room for meeting for anything I'm doing and it makes a huge difference.
• 48:11
  Randall Kaplan: You said you won your first tournament when you're six or seven, because you prepared more than a competition. How important is preparation, bidding your success and in particular, extreme preparation doing more than anyone else in key give some examples of that.
• 48:28
  Ryan Sheckler: And then Preparation Prevents Poor Performance. It's like if I am if I'm serious about something I'm going to prepare for it, I'm going to visualize one of my big things is visual visualization.
• 48:42
  Ryan Sheckler: And so whether that's a trick or a run, or something I have to do, I'm, by the time I get there to do what I'm doing in front of people, I've already done it 1000 times I've done it 1000 times exactly how I want to do it. Whether that be visualized, or in my skate park, like some of these last tricks that I had to do for my video part for Red Bull that's coming out this summer, in like two months, I would come in here into the skate park and practice just that trick. Just that trick until I was blue in the face and just like over it so over. And I would do that for a week straight. Until I knew that like no matter what, when I got to the spot or where I was gonna go to actually do that trick. It was going to happen that day.
• 49:29
  Ryan Sheckler: And so preparation for me is is absolutely key. I can't just go into things like willy nilly and like, Oh, I hope I do good. You know, like, that never works for me. That never works for me, nor will it ever. It's how I was raised. It's how I like was raised up in skateboarding. Like I have to prepare, I have to see the course I have to think about a run. You know, I just got to do street League. Skateboard contest, and I got to do it in in Chicago. And, you know, I was flying out there literally just to be a spectator. Like, that's why I flew out to Chicago, I just wanted to go support skateboarding is for my boys and go check it out. And you know, when I landed Friday night, the night before the contest, they called me and said, Hey, a couple dudes can't skate. Do you want to skate? And I was like, like skating the contest? Like yeah. Sure, I'll do I'll skate.
• 50:24
  Ryan Sheckler: Of course, I would love that.
• 50:32
  Ryan Sheckler: But I was not prepared. And so I had a had a really crazy internal dialect going on that whole contest, which was like, We know we're not prepared. We know we haven't been contest ready. We're not practicing for contests. I've been practicing for street street tricks. So my self talk was just like, if you To take the smile off of your face, you lost. And so I just didn't stop smiling. I just stayed in a state of gratitude, and stoked to be there. And I talked to everybody and I signed as many things as I could for the fans. And I kept the smile on. And so for me, yeah, I didn't win the contest, but I won what I was supposed to do there. And so it made the world of difference for me. You know, because I get out on those courses, and I start watching the best skateboarders in the world. Landing the gnarliest tricks, try after try after try.
• 51:25
  Ryan Sheckler: I don't care who you are, it gets intimidating. And I like I felt like I was supposed to be there, and I belong there. But I was a little intimidated. And I was like, Alright, cool. Well, let's restructure, if you stop smiling, you lost the contest.
• 51:38
  Ryan Sheckler: And this whole thing wasn't worth it. So I just, I just smiled, and then swung out. And it was dope. And I ended up learning a couple of tricks that I want to do, and the crowd was behind me. And the vibe was right. And all the pros that were there, like all my friends were just, like, stoked. And it's a beautiful thing. And so, you know, from that experience, like I'm going to compete again this year later on in the year, and I will be more prepared for that one, for sure.
• 52:06
  Randall Kaplan: What are the three to five most important ingredients of Success
• 52:19
  Ryan Sheckler: presents, you must be present in whatever you're doing, whether that's weight training, practicing whatever the President's focus, you must be focused on the task at hand focused on what the actual end goal is. And variable, I think the word variable, you have to understand that, for me, I'm speaking about for me, some things are not going to go the way that I expect them to go. So I always have to know that there has there has to be a little bit of wiggle room for a variance in my plan. And I plan for that, and I'm present for that. So it's like, well, if I can't do this trick, then this trick will work. But I won't know that I have to pull this one out until two seconds before I drop it. So think you have to be open to change. Know what to do. When your plan changes. You have to be present, and you have to be focused. And then a fourth, like you have to care. You have to care about wanting to succeed and wanting to do what it is you're setting out to do. If that's what you think you want to do. Do it 100% And at the end of trying something 100% If that's not for you, that's okay.
• 53:45
  Ryan Sheckler: Because at least you know, you gave it 100% of what you had.
• 53:49
  Ryan Sheckler: And you tried, maybe you failed.
• 53:54
  Ryan Sheckler: So okay, failure is also like, super important. I have more than four I got, there's so much do there's so much like you have to be okay to fail. Everything happens not everything is social media, where it's like everybody's doing everything all great. First try like, that is not reality. That's not real.
• 54:14
  Ryan Sheckler: It's not real. And if they tell you it is real. That's on them.
• 54:19
  Ryan Sheckler: That's not you know, anything that's good takes time.
• 54:23
  Ryan Sheckler: technical things take time.
• 54:23
  Ryan Sheckler: Anything that you're passionate about is going to take time doesn't say that you're not good at it, it just means it's gonna take time. And so once I realized that, everything that I want, and the goals I want to achieve, when I realized they weren't going to happen overnight, they became a lot more achievable.
• 54:47
  Randall Kaplan: I've got five kids before I had kids, one of my best buddies named Rick Rivera told me something that was profound to Randy you will find out the meaning of life when to have kids and nothing could be any truer than that by our youngest daughter, l we her middle name is Gigi which is my grandmother's nickname a super close to my grandmother best woman ever my hero in life passed away last year at 104 years old. So we named l GG Kaplan, I know you're tight with your grandmother. Name your daughter's middle of a after her as well. Yeah. Tell us about your dogs. Walter and Leo your wife and how having a child has changed your life forever.
• 55:37
  Ryan Sheckler: Yeah, man. Our dogs are amazing. We are dog people. We love dogs. We love all kinds of dogs. I've always had a dog. Walter is a seven year old French Bulldog. And Leo is a 10 year old lab mix, kind of mutt read, he's just amazing.
• 56:01
  Ryan Sheckler: And those two dogs are the reason that me and my wife actually met, we were just walking on the beach trail, opposite directions, walking at each other. I wasn't even paying attention. She wasn't either.
• 56:11
  Ryan Sheckler: And our dogs just like stopped and started, like, sniffing each other. And we both got it was like out of a movie. We both kind of like looked at each other. And we were like, Whoa, hey, you know, I was, I was struck by our beauty for sure.
• 56:26
  Ryan Sheckler: And I started talking to her and she was super sweet and super rad and long story short, we ended up getting married. And we got married on March 3 2022. And exactly a year later, we had our daughter, olive Aleta on March 3 2023, so have almost 12 week old right now. And life is awesome. It's awesome. It's tiring, for sure. We're still, we're still in the, you know, the first 100 days were trying to just trying to trying to get on a good rhythm good program with her and her naps and her feeding. And, you know, all the dads and parents out there understand what that first 100 days is. And we're, we're we're cruising through it. It's been a couple hiccups not not anything major. And, you know, thank God, she's healthy. And, you know, she's she's an overachiever already, and rolling over on her own from her back to her front and back to the back. And I think she's just doing things a little quicker than we had expected and she cannot be held facing you, she does not care about you or me, she just wants to see what is going on outside in the world in front of her.
• 57:58
  Ryan Sheckler: Funny, man, it's funny, my whole life, my whole life has changed in a in the most beautiful way.
• 58:02
  Ryan Sheckler: Things that I had on my mind before she was born of like, you know, all these little stresses and things like that, like, none of them matter. They don't matter. What matters is, you know, making sure I spend quality time with my wife and making sure that I'm the best father I can be for my daughter.
• 58:27
  Randall Kaplan: That's always there. My podcast on philanthropy. There's gonna be a short q&a One question responses right after this, but I always ended on philanthropy, it's super important to me. You don't have to be rich to give back by the way, and that's a message I keep repeating on my podcast.
• 58:43
  Randall Kaplan: And And to all my mentees your time super valuable. Yeah, you have money, you can do a lot of things. And when you're famous like you are you can really motivate some other people, because you have the ability to do that. Right? You people follow you, they want to be near you. So I think that's super cool. I want you to tell us about your foundation, which you started in 2008. And talk to us about your Range Rover as part of that.
• 59:09
  Ryan Sheckler: Yeah, you know, so the Foundation came about just from an experience that I had, through Make a wish. So I was chosen to grant a wish. So this girl named Casey wish to hang out with me for the day. I was 17 years old, I had no idea why this girl would want to hang out with me and like waste her wish on me. Like I was like, she wasted a wish like that. That's crazy. I'll go but she definitely wasted a wish. And so I met up with her in Texas at a skate park. And we hung out, and we hung out and she was the most down to earth. Epic human being that I had ever met had these gnarly scars downer, or her throat in her chest from, you know, being in remission from leukemia. And she was just talking about how she related to how I was with my family, how I was with my brothers. You know, she watched the show. And she was like, I just want to be a normal teenager as well. And for me, when she said that I was like, oh, man, like, I'm kind of being a little brat when I'm saying I want to be a normal teenager just like leave me alone. Like stop paying attention to me. But I have an MTV show. So I'm like, I want to things that don't make sense.
• 1:00:38
  Ryan Sheckler: And she was like, No, I just really want to be like a normal teenager that's not going through this crazy cancer and the surgeries and the chemo and it changed my life, change my mental change the way that I thought about complaining and like, what do I have to complain about? This is insane. This girl has been through the gnarliest thing that you wouldn't wish on anyone. And she's here and she has not complained once, not once. So from that, we, we started working, we started the Szekler foundation when I got home from that trip. And I initially wanted to and still do want to help. But what got us going was Children's Cancer Research Fund. And for me, we wanted to raise money. We didn't really know how to do it. And then my agent came up with an idea. And he was like, Well, why don't we just raise money for your Range Rover, it's my first car. And I love this thing. But I was like, that's exactly what it is. It's a thing. So if we can raise money for this, hopefully we raise a bunch of we can just like, start off the Szekler foundation with like with a bang, and then just keep the momentum going. We ended up raising 240 something $1,000 for this car. And it was so rad. It was so rad in the kid that won the car, he was 17 years old, and his girlfriend had leukemia, he was going around LA, doing stand up comedy shows just trying to raise money for it, he ended up raising like $34,000 on his own. And he wanted the car.
• 1:02:17
  Ryan Sheckler: So it was like this, this crazy, like full circle thing where I just felt like exactly where I was supposed to be at that point in time. And like, this is what we're supposed to be doing. And you know, from that we we've been around for 15 years now if my math is correct, 1516 years, and we have been working with children with cancer, we work at children's hospitals, we do work with adaptive action sports, children with autism. We do 10 Stop grants. So we'll go on a tour and we'll go to 10 different locations and donate$10,000 per location, whether that's at risk youth kind of training to teach them a craft so that when they actually go out into the world, they have a woodworking skill, or they have some sort of skill that they can apply to, to everyday life and in a job. A lot of it doesn't have to do with skateboarding, a lot of it just has to do with like, just helping people out helping kids out. And it's been super fulfilling, it's super fulfilling, and like we won't stop doing it, we won't stop doing it. Because I feel like it's kind of what we're called to do, for sure. But also, at the end of the day, like I've met some of the most incredible people like incredible strong human beings through doing the work at the foundation, and we just enjoy it, we enjoy it, we love it. And we're always always intrigued and open for a new opportunity. And we do a call to action on checker foundation.org and be the change, you know, be the change you want to see in your community. And people can just write in and tell us like, you know, I see this school over here and this, you know, the playgrounds jacked up a $10,000 grant would would fix this, you know, and like, those are the type of things we're looking at.
• 1:04:12
  Ryan Sheckler: And it doesn't have to be about skate. It's just about people.
• 1:04:17
  Randall Kaplan: Let's finish on a couple of q&a here. One, one word, answers. We'll go super quickly here. What's the one thing in life that you haven't done yet that you've always wanted to do a
• 1:04:34
  Ryan Sheckler: hot air balloon the proudest moment of your life is having a daughter
• 1:04:48
  Randall Kaplan: the biggest regret in your life is
• 1:04:52
  Ryan Sheckler: wasting time.
• 1:04:55
  Randall Kaplan: The one person in the world who you've always wanted to met me who you haven't met yet is.
• 1:05:11
  Randall Kaplan: Will Ferrell if you could go back and tell your 21 year old self one piece of advice what would it be?
• 1:05:20
  Ryan Sheckler: Seek Jesus Christ.
• 1:05:24
  Randall Kaplan: Brian, you're amazing. I appreciate you appreciate all the good things you've done. Congrats on your amazing success. Thank you for being a role model of so many people. Appreciate you being here. Thanks for being on my show.