Behind the Legend: Exclusive Ryan Sheckler Interview and Unveiling His New Video Part

To say Ryan Sheckler has been on a long journey would be the understatement of the millennium. The one-time child star has been broiled in the spotlight, undergone injuries and surgeries that would end most careers, yet has come out the other end more ferocious and focused, at age 33, than he’s ever been in his life. You may not know it, but Ryan’s been working on this new video part for the last three years (one full year however was sucked away by another injury). Along with this LIFER video part, Red Bull is also releasing a mini documentary, Rolling Away, with interviews with several of Ryan’s peers, breaking down precisely what it takes to maintain a high-level pro career for 20 years plus: Tony Hawk, Geoff Rowley, even Klay Thompson reveal the life dedication and sacrifices they’ve all undergone and the ultimate respect they have for Ryan’s skateboarding.

On the eve of the release of both films, we got to have a lengthy, in-depth conversation with Ryan where he revealed all: His fear of death, crying after a trick, his sobriety, and his ambitious plans for the future. His vision is clearer than it’s ever been. This is the real life of Ryan.

How are you feeling now that this big project is done?

I’m doing good. It’s crazy to finally be doing kind of a press tour, to be talking about the project being done. It seemed like this day was far-fetched at some points.

Surreal to actually be here huh?

Yeah, it’s dope though.

Big press day? You doing a lot of interviews?

Yeah. I didn’t know what I got myself into. [Red Bull] said they needed a day and I gave them today and I got this itinerary back that’s literally all day. You’re the first though, you’re the freshy.

Cool! I think I got good questions. First of all, congrats on the part. It’s gnarly, it’s amazing—I think a lot of people are going to be surprised when they see it.

Oh, you’ve seen it?

Yeah, I got a sneak preview (of LIFER) and I saw the documentary too (Rolling Away).

I watched the part, we actually added two new tricks last week. Not enders, but I had one day left and we wanted to touch up on one thing, so I got that. And then we went and saw about another thing. So it was a good day. I haven’t watched Rolling Away yet, I’m gonna wait until the premiere. I want to wait and see it with everybody. I know what went into it.

Do you really have your surgeon on speed dial?

Oh yeah, 100-percent. Warren Kramer. He’s a stud, he’s in Newport. He’s one of the people I advocated for to have his personal phone number and he gave it to me no problem, and that was four or five surgeries ago. We’ve had constant communication. He’s a surfer, he plays volleyball and he’s an athletes’ doctor. He understands that we’re going to go back into our sports. He’s not going to say, “You’re never going to walk again,” unless you’re really not ever gonna walk again. He’ll say, “You’re gonna be back you just have to do the recovery properly.” I’ve been able to send a lot of my skaters to him as well. People call me and they’re like, “I need Kramer’s number.” So I connect him with athletes all the time. I think he just did Nyjah (Huston)’s ACL.

When it comes to injuries and recovery, have you learned a lot from Danny Way?

Yeah, I’ve learned that it’s possible to recover. I’ve learned from Danny that the body is actually super resilient. Danny is so intense and such a master of his craft, like me, he’s borderline obsessive. I’ve also seen him come back from an injury too early and get reinjured. That’s not shade, that’s an actual observation and that can happen to anyone. It’s happened to me. Whether it was reinjuring the same thing or I tore something on the opposite knee because I was babying where my injury was. I also learned a lot of perseverance through the pain. Danny’s pain tolerance is like nobody else’s on this planet. He would do surgeries and just immediately get into physical therapy and not take any pain killers. It was impressive and I’ve had to do that with a couple of mine as well, especially the most recent ones with my sobriety and everything. It’s definitely a gray area—you gotta realize at some point too that the medicine for the pain in these things is actually necessary to give you comfort so you can heal. In my mind though, for my ACL surgery, I think I took one or two painkillers in that first day and then I just manned it out and just recovered. You find this breaking point in your brain, it’s actually not that bad and I don’t need that (painkillers) to get better. Some of the medicine adds time to your recovery. You learn to work with your body and find out what’s really pain and what’s just discomfort. You just fight through it. So going back to your question, yeah, I’ve learned a lot from Danny.

He seems like the skateboarder that’s gone through the most surgeries and recoveries and the way he handles it with no anesthesia and painkillers is next level.

And that’s calculated, that’s not him being a tough guy. That’s him doing research and seeing the actual data. If he uses those things, that’s going to add time to the end of his recovery. When you’re as crazy as Danny and as obsessed as I am, the minimal amount of time you have to spend in recovery is ideal. You just want to be back. That’s smart—it’s painful, but it’s smart.

Was there ever a point when you thought you were too injured to continue to skate at a pro level?

Yeah, when I broke my left foot, right ankle, and my back trying to grind that one Hubba (ETN Facemelters), that one rocked me. For sure. It didn’t really set in until I got home that day. I was in surgery the next day because I knew it was that bad. That was a snap call to Kramer on the way home. I thought I broke both of my ankles and I didn’t even know my back was broken. I tore everything in my ankle. They reconstructed my right ankle, which is great now. But that process, coming home from surgery in a wheelchair with casts on both legs, I didn’t know, I was like, that might have been the one. They had to shorten ligaments and tendons in my ankle because of how bad they were snapped. The mobility in my right ankle isn’t the same as my left. I really feel it in nollie heelflips and nollie kickflips. But during that recovery I really questioned if that was it.

What mental strength and physical conditioning would you recommend to someone who wants to skate into their 30s and 40s and beyond?

Everybody is different. There’s a type A and type B. Some people like the torture of super long workouts, or a ton of reps, or running—that’s type B. Type A like myself, I’m more of an explosive athlete. I like small intervals of a lot of power. I need to train mobility, not just up and down but side to side movements. Obviously I need to train with weights because I’m trying to build armor, especially around my spine and my back. I never got surgery on my L1, it didn’t need it, but it needed strength and structure. A lot of water, a clean diet, it’s hard as a skateboarder who’s traveling, but to the best of your ability. I eat meat, I feel the energy that I get from steak and chicken and fish. As far as working out goes, it kind of depends on you—what are you willing to put your body through? How sore are you willing to be? How creative are you willing to be? I do a lot of regular Olympic-style lifts—cleans, squats, presses, things of that nature. But I’m also doing a lot of funky movement, putting my body in interesting positions and having to fight out of it. Trying to replicate what like a “land” skating feels like. Trying to stay structured, because skateboarding is tricky—sometimes you’ll roll away from a trick and not know how you did it. Working out works for me, I’m not advocating that for everybody. If you want to skate for a long time, you’ll figure out what your body needs. You can’t wake up every day sore and fight through it. You’ve gotta do something to maintain your body and you’ve also gotta listen to it. You’ve gotta rest—rest is super important, and good sleep. For me, being sober helps immensely. I’m not hungover, my body’s not thrashed from alcohol.

Let’s talk about the LIFER part. Where do you see this part in your catalog of parts. is it your best ever? Was this your most challenging part to date?

It’s the most clear, if that makes sense. It’s the most clear-headed part I’ve ever had where I was fully present for the whole three years of filming. And when I say three, it’s not really a three-year project, it was a little under two years, but I had to recover and get surgery for my ACL for a year and two months, so that’s why this project took three years. There’s really only two years of filming. I think it’s my best part. It’s different though, it’s not a ton of handrails, it’s not a ton of super technical switch tres—it’s more of a structured, very dedicated skateboarding part where I looked at spots differently. I looked at what I wanted to accomplish. I pushed myself to levels that were unhealthy for sure to get a trick. I pushed my brain passed obsession into psychotic behavior. And I never gave up, so to me, it’s my best part ever, for sure. The part that I’m gonna do next for Sandlot Times is going to look a lot different. I already have it mapped out because I’m still in that mode of filming. This part is what it is and I’m very happy with it, and the next part is gonna be different, and I think that’s the beauty of skateboarding. Every part doesn’t have to look the same. You don’t want to get stuck in that headspace of like, “Well my last part was this, so this part has to be that, plus some.” It doesn’t have to be that. Some of the best skateboarders in the world will have a gnarly part, then a super technical part—and they’re just skating, and that’s beautiful. For me, this part was kinda gnarly, and the next one is gonna be gnarly, but it’s also gonna be different. I just wanna skate and continue to film projects, that’s where my head’s at.

I trip out that you’re only 33. That’s still really young.

It feels old.

[Laughs] You’ve been in the game a long time! How much of your life has been spent filming video parts?

That’s a good question. I’ve actually been thinking about that a lot. I started my career competing. I was on World Industries when I was 8, I was going on tours, street skating, so I’ve been filming since then. In between tour videos or 411s, I don’t know, maybe a third of my life I’ve spent skating in the streets. The other times I was skating in contests which I enjoyed. I’ve tried my whole life to be balanced between the two, competitive and street. But in these later years of my life, it’s been a lot more street.

Did you think you’d still be filming video parts, or still be pro at 33?

I don’t know man, that’s a super loaded question. If you would’ve asked me that at 25, where my head was at and my behavior, I would’ve said no way. But through deep mental dives and trying to be better—I just knew subconsciously that I was heading down a path that was gonna take me out. Whether that was death or a bad decision that was gonna take everything away, I could feel that coming and I listened to that and I thank God that I was able to hear his voice in that. But at 25, I would have thought now way would I still be filming at 33. I didn’t even think I was going to make it to 30. But now, with my life in the place it is, with my incredible wife, we just had a baby. My outside life of skateboarding is so dialed in, it’s a well-oiled machine now. My faith in Jesus Christ is stronger than it’s ever been. So you asking me that now as I’m standing here today, of course I’m still going to be filming. Of course I’m still skating, but I had to get out of my own way. I had to let life happen. I had to take some things out of my life and add some new things into it. Now, it’s on. If I can keep this mentality going, and I can stay present, I’ll skate until I die.

What was the hardest trick to get in here?

The Encinitas tail drop kickflip was obviously the hardest, for many reasons. I had torn my ACL, didn’t know it was torn, knew something was up, and went and tried it with a torn ACL. And that was the second time going there. I got like four or five attempts in there and started screwing up my knee, went and got surgery. Came back a year and a half later, felt okay, felt like it was possibly doable. Once I stopped and felt the recovery from those first few attempts, I went into a dark place mentally, like “I can’t do it. There’s no way I can do it. I’m scared of it.” I was terrified of this spot. Then I got a photo from Rhino and it was the spot under construction and I was stoked. I was like, “Good. Take it out.” I don’t even want to skate it. I felt peace at that moment. Spot’s done, I don’t have to go, the world did me a favor. Then a month later, I got another photo from a buddy and it was the spot in perfect condition, with a metal edge now in the spot that I always wanted to take off on, but it was a foot and a half higher. That foot and a half difference is what brought the fear back completely. And when I say I was scared of this spot—I was having nightmares. I’m a big visualizer, so I would visualize this trick, my foot placement, everything—and there was not one time where I could visualize rolling all the way out. I would land on the bank and I would make it to the street and I would get hit by a car every single time. My brain was sabotaging me. It’s morbid for sure, but me and Jamie Foy, we were joking around about your ender being your ender, ender, where you actually pass away. I couldn’t get that out of my head that I was going to land this trick, get hit by a car and that was going to be my ender, ender of my career. Dude, it’s dark. And I still went back. My fourth time back, I tried it twelve times. And all these trips, I never landed on the board once. I couldn’t get myself to trust it. I got beat up every time. I left defeated, questioning skateboarding, my career, for sure if this part was going to happen. I was like, “We should just start piece-mealing this part out. I’ll just drop clips once a week for a year, it’ll have the same effect.”

Then the fifth time, just a month ago, I was praying about it. Like “Lord, let me know if it’s possible and let me know what day to go.” Randomly, in big block letters, TUESDAY, popped up in my head. Not what Tuesday or when, just Tuesday. I ran with it. I called everybody, “Tuesday, five o’clock, we’re going. Next week. I don’t know why, but this is the day, this is the time, we’re going.” Unfortunately Ira (Ingram) wasn’t here, he was in Japan filming Foy, so I kind of had a different crew that day. Geoff Rowley showed up which was super dope, he was filming an angle. He was there for support, and I had my whole crew there. I started going for it again. I didn’t get close until the eleventh try. Eleventh try I actually put one down. I put the wheels down on the bank and tripped out, like it’s actually possible. Twelve, I kinda flailed one. Thirteen, I put one down. Fourteen, I put one down but ripped the pocket off my pants. If I fall like that again I’m going to literally rip my butt off. On the fifteenth try I rolled away. It was over 60 tries standing on the top of that dumb thing and jumping into it.

Does that rank up there with scariest tricks of your career?

Yeah, it’s the scariest trick I’ve ever done. Scariest roll away I’ve ever done. The most mental preparation and torture. It’s the culmination to this point of what I’ve been able to put my body through and where my mental game is to have the fortitude to push through that. I learned a lot about myself, and my brain. It’s not just about the trick. It’s the only trick I’ve ever landed too, where on the roll away, after I Ollied the train tracks, I cried. And it was dope, it was like seeing a long lost family member. I finally accomplished what had been torturing me, and it felt so good. That feeling lasted for about an hour, which is the longest I’ve ever had a trick last. By the time I got home I was already thinking that my part wasn’t done, I still needed more. That’s when my wife yelled at me and told me I was crazy.

Worst slam in the part? That Miami ledge one is like worst case scenario.

That was definitely worst case scenario but that one was kind of mellow. There was a hole in the ground that my elbow got caught in so it pulled the skin off. It went to the bone, but I didn’t have to get stitches. It looked crazy but I kind of got out of it okay. But you’re right, that ledge wet is a worst case scenario, but me and David (Reyes) were having a good time.

I would say worst fall, there were a couple on the Encinitas spot that were pretty bad and I had to stop. One of the first trips there I didn’t know how to fall down the embankment. I had to figure out an easier, softer way to get down it and there isn’t one. There’s just a “falling with it” rather than letting it destroy you. I whipped around on my bad ankle and it almost dislocated. That took me out for a month. But the worst was probably after the frontside flip up the Euro gap in Burbank, I turned around in the same clip and tried to Ollie back down it. I never even looked at it, all I knew was that Pedro (Delfino) Ollied into it and got smoked, but then he did it and I tried to remember what his speed looked like. I joked with Ira, “If I land this frontside flip, I’m turning around, I’m coming back and I’m gonna Ollie it.” And he was like, “Yeah, yeah but let’s just worry about the frontside flip.” And I was like, “Yeah, but I’m coming back down, keep it rolling.” The second I took off, I knew I was short, but I thought I was close enough to land a little backseat and roll in, but it was 100 degrees that day and the asphalt was probably 130, it was so soft. The second I landed, it caught. I hit my head, bad. I tore all my skin off. So that one sucked the most for sure.

It made the clip incredible though!

It adds to the clip, so I was psyched on that.

I did tear my ACL at the start of filming in San Diego on that bump over two rails spot, but that was just a fluke.

If someone’s never heard of you, doesn’t know your history, and this is the first part they see, what do you want them to feel and take away from it?

The passion. The passion for skateboarding that I have. I’d like them to feel like skateboarding is my life when they see it. This guy is willing to put it all on the line to get his tricks. That’s what I do, I skate.

What do you have left to prove? In Rolling Away, Paul Rodriguez says you have nothing left to prove. How does it make you feel to have someone like P-Rod say that?

I love Paul as a family member. I could say the same thing to him. All I’ve ever wanted in my career is for skateboarders to look at me and say, “Yep, he’s a skateboarder, he’s one of us. He’s in the crew.” That’s all I’ve ever wanted to do—be a skateboarder. Not even be respected, just acknowledged that that’s what I do. I think that’s something that Paul and I have achieved. I’ve been here for years. I’ve been pro for 20 years now. I’ve been competing at a high level for almost 25 years. I don’t have anything to prove. I believe I have a spot here and that’s enough for me. So what I’m doing now and what the next phase is, is I’m challenging myself. The calculated challenge of what else can I push myself to land? I want to keep skating and I want to keep filming video parts. I have my own skateboard company now, we have some pretty cool announcements coming up and I want to film a part for that. I want to remain in skateboarding. I want my daughter to learn how to skate—she doesn’t have to be good, but I just want to be able to skate down the street with my daughter. Skateboarding is a big part of me, it’s not my identity, but it’s something that I do and I’m okay at it, and I love it. That’s where I’m at. I don’t have to prove that I skateboard, that’s for sure.

I feel like you’ve surpassed being respected by just skateboarders, because in this documentary you have Klay Thompson talking about what you’ve done. How does it feel to have surpassed that goal?

It’s super cool, but it’s something that at some point could get to my head, so I acknowledge what they’re saying, I appreciate it, but that’s where I leave it. Because skateboarding can be taken away at any moment. And it has been, I’ve had more injuries than a lot of dudes out there. I have to remain present and focused on the task at hand that day. I can’t let my ego get involved in skateboarding. My ego has allowed me to get hurt. I appreciate these guys and they know it. I appreciate they took the time to do an interview for this project. And these guys are friends, you know? That’s what skateboarding has allowed me as well. I have friends in every other sport, every activity, all over the world—actors, musicians—because skateboarding’s cool. Skateboarders are rad. People are curious about it because everybody tried to skate at one point and they know how hard it is. People that talk like skateboarding isn’t hard, haven’t skated. And that’s okay too. If you try to skate and you’ve never skated, you’ll see, right away, I don’t have to tell you. Just go try it and let me know what you think. It’s pretty self-explanatory that this is a very athletic behavior. The skaters that are at the top have put in just as much if not more work than any hundred-millionaire athlete on the planet.

Thanks Ryan!

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