Watch: Ryan Sheckler on the Joy of Surfing, Growing Up in San Clemente, Competing on a Softtop, and More

Despite growing up in San Clemente, Ryan Sheckler didn't start surfing until he was a teenager.

"I used to live right up here on Cristobal, and this [T-Street] was the beach I would walk to every single day," Sheckler tells Joe Alani after his heat at the Red Bull Foam Wreckers. "But I didn't start surfing until I was 13 or 14 years old. Not for the lack of love, I just spent all of my time on the concrete."

These days Sheckler, like many other pro skaters that also surf, gushes over the sport.

"Once I realized what I had in my backyard, I couldn't get out of the water."

In this on-the-fly conversation on the sand, Sheckler and Alani banter back and forth, with Sheckler touching on his love for SC, competing against Erik Koston on a sofftop, how hard he finds surfing vs skateboarding, and so much more.

It's rad to hear extremely talented board sport athletes like Sheckler talk about being humbled in the ocean. It just goes to show jus how difficult it is to reach the highest levels of performance on a surfboard, and why so many of us spend our entire lifetimes trying to get there.

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