Beyond The Athlete: Ryan Sheckler

The life of action thing was all young hustle.

Sup bro.

How you doin'?

How are you?

It's Ryan Sheckler, and this is Beyond the Athlete.

We're here at the Roosevelt Hotel, and I'm going to try to give you guys a day in the life of kind of what I do.

So, uh, let's go inside with me and Sheckler, and set up.

What's up, Ryan?

How are you?

Hi

How exciting we have you for the day.

For the day.

We have you for the day.

You always know how to travel in style and now we're here to Rose about hotel.

You got me.

We are.

I want to see the suite.

I heard you were saying like the sickest suite in this place.

Yeah.

Well, I mean, it's just it's called the Thompson suite, but yeah, we can go check it out for sure.

I really like the Roosevelt Hotel.

I don't know what it is about the hotel.

I've been staying here for like I don't know, probably five years.

Right.

And uh, last year actually was the most special year.

I won I won the X-Games last year and I stayed uh, I stayed in this hotel.

I brought all my friends out.

I bring everyone out with me.

We get, you know, we get all those rooms in a row and uh.

So you rendy, you always travel with an entourage.

I mean, yeah, I don't know.

I don't like to call it my entourage, my best friends.

Yeah, they come.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And nowadays, I'm traveling, you know, almost, yeah, almost seven months out of the year, which is insane.

I never, ever thought it was

You're never home.

Yeah, never.

Yeah.

At all.

So you always have to do it right.

You know, when you're traveling, you you gotta have like your requests.

You gotta have that homey feeling.

Well, You know.

And it's gotta be a place where I can just relax, you know, I don't like, you know, the small little rooms.

It it has to be a suite.

It has to be, you know, It's got to be the best.

It's so crazy.

Yeah.

Only doing it big with Ryan Sheckler.

All right.

We're on the tenth floor.

This is uh, the spot where the uh Thompson suite is.

Uh-huh.

1010, room 1010.

Mhm.

Can't tell anyone though.

This is it right here.

Oh.

Suite 1010.

Yeah.

Oh.

Steve!

Oh, Steve.

His Andrew Steve gave him the wrong key.

That's the key that you give to the groupies, right?

They're like, hey.

Yeah.

Oh, it doesn't work.

Oh.

No, it doesn't work.

And then Steve comes through.

Always laughs at it.

Dude, I hate I hate needing a Steve.

I like it.

There's another very cool hardwood floor.

That's your style.

I don't know.

It feels like my house almost, in a way.

It's just really relaxed, really mellow.

It just lets me think, you know.

I like to wake up and just think about my life and things that are going on.

Especially for, uh, you know, X-Games time.

It's big enough to have a few friends in here and just keep it mellow.

Keep it game time.

How long does it take for you to get ready from like beginning to end?

Like how much do you spend on on your hair?

On the hair and that?

Uh, well, the hair recently has been kind of just a dead issue.

I don't know.

It's just like it's long now.

I don't really know what to do with it.

Yeah.

So I kind of don't do it at all.

So you just wear a hat on.

Yeah.

So that doesn't take too long.

But to find an outfit, normally, it's just it takes forever.

It takes forever.

I hate it.

I hate it.

Do you ever get a chance to have like a home-cooked meal?

'Cause you're never home.

Oh yeah.

My mom cooks uh taco Tuesdays every once in a while.

Taco Tuesdays, huh?

Yeah.

She's a good cook.

She's the best cook.

Yeah.

Money Cup and X-Games.

How do you mentally prepare for both?

'Cause I mean, it's all one time a year.

The Money Cup is the gnarly contest of the year, you know.

So we right off, start with a bang and have that contest and then, it's kinda, you know, you can kinda just mentally follow it from there and get ready for the other contests.

'Cause it's like

Right.

I already did this one.

Yeah exactly.

Exactly.

Right.

So before you actually, you know, even start the whole season, what is your training process like?

Um, my training, you know, normally involves I ride a road bike three times a week, 20 miles.

Uh, try to get my cardio up.

And then uh, you know, it's just a lot of running, a lot of weight training, uh, and skating.

Right.

Skateboarding.

Lots of it.

Where do you usually skate and practice?

Uh, I skate in San Clemente a lot.

Uh, I have my uh, my warehouse that I skate at, my uh, my facility and then uh, just kinda everywhere.

I skate anywhere that I can go.

So we're gonna go down to the pool, my favorite spot.

That's like the

Yeah.

The Tropicana Pool here is amazing.

I like the pool.

The Ryan Sheckler Foundation is a huge part of your life.

Yeah.

You also have a thriving skateboard career and a clothing line and so many things you're doing.

How do you balance everything?

Uh, you know, I don't know.

It's kinda crazy.

It's everything is kinda just uh starting to work out right now and uh,

Right.

You know, yeah, we're doing uh, I just finished uh, a bunch of projects and uh, I just keep everything going.

Keep the wheels moving and uh, just work with uh Axe Body Spray.

I did a commercial called the uh, Double Pitted Chesty, which is

I saw it.

Very entertaining.

It's very funny.

I couldn't tell if you really made it over that golf cart.

I was just skating and I went off the ramp and they had a golf cart on the other side and now, you know, on the on the TV, it looks like I ollied over the whole thing.

Can you do you think you can actually jump that high?

No, no way.

Really?

I wouldn't.

How high have you ever broken?

Uh, how high have I ever jumped?

Uh-huh.

Mega Ramp.

If I go off the mega ramp, I think I'm going like 15, 20 feet high.

Uh-huh.

Yeah.

That's insane.

Yeah.

So do you ever have a moment when you're like in the air and you kinda freak out and go, what the hell?

Yeah.

No, but that's my favorite time.

That's the favorite time.

When I'm in the air and it's like it if it gets kinda sketchy like that's kinda cool to uh, try to figure out how you're gonna get out of a fall.

You know, that's what

Right.

Yeah.

Sort of about skateboarding.

You've told me before that you've broken your elbows like 10 times?

Yeah, I think I think we're pretty close to number 10 on the on the elbow.

Yeah.

It's broken right there.

Yeah, I know it it looks broken all the time, but it's just it's normal.

It's fine.

Yeah.

That's a rockstar elbow right there.

That's my war wounds.

For sure.

And you I see all these cool tattoos that you've got here.

Yeah.

Are these all planned out or are they like spontaneous?

Um, most of them are planned out.

Uh, some of them are spontaneous.

Skate Life.

Got my fear God.

Got Sheckler on my back.

I just got uh, a new chest piece.

Uh-oh, ladies, you wanna see the chest?

Just kidding.

We know how that goes.

Well, not only, you know, are you like, you know, this amazing skater.

You have like this great career.

But you also are a heartthrob.

Like so many ladies are constantly chasing you.

I'm sure you get fans galore.

Any girls coming up to you crying all the time?

Yeah, that happens.

That happens.

And I'm like, what are you crying for?

Stop crying.

Like.

You make me feel bad, like, I'm sorry.

It's gotta be really hard, you know, for you on the road to like maintain friendships and relationships.

Do you have, you know, time for a girlfriend?

Do you always make time for it?

No.

Um, I mean, I I could definitely make time for a girlfriend.

But, uh, as of right now, it's just it's too hard.

It's way too hard, you know.

I don't wanna put that stress on a girl.

I don't wanna, you know, I don't wanna be on tour thinking about, you know, what's she doing at home and I can't do it.

She's thinking about what you're doing on the road.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Yeah, you know, I just if I have a girlfriend, I gotta be faithful.

Of course.

That's the way to do it.

Make sure it works.

When you do think of a girlfriend type, what do you look for in a girl?

Like what What is that?

It's all personality.

It's 100% personality and uh whether or not she can, you know, get along with my friends, get along with my family, get along with my mom, my manager.

That's definitely the biggest.

Yeah.

So uh, you know, I don't know.

I just don't like to go through the trial and error.

Right.

I actually hung out with Rob Dyrdek at the

Oh yeah.

Factory.

And he made me go in the foam pit.

Didn't work.

He scared for my life.

He's like, I I really don't want you to die right now.

So I'm gonna let you go on the board and I did it for the first time.

I was It was so wobbly, it sucked.

I wasn't good.

Okay.

So maybe you're gonna I want to see if you can teach me like the ABCs of skateboarding.

I got you.

Okay.

Let's go do it.

Yeah, are you regular or goofy?

I'm goofy.

You're goofy.

Okay.

What does that mean?

Friends goofy?

You?

Uh, it's a right foot forward or left foot forward.

Oh, I'm this way.

You're regular.

That's how I am.

Okay.

Best way.

What's the whole process?

I think the whole process of skateboarding is balance.

It's all a balance game.

You know, if you can.

Okay.

Figure out how to keep your body, you know, straight and and still move with the skateboard, Right.

You know, that's uh, that's the key.

For sure. Okay. Are you gonna catch me if I fall?

I'm gonna catch you if you fall. But I don't think you're gonna fall.

Okay. Here we go. I got the sandals on. All right. I'm ready to go. This is gonna be better than ever. Okay. All you gotta do is roll to me. Okay. Just roll to you. Natural. You're not I don't even need to catch you. You're natural.

I know, it was the shoes. Yeah. You know, it's all about the shoes. Those were definitely not proper skateboard shoes.

So much fun. So X-Games are coming up and it's, you know, a big time of year for you. You're the defending champion. It'd be great. What do you do, you know, to prepare for like such a huge competition? Especially because everybody has such high expectations for you.

I don't know. I kinda deal with it the same way I deal with it every year, you know. It's uh, just another contest. Just another, you know, another season of skateboarding and uh, you know, I'm gonna take it uh, take it one contest at a time and go slow and just uh have fun and Right. You know, just keep a positive attitude.

How do you feel about the competition this year? You got P-Rod, you got 2K.

I feel great. Feel great. I feel uh, I feel like I'm I'm right with the guys and I'm ready for the year and, you know, I'm just ready to keep uh, keep progressing the sport and just keep getting better. That's all I wanna do is just get better.

So if you weren't skating, would you have any other career choice?

Yeah, I'd be racing cars. For sure.

Really?

Yeah.

What do you love about it?

It's fast. I just like going fast.

Start at that when you're so young. What really made you get into skateboarding?

I don't know. I was always like a little like troublemaker. A little just a little demon child. And uh, I don't know. I was always getting, you know, on top of the roof. I got electrocuted real bad when I was three years old. And uh, I think after I got electrocuted, I started skating. And yeah, it was like instantly. Skateboarding was, you know, my life and I've always been around the skateboard and always been on it, since I was 18 months old and, no, I just loved it. I was in a surf skate community and it's nothing to do but, you know, skating and surfing. So this is all you know.

Thanks for spending the day with us. Now we know what Ryan Sheckler is like beyond the athlete. And, uh, I think we're gonna send you off. You deserve a skateboard, actually. I brought you a skateboard.

You did? Yeah. Oh my God. And it's pink and blue. Perfect colors. My favorite colors. Thank you, Ryan. This is amazing. I appreciate it.

No worries.

Thanks, Ryan Sheckler. Beyond the athlete and uh, I got other things to do. So I'll see you guys uh, see you guys in the future.