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

Episode Date: June 20, 2023

Welcome to the second part of In Search of Excellence episode featuring Ryan Sheckler, one of the greatest skateboarders of all time!Ryan turned pro when he was only 13 and became the youngest gold medalist in X Games history. At 17, he was the star of his own MTV reality show, The Life of Ryan. And in 2008, he created the Sheckler Foundation, whose goal is to support and enrich the lives of children and injured action sports athletes.Tune in to hear about his experience with the reality show, how success led him to a very dark place of alcohol addiction, how he fought hard for his recovery and found Jesus, and so much more! 00:47 The good and the bad of Ryan’s reality TV showThe first season was super funDidn’t think much about it or about anything else except himselfStopped filming at season 3 because he was absolutely over itHis parents split up in the middle of the seasonHe was a vulnerable, confused, sad, and angry teenagerWent crazy on the streets, pushed the boundaries, and filmed 08:08 A crazy lifestyle and losing controlYears 17 to 21 were crazyBought a Ferrari at 18, constantly threw partiesThose days were a learning experienceTurned into a character that people wanted him to beUsed alcohol to quiet the noiseBelieves that God had a plan for him 12:40 The drinking addiction and recoveryStarted drinking around 17Alcohol was at him to kill himHe thought he had a good tolerance to alcoholStarted partying and drinking every night, then during the dayHe was confused about who he wasThankfully, no social media back then22:10 The relapse in NorwayRyan was 25 and preparing for X Games in OsloJust ended a toxic relationshipHad a bunch of drinks and got on the planePrayed to God to make him fallFlew home the next morningLasted for 4 years and then relapsedThough he could be a normal drinker, but he could never be 31:21 Clay Thompson and Michael PhelpsClay was friends with his friend TonyThey talked a lot during the recovery phaseThey keep in touch regularlyGot in contact with Michael Phelps during his rehab 35:12 The Costco Gap and skating in TaiwanSearch on YouTube - Ryan Sheckler Costco gapHe did the basic jump successfully on the first tryFour tries later did a kick-flipIn Taiwan, almost got run over by a truck on a freewaySkateboarding in Taiwan is epicAt the time, just healed from a knee surgery51:15 Three to five most important ingredients of successPresenceFocusVariableCareBeing O.K. with failure53:53 Family life and his dogsWalter - a seven-year-old French BulldogLeo - a 10-year-old lab mixMet his wife thanks to their dogs58:10 The Sheckler FoundationHad an experience with Make a Wish FoundationRaising $240,000The Sheckler Foundation1:03:25 Fill in the blanksOne thing in life that you haven't done yet, but always wanted to doThe proudest moment of his lifeSponsors:Sandee | Bliss: BeachesWant to Connect? Reach out to us online!Website | Instagram | LinkedIn

One of my big things is visualization. And so whether that's a trick or a run, by the time I get there, I've already done it a thousand times. Like no matter what, when I got to the spot or where I was gonna go, it was gonna happen that day. My guest today is Ryan Sheckler. Ryan is an entrepreneur,

former reality TV star and philanthropist, well known as one of the greatest skateboarders of all time. He turned pro when he was 13 years old. In that same year, he became the youngest gold medalist in X Games history. At 17, he was the star of his own MTV reality show, The Life of Ryan. And in 2008, he created the Sheckler Foundation, whose goal is to support and enrich the lives of children and injured action sports athletes. 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. And we'll talk about reality TV, which now is an everyday thing, right? I mean, there are so many reality TV shows. There's a new one every week, a new something. You were on a show. They created a show for you that went, I think, two and a half seasons. And they made you do all kinds of shit you didn't want to do. It caused problems with you, your family. And they basically made you break up with a girlfriend.

Tell us about all that, the good and the bad, and then crying Ryan. Yeah. I mean, that's a lot to unpack right there for sure. But yeah, the MTV show, to me, 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. 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's great. Like you guys need a TV show. You're doing good in competition. Like there friends are great. Your family's great. Like you guys need a TV show. You're doing

good in competition. Like there's something there. And I kind of took it to heart and talked to my agent, talked to my mom, you know, and I was like, let's see, you know, let's see if they're interested. And then we, uh, eventually kind of shopped it around a little bit and, um, our producer who we ended up going with, Jason Carbone, liked the idea and he had created, you know, Run'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 17 years old and I didn't really think about it. I wasn't really thinking about anybody else except for myself. If we're being honest, I was just a selfish teenager who had a crazy ego and was just trying to feed it. And so we fed it. And, uh, long story short, dude, the, the show went 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 instances where I had to, like you said, break up with a girl. They didn't film it right. So I had to break up with her again, same day on camera. And for me, that's not who I am. 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 uh 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 and uh you know there was no way to that. 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 so happened that my parents, you know, split up when we were midseason. 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. And so, yeah, I cried when I heard the information, you know, I cried and, uh, you know, skateboarding being skateboarding, which I like, don't hold a grudge against or whatever. I even made a board that said crying Ryan, uh, that sold very well. So embrace it, embrace your emotion 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, a little bit 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 push 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 with anything, you know, so. Let them, let them talk. Yeah, I 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,

um, 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. Um, so if, if it's enough for someone to want to write something super hateful to me and take the time out of their day to like, to bash me. Um, I can only assume they have something going on with themselves. That's, uh, that someone doesn't understand. So I just pray for them. Just pray for these people now. And, and it's, uh, and it's all good. But I think, uh, I think what we were talking about was like the show, you know, what are the pros and cons? Well, the pros, the pros were getting skateboarding into homes where kids might not have ever thought they wanted to try skateboarding, you know, um, in some way or another, I might've made skateboarding look appealing to, uh, to a

non skater, um, which in turn, you know, I never told the kids to go buy my boards. I just told them to 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. Um, 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 and I didn't really care what people thought. Um, 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 becoming scripted. And that was it. That was enough time for me. Three seasons, tens of millions of views. And that was before social media. So it's crazy. Well, 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. Vanilla Ice comes over for your 20th birthday party.

You're playing next to a brand new Ferrari you bought when you were 18 years old. You've got guys doing burnouts on Harley Davidson motorcycles inside your house. There's smoke everywhere. That's crazy life. Tell us what that was like. Did you have any self-control at that point? And I can't even imagine what that life would be like at any age, let alone 17, 18, 19, 20. 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, 17, 17 to about 21 was full of, 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 going to go buy a Ferrari just because I want to be seen in a Ferrari. And I was 18. And it was like, when you have... At that point too, it was like everything was being bought on the American Express, 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 it still is crazy to have a black card at 17. 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, I have this MTV show. There's this perception of who I am from the world, from skateboarding. So this voice is so loud of what people expected me to be and thought I was and wanted me to be that I believed that. So like I turned into this character. 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 I played the part until I couldn't do it anymore. It was absolutely exhausting, and 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 used, uh, alcohol a lot, you know, like I drank a lot of alcohol 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. It just wouldn't get quiet anymore. And that was after years, you know, of, of being out and being at parties and just wasting money and, um, living a life that like thinking about it now 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?

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 so I could start seeing what, what Jesus wanted to do in my life. And, 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. But yeah, dude, I don't know. I know you want to try to get into it, the old life, but it was crazy. 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 AA, 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 because I had a girlfriend, for example, for two and a half years, alcoholic. She would drink. It was like poison in the blood. I was in a ton of meetings with her. I'd go. I was supportive. You think if you're a successful person or not successful and you're super strong personality,

you've done well, you have a master of the universe syndrome. You think you can help anybody. And you go to these meetings and 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, right? Right across my office. I live in Brentwood. I'm there. But I think I would like you to get 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?

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 of the really tough ones where you said, oh my God, like I could have died had I not, you know, and I'm lucky because there's people listening out there, Ryan, I promise you,

who are either going through something like this and at some point it, like you had enough. And I think sharing the story will really motivate people to get better. It's definitely, yeah, for sure. And it's definitely powerful. If it helps one person, then, you know, I've done my job. So, you know, I think I started drinking at around 17, um, 17 and I bought a house when I was 18 on the day, like on the dot, I was in 18, three story, 5,000 square foot home, um, 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 had fake IDs. I did not,

I could not get a fake ID because people knew who I was. And so we would do, you know, little parties at the house on the weekend and, you know, everyone drink and whatever. And it kind of went like that for first year. It's kind of mellow. A 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 yeah crazy shit 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, um, 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. 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 buzzed. Like I wanted to drink to, to drink, 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, oh, 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 going to 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 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 18, 19, 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, uh, and it was gnarly too, dude. My birthday is December 30th. And so for forever, I've always thought that I've 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. Um, 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. 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. Um, you know, and thank God there was no

social media then, because I don't know if I would have been able to handle what people thought that openly and publicly on a platform. I got talked 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 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, dude. It didn't work for me. It does not work for me at all. Um,

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, being 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. They'll be in here for a couple 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 weeks ago and it was gnarly dude he had it he had it going on but this alcohol is crazy it's absolutely crazy and i thank god daily dude that, that I don't drink anymore. But if I don't put the work in to my program and into my sobriety, um, 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's the 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 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. 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. that would end my life and take me away from my family. I didn't want that, so I stopped.

It was hard, but I stopped. Well, 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 were. And then it does take a lot of work, like you said. I mean, you got to keep up with it. You relapsed, 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 had for the second time? Because I've been a part of those for some of my friends.

And, man, they're brutal. Yeah, it's a trippy thing. know yeah i was in uh norway uh x games i was 25 yeah i was 25 and uh i don't know just life life was happening to me beforehand and i was i was just bummed out on on scenario, my situation, and possibly a relationship that had just ended. It was actually a toxic relationship. I remember getting invited to X Games and knew it was coming up and started flying to Oslo. But at LAX beforehand, had a bunch of of drinks got on the plane um didn't sleep

drank the whole way there which is a far flight yeah and when we land yeah when we landed it was like three o'clock in the afternoon um in norway and i just like kept drinking day was out light was out i kept drinking and that led into that night it gives me the chills now thinking about it just like the the uh the damage that i was doing um to my body but anyways like uh i think i finally made it to bed at like 3 3 a.m i've'd been up for, I don't know, 20, 24 plus hours and had practice the next day. Ended up getting super sick, probably alcohol poisoning and, uh, mispractice 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 it out. I don't know what I was thinking. Um, but I made it, I made it to the, uh, to the qualifier and started competing. And I just remember getting ready to drop in and I was praying to God to make me fall. 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, 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 happened. You know, I started doing my run and actually I started like landing my tricks and kind of midway through my run. I was like, I mean, I'll just try to put one down. And, uh, 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 and it happened it absolutely happened and you know i think that was the start of my like my, my refound relationship with, with Christ was in that moment. Um, cause he answered my prayer.

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 called 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, especially being a dad now, like in the love I have for my daughter. Like I couldn'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 and she's remained strong and never, uh, it's gnarly. Just never faltered,

man. No judgment, no nothing. And, uh, that's a trip. She's, uh, she's the best for sure. But I called her and I freaked out and, uh, she just told me to just pour it out, just pour it out. And I poured it out and that lasted for like 10 minutes and I freaked out and she just told me to 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 asked her where we were going and I was going to treatment.

And that was super scary. And I gave a little bit of resistance, but then I went. I went anyways. Whatever. I checked in. I went through the whole intake process of what my actions had been like and what my behavior was. My mom was in there with me and 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 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, uh, I just knew immediately that this was going to be okay. Like this is where I needed to be. And so I buckled in dude, I strapped in and I, I went for 30 days and I went to every class, every, um, every counselor appointment, every, everything I did, all the steps I was just working. I was grinding in there and, uh, 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 upkeeping my

program that I had learned in there. It's just trying to do it on my own. And eventually it, it collapsed, you know, it collapsed and, um, I had no defense to the drink. I had no defense to, to anything. And so, yeah, I went on like a vacation trip that was supposed to be rad. And for some reason thought it was a good idea to, to, Oh, it's been enough time. You know, I'd never taken a break from drinking. So I was like, Oh, maybe I'll be a normal drinker. Um, 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. But what I was talking about before is if I do not run my program and make the calls to my fellow brothers 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 like, no, no. I can't do it, dude. I 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 going to do everything in my will to stay out of it. Appreciate you sharing that. i think you're going to help a lot of people and i encourage all the people listening um out there or watching if you think you have a problem you probably do have a problem and 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. When you got hurt all these times, you actually grew up with Clay Thompson. And he called you a couple of times, wanted to know what he had to say to you. And then you got a cool call from Michael Phelps. Can you tell us about those guys? Yeah. Clay's a stud. I went to San Clemente High. He went to Santa Margarita. It's not too far from each other. And we weren't hanging out on a daily basis. He was friends with my friend, Tony, who plays basketball and Phil. So that was my connection through my two best friends were friends with Clay. And so I kind of just started tagging along. But this was before Clay was Clay.

He was a stud, but he wasn't Warriors Clay. He was just Clay. He was the homie. And still to this day is the homie, dude. I love Clay. 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. Um, clearly he 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, um, that you can just understand and know that your situation is not unique. You know, people have gone through it before and

people have come back from these situations. Um, so yeah. So yeah, Clay's one of those guys that's super – he's just super rad. Dude, I see him when he comes into town. And other than that, we touch base every month or so and just make sure everybody's good and family's good and um mental is correct and and we leave it at that um as far as michael phelps you know that was crazy when i was at rehab you know i i got in contact with him and kind of got to hear a little bit about his story and to me it was uh it was insane that you know a person who seemingly was on top of 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. 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 something huge that I

practice. And the kids 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 onto that information or take it to heart, that's up to you. But at the end of the day, most of these situations that we think are unfathomable and that nobody's been through, somebody has and somebody has's been through, somebody has,

and somebody's made it through it. And so it just gives me motivation that I can too. 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 to do that you fall on your knees um i know that may seem weird to people who don't skate but uh 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 don't want to hit your head if you're street skating you're going down a set of stairs you know and you hit a corner or something uh you're not in a bowl like you asphalt, you've done some crazy shit on the street skating front. And sort of one of the goals, and you've talked about this before,

is 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. But on the street skating front, it's 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 hat on, so you got to talk about Taiwan. Oh, for sure. Yeah, the Costco gap is just one of those things that it's been a spot that's been in Orange County forever. 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 gap, it'll, it'll pop up pretty quickly. Um, but so it's from the top street. There's like a main, um, there's a main street above and there's a sidewalk and it goes up and then flat. And then it just looks like you're looking down into a second story parking lot. To the normal human being, it's not anything to be messed with or even to second look at it. But as a skateboarder, it's like, wow, 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 all of it 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 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. Um, 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, um, until I got a little bit stronger. And so, you know, right around, I think I was 18 or 19. Um, 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 eat it first try, which like just all eat over, made it. What does that, what does that mean for people who, who don't know what that is, who don't know what an Ollie is? So yeah, the Ollie is the most like basic skateboarding maneuver. It's 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 what you will learn when you first start skateboarding. So I did that. I did that over it. Uh, and I landed it first try. And so I was fired up and I was like, all right, cool. Today's the day. And then I just kind of

got into my, my zone of like, um, not leaving here until I land this today, no matter what it looks like. And sometimes that works for me. And other times that's got me into a lot of trouble physically, just trouble getting injured. But this day was different. It didn't even cross my mind. And four tries later, I was doing kickflip, which is another – right now I would call it basic, but it's not. It 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 um 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. Um, and I landed it and I didn't really understand, you know, the significance that that trick had had or was going to have in skateboarding. But, um, it, uh, it lives forever. It lives now. And it's probably one of the biggest kickflips I've ever done. Actually, I think it is the biggest kickflip i've ever done um and dude i just like i'm some of these spots i get so stoked that i never have to go back to them like i never have to go back spots done tricks done and can check that one off the box. That's one of them. Taiwan. Taiwan was gnarly just because 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. It was just a tail drop and in. And I had just healed from a knee surgery. And I was asking our uh our tour guide i said what's what's the craziest spot that you have in taipei taiwan um that people don't skate or you've always wanted to see somebody skate and he pulled up this photo of this like perfect 20 foot quarter pipe transition 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 looked like it was like two feet wide which i was like ah it's kind of crazy i ended up getting there and it was like two feet wide, which I was like, ah, 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 the 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. 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 like prepped myself over the wall and shimmy down and then like jumped down it. And then all of a sudden I'm in the middle of the, you know, in the middle of the road, it's a two lane, two lane highway on both sides, you know, going back and forth. And I'm like, okay, cool. 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 was going on so i'm like walking up the median and then all of these police officers on like little mopeds which was like hard to kind of

take them serious you know because they're just like beeping their mopeds, which was like hard to kind of take them serious, you know, because they're just like beeping their mopeds like going on, dude. And a 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 surrounded me. And I was I was stuck in the center of all these people. And they were like trying to grab on me and like surrounded me and I was, I was stuck in the center of all these people. And um, they were like trying to grab on me and like asking me if I was okay. Like I kept hearing like, uh, 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, okay, cool. But just like,

let me know exactly what's going on. Um, I don't want to be like alone in this situation. Like, that's all I was trying to get to. So like, if I'm in trouble, okay, cool. But just like, let me know exactly what's going on. Um, 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 are you talking about? And someone like a bystander cause skateboard i guess they don't really see much skateboarding in taiwan so uh 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 uh 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 I was so bummed out, dude. I was so bummed because I had got myself mentally to this place where I was like, OK, with whatever was going to happen. And when I say that, I mean the trick, like whether I was going to land or not. That's I was like, all right, 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 you take that away. It's like that adrenaline dump, but without anything to celebrate, you know, you're just like, I was just bummed. I was bummed for six hours,

didn't eat food, didn't really even talk to anyone. And then my filmer was like, Hey, dude, 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 practiced the tail drop across the street for a little bit, just to make sure my board 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 and 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. Um, but I heard the alarm again.

So they definitely saw us on the camera and, uh, I put my board up there and I just focused for a second, looked at one of the spotters and the spotter was like, yeah, you're good. And I went off and the second I hit the ground, all I could see in my peripheral was, uh, was like a truck, like a big truck. And so I landed and like, you'll see my hand kind of goes over cause it caught me off guard. I thought it was going to be open, 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. They put out a warrant for my arrest, 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 of success for me has always been I out-prepare everybody. I'm always the most prepared person in the room for a meeting, for anything I'm doing. And it makes a huge difference. You said you won your first tournament when you were six or seven because you prepared more than the competition.

How important has preparation been to your success? And in particular, extreme preparation, doing more than anyone else. And can you give some examples of that? Yeah, man. Preparation prevents more performance. It's like if I am serious about something, I'm going to prepare for it. I'm going to visualize. One of my big things is visualization.

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 a thousand times. I've done it a thousand times exactly how I want to do it. Um, whether that be visualized or in my skate park, like some of these last tricks that I had to do for, uh, my video part for Red Bull that's coming out this summer, um, 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 it. 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 going to go to actually do that trick, it was going to happen that day. 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. Um, 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, um, a 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 and support my boys and, and go check it out. And, uh, you know, when I

landed Friday night, the night before the contest, they called me and said, hey, a couple of dudes can't skate. Do you want to skate? And I was like, like skating the contest? They're like, yeah. I was like, uh, sure. I'll do, I'll skate. Of course. I would love that.

But I was not prepared. And so I 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 tricks. So my self-talk was just like, if you 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,

cause 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. 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, all right, cool. Well, let's restructure. If you stop smiling, you lost the contest and this whole thing wasn't worth it. So I just, I just smiled and just hung out and it was dope. And I ended up landing a couple of tricks that I want to do. And

the crowd was behind me and the vibers was right. And all the pros that were there, all my friends were just 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. What are the three to five most important ingredients of success? presence you must be present in whatever you're doing whether that's weight training practicing whatever presence 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 I 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 a hundred percent. And at the end of trying

something a hundred percent, if that's not for you, that's okay. Because at least, you know, you gave it 100% of what you had and you tried, maybe you failed. It's okay. Failure is also like super important. I have more than four. I got, there's so much, dude. There's so much like you have to be okay to fail. Not 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. It's not real. And if they tell you it is real, that's on them because it's not. Anything that's good takes time. Technical things take time. Anything that you're passionate about is going to take time. It doesn't say that you're not good at it. It just means it's going to 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.

I've got five kids. Before I had kids, one of my best buddies named Rick Rivera told me something that was profound. He said, Randy, you will find out the meaning of life once you had kids and nothing could be any truer than that. My, our youngest daughter, Elle, we, her middle name is Gigi, which is my grandmother's nickname. I was super close to my grandmother, best woman ever, my hero in life, passed away last year at 104 years old. So we named LGG Kaplan. I know you were tight with your grandmother.

You named your daughter's middle name after her as well. Tell us about your dogs, Walter and Leo, your wife, and how having a child has changed your life forever. 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. Leo is a 10-year-old Lab Mix kind of mut of mutt rad he's just amazing 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 and our dogs just like stopped and started like sniffing each other. And, uh, we both, it was like out of a movie. We both kind of like looked at each other and we were like, whoa, Hey, uh, you know, I was, I was struck by her beauty for sure. And, uh, started talking to her and she was super sweet and super rad. And, um, long story short, we ended up getting married and we got married on March 3rd, 2022. And exactly a year later, we had our daughter, Olive Olita on March 3rd, 2023. So have almost a 12 week old right now, and life is awesome. It's awesome.

It's tiring, for sure. We're still in the first 100 days. We're just 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 cruising through it. It's been a couple of hiccups, not anything major. And, you know, thank God she's healthy. And, you know, 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. It's funny, man. It's funny. My whole life, my whole life has changed in the most beautiful way. 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 making sure I spend quality time with my wife and making sure that I'm the best father I can be for my daughter. I always end my podcast on philanthropy. There's going to be a short Q&A, one question responses right after this, but I always end on philanthropy it's super important to me uh you don't have to be rich to give back by the way and that's a message i keep repeating on my podcast 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 right? People follow you. They want to be near you. So I think that's super cool. Why don't you tell us about your foundation, which you started in 2008 and talk to us about your Range Rover as part of that. Yeah. 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 wished 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 down her her throat and 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 um 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, I want two things that don't make

sense. And she was like, no, I just really want to be like a normal teenager. That's not going through this crazy cancer and these surgeries and the chemo. And it changed my life, changed my mental. It changed 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. Um, so from that, we, uh, we started working, we started the Sheckler foundation when I got home from that trip. And I initially wanted to, and still do want to help. Um, but what got us going was a 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. Um, 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, um, hopefully we raise a bunch and we can just like start off the Sheckler foundation with like, with a bang and then just keep the momentum going. Um, we ended up raising $240 something thousand dollars for this car. And it was so rad. It was so

rad. And the kid that won the car, he was 17 years old and his girlfriend had leukemia. He was going around LA doing standup comedy shows, just trying to raise money for it. He ended up raising like $34,000 on his own and he won the car. And so it was like this crazy full circle thing where I just felt exactly where I was supposed to be at that point in time. And this is what we're supposed to be doing. And from that, we've been around for 15 years now, if my math is correct, 15, 16 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. Uh, whether that's at risk youth, um,

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. Um, 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 with the foundation. And we just enjoy it. We enjoy it. We love it. And we're always, always intrigued and open for, for a new opportunity. And we do a call to action on shecklerfoundation.org and be the change, you know, be the change you want to see in your community. And and we do a call to action on shecklerfoundation.org and it's Be the Change. Be the change you want to see in your community. And people can just write in and tell us, I see this school over here and the playground's jacked up. A $10,000 grant would fix this. Those are the type of things we're looking at.

It doesn't have to be about skate. It's just about people. Let's finish on a couple of Q&A here. 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? Hot air balloon. The proudest moment of your life is? Having a daughter. The biggest regret in your life is?

Wasting time. The one person in the world who you've always wanted to meet, who you haven't met yet is? Hmm. Will Ferrell. If you could go back and tell your 21-year-old self one piece of advice, what would it be?

Seek Jesus Christ. Ryan, 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 to so many people. Appreciate you being here. Thanks for being on my show.