Ryan Sheckler: Moms love him, punks hate him, and—with the pads, monkey movies and benihanas safely in the past—most everyone else is waking up to the fact that Ryan Sheckler may just be the next big thing

Thrasher Magazine, April, 2004 by Michael Burnett

Do you remember the moment when you decided to give up the helmet and pads?

I remember being at a contest when I was eight or nine and some guy was giving me a lot of props for how I was skating, but that someday I should try and lose the helmet and the pads. I went home and tried skating without the helmet and pads and it was hard, but I saw that no one in the magazines were wearing them, so I stopped. You started when you were real young so it was probably a good idea at first.

Yeah. I started when I was four, so my parents made me wear pads. It helped me out because I fell a lot when I was learning.

I know you still wore them in contests up until a few years ago. Why'd you decide you didn't need them?

I heard everybody talking crap on me 'cause I was wearing pads and I just didn't want to deal with it anymore.

Did you accidentally knee slide at first?

Yeah, all the time. After the contests when I stopped wearing pads I'd go out street skating--this was when I first started street skating--and I'd almost go to my knees when I'd fall a few times.

Do you ever feel like putting them back on?

No. Never.

Alright. Be careful. So you started when you were four? Did anyone in your family already skate?

My dad used to skate when he was a kid. He always had his old skateboard in the garage, it was one of the old Dogtown boards, and I started rolling around on it.

Do you remember a point when you started to get good and you thought, "I can't believe I just did that?"

Yeah. When I learned the kickflip when I was six

You learned kickflips at six?

Yeah.

And you're 14 now?

Yeah. Just turned.

You're still not the tallest dude in the world. How tall are you?

Five foot.

Okay, You're getting up there. Should we expect a wild growth spurt any day now?

My dad is 5'11" and a half. My mom is 5'4", so maybe. I don't really care.

You've got like a zillion sponsors. What are they?

Let's see ... We've got Almost, Volcom, Etnies, Tensor, Darkstar, Oakley, Boost Mobile, Sobe, RDS; that might be it.

When you first got on Sobe did you ever drink so much of it that you got sick?

I drank it before I got sponsored, but I don't drink too much. Not enough to where I'd get burnt out on it.

If I had free drinks around the house I'd be swimmin' in 'em!

I drink the energy drinks every day. They're really good.

So tell me about fake school.

It's hard. It's harder than real school. I do a lot more work so that I can get ahead. You don't really have much motivation to do anything 'cause you're sitting at home in your room, but I get it done. It's kind of boring, though. I'm always doing my homework, waiting for other kids to come over to the house.

So you have to jam it in between trips?

Yeah. I just keep working on it until the next trip comes up.

Be honest, are you learning anything? 'Cause I barely learned anything in high school and I went every day.

Yeah. I'm almost in high school. I'm in eighth grade I learn a lot because my mom teaches me and she's really smart

Do you think you'll ever go back to regular school?

Yeah, I want to so bad. I want to go to regular high school.

Do it, dude.

It's gonna be really hard. I have so many trips to go on.

I was about to say you seem to have more going on than most grown men.

I'll be traveling seven or eight months out of next year.

What's it like living in hotels?

It depends on what kind of group I'm with, but on the last Volcom trip we went to Miami--we got to the hotel and everybody threw their bags everywhere. Everyone started claiming all the beds and we watched a million movies.

Do you rock the mini bar?

We ate everything out of the refrigerator and watched every movie they had.

You've got to do that, you know. Because if you don't treat yourself, who will?

That was an amazing trip. I got a lot done.

Do you still like doing contests?

Yeah. I've been doing them since I was six. They're not for everybody but I just like the feeling of contests.

Do you have strategies?

Nah. Just try and get a run together,

Do you ever hold back a finishing move for your final run?

Never. If I get a run good and I know I can nail it, I'll just try and do it bigger and better.

I never hold anything back, though.

I know when Danny Way was your age he used to get so upset if he messed up his run that he would cry. Have you ever cried at a contest?

Maybe when I was in CASL a few times, I won every contest in Minis the first year 1 was skating and I got seventh in the first one the next year and I was so bummed, That was then. I don't normally get upset at contests now. It's all for fun.

What would you say to someone who said, "You know Ryan, the X-Games are lame, why do you do the X-Games?"

I'd just say, "Whatever." I don't really care 'cause I wanted to go to the X-Games for a long time and I finally got invited, so I wasn't going to pass it up for anything.

I checked out your website and it seems like you must get a lot of email.

I get a lot of fan mail, but I get a lot of hate mail as well.

Really?

Yeah. A lot of people write mean emails. I don't care, though. It's pretty funny.

You know what it is? A lot of people don't like to see a little guy who's taking out the older guys. Danny Way, Tony Hawk and Bastien got the same thing.