Life of Ryan

Ryan Sheckler was the youngest to ever win a pro event and the youngest to fetch the gold medal at the X Games. Today, four years later, he is 17 years old – and his dream of becoming one of the greatest skate pros of all time seems to be pretty damn close.

Like all mums, Gretchen always knew: skateboarding was dangerous. When her son came first in the DAS Tour stop in Louisville in July 2006, it was followed by a night spent in A&E: while celebrating his victory, Ryan had fallen onto a grill and promptly suffered second-degree burns ...

Skateboarding child prodigy

Luckily Ryan can coordinate his mental faculties and leg-work better during skating than he can afterwards. Just how well became clear to Gretchen and other observers no later than 1997: that’s when seven-year old Ryan – putting his “impressive” sporting experience to the test – won his first state championship title in skateboarding. A few years later the considerably older competitors at the X Games 2003 underwent a similarly humbling experience: there the Californian won the X Games gold medal as the youngest athlete in the Games’ history – he had only just turned 13. And Gretchen? She was now his manager and extremely busy dealing with the ever-increasing number of sponsor requests and event invitations.

Persuaded by his mates

Fly’n Ryan’s rise to the top had begun just as unspectacularly as for thousands of other boys too: “My friends in the neighbourhood all skateboarded, and because I wanted to hang out with them I had no choice but to start skating.” What set him apart: none of the others showed nearly as much talent in the skate park, and none of them practised with anywhere near as much ambition as Shecks. “After a while they put their skateboards to one side and bought themselves surfboards,” explains Sheckler, who is today 17 years old. “But I stuck to skateboarding.”

100 kickflips per day

Today Ryan is the overall winner of the DAS Tour, X Games winner and Vans Triple Crown winner, the star of videos and video games, inventor of the “Shecklair”, a combination of kickflip, stiffy and indy air with outstretched legs – and the heartthrob of every skateboard-fashion-wearing girl aged between 11 and 21. The fact that he’s no sunny boy, but rather a hardworking athlete with incredible stamina, is usually conveniently overlooked. An example? Until he’d perfected the trick, Ryan did 100 kickflips per day for a whole year.

Biking with Travis

Ryan’s other interests? Music (“preferably Metallica, AC/DC or 50 Cent”), cars (his Range Rover is his pride and joy), and his Yamaha YZ85 dirt bike. “If I hadn’t become a skateboarder, I would have concentrated on motocross,” says Ryan. He’s already spent a day with Travis Pastrana on the latter’s supercross track. “That was awesome.” Although not quite as awesome as his real passion – skateboarding. “I simply can’t imagine a life without a skateboard,” he says. Not the case for Mum Gretchen, though, who brings his dream of becoming “one of the greatest skateboarders in the world” lovingly down to earth: “In our own four walls he has a skateboard-superstar ban. At home there’s only room for the normal Ryan, who washes up and takes the rubbish out like every other member of the family too ...”