Originally from San Clemente, California, 32-year-old Ryan Sheckler first made noise skateboarding at the age of seven, when he became partners with Oakley and the shoe-brand Etnies. He’s an eight-time X games medalist and has podiumed at many Dew Tour events, an extreme sports circuit.
At the peak of his skateboarding career in the late aughts, he had his own reality TV show on MTV titled “Life of Ryan.”
Sheckler has been partners with Woodward for 24 years and is the lead designer of their skate program.
He told KPCW his favorite part of being involved with the show is experiencing the youthful energy.
“Being able to see the fire in their eyes. To see the absolute stoke honestly, when they land a trick that they’ve been trying, or been working on, or been thinking about," Sheckler said. "And they can push themselves through this barrier, that’s like kind of the fear barrier.”
He said skateboarding teaches kids that giving up is not an option.
“It also teaches them too that failure is okay because the end goal is going to be the glory of the trick.”
Sheckler said those are life skills that can stretch beyond the skate park.
“If you can master it here, you can master it in the real world. And it can help with school, with family, with relationships, with whatever.”
At each stop along the tour, the Sheckler Foundation is awarding grants to various organizations as part of its “Skate for a Cause” mission. In Park City on Thursday, Sheckler awarded a Mountain Trike all terrain wheelchair to Michael, a local mountain bike lover who was disabled by a stroke. The grant was in partnership with the Challenged Athletes Foundation and Wasatch Adaptive Sports.
Season 12 of “The Camp Woodward Show,” which will feature Sheckler in Park City, will come out early next year.
