How Child Fame Ruined Ryan Sheckler's Life (MTV to Rehab)

Ryan Sheckler is one of the most controversial skaters in history but also one of the most iconic he won his first X Games gold medal at just 13 years old secured his own MTV show and has landed some of the gnarliest skate tricks we have ever seen but being a child star led him to being manipulated and taken advantage of the fame and fortune came with a lot of sacrifice and exhaustion the chaotic lifestyle was unsustainable for Sheckler and eventually it all came crashing down forcing him to do whatever it takes to get control of his life again Southern California is the skateboarding capital of the world Ryan Sheckler was lucky enough to be born there he got his hands on a skateboard before he could even walk and from there he was hooked every skateboarder remembers their first kickflip Ryan landed his at just six years old that same year which was 1996 Ryan entered his first California amateur skateboarding League contest and won he continued competing with CASL yearly quickly becoming recognized is a child prodigy several skate Brands wanted an opportunity to invest in the upcoming Star etny's skate shoe company gave him his first pair of free shoes and he skated in their brand for the rest of his career but at eight years old Ryan was about to experience his first time being exploited as a child star Ryan earned his first magazine cover which is a huge accomplishment for a skateboarder but it was for Big Brother magazine big brother was a skateboarding magazine notorious for their edgy articles lewd pictures of women and Publishing filthy shock value material that parents did not want their children exposed to in 1998 baby-faced Ryan was featured on the cover of their kids issue which was obviously a troll because the material in this publication was not for kids this particular issue would lead to the downfall of the company Ryan's parents didn't really understand what they signed up for and they later denounced the magazine and kept it pushing by the time Ryan was 13 he was an incredible skater but he couldn't make any money due to his as amateur status under the world industry's brand most 13 year olds are not thinking about money but he was way too talented and popular to non-profit so he decided to skateboard professionally after he was contacted by Almost Skateboards to represent their brand almost was founded by Ryan's Idol and skateboarding Legend Rodney Mullen and even though he spent his entire amateur career with World Industries he switched teams the decision to turn pro basically ruined all chances of Ryan having a stable upbringing it's hard to know if he really wanted this for himself or if his parents felt like they needed to profit from their child's successful hobby either way Ryan was about to become an adult many years too early which would do damage that has lasted a lifetime 13 year old Bryce face Ryan made his X Games debut in 2003 and faced off against Legends such as Eric koston Mike balliley and Chad Muska he dominated them all on the skateboard park event and became the youngest gold medalist in X Games history Ryan looked at his Nash natural and fluid on his board as any veteran in the contest this event was broadcasted all over the world and his Fame leveled up like crazy after winning his brother Shane vividly remembers big companies started to pursue him and TV channels wanted to book him for interviews you could tell something crazy was about to happen Ryan was now considered parallel with 5 10 15-year skating veterans he was one of them I would feel so nervous I think I was about to cry but I realized that I love that feeling of fighting through to find my composure to plan my runs that year I just felt Unstoppable Ryan was Unstoppable and he was surrounded by much older men who wanted to show him this crazy lifestyle pro skateboarders are required to travel City to City hunting for rails gaps stair sets and skate spots to film parts for a video or magazine drink water by the way for eight months out of the Year 13 year old Ryan was on the road this usually leads to late nights and nothing near a consistent daily routine King of the Road is a show created by Thrasher and vice where teams of skaters are given a book of challenges that they have to complete for example Skyline hi build a three-man skateboard with three men riding it like all skate videos it's the behind the scenes clips that usually become more memorable like Bam Margera's crazy stunts or Rob Dyrdek's skits with big black Ryan's King of the Road part became notorious for the clip of him making out with a 24 year old woman Ryan who was only 14 years old at the time was being hyped up by his older friends obviously if the gender roles were reversed none of this would have been acceptable but Ryan's life was moving at 100 miles per hour and he was not being guided properly and the harsh reality is these acts of hazing or initiation probably made him seem cooler and more popular in the skating community at this point he was skating at an all-time high in 2005 and 2006 he finished top three in almost every event he skated in 14 to 16 year old Ryan Sheckler was definitely his prime skating years huge stair sets long down rails massive gaps Ryan was fearless and undeniably rad if he was this good at 16 we can only imagine what will happen in his 20s his Fame and fan base were were growing rapidly he was the inspiration for kids all around the world to get into skateboarding but Ryan wanted to remain in school he was constantly surrounded by adults and began feeling out of touch with people his age while he admits that his older teammates and Friends allowed him to build character and prepare for adulthood he ultimately needed a childhood surrounded by other children his freshman year he was able to balance normal high school and work but his skating success took all of his time and forced him to be homeschooled during his sophomore and junior year this decision would lead to a massive opportunity that would change his life Ryan's close friend and fellow skateboarder Rob Dyrdek came up with the idea for Ryan to have a reality TV series Rob had multiple successful shows with MTV and was convinced that Ryan's chaotic lifestyle would make for great television Ryan agreed to do it and secured his own MTV show for three seasons life of Ryan followed the teenage skateboarder as he went about his daily life parties skating contests girlfriends and arguments with the family sees one debut to over 2 million viewers per episode and Ryan was approaching A-list Celebrity Status he became like the Justin Bieber of skateboarding gained a massive fan base of teenage girls who treated him like a young heartthrob wherever Ryan went television cameras and Paparazzi followed one time he was shut down in a Chili's restaurant in Orange County and the SWAT team came to break up the crowds the fame and fortune he could handle but behind the scenes at MTV something much darker was happening Monday through Friday he woke up with multiple cameras in his face everywhere he went he had a crew of 25 people with him which was exciting yet stressful and ultimately led to outbursts off-camera producers would instruct his mother to say certain things they knew would upset Ryan causing him to have Tantrums on camera while the show was not scripted The Producers understood certain family Dynamics and used this knowledge to cause unnecessary drama for Ratings the dynamic with his parents began to change he started calling the shots and living life on his terms since he was financially independent in one particular scene he didn't clean his room when his parents asked which ended up being an explosive argument ending when Ryan slammed the door in his father's face Ryan left for a few days to skate and when he came back his father was gone shortly after his parents were filing for a divorce MTV producers were licking their chops because they had a juicy storyline and deep down Ryan thought his parents divorce was because of him he was blindsided he genuinely thought they had a loving relationship and they always supported Ryan's dreams so once all of this stress reached a Tipping Point he thought it was because they focused too much on Ryan's career instead of their marriage as if it couldn't get any worse Ryan's perception in the skateboard Community started to change negatively mainly because the show portrayed him as an impulsive and spoiled child rather than just a rad skater these 23 minute episodes were mostly filled with Ryan's worst moments rather than his awesome talents Ryan was openly vulnerable on camera but was met with criticism online from the skate Community with many mocking him for being soft and calling him crying Ryan but Ryan didn't find this out himself MTV producers told him that's what people were calling him online and they strategically waited to tell him this new nickname until he was feeling emotional on camera which prompted him to cry again straight up psychological manipulation of a child by the end of season 2 the cast no longer wanted to be there but they were forced to do a third season due to a clause in their contract when Ryan initially accepted the offer to have his own reality TV series he told himself that if the show ever interfered with skating he would quit entirely and that was about to come true MTV finally hit Ryan's Tipping Point when they started forcing him to break up with his girlfriends on camera so we break up once and then cameras are on we break up again cut now the mood's really awkward and then you know they come over to me and they're like hey we that wasn't enough we need we need to do it again and so that's where the show became acting and it became like this thing where it was like this is not what we signed up for and this is not what it started out as like it broke my heart dude it broke my heart and it like I don't know yeah borderline traumatized me I didn't get into a relationship after the show until I was 25 years old what because I didn't want to have to go through a breakup again I have a heart man and I have very strong emotions and I do not like hurting people's feelings I do not and so to blatantly have to hurt people's feelings over and over again for the sake of Television for Ratings literally he kept his word and quit the show Midway through season three MTV was obviously very upset but what they did was pretty wild they abruptly aired the entirety of season three in one day released all of the episodes on a random Tuesday Morning back to back to avoid breaching their contract after that MTV never aired a single episode of Life of Ryan ever again on their Network Ryan admits this is where his life got a little bit darker he turned to alcohol to fix all of his problems once he turned 18. a habit that would ultimately get out of control Ryan was spending money like crazy Penthouse Suites super cars jewelry private flights he spent one million dollars on bottle service and tables and clubs he would set a goal to win skate competitions in order to purchase more things to fill the empty void caused by his drinking and trauma but make no mistake he was still skating at a high level in 2008 he secured his second gold medal in X game Street and his shift to focusing on skating full-time proved to be working Ryan traveled to California and unintentionally stumbled across Thrasher Magazine's Buster Bale skating event Ryan abruptly decided to enter the contest and landed a massive backside flip down the 16th stair which earned him a first place win after the competition he continued his trip around California and encountered the infamous El Toro located on the campus of El Toro High School in Lake Forest California the El Toro 20 was named after its 20 concrete steps that have witnessed some of the most iconic moments in BMX and skateboarding history since Ryan just landed a massive backside flip down to 16 he was confident that he could do the same trick down El Toro which was just a few more stairs he told his friends teammates and word Sprint around the skateboard community that Ryan was going to attempt arguably the biggest backside flip in history this overconfidence would lead to a decision that destroyed his reputation forever he unexpectedly broke his foot this injury halted Ryan's plan to skate El Toro and left him in a cast for several weeks one day while at Etnies skate park in Lake Forest Ryan came face to face with Jake Phelps an iconic magazine editor who worked for Thrasher magazine during their interview Phelps asked Ryan if he completed the trick intimidated by his presence Ryan lied to him and told him that he had completed the trick according to Ryan he intended to skate down El Toro once his injury healed and already believed he could complete the trick since he did something similar weeks prior unfortunately for Ryan he had just committed a skateboarding cardinal sin lying about Landing a massive trick for months the skateboarding Community expected to see the footage in an upcoming Plan B video a backside flip down El Toro would be considered top 10 Hall of Fame skateboarding tricks however the footage never made it on the project over time the longer Ryan took to release the footage the speculation arose that he may have lied about it in 2014 instead of just finding the video footage and releasing it himself Ryan decided to redo the dangerous move For an upcoming skate film called Etnies album and although he got close he never landed the backside flip injuring himself in the process the footage was taken out of the Final Cut but was eventually leaked onto the internet many years later sending the skateboard Community into a frenzy if people didn't like Ryan before they hated him now he was heading into his early 20s and what most skaters see as their prime years now he had a chip on his shoulder some of the skate Community thought of him as a sellout a liar nothing more than a pretty boy to be the face of the sport but he won X Games gold for the third time in 2010 and three consecutive due tour street style first place finishes from 2012 to 2014. his contemporaries respected his skills but while he was skating at an elite level he suffered from an insane amount of injuries broke my left elbow six times right elbow four times with plates and screws in here um Liz Frank injury on my right foot completely separated the first metatarsal and had to get that that was like that took over a year to heal the injuries never affected his skating performance but he did have a lot of spare time to get drunk around 2014 Ryan had enough and he could no longer manage this lifestyle I wanted to stop partying I want to stop drinking and I couldn't do it what made Oslo the breaking point for me was that out of my whole life the one thing that I have had this crazy intense passion for it which is skateboarding and competing I'm in Oslo and I want nothing to do with skateboarding I don't want to be a skateboarder I don't want to be a competitor I don't even want to skate anymore I want to just go take the money I've made get off the map and go party I just want to like kind of wanted to end it you know not you know but like I didn't want to be in the Public's eye anymore his mother who had always supported him encouraged Ryan to start treatment for his addiction he said it was the scariest day of his life but it strengthened his relationship with his mother Sheckler attended an in-person rehab and was fully committed to his recovery his last first place victory was in 2014 at the age of 25 his presence in skateboarding dwindled after getting sober he embraced Christianity and devoted himself to becoming a role model across all aspects of his life he eventually apologized for lying about the El Toro incident in numerous interviews skateboarders still harassed me everywhere I go I don't feel like skaters should be hating on each other I owned up to it I apologize for it it showed me the power of what one lie can do though I haven't told a lie since he started touring with his charity the Sheckler Foundation donating ten thousand dollar grants to underprivileged communities across the country he dedicates a lot of his time pushing the next generation of Youth skaters although he spent a lot of money recklessly as a teenager he made a lot of great business decisions as well becoming a part owner of the men's and women's underwear company ethica which is now a multi-million dollar brand he recently launched his own sheckler-branded skateboards under his company called Sandlot times he is also a partner in Palm Springs Surf Club which is basically a 100 million dollar surfing playground Ryan never formally retired from skating but competitive skateboarding was his whole life since he was 13. he never really got a chance to live normally he still skates at a high level but he probably won't ever be a competitive threat to the guys in their 20s his life was going 100 miles per hour from age 13 to 25 the skateboard Community went from loving him to hating him to now respecting his legacy this life definitely took a toll on Ryan you could see it in his face but today sober Ryan Sheckler has a new lease on life and this time he's in full control

Channel: Patrick Cc:

Views: 2,889,542

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Id: SsMSOvY1lzU

Length: 16min 35sec (995 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 20 2023