From teenage prodigy to reality TV star, Ryan Sheckler's journey to fame seemed unstoppable.

But there were also personal struggles that threatened to derail his career. This is the story of
the rise and fall of Ryan Sheckler, a cautionary tale about the price of celebrity at a young age.
From the highs to the lows and mistakes he made along the way, let’s dive in.

The Rise

The best way to start is to look back to Ryan Sheckler as a professional skater in his prime. As
a teenager, his dominance in the scene is something that had never been seen before, and
hasn’t happened again since. In any other Sport that sort of dominant period would have people
using the word “GOAT”. I think in most people’s eyes, Tony Hawk will always be
Skateboarding’s GOAT, but the things Sheckler achieved are almost beyond comparison.

It all started in San Clemente, California, a small city south of LA, where Sheckler grew up. He
was born in 1989, and found his dad’s skateboard at just two years old, after that Ryan never
looked back. Encouraged by his parents he fell totally in love with skating, landing his first
Kickflip at age 6. It became clear to his parents that their son had the potential to be something
really special.

By age 7, he’d been spotted by the team at footwear brand Etnies, and began riding with them
as his first sponsor in the Southern California skateboarding scene. It was only a matter of time
before Ryan would gain more global attention.

The first big feature followed in 1999. Ryan’s Parents cleared Ryan to appear on the cover of
Big Brother Magazine in what they called “The Kids Issue”. However, this led to a huge
backlash. The magazine was full of adult content, some of it pretty graphic. Ryan’s Parents
either had no idea what they were signing their 8 year old son up for, or they knew exactly what
they were doing and trying to make money off their son’s talent. This was a sign of things to
come.

It was in 2003 when Ryan would get his next break, and it would come in the form of one of his
biggest heroes, Rodney Mullen, who started Almost Skateboards with fellow professional
Deawong Song, and asked Ryan to be one of the founding members on the team. Needless to
say, this was an offer simply too good for Ryan to refuse, getting to work and skate with a true
legend of the scene and someone he looked up to, and he began travelling and filming for
Almost.

In the same year, Ryan made his debut at the X-Games, now 13 years old and eligible to
compete, he was not only going up against skaters almost double his age, he became the
youngest ever skateboarder to win Gold in the Park competition. He went on to win 8 X-Games
medals and countless placings and wins in the worlds biggest skateboarding competitions over
the next 12 years.
He became the face of Skateboarding almost overnight at the age of 13. Just like with many
things in his life, he was dealing with things far beyond his years. Still, with a talent like his it
wasn’t possible to have a normal life if he wanted to continue skating professionally, and Ryan
was committed to that dream.

He was soon a free agent again, and it was Plan B where Ryan found his true home. He was on
their roster from 2007 until 2022. In skateboarding, that’s a lifetime.

The team became known for putting out films with the most technical and crazy tricks anyone
had ever seen, with Ryan at the forefront of that, clearing bigger gaps, wilder tricks and
performing stunts that continued to move the sport forward.

In the same year, Sheckler signed with MTV for three seasons of his own reality TV Show, “The
Life of Ryan”. This was set up by a friend and fellow skater, Rob Dyrdek, who was all over MTV
at the time.

The documentary series following Ryan, his close friends and family is perhaps the precise
moment that the time bomb started ticking on Ryan’s career, and eventual fall from Skating
greatness.

The Fall

Manipulation and The Life of Ryan

The start of the troubles that plagued Ryan’s career can definitely be seen in Life of Ryan.
Whilst it wasn’t scripted, the producers manipulated and manufactured situations to create high
drama in Ryan’s life.

The public’s opinion on the baby faced phenomenon began to change, too. His emotional
outbursts and clear frustration, normal for any teenager, playing out on national TV, caused
people to see him as a spoiled brat.

In reality this was nowhere near the truth. Ryan was doing all he could to stay in touch with
being a teenager. That wasn’t what the public saw, though, and Ryan was labelled ‘Cryin Ryan’
by viewers of the show. This wasn’t what he signed up for this and he felt played and
manipulated.

At the same time he found out that his parents had hidden issues in their own relationship to be
supportive to him over the years and this came to a head, resulting in his parents filing for
divorce. This affected Ryan greatly, with him blaming himself for their troubles.

After two seasons of the show neither he nor his family had much of an appetite for a third
season, but they were under contract and reluctantly made to do it. MTV ended up dumping out
all the episodes of the season on the same day, before pulling the plug and never showing an
episode of the show again, as the whole thing came to a head.

This type of exploitation was something that had been foreshadowed when he was just 8 with
that feature in Big Brother magazine.

The cardinal sin

In Skateboarding, there’s one thing you should never do. Lie about landing a trick, but that’s
exactly what Ryan did in ‘08. He had shifted to skating full time and just come off his second
Gold medal at the X-Games.

He landed probably the best backside the world had ever seen at the time at a Thrasher
magazine event in California he just happened to stumble upon, landing it down a 16 stair set,
winning him the event.

Ryan didn’t want to stop there, though. He immediately thought of El Toro, the worlds most
famous skating spot. Ryan wanted to land that same Backside Flip there, thinking he would be
able to land the same trick he stuck down 16 stairs down the 20 at the legendary spot.

Deeper into his California trip he ended up breaking his foot before he could get to El Toro.
However, he was quick to claim he’d already landed the trick when he got talking to Jake Phelps
from Thrasher magazine.

The skating world was already abuzz and waiting to see the clip. When Phelps reported that
Ryan said he’d already landed it, everyone thought it would be coming on the next PlanB tape.

The real truth, as Sheckler later revealed, was that he was so confident that he would land the
trick, and so disappointed that he was injured and had to wait, that he just told Phelps it was a
done deal.

He fully intended to land the trick, and get it on film but it never happened. He tried, but didn’t
land it, and injured himself in the process, and the footage later leaked. The world had proof that
he’d lied, and what was left of his skateboarding credibility after the Life of Ryan vanished in an
instant.

Addiction & Rehab

Ryan continued to skate at a high level well into his 20s. However, his motivation for competing
began to change after he turned 18 and discovered alcohol. He began partying more and more,
and eventually, as he now admits, in his early 20s he started to target winning events but it was
no longer for the love of skateboarding as it always was before, he simply wanted to earn more
money that he could spend on partying. It’s estimated he may have spent upwards of a million
dollars at clubs and parties over the years.
He’s gone on record to admit that during that time he didn’t even want to skate anymore, he
considered taking the money he earned and disappearing out of the public eye. That became a
necessity rather than a choice in 2016 when a now 26 year old Ryan admitted to his mom that
he had a serious problem. He wanted to stop partying, and drinking, and he tried to, but he just
couldn’t. Sheckler finally sought help, and checked into a Rehab center.

Conclusion - Life after addiction.

Now clean, Ryan dedicates his life to helping others with his Sheckler Foundation and taking
part in outreach programmes to inspire and help the next generation of skaters.

He is now enjoying the spoils of his career and staying out of the public eye much of the time.
While he never really retired from Skateboarding, he’s just faded out of competing due to his
body not holding up any more, and he doesn’t have the desire to compete any more.

Despite the mistakes he’s made, Ryan is a truly inspirational individual, and is a real legend of
professional skateboarding. It’s just a shame that he and his talent were exploited when he was
so young, and that led him down the wrong path.

Shorts Script

Ryan Sheckler is an inspirational character, a disgraced child star of skateboarding who

overcame addiction and controversy to help people live better lives. But what caused the
skating community to hate him so much? How bad was his addiction? and What does he regret
the most?

The skating community almost disowned him completely in 2008, when he claimed he’d landed
the perfect backside flip down El Toro, a legendary stair set in California. Only, he hadn’t even
tried the trick yet, when he did, he failed and injured himself, and the world found out.

In his early 20s, he would skate in competitions, trying his best to win just so he had more
money to go and party with. He may have spent over 1 million dollars on partying, and in 2016,
he checked into rehab to recover from a serious alcohol problem.

Even though he had his struggles, he seems to have come through it, and he’s the kinda guy
that doesn’t really do regrets.