Ryan Sheckler Clarifies ESPN Article; Talks About “Life of Ryan”
July 18, 2008 – 7:58 pm PT by GregTags: AST, Right Guard Open, Ryan Sheckler —
Sheckler after winning the 2007 Right Guard Open. cr. Lat34/ Michael Nakonachny
Ryan Sheckler is in Cleveland for the Right Guard Open, where he plans to compete tomorrow in the skate park finals despite having a broken elbow. While there, he answered some questions for the AST and clarified some comments he made in his current ESPN the Magazine cover story.
“They said something in the ESPN interview that I was comfortable with selling out which is completely not what I said. It is not selling out. I haven’t sold out. People say what they want to say, but in my eyes I have taken my skateboard career and gone on a different path,” Sheckler said. “It might not be the same path as some of these core skateboarders that think that their path is the right way. There is no right path in skateboarding. I want to do something different. I love this. I love the fans. My life is crazy as it is and this fits right in the puzzle piece.”
Of course, the topic of his MTV reality series, now filming its third season, came up.
“My life changed a lot (after the debut of the TV show). I didn’t really think it would change that much. The core fans are still there, but I definitely have a new following of TV fans. It is an uncontrollable monster. It can go either good for you or bad for you and turn in a snap. You have to make sure you keep everyone happy too, which is hard. I am a skateboarder. I have an extraordinary gift and that is what I love.”
“I have walked around and people would recognize me before that show. Now, obviously, people are like ‘Look at Sheckler. Look at Sheckler. What a punk.’ There is a lot of jealousy. There are so many jealous people now. That is the biggest thing I’ve dealt with. There are just haters. More jealous people than I ever thought existed. There are so many people that speak badly about me, but that is okay because they are still talking about me. That is my plan, whether it is good or not good. There are people that will say I am not cool, but other people correct them and say ‘No, I’ve met him. He’s cool.’ It is funny to see. It motivates me so much. It just makes me want to skate. All I want to do when I wake up is skate. That has been the same thing since I was four years old.”
When asked about how he planned out his career, the answer wasn’t surprising.
“My blueprint came from Tony Hawk and Danny Mayer and the whole Plan B team. When I was growing up I wanted to be a street skater. I wanted to be like those guys in that movie. Now I actually have a movie too that is coming out soon. Everything is working right now. My whole plan is rock solid,” he said. “Everything I said I was going to do I’ve done. It is going to the sky. There is really not anything that is stopping me.”
Finally, the 18-year-old Sheckler discussed how his career hopefully will influence a new generation.
“My path is skateboarding, giving back to the kids and showing them different ways they can take skateboarding and branch off into movies and TV and commercials. If anything kids that follow me can learn is that it is just a guideline to start them on a road to something else. It is not like I’m telling them ‘You have got to do this and this.’ I just mean to say, ‘This is what I have done. Look at what I have done. You can do it too.’”
You can catch Sheckler skating in the skate park finals via a webcast on the AST.com starting at 1 p.m. ET.
One Response to “Ryan Sheckler Clarifies ESPN Article; Talks About “Life of Ryan””
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sos un canio(lindo-hermoso)
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By CAMILA on Apr 22, 2009