As it turns out, teenaged skateboarding phenom turned proud dad Ryan Sheckler was able to master one more death-defying obstacle: The Aging Curve.
Now 33, Sheckler spoke with FanSided on behalf of Red Bull ahead of the release of the new documentary, "Rolling Away," which drops July 28.
Though he gained notoriety over two decades ago, first as a child prodigy, then as a teenaged hearththrob, Sheckler has matured into his finest form in recent years, mastering sobriety and starting a family (while, of course, maintaining the same passion for the art of skating that fueled his childhood curiosity).
While he knows the newfound stakes associated with his current phase of life, Sheckler made it clear he only knows one way to skate, and while he'll always be careful, he cannot sacrifice the thrill ("I've had to by no means dumb my skating down, but I've had to listen to my body.").
This becomes clear in the documentary, which often checks in with a storyline involving Sheckler persevering through ongoing trials while trying to nail a particularly risky trick. The failure to do so could've ended his career.
So how did Sheckler manage to quiet the naysayers residing within his own mind? The same way he would've attacked external doubt, at any point during his rise to prominence and resulting battle: compartmentalizing the problem and moving it to a different sphere.
"That goes into life. That's not even skateboarding," Sheckler assured. "I've been faced with a lot of adversity throughout my skateboarding career, which has been a blessing now, looking at it from a distance."
"While you're in any sort of pushback, or people not agreeing with what you're doing, or definitely questioning everything that you're doing … everyone has an opinion … and you feel that. I've felt that, for sure. But for me, I've always pushed through that. I've always found a way to realize that if anybody has a problem with me, there's something going on in that person's life."
Sheckler has been as high as a skater can get at the youngest age possible. He watched Tony Hawk shred, in person, at his sixth birthday party ($500 appearance fee, a massive steal). He became a character in Hawk's video game as a teenager, still young enough for his friends to select him as a player and take joy in crashing him into the sidewalk. He was on television, residing in MTV's 10:30 slot following "The Hills". He was up, down, and back again.
But, as expected, despite great dangers along the way, he stuck the landing.
