Name: Ryan Sheckler
Discipline: Skateboarding
Date of Birth: December 30, 1989
Hometown: San Clemente, California
Ask any skateboarder on the planet who Ryan Sheckler is and you're sure to get an out-of-this-world answer. A child prodigy turned professional skateboarder, world-renowned athlete, teenage heartthrob, business owner, charity founder and TV star has made his name synonymous with skateboarding. What this 19-year-old has already accomplished as a teenager, most could only dream of accomplishing in a lifetime.
Ryan’s amazing skills in the park and on the street have won the respect of pros old enough to be his father, while his big green eyes have attracted the adulation of girls too young to get a driver’s license. He’s a phenom in every sense of the word. Yet, the SoCal teen is focused like a laser beam on his future. “Shecks” wants to go down in the record books as one of the greatest skaters who ever lived—and he’s traveling the globe to make it happen.
BURSTING ONTO THE SCENE
Ryan Allen Sheckler (aka “Shecky,” aka “Shecks”) was born in La Palma, Calif., in 1989. He started rolling on a skateboard in his driveway at 18 months, and by the time he was 4, he could do ollies. At 7, he got a mini-ramp in the backyard and began skating every day.
Once his incredible talents began to take form, so began the travels of Ryan and his intrepid mom, Gretchen. Between 1999 and 2002, Ryan took multiple podiums on the Vans Warped Tour. He was runner-up and winner at the U.S. Open of Skateboarding (in front of a hometown San Clemente crowd), chalked up another California Amateur Skateboard League State Championship, and gave runner-up performances in the Gravity Games Amateur Challenge and the Best Trick Contest—against pros—at the Jockey Core Tour. All that in addition to strong finishes at the Globe World Cup, the Tampa Am, and the Slam City Jam.
The only way I will know that I have achieved legendary status is when my peers say I have.
There is no other way.
Then in 2003 he turned pro and busted out a season they’ll be talking about for years.
The 13-year-old’s plethora of accomplishments that year included second place at the Scandinavian Open, first place at the Slam City Jam, first place overall for the Vans Triple Crown Street competition, a gold medal at the Gravity Games, and, yes, that astonishing win in Street at the 2003 Summer X Games—where he was the only skater to land every trick he attempted.
From there, it was officially on. In 2005, Ryan was named the Action Sports Tour’s Athlete of the Year and overall Street Champion by the World Cup of Skateboarding. A year later, he was named both Skateboarder and Athlete of the Year at the Arby’s Action Sports Awards as well as the 2006 Action Sports Tour overall Park Champion. In 2007, Ryan made history by becoming the first skateboarder ever to win an AST Championship three years in a row; in 2008 he once again took home an X Games gold medal and first place at Thrasher magazine’s Bust or Bail contest, a win he cites as one of his greatest to date. All this, and we haven’t made one mention of his talents off the course.
STREET CRED
It’s no secret that Ryan dominates the contest world, but his talents also hold up in the streets. After dropping two doubt-crushing video parts in Almost’s Round Three and Oakley’s Our Life, Ryan had the skateboard media salivating over his skills and a cover boy was born. At 17, he made the cover of the May 2007 issue of The Skateboard Mag. One year later, Ryan worthily graced their cover again and the same spot on Transworld SKATEboarding magazine, where he was interviewed for a second time.
Now one of the leading members on the Plan B skate team, Ryan recently dropped a heavy hammer of tricks in their promo video Superfuture, letting his skating once again speak loudly and clearly for itself. Although he’s earned the respect of even the most diehard street skaters, Ryan still has yet to fulfill his ultimate goal: Thrasher’s Skater of the Year. Many say it’s only a matter of time.
AN INTERNATIONAL STAR GIVING BACK
Between the media coverage and the contest winnings, Shecky’s popularity fuse had just been lit. But when his reality show, The Life of Ryan, premiered on MTV in 2007, his fame exploded into international stardom. Now in its third season, Ryan-mania is more contagious than ever. Whether he’s entering a contest or attending an industry event, a barrage of screaming girls—and signs reading, “I Love Ryan”—always follows.
Even with many successes under his belt, Ryan still keeps a humble remembrance of the road he traveled to get there and who helped him along the way. He recently launched the Sheckler Foundation, a charity organization that aims to enrich the lives of children and fund programs that aid the health of action sports athletes. And in a gesture of personal charity, Ryan put up his own Ranger Rover for auction this year to benefit the Children's Cancer Research Fund. The deed raised almost $200,000 dollars.
With all his achievements in and outside of skateboarding, when—or how—will Sheckler know that he’s achieved his ultimate goal of being one of the greatest skaters ever? "I want to make a huge contribution to skateboarding," he says after thinking for a moment. "The only way I will know that I have achieved legendary status is when my peers say I have. There is no other way."
Name: Corry duffel
Discipline: Skateboarding
Date of birth: April 11, 1984
Hometown: Walunt Creek, California
Duffel has been skating since age ten, and turned pro at age eighteen. His favorite trick is to ollie and bomb big hills. Duffel also said he always puts a silver screw on the top right corner of the screws holding in his trucks on his skateboard. Some of his career highlights are just getting to ride a skateboard with his friends.
Duffel's sponsors include Foundation Skateboards, Osiris Shoes, Ambiguous Clothing, Venture Trucks, Mob Grip, Pig Wheels, Metro Skateboard Shop, Armourdillo. CCS magazine, Skullcandy headphones, and most recently Swiss Bearings.[citation needed]
Duffel is also working with mentor Michael Davis' Music Is Revolution Foundation, raising money to support music education in public schools. Davis and Duffel have also collaborated on some fashion and skate items for Foundation. He has a tattoo of a spider on his back, which also appeared on one of his skateboard graphics. He also has tattoos of his dogs’ names on his arm in a heart with a dagger, and his 7th Seal deck on his rib which features the Grim Reaper playing chess. In an interview in Transworld Magazine, Corey describes it as a battle between him and the reaper. However, in the tattoo, his king has been knocked over. He also sports a 45 record logo on his chest. Corey Duffel Has 2 Pro Model Shoes On Osiris Footwear which are The Duffel and The Corpse. [1]
Name: Rodney Mullen
Discipline: Skateboarding
Date of birth: August 17, 1966
Hometown: Gainesville, Florida
[4] At age six, Mullen was diagnosed with pigeon toe and had to wear leg braces to fix the condition.[5] He began skateboarding on January 1, 1977 at age 10, when his father (who had opposed his son's wishes to practice the sport) finally agreed to give Rodney a skateboard on condition that he would always wear pads, and with the understanding that if he were to ever get hurt, he would have to quit.[2] He describes his interest in skateboarding: "I fell in love with skateboarding because it was individual. There were no teams, there were no captains ... it was completely opposite of what I saw in so many sports: It was creative. I could walk around with my skateboard at the skate park. I love skateboarding."[6]
Rodney began practicing in full pads, and spent time with his sister's surfer friends who would skateboard on the week days.[7] In 1978, having owned a skateboard for less than a year, Rodney placed 4th out of a group of older and more experienced professional skateboarders.
Career
Rodney Mullen is widely considered the most influential skateboarder in the history of skateboarding. The majority of ollie and flip tricks he invented throughout the 1980s, including the flatground ollie, the Kickflip, the Heelflip, and the 360 flip are regularly done in modern vertical and street skateboarding.
Despite Alan Gelfand's justifiable fame for inventing the ollie air (Gelfand's maneuver being primarily a vert or pool oriented trick) Mullen is responsible for the invention and development of the street ollie. The ability to pop the board off of the ground and land back on the board while moving has quite likely been the most significant development in modern skateboarding. This invention alone would rank Mullen the most important skateboarder of all time.
As the popularity of freestyle skateboarding declined, Mullen was often urged to move his style toward street skating.[8] This is hinted at in the World Industries video Rubbish Heap, where Mullen's sequence ends with team member Jeremy Klein breaking Rodney's freestyle skateboard, and handing him a note from Steve Rocco, symbolizing the end of freestyle.[9]
Rodney Mullen in air
Rodney Mullen, 1988
In 1991 Mullen joined the high-profile skateboarding team Plan B. Mike Ternasky, the owner of Plan B, influenced Rodney to transition from freestyle to street skating, and showcased the results in the 1992 Plan B video Questionable. Mullen's segment begins with traditional freestyle tricks done on flat ground, but quickly accelerates across public terrain to shift into standard street skating. In relation to obstacles, he sequences tricks, mixes flip tricks with grinds and board slides. In the video, Mullen introduced two newly invented tricks, the Kickflip Underflip and the Casper slide.
Mullen's Questionable performance may have marked the beginning of a new era in street skateboarding. His reluctant departure from freestyle to become a street skater was a symbol that legitimized the technical direction street skating had taken over the previous few years. Mullen specialized at this progression in subsequent Plan B videos; noteworthy is 1993's Virtual Reality where Mullen showcases the newly-mastered darkslide.
I can't wait to wake up in the morning... A lot of times I can't sleep because I can't wait to try something new. How many people ever really experience that feeling? Rodney Mullen, 2003[6]
Mullen's participation in Plan B dissolved after Mike Ternasky died unexpectedly in 1994. In 1997, Mullen started another company, A-Team, with the intent of forming a super team with the defection of Plan B from the World Industries empire.[7] Rodney talked to friend and fellow pro Daewon Song to plan the video Rodney vs. Daewon, which featured each skater competing in segments from trick to trick.
The A-Team folded in 2000 and Mullen went from company founder to company rider under former Maple rider Marc Johnson, who started Enjoi Skateboards. Mullen left Enjoi to head Almost Skateboards with Daewon Song, the company which he still helms and skates for. Mullen's role at Almost includes research and development on new designs and technologies, including Tensor truck in 2000[10] and experimental and composite deck constructions for Dwindle brands.[11]
In 2002 the World Industries companies, under the holding name Kubic Marketing, were bought out by Globe International for $46 million. Kubic's management remained intact and Mullen began working for Globe International under the Dwindle Distribution brand.[12]
In 2003, Mullen wrote and released his autobiography, entitled The Mutt: How to skateboard and not kill yourself. In late 2003 he was voted as the all-time greatest action sports athlete on the Extreme Sports Channel's Legends of the Extreme countdown.[citation needed][13][14]
From 2007 to 2009, Mullen worked to erase his riding stance, allowing him to move from Regular stance to Goofy Stance. In an interview with Tony Hawk, Mullen explained that he had developed problems in his right hip joint and that his transition between stances came out of an effort to favor his leg. He goes on to describe that scar tissue had built up in his joint as a result of habitually hyper-extending his leg while skating. Thirteen out of fourteen nights every two weeks for two years, Mullen would brace his leg in the tire-well of his car and apply pressure to his femur, tearing the scar tissue in the joint; eventually the scar tissue stopped growing back. [15]
In December 2010 Mullen stated in an interview that he is preparing to film a part for the upcoming Almost video. [16]
Personal life
