Ryan Sheckler BEING: Extended Cut
The story of Ryan Sheckler's rise to skate stardom is explored further in this extended cut version of X Games' excellent 'Being' piece.
Seemingly shot out of the womb into a skate park training facility, Ryan's ascent to fame played out in front of the world's skate media and, as such, there is a rich vein of archive footage to be plundered to tell his story in its entirety.
The original child skate prodigy, the young man from La Palma was competing at "pro" level by 13 and his famed Sheckl-air was responsible for unceremoniously ending the careers of many aging contest circuit stalwarts. This full-length piece ventures back to those heady days, with contributory commentary from everyone from Tony Hawk to Jamie Thomas, explaining just how seismic an impact he had on the industry as a whole.
Moving on to the MTV years, his dalliance with mainstream heartthrob status and his subsequent concentration on "proper skateboarding," this well-constructed and entertaining retrospective on the life of one of our most ebullient and celebrated practitioners is a definite must watch!