Ryan Sheckler Gives Back As New Skate Program Designer For Woodward Summer Camp

Ryan Sheckler’s pro skateboarding career isn’t over—not yet. But 28 years in, he’s looking for as many ways to make a difference off of his board as he is on it.

A household name even among those who don’t follow skateboarding closely, Sheckler’s MTV reality series Life of Ryan propelled him into millions of living rooms in 2007. He became a playable character in 2004’s Tony Hawk's Underground 2. On his board, Sheckler was a three-time X Games gold medalist and a four-time Dew Tour champion, becoming the then-youngest gold medalist in X Games history as a 13-year-old in 2003.

But as his fame grew, Sheckler couldn’t escape the nagging reality that he was getting farther and farther from his roots: the six-year-old who discovered his father’s skateboard at two years old and learned his first kickflip at six. Refocusing on the actual skating saw Sheckler anchor the highly anticipated Plan B Skateboards full-length video True in 2014, win Dew Tour streetstyle three years in a row and launch the Sheckler Foundation, which aims to support and enrich the lives of children and injured action sports athletes.

There’s a thread that runs through Sheckler’s initiatives in skateboarding: helping pass down the love of the sport and shape the next generation of skaters, even as his professional career has wound down. And Sheckler’s latest endeavor as the skate program designer for Woodward skate camp brings it all full-circle.

In addition to its original location in Pennsylvania, Woodward also offers skate camp in California—in all, Woodward boasts 290,000-plus square feet of skateboard facilities. In his new role, Sheckler has designed a program that counselors and full-time Woodward staffers can follow even if he isn’t physically at camp—though he will be traveling back and forth and working one-on-one with young skateboarders.

“It’s not just putting my name on the program,” Sheckler told me. “I’m going to be hands-on with the message I’m trying to get across to every skateboarder.”

The message? It begins with having an “attitude of gratitude,” Sheckler said. The goal is to have the kids leave camp with more than skateboarding tricks—though if they come to him asking for pointers on their kickflip, he’s more than happy to oblige.

“It’s a big emphasis on health and wellness and mental well-being,” Sheckler said. Other points of emphasis off the board will include forming better eating habits and a better morning routine to start the day in a gratitude-based way. True to his holistic approach, Sheckler has a hand in designing the menu at Woodward skate camp, as well, focusing on nutritious foods like eggs, chicken, protein shakes, fruits and veggies—however, as he also points out, “It’s camp. There’s going to be ice cream.”

What might a sample day in the skate program look like? Campers awake and head to breakfast at 7:30 am. Afterward, they’ll be encouraged to participate in a small meditation or to think about why they’re grateful to be alive and why they’re grateful to be at Woodward.

From 9:30 until noon, it’s morning instruction followed by stretching, and in the afternoon after lunch, there’s a VIP clinic where campers can receive instruction from pro skaters—50-plus of whom visit Woodward camps each year.

“I plan to spend a lot of one-on-one time with the kids to allow them to pick my brain, talk to me about their concerns,” Sheckler said. “I’ve been blessed with a very, you could say fortunate and fun, but also very hectic life. Anything these kids are going to be going through pertaining to skateboarding or being an athlete, I’ve pretty much been through.”

After the clinic, campers have an hour of open ride from 3 pm to 4 pm. During this time, Sheckler says, he really wants to emphasize that failure is totally acceptable when campers are learning new tricks.

“That’s where you get the drive to push through that and conquer the goals you set for yourself in skateboarding, but it translates to your life outside skateboarding,” Sheckler said. “You’re gonna fall and you’re gonna keep trying and keep trying and then you’re gonna land it. It’s about connecting the dots between your skateboard dedication and real-world dedication.”

After dinner, campers will have another open ride from 7 pm to 10 pm, with lights out by age group afterward. Woodward skate camp accepts campers from seven to 17, and though a typical week of camp costs $1,549, Woodward has given out more than 1,000 scholarships (200 per year) over the past five years to make skateboarding more accessible.

As we approach the Tokyo Olympics, where skateboarding will make its debut, it’s more important than ever that any child who wants to learn to skateboard has access and opportunity. And while not every camper who attends Woodward skate camp may have Olympic aspirations, several recent campers were selected to be members of the USA Skateboarding team, including Jagger Eaton, Jenn Soto and Zion Wright.

“There’s always going to be the group of skateboarders coming up that are not turned on by the allure of going to the Olympics, and that’s totally fine,” Sheckler said. “That’s what makes skateboarding individual; you can skate however you want to skate, you can act however you want to act, whatever your diet is can be your diet.”

But for the campers who would like to pursue a professional skateboarding career, Sheckler is eager to share the lessons he learned the hard way so perhaps they don’t have to. His message? If you are dedicated and do see yourself going to the Olympics, take it from me and take better care of your body.

“I’ve lived both sides of this spectrum where I didn’t treat my body right, I partied too much, I still tried to skate and I got injured,” Sheckler said. “If I didn’t take it for granted, I could have avoided 50 to 60 percent of the injuries I’ve been though. I’m hard-headed and I had to learn what works for me; the only thing I can do is a be a positive influence about the health and wellness side of skateboarding.”

As a former Woodward camper himself, Sheckler remembers how important his experience was to his burgeoning love of skateboarding. By the time he arrived at camp, he had already been in a competition series and had been climbing the ranks of amateur skateboarding contests.

“It was so incredible to show up there and literally know that anywhere I looked was something to skate, anywhere I went was a skatepark,” Sheckler recalled. “You get in as much skating in a week as you would get in normally in half a year. I pretty much ate dinner with my helmet on.”

As far as leading by example goes, campers don’t need to look any further than Sheckler. Now 31, Sheckler says his skateboarding is progressing as much as ever—something he fully attributes to his physical and mental health lifestyle changes. Whatever the kids at Woodward skate camp want to do with their skating—go pro or just find local spots to shred—they almost certainly want to do it as long as they can. That’s what Sheckler is banking on.

“I remember what this was like as a kid. I couldn’t wait to get back and I just loved everybody I skated with,” Sheckler said. “I feel very blessed at this part of my career to have this partnership and instill a lot of the knowledge that I’ve gained through my 28 years as a skateboarder.”