Ryan Sheckler still remembers what it was like when he mentioned that he did a backside flip down the world's most famous skateboarding spot, El Toro, in the Nine Club Podcast.
The new Sandlot Times business owner and Red Bull professional skate rider also admitted that he lied to Thrasher Magazine's editor-in-chief Jake Phelps when asked about the trick.
Sheckler said the backside flip was his favorite trick after fellow pro skater Bastian Salabanzi taught him the maneuver. After consistently landing the backside flip, he knew he could land it in El Toro, but he got injured before even trying.
"The last thing was going through my mind before I broke my foot was I'm going to do El Toro." He said.
Unfortunately, at a very young age, he immediately said yes to the Phelper's question if he landed the backside flip on El Toro. "To be honest with you like my head was screaming no I didn't." Sheckler said. "But because Phelps was there, I knew I was lying."
When Phelps reaffirmed, "Yeah I did it. Again my head is like no. But then I was like yeah and that became a thing." Shecks explained. "Alright cool, I'm definitely going to do it."
He was already on fire and going to nail it either way, and it fueled the fire when he finally tried but failed.
The San Clemente, California, native expounds that the rumor he held for many years was the biggest lesson he learned in his life in skateboarding.
Because back in the day, there were no social media, which in skateboarding, it's all about word of mouth that someone landed the trick, keeping skateboarders thrilled and waiting for the video part.
"My lie was on camera to a world that we live in that holds you to your word, Sheckler said about the incident. "To me, yeah, I was definitely a fraud, and I felt bad about it, and I think about it all the time, and as an adult now, I look back and like that lie has saved me from a million lies that I might have told along the way to get here."
He added. But I did a disservice to skateboarding by saying something I didn't.