In the realm of action sports, teenage athletes can feel old.
“The kids around me are coming up so fast right now, but I’m still coming up fast, too,” 15-year-old super skater Ryan Sheckler said. “If you are committed, then experience still counts, you know.”
Sheckler knows the burdens of old age. He can’t go full bore all day like 11-year-old rival Nyjah Huston, who finished second in Sheckler’s dominion of skateboard park at Denver’s Dew Action Sports Tour this weekend.
“I’ve got to pace myself,” said Sheckler, a California skateboarding whiz kid who won almost $200,000 and a truck he wasn’t old enough to drive in last year’s Dew tour. “But I’ve still got more power and experience.”
Don’t be fooled by the bejeweled Rolex dwarfing Sheckler’s wrist. The life of an action sports star isn’t easy. The consequences of learning new tricks are brutal. But when you start mastering moves at age 6, like Sheckler, the bruises and broken bones heal quickly. The memory of pain and suffering fades faster.
For older athletes, the inevitable injuries endured keeping ahead of the rubber-boned upstarts soon can outweigh the measly dollars earned in action sports.
“Everyone out here over 30 has major injuries, that’s for sure,” said Derek Krasauskas, who at 33 was the second-oldest competitor in the Dew tour’s skateboard vert competition, which a 19-year-old won. “We’re still out here because we love it, though. This is our passion.”
Loving it is a little bit easier these days. Companies such as Target, Mountain Dew, Right Guard and Panasonic are pumping big money into action sports. The rewards for experience have grown beyond lifelong limps and noisy joints.
Action sports, it seems, have finally caught up with action sports athletes.
“People are realizing we are not just young punk kids with attitudes. We are true athletes,” said Kevin Robinson, a State College, Pa., father of two who, at 34, ranks as one of the most talented BMX halfpipe riders in the world. “I’ve lived off bike riding for 14 years. Before, it was nice to just pay the bills and stay on the bike. Now, I can retire off bike riding.”
Every athlete in the growing legion of 30-plus veterans in action sports professes an undying love for their sports. Money just allows them to remain the same kids they were two decades ago, chasing a dream from atop their board, bike or motorcycle.
“All these companies have stepped up huge, but the fact of the matter is we’d all have 9-to-5 jobs and still be out here doing what we are doing anyway,” said Las Vegas BMX dirt jumper T.J. Lavin, who turns 30 in December. “I’ve never been in this for money, but it sure helps us make a living doing what we love.”
The influx of dollars in action sports propels skateboarding, BMX and freestyle motocross by retaining the wizened perspectives of older athletes. It takes a long time to perfect a double backflip off a 20-foot pile of dirt. It takes a longer time to master three rotations on a bike in an 18-foot halfpipe, which is what 39-year-old Dennis McCoy did in Saturday’s BMX vert finals in the Pepsi Center.
A decade of experience gives action sports the dignity it needs to succeed on the mainstream stage. It’s hard to be taken seriously when the sports are skewed as a gaggle of twirling teenagers on bikes and boards.
“There are a lot of young kids coming in who are fearless and they are learning stuff tremendously faster than we ever did,” said Kenny “Cowboy” Bartram, a 27-year-old FMX competitor who took third place in Sunday’s showdown with awe-inspiring backflips and no-handed soaring over 80-foot gaps. “But we’re still ahead of them. And they have a long way to go to catch up.”
Staff writer Jason Blevins can be reached at 303-820-1374 or jblevins@denverpost.com.
