The Motivation

Rob Dyrdek:
[about Chaz Ortiz] He will be a top-level professional street skater in Street League for the next 15 years, at least. 'Til he's like, 30. 'Til that body starts breaking down. As good as he is, he doesn't have that upper echelon respect that all these other guys have. And he is relentlessly fighting to prove that he is one of the elite and winning this contest would do that for him.

Chris Cole:
I guess that's always kind of like, been my role. There' always somebody that can do tricks, you know? And I guess my kind of role has been I absolutely love skating and then I'll continue until far beyond reason. Because I know I can never give up a thing. Nowadays, I like pick and choose my battles a little bit wiser. I was gonna try it until I made it.

Nyjah Huston:
I guess I was kinda held down by my dad a little bit. He was always really strict and really protective. My dad would pretty much be at the skate park every day, but a day that he wouldn't be there and my mom would just be like, yes we can go out and skate and have fun with my friends. Because when I was around my dad I pretty much wasn't allowed to have friends. I pretty much had to focus on skateboarding. I would be like sick or something and I would just want to chill for the day and he'd be like, no you have to go out there and skate.

Sean Malto:
I would say that every single one of these guys that are in there can win. That's what's scary about this contest. It all comes down to the day. How you feel that day, how the board falls on your feet that day. You see people under pressure that you don't really get to that you don't really get to see under pressure that often. It's more or less a free for all of the best skaters in the world.

Chaz Ortiz:
What's cool about skating is no one can skate for you. You're your own team.

Paul Rodriguez:
Every guy who's there at street league is as good as it gets on this planet Earth.

Bastien Salabanzi:
I got an edge compared to the ones that don't have kids. I feel like I have two hearts instead of one. I have four lungs instead of two. It's an edge that I have. When I feel tired, exhausted, I have no legs anymore, I just got to think about my kids and the batteries are charged at least for one trick. It's awesome, you know?

Luan Oliveira:
I was raised by my grandparents, not my parents. They helped me a lot. Incentivized me since the beginning and they motivated me to stay on this journey.

Ryan Sheckler:
I want to win them all. I wanted to win all of them and it just hasn't worked out.

Rob Dyrdek:
Becoming a Street League champion is the most prestigious thing that can happen in all of competitive skateboarding.

Luan Oliveira:
I used to live in the middle of nowhere in Brazil, like so gnarly.

Cesar:
He's from the hood!

Luan Oliveira:
Next to the prison and sh*t. Like in the days my friends would be like, oh can I stay at your house? Yeah sure, but I live in the ghetto. You know? When they get there like, damn.

Cesar:
The ghetto in the ghetto.

Luan Oliveira:
Yeah. Not anymore, though. Thank God. I've seen so many people die and sh*t. Yeah, like I never tell that. Never tell nobody that. The Cesar changed my life! Helped me a lot. He used to give me like, food every month for like three years. Every month for my grandma and sh*t. It was so sick. Helped me a lot. It if wasn't skateboarding I don't know what the hell I'd be doing right now. Probably selling drugs or probably even be dead. Probably dead right now. So I gotta thank every minute of everything. Everything.

Kelle Huston:
After a while the sponsors were like, "hey well where's Nyjah? You know, like he used to be in the magazines almost every month and now we never see him anymore and we're paying him all this money and he's not around." That was the first time in my relationship with their dad where I spoke up and I felt like Adeyemi was putting his opinions in front of what was best for Nyjah. It's just about control. Eventually, Element said, "you know, we've got to let it go. We cannot continue to pay this kid because it's a completely unmanageable relationship."

Chris Cole:
It's hard. It's really hard to stay in a mode to fully get into a contest, and win, and be in a physical place where you can win. I've got to wake up at 6am, get the kids fed, and like ready to go to school. We have our whole routine. It's really quick to just get pulled out by like, you know, the undertow of life. I've definitely been so busy that I've not skated for like a full week. At times I wish that I could just not deal with anything and just deal with skateboarding. Just like you would if you were like a younger dude; no kids, no wife, no house, no companies. None of it.

Randy Sheckler:
[on his son, Ryan] He's skating in every warehouse and every park and every place he possibly can right now. And that is a testament to his fortitude to try to come in here this year and freakin' put a nail in the coffin of a championship.

Kelle Huston:
At that time I wasn't living with Nyjah. They were still in Puerto Rico and I was in California trying to figure out, what am I going to do? My son's whole career is falling apart and he's losing all of his sponsors. And so, I took legal action.

Ryan Sheckler:
Taking a solid slam can either really hurt you or just piss you off. And, for me, it normally just pisses me off. It hurts but it's more of like an adrenaline rush to like, be able to trick your brain and be like, "that didn't hurt, we're doing this again." Once it gets to like the fourth or fifth hard slam in a row then you kind of re-evaluate what you're trying.

Ryan Sheckler:
Step one: don't be a p*ssy. Step two: commit.

Randy Sheckler:
It's tiring to see people say, "oh Ryan's done. Ryan's done." He's 23 years old. Are you kidding me? We're promoting brands and we're done when we say we're done. We're not done! But winning the Street League would be cataclysmic for Ryan.

Rob Dyrdek:
[on Ryan Sheckler] There's no more famous professional skateboarder in Street League than him. And with that comes this massive endorsement deals and millions of dollars. You are expected to win. You are Ryan Sheckler, all you do is win. That pressure in the first years was mind-blowing for him.

Rob Dyrdek:
You keep waxing that, you're going to catch a fine.

Nyjah Huston:
Dude, it was not on them.

Rob Dyrdek:
We're implementing wax fines for anyone that comes from the Valley.

Paul Rodriguez:
What happens when someone gets stuck and breaks their whole face off? Is there a reverse fine back on the league?

Rob Dyrdek:
Yes there is.

Nyjah Huston:
Oh yeah, payback.