Ryan Myers has been a staunch supporter of Proto parts for years, and with this video his official welcome to the roster is set in stone. I’ve known Ryan since I was little more than a kid, and never once have I seen his interest in, dedication to or enthusiasm for the act and culture of scooter riding waver in the slightest. It’s always rad to see your closest friends succeed in any facet of their lives, but this achievement stands out to me in particular, a long-overdue though nonetheless inevitable recognition of complete and genuine affinity for craft.
To me, Ryan is in many ways the purest embodiment of uncompromising passion. He lives and breathes scootering, and it shows not only in the ways in which he approaches spots in person, but in the ways in which his tricks come together as a production. Ryan rides everything and does anything, often in unison. Be it finger-whipping a bump-to-bar, backside noseblunting a picnic table or piecing together a four-trick plaza line, he is perpetually pushing, inseparable from his vehicle of enjoyment. Watching this video one can sense his energy, his positivity, even his intrigue with the surrounding environs. In truth, the video itself feels like a reflection of Ryan’s personality: constantly firing, and boyishly excited by prospects of the novel experiences facilitated by the performance of riding.
Earnest and upbeat feelings aside, Ryan is an undeniable talent, the product of over a decade of ambition and commitment. As previously noted, he tackles an array of spots and with a far-reaching repertoire of maneuvers. The briflip, fullwhip and finger-whip combinations always catch my attention especially, in part for how he does them, but also for their seamless integration with the urban/suburban backdrop. Particularly with over-the-head, perhaps more “skatepark-oriented” tricks, I find it rare for scooter riders to incorporate them in a way that compliments the spot without entering the realm of excess. Ryan somehow manages to do this well, though, and strikes a delicate balance between acrobatic versatility and tasteful ideation, ultimately bringing things together in a strikingly cohesive visual-aesthetic experience.
But then, even if the tricks weren’t impressive on their face (as they certainly are), this video would still possess an intangible appeal. A recurring theme is Ryan’s passion for scootering, despite the video’s relatively simplistic structure and lack of explicit reference to the fact. Someway, somehow, Ryan covertly evokes this sensation in his viewers, in turn motivating them too to consider their own experience of scooter riding, and why it is or has become such a wonderful choice of individual activity. Ryan told me once that he didn’t think he could do the best tricks or have the best style, but one thing he was certain of was that he could love scootering more than anyone else in the industry. I told him I thought he did just that—I believe it as much today as I did then.
[video video_src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/N7vEIzr6Rgc"]