Last summer, Ryan Decenzo received a phone call from his friend, TM, and X Games Street Skate contest coordinator, Mike Sinclair, which half-surprised him. The call came in two hours before the 2nd practice day of the Summer X Games Street Comp. “Hey, what’s up, Mike?…..No way? Really?…..OK, when?…..Dude, now? Like, right now?….OK, I’ll be there as soon as I can!” Three days later, Ryan had climbed the ranks from alternate to qualifying athlete to finalist before finally landing on the podium in the #3 position behind Ryan Sheckler and Nyjah Houston. The secret was out — there was a major new contender on the circuit.

So this year when the phone rang and Decenzo was offered a guaranteed space in the competition, he wasn’t quite as startled. After all, he had heard that this year’s contest was going to feature nearly all of the big stars of today — not only Nyjah and Sheckler, but also Chris Cole, Chaz Ortiz, Paul Rodriguez, Shane O’Neill, Sean Malto, Greg Lutzka, and Luan Oliviera. It was going to heavy, but he would be ready.

This time, the surprise call came days later, when Decenzo was notified that he was not only selected for the X Games Street Contest, but was also the only skateboarder selected to take part in the X Games Real Street video competition, featuring 16 top editorial (read – not the dudes on TV) skateboard stars, attempting to win a piece of nearly $100,000 purse. “Yeah, when I found that out,” says Decenzo with a drip of intensity, “I was like, ‘man, I have to keep on training, BUT ALSO, I need to go out in the streets and stack some tricks!”

Fast forward to July 31, and Ryan Decenzo has emerged from ESPN’s esteemed Summer X Games competition as one of the top street skateboarders overall. Without missing a beat, Decenzo managed to skate the fine line between the contest megastars and core-skate fanatics and drop hammers on both sides of that fence. When the judges were all done voting, he had qualified 1st overall to reach Finals and finished 5th overall, and also grabbed 2nd place in the Real Street competition. And since he was one of the Top 3 finishers in the Real Street contest, the X Games invited him for a bit of show with the tell (call it an activation), to compete in a Game of SK8 on-site in LA with fellow video stars Silas Baxter-Neal (who won the vid comp), Daewon Song (lifetime of skate insanity), and Brandon Westgate (fan favorite ripper). As the cliche goes, the rest is history. Alongside that fateful bronze medal from XG 16, Ryan now has proudly displayed a silver and a gold from XG17. Wow. Not bad for a guy that just happened to pick up the phone one day.