O'NEILL Shane

Preferred stance
Goofy (streetleague.com, 01 Jan 2018)

General
COMPANY
In 2019 he launched his own company called April Skateboards. "I had already gone through the process of riding for people and being a part of things that way. When I was on Primitive [his last sponsor, which he left in 2018], it was pretty much a similar thing, but it still wasn't enough freedom to allow certain friends to get involved and certain things to happen that I need to be able to. I had to start from the ground up and learnt a lot of lessons from Skate Mental and from Primitive in the early years, just about how things should be. That's why that [idea] came about." (shredeverythingradio.com, 27 May 2021; freeskatemag.com, 17 Feb 2020; theberrics.com, 15 May 2019)

OLYMPIC EXPOSURE
He hopes more people will take up skateboarding through the sport's exposure at the Olympic Games. "Having skating at the Olympics gives new and old fans great insight into how competition-style skateboarding works. I think this will be the most competitive event to date for us skateboarders and in Tokyo, I want to do something in the contest that may have not been seen before. I'd love for the Olympics to intrigue some new people to go get their first board and give it a try, to be able to enjoy it in their own way. Some enjoy it for the competition side of things but most enjoy just cruising down the street and learning tricks, so I'm hoping we can encourage people to go find out how enjoyable riding a skateboard really is." (theinnersanctum.com.au, 02 Jul 2021)

FATHERHOOD
He says having his first child in 2015 was good timing for where he was at in his professional career. "By the time she was born, which was 2015, that was five years into me being pro. It was is perfect timing. Because 2010 was when I turned pro, 2011 is when I was getting my bearings, and kind of blowing it, 2012 and 2013 is when I started to understand how things should be and by 2015 I had a really good relationship with all my sponsors and the things that were going on. So, it's always been really easy to schedule things out or plan things or make sure I am there, make sure that I am present and doing the right thing by her but also maintaining [my career]. It was like perfect timing. Beforehand I might not have had such a good grasp on everything." (freeskatemag.com, 17 Feb 2020)

VIDEO GAME
He became a playable character in the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 video game relaunch in 2020. "So basically I was just reached out to. I got an email asking me if I would like to be involved in it, and obviously that was a no brainer. So yeah, they reached out to me, and that's history. I was super excited. I think it's a huge honour. Personally it was such a big thing growing up just playing the games and learning what some tricks are. As you start skating, you know what an ollie is, you know how to push, but then when you play the Tony Hawk game you learn what frontside is, what backside is. It really inspires you to want to learn about skating." (sea.ign.com, 31 Aug 2020; Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 and 2 YouTube channel, 20 Aug 2020)