Mega Ramp Skater Elliot Sloan on Defending X Games Gold, Heavy-Metal Inspiration | Page 2 | Revolver

Mega Ramp Skater Elliot Sloan on Defending X Games Gold, Heavy-Metal Inspiration

Listen to latest episode of our action-sports podcast "Boozed and Bruised"
elliotsloangetty.jpg, Gabriel Rossi/Getty Images
photograph by Gabriel Rossi/Getty Images

On "Boozed and Bruised," Revolver's action sports podcast, host Eric Hendrikx interviews his celebrity guests, made up of the world's top skateboarders, motorcyclists, snowboarders and beyond, to explore the ties that bind them all together. For this episode, Hendrikx sat down with Elliot Sloan — Birdhouse skater, X Games champion and devout metalhead. Sloan was living on the east coast and just digging his heels into skateboarding and heavy music when he lost his father. It was bands like In Flames and Lamb of God that helped Sloan through those dark times, and motivate himself to move to California at age 17, where he would eventually become teammates with Tony Hawk and one of the greatest vert and mega ramp skaters of all time. "It's give and take," says Sloan, about dropping in on the notorious mega ramp. "You have more time — there's bigger transition — but you're also going way higher and the consequences of fucking up are way gnarlier." This weekend Sloan will defend his Big Air gold medal at the 2018 X Games.

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Below, see friends and sometime–jam partners Elliot Sloan and Steve Caballero talk about the important role that punk rock and metal have played in their lives, as fans, musicians and skaters: