Extreme Soundtracks is a column profiling professional extreme sports athletes and the role music has played in their life.
Created by twin sisters Stefanie and Suzanne Sanchez
Beaver Fleming is a 24-year-old professional skateboarder, speaker, influencer, global explorer, and self-described “life-liver”. All the way from Tennessee, Beaver’s passion for skateboarding brought him to California at the young age of 17. With the goal of becoming a professional skateboarder, he put a lot of effort into his work during that period, and when he gained the attention of FMX athlete and action sports icon Travis Pastrana, he was extended an invitation to join the Nitro Circus. Since then, he’s performed live all over the world, starred in action movies, and landed numerous firsts (maneuvers).
TP: Thank you for joining us! Can you tell us what your life looks like being a world-class athlete?
BF: As a professional skateboarder, life is always an adventure through commitments with sponsorships, creating content, traveling with Nitro Circus, competing daily life is different and exciting and always keeps it fresh, especially adding in my wife and our first child last year keeps it fun and filled.
When I’m at home, my day to day life is waking up a mix of reading, praying, mediating, enjoying family time, some sort of mobility work, sauna, cold plunge, healthy meal, getting some emails done or things posted and then hitting up one of the many local skate parks that we are blessed to have here in San Diego county.
TP: The best thing about skating to me is there’s no right or wrong way to do it.
Beaver- It’s really a self-expression of creativity and you can push yourself as far as you wanna go. If you wanna learn a trick it’s on you so it really taught me cause and effect, developing discipline, and so many things throughout my journey on a skateboard.
TP: This lifestyle can beat your body up. How do you prepare physically /mentally for this athletic lifestyle?
BF: Number one is healthy nutrition. I try and really eat minimally processed food local organic, nutrient, dense foods. Sauna and cold plunge helps big time for recovery. And on the mental side, pushing yourself to stay in for extended periods of time!
TP: Do you ever get butterflies before your heat/show?
BF: A little bit, but the good kind! Doing it for so long you kind of learn to transmute the energy of nervousness, and use the energy of the crowd, the excitement of the event and try and put yourself into a harmonious state with it. That’s the goal and just the joy of being there, keeps me present and ready to perform.
TP: Greatest challenges in this dangerous sport?
BF: Finding the drive and motivation to keep moving forward, innovating, and learning new stuff, while keeping it fresh is probably the challenge as well as navigating the different economic states of our sport, where at some points you’re making great money. There’s lots of opportunities and other seasons it’s smaller but figuring out ways to be grateful and keep the momentum going through the highs and lows.
TP: So far biggest highs of your career?
BF:
- Competing in X Games
- Being part of the Nitro Circus crew for well over 10 years,
- Landing the first ever double backflip on a skateboard, as well as many other world’s first tricks
- Setting the high air at Bondi Bowl-A-RamaThere are so many great things I’ve been blessed to experience on board.
TP: You are always pushing the envelope in skating. Where do you see the progression of the sport going?
BF: Hopefully to even bigger ramps. I think we still haven’t seen the potential. The mega ramp has pretty much stayed the same for the last 10 to 15 years. I think we can go bigger with it on both the gap and more spins and rotations, integrating more cork variations.
TP: What would you like to conquer in the future?
BF: I would love to see how we can jump on a skateboard, see how big the gap could be and push that there.
TP: Can you tell us about a close call experience?
BF: The takeoff and landing flat in the middle of the gap. I tore my ACL, ripped my meniscus off the bone and MCL. That one took a while to recover from a few years back.
TP: What music in your life?
BF: It really depends on the day. I’ve been way into soft instrumental, piano music on the way to the session, but always love getting back to the roots of punk rock when skating. It just clicks through the buildup in sessions and makes you want to send it. I play a little bit of guitar and am working on learning piano. My favorite punk bands are Ramones, Blink 182, Green Day, and The Offspring.
TP: Message of inspiration?
BF: Life is a gift! Enjoy and embrace it. The decisions you make every single day have an impact on whether you recognize it or not so decide how you wanna show up and what you can leave in this world through your journey.
Be bold, be true, be honest, be you! And may God bless you in ways beyond your wildest dreams as you do!