He’s ramping it up

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Hurricane season may be winding down, but a major disturbance is gathering strength and poised to strike this central Florida city.

It’s called Ryan-mania and it was spawned in Southern California, wreaked havoc recently in Utah, and is already stirring folks here into a shrieking frenzy.

It particularly hits girls and young women who are attending the PlayStation Pro, the last event on the 2007 AST Dew Tour, which runs through Sunday at Amway Arena.

“We Love You Ryan Sheckler!” glared pastel-colored messages on T-shirts worn by 13-year-olds Kierstin Rowland and Paige Wollenberg, who sat impatiently in the stands Thursday, awaiting the practice session of a pro skateboarder both claimed they would marry.

Nearby, in a growing sea of Sheckler fans, were Jackie and Jamie Amor, 17 and 15. They wore red T-shirts emblazoned, across the shoulder blades, with the same S-H-E-C-K-L-E-R letters that the San Clemente athlete recently had tattooed in an arch across his shoulders.

On Saturday night, during the Skateboard Park final, when Ryan-mania will peak, Jamie Amor will unveil a poster inviting Sheckler to her school prom.

“He’s just so down to earth -- and he’s so good looking,” she said, prompting a nod from her parents.

And people thought Shaun White ruled the action sports universe. The red-haired White, 21, has enjoyed more professional success: an Olympic snowboarding gold medal, multiple X Games triumphs as a snowboarder and skateboarder, millions in endorsement money and global notoriety.

But he does not have Sheckler’s boyish good looks. And he does not star in an MTV reality show.

And these, along with Sheckler’s remarkable talent as a street-style skateboarder (White is vert star), have launched him into his own orbit.

“Life of Ryan” has focused on Sheckler as he has dealt with his parents’ divorce, juggled his career and family responsibilities, while he tried to maintain a normal relationship with friends and searched for the perfect girl.

Along the way it transformed the personable 17-year-old, who has won an X Games gold and three Dew Cup championships, into a mainstream sensation and teen heartthrob.

Since the Aug. 27 premiere, 35 million viewers have tuned in to a program that is the network’s highest-rated show this year for viewers 12 to 34. The season finale last Monday had a 2.48 rating among viewers the same age, and a record-high 6.84 rating among female viewers 18-24.

Filming for a second season began this week.

“What really makes it stand out is the central character -- Ryan,” said Tony DiSanto, an executive with MTV.

“The guy is a star. He’s inspiring. He’s charismatic. And he’s a straight-up dude. The minute we met him I knew we had something special.”

That was apparent last month in Salt Lake City during the Toyota Challenge. It was Sheckler’s first Dew Tour event since the eight-episode show debuted.

A long and impassable line formed long before the Skateboard Park final, and as fans filtered into the outdoor venue, under a light rain, they chanted Sheckler’s name.

One fan held a sign that read, “I drove 15 hours to see Ryan Sheckler.” Another, a middle-aged woman, held up a two-sided placard that read, “I think Ryan Sheckler is . . . a great role model for my children.”

The final was eventually held, and Sheckler, the winner, was swarmed by screaming girls with outstretched arms.

“It was crazy,” he recalled. “I didn’t think it’d actually happen like this. I always thought it’d happen, but through skateboarding and over time.”

The four-day attendance for the inaugural Salt Lake City event was 61,910, the highest of any stop in the Dew Tour’s three-year history.

The teenager’s success is not surprising. He has been obsessed with skateboarding since he was 4 and honed his skills, religiously, on a street course built by his father in the backyard of their San Clemente home.

Sheckler turned pro a day after his 13th birthday, and that year became the youngest skateboarder to win a gold medal at ESPN’s Summer X Games.

He was living a dream, traveling with the sport’s elite, but he craved a normal lifestyle, desiring to attend public school with his neighborhood friends.

“I just want to go to high school, man,” Sheckler confessed, during a 2004 interview. “I just want to get back with all my friends and start doing the social thing again.”

That lasted through his freshman year before career demands led him to enroll at Halstrom High, which instructs students with special requirements.

Sheckler has earned mostly A’s, is close to graduation and shopping for his first home. After that there will still be the task of finding the perfect girl, which is kind of hard to do when there are so many of them around.

“Dude, it’s gnarly,” he declared.

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pete.thomas@latimes.com