Faith, Action Sports & Audio Storytelling: How Lynne Ruttkay Created Shred Games To Inspire The Next Generation (Inspirational)

Can action sports, fantasy storytelling, and faith really collide to teach kids about perseverance, purpose, and identity?

In this inspirational and motivational podcast episode, Reginald D dives into the creative and faith-fueled mind of Lynne Ruttkay—a Southern California artist with over 30 years designing for iconic action sports brands like Quiksilver, Billabong, and Rip Curl.

But Lynne is more than a designer—she’s a single mom, ministry leader, and the visionary behind the groundbreaking audio fiction podcast: Shred Games: The Legend of Kid Z. In this conversation, Lynne shares her powerful testimony of walking through single motherhood, financial struggles, and purpose discovery—all while staying grounded in faith and surrounded by a supportive action sports community.

We go deep into how Shred Games became a storytelling platform to deliver biblical character lessons through music, humor, and action sports fantasy—and how God used a skateboarding aardvark and a dream to lead her toward a powerful creative calling.

If you're someone who loves faith-based content, motivational audio series, resilient parenting, or want to help the next generation find their identity in Christ while staying culturally relevant—this episode is packed with spiritual gold.

1. Discover how God used Lynne’s artistic gifts and creative industry experience to create a bold faith-based audio fiction that kids and families love.
2. Learn how Shred Games teaches biblical identity and purpose in a fresh way—through fantasy, sports, and storytelling.
3. Be encouraged to trust God’s process even when the full vision isn’t clear—because obedience unlocks creativity and provision.

If you’re ready to be creatively inspired and spiritually reignited, hit play and hear how Lynne Ruttkay’s faith-fueled journey is redefining what Christian storytelling can be for the next generation.  Lynne's Contact Info is Below:

Website: https://www.shredgames.com 

Shred Games: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/shred-games-the-legend-of-kid-z/id1792062580 

Shred Games: https://open.spotify.com/show/0Y9zrqA75EJnGU8AfwsevW?si=6463c5d0ee484a25 

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ShredGamesPodcast/shorts

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shredgamespodcast

Transcript

 Welcome to Real Talk With Reginald D. I'm your host, Reginald D. On today's episode, I have Lynne Ruttkay. Today we'll be talking faith resilience and action sports in a way you probably never heard before. My guest is a Southern California artist with over 30 years designing for iconic surf, skill and snowboard brands like Quicksilver, Billabong and Rip Curl. Lynne is more than an artist. She is a single mom, ministry leader and the creative force behind Shred Games, the Legend of Kid Z, a groundbreaking faith based audio fiction podcast that blends action sports, culture and storytelling, music, humor, and biblical character lessons. Welcome to the show, Lynne. : Wow. Thank you, Reginald. : Absolutely. Absolutely. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for coming on the show. So I'd like to start out, Lynn, by asking a question to my guests. Can you tell us a little about where you grew up and what your childhood was like? Speaker A: Sure. I was born in Detroit, so. And my family, we moved. My dad was Marine, my mom was the child of Polish immigrants. So we were all mutts and there were four of us kids. My dad was sick and needed to live in an environment where the weather was better. So we all moved to California when I was 7 years old and I'd been living here ever since. Yeah, grew up with all the, like the skating and the surfing because a lot of that was just kind of at the start. Those were the. Especially with skateboarding. I remember building those skateboards and they were pretty clunky back then. Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. That skateboard is huge out there in California, I tell you. So let's talk about this, Lynn. You walked the road of being a single mom while also building a career and a ministry. How did your faith sustain you during those challenging seasons? Because I really get it. Growing up with a single mom, I knew the challenges she went through, all the hard work she tried to do and things like that. All the work she did, do not try to do, you know. So how did your faith sustain you through all that stuff? Speaker A: Well, that is a really good question because I think that my faith is. It's not my faith, it's just God's goodness to me. I mean, I became a single mom and I gave my life to Christ when My son was 3 years old. And the Lord just surrounded me with such good people. And my first job was with an action sports company. It was GNS Skateboards, you know, GNS Skateboards and snowboards. Well, and surfing. You know, Larry Gordon was the owner, a really great Christian man. And the whole environment was such a, you know, there's people that love the Lord that were there, and some of the pastors wives work there. So I was surrounded by all these really good people. Plus, I was planted in something fun, which was doing artwork for all the skaters and the surfing community. And my son loved it. So I was, like, cool to my son. So, you know, he. He'd take the GNS stickers and give them out to the whole neighborhood with Diet Cokes, you know. So he was like the popular kid when he was six years old because he'd sneak them out of the trunk of my car and stuff. So, yeah, I just really was surrounded. The Lord did that. Just surrounded me with these amazing good people, and I was really. That was a huge blessing. So my son, he was raised in that whole environment of learning about Christ and faith and. And being a part of that world of, you know, cool sports and a lot of good mentors, a lot of, you know, we'd bring, gosh, so many wonderful people. And I think about it now, we'd bring, like, the guys, the, like, the surfers would do, like, a Bible study, and we'd go to the beach and bring all my son's friends, and, you know, they'd teach him how to surf, and they do, like, a little Bible study. So my son was seeing all these really good mentors, and the kids that he was friends with were having fun, so he just kind of blended it all together and made it fun for everyone. And, you know, some really great men that you know any kind of sports with the boys, you know. And we had one pastor who. He was the pastor for the Chargers, which isn't an action sport, but at the time, you know, he brought one of the guys from the team over and they did a Bible study. So we had, like, this Chargers football player at the house with all the neighborhood kids, you know, and, you know, you always ask the families, you always ask the parents, you know, is it okay if your son comes to do this Bible study? And they always loved it. So it was fun. It's really fun. Speaker B: Yeah. I really think mentors are very, very important in the world we live in today more than ever. Speaker A: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Speaker B: More than ever. So if you design for legendary surf and skate brands like Quicksilver, Billabong, and RIP Girl, how did you navigate merging your faith with the action sports culture? Speaker A: Well, you know, this is, like, an extraordinary thing in my life and also my son's life, because he got to witness this. And our whole life, we have this in our heart, what the Lord did in providing for us. So, you know, I was in that industry, but then, like, probably the beginning of the 90s, there was like, a recession and, oh, my gosh, nobody had jobs. I was maybe for three years, it was really bad poor and, like, driving my stepdad's car and all this kind of thing. And. And then the Lord put a scripture on my heart, which was the story of Elisha and the widow woman and how he made her. She helped him out. But he's telling her, you know, I want you to go and collect these oil jars from your neighbors, and, you know, don't tell them what you're doing with it. Just bring these to your house and collect these jars, and they'll tell you what to do next. So as I'm reading these scriptures, I'm somehow, the Lord's speaking to me, and I don't know how you know, those things, but I felt like, gosh, this is. This sounds like it's for me. And so in the story Elisha tells this widow woman, don't tell anybody what you're doing, because you're going to pour oil out of those jars and you're going to pour oil to fill every single one of those jars. But he tells her, don't tell anybody what you're doing. Which really made an impression on me, because I thought, you know, we're supposed to be, like, helping people and giving to people. But I saw this wisdom where God was saying, no, sometimes you have to let God help you, and it's for you to let him do that. Because think of, if she let them know what she was doing, they'd be all at her house saying, that's my oil jar. And everyone would be probably fighting with each other. So there was a lot of wisdom in that. But the thing was, is that that oil provided for her, and she paid off all of her debts and she raised her son. And so I prayed and I said, lord, what. What are my oil jars? You know, what. What oil jars would I collect? And just put on my heart to learn the graphics programs in the computer, which at that time, you know, people didn't have computers in their homes. You know, this was like 1995. And so I have friends that worked at Reebok down in San Diego, and they were all. They all knew Photoshop and Illustrator, and they let me come down once or twice a week after work, and I would teach myself, and that was my collecting the oil jars. Well, the Lord just took me out of my job and set me up with this, working for Myself from home so I could raise my son. And I've been working as an independent artist since 1995, but I didn't have it as like a big plan. It wasn't like, I'm going to be an artist. And, you know, it wasn't like that. It was like the Lord just brought it for me and my son to this day, you know, like God has provided and been faithful all these years. So my son has seen that and he's like, sometimes you know him and say, ma, remember the oil jars? You know, it's just like, I love that story because it's pretty profound what happened to us. And the provision from that has been, you know, this is fun doing this and it's fun to have my son see God working in our lives and that type of thing. Speaker B: So. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Because here's the thing. God did say, you know, he know the plans he had for you. He didn't say we need to know it. He said, I know the plans I have for you. Speaker A: Yeah, that's true. If we thought we knew things, we'd probably get in the way of it happening because we'd be trying too hard, you know. Speaker B: Exactly. So what was the inspiration behind Shrek Games and why did you choose audio fiction as the minimum? Speaker A: Okay, so Shred Games, the Legend of Kidzie is an audio fiction podcast series and it's 1220 minute episodes. So like you can listen to it, you know, driving to work or whatever. But the reason that the whole thing started was working in as an artist. I had friends in the industry. A lot of them started a lot of these companies that we hear about today. You know, the guys I worked with ended up starting their own companies, but one of the artists was always sending me these paper mache sculptures that they would use to photograph for sublimation printing onto skateboards. And one of the characters, and this was Alien Workshop that would do this. And one of the characters was an aardvark with a wheel. So, you know, my son and my nephew are like, oh, that's so cool. You know, that needs to be like a movie one day. And so that was always in my head. And then when my time of life, of the empty nest came about, I thought, well, this might be a good time to try to write a story. And working on it became something that I believe. God called me to work on this story and I just stayed at it. The dream was that it would be a movie one day, but wanting to put content out there that has Christ in it that's hard to do, especially because the niche of, like, fantasy film, because this is a fantasy sports story, fantasy film is a very narrow niche, but it's expensive, you know, so, you know, doing an expensive film that has a Christian core of faith in it was really an impossible thing. But I just kept staying at it because the Lord kept putting on my heart, just, you know, do the next thing. And a lot of times he would answer these extraordinary things, and then it would be like, oh, everything's hard, you know, but you stay at it. And I think what really happened was I knew that if I handed over the writing, which we spent a lot of time writing with some really good people to really get the story, it's a really good story. So. But the point I'm trying to make is that, you know, it took a long time and the odds were not in my favor, so I thought, well, if we do an audio fiction podcast, the content will be out there. And so building an audience with an audio fiction podcast is my goal right now. I mean, I'm not really seeing past that goal. I don't have any control of what happened. But I think for, you know, young people to hear the story and whatever God wants to do with it, that's not up to me. But I do know that the story is not going to be compromised whatever happens. There's a lot of things that have happened, like, in the film industry in the past that the content of the story gets. The faith content gets taken out. You know, like that story Private Ryan, the Saving Private Ryan. Nobody knows that the main character, the true story, is he was a pastor. So it just gets, like, taken out. And I didn't want that to happen. So the podcast is a way to do that. And, you know, and hopefully, and whether or not, like, it's not in my control, but if someone does want to do something to make a film out of it, the content will already be part of what people love about it. So I think that's really the idea behind that. Speaker B: Right, right. And that's awesome. So let me ask you this, okay. The story unfolds in the world of Tredopolis. I hope I said it. Speaker A: Yeah. Shredopolis. Speaker B: Yeah. Can you paint a picture of what that world is for us? Speaker A: Oh, my goodness. Okay, so Shredopolis is the world of the story. And it's beautiful there. It's just beautiful. It's three islands and set in the. This aqua blue ocean. And that's got a lot of whimsical architecture that's kind of slightly like it's like Greece, but a little bit of retro futurism, like how the Jetsons had that retro futurism. So it's kind of got those two blends in there. But there's a lot of. Because it's fantasy extreme sports, there's a lot of fantasy architecture that's built into that world. So it's a fun place to go. It's beautiful, though. I mean, that's the thing about going into that world. And I have a whole entire map for this world. Whoever gets to actually one day prayerfully build the world so that we can all see it, it's going to be a lot of fun to do that. But I'm doing little bits of it now. You know, I'm doing some things on the social media where I'm doing some drawings and animations where little by little, I'm kind of building little pieces just. Just to help people. Because it takes a lot of imagination. In fact, when you start to listen to the story, it tells you that you're gonna. You're gonna work out your imagination when you listen to the story. But the descriptions are very vivid and it is enjoyable. You know, you feel like it's a place where you would wanna go. Speaker B: Right. So let's talk about Kid Z. I think Kid Z is one of the main characters, right? Speaker A: Yeah. Speaker B: What is the core struggle and how does it connect with young listeners face in life today? Speaker A: Wow. Wow. Okay, so Kid Z, he is. His name is Zoomer. Later in the story gets this alias of Kid Z because it's the legend of Kid Z. So the story is really got an origin story to it. So you find out in the beginning, like the first three episodes are how he's born in his youth. And then by episode four, he's 22 years old. So the rest of the time he's 22 years old. But he was bred to be a Shred Games super athlete. You know, he was bred for that. But then when he's born, he's born with no feet. So his dilemma is, what is he worth now? He's born into this world where everything revolves around Shred Games. He's bred for that purposefully, but he's born with no feet. So what is he worth now? The story has two core elements that relate to, you know, the really some deep things. Even though the story's funny, it's kind of deep. And so I think two of those things are character versus image. You know, who you are as a person versus what you appear to other people or what Other people think of you. That's a core theme. But I would say there's also a controlling idea which is even deeper than that. And that controlling idea is something that all of us, every single person alive, is on this journey. So this kid Z is on this journey and that controlling idea is, what is he worth? Now the question is, where do we find our worth? What gives us significance? Where does that come from? Does it come from being super wealthy? Does it come from achievements? What does that come from? And so the story answers that question. And it's beautiful how it kind of comes around and brings that out. Speaker B: This character in Tridopolis has a unique gift, you know. So how did you design those gifts to reflect the biblical truths? Speaker A: Oh, wow. That's. You know, some things. It took many years writing this story and a lot of iterations and refinements to get it to where each of the characters does have something significant, specific that they bring to that. That they bring to the story. So it really works really smoothly. So I can't say that it's just one thing because it took a lot of self correction to, you know, refine the story to get to where each of those characters has. But as far as some of the, you know, the initial invention of some of these characters did come from a lot of those sculptures that I bought from the skateboard company. Yeah. And then, you know, my son came up with some. He came up with Eraser, which was really funny. Eraser can erase things, you know. And he's always helping Major Tom by, you know, erasing things of competitors during races and stuff like that. So that was pretty funny. Speaker B: Yeah. Delenn, I want to ask you a question. Why did you choose the electric unicycles as one of your main sports? Speaker A: Well, okay. Wow. You asked good questions. Because I think. I think that for me, as, you know, being in this world and having been in this community culture here of knowing so many athletes and so many different people that do these sports some of the representations in the film industry have not represented them well. I think there's sort of a. What do you call when you have like a. An idea that's a. It's like surfers. They always think of surfers as, you know, they're always saying, dude or they're being stoned or they're kind of dumb. And what I have found is that it's not that the real world of these people that are, you know, in this culture of sports, they're not like that. They're very artistic. There's A lot of artists and musical and, you know, kind of artsy. I mean, they're not like, walking around being like, they're stupid people or something. They're not. They're very interesting. So I think I wanted to be able to represent them. And I know that I'm not an athlete. I'm not, you know, even when I was being an art director, I mean, I'm not an action sports athlete. I mean, I'm not going to pretend to be what I'm not. Even as an art director. I would hire artists who had those gifts that could create the art that the athletes wanted. Because I knew on some things I couldn't do, you know, and some things I can do, other things I can't do. But I think the same thing with this story is that in using the unicycle as the. The sport is. Because it is such a fantasy, the unicycle in this story is not like a unicycle in real life, for one thing, but it actually is a composite of skateboarding and bmx. So a lot of the stunts, all of the stunts right now, they were all choreographed by. By Mike Hill, who is the co founder of Alien Workshops Skateboard. So I didn't choreograph those actions. I had somebody who knows those actions and was able to choreograph those things. And I think, again, like, it came from that original idea of that aardvark sculpture that had that one wheel. So, like, how are we going to make a wheel in the story? And then, you know, the aardvark was, you know, not old enough of a character for this story. So it just kind of ended up becoming what it is. But yeah, so it's a little bit from that aardvark character kind of shifting to how are we going to make this authentic? And. And I think the fact that it's fantasy, it's okay for the athletes that are in these sports in real life to enjoy that it's a fantasy. I mean, they're not going to feel like, oh, that's not like what we do. That's not, you know, that. That's not. That's not cool enough because, you know, they can be pretty cynical. But I think that in real life, a lot of these athletes, this captures what they aspire all the time because they're using their creativity to come up with a lot of crazy stunts and a lot of crazy tricks. I mean, they're willing to risk their lives to come up with these things. So it kind of captures that. Hey, how far can your imagination go idea which is real, you know, that's authentic. So, so doing it in a fantasy kind of helped with that. Speaker B: Yes. And that's the amazing thing about you. I'm like, man, how in the world did somebody come up with all this stuff? So Lynn, how can parents, now that you talked about that, how can parents and youth leaders use spirit sports as a tool to build perseverance, teamwork and Christ centered character? Speaker A: I think that it's one of the best tools there is. You know, I think sports and character, it's one of the best tools there is. And you know, like I shared what we would do. You know, we'd have the Bible studies in the sports and mix it up and have the cool sports guys, you know, come over and do the Bible study. I mean even if, you know, sometimes they wouldn't even have the faith, they'd just be like, yeah, we'll help you out. You know, they're just, it's just, I think that that's one of the ways. But you know, in truth, my son, when he was older, for 10 years he was an assistant to Kevin Dean at DSC, which all they do is they would, all they did was train pre professional surfers with a character through sports program that was biblically based. And the parents are out bringing their kids there and those guys, I mean, and he's still, you know, Kevin's still doing that DSC now they do more sports, they do basketball, they do all kinds of sports. But it's so inspiring to be able to, you know, challenge your character, not just your physical ability, you know, that's so inspiring. So, and there's a lot of mentors that are doing that right now. So this kind of gives a fun story that you can apply to that and it just sort of puts that focus on character through sports that's biblically based. Speaker B: Yes, I like that. I really like that. So what is your hope, Lynn, for the impact of Shrek games not just for kids, but for families and communities? Speaker A: Yeah, for families and communities. Well, I think that just that God would be glorified and in whatever form that takes, you know, because that's so special. And that would be the thing, you know, you, you think like, I think like how much fun it is. You know, it's really fun to bring something to someone that you love that's going to cheer them up, that's going to make life sort of magical. You know, it's really fun to do that. And this is a way of doing that. And It's a way of doing it that, you know, if the story catches on that, you know, maybe for years and maybe after I'm gone from this earth, that story is still going to resonate with and the Holy Spirit work through that for children. And you know, that that's a beautiful thing. Like C.S. lewis, his stories do that. And that's just a beautiful thing to even, you know, think the possibility of that happening. Speaker B: Yes. Because I'll tell you what, I think it's very precious that the way you do things and the way you allowing God to lead you through things, you know, a lot of the unknown, you're just going through it and saying, hey, I'm going to do this. This is in my heart. And he meets you there. And that's what, you know, I want people to understand that your faith and what you're doing, especially when it's positive and when you're doing it for the work of God, you know, he'll meet you there. Even though you can't see it all the way, you know, you just got to keep going and keep persevering through it. Speaker A: Thank you for saying that because that is the way he works. He does work. And, you know, Jesus would say, keep seeking, keep praying, you know, don't stop praying. Persevere in prayer. And you know, those prayers that you persevere in are like that, too. The results of those prayers are going to happen and they're going to happen in ways you don't expect. But God hears those prayers and he answers them. So. And it's such a beautiful thing because it, you know, he uses those things to change you, too. So now I'm learning a lot about perseverance. Speaker B: So, yeah, he changes you in the middle of the moment. I know that during the moment, while he's working and playing, he's working on you at the same time. Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Speaker B: So if you could leave our listeners with one piece of biblical wisdom for living boldly in their daily lives, what will it be? Speaker A: Well, you know what? I think the theme is in the little story, too. It's in, it's from Galatians 6, and it's faith working through love is the only thing that matters. Speaker B: Exactly. Love is the most powerful thing I'm telling people. Some people don't understand that, man. But love is the most powerful thing we have in this world. Speaker A: I mean, it is. And it's a different, you know, I guess the reality of faith working through love is that it's putting God first and it's his love working through you. And it cuts away at all the competition. You know, there is no competition of who's going to love them, you know, and so I think that is it kind of strips away all those other expectations that we might put on ourselves. You know, there's a lot of times we will put expectations on ourselves that God doesn't put on us. And so, yeah, faith working through love is the only thing that matters. Speaker B: That's it. I love it. I love it. So lastly, we'll leave that right there. Lastly, how can the listeners follow your journey and listen to Shred Games? Speaker A: Oh, thank you. Well, okay, so we're on all your favorite podcast apps, but you can go to our website, shredgames.com and you can listen there. But also all the links are there. So. And it's fun. You can see what we're up to. Got some little animations going and some fun stuff on there. But yeah, shredgames.com okay, there you have it.  Lynne Ruttkay. Lynne, thank you so much for taking the time out and stopping by and talking to us today. I really, really enjoyed it. I really enjoyed it and I really believe in what you're doing, man. It's fantastic. Speaker A: Well, thank you. Thank you so much, Reginald. I really have enjoyed this today. I really appreciate you having me on your show, too. Speaker B: Absolutely. Absolutely. Likewise. Thank you for tuning in to Real Talk With Reginald D. If you enjoyed listening to Real Talk with Reginald D. Please rate and review on Apple Podcast. See you next time.