What is considered a "pro" skier?

histonskiah

histonskiah

Member
I know "pro" is a very loose term, but how do you tell if a skier is pro? Are they pro if they are on a pro team of a ski company, if they qualify for big competitions, if they get money to ski? Where is the line where you turn pro?
 
Wondering same question... its more of a title... I thought it was when they start getting paid to ski thats when they are a professional because its not a profession for them no longer a hobby because they are making money from it. I might be wrong though.
 
To be considered "pro" you need to be able to support your self. So you have enough money for basic things for a year.

-Food

-Rent

-Bills (heat, gas, ect...)

-Phone

-Health and car insurance

Basically everything you need to stay afloat plus filming and competing in one of the worlds richest sports. Paying for flights, gas, food and hotels and then still needed to pay off the basic things like rent, and phone bill.

Its like if a normal person working at MC Ds's for 15k a year but then spending 8k on traveling around the world. So more then 1/2 what you make is already gone to keeping those sponsors paying you. Its a game that never really allows you to save much if any money.

I really have no idea how people that do comps live. They have so much more to pay for, and so many more places to go.

I think alot of people that you think are "pro" aren't, and should be. I got really lucky with Traveling Circus, and wish the industry had more programs like that to help pay riders what they deserve. Even with internet money I still need to work to keep my self from going into debt, and I consider my self one of the lucky ones.
 
Two sides to this. There is what is actually a pro, and what the general person thinks of as a pro.

To a small kid at a resort, there might be a guy that is super sick, and sponsored head-to-toe. That kid (say 11-14) might say "wow, that dude is pro."

In a sense, sure he's pro. He's sponsored, he's good, he wins contests and he's a hero where you're at. You base your buying decisions off of him.

Of course, from a meta scale (like to a magazine, industry member, etc) this is usually referred to as a 'local pro'. We're noting that they aren't actually paid to ski by anyone - most often they're just being hooked up with the local rep's product and not even officially part of the company. That doesn't make them less dope, but it doesn't make them have clout on a national or international scale.

So is he pro for real? Sure... if you want to call him a pro and he feels like a pro.... go for it.

The next level is a 'real' pro. The simple defining factor her is that you are paid money by a company to wear their product. Even if the money is total shit, you have a contract and you are given this money in exchange for nothing other than wearing their product. If they give you money to work a demo day, and you are 'sponsored' then you are a local pro at best, not a pro, pro. YOu gotta get paid to be a 'professional' which is the pure definition of the word.

As well, most of the time a 'real' pro would have appeal on a more national/international level (ie partaking in popular ski media vs. just winning local contests) - and thusly would have a contract with head office of the company. This isn't the firm rule though - there are smaller local riders that might be paid by the Canadian arm of the company, but because they have so much appeal where the're from it works out.

Now, having said all of that I'm sure there's about a gazillion guys that are in between. They are in movies, shots in magazines, get ads, win contests... and nobody pays them a god damn dime. In this case you can probably use whatever term you feel like. You can say 'Pro' because that is what you feel is the correct terminology for them, but in the same breath you can note that they are in fact still 'Am' because they do not receive money to ski regardless of how good they are.

TL;DR - You're pro when you get paid to wear someone's product while you're skiing.

 
I completely disagree with this statement.

Andy hit the nail on the head, if skiing is your only source of income, and you live off of that income, you're a professional skier. anything less and you are a professional pizza delivery boy/garbage man/line cook and skiing is a hobby that you're an amateur (and really good) at.
 
Sounds to me like only a handful of skiers could be considered "pro" then.

I usually base it off of their sponsors. Anyone with a big name company pumping money to them to help them ski/live are considered pro to me...

 
Professional sports[/b], as opposed to amateur sports, are sports in which athletes receive payment for their performance. Professional athleticism has come to the fore through a combination of developments. Mass media and increased leisure have brought larger audiences, so that sports organizations or teams can command large incomes.[1] Professional sport is perhaps the only activity that defies the commercial norm whereby the media expect to be paid for carrying publicity for non-media organizations; in professional sport they are expected to pay for the privilege of doing so. As a result, more sportspeople can afford to make athleticism their primary career, devoting the training time necessary to increase skills, physical condition, and experience to modern levels of achievement

I believe if you get paid to do something, then you're a professional. If it be cup-stacking or skiing.

 
I like that there aren't all that many true 'pros' in skiing. Keeps it more of like a fun hobby where everyone's on the same level, just doing it for pure enjoyment rather than as competitive of a sport as a lot of sports are
 
Honestly, I think skiing (Freeskiing, NOT racing) pros are a bit different than other sports' pros.

Yes there are those pros that can fully support themselves, but there are so many other kickass skiers who I think are pro (e.g. 4bi9, most of TC) but there's just no way for them to support themselves without a job, with what they do. I feel like it's selling them short if you call them an Am or not even a pro when they have a slew of sponsors, and really are exceptional skiers.

I agree with Bishop - a lot of sponsors = basically pro.

pro skiing is just not like pro football or baseball -

1. there aren't NEARLY as many "big - name" comp pros as say MLB or NFL players, obviously

2. there just isn't as much money involved in the sport (again, NOT racing) as a whole, which is sort of ironic with it being one of the most expensive sports

idk. these are just my thoughts

 
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