Skateboard Pro: What it takes to succeed
Path to becoming a pro.
Path to Becoming a Pro - Skate early and often.
- Wear safety equipment.
- Be seen. Attend every competition and event you can, especially those with sponsors.
- Don't call them, they'll call you. The path to sponsorship means you must excel.
- Don't quit your day job.
CloseTurning pro
Skateboarders can turn pro at a very early age. Richie Brisco had endorsement deals by the time he was four. At age six, he had nine endorsement deals, all for free equipment.
Like other pro athletes, you have a window of opportunity that closes as you age. Unlike most other pro sports, skateboarders are pretty much washed up by their mid-twenties.
Washed Up Tony Hawk, perhaps skateboarding's most visible pro, retired at thirty-one which made him a very old pro.
On his website, Tony says, "I'm pretty happy with the way things turned out. I mean, I never thought that I could make a career out of skateboarding." But Tony did, inspiring millions to follow in his groove.
CloseSkate park
Why do you skate? Adam speaks.
Adam Does it His Way Getting sponsored and making a lot of money is "not what skating is about," says Adam. "It's about living the lifestyle, meeting new people, having a good time with them and searching for something new to have fun on."
Adam supports the companies and shops that are owned and operated by skaters only. He says, "I switched shoe sponsors because my previous sponsor was starting to be sold in malls." Adam hopes that he gets seen by the right people, that they recognize his skill. He says, "I want them to get hyped on me."
It's worked so far. Adam says "It's gotten me free shoes and clothes so I'm just gonna keep getting' my grind on and try not to ask for anything in return."
CloseOn a recent Saturday Adam participated in the Skateboard Shop's summer picnic at Fossil Creek Park in Fort Collins. Unlike some city skate parks, this skate park has no bowl or half-pipe. It consists entirely of flat surfaces, sets of stairs, rails, and a couple of ramps.
"When we began there was no place you could skate. We'd get kicked out of every place we went," says Adam. "We called ourselves 'land pirates' because we were always in search for new spots."
Search for New Spots In those days, "70s architecture was great for skateboarding—all those empty plazas and straight edges," says Adam.
Today you'll see new additions to the architecture to keep skateboarders out, like jagged spikes on handrails, huge brass knobs on concrete barriers, iron spikes on handrails.
Adam says, "I wonder how some little old lady is going to use it."
CloseAdam says the police patrol the Boulder skate parks regularly—"It's a real cool scene." The problem is that BMX bikers like to use it.
"The amount of damage that BMX bikes cause is crazy," says Adam. "The pegs are what do the most damage to skate parks."
Pegs Do a Lot of Damage Pegs are little cylinders that stick out from the center of the wheels on BMX bikes. "They're meant for grinding on," says Adam.
Pegs cause damage to skate parks because they are steel. Compare that with skateboard trucks. They're made out of aluminum, which glides over coping, the protective top of a wall.
CloseAdam urges skateboarders to stick to the approved parks and to wear safety equipment.
Safety Equipment According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, 26,000 people are treated in hospital emergency rooms for skateboard injuries every year. Most of those injured are younger than 16.
Some heal quickly and others experience disabilities including loss of vision, hearing, speech, and changes in thinking and behavior. Some injuries lead to death. In most of those cases the rider was not wearing a helmet.
Here are some skateboarding safety tips from the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons.
Close
Check out this skateboard glossary.
Don't skate? Read these basics
"Not too long ago jumping up in the air and bringing the board with you was thought to be impossible," says Adam. Skaters just skated ramps and did balancing tricks like spinning on two wheels on flat ground, like the ollie.
The Ollie "An ollie is a basic jump on a skateboard off of flat ground, like a bunny hop on a bike," says Adam. "It's the basis for all the tricks that break the laws of gravity."
These days the ollie is a basic maneuver. There are all kinds of tricks involving spinning the board (shuv-its), flipping the board (kickflip or heelflip), and infinite combinations of rotating the body with or without the board.
CloseBut the ollie's changed. Or, as Adam puts it, "As the art form evolved the tricks got gnarlier and gnarlier." He's thinking about Danny Way.
"Way had a specially built ramp, but he didn't just ollie," says Adam. "He did a 75-foot long backside 360 and immediately went into a 26- or 27-foot high air out of a 20-foot tall ramp. That means that he was over 40 feet above the flat bottom of the ramp."
True or False: President Jackson was well known for favoring rich people who lived in big cities.
Click Andrew's head for the answer.
FALSE: Farmers, artists and people who ran their own small businesses liked him a lot. The rich and famous didn't trust him.
contributed by
Mike
Fort Collins, CO
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