What is a Pro Snowboarder? (photo credits: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rjnphoto/)
So last week I asked you ‘Should Pro Snowboarders Be Getting Paid More Or Less‘, that brought along another interesting question:
What is a ‘pro’ snowboarder?
It’s an interesting question because ‘pro’ has so many meanings to different people. One person’s ‘pro’ might not be another persons ‘pro’. It certainly doesn’t help that magazines and companies tend to throw these terms around randomly.
Not to mention, labelling people as ‘pros’ seems a lot more important to people outside the industry than the actual snowboarders. Most ‘pro’ snowboarders I know don’t really care about who is pro or not.
Some things to consider:
- Should they first be supporting themselves off snowboarding alone?
- Do they have to be at a certain skill level?
- Is there a certain life requirement? EG – Do they have to be out of highschool? A certain age?
- Are they pro as soon as they’ve made any money from snowboarding?
- Is basic gear sponsorship ‘pro’?
- Is it a lifestyle? Filming? Contests?
- What about amatuer status? When is the divide between pro and am?
What’s your definition of ‘pro’?