How To Be Pro

[regct]

So you're saying there's a chance!

[zion zig zag]

What, exactly, was the point of that video? Admittedly I only made it through the first few minutes.

[regct]

I think the purpose of the video is to highlight the rampant narcissistic douchery that is rampant in the ski industry. When I was a kid, I used to admire the pros, motocross racer, skiers, etc, because being pro meant that you were in the one percent. Better than most at what you did. Apparently now you just have a marketing degree.

[Eastbound_B]

Agreed, I've seen resorts recently throw the term "former pro snowboarder" around recently in marketing campaigns for guys that worked as instructors and are just being promoted to suit positions.

[tylerjames]

25+ likes on Facebook videos makes you pro.

[jebb_slide]

1 chance in a million?

[Rodneyyee]

A chubby mumble mouthed chick with more keywords than skillzzzz.

fuck-Instagram-marketing-me-ME.

I can see those 2 now-"hey look what came in the mail today ( or in reality what they begged for ) from SkullCandy these sick yoga mat taco shells" Geeks marketing to lamer geeks.

E T A how glad are you to just show up to a hill/trail get your pass punched or skin up something and slide down it-These people and their "if its free me" or pay ME attitude seems to be a total drag?

[digitaldeath]

can you say poser

[meatspicy]

uggh so fucking sick of those girls

[Rodneyyee]

can you say poser

They are the living embodiment of that word. They are the VERB.

[skideeppow]

^^^. Yup. You will never see see these people at the front of the line on a big day, or charging laps. They are out making slash turns. They are posers and not the core skier. They hashtag and post shit that talks about how great their gear is.
It's like the scene from Wayne's World, the shameless promotion of product they are promoting because they are "sponsored."

[Lindahl]

I think theyre just acknowledging the state of the system. If you want to be paid to ski, thats what you need to do. Sure, some people are naturally douchey posers, but regardless of whether you are or not, thats sort of what you have to be for that paid-to-ski lifestyle. You NEED to be out self-promoting and brand-promoting every day and creating a value for your sponsors. To me, it sounds like a fuckton of work and hassle for very little reward. I'd rather just have a more normal job that has relaxed/flexible hours, make a good wad of cash doing it, and just ski for myself and have a blast enjoying every moment that I'm sliding around.

I've never understood the appeal of being a professional athlete - other than having someone capture great images/video that can take you back to that awesomely epic day. With helmet cams, now you don't necessarily need someone to do that for you anymore. Just turn it on and forget all about it and go have fun. Still cool to get those rad photos once in a while though. Have a couple of em framed or as desktop wallpaper. Wouldn't mind getting a few more. They jazz me up and remind me of an awesome day almost everytime I see them.

I understand the comp scene though - meeting a ton of people who love to do what you love to do. Lots of lifelong friends seem to be made there. I can never seem to really find the desire to actually pay to do that though, especially since I'm not a competitive person at all - the whole competition thing doesn't really perk me up and get me to actually fork over the cash.

[My Pet Powder Goat]

These people were annoying enough back in the day, but now with Multimedia it's absolutely intolerable. anyone can be a pro if they put enough hashtags next to their name. #nobodycares

Does anyone even ski the mountain anymore or do they just keep hiking the same little patch of powder to do (yet another) cheesedick smear turn for the cameras??

[Jaded Loc]

As the old adage goes, the only people that care about pro skiers are pro skiers. The rest of the world could give a fuck.

[regct]

I think theyre just acknowledging the state of the system. If you want to be paid to ski, thats what you need to do. Sure, some people are naturally douchey posers, but regardless of whether you are or not, thats sort of what you have to be for that paid-to-ski lifestyle. You NEED to be out self-promoting and brand-promoting every day and creating a value for your sponsors. To me, it sounds like a fuckton of work and hassle for very little reward. I'd rather just have a more normal job that has relaxed/flexible hours, make a good wad of cash doing it, and just ski for myself and have a blast enjoying every moment that I'm sliding around.

I've never understood the appeal of being a professional athlete - other than having someone capture great images/video that can take you back to that awesomely epic day. With helmet cams, now you don't necessarily need someone to do that for you anymore. Just turn it on and forget all about it and go have fun. Still cool to get those rad photos once in a while though. Have a couple of em framed or as desktop wallpaper. Wouldn't mind getting a few more. They jazz me up and remind me of an awesome day almost everytime I see them.

I understand the comp scene though - meeting a ton of people who love to do what you love to do. Lots of lifelong friends seem to be made there. I can never seem to really find the desire to actually pay to do that though, especially since I'm not a competitive person at all - the whole competition thing doesn't really perk me up and get me to actually fork over the cash.

Comp scene is awesome! Way different animal. There, you have real pros like Silas and Lars who are pounding nails all summer long to run a business and ski in the winter.

What are the poser pros going to do in 10 or 15 years when they have no skills and companies no longer want them as a "paid" ambassador?

[TahoeJ]

The worst are the posers who don't even pose properly. I mean... you're calling yourself a professional athlete? Really? Cause... umm...

[LiveLarger]

I don't really see it as whoring. I mean, it's very easy for us to sit here and criticise what other people do. Particularly if we either have enough money or live somewhere particular enabling us to ski pretty as much as we like to, and ski the mountains we like to ski.

If your dream is to make this work, I don't think this is any more whoring then it is when the rest of us show up at the office, every day.

[Rodneyyee]

Comp scene is awesome! Way different animal. There, you have real pros like Silas and Lars who are pounding nails all summer long to run a business and ski in the winter.

What are the poser pros going to do in 10 or 15 years when they have no skills and companies no longer want them as a "paid" ambassador?

Hi I'm here to rep this really #amazeballs line of goggles!! or even more dreadful-parent of "ripper"--they are THICK out here in the west.

[digitaldeath]

These people were annoying enough back in the day, but now with Multimedia it's absolutely intolerable. anyone can be a pro if they put enough hashtags next to their name. #nobodycares

Does anyone even ski the mountain anymore or do they just keep hiking the same little patch of powder to do (yet another) cheesedick smear turn for the cameras??

haha cheesedicking smear turns

skiing pow is fun and all but skiing chop and hardpack and moguls takes skill and technique

[WaistDeepGroomers]

I feel like the most respectable, blue collar, maggot-praise-worthy, etc. path to pro stardom is still big-mountain comps, but somehow, throwing backflips off 80 foot cliffs onto refrozen chunder with iron balls isn't all what companies are looking for these days. May or may not be why guys like Lars, etc., are not getting blinded by the spotlight even though they destroy shit.

I would say social media whoring is a bigger part of the equation overall, whether you're "that kind of person already" or not. It's written into contracts now (see Ian Mac's AMA). So yeah, all you need is one nice slash turn to get an Instagram shot, technically. But I'd bet most people getting stuff shred pretty hard.

"Pro" is one hell of a slippery slope term without any real qualifiers (like making the Davis Cup or something) to qualify that statement. And going pro a la Ian McIntosh, Sage, Scott Schmidt is a way different beast/deal than going pro a la one free pair of skis a year. But if you're the kind of semi-pro guy who complains about not getting a pair of skis from your "sponsor" this year and calling out a ski pole company in your Instagram sponsor hashtags, you should probably take that energy and work more so you can get the amount of skiing that you want. It seems really pretty damn hard and complicated to go pro a la Mac these days IMHO, not like you won one key mogul comp and got the Budweiser contract.

[muted]

I've never understood the appeal of being a professional athlete

Really? Traveling and skiing the world when you are young, meeting new people from various cultures, skiing with your childhood heros, heliskiing first descents in AK, snowmobiling into remote parts of BC looking for lines, coaching kids to do their first backflip at summer camps, and having many off-days ripping around the mountain just skiing for yourself....I see the appeal. If having a 9-5 sounds better to you, believe me, that's waiting for every pro when they retire. Best of both worlds!

[My Pet Powder Goat]

Those are not the kind of pros we're talking about.... We're talking about "pros" #lookatme #givemefreeshittospam @industrysycophants

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[wag]

I think McConkey says it pretty well at 0:42 in this vid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYmtwiliJQQ&t=42

Especially the part where he's like "oh, and you might have to ski pretty good too"

[TahoeJ]

Exactly. I have zero problem with *real* pros using social media to promote themselves; it's not whoring it's just part of the game. It's the wannabe's who spend more time on instagram, etc. trying to look like a pro than they do actually skiing. On the other hand, just because you use hashtags doesn't make you a wannabe, either. Nothing wrong with hashtagging a brand because you really like their gear.

[digitaldeath]

Real fucking pros dont need to tell you they are pros.

you can see them ski and say, " now that's a pro"

pros ski fast, im sure these posers ski slowly