What Makes a Pro Skateboarder a Pro?
Basically, a skater is pro when he or she lives off of skateboarding. So, if a skater is young, then it’s tricky to call them “pro”, because they are still in school, live with their parents, etc. But, on a very basic level, someone is a pro skater when they can live off of it – so really, it’s up to that skater. This type of "pro" is the same as in any other kind of sport. Usually this type of pro will have a few sponsors, and travel around to competitions, living off of the money generated from sponsors and competitions (sponsors like their pros to do well in competitions too, so the system feeds itself, as long as the pro keeps doing well).
However, there is a system among skateboarding companies where certain sponsors will not call a skater they sponsor “pro” until they decide that that certain skater is good enough. This type of “pro” labeling often comes with products with his or her name on them. With this kind of pro labeling, skateboarding teams will have a certain number of pro skaters, and a certain number of am (amateur) skaters. This is used more for teams who travel and do demos, and film videos.
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