As most of you guys know, I wear two hats (three if you count my Raven's hat): One is as the owner of Skim City, and the other is as a member of the board of directors of SkimUSA. Today, I write as the SkimUSA guy.
At the contest last weekend, we had one long-time amateur competitor enter as a pro. Now in SkimUSA it's a no-brainer: Have you finished in the top three, three times in the past three years? He had. No worries. Welcome to the pro ranks.
However, before I even approached this guy, I knew that he had, last month, entered the Balboa contest as a professional. Now we have in the past, as a nod of respect to the other major contest organizers, let guys ride pro in SkimUSA events simply because they rode pro in one of the other large events. But here we're never quite sure what criteria the other contest organizers used in letting them sign up as a professional. And sometimes that's resulted in guys who clearly need to hone their skills in the amateur ranks, getting in way over their head by going pro way too soon.
I don't know about you, but I think that just having $75 or $100 bucks to pay for the pro entry fee just isn't enough to make you a pro, a skimboarder should have to earn his way into the professional ranks, right?. I believe that's the way it is in nearly every other sport, and so too should be in ours. In SkimUSA, we have our 3/3/3 rule, and the advantage of having a bunch of contests throughout the year governed by one central body that allows us to track everything. The other large, non-SkimUSA contests, like Santa Cruz, the Vic, and Vilano, as one-shot events, simply don't have that luxury. So there has to be another way.
One suggestion I thought of was one we used for Alex Hood. He went from having never ridden in any contest (except our little J4F events), to entering pro in, I think it was, Boardwalk a couple of years ago. In this instance, I knew Alex, had seen him skim like a billion times, and knew he was good enough to compete at the pro level. (That year he ended up finishing 5th overall in tour points - not bad for a first year, eh?) So, maybe for these stand-alone contests having a familiarity with the rider and/or the recommendation of a rider from a major sponsor could serve as the criterion. I don't know.
What I do know is this. Over the next couple of weeks, I'll be contacting the major contest organizers and see if we all can't get on the same page with this thing. And you guys, if you have any suggestions, feel free to chime in.
More later.
.
.
At the contest last weekend, we had one long-time amateur competitor enter as a pro. Now in SkimUSA it's a no-brainer: Have you finished in the top three, three times in the past three years? He had. No worries. Welcome to the pro ranks.
However, before I even approached this guy, I knew that he had, last month, entered the Balboa contest as a professional. Now we have in the past, as a nod of respect to the other major contest organizers, let guys ride pro in SkimUSA events simply because they rode pro in one of the other large events. But here we're never quite sure what criteria the other contest organizers used in letting them sign up as a professional. And sometimes that's resulted in guys who clearly need to hone their skills in the amateur ranks, getting in way over their head by going pro way too soon.
I don't know about you, but I think that just having $75 or $100 bucks to pay for the pro entry fee just isn't enough to make you a pro, a skimboarder should have to earn his way into the professional ranks, right?. I believe that's the way it is in nearly every other sport, and so too should be in ours. In SkimUSA, we have our 3/3/3 rule, and the advantage of having a bunch of contests throughout the year governed by one central body that allows us to track everything. The other large, non-SkimUSA contests, like Santa Cruz, the Vic, and Vilano, as one-shot events, simply don't have that luxury. So there has to be another way.
One suggestion I thought of was one we used for Alex Hood. He went from having never ridden in any contest (except our little J4F events), to entering pro in, I think it was, Boardwalk a couple of years ago. In this instance, I knew Alex, had seen him skim like a billion times, and knew he was good enough to compete at the pro level. (That year he ended up finishing 5th overall in tour points - not bad for a first year, eh?) So, maybe for these stand-alone contests having a familiarity with the rider and/or the recommendation of a rider from a major sponsor could serve as the criterion. I don't know.
What I do know is this. Over the next couple of weeks, I'll be contacting the major contest organizers and see if we all can't get on the same page with this thing. And you guys, if you have any suggestions, feel free to chime in.
More later.
.
.
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