Ya know, after the sprinting vs running vs jogging vs walking post I made last week, I feel like a bit of an ass. I’ve just started running, can’t run too fast, am still overweight, etc etc, and here I am pronouncing for all the world that walking is bad exercise… well not exactly what I said, but the important theme here would be the pronouncement. I don’t really have the expertise for that. What I wrote is my opinion; it’s how I feel about exercise at the moment. I think it’s much better to sprint and run than to walk.

But while I’m giving advice on how to do things that I can’t do myself, then why not write about being a pro snowboarder? I’ve watched a lot of videos, isn’t that enough?

Actually, this post is a response to the videos I’ve seen on youtube and vimeo by kids looking to be sponsored. “How to get sponsored” and “How to be a Pro” are two big topics that come across on searches about snowboarding. So I dug around a bit, and here’s what I’ve got. I think the snowboarding community is a bit like the games industry here: there’s tons of people that want to do both professionally, and both are perceived as hard to get into. So here’s my suggestions.

I don’t mean to be too pessimistic in the following. In both game dev and snowboarding, I think the path to being a pro is straightforward. It requires hard work and dedication, but it’s not especially complicated. But let me repeat that hard work and dedication line, because you need both, and you need them in spades!

First, know where you’re going. Be aware of what a pro is. A pro is someone that makes a living in their area, whether that’s game development or snowboarding. If you still have a day job that pays the bills while you push your hobby every night and weekend, you’re not yet a pro. If your goal is to be a pro, that means making enough to do it 24/7.

There’s not a lot of pro game developers. There’s tons of hobbyists that might be considered pro-am. They make a bit of money from their hobby, but not enough to pay rent — much less car payments, food, insurance, and supporting a family, too. And saving for vacations, retirement, rainy days, and your kids’ educations. They’ve got a day job, maybe working near the industry, but right now it’s just their hobby and they’ve managed to make a wee bit of money from it.

If you want to be a pro, your first step is to be pro-am. There’s enough people clamoring to be at the top that you need to set yourself apart. Filming yourself hitting a couple features on the mountain ain’t gonna cut it. It’s a start, but you need more. Start making money in little ways. For snowboarding, that really means placing in contests. If you don’t compete, how do you know how good you really are?

Take a look at the Swatch TTR men’s rankings. There’s over 3000 guys listed. Are you on that list? The guys down at the bottom showed up at one event and placed at the bottom of the heap. But they did compete! They practiced, they scheduled, they applied, they showed up.

Fifty years ago, a band could sign with a major record label and pump out a few albums until they had to get good and start building fans. Now, there are so many bands clamoring for contracts that they have to be popular before they get distribution. It’s the same way with sports and game development; prove yourself among the hobbyists, and you have something that the sponsors/labels/employers will notice. That doesn’t mean they will notice, but it’s a prerequisite. Contest results get you noticed; videos help.

I think it’s a common fantasy to think that you can just display a measure of your desire and some snippets of your work and have people see your genius and come knocking on your door. The world doesn’t really work like that; your work has to be truly exceptional, or you need to get your name out. The first requires tons of skill and dedication, but luckily the latter is much easier.

Participate in forums. Talk to other hobbyists. Get your friends engaged. Go to social gatherings (like contests & conventions) and talk to strangers. If you’re good and people know who you are, opportunity will come to you. This is making opportunity. Hiring managers in the game dev world tend to spend their time managing, not hiring. When they do need to hire, they don’t surf the internet looking for cool project videos; they post a job listing and sift through the resumes that come in. And many jobs are filled with friend-of-a-friend, ex-coworkers, and the like. The more friends and coworkers you’ve had in the industry, the more positions will be available to you. And that’s why you network: not because these guys will get you a sponsorship or a job right now, but because they’ll remember you when an opening does come up.

As you continue to develop your skills and network, eventually you’ll catch a break. That’s how it happens. If you’ve got a time limit, you might fail. But how serious are you? If you’re dedicated and skilled, it will happen. But those two are incredibly important.

Pro snowboarders don’t hit the mountain a few weekends a year; they live up there. If you’re not boarding at least every weekend, you’re not going to make it. That brings me back to what it means to be a pro. Not only are you getting paid to pursue your passion every day, but you are actually working at it every day. I learned far more about being a professional developer in my first six months on the job than I did in the twelve years before that. Sure, I learned a ton about games and programming in twelve years as a hobbyist, but being on the job 24/7 is a categorically different experience. Pros learn far more about their sport while being a pro than they did beforehand. And that, in part, is what you’re competing with. Are you practicing as hard as they are?

I guess I can summarize my point by saying that success isn’t hard, but it doesn’t come easy. You don’t need to be a crazy genius talent, but you do need to work as hard as one.

Summary:

• Develop your skills
• hook up with other hobbyists to push and learn from each other
• hang out at social gatherings (contests, conventions, etc)
• put some work out (videos, contest results)
• start networking
• and keep developing your skills!