Poll Answer? Top 10 Rider Earnings

So does anyone know on average how much the top 10 pro riders make per year? just curious

yes, but i can't tell you

thanks for that enlightening post...

Not sure about the top 10 riders but i read a artcle comparing D shapiro to C wright and they asked them what their highest paid year was including sponsors.

D Shapiro $400,000.00 (150,000.00 prize money)
C Wright $ 55,000.00

anyone know? u dont have to tell us the names of the guys just how much the top ones make

more or less around $300.000 a year, don t know if it s the top 10, but the top 5 for sure !

In a few years im sure that they'll be making around 2 million a year once the sport grows a little more

The top 5 guys aren't making anywhere close to that kind of cash. Maybe Parks but that's it. Shapiro in his best year may have made that much money but the industry has really tightened up. Too many riders are out there willing to ride for product. As well as taking less contractually to get sponsorship. This hurts everyone and will continue to keep salaries low. The top five guys are lucky to make $100,000.00 a year or more these days. Previously I did residential finance and have looked at the financial statements of many of the top 20 guys. There is definately a false sense of what these guys actually make. The only way that this sport will go to the next level is with corporate sponsorship by fortune 500 companies. GM pulling out of the Tour this year really hurt us in my opinion.

Damn, I'm having to pay to ride? Am I supposed to be getting paid for this? Someone isn't letting me in on these little secrets, not cool.

-Blake

who really care how much money they make?? I mean... as long as you can see them in mags, on film or at a contest... as long as they can live from the sport, I don't see the point of arguing about how much they make... if it's because you plan to be one of them one day, and that you're worried about having enough money to get a brand new Ferrari you don't deserve to be one of them... it shouldn't be about the money, it should be about the sport... having the opportunity to make a living from the sport you love and that's it...

Now that I realize it you hit it right on target. If I was a pro i wouldn't really care how much money i made because i'd get to wakeboard for my job!

Was just thinking that besides Tony Hawk maybe (Matt Hoffman, Dave Mirra, Bob Burnquist, Shaun Murray, few other prolly) I can't think of many extreme sports X games type athletes that would make really high salaries.

But all this is just speculation

i had someone tell me that they make >300K a year...

i think its better that they arnt riding for the money. Look what happens in other sports where the guys are making multi million contracts...they only complain that they arnt getting paid enough, plus the quality of their playing goes down in my oppinion. It is always no name rookies that impress me the most.

I don't think anyone is arguing, I'm just curious, there's no way I'll ever be a pro rider so that's not why I'm asking, and yes its totally cool that they are doing it for relatively low amounts of cash

With the sport growing, there will be a drop off in pay due to the fact that more and more talented riders are riding for the glory rather than the cash. This same thing happens locally in many markets.
I was a fairly good club DJ in my area before I retired, but I could not get top dollar very easily because of all of the bedroom DJs that would play for a bar tab. Club owners would try these guys out, cut my pay (or not give me raises), then realize that these guys really weren't that good (have one set of songs and no ability to read a crowd). In larger markets, this eventually pans out, and the top guys make big money, and you have to demand big money to even be considered.

I suspect this will happen in this industry as well. With growth, the top riders will emerge at the top by continuing to push the sport, and those who cannot keep up will fall off. The money will also come back. The biggest obstacle is the cost of participating in the sport. This is one of those things where there is no clear cause and effect, having more people involved will help bring costs down, but until costs come down, getting more people involved will be difficult.

The sponsor money will come, we will just have to be ambassadors of our sport until then.

Ronald - I have heard that there are several pro skateboarders who make some serious coin, like close to (if not more than) a million a year. Namely the guys who have their names on boards and shoes.

Their probably are some that make millions Bucky Lasek, Andy Mcdonald, Bam Margera drives a Hummer and a Lamborghini, Pierre-Luc Gagnon is pretty big as well as Sandro Dias. Some do make alot of money with endorsements. I was trying to compare the # of high paid names you know in "xtreme" sports to say Baseball Basketball Football. Xtreme sports are young (besides surfing)compared to the big 3. Just about everone knows what touchdown or a home run is how many people know what a kickflip, pop shuvit, or a tantrum means.

Exactly Ronald....Their probably are some that make millions Bucky Lasek, Andy Mcdonald, Bam Margera drives a Hummer and a Lamborghini, Pierre-Luc Gagnon is pretty big as well as Sandro Dias.
The reason that these guys make big money is because the skate market is huge. The skate market is worldwide because you can ride anywhere for the cost of a board and wheels (about $70). The companies in this market make big money and have the ability to pay these guys million dollar contracts.
Did anyone see Bucky Lasek house on MTV Cribs? It was easily over a million.
As the wake market continues to grow so will the pro riders salaries.
Just to compare the market sizes to pro salaries, I guarantee the top 5 surfers in the world make over a million dollars....because the surf market is over $3 billion in Orange County, CA alone. (A fact straight from Surfer Magazine).

My Grandmother owns a Century 21 office in LongBeach, Belmont shores area and she sold
Mike V. a house that cost 740,000.00 that's
alot of money for riding a skateboard something he did most of his life for fun. Is he rich from
skateboarding? well off, but he gets to do something he loves to pay his bils and who would complain about that!!!!

That's a shack in LB.

I know many of the top 10 riders and they make around 80-100k. The very top like Parks makes 300k. Many of the guys that are 10-20 make between 50-100. Many make nothing at all(only product). It is all how you promote yourself and the sponsors product.

Comparing the skate boarding industry to the wakeboarding industry is like comparing apples and oranges.

If it lets you ride as much as you want, puts
food in your mouth (tacobell) and gas in the boat what else do you need.

yeah, but the problem is that once you can't compete in the sport anymore because of age or whatever, you don't really have much to fall back on, that's how other pro athletes usually try to justify their high salaries