EvanWilson said:If by pro, you mean someone who makes a living off of unicycling, then
I'm sure that there are 100's.
If by pro, you mean someone who does like, extreme unicycling and is
sponsored by companies and stuff, I'd have to say there are
considerably less.
Actually this may be the other way around. With all the talk of
"non-pro" riders on this forum getting "sponsored" by various
companies, I'm pretty sure they outnumber the people who actually make
a living from unicycling. Because those are very few!
There are many ways to define "professional" in sports or other
disciplines. Let's start with the IUF (which, as Leo mentioned, has
almost nothing to do with professional unicyclists). The IUF *used to*
have a definition of pro, to determine whether "professional"
unicyclists would have to compete with the experts. That definition
broke it down as someone who makes at least 50% of their annual income
from performing, where that performing contained a significant amount
of unicycling.
That definition would have been hard to enforce, unless one was
familiar with the types of performance a rider did. But the idea was to
keep "pro" riders from being over-qualified in non-expert age groups.
Later we removed the pro distinction, as we had never used it, and upon
the realization that very few professional performers do the type of
riding that would give them a competitive advantage in an IUF artistic
competition.
Simple definition: You got paid to unicycle, at least once. Many of us
would qualify.
More strict definition: You've been paid to unicycle in the past year.
Less of us would qualify.
IUF-type definition: You make at least half your income from performing
(or unicycle riding). Performers must do "a lot" of unicycling in their
shows, not just an end act or one small part. Almost none of us would
qualify.
Very strict definition: You make all of your income from unicycling.
Hardly anyone in the world would qualify. The only example I can think
of offhand is Peter Rosendahl.
But there are other types of unicycling you may be involved in. Kris
Holm, for example, designs unicycles and spends countless hours working
out products with companies around the world to provide us with a
higher standard of unicycles and components. That, to me, doesn't make
him a professional unicyclist, but it makes him a member of the
"unicycle industry," which is a pretty small group as well.
Other people sell unicycles, such as the Drummond family, Roger Davies,
David Mariner and others. They might not be performers at all, but
their profession is unicycles (not necessarily unicycling).
Others do a combination. Sem & Teresa Abrahams perform, teach, build
and sell unicycles. They are professional unicyclists *and* are in the
unicycle business.
But there are other definitions. Darren Bedford has just "clouded the
waters" of what defines a pro with his new Pro Rider Series of
T-shirts. Featuring cartoon images of Zack Baldwin, Irene Genelin,
Shaun Johanssen and others, these are top-level riders who might not
ever get paid to unicycle. Probably all of them have at least a little
bit, but they may not aspire to do it for a living. In
unicycle-language we might call them experts. So the Pro Rider Series
definition is more about recognition of top riders than it is about
money or business.
Another way to define "professional" is as an attitude. Someone who
takes their activity seriously (though perhaps not too seriously),
respects it, and tries to make theirself and their activity better by
doing it. That one works for me as well.
Lastly, I'll add the definition of someone who used to do it for a
living, more or less, but now only gets paid occasionally (me). I guess
that makes me a part-time pro.
--
johnfoss
John Foss
"jfoss" at "unicycling.com" -- www.unicycling.com
-----------------------------------------------
"The worst thing you can do on a unicycle when you land is stop dead."
-- Kris Holm, world's expert on high-consequence unicycling
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