Most guys don't make much. Top guys who have been in the game a long time do well. McConkey makes good money. I know he owns a nice house in squaw, and several properties in Tahoe. Kreitler has done well. Davenport has done well and should have staying power because he is marketable to alot of groups. He kills big mountain lines in MSP, but also works for Aspen mountain. He is kind of the face of Aspen mountain. He is clean cut, so 50 year olds who read ski like him as well as 25 year olds who read powder. You can say that working with a magazine like Ski is selling out if you want, but he has been able to make a life out of this, which is very hard. He owns a house in Aspen, makes good money, and gets to travel around the world to ski. The world looks alot different at age 30 than it does at age 15. I'm sure Seth does pretty well, but I have always heard that he does not do as well as he should. CR Johnson does well, I know he owns a house in Tahoe.
It usually takes afew years. Someone like Sage, who has put together arguably the best video segments collectively for the last few years should be starting to make money. Seems like for the most part it is the jibbers who do the best job marketing themselves. In the skiing world, Sage is just as big of a star as Dumont, but because he is not in the X-games he will never get a sponsor like target. Unfortunately, in my opinion, sponsors pay more for contest results than for great video parts. CR probably made more in 2001-02 when he won all those contests than in 02-03 when he put together that incredible segment in focused. His SM3 segment was sick too, but focused was the first time we saw him really kill big lines as well as jib. I should add that I really do not know, I am just guessing. It is possible his companies gave him bigger salaries after 01-02, so this really is all speculation. I would like to see the industry wake up and pay more for a video segment than for contest results. I don't mean to be critical though, as I am not involved and do not know the inner workings of these companies. There are many, both athletes and industry insiders, who have worked their asses off in the last ten years to get the sport away from racing and build what we have today. In the mid-nineties before this stuff blew up there were very few ski movies to choose from. We have come along way, and should thank guys like McConkey and Kreitler for that. Everyone who is able to get a paycheck should count themselves lucky. That does not mean don't ask for more, but appreciate what you have. Anyone who lives at a big western mountain will tell you there are numerous rippers out there who kill great lines everyday but get no recognition. Scott and Robb Gaffney are two of the best skiers in the world. Anyone who lives at Squaw knows what I am talking about, but they get very little recognition.
One bit of advice I would give to anyone, pro or not who wants to live in the mountains and ski everyday, is get health insurance. 100 dollars a month may seem like alot, but when I tore my ACL it cost me about 3000 for surgery and rehab. If I had been uninsured it would have cost me something like 15,000. I know Boyd Easly got a pig ACL because he did not have insurance, and I am not sure how well that turned out.
I have always heard that Guerlain Chicherit makes a ton. He gets little press over here, but he is one of the truly great big mountain skiers, huge in Europe.
