Podcast: Martin Soderstrom Speaks Out About Deciding to Walk Away From Competition and Personal Struggles

 It almost has been. I remember watching that too and pretty much dying inside when I saw him hit the dirt.

 I think about this a lot.

I think skateboarding has the benefit of a huge breadth of smaller brands to sponsor different types of skating that aren’t competition based. The overall perception is that we see lots of skaters who are sponsored but aren’t in SLS like nyjah or something, but most of these smaller sponsors don’t have huge rosters and training facilities and everything that something like redbull or monster provides. I can’t help but feel like the big sponsors like red bull are there to host the top competitive athletes, though.

I do see that red bull retains a lot of athletes that no longer compete but were absolutely legendary during their competitive years and have very decorated records. In that regard, semenuk will likely always be taken care of by redbull because he’s a household name, always providing exposure.

I think over on that side of the pond, Martin does similar things influencing other people to ride and is good brand recognition over there, albeit not on the same caliber as Brandon.

But then there’s other athletes that sort of feel they miss the mark. And I hope this isn’t taken the wrong way. Carson storch was rising in slope style when he was picked up by redbull but almost immediately stopped competing in slope. That’s a weird one and I’ve always been interested in what red bull thinks about that.

 @anchoricex: I always kinda felt like Red Bull was a forever sponsorship that would take care of their athletes even after the fact until Messere stopped wearing his helmet.

 Well to be fair the dude could easily be a model IMO so it shouldtn come as a shock. lol

 I was riding a lift at Highland with 2 of my buddies.... and they were going on and on about how hot their balls were since it was like 100 degrees out.... kinda weird hearing balls talked about like they're in a boy band

 @kubaner: hahahahaha

 @kubaner: highland gang