Someday all skilled wakeskaters will be able live glamorous lives just by going wakeskating. But in the meantime, most of us have to work to pay the bills. Don’t despair though. Working doesn’t mean flipping burgers or roofing. In fact, there are ways to apply your wakeskate skills to a job that actually pays.

Coach
Since wakeskating is so glamorous, people are always dying to learn how to do it, so this is probably the biggest no-brainer of all. Either by offering private lessons, or working at a wake specific camp, you can use your wakeskating experience to impart skills on the youth of tomorrow. Just be careful, because if they get too good, they may take your sponsors. If you see a lot of potential in a rider, it might be best to discourage them as much as possible.

Model
Your tan and toned physique might be able to get you a modeling job for a company such as Hollister, but there is actually a type of modeling that is far less demeaning. Boat companies have product shoots all the time and usually fail to supply their own wakeskaters. But since they want to appeal to anyone who may want to purchase their product, they may want to have you ride, or even just sit in the boat. Show up at the right time and you could score a paycheck and a maybe even a free lunch just for taking a few sets.

Sales Rep
All the riding you do should have made you an expert on the products you use. So why not use all that knowledge to sell the heck out of it to a shop? Plus the fact that you can actually ride makes you that much cooler in the eyes of shop kids. Win-win really.

Cable Op
The dream wakeskate day job is anyone that you get to ride for free, right? So running a cable is perfect. You will only get to ride when it’s not crowded, totally avoiding the lines. You also get to play with heavy machinery, which is cool no matter how you look at it.

Judge
Sure you may win some money competing, but unless you’re Brian Grubb, there’s hardly a guarantee of that. But if you sit behind the judging stand, you’re sure to get a check at the end of the day.

Shoot photos
Many wakeskaters have been known to dabble in the photographic arts, but most will tell you it’s for the love of the art. And well, it should be, because you are probably not going to make any money shooting photos of wakeskating if your name doesn’t start with J and end with Osh Letchworth. However, you are learning a skill, which may be valuable after your knees give out. If you can shoot wakeskating, you can shoot anything!

Stuntman
To the untrained eye, wakeskating can look pretty tricky. That must be why amusement parks hire people to do stunt shows for the crowd. Ok, so usually they are interested in things that require bindings such as flips and raleys, but hey, you never know. If they’re not hiring, maybe the latest Hollywood blockbuster in production is for the hot wakeskate chase scene. Ok, now I am just making stuff up.