Being a team rider stands for one thing: promotion of the brands and companies who support you. The fact is, regardless of the level of ‘sponsorship’, your whole reason for being a team rider is to help promote, market and give exposure. As a cog in a marketing machine, you may be the most gifted, talented and expert ripper of your generation, but your job as team rider remains the same as those without as much skill. And in fact, team riders these days don’t need to be the best of the best. They just have to use the tools at their disposal (social media, websites and so on) to spread the word and message of those who endorse you.
Take Dave Ludgate for instance (aka Subowti on social media). As a SUP and windsurf team rider for NCW Dave’s task is to get pics, video and big up the products he uses via us: North Coast Wetsuits. This isn’t to say he doesn’t have other supporters. He does. But whilst nabbing shots for one thing it’s more than doable to multi task and showcase other kit.
For instance: when paddling about on his stand up paddle board, or windsurfing, Dave needs applicable water wear and protective kit to fend off Momma Nature’s adverse moods. So whilst SUPing and promo’ing his eco warrior exploits he’s also wearing NCW clobber. Dave being Dave, however, (i.e a committed NCW team rider) means he goes the extra mile to ensure NCW logo visibility.
To accomplish this, with the fact Dave use his paddle shaft as a camera mount, the chap from Cork’s whacked an NCW sticker in direct view of his camera lens. A stroke of genius, the wide angle, down SUP paddle shaft shots always feature an NCW sticker. Great work Dave!
And this just shows how simple brand promotion can be if you’re a team rider for any relevant company. It doesn’t have to be a chore, instead, a bit of thought can lead to efficient things for your sponsors. And the better you are at this the more likely your status will rise in the eyes of those endorsees. Which may lead to bigger and better things… Awesome job Subowti and a great example to set!
Note: Some of NCWs’s other team riders are also awesome and we appreciate all the work they do!