Phil Soven update
 

Hi guys,

Does anybody know what happen to Phil Soven?

He won nearly everything but vanished off the scene?

I heard he went back to school and gave up the wake life, but would also be interested if somebody had an update.

He got burnt on ctrl so he quit the game and went to law school

Gossip, I like it!

I don't know him that well so I won't pretend to know what's going on in his head, but Phil was a first place or nothing kind of guy. Maybe he knew that his time had run it's course and wanted to move on to the next thing. He's a smart and ambitious guy.

Phil is a smart guy and I'm sure will be successful with whatever he ends up doing. Like most professional riders, the question is: "After your career is over what do you do in this industry?" Not a whole lot of money in the watersports industry. Sales is not for everyone. Riders typically represent the sponsors that supported them to keep the lifestyle going. But even that sometimes is not enough to raise a family. If he went back to school to be a Lawyer, that was probably the smartest career move he's made yet. That will keep him riding the rest of his life.

Hahn

Oh no not another lawyer. Go to med school we need more of those guys.

Thanks guys! Always interesting to hear the inside indo.
My question is then, how do guys like Harley Clifford, Steele Etc maintain this “perfect”life?
Rich families or board sales keep them afloat? Seems like they get free fuel and trips all over the world all the time?

The sad fact is that unless you’re in the top 5 you aren’t ****.

I know 3 pros who have moved on from professional riding, one leveraged their experience on pwt for a career change. The other 2 became sales reps for their respective brands. But they all had to find other work while riding professionally, like waiting tables.

Don't forget thats social media is a highlight real, not a representation of reality :)

Hard work
 

Ok just a little insight for you guys, I’m Harley’s dad and I can tell you that he doesn’t come from a rich family at all. Harley has worked extremely hard to get to where he is, when he was young we didn’t have the best boat or the best equipment. Hard work along with passion and desire. Harley loves the sport and the people that he has met along the way. Harley is great full to his sponsors and all of his fans for their support. I can’t speak for other riders but I could say that all these guys that do this love the sport.
I hope that gives you some idea
Cheers Bill

Hey Bill, thanx for you input. I know guys like Ben Webb and others have been on here to "defend" their boys. Obviously you should not have to do that. I have been around the scene since the beginning and there have been so many genuine riders that got where they got by working hard and not riding the best of anything. There has never been any real money in it for the riders, so most have done it for the passion anyways. Your son is amazing and a great mentor to the groms, something we lack as a sport today. Thanx for chiming in.

A lot of Pros seem to love the sport so much that they open up their own Schools to stay in the industry. That would be a LOT of fun, IMO.

I'm interested to hear about CTRL because I like their boards, and I have three of them. I thought CRTL was by Bill McCaffery and didn't realize Bob was involved. Do you know anymore details, simplej?