All

At the end of the day, all of us are working off assumptions.. Like I said previously, if I were one of the organizers, I'd open up the books for the riders to see. As for the rider's expenses, it's a bit easier to estimate with a bit of homework.. But, even if done on the cheap, it's still expensive. Especially if traveling from the US or Europe to New Zealand. As a former manager once told me, the perfect compromise is one that leaves nobody completely happy. The rider's could have had everything but the appearance fees.. I can't...

I don't toss all the nuance of my thoughts into these quips. But yes...and NO. Part of the irony (huge fan) is they want input on safety but have careers being the most unsafe guys there are for zero dollars. And the TikTok thing was to point out they don't make money either way. 95% of slopestyle guys make nothing online. They make nothing on paper. They get a frame and some parts and some clothes. Maybe a per diem for food. It's a vagabond sport. Tom V literally rides a bike that doesn't exist for sale anywhere...for the better...

I can feel the teenage angst bleeding through here, so I know I'm not going to change your mind. For anyone who is intellectually curious around the subject and how wrong this person is, here is an easy example to follow. The TL;DR is supply and demand underpins how "markets work". Not name calling and employees banding together (ironically what you just described has more Marxist tones, which is fine). Anyway - my example for anyone who cares... At the pointy end of the spear in the live performance space, its pretty widely acknowledged the best in the world right...

You might have "corporate apologist" and those who "understand how a market works" confused. Just an observation.

If one thing is clear its that we are all broadly speaking with very little data (myself included) . We don't know the structure of the event with respect to certain parties involvement (like Red Bull), what kind of revenue it produces from sponsorship, ticket sales, streaming, government subsidies (though great job on behalf of the other poster here) etc. This is one of those situations where transparency at least to the riders would go a long way. I don't think anyone is against the riders getting a fair cut, whatever that may be, if real money is changing hands...

Because you bought a pretty $85k pickup when you could have bought a minivan, you're worried about your paint, you don't actually need the bed space for any other pickup-like activities, and you don't actually ride bikes enough to worry about this bizarre/inconvenient/inefficient solution to loading bikes in a pickup. The solution to this problem is buying a pickup that you're not afraid to use as a pickup, or buying a minivan with a hitch mount rack. I've done shuttle days in friend's trucks with a big cardboard box folded over the tailgate, and you could fit a lot more...

What a moving conversation. Kyle and Spomer, you both demonstrate such a deep humanity and approach this topic with a level of thoughtfulness and compassion that is truly admirable.

Thanks so much for the opportunity to chat Spomer. I’m so sorry for all you have gone through as well and I appreciate you being willing to share. I hope that people are able to come away from this with the understanding that we are all in the midst of such a complex situation and at the end of the day we should try to treat each other with compassion and understanding. Many of us have different life, political, and religious beliefs and that’s one of the things that makes the world so special. As long as we are able...