Summer vacation usually isn’t the time to be focusing on future careers. While other students where sunbathing and sleeping in, junior Anthony Levy was out making a name for himself.
This summer, Levy was signed for a sponsorhip by Monster for snowboarding.
“The day I heard back from Monster saying they wanted me to sign a contract for a low-level sponsor shop, I was super stoked,” Levy said.
Levy started snowboarding when he was 9-years-old when he received a plastic snowboard from his uncle.
“I brought that board out to Hidden Valley a few times, but it wasn’t until Spring Break that year in Utah at the Canyons Ski Resort that I learned the fundamentals by taking a series of lessons,” he said.
“Ever since, every chance I get to go out to Hidden Valley, I’m up there,” Levy added.
Levy’s dream job is snowboarding for a living.
“Whether it is filming with a top production company helping in the creation of the best new shred flick, or landing a top scoring run at the X Games to land me a gold, I’ve always wanted to some day make a name for myself in the snowboarding realm,” He said.
However, living in Missouri provided a challenge to get noticed.
“No local shops offer any type of sponsorship for snowboarding,” he said.
In order to get his name out there, Levy received help from peers and summer camps.
“Besides the healthy competition of riders at Hidden Valley to push each other to progress every day, I’ve been helped out mostly by going to High Cascade Snowboard Camp,” he said.
Levy has been going to the snowboarding camp since the summer after his freshman year.
“Everyone who is anyone in the snowboarding world is at Mt. Hood, OR, [where the camp took place] in the summer,” Levy said.
“That includes pros, team managers, sponsors, photographers, production companies and magazine reporters. It is basically a haven of exposure,” he continued.
The sponsor tape for Monster was created by junior Jonathan Perera.
The perks of the sponsorhip, other than recognition, are occasional free Monster Energy Drinks and Monster decals for Levy’s Dodge Ram.
“It’s not really the free stuff that got me hyped, but rather that a company really liked my snowboarding enough to put me on their team,” Levy said.
“Hopefully I’ll be able to make it pro someday, but if that doesn’t work out, another ambition of mine is to start up my own snowboard company,” he said.
“At the very least, I want to keep myself in a position where I’m able to snowboard until the day I die. Snowboarding isn’t just a sport to me, it’s my way of life, it is my life,” Levy concluded.
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