Every 14-year old skater out there wants to get sponsored and get free stuff, skate all the time, get chased by 13-year old girls, etc., right? Ok, I'm going to tell you how it's done. Here's lesson #1 on getting sponsored.

First, ride a skateboard good.

No, seriously, you need to be really, really good. Amazingly good. Better than the guys in the videos, because everything you see in the videos is what they were doing months or even years ago. So once you can put together a video part like the guys in the videos, you're good enough to have gotten sponsored last year. Now you have to come up with some tricks you haven't seen in videos yet.

Style is part of being good too. Remember style. Also, remember that doing a kickflip front board on a flat rail in your driveway while you're moving about as fast as your grandpa can shuffle down that same driveway to get the mail doesn't come across the same to a team manager as doing it down the Hollywood 16. I know they're both rails, and they're both made of metal, but the stairs really make a difference.

So remember lesson #1--be good on a skateboard.