Crashed Ice Champion

Cameron Naasz is taking the semester off from St. Cloud State, and he recently quit his job at OfficeMax.

The 25-year-old Lakeville native figures there will be plenty of time later for attending classes and stocking shelves. For now, he is busy prepping for another tour with Red Bull Crashed Ice.

As one of two dozen or so athletes who will embark on the two-month worldwide tour that kicks off this weekend at the Cathedral of St. Paul, Naasz is excited to get back daredevil racing.

“It’s kind of a feeling that can’t be replicated,” he said. “I love it"

“It takes a lot of sacrifice,” he said. “I don’t know what’s coming next a lot of the time, or even where the next paycheck is coming from. I’ll be set for a while right now, at least until the tour is over, through sponsors and things like that. I don’t know what I’m going to do when the season is over if I don’t do well.”

Though the sport is growing rapidly, it’s nearly impossible for competitors to make a living racing.

Naasz said this season athletes are allowed put as many sponsorships as they want on their jersey, and that puts a few dollars in racers’ pockets. Naasz says he’s thrilled when he can “swing 1,000 bucks or something” from a local business “to help with travel and help pay for food” while on tour.

“There’s some money given out for racing,” he said. “We never really know how much it’s going to be until the season comes around. That’s only for guys that finish in the top eight of races. You have to finish in the top eight out of 128 or so other skaters, and that doesn’t leave a lot of room for a lot of athletes to make a living doing it. There’s no athlete out there doing this full time.”

Naasz is optimistic that Crashed Ice competitors someday will able to make a living by racing. He’s also realistic. He knows his body won’t hold up competing in something like this forever, and he’s ready to use his college degree at some point.

“It’s getting bigger and bigger every year, so hopefully down the road guys will actually be able to make a living doing this kind of thing,” he said. “So even though I’m not super young anymore, I’ve got plenty of time to figure out what exactly I want to do with the rest of my life. I wouldn’t want to be doing anything else right now.”