If you want to become a pro rider... you need to join a league like NORBA and work your way up. You start at novice and rank up with wins. Just like ABA or NBL bmx. Scouting won't get you into the pro ranks, winning will.
If you want to be "invited to races" you need to be one of the best in your section of the country. That means out of 1-20k riders you need to be on top.
If you guys want to get sponsored that is a bit of a different story, but if you want to be a pro, you need to do your time and not just dream about being a pro. Go to every local race, once you know you can do good, start traveling to regional races. Once you do good there start traveling to National races. Once you rank up in each series, and finally are an expert or vet in the National circuit then and maybe then will you turn pro. Fact is most never get close. It costs 10's of thousands of dollars to be a pro rider in any section of the sport. Reason why you pick up co sponsors during the way. You won't get free bikes and paid to ride for them, you will get discounts, and sometimes hotel rooms, maybe even air fare.
Stages to being sponsored are :
Bike shop sponsors w/ no factory affiliation
Bike shop sponsors w/ factor affiliation (IE "co sponsored"
Small companies such as gear / t shirt companies
Inter/X small factory sponsorships (Such as Staats etc w/ bmx, or cheeta with dh mtb)
Expert / Semi Pro big factory sponsorships w/ small contract
Expert / Semi Pro / big factory full sponsorship
Semi Pro / Pro big factory full contract sponsorship (Salary)
It varies but that is basically the steps you will need to take to be able to afford traveling around the country to support you going to almost EVERY race there is. Pro's are at almost all the national races, and pretty much EVERY local race they have time for btw the time they are at National races.
Pro = full time job. Not just being fast. A pro as in ABA bmx means its like a part time pro. Once you win enough money / races you get invited to AA pro in which you have made it to the real pro rankings.
Places to sign up for races are :
USA Cycling (NORBA League included for MTB. XC, DH, 4X, Dual Slalom)
www.usacycling.org -- The Official Website of USA Cycling
ABA bmx league
ABA BMX
NBL bmx league
National Bicycle League - The Best In BMX Since 1974!!
UCI World cup league (BMX, DH MTB) You need to conquer norba before this one. And I mean one of the TOP riders in NORBA or your wasting your time and money and will just get slaughtered... and killed on the difficulty of courses
Union Cycliste Internationale
There are collegate leagues if you are in college at some schools, there are leagues like the CCCX here in California and many other local leagues throughout the country.
Don't bother asking a bike shop how to get sponsored, or about racing. Most have 0 clue unless its a top end shop that participates in the racing themselves. Look online. Google is your best friend. Scour pinkbike.com, ridemonkey.com and the other BIG riding sites on the net. You will quickly find out what you need to do to become a competitive rider. But again, I can't stress enough, it takes money, dedication, and sacrifice to make it in the racing game.
And to answer the question about scouts coming to high school for biking.. sorry, this isn't football. You need to actually go out and join leagues to get noticed... and not just ride, you need to be the top in your class to get attention. If you like football, scouts will come to your school and be looking, but definitely not for MTB or BMX. Your own your own for that.
one last thing, if you think you can rank up to a pro and have never been in a league, you will get a ruuuuude awakening. The pros are SMOKING FAST. Period. There is a reason why they are there and its not just wanting to be a pro, they are fast... period. On DH, BMX, XC, they are incredible. I've had pros fly past me in practice and I'm even like WTF??? and I've been on a bike most of my life. They live and train on bikes. They get up at 4am and do spin classes, ride on a daily basis, weight train, diet, lead healthy lifestyles etc. Pure discipline. Most will have an easier time going through boot camp in the marines than they will training to be a pro biker. Period.
Now if your a downhiller like me, this is the kind of riding you will need to do to be a pro... And yea, this is GNAR. World cup circuit - spain..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOPLpEdrgiE
Also too add one more thing about pro riding, even with street bmx, urban bmx etc, the riders have progressed things so much, you need to go massive now. One of my good buddies and co workers hits up rails, tail whips about everything, can can slay any dj park and hes not pro. He even said no way man, things have just got way too massive now. People are double whipping stuff, 540 flaring over next to everything, and on a DH mtb clearing 40-70 foot gaps, 30-40 foot drops. The easy time to get into the pro ranks was in the early 90's. Now the bar is sky high to get in.
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