Where in the World is Shaun White?

Snowboarding’s favorite son takes time to enjoy the finer things

To the casual observer, professional snowboarding may look like nothing more than a series of contests. X Games, Olympics, the Grand Prix Series -- unless you live and breathe snowboarding, that’s all you see of it on network television. And last season, at every one of those big televised events, one rider always seemed to land on the top of the podium: Shaun White. Shaun competed in, and won, 12 events, including the Olympics in Torino. He took the slopestyle and rail prize at the Session in Vail, swept the Grand Prix series, won the Slopestyle and Halfpipe at Winter X Games and the Slopestyle and Halfpipe at the US Open.

PHOTO GALLERIES   Check out photos of Shaun White View Gallery>   See Shaun out and about View Gallery>   Watch as Shaun talks about his Burton European Open experience   View Shaun's winning run at the US Open '06

2006 was an Olympic year, which meant riders needed to compete not only in the Olympics, but to make the Olympic team as well. Every competitive snowboarder is trying to make the Olympics, so it was a stressful, competitive year for all.

This year though, the pressure is off. The pride of winning contests (and the cash purses that comes with it) is enough to entice some people to diligently follow the contest circuit without the Olympics on the line. But after you’ve won just about everything there is to win like Shaun, you have earned the freedom of choice: spend every weekend at a contest for the cash, or focus on other things. Non-competitive snowboarders spend an entire season to film a three minute video part, or travel the globe in search of first descents and backcountry lines.

So after a very hectic season, Shaun isn’t slowing down at all, but he is opting to explore more of the mountain than just the halfpipe and park. Don’t think he’s not doing any contests. Even with plenty of other plans, Shaun is still managing to do seven major events, including the European Open. You may not see him at smaller events like the Session or the Grand Prix, but Shaun isn’t planning on coming down from the top any time soon. We caught up with the flying tomato to find out more about his plans for the season. 

 

Lat34: What was it like competing so much last season? Is it nice to have a

mellower contest schedule this year?

Shaun: Last season was just crazy. It was like everything I did was just building up to the Olympics, and then after that it was just a blur.  It was so insane after it all I went home and just slept for about 2 days straight. Almost every weekend I was doing a contest and once I was winning I just wanted to win more and keep the streak going, luckily I was able to. What was even crazier about last year was that I went straight from snowboarding into skating and competing a bunch in that. After the summer was over I knew that I needed some down time and some time to really enjoy the other things in snowboarding. The Olympics were super fun and everything about last year was great, but I just think this year will be really fun in a different way.

Lat34: What other types of things do you get to do since you are not at a contest every weekend?

Shaun: This year I’ll be concentrating on filming and shooting photos more than I have in the past few years. I’m working with Mack Dawg (Productions) this year again so it should be really fun. I want to spend some more time in the backcountry and get better at that and just work on new stuff. Last year was just so based on contests that I wanted to take some time to do different things. Also this year I have a lot of new stuff going on that takes up some time. I’m working on a video game, and spend a lot of time with my brother working on my clothing line too. It’s also nice to have time to do fun stuff, like the other day I went to Aspen to ride and hang with Seal and Heidi Klum. I mean, that stuff is so fun, and I want to have time for it.

Lat34: How did you choose the events you are doing?

Shaun: I looked at my schedule and tried to figure out what contests I could do to reach out and see the most fans. Like in Europe and Japan they bring in so many people to the stadium events and it’s all over TV there. And in the states the X Games is obviously huge, and so is the US Open. I just wanted to do the events that I thought I could have a really good time at and at the same time get to see the most fans while doing it.

Lat34: What are you most looking forward to this season?