The 'Future Boy' Is Now
Shaun White and the X Games come of age
by Scott Willoughby
It’s Shaun White’s world, and you're just renting wannabe space in it.
Shaun White is the kid every kid wishes he could be.
If you’ve never heard of Shaun White, it’s probably reasonable to assume you
won’t be attending the 10th installment of the ESPN X Games, here in downtown
Los Angeles through Sunday. It’s a safe bet you’ve never been on a snowboard
either, or, for that matter, a skateboard. If you have children of your own,
your approval rating is suffering.
Consider for a moment the life of White, 17, of Carlsbad, California. His
occupation (how many 17-year-olds have one?) is professional
snowboarder/skateboarder. He’s won just about every major snowboarding
competition outside of the Olympics (stay tuned). He is the first athlete to
compete in both the summer and winter versions of the ESPN X Games (where he
was named the Most Outstanding Athlete in winter ’03); he’s featured in
Playstation’s Cool Boarders 4 video game; his first feature film, The Shaun
White Album, is scheduled for release in September; and, thanks to sponsors
like Burton, Oakley, Mountain Dew and Volcom, he owns a Lexus and three houses
before even graduating from high school.
There is little irony in the fact that ESPN introduced the blockbuster
action-sports Olympiad known as the X Games the same year that Burton
Snowboards began sponsoring White, then 7. Or that in the decade since, the
National Sporting Goods Association has consistently ranked snowboarding and
skateboarding as the fastest-growing sports in the nation among 7- to
17-year-olds. Trading in their parents’ traditional ball games for the
individuality, creativity and daring of contemporary action sports has become
a hallmark of this generation, creating in the process a multibillion-dollar
industry that has forced the world to both pay attention and pony up.
White doesn’t play team sports anymore. A soccer mom chased him off the field
and into the X Games, where the grom once known as “Future Boy” has definitely
arrived. Here’s what he had to say about it:
L.A. WEEKLY: What the hell is that “Cabo Wabo” stuff on your voice
mail?
SHAUN WHITE: My brother did that. We were on our way to Guitar Center,
and there’s this big poster of Sammy Hagar out front, so we’re like, it’s
Sammy’s day. It’s all about “Cabo Wabo.”
Are you playing guitar?
Almost a year. I love it. It’s so much fun. I went to the X Games and got Best
Athlete of the Games, and they gave me a truck and a guitar. I didn’t play, so
I was like, cool, I got a guitar, and I forgot about it. Then my brother
started playing and bought one off the Internet that sucked, and I’m like,
“Wait, I got a sweet Fender Stratocaster.” Now I can’t put it down. I’m a huge
Metallica fan. We’re starting our band now.
Describe a typical day in the life of Shaun White.
Oh, man, the tough questions. Typical day is probably call up Tony [Hawk] or
Bucky [Lasek] or somebody to go skate at Tony’s ramp or whatever. Then maybe
go surfing. But some days are pretty hectic. That’s the mellow day. The worst
day is when you have to go and shoot at the skate park and do a bunch of
interviews, go home and get your stuff to fly to Vermont for a Burton meeting,
then straight to Japan for a contest. I think traveling takes it out of you
the hardest. But I say “chill and go skate” right now, because that’s all I’m
going to do today.
Does that make you like the prototypical post-team-sports, anti-jock pro
athlete?
I’m not anti, but I do enjoy skating or something way more than, like,
baseball. I can’t do it. Running around the bases, and those pants they make
you wear. I’m not into it. I used to be pretty good at soccer, but then I got
way into skating, and something crazy happened when one of the other kids’
moms snapped on me for going to a game late and started yelling at me. It’s
cool when it’s your mom, but when someone else’s mom snaps on you, it’s crazy.
Are those sports still pretty big around there?
Skating is getting bigger and bigger all the time, but those sports are still
huge. You see all those soccer moms with “My son is better than your son”
stickers and stuff, and it’s like, what’s going on?
I read somewhere that you and your dad call each other “dude”?
He probably calls me “dude,” but I call him “The Dude.” His name is Rodger,
but we call him “The Rodge,” too. He loved that movie The Big Lebowski to the
point that he actually refers to himself as The Dude or The Rodge. It’s bad.
Does that make your upbringing less than “traditional”?
[Laughs.] Definitely. But I wouldn’t have it any other way. I have such a good
time with my family. They’re the ones who would take me out of school and
drive me up to the mountains to go snowboarding. They’re pretty awesome
parents.
So what have skating and snowboarding taught you?
Skating and snowboarding have really taught me about life. I’ve been around
the world and haven’t seen all of it, but a lot of crazy places. You see how
life is and how different and how hard it is for a lot of people. You see some
crazy things out there. It’s just made me really happy. I feel super-blessed
to be doing what I’m doing right now. Everyone I meet is like, “I wish I could
do that.” It’s given me a crazy appreciation for what I have.
So if there were no snowboarding or skating, what do you think you’d be
doing?
I’d definitely be stuck in school for sure. My parents are huge on education,
so I’d be in class every day. And since I found this new passion of guitar,
I’d be shredding solos in the night. But snowboarding and skating, I’d find a
way to do one.
How long do you plan on doing it?
As long as my knees are still good, and it really comes down to as long as
it’s fun. When it becomes a “job,” then call it quits. I know tons of people
who go to office jobs in cubicles and don’t like it much. But sometimes, I’m
standing at the top of the X Games pipe and look down and say, “Dude, this is
your job. You have to ride his pipe!” I love it. So as long as I can, I guess.
Did you ever think the X Games would get this big?
When I first started, I didn’t think about sponsors or anything, just “What
can I jump off?” I think for me the crazy turning point was when somebody
asked me to be in a video game. I basically lost my mind at that point. I
never ever would have thought if I started skating and snowboarding, I could
travel around the world and get paid to do it. We’re in the Olympics now. It’s
insane.Continue to Part 2
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