The Prodigy: Shaun White
Spring '04; Volume 1, Issue No. 002
By Eric Blehm
"How do you beat this kid?" was more then just the title of a feature story posted on EXPN's Web site on January 24, the day Shaun White took gold in the 2004 Winter X Games slopestyle--for the second year in a row. How to beat Shaun White? It's a question a lot of people have been asking since he began his slopestyle reign, winning all the 2003 majors: X Games, The Session, Vans Triple Crown, The U.S. Open.
The week before this year's X Games, White had taken top jib honors (along with seasoned pros Chris Engelsman and Chad Otterstrom) by winning The Session at Vail, which was a high-energy rail competition. If anybody still believed White was just a pipe and jump kid, his rail dominance gave notice: He is the reigning king in all disciplines of the freestyle arena. He is "The Natural," preforming in an unnatural world of manmade transitions, booters and rails. He is freestyle snowboarding's prodigy.
It all began when Shaun Roger White was born on August 3, 1986. His parents and older brother, Jesse, got him started on a skateboard at age six, then took that to snow a year later.
Within a few years, the micro-shredder had become the poster boy for all kid-sized riding tools. Magazines needing token photos of "a kid" kept White at the top of their A list. Actually, White was about the only kid on the list, but because of his trailblazing efforts and those of his first and still-faithful board sponsor, Burton, kids around the world are riding better gear at a younger age.
Now 17, the shaggy-haired redhead from Southern California is no longer "future boy." He is the "now" boy. But how, exactly, did the Shaun White phenomenon come about? To shed some light, I contacted former Burton team manager Barry Dugan, who turned back the clocks to 1994: "One of Burton's Southern California Reps, Janey Smith, had a relationship with the White family after she met them at Snow Summit in the early nineties. Flat out, she stated, 'This kid is insane! You should check him out at Nationals and try to get him to The U.S. Open."
In a team manager position, people like Dugan get such claims on a regular basis. "But," he says, "this was the one that was way understated."
Dugan met eight-year-old White and his family at the 1995 USASA Nationals and invited the little shredder to The U.S. Open. There, Dugan walked White through the cheering crowd to the top of the pipe so he could forerun the men's final. No one had ever seen a kid that little drop in at The Open. "Shaun was all jacket and helmet," says Dugan, 'but he was fearless. The place was loud, and he was as calm as ever.
White's board was barely longer than a skateboard, but he ripped the pipe with a full run: grabs, 360s, top to bottom. Says Dugan, "People were freaking. It was a great display of natural riding talent and a clear statement that the future of the sport was going to be in very good hands."
After seeing White ride, Burton dedicated a team of designers to provide equipment for similarly aggressive riders. From his first visit to Burton, White's input on boards, boots, bindings, soft goods and helmets greatly assisted the designers. He helped Burton rethink and address the youth market that has spilled over throughout the industry. As a result, gone are the days when little kids had to start on skis.
Still a teenager, White has been riding among the world's top riders for close to half his life. "Much like Craig Kelly, Jeff Brushie, and Terje," says Jake Burton, "Shaun has the opportunity to redefine our sport. It's clearly at the point now where all of us respect Shaun as one of the, if not the, top pro riders in the world."
Last November, I went to interview Shaun white at this Carlsbad home (actually, one of three homes with his name on the deed), a place I'd recently seen on MTV's Cribs. His mom, Cathy, answered the door and gave me a brief tour, every few minutes yelling, "Shaun, Jesse! Eric's here!"
White was in his bedroom with older brother, Jesse, playing his guitar. A flatscreen television decorated the wall at the foot of his bed, and an open closet door revealed a meticulously ordered wardrobe: black T-shirts first, then gray, then white, and then colored. In the corner of the room was a massive collection of Japanese Gundam toys in a glass-shelved display cabinet. He explained that he used to like Gundam when he was, "like, twelve." Somehow, word got out in Japan and ever since, Japanese shop owners, riders, fans, distributors and all sorts of random people give him the toys as gifts.
Just as I was about to turn on the microphone to begin the interview, Jesse said, "Don't bother asking Shaun about snowboarding. He doesn't know anything about that." I figured he was kidding and hit record:
So, tell me about snowboarding.
I'm the worst, I don't think I've even seen Stand and Deliver yet. I'm just always busy so I'm not really up on whose doing what, or whatever. I never have that luxury of chilling out and watching a video or reading a magazine. And even when I have the chance to, I don't because I'm always snowboarding or skating. Some people say it's really good that I'm kind of clueless to the whole scene, and other people say, "That's awful! You need to know everything. What tricks riders are pulling. You should know this guy kickflipped down this rail, and you should know where that rail is!"
Why should you know all that?
I don't know. Just because they know, I guess I have to know.
If you don't really keep up with what's going on where do you get your inspiration?
Most of my inspiration comes from riders around me like my brother. Say he's trying something on rails and says, "Why don't you try this?" I end of taking what he's doing and twisting it into a new trick. A lot comes from that. A lot of it comes from just riding and messing around. I don't really want to watch other dudes too closely. I think that when you watch somebody, you mimic their style or whatever. I kind of go for it and don't think about it too much. Hopefully, I can be somewhat original.
How is it different now, compared to when you first started?
It's gotten so crazy from when I first started. I'd go up to the hill and there were no other kids around. I was seven. It was the best time because all I wanted to do was go as big as I could. I'd end up getting rocked, but it didn't matter. I'd hit every jump I could while cruising around Snow Summit. Now I see so many kids starting at the same age I did. There's a whole new generation of parents that wanted to snowboard, and finally got to because they're adults and now they have time or can afford it and they want to make sure their kids are snowboarding. They are so supportive. I think it's really good that the sport is progressing like that.