Shaun White has been flying higher than anyone since he was seven years old. But at 23, the world’s greatest snowboarder has no idea where he’s going to land next By Vanessa Grigoriadis

photographs by Terry Richardson

40 • , March 18, 2010 SHAUN WHITE

the presence of rock heroes, I decided that up there spinning, like, ‘Where am I?’ and under the mentorship of , who I had to get the pants to match.” your life depends on finding the blue line considered him the most promising young So here he is, our leather-ensembled marking the pipe. It’s kind of like tennis: skater he had ever seen. “Shaun’s confi- two-time gold medalist über rock fan, You have to be quick and react quick.” dence is a family thing,” says his brother, 23, holding court with his team manager, On TV, White may play the eternal rad- Jesse. “Our mom moved to Hawaii on her bodyguard and two PR reps at a table in an ical little dude – a goofy guy whose radi- own when she was 18, and my dad ­marches upscale bistro in downtown Manhattan a calism is sweetly unthreatening – but in to the same drummer. He just has it on day after leaving Vancouver, with only a person, he’s not only intelligent and so- the inside.” brief stop in Chicago to school Oprah in phisticated but a stone-cold killer. Like White’s mom, a waitress, and father, a the rigors of the double McTwist 1260: his Tiger Woods, whom White has called a city employee, brought him up with a pro- showstopping trick, made up of two flips “great guy deep down who just made some gressive attitude in Del Mar, a beachfront and three and a half spins, that he stuck bad calls,” he’s as competitive about busi- town near San Diego – he was named after at the Olympics after he won the gold – a ness as he is about sports: Between his own a professional surfer, Shaun Tomson, and “righteous victory lap,” as he put it. With video game and his endorsements, includ- his parents imagined he might become one his flowing carrot top, White, who stands ing Target, Burton and Oakley, he made an too. When Shaun was eight, his dad bought five feet nine and is built like a bantam- estimated $9 million in 2008. Bud Keene, him a surfboard with a picture of the Tas- weight boxer, is recognizable from across the halfpipe coach for the U.S. snowboard manian Devil on the back and took him any room, and bejeweled matrons keep team, puts it this way: “Imagine an exper- into the waves. “After one big wave, I got rushing over to offer him a big thumbs up. iment where you mix the DNA of the most washed, and I was like, ‘I hate this,’ ” says A waitress nearly pees her pants reading naturally talented athlete of a generation, White. “Taz just rocked me in the face.” him the specials. “I used to hate on New say a Michael Jordan or a LeBron James, His accommodating family hunted for York because it was cold and I didn’t un- with the DNA of the hardest-working ath- a sport at which White and his siblings derstand it, but now it’s one of my favor- lete imaginable, a Rocky Balboa or a Cal would excel, and found it in skiing, reach- ite places,” says White. “After the Turin Ripken. Finally, you throw in the DNA able with a few hours’ drive to the San Ber- Olympics four years ago, I went to Mad- from the most driven and uncompromis- nadino mountains. White was so instant- ison Square Garden for a Knicks game. ing athletes you can think of, a Lance Arm- ly fearless on skis that his parents put him They put me on the JumboTron, and the strong or a Tiger Woods, and – voila! Out on a snowboard to slow him down. “I kept whole place stood up. It was unbelievable. pops Shaun.” hitting other people with the poles,” he re- I sat down, and I was shaking.” Last year, when White realized that calls. “I was a monster child.” Pretty soon, His first gold medal at Turin in 2006 his celebrity was creat- may have blown White’s mind, but the sec- ing a problem at public air america ond one cemented his reputation as athlet- halfpipes – he was afraid Opposite page: White pulls off a “righteous victory lap” ic and pop-culture legend. “Honestly, I’m to try new tricks because at the Vancouver Olympics, nailing his signature double never that proud of my performances, but there always seemed to McTwist 1260 after he had already won the gold medal this time at the Olympics feels different,” be a kid around with a during his first run. Below: Celebrating his triumph with he says. “I was able to get that last run in cameraphone, ready to teammate Scotty Lago. on the pipe, and I think that truly affect- post a YouTube video of ed people. It showed something about my- him falling on his butt – self to them, something more than what one of his sponsors, Red bundle of energy, ambition, discipline and they knew.” Bull, put together a plan competitiveness that the sport doesn’t quite Before he digs into a New York strip out of a sci-fi movie: For Each morning during the express who he wants to be. Rock fandom, steak, White messes around with his an estimated $500,000, as it turns out, is essential to White’s “new iPhone, scrolling through some ­messages. the company built White zone, my whole new deal,” as he puts it. He stops at a picture of Vice President Joe his own private halfpipe, Olympics, Shaun White “Getting into music has changed my per- Biden at a news conference in Vancou- a 22-foot monster with a sonality and way of doing things,” he says. ver, with a video screen set up behind him foam pit, in a backcoun- “I’m far more open now.” to show clips of medalists’ performances. try bowl near Silverton tried to grab shotgun in Tonight, no longer encumbered by the “Man, I worked so hard to set this picture Mountain, in . capacious red-white-and-blue jerseys of up right,” says White, wriggling with ex- That’s a nutty thing to Team USA, White’s arms are festooned citement. “Check it out,” he guffaws. “I’m do, like building a race- the Team USA van head- with a main-stage wristband he’s been shredding on the VP’s head.” car driver his own track. wearing since last year’s Coachella festi- “People Google Earth-ed ed to the mountain, but fifth-placer Louie Vito always beat him andov L /

val, a red-and-black cloth bracelet from a I nowboarding is a young the pipe, and there was a P to it. “It pissed me off so much, because that meant he got to con- vintage-rock store, and a lot of heavy sil- U sport, only 15 years into its main- big debate on the Internet ey/ trol the music,” White says with a slight smile. “He’d play stuff he ver jewelry, including an onyx cuff that’s s stream popularity, but every year, if it was real or not,” says similar to one owned by Robert Plant, his the halfpipes get bigger and the White, smirking a lit- knew I hated, like Miley Cyrus’ ‘Party in the U.S.A.,’ which is just musical hero and all-around obsession. rian Ker tricks get wilder – in Nagano, tle. “For sure, it was real. (His favorite song in the world is Led Zep- Japan, in 1998, the longest rotation was And it was pristine. A nor- painful. It’s bumming me out even thinking about it.” White was s Page: B S pelin’s “Whole Lotta Love.”) White’s jack- hi only 720 degrees – and a lot of that has mal halfpipe is mauled by the snowboarder to beat in Vancouver – he’s been that guy forev- et is black leather, baby-skin soft and cut to do with the influence of White. He’s the public by 2 p.m., so er, actually – so it wasn’t a bad idea to try to psych him out. Vito to highlight muscle. “I met Matt Sorum arget. T an elegant athlete, strong and precise, so this was just the perfect from Guns n’ Roses in L.A., and he told me good that keeping up with him means scenario.” played a lot of Miley, every day, plus Dr. Dre and terrifyingly long to come by his clothing store on Melrose,” hite for T literally taking your life in your hands: White turned pro .com says White, digging his hands into his s Double corks, a trick that White pioneered, about a decade ago, and bouts of reggae. “A lot of guys on the team are so into reggae,” ew N t

pockets. “Apparently, Slash only smokes a s put top-ranked snowboarder Kevin Pearce since then he has won says White. “They’d all be like, ‘Yeah, bumbaclot nation!’ I’d just s by Shaun W certain kind of cigarette, but they’re super- C oa in the hospital with a brain injury right every major snowboard be sitting there, like, ‘Jesus.’ ” He shudders. “They knew that all long, so he made the pocket on this jacket before the Olympics. “Doing these tricks is contest at least once. He age: Jean began at extra long to fit them. As soon as I heard s p the most vertiginous feeling you can ever I wanted to hear was rock & roll.” • White may rule snowboard- that, I was like, ‘I’ll take it! I’ll take it!’ ” He get, especially during the day, when the six and went pro at 13, Previou ing, one of the coolest youth cultures in America, but he’s such a breaks into a grin. “Then, since I was in JuanSoliz/Pacific snow matches the sky,” says White. “You’re while also

42 • Rolling Stone, March 18, 2010 SHAUN WHITE he wanted to snowboard every weekend, to ride for an hour or so and then cruise – at Frends (they left out the “I” to symbolize 1 2 tempted to hold off on shredding for a year but the family didn’t have much money, so which point, he puts thoughts about snow- the communitarian spirit of the sport). and just skate, to make that my new goal.” they bought a van to crash in at the moun- boarding entirely aside, listening to his After word of White’s personal halfpipe In New York, he usually gets around tain. Then White started winning contests favorite bands, like T. Rex, Roky Erickson got out, Kevin Pearce had his sponsor, by skateboard, too. “If I’m walking on the – small purses at first, but with enough pa- and the Kinks, or watching concert footage Nike, build him one of his own, and then street, I have to put my hair in a bun so I nache to get noticed by sponsors. He be- on YouTube. “I love the sport of snowboard- invited the Frends to ride on it with him don’t get recognized,” he says. “But if I’m came the sport’s youngest prodigy, dash- ing so much, but I just don’t want to talk – while White claimed his pipe for him- skating, I can let it out, because by the time ing around the world with Mom and Dad. about it, ever,” says White. “When some- self alone. people have seen me, I’m gone.” “Then I would go home to California, and one approaches me and says, ‘Dude, it’s That’s pretty heavy stuff, but White everything was normal,” he says. “I’d show snowing in Mammoth!’ I don’t know what made a point of getting a little closer to rom white’s perspective, up to play on the soccer team, and kids to say, because I could really care less. I some of those guys in Vancouver. Last the evolution in snowboard- would be like, ‘Where were you – Japan? mean, I’m sure Slash doesn’t want to talk night, at least, he had a friend to run 3 ing that he has witnessed and Anyway, Ninja Turtles are rad.’ ” about guitars. He probably wants to talk around with, an old buddy of his brother’s catalyzed over the course of his In middle school, as he turned pro, life about kittens.” who tore his ACL snowboarding and now career is a good thing. “Times began to change. “I couldn’t even walk In fact, none of White’s friends are lives in Greenwich Village, and the two of Fhave changed, but it’s rad, you know?” he through the school without someone ask- snowboarders: He’s too much of a loner them went to a bar downtown. “All I know says. “When I first learned to snowboard, ing me to get them a board, or saying, for that, and too competitive. “The show is that we were at some place where you’d we weren’t allowed on mountains, and ‘Bro, put me on TV!’ ” he says. The school Entourage always intrigues me because be hanging out and some crazy fog would now they compete to have us. Nineteen- wouldn’t give him credit for class work on that guy’s got his homeys with him every- roll through, and then these cool jets would 4 year-olds are making six figures as snow- the road – not even P.E. “It was a rich area, where, and I never roll like that,” he says. come out,” White says. It’s the following af- boarders. There’s even skate P.E. and surf and the teachers were pretty bitter: ‘How “I’ve never had a crew. I’ve just been on my ternoon, and he’s chilling in a penthouse P.E. in schools. Can you imagine going to come he gets to do this and I don’t?’ ” The own, always.” This fact has not been lost suite of a Soho hotel with a dead-on view school in California and not wearing skate family moved to Carlsbad, a nearby town, on the rest of Team USA, some of whose of the Empire State Building from a wrap- shoes? You’d be laughed at.” To White, where White attended a high school which members, while insisting that they harbor around terrace. He puts David Bowie on snowboarding is a metaphor for achiev- had a program that catered to kids with no personal animosity toward White, cre- the stereo and asks his willowy blond pub- ing your dreams. “I like the idea that you professional careers. “That school was awe- ated their own collective last year called licist to order some calamari. A couple of can do whatever you want to do,” he says. some – and more than helpful,” he says. Louis Vuitton trunks sit on a bureau in his “That’s what life is about.” There’s a poster On the road, though, he began to find bedroom, with his clothes neatly unpacked of Jim Morrison in the office where he that he didn’t quite fit in. After all, he was in the closet. His gold medal is stashed in works on his video games, and he thinks almost a decade younger than most of the his carry-on luggage. “When I was little, about it sometimes, what Morrison’s face snowboarders he was competing against. with my parents in the van, I would take means to him – freedom, for sure, and ex- “I’d win a contest, and then I couldn’t even “I just can’t showers by putting water in a milk carton perimentation. “I think about what people go out to get the award because the cer- and dumping it over me,” White says, star- will think in the future when they see my emony was in a bar,” he says. While his relax,” says ing out the window from his seat on a mod- face too,” he says. “I don’t know what I want competitors were out having fun, he was ern gray couch. “And now I get a place like So after the Olympics, at 19, he reset- boarding school them to think of, but I definitely wouldn’t in his room with his parents, playing video White. “I’ve this. It’s just so bizarre.” tled in California only to discover that his (1) White, who got his first surfboard at want it to be snowboarding, because there’s games. He had no interest in partying – Those who know White well say he is friends from home were all off at college or age eight, with his father at Del Mar beach so much more to me than that.” in San Diego. (2) Skating in Mount Hood, and no qualms about taking advantage of been competing remarkably unchanged by his success. working nine-to-five jobs. “I was so frustrat- Oregon, age nine. (3) Recovering from a These days, White is learning to turn to the snowboarders he’d be facing off against “What I respect about Shaun is that he ed, hanging at home with Mom,” he says. skateboarding collision at age 11. (4) With one of his three Les Pauls when he needs the next day. “Sometimes, the night be- since I was seven is down-to-earth,” says his friend Andre Also, he had a girlfriend – he’s not attached his sister Kari in the van that his family to relax. “Music is my refuge, my getaway,” fore a contest, they would give me a glass Agassi. “Even with insane talent at such now – and he didn’t feel right bringing her lived in on trips to ski resorts. he says. He has been playing guitar since he of milk to play quarters with them,” says years old. When a young age, he conducts himself with no to his mother’s house, so he bought the was 17, but he started to get more serious White. “I was like, ‘Drink up! I’m going to pretense or sense of entitlement. I imagine best home his millions could buy: a seven- one told me Hunter Thompson was sitting about it this year, jamming with his coach rock you tomorrow, dude.’ ” I have time off, Shaun has the same fun and intensity in bedroom place on three acres in Rancho right there once and threw a stick of dy- Keene on the road. White plays a lot of At 15, at a contest in Japan in which the Olympics at 23 that he had on a fami- Santa Fe, a blingy subdivision near San namite behind the bar. Do you know what Guns n’ Roses, Zeppelin and Hendrix. “He White was not the favorite, the other com- I can’t handle it.” ly vacation at six. It’s just built in.” Diego. Sprinkler systems, kitchen cabinets, would happen if I did that? If I put the TV rips, but is very considerate and democrat- petitors decided that they didn’t dig the But being the king of the world isn’t as custom-made couches – it was a lot for a out the window right now, it would be in- ic playing with others,” Keene says, “so you jump. They agreed to throw the contest easy as it’s cracked up to be, and White teenager to handle, and White soon bought ternational news. You still want to rock- don’t feel like his backup band.” and split the prize money, but White re- starts to open up about the past few years, another place, a small house in the Holly- star out and do weird things, but I guess In most areas of his life, it’s impossi- fused to go along with the plan – then which have been hard for him. “I was ready wood Hills. “I didn’t know what went into now you have to do it more creatively.” ble for White to deal with losing – the only proceeded to win the event, pocketing for the 2006 Olympics,” he says. “I want- a home, and a big house was just headache But White didn’t wallow in these feel- place he accepts it as a possibility is Vegas, $65,000. “It was a defining moment,” he ed it. I wanted the attention. But after- after headache,” he says. “I don’t even want ings: Instead, he decided to commit him- where he’s dropped $60,000 in recent says. “I deserved it, I wanted it, and I got ward I freaked out a little bit.” We think to go there anymore. Now I just use it to self more deeply to skateboarding. “It was years: “I like to stay at the Hard Rock, be- it. It was then that I realized that I can do of White as a symbol of freedom and re- throw parties, like a big Halloween party.” the best decision, because it made every- cause at least then when I lose money I can anything I want to do.” bellion, but he’s been sheltered in a lot of But it’s downtime that kills White more thing new for me,” he says. “In that sport, walk over to one of those cases and see Axl ways. He loves fashion now, particular- than anything else. “I just can’t relax,” I’m still the underdog. I buy all the trucks Rose’s jacket or Billy Idol’s glove – I’m all hough white is the most ly when it intersects with rock history – he says. “I’ve been competing since I was and wheels myself – and I don’t have many ‘All right, that’s awesome, take my money.’ ” recognizable face of snow- “Think about Robert Plant onstage with seven years old, so when I have time off, I sponsors.” He loves the feeling of skating, But when he picks up his guitar, he’s able boarding, and possesses the a smoke and a drink, holding a dove, in a can’t handle it.” A few months ago, when he plus he prefers to hang out in cities rather to set aside his competitive streak. Since clan’s core value – fun is good – frilly white shirt. How do you beat that?” had some dead space between contests, he than mountains. Now he spends all sum- he started playing, life seems less stressful. he’s cut from a different cloth. – and genuinely likes designing his Tar- bought four surfboards and almost ran off mer in skate competitions. “I love skating Now when he’s in L.A., White drives down THe’s never lived in the mountains full-time, get line, but before he was an adult, he to Hawaii. “Then I realized that the win- in Cleveland,” he says, “because I can go to the beachfront towns of his youth for a usually drinks alcohol on a full stomach (he never bought clothes in a store. “I’ve always ter waves are 24 feet tall,” he says. “I didn’t to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame after- different kind of shredding with a group gets a headache otherwise) and has zero in- ridden for a company, so since I was a kid think it was a good idea to drown before wards, losing my mind looking at Freddie of friends. “I think guitar is the best thing terest in watching snowboard or skate vid- I’ve gone shopping by walking into a spon- the Olympics.” He can’t go out much any- Mercury’s jacket.” He might snowboard in the world,” he says. “It’s the only thing hite, 4 eos. “I’d rather do it, not watch it,” he says. sor’s warehouse and filling my bag,” he more; he gets mobbed, and it’s no fun any- again in the 2014 Olympics, but there’s part where no matter what I do, I can’t do it all s

When he goes to the mountain, he prefers says. “The concept of a dressing room just ew way, because he always has to be vigilant of him that would rather push for getting myself. There’s only so good you can get in

White N h s h jamming at blew my mind. I was like, ‘You’re going to y of Shaun W about spit-shining his image. “Times have skateboarding into the trials. “I’ve reached your room, and it’s never going to sound as Vanessa Grigoriadis wrote about let me put on these pants, right here? Just s changed, and it’s such a bummer,” he says. my goal with snowboarding,” he says. “If rad as if I play with other people. With gui- Sundance p la/S B i courte Devendra Banhart for RS 1096. last year drop drawers?’ ” M “I was just in a bar in Colorado, and some- skating got into the Olympics, I would be tar, I really can’t win.”

44 • Rolling Stone, March 18, 2010 Rolling Stone, March 18, 2010 • 45