Shaun White Has Been Flying Higher Than Anyone Since He Was Seven Years Old
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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 • Rolling Stone, 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 Tony Hawk, 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 Colorado. 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 big debate on the Internet sport, only 15 years into its main- 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- rian Ker knew I hated, like Miley Cyrus’ ‘Party in the U.S.A.,’ which is just musical hero and all-around obsession. b tricks get wilder – in Nagano, tle. “For sure, it was real. (His favorite song in the world is Led Zep- Page: 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 s hi pelin’s “Whole Lotta Love.”) White’s jack- t 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 arget. er, actually – so it wasn’t a bad idea to try to psych him out. Vito to highlight muscle. “I met Matt Sorum 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 hite for to come by his clothing store on Melrose,” w 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 by Shaun S says White. “They’d all be like, ‘Yeah, bumbaclot nation!’ I’d just oa certain kind of cigarette, but they’re super- c 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.