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Boarding School Olympic gold is no mere halfpipe dream for teenage snowboarding phenom Shaun White
"So, you here for the U.S. Open?" Pigtails says with a smile. "Yeah," replies Shaun White coolly. "I was in the Quarterpipe Invitational." After a few minutes of chit-chat, Shaun yawns and excuses himself. His posse follows. At age 15, Shaun is the youngest rider on the International Snowboarding Federation (IFS) circuit and he finds himself warding off groupies just months removed from his days of playing tag and trading Pokemon cards. He recently graduated to Gundham robots, Armani slacks (worn way low, of course) and buying stocks ("took a bath on Qualcomm," he says, "bummer") -- not to mention a place near the top of the IFS point standings. With his No. 5 world ranking, he is a very strong candidate to earn a spot on the 2002 U.S. Olympic team. "He's definitely a contender for the Olympics," says Ross Powers a bronze medalist in the men's halfpipe at the 1998 Games in Nagano. "He nails the technical stuff and I've seen him get as much air as the rest of us." Right now, however, Shaun has more pressing issues than catching big air. "You know how hard it is to find a good pre-algebra tutor?" asks Kathy White, his mother and constant companion. While on the road, Shaun is schooled by an independent study teacher, who ensures that the eighth-grader spends three hours a day at the nearest library. "I dislike it," says Shaun, not unpredictably. "It's boring, man." Shaun's snowboarding education has been similarly unconventional. Growing up in sunny San Diego, he didn't have the every-day access to the slopes that most of his current riding peers did. Instead he spent countless hours pounding the skateboarding vert ramps at the Encinitas, Calif. YMCA, where he learned at the altar of skating legends Tony Hawk and Bob Burnquist. Shaun would then integrate the tricks he practiced on the vert ramps into his snowboarding routine on his weekend trips to the mountains. "The transition isn't a problem because the feeling of being in a pipe is a lot like the feeling of being in a vert ramp, only easier," says Shaun, who will compete in this summer's X Games in Philadelphia as a skateboarder. By all accounts, though, Shaun's most promising future is on the slopes. "His riding technique is insane," says 26-year-old rider Xavier Hoffman. "Whatever he does -- backside 900s, McTwists, backside rodeos -- he makes everything look so simple and he lands everything so clean. He rides like [boarding legend] Terje Haakonsen. And he's only going to get bigger and stronger. Then he'll really start to kick our asses." Issue date: April 23, 2001 For more news, notes and features from the world of adventure sports, call toll free to order SI Adventure at 1-888-394-5427.
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