Why Shaun White isn't quite so great

Following Shaun White’s overwhelming victory in Vancouver at the 2010 Olympics, many of my friends want to know my thoughts. You see, I’m a pretty avid snowboarder; I lived in Salt Lake City for 2 years, I keep up with everything snowboarding, I read the magazines, track the riders, watch the videos, drool over all the new gear, etc. So naturally I have a clear and definite opinion about Shaun White: He’s wasting his talent.

Most people are shocked to learn this, as he’s the dominant figure in snowboard competition, the literal favorite in every contest he enters. This is because most people don’t understand snowboarding, not for what it really isIn other sports the measure of the athlete is based on how much they have won or accomplished in direct relation to winning.

Take the big 3 American sports: Football, Basketball, and Baseball. In Football there are stats related to yards gained, touchdowns scored, completion percentage, receptions, sacks, tackles, etc. In Basketball it’s the same: points, blocks, assists, 3 pointers, foul shot percentage, etc. Baseball is the mother of all stat based sports, where there seems to be a stat for everything, including the number of times a guy scratches while waiting to hit. Players are measured by these stats, and their value is decreed based on them. In every one of these sports, the ultimate goal is to win the league championship, without that you can’t ever be truly considered great.

Snowboarding is not like this. It’s not about the competition, which rider won the most contests or the biggest purses. In this way, snowboarding is different than other sports, and why many core riders don’t believe it is a sport. While there are competitions, no one tracks the total number of spins, or flips, or rails grinded a rider performs over the course of a lifetime. We don’t measure the greatness of our riders along this standard. While it is far less exact, we measure it by style. The indescribable, indefinable, and ethereal attribute that separates the truly great riders from those who are simple better than you or me. We track this style not through the competitions that are occasionally shown on television, but through snowboard videos.

For the last 20 plus years the progression of snowboarding has been chronicled by Mike ‘Mack Dawg’ McEntire, the Hatchett brothers, Patrick Armbruster, and many others. The videos they shot are seminal to snowboarding. Without videos most of us who ride would never have known about snowboarding, never seen the unbelievable fun that could be had, never thought about rearranging significant portions of our lives so we could be part of it. Videos have chronicled the careers of great riders like Terje Haakonsen, Bryan Iguchi, Damien Sanders, Johan Olafson, Craig Kelly, Kevin Jones, Peter Line, Jeremy Jones, JP Walker, Gigi Ruf, Nico Muller, the list goes on and on. Ask any snowboarder, any real snowboarder, and they can tell you something about any of these men, likely that their video parts have made significant impact on their lives.

Competition has always been part of snowboarding, but only a small part of it. Terje Haakonson, Craig Kelly, Shaun Palmer, and many others have competed in various ways. The difference between them and White is how they’re remembered. Haakonson is remembered for his progression, being so far ahead of everyone else there was no comparison. Craig Kelly is remembered for his abandonment of the competition circuit despite his dominance, and heading into the woods. Shaun Palmer is remembered for his insanity, and refusal to accept anyone’s rules but his own. Each of these men are remembered, but not because of they were world half pipe champions(which they all were, multiple times).

Much has been written about the incredible progression Shaun White has ushered in with the inclusion of the double cork tricks. There is no denying the incredible achievement of this trick, and while some credits him with its creation, this is wrong. JP Walker, one of the most influential snowboarders of all time, was the first to do a double cork, and he did it in the backcountry, far away from the controlled setting of a private half pipe with a foam pit and an entourage of sponsors. The next person to do the double cork, and the person who really brought it to the consciousness of the snowboard world was Travis Rice, when he did it over a life-or-death Chad Gap. How do I know this? Was there television coverage? No, but I have the videos.

Videos let me watch these incredible feats again and again, feeling the excitement each time, urging me to get on my own board. This is where progression really takes place, with riders pushing the limits of what terrain can be ridden, and what’s possible on that terrain. Videos document this.

White should know this, after all he professes that he hasn’t sold out, that he hasn’t let the money and the fame affect him. White had the opportunity to credit his forbearers in an interview with NBC. When asked a direct question about the trick “he invented”, he failed to acknowledge these others. He didn’t talk about how Travis Rice has been using the double cork to win competitions for the last 3 years. He didn’t mention that Louie Vitto, a fellow Team USA competitor, was the first to land a double cork in a half pipe competition. He didn’t mention any other snowboarders.

It needs to be said that White’s talent is not disputable. From an early age he’s been pushing himself, pushing the possibilities, dedicating himself to his craft. He was the first to bring the double cork to the half pipe, and this is a tremendous accomplishment. The amount of time in the air, even on modern 22 foot super-pipes, is so short, that to flip twice and spin three or more times is incredible. To be able to do this consistently is another measure of his extraordinary talent. To be the first one to look at a trick, done with so much air time, and dedicate yourself to bringing it to the half pipe is nothing short of incredible. As a competitive snowboarder, he is without peer. However, this is also a reason that he should go into videos.

White’s accomplishments this year are nothing in comparison to what he did 4 years ago. In the winter of 2005-2006, heading into the Torino games, White was undefeated. Not just in half-pipe competition, but in slope style and rail jams, 2 competition varieties distinctly different from the half pipe. Just as there are riders who specialize in half pipe riding, there are those who specialize in these other forms, and they’re really good. White beat them all, quite handily. No one had ever seen anything like it, and it’s not likely anyone ever will. To put this in perspective, there are athletes who compete in multiple sports. Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders are probably the best examples. Imagine that these competed not just in Football and Baseball, but in Basketball as well. Then imagine that they won every game they played in each sport for a single season. It’s that remarkable.

White has nothing left to prove, and nothing left to accomplish. Competing at this point is only about the money, and that’s not true to the soul of snowboarding, and it’s selling out. With his astonishing level of talent, he could produce video parts that we would watch forever. He could reclaim himself from the corporate leeches who have nothing to do with snowboarding, and are only using it’s popularity to make a buck. It’s unlikely this will ever happen, the allure of money and fame is just too much, but he owes it to snowboarding, and he owes it to himself.