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By Brad Cook

You survey the daunting mountainside before you. Other snowboarders rocket down the slope, spraying a fine mist of powder in their wake. You strap on your snowboard, take a deep breath, and start your run, the board gliding above the snow as you pick up speed. You try a trick known as butter: you lean forward, flatten out, and then lean the other way and flatten out again, completing a 360-degree circle.

Shaun White Snowboarding

Then you crouch, reducing wind resistance and building speed as you approach a low wall. You release your low stance at just the right moment, jumping onto the wall and boardsliding along it, maintaining your balance and leaping off to continue your run.

Several snowboarders perform tricks off snow ramps below — you bend your knees and accelerate toward one. At the top of the ramp, you release the crouch and find yourself airborne. There’s no time to admire the beautiful view, though: you try an indy grab — back hand grabbing the toe edge between the bindings — and attempt a back flip. You pull it off, but your landing is a little shaky.

A few more tricks later, you approach another ramp. You leap off its top, turn — and the world spins the wrong way. You sink into the powder and lie there for several seconds before you hear a voice: “Yeah, I think you’re gonna make it. But, man, you got destroyed on that one!” A face comes into focus: it’s Shaun White, known as “the flying tomato” for his shock of red hair and devil-may-care style.

You stagger to your feet. “But don’t worry, I got it all on video!” your new friend exclaims. “Oh my gosh, that was amazing.”

Do it Your Way

After he introduces you to his friends, Shaun explains: “So here’s the deal: I dig your moves. I can help you out with your riding, but first I need you to find me 12 euros.” You’ll find three of them at your current location — Park City, Utah — but the others are found on the game’s other three mountains in Europe, Japan, and Alaska, where White’s friends will show you around. And that assignment is just the beginning of your snowboarding adventures.

Each of the game’s mountains is an open-ended environment that you can explore any way you want: master tricks, take on challenges and competitions, and discover secret areas. Take chair lifts, or a helicopter, to reach each mountain’s peak and tackle the death-defying conditions there, or compete with other riders in the terrain parks. You can even take off your snowboard and hike into the back country, where you’re free to carve your own trails.

Just as Shaun captured one of your ignominious moments, you can film your exploits, edit the footage with the game’s built-in tools, and upload the clips for sharing with others. You can also take your snowboarding online and rocket down mountainsides with others or invite them to multiplayer-only game modes, such as rat race — in which everyone gets to create their own route to the finish line — or betting challenge, where you put up some of your hard-earned cash and see who’s faster at time-based tricks.

You also accumulate money during single-player action — all of your earnings go toward not just new accessories, such as clothes and backpacks, but also new snowboards that are perfect for specific situations. For example, racing requires a board with the right length and friction for maximum speed, but you’ll want a board with perfect amplitude (flex and pop) for getting plenty of height and hang time during tricks.

Eventually, though, a sweet board won’t be enough: dedicate yourself to snowboarding and Shaun will reveal special focus abilities that will take your career further. With a speed boost, higher jumps, and the ability to destroy obstacles, you’ll be able to take on more skilled opponents, discover new places to explore, and more. Work hard and you might even become Shaun’s equal.

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Shaun White: Doing it His Way

“Snowboarding, once a good way to get ejected from ski resorts, has gone mainstream,” Rolling Stone wrote in a 2006 cover story about Shaun White. He helped that happen with a gold medal at the 2006 Winter Olympics as well as piles of gold, silver, and bronze medals won at the Winter X Games and other events since 2002. He has even earned three skateboarding medals at the Summer X Games.

Fellow skateboarder Tony Hawk said of White in Rolling Stone: “I first saw him snowboarding when he was about nine, and he was just this little pixie with a giant helmet, coming down the halfpipe. Now, he’s grown into his own style — plus he can do tricks five feet higher than everyone else does them.”

Like Hawk and many other extreme sports athletes, White jumped into his sport from an early age, letting nothing stand in the way, not even a heart condition diagnosed at age five. Born in 1986, White came into snowboarding as it was ascending in popularity, attracting attention everywhere he went because, as his official web site notes, “who could miss the littlest kid on the hill?” He was often seen tagging along with his older brother Jesse, who introduced him to snowboarding and skateboarding.

While snowboarding is White’s bread-and-butter, he continues to also focus on skateboarding, which he put on display during the summer of 2008 when he showed off a new skating move, The Armadillo, at the Summer X Games.

 
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