Pikes Peak Region Trail Finder

BY BRIAN GOMEZ, THE GAZETTE

ASPEN – Years ago, when life was much simpler, Shaun White was just a snowboarder – and occasionally a skateboarder. Now, he designs his own clothing line, and he has put his stamp on his own halfpipe. Plus, he’s captivated by the beginnings of an acting career.

The “Flying Tomato” usually has so many off-the-hill commitments that he’s not able to spend more than three hours a session in training, but that doesn’t concern him during the Winter X Games, which started Thursday and run until Sunday on Buttermilk Mountain.

A back-to-back Olympic halfpipe gold medalist and 11-time Winter X champion, White, of Carlsbad, Calif., remains confident about the prospects of keeping his hold as the most dominant snowboarder in the world, despite an injured left ankle he suffered in a morning practice run. White hobbled away from the pipe after medical staffers tended to him, then he was cleared for Saturday’s slopestyle competition and Sunday’s superpipe final.

White hopes to compete at the 2014 Sochi Games in both snowboarding events – nobody has come close to beating him in the pipe, and slopestyle is new to the Olympics. The last time White, who holds a record 16 Winter X medals in superpipe and slopestyle and five Summer X medals in skateboard vert, tested his slopestyle skills on Buttermilk, he took 13th place – fuel for a superpipe gold won using his trademark double McTwist 1,260.

No longer is White slowed by the lingering effects of minor surgery on his foot in March, and he dubbed Winter X “the place where we want to display what we’ve been working on. This is where I want to come. I want to do my best tricks. I want to show all the fans what I’ve been working on. I want to show the other riders what I’ve been working on.”

There’s no disputing that White feels comfortable in his own skin, high-fiving a parking-lot attendant nicknamed “Mud Flap” on his way into Wednesday’s workouts. He bought beer recently for employees in Breckenridge who shut down parts of the park so he could practice. And if his 25th birthday party, in September, wasn’t enough fun, he had a blast playing himself last year in a movie that featured Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis.

White said he’s “entertaining” several additional film offers, however, he declined to give specifics. “It was something brand new for me,” he added. “I enjoyed it. It was nice to be out of my element, standing on the side of a movie set, figuring out what to do.”

When White isn’t running around with his French bulldog, Rambo, he devotes a lot of his energy to halfpipe plans, with a 500-footer he helped conceptualize opening this month at Lake Tahoe – the result of a deal he signed with Vail Resorts in August. White made a pit stop this month on Conan O’Brien’s show, his mustache shaved and his hair in a bun. “It was a big play by me,” White said of his hair, joking that “Cinnabon called” afterward.

Ignoring some criticism from snowboarding purists, White still rocks a Burton collection that’s sold at Target, appearing earlier in a black sports jacket and a black scarf that were covering a beige shirt to complement tight black jeans and black leather shoes. He’ll wear a leather jacket into the pipe again, banking on an identical vibe he experienced last year.

“It’s similar but a little bit different,” White said, noting he “took the same leather jacket, and I just took (out) the whole chest panel and have this black denim look going. I like it because every time I fall, it gets a little more ripped up. It’s looking pretty rugged.”

Contact Brian Gomez: 719-636-0256 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Facebook: Brian Gomez. Twitter: @gazettehockey. Google+: Brian Gomez.