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Shaun White plays on a completely different field than every snowboarder who has ever lived. Love him or hate him, it won’t affect what Shaun is capable of.
I’m glad Stride Chewing Gum understands humor. What’s funnier than a gum company sponsoring a snowboarder? A gum company that makes fun of the snowboarder they sponsor.
Another awards show I’ll never watch wrapped up last night, the ESPN ESPY (Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly) Awards. What has ESPN and large corporations done for snowboarding? Two things…
If you’ve ever been to an industry party and needed a conversation starter with anyone, the TransWorld Exposure Meter discussion is always a safe bet. The meter is a comprehensive equation that adds together the editorial content and advertising content that each rider receives in the major magazines. Major being the operative word here, so if you made the local paper on Go Skateboarding Day don’t expect to see yourself on the list. The big players, say for skateboarding as an example, are Transworld, Skateboarder, Thrasher, and The Skateboard Mag.
These rankings essentially rate the marketability of action sports stars, so industry folk love talking about that side of things, especially if it’s a team rep with a rider on the chart. The August rankings just dropped, so here’s a little recap to keep you in the know.
P-Rod's rockin' the Target, making sure all his homeboys are hooked up with fresh paper towels
News hit the wire Friday skateboarding phenom Paul Rodriguez inked himself a deal with Target, following in the footsteps of Shaun White, Kolohe Andino, and Nate Adams.
Shortly after Shaun White signed with Target, we came up with the brilliant idea to have his own clothing line with Target and left the wholesome partnership he had enjoyed with Volcom for years and years, after they believed in him from an incredibly young age. Actions like this do not help a professional athletes image among the incredibly opinionated fanbase of action sports. These superstars always remember to thank the fans during their interviews, but do they really care? Or does it just come down to money in their pockets over progress of our sports as a whole?
Rodriguez is a surprise here, too. He’s always been active in the community, and after he won the first Maloof Cup in 2008, he took his winnings and opened up his very own skateshop. That was a respectable move, opening a core skate shop so kids have a place to get their gear…without needing to visit a Target.
The problem with these big corporate sponsors is that they take our top athletes and give nothing back. There is no Target-sponsored contest with a huge cash purse for the winner. They don’t film a video. They definitely don’t help skateboarding or snowboarding. Joining the Target team is basically the action sports equivalent of leaving the Red Sox to sign a big money deal with the Yankees.
Paul had this to say about turning his back on core skateboarding, “I grew up right across the street from a Target and have many memories of skating over to the store as a kid.” Really Paul? Growing up across the street from a Target makes it a legitimate decision? Sleep well with that ideal, while the rest of us say goodbye to our hopes and dreams since it doesn’t look like the cornfield we grew up across from is offering us any contracts.
Any of us who were watching TV last night will know that Shaun White was successfully able to defend his Olympic gold metal. As he usually does Shaun put on quite a show for millions of people. Fellow American team mate Scotty Lago threw down a run with mad style and brought home a bronze. And Peetu Piiroinen representing the Finland team put down a run worthy of Olympic silver.
Shaun actually won the gold with his first run in the finals as no one was able to beat his initial score. He was then left with a victory lap at the end where he put down his ever popular new move the Big Mac (double McTwist 1260) and actually upped his score. When discussing what to do for this victory lap his coach Bud Keene let a couple “naughty” words fly which NBC was lucky enough to pick up live. Oops… Hopefully every little ear was ear muffed at that moment.
Peetu has been a halfpipe competitor that has had eyes on him for some time, and everyone knew that he would be a big threat coming in to the Olympics. Peetu proved he had the stuff when he took first in halfpipe in the Burton European Open and now here at the Olympics he showed the world he is top world class pipe rider.
Scotty Lago had a huge following coming into the Olympics. So many people were pulling for him to make the team in the Grand Prix because he was praised for having the best style along with huge amplitude tricks. He put all that down in Vancouver last night and dedicated his bronze medal run to his Frends Kevin Pearce and Danny Davis.
Shaun and Scotty both made an appearance on the Today Show, and TransWorld has posted the two sections you can see HERE.
Photo credit: Snowboarder Magazine
There’s this event going on today, north of the border, maybe you’ve heard something about it? Apparently Vancouver’s got this little grassroots halfpipe competition going on called the Olympics!
That’s right, the stunt ditch will fill up with stars this afternoon, and by bedtime the world will have a new men’s pipe champion. The United States Olympic Team is looking good too.
Shaun White has been training like a man possessed with private pipes and foam pits and he’s coming in hot off an X Games victory. Does the world have a secret weapon out there that can de-throne the defending champ? Iouri Podladtchikov and Kazuhiro Kokubu put up a decent fight at the X Games, too, garnering second and third, respectively.
Joining Shaun for the stars and stripes are Louie Vito and Scotty Lago, two high-flyin’ young guns in search of their first taste of Olympic glory. Both guys have been using this season as a coming out party, affirming that they have the ability to become legitimate contenders on the global stage.
This kid is sick, Period. He keeps moving the bar up and is chucking things that are rad as ever. Check out the Double McTwist 12 he unveiled in practice at the Park City Grand Prix (video courtesy of TransWorld). Olympic Gold anyone?
Check out his video that landed Danny Davis first place at the Grand Prix. He totally whipped Shaun White butt
There are six sections a snowboarder can compete in to be in the Olympics: men’s and women’s boarder cross, halfpipe and GPS (Giant Parallel Slalom). And pretty sure most of our eyes are going to be fixed on who is getting on the halfpipe team.
There is a lot of speculation as to who might make the cut for the 2010 Vancouver games. As for the guys obviously we’re all thinking Shaun White, hands down not a problem. But there are still three more spots to fill, so who’s it gonna be? Loui Vito has been on the tip of people’s tongues and Snowboarder Mag seems to think Luke Mitrani has got a promising chance. The Olympic site itself is saying Kevin Pierce is a top dog, but could we maybe see Danny Kass coming back for another round? There are so many people with the skill to bring it against the rest of the world’s teams, it’s gonna be one hell of a show down I promise you that.
Not only are the guys going to be battling it out, but the girls are going to be getting cut throat too. Kelly Clark is going to be looking for some redemption after her heart breaking 2006 run. Kelly threw down a run for the history books in Torino, going as big as the guys and gnarred out on every hit that would have easily given her a gold, until her last trick, a FS 900, she fell and missed the medals. But the reigning gold medalist Hanna Teter isn’t going to let her just take it, nor will silver medalist Gretchen Bleiler. These girls are going to be fighting for their spots on the team against some incredible talent, but once they’re there the fight isn’t over. At the Olympics they can still look forward to going head to head with Torah Bright, who will most likely be on the Australia team and Liu Jiayu for China.
Keep your eyes on the throw down as it happens. There are going to be five U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix Olympic qualifying competitions and it all starts December 9 at Copper Mountain. The final stop and the tell all of the entire competition will be at Park City Mountain Resort Jan. 20-23, and by the end of it we will have a shiny new halfpipe team.
Ah! It’s all so exciting, but there are way too many names to list here. So leave us note below and let everybody know who you think is gonna make the team no problem.
A little while ago I posted about Shaun White’s Project X and his “secret new moves”. And our boy Brennen Swanson, who was down in New Zealand, made a comment that may have gone a little something like this, “he’s doing… front 12, cab 12, dub cork 10, cab dub cork 10, backside dub cork 10, dub alley oop back rodeo.. and some sick switch back 9’s… no need to wait for november 3rd! haha”
Well, the Project X site revealed a little about his new moves on Nov. 3 like they said they would, but they didn’t reveal all. My main man Conan talked to Shaun and he said he still had some secret new moves, but he gave THE PEOPLE IN NEW ZEALAND (aka Brennen) a little sneak peak. Brennen… respect. And Shaun, your an insane little red ball of talent.
Props brah
So I’m sure you have heard by now that Shaun White got his very own halfpipe built for him by Red Bull last season. Yeah, this pipe was sick and incredible and built purely out of natural avalanche snow, and they documented the whole thing so you could see at http://shaunwhite.com/projectx. I suppose when you’re the best at what you do things like that just kinda happen for ya.
Supposedly they are saying that Shaun was able to throw down some pretty sick stuff out there. He spent 34 hours spread over two months in this pipe working on new tricks that no body has ever done before. They said he put together a run that included a Frontside 720, Cab Double Cork, Frontside Double Cork and a Cab 1080. They aren’t telling us a whole lot about any other tricks he was working on, but they are going to shed a little light on November 3rd. So be sure to swing by the site to see what the ‘Flying Tomato’ (stupidest nickname ever) has in store for us.
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