EXCLUSIVE PHOTOS – Shaun White’s Private Pipe

A late season oasis, that happened to harbour one of the best pipes on the planet, all for one guy. The black tent at the bottom was the chill-out zone, white leather couches and a flat-screen Image:: Jake McBride

Transfer | Alex Horvath

His name is ubiquitous, his reputation as the world’s best halfpipe rider precedes him, and unless you live in the desert, you’ve most definitely heard of him. With such notoriety, it’s no wonder the news of Shaun White’s arrival in our humble Snowy Mountains lit up the blogosphere as word spread.

This mammoth operation demanded the world’s best, and Shaun brought an entourage to rival Snoop Dogg – he was rolling deep. The backbone of Shaun’s media operation, Shaun White Enterprises, came fully staffed: coach, PR manager, cameraman and photographer. Then there was GoPro, they flew out an entire production team: camera operators, producers, directors and a whole fleet of the latest GoPro 3+ cameras. Oh yeah, let’s not forget Oakley, whose team manager came along to make sure he didn’t run out of eyewear. This was no small activation.

You see, Shaun White is hungry for another Gold Medal. As we all know back-to-back Gold is never enough; you need a three-peat. It seems like he’ll do anything to get it, including bringing the world’s best pipe builder, Frank Wells, from Snow Park Technology – who also built his private pipe in Colorado before the last Olympics – to Australia. Building a 22ft halfpipe during one of the warmest Octobers we’ve ever experienced, at the end of one of the worst seasons in recent memory was never going to be easy. But with the support of the biggest brands in action sports behind you, it’s a piece of cake. As a special thank you present to his host resort, he’s even leaving the ZAUGG 22ft pipe cutter behind.

The cameras were pointed at Shaun at every opportunity, I think he was blowing his nose here Image:: Jake McBride

With tight security, and minimal ‘media days’, it doesn’t take a genius to work out what he has been training for – the thus far elusive, Triple Cork. Rumours are flying, and word on the street is that he’s got ’em. During my exclusive and candid interview, I did pose the question; although in true S-Dub style he swore me to secrecy.

Shaun White plans to contest both Slopestyle and Halfpipe at the upcoming games, so the world will watch with keen eyes to see what he can deliver. Although, it is worthwhile to point out that he still hasn’t scored the required FIS points to qualify for the Slope team. He’ll need a top-20 finish at one of the upcoming FIS World Cup events to make it. Time will tell…

For now, enjoy these exclusive photos thanks to Transfer’s senior photographer Jake McBride. Stay tuned for our chat with Shaun in next year’s magazine.

GoPro also invited 13 year-old Toby Miller to come out and session the pipe, Toby is a child prodigy who is being mentored by Shaun, he rips on a vert ramp, too Image:: Jake McBride

Floating a backside air Image:: Jake McBride

The custom Bag-Jump air bag could be moved from left to right wall as Shaun desired Image:: Jake McBride

Shaun running me through his one-off Burton pro model graphic that he’ll be rocking in Russia Image:: Jake McBride

Clouds rolled in and the light went flat, but he was still keen to float some big methods for the media Image:: Jake McBride

Shaun was frothing on the latest issue of the mag Image:: Jake McBride

He was spotted hucking a few triple cork attempts into the bag-jump Image:: Jake McBride

It started dumping in the afternoon. He called it for the day Image:: Jake McBride