The Shaun White Interview – Part 1

Hailed as the most recognisable action sports figure in history – Shaun White walks a pathway paved with gold.

The 24 year old California native is snowboarding’s current Messiah, an action sports figurehead with a charismatic combination of phenomenal, stratosphere-pushing talent and magnetic _je ne sais quoi _ that has made him a world wide cult hero and the darling of Corporate America.

One of the most decorated athletes in action sports history, the ‘Flying Tomato’ – so called for his mane of red curls – possesses a swag of X Games gold medals for both snowboarding and his secondary sport, skateboarding. His X Games results list for both snowboarding and skateboarding reads like a binary number of 1s and 2s and his dominance in world class competitions like the Dew Tour has seen him placed on a reverential pedestal by both his competitors and the general public.

His highly bankable image – the ‘Flying Tomato’ is a household name – has garnered him a rollcall of corporate sponsors from Target to Red Bull, bringing in an annual income somewhere in the ballpark of US$10 million a year, and his eloquence has made him a natural bridging point between the extreme sports subculture and the mainstream – consequently what Shaun thinks and his ideas of the future of action sports are weighted as heavy as his bank account.

In this 2-part interview Shaun sat down with us to reveal some of what it’s like to be in his shoes and his thoughts on a range of topics affecting snowboarding, skateboarding and action sports.