Shaun White has a perfect record this season for competitions in which he has ridden. Scoring a 95.62/100 in the halfpipe at the Burton US Open on Saturday, he handily beat the competition, just like he did on the Dew Tour in Breckenridge last December.
Benjamin Ferguson came in second, with 88.62 points. Taku Hiraoka -fresh off a win at Shaun White's event Air + Style Los Angeles -trailed in third with 88.25.
Everyone followed White's lead. After setting the tone during the semifinals, he upped the anti with a double cork 1260. While Hiraoka and Ferguson at least could match the technical level of riding, they failed to reach White's water-tight confidence.
White walks a fine line between the businessman licking his chops at the profits that snowboarding can generate and an athlete who has remained at the top of level of the sport for over a decade.
In the latest episode of White's evolution, he and ESPN, White's first platform that gained him national and international notoriety, feels sore about the remarks that White made about their network during the Forbes Under 30 Summit last year. In response, they did not invite him to compete in the Aspen X Games, but they have made no further comment about the subject.
White declined to compete in the Oslo X Games. "I guess I'm good enough to help you launch your new event, but not good enough to go to Aspen," White said in a broad interview with the Assocaited Press. It's awkward.
White still feels it: "Those are the moments you get to shine. It feels good. It's why we do this."
Bad, but not that bad. "I'm not moping around about it," he insists.
"If there's a time for change and something to happen, I feel like the next three years will be very interesting," he said. White admitted that at one time, he had considered retiring after the Sochi Olympics, but his bronze medal had not left him satisfied. He had to go out on top.
He plans to compete in the 2018 South Korea Olympic Games. "I've had certain riders come to me and say they're ready to not compete at the Olympics for me," White said. "That's very humbling. I was like, 'Settle down.'"
