Skiing & Snowboarding Competition

Shaun White, Others Narrowing Their Dominance in Winter X Games

By Shane K. Staley, 2-21-11

	Shaun White at the start of a run at the Winter X Games. Photo courtesy of shaunwhite.com.

Shaun White’s half-pipe skills were on display (again) during the most recent installment of the Winter X-Games when the red-headed snowboarder took first place in the SuperPipe final. His park prowess was another thing all together: White failed to qualify for the Slopestyle final.

According to a Jan. 31 ESPN Action Sports article, “White wins first W X Superpipe four-peat,” White took a one-year hiatus from competing in slopestyle events. It might explain why he didn’t make it to Slopestyle final this year.

Yet, it might also point to a potential trend—one that has been forming for some time—of snowboarders moving into areas of specialization or a dominant skillset in their riding forms.

Other examples of this shift were on display at this year’s Winter X-Games.

Sebastien Toutant won a gold medal in the Slopestyle final, Mark McMorris took silver and Tyler Flanagan attained bronze. None of these men, however, even competed in the SuperPipe elimination round or final.

While I don’t portend to be any kind of expert concerning professional snowboarding, the fact that none of the boarders who made it to the podium in Slopestyle even took part in SuperPipe competition speaks to specialization. The three riders are park-dominant riders.

In the Winter X-Games Street final, Nic Sauve took first place, Louis-Felix Paradis placed second and Simon Chamberlain grabbed third. But here, too, none took part in the SuperPipe finals or eliminations, nor did they compete in any portion of the Slopestyle competition.

That’s not to say that the three riders who took the top spots in Street lacked pipe or park skills. Surely they have an abundance of talent when airing the walls of a half-pipe and soaring over park gaps and table-tops. It’s just that they seem to have more talent when taking to the stairs and rails that constitute the obstacles of street courses.

This specialization of skillsets is also blaringly apparent in another sport closely related to snowboarding: skateboarding.

Most skateboarders also have a dominant skillset. While the categories of skateboarding competitions—street, skate-park (bowl skating) and skateboarding’s equivalent of superpipe: vert half-pipe—may not necessarily be the same as snowboarding, the idea is basically the same.

Here too, skateboarders typically possess greater aptitude for certain forms of skateboarding than for others. A skater may be more talented shredding the bowls of a skate park than a vert ramp or street course.

Street skaters—pro skateboarder Ryan Sheckler being one example—are usually more at home hitting up the stairs, rails and pyramids of a street course than skating bowls or a vert ramp. The same can be said for vert skaters like Tony Hawk. Hawk can kill a vert ramp, but his street and bowl skills are nothing compared to his half-pipe game.

Shaun White knows well this specialization in skateboarding. He actively competes in the professional vertical skateboarding circuit during his off-season from snowboarding. But while he may actively compete in vert competitions, I’ve never heard of him participating in street contests.

But this theory of specialization in snowboarding may be just that—a theory. It was just two years ago that White won gold in both the Slopestyle and SuperPipe finals in the 2009 Winter X-Games.

If White puts forward a great amount of effort training in both the park and pipe, he may just be able to win competitions in both categories again. But if he takes another year’s hiatus from competitive slopestyle—which is a lifetime in pro snowboarding—I doubt he will be winning gold in both categories next year. 

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