Real and true and honest moments are so rare in corporate snowboard sport that when they occur it drops the bottom half of our brains out into our laps and leaves us dumbfounded and quivering. That what happened last night (January 29, 2012) when two-time Olympic Gold Medalist, five-time Winter X Games Gold medalist, Target Clothing Designer, video game character, and 2012 Businessweek Power 100 number 8Shaun White dropped in on his third and final run in the Winter X Games Halfpipe Finals.
White had already won the gold medal with a score of 94 points, edging second place finisher Iouri Podladtchikov by one point. White was perfectly set up to take a victory lap. He could have just made a four hit run of 23 foot straight airs and the gold would still have been his. But Shaun had some unfinished business. In his second run, White had gone down on his last hit. It was the unveiling of his frontside double-cork 1260 and he didn’t land it. We could tell the moment he dropped in on his final run that he was going to try it again.
As we all know, Shaun landed the back-to-back backside double cork 1260 to frontside double cork 1260 on his last two hits and was awarded the first perfect 100 point score in X Games history. And while it seems an almost too perfectly scripted finish for a Walt Disney Company owned made-for-TV entrainment event property, the truth is Shaun White’s run was one of those real, true, honest moments in snowboarding were an athlete’s performance rises above all the bullshit that surrounds the event, the marketing, and the hype and stands alone on its own screaming for everyone to hear: this is snowboarding.
Shaun White seemed as stoked as we all were. “It’s unreal. I’ve been wanting that 100 forever,” he said. “Thank you everyone here tonight. This is unreal. . . I came here on a mission. I couldn’t compete in slopestyle. I was sitting around icing my ankle. I took out a little of the anger that I couldn’t compete in slope on the pipe tonight. I was upset with my first front double 12 and wanted to get it.
For one of the first times in X Games television show history we were glad we were somewhere with cable and able to watch, because missing this was missing one of those epic moments.
Don’t think that action sports aren’t diving headfirst into a celebri-orgy at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah rolling this week. No, no, no. They were out in full force for the the Oakley Learn to Ride Powered by AT&T. This next paragraph pretty much sums up the mood of the entire event:
After drinking a Muscle Milk in the lounge area for some pre-ride protein, Sal Masekela was joined on the slopes by pro snowboarding pals Danny Kass and The Dingo. “Actors have always wanted to be athletes and athletes have always wanted to be actors. There’s a big mutual admiration in society, and Sundance is the perfect place to test that and put it together,” said Masekela. “I see Danny Kass and Lil Jon, and you would think that they grew up in the same hood. That’s how close they’ve gotten through snowboarding.”
And they weren’t alone. Skater Lauren Perkins and surfer Erica Hosseini also got in on the action with a crew of celebrities (some of which we’ve even heard of). Okay, on the count of three everyone keep your celebrity brand rolling for another day: 1, 2, . . . .Which reminds us: where was Todd Richards in all this? Oh, that’s right. He was webcasting from his garage.
Jake Owen, a country singer we’ve never heard of before, reportedly broke is collar bone while snowboarding in Colorado on Friday the 13th, according to a story on The Boot.
He got pretty banged up, but that didn’t stop him from hopping on Twitter to share the details. . . “Just broke my collar bone,” he tweeted. “Guess I charged this mountain a little too hard.” . . Included with the post was a picture of the country star with his arm in a sling.
We don’t understand the current state of prime time television. Seems it’s all either grisly murder investigations or bad talent shows. Last night, however, Tony Hawk dropped into TV as himself on Tim Allen‘s Cabelas like sitcom Last Man Standing.
In this episode a Dingoesque bass fishing pro stirs up trouble for Allen. Then Tony Hawk rolls in and suggests the outdoor store move “all the hunting crap” to put in an indoor skate park. The show is not entirely unfunny, and Tony didn’t ruin it. Click the link to watch the entire episode. Tony appears as a punchline in the last four minutes.
Artist Michael Sieben (of Internet Shack fame) believes Shaun White and Target have appropriated his original designs and used them without payment or attribution on Shaun White’s kids clothing line. Yesterday he used his Vice.com column Kill the Engine to outline the similarities between Target’s clothing and his art in a piece titled Who Shaun White Is. Here’s Sieben’s take away:
As a freelance graphic illustrator, it has always been my dream to land a large commercial account that would catapult my career into the mainstream collective conscious. And I think that these t-shirts might have just done that. . . BUT… I totally didn’t have to deal with filling out a bunch of contracts, or worry about invoices, and I for damn sure didn’t have to think about collecting royalties. And what would I have done with all of that money? Seems like a huge headache to me. So I got all of the benefit of having my imagery available at one of the largest retail outlets in the United States without having to deal with any of the financial benefits. Total win for me.
An Sunday, December 18, 2011, while filming at Maverick’s for a movie on the life of big wave surfer Jay Moriarity, actor Gerard Butler (who plays Rick “Frosty” Hesson in the film) got tumbled through a two-wave hold down and took “five more on the head before being washed through the rocks on the inside,” according to a Frank Quirarte story on ESPN/Action.
Talking to Wormhoudt on the dock, he said they were all sitting on the inside when a large outside set came through, swung way to the south, caught them off-guard and mowed them all down.
Butler was taken to Stanford Medical Center for observation, but was on his feet on the dock before getting into the ambulance. Assuming he’s fine, it was probably great research for his role.
Her royal hotness Gisele Bundchen is staring in a new series of ads for designer label Givenchy. In the ads, she and two pouty bros appear rather miffed to be stuck on a stormy beach with surfboards, but no boardshorts nor bikinis. Here are the details from Fashionista.
Like the Versace ads, these were also shot by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott, and they show off Riccardo Tisci’s goth asesthetic perfectly. The beach, usually a sunny and joyful place, gets dark and stormy in Tisci’s hands.
If Gisele wants to surf, guess she’s going to have to paddle out in her undress.
As we mentioned before, this is a stunt straight out of the 1970s, but that didn’t stop Rob Dyrdek from pulling it off. The greatest freeze frame of the video is halfway through the flip when Rob is upside down and eyes tightly shut. Second to that is the look of sheer surprise that he made it and is still alive.
Dyrdek is an A-1 huckster, though we’re not exactly sure this will be a viral video hit. Note to Rob: next time just crash. It’s better for page views. [click to continue…]
Beginning December 26, 2011 you won’t have to be a hot naked blonde to sleep with Shaun White. Now, thanks to his new collection of bedding, lamps, curtains, storage bins, and piggy banks available at Target people around the country will be able to bed down with the flying tomato no matter what they look like.
“It’s been a fun process creating a home product line with Target,” said Shaun. “We got our first crack at interior design when my brother Jesse and I worked on the Living Room for Target House at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. So, we jumped at the chance to give home design a shot and came up with stuff that we would’ve loved to have when we were growing up.”
Shaun spoke to the New York Times today about his choice in homes, interior design influences, why he’s doing it, and what’s next. Oddly, there was no mention of the rumored Shaun Wipes in this new new product home delivery. Guess Target is still keeping that under wraps. Follow the jump for the official word. [click to continue…]
While Lindsay Lohan (pictured here with action agent Blair Marlin) was at a “house party” following the Billabong Pipe Masters In Memory of Andy Irons her $5,000 purse was stolen from her car, according to a story in The Sun.
And as well as the large amount of cash [$10,000?], the bag contained probation documents detailing her permission to travel. . . The bag, complete with passports and papers but minus the cash, was later returned by a local, who claimed to have found it in the street.
Lohan was reportedly at the contest to honor her “friend and fellow rehab buddy” Andy Irons. Apparently, even the starlets get taxed on the North Shore.
