He's not the best.

 

He's in my top 100 easy.

 

he's okay. depending on what your standard is.

 

Dude seems burnt out and the world has caught up. In the pipe he is still capable of winning. He won't dominate or be feared any longer...kinda like Tiger Woods has experienced the last few years. But based on his track record...he's still the best in the pipe. Next season will be all about some lame "comeback" angle. But with all that said...I'd rather watch Danny Davis.

 

pipe GOAT so far.

 

It's just sad because one loss at Sochi completely undermined 14 years of consecutive winning. It seeriously not fair on this dude and he knows that the Sochi loss will be all anyone remembers for a while.

 

When you create the hype to brand yourself and gain rewards, then you also must suffer the consequences when you don't live up the hype.

 

He's over the hill. Fact of the matter is that he is known as a cookie cutter pipe and park rat. Out of all the legends who were just specialists like that? I can only think of guys who took their skills to natural or urban terrain and showed us what could be done with what was there. I am sure his musical career will take off.

Dude has the money to do whatever the fuck he wants in style and not do another thing for a check. So in the end he wins.

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if he focused on bc he could do just what craig or terje did in the twilight of their competition days... he might be a little burnt, and may rather do music at this point... but i think we see him kill the bc before this is all over. :dunno:

 

I think Shaun White is the best at being super fashionable while riding half-pipe. Does that count?

 

Yes. Yes it does.

 

I have a lot of respect for the guy. When I was younger I was alright at archery (won the world champs a couple of times) and I dedicated a huge part of my life to it - training every morning and night outside of university and work and giving up a lot of social life so I didn't miss training sessions etc etc. I'm not saying what I was doing was anywhere near as intense as what SW has had to do to stay on top but still it's a fucking hard slog and takes its toll on your life.

So I really respect what he's done but unless there are some drastic changes to pipe contests I think he's had his day. He's still damn good but a lot of great riders have caught up to him, some I would say have even eclipsed him.

I'd like to see him do some crazy BC stuff but I reckon he's going to move on now.

 

i think he's holding on by his fingernails to somewhere in the top 5, things are changing so fast...imo shaun's stock run would not have beat Taylor Gold's at the US Open, he just killed.

fwiw, by the actual gauge of points on the world tour, Taku Hiraoka (bronze in sochi) is the #1 halfpipe rider for 2013/14

shaun has done so much , is so recognizable for life. if he plays his cards right he will be an elder statesman like Tony Hawk.

 

When I say this I understand the whole "shouldah, wouldah, couldah" theory.
But all things being equal...if Shaun had stomped that final run in Sochi....pretty sure he would have won gold and this conversation wouldn't even exist. Now...i'm sure part of that possible win would have been due to name recognition but everyone knows life isn't fair.
At any rate...I think he's the best...world has caught up and all bets are off. Hopefully it leads to more compelling pipe competitions in the seasons to come.

 

I think he's not. Honestly, he just isn't anymore. He's burned out a little, and I think he needs a break. It's easy to compete 4 years ago, when you're riding at a level beyond anyone else. But then a couple more years pass, and everyone catches up.... suddenly you need to step it up to win, and you don't.

My question is, why was everyone able to catch up? Did he get complacent and not progress, just kinda let it get to his head that no one could beat him anyway and "Why should I kill myself to get better, when I'm already the best?" Or did he just plateau, and try as he might couldn't progress fast enough?

 

No, I think he should retire from competition and just do his thing. Let the young bucks come in and push the sport. He's the equivalent of Tony Hawk, the GOAT of snowboard halfpipe.

 

this might be off-topic, but do people still really care about halfpipe? they pretty much stopped building them here, and I always wondered if this was happening in other places

 

I think Shaun White is still the best. He has style for days, and will improve on the YOLO and triple cork over the next year, after he's down with his band touring stuff, while other halfpipe pros are trying to do the YOLO, he's ahead of them with the triple cork, if someone else gets the triple cork, he has YOLO. Remember he's only 27, no one says shit about Torstein. He's 28, and doesn't even get first all the time. But that's the thing. Even with this win iouri has never been consistent. He doesn't always do well, and this one trick, YOLO won't carry him very far, unless he consistently keeps progressing. Shaun White said he'd compete in Korea 2018, and he will totally get a gold medal. I'm just hoping ill see him compete a lot over the next few years because I know he's nearing retirement (my guess is like 33)

 

Tony Hawk's Secret Skatepark Tour (Full) - YouTube


Start at 44:34

 

Tons of SW threads this season!

Give the kid a break, isn't he like 27 or something? He dominated for half his life, now he's just trying to get the world to stop viewing him as a total douche, which is good.

There's a new generation out now that will make him obsolete within the next few years. Nobody beats father time..

 

Pipe is fun as hell to ride, but you are right they are becoming scarce. None within 3 hours from here.

 

I think that the rest of the competition has caught up with him - to an extent - but other than the young Japanese kid (and iPod when he's on) is there really anyone else at his level? The half pipe at next years X Games will be pretty interesting and I think we'll find out what kind of trajectory SW's career is on.

 

I feel he is like the Tiger Woods of snowboard. For awhile Shaun White was unbeatable, just like Woods used to be in golf. Now both White and Woods are beatable. White still has potential to win competitions in the next few years, but now that he has been beaten, people don't see him as superhuman. When he's in the lineup for a competition next year, we should be in for a great event. As of now, In my opinion, he still is ranked #1 for the best halfpipe rider, but he's left the door open for someone else to claim that spot. We'll just have to see what next year brings.

 

Both feel the pressure of being the best, but can't produce like they once could. He may be the best, maybe not, but both Tiger and SW are not going to win dominantly like the once did.

On another note, you want to talk about an elite athlete that continues to progress with his sport into his forties, Kelly muthafukin Slater. He still paddles out in 25 foot pipeline, beats groms and can do all the new school airs necessary to win world titles or get close (last year)at age 42.

 

You have to be a child prodigy like Woods&White to be able to log the time and development process to get to triple corks in the pipe. This will always be a small sample size of riders. And when you factor in the increased risk factor (KP) that will shrink that small population of riders further. I don't think there is a Woods or White always waiting in the wings. But these child prodigies do age out eventually.

 

Slater is Peter fucking Pan. He still looks like a kid.

 

Talk about a world class athlete that no one knows about outside of the surfing world....dude is a legend, I remember watching Kelly Slater:Black & White as a teenager and just being amazed.

As far as White goes, I think the Tiger Woods analogy is a good one. One of the best of all time but no one is really scared of him anymore and that "fear" was a huge psychological edge for both of them in the past. Also, like Tiger, White has forced others to push their skills to the next level in order to be competitive.

 

i believe that without SW, the sport of superpipe would not have progressed as fast as it did

The same could be said with slopestyle with McMorris

Womens snowboarding need a female SW to make them progress as much as the men did

 

Well they have Jamie Anderson in Slopestyle, she seems to be pushing that event pretty well. As far as pipe though, I can't really think of anyone. Maybe Kaitlyn Farrington? No clue.

 

IMO you can see it in his eyes his whole mind set is just a little off…Scared of losing