PARK CITY — The future is now for Shaun White. And it didn't take him long to get there.
Tagged with the nickname "Future Boy" when he burst onto the pro snowboarding scene at age 13, he's soared to the top of the sport in just four years. He won seven halfpipe and slopestyle contests in 2003, including both events at the Winter X Games.
And he doesn't just rip on snow. The long-haired redhead is one of the most talented skateboarders in the country. He's the only athlete to compete in both the Winter and Summer X Games. He also toured with the Tony Hawk Boom Boom Huck Jam.
"Last year was pretty great," he said between training runs for the U.S. Grand Prix halfpipe contest at Park City Mountain Resort. White was the top qualifier for tonight's finals.
As the level of snowboarding continues to rise, so does the exposure for top riders like White.
It also has spawned a batch of youngsters just like him, including a 13-year-old mighty mite named Luke Mitrani.
"It just seems like the sport is getting better and better, tricks are getting harder," White said. "TV and everything is getting a lot huger. There (are) so much media around snowboarding now. It's just crazy."
White blends much of his skating into snowboarding. He doesn't throw the biggest tricks or get the most air but always seems to be technically sound and in control. He avoids tricks like 1080-degree spins unless he can do them cleanly.
"I just try to be as smooth as I can," he said. "A lot of times spinning more isn't better. It's all about how your spin looks and if you did it right. That's how I feel about it."
White's prowess and personality have landed him in ESPN the Magazine, Sports Illustrated, a made-for-television surf, skate and ride competition called Triple Threat, and MTV Cribs.
On Cribs, the San Diego native showed off the beach-front house he bought for his family in Carlsbad, Calif. Though he's the man on a board, he's not the man of the house. His parents still get the master bedroom.
"Those punks are friggin' hoardin' it," he said with a laugh. But that's all right with him. "I'm like 17. I don't want to live alone yet. I want to be with my family."
White's mother, Cathy, used to go on the road with him but not anymore. That responsibility fell to his 23-year-old brother, Jesse, a team manager for Burton Snowboards, one of White's many sponsors.
"I like having him with me. It's awesome, you know, travel, have fun."
And don't look now but there's another "Future Boy" on the way. Mitrani of Winhall, Vt., is competing with the big boys in the halfpipe just like White did. (He didn't make today's Grand Prix finals.) At 13, he's the youngest athlete ever to be associated with the U.S. Snowboard Team.
If everything goes according to plan, the two of them could be teammates on the 2006 Olympic team. White would be 19; Mitrani 15.
"Yeah, I don't know," he said of the fame and fortune snowboarding could bring. "I just like doing it."
Sounds a lot like White.
Mitrani, in fact, considers White a hero "just because he's a young rider and he skateboards and snowboards, and I love skating and snowboarding."
Says White: "I think he's awesome. He's pushing it just like I guess I was a while ago. He's just a kid that likes to have fun and ride. We always need new kids in the sport just to mix things up."
Just like a past "Future Boy" did — not so many years ago.
E-mail: romboy@desnews.com