ASPEN, Colo.—Consider Steve Fisher the Phil Mickelson of snowboarding.
Fisher has proven himself one of the best snowboarders in the world, a nearly flawless technician and winner of Winter X Games gold two of the past four years, including a resounding victory in the superpipe a year ago.
Yet no matter how many contests he wins, how technically difficult his runs are, Fisher can’t escape the shadow of Shaun White.
To be fair, Fisher isn’t alone.
White has become the face of snowboarding since winning gold at the Turin Olympics in 2006, appearing on talk shows, in commercials and video games, and on magazine covers around the world. He’s become a red-haired mass media monster, snowboarding’s version of Tiger Woods, nearly everything he touches flying off the shelves.
At times, it seems as if everyone else is fighting for second, trying to get by on White’s scraps—just like the rest of PGA Tour does with Woods.
“It’s not just Shaun White,” Fisher said before this year’s Winter X Games. “Shaun White tends to get all the credit for snowboarding, but there’s a list of at least 20 people capable of doing amazing things. I always compare snowboarding to the PGA Tour: any one of these guys can win in any contest on any given day. It just depends on what kind of day they’re having.”
If it seems like there’s a rivalry between Fisher and White, maybe there is a little. But its a much friendlier one than what Woods and Mickelson or Woods and Vijay Singh have. This is more like Nicklaus and Palmer in the later years, the need to stomp each other offset by a mutual respect.
Part of it is Fisher’s ability to see the big picture. He may not like the seemingly exclusive attention White gets from the mainstream media, but understands the long-term benefits for his sport.
“I can be either Phil Mickelson or Vijay Singh; they’ve got to do what they’ve got to do to get ratings and I’m going to do what I’ve got to do,” Fisher said.
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SUPERPIPE:@ The superpipe at the Winter X Games is 525 feet long, more than 100 feet longer than the halfpipes riders use in other competitions. That’s room for three or four extra tricks for the riders, who have to put a little more thought into their runs to come up with the extra moves and combinations they’ll need to fill out the trip.
Hannah Teter, the 2004 superpipe champ, already has her planning session mapped out.
“At nighttime I kind of light my candle, roll out my yoga mat and kind of meditate and all the stuff that’s going to happen the next day, so I’ll be doing that tonight for tomorrow,” Teter said.
But more than the mental preparation, there’s a physical demand. The extra length and additional trips are harder on the legs, leaving out-of-shape riders breathless and unable to complete their tricks on the bottom section of the pipe.
“It’s a lot more strenuous and that’s where a lot of guys who have not been riding consistently throughout the year kind of flail a little bit just because of the length,” defending superpipe champ Steve Fisher said.
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BOMB SCARE:@ A parking lot adjacent to Buttermilk Mountain was closed for a short time and a few hundred cars weren’t allowed to leave due to a bomb scare Tuesday afternoon.
It started when a bank teller in Glenwood Springs overheard a conversation from a customer who said there was bomb in his car at the mountain. The Pitkin County Sheriff’s office was informed and investigated the tip, finding a car with a shotgun and shells, but no bomb.
One man was arrested and the parking lot was reopened later in the afternoon, though the scare didn’t hamper preparations for the Winter X Games, which start on Thursday.
