BRECKENRIDGE — Looking down a 602-foot superpipe with walls 22 feet high apparently doesn’t faze Shaun White, but a movie put a good scare into him this month.
The action sports superstar from San Diego came down with a bad head cold two weeks ago on a flight from Beijing to Los Angeles. And the “heavy part” was that he was watching the movie “Contagion” on the plane.
“Oh, my gosh,” White said, “it was rad.”
He’s still bothered by the cold, and he’s been on snow only four days this season, but neither challenge prevented him from winning Saturday’s Dew Tour superpipe competition at Peak 8. White won with a score of 95 points on his first run and crashed hard doing a McTwist 1260 on his second. Louie Vito of Bellefontaine, Ohio, was second with 92.75 on his second run.
White said a case of “dead leg” from a lot of riding compressed into four days caused the crash.
“I didn’t get enough pop on that last hit,” White said. “It just gave out on me.”
Because White represents Vail Resorts, company co-president John Garnsey came out to watch. Garnsey is an alpine ski racing guy to the core, but he was blown away by White’s ability to be the best man in the pipe after only four days on snow.
“It’s just amazing how he can do that,” Garnsey said.
White’s presence thrilled a huge crowd that crammed the finish area shoulder-to-shoulder and lined the sides of the pipe, a venue White called “truly amazing.” White did a 27-foot backside air, then a frontside double cork 900, a backside 540, a frontside stalefish 540, a double McTwist 1260 and an alley-oop backside rodeo.
White has skipped the event in recent years but was eager to begin a competitive season that will include the Winter X Games in Aspen on Jan. 26-29.
“I wanted to kick my season off. I wanted to get it going,” White said. “I kind of waited last year. I didn’t have anything in the crosshairs. When you have something like this, where you have to perform in front of people — you have to try to win a competition — it makes you ride at that level immediately rather than me kind of procrastinating and taking it slow.
“It’s a fire to feed, and gets you running faster.”
In the women’s superpipe, Kelly Clark of West Dover, Vt., edged Gretchen Bleiler of Aspen by one point, winning with a score of 91.25 points. Clark fell on her first run.
“I was able to step up, second run, and I put down the run I was looking to do today,” Clark said. “I was really pleased with my riding.”
Bleiler was visibly frustrated by the scoring, but put a positive spin on the day.
“She beat me by one point, and that’s always tough,” Bleiler said. “This is an amazing life I get to lead, and I’ve come a long and far way, so I’m happy. But I’m a competitive person. It will fuel the fire for the next contest.”
The Breck event concludes today with snowboard and ski slopestyle.
John Meyer: 303-954-1616 or jmeyer@denverpost.com
