Skateboarding Versus Snowboarding: The Legend Shaun White Opines

Skateboarding will become an official permanent addition to the Olympic sports portfolio in 2028 at Los Angeles, though it had been featured sporadically in previous Games. Its sister snowboarding, on the other hand, has been a permanent Olympic fixture since the 1990s.

Not surprisingly, many boarders practice both disciplines. Take Shaun White, a three-time Olympic Gold medalist in snowboarding. He had also skateboarded early on, when he first started out.

We caught up with White, recently named a Barbie Kenbassador doll, to discuss the snowboard and the skateboard – and the differences. Following are edited excerpts from a longer conversation.

Jim Clash: What’s the difference from your perspective between snowboarding and skateboarding? I know you’ve done both, and at a high level.

Shaun White: Well, I went pro in snowboarding at 13 and in skateboarding at 16, living this dual competitive life. All winter I’d compete in snowboarding, then summers in skateboarding, a revolving door if you will.

The main difference between the two is that skateboarding is a lot more technical. The board can fly away if your foot isn’t in that exact spot when you try to catch it. But if you can’t get back on the board, you can always land on your feet and run.

With snowboarding, you are committed. If you’re going for a 90-ft jump, you’re going on that 90-ft jump [laughs]. You can’t just say, “I’ll run out of this.” The board is attached to your feet, and that creates a lot more consistency.

When I first started snowboarding after all my skateboarding it was like, the board is going to stay on my feet [laughs]. The two complement each other, though. Snowboarding has the size, and skateboarding the technical.

Clash: Why did you ultimately focus on snowboarding?

White: Well, for nine years I was almost the best at both. But skateboarding didn’t get as much limelight as snowboarding. There was no Olympics for skateboarding at the time. I can’t imagine if I were born in this era where I could compete in both snow and skate at the Olympics. That would have been just the craziest.

Clash: You mentioned Tony Hawk earlier, the legend skateboarder, and hanging with him as a kid. What did he teach you?

White: Yes, he was always at the park where I skated. Trick-wise, there was a lot he taught me. There were other boarders there too, like Bob Burnquist and Bucky Lasek that I learned tricks from. But Tony was at his peak, pretty famous. I watched him interact with fans. He was the same guy through and through with his success and on the financial side.

So I was experiencing through him all that I was about to go through at my first Olympics. The way he stayed a normal guy taught me a lot. He would stop and sign autographs, make time for family. He didn’t get all full of himself, and never forgot where he came from. Being around that really rubbed off on me and helped me as I got more well-known.

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This article was originally published on Forbes.com