As many of you know, my friend Amy and I are in Vancouver, as one of five Samsung mobile explorer teams… we’re capturing the Olympic experience through blogs, video, and social media over the next few weeks…AND competing to win the title of Ultimate Mobile Explorer! Please visit http://www.facebook.com/SamsungUSA to vote for us – Team SKAR Vlog (We also have a super cool site, thanks to the oh-so-fabulous and dare I say SKAR Vlog’s biggest public supporter, Adam Fanton: http://www.skarvlog.com)
However, just because I’m in foreign territory doesn’t mean I’m not blogging…follow along as you live vicariously through us and find out what it’s like to fly with Olympic snowboarder Shaun White.
United Airlines flight 6114. Los Angeles to Vancouver. Wednesday February 10th. Approx. 9:20am.
Samia: “Where?! My mom was just talking about him (or well, his long, red hair.)”
Amy: “He’s up there! I’m gonna try filming him!”
Two hours later… plane landing soon…
Samia: “We have to talk to him. We can’t let this moment pass. We’ll regret it forever.”
Samia and Amy pause… unsure of how to approach this high-profile Olympian.
Amy: “Why don’t we go give these empty cups to the airline hostess, and then on our way back, ask if we can take a picture?”
Samia: “You equal genius.”
(Samia and Amy do said-plan.)OK so, that scene right up there? Really happened. Yes. REALLY. Hours into our Olympic adventure, before we even crossed the border and entered international territory, we had already had our first experience with an Olympic athlete. And not just any Olympic athlete… it was like, THE Olympic athlete ….US snowboarder Shaun White.
So we’re sure that you guys are dying to know what happened next. Well…ten minutes, six questions, and three photos later, we went back to our seats feeling like we were Shaun White’s new BFF… or well, at least his Samsung Mobile Explorer team of choice (he told us he’d only support Team SKAR Vlog.) He even introduced us to the person sitting next to him… Olympian Halfpipe athlete Gretchen Bleiler.
Highlights of the conversation?
- We talk about his hair. He tells us about how it takes forever to grow, and he tells us about a recent haircut. We ask if anyone had ever attempted to keep his hair. He says no (well, not that he knows of, at least.)
- We talk about visiting foreign countries. He shares a story about visiting Africa with friends and how small children would just come up to him and touch his skin (“wow, he’s real!) Apparently, he’s visited countries like Rwanda to support African Relief (Shaun White = ultimate good samaritan.)
- What’s on his music radar? We interrupted him writing in his journal, and listening to…”We are the Champions,” by Queen. Naturally, we bring up our early memories of Mighty Ducks 2 and how that song will forever be associated with that film. He agrees.
- We also ask him how old he is. He’s 23. He asks us how old we are. Our response? 24. He turns to Gretchen and says (yes this actually happened,) “Oohhhh, I’m hanging with older women…” Naturally, we were flattered.
- After realizing he was close in age, we had to ask….and yes, all you geeky gamers (Samia Khan included) out there will appreciate this: Yes, he played the video game Cool Boarders growing up. Let’s be real… he was FEATURED in the video game at age 13. In fact, he would play Cool Boarders 3 with his friends, and his friends would be the “Shaun White” character and beat him! Obviously… we know he could take them when it came to the real deal outside, but nonetheless, Shaun admitted he’s quite competitive and didn’t like his friends beating him while playing AS him.
- Fun fact: He grew up in San Diego, and though he’s a pro snowboarder, actually hates the mountains and the cold!
In conclusion? Shaun White: Super nice. Super approachable. Super rockstar status (come on, you guys totally think he looks like a younger version of Steven Tyler too…)
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I’d love to meet Shaun White. Everyone says he’s so cool and down to earth so I’ll just assume he’s wearing sunglasses indoors because he was tired and had bags under his eyes or eyes lol
Oh and I think he looks more like a young Robert Plant. Same hair.
That is awesome, guys! What an amazing opportunity. Shaun seems like such a sweet guy, I’m so happy for him and his win. And I’m happy for you guys to get to meet him. Good job! ☺