Of White, Keene added, "He's in control at every second, whether he's in the air, whether he's on the wall, or whether he's in the flat bottom. Everything is happening exactly the way he wants it to happen, and that's the quality that really shines through in his riding."
That was not the case during White's first qualification run. He dropped into the pipe and launched 20 feet above the wall -- nearly 40 feet above the halfpipe bottom -- but botched the landing on his next maneuver, a 900-degree rotation, and received a score of 37.7 out of a possible 50.
"I'm feeling all Olympic-y," he confessed to one of his Burton snowboards support crew.
That left him seventh, the sole member of the four-man U.S. team not to have finished in the top six to automatically advance to the 12-man final. White was relegated to the second qualifying round, among 38 riders vying for the six remaining spots, getting only one run apiece.
As the last competitor, he watched anxiously as others kept upping the ante. White needed a 37.1 to qualify and pulled off a conservative yet flawlessly smooth run that received a 45.3 -- the top qualifying mark of either bracket.
Then he made his first of two runs during the final: another straight air, a McTwist (back flip with 540-degree spin), a frontside 1080, frontside 900 and backside 900 -- all performed perfectly, earning a score of 46.8.
The general feeling was that the contest was won then, which proved to be the case as the best anyone else could manage was Kass' 44.
White, as the last competitor, surfed out his victory lap final run to the tune of Led Zeppelin's "Communication Breakdown," a title that seemed inappropriate given the message White conveyed.
"The whole trip, the guys were telling me this was just another contest," he said. "But deep down I was nervous and knew it was more. I was glad I got that fall out of the way so I could just go and do what I do."
