Shaun White Olympics

An amazing moment from 2006. This photo of Shaun White was so hard for me to capture. I was sent to the 2006 Olympics to shoot the snowboarding, but no one got me a press pass. This put me in a bit of a predicament. I wanted to go but I did not know how it was going to work. When I arrived in Italy, I had no idea that I was going to have to fight my way to get in everywhere I went. It was at the finals for the snowboarding and I managed to get in but I had no press pass. I knew there was nothing that was going to stop me from getting my photos. I kept pushing my way forward and jumping fences. The police at one point grabbed me from the back of my jacket. I used the language barrier and said something in English hoping they would not understand. I then jerked his hand off of me and just kept going. I think my reaction threw them off and they let me keep going, as if I was supposed to be there. In my mind, I was. All these other photographers that had no idea how to shoot snowboarding and it made me upset. They have no concept of what this sport is about. The photos they were producing were of a guy in the sky and they were not even grabbing their board. I would be like if I was at the Super Bowl and I shot photos of just the football.

It is strange that this was not the cover of Transworld Snowboarding Mag when they ran the Olympic story. They used a photo of someone jumping over a chain link fence. Shaun is a household name and he just received a gold medal in the OLYMPICS!!! I just laughed when they told me how magazine sales are down.

This was the first year I had the chance to work with Danny Kass. Danny is one of the most talented snowboarders I have ever met. He is what you call a natural. The best part of it all was no one even thought he was going to qualify for the Olympics. He ended up getting a silver medal.

This is from the practice before the actual contest. Everywhere I looked, people were throwing down crazy tricks. I knew the contest was going to be amazing.

After the Olympics, I spent the rest of the year shooting with Danny. I got to know him a lot better and he is one of the coolest people I know. I saw Danny on New Years this year and he told me the year we worked together was one of the best time he had in his career. He was also thankful for everything. It was one of the biggest compliments I could of received.

I had no idea what to expect at the Olympic ceremonies. The show was so amazing I could never describe it. You would have had to have been there. All I can say is, it was so beautiful. This crazy feeling came over me where I started getting all teary eyed. I felt all the love in the air. There were people there from every county and we were all together as one.