Counting yen in a Japanese hotel room, 2002.   (Photo: Courtesy of Shaun White)

I was kind of a horrible child. I mean, I was like that redheaded monster child. I had so much energy and I had so much passion for what I was doing � whether it was soccer or handball and things like that. It was mostly soccer, I think, was my jam at the time.

When I first started skiing, at 4 years old, my mom didn’t allow me poles � ski poles � because I was so into kung fu and the Ninja Turtles stuff that I would hit people. I would try to sword-fight with my siblings. I was just that kid. But once I got into snowboarding it was like, �This could be his outlet.� I wasn’t thinking that, I was just thinking, Wow, they’re going to let me keep snowboarding. That sounds great. But my parents were like, �He can get his energy out this way rather than other ways, as you get older.�

I don’t know when I realized I was really good. I mean, I don’t really think that’s a thing you tell yourself. It’s more just that you maybe decide, like, Wow, this is something I want to do for a long time rather than just a short time. But I remember there was a guy named Ross Powers � he was winning all of the events. And I’m doing the simple math in my head of what my parents made, working full-time jobs, combined, and what this guy was making just by winning these events, and I’m thinking, Wow, I would rather do this than what my parents do. I was probably like 13 or 14. At 15, I won an event in Japan called the Toyota Big Air. It was like this big prize purse of $50,000 and a car. I’m 15 and I’m like, Whoa, this is crazy! I mean, I was pretty much a kid who felt like he already had everything. I just wanted to snowboard. If I was going to buy something, I’d buy a snowboard.