Shaun White photos by Andrew Miller, Kevin Pearce photos by Johnny Centi

Have you ever wanted to sit down with a judge and say hey what were you thinking? In the recent X Games it seemed as if a lot of people felt Kevin Pearce deserved the win over Shaun White. Even the TV announcers felt Kevin deserved the win. The judges really know what they are talking about and are pretty damn objective, no favorites. Often times guys like Jeff Brushie, Risto Scott, George Oakley, Noah Salasnek and other veteran pros are on the judging panel and the judges that are not former pros are passionate and serious about being fair, especially at events like the X Games. So when people were saying what the hell, Kevin should have won, I knew the judges are no dummies so I had faith it was fair judged fairly. Recently, one of the X Games judges was kind enough to break it down for us; why Shaun won. In the long run, who really cares but it was fascinating to find out how closely the judges look at these things. Both Shaun and Kevin and Shaun shred beyond belief, this is not an attempt to break any of the riders down, just wanted to analyze it with a pro and give some insight to the readers.

SR: So why did Shaun win the X Games when it seems like, in general people felt that Kevin won?

Judge: First I want to start off by saying that Kevin had an amazing run; blatantly bigger than anyone else but the same time Shaun had an amazing run as well. When we sat down and looked at the runs trick for trick overall Shaun came out with a better run for several reasons. Shaun had 6 hits in his first place run compared to Kevin's 5 hits in his run. You know Kevin really wanted that 6th hit; he got it in the runs where he fell but it did not seem like he was going for it in that run where he got second and cut out at the last second. Shaun had three backside spins to Kevin's one backside Mctwist. Shaun also had a backside 9 and an alley oop backside rodeo 5 off his first hit which was just as big as Kevin's frontside air off the first hit. Also, the alley oop added some diversity to the run with not only spinning down the pipe. Kevin's Mctwist was bigger and better but overall Shaun's run was better. Kevin had a frontside air off the first hit where Shaun had alley oop rodeo 5, just as big. Shaun had a backside 9. On Kevin's cab 10 he only grabbed 180 degrees of the rotation where Shaun grabbed all the way around. Looking at the runs Shaun's was more complete and better overall.

SR: What if Kevin landed his first run?

Judge: We would have given it to him.

Kevin Pearce bends the tail in the midst of a massive 1080

All eyes on Shaun White

Kevin Pearce - huge frontside air, I am envious of his skills

Shaun White, love or not, the guy is extremely talented and the fascination America has with him (snowboarders and non-snowboarders alike) probably brings a lot of money to the sport

Kevin Pearce and Shaun White are rivals and friends and snowboarding is all about fun as this sequence of Kevin Pearce and Mikel Bang - fun is what really counts