Shaun White brings snowboarding to Pasadena Rose Bowl

By Lauren Gold, Staff Writer

Olympic gold medalist and professional snowboarder Shaun White announced Friday that he will bring the Air & Style sports, arts and music event to the Rose Bowl Stadium in February.

The event will be the first time Air & Style, which began in Europe in 1993, will be held in the U.S. It will feature a 16 story ramp covered in man made snow for the skiing and snowboarding competition. There will also be skateboarding, music, food trucks, art, technology, fashion, family activities and other entertainment.

“It’s going to be one of those things where it’s kind of up to you to make your own experience at the event,” White said. “Everybody has been describing it as if it was a party I was throwing. There is going to music, sports, food, there is going to be something you haven’t seen before. That’s been our underlying goal of the event to enhance peoples experience.”

White, who purchased a majority share of the event this year, said the iconic Rose Bowl Stadium was the perfect location to host it.

“I love L.A., I live in L.A. I remember going to the Rose Bowl and seeing U2 play and it was just such a blowout massive event and … I was there for the weekend flea markets. I remember thinking this is such a great place, it’s so close and so fun,” White said. “So (for the event) we basically took this satellite view of Los Angels and that was like right in the heart of it so we decided to try to pursue the Rose Bowl.”

Plus, he added, it will bring rare snow to Southern California.

“The idea is kind of bringing these things that happen in the mountains to the city,” White said. “We were doing an event with Target recently they had this days of winter thing going on. People were losing it they were so excited about the snow and it dawned on me that a lot of people in the area and in Pasadena haven’t experienced snow before. I can’t wait to see their reactions when we park this right in their front lawn.”

Read more in Lauren’s story WHITE.