Aguirre Finds Favor at 18

Mason Aguirre was once a spindly kid who dreamed of becoming a snowboarder good enough to land a sponsor or two.

Today, he’s representing not only Burton snowboards but his hometown of Mammoth Lakes -- and an entire nation that will join a worldwide audience to see how the Olympic halfpipe competition plays out.

Such pressure would seem enough to topple an athlete who is still maturing mentally and physically, especially one who has grown to 6 feet 1 but weighs only 145 pounds.

But Aguirre, at 18 the youngest member of the U.S. men’s team, has used his long legs to launch high above the icy halfpipe walls.

The pressure has mounted lately and he has shown no signs of buckling.

In fact, he has gone from dark horse to one of the medal favorites.

“I wasn’t even favored to make the Olympic team in the first place,” he says.

“But I worked hard all summer to learn new stuff and ride well, so I’m just going to go into it kind of with no expectations of myself and just ride the best that I can.

“Because that’s when I’m at my best: when I have no expectations of myself.”

Aguirre, with two second-place finishes in five Grand Prix events, qualified second to his seemingly invincible teammate, Shaun White.

He then finished second to White at the recent Winter X Games, ahead of renowned Danny Kass and several international Olympic-bound riders.

“He’s coming into his own right now,” says White, 19, also making his Olympic debut.

“He’s kind of gotten his own style and he’s riding really strong and I think that’s why he’s one of the names on the big list to do well.”

Bud Keene, coach of the men’s and women’s Olympic halfpipe teams, says Aguirre has “brought his game to a new level and now he’s riding with the big boys.”

Aguirre has drawn inspiration from the world’s best since he first strapped his feet onto a snowboard as a child growing up in Duluth, Minn.

One of his early idols was Kass, who came into his own when he was about Aguirre’s age with a masterful flare that few have been able to match.

Kass, 23, is credited with being the first halfpipe rider to have landed successive inverted 1080s. In 2000 and 2001, he claimed consecutive U.S. Open titles, a Winter X Games gold, a Grand Prix series championship and a world championship.

He won a silver medal at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, and today is among four U.S. riders vying for the gold, the fourth being Andy Finch.

Aguirre recalls being 13 and nervously approaching Kass at an autograph signing.

Kass pulled out a poster of himself and scribbled something along the lines of, “I can’t wait for you to start beating me in the pipe. Keep shredding, Danny.”

Today it may be Aguirre, not Kass, with the best chance of upstaging White.

“Mason is probably one of the smoothest guys in there and, you know, if he lands his run these days, he’s pretty much going to be on that podium,” Kass says.

Kass is also aware that good-natured Aguirre -- now his friend and Mammoth Lakes neighbor -- has been telling reporters that he recently hung the autographed poster on his bathroom wall, “as kind of a little joke.”

Smiling wryly, Kass retorts, “I guess I should have written something different, like, ‘You’ll never be as good as us.’ ”