Outdoors Snowboarding

Shaun White wasn't the men's halfpipe winner at the US Open of Snowboarding for the first time in four years. The red-haired one apparently strained his ankle while training last week and was unable to compete in Saturday's finals.


With that opening, not only did Danny Kass pull out the win, but Peetu Piirione, the second-place finisher, clinched the TTR World Title and the $50,000 that goes along with that. Luke Mitrani was third.

Shaun White saw his chances for another TTR title improve Saturday when he took the Intelligent Design Contest in Park City.

The contest, which evolved from the World Superpipe Championships, was unique for its course, which contained big air, half-pipe and jibbing elements.

White was followed on the podium by Charles Reid and Luke Mittrani. The win moved White to fifth overall in the TTR rankings, with Peetu Piiroinen holding onto the lead (Piiroinen didn't compete in the contest).

Jamie Anderson scored the top spot at the season-ending Toyota Championship at Northstar-At-Tahoe Friday, edging Spencer O'Brien for the win 87.50 to 87.17 thanks to a tie-breaker. Janna Meyen-Weatherby was third.

Anderson won both Dew Tour events but O'Brien was solid in all three stops, giving her the overall honor of the Dew Cup.

"It's pretty amazing," O'Brien said. "I'm so stoked. This whole series has been really awesome and just so much fun. I was really nervous coming into this one, but to clinch the Cup has been awesome."

Torstein Horgmo scored a decisive win Friday at the Men's Slopestyle Finals at Northstar-At-Tahoe's Toyota Championship, the final stop of the 2009 Winter Dew Tour. Horgmo's 93.50 was almost four points better than second-place Shaun White's 89.67. Local rider Chaz Guldemond finished in third with an 88.00.

White's second-place finish was enough to earn him the Dew Cup. He finished the season with 280 points, thanks to two second-place finishes and one win at Mount Snow.

"I was hoping to be up there with the Dew Cup in hand and drop in and have a fun run, and that's kind of what happened," White said.

Well known for its interesting series of "most wealthy" lists for sports, Forbes recently stepped outside of the traditional sports world and released its rankings of the top 10 highest-paid action sports athletes for 2008.

The names at the top of the list -- Tony Hawk, Shaun White (right) -- aren't all that surprising, but the earnings (Hawk alone apparently made $12 million in 2008) are nothing to sneeze at, even compared to wages earned by well-known professional athletes.

Forbes' full list, including each athlete's 2008 earnings, can be found after the jump: