Is Snowboarding Getting Spoiled by Big Money?

As the first to integrate a foam pit into a halfpipe, White was able to push the envelope. "He unlocked a lot of secrets to the double cork," says White's coach Bud Keene. (The double cork — made famous by snowboarder Travis Rice — combines flipping and spinning and marks a new chapter in halfpipe snowboarding.) Similarly, Nike included an airbag at Pearce's halfpipe at Mammoth Mountain in California, enabling him to land a Double McTwist there in June. "The main part with these double tricks is getting them around so you're not landing on your head," professional snowboarder Danny Davis says. "That's what that pipe was so useful for — just learning these tricks so you could get on your feet and then the landing part would come later." (See a brief history of Olympic sore losers.)

While Davis (who missed the 2010 Olympics after being injured in an ATV accident) acknowledges the private pipe helped him learn several tricks, he cautions that airbags and foam pits do not eliminate risk. "These training devices are great and they're helpful but they don't do all the work for you," he says. "You still have to be able to land them."

While training in Park City, Utah, on New Year's Eve, Pearce fell while practicing the double cork, a trick he already landed several times, hitting his head and severely injured his brain. After months of therapy at Craig Hospital in Englewood, Colo., he is expected to return to his Vermont home within weeks. (See TIME's Olympics covers.)

A month after Pearce's fall, White hit his face against the halfpipe during practice at the Winter X Games, while performing his variation of the Double McTwist (the Double McTwist 1260).

"These tricks are getting progressively more and more dangerous," says Susan Izzo, an agent for Pearce and several other top snowboarders. "We're not looking at blown out knees anymore. Kevin is a perfect example of what could happen."

However, Izzo adds, "I do not blame the double for Kevin's accident. Kevin caught... on that edge and slammed. That happens."

It was a mistake any snowboarder could make — even the elite. But, Wescott points out, "the price for mistakes is getting higher and higher."

To some, the price to be able to progress in the sport is also getting higher, and some snowboarders worry that rising training costs will necessitate increased corporate funding, which will deter aspiring snowboarders.

Snowboarders also fear tunnel vision training will be used to "breed" athletes for competition.

"There's a lot of artistic influence and individuality, which I think is core to what makes snowboarding so awesome," says Izzo. "We are not necessarily cultivating and developing snowboarders anymore."

"It scares me," she adds, "because it really takes away from what snowboarding is and what it should be."

As the money and risks rise, the loss for snowboarding could be the very things that draw so many to the sport — its accessibility, esprit de corps and sheer pleasure.

"I really believe that it will never lose that — it can't lose that primarily because snowboarding is really fun," Rice says. "That's the base of it. It's as simple as that."

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