As reported on www.forbes.com by Kurt Badenhausen

Snowboarder Shaun White was down to his last chance after falling during his first two runs of the men's half-pipe competition at last month's Winter X Games. It was the culminating event in the four day contest that drew 68,000 fans to Aspen, Colo. Once again, White delivered. He ripped off a stellar final run that included back-to-back 1080s (three complete rotations in the air) to win the gold.

White's payday for winning one of his sport's biggest competitions: a paltry $30,000. By comparison, Geoff Ogilvy earned $1.1 million for winning golf's 2009 opening event, the Mercedes-Benz Championship.
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But the snowboarding and skateboarding phenom crowned the Flying Tomato will get his money. We estimate that White earned $9 million in 2008 thanks to lucrative endorsement deals with Burton, Hewlett-Packard, Oakley, Red Bull and Target. His earnings are almost entirely from sponsors, as yearly prize money for skateboarders and snowboarders rarely tops $100,000. White's endorsement take is greater than any baseball or football player outside of quarterback Peyton Manning.

CLICK HERE FOR A SLIDESHOW OF THE HIGHEST-PAID ACTION SPORTS STARS IN PICTURES

White is the Tiger Woods of today's action sports stars. He wins more than anybody else, and his fame far eclipses that of his competition. Other action sports stars are starting to get noticed by a broader audience, and that has meant bigger paychecks, thanks to rich sponsorship deals.

With this in mind, we decided to take a look at who makes what in action sports. Through interviews with industry experts we estimated 2008 earnings for the top stars in the more traditional sports like snowboarding, skateboarding, surfing and BMX. We excluded Motocross racing, which straddles the line between action sports and motor sports and top riders like Chad Reed and James Stewart can make as much as $5 million racing around a dirt track.

The top 10 earners in 2008 were all male. Top female snowboarders like Torah Bright, Gretchen Bleiler and Hannah Teter make as much as $750,000 annually, but that fell short of our $1 million cut off.
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Shaun White is the top earner among the current crop of action sports stars, but the highest-paid guy in the game is still Tony Hawk, the godfather of action sports. Hawk retired from competitive skating in 1999 at the age of 31, but he has built a thriving business that earned him $12 million last year. Hawk dominated skateboard competitions through the 1980s and '90s, winning 71% of the events that he entered during his 17-year career. Despite his success, Hawk found that he could not support his family financially by just competing, so he launched his own skateboard company, Birdhouse Projects, in 1992.

Hawk parlayed his skating success into a business empire that includes his own Boom Boom Huckjam action sports tour, a clothing line available at Kohl's and Tony Hawk's Big Spin roller coasters at Six Flags. He also created a videogame with Activision, "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater," that launched in 1999. It is one of the best-selling videogame franchises of all time with $1.2 billion in sales since its launch. The latest version hits stores in October. Today, Tony Hawk Inc. employs 30 people at offices outside of San Diego. Last year, Tony Hawk branded product sales were $200 million.

Hawk is still a big name with teens, despite being retired for 10 years. TRU, a market research firm focused on the under-30 set, does an annual study on awareness and likability of celebrities. The top athlete in its 2008 report amongst teens was Hawk, ahead of the likes of LeBron James and Derek Jeter. That is why companies like Activision, Quiksilver, Sirius and T-Mobile are still quick to partner with him.

Corporate money has been pouring into action sports in recent years as the popularity of these sports has taken off with consumers. Participation in skateboarding increased 74% between 1998 and 2007 to 10.1 million participants, the fastest growth of any sport in the U.S. Snowboarding registered the third fastest growth over the same 10-year period, up 42% to 5.1 million participants according to the National Sporting Goods Association.

"These sports are so much fun for participants and accessibility is much better than 20 years ago," says Bob Klein, an action sports pioneer who built the first snowboard half pipe and later became an agent for boarders including Shaun Palmer and Danny Kass.

Walt Disney's ESPN has been hugely influential in expanding the reach of these sports through the X-Games. ESPN launched the first summer competition in 1995 that was billed as the Extreme Games, featuring sports like bungee jumping, eco-challenge, sky surfing and street luge, all events that no longer exist. The Winter X-Games joined the party in 1997.

NBC launched its own action sports competition in 2005, the Dew Tour. The tour features five-stops over four months with prize money totaling $2.5 million, the biggest purse in action sports. Big sponsors on last year's Dew Tour included Sony, Toyota and Wendy's International.

The latest big brand to enter the fray is Gatorade. The sports drink leader announced plans for its first big push into action sports earlier this year. The PepsiCo subsidiary signed three up-and-coming action sports athletes to endorsement deals including 14-year skateboarding phenom Chaz Ortiz.

Peter Carlisle, who heads the Olympics and Action Sports division of sports agency Octagon, says, "Action sports provide a unique platform to reach the masses and the younger demo that is particularly hard to reach through mass marketing."

Good news for today's action sports stars.

Okay, so I'm a few days late on this, but 1) it took me a while to regain movement in my extremities after freezing my ass off at the event; 2) I'm a cheap bastard and booked a hotel room without wireless access; 3) I spent all my money on proper slices that I can't get in L.A., a trip up to the Empire State Building's observation deck, and maybe a Guinness or two, so I had to skip the internet cafe, and 4) I was in New York City, bitch! I'm not going to kill time plinking away on a keyboard when I can be immersing myself in that incredible city, even if it is in the winter. Anyway, here are some more pics from the event - check out the rest here.

The 13th Winter X Games will kick off today in Aspen, Colorado, you know the town Mary Swanson is from. I dunno, my friend Loyd drove there for some chick, Mary, a few years back. Well anyway, it's going to go off. Names like: Travis Rice, Shaun White, Hanna Beaman, Jussi Oksansen and Mason Aguirre, to name a few, are amping to get going.

The first day of the Games will be aired tonight night on ESPN, you know that channel that usually covers all those sports where they play with balls. Coverage is set to start at 9 pm and go to 11 pm ET. That ET stands for Eastern Time, so if you don't live on the Right Coast check your local listings.

Click here to see all of the invited Xers and what events they'll be competing in.

After an epic inaugural event that brought some of snowboarding's best and brightest together for an insane new format dubbed an 'All Mountain Freestyle Invitational' T-Rice's Quiksilver Natural Selection team will not be holding an event this season to instead focus its efforts on 2010. A damn shame with all the snow Jackson's getting. (Jan. 2)

But, as for X-Dance, Rice just won "Athlete of the Year", "Best Overall Film" and "Best Cinematography" for the Planet Earth rivaling movie That's It That's All. Congrats Travis and Curt. (Jan. 21)

"That's It, That's All," the groundbreaking snowboard film produced by Brain Farm wins both 'Best Overall Film' and 'Best Cinematography' while snowboarder Travis Rice was awarded ' Athlete of the Year' at the X-Dance Action Sports Film Festival held in Salt Lake City, UT. The panel made up of filmmakers, athletes and entertainment executives awarded "That's It, That's All" from a pool of 35 of the finest films in adventure and action sports screened throughout the four-day event. ""That's It, That's All' has made an impact on the industry that cannot be ignored," says Brian Wimmer, founder and director of the X-Dance Action Sports Film Festival. ' It has all of the components; cinematography, editing, soundtrack, action and just enough story to completely raise the bar.' In an attempt to push the progression of action sports films, "That's It, That's All" leaps past the status quo athleticism and quality of production. For two years, producers Curt Morgan and Rice traveled the world in search of conditions that capture the essence of snowboarding. This quest took the riders to New Zealand, Japan, Germany, Canada, Valdez, AK, Jackson Hole, WY and Mammoth, CA. Using the features found in these locations, Rice began inventing new tricks including the first landing of a double backside rodeo 1080 (spinning three times, while going through 2 inversions). "Tonight is all about thanking my friends, family and Quiksilver and Red Bull, who helped to make this happen. I really want to thank my mom for helping me out, so that I can concentrate on snowboarding,' Rice humbly adds." Receiving official validation from our peers in both filmmaking and fellow athletes with these awards in a year that featured so many really solid projects is incredibly humbling. We're already looking for ways to top this, so get ready!" Using a dozen state of the art cameras including the Wescam 35 and Cineflex HD, the producers created a visual snowboard film that redefines the genre. "That's It, That's All" includes the most unique footage ever shot of Travis Rice, Mark Landvik, Nicolas Muller, Terje H konsen, Jeremy Jones, John Jackson, Pat Moore, Scotty Lago, Bryan Iguchi, Kyle Clancy, Jake Blauvelt, Danny Kass and many more. There are many 'firsts' in the film including the first landed attempts at a handful of tricks, first time in locations and the first full, professional quality HD core snowboard film. "That's It, That's All" Is available on DVD, Blu-ray and iTunes. To purchase "That's It, That's All" check out ThatsIt-ThatsAll.com or stop by your local Quiksilver shop. snowboard-revolution.com