GETTING EXTREME WITH THE TOMATO.

Byline: TOM HOFFARTH

CARSON - The Shaun White X-perience started with an hour-and-a-half wait in the beatdown summer sun a few hundred yards east of Home Depot Center, this weekend's home base for X Games 12.

Many of those admirable admirers, who missed their moment with the Olympic gold-medal winning snowboarder and nose-bleed inducing skateboarder back at the PlayStation booth in the X Games corporate tent area earlier in the day, were forward- thinking enough to get into the line already weaving out of control at the Mountain Dew trailer stage, hoping to catch this skinny, red-haired party of one for a scheduled autograph spree.

Having arrived a little late, the Flying Tomato was already playing catch-up.

Doing the Dew line that was cut off long before White showed up for the 1 p.m. appointment would take even more patience. Those waiting had at least another hour, or until White's handlers decided to escort him back to his sponsor-donated custom-built bus stashed away somewhere on the Cal State Dominguez Hills campus.

At least all these Sharpie scribbles were free, as were the hugs from some of Southern California's highest-quality young females, high-fives from the little dudes with the Mohawks and fist-bumps from dads who trudged through with their kids and had nothing more to offer.

Although, for White, this was all a somewhat painful exchange.

At Friday night's competition in the skateboard vert trick at Staples Center, White jammed the last two fingers on his right hand on a landing. He had tried, and failed, 18 times to pull off the fabled 1080 -- that's three complete rotations high in the air above the U-shaped ramp, finished off by a clean landing.

It would have eclipsed Tony Hawk's legendary 900 in X Games lore and added another gnarly notch on White's already radical resume that's been hashed and thrashed enough times during his recent trips to visit Jay Leno, David Letterman, Jimmy Kimmel, Carson Daly, Regis and Kelly, Martha Stewart, Ellen DeGeneres ... it just gets blurry after awhile.

But after Friday's competition ended, the medalists were determined (none were for White) and ESPN ducked into commercials, White launched himself off the ramp three more times, egged on by the crowd. No one at home witnessed his worst spill of the night when he landed on the hand.

As a result, the 19-year-old had to cradle the pen Saturday almost like he was holding a tea cup. With his left hand, he did the meet and greet with those devotees that came in all shapes, sizes and piercings.

Such as 8-year-old Griffin Jones, who made the trip from Arizona with his brother, Holton, and some family members.

Griffin, like everyone in his group, showed up shirtless, with black shorts and a turned-backward hat. Written across his chest in black pen was: ``Shawn White Rocks My World: 1080.''

White autographed his stomach to punctuate that statement.

Body parts were continually thrust in front of White as if he was a plastic surgeon, and the kid wasn't about to just say no.

Checkered Vans loafers, iPods, dogtags and backpacks were as equally popular items for him to sign as posters, T-shirts, mesh caps and the covers of Sports Illustrated, ESPN magazine and Rolling Stone that dolled him up.

Sal Masakela, the ESPN X Games host who has worked at all dozen of 'em, referred to White on the broadcast the other day as ``the most popular man with red hair on Earth,'' and it was hardly an extreme statement.

Ever since his Winter Olympics moment of world fame, followed by his wide-eyed exuberant interviews with the NBC folks covering that, White has no worries about where his next Taco Bell burrito supreme is coming from.

He has been on a six-month tour of must-attend sponsor- related events as the celeb de jour, a prop of pop culture, an ESPY Awards photo op for anyone who can go back and fix the color contrast on that head of hair in Photoshop after they've downloaded it off their BlackBerry.

``I'm honestly waiting for real life to kick back in, but it's not,'' he admitted the other day. ``It's kind of freaking me out.''

Even if he loses, he wins. It meant almost nothing to these stunt junkie fans that the ``American Badass'' from Carlsbad (as a recent ESPN magazine cover called him) and one of ``Athletes On The Edge'' for '06 (as the current issue of Rolling Stone lumps him into) finished eighth in Thursday's skateboard vert competition.

Saturday, while AC/DC's ``Shoot To Thrill,'' pumped out of the speakers, the adrenalin rush came from those moms holding their babies in a shoulder pouch who could cuddle White like a plush toy. Or from a giggly girl who'd hand him her cellphone and ask him to say hi to a friend.

There's no doubt about it, the easygoing White does his own stunts. And his greatest one these days has been keeping his head screwed on straight.

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Photo:

Shaun White, right, poses for a photo with one of his fans, Savannah Smith of Mission Hills, during an autograph session at the X Games.

Evan Yee/Staff Photographer