With two Winter X Games, World Cup qualifiers and the Sochi Winter Olympics on the horizon, action sports fans should get used to seeing Shaun White's mug plastered across their TV screens. But the one place White says we won't see him for the next 14 months is on a skateboard.

White, who also took a year away from skate competitions before the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, said he is focused on winning Snowboard Halfpipe and Slopestyle in Sochi and skateboarding simply doesn't fit into that plan.

"That's the one thing that upsets me the most is that I had knee surgery [in August 2012] so I couldn't really skate that much this past summer and then coming up, I don't tend to skateboard the year before the Olympics," White said. "It's just one of those things where a twisted ankle can put you out of the Games. I don't like taking that chance. So I usually lay low on it. See what else fills my time. I have other plans."

White last competed in a major skate contest in October 2011, when he finished second at the Dew Tour Championships in Las Vegas. That season, he also finished second in the overall Dew Tour title chase and won the X Games Skateboarding Vert title for the second time in his career, beating five-time champ Pierre-Luc Gagnon head to head. (White also won in 2007.) Last summer, he opted not to defend his title at the 2012 X Games, which took place a month and a half before his knee surgery.