Who has won the most wakeboard contests? Who has invented the most tricks? Who has signed one of the largest contracts in wakeboardings history? The answer to all of those questions is Darin Shapiro. Darin got started in watersports before wakeboarding as we know it was even a thing. Starting at the cable, Darin took countless laps on a trick ski, and barefooting, but it wasn’t until “ski boarding” came around that he really started to find some success. Darin was flown out by Herb O’Brien to a contest in Hawaii in 1991, and from there Darins journey in the sport began and had no signs of slowing down. Winning over 70 pro contests, inventing countless tricks, starring in 2 video games, signing one of wakeboardings largest contracts, the speedball, and retiring twice. Hear all that and much more in Episode 63 of the Grab Matters Podcast!

Follow Darin: https://www.instagram.com/darin_shapiro/
Armada JiuJitsu: https://armadabjj.com/

Thank you to our sponsors:
Liquid Force: https://www.liquidforce.com/
15% OFF Driftline use "grab15" at checkout: https://tinyurl.com/yvksusym
WSIA: https://wakeresponsibly.com/

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Hunter Thane | https://www.instagram.com/hunterthane/

Chapters: 
00:00 - 1:40 Intro
3:00 Darin's biggest contract
5:40 Getting started at the cable
14:20 First contest in Hawaii
16:30 Inventing the raley 
19:40 Skiboard prototype
23:00 Modifying boards 
27:40 Sponsors
31:30 Biggest year
33:15 LF’n Wheel of Questions
39:30 Darin's video game
41:30 Is winning everything?
42:50 Wakeboarding unleashed  
45:15 Video parts
49:30 Tricks
54:00 Triples
58:10 Inventing tricks
1:08:20 Driftline “Deserves Some Love”
1:10:55 Scud
1:11:50 Contests
1:17:00 Mindset
1:27:20 Being the “contest guy”
1:32:05 WSIA (Ad)
1:44:20 Retiring 
1:48:00 Directional boards
1:50:20 Darin's favorite board
1:53:00 Back problems
2:01:30 Jiu Jitsu

Links:
Hawaii Contest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dz8xt9-aVbk
Resurgence: https://vimeo.com/104328103

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