Date: 6/26/02
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Darin Shapiro Photo/Video Gallery
Darin Shapiro
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Sure, wakeboarding is a young sport with most accounts putting its earliest roots around 1985. But I don't think anybody will disagree that it's absolutely amazing to have one man be so universally dominant on the competitive front of a sport for so long. Tony Hawk and skateboarding is the closest comparison I can make. Darin Shapiro was winning Pro Tour titles and World Championships before most of today's current pros even knew what a wakeboard was. As if he is continually reminding the youngsters that he isn't ready to relinquish his crown, he keeps smiling down at them from the top of the podium.
Darin is the current World Champion and leads both the 2002 Pro Tour and 2002 World Cup standings. He got to where he is by being a true professional in every sense of the word. From his training regimen to his training camp, The Spot, he takes the business of wakeboarding seriously, but always has a sense of humor waiting, just beneath the surface, for the opportunity to catch you off guard.
Darin invited WakeWorld out to his beautiful home and training camp on Lake Mary Jane and we put Darin on the spot regarding everything from surfing to business to music to wakeboarding.
WW: Tell me about The Spot. What do you and Travis offer here when people come to spend some time improving their riding?
DS: This is really a different set up than any other place you go to. We have a guest house for the students behind the main house and the only ones that will ever do any of the coaching or driving are Travis and I. You always know who, exactly, you're getting in the boat. You get a lot of pros coming through here, which is also cool for the students, but more than anything, it's an environment where we're one on one with them. Plus we let them go at their own pace, so there is no assembly line style of riding.
Boat dock at The Spot
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WW: How many students do you take in a week?
DS: We usually don't take any more then five at a time. However, we like to keep it around three. We just like everyone to have a lot of space and comfort and privacy if they want it.
WW: Do you have any other goals for the school besides providing continuing education for the sport?
DS: Yeah, we're just trying to make sure that we appeal to everybody so that we can continue to expand. This year we've definitely got a lot of repeat customers as well as new business. We're just trying to build on that, expand. You never know. Perhaps there will be a product line on The Spot.
WW: Have you thought about getting other coaches in?
DS: Yeah, definitely. We've always taken some kids into like a mentoring program, where if they don't have cash or the right type resources, they can work here. I do a lot of work in the yard so if the kids help me, out I'll bro system them out. When they spend time out here, I think they start to understand different ways of structuring coaching and different ways to teach. So if we we're gonna have any other coaches, it would probably be someone who has spent a lot of time with us.
Foosball at The Spot
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WW: What about your style of coaching? Is it what you've learned from experience or from coaches you've had?
DS: Well I'd say our coaching style stems from growing up and being around Mike Ferraro a lot. Because we rode with him for three or four years growing up and he always kept it fun. He'd make it fun, although making sure we'd get a lot done on the water, and I think we follow some of those same guidelines. Except now we have the type place where kids can hang out with their buddies, skate the ramp and do other stuff. So incorporating serious coaching, yet never losing sight of keeping it fun.
WW: Are most of your students from this area?
DS: Actually, we don't have any local students. The only locals we have are some kids on the buddy system. Just a couple buddy system guys and the other students are either from a different town, state or country.
WW: They mostly hear about you from your ads in magazines?
DS: A good percentage is through ads in magazines. We got a pretty sweet website (RideTheSpot.com) and I got the sticker on my board. I think it's noticed there a bit. Plus it's on a lot of my sponsors' links. When I travel, too, people will ask about it, so I give them the low down on that.
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WW: Let's talk about competitions. What's your take on the "all-slider" pro tour stop we just had in Orlando?
DS: It's cool. Very uneventful. It was fun to do, but I'm glad I wasn't sitting there as a spectator because I'd have been bored out of my mind. At least when guys are doing stuff off the wake they're always cruising through the course, always moving, and you never know what to expect. Where as for the sliders, you can just sit there and wait for a guy to come up the slider and you know he's either gonna frontside lip slide, backside lip side, do a 270 off it, ollie onto it and that's basically all your going to see. Any time someone's cutting at the wake, they could be going wake to wake or they could be taking a mean dig in from the side of the boat, so you never know what to expect. With sliders it gets real monotonous watching the same thing over and over. So in one respect I think it's fun to do, but I don't think it makes for a very good event.
WW: In general what do you think of the state of wakeboarding?
DS: I think the sport is more colorful than it has ever been with wakeskating, sliders and the wake stuff is at a high level. But in another respect it seems that the press has lost sight of just classic hard core wake riding, because that's the roots of the sport, and I feel that's the soul of the sport. So on one hand, I dig what's going on with everything kind of branching out in different directions, but I hope people don't lose sight of what the bottom line is.
WW: In your opinion, what do you think are the best magazines out there?
DS: I think all the magazines are great, but don't read anything. Just look at the pictures and keep flipping. Don't believe what you read. That is the most important thing about these magazines.
WW: Do you foresee anything blocking wakeboarding's progress?
DS: Yeah, I see it continuing to extend into better wakeskating and more Evil Knievil stuff style gaps.
WW: Which brings me to the next question. What's your prediction for the next big thing in wakeboarding?
DS: The next big thing will be a critical injury on the slider gap. That is the next big thing.
WW: Are you suggesting a rethinking of what riders are doing?
DS: No, no, no! It's no different from guys doing acid drops off houses with their skateboards. People are going to get hurt. This whole gap thing is real dangerous. People will make some sick stuff and people will get messed up too.
WW: A lot of people are concerned with getting respect from other board sports. Do you think gaps are a way of trying to gain respect from other board sports?
DS: Well, is it maybe some people's way of thinking wakeboarding isn't "cool" as it is? Do we really need to try and gain respect from other board sports and not be content just going out and having fun with what we are doing?
It seems like everyone is trying to promote the sport through marketability and to be recognized by other sports. When it comes down to it, I think we ought to be careful to not look like clowns worrying if we're going to be accepted by skateboarding or these other sports. Why do we need to be accepted? I think we should not be so concerned with that and be more concerned with people accepting our sport in its classic sense. It's a beautiful sport with so many great things about it and I think it comes down to people getting into it, but, sure, you might appeal to some extra people coming at it from a different angle like that.
WW: Do you have goals?
DS: I have always had a lot of different goals getting into the sport. Like, I always wanted to win, ya know, like five tour titles, five Masters titles or win the X games and Gravity Games. And it's funny because at the end of each season I'll have done real well competitively and I'll be just like, "Wow I bet you will never pull this off next year." Then the next year comes along and your just like (laughing), "Wow I will never pull that off next year!" And that's how it has been going.
So I kind of got real driven to set goals and to "shoot for the stars, reach new heights" mentality, but now I have learned I don't have to. You know, it's not always about setting goals. Sometimes it's about loving being on the board riding. That will carry you just as far as long as your heart's in it. To be honest with you, winning another contest doesn't do anything for me spiritually. If there is a win that means something to me, I'll still get the chills, but I get more out of appreciating the fact that riding a wakeboard has put me in the position that I am in now. Much more than riding any contest, but it has been a side effect of winning contests, so it's tied in together.
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