Dan DeLaiarro

Can you believe it's already May? The flowers are blooming, the birds are chirping and, most importantly, the wakeboarding season has started for most of us in the Northern Hemisphere. I can think of no better time of year to re-start the WakeWorld RiderLink feature that you love so much. I know we took a long hiatus from your favorite WakeWorld pages, but I think you'll find that it was worth the wait. It took some late nights and a lot of prodding by our determined featured rider but I finally got it to you. So without further ado, I give you our May/June RiderLink wakeboarder, Dan DeLaiarro.

WW: Where are you from and how did you get into wakeboarding?
DD: Well, I call Wrentham, MA home (right next to Foxboro Stadium, the soon-to-be-former home of the New England Patriots), but I spend most of the year in Amherst, MA where I go to school at UMass. I got into wakeboarding by just living on a lake. I live on Lake Pearl in Wrentham and have skied, kneeboarded (oops, am I not core anymore?) and done all the other watersports for as long as I can remember. I was 15 and it was 1994 when my buddy got an O'Brien Apex, the old Skurfer type boards with the bungee straps. He rode right foot forward and was real stubborn about changing it. So, I stuck with my kneeboard until the one day he changed it to regular. I was hooked. A week later, he bought the new Shapiro board (still a one-directional bungee strap board) and sold me the Apex. I was hooked. Haven't skied or kneeboarded since. About three years ago I bought an O'Brien Double Ender and then, last year, I made my way into the "modern era" of riding and bought a Phatty with FreeAxis bindings.

Stiffy at the WICed Fest.

WW: So you ride on Lake Pearl in Wrentham, MA. What's the scene like there?
DD: There's about 5 to 8 of us who will ride whenever we can and there are probably 20 or so people on my lake that ride (it's a real small lake, so that is a pretty good number). People are really just getting into it in my neck of the woods. Very few inverts and spins, although every year it grows. People are stoked on it and love it.

I also do a lot of riding with my buddies down at AXIS Boardsports down in Brookfield, CT. Together we organize the WICed Fest. I try to ride with Rob, Mike and the crew once or twice a month, but with a 2 hour commute each way, it gets kinda tough.

At both sites people are just stoked to be on the water. I can remember the days when I would be out on my lake and I would have people coming up to me and saying "What the hell is that?" Now people are asking me to help them learn and stuff cause they saw it on TV or saw us tearing it up. Riding in Connecticut with Rob, Mike and the rest of the AXIS crew is cool because there are a lot of good, unknown riders from that area. Guys with incredible amounts of inverts, spins and style. The best part though; everyone is stoked to be out on the water.

Indy stiffy on Lake Pearl.

WW: Tell us about the WICed Fest.
DD: The WICed Fest (which stands for Wakeboarding In Connecticut Festival) is the only event in the Northeast for wakeboarders. It is held in the Brookfield area of Connecticut and is in its second year. Myself and the AXIS crew have some major sponsors this year and it looks to be growing in leaps in bounds. We have people from Massachussetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania coming to the event. It is organized in an effort to "spread the stoke" of wakeboarding. We ride all day and party all night. It's a great time, plus you get to ride with and meet a lot of cool people.

Last year was a major success and it was put together in a matter of two months. We rode on Lake Lillinonah last year and had a great time. This year we moved the event to Candlewood Lake and have been planning it since December.

Lake Pearl, Wrentham, MA.

WW: What made you want to organize such an event?
DD: Wow, what made me organize the WICed Fest? To be honest, a lack of money and my love of the sport. I saw all these events such as the Louisiana Spring Fling and the MidWest WakeFest happening and I was really stoked about them. I also knew I couldn't afford to go to them, so I thought, "Well, if I can't go to something like that, why not run one here?" So I posted a note to the (Wake) List asking how many Northeast riders there were and who would be interested in such an event. I was surprised at the response I got.

AXIS got in touch with me and together we planned it. They have a great place to ride down there and we set it up. They had some contacts down there and also had the industry contacts. So we set it up, did a little advertising and made sure everyone on the list knew what it was. We had a good turn out last year for the little bit of exposure it had and this year we are expecting to double or triple last year's turnout. We got reps and pros coming this year with demos and stuff. It's going to be killer.

Roast beef grab at the WICed Fest.

WW: What is your opinion on the current state of the sport?
DD: Nobody says it better than Shaun Murray in MayDay, "I just like all the politics. How everybody gets pissed off at each other all the time. I just like how, uh, all the attitudes. That's probably my favorite part." It's seriously the funniest thing going. All this controversy over new crew vs. old school, skiboarders vs. wakeboarders. Seriously man, who cares. The people riding are killing it, who cares if they have a skiing background or what. I mean you got a guy like Darin killing it in the comps and then there are guys like Byerly who don't compete but are major innovators cause they are killing it in the freeride aspect. Honestly, most of us can only hope to ride like those two or any of the others at that caliber.

As far as what people are doing. I give major respect to people like Greg Nelson who are bringing the sport around the country with events like the Double Up Experience. I think that is so cool. I mean, this guy could easily just be chillin' at his lake, riding, enjoying himself, but instead, he is exposing our sport to the masses. Way cool.

Also, anyone who even trys wakeskating is the bomb. I was at PJ Marks' Wakeboard Camp over spring break and tried that. Man it's tough. Byerly, Horrell and all the others who are killing it on a wakeskate have my utmost respect.

Back roll attempt.

I think the sport is doing a great job of promoting itself and that the right people are doing the right things to insure that wakeboarding is here for good. Yeah, there's controversy, but there always will be. It makes for better riding. If this group says this is the cool way to ride, then they are going to push that aspect farther than it's been pushed before, thus promoting the sport. I'm just stoked to see where wakeboarding is seeing as I have been around for a while.

WW: Who do you want to give props to?
DD: Props out to AXIS Boardsports - without them the WICed Fest would be a dream, Pat McCarthy - without him and the Wake List the WICed Fest would never have been started, the Lake Pearl Crew - there's always a pull out there, my brother and sister - you guys always push me to stick my tricks, all the WICed Fest sponsors - Blinside, Iconn, G-Bolts, Malibu, Sunland Marine, JetPilot, Double Up and WAKEtv. Without them the WICed Fest would not be as big as possible.

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