He Signed Wakeboarding’s Largest Contract | Darin Shapiro - Ep. 63

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/ Grab Matters Merch | https://www.grabmatters.com/shop Website | https://www.grabmatters.com/ Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/grabmatters/ TikTok | https://www.tiktok.com/@grabmatterspodcast Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/grabmatters Hunter Thane | https://www.instagram.com/hunterthane/ Chapters: 00:00 - 1:40 Intro 3:00 Darins 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 Darins 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 Darins 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