An old skate deck and some old shoes attached is not even close to the same. It can get you buy but not even comparable. I got my guru and love it, used it tons and had no problems.
I had to wait a couple months to get mine because in the past guru with get a bunch of orders together and then have them made. In doing this my trampboard and the bindings cost me somewhere between $200 to $250 instead of there listed price of $325 or whatever it was. Here is the e-mail address I have for guru:
troberts@gurutrampboards.com