WW: Throughout the years competitively, you've been in the sport longer then anybody and it seems that perhaps some have tired a bit of seeing Darin Shapiro standing up on the podium so much. For example, it seems when they went from freestyle to the expression session type format it was almost as if it was purposely done to get some of the guys like you off the podium and get some other faces up there. It didn't work, but I see that happening maybe again. Do you get offended sometimes when things are changed and, perhaps, one reason for the change is to get some new faces on the podium?
DS: I don't get offended. I like seeing the sport changing. It doesn't have to always be the same, that's for sure, but I definitely felt like an easy target throughout the years for some people wanting some change one way or another. I don't feel directly targeted but I've gotten that feeling, that's for sure. Now what we've got currently is a large group of kids speaking a pretty strong voice and maybe changing the sport to cookie cut it for their special reasons. I think if people are trying to change it for themselves then it's pretty selfish. They're not thinking of the entire world of wakeboarding, the entire community.
WW: How about the occasional criticism you've received for doing the same tricks every tournament? I've heard suggestions that you should be docked for not mixing it up, despite the fact that some of your tricks include innovative stuff nobody else is even doing. Yet you still get the criticism?
DS: Well, go ahead and take a good look at what everybody else is doing. Most people are doing the same tricks every weekend, that's the way it is.
WW: Yeah, that criticism is there, but perhaps more directed at you.
DS: Of course it's directed at me. But take an average of the top five guys and look at their runs and 90 percent of the tricks they do in their runs at an event will be the same. I'm usually the last guy off the dock. For that reason, I'm the most remembered ride and, maybe because of my track record, people put me under a magnifying glass a bit when they're checking out my runs.
A lot of times we're doing runs that fit the contest, unfortunately. You know, they're saying, "Here is how much room you got and you better fit it in," and after four or five events we're competing like we wouldn't even normally ride. You're in conditions you likely don't ride in, say behind a boat you usually don't ride behind. There is a bunch of cash on the line and if you didn't have to, you might not even go out and ride that day. So you basically got an empty glass. You're just filling it back up just to satisfy whoever you need to at that point. It is contest riding.
At my house, it's the same course set up. I know what sequences of tricks work into these gaps or kickers. I know the set ups. I don't have to sit there and take a good look at the lake. It's not like I'm prepped for the event, just that I've been doing it a while and sometimes I'm just doing what works. On the other hand, if anybody wants to go and throw those same tricks that I throw and try to do them that big and stick them every time, they're more than welcome to.
WW: Do you feel the judges hold you to a higher standard? Say you did your run and some no-name kid came out and did the exact same run. Do you think he'd get the better score?
DS: I have run a similar run, but blown it up like I've never done before and been scored low. And I've done that same run like crap and it's won events, so I think sometimes it works for me and against me.
Yeah I've definitely had events where I've been judged a lot harder. Still, though, I don't always do the same run, but I'll tell you what, when you got a check sitting on the line and you know what works and you can walk home with that check and whatever titles and do the right job for your sponsors, that's easy to do. Sometimes it's the path of least resistance.
I get accused of that, but on the other hand, some people recognize other things like throwing a nine off the kicker at the X Games, laying it on the line when I could be risking last place. That tends to get overlooked. Or doing an orbital five, throwing tricks someone hasn't thrown before. Yeah, a lot of the tricks I throw just 'cause they feel good.
WW: Speaking of sponsors, it seems everyone is cutting back on their teams and riders are getting pay cuts, How have the cut backs affected you?
DS: Well, let's just say on the sponsorship front, for most of the athletes, including myself, that morale is low.
WW: Why do you think the sport is going so much toward sliders and apparatuses?
DS: Fad. Something to do.
WW: Do you think it will get old and go away?
DS: No, it won't go away. It'll get incorporated into the bottom line.
WW: Do you see it like skating eventually, where you'll have separate contests for each discipline?
DS: No, people will realize quickly after this all-slider event that it doesn't work. Great idea, crappy concept. It's cool to try, see how it goes, but you just got to be busting stuff off the wake and mixing up sliders with it. That is the most exciting kind of run.
Take snowboarding. Those guys don't go out and go up and back and are done for the day. Those guys do runs all day long. It's a different kind of thing. Only one guy can run at a time, so it would be hard for guys to go out and do all sliders or all wake. I think the most enjoyable thing for riding and watching is both. It has got to be both. Nobody wants to see all wake. Nobody wants to see all sliders. I think the ultimate course is something with room for you to bust as big as you can and have a slider right there. Back and forth, sliders between the wake stuff.
WW: So basically like last year?
DS: Yeah. You're never going to make everyone happy, but that's the balance I think.
WW: I know you like to surf. How many trips do you take a year?
DS: Well, usually I spend my winters in Kauai, Hawaii, as much as 2 months. I have a place out there. I try to go on one other trip. Just like last year in the middle of the season, Shaun Murray and I went to Costa Rica after the X Games for five days because we had the time.
It's hard not to get wrapped up in being highly concerned with every single weekend going by because you have to be on top of it, but it was awesome surfing for four or five days. The trip was the best thing ever, perfect timing. Just what I needed for a break. I try to go surfing whenever I can. I always go out to the beach when I get home from Hawaii but that wears off because I have the lake out back instead of driving over to the beach. I love wakeboarding, but, you know, surfing is just another level.
WW: What's your favorite break?
DS: Reef break on Hanalei Bay when it's big because it scares the sh** out of me. It does. I mean, I am out there with my 8' 6" gun and it feels tiny. I couldn't be any more scared, but it's like I feel totally free because of it. Down to the core, you're on the edge. It's the best thing ever!
WW: Do you feel the best when you're finally standing on the beach and your like, "Whoa, I survived it?"
DS: Once I know I have made the drop on the face of a 15-foot wave and I am still breathing, I am like, "God, thank you!" The pressure of the wave, the wind blowing up onto my face, the speed on a board that size, it's just so…I don't know. It makes you feel small and you have the world in your hands. On one hand I feel like it's too big for me, but then I will take a set of two or three waves on my head and I come out okay. But it's not okay for it to happen again and again.
Surfing has been a big part of my life. I grew up waterskiing and surfing in Delray Beach since I have been 13.
WW: Can you describe how it feels when you get barreled?
DS: Oh, I don't know.
WW: Well do you have a memorable barrel?
DS: Oh yeah, yeah! Two years ago at Hanalei Bay, which is a right-hander. It was a really big day. It was a freight train. I mean, there was so much water wrapping into this bay. I dropped in on a wave that was the biggest I have ever dropped in on. I am doing whatever I can to just stay calm and keep it aimed down the line. I set my rail, had my hand against the wave and I was just looking down the wave so much I was just shocked that a wave this big was pulling up in front of me. I didn't even realize. When I looked up there was the biggest chunk of lip just perfectly sitting above my head. It wasn't like I was down in the hall way yet. I was lucky. It was a bowl and I was sitting in the pocket. Yeah, it was like right there and, when I realized it, I took my hand off the wave and I just kind of sucked it all in for a second. Being in a great barrel is just as good as any other best experience that I have had of anything. You really feel it. You get a good barrel and you feel it all over.
WW: You've been with Toyota a while and now you've just gotten on with Malibu. How did that go and what kind of boat do you have now?
DS: I have a WakeSetter VLX. It's sick. I absolutely love it. Just load it up and it works right. The wake is sick. The Toyota was a good boat and had many great qualities, but they were obviously a company that had only been around a few years. Malibu has got a great product and I feel I'm riding better because of it. And I definitely look better (laughs).
WW: If you had your choice, would you rather teach here at The Spot or go compete?
DS: You know, I've been doing events for 11 years. This is my 11th year on tour, so it just seems like the natural thing to go get on a plane, fly out, ride as good as I can, get on a plane, come home and chill out. Travis does so much of the work with the camp that it takes a bit of load off me. Most of these kids want to see me ride and I'll do some coaching too, but Travis is really the nuts and bolts of the whole operation. The thing is, I get a kick out of meeting these kids, getting to know them and getting to hang out. I get to meet some of the coolest kids ever. Traveling, I also meet so many people but, unfortunately, only for a minute or second. Then I got to run out or do my run. So, I don't know. That's a good question.
WW: Okay, so if you're doing neither, what do you like doing?
DS: For me, I really dig doing a lot of basic things. Like a killer day for me would be getting up, going to the gym, maybe ride my mountain bike a bit, riding the ramp, wakeboarding some, hose down some trees and that's it. I like to be real mellow, maybe play some music in the recording studio for a little while and I'd rather not travel. I mean, I don't mind the traveling. I've gotten used to it, but I just love being at home.
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