Would You Ride a Darin Shapiro autographed board??

[Shoemaker Mobius]

My son won a new, Darin Shapiro autographed O'Brien 136 Demented board from Wakeboard Magazine for his letter of the month (Feb 2004 issue). I know nothing about boards, but it sure looks cool. Anyway, my son is in a quandry about whether he should ride it or preserve the "Daniel, Keep on riding - Darin Shapiro". What would you do??

BTW, if you saw the letter - it worked. We just bought a 2004 Mobius LSV.

Ride it! I bought a new 2001 Byerly signed by about 10 pros at Nationals. Parks, Law, Murry, ect. Is it worth 2x more than a 2004 unsigned? No its just a cool old boad and not worth $200 today. Im glad I started to ride mine the first year. Ride it. You maybe able to ride with someone else cool and they can sign it too. 2 weeks ago, my daughter and I got to teach a pro wakeboarder to snowboard so I gave here the sharpie when we wakeboarderd the next day. You gotta ride it. Good Luck.

[noneya]

Keep it and get his dad buy him a new demented that he can ride! Seriously it would be cool to ride it now but in 5-10 yrs you will regret it

Hey how about posting the letter?

[moombamania]

Keep It...

An autographed board from the best rider ever imho...

Congratulations to your son on getting his letter selected. Will read in next issue.

thanks

[Shoemaker Mobius]

As requested, here is my son's letter with the magazine's response:

I love wakeboarding. I picked it up around the beginning of July and was absolutely hooked. I learned how to wakeboard at a camp called Executive Watersports on Lake Austin. One of the instructors there was Billy North, a rider on the 2003 Vans Triple Crown tour. The downside is that I don't have a boat. I have tried surfing, snowboarding, snow skiing, skateboarding and I have finally found a true love, but I never get to do it. my parents say they don't want a boat and I don't know anyone with a boat. The last time I jumped the wake was in mid-July, 2 1/2 months ago! I was hoping that maybe WBM could write a letter to my parents to try and persuade them to buy a boat. It would be awesome if you could do this for me. I put in a subscription form a few weeks ago and I am eagerly waiting for the magazine every day. Peace. Thanks. Daniel Shoemaker.

response:

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Shoemaker,
We think it'd be in the best interests of Daniel and yourselves to buy a boat. If you neglect Daniel's attempt to reach out and spend more family time, he is likely to spiral downward into a world of isolation, drugs and alcohol in the angst of being a teenager. Would you really want to feel responsible for this? Help Daniel, help yourselves and help your relationship. Encourage him to pursue his true love and support the cause: Buy a boat.
Sincerely,
The Staff at Wake Boarding Magazine
WBM - bringing families together since 1993.

No way hang it on a wall buy him one that he can pick out for himself something that he likes

[Shoemaker Mobius]

In the link below, look in the Wakeboarding album - we took a couple pictures of the autographed board and our boat - that's my son with his board.

http://community.webshots.com/user/garyshoe

hell no i wouldn't ride it that is to valuable of a board to ride