While most people consider skating to work a little too much to handle, the guys over at That’s A Tripp can’t seem to get enough of it—130 miles skated from Manhattan to Montauk and $2000 fundraised later, these guys are as stoked as ever on their amazing Tripp that benefited B4BC’s breast cancer education and prevention programs…and their story is DEFINITELY one you want to read! Check out their blog recap below with some awesome photos and incredible moments along the 130 mile skate!
5 years ago Jack Staley and I were delivering food for a small Cafe in SoHo NYC. We weren’t on bikes, though—no,we liked to haul it through the rough New York City streets with 4 or 5 bags at time straight for a 6 hr shift on our SKATEBOARDS. Pushing ourselves, timing runs and counting blocks, dodging Yellow Cab doors and sidewalk basement openings and tourists…and getting paid! Seeing as how we were skating so many miles each night and loving it, we thought “Hey, why don’t we skate around the whole city?” So we did, and it was awesome…AND it turned out to be a 36 mile trip!
The only logical next step would be to go further and we couldn’t wait so we planned our next “Tripp”: NYC to Danbury Connecticut—116 miles…
This long distance skateboarding thing became something we loved to do so much that we have now done 10+ “Tripps,” with each of us accumulating around 500 miles altogether! From the beginning we have wanted to be more than just 2 guys skateboarding really far. We wanted people to join us and we wanted to raise money for a good cause, and that is still what Thats A Tripp strives for today. We now skate for breast cancer because it is something that has affected us both personally and is hard hitting and close to home for a lot of people we know, and last year Jack and I skated from NYC to Atlantic City and raised $1100 for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. This year, with Jack relocated to California, we opened it up to the public: for everyday skaters to try something super gnarly and fun for a good cause.
After contacting B4BC and getting started around the beginning of October this year, I started spreading the word. After a few weeks of fundraising, The Skate Weekend was on us and that meant it was time for the Annual Trippers Benefit Party. Friday night, October 24th, three comedians and three local bands (including my own band) showed up at Funkadelic Studios in New York City to throw an epic bash! We played, drank, sang, danced and laughed. We gave away some really awesome sh#t with “The Random Sh#t Raffle,” three brave dudes participated in the “Moob Competion” (Best Man-Boobs), and after an awesome 4 hours we fundraised $377!
After helping clean up I went home and prepared to skate an epic journey the next day. Unfortunately that meant 48 minutes of sleep before heading back into the city to see who would show up out of my 9 skaters that registered. I showed up at the base of the Manhattan Bridge at Canal St. It was about 7 a.m., an hour earlier than the official start time. Nobody had showed so I went to Dunkin Donuts to get a half-dozen and a coffee for myself. Crossing the street I met Brandon Delgado, who was 18 years old. Wow, someone showed up, all geared up and ready! He said he would wait for me at the base of the bridge in case anyone else showed up.
When I got back there was one more dude, Aaron Parach, 23 years old, chatting with Brandon. We hung out for awhile, waiting for 8 a.m. and any other skaters to arrive. My fiancee’s brother John showed up, so we were able to load our camping gear and anything we didn’t want on our backs into his van. He would meet us later at Shirley, L.I., to bring us to our campsite. Around 8:15 a.m. none else had showed and we had 130 miles to skate. While we walked up the bridge, I tried to prep my new friends for the insanity of what we were about to embark on. At 8:25 a.m. we put down our boards and hauled into Brooklyn. It was official; we had started.
That first day was the longer of the 2 days. About 40 miles in we realized we were in Amityville. Well, we had to be tourists and find out where the famous Amityville Horror House was—amazingly it was less than a mile off our route. The creepiest thing about this house is that it is the only house in the entire area that is built sideways to the street! Weird. Our goal that night was Shirley, which I had predicted would be about halfway. As it got dark we had to make a choice: skate in the dark until we reach Shirley or call it a day and skate more miles the next day. Against our better judgement we did some crazy night skating! Scary.
As soon as we passed a storefront that read Shirley, we checked our map and saw that we were definitely there. At the same time we knew we were close to 75 miles and really wanted to end the day with that under our wheels. When we checked our GPS it literally said 75.1 miles! We didn’t skate another inch! We were done for Day One and right on schedule. Both of the guys had smashed their record of most miles skated in a day, from 30 to 75! I also broke my previous record of 64 miles from last years “Cruise for Boobs: NYC to Atlantic City”.
We called John and he scooped us up. After an amazing dinner at Boston Market we drove the 9 miles to Smith Pt County Park. We set up camp, and although the idea was to stay up and revel in the glory of 75 miles in one day, we instantly went to sleep.
The next morning we were up at 7 a.m., and breaking down camp. A very friendly doe came over to say “Hello.” I felt it was good luck. We loaded up and drove back to Shirley, where we promptly found a diner and had a nice light breakfast and tried to form a loose plan for the day. John drove us back to the Shirley Feed Store where he had picked us up the night before and we said our thanks and goodbyes. We sat in the parking lot getting ourselves together, hydrating and stretching. At around 9 a.m. we set of on what we thought was a 50-55 mile day.
At around 12 miles we took a break and, ironically, stretched out on a mini lighthouse figurine. Merrick Road was a fine road to skate on, although a little traffic heavy. Also, we knew there were beaches and whatnot near by. So after consulting our maps, we decided to take a slight detour to Dune Road. This is risky because if it had bad asphalt or not paved, we will have wasted precious time and miles. But, turns out Dune Road was AWESOME! We got our first sight of the beach and took some time out on the sand where we met some good folks who were super stoked on our Tripp. Skating on Dune Rd was long and flat and full of dunes, marshes, beaches and huge houses.
As we crossed the bridge back onto the mainland we stopped at Cor-J Seafood. Looking at our GPS we had reached 100 miles! What a milestone! Aaron celebrated with some super fresh seafood—which seemed like the worst idea ever, but he was fine. We skated on…and on and on…down countless Main Streets and side streets, on Merrick and Montauk and 27. From town to town, over bridges and train tracks, past harbors and bays, through reservations, by marshlands and vineyards, from West Hampton to East Hampton…on and on and on.
Again, it was getting dark and this time there really was no choice…we had to finish. We came to a fork: go left, inland, or right, coastal. We chose right thinking coastal means flat…unfortunately that is not the case at Hither Hills State Park (which we should’ve figured out from the name). Now we were in the pitch black streets bombing epic hill after epic hill with nothing but a flashlight and the occasional headlight of speeding cars! Exhilarating!!
Back on the Mainland with only about 4 miles left, having passed 130 miles quite a while ago, I noticed a car passing us for a 3rd time. This was very strange to me considering how few cars there were in general and how far out we were. I told the guys about this car and as I was telling them, it passed again and this time slowed a little before speeding up and driving out of sight. I could sense our nervousness and tension but I was just hoping the mysterious car was just lost or passing back and forth wondering if they really just saw three skaters out in the middle of nowhere.
It passed us again from behind us headed east. About 4 minutes later we spotted it way ahead, idling, with it’s lights off. Almost immediately we called the cops. It started slowly toward us the popped on it’s lights and sped off back west. As we were trying to explain to the dispatcher what we were doing and what was going on, the car sped by 3 more times. I will not lie, I had never been so scared before. Did they drop someone off who is now waiting in the reeds for us to pass…are they going to stop jump out and rob us, kick our asses…or worse?
When the cop arrived he told us we were crazy and asked us “Had we not heard the stories about Montauk? Had we not read the Montauk Project? Lots of weirdoes out here.” When he got the call that they had the car stopped, he went to his drivers seat and let us hang for a minute. Getting out he told us it was a registered sex offender about to stop and try to pick us up! As all three of our jaws hit the floor, he laughed and said it was actually three teenage girls out messing with us, being it was so close to Halloween. Wow! Holy God. Congrats girls, you scared the piss out of three grown dudes!
The officer gave us the number to a taxi service and sent us on our way.
We wasted no time hauling it the last few miles to the lighthouse, with one last long downhill leading right up to the gates.
We did 68 miles that day, with our 130 mile Tripp being exactly 143.6 miles. Thanks to the GPS app we were using, we knew we averaged about 7.5 mph with 19 hrs and 15 mins on our skateboards!
We will have a mini movie coming eventually so stay tuned! The Cruise for Boobs Fundraising Campaign made a total of $2,306!! This year was a huge success and we hope to top it next year.
Joey C
Thats A Tripp
To keep up with Joey’s upcoming Tripps, like the That’s A Tripp Facebook Page, or to donate to B4BC through their skate, visit the That’s A Tripp Fundraising Page benefiting Boarding for Breast Cancer!
