Party Bus Awaits Its Passengers
Sunday marked Kayla Briska’s third day as the Hampton Hopper’s “ambassador,” or chaperone, but already she had witnessed a woman urinate outside the bus and dealt with two disoriented teenagers unable to find the stop. She met people from Miami, danced beneath the Hopper’s flashing strobe lights, and waved out the window when she spied previous riders on the street the next day.
“I love it here. Right? You’re my best friend!” she joked to Karin Gosman, the bus driver, who’s back for her second year with the Hopper.
The duo wore matching, cuffed Hampton Hopper T-shirts in a bold aquamarine, the same hue as the well-known Hopper party bus that has a “dance floor” in place of seats and arouses late-night boogying. That day, though, the women drove in the one other bus the company owns. Ms. Briska, who is 19, described it as the “friend” bus where passengers connect and converse. Palm tree prints adorn the ceiling and wrap around the cobalt exterior. Stickers remind passengers of its hashtag, #thehopper. Otherwise, thisHopper is a regular school bus equipped with paper towels and a broom.
Derek Kleinow, 33, launched the Hampton Hopper last summer after years of frustration with the East End’s lack of affordable transportation, particularly for medium-haul trips like East Hampton to Montauk where taxi prices can reach $100 each way. He grew up in Westchester, but has a house in Southampton. Unfortunately for him, the Hopper only loops from Sag Harbor down to East Hampton and westward to Montauk with stops in between at popular hangouts like Cyril’s and, starting this week, @Bernie’s, on the Napeague stretch.
He wants to add more destinations, expand the fleet and eventually run 18 hours a day with a bus arriving every 30 minutes. Right now, it takes about 90 minutes to complete an entire circle, and interruptions like traffic, the crew’s bathroom breaks, and unexpected hails or drop-offs can disrupt the schedule. Mr. Kleinow rationalized that the start-up is still in its first phase and will evolve as demand grows.
“We had hoped to have more vehicles, but it’s been a slow ramp up,” he said, and the budget is a small one.
The Hopper costs $12 for a one-way ride, $20 for an unlimited day pass and $99 for a summer pass. It runs Friday through Sunday, from about 10 a.m. to 2 a.m. on Saturday and until 11 p.m. on Sunday.
Mr. Kleinow’s biggest challenge has been marketing the business, but the buses’ eye-popping paint jobs serve as the best tool of all. Sometimes when Ms. Gosman drives slowly, people will trot alongside the vehicle while simultaneously filming on their cellphones.
When the bus rolled into Amagansett around 5 p.m. Sunday, it parked behind Mary’s Marvelous since it can’t block traffic on Montauk Highway. Two men, obviously regulars because they knowingly waited at the unmarked stop, walked on and Ms. Gosman excitedly stood up.
“Hey, how are you, Bobby? How’s the fam?” she asked, embracing the first passenger, a bony man with tanned skin and white scars spattered on his right arm. He wore a backwards cap over his long, brown locks. Bobby, who is 28 and declined to give his last name because he said he is awaiting trial, introduced his cousin, Nick Gaviola. Mr. Gaviola, 21, still had plastic blue star beads hanging around his neck from the night before and wore a camouflage fishing hat. They both grew up and live in Springs.
Ms. Briska offered their only riders Vita Coco coconut water, whose logo is stamped on the bus’s outside, from a cooler with the choice of peach, lemonade, mango, and plain. They paid in cash instead of with the iPhone app, which charges upon purchase, not at boarding when an ambassador scans the barcode. The men told Ms. Gosman they needed a lift to Montauk to retrieve Mr. Gaviola's car.
They chatted about how much the Hopper has helped cut back on the prevalent drunken-driving arrests here.
“At least they found a way to help people,” Mr. Gaviola said. They griped however that the bus only runs until 2 a.m., the time their night starts, not ends.
The bus bounced along Montauk Highway and idled next to the Lobster Roll before moving on with no new passengers. Ms. Gosman weaved through downtown Montauk and dropped the men off at the Royal Atlantic Beach Resort to find their parked car. She then drove a few blocks west to the Montauk Beach House. The owner, Larry Siedlick, briskly walked over and leaned against the opened door.
“It was up two nights with a nice metal sign and someone stole it!” he exclaimed about a Hopper lawn sign wedged into a grassy patch out front. The post exists, Mr. Siedlick said, because he supports young entrepreneurs and asked for it. The only other Hopper post is in front of @Bernie’s.
Mr. Siedlick believes, “any service that takes cars off of the road during the tourist season is automatically a good thing in my mind.”
Ms. Gosman waited for about three minutes before leaving with an empty bus once again. Mr. Kleinow declined to give rider numbers but claims every week this year has proven busier than the same one a year ago.
“There was one situation last summer where a bus was at capacity,” he said, acknowledging that was a rare occurrence that has not yet been repeated.
Ms. Briska guessed the quiet day might be a function of people recovering from the Fourth of July. But as the bus inched through traffic in front of the Surf Lodge, cabs jammed the streets, bouncers lined the entrance, and another bus inadvertently parked in the Hopper’s spot. Groups of partygoers in breezy sundresses, linen shirts, and polarized Ray Bans spilled out from the road’s shoulder on their way to the St. Lucia concert. The blue bus streaked by without stopping and finished its lonely Montauk round devoid of riders.
Every few minutes Ms. Briska checked the company’s Twitter for messages and the app’s GPS tracking system to locate the other bus. The timetables on the app lag, and the small bus icons moving along Google Maps seem more reliable both for Hopper employees and people wondering about arrivals. Ms. Gosman also gives out the bus’s phone number and people often utilize it.
Golden light touched the horizon as the Hopper whizzed past the Hither Hills overlook on its way back west. Ms. Briska kept talking about the characters she had encountered from faraway places.
She swayed her copper hair that reached down her back and sang a line from a Michael Buble song: “I just haven’t met you yet.”
Ms. Gosman honked her horn as she drove through East Hampton and the women headed toward Sag Harbor to begin another round, and another and another, until their shifts ended at 10 p.m.
Correction: The car that Bobby and Nick Gaviola needed to retrieve belonged to Mr. Gaviola, not Bobby, as previously reported.