January 7th, 2011 by Conor

Putting my thoughts into words almost seems impossible. The past two nights starring at the ceiling has been nothing but a crazy whirl of emotions- laughing at memories, tearing up, and going back into a daze has kept my thoughts running as fast as Danny flys down those mountains. Conor, and family, I can not even begin to imagine what it has been like for you to sit there with him, but I know that he needs his “brothaman” next to him. It all started out with me coming home from college for the first time in years and really not knowing what to do anymore in north conway, danny took me right under his wing and kept me entertained. Driving out to the west coast with him for the season is an irraplacable list of memories. I’ll never forget a recent summer sending text about coming home, and then just hoping in my car and doing it. It could have turned out to be a real boring summer but the laughs and late nights with him and even the small things like the late night infomercials couldn’t have been any better with anyone else. I went back to North Carolina for the school semester honestly missing him and holding onto a dear friendship. (I don’t know too many other guys I’d stay up until 2 am making a blanket for ;))

Danny you have so much strength to make it through what will be one of the toughest times of your life. There are people everywhere pulling for a full and fast recovery. You have touched the lives of people across the US with your character, determination, talent, and heart you put into friendships and all your aspirations in life. I can’t wait to hear that you are awake demanding chicken noodle soup and making fun of Conor. The first phone call with you saying meggooooooooon will undoubtedly put me into tears of joy. Love you and your family, thinking of you often, you have consumed my thoughts, and wishing you nothing but the absoulte best.

January 7th, 2011 by Conor

1L2L (with the corresponding gang/hand signs thrown up too = 1 Life 2 Live) very easy once you learn. Danny lives this motto that we lightheartedly concocted back when I got to take Ropes Course class at Kennett with the freshman. Danny and I knew each other but got closer in the time we spent pushing each other to go big or go home. For example, I jump blindfolded on to the cargo net, Danny has to climb the wall blindfolded and be the first to do it.

This is how Danny is in my head, always striving to reach that next level and he will push you to be better and go bigger too. It’s like Danny has always lived the motto 1L2L. Reading these updates over the last few days has made me cry, I haven’t cried in years. I cried like a little child, I cannot fathom thinking of Danny being helpless at this moment. You mean there is nothing we can do??? We have to just wait and see?? Conor prob got pissed cuz the first thing I did when I saw the post was call him, probably along with 5000 other people way more important than me. So when he doesn’t pick up what do I do? text him. Sorry Conor, I was selfish but thanks for the speedy reply.
OK ENOUGH sobby shit. Recent best memory! Open Mic night Parka. It was like a high school reunion that night, I was up in NoCo just hoping to ride for the first time this season, being a flatlander now it’s tough to get home.

So I’m at the Parka nice and early, WTF…. A LINE!!!! Holy shit where are we New York? So I go in for a few and chilled ok it was time to go, on my way out the door there are like 30 people standing in that lil tiny hallway. And who do I see? The man, the myth, the legend, DCT. Now truth be told, I knew he was home, and knowing danny prob not likely to miss open mic night. So in actuality I was stalking him and just waiting to see him all night so I could feel cool talking to him.

But this can’t be….. DCT waiting in line????? DO you people KNOW who you have IN THE BUILDING??? This guy is a legend, bought to bring NoCo and the MWV some fame and notoriety. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I tried to get him to the front but he is humble, told me to ‘Chill Bra we be shreddy right here mon’ so I said PEACE see ya on the slopes.

Two seconds later at the 711 I stop by to pick up a few Tuck’s and who do I see??? The man, the myth, the legend, the shreddy times CEO himself CONOR!! And what the hell is Conor doing? Picking up a case of beer for the poor people waiting in line who just want to sip on a frosty one.

Now I almost went back to stand in that line. Chill with my homies and sip on a cold one. However, my point is this. If Danny, or Conor (they are very alike) get something not to appealing dropped in their laps, THEY MAKE THE BEST OF IT because in the end, you only get 1L2L.

Love and Prayers to all of you supporting Danny and Conor. Let’s keep up the well wishing

–Kevin Flynn

January 7th, 2011 by Conor

Hey Conor,

I hope you are holding up ok…. I haven’t stopped praying for Danny and your family since I found out. I attached a handful of pictures for you guys. Ian doesn’t have a computer and I know he would want to donate a ton so most of these are from him. Please let us know if we can do anything at all! Stay, envision and try to feel positive it can only help !

Take care,
Nikki

January 7th, 2011 by Conor

Hey Conor– I just thought I’d reminisce a bit about when I met Danny and Josh Belcher.. haha. in 2001, so 10 years ago, Abby Jamie and I were in the hot tub in Nordic Villiage in met Josh. Josh was with Danny and his girlfriend of the time, I believe and someone else, I think Charlie? Anyways, I remember seeing Danny for the first time and was like hmm… kinda good looking, kind of unavailable. Bummer… But it’s true. Either way, I am girl who goes for what she wants. Granted this was so long ago, I still feel like I may be that same person. Either way, I knew when I saw Danny, there was something truly special about him. I’m not sure how we were able to reconnect but we did. And I remembered traveling back to NH to see him with Jamie, haha and your stepdad asking me to step on his back, i thought it was so strange, but just thought id throw that in there haha… and then Josh and him would come to MA sometimes too!
haha I also remember one night meeting you and him in a parking lot in Framingham and we all went back to my house and we all slept in my room! hahahah Great times.

My Jr. year of highschool, it just so happens, Danny was going to be in Florida at the same time and place I would be. I have to be honest with you, and kind of cheesy… I think I totally fell for your brother that week we were there. I couldn’t imagine not seeing him after we left, so low and behold, I invited him to come to my prom. My Junior Prom. One of the most special and important nights a girl could have and I felt so honored that He was there to spend it with me.

He always makes me laugh. He knew how to make me smile at my lowest times. He always knew when to pick up a phone and call or text. I feel so honored to know that I have Danny in my life. It wouldn’t be complete with out him for sure and I can not wait for him to wake up and know how many people truly love and care for your brother.

Conor, you were and are his hero and inspiration. He loves you dearly and I know and you know that he feels you beside him all the time. It is so important. I’d be happy to relieve you of this “job” anytime you need, I can be there. I’d fly acorss this country tomorrow to be there if you neeeded or even wanted someone there.

Thats all really for now. I have been sending Danny texts on his phone each day, so that when he wakes up he will know that I haven’t stopped thinking of him. My dad and sister send their thoughts to you and him and the rest of your family.

Love him so much… and I am so proud of how you are handling this… it is inspirational…

January 7th, 2011 by Conor

Conor,

I have known your family forever. I have memories of me, Rachelle, you and Danny playing in my backyard in Eaton; in the sandbox, on the swings, running in the woods. I feel like there has never been a time that I didn’t know your family. We all went to Pine Tree together and then Kennett. I know I haven’t seen you or Danny in quite a few years but as silly as it sounds I have always been able to feel connected to your family through facebook. Most of my memories are with you. I think fondly of our Wendy’s dates before National Honor Society. You were always willing to gossip with me about Chuck and you may not have known it but you always made me feel comfortable going to National Honor Society meetings (since I don’t think the other members liked me much and I didn’t really fit in there). I know that if Danny is anything like you were back then (and I’m sure still are), he is a pretty great guy. I have kept Danny and your family in my prayers since I heard. I commend you and your friends for having the strength to share updates with all of us who are patiently waiting for the words…”He’s awake and he’s great”. I have attached a very old picture. I think it is from our 5th grade so like 1993 or 1995. I think you it was you who gave me this picture. I remember having two thoughts: 1st ” I am sooo cool that I have a picture of the Pine Tree boys” and 2nd: ” I wonder what boys do when they have sleepovers”. Sorry if it embarrasses you because you all look so young. But if you ever want to be really embarrassed I have some great pictures of you and I circa 1987 or 1988. Sending all my positive energy, love and strength through this message to Danny, you, you whole family and all your friends there with you.

XOXO, Nina Trapasso

January 7th, 2011 by Conor

DCT, Conor, your entire family and the entire Shreddy Times crew,

Theres not much I can say to help this situation. But what I can do is reflect on how awesome/great of a friend Danny has been to me since we met in college. Just like alot of others, Danny and I met at Loon one day my freshman year while shreddin’ with Griffin. Headin up the lift, we were introduced and I honestly thought nothing of it. Had no idea what this meeting would have in store for our future as friends. After getting off the Gondola, we strapped in and said “here we go.” About 20 yards into the run, I gave a quick glance around to see where everyone was and was suprised by a falling object coming over my right shoulder. Here comes Danny, front flip and all, and lands right in front of me, with a smile and a laugh. I said God Damn who the hell is this guy!! From here on out we became close friends both on the slopes and in normal, everyday life.

We then went toi CO and UT for two weeks our senior year. I chose this trip, obviously, over a Spring Break trip to Jamaica with my other friends. Needless to say, it was the best decision I have ever made. So many laughs and amazing memories came from that trip. Whether it was me seperating my shoulder the FIRST day at Keystone, or building the igloo outside the UT house, this trip brought myself and Danny a million times closer. His laugh echoed RELENTLESSLY throughout the CO Condo and the UT mansion that we stayed at.

My fondest memory has to be out FIN 320 cllass with HASSAN INC. HAHA! Me, Danny and Januzzi gave that class life. Our one-armed friend, Hassan, pretended to care about attendance but realistically, he didn’t. So we all rotated skipping classes. Only for the other 2 to walk in to Hassan asking ” TOUMARKINE, where is your buddy KAAAAMMMMIIINNNNSKKKIIIII?” HAHA, so f’ing classic!

The entire Toumarkine family has opened up every aspect of their home to me in North Conway whenever I came to visit. A beautiful house, nestled in the woods with Shreddy Times and Fligi stickers all over the fridge. Our recent trip hiking up Mt Field and Wiley was a freakin blast. Going from 50 degree weather to snow in less than a 1000 vertical feet was a hell of an experience. We fed the Grey Jays, which was amazing, and shared lunch on a snow covered path because I was about to die from being fat and pretending to hike badass mountains. He kept saying on the Ascent, “Bet you hate me right now, don’t ya? Wait til we get to the top” He clearly wasn’t lying. What an amazing day, clearly my favorite hiking story.

Danny, Conor, and the Toumarkine Family. From the bottom of my heart, I wish Danny a speedy and successful recovery. Although times are really tough right now, Danny has by far one of the biggest and most loving support groups out of ANYONE I have ever met in my entire life. All we can do, as friends, family, is to pray for him and keep his laugh in our minds. He will prevail, I’m sure. He just needs the support from EVERYONE (even if you only follow Shreddy Times online) to help himself and his family through this.

Danny, get better soon bro,. Love you kid.

-Mike Kaminski aka Kamski

January 7th, 2011 by Conor

Well to be honest, I don’t even know where to start. I get choked up just thinking that I am actually writing this. Danny and I met back in our college days at SNHU. Good ol’ SNHU! Danny and I took all our advertising and graphic design courses together with our good friend Matt Zajac. And yes, I first noticed DCT, because of his laugh… who doesn’t ?! Haha. Danny was always the dude who left his away message (back when AIM was cool still ) as Shreddin’. I knew Danny had a serious love for riding because that’s ALL I ever read. I was a skiier myself for many years as a kid so I had some understanding of how much one could love to ride, but none like Danny.

In 1999, I myself , decided to start snowboarding and unfortunately suffered a severe injury which left me off the mountains for almost 10 years just based on fear. My family has a condo up north at Attitash just a short drive from where Danny and Conor grew up so after college when DCT and I started chilling more I figured I might as well take advantage of the mountain again since I was driving up north so much. Danny, Zach, Tommy, Sean, Meg and I had one crazy Halloween just about 3 years ago… Danny actually has all the pictures though 😉 Right after that Halloween Danny got hurt just a few days before Christmas and it was a pretty small injury in comparison to where things stand today but it still scared the daylight out of me. Danny on the other hand just bounced back like nothing happened, like he always does.

When I started riding again I was in the midst of trying to reinvent my life by moving somewhere drastic and adventurous. Well with that being said, I currently reside in Lake Tahoe, CA just an hour or so from Conor and DCT. I always heard about this Tahoe joint but never knew anything as cool as this place existed until I stole the idea from them. Thanks guys! Granted we haven’t seen each other as much as you would think since I have lived here a year, I usually have a daily chat with Danny. Yes, most of it is because he breaks cell phones like that’s his job (kidding) but otherwise we always have a humorous conversation that keeps me going while working.

I don’t think I am the only person who sees Danny as a strong, intelligent, innovative, warm-hearted person but one thing I have been lucky enough to have is our friendship all the way from NH to CA.

Conor, even you have recently given me words of wisdom and I thank you for that ! You two together have already accomplished the unthinkable this year with Shreddy Times and it all comes down to you making things happen. Your the only person I would place right next there to DCT to get him through this. Come on Danny, make us proud and get through this!!!!! Tahoe misses you, and so do I.

Love,
Cols

January 7th, 2011 by Conor

Danny has a way of making every thing around him a little bit better, or shall I say a little more fun. It may be because of his bright personality, his “go get it attitude”, or maybe just his damn laugh. Either way, Danny helped make my winter season what it needed to be. FUN. I had missed the 06 season with a pretty serious injury and vowed to come back with vengeance the next year. I rode with Danny when ever he was around throughout the season and it seemed I was having the best year ever. I learned so much just by riding with him. Mainly because it is always fun. Lets not forget the whitey tightly run, hey Danny, Snickers or Twix? The end of the season a group of us hiked up Tuckerman Ravine. By the time we got up left gully Danny and I had to keep going up. We hiked up the snow fields until we were looking down the backside of the mt. We then came upon a giant rock and felt it was a good spot to take some pics.

January 7th, 2011 by Conor

Danny is a person who always makes me smile, although we haven’t seen each other in a couple of years, I have many memories that will never be forgotten and I can look back and laugh about. I will start with his love, snowboarding, my father worked as an ambassador at Attitash in Bartlett, NH and I was able to get free passes whenever we needed them. We only went twice together because he loved Cranmore, but when he did come with me it was fun just the two of us having fun. Of course on the first run having never hit this jump or spotted the landing, he hits the jump and nails a back flip, now I have to go? What am I going to do? I proceed down and barely make a 360, probably the ugliest ever, and he said, “nice job guy”, and did the DCT laugh that we all love and we spent the rest of the day on that hill and having a blast.

More memories were making his notorious Pimp Mixes with Conor, Ben, Charlie, Tom, Josh, and others. Just sitting up in his room trying to find the right song list for that week to ride around in his Blazer up and down the strip. Going to Wendy’s EVERY day, or the rope swings. No matter what any of us did with Danny, we always had the time of our lives. Playing lacrosse, some people might not know that he even played lacrosse, but of course like everything that Danny did, he was an amazing lacrosse player. Just like watching him ride, he was a joy to watch on the lacrosse field, he just makes everything look so easy.

Our trip to visit Conor at Syracuse; Danny, Charlie, Josh and I left NH in Charlie’s Jeep with two cases of beer in the back in plain site, all of us under age, we made it to NY and I was driving about 75 and out of nowhere red flashing light turned on behind us. Danny wakes up and says, “Why is there an ambulance behind us?” I pulled over knowing that NY State Police have red lights not blue like NH. We quickly stopped laughing at Danny as they proceed up on each side of the jeep and ask where we were headed because it was about 12pm, we told them and he took my license and then gave me a ticket. We drove off to the next rest area and I let Josh drive and a half an hour later he got pulled over on the same highway. I just remember Danny laughing in the back seat after Josh got another ticket. We made it to Conor’s dorm and had a blast while we were there. On the way home we got a girl to flash us on the highway after driving next to this car full of girls for a long time holding up traffic on I90.

The year I took Danny out on a wakeboard boat for the fourth of July on Ossipee Lake. He had never wake boarded before and after we had been drinking all day, he jumped in and put me board on and got up first try! Of course none of us were surprised, it took him about two minutes and he was able to clear the wake. He is by far the most talented person I have ever met. We always had fun no matter what we did. His ability to make people laugh and smile is something I have missed for a long time. My memories with Danny are something I have cherished and feel lucky to have been able to build such a great relationship with him over the years. Danny, I look foreword to seeing you soon and making more memories. We do have places to ride in NC, and would love to get you back out on my wakeboard on Lake Norman. You are the best and have a great family and great friends who love you and can’t wait to see that smile again and hear that awesome laugh. Love you buddy!

ONE,

Tim Mcclare

January 7th, 2011 by Conor

Connor (and to Dan when he wakes up),

Since I heard about what happened to Dan and found out about your updates on Facebook and the website you set up, I have been coming online and deeply hoping that he has started to shows signs of the beginnings of his recovery. I haven’t seen either of you guys in a long time but growing up in the same town and on the same street and growing up with a brother, it really hit me in an emotional place I haven’t felt in a long time, maybe never. I can’t feel the depth of angst that you are going through but I feel like in some ways that Dan is part of my tribe, in my circle of people that grew up knowing and care about. Sure, we didn’t hang out and only saw each other in passing but my worries about your bro have welled-up big time. My reaction kind of came upon me in a deep way that I didn’t expect.

I believe that Dan knows you are with him and that your and his love as brothers is permeating that room as well as the love from your family and friends and everyone who knew Dan.

I am living in Bulgaria now and sending my love across the world to you both and your whole family.

Get Well Dan. Come Back Soon.

Much Love,

Rob Hickey