I wanted to share this story about Tyler Dupont / The Lurper for anyone who else might be searching his name because they have also been the victim of his lies and deplorable online behavior.
All of the information about Tyler Dupont below, with the exception of my email correspondence with him, can be found publicly online.
Ethics Matter. Integrity Matters. Accountability Matters. Truth Matters. Words matter ...
Tyler Dupont (also known by his moniker, "The Lurper", is a skateboarder, journalist, writer, author and UX Researcher with AWS (Amazon Web Services). He has written multiple articles for the Skateboarding website/publisher, Jenkem. He has also written many essays on skateboarding over the years.
He studied at SUNY Buffalo and International University in Moscow, after which he served as a Political Economic Assistant and Graduate Teaching Assistant at SUNY Buffalo and an Assistant Professor at SUNY Oneonta, but the students didn't seem to have positive things to say.
Tyler Dupont then moved on to a role as Lecturer at California State University and into his current role as a UX Researcher in Seattle, Washington at AWS (Amazon Web Services).
Tyler is a frequent user on the popular skateboarding message board forum, Slap. On Slap he has amassed a total of 3,734 posts and logged an impressive 59 full days of his life on the forum.
Tyler Dupont and I met in person a few times over the years. The first, I took him on a walk through of the company store at etnies, the brand I worked for at the time and hooked him up with some free shoes and apparel. Soon after, Tyler was emailing me, asking me questions about skateboarding and the industry, some were private matters about pro skaters that I did not disclose the answers of, and we engaged in ongoing discussions. I was happy to give my time to someone who was curious and passionate and wanted to write like I did. I am always willing to help up-and-comers who contacts me and have been for decades.
Tyler emailed me that he would be visiting California and wanted to meet for lunch, which I obliged. We talked, I bought him lunch, got him some more free stuff and he went on his way.
At some point Tyler Dupont / The Lurper decided he didn’t like me anymore, and it related directly to a role I took as Director of Marketing for USA Skateboarding, an Olympic organization. Because to Tyler, the Olympics are an evil corporation/entity that causes a lot of harm to cities, cultures, etc.
It was that this point where Tyler, who I was nothing but nice and accommodating to, decided to start badmouthing me online on the Slap forum.
On Slap, Tyler Dupont often engages in lengthy diatribes speaking out against capitalism and large corporations and the “negative” impacts they have. He has a lot of contempt for them, and it isn’t difficult to see from his words.
Strangely though, and despite all his verbose preaching, he took a job working for corporate giant, Amazon.
I contacted him several times personally, explaining that he is welcome to his opinion and to speak freely but that I was confused why he would turn on me. Needless to say, he kept going with his negative commentary of me and the Olympics and corporations, as well as plenty of brands, professional skateboarders and industry figures.
Eventually this turned even more toxic against me and Tyler Dupont began engaging in blatant and recurring online defamation of me, Robert Brink, on the Slap forum and beyond. As a published writer and journalist, Tyler Dupont / The Lurper is certainly aware of the rules and laws of libel and defamation, but it seems when he doesn’t like someone, he just doesn’t care. But one of the most important roles of a journalist is to seek and tell the truth, with integrity, not to use their platforms to assault someone’s character with lies, just because they don’t like them.
The Lurper was frequently posting false information and lies about me. Information he has no possible way of knowing or proving, he simply made it up, for example:
“Giving Brink carte blanche to insult everyone on SLAP because of his self diagnosed autism is not the correct way of reacting to his behavior. He isn't a non-functioning individual who is severely paralyzed by an extreme form of autism. Instead, assuming Brink's self-diagnosis is correct, he just an asshole who happens to have autism.
- The Lurper / June 08, 2024, 04:19:42 PM
I can’t possibly fathom why Tyler Dupont would come to the conclusion, and publicly state, as a journalist, that my autism is “self diagnosed”.
Those words never came out of my mouth and were never printed or said by me publicly. And I frequently wrote about my autism and mental health, as well as hosting multiple podcasts where I speak very candidly about the matters.
There is no way for Tyler to know or prove that I was “self diagnosed” because it never happened. I have a psychologist who can testify to this fact at any moment necessary.
Does Tyler Dupont / The Lurper know the level of my functioning to be making public statements/assessments about it as fact? Is he a trained psychologist, behavioral therapist or psychiatrist? Is spending three hours with me over the course of a few years enough time to make this determination?
This is sad because statements like the ones Tyler Dupont made are harmful for the entire autistic / neurodivergent community, and I would venture to guess, even broader, into anyone who deals with mental illness.
Once I learned of this, I contacted him on June 12, 2024, and asked him, in good faith, to stop speaking of me in this manner.
“Tyler,
Normally wouldn't do this but given recent circumstances and discussions between you and I in the SLAP PMs ... l'm going to make a polite and formal request that you refrain from discussing me on the forum, or anywhere publicly. Regardless of what moniker/code name you use for me. No need for me to get into further detail at the moment. Feel free to hit me back with any questions or concerns.
Thanks for understanding,
Brink”
But he continued to engage in malicious, intentional libel against me.
"He has to be a trust fund child. Not only would it explain how he can afford to live in Irvine without any legitimate job, it would explain his complete lack of self-awareness coupled with his arrogant sense of superiority.”
- The Lurper / December 26, 2024, 12:48:26 PM
Tyler cannot prove that I am a “trust fund child” because I am not one. Nor does he know anything about me, my finances or my family’s financial history. A trust fund has never existed within my family. My family was what might be considered upper lower class or lower middle class, and we lived in Bloomfield, NJ. I got my first job at age 11 and have worked ever since. I began working two jobs or more in 1997 while attending college and then graduate school I have never held less than two jobs after 1997, sometimes holding three of four in order to grow my career and financial stability.
I’m also very confused why Tyler would state that I have “no legitimate job”, when in fact, he knows what I do for a living, the industry I do it in, and visited me twice on the job in that industry at two different companies, in person. To make that up specifically to assault my character is just sad. I have no clue how he made this determination and why he decided to print it publicly.
I have had a very successful and lucrative career within the skateboarding industry that began in 1997 and continues today. I have also worked outside of the skateboarding industry. But my lengthy and busy career has provided me an amazing life and recently, an early retirement, in Laguna Beach, California. Not “Irvine” California, as Tyler Dupont stated as my place of residence. I have never lived in Irvine and there is no record of it anywhere. Again, he just fabricated it to disparage me. Also, what is the intent behind Tyler Dupont / The Lurper, giving out personal information like city of residence, on an online forum?
It is understandable that Tyler is incapable of comprehending my self-made career and finances because he will never be successful like me. He spends too much time spreading negativity and lies on the internet like a fucking weirdo. In my opinion, people who concern themselves with the money of others are losers. The idea that because my LinkedIn profile, and he, weren’t up to date regarding my employment does not mean I have “no legitimate job.”
So, after the above statements we’re made, I contacted Tyler Dupont again on March 7, 2025, asking him to post a retraction, remove all the posts he has ever made that mention me or refer to me and to never speak of me again. He has neglected to do all three as of this writing.
His reaction, in less than 4 hours, was to rush to the Slap forum to disparage me some more, further discussing my mental health and referring to me as “crazy” for asking him to cease from publicly lying about me. I found this perplexing. Somehow, I am the problem for addressing his actions against me and asking him to stop?
“lol, Brink has lost his mind. Sent me some absurd message with the wrong name [I addressed him as “Tyler Dupont.”] accusing me of defamation. Who would have guessed out of all the crazies that have been on SLAP, Brunk would out do them all. Even that crazy kid from NYC faded away, Brunk is basically Jerry Smith.
I read the first line of his nonsense and clicked out. Quotes me saying he is a trust fund child and asked for proof of this. I'm not even sure I ever said this. I think I might have said he is probably a trust fund child.
"Defamation is the act of harming someone's reputation by spreading false statements about them. It can be written, in the form of libel, or spoken, in the form of slander" Brink would need a reputation to destroy. This idiot makes himself look really stupid without any help from any of us.”
Truth is, I did not address him by the “wrong name”. He was lying. He also didn’t “read the first line and click out”. More lies, because 18 minutes later, this message was deleted by Tyler, The Lurper, and replaced with another one without the lies now that he knew I would see it.
The replacement message was as follows:
Welp, Brink has a mole in Temp Gnar [secret part of the Slap forum that only users with 1,000 posts or more can access]. No place is safe.
I got some message from him that I refuse to read, but it is clear that either someone is feeding him everything in the thread or he has a second account.
Looks like we can't have anything nice and we can't have a backstage forum to discuss his harassment of the PALs.
By “No place is safe”, he means he has nowhere he can get away with defamation regarding me.
“Harassment” is an odd accusation too. I merely contacted him multiple times to ask him to stop his repeated crime of online libel about me. This is not harassment, this is trying to work out a problem personally in good faith, as I have done with other members of the forum. Reacting to defamation and discussing or attempting to discuss personally is not “harassment”. I would happily challenge that accusation with plenty of evidence to back up that he is an antagonist.
Tyler Dupont also went on to create and post a meme about me “using” a guest on my podcast who I was giving a platform to speak about the abuse she endured during her marriage.
Somehow interviewing her, in his words, would “justify my perceived greatness”. Although I am unsure of what this means, as my podcast aims to tackle difficult issues that are rarely, if ever, discussed within the skateboarding industry by members of the industry or the media. and I have championed for women in skateboarding and beyond for many years—be it interviewing them for magazines, podcasts, including them in my 3-month-long exhibition “The New Normal”, and more.
For the record, at the time of this writing Amazon, the company that Tyler Dupont works for at Amazon Web Services (AWS), ranked second on the Fortune Global 500 list in 2023 and 2024.
Amazon is the 4th largest company by global market cap at just over $2 Billion. In terms of revenue, Amazon is consistently ranked as the second-largest company in the world, following Walmart. Amazon's revenue in 2024 was $574.785 billion.
Amazon's online marketplace generates significant revenue, with $247 billion coming from online marketplace sales and $156.1 billion from third-party seller services.
Amazon Web Services (AWS), its cloud computing division where Tyler Dupont works as a UX researcher in Seattle, is a major revenue stream, contributing more than half of the company's operating income and commanding 30% of the global cloud services market.
I find it really perplexing that Tyler Dupont / The Lurper would so frequently speak so negatively about corporations and billionaires and "greed" on the record over the years while working for, and taking a paycheck from, such a behemoth like Amazon. Especially since they provide him employment and a salary, but I suppose he is entitled to that free speech, so long as he is telling the truth.
As you have probably already determined, Tyler Dupont, The Lurper, is the most picture-perfect definition of what they call, a sell out; a hypocrite; a liar and a gaslighter. He’s also just a sneaky little brat who thinks he can say whatever he wants with no repercussions, especially when he thinks the people he is speaking of aren’t reading because his words are on a limited-access forum.
Ironic that Tyler Dupont, as a writer, journalist, lecturer and teaching assistant would engage publicly in libel multiple times about many people and brands within the industry he writes for, for many years, with no regard for how it may affect the victims' life, reputation, career, or income.
One would think the fact that many people within the industry are aware of both his pen name and real name (it is not a secret, nor did he ever ask me to keep it confidential), along with the fact that his education and career experience should have taught and encouraged him to behave differently, more ethically, be more careful with his words and lies about people, have integrity, be more responsible, honest and respectful of people and of his craft—but no, he just can’t seem to help himself.
I honestly hope that I don’t have to deal with Tyler Dupont’s targeted, intentional and malicious defamation of me anymore. I tried many times to stop it and have him post a retraction and remove it all, but he refuses to do it.
I do think, for the purposes of this writing, it is worth noting the various meanings of the slang word "Lurper":
Again, the purpose of this blog is to share this story about Tyler Dupont / The Lurper for anyone who else might be searching his name because they have also been the victim of his lies and deplorable behavior.
Ethics Matter. Integrity Matters. Accountability Matters. Truth Matters. Words matter ...