Entertainment

Gettin’ ripped!

On a recent Sunday at Rippers on the Rockaway boardwalk, a shirtless dude is feverishly sloshing generous portions of boxed wine into cups while a girl with a shirt that reads “T - - - ies and Beer” throws her head back and sucks down a beer bong in front of a cheering crowd.

And those are just the bartenders.

“We’re all about good vibes and partying. I feel like we embody that,” says 32-year-old bar manager Shaeffer Haitsma, wiping beer and foam off her chin. It’s just a quick timeout for the bartenders, who have been slammed for hours on the busiest day of the year so far, the monthly Tiki Disco dance party.

Good times have been in short supply in the Rockaways, one of the city neighborhoods that was hardest hit by Hurricane Sandy.

And while 3-year-old Rippers might seem like the most basic of boardwalk stands, the simple brick shack has become a rallying place for the return of the Rockaways.

In November, co-owner Roberta’s, the hip Bushwick pizza place, held a storm-relief fund-raiser. Williamsburg butcher shop The Meat Hook, another co-owner, sent supplies and volunteers to help with the Rockaway cleanup. This summer, the nearby Key Food is still shuttered, temporary bathroom and lifeguard pods still loom over the boardwalk, and much of the area looks like a construction zone. A few other popular hangouts have come back, including Rockaway Taco and Connolly’s. But the future of others, like the Commodore East and the Lobster Joint, is still unclear.

All the uncertainty makes Rippers, with its ’80s surf-punk aesthetic and classic beach-grub fare of hot dogs, hamburgers and cheap beer, all the more welcome.

Rippers replaced its floor and much of its equipment after Sandy, and opened by Memorial Day. Now, the line for food often stretches down the boardwalk, but people are happy there’s finally somewhere to celebrate being at the beach.

“I’m glad we beat this stupid-ass storm,” says Akua Aboagye, 22, a New York native reveling in her first trip to Rippers. “And we will beat any storm that comes this way. That’s what New York is about.”