Train surfing

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Train surfing is a (usually illegal) extreme sport which involves riders climbing or "surfing" on the outside of a moving train while trying to avoid falling off during its acceleration. Potential accidents include collisions with poles and viaducts/tunnels, electrocution from an electrified overhead wire or third rail, injury when falling/jumping off, getting run over by the train itself, and getting crushed between the train and a station platform.

Contents

[edit] History

The practice is a serious issue in South Africa, where many young people have been killed or seriously injured. It is also on the increase in the United Kingdom. While there are no official numbers, the London Underground is now running an advertising campaign against "tube surfing". The advertisements now at most underground stations show a female figure with one arm and the caption "she was lucky" next to it.

The 'sport' was made popular in the 1980s in Germany. There it was called "S-Bahn Surfing". Slowly the former trainsurfing culture changed and got integrated in the German graffiti culture. The phenomenon was long forgotten until the millennium, but in 2005 it was rediscovered by a gang from Frankfurt, Germany. The leader of the crew—who called himself "The Trainrider"—famously surfed the InterCityExpress, the fastest train in Germany. A home-made video claimed that he died a year later from an incurable form of leukemia, but evidence has been revealed which disproves this (see External links below).

No one seems to know where, when or who first invented or performed train surfing, although reports from Denmark state that the hobby was practiced during the 1980s and apparently forgotten until several years after 2000. According to the media, the phenomenon started in South America during the early 1980s.

An English teenager was killed by hitting a bridge while train surfing in November 2002.[1] A similar fate hit the Danish train surfer Martin Harris on 12 May 2007. After the incident, a campaign against train surfing was launched by two individuals. The homepage (in Danish) can be found at www.trainsurfing.dk.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Teenager died 'train surfing', BBC News, 8 May 2003

[edit] External links

  • A weblog post claiming that the Trainrider may have faked his death. The post contains an anonymous comment claiming to be from a friend of the Trainrider, who says he is very much alive. The Trainrider later performed in a tv-report below, and thus it is official that he isn't dead.
  • Trainsurfing.dk campaign launched against train surfing after Denmark's first deadly accident
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