This article is from WeChat official account:Road shop (ID: zailushangzazhi), author: dogfish, visual: late teeth, editor: Chen only three first map from: vision China
“The Matrix” has been in theaters for 21 years, and some people are still obsessed with imitating that trick. Young people in South Africa are no exception, but they are not on the roof of the building, on the roof of the train.
When the two sides of the railway are surrounded by mixed young people, what everyone can’t wait to see is a wonderful Matrix show.
This trick of perfect reproduction requires you to stand on the top of the train, bend your body backwards, and quickly twist your shoulders to avoid when the high-voltage cables and tower bridges are oncoming.
“I can feel the sound of the electric flint stimulating the eardrum. This is the craziest thing you can do in your life.”
South Africa is surrounded by sea on three sides. There is never a shortage of white people surfing on Llandudno Beach in Cape Town, but the young people in South Africa will tell you with practical actions that trains are the best surfboards.
The school bus number 9323, like the 9 and three-quarters station that connects reality and magic, is the starting point for most people to embark on a surfing trip.
“It’s very convenient to surf on this train. It always drives fast enough, without delays, and is full of people.”
When the bell rang on time at the station, the surfers ready to go quickly took off their school uniforms and put on jeans, while the girls put on lipstick and eye shadow, putting on cigarettes and Umqombothi(home brewed beer), an after school party is about to begin.
“We do this purely out of vanity, for girls, for excitement. Sometimes girls will cheer for us and tell us they will come to our funeral.”
In the satellite city of Soweto in the hinterland of South Africa, the train connecting the suburbs and the city is crowded with workers, street missionaries, thieves, and crooks, and outside is full of surfers waiting for opportunities.
“My parents gave me the money for the call, but they didn’t know that the train I took was free.”
In the beginning, the train was just that the capacity of the carriage was overloaded, and the air was ventilated outside, so you could escape a ticket by the way. Until they accidentally opened the Easter egg level during this boring time: Train surfing.
The Soweto youth has already fully exploited the potential of trains.
The most common move with the lowest risk factor is to grab the rod on the door and toss up and down between the ground and the platform by grasping the inertia of the body.
Side surfing is a higher-level gameplay. Hang the body outside the car, and then rush to the top of the wave, and then slide to the valley. The people and the car are in harmony under the action of the wind.
The pleasure is always proportional to the risk factor. A more dangerous way is to hang upside down on the bottom of the train. In the tight space of only a few centimeters of steel wheels and rails, huge mechanical noise flows through the whole body like electric current, and can’t breathe At the same time, full of pleasure.
In addition to the development of surfing moves, Soweto’s surfers also divided into two major factions: cheeseboys and mvonqas.
Cheeseboys simply perform some interesting tricks on the train, and for mvonqas, every surfing is a thrilling escape battle. Only the technology is strong enough to get rid of the chase after the catastrophe. Guard.
“As a surfer with a difficult life, I have learned a lot: like a hyena, invade the platform full of students, and then pick those rich and skinny kids to start.”
The South African Railway has been driven mad by these rampant surfers, but what is even more troublesome for the guards is that it is as difficult to catch these people as if they are in a mud puddle.
Even Prasa Railway CEO Mofu admits, “Guards cannot catch them on a moving train without training. They are too good in comparison.”< /p>
The South African Ministry of Transport hopes that the game can be stopped immediately.
The South African Railways does not understand why more and more young people are provoking railway laws without taking their lives seriously.
V.I.R.U.S is a title given to top players, the full name is very iintelligent rider usually save(very smart riders usually survive), but even an experienced veteran like Tupac is not sure about it. His right eye There are still four or five scars burned by sparks.
“I don’t think I can play for a long time, because I will make a small mistake one day.”
This means that you have to concentrate every time you surf, and let your friends attend your funeral if you are not careful.
“This is dangerous. Sometimes a suffocation fear haunts me. But there is no room for fear in this game. I must get rid of this feeling.”< /p>
In addition to the train speed, these surfers have to dodge the 3000-volt cable overhead at any time, and being hit means they will turn into a human torch on the spot.
“Students at the age of 16 or 17 don’t know much about the voltage of 3000 volts and the conductivity of the human body, otherwise the police would not come to carry people every week.” · Bolshakov said that he lost a leg while surfing on the train.
For a train surfer, dying a companion is as common as adding a wound to Banzi’s knee.
As early as 2010, a documentary called “Soweto Surfing” recorded the wonderful stunts of Soweto surfers that year, but most of the people in this film are now gone.
Director Sarah Blank revealed: “On the last day of filming, two people died while surfing the train.”
Every surfer knows at least one or two friends who have passed away or have a disability, but this still can’t stop them from continuing to participate in this semi-suicidal dangerous game.
After all, taboo means an invitation. Once you taste the pleasure of adventure, it becomes an addiction to implant nerve endings.
Transportation has combined the entire world into the Internet. Soweto’s small-scale entertainment has gradually spread to developed countries. More and more young people have sneaked into secret passages and used train surfing to start a day’s copy mode.
A young Russian named Sasha said: “I have been travelling by train between Moscow and my home every day since I was 10 years old. I can’t remember how many kilometers I have traveled on the roof of the car.”
In Germany, the man who claimed to be a “train rider” is already a notorious surfer. His highest record is to conquer the German intercity express at a speed of 330 km/h. In the last year he was diagnosed with leukemia Are engaged in this dangerous game.
With the help of go pro and YouTube, surfing records from the first perspective can be found everywhere on the Internet, allowing cyber surfers to feel the intracranial climax.
But in Soweto, train surfers gradually disappeared like old soldiers, and those surviving surfers finally chose a normal life trajectory.
Sonic was once a member of the frightening “rough rider” gang. The 31-year-old now lives alone in a guest house in Soweto, earning a living by selling sweets and snacks.
The other retired person is 26-year-old Spider, one of the few surfers who was electrified by the cable to survive. He only paid the price of two front teeth.
Now, Spider says he wants to work for the railway bureau to introduce young surfers to the dangers of train surfing.
“The information I can provide to those who are still surfing is very simple: I know you feel that you own the world, but one day you will stop.”
Perhaps every Soweto surferIt is clear that a fast-moving train is not a permanent analgesic, but besides death, another reason for them to get off the train is just a job.
This article is from WeChat official account:Road shop (ID: zailushangzazhi), author: dogfish