South Africa

South Africa

GroundUp: Train surfers risk their lives without fear of Metrorail’s security

GroundUp: Train surfers risk their lives without fear of Metrorail’s security

Train surfing? “I do it for adrenaline – the thrill can get addictive.” By Ricardo Afrika for GROUNDUP.

First published by GroundUp

Young men in Cape Town risk their lives by “train surfing”. Ricardo Afrika photographed and filmed train surfers by sticking his cell phone camera out of a broken window on Metrorail’s central line.

Train surfers stand outside a train, either on the side or on the top, while a train is moving. They perform stunts, such as dodging the overhead lines. It is extremely dangerous and illegal.

Most train surfing appears to take place between Mutual station and Khayelitsha. The images and videos here were filmed on 10 October at about 6.45pm between Philippi and Stock Road stations.

Surfing typically takes place during peak hours — between 7am to 8am and from 3pm to 7pm. Trains are often congested during these times. Commuters hang on doors, windows, between carriages and even on top of the trains. But train surfing means more than merely hanging on to the outside; it involves doing stunts too. There were about 10 people surfing when these images and videos were shot.

Surfers range in age from school boys to blue collar workers. Primary and high school students typically do what is called ukulathaza: running next to the train on the platform until it is at high speed, and then they jump in. Some of the adults take it to the extreme of running on top of the train while it is in motion and ducking under cables and bridges, as in the videos below.

No one appears to make a serious effort to stop the surfers. There’s a lack of security and the trains are packed, with no authorities around to check on safety. If there are security personnel, they usually stand with the drivers on each end of the train, which means they can’t really see what happens when the train is in motion.

Spiderman” is a blue collar worker who surfs. I asked him why he does it. He replied: “To us this is a sport. I mostly do it for adrenaline and the thrill can get addictive.” DM

Photo: A man surfs on top of a train in Cape Town. Photo: Ricardo Afrika

Gallery

Please peer review 3 community comments before your comment can be posted

X

This article is free to read.

Sign up for free or sign in to continue reading.

Unlike our competitors, we don’t force you to pay to read the news but we do need your email address to make your experience better.


Nearly there! Create a password to finish signing up with us:

Please enter your password or get a sign in link if you’ve forgotten

Open Sesame! Thanks for signing up.

We would like our readers to start paying for Daily Maverick...

…but we are not going to force you to. Over 10 million users come to us each month for the news. We have not put it behind a paywall because the truth should not be a luxury.

Instead we ask our readers who can afford to contribute, even a small amount each month, to do so.

If you appreciate it and want to see us keep going then please consider contributing whatever you can.

Support Daily Maverick→
Payment options

Become a Maverick Insider

This could have been a paywall

On another site this would have been a paywall. Maverick Insider keeps our content free for all.

Become an Insider

Every seed of hope will one day sprout.

South African citizens throughout the country are standing up for our human rights. Stay informed, connected and inspired by our weekly FREE Maverick Citizen newsletter.