Train Surfing: Extreme Form of Travel? Or Utterly Stupid?

by Willy Volk Apr 28th 2007 @ 11:41AM

Train surfing is a thrill-seeking activity that involves riders clinging to or "surfing" on the outside of a moving train. It's dangerous and it's illegal, and there are, of course, numerous potential accidents that can result from it. Nevertheless, it's a pretty extreme form of traveling, so I thought it deserved a mention on Gadling.

This clip shows some train surfing by a German known only as The Trainrider. According to the person who uploaded the clip to YouTube, "Before he died from leukemia, he enjoyed the last year of his life by surfing on trains. Included Germany's fastest Highspeed train ICE with a top speed of 330 km/h(!) No one did that before."

Is The Trainrider for real? Insomnia seems to think the Trainrider is a guy named Alexander Richter who faked the death of his alter-ego -- possibly to sell some videos. Kinda sleazy, if it's true. If you're interested, there's another video after the jump.

If you're chomping at the bit for more, iFilm has a 23-minute film of the Trainrider.

Filed under: Stories, Video

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