Unsuck DC Metro: Metro Surfing

Friday, August 12, 2011

Metro Surfing

From Carl:

Did you all know of a new fad that has been happening at the Dupont Circle Metro station? It's called 'Train Surfing.'

I watched some kids do it a dozen times last month.

I told the Metro kiosk guy, but he didn't do anything about it.

The kids saw me filming and surrounded me. I got on the next train. Here's what I got.

Other items:
Metro #2 gets $30k housing bonus (Examiner)
Track work this weekend (WMATA)

Comments (49)

Logging you in...

Dashboard | Edit profile | Logout

Logged in as

-1 Vote up Vote down

Kat · 715 weeks ago

Jesus Christ!

+29 Vote up Vote down

Ever and Anon · 715 weeks ago

I can see it now. The kid gets killed. Parents sue Metro for endangering their kid. Parents win. Metro gives train operator (who this time was innocent) a paid vacation admin leave. Our riding fees go up.

2 replies · active 715 weeks ago

+14 Vote up Vote down

Soylent Green Line · 715 weeks ago

You really think WMATA would lose a lawsuit? If anything, WMATA would counter sue for the cost of rinsing the guts and bones off their train, and win.

+7 Vote up Vote down

John · 715 weeks ago

Exactly, remember, WMATA (and esp. its union) have the courts and arbitrators in their pocket.

+10 Vote up Vote down

UnSuck Fan · 715 weeks ago

Seriously?? What an idiot!!

+26 Vote up Vote down

dcn8v · 715 weeks ago

Welcome to this year's Darwin Awards.

2 replies · active 715 weeks ago

+3 Vote up Vote down

VeggieTart · 715 weeks ago

I was thinking the same thing. I sincerely hope someone doesn't get hurt or killed doing this, but I won't be terribly surprised if some moron does.

+14 Vote up Vote down

DCVAMD · 715 weeks ago

If someone's stupid enough to do this, I could care less what happens to them...

+11 Vote up Vote down

Steve · 715 weeks ago

Likely winner of the next Darwin Award

+7 Vote up Vote down

Soylent Green Line · 715 weeks ago

Darwin Awards, coming up.

+7 Vote up Vote down

Susannah · 715 weeks ago

Is this the Darwin Award in action here?

+7 Vote up Vote down

Morning Commute · 715 weeks ago

I actually wondered how long it would be before something like this happened.

+9 Vote up Vote down

Ian M. · 715 weeks ago

I smell a Darwin Award.

-8 Vote up Vote down

surfer dude · 715 weeks ago

sickk i want to try that

-2 Vote up Vote down

MikeD · 715 weeks ago

HA HA We use to do this in Brooklyn 20 years ago.

+15 Vote up Vote down

Calabria · 715 weeks ago

I hope the conductor slams his brakes on next time.

-2 Vote up Vote down

Guest · 715 weeks ago

I can't see the video because I'm at work. What happens on it?

1 reply · active 715 weeks ago

0 Vote up Vote down

Anony Mouse · 715 weeks ago

As the train is leaving the station, a teenager grabs the outside of the train and holds on for a couple seconds.

-24 Vote up Vote down

Guest · 715 weeks ago

Sorry not new we did it in the 80s.You can tell the new people to DC. Everything is so WOW to them.Probably because you never saw a black kid do it.White kids have been doing it since forever.

4 replies · active 715 weeks ago

+16 Vote up Vote down

anonymous · 715 weeks ago

Who cares when you saw it first or how long you've been in DC?

-25 Vote up Vote down

@InVinoVeritasBC · 715 weeks ago

You've no idea how much I appreciate this comment. It's true. The overwhelming complaints about "thugs" and "hoodlums" that are made about kids on this board or any "outrageous" thing seen on the Metro is attributed to African American kids. What about the menaces and PITA$$ that are the GWU/GU students that prowl and disrupt my neighborhood or the frat brats that terrorize Adams Morgan??? Where are the complaints about them? When they're black teens, they're a terror. When it's white kids, it's "boys being boys" or "college kids letting off steam". No IT'S THE SAME! You just don't harbor the same racist feelings towards the white kids.

+29 Vote up Vote down

TeeGee · 715 weeks ago

Seriously....put it back in the deck.

+31 Vote up Vote down

Ever and Anon · 715 weeks ago

Ditto. Give it up. This is not a racial thing here. It's a teenage stupidity thing.

-7 Vote up Vote down

James · 715 weeks ago

I sincerely hope the next kid who tries this is killed or or horribly injured. Bad consequences are the only thing that will stop this kind of behavior, and a station manager obviously won't interrupt his nap to do anything about this...

-2 Vote up Vote down

Guest · 715 weeks ago

It would be so freaking awesome if one of those doing the surfing got killed. Is there a way we can encourage them to do it? Maybe distribute flyers at Potomac Gardens or something?

-31 Vote up Vote down

superseiyan -99p · 715 weeks ago

This is what unsuckdc has come down to? Hey to the blog authors, much as metro is often incompetent and your shining a light on it, beware of hubris.

Your'e attracting quite the lowest-common denominator here. Often I see comments directed at certain segments of population calling them "sub-human trash" etc etc. Now there's comments wishing death on kids.

Shocking vitriol.

Does being a loud kid make one subhuman or deserving "to be killed"?

7 replies · active 715 weeks ago

+38 Vote up Vote down

unsuckdcmetro 92p · 715 weeks ago

It's better to let people make a fool of themselves publicly than to censor their moronic views.

+16 Vote up Vote down

Chris Jackson · 715 weeks ago

I love people who complain about free blogs they don't even have to read! Get a life!

+18 Vote up Vote down

DanielV · 715 weeks ago

No, but if you're willing to do something so shockingly stupid and dangerous, don't expect sympathy from anyone when you eventually get hurt...

+11 Vote up Vote down

Ever and Anon · 715 weeks ago

So, the obvious question now is... why are you reading a blog that is obviously not to your taste? Meanwhile, I posted more than once today. Neither time did I comment on wishing death on children. And actually that video clip does not show a loud kid. It shows a stupid reckless kid. Beware of hubris indeed. :)

-20 Vote up Vote down

superseiyan -99p · 715 weeks ago

Please.

That criticism is like saying if I support a sports team and I say "I don't like how they play X" or it was dumb to buy Y, that the obvious question is "why am I supporting a team thats' not to my taste". That's missing the point, and running away from it. Better to defend the point (i.e. support of the type of comments I was referring to).

I was just making a general observation on the tone and vibe of comments that *I* find alarming and way over the top that's all. It appeared to me the author(s) of the blog encouraged/liked/were ok with that. Author(s) of this blog didn't seem offended anyway and argued why he lets it slide.

+8 Vote up Vote down

Ever and Anon · 715 weeks ago

As mentioned by another poster above, "Give it up."

+11 Vote up Vote down

Taylor · 715 weeks ago

Don't generalize on Unsuck or all commenters for some tasteless comments. Some is sarcasm and some is simply poor taste. Don't read if you don't like it. The bad comments tend to get a thumbs-down anyways. Hey! Just like your comment.

+11 Vote up Vote down

dclobbyist -113p · 715 weeks ago

If they got hurt, they'd turn around and sue Metro for negligence

+3 Vote up Vote down

Guest · 715 weeks ago

All - call/email your video to Metro Police at 202-962-2121 and also to DCPD/Fox 5.
Send email to as well to Officer Lang, who's really tried to help riders out with many issues: Here is officer Langs email: Investigator Lang at rlang[at]wmata.com.

Lots of kids have died worldwide and here in the US and have become amputees, at the very least. My First Aid is OK, but would be a shame to have to perform it in that type of situation.

This kid got lucky this time. Agreed, we've all done dumb stuff and are fortunate enough to vent here, but with trains pulling in as fast as they do and the low lighting on platforms, it's just a matter of time.

+7 Vote up Vote down

Anony Mouse · 715 weeks ago

Or perhaps we should encourage it, like this: http://s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_lo....

It would surely cut down on offloading.

+6 Vote up Vote down

n2deep · 715 weeks ago

train surfing is nothing new on metro. i have witnessed it for many years. i guess finally someone other than the kids doing it has got it on tape now. i have seen many end up on their ass. they are less likely to sue when they fall because they are too busy fighting off the razzing they are taking from their fellow surfers.

+1 Vote up Vote down

Drew · 715 weeks ago

A few more "surfers" and it would look like India

-1 Vote up Vote down

Jay · 715 weeks ago

Either way it is a dangerous game that they are playing and needs to cease.

1 reply · active 715 weeks ago

+8 Vote up Vote down

dcrider · 715 weeks ago

This is Darwinism at work....let'em do it....

+5 Vote up Vote down

Guest · 715 weeks ago

Real train surfing is when you stand on top of the moving train (preferably on an above ground or elevated section of track).

Now to take it up a notch, you try and jump from one moving train to another heading in the opposite direction.

You may think this looked easy when you saw Yen surf on the Japanese bullet trains, but remember, he admitted to Danny Ocean and Rusty that the stunt was all done with CGI.

+10 Vote up Vote down

Bukowski · 715 weeks ago

Using Metro when the school kids get out is a totally different experience from the morning commute - the kids I've seen actually sometimes sit with their feet dangling over the tracks in Columbia Heights until the trains lights come; they eat and litter and run wild...now I'm sure there are some good ones, but the problem is so widespread surely Metro knows about it, I guess they lack the manpower to deal with it. The parents should be fined.

+7 Vote up Vote down

Red liner · 715 weeks ago

I see this happen all the time at Gallery Place on the green/yellow lines. They ride the doors until the train is just about to enter the tunnel. I'm sure one of them will hit the wall or worse, fall onto the tracks.

1 reply · active 715 weeks ago

+4 Vote up Vote down

dcrider · 715 weeks ago

Let's hope so...maybe that will cut down on these kids acting like total idiots.

+1 Vote up Vote down

@SchuminWeb · 715 weeks ago

This seems just crazy dangerous.

+5 Vote up Vote down

Fred Smith · 714 weeks ago

DC and PG schools open up Aug 22. Cant wait for all the fights and the robberies to go up.. There just going through growing pains, no big deal there miss understood..

+1 Vote up Vote down

Don · 714 weeks ago

GW/Georgetown/AU students start very soon...can't wait for all the drunken rich kids to puke on the trains at 2am, talk and yell at each other on the way to the bars or rove like gangs on the platforms. Yeah, THAT is just as annoying and sometimes dangerous.

1 reply · active 714 weeks ago

+3 Vote up Vote down

DCRider · 714 weeks ago

I'm more concerned about the thugs riding during rush hour, not college kids at 2am on Friday and Saturday....