THE ADVICE COLUMN
URBEX BOYS, URBEX BOYS,
WHATCHOO GONNA DO WHEN THEY COME FOR YOU?
ABOVE: During a factory explore, FreeFlow Nation stumbled upon a suspicious worker, then claimed to be doing a 'safety inspection'. LOL
Roofing, train surfing, bus surfing, urbex, and the rest requires some forethought and planning in the unfortunate event that you might get caught by workers, security, or the police.
Let's review:
1. Hiding places for your SD cards: Whether it be a compartment inside your underwear, a shoe, or somewhere else, you don't want your video footage to get confiscated if you get caught. In your videos that you share on social media, don't announce to the world where you hide your card. Preferably, don't even mention that you hide your cards. Loose lips sink ships.
2. Create an innocent YouTube and/or Instagram channel: If you get caught by security or police, have a decoy social media account that you can refer them to. Upload pictures and footage that portrays you as just a harmless tourist/camper/photographer, without showing any illegal activities, such as train surfing, crane surfing, etc.
3. Decoy SD card: During your actual train surfing, roofing, or whatever it is that you do, capture photos and footage on a decoy card that tell an innocent story. For example, if you're going to be climbing a crane on the roof of some building, perhaps shoot footage at ground level of you talking about capturing photos from a floor near the top.
4. Periodically, hide your real SD cards: After you have completed climbing that crane, or are about to complete a leg of train surfing, just as a matter of course, you should hide your SD card and then resume shooting with another card. If you have time, also upload your footage to the cloud.
5. Get your stories straight: Prepare for various scenarios. What happens if you breifly come upon a worker or security?
You might get asked, what are you doing in this building and how did you get in here? The best approach is to just be honest... I'm doing urbex and taking pictures. But, some diversionary excuses include:
I just walked in and wanted to see if a worker could give me a tour of the place.
I'm an inspector, worker, or contractor -- You'd better somewhat look the part! A clipboard, safety vest, and helmet helps 'sell' it.
I was trying to take a shortcut to get to the public road on the other side of your territory.
What happens if one or all of you are caught and held for questioning? They might ask, are you alone? Do you know that other guy? What's his name? (A good response is to say "I only know him by his YouTube name") How do you know him? When did you meet up with him? If separated from your friend(s), security/police might ask you to call them to find out where they are (this happened to one of Ally Law's cohorts during Ally's 02 Arena hide-and-wait). And so, have some sort of prearranged code word(s) or phrase to signal that you have been caught, without actually saying so. Perhaps, you might say "What's up cat?" instead of "What's up dog?". Then, that signals to your friend that the police forced you to make the call to get information about your whereabouts.
IS PARKOUR CREEPING TOWARDS OLEG CRICKET?
Everyone keeps trying to raise the danger bar. They're not doing this stuff from 50 stories yet, but is 7 stories really 'safer'? Fall from these heights (hopefully feet first) and you might wind up paralyzed -- not just broken bones. You might wish you fell from 50 stories instead. Is it really worth an adrenaline rush and some extra clicks?
BELOW: Manu_Na_ doing a corkscrew from about 7 floors up. Another from about 7 floors up. Another from 6 floors up.
BELOW: A couple of the STORROR boys (Benj and Toby) jumped across this lofty gorge!
Below: Callum jumped this gap from about 12 stories up!
Below: Verky02 went 'Oleg Cricket' with this stunt
