From Wikipedia, “Car surfing (also known as urban surfing) is an activity in which passengers of moving vehicles perform various stunts, including hanging out of the car or 'surfing' on the hood (bonnet), trunk (boot), or on the roof of the vehicle while it is in motion. Car surfing is a dangerous activity. People who fall off during the ride may suffer brain contusions, fractured skulls, neck injuries, broken bones, loss of consciousness, internal bleeding, paralysis, and even death. What might seem like reasonably safe surf might turn deadly in the presence of an outside influence, like a passing vehicle, an unseen speed bump, or a pole near the road.”
The mere fact that any young person would even contemplate car surfing proves once again that generations late Y and now Z harbor a bastion of dysfunctional inhabitants that seem to have absolutely no concept of reality. It seems significant that we haven’t heard of any adults engaging this madness. I might add my generation may have been equally suspect but in generally far less dangerous unconventional pursuits for which we had at least some control. Maybe life is cheaper now or that elusive ultimate rush/thrill can only be attained now by putting your life – nonsensically – on the line. There is no cost-value here…
If you haven’t already seen this phenomenon play out on one of your local streets or highways, just surf on over to You Tube for an eyeful of absolute crazies. Punctuating these startling behaviors are the reaction by the participants to sane advice by critical respondents. Comments like, “Stop hating.” or “If you don’t like, don’t watch.” and other similar remarks… We also noted that of the participants we’ve cited, one is now dead and other is a “vegetable.”
The recent uptick in car surfing injuries and deaths has a lot of folks concerned to even include the Communicable Disease Center (CDC) in Atlanta which has been trying to raise awareness of this stupidity since 2008. The CDC put out a warning to parents about the dangers of car surfing including the following, "A new study shows that teens are also among the age group most likely to participate in car surfing, a thrill-seeking activity with potentially deadly consequences". Having seen that release I wonder what responsible parent doesn’t know that if someone falls off the roof of a car moving at 70 miles per hour might get seriously hurt? It’s like cautioning someone against pointing a loaded gun at their head and pulling the trigger. There is no great mystery here.
Local law enforcement seems powerless to act unless surfers are caught in the act and once apprehended, their future determined by the hammer of a judge’s gavel generally after a tragic car surfing incident. Witness the DeBary, Florida teen who was sentenced to a year of house arrest and five years probation in February after pleading no contest to two counts of vehicular homicide where two friends were killed while surfing on his car. The rest of his very difficult life is going to be penance for his stupidity. Tragically, we could spend this whole post just citing other like examples of kids maimed or killed by car surfing.
Car surfers now join the ranks of others in the new generation - kids engaging in other dangerous activities that include Alcohol Eyeballing, Bath Salts, Choking/Suffocation Games, Drinking Hand Sanitizer, Huffing, I-Dosing, K-2/Spice, Planking, Purple Drank Drinking, Rainbow Sex Parties, Vampiring and Vodka Gummy Bears among the more traditional, tested and true options for that perfect “high” including alcohol and illegal drugs (prescription and otherwise and, yes, alcohol is a drug). There are certainly more Russian roulette opportunities for a new and seemingly ever more creative younger generation. Methinks they just have more stuff to work with…
Now Texas and other states which have a high incidence of these activities have decided that they are going to educate and sensitize young people on the dangers of such activities. Eureka! You got to be kidding!!!!! Give me a break! What person (young or old) with even a smidgen of common sense doesn’t already know that this incredibly dangerous and illegal activity will kill you? Those that don’t know the difference will always surrender to peer pressure and/or the influence of drugs and alcohol. They will never be touched by reason. Like one fellow Texan has opined, “You can’t fix stupid.” Those that know the dangers probably wouldn’t do it anyway.
Positives? None, aside from the sad fact we seem to be raising a new generation of organ donors…
Aye,
Ned Buxton
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