Surfing On The Car

Posted on 9 November 2009 by Stenberg-Tendys W.L. in Society

Police report a U.S. tourist who was pretending to be surfing on the hood of a friend’s moving car was killed, when he fell and broke his neck in a popular Puerto Rican beach town.

Police spokeswoman Yolanda Hernandez says 29-year-old Long Beach, New York, resident Jorge Geysel fell off his friend’s Isuzu Trooper as he was “car surfing” along a road in the west coast community of Rincon early Saturday.

Hernandez can’t yet say whether Geysel’s two companions will face any criminal charges.

Car surfing, also known as ‘urban surfing’, is a form of illegal acrobatics, in which passengers of moving vehicles perform various stunts, including hanging out of the car, riding the hood, trunk, or on the roof of the vehicle, while it is moving. Some participants are even dragged behind the moving vehicle by a rope.

While some have a driver behind the wheel while surfing, others throw the car into cruise control, then exit the moving vehicle. The death toll from car surfing stands California, 51, Texas 42 and Florida 42, with many more injured.

Car surfing was first popularized in the 1985 movie ‘Teen Wolf’. The movie ‘Grindhouse’ has re-popularized the trend. YouTube is also responsible for popularizing and glamourizing this particularly dangerous form of entertainment.

A study published in the Journal of Neurosurgery, revealed that a group of neurosurgeons, after analyzing statistics from the states with the most car-surfing injuries, have concluded that car-surfing injuries are linked with the release of the Grand Auto Theft and Jackass video game series.

Dr Ann-Christine Duhaime said, “It is well documented that children and adolescents imitate what they see in the media, even when this is deleterious to their health. Adults need to channel teens’ need for adventure’ into activities with less likelihood of life-altering, or life-ending, outcomes.”

A similar dangerous trend is known as ‘ghost-riding’. A person puts an automatic car in motion then exits the vehicle and dances beside or on the car. This trend was popularized by the hit song ‘Ghost Ride It’ in 2006. The video clip came under strong criticism, due to its directions on how to ghost ride. At least two deaths have been caused from ghost riding, though some claim the death toll as high as 8.

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