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The Crazy Train Surfers Who Flirt With Death for Sport

In the townships of Johannesburg a dangerous game is being played. Reckless students and disenfranchised young men are dangling from cars and clambering atop the roofs of commuter trains. These thrill seekers risk life and limb in a sport called Staff Riding–a combination of cocksure showmanship and cathartic release.

Photojournalist Marco Casino took his first trip to South Africa to document this high-stakes distraction from poverty and boredom. Underneath the dangerous acrobatics, which leave the unlucky either killed, electrocuted or maimed, Casino found a microcosm of the nation’s stratified society.

The trains link the wealthy urban core with its ramshackle outskirts, packed with exhausted workers, street preachers, latchkey kids and these Staff Riding daredevils. The commute emphasizes the psychological distance between city and township. Those ducking power lines and surfing curves high above the tracks are the latest generation left to grapple with the legacy of apartheid.

“Most of them really had a lot of diffidence about me, because it’s illegal,” says Casino. “They are not so comfortable with the camera.”

Casino found out about Staff Riding by watching the documentary Surfing Soweto, and tracked down the production team to set up contacts. He set up shop in Katlehong, 20 miles southeast of Johannesburg, staying at his fixer’s house.

To allow his subjects to get comfortable with his presence he left his camera at home for the first week, spending time milling about transit stations and meeting people at informal bars run out of local houses. Once people grew accustomed to his presence he began being invited into their homes, and then on weekend trips when surfers take advantage of the relatively empty trains to climb onto the roofs.

Staff Riding most likely grew out of the overcrowded conditions locals suffer during commute hours. Regular passengers will sometimes be forced to hug the sides of cars for lack of room, and it’s not hard to see how bored students goofing off on their way home might develop some sort of brinkmanship to pass the time.

Only the most brazen take things to the next level. Casino made five or six trips topside to shoot people dancing, ducking and posing while hurtling down the tracks. The Italian photographer had his limits, laying down while working for safety. He asked the surfers to film their perspectives with GoPro cameras, and eventually stitched together video, audio and still images for his first film. He shows how Staff Riding transcends kids doing stupid things and becomes something of an art.

“It’s really free of rules,” he says. “Everyone does what they want. It depends from person to person.”

Everyday commuters have become inured to the spectacle of Staff Riding, but not everyone is pleased with the sensation. Only one employee operates a train, leaving it up to local authorities to prowl routes in search of surfers. Casino laid low when the cops nabbed a suspect, having been put through the ringer for photographing police in the past. Those who get busted are kicked around and scolded, but are inevitably sent home without being dragged to jail.

Working in Katlehong proved dangerous even away from the tracks. Casino stood out on the streets and didn’t feel safe walking around without his fixer. One night went horribly wrong when a group of men tried to manhandle him into a waiting car.

“One night I went to an informal bar and I was away from my fixer,” he says. “I was with a friend of his who was a little drunk and I had problems with people who wanted to carry me outside and take me away.”

Despite the diceyness of the district, the tightly knit cliques and flamboyant displays of surfers echo breakdancing crews of the ’80s more than they resemble gangs. The stakes are still high, an extension of living where unemployment persists among the manufacturing belt of South Africa’s wealthiest province. People drift away from the game when stability enters their lives, be it getting a job or getting married.

Some never make it that far. People are electrocuted or fall to their deaths. Survivors are crushed beneath the wheels and become amputees. Everyone into Staff Riding knows someone who has been killed or maimed, yet they continue to chase the adrenaline rush. For poor kids from the streets and broken homes, surfing trains is the ultimate way to blow off steam.

Casino continues to stay in touch with people in Katlehong and has returned to South Africa to cover elections during the 20th anniversary of the fall of apartheid. He may have been drawn to the nation by the voyeuristic thrills of Staff Riding, but it was the social melting pot he found that’s drawn him in.

“It was really a great experience,” Casino says. “I really lived the township’s daily life and it was quite amazing.”

All photographs courtesy of Luz Photo