I've seen posts and discussions about favorite aspects of urbex but I've never seen anything specifically about the community. I guess I don't have much authority to talk about it, specifically on this forum, since I'm pretty new to it all but what prompted me to ask this was a recent bonding experience I recently had with a guy I thought I hated over our mutual love of abandoned places. He and I seem totally different and have never really agreed on anything until we recently somehow ended up talking about exploration. I spent this past weekend driving around town exploring with him and he's so much cooler than I thought. So I guess my favorite part, from what I've seen at least, is how it can help set differences aside and connect a group of people. What's yours?
Being in UE community makes to create new words to describe something, it's actually exciting. I didn't paid much attention to this until one girl who studied social sciences asked me if there's a slang that explorers use. Of course, we use some words from English and Russian 'digger' slang too. Here are few examples what we use: "Jumtlande" - space around rooftops / area full of explorable rooftops. Word is a mix of Latvian "roof" plus English "land". "Velobradājums" - exploring places using bycicle. This word is made,matching two Latvian words "bicycle"+"exploring". "Kasļauns" - literally it means a question "what's evil?", it's a parody word of yellow-press online magazine "www.kasjauns.lv" which sometimes write about some places, being demolished. "Fedarasts" - The word is made, matching a popular Soviet time camera name "FED" adding the end of the word which usally comes as "end" when people are describing obsessions in Latvian. Basically this word means "A person who is obsessed to take photos with a vintage FED camera".
The funny moment when you go to a location that seems "usual" for you but doesn't seem "usual" for a foreigner. For example, explorers from "old europe" might found abandoned Soviet factories or anything else as "ooh and ahh" but i might find exciting abandoned german S-bahn stations as "ooh and aahh" because it seems impossible to close down a train station in the city where i live. I think this is a quite common exploring experience to anyone who travels.
Ohh that moment when local UE community "gets old" & nostalgic when suddenly appears these "millenium kid" explorers, bursting social media with their exploring pictures and videos, as much as possible. We, the old ones, don't understand why they post online "shit" that are sooooo not OK. They don't filter their content and we feel they are ruining "the image" of exploring, some really do cross the line. For example this kid wanted to get on a rooftop to a high-rise building in Riga. It's a fancy-class apartment building with security(guards and cameras) and they fooled the guard and they climbed into private apartment-balconies that obviously has owners, even people being inside the apartment. For "old community" which beliefs i do respect, these new communities seems cheap and fame-seeking. Ehh. Where are the good old times? (episode starts in 7:16)
[last edit 1/30/2017 9:44 AM by telefontubbie - edited 2 times]
Posted by EsseXploreR What I really appreciate is how nice and honest most explorers are. Very straightforward group of people, let me tell ya.
sometimes to a fault.
funny story for you... I met Agent Skelly and 'Dukes on this forum when I first joined waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back in 2003. We actually made arrangements to meet to check out the abandoned National Lead mine in Tahawus NY. I have never met either Skelly, Dukes, INA or Duffy before in person. I told my mom where I was going and she flipped out, thinking "these people could be murderers!" LOL
I got there and what was funny as that even though I had never met them face to face, it felt like we were old friends. Now keep in mind, we met on a very remote exit of a very remote interstate and headed 26 miles into the wilderness, 10 miles from the nearest house! That's trust right there.
To this day, I still consider Skelly and Dukes good friends even if we don't to talk as much as we used to.
Basically all of my friends are people that I meet trough exploring. In my opinion, there is something about exploring that bonds people better than most other activities.
Though I will say, as exploring becomes more popular, the community bond becomes less strong. For example, even in '07-'08 there were probably only like 15 (or less) serious explorers in Connecticut alone. Everyone knew everyone. Now it is so wildly popular that there are probably 500 or so in Connecticut.
I've noticed there's quite a few "different groups" of people who do this nowadays. For me you have to weed past the people who treat this as a competition and post photos with tags like "somewhere you'll never be" or something like that. I could never get behind visiting 5 places in one day and finding the most photographed room, taking one photo, and moving on. I enjoy going with a few good friends and spending 8-10hours at a location just hanging out, taking pictures, and enjoying the experience. And from that, I've met some amazing people who became great friends with. Those 8-10 hour days with great friends is my favorite part about this.
The photography part of exploration. I like going with a few people to the same place then seeing how they photographed it. Afterwards grabbing a bite to eat and a cold one and comparing notes, etc...
I'm not as solitary as I used to be. Less lonely. My best friends are the people I explore with. Before I found the "communities," mainly this one and one other, I explored and photographed alone. I still enjoy the alone time very much, but I also enjoy being able to share the good times with people I trust and enjoy being around.
And, of course, that rush. The feeling of exhilaration one feels when successfully entering that especially challenging location. The harder it is, the more rewarding it is.
I also love those one or two "special spots," that just fill me up with a good feeling, almost a sense of pride and accomplishment at having found them. This type of place is really rare, like I might feel this way about a place once a year (but usually will make multiple visits), and I usually keep them to myself. At least for a while. I'm not totally sure how to explain this last part. It's almost a spiritual thing because these special places feel sacred.
I've met so many close friends through this community (mostly through this website). I don't really know how to articulate this, but this truly is an amazing and unique community in so many ways, and the bonds that we form here are incredibly tight. I would (and often do) trust my life to just about any member of this community. I can also truly relax and be myself around explorers.
"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go..." -Dr. Suess
When I first joined I had a big interest in the meetups that happened and I wanted to meet as many explorers on here as I could.
So yeah, the meetups, definitely my favorite thing. Crammed into a house with 20+ strangers yet they're all so friendly.
I feel like it taps deep down into our tribal instincts to be in a group with that many people and roaming around with them. I'm not the best with social skills so I don't talk to everyone but I still enjoy the company.
Well, we had a community in DFW at one time, a great bunch of guys. 90% of them were younger than me so it made me feel younger just trying to keep up with them.
Everyone has moved off in different directions now, I miss them all.
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