Translator: Khrystyna Romashko Reviewer: Hanna Leliv
(Applause)
I will tell you about illegal city explorers,
and a little bit about my extreme hobby.
I divide these explorers into two categories.
Diggers, interested in the underground, everything that is underneath:
drain systems, subway, caves, mines,
wherever you can go down, but it is not quite legal.
Roofers - those are people trying to get the highest possible.
But I will speak about them later.
So, an example of a digger.
This is the Kyiv subway.
People go underground for different purposes.
The main purpose is to explore what is happening underneath.
Diggers explore history,
explore the position of different objects, like bunkers.
But I will tell you about the subway, as I was there 2 days ago.
In the beginning subway was constructed as a bomb shelter.
And only later, over the years, it became public transport.
Diggers started to get inside a while ago.
As years went by, photo and video cameras appeared,
and the public learned what they were doing.
They started to share photos and video reports.
Photography is the main motivation for some diggers.
They take pictures for someone. But usually it is a hobby.
For the most experienced diggers, it's about exploration.
One can say, they even travel through our subway tunnels,
they go to different cities and countries.
This is my friend in the Kyiv subway.
He was there dozens, hundreds of times,
and probably knows it better than any subway employee.
I will show you some photos.
What you see in the pics is mostly safe, as these people know what they are doing,
where the current is, which rails are off line,
where you can feel, let's say, at ease.
The principal enemy of a digger are technicians, subway employees.
You can sometimes meet them in the pits.
If you know how to deal with them, you can escape from them.
For example, Dima met them many times, but has never been caught.
You could say he's uncatchable.
When going down a tin can.
the tin can is a tinned pit, or rather a stretch of a tunnel,
the trains used to run there, and then another line was built.
And it's an unused 1.5 km stretch.
Just the rails, and there is nobody there.
The technician has only one door. He can enter it if he sees a digger.
The digger has at least four exits, so it is hard enough to catch him.
Diggers don't vandalize, they don't steal, they don't draw graffiti on the trains.
Those are different people.
As a rule, they are less experienced and know less.
This is a digger-photographer. Sometimes he goes down to take pictures.
The majority of diggers, there are not so many of them,
do it entirely for themselves.
For them, it's a lifestyle, they are just there.
In the most cases, it is not filmed.
I mostly go high up when I explore, mostly on rooftops.
And I didn't understand the appeal of going underground:
there is dirt... I didn't get it.
But when I finally did go there, I understood why they do it.
There is a special flavour in the subway and an inexpressible sound.
It's like the subway is alive. You have to be there to understand.
We can at least enjoy some photos.
I will show you some more pics from the subway.
Recently, there was an accident: one man got in trouble underground,
and local emergency asked diggers for help,
because the diggers' maps are more up to date.
The reason why people do this is their enthusiasm
to go underground, take the risk and explore the city.
But they have more modern maps than the emergency services.
Emergency employees have tiny salaries, they are not sponsored by anybody,
so they tend to neglect their duties.
So, when you get in trouble underground,
you will be saved by diggers, not by the emergency service.
Now I will show you more pictures of drain systems.
I will tell you about roofers.
Roofers are people who climb up to rooftops with various goals
Roofers are not all the same.
Some of them do this for the pictures.
At the beginning it is romantic,
it is an adventure, to climb up to the roof.
People have always been attracted by the heights.
Later, photos started appearing.
And this has turned into something commercial.
For some people it is a job, for others, a way to become popular, famous.
But there are also a lot of roofers who go up just for fun.
That's fair enough, I think.
The buildings they climb are, first of all, residential houses.
Also various state buildings, towers and cell towers.
everything that is above the ground, as tall as possible.
They all have different goals, starting from photography.
There is a sense of competition between roofers.
Say there is some building in the city center,
it is difficult to climb it because it is secured.
There are many ways
to go down the subway, as well as to climb to the roof.
To be the first to climb the roof is considered prestigious.
You climbed, posted, and announced: "Well, I am the first here."
And after you, people call your followers “wheezers”.
These are my friends.
They climbed this tall tower in Kyiv. Well, it is not very high.
Problems with the law.
In fact, all over the world in most countries roofs are accessible,
they are open, anybody can climb the roof.
Some have locks:
some private buildings have security.
But in general, in most countries
it is considered that people behave a bit differently up there,
and they will not damage anything up there,
they will just climb, spend some time there and leave.
In our country most rooftops are closed, but there are many ways to access them.
For example, a construction site.
In fact, anyone can go in there.
The roofer has one big enemy, the security guard.
These guards work for private security companies.
Basically, their job is to catch roofers and not allow them to be there.
I'm pretty sure that's their only job.
To get on top an interesting building,
you have to overcome many obstacles.
One of them could be a door keeper.
You can tell them some fairy tale
that your wife is giving birth, you don't have the keys,
you're supposed to attend a birthday party and you forgot the apartment number.
Once you've gotten past the keeper, there are two options:
the roof is unlocked, you just climb and do whatever you want,
Hopefully, you just look around or take pictures.
On many roofs, after you got passed the security guard, the door keeper, etc.
you run into obstacles, such as locks.
And at this point the roofers split into 2 categories:
Some prefer to leave that shady place,
and go and find another place;
others don't stop.
They improvise.
Basically, there are special tools,
but using your brain, you can open almost everything.
I have already seen people climb on roofs of houses that were barely secured –-
this is Moscow, by the way --
with a kind door keeper or no door keeper at all,
And if they behave peacefully, the roof remains accessible for a long time.
If they cause trouble,
the door keeper may show up, after a while, to do his or her rounds.
They usually do their rounds once every hour.
If the trouble continues, they call the security guards,
the roofers run away, and the roof gets locked.
At some of our most favorite places
you would come and suddenly see four locks on the door.
Next day you come, the locks are not there anymore,
half of the door pried out with some crow bar,
and one more day later there will be a new door and more locks.
But one week later, it will be pried out again.
It's an unending war.
This is Kyiv. Photos. This is the same digger.
Sometimes he climbs with his friend, sometimes with me,
on the roofs, for aesthetic pleasure.
He doesn't know how to take photos or do anything else.
All he knows is how to go underground or to climb on roofs. (Laughter)
But, in fact, he is a very interesting person.
When I looked at his photos, I thought he was strange,
I mean, he doesn't have a job, he doesn't do anything, this is his life.
He goes underground, and there, he is a real god. (Laughter)
We were riding from one station to another,
and to make it clear, this is one station, this is the second one,
the trains run there every six minutes.
During this interval you need to run with flashlights
over the rails and find some place where you can hide.
I don't know how he finds them, but we keep running,
we hide, the trains pass by, and we run further.
Thus, you need to pass through two kilometers of obstacles.
Those are roofers too. This is a TV tower.
Many places are considered to have a military or a strategic role.
But normally you learn this only when you are already caught
by the Security of Internal Affairs, or the police,
I don't know, it depends.
Well, once we saw a building, there was barely any security.
When we climbed up, a car with troops came.
We were almost surrounded.
When we went down, we surrendered to the authorities.
They explained to us,
that these are grounds of the missile plant.
They build missiles, twice my size, for planes.
And, I don't know, we could have stolen a missile,
(Laughter)
This is beautiful scenery of Kyiv, poorly edited, though.
That happens sometimes.
I had such encounters often enough, but they usually ended peacefully,
as I never broke anything,
never broke any locks, nothing like that.
And I only got all sorts of warnings, and other civil penalties.
This is in Moscow.
This is Moscow, too.
Not many of us do it this way.
Well, actually we pretty much all do it.
Roofers are not alcoholics, as some people may think.
I also thought so,
because many roofers were drinking a lot in my presence and on the top.
Now some of them have jobs,
many of them made some profit out of it.
Some sell photos, some travel,
starting in Russia or Ukraine, then going abroad.
Many of them have websites or blogs.
And they really aren't "drunks."
Some of them even do sports.
They are unusual and interesting people.
Now, let me tell you what I do.
It's not just related to roofers or diggers.
I have interests everywhere.
I'm interested in understanding how the city I live in is organized,
that's why I went under the ground, and climbed the roofs.
But, besides that I do, I don't know, call it extreme sports.
This is sport for me,
but in general it cannot be called sports,
as there is a high risk.
This is Moscow, this winter.
This is the sort of thing you would see in photos and videos online.
This, you can call 'balancing'.
Or something like that, not sure know what to call it.
Here, we climbed the Moscow bridge.
Many roofers do that, because the doors on the ground are bolted.
I even didn't know, that there are stairs inside.
When the emergency services came for the eighth time,
it was in winter, and I learned that the stairs existed.
I went down by stairs for the first time. What an odd feeling. (Laughter)
Another time I felt this way was when I climbed
a 17-story tall building on its exterior, through the balconies.
On the 15th floor, on my way down, they opened a window and said,
"Come inside, walk through."
So, though I got to the flat without using the door, I left going right through it.
This is in Kyiv.
These are photos from videos you can watch online.
I will show you some of them.
This is Kyiv, too.
This is Moscow.
I climbed there with local roofers, they were taking pictures.
And at the same time, I was doing what was interesting to me.
This is hotel "Bratislava."
When I climbed the gas tube to the top, the guards were already there. (Laughter)
There was one at the beginning, and then they multiplied by 15.
They took me down to the 4th floor, and started to threaten me.
They called for the police, but in fact, I didn't destroy anything,
I could have been checking the gas tube.
The building was being renovated, there was nobody inside.
I might have been helping the community.
This is Moscow. The building is called "Eurasia."
I don't know exactly how tall it is.
Something between 280 and 320 meters.
It is much better to contemplate live than on the photos.
This is Moscow, too.
This is Kyiv.
May we have the video?
This is a star, a communist-style high building.
The first video, when I climbed "Bratislava,"
everything ended up good.
The last time or the one before last,
I don't remember, I was taken away.
And at the beginning I was told,
that it was a very serious place, that I would be in big trouble.
And then one man came, a very serious one.
He took a picture with me, and that was it.
(Laughter)
He said he wanted to show his son a photo with Spiderman.
And everything was fine.
(Laughter)
(Applause)
Thank you.
This building had 14 or 15 floors.
I climbed it in 3 minutes or so.
I don't remember.
There was some balancing.
Then I went down.
People ask me, "How do you go down?"
The same way I went up.
Now you will see the next video.
I should have warned you not to do it at home.
It is very dangerous.
It really is.
When I was climbing that house, the tiles were crunching under my feet.
You can't really test it before, see how the tube is attached.
There are a lot of guards downstairs.
Here, when I started to climb, a guard came out right away
and started to tell me, "Go down,"
but I could barely hear him.
I had my headphones on.
I saw him, but I didn't hear what he was saying.
This is "Bratislava," a hotel.
Here too, everything was good.
That was almost a year ago.
Well, this is boring. Please play the next video.
These are elements of climbing.
It is also called city-climbing.
Because these are city alpinists, so to speak.
But without belays.
And here, some balancing.
We climbed that roof with roofers, it's 106 meters high.
I don't know how to call it: balancing acts maybe.
I was walking on that tube.
That wasn't a good idea,
because it was covered with some paint,
well, it was very slippery, and the wind was strong.
We walked there for 40 minutes, and then we went down.
(Laughter)
Here, the guards are asleep, it's like they weren't there. (Laughter)
You can go inside, and do whatever you want.
(Audience) Do you have insurance?
(Laughter)
Me? No.
By the way, I think it is possible.
You can invest your money in me.
It may be very profitable, I guess.
(Laughter)
(Applause)
I will say it one more time, don't do these things.
Why do I do this?
First of all, I practiced it for a long time,
and I have the necessary experience.
The danger is often in a different place from where you expect it to be.
In fact, it is often hidden.
And regardless of how long you practice --
you can see is my nose here. That's a mistake,
you're not supposed to see it --
it is better not to do this.
I mean, I know how to do it.
I am not a talented superman, or anything like that.
But, indeed, there is a huge risk.
I am trying to dissuade many people from doing it.
Online, schoolboys ask me to teach them.
How can you teach a person to take risk, I don't know.
You might have to learn not to fear. But still I don't know how to do it.
I'm just not afraid to do this. I'm relaxed enough, when it all happens.
Maybe that's why everything is fine.
And that's it. Time's up.
Thank you. (Applause)