Elevator surfing is an activity involving moving around on top of elevator

Elevator

An elevator is a type of vertical transport equipment that efficiently moves people or goods between floors of a building, vessel or other structures...

s, or jumping between moving elevators where possible.

Elevator surfing is illegal in most locations. Several people have died elevator surfing. Surfers can be crushed between the elevator and the top, sides, or bottom of the shaft, be struck by the counterweight

Counterweight

A counterweight is an equivalent counterbalancing weight that balances a load.-Uses:A counterweight is often used in traction lifts , cranes and funfair rides...

, or simply slip or be knocked off and fall to their deaths.

Elevator surfing typically occurs in skyscrapers or on college

College

A college is an educational institution or a constituent part of an educational institution. Usage varies in English-speaking nations...

 campus

Campus

A campus is traditionally the land on which a college or university and related institutional buildings are situated. Usually a campus includes libraries, lecture halls, residence halls and park-like settings...

es, especially those with tall buildings. Most large buildings have groups of elevators close together, which are most commonly used.

To begin, participants will usually go into such a building early in the morning, before too many people arrive to use the elevators. Once in an elevator, they hold the elevator between floors and open the safety hatch. They then climb on top, release the emergency switch, and pull the last person out.

Another method of entry involves opening the exterior doors on the floor above the elevator, and jumping on from there. Doors are either forced or opened with an elevator key. While easier to execute, this is uncommon unless no others are nearby. Such an entry typically occurs while the building is closed. This typically means there isn't much movement with the elevators, which lowers the risk and involvement. Accomplices will sometimes press buttons on the inside of the elevators to provide the movement. Movement can also be provided by means of service controls located on top of the elevator car.

Recent history

Also called, "Vator Surfing," in recent years practises of both elevator surfing, and its close relative train surfing

Train surfing

Train surfing is riding or climbing on the outside of a moving train. This activity is illegal in many countries and is prohibited by administrative law.-History:...

, have become more widespread. In Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

, late 2005, this fact was reiterated as the death of an eighteen year old man was highly documented in the Toronto Star

Toronto Star

The Toronto Star is Canada's highest-circulation newspaper, based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its print edition is distributed almost entirely within the province of Ontario...

 and The Globe and Mail

The Globe and Mail

The Globe and Mail is a nationally distributed Canadian newspaper, based in Toronto and printed in six cities across the country. With a weekly readership of approximately 1 million, it is Canada's largest-circulation national newspaper and second-largest daily newspaper after the Toronto Star...

 newspapers.

The person in question, Canadian-born Louis Tornero Moffit was a political activist and renowned adrenaline junkie. In apparent defiance of the development of Toronto's Four Seasons Centre

Four Seasons Centre

The Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts is a 2,071-seat theatre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada which had its grand opening Wednesday, June 14, 2006. The first actual performance however, commenced in September 2006 with the first Canadian production of Richard Wagner's Der Ring Des Nibelungen...

 (a state of the art theatre complex) Louis had intended along with unknown accomplices to disrupt the completion of the theatre through undertaking a BASE jump within the five-tiered auditorium, seating over two thousand. They had intended to record the jump on hand-held video recorders and post the footage on the internet. However this would never come to be, due to the seizure of the video footage by the Toronto Police Service

Toronto Police Service

The Toronto Police Service , formerly the Metropolitan Toronto Police, is the police service for the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the largest municipal police service in Canada and second largest police force in Canada after the Royal Canadian Mounted Police...

 following the death of one of those involved.

According to a report released by the TPS, Louis Tornero Moffit had attempted to "surf" on the roof of an elevator as a further stunt when his parachute

Parachute

A parachute is a device used to slow the motion of an object through an atmosphere by creating drag, or in the case of ram-air parachutes, aerodynamic lift. Parachutes are usually made out of light, strong cloth, originally silk, now most commonly nylon...

 malfunctioned and deployed within the shaft. His accomplices operating the controls from within the elevator are rumoured to have then abandoned their mission, and their friend. Emergency services had been notified early in the morning following several witness reports of masked individuals leaving the cordoned off construction site. Louis was pronounced dead on the scene with cause of death being noted as: "strangulation and massive trauma to the head and abdomen due to his harness and parachute becoming entangled with the machinery of the ascending elevator".

Completion of the Four Seasons Centre

Four Seasons Centre

The Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts is a 2,071-seat theatre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada which had its grand opening Wednesday, June 14, 2006. The first actual performance however, commenced in September 2006 with the first Canadian production of Richard Wagner's Der Ring Des Nibelungen...

went ahead as planned, with the grand opening taking place on the eve of June 14, 2006.