Tips to Make Your Spots Last Longer

[Chadmin]

Location Longevity is the practice of exploring in a way that allows us to keep exploring the same location well into the future; allowing new explorers joining our community to share the same experiences that we did when we first did the spot. Isn't it cool to experience a spot decay slowly and bow to nature than at the hands of vandals, taggers, and thieves? If you're interested in helping spots last, some of the tips below will help you do that.

Keep the Spot Secret!
This might seem like a "no shit" kind of tip, but its true. Sharing spots, even with people you trust, often will lead to things getting fucked up. Spots in the urbex space are currency in a sense, and the more that a spot is spread around and "inflated", the more worthless your map of spots becomes. In the Pre-Covid days, it wasn't unusual for spots with power to last years; nowadays you might notice that you're lucky if pristine spots like that last a week.

To prevent your spots from getting destroyed, you only have to do a few things:

Don't share your spots with people you don't know or trust - Just because someone says they're an explorer doesn't mean they follow the same rules and ethics you do. Some people are only in this hobby for themselves, shocker, I know. People might seem cool online, but they are likely a completely different kind of person away from their phone/keyboard. Meet people several times before you give them spots sacred to you.

Be selective with who you bring exploring or talk about exploring with - In my 10 years of exploring, I've realized that a lot of leaks come from within. A community cannot exist if no one can trust each other, so vet your friends carefully. There are exploring-adjacent people out there who are cool, know how to keep their mouth shut, and won't post everything to social media; but those people are very much a 1 in 10 people kind of statistic. Most people you'll meet in this hobby are jackasses, manipulators, and douche-canoes.

Use codenames when talking about spots online - This gives you a great way to discuss spots in the open without people being able to easily figure out what/where something is. Codesnames also add a layer of fun to exploring; if you find a new spot, you get to name it whatever you want!

Leave No Trace - and Try To Leave It Better
Urban exploring is all about taking only photos and leaving only footprints. You should get your adrenaline rush from getting away from it, rather than taunting the cops, security, and property owners. Leaving evidence that there was an intruder doesn't help with making a spot last, and its often not sustainable long term. You might get away with throwing a firework at a security guard, but the next person who unfortunately gets pinned down there by a vengeful property owner or guard might get the book thrown at them.

Leaving no trace keeps spots looking just as good when you first saw them and it also helps keeps entry points safe from sealing. No one wants to have to do a 3 story sketchy climb to get in just because someone blew off a fire extinguisher. Nothing motivates a building owner more to seal their building than a giant graffiti tag or expensive property going missing.

We also want to avoid moving objects, avoid taking souvenirs (especially one off objects or artifacts), avoid leaving tags where not appropriate, and clean up after ourselves. Leaving beer cans, cigarette/weed butts, and other trash is just rude. If the spot is clean, we should do our best to try and not contribute to a spot becoming a dump.

Leave the cave man techniques at home
In exploring, you'll realize that sometimes you might need a little help from Mr. Screwdriver, Mrs. Catspaw, or Dr. Lockpicks to get into a spot. There nothing wrong with using tools to gain access to a spot, where we draw the line however is causing irreversible damage to property whether indirectly or physically. If it can't be secured back the way you found it, its not a good idea. Sometimes is best to wait until the conditions are more ideal to crack a spot!

Brutally forcing entry isn't sexy; absolutely no spot is worth damaging your rep and the spot itself to see it. Its childish, selfish, and short-sighted.

I've been following around cloutbexers for awhile and these are doors damaged by real so-called "explorers":

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Using prybars and bolt cutters in the old days wasn't a big deal when there was a single person doing that once every 6 months at a spot. Nowadays, this is happening everyday of the week all over the city at every spot and its noticeably pissing off property owners, managers, and security. Exploring is becoming harder because of reckless activity like this; its all short-term solutions for a one off dopemine hit. We should try to be creative and find a way to access things in more subtle ways.

Breaking windows is also a dick thing to do; so don't be that guy. Read about Overt, Covert, and Surreptitious entry here.

Be Stealthy - For You and the Spot
Always exercise caution while infiltrating; whether you're just talking or walking around. Stomping the yard is always going to give away your position and announce to everyone that theres people around. If you've ever been in marching band, you might remember rolling your steps and using your leg muscles as suspension for your upper weight. Step rolling can be used in exploring too. If my 280lb ass can make running down stairs sound like tip-toeing, you can do it too!

Being loud, laughing and talking will also give away your position and will make it harder to pay attention to your surroundings. You can't hear radio chatter, key rings, and boots walking around if your general vicinity is full of white noise masking outside ones.

We also want to make sure we are not increasing foot traffic to a spot. If you're at a new spot everyday for a week, you're more likely to run into someone who cares than if you only went once-a-week or even once-a-month. Take into account other people you've shared the spot with too; this is often the thing that causes the spot to get sealed up. You might be going once-a-week, but Billy is going every Tuesday and Wednesday, and Shelly is going almost everyday when shes not working. Increased traffic to spots always has a negative effect on them. Its not just property owners too, its also scrappers and unhoused folks too. If you're careless about whos watching you enter an abandoned building, you might return a week later to find things more of a mess than last time, or even sealed.

When entering or exiting a spot, also take care to make sure you aren't lingering. Get in and get out. There have been many times where we've been spotted getting into a bando because we lingered and next time we visited, theres a guy living inside or scrappers have hit the spot hard.

(Not) Sharing is Caring
We get it, social media is cool, hip and fun. Its expressive. But a lot of people seem to overlook the effect it has on urbex. We did a survey of our members recently and a majority agreed that social media mostly hurts our hobby. A lot of explorers would prefer you avoid posting anything but if you absolutely have to be active online, read our social media posting tips here.

Know When Not to Go
If you've ever heard the phrase, "patience is a virtue", you might be surprised to hear that it applies to urbex as well. Sometimes that bridge, tunnel, or building is just not in ideal conditions and its better to wait for the stars to align. Security might be tight today, but that could all change tomorrow. Keep up to date on things happening in your city, and come up with a real plan. 'Smash-and-grab' exploring is not what we do here; as we mentioned earlier, its short-term thinking. Its not fun to crowbar into a building, and quickly speed run the whole place in under 60 seconds and take off before the cops get there.

A good example I can give is a certain tunnel was always swarming with security. It was on my bucket list for years but it had been out of reach from explorers for a decade at least. You couldn't even get close to it without someone breathing down your neck asking what you were doing. Yea I could've smashed and cut my way in, got my shots and ran away before the cops could get there, but whats the fun in that? After awhile, the business moved out of the building above and the security disappeared. This window allowed us to find a sneaky bypass inside without using tools at all and it let us pour over every detail for hours. I got to experience my dream without compromising the spot or my criminal record.

If you care about exploring long term, into your adulthood, and into retirement: you might be wise to learn that patience is indeed a virtue.