Couch Surfing, The Hang Loose Way to Travel
Written by Erin Unger
Trent Collins has surfed in Finland, Estonia, Brazil and England — Africa, Greece and Spain, too. And he does it all without a board. Collins is a Couch Surfer.
“I first heard about CS (Couch Surfing) while stuck in a hotel in Finland 150 kilometers north of the Arctic Circle,” wrote Collins, a couchsurfing.com volunteer, in an e-mail. “It seemed like the perfect escape from being stuck with nothing but an empty bar or a tiny TV in the corner of the room. I'd get to see what was going on in the place I was. So I signed up as soon as I got back to civilization, and after I got to know it, I started to get more involved in the running of things and helping out around the site.”
The Web site, couchsurfing.com, acts similarly to a social networking site, like Facebook or Myspace. You become a member, create a profile and before traveling you can search for open couches at your destination. Other couchsurfers can vouch for your good nature and trustworthiness, and you can participate in discussions on the site’s forums or write a testimonial.
“Safety was the number one concern,” said Daniel Hoffer, one of the founders of CouchSurfing.
Questions from surfers about safety are the most commonly asked questions, according to the site’s FAQ page.
“We share some of the same risks that a dating site has, that we introduce people to one another,” he said.
Though you don’t need to be verified (after paying a fee, your address and name are checked and then you are updated to level three verification status) or vouched for (when members friend you and vouch for you) to use the site, it can be helpful.
"I have a friend who is traveling across Europe on a tight budget, so he created a profile. However he had no referrals to verify his trustworthiness, and no one replied back to his messages. His reply rate skyrocketed after I vouched for him. So it seems a good word from a couch surfer about a couch surfer is gold, which makes for a very unique global trust circle. “We have a very safe and trusting community,” Hoffer said.
“I've never had any bad experiences, just a silly one that I laugh at,” said Collins. “My housemates accidentally locked a couch surfer in the apartment that was on the first floor. She had to break out of the house to catch her plane and used my bedclothes as a landing pad when she'd had to jump for it. It was like something out of a bad comedy movie.”
It seems global enlightenment can come not only from intense meditation and years of spiritual wanderings, but also from sleeping on strangers’ couches in far-flung places.
CouchSurfing International, Inc. “seeks to internationally network people and places, create educational exchanges, raise collective consciousness, spread tolerance, and facilitate cultural understanding,” according to its mission statement.
Collective consciousness aside, couch surfing is also about stretching yourself as an individual, no matter how long the sofa is, and really experiencing a place and a culture different from your own.
Collins couch surfed in Africa and said that though he didn’t particularly enjoy the time he spent there, he did value the experience because it taught him about himself and the world.
“When you see how generous some people are then it forces you to assess yourself,” he said. “This project allows you to see in others things that you would like to be.”
Couchsurfing.com was born when one of the founders, Casey Fenton, was traveling to Iceland, but realized there was a slight hitch in his plans. He had no place to stay. So, he e-mailed 1,500 Icelandic students in Reykjavik asking them if he could crash at their places, and pretty soon he was touring Iceland with the locals. That idea, and that experience, culminated in couchsurfing.com, which was established in January of 2004.
By February it was a Yahoo pick of the day, and now there are more than 2 million couch surfers worldwide. It is a non-profit and supported only with donations and the fees from the level-three verification process. The site has a volunteer staff of 1000 surfers who act as welcome wagons and send personalized messages to new members. Hoffer said that he still has a full-time job, and that Couchsurfing.com has not yet taken over his life.
His favorite couch surfing experience was a few years ago in Sicily, where he got the opportunity to go on an all-night cruise with his girlfriend. They were able to have a fantastic experience and develop relationships that have lasted through the years.
“It just kind of captured what was possible as a result of the site,” he said.
Rollins has also had unforgettable experiences, including dressing up for Carnaval in Brazil and breaking out his guitar for a late-night sing-along with people riding the bus in London. He has made friends halfway around the world, and keeps in touch.
“You meet people from such different backgrounds that it allows you to assess your own ideas and ideals and see if they are up to scratch with who you'd like to be.” He said. Basically CS [Couch Surfing] has allowed me to change myself.”
Subscribe to this comment's feed