vadding

/vading/ , n. [from VAD, a permutation of ADV (i.e., ADVENT ), used to avoid
a particular admin 's continual search-and-destroy sweeps for the game] A
leisure-time activity of certain hackers involving the covert exploration of
the secret parts of large buildings basements, roofs, freight elevators,
maintenance crawlways, steam tunnels, and the like. A few go so far as to
learn locksmithing in order to synthesize vadding keys. The verb is to vad
(compare phreaking ; see also hack , sense 9). This term dates from the late
1970s, before which such activity was simply called hacking ; the older
usage is still prevalent at MIT. The most extreme and dangerous form of
vadding is elevator rodeo , a.k.a. elevator surfing , a sport played by
wrasslin' down a thousand-pound elevator car with a 3-foot piece of string,
and then exploiting this mastery in various stimulating ways (such as
elevator hopping, shaft exploration, rat-racing, and the ever-popular drop
experiments).

