MAKING THE JUMP

Laurent - Bench Dance

2012-12-05T02:33:00.000-05:00

This video is a great example of parkour's application in the everyday environment. I have a particular affinity for it because this "workout" was part of my "trial-by-fire introduction to parkour/ADD" with Laurent when I first went to Evry in 2009. It was during this session that the hours of quadrepedie we had done earlier that morning finally started to make sense could see how unique and special this new sport/lifestyle was...

Parkour & Politics

2012-10-29T23:53:00.002-04:00

One more reason that people should be training parkour... The Aussies have been advocating the upcoming "zombie apocalypse" as a reason to train parkour for years and apparently the rest of the world is finally catching on.

Parkour Heaven???

2012-10-10T00:05:00.000-04:00

There has been a lot of attention in the parkour world recently focused on the opening of the new parkour training facility that has recently been completed in Denmark. As is typical of the training environments designed by Street Movement, the BGI facility, which has both indoor AND outdoor areas, a number of large foam pits, trampolines, an open gymnastics/tricking space, tons of scaffolding, and all manner of concrete shapes, seems to be by far the best parkour facility around. For a while the only glimpses of this amazing facility available to those outside of Denmark was this teaser video:

However, over the last few weeks the facility has seen an official opening and a number of events have already been hosted there including the "Generation Parkour" event held at the end of September. Featuring presentations by Mikkel Rugaard, Mikkel Thisen, Martin Kallesøe, Stephane Vigroux, Laurent Piemontesi, Dan Edwardes, Julie Angel, and Eugene Minogue, the conference also included a number of foreign visitors and "parkour academics".

Image courtesy of Street Movement.

Since its opening, the facility has been featured in a number of other videos. Including a feature on a Danish television story (it's in Danish but the shots show a lot), and a show-reel by the one-man-invasion himself, Alex Pownall.

Streetmovement in Paris: The Video

2012-09-25T12:38:00.001-04:00

Thought that this merited a post unto itself. Props to Ville for putting it together!

Streetmovement in Paris

2012-09-21T23:28:00.001-04:00

One of the highlights of the spring semester at Gerlev is the trip that each speciality takes at the end of May. While the dancers go to NYC, and the cross-fitters go to LA, the students in the parkour speciality go to the birthplace of the sport, Paris. More specifically, Evry and Lisses. This is a tradition that is partially inspired by the 2007 trip to Evry that Martin and Mikkel took along with some of other founders of Streetmovement. During this trip they had the opportunity to meet and train with a number of the Yamakasi, especially Laurent, and the training and ideas that they were exposed to during their visit dramatically changed their entire approach to the sport and many of the ideas that they had about their training. The documentary below explains a lot about the Danish roots in parkour as well as their philosophy today.

City Surfers [ENG version] from Street Movement on Vimeo.

Martin and Mikkel have been taking groups of Gerlev students to Paris since 2009, and the trip is considered to be one of the highlights of the semester for many students. Since I’ve spent a fair amount of time in that particular part of the world over the past few years the trip was somewhat of a surreal experience for me, especially since in the past I'd been traveling solo, stayed with various friends throughout the area, and immersed myself in the French language and culture. This time I was part of the “foreign legion” of the invading army of Danes (feel free to conjure up images of Vikings and longboats) so it was a totally different experience- and a lot of fun.

Waiting to catch the bus to the airport in Denmark. Photo courtesy of Andreas Lorentzen.

Due to the size of the group (23 students, 4 instructors, and 3-tagalongs) and the fact that we had a budget that was significantly more generous than my typical "globetrotting parkour bum" amount, we stayed at the Hotel Ibis (a 3-minute walk from the Dame du Lac). This seemed like the lap of luxury compared to most of the hostels that I've stayed in over the last two years, especially since it included an unlimited buffet breakfast that we decimated each morning. Given my familiarity with Paris/Evry/Lisses and my linguistic expertise, I also became the unofficial tour guide and translator of the trip, which turned out to be a fun way of introducing the Danes to the finer elements of French culture.

Our home for the week in Evry. Photo courtesy of Andreas Lorentzen.

The adventure itself started the moment we left campus because, as anyone that has traveled with traceurs knows, things get interesting the moment you get more than 3 of them together, especially when they are bored/waiting while confined in small spaces like airports, planes, or trains.

Ville, one of the official photographers for the trip. Photo courtesy of Andreas Lorentzen.

Unlike some of the other Gerlev speciality trips, almost our entire trip was spent training, eating, sleeping, or traveling to training spots. After flying into Paris, taking the RER to Evry, and dropping off our bags at the hotel we headed out for the first "light" training session by the lake. Most traceurs will recognize the lake as the one that the Dame du Lac is named for, but there is also a set of stairs and railings that the Yamak have been using for years on the other side of the lake. While the training was really just to wake up our bodies after spending the day sitting on planes and trains, it also managed to get everyone pretty excited about being in the "Mecca" of parkour. For me it also felt really good to be training back in France again, in the settings where I had first been introduced to parkour training 3 years before by Laurent. The group hadn't been by the lake for more than a few minutes before we ran into Ahmed, who I had met during my first visit to Evry, and who has met and trained with Martin and Mikkel regularly since they started bringing the classes here. Ahmed is one of the best examples of the long-term benefits of parkour training that I have met; he started many years ago after encountering Laurent and the Yamak in one of their early training sessions and he is now over 60 years old.

A chance encounter with Ahmed reminded me of how long it has been since my introduction to parkour. Photo courtesy of Andreas Lorentzen.

After the training we headed to the nearby shopping mall to grab snack material for the week and to have dinner at Flunch. Having come from Gerlev, most of our meals in France were slightly disappointing, although that was primarily due to the fact that our budget, although better than what I was used to, didn’t really allow for anything special and Evry isn't exactly known for its fabulous culinary offerings. Flunch, while not an example of fine French cuisine, did offer an interesting perspective on the “typical French meal”, and more importantly, it offered large amounts of food that we could afford.

Andreas was pretty excited about Flunch. Photo by Ville Leppænen.

The next day we met Laurent at "la Terrasse" behind the shopping center for a morning training session. The last time I had trained in this spot was for the ADD Experience in 2010 so coming back with 2 years of experience under my belt was a good feeling and I felt like I was looking at it with fresh eyes. Laurent was accompanied by Francois, one of the "next generation" who is now teaching at the Yamakasi's ADD Academy and is one of the faces of the future of Majestic Force/ADD Academy. After spending the morning exploring the spot we broke for a quick lunch and then met up at the "clos du cathedral" for the second training session of the day in one of Laurent's favorite spots.

As Lisses and Evry are considered to be the "birthplace" of parkour, one can be almost guaranteed that if you spend any length of time in them you are bound to run into other traceurs, usually from any number of foreign countries. During the session, Yann dropped by to train, say hi, and share some wisdom with the Danish students.

While it is impossible to recap all of the events from the week in one article I'll give some of the highlights from the week:

Parkour Walking Tour

Since parkour has been banned by the City of Lisses, and Laurent had specifically asked us not to train there to avoid hindering the efforts and negotiations by the Yamakasi and the ADD Academy to reconcile the sport with the city, Martin and Mikkel decided that it was best to do a “walking tour” of the area so that we could see the spots while also honoring Laurent's request. We managed to hit most of the spots that are well-known around the world from the "old-school" videos, and even managed to see a few that are off the typical “parkour pilgrimage” track. The tour ended at one of the most iconic locations in parkour lore, the Dame du Lac, which, although we didn't have the opportunity to train on, is still pretty impressive..

The Dame du Lac. Photo by Ville Leppænen.

Training at Bercy

We took the RER into central Paris early Saturday morning, and despite spending the entire day there, we didn't participate in any of the typical "tourist in Paris" activities Laurent met us at the Bercy Stadium where he led us through one of the classic Yamak workouts on the stairs and surrounding park. In all of my visits I have never actually been inside the stadium, but the exterior of the building and the surrounding parks are one of the favorite training spots for the Yamak and the location for some of their most grueling workouts (I’ve been lucky enough to participate in a number of them). As per tradition, the session lasted much longer than most people would consider reasonable and by the end of it we were all pretty shattered.

The stairs. Photo courtesy of Andreas Lorentzen.

Arriving at the stadium. Photo courtesy of Andreas Lorentzen.

Martin tackling a large cat leap with Laurent and Mikkel spotting. Photo by Ville Leppænen.

Andreas weighing a jump. Photo by Ville Leppænen.

Josephine practicing vaults on the railings. Photo courtesy of Andreas Lorentzen..

After re-hydrating and grabbing some food we headed into the city to take full advantage of the one-day unlimited travel cards that we had purchased to get to Bercy to see some of the rest of Paris. There were two things in particular that most of the group wanted to visit during the course of the afternoon, neither of which included the Louvre, Eiffel Tour, Sacre Couer, or Notre Dame de Paris. Instead we headed straight for the 2WS (WorldWild Souls) shop where a number of the students took advantage of the opportunity to check out and purchase some of the clothing from the shop started by the Yamakasi.

After hanging out at the store for a bit we headed to the next stop of the tour, Decathlon. While most traceurs know of Decathlon and it’s abundance of cheap shoes and training gear, only a few (16) countries around the world are blessed by having the stores nearby. So for most Danish traceurs, new or veteran, any opportunity to travel to the store is a treat, as evidenced by the mountain of shoes, clothing, and gear that the group purchased. After Decathlon I introduced the group to the delicious crepes and galettes of my favorite creperie near Place Monge, and then headed down to the Seine to chill out for a bit and recover from the day with a case of (French) beers (Note: beer is actually a great recovery drink- minus the alcohol).

Noisy-le-Grande

Another morning we met Laurent and Francois at Noisy-le-Grande and spent the morning training with them at a spot located just outside the train station. Similar to many of the best spots around the world, the spot there is tough to explain and many of the architectural elements leave the visitor with the distinct feeling that the architect was under the influence of something unusual when designing it (or they had a lot of concrete that needed to be used up in the construction of the seemingly random walls, staircases and "art" forms that were all over). After a few hours of training and exploring the spot we had a late lunch and then a few of us headed into the city to explore some spots and to do a brief bit of tourism that we hadn't had an opportunity to do on our previous expedition into the center of Paris.

Warming up. Photo by Martin Kallesøe.

Mikkel leading "follow the leader". Photo by Martin Kallesøe.

Laurent taking one of the groups. Photo by Martin Kallesøe.

Handstand work. Photo by Martin Kallesøe.

To the left is a 3+story drop and a busy street. Photo by Martin Kallesøe .

Peter working on cat passes/kongs. Photo by Martin Kallesøe.

Ida "getting aquainted" with Noisy-le-Grand. Photo by Martin Kallesøe.

Fontainebleau

One of the highlights of the trip for me was the day that we spent at Fontainebleau, a short train ride from Evry. After arriving at the station we jogged 8km to meet Martin and Mikkel (and the car loaded with food and water) at the spot in the forest that would be our homebase for the day. After a brief water break and dropping our bags off we divided into groups for a 2 hour training session in the forest. For those that have never trained in a “natural environment” I would highly recommend it, as it offers a wide variety of obstacles that are hard to find or mimic in an urban setting and there is something very different about jumping and moving on natural surfaces. Fontainebleau itself is like a giant natural parkour playground and the hill where we were was covered in large boulders, trees, and rock faces that offer endless possibilities for movement. The session passed in a flash and we reconvened for a lesisurely lunch before heading out again. After a second training session, we were given free reign to explore the park, and we ended up staying there until the early evening. We decided as a group to walk the 8km back to the station since most of our legs were pretty dead by then and we wanted to be able to break jumps the next day, which would be our last full day in Evry.

The "campsite". Photo courtesy of Andreas Lorentzen.

Fontainebleau. Photo courtesy of Andreas Lorentzen.

Mikkel working some bouldering challenges. Photo courtesy of Andreas Lorentzen.

Training in nature. Photo courtesy of Andreas Lorentzen.

Martin. Photo courtesy of Andreas Lorentzen.

The ever-pertinent question of "who has a bigger log"? Photo courtesy of Andreas Lorentzen.

Relaxing after lunch. Photo courtesy of Andreas Lorentzen.

Rose resting up for the long walk back. Photo courtesy of Andreas Lorentzen.

Cathedrale d'Évry

Our last full day in Evry was mostly spent at the CathedralE where Martin and Mikkel gave us the option to divide up for the last sessions based on energy level, since many people were beginning to fade after the long days of training and limited sleep. Those of us with higher energy levels were given a route to run that incorporated a number of techniques and then told that we should complete said route a certain amount of times (reflective of energy level/ambition). The route itself included a few challenging bits that became much more challenging when combined with increasing lactic acid levels and lower energy reserves.

Claus. Photo by Johan Vang Hansen..

Going for the max. Photo by Johan Vang Hansen.

Things are starting to get tougher. Photo by Johan Vang Hansen.

Photo by Johan Vang Hansen.

Finishing the route. Photo by Johan Vang Hansen.

Feeling "the pump". Photo by Johan Vang Hansen.

The Final Challenge
The last day of the trip we woke up early for one last training sessions before we went home. This was a time-honored tradition that each class of students had done at the end of their trip and included a ~1000m quadrepedie section (without standing up or getting off of all fours) followed by a number lamppost climbs on very tired arms. While it was tough, it wasn’t as bad as many of us had feared and yet again, I think that is more a testament to how high our fitness levels were as opposed to how much the difficulty rating wasn’t as high as we feared.

The start. Photo by Martin Kallesøe.

Halfway there. Photo by Martin Kallesøe.

Right after the finish. Photo by Martin Kallesøe.

Done. Photo by Martin Kallesøe.

Part 2 of the challenge. Photo by Martin Kallesøe.

Tired but done. Photo by Martin Kallesøe.

A tired by happy group after completing the final challenge. Photo by Martin Kallesøe.

Reflections on the trip

For me it was really interesting to see the way that many of the students reacted to the training with the Yamakasi. Many of the students had been introduced to parkour at Gerlev and there were only about 5 or 6 of the group of 23 students that had been training previous to starting at Gerlev. During my travels over the past 2 years I have been repeatedly been surprised to find that while almost all traceurs know the name David Belle, and are usually familiar with Sebastien Foucan, many have never heard of the Yamakasi. While I have a special attachment to them due to my beginnings I am often shocked by how little known they are in many parkour communities around the world. Over the course of the semester at Gerlev, Martin and Mikkel often make references to the Yamak style of training and the history of the sport, so by the time we had gotten to Paris most of the students had a basic background on the guys and could recognize them from YouTube videos or the “Yamakasi” films.

Laurent. Photo courtesy of Andreas Lorentzen.

To say that everyone grew during the trip would be an understatement. The difference that one trip could have in someones training is huge, and as I have effectively been traveling my entire parkour "career" I have found that I often take this for granted. The change was immediately apparent as soon as we all arrived back at Gerlev at the end of the week and found that the structure seemed to have shrunk in many ways in our absence and people seemed to have a new determination and motivation in their training.

Souvenirs from a successful invasion. Photo courtesy of Ville Leppænen.

The video of the trip that Ville put together:

Redefining the way children play

2012-09-11T02:06:00.002-04:00

The article linked to below and the interview included below have both been published recently in the UK. Due to their proximity in topic an release dates, as well as increasing efforts I've witnessed on the behalf of Parkour UK and Parkour Generations, hopefully this is the start of a reexamination of the way that we bring up children in today's society. Parkour seems to be the obvious choice as a medium to teach kids how to explore and navigate their world safely and thoroughly, especially since most children left to their own devices often develop their own sort of parkour-esque movement...

Article: "Experts agree children will not learn about risk if they are wrapped in cotton wool"

Interview: "Natural Childhood"

Food at Gerlev

2012-08-16T13:34:00.000-04:00

While I can’t say that food was the primary reason for my decision to study at Gerlev, those who have met me know that food is a pretty important part of my life (preferably in large quantities). Gerlev is a boarding school, so all of the students and a number of the staff members live and eat on campus, meaning that food plays a very important role in life at the school. The dining hall, called the “Spisesal” in Danish, is one of the focal points of the social life and meal times are regarded as much more than simply an opportunity to fuel up on calories.

Things get a bit congested at the start of mealtimes. Photo courtesy of Rafaela Cappai.

Photo courtesy of Rafaela Cappai.

The fact that students have 5-6 meals/per day is usually pretty shocking to most people when they visit the school. While this may seem excessive at first, it must be kept in mind that this is a sports højskole full of young and very energetic people, and the meals are well balanced and proportioned to the demands on the students bodies (i.e. light but healthy snacks between classes, larger meals for lunch and dinner). Upon my arrival at Gerlev I saw the kitchens as a mysteriously wonderful place that magically produced a stream of delicious dishes out the large doors at the back of the dining hall. Part of this was due to the fact that I didn't speak Danish and had a limited understanding of what actually went on behind said doors, and part of it was due to the fact that I had never heard any of the kitchen staff speak English, and was slightly intimidated by the language barrier by the serious-looking women wielding knives. However, after my first day of kitchen duty I realized that the kitchen staff were very friendly and open and really enjoyed interacting with the students that they prepared food for.

The kitchen. Photo courtesy of Rafaela Cappai.

A conversation with Helle Lunden Jensen, the Køkkenleder (Kitchen Manager), helped to elucidate me on how the Gerlev kitchen works and a lot of the planning and preparation that goes on behind the scenes. The kitchen is staffed by 12 professionally trained workers (this requires at least 3 years of study in Denmark), who have a small rotating group of students that help out with various tasks associated with preparing the dining hall and cleaning up after meals. Additional staff is hired for the summer season for the large influx of visitors to the school for events such as the European Gathering (full article coming soon). In total the kitchen is responsible for serving over 150,000 main courses per year, with countless other snacks, appetizers, and munchies for the variety of meetings and events that occur on campus.

Some shots of the food at the European Gathering. Photos by Fizz Hood.

It's nigh impossible to go hungry at Gerlev. Photos by Fizz Hood.

One of the unique things about the kitchens at Gerlev is that students share part of the responsibility in preparing the meals for the school. Up until a few years ago, students served almost and entire week per semester in the kitchen, spending most of each day helping to cook and prepare the food for the rest of the school. This changed a few years ago due to a variety of reasons, including a desire by the students to spend more time in their classes and the disruption caused by student chefs' practical jokes in the kitchen (a few chili peppers slipped into a pot can result in a lot of very hungry and unhappy people).

Today, each students has 3 days of “kitchen duty” every 2 months, for which they arrive at the kitchen 30 minutes prior to each meal to help prepare the food for serving, serve the food during the meal, and clean up and wash dishes for 30-45 minutes once the meal is over. While the students are not directly responsible for the cooking of the food, most people on kitchen duty take a sort of sense of pride and responsibility in ensuring that the meal runs smoothly (it also gives them a much greater appreciation for how demanding their fellow students can be). I really enjoyed the time that I spent on kitchen duty, and found that it was not only a good place to hang out (there are always leftover cake scraps that need to be eaten), but it gave me a much better understanding of how the whole system works.

The people on "kitchen duty" for the day. Photo courtesy of Rafaela Cappai.

I should note that the food served at Gerlev is very different from the food that I have eaten in dining halls, restaurants, and cafeterias throughout my journeys. To say that it is healthier and more “Danish”, which, although accurate, would not quite convey the difference that I’d like so I’ve included a few pictures of the typical spread. All meals are served in a buffet of well-balanced and visually appetizing food choices that cater to the the wide variety of food tastes and preferences among the student body. Talking to Helle, I found that an astonishing 70% of the food served at the school is organic, with the other 30% are things that are too expensive or hard to find organic versions of (ex: ketchup, salt, spices). Although the school tries to buy as much local produce as possible, feeding the entire school quickly exhausts local producers stores for up to two weeks so often things like berries,tomatoes, fruits, and other produce are purchased seasonally and from a variety of sources around the area. All of the bread served on campus is baked daily in the kitchens to ensure that the kitchen has control over the ingredients being included, and no frozen vegetables (aside from spinach) are served to ensure freshness.

Mmmmm..... Photo courtesy of Rafaela Cappai.

The actual menu is a motley of dishes with influences from all around the globe. Meals can include hamburgers, tacos, Asian-inspired rice dishes, traditional Danish dishes, and all manner of fusions cooked up behind the kitchen doors. According to Helle, the only thing that all of the food has in common is that it tastes good and is part of a well balanced diet, and the themes for the meals are a mix of constant experimentation on the part of the kitchen and feedback from students. While students arriving at Gerlev are immediately struck by the quality of the food, there are a lot of other side effects that students don’t necessarily see, including a decrease in levels of sickness, healthy energy levels, lessening of food allergies, and a general feeling of "healthiness" around the school. Having left Gerlev a few weeks ago I can testament to the symptoms of "Gerlev withdrawal" as my body re-adjusts to not having the luxury of Gerlev food anymore.

It just keeps coming. Photo courtesy of Rafaela Cappai.

Since mealtime is such an integral part of life on campus, there are a number of traditions that exist during the meal times. One of the most interesting for me is the concept of “messages” at the end of each meal. Toward the end of the meal, a bell is rung and anyone that has a message that they would like the other staff and students to hear is welcome to come up and share. These can range from "I lost my phone/earring/pants/shirt/jacket at the party over the weekend, has anyone seen it?", to announcements for sports and activities clubs, to publicizing upcoming events taking place at the school or nearby. While at first this struck me as a bit silly, I realized that not only is it an effective way to distribute information to people that rarely check their email or phones when on campus, but more importantly, it helps to foster the feeling of community that is so important to the school's atmosphere.

Delivering messages to the rest of the dining hall at the end of the meal. Photo courtesy of Rafaela Cappai .

Now that I have been away from the school for almost a month I can attest to the positive effect of the food served at Gerlev. While I have always had a fairly "healthy" diet (even by non-American standards) my body really seemed to embrace the organic and balanced fare at Gerlev, something that has become increasingly apparent upon leaving Denmark to live in London. While many students may take the food and atmosphere for granted when at school, many of my friends from Gerlev have also noticed a "Gerlev withdrawal" that is not entirely due to the absence of the atmosphere, but also due to the body's reaction to the change in diet. Of course it is tough to go from 6 meals a day to 3-4, but personally I believe that much of the difference is due to the quality of the ingredients used and the effort by the kitchens to create well-balanced meals. Needless to say, I'm looking forward to visiting...

A different Games going on in London

2012-08-04T17:44:00.000-04:00

After just watching Great Britain take epic gold medals in the women's heptathlon, the men's 10,000m and the men's long jump I thought it appropriate to highlight some of the other elite athletes that are training in London right now.

Gerlev Performance Team

2012-08-02T12:00:00.000-04:00

I've been fortunate enough to see this show live a few times over the past few months in Denmark, and the more I watch it the more I realize how unique it is. The show itself has evolved a lot since I first saw it in the beginning of March, and the latest version was performed at Gerlev for the European Gathering this past July after the GPT had been on tour for 2 weeks in the Czech Republic.

Note: Video editing by Bruno Peixoto of the performance earlier this spring.

While Gerlev and Streetmovement seem to be ahead of the curve on many things related to parkour, this performance fuses parkour and dance in a way that I have yet to see even glimpses of elsewhere.

Choreographers Mikkel Rugaard, Tine Salling, and Stinna Rosemary Fay Shaktiva. Photo courtesy of the Gerlev Performance Team.

Photo courtesy of the Gerlev Performance Team.

A lazy Sunday at the Gerlev parkour park

2012-07-28T19:40:00.004-04:00

One of the best things about being at Gerlev is that whenever you wanted a place to train, all one had to do was walk outside the building and the structure was waiting. Sunday afternoons were a particularly popular time to go and mess around in the park, and once one person started training, there were inevitably others that came to join the fun.

These are some shots from one of the first "lazy weekend training sessions" at the parkour park back at the start of the semester.

What starts as this.... Photo courtesy of Dennis Madsen.

soon evolves to this... Photo courtesy of Dennis Madsen.

often turns into this... Photo courtesy of Dennis Madsen.

Kaj doing the jump at the top of the structure. Photo courtesy of Julie Runge.

Surveying things from the top. Photo courtesy of Dennis Madsen.

Oliver practicing handstand lifts at the top of the structure. Photo courtesy of Dennis Madsen.

Peter catching some early spring sun. Photo courtesy of Dennis Madsen.

August and Rune getting comfortable with heights. Photo courtesy of Julie Runge.

Working on flags. Photo courtesy of Dennis Madsen.

Andreas practicing lachées. Photo courtesy of Dennis Madsen.

Ville learning the "Danish style". Photo courtesy of Dennis Madsen.

Monkey see, monkey do. Photo courtesy of Julie Runge.

Gerlev = a parkour paradise.... Photo courtesy of Dennis Madsen.

Life at Gerlev: Outside of Classes

2012-07-12T14:22:00.000-04:00

After Classes
One of the primary goals of the "højskole experience" is to give students the opportunity to develop their aptitude in particular physical disciplines, as well as to encourage their personal growth and teach them valuable social skills. Therefore the "social aspect" of Gerlev is pretty important to the way that things work at the school and the time at school spent outside of classes is not seen as simply "free time". Most evenings have one social event planned, sometimes more, and these can include movie showings, dodge-ball games, choir practices, evening parkour jams, football matches (to play or watch), or various other "højskole events".

The task of planning these events is divided up between the students, who are put into one of seven "family groups" when they arrive at school. These families meet weekly and function as small social units, discussing issues at school, eating cake (baked by the students), and planning two separate weeks of social events over the course of the semester. This planning includes leading the morning assemblies, organizing evening activities, and helping out with preparations for weekend events. Each family is also responsible for a number of daily cleaning tasks throughout the school, which are divided up between the members and performed in the free block before lunch.

Enjoying the sunshine with my family group. Photo courtesy of Rafaela Cappai.

Within less than 24 hours of being at Gerlev- already dressed up for something. Photo courtesy of the Gerlev Facebook page.

Ready for the "Zombie Run". Photo courtesy of Louise Burmeister.

Dodge-ball is way more fun when there are 100+ people playing in crazy costumes. Photo courtesy of Lotte Møller.

After-class activities are not limited to the gym or parkour park. Photo courtesy of the Gerlev Facebook page .

Weekends
Weekends at Gerlev come in 3 different shapes and sizes. The first are Home-going Weekends where students are allowed and encouraged to go home to visit friends and family, and foreign students either accompany them or hang out on campus. There have only been a few of these over the past semester and they were very enjoyable, whether they were spent hanging out on campus or visiting new-found friends around Copenhagen.

Before continuing I should mention that Gerlev is a "dry campus" (consumption of alcohol is forbidden on Gerlev grounds) with the exception of Saturday night, when the student-run bar sells beer, wine, cider, and champagne during dinner and for the party. This took me by surprise upon my arrival, especially since Danish youth have one of the highest alcohol consumption rates in Europe, I've come to agree with the administration that it is beneficial for the overall atmosphere at the school. While at first glance it may seem a bit draconian to forbid the students to drink during the week, the result is a much more active and engaging atmosphere during the week, and hangovers can't be used as an excuse for early-morning workouts. The flip-side of this is that Saturday nights can get pretty crazy as the party ends up being one of the main highlights of the week!

Working at the student-run bar during one of the parties. Photo courtesy of Dennis Madsen.

The second type of weekend is the Student Weekend. These are organized by the students, who form a committee to plan and run the events of the weekend, with a staff "adviser" that is on hand to help out if needed and to offer their insights and expertise. Most students stay on campus for these weekends, although they are allowed to go home with a valid reason. The themes for these weekends would best be described as eclectic, some of them from the past semester included:

Grease/50's theme. Photo by Julie Runge.

The "Night & Day" weekend where nighttime and daytime activities were flipped for the entire weekend (7am became 7pm). Photo courtesy of Bea Valand.

The morning (ie 4pm) after... Photo courtesy of Elín Pórsdóttir.

The "Barbershop" at the pre-game session for the "RnB Weekend". Photo taken by Dennis Madsen.

Re-working Rachacuca's look for the party. Photo by Dennis Madsen.

Admiring my handiwork. Photo by Dennis Madsen.

Some of you may have thought that you knew the "real Bruno".... Photo by Dennis Madsen.

Getting into the mindset for the night. Photo by Dennis Madsen.

*Note: Gerlev students love just about any excuse to get dressed up. This can be a bit annoying at times, especially when you don't want to have to dress up as a pirate just to go schmucking about in the rain on a Thursday evening, but it always seems to be worth the effort once things are in full swing (and it makes for some pretty amusing party outfits.)

Welcome to Gerlev.

The third type of weekend at Gerlev is the Højskole Weekend and these are essentially the "no-holds-barred-go-all-in" type of weekend here. Students are expected to stay on campus and to participate in the activities, which usually start after classes on Friday afternoon and continue through Saturday night or Sunday morning. These weekends are led by two teachers who are assigned their "dates" at the beginning of the semester. The teachers take the preparations for these weekends pretty seriously and really get into making them as memorable as possible with the help of a small committee of students that helps out with setting up and running the weekend. The important thing about these weekends is that the activities aren't limited to the party Saturday night, but usually last all weekend and can involve anything from planning a circus act within a family group to participating in a capoeira workshop.

The set-up for the circus performance by students at the first party. Photo courtesy of Julie Runge.

Students performing at the circus event. Photo courtesy of Julie Runge.

Tine and Mikkel (Brazilian weekend organizers) with 2 of the 3 Brazilians on campus. Photo courtesy of Lucas Lima.

Tine teaching "forró" dancing at a weekend workshop. Photo courtesy of Rafaela Cappai.

More of the dance workshop. Photo courtesy of Rafaela Cappai.

3 Brazilians, 2 danish girls, 1 unknown. Photo courtesy of Rafaela Cappai.

A powerhouse set of DJ's at one of the parties (they have day jobs as teachers at Gerlev). Photo courtesy of Rafaela Cappai.

Any school with a headmaster that can successfully pull off this look has to be a bit special. Photo courtesy of Dennis Madsen.

One of the great things that I've noticed about the social life at Gerlev is that the teachers often get as excited for the weekends as the students. Having been on campus for these events in past years, they know the atmosphere that takes over, and they seem to take a really genuine interest in helping students make the best possible event (I also suspect that there is also some good-natured rivalry to make the "best party of the semester"). Many of the teachers have themes for weekends that they are particularly well known for (many have some pretty fantastic outfits for them) but they are always up to try out new ideas and themes to keep things fresh.

Despite being at the top of their respective fields/disciplines, the teachers at Gerlev know how and when to have fun- this is not their regular attire. Photo courtesy of Dennis Madsen.

Sundays
Sundays at Gerlev are special for a number of reasons. The first is that there is Sunday brunch, the one meal of the week that students look forward to more than any other. This is partly because it is a chance to see who will be doing the "walk of shame/victory" into the dining hall and to discuss the previous night's events, but also because after a long hard night of dancing and partying the night before, the scrambled eggs, bacon, pancakes, fruit, and cinnamon bread that come out only for Sunday brunch are enough to get most people out of bed way before they would dream of otherwise.

The agenda for the rest of the day is usually pretty weather dependent (and influenced by how crazy the party was the night before) but usually involves various group activities. "Hygge-time" is a pretty popular choice for those that are sleep deprived, hung over, or just want to chill out. "Hygge" is a Scandinavian term for something that I haven't really witnessed elsewhere in my travels. If pressured, I'd probably describe it in English as a "cozy-chill-comfortable-physical-group-social-cuddle", and it can be performed anywhere, watching movies, outside in the sun, in the lounge, on a bus, in a dining hall... While at first glance it may look like a bunch of people cuddling together in a big group, but I've found that it's actually pretty important to the way that many of the students get to know and trust each other here. At first I found it a bit intense for my American (I guess we still have some Puritan traces in our culture) background but now I feel like I understand it much better.

For the students that have more energy on Sunday afternoons hanging out in the sun, training in the parkour park, messing around on the beach volley courts, or playing Frisbee golf are always pretty popular options. Regardless, this is a day for hanging out, getting to know the other students, and enjoying the atmosphere at school. Compared to the Sunday afternoons that I experienced in college (15-18 mile runs followed by lots of homework that had been postponed from earlier in the weekend), Sundays at Gerlev have been a really nice change and seem to help me (and many other students) recharge for the action-packed week ahead.

Catching some early-spring sunshine while watching the school football team. Photo courtesy of Sisse Rasmussen.

Tree climbing challenges with the MEAT Squad on a Sunday afternoon. Photo courtesy of Lotte Møller.

Hygge and sunshine. Photo courtesy of Lotte Møller.

Photo courtesy of Lotte Møller.

Sunday afternoon "informal jam" at the parkour park. Photo courtesy of Dennis Madsen.

Thinking differently

2012-07-11T19:10:00.001-04:00

I saw this video and couldn't help re-posting it. It shows Tim "Livewire" Shieff, a very well-known and respected name in parkour/freerunning, who is particularly known for his creativity and amazing upper body strength, performing an action that thousands of people do on a daily basis. The only difference is that he has found a way to do it a little bit differently, in true "parkour style".

Looking forward to seeing further episodes in the series.

Life at Gerlev: Classes

2012-07-01T14:59:00.000-04:00

A bit more background on the setup at Gerlev. The school year is made up of 3 semesters: September - December (17 weeks), January - February (8 weeks), March - June (17 weeks), and a summer break in which the campus hosts a full schedule of seminars and workshops from July - August. The different semesters allow for a wide variety in the sports that are offered (see here for the full list) but also creates a key part of the financial backbone of the school. The Danish government subsidizes up to one third of the operating expenses of the school, with another third that is paid by the student’s tuition, and the final third that is covered by the use of the campus by a number of summer events and workshops in addition to conferences throughout the year.

The 125+ students at Gerelv hail from all parts of Denmark with a fairly equal representation from the three parts of the country (Zealand, Funen, Jutland, and Bornholm). While the majority fall within the 19-22 year-old age range of young adults that have finished high school and are taking some time off to travel and "find themselves" before continuing their studies or seeking employment, there are quite a few students that are older than the average, yet still seeking some personal reflection time.

A typical day as a Gerlev student

A typical day for me starts at 7:20, as I crawl out of bed, put on whatever clothes are close at hand (depending on the weather this is either a sweatshirt and sweatpants, or a t-shirt and sweatpants- more on the dress code here later) and then head down to breakfast, where I am greeted by this:

While this picture is actually of lunch (hence the awake faces), it shows the dining room atmosphere. Photo courtesy of Rafaela Cappai.

Still half asleep, but smiling already. That's how I feel most mornings at Gerlev. Photo courtesy of Dennis Madsen

At 8, we all head to the main hall where we have the morning assembly. Since the morning assemblies that I had experienced previously in middle and high school in the US were not particularly positive (usually an obnoxiously cheerful voice reading semi-relevant announcements over the loudspeaker way too early in the morning) the assemblies here were a bit of a shock to me. First of all, each assembly starts with the entire staff and student body singing a song from the school hymnbook that each student is given when they arrive at school.

Most of you who know me know that I am not particularly gifted at singing, and I have found that I am even less gifted at singing in a language that I can neither read nor speak. That being said, there is something remarkably uplifting and uniting about mumbling Danish songs alongside a room full of fellow students and staff each morning. I've also found that over the course of a few months I have started to grasp the semi-correct pronunciation of the words in the book, although I still have no idea what 99% of them mean.

Morning assembly. Photo courtesy of Rafaela Cappai.

After the song there is a 20-minute presentation by one of the staff members or students on a topic of thier choice. Some of the subjects this past semester covered the foundations of democracy, growing up in a foreign country, personal challenges and conflicts facing students, background on various pieces of artwork around the school, influential life experiences from students or staff, and a few life lessons from the wiser and more seasoned members of the teaching staff.

Following the morning assembly are the four 90-minute class periods that make up the main portion of the day. In between each class there is a break for food, whether it's the mid-morning snack, lunch, or mid-afternoon snack. More details on the food later as a paragraph or two can't do it justice. Each student has a Speciality course in which they have 8-10 hours of instruction each week and which is essentially their "major" while at Gerlev. Students also choose a Sports Subject, which meets for 6 hours a week over a 2-month period. In addition to these, there are two Study Subjects, which meet for 3 hours/week and change after 2-months. Here is a copy of my schedule for the past 4 months:

The classes schedule is set up to to ensure that that students get a maximum amount of instruction time, but it also groups the classes to ensure that the instructors benefit from the scheduling. It took me a few weeks to realize but the schedule is actually cleverly set up so that most of the instructors are actually only needed on campus for a maximum of 4 days/week, allowing them time to pursue other interests or classes, train in their discipline, and spend time with family (which do not always live on campus), or run another business (like Mikkel and Martin at Streetmovement). The schedule below gives a rough idea of my normal weekly schedule:

Some explanation about the classes mentioned in my schedule:

As one can see, I spend the majority of my class hours in Parkour, but over the course of the week I spend a lot of time in the other classes as well. Of course the schedule doesn’t show the training sessions after classes finish, in the evenings, or on the weekends (I know that it’s hard to believe, but I spend a lot of my free time training, conditioning, or writing about it) but it gives a general idea of how I spend my time.

A beautiful day in the park. Photo courtesy of Lucas Ribeiro de Lima.

The Streetdance (also includes "House for Dummies") class has been a lot of fun and the opportunity to do it here with real “classes” has been a great opportunity and allowed me to sample from a number of different styles including house dance, jacking, popping, locking, hip hop, in a setting that is condusive to beginners like myself. The second two months saw the creation of a performance group called "The Grind" in which a number of the students performed various pieces at Gerlev parties and events.

Taking advantage of nice weather to train outside with "The Grind", Gerlev's Streetdance performance group. Photo courtesy of Sutton Atkins.

Games is actually “Tradition Danish Games” and is actually a 2-part course that takes place in the Gerlev Legepark (Gerlev Playpark) located next to the school. The first two months of the course were spent playing a lot of the games and learning about them, with a few instances when we were expected to lead the sessions ourselves. The secod half of the semester the focus has been entirely on the instruction of these games and how to use them to bring different groups together and develop certain skill sets in children. While a few of the games are very similar to the ones that I played as a kid, there a lot that were new to me and that I will definitely be taking back home with me.

Martin (from Streetmovement) taught this class about Sports Massage, not the lovey-dovey sensual massage that some might expect at a højskole. Needless to say, although the massage sessions themselves were not the most relaxing experiences, especially when given by other parkour guys, they certainly helped to speed up recovery from the training and I learned a lot of useful techniques.

Knife-making is pretty self-explanatory, we ordered blades and blocks of wood from local sources and have spent the last few weeks designing, shaping, sanding, gluing, and polishing our knives.

From this....

To something simirlar to this.

Needless to say, I am only taking one load of courses at the school so my schedule only reflects a small sampling of the options at the school. For more information on the full range of activities available (there are a lot), check out the Gerlev website.

The School Meeting has been an interesting experience for me as I think it shows a lot about the Danish culture. During the meetings the student body and staff discuss the happenings and highlights of the past week, discuss preparations for the upcoming weeks events and guests or visitors, and bring up any issues that warrant school-wide discussion. While at first this seemed like an impractical forum for discussing things that might only impact a small amount of the people at the meeting, over the past four months I've come to realize that these meetings do more than address the problem at hand. These meetings offer an opportunity for anyone to voice concerns, problems, or proposed changes in a setting that is both receptive and representative of the entire group. I was surprised to find that the issues presented were not resolved by a vote (which was described to me as a tyranny of the majority) but instead by the discussion of the issue until one side had gained the group's consensus. If all else fails, a committee is made to look into the issue further (Danes really seem to like forming committees, sub-committees, and committees to oversee the committees).

Despite the two sided setup that looks like opposing sides in a divorce case, these meetings actually help to keep the school working smoothly and cohesively. Photo courtesy of Rafaela Cappai.

Club Sports is entirely organized by the students and offers many students the opportunity to try things that they can't cram into their schedule otherwise. There are the typical offerings (crossfit, circuit training, parkour, yoga, gymnastics, board games...) but each semester there are some sports that are unique to the interests of the students on campus like tree climbing, board games, and Vist (a danish card game). However, about halfway through the semester I decided that "club napping" was best for my physical health, especially since my increasing sleep debt was starting to hamper recovery.

The Joint Class changed each week and was basically a great excuse for all of the students to get together to participate in an activity. Different teachers and members of the staff led each week, so the themes were as varied and eclectic as thier interests and backgrounds, including swing dancing, cricket, group discussions, salsa, viking games, grinding, playpark events, hide-and-seek, Human Stratego, flashmobbing...

"Flashmobbing" in downtown Slagelse. Photo courtesy of the Sealand News article covering the event.

Denmark and Gerlev Idrætshøjskole

2012-06-29T10:15:00.000-04:00

Now that I have been in Denmark for more than three months I think that it’s about time that I start sharing some of my experiences here and explain more about the amazing place that has become a home away from home.

One of my articles from last summer (here) gives some background on Gerlev Idrætshøjskole, and the Danish folk high school system, but now that I’ve been here for a few months instead of a few weeks I think an updated and elaborated article is appropriate.

To start with, “here” is Gerlev Idrætshøjskole, which is located 5km outside of Slagelse, a small town (although by Danish standards it's a "city") located about an hour from Copenhagen.

Gerlev Idrætshøjskole from above. Photo courtesy of the lovely ladies at the Gerlev front office.

I first visited Gerlev last June as part of my Watson around-the-world trip to witness the parkour classes that Streetmovement has been running here since 2006 and to train on the structure that had been built in 2008, and is considered to be one of, if not the first "parkour park". The two and a half weeks that I stayed here were a small taste of student life at Gerlev and left me both inspired and curious to learn more from this model. After making the decision to continue my parkour-related travels this year, I accepted the invitation Streetmovement guys and the headmaster, Finn, to enroll as a student in the spring semester.

Before I go more into depth about my personal experiences at the school, a bit of background on the concept of the “højskole” (often translated into English as the“folk high school”). The højskole tradition exists in many of the Scandinavian countries although the ones in Denmark and Norway seems to have developed a unique model. Denmark, a country with a population of 5.5 million people, has over 75 højskoles spread across the nation, and according to official statistics (that I got from staff on campus) there were 8,405 students that attended a højskole in the 2010-2011 school year. While this number is smaller than it was 15 years ago, it has been steadily increasing over the past 5 years, especially as these institutions begin to take students from farther abroad than the typical Euro-zone exchanges (I supposed I’m a good example of this). Højskole students range in age from 18 to their late 20's and are usually in the midst of deciding what they want to do next in life, whether this is to start further studies, seek employment, or travel for a period of time as many Danish youth seem want to do. Each højskole typically has a specific area of focus, usually in the arts, music, writing, or sports, and the goal of the "højskole experience" is centered around the personal development and exploration of student's potential than the pursuit of a degree or factual knowledge. While the lack of a degree may seem strange at first, it allows the style of education and instruction at the schools to be much less “structured” and exploratory, which creates a very unique atmosphere.

"Hygge time", a concept that seems to be very important in Scandanavian countries, but even more so in the højskole setting. Photo courtesy of Lotte Møller.

During my stay here I’ve learned that the idea of “gap years” to prepare young people with the social skills necessary to become constructive members of society upon adulthood is not limited to students that have finished their high school education. Denmark also has a large number of efterskoles, which are similar to højskoles but oriented toward younger students that are still finishing their high school education. I had the opportunity to visit one of these efterskoles recently and it seemed to be very similar to the højskole model except with more structure and academic emphasis (they need to continue their education afterwards) and a lot more angsty teenagers. While the idea of two years of “self exploration” may seem a bit extravagant to people outside of Denmark, when I think back to my first year of university I know that a number of my peers could have benefited from year or two to figure things out before entering the American college system (which is a much more expensive place to “figure things out”).

While not necessarily representative of the typical American college experience, "Animal House" highlights some of the ways that many American students get sidetracked "exploring" and "figuring things out" the first years away from home.

Founded in 1938, Gerlev Idrætshøjskole is one of the oldest in the country, yet it is considered to be one of the more progressive and pioneering schools in a system that is steeped in tradition, especially when it comes to sports. Most sports højskoles offer traditional team sports such as football (real football, not the American kind), handball, and basketball in addition to outdoor activities and some type of dance. Gerlev offers some of these activities, but stands out as the only højskole that offers parkour, and one of the few that offers the variety of dance styles that Gerlev does. While offering parkour is impressive, the fact that parkour and streetdance were added to replace the traditional “danish gymnastics” course says a lot about the way that the school thinks (as far as I can understand "danish gymnastics" is essentially artistic gymnastics made for performance, and it is a HUGE institution in Denmark- DGI, the Danish Gymnastics National Organzation- has nearly 1.1 million members around the country). Below is an example of danish gymnastics (the hip modern version) from the National Danish Performance Team followed by a video of the Gerlev Performance Team's 2012 show:

My personal motivation for coming to Gerlev was a combination of a desire to keep traveling and training, the realization that I had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to try this, a desire to spend more time with the Streetmovement organization to see how they teach and train- all mixed in with a large amount of curiosity about how this place functions, how it fits into the Danish culture and society, and what unexpected knowledge I could learn while here.

Final Shots from Thailand

2012-05-25T13:40:00.001-04:00

Looking back through a lot of the photos from the trip the past few weeks I've been struck by the fact that no matter where we visited, it was the people that I was traveling with that made the experience so amazing. The following pictures were from an afternoon spent training at a park near Anan's house in Bangkok that was one of the highlights of the trip for me. Not only because it was a great spot, but because of the playful atmosphere and general "fun" that was had that day (aside from me making a goose-egg on one of my shins).

Bruno, Annty, and Leon sizing up a jump. Photo courtesy of Violetta Beral.

Finding a new way to use some of the structures in "Anan's Park". Photo courtesy of Violetta Beral.

Annty about to jump. Photo courtesy of Andy "Kiell" Day.

A great shot by Kiell capturing one of Anan's signature jumps. Photo courtesy of Andy "Kiell" Day.

Before moving on to the next adventures, I want to make sure to give a big shout-out to Andy and V for their photos of the trip. Traveling with professional photographers was a pretty new experience for me, and I've found that it is much easier to include pictures in blog posts when they capture the context of the voyage better than I can in a few paragraphs. It also helps when the photographers that you are traveling with are awesome travel companions as well and well versed in bumming around foreign countries.

Photo courtesy of Annty Marais.

I would also like to give a big shout-out to Annty Marais (known in some circles as "the Annty Marais of Parkour Generations"). Not only did she put up with eating, training, rooming and traveling with me for 3 weeks, but she also managed to make almost an outing into an adventure and is a ton of fun to train and hang out with. Although we may have differed on the amount of time per day that is is appropriate to take pictures of animals and bugs, her pictures have been really great at showing our day-to-day life and adventures and she has already proven to be much better at visually chronicling her around the world trip than I have been. You can follow her adventures on the PkGen site.

Annty breaking a jump in one of the Bangkok parks. Photo taken by me for once.

"Lightness"

2012-05-22T18:52:00.000-04:00

This video was recommended to me by a friend (thanks Sox!) and I found it to be one of the most thought-provoking and "different" parkour videos that I've seen in a long time. While the fact that the traceuse does everything in a skirt is striking enough, I was even more impressed by the flow of the movement itself and the impression of lightness that she and the filmmaker managed to capture throughout the piece.

Training in Ayutthaya

2012-05-08T07:22:00.000-04:00

One of my favorite training adventures in Bangkok involved a day-trip to the city of Ayutthaya, a 2 hour train-ride from the center of Bangkok but well worth the early wake-up. The city is actually a UNESCO “World Heritage” site and was the capital city of the region for over 400 years before it was destroyed by the Burmese army toward the end of the 18^th century. During our visit it was pretty easy to see that the “city” that is there today survives mainly due to the busloads of tourists that come through to see the numerous temples that are scattered around the “city limits”.

On the train out of Bangkok. Kiell and I were still a bit groggy. Photo courtesy of Violetta Beral.

Annty and Leon were a bit more enthusiastic. Photo courtesy of Annty Marais.

The train ride to Ayutthaya was pretty enjoyable (since we had to leave pretty early) and the first thing we did after getting off the train was to rent bikes and scooters to make our way around the city. While we did have the specific objective of “getting good photos”, we hadn’t really planned much beside that and we decided to split up to better explore the city at our respective paces. I headed off with the bicycle contingent and within 10 minutes of riding along one of the main road we had found our first temple.

Our first temple. Still hesitating a bit before climbing all the way up.

In various states of disrepair, but not entirely forgotten.

Annty, the first one up.

Although the maps we had gotten at the bike shop seemed to be rather dominated by the temples, I hadn’t quite grasped the fact that apart from the small “modern area” near the train station at the south of the city, the “city of Ayutthaya” is pretty much made up of patches of ruins and clusters of houses spread amidst the huge grassy expanses that separate the enormous temples and complexes. The temples themselves range along the entire spectrum of disrepair, with the larger and more popular tourist destinations usually in much better shape than the smaller and “forgotten” locations, sometimes no more than a small pile of bricks tucked into a corner.

Leon investigating another temple.

There are actually 2 pillars here...

Of course being curious and particularly gifted at moving around and exploring foreign landscapes, our group soon started getting a better look at the temples. While some may argue that it is disrespectful to climb or jump around on another culture’s sacred monuments, it should be stated that we meant no disrespect in our movement, and from my perspective, I think that moving around in the temple complex was our form of paying homage and respect to the culture that had built these structures, currently lying in disrepair by the cultures that had originally built them. We also followed the “leave no trace” creed of responsible traceurs, limiting our activities to the structures that were still in good shape (in the interest of historic preservation as well as self-preservation). Cultural disclaimers aside, it should be noted that being “up close and personal” with the temples and complexes gives one a much greater appreciation for the workmanship that goes into these structures in order for them to last this long. It also makes one think about what will be left in our own cities for people to climb around on in a few hundred years…

Bruno documenting the ascent with his GoPro. Photo courtesy of Annty Marais.

Pondering life and the view. Photo courtesy of Annty Marais.

We ended the day at one of the largest complexes where our awesome photographers managed to snag a some good shots for a fitting end to a pretty awesome day.

One of Kiell's shots from the last temple complex. Photo courtesy of Andy "Kiell" Day.

One of V's shots from earlier in the day. Photo courtesy of Violetta Beral.

No comment. Photo courtesy of Violetta Beral.

Photo courtesy of Violetta Beral

Annty taking advantage of the fading light. Photo courtesy of Annty Marais.

The whole gang. Photo courtesy of Violetta Beral.

Back to Bangkok and the PkGen Asia show at the Queen's Imperial Park Hotel

2012-04-29T08:19:00.003-04:00

After another long (but during daylight, and pretty picturesque) ferry ride back to the mainland, we took an overnight bus (a lot less enjoyable) back to Bangkok to get back in time for a day of adjusting and light training before getting ready for the PkGen Asia debut show.

Coming back to Bangkok after so much time in the south of Thailand was a bit of a culture shock but it was also a very welcome relief to get back to training on a regular basis. Of course the first place we went to was Saphan Taksin, where we showed Dan Edwardes around (who had just arrived from snowy London, and was soon sweating like a one of those funny-hatted guards in red in summertime). Dan had come to Thailand to help Stephane with the official launch of PkGen Asia. This also happened to coincide with a PkGen performance at a rooftop party at the Queen’s Imperial Park Hotel in the heart of the city. Aparently this party was one of a monthly series of parties that were pretty popular on the Bangkok party scene. While the initial estimates of 1,500 people sounded pretty outrageous to me when they were outlining the game-plan I was also pretty nervous, especially since this was to be my first official parkour “performance”.

A publicity photo of the hotel as seen from the nearby park.

We arrived a day early at the hotel to check it out and to get things set up for the show, mainly the choreography. Of course the scaffolding that we were supposed to be performing on wasn’t ready when it was supposed to be, which gave us a much smaller window to practice things in and to figure out our respective routes for the show. Despite that, we managed to get in enough runs the evening before, and the morning of the event, and I gorged myself into a semi-food coma at the buffet brunch in the morning (it was probably one of 3 meals that I had during my month in Thailand that left me “full”).

A bit of an upgrade from the bungalows of Ton Sai...

Enjoying having my "own room" for the first time in a while.

The set-up. Photo courtesy of Julie Angel.

Hanging out underneath the scaf to take shelter from the midday sun. Photo courtesy of Violetta Beral.

Julie figuring out angles for video and grabbing a few still shots. Photo courtesy of Violetta Beral.

The starting line-up at the top of the roof, preparing to make the descent to the scaf. Photo courtesy of Violetta Beral .

Dan making the drop to the scaf. Photo courtesy of Violetta Beral.

After a power-nap and few last runs on the scaffolding before the reporters started arriving we got ready for the show. The first (of three) show was actually held right after a press-counference in which Steph announced the launch of PkGen Asia and described a bit about the company and its goals. The video below was made by Julie Angel and shows a bit of Steph speaking as well as the full show.

After that performance we had a few hours before the next one where we could watch the party start and hang out with the guests. It was pretty interesting to watch the party begin to unfold and to see the Bangkok "party scene" come to life. By the time we did the second performance, things were starting to get pretty wild. The second show went off smoothly and I found that I actually really enjoyed the “performing thing”, especially when it’s doing something that I know well and am comfortable and relaxed doing. By that time the party was well underway and by the time we did the last performance about a half hour before the party was due to be closed the audience was pretty excited. Despite some improvised flair elements that threw off some of the timing a bit, the third performance went well. After a rather prolonged photo-shoot afterwards we headed back to our rooms to take quick showers and change before heading out to join some of the other team members for celebratory smoothies and drinks at a local bar.

The performance team and PkGen Asia staff. Photo courtesy of PkGen Asia.

A day at the beach

2012-04-29T07:27:00.001-04:00

Since it wouldn't be fair to talk about Koh Tau without some shots of the beaches, I thought it would be appropriate to include some of the great shots that Violetta (V) got of us one of the few times that we actually went to "hang out" on the beach.

Photo courtesy of Violetta Beral.

An abandoned resort and other adventures on Koh Tau

2012-04-18T13:44:00.000-04:00

The overnight night ferry ride to Koh Tau was a very enjoyable one, despite the fact that we all woke up at some point or other in the middle of the night to feel the boat pitching and rolling underneath us in what seemed like monstrous swells.

Tight sleeping quarters but surprising comfortable (minus the pitching of the boat). Photo by Andy "Kiell" Day.

Walking off the boat at 5am. Photo by Andy "Kiell" Day.

We arrived unscathed in Koh Tau at 5am and managed to dodge the swarm of blood-sucking taxi drivers that awaited the bleary-eyed tourists coming off the boat. After hanging around on a corner to figure out a gameplan, we started by finding a great little place that offered good, cheap food, with free wifi (this place became a regular dining option for us). We then found a great place to stay at a really low rate, and even managed to rent scooters before lunch (we had become hooked on the range and flexibility that scooters offered us. All-in-all a productiveness that was tough to match for the rest of our time on the island).

Making friends at our favorite restaurant. Photo courtesy of Annty Marais.

Stopping to enjoy the view. Photo courtesy of Annty Marais.

We spent much of our time on Koh Tau speeding up and down the small country roads along with the rest of the small army of scooter-mounted tourists (mostly divers) that inhabited the island. Although we did some bouldering, the weather or the environment conspired against us on most days so we ended up doing a lot more exploring than anything else.

Coconut tree + long bamboo pole = Blake trying (unsuccessfully) to knock a coconut down. Photo courtesy of Annty Marais.

V taking advantage of good weather and a temporary lack of mosquitoes. Photo courtesy of Annty Marais.

Kiell at work. Photo courtesy of Annty Marais.

The abandoned hotel pictured below was one of the best adventures of the trip and was something that we essentially stumbled upon after someone had mentioned it briefly in passing. Although it has only been out of operation for a few years (it was actually owned by the woman who owned the place we were staying in on the other side of the island) nature was gradually reclaiming the area, especially the only road through the hills to the resort.

The perfect place to spend an afternoon. Photo by Andy "Kiell" Day.

A welcome view after 45 minutes hiking on a path through the jungle. Photo by Andy "Kiell" Day.

There were also some great rocks right next to the resort so of course we couldn’t resist the chance to climb and jump around on them.

Scouting out a jump for Kiell to shoot, and pondering the rather large drop below. Photo courtesy of Annty Marais.

Eyeing the jump. Photo courtesy of Annty Marais.

The jump. Photo by Andy "Kiell" Day.

Hanging out afterwards in one of the abandoned bungalows. Photo courtesy of Annty Marais.

Of course, being on an island, we also spent some time hanging out on the beach (both in and out of the illusion of training).

After nearly a week on Koh Tau, it was time to head back to Bangkok to meet up with the rest of the PkGen crew the official launch of PkGen Asia at the Queen’s Imperial Hotel...

Krabi and the Tiger Temple

2012-04-15T06:53:00.000-04:00

En route to Koh Tau, we spent a night in Krabi on a tip from some good friends in London. After finding a great bargain on a place to spend the night we decided to check out the city on scooters that we rented at a nearby store (no experience or license needed, just a passport and cold hard cash). The scooters turned out to be one of the best decisions we could have made, as it afforded us a great deal more flexibility and range in our explorations- and we a ton of fun. We spent the rest of the evening roaming around the city and getting used to the bikes (I’ll admit that I started off driving like a grandmother, especially since the all similarities to jet skiing stop with the difference between pavement and water).

The next morning we set off early to explore the Tiger Temple, another tip from our Thailand experts back in London (thanks Shirley and Blane!) The drive there was pretty enjoyable and it was nice to be on the road and not packed into a crowded bus that was either roasting hot or blasting sub-arctic air conditioning. One we got there we encountered the 1,237 steps that led to the temple at the top of the “mountain”. (Note: these stairs were much higher and narrower than in the “standard” Western staircase, perhaps because the monks like the challenge, or perhaps because they didn’t want to lug the extra cement up to build them). The climb was a different sort of fun and although it didn’t take that long, we were all sweating pretty profusely by the time we reached the top. The views en route and at the top definitely made up for any discomfort and we spent a while taking photos, doing handstands, and watching the troupe of monkeys that acted like they owned the place.

Slightly intimidating for some... a mere morning jaunt for us. Photo courtesy of Annty Marais.

The view from halfway up.

The view from the top.

Enjoying the view from the top, and scaring the crap out of the tourists watching below. Photo courtesy of Annty Marais.

The local inhabitants of the temple and very effective at hustling tourists for food. Photo courtesy of Annty Marais.

Shameless brand placement? Yeah, maybe.

Hunger and menacing clouds on the horizon finally drove us back down the stairs, where we found little food of and substantial quantity and even more aggressive monkeys. Despite that, we had to drag Annty away from the wildlife (she has an intense urge to watch, film, and photograph most of nature’ creations, be they insect, mammal, or unidentified moving objects). Fortunately she enjoyed whizzing around on the scooter even more than watching wildlife so it wasn’t too hard.

The PkGen biker gang. Photo courtesy of Annty Marais.

As we had a few hours left on the bike rental (we took the 1-day rental pretty literally) we decided to use up the last of our gas and freedom to explore a bit before grabbing our bags and heading to the bus station. We came across an abandoned boat in our wanderings, with a rickety ladder conveniently set up by the bow that afforded us to this “time capsule playground”. While I struggled to quell my American instinct of “it’s not my abandoned boat and the owner of said abandoned boat may be angry that I am exploring it- and said owner may be armed”, Annty, V, and Kiell were already well ahead of me and scrambling up onto the deck. However, once I was on deck and started looking around I was able to put my doubts aside and enjoy our find. The boat was a pretty awesome place for pictures so of course Kiell and V got some good ones.

The "entrance" to our new playground. Photo by Andy "Kiell" Day. More photos can been seen at his site and Tumblr page.

Feeling a bit more at ease with the whole "trespassing" thing after looking around a bit. Photo by Andy "Kiell" Day.

V scouting out some shots.

The trademark pose of the trip. Photo by Andy "Kiell" Day.

Kiell in action.

So tempting... Photo by Andy "Kiell" Day.

I couldn't resist. Photo by Andy "Kiell" Day.

After stretching our time on the boat to the last possible minute we whizzed back to the city to give back our bikes, grab a bite to eat at the local market, and board yet another bus to go the dock for the night-ferry to Koh Tau.

For more of Kiell's pictures from the trip, and some amazing shots from other journeys, check out his website or his Tumblr page.

Ton Sai

2012-04-12T15:25:00.000-04:00

After a week in Bangkok, I headed south with some of the other Parkour Generations family members who were also interested in exploring southern Thailand a bit and taking advantage of having flown halfway around the world to someplace with far more agreeable winter weather than our respective homelands.

Our first destination was Ton Sai Beach, located in the Krabi province. Although it is technically part of the mainland, it is cut off from any roads or paths by a series of impressive limestone cliffs and peaks which surround some amazingly picturesque beaches. These cliffs also happen to make for good climbing and the area has become a mecca of sorts for climbers from around the world looking for good climbing, a chill lifestyle with like-minded people, and an active nightlife.

The cliffs of Railay and Ton Sai beaches.

We traveled From Bangkok to the beach with a combination of a very enjoyable all-night train ride, a series of much less-enjoyable bus rides that extorted us in every way possible, and a brief but beautiful long-boat cruise from the main town to the beaches on the other side of the cliffs.

The veiw that awaited us as we arrived via the longboat. Photo courtesy of Annty Marais.

While the original plan for our stay in Ton Sai was to do a ton of climbing accompanied by our expert photographers (V and Kiell both happen to work as instructors at a climbing gym in London), we didn’t exactly follow the original game plan and spent much more time exploring the beaches and surrounding jungle. And relaxing.

My "welcome" gift from the 16 mosquitoes that bit me within 10 minutes of arriving. Photo courtesy of Annty Marais.

Our living quarters for the week. Picturesque but not exactly ideal (and horrible at keeping mosquitoes out). Photo courtesy of Annty Marais.

My primary method of training for much of the time in Ton Sai... Photo courtesy of Annty Marais.

Our adventure to the Railay Lagoon was one of the highlights of our time in Ton Sai for me. While the lagoon itself was not actually much more than a big puddle (even at high tide), the 45 minute climb through a mud-coated “lost world” was pretty awesome and offered plenty of opportunity to clamber, climb, and slide up and down a "path" that have all sorts of warning signs posted at the beginning if it were located in the USA.

"The Lost World"...? Photo courtesy of Annty Marais.

Bruno making his way down a particularly muddy descent. Photo courtesy of Annty Marais.

The water was not nearly as inviting from up close... Photo courtesy of Annty Marais.

Despite the beautiful beaches and sunsets, we decided after a few days that we had exhausted all that Ton Sai had to offer and it was time to change location...

Goodbye Ton Sai. Photo courtesy of Annty Marais.

Introducing: Team Farang

2012-04-03T11:53:00.000-04:00

My time in Bangkok gave me the opportunity to meet and train with some of the members of Team Farang, who I've been hearing a lot about during my travels, especially when I was in Australia last year. The group’s name, “farang” originates from the Thai term for a Western foreigner and is a fitting name for this group of non-Thai natives (with the exception of Anan, who is technically Thai, but not quite Thai- he’s got a pretty unique story) that are based out of Bangkok.

The Team Farang logo.

First, a bit of background on the team and some of its members as gleamed from conversations with them in Bangkok. The team is made up of a number of guys (there doesn't seem to be a fixed number) and started as a loose group of guys that met up in Bangkok (at an event hosted by Anan Anwar) to train for a few days and to generally have a good time. This group included a pretty diverse representation of guys, (of course with lots of Aussies, who, as a country, seem to like Thailand a lot as a tourist destination- kind of like Cancun for Americans). One of the unique aspects of this group is that not only do have a very high skill level when it comes to moving, they also like to party and have fun. While it is obvious that there was a lot of training going on at the event, there is also a lot of footage from the everyday goofing off that goes on within this group of guys. This video from the event in 2010 shows a bit of the action from that trip, as well as the general atmosphere that seems to characterize the group:

With the release of their video “Team Farang Tour – The City” in December 2011 Team Farang brought both their media production and movement to a new level. While the video keeps the same attitude and general atmosphere of previous videos, it put Bangkok on the map as a "parkour hotspot" with lots of great places to train. It is also pretty evident that there was a lot of time and effort spent in the production and editing of the video, which really shows in the final product.

The next video released by the group, is the next installation in the "Team Farang Tour" series, called "The Temple”. It was actually released while I was in Bangkok with the guys so I got to see them reacting in real time to the international attention that the video got (it racked up more than 100,000 views within a few days). The video has a lot of great movement in it, although some might raise objections to the use of another culture's sacred space as a training location.

Since then, Team Farang has released two more videos that follow member Jason Paul’s travels in India and Germany (Jason is pretty well known in the parkour community and has also done a number of the “Red Bull – Art of Motion” events). They have also launched a new website which looks like it will be a rather unique addition to the plethora of parkour websites out there. Not only will they be posting videos and photos, but it they will also be trying to get a deeper look at some of the aspects of the sport that don’t seem to get a lot of direct attention (I was particularly struck by this recent article about the Storm clothing line) and interviewing people that they meet and train with. Having met and spent a fair amount of time with the guys in Thailand, I'm really looking forward to seeing what they come out with and where they take things. For more information and to check out the site, go to: www.farang-mag.com/ or go to the Team Farang YouTube channel.

An introduction to Bangkok

2012-04-01T09:10:00.001-04:00

So after my visits to London and Paris had flown by, I headed to Bangkok for the next part of my adventures. I arrived in the city and was welcomed by a sudden gust of hot humid air that hit me the moment the airplane doors opened and forced me to take off the multiple layers that I had been wearing. I was immediately struck by the “foreignness” of the city, which is very different from the other places that I have visited over the past year and a half of traveling. While many aspects of life in Bangkok were similar to things that I’d seen in other cities, there were a lot of things that I had never seen before, and unlike most of the other places that I visited, my “foreignness” couldn’t be hidden by keeping my mouth shut and nodding and smiling, instead it was broadcast to all passerby's by my "Western" appearance.

Within a few hours of arriving in Bangkok I met up with the other members of the Parkour Generations family that had congregated in Thailand. While not all of the visits had been planned to overlap with the others, there were way too many of us for it to be called a coincidence. After spending an afternoon and evening getting re-adjusted to the climate and the time change, we met up for a group training session at Lumpini Park, conveniently located near the guest house some of us were staying at. The training group was an international medley featuring Andy “Kiell” Day (UK), Violetta (Spain), Stephane Vigroux (France), Leon Lawrence (UK), the Annty Marais (France), Bruno Peixoto and his wife Rafa (Brazil), myself (USA), and some of the guys that Steph had started training with from Bangkok. Anan Anwar (Thailand) and Shaun Wood (Australia) also showed up to the park accompanied by Jason Paul (Germany), who was in town to hang out with the guys and make some new videos with Team Farang (more details to come). Since I’d been hearing about these guys from various people throughout my travels it was good to finally be able to train with them and see them move in person. Needless to say, we weren’t a particularly small or inconspicuous group and we soon discovered that the Thai park authorities were not nearly as understanding and accepting of parkour as their British equivalents and we found ourselves moved on from one spot in the park to another.

A PkGen family (+ extended family) reunion in Lumpini Park my first day in Thailand. Photo courtesy of Leon Lawrence.

The next day we spent the morning exploring the city before heading over to Saphan Taksin to meet up with some local traceurs. The park that we met in was located under a major highway overpass and had a number of basketball, football, and sepak takraw (think volleyball + football) courts, a weightlifting area, and most importantly, a metal climbing structure that looked like it had been built for insanely heavy children, or just designed to stand for the next 200 years.

The park.

Perhaps the demographic that it was initially intended for.

While the design of the structure may look pretty simple at first glance, the simplicity and unadorned design is perhaps the genius of it as a training structure as it allows for an almost infinite amount of creativity in movement. The park happens to be the preferred training spot of a group of young traceurs (aged 8-23) that call themselves the “Dark Monkeys”. While it still isn’t clear to me how much of their movement in the park is inspired by traceurs like Anan Anwar and the other members of Team Farang who have been using the park for the past few years and how much is totally organic (there seems to be a pretty incredible amount of “play” and “natural exploration” that goes on among the group, most of whom are between 10-16 years old), the routes and movements that they do show just how much time many of them spend there (it is almost guaranteed that 5-10 of them will be there any given afternoon after school lets out).

The first 2 minutes of the video below shows some footage that Leon took of movement at the park.

As one can see from the videos, the park offers seemingly limitless opportunities for creativity and expression. It was pretty amazing to watch the kids “playing” in the park as their movements seem to defy their ages in many cases and show just how much time many of them actually spend in the park. Training with the kids was a lot of fun and it soon became our “default” training spot throughout our time in Bangkok. While many of the traceurs had a high skill level when moving around the park, many aspects of “Parkour Generations/Yamakasi” training were pretty new to them, most notably many of the warm-up and conditioning drills. It was interesting to see how the kids had developed in the atmosphere of “play” which was very different from the atmosphere that exists in the Yamakasi and Parkour Generations training tradition. Many of the kids were very curious about the way we trained and even more so once shirts started coming off due to the heat and there was a a notable difference between the physiques of the two training methods (Leon was probably the most obvious example and his Hulk-like muscles were fascinating to the kids).

Leading a"Parkour Generations style" warm-up at the park. Photo courtesy of Violetta Beral.

A Visit to Paris - training with the Yamakasi, classes at the ADD Academy, and a stop by the 2WS Store

2012-03-24T13:22:00.000-04:00

Since London is a whole lot closer to Paris than Boston I decided to take advantage of my proximity to the city of light to spend a few days there before heading to Thailand.

My visit to Paris was pretty productive despite the short duration and I managed to fit in a grueling training session with Chau and some of the other guys at the hill/stairs in Torcy, attend one of the ADD Academy classes being held at Bercy, and spend a fair amount of time at the 2WS boutique near Chatelet. There are a number of new products in the pipeline for the upcoming spring and summer seasons and I got a chance to try them on an give some input into the designs.

One of the new custom-printed t-shirts.

There are new colors available for both pants and tops.

The Takare is now available in "Cherry Red".

If you can recognize the arms, you've spent way too much time with me...

While I was at the store some of the guys showed me a recent “reportage” that aired on France 3 about the ADD Academy and the classes that it offers in Paris. It is especially notable because it was done by a French reporter that actually took the time and effort to try to get to know what l’art de déplacement/parkour/freerunning actually is, instead of the usual dismissal that the French media gives to the sport, labeling it as an activity performed by a bunch of kids from the banlieue that want to be stuntmen and get on tv (or worse, an illicit activity by bunch of street youth training how to become acrobatic burglars.)