MAKING THE JUMP

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.)

WFPF Launches “College Parkour”

2012-03-17T11:46:00.001-04:00

I saw this press release earlier today and am drawing attention to it because it not only poses a lot of interesting questions about the future of parkour/freerunning in the USA, but it also highlights a number of the cultural differences that seem to exist within the parkour scenes in different countries.

I’m sure that many traceurs would have differing opinions about the vision of David Thompson, the WFPF president, mentioned in the article, who hopes to “see every college in the United States have a Parkour/Freerunning club or team, to one day see sanctioned inter-collegiate Parkour events, to one day see young people choose a college because of their great Parkour program, or get into a college with a full paid Parkour scholarship!" While this vision may seem especially strange to non-Americans for whom the concept of “university sponsored athletics” may be unfamiliar, for those of us that are well-acquainted with the system it does not seem that far off. Having seen the full variety of athletic options available when I was at Davidson, I don’t find it too difficult to see a “parkour club” developing there, just like we had rugby, tennis, water polo, softball, windsurfing…

The question then becomes, what does this parkour/freerunning club do? While it may seem harmless to form clubs, normally these clubs have the goal of interacting with other school’s club, and the question then becomes whether that interaction should be in the form of jams, workshops, competitions, or perhaps something that has yet to be developed and manages to keep the philosophy of the sport intact while sating our desire to compete.

The new logo for the program, as seen on their site.

While I think that the WFPF’s announcement is a great step towards the development of parkour/freerunning in the USA, especially given the power of the American university system to expose its students to new ideas and to give them opportunities they wouldn’t otherwise have (I guess I’m a pretty good example), I think that a lot of thought and discussion needs to happen concerning the direction of this program and its long-term effect on the sport. That being said, I’m excited to see what can be done with this program and look forward to following its development.

The full press-release can be found here.

A .pdf version can also be found here.

Winterval at LEAP

2012-03-15T17:36:00.000-04:00

After a day to sleep off the jet-lag I headed back to the LEAP facility for the Parkour Generations Winterval event. The idea was initially inspired by the success of the Rendezvous events held in the summer and meant to encourage people to train in the colder months of the year as well as the nice ones. It also served as the launching event for the LEAP Park, which had officially opened the day before.

The location for Winterval 2012. (Photo courtesy of Saiyan Parkour Academy)

While the weather was a bit colder than it is for Rendezvous in August, Winterval had the same great community feeling and atmosphere that seems to be especially prevalent at the Parkour Generations events that I've had the opportunity to attend. The participants were divided into different groups based on their skill levels and spent the day training throughout the park and the surrounding athletic facilities with instructors from a wide variety of backgrounds.

I spent the day coaching alongside the other PkGen staff and a number of guest coaches that had been invited from the Greater London area. While there were definitely a few downsides to not being a participant (it’s a lot colder for the instructors than most people realize) it was great to be back coaching in the UK and to be able to work with a wide variety of skill levels. Since we had some free time throughout the day I also got a bit of time to reacquaint myself with the park (until then, I’d only trained on the park once the rest of the Westminster facility had been closed down for the night) which seemed to just as daunting in daylight.

Leon and Dan planning their station for the day. (Photo courtesy of Saiyan Parkour Academy)

Overall, I think that the event went really well and should be a staple event on the "parkour calendar". Not only is there a big lack of events going on during the winter months, but I think that the there was also a bit more a "

For a better look at the park and to get a feel for the event, check out the video below that was made by fellow globetrotter Bruno "Rachacuca" Peixoto:

Some more pics...

Hanging out with some of the other instructors and making my typical "photo-face". (Photo courtesy of Saiyan Parkour Academy)

Photo courtesy of Parkour Generations.

The "official" group picture from the event. I'm right above Forrest with my hat over my face- thanks Abdu. (Photo courtesy of Parkour Generations.)

Back to London for the LEAP Parkour Park Opening

2012-03-11T08:23:00.000-04:00

After a few months back in the USA, my arrival back in London felt oddly similar to coming home, and it felt good to be back within the PkGen community. Unfortunately my flight was delayed so I missed the official opening of the LEAP Parkour Park at the Westminster Sports Academy, arriving in the city a few hours after everyone had already left. I've attached a brief clip below that includes some footage from the event.

While there was a lot of debate at the beginning of the year in the London parkour community as to the usefulness of the park with a fair amount of resistance to the concept of “paying to train” in a city with so many great public training areas, the park seems to be becoming more and more popular. Part of it is probably because of the presence of a number of skilled traceurs at the park, especially since many of the PkGen instructors and advanced students are often at the Westminster Academy on a regular basis anyway for classes and training (the park has also seen frequent visits by the awesome "Supa XXL Sunday Training" group). Also, despite what some veteran traceurs may claim, the park offers a convenience factor that is tough to beat, with a large variety of very challenging obstacles (both mentally and physically) located within a small training area. Instead of having big jumps and different training surfaces spread over the entire city or neighborhood, they are all located in a compact area and are interconnected, which allows for additional creativity. While the park is by no means a substitute for training in the greater urban environment, it is a good place to work on specific physical techniques and mental obstacles.

Travel Plans for 2012

2012-03-11T08:20:00.000-04:00

After a few months at home I set off in the beginning of January for another 9 months of travel. As usual my itinerary is a constant work in progress:

January 5 - January 1: London, UK
January 11 - January 16: Paris, France
January 17- February 21: Thailand
February 21- Feburary 23: London, UK
February 24 - June 27: Gerlev, Denmark
June 27 - July 15: To be determined (Possible travel in Denmark, Norway, Poland....)
July 15 - July 22: Gerlev, Denmark for the European Gathering
July 22 - September: London, UK for the Olympic Games
September 2012 - TBD: Boston, USA

* As usual, all plans are subject to change based on whim, weather, and opportunity.

New adventures to come (with new blog posts to follow of course!)

Training in Boston & Trial Classes in December

2012-03-08T19:13:00.000-05:00

Since I'd spent most of my time back in the USA thus far gallivanting around the country checking out the scenes in other cities I decided to spend some quality time with my family and check out places to train in Boston (more specifically, Somerville- my part of Boston).

Map of Somerville's in relation to the rest of Boston, courtesy of Google Maps.

I was pretty anxious to find some good places to train so spent most of my free time roaming around my city and the surrounding ones trying to find good places to train. While I didn't find anything that resembled Elephant & Castle or UNC Chapel Hill, I did find a number of places that have a lot of potential within the Boston area, two of which are pictured below.

One of the cooler spots in the area, called the "Baby Pool" for some reason by some of the local traceurs.

Lots of potential at the Josiah Quincy School, but unfortunately it's off limits a lot of the week due to school being in session.

Another view of the school's entrance, a perfect place to train on the weekends.

Since I’d had a number of people express interest in having me lead parkour classes for their kids I held a few "unofficial" classes in a local park a few days per week throughout December. Despite the cold weather and lack of advance notice, the classes went really well and the kids classes in particular quickly filled up to the point where I had to set a cap on the number of participants in order to keep things manageable. While it seemed like I had to head out as soon as things felt like they were going smoothly, it was a great trial for what will hopefully be established on a more permanent basis in a few months (more details to come).

Warming up.

A bit of conditioning after playing around on the rails.

Stretching at Prospect Hill, the site where the first American flag was raised on January 1st, 1776.

A weekend in NYC and visiting with NYPK

2012-03-04T15:52:00.000-05:00

After a few days at home I headed to New York City for my family’s annual Thanksgiving pilgrimage to the Big Apple. As I had been anxious for a chance to check out the parkour scene there, I decided to leave a few days early to explore a bit before my family arrived.

After some facebook networking I managed to get a hold of some of the guys involved with NYPK and ended up meeting them at the Tompkins Square Park. The park includes one of the classic playgrounds that has become well-known around the world via the internet due to groups like the “Bar-barians” and "Bar Starz".

These playgrounds seem to be much more popular in NYC than other American cities.

While comparably spartan to many of the newer playgrounds with lots of stupid plastic bits, they offer much more room for creativity and exploration...

.... and are a traceur's dream for training.

The playground also works as a great place to train parkour. After training in the park for a while we headed to a new spot where the training became a bit more focused. After spending most of the afternoon training we went to grab food and ice cream and I even managed to pick up a pair of Feivues in Chinatown for $25 (a review of their performance to come later).

Another great spot from the afternoon training session.

Lots of variety to keep us occupied for a few hours.

One of the great things about my visit to NYC was that I was able to meet a number of the guys from NYPK, an organization that has existed since 2005 and was involved in the early evolution of the sport in the USA. I spent a lot of time talking with Exo, one of the original members of NYPK who helps to manage the organization today. NYPK is one of the larger parkour organizations on the East Coast, and in addition to its claim to fame as one of the first American parkour groups, it remains a great networking and training tool for traceurs in the state. Along with Exo, I met a number of other members of NYPK and traceurs from the area. Not only was I was impressed by the level of skill that some of them had. but also be the training philosophies and ideas that I heard expressed throughout the day.

After talking for a while I hopped in to the first part of one of the NYPK training sessions before my bus back to Boston. While the intensity level and efficiency of the training wasn’t quite the same as what I’d become used to in the UK, a lot of the exercises were very familiar and the participants seemed to really enjoy the classes.

The warm-up.

The Empire State building in the skyline.

Spotlight on Parkour in the Media: Traceurs used in UK study on orangutans

2012-03-01T17:33:00.002-05:00

This article was recently posted on the BBC and is just one example of the increased attention on parkour in the UK, especially as a subject of study for various university researchers around the country.

The "Parkour Pilgrimage" Documentary

2012-02-25T11:46:00.000-05:00

While hanging out with Duncan he told me about the documentary "Parkour Pilgrimage" that he made in 2008 documenting his trip to Europe to train and "pay homage" to the parkour legacy there and to experience parkour in a part of the world that was years ahead of the American parkour scene at the time. While minor elements of the film may seem a bit outdated today, the work as a whole is still very relevant and I'd highly recommend it for anyone that is interested in parkour, especially those looking to understand more about the sport outside their own communities.

A visit to Duncan/TK17's classroom

2012-02-25T11:35:00.000-05:00

On my last day with Duncan I went to visit his classroom to see where he works and get a sense of the work he's doing for the next generation of traceurs in North Carolina. While I’d had doubts as to the “normalcy” of any class lead by him, what I saw had me wishing that I could go back to elementary school to be in his class. Between the random things that he has set up around the room to keep occupied while the kids are working (he’s definitely not the type of teacher that sits behind the desk and lectures) and the various projects that he has the kids working on, it doesn't surprise me at all that he likes his job.

Duncan is not the kind of teacher to just sit there or read a book while his students are working.

In addition to his job as “world’s coolest teacher” Duncan has also started up a parkour club at his school that is steadily growing. Having met some of the “graduates” of the program in my first training session at Chapel Hill, I was happy to see that not only is he teaching in accordance with the Yamakasi philosophy, he seems to have managed to avoid many of the hot-heads and adrenaline junkies that seem to be especially drawn to the sport in the US. The video below shows some of the training sessions that Duncan runs at his school at the after-school "parkour club".

East Coast Mini Road-trip: Greensboro, NC with TK17

2012-02-21T10:10:00.000-05:00

After the afternoon spent photographing spots around Chapel Hill Duncan and I drove to Greensboro to check out some of his favorite haunts there. I’ve encountered very few people during my travels that I’ve immediately felt a bond or connection with based on our training styles but training with Duncan was a lot of fun. Greensboro turned out to have a number of great places to train and we only ended up leaving when hunger and lack of light persuaded us that it was time to go.

Duncan's video "Go" below is not only one of the better parkour videos that I’ve seen, but it also gives some great views of the training spots around Greensboro and UNC Chapel Hill that I had the opportunity to visit.

East Coast Mini Road-trip: UNC Chapel Hill with TK17

2012-02-21T10:06:00.001-05:00

I was first introduced to Duncan Germain, known to most of the world by his internet screenname of “TK17”, through our mutual friend Dr. Julie Angel, who put him on the list of parkour people I should make sure to meet during my time back home in the USA.

A bit of background on Duncan before I talk more about the visit. Duncan was one of the first traceurs in the US, starting way before most Americans knew what it was. Like most of the earliest practionners in countries around the world, he was introduced to the sport via the internet and received much of his inspiration and information from the videos and forums that were the basic links between the earliest generations of traceurs outside of France. Over time he became very involved with the 3Run forums and became close friends with a number of traceurs in the UK after visits there where he was hosted by some of the guys. Despite his early start in the sport, Duncan seems to be fairly unknown today, both because of a long hiatus after he broke his foot and “retired” from the sport for 2 years, and because he has remained fairly aloof from the American scene due to differences in the training and philosophy of many American traceurs. As an American that was introduced to parkour in France and the UK, I can understand the culture shock that comes from the differences between the continents and we had a lot in common in the way that we approached parkour and our training. In addition to have tons of parkour experience, Duncan is also a fairly accomplished filmmaker (the video below shows him in a trip to Lisses/Evry outside Paris a few years ago).

Duncan met me at the bus station and in true parkour globetrotter fashion we immediately drove to UNC Chapel Hill for a training session that Duncan and some of the other guys had organized. The session went really well and I was surprised to find that not only did they have a clear objective of “show Blake as many of the key spots on campus as possible”, but unlike a lot of training sessions I’ve been to, we didn’t waste much time messing around at and between spots. This was refreshing change of pace from the “jam mentality” that seems to dominate so many training sessions and also gave me the chance to see most of the best spots at UNC Chapel Hill in the span of a few hours (there are a lot). For those that are not familiar with American universities, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is one of the biggest schools in the country with over (28,000 of students), and is very well respected for both its academics and also its top-level sports teams (Michael Jordan played college basketball there before going to the NBA). The campus itself is beautiful in any season and I’d been to a large number of track meets hosted on its top-notch indoor and outdoor tracks. The campus also happens to be an amazing place to train and has a ton of great spots for traceurs of all skill levels to train any manner of movement.

One spot with a ton of potential. Perhaps one of the most variety I've seen in one place outside of Elephant & Castle in London.

From another vantage point.

You would think that they were specially designed for parkour...

After 3 hours of training and jogging around the campus, I realized that I had spent nearly the entire session in constant motion and by then it was too dark to take pictures of the places that I’d visited so I decided to come back the next day to document some of the spots.

And it continues...

One of the more daunting gap jumps that is on my list of stuff to do on a return visit.

Even the track stadium, where I raced multiple times when at Davidson, had a ton of stuff just right outside.

During my day hanging out at Chapel Hill I spent some time with Colin from 5^th Ape, a parkour, crossfit, and fitness company in the area that offers classes and teaches workshops in their unique style of movement and fitness. Like with Duncan, I immediately found that Colin and I had a lot in common and we spent an afternoon talking about his experiences and plans for 5^th Ape. For more information about 5^th Ape, check out his site here.

East Coast Mini Road-trip - UVA at Charlottesville, VA

2012-02-17T05:01:00.000-05:00

After my time in DC came to a close I hopped on a train to Charlottesville, Virginia to visit some close friends from Davidson and also to check out the parkour scene I’d heard rumors about. I had initially started looking for a parkour scene at the University of Virginia my senior year at Davidson when I was applying to graduate school there and had seen evidence of a UVA PK internet presence but heard of much more than that to confirm its actual existence.

UVA, like most major university campuses in the USA apparently, is a great place to train and seems ripe for further exploration. I managed to meet up with the school approved parkour group during my visit to train with them a few times and while the group is young, the members were very welcoming and showed me around their campus. After a brief hiatus the past year or two, the group has been resurrected by John and Momin, who seem to have both the organizational skills and the motivation to pull something like this off. I’m looking forward to a return visit to the campus to see what they develop.

For more information on the UVA Parkour Assoc. check out their UVA website or Facebook page.

One of the many campus elements that were perfect for training.

The reason why American universities are often great for parkour, lots of railings, ramps, and open space.

East Coast Mini Road-trip - American Parkour in DC

2012-02-17T04:20:00.002-05:00

I spent the evening of my arrival in DC as well as my second full day in the city with American Parkour (APK), based in central DC between the Truxton Circle and NoMa neighborhoods. Over the course of my travels I’d heard a lot about this organization, and learned about it’s impressive media and internet presence. While I had mixed expectations about what I’d find, I was excited to finally be able to meet the people behind it all.

My first impression of the Primal Fitness/American Parkour building was of a bee-hive of organized chaos (which very different from chaotic organization) as I walked in the big front door to find myself in the midst of a cross-fit training session in full swing. Weaving my way through the room full of people sweating and grunting as they pounded out their lunch hour WOD (workout of the day) I made my way to the front desk. After being greeted and signed in by the interns on staff I took a seat in the corner to witness the daily routine of the gym as I waited to meet with Mark and Travis.

APK and Primal Fitness World Headquarters.

The building, a converted firehouse, was very different from the other buildings I’d seen other parkour gyms hosted in, both because it was built in 1895, and also because of the patchwork of improvement projects and renovations that left it with the feel of part cross-fit gym, part jungle gym, and part-little kid’s dream house. The classes going on amid the perpetual hammering, sawing, and unpainted surfaces meant that they didn’t have the same glossed and polished look that other places I’ve visited had, but at the same time, it also felt like the gym was never meant to have that look anyway, as there would always be things to improve or tinker with. This feeling was soon explained by my first encounter with the owner, Mark Toorock, aka M2, who broke away from his POD (“project-of-the-day) of making longboard racks to hang in the reception area to say hello and good-naturedly berate the interns on duty, Tony and Tron*, who seemed more intent on bouncing around and rough-housing than in running the front desk or helping with the facility improvement.

The reception area, whilst Tron and Tony were off flipping around.

The "POD" - apparently longboarding isn't just unique to the Melbourne traceurs.

*A quick note about Tony and Tron. These two 16 year-old guys are 2 of 6 “interns” that are part of the APK mentoring program in which the participants work at the gym in return for free training time. Both the guys come from difficult backgrounds in the inner-city, but they have embraced parkour wholeheartedly and have made huge progress over the 2 years that they’ve been hanging out with the APK guys, who have formed a sort of second family, complete with “family dinners” and “rules of the house”. Talking to Mark about the project was really interesting and the academic progress that the interns have made (they have to maintain B’s to remain in the program) is yet more testament to the power of sport, and specifically parkour, to change lives.

Yeah, they like to flip a lot...

While Mark was finishing his racks I got a chance to explore the facility with Knox, who became my official tour guide for the visit. The ground floor (or first floor depending on which side of the pond you’re on) is home to the main training area, which is used for the Primal Fitness crossfit classes and also for some of the parkour classes. The space includes a lot of equipment for a fairly small area, and is outfitted with a variety of pull-up bars, rings, ropes, kettlebells, weights, vault boxes of various sizes, and even a “Ninja Warrior Ladder” (seems like a trend…).

The second floor is divided between the offices of American Parkour/Primal Fitness (the “World Headquarters of the APK” as I heard it referred to) and a second training area. The “offices” include a lot of computing power that is at the heart of the significant APK internet presence especially in the USA. According to Mark, the APK site is the most popular parkour site in the USA and has 70,000 - 100,000 visitors/month, and 11,000 people receive the daily “Parkour WOD” that Travis sends out. While part of me suspects that part of the credit should probably go to the clever naming of the company to fit with web searches, Mark and his crew also deserve a lot of credit for the work that they’ve done over the years (they have been involved in the US parkour scene for a while now). The office is where most of the preparations and logistical work for the APK and The Tribe takes place (the media events company that includes many of the APK members) and is also where many of their videos are produced. (the APK YouTube Channel). While all the fancy computer equipment can crank out a lot of work it was good to see that on the Friday afternoon of my visit it was also put to use to dominating the occasional online Tetris challenge (where I saw Tetris brought to a level of skill and intensity far beyond “occasional gamer”).

The second training area was pretty cool and a large amount of the space was dominated by a floor-to-ceiling scaffolding set-up. Knox showed me around the scaf, and we spent a while messing around on it as I have a particular affinity for anything resembling the playgrounds and monkey-bars of my childhood. As he essentially lives on the scaf, Knox had some really smooth “routines” worked out which gave me plenty of things to work on during my visit. The space also included a number of mats, vault boxes, and rails to allow for all sorts of training and set-ups, as well as a number of window ledges and window frames that made for some unique precision jumps and landings. The small hole in the ceiling you see in the video below is the entrance to the renovated 3rd floor/attic, which happens to be Mark's bedroom, which is one of the coolest bedrooms I've seen- sorry, no pics for Mark's sake (Mark assures me it's a great place to live, but he's had to get used to some extreme temperatures).

Knox - 2 Hours in a Birdman Shirt from Daniel Mannino on Vimeo.

After the afternoon’s activities simmered down a bit I had a chance to talk to Mark and Travis (Graves) about their experiences and perspectives on the development of parkour in DC, the growth of APK since its inception in 2006, and a lot more information about the scene in general in the US. This was really helpful for me since they have both been involved with the sport for a while now and both are highly regarded for their parkour skills or organizational prowess in many circles around the world. By the end of my time in DC I was starting to feel that I had a slightly better grasp on the development and current state of parkour in my home country.

After a quick bite to eat at the local Safeway supermarket (a key to any good parkour training spot’s long-term success- a low-cost source for food that has a wide variety of foods, healthy and otherwise) I headed back to the gym to join in the evening “parkour conditioning” class, led by Rob (he led the whole class on one leg since he had broken the other in a car accident shortly before). The class was good, although the wide range in skill and fitness levels meant that I wasn’t as tired after the class as I had become accustomed to in London. That being said, the class included some exercises and equipment that I hadn’t seen featured in parkour classes before, like the Prowler, that were obviously a cross-over from the cross-fit classes and which I found to be both effective and challenging (although they don’t work for traveling light).

After the class.

My time at APK happened to overlap with visits by the dynamic duo of Hamid and James, who had driven down from Michigan to hang out with Travis, Levi, (Meeuwenberg, one of the first nationally-known American traceurs and well-known for his work with Tempest Freerunning) and Natalie, who was about to embark on a cross-country parkour tour. The fact that it was a Friday leant a particular flavor to the day’s proceedings, and after spending the afternoon jumping around, things started to get wilder as evening fell.

After the official classes there was the Friday night “Open Gym” which gave me my one of my only glimpses at the parkour community that exists in the area. Unfortunately both the class and the open gym that I attended didn’t have huge turnouts and I wasn’t able to stick around for a normal “parkour training” class so I didn’t get a chance to get a good feel for the APK community as a whole. Despite that, a number of people showed up for Friday’s session and the resulting movement and games of “Add-on” (or “+1”) were a lot of fun (especially since I finally managed to master a few of the moves that I’d been working on over the past day and a half). As the training only seemed to increase our energy levels, after the session we headed out to explore the DC night scene, which turned out to be a fitting finale to my visit to the city. However, I feel that I was only able to see the tip of the iceberg concerning the parkour scene in DC due to the briefness of my visit so I’m looking forward to a return visit.

Before people started showing up for the Open Gym.

More information on American Parkour its extensive internet database or the classes they run in DC, Gainesville, and San Antonio.

More information on PrimalFitness.

East Coash Mini Road-trip - Urban Evolution in DC

2012-01-25T03:54:00.001-05:00

I spent my first full day in DC visiting the Urban Evolution gym and training with the guys there. The setup of the gym there was by far one of the coolest ones that I’ve seen in my travels, from the brilliant graffiti that adorned the walls to the sheer amount of “stuff” that was packed into the gym. The set-up included a number of elements that I hadn’t seen in other gyms, some of them, like the warped wall or the “ladder” were easily recognizable from American Ninja Warrior, while others, like the “floating platform” hanging from the ceiling in the middle of the gym, seemed like something directly out of some little kid’s dreams of an ideal play-space. I spent a lot of time talking with Salil, the owner of the gym, about his company, his roots in the DC parkour scene, and his plans for the future of Urban Evolution. It was really interesting to hear about the growth of a parkour scene in my own country and I was surprised by how similar it seemed to the stories I’d heard in other countries, despite my country’s penchant for commercialist exploitation of just about anything.

The view from the "floating" platform.

The balance beam suspended 10 feet off the ground and attached to the floating platform.

No gym is complete without lots of scaffolding.

Ninja Warrior ladder at the left.

I stayed at the gym for most of the day to get an idea of the way things worked at the gym. This allowed me to see some of the parkour classes that were run at the gym as well as the other classes that were offered there like aerial arts, breakdance, and jujitsu. One of the most appealing elements of the gym was the versatility that it offered, with the capability to host parkour jams, American Ninja Warrior contests, obstacles course challenges, circus classes, breakdance jams, and all manner of other events- all while also providing a safe and challenging place to train that could be manipulated and changed to ensure that there were always fresh challenges.

The office- any place with that big a nerf arsenal is fine by me (either side of the door).

While my experience over the past year and a half had prepared me for it, I have to admit that I was somewhat surprised to find that the “parkour politics” in the USA are just as lively and divided as they are in the other countries that I had visited. Similar to the situation in nearly every major metropolitan area that I’ve visited, DC has different “factions” that operate within the same city. However, I was happy to learn that unlike some cities I’ve visited, the grudges didn’t seem to extend past the original participants (as in nearly every case, the founding generation), and on the whole the DC parkour community seemed pretty cohesive. That being said, my visit only allowed me to scratch the surface of the scene there, so I’ll have to leave future observations for another time. I also didn’t have time to check out any of the outdoor spots in DC, which is probably my biggest regret from the trip, but inevitable since I was only spending two and a half days there. Guess I’ll just have to come back…