I think Parkour is awesome. I loved watching it at the beginning of Casino Royale, thought Jump London and Jump Britain were great, and I’m looking forward to simu-playing it in Mirror’s Edge.
Maybe one of these days I’ll try running up a wall. Until then, I’ll be inspired by these women of parkour who talk plainly about what it’s like to be a woman in this sport — like the logistics of the kong vault, which reminded me of my own struggles with backwards breakfalls. Damned breakfalls.
The article is accompanied by a great video.
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Parkour is amazing, and it has an eco-edge to it...
"It’s a sport that shuns competition and an art form with city blocks for a canvas. It’s also a means of engaging and questioning the built environment. Parkour and its followers literally can’t be fenced in.
On the surface, the cityscape is a ready-made obstacle course for the traceurs, who scale walls, leap over gaps, and bound to the ground with a joie de vivre consistent with parkour’s Parisian origin. On the way to work, during free time or at organized meets, traceurs playfully move through the city in ways that challenge convention.
At heart, parkour is more than sprinting across rooftops or vaulting over cars; environmental and social justice are essential elements. Halifax Parkour’s Ethics of Training advises traceurs to respect people and the landscape by adopting an attitude of “leave no trace.” Dan Iaboni from pkTO, Toronto’s parkour network, explains that sustainability is in the traceurs’ best interest. “If we don’t treat our communities with respect,” he says, “we can’t go back.” Traceurs are encouraged to pick up litter, give way to pedestrians, and even repair displaced mud. “We live with the city,” says Iaboni, “not against it.” Moving at their own pace and ability, traceurs develop a heightened awareness of themselves and the urban environment. “You know every nook and cranny,” says Iaboni.
To train in parkour is to internalize free-flow movement in the hopes that it will permeate other aspects of life. As a discipline, it fosters adaptability, problem solving and creative thinking. Looking to shift your perspective? A few moments spent running horizontally on a wall just might do the trick."
(That was just something I wrote a couple of years ago to fill a gap in the magazine I was working for. The gap ended up filled by something else. Finally, this little blurb has a moment in the sun.)
Posted by Erin E.
October 28, 2008, 7:38 PM
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