If you’ve heard of the video game “Mirror’s Edge”, you might be familiar with it.
If you’ve heard of a guy named SkyNative, you know who one of the best is.
Back in February/March, a show came on G4 called “Jump City: Seattle.” In it, 16 different traceurs (people that freerun/parkour) are on 4 different teams and they compete for the title. The show was 8 episodes long. I watched every one of them. Multiple times. (I blogged about it here)
It’s now been a shade over 3 months since I wrote that entry. What have I learned?
-Learning how to fall is important. Had I not been practicing falls over these months when I gave myself a concussion in Chicago, I’d have busted my face, glasses, nose, and anything else. Instead, I just gave myself a concussion because I had no way to know the sidewalk was uneven. Had it not been, I’d have rolled out of it fine.
-Running headlong at an inanimate object that might or might not kill you or injure you in some ways is A LOT OF FUN.
-I love wall climbs over things.
-I still can’t run more than a half mile if I’m just running, but if I’m doing Parkour, it’s a lot longer than that.
-Trying to freerun in glasses is just asking for it.
-Right – and I’ve dropped 28 pounds. 
(hey, not ashamed. I started doing this to get back into shape. I’m doing it now for both that.. and I LOVE IT.)
I don’t think I can ever do the things they do, but if I can eventually get a back flip down, I’ll be so happy.
Until then, I’ll stick to the lower jumps and rolls.. and figuring the best way to land.
My hope is that when I finally get to visit LA, I get to attend Tempest Freerunning Academy. I really would love to go just to be able to watch in person.. and get some help and advice. (As far as I know, I can’t find any other traceurs around here).
I’d also love to interview anyone from Tempest for The Kitchen Sink… Levi and Luci Romberg are two people that I really admire. (I hate the word idol).
But hey, let’s let freerunning speak for itself.
I’d love to try this! There isn’t much to jump over here though, there’s walls I suppose but they lead into fields were there were cows and you could twist your ankle if you put your foot wrong in there!
Haha! as someone wrote (and i can’t find who exactly it was) if there’s a fence, a wall, a car, or a lightpole – you have a practice field.
No lightpole out here (I used to love climbing them as a child though when I actually lived near one!), but there are cars and stuff, so I’ll have a think and see what I can do
There are TONS of videos and information out there. I encourage you to just look through all of it. I can do a lot of practices in our back yard, with just two trees and a fence. Chairs are nice but totally not enough to push off of.
The nice part is, if you have a hallway relatively straight, it’s THE best place to practice rolls. That’s the first thing you’ve got to learn – how to land yourself before you break your face :3
Oh, practicing rolls is something I can do. I have a nice field out the back of my house!
I used to love doing tumbles and cartwheels as a child so this part interests me. And it definitely sounds like the smartest place to start.
The latest craze around where I live is parkour for the lazy aka extreme planking!