Jump up, jump up, and get down

You may have seen an ad for Nike that features a man being chaced around an urban setting by an angry chicken. Please don't go, it gets interesting. For those who haven't seen it, or need their memories jogged, the man in question was walking up walls, doing incredible rooftop and balcony leaps and other assorted death-defying aerobatic acrobatics. Still don't recall? Ok, well here's the bloomin' link to the ad. If you're anti Nike, just close your eyes and think of Blackpot Sneakers. Actually, scratch the 'close your eyes' bit, you'll need them to boggle out of their sockets as you see the video. You can also see two other ads from the same series on this site, the 'Scary Cat' and 'Young Love'. Well worth watching.

And here's a few photos for the people who are on dial up and can't wait for 2 megabytes to load.

WHAT. THE. FUCK.

What is this?

Are they insane?

The answer to the second question is yes. Clearly. The answer to the first is a little more long winded. So here goes.

What it isn't, as I was thinking when I first saw this a little while back, is just a bunch of stunt people undertaking random acts of insanity.

What it is, on the other hand, is a sport.

A sport called Parkour.

A sport called Parkour that was invented some 16 years ago by two bored Parisian teenagers, Sebastien Foucan and David Belle, who would issue challenges to each other to manuouvre themselves through an obsticle course consisting of objects found in the average urban environment. You name it; stairs, rooftops, windows, railings, ledges or balconies, and it's there to be jumped over, slipped under, vaulted off, balanced on, ambled up, scrambled down, spun around and slipped through.

But it isn't simply jumping around for jumping around's sake. There is a philosophy behind Parkour. Participants, or traceurs as they are called within the sport, find new ways of moving through the urban environment, as fluidly as possible, utilising the objects within them, and redefining them as they go. Handrails are the new floors, walls are the new horizontal. The ultimate aim is to reach a state of freeflow, whereby the limtations of the body melt away as near impossible feats of strength, flexiblitity, acrobatics and endurance see to it that even the most difficult obstacles are overcome when moving from one defined point to another during a blind run.

In Europe, it's HOT. It's making headway in the USA. Which means you'll be witnessing it in Australia very soon, if not already.

From what I've heard, read, and seen of it, there's little doubt that Parkour will add a new layer of richness to the urban environment, just as skateboarding and rollerblading did before it, or graffiti and busking for that matter.

Want more? Check out the links below.

Videos: ( you must see to believe)


http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcone/ident_ram/rushhour.ram

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/walking.php

http://www.nmm-trailerpark-hst.com/jumplondon_snif.html


Websites:

Urban Freeflow

Screw Gravity

UK Parkour Association

Parkour.com

Le Parkour

Trace (Australian)