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infoxicated
3rd August 2004, 12:28 PM
On Sunday night I caught a series of programmes on the Extreme Sports channel about Parkour (http://www.urbanfreeflow.com/UrbanFreeFlow/frontpage.htm) - the art of negotiating urban obstacles. Like that BBC advert, for those in the UK, but less pretentious!

The first part was like a beginners guide, with seperate moves broken down, while later they gave examples of how to chain moves together on a run. before moving onto the more advanced stuff.

I used to get up to that kind of thing when I was younger, jumping from high walls and treating the terrain as an assault course that I could conquer. I never really had any technique, though, which (could explain why my knees are borked now!, and never thought of it as a sport or artform.

The disciplined approach shown on the programmes makes it look fantastic fun, too - with "traceurs" - and the positive image that the UK Parkour association are trying to project is commendable too.

After a bit of digging I see that Eidos are chucking together a PSP game based on it too - could be a good IP for them as the sport gathers momentum.

Anyhow, has anyone seen or done any of this?

Roger
3rd August 2004, 04:11 PM
I saw an example of it on Swedish TV about a month ago - pretty wild stuff! Reminds me of the French movie Yamakasi (that gang was mostly into climbing, though).

Shem
3rd August 2004, 05:52 PM
sure infox, I did this kind of whatever you call it (sport? you name it) some time ago. Me & a bunch of my friends just gathered in one place, took an aim on the "finish line" which was a number of obsticales away from the starting piont. Then BANG, and we were off. Running like maniacs. I quit this kind of extreme urban obsticle run just after I almost broke my back as I fell off some booth straight on a fence. With my back hitting the fence. Come to think of it, I'm amazed I'm not a handicap, that could have ended up pretty badly. Anyway, it's still a good fun, and yeah, the knees are giving me a hard time right now too infox :)

Set
3rd August 2004, 06:17 PM
This is really similar to what I've seen in a commercial for the new car company, Scion.
If you go here: http://www.scion.com/drive/gallery/drive_xb_gallery.html
And click on "videos" and then "freerunner," you can see it. I thought it was pretty cool.