[wordup] Le Parkour

[Adam Shand]

I thought I'd already posted about Le Parkour but a search of the 
archives proves me wrong.  I stumbled across it a couple years ago, 
can't remember how anymore, and instantly wasted the next two days 
reading everything I could and downloading all the movies.

It's Amazing.  Completely Freaking Incredible.

The links I collected at the time are here:

http://www.spack.org/wiki/LeParkour

Just be prepared to spend the rest of your life wishing you were 
younger, stronger and as cool as these guys.  :-)

Adam.

Via: Herr Nagengast <todd at gnosh...>
Via: nev at bostic...
From: Gary Bianconi <garybianconi at sbcglobal...>

Yesterday I came across two videos that showed people leaping from high 
buildings onto the ground or other buildings and doing amazing feats of 
strength and agility.

Here are the videos:

Young Love

http://alf.com/stuff/young_love.mov

The Angry Chicken

http://alf.com/stuff/angry_chicken.mov

After searching for more information on this I found a goldmine of 
links to incredible videos, documentaries, upcoming movies in the 
making, message boards, pictures, videos, terminology, etc.

This unique art called Parkour or Freerunning, is still at it's 
embryonic stage, yet there are shoes, clothing lines, music and 
accessories available. Adidas and Levis have become involved and have 
short films and commercials in the works.

Whether you refer to the discipline as a sport or an art or like to 
call it by the name - Parkour, Le Parkour, Jump, Freerun, Urban 
Freeflow, Free running or plain old PK, the people who practice it seem 
to defy gravity. They have an acrobatic strength and grace that makes 
their movements appear to flow effortlessly.

What is Parkour?

Parkour is very basically the art of movement where participants 
(otherwise known as 'Free-runners') use objects within their urban 
surroundings, to create new and interesting ways of moving.  It 
encompasses running, jumping, vaulting and climbing to overcome these 
obstacles, where the ultimate aim is to do so in the most fluid and 
flowing way possible.  For people unfamiliar to Parkour, the easiest 
picture to paint is to say that what we do is the closest you can get 
to the Matrix, Spiderman and Hong Kong martial arts movies in the sense 
of movement, but without the need for special FX or wires.

Here are some links that I copied from the Urban Freeflow site. They 
will take you to places previously unimagined.

http://www.urbanfreeflow.com/

The Global Parkour Network

http://www.parkour.com/

Parkour.com The home site of our very good friend and co founder of the 
discipline of Parkour, Sebastien Foucan. If you are new to Parkour, pay 
a visit here and check out all the video footage. You won't be 
disappointed.

http://www.kiell.com/

Site run by the first ever professional PK photographer - Kiell (also a 
member of the Seidojin).  Home to some of the best visual work in 
parkour in the world.

http://www.christiehq.com/

Website of our good friend Mike Christie, Director of the Jump London 
and Jump UK documentaries.

http://www.trickstutorials.com/mother_main.php

Tricks tutorials great site to learn the mechanics behind certain moves.

http://www.urbanfreeflow.com/urbanfreeflow/tricksntech.htm

Parkour is as much about the movement between moves as the actual moves 
themselves.

Enjoy!