The Alignment

Once in a very rare while, the craziest coincidences happen where many random events fall into place perfectly. Such an occurrence happened recently. I just moved from Michigan to Los Angeles, CA about a month ago, and although I already have a lot of great friends here, I inevitably missed those friends and training buddies back in the midwest.

Both Travis Graves, originally from Michigan, but now a trainer at Primal Fitness, and Cloud Cousins from Chicago had told me they would be visiting LA sometime this summer. Just before the 4th of July weekend I suddenly received word that a couple Chicago, Aero guys were coming this weekend, and it was Thursday. Soon after, I found out that Cloud and a bunch of his friends and roommates from Chicago was also going to be in LA that same weekend! If that wasn't enough, Travis decided to come that very same weekend as well!

First I picked up Cody and Emmanuel from Chicago, who were staying downtown for an anime expo. We hit Santa Monica beach and did a little training and a little sightseeing. Travis's flight was coming in that same day so afterwards we went and picked him and Jessica up. They were going to take a train to San Diego, but they just missed it, so they decided to stay the night and hang out with us. Once we all crammed into my little subaru, we puttered our way up north to my place, and Gymnastics Olympica where team Tempest was training as well. Although we were mostly beat from the training and traveling, it's always nice just to move.



We said goodbye to Travis and Jessica the next morning as they boarded their train to San Diego. For the fourth of July Cloud and his posse were having a barbeque on the beach and invited us. So Brenda and I went and met up with the gang, and had a great time, and enjoyed the great food. I love BBQs. Despite it's being a little cool out, we jumped in the water and wrestled with the big waves for a while. Good times! Later, as Brenda and I were leaving we pulled over near a stadium and watched the fireworks through the window. It was a great show, car alarms kept getting set off. We saw many other fireworks shows taking place all around us as we drove home on the freeway.



Cloud, Cody, Emmanuel, and I were able to squeeze in a quick training session at UCLA before the guys had to go. UCLA is a great training ground because there's just so much great architecture to use.

The rest of the Chicago crew were able to stay and go to a gym session at White Lotus Kung Fu. There was a Korean news reporter who came to do a piece on freerunning, so he filmed and interviewed us while we trained there.

By this time, Travis came back from San Diego and stayed for a few days, including my birthday! We got in a lot of training, and just fun while he was here. One morning we went out into the mountains with OJ and climbed all over the huge rock structures. It was a blast, though quite dry.



We also got a chance to go see Santa Monica and Venice beach with Travis. He aced the flying rings on his first try, of course, since he's a beast.



At night for my birthday, we made some amazing nachos, then an amazing cake: Brownie and Chocolate Chip cookie mixed, with a layer of chocolate frosting, then a layer of vanilla, then another layer of chocolate. As soon as it touched your tongue it would make you giggle at how unbelievably sweet it was!



We also got a chance to jump into the pool at my place. Conveniently the second floor balcony in right over the deep end, so we took full advantage of that great setup.


Later that week I had some friends from Tempest over to my place again for a BBQ and pool party. They also got a kick out of the setup....



Eventually Travis, Cloud and the gang all went back home but it was really nice to see the midwest crew again. It was like being back home in the Michigan! Thanks guys! Ill see you at Denver!

Just Move

I was talking to a girl last night, she'd never heard of parkour until she met me. Thanks to APK, facebook, and youtube she got some solid internet stalking done and so she began to describe what she saw when she watched the videos she found.

"It's so simple. You're just moving. It's art though, the art of moving, I guess. Yeah, the art of movement."

Easy as that. With fresh eyes to our oldest question she stated simply and elegantly the idea of what we do. Now I know many people consider parkour and freerunning and ADD different things and that's true, they do have different definitions for the words, but to me it all comes down to one simple idea: What do we do? Not what do we call what we do, not what it means to do what we do, just simply what do we actually do? Now I'm not trying to deny the existence of differing disciplines and that some may only be interested one idea and not another, but what I do want to recognize is just what connects us all. What is it that allows hundreds of strangers to gather in one city and open their doors to one another? What is it that drives people to run and jump and climb? What is it that makes us, this family, exist? What brought us to this place we're at today? I remember the animosity and separation that divided the community only a few years ago. What is it that softened those tempers, that bridged those gaps? To me I think it was a simple realization, that no matter what you call yourself, it's only a word, but what we do that is more than a word, it's an understanding. A shared desire to just move, for whatever reason you give, to whatever end or goal, it's all just movement.

I am constantly in awe of what this community has accomplished, how it has grown, how it has helped to build itself, the image it has presented to the rest of the world. All the efforts of each individual member and every local community, hosting jams, running Leave No Trace days, posting videos, offering helpful posts, every little action has proved to me time and time again that whatever it is that we call ourselves, we've all found a way to connect, to work together, to build something incredible, and most importantly to just move.

Chicago Colossal Jam 2009

The American Parkour scene is starting off strong this summer. First (B)East coast with a record of over 120 people, and now Colossal with 147 Traceurs! Each year the numbers keep growing and who knows when they will reach a limit. Aero hosted its first national jam in 2006 with 30 people…

With the majority of the out of town traceurs coming in Thursday night; Friday started off with a taste of a local pancake house which soon lead to an impromptu tricking session outside of a Trader Joe’s… The official welcome and night training session kicked off at 7:30pm in a local park with introductions and a rail balancing challenge to begin the night with. Training lasted until around 10:00 or so with Cloud and Fresh getting all the out of town guys places to sleep. Some choose to stay up into the hours of the morning, while others tried to maximize on their sleep knowing full well that an 8 hour jam was about to commence….

The day started off with poor weather reports and all signs pointed to rain. Rain or shine Colossal was going to happen, and luckily the clouds decided to hold back. The jam was ideally starting at 10am over at University of Illinois Chicago, but unfortunately Cloud showed up to his own jam 30 minutes late… Introductions were in order and the teachers for the day were introduced. Frosti and Jake Carlson went over rolls and landings, Leon went over precisions, Cody Beltramo and Syn worked on flown and putting movements together, Chris Price and Spyder (Chris Wachtman) went over Climb ups, and Cloud and Mike Metze taught vault fundamentals. The day started off great with everyone training and almost no problems. Ryan Thill (a local) pulled of a nice tac to wall run, and after an hour or two we gathered in the Quad and began some more workshops and general jamming. Crain Tutorials, Wall Smash techniques, PDQ, Circle pushups, and more general awesomeness continued for a few more hours. Logan from Colorado and Syn pulled off a massive Kong to precision that many instantly doubted when judging the distance. Around 1pm we took a group photo and broke for lunch. Thai Bowl has never seen so many customers….. Around 2pm we all left to head downtown for the second half of the jam.

A quick hop on the train and by the time we arrived at Vietnam Memorial our numbers had increased. Everyone was already in full swing with Cats on the right and Wall runs on the left. Cory from Team Pandora started off the wall run session nailing a massive 16 foot wall run… The rest of the day many others tested the wall as well. The massive Kong to Precision was revisited by Leonn and Chad Zwadlo. Security came shortly later and politely told us to stay off the walls, we finished up our session and headed down the Chicago River to hit up a few spots along the River Front. Some more jamming and new spots were discovered, while we pressed on for the beach.

Once we arrived at Navy pier most were exhausted and already pushing 6 hours of colossalawesomeness… A large group of us still continued to push on and turned the beach into a nice tricking session. There was a nice ledge off to the side for various interpretations of how we like to manipulate our center of gravity. Finally, the sun was setting on the Colossal Jam, and 95 percent of the practitioners were wiped. So it was time to call in the big guns… Muse of Fire was our special guest from Madison and she was happy to lead a stretching session to finish the day with. Last minute housing was figured out and we all headed home for some Chicago deep dish pizza. It was glorious and we headed to bed early enough to try and recharge whatever we could for the next day of the Jam.

Sunday started off with Cloud and his group getting lost and showing up 2 hours late again….. The Dunes jam was already in full swing and by the time we got there, I could easily spot Traceurs climbing the sand dunes in the distance. They aren’t your typical dunes, these had sections that acted has platforms to jump off of. The landings ranged from a story or two with a drop into the softest sand you could possibly imagine. You could literally run as fast as you could on top of the dunes and try to jump as far as possible with no worries. Cloud took a hilarious fall that resulted in him rolling multiple times down the side of the dune due to a missed step right before takeoff. The day was cool and the water was a pleasant temperature after a long day of training. After a long day of training in the sand everyone was parched and with one less car (decided to breakdown) we called it quits and headed back home. The last few stayed at my house for one last night and headed home the next day. All in all 147 practitioners dominated Chicago and helped make it a truly epic jam of the summer.

The Chicago Colossal Jam is an annual event held by Aero. Once a year, Aero invites all traceurs from around the nation; west, midwest, and east, to come out to the city for a weekend of nonstop Parkour and Freerunning training.

New Tutorial By Urban Current

Well, attempting to continue the progressive way we make tutorials, we have come up with a new one.

Check it out, feedback welcome.

Heaven

Its rare you come across a training spot that offers everything one could imagine in terms of challenging movements and obstacle "density"

Here in Miami we've come across a place we've aptly named "Heaven". Apart from the stereotypical white concrete all over the place, it gets its name from the endless opportunities for movement. The spot is an enclosed condominium complex on South Beach that is currently in development. Apart from the flowing water running through the constructed fountains, the place seems to be long overdue for finishing.

There is hardly a movment, or combination that can't be executed with the right skill and imagination.

We're happy to share a few photos with everyone and hopefully it will still be available to everyone for a future Miami jam!

Check out all the photos in the APK Gallery...but enjoy these samples...

Is Parkour Healthy?

Yes, yes it is (if practiced in a healthy way).

Lately in my training I've been asking myself this question more and more often. Am I just breaking my body down and setting myself up for chronic injuries and painful stiff joints in years to come, or am I building my body up to withstand the rigors of use? I believe everyone practicing parkour/freerun/movement art should be asking themselves this question regularly.

Parkour can be both destructive and constructive, as traceurs we have a responsibility to know the line and cross it only with the intention of doing so and the knowledge of potential consequence. Do not think for a second that performing acrobatics on concrete and hard surfaces, landing from even low or moderate heights, and many other common movements don't break down the impact-absorbing mechanisms in the knees, ankles, hips, back, etc. Balancing time spent training these techniques with an informed, correct strength and conditioning regimen, flexibility and posture-correcting efforts, and healthful recovery and diet practices is absolutely essential to keeping a parkour practice on the "healthy" side of the spectrum.

I won't tell anyone what they should or should not do, I only wish for people to make informed decisions. If someone wants to knowingly and willfully pull big, adrenaline-producing stunts with a conscious disregard for consequences down the line, that's their business and as long as they don't recommend it as a sustainable and healthy way to go about things. I sometimes feel this way myself. "You're only young for so long, live life to the fullest", right?


I see parkour as the bridge between extreme sports and physical health disciplines, between skateboarders and yogis, the mountain bikers barreling down the hill and the Tai Chi practitioners in the meadow at the bottom. Finding a balance between the rush of big move and the respect for your future body is something we must all do and keep in the back of our minds at all times.

Just some thoughts that have been rattling around in my head for a while.
Happy Trainings!

Travis

Slowly but Surely

Slowly but surely has long been my credo for training, as my friend m1l3s put it so well "you always have another day, but you only have one body". I see lots of people pushing Parkour in lots of different directions and I just wanted to express my goals, my mentality, my direction and my methodology.
Slowly but surely doesn't mean that you shouldn't be training as hard as you can, because I absolutely think that you should be pushing yourself as much as you can towards your goals. It's more an agreement with yourself to build a strong foundation and to continue to build on it through your training. If you only do things that make you stronger you don't need to worry about many problems that seem to plague the Parkour community.
Now I've had my fair share of injuries, and while I wouldn't attribute any of them to my training they are relevant to it. Treating your body with respect after an injury seems to be something that a lot of people have a problem with, starting over, doing lots of rehabilitation and prehab to help make sure whatever happened doesn't happen again. With parkour that means giving your body ample time before getting back to the level you were at something, because while you may still be physically able to perform, you no longer have the foundation necessary to do so without further injury to yourself.
I see a lot of people with the mentality, especially at jams, to do the biggest thing they are capable of, regardless of experience or their level of conditioning. These same people will make passing comments about their health, say that their joints hurt, but make no correlation of this with their actions. I think that any time you encounter joint pain or muscular discomfort you need to take a step back and reevaluate your training. Responsibly and correctly putting more emphasis on becoming stronger and better conditioned for Parkour will translate not only to fewer Parkour related overuse injuries but will help phenomenally in your mastery of the art.
When I train Parkour I train for kinesthetic awareness, I train for repetition, I train for life. I train for small movements done perfectly, and as my skill and conditioning level increases, so too does the size, the speed, the accuracy, the power, and the control of the movements I am capable of.

More than the sum of its parts

As graduate student, and I'll probably end up as a professor teaching classes somewhere, and I'm very happy about that prospect. I love teaching. I love interacting with students and seeing their sense of triumph they grasp some new concept or skill. Though I've taught several academic courses while in grad school, I think teaching Parkour has taught me more about being an instructor than anything I've done in the classroom. One of the biggest lessons for me was about how important it is to form a class of individuals into a group. I want to share it with you here, in case it can help you, should you ever get the opportunity to teach Parkour (or anything else!).

Recently I've been working mostly with the advanced Parkour students at Primal Fitness. Though the advanced classes require some thought about ways to keep it new, interesting and challenging for the regulars, in the end, the people who make up the advanced class know each other, build off each other, and can work together to help each others' weaknesses. It less like a formal class, and more a group of friends striving together to get better at Parkour. The exact skills that we go over in class aren't as important as having many voices, many suggestions, and the support of the group to help everyone do better.

In contrast, in the beginners classes, the teacher is responsible not only for keeping the students safe and teaching them skills, but also for making it possible for the group to become a whole, to work together. I think having the students become a group is one of the most important things that happens in the bootcamps, but it is also the thing that I find the most challenging, because it's something a teacher ultimately isn't able to do; it is up to the individuals whether to form a group or not. The class I'm working with now includes people from ages 17 to 35, men and women, in all sorts of physical shapes and from all walks of life. About the only thing they have in common is an interest (not even an ability, yet, but just a sort of “gee, that sounds neat” feeling) about Parkour. That interest may not be enough to get them to work together, but it's all an instructor is given to work with. I've watched the other instructors at Primal and have seen how the students react, and have seen a variety of strategies for helping groups come together.

One of the easiest ways to help build a group is to learn everyone's name, and to call them by name regularly. This gives the students a feeling of belonging, and it gives others a chance to learn their name.

Slightly harder is providing challenges that they have to work on as a group. Among other things, group conditioning exercises can help people bond. We do things like make everyone do a wall sit and pass a medicine ball back and forth, or form a long tunnel of people holding plank and make everyone QM through it one at a time.

Hardest of all, though, is finding the appropriate level of challenge. Everyone has different skill levels, and it's hard to challenge the most skilled while not alienating those who are struggling. We do this by scaling the activities. In some cases, that's easy to manage: If someone can't speed vault a 3ft box, we have them work on a safety vault instead. If speed vaulting a 3ft box is too easy, we pull out the 4ft box. In other cases, it requires more creativity. We assign a certain number of exercises for the warm up each day, and some people finish sooner than others. Rather than letting them stand around, we now make them hold a static posture until everyone has finished, so that no one is making the group wait – instead they are all part of a group exercising until everyone is done.

I'm grateful I've had the chance to learn these teaching strategies, and I hope they help others who want to teach.

-Amanda Henry

Kids' Classes Rock in Seattle.

Trey is 6. He bounces eagerly on the balls of his feet, waiting for
his turn to try the ground level precision jump. His sisters are 9
and 11 years old, polite and graceful, they patiently teach a new
student how to land quietly like a ninja. God, I love the kids'
classes.

We start the technical portion of class by running in a direction I
choose, balancing on the curbs and giggling when I jokingly reprimand
loud footsteps. Moving from there, I lead them through a slalom,
ducking and weaving through a line of pillars under a freeway
overpass. My older student, Amelie, takes the rear and helps me keep
an eye on the younger ones. One day, she plans to enter our
apprentice instructor program.

Ever moving, we tack off of trees and light posts.
When we pass a set of railings I call to the students,
"What would you do there?!" A chorus answers, all at once;
"I'd kong that, then underbar!"
"Oooh, Oooh! Gate vault, one step, safety vault!"
"Show me." I say, and they do.



We run the whole class, hitting all of the obstacles we see in a
one-stop scenario. The kids learn how to adapt to an ever changing
environment, think on the run, put plans immediately into action, and
be creative. They eat this stuff up, and beg for more. I don't know
many adults with that kind of athletic stamina.

Our shouted conversations about foot placement, parkour history, and
leave-no-trace are enthusiastic and in rhythm to the sound of little
lungs working hard. After a while, Trey and another little girl get too tired to run. Butthey make great weight vests for Amelie and I as we sling them onto
our backs and keep running. Trey squeals in my ear when I safety
vault with him, clinging on like a spider monkey. It's surprisingly
hard work to be a backpack, and I know they're still getting a work
out.

All too soon, it's time to head back to the gym and stretch out. Even
after I wrap up class and grab my hugs and high fives kids are
clinging to poles outside, trying to hold themselves in flags.

There is no doubt these kids will achieve great things.

The Rochester Community

Upstate New York has, in the span of a year, become a bustling and lively community. Since the launch of Rochester Parkour, exposure has sky-rocketed and more and more people are coming out to see what parkour truly is.

Rochester is a great example of what can happen to an area with just a website and a couple of motivated practitioners. It is a new community, barely a year old, and already boasts over a hundred followers. Within this year, we have also been given wonderful opportunities to get media coverage ranging from TV interviews to newspaper articles.

As the school year came to an end, I wondered what, if anything, would happen to the community. The community here is mostly college students, who leave during the Summer, either back home or abroad. I was more than prepared to keep advertising, but settle for smaller group sessions of 1-5 traceurs.

This is where the power that just one strong media piece can bring shines. Our first Summer session jam had 15 new arrivals, 8 more on the second. Most of this group of 23 found us through our local newspaper, The Democrat and Chronicle or the Rochester Insider. The rest had done a simple google search.

Rochester really shines in the Summer, and the extra free time has allowed the group to travel more and experience other spots in the city, rather than our home location of Manhattan Square Park.

I am proud to say that the Rochester community is alive and kicking and is no longer a group derived of RIT friends, but a sustainable and growing city wide community, with influence reaching through universities, high schools, and now several businesses. I am eager to see where this next and upcoming year will take Zac and I, and also Rochester as a whole.

Charles Moreland

Back in the day...

(Listen to this track while reading for the full-on experience: Ahmad--"Back in the Day")

So here we are, on the cusp of Parkour and Freerunning becoming even more of a worldwide media sensation than it has already. Professional deals, shoe sponsorships, websites with tens of thousands of unique visitors each month...it's all a little dizzying while at the same time exciting and full of potential. On the upside we all have the opportunity to share these activities that we love with new and excited people, to spread the good word about proper training and respecting your environment to a whole new generation of traceurs, but on the downside we have an increase in the negativity that's associated with the competitive aspect of procuring a living from a sport. Egos become involved, and when they're mixed with the volitility of the internet....well...you all know where I'm heading with this.

I myself have left most of that behind. My job is essentially to make people fitter. Each day I wake up and go spend my hours at work basically doing exactly what I love to do, teach movement to motivated people that love our programming and the community that it's created. I have little need to go flex my e-muscles on forums for ego's sake, and I'm eternally grateful for the oppportunity to be able to say that. But as more people become involved in striving for the upper echelon of this community, what exactly has been left behind?

I can't speak for everybody, but there was a time (what I will call the peak of my Parkour training) when myself and a handful of friends became fed up with the ever-increasing negativity of the Parkour forums. We realized that beyond all of the pomp and circumstance, the real reason we became involved in all of this is because it's an enjoyable way to spend your extremely limited days on this earth. Redefining your environment while intereacting with your friends and becoming more physically adept...it doesn't get much better than that. Yes this all has the potential for allowing hard-working, talented people to make a living, to be real professionals, but the foundation of it all is that it's just damn fun.

So, a bit of a classic video from the heyday of "The Band of Merry Men." Our overriding slogan "STFU and Run" pretty much sums it up (and if I could find that video I would post it too ;)...the internet really is NOT serious business, so take a minute to chill and remember why we're all here.

VA-Parkour "Band of Merry Men"-- "Timeless"

Edit: Found STFU...good old non-approved music...the silent version might still be worthwile:
"STFU & Run!"

The clip that started it all ... for me

I was searching Youtube the other day and found the media regarding parkour that eventually got me into training. Back in 2001, Ripley's Believe It or Not did a piece on the Yamikasi, and it was remembering that piece in 2004 and discussing it with then room mate Brian "Doc Akh Horus" Belida that got us both to start going out and training. Thanks to pkmbyte for posting this for us all to reminisce. Enjoy.

PKNY Friday we had a big BBQ and plenty of jamming in my backyard.
People came from as far as Michigan, Colorado and Atlanta. Several
visitors put a lot of hard work into building a precision garden,
something I’ve thought about since I first heard of plum pole
training. Between plenty of food, great weather, and a customizable
setup people were jamming well in to the night, with some people even
going out for a circuit at 4am.
At 6 the following morning Zac, Bryan, and I woke up to start
breakfast, though admittedly I didn’t play a very crucial part. By 7
we had pancakes flying off the griddle and a short blast of my stereo
had the whole crew up and at em. We were able to get out early and
head over to Central Park where we would be starting the days jam. We
met up at Heckscher with everyone just coming for the day, played
around on the fence there for a while, then started a huge game of
Zombie Tag, to great success. Once nearly everyone had arrived we got
up on to the rock for a group picture and split up into groups.

My group headed out for some training in the ramble, but not before a
good warm-up on the way. A short jog brought us to the gravel along
the path to Bethesda Terraces where we started a session of Indian QM.
We began by demonstrating several different methods of QM that we
train, and then explained the concept of Indian Running. Everyone QMed
along the gravel in a designated fashion while the person in the back
of the line would make their way to the front, at which point they
would decide a new designated fashion to continue along with. We kept
it moving and finished off the last 50 feet of gravel or so with
inchworms, Bryan pushing through them with just one arm.

From there we went down into the terrace and I introduced a shortened
version of a circuit that we do there frequently. Once everyone got a
little comfortable with jumping between the pillars and traversing
along the walls we set the rules for the circuit. You could do an
inchworm between the pillars instead of trying the jump, if you tried
the jump but failed you would have to do an inchworm and 10 pushups or
20 squats. If you fell off at any time during the circuit you would
have to do 10 pushups or 20 squats. We started by QMing down one set
and traversing around the wall, where many people continued to fall
off throughout the Bethesda session, resulting in hundreds of pushups.
Others were able to climb along the wet sandstone and jump along the
pillars, QMing up the stairs on the other side and coming back around
for another pass. Once everyone felt thoroughly warmed up we headed
over to the ramble.

We started by just wandering a bit, rambling if you will, it seemed
like a normal session in the Ramble might be a no go with mud and wet
rocks and trees, not to mention that several in our group that made it
this far had not had previous experience with training parkour. We got
to the waterfall we often train at and after a short bit of messing
around, Sky began carrying logs down the hill. From that we all began
carrying two large logs up and down the hill, passing off at the end.
Between various methods of carrying and the differences between
traveling up and down hill, along with the added difficulty of
navigating through mud and rocks made for a pretty intense session,
not to mention the hilarity of seeing Rob and I slipping in synchrony
time after time. We finished the session up with a swift pace
traversing through the ramble to Belvedere Castle, where we worked
flow a bit in the heavy rain before heading over to the subway to meet
up with the rest of the group.

We ended up at the banks after a short stop for a meal at about 3:45,
where everyone met up and dispersed along the rails to train their own
thing. Chris Price and I had a nice session of untrained and
underappreciated movements, with some races to prove at least decent
effectiveness. Nikkie started a nice session with several traceurs
holding a bar for others to vault. From there we all headed back to my
place for another BBQ, where people ate and hung out into the night,
outside despite poor weather, and inside playing cards. An early
morning diner run replaced last years light conditioning session,
which is unfortunate, but we can always make next years twice as
light.

On Sunday we started off by heading to an amazing castle playground
near me around noon. Just as we were setting off someone mentioned
Chinatown Park, and I said in passing that if this park got torn down
I would probably cry. We were woefully greeted at the park by a pile
of rubble, and after messing around for a bit at a stream nearby we
grabbed some of the old playground and headed off to another park
nearby.
We headed to a park near me that has some amazing trees to climb and
play around in, but were unfortunate enough to get there the same day
as a massive crafts fair. From what I understand the group that went
to play in the trees was not able to do so for very long. My group had
gone over to the track and put together a pretty good little workout
that we didn’t get the chance to add upon. Along one side of the
track, about 100m or so there are thick green rails, about 7 feet high
or so to the side with the track and a little over three to the side
with the stands. There are a couple gaps about five feet wide along
the rail for stairs that run up the stands. We decided to run a mile
and balance the rail each time we passed it. Going from the elevated
heart rate from running to trying to calm and focus for balance proved
a good challenge. Once we weren’t able to stay in the park any longer
we headed over to a school with some nice rails and a decent
playground to play around on. After a couple hours we headed back to
my home for a bit of a smaller BBQ as people headed back to their
respective homes. We made a bon fire, had reeses s’mores and enjoyed
the feeling you can only get after a great jam.