I'm really surprised to see Chau Belle Dinh there.  It is disturbing...  I haven't read the whole thing yet, though.

EDIT:  Danno's posts are very inciteful.  It's good that he's there.  He's an amazing guy (who just happens to be a mod like... everywhere).

It is strange but rather expected to see what parkour is becomming. Danno and Erwan's posts were great. On the flip side I have set of conflicting thoughts.
A. Let people do what they want and don't hate them for it. If you can find a way to and want to make money for yourself with parkour, fine, do what you will. If parkour becomes a sport, great, I can choose not to be a part of it.
B. The other side of this is that I really don't want to see parkour become a sport, something people do just for excercise, I think it should be more than that. While it's fun and all there is a lot of personal insight to be garnered from training.

When parkour becomes what I think it inevitably will become then drop the name. The word Parkour isn't important - It's the spirit behind it.

http://www.pkto.ca/videos/DavidsBailandmessage.wmv

This is the video Danno's talking about, btw.

Wow. "This is the real parkour".

For me, that changes everything. I've been doing this stuff all wrong. Time to go out and train in a way conducive to my own self-satisfaction with my individual performance.

Belle is a perfect example of why the best leaders are those who genuinely have no real desire to lead.

Indeed, nothing new. Go train, get off the damn computer, don't act like an ass the one time you get a chance to meet David Belle...there's a reason I spent the whole time after the movie premiere sitting upstairs...it WAS quite embarassing, but I guess kids will be kids. Don't make a movie if you don't want to be a star 

I guess the fact that people might need David Belle...or really ANYBODY to tell them to get off their ass and make their training and their purpose into something of their own choosing means as much as anything else. If you're waiting for somebody else to spur you on, forget it. It's time to take the reigns and decide what you want to make of yourself and your training.

Goodnight and good luck.

well i didnt read all of it, but i did read the part about parkour becoming just another comerial sport with sponsership, and its already happinging, one of the members of my team has sponsership... He got sponsered for Skateboarding, then later the same company found out about him doing parkour and gave him more stuf and money for that to, all he has to do is run around doing parkour whenever hes at anything for skateboarding. i think its disqusting but hes all for it. gets him free shoes....

It's all starting to sound like arguing about religion.  The problem is that a person's spirituality is one of the most personal things that there is.  It is something different for everyone, so trying to pigeonhole a spiritual practice into one discipline, or one name is impossible.  For some, it's a fun game that they can now make some money with.  Great for them.  For some, it's a way of life that brings a wisper of character to an uncharismatic world.  Good for them too.  There is no winning this argument, and calling people sellouts is certainly not going to improve things.