Everything you guys are talking about, has been discussed for as long as I can remember.
Truly and honestly, Parkour was not started as a philosophical "spirit search." It was simply a way to move faster and more efficiently. That's the true meaning of parkour.

I'm all for the philosophical side of parkour, but it doesn't matter how we look at it. Parkour will go mainstream. Parkour will have an era of bad PR. And frankly, parkour will die. It will be overtaken by its sister Free Running, and so will philosophical parkour. All because the media wants flashy movements and "tricks." So in essence, parkour is gonna become much like martial arts. Where lots of people will participate and only a few will ever actually grasp the full meaning of it.

To push parkour in the right direction as best we can, we need to be the best people that we can. Plain and simple. It's like a religion: in everything you do, you represent parkour. So stop screwing around with your life, get it in line, and parkour will "get in line" with the media as best as possible. (No offense to anybody.)

I have to disagree about Parkour dying.

Parkour will survive, if only because it has proven highly applicable to life in general.  I could easily see Parkour being adopted as a training program by police, the military, or anyone else who has a professional interest in developing physical capabilities.  As long as there is someone to teach, there will always be someone interested in learning Parkour.

I don't doubt that the media will pick up on free running and run with it, but Parkour will survive because it is so utilitarian in nature.  Who cares what the media do anyway?  Let them talk up Free Running.  Free Running is just an extension of Parkour anyway, and shares many of the core skills.  What's good for Free Running is good for Parkour.

As for Parkour being outlawed, I doubt it.  Some politician will probably try, but even if they do, it'd be unenforceable.  How do you stop someone from doing something with their own two feet?  Anyone can do Parkour at any time, anywhere.  No one can force you to stop.

About the negative PR, well, that's up to us.  Why does skateboarding have such a bad rap?  Because skaters are a bunch of lowlife, pot-smoking losers.  Is that a gross, unfair generalization?  Sure, but it's true often enough that it holds.  The bottom line is, if YOU do your part to uphold Parkour's reputation, and make sure those around you do the same, then there's no reason we should get a bad rap.  Of course, there are always those who love to look down their noses at young kids no matter what they're doing, but screw them.  There's nothing you can do about that anyway.

Parkour is going to be around for a long, long time.

I dont think Parkour could ever really die out per sae.

When people ask me what I do I describe it in this way:

1) Have you seen Casino Royale?
2) If I have my Zune maybe show them a video
3) Using your body to move quickly and efficiently throughout your enviroment
4) Urban Obstacle Negotiation
5) Urban Gymnastics (but without flips) bead example but it helps
6) Re-Evolving your body to its natural abilities since man was made***

they usally dont say some thing cause your doing something wrong,usally they dont want to get sued. example: easy monkey vault-thinks i got this no problem-boom clips feet bam lands on face,bust his nose,lip,or something. they just dont want to deal with it,but sometimes they are just assholes.i can see parkour growning increible,with a spnsor like k-swiss that supports us.

uuuuuuuuumm yeah

Yes, but after a while, I would think that you would miss rails, and tired of leaves, twigs, and sometimes insects, getting everyhere, every time you roll.

yeah but just to go against protocol and ask how does everyone feel about parkour getting so popular bad effects or not

OK I know we have sort of moved slightly from THIS part of the discussion... but i have heard this used several times in this type of conversation. The "average" person (someone who does not practice the art) will only frown upon the sport merely because they are afraid. They don't like to see what they can't comprehend. "The fear of the unknown."

I am a huge fan of physics and a lot of this "Trying to understand the hugely vast universe or the minuscule particle" has some scientists worried. Because MAYBE past theories or ideas will be disproved... what would this do? This would change the way we think about the world around us. Some people just refuse to accept change.

Now replace physics with Parkour. a witness to the sport doesn't understand what we are doing... the way they think is "stay on the side walk or use the stairs". When that person FINALLY realizes that what they have been doing is conforming to what we call "normal" they will finally understand that what we are doing is not so odd... yet its creative and just a new way to look at your surroundings. this "unknown" becomes exciting and interesting to someone who has never experienced it before. Or the few that will NEVER realize that this creative way to live or move is a good thing and a great lifestyle to enjoy.

such as the scientists who discover new things and disprove the theories... we will be the ones that laugh when everyone else comes to realize THEY have been wrong about their "world" or the way they move in this case.

P.S. Vista's spell checker doesn't know Parkour.... sad. o and I know there wasn't a direct connection between physics and Parkour but you get the idea.