Nice job to all involved! And if you are in the area, don't forget to check out the monthly gym jams Rafe hosts at Mt. Baker Gymnastics. You can see some pictures here and the next one is this Saturday the 9th.
As a promotional performance for the unveling of the K-Swiss Ariakes , Frosti, Skynative and M2 will be travelling to Sydney for a live performance at the University of Sydney. All three are excited to be travelling for such an exciting feature and are looking forward to performing alongside Danny Illabaca as well as training with all of the Australian traceurs while they're there!
Guys, this is an amazing opportunity to meet and learn from some of the most qualified and sincere practitioners of our art! On the 14th of February a team from Parkour Generations will be holding an open training day in New York City. Starting in Central Park, the day will take the shape of an informal training event at which anyone is welcome to come and practice and access knowledge and methods that come direct from the French founders of the discipline. For more information on Parkour Generations go to www.parkourgenerations.com
After a minor setback due to some unscrupulous voters the APK staff came together and voted for the winner of the Picture of the Year Award. This years winner and recipient of a $100 K-SWISS Gift Certificate, an APK T-Shirt, and an APK hoodie, is…Corndogg for “Escape.” The second place prize of a $50 K-SWISS gift cert, an APK T-Shirt and Hoodie go to Kannagisai . Thanks everyone who participated, we can’t wait to see what new creative vision 2008 will reveal! Thanks to K-SWISS for sweetening the prizes! Now get your pic of the week entries in!! - Update! Upon being notified of the prize, Corndogg immediately told us it's not
him in the picture. According to APK's (poorly accesible) rules
the picture belongs to either the participant or the photographer -
Corndogg has agreed (and even volunteered) to give the prizes to what
we feel are their rightful owners - the Subject, Andrey Pfening? and
the Photographer, Volfgang. For his continued contributions to
the Community Corndogg will also be receiving a new APK TShirt.
If you haven't taken note already, American Parkour has a regularly updated wallpaper that shows up right underneath the featured video. I ( doc akh ) normally do the wallpapers, but also feel free to submit any that you've created or found by PM'ing me! If it's a rockin' submission, it will be tossed up here as one of the Weekly Wallpapers!
This week we've got a minimal Tribe / K-SWISS mash-up for you.
Just click the thumbnail to view the full resolution image. Read on for a collection of some of the best past wallpapers!
Every weekday APK posts a new W.O.D. These workouts feature agility, strength, balance, power, endurance, and speed enhancing drills and exercises which are directly or indirectly useful in Parkour and Freerunning - no part of fitness that we know of goes wasted while moving through your environment! We made a quick video of some of today's workout moves, and trimmed it down to 30 seconds instead of the time it took us to do the workout. You can also find descriptions and photos (and some videos) of exercises in our Fitness section. Post your results for the workout in the comments for the WOD or in your own Blog or Training Journal in the forums. We also have a mailing list where over 1,000 people get the workout by mail every day!
Its been some time since American Parkour's own Skipper has realeased a new video project. This one, filmed with HD cameras (of course compressed for friendly download speeds) is called "Remission" and features some new, untouched hotspots located in Burke, VA, and in NW Washington DC along with somesother fun little quarks. The continuous message in all of Skipper's videos preaches fun to the masses. Get out there and move, without worrying about what to call it.... Just dont stop moving!
"The only real motivation for this video is to keep tabs on my progression. I want to make sure I document my journey in parkour and freerunning as much as possible, you know, so my grand-kids will have something that proves I wasnt always paralyzed from the neck down, lol." Read more for video link and story
Sam Ser wrote a great article including an interview with Sebastien Foucan. My favorite quotes from the article come from the interviewed Traceur "Denis" - "On the contrary," he says with a grin, popping up,
unscathed, after landing with a roll that diverts the force of impact,
"I'm far more careful than the average person." - Another great quote "In our world right now, there is very little
discretionary time for children, and there is way too much programmed
activity as opposed to the freedom to do what they want. Boys find this
freedom by just going out in their teens and trying to break out from a
very boring set of environments and opportunities," explains Roger
Hart, of the Children's Environments Research Group at the City
University of New York. Sam contacted American Parkour, unfortunately we weren't able to make the connection to participate in the article. Check out the complete article here .
NPR will be airing a piece about the University of Michigan's Parkour Club today, Jan 21. The feature will air once during 'Morning Edition', and once during 'All Things Considered'. This should put them at approximately 7:30AM and between 4:50PM - 5:45PM (EST). Go here for a schedule.
To listen to NPR online, go here .
Jams are what we call it when a bunch of people get together to do Parkour. San Francisco Parkour does a lot to help promote parkour in a very positive way in the San Francisco Bay area, and recently they've started having regularly scheduled jams to get people out moving. Read more for a brief description of the Jam by NoSole and some pictures. Update - Check out the Video!
