STLpk represents all of the traceurs, traceuses, & freerunners in Saint Louis and the surrounding areas. STLpk includes practitioners from both sides of the Mississippi River. On the Missouri side, we have members from Bowling Green, Springfield, Saint Charles, Florissant, Ballwin, Saint Louis and other surrounding areas. On the Illinois side, we have members from Collinsville, Roxanna, and East Alton. We regularly hold downtown jams, at which we meet at the Arch steps and work our way through downtown Saint Louis.
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"You might remember from this spring a post on a partial translation of Georges Hébert's "Guide pratique d'éducation physique".
After I posted it Gregg from Hawaii PK contacted me as he was working on the same project, and between the two of us we managed to plow through the 500+ pages of original material over the summer and fall. This new version is the "complete abridged version", meaning most of the material is there but some of it has been shortened, reformulated or skipped. Gregg published online a "complete unabridged literal translation", much closer to the original text so you can compare them more easily."
Read more for the rest of Pilou's intro and then download link for book!
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We are sad to report that a Sacramento teen suffered a fatal fall from an 8 story parking garage. We send our deepest condolences to the family and friends. News reports have stated that "Parkour is being Investigated" as a possible cause. We want to remind evereyone that safety and progression are ingrained in Parkour training and there is never any reason to practice that high up, it is dangerous and doesn't aid your training in any way. Every parkour community stresses the importance of eliminating risky behavior. If you need a reminder, you should read our "What is Parkour" definition that discusses the importance of safety. You can also read about the right way to get started with parkour in our "Getting Started" section.
You can read the story here, or comment in the American Parkour thread or the San Francisco Parkour thread. San Francisco Parkour asks everyone not to contact the media about this and to give the grieving family the space they need. The death of a teenager is always tragedy, so let's avoid making this more painful for the family.
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"Hey everyone, so I'll be wrapping up my move out to California. I'll
be looking for places to train along the way and if anyone would like
to house me and my roommate for the night. Here is a map of the route
I'll be taking so if your not to far of a detour we may have a chance
to stop by and train. We'll be leaving Friday November 27th leaving us
a few days to make our way to Cali. If you are on the way just send me
an email with some details and contact info. Here's a link to the route I'm taking, or Read More to see the map. Look forward to meeting
some of you guys, and I'll have to apologize in advance if i can't make
it to your place. Thanks a lot, and happy training!"
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APK Alliance member Max Calder will be appearing on the CW's The Vampire Diaries next week Thursday, November 5th at 9/8c.
He did stunts for the episode, and has an on-screen appearance as a Deputy. "[He] had a great time working on the show, the cast and crew are awesome and fun to be around. [He's] also very thankful to the Stunt Coordinator John Copeman for hiring [him] for the job and giving me a chance. He's a great guy to work with."
Because the show hasn't aired yet, he can't talk about any specifics of what he did on the episode, else it might reveal some key plot developments.
But in the mean time check out some promo stills from the episode
For those of you who don't know, Lawrence Halprin was an architect who designed most of the parkour hotspots in the country. From Freeway in Seattle to Cat Fountain in Colorado, he was undoubtably the most important non-traceur with the most influence on the spread of parkour in the United States. He died on Sunday. The official cause was unknown, but he was 93 and had many health issues.
Halprin was an architect who "saw there was a need for a new way to express the (urban) landscape at the end of the 20th century." Although most of his creations were built before David Belle climbed out of his cradle, his vision enabled so many of us to rediscover ourselves, to redefine our cities, and rejuvenate our lives with movement. He has been called the "the single most influential landscape architect of the postwar years" by people who have never even heard of parkour. What would they say if they knew just how influential he was?
While walking through Baltimore (which houses a fountain in the Inner Harbor that I've always suspected he designed), I once found a quote inscribed on a wall. It reads...
"We must hold fast to the realization that our cities are for people, and unless they work well for people they are not working well at all. As the people of the world learn what is possible, they will demand that their cities be geared to the humane and the beautiful." - Jim Rouse, Social Visionary.
Farewell, Mr. Halprin. You will be missed, but the world will not forget you. But after the world moves on, traceurs will still be paying their homage to you every time they train.
-Zachary Cohn
I encourage all traceurs to take a moment next time they train to reflect on the architect who designed your playground - whether it was Lawrence Halprin or not. If you train at a Halprin location, stop everyone at the next jam and hold a moment of silence. You can read more for some links to some articles and pictures
featuring his work, as well as a list of his creations and several
obituaries.
Winter is coming up, and while training outside in all conditions is important, sometimes after a long, cold training session you want to do more parkour stuff! So here's a cool new parkour flash game you can play while you warm back up. First level... Brooklyn, New York. Post in the comments and tell us how far you can get!
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"My name is Colin Hopkins and I'm a 16 year old high school junior from Grove City, Ohio. I read the recent announcement about Patrick Reed's parkour interest group at his high school, and it is very similar to the club i started at my high school. This past year a levy failed to pass in my school district which would have eliminated all extracurricular activities including all sports, clubs, etc. In the wake of that, i decided to try to spread interest in parkour, which was made easy because i'm on the school's news team. I made announcements for parkour training sessions and played videos displaying parkour to rally interest in it. The first few sessions i had were pretty successful, with ten or so people coming eager to learn, and i did my best to teach them. After a while, interest grew and i started having 15 to 20 people coming to every session, which i was holding every tuesday and thursday. Now it seems that everybody in school is familiar with the discipline, and i've earned a great deal of respect from my leadership position. This increase of interest in parkour is a dream come true for me considering i've been the only traceur in the city since i started training a year or two ago. I thought i should report the news because it seems to be a good example of the positive spread of parkour."
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American Parkour wants to wish Parkour Visions good luck! They've run a few classes out of their new Seattle, Washington gym so far, but today is the Grand Opening! There are vault boxes, parallel bars, a rock climbing wall (which is the ONLY way to get to the lounge), and a sweet underbar-into-the-office. Best of luck, Parkour Visions, and we hope it's super successful!
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Patrick Reed writes in with a suggestion for people trying to start High School clubs...
"I started a Parkour Club my junior year at James Madison high school in Northern Virginia. Unfortunately, the club had to be listed as an
"interest only" club due to the dangerous nature of Parkour. It doesn't
matter though because all we do on club time is agree on when we are meeting
next to train. I would suggest to any high schooler to try and start a "Parkour Interest Club"
at their school because, depending on how you run the club, it could be
a very small time obligation and it is a great leadership position!"
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STLpk represents all of the traceurs, traceuses, & freerunners in Saint Louis and the surrounding areas. STLpk includes practitioners from both sides of the Mississippi River. On the Missouri side, we have members from Bowling Green, Springfield, Saint Charles, Florissant, Ballwin, Saint Louis and other surrounding areas. On the Illinois side, we have members from Collinsville, Roxanna, and East Alton. We regularly hold downtown jams, at which we meet at the Arch steps and work our way through downtown Saint Louis.
We are sad to report that a Sacramento teen suffered a fatal fall from an 8 story parking garage. We send our deepest condolences to the family and friends. News reports have stated that "Parkour is being Investigated" as a possible cause. We want to remind evereyone that safety and progression are ingrained in Parkour training and there is never any reason to practice that high up, it is dangerous and doesn't aid your training in any way. Every parkour community stresses the importance of eliminating risky behavior. If you need a reminder, you should read our 
Cloud writes...
APK Alliance member Max Calder will be appearing on the CW's The Vampire Diaries next week Thursday, November 5th at 9/8c.
For those of you who don't know, Lawrence Halprin was an architect who designed most of the parkour hotspots in the country. From Freeway in Seattle to Cat Fountain in Colorado, he was undoubtably the most important non-traceur with the most influence on the spread of parkour in the United States. He died on Sunday. The official cause was unknown, but he was 93 and had many health issues.
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