San Francisco has been throwing montlhly jams for quite some time but
last months (August 8th) came with great success! 50+ traceurs showed
up along with 5.10 shoes , G4TV and addicted.tv film crews. 2008 by far
was the best year for jams in the U.S. Click below to read more about
the jams and how things went down in SF.
With the location on rotation around the Bay finally back in SF, we had hoped for a great turnout. Plans were put in place and the ball started rolling, and what a jam it turned out to be!
After a false start at USF, packed with students for "Move In Day," we shuffled the initial group of ~30 traceurs over to a second spot (that we were going to move to later in the day) as fast as possible. That itself was a feat, as the "Bunkers" are a bit tricky to find. Although they ended up being not too beginner friendly, the Bunkers were a great spot for the entire jam. Located right along the water, (check out the "Satellite" view on the google map ) the picturesque Bunkers are a long string of publicly accessible abandoned buildings, along with stairs, rails, rooftop access and gaps - lots of long flowing lines to say the least. Beginners were helped out by experienced traceurs on the few friendly obstacles, making the best of it, while the others spread out across the Bunkers to find their own ways. Lots of rolls over gaps, wall runs, tic tac to cats, underbars to drops, wallruns to underbars, rail precisions, cats over gaps and more were seen throughout the day, with over 50 traceurs jamming at one point!
In addition to a great location and tons of traceurs from all over, there were a few other bonuses and special guests. Jason brought the 5.10 van up from LA, armed with some muscle and some shoes. The muscle came with King David, a fleet footed 5.10 traceur from down south, and a few others he could fit in the van. The shoes were a gang of 5.10 Freerunners and Daescents for people to try out and demo! Also making an appearance was the G4TV film crew, shooting NoSole and doing a few interviews with local traceurs, as well as the addicted.tv film crew. Sweet. Check out the jam recap pics, vids and comments here
Brian aka NoSole had his parkour celebrity status reaffirmed once again as a fan and admirer asked to take a photo with him. NoSole... so hot right now... NoSole. (for you Zoolander fans :P )
Anyways, the greater San Francisco Bay Area community continues to grow as parkour awareness increases and we connect with more and more communities and local traceurs. The Monthly Jams attract people from Santa Cruz, to San Jose and Fremont, to Sacramento and Santa Rosa, as well as San Francisco, Berkeley and Oakland, and everywhere around and in between. September brings another busy and beautiful month, with 2 Beginner's Class Jams and another Monthly coming up, hosted by the strong contingent in Sacramento! Gonna be a hot one...
Last but not least for SFPK is the new "How to Organize a Jam" thread here. As part of the efforts to encourage the growth of parkour in local communities, a reference was created for those starting out on how to connect and organize jams. Its nice to have just a little extra push when starting something new! This is just the initial take - feedback and posting of links to similar resources is encouraged! Hopefully more useful guides will be coming shortly.
Very parkourily yours, jam soon...
- Corndogg
Users' Comments
Display 6 of 6 comments
1.
09-05-2008 18:58
We dont have anything like those bunkers where i live. truly envious.
2.
09-05-2008 21:37
i found that thread on how to organize a jam very helpful, thanks for that. i am strating a club at my college (purdue university calumet) and there are some great pointers in that thread
also, sounds (and looks) like you guys had a blast! i need to come down there sometime.
-Norush-
3.
09-06-2008 20:00
we need some thing like this down here in Temecula " southern CA
im leader of our schools Parkour club and we hae a good 40 kids who would Love a Jam
how do i organize this ??
4.
09-07-2008 15:10
Fourth Pic, Jersey in the house.
5.
09-07-2008 15:32
Dang....I'm moving to San Francisco.
6.
09-08-2008 11:42
thanks for all the comments. at SFPK we are trying to spread the word about parkour, get people hooked, connect local communities and traceurs, and help the community grow. one vital aspect is identifying leaders and supporting them, so that we have more and more people taking direct responsibility in spreading and growing parkour. so the "How to Organize a Jam" thread is just one step along that path.
jimjim25000 - feel free to PM or email me (here or ideally at SFPK forum) and id be happy to chat with you!
Display 6 of 6 comments
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