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Greek Parkour Death a Hoax

Sunday, 26 October 2008

We're very happy to say that no Traceur recently died while practicing parkour. We are disturbed to announce that this was a hoax, a carefully planned deception which was meant to teach a lesson "Parkour is Dangerous". American Parkour and every other community has always placed a strong emphasis on safety, working within your bounds, and learning the basics before progressing. Further, we have always advised that there is no need to practice on rooftops or anywhere that the risk outweighs the benefits. We do not condone the behaviour of those involved in the hoax and wish to apologize for posting information which we thought was valid. Please realize that most parkour practitioners are respectful and intelligent and would not take death as a joke under any circumstance, nor would we choose deception as a transport method for an otherwise important lesson.

Users' Comments

Display 26 of 26 comments

1. 10-26-2008 06:37

I think they pushed it a little to the extreme but im sure they did their job at getting the point accross.

RazorAce

2. 10-26-2008 06:52

This irritates me a little bit. There is going to be a very small percentage of people that wake up one morning see somebody on TV or the internet practicing Parkour and start jumping off rooftops. Most people will approach this like they will any other sport, a little at a time, practicing the basics over and over and continually moving to more difficult techniques. To fake somebody's death just to prove a point hurts the principle idea of what Parkour is and turns people away from it. This could have been done a different way.

BattleMongral

3. 10-26-2008 06:58

Thankfully no one died. I'm a little disappointed at the attempt to fake a death, but the most important thing is that he's still alive. Keep on ticking, man.

J Scrambles

4. 10-26-2008 07:06

I agree with everyone above. I am overjoyed that no one died. I am royally pissed off though that someone would use death as a method of education. I feel manipulated and mistreated by the perpetrators of this "hoax." I think it proves how safe most people are in practicing parkour that no one has died. I don't know, I just can't believe that someone though that was a good way to teach people a lesson...

Ness

5. 10-26-2008 08:33

Gross misuse of human compassion.

Mr.West1

6. 10-26-2008 08:41

Agree

. I have always trained as safely as possible and never promoted anything dangerous. I will not be changing anything I do. Probably the only good that has come from this is that I will never forget how to spell the word "hoax" after looking at that topic so much.

Gen Toaster

7. 10-26-2008 08:50

Just a quick reminder - in comments as on the forums everyone is welcome to their opinion as long as they deliver it respectfully

M2.

8. 10-26-2008 09:43

That was extremely disrespectful and unnecessary to everyone in the parkour community. I'm shocked that anyone would be willing to fake their own death just to try to teach people a lesson. Not only that, but this is also a prime example of the negative publicity that dissenters to our discipline latch onto. I'm happy that no one was killed, but I don't know if I'll ever be able to respect the community that perpetuated this hoax.

VaiYai

9. 10-26-2008 10:10

Yea, agree to the above... I wonder if the person in the video is the one who made the hoax. He seemed too skilled/devoted too have that sort of disrespect to his own practice, his own community; unless thats how he really feels... confused..

NateBearPig

10. 10-26-2008 11:01

I'm happy no one actually died, but I'm strongly disgusted that they used such a rash and extreme method to promote an uneducated opinion regarding parkour.

While what they did had a good (made people realize what it would be like should they practice on a rooftop and fall) and bad (manipulated and misrepresented the parkour and free-running community) impact, I'm glad no one died.

deadlyMETAL

11. 10-26-2008 12:51

Well, that's actually quite a relief!

Sometimes a good scare is necessary to keep some individuals in line.

sleightofhand

12. 10-26-2008 13:26

while the method used to teach this lesson was a little extreme, is ur temporary feeling of sadness for a traceur u thought was dead really too big a price to pay for a lesson that may have saved another traceurs life? i know that i am much more aware of my own mortality now and would actually like to thank Eon for teaching me that i am not immortal

pwnedintheface9

13. 10-26-2008 15:26

LOL. So Stefanos "Eon" Kiourkoulis is the most hated traceur in the world now?
Frankly I was shocked when I read the post. I didn't know anyone in real life who actually practices on rooftops. I thought rooftop jumping is just for videos and commercials. So I was like "Oh, my god, there are real people out there practicing and practicing alone on rooftops." There is really nothing you can do on rooftops that you cannot do it elsewhere. We should have an "against rooftop jumping" initiative like the "against competition" or "leave no trace" initiative.

johnny04

14. 10-26-2008 15:32

I'd like to say to this - who is the person he may have saved? No actual parkour practitioner has died falling from a rooftop. Is there a danger of it, yes. But he may as well have made a hoax that he died form sticking his head in a woodchipper - as a very stern warning against such behavior. My opinion here is obviously that he has saved people from a problem that simply didn't exist.

M2.

15. 10-27-2008 05:32

I agree, M2. As someone working to make sure people in my area are directed to the proper informational channels, I am distressed to find out this was a hoax. A lot of us were put into a position where we look less than informed which cheapens the information we're trying to make available to our community.
I think that this hoax has done more harm than good. There's a chance that someone somewhere can dig up the posts and use it, without adequate research, to our disadvantage.
I'm glad no one died, but this was irresponsible too.

misstanyamae

16. 10-27-2008 06:47

wow, I guess it's safe to say that I thought the tribute video was super lame now. I didn't want to say it before but that music was just ridiculous. And I can see how the quotes they put in the video were meant to be blatantly ironic. Pretty ridiculous.

Funkmastadman

17. 10-27-2008 08:50

Thats pretty pathetic. At least now i can comment on how TERRIBLE the song in the memorial video was without feeling bad. screw that song :P

XTatiC

18. 10-27-2008 09:42

LOL-what XTatic said. That song blows major chunks.

Jonny Mack

19. 10-27-2008 10:35

i was gonna say... someone whose only skill is twirling on bars has no business on rooftops anyway

zing

20. 10-27-2008 16:43

LOL... now that's extremely horrible and I really think they don't have much of a right to shame the name :sigh

f Parkour like that. And GREAT analogy M2, I'll have to admit the woodchipper thing is quite hilarious. :grin

syed8rahman

21. 10-28-2008 07:26

i think that anybody who thinks that this was a good idea is retarded. nobody is forced to do parkour or to freerun. we make the choice and i hope you know that in every sport theres danger.

JMB0717

22. 10-28-2008 08:27

yeah, though it's been stated many times, i feel the need to put my 2 cents in. i feel completely betrayed for really feeling sadness for someone who was practicing what i loved in a stupid fashion, and was the only case of someone actually dieing from it. that hoax was NOT in the spirit of parkour and freerunning. there's no need for tricking and fooling everyone who is dedicated to the SAFE practice of parkour/freerunning. this makes me consider Mark's idea and stick my head in a woodchipper and record it, just so that other's don't do the same. but then again, we have the "Saw" movies.

unMARKeD

23. 10-29-2008 18:16

ok... I've gotta say this since noone else has. his reasoning of "trying to warn people of the dangers of rooftop training" is total and complete BULL!
THIS GUY WAS JUST LOOKING FOR ATTENTION! his parkour and freerunning skills weren't getting him noticed so he came up with this hoax so everyone in the PK/freerunning community would watch his lousy video.

M2 is right, his alleged reasoning makes as much sense as sticking ur head in a woodchipper... thats why I dont buy it. he just wanted attention and his 15 minutes of fame... well, dumbass, hope it was worth it... now ur hated worldwide.

jaegreene

24. 10-31-2008 11:52

i think it was a great idea it worried ppl, it made a lot of ppl think about the dangers of parkour. and now that we no it was a hoax, we feel better, but relize how important it is 2 b safe and smart while practicing parkour...

j7d7r7

25. 11-14-2008 03:58

yeah man eon is sick so i was like oh man ya know then i was talking to them on myspace and saying sorry and i was the first to know it was a hoax. i felt special. lol :P