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Article in Florida Newspaper

Thursday, 13 April 2006

This article was recently printed in the Palm Beach Post. Overall a very nice job by Fred Marion. I feel the beginning was a bit hokey, but definitely better than many we've seen. The video, on the other hand, is something I'm not proud to have related to "Parkour" ... as there isn't any. There isn't anything that could even be passed off as Parkour, and worse it seems to have a focus on injury and showing off. While I'm not trying to be overly harsh to the Florida guys, this is EXACTLY why we try to share info with people and we recommend that certain people represent for media opportunities.

What impression will the Floridians have of Parkour? Serious discipline about moving through your environment, or a bunch of kids jumping off stuff ...

Users' Comments

Display 27 of 27 comments

1. 04-13-2006 13:20

I was logging on here just now in a frenzy to be like you guys! look ! these guys are ruining parkour for everyone! and saw this on the front page... man...

cepopeye

2. 04-13-2006 13:37

I just got on and I see this article and I think cool more people in the Florida area. Then I read the article and I'm thinking not to bad but I then go on to watch the video and think what the hell are they doing? Was it editing or was it the kids? I just didn't like how they portrayed it.

AD Titan

3. 04-13-2006 14:04

oh man...

Demon

4. 04-13-2006 14:12

Proof from the article of thier badness: "Later, he leaps down 12 steps, running off his momentum on the hard pavement."

Shouldn't that be a roll?!? :upset

cepopeye

5. 04-13-2006 14:51

Good point cepopeye, I noticed something a bit wrong with that sentence when I read it in the article but ignored it.

AD Titan

6. 04-13-2006 15:24

fantastic. im not going to sit here and flame those kids, but c'mon people. The explanation IN THE VIDEO was even ok (to an extent) but while they were saying "point a to point b with no interupted movement" they were all taking turns doing hand stalls on a pole. Even if you dont feel that you can perform parkour movements very well in front of media... dont try to improvise with other stuff like that please. like m2 said, this is why we try so hard to teach you all what parkour is and isnt.

skipper

7. 04-13-2006 15:47

Again, the article was decent, the commentary wasn't horrible... but they didn't even attempt to demonstrate Parkour THROUGH ACTION.

Kipup

8. 04-13-2006 16:44

Quote

...because a lot of the time we have to jump from extremely high distances...

1- No you don't
2- If you choose to, please don't spend your time bragging about it to the media...

Other than that, it was interesting to see stalls and other randomness flaunted as Parkour...please dear god take your time, train hard, and forget about representing for the media for a while. You would be doing us all a favor.

gearsighted

9. 04-13-2006 20:31

Stalls are times 10 points!!! I can't wait for the new vault stall in the new Free Running game! What I did like was the philosophy it touched on.

Cloud

10. 04-13-2006 21:01

Hey im new to all of this but the article was what brought me too the website, i did this sort if stuff when i was younger and loved it, its cool that its organized. as to the video, they shouldnt have represent parkour as a whole,
glad to be here...

kayaker134

11. 04-14-2006 00:22

Well the article wasn't that bad but it definetly could have been better. Now the vid on the other hand...yea....

pyro4pk

12. 04-14-2006 09:20

right like i said, they seemed to have presented parkour to the media *pretty good* from a written and spoken standpoint, but it was not demonstrated properly..... nor did it look like they were trying to demonstrate it properly.

skipper

13. 04-14-2006 16:31

yeah dunno 'bout that vid. whats with all the gloves?

Corndogg

14. 04-14-2006 16:49

Thea rticle was okay. Nothing wrong with it, really. At least, nothing HORRIBLE. The video is infuriating.

Animus Light

15. 04-14-2006 16:59

they refer to it as a clique, not cool.
and whats up with them using "zero gravity" as their crew's name, isn't that a established stunt team?

The only good parts came from M2. well, at least no one takes florida as whole serious anymore after the whole election fiasco

Homer

16. 04-15-2006 12:25

Okay, this is pretty bad, but at least we've seen it before. What are we going to do about it though, is the question. We've already seen the power to solve problems that apk can harness, I say lets let it loose again, and fight awful videos like this with education. Either an appeal to florida traceurs to try and repair the damage, or an outside effort (hopefully cooperatively with the existing FL traceurs), maybe jamming the major cities, would be the best things we could do right now.

Or I'm crazy, you decide

Twitchkidd

17. 04-15-2006 14:57

I'm a student at FSU in Tallahassee, Florida who recently discovered The Discipline. I run and cross-train -- I'm serious about it in a good-natured way. The only problem is that I can't find any serious training partners. This isn't a big deal at the moment, but it sure would be nice. So, to Twitchkidd I say word! Let's have some of Jams down here's in Florida. The Capital City (Tallasassy) would be a great place to start!

durk

18. 04-15-2006 16:38

Then again, I don't know of any established groups that could host a jam. Maybe someday...

I would like to reiterate an important point touched on by gearsighted. All non-experts, including me, should keep a low profile in the media until they can be objectively considered experts. David Belle trained for more than ten years before he sought serious media attention. This should also apply to uploading videos of you and your friends which anyone searching "parkour" on google will see. These are so often silly and are surely misleading to outsiders.

durk

19. 04-15-2006 17:54

Well I live in Tampa, Florida and this makes me mad. I'm not that great and neither is my team so we're going to keep a low profile till we get way better then maybe get the media's attention and try to fix what they have done, but that might not be for another couple years atleast.

AD Titan

20. 04-15-2006 18:59

Hmmm, I don't know how I feel about that. I think the problem isn't lack of expertise (though that may certainly be a factor). I think that these guys just don't know what's up. I'm pretty awful as far as traceurs go, but I've been going for a year and a bit now and I could represent better than this. I can't vault over something as big as other people can, but I vault things that are in my way so I can do the whole 'displacement' thingy ...

Twitchkidd

21. 04-15-2006 19:45

I think these are all good points. I agree with Twitchkidd that it might not necessarily be technical proficiency as much as an ability to clearly and concisely communicate the motivation and mentality behind Parkour.

The fact of the matter is, that footage could have been 5% of an entire day of great sessions, with only that little bit of goofiness. Unfortunately, when the media becomes involved, you have to treat every second seriously, as any misstep will be recorded for later use, no matter what percentage of your actual actions it may be.

I think that the best thing that can come out of this is just such a discussion. If people realize that there is a difference between casually training with friends and stepping in front of the media spotlight to attempt to represent the art, then perhaps we can avoid such mishaps. I also hope that this brings to light the point that it's more important overall to dedicate your time to serious training rather than doing all you can to bring Parkour to the media. If they approach you, fine, do your best, or find somebody you feel comfortable putting forward as a representative, but actively searching out these opportunities shouldn't be anybody's goal.

gearsighted

22. 04-15-2006 20:12

I concur with gearsighted. We should, if approached by the media, take it seriously and not goof off because they WILL use it.

AD Titan

23. 04-16-2006 04:23

The way I see it is this. Though they may have played it out wrong, I don't understand what the issue is. This site was formed based on differences in opinion on what Parkour is. This movement with fluidity and grace concept is not a religion, it's a life filter. We have the ability to see the easiest way. Everyone here is hating on a stall, but tell me, what use is a wall spin? Yet pictures of them are featured. Reality check, we are the ART of movement, details, exploration, experimentation are all INTEGRAL parts of ART.

They're not excellent at what they do, I'm not even sure that I saw them say that they are. What this is, is a chance to have more people look at what we do. Lame or otherwise, it is publicity, and with only 110,000 hits to this website, according to the article, any publicity that takes new runners here is good. I would rather have to correct people, than see no growth.

Zach(University of Florida, from Ohio)

TraceurX

24. 04-16-2006 05:43

I have to disagree with you on quite a few points:
"This site was formed based on differences in opinion on what Parkour is"
Nope, this site was formed to give practicioners in the US a place to come and discuss both Parkour and Freerunning, two different arts. The administration here agrees completely what Parkour is. Check the "What you need to know" link on the top right of the main page, which brings me to my next point:
"we are the ART of movement, details, exploration, experimentation are all INTEGRAL parts of ART. "
Unless the purpose of your art is controlling your body in such a way as to find the most effective movements in any environment. In Parkour, that is the purpose, in that video that didn't happen even ONCE.
" I would rather have to correct people, than see no growth."
I would rather have 100 people with good attitudes who understand the differences than 13,000 morons. Maybe it's just me.

gearsighted

25. 04-17-2006 13:15

yea i saw that article, and i thought those guys were kinda hokey..idk, but the artcle did point me to this website. ive been doing "parkour" for years (never called it that, just did it for fun, to see wherei get and how quickly and stuff) i didnt know it was a national thing.

saint_death

26. 04-17-2006 13:19

i just watched the video, what a bunch of dousche bags,"What impression will the Floridians have of Parkour? Serious discipline about moving through your environment, or a bunch of kids jumping off stuff ..." from them, i think the latter

saint_death

27. 04-17-2006 16:24

I don't think they're douche bags, I reserve that for Massachusetts drivers

These are kids who meant well to get some publicity for Parkour, and just went about it a wrong way, and really didn't know what they were doing and how to handle the situation. I would doubt any of them is watching the video and slapping each other high 5.

m2.

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