Topic: Iowa Forums Intro Thread - Say Hi here first!

[Mark Toorock]

Welcome to APK and specifically our Iowa Forums!

Announce yourself in here -

Location

Where you train and when

How long you have (or haven't) been training.

Anything else you want us to know about you!

[Smitty093]

My name is Devon Smith. I'm 17 and live in Harcourt, IA. I've been into parkour for about 2 years. I'm moderately experienced and would love to find some fellow traceurs in my area to train with. I live in a very small town where everybody knows me and it gets hard to train that way.

[Josh McCall]

Hey I'm "Captain" Josh McCall, I'm from Mechanicsville, Iowa. I live in a small town in Eastern Iowa, and so places to train are few and far between, but there's some real gems around in suburbia if you know where to look. I've got a crew of about 5 guys that I train with, some less serious than others, but they all come bringing their own perspectives and attitudes toward parkour and toward training. As far as training, it's Iowa after all, so I train when I'm not wrestling and when it's not so cold that you could spit in the air and watch it freeze before landing. I do try to get some winter training in every now and then, but it gets difficult when everything is covered in snow. It's like father winter squatted down and took a white powdery dump on your training schedule. I've been training since I was very little, I was always the little hyper monkey child who thought he was spider-man. I was always getting yelled at by the recess orderly to quit climbing on stuff, but I never minded her much, mostly because I hated her. It wasn't until about 1.75 years ago that I discovered that all the flips and jumps I was doing had a name, and my involvement in this crazy freerunning community began. My skills have doubled since I discovered the Pk/FR scene, but I'm still a work in progress, like Obama's capacity to be president. Zing! I like to laugh, I like to make people laugh, I like to rap but I hate rap music, and when I'm dead I want my epitaph to read "everyone has a voice but few choose to use it." ... See what I did there? As far as anything else I want you guys to know, don't touch my face. Seriously, don't. It makes me uncomfortable. So do places with lots of people, old people who get way too into handshakes, and people in giant costumes (like mascots and chuck e. cheese.) I have lots of nervous habits like fiddling with my hair, I don't know if it's because I'm actually nervous or if it's due to bottled up fury from not hitting stupid people all day. Well, that's about it. Keep freerunning. I'll leave you with a bit of humor.

"I had relations with a girl on an elevator... it was wrong on so many levels."
- Bo Burnham

[Apex]

Hey my name is APEX, I live in Cedar Rapids.  I have been training for about 5 years and would love to help anyone who needs help.  I teach a beginners parkour class at Sokol Gymnastics in cedar rapids.  It costs 7.50 a class, you can hit me up at apex4parkour@gmail.com for more information.  All experiences welcome. 

thanks for reading APEX

[Austin Skyberg aka Ajax]

It's been a while since I last posted on here...never really been much of an active member, but I do my best. Anyway, I figured since it's been a while, might as well re-introduce myself.

My name is Austin Skyberg, I am 21, I live in Estherville, and work in the Spirit Lake Wal-Mart as a cashier. The only person I have to train with lives in Spencer, and rarely is able to come up for anything, so we don't usually train together. As I live in a mostly rural area, there's not very many places to train at, so I do my best at finding some. The few I de find are usually pretty good. As I do work at Wal-Mart, my scedule is so F'd up that I can barely get any sleep in, let alone train, and it doesn't pay me enough. I alternate between writing/making films (Check my YouTube page here), practicing Parkour (The college in town likes to call me Spider Man), and playing video games (Figuring out how to do Parkour within the games that weren't designed for it...lol). I am currently engaged to my girlfrieng of three years, getting married in September.

I would really like it if I could find somebody nearby that is actually good to help me along. I am fine and comfortable learning this stuff on my own, but I am really insecure, especially about my own abilitied. I CONSTANTLY ask people's opinions for anything I think, do, or make, even if I know it's good...but when I'm convinced it's good, no one can convince me otherwise. I have been mostly focusing on speed vaults, rolling, and wallruns (Horizontal and vertical). I would love to land a kong, but I just can't get over the diving part of it. I got the rest down, I just can't dive.

Anywho, hopefully my understanding of Parkour will deepen during my next project (Which involves a major charager doing a massive amount of parkour in his post-apocalypse world...hand animated in Garry's Mod, using time-lapse and sequence photography as the animation basis), and it will allow me to evolve, both as a traceur, and as a man.

I, too, will leave you with a few quotes...

"Anything is possible, you just have to dream it up."
- Me

"If at first you don't succeed, try, try again...and if you don't try again you will get hit in the face with a shovel."
- Black Mesa Source Voice Actor

"Pain is nature's way of saying "Hey, stupid! Watch what you're doin', eh?" in a heavy New York accent."
- Me

[Joel Reeves]

Hey, name's Joel 16 years old only been into Parkour for a couple months. My friend and I practice whenever we hangout (which is usually at least once a week for 2 or so hours. I live in a small town, Maxwell, as far as I know nobody here is into Parkour besides me so kinda sucks. I live on a farm and you'd think there would be plenty to do Parkour on here but there really isn't shit. Anyway, my friend and I think it'd be sweet if we could meet up with some others that are into Parkour around this area.

[Caleb Lee]

Hi! My name is Caleb Lee.

I live in Pella.

I have been a parkour enthusiast for about 3 years and only started practicing it for about 8 months. I am not that good as I am still conditioning my body.

I train almost every day. I go to a local park and head to the heart of town to train wednesdays and fridays. I train with my friend at least once a week.

I started a blog, and I would really like some traffic. Makes me feel like there are other traceurs out here.

withoutatraceparkour.blogspot.com

[Kirkland]

Hey peeps. My name is kirkland darling. Im a beginner in this sportt. Im 15 and a varsity wrestler so i have great core and upper body strength.  Im still in high school so im looking for some people in the des moines area to Give me tips and go downtown with. Thanks.

[Clint Walker]

I'm in Centerville Iowa.

I train every Saturday here in town, on the (cleaned up) ruins of the old recycling plant on the "levee". I trained from '08-'11 when I lived in Ottumwa, then after moving back here to Centerville I took about a year off. Just now getting back at it.

[layne]

Hey im Layne,im fifteen,i live in union iowa,and i've just started training and could use some pointers.

[dragon5601]

  Blimey, The Iowan forums been dead for quite some time eh? Welp, my names Ethan I'm 17, I'm from Des Moines in polk county, I've been training about 2 years and train as much as I can, this summer I'll be going at training a lot harder as I'll be out of highschool by May.