Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.

Topics - Stephen Westbrook

Pages: [1]

Consumer Whores / Take Flight Apparel quality?

« on: June 01, 2010, 08:19:49 AM »

So, in shopping for some new clothes, I purchased a few shirts from TFA. They were reasonable prices to begin with, but the shipping was a bit.. eh.
Anyways, I probably should've asked about them before purchasing but here's my question:

Does anyone know how good their clothes are in terms of training? And casual wear, too.
I don't wanna' ruin them right from the beginning, you know?
I'd appreciate any opinions. :]

Parkour And Freerunning / This is probably common sense but, how do Jams work?

« on: April 03, 2010, 09:19:30 PM »

I've never attended one, although i'm interested in partaking in one or two this Summer.
I'm not really the type of person to just jump in easily with a group of people I don't know, no matter what we're doing, so i'm a bit curious as to what exactly goes down at a Jam.

Is there like, someone who's set up and planned every detail before hand. "Okay, we're meeting here. Gonna' train for an hour here, heading downtown for another hour, Wendys for lunch, and back here for two hours.", or what?

Is it all spur of the moment?
"We're just gonna' hit these hot-spots here and then maybe take a jog 'till we find somewhere new and just see what we can do with it."

Thanks in advance for any help/information/yeah. xD

Parkour / Bar swinging?

« on: March 19, 2010, 01:11:01 PM »

Maybe it's just me..
But when swinging from a bar, I don't go far. At all.

I can jump a pretty nice distance, but when relying on bars and swinging my body to cover ground, I fail miserably.
I go less distance than I did jumping before I even knew about Parkour. You all know that jump. The awkward "I don't know about other types of jumps so i'll just throw myself out there and hope I go far." kind!

Is there some secret to bar swinging that I don't know about?
And is there an actual term for that technique? Just as a side question.. xD

Help, please?

Parkour And Freerunning / So i'm not sure if this is the right place it put this (expert needed?)..

« on: March 15, 2010, 03:31:42 PM »

(If I can't do this on the site, please let me know and i'll remove the topic entirely. Or someone else can. Just please let me know if it's removed or if I should remove it.)

So, I need an expert on Parkour.
Or someone really experienced. They'll count as an expert as far as my school is concerned.

Where I live, we're required to do a graduation project which we start on our Junior year..
And my overall topic is about the Benefits of Parkour. Basically i'm going to prove through research that Parkour has many benefits; physical, educational, etc.. (I don't remember my actual Thesis Statement, but that's the gist of it.)

And one of my required sources is an expert contact.

I tried to get a hold of one member up here, but I was never given a reply and i'm running short on time. I really need to find someone.
I'm not picky, and there are many experienced people up here, so I decided to choose someone out of whoever has the time for me to interview them. (It'll be done via Private Message or Email, as that will be easiest.)

I know that they say beggars can't be choosers, but for this project, I need to have someone who'd best fit the requirements.

3+ Years of PK/FR training.
At least a basic understanding of the physical affects that PK/FR has on the body.

That's really all I can think of, actually.

Oh, and if you're like, a member of a local Parkour community or something, please add that in.

Thanks in advance for everyone who's up for it.
I actually may be able to interview more than one person..

I'll ask my teacher about that.

So, anyone willing to do an interview?

Parkour And Freerunning / Charges for trespassing..

« on: March 13, 2010, 06:26:54 PM »

Sorry in advance for the length..

So, every weekend my friends and I will get together to train at one of two places. Either a local Park or a public school playground.

Last night (Friday) we went to the school playground (where we have gone many times before) and were doing our usual things. You know, vaulting picnic tables, climbing swing sets, precision jumping rails and guards (the little wooden things), and climbing the low buildings they have. (Concession stand-like buildings. A height of 7-8ft at the very most.)
Just to see if we could, of course. (We're well aware of the dangers of being on rooftops, by the way. We're just adventurous, I guess? xD)

Anyways.
When we got up there, we found that someone had actually thrown some stuff up there. There was this golden coin with a prayer on it, a baseball, and a close-hanger. Along with various rocks and sticks.
So we were clearing the stuff off of it for a little while.

A little later, someone actually drove by us, saw us and stopped. They didn't get out of their car, and with my poor vision I couldn't tell if it was a guy or girl or how old they were..
But anyways, they drove off.

Next thing I know, one of my friends is freaking out because there's a cop walking towards us.
Great, right?
Being the respectful person that I am, I was prepared to explain what we were doing and leave if they wanted us too. After all, we hadn't broken anything or stolen anything. We had nothing to hide, right?

The cop (lady-cop) asked what we were doing and why we were on the roof. I explained it as short and sweet as possible, and she seemed satisfied.
She told us that we couldn't be here because we were way too old to be at an elementary school after school-hours.
Then she instructed us to get in our cars and leave.
So we did.

As we were pulling out of the parking lot, another cop intercepted us and had us pull back to the front of the school where he wanted ID's and information regarding phone numbers, addresses, parents names, etc..

About this time, we're all confused because the other cop had just told us to leave, and not even a minute later, we get stopped again?

I'll sum the rest of it up.
Basically, my friends and I are being charged with trespassing and unless we can convince the Principal to drop the charges on Monday, we're screwed.. Well, two of us anyways. One of my friends and I want to go into the Military and we can't if we have a criminal record..

Just thought i'd share what happened with you guys.
:]

I thought it was a little messed up myself, but I can't really argue about it..

Parkour And Freerunning / Forumla/Equation...thing?

« on: March 08, 2010, 08:40:45 AM »

Hey. I'm curious as to how exactly you can figure out how many pounds of pressure is going through your body when you jump off of something and hit the ground.
There has to be a formula or something for it somehow..
It's just a matter of figuring it out, right?

Does anyone know or have any idea?

(This is general information i'd like to know and i'm going to use it in a project i'm doing. Also, I hope this is the right placement in the forum for this..)

Thanks in advance for any help!

Edit;;
I found this!
http://www.pkcali.com/parkour_plugins/content/content.php?content.39
It has a huge equation and all..
but I don't understand it. I'll probably ask my Physical Science teacher about it too, but i'd still like it if any of you could still give me a hand. :]

Parkour / Jump high, jump far!

« on: February 02, 2010, 03:23:30 PM »

Hey everyone. I've been training since September of last year, so i'm nowhere near far in my Parkour experiences.. but I have a question or two for anyone who can offer answers/help/advice. :]

First off, let me just say that out of all the movements that i've done so far, I most enjoy jumping. I don't know what it is, really. I just love leaving the ground and seeing the world from a new perspective. (Which is also probably why I like jumping off of high things.. 12ft being the tallest. Yeah, big mistake now. I learned that due to some threads here.. AFTER I had done it. But i'm watching the heights and all now.

No need for me to be in a wheel-chair in my twenties, right?)
But anyways, I just really enjoy the feeling. Kind of feels like i'm flying in a way, you know? Explains why I want to go into the Air-Force and be a fighter pilot right there, eh? xD

I'll stop talking about nothing now and get right too it..

I recently saw a video from a team of Traceurs right here in our very community (Gospel Parkour, shout-out to them!), and I was so impressed with their jumps that I HAD to see if someone could help me out.

I really want to know if there's some form to jumping that will actually allow me to jump higher or farther than the standard Parkour style of jump. Or an exercise that overall will improve my jumping abilities.

I'd really like some help, if you all can offer me any. :]

Thanks!

Consumer Whores / Looking for new shoes. Vibram Five-Fingers VS Ariaki Lite Mesh

« on: January 31, 2010, 07:43:03 AM »

This was originally posted in the wrong place.. >>;
Thanks to Jake Chess for pointing out the incorrect placement and correcting me on it. :]

(Gonna' copy and paste from here. xD)

-----

The subject says it all..

I've been a Traceur since September of last year and i've only trained in the shoes I wear in everyday life. (Sadly, they're Nike AF1's, and don't have amazing grip..)

Needless to say, in that amount of time, my shoes are starting to commit suicide..

So, I started looking into new shoes for Parkour specifically.
I found the Ariaki and the Vibram.
Two completely different shoes, with two different advantages. (From what I understand, anyways.)

Right now, i'm leaning towards the Ariaki, but I decided to give the Vibram's a last ditch effort..

So, if you guys could help me out with any useful information about either shoe (preferabbly Vibrams, as i've already read a lot about the Ariaki's.), i'd greatly appreciate it.

:]

Thanks!