LEAPS OF FAITH NOTHING STOPS THE TRACEURS OF PARKOUR FROM BOUNCING OFF WALLS OR JUMPING OFF BUILDINGS.Byline: Sandra Barrera Staff Writer Devon Martinez is balancing on a wall some 5 feet away from the UCLA Medical Center UCLA Medical Center is a hospital located on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles in Los Angeles, California. It is rated as one of the top three hospitals in the United States and is the top hospital on the West Coast according to US News & World Report. parking structure. The lanky 15-year-old from Huntington Beach Huntington Beach, city (1990 pop. 181,519), Orange co., S Calif., on the Pacific coast, across from Santa Catalina Island, in an oil-producing area; inc. 1909. It manufactures aerospace vehicles, aircraft parts, optical instruments, and heat transfer equipment. takes a deep breath and jumps across the void to the side of the parking structure. ``Whoa!'' His sneakers sneakers Noun, pl US, Canad, Austral & NZ canvas shoes with rubber soles sneakers npl (US) → zapatos mpl de lona; zapatillas fpl stick to the concrete surface of the wall as he reaches up, grabbing hold of a railing to prevent himself from falling. Martinez then swings himself into an opening in the parking garage. It's the kind of triumph that traceurs -- as those who practice the French import of Parkour are called -- risk bodily injury for. What's Parkour? Think skateboarding without a skateboard, or Spider-Man working without a web. A kind of urban gymnastics, Parkour challenges its practitioners -- most of whom are young men -- to overcome obstacles using only their bodies. You may have caught some of their videos over the Internet, or seen Parkour used in music videos, commercials, even Hollywood blockbusters. But it's more than just an adrenaline-pumping pastime. Parkour originated in the '80s in the Parisian suburb of Lisses Lisses is a french commune located in the Essonne département, in the Île-de-France region. One of the main landmarks of the town is the Dame du Lac, a large structure meant for climbing but is currently closed to the public. with David Belle David Belle (born 29 April 1973 in Fécamp, France) is the founder of parkour and is a stuntman and physical educator. His military training and early athletic, climbing, gymnast, and martial arts training acted as the foundations for the discipline he has developed. . The now 33-year-old appeared last year in the film ``District B13,'' vaulting over cars and bounding from balconies to rooftops. Belle introduced Parkour to the masses in a BBC BBC in full British Broadcasting Corp. Publicly financed broadcasting system in Britain. A private company at its founding in 1922, it was replaced by a public corporation under royal charter in 1927. commercial in which he does spectacular stunts like jumping from one building to another, caroming off of walls and corkscrewing in midair high above gridlocked grid·lock n. 1. A traffic jam in which no vehicular movement is possible, especially one caused by the blockage of key intersections within a grid of streets. 2. London streets London Streets (known as Street Management until April 2007) is an arm of Transport for London (TfL), which is responsible for managing the main through routes in London, a total network of 580 km of roads. . The 2002 spot called ``Rush Hour'' landed with a splash overseas, creating a sensation in the U.K. that rippled into popular culture here as well. It's popped up in TV ads for Nike and Toyota. Madonna choreographed it into two music videos and her Confessions Tour stage show last year. Most recently, director Martin Campbell recruited the onscreen on·screen or on-screen adj. & adv. 1. As shown on a movie, television, or display screen. 2. Within public view; in public. action star Sebastien Foucan to lead a chase through a construction site in the new Bond film ``Casino Royale.'' Foucan -- who developed the similiar sport of Free Running, which shares moves with Parkour -- is seen climbing up cranes, running across girders and performing one breathtaking stunt after another during the chase sequence. ``All the stuff on the cranes was bloody difficult,'' says Campbell. ``There were nets and wires; we removed those digitally. But the idea was not to rely on digital as much as we could. It's all for real.'' To the untrained eye, all that jumping around may look like Parkour, but some purists like to draw a distinction between the forms, describing Free Running -- also featured in Anthony Minghella's film, ``Breaking and Entering'' -- as a kind of jogging that involves spinning, flipping and other tricks. Get a grip Flash has no place in Parkour. ``There's a Parkour philosophy where anything in Parkour can be applied to normal life,'' says Alex ``Ace'' Scott, a senior at El Camino Real High School El Camino Real High School (also known locally as "ECR" and by some more recently as "ELCO") is a public secondary school located in the Woodland Hills district of the San Fernando Valley region of the city of Los Angeles, California. in Woodland Hills, where on most days he's spotted training on campus. ``I can apply how am I going to get up this 10-foot wall to how am I going to work things out with my family.'' Scott scrambles up a cement retaining wall, clutching his fingers at the top edge before pulling himself up and over. ``If I can overcome that obstacle, then there are other obstacles in life I can overcome,'' he says, flashing a smile as he sits on top of the wall. Like most relative newcomers to the sport, Scott, a wiry wir·y adj. 1. Resembling wire in form or quality, especially in stiffness. 2. Sinewy and lean. 3. Filiform and hard. Used of a pulse. teen with chiseled chis·eled or chis·elled adj. Made or shaped with or as if with a chisel: a finely chiseled nose. Adj. 1. good looks and an Afro, discovered Parkour through videos online and a message board on which somebody had posted what locals now consider to be the first-ever meeting of California traceurs at California State University Enrollment  Northridge more than two years ago.
``In California there was no other group actively doing Parkour that we knew of,'' recalls local traceur Cliff Kravit, who was at the meeting. Jump start It's because of people like Kravit -- a 26-year-old computer support technician from Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. with piercing blue eyes and long brown hair that he wears tied back in a ponytail -- that traceurs have become so well-connected with others in the online Parkour community. Kravit, a Parkour guru of sorts, spends most week nights at the L.A. School of Gymnastics in Culver City, leading training sessions for newcomers and for traceurs wanting to be drilled on new moves in an indoor padded environment. Information about these sessions can be found at PKCali.com, a Web site Kravit operates. Group sessions like the one recently held at the UCLA Medical Center are always fun, but Kravit points out Parkour isn't a team sport. In fact most traceurs train alone -- and for good reason. ``When you go out by yourself, it really tests your true abilities,'' Kravit says. ``There's no one else but you to get yourself to do it, so it really tests your inner strength and your confidence.'' But traceurs admit that group meetings are a great way to meet new people, even though the majority of them happen to be guys. Brian Lang, a clean-cut 20-something from Hollywood, offers an explanation. ``I think it's intimidating to do this kind of thing out in public,'' says Lang, as he tapes his hand before scaling a wall. ``For a long time I was (intimidated) until I met these guys.'' Look before you leap Before You Leap is the autobiography and self-help guide written by Muppet Kermit the Frog. It was released in September 2006. External links
Of course, most people are still unaware of Parkour. During warm-up a security guard rousts Kravit and his friends along from the UCLA Medical Center. Traceurs get this all the time. ``One of the things we deal with a lot in Southern California and especially in Los Angeles is security and police,'' Kravit says. ``They see us jumping from one thing to another and so they stop us and start interrogating us. Generally their concern is less that we're committing a crime and more about the liability that if someone gets hurt on their property, they will be sued. ``So, you take it with a grain of salt and understand,'' he says. ``Just be respectful and move on.'' And UCLA UCLA University of California at Los Angeles UCLA University Center for Learning Assistance (Illinois State University) UCLA University of Carrollton, TX and Lower Addison, TX is in no short supply of free-standing walls, stairwells and parking structures. Grabbing their backpacks, the six traceurs amble amble a slower, non-racing version of pace gait in horses. broken amble has many characteristics of the amble but there are four beats to the gait with each foot contacting the ground independently. Called also single-foot. up the street in search of other playgrounds. Bob Strauss contributed to this article. Sandra Barrera, (818) 713-3728 sandra.barrera@dailynews.com CAPTION(S): 5 photos Photo: (1 -- cover -- color) might as well jump To Parkour enthusiasts, leaping off a building is no stunt (2 -- 4 -- color) Brian Orosco, 23, of San Francisco, left, leaps from a wall while practicing Parkour at UCLA. Below, Paul Darnell, 24, of Valley Village, balances himself on a wall at the Westwood campus. Right, Alex ``Ace'' Scott, 17, of Woodland Hills, practices his moves at El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills. (5 -- color) Cliff Kravit of Beverly Hills vaults over an obstacle while practicing Parkour at UCLA. |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion