Parkour

Parkour is not specifically Australian.  It exists in the States as well, in fact a quick google search told me that even lowly New Haven, CT has its own parkour event coming up soon.  But regardless of how well known it is by other people, I didn't know about it until I got here.

Basically, parkour is all about exploring how to get from point A to point B in the fastest way possible.  It involves running, leaping over walls, climbing walls, vaulting over stuff, rolling etc.  It's quite fascinating to watch actually, definitely worth youtubing (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKPD6wsvoK8).  The philosophy is all about self improvement...becoming stronger and overcoming fears so that you "can be useful to others, and escape when needed".  Practically, I'm not sure these purposes ever really come into play unless you want to become a stunt actor, but it is a lot of fun and certainly is a good instrument for steering young urban people away from violence.

The Australian parkour society offered free introductory classes, so I took myself out this lovely Sunday afternoon to check it out.  I still didn't really know what to expect.  I had never actually seen anyone run parkour before and had only read a little about it on wikipedia.  It was amazing!

Out of a group of almost 30 (apparently much larger than normal) I was one of 4 girls, and one of 10 people over the age of 17.  I'm also pretty sure one of the instructors was 14, or he is just extremely unfortunate and is hitting puberty very late.  The stuff we did was extremely basic: we were taught how to land correct from a jump, how to do a roll on concrete without majorly hurting yourself, and the most energy efficient way to climb a wall.  My weak dancer arms weren't quite up to the task today though, and were so tired by the end that managing to scale a wall slightly shorter than myself was definitely a struggle bus.  They are still feeling a bit like jelly at the moment, and I'm dreading tomorrow when I anticipate that they will refuse to move all together.  I'm also sporting a very red, very tender right shoulder at the moment, but its nothing I wouldn't mind suffering again.  I won't say that I'm hooked on it, but this is definitely an activity that I want to explore more...and a good incentive to start doing pushups.