Running Free in the Big City
Source: By ELIZABETH HAGGARTY, AOL.ca
Posted: 08/11/08 11:07AM
Filed Under: Travel
They have the look of children who just reclaimed the jungle gym.
At the barbecue area of Toronto’s Ashbridge's Bay park, nothing is being cooked. Instead, from the roof of the trellised shelter, adults are swinging. Teenagers are launching themselves between the rocks by the lake, spinning in the air as they pounce fluidly from one to the other. No one is sitting on the benches, instead they’re springing over them to applause as they roll into the sand. These are the practitioners of Parkour and they're easy to spot. They are the ones not moving normally.
Turn Downtown into a Jungle Gym |
To practise Parkour your whole body needs to be prepared. “There are a bunch of basics that you train; making the body stronger to be resilient to stuff that you are going to face outside is the big key," says Dan Iaboni at his Parkour studio in Toronto. Sitting on the blue cushioned floor Iaboni explains "gymnastics gyms really suit themselves well to Parkour because the soft floor is a little forgiving. People can fall get back up and laugh about it, whereas outside it’s not the same." |
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While their movements may sound extreme, between the flips and jumps lies an accessible and affordable way to rediscover the city. If your idea of fun is conquering, instead of breaking away from the urban jungle, then Parkour just might be for you.
"If I look back to before I did Parkour I don't think I knew where I lived at all," says Dan Iaboni, organizer of Toronto's Summer Parkour meet. "Whereas now I understand where I live, I totally see Toronto as a beautiful city, before I wouldn't have even looked five degrees left or right when I was on my way to something."
Lying somewhere between a sport and a way of life, Parkour combines the freedom of running with the skill of gymnastics, thrown into an urban setting. Unlike most sports it shuns structure and rules. Instead of pounding along racetracks Parkour's practitioners invent new ways to jump the rails that mark them. Achievement isn't measured in distance or speed, but in how you relish each movement.
"What I do in Parkour is try to teach people to move again," says Iaboni. "Children know how to move, but as we grow up we forget. I show people how to get away from the boundaries that restrict people’s movements nowadays."
Invented in the French suburbs by David Belle, Parkour gained in popularity after Belle posted daredevil videos on the Web. As the online buzz grew the sport was featured in Luc Besson's film 'Yamakasi' before it hit the North American mainstream with Parkour baddies scaling scaffolding in the James Bond film 'Casino Royale'.
But, while Parkour's followers are frequently publicized jumping between roofs and dangling from ledges, Dan assures with the right training, there is nothing extreme about it.
"I want that message to stay clear that anyone can do Parkour; it's a very simple clear message. If you have two arms, two legs and you’re human – you don't even need two arms two legs – anyone that can move around can do Parkour."
The Nation's Capital
Today Toronto is the Parkour capital of North America. While meets in New York attract 40 people the event I attended brought in 200 traceurs from across Canada to test the streets of Toronto. And it isn’t just for guys.
"A few weeks ago we had an all-female training session and 21 women came out," says Iaboni. "That was pretty good, actually huge, as it was the largest female gathering to happen in North America."
The growth in the popularity of Parkour in Canada has been fairly recent. When Dan's interest in the sport was peaked by an online David Belle posting, there was nowhere for him to train in the city. Instead he and a friend would run back and forth between his home computer and the rails of a local park, attempting each jump before sprinting back to see if it looked anything like the one in the video.
Dedicated to his new hobby, Iaboni eventually made it to France to train with Belle. On his return to Toronto he realized his newfound knowledge could be turned into much more than a part-time pleasure. So it was that PKTO.ca was born, an online community and training facility for those who'd found Parkour but had nowhere to hone their skills. Today it’s home to a vibrant community of runners, who chat online and connect with new partners to mentor or discover new terrain with.
"I saw a commercial for The Matrix and it had free running in it. So I googled the Internet and found PKTO. They posted a meet and I went out and liked it so I just kept on coming out," said Gerald Situ, who has now been practicing Parkour for two years.
The story was similar for many at Toronto's Summer meet. Iaboni calculates there are now 600 practitioners in Toronto who connected through PKTO.
The growing success of Parkour can be attributed to its accessibility as well as the openness of its followers. With no costly equipment or travel expense it hooks many who were turned off by sports like snow- or skateboarding.
"The whole aspect of it being outside and free; it doesn't cost anything to do Parkour and you can do it wherever you want, wherever you please," says Neil Stratford, who has been coming to meets for a year and a half.
Changing perspectives
Parkour is as much a mindset as it is a sport. Daily obstacles are transformed into creative canvasses. Vaulting a bench becomes an act of anarchy, weaving around a telephone pole a means of self-expression.
"I've gained the Parkour vision I guess," says Stratford. "Every building I see I think: I could probably vault, or jump over or on top of that."
"Sometimes you'll see a guy that will skip a step or a guy that will jump over the curb and you say oh he's got it in him," says Iaboni. "I don't look at pedestrians and think he should have hopped over that fence he would have got to work faster, but I do wish that more people would look at the world the way we do, look at it more creatively."
With meets staged in downtown Toronto now attracting over 200 people, many pedestrians will have their notions of motion challenged, as Parkour packs run along Bay Street, vaulting, jumping and running through, over and under anything in their path.
"We're re-conceiving the idea of movement and challenging people’s idea of it," says Erin Alcrest, suspended with his legs between two tree trunks as his friends bear walk across the sandy beach. "But really it's just fun," he continues. "We do it because it's really fun."
For more information about Parkour and future meets in Toronto visit www.pkto.ca
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