train driver

Tonight, a reminder that the subject of my study is not even close to being a socially accepted activity. Usually my exercises don’t begin until 12:30 am. After the trains stop running and there are no passengers waiting for the next train the station becomes my obstacle course, gym and playground. This evening plans for a late dinner have disrupted my schedule. Parkour is too demanding to practice on a full stomach, thus in order to accommodate late dinner tonight I decided to go out at 8pm.

The jog was fine; the streets were not much busier than at past midnight. When I arrived at the station the difference between my usual time and tonight’s training became an apparent obstacle. A photographer was taking photos of graffiti at the vertical wall ledge I usually climb. To give him a chance to finish up I went over to the two-step garden were I do my wall vault (see last journal entry for diagram of vault). I usually do 10 vaults. At around the third a train pulled up at the station. I just continued my exercise.

On the descent of my fifth vault the drivers exit door opened and the driver called out. “Hey, that’s not the best place for that!” The guy was standing in the door and I stopped, standing on the platform. “What if you fell and hurt yourself,” he asked, then without waiting for a reply continued “Melbourne is full of these places.” He pointed vaguely at the wall behind me, “I have to report this kind of stuff. Just go somewhere else.”

I was ready to start off with something about personal liability and having no other place to train but he started first, without giving me a chance. “Look, I’ve called the cops,” He thumbed towards the station building further down the platform as if to point out the source of his authority “So just fuck off.”

I nodded, deciding that he wasn’t really interested in anything I had to say – especially since he has a schedule to keep and his time at the station was probably running low – and slowly started plodding up the platform. He closed the door and soon the train started pulling out. When he turned the corner I turned too. I finished the vaults, adding five to make up for my unexpected break, and then finished my workout while keeping an eye out for the police.

I don’t blame the guy. Seeing a 100-kilogram man climbing public property and jumping off walls isn’t an everyday event. Though I wish people didn’t jump to conclusions and assume the worst, I can't really blame them for not feeling comfortable enough to actually ask me what I am doing. All of this is just another reminder to be careful.

Actually this is not my first, or even second, such incident. While I was training for my proposal a bystander called the police. I had to explain myself to the law then. Then, on another day a man walking home late from work saw me climbing the ledge on the side of the station building. His reaction was genuinely admirable. He waited for me to get down and then watched me climb again. When I got down the second time (many of my exercises are repeated drills) he stepped in with a question.
“Why are you trying to climb that building?” he asked me. I tried to explain that I was practicing Prakour – a type of improvised urban gymnastics – he seemed unconvinced. I then compared it to rock-climbing, an explanation he hesitantly accepted. “Are you sure?” He asked before walking off. He was concerned and I appreciate his actions.

This whole thing reminds me of old Mary Duglas’ ‘matter out of place’ hypothesis. The idea that things and people that occupy the margins of society or engage in socially unusual practices are nearly innately unsettling to most people. They create uncertainty and question existing boundaries and sadly, it is a near-universal human reaction to assume the worst of those we don’t understand and those who challenge our conception of the world around us.

On a more technical note: Distance running and hand-over-hand ledge climbing is getting easier and I’ve added a twist vault to the usual batch of exercises.
Also, getting pretty comfortable with chin-ups. Will do more comic-notes in the next few days. My current illustration gig has been keeping me busy during the week and an unexpected comic convention took this weekend over.