Trace, Jam and Wakeboarding.

Been a good week of training. On Friday I went up to the Trace Facility and had a play on the re-arranged equipment. With the arm-jump focus I trained up a bunch of exercise variants to strengthen my arms, wrists, hands and shoulders. The company was great too. Now that I know many of the APA guys personally it felt great to be welcomed by friends. People were even more forthcoming on the jokes and advice and the training, though pretty strenuous, had all the fun/goofy quirks of a night out with friends. A few of the veterans took the time ot get involved. Chippa (APA Prez), though injured, came out of his ‘office’ briefly to give me some tips. Sasha (one of the more experienced APA traceours and stunt-man) took the time to offer some conditioning advice.

The atmosphere of the Trace was relaxed, despite of the hard work being done on the premises. While people trained largely on their own, a change of equipment or a new challenged was played with by all. Everyone had a go, in a completely uncompetitive way.

Saturday I went along to the general Jam. I met Josh and a bunch of other guys there. This session was more relaxed than anything I’ve done with the APA. The meeting started on Southbank at 10. I got there a bit late. This wasn’t a problem as people arrived all the way through until mid-day. The guys were very friendly. The atmosphere was primarily social. With some people actively training and others doing no training at all. Any activities were lead by gentle prodding and example and participated on a purely voluntary basis. This is casual parkour. Despite of this, quite a number of the traciours there were at a good proficiency level and those who didn’t train showed a good general knowledge of the scene and culture.

I had underestimated the impact of the previous night’s training and quickly ran out of steam at the jam. My arms and wrists were utterly useless after only a few basic manoeuvres. Though I intended to hang around as an observer (there were plenty of those around) the day was cut short at 2pm with a phone-call from a friend who needed an urgent favour. Next time I’ll stay for the day.

I had intended to rest my arms on Sunday and didn’t go to the APA Sunday classes. But things didn’t turn out quite as I had planned. In the late morning I got an invite to go wakeboarding for free. This was an offer I couldn’t refuse. Completely new to this activity, I soon discovered that the muscles I was trying to rest were in for a decent workout. Though I had a blast, my arms and wrists ended up being more sore and worn-out than ever. I spent Monday formatting tutorials and doing a bit of sculpting – taking it easy.

Once they recover I’ll be straight back into training. Looking forward to conditioning with Smo and company later in the week and another solid Trace session. Improving little bits at a time.