Parkour Stories

Pava: Ladies and Gentlemenz! Got a question for y’all for my little thesis and for the pk panels. People have a whole bunch of reactions when they see me climbing and jumping around while training. Mostly pretty negative reactions, in fact I now train late to avoid all the heat I used to attract when I trained during the day.

I want to hear some anecdotes about the kind of exchanges and encounters YOU’VE had. I’m particularly looking for encounters that involved some kind of verbal communication with by-passing members of the regular public. Both positive and negative stories would be appreciated. One of each would be fantastic.

I’ll start.

I was training at Windsor train station a few months back. The station has a ledge that’s a perfect height for a wall-run, and that’s what I was drilling. It was quite late, probably around 1am. I’d wall run this ledge then hold myself up for a few seconds before slowly lowering myself into a hanging drop over and over again. This guy walks past. Then stops a few meters away. He watches me do my little drill three times then calls out.

“Hey, are you alright?”
I’m a bit surprised at the sudden question, “Yeah, I’m fine.” I get back to it. He watches another run then interjects again.
“You don’t have to do that you know. Don’t force yourself. You’re scared for a reason.”
I’m confused, “What do you mean?”
“You don’t want to get to the top. You need to talk to someone, get another perspective on what you’re doing.”
I realise that he thinks I’m trying to climb onto the roof of the station (something that isn’t hard to do, by the way). When he saw me climb up on the ledge and stop he though I got scared half way, and that every time I did the run I was trying to nerve myself up over and over again.
I try to explain that I’m just doing an exercise. He doesn’t look like he’s buying it. He keeps trying to get me to ‘think things over’. I realise that he thinks I’m trying to get to the top of the station to commit suicide. I can’t help but find this funny. The rooftop is only about 4 meters off the ground. With bad technique you could probably fracture your heels or skull, but killing yourself up there would be a pretty big effort and a pretty poor choice. “I’m not trying to hurt myself up there, it’s just an exercise!” The guy still looks doubtful and sticks around for another 5 or 6 reps. Finally he goes away. The police show up five minutes later. They tell me someone was worried about my safety and, as always, move me along.

Hard to be angry at that guy, he was trying to help. But it kinda shows how difficult it is for people to grasp the idea of doing something unusual in an unusual location as exercise. People are so used to the ideas of exercising having its place that alternatives are nearly impossible for them to accept, even with an explanation.

Declan (the purple shirt): I was training on Southbank with a couple of friends when I noticed an elderly man and a teenage child in a wheelchair coming passing by. They stopped to watch us for a few moments as we were drilling vaults, I was kinda expecting him to react in a negative way to what we were doing possibly give us some lecture that we could injure ourselves and suggest that we could end up in a wheelchair too. This assumption was completely wrong the man couldn't have been more thrilled at what we were doing he told us how it was not only a great way to keep fit but also a "good discipline to keep kids like you away from gangs and off the streets". Even though I somewhat agree with him in that aspect I thought it was strange he said "kids like you".

Smo: about two years ago i was training level arm jumps with some instructors and a girl. a woman roughly aged 50 stopped by as the girl was getting ready to jump and said something like "what are you doing? don't jump there, you could fall! you might hurt yourself and break your pretty face! let the ugly boys smash their faces instead!"

i can't remember what we said to her, but she didn't hang around after she said that crap, she just walked off looking frustrated.

i've also had a similar experience to the one declan has posted. a guy in a chair went past myself and a few others training tic tacs and said "what you guys are doing is really cool, just make sure you don't end up like me".

i've probably got some more i can't think of right now, but i'll post if i remember them.

York Harding: Find some stairs and quadrupedal by yourself. Most people cannot understand what you are doing - many, despite thorough explanation, will continue to eye you dubiously. Quadrupedal is a conversation starter.

sammowhammo18: Yesterday I was playing tip at school and a teacher came up to me and he said "What blood type are you?" "I dont know" "well im sure we'll find out soon enough when your brains are on the ground and you need a transfusion" So I explained to him i'd been doing parkour for a year and that i hadn't hurt myself once (i change this detail depending on who I'm talking to sometimes its never, other times its always) then he said that he wasn't really worried about me "because you do it really well" and that he was more worried about my other friend who doesn't do parkour because "i dont want him trying to do something he cant while chasing after you"
LOL

Pava: LoL, so many social values popping up here. "Let the ugly boys hurt themselves"? That's Priceless old-fasioned sexism! Good to hear a few positive stories.

MOAR!

Are-Gi: I was training wall runs one night, when a guy came up the stairs with his shopping right at the wall as I was walking back for another run at it.

I could tell he was watching me out of the corner of his eye. Then I turned, faced the wall, and bolted towards it!
As soon as he saw me hit the wall - He Took off like I was about to mug Him. I yelled out "TSORIGHT MATE I'M ONLY TRAINING"! But he was gone!!

After an Instructor training in the city, (When some from SA and NZ were over)

We were messing in a tree in the gardens next to the dolphin fountain sculpture for quite a while, and a lady was with her young family at the fountain.
She was watching us for ages and taking photos and filming from a distance. She couldn't stop looking over, until she finally came over and said.
"You guys are amazing, Its so good to see, You guys are so fit and agile through the trees. It really is beautiful !!"
She was very impressed at how we took it so seriously and how we didn't care what others thought. She kept saying "Its so Beautiful".

Sheffield: Was training in "the tree" for a while, around 6-7pm with a few peeps, doing the regular tree shit. Laches etc. Some old guy who looked about 70+ came past and started chatting about how he used to do something similar (I forget now, but I assume it was gymnastics or climbing), he then started to climb the tree himself and was hanging upside down and stuff. Made my night.

LastRunner: Awesome

An Asian: My last year of school, I decided to make a video of a few spots around the school. A friend was taking a few shots of a wall run next to some stairs. I would've thought it was pretty clear that we were making a video, though a passing teacher sees me and says "Next time go up the conventional way and use the stairs." Funny enough she decides to ask me for directions to somewhere in the school after offending me. True that i've been told to move along, or stop because i could hurt myself, but never once have i been asked to stop because it was unconventional. Ironically, I think she was an english teacher, and we're currently being taught about conformity and convention.

Not too much of a story, but it's something.

JumpNinja: I was training at toast once with a few others doing some fairly basic stuff and some old dude was passing on his way to the physio that is there (coincidende?) and said something along the lines of "I wish I could still do stuff like that" and gave us a smile and carried on his way.

Also there is this lady that works in an office that looks over toast that likes to watch us and give us encouragement when she's having a break, but no matter what we say she won't belive that flips aren't a part of parkour :p.

Bun-Bun: i have many stories, here is one.

Training man southbank. Old man stops and watches. Walks over to us and gives us $50 for the entertainment we provided him. We say no. He says take it because he is just going to waste it at the casino. we take the money and buy lunch. win.

Layhay: "You right there mate?" Response: "Yes"
"Are you alright?" Response: "Yes"
"What are you doing monkeyman?" Response: "Excercise"
"Stop doing that monkeyman" Response: "No"
"Calm down monkeyman" Response: "No"
"Oh Parkour" Reponse: Happy

That's all I've got so far, makes me want to train in a more private area away from public or at dark.

CARTER: I got $20 from a drunk guy on Halloween

DaveK: Warming up with a class just this afternoon. About 8 guys and 2 girls. We're warming up the knees just bouncing up and down. An oldish - 60 to 70yrs - lady walks by, stops and starts repeating how we look like we're all training to give birth. We all look at each other and smile at how absurd it sounds to a male dominated group and then give her a smile and a nod before she's on her way.

Training at the beach and the father of a fairly new student is standing next to me before class starts. Out of the blue he looks around and says 'god the scenery is great down her in the afternoon' I just sort of nod and smile and agree then he nods at a blonde speed walking past and says 'more great scenery...' I smiled with no idea what to say...

Manager of the local pcyc, a sergeant, after we've been running workshops there weekly for a year. I'm chatting to him about how he should direct enquiries when people are interested in Parkour. He explains that he sometimes has trouble explaining what we do to parents and the he usually just says 'they learn to run away from the cops'... I resist the strong temptation to punch him in the face and just walk away to deal with it later - when I relayed it to my boss she sent him an 'official' email, cc'd to a few others

Slicelikeaninja: Was in a park one day, nearish to a playground. Was hanging my rings up over a branch to drill muscleups and a old fella who was walking past shouted anxiously "Don't do it!". I was confused and asked him to repeat himself... he once again said "Don't do it, you don't have to do it!" At this point I realised that the one ring I had managed to put up indeed looked like a noose, and he thought I was about to hang myself. I laughed, showed him the other ring, and told him I was just excercising. He said OK, and walked off.

Eliot: Got lectured yesterday by some woman who saw me do a drop/roll. Kept telling me how I'm going to pay for it all when i'm older! Every time I tried to explain what we were doing and how we place strong emphasis on strength and conditioning to prepare our bodies she just kept comparing it to how this random latin dancer can't walk now because of what he did.

Oh I hate people who can tell you all about why not to do something but can't listen to the reasons for doing it.

LastRunner: POSITIVE - I was training at a nice set Wooden Rails at my local library, doing precisions. The Librarian (late 50s i would say) walks past on her way back form lunch and says, "Ah, you are doing parkour, good for you, I wish I could do that, " I replied that I was, and she says "Don't let me stop you, and feel free to train here anytime."

NEGATIVE - I was training my reverse vaults and underbars at this set of rails near a park. This guy who is about 40 walks by and says, "I have seen people on TV alot better than you, you are not nearly as good as them, so don't even bother training, you won't become good at free-running anyways." After saying that he turned his back and walked away.

TJ: This reminds me of Instructor Training in January, near the end of the week we were at Southbank and a few people were doing an armjump near the taller bridge, and a 50ish lady was walking past and stops. I'm sitting at the top of the higher wall watching both the Parkour and the people in general, so I notice her.
She comes over and asks about what we are doing etc. and I tell her about Parkour, and how we are a group from all over the country and NZ training to do volunteer classes, so she hands me $50 and says buy dinner or something. I told her that the APA is a non-profit, and I'd give it in as a donation. She seemed pleased with the interaction as a whole, and left with a smile and seemingly in thought. And I gave the moneys to Chippa.

Your bystanders in Melbs are so much better than ours, I have had almost no conversations or interactions here in SA. Some of the group (there were 4-5 guys and 1 girl) have been set upon by a group of 20-30 (mostly drunk) aboriginals around 11pm at one of our most used spots, right in the CBD, had to run away and took a few hits. Uncool.

And to top it off, Security, who move us on from there constantly, said it wasn't their business/not their job. Fuckers.

Pava: It's really encouraging to hear the positive stories considering that most interactions are brief and unpleasant even here in Melbourne (I hear we have it pretty good, but have no experience to back that up with). There's no doubt that certain people seem to truly resonate with parkour and show an interest in what it is... It's sad that those who don't are the most difficult to actually engage with. The reasons for someone telling you to 'stop that' are always flimsy. They seldom have much actual logic, more a gut reaction, a sort-of disgust with the idea that the things they don't understand or want to try are ever preformed in the first place. And when you try to ask them why they have an issue they react like you're challenging or threatening them.

Mary Douglas was a famous anthropologist who came up with a theory about people on the fringes of social practice. She suggests that society runs through a series of complex norms and rituals. Those who break those rituals become a representation of the limits of that society. They are put on the fringes and occupy a position of both disadvantage and power. The disadvantage is that they symbolically give up the protection offered by the social group and its norms... the power comes from their ability to transcend these rules and potentially offer an alternative. In traditional, indigenous cultures the people on the fringes were attributed power (the wizards and which-doctors) but were feared and shuned. There will always be both, those who seek the comfort of the current social norms and those who seek to transcend them. Just wish there was some genuine dialogue between these. People are so complex, there's no way of understanding without proper communication, or at least some effort.

Reilly: Only 3 off the top of my head:

One time ages ago we were doing a warm up for a class near Star City and while doing ankle rotations and this 70+ asian man with an umbrella comes up to the class nods twice and joins in for the entire warmup.

He left as soon as we started training but for the whole time he only smiled and nodded.

Once at the start of Instructor training while we were running to Pyrmont a lady went "Oh! So Fast!!" and her boyfriend scoffed and said "It's only those parkour guys"

When I was out in the city having some drinks I was looking at a running precision over water and this guy walks up to me and goes "Go on do it" .. I said I could and then after him insisting I did... He then says fair enough and does it himself.

Turns out him and his friend were interested in coming to class lol

Great thread man ^_^ .... Also I hear that Parkour scrambles your brains ... Channel 10 news told me so.

Pava: POSITIVE: Last summer I was doing a training run on the cliffs at Sandringham beach. The trace I was on was about 20 meters above the beach. As I prepared for a gap jump I heard someone yelling "do a flip" from the beach. I ignored it, did my jump and continued on my route. On the way back I passed the same spot again. This time it was teeming with kids and a few adults. One of the kids spotted me and yelled out. A fairly heavy guy in his 40s then rounded the corner and called out to me. I came down to talk to him. He told me that his family had been coming here for decades and that it had never occurred to him to actually explore the cliff-side aria. He said that usually his kids, particularly the teenagers, (they were a family with 6 kids) spent the time whinging and being anti-social but when they saw me go by the younger kids wanted a shot and he sent the older ones to look after them - they got right into it. He asked me what I was doing and how often and then thanked me for one of the best family days out they've had in ages. He said several other families joined them after they went up.

NEGATIVE: I was in Sydney visiting a friend. On the way back from the pub at about 11pm I saw a great spot to practice precisions between two brick walls at the entrance of a large building. I got up there and got right into the exercise. I kinda lost track of time – being a bit buzzed probably didn’t help – and after a while I looked around to find a guy standing a few meters away talking quietly on his phone. When he saw me look he turned and walked away. I decided it was a good time to leave. On the way back a police car appeared out of no-were and spotlighted me. I stopped; they didn’t say a word… so I kept walking. They trailed me with the light and when I was out of range moved on. I thought “that’s weird” and kept going. I turned the corner into the street where I was staying. Another blinding light hit me. It was a torch and it was being pulled towards me by a German Sheppard police dog. This thing was going nuts, barking snarling and coming straight at me. The handler holding the lead screamed to me “cross the road, NOW” and I did. There a group of police were waiting for me with their hands on their holsters. I was questioned and made to empty my pockets (I had a pencil, an eraser and my wallet). Eventually they let me go. I asked what the deal was and they told me to get home ASAP. “Someone’s been climbing around in the buildings here. A robbery has been called in.” I went home to change my underpants.

More stories?

Shrike: POSITIVE: I was training parkour at FamCo in Canberra with my mates when a man around the age of 20 comes up and questions us to what we are doing. He confesses that he always wanted to attempt freerunning/parkour but lived in Brisbane and didn't know of anyone who trained there. I told him about the forums and there he'd find links to classes. He then waved us goodbye as started to walk away. After another ten minutes of training without any disturbances he comes running back and waves at us dragging his girlfriend along. He kindly asks us to show his girlfriend so she would let him do parkour when he got to Brissy. She wow'd and had a good chat to my mate James, then we sent them on their way. I'll be interested to see him at National Gathering if he did end up training parkour.

NEGATIVE: I was training at the Jono-wallrun place with some people when an angry Italian man came over and told us off. He asked us if we lived in the apartments near us and claimed to own the whole apartment block. He lectured us about how we are well past infancy but still acted like children, and scoffed at the shoe marks we made on the wall. We quickly left the angry Italian man and trained elsewhere. Still to this day, the shoe marks remain.

JumpNinja: That sounds more like he has issue with you leaving big black shoe marks on his nice white walls than with you doing parkour. Which is fair enough. Those walls have been abbused by a bunch of idiots that claim to be doing parkour. They go there leave big black marks and write their krew name on the walls in shoe marks (true story) and then complain when they get kicked out. I'm not implying it was you because I know it wasn't (I know exactly who it was) but that dude would probably have a big misconception about parkour based on the actions of those people. I'm sure there would be a better chance of training there if we offered to clean off the marks.

Shrike: I was with Ruzkin, Josh, and Conan at the time, and I wasn't the one who coerced with him. But yes, the shoe marks are mingled with the shoe marks from unnamed crews. Who shall not be named on this forum for fear of sparking another 'incident.'

Pava: Love it, that in itself is a great negative parkour story. Goes to show how the actions of those who act stupid before us and label it parkour can have a powerful negative effect on everyone across the community. Goes back to the whole Mry Duglas thing: you're going to be a bad marginal social member (shaman) then people will treat you with (more) distain. Be a good one and your marginal role might just be accepted.

More? Ruz? Nipon? Hainzy? Dutchy? Spidermonkey? Anyone?

Invader GIR: I remember two stories, one negative and one just weird.

NEGATIVE: At a class, Matt was teaching climb ups at a disabled ramp/walkway. During this there were a few people watching. When he mentioned negatives, and not jumping from the top of the wall, the guys watching made comments like "why don't you jump down" and "I'll jump off the wall". He just ignored them and continued teaching. Later on, shortly before moving on, a lady remarked "why are you teaching them to jump fences?" Matt just simply said "I'm teaching right now, I'll be happy to answer all your questions at the end." After that she just left.

WEIRD: At the end of our class, we were doing some cool down stretches. Some men in drag from the gay bar across the street started to "join in". And by that, I mean they did their own version of leg stretches (one involved spreading their legs towards them while lying upside-down). I wanted to take the piss out of them so I showed them my own stretch; sitting down, spreading my legs out and leaning forward (I'm pretty flexible after 2 years of dance). Along with their reactions one guy said "you don't want me to do that". After a little while, they left, but I realised one guy was filming the whole thing.

I guess you could call the second one negative but it was just a huge laugh to me.