Parkour Mumbai News

Parkour.Net for Sale

Fri, 19 Feb, 2010 00:00:00 IST

Jerome, the webmaster of Parkour.NET, has decided to sell the website. He sells the domain name �Parkour.NET� obviously, plus the databases and forum archives, a few other parkour related domains, and some miscellaneous stuff. You can find all details here - Parkour.NET is for sale

Please do not contact Parkour Mumbai if you are interested in purchasing the domain, but get in touch with Jerome using the contact form provided on the page mentioned above.

Interview with Livewire

Wed, 10 Feb, 2010 00:00:00 IST

Chennai Parkour did an interview with Timothy `Livewire` Shieff of WFPF recently, and have uploaded a transcript of it to their website.

An exerpt:

Timothy `Livewire` Shieff is a Freerunning athlete who has recently been in the spotlight after he won the World Freerun Championships `09. He's also appeared in the MTV Ultimate Parkour Challenge alongside other well known athletes like Daniel Ilabaca and Ryan Doyle.

Tim graciously took the time (even though he's been working hard, and fighting sleep deprivation) to answer some questions that my buddies at Chennai Parkour had for him. Here they are, for everyone to partake in.

Prabu asks `In the midst of the most physically demanding move, what runs through your mind? How do you build....`

Check out this link or click the `Read More` button below for the full interview.

New Media

Fri, 05 Feb, 2010 00:00:00 IST

We've just uploaded a ton of new media after a long period of inactivity including a ton of new photographs, a few new photo albums and a couple of videos. Be sure to check out the updated older albums as well.
http://www.parkourmumbai.com/mediaalbums.php
Then for those that were waiting for visuals from the Hyderabad Pk-Day, you can check select pictures from that day in the album here, and the video of the jam here.

The highly anticipated album of the Pk-Day Mumbai 2009 can be seen here, and the video (in 2 parts) can be found here -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5ikgTC22dY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zo2Stb33cDU

We have also moved some of our older videos over to our new Vimeo channel because of certain issues with Youtube, so anyone who missed seeing the good ol' days can find our older stuff on this channel.

Pk-Day Mumbai 2009 - A Fantastic Trek

Sun, 03 Jan, 2010 00:00:00 IST

We have been holding these annual jams for a few years now. Every year at each jam we see a lot of new faces as fresh new blood comes in realising the joys of practicing parkour, a lot of the older ones disappear as they realise that maybe parkour is not for them after all, and then there are those few who are doggedly persistent and are a common sight at every jam. This year's jam was no different. But unlike last year's jam, there was no media present as this was more like a private gathering, and a few people with us this time weren't even traceurs/traceuses, but they were simply people who came along for the trek (though they didn't leave without us introducing them to the wonder that is parkour). But like every other year, we had a load of fun at the jam despite all that.

This year saw us head out to Karnala Fort today for a Parkour-cum-Trekking expedition with a group of 20 people (this figure is getting to be a standard attendance figure for Indian parkour jams). Unlike in the past, due to low interest in actual Parkour jams this year (2009), we decided to bring a little change into the mix (after being inspired a lot from my man from Hawaii, Ozzi's nature parkour videos. Ozzi, I need to start writing you royalty cheques for all the recent different forms of inspiration you've been giving me), and went trekking to the fort with a lot of methode naturale training on wayward rocks and trees thrown in for good measure. The trick actually worked, and this was one of the most fun and memorable jams we have had at Parkour Mumbai so far. (Don't know how many people will be able to get up from their beds tomorrow and go to work though, please forgive me for that .)

We have a lot of footage - both videos and pictures - from the event that I will have to shortly sit and sift through, although once again, I cannot promise a good video edit of our jam because the battery from our main handycam ran out of juice a short way through the climb (thanks a ton, Daredevil ), and we had to rely on low-quality digicam and cellphone footage instead. But we do have a lot of good quality pictures that will be going up on the website shortly, so keep your eyes peeled for both.

We are also happy to announce that this being our first real outdoor jam out in the nature, we also followed APK's Leave No Trace, and although we didn't explicitly volunteer to clean up trash in our surroundings, we strove to make a conscious effort not to litter ourselves, and also cleaned any stray pieces of litter we came across.

So what if the pk-day 2009 was actually held in 2010? We're still gonna hold the 2010 event later this year, hopefully keeping our date with the traditional 3rd Sunday of November. See all you guys next year this November.

Golconda Fort Rocked!

Wed, 11 Nov, 2009 00:00:00 IST

We held a Pk-Day in Hyderabad this Sunday the 8th at the iconic Golconda Fort, and I'm happy to say that the jam absolutely rocked! Literally!

I happenned to be in Hyderabad this weekend and met up with all the guys from Teams Secret Fury, Demise Forfeiters, half of Team Karma, and Kage from Chennai and Smaran from Vizag for a truly kickass jam at the fort. Team LASS were missing in action that day though.

The ruins of the limestone fort itself are an awesome place to practice parkour, and contain obstacles ranging from easy and basic to extremely advanced with many multi-leveled walls and dilapidated parapets perfect for practicing cat-leaps and wallruns, a type of obstacle that is a rarity in Indian Parkour hotspots. So all in all, the location is perfect. Also, it seems to have a very low heat level, although you are sure to gather a crowd pretty soon comprising of tourists who probably think the fort is putting up a show for their benefit.

The day started out overcast, and looked like it might rain, although it didn't, and we were thankful for both counts, since overcast meant no harsh sun bearing down on us and cutting short our practice, and luckily it didn't rain until well after we were done with the jam and everyone was on their way home.

I wish to thank all the traceurs who attended again for coming to the jam and making it a memorable event. Hope this paves the way for more such Indian traceur gatherings in the future. Pictures and videos coming soon. Keep an eye out on this section.

Read more to look at the jam from Smaran's perspective.

Pk-Day Mumbai 2009 Cancelled

Tue, 20 Oct, 2009 00:00:00 IST

I'm sorry to announce that due to a multitude of factors, least of which is absolutely nil public intererest, we have had to cancel this year's Pk-Day Mumbai, which traditionally, should have been held on Nov 15 this year.
However, we might decide to hold one at the last minute on popular public demand. If the jam is held at all, it is going to be held in a park in Kandivali (E) at 7:00 AM, for those of you who want to check your logistics before committing to attending. So if you want us to bring back the jam, and also agree to pay us an entry fee of Rs. 75/- per head, please email us with the subject 'Pk-Day 2009', or make a post in this thread - http://www.parkourmumbai.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=175.
Please note that the entry fee is not for us to profit from this jam, but to cover costs of hosting the jam and obtaining permissions. I'm pretty sure that despite the charges levied to those attending I will have to pay more than half the amount of the costs incurred from my own pocket.

Parkour Defined

Wed, 14 Oct, 2009 00:00:00 IST

American Parkour works on keeping the definition of our art Parkour current and in-line with changing times and changing perspectives of its practitioners every year. This year, after a massive community effort they have come up with a definition for the art that is the most succint and accurate definition we have seen so far for an art which seems to have a million different definitions and meanings amongst its practitioners with no common consensus on what the art is truly about.

So if you want to see the latest definition (and what I feel to be the most accurate, one that captures the true essence) of Parkour as defined by the Parkour community around the world, see here.

Please note that this effort only strives to define Parkour and not Freerunning.

Top Gear Magazine Anniversary Issue

Sat, 10 Oct, 2009 00:00:00 IST

Maniac, Nigel, Gaijin, NOS and the Architect headed out to a desolute, derelict mill recently for a photoshoot with the guys from Top Gear magazine, pitting the new Fiat Punto with and against us (yeah, I guess the Punto has this thing for traceurs and parkour - first the 3Run launch in Delhi, now us). Check out the awesome review of the car, and the even more awesome photographs of us with the car in this month's anniversary issue of the magazine, available on newsstands now. You can also find select photographs of us from the photoshoot in the album here.

A Disappointing Jam

Sun, 27 Sep, 2009 00:00:00 IST

Okay, so the traceur turnout for this jam yesterday was abysmal. And a disappointment. But nevertheless, Team NUTs members were present at the Jam in full force, doing what the jam was primarily aimed at - raising awareness about both Parkour and the adverse effects of Climate Change and ways to prevent it. We managed to collect quite a few signatures from bystanders for Sandbag's petition, got people interested in trying out parkour for themselves along with us, and had quite an experience in the process. We also managed to gain some media attention for Sandbag's campaign and spoke at length to NDTV about the cause.

Since the turnout for this jam was so low, we don't know if we managed to get any usable footage from yesterday, so can't promise a video edit for this event, but you can be sure to catch us in action on NDTV's feature on the event, that is whenever they air it (no idea when).

However we are pleased to announce that we do have a very relevant video for Sandbag's Climate change One Giant Leap campaign that we filmed specifically for this event. The video was premiered at yesterday's Mumbai Jam as well as shown by Sandbag at London's Jam at the London IMAX. The video, called Gone Shopping can now be viewed online here and can also be found on our Videos page on the website.

Anniversary Jam Video

Fri, 18 Sep, 2009 00:00:00 IST

We've just released a video edit of the proceedings at our Parkour Classes Anniversary Jam, as promised. The drills conducted that day (although grossly inadequate by my standards ), were still so numerous that putting together a nice small video was unfeasible. So we had to split up the 16 minute video into two sections in order to meet Youtube's 10 minute per video limitation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rX9gaXKLMfk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcygdsDBl_Y

Needless to say, we've also put some new photographs on our photo albums, although there are none of the anniversary jam event itself, with some more photos to be added in coming days.