I want to share something with you that makes me smile.  Its something that I'm sure most of you will be able to relate to and have experienced yourself at some point.

There is a grey, fairly nondescript railing outside Kilburn Park Station.   For those of you who have been there I’m sure you’ve walked past it on many occasions without looking at it twice.  When I see that rail now it makes me feel all warm inside; it’s the simple things in life!

So you can skip to the section(s) most relevant to you, this post is broken into three parts:  1) What are SOPA and PIPA?  2) How these laws will negatively affect the parkour community. 3) What you can do about it.  This post is not meant to be a complete overview of SOPA and PIPA, it is merely meant to inform on the issues that have direct implications for the parkour community.

What are PIPA and SOPA?

Quadriceps

‘Try it, you will love it!’

‘Don’t worry, anyone can do it’

‘It will improve your other sports!’

‘It doesn’t matter if you haven’t done anything like it before’

I have a love/hate relationship with railings. There is a sense of satisfaction from landing a good rail precision that just can't be matched by the same jump on a wall. Sure, I've got chunks of my legs missing from when we've had a disagreement but rails are one half of the Traceur's bread and butter so can't be ignored. If you are just starting off in Parkour let me reassure you - rails are awesome.

"Wax on, right hand. Wax off, left hand. Wax on, wax off. Breathe in through nose, out the mouth. Wax on, wax off. Don't forget to breathe, very important."

There were two very good reasons to hook up with Parkour Generations in order to photograph the ADAPT Level 2 course taking place at the end of November. Firstly, this was a unique collection of traceurs gathering for a week in one location.

Have you ever realised you were just racing through your daily activities, rushing from one thing to the next, multitasking, cramming in the tasks of everyday life? Perhaps you were only able to realise when you stopped moving for a moment to take a break, or finished a deadline and breathed a sigh of relief. Day to day pressures and constant stimulation from electronic media can mean that our senses are occupied almost every minute of the day. If we are able to manage that pressure, it can enable us to accomplish a huge amount, both at work and in our spare time.

I’ve just read a very interesting book.

It’s titled ‘Bounce: The Myth of Talent” by Matthew Syed, and was picked up almost entirely on a whim while scrabbling around for something to read on the train. It deals with a number of theories and predominantly with the idea of natural born talent – or rather, the absence of it. Instead, it claims that ‘gifts’ are actually the result of incredible hard work and fortuitous chains of events in the lives of those we regard as ‘talented’.

 I wanted to provide an update of the growing parkour community in Southern California. Before I begin, the following are based solely on my own personal experience.