I first encountered Parkour while watching “Casino Royale” starring Daniel Craig. There was a great opening chase scene where he pursued bad guys as they flew around a construction site.
Wikipedia describes Parkour as:
…a non-competitive, physical discipline of French origin in which participants run along a route, attempting to negotiate obstacles in the most efficient way possible, using only their bodies. Skills such as jumping, climbing, vaulting, rolling, swinging and wall scaling are employed. Parkour can be practiced anywhere, but areas dense with obstacles are preferable, and it is most commonly practiced in urban areas.
In other words, people jumping off things. High things, sometimes. It’s pretty amazing to watch.
Some Parkour pros were in the city recently and while they didn’t fling through the Richmond District, they were in our neighboring Presidio where they made full use of the old architecture (and the House of Air). They were all over the city as well. It’s a fun video to watch.
Sarah B.
[via Bay Citizen]
I highly recommend this French film called – District B13 if you love parkour…I pretty much fell in love with parkour after watching that film and the main casts pretty much invented parkour.
Parkour is not only done outdoors: http://www.hulu.com/watch/96408/the-office-parkour
Too funny, I just had to share.
@Roger – that’s hilarious! “Parkour!”
Love the video. I think Parkour is one of the most original expressions of physical prowess.