Jump Mag Issue 1

8/9/2019 Jump Mag Issue 1

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z - Editor In Chie

[email protected]

audiu Voicu - Associate Editor

[email protected]

Stepping Up To The Plate

Dear riends,

Welcome to the launch issue o Jump Magazine, thefrst o its kind in the Parkour/Freerun World.

Ofcially unleashed on the 10th o February 2010 tocoincide with Urban Freeows 7th birthday.

So whats the deal then? Well......the simple aim o thisnew venture is to give something special back to thecommunity who over the last 7 years, have been thedriving orce behind what we do. Without thecontinued support o you guys, the movement wouldnever have advanced as ar as it has and the keyingredient or this rapid explosion has without a doubt,been the internet. Through this medium we have seencommunities ourish via youtube, acebook, myspaceetc. We now have a multitude o dedicated websitesand businesses like UF, WFC, APK, 3run, PKGen andWFPF all packed with great resources but, the wholething has become a tad diluted. For beginners to thescene, its a minefeld to wade through all the sites tofnd articles o real substance. As a simple example,lets say you want to fnd an interview piece about a proreerunner like (insert the name o your aveathlete here), youll search on google and might

happen to fnd a small piece or a newspaper ormagazine, written in a typical language used byjournalists who ask the same old generic questions. Nodoubt, the piece will also include some bullshit aboutthe art being like skateboarding without the wheelsor amazing spiderman agility. Yadda Yadda Yadda. Itsnow time to change that scratched record....

Instead o yapping more here, were going to shut up,om nom nom our birthday cake and let the material

produced, do all the talking.

We hope you enjoy it as much as we did in producing it.

Yours trulyEz

WWW.URBANFREEFLOW.COM

Issue 001

Feb 2010Copyright The Urban Freeow Network. All rights reserved. Urban Freeow and the Glyph logo are registered trademarks of Urban Free Flow Ltd


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Athlete: Nick Whitcombe (England) Photographer: Scott Bass Website:www.youtube.com/urbanlemur


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Athlete: Pedro Thomas (Brazil) Photographer: Daer SanchezWebsite:www.youtube.com/pdrthms


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What Do You Actually Know About Water?As practitioners of Parkour/Freerunning, youll already be well aware that any form ofphysical activity is thirsty business and we naturally drink loads when training. But haveany of you thought a little deeper about the importance water plays in our day to day lives?

Essential for life

Water is essential for life, and maintaining hydration is important for physical and mental

performance. The human body is largely made of water. Body water content declines withage, from about 75% in babies to 60% in adults. Although we can live for up to 50 dayswithout food, without water we will survive only a few days, even in a cool climate. Peoplegenerally drink enough water, but for specic population groups, like the elderly, or whileexercising, uid intake might become critical.

Daily water losses

Water leaves our bodies through skin and in breath all the time, amounting to about700ml each day. We lose another 100ml through faeces, about 1.5 litres as urine and200ml in normal perspiration. So, even living and breathing in a temperate climaterequires about 2.5 litres a day. Exercise and rises in temperature increases perspiration,loss of water and hence uid requirements. During sickness and diarrhoea, losses of water

will also increase considerably.

The effects of dehydration

Dehydration can cause headaches, tiredness and loss of concentration. It is a problemparticularly associated with aging, as older adults are less sensitive to mild dehydration,they drink less and take longer to re-hydrate. A deterioration of mental performance canalso occur in mildly dehydrated younger adults. Children lose more water in perspirationin trying to keep cool so it is important to make sure they drink enough in hot weather.

Drinking enough to maintain hydration

We should drink enough to balance water losses. The metabolic processes in our bodiesproduce about 250ml, and we get another 750ml from our food. This leaves 1.5 litres to besupplied from drinks. All water-containing drinks can contribute to the total required forhydration including fruit juice, soft drinks, tea, coffee, dilute alcoholic drinks such as beer,as well as pure water itself. It has been shown that drink palatability is important whenuid requirement is high. Studies have also shown that caffeine in amounts typical of a cupof coffee or tea or a cola drink do not have a dehydrating effect, so experts now agree thatnormal caffeine containing drinks can contribute to total water requirements. However,drinks containing 10% alcohol or more, such as most wines, do result in net uid losses.

What happens when we exercise in hot climates?

During exercise our bodies keep cool by evaporating uid from our skin as sweat, so wemust drink more to avoid dehydration. In cold or temperate climates young people canoften tolerate a 2% loss of body weight as water without impairment of physicalperformance, but in the heat this amount of uid loss will compromise performance andcan result in heat illness. Losses in excess of 5% of body weight can decrease the capacityfor work by about 30%. A number of studies have demonstrated that maintaininghydration before and during endurance exercise is effective in improving performance in avariety of conditions.

Salt stimulates water absorption and aids retention during and after exercise

Adding sodium (salt) to drinks stimulates carbohydrate absorption and this enhanceswater uptake. Replacing the salt lost in sweat helps to maintain blood volume. If large

amounts of water alone are drunk during and after endurance exercise in the heat, dilutionof body uids may occur, leading to large losses of water in the urine. This meanshydration will not be maintained and low sodium levels may cause heat cramps andexhaustion. To prevent this, drinks should contain sodium (as in sport drinks whichcontain amounts similar to those of human body uids), or water should be drunk withfood.


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Athlete: Nico Bosc (France) Photographer: Johan GuyWebsite:www.nicolasbosc.com


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George, where are you based?Im from Cheltenham in the South West of England.

How old are you?Im currently 17 years of age.

How long have you been training?Ive been Freerunning for 5 or 6 years now. Its hard toput my nger on exactly when I started, but before JumpLondon came out I had a trampoline in my garden, so I wasexperimenting with the ip side of things anyway and wasalso very much into climbing trees and jumping about.

Your rst recollection of being exposed to Parkour?The rst thing I ever saw was a video called Friday nightfun which featured Team Ryouko and they were doing crazy

ips in a gym. Thats the rst time I was exposed to thetricking side of things and was literally blown away by whatthey were doing. Then I saw Jump London and a few of theDavid Belle videos.

Did you train as part of a group?My older brother Jonah started off with a couple of matesand I followed in his footsteps and trained with him, butmostly I trained with a couple of friends from school and we

went out and drilled all the basic vaults. From there we werehooked but at that time there were limited resourcesavailable with regard to tutorials, so we basically taughtourselves and used Jump London as a reference to try andreplicate what we saw.

What did you like about it?Well Ive always liked movement. When I was younger I washeavily into skateboarding and had intentions of turning pro

but once I found Freerunning, that was it. Id go out with theaim of skating and then end up doing vaults and everythingelse . With skating you need perfect surfaces and

specic obstacles but with Freerunning, you can do it prettymuch anywhere and that really appealed to me.

Something you should know about....

George G-Force MayfeldInterview by Ez - Photography by Claudiu Voicu


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Rehearsal day at the World Freerun Champships and George ies the ag (literally)


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So it started out as a hobby?Yeah. It wasnt until I found that there were internetforums dedicated to the scene that I started to take it allseriously. My main focus initially, was producing videos aseveryone was sharing their stuff online. So yeah, Id learna new move and upload it to get it out there.

What was the line of thinking with the videos?None of it was linked to work or trying to build a prole.The whole scene back then was about sharing

experiences and everyone was getting out there lmingtheir moves more to set their own personal benchmarks.

You see, sometimes its hard to judge your ownprogression, so back in the day when it was all reallypositive, posting videos for feedback from people allaround the world, was the best way to help you progress.

At that time youtube was only just starting to make asplash. Was this important for you?Denitely. Without the internet, the connections withinthe scene would be nowhere near as strong as they arenow. So I was a massive fan of youtube.

Are you still a fan?Yeah but theres so much content out there and they waypeople make their videos has changed quite a lot now.Its more just showreels and professional work ratherthan people showing one or two moves.

So you were heavily active in posting videos. At whatpoint did you see that you could maybe do somethingwith your skills?Sponsorship was probably the rst port of call intoworking in the commercial world. I met Kie and Pipwho were sponsored athletes at the time and they bothencouraged me to try and get sponsored too. So withina couple of months of that, I got my showreel ready andred it off to UF and got taken on board. Up until thatpoint Id never really done any kind of Freerunning workand all of the opportunities started to come in off theback of that sponsorship deal.

A good thing?Yeah but the dynamic changed. There was now more toaim for in that the more you got out there and gotyourself noticed, the more work and jobs you couldpotentially get.Explain what sponsorship entails?Well for me, getting sponsored was more about beingwelcomed into the team. I think my expectations ofsponsorship were inuenced by the skate world whereits just about promoting the business, but it was moreabout joining the team dynamic and adding your owncharacter. Kind of like joining a new family.Why bother?Well it denitely raised my prole. Simple things likegoing to jams and people recognising me and know-

ing my name. I never ever thought Id get to that stagethrough Freerunning. It was cool but with that also camea level or responsibility to step up.


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Scott Jackson leads George astray at the Grafti tunnel by Waterloo Station


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George with Scott Jackson - Totally inseparable!


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Did that bring added pressure?Yes there was denitely a bit of pressure when Id go tojams. It felt like there was a level of expectation to step upwhich I didnt mind, but it was harder to just chill out andrelax because it felt like I was being judged by others whomight want to be sponsored. It made jamming and meetingup with people a bit more serious because it felt like therewas a lot riding on it. It was good in some ways because itmeant I was pushing myself and was on top of my game.But at the same time it felt like some of the fun elementwas lost through the go big or go home mentality.

So you take what you do seriously?Absolutely, but I really enjoy the fun aspect too.

Tell us a little about your sporting background outside of

skating.I also did athletics at international level. I was a longjumper, triple jumper and I did a bit of pole vaulting.

Did you transfer any elements from athletics into yourFreerunning?From athletics, competing at such a high level has certainlystood me in good stead for what Im doing now. Certainlywith diet, warming up properly and understanding theimportance of gradual training. Skating was the thing thathelped me with overcoming fear though. I was able to drawon the same methods Id used when learning new skate

moves.

In your 5 or 6 years youve probably seen many peoplecome and go?Yes loads. One of them was my brother which was sad insome respects, because he started before me and got toquite a high level. He picked up an ankle injury and I thinkit icked a switch in his mind where he realised that hedidnt love the sport enough to risk injury and beingimmobile for. When he stopped I was forced to go out andtrain alone which has plus and negative points.

Do you nd it hard to motivate yourself?

Sometimes, especially when the weather is bad. Also, nothaving someone else whos eager to train and push you todo it, is sometimes tough. Other times I might have theodd ache or be feeling tired and this makes it harder toresist just going home and sitting on the couch .

What pushes you through then?At the heart of it is my love for the sport. The fact that Ivealways done it is enough to make me get out there andcontinue. For me, the thrill is always progressing andwithout all the little sessions you simply wont progress.

How long would a typical session last?I train approx 4-5 days a week with rest days thrown inand session for 1 to 2 hours at a time. If Im hyped by a newvideo or if Im drilling something specic, a session can lastuntil sunset.

Do you mostly train alone?These days I have a friend who I train with but there wasa time when I trained alone. Specically when I lmedmy sponsorship video, it was just me just going out on myown. It has its plus sides because you can focus more onwhat youre doing. However, the element of progressing ona journey with someone else and encouraging each otherwas lost.

So given the option, solo or group training?Erm.group training. Its so much more fun and you canjoke and banter. The fear factor is denitely decreased too,because you have others there to encourage and help you.I also like when youve nailed a new move and havingsomeone there who can share in your achievements.

Moving forward and youre now a professional athlete. Allgood?Moving up from being sponsored to being in the core teamwas a big thing for me. I was suddenly being presentedwith more opportunities and more exposure, which hasbeen a good thing but Ive had to balance with mystudies. Im currently working towards my exams in May2010 which restricts my availability right now.

Bah, who needs an education...What are you studying for? Im studying to become a doctor but once myexams are over in May, Im taking a gap year to focus 100%

on my Freerunning.

Compared to others in the team you havent done thatmuch pro work have you?Well in a professional sense, Ive only scratched the surfacebut Im looking forward to getting stuck in once my examsare over. That said, Ive been blessed to represent mycountry and most recently I featured in the DevilsPlayground movie, so Im not doing that bad .Tell us a little about your Devils Playground experience.To cut a long story short, I was cast in a key scene as acorpse where I have to burst in through a window of a

garage where all the main actors are.

This was a fully edged stunt, right?Yeah, I had to underbar through a window and precisiononto a table before leaping on a car.

Youre playing it down a tad here. It was a bit more difcultthan that. Ok I was in full zombie makeup and had to haveblood pouring out of my mouth. I had to underbar from ascaffolding set through a sugar glass window with my eyesclosed. There was a 4ft gap so I had to go across that and

land on a bench, let out a scream and then jump onto acar before jumping off to have a ght with one of the mainstars.

Im studying to become a doctor


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When Worlds collide: Victor Showtime Lopez (USA), Andrej ND Lisal (Austria), Nico Bosc (France), George G-Force Mayeld (UK), Andrey Djuxa Tur


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(Latvia), Alejandro Link Domarco (Spain) and Marcus Zyrken Gustafsson (Sweden) on stage at the 2009 Barclaycard World Freerun Championships


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So it was easy enough then? It was really scary because we only had amaximum of two takes to get it right as they only had twosugar panes for the window. Being put on the spot to dothat and act had my adrenaline pumping but luckily, wegot it in the rst take.

Must have been a great feeling when the crew all clappedafterwards?Yeah I was buzzing and Im told that the scene itself looksamazing but Ive only seen short clips myself.

That was for the interior garage scene, right?Yes, that was lmed inside a warehouse at Elstree studios.But when I ran out of the garage, we had to cut to a realgarage location which was shot at night in the freezing

cold. That was really tough because I was only wearinga tee-shirt, jeans and leather jacket as my costume. Ivenever been so cold!

What happened then?I dont want to give too much away, but I basically hadto attack Craig Fairbrass, whos the hero in the lm andlaunch myself at him in a frenzied zombie attack. All I cansay is that hes very useful with a hammer .

Awesome. Ok lets ip back to your professional baptism ofre at the 2008 Thames Festival in front of 750,000 people

over 2 days. Complete madness, right?Yes! At that point I was still a sponsored athlete and it waspart of a big performance at Jubilee Gardens in front ofthe London Eye. I was really nervous but also very excitedto have the opportunity of performing in front of such bigcrowds.

Any outstanding moments?Yes, the last performance on the evening of the second daystands out most. It was dark and we were doing a 5 minuteset to music as part of the the nale with the Petebox. Themusic and the atmosphere made for an electric experiencethat still gives me goose bumps when I think about it.

It was obvious that you relished performing in front ofcrowds. Switching the dynamic now, we move ontocompetition. After getting inducted into the core UF team,the opportunity to represent the UK at the Redbull Art OfMotion event in Austria, came about. Explain a bit aboutthatThat was a very nervy experience. Theres me in a foreigncountry and the rst time competing in a Freerunningcompetition. I was unsure how Id fare but I knew thatfrom other sports Id competed in, I always stepped upand rose to the occasion. For me, it was a testing the water

experience where I had no real intention of placing highly.I just wanted to give a good account of myself.

A good experience?Yeah, it was amazing and the rst time I got a chance tomeet a lot of my Freerunning heroes. I really enjoyed thewhole event and it made me realise that competing issomething that I wanted to do more of.The day before and during rehearsals, you were on re anddoing some amazing stuff. People were watching you andthinking holy shit! as though you were the guy to keep aneye on. What happened? I basically burned out. One of the main thingsIve learned from that event is that you dont get judged onhow good you are in rehearsals . On the rst day I

was really going for it and on the day of the event itself, wedid a promo tour of Vienna and again, I was going all out. Iguess it was because I was with so many great athletes from

around the world and I was trying to make a goodimpression. So in short, when it came to the main event Ihad a tweaked knee and was really tired, so I underperformed.

Did you use that as a learning experience for the WorldChampionships?Denitely. I learned from Blue, who won the Vienna event.He basically sat back during the rehearsal stages and didntgive anything away. He just assessed the setup and the rsttime anyone saw him move was during the actualcompetition itself. So I adopted the same approach for the

Worlds, sat back in my tracksuit and took it easy.

Was it hard to ght the temptation of getting up there witheveryone and just jamming?

Yes it was really difcult to not join in. Especially when theygot the mats out and started sessioning hard. I know thatif I had joined in, Id have gone all out because I cant justchill and do it half hearted.

In hindsight, was sitting back and keeping your cards closeto your chest a good thing?I think it was the right approach for that day. Sure it wasgutting not to have been able to jam but Id rather look back

and say I placed 5th in the event because I preparedproperly, than to say that I did some good moves the day

before but was too tired to compete on event day.So youre standing there on stage draped in the Union Jackag. Explain what the Worlds meant to you?I was humbled to be asked to represent the UK. After

watching the coverage of the rst Worlds in 2008, I neverthought Id actually be stepping up to represent on thatlevel. To make it worse, the second World Champs wason such a bigger scale than the rst. We were at TrafalgarSquare in front of 8000 people and it was being broadcast

live on the BBC. Without a doubt, the scariest thing Iveever done . That was probably the biggest and bestday of my life. To be on TV competing in my chosen sport infront of so many people and to have all my friends andfamily there to share the experience, is something I willnever ever forget.

That was probably the biggest and best day of my life


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All made up as a corpse for the Devils Playground movie


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The moment that Georges bowels started to loosen up.


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Much pressure?Yes but when I was actually doing my run I was in myelement.

So youre standing 25ft up on the top platform waiting yourturn. You must have wanted the ground to open up andswallow you whole? Yes, I seriously came close to shitting in mypants!! My stomach was all over the place with nerves andI wasnt quite sure what to do. But as soon as thecountdown started and my music kicked in, I zoned outand as soon as I did my rst ip the fear disappeared and Isaid to myself Lets do this! It was an incredibleexperience.

What was it like?

It was a long time for sure. In training you never really goall out over a short period. You usually just jam but here,it was all crammed into one minute where youre doing allyour best stuff so yeah, it was really knackering.

How did you prepare for the event?Id been advised about how easy itd be to burn out, so Iwent out and really worked on my tness levels.

Did that work in your favour ?I think so. Id like to think that the tempo was high duringmy run. My action plan was to blitz the course and keep

the pace up for the whole minute and leave a goodimpression.

Your rst run was nice and tidy and you placed highly onthe leaderboard. Knowing that you might make the nal,was it like oh shit, Ive got to do it all again or were yourelishing the opportunity?On the day before the event, I kept myself to myself andjust watched. But I had this sudden wave of fear where Ithought that my run was going to be crap because the skilllevel of the others was so high. So after doing my rst runin the qualier, I came off thinking that Id actually doneok and there was a slight possibility that Id make it onto

TV.

Of the 25 athletes competing only the top 10 would appearin the nal live on TV. Were you nervous?Yes, very. But to be honest, the nal was the last thing onmy mind. Then when I saw my name on the scoreboard asa nalist it really hit home that I had to wake up and plan asecond run .

What was the feeling between all the athletes therecompeting?It was an amazing feeling of unity. It wasnt like any other

sporting event Ive been involved in. When you nisheda run youd be swarmed by all the other athletes givingprops. It was really positive as though we were all there asone big family doing it together.

So being a big fan of youtube yourself, I guess you weregetting a chance to meet some more of your own heroes,which is ne. But to compete against them must have beenweird?Yeah, some of the guys I was standing next to were some ofthe same people that got me into the sport. Like theSpeeders guys from Belgium..wow, it was an honour tobe doing something close to the level they were doing. Iwas more proud than scared though.Did they know who you were?Id already met a few of them at the AOM Vienna event so

bonds had already been formed. We were all discussingvideos and sharing tips like old friends. I was speaking tothe likes of Daer from Mexico and Pasha from Latvia and

was telling them that I love watching their videos.

You mentioned Daer and Pasha. Both of these guys hadnever competed before up until then. How did they seem tocope with the pressure?Remarkably well. They may have been just as nervous asI was but they were both positive and happy to be there atsuch a high prole event.

So you go through to the nal round and end up gettinginjured. What happened?

When I realised I was in the nal I had to plan a run out, soI quickly ran over to my family and discussed a nale move

with my brothers. My line of thinking was that I may neverget the opportunity to be live on TV again, so I wanted toend on a high note. I decided to go for a double sideip

which I have no problem with usually but unfortunately,when I came to the point where I executed it, I was a bittired and ended up coming short and landed on my side. Asa result I damaged my ankle which was the only negativething for me. If I could reverse time, Id have chosen to dosomething less ambitious and landed it cleanly. That wayId have been able to relax and enjoy the rest of theexperience a bit more.

Where did you place in the end?

I placed 5th overall which is insane. I never ever expected toplace so highly.

You mentioned that you had your family there. They musthave been very proud overall?

We were all talking about this at New Year and discussingthe highlights of the year. The fact that most of them saidthe World Championships was their personal highlight,made me very proud indeed. Their support has beenamazing since the start and I owe them all so much.

So are you up for competing in the 2010 event?

Bring it on. I cant wait..

Thanks George.A pleasure.

I seriously came close to shitting in my pants!!


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Athlete: David Banks (South Africa) Photographer: Eric Palmer Website:www.parkour.co.za


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Words by Ez Photography: Claudiu Voicu


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A large open grassy area right in front of the London Eye with a bunch ofobstacles dotted around the outskirts. Often used as a meet up/warm uppoint and if the weather is good, it becomes a crash out area where peoplechill, eat and jam. The brown walled area is frequently used for trickingoff of, but there are some great cat leap and precision opportunities theretoo. For those wishing to string together some runs, the walls offer somenice lines where foot placement and running precisions can be crankedout. When the weather is nice, the area gets packed with tourists who likenothing better than to watch, take pics and lm on their video cams. So ifyoure feeling the need to step up and perform, heres your chance.

Positives:*Great range of obstacles that cater for beginners and veterans alike.*Close to the shops and the legendary Chicken cottage (Om nom nom!).*Train station is close by.

Negatives:*If the renta-cops are feeling ruthless, theyll be all over you like ies ona steaming turd, preventing you from sessioning the walls. Not too bad asthere are other ground level obstacles which are hassle free.

*Chicken cottage....denitely a place you need to get used to. Conspiracytheorists have reported a decrease in pigeons within the local area (Omnom nom! x 5).

Probably the best known of the Southbank areas simply because of thegreat lines and the amount of times its been rinsed for media features.Has been frequented by a regular stream of practitioners since the JumpLondon documentary aired in 2004. Due to the main walls runningparallel but at differing gradients, it allows beginners to start low and

work their way up when drilling cats and precisions. It also has a bigblock where diving kongs, dashes and a variety of ips can be drilled. Forthe advanced practitioner there are kong to precsion and kong to catopportunities and for those whos Parkour vision has been widened, thereare some bigger precisions to be had.

Positives:*Hassle free (not policed by renta-cops).*Known as a key meet up point, so youre always going to bump intosomeone else training there.*Perfect for beginners.*Shops/Train station close by.*Well lit for night training.

Negatives:*If you like training alone, pick your times wisely.*Seeing as its a public walkway, you need to be aware of passers by whoarent expecting to see people ying over their heads.

One of the more controversial spots in the sense of hassle thats beengenerated here. Bascially its not the best spot but has some precisionand vault opportunities and has recently been blown open by some of theadvanced guys whove started striding over the big drop (about 25 - 30ft)which to be honest, it absolutely scares the shit out of us due to therebeing absolutely no room for error. Right at the bottom of the Baby 45there are some nice vault, tic tac and precision spots.

Positives:*Hmmm not a great deal of positive things to say about this place otherthan to recommend the walls at the bottom of the Baby 45. If we had adeathwish, wed recommend the striding area but the the consequences ofanything other than 100% perfection with every tech perfromed there, arefar too high a price to pay.

Negatives:*Renta-cops have got serious game. CCTV cameras are here, so these guysdont mess about when it comes to swarming in to stop play. We have tonote that they are generally complete tards, who could certainly do witha visit to charm school. That said, the area is technically private propertyeven though the public are allowed to walk through, so if youre asked tostop, do the right thing and move on peacefully without cussing them.If you do cuss them (regardless of how rude they can be at times) andcause a scene, youll only make it more difcult for others in the future.

Back in the day this was considered to be a place where youd earnyour stripes by doing a precision or cat across the gap. How times havechanged! This one spot has been creamed by the next level ofpractitioners whove been doing kong to cats, 360 cats, cat to precisionsand 360 precisions. For people whove stepped up to intermediate leveland have their cats and precisions dialed, this place is perfect to get overthe fear factor of height.Positives:*Good place to deal with height factor (for intermediate level NOT

beginners).*Close to shops/train station.*Makes for a great photo opportunity.

Negatives:*Is connected to the lower level area and is policed by the same Haywardsecurity there, so dont expect to be able to session for too long without

being bum-rushed.

*Danger element. Whilst the gap is standard in distance, the drop is about15ft and high enough to get you seriously mangled if you screw up, so100% focus is key.

*Passers by dont take too kindly to being jumped over, regardless of howcool you might look. So show some respect and time it all well.


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For those with a solid level, this area presents a variety of greatopportunities. Its basically two parallel walls with a distance of 8 to 9ftbetween them but with a 15ft drop. It allows for precisions, cat leaps andcat to cats as standard but for some, it opens up kong to cats, kong toprecisions, kong to crane, speed vault to crane etc. Weve even seen adouble kong and a diving kong over the channel which is all amazingstuff, but none of the above is recommended for anyone under advancedlevel to attempt. There are also some rails for more precisions and avariety of different vault drills.

Positives:

*A great place to step your game up and drill the more advanced moves.*Relatively hassle free (unless you venture too near to the Kings college).*As per the North side Subway, its close to shops/train station.*Well lit for night training.

Negatives:*The danger factor. Very little room for error so if you fuck up, yourein shit street! This area is for the experienced only, so you have beenwarned!

*Need to be conscious of passers by below who again, wont be toopleased to see people ying over their heads and putting them in the lineof re.

Used to be one of the best spots to session up until the point where thelocal residents applied anti-climb paint to the surfaces of the landingarea. This was done years ago and was a sticky glue like substance thatkilled the spot off instantly. Over the years however, the paint hasnt beentopped up and is now pretty much ready to session again. Youll still get

black marks on your hands but thats just a small price to pay. The areaitself has a great variety of precision and cat leap opportunities but inaddition, has some more ambitious opportunities for those who are ona higher level. One complex combo of note is a tic tac off the corner ofa wall to a protruding post, straight into a swinging precision. Hard toexplain in words but when seen up close, boom, it looks slick!

Positives:*Awesome spot for cat and precision drills at varying heights.*Makes for perfect photos/video grabs.*Close to shops/train station.*Well lit and perfect for night sessions.

Negatives:*Still has anti-climb residue on the surface area of the landing zone.*If you session as a large group, youll denitely get moved on.*Danger element. The drop is about 12ft and still high enough to see youget busted up if you dont focus 100%.

A bit of a beef story here. When we rst started hitting Southbank totrain, we used to have an area right next to this skate spot that was perfectfor us. It had angled walls, and rails and became a central training point.This was cut short by development in the area and knocked down to makeway for new shops. The skate spot however, was ofcially given to themto use and they even had specic blocks installed by the local authorities.Bastards!! Anyways, the skaters and freerunners have always co-existedin a friendly manner, so they werent overly pissed off when we started us-ing their spot to train at. Not a great deal in the way of perfect obstacles,but there are some walls, rails and blocks that can be used and usually areif its raining.

Positives:*Good spot to zone in on if its raining, as it is fully under cover.

*Looks great with all the street art providing an apt backdrop.*Shops/Train station close by.

Negatives:*Stinks of piss due to the corners being dark and a perfect public toilets.*Rails are unsteady from the amount of abuse the skaters and bmx guyshave given them, so test your surfaces out prior to doing anything.

*Youll have to share lines with the skaters and if a rogue board headsyour way after theyve bailed, watch your ankles.

Trickers heaven. During any Southbank jam you will always nd thisplace being sessioned hard by droves of people wanting to drill ips.

When the tide of the Thames goes out, a big area of soft sand is exposedand makes for a perfect landing area. Leading down to the sand from theFestival Pier are some big block steps which are used as the launch padfrom different heights. Almost every Southbank jam video produced hasincluded this place for sure. On a sunny day you will get up to 100practitioners lining up to throw themselves off the steps and more oftenthan not, youll nd the top walkway level absolutely packed out withhundreds of tourists, who stop and cheer thinking they are getting a freeshow.

Positives:*Soft landings make for bigger and more ambitious techs.

*Crowds gathering to cheer and throw money (were kidding about themoney).*Shops/train station close by.

Negatives:*Soft landings make for a false sense of security. Weve heard all sorts ofstories about people getting busted up because they tried a certain ip forthe rst time without understanding the mechanics of movement and inturn, landed on their head. If you do land on your head, at best it hurts (alot!). At worst, well, you can imagine.....


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Another hotspot best suited to the trick ferrets, this place is often heavilypopulated by Freerunners who want to show off a bit and put on a displayfor the tourists. On any given weekend, there are literally thousands oftoursits walking around with cameras cocked and loaded to capture thegeneric shots of Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, London Eye etc. Itdbe rude not to give them a few ips to spice up their collection and maybesneak in a few shockers too. This area offers very little more than a varietyof ip variations off of the stone circle structure. There is a nice tic tac tocat or tic tac to precision/crane off the tree but other than that, not a lotmore. Dotted around however, are a a few gems. In particular near thestairs leading up to Waterloo bridge is a big running precison and a

running cat/crane.

Positives:*As long as you arent part of a massive group, youll be regarded as astreet performer by the security and will be left alone.

*Tourists are really receptive and like nothing more than to takehundreds of pointless pictures just for the sake of it. Might as well milkthe photo opportunity while you can. Be sure to ask for copies.

*Shops/train station close by.

Negatives:*Too many annoying tourists.

The box cat area is a bit of a golden nugget that has a variety ofdifferent opportunities to drill loads of cat/precision variations. Withthese opps comes an element of danger though, as there are serious dropsto contend with. Denitely one for advanced level practitioners only. Themain thing that youll notice once there, is that its all packed into a smallspace and is situated right by a busy road, so if you session there in a largegroup youll draw attention to yourselves and will denitely get moved on.This place is best attacked as a small unit of no more than 4 or 5 peopleand is one that youd session quickly en route to somewhere else. Notreally the kind of place you could rock up to and spend the day jammingat.

Positives:*For the advanced practitioner there are a bunch of really interestinglines and combo opportunities.

*Close to the shops/train station.

Negatives:*Denitely not one for beginners due to the danger element.*Not a place that can be sessioned at for too long without being moved on.*Passers by. The stairwell leads down to street level and Tramps Kitchen,so you need to be conscious of a stream of people walking up and down.

This isnt a place we encourage anyone to train at or attmept becausethere is quite simply, no room for error. Were simply highlighting that itdoes exist and in the past, has been used by people long before everyonewised up and realised that by doing it, you arent actually improving yourskills. Its basically a carbon copy of the Baby 45 but with a huge dropbetween the two walls. Over the years it has been featured in a variety ofprinted publications showing a precision or cat leap and it also featuredbriey in the Jump Britain documentary.

Positives:*The only good thing to say is that it makes for good photo stills but hasbeen rinsed so much in the past, that it is no longer unique.

*Close to shops/train station.*If youre stupid enough to do it and fuck up, youll be pleased to knowthat if you dont die, the hospital is only about half a mile away.

Negatives:*Death drop is far too dangerous for any sensible practitioner.*Wont improve your skill level if you do it.*If you do end up in hospital, the food there is shit!

With the weather generally being so crap in the UK, making the journeyto Southbank to train, is a bit of a lottery and many people have endedup arriving to see almost everything cancelled out by the rain. Aside fromthe skate area on the other side of the river, there isnt that much to doif it rains but this spot is perfect. Its under the cover of Waterloo bridgeand has many different lines to create interesting movement, so you couldeffectively stay there all day. The main down side is that its also whereall the homeless queue up to get their free soup from the authorities andseeing as its a dry spot, you often get a few tramps using it as an area tohang out. Generally they are really ok people but if you arrive there in a

big group and start invading their space, youll understand if they end upgetting annoyed.

Positives:*Offers a perfect dry spot to train at if the weather is crap.*Great variety of opportunities to move for both beginner and advancedlevels.

*Close to shops/train station.Negatives:*Stinks of piss.*Feels a bit dark and depressing and is crap for lming/photography.


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PRETTY IN INK...

A typical summertime gathering at Southbank

Props on the body art but hes gonna feel like a fucktard when he realisesthat the glyph in Chinese means Szechuan chicken in hot & spicy sauce


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Athlete: Marcus Zyrken Gustafsson (Sweden) Photographer: Isabelle Grnqvist Website:www.air-wipp.com


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Cionn 2009An old reel but one that shows off the much admired Sascha Cionn Hauser from Vienna, Austria. Noted asbeing a man with silky smooth skills, he has been a leading light on the Austrian scene for years and is one of

the safest and most humble of guys you could ever meet. A rm favourite on the competition circuit, Cionnhas represented his country in the Redbull Art of Motion and the rst World Freerun Championship events.At the 2009 World Champs he was invited onto the judging panel.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqEyzRxRQMs

SpeedersIn this video we see Olivier Pitot from Belgium whos a leading member of the legendary Speeders team. LikeCionn above, Olivier is very active on the competition circuit and has competed at the Redbull Art of Motionand World Freerun Championship events. Here in this edit, he shows exactly why hes gone down such astorm on Glyphmedia with his highly polished game.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hW-49HhwRo

City MonkeyThis video was a bit of a pleasant surprise for us to nd, as evidence of Parkour/Freerun activity in the Far

East is a bit thin to say the least. Here we see Sunjie of the Urban Monkey team from Beijing, China, tearingup his environment. Were sure that youll all agree that this guy has serious potential and if he renes histechnique with a touch of polish, hell denitely be someone to keep an eye on in the not too distant future.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wSpuhp_oFk

Ultra Obstacle Course

Over the years Parkour/Freerun has become a fully edged urban street movement and this video isntsomething to highlight the skills and style that were all used to. Instead, this goes back to basics and showsus exactly what efcient movement is all about where a team from China and a team from Austria go head tohead in a relay race over an obstacle course. Inspirational stuff and denitely worth a view.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrxpH6_viMU

Physically Witnessed By Some, Shared With Millions....In this section of the magazine well be grabbing a selection of video edits from our Glyphmedia channel and will be putting them in the line of re for moreattention. In this issue weve selected Cionn 2009, Speeders, City Monkey and Ultra Obstacle Course to get the spotlight treatment.....


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For a full-on dicipline that can be as energy depleting as Parkour/Freerunning, its vital to keep

yourself topped up with fuel. Most of you reading this will see that as breaking away from

training for a quick trip down to McDs, Chicken Cottage or by grabbing some junk (chocolate,crisps and sweets) from the nearest grocery store. If you are one of the select few who might have

gone for the healthy option, well done, but sometimes eating healthier can prove to be a bit on the

expensive side. Well there is a powerfood out there thats portable, inexpensive and protein packed:

Peanut butter..yep good old peanut butter!

Not many other foods can boast peanut butters versatility, as it provides a dose of carbohydrates

for an energy boost, bundled with the long-lasting satisfaction and full-feeling caused by

protein and fat. There is a nice variety of notable vitamins and minerals in peanut butter. For

example, it contains folate, vitamin E, magnesium and resveratrol, all nutrients associated with

reduced risk of heart disease. It also offers a small amount of zinc, a mineral important for healing

and strengthening the immune system. As an athlete, you need all these nutrients to keep you ticking

over nicely.

The reality is that no matter how hard we try, none of us will ever win the war against hunger so

here are two very simple options to help keep the hunger at bay:

Sandwich

Some bread with a dollop of peanut butter.......very simple but healthier

by far, than fast food burgers or fried chicken dinner and thats

because peanut butter offers health protective mono and polyunsaturated oil.

Things Youll Need: a tub of peanut butter, bread and a knife or clean finger.

If you really need us to explain how to make yourself a sandwich, pleaseclose this browser now and punch yourself in the face repeatedly!

Power ShakePacked with protein, a peanut butter power shake, is a good solution to

low energy. With just a few simple ingredients and a few minutes of your

time, you can make this tasty, energy boosting shake right in your very own

home. Things Youll Need: A blender, a tub of peanut butter, milk, 1 x banana,

chocolate syrup, ice, granola.

Add 2 tablespoons of peanut butter into a blender.

Add 2 tablespoons of granola into a blender.

Throw in a banana.

Squirt a bit of chocolate sauce into the blender.

(Be sparse with this ingredient as indulging in too

much chocolate defeats the purpose of this healthy treat).

Add one half cup of milk and a little bit of ice.

Blend until it is a thick liquid.

Pour and om nom nom!

Caution: If you have an allergy to peanuts,

forget all of the above and stick with Chicken Cottage.


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Athlete: Ozzi Quintero (Hawaii) Photographer: David Saucedo Website:www.hawaiipk.com


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by Sean Lerwill -www.commandoconditioning.comWhen it comes to warming up before Parkour/Freerun training, I bet you fall into one of the following mindsets.

1) I dont need to warm-up. 2) I already know how to warm-up. 3) I dont know how to warm-up.

If youve never warmed up and are thinking, but Im ok Ive never pulled a muscle or tweaked an ankle because I didnt warm-up, youre denitelywalking on thin ice. First of all, when you are young your muscles and joints are naturally supple, but as you get older they tighten. This makesthem much more likely to get torn or pulled from the kind of techniques common with what we do. I myself, learned the hard way at 18. I was lazy

with warm-ups, never had done them before, so never bothered. I tore my quadriceps so badly I couldnt even lie on my front in bed. It took over 4months to heal before I could run/jump/kick again. Needless to say, it was a complete nightmare!

Secondly, injuries are not just what you see now. By warming up you encourage the knee, ankle and all other joints to release synovial uid. Thislubricates the joints and ensures they are not degrading the cartilage. Once your cartilage has worn away, thats it. It cannot grow back and youll berubbing bone on bone. By warming up you encourage the synovial uid to ow prior to any jumps, ips and vaults and by doing so, youll be saving

your joints for the future.In short: you may not feel or see the injuries now, but 10 years down the line, your knees and ankles will if you dont take precautions now. We onlyneed to look at the competitive lifespan of top gymnasts for a comparison. Caught your attention yet? If yes, please read on and Ill break it down ineasy to follow steps....


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The Parkour/Freerunning Warm-up:Your warm-ups should always have 4 parts to structure them.) Pulse-raiser (to get your heart pumping blood around your body/muscles/joints)) Mobilisation of your joints (encouraging synovial uid to ow/testing joint ranges)) Dynamic stretch (stretching the muscles through active exercises, NOT static stretches)) Second pulse raiser with Parkour/Freerun specic moves (really get heart rate up and muscles working)ulse Raiser: (Should take 2-4mins)ick a concrete or dry grass area and mark 2 points about 5-20 metres apart (mark with jumpers or bags)og between the two marks, forwards one way and backwards the other way

erform the following drills with the legsLight toe icks to the frontHalf knee raise to the frontHalf heel kicks to rearNormal running, gradually speeding up to 60% of your full pace


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Athlete: Gabe Jaywalker Nunez (USA) Photographer:Victor Lopez Website:www.tempestfreerunning.com


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Mike in Jedi attire as standard. Photo by: Claudiu Voicu


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Going back to 2004, Parkour was still very much an underground movement known by very few people outside of France. Upuntil that point there had been no major mainstream attention and the scene as a whole, was still very much in its infancy.Then came along the Jump London documentary in 2004 and after airing on mainstream UK TV, things literally explodedand the sport/art/discipline was taken to new heights overnight. Shortly after, the sequel (Jump Britain) went intoproduction and again, UK TV exposure awaited and the tidal wave of interest generated by that is still being felt today. The

man responsible for both and often endearingly referred to as the true Godfather of the scene is Mike Christie, who wemanaged to catch up with in London.

How and when did you nd out aboutParkour?Mike: Id love to be able to say that Iknew about it before the Rush hourident, but I didnt. Then like the restof the country, I saw Rush hour andthought well thats good but didntask myself what it was. I think that itwas quite good that Rush hour didnt

tell you anything about Parkour andthat it just looked like clever stuntsbecause that left the door open forJump. But no, I cant think ofanything before that. The next thing Isaw - and I remember you and I talk-ing about both seeing it that day - wasthe Transworld sports piece which Icaught one Saturday morning.

What was the process to get the ballrolling?Mike: Jump London started out as a

project called Leap and it was basedon an idea that Simon Andreae (headof science at Channel 4) had. He sawRush hour too and that planted theseed, but what he was interested inwas in making a programme that wasabout muscles and the human abilityto do all the moves associated withParkour. Being a science man, thatwas what obviously interested him,so there was some kind of exploratorywork put in before I came along.

He tried to nd David Belle funnilyenough and he literally just did a bitof prep work before I got the call.The initiative came from Channel 4in that classic lets do something butwe dont know what kind of way. So Iand Mike Smith were effectively givena blank piece of paper that just saidLeap at the top of it and all we weretold was that it should be Frenchguys jumping off of stuff, preferablywith some landmarks, looking atmuscles.

Then what?Mike: So that was the brief. We put ina months worth of work, brought in afull team, looked at a lot of locationsand spent quite a lot of time thinkingabout what the lm could be.

and all this methodology, so thatdocument is really interestingbecause its pretty much the rst everhandbook that anyone wrotedetailing what the moves were. Itpre-dates any of the websites ormagazines but in very insurance liketermsthe runner will then jumpfrom the roof .

So the muscles angle was dropped?Mike: I spent about a week lockedaway in a room with just bits of videoand music and Id say that 90% ofwhat was in that actual treatment isin the lm. The idea of making a lmabout muscles went out of thewindow, the idea of science wentout of the window and its when wetook the decision to put a lm in themiddle of the documentary. This wasquite revolutionary because youre

looking at prime time Channel 4 andputting out something thats almostperformance art set to music, in themiddle of a primetime TVprogramme and that was quite a risk.

Were you condent that your ideawas going to be received well aChannel 4 HQ?Mike: NO!! We knew weliked it but it was twice the price ofanything any other TV hour wouldtake to make. So there were lots ofthings that could have gone wrong.We treated the development as if itwas a production in itself. Instead ofdelivering a lm, we delivered a book.The book said this is the lm that wecould make and at that point, wednished development and I went offon holiday. Basically we didnt knowwhether wed hear anything about theproject ever again but we deliveredthe document on the Friday and bythe Wednesday they rang and gave us

the green light.

What was the next step?Mike: Well it all happened veryquickly. We started development atthe end of Feb 2003, delivered it atthe end of March and by mid April,

Interestingly, it was the same monththat in London that the congestioncharge had started and there was alot of talk about the city and how itworks and lots of newspaper articlesprinting comic intellectualisedarticles about who owns what. Itturned into a fairly big debate thatfed into it all as well for us and what

we thought about the city, so it wasquite a slow evolution from thisprogramme that was about musclesto the programme that it eventuallybecame.

Interesting stuff, so when did thechange happen?Mike: The big breakthrough waswhen we went over to Paris to meetSebastien, Stephane and Johann andthen they all came to London andstarted looking at locations. Then

after a really long exhausting daysat on a roof in Soho somewhere, itwas the rst time we started sayingwhy? why Parkour?. Then theystarted talking about the philosophyand this was the breakthrough mo-ment because never before had I readanything or seen anything during allthe research, that actually explainedwhat it was. Up until then everyonewas really obsessed with the spectacleand using it for stunt work or

whatever. So then there was thiseureka moment where Mike and Ilooked at each other while they weretalking about the philosophy and wethought well this is the lm.

So how did you go back to Channel 4and tell them?Mike: They were expecting a halfhour piece on muscles and we wentback with a document that I stillhave, that was 140 pages long thatdetailed the budget, health & safety

and has this explanation of whatthe moves were to make sure wecould get the insurance. It was like ajigsaw where you cant make the lmwithout insurance and to prove to theinsurers that its safe, you have to beable to explain it to them with video


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we did the rst shoot which was inLisses. The whole sequence you seeright at the beginning of the lm, wasthe rst thing we shot with Sebastienwalking around in the rain sayingthis is where we climbed on theschool roof.

Where did the iconic locations t into

the equation?Mike: Mike Smith had this brilliantidea of playing three buildings offagainst each other to get them to sayyes to this mad project, theneveryone else would want to do it. Sowe went to all these buildings andbefore any of them had rmlycommitted, wed say well theyrein, the National Theatre want to doit which wed say to the Globe. TheGlobe would then think if theyre in,then we should do it. There was anelement of convincing these people.Its easier now as everyone knowswhat it is but back then we had toliterally go in with laptops showingthem QuickTime video les ofParkour action.

How did they react?Mike: At rst, was a pretty universalreaction of youre not doing that onour rooftops and youre not doingthat on our walls.what happens if

someone dies? But they came roundsurprisingly quickly.

You must have had an extensive listto work through?Mike: Yes, we had a list of 100rooftops which we visited over thespace of 4 or 5 days and the funnything was the amount of lifts thatwere out of order. Wed turn up andtheyd ALWAYS say the lifts are outof order, so youll have to take the

stairs to the roof, but you guys mustbe used to that? which was ne foreveryone else but was quite a lot ofstairs for a TV director .

Did you get approval for all the onesyou were particularly interested in?Mike: Of all the buildings we wanted,there were very few that didnt comeon board. There were two of note; theNational Gallery which was originallygoing to be the rst building for theaction sequence in the middle. Itwasnt meant to be Somerset House,it was supposed to be the NationalGallery. And also the Tower of Lon-don. The National gallery said no at

Parkour action before?Mike: No, there were 2 directors onthe shortlist for Jump London and Iwas one of them. The reason I was onthat shortlist was because Id madequite a lot of television for Channel4 including producing Around theworld in 80 raves and Id edited mostof that series, so they knew I had a

visual style and Id also made an epicarchitecture series for BBC2, so theyknew that I knew how to lmbuildings, so at no point wasanyone going do you know how tolm Parkour?. People were moreworried about it being edited in asexy way and the buildings beinglmed in an interesting way.

For one of the rooftop sequences youused lots of mini cameras was this

because you werent quite sure how tocapture the action?Mike: No, the mini cameras were astyle thing. The idea behind themcame from a movie called Dancingin the dark and in it there are sevensongs and the way they were lmedwas by using 100 DV cameras andhed start all the cameras off and dothe song. Hed then take all thefootage from those 100 cameras intothe edit suite.

The HMS Belfast jump wasinteresting as it had featured soheavily in the main photo of themedia campaign. However, I wasseriously disappointed at the time tohear that crash mats had been used.Mike: Its a funny one becauseSebastien was convinced that he wasgoing to do that jump without a crashmat. It took us a day and a half to lmall of the stuff on HMS Belfast andit took us 3 or 4 hours just to set up

that one jump. Literally 10 secondsbefore the jump he shouted down tothe stunt coordinator to put the crashmats in. There were a few shots thatwed already set up and they wouldnow show the mats but all thecameras were already running. Soyoud end up seeing the mats albeityou dont see much of them and wenever edited them out. The publicityshot that you mention wasnt takenby us, it was taken by a Channel4 photographer and he edited themats out. I think from the point ofview from a publicity photograph, itworked but from the point of viewfrom a Parkour photograph, it was acheat I suppose.

the last minute because they wereworried about security as theythought everyone would see the roofand would then know how to breakin. However, theres a restaurantoverlooking the roof so itd be easyif you really wanted to work it out.The other location to say no was theTower of London. When we visited

there on the rst recce, Sebastiensaid I want to jump from there tothere and the guy said so you wantto jump from that 1000 year old roofto that 800 year old roof? Probablynotwhich was fair enough I suppose.

Were you happy with the nallocations you ended up with?Mike: Its a bit strange because some-times it was the status of the location

rather than suitability to Parkour butyou know, its a balancing act whenyoure making a piece of televisionlike that. Youve got to satisfy a bigaudience and an internationaldesire to see landmarks with a spacethat delivers great moves. So I thinkwe were quite lucky in that we goteverything that we wanted to get.That said, sometimes the ones I reallyliked were quite often the ones in be-tween the landmarks like the rooftopsof Soho.

Health & Safety.Im guessing thiswas an absolute nightmare?Mike: The great thing about workingin a big team is that when there arebig issues as there were with health& safety, youre encouraged not toworry about them because there arepeople dealing with them. I thinkthey had quite a torturous exercisebecause I remember the rst riskassessments and the rst documents

that Clem (H&S ofcer) had to dowere just horric .

Did the H&S procedures stie theFreerunners from being as ambitiousas they wanted to be?Mike: Not very often. I think theywere very good at working with thelandmarks but I think that if theydhad their way completely, theywouldnt have been doing Parkour onthem, but there simply wouldnt havebeen a Jump London if we didntrecognise the city because they werenecessary to raise the money.

Prior to Jump, had you ever shot any


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At the Giants Causeway in Ireland where Sebastien and Jerome began their journey in Jump Britain


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Wasnt Seb carrying a niggling injuryat the time?Mike: All the way through JumpLondon he was injured. He hadtendonitis. That was why he wasworried.

So bringing the mats in for the the

HMS Belfast jump.was that partlydue to the injury?Mike: I guess so, at the end of the dayhe looked at it and made his decision.Back then the agreement was that wewouldnt tell them where to jump orhow to do it, as this was an area oftheir expertise. They would simplytell us what they could do and I wouldwork out how to lm it and MikeSmith would work out how to make itas safe as possible from an insurance

point of view.At the time I was nave to the waythat lming works from a H&Sperspective and like others at thetime felt both cheated anddisappointed to hear about the mats.Mike: I suspect that because it wassuch a big jump, that he wanted to doit but maybe got nervous because ofhis injury. He never turned aroundand said that he didnt want to do it.We went and visited that onelocation more than any other to keeplooking at it. Its about 20ft downon to steel and its annoying to thinkthat I didnt lm it as well as I couldhave but in Jump Britain at the DerryWharf, he jumps down to the ground

nished lming mid-June and thenthe editing started. The problem withtaking that 12 camera approach wasthat we didnt start or stop them, theyjust kept on rolling so there were 400tapes to go through which took 9 or10 weeks to edit. The edit itself hadstarted while we were lming. I think

it was worth doing it that way but Ithink my problem is that sometime Isuggest something as an experimentand people think its really good andthen you suddenly start thinkinghold on, if we do that well end upwith 400 tapes .

Ok so its all in the can and beingedited. The media hype machineleading up to the transmission datewas full-on wasnt it? You couldnt

pick up a newspaper without seeingsomething about Jump London.Mike: It was strange because longbefore then, wed nished it and therewas Mike and I along with Olivia theeditor and at that point, we all justlooked at each other and thoughtThis is mad! because eithernobody is going to notice this lm orits going to blow people away. Thiswas weeks before the transmissionand we had no idea if anyone wouldcare. This was a really strange feelingbecause youve spent all that timeworking on something thats the mostexpensive thing youve done that cost345,000 and youre thinking isanyone going to give a fuck and willanyone actually watch it? .

and that was about 18.5ft. I think oneof the reasons that was done withoutcrash mats being used, is because hewanted to do a big jump and couldntreally do it properly in the rst onedue to his injury.

Was Jump London as an experience,

tough on the bodies of the guys?Mike: The action sequence took about13 or 14 days of lming Parkour andthen about 7 or 8 days of interviewsfor the documentary stuff, but thatwas all spread out over a period of5 or 6 weeks. The action was oftenlmed at strange times, take forexample the Saatchi gallery exteriorsequence: we had to lm that at 5ambefore it was open to the public!

How about the weather, typically arainy London?Mike: Oh the weather was terriblyunpredictable in that classic Britishsummer way but actually itswonderful to have those kinds ofskies when lming because of theclouds, blue skies, storm clouds andall that stuff. We only lmed abouta minute of action a day but part ofthat was due to moving locations andsetting up 12 cameras, which is whywhen we got to lming Jump Britain,I didnt bother to use 12 cameras.What was the timeframe for thewhole production?Mike: We started in mid-April,

During the recce on the roof of the Millennium Stadium roof


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Is anyone going to give a fuck and will anyone actually watch it?

Did you personally think that you hadsomething special in the bag?Mike: I think the rst time I thoughtthat we had something special was atthe cast and crew premiere which washeld at Channel 4 HQ. We had a bigunit consisting of about 50 people,which was pretty big for a

documentary and everyone came andhad a drink and went into thecinema. Then at the end they allcame out and had this look on theirface as though theyd been totallyblown away and I remember abouthalf of them saying we didnt knowwhat you were doing when you weremaking the lm. We just thoughtwe did - but now we understandit completely. This is interestingbecause I remember the cast of therst Star Wars movie saying the same

thing and that they thought it wasjust George Lucas, this nutty directormaking some sci- lm and none ofthem knew how itd look but they justwent along with it. Im not comparingJump London to Star Wars though but it was that samereaction where people didntunderstand it until they saw it editedtogether. Of course it lookedEXACTLY how I imagined it looking!

When it came to the TV transmission,were you nervous about how itd godown?Mike: I still had no idea. The thingthat gave it away was that there hadbeen a great trailer shown on TV andId bought some wine to have withfriends who were coming over towatch it. So I jumped in a cab to headhome and the cab driver goes Youremy last fare because Imgoing home to see that Jump

London and I thought Now thatsinteresting. Maybe it is happening?

At the time of airing, the UF websitewas home to the only truly dedicatedEnglish speaking one in the Worldso naturally, all the interest that wasgenerated, came our way. It all wentabsolutely nuts on the boards but Istill remember you coming on to postin person and you got a bit of a hardtime from the community.Mike: Thats ne. Purists may

never understand, but if you makea Parkour lm for Parkour purists,it doesnt get 3 million viewers. Itsvery difcult because those lms wereincredibly difcult to get right. Lookat Planet Parkour in Singapore as anexample. This is what happens when

you dont get it right. It just doesntcross over at all and it was a reallyimportant thing to make Jump crossover. Youre always going to piss offthe purists to a degree.Understood but up until that point,Parkour had never been seen in

something as high prole as that, sopeople were naturally expecting tosee full-on Parkour action.Mike: The purists who wereprobably most pissed off are probablyno longer doing Parkour any more.What was at the centre of the lmwasnt the action! The thing at thecentre was actually the philosophyand the Parkour action was almostlike the icing on the cake. Theescapist wonderment of thephilosophy, and what Parkour was

and what it could do for people iswhat gripped everybody. UrbanFreeow was very nearly in JumpLondon but you just didnt know it.We were going to just turn up to oneof your events. The rst time I lookedat your website you had 250 membersand we were lming and looking forthings we could do and there was thisjam happening at Liverpool Street.We all thought itd be quite funny ifwe came down but unfortunately, we

ended up not being able to do it.

At the time, Jump caused a massiveripple in the scene and brought in awave of new interest overnight. Didyou enjoy seeing that unfold?Mike: It was quite pleasing seeingthat knock on effect because by thetime we came to Jump Britain, UFhad really grown. I rememberseeing the interest jumping from tensto hundreds to thousands and when

you hit 10,000 members it was abarometer of the interest generated.

Off the back of that interest,London became the new Mecca forthe discipline. Was there any negativefeedback from the likes of theNational Theatre?Mike: Not at that point. Even upto the lming of Jump Britain theywere ne. Out of all the locations weapproached, they were the ones whowere the most understanding because

they are a modernist theatre, so theysee the outside as a theatre space too.If any problems have arisen I thinkits because they never imagined theamounts of people heading downthere.


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Look mum, no hands - Sebastien gets strapped in


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Sebastien gap jumping at the Baltic Flour Mill in Newcastle


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Outside of the UK, the documentaryalso made a bit of a splash globally.Were you expecting that to happen?Mike: The thing we didnt everimagine although it was essential,was what would happen on a globalscale. As a lm it sold to nearly 70countries and was broadcastthroughout the whole of North

America, the whole of Australia thewhole of Asia etc. I used to get phonecalls from people in obscure countriessaying Im sitting here in a caf inBangkok and Jump London is on theTV . Jump London was the7th biggest TV export in 2004 andwas a crazy export which paved theway for the next one.

I remember you and I talkingafterwards and there was a rumbling

about the sequel including stuff suchas tightrope walking between thepyramids in Egypt. What was that allabout?Mike: For quite a long time it wasnever certain that there would be asequel or what it would be, but thesequel idea that Channel 4 liked wasJump Seven Wonders Of The Worldso yeah, its funny you shouldremember that. Sometimes I had onefoot in the Parkour camp and onefoot in the TV camp, so when people

started talking about tightropewalking between the pyramids, Iwas sitting there and reacting in thesame way that you would by thinkingThats an awful idea! .

During this time Bam and I hadalready produced a littledocumentary of our own and sentyou the VHS tape, which you thenshowed to Channel 4 and then veryquickly, you called to say that youd

been given the green light to start onJump 2.Mike: It was very fast. We spent therst 6 months of 2004 trying to workout if there was going to be a sequeland it got to the point where theywere losing interest. The ideas thatwere oating around just werentgrabbing their attention. I rememberkeeping an eye on what you weredoing and wrote a paragraph forJump UK which was the workingtitle at the time and it literally saidSebastien is back on a journey acrossthe country but this time there are100 people behind him. I put that inan email and sent it off and within

Funnily enough, the scene I had toght the hardest to get made was thegym scene. There was noresistance from Channel 4 aseditorially that was most of part twobut it was harder than theMillennium Stadium to actually getmade! It got to the point where oneof the producers came up to me and

asked Do you REALLY need thisscene? There was no other scene inthe lm that I was more determinedto get in than that gym scene and Ijust loved it. For the viewer, I knewtheyd get a sense that they could dothis too. And the jump-off betweenKerbie and Blue v Sebastien to do theip to cat was just a joy. We had onecamera and a small unit in the spacewith over 100 kids and us having alaugh. It all took us about 3 hours to

do and ended up being an 8 minutepiece in the lm.

I think that the big differencebetween the two lms is that withJL you saw these guys doing whatthey did and you thought That looksamazing, I wish I could do that butwith JB it was a case of That looksamazing, I can actually give that a go.It felt much more accessible.Mike: Yeah, that was deliberate. WithJump London we wanted to create

a spectacle and its probably only ahardcore audience whod actually goout and do it, but I knew that withJump Britain we were giving peoplemore of a manual in how to do it ona massive scale. Ive still got an emailyou sent me about an hour after thelm had aired saying that youd hadabout a million hits on the website.Then the next day you sent anothersaying You cunt, weve had 5million hits in 24 hours. What have

you done?! That lm wasabsolutely designed to make peoplewalk out of the door and make peopletry it whereas the same cant be saidof Jump London, which touchedpeople in a different way.

Were you much more condent aboutthe second one?Mike: Yeah, it was a strange one. Ithink I was more condent in thelm making. With Jump London itwas much more of a team effort but Ithink that Jump Britain was more anexpression of me. I think you can seethat its a more condent bit of lmmaking. One person whosometimes doesnt get as much credit

an hour Simon [at Channel 4] rangme up and asked me to put that in aproposal. An hour later and Idwritten and sent a side of A4 and thenit was commissioned immediately. Ihave to say that Im not nave enoughto think that Jump London is the onlyreason that Parkour took off in theUK. I think it was the thing that sent

it through the roof as it was obviouslya massive multiplier. It made sensefor the scene and for the size of thatscene to become the story for JumpBritain.

How did you intend to shoot JB andnot go over old ground?Mike: Stylistically there were a lot oflessons learned from the rst one andI wanted to shoot it more organically.Because you guys were obviously realpeople, I wanted it to be a characterled lm and there where some thingswe just repeated. Like the access tolocations parts because from a TVpoint of view, its like the auditionsin the X-Factor in a will they get inor wont they kind of way. This timearound we felt that we didnt feel theneed to justify Parkour being in thelm whereas in Jump London we hadlots of intelligent people talking aboutthe city and architecture who hadnothing to do with Parkour, but who

understood the city. With JumpBritain we didnt need to do thatbecause it was much more of ahuman story about individuals. Thinkabout where you were at with gettingthe business going and whereKerbie was at on a personal level. Itwas almost a liberating force for him.So I think it was fascinating to seethat the philosophy, which could havesounded like hot air in the rst one,was now being embraced by people

who quite frankly, could be found inany town or city in the country.Another big difference was that bythe time we got to making jumpBritain, I was much more awareof how Parkour worked and that itwould be very easy to do morespectacles. It felt to me that there wasa sense of responsibility because weddeliberately not shown people howto do it in the rst lm and I knewthat we couldnt make a second lmwithout doing that, which of course iswhere you guys came in. This meantthat if we were going to show peoplehow to do it, we had to bring it downto a much lower level and this is whythere are all the railings etc.


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as he deserves though, is Mike Smiththe producer, who has thefundamental job of delivering myideas, but he fed into those ideas andif he hadnt embraced the philosophyand all the urban stuff, I dont thinkwed have got the lm made.Did you have the luxury of a biggerbudget the second time around?Mike: Only slightly bigger, it was400,000.

Did you nd that locations wereeasier to approach and morereceptive to the idea of guys jumpingaround on their buildings?Mike: Yes, when it came to approach-ing people, we simply gave them acopy of Jump London to watch but

most of them had already seen it onTV.

Did you get all the locations youwanted this time around?Mike: In a way the locations for JBwere harder partly because it wasdifcult to scout the whole countryrather than just London.

How about the health & safety issues,were they easier to manage?Mike: It was easier because wealready had the rst lm but youguys also had a load of videos youdalready made so for the insurers, wehad existing stuff to show them thatproved that you werent just going tofall off of rooftops. The difcult thing

The evening of the TVtransmission we were all with ourindividual families but texting eachother and with laptops red up tomonitor the boards on the website.Needless to say, it went absolutelynuts afterwards! How did you feel tobe able to see that instant feedback?

Mike: When you make anything,there are always friends and familiessending text messages and ringingbut I really enjoyed watching whatwas going on with UF because, inmany ways Im surprised that we gotaway with putting Urban Freeow socentrally in the lm. It was a reallybig advert for you! .Well, UF wasnt yet a proper business

Mike: It was still close to being anadvert and you wouldnt beable to get away with it again. But itwas great. I loved those emails fromyou and I loved seeing it unfold bywatching the member count on thesite going up. I remember there beinglike 10 million hits on UF within 7days.

It was totally insane and we owe youa massive thank you because eventhough we were already active, theexposure that Jump brought,denitely launched us and wevenever looked back since.Mike: I think there was talk of sharesat one point? .

was that due to the ages and numbersof people involved, the insurance billwas higher than Jump London.

Ouch! Was there more pressure todeliver because JL had been such anoutstanding success?Mike: No, less pressure really.

Because the rst one was a success,we were left alone. As a director all Ican do is make a lm that I like. Thisis how I work and Ive done this forthe 46 lms and documentaries thatIve made. If it excites me, stimulatesme and the style of it really gets megoing, Im generally happy. Imfortunate enough that my style iseasily appreciated by an audience andit seems to be accessible, aseverything Ive made has rated on

some level. I havent got amainstream style but I have a stylethat most people seem to like.

During the editing phase, I canremember being invited down to thesuite to check out how it was shapingup and naturally, we were veryexcited. Did you think you hadcreated something of worth?Mike: Youre always hopeful and abit nervous. I felt that the story waseasier to tell because we didnt haveto rely on the interviewees as per JLand because it was carried by thepassion of the Brits who were in it.That enthusiasm of you, Bam, Kerbieand the others was there to see.


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Erm.Well maybe pick that upanother time .Mike: In all honesty, its a reciprocalthing because I think there would stillhave been a sequel, but I dont knowif it would have happened that yearand I dont what the sequel wouldhave been if we hadnt made a lmabout what was happening within thescene. Obviously we gave a lot more

back to you than you gave back to us but through all the joking,I think it was denitely a two-waything.

Ill take that as a thinly veiledcompliment. As time has passed andthe scene has grown, I think that thenew comers to the sport sometimesdont realise the importance of bothJumps and the impact they had onthe scene globally.

Mike: The thing that people dontrealise is that Jump London brokerecords but the viewing gures forJump Britain were much higher andwas a much bigger commercialsuccess around the World. Theground breaking thing about thoselms was the story we told and howwe told it. I think they are beautifullms for their time but I dont thinkthey are the cutting edge in termsof Parkour action anymore. I thinkpeople have surpassed them but the

thing is that someone had to do itrst.

Well now we have a scene that hasexploded and the moves that some ofthese kids are doing today is seriouslynext level. I think that this is partlydue to us never having the resourcesreadily available at the time andhad to gure stuff out for ourselves.Whereas these days, its all on a plateand you have people going out and

training for a year and reaching veryhigh levels because all thefoundations are already there.Mike: Denitely but one other thingthat I think is fascinating is howthrough the digital explosion, peoplehave had the tools put into theirhands to make amazing videos.Technology and Parkour haveabsolutely gone hand in hand whichis a strange contradiction given thatParkour is technology free in a sense.

Whichever way you look at it, thescene (especially in the UK) owes somuch to both of the Jump docs. Areyou surprised at how far the wholething has evolved from somethingthat could have essentially

denition and he knew thatfundamentally it was the same thing.So I think really that its just a lot ofpeople obsessing about smalldifferences that came about afterJump London.

Its a great shame but now everyonesays Parkour/Freerunning on thesites which is stupid but it is what it

is now.Mike: Im with you there as I ndit frustrating. In business though, Ithink that most people know it by theterm Freerunning instead of Parkour,so maybe back in the beginningSebastien and his manager were rightin that it needed an Englishtranslation?

What truth is there in the rumoursabout Jump World being inproduction?Mike: Theres two things indiscussion but I dont know ifeither will come off, because both areexpensive, and very different. JumpWorld is one of them and isabsolutely not what anyone wouldexpect. The other is a series I wantto make and frankly, if the creditcrunch hadnt happened when it had,it would have got made. So we wantto make Jump World this year but Idont want to say too much because

I dont want to curse it, but theresvery serious conversations happeningabout quite big money and it isabsolutely something that nobodywill expect. A lot of people thoughtthat Jump would be a trilogy but Ithink that we said pretty mucheverything that there was to say inJL and JB. So if it happens, JumpWorld will be longer than an hourand will contain lots of people fromaround the World and there will be

some jumping . Itll surprisepeople and is an interesting project.

Mike, Its been really interestingcatching up. Thanks for your time.Find out more about Mike atwww.christiehq.comOr follow him on twitterwww.twitter.com/mikechristieukThanks to the Zetter Hotel, LondonEC1

been just a passing fad?Mike: What I always notice is thatthere are waves of interest. AfterJump London everyone put it incommercials and then suddenly itwas over in that advertisers didntwant to touch it as it had been donetoo many times. Then it would gocompletely quiet and then threemonths later someone would do

something else and itd all kick offagain. Most fads dont survive thatin the sense that they are in adverts,its amazing and then they are gone.What interests me about Parkour ishow its become a completelystandard thing in all movies andcommercials and how its becomethis basic vocabulary in lm making.Its completely surpassed that fadstage now and I like how things havespilled out into the mainstream.

One thing that we need clarify ononce and for all is the Parkour andFreerunning bullshit in terms of thenames. I know it was never yourintention to cause confusion butwasnt the name simply Freerunningcoined to sound easier on the Englishear?Mike: In Jump London theword Parkour is used once andbasically, nobody had a clue whatParkour was, so Sebastien and his

manager at the time had this ideathat it needed an English translation.So when it came to writing the script,I had to decide whether to call itParkour or Freerunning and theywere calling it Freerunning a lot.

So who actually coined the word?Mike: Not me! . It waseither Sebastien or his manager.People keep wrongly thinking it wasme but I guess by making that

decision early on, we probablymagnied it. To this day I still call itParkour and always have. At thatpoint in 2003 there was no differencewhatsoever between Parkour andFreerunning. It was just atranslation. The problems came afterand it came as a product of tribalismnot because Sebastiens disciplinewas any different to David Belles.David and I have met and he toldme that hed loved both of the Jumplms and he didnt have an issue withthe whole Parkour and Freerunningthing. Now I totally get hisphilosophy and where he comes fromis probably different to whatSebastiens is but he took it at facevalue. He didnt get hung up on the


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Athlete: Andreas Kalteis (Austria)Photographer: Erik BontWebsite:www.andreas-kalteis.com


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Athlete: Josh Joshua (Wales) Photographer: Samuel Horler Website:www.southwalesparkour.co.uk


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Athlete: Fernanda de la Torre AKA: Kat (Mexico) Photographer: Rodrigo FuentesWebsite: www.monosurbanos.com


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Name: Tashan Tash Charles From: Chingford, London How long Freerunning: 4 yearsWhat got you started:The Jump Britainocumentary. For me it was exciting and innovative and I thought now thats something that I could denitely get into, so I did. How didou go about starting:Initially it was me and some friends and we started watching videos on youtube. For us, we focused more on thearkour side of things to get a solid base and then we progressed to the Freerunning aspect with ips etc.Any other sporting experience:was heavily involved in football but Freerunning really grabbed my interest. So much so that I stopped playing football altogether.Anyalues from football transferred to your Freerunning:Yes, my tness. With football its mainly leg work and running around but withreerunning, its a full body workout and you need to be t to keep up. Also the importance of stretching properly is something that was

nstilled into

Documents

Jump Mag Issue 1