The students who hang around the slide in Teardrop Park aren’t feeling nostalgic about their childhoods. These students, members of the Parkour Club, are trying to get from the top of the slide to the bottom in the fastest way possible. This is the art of displacement, or parkour.
Parkour combines aesthetics and physical activity. The goal of “traceurs,” people who practice parkour, is to travel from one point to another in the most original and rapid manner possible by jumping or other stunts.
Based on French military training on obstacle courses, parkour has gone far beyond its inspiration. Inventor David Belle relied on the idea of “methode natural”—physical development rooted in the body and its environment—developed by his father’s physical trainer. Parkour has quickly gained popularity with the release of the short promotional film “Rush Hour,” available on YouTube, in which Belle moves dangerously yet gracefully over London rooftops.
Professionals often star in or direct their own films, as well as perform live at public events and extreme sports competitions. Parkour teams film and market their own movies as well as star in Hollywood movies. Traceur Sebastian Foucien played a villain, Mollaka, in “Casino Royale.”
Freshmen and club co-presidents Clay Gibson and Joseph Park were inspired to found the Parkour Club after watching video clips similar to short films like “Rush Hour.”
“We saw these videos with guys doing crazy jumps as a sport,” Park said. “Almost every day after school, we would go to Battery Park and just try some basic [moves] out.”
Gibson and Park practiced their parkour technique extensively. “The combination of curiosity and jealousy of the professional parkour athletes made us try to complete harder and harder jumps and other stunts,” Park said. They watched YouTube videos of amateurs as well as professionals for guidance.
The pair had been practicing for a few weeks in September when Gibson suggested they found a club. At first, Park was hesitant. “Who would want to join a club run by freshmen?” he said. The two eased their anxieties by initially recruiting only freshmen through word of mouth.
One such recruit was freshman Alex Ng. “The club really helped us make friends at Stuy,” Ng said. According to him, he and other club members joined because they were “thrill junkies.”
Club members certainly get their share of thrills every time they practice. “I like it when you’re in midair and you have time to think of what’s next,” freshman Jo Sahni said. “You don’t have to decide before you jump.”
Freshman and club secretary Patrick Moy said, “It’s fun because of the way you move and the rush you get.” There is also a “feeling of accomplishment,” he said.
Even so, such thrill and satisfaction does come with a price. “We get hurt,” Park said. “A lot.”
“Getting scared in midair won’t help you at all,” Ng said.
As winter sets in, the club hopes to club faculty advisor and Spanish teacher Milton Diaz will help them secure the use of Stuyvesant’s auxiliary gym.
Members meet on Mondays and Thursdays in groups of five. The small groups allow the club presidents to teach novices more efficiently. Though Gibson and Park are far from professionals, “we have better skills than most,” Park said. Most members said Park taught them all the moves they know.
Gibson and Park teach members basic vaults and then progress to more difficult moves such as the “monkey vault,” which involves using both feet to jump over tall structures.
Members learn and practice tricks in locations with obstacles and barriers, preferably walls, park ledges and escalator landings like the ledges on the ninth floor near the escalator. Rockefeller Park provides an optimum practice space since it also has a playground sandpit that the traceurs can use to cushion falls.
The Parkour Club also films its stunts. “Filming lets us learn from our experiences. It’s also amusing to see ourselves making silly mistakes,” Moy said. Mistakes include some painful incidences such as the time Park fell and “[landed] on [his] crotch area,” Park said.
The club’s newest YouTube video features frequent cuts and fast-paced hip-hop music. “The moves look better if you piece together all the different angles,” Gibson said. The video features precise jumps between narrow ledges and swift movements down slides immediately followed by somersaults.
Though Gibson usually sets up the angles, all the club members contribute ideas about which moves will “make every shot look really active,” Park said.
The club has considered distributing its films through sources other than YouTube, possibly through the Stuyvesant Film Community. Members are hesitant about distributing their films through other venues, because they do not want audiences to feel that the stunts were edited or not actually performed. “We want it to be more about the [viewer's] awe of the sport,” Park said.
Though the aspiring traceurs of the Parkour Club aren’t jumping on rooftops yet, they are content to battle their own fears. “Everyone’s capable of it, you just need that courage,” Park said. “The opponent is you.”
The Parkour Club’s latest video can be found at http://youtube.com/watch?v=1Wr-8_vfU2o.
The “Rush Hour” short film can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAMAr8y-Vtw.