Windmills & Commitments.

There was to be a big crowd training today with the weather set to be so warm, even some of the Trent University guys were meant to be joining us today, if they didn’t overlay. I had planted the notion in everyone’s mind for it to be an adventure day, the places of choice I had suggested were on the outskirts of Nottingham like Sneinton, Carlton, Lenton and Radford. With those in mind, we would make our decision on the day to which area we would venture upon. I ended up being in town before 1pm for a change. I felt like today was going to be a good day of training, it had to be and another reason I was out so early due to the excitement. Though it was proving not to be shared by others, who were arriving late and it felt like we wouldn’t be moving until later in the day at this rate. Some who were running late were worried about missing the day trip and asked for people to wait at Plaza for them. They knew the times though… If people cannot make it on time it’s not my fault. Much like Steve, who arrived later that evening at Plaza, even though we were at the time in the middle of Sneinton and had no way of letting him know where and how to get there… Not that there would have been much point by then either.

Plaza was soon filled with people arriving. Chris, Luke, Mat and a few others, slowly followed by Ant, John and Jason! Now there were some blasts from the past, to say the least. It’s mental to think how long it had been since either of them had been to a Npk training session. It was good to have David out attending again this weekend as he hasn’t seen many of the new areas we have discovered over the years. Phil arrived, along with Brandon and a few others, it didn’t seem like we were waiting for many more to arrive but we warmed up at Plaza nevertheless. No Femi today though, he had only just got up, knowing full well it was an adventure day and told everyone to hold up and he would be there soon… More like half past two or even three! That wasn’t going to happen, we could be waiting forever if he was running on black time. With people ready to move and restless, we made our slow walk over to Sneinton, stopping off at the Adams building first, in the lace market. An area where many usually end up chilling or become very unproductive when we gather there, at least from past experiences and I have no idea what causes that to happen.

 

Femi – Diving Kong

 

To say it was the start of the session, it felt more like the end of one. We had only just arrived and people had decided to go food shopping… I mean seriously?! I thought you were meant to have eaten before training, not arrive and then grab breakfast which adds to time wasting. I could understand if it was to grab some supplies before we ventured into Sneinton where there wasn’t shops nearby. The funniest part of the day had to be when Brandon was getting increasingly angry with Femi while on the phone, trying to explain where we were and how to get to us. Each direction and landmark Brandon used as a guide had Femi confused and no idea where he was on about. The frustration on his face was enough to tell how infuriated he was by the whole situation, laid on the floor, head in hands, groaning, unable to explain any simpler to Femi. After some back and forth speaking with Femi he eventually managed to find us and proclaimed as he arrived in the area why didn’t anyone tell me it was this spot in the first place?! As he only lived around the corner from it, and had ended up taking a long way around to get to it, face palm!

When everyone had finally finished their weekly shop, training was able to commence and people warmed up with their chosen movements. I captured some images of Femi and Holbrook doing strides to a diving kong. While capturing the said images, I got an interesting shot of Femi from underneath as he strode onto a wall. It made his leg look super long and stretched, like a cartoon character, the perspective was very strange and yet very awesome at the same time. Just as we were trying to make our way to Sneinton it seemed that people were more interested in training Adams, finding new things they wanted to try. So it was hard to get people to move and so the group slowly fazed out, one by one. Once on our way, we passed a side street which had things to do, only now it seemed everything was overgrown, that or people were in the way like the local drunkards. It was onwards to Byron Court, an old but gold spot for training, at first people seemed to be a bit uneasy, unsure what could be done, while others sprung into action.

Wall Scalers.

 

© James Allen – Wall Shimmying.

 

Today had all the makings to be that of a great jam, people new and old to training were attending. Some older generation practitioners in the form of Ant, Ash and Nick, who hadn’t trained for many years had got the Parkour bug and decided to come to this weeks training session. It was going to be great to see them, with their old school ways of training being added to flavour the mix. I doubt they will know any of the newer generation of practitioner though, nor the current style of training. Well, at least that was how I envisioned training to be, until I woke up late! It was fine though, I still got ready as after all it was a beautiful, sunny day and nothing was going to stop me from training… Until a random stomach bug hit me soon after I had ate. What the hell?! How and why had this happened, why now of all times? I needed to go out training! Ain’t nobody got time for that… Stuck at home, on the toilet, unable to move as my bowels expelled my body constantly, spattering the bowl while others were out enjoying the day. Needless to say, I wasn’t impressed by this unfortunate event!

When I hadn’t appeared at the training session, some of the older generation guys were messaging me online, asking where I was. I explained it was looking unlikely that I was going to make it out today. I had to also  guide Nick to the others who were at Plaza as he thought everyone still met at the Concert Hall like all those years ago and wondered why no one was there yet. To say I was unable to get out, people were still baiting me to come out and join them, saying it was a lame excuse to say I felt unwell due to my stomach bug. Why would I make up an excuse not to come out when I had planned to be? Perhaps I should have sent a photo of what I had spawned in the toilet bowel to give them an idea of how bad it really was! After two hours, it would seem my stomach had fully evacuated it’s complete contents and my fever was ripe. I was now starving, so it must have meant I was on the mend, but I daren’t ingest any more food before going out in case of starting the cycle all over again. Still unsure and in two minds, I got ready and ventured out, making my way to town.

 

Nick – Climbing.

 

I arriving to find Plaza loitered with masses of people out. It was great to be reunited with Ant, the now muscle mountain. Nick was hardly recognisable with his massive beard. Abdur was out this weekend too, along with Brigitte, Liv and many others. Even David was here as well! It seems people were wanting to move and not to be stuck at Plaza all day, with such a huge number of people it was time to take a trip over to Auditorium. The group felt a bit fractioned as some chose to stay at Plaza and Atrium while the ones who wanted to move made their way over to Audo. It was a change to see Mr Drellington out this weekend with his friend Alex, as he was very rarely out, if ever. Spending many a days sleeping due to his messed up sleeping pattern, university, partying and so forth. He was busy filming a small video from the day [1] and so would randomly be pushing his camera in front of everyone from time to time. The old generation instantly went to do the Audo challenge, shimmying along the window ledges using just the underhand grip, burning the forearms in the process.

While some practised it above the ledge, reaching each window ledge and wall as they went. This got people interested and more gave it a go, with most struggling on the longer, further reach. You had to really do the splits, or learn as far over as possible before letting go and falling to the other wall and grabbing it. It was almost as horrendous as the plaque shimmying, which require immense finger strength to do and get past it. Drell was doing the main Audo precision but in reverse so it was upwards, with his giant hops, crazy to see!

#150 – Spins, Flips & Grabs.

 

It was an odd old day today, a weekend where many were out jumping. Max was taking lots of photos again, which is always nice for the look back once I get home and get the folder from him. He was training today too though. As I’ve mentioned in previous blogs, in recent weeks I haven’t been taking any or very few images it’s nice to have a different perspective on the day. Jiks’ Dad was also out taking images of the group as well this weekend. We started off as we always did at Bilbie walk, for the usual tomfoolery and warming up the body.

Pop Wall Climbs, Catleaps and Tic Tac Cats off the door shutter thing were movements being done. Oh, and then trying different variations of Tic Tacs and Double Taps (seen below by Jak) and then cultivating 270s and 360s from there too. I really don’t know how some found that easy, pushing off backwards towards the wall! I know it scared the hell out of me and there were a few wall slams from people as well. Handstands and wall walking in between the pillars were also another objective and warm up tactic.

 

Jak – Tic Tac Cat.

 

When we did finally move on, we took a pit stop at Orange Walls, which always turned into a flipfest off those small walls. Amongst the soft moss like grass there, well what little of it that was left from all the tricking… The scary part of the day was when Jak had lost his side flipping ability, when he did them it was a strange travelling backflip / gainer type movement. Very strange indeed! Everyone had their own movements they were doing there and not really worth mentions. Phil and David were doing diving handstands, from one side of the walls to the other.

I thought that was strange at first, due to the slight airtime you got and not to mention the impact seemed to really hurt my wrists. Perhaps I was jumping too up, than towards the wall? Even stranger, the guys were doing a handstand on a singular wall, from where they were stood! You had to jump down to the wall, kicking upwards as you fell. The impact and balance felt horrendous yet they were doing them beautifully! They were trying to do it static as well, from just bending over and lifting up!

 

Flip – Handstand.

 

We them, as we always did, made our way up to Houses area to train. There were LOTS of portraits being taken of everyone. Lots of messing around, jokes and training. I could mention the goings on from the day, but it seems irrelevant and the images will show some of what was captured from it. Phil was doing some crazy diving kongs as seen from the image(s) below and that is something I could never get the hang of. Even in gymnastics it was the same with the horses, as soon as an object had a gap it was near impossible to jump and do.

I think it is a movement that will always elude me, just the arching as you jump. It seemed very few people had the guts to do the diving kong currently. He also did it back as a kong precision and that wall is fairly high as well to vault over! From the square wall people were doing a precision as high as possible on the next flower beds. The jumps and distances were getting further and more crazy as people progressed. Funny to see people hurdling and later on they used the small wall to the back white one.

 

Flip – Diving Kong.

 

Tashi and others were avoiding the camera for portrait shots and to generally get within a shot, which is fair enough. While others like Jak were getting bombarded with images and would lash out, enough is enough! It’s difficult to avoid all of the cameras though, when there are so many cameraman around! I guess if you are a camera whore it is great, as there will be no end of images of yourself at the end of the day. I think the only sad thing about this day in retrospect is the disk from Joe’s Dad no longer worked and so I couldn’t upload those images. Really not sure what he had.

I think the by far craziest part of the day was when we were around the other side of Houses with the stair set and Jak was contemplating doing a flip down them! That or over the foliage wall to the grass, I think a lot of people, including myself felt it was an achievement for another time. Yet Jak seemed to be confident it would happen and then be filmed for a future video too. He did it as a running jump first to gauge the impact before the flip! The younger generation keeps pushing the bar.

 

Zade – Climb Up.

Jak – Backflip.

Flip – Sideflip.

Zade – Catleap.

David – Precision.

346Flip – Running Catleap.

Flip – Diving Kong.

Random – Portrait.

Flip – Diving Kong.

Flip – Kong Precision.

Jiks – Catleap.

Brownie – Running Precision.

Brownie – Running Precision.

Jak – Running Precision.

Jak – Running Jump.

Jak – Front Tuck.

Ant – Wall Climbing.

Bilbie Walk.

427Jak – Dyno.

Jason – Portrait.

320Brownie – Tic Tac Cat.

Jak – Portrait.

Zade – Handstand.

Brownie – Tic Tac Cat.

Jak – backflip.

Jak – Backflip.

Mike – Portrait.

Jak & Flip.

Jak – backflip.

320Mike – Portrait.

Jak – Portrait.

Roger – Texting.

Roger – Portrait.

Nam – Portrait.

Flip – Diving Kong.

Ant – Portrait.

Flip – Portrait.

Jiks – Portrait.

Jak – Portrait.

Tashi – Portrait.

Mike – Portrait.

Jiks – Catleap.

Jiks – Catleap.

Jak – Escape Portrait.

Jak – No photo!

John – Portrait.

Tashi – Portrait.

Nam – Portrait.

Nam – Portrait.

Max – Portrait.

Jak – Portrait.

Jak – Precision.

Zade – Portrait.

Zade – Portrait.

Jiks – Portrait.

Jason – Portrait.

#140 – Bright and Breezy.

 

Today was the day I had the mass order of Npk Square logo [1] t-shirts finally printed and ready for everyone. It was all very exciting! With how long it took to create the design, bulk order the t-shirts, receive them and finally get them printed and back as a whole. It was great to see so many of them lined up together, ready to hand out to people that had placed an order. It was a very inspiring and exciting moment as a community. I’m sure in time I’ll find an easier and quicker means to get them done. It  had people who hadn’t wanted one initially enquire about if more were going to be made and if so, could they have one next time round. I feel very pleased with the design, not so much on the kelly green colour choice though as it wasn’t as rich and vibrant as it looked online, in person. I wanted the  green to fit with Nottingham’s  Robin Hood theme. Either way, it felt great to see so many people wearing and representing the community in them.

As always we started off at the Gray Walls area, before moving down to Bilbie Walk as we always did, but due to our numbers it wasn’t long until we got moved off! I say due to our numbers, but it’s starting to become more of an occurrence these days. From there we decided due to the coldness, to move down to Urine Nation out of the cold and slight wind and we would be disturbed less being in a public area as such. It seems the area has had another new lick of paint since the last time we were there. All the concrete pillars last time were a light pink, but now they were covered in a bright red as well as the main wall too. Being a cut through to the shopping centre and car park it seems to be a hotspot for graffiti, though painting over it doesn’t seem to be doing anything to stop it. I guess this red paint might be graffiti proof, as it did seem to be quite slippery, so time will tell if it makes any difference to the area…

 

Jak – Pop Vault.

 

I know one thing for sure, the slipperiness made a climb up next to impossible to achieve! Your trainers just slid down the wall, even if you tried your best to stop them. Very few of us could even hold a catleap position, never mind do a climb up. This soon became one of today’s challenges, to be able to do one on the wall. It didn’t half obliterate the forearms from holding tight on the top of the wall and the abs hurt from the constant tensing to stop yourself slipping down down the wall and remain still. You felt like you had a breakthrough if you were able to remain static, that was until you tried to hoist upwards, before you ended up sliding and standing on the floor. Many settled for bad form climb ups, using the elbows even, legs to be able to climb up.

It wasn’t until later on that we found the knack to it, some trainers gripped the wall better. Others used the small grooves in the wall to lodge the trainers in, and some parts of the wall were less slippery than others. It was really strange. I still have the funny image of people, in a catleap position, constantly running on the spot on the wall, due to the feet constantly slipping down. The red paint was such an eyesore, it hurt the eyes in fact, what on earth were they thinking, surely there were other colours, less bright to choose form?!