Leicester – Beaster Jam.

 

Beaster Group Photo.

 

I had seen that there was a big Parkour gathering planned for Leicester in a few weeks. I had been invited to the event when it was first published but didn’t really think anything more of it, what with having a bad ankle, not that I travel or train much these days, bar for the Parkour Park. Around a week before the event, I did wonder if it would be any good and who would likely to attend, as in the beginning there were many invites but not many people had confirmed except for locals. I wasn’t sure if any of the Nottingham guys were down for going until much later in the week when I heard a few of them were thinking about heading down. I personally wasn’t up for going, paying money to go for a day I might end up hating and not being able to get the most out of training would have enraged me. At the same time though, I felt if I didn’t go I would be jealous of the ones who went and no doubt it would be an awesome day well missed. On the other hand if I went and wasn’t able to train I would feel just as equally annoyed with myself and envious of others who could, any Traceur will know full well when visiting a new city or areas you have the urge to jump whether you are injured or not, and that is a very hard compulsion to fight!

As the invites and confirmed guests raised it got me increasingly contemplating whether to go or not myself, I was swaying more to go but at the same time I had to think realistically about it. It would be great to see some old Leicester faces though, get some nice photography from the day and just be out and about for once like the old days. I saw more and more people I knew from my Facebook confirming they would be going and had numerous people asking if I, myself would be attending too? I did put myself as a maybe after not answering the initial invite, I also replied to a few of the comments in the event too. It wasn’t until later on in the week, like the day before the event I saw that Steve had said he was a maybe too and I decided to ask if he was really considering about attending the training session, he said he would and asked if I was interesting in going too and how I would be going transport wise. I said I had thought about it but was unsure if I would go at all, Steve offered to give myself a lift and drive down and if someone else wanted to come they could too due to seating. With it being so close to the event, I asked Kezza if he wanted to come as we had all trained the day before and then with that, it was decided and we spoke about what time to meet and where for the morning.

 

Steve – Box Precision.

 

I woke up early for this weekend’s extravaganza, I went downstairs to feed the cats and while checking very briefly online I see a message already sent for Steve asking if I was awake and ready for the day ahead and if I’ve heard from Kezza yet, who had also messed me about being already up and ready. I liked a few posts and made a comment in the event to which James liked too and then messaged me about being up so early, I was shocked to see him active on Facebook at this time, after he always arrives at training sessions at around 1pm or later. I told him I had woke up to go to toilet and feed the cats and had a quick look online before hitting the hay again, not a lie as such only a slight embellishment of the truth and with that I logged off and left James to get ready for his day ahead.

#95 – Leicester Jam.

Since the Npk community had enjoyed the Birmingham trip, there had been talks of having another community trip to a different city to train. I had been talking with Callum via MSN about the Leicester community and speaking with other like minded people from that area to get a feel of how a trip there might pan out. I decided that I would go and train their city for the day, I didn’t want to go with masses of people as I felt that would spoil the day and over crowd the areas. We all know how a day out in a mammoth group pans out, people in the way and you constantly get moved on, something I didn’t wish to happen. I wanted to go with a small group of people who would be willing to train and get the most from the day, maybe even go with just David so I could get a feel of the areas, practitioners and then if it was good, go again a few weeks later with more of the community. If it wasn’t as good as anticipated then I wouldn’t go back at all and remain training Nottingham or try out other cities.

 

Blue Rails – QE Hotspot.

 

The Parkour politics was still a raw nerve for many Parkour communities and this was a year to be at the fore front of it, even our own community was suffering from the politics, with divides forming amongst the practitioners. So many people bitch about the true practise of Parkour, the rules and what it entails to be a ‘true’ practitioner. Also there is a big divide between the Parkour ‘Purists’ and the ones who did Freerunning and acrobatics in their movements. Some people had even taken it upon themselves to try and create their own brand of movement while others try to follow everything by the French practice and even use the French terminology for moves. Again, this was all at a time which you had to be apart of to fully understand what had gone off in the scene and how it has shaped and changed the communities and the general Parkour scene over the years. In the end it was myself, David, Jak and Mattski if I recall correctly that were going to go on this trip to Leicester. I decided to try and get someone to meet us once in Leicester and it was Tim who would have the pleasure of doing that before taking us to the meet up area before he had to leave us as he wasn’t training that day himself and had other business to attend to.

One problem I had to counter now would be one of why I wasn’t out training at the weekend, because I am out each and every weekend in Nottingham, it was very noticeable if I wasn’t attending and raised question to why I would not be out. I very rarely, if ever, missed a training session unless I was away on holiday or ill, which again was a rarity. I decided to say to people I was feeling a bit under the weather and wanted a weekend off before I wore myself out, otherwise everyone man and his dog would want to come and train in Leicester if they knew that was the plan, the exact thing I didn’t want to happen. Sure in retrospect that might have seemed like a douche bag and selfish act to do, but it was the only way I could control who would come along on the trip without people keep pestering me about it. I’m sure the masses wouldn’t mind though as they were far too busy squabbling amongst themselves about the Parkour politics to even notice that I had broke away or was absent from the training session, or so I hoped.