Tears, Bails and Tiredness.

 

After more bad weather in recent weeks, this weekend seemed like it was going to be a good one, with the weather prediction and the attendees. I was excited to be out again and wanted to adventure as well! Sadly, we wouldn’t be seeing Adam this weekend, as he was away (whipped) seeing his girlfriend. James wasn’t out this weekend either, instead opting to go to the cinema! Part timer… Coming along to a training session late one week and then not being out the next weekend, even though he is a ‘committed’ community practitioner. As well as being out ‘all’ the time, in all elements, his words not mine… I know I’ll get stick for saying that!

At first, it seemed like not many would be present after all but in the end we ended up with nine people out. I had made a point to adventure within the event, which likely enticed more people out who were unsure. Stating the plan of action and the areas we would visit, so others knew the route if they needed to find us. Once I arrived at Plaza, a little after twelve I found that hardly anyone was out, why so lazy? Where were they all… Steff was going to be late again, but at least he let me know. People slowly trickled in, up until one. It was good to see Nico out this weekend as well, nailing the kong precisions at Plaza none the less.

 

Gio – Dive Kong.

 

Sean arrived just after we got moved off from Plaza and we instead trained across the road at the Atrium while we waited for the stragglers to arrive. There was some human excrement on the floor, the size of a cow pat, stinking the area out. I really wasn’t feeling training, I felt sluggish and heavy, my shoulder had pulled while warming up too. Zain needed to hurry up as well, he said he would be out today! We trained beside IBM on the giant industrial skip seen in the above image. With Reece nearly destroying his ankle while slipping off the wall on a downward precision. I should mention Gio doing a downwards diving and double kong (seen above) on the walls there was complete madness too!

Then into IBM area itself. Steff, Luke and Ryan arrived just as we were leaving! Good job as well, because we could have been anywhere. Josh had knocked off one of the loose slabs just as we were leaving too. Many of them are now becoming loose or wobble, so it was inevitable that at some point one would tip over, more so for people unaware of the loose ones. We bumped into Zain as we headed up to Mansion Studios for a stint of jumps. Drilling pop lazy and side vaults, precisions and other tic tac based movements. Along with getting Sean to do some of the precision jumps at higher points on the walls which at first he was afraid of.

 

Reece – Sideflip.

 

While we were doing some awkward, diagonal stride precisions and then into a catleap. Ben had managed to destroyed some plastic guttering as he grabbed it for a cat, after overshooting the jump. That didn’t leave the rest of us hopeful in using it for a cats 180 back to the wall. Small victories with the linking of movements for the precisions though. Luke had put himself out of action when he did a gainer off the wall, nearly landing into the giant glass window of the building below as he landed in the stones below, stumbling and kicking them to the window! He had landed on his heel and now found it hard to walk or move around. Every time he is out, he gets injured within the first hour and then is done for the day!

Bumps, Bruises & Back Flips.

 

I had planned to go out early Wednesday with David,  so we could train at Highfields after he missed the previous Saturday jam we had there. I wanted to train there again too, still having movements to conquer. The weather all week had been ever changing day by day, which made it next too impossible to predict if it was worth going out until the day of. I had mentioned to Ben about the session and he seemed up for it, Femi too IF he turned up that is! James was a maybe, what with current work commitments… My next challenge was getting up on time, I was currently going to bed any where from 10pm – 2am and not getting up until gone 11am. A far cry from the 6am work days, the holidays were killing my routine.

I decided on Tuesday evening to go ahead with this training session, there was no predicted rain through the day. Femi was now a no for being out, due to a work interview at 6pm and didn’t see the point in travelling afar. I went to bed early to compensate for all the late nights, but struggled to sleep, it felt too warm. I ended up waking up at 5am, then again at 8am and decided to get up not long after. I abused James via PM, asking if the old man had even woke up yet and will he be joining us today?! Telling him to come out regardless, though I doubted he would be out, with it being a midweek session. Likely he wouldn’t be up until we were already out and jumping. Though I did have a small hope to see him later on, just maybe it would happen. I wasn’t holding my breath though…

 

David – Catleap.

 

I got ready for training, feeling tired and now in a rush. I had been too relaxed from being up early and hadn’t gotten ready in due course. The curse of having too much time, thinking I would be fine, then it seemed time had sped up, each time I checked. Tom was out today, a random and unexpected practitioner to add to the cause. The others who were meant to be out were very quiet and not online yet, which usually meant they wouldn’t be out. I arrived in town close to half ten, all accounted for we got the bus to Highfields, which took next to no time at all. It seemed the university was open and that might be a problem if we were jumping around the campus. There were a few people kicking around, early Pokémon hunting it seemed, with one guy dressed as a Pokémon trainer!

It was on to warming up and with that, the bigger jumps. The main catleap in the area (seen above) one I could see, but never seemed to like, it always felt like I might not make it. It was within rage, but I didn’t like the fall down onto the steps if you didn’t commit. David was doing it easily, then Tom did it too! That was it, I had to do it now too. I could now see the jump, but I still felt uneasy about it. As I jumped for it, it was like David and Tom said, closer than you think. Which I equally found out when I stubbed my toe into the wall.

Hills, Flips & Roly Polys.

Adam & Zade – Portrait.

 

Well, there isn’t too much to say about this day as such, due to not documenting it afterwards. That can only mean one thing, it wasn’t the best training session I’ve had or I didn’t think it would be worth writing about. I remember arriving later than normal into town, making my way to IBM where the masses of people were jumping. Street Media (SM) were there, along with more Derby and other city practitioners. Today there was even an influx of Trent University students out, giving Parkour a go and were no doubt coaxed out by other university regulars. Though those same students had little to no endurance and called it a day after an hour or so, part timers eh? The amount of people out made even IBM feel small and enclosed (more so than normal). Most people had started to fraction off to different places around the city.

I went with a smaller group, going to the Houses area to train. It was a good idea to train there, but it was a bit damp still and so when the tic tac cat was done, at times you slipped once the trainers were too moist. Kezza seemed to be amazed at the different variations of tic tacs there were. I’m sure people forget the variety of ways that can be done, or are so used to the bog standard way, they think there is no other way. There was the usual one legged push off, then you had the jumping into the tic tac backwards and finally the two step up the wall and 180 push out of it. Then the more unfamiliar tic tac where you land double footed on the wall before pushing off. It looked cool but was also very unnatural for most to plant of the wall doubled footed. Daniel and James were giving them ago too, getting used to the push and dynamics of the movement.

 

Kezza – Gainer.

 

It was a movement that neither of them really did, the same goes for many people these days. As the movement continues to progress and evolve I think many of the core basics get lost in translation. Not forgotten as such, but just become lesser movements and for that reason less practised due to the lack of complexity and coolness. People would, much rather see a standing or running precision at great height or of a large distance then a perfectly on form small jump, no matter how technical it might be, on a rail or and on something else. That doesn’t go for everyone, but it’s been the way of the scene for a long time now. It wasn’t long before we moved over to High Pavement, Adam wanted to look at the catleap and precision down, as did I. Boredom was already setting in, it hadn’t been all that great so far and I felt like I might leave soon. Motivation was lacking and with that we quickly moved down to the Notts TV / Trent Uni Building.

A caterpillar had been found by Kezza and Daniel and I snapped a quick photo of it as they held it, before it got launched into a nearby bush. I was ready to call it a day now, but got sucked into staying when Kezza was doing some flips on the grass hill. Daniel did a roly-poly down the hill after vaulting the railing followed by Kezza doing forward rolls down the hill too. The images looked okay due to the dull day, and I got a few of Ben holding a human flag. Some of the students in the building across the road were watching what the guys were doing as we took photos of them training and flipping around.

Fast Forward.

Fast forward a few weeks and there has been plenty of training sessions. Some glorious sunny days, a couple of dull days and a few of the colder days too. Even though I had my camera out on those days, I may not have got enough images to use for a full blown post about the days events. I may have forgot to write about a given day or just decided against doing an entry all together. So I’ve added all the images and days together in this entry, once I felt there was enough to show and talk about. One weekend we had quite a few people out on a sunny Sunday afternoon, which the first lot of images are from, we even had a few of the guys from Trent University out training with us too.

Ben, David and myself were out at another random time, a duller day overall but it was still fun to be out training. This was the same day Ben did the same level catleap from the top railing to the wall. David was blown away by the fact that he had done it, and took a look at the jump for himself, though he didn’t dares and instead did the downward precision as a compromise. I took some photos of Ben doing the jump and then of his swing gainers (lache gainers) too. Not much else to say about the days as a whole, so this is a short and sweet entry. More to come soon.

 

Kezza – Swinging.

 

Kezza – Lache Cat.

 

Kezza – Lache Cat.

 

Ash – Precision.