The Leicester Parkour Park.

 

So, for the people that didn’t already know, there was to be a big unveiling to mark the opening of new Parkour Park in Leicester, Bede Park. Ever since the Loughborough Park at Southfields Park had been built (2014) there were talks of one to be built in Leicester in the near future by the same company (Natural Sports) respectively. The main concern was Leicester already had a rather terrible park built many years ago (2010) in Eyres Monsell, so the council might see that the city already has one built, so why another?! I’m not sure if that same park is even widely used or even know about through the community. I remember being surprised when it was first built as I hadn’t heard anything about it and then it had magically appeared.

There was much anticipation for the new park and with Dan Timms and the general Leicester community being behind the design, I’m sure it would turn out great! Over the past weeks and months we were teased with hearsay and then images of the park coming together as it was being built appeared. I’ll be the first to admit, it looked fantastic! More so due to the different levels it had and how everything was close enough to link together movement. Loads better than our own (small) low level, spaced out and linear one in Nottingham. I liked the bright flooring as well, I wanted to visit it now I had seen what it is like. I wasn’t overly bothered in the beginning, but as the event drew closer the hype for a jump was real.

 

Leicester Parkour Park.

Leicester Parkour Park.

Leicester Parkour Park.

Leicester Parkour Park.

Leicester Parkour Park.

Leicester Parkour Park.

 

I asked around to see who else was game for going, James wasn’t out for the event as it was the same day as his anniversary, unluckily. A few of the others said they were going to go via train, car or hitching a ride there. I was lucky enough to have Eddie interested about going down, which surprised me. He wanted to go early, leaving early to get back home before peak time as he had to go out himself later. That and David had work as well to be back for later. All in all, it fit perfectly with all our routines, providing we didn’t get stuck in endless traffic on the way back that is. Daniel had asked me if I was going along to the event, as he was and it may be the one chance I get to see him in person again. Seeing as he lived down south and isn’t often if at all up this way, so he would be there not to train as such but for support of the scene and to see some old faces and mingle.

I can’t remember the last time I had seen his vagabond, small, homeless looking self! The last time must have been while he was at Nottingham University, which was many aeons ago, it had to be nearing a decade by now. He used to train semi regular back then [1] as that retro video shows at a time when we made a video together. I would then see him fleetingly at gymnastics, than the outdoor training due to uni. This was all before life had caught up with him and stole him away from training completely, like it does with so many practitioners. I still speak to him regularly online, I just don’t see him in person, what with him being the hermit kind. By the looks of the event, it seems that there were loads of people attending to the opening.

April Showers, Garages and Radford.

 

Random Time.

 

I arrived in town to find very few people at the meet up point for a Saturday, perhaps the predictions of rain had put many of coming out at all after how rainy the weather had been in the week. It was a sunny day never the less and we made our way up to Houses Two area to warm up. It was strange the sun went in and it began to be cold and people moved around or complained of the area not being as good for training. I started to do some press ups to which Denis came over telling me not to workout here and do that at home and then tried to push me over. Denis was mainly sitting around because he had an injured back from which he had done in gymnastics from landing on his head and it pulled and bent his back further than normal.

He was saying to Zain perhaps I’m not injured at all and I am just lying about the whole thing and really I’m doing awesome things without others knowing then one day I will be really sick and bust things no one thought I could do. The funniest part to watch was when the guys all had a small competition to see who could pop wall climb up the higher wall the fastest. I was having a drink only for Zain to tap the bottle from behind me and made me nearly spill all of it everywhere. He then ran off and I sprinted after him faster than he thought I was capable of and he shrieked as I chased after him. Before leaving, we had to wait for James who was late as always and we also had a call from Moonie and Will but decided to leave before they arrived due to being sick of waiting.

We took a walk down Alfreton Road and made our way into Radford area. On the way Yaz was eating his Jelly worms which he said had been imported over here, they were very tasty and were shared among us all. People spoke about how gangster the area looked as we walked through the estate and Flip mentioned he had came across this area before but decided not to stay due to people hanging around. We entered the first area which at first people didn’t really see that much to do until we started to train and open their eyes to what was right in front of them. Vince wanted to do the diving kong over two walls near a stair set, while others did the kong precision of it. People climbed up walls and onto the roofs. Flip and Yaz had a go at the various tic tac cats in the area and then later on they had a look at a black bar which was out the side of the building and was sturdy enough to support full weight and was used as a squirrel 180 cat.

 

Yaz – Tic Tac Cat.

 

One of the Tic Tac Cats was near a window on take off and Flip had already done it a few times and Yaz went over to check it out and see if he could do it, only for a window to open and a guy say ‘Yo, bludclot! What you doing near my window?’ To which Yaz replied ‘Checking out the wall’ for the mysterious person to respond with ‘You best get away from my window bled and leave the area!’ and then the window closed. Yaz seemed puzzled and we laughed about what had just happened and Flip asked what had happened too as he was ready to do the Tic Tac cat again. Later on when James was near the window just holding his camera the same person said not to take photos of the area or him and to put the camera away. Why be bothered though we are doing no harm and I guess if that person really was bothered they would come out and have something to say.

Denis and Zain were sat on a room chit-chatting and not doing training as well as eating bourbon biscuits. They had passed the packet to Moonie to eat some and Yaz walked by to try and snatch them from her and throw them back up to Zain and Denis. As he did this the whole packet fell to the floor scattering them all over the floor and everyone simultaneously saying ‘noooooooo’ as they hit the ground. I was trying to hold some human flags on the washing line posts in the area but they proved

#70 – Caves, Bollards and Subways.

 

Sark – Precision.

 

We had decided this week while the weather was good to visit the Mansfield Parkour guys again. It was predicted to be rainy most of the week and yet on our chosen day it luckily turned out to be glorious sunshine when we woke up and with that we had decided to make full use of that! Myself and Flip arrived in Mansfield just before one o’clock and met with Sark before we all made our way over to an area called ‘The Caves’ to warm up. It always made me laugh how this area of multiple sized walls which looked like a maze to the outsider was hidden behind the main shops and market of Mansfield and could be accessed by going up a long, dark alleyway of never ending steps. If you wasn’t aware of it leading to a Parkour rich area you would have no idea that it even existed. It offered different challenges in the form of precisions, vaults and catleaps with other such movements opening up once the Parkour scene had evolved in future years. After the last time of being in Mansfield and having our names taken down near the end of the day by a community support officer, I felt paranoid about having that happen again and so my guard was up no matter where we trained.

While jumping around in the Caves area you would get some great comments from the public that used it as a cut through and saw what we were doing as positive, while others would scorn at you as they walked by like we were some kind of yobs up to no good. You really do have to take the positives with the negatives in this game. The scariest move of the day was a downwards precision where you had to clear a middle wall and then land on a much lower wall in front below. It was easier said than done and the difference in height and the drop really did a number with the mental side of our training, it was fine once done but until you commit for the first jump it was a battle of the mind. The other hard part was sticking the movement without having to run along the lower wall with all the forward momentum generated from the jump. When Sark did it, it looked like he was only just making it over the second wall and my photos made it look like his feet were scraping along the wall.

There was a kid who was hovering around the area wearing a red hoodie and jeans, he was watching what we were doing and did a few precision jumps himself before plucking the courage to speak to Sark about training. He mentioned what he had seen on YouTube and recognized some of the videos we had made. He stayed for a while jumping about and then left later on, it was strange to still have people who know what we do or saw you as a sort of idol. I guess in many ways you forget the power of the internet and just how many people see the readily available content. A diving kong from the lower wall up to the higher one was another movement that took up our time and was fun to do, making sure not to slam into the other wall afterwards. We joked about how it would be cool to do it as a diving kong to cat or precision, though non of us could do them as of yet. Even though at the present time it wasn’t achievable for us, maybe Sark, Freemo or Sam will get it soon, seeing as this is his home turf and they has access to it on a daily basis.

 

Zade (Me) – Precision.

 

We made our way over to the flats area, not before being moved on by some caretaker guy saying we can’t train there and we need to move and lots of other excuses of why and how it’s bad and why we have to move on. We ended up at the steps just across from the area in the canal area, where Sark suggested doing a catleap to the railing which had a very small ledge under it for the feet to land with just the tiptoes if your trainers weren’t too big.