Posted by misterparkour on
August 12, 2008
Here is a documentary about the Yamakasi and the Art du Déplacement. Titled Vol au dessus des cités: Génération Yamakasi this film is spectacular to say the least. It has great action, excellent insight and highlights the Yamakasi who are by far some of the best athletes in the world. At 71 minutes in length if you have not seen this then you owe it to yourself to watch it in its entirety.
Note: Of course the Yamakasi don’t call their art “Parkour,” but regardless of the verbiage it is still the same discipline which is why we have posted this video.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3773384792923323349
Posted by misterparkour on
August 11, 2008
Here is some more footage of one of the first Parkour groups La Releve in and around Lisses and Evry (to see the first video we posted of the group please click here). La Releve consisted of many of the original Tracers including David Belle. Those featured in this video include Sébastien Foucan, Stephane Vigroux, Johann Vigroux, Kazuma, Sébastien Goudot, Jerome Ben Aous and others.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2ws7zaCUzE
Posted by misterparkour on
August 7, 2008
Most Parkour enthusiasts have only seen David Belle fall once. That of course was his famous slip at the UCLA Campus. However there is another fall from David that was captured on film many years ago and we at MisterParkour.com are happy to be the first major Parkour website to ever feature the footage.
This video is not solely of David Belle, but is instead an interesting compilation of film. In the seven minute edit the video has six distinct parts. The first part is a mix-tape edit of Kazuma, then second is the Le Chat Effravant (Scary Cat) - Behind the Scenes video from the Nike Presto shoot, the third part transitions into an old Nike commercial featuring Kazuma, the fourth features rare footage of David (including his fall), the fifth includes a complete version of On r’met ça with alternate music, and finally the compilation ends with some more clips of David.
Although the footage throughout is rare and is well worth watching and studying in its entirety, the main draw to this video and the portion we want to emphasis is the footage from and fall of David. Not only is this film of David extremely rare to say the least, the fact that he falls in it makes it even more unbelievable that this video has never been prominently posted on a Parkour site! Ultimately the fall, although violent in many regards, is neither incredibly moving nor ultimately consequential. Nevertheless, it is always good to be reminded that even the best Tracers make mistakes.
“I fall all the time—I fall like the monkeys—but it never shows up on film, because they just want the spectacular stuff.”
-David Belle
http://www.dailymotion.com/speedairman/video/x54r18
Posted by misterparkour on
August 6, 2008
Most things in life evolve and change over time. But has Parkour? David credits the creation of Parkour to his father and “a few Vietnamese soldiers.” And even though particular techniques, and of course the abilities of athletes, have obviously progressed over the years, surly the meaning, sentiments, and intentions of Parkour has not. Or one would think.
Here is an article written more than 6 years ago just after the creation of the famous David Belle BBC commercial. This piece gives a very rare look into the past, at Hugh Scholfield’s perception of Parkour so many years ago. Reading it now this article provides us the opportunity to glimpse an older perspective of the discipline, compare it to the present day sentiment and ask, ‘Has Parkour changed and progress, or is it the same as it has always been?’ Of course this article was written from the perspective of a writer and is therefore not necessarily an accurate or definitive perspective of Parkour in any way, shape or form. However it was based on conversations with David and it certainly raises questions about whether or not Parkour has changed or evolved. You can read and judge for yourself.
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The art of Le Parkour
David Belle is credited with having invented Le Parkour
By Hugh Schofield
In Paris
David Belle, acrobatic star of the BBC’s new advertising campaign, is the acknowledged guru of a new urban sport in France known as Le Parkour - or obstacle-coursing.
Described by adepts as an art-form or even a philosophy, Le Parkour consists of finding new and often dangerous ways through the city landscape - scaling walls, roof-running and leaping from building to building.
“Le Parkour - or the Art of Movement - is a way of using the obstacles found in one’s path to perform jumps and acrobatics.
“Everything must combine speed, fluidity, aesthetics and originality,” reads one of several websites dedicated to the sport. 
Belle, 28, is credited with having invented Le Parkour as a teenager in the Paris suburbs, along with his friend Sebastien Foucan. Today he is universally recognised as its leading exponent.
The two boys led a gang known as the Yamakasi, who became famous last year when they starred in a film of the same name by director Luc Besson, of Fifth Element fame.
The film is about a group of “Parkouristes” who feel responsible when an inexperienced fan is injured in a fall and set about a spectacular series of robberies to raise money for his operation.
‘Need to exist’
The blurb described the Yamakasi as “modern-day Samurai,” but by this point Belle had left the group, fearing that the commercialisation was threatening the inner spirit of the sport.
He is now the leader of a new group - Les Traceurs - based in the Paris suburb of Lisses.
“We do it because we feel a need to move, we feel a need to exist - to show that we are there,” he said in a television interview last year.
“Our aim is to take our art to the world and make people understand what it is to move.”
Beginners are advised to practise daily, not to start with high walls, to work in groups and above all not to be dared to go too far. 
“Teasing doesn’t kill - a bad jump can,” warns Ombre (Shadow), a 17-year-old Parkouriste from La Louviere outside Paris.
There are a series of basic moves, from the cat-jump - in which the exponent places two hands on an obstacle and then leaps between them - to the tic-tac, which is a kind-off push-off taken in mid-movement from a wall or other surface.
Apart from Belle’s Traceurs and the Yamakasi, there are several other gangs in France, with names like the Wakazai, the Ninjas, Impala and Parkour Clan.
Fans say Le Parkour has many of the qualities of an eastern philosophy, encouraging discipline, self-improvement and interdependence.
For sociologists, Belle and his followers demonstrate the classic human urge for freedom within the clogging world of modern suburbia.
As Belle himself puts it: “We want to go where no human has ever been before.”
______________________________________
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/1939867.stm
Posted by misterparkour on
August 1, 2008
Over the past few weeks we have been working hard to make some great new additions to MisterParkour.com. We aren’t going to explain all the changes to the site because if you visit regularly then you should already know. However, one important addition that we do feel compelled to point out is the addition of our Free Stuff! page.
In our quest to do everything we can to share and expand Parkour by David Belle we have decided to start giving away free stuff. Even though we are non-profit and we make absolutely no money on or from this site, we are dedicated to bringing Parkour to as many people as possible even if that costs money. After some serious brainstorming we arrived at the simple conclusion that giving away free stuff would help that cause.
Anything we give away will be listed on our Free Stuff! page, and in general the only thing you will have to do to qualify to win is be a member on the site. All details for each prize will be outlined and once we have selected the winner we will contact them and send them their prize as appropriate (if it is a gift then we will mail it, if it is a coupon for a gift we will email it etc.)
Members of MisterParkour.com span the globe and live on every continent (save for Antarctica as far as we know). So even if you live in Russia, or Sweden, or South Africa, or Argentina, or Thailand, or England or the U.S. etc., if you win we will send your prize to you regardless of your location. It might take some time to get there and ultimately we cannot promise that you will receive it due to country specific postal efficiencies (or inefficiencies rather) that are beyond our control. But we always stay true to our promises, and if that means mailing a package to the other half of the globe then we will do it.
That’s pretty much all there is to it. Be a member and win free stuff. Pretty cool, huh? We thought so. There are not very many website that give away stuff absolutely free, and even fewer (if any) Parkour based website that do it. That kind of makes us a first, but we certainly hope that we are not the last. By spreading Parkour around the globe we can only hope that other people contract the same sentiment of giving and sharing that surrounds the discipline. When asked about competition David Belle said (we think he said this but we can’t find the quote anywhere so maybe it was some other prominent Parkour figure), “We already have competitions in Parkour. They are competitions to share your knowledge. Whoever helps the most people is the winner.” That idea of sharing and giving is truly one of the most important and moving aspects of Parkour and a goal that we believe giving away free stuff will help accomplish.
