Take Flight

Back in 2008 Take Flight posted an interview with David Belle that included a portion about how he and Sébastien Foucan had grown apart over the years. Well just a few months ago David Belle was interviewed by Sébastien Foucan and we knew all the fans would be interested.

It is incredible to see the founder of Parkour joined with another original member of the Yamakasi across from “Le Dame du Lac”, one of the most iconic structures in all of Parkour. In the interview David discusses what Parkour was for him in the past, and what it has become today. Truly a “must see” interview for any and all Traceurs. Whether you have been training and following the growth of Parkour since its beginning or just starting out, the words shared in this interview will educate and inspire you.

The 2 part interview has been translated into multiple languages, so if you prefer different subtitles or would like to see the original videos you can find them at:  http://www.youtube.com/user/FreerunningTVDotCom

David and Sébastien cover topics ranging from the original inspiration of Parkour from David Belle’s father to social media today and how that, and the rapid growth in popularity, have changed the way Parkour is viewed and practiced by many people. Below we have both parts of this interview, so sit back and enjoy learning the history and truth of Parkour from David Belle himself.

This week’s Take Flight Fan of the week is none other than Daniel Robinson!

Daniel was the perfect candidate for Take Flight’s Fan of the Week. His love of Parkour is only matched by his love of Take Flight. Says Daniel:

I can rock Take Flight Clothing better than anyone else on the planet. I ALWAYS wear a Take Flight shirt whenever out training Parkour.

Daniel is part of Temecula Parkour based in California, and he shares his solo videos on Vimeo.

Says Daniel: “Take Flight is my favorite Parkour clothing brand because you connect with the ‘little traceurs’. I am Take Flight’s #1 fan!” Nothing could be truer. And that’s why Daniel is our #1 fan this week.

We have had a lot questions about how to become the next Fan of the Week.

As the fans requested: Here are the Top 5 frequently asked questions:

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What is the Take Flight Fan of the Week?
The Take Flight Fan of the Week is a weekly contest where we look for the most dedicated Take Flight/Parkour fan to pronounce them the Take Flight Fan of the Week.

Can Anyone Become the TF Fan of the Week?
YES! Anyone can have their picture, name, and YouTube channel displayed for 30,000 Traceurs to see!

How do I enter?
Entering the Take Flight Fan of the Week Contest is simple! All you have to do is upload pictures of you wearing Take Flight clothing on the Take Flight facebook page. That’s it!

If you would like to submit an email with more pictures, videos, and/or a brief explanation why you should be named the TF Fan of the Week, you can send your submission to us at contest@takeflightapparel.com.

How do you choose a winner?
Whoever we think is the biggest fan that week based on the submissions received will be pronounced the Take Flight Fan of the Week. Photos will be evaluated based on their Parkour authenticity, portrayal of movement, and display of Take Flight clothing.

If I am not the Take Flight Fan of the Week this week, do I have to submit another entry?
Even though we’ll be choosing a new fan every week, you don’t have to submit a new fan entry every week. Entries will be valid for 6 months.

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The Take Flight Fan of the Week will get their name, image, and videos displayed to tens of thousands of Traceurs around the globe! So what do you have to lose? Get those cameras out and start taking pictures of yourself in Take Flight wear. The next Take Flight Fan of the Week could be you!

*Sending videos (or links to your videos) of you wearing Take Flight clothes, along with a picture for the profile, is highly recommended! In this contest we are truly looking for the biggest Take Flight fans to feature on our page.

Here is a spectacular Parkour mix-tape featuring the Yamakasi. A handful of their students also perform in the video, but the majority of the footage includes Yann Hnautra, Châu Belle-Dinh, and Laurent Piemontesi. You may recognize many of the locations as being in and around Lisses and Evry, however many of the moves performed are original to the structures and specifically attributable to the Yamakasi’s style. Although there is a noteworthy amount of flips and aesthetic non-necessary movement in many of the sequences, the majority of the action is a pure demonstration of efficient Parkour athleticism. Highly entertaining for the outstanding athletic performance and faced paced action showcased in the video, an excellent music accompaniment also contributes to making this mix-tape extremely engaging for its viewers.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=li3Wd_2_Y-4

Here is the official video from the workshop that took place in Bologna, Italy called Give it a Twist. This video is exactly the same as the other version we previously posted, except the quality is better. We haven’t been able to find out much more about this event since we originally posted this video in April 2008. However, what we do know remains this: this video, made by Airmout, shows the Give it a Twist workshop which was staged by APKI (Parkour Italy) and attended by “Team Parkour by David Belle” (but David himself did not attend). The Bologna workshop was also, as far as we can tell, the first of three successive workshops that took place in Italy in October 2006, the second of which took place at Florence, and the final culminating in Milan with the 2006 OSRAM Parkour World Meeting. To obtain a link to embed this video with the Google customer player please see our original posting by clicking here.

Here is the official and complete Le Tuyau video. To see the alternative, and noticeably different, edit of Le Tuyau please click here.

http://www.dailymotion.com/airmout/video/x4dv2j_le-tuyau-fin_extreme

Starting today www.MisterParkour.com is beginning a five part series that is designed to answer the question, “What is Parkour?” Throughout this series we will be featuring videos with insightful explanations of Parkour from Stephane Vigroux, Forrest, the Yamakasi and of course David Belle. The fifth part of this series will showcase a rare video of David Belle where he speaks for almost four minutes about what Parkour is and what it means to him.

For the first video in this series we start with an excellent video featuring Stephane Vigroux. This video is currently being promoted on YouTube and it was prominently featured on the YouTube homepage a few days ago. In this video Stephane performs some incredible Parkour moves and directly answers the question, What is Parkour?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1FVnoLkfLA

A few weeks ago we posted a Parkour video featuring Forrest. It also does a great job of answering the question, “What is Parkour?” so we decided to include it in this post as well. The video is made in the same style as the video of Stephane above. In the feature Forrest performs some great Parkour moves and thoroughly describes what Parkour is and why he does it.

http://www.misterparkour.com/?p=45

A short 1 min video with David Belle, Sébastien Foucan, Stephane Vigroux, and Romain Moutault. Even though we have searched the internet we still have no idea what “On r’met ça!?” means. If anyone has any idea please let us know.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6063563397164320878&hl=en

Here is a German news feature broadcasted in 2005 that is dense with Parkour information. It features David Belle, the Yamakasi, and Austrian Tracer Andreas Kalteis.

The news pieces starts with David Belle at a Parkour workshop in Berlin. In this segment David talks about the origins of Parkour and one of the often overlooked mental aspects of Parkour. Clips featuring David are also shown from the Accroches Toi video and the feature film Banlieue 13 (District B13).

After the workshop the news feature moves to Lisses, where it spends considerable time with Austrian Tracer Andreas Kalteis. Andreas trains at some of the most famous locations in Lisses and prominently represents the mindset of humility and modesty when he refuses to do a jump for the camera.

The news piece ends with the Yamaksi and a short interview with Yann Hnautra. Yann talks about the Yamaksi organization and their, unreleased at the time but recently established, Majestic Force brand/label is also mentioned.

Gems of Parkour history are spread throughout this feature in the video clips and interviews. We have transcribed David’s dialogue below.

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“I was interested in the story of my father. People always said, “Your father did this and that he saved people,” and I wanted to know why – what he was doing? He explained to me, ‘that is Parkour.’ I asked – ‘what is Parkour?’ and he told me that in Vietnam there are different kinds of Parkour. The more he told me the more I wanted to experience that myself because he did that too. When I was out, more and more young people came and asked ‘Can I participate? Can I participate?’ and I said ok, and here we are today.”

“You escape form the system, from pressure, from technology from such things. When you escape you feel free. When you stop you think about your problems, so when you do Parkour these thoughts aren’t there because you have to focus so you don’t get hurt.”

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L62iU_mNqWU

This is one of the best and most concise videos we have ever seen that describes what Parkour is. The Tracer speaking is named Forrest. He is a Parkour instructor in London for Parkour Generations, and he is one of the world’s foremost authorities on the sport. Since some of his speech is hard to understand we have transcribe the clip below.

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“My name is Forrest. I come from France and sport is my passion. I went to university for four years and graduated as a physical coach. Now I live in London and I teach Parkour.
 
Parkour is an art of movement, a physical discipline but utilize this on your body and your mind
 
Parkour is not just a physical challenges, it allows you to discover yourself very deeply. I live to enjoy myself and to understand myself
 
Young people they told me, “But why you do this,” because it’s my passion. I like that.
 
I first began to learn about Parkour from Stepahen Vigroux, one of the best in the world. He taught me how to move, and how I could push my body farther than I had ever imagined.
 
Parkour is demanding and very complex sport where you work all the parts of your body. You have to control your abilities, the key is your mind. But most importantly you have to control your fear.
 
It’s necessary for you to be relaxed, relaxed.
 
I watched the other guys and they told me, “Oh, but it is very unusual, it’s very amazing”…
But I believe that I couldn’t do it. But just with practice, practice, practice. Now I love it.
 
There are no secrets to improving your skill in Parkour, other than hard training. Setting yourself goals and working towards them.
 
When I come in the new area, in new environment, I can visualize myself doing oh I can do this this this this this this this this. Because of that a few minutes later I be able to do physically. I think the creativity is coming with the level. I train up to 4 hours a day five days a week varying the type of work from physical conditioning to specific Parkour techniques. You can always improve
 
Parkour is competitive, but not against someone else. The first and most important competition in Parkour is with yourself.
 
For me the city is a playground. You have to see it through the eyes of a child.
 
Everybody can do Parkour, everybody if women, man, kids, old people. Everybody can do Parkour. You have to find your own way of doing Parkour. But you know for example, doing just walking on the rails, everybody can do it. It’s not necessary to be strong. It’s necessary to have a good balance. Just balance. And everybody can do it. So after that it just depends, what are you looking for, what do you want to do with Parkour or what do you goals do you want to reach that try to find your own way and be in joy and that’s it.
 
I hope people will see Parkour as a positive activity and more people will start practicing it in a safe and responsible way.”

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www.extremeparkourgear.com