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Author Archive for Raindog

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About Raindog:

Real name: Jeremy Modjeska
Website: http://www.daqron.com

Jeremy lives in Seattle and is a project manager by day and a Code Monkey for PNWPA and washingtonparkour.com whenever time permits. A founding member of the PNWPA board, Jeremy has been practicing Parkour since 2006 and when he's not doing that he can be found riding a bicycle or climbing on rocks. Sometimes both.

All posts by Raindog:

25

Parkour Q&A

I recently received a request via the contact form to assist with a research paper on Parkour. Matt Marble wrote to us:

I am doing a research paper on Parkour for a school project and was wondering if I could ask you a few questions about this topic:
1. Who founded Parkour?
2. When was it created?
3. Why was it created?
4. Where does it exist?
5. Why is it so popular?
6. What challenges has it faced?
7. How will the problems be fixed?

Thanks for the inquiry, Matt. I’m posting my answers here for the benefit of others and any comment others might wish to contribute.

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18

Leave No Trace Project Up!

I’m excited today to announce the launch of PNWPA’s Leave No Trace initiative. Leave No Trace is a philosophy that extends into everything we do at PNWPA, most importantly into our training. It means, simply, that we respect and preserve our training grounds before, during, and after training. It’s a philosophy that Janine (pax) and several great traceurs have been promoting for over a year and which recently has taken hold of the whole North American scene under the Leave no Trace name. It drives our clean-up efforts at local training grounds, is featured prominently in our community outreach efforts, and is becoming a cornerstone of our Parkour classes.

In practical terms, Leave No Trace is both about advocacy and personal responsibility. It means that you as the traceur are respectful of property and don’t leave smudge marks from your shoes on a park wall, and it means that together we advocate for shoe manufacturers to develop non-marking shoes. It means that you as the traceur know which equipment in your local playground can handle your high-impact Parkour practice, and it means that together we work with playground designers and suppliers to install equipment that adults can use too.

You can find detailed information on the Leave No Trace project page where we outline the specific steps that every traceur should take to keep Parkour safe and unregulated. As we continue to develop advocacy plans we’ll update the project page. In the mean time we welcome your feedback and ideas.