The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
[Prime] 3rd Annual Pre-PAX Parkour
Heeeellllllloooo PAX!
Do you like play? Do you like exercise? You should come out and join us for a pre-PAX parkour lesson and jam session - a chance to get some sun (hopefully), have some fun, meet a few new people and get some exercise, before we all settle in for a long weekend of gaming!
What is parkour? Some people like to think they are practicing running away from someone, like in James Bond. I prefer to think of it as turning the entire world into my own personal playground!
If you have no experience with parkour, or if you aren't very active*, you are absolutely welcome to come! I'm organizing an instructor from Parkour Visions to provide 2 hours of instruction, so this will be beginner friendly. After the lesson, if you aren't exhausted yet, we can hang out and climb and practice around the excellent concrete structures of Freeway Park for as long as you'd like. Although I'll probably want to shower and eat before board gaming that night in the Sheraton lobby...:D
We'll meet at Freeway Park at 1pm on Thursday, August 30th.
Hope to see you guys there! If you could post to express interest, that would be great, so I can have an idea of numbers.
Appendices:
Do you like play? Do you like exercise? You should come out and join us for a pre-PAX parkour lesson and jam session - a chance to get some sun (hopefully), have some fun, meet a few new people and get some exercise, before we all settle in for a long weekend of gaming!
What is parkour? Some people like to think they are practicing running away from someone, like in James Bond. I prefer to think of it as turning the entire world into my own personal playground!
If you have no experience with parkour, or if you aren't very active*, you are absolutely welcome to come! I'm organizing an instructor from Parkour Visions to provide 2 hours of instruction, so this will be beginner friendly. After the lesson, if you aren't exhausted yet, we can hang out and climb and practice around the excellent concrete structures of Freeway Park for as long as you'd like. Although I'll probably want to shower and eat before board gaming that night in the Sheraton lobby...:D
We'll meet at Freeway Park at 1pm on Thursday, August 30th.
Hope to see you guys there! If you could post to express interest, that would be great, so I can have an idea of numbers.
Appendices:
You should bring:
- Comfortable sports clothing. You may want long pants/shirts to protect from concrete abrasion. (I tend not to - to warm!)
- Good running/athletic shoes
- Plenty of liquid!
- A snack
- Sunscreen
- A donation, provided to me.**
*This will be 2 hours of activity, some of it strenuous. You can choose to sit some things out, or leave early, do fewer reps, or whatever you like. I prefer to be inviting and inclusionary, but you are in charge of your own ability and fitness level.
**The instructor costs money, but I would prefer to provide an event and an experience, so I pay them and don't try to get participants to fully cover the cost. If you'd like a suggested donation - if you try to give me $40, I'll give some of it back. (unless you pay in 2 twenties...) If you give me $5, I'll take it and consider myself $5 better off.
- Comfortable sports clothing. You may want long pants/shirts to protect from concrete abrasion. (I tend not to - to warm!)
- Good running/athletic shoes
- Plenty of liquid!
- A snack
- Sunscreen
- A donation, provided to me.**
*This will be 2 hours of activity, some of it strenuous. You can choose to sit some things out, or leave early, do fewer reps, or whatever you like. I prefer to be inviting and inclusionary, but you are in charge of your own ability and fitness level.
**The instructor costs money, but I would prefer to provide an event and an experience, so I pay them and don't try to get participants to fully cover the cost. If you'd like a suggested donation - if you try to give me $40, I'll give some of it back. (unless you pay in 2 twenties...) If you give me $5, I'll take it and consider myself $5 better off.
Moe Fwacky on
+1
This discussion has been closed.
Posts
In all truth, I will probably break my skull open >.>
Regardless, I am flying in early Thursday, hopefully I can make it. If I do I'll probably be taking a lot of pictures!
Pictures are definitely welcome! But no skull breaking need occur if you're interested. The instructors are really supportive, start us out with some really easy stuff and let you choose your own pace within that stuff. You can pick any difficulty level you want.
<+Ravenger> you are talking to me
<@heels> oh god, what am i doing
- Simple vault over a small wall. It's about 3 feet tall. You probably have done this motion a million times as a kid if you've ever hopped a fence. Put one hand on the wall, hop your legs over it and land on the other side. You can build the simple vault up to a vault that involves bringing your hands between your feet, which is harder and riskier.
- Standing jumps. Stand on a line, see how far you can jump in a smooth motion, with control. This can be made harder just by trying to jump further, with control.
- Climb a wall. The wall is about 8-10 feet tall. Run at it, jump, grab on the top and climb up. There is a few "holding" skills we practiced here, where you hold onto the wall before climbing.
- Slow rolls on the grass. Slowly put your hands down, and go through a very slow roll across your shoulder. Practice control, and then build up speed. One guy was practicing them on the concrete last year - a harder and potentially more painful skill!
We spend a lot of time drilling skills - so the instructor will teach it and then we do it 10-15 times to practice it.
@Ravenger - I can't answer your question, but I can help you answer it for yourself. Do you go to the gym at all? Can you do chin-up/pull ups? I think that if the chin-up motion doesn't cause you pain, that your deltoid shouldn't be a problem. Most skills can be done with both sides of your body, so if your left side hurts, try your right. I do this with some skills myself. My feeling is that the RSI shouldn't be an issue, but that the deltoid is an unknown for me. I have a wrist-issue (not RSI), and I manage. Send me some more info or questions, I'd love to give you more confidence that you'll be able to participate.
<+Ravenger> you are talking to me
<@heels> oh god, what am i doing
7 PAX veteran
Great guys!
I like the formal training, personally. The shoulder roll is a great example - there are a million ways of doing a roll that aren't the best way for safety and exit control. Some of them are pretty good and work great in most situations, but when you have someone looking at you and saying "No, do it more like this", it helps out a lot. On the aforementioned concrete, with a bit of a drop, you want to be doing them right!
Yay for beginner exercises! lol
*Which means that after Parkour and the Tri-Wizard, I'll probably feel about 65 on Friday morning.
Contributing writer at Marooner's Rock
Twitch broadcasting! Currently playing through Wing Commander: Privateer
Pinny Lanyard
Prinny - I plan to arrive in Seattle around noon myself. I usually catch an 8am bus from Vancouver down, pile my stuff into the hotel room and be happy that the park is like...right next to the con and hotel.
The first year I did this, I worked really hard and had some sore thighs the next morning (and the rest of the con...). Every time my friend and I came to a long stair case we'd both look at each other, get this mischievous grin and then bolt up the stairs as quickly as we could, knowing that each other had thighs of stabbiness. Maybe we're sadistic, but that's my experience of "as old as you feel" :P (That friend is joining us again this year after missing last year! So good!)
It's been a little bit since we last spoke...I feel strange putting this up there and then leaving the post alone for a month, but I guess that's how it goes.
We're all organized up with Parkour Visions from 1pm until 3pm on Thursday August 30th , all this event needs is you and your enthusiasm! A few "getting to know you" questions for everyone:
Where are you all coming from?
How long have you been coming to PAX?
How long have you been thinking about parkour?
What sort of other exercises do you like to do?
Anything else you'd like to add!
For myself - I live in Vancouver, BC and have been a PAX-goer for about 4 years. All of my friends were doing it...:P I started doing parkour about 5-6 years ago for about a year, and then stopped because I had an injury that needed tending to (unrelated to parkour - snowboarding is dangerous! :P). I stopped doing it for several years, but picked it up again 2 years ago when a PAXer called NovaFlares organized a pk jam session pre-PAX. I took up the torch from him because I love exercise and I love gaming and I love when I can combine the two.
For exercises, I've been doing circus trampoline for about 3.5 years, I just started barefoot running (my feet aren't as happy with this one...) and I love inline skating. I've done a lot more, but those are my (current...) passions.
Looking forward to this event and to meeting all of you!
Also added the event to the PAX Community calendar, because that sounded like fun. :P
Just took a half day off work so I'm in. I'll be bringing 2 maybe 3. Do I count as a half a person since I'm old and decrepit? Well hopefully there won't be too many YouTube shots of me embarrassing myself. Sounds awesome so see you there
Where are you all coming from?
Ontario Canada!
How long have you been coming to PAX?
This will be my 9th PAX in a row, (it's my Wife's 10th and I'm super jealous that she's been to more PAXes than me!)
How long have you been thinking about parkour?
Over a year actually, I wanted to do it at the start of last summer, and I realized I was too fat and out of shape. So I took up rock climbing and started working on my health, I'm down just about 60 lbs, and in much better shape now (working my way through p90x along with rock climbing and karate... so still loosing weight). I'm wondering if I will have a better go of it now!
What sort of other exercises do you like to do?
Rock Climbing and Karate make up a big part of my exercise time currently.
Hope to see you there!
Ontario! That's a heck of a trip. I used to rock climb a lot, but it got pushed out of my exercise routine when my climbing friends and I slowly parted ways. Good exercise though and lots of fun.
Where are you coming from?
Kitimat, BC... NorthWest Canada, close to the southernmost part of the Alaska border.
How long have you been coming to PAX?
First one ever!
How long have you been thinking about parkour?
I've been aware of it for years, and have always thought it was neat. I always like to climb stuff, especially when drunk, and have had about as much fun with urban exploration (and occasional graffiti =P) as you can in the small towns of my region. Parkour is a lot faster paced than what I usually get up to, though, as I"ve never been much of a runner. I guess I've done some rock climbing too, but always counted it as just part of my hiking and general explorations of the bush and mountains around my town. I actually try to avoid it, and have never done any really significant rock climbs, 'cause I realize I don't really know what I'm doing, and don't own or know how to use any proper gear. I guess I did a lot more of it when I was a kid, back when we were a lot less safety concious =P
What sort of other exercises do you like to do?
Hiking mostly, and I was a boxer for many years. Over the last year though, I've been working a lot, so haven't had the time to keep up with exercise as much as I used to. At least I have a job that gets quite physical sometimes, so I've mostly maintained, though I need to build my wind back up. I have lung issues, so heavy cardio has always been a problem for me, and running has never really been viable. I figure I should be able to handle the basics of parkour at least, even if I can't keep up the pace of others.
Anything else you'd like to add!
I'm glad this is still on, I was a little worried by the lack of activity in the thread, but am really looking forward to it!
I wasn't much into running either until very recently - too boring. I realized one day that running was a lot more interesting if I was jumping over things as I went. Something I've found about pk in general though, is that it usually isn't that aerobic. Because a lot of the skills require quick bursts of muscle, you can't do it the way you would cycle or jog. Even when I'm just out for a run I tend to run a lot slower, with small bursts inbetween. Anytime that I try to bring my speed up, the combination just kills my lungs.
And the nice thing about the class is, because the format tends to be (a) Learn a skill (b) Drill that skill, you are working at your own pace anyway.
Yeah...the lack of activity worried me too, and I'm the organizer! I'm just not certain what to do. I'm planning a pre-PAX event, which means people need to purposefully show up early to the convention, which means I need to give people lots of warning. But after that, if folks aren't really talkative between each other, and I can only do so much to get things moving, it tends to die a bit for a month. If you have any suggestions for next year, I'd love to hear them.
Juneau, Alaska
How long have you been coming to PAX?
This is my fourth year attending Prime!
How long have you been thinking about parkour?
Been aware of it for a long while and I'm down to try most anything. I've been wanting to come to the prior parkour meetups but flights/work schedule/etc. kept from from showing up.
What sort of other exercises do you like to do?
Fencing, axe fighting, knife fighting, basically anything that involves beating someone else with a metal stick. I'm pretty used to taking a pounding some I'm not particularly worried about getting a few bumps doing this.
Anything else you'd like to add!
Roses are red, violets are blue, sugar is sweet, blood for the blood god.
No offense, but I teach weapons every week and I try and keep a no blood policy. But whatever floats you boat. I mostly do taekwondo and Olympic sparring for exercise and chase after the kids the rest of the time. That's a sport right? And I've been going to pax around ten years
If you cruise some of the Viking festival pics you'll actually see some of my training buddies pop up in them.
Kinda like this one! That's Thane and Johnny: http://wanderingjustin.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/IMGP5629-400x267.jpg
I never cared for the reenactment side, I just like to fight and the group was fine with me sticking to the fighting so huzzah for that. Now that I live in Juneau I need to find a new venue to get my fighting fix somehow, but all I've found so far is a Shotokan Karate place (bluh) and an Aikido place.
Which is why I like the formal lessons, because I'm not so objective with my own skill, but that guy over there can see exactly what I'm doing right and wrong and fix something up.
I
<+Ravenger> you are talking to me
<@heels> oh god, what am i doing
ahh, bruises are understandable and in my opinion and quite necessary as i don't think i've had a point in the last few years w/out one. helps people stop beaing wusses. never really tried cosplay but one of these days, maybe. i usually get my fighting fix from olympic sparring. you have to hold back so you don't break anything (on them) but you do were pads on your body and head and arms and shins. other than that they are fair game to kick any were above the waist besides the neck. great stress reliever and most dojangs will practice at least one day of week of full contact. some schools do it 4 or 5 times a week depending on if they only work on sparring. see you there but please no attacking me with a sword.
So here's a bit about me
Where are you all coming from?
I'm coming from Victoria, BC.
How long have you been coming to PAX?
This will be my third PAX, but I missed last year's
How long have you been thinking about parkour?
I've been toying with the idea for a while, but never thought myself physically fit enough...until this year. Now I've been trying to find a group or someone to show me the basics so I can get started!
What sort of other exercises do you like to do?
I love to run, bike, hike up mountains, lift weights...pretty much anything. I think my favorite is hiking and trail running, though.
This is a great idea, rythos42. I hope I'll be checked into my hotel and at the park at the designated time. I'm not sure which ferry I'm catching to get over there yet.
Has your instructor mentioned anything about allowing photographs?
Where are you all coming from?
Redmond! So, not that far.
How long have you been coming to PAX?
This is my second year. I've yet to go to PAX East.
How long have you been thinking about parkour?
A few years now. I've dabbled, though I doubt I'm doing it right.
What sort of other exercises do you like to do?
Climbing, biking, and hiking. I hike less often than I should, usually aiming for a week-long one every summer. Oh, and I fenced epee in high school. Lots of crouching.
Anything else you'd like to add!
Looking forward to it
This isn't a guarantee, but I don't see anything wrong with taking photos. We'll be in a public place, so it's not like we could stop people around us from doing it anyway
"Right" is an interesting thing. I mean...this sport only got started like 10 years ago and the people who started it, probably didn't know much about "right" either. They figured out what worked and what didn't. I think that if you've been doing anything at all, you're doing it right! :P But I do like the more formal training - condensed knowledge is good. I'm taking a Tricking class at the new Vancouver pk gym and we've been training a lot of kicking. I never would have trained kicking if this guy hadn't have said "this is important for later". I'm a lover, not a fighter! :P
I've never done parkour before. I've got a bad knee and will probably be wearing at least a light brace.
Where are you all coming from?
Sumner. North of Tacoma
How long have you been coming to PAX?
This is my fourth year. Never been to PAX East.
How long have you been thinking about parkour?
A couple of years. Basically, since American Ninja Warrior started airing.
What sort of other exercises do you like to do?
3 miles every weekday on a hybrid bike (mountain bike frame with street tires).
Anything else you'd like to add!
Looking forward to it.
Contributing writer at Marooner's Rock
Twitch broadcasting! Currently playing through Wing Commander: Privateer
Pinny Lanyard