This past weekend was the annual event many of us have come to know as "Summer Jam." There are a lot of national and international jams out there these days. Beast Coast, PKUSA, Trace Gathering... All of these are well-known and carry almost a "larger-than-life" association with them. But none are simply so large, so ingrained into our custom, so much a part of who we are... as to be known simply as Summer Jam. If you think about it, it's a very non-descript name. It could refer to any of the numerous jams out there during the season, and yet it is still known well enough to JUST be Summer Jam. It doesn't matter who you are or where... If you've been in Parkour for any decent amount of time, you know what Summer Jam is.
This year, nearly 200 traceurs came from all around North America to meet in Toronto, sleep over at one of the world's only Parkour gyms, train together, share ideas, and make new friendships. Three days of training, of goofing off, of learning from one another in the best way possible... Pretty much every community in Canada was in attendance. Along with that, three Americans represented the US: myself from Virginia/Washington, DC; King David from LA; and Rafe Kelley from Seattle.
I arrived with Jordan around noon on Friday to see Rafe still sleeping on a big foam block, and a large group of foreign Canadians speaking French and eating lunch. While I made a meal of some sardines, a traceur from BC introduced himself, and I introduced myself, noting that I was an American. "I'm Andy," I said, a little worried that my sardine tin was reeking pretty badly.
"Andy Animus?" he asked while I shook his hand. Bewildered, as I didn't expect to be known by that name by a random just from the name "Andy," I nodded in affirmation. "You missed some crazy stuff last year, man," he said to me, and then introduced himself. I swore he said "Bryce", so I looked a little confused when he looked at me like I should've known who he was. Well, I don't know any Bryce, so I was confused throughout. Whatever. We'd get to know each other better later (I think he may have thought I was super anti-social, though).
The day started out at Cloud Gardens, one of the most well-known hotspots in Toronto and featured in almost every media piece for the city. I'd never been there before... Let me tell you, until you're there, you have no idea how amazing it is.
It is quite simply one of the best spots for traceurs in the world. There's very little you can't do there. And we played around for a good long while. My heel hasn't fully recovered, so I was wary of the impact forces I was taking and tried to take it easy, but it was a bit difficult given that drops and precisions are abundant here. Toward the end of the day, I heard some of the BC traceurs calling out to Bryce... "Rene! Rene! Come try this." Well, Rene I DO know... And he goes by the name of Res. At this point, I felt pretty rude about not recognizing him, but he repeated himself twice earlier and I heard Bryce both times. Ah well.
Partway through the day, King and Jo Meuris showed up. Now, I've been a huge fan of King's style and technique ever since Cliff showed me his sampler in 2008. This was waaaay before anyone else knew who he was. Way before he joined The Lost Boys. Way before he joined the WFPF and got signed onto the MTV show. So meeting with King was a big deal for me. I mean, we're talking about one of the only traceurs who can move fluidly, confidently, and seamlessly during full sprints. Show me another traceur who can do what King does sprinting and I will be supremely amazed. But maybe King NEEDS to know how to sprint. He's shorter than I am! He's shorter than Dimmonk is! I mean, the guy is tiny and I didn't expect that at all. But I sat down and had a long talk with him... and his take on training, his approach to Parkour as a whole, to media, to competition, to everything.. is so solid and down to earth that I also gained a massive amount of respect for him. I started talking to Jo afterward about her animation (PK Granny.. youtube it if you haven't seen it, it's awesome), her relationship to King, my articles, feminism, and other such things.. It was a very pleasant conversation and she, too, is one of those traceurs out there who I have a massive amount of respect for. These two are some of the best practitioners in the world.. not because of their ability, but because of their heart.
Dan ran an obstacle course at the end of the evening... I ran one of the slowest times for the course, which I'm perfectly all right with. I was 1:31 or so... the fastest time was 38 seconds. Most people clocked in at around 50 seconds. There'll be a video of my run later. I know I made a lot of mistakes during it... Basically, you could take any path you wanted... But there was really two options: do a series of climbs first, or do a sprint first. Whatever you didn't do first, you pretty much had to do last. I chose to sprint first, thinking I could just do the drops down and be faster at the end. What I didn't take into account was that the sprint (which was slow because of my heel in the first place) fatigued my legs out.. and the running and jumping didn't help too much. So by the time I got to the drops, I needed to cat-to-drop and take it really slowly because my legs were waaaay too tired to take any impact forces. But it was a good learnign experience... Whenever you can, order a sprinting portion last because it gasses you out early.
In the evening, we all sat down and had a long conversation about Parkour, what it is, what it means, what it is to train, and some of the best ways to train the human body for this sport. This was an extremely productive conversation (aside from a few derailings and idiots), and it'll be more to take back with me.
The second day, we woke up early to go to the park. Unfortunatley, we were quickly kicked out of the massive playground and had to make a new plan. This resulted in miles of trailblazing through forestry, mud, water, vines, thorns, and anything else you might think of. People were miserable. The younger and the weaker complained a whole lot. Me? Yeah, I was tired. My feet hurt. And about halfway through, I was covered in sweat, heart pumping with energy, and I just wanted to RUN through it... It was a lot of fun, for sure. By the time we got to where we were trying to go, though, I was gassed out. Everyone was pretty tired, so we took some rest, then played around. Eventually, we made it out to the beach where we were supposed to have an MN session.. But I think Dan decided against it because he hadn't planned that super-long hike. So we got to do what we do best: play. The rocks felt amazing on my feet. I could take drops again, I could do long precisions.. and nothing hurt. The water and the rocks rejuvenated me to an amazing extent.. and then I decided to peel the shoes off... and get into the water. Freezing cold. FREEZiNG COLD. But it was okay.
Up until this point, Rafe had seemed a little antisocial and unhappy.. but I saw him come alive in the water. In fact, everyone came alive. We were laughing, chicken-fighting, swimming, splashing... I think beach meets are one of those things that is necessary every now and then for traceurs. If only to really drive home that sense of community. I wish we could do that more often in Northern Virginia. I hope the videos get posted of some of the crazy stuff that was done in the water. You guys will just have to wait for that one.
The last day was spent in various spots downtown. This was much easier for me to do some things. It's the Parkour I'm used to, after all. So we played around. I was marveled by the climb-ups of the Quebecois (who astounded me the entire weekend, really). They go instantly from being in a full hang into an extended dip. One motion. From there, it's a simple kip to their feet. A two-move full cimb-up instead of the standard three where the dip takes some amount of time dpeending on how tired you are.. Rafe suggested somethign to me that I'll need to work on a lot more when I get the chance. I don't think I'll teach it to beginners since I want them to develop the strength before I give them ways to cheat. After downtown, we went to the harbour front, had lunch (and ice cream.. and the cute ice cream girl snuck me an extra scoop, whoo), and then played around at the harbour. Rather tired at this point, I tried to avoid doing too much.. Rafe had us playing Add-On on a non-rail structure, which was interesting and a little awkward. Should be good for the future.
All-in-all, this was an amazing weekend. It was an extremely humbling weekend, as well. I'm used to being the "experienced" one in my communities. Those who're technically better than me are rarely more conditioned or stronger than me, so we all have our strengths and weaknesses as far as Parkour goes. I'm used to Leon being the best person I'm around with any regularity and it's a little mindblowing to instantly be humbled because you're training with some of the best traceurs in the world.. and you feel like a beginner again, completely and totally. You're suddenly weak, fat, and can't move for shit. And that was the most rewarding thing for me.. to really understand how much more work there is to do.
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