DAY 4
04.08.07
TREE 4 & 5During an outing in downtown Louisville where a friend of mine, Will, and I were making a playground of the concrete and brick structures, I climbed up one tree and came down another. In between my up and down I was on the third floor of a parking garage. Due to the peculiar nature of the climb I did not mark my highest point with a strip of orange tape.
4-8-08: What Will and I were doing that day is called Parkour. Here is a good description from the American Parkour Website:
Parkour is the art of moving through your environment using only your body and the surroundings to propel yourself. It can include running, jumping, climbing, even crawling, if that is the most suitable movement for the situation. Parkour could be grasped by imagining a race through an obstacle course, the goal is to overcome obstacles quickly and efficiently, without using extraneous movement. Apply this line of thought to an urban environment, or even a run through the woods, and you’re on the right path. Because individual movements could vary so greatly by the situation, it is better to consider Parkour as defined by the intention instead of the movements themselves. If the intention is to get somewhere using the most effective movements with the least loss of momentum, then it could probably be considered Parkour.I can’t believe I only wrote three sentences about that experience. I was very excited about that climb. I love getting onto buildings using trees.
Yesterday I was searching for videos on YouTube. In the past I have put “tree climb” in the search and come up with some pretty lame videos and a lot of tree climbing with harness and ropes. Yesterday I found this:
This guy is pretty amazing. He’s 22 and lives out in Bellingham, WA which is near Seattle. I used to live there and that is where I got my start in Parkour. (This guy also practices Parkour.) I could learn a lot from other climbers and would love to start a regular tree climbing group. I realize there is only so much I can figure out on my own and just watching this video gave me new ideas. I went outside right afterwards, but with shoes, and climbed a bunch of trees. I particularly wanted to try the small tree transfers he was doing. It worked and I brought myself to a new level of ability and understanding of the strength of small trees. I also realized that I can learn from watching the monkeys. Anyone up for a trip to the zoo?
TS
2 Replies to “DAY 4”
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i climbed in a tree barefoot on Sunday and I gotta say it felt really good. a lot of my nervousness climbing trees comes from feeling like my feet are going to slide, and barefoot i KNOW.
do you think small tree transfers will allow you to get up into trees you previously couldn’t get into?
AWESOME!
It’s great to hear you’re climbing trees, considerphlebas!!!
And by “i KNOW” do you mean you know you’re feet are going to slide when you’re barefoot? Because when my feet slip in shoes, I can feel it coming. I know slips happen so I make sure to climb in a way that if a slip does happen, I am prepared and won’t fall.
I like the idea of going barefoot though. Always have, but I’m a shoe kinda guy. I grew up in the desert and you never went barefoot, too hot and prickly. And every year I consider getting out there and roughing up the bottoms of my feet, but like I every year I plan on taking off my shirt and getting and tan and I never do. Every year I have soft feet and a farmer’s tan.
As for the small tree transfers, I have used them to get into bigger trees. And one one occasion (which you will see in the future) I climbed a young tree and made it slowly bend down. After that I wanted to find a similar tree that I could ride down onto another tree. I guess I just haven’t looked for it hard enough.