The date was Saturday the 13th of August 2005. The day was set to be the biggest Parkour Jam of the year 2005... PKSA Management had made talks with international Traceur, Forrest to make a guest appearance at this Jam but due to unfortunate events, the appearance was cancelled.

The Traceurs were disappointed but nevertheless picked up their spirits and decided to make the best of the Jam! Everybody gathered at the Planetarium Parking at WITS ready and eager to practice some Parkour... We had the usual Traceurs: Neil, Sonic, Team Moyo Afrika (Specs, DnK, and JaX) and we were joined by 2 new faces, Irish and Kenji (a break-dancer).

We did not want to start at places we had been to before so we did a bit of exploring with Irish as our tour guide. We decided on a place at the back of Wits to begin our Parkour experience. The Traceurs began their normal ritual of stretching and putting on ankle-braces, knee-guards etc. We started with some jumps down stairs to warm-up and began scouting the area for potential jumps and vaults. A couple of wall-runs were attempted by JaX, Sonic and Irish which flaunted poses for the photographers. The group then mainly concentrated on vaulting techniques on a high vaulting platform. DnK unfortunately hurt his angle in the processions but continued to watch while resting his ankle. The Traceurs got very innovative with Specs, JaX and Sonic trying pop-vaults to handstands and wall-runs to palm-spins which were unsuccessful in the end. The normal haul of vaults were displayed though with Traceurs showing off their pop, monkey, king-kong, dash, speed, lazy, split legged lazy, turn, straddle, reverse, one handed reverse, straight legged reverse, two-handed, and spike vaults. The vaults were generally very impressive with the Traceurs moulding there specific vaults with their own styles.

The group continued further down to Jam and many more wall runs were made with Sonic and JaX doing dual vertical-palm spins. The group was then happily joined by Syndicate which was glad to take various shots of the Traceurs. We attempted to do some tricks on the statues but only a few vaults were achieved. Specs then displayed his strength with some flag poles as Sonic and JaX did turn vaults to 540’s on a high railing.

The Traceurs then moved off to a very promising spot in front of the Wits main building. Specs pulled off an impressive cat and back to precision while Sonic did a big running jump to clear some obstacles into a PK roll. JaX did some precisions and running jumps but with one very unsuccessful precision where a lot of verbal garbage was shouted. Irish tried some easy vaulting with the injured DnK and Specs pulling back flips randomly. The group then took a break on the grass with Kenji showing us some break-dancing and the Traceurs doing hand-stands.

We continued to the opposite side and did some precision on the stairs. We then moved to a stairway rail were some more interesting vaults were the order of the day with Specs doing Supermans with his 'frrrrr' flying sounds and JaX doing split legged lazy vaults and straight legged turn vaults. We attempted some crazy precisions but were highly unsuccessful. The Traceurs moved back to some old areas where some legendary stories were told of crazy vaults and precisions. Specs did some cats and DnK bid his farewell to fly home.

The Traceurs then moved off to one of the most impressive jumping spots at WITS: a roof to balcony cat. Specs and JaX made a number of successful attempts with some really breath-taking shots being snapped by Syndicate and BIG.

The day ended with the Traceurs wolfing down meals at the cafeteria and taking a much needed break. The day was very eventful and I am sure that much was learnt. Check out the photos taken in the gallery!

Thanks to BIG, his wife, Sonic, new Traceurs: Irish and Kenji and Team Moyo Africa: Specs, DnK and JaX for coming and making it such a great experience!

JaX

It’s 05:30, my cell phone’s alarm goes off, and I hurriedly switch it off, flying out of bed in anticipation. Today I (together with PKSA Acting President, B.I.G) would meet Forrest, and be on set for the shooting of a local commercial. When meeting someone new, the importance of personality outweighs their pedigree many times over. It is with this outlook that I was tremendously pleased when I met Forrest, because not only did he have the pedigree and skills; he’s a great guy!

Forrest, a traceur from France, currently living in the UK, was part of our own DC's Team Traceur until recently. He's trained with Sebastien Foucan and David Belle. A super guy, with a super knowledge and understanding of Parkour!

Talking between shots and takes (when the director would allow it) was very interesting, as Forrest shared with us his views on Parkour, training philosophies and life in general. Even after a long day, Forrest retained his smile and willingness to talk and share, awesome!

The day was a long one, consisting of 6 different shots, one of which was at a different location. The first shot, just a run through, with Forrest’s athletic strides writing its own poetry in the stone of Johannesburg. Secondly, a high one story cats-to-cat leap. As the day progressed, Forrest had more tricks up his sleeve, and with shot three, had a massive monkey vault over a gap and onto a stair case to show…cool stuff! Not to spoil the fun of the final product, I’ll leave it at that, and look out for the advert for Blue Ribbon Bread in September(ish).

All in all, what a pleasurable experience! Hopefully we’ll have a full write-up of the event soon, with a LOAD of pictures!

For now, Forrest will be joining us on Saturday morning for a jam at WITS, with a workshop feel to it, he’ll be talking about Parkour etc. So BE there! Check events section for details!