Finding Parkour in Montreal

Jumping over walls, not just for criminals

Story and photos by David Matz

The art of movement that is parkour can be described as using movement like a mathematical equation to solve tangible obstacles. To pass over a wall or gap there is a right way that will get you over, and a wrong way that will end up in a splat.  With speed, style, and technique, a master of parkour learns to scale walls, jump over gaps, and solve the concrete obstacles of the urban jungle.  With practice and discipline, they have the ability to become masters of moving through any obstacle today's urban jungles have to offer. 

With only a quick glance, parkour may appear to be no more than a spawn of skateboarding culture, which has now become a part of the establishment it was rebelling against. Although parkour has appeared in commercials and movies, is still relativity an underground activity. In Montreal, the parkour movement was started by twenty-nine year old John Rooney.

"I found out about parkour on the internet after several month of research," Rooney says.  "I was practicing what I was calling 'urban jumping' alone and wondered if anyone else was 'playing' like me.  Today's urban settings have created an endless course for traceur to explore and master."  Someone who practices parkour, called a traceur, uses their environment as an obstacle course.  Any city is filled with places to jump, climb, and scale, which a traceur will adapt to, and master with efficiency. "Cities have many secret spots to explore.  Walking, jogging, using stairs, sidewalks are now boring."

"I learned to push my limits, overcome fear, and listen to my body. "

Rooney describes parkour as a discipline with similar principals to martial arts. "Parkour sure changed my life. I learned to push my limits, overcome fear, and listen to my body. Train, train, train. Know you're still not a pro and you will never be one.  We never stop training and will never be experts." Practicing parkour is not a disorganized display of random leaps and misguided running, it is a discipline which teaches many different lessons. "It's important to be very concentrated before performing any big jumps or risky moves. Never take any guess, always calculate, visualize, and recalculate before anything." Rooney stresses,"Training is the key in performing in parkour. The more you train your body, the higher you can jump, climb faster, run faster. Train, train, train, train, repeat, repeat, repeat…that's how you get good." These practices are important because of the risk of injury a traceur takes. "I had several minor injuries," Rooney recalls. "And one big. I dropped from a roof on my head. Got six stitches and learned a lesson. Don't take guesses and be careful. parkour can be very dangerous."

The reasons for the growth of parkour's popularity are not just in the appeal of mastering movement among urban obstacles, it takes people getting organized.  "My involvement," Rooney says, "started in 2004 when I launched the first parkour website in Quebec. I was tired of being alone so I started the movement, organized events, group training, indoor gym sessions and outside jams." The parkour community of Montreal's website is dedicated to inform and connect people in the Montreal area interested in parkour.  Even though most of the site is in French, any English speaking user can navigate through videos, pictures, training techniques, and contact info. "The parkour movement has gotten pretty big since 2004 and keeps getting bigger every day," Mark Toorock, who runs the American Parkour website says. "It took skateboarding thirty-five years to get to where it is today. Parkour has come more than half the way, and in ten years, it will be where skateboarding is now," Toorock adds. "It's because of the instant information which can be shared quickly.  You can connect, inspire, learn and train because of online collaborators who add to the collective knowledge that helps everybody."

"It took skateboarding thirty-five years to get to where it is today.  Parkour has come more than half the way, and in ten years, it will be where skateboarding is now." 

With the popularity of parkour growing, there is no telling where it can leap to. "I don't think parkour is one of these things that comes and go. It was always around without knowing it existed and now it's here for good. Parkour is getting popular in commercials, TV shows and movies," Rooney says. Its appeal is a memorizing display of body movement to surpass obstacles put by man and nature. As it gains more and more publicity, it will become a commonly practiced sport throughout the world. "Pretty much all the big cities around the world have parkour groups, websites and weekly trainings. It's hard to keep track because the movement runs by itself. We use to gather up on only one site to plan events and meet ups. Now, little groups of friends or 'crews' go out training together," Rooney explains.

A result of this effort and people like Rooney, parkour has taken off in many places from Los Angeles, to Denver to Seattle, where there are parkour classes available. "We get all kinds of people at class. We have had ages 6-52," Ryan Ford, parkour teacher in Colorado says. "Males, females, high schoolers, teachers, police recruits, college people, and on and on. People in parkour tend to also come from, or take up, martial arts, gymnastics, rock climbing, or break dancing." Attracting different kinds of people will help parkour's popularity grow, and Rooney believes it is inevitable. "Sooner or later, [parkour] schools will be opened and maybe trained in police school, why not!"

What direction should parkour go in the future?