Winnipeg youth are head over heels about new urban sport

When Tyler Crichton spends an afternoon at The Forks, the place looks more like a personal jungle gym than a public market.

Whether he’s leaping from 15-foot stone structures or vaulting over steel railings, he’s practising an up-and-coming urban sport known as parkour.

“Parkour is a physical activity that involves getting from point A to point B with the human body in the most efficient way possible,” Crichton says.

“Free-running is very similar, but the difference is you can add flash to it. Instead of running, jumping and rolling down a flight of stairs, you may do a flip at the end.”

Similar to skateboarders, youths involved in parkour or free-running navigate public spaces looking for challenging obstacles such as walls, ledges and stairs to catapult themselves from.

“You can do it anywhere, but you look for rails or something that is not flat and plain, but has ups and downs,” Crichton says.

Crichton says the most popular spots for people to try out parkour are the University of Manitoba campus, The Forks and the Exchange District. because the different types of structures.

“You kind of develop an eye for it as you get better. When I first started out I couldn’t find anything to do but as I trained I found out what I was capable of,” Crichton said.

The troubles beginners often find themselves running into is knowing their limits.

“I have seen people break legs and stuff like that. Usually it happens when they are trying to do something more than they are capable of and trying to prove themselves,” Crichton says.

Newcomers to the activity are better off pushing their limits at one of the open gym times the Winnipeg parkour group has at the Frank Kennedy Centre at the University of Manitoba

Each Tuesday and Friday night parkour practitioners get together at the centre from 8:30 p.m, to 10 p,m.

“When you’re out there over top of the concrete there is no room for error,” Jean Guy Jolicoeur says.

“We suggest kids try out some of the stunts over mats and foam pits before hitting the streets.”

Jolicoeur was one of the first to actively involve himself in the Winnipeg parkour scene two years ago.

Since that time the activity has began to grow in popularity. Now the group has developed its own website, at www.winnipegparkour.com

“The first year there was around 15 people doing it, then last year it kind of exploded, there was around 50 to 100 people doing it,” Jolicoeur said.

“The thing about parkour that makes it so great is all you need is a pair of running shoes and an imagination,” Jolicoeur says.