On July 6, Parkour youth leaders from Nakusp joined other Parkour folks from across the globe at the Origins Parkour facility in Vancouver.
Parkour is a gymnastic way of navigating over and around obstacles, usually in an urban setting. If you saw the recent Casino Royale, you’ve seen some Parkour, done by a traceur, a practitioner of Parkour.
In July, the Nakusp youth met with new people and techniques, demonstrated their own skills and had a blast, each one thanking Origins Parkour and Michael Garvey who organized the trip. Here are a few of their stories.
“This July I went to PKBC 7, an event where people from Parkour gyms all over the world come to Origins Parkour gym in Vancouver and have a jam throughout the weekend. I thought it was a great time for many reasons. I met loads of cool people and saw loads of cool people and saw loads of cool people doing cool things.
PKBC is not only a place to do Parkour with other people it is about meeting with people from around the world. I ate dinner with two people from Sweden, played catch with a guy from New Zealand and so on.
On the Parkour side of PKBC it was great too, everyone there was so helpful, involving, kind, even though everyone there was way way way better than I am. I love the Parkour community because everyone is friends even if no one knows each other.”
– Taryn Watson, 14
“At PKBC 7 I met all kinds of people from all over the world. Some faces were new and some were familiar from different gyms or PKBC6, but no one was a stranger. Different views, ethnicity, religion, shapes, sizes, gender, were all gathered in one place, but those differences didn’t matter.
What did matter was why we were there: movement. The pure instinctual movement of our own bodies was the connection that brought all the beautiful, strong, driven and inspiring individuals together. The gathering ranged from people with months of experience to people who had been training for years. People of the Parkour community don’t hide their admiration, appreciation or opinions; and they also don’t push their style, mindset or techniques on anyone. Improved techniques are shared with everyone; safer ways are held in high regard. The fact that this event was not serious or strict, only made it that much more enjoyable, and I don’t think my experience of PKBC could get much more wonderful no matter how many times I attend.
One of the most awesome things for me was that I was one of the youngest instructors there and got to teach some people new things. I am so happy that the younger PK Nakusp Leaders got a chance to attend such an awesome event and meet people from all around the world and train with them.”
– Melody Nevoral, 18
“PKBC was an amazing experience. It taught me what to train for next year and how to do it. There were also many traceurs at the event and I got to meet some of these people. But what amazed me was after seeing their Youtube videos and then being able to meet them in real life. Everyday we would do an outdoor jam in which we just go around the city of Vancouver and do Parkour around where everyone would normally walk. I thought it was awesome that strangers would join us and people would watch us in awe as we found new ways around and over obstacles.”
– Liam Bobicki, 14
“For me, PKBC was a fantastic experience. It was very inspiring for me to see the abilities of some of the phenomenal traceurs we had the privilege of training with. They inspired me to put effort into improving my own skills and by the end of PKBC I felt my own abilities had improved substantially.”
– Connor Scambler, 14
“OMG! PKBC 7 was amazing. Although the heat was too hot, they had air conditioning in Origins. Lynn Canyon was its own kind of amazing, besides the cold water. The outdoor jamming was awesome in every way. All in all, it was flat out amazing.”
– Alex Roberts, 13
“The kids have said it all. PKBC has become a premiere Parkour event. When I questioned each of them, they all spoke of the awesomeness of the environment. Rene Scavington, who we’ve had here, and the team at Origins put on an outstanding event. Their intention is to create a free parkour event for traceurs. Breakfast and the makings for lunch were provided, along with a place to sleep for about 30 traceurs.
This is my third PKBC in which I’ve had PK Nakusp Leaders attend. It is a pleasure to begin to know these amazing athletes. Nakusp should be proud of how some of the youth in our community not only represented PK Nakusp admirably, but also Nakusp.
PK Nakusp receives much acknowledgement from the Parkour community and the efforts we make in our community and in attending this event. Others who attended were Caleb Bobicki and Rowan Wurst. I’d like to give a special thanks to Mateus Dachwitz a past PK Nakusp Leader. Having moved to Calgary to attend university, he has landed a job at the Calgary Parkour facility, No Limits. Mateus has become a huge inspiration to our PK Nakusp Leaders.”
– Michael Garvey, old
