Post PKBC V…

I woke up at 12:30 PM on Monday. Breakfast was at IHOP at 2:30 with Josh and Amanda from Calgary. My foot was swollen, forcing me to walk with a gangster lean, my shoulders are sun burnt, and my head aches. Rain seems like the perfect cure for what was probably one of the most explosive weekends this community has ever seen.

I’m sitting here contemplating what made this weekend so special. What can “I” do to make next year even better? And then I realized I had nothing to do with it. Sure I put into motion a few good ideas and brought everyone together, but really the only reason this weekend was so amazing is because of you.

It was you who supported your friends and fellow athletes during the competitions! It was you who roared and cheered. It was you who sported the same dirty PKBC T-shirt for three days straight! It was you who lifted Mat Duncan in the air after he finally got that jump! (and then lifted Tom Copolla in the air for doing a sketchy roll) It was you who feasted upon watermelons! You who danced like idiots! You who shouted “Bee See”! And it was you who made this community a true honour to be a part of!

For those of you who missed out on the weekend here’s a quick recap:

Friday night was competition night. We had around 50 hopefuls attempt our elimination challenges. 21 Athletes made it through to the first speed course. Corey Methven dominated with an impressive 5:41 time. After that we took the athletes with the 10 best times and moved them on to a precision and balance course. Once again Corey beat the best score by 6 seconds with a time of 28:00! Next was another speed challenge with a slightly denser course. Tom Copolla pulled off a signature diving kong through parallel bars that left everyone else in his dust! The final round challenged the competitor’s strength with 3 events: a stride challenge, a sled drag, and a series of dynos while traversing along a difficult grip. Justin from Seattle edged the competition with some impressive strides and took the best score on the final round. At the end of the day Corey Methven took 1st place, Justin Sweeney 2^nd, Tom Copolla 3^rd, Jared Davis 4^th, and Rami Mackay 5^th!

Saturday we took some time to chill at Lynn Canyon. People that weren’t wrecked from the competition took part in the jumps, strides, and kongs provided by the trees, rocks, and hills. After some nice parkour appetizers we moved on to the main course: diving into the canyon! The fresh creek water running down the mountains was a nice refreshing cool down from the 30-degree weather. Next we headed up the hill for dessert (literally).  We ate ice cream cones like “bausses” and hiked a little further to Lynn Head Waters. The day ended with a group discussion on the future of parkour, and what we as a community can do to make parkour better.

Early risers were in for a treat on Sunday with four FREE workshops including instruction on hand balancing, floreio, warm-ups/recovery, and the landing continuum. At 3:00 PM we all met up at the Art Gallery, and that’s when things got crazy. NINETY traceurs stormed over four different locations. We stopped in the middle to give our legs a rest and have another round table discussion. Once everyone’s intellectual hunger was peaked the giant parade of orange and green T-shirts made its way to Coal Harbor where we concluded our parkour “marathon”. Madness continued to take place until 8:30 PM before we threw in the towel and headed for all you can eat sushi! The owners of Tomokazu were given a run for their money when over twenty hungry traceurs rolled in. The energy kept its high all the way through dinner, so much that people forgot about the time and had to race to the skytrain minutes before it shut down for the night. I limped into home at around 1:00 AM and didn’t make it past the couch.

Thank you to everyone that came out this weekend. I have you to thank for this great success.

Sincerely,

Res.