Traceurs Trespassing

[monk]

yesterday, in speaking with Elf and *insert Mike's screen name* the topic came up about trespassing on grounds that obviously we're not supposed to be. it seems that most people do not have any reserve. but some do (rightfully) have an issue with it. i personally don't mind using prohibited space until somebody says something. "public" to me is almost anywhere somewhat accessible. but are there even places that are "legal" to do parkour that a whole group can practice without leaving anyone behind?

some time after Mara and Mike left, our group was asked (ok, told) to leave (not even that nicely this time), and we did. no defiance or anything like that. the kicker-outer said that this was "not an open campus and you need a permit to be here." actually, it was quite open. the gate was unlocked, and there were other people there...

as usual, we don't want to paint that "bad-ass" picture of parkour. do we keep trying words kaos tries like "exercising" or "plyometrics?" the ongoing discussion continues; what do we do, where do we go, how do we respond?

[Iliketovaultthings]

heh heh, polymetrics....... But yeah, this is pretty frustrating....

[Chris]

There are places to practice legally. Playgrounds, parks,....I guess thats it. However, it is not out of the realm of possibility to get a permit to practice at certain locations. Perhaps we need to start exploring that option. There could come a day when we are banned from all our favorites spots. This could easily happen with more bad press and near-death accidents like the Museum jam.

The question is, are we just as likely to get banned from GWHS and other spots by making the owners/operators aware of our presence as we are by continuing to train there? At this point we have been kicked out of GWHS a few times, so I would like to be pro-active and contact the administrators.

[SafeNSure]

...yeah, I agree.
We have been talking about this for some time...

Somebody also said we could start a club at their high school (can't remember who... would that mean that we would get permission to train there? Good or bad...); that would be valuable experience.

One could show GWHS admin.s two pieces of evidence: a 2 years old TV fragment on pk filmed at GWHS (to demonstrate, that this has been going on for a while and they -effectively- tolerated it), and the abstract of the Pilgrimage about the "no trace" adding some sort of commitment to do some volunteer work from time to time...

Then, I imagine, they would want to see a short list of legal age practitioners willing to put down names and phone #s (a committee, or something... ), to have a referent, to know with whom are they talking to, no?

[hillexallen]

Hey, does Andrey, you know, Andrey Pfening still go to Washington?

[Kirill]

Yes, he does- and its a lot harder to notice one person training than a group of 30 people jumping around.....

[cecisweet]

You know what would be interesting (to me and other high school students especially)? What if one of you guys actually got a certification to be a PE teacher and came to teach at an SF public high school? I know my school (School of the Arts, on the old Macateer campus) is pretty chill about different kinds of PE teachers (we have a dance class taught by the dance department head, a fencing class taught by the theatre department head, and used to have a tai chi class taught by the jazz band teacher), and it might be a relatively long process, but it'd be pretty awesome to have a parkour class at SOTA, and the kids here are generally chill and down for something like parkour in concept and in philosophy; it would be an amazing class, and probably super sought-after... the fencing class had a waiting list!
Think about it.
Maybe I should post this on a separate forum to get more consideration... :)
Thanks!

[Bay Area Parkour]

Very interesting!
Make sure you're hitting up Jodie with this idea...

[Iliketovaultthings]

well, yerba buena was a playgraound and we got banned from there, so now we cant do stuff at playgrounds?????

[orem]

well, i think not giving them a name is still key. I automatically respond with "exercising" these days. Although the name is surely gaining in recognition through media... Though we've met cops who've chased us off we've also met those who thought it was cool. Continuing to promote the discipline in a positive and nonaggressive light, aka preaching parkour in its true nature, as widespread and effectively as we can is still the best i can come up with.

I think SafeNSure has the right idea, except i don't know if the 2 year fragment would be so convincing. That just means it's been going on under their nose longer than they suspected. but definitely promote the Leave No Trace aspect - most highschool kids that are there legally are the ones trashing the place. If a school could get some extra custodial help out of you guys, i don't see how they could frown at that...

[Chris]

We need to be cautious of the video that we show them. It needs to represent safe movement. I don't think we need to show them an old video to proove that people have been using the space for so long. If we do use visuals, I would prefer a demonstration. Otherwise, we should put a sensible video together that contains slow safe progression and conditioning.. That coupled with a written request with many names, will give us some legitimacy. The downside to getting permission is that we will probably have to give up some things (getting on top of containers or roofs), but I think it is worthwhile especially since it is such great beginner training grounds.

@Iliketovaultthings - Yerba is private property though. I should have been more specific about public / city parks (without security gaurds).

[Kirill]

Lets get started then! Its better to start doing something, and then redo-it than not doing anything!

[Darren]

I'm just wondering, does the school not want us there so they won't get sued if we get hurt (cuz it's there property)? Or is it just that there annoyed or something? Tell me if I'm getting this
all wrong. :P