"The goal of Parkour is not to make money or create a business. There is no financial goal behind it. Parkour should be taught to people who want to learn. If they don’t have money it does not matter because you don’t need any to do it, just a pair of good shoes and that’s all. Now people are like “Beware! The Academy is gonna open!” or “There’s gonna be a Parkour centre blablabla”. But me, I learnt Parkour outside! The real Parkour training is to be done outside. You can do whatever with your centres, put some mats down, but people will always end up going outside."
Gyms can help you with certain stuff you're not sure of, but want to try in a safe environment. But parkour will always be something done outside, and something done across things already built, not simply things made especially for the purpose of parkour. The world is not made of soft blocks and other objects that are perfect for parkour. You learn to improvise and adapt in the outside world, something you just can't do in a controlled environment.
...to give full credit where it belongs, the original French interview was translated and circulated by the good friends of the Australian Parkour Association (APA) and was integrally featured in their 2009 1st Quarter Newsletter.
Is anybody else confused as to his stance on freerunning and parkour though? His answers always seem kind of ambiguous. My interpretation is that he thinks they are indeed different, but one doesn't have to spend time worrying about if this is freerunning or parkour; they just need to get out and train.