![]() ![]() The more he practiced, the more he wanted to do it. An out-of-shape consultant who traveled frequently, he barely ever worked out before finding parkour online. Every once in a while, a gunshot rings out from the shooting range across the street. With the parkour equipment scattered about, the effect is an urban streetscape in a suburban commercial district. Salil Maniktahla, who owns the small, growing chain of Urban Evolution gyms with his wife, Malikah, decorated the place by inviting local taggers to have at the vast, empty walls. The owners’ two dogs, Suri and Nala, both of whom do parkour, were lying in the entrance when I arrived. It’s a 4,500-square-foot former automobile showroom, all cinderblock and corrugated metal, hot and humid on this warm Saturday afternoon. ![]() ![]() Urban Evolution in Alexandria, Va., which offers the class, is not your ordinary gym. With my best crane-climbing days behind me, I wasn’t sure what I’d get out of the experience, but several readers had recommended it, so I decided to give it a try. Developed in France in the early 1990s, it’s best performed by young, strong people with flexible joints, not someone whose ankles are stiff until his second cup of morning coffee kicks in.īut now there’s a parkour class especially for those of us who remember Sean Connery and Roger Moore, not Daniel Craig, as Agent 007. The leaping, sprinting bandit is played by Sebastian Foucan, one of the co-founders of parkour, whose practitioners acquire the skills to negotiate any environment, at high speed if necessary, by climbing, vaulting, jumping, running and rolling. If you’re my age and you’ve even heard of “parkour,” it’s probably because of that scene in the 2006 remake of “Casino Royale,” when James Bond chases a bounding, bouncing bad guy up a giant construction crane, down an elevator shaft and over all kinds of obstacles on a building site. Digital Replica Edition Home Page Close Menu ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |