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Ben: My name is Ben, I'm 20 years old and I've been doing Pakour for quite a while. I'm from Berlin, living here and still stuck here.
Dag: I'm Dag, 24, musician and student and I'm doing Parkour for about a year. And (with typical accent) ick bin ooch Berlina (Red: I'm from Berlin, too).
Jonas: I'm Jonas, I've got 23 years and to my regret unemployed at the moment. I'm doing Parkour as long as Dag, a little bit more than a year.
How long has there been Parkour in Berlin?
Ben: I know people who have been training for four years but they quit recently. There is serious Parkour since we started, that was about three years ago.
How many people do train here regularly?
Dag: I guess that there are about 25 in Berlin, of which 20 are in our community and five to ten which happen to be at the same spots sometimes.
You mentioned your community, does this mean you are fairly organized?
Dag: We are not an incorporated society but we are indeed fairly organized in the "Berlin Parkour Community", BPKC and Team ADD. We organize various projects together, we were in Lisses, additionally we organize the media requests.
How do new influences of Parkour get into Berlin?
Jonas: As we are a big collective of people who meet regularly, it seems to me as if there is not so much coming from the outside. Of course, you watch clips and there are people visting from other cities but, so there is a continuous incoming flow of people, who are not from Berlin. But apart of that there is a lot of inspiration out of the group itself because we are so many.
Is there, in your opinion, an active exchange in between Europe?
Ben: We've been to Lisses for the third time now, we've been able to get connections there. Furthermore we are now travelling more parkour-like now, we don't just go to other cities to see the sights but mainly to meet other people and train together.
Dag: There is definetively an exchange in between Europe but not really to the outside of Europe. It is mostly GB, France, Germany and some of eastern Europe. The exchange between those is very alive.
Ben: There is also Parkour in the USA but there is barely anything crossing the seas. They train for themselves and we do aswell.
Why is there Parkour especially in Berlin?
Ben: Well, we are living here.
Dag: We are satisfied with Berlin?
Laughing voice from the side: Airwaves Big Box!
Dag: Good city for Parkour is an interesting formulation, we have everything here we need and still have stuff we are yet to explore. There's always somebody coming with a new spot where you can retry everything.
Jonas: As Ben said, we just live here. But as there are so many things here we have no reason to go elsewhere.
Ben: Every place has something where you can train Parkour.
What's that in Berlin?
Berlin is very urban. If there is somebody coming from the Schwarzwald (Red: mostly forest region in southern Germany) he will just train in the forest.
A question you likely won't hear for the first time: What does Parkour give your personally?
Dag: Parkour gives me another feeling for my body and another view at my surroundings, also at the city. It changes the perception and the more I train the stronger I feel, mentally, too. You work to overcome fear but not to become slaphappy. I do also feel an ancient drive that leads me to the joy in Parkour, the drive to move. The methods partially look monkey-style and I think that it still lies in our genes to move like that.
Jonas: I think likewise as Dag. I suppose I'm finding the same satisfaction here as somebody who plays music, paints or plays soccer: the feeling that I achieved something, that I am able to fulfill the task I put up to myself and that I am getting better.
What is essential at Parkour?
Dag: The most important difference is the lack of competition. As soon as there is an idea of compete with others, to be better, to be faster, the most important thing about Parkour would fall apart. It should just be about being better than you yourself were before. That's why we don't like to call Parkour a sport. Sports always include competition, we prefer to call it art of movement. There is a lot of philosophy in this, you have to understand it in order to do it. Unlike soccer for example, it's not sufficient to know the rules, you have to develop a certain spirit.
Jonas: I did sail before, a competition. There there is always a winner, there is a rostrum with three winners and the rests gets nothing. This takes the value of the thing itself, because then there are people who give their best and still get nothing. Here we have a squad with friends and you can be happy if the other gets better. You don't think: "Fuck, he's able to jump higher than me".
Dag: I see problems where there is competition. We live in a competetive society and that is why you got it inside you, especially as a male. We do our best it won't become like this but there can be such moments. Another danger is everything related to money, sale, commerce and commercials. There is where money and fame can take the place of the original motivation quickly. Laughter from behind, Dag laughing - don't distract me, all of you said this before the same way.
Sounds like if you are being asked this frequently...
Dag: Yes, but you also talk about things like these among the others.
How do you see the future of Parkour?
Jonas: If it goes on like it did, the presence in the media certainly will grow. There are more and more people who really do want to invest money, until six-digit-values (Red: in Euro). The actual trend seems to me as if the producers would discover Parkour: sport accessoires, chewing gums, they see something new, they don't know what it is and they just start pumping money in there. I hope that it remains as it was and that there ist nobody starting a competition out of it.
Dag: Parkour will split even furter. There have been splitting ups already because of different ideas, Free Running was invented, not long ago there were tries to introduce Parkouring, to hold a world cup, in other words to perform parkour as a competition in a circuit. At all, I hope that the changes will have no deep impact on our community.
Will Parkour develop technically?
Jonas: I think so, for example Ben hasn't been training very long but it is always about: What new methods are there? How can I use them? How do they fit into my philosophy? There is always some development but we will see which new technics will stay. Surely somewhere there is a physical barrier. What I do think is that the new ones are able to reach the level of the experienced much faster than is was possible before.
Dag: As long as it continues without auxiliar aids and doping there will be barriers. The competiton in athletics for the last fifty years have been about millimeters and hundreths of seconds.
Thank your for your time!
Dag: It was a pleasure, we thank you, too ...
Jonas: ... for your interest.
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