Gymnastics, but entertaining.

November 28, 2005 8:50 PM

Parkour is nothing new. It has been posted about before. However, what is new is this stunning example of the gymnastics in action. Watch, enjoy.
posted by TwelveTwo (53 comments total)

badass
posted by mathowie at 9:01 PM on November 28, 2005

Parkour?

That video is mind-blowing.
posted by goatdog at 9:02 PM on November 28, 2005

Pretty amazing. Makes me wish I was a little less careful in my youth and in a lot better shape.
posted by Kickstart70 at 9:04 PM on November 28, 2005

The purpose of Russians is to flip out and kill people.
posted by boo_radley at 9:09 PM on November 28, 2005

batshitinsane, but in a good way.
posted by tula at 9:14 PM on November 28, 2005

The french hip hop was an excellent soundtrack. There were some killer moves in there - the sheer red brick wall one was the most unexpected.

I read once that the original 'purist' parkour has no fancy flips or tricks, and aims to traverse a space in as straight a line as possible. That seems like almost a more noble way to play the game - just take off like an arrow and let nothing stop you. Not even a Lada. :)
posted by anthill at 9:16 PM on November 28, 2005

Holy fuck.

Those guys should become criminals.
posted by gsteff at 9:22 PM on November 28, 2005

Or crime fighters! No criminal could escape them!
posted by TwelveTwo at 9:24 PM on November 28, 2005

Man, that reminded me of games like Prince of Persia. Except that I thought that those sorts of moves were just made up. Apparently not.

Wow.
posted by vernondalhart at 9:28 PM on November 28, 2005

man i wish i could do that so bad.
posted by Baby_Balrog at 9:30 PM on November 28, 2005

They are like big spiders.
posted by Mr_Zero at 9:33 PM on November 28, 2005

That's insanely awesome, and not just because all the gymnastics in empty warehouses reminded me of Kevin Bacon in Footloose. It really viscerally brought home to me that humans are animals, and our bodies were made to do more than get us from A to B. Or at least, they can get us from A to B more interestingly than they do now, and sometimes to X, Y, and Z without benefit of P or Q.

Seriously, how long until this is Nike's newest, hippest ad?
posted by booksandlibretti at 9:36 PM on November 28, 2005

Actually I belief Nike has already run an ad revolving around parkour in France.
posted by filchyboy at 9:38 PM on November 28, 2005

Or superheroes.
posted by arcticwoman at 9:41 PM on November 28, 2005

So *that's* what those eastern European gymnasts do after they turn 17 and get dropped from the squad...roid-rage through delapidated housing estates!
posted by UbuRoivas at 9:44 PM on November 28, 2005

Fucking OW my creaky body hurts so goddamn BAD after watching that dang VIDEO. THANKS
posted by scarabic at 9:45 PM on November 28, 2005

I too wish I had found this stuff back when I was young and stupid (and in shape).
posted by nightchrome at 9:48 PM on November 28, 2005

I want to see the blooper reel.
posted by longdaysjourney at 9:56 PM on November 28, 2005

That last link just takes me to an empty Google Video search result for "russian". Anyone else have this problem?
posted by shinynewnick at 6:09 AM on November 29, 2005

Video no longer working.
posted by banished at 6:10 AM on November 29, 2005

the link doesnt seem to work for me; I just get a google video search page saying its returned no results
posted by 13twelve at 6:11 AM on November 29, 2005

Your search - russian did not return any results.
posted by kika at 6:11 AM on November 29, 2005

I think it's a temporary problem with google video. No videos seem to be serving up.
posted by crunchland at 6:23 AM on November 29, 2005

(another parkour themed thread of yore)
posted by shoepal at 6:23 AM on November 29, 2005

ditto:
Your search - russian did not return any results.
:(
posted by hypersloth at 7:45 AM on November 29, 2005

Huh. The video worked for me last night, but it isn't now. That's too bad.
posted by vernondalhart at 8:16 AM on November 29, 2005

Can anyone mirrror it? Please?
posted by maudlin at 8:49 AM on November 29, 2005

yes, interest piqued but no video at the end of the google rainbow

:'(
posted by stumcg at 8:53 AM on November 29, 2005

It's working again.

I can't believe the athleticism of those guys. I'm very jealous.
posted by callmejay at 10:18 AM on November 29, 2005

Just got the video at 1:15 EST.

I was disappointed for the first two minutes. Then, wow. I thought you needed special effects to do stuff like that.
posted by alms at 10:20 AM on November 29, 2005

That first jump onto the pillar is pretty fucking awesome.
posted by kenko at 11:18 AM on November 29, 2005

I'd like to second the "batshitinsane" comment above.
posted by Freen at 11:21 AM on November 29, 2005

...Spiderman? Nightwing?

Seriously, these guys should become crime fighters. That was bad ass.
posted by kosher_jenny at 11:27 AM on November 29, 2005

Jackie Chan who?
posted by vronsky at 12:32 PM on November 29, 2005

Why did he call Kottke at the end?
posted by dhartung at 1:05 PM on November 29, 2005

Strange: russians with french hip-hop.
Unlike other parkour vids this one has a storyline. What happened in the end?
posted by jouke at 1:08 PM on November 29, 2005

holy moly!
posted by jcruelty at 1:31 PM on November 29, 2005

It loaded slowly for me. But holy shit. It may be redundant to repeat what everone else has said, but that shit is bananas. Incredible.
posted by GuyZero at 2:00 PM on November 29, 2005

kinda reminded me of soccer practice
posted by dontoine at 2:47 PM on November 29, 2005

UbuRoivas: So *that's* what those eastern European gymnasts do after they turn 17 and get dropped from the squad...roid-rage through delapidated housing estates!

He meant it as a joke, but I have the same thought about these Parkour videos; you'd have to be an insanely well-trained gymnast to do these stunts, because you simply can't learn some of this stuff in a short while. You'd have to be in peak condition, and trained as a gymnast, to even start training for and attempting these maneuvers. For example, early in this video he's climbed to a roof top, and leaps over what looks to be not a wall, but the pit of an elevator shaft. Um... you can only make a mistake on a lot of these stunts one time. That supreme confidence in your strength, and accuracy, and spatial judgment, is not going to come from practicing in the parking lot like some skaters who forgot their boards one day.

I never tire of these Parkour videos, and it really does reinforce how extraordinary the human body can be. No other animal on earth can do this. Other animals can be immensely faster, stronger, more agile in certain circumstances, but when it comes down to it human beings are probably the greatest physical specimen on earth, due to the asset of their minds. What other animal could imagine ways of climbing walls like that? There's one edit where they are viewed from the side leaping over some manhole cover type object, and the way they jump looks literally like some savannah animal: they come from the right side of the frame, body's elongated and horizontal, and as their hand touches the concrete, their legs come whirling into view to propel them forward. Looks just like some cheetah propelling itself at full speed.
posted by hincandenza at 2:50 PM on November 29, 2005

Oh, and a question: the opening techno music, that also ended the video (with that simple piano riff)... I've heard that before in other things, commercials, etc. What is that?
posted by hincandenza at 2:54 PM on November 29, 2005

It's "Clubbed To Death (Kurayamino Mix)" by Rob D from the Matrix soundtrack.
posted by turbodog at 3:03 PM on November 29, 2005

What other animal could imagine ways of climbing walls like that? There's one edit where they are viewed from the side leaping over some manhole cover type object, and the way they jump looks literally like some savannah animal: they come from the right side of the frame, body's elongated and horizontal, and as their hand touches the concrete, their legs come whirling into view to propel them forward. Looks just like some cheetah propelling itself at full speed.

"No other animals are as agreat as us! Except for the animals which I shall now list."

Humans weren't the first to think up climbing stuff.

Nonetheless, parkour = infinite awesome.
posted by poweredbybeard at 3:53 PM on November 29, 2005

The guys behind this are the Dvinsk Clan (Russian), and apparently style themselves as "gangstas". But you can download the FPP video (wmv) as well as another one that they've done. (The server is SLOW, so be kind.)

(There's also one where three of them jump off a wall nude, but I'll let you find it yourselves, if you're so inclined.)

Here's a list of more excellent parkour videos from Urban Freeflow, the main Parkour message board.
posted by armage at 4:13 PM on November 29, 2005

Those guys should become criminals.

Luc Besson already thought of that. About 15 years ago.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 4:45 PM on November 29, 2005

whoah, sorry, i came across sounding way more like a dick than i'd intended there.
posted by poweredbybeard at 5:14 PM on November 29, 2005

Just add my voice to the chorus proclaiming: "Jeez, wish they'd had this back when I was young, in shape, and fearless/stupid"
posted by papakwanz at 5:56 PM on November 29, 2005

Yeah, you kind of did, poweredbybeard- although you missed my point. My point was, even though humans are generally regarded as weak compared to other animals, from a physical stand point, stuff like this, or marathons, shows that our ability to make our bodies do some amazing things puts us physically above all other animals, even without talking about how we can invent technology to assist us.

My point being, animals that can climb like us can't run like us, or swim like us. We're fantastically diverse... and that one clip, where those guys looked like cheetahs in full gallop, reminded me how much we are animals. We can look like galloping cheetahs in one moment, and clamboring monkeys the next, and leaping gazelles in yet another. I can't think of a single predator that could catch one of these guys through all the different terrains they could cover.
posted by hincandenza at 6:46 PM on November 29, 2005

hm, still trying to figure out how to actually download these files, for offline and on the go-viewing on my handheld...
posted by TrinityB5 at 7:32 PM on November 29, 2005

Last night I watched the news from Washington, the capital.
The Russians escaped while we weren't watching them, like Russians will.

Now we know how they did it.
posted by darkstar at 7:33 PM on November 29, 2005

I can't think of a single predator that could catch one of these guys through all the different terrains they could cover.

Isn't that one dude running from a dog in one part of the video? He loses it right after he dives through a car window, out the other side of the car, and then vaults over some sort of pole/fence.

It looks pretty extemporaneous, which is to the credit of the editor. I wonder what the outtakes were like.
posted by breath at 8:10 PM on November 29, 2005

Here's a silly little Parkour game courtesy of the CBC. Kinda fun, but short.
posted by anthill at 7:50 AM on November 30, 2005

A very sad story about why videos like this should come with the disclaimer: do not try this at home.
posted by alms at 11:45 AM on December 1, 2005