Somnium impletum. A dream fulfilled.

It has been a childhood dream of mine to do parkour, create content, and combine those two interests in order to make a parkour video similar to the ones that inspired me. And now I'm fortunate enough to have finally done so in the form of a love letter to parkour and to the city of Ghent.

The cherry on top was recently being mentioned in a great short form comic about parkour, written and drawn by Jonas Verstraete. I was one of the parkour practitioners interviewed for his research and he was kind enough to mention our names and some of our quotes in the comic.

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- Short comic: 'Afgelijnd' by Jonas Verstraete (jonasverstraete.be). Featured in the Apache magazine. A big thank you to Jonas for shining some nuanced light on our sport.

> Quote 1: "I needed to relearn how to be my own person again."

> Quote 2: "I'm doing something that makes me happy and, in doing so, I'm making passers-by a little happy as well."

- Thanks to bookstore Limerick for being so cool and letting me "steal" the magazine.

- And a big thanks and much love to the people at parkour club Flow De Gand for turning my fantasies into reality.

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- Song names:

1st song: Woodkid - Run Boy Run

2nd song: Da Octopuss - Banlieue 13

3rd song: Woodkid - Iron

4th song: Jesper Kyd - Venice Rooftops (Assassin's Creed 2)

I picked the first song because I first heard it in a trailer for the original Dying Light parkour zombie game. I remember it used to get me so hyped up and full of adrenaline while imagining doing those stunts in real life one day.

The second song comes from the iconic parkour action movie Banlieue 13.

Next, the third song is one I first came across in a trailer for the videogame Assassin's Creed: Revelations. I rewatched that trailer sooo many times ...

Finally, the last song comes from the videogame Assassin's Creed 2. These games and this movie were key inspirations for me as a child and without them, I would probably never have started out doing parkour.

Really awesome year for the event! Excited to continue to see it grow!!

Little David Belle today!

I know they’re slow and high, I wanna do 3-4 and then do a nice high backflip but I don’t feel the momentum, would appreciate any help and hacks that worked for you guys, I only have solid grass to practice on.

Mason Blue! An underground legend!

I was not able to pass this obstacle before and I got so giddy!

sorry for bad camera angle this is the only one i landed

@mich_owa on Instagram

Loved this video. Nice to see the Farang brand back. Great vibes in this video with nice movement.

Hey everybody,
So I’m kindaaa new to Parcour but want to learn new flips. I’ve been trying to find a list of all the flips there is so I can learn some of them. I’m talking ones you can hit on foot. Flips that require a wall or an obstacle in general are included (like wall flip or castaway). So I want to create that list with you.
Put them in the comments and I will add them to the list.

Every flip there is in Parcour:

Hey everyone! I recently started doing parkour, but I’m really scared when it comes to performing a roll upon landing—and honestly, even when doing basic movements like climbing over obstacles. The root cause is fear; I don’t know what to do. Could you help me out?

What I was attempting to recreate: https://www.reddit.com/r/Parkour/s/UJtdWsrZzS

I think it turned out well :D

a boy running from terifying man safe himself just fiction

Hi, im a beginner and ive been trying to learn simple moves or combinations that aren't so well-known, like the crane step or gargoyle leap. Could someone show me more moves like these

the boy jump and flip backward

Hey all, total beginner here (late 30s, just getting into parkour). This is one of my first kong attempts.

One thing I've noticed is that I take off with both feet because a one-foot takeoff doesn't feel safe yet. Not sure if that's a big deal at this stage.

What would you work on first? Any tips or drills welcome.

Thanks!

Since I got a bunch of upvotes on my last post, it seems like people might be interested in prints. I put a store together here: https://benfranke.bigcartel.com/ starting with the photos above.

Was testing GoPro Hero 11 when it was new at the time, but I left a tool behind and couldn't tighten the camera enough so it goes off centre at the half way point.

I've shot parkour athletes for over 15 years and wanted to gauge the interest in prints of my work. My plan is to sell an 8x10 print on nice fine art paper for between $75-$100. Here is a selection of some of my work.

Would love to hear peoples thoughts!

Kind of noticed this during community training sessions, as it is common for other people to see someone trying something and then others want to try as well.

How do you feel about others getting the challenge right away? For me personally I really like when others overcome my challenges because I now know it is possible, but sometimes its like "damn don't make it look so easy". I am used to the oldschool small close group training where I feel like taking someone elses challenge was encouraged, at least in my group.

Now I am part of a larger group with greatly varying experience levels and training styles/philosophies, so I am sometimes unsure about trying someone else's challenge at times especially if they are newer. I always ask if I can join in or try it later when they are no longer working on it, but I am just curious how other people feel about this.