White Air Extreme Sports Festival 2008

Another year on the Isle of Wight running the Parkour "Have-a-go" workshops at the White Air Extreme Sports Festival has come to an end, but the beginning of a new era has just begun...

White Air 2008 Promo Video

For 4 years now I've been involved in the parkour workshops around Sept/Oct on the Isle and have enjoyed it very much. Young and old, guys and girls, parents, kids, RAF Falcon skydivers, St John's medical staff, mountain boarders, and the list goes on... all have tried their hands (and feet) at parkour on our pupose built obstacle courses. Each year we attract many "repeat offenders" who just can't get enough of the atmosphere and end up sticking around for the whole weekend to help out, plus not to mention the large amount of local traceurs and free runners on the isle of wight who turn up.

Each year I've grouped together new people who are keen to help set up and run the workshops and with a result we've ended up with some fun times, new friendships and random memories. (Click the image below to see some of the pictures this year)

From Isle of Wight 2008

This year was a big event in that it was officially anounced White Air is moving to Brighton from 2009 onwards. For many who came down to join us it will mark the end of an era as the Isle of Wight has always been a great excuse to make a holiday of the event and really get into the festival mood. But I guess we will soon find out what atmosphere Brighton will create once we get there. Who knows, it might even be better. It's definitively going to be bigger!!

The South African Newspaper

An article was recently written up by Liezl Maclean on my involvement with parkour in the UK and South Africa. I have just got to see the online version which I quite like.

Similar versions of the article were also placed in the Australian Times (Front Page) and New Zealand Times (Page 7).

Feel free to read it by clicking on the main image above (UPDATED 22 September 2010 with a new link on the image and HERE..

And the award goes to...

What a great way to end the season!!

From Athletics

At no point was I expecting to receive anything at the St Mary's Richmond Athletic prize giving today as I only managed to grab 2nd spot (or 3rd depending on Neil Jennings' performance at the decathlon this weekend) on the club's overall men's top performance list (Just missing out to Paul Derrien and his string of wins in hammer and discus) plus I missed out on the highest scoring individual performance (Awarded to Mervyn Glover for his excellent 1.92m High Jump), and when my name was called out you can imagine the surprise..

The trophy was for "Most Improved Male Athlete 2008", as it is my first season at the club (and back at athletics after a long break). I also picked up a medal for being part of the team who became the "Rosenheim League Western Division Winners 2008".

It was also an honour to be a part of two other teams who did very well this year, firstly the Southern Men's League (Division 3S) who were undefeated and have now been promoted to Division 2, and secondly to the small 8-man team who triumphed at the Ealing Borough Trophies competition and won the Men's Faringdon Trophy against all odds (certainly one of the most memorable events I've had to date picking up 4 personal bests in what felt like an intense never-ending cold shower from beginning to end the way the rain came pouring down.)

That puts 2008 to rest and I've not managed to improve on any of my events since I last posted them up here, but here they are for the final time to round off the season and I've included markers for what I want to aim for during next season in brackets:

400m - 59.9s (56s)
High Jump - 1.80m (1.85m)
Long Jump - 6.18m (6.30m)
Triple Jump - 12.11m (12.20m)
Pole Vault - 3.00m (3.50m)
Shot Put - 9.01m (9.20m)
Hammer Throw - 17.94m (20.00m)
Javelin Throw - 49.70m, 163rd in the UK (50.00m)

Let the winter training begin....

You've got to be fit, to be in it!

There is no doubt in my mind when King Gustav V from Sweden told Jim Thorpe: "You sir, are the World's Greatest Athlete" after he won the 1912 Stockholm Olympics Decathlon, that Jim Thorpe had started out his Decathlon journey (plus all the other individual track & field events he took part in those Olympics) in one of the healthiest and fittest forms of his life.

It's with great sadness then that I have decided not to take part in the Decathlon event this weekend, due to an ankle injury I picked up earlier the week.

The injury happened while performing a routine parkour performance in London, and although the ankle was not severely damaged or very serious, thanks to a number of factors including a very good warm-up beforehand, it was enough to cause swelling and light bruising. With these sorts of injuries I've learned that the infamous R.I.C.E. (Rest Ice Compression Elevation) plays an important role in recovery, and I managed to get all this started within minutes of the injury thanks to a handy wine cooler and a bucket of ice nearby.

The on-site nurse completed a quick check up, and I was able to get home to relax without the need for Zimmer frames, wheelchairs or the use of the local paramedic helicopter. :-)

Even though it's been 5 days since the injury and the original swelling has gone down a lot with only a small patch of bruising visible, I still do not feel I should be battering my body through the hard knocks of a 2 day decathlon course. It's very sad, but I'll be sure to reap the long-term benefits from this decision instead.

I have a number of other very interesting events coming up at the end of this month and next, such as running parkour workshops at the White Air Extreme Sports Festival on the Isle of Wight and taking contestants through the official parkour checkpoint for The London Rat Race. From the way the recovery is going so far I should be fighting fit and ready to go by then.

The Decathlon, I'm sad to say, will have to wait......... for now. ;-)

Back at Bushy

It's been a short break from the regular Bushy Park 5km time trials, but I'm back and having fun.

I started out running the time trials back in January of this year, but stopped due to getting involved with Athletics training, and then volunteered at the event a few times. With the athletics season winding down and winter on the doorstep (yeah, like we even had a summer...), I've got back to Saturday morning bliss at Bushy.

Having only run 7 times, I have managed 6 Personal Bests (The one I never got was while I paced my son on his first run)

So starting with a time of 24:41, I've dragged that down to 20:53. Not brilliant, but I'm getting there one step at a time.

My mission statement: I must start SLOWER next time! I start way too fast and then burn out by the 1.3km mark, only to let 80 people pass me between the 2km and 3km mark. Grrr.

Next weekend is the Decathlon.... Let's hope this running helps me a bit with the final 1500m event.