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Featured Colorado Traceur July 2007

Name: Andy

Forum Name: Aclimbatize

Location: Boulder, CO

Parkour Since: Winter 2006

Current Shoes: New Balance PK Prototypes

Favorite Hotspot: Currently Park Place/East CU campus, but my tastes change with my skill set.

Other Sporting Interests: Rock climbing, Mountain biking, and snowboarding.

Quote: "You'll never be absolutely sure you can make a jump until you are more than halfway across and looking at its end. It's the same with life and all the challenges of life. Jump with wisdom and daring, and then take a look and see if you are going to make it."

Q: How did you get into parkour?

A: For as long as I can remember, the philosophy of parkour has played a large role in my life. I’ve always been highly focused on self-improvement as well as the more practical side of fitness, as opposed to the more aesthetic side as I see it. For the past several years I’ve been mostly rock climbing along with nights spent on rooftops as well as at parks running around, but until last year I never knew there was an actual discipline or name for what I had just been touching the surface of. That is, until I saw a flyer at The Spot bouldering gym advertising parkour classes. From then on I have been incorporating some sort of parkour into nearly everything I do. And most recently, I have been training for parkour specifically as much as with climbing.

Q: What is your most memorable parkour moment?

A: Right now there are too many to name as I continue to improve both physically and mentally. I feel that lately I have had too many important personal breakthroughs to name just one. But many of them have occurred during some regular jam sessions here in Boulder, and at the weekly parkour classes at The Spot.

Q: What do you like most about parkour?

A: The philosophy of parkour that transforms an ugly urban cityscape into giant playground ope ning up endless opportunities for self-improvement, as well as mental and physical challeng es. But most importantly, even in a world full of seriousness, busy schedules, and overbear ing social norms, it allows us to retain that playful kid that lives deep within us all (ma ybe deeper in some than others). That kid that doesn’t care what other people think, the kid that sees a rock and doesn’t ask if he should climb it, he simply does, that kid that sees th e world in ways I fear too many of us have forgotten we used to see it ourselves.

Q: If you could go anywhere in the world for parkour, where would it be?

A: So far I’m more than happy right here in Boulder, I have yet to even scrape the surface of all the surrounding areas from red rocks to downtown Denver. Though I would love to go to just about any big city in Europe.

Q: What are your future plans and/or dreams for your parkour?

A: Right now I’m content with taking things day by day, but ultimately I would love to be a part of a parkour gym helping to teach parkour to everyone from beginners who are in it to become more healthy to the more advanced, all while learning more about the movement and myself through teaching others.