Up. Down. Flying around. Looping the loops and defying the ground.
Around 35 practitioners of the sport of parkour turned Wanganui central city into their own personal playground at the weekend, climbing, leaping and flipping up and over walls and objects around the local landmarks.
The 'jam' was to celebratethe one-year anniversary of trainer Adriaan Schipper running a parkour training group, and was attended by his students as well as others from Palmerston North and Wellington. The Wellington crew are all members of the New Zealand Parkour Association, who assisted with the costs of their trip.
Starting at Majestic Square on Saturday morning the young men, and woman travelled around several areas, planned to include Terrace House, the steps leading up to War Memorial Hall and the old entrance to Cooks Gardens.
They had a group dinner that evening before heading out to Kowhai Park the next day.
His group is more focused on the sport's 'free running' side, though some members also do the gymnastic-style flips over objects, a different subset of the practice.
Schipper is now running his class in the city at 12.30pm on Saturdays, opening it to students as young as 9. But he says the only barriers are mental the weekend group even included a married couple from Taranaki.
