by Marcella Ortega
Daily Lobo
Members of Urban Exiles don't walk around buildings.
"We go over and through," Tad Turpen said.
Turpen and UNM student John Whitmore are active members of Urban Exiles, a local parkour group. Parkour is a French street sport that involves leaping from building to building, balancing on railings and scaling walls.
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"We basically walk around, see a wall, do some tricks and keep walking," Turpen said.
The group has been around for three years and practices three times a week on campus.
"I read about it in a magazine," Turpen said. "Then we started jumping around at school."
Whitmore said Urban Exiles has five active members and 15 inactive members.
"There are a lot of them who are in it," Whitmore said. "They just don't come as often."
UNM student Matt McKinley is a member of another local parkour group called Neo Kinesis. Neo Kinesis has been around for two years. McKinley said parkour was founded by French acrobat David Belle in 1975.
"The way he started the sport is he decided to make up situations with crazy obstacles," McKinley said.
Belle stars in the movie "District B13," which was released on DVD Tuesday. The film takes place in Paris in the year 2010. Belle plays the role of Leito, who is on a mission to save his sister and must use parkour skills on his adventure through District B13.
"In B13, he doesn't do any flips, because he's jumping and squeezing through tight spots," McKinley said.
Whitmore said parkour movements are set up in sequences.
"The point is to do multiple things at once," he said.
Because he was a distance runner in high school, Turpen enjoys the sequence of movements involved in the sport, he said.
"It's a medley of madness," he said.
Turpen said parkour movements are set up in obstacle courses.
He also said the sport requires a lot of stamina.
"We encourage each other," he said. "For the most part, it's pushing your own comfort zone."
Turpen said another element of the sport is balance.
"It's gaining control of your body," he said.
Whitmore said parkour is not damaging to property and can be done indoors as well.
"Sometimes we'll train in a gym - mostly just for practice," he said.
The sport does not require special equipment - just running shoes and buildings, Whitmore said. Whitmore said Adidas recently came out with a pair of shoes for parkour that is not available in the U.S.
"It's more popular in Europe than over here," he said.
Whitmore said only one member is on the injury list from practicing parkour. He said it is important to land correctly when performing jumps.
"When landing, they roll to decrease the level of impact," Whitmore said.
Turpen said parkour is more than just a sport.
"It's the art of movement," Turpen said. "It's all about being fluid."
