Thrill seekers find new routes for self expression
By: Michael Whitson, Sports Editor
Issue date: 5/1/09 Section: Sports
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Their baggy jeans and t-shirts are not the usual engineer attire, but their actions of inspecting the building's facade draws the attention of passersby, puzzled by the two's behavior.
They walk away from their investigation, and without warning, one of them turns and runs straight towards one of the walls with long gaping strides as if he was on a break-a-way layup.
He leaps into the wall sideways, his body almost parallel with the ground and launches off of that wall hurling his body towards the opposite wall, several feet away.
As he makes impact, he grips the top of the wall and pulls himself up to the steel railing resting on top of it.
Parkour, also referred to as Free Running, is the latest version of extreme sports, derived from the French word for route, course or journey.
It is an athletic activity in which traceurs, those who practice Parkour, attempt to efficiently traverse the landscape of urban areas overcoming obstacles like walls, railings, stairwells and anything else that gets in their way.
Freshmen Darius Alexander and Clay Blackburn have been practicing Parkour for about four months, using the ASU campus as their architectural obstacle course.
"We started out just hopping rails and stuff," Alexander said. "It gradually escalated into jumping over gaps and flipping off of things."
Aside from the fascinated stares and risks involved in their exploits, the two have drawn some unwanted attention from faculty and staff who have witnessed their actions.
Alexander and Blackburn have had a difficult time locating spots they could practice their art without being lectured about liability issues and being asked to depart.
"If we want to do it all day, we will usually run into at least one person that's going to run us off," Blackburn said. "The majority of the time people are interested and they just want to watch."
The two, friends since the seventh grade, realize the risks they are putting their own bodies through, but fail to see what harm they are causing others by doing something they love.
Associate Dean of Student Involvement Rick Greig, disapproved of a recent exhibition and forced the traceurs to leave a spot they had discovered at the UC.
"Any group that is going to do something that has an element of risk involved in it, need to understand that is a problem," Greig said. "Part of the duty of the university is to keep them safe. If somebody was holding a gun to their head and you knew it was loaded and you knew they probably might pull the trigger, wouldn't you do something?"
ASU Police Lieutenant Marc West said there is no written policy that prevents Parkour on campus.
"There is always the concern about liability for obvious reasons," West said. "But there are kids doing stuff on campus all day, every day that presents a liability. I don't see anything wrong with it as long as they are not damaging ASU property or the landscaping. I have seen them doing it and they are not hurting anything."
Alexander and Blackburn enjoy athletic endeavors and continue to look for locations around campus where they can express themselves through Parkour.
They do not necessarily train for Parkour, but they do work out regularly increasing their strength and agility as they escalate the difficulty of their stunts.
"We don't practice things, we just do them," Alexander said. "We look at an obstacle and figure out how we can get past it and keep doing it until we have it mastered."
Neither of the two traceurs have suffered a serious injury since they began the sport, and although some of their stunts appear to be hazardous, they have confidence in their abilities and do not feel as if they are endangering themselves.
"You can't be scared going into any of it. If you double think anything you are gonna get hurt," Blackburn said. "You have to react quickly. You can't have anything on your mind."
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