Football, soccer, tennis, golf, just sports in general have major events that people get excited about. A lot of people love these events and go to watch the conflict take place in a controlled environment. But what happens when you replace the conflict with style and replace the controlled environment with freedom, then it becomes art.

   Europe has already experienced this transformation into art. They took what looked like impossibilities into the sometimes dull world around them. They forced the impossible into submission as easy as jump, land, repeat. Using this method to not only overcome their physical fears but their emotional fears as well. Now the time is coming for North America to join the rising, to show the world their own art, more specifically Oregon. June 16, in this year’s Portland Parkour Jam the standards are set high and will require a lot of training. Not to impress others but to impress yourself, to stretch your body to its limits and beyond. What traceurs do best is the impossible, they take imagination to a whole new level and use it to fuel their passion. For this year an estimated 30 traceurs will have a chance to show off their own skills they have been working so diligently on. Whether it be their first lazy vault (simple parkour move) or a huge corkscrew (advanced free running move) they will not be competing for any prizes they will just learn from each other and only progress onto a higher level of training.

   The Ira Keller Fountain is this year’s meeting place but it couldn’t ever hope to sustain the traceurs for long. Not long after the meeting commences the real fun and exotic art forms begin. Moving from place to place, locals showing foreigners the best spots to really expand. Fields become anti-gravity, vertical walls become horizontal, playgrounds become utopias and the world around them is seen from a handstand. Ask them why they do what they do and the answer will be anything but simple. There is so much work put into their progression that it can’t just be, because it’s fun, it’s much more than that. Everyone focuses on the jump to determine the skill but the landing is what shows the most skill.