Great Blue Heron Parkour

My prodigal haystack precision jumper

Fresh outta my American Parkour Instructor Certification Program in D.C., I traveled to Western N.Y. for the Great Blue Heron Music Festival. It's a very nostalgic event for me.  A weekend that in my high school years I would create zines to pass out to revelers in the woods.  A weekend spent with close friends and family and good music and kind people.

This last summer I was lucky enough to convince the festival to let me instruct a parkour workshop.  It let me give back to this festival that has given so much to me.  Although they didn't feel comfortable putting it on the official schedule, I was still allowed to make an announcement from two different stages in order to get the word out.  The announcement I wrote was something about moving like a monkey and playing like a kid.

I am very grateful for the opportunity given to me to teach this class.  And I understand the misconceptions people have of parkour from watching random Russian or extreme parkour videos on Youtube.  But it is my belief that parkour is not necessarily dangerous.  Parkour is fun.  Parkour is life expressed through natural movement.  As Mark from APK told me, "It is my belief that parkour is going to change the world." 

HIPK representing in Amish Country

I was a bit nervous - seeing as how this was my first professional parkour gig (free ticket! big mahalo event owner!).  I was also worried about obstacles.  Not all, but much of parkour is about overcoming obstacles.  Luckily, there were haystacks and a big wooden vault boxes, I mean stages, that provided what we needed.  Even luckier, people showed up!  I was completely stoked to have my wife and son, two cousins, family friends, and yes even a bunch of strangers show up to learn some parkour.


I was flexible in the lesson and decided to drop some activities due to the heat, and allow waiting for turns, also in account of the near unbearable heat.  The class was a blast.  I got the greatest feedback from the participants and was so glad to share my love of parkour with others.

And to top it all off, I QM'ed around the crazy ass bonfire late that night to the rhythm of the drum circle.