A SHIRTLESS man floats through the air, some six or seven stories from the ground. Behind him is the roof of a grubby block of flats. At least five metres (16ft) in front of him and a couple down is another building. Tucked like a diver, he leaps above the abyss, rolls into his landing and sprints away. The man is David Belle (pictured), one of the founders of parkour: a form of street acrobatics whose practitioners vault and flip through the concrete jungle in pursuit of ever more daring stunts. This particular jump features in one of the sport’s earliest and most popular clips on YouTube, and has been watched 12m times since it was posted in 2007. In the ensuing decade, parkour has gone from a niche pursuit to one with a dedicated following. Participation data are scarce, but nearly 100,000 British adults practice it, more...Continue reading
Parkour’s street stuntmen resent the sport’s new organisers