From the SIT Health & Wellness Expo to the Invercargill Eco Show

A member of the public giving parkour a go at Parkour Southland's stall.

Two Expo's in the space of a month are keeping us on our toes so to speak. We seemed to attract the lions-share of crowd participation at the recent Health & Wellness Expo at SIT. The organisers were very pleased.
In about a week (20th October) we will be doing it all again at the Invercargill Eco Show (www.facebook.com/InvercargillEcoShow). David, our president, has been industriously renovating our vaulting boxes (pictured above) complete with a paint-job featuring our logo. Good man David, we'll see you there!

No boat? No problem!

The recent quakes in shaky Wellington are a grim reminder as to why Georges Herbert designed his 'Method Naturalle' in order to guide people to 'be strong in order to be useful' Read about the volcanic eruption that began it all

Adam jumped at the chance to do some Wilderness Training at today's gathering; just not far enough to avoid the mud. 

Old school

Parkour in Invercargill half a decade ago.

Interesting to reflect that, of the 100+ people that have come and gone over the past 5 years in the Southland parkour scene, only 3 remain active (or semi-active). A 3% retention rate is hardly cause for celebration. Perhaps leadership in the region is turning people off the movement? Are there similarities in other sport? 

Do YOU have ideas for a fresh approach? 

The rise of Pro-Motion (Dunedin)

An outdoor training session with Pro-Motion Family. Photos are taken by Hussain A AlAli (Saheb.NZ) and Danielle Veenvliet — at St Clair School.

Dunedin based free-running group 'Pro-Motion' have been going from strength to strength of late, both in terms of movement capabilities pf members within the group and in the energy of it's community. 

Pro-Motion stalwart Alex Pearson runs parkour classes though the Otago University Students Association and plans to bring his crew to Southland in little over a week when the Erin Simpson show will be filming a segment on parkour.

The only question that remains is will they be putting in a bid to host the New Zealand Parkour Association's National Gathering in 2014?

From Southland but not trained in parkour... wow

Not sure who made this great image

New classes in Southland

Hopeful NZPA instructors climb for their breakfast.

(And you wondered how New Zealand Parkour Association instructors got so, well, beastly).

In New Zealand the instructor requirements are so rigorous that there are 24 or fewer nation-wide. Up until recently Southland was home to three of them (or 1/8th of the total number). 

Which makes us Southland folk very lucky -why not pop on down to Fernworth Primary school on a Tuesday night at 7 and partake in our parkour classes with instructor David Tressler.

Classes beginning again soon

Great news! Not long now until classes begin again. As soon as we have posted details on our website we will let you know here. If you are having trouble deciding to commit we'll leave you with a few words by the scholar Socrates:


"No citizen has a right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training...what a disgrace it is for a man to grow old without ever seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable"

- Socrates (469 - 399 BC)

Coastal Camp 2013 -do not miss this!

Are you wilder than the South Coast of New Zealand? Then Parkour Southland warmly welcomes you to our second, annual Coastal Camp. 

The fun kicks of on Friday the 22nd of March at the iconic Colac Bay (search for it on Google Maps), 50km West of Invercargill. 

Activities are based around the key elements of Methode Naturelle;  running, swimming, climbing, crawling, jumping etc. on the picturesque shores of the strait between the South & Stewart Islands. 

Watch this short vid of good times at last years Coastal Camp: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5RP97HOVzM

To register your interest, or for more info contact us at info@parkoursouthland.co.nz

See you there.

Badge of honour

Kayne bringing life to an Invercargill alleyway.

Our Head of Human Resources, Kayne takes his membership at Parkour Southland seriously. How can you tell? note his most recent tattoo; our logo on his shoulder (top left). Look out for him at the upcoming SIT 'O-week' celebrations (and we'll let you know when you can catch him on TV later this year).

Thousands march in support of Parkour Southland

No not really. But this obliging woman carried our banner proudly in yesterday's March for Youth down Esk street. Parkour Southland preformed a parkour display afterward as the speeches concluded. We restrained our urges to scale shop-fronts during the march but let loose once we got back to Number10. Below is Ranan, 'busting a move', so to speak.

Hawthorndale School

A previously abandoned Hawthorndale School now run by the Seventh Day Adventist Church

Yesterday the Seventh Day Adventist Church's Southland Board met and, with any luck, they considered our letter asking to share the ex. Hawthornedale School site. We recently met two Pastors mowing a VERY large lawn (with very normal size lawnmowers) who encouraged us to write the letter. Unable to pay rent of any manner we offered our labour instead. *Fingers crossed*

Tumblr -why we tumble

Top left: our gender/age stats from our facebook page (most frequent users 18-24)

Bottom left: recent report showing tumblr with a 61% share of that demographic vs. facebook's 55%

Visit our tumblr account

We can grow beards, if we want to.

Our latest vid:

Wilderness Training, summer 2013 Invercargill, New Zealand.

We only had 4 hours to get all the footage which meant that we couldn't get out of Invercargill -so our next wilderness video will be all about showcasing the scenic South-Coast.