Parkour, or free-running, has been booming for a while now, so we thought we’d give you a taste of the action first hand. We’ve been digging around for one of these mysterious urban athletes and managed to get an interview with Cali, from Urban Free Flow in London.

Cali first became involved in Parkour after watching a movie called Yamakasi, in France 12 years ago. After an unsuccessful search for the people who featured in the film, Cali headed to London and started job hunting. “In between job searches I watched a youtube video from Urban Free Flow then I found another and another. They were giving classes so I signed up. A year and a half later I’m giving the lessons!”

Cali bashfully admits that his background as an instructor in Tae Kwon Do and his interest in urban dance and hip-hop gave him an edge when he started. “Maybe the martial arts gave me the efficiency and discipline, and the dance gave me the creativity and flow.” Judging by Cali’s videos, these two disciplines have melded into a pretty exquisite combination in parkour. “Since I started learning, I haven’t wanted to do anything else – it’s addictive” Cali comments, adding with a gleeful twinkle in his voice, “I can jump 6 feet in the air. I could run up to you and jump over your head…”

When asked about the strength needed to throw yourself confidently around the cityscape, Cali deferentially explains that you learn to start small and work your way up to bigger things. The basics include walking along a rail and learning to land safely, then learning how to jump. He keeps mentioning efficiency and control as two key building blocks of the sport, failing to mention the ounce of determination and the dash of crazy I suspect are also critical. If you don’t believe me, check out his video:

Apparently London is one of the best places in the world for free-running and Cali tells me the estates around Kilburn near where he lives are a favourite haunt when he’s alone. If he’s with his team, they head south to the Imax in Waterloo – “maybe the best place in the world for the sport”, he says. “When you are a normal human being you hear ‘Imax’ and you think ‘movies’. If you’re a free-runner (or ‘tracer’), you hear ‘Imax’ and you think of parkour. You’d leave the cinema!”

After my conversation with Cali, and a look at his videos on youtube, I can’t help but feel pretty curious to give this thing a go, so watch this space. In the mean time, if you’re curious yourself, you can email Cali and book a one-to-one lesson, or join one of his group sessions. He is a full time parkour instructor, genuinely talented and remarkably humble considering his mysterious power to weaken the forces of gravity to which you and I are daily subject.

Photograph features Cali grinding away at his day job.

Tags: athletics, free running, gymnastics, parkour, sports, tracing, urban