Our world – their playground, parkour junkies explore Sandton

“You just see stairs or railings but I see obstacles.”

So said Bjorn de Klerk of the Concrete Foundation Crew, who is an expert at parkour.

If one were to visit George Lea Park in Sandton, or Jozi X in Bryanston on any particular day, you would find people jumping, flipping, crawling and doing tricks on all sorts of terrain.

They are doing parkour, and to them, it is more than a sport, it is a lifestyle.

“Parkour is using your body to overcome obstacles and express yourself. It is getting from point A to point B while doing tricks,” said De Klerk.

Paul Gray, who has done parkour for 11 years, agreed with De Klerk that parkour changes how one sees the world. “It is a bit like dancing in your own environment,” he said.

“And you create a relationship with the environment. There are no rules, you can do what you want to. It is simple; anyone can do it.”

They said parkour is good for your physical, mental and spiritual well-being, and teaches you how to fall in a way where you don’t get injured.

“If I master a jump 100 times, and then go out onto the buildings the height is much bigger but it is the same jump. It’s only the mental challenge that is different, and we overcome it,” said De Klerk.

He added the crew sometimes goes into the concrete jungle of Sandton and does parkour on and around the buildings.

Welcome Mtshali said he was doing parkour on his own before he even knew what it was. When he joined the crew seven years ago, he started to perfect his moves. Now he does jumps and flips that would seem impossible to the average person.

But for these guys, the ability to do parkour is founded on understanding their body and how it moves. Parkour is dangerous for anyone who does not understand this, they said. Otherwise, it is much safer than it looks.

Details: Concrete Foundation Crew info@concretefoundation.co.za; 076 103 6725.

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