He is later spotted in the Richmond district climbing over a fence out of narrow alleyway. He runs through a woodsy park with tall, green trees and backflips onto the sand of a nearby playground.

Senior Max Sidorov loves the thrill of jumping off rails and climbing to high places. In addition to mountain biking, playing varsity tennis, and performing acrobatics, he loves the sport of parkour or l’art du déplacement. In English l’art du déplacement literally means the art of displacement. According to Parkour.net (www.parkour.net), the art of parkour is to travel from point A to point B as directly as possible using all the abilities of the human body. Frenchman David Belle founded the sport of parkour, inspired by his father Raymond Belle, who was a skilled rescuer in the Vietnam War, where French soldier originally developed some of the moves.

Parkour is “a freedom of movement while running through obstacles,” Sidorov said.

Claudia Goetzelmann No Caption

He first tried parkour eight months ago after a friend showed him a video of a Russian parkour team that “ran through everything.” “I was instantly hooked on the ideology of this sport,” Sidorov said. ”It just seemed as the most simple way to get around.”

According to Sidorov, one of the first moves he learned is called a “King Kong,” also referred to as the "kong" or "monkey.” This moves involves planting your hands far apart on a solid object as you run and then jumping by bringing your knees to your chest, thus allowing you to clear the obstacle.

Climbing walls and jumping over large distances is not exactly what people call safe. But that doesn’t phase Sidorov. “After awhile it becomes your sixth sense,” he said. “It comes naturally.” The most dangerous stunt he’s ever done was a backflip from 12 feet in the air – although he considers all parkour stunts potentially dangerous. He’s even jumped off buildings.

He agrees. “The number-one piece of advice for beginners is to learn the proper safety of parkour before attempting to do any move,” he said. “This is key to being good.”

One important safety precaution is to learn the parkour roll, which is key to not getting hurt on drops above one’s height, according to Sidorov. Although some jumps could feel "comfortable" without a roll, they are extremely harmful to the joints if they are above a certain height; rolls help suppress the amount of trauma joints experience. Rolls also transfer downward momentum into forward momentum so the traceur ¬(a person who practices parkour) can keep moving forward.

Sidorov also recommends observing new moves before actually attempting them. Moves beyond someone’s skill level may often seem scary because the traceur is not physically and mentally prepared to perform the move. A traceur needs to perform mental training as well as physical, according to Sidorov.

Working out is a very important aspect of parkour. A good traceur is able to hold his own body weight on both hands for prolonged amounts of time. It is very important to be "light" when practicing parkour. This is achieved by numerous pull-ups, push-ups and handstand workouts. “My workouts include all of these exercises and more, such as cat walking backward up a staircase to help strengthen the arms,” he said. “Workouts are hourly of the training sessions I have throughout the week.” According to Sidorov, parkour practicioners must also understand the meaning of it. “It’s not just jumping over things,” Sidorov said. “There is a whole philosophy involved. It is not exactly a sport, it’s a way to live. One cannot just perform parkour without understanding it.” Parkour is about passing all obstacles. It has no regulatory federation, no official clubs, no competitions. “I’m just doing it for myself,” he said.

Despite this lack of formal organization, parkour is increasingly becoming popular in Europe and in the United States. A French action movie that was widely distributed last year, B13, showcased parkour moves throughout the movie. In the most recent James Bond movie, Casino Royale, the first chase scene of the movie features an extended parkour sequence. “In my opinion it probably will become an "extreme" sport such as skateboarding and BMX biking,” Sidorov said. “This is due to the commercial profitability parkour holds.” Many shoe commercials are now using traceurs’ flashy tricks and moves to represent their shoes, for example.

A purist at heart, however, Sidorov feels that the commercial appeal of parkour undermines the sport. “I really don’t like the idea of people becoming traceurs just for fame because this is not the true essence of an athlete,” he said. “An athlete will perform his sport due to love of doing the sport, not the love of money.”

Sidorov is part of an online parkour forum, (www.sfparkour.com), which brings parkour fans together to learn from each other. They meet on weekends at “jams” where more experienced traceurs teach techniques and traceurs spend the day practicing what they know and learning from each other. Jams meet at places like the playground near the Richmond library, George Washington High School and the University of San Francisco campus. At the last jam Sidorov practiced back flipping on a playground, where the sand made the move easier to do.

At George Washington High School, a nightwatch guard once caught him and his friends. “I just explained to them what we were doing, and he left us alone,” he said.

Sidorov enjoys conquering obstacles such as “mailboxes, trashcans, picnic tables and rails, basically anything that can be vaulted on, off or over,” he said. “When I go out on runs by myself, they can last almost an hour and cover several miles, which are very tiring.”

Parkour-worthy areas include urban spots with rails, stairs and places to climb. Sidorov often practices at night in his neighborhood when he is procrastinating his schoolwork. His neighbors have never complained.

Sidorov hopes to continue practicing parkour¬ – but just as a hobby. Next year, at UC–Davis, he looks forward to riding his bike on trails and parkouring on the side.

Other Lowell students are starting to catch onto the European parkour craze. Senior Douglas Albert became interested in parkour when he was a child. As a rambunctious kid, jumping off of high places, he first saw parkour being done by a group of traceurs at a skate park. After finding out what they were doing, he began watching parkour videos and started practicing solo stunts.Experienced in gymnastics, martial arts and tumbling, Albert was already “acquainted with the basics,” he said. He practices in unpopulated parks on beams and park structures.

Albert considers parkour as just a hobby. “Pole vaulting on track is my number one priority so I want to be careful not to get hurt,” he said. Albert practices “original parkour,” which is simply taking the shortest route between two points, rather than the free-running style, which includes more jumps and flips. The acrobatic videos most people see on the Web mainly highlight free-running parkour. “There’s more to it than just flipping around,” Albert said. “I like how parkour is the efficiency of movement, getting from point A to point B without letting anything get in your way. It’s not all about amazing tricks.”