What exactly is Parkour Earth doing?
We get asked a lot, "What exactly is Parkour Earth doing" and honestly, it's kind of complex. So we asked Deputy CEO John Hedge to walk us through it:
"One of the issues within global parkour is that those who have been around for 10, 15, 20+ years have experienced many bad faith actors come along with their latest shiny business, community or project and promise that it is the vehicle that will deliver parkour practitioners everything they've ever wanted. Because of this, veteran parkour practitioners are rightly sceptical of large institutions asking for them to be members."
"So the first thing Parkour Earth promised to be was genuinely by the community. It's Board are made up of people with deep links to the parkour community. Most of them are still active practitioners. All of the Executive are parkour people. And then our Ambassador team seeks to reflect the breadth and depth of parkour. If you don't see yourself reflected in our Ambassador team, then we need you to reach out and tell us!"
"Then we needed some solid actions. Things that we're doing that help make parkour better. Our major two projects right now are the Supporters Initiative: A system of supporting creators and artists in the community and the Parkour Earth Badge. Which helps people agree to some basic principles that we think all parkour people will want to share."
"Part of our job is to be a platform for international discussions about what parkour is. Not like the old forum days where we argue about whether or not flips are parkour, but instead we look to resolve some of the big, intractable problems:
"How do you support a community that openly divided on competition? Making those who value a non-competitive practice feel like their preference is respected without interfering with those interested in competing?"
"How much are you willing to pay for merchandise? Do you actually know who made that brand t-shirt you are wearing? Did they get paid a liveable wage? Can we stand firm against global consumerism and feel pride in what we wear?"
"Can we diversify the story of parkour? It's not just getting more women into parkour, it's about valuing women and their contribution to our sport. It's about wanting to hear the stories of different parts of the world, loving when it’s different and when it’s the same. It’s about communicating in local languages and then translating things so that everyone can enjoy it.”
“There are no easy answers, instead there are long and difficult conversations. Parkour Earth aims to be the platform that drives these questions, but also responds to what the community needs. Whenever there is need for coordination, discussion, debate and resolution, Parkour Earth needs to be there, a home for parkour, built by the people who built parkour.”