Women's Workshop in Houston Texas, USA: Sat, Oct 16, 10am – 2pm

Date: 16 October
Time :  10:00 - 14:00
Location Tranquility Park, 400 Rusk St., Houston, TX
Facebook event page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=136042956441771
Email: anneopalko@hotmail.com


Mandy and Anne are hosting a beginner's workshop for women and girls on October 16 with other Houston area practitioners. It will be taught by traceuses (female practitioners of parkour) from all over Texas and beyond. 


This event is FREE. All ages and skill levels are welcome. Seriously :). At the recent co-ed beginner's workshop in Austin, one of our youngest participants was 8, our oldest was mid-50s, and they were BOTH female. Then there was everyone in between, from the very fit, to the curious couch potato. 


If you are under 12, a parent or legal guardian must accompany you, and if you are under 18, your parent or legal guardian must sign the following waiver: (waiver forthcoming)


If you've wanted to try parkour, but have felt apprehensive for whatever reason, this is your chance! You'll get to experience it with other women who are patient, enthusiastic, and encouraging. If you've thought to yourself, "Nah, that's not for me," come let us prove you wrong!


Stick around after the workshop for a Co-ed Jam with some of the best traceuses AND traceurs around Texas!


We will also be accepting sneaker donations for Nike's Reuse-A-Shoe program the day of the event. The program takes old sneakers, grinds them up, and they become part of an athletic surface, such as a court, track, field or playground.


If you decide to bring shoes, there are a few guidelines:


# Athletic shoes (running shoes, sneakers, etc.)
# You can recycle any brand of shoes
# No shoes containing metal
# No cleats or dress shoes
# No wet or damp shoes
# No sandals or flip-flops

Indonesia National Jam Event Review: Military transport, mountains, Mbois (??)

Transported from in military convoys, climbing mountains and what does "mbois" mean? Is training with Parkour Generations ever the same if you don't have to train in the rain and be covered in mud? Puji and Rifna are two female practitioners among over 150 others who came from all over Indonesia to meet in Bandung for the National Jam 2010. Read their words here! http://www.girlparkour.com/page4.htm

Japanese BGirls of Body Carnival

Something different, I'm loving their style and passion, but most of all their advice certainly rings true :) Have a look and listen plus below is a transcript of some of the captions (2:06 onwards). Enjoy!

When asked about the number of b-girls performing at a high level in Japan:

"Something I've noticed from traveling overseas to events is that Japanese judging tends to be more clear and consistent. A b-girl might do good power, or a nice freeze and get a good reaction from the crowd, but the judge still looks at the b-girl as an equal to who she's competing and makes the decision based solely on performance. If she's only good as a girl she won't win against b-boys in Japan. Japanese b-girls can't just be good for a girl, they have to be good enough to legitimately beat the b-boys in order to win events. So I think that's what drives the b-girls to a higher level in Japan."

Advice to the b-girls around the world:

"Don't be satisfied with just getting props for doing some move like a freeze or armchair as a girl, Don't think of it as a boy or a girl, instead try to think "As a dancer, what level am I at?" I think that training with that in mind will be better for your overall development"

Why the GirlParkour Shop

Girlparkour.com started from a very simple idea to create an online community for women, to share resources, ideas and information. The aim is to have an independent and open resource for women and we've been very fortunate to have the support of amazing individuals and groups from all over the world who contribute photos and articles. Everything on the site is kept lean to keep operating costs low. That is, until last year when the need for additional web space meant that suddenly, the annual subscription wasn't so low anymore.


So GPK had its first fund-raising tshirt in London, UK and American Parkour handled the US and worldwide shipping (thank you!) and we succeeded in making the desired sum for another year. So it was all fine, except that the whole exercise was a big pain to carry out in addition to running the website and next year's subscription date was only 364 days away.


So GPK took a survey and asked, do you want parkour stuff. A majority said yes, some said no. We agree with those who said No. GPK was not started to sell cliched slogans on pink hoodies to women. So we did things a little differently, we thought about what we'd like to wear, found a supplier with a large and affordable range of womens and mens stuff sourced and produced ethically and handles shipping for reasonable rates. And yes, there are pink hoodies.


Fundamentally, GPK is just about women and parkour. GPK is not a t-shirt shop, but still needs to make money to pay for the most basic of things so that there is a place for the articles and photos that inspire us and to let other women know that they aren't alone.


You don't need a "PARKOUR!" shirt to do parkour because if you practise long and hard enough it doesn't matter what your shirt, trousers or shoes say. But if your threads are getting worn out and you need a replacement, please have a look in the GPK shop.


Maybe you're looking for something with a bit of flair and sometimes the weather gets cold and you need something warm. So go to our shop, tell your friends, family and please buy a tshirt (or two). 


Peace

Why the Shop? - Forum post here

Uppsala Girls Gathering 2010 Event Review

Road trip!! Hayley from New Zealand has written an Event Review with her distinct Kiwi sense of humor about the weekend when 42 female participants and 3 instructors converged onto the town of Uppsala Sweden. Training, techniques and wet weather bonding - read about it in the Event Reviews page ... Nu! ("Now" in swedish)
http://www.girlparkour.com/page4.htm 

Uppsala Parkour Girl's Gathering a success!!

The girls on the second day, 19/9-10.

I'm glad to tell you that this weekend, Uppsala Parkour Girl's Gathering in Sweden really went as planned! And I'm also glad to announce that it probably was one of the biggest girl's gathering in the world ever! On Saturday we were 42 girls (including the instructors Annty och Naomi from Parkour Generations), and on Sunday 29 girls, and about 100 participants in total (also including Dan from Parkour Generations).

A big shout out to all the participants and the ones involved in the organization that made this weekend possible! It's a dream come true!

Keep yourself updated on Event reviews, there'll definitely be one!

//Therese Gunnarsson,
Uppsala Parkour,
Sweden

Australian Parkour National Gathering 2010, Melbourne, Oct 1st, 2nd & 3rd

AUSTRALIAN PARKOUR NATIONAL GATHERING 2010

Date: October 1st, 2nd, 3rd

Location: Melbourne

Official blog: http://www.national.parkour.asn.au/

Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=141310065888438&ref=ts

Here's the brand new Mission Statement for this year's National Meet!

“National Meet is a yearly event which aims to bring together the Australian Parkour community in a host city, chosen by the community. Participants will experience an educational and social event, training with leaders from around the country and spending time networking with Traceurs from other regions. National Meet also aims to promote Parkour positively to the wider community to ensure National Meets benefit everyone involved.”

You can find more information about accommodation in Melbourne on the official blog.

You wanted it, so the Shop is now open: Women, Men, Kids and Babies! www.girlparkour.com/page38.htm

So the story behind this store is that there isn't a great deal of "parkour" themed clothing out there for women. Not only are we shaped differently, we'd like to have something designed for women in mind.

Read more.. 

or go straight to the US Store  www.girlparkour.spreadshirt.com 

or the Europe Store www.girlparkour.spreadshirt.net

   More pics here..

Video page update: Polish Traceuses Project 2010 and Parisian traceuses

The Polish Traceuse Project 2010 Video is out! Here's a very beautiful foreword from Neta:

"I see something else in this movie: beauty. The techniques are not perfect, there are problems with strength, the flow… But I see passion, commitment to what they do and this is beautiful. It is great feeling when you jump and you can feel the touch of your ponytail on cheek. ^^
In this movie internal strenght and stubborness are visible as well as femininity. This is my point of view but I hope that you can see it too. ;]"

You can read the full text at the Polish traceuse blog here

Also, beautiful sunny days and lots of fun in Paris! Head over to the video page

http://www.girlparkour.com/page8.htm

August 2008 to September 2010, GPK is 2 years young and going strong :)

This month is actually the 25th photo in the monthly gallery, which means that girlparkour.com has been going for more than 2 years. The first gallery in August 2008 had 13 photos and this month we have almost 4 times that, 51 photos from France, USA, Canada, Sweden, Mexico, Greece, Germany, UK.. and this gallery is actually half of what went on in the month of August because they couldn't all fit in one gallery! Don't fret, pet, the rest of the summer pics will be in next month's gallery so you'll see them soon. But yes, we have that many amazing women out there so ladies, give yourselves some applause! You can view links to all the galleries here: http://www.girlparkour.com/page7.htm

Since 2008 we've managed to get loads of Event Reviews, Articles, Traceuse Profiles, Travelling Traceuses, plus the Forum. Of course all this would not be possible without the women, men and communities out there who make us stronger and grow with us, so..

BIG THANK YOU AND LOVE to all of you who have helped us grow in the past 24 months.

Have a good September :)