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Urban Freeflow (often abbreviated to UF) is a UK-based parkour and freerunning related company that was founded in 2003.
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After the original founder lost interest, four German parkour athletes took over the brand-name and the official URL.
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Urban Freeflow (often abbreviated to UF) is a UK-based parkour and freerunning related company that was founded in 2003.
After the original founder lost interest, four German parkour athletes took over the brand-name and the official URL.
Established in 2003, Urban Freeflow was founded by Paul Corkery (known as Ez), a former boxer who saw an opportunity to connect the international parkour community through an online forum. As the first mover, the company managed to be profitable as the momentum of parkour and its popularity grew.
The corporate structure of the group was compromised in 2005 when Companies House dissolved the trading company for failing to meet their statutory filing obligations. At this time, Ez and former partner Mark Toorock (M2) split and Ez formed a new company, Urban Free Flow. [1] The company sold branded clothes, many of which feature the Urban Freeflow trademarked Glyph logo.
Urban Freeflow was criticised for organizing freerunning competitions sponsored by Barclaycard. The critics believed that freerunning, like parkour, should be a non-competitive activity. There are also complaints of the corporate nature of the event, many freerunning sites saying that the introduction of merchandising and sponsorships would compromise the true nature of the sport. To this one of the founders of Urban Freeflow, Ez has replied "The people who are saying this are the ones who don't have any sponsorship." [2]
Parkour is an athletic training discipline or sport in which practitioners attempt to get from point A to point B in the fastest and most efficient way possible possible, without assisting equipment and often while performing artistic-gymnastic maneuvers. With roots in military obstacle course training and martial arts, parkour includes running, climbing, swinging, vaulting, jumping, plyometrics, rolling, and quadrupedal movement—whatever is suitable for a given situation. Parkour is an activity that can be practiced alone or with others, and is usually carried out in urban spaces, though it can be done anywhere. It involves seeing one's environment in a new way, and envisioning the potential for navigating it by movement around, across, through, over and under its features.
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The Australian Parkour Association (APA) is an incorporated association concerned with the promotion and teaching of parkour throughout Australia. At present, the APA has over 100 active members, while many times that number have attended or regularly attend APA-run parkour classes.
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Jump City: Seattle was an American television series that formerly aired on G4 in 2011. It featured four of the top freerunning and parkour teams in the United States participating in a parkour competition. Each week, the athletes competed in different parkour challenges spread out across the streets of Seattle. The series ran for eight episodes and was not renewed for a second season. Team Tempest, led by Levi Meeuwenberg and Brian Orosco of American Ninja Warrior fame, won the competition.
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Daniel Marcus Ilabaca is a freerunner and traceur from Moreton, Merseyside, England. He along with Ryan Doyle, is the founder of the World Freerunning and Parkour Federation.
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