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The World Freerunning Parkour Federation (WFPF) is an international federation or organization that was established in 2007. Its focus is to bring together patrons of Parkour and Freerunning and aims to bring the sport and philosophy to the mainstream audience.
The World Freerunning Parkour Federation (WFPF) was founded in January 2007 as a partnership between Ruff Magic Entertainment, a New Jersey limited liability company, and eight Parkour and Freerunning athletes. The athletes, Daniel Ilabaca, Ryan Doyle, Tim Shieff, Oleg Vorslav, Victor Lopez, Gabriel Nunez, Paul Darnell and Richard King, and the company principals, Victor Bevine, David Thompson and production partner Francis Lyons came together with the stated purpose of bringing the sport of Parkour to mainstream American audiences through television and other media and live formats. Other member athletes of the WFPF include Brian Orosco, Miguel Southee Jr., King David, Michael Turner and Daniel Arroyo from the U.S. Pip Andersen, Philip Doyle, Ben Jenkin from the UK, Marcus Gustafsson and Filip Ljungberg of Sweden, and Justin "Jet" Sheaffer from the U.S. [1]
In 2009, the WFPF partnered with MTV to develop and produce MTV’S ULTIMATE PARKOUR CHALLENGE, a one-hour competitive format special starring WFPF member athletes Daniel Ilabaca, Ryan Doyle, Tim Shieff, Pip Andersen, Brian Orosco, King David, Michael Turner and Daniel Arroyo.
On May 6, 2010, the first of 6 episodes (the first 3 were broadcast live) of ULTIMATE PARKOUR CHALLENGE (or UPC) aired on MTV, with US athlete Brian Orosco replaced by the UK’s Ben Jenkin. Each week the competitors were put in a new environment to compete, with the first episode taking place on the historic Queen Mary Hotel, in Long Beach, California. [2] Other environments included Venice Beach, a Hollywood Western Town, a castle in the Hollywood Hills, a shopping mall and Downtown LA’s Pershing Square. The show garnered 3.5 million viewers in the 12-24 year old male demo and is still the most viewed Parkour event in history.
The WFPF partnered with Athletes for Hope, a charitable organization founded by Tony Hawk, Lance Armstrong and Mia Hamm among others, to facilitate opportunities for athletes to serve as role models for underserved youth around the U.S. WFPF athletes have donated their services to events at the Harlem Children’s Zone as well as at the New York Fresh Air Fund.
The WFPF website is designed for the parkour community and dedicated to its interests and concerns. The site combines parkour news, event promotion, parkour athlete interviews and highlighted bios and affiliate information and videos. The website includes a social-networking site similar to Facebook. The website currently has profiles posted from every U.S. state and over 60 countries worldwide.
Part of the mission of the WFPF is to fill any voids in the parkour community and one example of this is their release of the KO parkour shoe. "KO" is the brand name for WFPF merchandise and is described by the WFPF as their motto saying "to Know Obstacles is to Know freedom." The WFPF roots in charitable work have led to their approach being to focus on helping others overcome any obstacle in their path and the KO motto represents this focus. Using their sister site KnowObstacles.com the WFPF has proven true to their motto to provide for the parkour community as they developed a parkour shoe that many recognize as one of the best shoes out there made specifically for training parkour and free running. The most notable qualities are the lightweight feel, simple design and grip on the sole.
In the weeks leading up to production of the MTV special, there was considerable controversy within the Parkour community both for and against the WFPF over its choice to support a competitive format television show and whether that violated the organization’s mission statement. In the main, judgment was deferred until the airing of the MTV show, due in large measure to the esteem in which the WFPF athletes are held in the worldwide Parkour community.
According to the WFPF website, the Ruff Magic principals, Victor Bevine and David Thompson have over thirty years combined experience working in youth development, having directed and developed arts and intervention programs for at-risk youth. Francis Lyons is the Emmy Award-winning executive producer of MTV’s hit series MADE, and is a partner at One Louder Productions.
In 2018 WFPF launched the World Parkour Championship #WPC series holding their first event in Mardin, Turkey in June in partnership with Case Productions. Future WPC events are in the works around the world.
WFPF launched a Coaching Certification Program in 2012. WFPF has held parkour instructor certifications in USA, Canada, Thailand, Scotland, Wales, England, Portugal. As of the Spring of 2019 over 1000 parkour instructors have been attended and been certified by WFPF. In 2016 WFPF certification was named the official Parkour certification for British Columbia Gymnastics in Canada. WFPF also offers online certifications for Parkour instructor assistants as well as Parkour Competition Judge certifications which are required to judge any WFPF competition. Many WFPF certifications are done in partnership and with the endorsement of IPTC- International Professional Training Certification which was established in 1978.
Santa Barbara City College (SBCC) is a public community college in Santa Barbara, California. It opened in 1909 and is located on a 74-acre (30 ha) campus.
Parkour is an athletic training discipline in which practitioners attempt to get from point A to point B in the most fluid way possible, without assisting equipment and in the fastest and most efficient way possible. 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.
Freerunning is an athletic and acrobatic discipline incorporating an aesthetic element, and can be considered either a sport or a performance art, or both. Freerunning is similar to parkour, from which it is derived, but emphasizes artistry over efficiency and speed. Freerunning involves interacting with physical obstacles in creative ways, such as by climbing, jumping or running; the obstacles may be purpose-built or may be part of a pre-existing natural or man-made environment. The movements are usually adopted from other sports, such as gymnastics, tricking or breakdancing. Freerunners can create their own moves, flows and lines in different landscapes. Practitioners of freerunning usually do parkour as well. Freerunning was founded by Sebastien Foucan, who discussed the subject in 2003 documentary film Jump London.
Cyberdog is a trance music and cyber clothing/accessory retail chain, headquartered in Camden Market in London, England. It specialises in bright dance clothing, often featuring fluorescent colours and electronic components such as flashing lights. They also specialise in rave accessories such as glowsticks and other fluorescent items.
Georges Hébert was a pioneering physical educator in the French military who developed a system of physical education and training known as "la méthode naturelle" and a more wide training program known as Hebertism. Hébert combined the training of a variety of physical capacities with the training of courage and ethics.
The Royal Chicano Air Force (RCAF) is a Sacramento, California-based art collective, founded in 1970 by Ricardo Favela, José Montoya and Esteban Villa. It was one of the "most important collective artist groups" in the Chicano art movement in California during the 1970s and the 1980s and continues to be influential into the 21st century.
The Certified Internet Web Professional (CIW) education program was created by a community of Web designers and developers in the late 1990s. The company that currently owns CIW, Certification Partners, offers books, on-line learning and high-stakes exams. Third-party companies also sell CIW preparation material.
Toyotaro Miyazaki (1944-2021) was the head of the International Shotokai Federation.
Ryū Ryū Ko, also known as Liu Long Gong, was a Chinese martial artist who most likely practiced the Fujian White Crane style of Kung Fu. His most notable students included many of the founders of different Okinawan martial arts which later produced Karate. These students included Higaonna Kanryō who founded Naha-te which became Gōjū-ryū. The kata Sanchin, taught in Gōjū-ryū and many other Naha-te based styles of Karate, was originally taught by Ryū Ryū Ko.
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.
Chattanooga State Community College is a public community college in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The college is a member of the Tennessee Board of Regents System and is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). Athletically, Chattanooga State is a member of Region VII of the NJCAA.
Red Bull Art of Motion is a parkour and freerunning competition, established in 2007 and created by Red Bull. It is an international competition with qualifiers being held in various regional competitions around the world throughout the year. Winners from the regional competitions each year earn their ticket to get to the finals, held towards the end of the year.
Ryan Doyle is a freerunner, martial artist, coach, and actor from Liverpool, England, and is a founding athlete of the World Freerunning and Parkour Federation.
Brooks Johnson is a former sprinter and a current American track coach.
The Vernacular Music Center at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, is a center for in-depth and comparative research, study, teaching and advocacy on behalf of the world's vernacular musics and dance. The Center was founded at Texas Tech in the Fall of 2000 under Executive Director Dr Christopher J Smith. The VMC states that it "engages with folk music, traditional music and dance from around the world: vernacular idioms that are learned, taught, shared, and passed-on by ear and in the memory." The term "vernacular" is employed in its title in order to allude to "vernacular languages"—those languages used for commonplace communication—and in order to avoid potentially limiting terms such as "folk," "traditional," or "non-Western."
Frank Muñoz is a Spanish heavyweight kickboxer fighting in the SUPERKOMBAT Fighting Championship where he is the 2013 SUPERKOMBAT World Grand Prix Tournament Champion. He is also the former WAKO-Pro K-1 European champion.
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.
The fourth season of American Ninja Warrior began on May 20, 2012, and aired on NBC and G4. This was a landmark season for Ninja Warrior, as the entire format was overhauled. For the first time, the finals took place on U.S. soil. In addition, regional qualifying and finals were added, taking place in Dallas, TX, Miami, FL, and the series' flagship location, Venice Beach, CA. New co-host Jonny Moseley replaced Jimmy Smith, while Angela Sun replaced Alison Haislip. Again, the winner would have received $500,000 and the coveted American Ninja Warrior title. Brent Steffensen became the first competitor to complete the Ultimate Cliffhanger.
Kumeyaay Community College is a public community college in the U.S. state of California. Established in 2004 by the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation through gaming revenues, it is located on the Sycuan Indian Reservation near El Cajon.
Storror is a group of seven parkour and freerunning athletes from Britain. They have produced two documentaries and run a YouTube channel that has over 7 million subscribers and 800 million views.
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