San Francisco International Jam 2011

It is officially over! However, there are still things to do to wrap up the biggest jam ever held in the Bay Area, such as writing recap posts like these and rounding up all the amazing photos people took.

We can officially say, though, that we have successfully organized the largest parkour event on the West Coast, and one of the largest in the United States, despite the fact that this is our first time hosting anything "international." Throughout the many years that the SF Parkour community has been around and the time that we organizers have been a part of it, we have made many parkour connections traveling to other jams, hosting visitors, and interacting online. This is the payoff: around 130 of our friends came to train with us over last weekend from, from around the Bay, from the rest of California, from all around the country, and even from Canada, Mexico, and Brazil! We hosted them in our houses, took them to explore our favorite training spots, and gave them a sense of how vibrant the SF Bay Area parkour community is.

The majority of the organization and planning for this event was done by Parkour Connections, and the opportunity to organize an event of this scale was extremely rewarding. But most importantly, everyone had a great time. Several Parkour Connections coaches helped to lead groups and held a miniature beginner workshop for some of those in attendance who wanted a basic primer in parkour.

To say it was fun is not to minimize the fact that it also pushed many people to the limits of their physical endurance. We had training sessions set up from Friday until Sunday and by the last day at UC Berkeley, many people were content to keep the training light, considering that the previous day we had spent almost 14 hours at the event, spread between SF State University, Commodore Sloat Elementary School, Battery Godfrey (AKA The Bunkers), and Crossfit Marin. This is the kind of thing that leaves you sore but satisfied for at least a week afterward!



Jams like these are what drove us to create Parkour Connections in the first place. There is nothing more gratifying than seeing so many people meeting new friends, running around in the sun, learning to move in new ways, and pushing their limits. This is what we hope to be able to share with the rest of the world by introducing them to the discipline of parkour and the wonderful worldwide community behind it.