Shirtless Parkour Boys

Parkour is a training procedure involving freestyle gymnastics in a natural environment, typically the concrete buildings and walls of the urban jungle.  It was developed by David Belle (1973-), a French teenager, based on his father's military training drills.  David later brought parkour to films such as District 13 (2004) and commercials for Nike, Nisson, and Canon.

The goal of Parkour is to jump, leap, or tumble onto natural obstacles, or vault over them, landing feet-first on the other side.

It requires strength, stamina, agility, and a lot of practice.

Since it requires no equipment, it is a favorite pastime of poor urban youth around the world.

And non-urban youth.  Here Austin McClure of Santa Rosa, an aspiring stuntman, practices his parkour moves (photo from Kent Porter)

There are few professional parkour players, but many sports enthusiasts, gymnasts, and stuntmen have added parkour to their repertoire.  Stuntman Damien Walters has used it in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Captain America: The First Avenger, Skyfall, The World's End, and Jupiter Ascending.

 In 2014, Carlos Lopez, a stuntman who worked on Hunger Games, 22 Jump Street, and Olympus Has Fallen, was killed when he tried to jump from his 4th floor window to an adjoining porch.

But there have been actually few reported deaths as a result of parkour, although sprains and fractures are common.