Here Comes 2008!!...

It's been a great year for us all and as 2008 is fast approaching, we would like to wish everyone a wonderful New Year from all of the Saiyan Family.

Weekend in Lincoln

We've had a couple of busy weekends recently and one of which was a trip to Lincoln to see Dale, old skool member of the Saiyan family; and the ever-growing Lincs Parkour community. It turns out Lincoln is somewhere near Mordor, so it took us forever to get there, arriving just before midnight Friday. We headed back to Dale's for a healthy meal and a good nights sleep ;-)
On Saturday got up early for a greasy breakfast, uni style, with Jim and Stu (pictured left), followed by a tour of the small but beautiful town of Lincoln, complete with its quirky back alleys and its apparent lack of adults! We then headed to the main meeting place of the local traceurs and were introduced to some new faces as well as some we knew from the Trace Gathering. It was cool to meet a really tight community, who trained so well together and all help and encourage each other. We were taken to some really varied locations for Parkour including some scaffolding with some really cool angles, where some of the guys spent time showing us their swinging dismounts, brilliant stuff. We then came to a spot where there was a progressively growing rail precision which was excellent for finding your limits. Unfortunately the ordinarily focused Jim suffered a lapse of concentration and his foot landed short of the rail, shinning himself silly. Which he didn't seem to notice until he pulled up his trouser leg unveiling thick blood pouring into his white sock!! Instantly everyone gathered to help with people removing wristbands as make-shift bandages and helping him stop the bleeding. Its good to know if you fall in Lincoln, the guys have got your back. In Jim's credit though, he didn't complain a bit.
There was a lot to see so moved quickly to the playground in the arboretum. On route we had to cat crawl backwards up a couple of flights of stairs, then straight into a challenging climb especially as everything was slippery. Once we reached the top we headed into "Banksy playground", so named for its juxtaposition of children at play with the overbearing reminder that Big Brother, even in Lincoln, is watching. There were a few challenges we set each other but one stood out as our fave; The Silent landing challenge! The video below is pretty self explanatory, turn up your sound for this one...




On Sunday we woke up fairly late in the day due to a tour of Lincoln's nightlife that extended into the wee hours of the morning. With a coach to catch that afternoon we grabbed some grub and followed Stu's lead to a couple of his favorite spots. One of which was the breathtaking rooftop run which had so many possible opportunities for movement and had an eye-popping roof gap which looked just perfect. The picture doesn't do it justice, but the surrounds and the height made it very challenging however it felt attainable and it drove us crazy that there was a huge puddle right in the landing spot. Deeply disappointed that we didn't get a chance to seriously contemplate it, but next time...
It wouldn't be a Saiyan trip with the fuzz popping up, on our way down we realised police had been called and had surrounded the building. They were a little aggravated at first, but once we explained what we we're doing, and were not daylight robbers, they changed their tune and showed quite an interest in Parkour.

All in all a fantastic break away from the big city, with an excellent community of traceurs, that for us was reminiscent of the early days at Liverpool street.

Thanks to all of Lincs Parkour, hope to see you all soon, head down to London whenever!
A special thanks goes to Jim, for the deep conversations about Parkour, conspiracies, and everything in between; Stu for showing his personal uber rooftop runs, and for setting the pace for the weekend.
And a huge thanks to the man himself Dale for...everything! Rest assured we'll be back up soon, there was so much we didn't get time to do.