Jamming National Parkour Indonesia 2010 (English)

By Pujiati Sharani, Parkour Samarinda

24th, 25th & 26th September 2010

Location:Bandung, Indonesia

Day 1 Friday

The day of the National Parkour Indonesia Jam (JamNas) started with registration of the JamNas attendees which took place from 8am to 11am while waiting for the other participants to arrive at the accommodation at No. 119 RE Martadinata Road,  Bina Marga Building. The weather in the morning during the registration session was still sunny and it was filled with a lot of enthusiasm from everyone gathered there. Practitioners from all over Indonesia came through the gates in high spirits and everyone was happily greeting and welcoming each other.

After everyone was ready and had registered with the organizers, the event proceeded to the valley. Exactly at 11:30am for Friday prayers, everyone headed to the mosque at the first waiting point to sit and have lunch. For the muslim men, they went to fulfil their sholat prayers and during this time, several participants who didn’t attend trained with the others. After everyone had reassembled  and taken their lunch organized by the committee, we continued onwards to a hill and waited for the arrival of Thomas Couetdic and Stephane Vigroux. Once they had arrived, JamNas 2010 was officially started by the committee head and the two Parkour Generations representatives. Stephane and Thomas led everyone assembled there in a warm up and divided us up into several teams for the challenge of climbing Mount Jayagiri. This was the first time I had trained in a place that was truly surrounded by nature. The weather up to that point had been drizzling but when the first team passed the gates into Jayagiri, the drizzle turned into a downpour but the rain didn’t affect the enthusiasm of the participants.

The challenge for us was not just to climb the mountain but also additional challenges were provided such as balancing on fallen trees. Here, we were really tested on our team work and much more. Because of the continuous rain on the day, the weather was really cold and the trekking location was very slippery. Quite a few of us fell because of the slippery mud, the rocky terrain and protruding tree roots. On our first day, we continued training until the darkness of the night descended on us and each and every one of us were covered with mud and drenched from the rain and our sweat. However I swear that the stamina of the participants was really strong because laughter still filled the air on the way back to our lodging. Back at our lodging, the social session event continued.

During the social session, all participants introduced themselves and the district that they had come from, how they developed their parkour and their training methods. Most effectively, several participants from many places filled social night with jokes and laughter and for a while, we forgot our feeling of fatigue from covering those vast distances. As the social night drew to a close, we left the room and headed to our respective beds for the night.

Day 2 Saturday
On the morning of Saturday, 25th of  September, the event started when the organizers woke us up for the communal breakfast. The morning was still sunny at the accommodation. After breakfast, the participants got ready to go to the ITB to carry out the second day of the national jam. In high sprits on that morning, everyone was ready for the workshop to be taught by Stephane Vigroux and Thomas Couetdic. As before, we travelled via military transport. When we arrived at ITB, everyone was divided into the same groups as during the first day and before starting the workhop everyone warmed up and ran for 20 minutes. Then the assigned challenges were given. Each group had the opportunity to learn parkour at a designated spot until 12 noon. I also gained a lot of experience learning about each spot but unfortunately the weather was not on our side and so each group only got 3 spots. Should all participants finish 6 spots, so while waiting for the rain to subside, so we filled the time by joking with each other. Not long afterwards, Thomas and Stephane invited us to run around the ITB in the rain. Because I was afraid to get my shoes wet and not having a spare pair, I and several others decided to just run barefoot. The challenge of running the rain was felt even more because I did not have any soles. I was only able to finish halfway because at that moment both of my calves cramped up. But at least I had a very memorable experience.

While waiting for the pickup back to our accommodation, everyone was taking group photos with each other and created a really friendly atmosphere. Yes, this is because at this moment, all the practitioners who are normally scattered all across Indonesia were gathered together and I am very happy to share this experience with other women because in my hometown I am the only female practitioner. On the second night was the question and answer session and many issues were discussed during this session especially the philosophy of parkour and common problems in the parkour community. Afterwards, the participants from every district carried out performances for Stephane and Thomas. Finally, Thomas advised me to continue training hard and to not be afraid to try something, if I were to try, not to doubt myself, to act and believe in myself but not to the point of injuring ourselves. According to Thomas, doubt is a bad habit. I also asked Thomas how, according to him, the female practitioners in this national jam could continue developing and he said that the female pracitioners who carry out this discipline are courageous and he advised to continuing training hard. Finally, we said our goodbyes and goodnights to each other.

Day 3 Sunday
Going into the last day of the national jam, as one of the participants, I felt very fortunate because I could take part because many things were beneficial and useful for me and could be a resource for me to share with the other practitioners in my home town. On the morning of the third day, the participants looked really tired during breakfast, it was a pity that some participants had to return earlier than the arranged schedule because of their personal arrangements. However while heading towards our final destination at the ITENAS, our spirits returned.  When we arrived at our destination, the weather on the day was quite hot. The organizers commenced the symbolic closing ceremony of the national jam, the best part of the national jam 2010 was when Stephane and Thomas gave a speech and asked how everyone was? All of us in unison replied “MBOISS”. The word “mbois” itself was made popular by the East Java and Jogjakarta parkour community, the word comes from the Javanese language that means cool, great, good. And these words first came to light on Facebook from our friends in the parkour communities in East Java.

After giving a closing speech and parting words, the participants started the warm up before running. I think that this event is really sucessful because at the beginning, it was only a dream but has now become a reality and now we have this big event which shows that the Parkour Indonesia community is truly a big family. The participants continued the day with the free jamming when everyone was allowed to move as they like, share knowledge and to learn techniques together. There was a golden opportunity for the female practitioners because Stephane and  Thomas were personally helping us to gain some confidence in our movements. As a result, the female practitioners were able to learn directly from them both and this was very beneficial. What I liked was when they said, to move according to the rhythm of your body and to imagine that you are dancing. Therein lies the beauty of parkour for women. I hope that we will remember our interesting experiences and encourage our passion to train with even more diligence. As Thomas Couetdic said, “We start together, We finish together no man left behind. We do the same thing” Keep going, all parkour practitioners.