Parkour in Rio: Part II

My second visit to Rio gave me the chance to really get to know the parkour scene in the city.  Since I was staying with PC, one of the local traceurs, I was able to get a much better perspective on parkour in Rio than during my first visit when I was living in a hostel.

PC, my host for my time in Rio.

During my first few days in Rio I spent a lot of time training and exploring the city’s “spots” with “Raxaman” and JC (younger brother of JJ).  Raxaman was the “first traceur” in Rio and early in his training he was joined by JJ and JC.   Since neither JC or Raxaman were working at the time they were free to show me around some of Rio’s many great places to train, some of them man-made, others for which the credit goes to Mother Nature.

A man-made parkour paradise.

Rio architects seemed to have parkour in mind at times.

Mother Nature seems to be pretty good at making spots in this city too.  I found that Brazilian trees seem to be a lot better suited for parkour than  in other countries (stronger, better grip, not as much moss... HUGE)

Since PC is friends with a number of the guys from the Voltz Parkour team in Rio, I was also able to meet up with a number of them at a nighttime training session in Botafogo, where I also made the acquaintance of Baconman, one of the better known traceurs in Brazil.  The training session was both a lot of fun and gave me the chance to do some hard training with the guys, which was good.  I also met Gian Pomposelli, the manager of Voltz, who invited me to one of their training sessions later than week.

Voltz Parkour

The training session with Gian was a lot of fun, and the Voltz approach to parkour was pretty interesting.  While there is a lot of resistance in Rio at the moment among certain groups to the idea of “paying for parkour lessons”, for me this was pretty standard practice and I liked the way that the Voltz program is set up to allow the “athletes” the options to build skills within other disciplines in addition to parkour (acrobatics, aerial silk (the curtain thing), climbing….).  Gian and I got the Voltz training area pretty much to ourselves for the training session, which was really nice since I was able to take my time to learn some new techniques from Gian.

One of the things that impressed me the most about my meeting with Voltz is how "commercialized" they are.  Perhaps this appeals to the "American" side of me (for better or for worse) but I liked how well-run and professional the company seemed at first glance.  While I obviously didn't have time to really get to know the group or the way they worked, my first impression was pretty positive.  Checking out thier blog HERE, it also seems like they're doing a lot of good work with the younger generations in the Rio area.  When I visited, they were all still pretty fired up about their debut in Rio's Carnival (a huge deal, especially since they won an award).  You can see part of the video below:

Omnis Parkour

While in Rio I spent a lot of time with the guys of Omnis Parkour (Raxaman, JC, JJ, and PC are all part of this group).  This is partly because JJ was my first contact in Rio, and also because I really connected with his style of training (One of the "older practicioners" in Brazil, he has realized the importance of a solid base of conditioning in the "long-term parkour plan".  Throughout my time in Brazil I interacted with a lot of groups and I have to say that the Omnis methodology is probably the "purest" that I saw.  Not only do they fight to keep classes and events free so that everyone can participate, but they seek to include all skill levels in their training events, and they really make an effort to draw the shyer or less-confident practicioners into the session.  Here's a clip to get an idea:




Saturday I met with the guys for a really great session in the community of Santa Cruz, a short train ride outside of Rio.  A number of traceurs came from around the region to join in, making for a really great atmosphere.  Unfortunately I was feeling pretty out of it after almost 2 weeks of almost non-stop training and a late night on Friday exploring the Lapa (the party area of Rio) nightlife with PC and his roommates.  The queasy stomach and lack of strength got worse during the day and by the end of the day I was feeling pretty miserable.  Despite that I rallied a few times throughout the day and managed to get some good interviews with some of the guys before we headed home.

I tried to rally again on Sunday for the last training session, held in the Lagoa Rodrigo de Frietas area, which turned out to be the perfect place for parkour.  However, by the time we got there it was clear that I wasn’t in a state to be doing anything so I lay down on the nearest bench and napped for most of the afternoon.  The guys were really great about the “sick gringo”, bringing me coconut water to help keep hydrated, and keeping my spirits up.  Unfortunately I didn’t get any pictures of the spot, which was pretty unique, and in my mind was the best parkour spot in the city, simply because of the huge variety of things to train there (think of a movement or technique and there was a place to train it in all levels here).

A big shout out to PC, JJ, JC, and Raxaman for helping me through one of the lower points of my trip!

Rio de Janiero: Part I

My introduction to Brazil was 5 days in Rio de Janiero. I’ll admit that I arrived in Brazil with a lot of mixed expectations and really no idea what to expect. Some people had told me that it would be super expensive, others had said that it was really cheap compared to places like Chile. Some people told me that I’d be screwed over if I didn’t speak Portuguese, since Spanish wasn’t close to it and no one spoke English; others told me that I’d be fine speaking English most of the time, and if all else failed I could speak Spanish and people would understand. Some people told me that Brazilian women were way overrated and in fact Chilean and Argentinean women were much more attractive, while others (the majority) told me that Brazilian women were by far the most beautiful women in the world. Some said that the food was bad, others said that it was amazing.
So needless to say, I arrived in Brazil with lots of things swirling around in my head, and no idea what to expect. Since the 6-hour flight from Chile hadn’t included food of any real substance, my first act on Brazilian soil was to go to the food court and pay outrageous prices for sub-par food (at least some things are the same wherever you travel). Feeling somewhat sated, I dodged the crowd of taxi drivers vying tooth and nail to overcharge me to go where I wanted to go and took the public bus into the city. A few stops later another American got on and happened to sit next to me, and we started talking. An hour later we realized that we had missed out stop 30 minutes ago so we decided to stay on the bus and wait until it reached the end and then ride it back, essentially getting a free tour of the city (we got to see all of the beaches and the city center- not bad for 3 reals).

The first thing that struck me as I watched the city pass by outside was just how active and athletic the city was. Since it was the early evening, people were just getting out of work and it seemed like everyone’s first destination was the beach. Volleyball, soccer, jogging, and these “exercise stations” every kilometer along the beach that we full of people doing pull-ups and situps between bouts of flexing at the traffic. Of course I was impressed by all of the Amazon-looking women (not referring to the river) spiking volleyballs or biking around in their bikinis, but I was also impressed by all of the “normal” people that seemed to be engaging in an athletics activity that they seemed to do on a regular basis.

Checking into the hostel 4 hours after leaving the airport I found that despite it’s great location in the Botafogo neighborhood, the tiny AC in the room did little to cool the nighttime temperature of 39 degree (Celsius) and I woke up multiple times covered in sweat.

The next day I met my first Brazilian traceur, JJ, one of the first traceurs to start training in Rio. He showed me around the city a bit and we made plans to meet up the next day to train, and also set up times to meet with other traceurs in Rio. I spent the rest of the day wandering around Rio and trying to get my bearings in the city (stopping every few blocks to try one of the many different types of fruit juice available- so good, so cheap!!!).

The next day I met up with one of the local guys, and he showed me one of the best spots in Rio, which just happened to be a 5-minute walk from my hostel. After an hour of training in the sun, I was ready to stop for food, and we stopped for my 3rd acai of the trip (in 2 days). For those of you that don’t know what acai is- it’s probably one of the best foods on earth. The berry is frozen, blended with guarana juice, and served with sliced banana and granola.



Acai in berry form.




Acai in delicious form.


I spent the rest of the day resting up before meeting the guys in the center of town for an “All-night Training session”. This session, run by JJ from midnight to 7am, is a conditioning session designed to bring a new level of intensity to training and to give both a physically intense workout, but also a mental workout. I didn’t find the session itself to be too bad, mostly because JJ couldn’t ramp up the intensity too much because there were a number of beginners participating, but I did find myself badly in need of some caffeine around 5am. Just after watching the sun rise over the beach we called it quits and went home to recover.

Not too sure I was very concious of the beautiful scenery at this point.

Sunday I met up with JJ and a bunch of the other traceurs in the center of town to go on a training excursion into the hills around Rio. After a 30-minute bus ride, we found ourselves at the head of the trail. The hike itself was pretty intense, and in addition to the 3-hours it took us to reach the top, there were a number of places that involved climbing techniques and steep drops as we neared the top. The view from the peak was pretty amazing, and shows one of the coolest parts of Brazil- the fact that you have a city with 11 million people surrounded by hills and forest that looks like this 30-minutes away. We jumped around the rocks up top for a while before heading back down the mountain.


On the way up.



At the top (notice the significant loss of clothing).



Only a few miles outside of Rio.


En route to the bottom we stopped at a “cachoeira” (waterfall) for a very refreshing break before the trek down the rest of the mountain.



At the cachoeira, a very refreshing break!

Next stop Florianopolis!