Denmark and Gerlev Idrætshøjskole

Now that I have been in Denmark for more than three months I think that it’s about time that I start sharing  some of my experiences here and explain more about the amazing place that has become a home away from home.

One of my articles from last summer (here) gives some background on Gerlev Idrætshøjskole, and the Danish folk high school system, but now that I’ve been here for a few months instead of a few weeks I think an updated and elaborated article is appropriate.

To start with, “here” is Gerlev Idrætshøjskole, which is located 5km outside of Slagelse, a small town (although by Danish standards it's a "city") located about an hour from Copenhagen.

Gerlev Idrætshøjskole from above.  Photo courtesy of the lovely ladies at the Gerlev front office.

I first visited Gerlev last June as part of my Watson around-the-world trip to witness the parkour classes that Streetmovement has been running here since 2006 and to train on the structure that had been built in 2008, and is considered to be one of, if not the first "parkour park".  The two and a half weeks that I stayed here were a small taste of student life  at Gerlev and left me both inspired and curious to learn more from this model.  After making the decision to continue my parkour-related travels this year, I accepted the invitation Streetmovement guys and the headmaster, Finn, to enroll as a student in the spring semester.

Before I go more into depth about my personal experiences at the school, a bit of background on the concept of the “højskole” (often translated into English as the“folk high school”).  The højskole tradition exists in many of the Scandinavian countries although the ones in Denmark and Norway seems to have developed a unique model.  Denmark, a country with a population of 5.5 million people, has over 75 højskoles spread across the nation, and according to official statistics (that I got from staff on campus) there were 8,405 students that attended a højskole in the 2010-2011 school year.  While this number is smaller than it was 15 years ago, it has been steadily increasing over the past 5 years, especially as these institutions begin to take students from farther abroad than the typical Euro-zone exchanges (I supposed I’m a good example of this).  Højskole students range in age from 18 to their late 20's and are usually in the midst of deciding what they want to do next in life, whether this is to start further studies, seek employment, or travel for a period of time as many Danish youth seem want to do.  Each højskole typically has a specific area of focus, usually in the arts, music, writing, or sports, and the goal of the "højskole experience" is centered around the personal development and exploration of student's potential than the pursuit of a degree or factual knowledge.  While the lack of a degree may seem strange at first, it allows the style of education and instruction at the schools to be much less “structured” and exploratory, which creates a very unique atmosphere.

"Hygge time", a concept that seems to be very important in Scandanavian countries, but even more so in the højskole setting.  Photo courtesy of Lotte Møller.

During my stay here I’ve learned that the idea of “gap years” to prepare young people with the social skills necessary to become constructive members of society upon adulthood is not limited to students that have finished their high school education.  Denmark also has a large number of efterskoles, which are similar to højskoles but oriented toward younger students that are still finishing their high school education.  I had the opportunity to visit one of these efterskoles recently and it seemed to be very similar to the højskole model except with more structure and academic emphasis (they need to continue their education afterwards) and a lot more angsty teenagers.  While the idea of two years of “self exploration” may seem a bit extravagant to people outside of Denmark, when I think back to my first year of university I know that a number of my peers could have benefited from year or two to figure things out before entering the American college system (which is a much more expensive place to “figure things out”).

While not necessarily representative of the typical American college experience, "Animal House" highlights some of the ways that many American students get sidetracked "exploring" and "figuring things out" the first years away from home.

Founded in 1938, Gerlev Idrætshøjskole is one of the oldest in the country, yet it is considered to be one of the more progressive and pioneering schools in a system that is steeped in tradition, especially when it comes to sports.  Most sports højskoles offer traditional team sports such as football (real football, not the American kind), handball, and basketball in addition to outdoor activities and some type of dance.  Gerlev offers some of these activities, but stands out as the only højskole that offers parkour, and one of the few that offers the variety of dance styles that Gerlev does.  While offering parkour is impressive, the fact that parkour and streetdance were added to replace the traditional “danish gymnastics” course says a lot about the way that the school thinks (as far as I can understand "danish gymnastics" is essentially artistic gymnastics made for performance, and it is a HUGE institution in Denmark- DGI, the Danish Gymnastics National Organzation- has nearly 1.1 million members around the country).  Below is an example of danish gymnastics (the hip modern version) from the National Danish Performance Team followed by a video of the Gerlev Performance Team's 2012 show:

My personal motivation for coming to Gerlev was a combination of a desire to keep traveling and training, the realization that I had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to try this, a desire to spend more time with the Streetmovement organization to see how they teach and train- all mixed in with a large amount of curiosity about how this place functions, how it fits into the Danish culture and society, and what unexpected knowledge I could learn while here.

Final Shots from Thailand

Looking back through a lot of the photos from the trip the past few weeks I've been struck by the fact that no matter where we visited, it was the people that I was traveling with that made the experience so amazing.  The following pictures were from an afternoon spent training at a park near Anan's house in Bangkok that was one of the highlights of the trip for me.  Not only because it was a great spot, but because of the playful atmosphere and general "fun" that was had that day (aside from me making a goose-egg on one of my shins).

Bruno, Annty, and Leon sizing up a jump.  Photo courtesy of Violetta Beral.

Finding a new way to use some of the structures in "Anan's Park".  Photo courtesy of Violetta Beral.

Annty about to jump.  Photo courtesy of  Andy "Kiell" Day.

A great shot by Kiell capturing one of Anan's signature jumps.  Photo courtesy of  Andy "Kiell" Day.

Before moving on to the next adventures, I want to make sure to give a big shout-out to Andy and V for their photos of the trip.  Traveling with professional photographers was a pretty new experience for me, and I've found that it is much easier to include pictures in blog posts when they capture the context of the voyage better than I can in a few paragraphs. It also helps when the photographers that you are traveling with are awesome travel companions as well and well versed in bumming around foreign countries.

Photo courtesy of Annty Marais.

I would also like to give a big shout-out to Annty Marais (known in some circles as "the Annty Marais of Parkour Generations"). Not only did she put up with eating, training, rooming and traveling with me for 3 weeks, but she also managed to make almost an outing into an adventure and is a ton of fun to train and hang out with.  Although we may have differed on the amount of time per day that is is appropriate to take pictures of animals and bugs, her pictures have been really great at showing our day-to-day life and adventures and she has already proven to be much better at visually chronicling her around the world trip than I have been.  You can follow her adventures on the PkGen site.

Annty breaking a jump in one of the Bangkok parks.  Photo taken by me for once.

"Lightness"

This video was recommended to me by a friend (thanks Sox!) and I found it to be one of the most thought-provoking and "different" parkour videos that I've seen in a long time.  While the fact that the traceuse does everything in a skirt is striking enough, I was even more impressed by the flow of the movement itself and the impression of lightness that she and the filmmaker managed to capture throughout the piece.

Training in Ayutthaya

One of my favorite training adventures in Bangkok involved a day-trip to the city of Ayutthaya, a 2 hour train-ride from the center of Bangkok but well worth the early wake-up.  The city is actually a UNESCO “World Heritage” site and was the capital city of the region for over 400 years before it was destroyed by the Burmese army toward the end of the 18^th century.  During our visit it was pretty easy to see that the “city” that is there today survives mainly due to the busloads of tourists that come through to see the numerous temples that are scattered around the “city limits”.

On the train out of Bangkok.  Kiell and I were still a bit groggy.  Photo courtesy of Violetta Beral.

Annty and Leon were a bit more enthusiastic.  Photo courtesy of Annty Marais.

The train ride to Ayutthaya was pretty enjoyable (since we had to leave pretty early) and the first thing we did after getting off the train was to rent bikes and scooters to make our way around the city.  While we did have the specific objective of “getting good photos”, we hadn’t really planned much beside that and we decided to split up to better explore the city at our respective paces.  I headed off with the bicycle contingent and within 10 minutes of riding along one of the main road we had found our first temple.

Our first temple.  Still hesitating a bit before climbing all the way up.

In various states of disrepair, but not entirely forgotten.

Annty, the first one up.

Although the maps we had gotten at the bike shop seemed to be rather dominated by the temples, I hadn’t quite grasped the fact that apart from the small “modern area” near the train station at the south of the city, the “city of Ayutthaya” is pretty much made up of patches of ruins and clusters of houses spread amidst the huge grassy expanses that separate the enormous temples and complexes.  The temples themselves range along the entire spectrum of disrepair, with the larger and more popular tourist destinations usually in much better shape than the smaller and “forgotten” locations, sometimes no more than a small pile of bricks tucked into a corner.

Leon investigating another temple.

There are actually 2 pillars here...

Of course being curious and particularly gifted at moving around and exploring foreign landscapes, our group soon started getting a better look at the temples.  While some may argue that it is disrespectful to climb or jump around on another culture’s sacred monuments, it should be stated that we meant no disrespect in our movement, and from my perspective, I think that moving around in the temple complex was our form of paying homage and respect to the culture that had built these structures, currently lying in disrepair by the cultures that had originally built them.  We also followed the “leave no trace” creed of responsible traceurs, limiting our activities to the structures that were still in good shape (in the interest of historic preservation as well as self-preservation).  Cultural disclaimers aside, it should be noted that being “up close and personal” with the temples and complexes gives one a much greater appreciation for the workmanship that goes into these structures in order for them to last this long.  It also makes one think about what will be left in our own cities for people to climb around on in a few hundred years…

Bruno documenting the ascent with his GoPro.  Photo courtesy of Annty Marais.

Pondering life and the view.  Photo courtesy of Annty Marais.

We ended the day at one of the largest complexes where our awesome photographers managed to snag a some good shots for a fitting end to a pretty awesome day.

One of Kiell's shots from the last temple complex.  Photo courtesy of Andy "Kiell" Day.

One of V's shots from earlier in the day.  Photo courtesy of Violetta Beral.

No comment.  Photo courtesy of Violetta Beral.

Photo courtesy of Violetta Beral

Annty taking advantage of the fading light.  Photo courtesy of Annty Marais.

The whole gang.  Photo courtesy of Violetta Beral.

Back to Bangkok and the PkGen Asia show at the Queen's Imperial Park Hotel

After another long (but during daylight, and pretty picturesque) ferry ride back to the mainland, we took an overnight bus (a lot less enjoyable) back to Bangkok to get back in time for a day of adjusting and light training before getting ready for the PkGen Asia debut show.

Coming back to Bangkok after so much time in the south of Thailand was a bit of a culture shock but it was also a very welcome relief to get back to training on a regular basis.  Of course the first place we went to was Saphan Taksin, where we showed Dan Edwardes around (who had just arrived from snowy London, and was soon sweating like a one of those funny-hatted guards in red in summertime).  Dan had come to Thailand to help Stephane with the official launch of PkGen Asia.  This also happened to coincide with a PkGen performance at a rooftop party at the Queen’s Imperial Park Hotel in the heart of the city.  Aparently this party was one of a monthly series of parties that were pretty popular on the Bangkok party scene.  While the initial estimates of 1,500 people sounded pretty outrageous to me when they were outlining the game-plan I was also pretty nervous, especially since this was to be my first official parkour “performance”.

A publicity photo of the hotel as seen from the nearby park.

We arrived a day early at the hotel to check it out and to get things set up for the show, mainly the choreography.  Of course the scaffolding that we were supposed to be performing on wasn’t ready when it was supposed to be, which gave us a much smaller window to practice things in and to figure out our respective routes for the show.  Despite that, we managed to get in enough runs the evening before, and the morning of the event, and I gorged myself into a semi-food coma at the buffet brunch in the morning (it was probably one of 3 meals that I had during my month in Thailand that left me “full”).

A bit of an upgrade from the bungalows of Ton Sai...

Enjoying having my "own room" for the first time in a while.

The set-up.  Photo courtesy of Julie Angel.

Hanging out underneath the scaf to take shelter from the midday sun.  Photo courtesy of Violetta Beral.

Julie figuring out angles for video and grabbing a few still shots.  Photo courtesy of Violetta Beral.

The starting line-up at the top of the roof, preparing to make the descent to the scaf.  Photo courtesy of Violetta Beral . 

Dan making the drop to the scaf.  Photo courtesy of Violetta Beral.

After a power-nap and few last runs on the scaffolding before the reporters started arriving we got ready for the show.  The first (of three) show was actually held right after a press-counference in which Steph announced the launch of PkGen Asia and described a bit about the company and its goals.  The video below was made by Julie Angel and shows a bit of Steph speaking as well as the full show.

After that performance we had a few hours before the next one where we could watch the party start and hang out with the guests.  It was pretty interesting to watch the party begin to unfold and to see the Bangkok "party scene" come to life.  By the time we did the second performance, things were starting to get pretty wild.  The second show went off smoothly and I found that I actually really enjoyed the “performing thing”, especially when it’s doing something that I know well and am comfortable and relaxed doing.  By that time the party was well underway and by the time we did the last performance about a half hour before the party was due to be closed the audience was pretty excited.  Despite some improvised flair elements that threw off some of the timing a bit, the third performance went well.  After a rather prolonged photo-shoot afterwards we headed back to our rooms to take quick showers and change before heading out to join some of the other team members for celebratory smoothies and drinks at a local bar.

The performance team and PkGen Asia staff.  Photo courtesy of PkGen Asia.

A day at the beach

Since it wouldn't be fair to talk about Koh Tau without some shots of the beaches, I thought it would be appropriate to include some of the great shots that Violetta (V) got of us one of the few times that we actually went to "hang out" on the beach.

Photo courtesy of Violetta Beral.

Photo courtesy of Violetta Beral.

Photo courtesy of Violetta Beral.

An abandoned resort and other adventures on Koh Tau

The overnight night ferry ride to Koh Tau was a very enjoyable one, despite the fact that we all woke up at some point or other in the middle of the night to feel the boat pitching and rolling underneath us in what seemed like monstrous swells.

Tight sleeping quarters but surprising comfortable (minus the pitching of the boat).  Photo by Andy "Kiell" Day.  

Walking off the boat at 5am.  Photo by Andy "Kiell" Day.

We arrived unscathed in Koh Tau at 5am and managed to dodge the swarm of blood-sucking taxi drivers that awaited the bleary-eyed tourists coming off the boat.  After hanging around on a corner to figure out a gameplan, we started by finding a great little place that offered good, cheap food, with free wifi (this place became a regular dining option for us).  We then found a great place to stay at a really low rate, and even managed to rent scooters before lunch (we had become hooked on the range and flexibility that scooters offered us.  All-in-all a productiveness that was tough to match for the rest of our time on the island).

Making friends at our favorite restaurant.  Photo courtesy of Annty Marais.

Stopping to enjoy the view.  Photo courtesy of Annty Marais.

We spent much of our time on Koh Tau speeding up and down the small country roads along with the rest of the small army of scooter-mounted tourists (mostly divers) that inhabited the island.  Although we did some bouldering, the weather or the environment conspired against us on most days so we ended up doing a lot more exploring than anything else.

Coconut tree + long bamboo pole = Blake trying (unsuccessfully) to knock a coconut down.  Photo courtesy of Annty Marais.

V taking advantage of good weather and a temporary lack of mosquitoes.  Photo courtesy of Annty Marais.

Kiell at work.  Photo courtesy of Annty Marais.

The abandoned hotel pictured below was one of the best adventures of the trip and was something that we essentially stumbled upon after someone had mentioned it briefly in passing.  Although it has only been out of operation for a few years (it was actually owned by the woman who owned the place we were staying in on the other side of the island) nature was gradually reclaiming the area, especially the only road through the hills to the resort.

The perfect place to spend an afternoon.  Photo by Andy "Kiell" Day.

A welcome view after 45 minutes hiking on a path through the jungle.  Photo by Andy "Kiell" Day. 

There were also some great rocks right next to the resort so of course we couldn’t resist the chance to climb and jump around on them.

Scouting out a jump for Kiell to shoot, and pondering the rather large drop below.   Photo courtesy of Annty Marais.

Eyeing the jump.  Photo courtesy of Annty Marais.

The jump.  Photo by Andy "Kiell" Day.

Hanging out afterwards in one of the abandoned bungalows.  Photo courtesy of Annty Marais.

Of course, being on an island, we also spent some time hanging out on the beach (both in and out of the illusion of training).

After nearly a week on Koh Tau, it was time to head back to Bangkok to meet up with the rest of the PkGen crew the official launch of PkGen Asia at the Queen’s Imperial Hotel...