I read a lot for someone who likes to do parkour…
In the past, I did rock-climbing. I liked the challenge of balancing, endurance, as well as the adrenaline rush when I led up with the rope. The best I’ve climbed was in Krabi, Thailand (or Phra Nang). My best slope was a 6b. I did my best on a 6b+ Snow Fall route, but did not manage to complete it. No matter, it was fun while it lasted. This was probably in the year 2002 going 2003.
Anyhow, I talked to a senior from Canada, he asked me,
“What next? Natural protection? And then climbing without the rope at all?”
This senior friend was wary of the fact that some of us needed an adrenaline fix, and brought out into the open that the adrenaline fix will disappear after a while. At that time, you know, whatever.
7 years from that day is today (well, sort of). And I am doing parkour. How much is enough? I have the principle in me that I have to always challenge myself, physically, mentally, and spiritually, ALL THE TIME.
Parkour is my way of challenging myself physically. And like the time when I rock-climbed, I didn’t like competitions. Never understood why, perhaps I did not like failure, perhaps intuitively I felt that I could only compare myself with myself throughout the continuum of time. Whatever the case, many may have felt that I was someone who was afraid to lose.
Back to parkour, some of the guys I do run with, are quite competitive, I come short of words in trying to explain to them why I don’t “compete” with them on stunts, but do things on my own time.
Rafe Kelly writes:
And I really like his articulation of what I am unable to express. Though I doubt my guys are unable to grasp what he is really means, I still have to try.
Adrenaline fixes are dangerous things to bank on in the long run. Choices, however, are my take on how things should be done.
Tags: adrenaline fixes, choices, krabi, parkour, philosophy, phra nang, rock climbing
