If you are new to WebUrbanist, click here to sign up for the RSS feed and take a look through our archives and galleries
It is one thing to watch amazing tricks or stunts performed in a closed venue for a captive audience. It is quite another to see unusual sports practiced in a busy and unpredictable urban setting. Here are some extreme city sports you aren’t likely to see in a sports stadium, starting with an incredible urban parachute landing under a bridge to a Paris city street-surfer in a full body suit covered in 31 roller wheels.
(Check out our complete collection of Urban Exploration Tips, Tricks and Guides.)
Extreme Urban Parachuting: the initial camera shots are a little disorienting, but once this parachuter swoops under a bridge at a high landing speed the scene becomes frighteningly clear. And to prove it’s not a fake: watch for the follow-up shot from a above trailing his progress on the way down.
Extreme Street Rollerblading: watch as Paris resident Jean-Yves Blondeau takes on the streets, sidewalks and tunnels of Paris. Armed with 31 rollerballs and an armored body suit, Blondeau flips between riding on his feet, back and front as he passs shocked pedestrians and cruises at speeds up to 50 miles per hour.
Extreme City Cycling: check out this guy as he sneaks his way into the incredibly packed Holland Tunnel in New York City. He not only evades detection and passes cars in the tunnel, but he even manages to flaunt his success at the end by asking a cop a question as he exits.
Extreme Bike Tricking: every object in the urban environment seems to be an obstacle-in-waiting for these industrious bikers. Their ability to trick and balance is almost as impressive as the variety of benches, stairs and other street furniture they adapt to their own purposes.
Extreme Building Jumping: this best-of video features parkour and free running experts and novices from around the world, doing tricks and jumps off of everything imaginable. Of course, they make these incredible tricks look a great deal easier than they are.
Extreme Freestyle Motorcycling: Julian Dupont seems to feel comfortable biking up, down and around just about anything. Impressive as his work is on a predefined stunt course, it is all the more amazing when seen in the city streets and on high-flying bridge supports hundreds of feet in the air.
Mass City Skateboarding: it would have been too easy to include another skateboard tricking video. Instead, take an inside look as hordes of skateboards take to the streets on Go Skateboarding Day in New York City. As you can see, the police aren’t entirely pleased.
Check Out These Great Related Articles:
Amazing Parkour and Free Running Urban Acrobatics
What if you saw the building walls and other urban obstacles around you not as barriers, but as tempting challenges?
10 Impressive Free Running and Parkour Videos
These videos feature some of the more raw and original free runners who made this extreme urban sport what it is today.
Incredible Urban Art and Photography in Motion
What could be stranger than a person twisted and frozen in time inches above a street? How about a wind-powered automaton bred to be the perfect perpetual motion machine?
22 Comments
September 25th, 2007 at 3:19 am
Nothing is better than a new post from my favorite urban culturist, especially when it is a hotterthanhot somewhatfunny-somewhatcute topic such as Extreme Urban Sports! Jean-Yves Blondeau rocks.
September 25th, 2007 at 6:04 am
“Extreme Building Jumping: this best-of video features parkour and free running experts and novices from around the world, doing tricks and jumps off of everything imaginable. Of course, they make these incredible tricks look a great deal easier than they are.”
This video is the latter end of one of David Belles videos. This is one person (David) and most of the things are in france or england. Parkour is not about building jumping, it is a discipline of efficient, fast and safe movement, he founded this discipline and has been following it for 18 years.
http://www.parkour.net
September 25th, 2007 at 8:30 am
Awesome vids, I’ll have to try some of these!
p.s. the bike and motorcycle tricks are usually referred to as “trials”
September 25th, 2007 at 1:53 pm
Parkour and Free Running are two different things. Parkour is actually as far from “EXTREME” as you can get, focusing on gradual progression and safe but constant improvement. For more information on Parkour go to http://www.parkour.net
For the record: I have been a practitioner for about a year now.
September 25th, 2007 at 7:12 pm
Hmmm, while your sentiments about parkour as gradual progression are true, the adjective ‘extreme’ does seem to apply to people jumping between buildings at dizzying heights! Regardless, thanks for the source link for more information.
September 25th, 2007 at 10:44 pm
I love the videos you posted - they sure are extreme :).
September 26th, 2007 at 3:14 pm
my favorite urban culturist. good article thanx.
September 30th, 2007 at 2:36 pm
I just used my procrastination time on your post, looking at great videos you gathered here. Rollerblade guy really is something special, I’m gonna steal the link.
December 5th, 2007 at 8:29 pm
How about 30,000 people rollerblading in Berlin … or 2000 on average in Paris? :)
February 25th, 2008 at 3:36 am
Hi guys, just noticed recently a parkour spot commercial for Panasonic toughbooks. looks like underground goes business:-)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ThOAJXhMkaA
Trackbacks
What do you think? Leave a comment!