A heads up for anyone who feels some rewarding manual labor would be nice today: we're prepping for the comp this weekend at the gym and would love any help we can get! Cleaning, organizing, laying out the rockwall, hanging ropes…come stop by and say hi!

We are approaching the singularity!!

• Brandee and Eric busted their ass cutting out the rest of the front roorn’s flooring. From irregularly angled wall to oddly shaped wall is all smooth rubber now Eric even dedicated a small piece of his finger to the design… (he’s healed now!)
• Stone Gardens and Rafe just doubled our number of rock climbing holds – and they‘re mostly all big jugs!
• Kai has built us an incredibly sexy steel weight sled – you just love to hate it…
• Terry (Austin’s dad) donated some long pipe and fittings for new extra-long precision trainers
• Brandee has brought in our first natural environment trainer in the form of an avocado plant 
• I moved around the utility closet so we can use the windows more, and ended up adding more cubby storage and a closet<->workshop quick access bar in the process.
• We‘ve acquired our first dolly cart and are transferring between the dedicated workshop and gym now 
• I made some quick fixes to our precision hangers to make them hold things better 
• Eric installed a new very tough pull up bar to the doorway
• Eric and I added some shelving to the kitchen
• Eric and Beth added an awesome extra layer of storage to the lounge closet, and I added a bar for extra bars…
• The Bulldog concrete rotary hammer has arrived

Brandee is actually finishing up the second flooring as we speak, we have some amazing volunteers! Very exciting as the gym is coming together!

 

Pretty cool idea from the Seattle Design Commision. Have taken a few photos myself in the past of aging construction sites that would work well as DIY parkour parks. What do you think?

Text below the flyer for reference:

 

Have you noticed how many lots have been left empty or partially developed due to the stalled economy? These vacant project sites are all around us. Unattractive and unbecoming of our city, we pass by them every day: empty holes, barren plains of gravel, voids in the city fabric. How can we convert these eyesores to opportunities?

The Seattle Design Commission wants your ideas for Holding Patterns, interim uses for stalled project sites. We are seeking your concepts to transform the following types of stalled project sites around the city: holes in the ground surface lots ongoing construction above or below street level

Whether a concert space or a bumper car track, basketball hoops or a fleeting performance stage, from temporary to semi-permanent, wacky, practical or both, the Design Commission is welcoming any and all ideas. Artists, designers, non-profits, businesses, developers, students, astronauts, everyone is invited to contribute ideas. Interdisciplinary teams are encouraged.

Deadline: Monday, May 24th, 2010 Your submission should include the following:

a brief narrative including rationale, goal, purpose, program, and design intent the location, if specific (all city-wide locations are acceptable) a site plan and/or images that communicate your ideas Maximum of four 8.5” x 11” single-sided pages per site category

There will be a follow up implementation workshop for selected ideas, so please be prepared to make a two minute pitch for potential partners who are able to help make your ideas a reality.

Submit via e-mail to Valerie.Kinast@seattle.gov a pdf formatted file and in the body of the email the names/backgrounds of participants and contact information for one person. Please put “Holding Patterns” in the subject line. 6 MB maximum file size.

We had about 10 kids in for a birthday party today that was pretty incredible. We've been running a few a month but this group in particular just could not seem to get enough of the route we built, going over time and eating their cake as fast as possible to get back to it Great kids, my favorite random quote "Parkour is so much funner than video games!"

We got the entire front room floored and the drywall covering the brick in the second room removed!

Build day tomorrow from 1pm to 5pm – will only need a few folks for dragging around the heavy rubber flooring but if enough people show up there are some walls I’d like to tear down

Volunteers and demo bars welcome! Give us a call at 206.923.8864

 

This is great For every donation raised through his new site Levi Meeuwenberg will stop what he’s doing currently and do a backflip specifically for you! Donating $4 or more sends him a text message with your name and backflip order, then he sends back a message through Twitter with how and where he performed your special request.

All of the money raised will go directly to our Jump Washington project which seeks to give the ‘parkour vision’ mindset to kids who need it and can’t afford or logistically make our general academy classes. We successfully raised $7000 last year towards Jump WA and with Levi’s goal of raising $3000 we could easily raise $10,000 almost entirely through the amazing parkour community  

For more info and to donate see Levi’s Backflips for Kids post on his site and watch this space for news on how the outreach projects are progressing.