Rowan University has its fair share of clubs across campus, from mathematics to intramural sports, television networks, and an esports club. All have their own niche and discipline to either help them in their major, make some friends, or just do something as a hobby.

The Parkour club is a rec club at Rowan that is all about training in free running and parkour to not only learn the craft, but also as an excuse to be active and moving.

Parkour is a form of physical exercise and travel created by David Belle in the 1980’s in France, combining the physical acts of climbing, vaulting, sliding, and controlled falling to surpass obstacles, whether natural or self-imposed. In ways, it is a form of art by taking obstacles and coming up with creative and flashy ways to overcome these obstacles.

The culture and use of parkour has been used in many pieces of media, from video games like “Mirror’s Edge” and “Dying Light” to the parkour chase scene in “Casino Royale” and the infamous parkour clip in “The Office.”

Most depictions show off the coolness of parkour in the fast movements, the death-defying dives, and crazy climbs, but never truly about the art and the community that revolves around the sport.

While the club usually hosts 3 meetings a week for practicing around Bunce or at the Rec Center, the club hosts a community night once a semester for the club to get together and watch documentaries about parkour. Whether about a famous professional free runner like the film “Capstone Verky” by Travis Verkaik or a documentary about the rise, fall, and revival of parkour in Siberia and how it created a strong movement called “The Capital of Parkour.”

From the pizza and sodas to the large projector playing the films, the club slowed itself down from its running and climbing to enjoy a bit of time together as people and not free runners.

President of the club and sophomore computer science major, Gavin Andiorio, spoke about the meaning of this community night.

“The community night is an event that we host once a semester and show a bit of what the parkour community is all about,” said Andiorio. “We used this event to demonstrate the wider parkour community and all the amazing things that are happening outside of Rowan.”

Like numerous clubs on campus, they have their share of members from other clubs to be a part of it, including the president of the skating club and radio, television, and film major, Matthew Milroy, who spoke about the connection between the two clubs.

“We’ve always done things in conjunction together [since their arrival at Rowan] … The clubs are very similar,” said Milroy.

The parkour club isn’t just for people who know how to parkour; it is a club that accepts all levels of knowledge in parkour.

Even the secretary of the parkour club, junior computing and informatics major James Reiley, came into the club without knowing anything about parkour.

“I did not do any parkour before college. I had heard of it, but I didn’t really know much about it,” said Reily. “And then I came to orientation here at Rowan, and I was looking through a list of clubs they had here and saw the parkour club … A couple months later [when the school year started], I joined the club and became friends with all the people here.”

The club continues to run for everyone to be a part of, hosting their sessions on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays in the evenings.

No matter the weather, heat, cold, or the time of day, you can find the Rowan Parkour members continuing to run, jump, vault, and climb their way across the approved practice areas on campus.

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