05/10/2007
Record-Eagle/Jan-Michael Stump
Andrew Schopieray, of Interlochen, leaps to a wall along Union Street while parkouring around Traverse City on Monday afternoon. Parkouring involves moving as efficiently as possible from one point to another in a normal city setting, such as park benches, railings or walls.
Catch them if you can
Local men finding international success in emerging sport of parkour
By GARRET ELLISON
gellison@record-eagle.com
Special to the Record-Eagle
Mike Zernow is pursuing an international career as a traceur, or practitioner of the emerging sport of parkour.
TRAVERSE CITY — Mike Zernow and Levi Meeuwenberg are busy bouncing off walls and getting paid for it.
But they didn't drink too much coffee and aren't hopped-up on sugar. Rather, the two 20-year-olds are finding international success as traceurs, or practitioners of the emerging sports of free running and parkour.
Zernow, aka "Frosti,” and Meeuwenberg, aka "Skynative,” just returned stateside from Hong Kong, where they performed at the unveiling of a new Mercedes Benz model.
Parkour is the art of moving through the environment as efficiently as possible. Think obstacle course, but everywhere. Traceurs run, jump, bounce, leap and catapult off walls, park benches, light poles or anything sturdy enough to support their weight for the split second needed to launch in a new direction. The motion is fluid: up, down, sideways — you name it.
Free running is similar, but characterized by more a more aesthetic or flamboyant style. Vocabularies for the two are often used interchangeably.
Their team is called "The Tribe” and is represented by agent Mike Toorock. Meeuwenberg can be seen leaping out of windows and scaling buildings on ESPN, MTV and TNT as a stunt double in a new K-Swiss shoe commercial featuring Anna Kournikova.
"We got to meet her and work with her,” Zernow said. "The one I stunt doubled in will be out in June.”
Meeuwenberg was also in Madonna's "Jump” music video. He and Zernow accompanied her "Confessions” tour.
They each have videos on YouTube. Meeuwenberg's shows him scaling the buildings on campus at Northwestern Michigan College and Zernow's is in downtown Chicago.
If you saw the latest James Bond film, "Casino Royale,” the terrorist Bond chases through a construction site is Sebastien Foucan, considered the godfather of free running. Meeuwenberg appeared with Foucan in the Madonna video.
"That's a pretty extreme example,” Zernow said of the Bond film. "We don't train by jumping on cranes and off rooftops and over buzz saws, but the idea is still there. It's about moving quickly.”
Zernow graduated in 2005 from Traverse City Central High School, Meeuwenberg from St. Francis. The two met at Water's Edge Gymnastics in Traverse City, each with a background in martial arts. Zernow came to the sport after a friend suggested it, seeing on the TV.
"It happened to be on 'Ripley's Believe it or Not,'” Zernow said. "I saw the rerun and went out the same day, got one of my friends and we just tried it out. That was about five or six years ago.”
They arrange training session called "jams.” Meeuwenberg teaches a free running class with the help of Andy Schopieray.
The sport is relatively new, originating in France several decades ago. It's quite common in Europe but just gaining ground in the United States, spread mostly through the Internet. Urban environments are best suited.
Each practitioner brings a unique background to the sport, Meeuwenberg said, whether that is martial arts, break-dancing or gymnastics.
"Those backgrounds will all have an influence on your style of movement,” he said. "I think each person adds something different, and both Mike and I have our own unique style and ideas.”
Meeuwenberg said he enjoys being on the cusp of a rising tide.
"It is quite an amazing perspective we have,” he said. "Right now we can just see — it's so clear how it's building momentum. It's going to be big.”
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