Woods Parkour —a guest post for Bogged Down

Woods Parkour

by Charlotte Stuart

Parkour was developed in France and became popular in the 1990s. I knew it existed but I didn’t really pay attention until I saw there was a woods version. The first video I saw of woods parkour had me hooked. Leaping and vaulting over logs and other obstacles while surrounded by forest was something I knew I would never be able to do, but I loved the idea that someone was doing it.

After researching parkour and watching a number of YouTube videos, I was not only entranced by the activity itself but by its mission: Believing in your heart that there is no obstacle in life that cannot be overcome. It’s not that I actually believe anything is possible, but I would like to believe it. Unfortunately, I’m much more pessimistic. Or realistic, depending on your point of view.

Anyway, since one of the benefits of being an author is that you can live an experience through your characters, I decided to make my protagonist in Bogged Down, Lavender “Lew” Lewis, a woods parkour enthusiast. That actually came after already deciding she was tall and athletic and physically and mentally tough. Woods parkour was a natural add-on. Especially because I had Lew living in a semi-rural setting in a cabin bordering on a wooded area. 

Simply put, the goal of parkour involves getting from one point to another by the most direct route. It may involve running, climbing, jumping, swinging, vaulting – whatever is needed to complete the unstructured activity where none of the moves are planned in advance. No wonder it’s been described as a non-competitive sport that “turns the world into a playground.

Woods parkour is similar to inner city parkour in some ways, but it has its own special appeal and challenges. The forest stimulates your senses in subtle, primal ways, and the obstacles are less predictable, not always what they seem to be at first glance. A log may be rotten, a tree limb unstable, a rock hidden beneath leaves. An animal can startle with a sudden appearance. A meandering stream may require a last-minute recalculation. Woods parkour constantly demands that you see your environment in a fresh and sensitive way, imagining how you can navigate over, under, around or through a forest’s unique features.

In addition, the woods changes with the sun’s passage across the sky, light slowly fading as it filters through the trees, creating shadows, gradually changing a color photo to a grainy monochrome.

Although Lew uses woods parkour for pleasurable exercise in Bogged Down (A Vashon Island Mystery), it also helps her with other activities. For example, there are several scenes in which Lew is in the woods at night. She is able to navigate through the tangle of trees and debris much more efficiently because of time spent in the woods maneuvering around and over obstacles as part of her parkour training. 

In conclusion, Vashon Island has some wonderful woodlands. If I were athletic enough to embrace the challenge of woods parkour, I can’t think of a better place for it. Meanwhile, I will continue to live vicariously through Lew’s love of and ability to engage in this forest playground activity.

Learn more about Charlotte Stuart and Bogged Down at www.charlottestuart.com. If you liked this guest post, If you liked this guest post, check out some of my author interviews.