Friday 26 July 2013

Faringdon Pump House Project

Photo of equipment and traceurs, taken at the Pump House in Farringdon
More photos of the space and equipment can be found in their Gallery

Almost out of the blue, regular parkour coaching has become available at the Faringdon Pump House, courtesy of The Pump House Project.

The Pump House Project story is a great one - a community project started by the parents of two young traceurs to give them somewhere local to train parkour, they gained charity funding from the community (including from Lord Faringdon himself) and help from the council in converting a disused theatre into a usable hall. Along the way, they also got parkour added to the PE curriculum of the local school, which is quite rare!

It's great to have a community get behind parkour when so often it gets really negative treatment, and hopefully it'll grow well in the future. Previously, the parents were having to drive to Basingstoke or Abingdon for parkour training (though the focus there was more on learning tricks than parkour essentials!) or, once we established ourselves, across to Oxford.

It's right in the middle of the town of town and has a great community feel to it: the space is also used to host other youth activities such as Slacklining, Dance, Media, Radio and a Tuck Shop, with more activities being added and supported all the time!

Dale Wood is a Parkour Generations developing athlete and incredible traceur in his own right. He is currently providing parkour coaching on Fridays and Saturdays, and teaches on dedicated parkour-specific equipment (built by FreeMove), which some of you may have got to play with during the FreeMove event.

All in all, grab the chance to train with these guys while you can as spaces are limited and come term time, preference will be given to the youth, that this charity aims to support!

Public transport between Faringdon and Oxford is limited to a single bus route 66 (link and timetable), but that just means that getting there is possible :)

For more information, visit their site: http://www.thepumphouseproject.co.uk/
Keep track of them on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ThePumpHouseProject