Parkour in Decline?
Perhaps this is a slight over reaction but there are an increasing number of people who have all noticed the same thing; interest in parkour/freerun in the UK seems to be falling. This time of year traditionally saw forum activity peak as everyone is stuck indoors but compared to previous years all the major freerun forums and most of the smaller ones are almost dead.
It would be nice to think that the reasons for the forums being quiet is because everyone has ignored the weather and are outside training regardless, though somehow this seems unlikley. A lot of Parkour/freerun groups that were thriving just a few years ago no longer exist; with many of the surviving groups down from more than 10 down to just a handfull of committed members who still practice regularly.
Is this the start of a decline in parkour/freerun practicioners in the UK?
Nearly four years ago we had the Channel 4 Jump London documentary which was responsible for getting the first huge interest in parkour in this country. The year after this was followed up with Jump Britain which saw even more new people get into the 'sport'. Between then and now there has been nothing else and I think now we are starting to see the results of that.
Sure there has been loads more Parkour type stuff in adverts and films, and maybe general public awareness is at an all time high, but there has been nothing on any media platform which has created nearly the same impact as JB or JL. The other theory is that everyone who wants to do it already knows about it and is doing it and we have finally reached the point of saturation but again this seems unrealistic.
So what is the problem here ... lack of good quality media exposure? all the politics of parkour putting people off ? or perhaps just a temporary 'blip' which will pass by in a few months time.
Either way, time will tell.