Once a while we come across viral videos on social media of people vaulting over walls, jumping buildings, climbing poles and sliding down railings without breaking a sweat. If you ever wondered who these extremely agile tricksters are, they are called tracers engaging in parkour. Started as a discipline that developed from military obstacle course training, parkour has grown to be one of the biggest alternate sport cultures in the world. And little known to many, Kochi has its very own OG parkour group called Aepiens.
The group was started in 2006 by Shravan Satya when he was still in school. He was introduced to the sport after watching a 2004 French action film called District 13. “I was blown away by all the stunts in the movie. David Belle, who is considered the founder of parkour, plays the lead character and I wanted to do exactly what he did. Back then, not many were aware of the discipline in Kerala so I started watching YouTube videos and taught myself. I also wanted to form a community of other parkour practitioners,” says Sharavan.
But it would be another four years before he inducted his first member. “I used to work out at Kozhikode beach. One day, I saw a guy practising flips and other gymnastic moves. I went to him and his friend and told them about parkour and my plans to start a group,” adds Shravan who is a graduate of BSc computer science. Aepiens currently has a little over 10 core team members spread across the state and close to 70 community members aged between 18 and 26. On a mission to popularise the discipline, the group has conducted parkour workshops across all districts. “We have lost count of the number of workshops we have conducted so far.
However, we make sure to conduct at least one every month. Although many youngsters are now familiar with parkour, society at large is still unaware. I explain it to people using the 2018 Malayalam movie Aadhi as a reference for which I was the stunt coordinator,” says Sharavan. The 25-year-old who works as a fitness trainer and stunt choreographer in the Malayalam film industry has trained the likes of Pranav Mohanlal and Samyuktha Menon.
“There are two aspects to this discipline. What most people refer to as parkour is actually freerunning. Parkour is all about how one gets from one point to the other efficiently by crossing all the obstacles while freerunning involves style and expression. It is all about fancy flips and acrobatic tricks. Anyone can practice parkour but under proper guidance. I have trained a 52-year-old woman as well,” adds Shravan who has coached more than 300 people so far. Most recently featured in rap group Street Academics viral music video ‘Pambaram’, Aepiens is planning to build a stronger community and popularising parkour in the future.