Starting at just 10 years old on the white walls of the Terrace Courthouse, Luke Sabal, now 28 has become Canada's top parkour player, undefeated for the past four years.
Parkour is a sport of moving from point 'a' to point 'b' using obstacles in path while flipping, running, climbing, swinging, jumping, vaulting, rolling and the like with roots in military obstacle course training and martial arts.
Sabal, a self-taught parkour player born and brought up in Terrace first learned about the sport while scrolling through YouTube videos.
"Even before I knew what parkour was, I was already kind of doing parkour around the city trying to do flips and stuff like that," Sabal said.
"But I just didn't know it had a name and when I watched a video where they actually put a name to the sport, that's kind of when I got obsessed with it."
Recently, Sabal participated in Sports Parkour League where he bagged the sixth position among 80 parkour players from across the world. Out of around eight participants from all over Canada, Sabal topped the list.
Calling it one of the fastest-growing sports, Sabal said being self-taught had its own challenges.
"Nowadays if you mention the name of the sport, most people will at least know what you're talking about because they have seen the reference in movies before," he said.
The Office, a popular situational comedy series mentioned the name of the sport in one of the episodes in which all the characters were rolling around the office yelling 'parkour'.
"But being self-taught and being the only person who did it at the time, it was hard for me to be motivated," Sabal said.
"If I wanted to try something that was higher risk, it would have been easier if I had somebody to encourage me or call the ambulance if I got hurt. If you make a mistake and there's no one around, it is harder to push yourself."
However, being self-taught also helped Sabal to tear apart techniques better and more effectively by watching YouTube videos in slow motion.
After Sabal moved to Kelowna in 2018, he met two other parkour athletes. He then started coaching parkour at Kelowna Gymnastics. But, a lot of people weren't interested in the sport at the time Sabal said considering high risk of parkour.
Coaching at several places throughout the years Sabal says the sport has now become more popular after people realized "they don't have to be on the roofs to do parkour."
Instead, Sabal said it has now become popular among both kids and seniors for its safety benefits.
For toddlers, parkour helps them learn how to land safely, climb, and handle obstacles without getting hurt.
"Parents love that for their kids, it builds coordination and muscle strength," he said.
Sabal also teaches parkour to seniors as old as 73 focussing on basic movements and safe falling techniques. He says this helps seniors feel more confident and less afraid of falling or getting down from things safely.
"At all those different levels, it's still parkour," Sabal said.
Sabal pointed out that the sport is predominantly male-dominated.
He believes the low female participation is partly due to misconceptions about parkour being too dangerous. Many women, Sabal said might be hesitant to try parkour because they see the more extreme aspects and think it’s beyond their ability.
However, he finds that once women with backgrounds in gymnastics, cheerleading, or dance try parkour, they often fall in love with it.
"But, convincing them to start is a challenge," he said.
In 2023, Sabal co-founded Canadian Parkour League with the owner of Ethos Parkour and Movement in Penticton because they wanted to create more opportunities for semi-pro athletes in the country. The league aims to offer a competitive platform for athletes who aren’t quite ready for the World Championships.
Since its inception, the league has organized four competitions, including events in Quebec and Ontario.
