Since forming last year parkour crew ‘Storm Freerun’ have smashed onto the free-running scene; with a youtube video thats had more hits than Amy Winehouse and a clientele list boasting names such as Adidas, Sony and Red Bull there all set for a 2011 take over.

We caught up with London based crew member Jan Barcikowski to chat about the future of parkour, Storm Freerun Vol.1, and getting chased by the police...

Ex: Storm Freerun is now in its second year and has received both underground and commercial success, with a hugely popular youtube video and impressive clientele list I’m guessing the crew’s pretty hype for summer 2011?

Jan: Yeh man! Each time a new opportunity arrises I’m always surprised, I guess I’m still not used to being approached to do work. I think because each job is completely different its quite often new and exciting, obviously sometimes you get a really shit one but you just get on with it, but we always manage to have a laugh...  Also some dude in America got a tattoo of our logo on his leg; and that was only after we released the trailer. Madness!!

Ex: Your current Youtube video, Storm Freerun Vol. 1, has received an insane 1,517,129 hits. What was your reaction to the video’s success and when can we expect Storm Freerun Vol. 2?

Jan: We expected it to do pretty well after how much time and production value we put into it, and knowing that no one else in the parkour community had yet committed that much effort to one video we were pretty confident it’d be big. But yeh I’m still pretty blown away by the online recognition, pretty much any kid that does parkour these days has definitely seen it. So its always a nice feeling when you meet someone for the first time and they give you props for the vid.

Ex: With Storm you’ve had the chance to visit some iconic city circuits, if you were allowed one last run, any where in the world, where would you go?

Jan: Would have to be london man! It’s got a lot going on, estates like Vauxhall or Elephant and Castle are pretty monumental spots.

EX: Free runners are notoriously athletic! Does this mean endless hours at the gym or do you still manage to eat takeaway’s, get mashed and play unhealthy amounts of Playstation like the rest of us?

Ha. Yeh i definitely don't do enough conditioning, this is more of an issue for conserving joints in the long run, the stronger the muscles around your joints, tendons, etc... the least likely you are to have injuries. It’s a constant battle between nights out or going for a run and eating well.

Ex: What music are you and the Storm Crew listening to at the moment? Sticking with the Hip Hop classics or repping a new vibe?

Jan: I’ve got a few guilty pleasures that I am maxing out right now, such as Wiz Khalifa from Pittsburgh, along with Mac Miller, similar types of vibes about weed money and women. All time favourites are Hudson, Mohawke, Rusty, Jay Dee, 9th Wonder, Big L... too many to mention, most of us are quite passionate about music, mainly hip hop influenced sounds but we also like to mix it up with different flavors!

Ex: If your not free running what are you doing?

Jan: Going out, getting mashed, being a massive light weight, trying to do uni work... (motion graphics, a lot of hours in front of the mac)!

Ex: The internet is crawling with epic free running fails, broken legs, arms and neck’s seems common practice! Can you remember your worst bail? Anything life threatening?

Jan: The most current one always seems the worst, haven't done anything that epic, touch wood. Last month I was in Italy at this parkour park event and I fell off some scaffolding on the first day and landed on my shoulder; It’s still hurting now, so thats pissing me off a lot!

Ex: Being sick at Parkour would give you substantial advantage in any real life urban chase! Ever insult randoms to try out new moves?

Jan: When I was 16 I was on a roof of a school, training with a friend, apparently a load of computers had been robbed, weeks before, so someone saw us and got a full-blown police squad down, helicopter and all. We tried to run away using parkour to our advantage but this didn’t help, just made us look like some guilty wastemen on crime watch.

Ex: Storm Freerun is set for a 2011 parkour take-over but competition is standardly tough, are there any other Free Running groups we need to look out for?

Well anyone moaning about immigrants taking British jobs will be happy to know that Parkour is huge in Russia at the moment, meaning there’s more and more groups of 16 year olds with gymnastic backgrounds doing pretty horrific stuff, making them far too busy concentrating on free running to worry any nationalists.

As the summer fast approaches ‘Storm Freerun’ are preparing for a host of global parkour events, and will be competing in association with RedBull later this year, confirming there position as the UK’s biggest Free Running crew. Example will be following there progress and bringing you all the latest news from the Parkour scene.

For information about Storm Freerun follow the link posted below.

www.stormfreerun.com