NATIONAL GATHERING 2010

Boom! Today was a great day!

Schedule for Sunday.

10am – Meeting at the Wire Sculpture at Docklands. From there we will move to Shed4 to train at our epic setup we have in place.

10.30am -  1pm – Open session training.

1pm – 3pm – Tech Sesh. There will be stations setup focusing on a particular technique. This is a great opportunity for people to train with some of the best practitioners in the country and hopefully learn a thing or two.

3pm – 6pm – Open Session Training.

6pm - Day ends! Nation Gathering Concludes.

Don’t forget DAYLIGHT SAVINGS.

There will be someone to greet latecomers at the wire sculpture for the majority of the day.

Schedule

10am – Meeting at Wire Sculpture in Docklands

10.30am – Moving to secret training location

1pm-3pm – Tec Sessions

6pm – Day ends

There will be a warden at the Wire Sculpture for most of the day.

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The APA, in conjunction with Tans Martial Arts will be selling the Feiyue shoe on day 2 at a specific location to be announced soon. You will be able to reigester your order between the times of 10am and 2pm. You will be able to come and try the shoes to find your size and make your order. You will need to pay on the day to make your order. The shoes will be avilable for pick up later that day or the next day.

We will be offering them at a reduced price. You will be hard pressed to find them cheaper anywhere else.

Prices and location will be announced soon.

We have a nice surprise for everyone this year so if you want to find out what it is you are going to have show up with the intention to train in order to find out. A part of the day will be dedicated to our carefully planned Tec Sesh but more on that soon

The meeting place for Day2 at 10am will be pointed out on the map which will be handed out. Plenty more information about Day2 will be made on Day1.

This blog will be update during the National Gathering. I understand everyone is dying to get more information but all I can say right now is STAYED TUNED!

Will be posted later tonight

Ok guys, so the National Gathering is three day long event comprised of a heap load of training and fun with practitioners of all levels from beginner to the highly experienced, who have made the trip to Melbourne from all over Australia to train in spots they have never trained in before and hopefully in the process show the locals a few new possibilities in old training spot.

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Day1 Schedule:

So Day1 will not be too dissimilar from previous National Gatherings where we will all gather earlier in the day before breaking up and heading off to different places around the city.  Main difference this year is that people will not be forced into groups, people are free to train with whoever and where ever they want. Also at each spot listed on the map (which will be posted shortly) there will be Wardens (APA Melb instructors or volunteers). These Wardens will be available to answer your questions, give you directions to other spots and offer basic First Aid.  Wardens will also rotate between spots on the hour.

10am – Meet up at The Waves Sculpture – Receive maps, get briefed, make friends.

10.30am – Everyone moves to Southbank – Warm up, train, make friends.

11am – Wardens will move off to their designated spots – From here on people are free to go and train where they please.

1pm – Lunch – At Australia food court on Collins St

2pm – Wardens head back to designated spots.

5pm – Finish – Wardens head back to wave sculpture – Everyone is free to leave and get some well deserved rest.

It will be a long day of jamming/training and fun so make sure you pace yourself!

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Note to Parents

Parents please note that we do not recommend you allow young children come on there own. The APA cannot babysit your child but you are more then welcome to come along.  There will be many people in many different places around the city and it will be very difficult to track down one individual should they get lost.

Hi all! Two weeks out from the National Gathering and we here in the committee have been flat out getting things finalised and ready for this awesome event. I hope everyone has sorted out accomodation because this is not the year to be givning NatGat a miss.

The excitment it building, The National Meets have always been a great time to catch up with old friends made from previous Meets and a great opportunity to make new ones from all around the country.

As we get closer and closer to the Meet, more information regarding the schedual and map will be posted here. So get your stuff sorted and get yourselves down to Melbourne!

The two best options for your stay in Melbourne!

1. Nomads All Nations (2 Spencer Street)

Prices range from $26 – $32 per night.

Lots of avaliablility

Website is http://www.nomadshostels.com/hostels/australia/melbourne-all-nations-backpackers

2. Melbourne Connection Travellers Hostel (205 King St, Melbourne)

Prices range from $25 – $35 per night.

Have to book in groups of less than 6.

Website is http://www.melbourneconnection.com/

Book early, book together. If you have any questions please ask.

Hey everyone, welcome the blog of the National Gathering. This is will be the difinitive blog for this years Meet and also for all future National Gathering associated with the Australian Parkour Association. All the information you need to know for the three days can be found here.

First and foremost let us get the important news out of the way. This year the National Meet will be held in MELBOURNE Victoria during the 1st, 2nd and 3rd of OCTOBER.

Details for the cheapest and most suitable accomodation in the MELB CBD will be made available shortly. We recommend all traceurs intending on making the trip down all stay in the place/places we recommend because these are where most of the great friendships will be formed.

Now for the not so important stuff.

For those who have attended the National Meet before I kindly ask you to forget everything you know about them (Nat Meat, Nat Soc, Nat Conserve, Nat Jam) as this years format will be significantly different from the others. Of course there are some things that will remain the same ie,  heaps of training will be done,  many friends will be made, great fun will be had and rad t shirts will be on sale.

The decisions in regards to this years Gathering have been decided by the National Gathering Committee. The Committee consists of Rhys James, Chippa, Nipon Kittikhoun and myself Shaun wood. The Comittee was formed because members of the Parkour community recognised that from the current growth of parkour in Australia and from feedback the more recent meets ( http://forum.parkour.asn.au/index.php?topic=4478.0 ) that the current structure of the meet was no longer working to serving to community as well as it should be. This year committee members were self nominated, the structure and nomination of committee in future has yet to be decided.

The mission statement for this and all future National Meets will be as follows:

“National Meet is a yearly event which aims to bring together the Australian Parkour community in a host city, chosen by the community. Participants will experience an educational and social event, training with leaders from around the country and spending time networking with Traceurs from other regions. National Meet also aims

to promote Parkour positively to the wider community to ensure National Meets benefit everyone involved.”

Obviously we have broken our own rule in that the location was not choosen by the wider parkour community, but for the plans and aspirations we have for the new style of National Gathering and being a catalyst of change, it was important that the host city had the infrastructure (in terms of man power, community development, maturity and APA presence) to deal with the type of event we have planned, to which Sydney and Melbourne were the logical options. Basically one of our main goals with this years Gathering is to build a frame work and blue print for a great event that will be applicable to all capital cities in years to come.

Being the first year of the new style of National Gathering there will be many new and different things, some of which have not been tested. Our hope is that these changes are embraced by the community but also hope the community is never quite satisfied. We want to set a standard that will continually build on the foundations we have set to make the National Gathering increasingly better year after year.

For now this is all you need to know.  More information will be available in the coming weeks so watch this space people!