Rene Scavington, owner of Origins Parkour, first discovered parkour in 2003 when some friends – who had seen some videos online of the original French parkour crew – decided to try it out themselves on Vancouver’s streets. Rene came along to capture his friends’ exploits on video, but ended up falling in love with parkour himself.
It was by watching videos, through message boards, friends and self-discovert that Rene taught himself parkour, which involves moving quickly through an urban environment, over obstacles such as railings, walls and buildings.
Without any formal guidance, he stumbled early on, and says that “part of the reason I wanted to coach is that I had made so many mistakes starting out. I would spend months trying to learn how to do something and later realize that I was missing a simple cue that would have gotten me where I wanted in five minutes. I wanted to make it easier for other people.” So, in September 2012, Rene opened Origins Parkour in Vancouver's Mount Pleasant neighbourhood.
