CALLUM POWELL

BIRTHDAY: 8TH AUGUST 1991

How did you get into parkour and meet the rest of the team?

I started parkour in 2006 with my brother Sacha, shortly after the documentary Jump Britain aired on TV, when I was 15 years old.

We met Toby and Josh in 2008 at a jam. Soon after that we met the others from Horsham when they and a bunch of their friends were down in Brighton for a day. Sacha, Toby, Josh and I met up and trained fairly often but we only started seeing the Horsham lads more around 2010.

What do you most appreciate about being part of STORROR and about your team mates?

Being in STORROR has taken me to the most amazing places and extreme situations over the years, but what I appreciate most is the friendship and the constant belly laughs – the others are all well funny!

What do you think makes STORROR unique among parkour teams?

We’re not a group that was formulated for the sole purpose of commercial gain. We came together as friends who shared a distinct passion for parkour and adventure. We also work really hard to create concepts for video content.

What are your best parkour skills and what are your other talents or interests?

I’d say I specialise in precise powerful jumps, and I’m good and methodical when it comes to challenges at height. The others would probably say I’m best at approaching parkour from an athletic stand point. And strides. And eating food.

I also edit some of our videos. I’m far from the best but it’s difficult not to pick up some level of proficiency being part of STORROR. I’ve edited a bunch of the really old vids and a few of the more recent ones. It’s sick to have Sacha, who’s amazing at editing, looking over your shoulder and telling you when you’re doing something bad. That’s a good way to get better.

Other than that, I’m quite into weight training (for parkour), playing drums, producing hip-hop beats, cycling, and eating food. Eating is definitely a close second after parkour!

What’s your diet like and what training or exercise do you do to improve fitness?

It’s definitely quantity over quality most of the time, but I try to consciously eat pretty healthily. I aim for plenty of calories and dense sources of protein for good recovery and energy. My favourite meal is something of the eggy breakfast variety.

Parkour itself is the best way to improve physically, technically, and mentally, but I’ve always preached and practised strength and conditioning for joint preservation and explosive power. Mostly I do a variety of barbell squats, deadlifts, split squats and weighted pull-ups. I consider strength, conditioning, flexibility and mobility the seasoning of parkour training. It’s important for preservation and to make it taste better.

What’s your taste in books, films, music?

I get through a lot of books, both novels and non-fiction. Some I’ve read in the past few years: The Parkour Roadmap by Max Henry; Breaking The Jump by Julie Angel; Alone On The Wall by Alex Honnold; Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer; Sapiens and Homo Deus both by Yuval Noah Harari; The God Delusion and The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins; Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall; The Rise of Superman by Steven Kotler; Tarzan, and others in the series, by Edgar Rice Burroughs; and loads by Dan Brown, including Origin, Inferno, The Lost Symbol, and The Da Vinci Code.

Among my favourite films are the documentaries Free Solo and Valley Uprising, as well as Inglourious Basterds and Django UnchainedThe Shawshank Redemption, American Psycho, and The Dark Knight.

I’m into a lot of different music but mostly what I listen to, according to Spotify, is a variety of metal, prog rock, classic rock, hip-hop and jazz.

At school, what subjects were you best at and worst at?

I didn’t do very well in school. It didn’t suit me. I pretty much flopped in everything apart from art, music, and graphic design.

If you weren’t a professional parkour athlete, what would you be doing for a living?

I’d be playing drums as a session musician or in a band, or a personal trainer of some sort.

What places would you like to visit that you haven’t yet and which are your favourites so far?

For sure, I’d like to see a lot of Africa and Asia still. Australia and New Zealand are definitely high on the wish list too. Favourites so far are United States, Italy, Hong Kong, Brazil, Mexico and Germany.

Where do you see yourself ten years from now?

Most of all I’d like to see me still moving at a high level, but if not, I’d hope to be heavily involved in parkour. That might be through a STORROR academy, or providing strength and conditioning programmes and coaching for high level competitive parkour athletes, and running worldwide intensive workshops.

What advice would you give someone starting out in parkour?

Enjoy the work. It takes a lot of practice to get good, and if you enjoy the work and the challenge you’ll go far as parkour is, in essence, about challenging yourself.

CALLUM POWELL

BIRTHDAY: 8TH AUGUST 1991

How did you get into parkour and meet the rest of the team?

I started parkour in 2006 with my brother Sacha, shortly after the documentary Jump Britain aired on TV, when I was 15 years old.

We met Toby and Josh in 2008 at a jam. Soon after that we met the others from Horsham when they and a bunch of their friends were down in Brighton for a day. Sacha, Toby, Josh and I met up and trained fairly often but we only started seeing the Horsham lads more around 2010.

What do you most appreciate about being part of STORROR and about your team mates?

Being in STORROR has taken me to the most amazing places and extreme situations over the years, but what I appreciate most is the friendship and the constant belly laughs – the others are all well funny!

What do you think makes STORROR unique among parkour teams?

We’re not a group that was formulated for the sole purpose of commercial gain. We came together as friends who shared a distinct passion for parkour and adventure. We also work really hard to create concepts for video content.

What are your best parkour skills and what are your other talents or interests?

I’d say I specialise in precise powerful jumps, and I’m good and methodical when it comes to challenges at height. The others would probably say I’m best at approaching parkour from an athletic stand point. And strides. And eating food.

I also edit some of our videos. I’m far from the best but it’s difficult not to pick up some level of proficiency being part of STORROR. I’ve edited a bunch of the really old vids and a few of the more recent ones. It’s sick to have Sacha, who’s amazing at editing, looking over your shoulder and telling you when you’re doing something bad. That’s a good way to get better.

Other than that, I’m quite into weight training (for parkour), playing drums, producing hip-hop beats, cycling, and eating food. Eating is definitely a close second after parkour!

What’s your diet like and what training or exercise do you do to improve fitness?

It’s definitely quantity over quality most of the time, but I try to consciously eat pretty healthily. I aim for plenty of calories and dense sources of protein for good recovery and energy. My favourite meal is something of the eggy breakfast variety.

Parkour itself is the best way to improve physically, technically, and mentally, but I’ve always preached and practised strength and conditioning for joint preservation and explosive power. Mostly I do a variety of barbell squats, deadlifts, split squats and weighted pull-ups. I consider strength, conditioning, flexibility and mobility the seasoning of parkour training. It’s important for preservation and to make it taste better.

What’s your taste in books, films, music?

I get through a lot of books, both novels and non-fiction. Some I’ve read in the past few years: The Parkour Roadmap by Max Henry; Breaking The Jump by Julie Angel; Alone On The Wall by Alex Honnold; Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer; Sapiens and Homo Deus both by Yuval Noah Harari; The God Delusion and The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins; Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall; The Rise of Superman by Steven Kotler; Tarzan, and others in the series, by Edgar Rice Burroughs; and loads by Dan Brown, including Origin, Inferno, The Lost Symbol, and The Da Vinci Code.

Among my favourite films are the documentaries Free Solo and Valley Uprising, as well as Inglourious Basterds and Django UnchainedThe Shawshank Redemption, American Psycho, and The Dark Knight.

I’m into a lot of different music but mostly what I listen to, according to Spotify, is a variety of metal, prog rock, classic rock, hip-hop and jazz.

At school, what subjects were you best at and worst at?

I didn’t do very well in school. It didn’t suit me. I pretty much flopped in everything apart from art, music, and graphic design.

If you weren’t a professional parkour athlete, what would you be doing for a living?

I’d be playing drums as a session musician or in a band, or a personal trainer of some sort.

What places would you like to visit that you haven’t yet and which are your favourites so far?

For sure, I’d like to see a lot of Africa and Asia still. Australia and New Zealand are definitely high on the wish list too. Favourites so far are United States, Italy, Hong Kong, Brazil, Mexico and Germany.

Where do you see yourself ten years from now?

Most of all I’d like to see me still moving at a high level, but if not, I’d hope to be heavily involved in parkour. That might be through a STORROR academy, or providing strength and conditioning programmes and coaching for high level competitive parkour athletes, and running worldwide intensive workshops.

What advice would you give someone starting out in parkour?

Enjoy the work. It takes a lot of practice to get good, and if you enjoy the work and the challenge you’ll go far as parkour is, in essence, about challenging yourself.