ParkourZone, The New Parkour App: Interview With Ed Hack

Ezra Schroer
Feb 7, 2018
3 min read

Ed Hack is the creator of the new parkour app, ParkourZone. He started it as his college project at Bournemouth University, where he graduated in summer of 2017. I interviewed him for his hopes about the future of ParkourZone and how far it has come now:

Me: “To start, could you quickly sum up what ParkourZone is to the people that don't know.”

Ed: “ParkourZone is a website and app dedicated to parkour training and communities.”

Me: “You started ParkourZone for a college project. What were you majoring in?”

Ed: “I studied computing, specialising in website and app development.”

Me: “Now, for the question asked in every parkour interview ever...what inspired you to start parkour?”

Ed: “It all started for me when my Mum showed me a parkour newspaper article! It was an article about a local team called 3RUN and their success in parkour and stuntwork. From there I attended open sessions at Basingstoke Gymnastic Centre where I met most of my close friends and still go to today!

Me: “Where do you want to take ParkourZone (what do you want it to become)?”

Ed: “I want ParkourZone to be the swiss-army knife tool for traceurs across the world. The spot map should allow anyone to visit a new place and know exactly where to find the local community and their training hot-spots. The skills list is aimed at every level of training and allows athletes to tick off skills they know and even recommends skills based on your current skills! This is aimed at people who might not have a local gym but still want some guidance with parkour and freeruning! You can message people and post photos to show the vibrant colours of your unique community with the world. I really want to add video sharing as well as just photos but it's taking a lot of time! I also desperately want to create an iOS app but that is also proving to be more difficult than expected.”

Me: “What would you say ParkourZone does to the parkour community?”

Ed: “The effect ParkourZone has is bringing the entire parkour world together in one place. You can visually see the patterns of spots in each city and it gives a real sense of being part of a global movement!”

Me: “Do you see making ParkourZone gyms, clothing, jams, etc. a possibility in the future?”

Ed: I would love to throw some ParkourZone jams and events! I could see it becoming an awesome platform for sharing the creativity and positivity that parkour form has to offer. I also love the concept of making clothing, it's the kind of thing I would love to put my heart and soul in to. I love designing and art so mixing that with my passion for parkour would be great fun!”

Me: “How long has ParkourZone been a thing and how much has it grown so far?”

Ed: “ParkourZone began in my bedroom a year ago and has come so far! It now boasts around 1200 spots worldwide with 1000+ active users! Almost 5000 people have downloaded the app and the community is growing still. I just can't wait to include video sharing, that would bring the app to a whole new level for sure!”

Me: “Do you have any ideas for how ParkourZone could become more well-known to the world wide parkour community?”

Ed: “I feel like working with current brands, sponsoring athletes and having a presence at jams would be a great way to start although it's extremely difficult to fit that kind of thing around my full-time job. Eventually hosting ParkourZone jams and global events would be the goal!”

Me: “On a final note, do you agree that ParkourZone could help less known parkour communities become more visible to the rest of the world?”

Ed: “ParkourZone definitely has potential to help lesser known communities get found, especially at this early stage! The app has pretty much everything it needs to become huge now so if content is posted to the app it could easily draw in crowds to find hidden global parkour talent. It just needs that initial spark to set off a huge chain reaction of awesomeness!”

So that should completely inform you about ParkourZone, but you have to go get the real experience! You can go register on the website here, or get it on Google Play. Go do it! Go find new spots, share spots for other traceurs, track progression, and of course, meet new people!

Big shout out to Ed Hack for making the app in the first place, as well as participating in the interview. He’s a legend, go hit up his socials: YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and of course, ParkourZone!