Story of 28 Hours in Jombang

Finally the day that had been long awaited by all East Javanese parkour practitioners in 2016 had come. After held the event successfully in 2010 (Surabaya), 2011 (Malang), 2012 (Kediri), 2013 (Gresik), 2014 (Probolinggo), and 2015 (Jember); on May 21^st 2016 Jombang city had a chance to be the host of 7th East Java Parkour Regional Jamming. Just for your info, Jombang is the first city in Indonesia that has a parkour park, so that’s one of many interesting things in this regional jamming.

Since 6.00 AM in the morning I had already packed my stuff, and I also prepared Avolution shirts that would be sold in Jombang, so in other words I had a lot of things to be brought. But that’s not a problem, because the jamming euphoria and the chance to meet most of East Javanese parkour practitioners exceeded this rushing and busy preparation.

Around 8.30 AM; Yohanes, Ajril, Saga, Fikri, Hasan, and I went from Surabaya by motorcycles. We made an appointment to meet at Jatim Expo first, and then drove directly to Jombang. The traffic was quite good, so it didn’t take too long travel time... just about 2 hours.

When entering Jombang city, we went straight to Ulin’s house for resting and chilling there. And it turns out there were many East Javanese parkour practitioners from various cities that had stayed in Ulin’s house since the previous day, including Andreas and Ijoe from Surabaya. Even there were 2 Balinese parkour practitioners (Pingkan and Riza) that made this regional jamming more exciting. We gathered and chatted for a moment there, then around 1.00 PM all the regional jamming participants who were in Ulin’s house, went to PSBR building for joining the others. There were 100+ people who attended this regional jamming.

The hall of PSBR building itself would be the staying place for all regional jamming participants. There were a mosque and toilet on the right side of the hall, while there was a park on the left side that would be the first day jamming spot. In other words, we didn’t need to move anywhere else throughout the day. Until sunset, all the participants happily doing free jammed, flip training, and also vaulting practice with portable obstacles in the park.

In the evening, after every participant had taken a shower, eating dinner, and (for Muslims) did a Maghrib prayer; Andreas and I started to sell Avolution shirts and Malingkondank pants in the hall. Thankfully, most of the items were sold out due to the participants' enthusiasm. Then around 8.30 PM, the committees held an introductory session for all East Javanese parkour communities (+also parkour Bali). Through this session, all the regional jamming participants and committees became closer to each other. After that, the session was continued with some sharing by Bruce Nggedabruce, Brex, Danial, and Syukron. They are 4 of the senior East Javanese parkour practitioners that still exist until today. They shared how to manage parkour community well, how to separate between “perform team” and “community”, and the most important is not to sacrifice friendship for the sake of money (if parkour became a profession to make money, then there should be a financial transparency between the team members as well as the manager). The sharing session itself was finished by midnight.

The next morning, there were 2 more participants who joined us. They were Ibnu and Selly who went by train from Yogyakarta. Of course their presence made this jamming more exciting. After eating breakfast, merchandise distribution, and some photo shot; all the regional jamming participants left PSBR building to get to Keplaksari Park... a.k.a. Jombang Parkour Park.

And for the next 1.5 hours, we had a very intense physical and technique training from Bruce, Brex, Danial, and Andreas. From upper, core, to lower body; nothing was missed. Although we were exhausted physically, but in spite of that thing, this was a very impressive training. When else could we train together with all East Javanese parkour practitioners in Jombang Parkour Park?

After the class session was finished, the training continued to free jamming session. At this time the last 3 participants had just joined us from Surabaya; those were Putra, Duest, and Fia. They definitely enlivened the jamming more again. From the most senior to the newbie, everyone of us gathered and train together without discriminating each other, what an unforgettable memory.

By midday, the weather was getting hot and most of the participants began to look tired. The committees finally gave us lunch and... after that the closing session of East Java Regional Jamming 2016 had just begun. It was started with doorprize awarding, then continued to appoint Banyuwangi as the city host of East Java Regional Jamming 2017, and ended with a short closing speech from Ulin as the chairman of the committee. After that, all the participants said goodbye to each other and went back to their own cities. It felt like the jamming had just started, but it had to be ended... how fast the time flew when we did something we like.

By the way, it’s not completed if we went to Jombang unless we trying “es degan durian”, a beverage mixed from chilled/iced coconut water, young coconut flesh, syrup, and durian. After finished from Parkour Park; Yohanes, Andreas, Ijoe, Acil, Aan, Putra, Duest, Fia, and I stopped by the vending carts that sold this typical Jombang cuisine. It tasted so fresh in our mouth, moreover we were all very thirsty after parkour training. When everything’s completed, ± 2.30 PM we went back to Surabaya by motorcycles and split up towards each home. I drove Yohanes to his house first before going back to my boarding house.

For me, this was a very impressive regional jamming, beside exploring Jombang Parkour Park, I also could build friendship and solidarity between all East Javanese parkour practitioners. There were many new people who attended this regional jamming compared to the previous one, and I’m happy with that. That means the regeneration is going well. Hopefully next year in Banyuwangi we can meet and jam together again.