Story from Mojokerto

It was quite hot in Pacet town that noon. I stopped by for a while at An-Nur Mosque to relax and wash my face after ±1.5 hour motorbike trip from Surabaya. Soon after that, I made an appointment with Ijoe, one of my friends from Parkour Surabaya, at his grandmother's house which is located close to the mosque.

On that day, December 10^th, 2022, I was really happy that I could meet him again after more than 2 years. This is because I was forced to return to my parents' hometown since the end of 2020, so temporarily I don’t live in Surabaya anymore. This East Java trip unfortunately only lasted for a week, so that meant I had to enjoy every moment here.

 

After exchanging pleasantries and catching up with Ijoe’s family, we immediately continued our trip to Mojokerto, the city where this 2022 East Java regional jamming was held. The ±40 minutes trip didn’t even tire me a bit, even though the previous night I stayed up late watching World Cup 2022 quarter-final between Netherlands vs Argentina until 5 AM in the morning. The happiness and enthusiasm for meeting my parkour friends from East Java (+ non-East Java too of course) overcame my tiredness and sleepiness. After all, this is the first regional jamming event held since Covid-19 hit. Previously, the last one was held back in 2019 in Bondowoso.

 

Before arriving at the gathering place in the sports hall beside Mojokerto Education Office building, Ijoe and I stopped by a food stall, where several other participants were already there, including non-East Java practitioners (Jakarta, Bekasi, Yogyakarta). After we ate and had a chat there, we continued our trip to the sports hall with motorbikes.

 

We arrived at the location around 3.00 PM. And for the next 2-3 hours, there was no other agenda than re-registration for all the participants. During our free time after the registration, most of us did free jamming and had some chit-chat with each other.

 

The opening of regional jamming officially started after maghrib prayer and dinner. It began with the introduction from each community present, then continued with the appointment of Hendy as the new president of East Java Parkour.

 

Then around 10.00 PM, the event continued to night jamming session, which was also a collaboration between East Java Parkour and Parkour House. In this night jamming session, the participants not only explored Mojokerto city, but also had a challenged-game with some interesting door prizes.

 

Honestly, I was in a dilemma situation. On one hand, I really wanted to watch World Cup quarter-final match between Portugal vs Morocco which also started at 10.00 PM (Portugal is my favorite national team by the way). But on the other hand, I didn't want to waste any moment from this regional jamming event, because at least I had to wait another year to be able to gather like this.

So, in the end, I still decided to join the night jamming, while occasionally peeking livescore.com to see the results of Portugal vs Morocco match. To be honest, I ended up not being 100% focused during jamming. I didn't even participate in some various challenges made by Parkour House due to my splitting mind between two situations. Besides, I'm an introvert who don't really like being the center of attention.

                                                                                                                         

Upon returning to the sports hall, I continued watching the final minutes of the match via cell phone with some other friends. Unfortunately, Portugal lost 1-0. This made me a little bit sad, especially seeing my idol, Cristiano Ronaldo, walking sadly into the dressing room.

 

Luckily I moved on quickly when I hung out afterwards at the stall next to the sports hall. We chatted while enjoying our snacks and hot coffee until dawn. And speaking about the World Cup, actually I wanted to continue watching the other quarter-final match between England vs France, but since the next day's schedule started at ±07.00 AM, I had to rest immediately after coming back from the stall.

 

It felt like I just slept for a short period of time when suddenly the committee woke us up to have breakfast and started warming up in the front yard of the sports hall. After finishing warming up and conditioning, as soon as we were about to begin the main training, I was unexpectedly appointed by Bruce to be the sudden-instructor for precision jump session. To be honest I was a little bit nervous, since most of the participants had far better parkour skills than me, so I just didn't feel right if I became the instructor. Besides, as I mentioned above, I am an introvert and don't really like doing public speaking. But never mind, I tried my best, after all, everyone here is my fellow parkour friends, not strangers.

 

After finishing the session and having lunch together, the schedule continued with games, some challenges and freestyle competitions. One of the memorable moments from this session was during the high jump challenge when there were only 2 contestants left, Vyel vs Rommy. The jump challenge between the two was so fierce that it took up our lunchtime. Their jumps kept repeating over and over again until finally, Vyel won this challenge! What a fun and exciting game it was.

 

The drunken race session was also no less exciting, here the participants were asked to spin in place several times before starting the race. Then for freestyle competition, as always, the participants were free to do any movement to overcome the obstacles for 45 seconds. And what about me? Well… due to my mediocre skills and my consistent adherence to non-competitive parkour, I just became a spectator. As long as I could gather and hang out with the others, it was enough for me.

 

Finally, the Mojokerto regional jamming ended around 3.00 PM with a group photo session and then continued with the announcement of next year's host in Blitar. Most of the participants had started to return to their respective cities, while I immediately continued my trip to Malang to meet some of my non-parkour friends.

 

Overall, I’m really impressed with this regional jamming. Even though it only lasted for one night, this is the moment that I’ve been waiting for the last 2 years. Meeting old and new friends, both from East Java and outside East Java, makes me feel so, so happy, as if half of my soul has returned. We also feel like we’re one big parkour family. And lastly, hopefully we can meet up again next year in Blitar, and (maybe) my parents will allow me to stay in Surabaya again? who knows...