Just as a quick disclaimer before we get into the lists, this is only my opinion. You don’t have to agree with the placement or reasoning while reading the list. If anything I encourage creating that sort of conversation. What do we actually want to see? The convenience of going through TikTok and Instagram has ultimately left Youtube a difficult place to find good content.
I’m hoping with this list I can share some content I’ve really enjoyed this year, as well as start a conversation about “parkour media” and if a line exists. This article was originally supposed to be just the top five videos of the year. Looking back I realized it’d be better to share channels to look out for. I have a feeling that next year is gonna pop off with some crazy content, mainly coming from our best and honorable mentions lists.
I’m hoping with this list I can share some content I’ve really enjoyed this year, as well as start a conversation about “parkour media”…
THE 5 BEST PARKOUR YouTube CHANNELS OF 2022
5. Team Farang
I’ve actually been very impressed with all of the content that Farang has been putting out recently. While the athlete roster is more or less up in the air currently, everyone that seems to be on the team currently is looking very strong. Hard not to mention the addition of Joe Scandrett and “Forever Incomplete”, the long awaited Valtteri video part that I loved just about every second of. Before these newer releases I had felt that Farang was starting to fall flat in style and vibes. These new videos made me pull a fast 180. I’m interested in new content from them next year and you should too.
4. Zen Shimada
This Team Farang member has been getting a lot of work done on his solo channel. Only a few years ago he came out with a video named “Freerun On Earth”. A video that’s visually breathtaking, showcases some super solid movement that’s always to be expected of Zen, and the voice overs really tie it all together. Zen has provided some updates on this particular project.
Touring through different regions of Japan, Zen takes to train with locals and explore areas that were potentially never found before that point. His new Freerun On Earth series is truly wholesome, the care free attitude I know all too well when training with the boys. Zen has a way of capturing that feeling really well for me. Personally I think it’s criminal that it doesn’t get the attention it does. I hope to see more from this series and Zen in general.
Recently Giles had announced that The Motus Projects will soon no longer exist. Good news is that they get full time jobs with Storror (everyone very much liked that). Bad news is maybe no more Motus content that’ll have the same grit that “Hazel”, “Red”, along with classics like “Sole Destroyer” that didn’t come out that long ago still.
What’s particularly great about The Motus Projects is the unmeasurable talent that they all had collectively.
What’s particularly great about The Motus Projects is the unmeasurable talent that they all had collectively. For several years they were forces to be reckoned with. Parts like “Hazel” still keep us in check when it comes to that. That running gainer was absolutely bananas. Other parts like “Red” and videos with Keelan are much more personal and you can really see them enjoying their movement. They’re releasing things you originally had to pay for like “Sole Destroyer” for free on Youtube, so go check them out and give them some love.
Impossible to understate how much influence these guys have over current freerunning trends. It’s hard for me to believe that anyone would’ve learned Cork 0 without watching Josh do it first. Egg, Trevor, and Ross all have caught my attention in more ways than one. The endless amount of ideas that the whole team has to add to the table keeps it fresh too. Love these guys and everything they do. I’d keep an eye on them if I were you.
Impossible to understate how much influence these guys have over current freerunning trends.
1. Capst1
This was a tough placement. I have my reservations that we will get to in a moment, but they are completely outweighed by the absolute love and passion put into these videos. You can see a clear direction of what they’re going for. Every challenge and line is unique and mind blowing. Storror athletes like Drew Taylor and the Caves really shined. Showing a kind of versatility we don’t get to see all that often on their Storror channel.
Jannis Schauer really goes all in on the videos he appears on. Making the impossible look easy, his movement alone has its own cinematic feel. The way he looks at the world fascinates me, and can’t get enough of his fluid, technical, and difficult lines. What an actual legend.
Jannis Schauer really goes all in on the videos he appears on. Making the impossible look easy, his movement alone has its own cinematic feel.
Dom actually has some really good bits in these videos as well. In the Farang videos his movement comes off a tad repetitive to me. For some reason his movement has so much more nuance and variety. I feel these videos give all of his skillset more scale rather than the usual front flip. Wish we saw more of this from Dom.
This leads me to my only complaint. The one guy who doesn’t land a single thing. Guys. Come on. We can’t be pretending this is okay. Glorifying bails the way Capst1 does is a bit problematic to me, but I also understand that it’s kind of the aesthetic. I guess this is one of those themes where you can ask “where do you draw the line?”, but I also feel that’s a conversation for another day.
We can’t be pretending this is okay. Glorifying bails the way Capst1 does is a bit problematic to me,
THE 5 WORST PARKOUR YouTube CHANNELS OF 2022
5. Storror
This might come as a hot take to put Storror in the worst category, but there is a reason. In retrospect I get nostalgic for anything similar to the old school parkour video vibes. I’d be lying if I said a huge part of my influence in parkour, community, and filmmaking come from this specific group of people. Videos of the likes of the Caves with their “Cavemen” series, Callum constantly showing up to show out, Josh and Drew just destroying everything they touch, and Toby being Toby (which is magnificent to watch by the way).
Water challenges are cool, but only for so long before I get bored of it. Their POV videos are fine, but at the end of the day it feels like Storror is just checking off boxes to maintain views and notoriety outside of the inner community.
Within these last few years the shift from that to this vlog style that we understand makes the money due to the formula the algorithm gods make us abide by. The issue with it being how they feed into the novelty of parkour. Water challenges are cool, but only for so long before I get bored of it. Their POV videos are fine, but at the end of the day it feels like Storror is just checking off boxes to maintain views and notoriety outside of the inner community. Sadly, that’s the hustle we have to succumb to in order to get your name out there (unless you’re competing at a high level.)
What Storror and others don’t seem to understand is that they have paved the way for the future of other athletes who want to go down the same road. They legitimized the novelty of parkour. Storror is essentially feeding into the “hardcore parkour” aspect of how people view us. Inevitably leading to no real change down the road.How are we gonna expect people to respect the sport when they represent the standard? As we continue this list you will see what I mean.
4. Grisha Garaz
This channel is slightly more tame than the other channels I will mention after this. The main gimmick of this channel is clickbait titles like “SON ESCAPING ANGRY MOM (WORLDWIDE ACTION POV)” and I really wish that wasn’t a real title for a video I read. Each video is about as interesting as the misleading title. People and plots are often reused on this channel. His mom is angry at him a lot it seems. Regardless it just comes off as uninspired and not very original. Bad taste. Super lame. Moving on.
More POV, but this time there’s cops and clowns. When I was getting into parkour the debates surrounding things like the difference between parkour/freerunning, or whether you should support red bull/competitions generally. A debate that sticks with me and feels fairly unanimous, is how parkour athletes are being represented in media. The cops and robbers bit continues to put us in this box that’ll make people look at us like we’re criminals. I always find it in bad taste when I see cops and robbers type POV videos. Bad taste. Super lame. Moving on.
A debate that sticks with me and feels fairly unanimous, is how parkour athletes are being represented in media.
This channel was a very close contender for number one as it continues to follow the same POV formula that we’ve mentioned before. Difference being the plot and execution. Your mom being mad at you? I can see some random 7 year old finding that and relating to it, not thinking much of it. As much as I dislike the videos I do understand it’s appeal and ability to gateway people into better content.
“WHEN YOU FALL IN LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT 2 (Romantic Parkour POV)” is not a super appealing title. While Thunder Freerunning and Grisha come off as uninspired, this channel comes off as creepy. There’s nothing romantic about these videos, titles, or even thumbnails. Each thumbnail has these huge arms reaching for the person in front of him and it’s almost disturbing to look at the more you actually look at it.
What values or message is this channel trying to get across with these videos? You could argue it’s in good fun and goofy, but where is the line drawn? When does it become bad for the general look of parkour all together?
Videos like this are beyond bad taste to me. Mostly because the main demographic is children. What values or message is this channel trying to get across with these videos? You could argue it’s in good fun and goofy, but where is the line drawn? When does it become bad for the general look of parkour all together? I hope the videos eventually mature into something more like the clown thing that Thunder Freerunning was dong for a while. I prefer that over creepy parkour.
1. Nick Pro
Oh man. Does Nick forget he lives in real life or something. Almost every single video has to clarify that it’s in real life. Like we wouldn’t know unless he told us or something. It’s just redundant in my mind to say that at all. Like yeah I’d assume if you were reenacting stunts from this movie I like that you would do it in real life and not fake life in comparison.
Not to mention the mind numbing videos where he just walks around in a spiderman suit doing regular things. He doesn’t ever add a spin to it, usually I’m able to predict every little thing that happens. It’s actually just lazy. If anything I felt like I wasted a bunch of time watching Nick Provost do some dumb stuff in Spirit Halloween costumes.
I understand that it’s how it makes him money and that’s his hustle. But at what cost? Where’s the actual contribution to our culture and community?
He also does these “versus” videos where all he does is just do a line in one costume, and cut him pretty much doing the same line in the same gym with the same set up in a different costume. I often also question how much of a fan he really is of all of these properties. On the “Goku vs. Naruto” video he plays a dragon ball song when he does a shadow clone jutsu effect that doesn’t even stay it’s welcome.
Trust me, when I say this is some of the laziest production work I’ve ever seen, I mean. Every stunt in real life video has the same front flip on a trampoline with a vault over a block. Nick puts no actual effort into recreating the stunt or fight scene. I know this man has friends that’d love to do some stunt choreo with him, this man is just kicking mats and calling it a day. The shots are lazy, hardly any color correction, and listening to him talk in these videos shows how much he really doesn’t care.
I understand that it’s how it makes him money and that’s his hustle. But at what cost? Where’s the actual contribution to our culture and community? Does being revered as a god amongst 6 year olds really your life goal? These are questions I’m asking very seriously. Where do we draw the line?
HONORABLE MENTIONS
I’m gonna shoutout a few other channels that I think are really nice that you should still look out for next year. One of them being Jannis Schauer. His channel is only active maybe once or twice a year. When he does post it’s something really special. Whether he’s throwing snow on some rails to grind down them like he’s wearing soap shoes, or he’s throwing some insane flip variation that’ll break my mind. It’s all accompanied with beautiful cinematography, music, and editing as well.
Shawn Bautista has been on the grind this year too. Coming out with new stuff pretty regularly, usually featuring Twin PK and Alfred Scott post surgery. Seeing Shawn do his things with other innovators in that same realm is truly magical. His style is unmatched with enough power to keep you on the edge of your seat. Wondering when he’ll ever stop moving (which is never it feels like).
Josh has the tech and precision to really flow things together nicely. {and] Ezra truly has a style unique to his own as well.
Toasty Lizards is another solid channel to check out as well. Josh has the tech and precision to really flow things together nicely. He only does banger lines and challenges. Ezra truly has a style unique to his own as well. His obstacle interaction is off the charts. They almost took Beans spot on the best list. I can’t wait to see the team grow and continue to push boundaries in freerunning aesthetically. Please check these guys out, you won’t regret it.
Matt McCreary takes the last honorable mention spot. Without a lot of content to reference or go off of I was immediately impressed with how Squiggles became one of my favorite videos of the year. This particular video provides a new perspective on obstacle interaction. Flowing in and out of one interesting move after another. I’m curious what kind of nonsense he’ll cook up in the future with more projects like these.
That completes my list. I’d like to know your thoughts and opinions on it in the comments as well. What channels were you following? What channels are you excited to see more from? And remember, it’s just my opinion.
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