Remember when you were a kid and you just liked jumping off of shit? It didn’t matter if you were jumping from a high step or a tree limb—you just enjoyed the launch. It was even better if you had a running start, and completely awesome if you didn’t hurt yourself when you landed.

Parkour practitioners never really got over that love. Their jumps got higher, their vaults got faster, and the urban landscape became their playground.

Developed in France, also known as free-running, it’s likely you’ve seen parkour on the internet, if not in blockbuster films like Casino Royale. Here’s a mind-blowing example from the French film District B13.

Why should you care? This is why:

The nation’s largest parkour gym has opened in Beaverton, OR and will be hosting an open house the evening of April 30th, 2010 from 6pm to 10pm. The Revolution Parkour Academy [5651 SW Arctic Dr], founded as one of the first parkour school’s in the nation in 2008, recently opened the doors of their new facility which focuses solely on the teaching and implementation of proper parkour technique.

I’m so there.