Every month we will interview the boldest craftsmen who are living the Pig & Hen lifestyle. This month, we have interviewed…
BART VAN DER LINDEN - FREERUNNER
First things first: could you tell us how your love for freerunning began and when? Did you always want to be a professional freerunner?
As most boys growing up in the country my life was all about football (soccer). But when there was no practice I would be off climbing something, anything would do: trees, playgrounds, garages and eventually small buildings. Then as a reward I would jump down somehow. Jumping off things was the coolest thing in the world to me, it made me feel like I could do anything. I was always looking for the next challenge and this was before I even knew what Freerunning was! Then I saw the French movie Yamakasi which is a modern Robin Hood story that features some of the first ever Parkour practitioners. That movie changed my life, it showed me that there was a whole culture surrounding the thing I love most: jumping things. Guided by video’s I found on the internet (before youtube ever existed) I started my journey to become worlds best Traceur*. I told my local friends about it and we started doing parkour. Looking back I laugh because we had no idea what we were doing. I was 12 and had a mission. As soon as my parents let me I take a train to Amsterdam to train with people I met on a forum, they showed me what Parkour really was about and it never got boring. Parkour took me all around the world. I created a sustainable lifestyle for me and my family by doing Parkour.
* French word for: path finder. a.k.a. Parkour Athlete