There once was a boy named Dameon, this is his story. It was an average day in the 8th grade for Dameon, eating a grotesque lunch with the wrong crowd of people. He was a shy kid with a very low self esteem; Dameon had made it through the prior grade with only one friend, his best friend since childhood: Joey. Somehow he had become acquaintances with the pothead skater crowd, he never partook in either of these activities due to the fact that he killed most of his free time playing games. A side effect of being a tech addict was an excess load of fat tissue, for this he was bullied sufficiently. Dameon was not satisfied with life and wanted something more. He only had one thing going for him: He was a dreamer.
Redress
Near the middle of the year his skater friends found a new hobby; They called it Parkour and Dameon had no perception of what it was. Time passed and they lost interest in the odd sport. Dameon continued to lurch through the year with little meaning or purpose. At long last summer arrived and the burden of traditional education was alleviated, It felt like a lifetime but he had made it. Summer vacation marked a turning point in Dameon’s life. He decided that high school would be different and no one would ever take advantage of him again. Dameon spent quite some time formulating an action plan. This plan started with one simple goal: get in shape. Dameon started cutting back on fast food and even on games. Over the summer he lost a tepid amount of weight and was feeling adequate. It was at this time that Dameon stumbled upon a golden opportunity; A letter arrived in the mail describing a new innovative school which focused on freedom and collaboration. The school went by the name of KIH and collected it’s students from all over the state. The letter urged Dameon to attend due to the fact that there were limited student slots available for each city. Dameon took a leap of faith and signed up, Joey did the same. They would spend half of their day at KIH and the other half at their home school, it was the perfect compromise. Antecedent
School started and Dameon was uneasy to say the least. He was essentially going to a school where he knew no one, of course it was the same for the other students. We were all the new kid. For this reason the school focused on team building activities for the first few weeks, this boosted Dameon’s confidence to borderline arrogant levels. He was flying’ high but still had no definite purpose aside from chasing girls. School eventually became the highlight of his life, not the education aspect but the social aspect. He would be ecstatic to go to school and see his friends. This being a school that drew it’s students from all over the state posed the issue of hanging out with friends, school marked the only time we were all together. Weekends were excruciatingly boring, to pass the time Dameon often surfed the web; One day while browsing the interwebs he recalled a term that his old skater friends had thrown around: “Parkour”. He quickly proceeded to research the term. What he found was astounding, the athleticism of these so called Traceurs was surreal; Dameon observed a man perform something called a “kong”. After witnessing this, one thought flashed in his head: “Pfft, I could never do that!”. This was a lowball observation of himself but Dameon believed it. Concomitant
You see, Dameon had a habit of watching motivational videos. He did this for no particular reason, he never translated the motivation to any specific task but enjoyed absorbing it nonetheless. This particular day was different, after watching a motivational video on tree climbing (strange stuff), he decided to try his hand at it. What’s the worst that could happen? He made quick work of finding a worthy adversary, his opponent was a fifty foot pine tree in his backyard with long burly branches. Dameon psyched himself up started up the base with little difficulty. After a while he was comfortable and picked up his climbing speed. He continued about halfway up, the branches were getting quite small and Dameon thought it would wise for him to return down; After descending to the ground he went back inside for some more motivation. Dameon was amped up from the successful tree climb and felt like a superhero; Full of adrenaline and ego he made the decision that would change the direction of his life forever: He committed to trying Parkour. Climacteric
Dameon started his Parkour training with little background knowledge as to proper training methods. Step one was finding a place to practice, he ended up coming across a fallen tree stretched over a river in a secluded section of forest (this was a very lucky find for Dameon, as he lived in the suburbs which contained few worthwhile training spots). Eventually Dameon learned of a skilled Taceur named Jesse La Flair and took advantage of his Parkour tutorial videos. The beginner level moves were far too difficult for Dameon, half because of his footwear (Air Jordans) and half because of his less than ideal body structure, he was getting in shape but wasn't quite there yet. Dameon then decided to train what felt right, he just moved. Simple techniques like balancing across the river on slim branches built the base that all of Dameon’s following skills would rest on. He spent about a year training like this, in isolation everyday for a few hours. It grew on him, silent time to think taught him many lessons. Things were going well and Dameon wanted to bring his game to the next level, in order to do this he adopted a vegan diet; With the diet in place It took him about eight months to grow a solid Parkour skill set. He was happy being a Traceur and decided to open up to the community. Dameon then proceeded to learn the big names in the discipline and even found a few apps dedicated to bringing the global Parkour community together. As summer approached Joey took interest in what Dameon was up to due to the fact that Parkour had now become the focal point of his friend’s life. He had “Caught the bug” as David Belle would say. In fact, Joey was so interested that he agreed to go out training with Dameon. The Cult
This was Dameon’s chance to create a synergistic group for the purpose of elevating his Parkour game. Joey and Dameon were soon training everyday. Joey wanted to maximize his game as well so he too took up the vegan diet. After one particularly rough session, Dameon realized he had bruised his heel and needed to take a few days off. The timing of this particular injury was perfect due to the fact that Joey was going on vacation at the very same time. With nothing to do while resting Dameon began to devise a plan for a team between him and Joey, it was decided that the team would be called Headway Parkour. Dameon was determined to get everything set up before Joey returned. In order to do this he worked fervently, seeming to never let up. He put blood, sweat, and tears into the creation of Headway Parkour; It was grueling but worthwhile work that sparked the next sequence of astounding events. Ascension
With the team in place Dameon proposed that they began filming for a team showreel that would be released on new year’s day. This gave the team half a year to film, edit, and produce a professional grade showreel; Six months was a reasonable amount of time for a seasoned editor to produce a video. Dameon was not a seasoned editor and had his work cut out for him. The team filmed every day with a passion for perfection, no detail was too small. Everything was getting along smoothly, then football started and Joey vanished. Dameon was once again in isolation but this didn’t deter him, he would train and film rain or shine. Dameon’s Parkour skills grew exponentially during football season. Joey was in for a surprise when he returned, nobody had expected such a large fissure in skills to occur between the two Traceurs. In the past such a large skill gap would have spelt doom for the team but Dameon had been researching teaching methods and saw this as his opportunity to put them into action. He pushed Joey to the limit every day, this helped him to fulfill his true potential as a Traceur. The pair of friends worked their asses off to create a phenomenal showreel; they put the work in and received a great product in return. The video aired January first and was a big hit among those who watched it. Momentum was building fast. Jubilation
The team was maturing and learning the do’s and don'ts of navigating the Parkour world. The team’s showreel was an acceptable first video but they needed to step their game up if they wanted to keep up with other local teams. It was then that Dameon and Joey flipped the script when it came to training; In the past they had trained simple Parkour moves. Now they made a commitment to Freerunning and conditioning. The Freerunning would add flair to their videos and the conditioning would allow for massive distances. The pair spent the rest of their sophomore year training like mad men, busting out six hours of training every day with the exception of the weekends when they amped the training time up to nine hours a day. Summer swung around, and they were ready. Filming for the next showreel commenced, once again they had a six month deadline. Dameon and Joey were right, the Freerunning really spiced up their training and made filming a joyous experience. Summer was gone as fast as it had started and School showed it’s ugly face, only this time it brought with it the shot of a lifetime: Dameon and Joey were presented with the opportunity to attend a college in order to learn more about muscles and training methods. This college would replace their time at traditional school; The duo gladly accepted the offer and were giddy with anticipation. But don’t be fooled, they weren't excited about the education in itself, they were excited about where the education was located. The college sat smack dab in the center of Grand Rapids, the Traceur capital of West Michigan! This meant that everyday after school Joey and Dameon could train to their heart’s content. You can imagine their glee, coming from the suburbs the city was a divine paradise. Conquest
Training in the city lit a fire of passion inside each member of Headway Parkour. They were hungry and foolish Traceurs who planned to stay that way. Throughout their Junior year Joey and Dameon released a slew of high quality videos, including their highly anticipated showreel. The progression seen between the first and second showreel was unbelievable. Headway Parkour was gaining a serious following with many of their videos racking up more than ten thousand views on YouTube. Dameon and Joey knew what was next: Tricking. They had dabbled with it here and there but never plunged headfirst into the discipline. Tricking was the last link in the team’s movement skill set. They dedicated the rest of their high school careers to mastering tricking and implementing it into their arsenal. they utilized all of their movement skills to create astounding flows. The fans were eager to see what Headway Parkour had coming next. The masses were appeased when Headway Parkour dropped it’s first clothing line out of the blue. The clothing line had been a secret project inspired by Farang that Dameon and Joey had been working on for many years past. Now that the team had a source of steady income, they saved the money and only drew from it to grow the team further. Liberation
Dameon and Joey both graduated high school in 2016 and soon after rented an apartment in Grand Rapids, the apartment played a role as a base of operations for Headway Parkour. It was nothing fancy, just large enough to support two friends in a relatively nice neighborhood. At first life independent of their families was confusing and stressful but before long Dameon and Joey were reaping the full benefits of the free life. They had all day everyday to build their brand. They made a commitment to never outsource, all work was done in house. The Headway Boys were often labeled as crazy for their eighty hour work weeks. Not to mention the jobs on the side to pay rent, it was a hectic time in Dameon’s life. There were many times where he considered giving up, throwing in the towel, and residing to mediocrity. But he always caught himself just before he fell; Thanks to the moral support of Joey, he pushed on. Denouement
Years rolled on by and Training never ceased, maintaining that fire to put 120% effort into every session was the most challenging thing Dameon and Joey ever faced. They persevered and were generously rewarded, the team’s skill level ascended to unparalleled heights. Their big break came along when they were invited to participate in Red Bull Art of Motion 2022. This is the chance that Dameon and Joey had been training for, they had traded the perfect life for the perfect passion and regretted nothing. Both Traceurs had logged well over ten thousand hours of deliberate practice, they were officially experts of Parkour. The only thing missing was the recognition for their skills. The team was still somewhat underground, for this reason their goal going into AOM was not simply to win, they wanted to expose the Headway name to the world. And expose the name they did, the day of the event Dameon and Joey pulled off moves that had never been seen before. It was clear from the start that they were the winning team with both members performing at the peak of human performance. The Headway Boys were overwhelmed with joy when they saw both Joey and Dameon taking podium spots. From then on every Traceur knew the Headway name and the game would never be the same.