Latest News
Advanced Conditioning starts up again…
Last week we started out advanced conditioning program up again with great success and week 2 we decided to mix it up a notch. Last night for our workout finisher, we pulled the MonkeyVault FJ Cruiser up and down the street several times and liked it so much we will be including it as part of our finishers every now and then. This Sunday night we are thinking of having a car pulling sprint competition, if you are interested in coming out for this let us know but its not for the faint of heart. 
This is also a good time to remind people, what are YOU doing to condition for Parkour? If its countless variations of pushups, randon leg exercises, and more crawling around than you are pushing, pulling, and throwing stuff, ….. You are seriously doing it wrong. Here’s a pic from the end of the night:
smart Expeditions Toronto; Parkour the smart!
We just finished 3 days of performances for smart car in the Distillery district in Toronto which involved us jumping and flipping off smart cars (yes this was fun!). The performance was part of the smart Expeditions - Toronto test drive event where along with test driving a smart car, you are given a unique experience of the city. We will be performing 2 more days, Friday June 11th and Saturday June 12th. If you want to watch us from inside a smart car, you can show up at the distillery district and sign up, or sign up online at http://www.smartexpeditions.ca/ . Here’s a video someone took on the weekend, showcasing our outdoor performance. We may upload the footage from the indoor performances later on.
Danno + Fall + 500 Bouncyballs
The 2nd edition of “Poor but Sexy” came out with the a featured shot of Danno falling in the MonkeyVault with 500 or so bouncyballs alongside him. The picture turned out really cool, and to see the 2 page thread head to this link: http://www.seed9photography.com/projects/poor-but-sexy-vol2-spreads#4
Sunday Parkour Class Canceled
We realized after making them that having 2 identical classes right now on Saturday and Sunday can be a little confusing. For the time being we are canceling the Sunday classes and will resume them in a couple weeks when we can organize groups better. If you were heading out to the Sunday classes we are really sorry, hope you can make it the Saturday. Just a reminder we will be meeting at Cloud Gardens (Richmond/Yonge) Saturday at 11am! Email us if you have last minute questions.
Parkour on YTV The Zone
Today we filmed a Parkour segment for YTV that involved us bringing host Carlos through a Parkour lesson. As much as people think that Parkour on TV is fake, and ill assure you most of the time it is, Carlos impressed us beyond belief. He even went as far as getting a wall spin (on the real wall) his first day. Super kudos to Carlos and YTV for coming to The Monkey Vault to film.
Short Hours on Wednesday
Because we will all be gone at the advanced screening of Prince of Persia on Wednesday the 26th the MV will be closed past 6pm. The hours will be 3pm-6pm! Because of this we will be offering a discount tomorrow to those that do come and train between that time. Sorry for this inconvenience.
Prince of Persia Advance Screening
Disney has been nice enough to send us over a TON of Prince of Persia gear from books to watches to tshirts and bags, we will be giving it all away in an event coming up very soon! Until then we are giving away 50 free tickets to an advance screening of the movie taking place Wednesday May 26th! If you want a ticket all you have to do is contact us and come pick it up (or make some other deal to meet us there). Because of the amount of people that train at the MV, I will do this first come first serve to be fair to everyone. So, as Brandon would say, DONT SLEEP!!
Taco Bell Tour Finished Up
Last Friday we just finished up a cross Canada tour for Taco Bell, going from various locations and showing out stuff. We coordinated a team from Toronto and Vancouver to take care of it and it went without a hitch. An extra round of applauds goes to our Vancouver team for doing such a good job under a very tight schedule. If you saw us at a Taco Bell location, we hope you enjoyed it! During this tour we also saw the completion and release of the viral video we shot in Brampton. You can watch it below:
Smart Car and Parkour
In the beginning of June a team sent out from the MV will be doing shows for 4 days for an arts festival in the distillery district put on by smart car. Can’t really say much more at this time, but bouncing around and flipping off of smart cars is going to be very very fun!
Outdoor Parkour Conditioning Classes
We have been really busy lately but here is the first news post on our long awaited outdoor program! We will be running 2 sessions, one on Saturdays and one on Sundays both starting at 11am at Cloud Gardens Park in downtown Toronto (map coming later). The classes run $10 for 1.5 hours and will start the weekend of the 29-30 of May.
The goal of these outdoor classes is to get people who have been training indoors/on their own, or people who are just new and want to start outdoors, some knowledge and practice from our perspective and a better aptitude on training Parkour outdoors in general. Both classes are for people aged 16+. More news and a way to sign up and register for classes online later.
MV in Yonge Street Mag
Here is a link to a feature story Yonge Street Media did on the Monkeyvault and Dan. We don’t like a lot of articles that get done on Parkour in Toronto (we are closing in on 100 articles done on us.. so strange!!), but this one definitely makes the cut. Anyways, the link is below!
http://www.yongestreetmedia.ca/features/monkeyvaulut0505.aspx
Taco Bell Viral Video
3 members of the Monkey Vault team were involved in a viral video shoot that took place inside a Taco Bell location. The video is about the Mini Crunch Wrap and will be available online pretty soon. We’ll make sure to link it when its up.
Rock Wall Re-Construction
We are currently in the process of removing the back rockwalls and rebuilding the structure into a better shape. We originally had followed plans we got from a rock climbing site that were very simple and now that we understand the process (and climbing) alot better we decided to rip em down and making a true cave in the back area. Because of this climbing is limited in the MV for the next couple weeks until we get it all going. If you want to come help us set routes later on, send us an email we would love to have you.
Birthday+Group=Open Gym Closed!
This Sunday, because of a birthday party booking, and a large group event (welcome back Waterloo parkour club!!), I’ve decided open gym time will not be available. The only exceptions I will make is if you want to come in to boulder, or use the weight room (If you are not a member you will get a discounted rate). The gym floor will not be available for use!
Easter Weekend Parkour
Easter Weekend Hours: Thursday 1st: 3pm-11pm, Friday 2nd: 1pm-10pm, Saturday 3rd: 2:30pm-10:30pm, Sunday 4th: Closed, Monday 5th: Closed.
Sorry for the lack of news on the site lately, A LOT is going on both internally in the MV, and with Parkour in general…. Don’t think it’s slowed down because of the lack of posts. All that’s changed is my patience for the computer! ha!
Gymfloor limited on Sunday
For those who check the site before coming… The gym floor will not be available Sunday March 7th from 1-3pm because of a booking. Regular hours will be from 3-9. Sorry for this inconvenience.
Girls Meet Sunday March 14th
On Sunday March 14th at 1-3pm, there will be another girls meet, in hopes of starting the one-a-month girls training sessions again we were doing last year. The cost for the training session will be 15, and you are free to stay as long in the space afterwords. The theme has not been chosen yet, but we usually go over 4-5 different skills, hand out a few challenges, and do some obstacle coursing. Most of the things we do will be scalable, so its a perfect fit for all and a nice intro to Parkour if you haven’t before. If you know of someone who would be interested in this, please pass it along! We ask that you please email us and let us know you are coming, so we can prep the lesson plan according to the numbers we get. See you all there.
PoorButSexy Photoshoot
This week Danno took part in a photoshoot for POORBUTSEXY magazine, which will be shown in it’s second issue. The theme of the picture was ‘falling’, and it portrays dan falling upside down from, well I guess were not sure, alongside a whole bunch of bouncy balls of different colors. Thanks to Thomas at Seed9 for contacting us with the cool idea!
Gymfloor limited on Sunday
For those who check the site before coming… The gym floor will not be available today from 1-3pm because of a booking. Sorry for this inconvenience.
AGYU Parkour art project…
The first phase of a new project with the Art Gallery of York University and Panama artist Humberto Velez has just begun. It will lead to a live art piece featuring Parkour later this summer somewhere in the city of Toronto. We’re really excited as Humberto has an very interesting and very real opinion on what we do, and it should end up being one of our most interesting live events displays yet. More news to come mid summer!