Freestyle walking

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History

Freestyle Walking in its purest form was first invented by Brian White, Brandon Kennedy, Tom Mottier and Mike Rempert in 1995. The sport was first performed in a cafeteria at Wheaton Warrenville South High School in Wheaton, Illinois, where the sport underwent a quick metamorphosis from Freestyle Chair Hopping into the broader Freestyle Walking. Today the general Wheaton/Warrenville/Elmhurst part of Chicagoland is widely regarded as the cradle of Freestyle Walking. The sport was first and most notably introduced to the world in April 1996 via MTV's The Week in Rock where the Freestyle Walking segment was introduced and then commented on by Kurt Loder and later as a segment in the MTV News show: "MTV News Un-Filtered." It was featured as part of an "Authority Sucks Week" MTV promotion. The 3 minute segment literally spread across the globe and planted the seeds of Freestyle Walking in every hemisphere, culture and demographic imaginable.

It has often been speculated upon that Brandon Kennedy, Brian White, Tom Mottier and Mike Rempert were directly responsible for the invention of the now infamous Soaps shoes. It is factual that they did build a prototype in 1996 when they were contacted by MTV producer Nicole Maxwell and were informed of the fact that a shoe company had taken interest in developing a specialized Freestyle Walking shoe. Brandon Kennedy was contacted by a representitive for the shoe company, Everett, Scott and Free after which time he and Brian White, Mike Rempert and Tom Mottier designed and built the first ever Soap-style shoe using an old pair of Pro Wings and a PVC pipe. The fact that this was 1996 and the soap patent is 1997 support the claim that the inventors of Freestyle Walking are also the inventors of Soaps shoes.

The art of freestyle walking (loosely related to free running) is a means of self-expression and creative interaction with one's environment. Many of the practitioners of this art form excelled at the sport by freestyle walking to find more full involvement with their otherwise routine surroundings. Freestyle walkers use leaps and air moves, clever footwork, dance or any non-traditional walking movement.

Today, many practitioners view it as the act of rollerblading or skateboarding without the skates or board. Some participants use soap shoes with grind plates that allow the freestyle walker to grind or slide easily along surfaces such as curbs, ledges and bars. With the increase in popularity of soap shoes during the mid- to late-1990s, many newcomers to freestyle walking mistakenly began to refer to the act of grinding using soap shoes as freestyle walking.

Moves

Some basic examples of freestyle walking moves include:
*Stalls
*Slides
*Swings
*Hangings
*Flips
*Spins
*Late Spins
*Vaults
*Jangles
*Taps
*Hops
*Grabs
*Rolls
*The Mikey Likey
*The Bobby Curiel

Related arts

Related art forms are extreme walking and trail rushing, similar in motivation but including additional elements. Extreme walking normally involves any element of danger, whereas the related art of trail rushing is essentially freestyle walking on a trail. Both of these (as well as soaping) are considered to be subsections of the larger concept of freestyle walking.

Some consider a correlation between the urban art, or discipline, of parkour and freestyle walking, however there are considerable differences. Although there are seemingly similar physical movements, there is a considerable motivational difference which exists between the two sports. Parkour focuses on efficiency of movement and speed; freestyle walking focuses on more of a spontaneous/glorious movement style. There is more of a correlation between freestyle walking and free running, however, as both focus on aesthetic movements over efficiency. However, free running includes a destination, moving through an environment quickly, while freestyle walking has no intended path.

Another derivative of freestyle walking is freestyle coning, in which participants confine their "freestyling" to the area around a small traffic cone, often using the cone in the freestyle.

Equipment

The equipment needed for freestyle walking is nothing but an urban to sub-urban landscape and a person wanting to express themselves. To help with some of the more difficult moves, such as wall rides, a shoe may be made to give more grip while getting rid of some of the excess weight.

ee also

*Tricking
*Free running
*Parkour
*Soap Shoes

External links

* [http://www.freestylewalking.org/home Freestylewalking.org]
* [http://www.freewebs.com/straka/ This Is Footing Crew]
* [http://www.geocities.com/quarantinedcrew Quarantined Crew Freestyle Walking]
* [http://www.fswohp.tk/ Photos]
* [http://inverse.siteburg.com/index.php Inverse Air]