About Me
It’s hard to talk about me nowadays without talking about parkour. There is some bland professional info at the bottom of this page, but I’ll briefly go over some general things before getting into the meat of what drives me.
My name is Tyson Cecka if you hadn’t figured it out already, I’m 21 years old and I live in Seattle Washington (and absolutely love it). I consider myself to be an explorer in the loose sense of the word, my specialty lies in not specializing and I am generally willing to give anything a try at least once. That’s the way it’s always been for me with sports, with philosophies, and with opinions. Let the best float to the top and discard the rest, but always give each new experience and thought the same treatment as your first. Overall I feel like this has made me a well-rounded and open-minded person, you’re cool with me unless you’re harmful to others.
Parkour – The Beginning
Four years ago parkour seized a hold of my being, and it hasn’t let go since. In fact it has gotten much worse. At first it was simply a natural progression. As a kid I loved movement of all kind and had been shifting from sport to sport, always looking for something new to learn. Everything from gymnastics, to raquetball, to polevaulting, to rock climbing, I loved it all. When I discovered parkour I at first tackled it simply as a set of new skills to learn, with ever more tricks to master.
The Change
It wasn’t until about a year and a half ago that I realized that parkour was so much more than I originally thought. It had already incorporated itself into me at that point, I could be found vaulting and scrambling over things wherever I went. But it wasn’t until I started to really research where parkour came from and think it about while training alone at night, that I discovered the underlying usefulness and mind-altering power of parkour. That epiphany struck me very powerfully and changed how I look at the world forever. Parkour to me was no longer just a fun new thing to learn and use, it became a major part of my life and how I live it.
The Effects
The mindset and positive benefits of parkour are too vast for me to get into here, but watching them form in me and in my friends convinced me to start teaching. I wanted to spread that realization around to more people and do it in a way that was safer than how I first started. So I began to teach a parkour class at the Puget Sound Community School here in Seattle, Washington. I absolutely fell in love with the students and the philosophy of the school, which led me to take my passion even farther.
I applied for and was granted a Mary Gates Leadership Endowment for parkour through the University of Washington and used that to launch a nonprofit that we call the Pacific Northwest Parkour Association or PNWPA for short. It’s still getting its bearings currently, the possibilities are so vast it’s hard to know where to start. But it definitely opens up some new avenues for giving back to the community and spreading parkour positively.
Somewhere along the way I also fell in love with how beautiful parkour looks and it has opened an artistic side of me that I didn’t even know existed. I’m having a lot of fun learning all about photography and have even launched a video production company with a friend of mine called underscore_FILMS. It’s even heavily affected my future career, I always wanted be a stuntman as a kid, and now since joining The Tribe that dream is coming true and I’ve been given the chance to travel the world doing the things I love.
The Result
Professional Info
- Gender: Male
- Age: 21
- Height: 5′ 10″
- Weight: 165 lbs
- Gymnastics – 5yrs: flips, freestyle, tricking, tumbling, falls
- Parkour/Freerunning – 3.5yrs: obstacle coursing, chase scenes
- Martial Arts – 4yrs: karate, kung fu, stage combat, bo staff
- Classical Fencing – 4yrs: foil, èpèe, saber, rapier, two weapon
- Rock Climbing -4yrs: bouldering, buildings, cliffs, solo and top-rope
View my work experience and more videos
Contact me for full resume…
46 Comments
Craig Keeble
Hey dude… I love your video so much. The way you move is legendary, and in your ‘between classes/lessons‘ you’re so so quiet!
I’m 15, and from the U.K, and I have so much respect for what you do. Being a student, amazing freerunner and stuntman must be a real challenge, but it seems like you pull it off. I want to be a stunt man, and you’re going to be my inspiration, to help me do so.
Keep it real, and never forget who you are.
Craig.
13 May
Alan
Have you ever really had to get somewhere in a rush, and decided to climb a wall to get there? I would love to see the reaction on people’s faces if you ever did.
28 May
Tyson
All the time actually. Most people don’t notice or care though, it’s strange.
28 May
Sola
Tyson, your videos are amazing! I wish I could learn to be as fluid as you. I don’t even know how you manage to keep every movement so smooth. Especially with only 3 years of parkour! How often did you practice before you got good enough to have media attention and to do commercials?
25 Jun
Tyson
After around my first year my training got fairly serious and I was going out specifically for it every other day. Repetition, relaxation, and experimentation are really all I can suggest for fluidity. I think training multiple movements in a row over and over helps a great deal as well.
I only seriously got into the professional world abound 6 months ago, but once you get into that and are serious about it it has a tendency to snowball into bigger and bigger things.
25 Jun
Matthew
I think I saw you in “Casino Royale.”
25 Jun
Jason
I dont think that he was in casino royale…
1 Jul
Adam
Of course he was, he was bond
13 Jul
Kevin Inouye
Hey thanks for dropping me a line on LinkedIn – I’d love to teamup with you on something one of these days… I feel like I’ve been starting to get stale with my fight choreography and reach the limits of my small stuntwork, so a shot of something new is just what the doctor ordered. I’ve been doing stage combat, weapons, props, etc for a while now (since you were 10?) but there’s always just so much more cool stuff out there to learn and do; thanks for the reminder.
18 Jul
jaytee
hey man i live in aloha and am just starting to get into parkour. ive seen your videos and they are insane. i want to learn to do those things but there is like no spots or obstacles in my area. i often do some kong vaults and speed vaults but other than that i really cant do much. and im not very good at them either.
19 Jul
Ben
Hey bro! I live in Seaside Oregon, and its kinda a small town. we’ve got plenty of parks but not alot of rural terrain. I’ve been hangin out in Portand alot though and they’ve got plenty of good areas. Im a recent parkour enthusiest(about 6 months) but im all for it! I think Ive actually found somethin im really good at and like! I was wondering if you could suggest a good all around shoe though?
thanks man!
5 Oct
tom
hey,
been reading/seeing a lot about parkour and i am very anxious to try it but would like to have some direction and supervision.
native seattleite looking for classes, parkour groups or events to attend to learn the art.
if anyone happens to have any info, please let me know.
-email deleted-
thanks
8 Oct
Alex Griffin
Dude, your video was totally awesome.
I’m alex, and I live in barren, flat, moses lake. I’m only 15. . . but as soon as me or any of my training buddies get their license, you can expect i’ll be trying to get a hold of you, and coming down to seattle to jam. Or at least asking for directions to seattle hotsopts.
anyway, you may have seen me around the APK or WAPK boards, i go by Algie.
So yeah, its nice to know that there’s a tribe member in seattle.
Keep it real.
3 Nov
David
Hi Tyson,
I live in Seattle myself and my four-year-old son is really interested in Parkour. If you happen to be practicing in the area on a weekend I’d really love to take him down to watch you in action. I think it might inspire him.
Anyway, if it’s cool with you, feel free to email me with any details.
-David
20 Dec
olie
hi, i am a traceur myself and have been perfecting for 5 years. I would just like to say how well this movie was put together and how thought out it was. After seeing video’s of others such as David Belle, Ciril Raphael, Sebastian Foucan and others, and comparing the quality and editing & based media skills and the flow and movement of your video, i was very impressed
keep training and well done.
Street Perfection
street team
http://www.myspace.com/streetperfection
4 Jun
Aaron
I’ve talked to you before on washingtonparkour.com and after messaging you i did some searching and looking around. I watched as many video as i could find, read as much as i could (and still am) and after that i realized it’s not so much who you do it with or where, more of why and how. Parkour is a search for yourself. It’s like a signature of yourself and opens your mind up to anything. My family has always been very closed minded and broken up for that reason. After my first and only year of gymnastics i realized that what i wanted to do was nothing my family has done. It’s no coincidence that my family doesn’t get a long because of there lack of health and drive. They’ve enspired me to do what you do, what all traceurs do.
As I’ve grown I’ve lost that “innocence” from my childhood and with parkour i get that back. I miss jumping stairs, flipping off the swings, balancing on anything and everything, jumping roofs and climbing trees.
Well, anyways man, Just wanted to say thanks for the inspiration and I hope to see ya out there.
-Aaron
21 Jul
Gregg C
Hey Tyson, I just wanted to stop by and compliment you on the video. Im an active traceur myself in Ny (not the city :[ ). Been at it for about a year now, but only seriously been doing it for a few months. I just recently accomplished kong vaulting over a picnic table. And then one day while i was at school i noticed a different picnic table that was about twice the size as the first one. So i attempted to clear that, but couldnt at first. And i kept trying and eventually i got fed up and told myself that i was going to clear it, and i did. So i guess what im saying to anyone who is just starting out in their parkour career, is to keep at it. You never know what you can accomplish until you fail, over and over again.
ps: if you know of any parkour classes or sessions in the upstate Ny area
(around Poughkeepsie) please let me know. Me and a friend have been teacher ourselves and finding our own spots, but we would love to meet people either on or close to or better than our level.
11 Sep
vinaysagar
hey
i’m a traceur from india
happy birthday dude
15 Oct
Dylan
Hey Tyson, how badly do you think you can get hurt from doing this? I’m thinking about starting and have heard of people damaging their spinal cord. Where they just atempting something that was out of their skill level or something else?
19 Nov
Ash
Nice, from Seattle?
Im from Federal Way, right now I live in Pullman for school but I go back for breaks.
I joined the Free Running club here at school, but I am very interested in doing Parkour in Seattle.
I also see you went to Japan, I will be living there for a bit.
You should send me an Email, I have some questions I hope you dont mind answering.
Thanks!
19 Feb
Vance
Much love, Tyson.
It’s been a while since we’ve gotten to run together but don’t worry I’m not getting rusty. Next time your down my way give me a call, it’s a shame my plans fell through last time you were here.
Say hi to Janine and the rest of the Seattle scene.
-Peace
10 Mar
vinaysagar
dude……do you have any email account where i can keep you in contact…..keep sending messages and you can reply for that???
14 Mar
kid
does anyone know where I can do pk in Moses Lake?
20 Jul
kid
i mean with someone
im a beginner
20 Jul
kid
I have been there and it does not help
20 Jul
kid
I mean that there is nothing recent for ML anywhere on the site that I have seen
20 Jul
kid
ok
20 Jul
kid
thank you
20 Jul
Morland
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJ8hccoZ6hQ
I’m not sure if they even know about your existence, but if you’re not the only one who can play real Prince of Persia, then I have no idea who else can. Everything PoP does is so Tyson-like, that it makes me think that you and Prince are simply the same person. I wonder how many people have already told you that you look exactly like Prince, and if no one have ever done that, then I’m asking “for god sake, how’s that possible?!”
1 Jun
Jeffrey Pinkstaff
I am 14 years sold and live in Federal Way Washington. Lately I have really been trying to learn parkour. I can do the rolls, a 3-step wallrun (for some reason only on a curved surface, and a basic vault. I think i am to weak to do other vaults and other aspects of parkour. While i can jump off high obstacles and land safely I still need to learn WAY more. I think it’s really cool that you free run. Can you teach me?
P.S. The picture at the top of the website is gasworks park. They shoot off fireworks there every 4th of July. Thats where I first got interisted in Parkour years ago. I am just now starting tho.
I have been practicing for less than 1 week.
14 Jun
Tyson
Hey Jeffrey, make your way to the gym :) http://parkourvisions.org/gym
jessica
tyson im a 15 yr old gurl i do parkour rather fluent but not as good as you im doing a research project and i would love to interview you ( my research project is the risk and rewards of parkour) let me know if u would help me out on voodoojuju@yahoo.com thxs!
GO PARKOUR!
12 Apr
Scott
Nice little parkour blog here Tyson, you should check out mine! I think you’ll enjoy it, i spend a load of time writing the content and im sure you’ll recognise a few people in the photos! Ampisound Parkour
12 May
David
Hey Tyson,
My name is David and im 16. Um me and 2 of my other friends are….well want to start doing parkour. Do you have any advice or tips you could share with us to get us started, sine we are inexperienced with this? We really want to start doing parkour.
8 Nov
Tyson
David, find someone more experienced to learn from or travel to a teaching program for classes. You need to understand incremental progression to avoid the mistakes and injuries those starting on their own have
8 Nov
David
Alright. There is a group of kids here thats been doing parkour for a while. Im going to ask them about it, but they go to St. louis to do it. Money is kinda tight right now. Do you know if there is any like free programs here in Cahokia or close to here?
9 Nov
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