Welcome to our first annual 30 Under 30 Most Influential People in Parkour list! We are featuring athletes and entrepreneurs from all over the world this year from a variety of styles and backgrounds. From gym owners to brand owners, community leaders to media pioneers, this list features a little bit of everything. We would love to feature more people and hope to create more lists like this in the future with help from our readers letting us know who else we should feature. There are countless athletes that were suggested that we could not put on the list but stay tuned for more content!
Thanks so much to everyone that supported us in 2018 and to our sponsor ParkourEDU. If you’re looking to improve your training technique, that’s one of the best ways in the game right now to get it done.
This list will be in alphabetical order instead of trying to rank these amazing athletes. We tried to keep it only one athlete from each brand or organization if possible (it was hard).
1. Lorena Abreu
Lorena recently appeared in our Top 7 American Athletes on Instagram post and has quickly been rising through the ranks of parkour people on the web with an impressive media presence and work ethic that we expect will keep her on our list for years to come.
2. Scott Bass
Scott Bass and his media persona Ampisound have influenced more athletes than most on this list with such classics as Professor Longhair, Big Chief and Return of the Joy. He continues to make YouTube videos and is one of the most watched parkour accounts.
3. Elise Bickley
Elise is the youngest athlete on our list at just 14 years old and yet she is the only woman to ever throw a double sideflip on hard ground in competition. We expect to see Elise continuing to set the bar for athletes over the next decade plus as she graces this list.
4. Benj and Max Cave
This one is a personal favorite of the blog and Storror has undoubtedly earned their place here for the rest of their 20s. Benj is the man behind all of their viral POV videos and Max is often the subject of virality, these brothers are the original Storror members.
5. Vinnie Coryell
Vinnie Coryell is one of the most resilient and kind hearted humans on the planet Earth. He’s been a professional athlete for many years but lands on this list because of his work with Move To Inspire and his new brand Superhuman Academy for special needs youth.
6. Renae Dambly
Renae has been one of the strongest competitors in North American parkour competitions for many years now and continues to push her limits as an athlete each year. Her style and dedication to her craft is an inspiration to any athlete watching.
7. Dominic Di Tommaso
The King of Front Flips himself, Dom is perhaps the most resilient human in parkour, taking drops that no doctor would prescribe him take. There was a whole month when Dom broke England’s jumps this year and we can’t wait to see where he conquers next.
8. Milo Jasper Finnegan-Money
One of our favorite content creators in parkour, Milo has a remarkable honesty in his editing and movement. This documentary marks the first of many projects to come from the man who’s pushing the limits of how much endurance one can have in parkour.
9. Krystian Kowalewski
This man makes high level movement look simple (it isn’t). Krystian is a long time style powerhouse and continues to push the level of flip precisions and flowy movement. This year he finally earned more recognition on the competition circuit for his hard work.
10. Giles Campbell Longley
Giles has been the man behind the camera of countless Storm and Motus classics and he is an avid voice within the entrepreneur community of the sport. He has always been very supportive of his athletes and wants nothing but the best for our sport’s growth.
11. Monique McDonald
Monique finds herself on this list as the co founder of AAPES Parkour and one of the leaders of the Sydney parkour community. Her work in the women’s community has been inspiring and we are excited to see more from the Aussies in the future as well.
12. Katie McDonnell
Katie is one of the few athletes that has managed to rise to the top solely on her own name without the help of a team behind her. She is a huge inspiration to athletes around the world and a great reminder of what happens when you stay consistent in media.
13. Endijs Miscenko
Endijs broke the internet with this jump but he’s been breaking insane mental barriers long before ESPN forgot to credit him. There’s nothing this man loves more than movement and we are always happy to share his progress with the rest of the world.
14. “Shifer” Antonio Mojonero
You may know Shifer from his insanely powerful Instagram clips but he’s been breaking major ground on YouTube these days in the Spanish market. WHAT Parkour has recently surpassed GUP as the most viewed Spanish team and Antonio’s hard work shows us why.
15. Georgia Munroe
Georgia finds herself on this list both as an inspiring community leader and as the first woman to break this particular challenge at the legendary IMAX in London. We look forward to seeing her break more challenges that others thought were impossible before.
16. Hazal Nehir
Hazal represents Etre-Fort by making her way onto this list with her impressive flow and the energy of her movement. She is always smiling and dancing when she trains and continues to find challenges that excite her and her ever growing internet audience.
17. Andrew Obenreder
Andrew Obenreder is the founder of MuvMag and one of the most creative media creators on our list. MuvMag has quickly become the industry’s leading media brand and this year will see the first release of the print magazine for public consumption at last.
18. Sydney Olson
Sydney Olson is our representative from the Tempest team this year and is another major inspiration for woman in our sport, constantly pushing the bar of what it means to compete in parkour competitions. We are always excited to see what she throws next.
19. Brodie and Dylan Pawson
The Pawsons have broken the internet a few times this year dressed as characters like Spider-Man and the Mario Brothers. But Brodie rose to initial popularity due to the legendary 180 Cat Tac challenge that has inspired athletes all over to visit Australia.
20. “Denester” Koh Chen Pin
Denester as he’s known to the western world is responsible for Singapore’s largest jam, The Lion City Gathering and is an important leader in the Asian community. You may have seen his Project Dive Roll last year and he continues to throw gnarly roll challenges.
21. Dylan Polin
Dylan Polin has been running one of the largest national jams, Hubbable, for almost a decade now and runs his company Hub Parkour Training Center alongside a number of other affiliated businesses. This man always has a plan to dominate the next market.
22. Caitlin Pontrella
Caitlin Pontrella is responsible for the Art of Retreat for the past 3 years and will be bringing the event overseas in the coming months. She is also a major leader within the women’s community and has given several inspiring talks about parkour to the masses.
23. Bob Reese
The most ambidextrous man in parkour is constantly inspiring with his hard work and dedication to his movement. He is never satisfied with challenges and constantly varies his movement across a wide variety of styles far beyond what you see him actually film.
24. Lilou Rouel
The next youngest on our list hails from the land of parkour’s birth. Lilou is another athlete we expect to see top this list time and time again as she continues to develop as an athlete and we can’t wait to see what the future holds for this young lady.
25. Joe Scandrett
Technically a second 3Run member but Joe earns this spot because of his own work as an athlete and pioneer of movement within our sport. With one of the most active Instagram followings out there Joe is well known for his electric energy and style.
26. Ed Scott
Representing the newest additions to Storm Freerun, Ed Scott is an athlete that has been dominating competitions much like his fellow team mates over the past year. His mental level and commitment is a testament to how far one can push limits if they’re willing to.
27. Justin Sheaffer
If this ad doesn’t get you pumped to attend the next JumpFest we don’t know what will. Justin Sheaffer is a high ranking WFPF member and responsible for one of the most inspiring charity events in parkour, TIT Jam. If you haven’t attended yet you should soon.
28. Darryl Stingley
Wavezilla. Bruce Wayne. YungWavy. It’s actually impossible to track all the names Darryl goes by but his movement is unmistakable across any media. This man puts the D in dedication and has graced us with some of the best original media in parkour this year.
29. Travis Verkaik
Travis Verkaik broke into the scene with a double kong gainer at the infamous London Thames river bank. It wasn’t long after until he continued to smash challenge after challenge in what seems like an unstoppable quest to be the best athlete in England.
30. Nate Weston
The Stormbringer himself, Nate Weston needs no introduction. This man has dedicated himself to training and it shows in his ability to push high level movement that most athletes have yet to even imagine. There’s no telling how far his level will rise this year.
Thanks so much for reading our first 30 Under 30 List! We would love to gather more information about these athletes and creating longer posts in the future but this was a humbling start to what we hope becomes an exciting piece of content each year. We’ve had a great time making content for you so far and welcome any and all feedback about how we can improve our content for our audience. Who should we feature next? Who did we sleep on this year? Should we have multiple categories? If you’ve got suggestions we want to hear about them. Thanks for stopping by and let’s all push hard this year.
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