Here's a brief history of parkour (exerts taken form the wikipedia
articles on parkour and David Belle). "Belle began parkour when he
was 15, inspired by his father and martial arts movies. He is not
only the founder, but also the most skilled traceur (a practioner of
parkour) in the world today." "Inspiration for parkour came from
many sources, not least the `Natural Method of Physical Culture'
developed by George Hébert in the early twentieth century. David
Belle was introduced to this method by his father Raymond Belle, a
Vietnam soldier who practiced it. The word Parkour derives
from "parcours du combatant", the phrase referring to the obstacle
courses of Hébert's method."

Although technically David Belle only invented the name and the
philosophy. Here's a quote by Sebastien Foucan (a very skilled
traceur who trained with David Belle during the early years or
parkour) "Free running has always existed, free running has always
been there, the thing is that no one gave it a name, we didn't put
it in a box." From what you said "wall jumping" sounds similar to
parkour but seems to have some philosophical differences. Here's the
very brief history, Parkour was invented by David Belle in Lisses,
France sometime during 1988.

Many people were doing somthing similar to parkour long before David
Belle invented it, just few try to take credit. Parkour isn't a set
of movements, it's more a philosophy and a state of mind.


--- In OHParkour@yahoogroups.com, "Adam" <mraa71@h...> wrote:
>
> Hey there, Just want to know what the story is
with "parkour"...how
> far back did this supposedly start? Because I got some news... I
> started doing this same thing right here in Ohio (Miamisburg to be
> exact) way back in the summer of 1987! Me and my friends around
town
> used to look for ways to release our energy and express ourselves
> too. Having learned to surf when I was living in florida (1982)
then
> moved to Ohio in 1985 and got into skateboarding a little after
that.
> We weren't that good at first so we would "act" like we were
skating
> by "jumping" over things and running up walls. Just about any
> obstacle we could find was a new chance to go for it! (it was
> the '80's)Our favorite spot became the flood wall down by the
great
> miami river, right next to my house (1987). By this time we had a
> handfull of scab covered and bruised street kids that would gather
to
> jam around sunset when the air was cooling off a little. around
town
> we bacame known as the "wall jumpers" and so we called what we
were
> doing... "wall jumping". We had never seen or heard of anyone else
> doing this and had never heard of Parkour. This was something that
we
> came up with on our own. I have pictures from some of
the "contests"
> we used to have too. Today that wall is still there, and I live
about
> a mile away. I miss those times and I am glad that "wall jumping"
is
> still going on...only under a different name. Is it possible
someone
> saw what we were doing and passed it on to thier friends in
another
> place? Or is it just in our nature to challenge our environment by
> running through it and seeing what happens? Cool, keep it up. Post
> more pics! I wanna see more inverts! Adam "RIP" Arnold, Ohio
veteran
> wall jumper.
>