Ryan Ford
Founder / co-owner
ParkourEDU Level 3 Certified
Ryan is a parkour athlete, coach, and author of Parkour Strength Training. In 2005, Ryan became one of the first North American pro parkour athletes, as an original member of The Tribe / APK. He’s performed, coached, and spoken worldwide for organizations like the New Yorker, K-Swiss, BET, TEDx, Cisco, HP, ESPN, and the U.S. Embassy.
In 2006, Ryan started the first parkour program in the Western Hemisphere, originally based in Boulder/Denver bouldering/CrossFit gyms. During winter 2009, Apex opened its first space in downtown Denver, followed by a Boulder location the next year. Since then, Ryan and a growing team has helped open more Apex locations in Colorado and California.
More recently, Ryan co-founded ParkourEDU.org, an online platform dedicated to empowering international parkour, freerunning, and art du déplacement communities by: 1) teaching safe and effective parkour coaching methods 2) researching and developing better parkour training strategies 3) building strong, authentic parkour culture & community
Rob Schihl
Head coach / co-owner
ParkourEDU Level 1 Certified
I wanna be the very best like no one ever was.
No seriously. I know it’s the opening lines to the pokemon theme song but that doesn’t change the fact that I want to be the best. Who doesn’t? #amiright??
Stephan Armijo
Coach
ParkourEDU Level 1 Certified
I’ve have been doing parkour and freerunning for ten years. Been coaching for six years. I love working on flow and keeping my moment going in long lines. In the past I have performed for schools events, concerts, and other various entertainment events. Very happy to be part of the APEX family. See you in the gym!
Max Henry
Coach
ParkourEDU Level 1 Certified
Max has been training parkour since 2007 and coaching since 2010. Max has been lucky enough to coach and train on four continents. Over the past decade, his experiences span 50+ workshops around North America, parkour classes at township schools in South Africa, international events in Helsinki and London, and a Red Bull competition in Brazil. As an athlete, Max has appeared in several films and commercials and has worked for companies like Nike, American Eagle, Asics, Nerf, Hulu, and the NBA. Max is also the author of The Parkour Roadmap, one of the most popular and well-regarded books on parkour currently available. Originally from New York, Max is excited to bring his expertise and passion for parkour training to APEX Denver.
Charles St. John
Coach
ParkourEDU Level 1 Certified
Charles has been a parkour coach at APEX Movement since 2012. He started parkour while in college as a student in the Adult Intro program at APEX Denver. His prior athletic background consists mainly of team sports including basketball, baseball, soccer, and rugby. Since starting parkour Charles has also studied movement disciplines under the tutelage of Ido Portal, Emmet Louis, and Rafe Kelley to further his exercise knowledge and fitness capabilities. Apart from training parkour, he enjoys skiing up in the mountains during the winter months.
Zach Wiegert
Coach
ParkourEDU Level 1 Certified
Zach is a native of the Denver Suburbs. He spent his entire childhood wanting nothing to do with conventional sports, and spent a long time doing parkour without knowing it had a name. Once he made that discovery and started doing legitimate training, he was hooked. After close to 7 years of training, he is as passionate as ever about his movement and loves big jumps, technical footwork, and pushing the limits of his body in the most fun way possible. Outside of parkour, he is an avid photographer and outdoorsman.
Renae Dambly
Coach
ParkourEDU Level 1 Certified
Ace Certified Personal Trainer
A Colorado native, Renae has been a coach with APEX Denver since 2013. In 2010, she was inspired to practice parkour by keeping up with her older brothers. Her passion for movement has led her to earn her Bachelor’s Degree in Exercise Science and an ACE Personal Training Certification. Renae often travels to various parkour community events and has competed and podiumed in competitions on both National and International levels. When she is not at the gym, Renae works as a group fitness instructor for adults looking for a unique, high intensity exercise program.
Santos Terrones
Coach
ParkourEDU Level 1 Certified
Santos was born and raised in Denver, Colorado and has been training since 2015. He somehow managed to flunk swimming lessons as a child, and started to think that maybe physical activity wasn’t for him. But one day he saw his friends jumping on some random planters and decided to join in. Jumping around mindlessly later evolved into learning how to front flip, and soon found out that this playing around actually had a name. He also found out that he lived 5 minutes away from a parkour gym. Guess that worked out. Oh yeah, he falls. A lot.
Shae Perkins
Coach
ParkourEDU Level 1 Certified
Shae has being training Parkour for over 10 years and has coached it as well as gymnastics for almost as long! Despite his pathetic beard, he is actually very masculine.
Will never turn down food.
John Lunsford
Coach
ParkourEDU Level 1 Certified
While growing up, John was involved in a multitude of sports, from baseball to soccer to marching band (yes it’s absolutely a sport). But the moment he attended his first parkour meetup in college, he was hooked. Seeing the world as a completely open playground where the only limits are how far you push yourself allowed John to explore in a completely new way. After working to establish a parkour club with a group of friends at the University of Virginia as a student, he moved to Colorado to train and grow with the parkour community and help foster the next generation of traceurs.
Jake Vigil
Coach
ParkourEDU Level 1 Certified
Jake Vigil, the tall, dark, curly haired, handsome stud began training with a group of guys who called themselves “Denver Family” in October 2008. He played soccer from ages 3-13 and otherwise has little other athletic background to speak of. He has lots of friends and they all think he is pretty cool. Jake quickly wins the hearts of all he meets.
Jake is known best for his love of bacon, mad hops, fast rhymes, ability to do anything, sick beats, and stunningly good looks.
Jake would like to remind you that Jake did not write this bio himself, and that other people genuinely think these nice thoughts about him.
Sincerely,
Not Jake.
Austin Lutz
Coach
ParkourEDU Level 1 Certified
Austin Lutz has been training in freerunning since 2009. Before he started training, he was an All-State athlete in Track and Field and Football, as well as a point guard in Varsity Basketball. After high school, he discovered freerunning while attending the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, where he trained there for two years before moving to Denver. Austin enjoys long kong vaults, long walks on rooftops, dragons, brain washing children into being ninjas, nerd culture, and helping the community grow through teaching and organizing outside training sessions. He loves big drops, big vaults, big jumps, exploring the city for good training spots, and helping students continue to learn new things and overcome their fears. And dragons. Seriously.
Kristine Dietrich
Coach
ParkourEDU Level 1 Certified
Kristine grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, where she began her love of movement with 10 years of competitive gymnastics. She moved to Colorado in the fall of 2009 to attend The University of Denver and a year or so later she was introduced to APEX and parkour. Since then, Kristine has made parkour a part of her everyday life. She travels extensively for parkour, has coordinated a variety of outreach events at the local and national level, and has been involved in international level competitions as both an athlete and a judge. She was even featured in an espnW article once. When she isn’t training, Kristine works as an engineer building spaceships. Neat, right?
Videos : Too Many Dailies (2015), It Was Time (2016), Art of Motion Submission (2017), Instagram Compilation (2018)
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