EDDIE IZZARD

INTERVIEW
Foucan has made the Oxygen club in West Acton his base and says sport should be all about fun, play and freedom – especially for children
with Oxygen Freejumping founders
David Stalker and Fred Turok to launch a
Foucan Freerunning Academy in every
Oxygen trampoline park. The first Oxygen
Freejumping site opened in West Acton,
London, this summer, with plans to open
another six over the next 12 months.
A further 15 are already in the planning
pipeline. “I’m really excited about it,
because they just get it. David [Stalker]
shares my vision and my passion for
activity,” enthuses Foucan, who has now
made Oxygen West Acton his indoor base.
But does it not matter that the activity
takes place indoors at these venues – isn’t
the whole point of freerunning that it
takes place outside? “No, no. Freerunning
is everywhere: outside, inside, absolutely
everywhere. The world is the playground.
“I could work with anyone, anywhere, as
long as they have the vision. It’s important
to design the room with freerunning in
mind though, so participants of all levels
Foucan’s new venture
with Oxygen Freejumping
will see his Freerunning
Academy concept spread
across the UK
can find a creative route through it. At
Oxygen, I’m inside for safety purposes and
for convenience – especially with children,
because I have to be responsible for them.
But in my daydreams, I’d have somewhere
with a little tunnel where the kids could
crawl back and forth between an indoor
and an outdoor area. They’d love that.”
The main challenge will be how to
spread himself across numerous locations.
“I’ll have to teach the coaches myself,
and in fact some of the adults who I’ve
been teaching for a while now have put
themselves forward.
“But I have to deliver the quality. I have
to define the standards of the Sébastien
way, and I’ve thought a lot about it. I now
have a clear idea of what I want, how
it’s supposed to be, what I don’t want to
see. So it’s coming. We may make a few
mistakes along the way, but I’m not afraid
of the challenge. I want my legacy to be
creating the place I would have loved to
have had when I was a kid. A place that will
make the word spread like wildfire.”
Calling all visionaries
Given the way Foucan embraces
freerunning as a lifestyle, does he ever just
walk normally down the street?
“I do walk normally, but inside my head
it’s constant. You look around and you
see things differently. It affects you in
your lifestyle forever, because you notice
when people are putting up boundaries.
You notice parents saying to their kids:
‘Don’t do this, don’t climb, don’t jump…
don’t, don’t, don’t.’ Society does that too.
I run a class at Latimer Road in London,
and every sign there says no freerunning,
no skateboarding – and the worst sign I’ve
ever seen: ‘No jumping of any kind.’
“That’s awful, because there’s a huge call
for what we do, not only from kids but from
adults too – and that’s because people want
freedom. They want escapism. They want an
activity that’s fun and social and that isn’t
going to feel like a chore after work.
“So if you come to one of my
freerunning classes, we won’t be training.
I don’t do sit-ups. I don’t do pull-ups or
push-ups. I hate running – it’s boring. We’re
doing something new, and it’s about fun,
play and freedom. I believe every park
should be full of playgrounds. You have all
this space and you should be using it to
inspire people to be active.
“I know there are health and safety
considerations, but in life, 100 per cent
safe doesn’t exist. We do our best in our
academies, but activity is vitality. People
have to be active. So where are the
visionaries? I can go to any facility. All I
need is partners who are visionaries.” ●
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sportsmanagement.co.uk issue 4 2015 © Cybertrek 2015