We did swing around lampposts and climb roofs in the town when I was a kid - but that’s where we stopped. The kids from Lisses south of Paris did not stop - they continued to hone their skills and so invented the sport of free-running:
moving around the urban landscape as it was a combination of an army obstacle course and a ballet stage.

The Guardian presents Sebastian
Foucan in a recent article. Foucan and David Belle (of the brilliant BBC advert showing free-running [RealPlayer download] are the stars and founders of “parkeur”.

The French websites dedicated to the sport are almost like obstacle
courses themselves - the unofficial parkeur
site is slightly better than parkour.com (annoying music alert on both).
London-based urbanfreeflow’s site
is designed in a way truer to the spirit of the sport.

Forget surfing, this is fresher and there is no need for a wetsuit (just a
pair of good shoes).