Joel Bennett, trials cycling in London's secret extreme sports playgrounds – Londoner #18

Joel Bennett is a leading exponent of trials riding, a subcategory of biking in which riders negotiate courses of their own design along impossibly narrow beams or leap chasm-like gaps. Without your feet touching the ground. The idea is to reclaim urban spaces by using the architecture as fuel for creativity and skill, like parkour on wheels. Highly in demand for his trials riding, breakdancing and parkour, Joel is passionate about his unique perspective on our ignored corners.

1000 LONDONERS

This film is part of 1000 Londoners, a five-year digital project which aims to create a digital portrait of a city through 1000 of the people who identify themselves with it. The profile contains a 3 minute film that gives an insight into the life of the Londoner, as well as their personal photos of London and some answers to crucial questions about their views on London life. Over the course of the project we aim to reveal as many facets of the capital as possible, seeing city life from 1000 points of view.

www.1000londoners.com
www.youtube.com/1000londoners
www.facebook.com/1000londoners
Twitter: @1000_londoners

1000 Londoners is produced by South London based film production company and social enterprise, Chocolate Films. The filmmakers from Chocolate Films will be both
producing the films and providing opportunities to young people and community groups to make their own short documentaries, which will contribute to the 1000 films. Visit www.chocolatefilms.com

Transcript:

So you’ve got trials riders and then I hang around with some people that do parkour and whenever you’re with those people, BMX as well, they just look at the city in such a different way. The Heygate Estate is my favourite place in London. I guess the way I see this is very different to the way someone else might see it, so that they might feel fear or they may just be apathetic, but for me there’s a connection. It’s like a, I guess like a child in a playground. You’re looking at what you’re about to do and you know you can do it but your mind’s telling you, this is kind of a weird thing to do. I could be on a bus or I could be going past a spot or on the train and I just, I see this spot and I just, it all goes slow motion and I see myself jumping in the air with some really kind of slow violin type music, it’s all slow-motion, it’s just beautiful, ah it’s all flowing. You know, it’s this kind of architecture that you really think wow, this is what I can connect with in London.