Parkour Bag Guide: What should be inside?

What essential items are needed in your parkour bag? Truthfully, you don’t need much gear. You need decent parkour shoes, parkour gloves and comfortable parkour clothing. If you’re anything like me though, you want a few other essentials for any eventuality you might come across. How much or how little you pack really depends on how long you’re planning your trip for. There are a few basics to start with, and a few other essentials you might need on longer trips.

A Good Parkour Bag

No matter what type of training you’re doing, you’re going to need some type of secure place to hold your essentials. It needs to fit ergonomically, meaning that rather than getting a standard posterior loading backpack you need to find one that the load is balanced. It’ll save your back, providing you’ve not overloaded it. You want something lightweight too, as if you’re going to do any running with it at all you don’t want anything to weigh you down too much. It needs to be as compact as you can possibly make it. It also needs to be durable. Just make sure that the chest strap fits fairly snug across your chest and you’re set. You don’t need that bouncing around if you can help it.

There’s a few choices you can make depending on what sort of use you need out of it. If you’re just making quick trips, you may only want to use something like a hydration pack (recommended hydration pack). If you remove the bladder, they make excellent tiny backpacks that fit in the middle of your back. They won’t hold much, but if you’re just taking a short day trip it’ll hold your essentials.

For your longer trips, you might want to go for a parkour aerial pack. Similar to a standard aerial daypack, but designed specifically for parkour use. More expensive though. Honestly though, any lightweight, durable backpack will do fine. Slingbags work too, though they tend not to be as easy to secure snugly against your chest.

Snacks

This is one you’ll want in your parkour bag, but how much you add really depends on the room you’ve got. You’ll be expending a lot of energy, and you need to replace it. If you don’t have a lot of room, just add either some protein bars, or some trail mix with nuts in it. If you’re going to be gone for longer trips and have more room, you can plan to add a bit more than that.

You need to have some water too. Add a bottle of water. Most of the larger parkour bags have space specifically for this purpose. If you’re trying to travel light with a smaller parkour bag, either carry a water bladder for hikers with you, or make sure you’re doing your training in an area that has water freely available.

First Aid

This is another item that should be in your parkour bag no matter the size. You can get tiny little first aid kids the size of a sewing kit that will fit in the smallest of spaces. For the larger bags, you’ve got a bit more room to fit something that will serve for emergency use.

The point is when you’re doing parkour, you’re going to get banged up like in this parkour fails video. Mostly it’s just scrapes, scratches and the like. Chances are if it’s anything more severe you’ll need a hospital anyway. But having that little first aid kit handy will save you from trouble down the road.

Identity

Your cell phone and your wallet. Keep those on your at all times. In fact, most people tend to keep those in a holster or some kind that keeps it close to your body, but out of the way of any rolls or falls. If something happens you, having those on you is what will save you. Either the phone will be there for you to call someone for help, or if someone else has to call help for you then your wallet will be on hand for people to identify you. Make sure you keep a medical alert card in your wallet just in case. If you have any medical issues, conditions or allergies anyone needs to be aware of, then they’ll be able to find them in your wallet.

The Long Haul

Some traceurs like taking traveling tours of all the best parkour spots. You need something big enough to pack your laptop if you have an outside job that requires it’s use. You also want to be able to pack a few spare sets of clothes, so bear that in mind when choosing a parkour bag for this purpose. It still should be lightweight, and durable. But considering it’s use, you can get away with something a bit larger.

You really want to pack lightly for these trips. Just a couple sets of clothes, a hat or beanie to keep your hair back, and some sunglasses. A bandana is good for sunny days, for keeping your hair back, or for using as a sleep mask.

If you plan on documenting your trip, you’ll want to pack a camera. A phone with a camera feature is fine, but a decent DSLR will be better if you want to record any longer shots. It really depends on how much you usually do such things.

Consider packing a battery pack or a solar style universal charger for all your equipment. Between your phone, laptop, and camera if you’re using all of them you will find a battery pack comes in handy. You might not always have a charging port handy.

Pack a journal and a pen or pencil. Whether you’re an artist, a writer, or just want to document your trip it will come in handy. Even if all you do is keep track if your awesome moves and jot down  inspiration for new ones a journal is a good thing to have on hand.

Lastly, protect your skin. Pack some lip balm and some lotion. You’re bound to be out in the sun a lot. If you’ve got sensitive skin at all, then pack sunscreen as well. Your skin will thank you for it later.