Local Parkour artist Koh Chen Pin (CP), better known online as Denester, along with three other prominent freerunners, recently took part in a challenge sponsored by Red Bull Singapore to race across Resorts World Sentosa (RWS).
A video posted on 30 Sept showed the freerunners paired into teams to collect flags around RWS.
Unlike your usual ‘Capture the Flag’ race however, the athletes were challenged to scale rooftops using creative and daring stunts.
CP, who shared more behind-the-scenes content on 10 Oct in a YouTube video, spoke to MS News about the project.
According to CP, he approached Red Bull Singapore about five years ago to propose such a project with RWS.
They finally made a breakthrough this year, thanks to the presence of fellow freerunner Dominic Di Tomasso.
Better known online as Dom Tomato (@domtomato), Di Tomasso is an Australian Red Bull Parkour athlete.
Source: TikTok
Dom, who recently gained more fame for his participation in Physical Asia, had worked with RWS to promote their events earlier in March.
With this, more meetings happened in person between Red Bull and RWS.
Meanwhile, CP was brought in as the local representative with the parkour vision. He also attended some recces to make sure of the project’s safety.
While he was not too personally involved with the negotiations, CP could share that “trying to get approval from higher management for rooftop access, assuring them on the safety, definitely took a lot of convincing”.
He also explained that refining the storyboarding and video direction to ensure views and engagement also took time.
The main locations of interest included the Oceanarium, Laurus Hotel, Universal Studios, and Weave, among others.
The shoot director, Anan Anwar, came up with a ‘Capture the Flags’ challenge.
CP found that it worked well as “a fun way to showcase our parkour moves and the locations”.
In his opinion, the rooftop of the Oceanarium and the Laurus Hotel were the top two locations, as parkour is typically associated with rooftops.
Moreover, the two locations afford scenic views which overlook the skyline.
They also provide ample architectural and geometric features to perform stunts from.
Source: Instagram
Pre-shoot, the team checked diligently to ensure that their proposed moves would be well within their limits.
They discussed what moves would be feasible based on photos of the locations, and categorised them from hardest to easiest.
During actual execution, there was “no hesitation” if changes needed to be made to scale down a stunt.
We knew that this is ‘just’ a shoot, and nothing to risk our lives over.
CP also related that the three-day shoot was rather rigorous, owing to the hot weather and tight schedule.
Due to this, “there were occasions where [they] did feel slightly more tired and had to opt for a back-up jump instead”.
“Ultimately, we were still performing at a very high level — for a shoot of this scale, we are just excited to push ourselves to perform to the best we could,” said CP.
The structural integrity of the buildings was inspected thoroughly too.
Special scaffolding was even built to allow their access to the roof of the Oceanarium.
CP also shared that he learned some lessons from working with the other athletes.
He particularly found solidarity with Dom, as they are both free-runners both in their 30s who coincidentally started their parkour journeys in 2007.
“It was good to see how [Dom] is maintaining his body through intense video projects like this, which also motivated me to keep up the hard work,” said CP, who crossed paths with Dom in 2012.
Source: YouTube
CP also expressed pride in Thai athlete Boy’s attitude towards the shoot.
CP sees Boy as “someone [he] saw grow up over the years”, first meeting him in 2016 as a newcomer to the sport.
What struck him this time around was Boy’s relaxed attitude and his ability to carry out his stunts.
As for 21-year-old Dutch free-runner Noa Diorgina, CP expressed admiration for how she has “built huge credentials” despite her age.
He was happy that her position as an “incredible female parkour athlete” is paving the way for the girls in the sport.
As his teammate in the shoot, he found that Noa had “so much energy despite the intensity of the shoot, doing takes after takes”.
This pushed him to keep up every day of the shoot.
MS News also asked CP what he hopes the Red Bull X RWS project could bring for the local Parkour scene.
He thinks that it may open avenues for future video projects in Singapore, suggesting locations including MBS, the Singapore Flyer, or HDB blocks.
However, most importantly, he also hopes that it can help with the open-mindedness of society in Singapore. CP said:
Us being on rooftops, yes it may seem risky, but actually — there were zero injuries (not even close calls!) in this shoot, just because we have been very professional about keeping within our safe limits.
To CP, it is worthwhile to sometimes challenge the status quo and produce something extraordinary, even in a bureaucratic country.
He hopes that the project, especially with the backing of reputable organisations, can allow for the sport to be more accepted by the public.
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Featured image adapted from @deeenester on Instagram for illustration purposes only.