Meet your Monkey Master: Liam “Barnsy” Barnes

Hi! I’m the Director of both Fireside Adventures and Vancouver Outdoor School. My skillset includes leading multi-week wilderness expeditions in BC & Yukon, delivering day programming through an experiential lens, working intensively with neurodivergent youth, and designing curricula that integrate healthy screen use, healthy risk & climate change education into a wide array of educational programs.

Parkour Photo Filmmaking is a special camp - it’s the only one that I’m personally stepping in to instruct this year. I got my start in education as a youngster teaching summer parkour camps and have kept a hold of this thread throughout my career.

I’m looking forward to busting a move with the kids and showing them the parkour films that I made when I was their age!

The ‘world of screens’ is a landscape that our kids inhabit… often more than we’d like them too! At Fireside Adventures, we treat the digital world the same as we treat the wilderness: there are certain skills that kids need to develop in order to navigate it safely.

We incorporate filmmaking so our learners gain the ability to use their screens for creative, productive purposes that could change their lives for the better. We closely mentor them around ‘screen conduct’ and carefully moderate the amount of screen time they get (for instance, none in the first few days).

100% of our programming is delivered using our own iPads so that kids can have a safe, ‘walled garden’ digital experience while using the same film production apps they can access at home for free.

• Before Parkour Club: your child is on their phone scrolling through Tiktok.

• After Parkour Club: your child is on their phone editing a parkour video of them and their friends. They are creatively engaged, proud of their work, and looking forward to getting back outside to create more.

Bringing healthy risk back to learning

Did you know that kids who fall from the jungle gym are eleven times less likely to develop a fear of heights as adults?

Parkour is literally the practice of overcoming obstacles. Every step of the way, we combine risk analysis (should I do this?) with self-awareness (am I able to do this?) to create success.

This sounds pretty simple, but if our students can master risk management, they will make better decisions for the rest of their life.

Parkour is not a daredevil sport. Our motto is once is never. This means we value control, repetition and longevity, not crazy once-in-a-lifetime stunts.

Encouraging confidence and resilience

At the parkour club, your child gets:

• An encouraging environment filled with healthy relationships.

• Supportive, attentive educators who encourage them to push their limits safely.

• Fresh air.

• Exercise.

• Friendship.

• Self-expression.

• Time to be a kid. 

We are a movement. Watch us bust a move.

Follow us on Instagram @vancouverparkour

Check out what students who have never done parkour before accomplished in four days (100% self-directed, filmed and edited):