Had a piece in the Times today about parkour, a form of urban gymnastics. One thing I was surprised about was how all the practitioners were so supportive of each other and not competitive. But my editor wasn’t, saying it was the same in skateboarding, trick biking, etc–all those “extreme” sports.

Let me give you an example, a scene from this article I excised for space reasons:

One of the art’s primary draws seems to be in allowing guys to push themselves in a supportive, not competitive, environment. When I successfully performed my finest move of the day—a tic-tac off a wall, landing on a ledge a few feet away—I got only applause from these traceurs for whom that was child’s play.

But my move had given them an idea. In a patio area behind a university building, Devin and another high-schooler, Andrew, took turns attempting a difficult move: jumping to a wall, grabbing it at the top, spinning, and pushing themselves to land on a lower wall 12 feet from where they started. Preparing for each attempt, Devin puffed his cheeks out, exhaling air slowly in a powerful stream, staring intently at the obstacle. On one try, Andrew almost made it, but turned his ankle on the landing, falling to the ground in pain.

The guys immediately went into action, rolling Andrew onto his side, Cliff leaning down to tell him the pain would quickly fade, Silverton and Devin standing in front of him to block the sun. As the grimace faded from Andrew’s face, Devin looked back at the jump and announced, “I don’t want to be insensitive, but I really want to get this one.”

Andrew nodded, and one guy called out, “Do it for Andrew!”

Each attempt, Devin got closer to sticking the landing, until he finally hit, finishing with a fist pump. He stepped down and walked right over to Andrew, who was still lying on the ground, and offered his fist. Andrew raised his own to meet it, and when their knuckles touched Devin wiggled his slightly, saying, “All for you, baby.”

This comraderie is not what I would expect, but it does make sense. With so-called extreme sports, practitioners are pushing themselves in dangerous situations. They share challenges: that tough jump, that killer bump run, that nasty 540 they can’t stick. They are united in the face of a common enemy, and so they band together. Just one more way in which sports help bring people–particularly guys–together.