The working day may be long and arduous but, for most of us, it rarely results in circumstances of serious peril or injury. A bad back from incorrect posture, minor tea-making scolds and burns, or general intolerance to incredibly dry colleague banter is the worst most of us will probably encounter while on the job.
It's safe to say that broken arms, fractured skulls or being shot in the workplace aren't common problems faced while toiling away nine 'til five. The greatest work based jeopardy I face on a daily basis tends to be whether or not there's milk in the fridge when I go to make my 9am brew.
To shake myself from this regular routine and avoid yet another depressingly milk-less morning, I went to do some work experience with a bunch of guys who do find smashed bones and gun-wielding maniacs as something that comes with the territory when pursuing their profession of choice.
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These lads are Max Cave, Benj Cave and Drew Taylor - all members of Storror, the UK's premier and most daring parkour crew. While parkour can come in different forms and styles, Storror do this sh*t for real - performing death-defying leaps from stomach-turning heights better than anyone else in their field.
Storror: Rooftop Culture, Asia. Photography by Drew Taylor.
To break the monotony of my simple existence, Storror agreed to show me what a regular working day looks like for athletes like them - and, on this occasion, that meant touring some of London's iconic landmarks to leap, jump and flip until they could do no more.
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We headed out alongside the River Thames, for once illuminated from its regular dull brown by the searing summer sun, and found a couple of spots for the guys to do their thing. But it didn't take long to realise that the security guards of central London are hardly parkour aficionados; moving us along at regular intervals.
They were, however, polite enough about it - ushering us away in a passive aggressive manner rather than dropping a few f-bombs or toting offensive weaponry. It was a very British way to deal with trespassing - a response not always afforded to the Storror boys when they're out and about.
"We've had knives pulled out on us, guns pulled out on us," Benj, 22, explained. "In Hungary, we were climbing, and a security guard just got out his gun."
Max, Benj, Katie and Drew in the full American Eagle Outfitters look. Photography by Caitie Taylor.
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"I've been shot, actually," said Max - Benj's older brother by two years - as he lifted his shirt to reveal a decent scar.
"I was climbing on some scaffolding in a building site and there was a security guard there. Suddenly, as I turned around, he fired at me with an air rifle.
"I lifted my top and it was bleeding everywhere. He then shot my mate twice. So, you could say that's the most shocking injury any of us have had!"
There were to be no guns or knives on this occasion, however, just death drops and somersaults. So standard stuff, really. It actually surprised me at how panicked I became watching them, despite total faith in their ability to scale and traverse these structures. There's just something difficult about watching people jump between buildings, no matter how skilled they are.
Max hangs tough on London's South Bank. Photography by Caitie Taylor.
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Thankfully it wasn't just me watching the guys at neck straining heights - but I was joined by another first-timer, 19-year-old Katie Statham. But, while I was in attendance to observe (erm, I've got a dodgy hammy), Katie joined in with Storror as she bids to follow the unique path they have laid towards parkour stardom.
Sure, Storror may have been perfecting their techniques over a decade - but Katie at the very least has the steely determination required to reach similar heights...both literally and figuratively. "I was inspired by watching the guys in their videos but I hadn't even seen them in action up close until today," she told me
"I love it. I love all the adrenaline stuff; near death experiences are what get me going. It's just so much fun."
With Katie climbing to join the lads and me guarding their bags like a sun-stroked cloakroom attendant, crowds grew to witness these extraordinary feats of agility and athleticism. I was certainly thankful it was them rather than me performing above these thrilled onlookers as, knowing my luck, the crotch of my trousers would rip immediately and my nether regions would be bared for all to see. However, there was to be no such issue for Max, Benj and Drew given the flexibility of their American Eagle Outfitters Flex 4/360 jeans.
Drew puts his American Eagle Outfitters Flex 4/360 jeans to the test on Waterloo Bridge. Photography by Caitie Taylor.
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Untroubled by jean-based tightness around their joints or undercarriage, each member of the Storror crew gracefully bounded across ever-widening gaps from a height of 30 or so feet without a rip or tear in sight - landing each jump with metronomic precision, while also swinging from ledges like Harambe re-born.
Although at heights worthy of a neck strain for those on the ground, this was nothing compared to what they had taken on just a few weeks previous. In a recent trip to Asia, the lads jumped gaps at 55 storeys in the sky. If those jumps were Charizard, the effort I witnessed in London was but a humble Slowpoke.
"If you fall, you die - that's the consequence of these jumps," Benj said. "We're used to doing that sort of stuff as we're used to pushing ourselves to those kind of limits.
"Everyone gets that fear factor of 'oh my god, what if I slip or fall? If I fall, I die' - but it's about being able to choose to forget that and being able to zone into the trained side of your brain."
"People say that we're fearless, but we're not," Max added. "We all have fear, we just know how to deal with it."
"At the beginning, we never went on roofs," Drew, also aged 22, explained. "But now, as we've been doing it for so long, we can basically bet our own lives that we'll make a jump. It's easy."
Storror: Rooftop Culture, Asia. Photography by Drew Taylor.
Given the strength of the enduring bond between these three guys from Horsham, Sussex - Drew was in Benj's year at school and they started training together aged 12, with Max 14 - there are naturally times when they are concerned about the welfare of each other. Max recalls a recent example where he was genuinely worried for the safety of his brother and close mate.
"There was a rooftop jump in Seoul over a death drop - it was physically capable for all of us, but the takeoff was slippery. Your training doesn't help cope with this. I did [the jump] but, when I was watching the other two do it, I realised that if they slipped it'd be game over."
"In Asia, my mum kept texting me saying 'you've done enough of it now'," laughed Drew.
Benj vs London. Photography by Caitie Taylor.
Thankfully conditions were on our side during my meeting with Storror - or else I think I may have vacated my bowels if they had been flying between buildings in slippery conditions. But, ultimately, it's this sort of risk taking that makes their sport so appealing.
A case in point of this being how Storror continue to inspire kids to take up parkour rather than traditional sporting activities. At the gym in their home town, the guys have had to turn people away from open training sessions due to such demand for their time and expertise. This is their legacy, and an incentive to continue setting the bar by making a living like no-one else before them.
But there are still years left in the tank for Storror as they continue to train and hone their techniques before the next big project. So how do they improve upon the feats they have achieved in an impressive career to date? "Go higher," says Benj.
I'll leave you to it, lads.
You can follow Storror in action on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. Thanks to American Eagle Outfitters for the Flex 4/360 jeans. Get the Storror look here.
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