Daniel Marcus Ilabaca (born 23 January 1988) is a freerunner and traceur from

Moreton, Merseyside Moreton is a town on the north coast of the Wirral Peninsula, Merseyside, England. It is located approximately to the west of Wallasey. Historically part of Cheshire, it is now within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral. The town was divided in ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. He along with

Ryan Doyle Ryan Doyle (born 22 September 1984) is a freerunner, martial artist, coach, and actor from Liverpool, England, and is a founding athlete of the World Freerunning and Parkour Federation. Freerunning and parkour interests In his teenage years, ...

, is the founder of the World Freerunning and Parkour Federation.

Personal life

Ilabaca was born on 23 January 1988 in Moreton, England. He has a brother, Chris Ilabaca, who often films and edits his videos.

Career

Daniel first noticed Parkour after seeing a man on the street perform a wall flip and wanted to be able to do the same. He later took up the Brazilian martial art

Capoeira Capoeira () is an Afro-Brazilian martial art that combines elements of dance, acrobatics, music and spirituality. Born of the melting pot of enslaved Africans, Indigenous Brazilians and Portuguese influences at the beginning of the 16th centur ...

, but was disappointed with its limitations. He then took up parkour and freerunning. He has since won first place in MTV's inaugural Ultimate Parkour Challenge, and is one of the most watched freerunners with over 30 million views on YouTube.

Philosophy

Ilabaca believes Parkour is a global movement that will change the way people interact with their environment. To him all ways of being free and expressing yourself are

parkour Parkour () is an athletic training discipline or sport in which practitioners (called ''traceurs'') attempt to get from point A to point B in the fastest and most efficient way possible, without assisting equipment and often while performing ...

. Furthermore, he emphasizes the power of choices in one's training. He states that falling is the result of choosing to fall: "Thinking you’re going to fail at something gives you a higher risk of doing just that. Committing to something you’re thinking or knowing you will land gives you a higher chance of landing or completing the task."

Film/TV appearances

* Top Gear (2006) *:In episode 7 of the 8th season of Top Gear, Daniel and Kerbie took part in a challenge to race a

Peugeot 207 The Peugeot 207 is a supermini car ( B) that was designed and produced by the French automaker Peugeot from 2006 to 2014. It was presented at the Geneva Motor Show in 2006, and entered production in April 2006, as the successor to the Peugeot ...

through the busy city centre of Liverpool. In the episode, the traceurs won. *

Eric Prydz Eric Sheridan Prydz (, ; born 19 July 1976), also known by his many aliases including Pryda () and Cirez D (), is a Swedish DJ and music producer. He rose to fame with his 2004 hit single " Call on Me", and saw continued chart success with " Pr ...

vs.

Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experimentation, philosophical lyrics an ...

Proper Education "Proper Education" is a remix of the 1979 song " Another Brick in the Wall, Part II" by Pink Floyd by the Swedish DJ and electronic music producer Eric Prydz. It was released in Sweden on 24 November 2006 and in the United Kingdom on 1 January ...

(music video, 2006) *:Daniel performed parkour, stunts and other various action moves while dressed in a school uniform which promoted the theme of saving the environment. music video for the remix ''Eric Prydz vs. Pink Floyd - Proper Education'' *Parkour Journeys (2006) *:Daniel featured in the Parkour Journeys DVD documentary, in a section called 'Daniel Ilabaca In Profile' which featured an interview and footage of him training. *

David Guetta Pierre David Guetta ( , ; born 7 November 1967) is a French DJ and music producer. He has over 10 million album and 65 million single sales globally, with more than 10 billion streams. In 2011, 2020 and 2021, Guetta was voted the number one D ...

vs. The Egg -

Love Don't Let Me Go (Walking Away) "Love Don't Let Me Go (Walking Away)" was released as a mash-up of DJ Tocadisco's remix of The Egg's single "Walking Away" with the vocals of Chris Willis from David Guetta's 2002 single " Love Don't Let Me Go". The mash-up was first performed ...

(music video, 2007) *:Along with several members of 3RUN, Daniel performed several Parkour moves around

Elephant & Castle The Elephant and Castle is an area around a major road junction in London, England, in the London Borough of Southwark. The name also informally refers to much of Walworth and Newington, due to the proximity of the London Underground station ...

. *UEFA Champions' League Advert (advert, 2008) *:Daniel Ilabaca and

were among the freerunners appearing in a commercial shown regularly on Sky Sports to promote the Champions' League, in which they performed various tricks and martial arts

kicks A kick is a physical strike using the leg, in unison usually with an area of the knee or lower using the foot, heel, tibia (shin), ball of the foot, blade of the foot, toes or knee (the latter is also known as a knee strike). This type of atta ...

on a computer-generated football around central

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

South Bank The South Bank is an entertainment and commercial district in central London, next to the River Thames opposite the City of Westminster. It forms a narrow strip of riverside land within the London Borough of Lambeth (where it adjoins Albert ...

."YouTube - Sky Sports Football - Premier League Advert 2008"
Youtube.com *

The Chemical Brothers The Chemical Brothers are an English electronic music duo formed by Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons in Manchester in 1989. They were pioneers (along with the Prodigy, Fatboy Slim, the Crystal Method, and other acts) in bringing the big beat gen ...

- Midnight Madness (Music Vídeo, 2008) *:The video is set in a back alley and warehouse in London, United Kingdom. It begins with a Daniel playing a goblin, who jumps out of a dumpster, and starts dancing. His dancing takes him out of the alley and up onto the nearby rooftops, then into a theatre. The goblin begins breakdancing on the stage. He exits, jumps onto a police car, and rides it back to the dumpster, when he jumps in moments before a man walks into the alley and dumps a bag of trash into the dumpster. * MTV's Ultimate Parkour Challenge (2009 – 2010) *:Daniel Ilabaca was the winner of the inaugural Ultimate Parkour Challenge, winning the $10,000 prize. *The European Parkour Tour 2010 (2010) *:Daniel Ilabaca traveled across 4,000 miles to eight major cities to meet some of Europe’s best Freerunners. From each city, short films and interviews with the local freerunning community were made. He visited London, Amsterdam, Cologne, Copenhagen, Vienna, Milan, Barcelona and Paris – all in three weeks. * Misfits (2010) *:In the first series, Daniel played "Superhoodie", a recurring character who monitors and plays a guardian role outside the circle of already established characters. He is an onlooker and an outsider, with traits such as athletic ability and care being amplified since the storm in episode 1. *Kolpingtag: Mut (Courage) (2015) *:Trailer for the "Kolpingtag" a German Christian society

References

External links

Daniel's YouTube Channel
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ilabaca, Daniel Freerunners English capoeira practitioners Traceurs Sportspeople from Wirral 1988 births Living people