Long before they were leaping across rooftops, Brodie and Dylan Pawson were glued to obstacle courses on TV — watching elite athletes push speed, agility, and limits. That early obsession would eventually turn city streets into their arena.
The identical twin brothers, born in 1994 in Queensland, Australia, would watch the famous Japanese game show Sasuke, whose long-spanning obstacle courses tested competitors’ abilities. Only the fastest, most agile climbers would ultimately make it to the finish. This show would ultimately become known worldwide as Ninja Warrior.
Then, YouTube came into the picture, further inspiring the boys to become freerunners themselves. “We both watched a parkour video on YouTube after school one day, and we’ve pretty much been hooked ever since!”
Playing Around
At first, it was just backyard fun, jumping over tables and bins, or taking trips to a local park to mess around, going over park benches. As with so many extreme athletes, what began as fun eventually turned into a serious passion that became more complex over time.
The Pawson twins grew up and would drive all around town, looking for places to test out a jump, practice a flip, or try something entirely new. Alternative sports are all about pushing the limits of what a human being can do, and this was no different. They were doing a sport that might have looked just like they were playing around, but would come to be known broadly as “parkour.”
What is Parkour / Freerunning?
Parkour (from the French phrase for obstacle course, “parcours du combatant”) is the exploration of an environment through efficient movement, creative tricks, and fluid transitions. In practice, this means launching over railings, jumping off of low roofs, and lots of tumbling on the ground to allow for seamless transitions back into running. If you’ve ever seen apes move around a habitat in a zoo, you’ve seen primal parkour.
The sport is also known as freerunning, for the liberated way participants move around a given set of obstacles. It can be done anywhere – there’s no need for a prebuilt area – and this makes it a universal, global activity that anyone can do.
Parkour requires participants to look at things differently. You can’t see traditional rules of movement around your environment. Instead, you have to see which ledges could enable a grad so that you could launch yourself upward. You have to see which gaps above the ground are jumpable. And you have to see things that no one has seen before. It’s a fundamentally creative activity.
Ninjas Take Flight
Eventually, the “Parkour Twins” appeared on the first season of Australian Ninja Warrior in 2017. That year, Dylan completed a heat in 58 seconds, which was one of the fastest recorded times in the competition. They gained fans around the nation as Aussies cheered them on. Unfortunately, the spinning log obstacle finished both of them off.
The next year, in 2018, they made it through to the semifinals but did not reach the grand final. This showed just how hard it is to persevere through Ninja Warrior’s incredibly challenging obstacles at all, let alone at a speed that beats elite competitors.
Their television success, however, helped elevate their profile beyond the parkour community. They helped introduce freerunning to mainstream Australian audiences, and the Pawsons gained fans across the country. This exposure played a key role in positioning them as ambassadors for the discipline.
Brodie has also won several other speed competitions, including the 2018 Australian Parkour Championships Singapore and the 2019 AAPES Jump Off.
Training Like a Ninja
Both twins have at times followed a dedicated training regimen to keep their bodies in shape for their sport. Required exercise has included two strength and conditioning sessions (heavy weight, low rep), as well as two to three parkour sessions each week. Given that the brothers have a very healthy competition going between them, one can assume that they push and motivate each other quite well.
Catch Me If You Can
The Pawson twins have also participated in Ultimate Tag, a show where games of highly competitive tag are played in a custom-built arena with multiple levels and a variety of obstacles. Brodie (known as “Rapid”) and Dylan (playing as “Razor”) demonstrated elite athleticism as they wove through obstacles, ducked under platforms, and launched off of surfaces at will.
Viral Clips
You can find the Parkour Twins on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, where they bring so much attention to their sport by running up walls like Spider-Man, wall jumping like Mario, and outrunning the police in Santorini. Browse any of these platforms, and you’ll see a blend of athleticism and artistry that makes it clear why parkour has become such a global phenomenon.
Even Superheroes Have Day Jobs
Brodie is currently training to become a nurse, while Dylan wants to work as a stuntman. Recently, according to his resume, he was a part of the Avatar 3 team, so it appears that his career is off and running. The twins are also brand ambassadors for companies like GoPro.
Go In Depth with The Parkour Twins on The Team Ignition Show
Over on The Team Ignition Show, Selema Masekela heads to Brisbane, Australia to meet Dylan and Brodie. After visiting legendary downtown training spots that redefined what was possible in the sport, the twins break down the mindset required when the landing is concrete and the margin for error is zero. Then, things level up fast as Selema takes them to a local abandoned paint factory to choreograph and film a full Hollywood-style cinematic parkour chase sequence.
