Ben Nuttall | About Me

• Name: Ben Nuttall
• Age: 19
• Birthday: 16 November 1988
• Location: Manchester (term time) / Sheffield (holidays), UK
• Occupation: Student / Independent Business Consultant
• Education: A-levels (Maths, ICT, Business Studies), Currently studying for an undergraduate degree in Maths & Computer Studies at Manchester Metropolitan University


• Activities: Parkour, Kayaking, Googlewhacking, Photography, Blogging, Web Development, Maths, Learning, Conditioning


• Interests: Parkour, Kayaking, Computers, The Internet, Maths, Reading, Blogging, Grammar & Punctuation, Health & Fitness, Pi, Photography, Wikipedia, Maths Jokes, Typography, Googlewhacking, Euphony, Phi, Conditioning, Personal Development, Self-Improvement


• Favorite Music: The Beatles, Motion City Soundtrack, Brand New, Bowling For Soup, MC Lars, N.W.A., Tenacious D, Less Than Jake, Allister, Something Corporate, Run DMC, Placebo, Alkaline Trio, Box Car Racer, +44, Michael Jackson, Chuck Berry, Black Eyed Peas, Sum 41, Frank Sinatra, AC/DC, Sex Pistols, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater Soundtracks


• Favorite TV Shows: Goodnight Sweetheart, Futurama, Monty Python, Porridge, Blackadder, Only Fools and Horses, The Two Ronnies, Friends, Alan Partridge, Fawlty Towers, Men Behaving Badly, Rising Damp, One Foot In The Grave, Not The Nine O-Clock News, Sheffield Parkour Diaries, The Adam and Ben Show


• Favorite Movies: Pulp Fiction, Die Hard, Be Cool, Elfen Lied, Road Trip, The Wedding Singer, The 40 Year Old Virgin, V For Vendetta, Back To The Future, Notting Hill, Speed Air Man, The Girl Next Door, Kill Bill, The Pursuit of Happyness


• Favorite Books: Harry Potter, The Chronicles of Narnia, Are You Dave Gorman?, Dave Gorman's Googlewhack Adventure, Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons, Deception Point, Digital Fortress, Eats Shoots and Leaves, Talk To The Hand

Parkour is a French discipline, a training method devised by David Belle, inspired by his father Raymond Belle, and Georges Hébert, a French physical educator, theorist and instructor who lived by and taught the ways of la Methode Naturalle or the Natural Method.

Parkour is the art of movement, the aim of the activity is to move through any environment as quickly and efficiently as possible using principally the abilities of the human body. Practitioners of parkour are recognized as traceurs. It should be noted that Parkour is non-competitive and is purely a programme of self-improvement rather than a basis of comparing skill level with others.

I have been practising parkour since January 2005 and since a year or so into training it has become an integral benefactor to my healthy lifestyle; it has made me think about how I treat my body by the things I eat and drink, and the way I train to prepare myself for continual improvement and accompishments in the physical side of parkour. I also love the opportunity to spread the word of parkour by helping others get involved and answering their questions. Feel free to email me with any questions on the philosophy of parkour or simply how you can get involved.

I am an Independent Consultant in a Network Marketing Business called Euphony, which started in the UK in 1998 and is now operative in 7 other countrues across Europe.

Network Marketing is the concept of a product or service being put on to the market by means of referral (purely word-of-mouth) rather than conventional expensive methods of advertising such as TV, radio or direct mail, allowing the company to pass on its savings to those who made it possible for them to provide customers with those products or services.

In the UK, Euphony currently provides Residential & Commercial Landline, Mobile (in partnership with Orange), Energy (in partnership with Scottish & Southern Energy) and its own unique USB VOIP stick (Voice-Over-Internet, like Skype but on a portable USB stick).

I started canoeing when I was 14 in Venture Scouts, I quickly gained my 2-star award and started to go on a few river trips with the group. I then proceeded to gain my three and four-star by the age of 16, and when I was 17 I started to train to become a Level 2 Coach which I was assessed on at 18 and passed.

My kayaking activity was minimal for about 2 years before me starting university in September 2008, as pretty much all I did was coaching and taking young Scouts on simple river trips. A day trip to Holme Pierrepoint whitewater centre in Nottingham (a month before I started uni) made me decide I wanted to get back into some serious paddling.

I emailed the chairman of the uni canoe club and he replied quickly with the information I needed and he arranged for my boat to be transported to Manchester by a guy from Sheffield. The club's great and we have weekly pool sessions at the Manchester Aquatics Centre (conveniently across the road from where I live) and try to get out to do a river trip every weekend.

I have been a member of the Scout association since the age of 6 and stuck with it right the way to Ventures. During my time at Ventures I completed the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme (Bronze, Silver & Gold), the Queen's Scout Award, the National Pool Lifeguard Qualification, the Level II Kayak Coach qualification and many more as well as having uncountable trips around the UK doing various outdoor persuits such as kayaking, rock climbing, mountaineering, hill trekking, expeditions and explorations with a great group of friends.

Later on in my Scouting career I began to delve into the media side of things by getting involved with newspapers and magazines to promote Scouting. I helped run a group for younger Scouts for two years, as I am a warranted leader, and I was also elected on the executive committe of the Venture Unit I attend for two consequtive years, in a role which involved planning the programme, running activities, producing reciew videos and running the website (which I still run with help from another member).

I'm no professional web developer but I have the skills to put websites together and maintain them. I code my sites purely in HTML and CSS using Notepad++ (an Open Source Notepad replacement and source code editor which supports several programming languages), and design my graphics using Adobe Fireworks CS3.

The two main sites I run are www.bennuttall.com (this one!) and www.woodseatsventureunit.com (my Venture Scout Unit website).

I have worked with companies including BBC, Hat Trick Productions, Heason Events and Sheffield City Council for various persuits; filming parkour for documentaries, doing parkour demonstrations and talks at events, doing photoshoots with photographers, as well as doing articles with the Sheffield Star and Telegraph on both parkour and Scouting.

I love the opportunity to spread the word of parkour and Scouting, and welcome any media enquiries for either so feel free to get in touch to discuss any mdeia opportunities.

All the content of this website (excluding external links) is copyright © Ben Nuttall 2008, unless otherwise stated. However, you are free to use any part of it (unless otherwise stated) for your own purposes, with the exception of plagiarism and other actions prohibited by law. Feel free to use any of my pictures and blog posts for personal use, and you are welcome to download any of the pictures and images used on the site (the same applies to my Flickr account) to use on your own sites, on the condition that you do not 'hotlink' - you must download them and host them yourslelf (try photobucket) to save Shane's bandwidth!

If none of this makes sense (I wouldn't be surprised - I shouldn't be writing legalities or even using words of over two syllables on such little sleep - it's 6am and I'm still writing code for my webiste!!) then just email or phone me to ask about usage. If you ask nicely I'm likely to oblige!

I'd just like to take the opportunity to thank a few people here:

• Huge thanks to Shane Rounce for providing me with this domain and the webspace. None of this would be possible without your kindness!
• Thanks to Josh Bell, my Euphony sponsor, for introduing me to a fantastic business opportunity and being a great friend while we work on our goals together.
• Thanks to Chris Hill, Tom Greenfield, Darren Booth and last but not least Rick Smithies, for giving great team support and always being there to help me out.