Contents:
Bio | Parkour | Kayaking | Scouts | Web Development
Programming | Media Enquiries | Free Stuff | Copyright
Bio
Age: 21
Birthday: 16 November 1988
Location: Manchester (term time) / Sheffield (holidays), UK
Education: Second Year BSc Maths & Computing at MMU, A-levels (Maths, ICT, Business Studies)
Occupation: Student / Freelance Web Designer / Student Ambassador for MMU
Previous Occupations: Pool Lifeguard at Esporta Health & Fitness, Sheffield
Activities: Parkour, Kayaking, Blogging, Photography, Web Development, Programming, Maths, Monopoly
Interests: Parkour, Kayaking, Computers, The Internet, Maths, Reading, Blogging, Grammar & Punctuation, Health & Fitness, Pi, Photography, Wikipedia, Maths Jokes, Typography, Googlewhacking, Phi, Programming, Web Development, Android, Open Source, The Universe, Monopoly
Favourite Music: The Beatles, Less Than Jake, Scouting For Girls, Yellowcard, Motion City Soundtrack, Brand New, Bowling For Soup, MC Lars, N.W.A., Tenacious D, Allister, Something Corporate, Run DMC, Placebo, Alkaline Trio, Box Car Racer, +44, Michael Jackson, Chuck Berry, Black Eyed Peas, NOFX, Sum 41, Frank Sinatra, AC/DC, Taylor Swift, Hilltop Hoods, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater Soundtracks, Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds
Favourite TV Shows: Futurama, The Inbetweeners, Genius, Goodnight Sweetheart, 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, The IT Crowd
Favourite Movies: Pulp Fiction, Rocky, Die Hard, Be Cool, Elfen Lied, Road Trip, The 40 Year Old Virgin, V For Vendetta, Back To The Future, Notting Hill, Speed Air Man, The Girl Next Door, The Pursuit of Happyness, Back To The Future, The Karate Kid, Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny, Futurama films, A Hard Day's Night, Bulletproof Monk, Good Will Hunting, Inglourious Basterds
Favourite 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, 50 Mathematical Ideas You Really Need To Know, Don't Make Me Think
Parkour
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.
See my media tagged with 'parkour': Blog | Videos | Photos
Kayaking
I started kayaking when I was 14 in Venture Scouts, I quickly gained my two-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 and passed the assessment at 18.
When I started university I joined the canoe club there. I quickly attained a position on the committee and I continued to make a new website for the club. We have weekly pool sessions at the Manchester Aquatics Centre at which I coach and train, and we try to get out to do river trips across the UK every weekend. I'm currently the club trip secretary and webmaster.
In the Summer of 2009 I had my first trip to the Alps. I spent a week kayaking in South France, a day rafting in Switzerland and a week kayaking in Austria. Read about the trip in the Alps series on my blog.
See my media tagged with 'kayaking': Blog | Videos | Photos
Scouts
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 Venture Scouts 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, as well as a trip to the Spanish Pyrenees.
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 for two consequtive years, in a role which involved planning the programme, running activities, producing review videos and running the website (which I still run with help from another member).
See my media tagged with 'scouting': Blog | Videos | Photos
Web Development
Over the last few years I have taught myself HTML and the programming langauges associated with it, and now I offer my services as a freelance web developer. I design personal sites (such as this) as well as websites for small businesses and organisations. My services are very affordable at less than half the industry standard - complete websites from as little as £200!
My websites are compliant with the highest standards set by the World Wide Web Consortium (Valid XHTML 1.0 Strict and CSS 2.1) which means efficient coding, speedy loading of pages, and Search Engine Optimisation. I code my sites in XHTML 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 CS4.
The main sites I run are www.bennuttall.com (this one!), www.woodseatsventureunit.com (my Venture Scout Unit website) and www.mmucanoe.co.uk. See my portfolio for other sites I have made.
Programming
I have a solid knowledge of (X)HTML and CSS, I know a fair amount of Java and MATLAB, and a bit of PHP and JavaScript.
I taught myself (X)HTML and CSS for web design. I'm learning Java as part of the Computing side of my degree, and MATLAB as part of the Maths side. In order to enhance the scope of my web development ability I'm teaching myself PHP & MySQL in my own time, along with a bit of JavaScript. By the time I graduate from university (Summer 2011), I aim to be fluent in all of the aforementioned langauges, and maybe another one or two. I will continue to develop my knowledge of programming languages and try to put them to use to keep my skills fresh.
Brand new code blog coming soon!
Media Enquiries
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 media opportunities.
Send Me Free Stuff
Occasionally I have people emailing me asking if I would be interested in having them send me free stuff to demo for them. If you have shoes designed for parkour, demo kayaks, equipment or clothing I would gladly take it from you. Please feel free to contact me.
Copyright & Usage of Content from this website
All the content of this website (excluding external links) is copyright © Ben Nuttall 2009, 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 yourself (try photobucket) to save my 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!
