Making Waves in Riverside, California, is a man with Guam roots, sharing his passion for parkour, with the collective movements, an outdoor parkour program for kids and adults.

Since 2018, in a park on Chicago Ave. in Riverside, California has been the place for the collective movements, a program that offers an array of ‘ninja style’ classes such as parkour, freerunning, and even breakdancing

Head coach and founder, Dillon Taitano explained how his interest in parkour just fell into his lap in high school.

“For some reason every time we had a video project, my friend would always do flips over  benches and off of walls and shoulder rolls...and a bunch of crazy stuff. And I asked, how do I do that stuff? How do I learn it? It looks really cool! He gave me all the information and after that it was like this is what I want to do for the rest of my life,” shared Taitano. 

So the question is, what is parkour? 

Taitano said although most kids know what it is, it's their parents who don't...so he explains it to them in a couple of ways-

He said, “Do you know the marvel movies when they do flips and twists off the cars? And typically their answer is yes....and I’m like I teach them how to do that…and then from there I’ll be like does your kid jump off the couches? And jump as high as he can? And they're like yeah. So it's kind of how parkour is. I teach them where injuries are less likely.”

With about 100 students currently, the response has been overwhelmingly positive.

“I thought that because I was doing things a little bit different in public at the park..that I thought it would not be well-received by some of the other parents,” Taitano said. 

But that has not been the case at all and despite being hard at work with the business, excitement is definitely in the air because he, along with his mom, will be coming to Guam in July for the 80th Liberation festivities.

He said, “That's been my number one goal this year is to take her out to Guam because I don't think she's been there since she was 4 or 5, when my grandma moved away.”

But it's also a big deal for Taitano, whose visit will be his first.

“I’m learning about the culture, I'm doing my best to learn the language, it's been very rewarding, very good for me in my growth to learn more about our roots and where I come from, and where my mom comes from. So I’m so excited to head out to Guam, Taitano said. 

And with that excitement, comes the opportunity to share his talent with the island community.

He said, “If anyone wants to reach out to me, my Instagram is @dillontaitano. I would love to work something out and give a piece of my culture to our culture. It would be a fun way to get to know the community and a really cool way to give back to the community, that could be a lot of fun.”