The Red Bulletin UK 01/22 by Red Bull Media House

UK EDITION JAN/FEB 2022, £3.50 SUBSCRIBE: getredbulletin.com

BEYOND THE ORDINARY

Taking flight Champion freeskier, fashion icon, global ambassador... and EILEEN GU is just getting started

SLOPE STYLE Cool kit for peak performance KATIE ORMEROD Britain’s golden hope JAKE BURTON Snowboard legend

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Editor’s letter

What were you doing at 17? Chinese-American freeskier Eileen Gu (page 32) was winning gold medals, being courted by top fashion houses, and studying for her exams. Now, at 18, she’s set her sights on sport’s greatest podium, and may be doing more for East-West relations than her home nations’ respective leaders. Gu is just one of the disruptors in this issue who sees uncertain times as something not just to navigate but to steer for the better. At 23, the late, great Jake Burton (page 42) strapped a homemade board to his feet and helped birth what Time magazine in 1988 called “the worst new sport” – a silly little pastime known as snowboarding. Britain’s most successful proponent of the sport, Katie Ormerod (page 26), talks about overcoming horrendous injury to finally face the challenge she trained her whole life for. Musician Skin (page 52) and fashion designer Lydia Morrow (page 28) reveal how being women who didn’t conform to societal stereotypes gave them the courage to challenge those prejudices. And Ben Mezrich (page 30), author of the book that became the film The Social Network, details what happens when gifted disruptors use their talent not for good but for self-betterment. And for more trash talk, meet Paul Firbank (page 58), the modern-day alchemist turning garbage into gold... and gravity bikes. Enjoy the issue.

CONTRIBUTORS THIS ISSUE

EVELYN SPENCE

As a writer and editor for magazines including Ski and Powder, the Seattle journalist has encountered many snow stars, but that didn’t make her any less impressed by multitalented teen freeskier Eileen Gu. “It made me do some soul-searching,” she says of the meeting. “When I was 18, I worked at a summer camp and only occasionally brushed my hair.” Page 32

TOM WARD

The Brighton-based writer has just published his debut novel, The Lion and the Unicorn, a dystopian tale he began four years ago. “Then most of my predictions came true,” he says, “so I upped the ante.” Who better, then, to interview Ben Mezrich, an author who peddles in ‘the next big thing’. Says Ward, “I’ve never spoken to anyone so openly driven by commercialism, but it seems to work for him.” Page 30

Saas-Fee, Switzerland, October 2021: photographer Christian Anwander shoots freeskier Eileen Gu for The Red Bulletin’s cover story Page 32

THE RED BULLETIN

CHRISTIAN ANWANDER (COVER)

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CONTENTS Jan/Feb 2022

What a ride: Jake Burton, the maverick who created modern snowboarding

10 Gallery: wall-to-wall MTB in

Germany, freedive finesse in Egypt, skating the light fantastic in the Czech Republic, and stellar ambitions in Canada

17 Axes mundi: Carlos Santana, a

man who knows his way around a guitar, picks four cosmic solos

18 Reality bites: how the Ocearch

Shark Tracker is protecting the ocean’s natural predators

20 Change of view: meet the

filmmaker who replaced one of his eyes with a video camera

23 Use your illusion: Shane Fu’s 3D

video art ‘installations’ will mess with your mind

BURTON

24 Woman Made: the book that

shines a spotlight on history’s pioneering female designers

THE RED BULLETIN

26 Katie Ormerod

69 Trunk call: tracking down an

28 W hat Lydia Made

74 It’s a jungle out there: life lessons

30 B en Mezrich

75 Best-case scenario: PC protection

Carving a path back to success Finding freedom through fashion The hit-making author who always sees the bigger picture

32 E ileen Gu

Still only 18, this Chinese-American skier has the whole world at her feet

42 J ake Burton

Entrepreneur, visionary, rebel: the story of the ‘father of snowboarding’

52 S kin

We talk inclusivity, intolerance and icons with the Skunk Anansie star

African giant – the ancient and iconic baobab tree

from the heart of the Amazon you’ll want to be seen with 76 Press to play: the next generation

of compression sportswear 77 Get a grip: it’s all in the fingers,

says ace boulderer Ned Feehally

81 Gonghang style: Korean airport

fashion checks into The Sims 4

82 Knock ’em cold: our edit of the

best snow gear available 92 Essential dates for your calendar 98 Outdoors wisdom from Semi-Rad

58 T he Rag and Bone Man

One person’s industrial scrap is this artisan’s sustainable objet d’art

MUNICH, GERMANY

DAVYDD CHONG

Changing lanes

AXEL GUNDERMANN/RED BULL ILLUME

Ever wonder how the world would look if mountain bikers were in charge of urban planning? Of course you haven’t. But we reckon it might resemble this image of wall-ride ace Christian Lubowski, shot by Axel Gundermann. “Scouting, prepping and shooting took a total of five visits,” says Gundermann of the photo, which won a place in the semi-finals of the global photography contest Red Bull Illume. “When we got to shoot, everything had to fall into place to [hit deadline]. Good thing I was surrounded by pros!” Instagram: @yearroundmunich

DAHAB, EGYPT

Into the black The closing of borders due to lockdown in March 2020 presented photographer Enric Adrian Gener with a tricky decision: return home to Spain or continue his work in Egypt. He stayed put. “Dahab is one of the world’s most important freedive spots, where champions, instructors and students meet to practise the apnoea dive,” Gener says. “This [composite image of diver/photojournalist Nanna Kreutzmann] was shot during a morning warm-up.” 27mm.net

DAVYDD CHONG ENRIC ADRIAN GENER/RED BULL ILLUME, JAN BURKERT/RED BULL ILLUME

PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC

Decked in light Another snapper working under lockdown constraints was Jan Burkert. Having shot skater Michal Suchopár in his tiny studio, the Czech had to pull out all the stops in post-production. This image – like the Gallery pictures either side – is a semi-finalist in the Creative by Skylum category of Red Bull Illume. Instagram: @burysss

MITCH WINTON/RED BULL ILLUME

DAVYDD CHONG

WHISTLER, CANADA

Reach for the stars Location: check. Athlete: check. Camera: check. Milky Way… er, anyone seen the Milky Way? Having conceived the idea for this image – a 24-shot composite showing Québécois climber Guillaume Otis scaling British Columbia’s Helm Glacier – Sydney-born photographer Mitch Winton had a six-month wait (thankfully not in situ) for the galaxy to get into position. These stars, eh? Prima donnas, the lot of them. mitchwinton.com

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CARLOS SANTANA

Snake charmer Four songs containing the best guitar solos in rock history, as chosen by a guy who knows his stuff

JAY BLAKESBERG

MARCEL ANDERS

It was at Woodstock festival in August 1969 that a young guitarist from Jalisco, Mexico, had his big break. With a debut album ready for release, Carlos Santana’s band had secured a place on the line-up, but when their slot was pulled forward at short notice, the 22-year-old took to the stage while still high on mescaline. The performance became one of Woodstock’s most legendary moments. As Santana’s fingers gallop across the strings, he grimaces, sweats, and looks like he’s trying to tame his guitar. He later reported that in his drug-addled mind it was an “electric snake – it wouldn’t stand still”. What came out of the speakers was magical. From the landmark 1970 album Abraxas to 1999’s sensational comeback Supernatural, to new release Blessings and Miracles, Santana has established himself as one of the world’s most innovative guitarists, with a unique fusion of rock, jazz, and Latin influences. Here, the 74-year-old reveals four of his own favourite axe tracks. santana.com

Jimi Hendrix

Cream

Buddy Guy

Metallica

Purple Haze (1967)

White Room (1968)

“Hendrix is one of the greatest guitar players of all time, and this is his signature tune. Of course, there’s Foxy Lady and his version of [Bob Dylan’s] All Along The Watchtower, but this is where his skills shine the most. Honestly, you have to be Albert Einstein, musically, to play like that. It’s unbelievable. Pure feel, pure magic.”

“Eric [Clapton, lead guitarist of Cream] is incredible, and this is one of his finest moments, right up there with [his 1970 song] Layla. Him, [US blues guitarist] Derek Trucks and me plan to make an album called Eric, Derek and the Mexican – sort of our own cosmic version of the soundtrack of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Music that is about discovering the unknown and unpredictable.”

Damn Right, I’ve Got The Blues (1991)

Nothing Else Matters (1991)

“Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck – they’re all great, but the guy who my British brothers and me all learned from is [legendary Chicago blues guitarist] Buddy Guy. That’s the guy. There wouldn’t be Jimi Hendrix without Buddy Guy, you know? He invented turbo blues. And you can hear it on this song. Nobody plays like him.”

“When I was living in San Francisco, these guys were my next-door neighbours; we bumped into each other a lot. I love [frontman James Hetfield’s] guitar work on this song – it’s so melodic, passionate and powerful. I’ve always wanted to do a heavy metal album – I love the energy of that stuff.”

THE RED BULLETIN

The film Jaws made everyone scared to go into the water. This group of sharks are changing that… via their social media profiles One of the biggest lies Hollywood has ever told is that sharks are mindless murderers to be avoided at all costs or, better still, killed. Tell that to Miss May – or, as she’s better known to her 8,900+ Twitter followers, @MissMay_Shark. The 3m-long great white shark, who regularly updates fans from her home in the North Atlantic, is one of hundreds being monitored by Ocearch, a non-profit organisation of scientists and fishermen committed to protecting these aquatic predators. Ocearch is the brainchild of the aptly named Chris Fischer, a lifelong fisherman and former TV personality. In 2005, while hosting US TV docuseries Offshore Adventures, Fischer learned from biologists the importance of great whites to our oceans’ ecosystem. “They are the system manager of the ocean, and the ocean is the system manager of the planet,” he says. “If there are no big 18

sharks, there’s no future for mankind – it’s that simple.” Threats to shark life include ‘finning’, where the animal has its dorsal fin harvested – shark fin soup is a delicacy in eastern Asia – and is then dumped back into the sea to die. Fischer began his research work in 2007, converting his fishing vessel into the at-sea laboratory M/V Ocearch. There are three expeditions a year, during which every shark

No need for a bigger boat: (top) a great white shark undergoes quick tests on board the M/V Ocearch; (below) a bird’s-eye view of the ocean-going laboratory

THE RED BULLETIN

LOU BOYD

Tooth and lies

ROBERT SNOW

OCEARCH SHARK TRACKER

caught is hydraulically lifted from the water for a series of quick tests. “The scientists in the team work like a pit crew,” says Fischer. “We’re constantly trying to drive our time down so we make less impact on the animal.” Each shark is given a ‘smart position and temperature transmitting’ (SPOT) tag, and whenever it breaks the water’s surface its location is pinged to Ocearch’s Shark Tracker app, where users can ‘favourite’ and follow it via an interactive map. As well as, of course, via the creature’s Twitter account. The aim is to learn enough about the sharks’ mating, feeding and migration patterns to conserve the species more effectively, and alter public perception. “We launched our tracking app and people poured in, falling in love with these 4,000lb [1,800kg] animals,” Fischer says. Highprofile sponsors including outdoor brand Yeti and luxury Swiss watchmaker Ulysses Nardin have also got on board. Ocearch’s work has sparked controversy, however. Some researchers have branded its method of hooking, lifting and tagging the sharks invasive, and its use of ‘chumming’ – scattering bloodied bait as a lure – has drawn criticism for altering the animals’ feeding patterns and endangering swimmers and surfers. Fischer has his own take: “We decided to help study fish because we’re good at catching and releasing them. Scientists are not people who live on the ocean. We collect data faster and let the animals go in good shape. From our work, we’ve learned we were fishing in their bathing areas. We don’t see much bycatch [accidental snaring in fishing nets] of them any more.” But he believes there’s still more work to do. “The Jaws mindset is fabricated,” says Fischer. “We need everyone to change theirs around sharks.” ocearch.org

RVX WITH SWIFTLO CK 2 .0

MIKKEL BANG

Great filmmakers let us see life from new perspectives. This Canadian is sharing his own unique worldview – from inside his eye socket Rob Spence is a filmmaker who has worked on campaigns for the likes of Absolut Vodka and Ford. The 48-year-old from Ontario, Canada, also made a documentary about cyborgs – mechanically augmented humans. Cyborgs are of special interest to Spence, because he is one. Equipped with a robotic eye fitted with a camera, he calls himself the ‘Eyeborg’. At the age of nine, Spence was playing cowboys with a shotgun at his uncle’s house in Ireland when he pulled the trigger and the gun kicked back, splitting his right eyeball. He went blind in the eye, and then lost the organ itself in his thirties. By this time, Spence 20

was making documentaries, and he saw potential beyond a standard glass eye. “My inspiration was this ’70s TV show called The Six Million Dollar Man [about a secret agent rebuilt with bionic body parts],” he says, “I had the action figure where you could look through the back of his bionic eye, and I thought, ‘I want one of those.’” Spence sought the help of Phil Bowen, a local maker of ocular prosthetics; Californian scientist Kosta Grammatis, who had worked with MIT on a revolutionary eye test for developing countries; and Martin Ling, a British electrical engineer with expertise in

THE RED BULLETIN

LOU BOYD

Shared vision

DAVID VINTINER

EYEBORG

miniaturised sensors. Together, they built his first ‘bionic eye’ on his kitchen table, using a wax mould of his eye socket, a tiny camera, a transmitter, and a switch triggered by magnets. “I call that one the ‘Eye-Mac’, because you can see the inner workings,” he laughs, referencing Apple’s translucent ’90s iMac. The team went on to create two newer updates: “Most recently, we made a silver eye with a glowing red LED light that we call ‘The Terminator’,” he says. However, Spence has no interest in creating one that matches his remaining real eye: “There’s always that ‘uncanny valley’ thing. It’ll never look right, so I go for the robot look.” The ‘Eyeborg Project’ provides the world’s first literal point-of-view video recording. The prosthesis isn’t connected to Spence’s brain through his optic nerve, however; instead, the footage – with a maximum recording time of 30 minutes – is viewed on a handheld receiver. “The resolution’s not great,” he admits. “If I whack my head, it improves the quality sometimes, but it looks a bit like the hologram of Princess Leia asking Obi-Wan for help in Star Wars.” Spence is conscious of privacy issues – something big tech companies such as Google and Snapchat have also faced with their camera-mounted smart-glasses. “When you’re speaking to a person, you look in their eyes,” he says. “It’s a sacred contract, a window to the soul, not to video footage. My philosophy is that it’s not a great idea to video all the time.” In an effort to share his vision – literally – Spence has teamed up with Polish ophthalmologist Marcin Jaworski, who’s devised a process for 3D-printing artificial eyes. Their plan is to create camera-ready prosthetic eyes for anyone who needs one. And as the company guinea pig Spence will never stop evolving his own eye. “Because unlike you puny humans,” he says, “I can.” robspence.tv

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NEW

SHANE FU

LOU BOYD

Trick of the eye: Polar Museum depicts giant penguins; (below) the pulsing Coral Dispenser

A tank full of giant luminous penguins bouncing off the wall of an underpass. A New York train station window holding back an explosion of glitter. An enormous bubble on a street in Brooklyn, filled with floating lights and translucent hearts. This is just a sample of the work of Shane Fu, the New-York-based motiongraphics designer whose mysterious and fantastical art pieces have popped up all over the internet this year and inspired others to go out and search for them in situ. But if you do manage to track down the location of one of these ‘installations’, you’ll discover the truth: Fu’s art doesn’t exist beyond your screen. Originally from Wuhan, China, Fu began creating hyperrealistic 3D art after graduating from Boston University in 2019, seeing it as a means of integrating his design skills with his interest in physics and maths. Blending computer graphics into videos of real-life settings, Fu’s public art pieces blur the line between fiction and reality, giving the impression of tangible pieces of art, but actually only existing in video uploads online. “I’m using a lot of physics elements that we recognise in real life, and subverting them to my simulated vision,” he explains. “That tricks people’s eyes into thinking it’s more than just computer graphics.” While Fu is not the first person to create motion art such as this, he’s among the most successful at integrating such dream-like components to create the illusion of physical public art. “Many artists try to make stuff fly all over their videos, but you see that and realise it’s computer graphics,” he says. “I try to make my pieces contained. I’ve found that if you keep everything within the context of a public exhibit, you have more chance of making people think it’s actually there.” THE RED BULLETIN

SHANE FU

Sight specific

This 3D artist has amazed millions across the world with his jaw-dropping installations. But take a closer look and all is not as it first seems His approach clearly works: Fu was recently commissioned by high-street clothing retailer Zara to transform one of its New York store fronts, and his social-media comments are filled with people voicing amazement when they realise they’ve been fooled. “I didn’t expect to trick people, and it was not my original intention,” says Fu, “but I guess it’s a compliment. At the end of the day, it’s something I want to work towards, because the more realistic it is, the better it is.”

With 3.4 million likes on TikTok at the time of writing, and more big-name collaborations in the pipeline, Fu’s reputation is spreading across the world. Does he ever find that people are annoyed after being tricked by his design wizardry? “Well, one time, the owners of one of my locations got in contact to ask me to put a disclaimer on the video because they were getting so many visitors,” he laughs. “I mean, that’s pretty funny.” TikTok: @3dshane 23

If the history books are to be believed, the past century of innovation was almost exclusively designed by men. Time for a new perspective… Created in 1956, the Eames Lounge Chair is one of the most iconic pieces of furniture ever made. But, judging by all that has been written on it in the years since, you’d be mistaken for thinking the chair was the sole work of US designer Charles Eames rather than a creative partnership with his wife and fellow designer, Ray Eames. In the year the chair debuted, Charles was introduced on US TV show Home as its creator, 24

THE RED BULLETIN

NINA ZIETMAN

Correcting the creation myth

with Ray as his “helpmeet”. In 1985, it was Charles who the Industrial Designers Society of America named ‘the Most Influential Designer of the 20th Century’, even though all his work had been an equal-parts collaboration with Ray. History is filled with accolades for male designers; the same cannot be said for the women who have shaped modern life. Now, Jane Hall (pictured below left), a British author, activist and the cofounder of architecture studio Assemble, aims to change that. Hall’s latest book, Woman Made: Great Women Designers, shines a light on more than 200 female creatives from the early 20th century to today, with a focus on those working on functional household objects. “The home has been the centre of social change for women,” says Hall. “Many

JANE HALL

WOMAN MADE

designs in the book reflect how women’s roles have changed.” Items featured include Irish architect Eileen Gray’s 1926 Bibendum Chair, a 1920s kettle by Bauhaus student Marianne Brandt, and cutlery created in 1979 by Danish designer Karin Schou Andersen for people with physical impairment. While some of the objects are iconic, Hall also highlights lesser-known creatives such as 34-year-old Brooklyn-based ceramicist Dina Nur Satti, who draws on her East African heritage to make wheel-thrown and coil-built clay vessels. “Design history is dominated by heteronormative, patriarchal, white Westerners,” says Hall. “Yet, over the past 200 years, designers of all genders have been incredibly transnational.” Piecing together this fragmented history was no easy task for Hall. “There’s a real lack of documentation,” she says, “so I concentrated on speaking to people, recovering lost narratives through an oral approach to history.” Three characters from these stories stood out to Hall: Italian furniture creators Cini Boeri and Nanda Vigo, and BritishCaribbean textile designer Althea McNish, all of whom died last year. “They represent the post-war generation of women who forged careers entirely on their own while understanding design was a radical act to change society. They were artistically and commercially successful – something designers struggle with today. It’s striking that books like Woman Made are only now being commissioned just as we’re losing so many of the pioneers.” But, Hall adds, demand for this recognition is growing: “It’s something students really want to learn about. I hope that design as a discipline becomes more expansive and inclusive.” Jane Hall’s book Woman Made: Great Women Designers is published by Phaidon, £39.95;

Katie Ormerod

Back on board She’s the most successful British snowboarder ever, but circumstance has denied her one competition. Now, she’s not letting anything get in her way Words JESS HOLLAND

It was the day before she was due to compete at Pyeongchang 2018 when British snowboarder Katie Ormerod came off a rail too early in training and split her right heel bone in half. The break was so agonising, she said, it made her previous injuries – including chipped vertebrae, broken arms and a snapped ACL – “feel like paper cuts”. What followed was nine months of pinned bones, skin grafts, operations and painstaking rehab. A year later, she was back on a board. Six months after that, she won her first Crystal Globe as overall World Cup champion in slopestyle, making her the most successful British snowboarder in history. It wasn’t the first hurdle that Ormerod, now 24, has faced. In 2014, she tantalisingly missed out on qualifying for Sochi by just one place. But, from the day she began snowboarding at the age of five, Ormerod has developed an aptitude for perseverance. As a Yorkshire native, she had to learn on a dry slope rather than perfectly powdered mountains. Her first time on snow, aged nine, was at a British championship event and she went home with four gold medals. Since then, as well as racking up World Cup and X Games medals, she became, in 2016, the first woman ever to pull off a backside double cork 1080 – that’s one full horizontal rotation and two vertical flips in the air at the same time. Now, Ormerod has nailed – knock on wood – a new move, ‘The

Crippler’. As she prepares to compete in this year’s Games in China, she isn’t letting any fear or doubt enter her mind. She’s never felt stronger, she says. It’s finally her time to show what she’s capable of on the biggest sporting stage of all. the red bulletin: How are you feeling as the Games approach? katie ormerod: In a good place. My body’s strong and my heel is 100 per cent fine now, thank goodness. I’m not allowing myself to feel external pressure. I don’t have anything to prove. I just feel blessed that I’m able to snowboard again, let alone compete at another Games. I’m excited to have that experience, because I only got a glimpse of it in Pyeongchang. What was the lowest point after your injury? Around nine months into rehab, I was physically the strongest I’ve ever been – from lifting weights – but I had a really bad limp. I was in a lot of pain and I knew I wouldn’t be able to snowboard if it didn’t go away. I didn’t know what direction my life would go in. I didn’t have a back-up plan. Were you scared to get back on a snowboard? No, I didn’t go snowboarding until my heel was completely fixed, and I started building things up slowly. In 18 months, I was back competing in the World Cup. I went into that season with a positive mindset. I’d been working hard in the gym, doing a lot of visualising. I got on all four slopestyle podiums, then I won the overall Crystal Globe.

How was that? The best feeling ever. To win in my comeback season, after such a long rehab, made it so much more special. I’ll always be proud of that, because of everything I went through. I hope I inspired people [by showing that] even if you’ve had a really big setback, you can work hard and come back stronger. Does your background as a competitive gymnast, starting at the age of four, give you an edge? There aren’t many snowboarders with a gymnastics background, and it’s useful to have that spatial awareness. Knowing where you are in the air is so important because it means you know where you’ll land. If something goes wrong, you have a better chance of getting out safely. Was it a big deal to nail The Crippler [an inverted 540° spin]? Yeah. I’d never had the opportunity to try it before, because it’s mainly a halfpipe trick [Ormerod’s disciplines are big air and slopestyle]. We’re seeing a lot of halfpipe features integrated into slopestyle courses, so I wanted to have a trick like that up my sleeve. Can you describe the experience of spinning so high in the air? It’s really fun, but I have to be very focused. When you do it well, you can feel it. Even before you see the footage, you know that it worked. It’s like you’re flying. How has snowboarding transformed you? It’s made me the best person I can be. Getting through the obstacles snowboarding has thrown in my way has shaped me. I’m really confident, I know my body well, and I know what it can handle. I snowboard for a living and travel to incredible places. I’ve got wonderful memories and friends. I’ve had the most amazing life so far. I’m grateful. Instagram: @ormerodkatie

THE RED BULLETIN

“Even after a big setback, you can come back stronger”

THE RED BULLETIN

What Lydia Made

True colours Self-taught fashion designer Lydia Morrow reveals how making her own clothes set her free in more ways than one Words LOU BOYD

Lydia Morrow’s clothing is joyful. The 26-year-old self-taught fashion designer – who describes her style as “half toddler, half grandma” and introduces herself on her Instagram as a “disabled queer doofus mum” – designs apparel that champions size-inclusivity and promotes ethical practices. With thousands of fans, she’s now one of the most recognisable faces in the UK’s handmade clothing movement. Morrow’s fashion career was born not of inspiration, but of necessity. Having fallen pregnant in her final year at the Glasgow School of Art, the then-22-year-old found that as her body outgrew standard sizing, a lot of clothing became unavailable to her. To address this, she decided to make her own. “The changing shape of my body was a do-or-die moment,” she says. “I could either live my life in unbelievable amounts of shame and repression, or do whatever I want and wear clothing that makes me happy.” Morrow posted her designs online, which built her a following and led to the launch of a successful underwear line. But, three years down the line, after being diagnosed with Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) – a disorder that affects the skin, joints and connective tissues – work had become too much for her. So Morrow took a risk, closing the brand she’d built and moving into one-off commissions. It paid off – US rock star Courtney Love was among the first to contact her for a piece. Here, Morrow explains how we should all dress the way we want to live: for ourselves.

the red bulletin: You studied painting and printmaking at the Glasgow School of Art. What made you move into fashion design? lydia morrow: I like how art can exist outside the white cube space, and I realised that the clothes we wear can be a piece of art, an expression or performance. When I was pregnant, I had a huge identity crisis about not being able communicate through my physical body any more. I got excited about the idea of textiles creating that conversation for me. You’ve said your garments exist outside the male gaze. Is that a conscious decision? It’s just how I design. Very rarely were men buying my underwear brand; it was either queer women for their partner, or people buying it for themselves. Also, becoming a fat person is very freeing. You’re outside the pressures of the male gaze, because it’s based on a patriarchal size standard. Once that happens, it’s like, “OK, now I just have to create for my own gaze.” Why did you choose to step away from your successful underwear line? EDS affects my joints and causes fatigue. I’d been working through it constantly, but I realised it wasn’t worth it. I refunded a month’s worth of orders, took a step back, and figured out what was accessible to me. It felt like an act of self-respect. I was really proud of myself.

event with [Love] and they pitched a bajillion artists. She chose her favourite 30 and it included me. I was so anxious when I went to the event, but I did get to talk to her. She complimented my dress. How did you approach making the dress? I based it around a message from the album. I like text that has many interpretations, because clothing can also speak in different ways. Pretty on the Inside was pitched to me as a joyful riot-grrrl album, but I felt that it was the work of a woman who had gone through so much. There’s longing and pain in there. While she’s had a unique life, there are themes that all women can relate to. That’s why I used the lyrics, “Why do you want more?” All women have felt that. Is it difficult to make your wardrobe ethical? I fall into the middle class, and for anyone who’s in the spectrum of middle class it’s pretty easy. Capitalism, and how it makes some people rely on fast fashion, is what perpetuates the problem. We must accept the fact that accessibility to ethical fashion is a class issue. How can one start practising ethical fashion? A huge amount of it is delayed gratification – developing patience beyond the moment of purchase, and doing research. I used to fight the urge to consume or collect beautiful things, because I thought that minimalism equalled conscious consumption. But I now realise that collecting beautiful things is very human and a lovely part of what kind of creatures we are. Look on social media for people who promote ethical fashion, and see where they shop. There is so much out there when you start looking for it. Instagram: @whatlydiamade

Courtney Love commissioned you to make a dress for the 30th anniversary of [her band Hole’s 1991 album] Pretty on the Inside… It was crazy! [North London studio] Parliament Tattoo was doing an THE RED BULLETIN

“Accessibility to ethical fashion is a class issue”

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Ben Mezrich

Plotting success Or the inside story of a regular Joe who made a fortune writing best-selling books that turn millionaires into living legends Words TOM WARD Photography KIM MAROON

It’s Oscars night 2011, and author Ben Mezrich is certain he doesn’t belong here. Not on the red carpet, surrounded by Hollywood royalty. Nor when Aaron Sorkin wins Best Adapted Screenplay for The Social Network and thanks Mezrich first, prompting so many congratulatory texts that the author’s phone runs out of battery. And he sure doesn’t belong at Madonna’s afterparty, sitting next to his teenage crush, actress Molly Ringwald, while holding the Oscar that musician/composer Trent Reznor just won for Best Original Score. Despite having written the book on which The Social Network was based (2009’s The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, a Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal), and having a previous book (Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions) turned into hit 2008 film 21, Mezrich sees himself as a Hollywood outsider. Yet, the 52-year-old Bostonian has just released his 12th novel, about the January 2021 stockmarket rebellion by amateur online day traders that saw struggling US video-game retailer GameStop’s share price soar 30-fold in just over two weeks. MGM acquired the film rights to Mezrich’s book three days later. You’re probably wondering how he ended up in this situation. Who better to tell the story than Mezrich himself… the red bulletin: You have a knack for writing books that make hit films. What’s the secret? ben mezrich: I started out writing thrillers. I wanted to be Michael Crichton – Jurassic Park is the

ultimate story for me – and I wanted to tell stories in the biggest way possible. Usually I get a movie deal, then a book deal, then I write the book. I wouldn’t start a book if I didn’t think it could be a movie. What makes a cinematic story? David versus Goliath. People beating something that’s supposed to be unbeatable, using their brains to do so, often operating in the grey area between right and wrong. There’s some element of a heist, assembling a team. There has to be an arc where someone’s life changes dramatically, and I want some worldwide phenomenon behind it, because my books sell in a lot of countries. Is it difficult to get your real-life subjects to open up to you? I’m the kind of journalist who is in the bar with you at 2am. I spent six months with the Winklevoss twins [who sued Mark Zuckerberg, claiming he stole their idea for Facebook while they were all studying at Harvard]. There are characters who aren’t happy with what you’re doing. Zuckerberg didn’t want to speak with me. I say, “Why did you do these things? Tell me and I can tell the world in your words.” How do you find the heart in these often-complex tales? With technical details about short selling or Facebook, I figure out a fun way to convey it, maybe through an active scene. There’s paper taped all over my office walls. I break the story down into three acts, like a screenplay. I know who the main character is, the bad guy, the beats… I don’t start writing until I know exactly what happens in each chapter.

Do you feel that Hollywood dumbs down your stories? I’ve been lucky. When you get the call that Aaron Sorkin wants to adapt your book and David Fincher wants to direct, it’s a home run. You have the most control when deciding who to sell to – if it’s a hot project, you have multiple offers. Once it’s sold and they’re putting $100 million [around £73m] behind the movie, it’s not the best time to say you don’t like what they’re doing. Such as recasting Asian American characters as white, as happened with the film 21… It was a different time. I’d love to see that movie remade with an Asian American cast. As an author having your first movie made, it was like, “Yay, they’re making a movie.” But if done today, I’d hope it was representative of the people in the book. Are your characters heroes or villains? Zuckerberg has definitely done things that seem pretty bad. The bottom line is that he might have stolen things and have a megalomaniacal goal of subjugating the world, but he did invent Facebook. My role is to tell the story, not to judge. Nobody sees themselves as the villain. Do you see yourself in the same vein as your ‘Robin Hood’ characters? No, I’m terrified of everything. I’ve never taken on any system. In a revolution I wait to see who wins, and that’s the person I bow to. I live vicariously through these characters. You’re good at spotting cultureshifting technological singularities. What’s next? NFTs are pretty neat. That my kids would rather spend their allowance on clothing for their Fortnite characters than on real things is telling. The world is shifting online and we’re at the edge of what that means. That shift in the way we perceive things will be enormous. Mezrich’s book The Antisocial Network: The GameStop Short Squeeze and the Ragtag Group of Amateur Traders That Brought Wall Street to Its Knees, is out now; harpercollins.co.uk

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Words EVELYN SPENCE Photography CHRISTIAN ANWANDER

Ready to launch

Like all 18-year-olds, EILEEN GU has plans. To do well when she starts university next term, to become a world-champion freeskier, and to symbolise harmony between the two biggest superpowers. The usual stuff…

Eileen Gu

t the 100-day mark before the opening ceremony of the forthcoming Olympics in Beijing, the organising committee released a lavishly produced short film titled A Date with Snow and Ice. In it, a boy meets a girl in an icy wasteland and together they journey to the Games in a mash-up of pop culture and snow sports. The boy is played by 20-year-old Chinese actor and singer Jackson Yee, a megastar in his home country. The girl is Eileen Gu, an 18-year-old Chinese-American freeskier born in California. At the end of the film, to a backdrop of epic choral music, she runs along the Great Wall in slow motion, holding aloft the torch. As a parable, the message is clear: Eileen Gu has arrived. And yet she has barely begun. It’s hard to say exactly when Gu truly arrived, but one contest stands out. In the span of around 36 hours in January 2021, she won two golds and a bronze at the Winter X Games in Aspen, Colorado, becoming the first rookie to podium in three events, and the first Chinese athlete in history to win a gold at the competition. But even then she was far from unknown, having notched World Cup wins at Calgary, Canada, in 2020 and Seiser Alm, Italy, in 2019, and two golds and a silver at the Lausanne 2020 Winter Youth Games. Six weeks after her X Games victories, Gu took 34

Eileen Gu is a rarity in the world of freeskiing THE RED BULLETIN

MATT POWER

another two golds and a bronze, at the Freestyle World Ski Championships – the first freeskier to do so. And she achieved it without using poles, due to a broken hand. Yet even these achievements fail to do justice to the considerable talents of Eileen Gu: a goldmedal hopeful this February, accomplished runner, successful model, feminist, aspiring diplomat, and one of the few athletes in the world who excels at all three freeskiing disciplines (pipe, slopestyle and big air) when most elites struggle to train for just one. It’s late October 2021, and Gu is trying to describe how she fills her day. She’s in a car in the Alps, making a rolling transition between a month of halfpipe training in Saas-Fee, Switzerland, and several weeks of jumps camp on Austria’s Stubai Glacier. So far this autumn she has taken classes on micro- and macroeconomics. She also listens to astrophysics lectures and reads quantum mechanics textbooks. “When I dropped into the X Games last winter, everybody else’s announcement was like, ‘This is so-and-so, won gold in Pyeongchang; this is the first person to land this trick,’” says Gu. “Mine was, ‘Eileen Gu – got a 1580 on the SAT and was admitted to Stanford.’” For those unfamiliar with US academic scores, that means she’s crushing it. If it isn’t already clear, Gu is a rarity in the world of freeskiing. Not because she’s book-smart, physically gifted, or what any sane person would characterise as busy (which she indisputably is), but

Aiming high: Gu boosts out of the Superpipe at Woodward Mountain Park in Copper Mountain Resort, Colorado

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Gu’s modelling has turned a niche sports star into a mainstream idol

Eileen Gu

because she’s a true student of every dimension of her skiing and her life. “She visualises each trick extremely carefully and knows exactly what she’s capable of,” says her coach, Misra Noto. “Calculated” is how eight-time Winter X Games slopestyle champion Kaya Turski describes Gu’s skiing. The same applies during off-snow training. “With every rep, Eileen is trying to make it more perfect than the last one,” says Alex Bunt, a strength and conditioning coach for Red Bull. “Most of us find stretching boring, but she wants to do the stretch better.” In Saas-Fee, Gu was practising a new pipe sequence incorporating three new tricks and a new combination. She’s the only woman in the world who can put together a run where every trick is corked – tilted off-axis like a spinning top that’s about to fall over but somehow rights itself to keep flying downhill. Every day, she was on the mountain at 10am, off by 3pm, and not a minute was wasted. “Eileen is the hardest-working female skier I know,” remarks Noto, who, as a former coach of the Swiss slopestyle team, has overseen the development of dozens of athletes. If Gu’s skiing transcends categorisation, so too does her life, or, as she classifies it, lives – sometimes two (skier and student), sometimes four (those plus runner and model) – and her dual heritage. Although born in San Francisco and trained on the slopes of Northstar – a ski resort on the Californian side of Lake Tahoe – she chose, at the age of 15, to represent China at this year’s Games. Her mother, Yan, is from Beijing, and Gu has travelled there every summer since she was two. She went to school in Beijing, has friends and a house there, and is fluent in Mandarin, though without the accent. “When I’m in America, I’m American,” she has said enough times that it sounds like a mantra. “When I’m in China, I’m Chinese.” When she was 10, Gu met the owner of a ski resort in China and convinced him to hold a freeskiing open – the first freeski contest in a country that’s just starting to embrace the sport. “Since the beginning, we’ve known the really small circle of people involved in the [Chinese] skiing community, and grown alongside them,” she says. In the two-plus years since she announced her allegiance, Gu – nicknamed “the snow princess” and “genius skier girl” by the Chinese press – has become recognised on the streets of Beijing; a dazzling rise from ingenuous high-schooler to the most prominent face of skiing in the most populous nation on Earth. “Eileen could well be the next Lindsey Vonn or Chloe Kim – transcending Fashion icon: luxury brands including Tiffany and Louis Vuitton have signed up Gu to promote their products THE RED BULLETIN

The rapid growth of skiing in China dovetailed with Gu’s own development the sport,” says Turski. “She’s in the perfect position of age, talent and support.” In China, that’s already happening.

u’s journey to this moment was far from typical. Her mother emigrated to the US in her twenties, studied biochemistry at Rockefeller University, and skied for the first time at Hunter Mountain in New York, before moving to the San Francisco Bay Area and earning an MBA at Stanford. When Gu was three, Yan enrolled her in ski school in Tahoe so her daughter could keep up with her. At eight, Gu joined Northstar’s freeskiing team – the only girl – because Yan thought racing was too dangerous. Soon, she was winning contests consistently, including nationals at the age of nine. Everywhere she went, her mum was by her side. Turski recalls meeting Gu in New Zealand: “A lady came up to me and said, ‘Hi, this is my daughter,’ and Eileen was just this 4ft-tall, excited mini-ripper.” At home in San Francisco, Gu lives with her grandmother, Guo Zhenseng, now 86. “My grandma is fierce, the most competitive person I know,” she says of the matriarch who taught her three-digit-bythree-digit multiplication when she was four years old. The best thing her mum did for her is give her a bunch of options: piano, ballet, soccer, basketball, horseback riding, archery, rock climbing, volleyball, tennis. “My mum is very rational, overprepared and practical, but this isn’t a ‘tiger mum’ situation,” says Gu, referencing the stereotype of Chinese parents pushing their children to achieve at a young age. “It was more that if I’m going to do something, I’m going to do it well, because otherwise it’s a waste of my time. That was my grandma’s way of seeing things, my mum’s, and my way, too.” What makes Gu’s X Games breakthrough especially significant is that the 2020-21 season was the first in which she wasn’t in school full-time. Until she’d graduated from high school in 2020 – the first student at the prestigious San Francisco University High School to do so in just three years – Gu had never skied more than 65 days a year (her competitive peers average closer to 250), driving four hours to Tahoe with Yan every weekend while doing homework in the car. It forced her to adopt an aggressive work ethic on and off the slopes and allowed her to enjoy regular teenage experiences when she came home. “I had the most normal childhood compared with 37

JOSEPH ROBY/RED BULL CONTENT POOL, MATT POWER

Flight school: Gu gets big air at the Stomping Grounds Projects training camp in SaasFee, Switzerland, in October 2020

Eileen Gu

“If I’m going to do something, I’m going to do it well, or it’s a waste of my time”

“I’ve realised the impact that sport can have on diplomacy” anybody else on the World Cup circuit,” she says. “Nobody knew about my skiing or cared.” According to her sophomore-year history teacher, Chris Martin, she sat in the front row, diligently taking notes. When she travelled to Europe, Gu would give the other students lessons on Italian art and architecture, learned in her Western Civilisation class. “She was remarkably humble for someone so accomplished, and extremely kind,” Martin says. “She presents as confident, which she should be, but not in an offputting way.” Gu was such a fast cross-country runner she almost chose it over skiing – partly because it’s a college-recruitment sport – but when a World Cup was scheduled at the same time as a state championship meet, she bought a last-minute ticket to Austria.  For people who don’t ski, it’s hard to appreciate how challenging it is to compete at a world-class level across pipe, slopestyle and big air. For example, one discipline might require you to initiate a grab earlier or explode higher; in pipe you can perform the same run throughout the season, but slopestyle requires tailored sequences for each course. “It’s taxing on your body,” says American medal-winning freestyle skier Nick Goepper, “and logistically difficult because the contests can be at different locations.” Ask what sets Gu apart and, depending on the person, you’ll get variations on a theme. For elite freestyle skier and eight-time X Games medallist Bobby Brown, it’s her rails: “I’ve known her since she was 10 or 11, rockin’ her purple helmet, and her rail prowess was already crazy.” For Noto, Gu’s amplitude in the pipe is the most impressive – an average of 3.4m above the lip at the X Games. For Turski, it’s her versatility no matter the discipline. Whichever way you look at it, Gu has huge range and the potential to match. “I can’t yet say that she will be the most successful skier ever,” says Noto, “but she has the tools to do it.”

n 2015, when China was granted this year’s Games, it announced plans to build 800 ski resorts in time for the event. The nation is projected to soon be the world’s largest winter sports market, with 50 million participants by 2025 and 1,000 ski resorts by 2030. “In the beginning, I knew every single person in the park because there were only 10 or 20 of us in the whole country,” says Gu. “Now it’s the trendiest place to be.” The rapid growth of skiing in China dovetailed with Gu’s own development, and she saw an opening that only she could fill. “In the US, I grew up with all these idols, and I wanted to be that for somebody else,” she says. The next generation of American freeskiers already 40

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Eileen Gu

had plenty of empowered, talented female role models; as agonising as the decision to represent China at the Games was, Gu knew – even at the age of 15 – that she could elevate freeskiing in the Chinese national consciousness and inspire a new generation of women.

or Gu, her duality is seamless and – with an ability to adapt to different etiquettes, make subtle code-switches and read the room – an asset. “Being fluent in English and Mandarin, I was able to absorb the nuances of both societies from a really young age, appreciate them, and display them back,” she says. Gu is also in a unique position to symbolise the unity and friendship the Games strives to celebrate, and she recognises that role. “I’ve realised the impact that sport can have on diplomacy,” she says. “It can be shared regardless of language, of culture, of political affiliation.” But first there’s the preparation. Last summer, when Gu flew to China for a tour of sponsorship obligations, she had to quarantine in a hotel room by herself for five weeks, with only a treadmill, yoga mat and some light weights. It was her chance to work purely on fitness, hammering out daily three-to-four-hour Zoom sessions with Bunt, who concentrated on upping her explosive power (for amplitude), moving through every rotational plane (for tricks), and building resiliency to injury. Even through a screen, he was blown away by her coordination and body awareness. “I could tell Eileen to adjust her left pinkie toe during an exercise and she’d get it right away,” he says. “She knows exactly where she is in space.” Though it’s not common for skiers to double as distance runners, Bunt sees Gu’s baseline endurance as a huge asset. “She already has a really big gas tank, so she can handle the hurt of a high volume of training. But five weeks alone? That speaks to her character.” After quarantine, Gu travelled to a different city every few days. Her former schedule of balancing skiing, running, piano and school seems almost quaint now. “The past two years, I’ve gone in the most polar opposite direction from a normal childhood,” she says. While skiing is what initially brought Gu attention, it’s modelling that has transformed her from a niche action-sports celebrity to something closer to a mainstream idol. At 15, she was invited to Paris Fashion Week by a Chinese brand, and she has since featured in Chinese editions of Elle and Vogue, been picked up by high-end

The Chinese press nicknamed Gu “the snow princess” THE RED BULLETIN

companies including Tiffany and Louis Vuitton, and – alongside Megan Rapinoe, Valentina Sampaio and Priyanka Chopra Jonas – joined the rebranding of Victoria’s Secret. “I get to represent a biracial perspective, a crossover between sport and art, and a respect for your body,” she says. “Because no matter what I’m doing, my body is my job.” For Gu, fashion is both a complement to skiing and a reprieve from it. “It’s almost the same as skiing, where if you do tricks with individual style it’s celebrated,” she says. Just as she does at the top of a run, Gu thrives off the adrenalin of photoshoots – the attention, perfectionism and out-and-out challenge – such as for her Vogue Hong Kong cover: in a tank top, hair frozen, laying upside-down on a block of real ice for an hour and a half while being snowed on. Still, she’s able to put a philosophical slant on it: “Fashion is an opportunity to show a different facet of yourself, especially as a young person discovering who you want to be. It’s almost playing dress-up, experimenting with personas and seeing which suits you best.” It all adds up to a lot of pressure – from sponsors, from her country, from herself – but Gu is hardwired to handle it. She knows no one can take away the things she’s already achieved; that it’s not fair to expect one person to win all the time; that she doesn’t need to validate herself at the top of every run. “This past year and a half, my understanding of pressure has been really positive,” she says. “It has built my confidence rather than made me feel I have something to prove.” And as the attention intensifies in the lead-up to this year’s Games, she feels emboldened: “I don’t think it has affected my skiing. If anything, it has made me better.” What truly sets Gu apart – more than being a multi-hyphenate with kick-ass academic grades – is her mental game. “The second I give her a task, she just locks in,” says Bunt. “Her biggest strength is her focus, with everything, every moment, every day.” Ask Gu how she does it and she doesn’t credit sports psychologists or meditation exercises, but rather her mum, her grandma, and her habit of journalling. Sometimes she writes about a meal she liked; sometimes it’s a “deep dissection of what adolescents need”, she says. “I can look back and see my growth, and it’s really grounding – and motivating. I’m figuring out how my mind works.” She hopes to publish her writing as a memoir someday. And when she does, the world might just be able to understand how Eileen Gu rose to meet her moment – beyond and beneath the obvious qualities that make her an impending superstar. “Eileen is smart, she’s hardworking, and she has incredible discipline,” says Turski. “She’s beautiful and she can already handle the demands. I’m excited to see not only what she does in skiing, but what she does for skiing. If it all lines up for her in China, she’s going to rocket launch.” Discover more about Eileen Gu in the documentary Everyday Eileen on Red Bull TV; redbull.com 41

The neverending ride Without him, modern snowboarding might not exist. He was an entrepreneurial disruptor who shepherded this once-maligned pastime into the mainstream and inspired countless riders to live life – as he did – to the fullest. This is the story of JAKE BURTON

JAMES CASSIMUS

Words BILL DONAHUE

Origin story: Jake takes flight on the Burton Backhill – a snowboard that his company first introduced in 1979

Jake Burton

“Jake always put snowboarding first, and he listened to the riders”

1954-70: the early years

Timi Carpenter, 25

Burton grew up in an upper-middleclass family on Long Island, New York State, the youngest of four children

Jake’s youngest son (pictured below, right) and creative director of Mine77, a Burton brand

Timi Carpenter: Jake was mischievous. He just wanted to have a good time. Donna Carpenter: It became a theme in his life that he loved to dress in drag. Any excuse – Halloween, a costume party – he’d just go for it. When he was little, his sisters would spend hours dressing him up, putting on make-up, wigs, dresses… At Brooks School [in the state of Massachusetts], where Jake was a boarding student, they had this underground tradition. It involved a secret set of keys that opened every lock in the school, including the one on the headmaster’s gun cabinet, and one year Jake was picked as the keeper of the keys. But a janitor found the keys in Jake’s bag. The school called his father, and on the five-hour ride home he said to Jake, “If you don’t get your shit together, the whole family’s going to have to move.” Timi Carpenter: It was apparently a very quiet car ride. My dad was in this pit of despair and angry at the world. [Jake] told me that’s when he decided that whatever the fuck he was going to do in life, he would apply himself.

“Jake lost his older brother [George] in Vietnam when he was 12. George was a very proper dude. He was cocaptain of the football team at his boarding school, and the senior prefect and class president. He went to Yale. He was a Marine. He was the good son in the family, and Jake’s dad was taken aback by his death. It fucked up the family dynamic, so Jake felt pretty alone, and he started getting into trouble.” MARK GALLUP, DONNA CARPENTER

ake Burton Carpenter – better known simply as Jake Burton – was the father of snowboarding, the mind behind the sport’s most celebrated brand, and the man who first stood up for scraggly renegade boarders, demanding they be allowed access to the exclusive, manicured slopes of the nation’s ski resorts. During the four decades he ran Burton Snowboards, he evolved a rebel culture whose spirit – raucous and human, nature-loving and fearless – now permeates the entire action-sports universe. Burton died of cancer in 2019. Now, as a new documentary, Dear Rider, chronicles his life, several of the key players in that story detail what he meant to them and to everyone who has ever strapped on a board…

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Real deal: “My dad had a certain energy about him,” says Jake’s son Timi. “I realised at a young age that people wanted to be around him because he was authentic and real”

Above: Jake at play in the ’80s. Left: a night session at Whistler, Canada, in 2001. “Even into his mid-fifties, he was still going for it,” says Timi

Jake Burton

“Jake had a way of making everything fun. Whenever it snowed, he gave us a few hours off work to ride”

Donna Carpenter, 58 Jake’s widow and owner of Burton Snowboards

MARK GALLUP, DONNA CARPENTER, BURTON

“It took [Jake] a very long time before he’d talk with me about losing his brother. Or his mum. She passed away when he was 17. Those deaths were really painful for him. But I think they shaped him. They made him see how important it is to live in the moment, to have fun.”

Mark Heingartner, 58

Two-time snowboarding world champion and early Burton employee “Early on, Jake bought a Snurfer [the precursor to the snowboard – a monoski ridden without bindings, like a skateboard] for 10 dollars and surfed the golf courses.” THE RED BULLETIN

1970-82: the birth of Burton Snowboards At Jake’s next boarding school – Marvelwood in Connecticut – he became valedictorian (the highest-ranked student in their class, who delivers a speech at the graduation ceremony). In college at New York University, he was captain of the swimming team. Then, upon graduation, Jake plied a conventional path and landed a job at an investment banking firm that, as he says in Dear Rider, “sold little companies to big companies”. But he was bored. Then, in 1977, Jake remembered his Snurfing days and concocted what he called a “get-rich-quick scheme”. He moved into a remote farmhouse in Vermont and launched Burton Snowboards. Mark Heingartner: The showroom was in the dining room, the basement was the shipping area, and the barn was where manufacturing happened. Every board was hand-cut and sawed. I started working for him when I was a punk kid in high school. It was just me and three other kids in the factory, and Jake was like an older brother to us. He was the grown-up in the room and took pride in the product from the get-go. Donna Carpenter: He worked 14-hour days and survived on Slim Jims [a US snack similar to Peperami] and black coffee. He was that focused on making snowboards. This is a guy who started out with no

technical skills, failed shop class [lessons on practical skills], and couldn’t change a light bulb. When I first met him – on New Year’s Eve, 1982, at a bar in Londonderry, Vermont – he was drinking Jack Daniel’s and milk, for a “pre-ulcerous stomach”. He told me his name was Jake and that he made snowboards. I thought, “This business is going nowhere.” But then I started coming up from New York at the weekends to help him. He was taking these pre-laminated pieces of wood, dipping them in polyurethane, and hanging them to dry. It was a very toxic process. We wore these respirators connected to a hole in the wall, and sometimes people would blow marijuana smoke into the hole, so I’d get high. Jake thought that was hilarious. Mark Heingartner: He had a way of making everything fun. Whenever it snowed, he gave us a few hours off to go ride. Donna Carpenter: But he was lonely up there in Vermont. He was busting his ass trying to figure out how to launch the business and not run out of money. His friends in New York were looking at him, thinking, “What are you doing with your life?” And the ski areas were actively fighting him, trying to keep snowboarders off their mountains. At our first trade show – Ski Industries of America [SIA] in 1982 – they sent union guys to remove us. They told us, “You’re not part of this industry.” I remember Jake getting into a tug of war over a board. And somehow we stayed. 47

Jake Burton

Making a statement: Burton Snowboards had to battle for its place at ski shows

Mike Cox, 56

Burton global brand ambassador “Jake was a prankster. Once, when we were hiking up Mount Mansfield in Vermont, we came across this young couple. Jake asked them, ‘Do you want us to take your picture?’ Then he had me take the camera, and he got up behind them and mooned me in their picture. They had no idea.”

Kelly Clark, 38

Olympic gold medallist, halfpipe “Burton did more for women’s snowboarding than probably any other company. It made a place for us and didn’t treat us less than the guys. I was a direct recipient of that kind of investment.”

Mark McMorris, 27

Nine-time X Games gold medallist “[Jake and I] were homies. We fed off each other. He was superinspiring to me, and a good friend. In 2017, when I hit a tree at Whistler and got hospitalised, he flew to visit me. The founder of the biggest snowboard brand in the world. I don’t think that would have happened at any other company of that scale. We just kicked it. All over the world, Jake and I would check out clothes and different products for inspiration. No one cared more about product than that guy. He obsessed over the most minuscule details. He could talk about a backpack strap for an hour and a half – where it was snagging, whatever. He looked to me for what was cool and what was next. For a while he’d only listen to hip hop, because we did.” THE RED BULLETIN

GARY LAND, JEFF CURTES, CORY VANDERPLOEG/RED BULL CONTENT POOL, BURTON

The very first National Snowboarding Championships took place at a tiny Vermont ski area, Suicide Six, in 1982. A contingent of Michigan Snurfers came east to race – they slept on Jake’s floor – and one daredevil hit 63mph [101kph] in basketball shoes. In 1985, with Jake as host and MC, the event moved to Stratton Mountain, a larger Vermont resort, and officially became the US Open Snowboarding Championships. Burton employee Andy Coghlan won the slalom by 0.01 seconds. Donna Carpenter: There were women competing at the US Open early on, and I remember asking Jake, “What are we going to do about the women and prize money?” He said, “Why wouldn’t we pay them the same?” Mark Heingartner: His goal was to grow the sport. A few other Burton riders and I started going to ski areas to prove to the ski patrol and mountain management that snowboarding was safe; that we could make turns and stop on a dime; that it was compatible with skiing. Mike Cox: At sales meetings, Jake was super-focused and really intimidating. At the very first meeting in 1990, he listened to us present products and said, “These guys are supposed to be the best of the best?” But when he spoke it was inspirational. He talked about what snowboarding meant to him, and about how we were a community. It felt like we were a family, and the customers could become a part of it. Donna Carpenter: We hired a guy to work with the insurance companies and iron out legalities with the ski areas. But we were bringing all these 15- and 16-year-old kids who didn’t know the protocol. So, for a while we focused on etiquette in our communications to customers. We said, “Hey, you’ve got to follow the rules at ski areas.” But this was a demographic that was just going to say “fuck you” anyway. Mike Cox: At the trade shows in the ’90s, one company had a school bus as a booth, and there were Vegas strippers in there. They had porn stars signing posters. The ski side of the arena was boring, stale, but on the snowboard side there was buzz. Every night at five they’d start serving beer; punk bands played, and it was so loud you couldn’t do meetings. I remember one day Jake and I stood a way from the Burton booth and it looked like a beehive, with people coming and going. We just looked at each other and nodded, thinking, “Holy shit. It’s game on.”

“What Jake tapped into is that humans need to play, even when they’re adults”

Chairman of the board: founded in Vermont in 1977, Burton has become one of the world’s biggest and best-loved snowboarding brands

Above: the Burton Team at the 1985 US Open Snowboarding Championships at Stratton Mountain. Right: the making of a Burton board. Below: carving on the slopes

“Jake didn’t just bring us snowboarding. He opened up his lifestyle, and we said, ‘I want to live like that, too’”

Jake Burton

1996-2011: world domination

HUBERT SCHRIEBL, MARK GALLUP, JEFF CURTES

By 1996, Jake and Donna were the parents of three young sons, and lords of a multimillion-dollar business that was growing by 25 to 30 per cent each year. In 1998, snowboarding made its Olympic debut in Nagano, Japan. Four years later, when the Games were held in Utah, two Burton team riders scored gold. And in 2006, Burton rider Shaun White – known as ‘the Flying Tomato’ due to his red hair – found himself on the cover of Rolling Stone, shirtless and draped in the US flag. Jake Burton was now the paterfamilias of a global brand, and the Pied Piper of an ever-growing band of outsiders. Mike Cox: Jake and Donna had this party every year, the Fall Bash, which started with 25 guests and [eventually grew] to 1,200 people. And everyone gets to walk through their house, their closets, their barn, their yard. Kelly Clark: He wasn’t afraid to have a good time – like having a fireworks show at his house on a Tuesday. Donna Carpenter: What Jake tapped into – what he realised – is that humans need to play, even when they’re adults. He and the boys would all play Pig [a dice game] to see who took out the garbage, and up until our kids were all 6ft tall, we had a basketball hoop in our living room. Timi Carpenter: The ball was small, but it was a legit hoop with a metal rim 8ft high, and you had to dribble, no travelling allowed. We’d break so many picture frames and lights, and Jake would just get them replaced. The games would get physical. At the Fall Bash late one night, Jake took a pretty hard foul from one of his buddies. He went down face first and got two black eyes. He had a TV interview the next day and had to wear big sunglasses to cover the bruises. On good snow days, my dad let us skip school and go riding. He was so quick through the trees. Even into his mid-fifties he was still going for it. My brothers and I still talk about the last time he ever hit a box jump. When you get on a box, you have to stay completely flat, but my dad got nervous and tried to turn off the box. He fell hard and hit his back on this piece of metal. So he was like, “That’s it, I’m done. I’m going to stick to the trees and the backcountry.”

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2011-19: the long fight In 2011, Jake sent his 800 employees a memo saying, “The bad news is that I have cancer. The good news is, it’s as curable as it gets.” He underwent chemotherapy for seminoma, a form of testicular cancer, and beat it. But four years later, in 2015, he was diagnosed with Miller Fisher syndrome, a rare disease that temporarily paralyses the nervous system. Donna Carpenter: The doctor told him, “If this is what we think it is, tomorrow you’re not going to be able to open your eyes, the next day you’re not going to be able to swallow, and the day after that you’re not going to be able to breathe.” Soon, the doctors told us, “We don’t know how long he’ll be paralysed. We don’t know if we can stop it.” Timi Carpenter: He was the most active person I’d ever met. And all of a sudden he was in a hospital bed, locked in his body. Donna Carpenter: By the third week, Jake was distraught. You could see his heart monitor – his pulse went from 52 [bpm] to 160. He never lost the ability to move his hands, though. One night, when our sons were visiting, he wrote, “I want to commit suicide.” The next morning – I’ll never forget it – I walked in and he’d written this long note saying, “I realise I have no control over this. I surrender.” And when the nurses took him outside and sat him in front of the mountains, he wrote, “I want to live now.” A couple of days before his birthday, he said to me – he was on a ventilator, so he was doing this by writing – “I want to give every patient and doctor a cupcake.” So I had a friend order 300 cupcakes.

Timi Carpenter: Once he got back on his feet, he started riding a hundred days a year again. We went to snowboard events in Europe and hung out with the riders all night. For my 21st birthday, in 2017, he took me to Burning Man. I remember him dancing at this party and schmoozing this crowd. This girl I was talking with was like, “Wow, that dude’s super-fun and rad.” And I was like, “Yeah, that’s my dad.” Donna Carpenter: When he was 63, he said, “I think my best friend right now is Mark McMorris.” He was a twenty-something pro snowboarder from Saskatchewan, Canada. Timi Carpenter: I was worried about Jake. I told him, “Hey, man, you were just laid up for a long time; you probably need to ease back into life and take better care of yourself.” But he was having none of it. He said, “I’m on my victory lap.” Then one day he called me and there was something in his voice. “The cancer came back,” he said, “but I’m doing everything I can to fight it. I’ve beaten it before, I’ll beat it again.” But he sounded flat and defeated. Donna Carpenter: I think if Miller Fisher hadn’t happened, he could have fought the cancer a second time. But now I think he just knew in his heart that he had fought all he could. He saw what chemotherapy does to you and he didn’t want to waste away and die like that. He didn’t really have his sense of humour any more – that’s how I knew.

The never-ending ride Jake Burton died on November 20, 2019. Mike Cox: Right after Jake died, an old Burton rep called me and said, “I realise that Jake didn’t just bring us snowboarding. He opened up his lifestyle to all of us, and we all looked at it and said, ‘Yeah, I want to live like that, too.’” Donna Carpenter: If people want to honour Jake’s legacy, they should get out there and ride. Snowboarding is the best way to be one with nature. Stay a community. Have each other’s backs. Kelly Clark: Jake always put snowboarding first, and he listened to the riders. I think he would be proud if we could continue that legacy. Mark McMorris: We just gotta keep it core. Enjoy the mountains with your friends, push the boundaries. Don’t be the skier on the hill. Stay rebellious. Standing sideways is the dopest thing ever.

Dear Rider: The Jake Burton Story will hit digital streaming services in early 2022 51

Surface tension

When it comes to race, gender and sexuality, SKIN – lead singer of British rock band Skunk Anansie – has fought many battles over the years. Here, she explains why it’s important not to carry the weight of others, and how she’s accepted trailblazer status

TOM BARNES

Words WILL LAVIN

THE RED BULLETIN

The Alpinist

Skin

t’s been a while since Skin last sat in the same room as the other members of her band, Skunk Anansie. Like the rest of the world, the British rock icons were forced into quarantine in early 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, halting their ability to collaborate in person. “We’re a band that does things in a certain way, and we get most of our best stuff done by being in the same room as each other,” says Skin. The band’s lead singer and primary songwriter, she was required to spend lockdown over at her home in New York while the others were holed up in the UK. Now that travel restrictions have eased, the 54-year-old frontwoman, fashion icon and political and social activist – real name Deborah Anne Dyer – is finally back in London, and for the first time in 19 months she’s reunited with her bandmates: Richard ‘Cass’ Lewis (guitar), Martin ‘Ace’ Kent (bass) and Mark Richardson (drums). Brimming with fresh ideas, Skin is excited to be back in the studio with her boys. “It’s just a bunch of songs right now, but I think we’re working towards an album,” she tells The Red Bulletin at Voltaire Road Recording Studio in Clapham, south-west London.

Skunk Anansie rose to prominence in the mid-’90s during the Britpop explosion that saw bands including Oasis, Blur and Pulp dominate the airwaves. Instead of yielding to the movement’s lighter-sounding indie rock, however, the London foursome opted for a heavier, more politically charged and rebellious sound, which perfectly complimented Skin’s fiercely poetic songs, sung in her unique and androgynous falsetto. Combined with her striking visual image, fearless temperament, and propensity to stand up for the disenfranchised, this separated Skunk Anansie from every other band at the time and made Skin a global female icon, fearlessly kicking down stereotypes in her iconic Dr Martens boots. “Having a Black, female, gay lead singer was completely different than all the other bands,” she says, reflecting on how her presence confronted preconceptions early in her career. “Me being the face of a rock band made a lot of people uncomfortable.” Uncomfortable is a generous description for some of the adversity Skin has had to tolerate during her time in the public eye. Repeatedly finding herself at the receiving end of other people’s

TOM BARNES

“Me being the face of a rock band made a lot of people uncomfortable” THE RED BULLETIN

prejudices and insecurities, she’s openly spoken about instances of discrimination over the years, never shying away when it comes to social or political issues. Through her songwriting with Skunk Anansie, she’s confronted racism, abuse, organised religion and capitalist greed on songs such as Selling Jesus, Intellectualise My Blackness, On My Hotel TV and Little Baby Swastikkka. In her autobiography, It Takes Blood and Guts, published in September 2020, Skin recalls experiencing unmitigated racism while being on tour in Australia with the Sex Pistols in 1996, which she says was one of the hardest tours she’s ever had to endure. “People were sieg-heiling us,” she says of “pockets of fascists” in the crowd throwing the Nazi salute. “They were shouting things like, ‘Get off the stage, you Black bitch!’ And there’d often be little scuffles after people defending us would get involved.” The band – whose bassist, Cass, is also Black – reacted by blasting their antagonists with rage-fuelled performances that were unapologetic and without constraint. “We were as Black and as fierce and as loud as we could be,” Skin remembers. “It drives you to be a bit more vexed, and gives you that energy to be even better on stage.” This supercharged vitality was also spurred on by an alleged lack of support from the Sex Pistols, including frontman Johnny Rotten, who Skin claims failed to call out the abuse. “He would see them sieg-heiling and do nothing. He wouldn’t acknowledge them, but he wouldn’t not acknowledge them either,” she explains. “I think there’s violence in that kind of silence.” Skin’s eyes suddenly light up. “Ooh, that’s good,” she says of her poetic sentence. “Fucking hell! Write that down,” she shouts over to drummer Richardson, who is sitting at the recording console across the room.

his kind of defiant reaction and rebellious spirit are some of the reasons that Skin has become a legend for so many people, but being the target of people’s prejudices for multiple decades must weigh heavy on even the strongest person. “That’s for them to own,” she says.

“I didn’t really take that on my shoulders. When you take on other people’s issues – their racism, their sexism, their homophobia – it’s like they’re giving you this weight to carry.” She pauses, taking a sip of tea while mulling over what she’s going to say next. Putting down her mug, she continues, “I never really played the victim. I think it’s more productive to talk about positivity and success. The few incidents that did happen, and the stuff that made things difficult, actually ended up being reasons why the band was so successful.” There are many more important issues that Skin does carry on her shoulders, so it’s little surprise she has no space left. After 30 years in the limelight, she’s still using her public voice fearlessly as a social and cultural activist. When not fighting for LGBTQ+ rights – something she’s been doing for decades, dating back to when few artists were out and queer – the pioneering frontwoman can be found campaigning against female genital mutilation in her role as an ambassador for Forward, an African women-led organisation seeking to end violence against women and girls. Working with charities including The Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture – now known as Freedom From Torture – and Baobab Foundation, which supports Black and ethnic minority communities, Skin has also helped young asylum seekers, using music therapy to integrate them into society. Also, through her social media channels, she tells Black stories and speaks out against racism. “I use social media in the most positive way, and I use it for good,” says Skin. “Whatever you do in life, try to use it for good. You’ll get a lot of goodness back.” In 2020, she began a new phase in her career, hosting The Skin Show, a weekly radio slot on Absolute Radio, and launching the podcast Skin Tings, in which she interviews her musical heroes, famous friends and new talent. For last October’s Black History Month, she also created the audio docuseries The Blackness of Rock to underline the importance of Black musicians in the foundation of the genre, and also throw the spotlight on those

“I never played the victim. It’s more productive to talk about positivity” 56

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Skin

Youthful Skin: a 17-year-old Deborah Anne Dyer outside her home in Tulse Hill, south London, in 1984

leading its resurgence. Among her guests were Pauline Black of Two-Tone ska revival band The Selecter, who Skin cites as a personal hero; Vernon Reid, the guitarist of US rock band Living Colour; David Bowie’s former bassist Gail Ann Dorsey, and NYU professor Maureen Mahon. “These conversations are pivotal and need to be had,” she says. As important to rock music as any of those she’s interviewed, however, is Skin herself – a crucial role model whose buoyant attitude and dynamic spirit paved the way for many other artists, such as Nova Twins, Rico Nasty and Little Simz, encouraging them to be themselves and thrive whilst doing it. “I think it’s really important to remain who you are,” says Skin, reflecting on the importance of

individuality, especially in today’s overloaded musical landscape where so many artists trend-hop instead of sharing their own unique character. “Pandering to an audience or a rock critic for a bit of success isn’t worth it if you’re having to be someone you’re not. In fact, what is success? When you make music and put it out – to me, that’s success. You’re actually a part of the music industry. When you see your success through the eyes of a rock critic, that can damage your own integrity and authenticity.” Even the British Monarchy has acknowledged Skin’s status as a genre-defying icon – in June last year, she was awarded an OBE for services to music. Does she accept that she’s one of the most influential figures in British rock history and embrace the trailblazer tag so often bestowed upon her? “In hindsight, as a band we can see our influence and impact” she says. “But when you’re in it and doing it, you don’t know what the hell people are talking about. I think back to how crazy it was to have a Black, female, gay singer who wasn’t all sexy and wearing tiny little outfits; who was quite androgynous, with political music. That was really fucking heavy. And I look at how much we’ve done in terms of being diverse and woke in the ’90s. It’s now cool to be woke and actually into things – everything Black, everything gay and everything trans. I think it’s fucking great. So yes, I can now see we were trailblazers.” As Skin signals that it’s time for her to get into the vocal booth and record some of the ideas she wrote down on her way to the studio, she shows no signs of slowing down. Alongside working on new music and hosting her radio show and podcast, she’s busy promoting her autobiography and gearing up to head back out on the road with Skunk Anansie for their 25th anniversary tour, which kicks off in Poland in March. With so much going on, does Skin think she’ll ever step away from music full-time? “When do you stop and how do you stop?” she says with a smirk. “But also, why should you stop?” It Takes Blood and Guts is out now; simonandschuster. co.uk. The UK leg of Skunk Anansie’s tour starts at the O2 Academy Brixton in London on March 25; skunkanansie.com

COURTESY OF SKIN

“Whatever you do in life, use it for good. You’ll get a lot of goodness back” THE RED BULLETIN

The junk punk At a time when sustainability is one of our greatest priorities, PAUL FIRBANK, aka The Rag and Bone Man, is using old methods to engineer a better future and, along the way, build a gravity bike out of trash

BENJAMIN EAGLE

Words RICHARD EDWARDS

Paul Firbank works on the built-from-scrap gravity bike in his workshop in Margate

The Rag and Bone Man

Boning up: Firbank’s workshop is an Aladdin’s cave of salvaged parts. He has a mental map of where everything is and can find a component in seconds

perhaps better described as a working museum. Or well-ordered chaos. On a wall is part of the town’s old roller-coaster. Pieces of scrap metal share floor space with exquisitely crafted bar stools, one of which uses the brake disc from a Porsche as its base. A chandelier made from a Rolls Royce jet engine sits incongruously next to a row of rusting car jacks. “Perfect for lamps,” remarks Firbank. Mounted on another wall are blades from another jet engine, recovered from an aircraft scrapyard not far from here. He notes that in the past the blades would have been put through an angle grinder to ensure they didn’t find their way back into the supply chain through the black market. “Now they let me take them, in the knowledge that I’ll wreck them the way I want to wreck them,” he says. Hanging elsewhere are small robots that Firbank built when first dipping his toe into a profession that’s hardly well-trodden these days. A hundred years ago, the rag-and-bone man, or totter, was a familiar sight in Britain’s towns and cities. These junk dealers, pulling their carts by hand or horse, scavenged the streets for anything they

OLLIE HARROP, BENJAMIN EAGLE

aul Firbank’s life has been one of contrasts. When he first met his wife Lizzie, he was sporting a pink mohawk and sleeping on a friend’s sofa, beneath dust sheets from his plastering job. He also spent four years as a tattoo artist. Back then, the idea that one day he would produce one-of-a-kind items for some of the finest hotels, or be commissioned to make a trophy held aloft by the world’s top speedway rider, seemed fanciful. That he would craft these things from humanity’s discarded trash is even more outlandish. And yet, as artisanal engineer The Rag and Bone Man, that’s exactly what he does today. As Firbank and Lizzie invite us into their workshop in the Kent seaside town of Margate, there’s a glint in his eye that suggests the pink hair dye and clippers – or whatever the equivalent is when you’re in your forties and have a young family – are still within reach should the mood take him. The workshop is as full of contrasts as Firbank’s life. Situated in a row of garages-cum-warehouses behind a Victorian terrace that overlooks – far out to sea – one of the UK’s largest wind farms, it’s

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“This isn’t about money, it’s about enjoyment”

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DAMIAN GRIFFITHS

Jumble sale: a few of Firbank’s purchasable creations. Top row (from left): desk lamp built from fire extinguishers and a light aircraft piston; aeroplane stator-ring wall clock; bar stools built from 15-tonne bridge-building jacks, tractor seats and lorry pedals. Middle row: aircraft-piston-and-fire-extinguisher wall lamps; 1930s radial-engine chandelier; globe light built from an aircraft pressure vessel and a lighthouse fog horn. Bottom row: floor-standing light built from a lorry brake drum, barge conrods, Land Rover radius arms, jet engine components and part of a road sweeper; jet-engine wall mirror; VW Beetle bonnet chair. Opposite page: Daimler car-seat sofa

The Rag and Bone Man

could sell. This would literally include rags – which could be recycled into cotton paper – and bones, used to manufacture knife handles, toys and trinkets. A mid-19th-century report on London’s poor estimated there were up to a thousand totters in the nation’s capital, eking out a frugal livelihood in squalid conditions. The profession lived on past WWII, but by the 1980s improvements in municipal waste collection had consigned them to history, existing in the British consciousness only through a popular sitcom about two London ragmen, Steptoe and Son. “The rag-and-bone man was an anonymous figure, almost invisible, going around at weird antisocial times, looking for scraps,” says Lizzie. “What they were really doing was looking for a way to earn a living,” adds Firbank. The couple’s work today is very much in keeping with the best traditions of the totter, employing a degree of resourcefulness that’s rarely been as relevant as it is now. But they’re quick to point out that it isn’t solely a British practice, or even a lost one elsewhere in the world. “We saw the Chinese equivalent of the rag-andbone man – hundreds of them,” says Lizzie of her time as an artist-in-residence in Beijing. “They had these bikes called Flying Pigeons, which had two back wheels, and they’d go around collecting things like water coolers from office blocks. They’d stack them miles high. You’d see one guy collecting cardboard, and another taking the sticky tape off it. Everyone had a role to play.” Firbank won’t be seen peeling tape off boxes on Margate High Street, but he’s no stranger to delving into scrapyards, bins, and places others wouldn’t dare venture. The rewards of his exploits, however, are considerably greater. Whereas a mid20th-century British rag-and-bone man’s daily haul might have earned him between £2 and £25, a single coat hanger made from unwanted golf clubs sells for £90 in Firbank’s online store. A mirror framed in a jet-engine combustor goes for £950, while a chair hammered out of a VW Beetle bonnet commands £2,750. But the Firbanks’ careers weren’t always this lucrative.

Argentinian restaurant less than a mile from where we lived, and we’d blow it all with a massive steak and too many bottles of red wine. Then we’d struggle for the rest of the month until I sold something.” In 2011, Lizzie suggested they hold an exhibition of their work. “We sold out within two days,” recalls Firbank. “So I handed in my notice. We’ve been tinkering with this ever since.” The imperative to make money may no longer be Firbank’s driving force, but the dedication remains. Perhaps the greatest insight into his alchemic artistry comes from a new Red Bull documentary on his mission to build a gravity bike, or as he describes it in the film, “A push bike without pedals or a seat; you just lay on it. A go-fast, downhillbombing machine.” Its parts include BMX wheels from a bike scrapyard in Dartford, an aeroplane seat (which becomes the front forks), and “a huge spiky aerodynamic chunk of aeroplane on the front”, which a bystander describes as resembling Concorde. At one point, Firbank pulls his van to the side of a road and rescues an iron bedstead that’s been fly-tipped. “The smaller tubes can make part of the bike frame,” he deduces, before adding under his breath, “I’m doing the country a favour and cleaning up some of the rubbish, which is nice.”

nterestingly, Firbank doesn’t draw up blueprints or work from plans of any kind. “It’ll never end up looking like it does on paper,” he says. “To work out mechanisms, I sometimes use my son’s toys, which have nuts and bolts – it’s easier.” Given the complexity of the gravity bike – and indeed any of his designs – it’s a remarkable admission, especially when he reveals this is the first bike he’s built in his 22-year career,

efore moving to this particular corner of Kent, the pair lived in London – Lizzie worked for a picture-framing company, while Paul was searching for jobs after the promise of some plastering had fallen through. Then, a welding job came up, and within a year he was running the firm’s metalworking department. “We’d get our pay cheques at the end of the month, and by the time we’d worked everything out we’d have £100 left,” he says. “There was an

“When you think about the waste in this country, it’s disgraceful” THE RED BULLETIN

The Rag and Bone Man

Light work: Firbank dismantling a 1942 de Havilland Goblin turbojet engine to turn into a ‘rocket ship’ chandelier

he closest Firbank gets to creating any kind of diagram is when he brings in his friend, illustrator Max Paternoster, to design decals for the bike’s exterior. The two are kindred spirits, Paternoster’s creative process seemingly just as instinctive. “There’s a weird urge I can’t really describe – I just want to produce something,” he explains. “I have this routine of doodling every night. When you’re half-asleep, some of that stuff is quite mad.” He ponders in front a large blackboard in Firbank’s workshop before deciding, “I’m going for that line-based Tron vibe.” For Firbank, the components he finds dictate the final product more than any Heath Robinson-esque sketch ever could. “We might come across something that steers the shape of this bike in a certain way, how it handles, how long it lasts,” he says in the film. “You can’t fight a material.” It’s almost a humanisation of objects, and offers a glimpse into a 64

“People called us eco,. but that wasn’t why I reused old stuff – I did it because it was cheaper” mind that sees living potential where others just see scrap. “Bits of this bike have already done 700mph [1,126kph],” he notes of the salvaged plane parts. “Some of these components have had a crazy life.” However, there’s an inherent risk to working with materials collected from roadsides and scrap piles. “You don’t always know the properties of the metal,” he says. “One time, I’d found a thick steel rod and was trying to bend it with a big bending machine. I should have clocked it, because it wasn’t doing what you’d expect. This thing shattered, glanced off the side of my head and smashed about in the workshop behind me. If it had hit me square in the head, I wouldn’t be here talking to you now. I’m lucky I survived with my eyes. I shouldn’t have forced it, but I was tired, and I’d had a couple of beers.”

SAM SCALES, BENJAMIN EAGLE

and notes during a crucial moment of its construction that if he gets the angles wrong, the handling could be lethal. “It either won’t steer well or, as you pick up speed, it’ll become twitchy and jump about.”

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Mills and boom: Firbank on his milling machine. There’s a risk to working on salvaged scraps with unknown properties

“Some of the parts of the gravity bike have already done 700mph” Firbank admits he wasn’t academic at school. He says he used to love being ill so he could accompany his father – a science teacher at another school – to work. There, Firbank would watch him enthral the class with experiments involving cans of Coke and Bunsen burners. “There wasn’t health and safety back then,” he recalls. “[Dad] would find things that interested people and base his lessons around that.

Everyone would be so much more engaged.” After leaving school, Firbank chose to pursue a course in engineering. “I was supposed to make what everyone else was making, but I’d build bits for my bike. The other guys would get the hump, but the teachers asked me what I was trying to do and gave me ideas as to how I might do it differently.” It’s easy to see how Firbank’s outlook back then would equip him with the curiosity needed to, quite literally, see treasure in another man’s trash. It’s an attitude that seems to be striking an ever-louder chord with others, too. “When we launched The Rag and Bone Man, people commented on how eco this was,” he notes, “but that wasn’t why I started reusing old materials. I did it because it was cheaper than buying off-the-shelf stuff. A big chunk of metal

Light cycle: the finished gravity bike, complete with “Tron vibes” decals by artist Max Paternoster

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The Rag and Bone Man

costs a lot of money, but people are throwing away brake discs. I use the ends of fire extinguishers – you can pick one up for nothing at a scrapyard. When you think about the waste in this country, it’s disgraceful. Modern appliances aren’t even designed to be fixed; they break so that people buy a new one. I love old materials because they were meant to last. They were designed in a way that made it possible for parts to be replaced, because that’s what people could afford.”

BENJAMIN EAGLE

MAX PATERNOSTER

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is and Lizzie’s attitude towards sustainability extends into their everyday lives. Married in 2017 – on a fairground Wall of Death (where else?) – they’ve bought a house and are restoring it together. It’s a project that’s progressing “very slowly”, admits Firbank, somewhat ruefully. Nonetheless, they’re bringing their resourcefulness to the task. “The amount of milk bottles we were getting through was incredible, so I bought a plastic shredding machine,” he says, pointing across the workshop to a big box containing granulated bottle tops. He then gestures to a cake mixer which washes them. “We’ve got a 20-tonne press that squishes them in these great big moulds and makes wall tiles. I put them in the oven, and when they come out we’ll use them for our bathroom.” You get the feeling his is the kind of brain that governments scrambling to cut emissions targets would do well to tap into, but while the delegates at COP26 may have overlooked Firbank’s ingenuity, his services are frequently sought out by restaurants and hotels as far afield as Australia and Singapore. He has also just completed what he calls “trophy season”, making silverware for competitions throughout the summer. On a table sits a cup for the Malle Mile Beach Race, a motorcycle rally held in Margate every September. It remains in the workshop after the tide came in at such breakneck speed this year that the event had to be cut short. The Firbanks have also recently returned from Silverstone where French MotoGP rider and reigning world champion Fabio Quartararo lifted the British Grand Prix trophy designed and made by The Rag and Bone Man. “I was opposite [Quartararo] when it was presented to him,” says Lizzie. “I had a tear in my eye because I knew the hard work that had gone into it, and just how far we’ve come for that moment to happen.” Making unusual items also has a tendency to attract characters of a similar ilk, and Firbank details these encounters much as he might about finding a prize trove of tractor seats. “We were selling a 1950s barber’s chair and what was left of a vintage aircraft engine at an auto jumble, and this old guy negotiated a price with us, telling us he was a pensioner and asking if we could deliver the stuff to him,” he recalls. “Basically, he worked us.” When they arrived at the man’s address, it turned out to be a huge Georgian mansion. “This place was insane. We pulled up to the gates and he sent one of his staff to let us in. As we were

Scrap book: one of Paternoster’s fever-dream bike doodles. He’s now working with Firbank on a giant chainsaw

driving up to the house, we saw vintage steam engines. One room contained four 1920s Rolls Royces; in another, he had 14 1920s fire engines.” Such was the extent of this high-end hoarding, says Firbank, that the owner of the collection could no longer live in his own house; instead, he was relegated to a small cottage beside it. “Have you heard of a bike called the Vincent Black Shadow? One sold recently for £600,000. I walked into a room and he had 22 of them. You couldn’t sell them all at once, because it would destroy the market.” Where the gravity bike ends up is anyone’s guess, although you get the feeling Firbank would be reluctant to part with it, even though he concedes he could have done himself considerable harm riding it. “I did 60mph [96kph] and the brakes just cooked, as they were from an Argos child’s mountain bike. I think we could have done 70-something on the second day. Who knows, maybe we’ll have another go.” In the meantime, he’s already working on his next big project: “It’s an art piece from a 1930s aircraft radial engine that will, in effect, be a giant chainsaw. Max is doing drawings, and we’ll make foundry patterns from them.” Whether building power tools from vintage aeroplanes, reviving a lost profession with modern sensibilities, or helping to sustain our dwindling resources by rehabilitating the trash of our planet’s worst tenants, there’s perhaps something we can all take away from Firbank’s view of the world: that you need to look a little deeper to see the true value in anything. “Not everything is about money; it’s not all about scrap metal,” he muses in the film. “As long as you’re trying to do something, even if it’s not perfect, you’re getting something else out of it. It’s about enjoyment.”

Scan the QR code to see Firbank’s gravity bike in action in the Red Bull short film Built From Scrap With The Rag and Bone Man 67

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THE FARAWAY TREES

MATT STERNE

In search of South Africa‘s oldest baobabs

VENTURE Travel

“More than the lion, elephant or fish eagle, the baobab represents Africa. Prominent trees even receive funerals” Matt Sterne, travel writer

Following its collapse in 2017, the once-mighty Glencoe Baobab in Limpopo Province now resembles a gathering of smaller trees from a distance

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MATT STERNE, ALAMY

t’s towards the end of the second day that I find it. In the Bantu language of Venda, they call it Muri Kungulwa – ‘the tree that roars’ – and it looks as if someone took six massive trees and welded them together. This is the world’s largest living baobab, twice the size of any other in the region. Yet, despite its colossal size, the locals don’t make a big fuss about it. There’s very little signage directing you to its location at the end of a sandy track between two rural villages in this far corner of South Africa. One of Muri Kungulwa’s branches reaches down to the floor like a divine hand granting access to its elevated world, a slight sheen showing where people must have clambered up it since the Middle Ages. The bark has the look of ancient lava, as if melted and warped from centuries of African sun. The circumference is a whopping 46m, making it (after a cypress in Mexico) the world’s second-stoutest tree. To embrace its entirety requires at least 20 people. Like great bodies of water, the tree has a calming presence. I spend two hours circling, touching and climbing it, walking further away for a better look and then up close to feel its waxy bark and peer inside its cavernous hollow, where the world’s biggest colony of mottled spinetails resides. Normal colonies of these birds number around 20; here, there are 300. The din of their activity every evening is what gives the tree its name in Venda. I’m on a quest to visit the most remarkable baobabs in the land. The idea

VENTURE Travel

A baobab at Musina Nature Reserve

Special branch The tree’s magical properties The baobab’s legendary reputation is well deserved; its documented health benefits number in the hundreds. It is the world’s largest succulent and can store thousands of litres of water. The leaves can be boiled and eaten like spinach, while the seeds, when roasted, are like coffee. The fruit has as much as 10 times the vitamin C of oranges, and six times more potassium than bananas. This fruit stays ripe for around a decade, and a single tree can produce it for a thousand years, yet the flowers bloom for just one day. Since 2010, the King-of-Garatjeke has been protected by South Africa’s Champion Trees Project

was sparked by news that the oldest trees were under threat. Publications around the world had been running alarming stories about their possible demise, a situation that has stumped scientists. It all stemmed from a study by a Romanian professor, Adrian Patrut, who used radiocarbon dating to analyse more than 60 of the largest and oldest baobabs in Africa to find out how the trees could grow so big. To his team’s surprise, they found that, since 2005, nine of the 13 oldest and five of the six largest baobabs had either died or partially collapsed. These include wellTHE RED BULLETIN

known trees such as the Sunland Baobab – famous for the pub inside it – a gigantic specimen in Namibia named Grootboom, and Chapman’s Baobab in Botswana. Climate change was identified as the likely culprit, and dendrophiles around the world united in panic. If the world’s biggest baobabs were dying, I wanted to find out why. It felt important. The worldwide concern was understandable. More than the lion, elephant or fish eagle, the baobab best represents Africa. Much of that is due to its resilience: the baobab thrives where other plants wither and die. These icons

of the African savannah reach such ridiculous ages that they’re steeped in mystique, surrounded by superstition and seen as a way to communicate with ancestors. In West Africa, prominent trees even receive special funerals. My first stop was the famous Glencoe Baobab, located on a lucerne farm in Limpopo Province. Carbon-dated to be around 1,844 years of age, it’s the world’s oldest known baobab. At one stage the tree had a circumference of 47m, but it split twice in 2009 and collapsed completely in 2017, yet it still lives on. Viewed from a distance, it looks like a 71

VENTURE Travel Musina Nature Reserve

Sagole Baobab

Kruger National Park

King-of-Garatjeke

Mokopane Leydsdorp Baobab

PRETORIA

JOHANNESBURG

Taking route Following the baobab trail Start in Johannesburg and, leaving early, visit the Glencoe Baobab, Leydsdorp Baobab and King-of-Garatjeke on the first day. On the second day, travel on to the Sagole Baobab (Muri Kungulwa) and Musina Nature Reserve, which is home to many of the giant trees. The north of Kruger National Park and Mapungubwe National Park (around 200km to the west) can also be included in the trip; both have pockets of baobabs.

small wood. An information board nearby states: “This magnificent upsidedown tree can be described as a grizzled, distorted old goblin – with the girth of a giant, the hide of a rhinoceros, [and] twiggy fingers clutching at empty air.” I found the King-of-Garatjeke in a very different setting. Towering above the dusty rural village of Maekgwe, this leafy baobab is a gathering point for the local community. As I arrived, a group of young men were playing a game of dice beneath the tree; goats and chickens pecked at its soil while small boys leaned against it. Like so many baobabs across Africa, the 72

Climbing the Leydsdorp Baobab

At 46m in circumference, Muri Kungulwa (aka the Sagole Baobab) is the big daddy of them all

King-of-Garatjeke acts as a kind of town hall. The trees also double as prisons, post offices, gun safes, cool rooms and treehouses; one – located on the Caprivi Strip in northeast Namibia – even houses a porcelain flush-toilet. In the town of Louis Trichardt, I meet up with Dr Sarah Venter, who did her PhD on the ecology of baobabs and owns a company that sustainably harvests the fruit. I ask her about the plight of the oldest trees. “Only four have actually died,” she says. “Some of the others have collapsed, but that’s normal behaviour – they can carry on growing for hundreds of years. The article you read was pretty sensational and was misinterpreted by many news outlets. I wouldn’t be too worried about the older population. What’s more concerning is the lack of a younger generation due to overgrazing of the seedlings by goats and baboons.” The trees, however, might be able to overcome this. “When conditions are right – maybe after good rainfall or when there are fewer visitors, like after an anthrax outbreak – the trees will communicate with each other that it’s a good time to grow,” Dr Venter says. “That’s known as episodic recruitment; it’s the reason you see many baobabs of a similar size in one area.” This, for the first time in a while, sounds like good news. There are more trees, all giants of the savannah, still on my list to visit. As I continue on my journey, I wonder how many of the baobabs that have sprouted in this generation will reach the size of their elders. But that’s a question that’ll only be answered way down the line.

Matt Sterne is a travel photojournalist based in Cape Town, South Africa. His new book Sterne Journeys, which compiles his best adventures from the past 12 years, is available via the profile link on his Instagram: @sternejourneys THE RED BULLETIN

MATT STERNE

Glencoe Baobab

Y L I A D R U O Y R FO . E T U M CO M ESS ONE L

CAR

To class, to a meeting, to the coworking space, to the café, to the daycare center: no matter where your daily trips take you, and whether you prefer to take your bike instead of the car, carrying an ORTLIEB bag or backpack is always the right choice. The ORTLIEB promise: Our sustainable products are waterproof, Made in Germany and backed by a five-year warranty.

VENTURE How To notification. In our tech- based lives, we’ve put the jaguar in our pocket; emails and social media pings constantly give us low-level stress hits. So I’ve turned off notifications and instead I choose when to log on. I now feel much less wired.

Make friends with fear

Whether in the jungle or at home, it’s usually around 3am when fear rears its ugly head. Our brains can come up with a zillion reasons why what we’re doing is a terrible idea. Sense-check this fear – some ideas really are terrible – but if you’ve prepared as best you can and taken steps to mitigate risk, at some point you have to make that decision to step out of your comfort zone, be it about an expedition, a relationship or a job. Distinguish between situations where fear is helping your growth and where it’s a hindrance. Ask a simple question: what would happen if I didn’t go for it?

Adventurer Pip Stewart learned a lot from her time spent in the jungle – not least how to better appreciate life outside it In 2018, my life was transformed by a world-first, three-month, source-to-sea kayak expedition through the Amazonian rainforest in Guyana, South America. With the help of guides from the indigenous Wai-Wai community, we ran rapids, traversed waterfalls and hacked through mountainous jungle. After contracting a flesh-eating parasite and almost sitting on a deadly snake, I’m lucky to be alive. I returned with a new way of looking at the urbanised world, from grappling with everyday problems to confronting fear and tempering my own ego. Hopefully some of these lessons will be useful for you, too – ideally without a flesheating parasite being involved. 74

Reframe your predicament

During the trip, I got my leg stuck between a fallen tree and a vine. Hiding in the log, tongue flickering, about 5cm beneath my bum, was the deadliest snake in the jungle – a fer-de-lance. One of our guides macheted it to death, but, after that, all I wanted to do was go home. Days from medical help, however, in one of the most remote places on Earth, our only option was to keep moving. While I couldn’t change the problem,

“I almost sat on the most deadly snake in the jungle”

I could change my thinking. Acknowledging I was struggling, I shared it with my team, and by reframing the issue from “I have to do this” to “I get to…” the situation became easier to deal with psychologically.

Unwire yourself

Each day, we’d paddle past caiman more than 5m long and encounter snakes, spiders and scorpions. Being surrounded by apex predators naturally puts you on edge. However, when the threats in the jungle went away, so did the tension. My stress response when a jaguar strolled through our camp, although more exaggerated, wasn’t dissimilar to that of receiving a smartphone

Gain perspective

It was the small things that fascinated me the most in the jungle: the underside of a leaf, or the way mushrooms jutted out from ginormous trees like plates stacked in a rack. Exploration is a mindset; it’s not about travelling to far-flung corners of the planet but about seeing the world though new eyes. There’s power in appreciating so-called mundane moments. Contracting leishmaniasis – the second biggest parasitic killer after malaria – but being fortunate enough to receive treatment for it reaffirmed to me perhaps the only lesson we really need: life is beautiful and fragile. Embrace it.

Pip Stewart is a UK adventure writer, author and speaker. Her book Life Lessons from the Amazon: A Guide to Life From One Epic Jungle Adventure is out now; phillippastewart.com THE RED BULLETIN

PIP STEWART

Amazon primed

PEIMAN ZEKAVAT

EXPLORE

VENTURE Technology BUILD

Micro machine Turn heads at gaming events with this portable PC shell Swedish design company Teenage Engineering is known for its compact, modular gadgets such as pocket synthesisers, and for being total geeks. So when the team couldn’t find a decent casing for the PCs in their workshop, they decided to build their own. Six years later – and after dabbling with MDF and Formica shells – here’s the aluminium Computer-1, with its tiny 19cm x 17cm footprint and carry handle. Note it doesn’t include the computer innards, but it does come flat-packed, Ikea-style, with an assembly guide that warns you to “Think twice, bend once”. So geek up before you start building.

teenage.engineering

TEENAGE ENGINEERING

Computer-1 is designed to house a mini ITX PC – popular with home theatre enthusiasts due to its size and fan-less (and thus noise-less) cooling. With its powerful GPU, it’s also a great portable gaming rig

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VENTURE Fitness

BOOST

Triple threat In 2000, New Zealander Jamie Hunt was one of the world’s top triathletes when he was left off his nation’s Olympics team. It was, he says, “a blessing, because I would have missed going into business”. In 2005, he co-founded 2XU, a sports brand favoured by athletes and celebrities including Kanye West, who featured its wetsuits in his 2017 runway collection. In 2018, Hunt sold 2XU to luxury goods conglomerate LVMH for a nine-figure sum. His ultimate vision was to develop “the world’s most advanced compression fabric”, and with his new sportswear company Pressio, launched in 2020, Hunt believes he’s done it. Its EcoPower CK fabric delivers on three essentials – performance, power and comfort – thanks to a circular-knit yarn that supports the muscle, enhances movement, wicks sweat and feels great. The Muscle Alignment Power Print (MAPP, shown left on the Power Run Compression Tights) contours to muscle, boosting power and preventing injury. Pressure is something Hunt faced in his sporting career; it’s also the secret to his game-changing fabric. pressio.com

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TOM GUISE

To reimagine high-performance sportswear, a pro triathlete put his faith in the power of three

VENTURE Fitness

ollow pro climbers such as British Olympian Shauna Coxsey on social media and you’ll marvel at their gravity-defying ability to hang off the smallest edges with a single finger. But strong digits aren’t just the preserve of world-class athletes. “Humans are designed to use our hands,” says Sheffield-based climber Ned Feehally. “It’s natural for very young children to want to climb stuff. But we now live in a world where you don’t have to do that for survival; we do it for fun instead.” Feehally knows about climbing for fun. He began at the age of nine, and today, at 34, is a world-class boulderer (rock climbing using handand footholds). He’s married to Coxsey and is co-founder of Beastmaker, a leading manufacturer of hangboards – wall-mounted tools for training finger and forearm strength and flexibility. It was while developing his first board at uni in 2007 that Feehally realised the potential for anyone to climb. In his new book, Beastmaking: A FingersFirst Approach to Becoming a Better Climber, he admits, “I’m not the strongest, most flexible, fittest or most technically gifted climber. I don’t have a huge amount of natural talent. My strongest attribute is organising my training and pushing myself hard.” Here, he reveals that the secret to climbing, and unlocking its surprising health benefits, is at your fingertips.

NICK BROWN

MATT RAY

Grasping anatomy

Considering how crucial our hands are, it’s surprising how little many of us know about how they work. “Some people don’t even realise we have muscles in our hands,” says Feehally. “Small ones in our palms stabilise the fingers and move them from side to side; others, in the thumbs, help power many grips.” It’s these small muscles, together with tendons and ligaments in the THE RED BULLETIN

Home climb: Feehally on the dedicated training boards in the basement of his house in Sheffield

TRAIN

Digital advances Becoming a climber requires a high level of fitness. But everything you need to achieve both is already in your hands hands and flexor muscles in the forearm, that combine to strengthen fingers. “Tendons run through pulleys under our fingers, like a line along a fishing rod, transferring the force of a contracting [forearm] muscle into grip strength. You can grab onto tiny holds and support your weight when it doesn’t seem like you should be able to.”

Hanging tough

“When I began, about 15 years ago, you’d get laughed at for training with a fingerboard,” recalls Feehally. Today, hangboards and climbing walls are a common sight in

gyms, and the ‘dead hang’ – supporting your bodyweight with the strength of your fingers – has greater benefits than just showing off on a playground’s monkey bars. “Connective tissue likes to be under load for long periods in order to adapt, so get your fingers in the right position and hang for a good length of

“Training finger strength can get you off a plateau” Ned Feehally

time,” he says. “You shouldn’t hang on a totally straight arm with your neck forward – your body needs to be engaged. The exact angle of your arms doesn’t matter, as long as you’re pulling and not just dangling on your skeleton.”

Healthy grip

It’s notable that the gender gap in competitive climbing is relatively small compared with many other sports – in a 2019 interview with The New York Times, US pro climber Sasha DiGiulian estimated the male/ female ratio to be around 60:40 – and women feature heavily in lists of the world’s 77

VENTURE Fitness

Hang time Get to grips with these essential hand holds

top rock climbers. This indicates the once-vital role in our evolution of climbing for survival. However, grip strength is about far more than just climbing; it can also be an indicator of biological age, and studies have shown that by improving it we can lower the risk of heart disease. “It’s about keeping your body in shape and making you more injury-proof. And that helps you enjoy climbing more.”

Don’t overreach

THE OPEN GRIP Getting as much as possible of the surface area of the fingers onto a hold relies more on friction than on strength. This is the most comfortable grip.

THE FULL CRIMP An intense grip on very small holds. Place your fingers at an acute angle with the thumb pushing down on top of the first finger (a half crimp doesn’t require the thumb).

“Seeing progress is one of the most rewarding things in climbing,” says Feehally. But he cautions against haste: “Do a thorough warm-up to get all the connective tissues working properly, with lubrication around the joints.” Like any training activity, it pays to log your workouts and not overdo it. “Some people do five fingerboard sessions a week for a couple of weeks and end up injured or so tired it becomes pointless. Your fingers and connective tissues are delicate, so little and often is good. And take note of your skin; it’s the interface between you and the rock, and it’s a limited resource. If you see the skin on your fingers thinning or sweating more, stop.”

THE PINCH Using the thumb muscles and fingers to pinch onto a hold, this grip can easily be trained by lifting a weight plate with one hand.

THE MONO Certain rock types, like limestone, present pockets too small for a hand but perfect for one or two digits. A real test of finger strength.

Ned Feehally’s book Beastmaking is out now; v-publishing.co.uk. Check out Beastmaker hangboards at beastmaker.co.uk THE RED BULLETIN

NICK BROWN

Climbers often hit an impasse in their progress due to a lack of finger strength, because tendons and ligaments take longer than muscles to become strong. “Training finger strength can get you off a plateau, just like climbing more can,” says Feehally. “Adding a fingerboard session every week, or even fortnight, will make a huge difference. But it’s about taking a longterm approach; you can’t just do it for a few weeks and stop. Training strength is like a dog: it’s not just for Christmas.”

MATT RAY

Overcoming walls

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VENTURE Gaming DISCOVER

Runway show

ELECTRONIC ARTS

ALEXANDRA ZAGALSKY

Become a leader in Korean ‘airport style’ with high-flying tips from The Sims 4’s K-fashion guru, Jazzy Cho Busy airports aren’t typically known for their thriving fashion scenes. But South Korea’s Incheon International Airport is far from typical. Featuring a golf course, ice rink, casino and cinema, this futuristic transit hub reflects the spirit of a country known for its smartconnected cities, super-fast Wi-Fi and world-leading pop culture. It has also ushered in its own branch of K-fashion, gonghang (airport) fashion, born from paparazzi shots of celebrities returning from overseas in cutting-edge style. “Incheon Airport is a place of pride for South Koreans – it’s where tourists form their first impressions of the country, and it plays an integral part in the culture,” says Jazzy Cho, a Korean-American fashion influencer, TV host and 2016 Miss Korea USA, who grew up in California and whose mission it is to highlight the creative verve of modern Korea. Cho is also the curator of the Incheon Arrivals Kit, a new wardrobe of gonghang outfits for social-simulation video game The Sims 4. Here, she sheds light on the finer details of K-fashion, a driving force in the global cultural phenomenon that is Hallyu, aka the Korean Wave.

Korean airport chic in The Sims 4: “My boarding pass? I only want to buy a travel adaptor”

says Cho, it’s also seeing a reinvention in modern street style. “Loose baji pants [traditionally for men] are now sometimes adopted by women in a tailored form, and the [floor-length] chima skirt is seen in a shorter, lighter style, though still voluminous, because in the past the more pouffy the higher your status.” The Incheon Arrivals Kit celebrates this with a modern take on the durumagi, a men’s overcoat. And hanbok’s attention to detail extends into

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Fast fashion

South Korea’s fashion scene matches the fast pace of a nation heralded as one of the world’s most technologically advanced. “Styles constantly evolve,” says Cho, “but trends also spin out according to individual taste. Personal colour is big – there are shops that assess which shades best suit your skin tone. The same goes for hair stylists who tailor a cut to your face shape. Trends are never homogenous, they’re carefully considered, so while there’s a theme there’s never overfamiliarity.”

New romantic

Modern classics

“Today’s K-fashion landscape is informed by the embroideries, vibrant colours and flowing fabrics seen in hanbok,” says Cho of the collective term for traditional Korean clothing. Today, hanbok is still worn, but,

every aspect of Korean life: “Even to customer service, with restaurants that serve messy food preparing aprons for each customer.”

“For Koreans, the airport’s a place of pride” Jazzy Cho

Airport style, with its distinctly cosmopolitan viewpoint, marries perfectly with Cho’s roots. “I identify as a Korean woman but see the culture through an American lens. What I noticed [as a US national] is that Korean culture – from K-pop to its food – is very romantic. My favourite

word is nangman, which means romance. Love and the positive emotions associated with being a happy partner are celebrated. Many brands sell fashion as a set for couples, designed to match. We’ve touched on this in the Incheon Arrivals Kit, which has pieces that complement each other.”

Taking off

Gonghang may be a seemingly small branch of off-duty fashion, but it delivers a wider message about the Korean Wave, as Cho explains: “Korea is geographically in the middle between the West and the East. It has a war-torn history, but because of this there’s an impregnable tenacity in its people that has inspired them to thrive.” It’s this underlying aspect of K-fashion that contributes to its universal popularity, says Cho. “In a matter of years, South Korea has impacted the world with culture.”

The Incheon Airport Kit for The Sims 4 is out now on PlayStation, Xbox, PC and macOS; ea.com. Follow Jazzy Cho at youtube.com/jazzycho and on TikTok: @thejazzycho 81

VENTURE Equipment

Snow fiercer

Whether on board or skis, ruling the piste requires courage, commitment and, of course, the correct gear Photography DAVID EDWARDS

MONTANE Upflow Beanie, montane. com; ZEAL OPTICS Portal XL Ski & Snowboard Goggles, zealoptics.com; ARMADA Furtherance 3L Gore-Tex Anorak, armadaskis.com Opposite page: OAKLEY MOD1 Helmet, oakley.com; SCOTT Shield Goggles, scottsports.com; THRUDARK SF Breach Jacket, thrudark.com; 686 Mountain Mitts, 686.com; OSPREY Kamber 30 Backpack, ospreyeurope.com; LINE Vision 118 Skis, lineskis.com

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HELLY HANSEN Mountain Beanie, hellyhansen.com; POC Zonula Clarity Comp Goggles, pocsports.com; ARCTERYX Macai LT Jacket, arcteryx.com; BLACK DIAMOND JetForce Pro Avalanche Airbag Pack, blackdiamond equipment.com

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MONTANE Upflow Beanie, montane.com; SMITH OPTICS I/O Mag S Goggles, smithoptics.com; THE NORTH FACE Brigandine Futurelight Jacket, thenorthface. co.uk; MONS ROYALE Cascade Merino Flex 200 LS Top, eu. monsroyale.com; BLACK DIAMOND Spark Angel Finger Mitts, blackdiamond equipment.com; LINE Pandora 94 Skis, lineskis.com

BBCO Summit Seeker Recycled Beanie, bbcoheadwear.com; DRAGON ALLIANCE DXT OTG Goggles, uk.dragonalliance. com; SALOMON S/LAB QST Gore-Tex Pro 3L Jacket, salomon.com; YUKI THREADS Flag Mitts, yukithreads.com

POC Meninx RS MIPS Helmet and Zonula Clarity Goggles, pocsports. com; ROXY Jetty Leather Snowboard/Ski Mitts, roxy-uk. co.uk; YUKI THREADS Brooklyn Jacket, yukithreads.com THE RED BULLETIN

BBCO Roam Recycled Beanie, bbcoheadwear.com; L1 PREMIUM GOODS Snowblind Jacket, l1premiumgoods. com; HELLY HANSEN Swift HT Gloves, hellyhansen.com; BLACK DIAMOND Expedition 2 Ski Poles, blackdiamond equipment.com

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Right: POC Devour Glacial Sunglasses and Coalesce Jacket, pocsports.com; MONTANE Dart Thermo Zip Neck T-shirt, montane.com Below: COAL The Uniform Beanie, coalheadwear.com; OAKLEY Line Miner Øystein Bråten Goggles, oakley.com; PICTURE ORGANIC CLOTHING U44 Jacket, pictureorganic-clothing.com

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DRAGON ALLIANCE RVX OTG Goggles, uk.dragonalliance. com; 686 GLCR Hydra Thermagraph Jacket, 686.com; MARMOT Smokes Run Bib, marmot.eu; POW KB Pro Mitts, powgloves.com

SMITH OPTICS Maze MIPS Helmet and Squad MAG Goggles, smithoptics.com; BLACK DIAMOND Recon Stretch Ski Shell Jacket, blackdiamond equipment.com

Models: ARTHUR LAIDLAW @ Milk Model Management, DEENA @ W Model Management Hair and make-up: KATE ROE THE RED BULLETIN

VENTURE Calendar

December THE HYDRA: NOT TO BE Dolan Bergin and Ajay Jayaram had been organising electronic music parties separately in London for years before they founded The Hydra together in 2012, curating stellar line-ups for some of the most revered EDM events on the calendar. This spirit of collaboration now infuses the duo’s debut at north London venue The Drumsheds, with a concept that teams pairs of artists for blistering back-to-back sets. The first part, To Be, took place in November, and now act two will feature partnerships between the likes of Carl Craig and Moodymann, Joy Orbison and Mount Kimbie, and BFFs Floating Points and Four Tet, with electronica lone wolf Jon Hopkins riding solo, because he can. thedrumshedslondon.co.uk

December onwards FLIGHT MODE BY TOM PAGÈS French freestyle motocross rider Tom Pagès has spent the past 16 years pushing the envelope of what’s possible on a 100kg dirt bike in mid-air. In 2019, encouraged by his friend Vince Reffet, a jet-wingsuit pilot, Pagès planned the world’s first moto BASE jump, and last October, in the French ski resort of Avoriaz, he achieved it: two front flips before ejecting himself and his bike on separate parachutes, safely landing 1,800m below. Reffet sadly never got to see it – he passed away in a training accident in 2020 – but you can, in this thrilling documentary dedicated to Pagès’ friend. redbull.com

December to 27 February THE DROP Much of the past two years may have felt like an ongoing escape room, but keeping us sane throughout were those masters of immersive theatre, Swamp Motel, and their Zoom-driven group experiences. Now they, like us, have been set free, so what better than to be locked in an abandoned east London building, in teams of four, for a 90-minute interactive thriller. It’s far better than going back to the office. Aldgate, London; thedropexperience.co.uk 92

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VENTURE Calendar

December BECOMING BRONSON

ANTOINE TRUCHET/RED BULL CONTENT POOL, GEMMA PARKER, MARK SENIOR, HAMISH HUMPHRYS, DAVID LEVINE, SARAH JEYNES

Bronson Meydi may be the greatest surfer you’ve never heard of, until now. And this documentary is the best way to catch up. Becoming Bronson charts the rise of the 17-year-old prodigy who grew up in the small Indonesian fishing village of Lakey Peak on the remote island of Sumbawa, and who showed such natural talent on a board at the age of 11 that Balinese surf legend Rizal Tanjung took him under his wing. Now, Meydi has his sights set on becoming the first Indonesian to qualify for the World Surf League Championship Tour. Consider this film part one. redbull.com

12 January to 6 February LONDON INTERNATIONAL MIME FESTIVAL If your mental image of mime is a clown slipping up on a floor of invisible marbles, at least you have the basics, but as this month-long celebration of performance art will show (but not tell), there’s so much more to it. Fourteen productions across seven venues include String Theatre’s marionette puppetry on a 50-seater barge, Gandini Juggling’s homage to modern-dance pioneer Merce Cunningham, acrobatics from Barely Methodical Troupe, and stage drama with Vanishing Point’s silent interpretation of Nobel Prize laureate Maurice Maeterlinck’s 1895 play Interior. And for aspiring mime artists, there are workshops – with verbal instruction. Across London; mimelondon.com THE RED BULLETIN

January LONDON CONTEMPORARY ORCHESTRA: 24 An evening of transcendental music. And a night. And most of the next day. This ensemble of musicians, whose work has appeared in films like The Master and The Two Popes, takes us on a 24-hour meditative journey, accompanied by relaxing kaleidoscopic projections. And yes, you can come and go as you please. Barbican, London; barbican.org 93

THE BEST THINGS IN LIFE ARE FREE

hen the powder is fresh and the sun is shining, nothing compares to a holiday spent hitting the slopes. From travel and transfers to kit and lift passes, a winter sports holiday isn’t cheap, though – and that’s before you factor in the après-ski sessions that go hand-in-hand with a day on the mountain. Fortunately, Helly Hansen is on hand this season. The premium Norwegian ski-wear specialist is offering up a free day’s skiing at more than 50 of the world’s best resorts with every purchase of a ski jacket or pants from its latest ski collection. From insulated jackets and pants made specifically for winter sports, to kit that looks as good in the streets as on the slopes, there’s something for everyone in the Helly Hansen Ski Free-featured range, whether you’re just finding your feet on the blue runs or looking to explore off-piste. Partner resorts include some of the world’s most famous destinations and a handful of lesser-known skiing spots, all worth a visit in their own right. Here are just some of the highlights…

Chamonix, France

Verbier, Switzerland

Ski Free offer: One-day ‘Chamonix Le Pass’ lift pass

Ski Free offer: Buy-one-get-onefree on lift passes

Situated at the foot of Europe’s highest peak, Mont Blanc, this resort is a favourite among skiers. Located at the border of France, Italy and Switzerland, the Mont Blanc Natural Resort has four unique ski areas and more than 120km of ski slopes for all levels to explore. While you’d need a lifetime to cover all of them, you’ll never have to do the same run twice during your Ski Free day.

Feeling some freeride? Verbier is for skiers and snowboarders who like their descent with an extra slice of adrenalin, and the Ski Free areas of Verbier, La Tzoumaz and Bruson have everything from heli-skiing to black-run itineraries. What’s more, the Ski Free offer gives you two days for the price of one, leaving you more money to spend on the legendary terrace bars’ après-ski and aperitifs.

CAM MCLEOD

Bag yourself a day on the slopes with Helly Hansen

PROMOTION

Glenshee, Scotland

Grandvalira, Spain

Kranjska Gora, Slovenia

Hafjell, Norway

Ski Free offer: One-day lift pass

Ski Free offer: One-day lift ticket

Going skiing needn’t involve a trip overseas. The Scottish scene is improving all the time, and at Glenshee you have four mountains, three valleys and 36 runs to choose from. The UK’s largest resort features Glas Maol – a 2km run – and is also home to a buzzing café and facilities such as kit hire and a ski school. And even if there’s no cold spell this winter, the snow-making facilities provide perfect skiing.

The Andorran resort of Grandvalira is one of the largest in the whole of Europe. With 210km of ski runs across 128 slopes, you’re guaranteed to have fun, whatever your abilities. Plus, all that space means it can be somewhat quieter than the Alpine alternatives.

The Kranjska Gora resort is Slovenia’s premier skiing location. Situated on the Julian Alps, it’s an ideal spot for first-timers and is great value both on and off the mountain. Snow-making facilities guarantee the white stuff throughout the season, and there are also night-skiing events for those who want to hit the slopes under starry skies.

The Norwegians know a thing or two about skiing – Helly Hansen originates from the country, after all. Hafjell attracts 400,000 visitors each season, and for good reason. Built for the 1994 Winter Olympic Games in Lillehammer, the spot is now home to 31 slopes, three fun parks and 300km of cross-country trails, giving you plenty of options with your Ski Free ticket.

Find out where you can ski for free this winter, together with full terms and conditions, at hellyhansen.com/skifree

GLOBAL TEAM

THE RED BULLETIN WORLDWIDE

The Red Bulletin is published in six countries. This is the cover of our Austrian edition for January, with a mind-bending skateboard shot by Czech photographer Jan Kasl. It’s just one of the many stunning images featured in a special Red Bull Illume gallery inside the issue. For more stories beyond the ordinary, go to: redbulletin.com

The Red Bulletin UK. ABC certified distribution 145,193 (Jan-Dec 2020)

Head of The Red Bulletin Alexander Müller-Macheck, Sara Car-Varming (deputy) Editors-in-Chief Andreas Rottenschlager, Andreas Wollinger (deputy) Creative Directors Erik Turek, Kasimir Reimann (deputy) Art Directors Marion Bernert-Thomann, Miles English, Tara Thompson Designers Martina de Carvalho-Hutter, Kevin Faustmann-Goll, Cornelia Gleichweit Photo Editors Eva Kerschbaum (manager), Marion Batty (deputy), Susie Forman, Tahira Mirza, Rudi Übelhör Digital Editors Christian Eberle-Abasolo (manager), Marie-Maxime Dricot, Melissa Gordon, Lisa Hechenberger, Elena Rodriguez Angelina Head of Audio Florian Obkircher Special Projects Arkadiusz Piatek Managing Editors Ulrich Corazza, Marion Lukas-Wildmann Publishing Management Ivona Glibusic, Bernhard Schmied, Melissa Stutz, Anna Wilczek Managing Director Stefan Ebner Head of Media Sales & Partnerships Lukas Scharmbacher Head of Co-Publishing Susanne Degn-Pfleger Project Management Co-Publishing, B2B Marketing & Communication Katrin Sigl (manager), Mathias Blaha, Katrin Dollenz, Thomas Hammerschmied, Teresa Kronreif (B2B), Eva Pech, Valentina Pierer, Stefan Portenkirchner (communication), Jennifer Silberschneider Creative Services Verena Schörkhuber-Zöhrer (manager), Sara Wonka, Julia Bianca Zmek, Edith Zöchling-Marchart Commercial Management Co-Publishing Alexandra Ita Editorial Co-Publishing Raffael Fritz (manager), Gundi Bittermann, Mariella Reithoffer, Wolfgang Wieser Executive Creative Director Markus Kietreiber Senior Manager Creative Elisabeth Kopanz Art Direction Commercial & Co-Publishing Peter Knehtl (manager), Erwin Edtmayer, Simone Fischer, Martina Maier, Andreea Parvu, Carina Schaittenberger, Alexandra Schendl, Julia Schinzel, Florian Solly, Dominik Uhl, Sophie Weidinger, Stephan Zenz Subscriptions and Distribution Peter Schiffer (manager), Marija Althajm, Nicole Glaser, Victoria Schwärzler, Yoldaş Yarar Advertising Manuela Brandstätter, Monika Spitaler Production Veronika Felder (manager), Friedrich Indich, Walter O. Sádaba, Sabine Wessig Repro Clemens Ragotzky (manager), Claudia Heis, Nenad Isailović, Sandra Maiko Krutz, Josef Mühlbacher Finance Mariia Gerutska (manager), Simone Kratochwil, Klaus Pleninger MIT Christoph Kocsisek, Michael Thaler IT Service Desk Maximilian Auerbach Operations Alice Gafitanu, Melanie Grasserbauer, Alexander Peham, Thomas Platzer Assistant to General Management Sandra Artacker Project Management Dominik Debriacher, Gabriela-Teresa Humer Editor and CEO Andreas Kornhofer Editorial office Am Grünen Prater 3, A-1020 Vienna Phone +43 1 90221-0 Web redbulletin.com Published by Red Bull Media House GmbH, Oberst-Lepperdinger-Straße 11–15, A-5071 Wals bei Salzburg, FN 297115i, Landesgericht Salzburg, ATU63611700 Executive Directors Dkfm. Dietrich Mateschitz, Dietmar Otti, Christopher Reindl, Marcus Weber

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THE RED BULLETIN Germany, ISSN 2079-4258 Editor Maximilian Reich Proofreaders Hans Fleißner (manager), Petra Hannert, Monika Hasleder, Billy Kirnbauer-Walek Country Project Management Nina Hahn Media Sales & Partnerships Thomas Hutterer (manager), Alfred Vrej Minassian, Franz Fellner, Ines Gruber, Daniela Güpner, Wolfgang Kröll, Gabriele Matijevic-Beisteiner, Nicole Okasek-Lang, Britta Pucher, Jennifer Sabejew, Johannes Wahrmann-Schär, Ellen WittmannSochor, Ute Wolker, Christian Wörndle, Sabine Zölß

THE RED BULLETIN Switzerland, ISSN 2308-5886 Editor Stefania Telesca Proofreaders Hans Fleißner (manager), Petra Hannert, Monika Hasleder, Billy Kirnbauer-Walek Country Project Management Meike Koch Media Sales & Brand Partnerships Christian Bürgi (team lead), christian.buergi@redbull.com Marcel Bannwart, marcel.bannwart@redbull.com Jessica Pünchera, jessica.puenchera@redbull.com Goldbach Publishing Marco Nicoli, marco.nicoli@goldbach.com

THE RED BULLETIN USA, ISSN 2308-586X Editor-in-Chief Peter Flax Deputy Editor Nora O’Donnell Copy Chief Catherine Auer Publishing Management Branden Peters Advertising Sales Todd Peters, todd.peters@redbull.com Dave Szych, dave.szych@redbull.com Tanya Foster, tanya.foster@redbull.com

THE RED BULLETIN France, ISSN 2225-4722 Editor Pierre-Henri Camy Country Coordinator Christine Vitel Country Project M anagement Alexis Bulteau Contributors, Translators and Proofreaders Étienne Bonamy, Frédéric & Susanne Fortas, Suzanne Kříženecký, Claire Schieffer, Jean-Pascal Vachon, Gwendolyn de Vries

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PROMOTION

GO TRULY HANDS-FREE With Skullcandy’s Push Active buds featuring Skull-iQ, you’ll never break rhythm again

SKULLCANDY

ireless earbuds let you soundtrack adventures or workouts like never before. Whether taming the trails on a mountain bike, shredding fresh snow on the slopes or hitting the treadmill in the gym, it’s possible to pump music directly into the action, transporting you into your very own action-sports edit or Rockyworthy montage. But the moment can quickly be broken with one rogue shuffle or incoming call, meaning you have to stop what you’re doing to fiddle with your earbuds – or worse, get out your phone.

Now that’s all changed thanks to Skullcandy’s new Push Active buds. These adventure-ready receivers feature Skull-iQ handsfree voice-control technology, which allows you to seamlessly change your audio, adjust the volume, answer or reject calls and activate your phone assistant with just your voice. This innovation is also the first to provide voiceactivated Spotify Tap, giving uninterrupted access to all the platform’s music and podcasts. In a real-world setting, this means no more removing your gloves,

letting go of the handlebar, or pausing your set between reps. The earbuds’ features don’t stop there, either. The durable, comfortable fit is designed for high-intensity activities, and ear hangers provide added peace of mind. Thanks to an IP55 sweatand water-resistance rating, the buds can handle whatever you throw at them, while 44 hours of battery life (10 hours for the buds, 34 hours for their case) means they’ll go for as long as you can. They also get smarter over time with over-the-air updates, and built-in Tile finding technology is included, too – just in case. This is all well and good, but it counts for nothing if the audio quality isn’t up to scratch. Fortunately, Skullcandy knows how to create custom-tuned buds that deliver music as it should be heard – from bone-shaking bass to beautifully bright high notes. Available in three colours and priced £69.99, going truly handsfree has never been easier.

skullcandy.co.uk/push-activewireless-earbuds

Semi-Rad Adventure philosophy from BRENDAN LEONARD

“When I was a kid, my mum used to take my brother and I skating on this godforsaken frozen pond on her days off, most of which were, in my memory, so cold that the ice was extra hard, and every time you fell it hurt even more because of the frigid air temperature. My memories are mostly of numb and aching toes and fingers, snot dripping out of my nose, bitter winds chafing exposed skin, trying to balance on tired ankles tied into black figure skates wobbling on lumpy ice, and my mum half-asking, half-insisting, ‘Isn’t this fun?’ In retrospect, after decades, I cannot conclusively confirm or deny that it was or was not fun. What I can confirm is neither of my mum’s kids, now adults, own a pair of ice skates.” semi-rad.com

The next issue of THE RED BULLETIN is out on February 8 98

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A R T I FICIAL D I S -

W22

photo by Theo Acworth

O R D E R

SL ASHSNOW.COM

Aye aye, what’s this? Another ‘gravel specific’ product range when my road gear will do just fine thanks? Not so fast doubters, we didn’t do this by chance. Two words - pockets and fabrics. Pleasingly, there’s pockets galore, so you’ve got oodles of places to stash your gravel essentials, like layers, food, tools… and a can of beer. And we’ve applied 25 years’ worth of knowledge and craftmanship into engineering performance fabrics to ensure maximum breathability, critical reinforcement for all those scuff-hungry obstacles you simply don’t find on the asphalt, supreme warmth for the cold, and killer waterproofing for the rain. So yeah, it’s gravel specific. And we stand by that, come rain, shine, rock or tree. GV500. Get your gravel on. endurasport.com

The Red Bulletin UK 01/22

Articles inside

Skin

Eileen Gu

Jake Burton

Katie Ormerod

Ben Mezrich

What Lydia Made