The Red Bulletin

Teddy Keen / Oscar Pistorius / Shaun White / Metronomy / Tom Wegener / Haile Gebrselassie

GBP 3.00

an almost independent monthly magazine

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NUMBER

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MUSIC Clubs travel food gear

Vettel

March 2011

In association with

ELBOw

Five albums that made their mojo Gary Hunt

Secret high life of a cliff dive champ Super Dry Guy

jamie Nicholls

UK’s dry-slope snowboard star eye, robot

We meet the cyborg who hears colour

Lauda

-title legend F1’s youngest champ and a tripdlebe ing numero uno on danger, friendship an

FATE DOESN’T ASK. IT COuLD ALSO bE mE. Or yOu. David Coulthard,

13-fold Formula 1 GP Champion and Wings for Life ambassador.

SPINAL COrD INJury muST bECOmE CurAbLE. In funding the best research projects worldwide focusing on the cure of spinal cord injury, the Wings for Life Spinal Cord research Foundation guarantees top-level medical and scientific progress.

your contribution makes a difference. Donate on www.wingsforlife.com

Free advertisement.

Bullhorn

making a splash

Cover Photography: David Clerihew. Photography: Jürgen Skarwan

Blink and you’ll miss it: such is the nature of cliff diving that all it takes is a moment’s inattention and the spectacle of a superbly skilled athlete leaping from a height of more than 27m into the waters below, is missed.

Make no mistake, cliff divers are unbelievably talented individuals.

All they have to work with as they carve amazing shapes through the air are their own bodies, gravity and wind resistance. And yet pikes, triple twists, rolls and myriad other multi-faceted tricks can all be created in the few seconds between spring and splash.

Only the most expert eye can truly appreciate the technical nuances of a cliff diver’s performance, but in this issue, we’ve been able to break the dive sequences down, capture them as individual elements and reproduce them in a series of stunning black-and-white images (page 28).

They allow, for the first time, a considered appreciation of what a champion like Gary Hunt really experiences when he speaks of the challenges of his sport: “Last year I tried a running take-off, which no cliff diver had tried before. My run-up was too slow, so I didn’t jump high enough or spin fast enough and, if you’re playing around with the very difficult moves, you need every second, every inch of space to fit it in, so that little slip-up at the start changed everything. I hit the water flat and got whiplash. It was like being in a car crash.”

Seeing things as they are, whether in colour or black and white, is something most of us take for granted of course. Yet for an individual like Neil Harbisson, sight has never been quite so simple (page 60). He was born colour-blind and for the first two decades of his life became resigned to monochrome. A remarkable technical breakthrough has, however, allowed him to hear colour, thanks to electronic devices permanently attached to his head.

One can only wonder what his view of the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series (page 84) on, say, Easter Island, would sound like…

Herbert Völker (left) conducts a doublewhammy of an interview. He gets to chat to our young cover star, Formula One hero and current F1 World Champion Sebastian Vettel together with triple title winner Niki Lauda (page 38)

Your editorial team

In ‘Freeze Company’ (Feb issue) we were mistaken in our description of the workings of the latest Zamboni ice machine. We should have described the mechanism thus: “fast-rotating brushes, rather than lip seals, remove the snow, which is then lifted into the tank via a shaft rather than a conveyor belt”.

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contents

welcome to the world of Red Bull

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Inside your all-action Red Bulletin this month

Bullevard

14 Here is the news Recent history and crystal balls 17 ME AND MY BODY Oscar Pistorius, born with a lower leg deformity, is now a world-class sprinter 18 TEDDY KEEN No ordinary charity run for Ted, who’s about to tackle Finland’s 200km ice epic 20 KIT BAG How Atari, then Sony, put the heart and soul into the games console 22 Metronomy Maybe rock ’n’ roll is dead for a band who like nothing more than “a nice salad” 24 WINNING FORMULA Why this year Formula One is going to be all about the bit that’s missing 26 lucky numbers Those ‘must-have’ items made to make your credit card squeal

Action

28 cliff dive freeze frame The beauty of cliff diving captured as never before: in stunning still-life B&W

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38 when niki met seb Not often that F1 world champs get a chance to chew the fat. But when we put Niki Lauda together with Sebastian Vettel, we couldn’t shut them up 46 running for their lives In Ethiopia, running is more than a pastime: it’s a chance to escape 54 jamie nicholls A rare thing: a top-class Brit snowboarder who learned his stuff on the dry slopes

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60 the man who hears colour Neil Harbisson was born colour-blind.

Now he sees like no one else on Earth 66 chairman of the board A Californian who fell in love with Oz and the ancient craft of board-shaping 76 house of art In the centre of teeming São Paulo exists a rather special artists’ refuge 04

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contents

More Body & Mind

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Photography: Dean Treml/Red Bull Content Pool, Rainer Herrmann/Red Bull Hangar-7, Dan Wilton, Trent Mitchell, Jürgen Skarwan, Sebastian Schöffel/Red Bull Content Pool, Erwin Polanc/Red Bull Content Pool, Adam Moran/Red Bull Photofiles, Ignacio Aronovich

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84 cliff dive travel Wanna go see one of the world’s most scenic sports? We tell you how 86 get the gear There’s more to pro windsurfing than sail and wetsuit, as Philip Köster explains 88 Pro Tips The brutal off-season training schedule of a downhill mountain biker, revealed 89 Hang-ART A new generation of Polish artists show their skills at Salzburg’s Hangar-7 90 World’s best clubs Mardi Gras central is happening in New Orleans 91 take 5: ELBOW Manchester’s alt-rock gods on the five albums that first twisted their melon 92 kitchen drama Presenting not only an acclaimed chef, but also a curio of a dish, from Sweden 94 the list Because we know you can’t do everything, this is our guide to the global essentials in sport and music 96 save the date Out and about this month? Ink these into your diary right now

Every Issue 06 Kainrath’s calendar 08 pictures of the month 98 mind’s eye

the red Bulletin Print 2.0 Movies, sounds and animation wherever you see this sign in your Red Bulletin 1

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en.redbulletin.com/ print2.0 In your browser window you’ll see the magazine cover. Just click at ‘Start Bull’s Eye’

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Switch on your webcam If a webcam activation window opens, just click ‘activate’

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Hold your Red Bulletin up to the webcam You’ll see all the multimedia content in this month’s mag – movies, sound and animation

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illustration: dietmar kainrath

K a i n r at h

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sprints into action. and keeps on going. fits i n s

port you s sh r orts

When you’re working out, it’s good to have extra gas in your tank. Which is where a Red Bull Energy Shot comes in. Its compact size and 60ml volume means you can easily tuck it into a shorts pocket or training jacket.

And with no carbonation and no need to chill you

can carry, and use it, just about anywhere. Red Bull Energy Shots aren’t designed for re-hydration, but they deliver energy in just a few sips, helping you all the way to your warm down. It’s concentrated energy from Red Bull.

the only shot that gives you wings.

PHOTO OF THE MONTH

I n t h e fo r e st, D EN m a r k

TREES-Y DOES IT It’s known as ‘MacAskill Syndrome’ – the inexplicable urge to leap on your two-wheeled steed and attempt to ride up, over and through objects never previously considered suitable for such treatment. Lars Sohl [don’t say it too fast, now, boys and girls] is seriously afflicted, as we can see from this remarkable picture.

Inspired by Scottish bike-trick supremo Danny MacAskill – whose exploits in riding, flipping, spinning and generally showing off on his bike around Edinburgh made him a YouTube sensation – Sohl can no longer look at a tree (or a bench, or a railing, or a bus shelter) without thinking, “I wonder?” Soon after that he is overcome by a desperate impulse to turn a crank. Sohl, a Dane, is shown here at the zenith of the so-called ‘big tree squirrel reverse’ and we’re happy to report he landed safely, without so much as a “hnnff” in response to an excessively harsh pelvissaddle interface. Good job. We wouldn’t want Mr MacAskill to be held responsible for lowering the Danish birth rate, now, would we?

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photography: Henrik Sorensen/Getty images

PHOTO OF THE MONTH

TUOLUMNE MEADOWS, california, USA

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photography: Corey Rich/getty images

SUSPENDED ANIMATION Some people will do anything to capture an audience – even if that means hanging off a rock face, half-dressed, all the while suspended in immaculately choreographed animation with three other members of your dance troupe. The troubadours in question are the Project Bandaloop company, seen here at Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite National Park, California. PB’s leader, Amelia Rudolph [is it any wonder she likes red?], says she was inspired to perform like this by the idea of making mountain climbing more three-dimensional. Accordingly, she and her band have practised their art for 10 years and so far with no injuries other than to members of their stunned audiences, who frequently return home able only to stare at sky and ceiling.

Prettiest abseiling ever here: www.projectbandaloop.org

OF THE MONTH

AS P EN, CO LORA D O, U SA

GOOD AIR DAY Freestyle ace Bobby Brown gets all crossed up mid-air during Winter X Games 15. But lest you might think Brown’s in a tangle before a seriously gnarly impact – he’s actually mid-trick and in total control. All the more remarkable given that he’d headed to the X Games this year to defend his Slopestyle title, but is seen here on his way to second place in the Big Air comp – despite injury. There’s something about Bobby and the X Games. Two years ago he went along only as a reserve, but made it to the starting line-up and placed sixth in Slopestyle on his event debut. In 2010, he took two golds, becoming the first freestyle skier to take an X Games double gold. Just goes to show, you can’t keep a good man Brown.

Bobby Brown takes off: en.redbulletin.com/brown

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photography: Christian Pondella/Red Bull Content Pool

PHOTO

FOTO des Monats

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Sim horium ne consum te terfenerevit Cupimus, cortu cus facieni uspernit, vervit quita tem eo, moratie mquervidem untus, senihil constabis

Bullevard Sporting endeavour and cultural ingenuity from around the world

The bitterest pill Dreaming of Mr Sandman, two beach volleyball champs got a rude awakening

Heads up A Formula One driver’s helmet is as finely tuned as his car.

Thousands of design hours go into creating a lid that’s lightweight yet protective, and those little one-way letters on the visor don’t make themselves. Sebastian Vettel’s 2011 helmet is a tweaked Arai GP-6 INT, with design input from the man himself. It’s made from carbon-fibre and weighs just 1.45kg. It’s rare for these things to appear away from race tracks or trophy rooms, but a batch of 10 have been signed by Vettel and made available for purchase, with proceeds going to the Wings For Life Spinal Cord Research Foundation.

For your ¤10,000, you will get immense satisfaction for supporting a worthy cause, an acrylic display case and the ne plus ultra of F1 fandom. www.wingsforlife.com www.redbullshop.com

Welcome to New Zealand: Jonas Reckermann (left) and Julius Brink

When Julius Brink and Jonas Reckermann were planning their 27-hour flight to New Zealand, they quite sensibly packed some sleeping pills.

Who wouldn’t want to arrive suitably refreshed for a crucial training camp? As it turned out, the German duo didn’t need to take their medication. Good books and decent in-flight movies meant that the pills stayed in the overhead locker. However, New Zealand Customs had needs of its own, and with the pair infringing the conditions of import for personal medicines, their first NZ practice session took place in the airport prison yard.

Several hours and one stern warning later, the two men were freed.

Beach volleyball’s 2011 world tour begins next month in Brazil, where Brink and Reckermann will land fully conversant of local laws. www.fivb.org

Bilder des PICTURES OFMonats THE MONTH

Moment mal!

every shot on target

Email your pictures with a Red Bull flavour to letters@redbulletin.com.

Every one we print Szenen aus dem abenteuerlichen Alltag wins a pair of adidas unserer Leser.

EinfachSennheiser hochladenPMX auf: 680 Sports headphones.

With a Kevlar-reinforced, two-part www.redbulletin.com cable (it can be short when running with a music player on your arm, or extended with a built-in Unter den Einsendern der veröffentlichten Fotos wird volume control), reflective yellow headband stripe eine Trinkflasche des Schweizer Herstellers SIGG and fully sweat- and water-resistant parts, they’re im speziellen Red Bulletin-Design verlost. perfect for sports. Visit: www.sennheiser.co.uk Gewinner aus Heft 1/2011: Alfredo Escobar

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Vienna An Antony Gormley sculpture from his little-known ‘I ran out of iron and used people’ period.

Lotte Schröcker

b u l l e va r d

Hero Blogs Tweet relief from the daily grind

Working hard: M-Phazes

photography: jmd.de, Ray Demski/Red Bull Photofiles, Malcolm Skene, Getty Images, Daniel Grund/Global Newsroom/Red Bull Photofiles, AFRAMEPHOTO.COM/Red Bull Photofiles, Hugo Silva/Red Bull Photofiles, Shazamm/ESPN, Christian Pondella/Red Bull Photofiles (2)

It Was a G’Day: Aussie Hip-hop in Cape Town Here is just one example of the global reach of hiphop: M-Phazes hails from Melbourne, Australia, has produced tracks for US stars such as Talib Kweli and Pharoahe Monch, and recently gave a masterclass to a young audience of hip-hopefuls at the Red Bull Studio in Cape Town.

Gaining respect on three continents has come from hard graft (his critically acclaimed debut album of last year, Good Gracious, also helped) and a willingness to learn. “Seeing how people work is an amazing experience,” the artist also known as Mark London told the Cape Town crowd. “You learn a lot, whether it’s technique or just attitude.

You have to make sacrifices to get to where you want to be. Sometimes you have to hold off on the partying.”

More on Mark Landon at www.mphazes.com

Singapore

One of more than 200 bikers who took part in the Red Bull Dark Knights downhill.

Geh Chee Minh

Julian Wilson (surfing) “Going to hit some golf balls. My swing is a bit rusty at the moment, there’s too many waves around”

All White and gold If you don’t look too hard when comparing Shaun White today with Shaun White of eight years ago, then nothing’s changed: same haircut, same position at the top of an X Games podium. Of course, the 24-year-old’s life has altered significantly since 2003. He is one of extreme sport’s most divisive characters, not least by dividing his time between skateboard and snowboard, a move that offends those who think one cannot be worldclass on slopes and in skate parks. A dozen X Games golds, across both disciplines, suggests otherwise. His superpipe win at the 2011 X Games was his fourth in a row in that event. www.shaunwhite.com

White 2011

White 2003

Breaking protocol Reggie Bush (US football) “Woke up this morning to find 2-3 inches of water in my bathroom and living room. Good morning to me!”

There used to be an X Games cert to bet your boots on: Daniel Bodin coming fourth in freestyle snowmobile.

This year, the Swede only went and won the gold...

Fourth place “I’d rather be last than finish there again.”

X Games “Demanding, stressful and the most important weekend of the season.”

Sally Fitzgibbons (surfing) “You learn something new every day... today’s findings are: that my mum makes a mean chicken soup :)”

New tricks “They define our sport and I’m constantly trying them.”

Gold “Finally! It was worth every drop of blood, sweat and tears (all three were shed).”

Fear “My biggest fear is losing my fear. We need it to compete.”

Oulu On a frozen Finnish lake, hockey players hoped that Red Bull Open Ice wouldn’t live up to its name literally.

Rami Lappalainen

Top man: Daniel Bodin Pain “In freestyle snowmobile, you learn to deal with it.

What it’s really like “Snow is more forgiving than dirt, but you have to be able to handle a 450lb machine to do what I do. And I love doing what I do.” www.danielbodin.com

Los Angeles Sporting multi-hyphenate Travis Pastrana’s new challenge in 2011: tier two of NASCAR. Garth Milan 15

b u l l e va r d

Before April 4 Applications for the Red Bull Music Academy 2011 in Tokyo, close on April 4. For two fortnights in October and November, established artists and producers collaborate with rookie talent. Recent graduates include Flying Lotus, Cherry Chan (above), Mr Hudson and Pilooksi, remixer of Beggin’. Past lecturers include Arthur Baker, ?uestlove, Bob Moog, Steve Reich, DJ Mehdi, Goldie, Derrick May, Biz Markie, Mark Ronson, Chuck D, Martyn Ware and Pedro ‘Busy P’ Winter.

Applicants must make a CD of their stuff, fill out an application form and be over 20 on October 23. www.redbullmusicacademy.com

Return Of The Mac

Sónar, So Good The Sónar Music Festival in Barcelona, one of the world’s best musical gatherings, has a Red Bull Music Academy stage.

GoldieLocks (left) was there in 2010; here’s just a small sampling of 2011’s line-up: Brandt Brauer Frick German jazzy acoustic-techno trio. Miles better than that sounds.

Discodeine Electro-dance from France, for whom Jarvis Cocker has guest-vocalised.

Tiger & Woods Funky house, also from France, driven 320 yards over the bunker.

Teebs Melodic, free-flowing beats from California.

Poirier Montreal DJ, champion of Canadian MCs, much sought-after remixer.

A Taste Of Sonar, curated by Red Bull Music Academy, is at the Roundhouse in London on March 19. For ticket information, see www.roundhouse.org.uk

Guatemala City

We’ve all followed satnav to dead ends; Diego Ordonez does this for fun.

Juan Jose Marroquin

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Every year's a leap year for trials bike trickster Danny MacAskill

The world’s greatest trick trials biker has a new video. We’ve seen it, and suggest you do the same Scottish bike mechanic Danny MacAskill got more than 23 million YouTube hits with his trials bike trickery. Last year, he made Way Back Home, a film of a tricks-andmates trip across Scotland. A new feature-length documentary MacAskill Conquers, gives more insight into MacAskill’s methods.

Here are our timecoded highlights: 00:02:22 Danny cycles along inchwide railings like he’s on pavement.

00:04:24 His signature tree backflip, never to be tired of.

00:10:26 Christ on a bike? He’s only tricking on water right now!

00:12:00 Look away Mr Health

Mount Beauty

Corey Bohan hangs around at Red Bull Dirt Pipe, in Australia’s splendid Victoria countryside.

Mark Watson

and Safety man: using blow torches to dry out a muddy run-up.

00:14:46 An absolutely huge 360 off Edinburgh Castle. Really big.

00:29:31 Danny: “When it comes to jumping off high walls, there’s a mental battle that goes on.”

00:44:26 Falling off a phone box shows the time and effort DMacA has to put into doing his thing.

00:49:00 Danny’s dad, Peter: “All he ever wanted for Christmas was parts for his bicycle.”

00:57:03 Epic fail showreel: the pain behind the perfection.

For release details and more info, see www.redbull.co.uk

Atlanta Hair-raising moves were in order at the Red Bull Non Stop Stomp stepping dance contest.

Carlo Cruz

Words: Ruth Morgan, Paul Wilson. Photography: Dan Wilton/Red Bull Music Academy, Pere Masramon/Red Bull Music Academy, Andy McCandlish/Red Bull content pool

Cherry Chan at RBMA 2010

b u l l e va r d

Me And My Body

Oscar pistorius

He was born with a lower leg deformity, but he man they call ‘Blade Runner’ has his sights set on the Olympics. Obstructing that view: red wine, red meat and messing about on the river

FOCU S POCUS

I used to work with a sports psychologist, but as an athlete you need a focus that nobody can give or teach you: you either have it or you don’t. That focus, that drive, that hunger is what distinguishes athletes, especially in sprinting. You know that it’s going to hurt in the last 40 or 50m of a race, so you have to be completely focused to push through the pain.

words: Robert tighe. photogrpahy: getty images for BT

SHAKEN NOT STIRRED

If you pay attention to your diet, you can get what you need from the right foods. I don’t see the necessity for protein powders and supplements. Before training I make a shake that contains a bit of everything: coconut oil for fat, honey for glycogen and a superfruit-and-berr y complex for antioxidants. For 11 months of the year I don’t drink alcohol and watch what I eat, but when I have time off I’ll go away with family and friends and indulge.

I like a glass of red wine, but the big things for me are crayfish and red meat. I’m a meat lover of note; red meat is one of the best things ever invented.

BOXIN G CLEVER

so I grew up doing My grandfather was a boxer, iovascular card t bes a lot of boxing. It’s the former world a is er train My is. e ther t workou drills but of lot a do champion boxer, so we plyometrics of lot a do also I g. rrin spa very little ause in bec ], cise exer [fast, rapid muscular h workload muc as put to e hav you g sprintin short period and on your body as you can in a I’m physically sick es etim Som y. awa t really blas but I prefer that to ing, train for half an hour after e given more. hav ld cou I ing feel y awa walking

TO

P HEAV Y Before I started running, I did a lot of rugby, water polo and wrestling, and I was big up top, with a lot of weight where I didn’t nee d it. Over the years my body shape has change d quite a bit. You don’t need big muscles in your arms and shoulders for running, but they do need to be ver y tight and ver y strong.

In the first 30m of a race, you are driving with your arms; afte r that you use them to maintain mo mentum.

There’s a saying in sprinti ng: “Your legs are led by your arm s.”

ATH LETE’S FEET

cost about My carbon-fibre Cheetah prosthetics set for same the US$22,500 for a pair. I’ve used with nd arou ng playi I’m but , years four the last of running new ones. It’s like trying a new brand good fit or shoe, I guess: you’ll either get a very socket can the in ge not, but a millimetre chan rence at diffe res’ imet cent three or two mean a lot. out them test the bottom, so I have to

WIPEO

UT I’ve only fallen three or four times, but it isn’t pretty.

It usually happens near the end of tra ining, when your focus can fade. I’v e hit the deck hard twice and got bad burns from the track. The doctor had to clean the stones and grit ou t of the cut with steel wool. It’s quite gross.

SPEED BUMP I’ve been very lucky with injuries on the track, but I had a bad speedboat accident two years ago.

We were playing around on a river and the sun was setting, and I didn’t see this concrete pier that was under the water: I ploughed straight into it. I broke seven bones in my face, my left arm and two ribs, and needed 178 stitches.

More about the ‘fastest man on no legs’ at www.oscarpistorius.com

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The Goal in the Cold

Teddy keen

No Englishman has ever completed the gruelling 200km of the Finland Ice Marathon. Four months after first pulling on skates, this remarkable chap wants to change all that

Name Teddy Keen Hometown London, England Skate Expectations The Finland Ice Marathon weekend has many races, starting at 25km: Keen will race in the 200km event Web www.teddyonice.com

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On a chilly afternoon in January, it’s another 5°C colder inside Lee Valley Ice Centre in East London.

Out on the rink, celebrities of varying fame are practising for the Dancing On Ice TV show. Elegantly circling the soap stars and breakfast show sidekicks, while bent forward at the waist, hands on the small of his back like a retired general judging vegetables at the village show, is Teddy Keen. He is in training for the most arduous race you’ve never heard of.

The Finland Ice Marathon takes place each year on the frozen Lake Kallavesi, near the city of Kuopio.

Around 25 competitors take to the starting line in the 200km event, wearing Lycra all-in-ones and ice skates with 19in blades. It’s rare for all the starters to finish, since trying to skate this far for 10 hours in temperatures around -25°C is in the top

words: paul wilson. photography: spencer murphy (2)

Blades of glory: Teddy Keen wearing his racing skates with 19in blades

rank of men-from-boys separators. Keen, a 29-yearold who works in advertising in London, is not the sort of man who relishes this sort of thing.

At least, he didn’t used to be.

“About five years ago,” he recalls, “my wife read an article in the paper where the journalist went along to just talk about [the race], not to enter.

She said, ‘You might like to read this.’ I always thought it would be good to enter a race like this, but I never thought I actually would.

“It only became set in my mind when I decided to do something for Great Ormond Street Hospital and my younger brother Angus. He’s got Apert syndrome [a congenital craniofacial disorder].

It’s quite rare, and throughout his treatment he was so brave – it was inspirational. It really shook me up and, last year, I thought I had to do something a bit different. To hold my head up high walking into Great Ormond Street Hospital, I couldn’t just have done a marathon. The kids in there face all kinds of impossible challenges on a day-to-day basis.

The idea of the ice marathon, the unnaturalness of a relatively unfit Englishman in a nine-to-five job doing this event – that was a challenge.”

There was also an element of overcoming what Keen calls “JustGiving fatigue”, that déjà vu you get when another ‘sponsor-me’ email from another friend doing another run for charity. He’s not being cynical – and, of course, Keen has set up pages on the JustGiving website so that people can easily pledge money – he’s being realistic about what kind of fund-raising captures attention. Running 26 miles and 385 yards is commonplace; 10 hours in a crouch position doing laps of a frozen Finnish lake in temperatures cold enough to freeze your contact lenses is most certainly not.

Keen only began training for the race in mid-October, when he had sufficiently recovered from an ankle injury to be able to start jogging.

“I then bought some rollerblades off eBay for 30 quid,” he says. “Rollerblading is the closest I can get to ice skating. I have done 100km without stopping – 20 laps of Victoria Park. When I did my first lap of the park at the end of November, I was struggling, and I could only do 100m in the crouch position. Now I can do 50km in the crouch position non-stop; after that, it’s agony. And if I go to an ice rink, it’s too small for me to get up to speed – there are a lot of people around and the 19in blades would cause quite an impaling.”

(No Dancing On Ice celebrities were harmed during the course of this interview.)

As well as his park treks, Keen went to the Netherlands to train on a 5km artificial ice track, where he teamed up with the race organisers. The Finns love a plucky Englishman competing in winter sports. Eddie The Eagle is fondly remembered and so the race organisers have nicknamed Keen ‘Teddy The Penguin’, because of the one-piece Lycra suit (in the colours of the flightless bird, designed by a patient at Great Ormond Street) that he will wear for the race. “They think I’m a bit mad,” says Keen.

With two-hour pre-work gym sessions on top of the roller-blading and ice skating, Keen is race-fit,

words: Ruth Morgan. Photography: dan medhurst (1), Predrag Vuckovic/Red Bull Content Pool (1)

b u l l e va r d

but this is only half the battle. Even with the ice and snow of the past few months, winter in London at is harshest was still 20°C warmer than race-day conditions. And in the end the big freeze actually hampered his training regime, because Keen couldn’t rollerblade on frozen ground.

“Cold is the biggest unknown,” he says, matterof-factly. “I can imagine coming out on the ice and just being so cold. I’m travelling to Finland five days before the race to get used to breathing the cold air.

To acclimatise, I’m having cold-water baths, lying with my head under for 10 minutes and slowing my breathing down. It’s not pleasant at all, and “It’s slightly afterwards I look at myself odd to have a in the mirror, shaking and goal that puts shivering, and think, ‘What a bit of fear am I doing?’ Then I remember inside you, the reasons why I’m doing it.

“At 150km, with icicles but everyone all over my face – for that should try it. It reason, I will definitely gets you up in be keeping my beard – I’ll the morning” be thinking of my brother and that will be a great motivator. The pride in me is saying I’ve got to do it, but if you look at Angus and the other kids at the hospital, it’s all about effort and giving 100 per cent. I don’t want to be at 170km thinking I could have trained harder, and I won’t be.”

Despite the challenge facing him, Keen has enjoyed the physical training sessions and, with them, the mental workouts that come with a goal of such scale: “A part of me knows that this is good for me,” he says. “But it’s slightly odd to have a goal that puts a bit of fear inside you. Everyone should have something like that, it gets you up in the morning.”

Keen is not scared of failing. His calm demeanour and methodical approach to training give him as much chance of success as do his ever-increasing thigh and backside muscles. If he does become the first Englishman to complete this most demanding of races, no one would deserve it more.

Teddy Keen is competing in the Finland Ice Marathon to raise money for Great Ormond Street Hospital and the charity Headlines. For more details of the race and the causes – and to read his hilarious blog – skate over to www.teddyonice.com

Kano pauses during work on his latest album at the Red Bull Studio London

It Was a Very Good Year Red Bull Studio London is celebrating its first birthday.

Here’s the edited version of a bulging visitor’s book April 2010 Recordings from Katy B and hiphop collective The Illersapiens.

May GoldieLocks and friends jam.

June NY-LON: Mark Ronson records his East Village Radio show.

July The 2 Bears record new EP Curious Nature August Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry and Major Lazer collaborate.

September Kano lays down acoustic tracks from his latest album; Theo Parrish and Tony Allen rehearse.

October Filming for The Producers starts, with first guest Toddla T. November Hello, Drop the Lime and Sinden.

December A time of Jamies: Reynolds (of the Klaxons) and Woon.

January 2011 Innerpartysystem perform; Buraka Som Sistema hang out.

February Mark Ronson again, this time working with MC Wretch 32.

March Happy Birthday! NME Radio leads celebrations. www.redbullstudios.com

City flippers This month, London hosts Red Bull Art Of Motion, one of the world’s leading freerunning events. One of the world’s leading freerunners, Ryan Doyle (left), knows the score: Adaptation “Freerunning is a discipline, not a sport. It’s the art of finding the most creative way to move through an environment.

The winner will be the guy who can best adapt his style to the course.”

Capital gains “The UK is the freerunning capital of the world. When I was in America, they were terrible. I was like, ‘For once, we’re ahead of them!’”

Feel the force “Every freerunner has a unique style: I’m a martial arts tricker.

Individuality is important, but we’re like Jedis, all part of a big movement.”

Tacit trickery “Everyone also has a signature move: only one other person can do mine. I have something in store for Art of Motion, though.”

Red Bull Art of Motion, London, March 20. For more: www.redbull.co.uk

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B u l l e va r d

Kit Evolution

Game On

From top toy to big business to the centre of home entertainment, video games have come far in a relatively short space of time

There had been home video games systems available for several years before the Atari 2600 was unveiled in the USA in 1977. But those old boxes, with their black-and-white bat-and-ball games, were rapidly forgotten when Atari popularised the separation of the hardware and the software: you bought the console first, and the games came 20

separately. It was a rapid and spectacular success; 1980 was the breakthrough year, what with the introduction of the Space Invaders cartridge and the much-loved wood veneer console (above), and a full European launch. Video games were established culturally and commercially, and games including Pole Position (above)

and Asteroids sold in the millions. Then, in 1983, an overcrowded US games market crashed and Nintendo brought out its first home system, Super Mario and all.

Atari was done for, but the brand, having changed hands several times, survives – as do fond memories of its golden age. www.atari.com

photography: Kurt Keinrath

Wooden It Be Nice atari 2600, 1980

Slim Pickings Sony PlayStation 3, 2009 The PS3 is at the vanguard of video gaming’s so-called seventh generation (along with the Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and the Nintendo Wii; the Atari 2600 headed up the second generation). Released in 2006, and thinned out in 2009 for the Slim version (above), it would not exist had Sony’s original PlayStation, which

was unveiled in 1994, not taken video gaming out of the bedrooms of teenage boys and into the world’s lounges and cultural consciousness. A new game can make more money on its first day of release than a Hollywood blockbuster, while some cost just as much to make. PS3, with games such as Gran Turismo 5 (above),

plus an online games network, Blu-ray player and PlayStation Move motionsensor controller, is as far removed from the Atari 2600 as a Stone Age hand axe is from a Swiss Army knife. But for all its tech, the PS3, and its kindred machines, does something fundamental: it lets us play. www.playstation.com

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b u l l e va r d

metronomy

Live favourites Metronomy are set to hit the big time with third album, The English Riviera. Piers Martin catches up with the London-based quartet as their UK tour begins

“ Because I write the songs, there are never any artistic difficulties in the band.

So we have a nice time – there’s no bad blood”

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As the first full moon of 2011 rises over Manchester, Joseph Mount of Metronomy is sitting in the tour van. It’s parked behind The Deaf Institute, venue for the first night of the band’s UK tour. He’s thinking about the prospect of two weeks on the road.

“There are some great service stations out there,” says Mount, who at 28 is a tour veteran. “And I’ll t ell you what’s rescued touring in England – Marks & Spencer’s Simply Food stores. A nice salad is what you want when you’re out on tour.”

Metronomy, you’d correctly surmise, do not share Mötley Crüe’s appetite for excess. They are a mild-mannered art-rock outfit whose appeal lies in Mount’s songwriting. The synth-pop of singles My Heart Rate Rapid and A Thing For Me, coupled with a stupidly entertaining live show has made them festival favourites with a fanatical following.

Mount has been the composer and producer since starting Metronomy more than 10 years ago while living in the Devon town of Dartington. When he released his first album in 2006, the lo-fi Pip Paine (Pay The £5,000 You Owe), playing live was not a big part of the plan. “Back then, I wouldn’t have thought I’d be spending most of my time touring in a band.

I wasn’t intending on singing live either,” he says.

Needs must, however, and for gigs, this line-up of lead vocalist Mount, who also plays guitar and keyboards, Anna Prior on drums, bassist Gbenga

Metronomy: The English Riviera is out on April 11 (Because Music); tour dates, videos, free downloads and blog from www.metronomy.co.uk

Joseph Mount on stage complete with signature lit-up disc

Photography: James Pearson-Howes

In profile

Adelekan, and Mount’s cousin Oscar Cash on keyboards and saxophone, came together in 2009.

Although Metronomy is Mount’s baby, the four are firm friends. “Because I write the songs, there are never any artistic difficulties in the band,” he says. “So we have a nice time – there’s no bad blood.”

After the full-bodied DIY disco of 2009’s breakthrough album, Nights Out, Mount relished the chance to use a proper studio for the first time.

In Wapping’s Smokehouse Studios he fleshed out a homage to teenage summers spent driving to sun-kissed beaches around the seaside towns of Torquay, Paignton and Brixham.

While Muse may hail from nearby Teignmouth, the area is not a hotbed of rock talent; indeed, wealthy old rockers go there to retire. “This record is reimagining that part of Devon as this happening place like LA where there’s a strong youth culture and musical heritage,” Mount says.

“The songs have a polished, laid-back, groovy feel.”

Inside The Deaf Institute, a packed house sees Metronomy blast off with Love Underlined. Despite first-night nerves, they’re well-drilled and in fine form, fresh from a string of Australian shows.

Holiday and Not Made For Love are greeted like old favourites by the crowd, who explode with delight when the white discs strapped to each member’s chest light up in unison. Designed by Cash, this rig is simple but effective, not unlike Mount’s songs.

In the dressing room after the show, the band are in good spirits. “I think it was nerve-racking,” says Mount, opening a beer. Adelekan disagrees: “It was like a Daft Punk gig played by the Eagles,” he smiles.

Although the band have a new album to promote, none of the songs played from it were introduced

by Mount. There’s a reason for that, he explains.

“The general consensus is that if you say, ‘This is a new one’, then you’re an idiot. It’s like you’re making an excuse for the quality of the song.”

With that, they head to the tour van and back to their hotel – a Radisson this time, something of a step up from Travelodge. Metronomy have shows booked from now until the end of 2011. The service stations of Europe better stock up on salads…

Words: Ruth Morgan. Photography: Nathan Gallagher, Wojtek Antenow, Garth Milan, Billabong. illustration: dietmar kainrath

b u l l e va r d

hard & fast Top performers and winning ways from around the globe

X and ’boards In Estonia, the best on BM sion 2011.

Ses pel Sim for er eth got tog four wheels; on won A) (US r Ryan Sheckle ove) on two. (ab on ans Canadian Drew Bez

British road racer Chris M etcalfe (centre) took victor y on ho me Tarmac at Red Bull Hi ll Chasers. Th e uphill race between mul ti-di was held at ni scipline cyclists ght in Bristo l city centre.

Kyle Croxall laid down the gauntlet for Canada with a decisive win at the Red Bull Crashed Ice icecross downhill season-opener in Munich.

The one-two-three at the Billabong Air & Style snowboard event at the Bergisel Stadium, Innsbruck: Mark McMorris (centre, Canada), Peetu Piiroinen (left, Finland) and Werni Stock (right, Austria).

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New F1 season, new car: world champion Sebastian Vettel puts the Red Bull Racing RB7, complete with go-faster rear wing, through its paces during testing

b u l l e va r d

Winning Formula

Wing Commands

In F1, the newly adjustable rear wing should lead to more overtaking. The scientists know why, but will the drivers like the new moves?

Words: Dr Martin Apolin, Anthony Rowlinson. photography: getty images/red bull content pool. illustration: mandy fischer

The Driver “I guess all the teams will be electing to use the new adjustable rear wing this season,” says Mark Webber, Red Bull Racing driver, “as it’ll be a pretty powerful thing in terms of lap times.

“The [governing body] FIA will allow us to activate the wings on the straight, to try to line someone up for a passing move.

Midway down the straight, you can line someone up earlier, and certain drivers might not even try to defend against that because the speed differential could be so high you might just let them go. But if it’s a little bit later, you might see some pretty aggressive blocking moves, with a big discrepancy in top speeds as a result.

It’s going to be very interesting to see how it plays out.”

The Driving Forces “If you look at the science behind the adjustable wing,” says Dr Martin Apolin, “we will see that could be one of the defining rule changes for the 2011 F1 season. Work (W) is force (F) times distance (d) thus W = Fd. Power (P) is work per unit of time, thus P = W/t. And speed (v) is distance over time, thus v = d/t. If we combine these formulas, we get F = P/v.

“But how fast can a car go? When accelerating, air resistance increases, and with it the ‘slowing-down force’ on the car. This force opposes the motion of the car: Fd = ½ ρ cd Av² where ρ is the air density, cd the air drag coefficient, and A the reference area, or more plainly, the shadow area. The highest speed is reached when Fd is exactly equal to the driving force of the car.

“If we set the two formulas equal to one another and solve for v, then we get the maximum speed at which the accelerating and opposing forces are balanced: vmax =

³

√ ρ2Pc A d

“Now we can estimate vmax. The output of an F1 car is about 800hp (589kW). The Kinetic Energy Recovery System, KERS, adds 60hp (44kW); air density is 1.2kg/m3. Air drag coefficient and shadow area are trickier to determine: they are closely guarded F1 secrets. The air drag coefficient for an aerodynamic streetcar is less than 0.3; we estimate 1 for an F1 car because of its open wheels, air turbulence, and the rear wing. The rear wing creates a lot of downforce, thus keeping the cars on the ground, especially when cornering. With an estimate of 1.3m2 for shadow area, we get a max speed of 93m/s (224mph).

“If an extra 10hp could be squeezed out of the motor, the max speed would only be increased by 0.8mph. This is hardly worth the effort. Better would be to adjust the rear wing. Assuming that the shadow area doesn’t change, if the cd -value is reduced only to 0.95, the max speed will increase by 3.6mph: more than five times the increase of that 10hp power increase. This should allow for more overtaking... and physics makes it all possible.”

Follow Webber and team-mate Sebastian Vettel at www.redbullracing.com

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B u l l e va r d

Lucky Numbers

crazes

Fad’ll do nicely: from out of nowhere, they captured the public imagination like nothing else… Until the next thing came along

In 1960, a little-known singer called Chubby Checker (right) released a cover of The Twist

by Hank Ballard and the Moonlighters, and the greatest dance craze of all time began. The Beatles and Sam Cooke sang about it, and everyone who has ever set foot on a dancefloor, from teens of the ’60s to your uncle at a wedding last year, has twisted a night away. In 1988, 28 years later, The Fat Boys released a cover of The Twist featuring Checker and shot to No 1 once again.

4

During Christmas and New Year 2009-2010, there was nothing more the world wanted to see than blue-skinned aliens fighting mankind in Avatar.

Seeing all that happen in 3D was one of the major reasons that the film became the highest-grossing box-office movie ever. But in South Korea, they went one better. Selected Seoul cinemas screened the movie in 4D, pumping wind, smoke, water and smells (of burning forests or tyres) into auditoriums equipped with moving seats.

10

The miniskirt has been around since ancient Greek military uniform designers had their budgets cut, but it only became a fashion phenomenon in 1965 when London-based designer Mary Quant (right) unveiled her shortest-yet skirt and took the above-the-knee trend past its tipping point.

The miniskirt range goes from 10cm below the buttocks to 20cm below the waist. Go longer than that and you’re in midi or maxi territory. Anything above that and you’re asking for a dressing down in the form of: “You’re not going out like that, get back in this house right now young lady.”

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There have been several ‘bubbles’ in economic history, when the value of goods – such as dotcom businesses, railways or property – rises rapidly and greatly exceeds what they are intrinsically worth. But one thing is certain with bubbles: they pop. The first recorded instance of such a thing was in the 1630s, when tulips, new to the Netherlands, were valued so highly that 12 acres of land would be offered in exchange for a single bulb. Hippies take note: this was real flower power in action.

2,733

The Sony Walkman was developed in part because the company’s co-founder wanted to listen to opera during flights. On the first day of its Japan release in July 1979, it cost 33,000 yen. A lot of people paid up, and the way the human race engaged with music changed.

Taking inflation into account, that 1979 cash could today buy an iPod Classic and two iPod Shuffles with change to spare. A C60 cassette held around 15 songs, and those Apple products hold around 41,000 songs. Thus, officially, the world is 2,733 times better than it was 31 years ago.

6.65 Seconds the world-record speedcuber needs to solve his Rubik’s Cube. Devised in 1974, more than 350 million have been sold since it was unleashed on the world in 1974, which makes the Rubik’s Cube the best-selling toy ever. It was the early ’80s when everyone wanted one, but as recently as 2008, 15 million cubes were sold worldwide.

Even more recently, in January this year, 15-yearold Feliks Zemdegs set his remarkable record in Melbourne. The fast-fingered name is worth a few points on the Scrabble board, too.

Find the next big idea at www.ted.com

Words: Paul Wilson. Photography: getty images (2), Rex Features (1), corbis (2)

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EYEWEAR + ACCESSORIES . SAN FRANCISCO www.sutrovision.com

en.redbulletin.com/print2.0 Drop in on this photoshoot

Print 2.0

Words: Ruth Morgan Photography: Alan Mahon

The elegance, power and beauty of cliff diving are subjects of wonder for the sport’s fans worldwide. We asked Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series champion Gary Hunt to reveal the secrets behind the four vital positions that help make up his killer moves

Action

SKY DIVE 12 world-class high divers

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7 locations around the world

1 winner

“this move is used to show a good style, rather than difficulty. it looks very graceful – chest out, arms in the ‘t’ position and the body in line, straight. as long as your hips and bottom are tucked in, you can arch your back as much as you like – a lot of it is personal preference. if you’re rotating backwards, you’ll be in a real arch position as you look at the water. Forwards it’s not so arched as your head is more tucked in. there are two sides to diving, the action-packed dives with high degrees of difficulty, and the graceful dives like this, which demand real attention to detail. it’s great to have both in the competitions to show all sides of the sport. the graceful dives come with lower difficulty tariffs, so most divers will use these in the early rounds and build up. i actually find it easier to do lots of spinning and twisting, so i’m busy in the air. with the graceful dives i find i have time to make silly mistakes. it’s a different mindset. with the more difficult dives you always have to think about where you are in the air, what position you next have to change into. with the easier dives you have more time to think about your form and getting all the little things perfect. the ideal is pointed toes, legs together and straight. the take-off needs to be the correct distance from the board: that’s important. also, if you’ve got splayed fingers it’s going to look a bit off, so fingers together, your hands uncupped. the straight, done well, shows this good form, and it’s a crowdpleaser – like seeing a flying swan.”

#1 STRAIGHT

SPEED: 50 ~ 60MPh

the shape of the twist is always the same. You start off with your arms out wide, then gradually bring them in and wrap them around yourself. it’s that motion of bringing your arms in that creates the twist. You’re like a corkscrew: your right arm comes in front of you and your left arm goes around behind you and that rotation, as you’re bringing your arms in, speeds up the movement, so you keep your arms tucked in tight. then, when you want to come out, you do exactly the opposite – bring your arms out until eventually they’re in the ‘t’ position. and that’s where you completely stop and go into another move. the difficulty of a dive depends on the mix of somersaults and twists you can fit into it – if you created a dive of five somersaults and half a twist, it wouldn’t be as high a degree of difficulty as a dive that contained a similar number of both moves, so that’s the way to build your scoring potential: not to try the dive with the most twists possible, or the most somersaults, but a mix. currently, the sport’s most difficult dive – which i perform – contains four twists and three somersaults. that’s a lot of twists, and you don’t rotate that fast while in the position, as your body’s very long, which slows you down, so i try to get them out of the way as soon as possible, then use the pike shape to speed me into the somersaults. it always helps to twist fast, to get it finished.

#2 TWIST

33 FREEFALL: 3 seconds

this is a move we use a lot. the pike is like a connecting move, if you like, to get from twists to somersaults or vice versa within a dive.

You’re folding your body in two, basically. You wrap your arms around the back of your legs – people do it in different ways. some people grab their hands behind their legs and pull them in, some people just close their arms in a cross behind them, which is what i do. if you do a pike with bent legs you get marks taken off. it’s a very useful, practical position. i hold the record for the most difficult dive in the sport, the back quad twisting triple, and without the pike it just wouldn’t have worked. the dive requires three somersaults and four twists, which is a huge amount to fit in the couple of seconds we’re in the air. i get all the twists done first, and then the somersaults, so i bring my body down after i’ve finished twisting and, as i grab my legs, i pull my body into the pike position and that accelerates me. if i was coming out of the twist and trying to go into a straight somersault, it would just slowly die, and i’d probably get one somersault in and that’s it. the action of pulling my legs with that force gives me the momentum to continue rotating and fit more into the dive – and it paid off in the end. the first time i tried it was in the training session before a competition, and it felt a little bit crazy – i had so much to do in the air. But last year i became a lot more consistent with it and now, with a good take-off, the dive just happens. it comes to me naturally.

#3 PIKE

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DROP: 26 Metres

“in diving, a ‘barani’ means a forward somersault with a half twist. it’s a gymnastic term that has always been part of my vocabulary, so i’d need to log on to wikipedia for its origins.

[The Red Bulletin does just this and discovers that it’s named after italian circus acrobat alfonso Baroni who first performed it around 1881.] it’s a fundamental move. as cliff divers, we’re accelerating from heights of anything up to 28m, building up speeds of 56mph in around 2.5 seconds, and at that speed the water feels like concrete. we have to enter feet-first as the head can’t take the impact, and the barani really helps you get a good entry into the water. as you’re spinning forward in a final somersault, you can see the water for a time, but if you continue you’ll rotate to a point where you can’t. so then you’ll introduce a barani, because the half-twist flips your line of vision so you can see the water again. if you’re spinning backwards, you can just do a back somersault and, when you see the water, open out and land. But almost all of the dives we do are

#4 BARANI

spinning forwards, so the barani is essential to allow us to see the water and make any adjustments. without it, the dive has what’s known as a blind entry, which comes with a bigger risk. all my dives include a barani – and if something goes even slightly wrong, the results can be painful! last year at the red Bull cliff diving world series round in italy i tried out a difficult new dive, which required a running take-off to give me enough momentum to fit in all the moves. no cliff diver had tried that before. But my run-up was too slow, so i didn’t jump high enough or spin fast enough and, if you’re playing around with the very difficult moves, you need every second and every inch of space to fit it in, so that little slip-up at the start changed everything. i didn’t have enough time to complete the barani. i wasn’t fully straight, so my chest hit the water flat. when i came up i was struggling to breathe and i got whiplash in my neck from the force of the impact. it was like being in a car crash. But i’m going to try it again this year.”

The Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series starts on March 12 at Rapa Nui, Chile.

See page 84 for further details

IMPACT: 60 ~ 0MPh in one second and 3M oF water

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Date of Birth: June 11, 1984 Height: 1.75m weight: 66kg Honours 2010: red Bull cliff diving world series champion, after standing on the podium for each of the six stops, four times on the top step 2009: second in the red Bull cliff diving world series after losing to nine-times world champion orlando duque by the narrowest of margins 2008: third in the high diving world cup 2006: Bronze medal in the commonwealth games 10m synchro Pushing the limits: came up with and successfully executed the most difficult dive in the history of the sport, the triple Quad, a back quadruple somersault twisting triple, in 2009. it is the first dive to be specifically created for cliff diving and comes with a difficulty level of 6.3. in 2010 hunt achieved another first, the sport’s first-ever running take-off to complete a two-and-a-half twisting quad

GARY HUNT

Action

F1 to one

Drive Talkin’ When we got new F1 world champion Sebastian Vettel together with triple-champ Niki Lauda, they didn’t want for conversation: the magic ‘number one’, Stone-Age testing, simulators, crazy early days and the heady excitement of the last days before the season. Phew! We could hardly get a word in edgeways…

Words: Herbert Völker Photography: Jürgen Skarwan

Niki Lauda, 62, took the F1 title in 1975 and 1977 (with Ferrari) as well as 1984 (McLaren).

He started in 171 races and won 25. Sebastian Vettel, 23, has so far driven 62 races and won 10. He became F1 champion for the first time in 2010

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Print 2.0

en.redbulletin.com/print2.0 More Vettel and Lauda, plus get a look at the new Red Bull Racing car

R Action

ed bulletin: Niki, if you were to put your name into an internet search engine, how many results do you think would come up? niki lauda: No idea, I’ve never tried. red bulletin: Take a guess… lauda: I couldn’t say. Maybe 5,000? red bulletin: Nope, not even close.

Three million. And you, Sebastian, how many do you think you’d have? sebastian vettel: Well, if he has three million, then I reckon I should get four million (laughs). red bulletin: Up to 18 million. But search engines have their good and bad days, so next time they might spit out a few million less... vettel: More importantly, who has more world championship titles? It’s three to one for Niki at the moment, but I still have a little time. lauda: Now where was I when I was Sebastian’s age? [He turns to the all-knowing interviewer…] red bulletin: At the age of 23 you were racing for March, driving a real lemon, with zero points. Then you went to BRM, drove an even worse lemon, and finished 17th in the World Championship. Still, you obviously caught the eye of Mr Enzo Ferrari, who signed you up for the following season. And then things took off. vettel: Niki, for three years you raced with ‘number one’ on your car [Lauda won the world title in 1975, 1977 and 1984]. For me, it’s a first. Did you find being number one an asset or a burden? lauda: There’s no better way to start a season. You arrive as number one and everyone thinks: here comes the best. So they have to chase you if they want it for themselves. I regard the number one as a positive. How can you be in any doubt? vettel: I’m not in doubt. I just don’t want to have the feeling, ‘If it worked last year, then it’ll work again this year.’ That shouldn’t be what the number represents.

If I just do what I did last season then it’ll surely go wrong. Last year was just that: last year. Tick it off. At the first race we 40

F1 to one

“ At the first race we all start from zero, whether I have number one on the car or 24 or 25.

It’s going to be very tough again” F1 stars Sebastian Vettel

Then and now:

all start from zero, regardless of whether I have number one on the car or 24 or 25 – we all start with the same points tally. We’ve got 20 races this season, so the year is very long. And it’s going to be very tough again. I have to improve to make sure I retain number one. lauda: You may be right, but, subconsciously, I think this number one gives you an advantage over your team-mate. I reckon it’s going to be very difficult for Mark Webber to start all over again from scratch and to make a charge from number two. Somehow, you end up perceiving this number as a symbol. red bulletin: By the way, Sebastian, did you hold it against Niki that before the end of last season he wrote you off for the title? He said: “He has no chance left. Even if Vettel does win races, the others won’t disappear into thin air.” lauda: But let me just say that over the entire season I definitely believed in Sebastian. However, I couldn’t see how it would work out in the end. I didn’t have the brave Renault driver on my list [Vitaly Petrov standing up to Fernando Alonso in Abu Dhabi to deny him the title], nor did I think Ferrari would blow it. Clearly this was my mistake! vettel: I didn’t even realise you’d given up on me. I always had faith in myself, but Niki has every right to have another opinion. He’s well known for being opinionated and outspoken, and I think a lot of people appreciate that. red bulletin: Let’s talk about technology. Niki, you are regarded as the first Formula One driver to study the technical abilities of the car. In

Lauda talks tactics with Brabham team boss Bernie Ecclestone before the 1978 Monaco GP

Vettel on Schumacher: “Michael doesn’t have to prove anything to anyone”

Vettel puts the Red Bull Racing simulator to the test as he trains for the 2011 F1 season

Above: Vettel powers around Bahrain International Circuit (2009) Left: Lauda in action shortly before suffering lifethreatening injuries at the infamous 1976 German Grand Prix. “Back then you had to expect that at the end of the season two F1 drivers would no longer be alive,” he tells The Red Bulletin. Below: Lauda’s close friend James Hunt in 1976 with his then fiancé, Suzy Miller

McLaren team-mates Alain Prost and Lauda went head to head for the F1 title in 1984

Lauda goes through testing with Ferrari mechanic Ermanno Cuoghi

additional PHOTOGRAPHY: Getty Images (2), Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool (2), imago (1), Schlegelmilch Photography (3)

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a sense, it was the Stone Age when you compare it to the resources of today… lauda: Our problem was that we received no data from the car – there was no form of data recording. So all our test results came from the seat of my pants, or my feeling, which basically means the same thing. There were plenty of set-up possibilities with the car, such as the suspension or the wings, but first of all you had to find a system for it all and put in all kinds of test laps until the stopwatch gave you something that was nearing a reliable interpretation of our ‘feelings’ at the time. vettel: You couldn’t even imagine a simulator back then, could you? lauda: That would have been pure science fiction. Sebastian, just how reliant are you on the simulator? I hear that some drivers feel nauseous when using it. Apparently it happens to a lot of pilots in flight simulators, too. vettel: In the simulator you have a huge screen in front of you and it’s just like sitting in a real car. The whole car jerks to imitate every movement, but if it’s not 100 per cent in sync with the real thing or if there’s a slight lag, or if it moves a little too much or tilts in the wrong way, then you start feeling queasy. I’m more used to it now, though. lauda: How important is the simulator for improving driving technique? vettel: We use it a lot before the season kicks off, because real testing is so limited. For us, it’s the only chance to get into our rhythm as far as the motion sequence goes – we also now have a few more buttons on the steering wheel. I think you can really learn with it. The sequencing is actually very similar to the real race track.

The simulator is irreplaceable today, especially for familiarising yourself with a new track. It means that by the time you go out on the real circuit you know exactly what to do. You only need to do two or three laps, then after that you just have to iron out the creases. lauda: How does it help with the set-up? vettel: That depends on how good the simulator is. It depends on so many factors – how you squeeze the circuit into the simulator, if every bump is correct, the gradient and so on – if the car reacts like that in real life. When you change things like the anti-roll bar, making things a little harder, a little softer or changing the wing set-up, those things are usually spot-on. You can sort out the set-up in certain areas right there. lauda: But even the best simulator can’t reproduce the forces that actually 41

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F1 to one

“ You couldn’t even imagine a simulator when you were racing, could you, Niki?”

Sebastian Vettel

“ That would have been pure science fiction.

Our test results came from the seat of my pants�

Niki Lauda

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F1 to one

impact on you in a real race. And it’s certainly not a fitness trainer… vettel: Sure, that’s definitely one significant difference to real life. But maybe that’s actually a good thing, otherwise we might as well just compete against each other in a simulator. red bulletin: Despite the technical advances, the media hype and money explosion, do you agree that the main difference in Formula One between today and the Lauda era (more than a quarter of a century ago) is the improvement in safety? lauda: I grew up in a time when cars were already capable of reaching speeds in excess of 185mph, sometimes clearing trees by just a matter of a few metres.

Back then, you had to expect that at the end of the season two Formula One drivers would no longer be alive. Everyone who took part in this sport knew the conditions. So it was a case of, “Do I want to take this risk – yes or no?” Sure, we loved mastering the car and wanted to turn it into a job, despite the risks. So we tried to push the limits, but also allow for a couple of centimetres of air so that we stayed alive. Vettel grew up in another

“ Even when the air is thin, Michael Schumacher is one of the few who has the demeanour of a winner” Sebastian Vettel

world. Thank God that Formula One has developed into what it is today. vettel: It’s normal that every sport develops. As dangerous, for instance, as skiing is today, 40 years ago they didn’t even have safety fences. We don’t need to talk about how dangerous motorsport is today and we know that things can always happen, but at least we don’t need to constantly plan for the inherent threat to life. Imagine sitting at a drivers’ briefing, knowing that at the end of the season we could be two down – today, that would be unbearable. The mutual understanding of danger made an impact at that time and the drivers formed stronger bonds than they do today. But no one misses the feeling that such a small thing could cost a life – I’m thinking, for example, of Jochen Rindt in 1970. By today’s safety standards he would have simply stomped back to the pits after such a fluke crash.

So even if today’s Formula One might seem sterile, and it’s unthinkable for drivers to have a beer on the night before the race, the sport’s essence hasn’t changed that much: to drive a car at the limit. Today, when we use up those few

Sebastian Vettel and team-mate Mark Webber with Red Bull Racing’s new car for the 2011 Formula One season. New regulations for this year are set to make things even more exciting: to aid overtaking, drivers will have the ability to control rear wings from the cockpit, but more importantly, there will also be the option of an extra speed boost courtesy of KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System), which turns waste heat energy from the car’s braking system into even more acceleration, from the push of a button on the steering wheel. Italian company Pirelli will also be the new tyre supplier for all the teams

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additional photography: Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool

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centimetres of air Niki speaks of and still there are no fatal consequences – well, thank God for that. But you shouldn’t ask for that mercy too often. Anyway, if you’re brushing against the edges too often you won’t be among the front-runners. red bulletin: Are there still good friendships in Formula One, as there seemed to be in Niki’s day? vettel: We’re a bunch of about 25 drivers, so basically it’s like a school class. There are some you like who are immediately on the same wavelength as you. Then there are some with whom you just don’t click, and obviously you don’t have much to do with each other.

But to meet privately away from the track, to do stuff together – maybe go on holiday together as they sometimes did back then, well that doesn’t happen these days. You’re flat out, there’s no time – not even for yourself. Everyone concentrates on themselves in the team and you’re not aware of much else. red bulletin: Niki, did you have a close friend in Formula One? lauda: What is a friend? There’s always criticism that I have no friends.

Why? Because you build a wall around yourself, because you’re constantly surrounded by pseudo-friends in public.

Everyone wants to be your friend.

This makes you wary. So to deflect this from the start I said: “I don’t have friends,” so that this ‘friend game’ stops.

The guy I was closest to during my racing days was James Hunt [1976 World Champion]. He was really cool, you could have a good laugh with him and we used to enjoy a beer together. But that doesn’t mean you have to go on holiday together. red bulletin: When Jackie Stewart was racing, Jackie, Jochen Rindt and Piers Courage would rendezvous on a remote island and Bernie Ecclestone liked to join them… lauda: A holiday with Bernie…

Sounds irresistible! Perhaps we should be talking about the future, where Michael Schumacher arrives in the nick of time.

I read that Fernando Alonso says he fears Michael the most this year, provided the car’s right. Where does he get that idea from? Perhaps from Schumacher’s past, from his will and ability to win? I reckon you’re just as good, Sebastian. vettel: I think that Michael’s wealth of experience and his confidence obviously plays a role in what people think of him.

People can say what they want, but when Michael pulls up on the grid he doesn’t have to prove a thing to anyone. He has fun doing it and has the confidence to be up the front and not let himself be

bullied by anyone. Even when the air is thin, he’s one of the few who has the demeanour of a winner. red bulletin: Sebastian, we have to ask this: who do you think will be your biggest rival this year? vettel: I can’t say. There are too many wild cards this year, from KERS [Kinetic Energy Recovery System] to the new Pirelli tyres, and how good the Ferrari team could be. But I’m feeling confident. red bulletin: Vettel and Red Bull Racing – are you inseparable? vettel: I feel very, very good at Red Bull Racing. It’s much more than me being in this Formula One team and being allowed to drive the car. I’ve been a part of the Red Bull family for a long time. And it really is a family – you feel at home here.

Then when it’s topped off with a car in which I can win races and fight for the world championship, well, there’s no reason for me to change a thing.

Anyway, before we stop, I have a question for Niki: we often hear that there were so many ‘pit babes’ in Formula One that the place was jumping.

Sometimes I think it must have only been like that in the early days. You hear all

F1 to one

“ Imagine sitting at a drivers’ briefing, knowing that at the end of the season we could be two down – today that would be unbearable” Sebastian Vettel

these rumours, and they must have come from somewhere! Is it true that the boys in F1 were as rampant back then as we are led to believe? lauda: I can tell you the truth because it’s been said before – of course! Because of the risk-taking nature of our jobs, we lived our lives to the fullest and didn’t take things as seriously perhaps as we should have. We handled the stress differently so you didn’t particularly want to involve your long-term partner.

The best example I can think of is a long while ago – 1984, the Portuguese GP. It was a title-decider between Alain Prost and I, but I only needed second place to win the title. My fitness guru, Willi Dungl, knew perfectly well what I was after and said to me: “Hey, there’s a blonde Italian lady running around down there looking all over the place for you.”

Then Nelson Piquet came to me – he was always on the lookout for something new – and said the same thing. She was downstairs and very pretty. I walked over to her and asked her how she was.

I took her out to dinner on Friday because I’m a gentleman. She then asked if she could go to dinner with me again on Saturday night. I told her no dinner, but she could come to my room between eight and 10 in the evening. Why? I told her that from 10 I had to sleep because I wanted to become world champion the following day. She said OK, and at 10 minutes to 10 she left my room. I slept like a log, but when I woke up the next morning I thought, “If there’s a God then I’ve lost the world championship today.”

It was weighing on my conscience.

My dear colleague, Prost, who was always chewing his nails – always very nervous – stood in the pits the next morning and grinned like a Cheshire cat. I asked him why he had such a stupid grin on his face. He said – can you imagine – that he had met up with Princess Stéphanie of Monaco the night before. I was so unbelievably relieved, because it meant we were equal in the eyes of God, and we could go racing.

A couple of hours later I became world champion for the third time.

In defence of the old guard, I can say that, since our day Formula One has become far more family-oriented. Now, the wives and children come along because, luckily, little or nothing happens.

And the whole of Formula One has gone back to normal life. I bet it’s morally much better these days… But I can’t really say.

The 2011 FIA Formula One season starts on March 13 in Bahrain: www.formula1.com; www.redbullracingcom; www.scuderiatororosso.com

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RUN FOR YOUR LIFE To be an Ethiopian longdistance runner is to be more than an aspiring – or often world-class – athlete. It is to run for the very soul of your country and to uphold its proud traditions while striding for a brighter future Words: Tobias Haberl Photography: Olaf Unverzart

the dawn par ade

Rise early in Addis Ababa and you’ll find hordes of Ethiopian running hopefuls pounding the city’s streets

Meskel Square, Addis Ababa

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Print 2.0

en.redbulletin.com/print2.0 Follow the fleet-footed Ethiopians

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Haile gebrselassie

Approaching 40 and still hopeful of a sub two-hour marathon time

“ I know a lot of young athletes who will not reach the top, but I’d never advise them to give up” 48

ou’ve got to get up early in the morning if you want to understand Ethiopia. If you want to experience the will and elegance of its people, you need to be out and about by sunrise, preferably wrapped up warm. It’s cold in Addis Ababa between four and five in the morning; the city is 2,400m above sea level. The streets are grey and empty. A muezzin makes the call to prayer. Every now and then a taxi rattles past. A couple of street lamps are on, but Ethiopia can’t afford to light its streets properly at night.

But the people glow. One after another they appear out of the dark.

Yellow, red and green specks. A sea of luminous colours. T-shirts, jerseys, tracksuit bottoms. It’s only when they come up close that you can see their determined eyes. Some leave a T-shirt to change into by one of the cedar trees.

Some simply start running. Some are barefoot. Like animals, silent and tireless, they run through the city. They run towards Meskel Square, past the Hilton Hotel and the Prime Minister’s office. They run north on the city highway. They run for an hour or two at a time, mile after mile, morning after morning, until the sun comes up and the blue taxis reclaim the dusty roads.

In Europe and the US, people jog or toil on treadmills or drag themselves around a park; they sweat, they stay fit, feel good about their bodies and then get a coffee to go before firing up their computer at the office. When people are doing sport in New York or Berlin, they seem free and easy. The rest of the time they’re stressed and concentrating. In Addis Ababa it’s the other way around.

Running here is serious. The rest is all play, idleness, boredom. Thousands of young men and women run every morning in Addis. Then they go home and chill out before running again in the evening. Their country is one of the poorest on Earth. Almost half the people are unemployed. The average Ethiopian dies before the age of 50. So running in

Ethiopia is more than just a distraction and more than just a sport. It’s a sort of unpaid job, but also an opportunity.

People are actually trying to run away from their destiny. And they know it’s possible. Haile Gebrselassie showed them how, which is why they worship him.

Haile Gebrselassie arrives back at 10am. He has been training in Sululta, the eucalyptus forest in the north of the city. It’s the ideal setting, with soft, mossy ground and fresh mountain air.

His Mercedes is parked down on the street while he sits in a cream leather armchair on the eighth floor of his office block. The building belongs to him. He owns another a few hundred metres away. He’s still in his black tracksuit and running shoes. He is slight: 1.64m tall and weighs 56kg. His face is wrinkled.

If he was wearing a suit, he’d look like a boy at a religious ceremony who hadn’t got enough sleep. On a shelf behind his desk there are books about management and corporate governance. Every day of his life is divided into three parts: training in the morning, daytime in the office and then training in the evening.

“I used to sleep between training sessions,” he explains. “But I can’t do that any more.”

His property company, Haile & Alem International, employs 400 people.

Gebrselassie has become quite the man of the world. He asks if anyone would like something to drink. He goes to his desk. Makes a quick phone call, and two minutes later a secretary serves us freshly squeezed mango juice.

Gebrselassie is one of the world’s most successful athletes. He dominated the 5,000 and 10,000m for years, winning Olympic gold twice and four world championships, setting 27 world records in the process. These days he runs marathons, as he no longer has the strength for shorter distances.

An Ethiopian magazine has just run a story about him at home. Gebrselassie

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Ethiopia’s capital is shrouded in smog after sunrise

and his family live in a villa with a pool.

He employs two cooks, two housekeepers and two bodyguards. He collects art and antiques. In April of this year he’ll turn 38. In Ethiopia he’s a sort of Franz Beckenbauer for running. The perfect role model: a farmer’s son from Bekoji who first became an athlete and then a businessman. Many Ethiopians think he could become the next president.

“Me? President?” he laughs. “I’d like to do a bit more running first,” he says.

Gebrselassie still holds the world record for the marathon at 2:03.59, set in 2008 in Berlin, beating his previous world record of 2:04.26, which was set at the same marathon one year earlier.

Even though he too gets a year older once every 12 months like us lesser mortals, he still seems to think that a time of under two hours is possible.

He couldn’t finish last year’s New York marathon because of injury and then announced that his running career was over. But a week later he retracted

the statement. And now Gebrselassie will be on the starters’ line-up for the 2011 Tokyo Marathon.

Yet Gebrselassie chiefly talks and thinks about things beyond sport, beyond the finishing line now. In that way too he’s like Beckenbauer, who eventually swapped the dressing room for VIP seats and helicopters. Gebrselassie knows that he has a responsibility. He knows that it’s easier to solve problems when they are addressed by someone people know. Sport and politics are overlapping more and more, and people like Gebrselassie, who can think in a diplomatic way, are becoming more and more important.

Ethiopia really only has two ways of attracting international attention: when millions of people starve – as they did when a catastrophic drought hit in 1984 – and when its athletes bring home medals. Athletes like Haile Gebrselassie, Kenenisa Bekele, Sileshi Sihine, Tsegaye Kebede, Gete Wami and Aselefech

Mergia give their fellow countrymen a raison d’être. It’s as if their medals are a bridge into the world’s consciousness.

It shows young Ethiopians the importance of a will of iron and how vital it is to keep on running, even when your feet hurt and you want to cry, such as in 2005, when Kenenisa Bekele broke his own 10,000m world record just weeks after his 17-year-old girlfriend died from heart failure while out training with him.

But there is a second Haile Gebrselassie in this city. He is 18 years old. He looks at you shyly. Like the Olympic champion, he too has a small moustache. When someone asks him his name he says, “I’m called Haile, Haile Gebrselassie, just like the champion,” and his voice brims with pride. He and his father and five siblings live in a tin shack in the north-west of the city near the Merkato, the largest open-air market in Africa. The streets here are winding and there are rocks and potholes all over the place. It’s a hurly-burly of donkeys 49

Even when he’s running now, he still holds his right arm as if he’s carrying his school bag

Wami Bir atu, 92, the first legend of Ethiopian running

Abebe Bikila’s name was written into the history books after he became the first black African to win an Olympic gold medal in 1960, but at the time Biratu was Ethiopia’s hero with national records at 5,000m and 10,000m

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With just one all-weather track in Ethiopia, athletes are forced to train wherever they can

and oxen, beggars, street children and cripples who drag themselves through the dusty streets with tattered plastic sandals on their hands.

He is just one of thousands of hopeful athletes who proudly speak of their best times whenever they meet a white man.

They can scent a useful contact, as a white man means sponsors, money and a future. Haile trains in Addis twice daily and usually only has his first meal of injera – Ethiopian flat bread – in the evening. His speciality is the 3,000m steeplechase. His personal best is 8:52; the world record, which was set in 2004, is 7:53. Haile trains alone, without guidance, without hurdles. The only place with hurdles is the stadium, but only members of the national squad can train there. A couple of times he’s managed to sneak past the guards into the stadium at night, but it was so dark that he kept falling over and one time he injured his leg. Now he’s training on the roads and in the forest again. There are hyenas in the forest, but they’re more afraid of him than he is of them. He’ll often walk for miles to get to the place

where he wants to train. He knows how important it is to train at altitude.

There is only one all-weather track in Ethiopia. That’s one track for 82 million people. One track for the world’s most successful long-distance running nation.

A woman crushes garlic in a wooden pestle by a hole in the adobe wall. She’s his aunt, Haile explains; his mother died a couple of years ago. There’s no shower inside, just a bowl for water. There’s no kitchen either, just a couple of sacks with grain and somewhere to sit. All in all, it’s 30m 2 for six people. A wooden ladder leads to a small bedroom. Haile has to bend down not to hit his head. He shares a bed with his four brothers. Next to the bed on a wooden ledge lies everything he owns: a pair of trousers, three T-shirts, a pair of sandals, a pair of New Balance running shoes and three books. The most important of them is an English to Amharic dictionary. He studies it when he’s in bed. He also tries to teach his younger brothers some words from it.

Haile has still never left Addis, has still never seen a film, has still never

kissed a girl. “I only want to have a girlfriend when I’ve achieved something,” he explains. “Until then, I want to concentrate on running.”

He knows the life story of his namesake and idol, the man who whizzes around between his villa and his two office blocks on the other side of the city.

Gebrselassie’s life motivates him and drives him on, but also daunts him. It could be dangerous to emulate such a life.

But for now there are the hopes and the enthusiasm and the incredible willpower that seems to be an innate characteristic in everyone here.

“I run fast; I improve; I am eager to win.” Those are the phrases young Haile repeats over and over. They’re the phrases everyone here says. And the phrases are true enough, except that most of these people will never stand on a podium and hear their national anthem play. Yet they all believe so firmly in their dream that they don’t even entertain the possibility that it might not happen.

They try to get into one of the clubs or to draw attention to themselves at regional championships. They don’t go to school 51

“ I only want to have a girlfriend when I’ve achieved something”

Haile Gebrselassie

This 18-year-old is determined to follow in the footsteps of his legendary namesake

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or to work. They don’t even look for work. They run, they pray, they sleep.

Many people come to Addis from the mountains. They leave their families behind in the village and promise that they’ll come back rich and famous.

Their parents sit at home and also pray, sending letters to the capital, enclosing a bit of millet, tea or grain.

At some point between the ages of 20 and 25, most realise that they haven’t got what it takes. Their times are good, but not good enough. None of the agents have appeared, and neither has the money. So what happens then?

“You’ve got to give them free rein,” Gebrselassie the champion explains.

“I know a lot of young athletes who will not reach the top, but I’d never

advise them to give up. Give up?

You can’t give up in sport.”

They should learn how to help themselves, too. They shouldn’t just run. They should also work or study.

“I practise what I preach. My children won’t be successful runners,” says Gebrselassie. “They don’t walk one metre.

They even get driven to school.” Anyone who wants to become a great runner needs to be “obsessed with the sport”, he advises.

As a boy, he would run the 10km from Bekoji to Asela to get to school – exactly the distance at which he was later unbeatable for years. Even when he’s running now, he still holds his right arm as if he’s carrying his school bag.

Young Haile knows that he needs something to fall back on. He goes to

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“ Ethiopians always want to win. they don’t want to get beat. it’s because of our history” evening classes daily. Once he finishes he’ll be qualified to teach sport. The school costs £60 a month. His relatives throw in some money and somehow they always manage to scrape enough together. And why does he torture himself every morning? Why does he often leave the house without breakfast to run 13 miles? He answers without hesitation: “Firstly, because I want to be famous. Secondly, because I want to earn a lot of money. Thirdly, because I want to help my family with money.”

There’s one thing he’s sure of: if you can’t help your own family, you can’t help your country. This is why he is trying to get into one of 30 clubs. He did get into one, having been approached and accepted after a cross-country race, but the club was a bad one and didn’t pay him a salary. The club members had to chip in themselves to pay for a trainer.

Haile left the club. If he was to join another, it would be the Police Club or the Mugher Sports Club, which pay their athletes between £30 and £60 a month.

The best athletes then form part of the national squad – 300 in all – and are the only people who get to train in the Abebe Bikila Stadium. Haile would do anything, and is doing all he can, to become one of them one day. He often makes his way to the stadium to try to catch a glimpse of one of his heroes in among the young kids cleaning businessmen’s shoes.

Much of Ethiopian runners’ success can be traced back to one man: Dr Woldemeskel Kostre, who has long supervised the training of the national team. He’s now over 60 but looks a lot older. Actually, he’s sort of ageless. He was involved in a serious car accident in 1999 and has walked with the aid of a stick ever since. A running coach who has to drag himself around the track and limps up the stadium steps, Kostre has an artificial hip. He moves a bit like a tortoise. After the 2008 Beijing Olympics he accepted an offer to go to work in Qatar, but for a number of years before that he had trained the best long-distance runners in the world

Dr Woldemeskel kostre

The inspirational coach behind many of Ethiopia’s most successful long-distance runners on cast-iron principles. Every Ethiopian champion was taught by him. His authoritarian teaching method is based on two words: discipline and respect.

Two words he constantly repeats and which he drums into his runners from the first second he meets them.

“Athletes and soldiers need discipline and respect,” he says. “Respect for their fellow man, respect for the coach, respect for the country, respect for the government. Too much democracy only spoils the athletes,” he explains.

“Democracy begets idleness.”

The runners would do as he said because they knew that he knew what was best for them. In 2007, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) voted him the world’s best coach. He has this explanation for where the strength of will that marks out his countrymen comes from: “Ethiopians always want to win,” he explains. “They don’t want to get beat. It’s because of our history.”

Ethiopia is the only country in Africa to have driven out its colonial masters – in this case the Italians. They dealt the Italians two devastating defeats without many weapons. The same miracle occurs on the running track. Ethiopians don’t race each other. They run for their country and for its good reputation.

Gebrselassie doesn’t race Kenenisa Bekele. They run against the clock, against temptation, against the comfort zone. It doesn’t matter how much money they’ve earned, the next time they want to be quicker, and the time after that they want to be quicker again.

There’s one man and one story that everyone in Ethiopia knows: Abebe Bikila, the first black African to win Olympic Gold, a feat he achieved in the marathon at the 1960 games in Rome.

Having only been added to the Ethiopian Olympic team as a last-minute replacement for the injured Wami Biratu, Bikila ended up with a pair of running shoes that didn’t fit properly. So a few hours before the start he decided to run barefoot, which is how he had always trained. Bikila went on to cross the finish line barefoot in a new world record time of 2:15.16. He is now a legend, an idol to both the young and the older Haile Gebrselassie. He is an idol for millions of Ethiopians who toil and suffer and who cover dozens of miles every day, hungry, thirsty, in tattered shoes and all for no medals, no reward and never hearing anyone say to them: “Well done. I’m proud of you.”

The 2011 London Marathon is on April 17.

For info visit www.virginlondonmarathon.com

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super Dryguy Teen snowboard sensation Jamie Nicholls has rapidly established himself as one of the sport’s brightest stars. And he learned everything he knows on a dry slope‌ Words: Ruth Morgan Photography: Richie Hopson

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‘ Jamie’s right up there on an international level, especially for his age, and he’s only going to get better’

Before he took his tricks to the mountains, Nicholls discovered his love and talent for the sport at Halifax Ski & Snowboard Centre ( right)

additional photography: Frode Sandbach

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rizzle turns to rain as Jamie Nicholls treads grey tarmac to reach the Halifax Ski & Snowboard centre in northern England, blonde curls peeping out from beneath his beanie. “God it’s ages since I’ve been here,” the British freestyle snowboard champion grins.

Only yesterday he was in the snowy wonderland of Mayrhofen in Austria, a world away from the West Yorkshire dry ski slope that was once his second home.

After years of faithfully riding the 2ft kicker here every night, he knows every inch of the plastic-covered outdoor run.

But it’s been almost 12 months since he was here last, and the 17-year-old has returned home for a week out from snowboarding, once unthinkable, but now a necessary break since he became one of the county’s best riders and one of only a handful of British ‘boarders to impact on the international scene.

He’s midway through his second hectic season, travelling the world with his board: he’s just been filming with friends in Mayrhofen’s deep powder; two weeks ago he was in Laax, Switzerland, sharing a flat with some of the world’s top snowboarders to compete in one of the toughest and most high-profile events on the Ticket To Ride (TTR) World Tour, the Burton European Open. And before

that, sponsors Nike 6.0 flew him and the rest of the team to Folgefonna, Norway for every snowboarder’s wet dream – two days of being filmed from helicopters as they rode 6m purposebuilt kickers in a sea of endless white.

The unlikely launch pad into this elite world was the Snowflex slope in the Yorkshire Pennines where Nicholls now stands, looking out at the green fields and grey-brown patchwork of the city sprawling below, and no one knows better than him what it takes to get from plastic to powder.

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icholls started on the dry slope aged seven, with boots that were four sizes too big and a snowboard that dwarfed him. He and his family would make the short journey to Halifax from the village of Queensbury, where they still live, his parents happy to have found a hobby they could learn together.

Turning pro was never part of the plan. “At first I didn’t know there were people making a living from it,” says Nicholls. “I just knew I wanted to ’board.

I loved it.” And had he known about the professional circuit back then, it would have seemed an unlikely career choice.

British Alpine skier Konrad Bartelski took silver in a downhill World Cup race 30 years ago – a result so unexpected the French television commentator cried: “Ce n’est pas possible! C’est un anglais!” (“Impossible! It’s an Englishman!”).

Common opinion in the snowsports world hasn’t changed much where Brits are concerned. And Nicholls wasn’t even riding snow – he was riding Dendix, an unforgiving mesh of small wiry hairs, and then later, Snowflex, a continuous carpet of stiff plastic bristles mounted on

a spongy base, strangely given the name ‘dry’ though it needs to be saturated with water. But it was all Nicholls needed to beat a path to the heart of the international scene, specialising in slopestyle, an event involving obstacles such as rails and boxes, and kickers, with points awarded for style and difficulty.

At eight he had won his first sponsors with a perfectly executed backside 360 at his first competition in Hillend, Scotland.

Not long after, he was winning junior contests in the UK, by 14 he was beating the best in the country, and last year, he almost swept the board at the British Championships, taking gold in half-pipe and slopestyle, with a second-place finish in big air. He also stepped out into Europe for his first full professional season in 2010, with results including a top-10 finish at the FIS World Cup Big Air event in London, and 13th place at the Burton European Open in Laax. This earned him a coveted invite to this year’s competition and marked him out as a future big name.

“He’s a phenomenon in British snowboarding,” says Ed Blomfield, Editor of British snowboarding magazine Whitelines. “He’s right up there on an international level, especially for his age, and he’s only going to get better. He has the potential to be podiuming at the best events, if not winning them.”

Unlike lots of young riders who show potential, Nicholls wasn’t whisked off up a mountain for specialist training.

Between the ages of seven and 15 he was an almost permanent evening fixture on the Yorkshire slopes. “There’s definitely a lot of riding involved to get where I am,” he laughs. “When I first rode on snow a couple of years after I started, it felt weird and I just wanted to be back on 57

‘ No matter what surface you’re riding, you always want to progress and chase the buzz you get off it’

additional photography: Gavin Hope/afterbang.co.uk

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the dry slope. I still remember taking my first-ever jump off the Halifax kicker.

And now when I learn a new trick I still get that same feeling. No matter what surface you’re riding, you always want to progress and chase the buzz you get off it.”

Nicholls was lucky to live so close to what UK snowboarders agree is the best kicker in the country and, before the snow dome craze fully took hold, he was the youngest member of a vibrant, tightknit snowboarding scene at Halifax, led by instructor and local snowboard shop owner Wayne Taylor. “Jamie stood out to me straight away,” says 36-year-old Taylor. “From the minute he graduated from the nursery slope he became my shadow. He was always the youngest there, but when you told him to do something, he’d get it first time. He was so small, rather than taking his board off to get up to the kicker, we used to just pick him up, carry him to where he needed to go, and point him in the right direction. We made sure he knew the basics before we introduced him to freestyle, after that, he was away.”

In 2006, when Nicholls was nearly 14, he got his first real international exposure.

Legendary German snowboarder David Benedek was putting together a series of clips for his new film In Short and wanted to include a dry-slope section.

Salomon, one of Nicholls’ long-term sponsors, mentioned Halifax and of course Nicholls. The resulting footage made it around the world. “According to David Benedek, when he was showing the film in places such as Japan and California, the dry-slope section was getting the biggest reaction,” says Ed Blomfield. “Especially Jamie, who was pulling these crazy tricks, a 900 on plastic, which these guys who ride snow couldn’t get their heads around, it was a different world for them.”

But what seemed odd to international riders was all Nicholls knew. He was now often riding seven nights a week, splitting his time between the Halifax kicker and the rails and boxes at a newly opened snow dome in Castleford, just up the road. And the limits on his riding weren’t necessarily a disadvantage in Nicholls’ case. In fact he and several coaches agree it’s given him an edge in the international field. Constant repetition, under the tutelage of the older ’boarders at Halifax, meant consistency became Nicholls’ middle name. “Learning on a dry slope would be a disadvantage if Jamie reached a ceiling and couldn’t progress beyond it,” says Hamish McKnight, coach of the GB

the beanie that seems to never leave his head, his thin frame is hidden underneath an oversized ’boarding shirt.

Time spent away has softened his broad Yorkshire drawl. But snowboarding has become a way of life for all his family, his parents following every result.

“They really support me, but I was never pushed to ride,” says Nicholls.

“I’ve had the freedom to make my own decision about whether to snowboard.”

“He always has his mum and dad to keep his feet on the ground,” his mother, Charlotte, interjects. “No one around me wants to see me change,” Nicholls adds.

“I’m still just a Yorkshire lad.”

The dry slope in Halifax: Nicholls would practise for up to seven nights a week to refine his tricks

Freestyle Team, of which Nicholls has been a member for three years. “But that development stage, when Jamie was riding six to seven nights a week, getting 30 to 40 jumps every night, forced him to repeat his tricks over and over again, until he reached a point where his consistency was almost beyond that of any rider in the world. He came out of his development in the UK scene with unbelievable board control skills on rails and fantastic consistency in his jumps.

We try to take the advantages he got from that, and give him everything else, like access to truly world-class facilities and big kickers. He’s in a good position.”

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his is not a point Nicholls disagrees with. Since he left school two years ago with strong sponsorship and a place on the GB Freestyle Team, he’s been travelling the world, competing in the highest-ranked TTR contests, improving with expert coaching from McKnight and hours of riding with ’boarders such as Canadian Sebastien Toutant and Finn Peetu Piiroinen, both currently in the TTR top 10, perfecting high-level tricks such as backside 1080 double corks and cab 10s, with cab 12s on the way.

Watching him on the slope it’s easy to forget his age, such is his confidence and level of skill. He’s also mature, used to older company at Halifax, and now in the international circuit. But today, before he sets off for the dry slope, he sits in the kitchen of his family home, where his dad runs a joinery business from a workshop in the garden. In this setting Nicholls suddenly seems like the teenager he is.

His brown eyes are just visible under

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fter four days’ rest, Nicholls will be back out to Europe to resume the fast-paced life of a pro. “It’s going very well,” says McKnight. “I see no reason why Jamie can’t win the X Games within the next few years. He can do his tricks any way he wants, and that’s why his riding is so impressive to watch.”

Whether Nicholls’ success is a rare case in British snowsports or a sign of bigger things to come has yet to be seen.

Snowboarding is a growing sport, but the rise in the popularity of snowdomes has all but killed the once vibrant scene at dry slopes such as Halifax. And without kickers in snowdomes, young riders can’t build up the mix of skills Nicholls was able to. The faith the country officially has in the future of snowsports was perhaps best illustrated by the recent withdrawal of all Olympic funding for UK skiing and snowboarding. But, with slopestyle looking likely to be introduced as an Olympic sport in 2014, Hamish is optimistic. “We’re hoping to put together a case to UK Sport to say, listen, we’ve got Jamie, plus Ben Kilner, a Vancouver Olympian and Jenny Jones, a three-time X Games gold medallist. But then this sport has never had much funding.

We’re used to it. We just have to be more creative and work a bit harder.”

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t’s late afternoon when Nicholls gets ready to leave the Halifax Ski & Snowboard Centre. A loud group of his old classmates arrive for a lesson.

Jamie greets his secondary school maths teacher. “Where’s your Yorkshire accent gone?” she teases. “Best get that back.”

The teenagers talk excitedly at Nicholls and he chats back, his pro kit contrasting with their multicoloured ski outfits. The Snowflex kicker has no more to teach him.

His feet may still be firmly on the ground, but his head, these days, is in the mountains.

More info and videos: www.jamienichollsuk.com

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The sound of the cyborg Neil Harbisson can’t see colour, but the ‘eyeborg’ device attached to his head helps him hear colour.

This is the story of a life led in an explosion of frequencies Words: Andreas Rottenschlager Photography: Dan Wilton

You have to get in tune with your own senses before confronting the holistic artwork that is Neil Harbisson. The best thing to do is take a little time to examine him from top to toe, or, rather, from toe to top.

There are Harbisson’s bright-yellow socks protruding from shiny black shoes boldly combined with bright blue jeans hugging two skinny legs. Then let your gaze travel further, up past his red sweater. A narrow face with hypnotic blue eyes, his forehead covered with the dark blond strands of a pudding-bowl haircut. Then, protruding out of the back of his head is a flexible, black antenna with a camera attached to the end of it. The thing looks almost discreet compared to his clothes.

Harbisson pulls the camera down over his left eye. “This is the eyeborg. I hear colours with it.”

Then he looks down at his yellow socks. “I only wear clothes that sound good,” he says.

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en.redbulletin.com/print2.0 Enter the world of Neil Harbisson

Neil Harbisson with his eyeborg. The unit is able to play 360 tones in his head

“Hi, I’m Neil. I am colour-blind.

Can you make something for me so that I can detect colour?”

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Neil Harbisson is a 28-year-old classically trained Montandon gave a lecture at Dartington. The pianist who has been colour-blind since birth. university graduate from Plymouth, aged just “It’s a sort of software malfunction,” he explains.

23, was invited to speak about cybernetics.

“My eyes work, but my brain can’t process the Harbisson was in the auditorium. colour information.” To Harbisson, the waves at It was Montandon’s first lecture, but the young Mataró, his hometown in Catalonia, are grey. The technology expert spoke with confidence and his same thing with the lush green trees in front of performance captivated the attendees. Montandon the Basílica de Santa María which he so loves, or presented a jacket he had made himself with a motion at dusk when the sun bathes everything in tender sensor built in. He spoke of cyborgs. He stood on orange light. Achromatopsia is the technical the stage and said, “Modern technology can medical term for his total colour-blindness; he broaden our senses.” can only see a grey copy of our colourful world.

Harbisson sat, listened and thought, “Wow”.

But Harbisson can hear colours.

He went to speak to Montandon after the The ‘eyeborg’ he wears on his head converts lecture. “Hi, I’m Neil. I’m colour-blind. Can you colours into sound. The camera mounted on make something for me so that I can detect the antenna is only the visible part of the device, colour?” the part that passers-by point at and the part that Montandon thought about it for a moment and makes the security staff at airports very nervous answered: “Sure.” indeed. The real control centre is hidden under The next day Harbisson opened his mail. It was his early Beatles-era haircut. a rough outline for the eyeborg.

He wears a plastic ring on his head. On Colour-blind Neil Harbisson first heard colour the rear side of the ring is a 10cm2 chip with on March 22, 2004. He and Montandon were a 60MHz ARM7 processor. The chip transforms back in music studio 1 at Dartington College. the colour information the camera picks up into This time they were both on the stage. The sound by translating light frequencies into sound students in the audience were watching the frequencies. (The spectrum of 360 micro-notes prototype of the eyeborg being tested.

Harbisson can pick up ranges from 349.23 to Harbisson put on headphones and Montandon 697.11Hz, corresponding to an octave from F to took the camera in his hand. He pointed the lens at near F on the music sheet.) If Harbisson directs a piece of paper with type on it: the Windows logo, the art of music the camera at a red rose, for example, he hears an to be precise. The first colour Harbisson heard From top: Neil visualises F (= 349.23Hz). If he looks down at his yellow was red. Then yellow, then blue, then green. piano pieces – this is socks, the eyeborg plays a G. Once the lecture was over, Harbisson grabbed Rachmaninov Concerto No 3; Microtone graphics of Nicole The sound signals are transmitted via two hold of the camera and headphones. He walked Kidman’s lips; Harbisson gets down the corridor. As he was walking past mini loudspeakers which are located above inspiration, his latest piece is a noticeboard, he heard a familiar sound. He Harbisson’s temples and press down on his scalp.

‘The Sound of the Orange Tree’ They play the notes straight into his head via stood still. “This board is red,” he said. bone conduction. (Give a tuning fork a good strike “It was crazy and exciting at the same time,” and hold the handle to your skull. That’s what the world Harbisson recalls. “The eyeborg gave me a new sense of sounds like to Neil Harbisson.) perception. Within 15 minutes I could recognise and He hears the notes the whole time and his colour-sound distinguish four colours. I wandered around with the eyeborg perception interacts with his other senses. He can go from on until the battery went flat. Down the corridors, around the 12 to 18 hours, depending on the intensity of the colour, campus and then through the town. I wanted to listen to the but then the battery needs to be recharged. The eyeborg has walls of the houses. They were colourful.” a USB connection for that purpose. If Harbisson is out and Harbisson decided to have the eyeborg fitted onto his head about and the notes get quieter, he goes to McDonald’s, orders permanently. The first model looked like a pair of headphones a coffee and plugs himself in. He wears the eyeborg 24 hours with a cheap webcam stuck on top. “People would laugh at me a day – in bed and even in the shower. When he’s sleeping when they saw me with this thing on my head. But over time it’s silent, as the eyeborg doesn’t detect black, while in the the feeling that I was ridiculous went away. Now I don’t care shower he hides the chip with clingfilm and washes his hair what other people think of me,” he says. separately from the rest of his body.

The parish priest of Mataró, who came to see Harbisson one “I don’t feel excluded any more now that I can hear and day, was one of those most concerned. He had a theological distinguish colours,” he says. To start with, I had a five-week objection, on the grounds that God had not envisaged men headache because of the notes. But then my brain got used to it.” wearing eyeborgs. He should switch off the thing and accept his colour-blindness. But for Harbisson, the eyeborg is part Harbisson’s perception of the world changed in October 2003. of his body – an extra sense that compensates for a biological At the time he was studying Music Composition at Dartington shortcoming. There were soon problems, however, due to College of Arts in south-west England. On October 31, Adam Harbisson’s love of travel. In the post-9/11 world, bits of 63

Kidman: “Is this a joke?”

Harbisson: “No, I want to work out the sound frequencies in your face” Kidman: “So, how do I sound?”

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technology strapped to your head give grounds the fans and signing autographs in Leicester for suspicion. Especially at airports. And even Square. She also noticed the eyeborg straight away. more especially when they emit funny noises.

Kidman: “Are you filming me?”

When Harbisson went to renew his British Harbisson: “No, I’m listening to the colours passport in 2004 – he has dual nationality – he in your face.” sent a photo of himself wearing the eyeborg. He had Kidman: “Is this some kind of a joke?” shoulder-length hair and a black, barely noticeable Harbisson: “No, I want to work out the sound device on his head. The passport office rejected frequencies in your face.” the photograph. “No electronic equipment in the Kidman: “OK, so how do I sound?” photograph,” they explained.

Harbisson: “…red.”

Harbisson wrote to his doctor. And to Adam Kidman: (dazzling smile).

Montandon. Montandon and his doctor wrote to Harbisson had to force his way past two the passport office. Harbisson’s doctor argued bodyguards at the rear exit to the Palau de la that his patient felt physically unwell without the Música in Barcelona in order to get close to eyeborg and that it was important for his health Woody Allen in March 2010. Allen was holding and Montandon explained the technical background. his beloved clarinet when Harbisson spoke to him.

And Harbisson won the fight. His current He told Allen he’d like to make a sound portrait of passport photo shows him wearing the eyeborg his face. The master director gave Harbisson his answer as part of his body. The document confirms his in an incomprehensible murmur. status as a cyborg, a person who uses cybernetic “I had to explain it to him in greater detail to technology to expand his physical senses. start with,” Harbisson reveals. “Then he turned Harbisson explains: “The eyeborg his face towards me. He looked a little ill at ease software works in conjunction with my brain. when I examined him with the eyeborg.”

If I move my head to the left, the eyeborg Woody Allen’s piercing lips are extraordinary, responds to my movement and I hear the Harbisson explains. They are an F. colours on my left. That’s what distinguishes You can hear all of Harbisson’s sound portraits the eyeborg from something like an MP3-player, on YouTube (“Sound Portraits by Neil Harbisson”). which is just an instrument that plays music.”

On the first hearing you notice straight away This colour-sound perception turned that Nicole Kidman’s face chord sounds more the science bit Harbisson’s brain into a testing ground for harmonious than that of Prince Charles. Harbisson From top: An earlier eyeborg cybernetic art. Thanks to his musical ear, thinks that’s down to her turquoise eyes. from 2004; Neil modelling Harbisson is able to do more than just recognise the 2011 version; the Sonochromatic colour wheel colours using sound. He can also translate sound “To be or not to be a cyborg” appears on a screen which matches 360 different back into colour. The stairway of his childhood in a conference room at the Museu Marítim in tones to the same number home in Mataró is decorated with visual Barcelona. Neil Harbisson, the cyborg-artist who of colours symphonies he painted himself: the first hundred dresses like a dandy, is giving a talk about his life notes of Mozart’s Eine kleine Nachtmusik, represented – 28 years compressed into 18 minutes. “It’s no by colourful oblongs with the first note in the middle. It is an use telling a colour-blind person that the Red Cross station is acute way to map classical music. behind the yellow house,” Harbisson explains. Colourful slides “Mozart’s mainly yellow,” Harbisson explains. “Lady Gaga dart across the screen: colour scales, Harbisson as a comic sounds deep pink.” character, the Woody Allen photo.

His sound portraits of famous people show just how Then the next image appears: “Cyborg Foundation” it says. exciting a cyborg’s understanding of art can be. Since 2005, It’s Harbisson’s big project for 2011. he’s been scanning his subjects’ eyes, hair, lips and skin colour “We want to make our expertise available to people and working the notes into a chord. The first person he who want to broaden their senses cybernetically,” he says. experimented on was the heir to the throne, Prince Charles, The Cyborg Foundation, a small office on the TecnoCampus who visited Dartington College in 2005. in Mataró, is designated to become a sort of information “He noticed my electronic eye. I politely asked him if centre. The TecnoCampus is an extensive research park with I could listen to his face,” Harbisson explains. Prince Charles a sea view, computer laboratories and other scientific facilities. was fascinated and stood still while Harbisson scanned his Harbisson and his colleague Moon Ribas are the go-to people face with the camera. Once that was done, they shook hands. there. “Blind people can use the eyeborg, as can people with “Amazing what people can do today,” Prince Charles exclaimed achromatopsia,” explains Harbisson. “We’re helping design before he carried on his way. and produce new eyeborg devices.”

Harbisson’s analysis? “Charles’s lips sounded like a high E. Could he give his project a slogan?

But his hair was almost inaudible.”

“Yes: ‘The world needs more cyborgs – call us’.”

To read more about Neil’s projects and see his portfolio of work, log on to: Two years on, London in 2007, Nicole Kidman walked in www.neilharbisson.com; www.cyborgfoundation.com front of Harbisson’s lens as she was making her way through 65

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the maverick Tom Wegener is a longboard legend from Los Angeles who fell in love with Australia. The man behind the revival of the alaia, a surfboard used by the ancient Hawaiians, Wegener is hoping the Tuna, a mass-produced board modelled on the alaia, will reinvigorate surfing Words: Robert Tighe Photography: Trent Mitchell

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Tom with an olo – one of the ‘big boards’ he now champions, reviving the trend for handcrafted wooden boards popular when surfing was a fledgling activity

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om Wegener is giving me the tour of the two-anda-half acre plot he calls his ‘Creation Plantation’.

The property, a mile or so outside Cooroy in the Sunshine Coast hinterland, in Queensland, Australia, backs onto the Bruce Highway, but towering gum trees and thick trunks of bamboo provide ample shelter from passing traffic and prying eyes.

In the front yard is a homemade half-pipe.

Out back is a three-storey shack, a wonderful old wooden building with a set of rickety stairs up the side, leading to the loft where Wegener shapes his wooden surfboards. Since he bought the property in 2001, Wegener has planted orange trees, fig trees, passion fruit vines, tropical apples, dragon fruit, guava, pawpaw, persimmon and peach trees. Lettuce, spinach, corn, tomatoes and fresh herbs vie for space in the vegetable patch and half a dozen egg cartons recycled as biodegradable seed trays are ready for planting. Sawdust from the ramshackle shed is used to mulch the trees and Wegener knows more about composting than any garden centre guru.

“We want to be hippies so bad,” he laughs.

“We want to create a green parallel universe so if everything else collapses, we’ll at least be able to feed ourselves.”

This rural retreat is a long way from the suburban affluence of Palos Verdes in Los Angeles where Wegener was born in 1965. Palos Verdes is the kind of place where ‘desperate housewives’ go to the country club for tennis lessons from the pro with six68

Tom takes time out to ride his Tuna board at First Point; the workshop, nestled in the organic vegetable plot where Tom works; after resin from foam boards brought him out in a rash, he now works exclusively in wood

If “wanting to be hippies” was Tom’s dream for his family, he certainly has managed it with a lifestyle that perfectly merges the work/life combination. Organic fruit and vegetable production on the family plot of land, known as the ‘Creation Plantation’ is approaching near self-sufficiency

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pack abs and a smile full of teeth. It also boasts some of the best surf spots in California and locals with a reputation for protecting their patch from outsiders.

Wegener loved the waves but hated the attitude.

“In high school you had the popular surfers and they were a funny clique so I gravitated towards longboards,” says Wegener. “The longboard spots were empty apart from a few nice older people and the shortboard breaks were crowded and aggressive.

It was a simple decision.”

Wegener was a sponsored longboard rider and a philosophy student during the 1980s before making the unlikely decision to become a lawyer.

Surfing was his passion, but it was tough to earn a buck as a longboarder so he put on a suit and tie and worked in real estate and contracts law. He lasted three years – the longest three years of his life.

“I didn’t just hate it; I loathed it. Being a lawyer in Los Angeles is the bottom of the bottom. Everyone is unhappy – the judge is unhappy, your client is unhappy, the clerk is unhappy – you’re surrounded by unhappy people. I like being happy.”

He quit in 1993 to head up the newly formed Surfboard Industry Association. The association tried to introduce safety practices to the industry in California, but infighting forced it to fold within a year. Wegener was out of a job, but ironically his profile as a surfer had never been higher. He had started making surf movies and was big in Japan.

“Longboarding was exploding over there and this Japanese company wanted to start a Tom Wegener brand. Then the yen crashed and the project was canned instantly.”

Wegener waved goodbye to fame and fortune and went back to making movies. In 1998 he came to Australia to promote Siestas & Olas (Spanish for naps and waves), living out of the back of a van on sponsored Corona and not much else. But the once miserable lawyer was now a happy camper.

“Some Aussie friends told me if I came here I’d never leave. I drove up the coast and I remember sitting on a beach – there were dogs at my feet, I had a beer in my hand, there were topless girls soaking up the sun, some people were having a barbecue – and I thought to myself, ‘All of these are heavy-duty crimes in the United States. This is freedom.’”

Tom met Margie Hughes, a DJ on Noosa Heat FM, while he was in the studio to plug his movie.

“I walked into the radio station and saw her through a glass wall. Our eyes met and that was it. She interviewed me about the movie and I interviewed her. I said to myself, ‘I’m going to marry you.’”

That was March 1998. They were married in June that year and their son, Finley, was born in February 1999.

“I was so stoked,” smiles Wegener. “Like a lot of Americans I was ready to run. America was falling apart and I was looking for something different. There are a lot of people who search for their destiny and come up just short. I got lucky.”

Lucky too that longboarding was just starting to take off in Australia and Noosa, according to Wegener, has the best longboard waves in the world.

“I was looking for something different” He started shaping longboards again, something he had been doing since he was a 12-year-old at high school, and soon he was struggling to keep up with the orders. Everything was hunky dory until the toxins from the foam boards he was working on began to play havoc with his health.

“I got near the stuff and I’d break out in a rash.

I was glassing a foam board one day and I came inside and Finley, who was four at the time, said, ‘Daddy, your breath smells of resin.’ That was it; I decided to stop using resin. I decided to make surfboards out of wood. What I had to figure out was how to make a wooden surfboard that rode as good as, or better than, a foam board.”

To do that, he needed the right timber. He found it in Paulownia. Paulownia is native to China, but in recent years it has become popular in Australia due to its fast-growing and versatile properties. Paul Joske, a surfboard shaper from Coffs Harbour, was one of the first to make a surfboard from Paulownia and he showed it to Wegener who realised the wood had potential. Wegener started using it in his foam boards for stringers, nose blocks, tail blocks and fins and discovered it was an almost perfect raw material.

“It had these incredible, almost impossible characteristics,” he says. “It was light, easy to work with, very strong, and most importantly, it didn’t soak up salt water. We discovered that by accident and it was a eureka moment. That discovery led directly to the alaia revival.”

Initially Wegener used Paulownia to make handcrafted hollow wood surfboards and he couldn’t keep up with the demand. He had two people working for him and more than 100 orders on the books so he celebrated with a trip to Hawaii in 2004. It was a family holiday, but Wegener was also a man on a mission. Like most surfing scholars, he had studied the bible, Surfing: A History of the Ancient Hawaiian Sport by Ben Finney and James Houston. As a surfboard shaper he was intrigued by the chapters on the development of the surfboard and particularly by pictures of the olo and the alaia in the Bishop Museum in Honolulu.

The olo was a long, thick board, reserved for the ancient Hawaiian chiefs in the 1800s. The alaia was a much shorter, thinner board made from a plank of wood less than an inch thick but renowned for its speed and manoeuvrability. While the alaia shape was the blueprint for most surfboards in the early 20th century, the olo was considered a relic and Finney says “the last time a traditional olo caught an ocean swell was around 1915”.

Wegener wanted to ride an olo to mark his 40th birthday – “I wanted to experience the sport of kings” – but he needed to see the boards in the 71

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“The alaia went faster than any other board” Bishop Museum to work out how to make his own.

“When I saw them I just flipped out,” he says.

“I was like ‘holy shit’. The curves were mindboggling. I came away hell-bent on making an olo but it turned out to be such a big project.”

Wegener takes me out to the paddock to show me how big. To the side of the shed is a rough-andready surfboard rack and pride of place goes to the olo – all 16ft and 150lb of it. That’s taller than a double-decker bus and nearly 25 times as heavy as a standard shortboard. Not surprisingly it takes two of us to lift it.

“People saw me coming into the surf with it and would freak out,” laughs Wegener, “but I surfed it and surfed it until I figured it out. I was just challenged by it. The ancient Hawaiians must have been incredible surfers. You need so much strength to paddle an olo and your timing has to be perfect to ride a wave. I had some horrendous wipeouts, but when you catch a wave on the olo, it’s a joy. It’s just a different type of surfing.”

After the olo, Wegener made an alaia and on March 5, 2005, he took the boards, some beers and some friends down to his favourite break at First Point off Noosa Heads for his 40th birthday.

A local surfer, Jacob Stuth, grabbed the alaia and started a sensation.

“He got on this wave and took off and he was like, whoosh! The board was skittering he was going so fast. We were like ‘man, that wasn’t supposed to happen’. There were good surfers on good surfboards out there and the alaia went faster than any other board. The fin boards couldn’t keep up.”

The olo and the alaia are finless boards making them much harder to control than modern boards where two and three fins are common. Removing the fin made the boards faster and freer. So if the finless boards are so fast and so much fun, why have they been gathering dust in a museum for so long?

“One guy did make one in the early ’90s,” explains Wegener, “but they took it out and said, ‘Nah, it doesn’t work’. They didn’t take the time to learn how to ride it. Now we have good enough surfers to ride them, but 20 years ago the level of surfing was much lower than it is now.”

Good surfers like David Rastovich and Tom Carroll endorsed the alaia and for a few years it was the must-have board. While the hype may have died down somewhat in recent years, these boards haven’t gone away.

“Alaias are normal now and that is the biggest compliment you can give a movement,” says Wegener. The ultimate compliment, though, came from Ben Finney, the anthropologist who had 72

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The finless wooden boards are harder to ride but have developed a fanbase as experienced surfers realised their potential for greater speed in the water; Tom’s list shows who he has shaped alaia boards for

Producing the wooden boards is a labour of love but it doesn’t put food on the table, so Tom has diversified with the production of an epoxy board, made under licence. “My passion is making the wooden boards, but in order to survive you have to have a separate stream of income”

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“My passion is making the wooden boards” written about the history of Hawaiian surfing. “‘Tom, I’m so proud of you’, he told me. ‘You proved that the ancient Hawaiians surfed well.’”

While Wegener has received plenty of awards for his work – including Shaper of the Year in 2009 from Surfing, the leading American surf magazine – there was just a hint of a backlash last year on some online forums after the launch of the Tuna, an epoxy alaia pop-out board licensed to Global Surf Industries.

Made in Thailand, over a thousand Tunas have already been sold, more than the number of handcrafted wooden boards Wegener has made since he started the business in 1998. But although surfers may be buying the boards, but purists have accused Wegener of selling out. Derek Hynd, an Australian shaper/surfer said, “He’s killed Bambi… he’s sold out to the ‘crass mass.’”

Wegener is hurt by the accusation.

“He calls me a hypocrite for selling out? Derek was a professional surfer and worked for one of the big companies for years and all of a sudden he’s calling me a sell-out because I’m working with a big company? I’ve put years into this. I helped revive ancient Hawaiian surfing, but we’ve lost money year after year and we still lose money every year on the alaias.”

His bank balance hasn’t been helped by the fact that Wegener has given so many boards away to friends and people in the industry, or that he made a DVD showing people how to shape their own alaia, but he’s hoping the Tuna will be the golden ticket that provides some payback and allows him to keep doing what he loves.

“My passion is making the wooden boards, but in order to survive as a surfboard maker you have to have a separate stream of income. Five per cent of the market is interested in what I do, the hollow wood surfboards and the alaias, but only a few surfers are willing to pay for them. The other 95 per cent want to experience it, but on modern, easy terms; the Tuna is for them.”

As well as selling truckloads of the Tuna, Wegener also expects it to widen surfers’ horizons.

“Surfing has turned into a spectator sport when it should be about getting in the water.

What the kids see on TV and YouTube, the radical manoeuvres and perfect waves, that’s what they expect all the time. You can ride the Tuna in really shallow, punchy little surf. It takes the whole alaia experience and makes it so much easier. It’s surfing stripped right back to its essence.”

A lot like life on ‘Creation Plantation’ then.

For more information on Tom’s surfing experiences and to check out his range of surfboards, visit www.tomwegenersurfboards.com

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THE HOUSE OF many colours

Downtown S達o Paulo: the city offers an environment which inspires the young artists who live there

action

Take six promising artists from São Paulo, Brazil, put them in an old skyscraper and you have the recipe for a unique exhibition Words: Giovana Mollona Photography: LOST ART

T

he grandeur of the past has given way to modern buildings that reach for the sky relentlessly.

Among them all, rooted in the heart of São Paulo and looking squashed from a lack of space, stands the Sampaio Moreira building. Built in 1920, it is a gem of urban architecture and the location for the 2010 edition of the The Edificio Sampaio Moreira has a unique history: Red Bull House of Art. it was the first skyscraper in São Paulo and has Celebrating the diverse art been declared a historic site. The district around and culture of Brazil’s biggest it eventually fell into decline but is currently going city, this project of ‘artists through a period of regeneration in residence’ seems to have taken a liking to the bustling metropolis, which is inhabited by people from every corner of the country.

Six of the young artists – Clara Ianni, Felipe Salem, Guilherme Peters, Jaime Lauriano, Marcos Brias and Sofia Borges – have always lived in São Paulo and during the course of their six-week residency, they have been listening to the soul of the city they know so well.

Few places offer locations teeming with history, along with a pulsating and inspiring urban lifestyle, like São Paulo. It can provoke passion and hatred, sometimes both simultaneously. Close to where its heart beats, the artists monitored its rhythms, inside and outside the studios, through the streets of Centro, where it all happens. Inside the building, along abandoned corridors hiding stories in their walls, they found a place to rest their minds that had long searched for new languages for their own artistic expressions.

As an icon of the past in search of a new story, the Sampaio Moreira building took in each of these artists. And in turn, they expressed their own interpretations of this period through new pieces presented at the closing exhibition. Many more for the future – everything from sketches to drafts – will have been born and this intense artistic experience will undoubtedly carry on in their daily routine, in their hearts, long after its completion.

Who better to tell us the story of what changed and what they took from the residency than the artists themselves? From the heartbeat of this bustling metropolis, we find out how art has breathed new life into São Paulo.

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Action

the artists in residence Six artists breathe new life into an abandoned skyscraper in the heart of the city: a refuge in which to create and be inspired

Marcos Brias An artist first and foremost Marcos Brias likes to experiment. To aid him, he makes the most of his vast professional experience: a mixture of visual arts, design, and work as an editor and translator. During his time in the residency, he set himself a limit for arriving, no later than two in the afternoon, and no limit for leaving. “My priority is being an artist,” he points out.

Brias, 29, is the oldest member of the group who took part in the Red Bull House of Art. Whether asked or not, he always gave advice to the other artists, who looked up to him. Yet none of this harmed his objective within the residency.

“I wanted to share the space with new people and deal with ideas I wasn’t familiar with,” he says.

Marcos has lived in countries such as France and the USA. Perhaps this is why he is so attracted to the concept of transience. The texts he wrote in the piece ‘Centaurus-Crux’, on display in the gallery, are a case in point. They appear when no one is around and disappear when someone approaches them, which turns on the movement-sensitive lights.

As they appear and disappear on the signs, the texts evoke another concept – lack of visibility.

“You know that expression throwing some light on the subject? This piece shows that sometimes that can prove to be false,” he explains.

affected by the abandoned feel of the Sampaio Moreira building, which was a perfect fit with her style.

“I’ll always remember the empty rooms, the dust on the ceiling and the wind. It’s a place filled with stories, and moreover, it’s beautiful,” she says.

The building and its atmosphere were defining factors in Borges’ decision to be part of the group of artists in the Red Bull House of Art. When she stepped into the residency, her preferred style of work had been photography. Borges remained faithful to this, dedicating herself to it in minute detail, as seen by the collection of 20 landscape images developed from a hand-crafted technique known as diorama, which intricately focuses on depth, perspective, and image volume.

Even so, the empty rooms of Sampaio Moreira invited the artist to take a gamble on video, an unprecedented language for her until now. Despite having only started out in her career relatively recently, Borges, who discovered art after leaving the countryside to study fashion in São Paulo, has already taken part in 30 collective and six solo exhibitions. Nevertheless, the experience she’s gained hasn’t rid her of a beginner’s enthusiasm.

“I would love to take part in this residency again, especially somewhere abroad,” she confesses.

Jaime Lauriano And the search for the city’s many facets

Sofia Borges Offering new perspectives on what isn’t seen Sofia Borges, 26, is not a fan of the literal, of what appears to the eye of the beholder without any mystery. Her art is direct, yet it also requires some imagination to reveal what isn’t seen.

This was Borges first experience of an artistic residency, and she truly allowed herself to be

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Enamoured by urban centres, particularly that of São Paulo, Jaime Lauriano’s work presents the biggest complication that the disorganised growth of a metropolis produces: a lack of memory, the very same thing that forced the residency building into disrepair.

Early on he had an interest in architecture, but this was soon replaced by art when he noticed the myriad options the latter offered over the former.

For the 25-year-old, the city is in constant construction and deconstruction, a result of intense real estate speculation that causes exoduses.

Lauriano warns us of this vicious cycle through the use of opposing objects welded together, such as hammers and wheelbarrows. The idyllic and destructive facets of the city also appear in a video in which Lauriano mixes scenes of urban disaster with audio from real estate commercials. What it depicts is disconcerting for anyone. The video shows scenes of forgotten areas on the outskirts along with the proposal to overpopulate other areas of the same city.

“Here we have terrible, forcibly directed mobility; it’s different to how people naturally act,” he reveals.

Above: Marcos Brias relaxes in front of the ephemeral text of his piece ‘Centaurus-Crux’. Left: ‘Landscape studies’ – a series of 20 images by Sofia Borges were developed using the diorama technique, creating powerful effects of depth and perspective. Below: Jaime Lauriano’s ‘No title #2’ – his work aims to neutralise the power of tools of construction and destruction

Above: Guilherme Peters sits on part of his ‘Bastille’ piece – pieces of a wall with skate wheels. Below: Illustrations by Clara Ianni – she highlights the destructive nature of the city.

Right: Felipe Salem’s tribute to Buddy Holly

action

Clara Ianni Looking at the invisible In front of the Sampaio Moreira building is a black flag, catching the eye of those walking past. If anyone feels bothered by it or muses upon the reason for covering the building’s grand entrance, it means artist Clara Ianni, 23, will have achieved one of the goals of her residency.

The flag, which stretches down to the pavement, is actually a large mourning band. Ianni’s installation brings to our attention the destructive potential of speculative real estate. It can devastate urban centres, filling them with larger and larger buildings, spoiling the city’s landscape. In much the same way, Ianni’s flag hides the beauty of the forefather of São Paulo’s skyscrapers.

“Why are these spaces left empty in a place brimming with movement?” asks Ianni, referring to São Paulo’s bustling city centre. For her, the city has the power to make something real out of the invisible. Even with so many empty spaces in the heart of the city, such as the building she is currently residing in, there are still a large number of people exiled to its outskirts.

Ianni is a shrewd observer of urban occupation and believes a change in mentality is needed to remedy these problems. Her other piece, on display in the gallery, consists of six photographs of clenched fists, a symbol of resistance and of freedom; the same freedom she found during her time wandering through the building.

Hers is a love/hate relationship with the city: the frenzied pace of a place where many people pass through, but where everyone keeps a distance from each other leaves her exhausted. During her residency, her studio on the 10th floor of the Sampaio Moreira building became her creative refuge.

Guilherme Peters A utopia of extreme movements Looking shy behind his glasses, Guilherme Peters, 23, is an artist of movement. Sport was his first love, and it was the catalyst in his discovery of art.

“When I surfed a wave or rode a skateboard, I would draw my movement in my head before it actually

happened”, says Peters, who began practising extreme sports when he was 10 years old.

Peters sees skateboarding as an emblem of movement due to its aesthetic and physical characteristics. As such, it maintains a constant presence in almost every piece he creates.

“Skateboarding also assumes an element of physical wearing-out that I wish to bring to my work as an artist,” Peters explains.

In one of the pieces he displayed at the Red Bull House of Art, he is the protagonist in a video of short performances in which he appears dressed as Robespierre, a politician from the French Revolution. During one of his performances, he grinds along two ramps on his skateboard and only stops when he loses his balance and falls. In another performance in the same video, he rides in circles leaning on a rifle until he falls to the ground.

Peters is interested in ideas that are established only to be demolished, much like the ideals represented by the character of Robespierre who, at the end of each performance, falls down.

“An attempt at creating a utopia is already something self-destructive by definition,” he says.

Construction and destruction also surface in another piece, ‘Bastille’. Pieces of what was once a wall are given movement and another meaning after skateboard wheels are attached. Once again, sport and art ride side by side in this artist’s work.

Felipe Salem Naturally restless Felipe Salem never has a moment’s rest and he has a mind capable of making unlikely connections, almost always producing visually stunning results.

Take the six blown-up photographs that occupy part of the gallery. They’re accompanied by a warning sign alerting the public of content that may shock.

Entitled, ‘Stories of sex and violence’, the piece consists of photographs of dolls made of plastic bottles, balloons and papier-mâché arranged in sexual positions or acting out violent scenes.

“They’re concerned with what it is to be human; I was intrigued by mixing infancy and innocence with disturbing images,” says Salem, 25.

The dolls idea came about during visual arts lessons he teaches to children and teenagers. It’s part of an arts degree he’s set finish this year.

At the beginning of his career, he restricted himself to producing non-material pieces, thus focusing on performances. In one of them, he spent seven hours standing chained to a trolley. Gallery visitors could then move him wherever they wished.

If Salem could, he’d set up camp in Sampaio Moreira for good. “It’s a spectacular place, it makes you want to come here to work and to live in the city centre,” he says.

To read more about the artists and see more of their work, visit www.redbull.com

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Body+ Mind more

Cenote Ik-Kil near Chichén Itzá, Mexico, was perfect for round two of 2010’s Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series

Contents 84 TRAVEL IDEAS Cliff diving locations to visit 86 GET THE GEAR Philip Köster’s windsurfing kit 88 TRAINING Top tips from the pros 89 LOVE OF ART Young Polish artists 90 BEST CLUBS Howlin’ Wolf, New Orleans, USA 91 TAKE 5 Elbow’s Guy Garvey on his top five albums 92 FOOD From simple to stir crazy 94 THE LIST 96 SAVE THE DATE

Photography: Ray Demski/red Bull Content pool

98 MIND’S EYE

This month’s travel tips

A Top-flight Holiday Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series

There are few better ways of combining sport and travel, than by jetting off to watch a round of the one of the world’s most exciting competitions 84

Sport, adventure and nature at its most impressive make for a pretty good combination

Sun, water and cliffs – that’s all you need. And this year the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series, now in its third season, will once again take us to some of the most mesmerisingly beautiful places on earth.

The seven stops on the 2011 calendar are worthy destinations not just for the athletes (even if they do enjoy more of a view from 27m up), they’re also wonderful locations.

So if you’re planning your next holiday, consider one of these places to witness extraordinary sport and get to know one of the very special corners of our planet. www.redbullcliffdiving.com

Round 1; March 12 Rapa Nui (Easter Island), Chile Mystical isolation It’s more than 2,175 miles from the Chilean mainland to Easter Island and its mysterious stone sculptures, the moais (pictured). The diving will take place off the south coast of Rapa Nui.

words: Ulrich Corazza. photography: Damiano Levati/Red Bull Content Pool, Manfred Gottschalk/Getty Images

Up and away

more body & mind 1

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Locations

in profile

A cultural trip for frequent flyers

Five of the best cliff divers in the world

photography: Greater Boston CVB (1), Steven L. Raymer/Getty Images (1), Red Bull Content Pool (9)

Gary Hunt Brilliant and progressive The 26-year-old won four contests last year, never placed lower than third and took the title. ‘The Brilliant Brit’ is seen as a progressive diver, always on the lookout for new dives. Hunt was the first athlete who risked a dive with a run-up in order to achieve more speed for his somersaults.

Round 2; April 10 Yucatán, Mexico

Round 3; May 22 Athens, Greece

Diving into the spiritual grotto Cenote Ik-Kil is just 2 miles away from the Mayan city of Chichén Itzá. The location, which pulls in countless tourists, offers crystal-clear waters and plays host to religious ceremonies come the equinox.

The power of water There are a number of myths tied up in Lake Vouliagmeni or Sunken Lake. The water is said to have healing properties and maintains a pleasant temperature of 24°C all year round.

Round 4; June 18 La Rochelle, France

Round 5; July 24 Malcesine, Italy

Diving into a sea of people This picturesque and historic port city will captivate you with its architecture. In 2010, the athletes dived into the Atlantic from a height of 27.5m to the impressive backdrop of 50,000 spectators.

A journey into the past Even the German writer Goethe was fascinated by the natural beauty of the area around Lake Garda.

The diving platform is set up on the walls of the Palazzo dei Capitani at the foot of Monte Baldo.

Round 6; August 20 Boston, USA

Round 7; September 4 Yalta, Ukraine

In the cradle of American history This East-Coast metropolis is already an American sporting town par excellence, thanks to its successful NHL, NBA and MLB teams. But this culturally diverse New England city breaks new ground with cliff diving.

High above the Black Sea Soaring above the cliffs of the Crimean Peninsula is the Swallow’s Nest castle of love. The popular tourist spot and movie backdrop is a suitably imposing setting for the end of the 2011 Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series.

Orlando Duque Experienced and balanced Duque, 36, lives on Hawaii and was the dominant force in cliff diving for the past decade, with nine world championship titles and two world records.

The Colombian secured a podium finish in all of last year’s six contests. The Duke is promising to train even harder for 2011, with gym workouts, too.

Artem Silchenko Hard working and self-confident His mother supported the idea of his becoming a cliff diver. The 27-year-old has lived in China, where his career began, for six years. Russian Silchenko was world champion in 2006. And having finished third for two seasons running, he wants to do better: “I can win and I must win,” he says.

Kent De Mond Consistent and in love with flying A convert to cliff diving from high-diving, De Mond’s favourite dives are front flips, “as those are the dives that feel most like flying”.

This 28-year-old American amateur stuntman is a consistent competitor, but he needs to take on harder dives to be a threat to the favourites.

Michal Navrátil Young and willing to learn Winning a qualifying competition in Australia secured this 25-year-old Czech’s entry into the World Series. As opportunities to train in the Czech Republic were few and far between, ‘Supratil’ used to devour any cliff diving broadcasts to learn how to develop his own skills.

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more body & mind

1 Neil Pryde sail The stronger the wind, the smaller the sail. I usually have four or five Atlas sails set up on land, between 3.5 and 5.4m2 for wave competitions; Evo III sails between 5.5 and 8.6 for slalom.

2 Boards The smallest are 71-, 76-, 81- and 86-litre wave boards; for slalom I use 86-, 92- and 109-litre iSonics.

3 Dakine rucksack Big, well-ordered and it looks good.

4 Panasonic video camera I use movie clips to helps to correct mistakes in training. This particular model is the HDC-SDT 750.

5 Firewire surfboard I surf because it helps to improve my speed and upper arm strength.

6 McDavid ankle brace I sail radically, and not every landing goes perfectly. You can twist your ankle. But these ankle braces help you make it to the end of the competition.

7 NPX neoprene protection Life’s a beach? Yeah… but sometimes it can be a damn cold one. We had temperatures of 3oC for the Red Bull Big Days, and after that I got myself a neoprene coat (not pictured), neoprene hood, neoprene shoes and neoprene gloves. No more freezing!

8 Neil Pryde replacement ropes If a harness line snaps, you need a replacement straight away.

I used to sail without a harness, but those days are over.

11 Oxbow boardshorts I have a whole heap of boardshorts, but these are my favourites. Exactly the right colour, and they’re supercomfortable to wear.

9 DC trainers Because I travel a lot I need comfortable shoes. And for that, my old DCs are unbeatable.

12 NPX neoprene wetsuit I wear 3.5mm when it’s warm, Zealot 5.3 if it’s cold. I wouldn’t go out in cold water if I didn’t have to, and definitely not without a wetsuit!

10 Optimum Time OS race watch Big enough to read easily, with a timer function. I run all my slalom heats with it. On land I wear a super-cool Chris Benz Depthmeter digital.

13 Startboard screw set Everything you need to quickly change fins or foot straps, including the right screwdrivers. www.philip-koester.de

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get the gear Essential pro kit

philip köster. The 17-year-old German windsurfer grew up on Gran Canaria, surrounded by perfect conditions for his sport. With this equipment he’s ready for anything, anywhere in the world

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words: werner jessner. photography: Philipp horak

Close to the Wind

I’m never without: 4 12 Tweezers To remove sea urchin spikes from my feet.

I ease the rest of the spike out with lemon.

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Antibiotic cream From Maui. For small scratches, cuts and anything that can get inflamed.

Jelly sweets My nightmare is when there’s nothing sweet to eat.

Chocolate’s OK, too.

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monday Morning

Afternoon

tuesday

Running: 10 min easy; 10 min medium; 10 min fast; n 5 min cool-dow

Ergometer: 10 min low; 10 min medium heart rate; 2 × 3 min full power; 2 min rest; 3 × 2 min full; 2 min rest; 4 × 1 min; 1 min rest; 10 min cool-down

No training Office and workshop day: answer emails; plan and organise; ser vice bikes and other ve equipment; ha s fun with friend

Sauna, jacuzzi, steam room

wednesday Ergometer: 10 min easy; 10 min medium.

Weights room: abdominals; leg press; squats; barbell; lateral pulldowns (60 per cent of maximum weight, four sets of 15 repetitions, 1 min rest between sets)

thursday

friday

Running: Cross-country: 10 min easy; 30 min easy; 10 min medium.

15 min medium; Weights room: ; int spr sec 90 4× abdominals; 90 sec rest; push-ups; 3 × 120 sec shoulder sprint; 120 sec girdle; rowing; sec 90 × 4 t; res back; lateral sprint; 90 sec pull-downs rest; 4 × 90 sec (60 per cent sprint; 90 sec. of maximum n mi 15 t; res weight, 4 sets cool-down. of 15 repetitions, Poor weather: 1 min rest r ete ergom between sets) ) als erv int me (sa

Optional, depending on weather: , snowboarding snowscoot or motocross

SUNDAY

Saturday Ergometer: 10 min easy; 10 min medium.

Weights room: abdominals; leg press; squats; barbell; lateral pulldowns (60 per cent of maximum weight, 4 sets of 15 repetitions, 1 min rest between sets) Swimming: 30 min followed by massage and relaxing

BMX: 20 min warm-up and technique training (no jumps); 40 min jump training, 3 sets t of 5 starts, firs upright, 90 sec rest between t runs, 5 min res between sets

Downhill: s; short stretche 2 warm-up 5-6 runs; timed runs; 15 min cool-down

Filip Polc, 29, Slovakia: This is how the worldclass downhiller and 4Crosser from the MS Evil Racing team prepares for the season in winter time

work out TRAIN LIKE THE PROS

On his exhaustive preparations for another successful summer season filip polc.

Success secrets from…

Benjamin Karl Three-time snowboard world champ Family man I draw a lot of strength and inner balance from my family. Fortunately, I have a lot of good friends who are top athletes as well. They pick me up whenever I lack motivation.

When the going gets tough In summer, I spend up to 30 hours a week on the ergometer or mountain bike. This hard physical

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and conditioning preparation really pays off, especially come the end of a long season.

Motor mouth I like to provoke a reaction with what I say, if I can sense victory. But I only do it when I think I have a realistic chance of winning. Maybe other athletes might think of it as pressure. But it helps me to focus and motivate myself.

It’s the kit My gear set-up is perfectly adapted to my needs. No one else in the Snowboard World Championships uses my plate-binding system.

Well read I really rate A Day In My Life by Olympic Nordic Combined champion Felix Gottwald. I read it during the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, where I won silver.

Like motocross, downhill mountain biking is one of those sports that places demands on the whole body.

It’s tougher too, because the rider has to pedal rather than rely on an engine.

If, like multiple-medal-winner Filip Polc, you also compete in 4Cross at an international level, double the number of races in a season means double the stress. So if you don’t build up your endurance levels in winter, you’ll burn out in summer, and if you don’t build up your strength, you’ll be too slow.

You also won’t last the distance if you don’t vary your training. Then there’s training to improve riding technique, so is it any wonder that, even at a distance, Filip Polc’s winter training schedule (above) smells like sweat?

Check out his team here: www.ms-racing.at

PHOTOgraphy: Ray Demski/Red Bull Content Pool (2), Sergio Urday/Red Bull Content Pool (2)

Sweat smell of success

mo r e bo d y & min d

Love of art

In dark woods

Hangart-7 in Hangar-7

contemporary art.

Short cut (above) from the series, A few most interesting ideas to reach Mount Everest,

by Michał Szuszkiewicz (right)

PHOTOgraphy: Magda Wunsche/Red Bull Hangar-7 (1)

The work of eight young Poles launches this year’s prestigious art programme at Hangar-7 in Salzburg

The 17th edition of the HangART-7 exhibition offers a profound insight into contemporary Polish painting.

In Dark Woods features paintings from eight highly gifted young artists from all over Poland, who, in the words of curator, Lioba Reddeker, “Challenge our senses with demanding techniques.”

They include Warsaw’s Michał Szuszkiewicz, who is already attracting a lot of attention in his homeland for his interplay of abstraction and realism.

“Michał juggles all conventions,” wrote one well-known Polish art critic recently.

The exhibition is open to the public until early May; entry is free.

More info at: www.hangar-7.com/en

Night of the world, Michał Zawada

Beat the cold with the warm, Dorota Kozieradzka

Child looking from my window, Michał Chudzicki

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more body & mind

Beatsteaks Boombox (Warner)

Howlin’ Wolf, New Orleans

Since their album Smack Smash (2004) the Beatsteaks have been playing in the Champions League of rock ’n’ roll. Mangy guitar riffs meet euphoria-inducing melodies, reckless punk meets pop to please the masses. Many groups have attempted this kind of brazen balancing act, only to attract cries of “sell-out”. But the Berlinbased quintet has once again steered clear of such accusations. With charm and wit, as unerring as FC Barcelona. Boombox (Warner Music) is a firework display.

Powerful, breathtaking, each rocket different from the last. Desolate punk onslaughts like Bullets From Another Dimension stand alongside the nimble ska of summer anthem Automatic and the deliriously joyful single Milk & Honey.

This is a great piece of work: as catchy as it is raw, as enthralling as a penalty shootout in the Champions League.

Dorian Concept Her Tears Taste Like Pears (Ninja Tune) It was four years ago: British music connoisseur Gilles Peterson played a track from Dorian Concept for the first time on his BBC radio programme Worldwide. The back-announcement had listeners pricking up their ears: “I call him the new Joe Zawinul of Austria!” The piece appeared shortly after on Concept’s debut album When Planets Explode, which confirmed the Viennese keyboard maestro’s breakthrough with extraterrestrial jazz, both futuristic and playful.

Now Concept is blowing up another planet: on his first EP for renowned British label Ninja Tune, laser synths twitter over warm jazz chords, and the beats bumble and stumble, solid bass sounds skipping between them. So good it could be Sun Ra conducting a Gameboy orchestra.

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The Stooges Brass Band (left); Mannie Fresh (right)

Howl into the night

The Big Easy is the place to be in the next two months, with Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest ensuring the city’s reputation as the best place to drink, dine and dance is maintained. Where else to kick off than the New Orleans institution run

by Howie Kaplan…

Address

907 South Peters New Orleans, LA 70130 www.howlin-wolf.com

We love running a club in this town because...

This is a town that loves music. It’s such a part of everyday life. You don’t need to plan to go to a show here, you can just head to a church or walk down the street and it’s closed off because there’s a brass band playing.

The club’s name is a reference to...

Chester Burnett, who was known as (the blues musician) Howlin’ Wolf.

The first thing that you see when you enter the club is... …our 45ft hand-carved mahogany bar – it came from the Lexington Hotel in Chicago, which was originally Al Capone’s hotel. The stage is wide open with great sight-lines, no support beams, no stairs and no VIP areas.

We pick our music acts because…

We do everything we do to embrace New Orleans culture, so we’ve got a lot of brass bands, funk bands.

Our main focus is locals.

We usually start really going at…

We open doors at nine, but most people don’t show up until 11 or 12. We’d tried starting shows earlier, but people would still show up at 10 or 11pm.

To pass our doorman you gotta... …buy a ticket. We’re not a red velvet rope kind of place. Everyone pays the cover. That’s where these musicians get paid. If you’re looking for VIP treatment you’re not coming to us.

Photography: Scott lopker (1), Erika Goldring/Red Bull Photofiles (2)

albums of the month

BESt CLUBs

more body & mind

take five The albums that influenced the stars

Led Zeppelin IV I was six the first time I heard this and it was the first real rock record I’d ever listened to. It generated a lot of confusing feelings. Until then I wanted to be a soldier or a superhero, but this album made me want to be a drummer. It’s quite twodimensional in a way – Robert Plant’s lyrics are rubbish – but the sheer power of it and the stories surrounding the album just keep on producing magic for me.

Photography: Gary Calton/eyevine/interTOPICS (1)

Santana – Abraxas My high-school girlfriend bought this on cassette for me in Vibes, our record store in Bury. I fell in love with it.

When me and my mates talked about the future, I said I wanted to be in band like Santana. It influenced early Elbow sound, although it’s hard to imagine that now.

Our shows would go on for hours with loads of solos and very few lyrics. It was music to groove to, our Santana era.

“I wanted to be a soldier until I found music”

Multi-award-winning rock band Elbow are back this month with their fifth album Build a Rocket Boys! and an extensive UK stadium tour. Singer Guy Garvey (above) took time out from rehearsals for the coming shows to talk to Nick Amies about the five albums that have been most influential in his life and career

Joni Mitchell – For the Roses This album started my obsession with songwriting.

Joni puts it right out there: she hates this man but loves him too. There are complicated topics on there.

It’s honest and devastatingly naked. These are words from the heart and it made me want to say things in a very different way. It took time and work to open myself up to that kind of writing.

Talk Talk – Spirit of Eden You’d never be able to make an album like this now. To follow up an album of hits with such a brave, sparse, personal album – it just wouldn’t fly in today’s industry. It blew me away.

It’s pure art. The music and production are excellent.

When I listen to it with my eyes closed, I actually feel like I’m physically moving, it takes you somewhere. This record had a profound effect on the band and we all agree that it hasn’t aged. I’d love to be able to write a record like that.

Smashing Pumpkins – Siamese Dream We love a bit of drama in Elbow and this is a series of dramatic events from start to finish. There hadn’t been a rock album like that for years, and when it was released it spoke to me. It has that theatrical quality we try to bring to Elbow, but it’s also tight and controlled; those taut drums, the caged feedback. It’s edgy on the brink of explosive, but still in control. It’s not my favourite Pumpkins record, but for influence, this is the one.

Elbow: Build a Rocket Boys! is released on March 7 on Fiction/Polydor www.elbow.co.uk

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the best chefs in the world our guest at Hangar-7

The Virtues Of Simplicity Claus-Peter Lumpp. This

triple-Michelinstarred chef says the first rule of cooking is KISS: Keep It Simple, Stupid

“People cook well when they keep it simple. And all you need for that are a couple of good pans, an oven and a hob,” Claus-Peter Lumpp explains. But Lumpp’s ‘simple’ isn’t necessarily the same as yours.

For example, he regards as ‘simple’ sweetbread glazed with vanilla and balsamic vinegar on a bean mash (pictured), or roast saddle and haunch of Bareiss venison with porcini and rosemary blinis.

He learned to cook at the Hotel Bareiss, then known as the Kurhotel Mitteltal, having started his training in 1985. His culinary skills have since taken him around the world. Lumpp learned his trade under such star chefs as Heinz Winkler, Alain Ducasse and Eckart Witzigmann, of the Ikarus restaurant in Salzburg’s Hangar-7, before returning in 1992 to the Bareiss, which he now runs.

“The best day of my career was November 13, 2007,” Lumpp recalls. That was the day the Bareiss was awarded its third Michelin star, the highest accolade a restaurant can receive.

My Restaurant Hotel Bareiss in the Black Forest Restaurant Bareiss Gärtenbühlweg 14 72270 Baiersbronn-Mitteltal www.bareiss.com “The restaurant was there long before me, and it’s one of the most wonderful I’ve ever been to,” Lumpp explains.

The wine list is just as impressive as the opulent dining hall: with thousands of choices available, everyone is guaranteed to find the right bottle.

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Sauces. “Every dish needs the right foundation, and that’s usually a good sauce.”

Fat. As far as Lumpp is concerned, a really good sauce is made from fat and mayonnaise and he makes no secret of the fact. “Fat is quite simply a flavour-carrier. You just can’t do without it, even if many people think otherwise.”

The recurrent theme. Just as important to Lumpp as the dish’s foundation is the connection between the main course and the side dish. “They must be similar. They either need to have the same herbs and spices or the same sauce.”

Harmony. “Basically, all the ingredients need to work perfectly with each other and there’s only one result I want at the end of it all: that it turns out delicious.”

Who’s cooking at Hangar-7 in March?

Every month, a guest chef comes to the Ikarus Restaurant in Hangar-7, at Salzburg airport, and creates two menus in conjunction with the permanent team.

The guest chef for March 2011 is 47-year-old German Claus-Peter Lumpp, who’s head chef at the three-Michelin-star Restaurant Bareiss at the Hotel Bareiss in Baiersbronn.

You can find more information on the Ikarus restaurant and Lumpp’s menus at www.hangar-7.com.

words: Lisa Blazek. photography: Rainer Herrmann/Red Bull Hangar-7

My philosophy

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Tastes of the world National dishes to make at home

Flying Jacob

They’re not native to Scandinavia, but bananas have made it onto the menu words: Klaus Kamolz. photography: Fotostudio Eisenhut & Mayer

Sweden.

Chicken, banana and peanuts? Cooking with a Caribbean twist, you may think, or something African, but in fact this dish has nothing to do with either.

The Flying Jacob was invented in Sweden and it’s not a traditional recipe. Its invention can even be pinpointed to a specific day: the morning in 1974 that issue 13 of the national cooking magazine Allt om Mat [All About Food] appeared; it included a recipe sent in by a certain Ove Jacobsson, who worked in the air freight industry.

Presumably he must have cooked for his kids one day and was proud of what he’d come up with.

But then something strange happened. Flying Jacob – the dish’s name comes from the inventor’s job – took Sweden by storm, decades before Facebook and Twitter made new fads normal. The dish became a national institution when it landed on Swedish school dinner menus. It has hardly left them since.

The recipe Serves 4 people 1kg chicken breast (skinned and boned) Vegetable oil 150g bacon 250ml chicken soup 200ml whipped cream 100ml crème fraîche

1tsp garam masala (optional) 3tbsp sweet chilli sauce 200g mushrooms 1 small onion 2 bananas 50g salted peanuts Salt Pepper

Preheat the oven to 230°C. Cut the chicken breast into bite-sized chunks, season and sauté in vegetable oil until golden brown. Next add the finely chopped bacon and onion and deglaze the pan with the chicken soup. Reduce the heat and stir in the whipped cream and crème fraîche.

Season with garam masala, chilli sauce, salt and pepper.

Cut the mushrooms into fairly thick slices and sauté in a little oil. Let any resulting liquid evaporate. Stir into the pan with the chicken and then pour into an ovenproof baking dish. Cut the bananas into pieces approximately 0.5cm thick and spread around the baking dish. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes, sprinkling the salted peanuts over the dish halfway through the cooking time. Serve with rice.

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Red Bull Crashed Ice, Quebec

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WINTER SPORTs BIATHLON WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS RUSSia (1) Khanty-Mansiysk, 03–13.03.11 Austria’s Dominik Landertinger has happy memories of this town in the Urals. At the dress rehearsal for the World Championships last year, the 2009 mass-start World Champion secured the win in his favourite event.

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RED BULL COLD RUSH USA (2) Silverton Mountain, 14–18.03.11 Top freeskiers including Sean Pettit and Grete Eliassen go head-to-head in the Big Mountain and Big Air freeskiing events in Colorado. And there’s no need for judges.

The skiers choose a winner themselves.

FIS SKIING WORLD CUP FINAL SWITZERLAND (3) Lenzerheide, 16–20.03.11 They’re not racing for medals here, they’re racing for glass. One race per discipline will help to decide which of the world’s best get their hands on a coveted World Cup globe.

Red Bull Crashed Ice cANADA (5) Quebec, 19.03.11 The motherland of ice hockey plays host to this hard-as-nails, head-to-head, on-ice action to decide the overall victor of the Red Bull Crashed Ice World Championship.

FIS SKI JUMPING WORLD CUP SLOVENIA (4) Planica, 18–20.03.11 The final ski jumping event of the season sees the aerial artists make supernatural demands on their bodies one last time. The question is, can any of them beat Bjørn Einar Romøren’s 2005 world record of 239m?

RED BULL NORDIX SWITZERLAND (6) Bolgen, Davos, 01–02.4.2011 Steep, arduous climbs contrast with lightning-quick downhill speeds as the best Nordic sportsmen, in various disciplines from cross-country to biathlon, line up in a unique Nordic ski-cross event to decide who will win ultimate bragging rights.

The List March 2011

There’s a ton of sporting action this month, from snowcovered pistes to grand prix tracks. and music is always in season – here’s our guide of what’s not to be missed 94

Motorsport WRC Rally Mexico (7) León, 03–06.03.11 After the ice and snow of Sweden, the second rally of the season is on gravel. And Sébastien Loeb is the man to beat; he’s taken the win here for the last four years in a row.

Night of the Jumps GERMANY (8) Berlin, 05–06.03.11 The high-octane world of freestyle motocross rolls up for a night of aerial daring. High-jump and whip contests, and the climactic freestyle final, will separate the good from the great.

FORMULA ONE GRAND PRIX Bahrain (9) Bahrain International Circuit, 13.03.11 World Championship winner Sebastian Vettel and team-mate Mark Webber take the brand new RB7 onto the track for the first race in longest season in F1 history.

MotoGP Qatar (10) Losail, 20.03.11 The MotoGP World Championship begins with a night race. Last year, Jorge Lorenzo won in MotoGP, Toni Elias in Moto2 and Marc Márquez in the 125cc class, creating an all-Spanish line-up of world champions, who now set out to defend their crowns.

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festivals 5 Days Off NETHERLANDS (18) Melkweg, Paradiso, NIMk, Amsterdam, 02–06.03.11 Five days off… what to do with all that time? Go dancing – that’s what the people organising this Amsterdam festival recommend. And in view of all the eclectic electronic music on offer, it’s quite a tempting idea. Split between two of Amsterdam’s most renowned music venues – Melkweg and Paradiso – and the Dutch Institute of Media Art, NIMk, there’s dubstep from DMZ, freestyle rave from 2ManyDJs and sweet disco sounds from Hercules and Love Affair.

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RAMFest SOUTH AFRICA (19) Nekkies Holiday Resort, Worcester, 04–06.03.11 South African hip-hop collective Die Antwoord – the name means ‘The Answer’ in Afrikaans – take to the open-air stage at RAMfest alongside other local favourites.

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Drumming icon Tony Allen’s got the groove

Jimi Tenor & Tony Allen POLAND (13) Klub Kultowa, Wrocław, 13.03.11 Jazz gets a new beat as manic Finnish saxophone great Jimi Tenor teams up with Afrobeat drumming pioneer Tony Allen for what will undoubtedly be an enthrallingly unpredictable evening of musical greatness.

Photography: Jörg Mitter/Red Bull Photofiles, Action Images, Jazz Archiv/picturedesk.com, Getty Images

MUSIC INTERPOL AND MATTHEW DEAR GERMANY (11) Docks, Hamburg, 03.03.11 It’s a match as sweet as Harold and Maude, as violent as King Kong vs Godzilla. Interpol, those kings of elegiac indie rock, perform live with Matthew Dear, dance magician and master of melancholy pop techno.

Better than a night in front of the TV. RED BULL MUSIC ARMADA BRAZIL (12) Jurerê Internacional, Florianópolis, 07.03.11 Red Bull Music Academy Radio is on tour.

The mobile broadcaster takes to the water in Brazil this month, summoning both local and international musicians to this on-air jam session, which calls in at a series of venues along the coast. Afterwards the boat sails north to Rio de Janeiro via Paraty.

Beatsteaks AUSTRIA (14) Gasometer, Vienna, 04–05.03.11 Berlin’s punk rock heroes are one of the best live bands on the planet. It’s as simple as that.

Anyone who’s been to one of their many gigs in recent years will agree, and they spend a lot of time touring. It’s part of the reason the new album Boombox has been a long time coming. But now it’s out, giving the band an excuse to hit the road again.

20 Years of Planet E england (15) Ewer Street Car Park, London, 05.3.11 Carl Craig is a jack-of-all-trades visionary, the Picasso of techno if you will. For the past 25 years, the Detroit-based musician hasn’t just been releasing limit-pushing records, he also runs his own record label, Planet E, offering a platform to local talent and international dance music producers. Tonight, Mr Craig would agree, the real celebration is theirs.

Bloc Weekend england (20) Butlins Holiday Resort, Minehead, 11–13.03.11 Butlins is usually a holiday camp, with water slides, bowling alleys and other familyfriendly attractions. But on this particular weekend it is taken over by Aphex Twin, Magnetic Man, Jamie XX, Laurent Garnier and more to turn Minehead into Funky Town.

Sxsw USA (21) Various locations, Austin, 11–20.03.11 You’ll find legends such as Bright Eyes, OMD, The Kills and local heroine Erykah Badu at this year’s South-By-Southwest festival.

But the limelight really belongs to nonmainstream artists, with overwhelmingly young, up-and-coming acts getting their baptism of fire in front of not only a huge audience, but also the national and international press.

WOMAD Festival New Zealand (22) TSB Bowl of Brooklands, New Plymouth, 18–20.03.11 Peter Gabriel created this multicultural festival 20 years ago, and ever since, the ‘World of Music, Arts and Dance’ has celebrated the crossover between pop and what was known as world music. This Kiwi incarnation will feature Amadou & Mariam from Mali, Don Letts and Calypso Rose.

INTERGALACTIC FM NIGHT GERMANY (16) Berghain & Panorama Bar, Berlin 05.03.11 The soundtrack to every Adriatic holiday in the early 1980s was surely Italo-disco: treacly synth tunes combined with sterile computerised drumbeats and cheesy pop. It was as tacky as it was thumping, as cringeworthy as it was marvellous. Now Dutch musician I-F has brought the genre back to life with his radio station, Intergalactic FM, and unleashed a trend in the process.

SONARSOUND TOKYO JAPAN (17) Studio Coast, Tokyo, 01.04.11 Before the Catalan Sónar electronic festival is upon us, it’s time for a quick trip to Japan for an early taster. Seefeel, Battles and dubstep legend Kode9 are all on board, as are Red Bull Music Academy graduates Flying Lotus, Hudson Mohawke and Dorian Concept.

South Africa’s Die Antwoord will play RAMfest

Marc Márquez tackles Moto2 this year

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Save the Date March 2011

Stuck for something to do this month? fill your free time with these

March 29 – April 2

At last: the semi-finals and final of the Cricket World Cup. The tournament began on February 19, and after six weeks of action it will finally come to an end at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. Football’s top tournament squeezed 64 games into a month last summer, cricket’s equivalent takes two weeks longer to play 15 less matches.

Yes, cricket is a more measured pursuit, but does that point really have to be proved so starkly? That said, the action at the business end of the Cricket World Cup is never anything less than exciting. Indian legend Sachin Tendulkar is playing his sixth tournament, while England, still with the whiff of Ashes glory in their nostrils, will hope to bury the memory of three final losses with a first victory. www.icc-cricket.yahoo.net

Stuart Broad’s return from injury should boost England’s chances of victory

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March 13

Rough Ride The Tough One sells itself. An enduro motocross event with the difficulty turned well past 11, it sets riders a true test of man ’n’ machine versus anything that nature and a dastardly course-design team can throw at them.

Held in a quarry near Rochdale, the course is packed with rocks, steep hills and sharp drops, tyres, cars, trailers, log piles and a lot of mud, which riders must battle for three hours straight. So ‘tough’ is something of an understatement. The Tough One is one of the highlights of the enduro racing calendar and last year’s winner, world champ David Knight from the Isle of Man (above), will be defending his title. www.worevents.com

March 25-27

Revving Up After the season’s opening round in Australia, the FIM Superbike World Championship rolls into Donington Park for the European GP. It’s the first of the two British stops on the 2011 calendar – the Great Britain GP is at Silverstone in July – and as such gives the five British riders in the championship the chance to impress on home soil.

Ten Kate Honda rider Jonathan Rea (above right) is one of that eager quintet. Last year was only the Northern Irish rider’s second season in the World Championship, yet he won four races (twice his 2009 tally) and took to the podium 10 times to finish in fourth place overall.

Victory at Donington Park is not out of reach, but he will have to work

hard. Reigning world champ, Italy’s Max Biaggi, is fighting to retain his crown, and last year’s number two rider, Leon Haslam from Derbyshire, is determined to go one better, while Rea’s friend and former Supersport rival, Irishman Eugene Laverty, is enjoying his debut Superbike season.

With an excellent 2010 under his leathers, Laverty could be the one to watch here. But with so much competition, only one thing’s certain: it’s going to be a hell of a season. www.donington-park.co.uk

words: Ruth morgan, Paul wilson. Photography: getty Images (1), rutgerpauw.com/Red Bull Content Pool (1), Action Images (2)

The Slowest Final Countdown

March 26

Everybody’s Singing the Blues Two tough crews of young men fighting it out in London on a Saturday. Just another day in the capital, you might say, but this is the 157th Boat Race. A quarter of a million people will line the Thames from Putney to Mortlake to cheer on the light blue of Cambridge and the dark blue of Oxford universities as they race four miles and 374 yards. This is the only time university sport registers with the public at large, and rowing has far greater challenges, yet this race enjoys great affection and a large global TV audience.

Cambridge, last year’s winners, lead 80-75 (there was a dead heat in 1877). www.theboatrace.org

M

y last visit to a filling station, ignoring the warnings, I left my phone switched on. There was a dangerous concentration of vapour and energy from my unshielded BlackBerry suddenly caused a massive explosion, which blew me three postcodes distant, destroyed my (new) car, six underground fuel tanks and a coffee shop franchise.

That is not true. I am guessing now, but a mobile phone has never caused an explosion on a forecourt. Yet the warnings about them persist. Best guess about their origin is that wary pump manufacturers were worried that errant cellular signals might interfere with their electronic counters to give false readings. But that too is surely nonsense: in most cities there is so much loose microwave activity in the atmosphere that if you threw a chicken into the air, it would come down barbecued.

The essential (and worrying) truth is that no one really knows if radiation from electronic devices has the potential for dangerous interference with other systems.

All that stuff on planes! They still do the in-the-unlikely-event-of-landing-onwater stuff, but everyone knows that the number of aircraft passengers who land on water and survive is so small as to be statistically insignificant. The airlines do the life-jacket routine because it suggests a certain swaggering (and irrational) confidence in the chances of survival.

But the new warnings about turningoff your DVD, tablet, carry-on microwave oven, smartphone, pod, pad, games console and GPS are different. Everyone knows that the great majority of planes, in unlikely event that they land on water, disintegrate most unpleasantly, but no one is absolutely certain what all this junk radiation does to the ‘flight-critical electronic controls’ that are now a standard feature on new-model aircraft. At the same time, all this cool stuff we use has ever-expanding frequency ranges and ever-faster processor operating speeds.

The possibility exists that quietly logging

Mind’s Eye

Mixed Signals The dangers of gadget and phone radiation? Stephen Bayley detects something in the air on to realdogfood.com might, if everybody does it at the same time, roll-back the engines to idle and send the navi around the bend. Very quietly, in 2007 the US Federal Aviation Administration issued a warning to aircraft manufacturers that enhanced protection from electronic interference would hereafter be required.

“It’s a good news/bad news thing,” a Boeing engineer told The New York Times. There’s no hard evidence that a cellphone has ever brought down a plane, the engineer continued, but it would be wrong to “assume it never will”.

To optimists, worrying about EMI (electromagnetic interference) is a modern survival of the primitive superstitions that made our ancestors fretful about the presence of hobgoblins and werewolves. But EMI-angst has a dignified champion in Elaine Scarry, an academic who has what I believe to be absolutely the best job title in the world: Walter M Cabot Professor of Aesthetics and the General Theory of Value at Harvard University. Scarry has written both on Shakespeare and on US Navy weapons systems manuals. Some years

ago she became interested in TWA Flight 800, a Boeing 747 which exploded midair off Long Island in July 1996.

Official investigators determined that the explosion was caused by an electrical fire, but could not agree on the ‘originating event’. Professor Scarry was not so circumspect. She discovered there were 10 military ships and planes near TWA 800 when it exploded. And each was almost fluorescent with electromagnetic activity.

This gets better. The US Navy has a transmitter on Long Island that it uses to communicate with submarines.

Imagine how much electrical and magnetic energy is required to send a message to a submerged vessel on the other side of the globe. Scarry speculated that TWA 800 flew through the High Intensity Radiated Field (HIRF) required for this task and its circuits were fried and its wing tanks exploded. Two years later a Swissair MD-11 also exploded nearby. Elaine Scarry is no spittle-flecked conspiracist, but both planes left JFK at 8:19 on a Wednesday night. Perhaps at the very moment the US Navy turned on its submarine transmitter.

It has not happened again, but you know what they say about ‘never’.

‘Perhaps’ is a very big idea and ‘never’ is a very dangerous one. Just because my car has never exploded on a garage forecourt, leaves some room for a perhaps. And it’s the same with devices on planes. Sure, your neighbour’s laptop is not generating military grade HIRF, but are you confident that 180 laptops might not find a weird sync that punctures the plane’s Flight Envelope Protection System and puts you into an unlikely event scenario? I don’t want to make the friendly laptop appear sinister, but the electromagnetic world is an amoral one: one of the world’s leading makers of missile systems also developed the microwave oven.

Stephen Bayley is an award-winning writer and a former director of the Design Museum in London

The Red Bulletin United Kingdom: The Red Bulletin is published by Red Bulletin GmbH Editor-In-Chief Robert Sperl General Managers Alexander Koppel, Rudolf Theierl Editorial Office Anthony Rowlinson (Executive Editor), Stefan Wagner Associate Editor Paul Wilson Contributing Editor Andreas Tzortzis Chief Sub-editor Nancy James Deputy Chief Sub-editor Joe Curran Production Editor Marion Wildmann Photo Editors Susie Forman (Chief), Fritz Schuster Deputy Photo Editors Valerie Rosenburg, Catherine Shaw Design Erik Turek (Art Director), Miles English, Judit Fortelny, Markus Kietreiber, Esther Straganz Staff Writers Werner Jessner, Ruth Morgan Contributors Nick Amies, Martin Apolin, Stephen Bayley, Ulrich Corazza, Tobias Haberl, Klaus Kamolz, Piers Martin, Giovanna Mollona, Florian Obkircher, Olivia Rosen, Andreas Rottenschlager, Robert Tighe, Herbert Völker Production Managers Michael Bergmeister, Wolfgang Stecher, Walter Omar Sádaba Repro Managers Christian Graf-Simpson, Clemens Ragotzky Augmented Reality Martin Herz, www.imagination.at Finance Siegmar Hofstetter. Corporate Publishing Boro Petric (head); Justin Hynes, Christoph Rietner, Nadja Žele (chief-editors); Dominik Uhl (art director); Markus Kucera (photo director); Lisa Blazek (editor). The Red Bulletin is published simultaneously in A product of the Austria, the UK, Germany, Kuwait, Poland, South Africa and New Zealand. Website www.redbulletin.com. Head office: Red Bulletin GmbH, Am Brunnen 1, A-5330 Fuschl am See, FN 287869m, ATU63087028. UK office: 155-171 Tooley Street, London SE1 2JP, +44 (0) 20 3117 2100. Austrian office: Heinrich-Collin-Strasse 1, A-1140 Vienna, +43 (1) 90221 28800. The Red Bulletin (Northern Ireland): Susie Dardis, Richmond Marketing, 1st Floor Harmony Court, Harmony Row, Dublin 2, Ireland +35 386 8277993.

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DEFYING LOGIC

Reg. charity 267444 Photo: © Rodrigo Baleia.

Cattle ranchers in Paraguay want to cut down vast tracts of uncontacted Indians’ rainforest and still portray themselves as environmentally responsible.

How? Simple. Just call the islands of forests that are left ‘nature reserves’. Help restore logic. www.restorelogic.org/paraguay