april 2014 R30
beyond the ordinary
sir vincent
let’s pl ay
dj, pioneer, innovator
14-page gaming special
taming the dragon ryan sandes’ epic berg mission
G u e s t EDITOR
R30 incl VAT (R4.20)
a n e w a l b u m , t h at h at And the world at h i s f e e t
April 2014
phaRrell williams
WINGS FOR EVERY TASTE.
CRANBERRY. LIME. BLUEBERRY. AND THE EFFECT OF RED BULL.
THE WORLD OF RED BULL
54
Day of thunder
A day and a night at America’s race-season opener, the Rolex 24 at Daytona
finlay mackay (cover), marcelo maragni
Welcome
You have in your hands a very special issue of The Red Bulletin. What’s that? Isn’t every issue special? Of course they are, but this one is guest-edited by none other than Pharrell Williams. He got lucky, now he’s happy, and for this magazine he’s curated a selection of his favourite people and things. We’re also delighted to bring you an in-depth interview with music’s most wanted man. Meanwhile, Ryan Sandes is preparing to set a fastest known time for the Drakensberg Grand Traverse, an epic crossing of the highest mountain range in southern Africa. Back at sea level, Sir Vincent of Khayelitsha is redefining the art of social entrepreneurship. We hope you enjoy the issue. the red bulletin
“Our feelings can lead us to do really crazy things” Pharrell Williams, page 34
05
april 2014
at a glance Bullevard
24
10 gaming special A 14-page tribute to the games we play: the best, the hardest, the ones we’ve loved and what’s coming next
Features
Deep thinker
The freediver who, on his journey to reach world-record depths, wants to expand his mind – and yours
24 Plunging the depths 34 Pharrell Williams
Under the influence with the manof-the-moment master collaborator
76
48 Ryan Sandes
Going the distance – and then some – over rugged mountain terrain
54 Start your engines
Tribal fans, deadly manoeuvres and last-minute gasps at Daytona
62 secrets of success
An access-all-areas look at the making of the RB10, the 2014 Infiniti Red Bull Racing Formula One car
48
to tamE A DRAGON
Ryan Sandes and Ryno Griesel attempt to set a fastest known time for the remote 210km Drakensberg Grand Traverse 06
gaining the edge
How do you up your game if you’re already world-class? Mountain-biking dynasty the Athertons reveal all
87
racing seat
Infiniti Red Bull Racing’s new man Daniel Ricciardo reveals that sometimes being an F1 driver can be a bum rap
62 To the next level
Gee and Rachel Atherton on earning that extra one per cent
72 The township beat
Sir Vincent of Khayelitsha on how his social ‘upliftment’ philosophy works
76 F1 2014 preview
Can Sebastian Vettel become the world champion five times in a row?
Action 86 87 88 89 90 92 94 96 98
travel Rock climbing in Rio training Get fit for Formula One party Art and hip-hop in Abu Dhabi My city A street artist’s Miami enter now Wings For Life World Run music Bombay Bicycle Club’s top tunes new games Infamous: Second Son save the Date Unmissable events magic moment Real-life halfpipe
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ian derry, Benedict Redgrove/Red Bull Content Pool, luis vidales/red bull content pool, Mattias Fredriksson, kelvin trautman
Freediver Guillaume Néry
Contributors who’s on board this issue
The Red Bulletin South Africa, ISSN 2079-4282
The Red Bulletin is published by Red Bull Media House GmbH General Manager Wolfgang Winter Publisher Franz Renkin Editors-in-Chief Alexander Macheck, Robert Sperl Editor, South Africa Angus Powers
Editor Paul Wilson
jazz kuschke
Finlay MacKay After photographing Shaun White and the NBA’s Indiana Pacers, the Scot was tired when he arrived in LA to shoot Pharrell Williams for our cover. Not that anyone noticed: the GQ and The New York Times Magazine regular hustled the Grammy-winner through several set-ups in an empty downtown. “Pharrell was easygoing and simple to shoot,” says MacKay. “The biggest challenge for me was the LA sun. My pasty Glasgow skin burns very easily.” Guy’s a trouper: see page 34.
As an adventure sport photojournalist who’s been on assignments in Indonesia, Angola, Malaysia, Réunion, Mozambique and beyond, you might say Kuschke’s seen it all. Yet he found the scope of Ryan Sandes and Ryno Griesel’s Drakensberg Grand Traverse genuinely surprising. “This is a next-level endurance challenge, but it’s not so much about the distance or current record, it’s about the altitude, terrain and weather – all the variables of the Berg.” The story begins on page 48.
The author of a book about rugby and many articles about the wider world of sport, Peletan dove deep into the life and times of Guillaume Néry, one of the world’s best proponents of freediving. The two Frenchmen enjoyed a remarkable conversation about the limits of human endurance and the notion of BASE-jumping underwater. “Competition in freediving is important, but is secondary to the aesthetic: it has to be beautiful,” says Peletan. Come on in, the water’s wonderful on page 24.
08
Art Directors Kasimir Reimann, Miles English Photo Director Fritz Schuster Production Editor Marion Wildmann Managing Editor Daniel Kudernatsch Chief Sub-Editor Nancy James Deputy Chief Sub-Editor Joe Curran Assistant Editors Ulrich Corazza, Werner Jessner, Ruth Morgan, Florian Obkircher, Arek Pia˛tek, Andreas Rottenschlager Contributing Editor Stefan Wagner Bullevard Georg Eckelsberger, Raffael Fritz, Sophie Haslinger, Marianne Minar, Boro Petric, Holger Potye, Martina Powell, Mara Simperler, Clemens Stachel, Manon Steiner, Lukas Wagner Design Martina de Carvalho-Hutter, Silvia Druml, Kevin Goll, Carita Najewitz, Esther Straganz Photo Editors Susie Forman (Creative Photo Director), Rudi Übelhör (Deputy Photo Director), Marion Batty, Eva Kerschbaum Repro Managers Clemens Ragotzky (manager), Karsten Lehmann, Josef Mühlbacher Head of Production Michael Bergmeister Production Wolfgang Stecher (manager), Walter O Sádaba, Christian Graf-Simpson (app) Advertising Enquiries Andrew Gillett, +27 (0) 83 412 8008, andrew.gillett@za.redbull.com
Printed by CTP Printers, Duminy Street, Parow-East, Cape Town 8000. Finance Siegmar Hofstetter, Simone Mihalits
Mattias Fredriksson Frédéric Pelatan
Creative Director Erik Turek
Living near the mountains in Sweden, it’s no wonder Fredriksson is noted for his mountain bike and ski photos. A senior staffer at Powder and Bike magazines, he keeps himself almost as fit as the athletes he shoots. “I ski more than 100 days a year and the same riding my bikes,” he says, “or else I would never be able to keep up. In Fuerteventura, I was constantly running around the hills to shoot Gee and Rachel Atherton. It was a lot of fun.” Turn to page 62 now.
“ Ryan Sandes and Ryno Griesel in the Berg is next-level endurance stuff” jazz kuschke
Marketing & Country Management Stefan Ebner (manager), Elisabeth Salcher, Lukas Scharmbacher, Sara Varming Distribution Klaus Pleninger, Peter Schiffer subscription price: 228 ZAR, 12 issues, www.getredbulletin.com, subs@za.redbull.com Marketing Design Julia Schweikhardt, Peter Knethl Advertising Placement Sabrina Schneider O∞ce Management Kristina Krizmanic
The Red Bulletin is published in Austria, Brazil, France, Germany, Ireland, Kuwait, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa, Switzerland, UK and USA Website www.redbulletin.com Head office Red Bull Media House GmbH, Oberst-Lepperdinger-Strasse 11-15, A-5071 Wals bei Salzburg, FN 297115i, Landesgericht Salzburg, ATU63611700 South Africa office Black River Park North, 2 Fir Street, Observatory, 7925 8005 +27 (0) 21 486 8000 Austria office Heinrich-Collin-Strasse 1, A-1140 Vienna. +43 (1) 90221 28800 Write to us: letters@redbulletin.com
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l e t ’ s p l ay
a celebration of gaming
Don’t just see them, be them
Next-level acting
Now that Oscar-nominees go virtual, is the games/ movies divide sealing shut? Is it just moonlighting or a journey into the future of acting? Juno and Inception star Ellen Page lent her talents to PS3 adventure Beyond: Two Souls, contributing body movements, facial expressions and emotions to the leading lady, Jodie, in the same way actors are motioncaptured for movies. (Footage of the game was shown at the Tribeca Film Festival last year.) Willem Dafoe co-stars; together, their characters try to solve the riddle of life after death. The in-game action is typically Hollywood, as is the scandal that comes with it: online pics of a hacked version of the game’s shower scene, without the TV-movie friendly steam.
A virtual Ellen Page in Beyond: Two Souls (main pic) after motioncapturing (inset) that mapped her body and facial expressions and made the data for her virtual doppelganger
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ALL THE BEST
HAPPY BIRTHDAYS in GAMING Sentimentalists have good reason
to celebrate in 2014, with a bunch of anniversaries marking the debuts of influential and iconic software and hardware NES This grey box became a hit in Japan in 1984; America followed a year later and the Nintendo Entertainment System brought video games into the world.
SEGA MEGADRIVE It’s now 25 years since Sega wowed us with what was then a staggering 16-bit console and the world’s fastest blue hedgehog, Sonic.
Producer(13), The Kobal Collection
johannes lang
PLAYSTATION In 1994, the battle for supremacy between Nintendo and Sega became a three-way. Sony released the first PlayStation and left both in its wake.
Undead reckoning: Milla’s five Resident Evil movies have grossed US$916m worldwide
THANK YOU, ZOMBIES...
SIM CITY You build and run a city, and then, if you like, monsters destroy it? An idea that, 25 years ago, people said was crazy, but has proved one of the most durable.
FIFA The first one didn’t even have a year: 20 years ago, FIFA International Soccer launched one of the most successful games series ever.
...FOR MILLA JOVOVICH. Every
two years, the creatures from Resident Evil make a comeback. It’s a welcome sight, because no one hunts zombies as beautifully as Milla. It is no shock to learn that the movies’ most successful female action hero has been borrowed from a video game. What is surprising, as our picture shows, is that she’s offing the undead with what looks like a NES Zapper. Her sixth RE flick is in mooted for release next year.
GAME BOY It had a weak processor, a simple black-andwhite display and no backlight, and yet it was a global hit on launch in 1989. Nintendo’s greatest-ever product?
Tetris On June 6, 1984, in Moscow, Alexey Pajitnov finished a game the world is still playing: over 100m downloads, with the hundreds of millions on all formats.
niNtendo DS When it appeared in 2004, the DS brought to mind old Game & Watch handhelds. To date, about 154m have been sold, second only to PS2 sales (155m).
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B U LLE VA R D
Go with the flow
WHAT SHOULD I PLAY NEXT?
So many games, so little time. Choose your next one here Are you the centre of your world? Do you like to play from a first-person perspective?
Do you like shooting people?
N
N
Y
N Are you a world-builder who would like to build and rule your own kingdom?
Portal 2, Stanley Parable
Do you like to hit your opponent with weapons that seem realistic?
N
Y Are you over 18 and capable of losing without insulting your opponent’s mother?
Team Fortress 2
Y Call of Duty
Are you a strategic thinker and team player who likes to measure up against others?
Y Battlefield, Counter Strike GO
N
Would you get annoyed if someone rampaged through your lovely kingdom?
Y
N
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Y
FIFA 14, NHL 14, NBA 2k14
Y N
Awesomen auts, Strife
Do you like sport, but actual running is a bit too much bother?
Would you like to give up the rest of your life and spend all night and all day playing games?
N
Starcraft 2, Supreme Commander
Rollercoaster Tycoon 3, Sim City 4
The Elder scrolls: Skyrim
N Do you like to explore enormous game-worlds in the hope of discovering new things?
Y N
HAVE YOU EVER TRIED LEAVING THE HOUSE?
Y DOTA 2, League of Legends
MISSING LINKS
How an art professor and young hacker dad made Lego compatible with everything
Interoperability: that’s what it’s called when things made by different manufacturers work with each other. Once an IT buzzword, it has now found its way into children’s toy boxes thanks to Golan Levin, a university professor from Pennsylvania. Levin and his colleague, the designer Shawn Sims, have invented the Free Universal Construction Kit (please don’t use the acronym), an arsenal of 3D-printer-made connection parts for 10 popular toy construction sets, including Lego. “When my son was four, he tried in vain to put together a car from K’Nex and Tinkertoy parts. That gave me the idea,” Levin explains. He and Sims then needed a name for the project, “and it took a whole pitcher of beer to come up with one.” They have made the plans for the connection parts freely available. “There are print-on-demand services where you can order them,” says Levin, “but it’s more fun to play around with a 3D printer yourself and your child will enjoy it too.” Let’s raise another glass to the hackerspace. thingiverse.com/uck
Courtesy F.A.T. Lab and Sy-Lab
Y
Real-world gaming
‘You can make them yourself on a 3D printer’
B U L L E VA R D
very revy
bike to the future
Ubisoft/RedLynx
When sci-fi- and sport collide, there’s always that guy who looks like a Daft Punk Power Ranger
14
Thrown to the air Trials Fusion is an offshoot of Trials, the world’s best motocross games series. Gripping gameplay, futuristic feel, incredible visuals: out later this year
B U L L E VA R D
“ W h a t ’ s w r o n g with you, drama queen?” rihanna in B attleship
big screen
PIXEL PICTURES
WHEN GAMES BECOME MOVIES
Hollywood is fighting to keep its audience because they’re all at home playing games. Four of these five films really exist: one we’d like to shoot ourselves
Nicolas Cage He was abandoned by everyone. But underestimating a man like him could be your last mistake
H O W D I D IT ha p p e n ?
A R E YOU F O R R E A L ?
W H E N WA S T H AT ?
Game makers Hasbro had already successfully transferred Transformers to the big screen. And so Battleship was launched in 2012.
One of the most successful first-person shooters would surely work on the big screen. But watching it was like watching someone play Doom, badly, and not letting you have a go.
$42m budget in 1993 says: yes, very real indeed.
The first of two films appeared in the cinema in 1995 and was in keeping with the spirit of the game. Fans enjoyed the aliens-versus-humans thing and the fight scenes were OK. The 1997 sequel was terrible.
H O W D I D i t H A PPE N ?
T H A N K YOU , 1 9 9 0 s !
WA IT. IS N ’ T T H AT …
W H AT ’ s T H E P L OT ?
...Rihanna? Ye s , i t i s . S h e’s g ot a great voice.
Director Andrzej Bartkowiak found the crux of the game – killing beasts in hell – too unrealistic. So his idea for the 2005 film was to kill monsters on Mars instead.
what ’ s t h e p l o t
W H O ’ S t h e s tar ?
The human race is threatened with extermination by technologically superior aliens. No hope of survival. How do you think it all turns out? what ’ s n e x t ?
Other Hasbro properties on the b i g s c r e e n : F u r b y, M y L i t t l e P o n y, Play-Doh.
16
The Rock
Nine different scriptwriters and an untried directing duo made one of the biggest cinema flops of the 1990s out of the 1980s’ favourite video game. W H O P L AYE D B O W SE R ?
D e n n i s H o p p e r, i n his most absurd role as a wicked blond lizard man.
WA S T H E R E A SE Q UE L ? W H AT H A PPE N E D nEXT ?
I t ’s sa i d th e re we re plans for Doom 2. But there were plans for Doom to be successful first.
Mario, aka Bob Hoskins, went on to appear in Nixon, Spice World and Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties. But Tom Hanks was happy: he’d wanted the part of Mario.
is it out yet? Cambodia, 1970. A lone US soldier is clearing a minefield. All he has to help him is a cryptic map full of numerical codes.
Ta g l i n e
Just. One. More. Mine. W H O WA S D I R E C TI N G ?
Paul WS Anderson, who later gave us the Resident Evil screen adaptations. an o t h e r o n e ?
A fan-made web series has led to reboot talk.
Cast & Crew Director: Michael Bay Script: Charlie Kaufman The soldier: Nicolas Cage The captain: Tyrese Gibson The wife: Gemma Arterton The buddy: Peter Stormare Pl o t Tw i s t Our hero’s nerves fail him on the very last mine. There’s a white flash, an explosion, and Nic Cage wakes with a start. His face has aged by 40 years. He’d fallen asleep at his desk.
the red bulletin
Corbis, picturedesk.com (2), The Kobal Collection(2), Süddeutsche Zeitung Photo
H O W D I D IT ha p p e n ?
B U L L E VA R D
Fred is GMR’s best friend, and eats cake over the keyboard to annoy him
Fred : 0
VS
f red | chess |
MAN VS MACHINE: WHO’S BEST? LET THE BOARD GAMES BEGIN! GMR : 1
IBM’s Deep Blue beat Garry Kasparov in 1997, the first time a computer beat a world chess champion. Now there are mobile phone apps that would thrash Deep Blue and the greatest grandmasters. Checkmate, humans!
Fred : 1
| dra u ghts |
GMR : 2
tom mackinger
In 2007, after 18 years of development and cracking draughts mathematically, a team of scientists at the University of Alberta unveiled Chinook, a program that will never lose, and almost always win, against a human player.
Fred : 1
GMR | go |
GMR is Fred’s best friend, but never helps Fred with his maths homework
GMR : 1
This Asian strategy game has more moves than there are atoms in the universe. A human go-master’s ability to assess territorial advantage at a glance lets him outfox the best computers. In your face, motherboard!
Fred : 2
| arimaa |
GMR : 2
Driven by Kasparov’s loss to Deep Blue, Omar Syed devised a game his young son could understand, but which a computer would find hard. After 10 years of human-CPU match-ups, soft flesh still beats software.
play Again?
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BULLEVARD
1995
r ayman
1993
need for speed
1994
doom
1991
mortal kombat
1992
Lemmings
1989
The secret of monkey island
1990
prince of persia
1987
zak m c kr acken and the alien mindbenders
1988
megaman
1985
the legend of zelda
1986
super mario bros
1983
tetris
1984
bomberman
1981
donkey kong
space invaders
PONG
1978
1982 ms pac-man
1980 pac-man
1972
Space Invader 8x8 pixels: a legend born
Link Poor guy. Star of a series named after Princess Zelda
The prince with no name Though in the 2010 movie, he’s Dastan Bomberman Insurgent version of Pac-Man Pong First gaming hero is a thin rectangle
Guybrush Threepwood The wit tiest games star of all -time
18
tom mackinger
Donkey Kong World went ape for a barrel of fun
Super Mario Here he is: ‘It’s-a me!’
BULLEVARD
2013 the last of us
2011
dishonored
2012
minecr aft
2009
red dead redemption
bioshock
2007
2010
league of legends
guild wars
2008
portal
2005
world of warcr aft
2003
2006 gears of war
2004
call of duty
2001
battlefield 1942
2002
halo: Combat Evolved
1999
the sims
2000
silent hill
1997
half-life
1998
dungeon keeper
tomb r aider
1996
Lara Croft Is it OK to have a crush on graphics? Chell Absolutely not your usual in-game babe Master Chief Helmeted harbinger of alien doom
Steve Back to the star t: a real hero made of pixels
Gordon Freeman The strongest, silent-ist t ype, he never spoke
the line-up
video games legends
1up & up & up
The men, women and monkeys who made history
B U L L E VA R D
Block party
Real Life Tetris
Old into gold: Michael Johansson made The Move Overseas, the installation he presented at the last Beaufort04, the triennial art expo in the Belgian town of Zeebrugge, using second-hand household appliances and furniture he bought locally
20
Michael Johansson
Well stacked, Sir: Michael Johansson has got to be Sweden’s tidiest artist
B ULLE VARD
g e a r
o h
d e a r
A quick look at game-gadget history tells us there’s a fine line between a white elephant and a white-hot tech triumph
bingoal! bingoal!
Full house on matchday
TV FOOTBALL BINGO
Next time you’re watching the match, cross out these tried-and-tested phrases when you hear them. It won’t take long to get the lot… There‘s a capacity crowd here tonight
Schoolboy defending
They‘ve only come here to park the bus
A good time to score
Every game is a cup final now
It was handbags, really
The manager must have read them the riot act at half-time
He had no right to score from there
I’m not exaggerating – it could be 10-0
It was easier to score
I’m going to make a prediction – it could go either way
He’s given 110 per cent
These two teams know each other inside out
The first goal is going to make all the difference
There are no easy games at this level
What on Earth was he thinking?
No love lost between these two
Surely the referee could see that
This is a dangerous free-kick
Stonewall penalty
And it‘s in the back of the net!
We‘ve seen those given
Time is slowly running out for them
Absolutely unbelievable
The referee is looking at his watch
handy? meh Power glove In 1988, what was meant to be the future of controllers turned out to be cack-handed. Only two compatible games were made.
no wonder
Virtual Boy Nintendo (see above) promised us a 3D virtual world back in 1995. What we got were red, flickering LEDs and headaches.
a reality? OCULUS Rift This time it’s for real: a virtual reality gaming headset, financed by Kickstarter. Might we see them, at last, in 2014?
“ YOU ’ RE CHEC K ING ME OUT , AREN ’ T YOU ? “
t h e s e
n o w
producer(5)
dietmar kainrath
d o w n l o a d
TOP ELEVEN Over 12 million wannabe mangers can’t be wrong: the best mobile football sim
angry birds go! Your furious feathered friends in a kart-racing game with the expected, one-more-go pull
21
B U L L E VA R D
2013 Sony Playstation 4 processor: eight 64-bit processors, each with 1.6GHz ram: 8GB colours: over a billion most successful game so far: Killzone: Shadow Fall
Na, Super!
Tot!
× 16
2005 Xbox 360 processor: 64-bit TriCore processor, each with 3.2GHz ram: 512MB colours: 16.7 million most successful game: Kinect Adventures
the number games
× 16
power lifting
2000
Each generation of games machines brings huge leaps in tech: in 40 years we’ve gone from 64 bytes to 8bn
sony Playstation 2 processor: 64-bit with 294.9MHz ram: 32MB colours: 16.7m most successful game: GTA: San Andreas
×8 1996 Nintendo 64 processor: 64-bit with 93.75MHz ram: 4MB colours: 16.7m (32,000 on screen) most successful game: Super Mario 64
× 57
1988 Sega Mega Drive processor: 16-bit with 7.61MHz ram: 72KB colours: 512 (64 on screen) most successful game: Sonic The Hedgehog
× 36
1983 Nintendo Entertainment System processor: 8-bit with 1.66MHz ram: 2KB colours: 54 (25 on screen) most successful game: Super Mario Bros
× 32
Magnavox Odyssey processor: none (40 transistors) ram: none (but later 64 bytes) colours: 2 – black and white most successful game: Table Tennis
22
sascha bierl
1972
factor increase in RAM
the red bulletin
B U L L E VA R D
Super Mario Art
Game Over
What happens when Mario’s lives are all used up? And what were Princess Peach’s last words to him?
TIPS FROM THE TOP
SLADE PREstwich
The 18-year-old surfer, tipped for big things, knows his games, too… It was a-me,
mario!
FIFA 14 “I’m responsible for all goals and tactics, and for some reason, I find that really exciting. It makes you think about your next move before you’ve even passed the ball.”
Kordian Lewandowski, producer(6)
IRONMAN “He’s my favourite character in Marvel Heroes – I always use him for any mission. He can fly, his weapons are super-sick and he’s human. So I don’t think he’s made up like Hulk.”
Polish artist Kordian Lewandowski carved Game Over (2008) from a 2m-tall block of Styrofoam. He was inspired by Michelangelo’s Pieta, a statue of Jesus in the arms of Mary
RAYMAN LEGENDS “As you unlock the five themed worlds, the stages expand in unexpected ways with different traps and music. Sometimes the game changes from 2D to 3D, which makes it more challenging.”
M obile G ames | | | rated for y ou | | | i n ‘ test c o n ditio n s ’ Paper train Get trains through an intersection safely. Simple idea, but will have you punching the side of the basin in frustration.
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BADLAND A smallest-room favourite: each level of this side-scrolling platformer only takes two minutes, thus ideal for fleeting visits.
device 6 A surreal thriller that uses words and images to drive a hybrid of short story and video game. People will be banging on the door.
23
DEEP
thinker The freediver who, on his journey to reach world-record depths, wants to expand his mind – and yours Words: Frédéric Pelatan Photography: Ian Derry
24
“The most magical moment is when I escape gravity. It is liberation. It is breaking loose�
“ Our sport is enormously demanding from a physical point of view, but I don’t feel that it’s dangerous” 26
Guillaume Néry, freediving philosopher: “My only fear is fear itself. Once it sets in, you lose your cool and serenity”
As a child, Guillaume NĂŠry dreamed of becoming an astronaut. Now he defies gravity in the other direction
“Aesthetics are important in freediving. What you do has to look good�
29
G uillaume Néry is pushing and dragging a trolley stacked high with luggage down the corridors of Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport. His young daughter, Maï-Lou, hangs off his back like a little spider monkey. Alongside them is Julie Gaut ier, girlfriend and mother, filmmaker and Néry’s confidante and freediving partner. The Néry clan is fleeing the French winter to spend the next four months in French Polynesia: only a 25-hour journey separates them from paradise. Maï-Lou is now old enough for her parents to get a good night’s sleep and things have been going well recently from a sporting point of view, the one-time world-record holder, having improved one of his many French freediving records at 30
“ We have to fight hard for every metre. That’s the challenge, the fascination”
Search ‘nery base’ on YouTube to see Néry’s ‘BASE-jump’ dive into the world’s deepest underwater sinkhole in the Bahamas
A single breath is all Guillaume NĂŠry needs to dive to a depth of 125m
the World Championships in Kalamata, Greece. But the 31-year-old Frenchman is broody and uncommunicative, as he has been for several weeks, since Nicholas Mevoli, a video producer and experienced freediver from New York, died while taking part in a competition organised by AIDA, freediving’s international governing body. In May 2013, Mevoli became the first American freediver to pass the 100m mark in the Constant Weight category – diving down alongside a guide line, but not touching it, while wearing fins. Four months later, he won the silver medal in the same category at the World Championships. On November 17, 2013, in the Bahamas, during an attempt of a 72m Constant Weight Without Fins dive, Mevoli reached his depth and resurfaced as planned. He then fell unconscious in the water during his resurfacing procedure and was taken to hospital
“ I am completely calm during a dive. Everything around me becomes one”
where he died, of what was later said to be pulmonary oedema: capillaries bursting under pressure and filling his lungs with blood. “The whole community is in shock,” Néry says. “Our sport is enormously demanding, from a physical point of view, but I don’t feel it’s dangerous because we have to stick to all these safety procedures. Or should I say I never used to feel it was dangerous? Of course, now I wonder what to do. Does it make sense to carry on?” Does this mean that one of the world’s best freedivers now fears the deep? “My only fear is fear itself,” he says, matter-offactly. “Once it sets in, you lose the cool and serenity you need as you fight for every extra metre. In fact, we have to fight so hard for every extra metre that we can never afford to tense up. That’s the challenge, the art, the fascinating thing.” A few years ago, in another part of the Bahamas, Néry himself got into severe difficulty. “I dived down to a depth of 80m, doing the breaststroke. When I came back up, I couldn’t breathe, my whole body was tense and I was spitting blood. It was more than five minutes before my breathing returned to normal.” Unlike Austrian freediver Herbert Nitsch, who suffered the consequences of a 2012 accident, or Loïc Leferme, who died in training in 2007, Néry has resisted the siren call of the ultimate category of freediving, No-Limits, in which aids can be used to dive down next to a guide line, usually a weighted ‘sled’ on the way down and inflatable buoyancy aids on the ascent. The temptation has been strong, but his girlfriend has managed to dissuade him. “She was pretty unequivocal about it. She said, ‘It’s OK if you want to do it, but you have to know you’ll be doing it without me.’” Néry readily agreed with that ultimatum. “Competing is fascinating, but it’s only scratching the surface. Aesthetics are the really important thing when it comes to freediving. Aesthetics are affirmation; what you do always has to look good. “When I was a kid, I dreamed of becoming an astronaut and was constantly looking up at the sky. Then one day I saw a documentary about freediving legend Umberto Pelizzari. That was the first time I was confronted with a completely different world.” Néry and a friend would challenge each other on the school bus: first one to breathe loses. Back in his room after school, Néry would rest his arms on his body and hold his breath for five minutes. He was 14 and hoping to discover far-off galaxies, but he would elude gravity by going down, not up. Following the online success of the short film Free Fall, which he and Gautier shot together, Néry feels he is more able to convey to others his fascination for freediving. (Narcosis, the couple’s latest short, is being shown at European film festivals. Gautier operates the camera, following Néry into the depths.) “The most magical moment is when I escape gravity. It is liberation. It is breaking loose. I fly with my arms open. At those moments I am completely calm. Everything around me becomes one and I become part of that whole.” guillaumenery.fr
33
Designer, musician, artist & producer Pharrell Williams is one thing above all: a master collaborator
pharrell Whether in a Japanese sculpture or the smooth style of a BMX street rider, the Grammy Award-winning producer finds inspiration everywhere. Favourites from his current list are featured over the following pages as Williams guest-edits The Red Bulletin 34
the red bulletin
But first, he talks about channelling his curiosity, what the music industry took years to understand and what he hopes women will get from his new album
predicts
the future Interview: Andreas Tzortzis  Portraits: Finlay MacKay
magic
I find the in trying to just blend different worlds together and
mix it up
“If your voice is like velvet and people are used to hearing you in things that music’” would be conducive to a velvet voice, I would say, ‘Let’s try
gravel
36
t
he man in that hat is as cool as you like, his voice above a whisper but not much more, holding forth on the trouble with success, the absurdity of hit-making and why people don’t feel anymore. Forty years on this earth, 23 of them creating the type of music that has soundtracked house parties, breathless and fumbling late nights and slow cruises through the neighbourhood, Pharrell Williams is still, remarkably, nailing it. Two global hits in 2013, Get Lucky and Blurred Lines, netted him four Grammy Awards, including his second Producer Of The Year award; another party-starter, Happy, appeared on the Despicable Me 2 soundtrack and won an Oscar nomination, and an award for its innovative 24-hour music video. But then there’s that hat and what it reveals about the taste-making gene Williams possesses. Reminiscent of Malcolm McLaren and the World’s Famous Supreme Team’s 1982 video for Buffalo Gals, it’s a Vivienne Westwood piece that first appeared on the shelves of the shop she and McLaren owned in London. Now tweeted, mocked and memed the world over, it’s almost as if Williams planned it, which he’ll assure you he didn’t, because nothing he does follows a plan so much as appears to him at the right moment, ready and willing to bring him success. That includes his new album, Girl, his first solo project in eight years, which will probably fire our collective synapses far beyond 2014. the red bulletin: What are you looking for when an artist walks into your studio? pharrell williams: It is three things. It is, one, what they walk in saying they would like to do. It is also their energy they are naturally giving off. You know, whether it is a cab ride or it is an argument or something that they have on their mind. And then, third, it is the way that they actually sound and their vocal tone. I always try to make sure that there is some interesting juxtaposition. So if your voice is like velvet and people are used to hearing you in things that would be conducive to a velvet voice, I would say, “Let’s try gravel music,” if that makes any sense. So there is some interesting alchemy there. And the magic is when you are able to marry those elements together. Like, “Man, I didn’t know peanut butter and chocolate could go together.” Yeah, it is called a Reese’s Cup. But you would never know unless you tried it. So that is where I find the magic, in trying to blend different worlds together and mix it up.
37
P H A R R E L L ’ S F AV O U R I T E S “Since I’m forever a student, I’m always looking for interesting people, places and things. Feeding my curiosity is key. I love searching for new things that can change my perspective on how I see the world. If your brain isn’t constantly learning, you’re doing yourself a disservice. I’m a big believer in pushing yourself to explore new worlds that challenge what you perceive to be true. Take a look at some of my favourite inspirations right now”
#1
Coarse False Friends 2010
“Who doesn’t love toys? Whether you’re a child or a big kid like me, a great toy can instantly bring a smile to your face. This museum exhibit proves why designer toys are a new platform for fine art expression. It speaks to the kid in all of us.”
They look like toy figures. They are the same size and made of the same material. Yet unlike regular play things, designer toys are not to be played with. They’re to be collected. They are the bridge between pop culture and high culture, between comic fans and art collectors. These toys are produced by reputable designers and artists in small, expensive batches, making them highly collectible in a very short space of time. A small Mickey Mouse skull-andcrossbones figure by American artist KAWS can fetch prices similar to that for a second-hand car. The Design Exchange Museum in Toronto is now giving these plastic miniatures their first large
exhibition. This Is Not A Toy runs until May 19 and shows the origins of this culture dating back to the 1990s, from early ‘urban vinyl’ works by Hong Kong designer Michael Lau to detailed miniatures by renowned artists such as Takashi Murakami and Yoshitomo Nara. Designer toy collector Pharrell Williams is co-curating the show. “I remember exactly the first time I saw these figures. I felt like I was a child again in a shot,” says Williams. “The designer toy culture has introduced me to new artists. From Jeff Koons to KAWS. It was like pushing open a crazy portal into another world.” dx.org
florian obkircher
THIS IS NOT A TOY Design
If being on top is your main concern, then you probably should find another business.
Because our business works off emotion
In pairing and trying, there seems to be no fear of failure whatsoever. Mmm hmm. Do you fear failure at all? Because looking at your track record, you seem to be very consistent from success to success. What? The fear that maybe something isn’t working out. Maybe this track isn’t going to hit. Maybe that clothing line isn’t going to work. Do you think about it in those terms? Yeah, I don’t even understand that. My mind can’t even process that. And has it always been like that? Yeah. When you love something, what are you scared of? I suppose you are scared of negative reaction. Well, if you are thinking about fame and success, yeah. Well, if you’re on top, I guess the fear would be losing that, right? Losing that touch. Right. But if that is your main concern, being on top, then you probably should find another business. Because our business works off emotion, and it is not really easy to quantify it outside of what it is. the red bulletin
It is like saying, “Well, are you afraid of how the ball is going to react to the ice hockey rink?” No, because that is not what it is meant for. The puck is for that world and the ball is for another world. Emotions are just emotions. So when a song works, you should just be thankful, because that is not why you do it. So any kind of success that I have ever had on a song is not my doing. So you don’t do it for that, because I can’t control that. I do it because I feel like it feels good and it may resonate with other people. So it is not really good to mix the idea of what success is and the purity of why you do something. Unless, define success. Big or huge? That means that after I have done what I did or anybody else that has made their contribution to something, success means the people voted, they requested, they shared it with a friend, they purchased it, they downloaded it. And they did it in large numbers. That is what success means. I have nothing to do with that. I can’t control it. I can only control what I do. When I was young, yeah, I looked at it differently, because I looked at a lot of people who quantified their happiness by how successful they were. And 39
RITES P H A R R E L L’ S FAV O U
BANKS
Singersongwriter
Delicate, all-encompassing choral singing begins. Then comes a gentle piano chord, some hissing beats and an elegantly smoky, instantly captivating voice. Banks takes no prisoners. As soon as you hear the first few bars of her London EP, you know that this 25-year-old artist from Los Angeles is here to stay, because her songs represent a long overdue link between warm, soulful R’n’B vocals and ice-cold electronic music. It is minimalistic, glittering and sexy,as if Lana Del Rey had spent a night in the recording studio with James Blake. Even though Banks only released her debut single a year ago, she can already count names like Pharrell Williams and Katy Perry among her fans. Perry declared her love
on Twitter last year – not a bad career boost considering Perry has more than 50 million followers right now. Jillian Banks – her full name – has been making music since the age of 15. It began with a friend giving her a toy keyboard, which was supposed to help her get over her parents’ divorce, an aid to help her process her emotions. And it did just that. It worked as a selfhelp tool for a long time, something she did just for her. “I could let everything
BANKS TAKES NO PRISONERS. HER MUSIC IS MINIMALISTIC, GLITTERING, SEXY
out in my songs. Insults, secrets, aggression… it was incredibly liberating,” she told Billboard magazine in June of last year. “And then I was hooked.” She only shared her music with the rest of the world once she had completed her studies, uploading her song Before I Ever Met You to SoundCloud. Zane Lowe discovered it and played it on his BBC Radio 1 show. His advice was, “Listen up, Banks is gonna be the next big thing.” A self-fulfilling prophecy. Within months, Banks had a record deal in the bag, lingerie company Victoria’s Secret had used her song Waiting Game in its new advertising campaign and in January of this year, the BBC shortlisted Banks for newcomer of the year in its Sound of 2014 contest. The contest has been a reliable yardstick for new talent and in recent years has foretold the breakthrough of artists including Frank Ocean, Adele and Florence And The Machine. Banks has now somewhat withdrawn from public life in her adopted city of London to work on recording her debut album, which should appear some time this year. Working with her in the studio are flavour-of-the-month electronic producers Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, Lil Silva and Shlohmo, the latter working with her at the mixing desk on her latest single, Brain. She only hears all the fuss about her indirectly. Social networking isn’t her thing. She is happy to leave that to her management team. None of which means that she doesn’t care about her fans. She even published her private phone number on Facebook, adding: “If you ever want to talk, call me!” So have there ever been times when she has regretted being so open? “Not yet. Most people write really nice messages,” she told MTV. “What I like best are the text messages where people tell me my songs helped them when they were feeling lonely.” For those of you thinking you might want to reach out, go right ahead. Her American number is 001 323 362-2658. hernameisbanks.com
florian obkircher
#2
“There’s another girl, Banks, who’s crazy. So good. She is something special”
nobody wants to work really hard and not get recognised for it. You want to be appreciated for your work. But there is a fine line in appreciating your work and doing super well and you getting hooked on that. If you get hooked on success, you are screwed. How did you manage to avoid that? Well, I have been doing it for a long time, and I realised the thing that always gives back to me is my curiosity for how I can find new chord progressions, new sounds. That is how I am rewarded, because I can’t control anything else. So when something is “successful”, that is what you guys always see me saying thank you for all of the time, or I put my hands together, because I want you to know that I know where it comes from, and point up. You know, we are vessels. We are straws. We are not the juice. And anyone that believes that, those are the people that end up, you know, losing their minds later on in life or being unhappy. I don’t have to be the juice. I don’t have to be the glass. I don’t have to be the coldest part of the whole entire thing, which is the ice. You could be that. I am just happy to be a part of it. Are you the facilitator? I am a part of it. I am a participant. The minute that you claim you are a facilitator, well then you are the all-powering. And are you? If everybody that made a song gained that kind of power, then I mean, what would this world look like? That is why everything is fair, right? We all play a part in it. It is like an ant farm or a beehive. Everyone has their job. My job is to just listen and sort of try to channel it through, but it is coming from somewhere else, hence the term channel. So I am thankful when songs become what they do, because it is not my doing. There are some producers out there who think it’s possible to manufacture hits; that a chord progression, a certain hook sung by someone, will guarantee success. Sure. You don’t subscribe to that? Well, not unless you want to get in the rat race and compete with everybody else and hope that your song makes it to the top when it sounds just
juice
I don’t have to be the . I don’t have to be the glass. I don’t have to be the coldest part of the whole entire thing, which is the . You could be that. I am just happy to be a part of it
ice
the red bulletin
like everything else. Then yeah, but I like the different stuff anyway. And you know what? I am not the only one. There are so many people that love different things. That is why I like the concept of a phone, you know – connectivity is a huge part of it, too. But where the device companies are really smart, they realise people wanted to customise things, because individuality is everything. Your house smells like what you want it to smell like. It has been customised by you. Can you imagine only three furniture layouts for everyone’s home in the world? Yeah, it is funny; music is kind of like the only place where there are people that believe that delusion, that there is a formula. I guess you can lump Hollywood into that as well. Yeah, but there are festivals that celebrate indie filmmaking that don’t celebrate indie music and not with the type of visibility that they do in the film world. And film also has the advantage of playing with two senses, whereas music is just auditory. That is why the business of music has had such a slump, because they always thought it was in the song first. But you know, as the paradigm is shifting, everybody is starting to realise that kids want a visual. That is why YouTube gets more audience than any radio station collectively. But you’ve always thought visually, haven’t you? Yeah, but most musicians are the same way. I am no different. Hence the term ‘the blues’. You interviewed Spike Lee and talked about the importance of using Public Enemy’s Fight The Power as the main anthem in Do the Right Thing. How can songs contribute to the feeling that you get from film? Well, film gives you two different senses. It is curated. With music, some of it is left to your imagination, what you want to picture in your mind. With a film there is a curated direction by the point of view of the director and the music that is under it. So those two are working in concert to sort of take you to a place that the director has intended. So film sort of has the jump on it, but I think the music industry is catching up, because all of the indie artists are just like, “I don’t want to leave it up to your interpretation of what I am feeling when I make this song. I would like to show you.” So you are watching all of the indie kids make the best music, because they are thinking about music 3D, the way it has always been intended. Is there an album or artist that you think is doing it particularly well? Well, you know what? Even on a big popular level there are some artists that have figured it out. Look at Beyoncé. Her visuals were so strong that the only marketing she did was either tweeted or she put something on Instagram. I am not exactly sure of the method that she chose, but she just dropped the whole thing. She just put out a bunch of videos and her songs and was like, “Here. It is my art.” No gimmicks, no campaign. And it has really honestly caused the record industry to sort of take notice – well, the 41
Everybody is starting to realise that kids want a visual. That is why YouTube gets more audience than any radio station collectively
smart ones – because there are still cocky ones that are like, “Oh, well that is Beyoncé.” But those are the old guys. The ageless ones are the ones who are just thinking forward and they realise that he who occupies the majority of your senses with something that is irrefutable wins. Did you struggle with the structure of the record industry when you started? I was a child. I had no idea what was going on. All I knew is what drove me then is what continues to drive me now, which is music that I am like, “Whoa, that feels amazing.” I just love the feeling of great chord structures and great melody and lyrics that just touch you, you know? You’re releasing a new solo album, the first in quite some time. Why now? I didn’t know it was time. I never know anything. That is part of just being open. When things are too predetermined, I have never really had success with that. It is going to be this, this, this, this and this. That is all ego. And that is all you sort of rely on, because your ego is basically your experiences and then you have your memories of your experiences. And the way in which your mind, as a librarian, goes back to refer to this information is where your ego, where you can sort of measure or quantify what your ego is. “Well, I know such and such and such and such, so therefore…” Have you ever heard that phrase, “God laughs at our plans”? And that is why. Because when you think you know, you can be blindsided by something that is completely left of centre and just change your whole thing. I have learned – I am 40 now – so I have learned to not do that. I have learned to just be open and just experience things. And when something strikes me, go get acclimated with it instantly, because I may not hear it again. Because what are the odds? There are about seven billion people on the planet. And just because that is a lot of people doesn’t mean that the odds are in my favour. So there is no such thing as knowing. You just have to be open. So I try so hard. You know, I really work at just sort of trying to be egoless so that I can be open and not miss important morsels of music and points of view, new ways of making music. If I go in there so predetermined, then I am completely blocking everything that could have been the best thing that ever happened to me. So when 42
“I have learned to just be open and just experience the red bulletin
things. And when something strikes me, go get acclimated with it instantly, because I may not hear it again�
P H A R R E L L ’ S F AV O U R I T E S “If art doesn’t have purpose, what’s the point? This is something Cyrcle understand very well. They’re committed to creating poetic visuals that grab your attention. Cyrcle take street art to a new level of creativity that elevates the style to new heights.”
#3
the red bulletin: How did your
collaboration get off the ground?
we wanted to do with our work. I didn‘t just want to do graffiti and he didn’t just want to do design. You paint walls, make short films and build skull sculptures out of flowers. Is there a recurring theme in Cyrcle’s work? leavitt: Personally, I never wanted to be stuck in one style because that’s not my style of living. I’m a really manic bipolar person, because I’m changing all the time. I love change. In order to grow we have to find new tools and then we have to learn how to use them. torres: The process for anything we create starts with an idea, a concept and a message. Then we figure out how to visually communicate that message. That’s where the work will continue to change, because it’s not inspired by a style, it’s inspired by an idea. That’s what frees us to do so much different stuff. What do we want
torres: When I met Davey, he opened
my world to the design and the elements of type and really clean sophisticated design. I was just running around in LA, trying to paint walls, do graffiti and stuff like that. We shared similar values and a conceptual dream of what
“it’s not inspired by a style, it’s inspired by an idea. that’s what frees Us”
the sculpture to communicate? What materials can help communicate that? leavitt: It’s an exciting moment in the studio every time we get a reason to buy a new tool. It started with the worst brand you can buy at the local hardware store. And then you get a DeWalt and everything changes as far as how precise you can get with your angles and cuts. Right now, we’re saving up for a laser machine. That’s going to be our new tool that we’re excited to have. Just doing it all ourselves, we’re going on YouTube figuring out how to do it.
Your motto is ‘We Never Die.’ Pharrell’s band N.E.R.D. stands for ‘No One Ever Really Dies.’ Is that just a coincidence? torres: It is, totally. leavitt: But I mean, it’s not in a sense that if that’s his mantra, that’s the type of person he is. It’s similar to the type of people we are. We can relate to his style. He could be just a hip-hop artist or he could be just a producer. But he does everything and he’s always open to changing as an artist. Just like us. cyrcle.com florian obkircher
David ‘Rabi’ Torres and Davey Leavitt have been working together since 2010 under the name of Cyrcle, bringing together two disparate elements of the art world – graffiti and graphic design – through massive motifs and fine details. The Los Angeles-based duo’s simple style has taken many forms over the past four years, such as the time they painted the front of a house in delicate woodcut style, or when they recounted American colonial history using outsized, detailed, pop-art prints, or when they cut up their own artwork and then put it back together in a jigsaw-like honeycomb. When it comes to creating their art, the only rule for Torres and Leavitt is there are no rules.
CYRCLE, Theonepointeight
CYRCLE Artists
A hit song is not yourdoing. doing. The song is youre The hit is made by th t people. You can’t lose sight of tha
I had the awesome opportunity to work on the first Despicable Me, I had to listen. As much as I felt like, “Oh, you know, I can make songs and whatever.” No man, they had a direction. They knew what they wanted. And in that process, I learned more about reaching more people or just opening songs up. OK cool, so you think the music is there. You think the lyrics are there. Cool. Is it as accessible as it could be? Was that line sung as good as it could be, so that it is clear and the diction is clear? In other words, is the music legible to people’s interpretation? It might not be, because your ego told you that you killed it. But if you could remove your ego and only use your feeling, that is when the best stuff comes out. Has that been a difficult lesson to learn? It was a great lesson to work, because that is how Happy came. Because I swore out that I had it nine times in a row, nine different songs for that one little scene. Nine? Yeah. And it was only until I was completely out of ideas, no more ego, right? Because what I knew about Despicable Me the first time is that [Gru, the main character] is mean and duh, duh, duh, so therefore… and it was a mistake. So it took nine times to sort of get it through my head that I needed to be open and realise, “OK, yeah. Gru was a mad guy in the first one. He is happy now.” So how do you write a song about somebody being happy and just having a relentless mood about it? And then the song came. But you had the basics of it? I didn’t have anything. That is what I am trying to tell you. The basics are where the ego comes in. Remember, you have to be open. But surely you have to start with something. Zero. But that is crazy, because you’ve built a career of knowing it and of having it. No, I built a career of loving music and sometimes becoming intoxicated by things working out and sort of thinking it was me. And it wasn’t me. A hit song is the red bulletin
not your doing. The song is your doing. The hit is made by the people. You can’t lose sight of that. What purpose does the new album serve for you? I was just given the opportunity and, you know, when asked what I wanted to make it about, I went with the feeling. So I did decide with my eyes closed. But what does that mean? Did you just ask your own follow-up question? Yeah. That was a rhetorical question. What does that mean? That means not, “Oh, I am so good. I can do it with my eyes closed.” When someone says that they are doing it with their eyes closed, what they are ultimately saying, what that really is supposed to mean, is that you didn’t think about it and that it was second nature because you were going off a feeling. I went off of feeling. I didn’t look around peripherally to see what this person was doing and what that person was doing. I went inward so that I could go upward. So I made it with my eyes closed, which means the litmus test was when you close your eyes, does it work for you there? That means no outside influences. So I made all of the music just based on feeling, not thinking. Because every time I have ever thought too much in my whole entire life, I have f––ked it up. So you think, “What does euphoria sound like? What does sadness sound like? What does giddiness sound like?” I mean, you are ascribing sounds to emotion. Yes, but that is what all musicians do. That is not singular to me. We just all do things our way. And your way is who you are. The way of doing things is what makes you who you are. In other words, we all speak English, but somehow you use the words differently than I do and you use it in your way. Your way is your fingerprint of who you are as a person. A lot of us make music the same way. It is just your way is more specific to who you are as a person. Do you know what I am saying? I do. I also think it is interesting how you have never been afraid to indulge interests, directions. What do you have to lose? Failure? If you are concerned about failure, then you can’t make no good music. Why is the new album called Girl? Well, there is major purpose in there. But let me switch gears on you. Let me tell you my intentions aside from the content is the feeling so that we have a through line between how I make music. So at 45
RITES P H A R R E L L’ S FAV O U “Anyone can ride a bicycle, but how many people create art with it? When Nigel Sylvester leaps into the air with his BMX bike, it’s beyond just entertainment. He approaches his craft like a mad scientist who pushes the limits of what’s humanly possible.”
BMX rider
Down Merrick Boulevard in Jamaica, in the Queens borough of New York, weaving in and out of traffic on his BMX bike, Nigel Sylvester wasn’t earning much street cred. “People called me a white boy and made fun of me,” he says. “They didn’t understand the culture.” With the typical path to BMX stardom unavailable to him, Sylvester seized on the power of YouTube. He made videos showcasing his freakish ability on a BMX bike as he carved up New York. Sponsors followed, including bike-makers Brooklyn Machine Works, who, last year, reached out to Sylvester via one of their investors: Pharrell Williams. the red bulletin: What does
Pharrell’s involvement mean to your scene? nigel sylvester: It started with skateboarding. Seeing someone like him embrace that, it automatically made it cool and acceptable. Kids in the hood start to ride skateboards and you’d never, ever seen that before. He’s just that influential in culture. Why? He’s a producer and music drives culture so much. I hope the same happens for BMX culture. I’ve been a fan of Pharrell’s for a minute, and he’s been embracing BMX culture for
a long time now. He rode bikes in the Provider video [N.E.R.D, 2001] and I remember seeing that when I was young and that’s another reason I stuck with BMX, because I saw someone like him doing it as well. On that level, that made it more cool for me. I saw someone who looked like me, doing it. Why was that important? Actual BMX culture wasn’t popular at all. People called me a white boy and made fun of me because they didn’t understand the culture. So I definitely had like those naysayers and haters, but I stuck with it and was able to make a career out of it.
“I was using the neighbourhood to express myself. It’s like NYC was the canvas”
What kept you in it? I liked the freedom, dude. It was the best way to express myself. As a child, I was into art and music and played basketball and football, but there was something about the bike that I was really into. It was a feeling I had at that early age and I practised at it and I was good at it. I saw results. And I saw dudes like [BMX pro] Dave Mirra, who took it to such a height, and I was like, “If he can do it, then it’s possible.” But coming from where I came from, I had to put my own perspective on it, my own life story, and my neighbourhood and background into it, and it came out differently. I took a whole different route. What was that? The traditional way is you work hard to get sponsored and you ride contests and the more you win the bigger star you are. For me growing up, I didn’t have access to contests and I didn’t have access to the skateparks that these contests were based on. So I had to figure out another way to get myself out there. Luckily enough, street riding was becoming very popular, where you
rode rails and used what was provided to you. I was using my neighbourhood to ride and express myself. It was like NYC was the canvas and I painted my picture on whatever it offered me. I was able to mix riding with the lifestyle I was living – into music, into art, into fashion – and I put that into my riding. Whenever I put a video out I made sure to include that, and I was able to attract a different type of people and get eyes on what I was doing. And big companies saw that and they were like, “Wow, this kid is different.” I didn’t ride in the X Games. I used the internet and word of mouth. What do you hope your collaboration leads to? I want to give kids an opportunity to aspire to be part of that brand and just do good by the industry. I’m hoping that teaming up with someone like Pharrell, we can get it out to the masses and show the world what this BMX culture is about. People have this one image of it. There’s one type of person you think that rides BMX bicycles, but it’s not true. nigelsylvester.com
Andreas Tzortzis
#4
nigel sylvester
Our feelings can lead us to do really crazy things
or really amazing things
the genesis I knew that the criteria was festive, celebratory, and I wanted everything to feel urgent. So I worked really hard. Urgent is an interesting word to use. Urgent just means like, “Man, what is that?” Stop and listen. Shooting, always shooting for unique and undeniable. Always shooting for that and using the feeling as a compass. We are so dismissive of our feelings. Yet most of the time when you hear about them in songs, unless it is a real good singersongwriter, it is always generic. But your feeling is connects to your spirit that separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom. We have feelings. Our feelings can lead us to do really crazy things or really amazing things. You can tell when someone is standing behind you, even if they’re not making a sound. You can feel it. You can walk into a room and you can tell when someone doesn’t like you. You can walk in a room and you can tell when there is something going on between two people. It is a feeling. But we are always so dismissive of it. So with this album I intended to capitalise the red bulletin
on that and just try to make something that would be real stimulative. To resonate with women? Oh yeah, totally. Totally. Women have been so good to me and my career. What do you need to understand about women to write songs for them? Well, I think most of the time we hear songs that are written at women versus for. You know, it is like most products. It is not really for them, it is just marketed at their insecurities. It doesn’t really fit her hand like that though, does it? It is not really the smell she truly prefers, it is just what your old, antiquated corporate statistics tell you. But where are you doing these consensuses and with what types of women? My thing is, let’s start doing things with them truly in mind, truly in mind. That is not writing something at her. That is writing something intended for her. And the only way to do that, the only way to really sort of figure out if that works or not is based on feeling. That is what she is going to tell you, what she really feels. Are you trying to demystify that otherness in women? Is it kind of about trying to understand it or cater to it? I just want to make music that ladies, the girls, listen to and they feel an escapism. That is my intention. Sometimes I think that success comes from being very calculated and being very smart and not getting too involved. Yes, like Steve Jobs. He so geniusly brought that product to the world; it is called a computer. But we are human, and that is what a computer will never be able to do is feel. That is what still makes us the superior species on this planet. So you are a curator of feeling? At this moment. Has it been different earlier in your career? Yeah, because, like I said, when I realised that thinking is not my path and feeling is for me, I started to realise that people are so dismissive about other people’s feelings. I have always felt music since I was a little child. But I realised that it was the key probably in the last 10 years. Because before that I just wasn’t thinking. It was like private flights, Ferraris, jewellery, all of those things that mean nothing. Ferraris get old. They depreciate in value the first time you drive them. The same as a Honda Accord. You have got to trade it in in two years, because in four you have lost a lot of money. And I appreciate the car, I do. I still do. But that is not what it is about. You can’t take that when you go. You take your feelings with you and your experiences that gave you those feelings. And also what you gave others. That is the wealth, man. An experience. The coolest thing that you talk about is your trip somewhere where you went and you had a good time. The first thing that you talk about it in terms of your description, “Man, it was awesome.” For more on Pharrell and his passion for BMX culture, check out The Red Bulletin Presents on YouTube
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to tame a dragon
The Red Bulletin meets Ryan Sandes and Ryno Griesel as they attempt to set a fastest known time for the Drakensberg Grand Traverse, a 210km journey on foot across remote mountain terrain, with no support and very little sleep
w o r d s : J A Z Z K U S C H K E p h o t o g r a p h y: ke lv i n t r au t m a n
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he Drakensberg is Southern Africa’s highest and most iconic mountain range, and its towering basalt peaks, rock-art adorned caves and remote valleys have commanded reverence throughout history. Opinions differ over whether the Voortrekkers dubbed them ‘Dragon Mountains’ because they believed dragons to live in the misty valleys, or because the range’s spiky profile resembles that of the mythical beast’s back. Perhaps a clue lies in the more traditional name ‘uKhahlamba’, or ‘Barrier of Spears’ in Zulu. What is certain is that while the lower slopes and streams can be safely explored by fun-loving ecotourists, the higher reaches are best left to well-equipped, expert mountaineers. Among this high-altitude club, an obscure challenge has developed over the years: to travel on foot, carrying all your own gear and without receiving any form of support, from the north to the south. It has become known as the Drakensberg Grand Traverse and is the mother of all hikes. It’s a trek that usually takes an experienced hiker some six to 10 days to complete. Trail runners Ryan Sandes and Ryno Griesel are planning to make the journey in less than two. From the acknowledged start at the Sentinel car park near Witsieshoek, the pair will have to navigate more than 210km 50
of rugged mountain terrain to the finish at Bushman’s Nek. Along the way, they must summit six of the most prominent peaks south of Kilimanjaro (for an altitude gain of over 9,000m) and will seldom drop below 3,000m above sea level. Imagine running from Cape Town to Hermanus and back, non-stop, while holding your hand over your mouth and nose, and climbing the equivalent height of Mount Everest. Sandes, whose legs have carried him to high-profile ultra-trail race wins on every continent in the world, has no illusions about what lies ahead. “Mentally, this is the toughest thing I’ve ever attempted,” says the Capetonian, who set a speed record through Namibia’s Fish River Canyon in 2012. (Six hours 57 mins for what is normally a five-day hike). “The Traverse is just so long and so far and so slow. Most of the terrain is really not run-able either – you’re on the edge of steep cliffs with no options around the side. On average, you’re probably doing about 5kph. Mentally, that just smashes you. You might think, ‘OK, cool, I’ve only got 20km to go…’ If I was trail running, I could do that in an hour-and-a-half to two hours, but up there, it’s about four.” Sandes plans to overcome the challenge like he does ultra-distance races: by breaking the hike down into smaller goals, taking it one peak at a time. “The first peak comes after about 8km,” Sandes explains, “but the second is about 50km further on. So, 10 hours to the next peak and all the terrain looks the same – it’s beautiful, but it’s monotonous.” The sheer magnitude of the task has left the prolific race winner with a
TEN HOURS TO THE NEXT PEAK: massive distances and hostile terrain will make for slow going during Ryan Sandes (above and right) and Ryno Griesel’s attempt
“Mentally, this is the toughest thing I’ve ever attempted” – Ryan Sandes
MORE HASTE, LESS SPEED: without the correct planning, equipment and nutrition, Sandes and Griesel will struggle
philosophical approach. “I’ve learned that ego isn’t going to get us very far,” he says. “I’m not doing this to break the record. This is a personal challenge – I think it would be cool to run from one end of the Drakensberg to the other, and I want to see how far I really can push myself.”
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he Berg is bloody awesomely big” says David Bristow, author of Best Walks in the Drakensberg, and a Traverse veteran. “If you look at the Berg side-on, it has a helluva rugged profile. Each one of those high points represents a ridge and every dip a ravine, so what you’re doing is just climbing ridges and ravines. All day long. The terrain is also incredibly rugged. There are these huge alpine grass tussocks, which will definitely pose a problem for running. You could easily twist your ankle on that, easily break a limb.” Not the kind of challenge, then, that you just pencil into your diary, lace up your trail shoes and go tick off. “I felt I had to pay my school fees, spend some time in the Berg and kak off a bit through a few recces,” says Sandes. “I didn’t want it just to be Ryno taking me on a glorified guided running tour of the Drakensberg.” 52
When Sandes and Griesel run through the gate at Sentinel car park in March, they will have done four comprehensive reconnaissance trips, and close on two years’ worth of planning. For Sandes, the strength needed for the power hiking and slowish scrambling fits his training programme perfectly. For Griesel, it is the biggest goal of his year and he’s been putting in big road mileage in Johannesburg and training in the Magaliesberg over the weekends. “Over the years, the record attempts have evolved from traditional hiking to speed hiking (going faster and lighter), and then it moved into adventure racing,” explains Griesel who, along with Cobus van Zyl, set the existing record of 60h 29min 30sec in April 2010. “This is the first time,
Sentinel Car Park Mont-aux-sources
south africa
Cleft Peak Champagne Castle
Mafadi
lesotho
Giant’s Castle
Thabana Ntlenyana
uKhahlamba drakensberg park Bushman’s Nek
as far as we know, that the Traverse is being approached with a running mentality.” Griesel has an adventure racing background and is in charge of navigation, logistics and keeping the attempt within the rules and mountain ethics of the Traverse. Griesel believes that, aside from navigational skills and mountain running prowess, what will set their attempt apart is less sleep and lighter loads. “We’re taking small, 12-litre packs with no tents or sleeping bags, so we don’t actually have the facilities to sleep,” Griesel half-jokes. For an adventure racer, 45 hours without sleep is not out of the question, but Sandes will need to close his eyes at some point. “When you’re exhausted on a normal trail, you can kind of switch off. But with the Traverse being so technical, you have to be alert all the time,” he says. Sandes is planning two or three power naps of 20 to 30 minutes each, and he’s hoping to push it to at least 18 hours before he needs the first one. “If it’s raining and cold, we won’t be able to stop, which is why we’re not cutting corners,” he says, having realised the need for proper waterproof gear after being caught in severe weather on a recce in October 2013. “We’re going as light as possible, but at the same time if you run into trouble, you have to be able to get yourself out.”
T DRAGON’S RUN The Drakensberg Grand Traverse runs from north to south, starting at the Sentinel car park perimeter fence and ending at the Bushman’s Nek Border Post perimeter fence Way points include
Chain Ladders • The summit (3,282m) • Mont-aux-Sources Peak summit (3,277m) • Cleft Castle summit (3,377m) • Champagne summit (3,451m) • Mafadi Giant’s Castle summit (3,314m) • Thabana summit (3,482m: the highest peak in Southern Africa) • ThomathuNtlenyana Pass must be used to descend to Bushman’s Nek • PREVIOUS TRAVERSE RECORDS April 2010 60h 29min 30sec – Ryno Griesel and Cobus van Zyl December 2009 61h 24m 11s – Andrew Porter December 2008 3 days, 9 hours, 52 minutes (81h 52m 52s) – Stijn Laenen and Andrew Hagen 1999-2008 Approximately 15 documented unsuccessful attempts Feb 1999 4 days, 9 hours, 39 minutes (105h 39m) – Gavin and Laurie Raubenheimer
hey’re going in March when the weather should be good,” says Bristow. “It’s the best time but it’s still susceptible to heavy cloud along the escarpment edge. You can get horribly lost. Fall off the edge…” The runners will be carrying GPS devices and waterproof maps, enough food to last them for 60 hours, as well as a Yellowbrick tracker that has a panic button should things get critical. A film crew shooting documentary footage from a helicopter will act as emergency backup, but at no point during the attempt will they have any communication with the runners and they are only allowed to assist if a rescue is required. If the March mist does persist, it’s likely GPS won’t work and the helicopter won’t be able to reach the runners anyway. “If something goes wrong, you can be pretty much stuck up there for a week if the weather closes in,” admits Sandes. But that’s just the type of challenge he relishes, and he’s well aware that no one’s going to be taming any dragon. It’s more about spending some time tracing its back, on its own terms, and hopefully rewriting the record books in the process. redbull.co.za/draktraverse
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Racing into the night by the light of the Ferris wheel: the hours before midnight are the best
day of
thun words: Werner Jessner 
p h o t o g r a p h y: J u l i e G l a s s b e r g , M a r c e l o M a r a g n i
Credit:
der
Tribal fans, deadly manoeuvres and last-minute gasps at the Rolex 24 at Daytona 55
grandstands tremble as the field goes into the first lap
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the red bulletin
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inda Vaughn is missing from the start. In years gone by, the garages and boys’ bedrooms of America were graced with the formidable vision of Miss Hurst Golden Shifter. For almost half a century, the blonde was a obligatoryyet-welcome presence at the Rolex 24 At Daytona, the full-day race at the legendary racetrack which traditionally kicks-off each international motorsport season. This year, however, she has decided not to attend. But pretty much everyone else is here. Former Formula One drivers, sportscar greats, gentleman drivers and showbiz stars form a colourful contingent in Daytona Beach, Florida, USA, contending with the super speedway’s oval for a day and a night. After the start-finish straight they turn towards the infield, to the east and west horseshoes, before once again tackling the oval with its exaggerated curves, clocking in at over 300kph.
The modest self-assessment of the Daytona International Speedway: “The World Center of Racing”
Until his 70th birthday, you could usually see Paul Newman at the start; two Andrettis have won here, as have Al Unser Sr and Jr, Hurley Haywood and Chris Amon. The career of Infiniti Red Bull Racing technical genius Adrian Newey really took off here in 1983, when the young designer turned a March sportscar from a design write-off into a surprise frontrunner in double-quick time. Only engine problems in the 23rd hour prevented Newey’s drivers from waking up the day after with a new watch on the bedside table. Winners of what was began as the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1962 are awarded a Rolex Daytona watch; the prize-givers splurged for naming rights in 1991. For all this history, 2014 represents the start of a new era in US long-distance racing. The country’s two rival racing series, GrandAm and American Le Mans, have come together and agreed on joint rules. This year’s Rolex 24 was the first race of the new United Sportscar Series, and 68 cars divided into four classes revved their engines at the start. The top tier, Prototypes, is a walkover for the representatives of the erstwhile GrandAm against the open sportscars of the American Le Mans series. The Daytona prototypes share the lead among themselves. “They may say that constancy trumps sheer speed in long-distance races, but here it’s full speed ahead from the first lap,” says three-time Daytona winner Memo Rojas. “Twenty-four hour races have become long-range sprints.”
Mechanics endure short bursts of frantic activity between waits that seem to stretch longer and longer
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Firefighters take stock of the campfires situation, just to be sure
The northern infield campsite is home to the younger, louder fans. They’re a good match for the cars that thunder past at 300kph
Tyres, fuel, wipe the windscreen, clean the cooler – done. That’s the pit-stop in an ideal world, but it’s rarely that easy
The Daytona International Speedway is huge. The tens of thousands of spectators here on the last Saturday in January are simply lost in grandstands that can seat 168,000 and which tremble as the field goes into the first lap. The differences in performance are so great that the first lapping comes less than 15 minutes into the race – the circuit is a 4km oval – and that’s after the worst of the jalopies, the home-made family projects with a lot of heart but little else, are stricken from the field at registration. Because things are dangerous enough without them. the red bulletin
At 4.58 in the afternoon, after a driving time of 2 hours and 47 minutes, leader Memo Gidley laps one car – and smacks straight into another, the number 62 Ferrari driven by Matteo Malucelli. The impact of Gidley’s Corvette DP into the back of the Ferrari is so powerful that everyone fears the worst. At this point, the cars are driving into the setting sun, “for a moment you can’t see anything at all”, says one driver, describing conditions. The race is stopped and Gidley has to be cut out of the wreck of his car. The race has long since
resumed when news finally comes that the two drivers are responsive. (Gidley would go on to spend 12 days in hospital, and endure surgery on his broken left heel, elbow and leg, and a compression fracture in his back. Malucelli was kept in overnight for observation.) Accidents are inseparable from the Daytona experience, as much a part of the legend of this race as Linda Vaughn, as who sings of The Star Spangled Banner at the start, as the Mass in the media centre on Sunday morning and as the camping area in the infield, which is 59
In the last 15 minutes there’s a dramatic compression of the field
divided into three areas: wild north, rich east and conservative south. In the north, between turns three and four, are the lads, the party animals. They brought beer and small tents in pick-ups, SUVs and other vehicles with a whiff of the farm about them. They also came with plenty of wood for the campfires, which tend to blaze a little brighter round here. Firefighters regularly take stock of the situation, just to be sure. It’s not even midday before the tent ropes claim their first stumbling victims, who bawl their disapproval. The unmistakable sound of couples coupling issues from a few tents. Things are very different in the south, the home of RVs (recreational vehicles) 60
New US racing rules mean that the open sportscars don’t stand a chance against the closed cars
No luck this time: the (usually) winning Ganassi team around former three-time Daytona victor Memo Rojas (left)
and those who appreciate the finer things in life. These vehicles have a bedroom, a kitchen and a closet, and the dead animal is sacrificed to the gas barbecue rather than open flames. Here, the cuts of meat and the paunches of those grilling them tend to be larger than in the north. These are experienced campers. Most of them have flatscreens elegantly worked into the bodywork of their mobile homes. Territory is carefully marked out; awnings block the view of the track. It’s an idyllic holiday home set-up, with thundering eightcylinder engines as a backdrop. But the big money is over in the east. Not that there are any people the red bulletin
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here – they’re presumably off somewhere getting food – but they’ve left behind a full car park, neatly delineated. The largest is the Porsche car park. You can pick out your dream 911 by colour or model; every combination imaginable is here. The true connoisseurs come here in their 928s or maybe even an early 1600 Super. The plump Panameras and Cayennes, mere urchins in the eyes of true racers, have to park elsewhere. There are also plenty of Corvettes, Camaros and Mustangs, although they seem a little banal here in the heartland of American motorsport. The Rolex 24 has always had a touch of the European about it, reflected in the racegoers’ rides. Half past four in the morning is a good time to charge. While mechanics slumber in orthopaedically dubious positions, drivers wander absent-mindedly through the paddock with toothbrushes in their mouths and the last party die-hard out in the campsite has been silenced, out on the track it’s time to mount an attack. The major teams have old hands behind the wheel, who have gone through the night in double shifts, exchanging places with the super sprinters. Even if the track temperature means that there will be no record times, this is no time for taking prisoners. The Porsche junior Klaus Bachler, just 22 years old, steps out of his Porsche 911 after a flawless run. His team aren’t sending him off to bed, but to a debrief in the command bridge. Lads like him have a lot to learn. It’s nights like these which turn young hopefuls into true racing drivers.
he race gets dramatic once again shortly before the end. The pace car, often used in US racing to ratchet up the tension, comes out after a relatively minor crash and presses the field together. In three of the four classes, places are decided in the last of the 96 quarter-hours of the 24hour race, all of it broadcast live on TV. Spectators bite their nails as the battle comes down to the second-last bend. In the lowest class, GTD, there is metal-onmetal action in the fight for victory. Once the black-and-white chequered flag falls, the dam breaks, fans crowd around the drivers and grope at the cars. Confetti, music, tears and watches for the winners. Christian Fittipaldi, João Barbosa and, with the honour of taking the flag, Sébastien Bourdais, are the 2014 winners at Daytona, in a Corvette C5-R. At the press conference, Bourdais, who has raced in Formula One for Scuderia Toro Rosso, proudly displays his brand-new Rolex Daytona. “Daytona is one of those races you want to win once in your life,” he says. “Every day when I look at my wrist, I’ll remember this victory”. imsa.com
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Course work The Athertons are pushing boundaries in training in their quest for the perfect downhill mountain bike run
e n o a r t x e e h t
t n e c r e p
? d-class l r o w lready d for the a e r ’ u me if yo thertons hea xcellence – a g r u o up y the A quest for e u y o t y s a o n How d n-biking dy ds in their biker i n r a a e t l t n s t u i e o b M S p a n i s h y o u c a n b e aat t i a s F r e d r i k s s o n d n a b la a l h onw P h o t o g r a p h y : M e v e r d an Morga Words
: Ruth
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f a m i ly t i e s “My brothers started riding and I didn’t want to be left at home alone,” says Rachel (right, with brother Gee). “They still help me today, I wouldn’t be in this position without them”
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etes l h t a “If ter are fit onger r and st n a they c ster a race f or f and go � longer
hill n w o D “ led, r e d i is r n the o o g they it� f o g n i feel
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A Keeping it fresh
My routine has changed a lot over the years,” says Gee Atherton. “Every year is an improvement. I like to try new things and not get into a rut”
Thursday morning in January, and Rachel Atherton is inside a lab at the University of Birmingham, a small room lit by fluorescent strip lights and complete with a model skeleton and a whiteboard covered in half-erased equations. It’s an incongruous setting for one of the best downhill mountain bike riders in the world, yet she’s here, legs pumping hard on the pedals of a static bike, breaths coming in loud, rhythmic bursts. Her blonde hair is tied back, her cheeks are flushed, the long-sleeved top she arrived in now removed despite the cold. Rachel’s fitness trainer and two physiologists are quietly observing as the 26-year-old’s efforts are translated into dramatic scribbles on a monitor to her left, a red line showing her increasing heart rate, a blue line her cadence and a green line the power she’s generating. Every three minutes, the resistance increases, shown on the monitor as another step up on a graphic staircase. One of the physiologists leans in at regular intervals to take a blood sample from Rachel’s right index finger, from which the amount of lactic acid she’s producing is measured, and notes down the reading on a chart. This is what mountain bike training looks like in 2014. Rachel and her downhill mountain biking brother Gee are at the forefront of their sport, and are pushing the boundaries of training in search of the perfect run. They’re breaking down every
aspect of their physical ability on a bike into graphs, charts and stats with constant testing, using power meters and heart monitors both on their bikes and in the lab. They, along with their enduroriding eldest brother Dan, (he is 33; Gee, the 2010 downhill champion, is 29) have travelled here from their home in North Wales several times in the last 18 months, since they started working with a new fitness coach. Alan Milway is a 33-year-old sports scientist, former British motocross team coach and exdownhill rider, and a firm believer in figures over feelings. Like some Midlands version of Mouse from The Matrix, he’s able to look at a sheet of numbers and see an athlete: where they’re strong, where they’re lacking. “I probably look at an athlete in a different way to most people,” he says. “But for me, numbers are the starting point. A lot of the coaches I see don’t do evidence-based stuff. A lot of them believe if you thrash an athlete so hard they crawl out of the gym then you’re doing a good job. But I take a more academic approach.” Milway is one of the first trainers to devise an evidence-based, bespoke training programme for professional riders in enduro, mountain biking’s longdistance event on trails with climbs and drops, which can last several hours, and downhill, an extreme discipline in which riders tackle steep courses littered with obstacles ranging from tree roots to rocks at speeds of up to 80kph. “Downhill is rider-led,” Milway says, “they go on the
feeling of it, but often what they feel isn’t completely right. The power data we record at races means I know how long Gee or Rach is pedalling for in one go, how hard they’re pedalling, what their leg speed is, and if you’re going downhill, there is an optimum leg speed, you can plot it on a graph. Once you know what they’re doing on the bike, you can adjust the gears based on the evidence. Not a lot of people have looked at that.” Having read about Milway’s successes with, among others, former world downhill champion Danny Hart, Gee approached him about working with the team at the end of 2012. Milway was quick to accept. “When I first saw the Athertons’ testing notes I said to their manager, ‘Just give me a winter!’” he says. “I was so excited as, even though their results were good, they weren’t anywhere near their peak, so I knew we could really go places.” It seems he was right. Last year, despite carrying minor injuries, Gee led the World Cup series right up until the last event, when he was beaten into second place, and Rachel had her bestever season, winning the national championship, the World Championship and the World Cup series. She won the first race of the latter by 10 seconds, a huge margin in a sport that can come down to 10ths of seconds. Today, in the lab, is a chance to see how Rachel is performing ahead of the start of the 2014 World Cup in April, using test data recorded three weeks after she won the world championship in 2013 as a sort of gold standard against which to measure. She’s just completed her third and last test of the day, 10 brutal, maximum-power sprints. She leans over on the bike, exhausted, but the news is good. She has averaged the equivalent of 218 revolutions per minute, only two off her post-world-champs level of 220. “Oh, lovely,” says Milway. Three days later, Milway, the three Atherton siblings and Atherton Racing teammates Marc Beaumont, a DH and enduro racer, and 16-year-old enduro wunderkind Martin Maes, arrive at the Canary Island of Fuerteventura. Despite the winter sunshine, this is no holiday. The Playitas resort is akin to a sports reformatory. Almost every resident is a professional athlete, here for punishing runs in the black volcanic hills, and sessions in the Olympic-sized pool and the huge gym complex. Rather than arguments about towels on sun loungers, today there’s a situation brewing over the Swedish Olympic judo team having commandeered all the free weights. 68
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he Athertons are here for two-weeks of pre-season strength and endurance work, their first training camp of 2014. When they were starting out, these sorts of intense training camps were unheard of. Just 15 years ago the Jack Daniels-drinking, punk rock-singing US downhill mountain biker Shaun Palmer stood on a UCI World Cup podium wearing a gold sequined suit and crown, before heading to his tour bus to celebrate with a bottle or two of Crown Royal whisky. Training was a dirty word. “Back then it wasn’t enough to be someone who raced downhill,” says Gee. “Everyone was trying to be a rock star, not training, partying the night before the race. The training side of it was relatively unknown. If people were training it was super-basic, and they were keeping it very quiet because it wasn’t cool. Of course it wasn’t cheating, but it was looked at in that way.” But, even as Palmer won athlete of the year awards and graced the front covers
of magazines in the 2000s, a new cleanliving generation that included the Athertons was coming to dethrone him. Gee and Dan’s initial attempts at training weren’t up to much. “As juniors, training meant watching Rocky movies to get fired up, then painting motivational words on the garage walls,” laughs Dan. But their senior careers have revolved around gym work, road bike rides, and rehab sessions with specialists, as over the last decade the entire professional downhill community embraced the training revolution. “Me and my brothers have used a professional trainer since I was 16,” says Rachel. “It’s become more and more about the training, rather than being gnarly and shredding. Tenths of seconds can separate first and third place, so you’re always looking for new ways to make those gains.” Ironically, the Athertons’ new scientific approach has taken training off the list of conversational topics, but for the opposite reason of being uncool: now it’s too valuable to discuss. “There is secrecy involved,” says Gee. “There are elements the red bulletin
No beach h o l i d ay The Playitas resort in Fuerteventura is home from home for athletes looking to improve their performance; the Athertons are regulars
come e b s ’ t “I ore m d n a more the about g n traini than r at h e r a r ly n being g edding� r and sh
we won’t talk about: it’s a competition at the end of the day. As soon as one person sees something, it’s out there. At the World Champs, the French team are known for it – they’re there in the starting hut studying what’s on your bike, what you’re wearing. But then everyone knows we’re using the SRM power cranks [the static bike used in the lab] and that’s fine. Unless you have someone like Alan who gets that data and knows what to do with it, then it’s not going to work for you. ” Like any coach, Milway is acutely aware that his value lies in being able to keep his athletes ahead of the pack. “I’m constantly assessing what we’re happy to talk about and what we’re not,” he says. “Some of the things we’re doing, no one else has even considered, much of what we consider normal, other athletes won’t even be thinking about. And we’re quite happy to keep it that way. I want to make myself as valuable to my athletes as possible, and the only way I’m going to do that is by doing things other people aren’t.” The first afternoon sessions in Fuerteventura will be biking, but this morning, it’s a gym session for the whole team. The gym has become a second home to the Athertons after Milway put them on a strength-gain programme. “I knew that’s where they’d see the results,” he says. “I’ve had them doing heavy lifting. Their gains went right up on the graphs after just a few months.” Rachel seems to have gained as much psychologically from Milway’s approach as she has in muscle. “Strength is the main difference I’ve noticed with Alan,” she says. “That’s been a massive gain for me. With the testing it became clear that my pedalling was a weak point; now I’m the strongest pedaller out there. Without testing, you can sort of kid yourself that you’re where you need to be, but when you test you can’t hide, the stats don’t lie. Mentally, going out there knowing you’re where you need to be physically is huge. It made a big difference to my last season.” “It’s simple really: if athletes are fitter and stronger, it means they can race faster and go for longer,” says Gee. “In the past two years, I’ve had more crashes than I’ve had in my life, the biggest crashes of my career, and I’ve got up and walked away from them. I’m pretty sure that’s down to having someone like Alan with us. We need to be more scientific about things, there’s no point having an awesome bike if you can’t race it to its maximum level. Man and machine have to match each other, and now we know how to get there.” Measure your bike progress against the Athertons: redbull.co.uk/personalbest
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Be A better Rider tomorrow Changes you can make n o w, f r o m i n s i d e t h e At h e r t o n R a c i n g T e a m
10 top tips 1
Ride different disciplines
“The road bike links well to the downhill bike as the intensity you reach on the mountain bike can be replicated on the road bike, you can make the rides quite brutal and short. They’re better for training as the risk of crashing on a downhill track is massive, so I would never ask an athlete to do 12 flat-out downhill runs in a row. On a road bike, you can achieve the same intensity more safely.” Alan Milway, Team Fitness Coach
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Stretching it out
“I’ve started doing a lot of yoga and stretching for my back and hips, as my back started getting really tight, and once I started stretching properly after the rides that stopped. It’s made a huge difference to me. I stretch for half an hour before a session, then most evenings for an hour to 90 minutes. We stretch in the gym, too. Even if it’s just a few basic moves, to open up your hip flexors and shoulders, don’t underestimate how much it will help your riding and recovery. Especially if you’re on a road bike, because of the posture you ride in.” Rachel Atherton
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Get into a corner
4
Put on weights
5
Saddle down
6
The eyes have it
“If you’re going into a corner, a lot of riders have their feet level on the pedals, but if you drop your outside foot to the bottom, and bring the inside foot up, that brings your weight more into the corner, so you’re more solid, and you can lean in and rail it more easily. If your feet are level, your weight is still quite high, which will cause you to slow down a bit and lose stability.” Rachel Atherton
“If you choose one move in the gym to help your cycling, make it a deadlift. It’s pretty simple to learn, but then you can really add the weight on as you progress. It makes a huge difference to your power. It works your legs, bum, back, core and shoulders, so it’s a whole body move. If you’ve only got half an hour for your workout, this is the most efficient way to spend it.” Rachel Atherton
“If you’re riding cross-country, you’ll have your seat high to climb, but many riders don’t necessarily think about then lowering their seat for a descent. If the seat’s too high, it will make you lean back too far, or push you over the front so your weight’s unbalanced. If it’s lowered, the bike can move around more easily on the descent, and you can corner better as your weight’s more central. A lot of people now have these dropper seat posts which are easy to adjust, so it’s easy.” Rachel Atherton
“Where you’re looking makes a big difference to where you end up. Your body will follow your line of sight, so a turn almost happens from your head downwards. Going into a turn, keep your eyes on your exit point, and you’ll find your whole body follows you round and adjusts to exiting the turn rather than being in the turn.” Gee Atherton Clever cornering: dropping your outside foot makes you more solid on the bends
the red bulletin
7
Set your sag
8
Practice partner
9
Don’t make it easy on yourself
“A lot of riders get stuck in a rut with how they run their bike, from tyre pressure to suspension. You can make a lot of difference to your ride by adjusting your suspension according to conditions. The sag is the optimum depth at which the suspension sits when you’re on the bike, and should be around a third of the way through its stroke. So if a 100kg dude sat on my bike, it would be well beyond halfway through its stroke, and you see people riding like that all the time, wondering why they can’t ride their bikes.” Marc Beaumont
“Train and ride with someone who’s as fit, fast and strong as you are. If you can push one another, that’s going to speed up your progress massively. Me and Marc ride together a lot. It also means you can compare notes on lines, too. It keeps it fun, and it’s always motivational to have someone to bounce ideas around with.” Gee Atherton
“When it comes to tracks, don’t stick to what you know. The best progression in your riding will come when you force yourself to leave your comfort zone. Build new sections on a track, so it’s tailored it to your standard but still poses a challenge, or take the time to travel out to somewhere that offers you a new biking experience.” Gee Atherton
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Clean brake
“If you’re on a fast track, you need to be aggressive with your braking, rather than dragging them the whole way. When you’re at full speed on a straight, you’re completely off the brakes, then snap the brakes on as hard as you can, as late as you can when you need them. It’s something we work on, and something you see a lot of riders doing. It’s a big temptation to drag the brakes all the way down, but it’s a bad habit to get into. If you’re specific in your braking points it’s a better way to get down the track, and you’ll notice the difference.” Gee Atherton
w e i g h t y i ss u e Increased strength has been a huge gain for Rachel, who can now deadlift 50kg
Alan Milway (centre) assesses Gee and Rachel’s training data
Hard yards: road training can benefit downhill the red bulletin
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From shack life to DJing internationally, Vincent Manzini has transformed himself into a township entrepreneur worth knowing
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SIR vincent
OF Khayelitsha Meet the taxi door-operator turned DJ and entrepreneur, who has discovered a way to make social ‘upliftment’ hip words: sean christie photography: Tyrone Bradley
V incent Manzini, aka Sir Vincent, was feeling the strain when he sat down for a coffee on Cape Town’s trendy Long Street. Summer was in full flow and that meant juggling nightly DJ sets all over the country with other business interests, projects and hobbies. The 26-year-old spoke fast, with a great deal of lateral eye movement, but his flickering eyes should not be taken as a sign of precocious boredom; rather as an indication that Sir Vincent takes it all in, all of the time. ‘Social entrepreneur’ – someone who establishes enterprises with an aim to effect social change – is a term many have used to describe Manzini, but he sort of wishes they wouldn’t. “It suggests that social entrepreneurs are somehow less profit-driven than other entrepreneurs,” he said. “I always look to benefit the community in everything I do, but make no mistake, the money has to be there.” Born in Gugulethu in 1987, Manzini said he “had it good” until, aged nine, his parents divorced and his world dissolved. “From a house, I moved into a shack. I took weekend work as a door operator at a taxi rank. I think that’s where I first learned how to hustle,” said Manzini, who later put these skills to use at Bush Radio, where he “fell in love with entertainment”, and Vodacom, where he quickly worked his way up from the basement to a position in the IT department. “He was always a fast talker, always talking his way out of trouble and into people’s hearts,” confirmed his mother, Monica Manzini. Manzini has perfected the art of leading listeners to the forks and cliff edges in his life story, and then pausing for dramatic effect. When he wants to move his story around in time he says 74
“fast forward” or “rewind”. These are storytelling techniques born of practice. Like Mr Miyagi in The Karate Kid, he occasionally also refers to himself in the third person. “Fast forward: I resigned from Vodacom and said to myself, ‘You know what, Vincent, it’s now or never.’” This last habit often signals ego, but with Manzini you suspect something else: a long history of private pep talks, Vincent to Vincent, at times when the chips were down. And things were never worse than when, a month after leaving Vodacom, Manzini’s sister was killed in a car accident. Compounding the tragedy, a DJ business he had started with a friend had drained his finances. “I realised I needed to make a move in life or risk remaining in this sad place forever,” he said. “I was fortunate in this regard, because poverty was nothing new, and then there was my mother. After 23 years of marriage, a divorce and
All hands on deck: Sir Vincent passes on some turntable skills at his Jump Start Music academy, based in Khayelitsha
the loss of her daughter, she re-enrolled in school and finished matric at 48. Then she got a degree, and now she runs a hospital. With such a role model there can be no excuses for failure.” Manzini would pitch up at clubs, practically begging to be allowed to play the first set. Slowly but surely he raised his a profile on the DJing scene, to the point where Black Coffee – with whom Manzini travelled to Amsterdam last year, both as ambassadors for Bridges For Music – now says Manzini has the drive, dedication and perspective to make it as a leading DJ. But rewind to late 2010, when Manzini was finding out that you can’t eat popularity. “Youngsters were constantly asking me how I’d done what I’d done, the red bulletin
“I always look to benefit the community in everything “every I do, but make project no mistake, should have the money a sustainable has to be element to it, there” a doorway leading to further opportunities”
but how can you give business advice if you’re not making money yourself? I realised I needed to step back, to see what I could do differently,” said Manzini. Manzini applied to Kickstart, the South African Breweries’ entrepreneur development program, as well as to the Raymond Ackermann Academy of Entrepreneurial Development (RAA) at the University of Cape Town. He was accepted into both programmes, and by the end of 2011 he’d won Best Business Plan at the RAA and finished runner-up in the national Kickstart competition. Armed with business theory, powerful contacts and some money, Manzini founded Jump Start Music, Khayelitsha’s first DJ academy, a place where aspiring young DJs could learn the skills Manzini had to pick up on his own. In short order he also established Khayelitsha’s first entertainment website (Ikapa Live), its first classifieds newspaper (Kassified) the red bulletin
and Ikasi Experience, a market at which township entrepreneurs would be able to showcase their wares and ideas. In early November 2013, Manzini and co-founder Loyiso Mbeduka (DJ Loy) staged their sixth successful Ikasi Experience market, attended by about 3,000 people. Stallholders included the likes of The Department of Coffee – Khayelitsha’s first coffee roastery, selling good quality cappuccino for under R10 – and they were all nervously looking forward to the afternoon pitch session where they would outline their business ideas to an influential panel, with the winner receiving R5,000 along with introductions to mentors and funders. As a DJ stepped up to play the first of the day’s many sets, football teams streamed in ahead of a five-a-side tournament. Here too, the winners would not only receive a cash prize, but would also earn the opportunity to train with a professional team, a prime example of Manzini’s firm rule that “everything I do should have a sustainable element to it, some kind of doorway leading out to further opportunities.” Manzini and Mbeduka’s coup has been to create a totally independent ‘upliftment’ event, with an appeal that transcends generations and cliques. There simply isn’t anything else like it in the country right now. In March, the Ikasi Experience touches down in Soweto for the first time, and a month later, Manzini will be on stage, sharing his hard-earned tricks of the trade at the Red Bull Amaphiko Academy, a 10-day workshop involving the brightest local social entrepreneur talents and some of the world’s leading innovators. It’s a safe bet that South Africa will be hearing a lot more about Sir Vincent of Khayelitsha in the very near future. Red Bull Amaphiko Academy: amaphiko.redbull.com
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RB8 ·20 12
RB7 · 20 11 What’s the point of F1 now that making a racing car is more complicated than ever? And if you’re the four-time champions, how do you carry the momentum of the last few years into unknown territory? An access-all-areas look at the making of the RB10, the 2014 Infiniti Red Bull Racing car Words: Werner Jessner
the secrets of
success
Champion versions
Master designer Adrian Newey is the brains behind Infiniti Red Bull Racing’s successful racing cars. Here, for the first time, he looks back at his victorious creations and explains why 2014 is another matter entirely
RB6 ·2010
Thomas Butler
RB9 ·2013
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M ilton Keynes, early 2012. A small task force of engineers from Infiniti Red Bull Racing and Renault Sport meets behind closed doors to discuss the packaging of the racing car known as the RB10, for the 2014 F1 season (how large will each component be, where does each one go, etc). At this moment in time, the RB8, which the then double world champion Sebastian Vettel was due to drive in his fourth season with the team, was topsecret, kept far from public scrutiny. 78
The task force only knew the approximate parameters of the 2014 regulations, which were said to include a V6 turbo engine with two kinds of energy recovery, thermal and kinetic. That is a hefty propulsion unit, but it will be necessary if the car these men are planning is to be competitive. About a year later, just before the start of the 2013 season, as Sebastian Vettel returned from a brief winter break as three-time world champion – the task force came together to carefully scrutinise
RB10 ·2014
the by-now official rules for 2014. When Vettel took the lead in the world championship, in the RB9, the RB10 task force added several new recruits. Before the season break in August, a fundamental decision was made: in the face of a super-strong Fernando Alonso, and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, who wasn’t to be underestimated, they resolved to power ahead with the evolution of the RB9 right to the end, instead of putting more resources into the development the red bulletin
the cars The Foundation RB5 (2009) Constructors’ championship: 2nd (world champion: Brawn GP) Drivers’ championship: 2nd (Vettel) and 4th (Webber). World champion: Jenson Button, Brawn GP
Benedict Redgrove/Red Bull Content Pool(2), Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool(2)
“Completely new aerodynamics regulations came into force in 2009 and we used 2008 to analyse the requirements and form a solid base. The main aerodynamic change was the front wing, which became much wider. All of a sudden, we had to take the air out by the front wheels. That led to us reconstructing the front spoiler around the end plates.
of the RB10. “Looking back,” says Adrian Newey, Infiniti Red Bull Racing’s chief technical officer, “it would have been smarter to concentrate full power on the new car earlier on. In August, no one could have guessed that would we be so far ahead with the RB9 by the end of the season.” The 2014 rules called for a radical new approach: the mid-section of the car – chassis, engine, cooling unit, sidepods, gears and energy recovery systems – is designed for optimal motor performance and shouldn’t get in the way of aerodynamics. Front and stern, on the other hand, are unequivocally guided by aerodynamics. It was the front section that would prove problematic. “In 2014, the front wing has to end exactly at the middle of the tyre,” says Newey, 55. “From an aerodynamicist’s point of view, this is the least favourable position possible. The second problem area is the nose: this is where, presumably for safety reasons, two levels are defined for the cockpit and the tip of the nose, the red bulletin
Downforce king RB6 (2010) Constructors’ championship: world champion Drivers’ championship: world champion (Vettel) and 3rd (Webber) “The car was completely rebuilt around its double diffuser. We made the gearbox longer again to make the most of every millimetre of the diffuser’s length. It almost started under the engine! We also lowered the exhaust as far as possible and blew some of the fumes into a vertical gap in the diffuser to create downforce. The rest of the exhaust fumes were sent around the rear wheels to calm the air there, which gets very turbulent. “It was a very quick car, even though it didn’t originally have the F-duct
The first nose we had was normal, but from Silverstone on we had this wider, higher ‘duck bill’ that made the whole front wing work better. “The second highlight on this car was the longer gearbox. That killed two birds with one stone for us. The engine meant there was better weight distribution towards the front of the car and we were able to use pull-rod suspension, which is technically more elegant but takes up a little more space. The third thing was a rising, tiered rear diffuser. Sadly, the competition had found a loophole in the regulations, and were using the notorious double diffuser. It was a political decision to declare it legal and so we had to play catch up and build one onto our car, which wasn’t really designed for it. Even though the RB5 never won a world championship title, it was the predecessor for all the subsequent, victorious cars. Those first wins that year, and the second place in the constructors’ championship, gave the team the self-confidence you need when you’re fighting to win the world championship.”
that McLaren had invented, which channels the air towards the rear wing. The system has its origins in the Cold War. The Americans invented it so that their fighter jets would still work if the enemy interfered with their electronics. But as we fought for the world championship title, we needed to think of every 10th and installed the system afterwards. But as we weren’t allowed to make changes to the chassis, we used the holes for the cable harness to make air flow through the cockpit. Luckily they were big enough! But we only won when we finally managed to get the airflow away from the main blade of the rear wing.”
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the cars
“That season, the double diffuser was forbidden. The RB6 was probably the car with the most downforce in the history of F1, more even than the legendary spoiler cars of the 1980s. We measured up to 5.5G of lateral acceleration. It could go flat out through Copse at Silverstone, and on the sharp bend on the back straight at Barcelona. There had never been anything like it. But now we had to go on the hunt for downforce again. We did it via the exhaust and placed it further out, right by the rear wheels. Now it blew into the gap between the rear wheels and the bottom of the car and sucked the car down. Of course that only works as long as fumes are coming out of the exhaust. Now we needed to come up with engine mapping which also produced gas when the driver didn’t have his foot on the pedal. “The results were almost as good as for the RB6 with the double diffuser! To start with, the exhausts kept breaking because of the unusual shape, but we got a grip on the problem in the end with extra material and changing the way we treated it. My cars have a general tendency to gain weight after their first outing.”
a virtual bottle RB8 (2012) Constructors’ championship: world champion Drivers’ championship: world champion (Vettel) and 6th (Webber) “That season, the regulations placed severe restrictions on the position of the exhaust and airflow when the driver didn’t have his foot on the gas. We perfected this technology over two years. Banning it really hurt us. We didn’t even know how to construct a car without making use of the exhaust fumes any more! Then McLaren came up with this Coanda exhaust, whereby you could blow the fumes away through a gap and hope that they would be directed towards the place where they’d have an effect. I didn’t like it and I directed the flow downwards at the tyres. If you do it wrong, you end up with a really bad car because the rear loses its bottleneck shape, which is so important aerodynamically. But there was a tiny loophole in the regulations. Various limitations on the bodywork only applied up to 100mm above the car’s zero line. So we put an air duct in exactly that area and that had the bottleneck effect. This meant the car was stable and agile again.”
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Ultimate perfection RB9 (2013) Constructors’ championship: world champion Drivers’ championship: world champion (Vettel) and 3rd (Webber) “Even if almost none of the RB8’s components matched any of the RB9 1:1, this was more an RB8B than an actual RB9. The greatest challenge that year was the tyres, which wore out really quickly. In the preceding years, we’d made cars that made up most of their lap-time on fast corners, in other words in precisely the place where the tyres come under the greatest strain. So we had to minimise that strain, both technically and as regards the drivers’ individual driving style. It took us a while to understand how to keep the tyres within the ideal temperature range. There was no masterstroke. It was just a question of taking one step at a time and building on a base that we’d come to understand very well ever since the RB5. Even though Sebastian Vettel did better in the car overall than Mark Webber, the RB9 wasn’t tailor-made for him. Mark’s strength was the feel he had for his cars’ aerodynamics, whereas Seb’s was for the tyres. For us as a team, this was the perfect combination of two talents. If we’d had less sensitive tyres than the 2013 Pirellis, there would have been much less of a difference between the two drivers. “The amendments to the regulations in 2014 are almost as dramatic as the ones we had in 2009; the RB10 is the son and heir of a new generation of racing cars, just as the RB5 was five years ago.”
without taking into account any link between them. That’s how aesthetically dubious solutions came about.” A low nose is supposed to prevent cars launching into the air in case of accidents, as happened to Mark Webber in Valencia in 2010. But having made changes dictated by the new regulations, the exact opposite could occur: in the event of a crash, the rear car could slide under the car in front (‘submarining’). Yet, in 2014, the low nose is a reality, and it has attracted significant criticism at presentations made by several Formula One teams. The nose regulations can only change for safety reasons, which would require one or more submarining accidents, or if all teams come to an agreement, which is unlikely. But this is not the major problem the new rules have presented. There’s the new transmission. Before this year, every team in F1 knew exactly how to work with the naturally aspirated V8 engine they’d been using. They’re a long way from that with the 2014 engine, which poses several challenges, not least of which are newly added electronic components that need to be kept especially cool. While oil and water can easily cope with high temperatures of 100°C, electronics won’t tolerate more than 60°C. In the oven of Bahrain, for instance, where temperatures can reach 50°C, this poses serious problems for engineers. Their solution is large coolers, but from an aerodynamic point of view this is a disaster. An additional difficulty comes with the new position for the battery, under the fuel tank (previously it could also be placed under the gears). Now technicians not only have to struggle with a lower centre of gravity, but also with unfavourable battery conditions. For the first races, especially, there are major concerns around safety and durability of the battery. The spectre of the brand-new Boeing Dreamliner looms large – despite the power of one of the largest technical firms in the world, battery problems have prevented it taking off for months now. One of the few major decisions that the technicians are able to toy with is the red bulletin
David Clerihew/Red Bull Content Pool(3), Thomas Butler
the eternal puffer RB7 (2011) Constructors’ championship: world champion Drivers’ championship: world champion (Vettel) and 3rd (Webber)
“the RB10 is the son and heir of a new generation of racing cars, just as the RB5 was five years ago�
How the new drive unit works It sounds complicated – and it is. The combustion engine, control system, turbo unit, injection system, the thermal and kinetic energy recovery systems (MGU-H and MGU-K, together referred to as ERS) and the storage battery all have to communicate to get the most out of the fuel in the tank. This situation is governed by two constraints: the 100kg of fuel allowed per race, and the fuel’s maximum permissible flow rate of 100kg per hour. Plus, the engine has an upper limit of 15,000rpm. So when the driver hits the pedal, the system has to recognise how much power to call on, compared with what the driver wants. If the 1600cc V6 combustion engine does that all by itself – fine. In any case, it has to operate within the allowable fuel flow rate, for one, and also have enough air for combustion. So, the first step toward greater performance is to supplement the turbo with stored electrical energy and to force more air into the combustion chambers. If that doesn’t do the trick, propulsion via the MGU-K comes into play. (This has evolved from a similar previous system, KERS.) It can deliver 120kW (163hp) for 33.3 seconds, so that, in total, a complete drive unit (turbo engine, ERS) can produce about 800hp, which is more or less the same as V8 naturally aspirated engines. For maximum energy recovery, without negatively affecting road handling, the rear brakes are operated electronically, rather than hydraulically (brake-by-wire).
In total, the V6 turbo engine and energy recovery systems will produce as much power as the old, naturally aspirated V8
The minimum weight of the drive unit is 145kg, with the batteries weighing 20-25kg
How the systems interact when overtaking: all the available energy is flowing into the drive
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the control unit of the energy recovery system. Should it be positioned above the battery and so push the tank further upwards, or is it better off in the sidepods, and could this bring with it various other disadvantages? Are there advantages to McLaren’s version of the rear axle – currently formed as a wing – or the Mercedes nose, so that the aerodynamic concept has to be completely revised? At the start of the season, especially, aerodynamics will probably recede into the background a little. Of prime importance is full understanding of engine management, and to orient race strategy around the available fuel volume. Start strong and drop off later, or go slowly into the race with a push to the finish? Will there be a safety car to help save fuel? As soon as the teams have got their heads around these problems, aerodynamics will once again assume the major role of previous seasons. An F1 drive unit – the engine and the two energy recovery systems – now has to last around 5,000km in 2014, which is double the previous distance. Add to this the fact that the demand for coolers exceeds calculations – it’s impossible to achieve optimum temperatures under the new rules – and that most cars currently have a minimum weight of 695kg including driver. “With Seb and Daniel [Ricciardo] we will reach the limit by the skin of our teeth,” says Newey. “Mark Webber would really be at a disadvantage this season.” It’s not just fans who are eagerly anticipating the first race of 2014, in Melbourne on March 16. Behind the scenes, too, the teams, the engineers, the suppliers and the drivers all have questions which will only be answered definitively out on the circuit. Rob White, head of the F1 motoring division at Renault Sport, which supplies engines to Scuderia Toro Rosso, Lotus and Caterham, as well as Infiniti Red Bull Racing, sums up his position. “The absolute goal is that every Renault car in Melbourne and the following races reaches the finish line without problems. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that we will be going into the first race conservatively – we really don’t have a ‘conservative’ switch in the cars. At most, I can see the teams being a little more conservative with their tactics in the first race in order to reach the finish.” One of the rules that hasn’t changed since last year: only those who reach the chequered flag get points. infiniti-redbullracing.com the red bulletin
Renault Sport F1
power package
JHB 45134/RW As seen on DStv/SuperSport
In 2014 we bring you the greatest sporting events every day. Catch the Brazil 2014 FIFA World Cup, ICC World T20, Vodacom Super Rugby and so much more. Live on your World of Champions.
Tunes on tour: the guitar of the future will rock your backpack MUSIC, page 92
Where to go and what to do
ac t i o n ! T r a v e l / G e a r / T r a i n i n g / N i g h t l i f e / M U S I C / p a r t i e s / c i t i e s / c l u b s / E v e n ts High times: Rio is a perfect destination for climbers
Gripping stuff Marcelo Maragni
Fancy a change from climbing in remote mountain ranges? the rocks above Rio’s favelas provide plenty of adventure TRAVEL, page 86
the red bulletin
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Action!
travel
and anoth er thing what to do off the rocks
DROP IN The best waves in Rio break at Prainha, about 30km from the city. As well as excellent surfing, the area is a picturesque natural park worth exploring for a few hours. prainhario.com.br
Rio rocks
Since 2008, the authorities in Rio have been working to reduce the social gap between the city’s haves and have-nots: the residents of the middle-class asfalto dwellings and the favelas that surround them. The police have clamped down on organised crime and as a result, some of the cliffs that provide a backbone for favela towns such as Rocinha can now be climbed in relative safety. Rio has become one of the biggest urban rock climbing centres in the world, with easyaccess pathways making it an attractive location for beginners and experts alike. In the south of the city, there are plenty of places that allow for a ‘quickie’, a short finger climb, and a stunning view of the 2016 Olympic Games site. “Climbing here is a totally different experience,” says American climber Colette MacInerney. “I’ve fallen in love with Brazil and Rio.” “The city is perfect for all sorts of climbing,” says Lucas Marques, a local climber, who introduced MacInerney to the Dois Irmãos hill. “Climbers from all over the world come here due to the beauty and the ease with which you can access the hills. In Rio, you can go to work and climb all in the same day.” During a recent climbing trip, Marques and MacInerney managed to negotiate the rocky Rio Climbing cliff route known as ‘Patrick White’ School organises twice in four hours. The session was climbs in and a memorable one for MacInerney: around the city “Having the city, the ocean and the (from US$52): hills so close is refreshing and unlike companhiada escalada.com.br every other place I’ve climbed.” 86
Rock climbing with the shacks of the Favela da Rocinha as a backdrop
ROCK UP
Advice from the inside When the time is right
Take a seat at the guardrail that separates Bar Urca’s boardwalk from the waves at the Guanabara Bay shore. The ice-cold beer and the bar’s famous empanada, a baked stuffed pastry, are a must. barurca.com.br
“Climbing is best in Rio de Janeiro between May and September,” says Rubens Ferreira, a climbing instructor from Companhia da Escalada. “Usually it’s very hot in Rio, but in middle of June, when it’s wintertime here, you will find pleasant temperatures and lighter rains.”
Local attraction
The sport of climbing is attracting more residents from the slums the hills overlook. “It’s a very physical and psychologically challenging sport,” says Andrew Lenz, who founded a climbing school at the Favela da Rocinha. “It’s enjoyable and useful – it makes those who do it better prepared for other areas of their lives.” escaladaurbana.com
TAKE OFF For those not satisfied getting to grips with the rocks, a hanggliding flight is another way to see Rio from above. rioasadelta.com.br
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Marcelo Maragni(2), Corbis
U RBAN CLIMBING Forays into favelas are traditionally the preserve of the brave, but today the granite outcrops of Rio de Janeiro’s slums are a climber’s paradise
Action!
workout
Ricciardo, 24, joins Sebastian Vettel at the Infiniti Red Bull Racing F1 team this year, following Mark Webber's retirement
Racing seat
David Robinson/Red Bull Content Pool, nico bustos, Shutterstock
Tony Thomas
hery irawan
FORMULA one It’s not all glamour being an F1 driver. Infiniti Red Bull Racing’s new man Daniel Ricciardo reveals that sometimes it’s a bum rap “With racing, you need total fitness,” says Daniel Ricciardo. “That means strength, but endurance and fast reaction training, too. F1 is incredibly fast, and has long races with cars that require you not to be bulky. So I would never bench-press 120kg – I’d do lower weights, at faster, high reps. One area of specific focus for a racing driver is your neck, because of the high G-loads we have to endure through the corners, with a helmet on. Then there’s the laid-back seating position, which feels like a continual sit-up. For that reason we work a lot on core strength and the glutes. When you get out of the car you really feel it in your arse! We need a lot of leg power for braking. Again, it’s not a question of being able to push a single load, but being able to push 100kg maybe 500 times. F1 is physically harder than other categories of racing; mainly because of the endurance, but also because of the loads.”
Off the wall
Pressing matters: the Aussie racer is in peak condition
D O T R Y T H I S AT H O M E “The glute med raise is very driver-specific,” explains Ricciardo’s trainer Stuart Smith, of the move that works the gluteus medius muscles found on the hips,“because a lot of forces act through the pelvis.”
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Start by assuming a side plank position: the body grounded through one arm, located firmly on the floor through forearm, elbow and shoulder.
The body is raised, leaving only the lower foot and the forearm in contact with the floor. The raise is achieved through the core, to make a triangle.
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tennis Tips help breed this ace racer
All balls
“I work a lot with my trainer on reaction training," says Ricciardo. “For example, I’ll stand close to a wall, facing it and he’ll throw tennis balls from behind me. I have to react and catch them as they bounce off. That’s tough, and great for eye-hand co-ordination.”
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The upper leg rises when you go up as the body elevates through the core and pelvis. This is an amazing exercise for hip stability.
Both legs go down, in a ‘scissor’ motion that activates your glute meds and protects drivers against the forces exerted when they’re cornering.
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Action!
Nightlife
Die Tanzfläche im Sound fasst 650 Raver.
abu dhabi: to do three-course desert feast
A BU DHABI A SPACESHIP OF A CLUB HAS LANDED IN THE DESERT CITY, WITH GIANT ART, HIP-HOP stars AND A LOVE OF DELUXE On its opening weekend, the O1ne nightclub secured a place in the Guinness Book of Records. Eighteen aerosol-wielding artists turned the circular façade of the building, 17m high, into the world’s largest private graffiti wall (it took two weeks and 5,500 spray cans to complete the job). On the other side of the wall, VJs take care of the club’s interior decoration, projecting onto an area of 350m2: that’s about oneand-a-third tennis courts. There is nothing understated here. A lit catwalk runs through the middle of the club, on which the likes of hip-hop stars Ludacris and Lil’ Kim have strutted. The feeling out on the dancefloor is of a catwalk show in orbit, on a space station manned by models and fuelled by champagne. Entry is not impossible. “Either you reserve a VIP table, or you try your luck at the door,” says owner Chafic el Khazen, who also runs O1ne’s sister club in Beirut. “Dressed to the nines, and in a ratio of two women to one man.” O1NE Yas Island Leisure Drive, Gate 8, Yas Island, Abu Dhabi, UAE o1neyasisland.com
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At Abu Dhabi’s O1ne nightclub, VJs project onto the huge walls
BIGGEST NIGHTS OUT OTHER RECORDBREAKING CLUBS
Privilege, Ibiza Seven floors, rooms with ceilings 25m high, a huge indoor pool and 10,000 people dancing the night away. Clubbers get a map of the building when they enter, to find their way around the biggest club in the world. Moulin Rouge, Paris The longest-running club opened in 1889, the same year as the Eiffel Tower. It’s still as innovative as ever: cutting-edge techno DJs of the moment play next door in its spin-off club, La Machine. Club 23, Melbourne At AU$12,500, the Winston, the world’s most expensive cocktail, is named for its most expensive ingredient: 1858 vintage Croizet Cognac, a bottle of which Winston Churchill shared with General Eisenhower on the day before D-Day.
SEE ROBOT JOCKEYS After child jockeys were banned from taking part in the weekly camel races at the Al Wathba racetrack, in 2002, radiocontrolled robots have been in the saddle instead.
SKYDIVE INSIDE The vertical wind tunnel at the Abu Dhabi Country Club blasts air upwards using an 875 horsepower fan. It feels like you’re in freefall, but only a metre off the ground.
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sky-management.net(2), Getty Images, skyventure.com
A thousand and one nights out
GET PAID IN GOLD The Emirates Palace Hotel has a cashpoint-style machine that doles out gold. You can withdraw 1g, 5g or 10g at going rates. The machine itself is coated in gold, too.
Action!
City Guide
Hollywood North Beach Park
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David ‘LEBO’ Le Batard’s art is a winningly eclectic mix of colours, pop-culture references and sleepyeyed animals, a joyful combination that mirrors his multifaceted hometown, Miami. It’s the pulse of that city – and it’s blend of cultures, cuisines and natural wonders – that influence his art. When not working in his showroom or gallery in the city’s Wynwood Arts District, LEBO immerses himself in Miami’s pedestrian culture, or uses the public bike system to pedal around town, checking out the numerous stunning murals around the city. “The most interesting places to me are those where everybody is congregating together,” he says.
Hialeah
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Airport Expy Miami International Airport Dolphin Expy
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Complete the Tamiami Trail Triathlon in the Everglades
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2 Panther Coffee 2390 NW 2nd Ave “The Wynwood Arts District is a concentration of eccentric and creative thinkers all living in the same area. This is the coffeehouse right in the middle of it, and it’s very laid-back.”
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5 Montgomery Botanical Center
places LEBO Loves
1 South Pointe Park 1 Washington Ave “You get a bit of everything here, from skaters to older tourists. Where South Beach can be a little exclusionary, this is a place that embraces all the different elements that make up Miami.”
Bay Harbor Islands
Virginia Key
lebostudios.com
TOp Five
Oleta River State Park
I-95 Express (Tollroad)
Opa-Iocka Executive Airport
miami Forget your 1980s visions of pastels, cigarette boats and stubble. What gives the city a charge these days, says street artist LEBO, is its vibrant diversity
Jason Koerner, Corbis(3), Getty Images, shutterstock
a’s Turnpike
David ‘LEBO’ Le Batard: art in the heart of Miami
3 Le Tub 1100 North Ocean Drive “The restaurant Le Tub is a Florida classic – it serves a lot of comfort food, and they don’t even accept credit cards. There are toilets and bathtubs everywhere, sunk into the ground.”
4 Los Ranchos Steakhouse 401 Biscayne Blvd “I grew up in Little Havana; it used to be all Cuban, but now it’s Latino from all over. Los Ranchos is like being in Spain, so that takes the Latin influence back even further.”
5 Bill Baggs Park 1200 Crandon Blvd “This park is located at the end of Key Biscayne and it’s really good for paddleboarding. The water around Florida, overall, is really good for paddleboarding because we don’t have any waves.”
Bike
Hike
Kayak
Start the 24km loop at the Shark Valley Visitor Center – go at sunrise to see the most wildlife.
A 5km loop starts at the Oasis Visitor Center. Think it’s no problem? Think again. It’s in a swamp.
Finish with a 5.5km paddle from the Gulf Coast Visitor Center. Don’t forget the mosquito repellent.
nps.gov/ever/planyourvisit/tamiami-trail-triathlon.htm
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Action!
world run
e n t er
n ow
t a n d ge g n i n t ra i
The gear you need
Global gathering W ings For Life World Run A starter’s gun on six continents: The first worldwide running race in sporting history gets under way on may 4. Anyone who wants to race against the rest of the world can take part. Here are the details 1. THE WAY IT WORKS
4. THE RESULT
In 33 countries, 35 races will all begin at 10am UTC (Co-ordinated Universal Time; 10am GMT) on May 4, 2014. ‘Catcher Cars’ will start reeling in the participants 30 minutes later. The last person in the world to be caught wins.
The last man and last woman running will be crowned global champions and win a special roundthe-world trip. Each country will also record its national winners. All runners will be able to check online to see how they did. “Who in the world ran further than I did?”
2. THE CHASERS The ‘Catcher Cars’ will gradually increase their speed at predetermined intervals. Once a runner is caught, or passed by a car, he or she must drop out of the race and the distance run at that point is automatically recorded.
5. THE PARTICIPANTS
3. THE COURSES
6. THE MISSION
They fall into five categories around the world: coastal runs, river runs, city runs, nature runs and runs with a view. The event’s homepage (wingsforlife worldrun.com) gives you the latest weather reports, detailed course information, training plans and a distance-time calculator.
The Wings for Life World Run motto is: Running For Those Who Can’t. All of the money earned will go to the Wings For Life Foundation, which supports worldwide scientific research programmes looking for a cure for spinal cord injury. You can find more information at wingsforlife.com.
Beginners, hobby runners, top athletes and stars, such as former Formula One ace David Coulthard. The aim is to cover as much of the course as you can to help cure paraplegia.
Compete against the rest of the world in the Wings For Life World Run. You can register online until April 20 at wingsforlifeworldrun.com
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h ow to buy kit Ultrarunner Christian Schiester on essential purchase practice
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RUNNING SHOES
“Buy your shoes in a specialist shop, where you should take advice, get your running style analysed and do footprint tests. Anyone who does a lot of road-running should definitely go for a well-padded shoe.”
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CLOTHING
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TECH
“An old piece of runners’ wisdom: if you’re a bit too cold just as you leave the house, you’re dressed perfectly. Fabrics should be breathable and reflective. Keep an eye on irritable areas during long training sessions.”
“Movement is the main thing, not technology. Having said that, analysing data such as your pulse range or the distances run on your computer is a great motivational aid, especially for new runners.”
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never be without compression socks
“I got over my initial doubts about them. Compressing your calf muscles definitely improves your performance and means you can recover up to 20 per cent more quickly.”
“Movement is the main thing” Wings for Life World Run ambassador Christian Schiester
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step on THREE HANDY RUNNING PARTNERS
LOOK AT ME! Reflectors on the shoulders, back and sleeves will make a shining example of you.
PROTECTIVE MEDIUM A three-layer membrane keeps moisture away from the body. The outer manmade-fibre layer is both wind- and waterproof.
Jürgen Skarwan/Red Bull Content Pool, Philip Platzer, kurt keinrath
POWER STATION A small battery, charged via USB, provides power to the LEDs. The power supply is in the jacket pocket.
Night Owl Tao Illuminator Jacket WANT TO RUN IN THE EVENING WITHOUT WEARING A LAMP ON YOUR HEAD? NOW YOU CAN. THIS JACKET LIGHTS UP YOUR PATH For runners, seeing and being seen is not so much about massaging egos as staying alive. Bright colours are usually the first choice for visibility, but this awardwinning jacket comes in black, with two built-in LED lamps to cast light on even the darkest circuit. tao.info
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WIDE RANGE The 60º scattering angle of the two LED lamps illuminates the path ahead.
CAMELBAK DART Everything to hand for those long training sessions, including 1.5 litres of liquid in the built-in container system. camelbak.com
X-BIONIC EFFEKTOR Some partial compression from clothing helps blood flow, can prevent lactic acid build-up and keeps you nice and warm. x-bionic.com
GARMIN TACTIX This water- and shock-proof heart rate monitor watch records running data and has a compass, GPS positioning system and night display Garmin.com
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Action!
MUSIC
make tracks Bombay Bicycle Club aren’t Indian – they come from London – and when Jack Steadman, Suren de Saram and Jamie MacColl joined forces in 2005, it was not to go cycling. The band they formed, with Steadman on vocals, MacColl on guitar, de Saram on drums and, eventually, Ed Nash on bass, were indie darlings whose stock rose dramatically with their second album, Flaws. A subtle, folky revelation on release in 2010, it won them many new fans and the Best New Band at that year’s NME Awards. On their latest, fourth album, the chart-topping So Long, See You Tomorrow, they blend playful electronic music with euphoric pop melodies. MacColl, 25, reveals the music that turns on BBC.
Playlist Jamie MacColl of Bombay Bicycle Club on his granddad’s finest phone call and the dance tunes that lead to tears
bombaybicycleclubmusic.com
1 MacColl & Seeger 2 Arthur Russell The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face
Love is Overtaking Me
“I’m perhaps a bit biased because my grandfather, Ewan MacColl, wrote this song. Legend says he wrote it then sang it down the phone to my grandmother [singer Peggy Seeger, half-sister of the late Pete Seeger]. Hopefully that’s true, because it’s a lovely image. The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face is simply the finest love song ever written.”
“This is a song that Jack discovered when he was writing our second album, Flaws, and it became one of our favourites. It’s hard to explain what it sounds like – Arthur Russell delved into many kinds of music – but disco-folk seems quite apt. Perhaps the best description I can give is that I’d like to have it played at both my wedding and my funeral.”
4 Fryars
5 LCD Soundsystem
On Your Own
“Who knows if it will stand the test of the time? At the very least, this is my favourite song of the last few years. Either way, I think Fryars will prove to be one of the great songwriters of our generation. He has that rare ability to articulate a sadness that we’ve all felt – ‘on your own, feeling like you don’t belong’ – in a way that doesn’t feel false or overly emotive.”
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All My Friends
“Someone once said to me the best music should make you want to dance or to cry. LCD Soundsystem make you want to do both at the same time. At their gigs, I’ve seen grown men weep as they pull dance moves normally reserved for when they want to embarrass their children. It will always remind me of the people I love and our time together.”
Elvis Presley Graceland, Memphis, USA The tour includes the Jungle Room, a wonderfully kitsch rainforest-themed studio where the King recorded his last two albums. It gets 600,000 annual visitors.
3 Glenn Campbell Wichita Lineman
“The most striking thing about this song is its simplicity. It only really has one verse, but the chorus is such a thing of beauty you’d be happy to have it nine or 10 times. ‘And I need you more than want you/And I want you for all time’ is perhaps the best couplet in any modern song; a sentiment that everyone has experienced at least once in their life.”
Jimi Hendrix 23 Brook Street, London Hendrix described the top-floor flat here as his only real home. In 2015 it’ll be a museum; next door, No 25, is where Handel lived, from 1723-59 (now a museum).
R i ff tr ad e half-guitar, all good
Beethoven
JamStik has real strings and frets, and you play it like a real guitar, but at just 38cm it’ll fit in your rucksack. Sensors detect finger positions and transmit them to an iPad. Beginners can be tutored; musos can use it with other apps to generate non-guitar sounds. www.jamstik.com
Pasqualatihaus, Vienna Ludwig VB lived in this house from 1804-14, writing Symphony No 5 and No 6 and his iconic piano piece Für Elise here. Exhibits today include one of his pianos.
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florian obkircher
Music to make grown men weep
great music pilgrimages: HOME IS WHERE THE LEGEND IS
bbc, corbis(2), shutterstock
Currying favour: Jamie MacColl of Bombay Bicycle Club
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Action!
games
Be Smarter Now Brain-boosting iOS puzzle games
Blek
i nfamous: second son Into gaming’s future in fine style with this sci-fi action epic An open-world adventure featuring super-powered young people that could not be more Assassin’s-Creedmeets-Chronicle if it tried, Infamous: Second Son is nevertheless the PlayStation 4-exclusive game which that console’s owners have been waiting for. With a futuristic parkour/graffiti vibe, tons of action and amazing graphics, it’s packed with good things. Like the dialogue that cracks just wise enough and the many neat touches, such as when main man Delsin unleashes one his special moves, he sweeps into the air and at the apex of his leap, turns and grins at the camera like Superman in outer space on his way back to Earth. There’s also clever use of the DualShock 4 pad: when Delsin has his fingerprint scanned, the player has to swipe a digit on the pad’s screen. But what Second Son really does well, perhaps better than any game yet, is give the PS4’s muscles a solid workout, allowing it to show what it can really do in terms of delivering a new and visually spectacular game experience. There’s also something resolutely old-fashioned: no online multiplayer. So you’ll have to get a bunch of friends round a TV and watch the best player play. Remember how much fun that was? Out on March 21.
o u t n ow
Man-machine mayhem
Call Of Duty meets Halo in Titanfall
The beta testing phase of this first-person sci-fi shooter was in February, but the eagerly awaited game proper is out in March on Xbox One. Made by half the original development team of Call Of Duty, this is a full-on shooter in which you fight against or behind the controls of giant mecha robots. Splendid stuff.
titanfall.com
Duet Divert a pair of moving orbs around increasingly complex obstacle courses. A game for the ears, too: the soundtrack is awesome. duetgame.com
Threes
Brand new old style
Is that a PS4 pretending to be a NES?
A set of decals for PlayStation 4 that takes Sony’s new box back three decades to a time when games machines were big and grey and proud of it. If your games zone screams 1980s – and we’re OK with that – then this Nintendo Entertainment System skin is perfect. Also available for Xbox One.
All you have to do is squash together numbered tiles to forge biggernumbered tiles. Compelling to the point of ridiculous addictiveness. threesgame.com
houseofgrafix.net
paul wilson
What PS4 was made for
Sparkling graphics in Infamous: Second Son
Make a black line weave through a maze-like set-up to collect the coloured balls. Deceptively challenging, elegant and just a little bit trippy. blekgame.com
suckerpunch.com
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the red bulletin
p ro m ot i o n
Must-haves! 1
1 Black DiamonD Vector Helmet A revolutionary helmet that‘s ideal for long routes, alpine climbs and other weight-sensitive missions, the Black Diamond Vector Helmet combines lightweight protection, excellent ventilation and „barely there“ comfort like never before. The geometric, co-molded EPS foam and polycarbonate shell provides full-coverage protection while remaining incredibly lightweight and comfortable, and the generous ventilation ports keep air flowing on warm days. The ratcheting suspension tucks away for easy storage in your pack, and when the sun gets down before you do, the Vector‘s in-mold headlamp clips provide an ultra-secure attachment. R1 059.
www.blackdiamondequipment.com 2 ray-Ban leatHer Wayfarer For the first time ever, the iconic design of Ray-Ban Wayfarer is dressed in leather. Craftsmanship and innovation combine to wrap the frame like a glove in genuine leather The result is one-of-a-kind and impeccable – a new accessory to be worn with any look. Available in black leather and brown leather, with polarized lenses. R3 380.
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www.ray-ban.com 3 espresso conscious coffee Ethical Coffee Company has achieved a world first with the release of its fully biodegradable coffee capsules. Once used, the capsules can be added to your compost heap and will decompose after six months. They’re fully compatible with all Nespresso machines and won‘t affect your warranty. There are ten different blends available, with different intensities and strengths - two of the blends are Fairtrade and organic certified. Online price R53/ R58 from 1 March 2014.
www.espresseco.com
3
4 Garmin approacH s4 Approach S4 golf watch features a high-res touchscreen display, rechargeable battery lasting up to 10 hours (golf mode), comes preloaded with over 30,000 international course (free lifetime course updates) and has an accessible Green View screen, showing the green’s shape and layout so you know exactly how much power to put into your swing. With Smart Notification technology when paired with a compatible Apple smartphone, you can wirelessly receive information like emails or texts. Approach S4 gives precise distances to the front, back and middle of the green, incorporates layup, dogleg, shot distances and keeps score on a digital scorecard. R4 899.
www.garmin.co.za
sneaker laB premium urBan accessories Speaking exclusively to the urban lifestyle enthusiast, Sneaker LAB offers a range of premium shoe care products to enhance one’s individuality, with the sole purpose of keeping you looking and feeling fresh. Created in 2011 and launched to market in early 2012, Sneaker LAB is the first brand of its kind to emerge from Africa. Making use of a patented cleaning technology, the brand strives to differentiate itself with a focus on environmental friendliness as the products are 100% biodegradable, non-toxic, nonflammable & non-corrosive. R59 (single unit); R149 (cleaning kit). 5
4
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www.thelvb.com
Action!
save the date Downhill thrills return to Pietermaritzburg in April
April 11-13
The UCI mountain bike World Cup season opens at Cascades bike park in Pietermaritzburg. Expect the world’s best crosscountry and downhill riders to be in the mix. DH world champ Greg Minnaar may not be up to speed after recovering from a knee injury, but the OneLife crew will still be in full voice. mtbworldcupsa.co.za
March 28-29
All that jazz
April 19
Easter Ultra The Two Oceans Marathon takes place on Easter Sunday, and takes in Chapman’s Peak and Constantia Nek. If 56km sounds too tough, consider the half marathon or trail run. twooceansmarathon.org.za
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The 15th Cape Town International Jazz Festival hits the Mother City for a two-day extravaganza of emerging and blockbuster jazz talent on five stages in front of a combined audience of more than 15,000 people. The free public concert and workshops for up-andcoming musicians complement the official festival line-up, which includes US soul star Erykah Badu (right) and local heroes The Muffinz. capetownjazzfest.com
March 15-16
Know one? A new addition to this year’s surfing calendar is the Quicksilver Takes One To Know One Series, a threeleg competition for professional and up-and-coming surfers that will take place in Cape Town, Umdloti and Victoria Bay. R90,000 and valuable ranking points will be up for grabs. quiksilver.co.za/totko
the red bulletin
Sven Martin, getty images(3), Luke Patterson/Quiksilver, tyrone bradley, Sam Clark/Cape Epic, craig Kolesky/Red Bull Content Pool
Dicing dirty
March 19
March 23-30
Last chance
Off-road Tour
Manchester United’s last realistic chance of winning some silverware in their first season without Alex Ferguson comes in the form of the most prized trophy of all. Wayne Rooney (below) will have to be on form as they look to topple Olympiacos in the last 16 of the UEFA Champions League. uefa.com
The world’s toughest mountain bike stage race – also known as the Absa Cape Epic – unfolds over eight days, 718km, and 14,850m of climbing on scenic but gruelling Western Cape trails. Almost 1,200 riders will start, but many fewer will finish. It’s that hard. cape-epic.com
don’t miss ink these dates in your diary
2 april
Step out Get the drop on next season’s styles when spring/summer collections from top local designers hit the runways at SA Fashion Week in Johannesburg. safashion week.co.za
April 4-13
Business sense At the inaugural Red Bull Amaphiko Academy in Soweto, South Africa’s brightest young social innovators will be mentored by experts with the aim of finetuning their ideas and strategies to solve social problems through entrepreneurship. amaphiko.redbull.com
7 april
April 17-21
Record run The 25th edition of the longest-running music festival in the country takes over Splashy Fen farm near the sleepy hollow of Underberg in KwaZulu-Natal. Old-skoolers like Squeal, Tree63, Just Jinger and Wonderboom will bring the blast from the past, while Gangs of Ballet, The Kiffness and Jeremy Loops keep things real. Crowd favourites Arno Carstens, Francois van Coke and Chris Chameleon also feature.
Back your boytjies The final of the 2014 Varsity Cup will bring the curtain down on another season of rugby that rocks, and a handful of future Boks will have no doubt made a name for themselves. varsitycup.co.za
splashyfen.co.za
11 april
Sweet tooth
March 29-30
Battle the beat Dozens of dance crews will converge on Alex Theatre in Braamfontein for the final qualification round of Red Bull Beat Battle. A weekend of wall-to-wall dance-offs will separate the contenders from the pretenders as devotees of pantsula, hip-hop and sbujwa battle it out for the right to progress to the Grand Final in May.
Head down to the Sweet Candy Fair at the Dome in Joburg to sample the biggest collection of sweets, chocolates, candies, jellies, mallows, liquorice and gum ever seen in Africa. thesweetcandy fair.co.za
redbull.co.za
the red bulletin
97
Magic Moment
Aigle, Switzerland, August 28, 2013 Patrick Wider discovered his new favourite obstacle at a construction site in the Swiss south-west. “We only had 30 minutes left before the sun went,” says photographer Octave Zangs. “Patrick was sure we could get a cool shot.”
“ When I got on my skateboard at the top, 10 tons of steel were shaking beneath me” Octave Zangs
Patrick Wider, skateboarder
The next issue of the Red Bulletin is out on April 8 98
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