The Red Bulletin UK 04/20

UK EDITION APRIL 2020, £3.50

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THE QUADRIPLEGIC CLIMBER ED JACKSON and the maverick movement to cure spinal cord injury

Ben Stokes Afrobeats in Ghana Hollywood trick riders Disaster zone rescuers

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Editor’s letter

At a glance, our cover star Ed Jackson looks like any able-bodied climber – yet just three years ago an accident left him a quadriplegic. Together with the other heroes of our story, Nathalie McGloin and Ben Tansley (page 58), he’s seeking progress, not only for himself but for all future spinal cord injury sufferers. You too can join the cause by taking part in the Wings for Life World Run on May 3 (page 67). Adapting to change, whether from within or without, is a theme that runs deep in this issue. Take the Griffith family (page 40), two generations of US trick riders reinventing their age-old art for the modern world. Or Team Rubicon (page 48), who apply their military experience to a new system of disaster relief, digitally locating those most in need. In Ghana, Afrobeats music (page 28) is transforming the country’s economy. And check out our interview with Mavi Phoenix (page 26), the transgender artist using his music to declare his own identity and light the way for others.

MARK BAILEY

The British writer of this month’s cover story has interviewed athletes, military personnel and emergency medics, but he was struck by the resilience of people battling spinal cord injuries.

“To close one chapter in your life and write a new one, full of fresh challenges and perspectives, shows courage and optimism we can all learn from,” says Bailey. Page 58

HAL ESPEN

“Heading out to profile a subject as ‘wow’ as this – a legendary rodeo trick-riding dynasty turned A-list Hollywood stunt troupe – is already too cool,” says the US journalist and former editor-in-chief of Outside magazine, who this issue dug deep into the lives of the Griffith clan. “But then immersion in the family saga exceeded all my expectations.” Page 40

Photographer Andrew Esiebo (left) and culture editor Florian Obkircher pause for a picture at Afro Nation Ghana (page 28) 04

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CONTENTS April 2020

28

Smoking hot: Afrobeats phenomenon Wizkid brings the party at Afro Nation Ghana

08 Rock ’n’ ride: pulling off

spectacular BMX skills on Ireland’s Giant’s Causeway 10 Moonlight manoeuvres: night-time speedriding down a Chamonix glacier 11 Suspended animation: bringing a skater’s fears to cartoonish life in Colombia 12 Prepping up: one man’s training in Madagascar for an ambitious round-the-world trek 15 Rollin’ not fallin’: award-winning singer and activist Alicia Keys shares her top tunes to skate to 16 Roots of learning: the Norwegian forest that’s growing a library of future literary classics 19 Beautiful contradiction: altering the perception of Syria with photography – and balloons 20 Clicks and mortar: 3D-printing goes XL to help solve the world’s housing shortage

22 Patrick Stewart

Boldly going back to one of his best-loved roles: Captain Picard

2 4 Ben Stokes

Revisiting an incredible year for the English cricket powerhouse

26 M avi Phoenix

The Austrian musician putting gender and identity centre stage

28 Afrobeats

Ghana, the UK, the world: inside the African music invasion

40 Trick riders

Meet the family keeping an ageold Wild West tradition alive

ANDREW ESIEBO/PANOS

48 Team Rubicon

When disaster strikes, these volunteers are already en route

5 8 Wings for Life

69 Deeply impressive: explore the

world’s largest known cave, Vietnam’s fantastical Hang So’n Ðoòng, home to species long extinct on the surface 74 Omega man: how the Seamaster became James Bond’s watch of choice, and how Daniel Craig helped to shape its future 79 Track back: reimagining the classic Land Rover Defender 80 Best of both worlds: the Suunto 7 = smart tech + outdoors nous 82 Head for heights: free your mind and your ascent will follow, says Austrian physio Klaus Isele 85 Hot thing: Odlo’s smart midlayer 86 Virtual perfection: VR gaming levels up, plus track tips from a sim-racing champion 94 Essential dates for your calendar 98 Extreme kayaking in Patagonia

Transforming lives through spinal cord injury research

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07

GIANT‘S CAUSEWAY, NORTHERN IRELAND

Rolling stones

No matter how spectacular his BMX skills, Croatia-born Austrian rider Senad Grosic would have struggled to outshine the natural wonder known as the Giant’s Causeway. “The story of this image started around 60 million years ago, when lava cooled down in a very slow way, leaving a vast field of hexagonal stones behind,” relates German photographer Lorenz Holder, who took the shot at the UNESCO World Heritage Site at sunset. “There are only a couple of places on earth where we can see these formations nowadays.” lorenzholder.com

  09

CHAMONIX, FRANCE

Chute for the moon The art of sequential photography requires a talent for both shooting and post-editing. This magical image from French photographer Stef Candé’s Moonline project shows speedrider Valentin Delluc descending the Bossons glacier in Chamonix at night. “Shooting video using the light of the full moon and an LED-lighted sail is tricky to balance,” explains Candé. “My only choice was to use a very fast lens, although it made the subject very small in the frame.” stefcande.com

SABANETA, COLOMBIA

Slippery ride Skateboarder Felipe Marin’s ride takes on cartoonish proportions in this awesome artwork by Colombian photographer David Jaramillo Ramírez and graphic designer Camilo Bustamante. “I came up with the idea of showing how the athlete’s strength could defeat their own fears,” says Ramírez. “In this image, the illustrated part represents the fears pursuing the athlete as he performs his passion.” davidjaraphoto.com

11

TSINGY DE BEMARAHA, MADAGASCAR

An extraordinary undertaking requires extraordinary training. Which is why Albert Villarroya Farrarós chose to visit this otherworldly spot in Madagascar to prepare for his upcoming hike around the world – an endeavour that will see the Spaniard cross the most iconic mountain ranges on the planet and is expected to take 15 years to complete. With rocky Mars-like terrain underfoot – including hazardously sharp limestone needles – concentration is key when hiking the Tsingy de Bemaraha Strict Nature Reserve.

Away from the designated paths, the limestone becomes more unstable and unpredictable – a true test for any hiker foolhardy enough to take it on. What better mental and physical groundwork for a man who’s about to walk the world…

TYRONE BRADLEY

Herculean pursuits

  13

FOR THE WORLD’S FASTEST RACERS

T H E L E G ACY CO N T I N U E S

ALICIA KEYS

New York skate of mind When the Grammy-winning musician, actress and activist needs time out, she puts on her roller skates and a playlist of upbeat tunes Alicia Keys is a powerhouse in the entertainment world. Since breaking through in 2001 with her single Fallin’, the New Yorker has had numerous multi-platinum records, won 15 Grammys, and established herself as an actress and film producer. As well as all this, Keys is a political and social activist, and the mother of two boys, aged nine and five. During promotion for her upcoming seventh studio album, ALICIA, the 39-year-old revealed that roller skating helps clear her head. “I do it with my family a lot,” says Keys. “It’s a super-fun thing. And uplifting music works when you’re skating. You just feel so good.” Here’s a selection of what she listens to at the rink…

ALICIA is out on March 20; aliciakeys.com

Post Malone

Alicia Myers

Dr Dre feat Snoop Dogg

Alicia Keys

“Post Malone’s tunes work really well at the rink. I’m a big fan of Congratulations [the New York-born rapper’s 2017 single], but I think Circles might be even better. This track [which gave Malone his fourth number one in the US Billboard Hot 100 chart] is a good song for skating, because it just makes you want to move.”

“I love to listen to this one when I’m in my roller skates.

[Sings] ‘I wanna thank you, Heavenly Father, for shining your light on me… I know it couldn’t have happened without you.’ It has this great rhythm – you’re skating and you’re flying. It’s wonderful.

That’s such a good one – don’t forget to look it up next time you go roller skating.

“G-funk puts you on fire at the skate rink. Anything from [classic hip-hop album] The Chronic by Dr Dre and Snoop Dogg would be a great choice.

I mean, I love all of that record, but especially Nuthin’ But A ‘G’ Thang. Stuff that kind of has a bounce, like you’re going to want to move and vibe and dance and have fun – that’s what it’s all about.”

“Have I tried any of my own stuff? Of course. Alicia Keys works well when you’re skating – definitely Time Machine, and also No One [2007]. When I was a kid, there was a place in the Bronx called the Skate Key that me and my friends used to go to.

While everybody else was skating, we would just stand there and look cute. [Laughs.]”

SONY MUSIC

MARCEL ANDERS

Circles (2019)

THE RED BULLETIN

I Want To Thank You (1981)

Nuthin’ But A ‘G’ Thang (1992)

Time Machine (2019)

15

FUTURE LIBRARY

Turning leaves From this young forest in southern Norway, a future generation of book lovers will harvest never-before-published works by award-winning authors In the Norwegian forest of Nordmarka, just 10km north of Oslo, 1,000 young trees are growing. These spruce saplings have a very specific purpose: in the year 2114 – 100 years after they were planted – their wood will be used to create 100 as-yet-unpublished books.

The Future Library is the brainchild of Scottish-born visual artist Katie Paterson.

“I had this idea of a visual connection, imagining a tree’s rings being like chapters in a book,” she says. “I imagined 16

From left: Margaret Atwood and Katie Patterson; the Silent Room

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BJØRVIKA UTVIKLING BY KRISTIN VON HIRSCH, GIORGIA POLIZZI, ATELIER OSLO, LUND HAGEM, KATIE PATERSON, 2017. FUTURE LIBRARY

Come back in 94 years’ time – there’s not much to read here right now

these trees growing, but also physically growing chapters over time and becoming a forest full of words.”

Each year of the project, Paterson and her team will collect a work of literature from an iconic author, and these will be held in a specially designed chamber – the Silent Room – at Oslo City Library until the date of publishing.

Canadian author Margaret Atwood was the first writer to contribute to the Future Library, donating her unread novel Scribbler Moon in 2014.

“It was very clear that Margaret Atwood would be the most phenomenal author to begin with, because of her relationship to time, nature, technology and the climate, and the activism in her work,” says Paterson. “We reached out in a letter to invite her, and she said yes very quickly, which was phenomenal.”

Since the project’s launch, five others have donated their works: British author David Mitchell; Icelandic writer, poet and lyricist Sjón; Turkish novelist, academic and women’s rights activist Elif Shafak; South Korean author and poet Han Kang; and Norwegian writer Karl Ove Knausgård. “We don’t read the manuscripts, of course,” says Paterson, “but Margaret Atwood’s and David Mitchell’s were quite weighty, and Han Kang’s felt a little bit like a short story. Of course, this is all speculation.” This year’s contribution had not yet been announced as we went to print.

Most people alive today, however, won’t get the chance to read the books in the Future Library. “It’s not for us, it’s for people who aren’t born yet; we’re thinking ahead to that generation,” says Paterson.

“It’s tempting to wonder what has been written, but most of us will never have those words.

For now, it’s only the authors who have them in their minds.” futurelibrary.no

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ALÝA OLA ABBAS

Burst of colour: an installation from the Stereotype Inversion project

Syria is a country with a rich cultural history. From painting and literature to music and architecture, its artistic contribution to the world stretches back to 9,000 BC. However, conflict in Syria – particularly since the start of the civil war in 2011 – has overshadowed the country’s cultural achievements, casting the focus instead on warring factions and bloodshed. Now, young Syrian artists are trying to change this, shining a light on the abundance of new creative talent in a nation currently making headlines for only negative reasons.

One such creative is Alýa Ola Abbas of ALya Art Studio.

Through her innovative art project Stereotype Inversion, Abbas aims to represent Syria as a place of creativity and THE RED BULLETIN

ALYA ART STUDIO

Floating perspective With her beautiful artwork, Syrian creative Alýa Ola Abbas is challenging the world’s view of her country hope. “As an artist who works and lives in a country that has suffered from war for around 10 years, the negative impact had started to confuse me,” she says. “I aimed to represent those stereotypical scenes of everyday life and then replace them with scenes full of hope, challenging the situation and transforming those places.”

Abbas uses photography, film and installations to

capture locations in Syria’s cities. “The photography series contains about seven photographs with different stories,” she says. “Balloons represent the creative ideas and advanced inventions made by the people here; to give them the self-confidence and determination to reach the quality of life they want.” Each image comprises 50 layers of photography, combining shots of locations and balloons to create a new narrative around local spaces.

“Our life is our beliefs, so we should make sure to think positively and look for real effective power,” says Abbas of her project. “The final pieces of Stereotype Inversion conceptualise my thoughts and artistic views of social issues.”

Instagram: @alya_art_studio 19

ICON BUILD

Concrete solution We may not be able to solve homelessness by printing money, but one charity believes printing houses might be the answer estimated that around 150 million people worldwide are homeless, with as many as 1.6 billion more living in inadequate shelter. Icon and New Story aim to provide secure, low-cost housing for families for whom rough sleeping seems the only option. Fifty homes are planned for the Tabasco community, in association with Mexican social housing organisation Échale.

The houses – each of which measures 46m2 and has two bedrooms, a living room, an In a rural corner of the Mexican state of Tabasco sits two small homes. These compact houses may look like nothing out of the ordinary, but they could change the world. Instead of being built in the traditional manner, the homes were 3D-printed.

Putting roofs over the heads of Tabasco’s poorest residents is the first phase of a mission by technology company Icon and housing charity New Story to end homelessness. It’s 20

office and a bathroom – are co-designed with the families who’ll live in them, then 3Dprinted in mortar directly onto the foundations. The roof, doors, windows, plumbing and electrics are fitted by humans.

Icon’s goal is to be able to print a house in less than 24 hours, at a cost of just $4,000 (around £3,100). Families will be able to buy one with a zerointerest mortgage, making repayments of around £4 a week over seven years.

“It’s important to remember what makes this project different: we’re not a research and development company just for the sake of innovation,” explains Alexandria Lafci, cofounder of New Story. “We’re not here to turn a profit. These homes are for real people with real needs. Everything we do includes them in the process.”

The 3D printer, Vulcan II, is now on sale worldwide so that other cities might benefit.

As Gretel Uribe, development director for Échale, explains, “This project is a lesson that if we come together to work, combine talent and resources, and lead them to solve real problems, the dream of sustainability and social fairness is achievable.” iconbuild.com THE RED BULLETIN

ICONBUILD.COM

Clockwise from left: the Vulcan II 3D printer at work; ‘Lavacrete’, a special concrete mix, is piped out by the machine; the first permitted 3D-printed house, built by Icon and New Story in Austin, Texas, at a cost of $10,000

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Patrick Stewart

How revisiting a character from the future made one of the world’s most iconic actors reflect on the present Words JESS HOLLAND

It’s rare in life to get the chance to go back and have another go at our most important moments. For most of us, life goes on and our early endeavours are left behind. Last year, however, acclaimed actor Sir Patrick Stewart was given the opportunity to revisit his own past life and career, as he reprised one of his most celebrated roles, Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the USS Enterprise, in the Amazon Prime series Star Trek: Picard.

For 15 years between 1987 and 2002, Stewart inhabited the role of captain and leader in the series Star Trek: The Next Generation and four movies, inspiring viewers with a message of fairness, diplomacy and equality. “As our world goes one step forward and two steps back,” says Stewart of this new iteration of the character, “I think there is much of the man we knew in Next Generation: his modesty, his passion for humankind and for the future of the solar system.”

The 79-year-old actor tells The Red Bulletin how it feels to reprise this iconic character after 18 years away, and also to return to such a hopeful show in the new alien landscape of 2020…

the red bulletin: When the offer came, did you immediately know you wanted to return? patrick stewart: Not at all. I had never felt so strongly about not doing something in my entire career. When I met with the team of directors and writers, it was just to tell them in person why I wasn’t going to come back. What they pitched to me in that meeting, however, was irresistible.

What can we expect from this new chapter, and from your character in particular?

We’re living and working in a different world. Picard has walked away from everything and is living with his dog in his château, growing grapes. He’s discontented, angry and guilty; he feels that he failed.

After so many years away from the character of Picard, did it take time to find him again?

The man never left; he never left inside me. We overlap in the things we believe in and the way we see leadership. It was an exhausting and exhilarating experience, but I didn’t find it remotely challenging.

What I did find challenging was when my old cast-mates Jonathan [Frakes, who plays Commander Riker] and Brent [Spiner, who plays Lieutenant Commander Data] returned to the set. They teased me quite a lot.

Have you always been so politically engaged?

I’ve been a member of the Labour Party for many, many years, although I’m a somewhat doubting one at present. My political history began when I committed my first act of civil disobedience in 1945, however, when I was just five years old. I was parading up and down with my father, who was the Regimental Sergeant Major of the Parachute Regiment, with a placard that read, ‘Vote for Mr Palin’ [the Labour candidate for Wentworth, South Yorkshire].

A policeman came and told me to bugger off, because the police could talk to you like that in the working-class neighbourhood I grew up in. But I said ‘No, I won’t,’ ignored him and carried on.

Star Trek has always championed diplomacy and optimism. How was it making this new chapter while living in a time that, for many, feels less hopeful?

I believe there is always hope to be found. While things look very dark right now, certainly as far as Europe is concerned, we have to believe in a better future. We must.

We reflect the present day in this new series. It was one of the things that we all believed in way back when I first started on the show: a fairer world, a kinder world, a more modest world. That is also what we’ve tried to bring to this new chapter.

Star Trek: Picard is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video now

SEBASTIAN KIM/AUGUST

O captain, my captain

actually suggested to me last year that I should take American citizenship and run for Senate.

That really was a serious proposal.

Many of the show’s political themes feel more relevant than ever in 2020. Do you feel that subtext is more important now?

Definitely, being political is more important now than ever. It was 22

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”Someone suggested to me that I should run for Senate” THE RED BULLETIN

23

Ben Stokes

Test of character

I’ve no idea why. I came in with 220-odd to win, which isn’t a huge amount, but when the Ashes are on the line, that number becomes a lot bigger. I’m not sure I was hitting that cleanly – a couple of sixes barely cleared the boundary rope and a few more only just went over the fielders’ heads. I used the right club that day.

A year ago, the British cricket star needed a change-up in his life.

A year can be a long time…

Words JESS HOLLAND Photography TOM JENKINS

Carrying the expectations of a nation is an onerous responsibility.

Some shrink at the prospect; others carve their name into folklore.

Cricketer Ben Stokes’ intention at the start of 2019 was neither. When The Red Bulletin caught up with him last April (for our Summer issue cover story) during his spell with the Rajasthan Royals in India, the flamehaired all-rounder merely wanted to remind everyone what he could do on the field of play, following his highly publicised behaviour off it.

Less than a year later, Stokes has delivered England a World Cup triumph, played one of the greatest Test innings of all time, and been named BBC Sports Personality of the Year and, the day after this interview, ICC Men’s Cricketer of the Year. He’s something approaching a national treasure. Not that Stokes would like the description. “What we want to do on the field is just inspire kids to pick up a bat and a ball,” he says, understatedly. He couldn’t have done more to achieve that. the red bulletin: Have you taken a moment to consider your achievements in 2019? ben stokes: There’s no time when you’re playing – that’s for when I’m done. When you’re in the mindset of thinking ahead, everything is concentrated. It’s about what needs to be done, not what’s already done.

At times, England’s World Cup dream seemed doomed. What turned things around?

Being in a tough situation while playing in our own country was a great opportunity to get together and express certain emotions – we 24

discussed what could happen if things didn’t go our way. Sometimes you think you’re the only one who’s nervous. Once we realised everyone felt the same, it was a massive help.

Showing vulnerability in sport is a brave thing…

Every professional sportsman will have gone through a tough time and not spoken about it because they didn’t feel they could. We’re meant to be invincible and not feel selfdoubt. But anyone who says they’re not nervous about the outcome is telling a little white lie. You need that anxiety or you’re not human.

Talking of nerves, how were yours in the final over of the World Cup? It was only the last ball when I started thinking, “Oh God, what do I do here?” The balls before it were just a case of hitting for four, six or two. Once I’d gathered my thoughts about what to do, I felt a lot easier.

Would it have been worse watching from the pavilion?

Too right. It’s so much worse not being able to influence the result.

Did you know the result at the end of that final over?

Before the final ball, I’d asked the umpire what would happen if we got a one. I thought I knew, but I wanted to make sure. For it to go all the way to the wire, at Lords, in a World Cup final… you couldn’t have made it up.

Then came your match-winning Ashes innings at Headingley. Did you experience any doubt?

No, I just kept going. I had a rush of nerves when I was waiting to bat –

England didn’t win back the Ashes, but the victory gave Test cricket a massive boost…

A lot is said about the format needing a change, but Test cricket is the pinnacle and it needs to be five days. The greatest Test matches go all the way to the death on day five – Cape Town showed that. You only get that drama on the last day.

You played another supreme Test while your father was hospitalised in Johannesburg. Does adversity bring out the best in you?

I can’t compare the pressure of a regular game with playing while my dad is in hospital – they’re too different. But in terms of what happens on the field, I just want to influence the game as much as I can.

Did winning Sports Personality of the Year crown your 2019?

Those awards aren’t what you play for. I’m not palming it off – it’s a huge honour – but the bigger thing is that a cricketer won it for just the fifth time [in 65 years]. After the summer that England had, and the new fans we brought to the sport, I think me being Sports Personality represented the whole of cricket.

After missing out on the Ashes in 2017/18, was there a motivation to make up for lost time?

I don’t think now is the time to talk about the past.

So, are you looking forward to the Ashes Down Under in 2021/22?

I want to go to Australia and win the Ashes. I don’t set personal goals, but that’s probably the only one that I would have: to go there and win.

THE RED BULLETIN

”Now I want to go to Australia and win the next Ashes” THE RED BULLETIN

25

Mavi Phoenix

Changing the tune The Austrian musician and songwriter tells us how his new album is a profound declaration of identity and self Words LOU BOYD Photography ELIZAVETA PORODINA

Pop artist, rapper, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Mavi Phoenix, born Marlene Nader, has always chosen the path less travelled.

Right from his debut EP, My Fault, released in 2014 when Phoenix was just 18, his music has defied categorisation, moving between pop, dance, punk and hip hop.

Phoenix’s new album, Boys Toys, which follows his coming out as transgender last July, is a declaration of identity. The work explores the themes of masculinity, femininity and self, and adds a powerful new voice to the conversation around gender dysphoria.

Here, the 24-year-old from Linz, Austria, discusses his hopes of connecting with others through the album and sharing his experiences… the red bulletin: When did you first discover your talent for music? mavi phoenix: It started when my dad gave me a MacBook and I found the program GarageBand. I never intended to pursue a musical career – I was 11 and just making beats and stuff. But I just kind of stuck with it.

Your early releases had a fresh, DIY feel. Do you still have the same level of creative control?

Yeah, I think so. Being hands-on is important to me. I have producer credits on almost every song – I can’t imagine not being so involved.

How would you describe your sound to those who have never heard your music?

It’s difficult with this album, because I tried some new genres.

26

For example, Choose Your Fighter is almost punk. I’d probably say indie, alternative, pop, rap? That sounds about right.

Music videos are a huge part of your work – has the visual representation of your music always been important to you?

Music videos are really important.

They have such power. If you know what visuals you want, people recognise your vision for the track.

I’m not there yet, though; my videos are good, but I think there’s potential to do so much more.

Boys Toys is a very personal work, especially when talking about your transition and gender identity. Did you go into the writing process knowing you wanted to talk about it?

Yeah. For the first time in my career I really have something to say; something I haven’t heard other artists talk about so much. I felt like now was the right time to make an album; to take my experience and talk about it. Last year was the first time I talked about being transgender. I had older songs I was so excited about, but they’re not on the album, because it felt wrong to put songs out that had been with me for almost two years. I’m such a different person now.

Were you more nervous releasing this album, knowing it says so much about your life?

Yeah, I’m way more nervous than I’ve been before. When I’m doing a photoshoot, there’s always a feeling that people are looking at me and thinking, “Are you really a man?”

I haven’t had hormone therapy or surgery, so I’m nervous to put myself out there in the weirdest phase of my life. It’s a real transition – I’m in this in-between place – and people get to be a part of that. This might be my last album with this voice, because hormone therapy changes it. It’s a weird time.

This record will provide comfort to fans going through a similar experience. Was that a conscious reason to make it?

In a way, it’s a very selfish way of creating a body of work – thinking about myself and how I processed these feelings. I’ve played a few shows now, though, and people really connect with the new songs.

It’s not just about being transgender, it’s a question of “Who am I?” The lyrics on Boys Toys are very powerful. Was it easier to find your own voice on this album?

Yes, I think it had a lot to do with coming out as trans. So much has happened. All of a sudden, it was like, “Oh my God, I have so much to talk about.”

You’ve spoken in the past about how the music industry treats women differently. Have you noticed any change now that you’re not presenting yourself as a female artist?

I’ve only just started promoting this album, but a few years ago people would always talk about my Auto-Tune, [whereas] now nobody mentions it at all. I’ve found that interesting. I think I’ll notice a lot of differences, which is shitty.

What are your hopes going forward? Any big goals?

My number one goal for 2020 is that I really want the album to connect with people, and my bigger goal after that is to tour the world.

Also, one day, maybe a Grammy?

We’ll see…

Mavi Phoenix’s new album, Boys Toys, is out on April 3; Instagram: @maviphoenix

THE RED BULLETIN

”For the first time in my career, I have something to say”

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27

PANOS

Last December, Ghana hosted Afro Nation – Africa’s biggest urban music beach festival

Words FLORIAN OBKIRCHER Photography ANDREW ESIEBO

West Africa’s

BOOMING

From Barack Obama to Beyoncé, Afrobeats is the music on everybody’s lips. The Red Bulletin travelled to Ghana to attend West Africa’s biggest gathering of current and future Afrobeats superstars – and experience the scene at its source

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ackstage, it’s comparatively quiet. The muffled sounds coming from the main stage blend with the gentle rumble of the ocean just metres away. A few people sit on wooden benches, sipping beer and chatting about the live acts they’ve just seen, while artists get ready in green-room tents. The air smells of fried chicken and jollof rice, prepared in a food truck close by. Suddenly, there’s shouting and around 30 young men and women in flashy clothes, gold chains and designer sneakers fall upon the area.

The excited group are drinking Hennessy cognac and champagne straight from the bottle, and they arrive accompanied by men in military uniforms, with machine guns. Bystanders with smartphones surround them in the hope of catching the man at the centre, who’s setting the scene on fire. His name: Davido.

The 27-year-old Nigerian is tonight’s headlining artist at Afro Nation in Ghana – billed as Africa’s biggest urban music beach festival. Last January, Davido sold out London’s O2 Arena, where he was introduced onto the stage by fan/friend Idris Elba. The video for his 2017 hit Fall recently surpassed 158 million views on YouTube, and his critically acclaimed new album, A Good Time, gained him the 30

His billionaire father wanted him to study business in the US, but Davido moved back to Nigeria in 2011 to focus on his music career

Afrobeats

“When I lived in America, being African wasn’t a cool thing.

Now everybody wants to make African music” Davido

Afrobeats

title ‘King of Afrobeats’. Which seems fitting – as the son of a billionaire businessman, he loves to make a grand entrance. Last night, when Davido arrived in Accra, a presidential SUV motorcade escorted him from the airport, and the star waved to astonished passers-by from the sunroof of his Range Rover Evoque.

We’re promised a brief interview before his show, but it won’t be easy. Dozens of fans, friends and journalists fight for the king’s attention. There are elaborate handshakes, “Yooooo!”s, clinking glasses.

When finally The Red Bulletin is granted an audience in his tent, Davido excitedly tells us about the success of Afrobeats, the West African pop genre that has taken over the world’s music charts in recent years. “It’s our new oil,” he says of the genre’s economic potential. “When I lived in America, being African wasn’t cool. The first thing you’d hear about Africa is scam and poverty. Now people talk about the culture, the food. Now everybody wants to make African music.”

After only three minutes, Davido’s sister is pulling him away – it’s time to get on stage. But first she puts her hand on his neck and summons a small group to gather around him in a circle. “Praise the lord,” she shouts, theatrically. “You, David, are blessed, you are favoured, and you are going to kill it. Amen.” There’s

applause, hugs, cheering. Supermodel and Davido fan Naomi Campbell is part of the prayer circle. Following the singer and his entourage towards the main stage, she tells us, “There’s such an appetite for Africa. Finally, the world has woken up and realised there’s a beautiful continent it has ignored. But the best thing is, [Africa] didn’t need us. Afrobeats doesn’t need us. We need them.”

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frobeats (not to be confused with Afrobeat – a blend of jazz and funk popularised by Nigerian musician Fela Kuti in the 1970s) is an umbrella term for contemporary pop music from West Africa, predominantly Nigeria and Ghana. Its artists mix rap and R&B with syncopated dancehall rhythms and local genres such as highlife and jùjú to create sweet, lighthearted songs that make it hard to stand still.

The wider world discovered the sound in 2016 through Canadian superstar Drake’s hit single One Dance, which had elements of Afrobeats and featured one of the scene’s biggest names, Nigerian artist Wizkid. At the time, One Dance became Spotify’s most played song ever, with more than a billion individual streams. Ever since, Afrobeats has been on everybody’s lips. Numerous rap and R&B artists, from Snoop Dogg to Chris

La Même Gang

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“I’ve never consciously tried to incorporate Afrobeats into my music. It just comes naturally” Yxng Bane

Yxng Bane (centre) recently visited his father’s family in the Congo to meet up with local music legend Adolphe Dominguez

With the support of Drake, Wizkid became Afrobeats’ first global star in 2016

A few years ago, Wizkid performed his songs at a 300-capacity venue in east London. Now he fills the O2

Afrobeats

Brown, have experimented with the sound and collaborated with the likes of Davido, Burna Boy and Mr Eazi. In July last year, Beyoncé predominantly picked Afrobeats artists for her soundtrack album The Lion King: The Gift, saying, “I wanted it to be authentic to what is beautiful about the music in Africa.”

It’s rumoured Bey and her husband Jay-Z will be among the celebrities visiting Accra for the Year of Return, a governmental initiative encouraging African diasporans to come to Ghana and celebrate the continent, 400 years after slavery began in America. There’s a buzz as market stalls along busy Oxford Street sell bootleg T-shirts reading “Welcome to Accra, Bey”, and many open-air bars blast her tunes alongside local anthems such as Mr Eazi’s Tony Montana. (Sadly, the rumours ultimately prove untrue.)

Afro Nation is the biggest event planned for the Year of Return. Following its debut in Portugal in July 2019, the organisers are bringing the four-day festival to Accra’s Laboma Beach Resort, attracting 18,000 music fans and artists from all across Africa and beyond. As well as local dons such as Wizkid and Davido, acts including Tanzanian rap duo Navy Kenzo, Congolese powerhouse Innoss’B and Moonchild Sanelly from South Africa are united on the bill.

The festival’s pan-African orientation is one of the things that makes Afro Nation unique, explains Moonchild Sanelly, who is not an Afrobeats artist by definition – the 31-year-old singer with the signature mop of blue curls fuses electro-funk, rap and the South African house genre gqom. Sanelly stresses the importance of transglobal cooperation to the worldwide success of African music.

“The spotlight is on West Africa right now, which is a big chance for all of us,” she says, referring to her collaboration with Ghanaian artist Okuntakinte. What pushed her career like nothing else, though, was her feature on Beyoncé’s Lion King soundtrack. “There’s no bigger co-sign. My streaming numbers went from thousands to millions within a few weeks – and my pay cheques changed.”

The majority of non-African artists on the bill come from the UK. London has established itself as a home away from home for Afrobeats. Second-generation Africans such as Yxng Bane incorporate the genre’s light mood and shuffling beats into their rap tracks, creating a sub-genre dubbed Afroswing.

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London has established itself as a home away from home for Afrobeats The east London-born rapper – whose track with fellow Brit Yungen, Bestie, went top 10 in the UK in 2017 – looks satisfied after his set (which, unusually, saw a couple get engaged on stage). “I’ve never consciously tried to incorporate Afrobeats into my music,” he says. “It just comes naturally. My parents are from Congo and Angola, so I’m an African boy.” Asked why Afrobeats is making such huge waves abroad, the 23-year-old points to artists from the diaspora.

“African music used to come from Africa, but now a lot of it is made by secondgeneration Africans born in Europe and the US. When we’re doing Afrobeats, it’s easier for people at home to consume.”

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he Afrobeats craze started a bit earlier in the UK than elsewhere – Nigerian musician D’Banj’s dance track Oliver Twist debuted at number nine on the UK singles chart in 2012.

This was the tune that elevated African pop music from the communities into a broader urban space, explains radio and TV presenter Adesope Olajide. Here at Afro Nation, Olajide is better known

as ShopsyDoo, the Energy Gawd – a nickname that is well-deserved. With his equally agile colleague Eddie Kadi, the entertainer introduces every act to the stage, and he bridges the time between live sets by dancing, joking, and getting women from the audience on stage for an impromptu twerking competition.

Back home in London, Olajide is known for being one of Afrobeats’ earliest UK supporters. During a break, the 43-year-old sits down to talk (or, rather, hoarsely whisper – being on stage for 10 hours a day has left its mark) about the early days. Around 2008, he and Afro Nation founder SMADE – real name Adesegun Adeosun Jr – flew Wizkid to London for the first time to perform at a 300-capacity club in east London. After the gig, the singer slept on SMADE’s sofa.

Today, Wizkid fills the O2 Arena.

When asked about the significance of Afrobeats in the diaspora, Olajide refers to a line by British-Nigerian grime star Skepta in the 2015 remix of Wizkid’s song Ojuelegba (“When I was in school, being African was a diss. Sounds like you need help saying my surname, miss”). “[In the past] a lot of first- and second-generation Africans didn’t want to identify themselves as African,” he says. “Their surnames were being slaughtered because people couldn’t pronounce them. Even black people with Caribbean heritage would mock the African kids. But with the advent of D’Banj and Wizkid, a lot of

‘King of Afrobeats’ Davido (centre) is joined by his elder sister Coco Adeleke and a (literal) circle of friends for an impromptu prayer before his performance at Afro Nation Ghana

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Afrobeats

these kids saw celebrities who looked like US rap stars, and they felt like, ‘Hold on, these guys are not the African image that has been sold to us.’ A lot of them started to come out of their shells and identify more with their heritage.”

Olajide raves about the sense of unity and pride that Afrobeats instilled in kids of the diaspora, citing his 13-year-old daughter as an example. “I speak Yoruba to her,” he says, “but her pronunciation comes more from the Nigerian artists she listens to. That’s why it’s gone beyond the business element and become something bigger. My daughter is growing up in a world where, to her, Davido is as much a superstar as Justin Bieber.”

As recent as 10 years ago, it was unimaginable that songs in Yoruba would be released by major labels and appear on heavy rotation on mainstream radio stations, or that the biggest artists in Western music would not only sample an African musician’s track but instigate a collaboration to increase their coolness.

What has changed? Olajide and Kadi point to the internet – the “ultimate equaliser”, as they call it. On one hand, social media made it possible to cut out the gatekeepers at traditional radio stations that kept Afrobeats off the air; on the other, internet artists abroad have discovered their similarities, says Olajide.

“Young artists like Drake and Skepta realise that the only difference between them and Burna Boy or Wizkid is their location. They have the same lifestyle

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“My daughter is growing up in a world where, to her, Davido is as much a superstar as Justin Bieber�

Ade Olajide

Capturing the moment at Afro Nation Ghana. Opposite: Ade Olajide says Afrobeats has brought pride and unity to Africans in the diaspora

and are into the same things. It’s only natural they would collaborate.”

Another aspect is the economic potential that comes with these teamups, as BBC World Service journalist and Afrobeats expert Hannah Ajala points out. “American artists and record labels realised the potential of combining two huge world markets,” she says. “Nigeria alone is peaking at 200 million in population size.” On top of this, the local entertainment business is booming.

According to a 2017 report by business consultancy firm PricewaterhouseCooper, the Nigerian music industry was expected to experience an annual growth rate of 13.4 per cent up until 2021, a rise from £30m in 2016 to £56m.

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f you want to find out how it all started in Accra, we’re told, you must speak to Ruddy Kwakye. This is easier said than done – Kwakye is the event producer of Afro Nation, which means he’s in charge of almost everything. Barely does a moment pass when his radio isn’t demanding his attention or someone isn’t tapping him on the shoulder and asking, “Ruddy, do you have a second?”

We join the queue, and after 20 minutes the former radio presenter and brand representative for MTV Base Africa is ready for us. He tells us about the crises that befell the Ghanaian music industry after the military coups of the ’60s/’70s.

“We used to have a vibrant scene with professional recording studios built by our first president [Kwame Nkrumah], and we were about to set up a proper music industry,” he says. “But by the time I grew up, in the dark days, most of the studios had closed, and former music venues and cinemas had been converted into churches. Music went underground.

It was only in the mid-’90s that radio was liberalised and there was new demand for local music, reviving the scene and providing a viable means of distribution.”

Artists began to fuse traditional sounds with R&B and rap influences, laying the foundation for Afrobeats. Today, says Kwakye, there are around 60 local radio stations in Accra blasting out the genre all day. When asked about the economic potential of Afrobeats, the 39-year-old references Afro Nation’s success and the trickle-down effect on local tourism. “But we need to start putting infrastructure in place,” he says. “It’s nice when you invite me to your house, but when you convert it into a bar you make me come back every

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“My streaming numbers went from thousands to millions within weeks thanks to Beyoncé” Moonchild Sanelly day. Ghana’s selling point is the country’s political and economic stability. We’re still an easy country to enter and to stage an event like this one, but we need to move fast – other countries see our achievements and they’re coming.”

Despite the stability that makes Accra a haven for creatives from all over the world – The New York Times dubbed it “Africa’s capital of cool”, while Time Out lists historic fishing district Jamestown as one of the world’s most fashionable neighbourhoods – it’s still a challenge

to carve out a living as a musician here.

Bootlegging – whether illegal downloads or CDs sold in the street – is still a problem, due to the unavailability in West Africa of streaming services such as Spotify. In addition to this, artists complain that they are not receiving royalties from radio airplay of their music. In 2017, Ghanaian dancehall star Shatta Wale called out the Ghana Music Rights Organization on Facebook with an angry post that read, “GHAMRO, are you ready to pay my royalties or you want me to go haywire!!”

KwakuBs, a member of Accra-based music collective La Même Gang, can empathise. “One time, I found out one of my songs was used in a movie, but no one ever asked me,” he says. “Anyone just does anything over here, because even the police wouldn’t do much about these things.” At Afro Nation the previous night, KwakuBs and his five bandmates set the THE RED BULLETIN

Afrobeats

“[Drinking and smoking] are the old generation. I am the future. I want to be a role model” Rema

Clockwise from above left: South Africa’s Moonchild Sannelly; local music scene expert and Afro Nation Ghana’s event producer Ruddy Kwakye; 19-year-old sensation Rema

stage on fire with their bass-laden tracks.

Today, the boys, all in their early twenties and heavily tattooed, are chilling in producer Nxwrth’s bedroom studio. Some of them are on a Nintendo Switch, others play with Nxwrth’s dog Astro (named after Travis Scott’s album Astroworld), while KwakuBs records vocals.

When the group formed in 2017, Afrobeats was on the cusp of becoming a global phenomenon, which made them want to do something different. When Nxwrth, a 23-year-old sporting pink mini-dreads, boldly states, “I’m trying to change the soundscape in Ghana,” you can see where he’s coming from. With kick drums layered in heavy sub bass, tunes such as Know Me and Stone Island are closer in sound to trap than to classic Afrobeats, and their songs celebrate an individualist lifestyle. “Ghanaians have very strong opinions, especially in terms of morals,” KwakuBs says. “You can’t look THE RED BULLETIN

a certain way, can’t just give a brother a hug. We have tattoos and dyed hair, which went against everything and was met with negativity at first. But recently there was a shift. We’re part of a new wave.”

This new wave also includes local fashion labels like Free the Youth and design collectives such as The Weird Cult – like-minded artists who motivate each other and, through collaboration, give one another a platform away from the mainstream. As the local Afrobeats radio stations refuse to play La Même Gang’s tunes, these artistic synergies help them gain the attention of international music and fashion publications. “We wear our friends’ clothes in our videos – they make merchandise for us,” says La Même Gang member Darkovibes. “We believe that if you want to move far, move together.

You want to move fast, you go alone.”

Also part of this new wave is 19-yearold Rema from Benin City, Nigeria, whose track Iron Man made it onto Barack Obama’s favourite songs list for 2019, and who topped the Apple Music Nigeria chart last year with his eponymous debut EP. This happened, Rema says, not because but in spite of the international success of Afrobeats. When he started out, people around Rema advised him to make music within the genre, but instead he decided to rap and use Arabic melodies, which infused his melodic pop songs with spirituality. These choices are a result of his upbringing: Rema’s father and brother died when he was a child, and rapping in church gave him hope and motivation.

Initially, Rema struggled to get his music heard, but when he was signed by Don Jazzy – co-writer of Oliver Twist and owner of Nigeria’s biggest independent record company, Mavin Records – his career took off. In stark contrast to his idols, such as Wizkid and Davido, Rema renounces the glamorous lifestyle. He doesn’t drink or smoke, doesn’t show off expensive clothes. When quizzed on the subject, the quiet, thoughtful young man smiles. “You see,” he says, “they are the old generation. I am the future. I want to be a role model for kids.”

Minutes later, he steps out on stage in a black tie-dye T-shirt and jogging pants to rapturous applause. “I am Rema,” he declares. “Every country I go to, they tell me I am the future.” A sea of smartphones captures the moment to transmit to the world. The ascendency of pop music from West Africa has only just begun. afronation.com 39

BLAZING SADDLES When you marvel at a horse-riding stunt in a film, chances are it’s the Griffiths. For more than a century, this family has flouted the laws of physics and common sense in live spectacles and on the silver screen. But the death-defying dynasty’s greatest trick may be surviving and thriving together Words HAL ESPEN Photography JIM KRANTZ

Gattlin Griffith, 21, is keeping trick riding alive and, along with his father and three brothers, helping to advance this long-practised art into the future

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Trick riders

THE CELLULOID IMAGE OF THE COWBOY – an agile horseback rider galloping across a widescreen Western landscape – ripples across our collective consciousness. But it’s the art of trick riding that heightens this shared dream to something thrilling and tangible. Hollywood stuntman and horse master Tad Griffith defines it thus: “Horses running at breakneck speed while men or women perform impossible things on them.” It’s a gymnastic choreography of twists, swings, drags, stands, leaps and remounts that transform the airspace around a horse into a balletic playground.

It looks dangerous, and it is: Tad’s mother and performing partner Connie was killed when her horse Winnie fell on her during a rodeo exhibition. She was 56, the age her only son is today.

The heyday of competitive trick riding was the early to mid-20th century, and today it mostly survives as a ‘specialty act’ to entertain crowds at rodeos. But at their ranch in Agua Dulce, California, Tad and his sons – Gattlin, Callder, Arrden and Garrison – have retooled the sport into something beyond nostalgia.

If you saw the Coen brothers’ 2016 film Hail, Caesar!, that’s Gattlin executing a shoulder stand and somersaulting dismount as actor Alden Ehrenreich’s stunt double. For the gunfight-onhorseback scene in John Wick: Chapter 3, Keanu Reeves spent weeks training in Agua Dulce, and Tad designed a rig that kept Reeves and the horses safe amid the mayhem. On YouTube, you can watch the four young Griffith brothers execute a jaw-dropping, high-velocity routine on America’s Got Talent.

The Griffiths’ pedigree goes back to the dawn of professional rodeo and their Oklahoman great-grandparents Curley and Toots Griffith. Curley could wrestle a steer to the ground after leaping onto it from a speeding automobile, and the diminutive Toots was a daring Roman rider (standing atop two horses running side by side). Trick riding is a hybrid of 42

the Wild West show and the acrobatics of Russian Cossacks. By the 1920s, the vogue for Stetson-wearing tricksters was peaking when Curley and Toots’ son Dick became a champion at the age of nine.

He remained a force in rodeo until his retirement in 1954. A few years later, Dick married his star pupil, Connie Rosenberger, and became her manager.

Their son arrived in 1962 and turned pro aged five. Under his father’s tutelage, Tad became a master trick-rider, rodeo champion, and half of a mother-and-son act that performed for three decades.

STUNT CENTRAL Rolling up the driveway of the Griffith compound, you enter a wonderland of corrals and paddocks. There’s a big rig, motorboat, dirt bikes and stunt cars, the skeleton of a tepee, and an Old West Below: Arrden, 16, star of stunts and sitcoms. Right: Callder, 18, finds time for a selfie while nailing a hippodrome stand

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“Every single stride, for an instant you’re weightless – that’s where you make your transitions” THE RED BULLETIN

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stagecoach leaning drunkenly on the hillside. Scattered about are trampolines, the mounted torso of a battered dummy, and a platform for practising stunt falls.

There are also 50 horses, 10 goats, eight donkeys, four cows, four dogs, two cats, one fish, and a restless herd of Griffiths.

The place was nothing but weeds when Tad arrived in 1998 with his new wife Wendy, who was expecting their first child, Gattlin. For the preceding eight years, Tad and Connie had blazed through almost 6,000 performances at King Arthur’s Tournament, a medieval dinner-and-jousting show at Las Vegas’ Excalibur Hotel. Tad was making his name in Hollywood; his breakthrough was a Roman-riding scene in that year’s

“We can only use horses that want to do it. I know my horses enjoy performing”

The Mask of Zorro. When the Vegas gig ended, Connie refused to retire. On a Saturday night in August 1998, while Tad was shooting a scene in New Mexico for the Will Smith movie Wild Wild West, she travelled alone to a small rodeo in Utah – her final performance.

RESPECT THE HORSE Sitting at the dining table, next to a cabinet crammed with trophies, Tad offers a crash course on the family business: a training philosophy based on the principle that only animals who love to perform can succeed in trick riding.

“We can only use horses that want to do it,” he says. “I know my horses enjoy performing – they love the audience, the

Trick riders

energy. As riders, we literally have to lay the reins down – we’re backward or upside down – and they have to do their part on their own. Horses are characters; they need praise. We only talk about positive things in front of them. They learn how to brace, much like an adagio.”

(In acrobatics, an adagio pair has one person as a base, the other as a flier.)

Tad credits his father Dick with revolutionising trick riding via force, direction and timing. “The horse leads the dance, they control the cadence.

You’re either working with it or against it. My dad discovered that when you’re vaulting, if you think about going up instead of getting on, the horse can throw you to places you couldn’t get to any

other way. Use the power of the horse to send you up and getting back on takes care of itself. He also showed how to use the timing of the horse. Every stride, for an instant, you’re weightless – that’s where you make your transitions.”

During Dick Griffith’s long career, he mastered more tricks than any other rider before or since, but the grind took its toll. He performed through the pain of repeated injuries to his wrists, ankles and feet, and would apply frozen ether as a numbing agent. Towards the end of Dick’s life, Tad says, “he started having major seizures and headaches from all the concussions and hellacious crashes, and back then they didn’t have pain pills, so alcohol was the painkiller”. When his

The Griffith brothers perform a repertoire of spins, swings and stands at Vasquez Rocks in Agua Dulce, California.

Opposite: a poster showing their grandfather Dick as a nine-year-old prodigy

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“The horse leads the dance; you’re dancing with them, but they control the cadence” Leader and spokesbrother Gattlin makes a stand – a shoulder stand, to be pedantic

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Trick riders

The trick being performed here by Arrden is known, for obvious reasons, as the back breaker

father died in 1984, at the age of 71, Tad took note. “My kids were trained completely differently,” he says, quietly.

BORN TO RIDE Gattlin, a 21-year-old with a heartfelt demeanour and a wide DiCaprio-esque face, is the leader and spokesman for the brothers. Three years younger is Callder, a young man with an intense gaze and a wry smile, who is currently rooming with his older brother at Santa Monica College, and who returned from a recent rodeo-scouting expedition in Canada with reports of Calgary’s hard-charging cowgirl trick riders. Arrden, 16, who sports a swooping wing of cinnamon hair, became the first to break a bone (his ankle) during a trick-riding run last year.

And blue-eyed Garrison – 11, with a spray of freckles across his face – proved an expert prankster in a series of Subaru ads.

Gattlin and Callder conduct a tour of the Griffith menagerie. The ranch’s THE RED BULLETIN

affectionate animal-naming convention centres on pairs: Jesse and James, Clash and Titan, Dallas and Cowboy, Bert and Ernie, and the cows Ben and Jerry – they treat their beasts with a tenderness more akin to family than livestock.

For the brothers, trick riding runs parallel with acting in film, TV and adverts. Gattlin has made his mark in major roles, from a kidnapped child in Clint Eastwood’s 2008 film Changeling to a 12-year-old demon in the TV series Supernatural. Callder’s CV includes stunt work for the show American Horror Story and a role in the 2016 Western Boonville Redemption, while Arrden has appeared in the sitcom Fresh Off the Boat. Most recently, Garrison – together with Gattlin – performed in Safety, a short film about a school shooting. The siblings appear unjaded by their exposure to star power, even oblivious to the sketchier side of Hollywood. This seems to have been part of Tad’s second-act master plan once he

knew he’d offer his sons the chance to take on the dangers of trick riding.

Tad’s ethical quandaries were not only confined to putting his own boys at risk.

Alongside being a versatile stuntman – from flipping a semi-truck for the Fast & Furious franchise to being burned alive in 2001’s The Last Castle – he is a livestock coordinator and stunt-horse trainer. Tad knew he was joining an industry with a chequered past regarding the treatment of animals. Horror stories abound from the old Western days, and as recently as 2012 the TV series Luck was cancelled after three horses died during filming.

Keeping the impact of live action while eliminating downside risk became Tad’s crusade. “I’d been on many projects that were a long way from well thought out,” he says. “I was inspired to find a way that was safer, quicker and more humane.”

For 2003’s Seabiscuit (2003), Tad coordinated a sequence that illustrates this challenge. A jockey, played by Tobey Maguire, is seriously injured when thrown from a panicked horse and dragged for an excruciating distance with his foot caught in the stirrup. Tad rehearsed with a hundred slow drags before he felt the horse was ready to perform at speed.

For the mounted chase in John Wick 3, a 120m rubber runway was constructed beneath an elevated subway track, and the horse shod with rubber shoes. Tad’s team drove the horse via lines from above and in front, while a safety harness created an invisible protective box in the event of a stumble. Lately, he has been testing a system designed to let a camera operator shoot while on horseback. “I can chase actors and horses down creeks and up through trees where an ordinary camera rig can’t follow.” Engineering solutions like this are Tad’s answer to the CGI takeover of physical action sequences – a conviction born from a thousand live shows where nothing can be faked.

Tad is pleased by his sons’ bridging of old and modern. There’s pride when he talks about the Wild West Express at the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo five years ago – 30 performances in 17 days.

“It’s the biggest, most prestigious show in the world, and we’re only there because of our name. The kids are feeling the pressure of all that, and the fact they could die. That show is the quintessence of my life: anticipation, struggle, relief.

They’ve shared the experience of learning how to do it; they know where they came from.” And they survived it.

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Team Rubicon Canada member Kyle Kotowick aids the relief effort in Mozambique following Cyclone Idai last March

They’re one of the world’s foremost disaster relief organisations, dropping into danger zones to help society’s most vulnerable.

Here’s how a team of military veterans formed TEAM RUBICON 48

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TEAM RUBICON

The disaster ARTISTS

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Words TOM WARD   49

JANUARY 12, 2010.

IT WAS 4.53PM WHEN THE EARTHQUAKE HIT THE ISLAND OF HISPANIOLA In the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince – 25km to the north-east of the epicentre – people were going about their business.

Suddenly the ground shook, buildings cracked to their foundations, and the entire world was turned inside out. By the time the 7.0 magnitude earthquake had subsided, almost 300,000 buildings had collapsed or been severely damaged.

It was a disaster that, according to various government estimates, claimed between 230,000 and 316,000 lives.

Alongside the many thousands dead were embassy staff, the Archbishop of Port-au-Prince, and 32 members of the Haitian Football Federation. A further 1.5 million people were made homeless, among them then-President René Préval, who found himself dispossessed after both his home and the presidential palace were destroyed. In the nights following the quake, many Haitians slept in cars, doorways and makeshift shanty towns.

By January 14, the city’s morgues were full, meaning that many bodies were left in the streets as crews trucked thousands more to mass graves. Meanwhile, the thousands of unrecovered bodies buried in rubble began to decompose in the heat and humidity. With five hospitals in Portau-Prince destroyed or damaged, and roads blocked by debris, the situation in 50

this, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, was desperate.

While the international community organised relief operations, former US Marine Jake Wood watched events unfold on the news. With a four-year tour in the Middle East under his belt, including counter-insurgency missions in Iraq’s bloody Anbar Province and eight months on a sniper team in Afghanistan, he felt compelled to help. Just 60 days out of the military, Wood was fit, experienced at operating in destabilised countries, and had many transferable skills.

Wood, then 27, called a local disaster relief organisation to offer his services, but was turned down. Determined to get to Haiti under his own steam, he posted on Facebook, asking if anyone wanted to join him. Former Marine intelligence officer William McNulty, a 33-year-old friend of a friend, answered the call.

The pair flew to the Dominican Republic – Haiti’s neighbour on Hispaniola – meeting up with another marine, and a mate of Wood’s who happened to be a firefighter. En route, they met a former special forces medic and two doctors, one of whom was a Vietnam veteran.

The motley group touched down in the Dominican capital, Santo Domingo, and were transferred to the Haitian border, arriving four days after the quake.

“It was total chaos,” remembers Wood. “There was this dust cloud in the air from all the rubble. People were digging for survivors. There weren’t enough aid workers on the planet to adequately address the needs there.”

Determined to prove themselves and help as many people as possible, Wood’s team set out to transport doctors and nurses to hard-hit areas, establish mobile triage clinics, and get critical patients to hospital. “Organisations usually focus on hospitals and setting up static clinics,”

ALAMY

Team Rubicon

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Torn apart: the 2010 earthquake in Haiti flattened thousands of buildings, killed as many as 316,000 people, and made many more homeless THE RED BULLETIN

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Team Rubicon

Clockwise from top left: former British soldier Matt Fisher assists rebuilding in Nepal; the organisation’s warehouse of supplies; a Team Rubicon medic in Mozambique last March for Operation Macuti Light; planning relief in the typhoon-hit Northern Mariana Islands in the Pacific in 2018

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TEAM RUBICON RESPONDED TO 310 DISASTERS ACROSS THE GLOBE – FROM THE BAHAMAS TO YORKSHIRE – IN 2019 ALONE Wood says, “but often people’s vehicles are destroyed, or they’ll be hesitant to leave their home because of looters. Half the people we were treating had horrific crush injuries and couldn’t walk to a hospital. We were pushing out into these parts of the city and treating people on sight.”

On January 23, just 11 days after the quake, the Haitian government declared the end of the search-andrescue phase of the relief operation.

But Wood’s team would stay 20 days, only leaving when it became clear that other agencies were better equipped to deal with the longer-term fallout.

TEAM RUBICON (3), GETTY IMAGES (1)

KICKING DISASTERS IN THE TEETH

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Wood and McNulty’s experiences had instilled in them a determination to keep helping the vulnerable, so Team Rubicon was formed then and there.

If the relief operation had taught them one thing, it was that as military veterans they had much to offer.

In the decade since Haiti, Team Rubicon has gone from strength to strength. The organisation responded to 310 disasters across the globe – from the Bahamas to Mozambique, Indonesia to Yorkshire – in 2019 alone.

Today, its staff, whom Team Rubicon jokingly urges to “Sign up. Get trained.

Kick disasters in the teeth”, has grown to an estimated 105,000 volunteers; 75 per cent of these are either military veterans or still in active duty, and 20 per cent are fire, medical or law enforcement professionals.

Growing the organisation and proving it was worthy of investment – those onboard now include Carhartt, Bank of America and Microsoft – was a long, slow process. Instrumental to Team Rubicon’s journey was Hurricane Sandy, the 2012 disaster that cost 223 lives and caused more than $70 billion in damage across the Bahamas, Greater Antilles, US and Canada. The team set to work clearing houses in one of the hardest-hit areas, New York City – an affluent metropolis that was a stark contrast to Haiti. “We slept in a warehouse in Brooklyn,” Wood says.

“We could walk up the street, covered in mud, get an ice-cold beer, and it was like the hurricane had never hit.”

Despite the home comforts, Team Rubicon was focused on assisting the city’s more exposed citizens. “There was a high population of firefighters and police officers [in the area we were working in],” says Wood. “People who had to put on the uniform every day and go help someone else while their home was rotting.” By mucking out their homes, Wood’s team was paying back some of this service.

Team Rubicon’s desire to help those most in need is innate. “We always direct our aid to the most vulnerable people, and that doesn’t necessarily mean where the most damage is,” says Wood. “We go street by street, documenting the destruction. This is then mapped and combined with data sets like the social vulnerability index, flood plain levels, crime levels – any demographic information we can get.

From that, we see who the most vulnerable people are.”

If Sandy was the event that put Team Rubicon on the map, 2017’s Hurricane Harvey tested its abilities.

When Harvey hit Houston, the team deployed more than 2,000 volunteers from nine forward operating bases covering almost 200 miles. As part of its response, Team Rubicon bought its own boats and sent them down to fish survivors from the water. As a result of the rescue and clear-up operation, it was responsible for putting more than 1,000 families back in their homes.

Then, in 2019, Hurricane Dorian hit the Bahamas, becoming one of the most powerful recorded in the Atlantic Ocean, with winds peaking at 300kph.

Team Rubicon deployed to the islands the day after the storm hit.

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Top: a ‘greyshirt’ surveys the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas last September. Above: volunteers rescue a survivor of Hurricane Harvey, which caused catastrophic flooding in Texas and Louisiana in August 2017. Opposite: providing support and reassurance in the Northern Mariana Islands

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Team Rubicon

“ALL THE GRATITUDE YOU RECEIVE FROM THE SURVIVORS IS JUST SO POWERFUL” “It looked like a nuclear wasteland,” Wood says. “All the trees were snapped off 8ft [around 2.4m] above the ground and bent back in one direction, like a nuclear blast had hit them. Every power line was down, every building destroyed.”

TEAM RUBICON

REBUILDING HOMES AND LIVES

In the reception area of Team Rubicon’s national operations centre in Grand Prairie, Texas, is a cartoon mural of former US President Theodore Roosevelt in boxing attire, leaning against the ropes after a tough round in the ring. Alongside are headshots of the company’s hardest working employees of the last quarter, and a quote from Roosevelt’s 1910 speech The Man in the Arena: “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly…”

“Our CEO thinks the man in the arena is the one who should get the press and recognition,” explains William ’TJ’ Porter, deputy director of operational support, whose own picture is among those hanging on the wall. After a 13-year career in the military and then as a law enforcement officer, Porter joined Team Rubicon in 2012 and has since been deployed to the aftermaths of multiple tornadoes, wildfires, and more.

“Team Rubicon sets itself apart [from other relief organisations] in two ways,” he explains. “We can either be part of the response, doing everything from searchand-rescue to felling trees and opening THE RED BULLETIN

up roads, or we can provide direct assistance to survivors.”

The latter usually involves helping those with no or little insurance to return to their home. Team Rubicon will gut the entire house, then refit new flooring and dry wall – an initiative that has sparked a long-term rebuilding programme in Houston. Assisting in this way is, Porter says, one of the most gratifying parts of the job. “When something like [Hurricane Harvey] happens, people don’t know where to turn. We get them to a point where they have a stable house to live in. All the gratitude you receive from the survivors is so overwhelming. To see someone go from being in shock, with a 20,000-yard stare, to realising ‘Hey, at least I have something now, and I can build from there’ is really intoxicating.”

The team’s Texas office is one of three in the US, housing a total of 150 full-time staff. Just a short car ride from Dallas, the base was chosen for its central location and for its proximity to two international airports. Team Rubicon moved here in early 2016 and now has 29 staff working in the office. There are no fancy flourishes here; it looks like they turned up one day four years ago, dumped their stuff and got to work. It is from this office that all operations are organised, including transportation, logistics, field leadership and mobilisation.

Team Rubicon operates domestically and internationally, with operations planning associates Adam Martin, Lauren Vatier and Jacqueline Pherigo

scrubbing news sources daily to track developing situations. Should a disaster occur, the question is whether Team Rubicon has the capabilities and resources to support another operation alongside those already in progress.

“Any time we have volunteers in the field already, our priority is taking care of them, whether it’s smaller localised operations, or volunteers heading to an international response,” explains Martin.

“What do we need to do to support them?

What do they need today?”

Part of this involves liaising with other organisations to see what response is being arranged elsewhere and how Team Rubicon can best support this, Vatier explains. Occasionally, the request for help comes from outside agencies such as the World Health Organisation (WHO). It’s a point of pride that, following a rigorous 18-month process, Team Rubicon was the first NGO in North America to be WHO-certified as a mobile emergency medical team – “a tough credential to get,” says Porter.

This means that it meets exacting standards for deploying units to remote or austere environments and remaining self-sufficient for up to seven days.

In the back of the office space is a large warehouse area – essentially a survivalist’s wet dream – filled with everything from chainsaws and foldable cots to tech boxes. Each of the latter contains three laptops, five iPhones, a connector, a router and more, ensuring that each team remains connected in

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Top: Operation Hard Hustle clears the debris left behind by Hurricane Harvey in Texas in 2017. Above: a token of gratitude for the medical emergency team saving lives and rebuilding communities. Opposite: Dr Erin Noste, Team Rubicon’s deputy medical director, treats a patient in Mozambique

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EDITOR

ILLUSTRATOR

Team Rubicon

even the most remote environments.

With this equipment, the team is also able to consult a remote doctor who can step in and advise when medical staff on the ground are sparse.

Naturally, there is a plentiful supply of medication catering to pre-hospital care including cuts, fractures and tetanus, as well as plastic containers full of medical packs with everything from tents to water purification systems. “The reality of the situation is that the majority of times we go out, we encounter people with a lack of access to healthcare,” explains Porter.

“We’ve had to deal with infected lacerations. We need to be prepared to temporarily set a broken bone. There can be malnourishment or no access to clean drinking water, so we carry antibiotics, too.”

The operations centre also houses an impressive gym with TRX (bodyweight resistance training) equipment, workout benches and pull-up bars; it’s essential that the team is able to hold its own in remote locations. “Physical fitness is important to us,” Porter says.

“The areas we work in are typically very hot and humid. Frequently, you’ll have to hike between seven and 10 miles with one of these rucksacks.

You have to be able to operate without bringing the team down.”

Porter says illnesses among the teams themselves are rare – which is not to say operations are risk-free.

“We went to Nepal after the 2015 earthquake,” he recalls. “We had a team of 45 on the ground when the second earthquake occurred.

They removed themselves from the building, did accountability, let us know that they were safe, then pressed on. In general, we’ve either been pretty safe or pretty lucky.”

TEAM XX RUBICON EDITOR

ILLUSTRATOR

A CAUSE FOR OPTIMISM

When The Red Bulletin visits in early December 2019, Team Rubicon has just deployed a unit to the Marshall Islands in the central Pacific to assist with the ongoing dengue fever epidemic, and is also searching its volunteer base for medical providers who can fly out to Samoa at the behest of the WHO to help tackle a measles outbreak.

The organisation has also been on the front line of the Australian wildfires, a crisis that has – at the THE RED BULLETIN

“PEOPLE NEED SOMETHING TO RALLY AROUND WHEN THINGS GET CHAOTIC” time of this magazine going to print – seen more than 17 million hectares of bushland razed, around 6,000 buildings destroyed, and as many as 32 people (including volunteer firefighters) killed. In 2019, the Australian wildfire season began in late August/early September – a full three months earlier than usual. Since then, the fire threat has been nearconstant, with Team Rubicon Australia (TRA) first invited by the Office for Emergency Management to respond to fires in Rappville in northern New South Wales back in October. Its work is primarily focused on debris and tree removal at locations across NSW. “In the last four months, we’ve conducted more operations than in the preceding three years,” says TRA CEO Geoff Evans.

The team is now awaiting the go-ahead to deploy to Victoria and southern NSW, where fires still rage. “The authorities in Victoria

and New South Wales are delaying our deployment to these areas due to the ongoing risk, and, more importantly, so that they may vector us on to the hardest-hit areas, some of which may yet be to come,” says Evans.

In Australia, the challenge will be maintaining on-the-ground support across three areas of operation, as well as managing the psychological toll endured by homeowners, many of whom, Evans says, have “lost all hope”.

Despite this, from Australia to Dallas, the company’s ethos is one of optimism, of finding hope in the chaos. Porter recalls being dispatched to Moore, Oklahoma, in the aftermath of the 2013 tornado: “In one of the neighbourhoods, there was a tree at the end of a cul-de-sac. The tornado came through and ripped all of the leaves off, so all that was left were the trunk and the branches; everything else around it was flattened. But then somebody took an American flag and nailed it to the tree, and that became a central [focus] point. People need something to rally around when things are so chaotic.”

For Porter, it’s moments like this that make Team Rubicon’s work so important. “Where there’s a need, we try to fill it. The best thing about the job for me is knowing we’re making a difference,” he says. “One hundred years from now, people will be writing books on the things we’ve done.” teamrubiconglobal.org 57

“Life is a constant adaptation – you can do what you want, but in a different way” Ben Tansley

SMALL STEPS, GIANT STRIDES The human spinal cord, just 13mm thick and protected by the backbone, contains a billion nerve cells, transmitting vital signals between the brain and body.

When it’s damaged, the results are devastating and, until recently, considered largely irreversible. But revolutionary science has shown remarkable recovery in patients. We speak to three people with severe spinal cord injuries about how this research is transforming lives and could one day deliver a cure Words MARK BAILEY Photography RICK GUEST

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“The doctor told me, ‘You didn’t break your back, you exploded it’” Ben Tansley

Wings for Life

“I just want to surprise people and show what you can do with a positive mindset” Ben Tansley

O

n a sunny day in 2017, Ed Jackson – a 6ft 4in pro rugby player – was at a barbecue at a family friend’s house and took a dive into their pool. Only when his skull smashed against the bottom did he realise it was the shallow end.

“I tried to reach for my head to check for blood,” he says, “but I couldn’t move. I panicked.”

Jackson was drowning. His dad, realising something was wrong, raised him up. The ambulance journey to hospital took more than two hours because Jackson had to be resuscitated three times. He needed emergency surgery to stabilise his spine. “My dad never looks worried, but he was concerned. I knew this was a life-changing incident.”

Jackson had dislocated his C6-C7 vertebrae and shattered the disc, sending shards through his spinal cord and leaving just 4mm still connected. He was told he’d never walk again.

“This is something that happens to other people, never you,” he says. Distraught, Jackson kept apologising to his partner,

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Lois. At night, he’d imagine his toe wiggling. Then, on day six… it did. The impossible was happening. “Before this, winning championships would make me happy; suddenly a wiggling toe meant so much more.”

The former Newport Gwent Dragons and England youth number eight underwent rehab and hydrotherapy, treasuring every millimetre of new movement. A year later, he stood weeping on the 1,085m-high summit of Snowdon after a gritty eight-hour hike. “To think where I was... it was a ‘pinch me’ moment. That feeling became addictive.”

The 31-year-old from Bath has since climbed Meru Peak (6,600m) in the Himalayas and co-founded the M2M (Millimetres to Mountains) Group, which arranges hikes and events for those with disabilities. Still lacking power down his left side, he walks with a brace and a heavy limp. “Because of my inefficient mechanics, I use 50 per cent more energy. In Nepal, I burnt 11,000 calories a day.” This year, he will climb Mont Blanc (4,808m) in the Alps, Gran Paradiso (4,061m) 61

Wings for Life

in Italy, and Himlung Himal (7,140m) in Nepal. He hopes to become the first quadriplegic to summit Everest (8,848m).

Jackson is one of more than 2.5 million people worldwide to have suffered a devastating spinal cord injury (SCI) – a uniquely complex condition for which no known cure exists.

SCIs are usually caused by road accidents (50 per cent), falls (24 per cent), violence (17 per cent) or sports (nine per cent).

Men are most at risk in their twenties and women in their teens – when they are most active – as well as in older age.

The prognosis is bleak. Typically, 53 per cent become paraplegic (paralysis of the legs and trunk) and 47 per cent quadriplegic (all four limbs and trunk). With ‘incomplete’ injuries (partial loss), studies suggest anywhere from 20 to 75 per cent might regain basic walking capacity. But with ‘complete’ injuries (full loss of movement and/or sensation), only 10 to 20 per cent regain any sensory function within a year, and restoring movement is rare. As a recovering quadriplegic, Jackson’s progress is astonishing.

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ut some are proving they can enjoy life despite the limitations of their current circumstances. The Paralympic and Invictus Games have showcased the power of disability sport, and others are now chasing adventure and adrenalin instead.

Ben Tansley, a tattooed gym owner from Norfolk, broke his T4 vertebra and suffered paralysis below the chest when a fellow biker hit his motorbike in 2017. “The doctor said, ‘You didn’t break your back, you exploded it,’” recalls Tansley, 34.

But his wheelchair doesn’t stop him kayaking, lifting weights or planning epic challenges. “After reading that [Ross Edgley] did a triathlon carrying a 45kg log, I dreamt I did a wheelchair marathon with one,” he laughs. “I’m impulsive, so at 2am I started looking for a charity marathon. I’ve now got the log.”

Tansley – ‘Tano’ to his friends – has already tackled the Berlin wheelchair marathon (in 2018). For another charity challenge, he plans to hand-climb (wheelbarrow style) the 2,744 steps of the Manitou Incline – an abandoned funicular

”I’ve noticed how people’s perceptions of me have changed after seeing what I’ve achieved” Nathalie McGloin 62

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“It would be naive to think everyone will become fully able-bodied again, but if we can improve our lives on any level, we’re all for it” Nathalie McGloin

Wings for Life

“Unlike most government institutions, we can fund highly original projects and think outside the box” Dr Verena May, Wings for Life

railway near Colorado Springs – with a mate holding his legs. “I just want to surprise people and show what you can do with a positive mindset.”

N

athalie McGloin was just 16 when, as a passenger in a car crash, she broke the C6-C7 vertebrae in her neck, leaving her paralysed from the waist down. She is now the world’s only female quadriplegic racing driver, piloting an adapted, hand-controlled Cayman S in the Porsche Club Championship. “The adrenalin is part of the appeal, but I also get to race alongside able-bodied people,” she says. “I’d never had that parity since my injury. But all that matters here is your skill and bravery.”

During her traumatic time in hospital, McGloin focused on “surviving each day” and “just dealing with being a teenager while coping with my new ‘broken body’”. Some days, she wanted to die. But now the Northampton racer talks excitedly about her first win at Silverstone – “I’d never taken the flag, so I didn’t know what to do” – the joy of racing in the rain, and hitting that perfect sweet spot between speed and control: “I call it ‘driving on the edge’.”

Arriving at our photoshoot, these three pioneers share a natural athletic presence: Jackson is tall and chiselled with a military bearing; Tansley has a tanned, muscular torso; and McGloin radiates the sparkle of a self-confessed “adrenalin junkie”. She talks about the thrill of testing rally cars. Jackson discusses his new ‘Walk The Spine’ challenge – a 431km hike along the Pennine Way, over the ‘backbone’ of England. And Tansley, who can now take tentative steps with crutches, is happy to do wheelchair pull-ups for the camera.

Together, they’ve demonstrated how people with SCIs can enjoy extraordinary new experiences. But what if a lifechanging cure could be found? Could outliers like Jackson become the new normal? Only 75 years ago, those lucky enough to survive an SCI would succumb to fatal infections or complications. But although medical advances have extended life expectancy, until recently a cure was deemed impossible.

One reason for this pessimism was biological. The spinal cord contains a billion nerve cells (neurons) with ear-like dendrites and tongue-like axons that ‘listen’ and ‘talk’ to each other, constantly firing signals between your brain and your body. They control movement, but also regulate your temperature, blood pressure, and bladder, bowel and sexual functions. But whereas most cells regenerate naturally, neurons in your spine do not, suggesting the rampant cell death triggered by an SCI must be irreversible.

The other reason was financial. SCIs represent a tiny market for drug companies and medical bodies in comparison with the rewards of curing more widespread issues such as cancer. As a result, funding has been low and hope even lower. A shocking 1994 survey found that only 18 per cent of 64

medics would be glad to be alive with a severe SCI, compared with 92 per cent of people actually living with one.

But progress was made through the activism of Christopher Reeve – the Superman actor who became quadriplegic after falling from a horse in 1995. Along with his wife, he launched the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation to fund innovative research. Critics branded him a pedlar of false hopes, and some claimed talk of a ‘cure’ undermined injured people’s struggles to accept reality. But Reeve’s hope was founded in fact. Back in 1981, Canadian neurologist Dr Albert Aguayo and neuroscientist Dr Sam David had discovered that by transferring the leg nerves of paralysed rats into the animals’ spinal cords, axons began to regrow. Human application was a distant dream, but the dogma-shattering revelation that axons could regenerate gave Reeve hope. Although he died in 2004, his charity has now funded $136m (£105m) of research.

Today’s game-changing research is still driven by grassroots campaigns. Wings for Life is a non-profit SCI research foundation set up in 2004 by Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz and his friend, former motocross champion Heinz Kinigadner, whose son Hannes was paralysed in a motocross accident in 2003. It has already funded 211 research projects in 19 countries. Events such as the Wings for Life World Run, which takes place on May 3 (see page 67), help to fund its work.

“To find a cure for spinal cord injury is one of the last huge riddles in medical research, but everyone is now certain that the goal can be achieved,” insists CEO Anita Gerhardter. “The question is not if, but when.” Scientific Coordinator Dr Verena May agrees: “Those who research such a complex area know it’s not easy, but you can feel that determination now.”

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ut what does a ‘cure’ actually mean? “Foremost, we are looking for an actual biological cure,” says Gerhardter.

“But the way to get to that cure is to restore functions like arm movement or bowel and bladder function. It is about much more than being able to walk.”

Some Wings for Life researchers are working to restore movement. Professor Grégoire Courtine of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne and Professor Jocelyne Bloch at the Lausanne University Hospital are conducting a clinical trial, ‘Stimulation Movement Overground’ (STIMO), which combines two treatments: precise epidural electrical stimulation of the spinal cord and intensive robot-assisted movement training. The former places an electrode over the ‘dura’, or protective coating, of the spine during rehabilitation to stimulate dormant neurons, enabling subjects to voluntarily flex their legs. The latter is a robotic system supporting their bodyweight as they move. Within a week, participants began to walk around the room with the support, and eventually cover 1km on a treadmill, even though some had shown THE RED BULLETIN

ED JACKSON dislocated his C6-C7 vertebrae, shattering the disc and severing his spinal cord

Cervical nerves C1-C8 Control the head and neck

C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 T1 T2 T3 T4 T5

NATHALIE McGLOIN shattered her C6-C7 vertebrae

T6 T7 T8 T9 T10 T11 T12

BEN TANSLEY’s T4 vertebrae exploded, sending shrapnel into his spinal cord

L1

Thoracic nerves T1-T12 Control the upper back, chest and abdomen

L2 L3

Lumbar nerves L1-L5 Communicate between the brain and legs

L4 L5

Sacrum

Sacral nerves S1-S5 Extensive functions throughout the pelvis and legs

Coccyx

Spinal map no previous neurological recovery in over four years of rehabilitation. “It’s an amazing feeling,” says one patient, David Mzee. He was told in 2010 he’d never walk again. Last year, he walked 390m of the Wings for Life World Run. Others are trying to help regrow axons. Professor Martin Schwab of the University of Zurich discovered that axon regrowth was being blocked by unhelpful growth inhibitors dubbed ‘Nogo proteins’. When he deactivated them with the help of antibodies – effectively turning the traffic lights from red to green – new axons sprouted. Wings for Life is now funding his research, as well as that of Yale’s Dr Stephen Strittmatter, who has developed an injectable interceptor molecule – dubbed the ‘Nogo trap’ – which masks these inhibitors, leaving axons free to grow.

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Full human trials take years to complete, but each new project represents progress. Nevertheless, red herrings abound, so it’s handy that Wings for Life researcher Professor Michael Sofroniew of UCLA is a fan of detective fiction. He has restored the reputation of glial cells – tiny ‘bodyguards’ that protect neurons – which for decades were regarded as problematic.

Although they help form a healing scar after an SCI, this was believed to hamper regrowth, but Professor Sofroniew found that, by adding a hydrogel of growth-promoting factors, the scar actually supports it. “Scientists, just like detectives, look for clues and go against the most obvious answers,” he explains. Wings for Life will always encourage novel thinking, says Dr May: “Unlike most government institutions, we can fund highly original projects and think outside the box.”

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“Before this, winning championships would make me happy; suddenly a wiggling toe meant so much more�

Ed Jackson

Wings for Life

“We’re just telling people, ‘Don’t give up’”

STYLING: TONY COOK @ONE REPRESENTS; STYLING ASSISTANT: KAYLA GARNER-JONES; GROOMING: KATIE BEVERIDGE; PHOTO ASSISTANT: FRANKIE LODGE, NICK RICHARDS, MARK TOWNSEND

Ed Jackson

With the help of foundations like Wings for Life, breakthroughs are frequent. One project showcased how nanoparticles, which can courier drugs to specific cells, could be used to reduce inflammation at the injury site. Another showed how an injection of 20 million stem cells, which can turn into almost any body cell, can help rewire damaged neural circuits. And one study is exploring how implants could stimulate the brain’s mesencephalic locomotor region, responsible for mobility.

“It’s amazing,” says McGloin. “It would be naive to think everyone will become completely able-bodied again, but if we can improve our lives on any level, we’re all for it. If I could have full hand function back, [as a driver] that would be better than walking.” Tansley says any treatments that researchers can deliver will have life-changing effects. “When I used to see guys in wheelchairs, I never thought, ‘How do they go to the toilet? What about sexual function?’” From moving into a bungalow to getting “caked in mud” when wheeling across a field to watch his son play football, he says, “life is a constant adaptation – you can do what you want, but in a different way. I try to do everything I did before”.

The mental challenge is often the hardest. An estimated 20 to 30 per cent of those with an SCI suffer from clinical depression.

McGloin believes setting new life goals is key: “Taking up wheelchair rugby at university was the turning point. I stopped being defined by my injury and began being defined by my strengths.” She went on to represent Great Britain. After signing up for a track day and getting hooked on racing, she was ready for any obstacle. “To get my licence, I had to show I could exit the car unaided in seven seconds – but I did it. When driving, I just have more force through my arms than my legs, but the physicality is the same. I’m just like every other driver.”

Different injuries require different goals. Jackson cites former England rugby player Matt Hampson, who remains paralysed after a scrummaging accident in 2005; his charity has raised more than £1 million for injured young athletes.

“He hasn’t made a physical recovery, but he’s made a mental recovery. He’s got a new purpose. To succeed isn’t just to be walking again, but to be happy.”

S

ocial prejudices may have faded, but awkwardness lingers. “It’s always that elephant in the room,” says Jackson. That’s why he relishes the “savage banter” of his rugby friends. “It’s nice to be treated normally.”

McGloin believes London 2012 was a watershed: “The campaign that Paralympians were superheroes was so positive. But I’ve also noticed how people’s perceptions of me have changed after seeing what I’ve achieved and how I present myself.”

Jackson, McGloin and Tansley are now proud Wings for Life ambassadors, and their adventures, talks, blogs and socialmedia work help raise funds – and hope. “Our ambassadors are a reminder of why we’re doing this,” says Dr May. “We see

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our work could lead to something, so they are a big motivator.”

Intriguingly, their adventures could trigger new medical insights. Jackson has noticed that after extreme experiences – like terrifying ridge walks in the Himalayas – his movements are sharper. “In intense situations, your neurology is firing at its absolute highest. You are really alert, so I think it stretches your neurology in a positive way. Scientists at Bath University are measuring my gait with infrared cameras before and after a climb to get data on it.”

Many with an SCI can’t walk or scale mountains, but Jackson encourages everyone to push their bodies and minds in whatever ways their injury allows. “Doctors always give you a guarded prognosis to avoid litigation, and the NHS can’t fund your rehab for ever, so they always say you might not recover. I’m determined to change that, because people shut down. I’m still seeing recovery now. Two and a half years on, Tano is standing. So we’re just telling people, ‘Don’t give up.’”

Research suggests that thanks to general medical advances the number of paraplegics with ‘complete’ injuries who regain motor function has risen from up to three per cent in the mid1990s to up to 15.4 per cent in the mid-2010s. But the most profound changes are taking place within the minds of those with SCIs. “If I failed at something before, it would eat me up, but now I come back bigger and stronger,” says McGloin.

Jackson says he’s now annoyingly positive: “Life is too short to say no to things.” And with 37,000 Instagram followers, Tansley believes he has a vital new role in life. “Before, I might have given 300 people gym advice and maybe two would make a positive change. Now, my journey is inspiring so many.

When I was lying on the road that day, I said, ‘Something good will come of this.’ It has. And I’m just getting started.”

Ed Jackson features in Red Bull’s new ‘How to Be Superhuman’ podcast. To donate to Wings for Life, text WINGS to 70800 (£5 donation; texts charged at normal rate) or go to wingsforlife.com.

Every penny goes towards spinal cord research.

JOIN THE WINGS FOR LIFE WORLD RUN At 12 noon on Sunday, May 3, the Wings for Life World Run begins, simultaneously launching around the world. In this unique race, there’s no finish line: 30 minutes after the start, a Catcher Car sets off, chasing runners along the course until they’re caught. The last person running is named the worldwide winner. With no set distance, runners of all abilities, from wheelchair user to ultrarunner, can take part. The race has so far attracted 500,000 participants and raised more than £21.5m for SCI research. “When we first started World Run in 2014, the number of funding applications from neuroscientists doubled,” says CEO Anita Gerhardter. “That was very cool. The more smart people who get involved, the bigger the chance of finding a cure.” To take part, go to wingsforlifeworldrun.com 67

RUN FOR THOSE WHO CAN’T

MAY 3, 2020 CAMBRIDGE

JOIN US

THE ONLY RACE WHERE THE FINISH LINE CATCHES YOU

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VENTURE Enhance, equip, and experience your best life

OXALIS ADVENTURE

JOSHUA ZUKAS

CAVE EXPLORING Hang So’n Ðoòng, Vietnam

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VENTURE Travel

Hang So’n Ðoòng remains an unspoilt wonder, reached only by those fit enough to undertake a gruelling hike

“W

hat a view,” quips my guide, Hieu, as I gingerly traverse along a 50m-long razorsharp ridge jutting up from a gaping crater carved into the depths of the Earth. I assume he’s joking, because when I peer down, there’s nothing but pitch blackness in the cosmic abyss. If I fell, the void would swallow me whole, but I’m more concerned about slipping and slicing my leg open on the edge.

It’s day three of an expedition to Vietnam’s Hang So’n Ðoòng, the world’s largest known cave. Estimated to date back as many as five million years, the cave is more than 5km long, 200m high and 150m wide – large enough to house a whole New York City block, complete with skyscrapers. And for something so big, it’s surprisingly hard to find. It wasn’t until 1991 that a local logger, Hô Khanh, stumbled upon the entrance in central Vietnam’s Phong Nha-Ke Bàng National Park – an area smaller than Hong Kong – while sheltering from a storm, only to lose it again for almost two decades. In 2009, as word of his discovery spread, he joined an expedition recruited by the British Caving Association, who spent months retracing his steps. To get here today, our 10-person team has bushwhacked through jungles, waded underground rivers, and camped within vast chambers.

When I finally arrive at the end of the ridge, Hieu unclips my harness, giving me the opportunity to take in my surroundings. It quickly becomes apparent my guide wasn’t joking about the view, only he was referring to the spectacle above us, not what lies below.

I was so focused on my feet that I hadn’t noticed the chasmal hole in the cave roof.

This ceiling collapse – otherwise known as a doline – is the result of a seismic shift that took place around half a million years ago. Through the jungle-rimmed aperture, a sunbeam plunges into the cave like a gargantuan laser, illuminating the most outlandish sight of all: the final resting place of that collapsed ceiling is a thriving underground rainforest.

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Here in Hang So’n Ðoòng, there are plant species that went extinct on the surface hundreds of thousands of years ago.

The cave is cooler than outside, but also more humid, birthing a unique ecosystem not found anywhere else on the planet.

It’s a challenging environment for a human: this morning, I awoke soaking wet after spending the night in a tent here. “Foot rot can set in if your feet don’t dry,” I had been warned before setting off on the expedition.

At Hieu’s heels, I climb up from the abyss towards the light until I’m engulfed by the subterranean jungle. A gigantic, otherworldly stalagmite coated in green moss rises from the foliage. “We call that the wedding cake,” announces Hieu, even though it looks more like an enormous clump of mould. “You can climb to the top if you like.” Cresting it, I absorb the 360° vistas and can hear birds chirping on the surface, just a few hundred metres above.

So untouched is this place that it’s easy to put yourself in the shoes of Hô Khanh, discovering the cave for the first time.

Today, more people have summited Everest than have penetrated Hang So’n Ðoòng, but that could soon change.

Once its status as the world’s largest cave was confirmed, Hang So’n Ðoòng

Trekking Phong Nha-Ke Bàng National Park

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The 90m-high ‘Great Wall of Vietnam’ awaits cavers at the end of their journey

RYAN DEBOODT, OXALIS ADVENTURE

GETTY IMAGES

Hanoi

was immediately added to many adventurers’ bucket lists. To cater for this increased increase, in 2014 a Vietnamese real-estate developer proposed the construction of a 10km-long cable car to ferry visitors from Phong Nha-Ke Bàng National Park to the cave; this plan was rejected by local officials, however, following widespread opposition from environmental activists. In 2016, even President Obama joined the debate, declaring during his final address to the Vietnamese people, “Natural wonders like So’n Ðoòng cave have to be preserved for our children and our grandchildren.”

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Join the expedition Phong Nha-Ke Bàng National Park

Dong Hoi

Vietnam

PRICE: $3,000 (£2,300) DURATION: Four full days of exploration, with three nights of camping and two nights in a hotel AVAILABILITY: January to August GROUP SIZE: Six to 10 people GETTING THERE: Fly from Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City to Dong Hoi Airport, from where you’ll be driven to your hotel in Phong Nha for a briefing. oxalisadventure.com

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VENTURE Travel

There are plant species here that went extinct on the surface hundreds of thousands of years ago

Scratch the surface More than just Hang So’n Ðoòng, Phong Nha-Ke Bàng National Park is a caver’s paradise HANG PYGMY Hang So’n Ðoòng in miniature, although size is a relative concept.

The expedition involves a steamy jungle trek, a gigantic cave entrance with an underground garden, and hair-raising, rope-assisted climbs.

Deep impact: inside Vietnam’s awe-inspiring Hang So’n Ðoòng

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The cave’s tallest chambers (200m high) would tower over the Great Pyramid of Giza (146m). Some of its stalagmites (80m high) would dwarf Paris’ Arc de Triomphe (50m), and the world’s biggest church, St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican (220m wide), could pass through the hole in the cave’s collapsed ceiling (280m).

200m 175m Great Pyramid of Giza 146m

150m 125m

St Peter’s Basilica

100m 75m Arc de Triomphe

50m

50m 25m

Stalagmites

Packing list What to take with you EAR PLUGS You may have escaped humanity, but not the crowds. The campsite is home to thousands of chirping swifts.

Avoid being woken up at 5am when they exit the cave to hunt.

BUG SPRAY Never pull off a leech once it has started sucking your blood – its teeth will get stuck in your skin and the wound will bleed like crazy. Apply bug spray and the leech will roll right off.

TALCUM POWDER The only way to avoid foot rot is to dry out your feet at least once a day.

Don’t bother with a damp towel – do the sensible thing instead and pack some talc.

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GETTY IMAGES, KEVIN GOLL

Sizing up Hang So’n Ðoòng

THIEN ÐOÒNG A beginner’s introduction to the region’s subterranean dominions, ‘Paradise Cave’ offers a wooden walkway and professional lighting systems, and, incredibly, you can almost drive right up to the entrance.

RYAN DEBOODT

For now at least, Hang So’n Ðoòng remains an unspoilt wonder, reached only by those fit enough to undertake a gruelling hike in extreme humidity, and who are prepared for what awaits at the end: the 90m-high calcite barrier known as the ‘Great Wall of Vietnam’. Traversed both by ladder and by rope, it forced back the first survey team in 2009 when they encountered it unprepared.

As an adventure travel writer living in Vietnam, I’ve cultivated a healthy addiction to caves, and the gargantuan chambers of Hang So’n Ðoòng are a great fix. But, for me, it’s the giant dolines – there are two – that are most awe-inspiring, even more so at night.

At 280m wide – more than twice the length of a professional football pitch – the largest offers a teardrop-shaped window to an inky-black sky with a splattering of twinkling stars. Where else on the planet can you stargaze from a campsite hundreds of metres beneath the surface?

HANG VA Just a few kilometres from Hang So’n Ðoòng and possibly connected to it.

Photographers descend on Hang Va to snap symmetrical cone-shaped stalagmites emerging from the green-watered rock pools.

This is Wales.

Check in.

Stwlan Dam, Blaenau Ffestiniog, Snowdonia

#FindYourEpic

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VENTURE Equipment

WEAR

Timepiece to die for Omega Seamaster Diver 300m ‘007 Edition’ There’s a moment in Daniel Craig’s first outing as James Bond – the 2006 movie Casino Royale – when British Treasury agent Vesper Lynd, played by Eva Green, attempts to get a read on 007. “Rolex?” she enquires of the inscrutable secret agent’s taste in watches. “Omega,” he corrects her. This is a defining moment that sets apart Craig’s fresh take on the famous spy from earlier, stuffier incarnations. In truth, 007 has worn an Omega ever since Pierce Brosnan’s Bond debut in 1995’s GoldenEye, though his connection with the Swiss watch 74

manufacturer – and specifically the Seamaster line – goes back further.

When author Ian Fleming created the suave secret agent, he drew inspiration from real commandos he’d met during his WWII posting with the British Naval Intelligence Division, making Bond a Royal Naval Reserve Commander. In 1957, when Omega released the first Seamaster 300, it was based on the waterproof wristwatches worn by the British military in WWII; the rubber O-ring gasket was even inspired by submarines of the time. The timepiece proved a hit

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Craig in 2006’s Casino Royale, sporting an Omega Seamaster Planet Ocean 600m

with British naval divers, and by 1967 the Ministry of Defence had commissioned Omega to produce a ‘mil-spec’ (military specification) version, engraved ‘0552’ on the back to designate it the property of the Navy. Come 1995, when 007 costume designer Lindy Hemming was kitting out Brosnan for GoldenEye, she decided that “Commander Bond, a naval man, diver and a discreet gentleman of the world, would wear the Seamaster with the blue dial”.

There has been a Seamaster 300 on Bond’s wrist ever since.

To mark Craig’s final outing as the stylish spy – this year’s No Time To Die – Omega created this 42mm Seamaster Diver 300 ‘007 Edition’, constructed from Grade 2 titanium, in collaboration with the actor himself.

“I had some suggestions and they ran with it,” says Craig. “When Omega showed me titanium watches in the past, I always thought, ‘Wow, it’s like you’re not even wearing a watch.’ They said, ‘Let’s make it.’ We’re talking about a difference of grams, but it’s incredibly comfortable.” Craig’s influence also extended to its alternative NATO strap – “I’ve been doing that for years, sticking them on NATO straps” – and ensuring military authenticity: “You have that heritage with Omega and the British army watches of the Second World War,” he says. “All those things I wanted to connect through, they’ve done it.”

Most telling is the serial number on the caseback, which features an ‘A’ (denoting a screw-in crown); the selfexplanatory ‘007’; ’62’ (the year of the first Bond film, Dr No); ‘923 7697’ (which identifies it as a diver’s watch); and ‘0552’, the mark of a true naval commander’s timepiece.

TOM GUISE

Craig was given his first Omega watch by his dad on his 18th birthday.

It took 34 years – and him becoming 007 – before he got the chance to design his own

ILLUSTRATOR

VENTURE Equipment

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EDITOR

Omega created the new watch to mark Craig’s final outing as Bond THE RED BULLETIN

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THE POWER OF CHANGE 15 years, one hike, the whole planet.

Albert Villaroya Farrarós is in training for the trip of a lifetime

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Albert Villarroya Farrarós trains for his ‘world walking tour’

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any of us want to see more of the world when we enter adulthood. Some may travel for a year, others just visit new places with friends at the weekends. Not many can say they’re as committed to exploring the planet as Albert Villarroya Farrarós. The Chamonixbased adventure junkie is looking to set out on a mammoth task – to hike the whole world over 15 years.

Having travelled around the Pyrenees on his bike after leaving school at the age of 18, Farrarós decided that the only way to truly experience the freedom of being out in nature was to undertake a much bigger solo journey. In collaboration with outdoor footwear brand Merrell, Farrarós is currently in training for this ambitious goal.

“There are two very important aspects in training: the physical and the mental,” he says. “I wake up every morning and solo-climb easy routes, or I go bouldering and then go to work. In the afternoon, I run uphill [vertical kilometres, sprint series and long runs] so I can be fit for long journeys uphill.” But what motivates someone to set off on one of the world’s most ambitious hikes?

If you don’t like something, change it

“It might be the thing itself that needs to change or just your perspective, but the only person in power to make any change is you,” says Farrarós of his ethos. “It could be as simple as speaking to someone

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THE MQM FLEX 2.0 GTX Whatever the weather - summer showers or winter sleet and snow - the MQM Flex 2.0 GTX has got what it takes to keep you dry

you don’t know and making a real human connection, or walking to work instead of going on the bus.

It can also be exploring a forest, climbing a new mountain, or hiking across the whole world. Coming from the small village of Sant Cugat, next to Barcelona, I had everything: a house, lots of friends and family, a girlfriend that loved me; everything someone would dream of at that age.

However, I felt like I had no time to enjoy my life. I was talking to the same people and not making any new connections, not doing anything more than what was expected of me.

Something needed to be done.

“At 18, I decided to go travelling; to get out into nature and feel free.

After working the whole summer, I’d earned two weeks of vacation and decided to cross the Pyrenees with my bicycle. I set my goal on covering as much distance as my body and mind would allow. Later that year, however, I felt I’d already forgotten about my two-week trip. I felt empty.

I made a decision then that was to change my life for ever.

“I boarded a plane to South America with the idea of returning home on foot. As the distance was too big to count in kilometres, I focused on the things that interested me the most – people. My goal then became very simple: live a life that allows me to know as many people as possible and learn from their lifestyle,

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cultures and interests, to adapt to myself as a person and develop a healthier way of living. I decided to hike the world in a ‘walking world tour’; to unchain all the big ranges by running, hiking, scrambling and, if the conditions of the mountain allowed it, going up and climbing.

“My idea inspired outdoor footwear brand Merrell and we started a collaboration. We’d travel together to a country with tough conditions for me to train in.

Madagascar is known for the heat, jungles and remote mountains. To my delight, the locals were amazing and gave me the real connections I hoped for. It’s not about walking to the moon, and it’s not about changing everything. It’s about taking that first step and keeping it up.”

Having so many shoes for different outdoor pursuits can be overwhelming. It seems like if you want to speed hike or scramble, there is a different shoe for each activity. With this in mind, Merrell has designed a shoe to cover all outdoor pursuits, no matter how wet the hills and mountains may be.

Merrell’s new MQM Flex 2 shoe is made for both serious trail runners and casual hikers alike.

The second generation of Merrell’s popular MQM Flex, it features tear-resistant athletic uppers, a flexible cushioned midsole and our mountaingrade outsole, combining all the best features of a trail runner and a hiker into one fast, protective shoe. GORE-TEX invisible-fit footwear offers the fit, feel and style you love, as well as the promise of dry feet.

The best fit

The unique, flexible construction reduces weight and creates fewer pressure points, with an extremely comfortable fit and feel, so you can just keep going.

Waterproof durability

Reliable waterproof protection means your feet stay dry, from summer showers to icy winter puddles. Perfect for short jogs or long-distance races.

Highly breathable

Moisture vapour from sweat escapes easily, so you stay comfortable – even when you’re going hard.

Fast-drying

This proven action means you are ready to go again quicker, and your footwear stays fresher.

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TYRONE BRADLEY

Tough, breathable and waterproof, Merrell’s MQM Flex 2.0 GTX is the perfect shoe for Farrarós’ challenge

VENTURE Equipment

DRIVE

Tough love Twisted Land Rover IIA On January 29, 2016, the last original lineage Land Rover Defender – the second oldest 4x4 after the US Army’s WWII Jeep – rolled off the production line, ending an unbroken manufacturing run of 68 years. Fans – of which there were many – wept. One of them was Charles Fawcett.

The Yorkshireman grew up with Land Rovers. In the 1970s, his father sold and repaired them, and Charles owned his first at the age of 11.

In 2001, he launched Twisted Automotive to tune up old Rovers, and business blew up.

But when Fawcett learnt no new vehicles were to be produced, he had to act, buying 240 of the last Land Rover Defenders ever made.

“I could have sold them the moment they arrived,” he says. Instead, he stored them for the right moment: now.

Twisted doesn’t just modify Land Rovers, it re-engineers

them, transforming factorymileage Defenders into luxury beasts honouring the original 1948 to 1983 models.

This reimagined 1961 Series IIA is built from a Defender 110 – one of only 10 from that final 2016 batch. Each takes around 800 hours to complete, and – with prices starting at £98,500 plus VAT – three have already been sold.

“Some learnt to drive in them, may have even served in them,” says Fawcett. “It’s the send-off that the original manufacturer should have given them in the first place.”

twistedautomotive.com

The limestonecoloured roof matches the wheels. The interior is heavily upstyled, with black grain leather upholstery and gunmetal grey seatbelts

TOM GUISE

The restyled bodywork pays homage to early ’60s models, as do the 18in Rostyle wheels.

There’s a 2200cc diesel engine beneath the bonnet

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VENTURE Equipment WEAR

The golden compass Suunto 7 smartwatch First, a quick lesson in speaking Finnish: the word Suunto means ‘direction’ or ‘bearing’.

The name was adopted by the Nordic sports manufacturer in reference to its founder Tuomas Vohlonen’s 1936-patented liquidfilled M-311 wrist compass, but it could equally apply to the company’s drive over the past 84 years to seek out inventive portable solutions to sporting and adventure needs. The 1998 Suunto Vector is the perfect example of this: the first outdoor watch with a built-in altimeter, barometer and compass, it was arguably a ‘smart’ watch before the term even existed.

With the Suunto 7, the brand has now fully embraced the modern smartwatch era, incorporating tried-and-trusted expertise in sports and instrument watches into a timepiece that can also order you an Uber.

Suunto’s watch combines the functionality of Google’s widely used Wear OS software – which gives access to millions of apps – with 70 sports modes (from running and cycling to surfing and skiing) and GPS, Glonass and Galileo tracking. All this is housed inside a reinforced polyamide ‘adventure-proof’ case that’s water resistant to 50m, with a toughened Gorilla Glass touchscreen. And there’s a compass in there, too, keeping Vohlonen’s original ethos on the right track. suunto.com

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TIM KENT

TOM GUISE

With the Suunto 7, the brand has embraced the modern smartwatch era

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4

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The many faces of the Suunto 7: 1. The Suunto app has more than 70 sports modes 2. Access Google’s Wear OS apps 3. Heat maps show other Suunto users’ favoured routes 4. Custom your watch face 5. Download maps of your surrounding area whenever you plug it in to charge

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VENTURE Fitness

Climber Michi Wohlleben reaps the benefits of the Isele Technique

“When you visualise, you need the perfect interplay of body and mind” Physiotherapist Klaus Isele

Scaling new heights How to master the Isele Technique

Practising a dry run is an essential component of any competitive climber’s preparation, but Austrian physiotherapist and climb trainer Klaus Isele (pictured above) advocates a more advanced approach. While working as a physio to the Austrian national climbing team from 2009 to 2019, Isele found the need for a system that would keep the 82

PRECISION Focus on the tiniest details – this imprints the movement patterns in your mind. It’s difficult to correct routines once they’re habitual.

PASSION Work yourself up emotionally. You have to put body and soul into it to achieve the perfect flow.

FLORIAN STURM

Physio Klaus Isele has developed a training method that improves a climber’s ascent before they have even set off

PROCESSING Imagine you’re starting a climb and imitate every move. Use your muscles as if this were real.

TOM MACKINGER

Mind climbing

athletes fit and sharp during bouts of injury, preventing loss of muscle mass and maintaining their familiarity with movement patterns.

To address this, he developed an intense visualisation technique that requires climbers to fully experience the ascent – mentally and physically – while lying on their back. Top German alpinist Michi Wohlleben swears by the Isele Technique, claiming it makes him more mobile as he internalises hundreds of automatic movements and details of the route while exposing his body to less stress. Adhering to the system has paid off: recently, Wohlleben scaled ​​ the 9a-rated Speed Intégrale in Voralpsee, Switzerland – the hardest sport climb of his career.

MORITZ ATTENBERGER

VISUALISE

PREPARATION Find a quiet place, one that helps you visualise the mountain. Close your eyes.

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BEYOND THE ORDINARY The next issue is out on Tuesday 14th April with London Evening Standard.

Also available across the UK at airports, gyms, hotels, universities and selected retail stores.

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Named after the birthplace of mountain biking, Marin stays true to the roots of the sport Selling globally and riding locally – it’s a mindset that runs deep at Marin Bikes, a company that has seen great success across the world, and that retains a small but dedicated staff who love nothing more than making and riding bicycles.

The brand was born in Marin County, a sun-kissed area north of San Francisco where rolling hills of golden-yellow grasslands are flanked by green mountains. It’s a place full of Californian promise, and something of a pilgrimage for mountain bikers.

Mountain biking was invented here in the 1970s by long-haired freethinkers who loved nothing more than to push a bicycle to the top of the iconic Mount Tamalpais and rattle back down it. By the early ’80s, a number of folk began to produce and sell bikes, and what began in various garages around Marin County soon spawned a worldwide craze and eventually an Olympic sport that is practised around the world.

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www.marinbikes.com

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LAURENCE CROSSMAN-EMMS

MADE IN THE MOUNTAINS

Marin, the bike company, was a product of the movement, and since its founding in 1986 it has sold millions of bikes globally, won racing titles at the highest level, and enjoyed moments at the top of the sport. And since 2013, under new leadership and with a reinvigorated staff, Marin has seen its reputation at the forefront of mountain biking grow again.

At its HQ in Petaluma, on the edge of Marin County, the walls tell the brand’s story: there are the Madrone Trail, the first bike Marin produced; the Team Titanium, the model that brought affordable titanium to the mainstream and was piloted by National Champion Joe Murray; the Titanium FRS (it stands for ‘Front Rear Suspension’ – a revolutionary development); some of Marin’s first city bikes; and a modern-era Wolf Ridge – a bike that made a big statement upon launch thanks to its distinctive suspension system.

There’s a bike for everyone – that more or less sums up Marin Bikes.

JAMES MCKNIGHT

“Everybody who works at Marin bought into the concept of making a better bike; something they could go out and have fun on,” says Marin CEO Matt VanEnkevort

VENTURE Equipment

INSULATE

Central heating Odlo I-Thermic As the Scandinavians say: “There is no bad weather, just bad clothes.” It’s a wisdom that Norwegian sports brand Odlo applies to its garments. Every outdoor type knows that the clever use of layers is key, and things don’t get smarter than Odlo’s I-Thermic midlayer.

Within the fibres of the garment are thermal sensors mapped to the bodily regions most susceptible to the cold: the abdomen and kidneys.

Using a smartphone app, the wearer tunes the sensors to their personal requirements, meaning the fabric warms up when the temperature drops below their comfort zone.

And when the battery (located in the pocket) is removed, the shirt can be machine-washed at 30°C.

odlo.com

The fabric warms up when the temperature drops below the wearer’s comfort zone

TOM GUISE

The Odlo I-Thermic midlayer is controlled via smartphone

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VENTURE Gaming

Connected by a single hinge to the headband, the display can be flipped upwards like a motorbike visor

Six cameras – two on the front, one above, one below, and one on each side – allow for 310° tracking of the real world

EXPERIENCE

Sensory overlord HTC Vive Cosmos

The earphones flip down and vertically slide to adjust to your ears. They can also be easily replaced by your own cans

The notion of ‘virtual reality’ was first mooted in Stanley G Weinbaum’s 1935 sci-fi story Pygmalion’s Spectacles, but it has taken a long time for the technology to catch up. The HTC Vive Cosmos is the latest step in that evolution. Making convincing VR is not only a matter of building digital worlds but also marrying them to our perception of our environment.

To achieve this, the flip-front visor features six ‘inside-out’ tracking cameras that accurately position the wearer in the real world without the need for room-mounted (outside-in) sensors. This can warn the user when external objects are close, or allow interaction with them. There’s also a wireless accessory (purchased separately) that untethers the headset from a PC. The clever handheld motion controllers sport geometric light patterns that allow the headset cameras to track them. We’re not in the Matrix quite yet (or are we?), but the dream is edging ever closer. vive.com 86

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VENTURE Gaming

HONE

The art of driving without driving

VIVE, WORLD’S FASTEST GAMER

TOM GUISE, MATT RAY

James Baldwin won glory as the World’s Fastest Gamer after sharpening his skills with sim racing.

Here’s how you can, too Simulated racing is rapidly becoming more realistic: video games such as iRacing and Assetto Corsa feature laser-scanned recreations of famous tracks and cars, creating an experience ever closer to the thrill of the tarmac without the danger of crashing an expensive combustible racing machine.

Blurring the boundaries further is World’s Fastest Gamer, a tournament that challenges the stars of esports to race real cars.

Last October, 22-year-old James Baldwin became its second-ever winner, earning a million-dollar real-world racing contract.

The Brit’s triumph came six years after he abandoned a career racing go-karts and Formula Ford cars because of rising costs and the realisation that he simply wasn’t good enough. Here’s how gaming got him there…

Reality bites: Baldwin tears up California’s Laguna Seca circuit

“I pressed the throttle halfway and I’ve never been so scared” James Baldwin on real-life racing Clocking the hours

Fine-tuning reactions

A 2010 study by cognitive scientists at the University of Rochester found that action gamers were 25 per cent quicker at reaching a correct decision when analysing a situation. “My reaction time has improved from playing games,” says Baldwin, “and also my understanding of how to be fast – elements such as tyre saving, and extracting the lap when it matters.”

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Baldwin began sim racing in 2017; two years later, he was handed the World’s Fastest Gamer trophy by his very first motor-racing hero, Juan Pablo Montoya

When Baldwin plateaued as a real-world racer, it was a hard truth: “As a kid, you think, ‘Wow, I’ve got enough to get to F1.’ Then you reach pro level, get beaten, and it’s like, ‘I’m not as good as I thought.’”

But today’s sims educate drivers on everything down to how tyres degrade under specific braking. “You learn without costing thousands of pounds of damage, and you put in more hours than on a track.”

Acquiring confidence Racing sims can’t teach one thing: the psychological barrier of climbing into a real

vehicle. “A dirt car doesn’t look that scary, but it’s 650kg with 850hp – a better power ratio than an F1 car. I pressed the throttle halfway and I’ve never been so scared.” He then did 70 per cent of the lap on full throttle. “Forget you’re going fast. Pretend it’s a sim.”

Going with the flow

Repetitive video games bring on an immersive ‘flow state’ where highly skilled activity feels effortless, but Baldwin experienced the opposite during a race at Laguna Seca in California. “There was an issue with my car. I could’ve got round that if I was in the present, but in my head it was like, ‘Keep doing what you’re doing, you’re going to lose.’

I spun and ended up in the middle of the track, pointing the wrong way.” It was the wake-up call he needed to find his flow and take the win.

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The sunken 3m-tall Statue of Christ off the coast at Qawra.

Opposite: the Blue Lagoon in Comino

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DIVE INTO MALTA

Discover the hidden depths of this stunning, historic Mediterranean island nation, by day and by night, both on land and beneath the sea…

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he Mediterranean archipelago of Malta delivers a wealth of activities for the adventurous traveller, far beyond what you’d expect of the world’s 10th smallest country. There’s top-of-the-world-class climbing, hiking, quad biking, trail running, and – thanks to Malta’s 300 days of sunshine – a summer festival circuit that will have you retiring your wellies for good.

But dive deeper and it gets better still.

The Maltese islands are regularly voted by Diver magazine readers as one of the top two diving destinations in the world, and the best in Europe. More than 100 dive sites, including

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wrecks, reefs and cave systems, line the calm, crystal-clear waters of its coastlines, making it perfect for scuba veterans and first-timers alike. More than 30 dive schools call these islands home and offer exceptional value for money, so an action-packed itinerary won’t cost you the earth.

With warm waters, unrivalled visibility and few strong currents, Malta offers the perfect marine environment to crack that first qualification course. The largest two islands – Malta and Gozo, connected by a 25-minute ferry ride – host a breadth of English-speaking dive centres, where professional PADI and BSAC staff are ready to introduce the archipelago’s scuba sites to divers.

Students as young as 10 can earn a PADI Open Water Diver certificate after a four-day course.

For those with more experience, jump into a car (electric rentals and 200 charging points are available for the eco-conscious traveller) and explore north Malta’s Qawra Reef, where lobsters, colourful inveterate nudibranchs and spider crabs fill the 40m drop-off reef and gaping caves; head to West Malta’s Sliema Coral Gardens for a shore dive that’s packed with canyons, valleys, reefs and tunnels; and then visit Gozo’s Cathedral Cave, where light shimmers celestially through its arch-like entrance. Reqqa Reef is where experienced divers drop down a 60m wall, past overhangs, caves, and the island’s larger marine residents, such as morays and groupers.

After a day of adventure beneath the sea, it’s time for some quality R&R. The promenade of the idyllic resort Bugibba is lined with bars and restaurants, while self-catering early risers should consider accommodation in diving paradise Gozo, where you can view the pristine waters from the peace and quiet of your own traditional Gozitan farmhouse.

Spot barracuda in the reefs of uninhabited islet Filfla

Historic sites include WWI battleships and a 2,700-year old Phoenician shipwreck 90

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Dive into history with Heritage Malta These archaeological parks protect the past

The minesweeper HMD Trusty Star is one of many WWII wreck sites in the waters around Malta

Enabling the next generation to witness the fascinating sights beneath the waves is a priority in Malta. With a range of historic and ancient sunken landmarks to explore, from WWI battleships to a 2,700-year-old Phoenician shipwreck – the oldest in the central Mediterranean – the Underwater Cultural Heritage Unit (UCHU) and Heritage Malta have established underwater archaeological parks to responsibly conserve the region’s precious sites. But there’s no need to strike them from your bucket list: a visit can be arranged through UCHU’s dive centres for technical divers.

Thanks to its position in the Mediterranean, Malta has long been an important strategic base. Now, the sheer number of historic wreck sites around its coastline make it one of the best places in the world for deep-water wreck diving. Divers with the necessary technical ability are spoilt for choice when it comes to exploring sites of historic importance, but whether you have a couple of days or a few weeks, an unforgettable underwater adventure is all but guaranteed.

Five protected wrecks Unmissable sights at unique sites Fairey Swordfish

Around 5km off the coast of Sliema, northeast Malta, at a depth of 65m, lie the remains of the Fairey Swordfish,

BUCKET-LIST DIVES Stunning undersea views for scuba fans Blue Hole, Gozo

The SS Polynesien – near Marsaskala, eastern Malta – is a godsend for divers, still housing many original artefacts

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This is one of Malta’s most famous and popular dive sites – for good reason. Descend through a gigantic underwater rock arch, explore a natural limestone sinkhole, and encounter a reef that’s filled with all manner of fantastic marine life, from tuna and parrotfish to lobster, octopus and moray eels.

a British biplane from the 1930s. After engine failure back in 1934, the pilot was rescued by off-duty RAF personnel, but the plane sank. The wreck was discovered in 2017 and is now a welcome home to plant and marine life.

HMD Trusty Star

This British minesweeper met her end in 1942, during WWII, after being hit by a mine herself. Now, trimix divers with the required permit are able to explore the mostly intact 26m-long wreck, 3km off Fort St Elmo in Valletta.

JU88

Shot down during the Second Siege of Malta in 1943, this Junkers 88 bomber rests north of St Paul’s Bay, at a depth of 55m. Though the tail has broken off, the plane is in pretty good condition, and varied marine life can be seen here.

SS Polynesien

At 152.5m long, this 19th-century passenger ship – sunk by a German U-boat in WWI – is one of Malta’s most substantial wrecks. Divers possessing the necessary permit will be rewarded with an up-close look at the ship, which retains a significant number of artefacts.

Schnellboot S-31

Located near Valletta’s Grand Harbour, at a depth of around 65m, this WWII motor torpedo boat sank in 1942 after hitting a mine, but the frame remains fully intact. Divers can see the original engines, propellers, and even the torpedoes the vessel carried on board.

For information on more sites and permit requests, visit: heritagemalta. org/underwater-cultural-heritage-unit

Statue of Christ, Qawra

In search of a miracle? Bear witness to Alfred Camilleri Cauchi’s 3m-tall statue of Jesus Christ – named Kristu tal-Bahhara, or Christ of the Sailors – on the Maltese seabed off Qawra Point.

Azure Reef, Gozo

This site was created from the remains of a limestone archway known as the Azure Window, which collapsed in 2017. With movement in the rock, the reef is still evolving and marine life multiplying. The honey-coloured

rock formations look striking against an azure backdrop.

Filfla

Once used by the Royal Navy for target practice, the drop-off reefs on this uninhabited islet offer an encounter with one of the archipelago’s largest predators: the barracuda.

Inland Sea and Tunnel, Gozo

Leave behind the limestone cliffs of the Inland Sea natural lagoon for an adventure inside this 80m tunnel filled with cardinal fish, John Dory, Spotted Doris and more.

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The only way is up: there are climbs on Gozo to suit all levels of ability – from beginner to experienced

Malta delivers a wealth of activities for the adventurous traveller, far beyond what you’d expect of the world’s 10th smallest country 92

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ISLANDS OF ADVENTURE

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The Maltese archipelago sits 93km south of Sicily and 288km north of Africa

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Activities to get the heart pumping

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1. Clip in

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Ascend one of Malta and Gozo’s 1,300 multi-ability climbing routes.

Seasoned senders should aim for the underworld: at 50m, it’s one of the world’s longest roof climbs.

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2. Paddle out

The same idyllic waters that make diving so phenomenal are equally as awesome for kayaking. Escape the tourist trail for a unique view of the islands.

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3. Sail away

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Charter a sailing boat and explore the islands of Comino and Cominotto by sea, or dive overboard at any of Gozo’s quiet anchorage points.

4. Lace up

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MALTA’S MUST-SEES

Throw walking boots into your luggage. Minor roads, footpaths and trails link historic villages to rugged cliffs and stunning beaches by way of beautiful flora and fauna.

Take a day trip to these epic attractions

5. Ride off

6. Valletta

Get over to Gozo, hire a quad bike and make fresh tracks. Group quad tours are also available to those who don’t fancy going solo.

The thriving capital city is rich in Maltese heritage, with waterfront alfresco dining options rounding off a day of soaking up historic Baroque landmarks.

7. Ramla Bay

The beach’s full name, Ramla ilHamra, translates from Maltese as ‘Red Sands’. You’ll quickly see why at one of the world’s most beautiful beaches.

8. Ġgantija Temples

Gozitans once believed these structures had been built by giants.

Predating the pyramids by 1,000 years, they’re the world’s oldest freestanding structures.

@BEAUTIFULDESTINATIONS

CHRIS SAYER

9. The Three Cities

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Views of Malta’s capital city don’t come more Instagrammable than at this trio of ancient outposts, which once offered shelter and protection to the islands’ original settlers.

Clockwise from left: yachting off the coast of Silema; horse riding by Gnejna Tower in northern Malta; the caves of Comino; inside St John’s Co-Cathedral in Valletta

10. Mdina

Malta’s medieval capital – which served as a filming location for Game of Thrones – is full of narrow winding streets that date back to 700 BC.

11. Blue Lagoon

The turquoise water of this beautiful cove on the small island of Comino attracts snorkellers, swimmers and photographers alike

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CALENDAR March/April

4 to 5 April SUPER FORMULA 2020

to 22 March RED BULL NEPTUNE STEPS An outdoor winter swimming event where competitors tackle a 420m stretch of freezing Glaswegian canal water and clamber up seven locks with a total height of 10.5m – who’d do that? A lot of people, apparently, as this year the field of entrants has been doubled to more than 1,000. Among the swimmers, surfers and rock climbers, there’s now a pairs event for those who want to share their pain. Or just head along and watch for free (bring a coat). Maryhill Locks, Glasgow; redbull.com

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March to 11 June UNUSUAL INGREDIENTS This multisensory project draws from gastrophysical research to demonstrate how sound can enhance taste and mouthfeel. Audience members experience a menu including popping candy, coffee and seaweed, accompanied by live music played at specific frequencies. If you miss the March 11 London opening, you can buy the box set (a 14-track vinyl album, plus test tubes and petri dishes of food) or head to the Birmingham (May 14) or York (June 11) sessions. unusualingredients.co 94

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March to 2 April FLAWES Four years ago, London trio Flawes released their debut EP Unspkn – four tracks of atmospheric, anthemic indie-pop that were picked up by Radio 1 and earned enthusiastic magazine reviews. But it wasn’t till this January that their first album, Highlights, arrived, delivering a recalibrated dancefloor and festivalready sound that they’re now taking on the road.

The tour kicks off at London club Omeara (March 31), before heading to Manchester’s The Castle (April 1) and Poetry Club in Glasgow (April 2). flawes.com THE RED BULLETIN

JEFF HOLMES/RED BULL CONTENT POOL, ANGUS MCDONALD, DUTCH PHOTO AGENCY/RED BULL CONTENT POOL, ALAMY

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LIVE Super Formula is the fastest formula car series outside F1, and Red Bull TV will be bringing you the excitement live from Japan in 2020. The season has seven stops, and here’s where it all starts: at the popular Suzuka International Racing Course.

CALENDAR March/April

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‘The Tanks’ beneath Tate Modern were oil stores when the building was Bankside Power Station.

Now a live art and video gallery, this month they’re home to three artists examining links between history and memory.

Okwui Okpokwasili explores protest by Nigerian women, Faustin Linyekula uses dance and theatre to express sociopolitical tensions in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the poetry and installations of Tanya Lukin Linklater are informed by relationships within her indigenous Alaskan family. Tate Modern, London; tate.org.uk

One of the UK’s longest running club nights, Bugged Out hosted the likes of Daft Punk and The Chemical Brothers when they were just starting out. In 1996, Chicago house legend Green Velvet made his UK debut at the club – originally based at Manchester venue Sankeys Soap – and he returns to headline an anniversary celebration at this recently opened 10,000-capacity venue in the former Mayfield railway station. An industrial blast from the past on all counts. Depot Mayfield, Manchester; buggedout.net

to 29 March TATE LIVE

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March to 6 April LONDON GAMES FESTIVAL Like some real-world MMORPG, more than 100,000 gamers will descend on the capital for a 12-day celebration boasting more games than any other entertainment event.

Among the attractions of the festival, which opens with a PC and indie game expo at Tobacco Dock, are a showcase of BAME games developers; seminars on the cultural and economic impact of gaming; the industry’s BAFTAs; a two-day party in Trafalgar Square; and a lot of cosplay. Across London; games.london THE RED BULLETIN

to 14 March 25 YEARS OF BUGGED OUT

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to 4 April TREVOR NOAH It was the South African comic’s stand-up work that got him hired by Comedy Central’s The Daily Show in 2014 (only to succeed John Stewart as its host less than a year later). See why as the man who made Time magazine’s ‘100 Most Influential People of 2018’ list takes his tour on the road. 02 Arena, London; theO2.co.uk

28 March to 4 April FREERIDE WORLD TOUR LIVE The jagged face of the Bec des Rosses in Verbier, Switzerland, is legendary among freeriders, which makes it perfect for the finale of the Freeride World Tour.

Always a highlight, here’s a course that separates the best from the rest.

Last year, Switzerland’s Elisabeth Gerritzen and France’s Wadeck Gorak won the skiing category, and Marion Haerty (FR) and Jonathan Penfield (US) took snowboarding gold. Will they repeat that success in 2020?

21 to 22 March UCI MTB WORLD CUP DOWNHILL LIVE For 2020, the World Cup for downhill riders has a brand-new opening venue. Used in the past by teams and suspension firms for testing, Lousã in Portugal is sure to be a popular first stop among the competitors. Don’t miss a second on Red Bull TV.

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Imprint

GLOBAL TEAM

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The Red Bulletin is published in six countries. This is the cover of April’s Swiss edition, featuring shark conservationist Madison Stewart…

For more stories beyond the ordinary, go to: redbulletin.com

The Red Bulletin UK. ABC certified distribution 154,346 (Jan-Dec 2018)

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Editor-in-Chief Alexander Macheck Deputy Editors-in-Chief Andreas Rottenschlager, Nina Treml Creative Director Erik Turek Art Directors Kasimir Reimann (deputy CD), Miles English, Tara Thompson Head of Photo Eva Kerschbaum Deputy Head of Photo Marion Batty Photo Director Rudi Übelhör Production Editor Marion Lukas-Wildmann Managing Editor Ulrich Corazza Copy Chief Andreas Wollinger Design Marion Bernert-Thomann, Martina de CarvalhoHutter, Kevin Goll, Carita Najewitz Photo Editors Susie Forman, Ellen Haas, Tahira Mirza Managing Director Stefan Ebner Head of Media Sales & Partnership Lukas Scharmbacher Publishing Management Sara Varming (manager), Ivona Glibusic, Bernhard Schmied, Melissa Stutz, Mia Wienerberger B2B Marketing & Communication Katrin Sigl (manager), Agnes Hager, Alexandra Ita, Teresa Kronreif, Stefan Portenkirchner Head of Creative Markus Kietreiber Co-Publishing Susanne Degn-Pfleger & Elisabeth Staber (manager), Mathias Blaha, Raffael Fritz, Thomas Hammerschmied, Marlene ­H interleitner, Valentina Pierer, Mariella Reithoffer, Verena Schörkhuber, Sara Wonka, Julia Bianca Zmek, Edith Zöchling-Marchart Commercial Design Peter Knehtl (manager), Sasha Bunch, Simone Fischer, Martina Maier, Florian Solly Advertising Placement Manuela Brandstätter, Monika Spitaler Head of Production Veronika Felder Production Friedrich Indich, Walter O. Sádaba, Sabine Wessig Repro Clemens Ragotzky (manager), Claudia Heis, Nenad Isailovi c,̀ Sandra Maiko Krutz, Josef Mühlbacher MIT Michael Thaler, Christoph Kocsisek Operations Yvonne Tremmel, Alexander Peham Assistant to General Management Patricia Höreth Subscriptions and Distribution Peter Schiffer (manager), Klaus Pleninger (distribution), Nicole Glaser (distribution), Yoldaş Yarar (subscriptions) Global Editorial Office Heinrich-Collin-Straße 1, A-1140 Vienna Tel: +43 1 90221 28800, Fax: +43 1 90221 28809 redbulletin.com Red Bull Media House GmbH Oberst-Lepperdinger-Straße 11-15, A-5071 Wals bei Salzburg, FN 297115i, Landesgericht Salzburg, ATU63611700 General Manager and Publisher Andreas Kornhofer Directors Dietrich Mateschitz, Gerrit Meier, Dietmar Otti, Christopher Reindl

THE RED BULLETIN United Kingdom, ISSN 2308-5894 Acting Editor Tom Guise Associate Editor Lou Boyd Culture Editor Florian Obkircher Chief Sub-Editor Davydd Chong Publishing Manager Ollie Stretton Editor (on leave) Ruth Morgan Advertising Sales Mark Bishop, mark.bishop@redbull.com Fabienne Peters, fabienne.peters@redbull.com Printed by Quad/Graphics Europe Sp. z o.o., Pułtuska 120, 07-200 Wyszków, Poland UK Office Seven Dials Warehouse, 42-56 Earlham Street, London WC2H 9LA Tel: +44 (0) 20 3117 2000 Subscribe getredbulletin.com Enquiries or orders to: subs@uk. redbulletin.com. Back issues available to purchase at: getredbulletin.com.

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THE RED BULLETIN Austria, ISSN 1995-8838 Editor Christian Eberle-Abasolo Proofreaders Hans Fleißner (manager), Petra Hannert, Monika Hasleder, Billy Kirnbauer-Walek Publishing Management Bernhard Schmied Sales Management Alfred Vrej Minassian (manager), Thomas Hutterer, Stefanie Krallinger anzeigen@at.redbulletin.com

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THE RED BULLETIN Switzerland, ISSN 2308-5886 Editor Nina Treml, Wolfgang Wieser Proofreaders Hans Fleißner (manager), Petra Hannert, Monika Hasleder, Billy Kirnbauer-Walek Country Project Management Meike Koch Advertising Sales Marcel Bannwart (D-CH), marcel.bannwart@redbull.com Christian Bürgi (W-CH), christian.buergi@redbull.com Goldbach Publishing Marco Nicoli, marco.nicoli@goldbach.com

THE RED BULLETIN USA, ISSN 2308-586X Editor-in-Chief Peter Flax Deputy Editor Nora O’Donnell Copy Chief David Caplan Director of Publishing Cheryl Angelheart Country Project Management Laureen O’Brien Advertising Sales Todd Peters, todd.peters@redbull.com Dave Szych, dave.szych@redbull.com Tanya Foster, tanya.foster@redbull.com

THE RED BULLETIN France, ISSN 2225-4722 Editor Pierre-Henri Camy Country Coordinator Christine Vitel Country Project ­Management Alessandra Ballabeni Contributors, Translators and Proofreaders Étienne Bonamy, Frédéric & Susanne Fortas, Suzanne K ­ říženecký, Claire ­Schieffer, Jean-Pascal Vachon, Gwendolyn de Vries

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FREEDOM IN MOTION With a design created specifically for sport, Urbanista’s next-level wireless earphones will help you smash your workouts this year

LOU BOYD

All fitness junkies know that good music can power a workout. That last three miles of a run, the final few circuits of your gym routine, or the painful hill climb on a long bike ride can be made infinitely more manageable with amazing tunes to spark your imagination and keep your heart beating fast. It’s for this reason that Urbanista has put so much work into creating Athens, the ultimate sports earphones for a lifestyle made of movement.

Athens is an in-ear bud designed for comfort and total sound isolation.

With various different wing and tip sizes, the design ensures a fit that’s comfortable and completely secure for every owner, while the wireless

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IP67-rated waterproof technology allows you to listen to music in rain and storms, or even in the swimming pool. For safe exercising on roads and in cities, Athens’ 5.0 Bluetooth connection allows you to voicecontrol play and volume, as well as enabling you to use the left or right earbud independently. You can also make and receive calls through a built-in microphone in both.

Whether you’re trying to smash a personal record or just getting back into a workout routine, Urbanista Athens’ 32 hours of total playtime and exceptional sound quality provide the ultimate musical companion to take a workout to the next level.

Visit urbanista.com for more information

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The next issue of THE RED BULLETIN is out on April 14

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ERIK BOOMER/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

Riding the world’s wildest rivers is what extreme kayak world champion Nouria Newman (pictured) is all about. So, last year, the French multiple medal winner joined fellow kayakers Erik Boomer and Ben Stookesberry on a trip to Chilean Patagonia to tackle the region’s three most notoriously fierce waterways – a challenge known as Patagonia’s ‘triple crown’. To watch Newman and her team face the surge and spray, go to redbull.com

GIVES YOU WIIINGS. ALSO WITH THE TASTE OF COCONUT & BERRY.

NEW

IN CINEMAS APRIL 2

JA M E S B O N D ’ S CHOICE SEAMASTER DIVER 300M 007 EDITION SHOP AT OMEGAWATCHES.COM