The Red Bulletin July 2013 – KW

July 2013

a beyond the ordinary magazine

now see this ey e – Rocking the middle east G

Ed ulf itio n

N o-Ru les Rac i n g Mexico’s underground car circuit

th e d eepest Journeying to the centre of the Earth

MAKES HOT COOL. LITERALLY. S W E AT - A C T I VAT E D C O O L I N G S w e a t s m a r t e r w i t h O m n i - F r e e z e ® ZERO. Sweat reacts with blue rings to lower the temperature of the material.

Others will feel heat. You’ll feel an arctic blast.

C O L U M B I A . C O M /O M N I F R E E Z E Z E R O

THE WORLD OF RED BULL

July 62

reinventing the wheel

The World Rally Championship is being rebooted. In a sport with its fair share of character actors, who can be the new star of the series?

Cover Photography: lukas gansterer. Photography: McKlein, Getty Images contour

Welcome

There’s a rock group on the front of The Red Bulletin this month, but EYE are no covers band. Their success across the Middle East has seen them build a loyal fanbase and support Metallica. Elsewhere, we’ve got an amazing 12-page photo essay that lifts the lid on Mexico’s illicit car-racing scene. From the world of legal sport, ultramarathon man Ryan Sandes shows how to build a physique that can withstand running 8,000km a year and there is an exclusive interview with England fast bowler Stuart Broad, who looks forward to cricket’s greatest match-up: The Ashes. From those lofty heights, there is only way to go, and that is down – to the bottom of the world’s deepest cave. All that and much more. We hope you enjoy the issue. the red bulletin

Star of English cricket Stuart Broad speaks to The Red Bulletin

THE WORLD OF RED BULL

at a glance Bullevard 10 photos of the month 17 news Sport and culture on the quick 21 where’s your head at?

Hugh Jackman is Wolverine 24 me & my body Ryan Sandes 26 winning formula Flyboards 28 lucky numbers Unlikely champions

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Features 30 Mexico’s Secret Racing The underground car circuit where speed means more than life itself

rocking the UAE and beyond

In concert with Dubai band EYE as they seek to break out of the local scene

42 All-Round Hero

Cricket star Stuart Broad on how England get set in winning ways

44 Know Their Name

Dublin rockers The Cast Of Cheers

46 G oing Underground The deepest cave in the world

46 depth charge

The journey to the bottom of Earth’s deepest cave is long and dangerous.

One man wants to go further down...

92 partying in Portland

Take your front row seat at the acclaimed Sunday night burlesque show at Dante’s in the US of A

EYE are a Dubai band with an international outlook

62 Rebooting The Rally How the WRC is going to live and thrive in a post-Seb Loeb world

72 The Gaffer

How Ricky Simms came to keep sport’s fastest movers in check

74 The Ultimate Ride The philosophy of cycling

78 After The Hurricane

Bringing a surf scene back to life

Action

24 me & my body

South African extreme athlete Ryan Sandes runs the equivalent of Paris to Beijing every year 06

90 Ups and downs

A Croatian climb with no support and no protection, just bare hands on wet rock – then a plunge into the Adriatic

90 92 93 94 95 96 98

travel Deep-water soloing in Croatia party A guide to the best nights out training Red Bull X-Fighters my city In Berlin with Modeselektor Playlist Mount Kimbie’s top songs save the date Events for your diary time warpED Breakdance begins?

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Photography: lukas gansterer, Arturas Artiusenka, Kit Engwall, Justin Polkey, Mauritius

56 The Escape Artists

contributors Who’s on board this issue

The Red Bulletin Gulf Edition

The Red Bulletin is published by Red Bull Media House GmbH General Manager Wolfgang Winter Publisher Franz Renkin

Daumantas Liekis

Tomasz Gudzowaty Ten years ago, the Polish lensman won a World Press Photo award for images of Shaolin monks in training. In this month’s edition of The Red Bulletin, we showcase his remarkable shots of the Mexican underground car-racing scene.

Links between the two? Stories from life’s margins, Gudzowaty’s favourite place, and black-andwhite photos, his chosen colour scheme. When you commission him, you get 12 pictures only, but a dozen does the job, always.

Cole Louison Hurricane Sandy caused more than US$100 million in damage to a New York City surfing community, erasing seven miles of boardwalk and permanently altering the way of life for its residents. “We got out there six months later and people were still chopping wood for fires,” says Louison, a journalist, surfer and resident of Brooklyn, NYC. “No one’s tougher or more insular than Rockaway surfers, yet everyone wanted to talk because everyone had a story to tell.”

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The Lithuanian nature and science journalist travelled to Georgia to explore the deepest cave in the world. This kind of adventure is just another day at the office for him (another day involved research at Chernobyl) because, as well as his journalistic duties, Liekis also works as a biologist.

During his time at the Krubera cave, he observed the living things that only exist in the dark, raw environment that extends more than 2km below ground.

Editor-in-Chief Robert Sperl Deputy Editor-in-Chief Alexander Macheck Editor Paul Wilson Creative Director Erik Turek Art Directors Kasimir Reimann, Miles English Chief Photo Editor Fritz Schuster Production Editor Marion Wildmann Chief Sub-Editor Nancy James Deputy Chief Sub-Editor Joe Curran Assistant Editors Ruth Morgan, Ulrich Corazza, Werner Jessner, Florian Obkircher, Arek Pia˛tek, Andreas Rottenschlager, Daniel Kudernatsch (app), Christoph Rietner (app) Contributing Editor Stefan Wagner Design Martina de Carvalho-Hutter, Silvia Druml, Kevin Goll, Carita Najewitz, Esther Straganz Photo Editors Susie Forman (Creative Photo Editor), Ellen Haas, Catherine Shaw, Rudi Übelhör Repro Managers Clemens Ragotzky (manager), Karsten Lehmann, Josef Mühlbacher Head of Production Michael Bergmeister Production Wolfgang Stecher (manager), Walter O Sádaba, Christian Graf-Simpson (app) Printed by Prinovis Liverpool Ltd, www.prinovis.com

Lukas gansterer

“I’d only seen one video of theirs on YouTube,” says the Austrian photographer who shot this issue’s cover stars, the rock band EYE. “But when I saw them play at the concert, I understood why they were the warm-up for Metallica.

They are great musicians. And shooting them was great fun.”

Gansterer fell into a career with a camera after friends asked him to shoot their fashion show in Paris in 2006. “I thought I was going on holiday to France. Two months later, the pics were in a magazine.”

“Six months after the hurricane, people were still chopping wood for fires” cole louison

Finance Siegmar Hofstetter, Simone Mihalits Marketing & Country Management Barbara Kaiser (manager), Stefan Ebner, Stefan Hötschl, Elisabeth Salcher, Lukas Scharmbacher, Sara Varming Distribution Klaus Pleninger, Peter Schiffer Marketing Design Julia Schweikhardt, Peter Knethl Advertising Enquiries Richard Breiss +96 5 660 700 48, richard@kw.redbull.com

Advertising Placement Sabrina Schneider O∞ce Management Manuela Gesslbauer, Anna Jankovic, Anna Schober

The Red Bulletin is published in Austria, Brazil, France, Germany, Ireland, Kuwait, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa, Switzerland, UK and USA Website www.redbulletin.com Head office Red Bull Media House GmbH, Oberst-Lepperdinger-Strasse 11-15, A-5071 Wals bei Salzburg, FN 297115i, Landesgericht Salzburg, ATU63611700 Austria office Heinrich-Collin-Strasse 1, A-1140 Vienna, +43 (1) 90221 28800 UK office 155-171 Tooley Street, London SE1 2JP, +44 (0) 20 3117 2100

The Red Bulletin (Gulf region) Boushahri Group W.L.L., Ardiya Industrial Area, Block 2, Section 107, Kuwait, +96 5 660 700 48 Write to us: letters@redbulletin.com

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速

SURF SPECIAL Th e B ox , Au str alia

about face

Seasoned surfers describe this spot, out from the town of Margaret River on the south-west tip of Australia, as a “super-shallow right-breaking beast” with “steep entry, fast tubes, thick lips”. A lip is the upper part of the breaking edge of the wave, which goes on to form a tube for the surfer to ride through – as nailed here by Oz native Kieren Perrow.

At The Box, a tube should be ridden as fast as possible: falling can lead to painful contact with the coral reef under the waves.

Keen on Kieren? www.twitter.com/kierenperrow Photography: Russell Ord

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N E W S O UTH WALE S , AU STR ALIa

deeper down

The ‘duck dive’ is a surfer’s plunge beneath a wave to avoid the impact of a wall of water, as demonstrated here by Belinda Baggs.

The Australian is known for the flawless technique of her longboard style, its calm aesthetic distinguishing it from the often brutal riding of the big-wave scene. Baggs’s special trick is the ‘nose ride’: inching step by step to the tip of her board while riding out the wave. “Living without the sea,” she says, “would be really scary.”

Know the nose ride: www.vimeo.com/57337399 Photography: Ben Moon

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Wai m e a Bay, Hawai i

board games Big-wave surfing was born on November 7, 1957, on the rugged north coast of the island of Oahu, when Greg Noll and a handful of other young Americans first surfed the waves of Waimea Bay. Almost exactly 17 years later, the first pro surfing contest was staged at the same location. Wave heights can reach 8m. Here, a group of pro surfers battle through a monster set in competition with – as the abandoned boards show – varying levels of success.

More on this contest: www.quiksilverlive.com/eddieaikau Photography: Brian Bielman

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Come and discover more at www.infiniti.eu

THE PULSE RACES

Bullevard Sport and culture on the quick

Auto pilot The idea of a flying car is almost as old as the car itself. Now the dream is set to come true. Here are the major stops along the road to the car of the future

Photography: Getty images (2), Terrafugia, lyle owerko/say watt, beth lesser/say watt, chris bateman/say watt (3), katie callan

Curtiss AutoPlane (1917) The first car with wings was able to skip along the runway, but not actually take to the skies.

ConvAirCar (1946) A prototype withstood 66 test flights, but a crash eventually halted plans for mass production.

he watts t matter Speaker stacks and booming bass in a new exhibition devoted to the culture and impact of that outdoor party must: the sound system In its truest form, a sound system consists of two turntables, an amplifier and stacks of speakers as high as a house and loud as hell. Its natural habitat is the streets of Jamaica, where the culture of sound systems arose in the 1950s, soon developing into an alternative to overpriced clubs and an important instrument of the counterculture. Out of the stacks flowed bass-heavy, quintessentially Jamaican music styles from ska and dub to dancehall.

These days, sound systems are ubiquitous on the global party scene, mostly at festivals and carnivals.

Parisian gallery La Gaîté Lyrique is staging Say Watt?, a major exhibition of sound system culture, with early photos and posters from Jamaica (right) and a screening of Babylon, a film about the early sound system scene in London. There are also panel discussions led by French reggae specialist Seb Carayol and workshops at which you can learn how to make your own sound system. You can also expect speaker sculptures by young artists and plenty of concerts, with deep bass frequencies delivering deep tissue massage. The exhibition runs until August 25.

Pump up le volume: www.gaite-lyrique.net

Piasecki AirGeep (1962) In development for five years, and flew, but the US military’s final evaluation was: do not proceed.

Say Watt?: sound systems from their origins in Jamaica to today’s versions belting out on bikes

phototicker

EVERY shot ON TARGET

Have you taken a picture with a Red Bull flavour? Email it to us at: phototicker@redbulletin.com Terrafugia TF-x (2009) After a first test flight four years ago, if all goes to plan the first flying car will be on sale in 2015.

the red bulletin

Every month we print a selection, with our favourite pic awarded a limited-edition Sigg bottle. Tough, functional and well-suited to sport, it features The Red Bulletin logo.

Erzberg

Austria’s busiest car wash was found down the road from Red Bull Hare Scramble.

Samo Vidic

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Tech to make an 11-figure sum

Instagram: the quickest In April 2012, the owner of the photosharing app agreed to sell to Facebook for US$1 billion – just 551 days after it was launched.

‘I shot that!’: Chris Burkard and his championship-winning photo of Chilean surf

Powerful images Chris Burkard can well remember the day that he took his best-ever photo.

“The light, the wind, the swell: everything was perfect, as if nature wanted to linger in harmony for just one moment.” The photographer, from San Luis Obispo, California, captured surfer Peter Medina in an emerald-green wave off the coast of Chile with his Nikon D700. The remarkable image won the last Red Bull Illume contest, the world’s largest competition for action and adventure photography. In late August, a jury of 50 international judges will announce Burkard’s Red Bull Illume successor for 2013. “Any kid can capture the world with an iPhone or a GoPro. For me, this is a positive development,” says Burkhard. “It takes years of training to press the button at the right time.

His top tip for successful snapping?

“Analyse the photos which don’t work.”

Burkard’s work: instagram.com/chrisburkard Red Bull Illume 2013: www.redbullillume.com

skype: the biggest In 2011, Microsoft bought the video chat software company from eBay for US$8.5 billion. The online auction house paid US$2.5bn in 2005.

pinterest: THE NEXTEST? The social pinboard site – estimated value: US$2.5 billion – isn’t currently for sale, but the big web companies are showing (p)interest.

IN freefall Cliff diver Anna Bade on role models, fear as an aid to concentration and plunging from the pub into the water Stop four of the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series takes place this month in Malcesine on Italy’s Lake Garda, where a women’s competition will be staged for the first time.

Germany’s Anna Bader, 29, is one of the favourites. the red bulletin: What is it about cliff diving that you find so compelling? anna bader: It’s a battle of strength versus gravity, with no external assistance.

What are your favourite spots for diving?

Switzerland, Thailand and Majorca. It all began for me in Rick’s Café in Negril, Jamaica. There, the locals dive straight from the cliff in front of the pub, into the turquoise blue sea.

Freefalling at 90kph: what does that feel like?

When you’re actually in the air you don’t notice anything.

I feel almost weightless.

Do you ever get scared?

The forces at work in diving are enormous, and there is painful punishment for every mistake. Fear is good. Once you have it under control, it can aid concentration, but if you let it gain the upper hand it can paralyse you.

What do you admire about your male cliff diving peers?

Orlando Duque has the best entry phase. Gary Hunt is the twist pioneer. Artem Silchenko is the specialist for handstand jumps – and that happens to be my strong suit, as well. www.annabader.com

First time out: Anna Bader

WE HAVE A WINNER!

Calgary

A first urban endurocross for the Canadian city: Red Bull Rocks & Logs.

John Evely

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Baku At Red Bull X-Fighters, snowmobile

freestyler Daniel Bodin enjoys Azerbaijani hospitality.

Denis Klero

Puerto del Carmen

Heat, wind, soft asphalt. No wonder Ironman Lanzarote is feared.

Gines Diaz the red bulletin

Photography: carlo cruz/red bull content pool, andrea de maria/red bull content pool, tobias kresse

A billion there

HELLY HANSEN CATWALK

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Shooting for victory in Kuwait

Hoop dreams

Smokin’: Red Bull Car Park Drift

Feel the burn More than 10,000 spectators turned out to watch the final round of Red Bull Car Park Drift in front of the King Fahed Fountain in Jeddah, the highest fountain in the world. Saudi Arabia’s best 18 drifters – drivers who slide and drift around small, tight courses – took part, and were judged on their tyre-squealing performance by a panel including HRH Prince Abdulaziz Turki Al Faisal, Abdo Feghali and ‘Mad’ Mike Whiddett from New Zealand. Amir Mansour was crowned champion in a Nissan 350Z, ahead of Saeed Al Mouri in his Chevrolet Lumina. www.redbullmea.com

London A tiny taxi takes to the UK’s streets ahead of the Red Bull Soapbox Race.

Daniel Lewis 20

High skills at Saudi Arabia’s best Red Bull BC One yet

street style glory

The region’s best B-Boys take one step closer to the world championships

Working within the cultural restrictions on dance and music in Saudi Arabia, the third Red Bull BC One cypher in the Kingdom was the best yet. After local qualifiers and a workshop at Gold’s Gym in Jeddah, 32 B-Boys competed for the chance to represent their country in the BC One Middle East and Africa finals, to be held later this year in Egypt.

The event was held in a warehouse outside Jeddah city, with 300 spectators crammed around the performance space. Rating the B-Boys performances were Red Bull BC One legends Lilou and Pelezinho, and two-time Saudi and regional winner B-Boy Lazy.

“Tunisia and Saudi were the best, in terms of B-Boys’ level and audience energy,” said Pelezinho, of recent judging assignments. The Brazilian was surprised by the high skills he saw in Saudi Arabia.

The eventual winner was Willy, aka Mohammed Asirri, from Riyadh, who will represent Saudi Arabia in Cairo on August 31. www.redbullbcone.com

Soweto I.D.A Crew jump for joy as their dance moves win them Red Bull Beat Battle in South Africa.

Craig Kolesky

Willy: winner in Saudi Arabia

Osaka Josh Sheehan gives new meaning to the term ‘sun seeker’ by Japan’s Tower of the Sun. Jason Halayko the red bulletin

photography: stefan voitl/red bull content pool (2), duaine menezes/red bull content pool, abdullah al Rodhan/Red Bull Content Pool

Red Bull King of the Rock returned to Kuwait City for the second year in a row. The one-on-one street basketball competition, which once again drew a huge crowd, saw 128 players compete in a series of eliminators to leave a final pairing. Mubarak Al Marzouq levelled the deciding game on the buzzer, then held his nerve to beat Nawaf Abdullah in overtime by a single point. Al Marzouq earned a place in the world finals on Alcatraz Island, San Francisco, in September, alongside 63 of the planet’s best street ballers. www.redbullmea.com

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Where’s Your Head At?

hugh jackman

With animal instincts and killer pipes, the 44-year-old Australian rules action movies and musicals.

But what happened on the set of his Chinese-language debut? And how does he get so ripped?

Chinese Take-Off

Seal Broken

By the 1990s, Jackman was an accomplished stage musical actor. Playing Gaston in Beauty and the Beast, in Melbourne, he wet himself onstage. “I realised that the muscles you release to sing are the ones you don’t want to release if you need to go.”

Punishment Glutton

To shape up as Wolverine, Jackman follows the 8/16 Diet, eating 6,000 calories per day during in an eighthour period, then fasting for 16 hours. “I eat a 12oz steak every day. I don’t know any doctors recommending that.”

words: Toby Wiseman. illustration: lie-ins and tigers

Dark Heart

From helping a fallen Jennifer Lawrence at the Oscars to crooning at Nicole Kidman’s wedding: Jackman is officially Hollywood’s Nicest Man – but not without edge. Making Les Miserables, his soundtrack was metal band Godsmack.

“With all this beautiful music playing, in my head I’m hearing Crying Like A Bitch.”

TV Or Not TV

For every US version of The Office, there is Viva Laughlin. A 2007 remake of BBC comedy-drama-musical Blackpool with Jackman starring and executively producing, it was cancelled in America after two of eight episodes were shown, and after just one in Australia: the shortestlived show in Aussie TV history.

the red bulletin

Jackman got mixed reviews playing a Shanghai nightclub performer in Chinese drama Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. After months learning a song in Mandarin, he later told Jay Leno on US TV: “I sang my song [to Wendi Murdoch, co-producer] and after the first syllables she was, like, ‘Great’, but after that it was, ‘What?’”

Cool Hand Hugh

Despite many ‘Sexiest Man Alive’ accolades, Jackman remains in awe of his movie alter-ego. “I pinch myself every day that I get the chance to play Wolverine.

Sometimes I think I’d prefer to be him in real life. He’s so much cooler than me.”

A Rare Talon

With The Wolverine, out this month, Jackman has played the titular role seven times, matching Sean Connery as James Bond and one less than Daniel Radcliffe’s Harry Potter. Shintaro Katsu played the blind swordsman Zatoichi in 26 films from 1962-89.

Captive Audience

Coming soon: Jackman in a kidnap thriller for Canadian director Denis Villeneuve. “A film called Prisoners, which I’m real excited about. I loved working with Denis. He’s like [Batman director and Man Of Steel producer] Chris Nolan: same vision, clarity and similar dynamic.”

The Wolverine, out worldwide from July 24: www.thewolverinemovie.com

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illustration: dietmar kainrath

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the red bulletin

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me and my body

Ryan Sandes

The South African extreme athlete, 31, runs the equivalent of Paris to Beijing every year. The only thing that makes him quake in his boots is the cold

INNER VOICE

3

Long periods of rest are important. I sleep between eight and nine hours a night.

In the morning my heart rate is 47bpm; when it’s under extreme pressure, it speeds up to over 200, but I don’t measure it that often.

I prefer to pay attention to my bodily reactions.

www.ryansandes.com

SUPPORT SQUAD

One advantage of running long distances is keeping your weight down, even though your body needs fat reserves. I’m 1.78m tall and I weigh 66-68kg for a race. After a 100-mile run, I weigh one to two kilos less.

GREAT SHAKES

2 ACHILLES HEEL

The most common injuries: fatigue fractures, runner’s knee and sprained ankle ligaments. A recovery period can take from three to four weeks, depending. Another problem is that the other foot or leg compensates during recovery and can be overburdened.

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4

So far, I’ve only had cramps during ultramarathons in Antarctica, which is partly due to compression stockings. As soon as you stand still there, when it’s -20°C, your body temperature drops quickly and your muscles start shivering and cramping.

the red bulletin

words: ulrich corazza. photography: justin polkey

1 LOSER WINS

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I run about 800 hours a year.

That’s about 8,000km in distance and 300,000m in altitude. The main focus of my training is to maintain a clean running technique.

I work with a coach and a biokineticist twice a week.

For my stressed back, there is lots of physiotherapy and chiropractic.

Sebastian Vettel for Pepe Jeans London

“The F1 FORMULA 1 Logo, F1, FORMULA 1, FIA FORMULA ONE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP, GRAND PRIX and related marks are trade marks of Formula One Licensing BV, a Formula One group company. All rights reserved.”

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winning formula

jet set

High water: David Goncalves of France in the qualifying round of the 2012 Flyboard World Cup in Doha, Qatar

Words: Martin Apolin. Photography: getty images. Illustration: Mandy Fischer

Flyboarding is watersport’s most spectacular new discipline. This is how to be a rocket man, in theory and in practice ON THE WHITEBOARD “A jet ski turbine, a connecting hose, four control jets and you’ve got a piece of sporting kit with which, according to its manufacturer, you can ‘dive like a dolphin and fly like a bird’,” says Professor Thomas Schrefl of Austria’s St Pölten University of Applied Sciences and the University of Sheffield in England.

“To get airborne on a flyboard, the force of the water shooting downwards must be greater than the force of gravity. The force of gravity for the flyboard and the pilot is determined by the product of the total mass and operates downwards: FSch = –(mPi + mPl)g.

Here mPi and mPl are the mass of the pilot and the flyboard, respectively, while g is the gravitational acceleration.

“The force operating upwards comes from the water shooting out the jets. It is pumped upwards through the hose at a velocity of v¹, redirected through a piping system and then shot out of jets with a velocity of v². The flyboard exerts force on the water, FW, and redirects it downwards. This alters the momentum of the water. The change of momentum per unit of time equals the force acting on the water. Newton’s Third Law states, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

This force, FPl, holds the flyboard in a floating position.

“Now we can estimate how many litres of water per second are required to carry the flyboard and the pilot. For this we must compare the weight force with the alteration of momentum in the water, and time. This results in the equation (mPi + mPl)g = W(v² – v¹).

As above, g is the gravitational acceleration. We define the amount of water that flows per second as W, and calculate it as the product of the density of the water, the velocity and the cross-sectional area of the inlet pipe, A¹. The amount of water in litres flowing in per second is W = r v¹ A¹ litres.

“In other words, the velocity of the water at the inlet is v¹ = W/(r A¹) where r is the density of the water. Because the cross-section of the four jets, A² , is overall less than the inlet, the water comes out of the jets faster than it’s pumped in, that is, with a velocity of v² = –v¹(A¹/A² ).

“In conclusion, if we assume a total mass of mPi + mPl = 100kg, an inlet area of 80cm² and a cross-sectional area for all jets of 50cm², that means that 55 litres of water per second are required to keep pilot and board aloft for one second – water that shoots out of the jets at 40kph. Jet power, indeed.”

ON THE FLYBOARD It was a combination of jet-skiing, wakeboarding and kitesurfing that Frenchman Franky Zapata had in mind when he devised the flyboard in 2011. “It only takes 30 minutes with an instructor to learn how to use one,” says Zapata. “It feels like freedom.” A year later, his countryman Stéphane Prayas was declared the first world champion of the new discipline, in which judges award points based on the rider’s freestyle manoeuvres. www.zapata-racing.com

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lucky numbers

Unlikely Champions A blind archer? A lightweight sumo wrestler? A footballer with crooked legs? A look at the world’s most extraordinary sporting careers

Jan Molby

Tyrone Bogues

Sumo wrestlers normally weigh at least 150kg and are Japanese. But Pavel Bojar is Czech and tips the scales at a mere 98kg. After bronze at the 2000 world junior sumo championships, he was taken on by the Naruto organisation in 2000, under the ring name of Takanoyama Shuntaro. In 2011, he broke into sumo’s top division. He has tried to gain weight, but his metabolism does not allow it.

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Footballer Jan Molby was plagued by a different kind of weight problem. At the height of his width, the Danish midfielder carried several kilos of excess baggage – though not very far, as he rarely strayed beyond the centre circle. Yet he was good enough to make 218 league appearances for Liverpool from 1984-95, winning three titles and scoring 44 goals.

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4

Dai Greene

Pavel Bojar Garrincha

699

Im Dong-Hyun is legally blind.

The South Korean has only 15 per cent vision in his left eye and 20 per cent in his right, but that didn’t stop him setting a world record score of 699, out of a possible 720, in qualifying for the men’s individual archery at the 2012 London Olympics. Thanks to his extraordinary muscle memory, the 27-year-old can fire on target again and again.

160

Tyrone Bogues escaped the Baltimore ghetto to play 14 years in the NBA. That is already the stuff of dreams. What makes the man known as Muggsy an all-time hoops legend is his height: at 160cm (5ft 3in), he is the smallest player in NBA history. “I always believed in myself,” he told Sports Illustrated, just before his debut in 1987, “That’s the type of attitude I always took out on the floor, knowing… there’s a place for me out there.”

One of football’s all-time greats was lucky to be able to stand up straight. In 1933, Garrincha was born with a curved spine and a right leg bent inwards and 6cm longer than his left, which bent outwards.

After a childhood operation, a doctor suggested: “Play football. It will make your legs stronger.” It was good advice. The winger drib­bled Brazil to World Cup victory in 1958 and 1962; in the latter, he was joint top-scorer with four goals.

400

Im Dong-Hyun

In 2011, Dai Greene became 400m hurdles world champion in Daegu in Korea. The 27-year-old Welshman is epileptic, but eschews medication for the sake of his athletics career. “I could sense that the tablets were having a negative impact on my performance, so I stopped taking them,” he said. “I minimise the risk of fits with regular sleep and by avoiding alcohol.” the red bulletin

words: arkadiusz piatek. photography: corbis, getty images (4), imago

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On Mexico’s illegal racetracks, The laws of the land and the code of the road are forgotten. the only thing that matters is speed Words: Rogelio Rivera Photography: Tomasz Gudzowaty 31

The flagman drops his arms to start the race. At the finish line, only the winner is applauded

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Illegal racing drivers Armando Cerda (left) and Miguel Romero, and their 1968 Dodge Charger

34

All the rules of the road are broken in an illicit pursuit of Adrenalin Wheel-repair guys, like Erick Garcia 足Rojas (right), are on standby at all times

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very day, about five million cars turn Mexico City into a pitiless car park.

The huge logjam, which unfolds across the world’s third-largest city, leads to a type of chaos from which there appears to be no escape.

Illegal racing drivers claw back their lost freedom in rundown areas on the outskirts of the city, isolated spots and outlying roads, dilapidated garages and warehouses. They break all the rules of the road, daringly racing souped-up cars in illicit pursuit of adrenalin.

“I’m just addicted to speed,” admits Joaquín, one of the drivers, and he’s speaking on behalf of all of them. “I was already in love with these races before I had a driving licence. My friends and I just used to sneak off to them on Saturday nights back in the day and watch.”

In addition to sating a desire for the forbidden, feeding a fascination for mechanical tinkering and escaping from the everyday routine, the races are run in a party atmosphere. “All my friends are there,” Joaquín says. “We play music, smoke, drink, chat up girls, meet new people.” The only thing that can ruin one of these parties is a police patrol.

“When we hear the sirens, it means we get the hell out of there.”

The Mexican police have no sympathy for the illegal races and are rigorous in their attempts at stamping them out.

Cars are seized and drivers are arrested.

However, the popularity of illegal racing has led the police to sanction certain races, which take place in a controlled environment and include safety measures for both the drivers and spectators.

These events are sparsely attended, though, because much of the appeal of 36

Life is lived on four wheels. Cars are bought, repaired, tuned, driven, but, most importantly, they are proudly shown off

Remote roads, car parks, warehouses.

The more isolated and desolate, the better

Hugo Loyo at the wheel.

Below left: JosĂŠ Alberto Eleuterio, one of the younger racers, waits for his turn on the track, while Loyo repairs a 1970 Dodge Charger

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"The only thing I'll swap my car for is a wheelchair or a coffin"

this kind of racing lies in playing cat and mouse with the police.

After the races are over, the stories Joaquín and his friends tell each other around the campfire are always about the same things: speed, drinking, accidents, death and survival. “Once a friend ‘borrowed’ his father’s car to drive in a race, where he had an accident. The car was a wreck and the only reason he didn’t end up in prison was because his uncle bribed the police.”

There is a great deal of danger, but most races pass with drivers suffering nothing worse than a few bumps and bruises. It is a lot easier to get over injuries than it is dented wings or doors. Drivers put all their money, along with all their time, into getting their cars into race condition. It isn’t easy getting classic cars like a 1969 Ford Mustang, a 1970 Chevy C10 or a 1966 Plymouth Valiant Hardtop to look good and perform well enough to win a race. “Speed costs money,” Joaquín says simply. “My cars are only ever as quick as my wallet allows.”

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he races aren’t run for money. The only thing up for grabs here is gaining respect. That hasn’t changed in decades.

Whether the drivers are 15 or 45, they take on this challenge for one reason only: to prove that they are the best.

“A lot of people ask me why I like these races,” says Joaquín. “I give the answer a professional racing driver would: I want to take the car to new limits.” But, as Joaquín knows, racing like this is more than a battle between man and machine. “It’s between me and my fears.” Like all drivers, he is willing to risk everything for the race.

“My girlfriend knows that if she loves me, she has to accept me and my passion for speed. She stopped coming to these events. She says that someone else will have to identify me at the morgue further down the line. I always reply that the only thing I’ll swap my car for is a wheelchair or a coffin. I’ll never give up this type of racing. I’m addicted to speed and nothing will cure me.”

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Stuart Broad

‘I want more’ The England man is aiming high, with one eye on his next game, and the other on a captain’s workload, magic memories and magic numbers

1970s. To win the first Test of the summer The first trophy of the English sporting at home against New Zealand is what this summer was, typically, held aloft under England side should do. That they put cloudy skies. It was a bright red, slightly themselves in a position to lose the game worn cricket ball, and was waved to – which they would have done without all corners of Lord’s by Stuart Broad, Broad’s brilliance – is a trait that stops who had just used it to take seven New a very good side from being a great one.

Zealand wickets for 44 runs, in less than “We’re always looking to improve,” says two hours of superb, Test-match-winning Broad. “I look at it like this: in Twenty20 fast bowling. It was the best return by cricket, you need two or three guys to have an England player for five years and the a good day and you’ll win the game. In best bowling performance of Broad’s Test match cricket, you probably need nine career. The ball is now in a cupboard.

“I trust my mum with that kind of thing more than I trust myself,” says Broad. “Mum was at the game, and I caught up with her straight after to give her the ball. It’s a nice tradition now, that you can keep the ball after you take five wickets. It’s nice to have a little collection, but I want more.”

England fans will tell you that he should already have more, that he blows hot and cold for someone with his talent. He counters with diplomacy.

“I read in the match programme [at Lord’s] that I am close to getting into the group of players who have 2,000 runs and 200 wickets in Tests.

All-round hero: Stuart Broad can also swing the bat There have only been 16 ever. To be guys to have a good match to win. It’s rare part of that group would be a huge that all 11 players have a great game, so honour, but we play to win trophies. it’s important that you have players who Every player would rather have no are able to step up. That said, you can’t rely wickets or no runs and win the match, on the same players all the time, because because overall it means very little.” when they fail, the team will fail. It’s Look at the stats another way, and important that different guys can step up.”

Broad’s stock is even higher. Only 10 Broad has stepped up to captain pace bowlers in Test match history have England’s T20 side, which has won nine 150 or more wickets and a batting of the 17 games under his stewardship average over 25, including Broad after ahead of the two matches against New his Lord’s efforts. He turned 27 in June, Zealand. Does being skipper mean he is and has been playing for England for even more watchful of his teammates almost seven years. He is part of a team and opponents in Test and one-day that, in the last three years, has had the matches, squirrelling away notes that highest expectations placed on it since the could lead to victory in the shortest form? all-conquering England side of the early 42

“I’m not aware of doing anything different to what I’ve always done, which is always thinking about the game I’m in. The responsibility of captaincy has been good for my cricket, and I enjoy it. It’s only a few games a year, so I look forward to them.”

That’s the only sort of forward looking that he, his colleagues and peers and almost every pro athlete will admit to these days. Otherwise, it’s each game as it comes and nothing more. That is quite hard when England have, for the first and only time, home and away Ashes series in the next seven months.

“Every series you go into, you remember the corresponding series that came before – that’s automatic,” says Broad. “We’re lucky that quite a few in the group of players England has now played in the wins against Australia in 2009 and 2010/11, as well as other winning series and performances recently. But what is clear in the forefront of your mind are your immediate challenges. In any sport, if you look too far ahead you’ll get yourself in lots of trouble.”

And yet, he does have other long-term goals, based on what his sporting life brings him, which cannot be consigned to Carole Broad’s cupboards.

“My England shirt number is eight, so I’m collecting number eight shirts from all sports. They’ll go on a rail one day, when I’ve got enough. Most recently is Sam Burgess’s Great Britain rugby league shirt, which I got because he was playing for the South Sydney Rabbitohs in New Zealand when I was over there. And James Haskell’s England rugby union shirt, which I swapped for one of mine.”

As someone who gives his all for England, giving the shirt off his back is second nature. www.ecb.co.uk the red bulletin

photography: levon biss/contour, getty images

Words: Paul Wilson

Born June 24, 1986, Nottingham Highest score 169 v Pakistan, Lord’s, August 2010 Best bowling 7-44 v New Zealand, Lord’s, May 2013 All-timer His Lord’s performance took him joint 40th on international cricket’s wicket takers, with 398 in all formats. Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan is top with 1,347.

Tied to Notts Local boy Broad is a fervent fan of Nottingham Forest FC: “I think the whole of Nottingham is looking forward to next year, because we weren’t at our best last season, but we still got very close to being in the play-offs.”

The Cast of Cheers

Journey Men From Dublin to the ends of the earth, and from one sound to another.

‘Have songs, will travel’ is the motto – just don’t book them after midnight

Kevin Curran on drums, is gathering could end up deconstructing it and All they had to do was enjoy a day and momentum, after appearing almost turning it into a prog metal album.” a night in one of Europe’s great cities and from nowhere with the spiky guitars The affable Adams brothers have turn up fresh and firing for a late-night and danceable melodies of 2010’s a deep fraternal understanding, finishing gig. That was all they had to do. free-to-download album Chariot. each other’s sentences and footnoting “We had a gig at the Razzmatazz “It was recorded over a few weekends each other’s hazy recollections. There are in Barcelona, playing at 3am,” says back in late 2009 by Conor, Kev and plenty of the latter following last year’s Conor Adams, guitarist and lead singer John,” says Neil. “Then, when the lads string of live dates and a stint living in in The Cast Of Cheers. “The plan was to decided to start playing gigs a few months London. They returned home to Ireland chill, grab some sleep and then do the later, they asked me to join them.” last August, leaving behind a productive, show. We ended up getting hammered Last year’s follow-up, Family, built incident-laden blur of hard yards and all day. John [Higgins, bassist] fell down on the early promise, and led scribes to high jinks. “It was great fun until the some stairs and ended up in hospital money ran out,” Conor says. with a cut ear. He arrived just in time There have been successful for the gig, with a huge bandage overseas jaunts. on his head like a helmet, probably “Playing Australia was concussed. He checked his gear and incredible,” says Conor. “A radio then walked off. I’m saying, ‘John, station in Sydney called Triple J stay, we’re on!’ Meanwhile, Neil played us loads before the tour.

[Adams, lead guitar] was roaring, We arrived at the Splendour In The ‘What’s up bitches!’ at the crowd!”

Grass music festival jetlagged and The curse of Catalonia would didn’t notice the crowd until we strike again, despite the band’s walked on stage. We pulled a bigger best intentions. crowd than The Smashing Pumpkins.

“The next time we played there We did other sold-out gigs with we decided: we’re doing it right,” Django Django over there. It felt says Conor. “However, our bags, like, ‘Hey, we’re in a real band.’” including John’s passport, were An appearance at the Longitude robbed outside the hotel. We missed Live and dangerous: The Cast Of Cheers are accident-prone on tour Festival at Dublin’s Marlay Park this a flight and had to rent a van to get spout superlatives. Tracks such as Posé month is a highlight of the band’s diary: us to Bilbao. Our music’s all loops and Mit, Animals and Human Elevator “That’ll be our big home show this year. pedals, but we were booked to do revealed a band with raw talent and an It should be great, the line-up’s really a pre-show acoustic set in an electrical attitude to flourish. As a whole, the good,” says Conor. The Cast Of Cheers superstore. We did Stumbleine by the record’s ballsy merging of post-rock and are taking every opportunity to play Smashing Pumpkins and tried to pull dancefloor indie was on the money. the big shows, safe, perhaps, in the off a version of our song, Animals, Some people even called it ‘math rock’, knowledge that they are better equipped to about 20 vaguely interested but they will have to redo their sums to avoid the perils of touring, having shoppers. Pure Spinal Tap.” after hearing the band’s new material experienced every single one of them.

A world away, back over ocean for the as-yet-untitled next album.

“Our tour manager nearly quit and seas, and the Dublin haven of “No eight-minute songs with changes so many times,” says Conor. “All peaceful repose, the Library Bar, is every 10 seconds. We want to simplify that travelling. Long days and booze playing to type. Its customers sip coffee things a little,” says Neil. “The new leaves you cranky and haggard. We and read newspapers, savouring fleeting stuff’s heavier, rocks out more.” start out with good intentions, packed moments of inactivity in otherwise “It’s like Family bought a leather lunches and fruit, and a week later hectic lives. Brothers Conor and Neil jacket,” says Conor. “Not as many it’s hangovers and no trousers.”

Adams are enjoying a moment of calm. www.thecastofcheers.com loops and more riffs. Of course, we The Cast Of Cheers, a four-piece with 44

the red bulletin

Additional Photography: Peter Dovgan

Words: Eamonn Soeige Photography: Johnny Savage

The line-up (from left) Neil Adams – lead guitar, vocals John Higgins – bass, vocals Conor Adams – lead vocals, guitar Kevin Curran – drums Discography Chariot (album, 2010) Family (album, 2012) tbc (album, 2014) Different beat Drummer Kevin Curran’s rhythmic skills extend beyond his hands: he’s a former professional Irish dancer.

Everybody knows your name A list of 50 possible names was compiled; The Cast Of Cheers won out, but, says Conor Adams, “Doesn’t have any significance other than sounding good.”

depth charge the journey to the bottom of earth’s d e e p e s t c av e i s l o n g a n d d a n g e r o u s . one man wants to go further

Photograph: STEPHEN ALVAREZ/National Geographic Stock

words: Daumantas Liekis photography: Artūras Artiušenka

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arly on a bright, clear morning, a radio message crackles through base camp. “Calling all stations, come in please!” About 60 speleologists, from a dozen countries, are camped here at the entrance to the Krubera Cave in the Caucacus mountains, in Georgia’s Abkhazia territory. Recently, at this hour, hungry cavers, scientists and caver-scientists would sit at the breakfast table, with talk of the night’s dreams and the day ahead’s plans reverberating in English, Russian, Spanish and Arabic.

Today, there’s no sound but the emergency call, repeated by Vytautas Gudaitis, the camp’s communication co-ordinator, with increasing alarm.

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the red bulletin

Creeping down The Krubera Cave reveals its hidden depths begrudgingly.

The descent, with its narrow passages, is hard going

D e s c e n d i n g o n r o p e s o r o n f o o t, climbing and crawling, worming and diving, the speleologists, as c av e s c i e n t i s t s a r e k n o w n , i n c h i n t o t h e d e p t h s , s l o w ly g e t t i n g closer to the centre of the Earth

The large tent where breakfast is eaten lies in tatters on the ground. The smaller provisions tents are torn to shreds, supplies scattered everywhere. Several men try to cover the field kitchen with a tarpaulin; others hang sleeping bags out to dry. Many more are squatting around Gudaitis, their faces in their hands.

The base camp, about 2,200m above sea level and 60km as the crow flies south-east of the Russian city of Sochi, is in tatters. A storm of wind and rain ripped through the night before, severing all connections with the expedition’s other camps, deep underground in the cave – the deepest cave on the planet.

Heavy rain makes underground lakes rise and underground waterfalls rage. At this moment, no one at base camp knows if colleagues in the cave have been swept away. The underground supply camps, the only refuge for the people down there, are likely flooded. This is no regular expedition: those camps, and those people, are more than 2,000m below the surface, as part of an attempt to go beyond 2,191m and set the record for the deepest ever journey underground.

Descending on ropes or on foot, climbing and crawling, worming and diving, the speleologists, as cave scientists are known, inch into the depths, slowly getting closer to the centre of the Earth.

From down there, Gudaitis receives a liberating message: “All OK, the storm only temporarily cut off comms.”

Into the depths The entry to the Krubera Cave opens up unspectacularly among herbaceous plants and rock

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he journey to the mouth of the Krubera Cave is arduous. Hours in trucks on bumpy, ever-narrowing paths into the steep hills of the Caucasus mountains. Waiting at the end of the track are the donkeys of Vano, a local man who works as a shepherd here in the summer. He and his donkeys transport the tons of supplies and equipment to the base camp. Here, the entrance to the deepest cave in the world yawns unspectacularly between bushes and rocks, a hole 4m by 1m, the camouflaged mouth of a monster.

Krubera is named after the Russian speleologist Alexander Alexandrovich Kruber. He died 19 years before it was discovered, in 1960, by Georgian cavers.

Looking down from above, it only covers an area of about half a square kilometre, but its complex system of limestone tunnels, terraces, shafts and chimneys zigs and zags for several kilometres. Many of the pathways are so narrow and wet that the only way through them is to crawl.

Every now and then, a crawling caver will emerge into a chamber the size of a

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cathedral. There are caverns, subterranean landscapes filled with small lakes and waterfalls and blocked by sumps, as stretches of cave filled with ice-cold water are known. It is a proven fact that the cave is 2,191m deep. The floor of the cave is just above the sea level of the nearby Black Sea, but it’s underwater.

The purpose of this expedition, under Ukranian leadership, is to reach the floor of the cave, currently mapped at the bottom of the sump known as Dva Kapitana (Two Captains).

Camps are erected at intervals on the way down, complete with tents,

Gearing up In terms of equipment and logistics, exploring caves is much the same as mountaineering, only cavers go the other way

A cave with a sea view The Krubera Cave is the world’s deepest, stretching from a plateau in Georgia down to just above the Black Sea

KRUBERA 2,256m 0m 2200 m -100m 2100 m -200m 2000 m -300m The Krubera Cave, discovered in 1960, has been explored down to a depth of 2,196m – thus far moldova

1900 m

-340m

-400m 1800 m -500m 1700m

UKRAINE

-600m RUSSIA

1600 m

Romania BULGARIA

-700m

-740m

Black Sea

1500 m -800m

GEORGIA

1,400 m

Turkey

-900m 1,300 m -1,000m 1,200 m -1,100m 1,100 m -1,200m

-1,200m

1,000m

black sea

-1,300m 900 m -1,400m

The deepest point of the Krubera Cave to have been explored so far – only about 50m above the Black Sea, which is 13km away – was reached on August 10, 2012.

Cavers think there could be a direct link between the cave and the sea. They will try to find it this summer

800 m -1,500m 700m -1,600m 600 m -1,700m 500 m

-1,710m

400 m

illustration: Sascha Bierl

The Eiffel Tower is 324m tall

300 m -2,080m

200 m 100 m

-2,197m 0m

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fireplaces and toilet alcoves. There are supplies of food and water, petrol and gas for cooking, air cylinders for divers, batteries for lights and headlights, as well as medicines. The expedition prior to this one had seven campsites, the last at a depth of 1,960m below the cave entrance, a journey of two days.

On this trip, everything relies on the precise organisation that Yuri Kasyanov mercilessly drills above ground. Without permission from Kasyanov, the expedition leader, descending alone into the cave 52

is prohibited. Groups working in the cave – such as the biologists who search Krubera for new life forms – must check in with Kasyanov each night at a specified time, explaining the work they have done and any problems they might have. Only then is another day checked off as completed. Unless previously given an exemption by Kasyanov himself, every member of the expedition must report back no later than 11pm, regardless of their position in or above the cave. Should that not happen,

a person is considered missing and a rescue party is immediately deployed.

Kasyanov also meticulously assembles each of the descending groups. The Bashkir Honeys are made up of petite women from the Russian province of Bashkortostan, about 1,000km north-east. The girls have known the caves since childhood and feel more comfortable on a rope than on solid ground. The Iron Fist group comprises experienced male speleologists from several countries, who prepare the the red bulletin

Gennadiy Samokhin broke the existing depth record here in 2 0 0 7, a n d a l m o s t p a i d f o r i t w i t h his life. he suffered from the bends Taking it all down Lowering supplies to make underground camps can be painstakingly slow

passage to the underwater floor of the cave and carry heavy equipment for other cave divers. A third group, The Lithuanians, are also experienced divers with a specific and important role: to assist Gennadiy Samokhin in his attempt to set a new depth record.

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amokhin has been involved in speleology for over 20 years. The gaunt, bearded Ukrainian lives in Crimea and reckons he spends five months a year underground.

During a 2007 expedition in Krubera, Samokhin broke the existing depth record. He travelled the last few metres underwater, in the Dva Kapitana sump, and almost paid for it with his life. To get out of the sump, he had to squeeze through three narrow passages. In the last tight spot, his wetsuit ripped and

icy water came in direct contact with his body. To avoid hypothermia, he had to get out of the water quickly – too quick to dispel the nitrogen that had accumulated in his body during the dive. He appeared at the mouth of the sump more than half an hour before scheduled, and suffered horrendous vision problems from the bends, tiny nitrogen bubbles clogging the capillaries in his brain and his eyes.

Samokhin finds caving inspiring. He uses every spare minute above ground to look for new caves, to ask questions about their topography. He talks only of caves. Yet breaking the depth record is last on his list of goals. He prefers instead to consider the complexity of the undertaking, because he knows that for the journey down, he needs an experienced and trustworthy team.

He knows he has to pace himself. He 53

only enters Krubera when the passage is prepared until just before the floor.

Nothing about the journey worries him. “Fear is just a premonition of death,” says Samokhin, over dinner the night before his record attempt.

For those who don’t live large parts of their lives underground, the cave entrance can be unnerving. The closer you get, the more you feel the damp and cold seeping up through the hole into Hell. There is nothingness. The pitch-blackness even swallows the light of a headlamp. The Krubera begins as a sheer abyss. Its chimneys and shafts and caverns of sharp rocks are hostile.

People are not welcome here. Metre by metre, rope length by rope length, it gets colder and frostier. Sunlight beckons only briefly in the mist overhead, then blackout.

After a pause to acclimatise at a depth of about 250m, the first tight bottleneck then opens into a large chamber with high ceilings.

Emil Vash, one of the speleologists, tells how he always enjoys the drop into this inner world. “Every time I descend into a cave I feel at home,” he says. “Problems disappear, suffering disappears, I can relax.”

Positive thinking might be a precaution: the cave takes revenge on those who speak ill of it, say cavers, and they mean it. They honestly believe that the cave can punish them if they leave garbage behind, or break off too large a piece from a rock face.

“Feeling respect and even a little fear is maybe not such a bad thing,” says Aida Gudaitis, the head of The Lithuanians. “Unless fear mutates into panic, it is a healthy boundary between sound reason and stupid decisions.”

Alexei is one of the strongest and best-prepared members of the group. Bad news for Yuri Kasyanov: his illness slows down the transport of supplies in the cave considerably.

1,400m: Else is sick. Could possibly be heartache. Lies in her sleeping bag and cries nonstop.

Else is a member of the Bashkir Honeys crew. She joined the expedition with her long-term boyfriend. Before descending into the cave, she secretly read the texts on his mobile phone

and discovered that he had cheated on her. Else is now depressed and refuses to leave the camp.

1,600m: Aida Gudaitis suffers from an ear and bladder infection.

Kasyanov orders him to return to the surface camp, but he refuses.

He is supposed to lead The Lithuanians to the Dva Kapitana sump. With an ear infection, diving is out of the question, but the ambitious Gudaitis ignores all warnings and continues his descent.

A long and winding road The bulky equipment in waterproof bags hinders any chance of a quick descent

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he deeper the advance into the cave, the more monotonous the daily routine. Secure lifelines, haul material, check and repair equipment; eat, drink, sleep. Day and night, sunrise and sunset, rain and shine exist only in Yuri Kasyanov’s messages. The longer a team spends below ground, crowding around gas cookers and heaters under tarps, the more welcome are his messages received from above. In contrast, radio messages to the outside are short and clipped, business-like missives from the belly of the Earth.

At 700m down: Alexei falls ill.

Probably a stomach ailment. Says he feels bad, goes to the toilet constantly.

Possibly from dirty water?

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the red bulletin

Deep down and delighted The moment Gennadiy Samokhin sets a new world record sees him submerged in a flooded area of a dark cave 2,196m underground

L at e a f t e r n o o n o n t h e d ay a f t e r the storm, another radio message a r r i v e s : “ W e h av e s e t a w o r l d r e c o r d ! T h e c av e i s 5 m d e e p e r ”

1,960m: Camp Rebus, the deepest cave camp in the world. Week three of the expedition, and Gennadiy Samokhin is ready to make a first record attempt.

The team is highly motivated, although no one knows if the weather will improve. At night underground they can hear how the rising water ‘snores’ in the sump. Even those with steady nerves feel anxious.

Late afternoon on the day after the red bulletin

the storm, another radio message arrives at the surface camp: “We have set a world record! The cave is 5m deeper.” Some members of the party, above and below ground, had expected Samokhin to extend the record further, but he risked his life for these 5m. To avoid a repeat of the problems that almost proved fatal in 2007, he used a different gas mixture. This time, the dive through the passage in the sump is a balancing act. Samokhin leaves spare tanks behind. Bends and ledges slow his progress. The pressure gauge in his tank shows one per cent of his oxygen left.

When he resurfaces, his dive computer confirms the depth of 2,196m. Samokhin firmly believes that he can go deeper,

that he hasn’t reached the bottom of Krubera. He told Ukranian reporters that the Dva Kapitana sump could be 10 miles long, and that it ends in the Black Sea. But because the sump is only about 100cm by 60cm, with barely a slope to it, advancing 40m yields only 5m in depth. On his next attempt, Samokhin wants to use a rebreather, which captures exhaled air and enriches it with new oxygen. Using this method, dives can be extended from 30 minutes to several hours. He may even look elsewhere to try and break his record.

If Samokhin should find another entrance to Krubera, it might lead to a more convenient way to go deeper. He will never stop trying.

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Escape Artists EYE are a Dubai band with an international outlook. But can they break the shackles of the local scene and rock the world? words: Noel Ebdon photography: Lukas Gansterer

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the red bulletin

EYE frontman Bojan Preradovic (left) and keyboard player Gorgin Asadi

B ackstage at Dubai’s Music Room, progressive rock band EYE are in their pre-game huddle before heading out onto stage. The band have opened for Metallica at the 20,000-capacity Abu Dhabi Forum, but tonight they’re playing to a room of no more than 300.

Such are the vagaries of the music industry, but the band treats every live show in exactly the same way. To them, 300 or 20,000 fans really isn’t the issue.

Unlike many local bands, EYE have seen success on the big stage, and as such have an air of professionalism and unity missing from bands based in a small city with few venues to exploit their craft.

“I think we all prefer to play the smaller venues because we can actually interact with the crowd far more than at a big event,” says Bojan Preradovic, EYE’s enigmatic frontman. The lead singer sports a beard and long shaggy hair, slipping easily into the rock persona.

“Metallica was an amazing experience for us, but it’s very different to playing a room full of faces you recognise and getting that direct response from the people in the front row. Both are great, but entirely different.”

The other band members have the same dark, unshaven look that crosses continents with ease. At face value, EYE could easily be from the West Coast of America, or Australia or anywhere in Europe. But, in the 58

“Metallica was amazing for us, but it’s very different to playing to a room full of faces you recognise and getting that direct response from the people in the front row”

EYE drummer Josh Saldanha the red bulletin

Dubai’s Music Room provides an intimate setting for bands like EYE

transient expat world of the Gulf, this is a band that consists of three Iranians, an Indian and a Serbian.

EYE are already well known across the region, thanks to a growing rock scene in the United Arab Emirates and Lebanon. Supporting Metallica was a great experience for the band, but they know that it takes far more than one break to succeed in this business.

Playing in front of such a big audience certainly increases local awareness, but is unlikely to make them a name worldwide. There was little international cooperation at the gig itself.

“We didn’t mix with Metallica, as both bands had their own stuff to prepare for the show,” says Kaveh Kashani, EYE’s bass player. “Apparently James Hetfield [Metallica’s lead singer] watched us for a bit, but we didn’t find out what he thought.”

EYE, short for Empty Yard Experiment (the acronym came first), have a VJ as a permanent part of their live shows.

He mixes images and pictures that reflect the theme and feeling of the songs that the band play. Imagine a cross between expressionist art, the movie Barbarella and a lava lamp. The visuals incorporate the movement of coloured oil on a tray, floating shapes and flashed images, among many things. It’s an important part of what EYE want to get across to their fans, and a far cry from the kind of pre-recorded video backdrops

that some bands use to crowbar a crowd into having a good time.

“It’s not common here for bands to mix visuals with music, says Gorgin Asadi, the band’s keyboard player. “It’s another way of us connecting with the audience and making them part of the band.

We’re making an event that includes the audience, the band, the visuals and everything else that makes a great gig.

“That’s why we are quite selective about where we play, as playing live is the real thrill for us. We have a passionate fanbase, so we want to make sure we do it right each time.”

At the Music Room, another local band, Beat Antenna, finish their set and leave the darkened stage. EYE are backstage, enjoying one of those moments of clarity, peace and contemplation that can occur before the opposite happens. The kind of moment movie directors love to overlay with a rhythmic beating heart and muffled background sound. It’s before the gun goes off in a 100m sprint, before the flag drops in a motocross race or, indeed, those brief seconds before a band walks out onto stage.

Moment over, EYE’s newest member, Josh Saldanha, seats himself behind the drum kit, pushing his huge curly black hair back for the umpteenth time, before watching it fall back in front of his eyes once again. Once 59

Hit man: Josh Saldanha is EYE’s newest member

into his performance, he’s too focused on keeping the beat to worry about it.

Gorgin Asadi’s stacked keyboards are squeezed in to the side of Josh, but elevated on a platform. Asadi looks down over the rest of the band like a tank commander. He’s easily got the best view in the house.

By now, the club is pretty full and a large number of people have filled the area in front of the stage. EYE clearly has a keen local following. There’s a good mix of the sexes, with everyone eschewing the Dubai-standard short skirt (for her), polo shirt (for him, or possibly her) uniform that litters the clubs and bars in the tourist areas further up town.

EYE open up with East, an instrumental that builds with dramatic tension, evolving into a more classic rock feel with wailing guitars and sharp changes in tempo. EYE’s PR pack describes the music as “an innovative mélange of musical landscapes, inspired by Middle Eastern culture and politics, intertwined with a novel approach to visual expression of the musical art form”. They sound like a psychedelic Led Zeppelin with elements of Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Placebo and Nine Inch Nails.

They follow that opening song with GHHR, which allows Bojan Preradovic to show his vocal credentials, belting out the syrupy lyrics of what is, Forum snub or no Forum snub, a Metallica-esque 60

the crowd don’t want to let EYE make a quick escape. A rush of people want to hang with the band

track. EYE know their crowd, working them up, slowing them down and then preparing them for a big finale.

Nothing encapsulates the band’s ambitions better than the final song of the set, The Call. The instrumental features a long lull in the hard rock guitar sections, before building to a climactic finish. It allows Mehdi Gr to really show his natural touch with the lead guitar.

The contrast between percussion and keyboard, and the guitars at the front of the stage, is night and day. The guitarists move slowly and trance-like, matching the tempo of the songs. Behind them Asadi leaps around and shouts at the audience, accompanied by Saldanha’s living hair. This is no contemporary band, but they a leading light of the music scene in what can only be described as a cultural outpost of rock music.

The crowd aren’t going to let the guys off stage without a fight. A bit of chanting brings them back out for one more song, Ortni. With that, it’s over. The Metallica gig was bigger in numbers terms, but the passion is very much the same.

The five members leave the stage from the front and join their crowd. This is EYE’s last gig for several months before heading into the studio over the hot summer to record their second album.

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he crowd do not want to let the band make a quick escape. In the darkness at the back of the club, about 30 minutes after EYE stepped off stage, Mehdi Gr senses a lull in the rush of people wanting to hang with the band.

With guitar case in hand, he makes a break for it, and makes it to the door. It turns out he was the last of the band to leave the fans’ affections. By 3am, three of the five EYE men are back at Asadi’s apartment, relaxing, smoking and winding down, Gr and Kashani choosing instead to use the energy of live performance to carry them through a night on the town.

Back at the Music Room, the final act of the night have reached the last part of their set. The night has been entertaining, but more importantly, encouraging.

The Dubai music scene is hampered by government red tape and suffocated by a host of cover bands, but look hard enough and you will see that a vital part of it is thriving. Spots like the Music Room help, as they provide a legal venue for bands.

EYE, you feel, would find a way to do what they do whatever the situation. www.facebook.com/eyeband

the red bulletin

EYE bass player Kaveh Kashani (left) and lead guitarist Mehdi Gr

e h t g n i t n e v n i e r

e e wh inated by m o d e d a c e d After a orld Rally W e h t , b e o L n SĂŠbastie eds a fresh e n p i h s n o i p Cham ith its fair w t r o p s a n I . n a m leading actors, who can r e t c a r a h c f o e r a h s he series? be the new star of t cKlein n e r Ph oto g ra p hy: M Words: Werner Jess

l

WRC driver Evgeny Novikov at this year’s Acropolis Rally in Greece

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Doing everything right: Sébastien Ogier (also below left) and Volkswagen Motorsport in the lead after the first sweltering day of action in Greece

he king of rally, the once-in-a-lifetime genius, the demolisher of records, has just one more race to go before the chequered flag falls for the last time.

In Strasbourg in October, on the Rallye de France-Alsace, Sébastien Loeb will, on home-country roads, mark the end of his era and a dominance the likes of which rally has never seen and is unlikely to see again anytime soon.

When Loeb debuted in the World Rally Championship in 1999, the stars of the show were Tommi Mäkinen, Carlos Sainz, Richard Burns and Colin McRae. To win a race, you needed a Mitsubishi or Subaru or even a Peugeot as long as the 64

charismatic Finn Marcus Grönholm was behind the wheel. Then came Loeb, larger than life, winning nine titles in a row, all of them with Citroën, a manufacturer previously noted for a single Monte Carlo Rally victory in 1966, which came after the Mini Coopers in first, second and third were disqualified for having the wrong kind of headlights.

To see Loeb compete – in the formative Xsara, then in the wonderful C4, and finally in the dinky DS3 – was to witnesses greatness. They said that a non-Scandinavian could never win Finland’s 1000 Lakes Rally, but if you were to place a pebble on the apex at the red bulletin

An iconic race.

Economic crisis?

Not here, not now

the exit of a curve combination there, every driver would be at least a metre away from the sweet spot – except Loeb.

Loeb deserves all platitudes, but the abdication of the “best car driver in the world” (copyright: Michael Schumacher) opens up significant new prospects for the WRC. If changes have to be made, now is the time to make them.

Gladiators

The Acropolis Rally in Greece is one of the iconic events in the calendar, driven on dusty, stony gravel paths around the Isthmus of Corinth, treacherous for every part of its 1,052km course length. the red bulletin

Drained: Russian driver Evgeny Novikov

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Mikko Hirvonen is striving to fill Loeb’s shoes

The spectators along the route love the WRC. They come in their thousands to get covered in dust and bombarded with gravel from the cars’ back wheels. They barbecue at the roadside for the special stages, armed with flags and cameras.

Year after year, they stare, gleeful and amazed, as the heroes tear past in their loud, colourful cars. Economic crisis, unemployment, bad mood? Not here, not now. Just put on your VW cap and Ford T-shirt and join the party!

Ancient Greek stories established that, before the status of hero can be conferred, there comes a test, which, at least in the short term, leads to failure.

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Sébastien Ogier, the staunch, upright driver of the VW team, was tested in battle against Loeb last season, driving a second-tier Skoda S2000. The current world championship leader, now driving a Polo, he sets off first as clear favourite.

Drivers here have particular respect for two special stages: the first from Kineta to Pissia, because it’s tough and long; the second, Kineta, because it’s driven at night. The banks of hood-mounted spotlights on 300hpplus four-wheel-drives can’t hope to elicit every secret from Greek donkey trails. An average speed of around 90kph is expected on a road

It ’s pitch dark in Greece, but everyone

is wide awake

the red bulletin

Credit:

On the menu at the Greek rally: night, dust, stones, holes

that would shred the nerves of normal drivers in normal cars at normal speeds.

Ogier is expected to win the night stage handsomely, with an intimidating time, but it doesn’t turn out that way.

After just 10 minutes at racing speed, the VW Polo R WRC and its fuel supply have stopped. It’s all over for Ogier.

Later, the mechanics will determine that the plug to the fuel pump has come loose, and who knows how that could have happened. A stupid defect, but decisive for the race. It’s dark in Greece, but everyone’s wide awake.

The king of the night (and the next morning) is Russian driver Evgeny Novikov, with the co-driving genius Ilka Minor from Austria at his side.

Minor learnt her championship chops at the right hand of Manfred Stohl, for years the best privateer in WRC, and later proved a flawless guide to Norway’s Henning Solberg. She is now leading a rally for the first time.

“Finally we’re right where we’re supposed to be,” she says, standing in the dark in the service area. Novikov’s joy is more internalised. He was once the youngest driver to win a WRC special stage, but that pales beside tonight’s achievement. Novikov has the biggest balls of all the top drivers, but the next morning he rips a break disc on a concealed stone, and then a brake line, a wheel rim, a wheel, a strut. But, in the end the man from Moscow wins four of the Acropolis Rally’s 14 special stages.

Mikko Hirvonen of Citroën had high hopes for Greece, but the once 67

Around every corner

there’s a rock that could end a driver’s rally

unflappable Finn is flapping about. His stats say he is slow, but if a technical problem in the first special stage means your front wheels no longer do what your steering wheel commands, a light foot on the pedal is better ascribed to caution than cowardice. Nonetheless, Hirvonen, whose 15 WRC victories make him the most successful of the current drivers apart from Loeb, is a long way from fulfilling the role intended for him: to defend the world championship cup for Citroën Sport. Hirvonen is no Loeb, and that’s rarely been more apparent than this season, of all seasons, the one that would really count.

For a long stretch of the rally, the battle for the lead moves in time-lapse.

To force a decision requires reflexes rather than brain capacity: at the limits the car must become a part of the body, a part you can position down to the centimetre while driving at 160kph on a gravel lane, running on instincts or blind trust in whatever your co-driver tells you. Sébastien Ogier is managing that best, and lately, so has his team-mate, the 28-year-old Finn Jari-Matti Latvala, who has been rally’s ‘man of the future’ for what seems like a decade. By turns lightning fast and error-prone, Latvala has finally found his niche at VW. For a while he was playing dogsbody at Ford, but

the cool, calm, clever VW motorsports director Jost Capito gives him space: “Everyone can be a winner here.”

With Ogier’s technical problems, it’s Latvala who carries the team’s hopes in Greece, and he performs brilliantly. On the rutted, unyielding gravel piste there’s a rock or a hole lying in wait around every corner that can stop your race dead. But slow down too much and you become prey to opponents who will notice any reduction in pace instantly. After winning the rally, Latvala thanks and hugs everyone on his triumphant return to the service park, even the mechanics for Ogier and his young Norwegian teammate Andreas Mikkelsen.

Forging a dominant troupe out of a functional team and breaking Citroën’s perpetual dominance within half a season: this is all Capito’s doing.

Capito says that the objective for the season is to “fight for one of the two championship titles, driver or team, until the end”, and he has an unlikely advocate in Latvala, who says he has “ended many seasons in the top three of the drivers’ championship but never won the team championship.

That’s my goal for this year. Anything else, I’ll take it as it comes.”

In 2014, manufacturers will be allowed to bring new, improved cars

Additional photography: werner jessnr

Not without my digicam: fans follow Norwegian Ford driver Andreas Mikkelsen

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the red bulletin

Greece winners 2013: Jari-Matti Latvala and Mikka Anttila.

Above right: Sébastien Ogier studies his final time sheet.

Above left: Ogier and co-driver Julien Ingrassia in action

to the starting line. VW voluntarily waived this right, aware of its opponents’ issues. Citroën is casting an eye on the touring car scene as a future sphere of activity. Ford’s involvement is down to the personal interest of motorsports boss Malcolm Wilson, with no more participation from the manufacturing side. And if Hyundai step up as a new manufacturer, it’s only fair that they start on a level playing field.

New rules

One thing is clear: the WRC, a mighty live experience, a superior sporting series, is currently having trouble establishing its force on the ground.

In most parts of Europe, JariMatti Latvala can walk the streets unrecognised, “and when I’m on holiday in California I may as well be an alien.”

If it were up to the Finn, he would make sure that WRC were broadcast live around the world. He might be in 70

A lot of work is going on

to increase WRC’s standing

luck, because there’s a lot of work going on behind the scenes to ensure better presentation of the sport, and to increase its standing. (Latvala received the Greece cup from the hands of FIA president Jean Todt, an honour rarely even accorded Formula One victors.)

About 50 million people currently watch the WRC on television. With Red Bull Media House assuming control of the rights in co-operation with the Sportsman Media Group, the aim is to double this figure in the short-tomedium term. The FIA rally chief, Michèle Mouton, who finished runner-up

in the 1982 world rally championship, and WRC race organisers are currently rethinking the format of the rallies.

What about a marathon day without servicing, for example? How do you make the most of the special stages?

What do you do on the Sundays? How about a shoot-out for the final special stage: the fastest and second-fastest in the rally to that point competing for first place, third- and fourth-fastest for third, and so on, until 10th place?

There are lots of options and ideas on the table, ideas to be discussed, discarded, determined by vote or democratically replaced with something better. These are exciting times for the World Rally Championship. www.wrc.com Watch the extended highlights from the Acropolis Rally in The Red Bulletin tablet edition.

Download it now for free the red bulletin

Your favourite artists share their personal playlists: Headphone Highlights on rbmaradio.com

Ricky Simms

The Gaffer You’ve got to move fast to look after Usain Bolt and Mo Farah, among a roster of world-class athletes, and this Irishman manages just fine

world champion and double Olympic “I wouldn’t want to embarrass Usain,” medallist in 5,000m and 10,000m. says Ricky Simms, a grin cracking his It’s a role he fell into naturally, having face open wide, “but I can beat him graduated from Belfast’s Jordanstown at a lot of things.” It’s a brief moment University with a degree in sport and of jocular hubris in the otherwise exercise science and soon after realised groomed, composed manner of the that his own talent as an Irish under-23 manager of the fastest man on Earth. middle-distance international would not So what can he beat Bolt at? carry him on to a full-time running career.

“Long-distance running. For sure.

Anything over a mile. Easily,” he says, the grin now a chuckle.

World sport’s most charismatic personality has a manager who can match him for competitive spirit.

Simms, 38, from Milford, County Donegal, wears the sharp suit of a seasoned sports agent with ease, but he’s a sportsman at heart and, even if his lungs and limbs weren’t up to the job of being a world-class middle distance runner back in the 1990s, his competitive zeal hasn’t waned.

You don’t get to be the boss of Pace Sports Management, the pre-eminent agency in world athletics, without Ricky Simms makes sure Usain Bolt’s career stays on track the killer instinct, but Simms is quick He soon made his way to Teddington in to dispel the notion that, sharp suit Middlesex to learn the ropes of athletic aside, he is anything like the cut-throat coaching and management under the agents caricatured by Hollywood. tutelage of athletics agent Kim McDonald.

“It’s not about us doing well, it’s When McDonald died suddenly in 2001, about the athletes doing well. If the aged 45, Simms and his German girlfriend, athletes are doing well, we do well.”

Marion Steininger – the two are now Simms is busy paring down the married and live in Middlesex – took over numbers in his agency so he can generate McDonald’s roster of almost 80 athletes, bigger income for a smaller group. Mo happily discovering that the majority Farah, the superstar of middle-distance were willing to give a rookie a chance. running, is still on the books, having “I think we were fortunate that we talked his way into Pace back when he had good-quality athletes, that we were was a sales assistant working in the already a strong company. Predominately sportswear shop across the road.

Kenyan long-distance runners. So, of Simms is first and foremost a coach course, some of [the promoters] made who still writes the training and racing life much more difficult. When Kim was programmes for many of his athletes, negotiating, if he had negotiated a fee of including Vivian Cheruiyot, three-time 72

$10,000 to run the race they’d say to us, ‘No, we’re only going to pay $3,000.’ So you had to work very hard to justify it.”

A rewarding business became a ticket to fortune and a sprinkling of fame when, in 2003, he engaged the services of a rangy limbed Jamaican 15-year-old with otherworldly sprint times. Simms knew Usain Bolt had world-class potential, but he’d seen child prodigies fail before.

“Everyone was talking about this kid from Jamaica who was winning the under-20s when he was 15. He was a giant. I remember saying, ‘This guy is going to revolutionise the sport.’ But we’d had many talented kids before – maybe he was 15 in a 25-year-old’s body?”

Since Bolt’s elevation to sporting deity at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, Simms’s feet have hardly touched the ground. A busy travel schedule has removed him from much of the day-to-day activity at Pace as he works to make the most of Bolt’s speed on the track and his affability off it.

“I think our business model changed a little bit in the last five years,” says Simms. “We kind of have a company working full-time for Usain, and another working full-time for Mo. I could spend all day, every day on either one of those guys.”

So, who is the next global athletics star? Simms has one name in mind.

“I think it’s going to be difficult to have a Usain again in our lifetime. There are always talented sprinters in Jamaica, you know. We have another guy, he ran 9.97. So there’s Usain, then there’s Yohan Blake, and then this guy, Kemar BaileyCole is his name. We look after him, but it’s a long road. This year is a big year for him to see if he can step up.” www.pacesportsmanagement.com the red bulletin

Photography: DPPi (1)

Words: Declan Quigley

On The Pace: Notably Ricky Simms Clients Usain Bolt, Mo Farah, Vivian Cheruiyot, Kemar BaileyCole, Christine Ohuruogu (400m), Phillips Idowu (triple jump) ‘Just 8.5 off the pace!’

According to records at Finn Valley athletics club in Donegal, with whom Simms has been affiliated for many years, his best recorded 10k is 35:03.

Mo Farah’s best is 26:46.

Tenth Atmosphere Simms is the eldest of a family of 10 children The Kicker He is a lifelong Liverpool FC fan and a regular at Bayern Munich. “I should have been a footballer,” he says.

Meditations on riding a racing bike from a philosopher in love with cycling’s purest form Words: Konrad Paul Liessmann Photography: Timm KÜlln

additional Photography: Corn.at

The ultimate ride

T here are many ways to move on a bicycle: slow, fast, in the city, off-road, in the woods. There are also many types of bicycle: city bikes, trekking bikes, old lady bikes, mountain bikes. There is, however, only one form of mobility that closely adheres to the platonic concept of the bicycle, that transforms our reality into an exemplary illustration of an immortal archetype. And that is riding a racing bike.

It should be noted that the following is not about racing bikes in sport or competitions. It is not concerned with the amateurs doing their rounds or the professionals who get pumped up for televised races. The sole purpose is to fathom out the possibilities and limitations of self-propelled locomotion through a combination of efficiency and elegance, which is both a break in the monotony of everyday life and creates transcendence through the monotony of movement. The racing bike encompasses both the ways and means in one.

The racing bike: the greatest form of transport?

One can ride a bike in order to get from A to B. One can also ride a bike because it’s trendy, or in order to transport something on the back or in a pannier. Whatever the reason, the bike will seem ideal for the task, yet, as with everything in the world, be deformed by its use. All art and things of beauty have their beginnings where all intention ends. Only when the bicycle ceases to be a transport aid

or a vehicle, only when it has recovered a sense of identity of its own, does it emerge pure and unclouded by the sweat of the rider who abandoned himself to the freewheeling imperatives that can take him into the very depths of his being.

The racing bike has a classical form, practically unaltered for decades. Frame, handlebars, wheels, gears, brakes, saddle, pedals, chain – nothing else is required.

Saddlebags are irritating, but then again so are lights, although sometimes necessary for cycling through dark underpasses. Better to cycle 100m in the dark than attach lights to a racing bike. The only tribute to the age of microelectronics is the cyclocomputer (an adamant medium of self-reflection).

The often-vilified conservatism of the racing bike is based solely on its design, and this, in turn, is an expression of its central principle: effortlessness. That this bike doesn’t look like much, and weighs even less, in reality makes it stand apart.

Any expensive elements are hidden from the layman’s view and only disclosed to the expert: the material and handling of the frame, the workmanship in the handlebar and the components. An inconspicuous machine made from precious materials: steel, aluminium and carbon.

There’s only one thing to do with a racing bike, and that’s ride it, but not wherever and whenever one might like. The racing bike is committed to one of civilisation’s achievements, the road, which stands at the forefront of the entire mobility culture. It is not designed for the wild outdoors, single-track paths or piles of rubble, no suggestion of technically induced return to nature. It wants to be where people have long since left

The author Konrad Paul Liessmann is professor of methods of teaching philosophy and ethics at the University of Vienna. He is also an essayist, literary critic and journalist

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visible trails of their development. The racing bike remains longingly attached to the winding, smooth strip of tarmac, a sign that people strove to escape from nature. The road is, and remains, the place of its fulfilment – not the pathless terrains, not even the separate bike path, which, although perhaps suitable for all cyclists, isn’t suitable for this particular bicycle. A road convenient for the racing bike must fulfil the highest demands: first-class, smooth tarmac that numbs almost any friction; a route that opens up the landscape without dividing it in two; wide enough not to have to brake, even on a winding descent, but not so wide that only the road itself is visible on the horizon.

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he tarmac only procures from the racing bike the amount of strength its rider possesses. It is quiet. The racing cyclist appears and disappears almost unheeded.

Silent movement like this could be considered a model example of cultivated travel, compared with the original sin of a roaring motor. Wherever possible, the racing bike avoids the droning noise of motors brutally cutting through the silent landscape. However, it cannot completely deter the following experience, as formulated by Theodor Adorno in his 1951 book Minima Moralia: to be viewed from the motorists’ perspective as ‘vermin of the street’. In regards of the cyclist, most motorists seem to apply one tactic – overtake at any cost whatsoever, however narrow, unclear or full of oncoming traffic the location, no matter how fast the cyclist is travelling. It seems unbearable for the motorist to brake for even a few moments, to wait until both the road and his vision are clear again.

He must, protected by his steel skin, drive past, shoving the non-motorist aside. If, due to circumstances that hinder any overtaking manoeuvres – which unfortunately doesn’t happen often enough – the motorist is forced to wait, then the cyclist will already be able to sense the motorist’s hissing nervousness as he brakes behind him. Then, passing by at the first opportunity with a triumphantly roaring motor, a swathe of noise and fumes in his wake, in a senseless demonstration of power based on nothing more than the strength of a machine that has turned man into its slaving appendage.

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The distinguishing factor apparent in all of man’s vehicles applies to the racing bike: the fascination with speed. This first occurs when one exceeds the speed of a person running. In order to succumb to this, the racing cyclist requires only smoothly functioning mechanics that optimally translate his physical possibilities. Later, gliding across the plains at 30 or 35kph, or maybe faster, with the wind behind you if luck will allow, the motion provides an unmistakable sensation: fast enough to see the landscape in flow, to see villages and fields flashing by and losing sight of them just as fast; fast enough to observe a change in what you see, but slow enough to experience landscapes, in the truest sense of the word. The body develops its own memory concerning this kind of forward motion, the road’s course is registered with an eager yet sometimes painful exactness, the eye can barely review the things in passing. To experience a region by bike means to perceive it with an intensity that is touched by the fleetingness of all movement, one image seamlessly merging into another, without the landscape turning into a stage set that disappears as soon as it has appeared – as during motor-powered drives – but also without the surroundings seeming to stand still and retreat slowly, step by step, as during hiking. A mode of distracted concentration is set as the whirr of the chain is perceptible, the eye wandering between the road and the horizon, back and forth. The mind is free. Associations intensify, memories are reproduced, ideas are born. The constant pedalling seems contemplative and the terrain, which some denounce as boring, develops its own unique pull. Whoever has traversed a large plain such as the Hungarian Puszta on a racing bike will never forget it.

a few hours and anything below 100km per day, count only as training. Actual pleasure starts only after sitting on the saddle for an entire day and after the cyclocomputer goes beyond the 100km mark. When everything is perfect – weather, conditions, inner strength – and one disembarks after 200km, leans over the map once more and traces the route with a finger, then it becomes clear that this was more than just physical action: it was the appropriation of an area that has left no traces apart from memories.

hat seems easy on the plains is more difficult on hilly, almost mountainous terrain, and becomes a challenge, something inherent in riding a racing bike: the coverage of large distances, the metaphorical conquest of an area using leg power. It is, without a doubt, absurd to embark on small outings on a racing bike. Trips lasting

Even after hours gliding through the countryside, the racing bike is still not in its full element. Its name, nature, geometry and myth suggest above all one thing: speed. All landscape, tranquillity and contemplation disappear in the face of a high-speed descent. The rider is bent forward, ducking to reduce air pressure, so as to plummet down a sharply sloping long strait; the chain sitting at the highest gear, accelerating to 60, 70 and way over 80kph in just a few seconds, only checking that no bumps, no potholes, no animals or

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“A mountain road is not any old road in some random place, but a crossing.

It demonstrates to the cyclist, sometimes with extreme brutality, that the utopia of human movement has a price”

the red bulletin

by other means. One might, while struggling there against the seemingly endless upward slope, start to feel depressed. The roads, adapted to their geological conditions, leading upwards in a serpentine manner, one turn after another, provide the most honest impression of human technology: the overcoming of nature by adjustment, by approximation. It is there, where the road follows the formation of the mountain range itself, forcing the rider up twists and turns, the horizon gradually widening, the valley sinking back and the sky edging nearer, one turn after another. The turn, as pointed out by the philosopher Martin Heidegger, is in fact no turning point, no reversal, but a change of direction in order to maintain direction, a detour in order to reach the goal – simply a method and, above all, when applied to the slopes even for just seconds, a moment of regeneration.

B A descent can intoxicate with its speed, but the climb is the racing bike rider’s biggest rush

passers-by come into view; hands clasped around the handlebars, ready to brake; the scantily protected body in the driving wind; the highest state of concentration making anything apart from thinking impossible. That is a direct experience of speed, uncushioned by a steel or leather exterior and both the greatest desire and fear at once, fulfilling a central category of aesthetic perception: pleasant horror, a glimpse of the sublime. the red bulletin

More profound than speed intoxication, more profound than the descent, is the climb. In this case everything is at stake: testing the limits. Anybody who is ‘at one’ with their racing bike will acquire this legendary rush, assuming that their physical condition allows it, which heroes of great bike tours, the Tour de France and Giro d’Italia, have been either conquered or shattered by. Perhaps the feat of clambering up a high alpine pass is the most intense one can ever have with a racing bike, in several respects.

A mountain pass already gives cause for reflection: it is not any old road in some random place, but a crossing. It connects two valleys, overcomes the separated and demonstrates to the cyclist, sometimes with extreme brutality, that this act of overcoming, the utopia of all human movement, also has a price.

On the pass, the grandeur of the mountain range is touched by the technology of its defeat. Man-made tunnels and bridges cut through the scenery as a progression of straight lines and leave the valleys unconnected

iking through the mountains demands your all. No matter if setting off in a group or with a partner, on the mountain the cyclist experiences an existential dimension: loneliness. On the mountain everyone is alone, alone with oneself, one’s body and the upward ascent. One can never experience anything more insistent than the struggle against oneself. When, after a long mountain excursion, the upward slope increases by 12 per cent with no end in sight, legs feel heavy and the lungs tighten, the following question comes to mind: Why go on? Why not dismount, rest, turn back? Nobody is here, the road is bleak and deserted. There is no reason to continue this torture. Yet as long as its possible, one remains on the saddle until the goal has been reached. And if – after maybe 120km riding through the Dolomites, after completing four or five alpine passes, the final upward slope, the final turn illuminated by the setting sun – one then knows that there is an endlessly long descent ahead at the end of which a dining table is set and waiting, then a glimpse of happiness strikes, a shimmer of deliverance in the looming heights of the pass, visible on the nearby horizon.

Extracted from The Universe of Things: On the Aesthetics of Everyday Life by Konrad Paul Liessmann (Paul Zsolnay Verlag, Vienna, 2010).

Reprinted with permission of the publisher.

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SURF SPECIAL

roll on,

ROCK AWAY Hurricane Sandy swamped the east coast of America, devastating New York City’s only public surf beach. A group of surfers have made it their mission to bring Rockaway beach back to life Words: Cole Louison Photography: Benjamin Lowy

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Additional Photography: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

teve Stathis is sitting on the decking between Boarders, his gutted surf shop, and a painted wall of lockers on Beach 92nd Street and Rockaway Beach Boulevard, two blocks from the Atlantic Ocean. “We look forward to hurricanes,” he says, “because they bring big waves. That’s the difference between us and normal people.”

Inside the shop, among debris, power tools, and a grumbling generator, Stathis’s son, granddaughter and surf buddies have congregated around a makeshift table where one of them has opened a yellowing album of old surf photos. Five months after Hurricane Sandy, the shop is still without electricity.

Stathis, 63, is the guy you seek out when you want to talk to someone about surfing in Rockaway, an 18km peninsula in Queens, New York that Sandy reduced “to a pile of rubble” according to The Wall Street Journal. Home to the only public surf beach in New York City, its breaks are ridden year round by a dedicated group of around 300 local surfers.

You might recognise Stathis if you read or watched a lot of news after the hurricane last October. The media followed him like an aura after the tragedy. His hair is mostly white, but 80

he is tan and tall, with a surfer’s upperbody build and the powerfully smooth gait of all water athletes. His accent is flatly Queens, with short vowels and muted r’s, and he speaks in an articulate, friendly way that welcomes outsiders by letting them know who’s in charge.

The wind blowing in off the water is cold, with whiffs of salty sand, but Stathis is sitting in the spring sunshine with his workshirt open listening to distant pops of nailguns. He is the founder and president of the Graybeards, a local nonprofit organisation formed in the wake of 9/11. To date, the group has raised and distributed over US$1 million to hurricane victims. He was one of the first people to ride the break two blocks away and is a living legend in the Rockaway surf scene, which is half a century old and spearheaded by himself and the guys inside his shop drinking coffee: Jimmy Dowd, Dennis McClean and John Roberts, the elder of the group, who calls his old surf buddy “a great, great man”.

“Rockaway is tight-knit,” says Stathis. “Growing up, you had to be careful what you did in this community, because someone would spot you and tell your parents.”

He pauses and watches a plane pass overhead. “And so there’s a lot of localism here. If you paddle out to the line and try to hog waves, you’re gonna get dealt with. But it’s changed. When I started surfing here, there were seriously like 10 guys in the water. Now? Forget about it.”

(And yes, he does pronounce it “fuhgeddaboudit”, though nobody says anything.)

“Yeah. A lot’s changed since it started.”

Steve Stathis in his gutted Rockaway Beach surf shop

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“We look forward to hurricanes because they bring big waves”

S

The isolated community of Rockaway was one of the hardest hit areas in New York

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urfing didn’t start in Queens, Florida, California, or even Hawaii. It probably started 3,000 years ago in French Polynesia, an island nation of seagoing people who brought heenalu, or ‘wave-sliding’, to Hawaii sometime in the 16th century. The earliest surviving records are the journals of European explorers, who first banned the activity, but soon found themselves sliding waves.

Surfing stayed on Hawaii until 1907, when a local named George Freeth formally introduced it to America when he was hired by the Pacific Electric Railroad to ride waves for a public relations event organised to coincide with the opening of the company’s Redondo Beach line.

Surfing took to California and sprung up almost immediately in Florida, slowly moving up the coast. According to former 81

The boardwalk at Rockaway Beach was washed away by the storm

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professional surfer and surf historian Mike Tabeling, people paddled boards, but didn’t surf, off Virginia Beach throughout the 1920s, and there’s a 1934 record of a Californian named Tom Blake giving surf demonstrations in New York and New Jersey, although the surfers at Boarders, who have been riding the waves at Rockaway for six decades, say nothing caught on until the late 1950s.

It was Korean War veterans, they say, who made up the first scene: native New Yorkers returning from abroad with a newfound passion they were determined to try out at home, despite the comparatively small waves and 5OC water temperatures that drove surfers to wear two bathing caps and wool sweaters coated in oil.

Korea, now famous for its waves, saw the war end in July 1953, about five years before Dennis McClean started the red bulletin

“Every year they tell us to evacuate, but we’re used to hurricanes here”

Jimmy Dowd, owner of surfing company St James, stands where the boardwalk used to be

surfing the break off his neighbourhood beach, but he remembers the older kids paddling out to the break a year or two before. This is around the time that a quiet fishing village 160km east of Rockaway was turning into a secret surf town, and today both Montauk’s waves and wild ’60s surf culture are the stuff of legend. (Entire books have been devoted to both Montauk and Korea’s surf scenes.)

If this were Top Gun, McClean might be Tom Skerritt, call sign Viper. Even among the skilled Rockaway surf elders, he is revered for his talent on a board. He was one of the first surfers on the east coast sponsored by legendary California surfboard company Hobie, and he was riding Rockaway “about two years” before he was regularly surfing with the core group that included John Roberts and Steve Stathis.

“What year? Hmmmmm,” he says, his winter hat pulled down past his eyebrows. “It was the year I was turned down for Little League. The scene was very small – my brother Dee and a couple of other guys. So I borrowed my friend’s board with a seam all the way around it and I didn’t do so well. Then one of the older guys said to move up on the

John Roberts, one of the first to surf the Rockaway break

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board, so I did and caught the next wave. That was it.”

Everybody here has their and-thenI-started-surfing story. They all begin in different places and end in the water, where they stay.

“Surfing kind of takes over your life,” says Stathis.

“I never looked back,” says McClean.

“Once that bug bites you…” says Roberts, trailing off.

“I can’t imagine not doing it now,” says Michelle Cortez, a 20-something Manhattan-born artist, who visited Rockaway in 2011 from Williamsburg and never left. “Surfing took over.”

Collectively, they offer their mostly overlapping histories of Rockaway surfing, the ebbs and flows of its popularity, their picketing City Hall for the surf beach they finally got in 2005, the reasons for the aggressive local culture, etc, and slowly but surely, a spooky truism arises: hurricanes mean big waves and waves mean good surfing.

“Every year they tell us to evacuate,” says Stathis. “We always say, ‘Well, we didn’t evacuate then and we’re not evacuating now, we’re used to hurricanes here,” he continues. “Hurricane Donna.

Faith. Gloria. And we got excited when we heard Sandy was coming.”

H

urricane Sandy brought big surf. Double-headers, waves twice the height of a person, rolled into Rockaway 48 hours before the storm, bringing out the surfers and cops. Cortez, who’d spent Hurricane Irene taking pictures from the boardwalk, found the surf too strong, but hung out on the beach.

Police asked her and some friends to paddle out and tell the surfers not to surf.

At 4pm on Sunday, October 28, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg ordered the evacuation of Zone A, which included the coasts of Lower Manhattan, Williamsburg, Red Hook, Staten Island and all of Rockaway. “This evacuation is mandatory,” said the mayor. “It is for your own safety.” Anyone who stayed did so at their own risk.

Cortez and her neighbours decided to stay. A dozen friends congregated to make dinner and camp out in a second-floor room in the steel and brick building across the street. They called the gathering a ‘hurricane party’.

As winds picked up, Stathis watched the storm in a bar in Florida, where he’d gone with McClean for a holiday. His wife, Kathy, planned to fly down in two days. Hours before the storm hit, Kathy 83

Rockaway has been largely cleaned up, although it has yet to be rebuilt

“The surfing community gets a bad rep, but if it wasn’t for us, a lot of people would be dead”

emailed a video of herself with their baby granddaughter, Charlotte. “Here we are in big, bad Hurricane Sandy,” she said, holding Charly up to the screen.

T

wo storeys above 91st Street, spirits were high at the hurricane party. There’d be no work tomorrow, so everyone was having fun, drinking beer and watching the weather forecast.

The storm was scheduled to hit the coast at 9pm, but by 5.30 things were picking up. “There was this point of silence at the party,” remembers Cortez, “and then a point where everyone went home.”

She decided to check on her dog at

Michelle Cortez went on a surfing trip to Rockaway – and has stayed there ever since

Hurricane Sandy was the second-costliest storm in US history after Katrina, when measured by the amount of damage.

The National Hurricane Center estimates close to US$50 billion in property loss

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the red bulletin

“The first thing out of out mouths was, ‘The boardwalk is gone’”

home and, off the kerb outside, stepped into water up to her shins. It was hours before high tide and there was a full moon. She ran across the street, and “in about eight minutes” packed a bag, unplugged everything and got her dog.

When she stepped off her porch, the water was up to her hips. “That was the moment when I thought I’d made a mistake. That something really major was going to happen,” she says.

A group of about 15 people spent the night in a room whose windows rattled in the storm, even though they were built to withstand 110mph winds. At one point, someone spotted an SUV floating down the street with three young men inside.

Jimmy Dowd, the owner of a surf gear company called St James, went upstairs and retrieved three wetsuits, then swam to out the vehicle with two friends and pulled the men through the sunroof.

Power was lost at two in the morning when a transformer blew into the side of the building.

Cortez stayed up texting her mother every 10 minutes, until her phone ran out the red bulletin

of power. Around this time Stathis got a text from his wife: “We’re going to die.”

They all got through the night and at around 5.30 in the morning, Cortez and a friend decided to venture out. They walked down the stairwell to find the lobby more than half a metre deep in sand and the courtyard full of broken glass and sofas. The abandoned SUV was wedged in the doorway.

“We stepped outside and the first thing out of both our mouths was, ‘The boardwalk is gone.’ There are so many unbelievable things that happened. But the boardwalk being gone, that was, uh…”

I

f the boardwalk represents Rockaway, then what Sandy did to the boardwalk is metaphorically appropriate. The damage estimates for Sandy are upwards of US$50 billion. New York City was the hardest-hit area and Rockaway was among the hardest-hit neighbourhoods in New York City. About US$150 million in damage was done to the beach alone. Boarders was flooded with 2m of water, though the tide stopped

at Cortez’s front door. Much of the 11km stretch of lumber disappeared, leaving a line of concrete pillars down the beach.

“Yeah, the boardwalk,” says Stathis.

“The lifeblood of our community was the boardwalk, and now there’s no boardwalk.” A football-field-length piece of it had floated down 95th Street.

Plane-sized chunks with their railings showed up 200m away. These were some of the first sights to greet Stathis when he came back to town two days later.

Cortez describes it as “Armageddon”.

Stathis says words can’t describe it.

“You had to see it,” he says.

No official relief would come to Rockaway for four days, though by midmorning people were out, exploring the ruins and helping one another. Neighbours met on the relocated boardwalk, bartering for supplies. Drop stations were established on Cortez’s and other people’s front porches, with posted lists of what was needed most. Neighbours sought out elderly and housebound people and ran supplies to them. Some packed supplies on their backs and walked from house to house.

Dan Sullivan spent the morning paddling around the neighbourhood on his surfboard, rescuing dogs and cats. “The surfing community gets a bad notch,” he says, “but if it wasn’t for us, a lot of people would be dead.”

Sullivan stands at the corner of Beach 92nd and Holland Avenue while his cousin chops wood at the house behind him. A musician and producer who lost his studio, Sullivan and his brother distributed gas generators around the neighbourhood to homes without heat.

Rockaway has been largely cleaned up, though not rebuilt. Most of the wrecked cars, homes, and the boardwalk have been hauled away, leaving only indications of the storm: water lines, lawns with no grass, homes with no siding. The neighbourhood looks scrubbed clean in a way that’s offputting and violent. As Sullivan speaks, internal and external renovations are taking place on every street, some by work crews, some by families, some by solitary home owners. Homes are patched with bright sheets of new plywood.

Like most locals, Sullivan says the widely praised Federal response here was nil, then slow at best. Five days after Sandy, no one had mobile phone service or running water. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) didn’t arrive until November 8, and six weeks later, most residents were still without power and fighting a new problem at home: mould. FEMA would eventually offer grants or loans to local homeowners, 85

The outside of Boarders, which was still without power five months after the hurricane

tenants, and businesses, though residents say the process was untimely, confusing and ultimately ineffective.

“We got nothing out here,” says Sullivan. “Last month I got $2,000 for flood insurance that cost $1,800 a year that I’d paid for 20 years. But you know, it doesn’t matter. The community pulled together and made things happen.”

Since there were no roads or public transport, the first volunteers arrived riding bicycles with trailers full of supplies.

Stathis recognised many as the Williamsburg ‘hipsters’ who would frequent his shop during the summer. “They were riding 15 or 20 miles, helping clean up all day, then riding back,” he says. “We’re gonna have to rename them Helpsters.”

One such Helpster was Beastie Boy Mike D. Raised on the Upper West Side, he now lives in Brooklyn with his wife and two kids and has been known to catch a wave or two in Rockaway. The weekend after Sandy, he found himself volunteering alongside his old board buddy Robert McKinley, creator of Montauk’s Surf Lodge. Supplies and volunteers were plentiful, but hot meals were few and far between. With the help of their friend Sam Talbot, a surfer and former contestant on reality TV show Top Chef, they set up a station on 45th and Beach Channel Drive, grilling chicken.

As lines grew, they looked to upgrade.

Within a few days McKinley found a weathered truck from the Canadian eatery Swiss Chalet and the Rockaway Plate Lunch Truck was born. It still bore the Swiss Chalet logo and, appropriately, the word FRESH. In lieu of an ‘Open’ sign, the guys leaned a salvaged wooden pallet against the front bumper, spray painted with a welcome: “HELLO ROCKAWAYS” it read, “COME + EAT.”

By Halloween, Cortez’s drop station was overflowing to the extent that she 86

commandeered an empty townhouse across 96th Street. Originally a storage area with high stacks of tools, matches, diapers, cleaning supplies, canned goods, and bottled water, it became a full-blown relief centre, with a soup station, warming tent and a fleet of volunteers running supplies throughout the neighbourhood.

F

ive months later, the house is no longer just 183 Beach 96th Street, but Smallwater, a nonprofit organisation (with a lease) headed

by Cortez. Hurricane relief remains the focus, with mould removal and demolition services still in demand, but Smallwater volunteers also offer free trauma therapy and workshops that focus on the local environment. Other organisations have partnered with Smallwater to give locals rebuilding money.

A few blocks away, the Rockaway Plate Lunch Truck is still open five days a week

Rockaway resident and surfer Paul Kadish

Steve Stathis with Rockaway native and lifelong surfer Mary Leonard

the red bulletin

“The magnet in this community is the ocean and we’re like pieces of metal that stick to it” and recently served its 20,000th meal.

The single-special menu has not changed.

A few blocks further on, sitting on his balcony, Dowd watches a work crew clustered around the southern tip of the half-finished boardwalk he used to change under as a kid.

“The magnet in this community is the ocean,” he says. “It’s a force and we’re like pieces of metal that stick to it. It holds us here. It brings people to the beach.”

Six storeys down, nailguns pop. The wind blows over the flat surf. “No waves today,” says Dowd, “but it’s supposed to be good tomorrow.” www.nycgovparks.org/parks/rockawaybeach Follow the surfers of Rockaway Beach as the deal with devastation of Hurricane Sandy in the free Red Bulletin tablet edition. the red bulletin

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YOUR MOMENT. BEYOND THE ORDINARY

FREE DOWNLOAD

Padel power: how Red Bull X-Fighters champ Dany Torres hones his lightning reactions Training, page 93

Where to go and what to do

ac t i o n !

T r a v e l / G e a r / T r a i n i n g / N i g h t l i f e / M U S I C / p a r t i e s / c i t i e s / c l u b s / E v e n ts

Rock and awe

photography: mauritius images, shutterstock

The pure adrenalin rush of conquering a 65ft rock face armed only with your wits Travel, over the page

Hanging tough: there are no ropes in deepwater soloing

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travel

Splashing time: after climbing over water without ropes, there’s only one way down

And anoth er thing do split before you split

Seafood, eat it After swimming with fish, try dining on it. High-end Nostromo is aptly located next to Split’s fish market.

Or more rustic is the popular Konoba Matejuska.

Ups and downs Deep-Water Soloing A Croatian climb with no support and no protection, just bare hands on wet rock – then a plunge into the Adriatic There’s a reason the Spanish call deep-water soloing psicobloc or ‘psycho bouldering’: it’s the kind of climbing that involves dizzying heights and a very minimalist approach to kit. Forget carabiners, ropes and hard hats: the only aid is a handful of chalk.

It’s man versus rock with a mandatory sea plunge.

With 1,000 steep-faced islands, Croatia is an ideal base for both novice and experienced climbers wanting to go it alone, but with rushes come risks.

“Any climb over 10m is potentially fatal,” says instructor Daniel Piccini. “Safety is a big concern.

This is a totally different experience of climbing, even for a pro. People have to adapt.”

Londoner Gary Duke, 31, climbed with Piccini in Split, Croatia’s second largest city. “It’s unlike anything I’d done before, it’s pure adrenalin,” he says. “I’ve been lead climbing for three years, and with this there wasn’t the distraction of clipping and rope work, so you can focus completely on the climb. It’s so freeing.

“I got up to 50ft knowing a jump was the only way down. It was extremely scary – but it’s a huge part of the thrill. It was the best climbing I’ve ever done.”

Climb with Avantura Adventure: www.avantura.biz

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Have a beach party Join Split’s trendies on Kasuni Beach’s white sand. Relax by day then head to beachside nightspot Jungla for bright lights and beats.

Advice from the inside Go with a pro

“Always take a guide,” says Duke. “They know the area and the tides and can make sure you don’t get into trouble when you’re climbing. There’s always a boat on standby to help, too. And don’t look down!”

Take the leap “The first thing is to practise the jumping,” “It can be difficult,” says Piccini, “and falling is dangerous. Climbers need to be used to it. Climb to a low overhang over deep water, as this is the safest jump. When you are comfortable with that, you can focus on the climb and go higher.”

www.resident advisor.net

Keep on rising If your legs can take it, climb the 200 steps of Split’s 190ft bell tower (left) at the Cathedral of Saint Domnius for an unparalleled view of the rock you just conquered. www.inyour pocket.com

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words: ruth morgan. photography: ricardo alves/red bull content pool, mauritius images, getty images, shutterstock, istock photo

www.konoba matejuska.hr

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Action!

party

Captivating performers: cage dancers at Dante’s

show time Portland's best bands

Shins After bailing on the desert climes of Albuquerque, New Mexico, alt-rock darlings The Shins hit their sweet spot in Portland with albums Chutes Too Narrow and Wincing the Night Away.

Burn baby burn Portland, USA Dante's heats up thanks to the acclaimed Sunday night burlesque show, Sinferno Firebreathers? Check. Go-go dancers? Check. Karaoke with a live band? Check. The eclectic offerings of Portland club Dante’s include all of these, as well as a diverse live music line-up that features rock, New Orleans brass bands, reggae and Pink Floyd cover bands. “Sunday night we do Sinferno, a burlesque and cabaret show, and I don’t think there’s a place on the West Coast that could match it,” says Stephen Santoro, co-owner and general manager. If all that wasn’t enough, one of the club’s other regular performers is Nik Sin, the little person performer better known as Mini Marilyn Manson.

Dante’s 350 West Burnside Street Portland, Oregon 97209, USA www.danteslive.com

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Life is a cabaret: acts range from fire-eaters to ventriloquists

jeans & m o u s ta c h e s Dante’s owner Stephen Santoro on his night spot

The crowd “Portland has definitely turned into a hipster town, so no matter what the show, we get a lot of long hair, fancy moustaches and skinny jeans.’

The drinks “I try to keep my price point down because I hate going to the hotel next door and paying $10 for a Ketel One greyhound.”

The food “We‘ve always had our own pizza kitchen, with New York-style pizza. We open at 11am every day, so we get a lot of people who have a slice and grab a seat for lunch.”

Sleater-Kinney Yes, yes, they’re technically from Olympia, Washington, but band co-founder Carrie Brownstein’s rock chick aesthetic defines Portlandia, the TV show that, well, defines Portland. www.ifc.com/shows/ portlandia

Decemberists The indie folk rock band honed their theatrical live shows in pubs around Portland and released their first album on the city’s Hush Records. www.decemberists. com

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Words: Ann donahue. Photography: KRISTOPHER ENGWALL (5), Annie Beedy, Autumn Dewilde, Subpop.com

www.theshins.com

Action!

workout

All the fun of the air

Words: Ulrich Corazza. Photography: naim chidiac/red bull content pool, dan busta/red bull content pool, shutterstock. illustration: heri irawan

Red Bull X-Fighters Dany Torres flies about on his bike, does Paris Hiltons and cannot be serious

Dany Torres at the Dubai leg of the 2013 Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour

Spanish Freestyle Motocross Rider Dany Torres was Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour champion in 2011, and has been flying through the air on a motorcycle since 2002.

Torres has a tattoo that reads ‘where some see fear, I find fun’. In the course of his FMX career, he has suffered major injuries to his hands and his legs, but the truth of the matter is in his ink. “My motto remains ‘enjoy what you do’,” he says. He applies this philosophy to his training regime. “I want to spend as much of my life as possible on two wheels, with BMX, motocross and mountain biking.” Twice a week, for three hours at a time, Torres practises tricks like the Paris Hilton flip, a backflip with his legs straddling the handlebars of his bike.

You certainly won’t find him in the weights room. “I don’t even use the one I have,” admits Torres, who prefers to keep flexible with stretching and strengthening exercises for his back and legs.

D o T r y T h i s At H o m e “Contortions on the bike and impacts on landing: all of that affects your back,” says Torres. “These four exercises – do 10 repetitions of each – will increase the stability of the lower back region.”

1

2

Lay your hips on a Swiss ball, support yourself with your hands, keep your back straight and lift each leg up and down.

3

Raise both legs simultaneously and lower them again. They shouldn’t touch the floor, nor be raised too high.

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M ATC H FIT Anyone for tennis?

Padel do nicely for Dany’s all-round game

“Padel tennis,” says Torres, “is a cross between tennis and squash that’s mainly played in Spain and South America. A dynamic sport that hones your reactions and your flexibility, it keeps my body fit.”

the red bulletin

With toes braced against the floor, put your hands behind your back, then slowly and evenly raise your upper body and lower it again.

Lying on the ball, raise your right arm and left leg, then left arm and right leg, holding the stretch for three seconds.

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Action!

city Guide

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kreuzberg Berlin born and bred: Gernot Bronsert, 34, is a musician, DJ and label owner

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3

Top Five My berlin Highlights

Schlesischer Busch

BY PLANE From Strausberg airfield in the east of the city, take a one-hour flight over Berlin and Brandenburg in a Cessna 172, carrying up to three people. Make sure you ask for the window seat. www.aeroworx.de

in Europe: a paradise from techno to dub. For years I used to stand behind the counter myself. This shop has really influenced my taste.

“Garlic and herb sauce, spicy, no onions” Berlin Bars for the brave, shops for the shopaphobe, kebabs for the foodie: Gernot Bronsert of electronic duo Modeselektor shares his city’s highlights Berlin is the global centre of club music, and the kings of nightlife here are the duo known as Modeselektor. Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary have been at it since the late 1990s, shaping the underground scene of their hometown through bass-heavy concerts and DJ sets, with their many fans including Björk and Thom Yorke of Radiohead.

A new documentary, We Are Modeselektor, tells their story so far. “The city plays a starring role in the film,” says Bronsert, who, when not gigging all over the world likes to spend every spare second in Berlin. But where exactly? Here he tells all. www.modeselektor.com

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1 Civilist

Brunnenstrasse 13 Almost all of my clothes come from here. Perfect for lads who don’t want to spend their life shopping. A small shop run by art-loving skaters, who also do magazines and exhibitions.

4 Il Casolare

Grimmstrasse 30 An Italian restaurant in Kreuzberg run by Communist punks. Amazingly unfriendly waiters with stretched earlobes and dreadlocks.

But, along with great pizzas, they have Berlin’s best wild boar ragout.

Scale the walls of an aboveground World War II bunker in Humboldthain Park. The going gets tough, but the reward is fantastic views across the Mitte and Wedding districts. www.visitberlin.de

BY LIFT

2 All in One

Rosenthaler Strasse 43 At some point in the night you’ll go past this place.

Which is just as well, because they have the best kebab in the city. My tip: “Garlic and herb sauce, spicy, no onions.”

3 Hard Wax

Paul-Lincke-Ufer 44 One of the best record shops

5 Kumpelnest 3000

Lützowstrasse 23 A bar for the brave. It used to be a brothel and it still looks like one. Berlin’s hardcore scene meets here from about five o’clock in the morning, then parties on into the day.

Berlin’s Fernsehturm TV tower is the tallest building in all of Germany.

Bronsert recommends it highly. “It’s a pretty clear declaration when you take a lady up there.” www.tv-turm.de

the red bulletin

Words: Florian Obkircher. Photography: ragnar schmuck, tom haslinger (4), shutterstock, sz-photo, ddp

BY CLIMBING WALL

Action!

music

JT & J ay-z

1 Dom Maker, half of British electronic duo Mount Kimbie

“He played this song to me on the train” playlist The surprising journey of influences to Mount Kimbie’s new album When Mount Kimbie released their debut album Crooks & Lovers in 2010, the music world nodded and grinned as one. The duo’s tracks were both bassy and fragile, both electro­nic and warmly rounded. Critics came up with a new genre for their music: post-dubstep. Kai Campos and Dom Maker have refined their sound for their second album. Here, Maker reveals what was playing in the studio during the recording of Cold Spring Fault Less Youth (out now). www.mountkimbie.com

h i p to b e s q uar e Photography: getty images (2), picturedesk.com

cornering the MP3 market

The Vamp A little amp that lets you bring old speakers into the 21st century. Wire it to any speaker then connect wirelessly, via Bluetooth, to a phone or music player. Its rechargeable battery

give about 10 hours of play. www.paulcocks edgeshop.com

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King Krule

Rock Bottom

There’s only one guest singer on our album, and that’s King Krule. When people hear his low voice, they imagine a middle-aged black guy, but he’s actually a 19-year-old ginger kid and an amazing songwriter. Rock Bottom is a fantastic tune, with a fantastic video. He’s easily one of the most exciting people I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting in music.

Shawn carter and justin timberlake are on tour together

Facts to impress fellow gig-goers with while you queue to get through security

2 John Maus Hey Moon

This song isn’t all that new, but I’ve been listening to it a lot recently. I really like the marriage between the female and the male voice, and the production is fantastic.

Kai and I were listening a lot to Maus’ and Ariel Pink’s music when we worked on our record and a lot of the sound he has on that song really had an impact on our work.

jay-Z Hires a cigar roller when on tour to provide his guests backstage with the most exquisite tobacco products.

3 James Blake Overgrown

He used to perform with us live before his solo career. Now we mostly see each other when we’re on the road. Like last year, when we happened to meet on a train to London. He played this song to me because he wasn’t sure about it. I thought it was the best thing he had ever done. It ended up being the title track for his second album.

4 Actress Hubble

Kai and I are massive fans of everything that Actress has put out. It almost makes me anxious listening to his hypnotic tracks sometimes, but I love the intensity of them and if you’re in the right mood, the music can really take you on a journey. No one is so revered in electronic circles right now.

Hubble, from the album Splazsh, is incredible.

5 Tame Impala Lonerism

It usually takes me a while to warm to an album, but with this one I was instantly hooked. I don’t know what it is about this Australian band, but the psychedelic pop on this record inspired us to get back to writing music. The production is sick, the mixing is sick and they are an amazing live band.

I’m incredibly inspired by Tame Impala.

justin timberlake The idea for the tour came to him when he saw Sir Elton John and Billy Joel on stage together, interpreting each other’s songs.

kanye west Jay-Z’s bosom buddy is annoyed that his partner is cheating on him with Timberlake.

He dissed the pairing’s joint hit, Suit & Tie, while performing on stage in London.

Dates and tickets: www.justin timberlake.com

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Action!

save the date

don’t miss ink these dates in your diary

13 july

SUIt Up There’s strictly no sportswear – “except cricket whites” – at The Chap Olympiad, the ninth annual celebration of all things gentlemanly, British and properly stylish. www.thechap olympiad.com

20 july

The world’s oldest Highland Games stadium hosts the Inverness Highland Games.

Events include the hammer, tossing the caber and the Inverness Stone shot put – with local rock. www. inverness highland games.com

July 14

Wacky races

A true test of speed, creativity and showmanship is coming to Alexandra Palace with Red Bull Soapbox. About 60 teams have spent months working on top-secret, man-powered soapbox racers. Past races have seen a pair of mating pandas and a corn on the cob on the track. More than 30,000 people will line the steep racetrack to witness this year’s creations battle to become Red Bull Soapbox champion.

For tickets visit soapbox.redbull.co.uk August 2-4 July 19-21

Feel the love

July 26-28

Petrol party The Silverstone Classic lets fans get up close to rare and valuable racecars, before watching them go head-tohead on the iconic track. www.silverstoneclassic.com

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After ruling the Friday at Lovebox in 2012, this year Red Bull Music Academy is taking over all three days of the festival in London’s Victoria Park. Keeping the crowd on their toes will be likes of Mark Ronson (right), Toddla T, Jazzie B, David Rodigan MBE and Kenny ‘Dope’ Gonzalez of Masters At Work. redbullmusicacademy.com

Right royal revelling Ireland’s Castle Palooza Festival shuns the traditional, field-based setting of a musical gathering for the rather more regal 17th-century Charleville Castle in Tullamore.

There’s a line-up of must-see acts, including CSS, Ghostpoet and winners of Red Bull Bedroom Jam Ireland Walking on Cars, plus art exhibitions, films, and a spa. If typical festival weather hits, there will be shelter in front of the castle’s many roaring fires. www.castlepalooza.com

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august

Rev Up The Red Bull Pro Nationals pits leading motocross racers against each other for two days on the best tracks in the UK. The fifth stop of the series is at Hawkstone Park in Shropshire. www.redbull pronationals.com

the red bulletin

Words: Ruth Morgan. Photography: Alfredo escobar/red bull content pool, ruth medjber, getty images, rex features

rock up

Red Bull Soapbox: bringing new meaning to slopestyle

MUST-HAVES! 1

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ASICS GEL-FUJI TRABUCO 2 SHOE A long-standing off-road favourite, the Gel-Fuji Trabuco 2 features a new upper that is cleaner and more comfortable than on previous models. This all-round trail shoe has a full ground contact midsole and features a DuoMax Support System to create a very stable ride. The Forefoot and Rearfoot Gel Cushioning ensures superb comfort and protection, while the Rock Protection Plate is essential for protecting your feet on rugged and rocky surfaces. This trail runner also features 90-degree outsole lugs to provide optimal traction on rough and steep terrain. The Monosock construction on the upper is designed to keep dirt and debris out of the shoe. The External Heel Counter further adds to a snug, customised fit. RRP: €125.

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2 COLUMBIA LAC BLANC CONVERTIBLE PANTS Perfect for outdoor activities on days that start out chilly but gradually warm up, these pants convert into shorts with just a quick zip. Moisture-wicking fabric and built-in UPF 50 sun protection provide comfort, versatility and protection, and these pants also have a side elastic waistband, hand pockets and articulated knees. Get the Lac Blanc convertible pants in three different leg lengths. RRP: €80. Member’s price: €76.

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3 THE NORTH FACE BASE CAMP DUFFEL – SMALL At airport luggage carousels around the world you will see The North Face Base Camp Duffel being reclaimed by explorers and savvy travellers. Made from a durable laminate ballistic nylon and beefed up with extra bartacks and double stitching, this heavy-duty bag is resilient enough to take any punishment that baggage handlers can throw at it. The small size devours 42 litres of gear and it has plenty of handles, so you can throw it on your back, tote in your hands or drag across the airport concourse.

RRP: €105. Member’s price: €99.75.

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4 COLUMBIA FREEZE DEGREE SHORT SLEEVE CREW The Freeze Degree Short Sleeve Crew features zonal placement of Columbia’s most innovative technologies for maximum benefit. Omni-Freeze ZERO fabrication lowers the material’s temperature, while Omni-Wick EVAP technology inserts provide industry-leading breathability and moisture transmission, delivering supreme comfort and protection in extremely hot, humid climates.

This technical tee also has four-way comfort stretch and ergonomic seaming. RRP: €48. Member’s price: €45.60.

SUUNTO M2 FITNESS WATCH Designed for easy real-time monitoring of heart rate and calories, the Suunto M2 fitness watch has a heart-rate monitor that helps you stay within the most effective training zone. Available in nine languages, it automatically switches between three heart-rate zones to help you reach personal exercise targets. It also has a chronograph, calendar clock and daily alarm, and comes with a comfortable textile belt, compatible with most gym cardio equipment and Suunto Fitness Solution. RRP: €99. Member’s price: €94.05.

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All items available from 53 Degrees North, Blanchardstown, Carrickmines, Cork and online: www.53degreesnorth.ie

PROMOTION

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6 VANGO BANSHEE 200 TENT An excellent choice for anything from hiking to overseas travel, the Banshee 200 is a Vango best seller. This tent has a compact pack size and is easy to assemble and stable.

It has a breathable polyester inner tent, a polyester groundsheet waterproof to 6,000mm and a compression stuffsac. For easy set-up, this tent has pre-angled poles, multiple reflective points on the pegging points to pick up your torch light and colour-coded poles.

RRP: €150. Member’s price: €142.50.

100 Years of Breakdance Twentieth-century historians would have it that breakdance, also known as ‘breaking’ and ‘B-Boying’, emerged from the nascent hip-hop scene in Brooklyn, New York City in the 1970s. In fact, an artistic form of rhythmic dance was being practised six decades earlier, about 200 miles north-east of NYC. In Baltimore, the Baker

brothers, Billy and Bobby, who went by the name ‘The B Boys’, had a successful vaudeville act comprising acrobatic spins and turns, what was considered North America’s finest top-hat balance and the then-risqué indoor opening of an umbrella. The only surviving photograph of the pair (Billy not pictured) was taken in July 1913.

The next edition of the red bulletin is out on August 10 98

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photography: roger viollet/getty images

Time warped

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