The Red Bulletin July 2015 - ZA by Red Bull Media House

SOUTH AFRICA

BEYOND THE ORDINARY

REBEL SPECIAL

EXCLUSIVE

MARK WEBBER PUSHES HIS LIMITS on the world’s most testing track

KAGISO LEDIGA SA COMEDY’S KINGMAKER “Youth made me fearless”

CHRIS PRATT “My heroes are people whose first impulse is to help others.”

HOW TO SAVE THE WORLD by breaking the rules

ACTION MAN PETE BETHUNE

Eco warrior on the high seas

From galactic battles to dinosaur brawls, Chris Pratt is Hollywood’s new hero

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WAVE RUNNERS

On board with the world’s best yachtsmen as they risk their lives in the Volvo Ocean Race

In the spirit of this Rebel special edition of The Red Bulletin, we celebrate some unique modern-day heroes, from a car-racing eco warrior to a gun-toting Swedish chef, all of whom are forging their own paths while making the world a better place in the process. We also chat to Kagiso Lediga, the fearless trailblazer of South African comedy, and look up Hollywood’s new go-to guy, Chris Pratt, who’s managed to find fame without losing his head. Plus, we go behind-the-scenes at the Volvo Ocean Race, one of the world’s toughest sailing tests, as well as enjoying an exclusive track test with former F1 ace Mark Webber and partying all night in São Paulo with Brazilian rap royalty. Enjoy the read! 06

“I ended up totalling the bike. It was awesome” CHRIS PRATT, PAGE 62

THE RED BULLETIN

PETER YANG (COVER), AINHOA SANCHEZ/VOLVO OCEAN RACE

WELCOME

JULY 2015

AT A GLANCE GALLERY 10 GOOD SHOTS! Photos of the month

DESERT STORM

BULLEVARD

DAVID HARRY STEWART, CHRIS MCPHERSON/AUGUST, JONAS BENDIKSEN/MAGNUM PHOTOS, ROBERT ASTLEY SPARKE, GREG FUNNELL

The racers facing dust or glory in the Mint 400 Great American Off-Road Race

17 REBEL YELL SPECIAL Mission statements from inspiring individuals

FEATURES

34 Pete Bethune

The eco warrior hunting animal smugglers on the high seas

46 Mark Webber

Gives us an exclusive ride in the hottest car of its kind

CHANGING THE GAME

From a carbon-crusading girl racer to comedian Kagiso Lediga. Meet the rebels who are challenging the status quo

54 Volvo Ocean Race

MAN ON A MISSION

62 Chris Pratt

Battling the elements off the coasts of five continents

Shot at in four different countries and almost drowned in the Pacific: why does Pete Bethune put himself through that?

From strip club to the stratosphere: the rise of Hollywood’s new hero

68 Mint 400

The racers gambling it all in the epic race that starts in Las Vegas

78 A night with MC Guimê

An A-lister’s guide to the best places to party in Brazil’s largest city

ACTION!

78 ALL NIGHT LONG

Nightlife in São Paulo knows no bounds. Brazilian Funk superstar MC Guimê hits the hottest spots in his home town THE RED BULLETIN

85 SEE IT. GET IT. DO IT. The best travel, gadgets, films, games, music and cars. Plus how to headspin like a pro B-Boy

THE ULTIMATE TRACK TEST

Former F1 driver Mark Webber takes a prototype Porsche for a spin around the legendary Nürburgring Nordschleife

94 SAVE THE DATE Unmissable events 98 MAGIC MOMENT Light fantastic

CONTRIBUTORS INSIDE THIS ISSUE

WHO’S ON BOARD

ABWARTEN SPART ZEIT, UMWEGE MACHEN SCHNELL: DIE BESTEN GLEITSCHIRM-PILOTEN DER WELT ZEIGEN BEI RED BULL X-ALPS, WIE UNKONVENTIONELLES DENKEN EFFIZIENTER ANS ZIEL FÜHRT.

Showdown am höchsten Berg Europas: Der Mont Blanc ist der drittletzte Turning Point, den die Athleten passieren müssen.

TEXT: ALEX LISETZ

RÜDIGER STURM

Rebel with an eco cause New Zealander Pete Bethune gave up a well-paid job as an oil-rig engineer and left his family to hunt environmental criminals in Asia. Unarmed. With a team of elite commandos. For our rebel special, Red Bulletin editor Andreas Rottenschlager and Norwegian photographer Jonas Bendiksen travelled to the Philippine island of Palawan to visit Bethune in his hideout. “I found Bethune utterly fascinating,” says Bendiksen. “Hero to some, outlaw to others, he’s hard to categorise.” Read our story on page 34.

KÜHLE

KÖPFE

FELIX WOELK/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

Pete Bethune (left) with photographer Jonas Bendiksen

Known for his in-depth interviews with Hollywood legends, for us, Munichbased film journalist Sturm analyses the career of actor Chris Pratt – from stripping for grandmothers to starring in blockbusters. See page 62.

THE RED BULLETIN

AROUND THE WORLD

COLE LOUISON

“I knew the Mint 400 was iconic,” says journalist Cole Louison of the famous – and infamous – desert car race. “But I didn’t know about the vibrant off-road culture.” Find out what happens in Vegas on page 68.

The Red Bulletin is available in 11 countries. In this month’s German edition, contestants explain what it takes to win Red Bull X-Alps – a race across the Alps from Salzburg to Monaco by paraglider and on foot. Read more: redbulletin.com

IN FOCUS BEHIND THE LENS

“ I love the romance of fast cars” GREG FUNNELL London-based photographer Greg Funnell contributes to titles including Vanity Fair and the Financial Times. We sent him to the legendary Nordschleife circuit in Germany to shoot former F1 ace Mark Webber in a prototype Porsche 911 GT3 RS. Page 46.

Suffering for his art: Funnell ended up with carpet burns after taking this shot

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D U R BAN , S O UTH AFR I C A

ALL-ROUNDER

KELVIN TRAUTMAN/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

Aged 30, South African triathlete Matt Trautman has excelled at more sports than most. He started at the World Wild Water Kayak championships while still at school before sailing the Atlantic in a mini-yacht. He won the Ironman Wales 2014, then followed it with a home win this year. It seems he’s done with experimentation. “I recently played a terrible round of golf, then went surfing and injured my shoulder. I’ll be sticking to triathlons.” mattytrautman.com Photography: Kelvin Trautman

A BIG SPLASH The beach town on the Atlantic coast in the state of Santa Catarina is known for its electronic music scene, incredible clubs, and all-night parties. It’s also home to Brazil’s first official nudist beach. But Igor Amorelli wants none of that. The local won Brazil’s 2014 Ironman competition and has his training ground to thank for it: all he needs is Balneário Camboriú’s ample natural waters and steep cliff tracks. twitter.com/igoramorelli Photography: Fabio Piva

FABIO PIVA/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

BALNEÁRIO CAMBORIÚ, BRAZIL

HYD E R ABAD, I N D IA

STREET ART

PREDRAG VUCKOVIC/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

India’s Holi festival is given some unexpected extra colour courtesy of former Formula One ace David Coulthard. Before making a memorable exit with the help of some well-placed powder, the Scot proved he still has what it takes behind the wheel: he burned around at speeds of up to 282kph across Tank Bund Road and around the Hussain Sagar lake, much to the delight of thousands of locals. “It’s always a special feeling to drive a Formula One car for the sheer thrill of the fans,” says Coulthard. “It was incredible to take the car for a spin at such an iconic location.” infiniti-redbullracing.com Photography: Predrag Vucˇkovic´

WHICH SIZE SUITS YOU? NEW.

THE IN T E L L U B RED

L E B E R LL E Y

L A I C S E R P E G S CHAN

E M A G G N I Y R A I P W S N N I W E O H T R I M E ET T H I N G S T H E O R L D DOING SAVING THE W – AND

TURN THE PAGE FOR SWEDEN’S GUN-TOTING CHEF MOTORSPORT’S ECO ACTIVIST CHINA’S INCOGNITO SAVIOUR THE RELUCTANT MILLIONAIRE

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REBEL YEL

“W

E HAVE TO CHANGE T H E ECONOM IC RU L E S ” THE YES MEN

THE SOCIAL ACTIVISTS CONNING THE WORLD FOR THE BETTER

J THE YES MEN’S HIT HOAXES 2004 On the 20th anniversary of the Bhopal chemical leak in India in which thousands of people were poisoned, a Dow Chemical spokesperson accepted “full liability” for the accident on TV. Dow Chemical’s share price plummeted. 2007 Two reps from ExxonMobil presented the company’s new oil: Vivoleum, made from human corpses. 2008 An issue of the New York Times was distributed a week after Barack Obama’s election victory. The front page read: IRAQ WAR ENDS. Inside, George W Bush accused himself of treason.

acques Servin and Igor Vamos have already held a number of jobs: press spokesmen for Dow Chemical, product developers for ExxonMobil, publishers of the New York Times. Except that the companies had no idea they were employing them. Servin (also known as Andy Bichlbaum) and Vamos (aka Mike Bonanno) are The Yes Men. They raise awareness about social issues by creating satire, but a lot of people don’t always recognise it, mistakenly believing that the corporations and political figures they’re portraying are the real thing. the red bulletin: You’ve pulled off a number of incredible satirical stunts in recent years. How come people suck it all up? jacques servin: “When we made the announcement as representatives of Dow Chemical that we were going to do the right thing and accept liability for the Bhopal disaster, it was a positive declaration. People wanted to believe the news because it tallied with their sense of justice. It was a classic story about catharsis.” What about the eerier, more macabre stunts? igor vamos: “Something else is at play there. People tend to believe supposed authorities and experts. Plus there are always terrible things happening in the world, which makes it easier to believe that another terrible thing has happened, even if it’s completely absurd.”

You attack the rules of the economic system we live under. What needs to change? jacques servin: “We have to change the economic rule that short-term profit is placed above all else. Capitalism needs three per cent growth to prevent collapse. But we only have one planet and finite resources. We have to change the rules so that the economy isn’t harmful to the environment and the poorest people.” Aren’t your victims somehow rebels too? Because they get away with your scams in real life. jacques servin: Not at all. Of course we’re rebels. Our satires get uncovered very quickly, but public relations departments lie to us every day and don’t get found out. That’s what we’re protesting against. Can you still pull off stunts or do you get recognised too often? igor vamos: It still works, and when we do get recognised it’s even funnier seeing how some people try to intervene. In our new film, The Yes Men Are Revolting, Jacques is disguised. It is the worst disguise in the world. How have your stunts changed in the 15 years since you started? jacques servin: At the start we just improvised for the hell of it and because we wanted to draw attention to important subjects. Now we come up with better strategies so we can support larger political movements. What’s the best motivation for a rebellion? jacques and igor: Love!

THE RED BULLETIN

J.B NICHOLAS/SPLASH NEWS/CORBIS(2)

Jacques Servin (left) and Igor Vamos in a 2009 stunt touting a bogus “SurvivaBall” climate suit

THE RED BULLETIN

REBEL YEL

M Y WO R KS O F A R T: O N LY E X IS T IN M E M O R IE “

S”

L: R E B E L Y E L MONE Y “ AV IN G A L O T O F ”

H YO U E G N A H C ’T N D L U O H S

DANIEL NORRIS THE BASEBALL STAR WHO ESCHEWS HIS MILLIONS THE ARTIST WHO REFUSES TO BE PIGEONHOLED

o describe Tino Sehgal’s work is to miss the point: you have to witness it live. Only then can you really know his art. There are no official photographs or video recordings. Just retellings. Little urban myths. There are gallery attendants who, at random intervals, start dancing and singing “This is so contemporary!” complete with jazz hands. Or you may find a little girl who wanders around the gallery engaging strangers in profound discussions about capitalism. There’s also a huge group of people who suddenly... well, you should probably see it for yourself. Sehgal, who was born in London in 1976 and raised in Germany, creates “constructed situations”. That’s how he defines his art. Performers act out his instructions and the people standing around are part of the work. Sehgal doesn’t bother with catalogues or captions and even though some shaky mobile phone recordings have shown up on the internet, his art is, and will remain, about the here and now, and the element of surprise. “Somehow it exists in my mind, in my body and in the bodies of the people who know how to do it, and it also exists in their memories, and those of the people who saw it,” Sehgal has said of his work. And although he is against the established art market criteria, the Tate Modern in London and the Guggenheim in New York have paid hefty sums for an original Sehgal without a written contract. You really do have to be there.

aniel Norris puts US$20’s worth of petrol in his camper van. Then he drives as far as it will take him. He looks for somewhere to park up for the night, ideally on a beach. He then heats up a quick dinner on the gas cooker and chills out to music from the car radio. The sun sets, and Norris wraps himself up for the night in a sleeping bag. The next morning, he starts looking for another petrol station and repeats. This is how Norris spends some of his time when he’s not doing his day job. He’s a pitcher for Major League Baseball team the Toronto Blue Jays. He’s also a millionaire. People like Norris are hard to explain. He signed his first pro contract with the Blue Jays in 2011, but the only purchase he made with his $2 million signing bonus was a 1978 Volkswagen Westfalia. Norris was 18 and fresh out of high school. He paid $10,000 for his VW and christened it Shaggy. Now 22, Norris is one of the fastest pitchers in the league, throwing the ball at speeds in

excess of 150kph. But he hasn’t spent much of his bonus or his salary. Instead, his advisers look after his money and deposit $800 each month into his bank account. He’s happier this way, saying, “Who am I to deserve that? What have I really done?” During much of the offseason you can find Norris in his camper van, driving to spring training in Florida from his hometown in Tennessee. “The simplicity is the most appealing thing,” he told GrindTV. “I grew up with a simple lifestyle and in my mind, there’s no need for luxury, or at least in society’s sense of the word.”

Rising star

Daniel Norris has been with the Toronto Blue Jays since 2011; first in the draft and then, as of 2014, in Major League Baseball.

Pitcher perfect

This year Norris was named in the MLB’s list of the best left-handed pitchers in baseball (number three). THE RED BULLETIN

WOLFGANG STAHR/LAIF, @DANIELNORRIS18

TINO SEHGAL

L: REBEL YEL L “ OFFSET THE FUE

I ” K C A R T E H T I B U R N AT LEILANI MUNTER THE GIRL RACER ON A CARBON CRUSADE

CHRIS MCPHERSON/AUGUST/PICTUREDESK.COM

the red bulletin: How do motor racing and the protection of our environment work together? leilani munter: “You can preach to the choir all you want. But you’re only making a big impact if you convince people who don’t agree with you. If I didn’t have a race car I could kiss goodbye to my ability to talk to 75 million people in the US.” How do you get the sceptics on side? “I don’t tell people that they are doing something wrong if they drive a Hummer or eat meat every day. I just show them what I’m doing. Look, I’ve got this sexy electric car that’s charged using solar energy from panels on the roof of my house. Every morning it can go for 265 miles that cost me nothing.” But you still race using carbon fuel. “Yeah, so since 2007, I’ve adopted an acre of rainforest for every race I drive. It’s sort of just a symbolic way to offset my carbon footprint for the fuel I have to burn at the racetrack.” Give us a ‘How to change the world – for dummies’. What are three steps everyone can take? “First, stop eating meat. Second, use renewable energy. Third, realise that with every dollar you spend you’re casting a vote for who survives and who doesn’t.”

Eco rider Leilani Munter, 41, is an American stock car driver competing in the ARCA Racing Series. She’s also a model, biologist and environmental activist. Away from the track, Munter’s ride is an electric Tesla Motors Model S.

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: L L E Y REBEL

L L I K O T R E “ I T ’S B E T T ” ELF S R U O Y T MEA

Chef’s whites: Magnus Nilsson on his way to the kitchen in Sweden

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MAGNUS NILSSON THE CHEF WITH A KILLER INSTINCT

T PER-ANDERS/THE GUARDIAN

he man in this picture, carrying his prey in one hand and the weapon he used to kill it in the other, doesn’t pay much attention to all the fuss he causes. His name is Magnus Nilsson, a 31-year-old chef from Sweden. As far as he’s concerned, he’s only doing the thing he knows how to do: cook very good food. His restaurant, Faviken, in Jarpen, northern Sweden, is considered one of the best in the world. Nilsson reveals the six rules of his amazing culinary art.

1 THE RED BULLETIN

“There aren’t any rules. This is the most important rule of all.”

“Make the most of what you’ve got. Faviken is a long way north in Sweden, but it’s not the North Pole. The area is agriculturally rich and there’s plenty of water at hand. Instead of wandering far and wide, we get almost everything from the immediate surroundings.”

“Set yourself limits. That’s what brings out your creativity. We have long winters here, but we don’t want to have fruit and vegetables flown in from faraway places, so we pickle lots of things. This process gives our food amazing textures and nuanced flavours.”

“Respect ingredients. Fancy cooking is no good without the perfect ingredients. A carrot isn’t going to get any more carroty if you cook it in a certain way.”

“Take the time you need. Some foods take a long time to prepare; others don’t. Fermentation takes months, for example. But in the summer, peas are best served freshly picked.”

“Every piece of meat was part of an animal that died for you. What about killing the animals yourself? I do. If you don’t want to, at least don’t hand responsibility for killing animals to huge companies.” 23

REBEL YELL:

I’ V E B EE N WO R K IN G OUNTA”N E W CA S H SYS T EM . T RY IT O

“

Not much is known about inventor Satoshi Nakamoto

SATOSHI NAKAMOTO THE FINANCIAL GENIUS CHANGING HOW WE SPEND

“I’ve been working on a new, electronic cash system that’s fully peer-to-peer.” That’s the message members of an obscure cryptography mailing list received one morning. The man who sent it was Satoshi Nakamoto, a mysterious software designer about whom not much is known. He described a new type of currency based on a computer network and a sophisticated encryption system. Nakamoto called it Bitcoin. “Try it out,” Nakamoto wrote. In the following years, millions of people would do just that.

May 18, 2010. 1 BITCOIN < $0.004 Bitcoin was used as a method of payment for the first time when a member of the bitcointalk.org forum ordered two pizzas for another member for the sum of 10,000 Bitcoins. (At today’s exchange rate that would be in excess of $2.3 million.) But Nakamoto became an increasingly rare online presence and stopped answering emails. The myth of the Bitcoin inventor took on a life of its own.

IN 20 YEARS’ TIME THERE’LL BE A HUGE AMOUNT OF MONEY IN BITCOINS. OR NONE AT ALL” “

– SATOSHI NAKAMOTO 24

A researcher and blogger who goes by the name Skye Grey carried out a detailed analysis of Nakamoto’s writing style and concluded that he must be Nick Szabo, an American professor who researched crypto-currencies in the 1990s. He’d even given his concept the name ‘bit gold’. “Not Satoshi, but thank you,” wrote Szabo on Twitter.

March 6, 2014. 1 BITCOIN = $669.57 A Newsweek reporter claimed to have found out Satoshi Nakamoto’s real name: Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto, an engineer of Japanese origin living in California. But he too dismissed the connection. A day later, Nakamoto’s account on a Bitcoin forum suddenly comes back to life, having been dormant for almost four years. He wrote just five words. “I am not Dorian Nakamoto,” before disappearing again.

April 5, 2015. 1 BITCOIN = $260.54 In an online profile, Nakamoto once gave his date of birth as April 5, 1975. As a result, the Bitcoin community celebrates Satoshi Nakamoto Day on that date each year. Whoever it is behind the name, they still have about a million Bitcoins, currently equivalent to approximately $250 million. But Bitcoin enthusiasts have less and less to do with such speculation, and most would rather that the mystery surrounding Nakamoto was never cleared up. After all, what better figurehead could there be for a cash system with no central bank than a nameless inventor who has nothing more to do with his own creation?

THE RED BULLETIN

TOM MACKINGER

Bitcoin is a peerto-peer online payment network and currency launched in 2008. As trust in the digital currency increased, its ‘real’ money value did too.

An article published in The New Yorker, written by American journalist Joshua Davis, sought to uncover the real Nakamoto. His research lead him to Michael Clear, a 23-year-old cryptography student from Ireland, who was quick to refute the allegation, saying, “I’m not Satoshi, and even if I was I wouldn’t tell you.” Speculation as to Nakamoto’s identity – or identities – was rife. “Either a team of experts worked on this,” said IT security researcher Dan Kaminsky, “or this guy is a genius.”

November 30, 2013. 1 BITCOIN = $1,119.52

November 1, 2008. 1 BITCOIN = $0.00

CYBER CHANGE

October 10, 2011. 1 BITCOIN = $4.51

/redbulletin

Visual Storytelling

Beyond the ordinary

THE CAPTAIN OF ADVENTURE ALL-ROUND ACTION HERO WILL GADD IS A LIVING LEGEND IN THE TRUEST SENSE.

UK EDITION

BEYOND THE ORDINARY

19 WORLD

AWESOME

SHOT!

Action photo special

CLASS WATCHES

UNDEAD FUNNY

QUEEN OF THE BEACH

2014’s most hilarious movie

Dave Grohl

PEAK FREEFALL

Adventure’s toughest task

EXCLUSIVE: the legend reaches into your mind and music’s future

WEB

APP

SOCIAL

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: L L E Y L REBE

D L U O H S S R “A LT- ROCK E ” D A E H R Ö T O EMUL ATE M LEMMY

THE HEAVY METAL MOGUL WITH CAST-IRON STAYING POWER

an Fraser Kilmister, aka Lemmy, is sitting in a spartan room backstage at The Zenith concert venue in Munich, Germany. On the table is a silver dagger and a slot machine, into which he is feeding coins. The Motörhead frontman has pulled his cavalry hat down over his face, but his trademark facial hair makes him unmistakable. The 69-year-old singer and bassist from near Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England, has been filling stadiums with his high-octane brand of rock for four decades. His band has lived through disco, punk, grunge and is still going strong, albeit with a few line-up changes. Tonight’s concert sold out weeks ago, with fans turning up in their droves to hear raucous live renditions of hits like Ace Of Spades, Shoot You In The Back and Overkill along with song’s from Motörhead’s huge back catalogue, including latest album, Aftershock, the band’s 21st, which reached number 22 in The Billboard 200 album chart in America.

TALES OF REBELLION White Line Fever recounts the rock god’s life story over 320 pages. Lemmy’s autobiography is full of stories about drink drugs and rock ’n’ roll; required reading.

the red bulletin: Who did you want to rebel against when you formed Motörhead in 1975? lemmy: Everyone, really. My parents, the people next door, politicians. My attitude hasn’t changed. You looked pretty different back then. I used to wear an old army surplus jacket and I grew my hair down to my arse. I grew up in England just after the war; rock ’n’ roll hadn’t been invented yet. When we were teenagers, we had to listen to the music our parents listened to, which was s--t, obviously. But then Chuck Berry and Elvis appeared and we all thought, “Wow! This is what we’ve been waiting for.” This year you celebrate 40 years of Motörhead. How does a band stay successful for so long? By ignoring trends. Is it as simple as that? Yep. You shouldn’t over-interpret rock. Theory, emotions, all that s--t. We play loud and fast. People come to our concerts. End of story. You’ve filled huge venues all over the world, from Japan to Argentina, and you were one of the

first Western rock bands to play in communist Yugoslavia. Have you ever wondered why people with such different cultural backgrounds go wild for the same music? It’s because rock is international. You hear the music and a flash of lightning shoots up your spine. We play three chords and people go wild. How do your Japanese contingent of fans compare to those in the UK? You have no idea! Japanese rock fans are crazy. They give themselves Elvis quiffs. They have the perfect hair for it. And the women! [He imitates his press officer] “Lemmy, er, when you’re done with her, can we have you in the backstage area?” What is it that women love about rock stars? They ooze stardom. OK, so some people only want to sleep with good-looking guys too. I’m not as good-looking as I used to be. But women still come backstage after my shows. They have this look in their eye, you know. I can cope with that. Why have you never married? I’ve never found a woman who can stop me looking at other women [laughs]. It’s odd, actually. But we’ve been on tour for 40 years. That’s not ideal for a stable relationship. We have a theory about Motörhead’s success: you embody the image of a rocker at a time when there are too few rebels… That’s right. There are no young rock stars any more. At least not any that make you go, “Wow!” The youngsters today all play alternative rock. What a load of s--t! Alternative. Alternative to what? They should emulate us. No one’s going to outdo us. You turn 70 this year. How do you stop yourself becoming stuffy with age? Just don’t. You don’t have any more concrete advice? Hmm... You have an office job, don’t you? Yes. Grow your hair long. I don’t think anyone in our office will care. Do it anyway. You’ll be surprised at how many people it still pisses off.

THE RED BULLETIN

ROBERT JOHN

Sage advice from Lemmy the rock rebel: “Grow your hair long”

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: L L E Y REBEL

, T I A W ! S R “ DESTROY YOUR CA ” ? G N I L L O R A R E M A C E H IS T CHEN GUANGBIAO

AN OPEN LETTER TO MR LOW CARBON Chen Guangbiao, 48, is a philanthropist and environmental activist from China. His bizarre political stunts have a touch of the performance art about them. Our interview requests fell on deaf ears, so we wrote to him instead.

An idea nicked from Mel Brooks’ Spaceballs: fresh air in a can

Dear Mr Guangbiao, The following things are written on your business card next to your name: Most Influential Person of China; Most Wellknown and Beloved Chinese Role Model; China’s Foremost. Forgive the impertinent question, but who are you, really? We’ve read about your substantial wealth and eccentric activism in the press – it’s much more interesting than your role as the head of Jiangsu Huangpu Renewable Resources Ltd. The company has distributed cans of fresh air. You’ve destroyed your Mercedes with a wrecking ball to promote a car-free day. You’ve lifted a pushbike in your teeth and spun it as evidence that cycling is healthy. It’s all good publicity, given that it always happens on camera, but it’s all a bit much. To make an environmental point, you’ve even gone as far as to have your name changed by deed poll to Mr Low Carbon. Who are you trying to impress? Are you doing all of your headline-grabbing stunts for purely philanthropic reasons? And do you really care about the plight of others or the environment? Malicious critics claim that the only thing that’s

sustainable about your environmental activism is the boost it gives your ego. We’re still awaiting a response from our numerous interview requests. Sadly, we’ve had more contact with Mailer Daemon than with you. In fact, we haven’t heard anything from you for some time. Not since you were found to have faked your ice-bucket challenge by placing ice cubes in 25°C water. Your company’s website has been offline since 2013. All of the telephone numbers lead nowhere. Your supposed assistant, who has the same name as a Chinese Manga warrior, sounded rather sleepy when she first picked up and then put the phone down on us. Where are you? Have you gone into hiding? Are you locked up? Have you disappeared? In America, people are still stunned by the commitment you made to the poor. You offered to pay for a gala dinner for 250 homeless New Yorkers and promised each of them $300. You also wanted to buy The New York Times so that it would be ‘more objective’ when writing about your homeland in future. All very noble. It’s just a shame that the homeless New Yorkers haven’t seen the money yet. And The New York Times hasn’t even taken you out to discuss your offer. Who are you, really? An art project? A perfect example of social satire? Who wrote the script – Sacha Baron Cohen? And is it just a coincidence that Guangbiao translates as cursor? Whatever the truth, we take our hats off to you. Because you remind us how much we love a weird spectacle. Because you do that money-to-burn thing that only the super-rich can do. And because you offer us solutions that are much too simple in times which are anything but. You’re a fairy-tale rebel.

GETTY IMAGES, ROPI

THE AUDACIOUS ECO-WARRIOR WITH A WEIRD REPUTATION

A Green in Red China. Though we suspect humour is his real secret weapon

THE RED BULLETIN

Kagiso Lediga: he defied the odds to carve out a space for black comedians in SA

THE RED BULLETIN

REBEL YEL

“YO

UTH M A DE ME FE AR LESS ”

KAGISO LEDIGA BREAKING NEW COMIC GROUND

PODIUM COMEDY

SEAN CHRISTIE

y all accounts I was a boring child,” says Kagiso Lediga. It’s hard to believe. Lediga, with his spiky mini-dreads, gap-toothed smile and rakish beard has a face that looks permanently on the verge of saying something hilarious. It doesn’t matter whether you see him on the stage, the TV, the big screen or in the OR Tambo carriage of the Gautrain, the man is anything but boring. Born in 1978, Lediga grew up north of Pretoria in the townships of Soshanguve and Ga-Rankuwa, both hotbeds of antiapartheid activism. By the time he was in high school, however, he and friends were gearing up for a new form of resistance. “I lived in the same building as David Kau, who is one of the funniest men in the country. We used to talk about doing stand-up comedy one day, and ultimately we both went to the University of Cape Town to study drama,” says Lediga. “We were totally ignorant about local comedy. Obviously white comedians like Barry Hilton and Mel Miller were already legendary, but we existed in a parallel universe in which you never read or heard about people like that. For us, comedy was Bill Cosby and Eddie Murphy.” Lediga did a few stand-up gigs as an undergraduate, and in the process met other young black comics like Tshepo Mogale and Loyiso Gola. However, he found it hard going. “The audiences were all white, so there was a tendency to pander to terrible stereotypes, cracking jokes about stealing car radios and not being able to swim, which was bad for our souls,” says Lediga. Wider recognition, he felt, was the key to being able to talk about his own experiences in his own voice. “I had this idea for a comedy sketch show, but it was

THE RED BULLETIN

a catch-22 because local broadcasters had totally missed developments like Monty Python and In Living Color. They had no concept of sketch comedy,” he says. Luckily, a side door opened into the SABC: a job on the Phat Joe Live show. “I was on TV every week and audiences got to know me. I think this convinced the SABC to take a gamble on The Pure Monate Show which, when it aired, gave birth to a new wave of black comedians, and I say that in inverted commas because some of them were only black in spirit, like Chris Forrest,” Lediga chuckles. Before PMS, the vast majority of South African comedians were parttimers, reliant on other sources of income. “Joey Rasdien was working at Alexander Forbes, Tshepo Mogale was working at Investec, Chris Forrest was working for Multichoice and Riaad Moosa was still doing his medical internship. After PMS, they all became professional comics. Youngsters saw this and were inspired. Trevor Noah told me it was an episode of PMS that convinced him to go into comedy,” says Lediga. “But promoters took a long time to see comedy’s potential. We knew the demand was there, so with some partners I formed Diprente, a creative and commercial collective, which launched shows like e-tv’s satirical Late Nite News With Loyiso Gola (LNN) and films like Blitz Patrollie.” LNN has twice been nominated for an Emmy Award, and Blitz Patrollie was invited to the Cannes Film Festival in 2013. “Comedians have now moved from the margins to being our cultural flag-bearers: starring in ads, promoting cellphone networks, even taking over America [a reference to Noah’s recent inheritance of The Daily Show],” says Lediga. “It’s nice to think I played a part in that.”

TOUGH START “When Late Nite News with Loyiso Gola first aired, it was slated,” recalls Lediga. “I think South Africans had become accustomed to a certain level of political correctness, and it was unnerving for them to watch comics ripping local celebrities and politicians to shreds.”

REBEL YELL:

L ANCE ” I A M U N D E R S U RVOERILE IG Y IC L O P N F G IN IS F O R CR IT IC

“

LAURA POITRAS A POSSIBLE NSA FILE

Oscar-winning movie director Laura Poitras

PERSONAL DATA Laura Poitras, born in 1964, in Boston, Massachusetts, USA

OFFENDING WORKS My Country, My Country; Alternative Christmas Message; Citizenfour; 1971

SUSPICIOUS TRAVEL On the Department of Homeland Security’s watch list. Monitored by airport security in Baghdad, Moscow and other locations

FILE ENTRY (TOP SECRET): Internal assessment concludes that the 51-year-old film director, who has been under state surveillance for 10 years, should be observed more closely in future. Her latest subversive production, the film Citizenfour, about whistleblower Edward Snowden (see file U41KL091), won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature of 2014, the highest possible accolade in the movie industry. This could incite Poitras to undertake further activity. The subject has been resident in Berlin, Germany, for more than two years. Poitras began her suspicious activities when she went to Iraq in 2004, to document US military operations. From that journey we know of Poitras’s visits to Abu Ghraib prison (see file U41KL091) and video footage of forces from units U41KL091 and U41KL091 in action, to name two focuses of her work. She criticised American foreign policy in her films My Country, My Country (2006) and The Oath (2010). She doesn’t shy away from publishing sensitive internal secrets (PRISM). She has defined privacy on multiple occasions in interviews with the international press as a “fundamental right” and “requirement” for humanity that must be defended. Several attempts have been made to pursue U41KL091. Yet none could deter the subject from her subversive activities. We have received information that she had foreknowledge of the U41K attack on US troops by U41KL091.. In June 2006, she was put on the Secondary Security Screening Selection (SSSS) list, making her subject to heightened checks when travelling. Since then, security forces have made more than 40 interventions, including at U41KL091, U41KL091 and U41KL091 airports. Poitras was not allowed to have a lawyer present on those occasions. Handwritten notes, invoices, mobile telephones and computers have all been confiscated on multiple occasions and subject to thorough inspection. To date, these measures have produced no significant additional intelligence and have failed in their efforts to hinder her work. Poitras’s communication is encrypted. She demonstrates an increased professionalism in dealing with state surveillance. There is still the greatest interest in securing the stolen NSA data sets U41KL091 to U41KL091, to which Poitras has access via her collaboration with Snowden.

MALTE JAEGER/LAIF

THE FILM DIRECTOR EXPOSING GOVERNMENTS

The Infiniti Q50

WHEN TECHNOLOGY FALLS INTO THE RIGHT HANDS. infiniti.co.za

There’s you. Then there’s you with tech that helps make you a better you. Like optional Direct Adaptive Steering that gives you steering precision and total exhilaration.

Official fuel economy figures for the Infiniti Q50 range in mpg (l/100 km): urban 29.4 to 50.4 (5.6 to 9.6), extra urban 53.3 to 76.3 (3.7 to 5.3), combined 41.5 to 64.2 (4.4 to 6.8). CO2 emission: 159 to 114 g/km.

THE RED

BULLETIN

EL B E R LL YSE PECIAL

CAPTAIN

PLANET

PETE BETHUNE USE D TO EARN A LOT OF MONEY WORKING AS AN ENG INEER ON AN OIL PLATFORM. B UT THE NEW ZEALANDER GAVE UP HIS CAREER AND HIS FAMILY TO ANSWER A HIGHER CALLING: HUNTING ANIMAL SMUGGLERS IN THE JUNGLE AND ON THE HIG H SEAS WITH A UNIT OF ELITE COMMANDOS WORDS: ANDREAS ROTTEN SCHLAGE R PHOTOGRAPHY: JONAS BE NDIKSE N

Extreme conservationist Pete Bethune: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Will the world be a better place because I live in it? I think soâ&#x20AC;?

BE T HU N E CA ME UP WI T H T H E I D E A AT NI GH T I N P RI SO N . CA N YO U T R A N S FO R M EL I T E WA R RI ORS IN TO C O N S E RVAT I O N ISTS?

Bethuneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s training mission off the Philippine island of Palawan saw his environmental task force use fake M4 assault rifles

ete Bethune’s dinghy is bombing through the waves of the Pacific Ocean five nautical miles off the Philippine island of Palawan, a black missile rattling along to the roar of its outboard engine. Bethune, nose held up to the wind and his eyes screwed up tight, hangs on for dear life to the mooring ropes in the bow. Four men are squatting down behind him. They wear camouflage suits and combat helmets. Their eyes are focused on the blue blur of a fishing vessel on the horizon. A bamboo mast on the foredeck flaps to the rhythm of the waves. Bethune’s Rigid Inflatable Boat (RIB) moves in on the fishing vessel from the starboard side. Once they are alongside it, he gives the sign for them to go aboard. Now time is of the essence. One after the other, the four men heave themselves over the fishing vessel’s rail. One secures the stern while two go to the foredeck. Bethune storms the cabin. “Hands up!” he barks. The captain, wearing flip-flops, takes his hands off the wheel. They stare at each other for a moment and then high-five. “Good enemy,” says Bethune. The captain grins.

Bethune and his team set up camp on the island of Palawan. They’re observing a man who is suspected of trading animals illegally

TIM E IS O F THE ESSENCE. BETHU NE STO R M S THE CABIN. “HANDS UP ! ” HE BAR KS AT THE CAPTAIN

Bethune (right) boards a fishing vessel. He learned how to do this during his time in the militant conservation group Sea Shepherd

On this hot afternoon in late March, Bethune and his team are in the middle of a training session about how to board suspect ships. For four hours they have been raiding the fishing vessel over and over again, climbing on board, arresting the supposed crew – played by five coastguard volunteers – and then getting back in the dinghy and starting from scratch. This raid was their eighth. Bethune’s men take off their helmets. “A 20-minute break,” says Bethune. “Then we’ll practise handcuffing the crew.” Pete Bethune is an environmentalist, but not the ordinary kind. The New Zealander hunts environmental criminals. His tools are the former commandos in his dinghy. Matt Griffin, 34, and Tim, 25, were both US Marines; Phil, 27, was a lieutenant with the Navy Seals; Stéphane Rousseau, 48, was a paratrooper. Before he was seizing fishing vessels for Bethune, he worked as a bodyguard for reporters in Syria. (Tim and Phil requested their last names be left out of this article.) Bethune has stationed his unit on Palawan for four months to apprehend illegal fishermen, poachers and animal smugglers. A documentary team is filming their work for a TV show called The Operatives. It’s named after Bethune’s unarmed environmental commando unit which has real enemies and is funded by donations. “We support environmental bodies in developing countries,” says Bethune. “We offer them crews and surveillance technology and carry out arrests alongside the authorities.” Bethune is sitting on the tailboard on deck. He’s taken off his T-shirt and wrapped it around his head. He’s 50 years old with a chiselled face and

a kickboxer’s build. He does push-ups on the beach at the crack of dawn and spends several hours a week working out on an ergometer. Bethune set up The Operatives in 2011 to put governments under media pressure. His men have filmed a seal hunt on the coast of Namibia (if you’re not squeamish, look up Bethune Seal Hunt on YouTube), used drones to chase down fishermen operating illegally and hunted gold prospectors in nature reserves in Costa Rica. Despite putting themselves in grave danger – Bethune’s cameramen have been shot at with AK-47 assault rifles – The Operatives have arrested 14 people. The second training session gets under way on the fishing vessel. Bethune’s soldiers are showing the coastguards how to search and handcuff suspects. Bethune waves his experts into action. Griffin, the US Marine, likes Norwegian death metal and tattoos. His torso is etched with a rendering of a knuckleduster and a large image of a goat’s head. Phil, the Navy Seal, is brawny with a beard. He’s eloquent when he speaks. But for the most part he remains silent. Matt locks Phil’s arms behind his head and roars, “Get down!” Phil doesn’t budge. Matt kicks him in the back of the knee. Phil falls to the ground. Matt kneels on Phil and applies pressure to his legs and the back of his neck. He puts cable ties on Phil’s wrists. “You have to be loud and self-assured,” says Matt. Two South Korean colleagues of the coastguards based here were stabbed to death by Chinese fishermen in 2011 as they tried to arrest them. “Since then,” says Bethune, “we’ve played it safe.” Some of the work involves embarking on underwater reconnaissance missions

To help train the coastguard, Tim (centre), a former US Marine, plays the role of a fisherman suspected of smuggling a protected species

“A 2 0- M I N U TE B RE A K TH E N W E ’ L L PRACTI SE H A N DCU FFI N G TH E CRE W ”

ethune’s journey to the head of a commando unit reads like a crazy film script. He studied engineering in New Zealand and started work on an oil rig. He was earning good money, but he was bored, so he built a speedboat that ran on biodiesel. In 2008, he set a new record for the quickest round-the-world trip in a powerboat. He spent the next four years sailing around the world. “I saw how people were destroying our seas,” says THE RED BULLETIN

Bethune (right) and former paratrooper Stéphane Rousseau take a well-earned rest after spending four hours practising the securing of the vessel

Bethune. “In Fiji, fishing boats were trawling unpunished through marine reserves. In the Philippines, fishermen were spraying cyanide in coral colonies for a quicker kill.” Bethune worked as a captain with Sea Shepherd, the radical marine conservation organisation. He blocked whaling ships in the Antarctic and fired butyric acid at fishermen. In January 2010, a 490-tonne ship escorting the Japanese fleet rammed his boat. Pictures of the incident went viral. Bethune only just survived. But instead of letting that put him off, he decided to board the Japanese ship. He approached the side of the ship at night on a jet-ski, clambered on board

and took the captain to task. Bethune was arrested, taken to Tokyo and spent four months in a high-security prison waiting for his trial on charges of vandalism and illegally boarding a ship. He slept on a thin, plastic mat, in a cell measuring 3m by 1.5m. Night after night he’d march around the edge of the room to stay in shape, doing thousands of laps. The idea for The Operatives came to him during one of those cramped training sessions. “I thought a lot about effectiveness during my time in prison,” explains Bethune. “I wanted to set up my own unit; not of protesters, but of professionals, 41

BETH UNE WAS SH OT AT I N FOU R DI FFE RE N T C O UN TR I ES AN D A L M OST DROW N E D I N T H E PAC I F I C. WH Y DOES A 50-Y E A R- OL D PU T HI MS ELF TH R OU G H TH AT?

Bethune conducts a team briefing in the jungle with former Navy Seal Phil (left) and US Marine Tim (right)

“Your life can depend on whether you’re fit,” says Bethune during a morning workout on the beach in Palawan

men who monitor ships professionally and can go aboard quickly.” In July 2010, Bethune was released on probation. An army friend put him in touch with former soldiers and Bethune offered each of them a salary of US$200 a day. He creates a new team for each of his missions. There’s no shortage of applicants. In late 2014, about 100 former military men applied for his missions in Asia. Bethune chose four and flew to Palawan with them. Now, on the blue fishing vessel off Puerto Princesa, Bethune’s men have put their helmets on once again. Bethune wants to board the boat one more time. “This is all going to come in handy soon,” he says. 44

hat evening, back in the harbour at Puerto Princesa, Bethune leaves the boat, gets into a Jeep and heads north through the island’s capital, a backpackers’ paradise with a cacophony of taxis’ horns. The journey from the harbour through the city, along a country road and down a dirt track to get to The Operatives’ hideout takes about 30 minutes. It’s situated on an unkempt beach in the east of the island. The camp can’t be seen from the sea; it is hidden from view by mangrove

The conservationists track suspicious vessels using a GPS tracking device they install in the dead of night THE RED BULLETIN

ON THE HUNT BETHUNE’S RULES FOR ECO MISSIONS KNOW YOUR TEAM

Before Bethune plans missions abroad, he orders military consulting agencies to check the integrity of local authorities.

USE TECH IN A NEW WAY

Bethune mounts infrared cameras on top of military drones to monitor fishermen and spot poachers’ campfires in the jungle.

STAY AFLOAT

Bethune and his team use Rigid Inflatable Boats (RIBs), not metal-hull boats, because they are more agile and easier to hide.

LEARN FROM THE PROS Bethune selects his soldiers based on their individual skills to improve the whole team’s performance.

trees. The men sleep in simple bamboo huts among the palm trees. Bethune trudges barefoot through the sand. His hut, built on wooden stilts, is the control centre for all operations. Bethune explains that the city of Puerto Princesa is a centre of Asia’s illegal trade in animals. “Sea turtles and pangolins are shipped from here to China,” he says. “Both species are protected.” The meat of the pangolin, a badger-sized insectivore with a pointy nose, is a delicacy in China. No other mammal is more frequently illegally traded. Just two years ago, the Philippine coastguard discovered 3,000 dead “As a private citizen I’m almost broke,” says Bethune

pangolins on board a Chinese freighter. “Nobody is talking about these animals at the moment,” says Bethune. Bethune’s men have been shadowing a trader on Puerto Princesa for the past two weeks. They are investigating the coastguard’s suspicion that he is shipping the protected species in containers. “By day we film the warehouse using a drone,” says Bethune. “At night, two marines lie in wait around the premises.” Bethune is grinning broadly. “We’ve also hidden a GPS tracker on his ship.” How does he get aboard a suspected smuggler ship without anyone noticing? “That was Phil, our Navy Seal,” says Bethune. “He swam out at night, climbed aboard, shinned up the mast and attached the transmitter while the crew slept on deck. It was over in 20 minutes.” Back at the camp, Bethune opens his laptop and starts a piece of marine software. A sea chart appears on the screen, with a red line heading north from Puerto Princesa and out into the Pacific Ocean. “We can follow the ship in real time. We’ve noticed that once a week it makes a sudden detour to the west, way out to sea. The boat is registered as an inshore fishing vessel, so it shouldn’t be out that far. We think it meets another ship out on the ocean.” If the island’s governor issues a search warrant, The Operatives will have the power to storm the trader’s warehouse or arrest the crew at sea. Bethune wants to send the coastguards on ahead with Matt, the tattooed death metal marine. He calls him “our man for opening doors”. In 2013, Bethune nearly drowned during a reconnaissance dive off the coast of Costa Rica. He has been shot at during missions in four different countries. After a jungle patrol on Palawan, he was hospitalised with suspected dengue fever. Why does a 50-year-old man put himself through that? Because of pangolins? “I’ve always wondered if the world will be a little better because I live in it,” he says, sitting in his bamboo hut at the end of a long day. “I believe it gets a little bit better if I hunt down fishermen who operate illegally and pangolin smugglers.” As a private citizen Bethune is almost broke. He signed his house over to his ex-wife. All his clothes fit into four plastic bags. He travels the world with three army camouflage suits, two pairs of army boots and one white shirt. He wears the camo when he’s working and the shirt for court appearances. Bethune says that happiness is finding something that’s worth fighting for. facebook.com/theoperativestv

Mark Webber, 38, drove 215 Formula One grands prix. He scored the first of his nine wins here at the N端rburgring

THE GT LIFE In a Red Bulletin exclusive, former Formula One star Mark Webber takes a prototype Porsche 911 GT3 RS – the hottest car of its kind – out for a spin on the legendary Nordschleife at Germany’s Nürburgring Words: Werner Jessner Photography: Greg Funnell

ince I drove the last of my 215 F1 races on November 24, 2013, my life has changed, but not in a bad way. A lot of former racers fail when it comes to a dignified retirement. They make themselves scarce for a couple of years, have a good time, pay no attention to their waistline and by the time they’re ready to get back in touch with the world, no one wants to know any more. I didn’t want that to happen. When I was still in F1, Porsche offered me a position as works driver for the World Endurance Championship (WEC). The 24 Hours of Le Mans is the highlight. The series consists of eight races on classic circuits and we’re driving these hybrid prototypes, which have been incredibly souped-up technically. They’re only a couple of seconds slower per lap than F1 cars, but they have to keep that speed up for a full 24 hours. If you have an opportunity to get your hands on one of these things, you automatically keep your driving up to scratch and there was no way I was ever going to let myself get out of shape anyway. I discovered my love of Porsche road cars towards the end of my career in F1. A cute but classic 356, an early 1970s Carrera 2.7 and two 911 GT RSs from the last production series-but-one have all found their way into my hands. 48

As you can’t drive Porsches the way they are meant to be driven in regular traffic, especially not in England, where I live, the call from The Red Bulletin couldn’t have come at a better time: Germany’s Nürburgring, on its legendary Nordschleife circuit, with no one else around. Plus I was promised a priceless pre-production 911 GT3 RS to play with. I asked what colour it was before saying yes, just to be on the safe side. The options were slate grey or bright orange. I said yes anyway. I’m one of those people who buys the right colour car. And the right colour depends on the model. Red is perfect for the hyper-sporty 918. But, I thought to myself as I made my way to the Nürburgring, I’d want a GT3 RS in bilious green if I was to buy one at all. But would I buy one? The day would surely give me an answer to that question. Every single Porsche model has a Nordschleife record, set by a Nordschleife specialist in perfect conditions. The 887bhp 918 holds the absolute record at 6 minutes 57 seconds. No one can get near it. More than 10 years ago now, German racer Walter Röhrl set a time of 7 minutes 28 seconds for the 20.8km lap in the 612bhp Carrera GT. That was the second-fastest consumer model Porsche lap ever. The lap record for the mere 493bhp orange piece of kit in front of me, which looks so much like a regular 911, is 7 minutes, 20 seconds. A roll cage, a sound system, impressive upholstery and great racetrack capabilities: the Porsche 911 GT3 RS has the best of both worlds

Before flying over the blind crest at Flugplatz, the car has to be over on the left-hand side of the track. You have to be pinpoint accurate while in fifth gear going over 200kph

I’m not renowned for my expertise on the Nordschleife, even though I’ve driven here a good few times. I spent my time on other race circuits, such as the grand prix course next to this one. I only have good memories of it, as it’s where I took my first-ever F1 race win. I like coming to the Eifel. The German fans were always very fair to me, even if some years I was up against their great home favourite. I don’t sign fewer autographs in Germany than I do elsewhere. I sign more, if anything. I generally find it easy to memorise new tracks in detail. A couple of laps and then it’s usually stored in my head. But you’d be delusional if you think you could have total recall on the 20.8km Nordschleife. Plus the ideal line on this circuit isn’t usually where you’d expect it to be. You have to avoid bumps in the road surface just to get by, put together a number of corners in one go and turn unnaturally late to pick up momentum for the many uphill sections. It’s a bloody rollercoaster here and is nothing like a regular racetrack, not even Le Mans. Teaching yourself everything you need to know about the layout of the track takes time. As does learning all its secrets, like which kerb you can touch with which car without destroying the wheel rims, or whether you should shift down before you hit the crest of that hill you take off from, or whether you can do it while airborne… You need experienced guys to learn all that. And that’s the special thing about the Porsche development team; they’re basically at home on the Nordschleife. So if they say that it’s foot to the floor at the Antoniusbuche and then turn at 280kph, that’s valid information. When I come out of the turn I might crane my neck because I’m really interested to know if the right front wheel stayed on the road surface the whole time or just became the fastest lawnmower in Germany; but basically the guys have always been right up to now. You just have to do what they say. Still, I was happy that no one was expecting me to break any records that day. I fully expected to be able to do 7 minutes 40 seconds and by the same token fully expected to go under 7 minutes 30 in this car after a day’s 50

Perfect aerodynamics, 493bhp and serious guts: the Porsche 911 GT3 RS makes for some grown-up driving

I discovered my love of Porsche road cars towards the end of my career in Formula One. Now I own four

testing. But to do any better than that, I’d have to invest a lot more time. At the start, there was music on the radio that only people in Germany listen to, the Scorpions or something like that. Amazing, I thought to myself, that in the second-fastest road car Porsche has ever built you can have such an ill-fitting soundtrack. I turned it off. Even if it’s technically possible, I don’t need to try everything once. The radio and the Nordschleife would be a bad combination, and not just because it was the Scorpions. The 911 GT3 RS comes with a sevenspeed, dual-clutch transmission which you operate via shift paddles. There’s no clutch or gearstick and you have both hands on the steering wheel. I can cope with that. Why bother using my hands when the Porsche dual-clutch transmission does it better and quicker than even I can after 215 F1 races? Once the engine and oil had warmed up, I asked what I should look out for. The brakes? The tyres? Nothing, the Porsche guys said. Just have fun. The first potential pitfall on the Nordschleife comes right at the start; on the first right-hand turn there’s a bump that you have to move to the inside of the track to avoid, and then you head down to Hatzenbach. You swing right so that you can really go for it on the straight and then take the double right turn after that with plenty of momentum. Perfect. I carry on. Keep the rims away from the kerbs after Hocheichen. Now the fun really starts. Before flying over the blind crest at Flugplatz, the car has to be right over on the left-hand side of the track. You have to be pinpoint accurate while in fifth gear going at over 200kph. Then it’s back into fourth as soon as you land. The Porsche automatically double-declutches. The engine is roaring behind me. I deliberately brake straight away. Coming out of the triple right-hand turn, the little digital part of the large analogue speedometer is back up to 180kph. From the cockpit, the steep uphill of the Fuchsröhre looks like a multitude of little curves but it’s a false impression. The Porsche guys say it’s just something called the line of greatest slope. Go straight down. And they’re right. It’s full compression on the way down, 260kph on the clock, and as soon as you see the counter-slope, you slam on the brakes, which is really lovely for your sinuses. I can’t remember the name of every section. I recognise the place where THE RED BULLETIN

Not just for show: the adjustable rear wing is typical of the GT3 and the downforce it creates is an absolute must on the racetrack

The Nordschleife and the radio would be a bad combo, and not because of the Scorpions Niki Lauda had his accident and the two carousels, of course, where the car rattles and clatters. And then the gutsy sections, the blind bends, which you go into at 200kph and come out of still going 170kph. It’s bloody delightful how precisely and willingly the 911 GT3 RS plays along. This is a completely normal car you could drive on the road, remember, and one that picks up the Scorpions on the radio. Just before Brünnchen there’s a horrible noise. The front spoiler touches the ground when I go into the

compression. It doesn’t matter. It’s all made of carbon, just like the bonnet and the front wings. The long, long straight on the Döttinger Höhe is just as bumpy and uneven as ever, yet despite the almighty 20in 325 tyres at the rear – ie tyres that would work on an SUV – the 911 holds its line with minimal effort. Another couple of curves to finish and it’s back into the temporary pit lane. You can smell the brakes and the tyres have warmed up. I don’t even want to know the time. Today wasn’t about records. I’m thinking about something else. Should I really buy a green GT3 RS, or is this orange one even better?

A LEGEND UP CLOSE

The Nurburgring Nordschleife’s 20.832km of legendary track sections like Schwedenkreuz and Caracciola-Karussell, plus 73 challenging curves, add up to a unique experience for any driver. So it isn’t just every racing driver’s dream to tame the ‘Green Hell’, as Jackie Stewart dubbed it. And that’s why the Nordschleife offers fans the opportunity to live the dream in their own car: it’s open to tourists year-round. For further information visit nuerburgring.de

BATTLING THE ELEMENTS 7 TEAMS / 8 MONTHS / 9 STAGES / 38,739 NAUTICAL MILES

T h e Vo l v o O c e a n R a c e i s a m e r c i l e s s c o n t e s t held off the coasts of five continents. The w o r l d ’s b e s t y a c h t s m e n r i s k t h e i r b o a t s – a s well as their lives – to take part

MATT KNIGHTON/ABU DHABI OCEAN RACING/VOLVO OCEAN RACE

Words : Étienne Bonamy & Albert Niemanni

STAGE 1 / ALICANTE-CAPE TOWN / OCTOBER 2014 Team Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing fight their way along the coast of West Africa. At the helm is Simon ‘SiFi’ Fisher. Walls of water the size of men almost wash the yachtsmen away

VOLVO OCEAN RACE ROUTE 2014-2015 Gothenburg Lorient Newport

Alicante Sanya

Lisbon Abu Dhabi ItajaĂ Auckland

RICK TOMLINSON

Cape Town

Team Brunel is almost swallowed up by the waves of Cape Horn. Concentration is required: the Dongfeng Race Team suffer a broken mast going round the Cape STAGE 5 / AUCKLAND-ITAJAĂ? / APRIL 2015

T H E S T R E S S O F S TA G E S LASTING WEEKS ON E N D M E A N S T H AT M A N Y YA C H T S M E N ’S B E A R D S STOP GROWING STAGE 5 / AUCKLAND-ITAJAÍ / MARCH 2015

A rare moment of relaxation for the Dongfeng Race Team. Three hours of sleep in one go is good going for the exhausted yachtsmen, as the ocean crashes deafeningly against the sides of the racing yacht STAGE 3 / ABU DHABI-SANYA / JANUARY 2015

AINHOA SANCHEZ/VOLVO OCEAN RACE, SAM GREENFIELD/DONGFENG RACE TEAM/VOLVO OCEAN RACE, AMORY ROSS/TEAM ALVIMEDICA/VOLVO OCEAN RACE (2)

Race-leaders Abu Dhabi off Brazil’s coast. Itajaí awaits the winners of the longest race stage: 6,776 nautical miles, or more than 12,500km. Abu Dhabi’s stagewinning time: just under 19 days

STAGE 4 / SANYA-AUCKLAND / FEBRUARY 2015 The wind is brisk. Every second counts, so every manoeuvre must be just right. The tension is written all over the face of Dave Swete of Team Alvimedica

STAGE 2 / CAPE TOWN-ABU DHABI / NOVEMBER 2014 A quick bite to eat before it’s back to work. The Volvo Ocean Race stands for a lot of things: danger, adventure, speed, sometimes even madness. But it’s never cosy. Comfort is an alien concept

THREE HOURS OF SL E EP IN ONE GO IS GOOD GOING FOR THE EXHAUSTED YACHTSMEN

STAGE 5 / AUCKLAND-ITAJAÍ / APRIL 2015 Stu Bannatyne navigates at the helm for Alvimedica in the merciless South Pacific. The American boat is the first to round Cape Horn. Fall overboard here and your chances of rescue are slim

STAGE 2 / CAPE TOWN-ABU DHABI / DECEMBER 2014 Ryan Houston’s hands are testament to another stressful night’s work on Alvimedica. The sun, seawater and forces unleashed on the ropes all take their toll

AMORY ROSS / TEAM ALVIMEDICA / VOLVO OCEAN RACE (2), SAM GREENFIELD/DONGFENG RACE TEAM/VOLVO OCEAN RACE

erious expressions could be seen on the tanned, weather-beaten faces of some of the world’s best yachtsmen in Alicante on October 4 last year, the start date for the Volvo Ocean Race 2014/15. Seven yachts were about to set off to race around the world’s oceans for eight long months over nine stages, stopping at South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, China, New Zealand, Brazil, the US, Portugal and France before crossing the finish line in Gothenburg, Sweden. Listening to the yachtsmen’s stories as they wait on the Alicante jetty with seagulls squawking overhead, you could be forgiven for thinking that you were dealing with a bunch of masochists. They talk about the heat and the cold, of gale-force winds and storms that lash them with icicles. They recall riding on and flying over waves the size of houses. And of risking their lives. “The bow bores down into a trough as you come down from some of these monster waves,” explains Germany’s Tim Kröger, who has taken part in the Volvo Ocean Race numerous times now. “A wall of water 1.5m tall can almost sweep you away. Then you’re up to your waist in freezing-cold water. You get out of the habit of thinking. That’s a good thing: thinking can cause doubts, and that would be inappropriate.” The yachtsmen live on their 20m yachts for weeks at a time, with each nine-man team packed tightly together in a confined space. They spend days in soaking-wet clothes, and go to sleep afraid that they might hit a drifting container at 60kph or ram a sleeping whale, which would spell disaster. They grimace when they describe slurping THE RED BULLETIN

Dongfeng Racing Team, three days prior to closing Stage 4 in third place – a miserly eight minutes behind the stage-winners MAPFRE STAGE 4 / SANYA-AUCKLAND / FEBRUARY 2015

noodles out of a tube – the best cuisine a yachtsman can expect when on the high seas. There are physical signs of how stressful this sort of race is. Some men’s beards stop growing; others lose up to 10kg on certain stages. Ken Read, a former Volvo Ocean Race skipper, explains how to create a mental image of the race. “Sit on the roof of your car in a storm and then hurtle down a bumpy mountain road,” he says. “That’ll give you an inkling of what it’s like.” Read’s greatest fear has always been hearing somebody shout “Man overboard”. “The worst thing to have happened to me during the Volvo Ocean Race was when Hans Horrevoets went overboard from another yacht in 2006,” he says. “He drowned.” Dangers lurk throughout the event. In late November 2014, relatively soon after the start of the race, the field was reduced from seven to six yachts when the hull of the Vestas Wind vessel was sliced open by a reef north-east of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. The crew spent the night on the side of the boat before being rescued the next morning. The Volvo Ocean 65 Class yachts are racing machines made of Kevlar, carbon fibre and other contemporary materials. There are high-tech electronics and super-strong hydraulics on board, but comfort in any sense is an alien concept. Just the fact that there’s no insulation on the boats makes life on board tortuous. In some places the ocean temperature is just one degree centigrade, which means it barely reaches 10 degrees in the ship’s cavernous hold. The background noise ranges from the gentle splashing of waves to a deafening crash when,

“…YOU’RE WAIST-DEEP IN FREEZIN GCOLD WAT ER” for example, up on deck a monstrous gennaker sail is hauled tight over one of the drum winches. It sounds like the yacht is breaking apart. “Three hours of sleep in one go is good going,” one of the men reveals on the jetty in Alicante. “Men take shifts in two sleeping bags to save weight and space.” Frenchman Yann Riou, 41, is the onboard reporter for the Franco-Chinese Dongfeng Race Team. Although he’s forbidden from taking part in any manoeuvres, as are the reporters on the other six yachts, he has the same daily routine as the team itself. Riou, for one, got his fair share of excitement west of Cape Horn. “I was speaking to the helmsman, Charles Caudrelier, inside the yacht when suddenly there was this terrifying crash,” he says. The top of the mast had broken away. “When that happens, you’ve got to climb up there and cut off the broken part to stop it falling on to deck. That would be even worse.” “Every day is a little different,” considers former skipper Read on the subject of a typical day of racing. “But only the first few days are really bad. After that, you get used to it all.” volvooceanrace.com

Pratt’s world: he’s played roles from a shoe-shiner in Parks and Recreation to a guardian of the galaxy

THE

DROPOUT

HERO FROM STRIP CLUBS TO THE STRATOSPHERE…

HOW CHRIS PRATT BECAME ONE OF HOLLYWOOD’S BIGGEST AND MOST UNLIKELY GREAT HOPES WORDS: RÜDIGER STURM PHOTOGRAPHY: PETER YANG

NOT ALL THAT LONG AGO, YOU COULD CLAP EYES ON A NAKED CHRIS PRATT FOR $40. ONE FRIEND’S GRANNY EVEN GOT A STRIPPER PERFORMANCE AS A GIFT

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nyone who wanted to hang out with Chris Pratt in the late 1990s had to be OK with rats and fleas, as that’s who the young man from Minnesota, USA, was sharing his home with back then. He lived in a clapped-out van on the beach in Maui, and spent most of his time drinking and smoking weed, earning his money doing casual waiting jobs. But fast forward to March 2015 and Pratt is sitting in a palatial suite in the Four Seasons hotel in Los Angeles on, what is these days, a rare break from filming. At 35, Pratt has the film world at his feet. The former homeless odd-jobber has become one of Hollywood’s great hopes. As the male lead, he made Guardians of the Galaxy one of the biggest box-office successes of the last year. Now he’s starring as the hero in the relaunched Jurassic Park franchise. And he’ll probably play Indiana Jones in the future too, at least if his advocate Steven Spielberg has anything to do with it. “Just the idea that I’m even on the list of people being considered for the role at all bowls me over,” he says, eyes wide. It’s this attitude that sets Pratt apart from the usual, ego-driven actor set. He’s still refreshingly down to earth, a genuinely nice guy. Maybe it’s because his is not a familiar stage-school story of Hollywood success – Pratt has walked a very winding path to reach the spotlight that’s currently shining on him. He tried studying after high school, but dropped out halfway through his first semester. His career as a discount ticket agent was equally short-lived, which led to him working as a stripper – or a “cheap Magic Mike”, as he puts it – for a time, and one who wasn’t afraid to go the Full Monty for $40 a pop. He even

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performed at a friend’s grandmother’s birthday. So when an old stoner friend invited him to come and hang out in Hawaii, he didn’t hesitate for a second. It was there he found that, with a bit of drive and a healthy dose of luck, waiters can become global film stars. Pratt already had a passion for performing. “I always wanted to do it,” he says. “When I was in pre-school, I saw my brother, who is three years older than me, performing in a school play. My mother was moved to tears by his performance and I thought to myself, ‘I can do that too.’” Then came the luck. It struck in Maui and went by the name of Rae Dawn Chong. The actress had starred in the Arnold Schwarzenegger action flick Commando, which Pratt had seen hundreds of times. He recognised her immediately while serving her shrimps one evening and reeled her in with his good-natured charm. The upshot: she offered him a part in her directorial debut, a horror comedy titled Cursed Part 3, and flew him over to LA. But we’re not at the ‘and the rest is history’ part just yet. Pratt got stuck in the Tinseltown hamster wheel after his debut, desperately fighting to get parts. According to press reports, a failed audition for Avatar was the low point, but he is quick to add, “That’s just one of the movies I auditioned for and didn’t get. I wasn’t getting any parts. None! I tried for almost every movie you didn’t see me in.” He shouts the words out with a mix of comic selfdeprecation and genuine disappointment.

“I WOULD HAVE HAD NO PROBLEM PLAYING THE WORLD’S FIRST OVERWEIGHT SUPERHERO” 65

PRATT’S BEST FILMS 2011

MONEYBALL Starring as a baseball player alongside Brad Pitt in this sports drama, which received six Oscar nominations

2012 ZERO DARK THIRTY A Navy SEAL in the team which dispatches Bin Laden. This thriller earned five Oscar nominations

2012 THE FIVE-YEAR ENGAGEMENT Sidekick to the indecisive lead role, played by Jason Segel, in this charming rom-com

2014 THE LEGO MOVIE Valiant builder (voice only), who turns the Lego Universe upside down

2014 GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY Courageous thief and interstellar adventurer in the record-breaking Marvel Comics screen adaptation

omething spurred Pratt on, though. “It was belief in myself, a capacity for enthusiasm and the thought that others were wrong if they thought I wasn’t the right person for the part,” he says. But that’s not to say Pratt became some pushy maniac. On the contrary, he kept a healthy attitude to the roles he went after. Once the TV series he’d played his first parts in had come to an end, he said to himself, “I don’t necessarily have to be the male lead. Character parts are good too.” This flexibility paid off, as did willingness to stuff or starve himself as roles demanded. Today, Pratt looks like a man on a health kick, with a strong, broad back and muscles bulging out of the sleeves of his polo shirt. Rumour has it that he’s not averse to a glass of whiskey during interviews, yet this time all he’s drinking is a high-end South Pacific mineral water. These days looking good is a job requirement, but it hasn’t always been so. One of his breakthrough roles was the clueless, overweight slacker Andy Dwyer in the hit comedy series Parks and Recreation. Then he lost all the weight again to play a baseball player in Moneyball. He then piled 20kg back on for a part in the comedy 10 Years. And for his role in Delivery Man he even tried to get himself up to a fighting weight of 150kg. He went back to the gym for last year’s Guardians of the Galaxy, though not for the sake of vanity. “I would have had no problem playing the world’s first overweight superhero,” he laughs. He liked the project so much that the hours pumping iron were worth it, so much that he didn’t give a damn about its chances of success. “I said to myself, ‘This movie’s going to be a flop and it’ll be

“I TRIED FOR ALMOST EVERY MOVIE YOU DIDN’T SEE ME IN”

the end of my career,’” he says. Which was not an entirely unjustified hunch. Prior to the summer of 2014, it looked like no one was interested in a gang of largely unknown comic characters chasing a mysterious ball around the Universe. The Hollywood Reporter trade newspaper crowned Pratt a Rule Breaker of 2014 for his bravery, which was rewarded with box-office takings of $774 million. But Pratt doesn’t class that as brave. He remains unfussed by fame and celebrity. He suppressed his excitement when playing alongside Brad Pitt in Moneyball. So much so that he slightly regretted it. “Shooting a movie with him was bloody cool,” he said afterwards. “Maybe I should have enjoyed it more.” While many actors may wax lyrical about who ‘the real heroes are’, Pratt comes across as genuine. “My heroes are people whose first impulse is to act selflessly and help others,” he says. “Russell Wilson, the Seattle Seahawks quarterback, is a hero as far as I’m concerned. And not just because he led his team to the Super Bowl two years running. He also gives a lot back to society, by visiting sick children in hospital, for example. I think that’s really cool. But most real heroes aren’t famous. It’s people who risk their asses to protect others even though they get no thanks for it.” A cynic may conclude that, given enough time in LALA-land, this pragmatism may soon disappear. But it’s Pratt’s enduring happy-go-lucky attitude that’s helped get him here. Although he answers questions seriously, sprinkling wisecracks sparingly, Pratt’s sense of humour is ever-present. His role in Parks and Recreation was developed because the programme-maker found him so staggeringly funny at his audition. Now he’s seen as the most talented improviser of all of them. It’s also how Jurassic World director Colin Trevorrow first noticed him. Pratt puts his comic abilities down to his “life experience”. Anyone who’s had to deal with rats and lusting grannies on a daily basis learns to take everyday life in his stride. When Pratt describes his favourite moment while shooting multi-million dollar film Jurassic World, you can sense an anarchic spark, no doubt left over from his weed-smoking days. “I’m speeding around on a motorbike in one action scene. I ended up totalling it and came off head-over-heels over the handlebars,” he says as an impish grin spreads over his face. “It was really awesome.” Though almost every aspect of Pratt’s life has changed, he, it seems, hasn’t. And Hollywood can’t get enough. Jurassic World is in cinemas now: jurassicworldmovie.com THE RED BULLETIN

Indiana wants me: if Steven Spielberg has his way, Pratt will be the next Dr Jones

MINT CONDITION Born in the desert near Las Vegas more than 40 years ago, the Mint 400 Great American Off-Road Race attracts top off-road racers for hundreds of miles of choking dust. But itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the folks doing it on their own dime that make up its charm Words: Cole Louison Photography: David Harry Stewart

Shifting sand: the race is a 400-mile slog across the Nevada desert. Hunter S Thompson wrote about it in Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas

Route planning: what started in 1967 as a promotional event for the Mint hotel in Las Vegas soon became the toughest off-road race in the USA

“One thing leads to another that always leads to another. Then it’s midnight and the phone’s ringing because my wife wants to know if everything’s OK”

T wo days before the Mint 400 Great American Off-Road Race gets under way in the dusty outskirts of Las Vegas, Nevada, racer Justin Park sits on the porch of his quaint home in Encinitas, California, looking at the truck parked in his gravel driveway. “You get in that thing, put on your helmet, hit the gas, and it’s just – it’s on,” says Park. “I don’t have the words. It’s really more of a feeling…” He trails off, running his hand across the back of his neatly shaven crew cut. “I mean, just look at the thing,” says Park of the customised Ford Ranger XLT with a new V6 engine. Gleaming in a new coat of matt black, with a low arched body atop raised suspension and chunky tyres, the truck says more than this polite husband and IT guy ever could articulate about the history and culture of his passion. Park, 39, bought it at a lot down the road and spent three months and $40,000 of his own money customising it with his team. Right now they’re making 11th-hour adjustments ahead of the biggest race of his life. The Mint 400 is a event that draws more than 300 amateur and professional racing teams from all over America. Big money and bigger exposure are up for grabs. The pros’ sponsors want their brands seen; the amateurs want sponsors to see them. It’s easy to spot the differences between the two camps. In general, 72

Rocking and rolling: vehicles have to negotiate rough and wild terrain

pro racers and their teams wear new boots, shades and overalls. Their trailers are customised and everything is plastered with stickers of big-name brands. Amateurs tend to wear mismatched gear, maybe a bit worn, and their trucks are more simple. For the race, Park and his co-pilot will wear dusty black overalls with white racing stripes and personalised shoes from Osiris, his sponsor. Other sponsors’ patches are sewn down the sleeve. “The Mint is iconic,” he says. “I grew up hearing stories about it around here. You do well in this race, and your life’s going to change, so the pressure’s on.” When he’s not 48 hours from the big event, filled with pre-race nerves and excitement, Park makes eye contact and speaks in a clear, focused manner. His voice has no trace of his Californian

“You do well in this race and your life is going to change, so the pressure is on”

accent reminiscent of surf movies. He makes statements that show he’s knows his engineering, saying things like, “Structure elevates your team success.” “My dad was a 28-year veteran of the Navy SEALs,” says Park. “He was on the underwater demo team and he worked with Jacques Cousteau on the first underwater breathing apparatus. He was out doing these amazing things, and I felt this need to be Superman as well, to go on these adventures.” This meant loading dirt bikes into pick-up trucks and off-roading to more rural areas around California, and eventually to Baja, Mexico. As Park made the transition from bikes to small trucks he could work on at home – dirt bikes mean injuries, he says – he was soon winning races throughout Baja and California. Eventually he got sponsorship deals and formed an olive oil company called Baja Olive with a business partner. The brand’s name is now emblazoned across his black truck. Baja is important to off-road racing, to Park, and to the Mint 400. It’s an off-roading mecca spanning 750 miles of Mexico where, in 1967, another famed race began. The first Baja 1000 drew off-road racers from around the world, and such was its success that casino mogul Del Webb decided to start a desert race to promote his new hotel: The Mint. Thus, the Mint 400 was born.

Keeping it in the family (right): father-son teams are common at the Mint 400, where amateurs race against pros for $10,000

There are trucks, ATVs, dune buggies, Volkswagen Beetles and sand rails which look like go-karts that grew up in the desert and ate their vegetables

The race begins before dawn and follows three laps of a 126-mile course

FEAR & RACING IN LAS VEGAS Crunching the numbers about America’s most notorious off-road race

250

The number of words Sports Illustrated magazine assigned Hunter S Thompson to write a photo story about the race.

15,000

The number of words he actually wrote. The “mean gibberish” went on to form the basis of Part One of Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas.

65,000

The number of fans who bore witness to this years running of the Mint 400.

149 RACE TEAMS

The number of competitors who did not finish this year’s race. A total of 330 entered.

ustin Park still has to go to the Auto Zone shop and tweak the suspension before he goes to bed. The light is fading and there is much more work to be done, but he’s unfazed. It’s in these hours, slithers of time he’s found between work and family, that he’s turned a passion into a career. Park’s day starts at sunrise. He has breakfast with his wife, Mia, a magazine 76

What happens in Vegas: the Strip is at the centre of the pre-race action

editor, in their small tiled kitchen, and goes to work. For the next nine hours, he’ll troubleshoot his design firm’s obscure computer issues while managing Baja Olive and courting sponsors to give him parts, and calling up garages to lend him time and machinery. He gets home around 6pm and spends an hour on social networks, promoting Baja Olive. After dinner he changes into overalls and goes to work on the truck. “The next thing is we’re at someone’s garage, and one thing leads to another that always leads to another,” says Park. “Then it’s midnight and the phone’s ringing because my wife wants to know if everything’s OK.” Park’s team latches the truck’s doors into place. James Oshea, 39, and Scott Breauxman, 47, are from Northern San Diego County, California, off-road

racing’s cradle of life. Oshea and Breauxman are both volunteers and seasoned experts who grew up desert racing. The three have been friends for more than 25 years. Two days and endless refinements later, Park is revving his new V6 engine in a parking lot behind the Gold Strike Hotel underneath a cold desert moon. It’s five o’clock on race morning and he’s strapped into the cockpit of the reinforced cab, alongside Oshea, who is making the move to co-pilot for the first time after helping Park in the pits. “All right, guys,” says Park. “Let’s get this.” Park hits the accelerator, makes one broad squealing circle, and is gone, receding up the hill towards the glowing line of racers on their way to the start. There are trucks, ATVs, dune buggies, vintage Volkswagen Beetles and sand THE RED BULLETIN

End of the line (right): the best-laid plans go up in engine smoke for Justin Park and his team in the Nevada desert. After months of work, his truck splutters to a stop due to a computer error

Justin Park (below): the family man and off-road racer is now preparing for the 543-mile Vegas To Reno desert race

“ T he desert won this time. But that’s why we call it racing. There’s always another event”

rails, which look like go-karts that grew up in the desert and ate their vegetables. They tic and rev and snarl and cough and growl and grumble and make a sound that goes vvrroooooooooooooOOOOOM. There’s also a lot of smoke. Some drivers stall their engines and don’t start the race. The racers take off two at a time, following not a flag-waving Mint 400 THE RED BULLETIN

girl, but an average-looking dusty traffic light. There’s already a low, tacking mist of sand over the course, like someone tried to erase it with a rubber. A total of 25 classes, from Class 5, the VWs, to Class 7 Stock Mini, Park’s class, are participating; the quickest time in each class wins. Each racer’s time is recorded via GPS, and time is added for violations like driving off-course. This sun is just eclipsing the mountain peaks when Park reaches the line. A race official wearing an orange vest doesn’t look up from his tablet computer as Park stops, stares straight ahead, and then disappears in a low chute of dust. He never makes the first pit, about 50 miles from the start. Early on, he feels the horsepower drop. At mile 33, the truck stalls, starts again, goes 10 more minutes, then quits three miles from Pit A. A text message goes out to the team that just reads “problem” and soon Breauxman is engaging every piece of his Toyota’s four-wheel drive to move over dunes, creekbeds, and cacti, until he sees it. The truck emits a dry wheezing sound that pops as the engine tries to turn over. “We just called the guy who built the engine,” says Oshea. “We got oil. We got spark. I don’t know…” “It’s the motor,” says Park, almost to himself. With an expression somewhere between crushed and you’ve-got-to-be-

kidding-me, he helps Breauxman loop a tow rope through the front suspension and they begin the long trek back. After the race, on a distant shimmery stage, the feedback-heavy awards ceremony that takes longer than the race itself is going on. It’s a shrieking thanking and listing of multiple awards for multiple teams in multiple classes. Park and his team don’t attend the festivities or any notorious afterparties that help give The Mint its raucous undercurrent. Instead, they have a few beers at their hotel in Jean, Nevada, about 30 miles south of Las Vegas. When all was said and done and they examined the outcome of the race, the fatal flaw was indeed the motor. A computer malfunction meant it was not receiving enough fuel, Park explained two weeks later as he sat at home with his wife, enjoying March Madness basketball on TV and still undeterred. Now he’s rigorously testing the truck and looking forward to August, when they will compete in the General Tire Vegas To Reno, a 543-mile desert trek. “The desert won this time,” he says. “But that’s why they call it racing. There’s always another event. It’s long, it’s hot, and we’ll need the whole team to work really hard. But that’s our focus now. That’s our story.” themint400.com

NO SLEEP

Fr o m ch a ot ic ra p l i g h t sh ow s to r e t r o r e f ra in s p laye d a l f r e sc o, t h e n i g h t l i fe i n S ã o Pa u l o k n ow s n o b o u n ds. We t a ke a n a f te rda r k to u r w i t h B ra zi l ia n f u n k s u p e r s t a r – a n d g oo d f r i e n d of Ney m a r – M C G u i m ê WORDS: FERNANDO GUEIROS PHOTOGRAPHY: ROBERT ASTLEY SPARKE

TILL Beautiful women, ecstatic fans: if you’re out with MC Guimê (far left), it’s never a quiet night

BRAZIL

Born and bred in the scruf f y suburbs of São Paulo, Guimê’s a Brazilian A-lister despite being 22 Party animal: Guimê worked his way from working-class Tatuapé to the VIP areas of the city’s clubs

DIVULGAÇÃO (2)

An evening off is rare. But tonight, Guimê’s agenda is cleared in favour of fun

s Thursday turns into Friday, a van glides through the streets of São Paulo. The interior is as dark as the night outside it. Speakers vibrate as they deliver hip-hop beats, and the small air outlet in the roof does nothing to eliminate the thick fog of smoke that fills the inside. A designer watch glows through the darkness, showing exactly 1am. Time for Brazilian funk superstar MC Guimê and his friends to go clubbing. With nearly 12 million inhabitants, São Paulo is Brazil’s largest city. It’s also Latin America’s wealthiest. The result is a smorgasbord of musical offerings that

can be sampled at any time of day or night. “There’s entertainment for every taste, any time, with different crowds and tribes,” says the heavily tattooed funkeiro Guimê. “You can party to electronic beats inside a world-class club or listen to live samba and drink a beer on a boardwalk wearing board shorts and no shirt. There’s a party for every kind of person with lots of urban energy.” And few know their way through the dizzying array of options better than this true Paulistano. Born and bred in the scruffy suburbs of São Paulo, Guimê’s a Brazilian A-lister despite being just 22. He’s the first name in the city’s Ostentatious Funk scene, an offshoot of Brazilian funk’s frenetic mix of rap and dance music, but known for luxurious lifestyles surrounded by the best cars, jewels, liquor, women and parties. Having started out in his small neighbourhood of Tatuapé, he’s amassed a Facebook following of eight million, has had one of his hits covered by Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and counts global football star Neymar as a mate. Last year he released País do Futebol (The Country of Football), an anthem for the FIFA World Cup hosted by Brazil. “I knew Neymar would like the song,” says Guimê as we speed along the city streets. “I played it to him before it was finished. He loved it. We got to know each other better after that. He’s a down-to-Earth dude.” With a schedule that includes 40 shows a month, an evening off is a rarity for Guimê. But tonight, his agenda has been cleared in favour of fun. The van is headed to the centre of the city, known as Downtown, and one of the best hip-hop nights that São Paulo has to offer.

MC Guimê live: YouTube videos of the 22-year-old funkeiro get clicked up to 50 million times A hip-hop DJ at Lions Nightclub, São Paulo’s temple of rap and R&B music

A musician’s life: “Even if I wanted, I couldn’t go to bed before four in the morning,” says Guimê

On the dancefloor at Lions Nightclub: people get down to Brazilian and American rap

O n e g ir l in t h e cr ow d sp ot s G uim ê a n d r u ns to h ug h im without m is sin g a beat

The dress code of female clubgoers in São Paulo: feminine, elegant and sexy

The van draws up outside Lions Nightclub. It’s situated on the first floor of an old building overlooking the São Paulo See Metropolitan Cathedral, right in the heart of the city. The club’s a monument in its own right – to the revitalisation of a nightlife scene in a region that only five years ago was badly run down. Today, Downtown São Paulo is inhabited by a diverse mix of artists, cultural agitators and investors, and has become a place that people want to head to after dark. This interest is in large part down to Lions owner and entrepreneur Facundo Guerra, who also owns several other nightclubs and music halls here in Downtown. Guerra’s become something of a local celebrity – an affable bearded hipster whose trademark casual T-shirt belies his substantial success. “As well as electronic, rock and hiphop nightlife in São Paulo, there’s a scene very rich in local music such as pagode, axé and sertanejo,” says Guerra. “São Paulo has some of the least commercial nightlife in the world. A lot of clubs in London, Ibiza, Madrid or Paris depend on tourists to survive. Tourism in São Paulo is mainly related to business, so the city’s clubs can really cater to its residents.”

At Casa 92 in the Pinheiros neighbourhood, the city’s clubbers meet after midnight

hen the van door slides open, Guimê and his six friends step out and enter the club. Downtown’s rise in fortunes mirror’s Guimê’s own: Lion’s was the venue that marked the start the area’s upturn, and it’s played its own part in his success. “I played Lions when I started my career,” he says. “I even recorded my video Na Pista Eu Arraso here.” The title means something like ‘I break the dancefloor’, and with more than 50 million hits, it’s one of the MC’s most popular creations. Inside, two bottles of vodka, an ice bucket and Red Bulls arrive at Guimê’s table as if by magic. The VIP lounge is in the corner of the main hall, which features a dancefloor and a round bar in the centre. The lounge extends to a large balcony with views of the Downtown skyline and the chaotic dancefloor, which burns with LED lights and 3D effects. Thursday is rap and hip-hop night Groovelicious, and the music is ribjanglingly loud. Glass in one hand, Guimê swings his other arm from side to side, up and down, and sways in time to the heavy beat. Around him, guys throw their hands in the air while women wind and wiggle. Two of them approach Guimê and his crew to dance, while their friends head to the bar for caipirinhas, a cocktail made with Brazil’s favourite spirit, cachaça. The DJ spots Guimê and chooses a couple of tracks to his musical taste. The rap is loose and the dancefloor continues to fill with bodies, but despite the bespoke soundtrack, the crew has another plan

for the end of the night: to head over to Casa 92. It’s a club they haven’t tested yet, and is located in the Pinheiros district in the higher-rent western area of São Paulo – a contrast to edgy Downtown. So it’s back into the dark van, with its pulsating bass and more smoke. The grey, sleeping city flits past the windows. “Are the ice and drinks on the table?” asks one of Guimê’s friends on his mobile phone. As they arrive, Blister in the Sun by Violent Femmes plays over one of the club’s four dancefloors. It’s 3.40am, but the crowd is just starting to peak. Girls in colourful figure-hugging dresses weave through the throng; one of them spots Guimê and runs to hug him without missing a beat. Though the city has several distinct areas, each with its own sounds and styles, Guimê is a star in all of them. He climbs the stairs to an open-air yard, where a psychedelic video is projected onto the outer wall, so he can party with a little more exclusivity. “São Paulo’s nightlife is top quality,” he says, sitting on a couch. “The city has its problems, but it’s also where everything happens. When I’m away, I miss the city where I learned to be who I am – this crazy mix of cultures, this beautiful mess. São Paulo will be always side-by-side with me.” In the central garden, the sound of people’s voices and the distant bass from one of the dancefloors seep through the door. Girls ask to take a selfie with Guimê. James Brown fills the air and a guy starts dancing as if he’s in a 1970s discotheque. “That’s what clubbing is all about,” says Guimê, “taking time out to forget about your problems. This city is unique, like being in another country.” But this night, like Guimê, is unmistakably São Paulo. facebook.com/mcguimeoficial

See it. Get it. Do it.

AC T I O N ! 85

TRAVEL 87

GEAR 89

WHEELS 90

CULTURE 92

HOW TO 94

EVENTS TRAVEL

JET SETTERS

Horsepowered barrels in Australia

JEFF FLINDT

Legendary Hawaiian wave rider Paul Strauch once compared surfing to making love: “It always feels good, no matter how many times you’ve done it.” But even the best things can be improved by mixing them up a little. Martin Sula, a Formula One engineer from the Czech Republic, did just that in 2008 when he attached a two-stroke 100cc engine to a carbon-fibre surfboard and created Jetsurf.

The high-performance motorised boards of Jetsurf take traditional surfing to a new level, transforming even calm waters into a surfer’s playground, and delivering an experience described by elite ocean athlete Kai Lenny as “a mixture of surfing and MotoGP”. “Jetsurfing is a whole new kind of adrenalin rush and you don’t need a big wave in order to feel it,” says Lenny, the 2013 stand-up paddle (SUP) world champion. “Flying across the water is similar to the feeling you get riding a giant wave. Once you drive into a turn the G-forces leave you wanting more. It’s really addictive.” The 12hp Jetsurf board is capable of speeds up to 35mph (58kph) and has a range of up to 45 miles (75km) or 90 minutes on a full tank. Adjusting for speed is as easy as squeezing or releasing the throttle, which is a handgrip on the end of an electronic leash attached to the surfer’s wrist. It also acts as an emergency kill-cord to stop the engine as soon as the rider lets go. While the engine takes much of the strain, it still takes a lot of physical effort to keep the board in check for extended periods, as most surfers aren’t used to riding a wave for more than a few minutes. “This wave lasts over an hour before you need to refuel,” says Martin Sula, the board’s inventor. “It demands a great deal of physical and mental strength.” However, thanks to the fact that the board has a relatively small engine and featherweight carbon-fibre hull – the entire rig tips the scale at just 14kg – the Jetsurf board is easy to handle on the water and simple to transport.

TRAVEL PERTH More to explore

Aces high Feel the adrenalin of aerial combat as the co-pilot of a genuine ex-military Nanchang CJ-6A Warbird as it engages an opponent in a 45-minute simulated dogfight in the skies over Perth. warbirdswa.com

Rapid ride On the crest of a wave: learn Jetsurfing in Perth

“ JETSURFING IS A NEW KIND OF ADRENALIN RUSH AND YOU DON’T NEED A BIG WAVE TO FEEL IT”

Top Gear

Perth, AUS Perth Do you dare to get jet-propelled? Visit: jetsurf perth.com.au

Strap yourself into an inflatable raft and take on the rapids of the raging River Avon, which runs through the rugged Walyunga National Park and is host of the world’s longest white-water race. rafting.com.au

There are currently only a few locations worldwide that offer Jetsurf training, and one of the most picturesque is Perth, in Western Australia. Surfers and non-surfers are welcome and, with serious air and even backflips all-but guaranteed daily, there’s no need to check the surf report.

Discover exactly what a 5.0-litre, V10 engine can do when you put a 700hp-plus trackprepared Lamborghini Gallardo through its paces over eight laps around a challenging private track. supercarsperth.com.au

THE INSIDER Kai Lenny gets to grips with Jetsurfing

“If you’re voyaging across larger bodies of water, a GPS or mobile phone is a good idea – just in case,” says Martin Sula.

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TOM SERVAIS ,JOHN ABSOLON, CORBIS, BRODIE BUTLER

ACTION

GEAR

ACTION

TOUGH STUFF

Wherever you go, whatever you do, this rugged kit can keep pace

BioLite CampStove

Fire up your smartphone anywhere with this portable electricity generator. The clever camping stove will charge most USB-compatible devices while cooking your dinner at the same time. biolitestove.com

Any gathered wood can be used to fuel a smokeless fire with a flame to rival your home hob.

CHIPS

LaCie XtremKey USB 3.0

RYAN JAMES HACKBARTH, PETER MELBINGER, BEN FONNESBECK

Bluetooth headphones that are perfect for the piste. They work with any audio-ready helmet, and let you make calls and select music without removing your gloves. ellis-brigham.com

Seacam

Made from a mix of titanium and a saltwaterproof, hardened metal alloy, this is a foolproof way to take your favourite shooter from land to sea. seacam.com

THE RED BULLETIN

Data storage tough enough to survive the apocalypse. This super-fast USB keeps up to 128GB safe at 200m deep, and temperatures of 200ºC to -30ºC. lacie.com

Buckshot Pro

This 3-in-1 speaker also functions as a portable charger and a three-way torch. Make hands-free calls with the inbuilt mic and strap it to your bike for rides after dark. outdoortechnology.com

Gloryfy SPORTstyle

Thanks to an innovative material called I-Flex, these sunglasses are guaranteed to be 100 per cent unbreakable, while still offering 100 per cent sun protection. gloryfy.com

ACTION

GEAR

GETTING DEEP Dive with a Tudor

Tudor Pelagos Blue

The 42mm titanium case and stainless steel case back are fitted with a helium escape valve to prevent them exploding during a dive. Tudor provides the screwdown winding crown with triple waterproofing system.

Anglophile Rolex founder Hans Wilsdorf launched his second brand of watches, Tudor, back in 1946, to offer a more affordable range of timepieces – by Rolex standards anyway. Its first was the Tudor Oyster in 1947. Then came the sporty 7922 in 1954, which was uncannily similar to the Rolex Submariner – making the diver’s watch with rotating bezel a sought-after collector’s item. But with this year’s offering, the Tudor Pelagos, the company has stepped out of the Rolex shadow. The distinctly modern diver’s watch contains the brand new selfwinding mechanical movement MT5612, the first Tudor have manufactured in-house. The result is a timepiece that’s as functional and reliable as it is attractive. Once fully wound, the 6.5mm movement will tick away happily for a good 70 hours. And it can even do so at 500m deep. tudorwatch.com

STRAP ON A SEAFARER

These waterproof watches need not be left on land

The stainless steel cases of these chronometers measure either 36, 42 or 44mm across. The bigger the watch, the greater the water resistance: 200, 500 and 1,000m respectively. breitling.com

Longines Heritage Diver 1967

With a design nodding to a model from 1967, this timepiece has a 42mm steel case featuring a dive-time rotating bezel

that’s water-resistant to 30 bar. Its chronograph is ratcheted and has a 30-minute counter, and it can last 54 hours when fully wound. longines.com

Zenith El Primero 400 B To mark its 150th anniversary, Zenith has launched a chronograph featuring a tachymetric scale to measure average speeds. The 45mm special edition is waterresistant to 20 bar, with screwed-in controls and a transparent back zenith-watches.com

GISBERT L. BRUNNER

Breitling Superocean II

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ACTION

WHEELS

MOTOR MERCH

Fabulous at 50: Alpina has tweaked the B5 and B6 to celebrate its birthday

Upgrading your driving experience

Marma London Aston Martin Collection Eyewear fashion house Marma London has released an officially licensed range of Aston Martin sunglasses. Made in Italy, the range contains mirrored, tinted and polarising lens options. marma.co.uk

MOUNTAINS OF FUN

The Alpina gets faster with age

ALPINA BURKARD BOVENSIEPEN GMBH + CO. KG

Alpina Burkard Bovensiepen GmbH – or Alpina, as it’s more commonly known – celebrates its 50th birthday this year. Blurring the line between vehicle manufacturer and aftermarket tuning specialist, the German maker of high-performance cars based on BMW bodies has produced some of the fastest production models on the planet. So to mark its half-century, it’s releasing one of the most powerful Alpinas ever. Edition 50 is a run of 100 cars, 50 B6 coupes and 50 B5 saloon/tourers. The ‘standard’ Alpina 4.4-litre V8 bi-turbo has been tweaked to produce an extra 60hp, taking the Edition 50 cars up to 600hp and giving them a top speed in excess of 320kph. The cabin features discreet Edition 50 styling details amid the Lavalina full-grain leather interior. It’s not exactly a wolf in sheep’s clothing, but part of Edition 50’s appeal is the understatement that lets it outperform supercars on the way back from the run to the supermarket. alpina-automobiles.com

Style statement: Edition 50 upholstery harks back to that of legendary B7 S Turbo Coupé from 1982

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TOP OF THE RANGE Land Rover goes luxe

Since launching in 1970, the Range Rover has gone through many identities, each taking it further from its vinyl-and-plastic agricultural origins. This year’s New York International Auto Show saw the British manufacturer refresh the vehicle’s luxury appeal, launching a new, viciously expensive flagship: the Range Rover SVAutobiography. It comes with a choice of diesel, hybrid or a 550hp supercharged V8 5.0-litre engine. Land Rover is shouting about this car being the most luxurious off-the-peg SUV on the market – pointing to the sheer weight of gadgetry, milled aluminium and leather that fills the interior as evidence. But with such a hefty price tag, few prospective buyers are likely to mistake it for your typical farm runaround. landrover.com

Ducati Scrambler Ducati’s much-awaited Scrambler is beginning to hit the roads in small numbers and the Italian bike maker is pushing the lifestyle aspect of it’s new happy-happy-funfun product line, with a range of appealing apparel and accessories. ducati.com

Jaguar-Pinarello K8-S The British company’s love-in with cycling’s Team Sky continues with this Jaguar-engineered Roubaix bike from Italian brand Pinarello. The DOGMA K8-S is currently racing across the pavé with Froome and Co, and is available on pre-order. jaguar.com

ACTION

CULTURE KOMBAT CUP The world’s best finger fighters do battle

The Mortal Kombat X Cup grand final takes place at the Japan Expo in Paris on July 4. With a share of R380,000 up for grabs, expect to see plenty of the brutal new ‘Finishing’ and ‘X-ray’ fatalities that were introduced at April’s launch of the Mortal Kombat X title. But the best news for South African gamers was that for the first time Mzansi was included in the MK Cup qualifiers. Regional qualifiers took place in Gauteng, KZN and the Western Cape, with SA’s MKX champion being crowned in June in Johannesburg. Catch the live streaming action from the City of Lights as our champ faces off against the top gamers from 16 other nations. mortalkombat.com/en/whosnext

SA toughs it out in Mortal Kombat X

EASTERN CAPE LOL TIME

Irish comic Dylan Moran stars at the National Arts Festival The annual National Arts Festival in Grahamstown is a long way from most places in SA, yet thousands of people flock there each year. With more than 600 shows at 60 locations, running over 11 days, it’s not hard to see why. Now consider this: Dylan Moran will be there this year. Who is Dylan Moran, you ask? Put his name into YouTube, but first clear your mouth cavity, because you’re about to laugh like a chimpanzee. He’s been called the Oscar Wilde of stand-up, but instead think of an Irish Hugh Grant with bloodshot eyes and a comedic style that blends the observational genius of Jerry Seinfeld with the dirty-uncle likeability of Billy Connolly. One case in point is Moran’s riff on self-help seminars. When discussing

the phrase, ‘Open the door to your potential’, Moran warns: “Don’t open that door! All you’re gonna see,” he says, “is one tiny little grey starveling cat, with diarrhoea, sitting on a mattress-less iron sprung bed, with its huge eyes mewing at you. Smoking as well, as an emphysemic old lady untangles her pop socks in the background. That’s your potential.” Moran will not be the only top-class comedian in town. Loyiso Madinga will be there, buzzing after opening for Trevor Noah’s NationWILD tour. Conrad Koch of Chester Missing fame will be doing funny things with puppets and the festival would be an emptier place without Rob van Vuuren, the man behind so much that is good in SA comedy. nationalartsfestival.co.za

KZN GAMERS UNITE

Territorial takeover at KZN champs From July 4 in Durban, Mind Sports South Africa is hosting the 22nd annual KwaZulu-Natal championships. Gamers can compete for prizes across a host of disciplines, including CounterStrike: Global Offensive, FIFA and Dota 2. mindsportsa.co.za

SEAN CHRISTIE; GAMING BY DESMOND KURZ

Dylan Moran: bringing laughs to Grahamstown

Kick it with Leo Messi

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CULTURE

TOP PODCAST

THE PLAYLIST NILE ROGERS He founded the most successful disco band of all time back in 1976. Chic’s compelling tunes, like Le Freak, ruled the US charts as well as the dancefloor of clubs such as Studio 54. In the wake of Chic’s success, Rodgers became one of the most sought-after producers around, with stars like David Bowie, Madonna, and more recently Daft Punk and Sam Smith, keen to get Rodgers’ sound on their records. Now the master himself is returning to the spotlight with the first Chic album in 23 years. Here, the 62-year-old reveals five songs that have impacted his life. nilerodgers.com

Elvis Presley

The Doors

Blue Suede Shoes

The End

“When I was very young, my parents played a lot of music at home, mostly jazz. But the first song that really meant a lot to me was Blue Suede Shoes. It was the first present that I ever remember getting in my life. My grandma gave me the single and a pair of blue suede shoes to go along with it. My family made me dance in front of everybody, which was funny. I pretended I was Elvis.”

“This song had a profound effect on me. I listened to it the first time I took LSD. I was quite young, 13 or 14, and I didn’t really know what LSD was. I took it and The End kept playing over and over again in the background. It was awesome. It opened my eyes. After that experience, I switched from playing classical music to playing more jazz, R&B and rock ’n’ roll. It was a real seismic change in my life.”

Miles Davis

Donna Summer

Bitches Brew

“Listening to Miles Davis is like being on a trip – even though you’re completely sober. I’m serious! [Laughs.] His music has the same effect on your brain cells as LSD or mushrooms. This song in particular is just insane. It’s not jazz or avantgarde, it opens a new universe, a world of its own. And it’s still killing me like it used to in 1970. The title itself is so cool, it’s simply the best.”

Queen

Another One Bites The Dust “There isn’t a song in the world that is more clearly inspired by the Chic hit Good Times than this. It went to number one in America – despite disco music being pronounced dead by the radio DJs at the time, which hurt me a lot. It just showed me that the power of our sound could even overcome the power of hatred. A lot of people who said they hated disco probably bought this record, too.”

THE RED BULLETIN

ACTION

Love To Love You Baby

“What a song! It represents another seismic shift in my life because it made me want to get into club music. I walked into a disco one night and the DJ segued from one song into the next. I had never heard that before. Before that, every song stopped, then another song would come in. But this guy kept the music playing. I was like: “Wow! I want to be part of this world where the music never stops.”

Get up to date with the world of music in less than 90 minutes per week

Music Popcast (30 min)

Each week New York Times music journalist Ben Ratliff picks one topic that’s heavily discussed in the music world and gives an indepth insight. Opinions can be ventured by anyone from musicians to business experts.

Steve Lamacq’s Roundtable (30 min)

Every Thursday BBC Radio 6’s tastemaker previews the most relevant album releases of the week and reviews them with three guests. The music spans the genres and ranges from stars to upstarts.

THE GADGET

Monster SuperStar BackFloat This pocket-sized wireless device made quite a splash when it was presented as the first floatable audio-file speaker. You can fully submerge it in water and the music plays on. With a shockproof shell, 10m Bluetooth range and seven-hour battery life, it’s perfect for summer. monster products.com

Song Exploder (15 min)

The podcast’s concept is simple and original: in each episode a musician breaks down one of his songs layer by layer. Acts like The Postal Service and The National reveal sides to your favourite songs you never knew before.

ACTION

HOW TO

HEADSPIN No one does headspins better than Benny Kimoto, a member of Berlin-based B-Boy crew Flying Steps. “When I was 14, I saw a couple of breakdancers at the local youth club. I was so impressed, but it was the headspins they were doing that fascinated me more than anything else,” says Kimoto. “Every day after that, I used each spare minute I could find to practise, sometimes for up to four hours a day.” That was 11 years ago. Now Kimoto performs with his crew at events around the world, the latest of which is Flying Steps own production Red Bull Flying Illusion, which takes place in Zurich, Switzerland, on June 5. Kimoto, 35, had to learn how to headspin the hard way. “There were no internet tutorials or dance coaches around at that point,” he says. “My only training video was Beat Street, a 1984 film I bought on VHS. I hit the floor countless times, but after a few months, I could do my first clean headspins.”

Prepare for action

“Do a good, full-body warm-up for about 30 minutes,” says Kimoto.“You need to get sweating. Give your neck, shoulders, legs and back a good stretch. A few press-ups and situps help improve body tension. There are good yoga and stretching tutorials on YouTube.

Make friends with the wall

“Learn how to do a headstand. To make things easier, start by leaning against a wall. Once you get a feel for it and the strain is distributed on the centre of the body, do it without leaning against a wall. Start with your legs together, then move on to opening them as if you were doing the splits.”

5 Put in the hours

“A lot of breakdancers, like me, come from a martial arts background. That’s no coincidence. Chiselled muscles and an instinctive feel for your body are a great help. But even if you don’t have a background in martial arts, you should still see the first signs of progress within three weeks or so, as long as you have some talent, are eager and are willing to practise for about an hour a day.”

Think one step ahead

“You need a smooth floor to do your first spins. A bandana, cap or skate helmet reduces rotational resistance further still. It helps to go through the move in your head, bit by bit. That way your brain internalises what your body has to do.”

MARK THOMAS

Rotate your body

“The arms and upper body set the rotation in motion. The hips and legs follow. An even rhythm is important. It’s no good going for momentum too quickly and forcing the rotation; that’ll only give you two or three spins. So start by turning slowly and always keep an eye on your balance. You’ll automatically increase your speed with experience.”

THE RED BULLETIN

JHB 49303/OJ As seen on DStv/SuperSport

Formula 1 Nascar V8 Supercars

MotoGP Superbike World Championship IndyCar Series

ACTION

EVENTS

Jordy Smith will again double up at the Oakley X-Over and the JBay Open

July 8-19 Much of a good thing Jeffreys Bay, Eastern Cape The JBay Open will again be the centrepiece of the JBay Winterfest, with the world’s best surfers attempting to dethrone title-holder and three-time world champ Mick Fanning. Jordy Smith will lead the South African charge, and will be hoping to find the form that delivered a 10-point ride in Round 1 of last year’s event and two JBay titles before that. But it’s not all about the international pros: the JBU Supertrial is a one-day contest in mid-June, and the winner of that gets a wildcard entry into the Open. And up-and-coming youngsters get a chance to state their case in the first event in this year’s Billabong Junior Series, which goes down at Magna Tubes from July 13-17. jbaywinterfest.com

July 3-12 Eat, drink, run, ride

July 4 On track

Knysna

Durban, KwaZulu-Natal

Knysna’s annual Oyster Festival is not only about enjoying good food with good friends. There are also loads of outdoor events to help you work up a healthy appetite. Top of the list is the Big 5 Sports Challenge, an epic combo of endurance races including an 80km mountain bike ride, a 1.6km lagoon swim, a 15km trail run, an Xterra duathlon and a half-marathon through Knysna Forest. For the less ambitious, there is also the Big 5 LITE. oysterfestival.co.za

All roads lead to eThekwini for the Durban July horse race, the most glamorous date on the Indian Ocean city’s sporting calendar. You’ll want to think ahead, because if you leave your party plans too late there won’t be a single free room or hire car left available anywhere in the city. At least the betting will stay open till just before the flag drops. vodacomdurbanjuly.co.za

THE RED BULLETIN

SAVE THE DATE

July 4-26 Africa on bikes Across France

Mark them down in your diary now – or miss out

CRAIG KOLESKY, STIEHL PHOTOGRAPHY, KNYSNA FEST, COCO CLUB

Apart from the showdown between Chris Froome, Vincenzo Nibali, Nairo Quintana and Alberto Contador, the big attraction at the 102nd Tour de France will be Team MTN-Qhubeka, the first South African team to ride in the biggest bike race of them all. The team with the Juventus-inspired strip features a handful of Euro pros, the best talent from the rest of Africa and Louis Meintjes, a young cyclist from Pretoria with a very bright future. When the road tips uphill, keep your eye on him. teammtnqhubeka.com

June Marathon men

Team MTN-Qhubeka: Tour challenge

July 14-18 Tough going

July 15-16 Tri harder

Paarl to Velddrif, Western Cape

J-Bay

The Berg River Canoe Marathon has a reputation for turning into a war of attrition, with paddlers battling flat water, the cold and headwinds. But the list of former winners is long and illustrious; in its 54 years, the Berg has bred many champion South African paddlers. berg.org.za

Consisting of surfing, golf and mountain biking, the invitationonly Oakley X-Over is not your average triathlon, but with the likes of Dale Steyn, Butch James, Greg Minnaar, John Smit, Jordy Smith and Ryan Sandes competing, it’ll be a laugh. facebook.com/Oakley.Africa

Ian Campbell goes big at Tand

June 29-July 20 Wild riders Cape Columbine Nature Reserve, Paternoster South Africa’s top 16 bodyboarders, including the much-travelled Andre Botha, gather at Tietiesbaai outside Paternoster for the Tand Invitational. The heavy right slab breaks best in a 6ft swell, so it’s a bit of a waiting game. To up the ante, the launch party happens at Yours Truly in Cape Town on June 27, with the David Lilienfeld Trials – where four wildcards to the main event are up for grabs – scheduled for the next day. facebook.com/TandInvitational

THE RED BULLETIN

CLUB OF THE MONTH Coco Cape Town

The Mountain Bike Marathon World Championships take place in the Dolomite mountains in Italy this year. Remember all the big names from the Cape Epic? This is where they come out to play. uci.ch/mountain-bike

July End of an era The final of the 2015 Super Rugby season brings down the curtain on the 15-team tournament. Next year the Kings, as well as sides from Japan and Argentina, will swell the ranks of the world’s toughest franchise contest to 18 teams. sanzarrugby.com

For the benchmark in Mother City clubbing, check out Coco for a glamorous mix of fashionistas, models and scene-makers. The dress code is stylish, the bottle service is snappy and whether it’s a DJ or live music night, the party starts from around 10pm every weekend. Fridays are dedicated to the hip-hop and urban crowd while Saturdays offer sophisticated deep house and dance. International artists who have played here include Clinton Sparks, DJ Magnum, Claude Challe, while local stalwarts like Harael Salkow, GoodLuck, AKA, Da L.E.S. and DJs Sphectacula and Naves make regular appearances. facebook.com/COCOCPT

July Dress rehearsal With only four or five international matches left before the Rugby World Cup, SA’s biggest home Test will be against the All Blacks. If the Boks can’t beat NZ in Joburg, will they be able to beat them in England? sarugby.net

Editorial Director Robert Sperl Editor-in-Chief Alexander Macheck Editor-at-Large Boro Petric Creative Director Erik Turek Art Directors Kasimir Reimann, Miles English Photo Director Fritz Schuster Production Editor Marion Wildmann Managing Editor Daniel Kudernatsch Editors Stefan Wagner (Chief Copy Editor), Ulrich Corazza, Arek Piatek, Andreas Rottenschlager Contributors: Muhamed Beganovic, Georg Eckelsberger, Sophie Haslinger, Werner Jessner, Holger Potye, Clemens Stachel, Manon Steiner, Raffael Fritz, Martina Powell, Mara Simperler, Lukas Wagner, Florian Wörgötter Web Kurt Vierthaler (Senior Web Editor), Vanda Gyuris, Judith Mutici, Inmaculada Sánchez Trejo, Andrew Swann, Christine Vitel Design Marion Bernert-Thomann, Martina de Carvalho-Hutter, Kevin Goll Photo Editors Susie Forman (Creative Photo Director), Rudi Übelhör (Deputy Photo Director), Marion Batty, Eva Kerschbaum Illustrator Dietmar Kainrath Publisher Franz Renkin Advertising Placement Sabrina Schneider Marketing and Country Management Stefan Ebner (manager), Manuel Otto, Elisabeth Salcher, Lukas Scharmbacher, Sara Varming Marketing Design Peter Knehtl (manager), Simone Fischer, Julia Schweikhardt, Karoline Anna Eisl Head of Production Michael Bergmeister Production Wolfgang Stecher (manager), Walter O Sádaba, Matthias Zimmermann (app) Repro Clemens Ragotzky (manager), Claudia Heis, Maximilian Kment, Karsten Lehmann IT Systems Engineer Michael Thaler Subscriptions and Distribution Klaus Pleninger (distribution), Peter Schiffer (subscriptions) General Manager and Publisher Wolfgang Winter Global Editorial Office Heinrich-Collin-Strasse 1, A-1140 Vienna Phone +43 1 90221-28800 Fax +43 1 90221-28809 Web redbulletin.com Red Bull Media House GmbH Oberst-Lepperdinger-Straße 11–15, A-5071 Wals bei Salzburg, FN 297115i, Landesgericht Salzburg, ATU63611700 Directors Christopher Reindl, Andreas Gall

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Must-haves! 1

1 BLACK DIAMOND DROP ZONE CRASH PAD The Drop Zone features a premium foam layup and a taco-fold design with an elastic flap for storing your shoes, chalk and essentials inside. Improved closed-cell PE foam layup on top, high-compression PU foam on bottom Taco-style fold for a continuous landing surface Quick-closure elastic mesh flap secures with easy-hooking buckles for storing gear inside the pad Shoulder straps, waistbelt and two side grab handles PU-coated 600d ripstop polyester on bottom and up the sides for abrasion and water resistance. R3995.

http://blackdiamondequipment.com/ 2 BILLABONG REVOLUTION Loaded with high-end features and materials, designed with simplicity and a low key attitude. Series Objective: • Minimal functional Simplicity • Chest Zip Entry system • Stitched Construction • AX2 Superflex neoprene • New Poly Propylene chest and back panel. R3299.

www.billabong.com/za 3 SKULLCANDy GRIND Grind headphone is one of the most exciting new additions to Skullcandy‘s 2015 offering. Built with a low profile, classic design, onebutton Tap Tech functionality and premium materials such as plush foam ear pads, Grind delivers everything you would expect from a premium headphone without the premium price tag. The Grind is available in new colourways such as Locals Only, Explore and Americana. R799.

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4 DRIfT STEALTH 2 This wearable action-packed camera is the most compact (it only weighs 90 grams), feature rich and easy to use action camera of its size. The Drift Stealth 2 comes out of the box with the ability to shoot sharp full HD 1080p at 30fps and high definition 720p at 60fps for slow motion, a 300-degree rotatable lens to align the shot, Wi-Fi connectivity for video streaming and remote controlling via the Drift Connect app, a built-in digital LCD screen for easy menu settings and a 3 hour battery life. The Stealth 2 retails for R3999. Visit www.glagencies.co.za to find our about stockist details. R 3 999.

www.driftcameras.co.za/ 5 SKULLCANDy SHRAPNEL If the goal is to get the party started with quality sound and remarkable clarity then the Skullcandy Shrapnel speaker is the ideal gadget. The drop-proof, splash-proof, Bluetooth® Shrapnel is light enough to carry around and tough Enough to withstand abuse. Answering calls is easy with the. Shrapnel produces powerful bass, warm natural vocals and precision highs. Stream music from any device with Bluetooth® technology and an on-board mic. Shrapnel makes it easy to answer calls with a single button and onboard mic. The Shrapnel retails for R899. http://luksbrands.co.za/

6 VANS OLD SKOOL The Old Skool, Vans classic skate shoe and the first to bare the iconic side stripe, has a low-top lace-up silhouette with a durable suede and canvas upper with padded tongue and lining and Vans signature Waffle Outsole. R599.99.

MATTERHORN, September 16, 2014 On July 14, 1865, British mountaineer Edward Whymper became the first man to reach the summit of the Matterhorn. For the 150th anniversary, 30 alpine guides from Zermatt traced the notorious route of Whymper’s roped party with their headlamps. The weather was bad that September night, but Swiss photographer Robert Bösch from Zug waited, and when the clouds parted briefly, took this shot.

“Cutting wind, minus 10°C – but the 30 climbers stood their ground for hours” Mountain photographer Robert Bösch on the making of the light chain picture at the Matterhorn’s Hornli ridge

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