Die! Die! Die! / Ryan Doyle / Aaron Hadlow / Dolph Lundgren / Marilyn Monroe / Philipp Schuster / Mike Skinner
A BEYOND THE ORDINARY MAGAZINE
AUGUST 2012
NZ B-BOYS
Breaking into international competition
ALL AT SEA
Chasing killer waves with the Storm Surfers
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Dallas Cowboys on faith, violence and the NFL’s future
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G R A N D C H E RO K E E S R T 8
THE WORLD OF RED BULL
August 15
STEVE CARELL As ‘The 40 Year Old Virgin’ turns 50 this month, we explore what makes this most smart of dumb guys so funny
WORLD IN ACTION From a festival of fire in El Salvador to Usain Bolt speeding through Switzerland: the best global events for the month ahead
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COVER PHOTOGRAPHY: PATRICK HOELCK. PHOTOGRAPHY: PICTUREDESK.COM, GETTY IMAGES (2), MARTIN MIERZWA/RED BULL CONTENT POOL
WELCOME There’s tension in this month’s issue of The Red Bulletin.. For starters, the remarkable skydivers flying in unison with glider pilots to execute a perfectly synchronised stroke of genius.. Fancy free falling next to two aircraft, just centimetres away from the wings? Thought not. Meet the men who attempt this stunt. What about the stress of getting up close to the world’s deadliest waves, then trying to stay afloat while keeping hold of a 3D camera? High-tech equipment is the least of a swell chaser’s worries when there’s a chance of being sucked under, but them’s the breaks. Then there’s the stratonaut Felix Baumgartner, who will experience an extreme of human emotion as he prepares to leap from the edge of space. We hope you enjoy the issue – even if you need to go for a lie down when you’re done.
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LUCKY NUMBERS Marking 50 years since Marilyn Monroe’s death, some facts that might surprise you-boop-be-do
“The distance between the jump plane and gliders has to be so narrow”
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THE SKY’S THE LIMIT Five wingsuit divers, two gliders, one ambitious stunt: how a squadron of men and machines took to the skies and came together in perfect formation
THE WORLD OF RED BULL
August 82
TIME TO PARTY Notting Hill Carnival perennial Norman Jay presents his top tips on how to prepare for the Good Times madness
“BIKES ARE MADE TO RIDE VERY FAST” As he prepares to attempt another land speed record in the US, Corey Bertelsen talks about following in some famous footsteps
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RED BULL STRATOS The latest chapter of Felix Baumgartner’s trip to the edge of space involves everything from rattlesnakes and gun-slingers to ski resorts and aliens
BAND WATCH: DIE!DIE!DIE!
For a band that called it quits last year this three-piece punk combo from Dunedin are very much alive and kicking
44 BREAK FROM THE QUAKE
Charting the progress of two B-Boys from Christchurch set to represent NZ at the Red Bull BC One Asia Pacific Qualifier
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CHASING THE DREAM A team of surfers, weather scientists and filmmakers scour the world for the stormiest surfing conditions, so they can shoot big-wave sequences in near-lethal waters
06 Pictures of the month 12 Here is the news 16 Meet Norway’s new hero of rock Tony Sylvester 18 Kit Evolution: Moto suits – less handmade, more high-tech 22 The physics of sailing explained
PHOTOGRAPHY: SHUTTERSTOCK, TIM WHITE, CHRISTIAN PONDELLA/RED BULL STRATOS, ROD OWEN, KRISTIAN FRIRES, GRAEME MURRAY/RED BULL CONTENT POOL
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THE WORLD OF RED BULL
“ I take it a play at a time, and hopefully it all turns out OK for me ”
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THE SHOW STOPPER DeMarcus Ware is a ruthless football player. As the NFL starts its season of reckoning, the game’s best linebacker reflects on faith, violence, and football’s long-term future
20 ME AND MY BODY: AARON HADLOW
The 23-year-old Brit is a five-time kiteboard world champion whose body has been scarred, inked and sculpted in the pursuit of excellence – so much so, that he’s now got one leg shorter than the other
62 “LADIES LOVE A DRUMMER”
PHOTOGRAPHY: PATRICK HOELCK, RUTGER PAUW/RED BULL CONTENT POOL, BENNY REBEL, PHILIPP HORAK,
With sticks work on 4,000 albums, Bernard Purdie is the world’s most recorded drummer. 50 years of laying down beats for the likes of James Brown has taught him all there is to know about making music
more
Body & Mind 84
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Skateboard pro Philipp Schuster’s guide to making a private skate park in your living room
Some special events to ink in your diary
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KAINRATH
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MIND’S EYE
BUILD YOUR OWN SKATE PARK
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REALLY WILD LIFE
His models wear fur and horns and eat photographers for breakfast – literally. But Benny Rebel has no trouble with dangerous subjects. Just part of the job for one of the world’s leading wildlife photographers
TRAINING
Top work-out tips from freerunner Ryan Doyle
90 NIGHTLIFE
SAVE THE DATE
Our cartoonist The thoughts of columnist Russell Brown
A glamorous club, an exotic cocktail, a midnight snack, the best in music and much more – we’ve got everything you need to get you through the night
O D DA , N o rway
Fjord Focus
On a rock plateau 500m above ground, and about five hours’ drive west of Oslo, homecountry boy Eskil Rønningsbakken enters a state of total concentration. “I want to draw pictures in the landscape with my body,” says the 33-yearold, who has made a habit of perching perilously without a safety net. He prepares with “breathing exercises and yoga”; sighs of relief greet his returns to terra firma. Balancing acts: www.globalbalancing.com Photography: Sindre Lundvold
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Pi e r r e- Lys g o rg e s , Fr an c e
do look down
The Devil’s Backbone route in the French Pyrenees, is aptly named, demanding spinal fortitude of anyone game enough to attempt an ascent. Some people, of course, are born to do it. “Here you can climb relaxed,” says Sam Bié, a photographer who specialises in climbing pics. When he says ‘watch the birdie’, his subjects are up alongside the flying feathered kind. High-minded shotmaking: www.sambie.fr Photography: Sam Bié
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VIC TO RIA fall s , River Z am b ezi
water view
“The thundering of the waters drowned out my paraglider motor. There were rainbows glittering in the spray.” That’s what adventurer Thomas De Dorlodot remembers most about flying over the world’s largest waterfall. It was part of a four-month aerial trip across Africa the Belgian undertook with Horacio Lorens, but here, on the border of Zimbabwe and Zambia, says De Dorlodot, they got “the best view in the world”. Expedition diary: www.searchprojects.net Photography: John Stapels
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Bullevard Sport and culture on the quick
Loud and airy Germany’s Aline ‘The Devil’s Niece’ Westphal is the reigning Air Guitar World ‘Devil’s niece’ Champion; this year’s contest is in Finland on August 22-24. Here she picks three songs to sling fake axe to.
GLUECIFER, REVERSED “Partly a thrash-about, partly swift fingerboard work. An ideal tune for unleashing wild moves.”
BILLY IDOL, REBEL YELL “With its concise riff, great solo and many breaks, this leads to a multi-faceted performance.”
BIN AND DONE IT
Cans of film: the house from Pixar’s Up and Star Wars robot R2-D2
Garbage recycling bins made by TRASHed are the off-stage stars at music fesivals The journalist and hedonist Hunter S Thompson designed one, and so have the punks from Blink-182, the surfer Jodie Nelson and about 2,400 other sports stars and artists. The bins made for the TRASHed: Art Of Recycling initiative look almost too good to be filled with cans and bottles, but that is their ultimate purpose. They are the brainchild of Global Inheritance, a US firm that devises creative solutions to engender social change, and which hopes to encourage young festivalgoers to recycle with its ‘96-gallon art pieces.’ It’s one rubbish idea that could actually do some good. www.globalinheritance.org
PICTURES OF THE MONTH
EVERY SHOT ON TARGET
FOO FIGHTERS, PRETENDER “When I won my title last year I was playing this song. It’s intense, varied and full of energy.” www.airguitarworld championships.com
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Taken a picture with a Red Bull flavour? Email it to us: phototicker@redbulletin.com Every month we print a selection, and our favourite pic is awarded a limited-edition Sigg bottle. Tough, functional and well-suited to sports, it features The Red Bulletin logo.
Ljubljana
Avatars ’ave a go into the wild blue yonder at the first-ever Red Bull Flugtag in Slovenia. Philip Platzer
Reel deal The fact and furious: HD sports docs
PHOTOGRAPHY: GLOBAL INHERITANCE, PICTUREDESK.COM, REXFEATURES (2), CHRISTIAN PONDELLA/RED BULL CONTENT POOL, GETTY IMAGES, BRANEY‘S CHRISTMAS INC., RED BULL MEDIA HOUSE, THATSTHEWAY, DOGWOOF
Ronnie Renner hits the high life in Los Angeles
The best of X Games 2012 The playbook is often torn up at X Games. In 2006, at X Games 12, Travis Pastrana pulled off the first-ever double backflip on a motocross bike. In 2009, Anthony Napolitan landed the first-ever front flip on a bicycle during a BMX contest at X Games 15. This year, with X Games 18 also marking 10 years of the contest in Los Angeles, there were more star turns: • In the Step Up event (aka high jump on a motorbike, big ramp required), Ronnie Renner set a world record of 14.3m. • 15-year-old Mitchie Brusco landed after two-and-a-half turns of the first ‘900’ in competition, during Big Air skateboarding. • Hot favourite Ryan Sheckler was beaten by Paul ‘P-Rod’ Rodriguez in the urbanenvironment-style Skateboard Street. • Tanner Foust and Greg Tracy pulled 7G driving cars side-by-side in a loop-theloop – a real-life Hot Wheels toy car track. However, there was no face-off between Pastrana and Sébastien Loeb, world’s best rally driver, in Rally Cross after Pastrana was rammed into a wall by 58-year-old rookie Andy Scott in qualifying. Said Pastrana: “What the hell was that, dude?” espn.go.com/action/xgames
STRENGTH IN NUMBERS Mountain bike action-travelogue trots globe; boasts stunning camera work and star riders (Atherton, Semenuk).
THAT’S THE WAY As above, but for freestyle motocross. Features the sport’s So-Cal birthplace and all-time great Robbie Maddison.
ACTION MAN Dolph Lundgren: career as solid as his pecs; smart guy; GSOH When Stallone, Willis, Schwarzenegger et al made retro-action box-office hit The Expendables in 2010, it took Dolph Lundgren out of a long (ergo successful) run of straight-to-DVD films. It’s half his lifetime since the 54-yearold starred in Rocky IV; before that, he was merely a chemical engineer graduate and twotime European karate champ. August sees The Expendables 2. Do movie fights hurt? Yes, when somebody throws you into a wall. When you get thrown, the momentum of your body falling is what hurts you. Kicks and punches are not as dangerous as when you’re doing the wrestling. The takedowns and slamdowns, that’s when you get hurt.
TOWN OF RUNNERS Fascinating look at why and how Bekoji in Ethiopia, (pop. 17,000, and 25 cars), is home to so many worldclass athletes.
Use your degree on set? I kind of did on Expendables 2, now you mention it! At one point in the movie, we’re stuck in a cave. My character, Gunnar, has a bright idea: to use rock and dynamite to blow a way out of there. Whether it works or not in the film, I won’t say, but as a chemical engineer, I can assure you that in reality we would all have died trying it. Politics one day, like Arnie? I made some comments about the environment, and the Green Party in Sweden got in touch, asking me to run for parliament. I met the leader, who was a nice lady, but I had to say, ‘I live in California and I’m not ready yet to move back to Sweden, but thanks a lot!’ www.theexpendables2film.com
Middle man, l-r: Randy Couture, The Dolph, Terry Crews
WE HAVE A WINNER!
Vancouver Into the Capilano River for endurance race Red Bull Divide and Conquer. Dale Tidy
Edinburgh
Anna Glowinski on the 25m of world’s smallest track that is Red Bull Mini Drome. Dougie Cunningham
Breda Jaco de Groot goes for pole at Red Bull Fierste Ljepper, a take on Dutch ‘river leaping’. Jarno Schurgers 13
B U L L E VA R D
Pis re volluptatia parum et, esciet aut Ben Helliker-Hales (left) and his brother Louis
Chaos In The CBD, a dance-music making duo from Devonport, grew up making beats in bedrooms. So two weeks in the studio with Bill Brewster, a legend of the UK dance industry, took some getting used to. “The first day was daunting,” says Louis HellikerHales, “but after that we started to gel.” Louis, 24, and his bandmate and younger brother Ben, 22, have been attracting attention from bloggers and international record labels for their tropical house-infused beats. Brewster worked with them as part of the Red Bull Prodigy programme, which brings together music industry mentors and Kiwi artists. “For me, it doesn’t end when the project ends,” says Brewster. “The guys want to move to London and I want to help them. I think they’ve got the talent to break down doors and get where they want to go.” Search out their sounds at www.redbull.co.nz
Centre of excellence Mark McMorris and Sebastien Toutant came to New Zealand in 2010 for the first Red Bull Snow Performance Camp. Back then they were talented, but raw, rookies; two years on, the Canadian snowboarders are among the best in the world, with Winter X-Games gold medals to prove it. From August 20-30, Snow Park in Wanaka will host another camp, with the next generation of snowboard and ski stars from around the world. Andy Walshe, Red Bull’s global director of high performance, will oversee the intensive coaching clinic. “It’s a world-class set-up that allows for world-class training,” says Walshe. Mark McMorris “In 2010, some of the riders, and Mark and Seb in particular, made huge gains. They took their riding to a whole new level. We’re expecting more of the same this year.” www.redbull.co.nz
Manchester Twin Atlantic gig VIP meet for Mark Leslie and Tasha Gresham (centre). Jimmy Throgmorton
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Barcelona
Blair will spend a month in a snow cave to raise cash for an avalanche rescue dog team
SNOW PLACE LIKE…
A Queenstown skydiver is taking to the hills this month to live in a snow cave in The Remarkables Blair Whitaker’s day job is packing parachutes for a Queenstown skydiving company. From August 11 he’ll be packing snow instead as he swaps his “sweet pad” in town for a snow cave in the mountains. His goal? To raise funds for Aspiring Avalanche Dogs, an avalanche rescue doghandling team based at Treble Cone skifield near Wanaka.
Where did the idea come from?
Years ago I read about these snowboarders who quit their jobs and lived below the snowline for a season. I thought it would be a cool thing to do.
US soul singer Jesse Boykins III brings the Sónar Festival crowd to the boil. Lander Larrañaga
Prague
Have you built a snow cave before?
Yes, but they’ve never lasted as long as 31 days.
What’s your grand design? I’ll start with two shelves, one for me to sleep on and the other for my gear. I might build an extension – maybe a dining room or an en-suite.
Are you expecting any visitors?
My friends will stop by on the weekends and we’re auctioning off one night in the cave to the highest bidder. www.facebook.com/ TheSnowCaveProject
Red Bull Pump Riders rules: ramp start, no chains, momentum only; Michal Marosi abides. Dan Vojtech
WORDS: ROBERT TIGHE. PHOTOGRAPHY: RED BULL MUSIC ACADEMY, DAN VOJTECH/RED BULL CONTENT POOL, SNOW CAVE PROJECT (4)
Beauty out of Chaos
B U L L E VA R D
WHERE’S YOUR HEAD AT?
STEVE CARELL
As ‘The 40 Year Old Virgin’ turns 50, he’s the smartest dumb guy in movies – and perhaps the most hardworking. So what is that makes this funnyman funny?
THE KID OF COM EDY
TH E LO ST
AR K “I’ve thought a lot about success, because it’s very strange to me that I’ve been successful,” Carell mused in 2010. Tha t year, his fee per film was said to be US $15m: big bucks. Large cheques were also wafted on Carell-as-Noah, biblical flood comedy Eva n Almighty. On release in 2007, it was the 11th mo st expensive movie ever made, but, sadly, was only the 4,011th funniest film ever made. It flopped.
Steven John Carell was born on August 16, 1962, in Concord, Massachusetts, about 20 miles north-west of Boston. “My husband and I were pretty obsessive and uptight about how we brought up the first three boys,” Harriet, Mrs Carell, told The New Yorker, “and when Steven came along, we were worn out. So we just relaxed and enjoyed him, and he entertained us.”
MO RE STR ING S ON BOW
THANK S AGAIN , FOLKS
Carell’s endearing everyman might be his default comedy setting, but it is certainly not his only one. He was superb as the brooding gay academic in Little Miss Sunshine, and equally good in Dan In Real Life, playing a slightly curmudgeonly widower father-of-three. He’s also done a Woody Allen (but only a small part): 2004’s Melinda and Melinda.
Young Steve took his entertaining into the outside world, acting in school plays and studying theatre at university, but he was headed for law school until his parents suggested he do something he “really” wanted to do. In 1987, while living in Chicago, he joined Second City, the comedy improv group whose alumni include Bill Murray, Mike Myers and Tina Fey.
GRE EK TRAGEDY
WORDS: PAUL WILSON. ILLUSTRATION: LIE-INS AND TIGERS
KE EP GO IN ’ EA ST
Carell’s nadir to date came playing a shouty Greek hotel chef in the 1997 sitcom Over The Top. At an awards show in 2006, Carell quoted from a contempor ary review: “I have stood in a freezer full of dead people at the morgue. I have seen a man’ s scalp pulled back over his nose… But I can now honestly say that until Steve Carell’s turn in the premiere of Over The Top, I have never known true horror.”
City, Carell While teaching at Second in 1995, they lls; Wa cy Nan coached one York, after the married and moved to New comedy show TV US on job a new Mrs C got ther Second ano 9, Saturday Night Live. In 199 mended om rec t, ber Col n phe City chum, Ste comedy TV US on t Carell as a corresponden bling bum ell’s Car w. Sho ly show The Dai il 2005. genius reportage lasted unt
AH, 2005
“Annus mirabilis carelli.” The guy from The Daily Show, the improv vet, exploded into the mainstream with two career-defining, career-upside-down-turning roles, one each on the big and small screens. In The 40 Year Old Virgin, released three days after his 43rd birthday, Carell played a lovable nerd, who despite/because of his lovable nerdiness, finds a lovely lady. And on TV, The Office began.
DUNDER-HEAD When the UK version of The Office was remade for American television, the US team shoehorned Ricky Gervais’s character’s unpleasantness into their leading man, Michael Scott, played by Carell. It wasn’t funny, and not enough people were watching. So Scott was made more goodnatured, to be more like Carell, and the show has just been commissioned for a ninth season (the second without Carell).
ANOTH ER PANTS PARTY
This winter, there are two new Carell flicks: out now is Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World; out later is Hope Springs. In 2013, Carell will co-star with Will Ferrell in a new Anchorman movie, and with Jim Carrey in The Incredible Burt Wonderstone. The latter has Carell and Carrey as rival magicians – a pitch that has just divided everyone who has read it into ‘Yes!’ or ‘No no no!’ camps. Watch the Anchorman 2 teaser at www.funnyordie.com
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B U L L E VA R D
BIGGEST FAN
TONY SYLVESTER
Norwegian rock legends Turbonegro are touring with a new singer who was once their loudest champion. Tony Sylvester talks failed soundchecks, royal supporters and Hell’s Angels
Born June 12, 1973, London, UK Multitasker Sylvester also works as fashion journalist. (“I write about tailoring and the history of menswear over the past 120 years.”) He has been a plus-size model and lead singer of UK underground band Dukes Of Nothing.
Turbonegro (from left): Happy-Tom (bass), Euroboy (lead guitar), Tony Sylvester, Rune Rebellion (rhythm guitar) and Tommy Manboy (drums)
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Back in 1997 I was working for a record distributor. Every day record companies would send in packages – 99 out of 100 times it was rubbish. One day a Turbonegro record came in. It was titled Ass Cobra. Inside the booklet: male nudity and crazy song titles. It was just dizzying. I immediately fell in love with the band. Prince Haakon of Norway is a big fan. But if you know Norwegian people, that’s not a big surprise. A Turbonegro show is like being invited to a party. You know the hottest girls will be there, loads of booze and the coolest kids around. On the other hand, you know that everything could go wrong and the place might get burned down. So when you come to the show, you’re excited and at the same time a little bit worried. I became the band’s press officer for the UK in 2005. We became friends immediately. After their singer, Hank From Hell, left the band last year, HappyTom [Turbonegro bass player] called me. “Do you wanna try to sing?” I said, “Yeah.” There isn’t really a relationship between your band and the other bands at festivals. But we did play with KISS in Oslo. That’s damn cool, you can’t argue about that. Just minutes before my first gig, in Hamburg, we had the worst soundcheck ever. We did five songs and I didn’t know the words to four of them. I said to myself, “I’m willfully underprepared. This isn’t
Tony Sylvester wears his influences on his sleeve (among other places)
gonna work.” Then came the realisation that I had to do it, and that was liberating. I came onstage and it was the collective will of the band and the fans to make it work. If you’re the new guy in a band, it’s important that you do it your way. Another singing style was important for everyone. The same would just be karaoke. Our fan club is known as the Turbojugend [Turbo Youth]. It’s halfway between a religious cult and the Hell’s Angels. They are organised in chapters all around the world from Tokyo to Brooklyn. To them, Turbonegro is a drinking band, a celebration. They like to booze and party. There are a lot of academics in the Turbojugend. Every person needs a playground. I’d like to start a Turbojugend chapter in the West Bank, which includes both Jewish and Arab young members. Wouldn’t that be something? I like the songs on our new album, but Turbonegro have a big back catalogue. We get lynched if we don’t play the classics. What I’ve learned about the rock ’n’ roll business so far: try to be as self-sufficient as possible. You can sell 1,000 records yourself and make a little bit of money, compared to selling 10,000 or 20,000 on someone else’s label and make nothing. If you think the world is a sad place, then you’ve got bands like Radiohead. If you think the world is a playground, live for the weekend and get into all sorts of trouble, then Turbonegro is probably the right soundtrack for you.
“Just minutes before my first gig, in Hamburg, we had the worst soundcheck ever. We did five songs and I didn’t know the words to four of them”
The band’s new album Sexual Harassment is out August 7. Summer tour dates and more: www.turbonegro.com
WORDS: ANDREAS ROTTENSCHLAGER. PHOTOGRAPHY: JAMESMBARRETT.CO.UK, RAYMOND MOSKEN
Name Tony Sylvester
B U L L E VA R D
HARD & FAST
3D printing makes it easier for Diegel to offer a bespoke design service on models like his Spider guitar
Top performers and winning ways from around the globe
At Silverstone, Australian F1 ace Mark Webber won a ninth career Grand Prix, a second GBR GP in three years, for Red Bull Racing’s third victory of 2012.
PHOTOGRAPHY: OOD GUITARS (4), GETTY IMAGES, GEPA PICTURES, DEAN TREML/RED BULL CONTENT POOL, ROB JONES. ILLUSTRATION: DIETMAR KAINRATH
PLASTIC FANTASTIC
At the cutting-edge where the worlds of science and art collide, an Auckland professor is making the musical instruments of the future
Olaf Diegel used to play in the bands Lucky Tux And The Zipperkids and Olaf And The Vikings. That you haven’t heard of them is no reflection of his passion for music. In the 15 years since he gave up on his rock star dreams, Diegel has switched focus from playing guitars to making them – on a 3D printer. As a professor of mechatronics at Massey University, Auckland, the 48-year-old is a leading expert in the branch of engineering that uses all other branches of engineering to design and make systems and products. Diegel’s work has benefitted the lighting, marine and medical industries, but his ODD (Olaf Diegel Design) guitars have struck a chord with musicians worldwide. “Aesthetically they’re very different to a traditional electric guitar, but in terms of the sound they’re just as good, if not better,” he says. Diegel uses 3D printing, a process that makes solid objects from synthetic polymers, designed on industrial design software, then fabricated on an inkjet-like printer. The bodies of the ODD guitars are made by fusing layers of nylon powder 0.1mm thick. “There’s a perception that because it’s plastic, it can’t be any good,” says Diegel,” but we use a wooden core and top-quality pickups. Once people hear it, they realise it sounds really good. Big-name guitarists using them would help. I’d love to see Prince or Santana play one.” www.odd.org.nz
At round five of the Enduro World Championship in Italy, David Knight sealed his first win of the year; with three rounds to go, the Brit is second in the overall rankings.
Gary Hunt (centre) plunged best through the Norwegian fog to take first place on the second stop of the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series.
Two World Cup wins in eight days for UK mountain biker Rachel Atherton, (centre) in Canada and the USA, keeps her on course for a second overall title.
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B U L L E VA R D
KIT EVOLUTION
Leather forecast High-tech instead of handmade, air bags instead of holding your breath. Motorbike suits make racing slightly safer nowadays – no bad thing if you’re travelling at 300kph
ZIP
Touring leathers had buttons, racing leathers came with zips. Leather shrinks, so riders ordered suits in larger sizes, never let them dry in the sun and kept them supple with saddle soap
POCKETS
Early motorbike races were performance trials, during which riders had to carry small tools and spare parts for making necessary repairs
BREECHES
The trousers were wide at the top and narrow at the bottom so they could fit in boots comfortably. The cut is not unlike that in jodhpurs, and was once common in military uniform
Until the 1950s, the best available option in protective clothing for motorbike racers was a two-piece leather suit made out of tanned cowhide. One-piece suits only became popular after Grand Prix riders began using them in the 1960s. Those first all-in-ones also had double stitching, so that seams didn’t come apart so easily when suit met racetrack. Built-in padding protection wasn’t introduced until the 1970s. www.motorradmuseum.at
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Posthumous 1954 125cc world champ Rupert Hollaus (died at Monza that year) used these leathers
WORDS: WERNER JESSNER
1950s LEATHER BONESACK
Safety first: built-in airbags are deployed before the rider hits the asphalt
AIRBAG
The aerodynamic back spoiler holds a microprocessor, battery and inflation module for the two airbags that are contained in the shoulders
LEATHER
This soft, full-grain leather is 1.3mm thick, with multiple seams, Kevlar panels and 45 distinct ‘flex zones’ to ensure mobility and protection
SLIDER PAD
PHOTOGRAPHY: KURT KEINRATH, ARCHIV HELMUT OHNER, GOLD & GOOSE/RED BULL CONTENT POOL
Made of plastic, the racer’s ‘third wheel’ attaches to the suit with extremely strong Velcro. It can be replaced in seconds
2011
ALPINESTARS TECH AIR RACE SUIT
Today’s tailored leather suits offer the best possible protection in the event of an accident, with back and shoulder shields made from thermoplastic along with one-piece knee and shin guards. These leathers also have two shoulder airbags, which are controlled by sensors and inflate in 45 milliseconds. Despite the tight fit, forcing the rider into a slight stoop, these racing leathers are extremely comfortable on the bike. www.alpinestars.com
Australian Casey Stoner claimed his second MotoGP title wearing these leathers
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B U L L E VA R D
ME AND MY BODY
AARON HADLOW The 23-year-old Brit is a five-time kiteboard world champion whose body has been scarred, inked and sculpted in the pursuit of excellence
5 UNDER PRESSURE
The sport can be draining psychologically; it’s why I stopped competing in the world tour a few years ago. Taking a break from it was the best thing I’ve ever done.
www.aaronhadlow.com
1 PAIN IN THE NECK
You need a strong neck and shoulders for this sport. We often get whiplash: travelling at speed, water feels hard and the impact of a crash throws your head.
Almost every move you make, from simple turns to tricks, is like doing a sit-up. Every single part of your abs is used – even muscles you didn’t know were there.
3 MUSCLE BOUND
I never bothered with the gym before I had a knee op, but now I see how important it is: muscle helps protect against injury. I focus on my quads, doing leg presses, squats and lunges.
4 KNEESY DOES IT
In February I busted my right knee. I tore my ACL, and had an operation to recreate it from a bit of my hamstring and calf muscle. I also tore the cartilage. My right leg is still half the size of my left.
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6 FOREARMED
I got a tattoo on my left forearm about six months ago. It says “Believe in your vision, accomplish ambition”. I got it to remind me to keep on it, not to let things slide. It keeps me motivated.
WORDS: RUTH MORGAN. PHOTOGRAPHY: THOMAS BUTLER. HAIR & MAKE-UP: LUCY GIBSON
2 STRONG TO THE CORE
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B U L L E VA R D
WINNING FORMULA
WAVE RIDER
How can boats sail faster than the wind? A skipper and a chart-flipper explain what’s with the yacht
FOR ALL TO SEE “It is true that sailboats can go faster than the wind,” says Dr Martin Apolin, of the physics faculty at the University of Vienna, “but it only applies to boats with minimal water resistance. An Extreme 40 catamaran can reach a speed of 40 knots (74kph) in a wind of 28kn (52kph). “However, intuition suggests that a boat would sail fastest with a tailwind: the boat is pushed by the wind and can, at best, sail as fast as the wind itself. To understand faster-than-wind sailing requires three observations and a few vectors. “Let’s stick with the speed mentioned earlier and assume that the catamaran is sailing at 90° to the wind, on a ‘beam reach’. “Step 1 (Fig. 1): Calculating the ‘apparent wind’. The wind you would perceive if the boat were at anchor is known as ‘true wind’ (in our example here, it has a speed of vtW = 28kn). Because the catamaran moves through the air as it sails, it gives rise to an air stream (vAS = 40kn). The two wind velocities are added together to form the apparent wind, which can be calculated with a Pythagorean formula: vAW = √ v²tW + v²AS ≈ 49kn. The sailor feels this overall wind and determines the course and pitch of the sails. “Step 2 (Fig. 2): Calculating the total force of the sail. Because the sail curves, it functions like a vertical wing. This creates a drag force (FD) and lift (FL). At 90° to the wind, the latter is allocated to the apparent wind parallel to the water surface. Step 3 (Fig. 3): Calculating propulsion. The total force that the wind creates upon the sail operates on the mast and the catamaran. It can be broken down into two components: transverse force, which is intercepted by the rudder and helm and which has no impact on forward momentum (but can produce spectacular listing), and another component in the direction of travel, propulsion. It’s this latter component, smaller in relative terms, which can propel the boat faster than wind velocity, as counterintuitive as that may sound. That’s because this propulsion is greater than if the catamaran were sailing with a tailwind (assuming that water resistance is low).” www.extremesailingseries.com
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WORDS: MARTIN APOLIN. PHOTOGRAPHY: ROB TRINGALI/RED BULL CONTENT POOL. ILLUSTRATION: MANDY FISCHER
OUT TO SEA “Extreme 40 catamarans go fastest at beam reach [a course steered at right angles to the wind], with minimal water resistance,” says two-time Olympic sailing champion Roman Hagara. “That means calm water and the least possible friction coefficient from the two hulls. We achieve the latter by ‘nanocoating’ the hulls with a particle-thin layer of a material that reduces friction. “Recently, people have been working on specially bowed helms, which can create huge uplift. Soon boats could be floating on the surface with only the rudder and the helm maintaining contact with the water.”
Roman Hagara, Hans-Peter Steinacher and their crew sail close to the wind in an Extreme Sailing Series race in Boston harbour
B U L L E VA R D
LUCKY NUMBERS
MARILYN MONROE
She fluffed her lines, was the world’s first Playmate and knew how to face down a lawyer. Marking 50 years since Marilyn Monroe’s death, some numerical facts that might surprise you-boop-be-do
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20,000 In 1947, Monroe posed for naked photos after her first leading role in a film. A young man bought the rights to them for US $500. His name? Hugh Hefner. Six years later, the first edition of Playboy appeared in the USA. Monroe was on the cover and in a sexually explicit pose on the fold-out centrefold, meaning that the 27-year-old was the first ever Playmate of the Month. In 2007, Hefner had 20,000 copies of the first Playboy reprinted, which are available on Amazon for around $60.
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“It was horrible. The producers kept screaming at me,” said Monroe on the subject of her first celluloid experiences. During filming of Some Like It Hot, she forgot her line “Where’s the Bourbon?” 59 times .Why? Because she’d stutter as soon as she got nervous. Breathy vocals – later her erotic trademark – eventually brought relief. Marilyn’s inimitable rendition of Happy Birthday to President John F Kennedy in May 1962 remains a classic.
In 2009, controversial film footage emerged apparently showing Monroe inhaling an illegal substance. The four-minute film, which had been shot by one of the star’s friends, was immediately snapped up by a US documentary filmmaker for $275,000. It’s not the only example of Monroe memorabilia retailing for telephone numbers. At one auction in 2010, Monroe’s school report went for $21,250 and her X-rays for $45,000. In 2011, her legendary white, nondraughtproof dress from The Seven Year Itch went under the hammer, fetching $5.6m. The buyer remains anonymous.
Joe DiMaggio grieved for Monroe with a lot of roses
Her X-rays went for $45,000
Size 16? She wore it well
Hugh Hefner and his first issue of Playboy
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The ‘dumb blonde’ role eventually became wearisome for Monroe, and despite being under contract with 20th Century Fox, she refused to go in front of the cameras from 1954 onwards. Countless lawsuits followed until Fox gave up 12 months later. A revised contract guaranteed Monroe more creative involvement and her first film made with greater freedom, Bus Stop (1956), brought her critical praise and a first Golden Globe nomination.
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Many people consider Joe DiMaggio the love of Monroe’s life, even though her marriage to the baseball star lasted less than a year. DiMaggio didn’t just organise Marilyn’s funeral. He also arranged for red roses to be placed on her grave three times a week – for 20 years.
www.marilynmonroe.com
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WORDS: ARKADIUSZ PIĄTEK. PHOTOGRAPHY: CORBIS (3), GETTY IMAGES, PICTUREDESK.COM, ACTION PRESS
Would Marilyn Monroe have any chance of becoming a model today? Probably not. Sex sirens of her day curved from size 12 to 16 – the latter figure now considered a ‘plus’ by fashion agencies, and also MM’s peak dress size. “I’ve always thought Marilyn Monroe looked fabulous, but I’d kill myself if I was that fat,” Liz Hurley once sniped to a beauty magazine. Apparently the in-vogue shape mustn’t bust a size 8.
5,600,000
DROP ZONE COMPETITION
WHERE EXACTLY WILL FELIX BAUMGARTNER LAND WHEN HE JUMPS FROM THE EDGE OF SPACE?
GO TO WWW.REDBULLSTRATOS.COM, TAKE PART IN OUR RED BULL STRATOS DROP ZONE COMPETITION AND WIN AN EXCLUSIVE ZENITH EL PRIMERO STRATOS FLYBACK STRIKING 10TH WATCH. This summer Felix Baumgartner will jump from 120,000 feet in an attempt to break the speed of sound during freefall - for human and scientific advancement. Wind strength and direction will define his flight path and final landing position in the New Mexico desert. Using clues from the weather and landscape, pin the geographical point where you think Felix will land and share it with your friends on Facebook and Twitter. The closest guess will win a model of the watch that Felix will wear on his record breaking journey – a Zenith El Primero Stratos Flyback Striking 10th. Five runners-up will win Red Bull Stratos merchandise being officially released in August.
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Kiss the hand
His models wear fur and horns and eat photographers for breakfast – literally. But Benny Rebel has no trouble with dangerous subjects. It’s just part of the job for one of the world’s leading wildlife photographers Words: Manuel Kurzmann Photography: Benny Rebel
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Benny Rebel
Born in Iran in 1968, Rebel moved to Hanover, Germany, in 1987. After training as a precision mechanic, the passionate animal conservationist chose flesh and blood over machines and switched to studying animal behaviour. In the mid-’90s he began to photo-document his travels, staging his first exhibition, ‘Too beautiful to die’, in Hanover in 2000. It launched a successful career. In 2002 and 2003 Rebel was named best nature photographer in the world’s largest photo competition, the Trierenberg Super Circuit, and soon his work was in demand for books, calendars and magazines, as well as for TV appearances. More recently he has begun organising safaris, to allow animal lovers to share his adventures. www.benny-rebel.de
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“Each animal has its own unique character” Benny Rebel on the appeal of his pictures and his golden rule for survival in the wild red bulletin: How to do you get close to wild animals and predators without being attacked? benny rebel: You have to accept that each animal has its own unique character. Some may be psychologically disturbed, in which case it’s best to keep your distance, because they’re more aggressive than others of their species. That also applies to sick animals or females who’ve just given birth. Before I reach for my camera, I always ask myself: what is the animal trying to say with its body language? I try to learn from them. It’s the only reason I’m still alive. What makes your photos so special? I established the wide-angle lens in wildlife photography. Many of those who came before me sat in their Jeeps with telephoto lenses and shot from a safe distance, from 100m away. Because I get closer to the animals my images have a greater depth of field – viewers can put themselves in my situation. When did you discover your love of animals? When I was a child. I was seven, a boy scout, and I learned to catch poisonous snakes and keep them as pets. My family often ran out of the house in panic when I came home with one of my finds. How did you find your calling as a wildlife photographer? For me photography is just a means to an end – I’m a conservationist first and foremost. Before 1998 I didn’t know anything at all about this profession. I just took a cheap plastic camera with me wherever I went and snapped what I saw. The pictures were terrible, but the stories behind them were fascinating for a lot of my friends. And so in one year I got through 200 reference books and won my first single-lens reflex camera in a competition. That was more or less the start of my career. 29
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The violent crocodile At first glance crocodiles seem slow and unwieldy. But don’t believe it: they’ll watch potential prey with incredible patience to strike like lightning at the right moment. It’s not all about speed though: if an adult has eaten its fill, it can live for over a year on these reserves. I had the honour of getting to know one of these creatures better. Friends of mine run a reservation in South Africa where I worked for a few months as a trainee ranger. Among the animals in the wildlife reserve was the crocodile you see here. It lived with other crocodiles in a large waterhole. The gamekeepers explained to me this reptile was a bad-tempered creature and would – if disturbed – attack without warning. My encounters always went as follows: as soon as someone hit the water evenly with a stick, the crocodile aimed at the perpetrator. Then it dived underwater and a few moments later it shot up on the bank like a rocket. Because I knew the animal’s mode of attack, after a while I managed to confront him with a camera. Nonetheless, the adrenalin surge that came with it was quite something… He’s gone now. He left the reservation in the high waters of one of the annual floods. TECHNICAL DETAILS Camera: Sony Alpha 900; lens: Zeiss 16-35mm F=2.8 at 16mm; aperture: 8; exposure: 1/640 seconds; ISO: 200
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My new friends On an expedition in South Africa I visited a nature conservation area on the border of the Kruger National Park. The owners presented me with a young female cheetah, which they had raised and christened Savanna. While the animal spent most of its time in the bush, it would visit the lodge regularly. The reason: Savanna loved being patted, and it made her purr like a domestic cat. It was fascinating to observe how this hunter brought down gnus and zebras and spent the rest of the day as a tame, affectionate pet. Later when Savanna had four babies, I flew to Africa straightaway. The gamekeepers had put the young family in a large enclosure to protect them from attack by other big cats. Savanna was relaxed, even when I spent hours near her taking photographs. For the little ones I was a great playmate, because I couldn’t run as fast as they could. After a few months the cheetahs were released into the wild, and for a while everything went well. But one day when she was out hunting she encountered a pride of lions. Savanna wanted to protect her young and she paid for it with her life. Three of the four young cheetahs survived. They still roam that same reserve where I first met them as babies. TeCHnICAl DeTAIlS Camera: Sony Alpha 900; lens: Sony 70-400mm SSM at 900; aperture: 6.3; exposure: 1/320 secs; ISO: 200
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The hungry rhinoceros Over 20 years ago I came into contact with environmental organisations and learned about the terrible abuses committed by greedy firms. Nature is being ruthlessly destroyed and even back then many species had already been wiped out in the name of profit. As I began helping to stop this madness, it was the white rhinoceros that was most at risk. Their horns are made into dagger handles and Chinese hocus-pocus medicine, which is supposed to increase sexual potency – complete rubbish! This picture came about during my ranger training in South Africa. There was a drought and we were in the process of distributing lots of grass next to the watering holes. It was essential for the rhinos’ survival, as there was nothing to eat. When the rhinos turned up hungry we had to get out of the way to prevent potential attacks. But I wanted to attempt the impossible and photograph them from up close. I crept up slowly to one of the animals, which maintained a distance from the rest of the group. Thank God it seemed to be in a good mood and hardly noticed me. When I pressed the shutter release I could have stretched my hand out and touched the horn of this giant. TECHNICAL DETAILS Camera: Canon EOS 1VHS; lens: Sigma 14mm F=2.8 14mm; aperture: 8; exposure: 1/250 secs; ISO: 100 (slide film, Kodak Elite extra color)
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A lens for a photo
A few years ago I met a young man in the Namib Desert. He was looking for someone who could take promotional photos for his parents’ lodge. In return he would give me a half-tame leopard. The next day I drove to where we’d agreed to meet. I was about to meet one of the most dangerous of all big cats, because leopards are unpredictable and can barely be tamed. So I put on a thick military uniform and mentally prepared myself for a possible paw swipe. On the first meeting the leopard inspected me from a distance. Then he jumped out at me, shredded my trousers and slashed a 3cm-wide wound in my leg. I put up with the injury without flinching. The following week the animal had already accepted me as a companion. Sometimes the playful big cat even stole my camera and disappeared with it into the thorn bushes. I only got it back by bartering: I’d flail around with coins or cloths to get his attention. Then I threw the object as far away as possible, to stall it for a moment and grab my camera back. This picture came about in a similar situation: the leopard destroyed one of my front lenses just after I clicked the shutter release. TeCHnICAl DeTAIlS Camera: Canon eOS 1VHS; lens: Sigma 14mm F=2.8 14mm; aperture: 8; exposure: ca. 1/250 secs; ISO: 100 (slide film, Kodak elite extra color)
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THE SHOW STOPPER DeMarcus Ware is sitting in the old Dallas Cowboys locker room at the Cotton Bowl. It’s been four decades since the Cowboys played in this stadium – now a relic adjacent to the Texas State Fairgrounds, something out of a Ray Bradbury story – but the blue of the original tile in the bathrooms still matches the star on the side of Ware’s helmet. Ware is starting his eighth year in the NFL in the loftier surroundings of Cowboys Stadium in nearby Arlington, Texas, a glossy thunderdome for 110,000 fans and the triple-digit decibels they emit for the team’s star linebacker. “When you’re right there in the centre of everything,” Ware says, “it’s like, ‘Yeah, I’m a gladiator.’” Besides the outsize environs they now play in, Ware’s Cowboys are very much the same as when they occupied this tatty locker room. The team has never suffered the soft contempt of ambiguity among fans: you either love to love America’s Team or love to hate them. Ware’s daughter, Marley, dresses up in her Cowboys jersey every Sunday, just like Dallas kids have done for generations. But while the Cowboys have stayed true to their roots, Ware’s NFL is very different from what it was just a year ago. Since August 2011, hundreds of retired football players and their families have filed class action lawsuits claiming the league concealed information about the damage caused by repeated concussions. Football kills, they say. Slowly and surely, the body gives up after years in NFL, and then, terrifyingly, as the years pass in retirement, the brain does too. The lawsuits cite dementia, depression, and Alzheimer’s disease as attributable 38
DeMarcus Ware is a god-fearing family man. DeMarcus Ware is a ruthless football player. As the NFL starts its season of reckoning, the game’s best linebacker reflects on faith, violence, and football’s long-term future Words: Ann Donahue Photography: Patrick Hoelk
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n 2012, after six Pro Bowl starts and 99.5 career sacks, it seems woefully obvious that Ware was born to be a professional football player – and one of the league’s most explosive defenders at that. But Ware – even as he stood 1.93m tall and weighed in at 120kg – says it really didn’t dawn on him until his senior year at Troy University at Alabama when the NFL rainmakers came to see him play. “When the scouts came, I was still taking my final exams,” Ware says. “I had to finish school. I was taking an exam at 11am, and then I was going to run for the scouts at 1pm. It was back and forth – but I knew if I put in the work then, I wouldn’t have to do it later.” Ware earned a degree in business information systems – the first member of his family to graduate from college – and was picked in the first round by the Cowboys in the 2005 NFL Draft. He tallied eight sacks in his rookie season – tying veteran defensive end Greg Ellis for the most on the team that year – and since then it’s been off to the races. Each season, he’s completed between 11 and 20 sacks on the year; he’s tantalisingly close to Michael Strahan’s single-season sack record of 22.5, which was set for the New York Giants in 2001. In this era of the superstar quarterback, Ware provides a worthy foil. Just when a football fan can’t stand the smug competency of yet another perfect spiral thrown into the end zone by a pass-happy offense, here comes Ware to knock the quarterback down. Type “DeMarcus Ware sacks…” into the search engine on YouTube, and the Google oracles suggest the following in rapid succession: “DeMarcus Ware sacks Mark Sanchez”; “DeMarcus Ware sacks Tom Brady”; “DeMarcus Ware sacks Drew Brees”; “DeMarcus Ware sacks Eli Manning”; “DeMarcus Ware sacks Peyton Manning” and on and on and on. Ware is the show-stopper. But when Ware attacks, it isn’t just Sanchez, Brady and the brothers Manning who get jostled and thrown around on the field. In 2009, Ware gruesomely sprained his neck playing against the San Diego Chargers. After spending the night in the hospital, he was released – and went on to sack Brees twice the next week and end the New Orleans Saints’ undefeated season. Ware will pay a physical toll – even he admits that 10 years in the NFL is about as much of a beating as a body can take. Dallas Cowboys Hall of Famer Randy White, the defensive tackle known as ‘The Manster’ when he played – half man, half monster – is a plaintiff in a class action lawsuit filed against the NFL in late April; court documents link repeated concussions to cognitive impairment. Can Ware imagine this as a future? “I think I can worry only about the now,” Ware says. “I take it a day at a time and a play at a time, and hopefully everything
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turns out all right for me. You start looking towards the future? You ain’t got there yet.” Ware’s live-for-the-moment ethos is the hallmark of a young man, of course, but it’s also generated by the rigours he’s experienced in his 29 years. Cowboys fans are boisterous about Ware’s talent, but speak of his personal life in hushed, reverent murmurs: “Did you read the New York Times story? Did you see the show on ESPN?” they quietly ask. In 2005, Ware married his high-school sweetheart, Taniqua. Within the next three years, they suffered three failed pregnancies. Hoping to decrease the stigma associated with miscarriages and stillbirths, the couple have been very public about their losses. “When you think about how short your life is and how life – or a life – can be taken from you, you need faith that you can get through any situation with Christ,” Ware says. “You can’t get through any situation with money. You can’t get through any situation with cars. It takes the intangible to get through anything.” The couple now have four-year-old Marley and one-year-old DeMarcus Jr. Ware’s glee in being a father is infectious; he chuckles as he sneaks a big chocolatechip cookie from the catering table to take home for Marley. The losses don’t fade for him, of course. But they do fuel him and provide a deeper context to his playing. It’s not just a sport. It’s a statement. “Sometimes, when I’m out there on the field, I’m tired,” Ware says. “But I’m like, ‘What if one of my kids that I lost had one more breath? They would be here right now.’ So that drives me to keep playing even harder. Because I have this opportunity.” Off field, Ware is unfailingly polite and soft-spoken, but during a game, he can throw Pittsburgh Steelers’ quarterback Ben Roethlisberger – at 1.95m and 109kg Ware’s close equivalent in sheer mass – to
Super Bowl MVP Eli Manning is a favourite target
additional photo: getty images
to repeated concussions on the field. It seems as though tragedy is stalking the NFL – in the past year and a half, three retired players have taken their own lives. In May, former San Diego Chargers Pro Bowl linebacker Junior Seau committed suicide after reportedly suffering from depression. He was 43. Seau’s memorial service in San Diego was open to the public; 20,000 people paid their respects at Qualcomm Stadium, where he played for more than a decade. When football stadiums double as funeral parlours for the game’s most revered athletes, there is no doubt that America’s game is in the midst of crisis. As the 2012 season starts, players like Ware – those sparkling with the cutthroat charisma that causes fans to swoon – are taking a field that’s haunted with the ghosts of an uncertain future.
“I
take it a day at a time and a play at a time, and
hopefully everything turns out all right for me�
“Y
ou’ve go to show good sportsmanship,
but football is always going to be a brutal game. That’s what people like”
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season dropped to 190 in 320 preseason and regular season the ground like a child bored with a toy. “Sometimes I go back games from 2010’s total of 218 in 321 games. and watch films of myself and I think ‘Where is that guy coming There is a limit, however. From gladiator battles to boxing to from?’” Ware says. Mixed Martial Arts, for millennia fans have cheered the showcasing It’s a dichotomy – the God-fearing man who puts the fear of aggression in sports. When tens of millions of people tune in of God into other players. And while he admits that football is each Sunday and billions of dollars are at stake, the physicality a merciless game, Ware argues that his ferocity on the field is of the game isn’t going to be watered down. American football, not at odds with his faith. It is, in fact, a tribute. “What guy for better or for worse, is part of a bloodthirsty lineage. does not want to showcase what God’s given him?” he asks. “You’ve always got to show good sportsmanship, but football “I’m going to go out there and just play my heart out because is always going to be a brutal game,” Ware says. “That’s what I know I’m playing for Him.” people like. That’s what the guys that are playing like. That’s The injury tally of any run-of-the-mill football game – why they’re playing the game, and that’s why they do it so well.” sprains, fractures, torn ligaments – speaks to a sociopathic, The Dallas Cowboys’ 2011 season was mediocre; the team finished craven desire to do harm. But sports psychologists say there is 8-8 and failed to make the playoffs after losing to the eventual a critical difference: football isn’t actually about violence. It’s Super Bowl champions, the New York Giants, in the NFC East about trained, pinpoint aggression. Trauma isn’t the desired division title game. An opportunity for redemption comes early in outcome – stopping the play is the goal. 2012: the Cowboys will play the Giants in the season opener on “They’re fast, they’re powerful, they’re explosive and on September 5. “Everybody is going to be watching that game,” Ware the defence their job is to run interference and stop a play from says. “Why not be able to showcase, ‘Hey, this is what y’all are unfolding,” says Michael Gervais, director of performance going to have to deal with this whole season, so get ready’?” psychology at the Pinnacle Performance Center, who is working To that end, Ware began voluntary workouts with the team this year with the Seattle Seahawks. “Intent to harm is a very different mindset than focusing on the in April; official training camp started in July in Oxnard, tactics or technique.” California. As the season starts, workouts are paired with endless reviews of video: In May, the NFL suspended four New Ware watches film of himself, the upcoming refs, the upcoming team and how other Orleans Saints players for a programme players in his position, like the Minnesota Vikings’ Jared Allen or the Indianapolis that rewarded cash bounties for injuring Colts’ Dwight Freeney, played against that team. members of the opposing team. Gervais says this kind of system is an outlier, and the “pay for pain” mentality isn’t part of wider football culture. “A player told me fter all that prep – which takes 45-50 ‘I never went to the line with hate. I never hours a week – Ware views the game as went to the line with rage,’” Gervais a chance to show off what he’s learned. recalls. “’I went looking to find a sense of “You study the whole week, you figure calmness, so I could execute and do the the team out and how you attack them, job I trained my entire life to do.’” like a chess match,” he says. Two quarterbacks are especially hard to crack: the Philadelphia Eagles’ Michael Vick and the Giants’ Eli Manning. “Michael Vick is left-handed, so he’s one of the few quarterbacks in the league who can actually see you coming, and he can actually run faster that you can, too,” ut it’s becoming he says. “Eli Manning is the same way – he’s not as fast, but increasingly hard to he’s a little looser in the pocket and he can play really well.” Anger Management argue that playing (For the record, Ware has taken Manning down nine times in It may seem obvious, football doesn’t 14 games. “For a guy who has sacked me more than anybody, but one should not cause lasting damage – whether the he’s a nice guy,” Manning said in an interview last December taunt DeMarcus Ware during a game players are hitting the field ready to with the Dallas Morning News.) of football. Red Bull injure or not. (In a statement released Photo shoots are tedious beasts, but Ware is holding up filmed Ware making a in response to the class-action lawsuits, well amid the monotony. Standing in the tunnel that leads to sack using the highthe NFL said it had “never misled players the field at the Cotton Bowl, he agrees to make a half of an inch speed Phantom digital with respect to the risks associated with movement to the left to catch better light, then another quarter camera. The target playing football”). of an inch movement to the right to snap a more flattering was the one-time quarterback for the Ware thinks that in the coming expression. He does one costume change, two costume changes, now-defunct Dallas years the NFL will institute changes to three costume changes – and it’s only noon. Desperadoes arena enhance player safety, such as protective football team.“The first innovations in pads and helmets – and Suddenly, Ware has had enough. He grimaces in fury and time I hit him, he was Ware says he would be more than happy violently rears back with the helmet in his hands as though to like ‘Man! You’ve got to to help develop and test such gear. He cannon it directly at the crew. The photographer and his hit me harder than that! You’ve got to make it expects the league also to continue assistants flinch, fearing the impact. look real,’” Ware says. tinkering with gameplay rules to restrict Ware smiles, lowers the helmet and laughs at his feint, “So I went full speed. player contact; last season, the length of all dimples and charm. He’s back to being the gentle man the I hit him, picked him up kickoff returns was reduced. After the photo techs nicknamed “America’s Sweetheart” during the and threw him down 2011 season ended, the NFL released shoot. We laugh with him. And then we ask him to play angry on the ground and he statistics that claimed that, as a result, the again for the camera. Because that’s what we want to see. dislocated his shoulder. www.redbull.com/demarcusware I felt really bad after.” number of overall concussions during the
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A
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Akorn (left) and Grub D in Christchurch. The city is still being rebuilt after the earthquake in February 2011
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BREAK from the QUAKE Two B-Boys from Christchurch will represent New Zealand at the Red Bull BC One Asia Pacific Qualifier next month. It’s something of a coup for the Common Ground crew Words: Robert Tighe Photography: Graeme Murray
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n the back room of the Colleen Murray Dance Centre in Christchurch, nine B-Boys from the Common Ground crew spin and slide on a chipboard floor. An iPod hooked up to a speaker in the corner blasts out a DJ Fleg mixtape and every flare and freeze in front of the floor-toceiling mirrors is greeted with whoops of encouragement. Colleen Murray interrupts the session to remind her tenants the studio is closing at 9pm this evening. “Oh and don’t forget to turn off the lights,” she says. Originally from the 46
north of England, the 64-year-old landlady has trained hundreds of dancers since she opened for business in Christchurch in 1983. The main studio is used for Latin and ballroom dancing lessons and the walls are decorated with fading pictures of famous dancers, and posters of the Australian movie Strictly Ballroom. It seems an unlikely venue for a bunch of B-Boys but it turns out Murray has a soft spot for the crew that has trained here every Wednesday night for the past few months. “My boys used to breakdance and I used to judge competitions at Linwood Shopping Centre,” she says. “I love street
GRUB D
BIOGRAPHY
Name Davy McCavitt, aka Grub D Date of birth October 17, 1984, Christchurch Occupation Chef Favourite B-Boy Kid David Favourite breaking music Breakbeats and funk Favourite movie The Shawshank Redemption How do you relax Watching TV Words you live by Our crew motto is “forget your troubles and dance”
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in the BC One final which takes place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in December. “It’s massive for us,” says Keza Wardlaw (K Bigs), a long-time member of Common Ground. “It’s like Christmas. To have two dancers from this shaky little city representing New Zealand, especially after all that’s happened down here with the earthquakes, it is awesome.” The day after The Red Bulletin visited Christchurch, the city was hit by a 4.0-magnitude aftershock. The Canterbury region has endured more than 10,000 earthquakes and aftershocks since the first big one hit on September 4, 2010. The two venues that the Common Ground crew used to train in were shut down after last year’s February earthquake. “We didn’t have anywhere to jam for a while,” says Grub D. “It was hard for us as a crew but around that time everybody wanted to be with family anyway. We jammed a few times but it took us a few months to get back on our feet.”
istchurch
ol
at the C eir moves
th Practising
entre, Chr y Dance C leen Murra
Akorn and Grub a pose in th D strike e centre of the Cashe l Street Container Mall
dancing: the free style, the free spirit, the emotion. It comes from the soul.” Murray’s appreciation of B-Boying is all too rare, says Akorn, a 22-year-old baker at a New World supermarket in the city. “When I tell people I’m a B-Boy, they don’t really know anything about it,” he says. “‘Are people still breaking?’ is a common response.” And Grub D, the leader of the Common Ground crew and something of a veteran at the age of 27, has experienced similar reactions.
“TO HAVE TWO DANCERS FROM THIS SHAKY LITTLE CITY REPRESENT NEW ZEALAND, ESPECIALLY AFTER ALL THAT’S HAPPENED WITH THE EARTHQUAKES, IT IS AWESOME” KeZA WArDLAW
“You get people who see you spinning around on the ground and they know nothing about the dance or the culture. They just think you’re wasting your time,” he says. “When I started breaking, my family thought I was going nowhere with it but now they see how much I love it and how far it has taken me.” On September 1, Davy McCavitt, aka Grub D and Aron Mahuika, aka Akorn, will represent New Zealand in the Red Bull BC One Asia Pacific Qualifier, the biggest B-Boy event ever held in New Zealand. Sixteen B-Boys from the Asia Pacific region will battle it out for a place
ommon Ground was formed in 2000 and was a Christian crew. By the time Grub D joined in 2002, many of the original members had moved on and the focus was on dancing rather than religion. Both Grub D and Akorn worshipped the moves of Michael Jackson. Akorn, a shy individual with a rugby player’s ability to answer almost every question with ‘yeah, definitely’, practiced the moonwalk at home in front of the mirror. At Wainoni Primary school he unwittingly laid the foundations for the strength, balance and co-ordination that are three of his attributes as a B-Boy. “I used to walk around on my hands,” he remembers. “A gang of us used to race each other on our hands on the basketball court at lunchtimes.” Meanwhile, not far away at Opawa Primary, Grub D was doing Michael Jackson impersonations in front of the school assembly. He also played soccer and rugby league to a high level and both Akorn and Grub D were into skateboarding until they found breaking. Grub D was already an experienced B-Boy by the time Akorn joined Common Ground in 2005. “I was ‘on trial’ for about six months,” says Akorn. “They want to see if you’re seriously dedicated to breaking and if you get on with everyone in the crew. You’ve got to turn up and train hard.” 47
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“We knew from the early stages that Aron was going to be real good,” says Grub D. “When he started, he didn’t say much. We used to jam and have little battles at practice and he never used to jump in. He just watched and learned. He’s come on strong the last few years.” At the Auckland Cypher (the national qualifying competition for the BC One qualifier) in May, Akorn upset Grub D in a sudden-death decider in the final to claim the first qualifying spot for New Zealand. The next day, Grub D flew from Auckland to Wellington to claim the second qualifying spot at the Wellington Cypher. It was an impressive achievement, considering how small the B-Boy scene is in Christchurch compared to the main centres in Auckland and Wellington. “I’d seen my crew practise and I was quite confident that one of our crew would win in Auckland or Wellington,” says Justin Castle (Sparxx) after practice at the Colleen Murray Dance Centre. “To win both, that was just unbelievable, eh!”
The Common Grounders are making B-Boys a force to be reckoned with in New Zealand
hat makes Akorn and Grub D the two best B-Boys in New Zealand? “It’s their commitment,” says Sparxx. “And passion,” adds Nicholas Poi (BB Nick). Akorn started working as a baker last year so he could have the evenings free to train. He sets the alarm clock for 3am for a 4am start, finishes work at 2.30pm and trains five to six evenings a week for a couple of hours. Grub D is lucky if he can squeeze in a couple of training sessions. He works long hours as a chef and any spare time is spent with his partner and their one-year-old son. Their B-Boy styles are as different as their training regimes. “Grub dances a lot,” says Sparxx. “He’s really smooth, he’s really cheeky. He’s in your face all the time. He’s like, ‘You want to battle me, OK, let’s do it.’ Akorn? He’s really blow up. His moves are really big, explosive, out there. When it comes to 48
some hot ng Cooking up D fits traini b ru G : le moves sy schedu bu s hi to time in
“I THINK ABOUT IT EVERY DAY. WHEN I’M DRIVING AND WHEN I’M AT WORK, I PICTURE MYSELF BATTLING. I PICTURE MYSELF WINNING” AKorN
battling, he never gets nervous. He’s in his own zone; you can see it in his eyes. If he crashes, if he falls or messes up a move, he’ll always recover with something crazy.” “Grub’s style is unique,” says BB Nick. “He doesn’t dance like everyone else and he’s not afraid of anyone. He’s fearless. Aron is quiet but when he dances, he’s loud. It’s like, ‘Whoah, who’s that guy?’’’ “He speaks through his dance,” explains Sparxx.
Recipe for success: Akorn makes sure he’s prepared for his next B-Boy battle
AKORN
BIOGRAPHY Name Aron Mahuika aka Akorn Date of birth September 13, 1989, Christchurch Occupation Baker Favourite B-Boy I don’t really have any favourites Favourite breaking music Whatever sounds good Favourite movie You Got Served How you relax Skateboarding
RED BULL BC ONE
ASIA PACIFIC QUALIFIER
When September 1 Where Vector Arena, Auckland Featuring 16 world class B-Boys hosted by MC Rahzel, formerly a member of iconic US hip-hop group The Roots with Japan’s DJ Mar Ski on the decks Tickets www.ticketmaster.co.nz
Competit ion was h ot at the Wellingto n Cypher, with the likes of ‘L eerok’ Go nzales (top) thro wing dow n some imp ressive m oves
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It happened to Grub D in the BC One qualifier in Taiwan last year. He was the first New Zealander ever to compete in the world’s biggest B-Boy competition, first held in 2004. He was knocked out in the first round by 3T from Vietnam.
“I PICTURE WHAT IT WILL FEEL LIKE TO GET PAST THAT FIRST ROUND. I KEEP TELLING MYSELF I’M GOING TO DO WELL. I’M GOING TO REPRESENT”
might have overthunk it,” says Grub D. “I asked the judges for advice afterwards and Roxrite (the current BC One champion from the US) said, ‘Just take your time and have fun with what you’re doing.’ I was more worried about not messing up.” Grub D has passed on the advice he gained at last year’s BC One to Akorn, but already both of the Common Grounders are getting excited about dancing in front of 3,000 spectators at Vector Arena. “I think about it every day,” says Akorn. “I picture myself battling and winning. I wouldn’t call it visualisation, it’s more like daydreaming, but they are always positive daydreams.” In the kitchen of the Governors Bay Hotel overlooking Lyttelton Harbour, Grub D, the head chef, is doing the same. “I picture what it will feel like to get past that first round,” he says. “I keep telling myself I’m going to do well. I’m going to represent.” It won’t be an easy task. Several of the B-Boys competing at the Vector Arena will be full-time professionals. “There’s Differ from South Korea. He’s got mean style,” says Grub D. “And there’s Babylon from Japan, he’s a fast breaker with a big reputation. But I think I can beat those guys. It’s been my dream since I started breaking to battle the best guys in the world and now it’s happening. All the guys will be sick. That’s why we’ve got to go hard. We’ll be underdogs for sure. The others will think us New Zealanders got nothing. That could be to our advantage – they might underestimate us.” The format will see the 16 B-Boys from Australia, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong, South Asia, Laos, Vietnam and New Zealand compete head-to-head in knockout battles with three judges deciding which B-Boy advances to the next round. It means that Grub D might have to battle Akorn in the first round. “I would hate that,” says Grub D. “But if he comes up against me he’d better watch out because I’ll be fired up to beat him after he beat me at the Auckland Cypher. I want to show I can compete at this level. I want to go to Brazil.”
GrUB D
www.redbull.co.nz
Top: Grub D celebrates after winning Wellington City Cypher Bottom: Akorn with judges after winning the Auckland City Cypher
t the Auckland Cypher, Akorn struts around the floor and stalks his opponent like a boxer before the opening bell. He looks light on his feet and supremely confident. “I’m usually quite shy,” admits Akorn, “and yeah, I definitely change in a battle.” It’s not a conscious decision, he says. “It just comes naturally I guess. It’s like the way you eat or the way you walk.” Grub D’s confidence can sometimes come across as smugness but he works hard to connect with the crowd. “When I’m battling, I’m a cheeky character,” he admits. “I use facial expressions, use my eyes a lot and shake my head at my opponent. I do better when I’m having fun. Sometimes when you’re battling you can forget to have fun.”
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Action
X
highly comple the impossible Formation
Five wingsuit divers, two gliders, one remarkable stunt: how a squadron of men and machines pulled off a perfectly synchronised stroke of genius Words: Manuel Kurzmann Photography: Heinz Stephan Tesarek, Wolfgang Lienbacher
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The team’s finest hour The Red Bull Skydive Team and the Blanix glider team in perfect harmony
Action
6.30
The day dawns over the Niedeöblarn airfield, in the centre of Austria. Picturebook weather, with only a few scattered wisps of cloud in the sky. As the first engine noises break the silence, Paul Steiner stands near the tarmac, checking the opening mechanism of his parachute. The 49-year-old seems a little distracted, inspecting each of the handgrips twice. “My head is full of thoughts. I have to be careful. Inner turmoil can make you more prone to mistakes,” he says. Steiner knows of what he speaks. He is a skydiver who has experienced free fall more than 4,200 times. Today he’s aiming to set a career highpoint with the project known as Akte (Blani)X III, which he has been working on for two years.
The theory Pilot Ewald Roithner demonstrates the make-up of the formation. Will the skydivers manage to catch up with gliders travelling at 180kph?
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In a nutshell, Steiner will form, with four other wingsuit jumpers and two gliders, a diamond-shaped squadron – one skydiver alongside each glider wing and the fifth between the planes – in which the gliders fly cockpit-to-cockpit, Top Gun-style. It’s a stunt fraught with difficulties, chief of which is the waterand-oil combination of magnificent men outside flying machines. “A glider can reach speeds of up to 250kph,” says Steiner, “with a rate of descent of just a few kilometres per hour. Us wingsuit jumpers normally fly at around 160kph, but drop at around 80kph. That’s the issue here: bringing two completely different objects together in a corridor in which they can operate in unison.” For his project, Steiner put together a team made up of his four colleagues from the Red Bull Skydive Team and two pilots from the Blanix glider team. The seven men have plenty of experience, but a group this size had a major negative impact on planning, which Steiner found to his cost. “When you have seven people all with different ideas, it takes forever to gain some common ground. Often we spent hours in discussion, sometimes about the most banal things, like setting suitable project deadlines.” Consensus was reached when it became clear to all participants that they would all be operating at the height of their powers. The main problem for the skydivers was how to arrest their descent while flying close to their maximum speed of 180kph. For the men piloting the gliders, their greatest concern would be finding a way to drop faster than usual, very much contrary to normal practice at a speed of around 75kph, but without exceeding that 180kph maximum speed of the wingsuit guys. “Finding a gliding angle in which both jumpers and aircraft could operate together took months of calculations, and a lot of nerves,” says Steiner. “On top of that, we had to wait for a perfect weather window to open
The problem: man and machine don’t really fly well alongside one another
The first preparations Paul Steiner (main image, left) and the Red Bull Skydive Team carry out a functionality check on their wingsuits. One more quick briefing (below left), then it’s on
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Action
Hardware Blanik L-13 A two-seater glider developed by the Czech aircraft works LET in 1956. Originally used for training purposes, its robust construction and excellent flying qualities have made it the most common glider in the world. Technical Data Length: 8.4m Wingspan: 16.2m Weight: 292kg Maximum speed: 253kph Material: all metal
Approach Phase The two gliders are just a few metres apart. The pilot radios the signal to proceed
up. If there’s any kind of updraft, or too much cloud cover, then it’s not even worth getting into the plane.” At least choosing the project name, Akte (Blani)X III, didn’t take long. It was inspired by the television series The X Files (Akte X in German) in which FBI agents Mulder and Scully chase after unexplained phenomena. “I’d already carried out two stunts with the Blanix glider team (see Blanix Begins box over the page) which many people thought impossible. So the name seemed to fit this time as well,” says Steiner. With that, he struggles into his wingsuit and waddles like a penguin towards the airfield. Showtime.
his limit now, fighting the centrifugal forces. Strimitzer keeps his colleague above him in view; only a few metres separate the two aircraft. Both pilots push their brake flaps to the limit and increase speed, making the gliders difficult to steer. Then Roithner gives the signal by radio: “Blanik ready.” Strimitzer follows suit. Through their headsets they hear the order “Exit, exit!” – the all-clear for the Red Bull Skydive Team, which is preparing itself at the side door of a Pilatus Porter PC6 transport aircraft
9.00
Ewald Roithner and Martin Strimitzer from Team Blanix climb into their gliders. The pilots have been at the controls of planes since the 1990s, and between them have clocked up 12,000 flight hours. They are taken into the air by tow planes. At their target altitude of 4,000m, the thermometer reads -18°C. Their fingertips are numb. Shortly after the first towrope is released, Roithner flips his Blanik L-13 over 180 degrees, so that it’s flying upside down. He’s flying at close to
Before the jump Close to the showdown, from left: Georg Lettner, David Hasenschwandtner, Paul Steiner and Michael Löberbauer are highly focused on the job in hand
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Wingsuit A nylon full-body suit fitted with stretches of fabric, which allows parachutists to cover great distances in the air. By stretching their arms and legs they can extend the ‘wings’ so that they become taut, which reduces the rate of descent. Prototypes of the wingsuit were developed as far back as 1930, but such kit has only been commercially available since 1998. Technical Data Wingspan: 1.5m Wing area: 1.65m2 Weight: around 1.5kg Maximum speed: 180kph Material: man-made fibres, including nylon
Stepping into the void a few hundred metres above the gliders. Ideally, the parachutists should fall to the gliders in a matter of seconds to create a formation with the planes. But Strimitzer loses sight of Roithner’s glider. Flying blind, he fears Roithner might collide with him. On top of that, the wingsuit jumpers are out there somewhere: if they collided with a
“I get nosebleeds whenever I do high-altitude jumps. I feel like crap up there”
plane at this speed it could be fatal. Strimitzer makes his decision in quickly: “Abort, abort!” he yells into the radio.
9.30
Paul Steiner pulls on his ripcord and takes a deep breath. No unforeseen contact, once again everything’s gone OK. He flew for just a few metres alongside one of the glider’s wings before the formation broke up. At least the landing went according to plan. On the ground, Steiner goes to talk to one of the other skydivers, Marco Waltenspiel. His nose is smeared with blood. “I get nosebleeds whenever I do high-altitude jumps. I feel like crap up there,” says Waltenspiel, who has also just recovered from the flu. He lay in bed for a week while the rest of the team was at a training camp in Slovenia with the glider pilots, but without Waltenspiel, the project would have collapsed. He had to
At 4,000m altitude, -18°C, no wind: the skydivers drop out of the jump plane, keeping an eye out below where the gliders are getting into position
jump. “It sucked that I couldn’t be at the camp,” he says, “but then, this is hardly the first time I’ve flown with a wingsuit.”
17.00
Due to thermal uplift, there’s been a stoppage for the last few hours; take-off can only occur with absolutely still conditions. Pilots and parachutists used the break to analyse the shock of the morning’s efforts. But now the wind has died down and they can try again. The seven men come together for a last briefing. Pilot Ewald Roithner announces a change in proceedings: “The distance between the jump plane and us gliders has to be narrower. That way, we increase the 57
Action
Success!
From left: Paul Steiner, Martin Strimitzer, Ewald Roithner, Georg Lettner and Marco Waltenspiel celebrate. The morning’s aborted attempt is a distant memory
“It makes you feel uneasy when you’re clambering about between two 300 kilo gliders” how it all began Akte (Blani)X I In 2008, Paul Steiner and the Blanix glider team created their first joint aerial stunt. Steiner: “I met the lads at an air show. We had a heated debate about whether it was possible for a parachutist to climb on top of a glider in mid-air. No one had ever tried it before. The pilots thought my idea was crazy, because there is hardly any room on the wings.” Steiner spent weeks looking for a solution, and found it on the road. “I saw two workers carrying a glass pane with two suction cups on it. The very same day I rang up a glazier friend of mine and borrowed a few.” The suction cups were the last piece of the puzzle in implementing the project. They were attached to the wings of the Blanik L-13 and served as grips after the skydiver left the cockpit. The pivotal moment from Steiner’s wild ride at an altitude of 1,800m: when the glider pivoted 180 degrees, he climbed onto the underside of the wing, at 160kph and with a G-force of 2G. He also sat down on the fuselage of the aircraft for 40 seconds. Akte (Blani)X II In 2010 Steiner was once again chauffeured in a Blanik L-13, this time at an altitude of 2,100m, where he climbed on to the edge of the wing and then onto a second glider. “The pilots had the idea that I could hold on to both aircraft. They maintained that during their close formation flights a person couldn’t fit between the aircraft. I said: ‘It’s up to you to prove it.’” The stunt attracted a lot of media attention: from a spot on the ABC show Good Morning America in the US to public congratulations from the Pacific island nation of Tonga.
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chances of catching all the parachutists on time. Last time it took too long.” The issue with this alteration is that it also changes the parachutists’ angle of descent in relation to the gliders, but there’s no more time for training.
17.30
Last preparations for the second attempt. The parachutists form a circle, exchange high fives, and then Steiner gets into the PC6. Georg Lettner follows. He occupies the riskiest position in the flight formation: between the two gliders. “It makes you feel pretty uneasy, clambering about between two 300 kilo gliders,” says Lettner. On the way up, Lettner sits in silence at the side window of the plane. All he can think about is the exit: he is the first skydiver to leave the plane. If it happens a split second too late, the two gliders
will already be too far away to reach. The pilot gives the all clear and Lettner gets up. He opens the side door and has a perfect view of the glider below him. He drops out of the plane and the other four jumpers follow close behind him. The conditions are perfect – there’s hardly a breath of wind. Lettner controls his flying suit by lightly and carefully moving his arms and legs up and down. He approaches the gliders and glides between them. The other jumpers are floating just centimetres away from the wings. For more than 40 seconds, the squadron made up of man and machine floats through the sky. From the ground, the parachutists are barely visible – just five little dots floating next to the aircraft. Then the formation breaks up. Lettner yells for joy as his parachute opens. The impossible formation has become reality. www.redbullskydiveteam.com; www.blanix.com
A Record Broken Is A Record Shared It took 15 specialists, five aircraft and hundreds of hours of preparation to make the Akte (Blani)X III a reality
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ACTION
COREY BERTELSEN
“Bikes are made to ride fast” An Auckland plumber travels to Bonneville, USA, this month to try to break another land speed record. He talks about following in some famous footsteps Words: Robert Tighe Photography: Tim White
fast. I was probably doing We always had old banger more than 150kph. I learnt bikes around when I was an important lesson that growing up. We used to day: don’t ride road bikes. race along gravel roads. Bikes are made to ride fast. There were some pretty hairy When you’re going at 100kph moments and I lost some skin. on a bike it feels so slow. It School wasn’t for me. I left feels like you could step right when I was 15 to work on off it. But when you open a farm and then I played up a bike, they just love it. It rugby in the US. When I came sounds the best, it feels the home I started plumbing. I’m best and it rides the best. a fourth-generation plumber. There’s less chance of getting I bought my first motocross injured at Bonneville. You bike at the age of 24. I was don’t have people coming looking for something different the other way, or you from rugby. I was over it. shouldn’t have at least. Friends of mine bought bikes New Zealand’s land speed record challenger Corey Bertelsen (right) will You don’t really get a as well. We raced each other be using a specially modified Honda RS-250 (above) at Speed Week sensation of speed on the in Woodhill Forest and in the salt because there’s nothing sand dunes at Muriwai Beach. around you. It’s quiet, real sucks the water out of your body; it I finished third in my first quiet. All you hear is the wind. And sucks it straight down. You’re walking motocross race. My best result was it’s over pretty quickly. We do three miles around with pools of water in your boots. 11th at the New Zealand nationals in in less than a minute and your average We went up there pretty green in 2008. 2004. I got older and slower after that. speed is measured for the record. We were cocky as hell. We thought it I heard about Speed Week from We broke our first record at Bonneville was going to be a piece of piss to break a guy who raced with Burt Munro. in 2010. We averaged 139.089mph in the record but we were a long way off. Everybody who has raced at Bonneville the modified fuel, no fairing class. This I bought a bike that I thought would has seen The World’s Fastest Indian. I’ve year we’re going back to try and get the do the job. I paid NZ $12,000 for a Honda probably watched that movie 15 times. matching record with gasoline. We have RS-250 that I was told had won the Speed Week attracts more than 500 to clock over 142mph to break that record. Malaysian Grand Prix in 2004. The competitors – that’s bikes, cars and This will be my fourth trip to engine blew up in practice and we had trucks – and around 15,000 spectators. Bonneville and I reckon in total it to rebuild it on the salt. That’s not easy I went for the first time in 2007 just has cost me close to $100,000. I’m not because the salt gets into everything. for a look. We gave the rental car a bit sure because I don’t keep the receipts. It didn’t help that I was riding with of a thrashing on the salt. I was like, ‘Yep, It’s not a rich man’s club. There are a shattered collar bone. I crashed my this is me.’ It’s an amazing place. You teams with money to burn but there are road bike a few months before we went. see pictures of it but you’ve no idea how lots of people like us; people who turn up I came around a corner where they’d big it is. It’s just salt for miles and miles with next to no money to give it a crack. been doing road works, hit a whole lot and the hills in the distance are little dots. of pebbles and lost the back end. I went And it’s very hot. It reaches 40ºC, but Search for Salt Brothers Racing NZ at www.facebook.com head first into the road. I was going too dehydration is the big thing. The salt 60
Name Corey Bertelsen Born June 19, 1972, Auckland Occupation Plumber Bike Honda RS-250 Accident prone He’s broken his wrist, his collarbone, compressed discs in his back and had keyhole surgery on his shoulder Driving ambition To ride in the Baja 1000, Mexico’s legendary off-road rally
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BERNARD PURDIE
“Ladies love a drummer” Aged 73 and with sticks work on 4,000 albums, Bernard Purdie is the world’s most recorded drummer. Fifty years of laying down the beat for Aretha Franklin, James Brown and many other legends has taught him all there is to know about making music Words: Andreas Rottenschlager Photography: Philipp Horak
My mother’s pots and pans were my bass player or the saxophonist who mad at you, you’re out. The worst thing first drum kit. I was three years old, the took the ladies home. All they had you can do is hang out with your boss. eleventh of 15 children, and I was always to do was put their instrument in a That’s the quickest way to get fired. drumming like crazy. When I was six bag. The singer had it even better: The discipline of James Brown I got my first toy drum kit. When I was all he had to do was walk off stage. is something to have experienced. seven, a music teacher let me sit in on Louis Armstrong was a gentleman. You were never allowed to call him his lessons. I wasn’t allowed to speak. I jammed with him at his birthday. James Brown. You had to say Mister I didn’t have any money. First Miles Davis was the opposite, you had to learn, to listen. a real workaholic. He How did I get work as a sometimes came late to studio musician in the ’60s? rehearsals. We’d already The same way you do today: learnt the songs, he just through ads. I made signs and played over the top, but that hung them on the drums: ‘Call was cool too. That’s music. me, I’m the hitmaker.’ Good At the Red Bull Music marketing is everything. Academy, I teach musicians I can read sheet music who are young enough to be forward and backwards. my grandchildren. I hate to I interpret the music while say it, but 90 per cent of young I’m playing it. I read notes, people hardly know anything rhythm and feel. I always about music theory or how put a bit of myself into it, you interpret a piece. The no matter what song I’m techno generation can operate playing or with whom. their computers – great! But That’s how I enrich the songs. no one talks about how you I make them a little bit Purdie. create feeling. You have to Record-breaking drummer Bernard Purdie is still keeping the beat For the Grateful Dead make the computer work at 73 years of age. “Pension? That word doesn’t exist for me!” I played on 30-40 tracks. for you, and in a way that And I can’t remember which makes it sound human. songs they were. I drove to I tell every pupil: learn your thing! Brown. Full stop. Whatever you did, San Francisco for the weekend, It doesn’t matter what direction you want you could never use his first name. recorded the songs and they to go. If you’re good, it will work for you. We all started in music because we paid me the amount I’d asked for. Pension? Hey, are we talking the same wanted to get the women. That was Everyone likes to party. But when language? That word doesn’t exist for our motivation. The only problem with you’re working for a superstar, you me. I’ll keep at it as long as people want that is that at the end of the show the can’t afford to slack off. I learnt that me to. I’ve never thought about stopping. drummer has to pack up his kit. Ladies Human metronome: www.bernardpurdie.com early on in life. If Aretha Franklin’s love a drummer, but it was always the 62
The Rolling Stones, Quincy Jones, James Brown, Steely Dan, Aretha Franklin (the list goes on) – Purdie has worked with them all
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CHASING the
DREAM
A team of surfers, weather scientists, and ďŹ lmmakers scour the world for the toughest surďŹ ng conditions following storms so they can shoot spectacular big-wave sequences in near-lethal waters. Up close and personal with the swell chasers Words: Josh Rakic Photography: Rod Owen
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Like father: Big-wave surfer Ross Clarke-Jones tows his son, Kanan, into his first ever big wave at a notorious reef break off the south coast of New South Wales, Australia
Action
OUT SEA
in the
Tasman
the wind’s measuring about 282kph, and waves 20m high are being recorded. “We have to surf this swell,” says bigwave meteorologist Ben Matson, giving the green light for the Storm Surfers documentary film crew to be deployed off the south coast of New South Wales, 925km north of those cyclonic winds and big waves. According to Matson’s readings, those conditions are generating the same amount of power that Hurricane Katrina carried when it first made landfall in Florida in 2005. The easier part of Matson’s job is finding extreme surfing conditions. The hard part comes in judging whether or not they’re lethal. “The biggest waves are hitting off Tasmania, but they’re too big to ride,” says Matson. “We’ve got two locations in Tasmania, where we’ve got Jet Skis and everything ready to go, but those winds make it just impossible to surf. But we can’t just sit on our hands and let it go un-ridden. So we’re going to go with our back-up option. “It’s like a mountaineering expedition. We’ve dropped provisions at locations with Jet Skis in Western Australia, as well as Tasmania and New South Wales, all with crew just waiting to be deployed. I’m pretty positive we’re going to come away with some swell from here.” If it doesn’t arrive, Matson will shoulder most of the blame. During the making of Storm Surfers 3D, the team’s latest documentary, a day lost to a misjudged weather reading can suck as much as NZ $60,000 from the film’s budget. At the nearby boat ramp, 21 crew members are already assembled and preparing the truckloads of filming gear and surfing equipment. “This swell is part of a weather pattern that actually started to hit the coast about four days ago,” Matson says. “Snow was starting to fall on the Alps, and I broadly predicted this weather pattern about a week ago. So yeah, it’s pretty much all on me now. It’s a little nerve-racking.” 66
From left: Crew members Jason Poole and Mark Glinderman with co-director Justin McMillan
It’s 4.30am, pitch-black, freezing cold. The Storm Surfers crew is at the Murramarang Beachfront Nature Resort in South Durras, New South Wales. As Matson scans the latest swell readings on his iPhone at a table showing the evidence of breakfast, legendary big-wave surfer Ross Clarke-Jones and two-time ASP world surfing champion Tom Carroll are already arguing. At 46 and 50 respectively, these two are more scared of retirement than wiping out on a giant wave. To them, the fact they could be pinned beneath the ocean’s frantically churning surface for more than a minute and a few kilometres off the Australian coast is merely part of a normal day’s work. They carry on like an old married couple. Awaiting the Jet Skis at the boat ramp, the two are bickering over whose surfboards will fit in the car. Both divorced, the pair are as close as two friends can be. If someone ever
pitches Grumpy Old Men meets Big Wednesday to Hollywood, these friends of 25 years are perfect for the leads. “We know everyone thinks we’re mad, and we’re always giving each other grief,” says Clarke-Jones, flashing his trademark grin. “I love stirring Tom up about his driving and stuff like that. Shit, he nearly killed me with a Jet Ski in western Australia one time. But that’s just Australian mateship: nothing too serious. We’ve had serious times together, though, yelling at each other and getting physical, and that’s real, mates go through that. But I love him. “We’ve been through a lot of stuff together: competitions and competing on the [pro surfing] tour, businesses, divorces and jobs, becoming fathers. We’ve been through it all, and it’s cool to be still surfing and still like two kids together. It’s pretty funny, and I think that’s what keeps us young.” Carroll and Clarke-Jones first hung out while making the 1987 comedy surf film Mad Wax. Back then, Carroll was a poster boy of world surfing, and Clarke-Jones admits his friend did him a favour by getting him involved in the movie. Carroll retired from surfing in 1993, and family commitments kept him away from the scene for the best part of a decade. Clarke-Jones, however, never left the big-wave world and was a pioneer during the tow-in revolution of the late 1990s, when surfers began using Jet Skis to tow one another out to big waves. Storm Surfers was Clarke-Jones’s chance to repay the favour and reunite with his best friend. In 2005, director Justin McMillan and writer Chris Nelius made The Sixth Element, a documentary about ClarkeJones. A year later, the trio worked with Carroll to make the big-wave film Red Bull Tai Fu. With the introduction of Matson, and his well-honed swellprediction skills, Storm Surfers was born: actively chasing giant, unsurfed swells around the globe, rather than waiting and hoping for them to arrive. In 2008 Storm Surfers: Dangerous Banks debuted on the Discovery Channel. It was followed by Storm Surfers: New Zealand in 2010. Storm Surfers 3D will arrive in cinemas this year, and ClarkeJones is planning for more and more. “What makes me want to do this at my age? What age? I still feel like I’m a grommet. I still get off on it,” he says. “The adventure side of stuff, I love it. The waves don’t scare me. What scares me is not being able to do it anymore. I actually get off on it. It’s such an exciting,
Billabong big-wave award winner Maya Gabeira adjusts her fins (above) as Kanan Clarke-Jones contemplates what lies ahead
Above: Local surfers Paul Morgan and Brett Burcher get ready to join the big-wave session Below: Gabeira is the center of attention at 6am
Below: The crew setting up shots at the off-shore reef break in New South Wales, Australia
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complete feeling after riding one. I like things that excite me, and big waves certainly do that. It doesn’t scare me – I love it. I don’t mind being underwater for a while. I’m confident staying underwater for quite some time, and after 25 years at it, it’s sort of become a second home for me down there.”
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at the boat ramp,
everything’s been loaded onboard, including two $188,000 3D cameras, and the crew sets off for their destination – a reef break that springs from nowhere a couple of kilometres off shore whose exact location is a tightly guarded secret. It’s renowned for producing “bombs”, giant waves that literally explode from the inside out on impact. “It sounds like a jet, a 747 when a big wave crashes,” says Clarke-Jones, on deck and excited. “I’ve never stood behind a jet, but you know that sound when you’re close to an airport? You just get spat out. All the air shuts down and you just get thrown out. And waves that big, when you’re inside, it’s like a big mirror. The whole wave just lights up and there are reflections everywhere.” After a tension-filled build-up, the excitement turns to disappointment when, at first sight of the break, the biggest waves are topping out at around 3m. The sound of the ocean is deafening, but the crew is silent. Massive amounts of water are peeling over in sizeable waves, but they’re not big enough for Carroll, Clarke-Jones, and female bigwave surfer Maya Gabeira, who flew in from Los Angeles for a shot at the swell. Clarke-Jones is at a loss. He knows the swell is hitting much, much bigger down the coast, but he can’t just up and leave. This isn’t a solo operation. “I can’t stand knowing there are bigger waves elsewhere, and I’m stuck out elsewhere,” he says, almost angry at the ocean. “I want to surf big waves, and I know they are close by, but I can’t do anything about it. It’s frustrating as hell, to tell you the truth. It feels like you’re a prisoner. This is the type of thing I live for, and it’s agitating. But you can’t just think about yourself in these situations. You’ve got 20-odd crew, and you all suffer through these things. It’s hard.” Clarke-Jones’s 14-year-old son, Kanan, on the other hand, is relieved. He gets to make his Storm Surfers debut in “safe” conditions, though Dad has done his best to make Kanan scared regardless. Cameramen and producers frantically
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Safety first: Former world surfing champion Tom Carroll’s prototype flotation device didn’t work well after inflating too quickly. He christened it the Pamela Anderson The reef in New South Wales can throw up walls of water up to seven metres and more. Locals make the most of the free ride out to the reef break
race to and from the danger zone, trying to make the most of it. “Ultimately, we’d love to be seeing the boys riding 7m bombs every day, but at the end of the day, the story and characters are key,” says co-director McMillan. “In Deadliest Catch, they don’t always pull up a full pot. In fact, more often than not they don’t. But that’s what’s interesting – it makes them human. The jury is still out on whether Tom and Ross are human, but nonetheless, it certainly adds colour to the story.” After inspecting the break for himself by Jet Ski, a soaked, cold, dejected Carroll returns to the boat. An uncomfortable Clarke-Jones quips he’s lucky to be on
Why Waves Get Big In simple terms, big waves come courtesy of high winds. Storm patterns create friction between the wind and the water. “The biggest surfable waves in the world occur most frequently at west-facing coastlines,” says Storm Surfers meteorologist Ben Matson. “This is because weather systems in the world’s biggest ocean basins—the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic— generally travel from west to east, setting up broad areas of swell-generating winds, known as ‘fetches.’ ” Reefs and sand play a significant part in creating the biggest waves, with shallow water forcing a wave to crest, which in turn creates a trough by sucking up the water below it. But the three most significant factors in monster waves reaching the ideal locations are:
wind speed, the amount of time in which the wind travels across the ocean, and the distance traveled by the wind. “A significant percentage of extra-large swell events are unsurfable,” says Matson, “because they are often accompanied by strong onshore winds, which creates choppy surface conditions. “Big-wave surfers need to be very patient when waiting for the ideal conditions to develop at their favorite breaks. It’s common to wait months, and sometimes even years, before the perfect combination of swell, wind, tide, and weather all coincide at the same time.” It’s when the long-traveled waves finally reach the shore or reef that they begin to slow down and scale in height, making them surfable—if you’re game.
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Tom Carroll charges a big one and seems pretty satisfied (and inflated) about how it all went down Below: Kanan Clarke-Jones shows fine form as he catches his first big wave
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World’s DEADLIEST BREAKS WAIMEA, HAWAII The godfather of all big-wave breaks only appears once every few years. But when it does, it produces waves of up to 18m, and only 90m from the shore. If the waves start reaching 8m, Waimea hosts a pro surfing contest. MAVERICKS, CALIFORNIA The West Coast’s most renowned break, noted as much for its size (between seven and 15 metres) and power as the monster boulders and even bigger great white sharks that lurk beneath the surface – all elements equally deadly.
There are few things that get a 3D water cameraman as excited as capturing an epic wipeout. Congratulations, Dean Cropp!
TEAHUP’OO, TAHITI With three-metre sets the norm, it might not seem as intimidating as other big breaks, but what it lacks in height it makes up in brute power and force. It breaks 1km out to sea and just 1m above a razor-sharp reef. BANZAI PIPELINE, HAWAII The heaviest and deadliest of all, claiming more lives than every other surf break in the world combined. About 25 surfers have died here, including five in the past seven years alone. Waves hit more than 7m when it gets big. DUNGEONS, CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA The 8m monsters here are accessible only by boat. Surfers crushed by the freezing righthander can be kept underwater for more than a minute – in sharkinfested waters. Home of the Red Bull Big Wave event since 2000.
a Jet Ski at all after almost killing the both of them the week before in western Australia. The near-fatal error came at Cow Bombie, one of the most notorious big-wave breaks in Australia. In giant swell and howling winds, Carroll towed his best friend into a monster wave, which then exploded, sucking Carroll and his Jet Ski back into the wave. Both men and machine were sent toppling over the 5m falls, the Jet Ski almost crushing them. The crew feared the worst. The situation looked dire as the two men went under. Carroll’s still hearing about it. “Ross has rubbed the salt in, but I’m used to that,” Carroll says with a chuckle. “I think his first words afterwards were, ‘What the hell are you doing? What did you do!’ It could have been so horrible, and it sort of woke me up. It was written on my school reports: ‘Carroll daydreams in class,’ it would say. And that’s what I’ve been like, all my life.” “No, you’re a tripper. You trip out,” interjects Clarke-Jones. “I get a bit frustrated with him driving the Jet Ski. He nearly killed me. Seriously, he could have killed me. That thing was aimed for my head, but he did well to hang on to it. Most people would have jumped off the ski, but as a friend, he actually stayed on it and tried to steer it away from me. “But I happened to turn around straight back under him, the poor guy. And I’ve kicked him while he’s down and ribbed him a bit, and I won’t let him live that one down, but I love the bloke. “It’s a mistake you make early on in the piece, and he’s never done that. In his defence, you have so much going on when you’re on the ski – the air switch, trying to clean the camera lens, the helmet on with people trying to speak to you, and you’re trying to commentate. It’s a lot for anybody to deal with, let alone Tom.” Clarke-Jones is smiling at his best friend, who smiles back. Clarke-Jones, Carroll and crew all know that death-defying footage is what sells, which is why they’re including it in the film. “Really, like racing cars, getting hurt and wiping out is what people want to see,” says Clarke-Jones. “As a driver or a surfer, you don’t want to wipe out, but you can appreciate that’s what people want to see. It makes good viewing. So a 3D wipeout is going to look really good.” And with that, the large grin appears once again on Clarke-Jones’s face, and soon turns into laughter. Catch a big-wave preview: www.stormsurfers.au www.redbull.com/stormsurfers
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7 The launch site of Red Bull Stratos from above
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Roswell Rattlesnakes and ski resorts, gun-slingers and aliens, white dunes, and a river named Felix: we went out to take a look at the possible landing sites for Red Bull Stratos Words: Werner Jessner
This is Red Bull Stratos Photography: Predrag Vuckovic/Red Bull Stratos
Red Bull Stratos is a mission to the edge of space, in which Felix Baumgartner will ascend to 36.6km in a helium balloon and come down to Earth in free fall, collecting useful scientific data, and setting four world records:
In FEBRUARY we interviewed Felix Baumgartner (1.1) and Joe Kittinger (1.2).
in MARCH we took a look at
Baumgartner’s capsule (2.1), his cockpit (2.2), and the cameras on board (2.3).
In APRIL we looked at how the helium
balloon carrying the capsule and its occupant gets airborne (3.1) and how Baumgartner went about getting his licence for it (3.2).
In MAY we discussed Baumgartner’s spacesuit (4.1) and explored the colourful history of spacesuits (4.2).
1. Break the speed of sound unaided 2. Free fall from the highest altitude 3. Longest free-fall time 4. Highest manned balloon flight
in july we skydived with Luke Aikins (6.1), calculated if Baumgartner can go supersonic (6.2) and listened to the man himself as he tested from 22km (6.3).
The Red Bulletin is following the mission closely, each issue focusing on a specific topic. All back issues can be downloaded for the iPad.
this month we head to the quirkiest place in America, Roswell, New Mexico (7.0) the launch (and hopefully landing) area of Red Bull Stratos.
in juNE we spoke with Jonathan Clark, Medical Director of Red Bull Stratos, about the dangers to Baumgartner’s body (5.1) and took a sci-fi journey to Überworld (5.2).
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years after the alleged UFO crash landing that put the fifth largest city in New Mexico on the map, Roswell is back on the international stage thanks to Red Bull Stratos. Of course, at the moment, UFOs are still hogging the limelight. A quick count on the drive along Main Street turns up 57 extraterrestrials. Next time, there are bound to be at least another three or four. Little green men advertise everything, really everything: eating, sleeping, drinking, cars, shoes, music, plus of course the whole merchandising cavalry from T-shirts with clever slogans (“What if we don’t believe in you?”) on through to paper weights. Only the baker who’s located in a small side alley beside the museum with the rather long-winded name of “International UFO Museum and Research Center” is somewhat ambivalent. Hedging his bets, he also believes in
Baumgartner turned up for his first test jump wearing a bomber jacket, but instead of his name, it said “Alien Hunter”
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Jesus, with stickers for the resurrected and the crash-landed harmoniously side by side on the shop front. And all this because of one William ‘Mac’ Brazel who, in the summer of 1947, found some strange things on his farm 30 miles north of Roswell. He thought the origins of the debris and balloon remnants scattered about seemed suspect. However, between a telephone call to the local newspaper and the worldwide UFO fever that lasted and was cultivated for decades, lay the completely misguided communication policy of the US Air Force: the more they denied, disguised, and hid, the more interested the public became in the story. America, already a fertile breeding ground for conspiracy theorists, had found a great topic – and one that could be very nicely stoked over and over again. The International UFO Museum and Research Center on Roswell’s Main Street still oozes the unbeatable charm of the ’70s. Laminated neatly on cardboard are
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Apache Ski Resort
ROSWELL 380
Bottomless Lakes State Park
Red Bull Stratos
HAGERMAN 285
White Sands
Felix River
LINCOLN FOREST
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CARLSBAD
Roswell: a thriving city with a population of around 50,000 humans (and countless aliens)
Photography: Sven Hoffmann, ddp, Predrag Vuckovic/Red Bull Stratos. illustration: andreas posselt
White Sands National Monument: until 150 years ago this was Mescalero Apache territory
typewritten placards telling stories of what happened or perhaps didn’t. Always vague enough not to make themselves look completely ridiculous, but still putting the pieces of the puzzle together powerfully enough not to disappoint those who want to believe that aliens made it to Earth. What had Mac Brazel really found? Jon Clark, Medical Director of Red Bull Stratos, “Part of a balloon, quite similar to the one we use for our Red Bull Stratos.” And the alleged aliens? Clark laughs, “Instrument-equipped dummies, like those used by the automobile industry for crash tests. In the 1940s such dummies were new, so how could the rural folk of New Mexico of all people have had any idea what they were?” Roswell thrives on the UFO hubbub: the city has found its USP, it lives well from it, it grows and you would be as hard
Roswell and its surroundings: a lot to discover
pushed to find a local who doesn’t believe in the existence of aliens as you would be to find an agnostic in the Vatican. What would Roswell be, what would New Mexico be, without aliens? Truth is, it’d probably still be a pretty exciting place. We take Highway 380 towards the east. Not even an hour from the Roswell city centre is the Bottomless Lakes State Park. The sun beats down mercilessly, signs warn visitors to bring enough drinking water. The sparse vegetation that grows here is tough, grey, and leathery. These plants have adapted to survive here with little moisture, just as all the specialists here have evolved for these unique conditions: at the Bottomless Lakes, the most northerly stretch of the Chihuahuan Desert meets the prairie and this yields gypsum deposits. Water dissolves the gypsum and leaves so-called sinkholes, craters in the earth that fill with water. These are the Bottomless Lakes. The turquoise colour of the water gave cowboys the idea that they were unfathomable (actually they are a maximum of 27m deep). Over two square kilometres one can find both fresh and saltwater, flowing and 75
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Where the Wild West meets ET: booze, poker, and a pink phone to, um, call home. Meet fellow Aliens at the annual UFO festival (“A great place to crash”)
first established with the wonderful name of Felix. Why the change? In honour of James John Hagerman who had built the railway line from Roswell to today’s Carlsbad, New Mexico (Carlsbad was called Eddy back then: seems they like giving towns first names in New Mexico). Railway lines like these changed the lives of people dramatically. Earlier, cattle herds were driven by cowboys on weeklong marches from south to north and then back again. Now an entire profession has become obsolete. The railway drove the wild right out of the Wild West. Many classic Wild West stories have been played out in this region. What Roswell is to aliens, Lincoln is to the young outlaw, gun-slinging, cattle-rustling Billy the Kid (famous on the screen, in comics
You would be as hard pressed to find a local who doesn’t believe in the existence of aliens as you would be to find an agnostic in the Vatican
Photography: CHRISTIAN PONDELLA/Red Bull Stratos, Werner Jessner, PREDRAG VUCKOVIC/Red Bull Stratos (3)
stagnant. Living in this water are fish and frogs that are found nowhere else. And watch out for the rattlesnakes on land. Behind every bend one expects to encounter the trailer of Michael Madsen, aka Budd from Quentin Tarantino’s masterpiece Kill Bill 2, with Bill’s exquisite 1969 De Tomaso Mangusta parked out front. But in real life it’s just a retired couple from the north with their gigantic brand-new RV. Linda and AJ are vacationing here. They do every year. It’s because of the area’s good dry air: Linda has problems with her bronchitis, her reticent husband suffers from arthritis (says Linda). We turn down a side road and cruise along at 80kph through a landscape picture-perfect enough for a Calexico album cover. A bridge, a sign: Felix River. If Felix Baumgartner is carried to the south by the wind in his capsule he could actually land at the river that carries his name. The closest town was renamed Hagerman in 1905, which is kind of a shame really because back in 1894 it was
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Felix River Bridge: a good spot to land. When the city of Hagerman just down the road was founded, it was called Felix. How fitting is that?
and TV) who was eventually shot by his ex-buddy and sheriff Pat Garrett. Lincoln’s celebrated villain was immortalised in Sam Peckinpah’s movie of 1973 (mostly because of Bob Dylan’s ingenious soundtrack), and is now a fixture in the canon of ultimate Westerns. Here, in the area around Lincoln, William H Bonney, apparently the real name of Billy the Kid, lived, shot, killed, loved, hid, and was captured. The border between the US and Mexico has always attracted dubious characters – people who have switched allegiances, or disappeared. The border serves as a cutoff line between two worlds, between two lives: the cattle rustlers from the prairie who hid here; Black Jack Pershing leading an expedition of men into Mexico to rout Pancho Villa; a poor smuggler, the unrequited love for a Mexican señorita; the Pueblos, the Mescaleros, the Apache, the Zuni. Those travelling through can recognise Indian territory first and
foremost by the casinos on the roadside which sprang up and brought a lucrative income for the Native American tribes since the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988. And there is normally a liquor store nearby. It’s a picturesque but somewhat sad part of the country. Should the wind blow Baumgartner a quick hour’s drive a little further north, he might think he’s landed back home in Austria. The Ski Apache Resort in Mescalero is a fully fledged ski region even by Central European standards: nine lifts, more black runs than blue, the Sierra Blanca Peak at an elevation of 3,650m, and an annual average snowfall of around 4.5m. On the horizon you can see the bone-dry Chihuahuan Desert. It’s almost impossible to get more diversity over such a small area. If New Mexico was an apartment, it would be located in the city centre of Tokyo and fitted out with Swedish furniture. Should the southeasterly be a touch weaker, Baumgartner might again land in white powder but this time in gypsum sand. At 700 square kilometres, White Sands is the largest gypsum desert in the world, spectacular not only for its giant white dunes, but also because of the plants and animals that manage to survive in these conditions. However, Baumgartner would be well advised to be careful in choosing his landing spot. Part of White Sands is a drone and rocket test site for the US Army. Here, on July 16, 1945, the first nuclear bomb of the Manhattan Project was detonated. And 30 years ago the Space Shuttle Columbia landed here because of bad weather at the original landing site, Edwards Air Force Base in California. In fact, it is somewhat improbable that Felix Baumgartner will be blown
THE International UFO Museum and Research Center on Roswell’s Main Street still oozes the unbeatable charm of the ’70s 77
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The Roswell airport doubles as an aviation parking lot, at times hosting more than 300 planes
Drop zone competition
Where exactly will Felix Baumgartner land when he jumps from the edge of space? It’s your guess. Go to www.redbullstratos.com and take part in the Drop Zone competition. This is how it works: decide your position based on wind speed, wind direction, temperature and hints from Red Bull Stratos experts. Pin your position and share it with friends (Drop Zone works with full Google Maps functionality). Verify your identity via Facebook or Twitter. The fan whose pin is closest to Felix’s actual landing position (longitude/latitude) wins a prize money can’t buy: a souvenir from the mission. Details at www.redbullstratos.com
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this far to the west. But what if he were to descend exactly to the place of his departure? The airport in Roswell, the location that will serve as the launching pad for Red Bull Stratos, is the former Walker Air Force Base, which the military handed to the city on June 30, 1967. The Roswell airport and the Walker Air Force Base have a chequered history. During World War II pilots were trained here. The two bombers that dropped the nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were stationed here. When the military left, they took everything with them. What remained were the runways: more than 2,000 hectares inside the fenced terrain alone. How do you manage such an expanse of tarmac with air connections? In 1991, the clever people of Roswell turned it into a parking area for aircraft. In the spring of 2012, 200 planes stood in Roswell. At the time the US economy hit rock bottom the number was 350, says Jennifer Brady, “and we had more space available if we’d needed it”. She has worked at the Roswell Airport since 1983 and today the petite lady is the airport manager. In fact, a few of the aircraft have been here since 1991. The fees they have run up must be stratospheric by now. The billing system works like in a parking lot. “We charge by the day and in three different tariffs depending on the size of the plane,” explains Brady. The business is seasonal. In spring, when vacation season starts, many planes leave, only to return again in the autumn. Brady and her team are a flexible bunch, relatively undaunted and open
www.redbullstratos.com
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Next month: The big one If everything goes according to plan, we’ll have Baumgartner himself talking about his jump from the stratosphere.
Photography: mauritius
When the military left, they took everything with them. What remained were the runways
to special requests. But she was surprised when Joe Kittinger, the record-holder for a parachute jump and one of Baumgartner’s closest advisors, and some of the Red Bull Stratos crew walked into her office on the first floor of the main building three years ago. But because the airport is a part of the municipal authorities their request was met with open arms: “Yes, Roswell had no problem serving as host for Red Bull Stratos.” An agreement was made for the area out at the back of the airfield grounds where two empty hangars stand: perfect for Red Bull Stratos, and far enough away from the parked aircraft, the normal air traffic and the UFO freaks who all have just one destination in mind: Hangar 84 where the alleged aliens were examined after their crash landing in 1947. If all goes according to plan, Roswell will get a second attraction this summer alongside the UFOs. “We have plenty of room for a Red Bull Stratos monument at the airport,” says Brady. And Baumgartner, the man with a feeling for the locals, turned up for his first test jump wearing a bomber jacket – but instead of his name, it said “Alien Hunter”. Roswell loved him for that.
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Contents 82 TRAVEL The best of London’s Notting Hill Carnival 84 GET THE GEAR What you need to build a skate park in your living room 86 TRAINING Tips from freerunner Ryan Doyle 88 BAND WATCH Dunedin punk trio Die! Die! Die! 90 NIGHTLIFE Everything you need to get you through the night 94 WORLD IN ACTION 96 SAVE THE DATE 97 KAINRATH
PHOTOGRAPHY: RUTGER PAUW/RED BULL CONTENT POOL
98 MIND’S EYE
Balancing act: Red Bull Art of Motion winner Ryan Doyle explains the mixture of activities that keep him fit on page 86
more body & mind
Party in west London: for two days Notting Hill Carnival transforms the neighbourhood
get into the groove
Street to the beat
Notting Hill Carnival Europe’s most colourful street carnival is also its biggest, with 1.5 million people getting embroiled in London’s late-August street parades and sound systems. Its figurehead Norman Jay tells The Red Bulletin how best to prepare for the madness
The bass booms from all sides, the smell of barbecues hangs in the air and festivalgoers throng happily along the narrow streets. It’s wild, with dancers in sumptuous costumes, steel bands on colourfully decorated trucks and mobile sound towers cranked up to out-thud each 82
other. On the last weekend in August, Notting Hill’s Caribbean community transforms this nowadays super-chic enclave of northwest London into Europe’s largest street party and the second largest carnival in the world. Originally a small protest by residents
Norman Jay is a Carnival veteran
against racist attacks on immigrants, the Carnival developed through the ’60s into a celebratory cultural happening – each immigrant
community finding a voice. It started off with around 1,000 visitors; now 1.5 million arrive from the world over, creating an experience that can overwhelm the uninitiated. So who better to ask for guidance than Notting Hill native Norman Jay, owner of the biggest and best sound system at the Carnival? For 32 years his Good Times rig has been living up to its name, pumping out its master’s unique mix of funk, jazz, disco, hip-hop and house. Notting Hill Carnival August 26-27 2012 London, England www.notting-hill.org/Carnival.html
Words: florian obkircher. Photography: getty images (3), shutterstock (1), Alexis Maryon (1), Dan Wilton/Red Bull UK (1), corbis (2), Rex Features (1)
this month’s travel tips
Have no fear!
MARVEL The parade existed long before there were sound systems and millions of tourists flooding the area. Rival Mas Bands parade through the streets of the area on both Carnival days, honouring Trinidadian tradition. They’re led by flashily, scantily dressed dancing girls, and surrounded by decorated trucks, groups of drummers or sound systems blasting out soca and calypso music. The best Mas Band is crowned on the Monday afternoon on Westbourne Grove.
The four golden carnival rules from DJ legend Norman Jay Each year thousands of revellers jostle to get close to this Notting Hill-born DJ and his Good Times sound system. “It’s magical to play records outside, it’s the way nature intended,” says the Carnival veteran. Here he gives his four tips for this enormous party.
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Don’t be late! In the past you could wander from one sound system to the next and take in three or four, but the huge crowds make that unlikely now. Find a stage you like and stay there, or you’ll get lost in the throng. My tip is to come early: between midday and 1pm latest. It’s still easy to move around and check out a number of sound systems.
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Know your transport Getting to Carnival is tricky: the nearest Tube stations are either closed during Carnival or are exit only to ease crowd congestion. So check the public transport situation beforehand. Our sound system is at the north end and is best reached from Kensal Green Overground, then by foot to the entry point at the intersection of Harrow Road and Ladbroke Grove.
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Brodinski (left) rocked the 2011 Red Bull Music Academy Party
A Carnival of the senses It’s not just the booming music that comes with a Caribbean twist on the streets of Notting Hill FOOD You’ve got to eat Caribbean food at Carnival. And it’s everywhere. From classics like jerk chicken (marinated chicken grilled over a wood fire) to curried goat, patties to fried plantain – hot specialities served at hundreds of stands throughout the weekend and traditionally washed down with a can of Jamaica’s own Red Stripe or Red Bull and rum. 1 Jay Dee’s Only opened last year, this is already the inside tip for Caribbean food in the area. And the jerk chicken is spicier and better here than elsewhere.
Sunday isn’t Monday Carnival is held over two days: Sunday’s for kids, Monday’s for grown-ups, so if you want to party with your family, come early Sunday to avoid the crush. It’s still just as loud and some of the pent-up anticipation is released with musical energy on day one. Monday is more traditional at the Good Times sound system, with more soul, funk and reggae.
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5 Gaz’s Rockin’ Blues The craziest stage at the Carnival. Every year, legendary DJ Gaz Mayall suggests a dress code and brings his audience alive with ska, calypso, blues records and live bands. 6 Channel One A must for dub and reggae fans. This legendary sound system has been working its way around Europe since the ’80s. Head over to Tavistock Road and check out its relaxed atmosphere. 7 Red Bull Music Academy Party The new kid on the Carnival block with resident sound system Major Lazer featuring Diplo. Last year, Toots And The Maytals banished the rain with ska. This year’s star guest is strictly electronic – but his identity will remain a secret till the party on Monday. Register for the guest list from August 16 at: www.redbull.co.uk/carnival
2 The Grain Shop Anyone who feels sorry for the chickens on the barbecue grate isn’t going to have an easy time at Notting Hill Carnival. But veggies can head for The Grain Shop. Even if this takeaway deli looks closed during Carnival weekend, it isn’t.
9 Harrow Road
4 ad y Ro Barlb
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DANCING The heavy bass boom of Carnival sound systems can be heard from miles away: metres-high speaker towers see to that. Carnival has its roots in reggae and calypso music, but it has opened up to other styles in recent years. The 40 sound systems play hip-hop, house, ska and soul.
9 D eviation Carnival Session (Monday) Benji B is a discoverer, enthusiast and also one of London’s best DJs. He’ll be performing with fellow musicians including Toddla T, Zinc and Oneman at Paradise, with DJ sets combining house, hip-hop and disco.
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3 Roti Stop The roti is Trinidad’s answer to the burrito: chicken or lamb with vegetables and curry wrapped in flat bread. And no one has served it better at Notting Hill Carnival for 23 years than Bernard ‘The Roti King’ Jackson, so keep a look out for his stand.
8 West Carnival Party (Sunday) As long as the weather holds, The Garden is the perfect place for the after-party: 500 Carnival-goers dance inside and out to the house sounds of Bushwacka!, Clive Henry and Co.
rove ke G bro Lad
Norman Jay at the decks
4 Good Times Norman Jay and his brother Joey break down any style barriers and rock the biggest party at Carnival from the top of a red double-decker bus.
e Grov roke Ladb
Don’t be afraid Over the years Carnival has received a bad press in certain media. But don’t believe the scare stories, they are out of touch with the 2012 reality. As someone who’s been closely involved for more than 30 years, I can tell you that anyone who is into dance music will enjoy Carnival. There’s a warm-hearted atmosphere and it’s free entry. Carnival is now a long way from being just a Caribbean festival. It is a reflection of the multicultural London I love so much. www.normanjay.com
CARRY ON PARTYING The Carnival officially stops at 7pm. But that doesn’t mean that the party mood evaporates. You’ve got two options: either latch onto a group of locals and carry on the party in their house – Gaz’s sound system is a good place to make contacts – or move on to the local clubs where things carry on till the early hours.
ve urne Gro Westbo
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Skate by the grate Skateboard pro Philipp Schuster has made his own private skate park in a Salzburg house due for demolition
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Before‌ the villa is demolished in late August, Schuster, 27, and a few buddies built quarters, wall rides and banks in the house over three days.
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GET THE GEAR ESSENTIAL PRO KIT
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After‌ five days, the concrete was semi-hardened, the rooms were decorated and Philipp could pull some light moves straight from the fireplace.
Checklist and building instructions
Check out his skills at: www.philippschuster.com
WORDS: ULRICH CORAZZA. PHOTOGRAPHY: PHILIPP FORSTNER (2), ERWIN POLANC
Tools Screwdriver, wood screws, bolt cutters, jigsaw, cement mixer machine, shovel, wheelbarrow, pool trowel, face mask and gloves. 1. Plywood In order to give shape to the obstacles, the 3-4cm-thick plywood boards are cut to size. 2. Building lathes The supporting crossbars for the plywood are then screwed into the hearth, floor and wall. 3. Filler Building waste and coarse gravel are perfect as filler. Finer gravel is used for the top layer. 4. Reinforcing grid On top of the gravel one of the following is laid: reinforcing steel mesh (stable), zinc-coated flooring grids (easy to
bend and install) or chicken wire (cheap). They’re attached to the boards with U-hooks or bound with wire. 5. Coping The top level of an obstacle is usually made out of different materials to the rest. (Stone slabs, metal piping or harder cement. In this case there was already a brick ledge on the fireplace.) The copings are rounded off with the flex (stuck together) and set with clear varnish spray or epoxy resin. 6. Concrete For a smooth surface, mix Portland cement, sand and gravel in 3:5:8 proportion with water.
The mixture must not be too watery. The steeper you build, the drier the material should be. 7. Pool trowel Excess cement is removed with board offcuts (a concrete layer at least 10cm thick), then a right-angled metal trowel is used to level uneven areas. After that, use a soft round trowel to make the surface completely smooth. Ideally the cement should be allowed to harden over four weeks. 8. Board Blind 8.25 To skate in narrow corners I use a Blind Board 8.25 with soft Fury Evo 2 axles and 52mm wheels.
For the finishing touches, use a Kraft Tool metal trowel
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Ryan Doyle ripping up the favelas of Rio de Janeiro
Training with the pros
Running free
RYAN DOYLE The 27-year-old freerunner and parkour practitioner from Liverpool is a two-time Red Bull Art of Motion winner and hones his martial artsinfluenced style with a lot of gym and street work
The streets are the undisputed home of parkour and freerunning (a more expressive form of parkour), but training variety is key. “How you do parkour training depends on what’s available to you,” says Doyle. “It’s great to have access to a gymnastic centre as it has crash mats and foam pits, which help to heighten your aerial awareness. But using a sprung floor makes you Ryan Doyle soft, your muscles tune to that environment and you get a shock when you’re back on concrete. So you need plenty of time out on the street too. You need to adapt to landings on concrete over a long period of time, or big impacts will lead to injuries. I’ve seen people drop off the scene completely because they went too big, too fast.” Doyle never goes it alone, taking training inspiration and motivation from his fellow freerunners. “One of the most important aspects of parkour for me is training with other people,” he says. “Someone will do something I didn’t think of and that opens up new possibilities. There’s no right or wrong in parkour, just moves that you adapt to your own style, so training together is a constant inspiration. When I won at Red Bull Art of Motion in Brazil last year, one of the moves I did was called a Swivel Palm – a 10-year-old American kid came up with that originally.” 86
Variety is key A diverse combination of teaching and learning means Doyle’s always active Monday 8am: Breakfast of granola cereal and an apple. “I’ve been on a diet since I was 16. I eat five small lowcarb meals a day. Favourites include fish and vegetables, and stir fries.” 9-10am: Gym work. “I visit a weights gym most mornings with friends.” Seven-minute session of core training on abdominals and back 15 minutes on the treadmill 10 handstand push-ups 30-minute stretch 7.30-8.30pm: Teach a tricking class (a flatland version of parkour) Midnight: “I can’t get to sleep unless I’ve done 10 pull-ups on the bar I have in my room – it’s a habit.” Tuesday 9-10am: Weights gym 12-2pm: Gymnastics gym. Floor work, conditioning and stretching for strength and flexibility. Includes the horse stance, an unsupported squat position held for up to five minutes to strengthen the knees against heavy impacts. 4-6pm: Meet friends in Liverpool for street freerunning session Midnight: 10 pull-ups. Wednesday 11am-1pm: Street session of parkour/freerunning with friends 6-7.30pm Teach beginners parkour class at the local gym 7.30-9.30pm: Gymnastics gym.
Open session involving a lot of tumbling work on the floor, and tricks practised from a height into the foam pit. “We’re always trying out crazy new things.” 11pm: 10 pull-ups Thursday 9-10am: Weights gym 6-7.30pm: Teaching parkour beginners class at the local gym 7.30-9pm: Teaching advanced parkour class at the local gym 11pm: 10 pull-ups FRIDAY 11am-1pm: Gymnastics gym 2-4pm: Snowboarding lesson. “I’m learning on an indoor slope in Liverpool. I can already carve about. I’m really enjoying it.” 7.30-9pm: Teach advanced parkour class at the local gym 9.30pm: “On a Friday me and my brother have a treat of fish and chips or Chinese food for dinner.” SATURDAY 10-11am: Weights gym Midday-5pm: Rehearsing and shooting stunt scenes for upcoming film Shinobi Code. “It’s martial arts parkour training, taking parkour moves and turning them into action, into attack movements. It’s real Jackie Chan stuff, which is great as he’s my all-time martial arts hero.” Midnight: 10 pull-ups Sunday “I always take a day off. Getting rest is important, but I still do my pull-ups before going to bed.” www.redbull.com
words: ruth morgan. photography: Sebastian Marko/Red Bull Content Pool, rutger pauw/Red Bull Content Pool
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acts to watch in 2012 #8
Die!Die!Die! (from left): Andrew Wilson, Michael Prain and Michael Logie
Back from the brink
Die!Die!Die!’s new album, Harmony, is out now
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“This has been the longest, biggest shit fight ever to get this album out” begins the post on Die!Die!Die!’s Facebook page announcing the release of the band’s new album, Harmony. The news prompted messages from fans in Manchester, New York, Sydney and Ohakune begging the band to tour the album in their town. “I’ve needed new Die!Die!Die! for so long,” gushed one. None of those online fans asked about the shit fight. Andrew Wilson, the band’s lead singer and guitarist, gives a barebones account of what happened. “Well, we got off Flying Nun Records, we set up our own record
label and we changed bass players,” he explains, between bites of an enchilada at an Auckland café. For Wilson’s band to leave Flying Nun Records, a legendary indie label, so quickly after signing with them in 2010, suggests a classic case of ‘creative differences’. “We like to operate a certain way, and we decided we could do it ourselves,” he says, diplomatically. (Translation: his lawyer warned him not to say anything that might get him in trouble.) “Let’s just say that instead of complaining about someone else not doing stuff, we put ourselves in the driving seat of our own destiny. That sounds
OK, Mikey, eh?” says Wilson, smiling across the table at his band mate and best friend, Michael Prain. Wilson can laugh about it now, but the split from Flying Nun left him depressed and disillusioned. “I didn’t want to do music any more. You work so hard as a band, and it’s a lot of work for not much gain. I was like, ‘Screw it. Who cares anymore?’ I was out of music for nine months. We banged our heads against the wall repeatedly trying to make things work, and it felt like the best thing to do was just stop.” Prain, who has drummed behind Wilson in bands since the
Words: Robert Tighe
Die!Die!Die! For a band that called it quits last year the three-piece punk combo are very much alive and kicking
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photography: Kristian Frires
“I’m not putting any expectations on this record. I’m going to let it do what it does” two were in high school together, confirms how close Die!Die!Die! came to being killed off. “It was definitely a case of, ‘Where do we go next?’” says Prain, “but after a while, we realised it was pretty simple. We really enjoy what we do and we make music because we love it.” Manu Taylor, a close friend of Wilson and Prain, and station manager at Auckland’s student radio station 95 bFM, convinced them to give it another go after listening to the Harmony master tapes. “Manu told us we had to release the record and we listened to him,” says Wilson. “We were so sick of getting kicked, and all it took was one person to give us that vote of confidence. We were like that bad dad at a party who just can’t wait for someone to hand him the acoustic guitar: we were straight back into it.” The band’s Facebook page has a video clip of their comeback gig at Bodega in Wellington in March featuring a blistering version of the title track from the new album. “We’re not as intense as we used to be,” says Wilson. “It used to be pretty hairy. My front teeth are chipped from people hitting me with the microphone stand, but we don’t get that confrontational response anymore, we don’t have that angsty, beat-Andrew-up vibe in the crowd. “We were loud and rowdy and obnoxious when we were younger, but everybody loves the cool, obnoxious 21-year-old punk. If you’re still moaning when you’re 28, you’re just a dick.” Both Wilson and Prain worked day jobs while they were on an extended hiatus from the band, and it was a refreshing change from their previous existence, which saw them gig their way around the world on what seemed like a never-ending tour. “We never wanted to do the day-job
thing,” says Wilson, “but as soon as that financial pressure got taken off, the pressure of trying to survive off the band, I think our music got better.” Harmony was recorded in a studio in France last year and mastered in a shed in Tasmania by Australian producer Chris Townend, who had previously worked with Portishead, D12, and Violent Femmes. “Chris said he would work on it for next to no money, and we needed someone who could do it for next to no money,” says Wilson. “He’s a bit of a sound Nazi, but it worked out great. He was more about tones than songs. He’d say things like, ‘That sounds wimpy.’” Wimpy isn’t a word that comes to mind listening to Harmony: it’s loud and lairy, melodic and menacing in equal measure. “I don’t think it’s that different to our other albums,” says Wilson. “I guess it’s a lot more grown up and a lot more worldly, but [making it] seems like so long ago, a very different time in my life. We finished recording the album in July last year. It was a very frustrating time, and there have been a lot of changes since we recorded it.” One significant change saw the band’s long-time bass guitarist Lachlan Anderson replaced by Michael Logie. Anderson moved home to Australia last year, Wilson and Prain have known Logie for years. A former member of the Mint Chicks, Logie Logie is the fourth bass player in Die!Die!Die! since the band was formed in 2003. “Listen, I know bands that have gone through 12 drummers before their first album,” says Wilson. “Lachie was in the band for five years, but people’s priorities change. It’s different for me and Mikey. We grew up together and we’ve been best friends for so long. There probably is that tolerance there.” And, it might be argued, the two old friends have a more vested interest in making music together having done it for so long. “Exactly. We started really young and I feel like we’ve still got stuff to do. I’m not putting any expectations on this record. I’m just going to let it do what it does. The fact it has seen the light of day is amazing.”
Working in harmony: The band now have their own record label and their latest album is “more grown-up and worldly”
Need to know The line-up Andrew Wilson – vocals, guitar Michael Prain – drums Michael Logie – bass Discography Harmony (2012) Form (2010) Promises Promises (2008) Locust Weeks (EP, 2006) Die!Die!Die! (2005)
The story so far One of Andrew Wilson’s earliest musical memories is playing Pretty Vacant by The Sex Pistols in front of a shocked assembly at Logan Park High School in Dunedin. “The teachers and half of the kids had this stunned look on their faces, like, ‘This is awful’, and the other half were like, ‘Wow, this is cool,’” says Wilson. As two-thirds of the band Carriage H, Wilson and schoolmate Michael Prain won the 2001 Rockquest competition. Carriage H became Rawer, which in turn became Die!Die!Die! in 2003. “Within a year of forming Die!Die!Die!, we were touring overseas, which for a bunch of kids from Dunedin was just incredible,” Wilson says.
Their eponymous debut album was produced by legendary US producer Steve Albini, whose CV also includes Nirvana, The Pixies and The Breeders, mastered at Abbey Road in London and released in 2005. Bass player Henry Oliver left the band in 2006 and was replaced by Lachlan Anderson. In 2008, Die!Die!Die! released their second album, Promises Promises, which was warmly received by fans and critics. A third album, Form, was released by Flying Nun Records in 2010, but after an ill-fated working relationship, Die!Die!Die! went back to their DIY roots to release their fourth album, Harmony, on their own label, Records Etcetera.
www.facebook.com/diediedieband
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Nightlife Whatever gets you through the night
action
Diving in the dark WHAT YOU NEED: A waterproof and pressure-
resistant LED or halogen diving lamp. BEAR IN MIND: First, never dive alone! Second,
only choose a diving area you know personally. Third, don’t dive deeper than 20m. LOOK OUT FOR: A lot of marine creatures are nocturnal, so you see different fish compared with those you’d see by day. Colours appear more intense due to the artificial lamp light. WHERE YOU SHOULD DIVE: Manta Ray Night Dive, Kailua Kona, Hawaii, where the manta rays are up to 9m long. Or there's Maaya Thila in the Maldives, with its whitetip sharks, turtles, octopuses, moray eels, and cleaner shrimps.
out now
Get it together TNGHT make robots dance and talk with their futuristic hip-hop. Right now, they're on a world tour of restaurants Such are the skills of DJ/producersof-the-moment Hudson Mohawke, aka Ross Birchard from Glasgow and Montreal’s Lunice, that they count Kanye West, Diplo, Chris Brown and Azealia Banks among their fans. So when the pair joined their considerable forces for bass-heavy hip-hop project TNGHT, the results were explosive. What are the benefits of collaboration? Lunice: “It’s great to get another perspective. We rarely encountered writer’s block, as we had someone else there to keep the flow going.” Hudson Mohawke: “You can get a bit obsessive working on solo material, caught up in details, but we stopped each other doing that and stuck to simple, stripped back, club music.” And the results are pretty heavy… HM: “Allegedly our beats shattered glass at SXSW festival. They pulled down
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these big shutters after the set and the whole thing was cracked and broken.” L: “But we didn’t get to see it. We were already on our way to the next place.” You both tour the globe, have you become experts in world cuisine? L: “I love trying new food, I get really excited about it.” HM: “I always find a place where locals eat, which once led me to a whale burger in Iceland. Music’s actually just a sideline: we’re really doing a world tour of restaurants…” L: “Yeah, music’s just a hustle on the side so we can get to the meat.”
The TNGHT EP is out now on Warp Records and LuckyMe Records www.warp.net
wise words
“ Night, when words fade and things come alive ” Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, aviator-author
cocktaiL
Buddho Banana Brent Perremore, head bartender at Asoka in Cape Town and one of South Africa's top mixologists, makes one of those thirstquenching drinks that goes down far too easily. The Buddho Banana is sweet with a vodka kick, designed for lazy afternoons when moving around isn't much of an option.
CLUB
Room 26
Words: ruTh morgan. PhoTograPhy: georgia kuhn, geTTy images, room 26 (4), FoTosTudio eisenhuT & mayer
ROME
cLuB
“There are no commercial DJs here”
The sound system at Rome’s Room 26 is one of the world’s best. Hence it’s a place for the highest-grade late-night entertainment, whether from headline DJs such as Louie Vega or by punters plucked out of the crowd
ROOM 26 Piazza G.Marconi 31 00144 Rome, italy www.room26.it
iNGREDiENTS
METHOD
Half a banana, 6 strawberries, 8 mint leaves, 25ml honey, 37.5ml Absolut vodka, 100ml lychee juice, 25ml vanilla syrup, Optional garnish: half a strawberry
Mash the fruit and mint with a spoon; tip in the honey and the liquids; mix well. Pour through a fine sieve into a glass filled with ice cubes. Top with crushed ice. Garnish if you will.
You started your club in order to… Create the best acoustic space with the best sound system in the world. From outside the club looks like... A monumental modern structure made of white Carrara marble, with huge pillars. The building is protected by the Italian Arts Commission. When you enter the club... You’re in a multimedia corridor with projections of computer-generated images of you and fellow revellers. The place is full when there are... About 2,000 people inside. Your set-up looks like the film... Blade Runner by Ridley Scott. Your DJs are... The true masters of house music! There are no commercial DJs here. Things really get going to... Mary J Blige’s Ain't Nobody, as remixed by Luis Radio & Spellband. The best drink to start the night ... Is a Supreme Capiroska. It has vodka, limes from southern Italy, cane sugar and ice made of a blend of special waters from the Italian alps. An unforgettable night you had... Was when we had legendary house singer India as a guest, and she spontaneously came onto the stage. A taxi to the city centre costs... NZ $23. Interview: two of four co-founders, Alessio Fabrizi and Massimo Tucci
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Man Like Me I’ve liked the band ever since their first hit, Oh My Gosh. Even though we’ve never done anything on The Beats before that wasn’t rap, Man Like Me felt like a very good fit, because they’ve got that slightly unconventional take on grime. Now they’re doing a kind of afrobeat thing, which is absolutely amazing. I helped to produce their new album, which will be coming out this autumn on The Beats Recordings.
Take 3
“I go with my gut instinct”
elro I came across one of his videos online and I just really liked it. It went viral... it was viral! I wanted the song on my next mixtape, so we met up. His rap and wordplay are ingenious. Grime flow, conventional in one sense, but also off-the-wall bonkers. In my label’s early days, I signed artists such as Professor Green and Example, and now they’re stars. I go with my gut instinct, and my gut instinct about Elro is a very good one.
Mike Skinner As The Streets, he proved himself one of the best rappers of his generation. Now the Brit is seeking out new talent as a record label boss. He keeps things in-house for his three record picks The Streets’ first album, Original Pirate Material, came out 10 years ago. It sold a million copies and got rave reviews, and its main man, Mike Skinner, became the Charles Bukowski of 21st-century rap. His lyrics encapsulated his generation’s attitude to life with shrewd tales of night-time adventures, the hangover the next day, friendship with his mates, frustration with women. But after five albums, the 33-year-old closed down The Streets in order to concentrate on his job as a producer and to revive his old record label The Beats Recordings, which he had shut down in 2007. "I always wanted to be involved with more music than my own," he says, "now I have the time to do that." What makes an artist interesting for The Beats Recordings, then? "I've always come from an angle within rap music that is unconventional, that's what I'm after," Skinner says, and recommends three acts he has recently taken under his wing.
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The D.O.T. This is my new project with Rob Harvey from The Music. Violence in Australian nightclubs aside, we've met many times at festivals over the past 10 years. And we've always been on the same side in the fights. Working with him is absolutely magical. The album, which we’ll release soon, has quite straightforward songs. The drums are electronic, but it’s almost classic rock in places. Brace yourself.
Night snack
Barcelona:
Churros Nights in Catalonia come to a hot, sweet end so late that you could almost call churros breakfast. These traditional sticks of fried doughy pastry are prepared in street stalls and often eaten with hot chocolate
Words: Florian Obkircher, Klaus Kamolz. Text: Photography: David Levene/Guardian News & MEdia, Getty Images, fotostudio Eisenhut & Mayer
A BIT OF CHURROLOGY Churrereo, el (masculine): the chap who makes and sells churros at a churreria. Churrera, la (feminine): either a woman selling churros, or the instrument for making churros which has the traditional star-shaped cross-section. These machines range from small, hand-held pumps to electric appliances the size of fridges.
The very basics Flour, butter, eggs and sugar: that’s all you need to make Spain's favourite snack. The baked choux pastry is rolled in, or dusted with, sugar and is often dipped in thick hot chocolate before eating.
Cheap Thrills You can get a paper bag full of churros for as little as $2.30, with the hot chocolate coming in another bag at $3.80. All in all, from the calorie-counting point of view, at least, churros are almost a complete meal.
social ROUTINE Nights out in Spain often begin in an outdoor cafe, around 10-11pm, then move on to a tapeo – a wander around the tapas bars – and end at a churros stall, or churreria.
LOCAL DIFFERENCES Madrid, Spain's capital, and Barcelona, the Catalan metropolis, rarely see eye to eye on most matters, churros being one of them. In Barcelona, the considerably thinner strings of pastry are sometimes tied in a loop, while in Madrid, churros are shorter, straighter and thicker.
INCOGNITO AT THE CHURRERIA Pablo Tusset is a Spanish writer shrouded in secrecy, a 'mystery author' in the same vein as Thomas Pynchon and JD Salinger. Despite two further novels since his 2001 breakthrough book, The Best Thing That Can Happen To A Croissant, little is known about his life. Yet the pastry-centric title of his first book may provide a clue: it is rumoured he runs a Barcelona churreria.
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World in Action August 2012
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Sport 11-18.08.2012, ISLE OF WIGHT, UK
Cowes Week
Anyone of a nautical bent can take part in Cowes Week – from the most experienced pros to weekend hobbyists, making it the world’s largest sailing regatta of its kind. Cowes Week has been staged in the same place since its inception back in 1820, with the Solent, between mainland southern England and the Isle of Wight, welcoming 40 regattas, around 1,000 yachts and 8,500 participants. And for those who just want to watch, there’s a spectator boat, a high-speed inflatable or even a spin in a helicopter.
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24-26.08.2012, TRIER, GERMANY
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WRC Rally Germany Only after eight victories in a row here was Frenchman Sébastien Loeb forced into second place by his countryman Sébastien Ogier last year. He’ll be determined to retake his place on top of the Trier podium this time around in western Germany. The event is like three rallies in one, with each day held on a different surface. On day one fast straights are followed by fiendish hairpin turns through the hilly vineyards. Day two brings asphalt and concrete sections on the former US army base on the Baumholder parade ground. On the last day comes the challenge of ultra-fast racing on country roads.
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The last Grand Slam tournament of the year takes place in the grounds of Flushing Meadows. With 22,500 seats, the Arthur Ashe Stadium is the largest tennis stadium in the world and is always good for a few surprises. Last year Australian Samantha Stosur beat Serena Williams 6:2, 6:3 in the finals to secure her first singles Grand Slam title. And in 2009, New York produced the last Grand Slam tournament winner who wasn’t named Djokovic (defending), Nadal or Federer. Instead it was Argentinian Juan Martín del Potro.
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IAAF Diamond League Meeting
19.08.2012, INDIANAPOLIS, USA
Red Bull Indianapolis GP
Since 2004, the ‘Weltklasse Zürich’ in the Letzigrund Stadium has been the most star-studded one-day athletics event of the season. For the top competitors at the penultimate Diamond League Meeting of the year, an extra incentive to win on the day comes in the form of a US $40,000 prize, plus a diamond trophy, awarded to the series winner in each discipline. The Zurich headliner is Usain Bolt, officially the fastest man in the world after running the 100m in 9.58 seconds in 2009. The Jamaican world-record-holder is making his return to the Zürich track after a two-year absence.
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US Open
30.08.2012, ZÜRICH, SWITZERLAND
The Solent is set to fill with sails this month
“Unbelievably huge”: that’s how US rider Nicky Hayden described his first laps around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. With room for 300,000 spectators, it’s hardly surprising that this is the largest sports stadium in the USA. The fabled 4.2km long stretch with its legendary brick finishing line has hosted the Red Bull Indianapolis GP since 2008. Last year Australian rider Casey Stoner enjoyed his first Indiana win here before becoming world champ.
27.08-09.09.2012, NEW YORK, USA
Casey Stoner: hoping for a win in Indianapolis
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Diplo brings his big beats to South Africa 29.08-08.09.2012, VENICE, ITALY
Oppikoppi
Venice International Film Festival
The location of this festival makes it an exhilarating and testing experience for both dilettantes and old hands of the festival circuit. It’s held in the isolated, inhospitable steppe of northern South Africa, which is by day extremely hot, and by night extremely cold. Fortunately, local heroes such as Fokofpolisiekar and US guests like Eagles Of Death Metal and Diplo will be there to make sure headbangers and ravers keep warm by dancing.
At the oldest film festival in the world – established in 1932 – the film industry’s glamorous elite always encounter the haunting splendour of La Serenissima. The ‘Golden Lion’ is the focus of attention, one of the most important film prizes in the world. Last year the trophy went to Russia’s Alexander Sokurov for Faust. This time around US master director Michael Mann, head of this year’s festival jury, will crown the winning film.
09-11.08.2012, NORTHAM, SOUTH AFRICA
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27.08-03.09.2012, BLACK ROCK DESERT, USA
Burning Man
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It’s the carnival of crazies: every year some 50,000 free spirits meet up on the Nevadan salt flats and turn the site into a parallel universe with its own rules. And rule number one is: do what thou wilt. Show your art, play with your band, dress up or simply go naked. It doesn’t matter as long as you don’t harm anyone else – and you clear up your rubbish. It’s a week-long paradise for postmodern hippies which winds up every year with the traditional burning of a 12m-high wooden statue.
PHOTOGRAPHY: GETTY IMAGES (5), GOLD & GOOSE/RED BULL CONTENT POOL
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Will Usain Bolt be caught speeding in Switzerland? 6
Culture
There’s a fire festival craze ablaze in El Salvador
07-11.08.2012, OSLO, NORWAY
31.08.2012, NEJAPA, EL SALVADOR
the greenest festival in the world, and 6 It’s the recipient of numerous environmental awards: the electricity for all four stages at Øya comes from a hydroelectric dam complete with waterfall; the artists are driven from backstage area to the stages in electric cars; only locally sourced food is sold; and for the rubbish there are 14 different recycling categories. The line-up is just as awardwinning, featuring artists such as Björk, The Stone Roses, The Black Keys, Feist and Bon Iver.
Two teams of young men stand facing each other. Their faces are painted black and white, in their hands they hold blazing fireballs made of wire and material which they launch throughout the fiery competition, lighting up the night sky. What looks at first glance like a street brawl is, in fact, the most spectacular fire festival in the world. Nejapa has been staging this August spectacle since 1922 in honour of Saint Geronimo, who is said to have used fireballs to defend the town from the devil.
Øya
La Bolas de Fuego 10
Canadian singer Feist plays an eco-festival in Oslo
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MORE BODY & MIND
Save the date August 2012 AUGUST 19
He’s no dummy If you think Keith Harris and Orville the Duck represent the popular peak of ventriloquism, then you’ve never heard of Jeff Dunham. The American comedian visits New Zealand for the first time this month, with his cast of politically incorrect characters including: Walter, the archetypal grumpy old man; Bubba J, a beer-drinkin’, NASCAR-lovin’ redneck; and Achmed the Dead Terrorist, whose catchphrase is “Silence! I kill you!” Dunham is the world’s highest-earning comic according to Forbes magazine (US $22m in the year to May 2012) and his YouTube clips have been viewed half a billion times. Not bad for a 50-year-old doing jokes with a puppet on his knee. www.ticketmaster.co.nz
FROM 28 AUGUST
Slash and his new band certainly look the part AUGUST 17, 19
Guitar hero Slash returns to New Zealand with a new band and a new album. Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators may not have the same ring to it as Guns N’ Roses, but the legendary guitarist is still a musical force. His second solo album, Apocalyptic Love, got a mixed reception from the critics, but recent concert reviews suggest the 47-year-old has lost none of his unique stage presence. (At the album launch in New York, fans were treated to Guns N’ Roses classics including Night Train, Sweet Child O’ Mine and Paradise City.) There are no guarantees that NZ audiences will get the Guns N’ Roses tribute, but there’ll be plenty of rock fans out there waiting and hoping to hear those familiar riffs. www.slashonline.com
Free riders
AUGUST 22, 25, 26
Winter Worlds This month in New Zealand, some of the world’s top skiers and snowboarders take the first steps on the road to international glory. The FIS Snowboard and Freestyle Ski Halfpipe World Cups at Cardrona Alpine Resort are the first events to award qualifying points for Sochi in 2014. www.wintergamesnz.com
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AUGUST 16-19
Ice ’n’ easy For NZ mountain climbers, Sir Edmund Hillary set the bar as high as it can go, but those behind the Remarkables Ice & Mixed Festival have a more modest goal than conquering Mt Everest. “New Zealand has a proud mountaineering history, but in recent years it has faded into obscurity,” says Ben Dare, a festival organiser. “We want to get more people into the sport and build it back up to a level where local climbers are again at the forefront of international climbing.” The inaugural event in Queenstown will feature the top winter alpine climbers in the country. Less experienced climbers are also welcome. “We’ll be offering courses for people new to the game,” says Dare. “It’s a chance to have a go and learn the ropes.” www.iceandmixedfestival.co.nz
Igento most, ne quia ipictur rem reres et pratium fuga. Nequas ilibus, int evenim vel in
Mountain climbing doesn’t have to be an uphill struggle with the help of Ice & Mixed Festival
PHOTOGRAPHY: ROBERT JOHN, ICE & MIXED FESTIVAL, GETTY IMAGES
A prize pool of over $40,000 is up for grabs at The North Face Freeski Open in Queenstown, the largest event of its kind in the southern hemisphere. As an early-season event on both the AFP World Tour and the Freeride World Tour, many of best international freeskiers will make the trip to battle with local heroes. The slopestyle and halfpipe events will be at Snow Park, while the big mountain competition returns to The Remarkables. www.nzfreeskiopen.com
illustration: dietmar kainrath
K a i n r at h
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ere’s a killer fact: were my monthly internet data allowance priced the same as my first internet connection, in 1993, it would cost me $6.6 million. Every month. Granted, I have a rather large data cap. In response to a recent fall in the price of international bandwidth, my ISP decided, in a kind and competitive fashion, to up my ration to 550 gigabytes. But even a very modest monthly cap would still come in at more than most people’s houses are worth, if it were tallied at what it used to be worth: $12 a megabyte. It’s quicker, too. My first modem was theoretically capable of transferring data at a blinding 14.4 kilobits per second. My current connection is about 1000 times faster than that (running at capacity, it would cost me about $10 a second in the old money) and will hopefully be three or four thousand times faster when my new naked VDSL connection hits its potential. And what am I doing with this giant data culvert? Oh, stuff. Oddly enough, the thing that soaks up most of my time – typing witticisms into Twitter – would have been viable back in the old days. Those 140 characters don’t take up a lot of space. We had email back then too, but we used it differently. Last week, Manukau Police sent me an unsolicited press release, to which were attached 17 megabytes of high-quality photographs of drugs and guns. Had someone done that in 1993, I’d have committed a crime of my own. The big difference is video. At my first internet training session, at the University of Auckland, I freaked everyone out by loading a tiny QuickTime video on Wired magazine’s website. Now, I can stream high-def movies via my Apple TV. Remarkably, most of the research says this mutation of the computer into the TV isn’t greatly hurting TV viewing. We’re just watching more – of everything. Indeed, some of us – that’s you, fiddling with your smartphone or laptop while you watch TV – are adding to overall media
Mind’s Eye
Media will eat itself Russell Brown wonders where our desire for more and more media is going to end consumption numbers by “media multitasking”. We watch more, listen to more, read more and write more than ever. And as the government’s ultra-fast broadband (UFB) project comes to fruition and telephone companies become TV companies, there will be even more new content for us to consume. Well, actually, there probably won’t. Telecom, Vodafone and TelstraClear will be offering TV-style services over UFB, but in order to secure basic content they’ve been obliged to sign deals with Sky that prevent them from doing anything new. They’ve become Sky resellers – their contracts forbid them to charge for any programming not sourced from Sky. They can’t so much as talk to another content provider, on pain of surrendering their subscribers. So much for innovation. But Freeview will soon be delivering programmes via the internet direct to your Freeview-enabled TV or set-top box.
That’ll work, surely? Maybe. But any telco that has agreed to zero-rate data (so it won’t count against your data cap) for customers of Sky’s iSky service has also agreed, in another market-killing contract, not to offer such a deal to other providers. Until such time as the Commerce Commission decides that Sky’s business practices are unfair, there are critical impediments to anyone trying to offer something new to viewers. It’s either Sky, at Sky’s price and in a form dictated by Sky, or nothing. Meanwhile, the two free-to-air channels that were offering something different, Stratos and TVNZ 7, have closed down. New Zealand On Air, its budget frozen for a third year, doesn’t have much scope to fill the gap. Things aren’t any better in newspapers. Fairfax, which owns most of NZ’s daily papers, plans to lay off nearly 2,000 employees, many of them journalists, in Australia. Its rival, News Limited, has indicated that it will do something similar. Amid all this raging consumption, the media business is shrinking. The problem is not that you and I aren’t doing our part, just that the advertising revenue that has traditionally sustained the news media in particular has gone elsewhere. Even Facebook, the apparent leader of the new media world, may have peaked. The buildup to its float dissipated amid the chaos of the public offering itself. While duelling computers bought and sold shares, it became clear that Facebook’s future advertising bounty might not be as big as everyone thought. The stock went south. What we may be seeing is a divorce between editorial content and the advertising that pays for it. Where will it all end up? It’s hard to say. Will our media appetites be curbed when we have to pay for more and more of what we take? We’ll find out soon. For the meantime, I’m just glad I still have a job in the kitchen. Russell Brown is a media commentator and blogger and lives in Auckland
The Red Bulletin New Zealand, ISSN 2079-4274: The Red Bulletin is published by Red Bull Media House GmbH Editor-in-Chief Robert Sperl Deputy Editor-in-Chief Alexander Macheck General Management Print Alexander Koppel Publisher Franz Renkin Executive Editor Anthony Rowlinson Associate Editor Paul Wilson Contributing Editors Andreas Tzortzis, Stefan Wagner Chief Sub-editor Nancy James Deputy Chief Sub-editor Joe Curran Production Editor Marion Wildmann Chief Photo Editor Fritz Schuster Creative Photo Director Susie Forman Deputy Photo Editors Ellen Haas, Catherine Shaw, Rudolf Übelhör Creative Director Erik Turek Art Editor Kasimir Reimann Design Martina de Carvalho-Hutter, Silvia Druml, Miles English, Kevin Goll, Carita Najewitz, Esther Straganz Staff Writers Ulrich Corazza, Werner Jessner, Ruth Morgan, Florian Obkircher, Arkadiusz Piatek, Andreas Rottenschlager, Robert Tighe Corporate Publishing Boro Petric (head), Christoph Rietner, Nadja Zele (chief-editors); Dominik Uhl (art director); Markus Kucera (photo director); Lisa Blazek (editor); Christian Graf-Simpson, Daniel Kudernatsch (iPad) Head of Production Michael Bergmeister Production Wolfgang Stecher (mgr), Walter Sádaba Repro Managers Clemens Ragotzky (head), Karsten Lehmann, Josef Mühlbacher Finance Siegmar Hofstetter, Simone Mihalits Marketing & Country Management Barbara Kaiser (head), Stefan Ebner, Elisabeth Salcher, Lukas Scharmbacher, Peter Schiffer, Julia Schweikhardt. The Red Bulletin is published in Austria, France, Germany, Ireland, A product of the Kuwait, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa, Switzerland, the UK and the USA. Website www.redbulletin.com. Head office: Red Bull Media House GmbH, Oberst-LepperdingerStrasse 11-15, A-5071 Wals bei Salzburg, FN 297115i, Landesgericht Salzburg, ATU63611700. Austrian office: Heinrich-Collin-Strasse 1, A-1140 Vienna, +43 (1) 90221 28800. Printed by PMP Print, 30 Birmingham Drive, Riccarton, 8024 Christchurch. For all advertising enquiries, contact Sales Manager Brad Morgan or email brad.morgan@apn.co.nz or adsales@redbulletin.co.nz. Write to us: email letters@redbulletin.com
The next issue of the Red Bulletin is out on September 4
Illustration: Albert Exergian
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