a beyond the ordinary magazine
August 2013 R30
Hoops in Nyanga With Kita Matungulu
America’s Cup
FIGHT CLUB
Battle for the oceans’ greatest prize
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THE WORLD OF RED BULL
August 62
ready for take off
The catamarans that will slice through San Francisco Bay in next month’s America’s Cup are creating a new type of sailor for a new kind of sailing
Welcome
Waves – we’re on them and under them this month, with world-beaters in both places. The new boats in this year’s America’s Cup are among the most advanced vessels built for any sport, and the crews that race them put their lives on the line every time they take to the water. Beneath the surface, but no less at risk, is Franco Banfi and his driving passion: to photograph the most dangerous sea creatures in the world. Another hidden world revealed by The Red Bulletin this month is the secret street art by Belgian graffiti genius ROA. His images of animals could not be more different to those of Banfi, yet they are equally stunning. All that and much, much more, including the stuff that makes soccer hotshot Neymar so special. We hope you enjoy the issue. 04
Sharp practice: Olga Kharlan
“ In fencing you have to trick your rival to win. Turned out I had a real thirst for it. It’s fun” the red bulletin
THE WORLD OF RED BULL
at a glance Bullevard 08 photos of the month 15 news Sport and culture on the quick 19 Me and my body Clemens Doppler 22 Kit bag A bowman’s equipment 24 Where’s your head at? Neymar 26 winning formula The science behind indoor weather systems 28 lucky numbers One-hit wonders
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Features
High drama
30 Wet And Wild
cover photography: oracle team usa/guilain grenier. photography: oracle team usa/guilain grenier, Sergei Chyrkov, Garth Milan/red bull content pool, Christelle de Castro/red bull content pool, franco banfi, philipp forstner, joy room
Taking the high road to victory with rally legend Sébastien Loeb at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, aka The Race To The Clouds
Underwater photographer Franco Banfi on the dangers of a life aquatic
42 Raiza Biza
Across Africa to New Zealand, the MC making truly great global hip-hop
44 Hoop Dreams How basketball turns lives around 48 Uphill Struggle Who will come out on top at the
Pikes Peak International Hill Climb?
58 Thrusting Talent
78 red bull music academy
In New York City with the talented stars of tomorrow as they breakfast with Blondie and jam with James Murphy
30 animal instinct
A photographer’s subjects can be difficult, but the underwater creatures in Franco Banfi’s images can bite back – fatally
World-class fencer Olga Kharlan gets straight to the point
62 Not Plain Sailing Flying high with the new America’s
Cup catamarans in San Francisco
72 Painting The Town
Secretive street artist ROA speaks exclusively to The Red Bulletin
78 Lost In Music
This year’s Red Bull Music Academy attendees get into the groove in NYC
Action
19 me & my body
How European beach volleyball champ Clemens Doppler plays a numbers game with the tool of his trade: his physique the red bulletin
89 The JOy Room
With champagne showers, fountains and house beats, this club is the hot spot for the wise pleasure seekers of Mexico
88 89 90 91 92 94 96 98
get the gear A biker’s back-up party Clubbing in Mexico City travel Dune bashing in Abu Dhabi training Inline skating My City A graffiti artist’s Dublin Playlist With Empire Of The Sun save the Date Events for your diary time warpED Can it be true?
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contributors Who’s on board this issue
The Red Bulletin South Africa, ISSN 2079-4282
The Red Bulletin is published by Red Bull Media House GmbH General Manager Wolfgang Winter Publisher Franz Renkin Editor-in-Chief Robert Sperl Deputy Editor-in-Chief Alexander Macheck
FRANCO BANFI
ryan inzana The comic book artist and illustrator has had his work published in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, but he’s not normally preoccupied with football. Before he drew Neymar for The Red Bulletin, Inzana had never heard of the Brazil and Barcelona hotshot. “I thought Neymar was the name of Ernest Hemingway’s boat. We Americans,” he says, with a grin, “still see soccer as a fad, like the internet and penicillin.”
JASMIN WOLFRAM The Austrian journalist first encountered the Belgian street artist ROA through her art collecting, when he was little-known and in breach of the law. Now he is offered gallery space by international art dealers. Wolfram and her co-writer Andreas Rottenschlager only secured a rare and exclusive interview with ROA by agreeing not to reveal his identity, but they did find out why he likes drawing animals so much and what he has for breakfast.
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Growing up on Lake Lugano, little did Banfi know that the lakes of his Swiss homeland would soon prove too small for him. Since then he has become one of the world’s leading practitioners of underwater photography. Crocodiles, whales, stingrays: he approaches them all without fear. His most dangerous assignment to date was shooting a cheerful anaconda in Brazil: it was only afterwards that Banfi learnt that the giant snakes will swallow anything that comes near them, with or without a camera.
Editor, South Africa Angus Powers
Editor Paul Wilson Creative Director Erik Turek Art Directors Kasimir Reimann, Miles English Chief Photo Editor Fritz Schuster Production Editor Marion Wildmann Chief Sub-Editor Nancy James Deputy Chief Sub-Editor Joe Curran Assistant Editors Ulrich Corazza, Werner Jessner, Ruth Morgan, Florian Obkircher, Arkadiusz Pia˛tek, Andreas Rottenschlager, Daniel Kudernatsch (app) Contributing Editor Stefan Wagner Design Martina de Carvalho-Hutter, Silvia Druml, Kevin Goll, Carita Najewitz, Esther Straganz Photo Editors Susie Forman (Creative Photo Editor) Ellen Haas, Catherine Shaw, Rudi Übelhör Repro Managers Clemens Ragotzky (manager), Karsten Lehmann, Josef Mühlbacher Head of Production Michael Bergmeister Production Wolfgang Stecher (manager), Walter O Sádaba, Christian Graf-Simpson (app)
GUILAIN GRENIER In 2008, the Frenchman crossed the Pacific in a sailing boat, so when he gets his camera out to take pictures of boats, he knows of what he snaps. To best capture the ferocious beauty of the Oracle team’s America’s Cup yacht, Grenier chartered a helicopter and buzzed the boat during its training runs in San Francisco Bay. His photos have appeared in newspapers and magazines around the world, including Paris Match, Yachting World and Le Figaro.
“I thought that Neymar was the name of Ernest Hemingway’s boat” RYAN INZANA
Advertising Enquiries Andrew Gillett, +27 (0) 83 412 8008, andrew.gillett@za.redbull. com
Printed by CTP Printers, Duminy Street, Parow-East, Cape Town 8000. Finance Siegmar Hofstetter, Simone Mihalits Marketing & Country Management Barbara Kaiser (manager), Stefan Ebner, Stefan Hötschl, Elisabeth Salcher, Lukas Scharmbacher, Sara Varming Distribution Klaus Pleninger, Peter Schiffer Marketing Design Julia Schweikhardt, Peter Knethl Advertising Placement Sabrina Schneider O∞ce Management Manuela Gesslbauer, Anna Jankovic, Anna Schober
The Red Bulletin is published in Austria, Brazil, France, Germany, Ireland, Kuwait, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa, Switzerland, UK and USA Website www.redbulletin.com Head office Red Bull Media House GmbH, Oberst-Lepperdinger-Strasse 11-15, A-5071 Wals bei Salzburg, FN 297115i, Landesgericht Salzburg, ATU63611700 South Africa office Black River Park North, 2 Fir Street, Observatory, 7925 8005 +27 (0) 21 486 8000 Austria office Heinrich-Collin-Strasse 1, A-1140 Vienna. +43 (1) 90221 28800 Write to us: letters@redbulletin.com
the red bulletin
W I NTE R B E RG , G E R MAN Y
MIRROR IMAGE
Slopestyle is the discipline mountain biking ‘borrowed’ from snowboarding: big air and intricate tricks on an obstacle-riddled course. It’s the one with the most wow factor, so photographer Lorenz Holder knew he had to do more than just point and click to capture it correctly at the Red Bull Berg Line event. The mirror was on a digger; Holder a tight deadline. “My window of opportunity was small because I wanted the sun in the shot.” When Frenchman Yannick Granieri leapt from ramp to ramp, the stars aligned. Watch video of the event: www.redbull.com Photography: Lorenz Holder
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G L A S G OW, S COTL AN D
mind games
Four years ago, Danny MacAskill was messing about on his bike around the village of Dunvegan on the Isle of Skye. Four years and one day less ago, an internet video of his cycle tricks turned his life around. A series of further films established him as the best street trials cyclist in the world. His latest project is a venue tailor-made for what he does best, inspired by what he knows best: his own mind. Devised by MacAskill to reflect his childhood passions, Imaginate is the obstacle course every kid dreams of, made real. His ‘inner me’ reached out immediately: the first video got two million hits on its first day of release. See it come alive: www.redbull.com/imaginate Photography: James North
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NAPLE S , ITALY
PLEASURE FLIGHT The airpseed indicator reaches 400kph. Aerobatics pilot Matthias Dolderer, in his Zivko Edge 540, makes spectators below in the Italian port city gasp in amazement. (They’re mainly there to watch the America’s Cup World Series; Dolderer, of the Flying Bulls display team, is providing extra thrills.) Knowing that the German flying ace would be passing over some choice backdrops, including Mount Vesuvius, photographer Olaf Pignataro fixed a camera to tip of the Zivko’s left wing. Pilot project: www.matthiasdolderer.com Photography: Olaf Pignataro/Red Bull Content Pool
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ALL WORLD CUP RACES LIVE ON
Bullevard Sport and culture on the quick
The New Kids They’re young, talented and hungry – and they’re out to feed your mind. Four new bands to listen out for on Red Bull Records
TRON and on: Daniel Simon and, right, one of his radical roadsters
BearTooth The motto of this in-your-face metalcore ensemble from Ohio, USA, is: “Let ’em have it!”
Five Knives Not the usual Nashville sound: Anna Worstell’s mesmerising vocals over dubstep beats.
road ahead Drive into the future with
a modern master of concept cars While working for Bugatti, German designer Daniel Simon began sketching out futuristic cars and spaceships in his spare time. By 2007, he had enough grand designs to publish a book, Cosmic Motors, which earned him a traffic jam of fans, including racing legend Jacky Ickx. Then
Photography: daniel simon (2), Tina Korhonen
New Beat Fund Loud and edgy California hipsters reminiscent of a ’90s Beck. Recommended: Scare Me.
Hollywood came knocking. Simon, 37, hasn’t looked back since, designing the Light Cycle for TRON: Legacy. His new large-format book series, The Timeless Racer, depicts fictional cars from the years 1981 and 2027. www.danielsimon.com
phototicker
EVERY shot ON TARGET
Have you taken a picture with a Red Bull flavour? Email it to us at: phototicker@redbulletin.com Blitz Kids British emo rockers letting distorted guitars loose on big-time melodies.
the red bulletin
Every month we print a selection, with our favourite pic awarded a limited-edition Sigg bottle. Tough, functional and well-suited to sport, it features The Red Bulletin logo.
Azores Orlando Duque heads for pastures new on
the Portugal leg of the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series. Dean Treml
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Be lucky
The 2020 Olympics host city will soon be revealed. Here’s hoping for a better mascot than…
King of the hills? Last season, mountain biker Gee Atherton often found his way onto the podium. This season, he’s usually on top of it. “I changed my training and I now have the best bike in the field,” says the 28-year-old, Salisbury-born rider. For the imminent World Championship in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, there will be even more changes. “There’s going to be a lot of pedalling, so we’re going to look at the weight, introduce a hydraulically adjustable seat post and maybe use bigger wheels,” he says. Who can win? “Greg Minnaar, Mick Hannah, Aaron Gwin – about five, six people.” If he had to choose: overall series winner or world champ? “The overall winner says more from a sporting perspective, but the World Championship has more prestige. And that winner’s stripy tricot [jersey] is damn comfy.” Beginning on August 26: www.uci.ch
Beijing 2008 The Fuwas were symbolic of Feng Shui elements, but looked like domesticated Pokemons.
Pop producer and trendsetter Pharrell Williams on collective consciousness and his new passion: music for children’s films He writes hits like other people write grocery lists – and he shops for others as much as for himself. Just this year, Pharrell Williams, 40, has been in the studio with big-name collaborators ranging from Destiny’s Child to Daft Punk. He helped the latter write the ubiquitous hit, Get Lucky. How does he relax? Writing music for children’s animated films: Williams’ latest soundtrack is for Despicable Me 2. the red bulletin: You work across multiple genres, but there’s one thing your songs have in common – a certain sense of cheekiness. pharrell williams: Tragedy after travesty – there is so much going on. People are
becoming desensitised. I think it’s a cultural shift among the collective consciousness that people are looking to smile. Is writing for kids’ films different to writing albums? It’s kind of the same, except you have to be harmonious with the intentions of the writer and the director. It doesn’t matter how good you think the song is, it may take them to a different place – and it needs to be cohesive. What projects have you got coming up? I’m producing albums for Jay-Z, Kylie, Miley Cyrus and Jennifer Hudson. They don’t have to work with me, but they have. I’m pinching myself. I’m black and blue all over. www.pharrellwilliams.com
Will.i.ams: Pharrell
atlanta 1996 It still remains a mystery what Izzy, a blue creature in tennis shoes, exactly was.
WE HAVE A WINNER!
Tokyo
One Red Bull Street Style entrant finds himself in limbo in Japan. Naoyuki Shibata
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Hong Kong A drummer gets proceedings
underway at the Red Bull Dragon Roar boat race. Andy Jones
Potosi
Stunt rider Aaron Colton takes a novel approach to cornering on the open roads of Bolivia. Patricio Crooker the red bulletin
Photography: imago (2), Getty images (2), Picturedesk.com (2)
Wheelie good: British mountain bike star Gee Atherton in training for the World Championship
turin 2006 The Italians chose Neve and Gliz – a snowball and a block of ice. They received a frosty reception.
the hit man
Germany, Continental production plant, Korbach, bicycle building section. Andreu Lacondeguy; Continental employee, Ulf Günzel | www.conti-bicycletyres.com
“LaCONTIguy”
[Andreu Lacondeguy] rides on Handmade in Germany
REVO TUBELESS READY
Race King 2.2
REVO TUBELESS READY
X-King 2.4
Bullevard
DJ Degan Moleshe (right) and Xee of internet radio show Globalize Yourself Stereo
Varsity examination
The Stig burned rubber in SA
Fast meets faster Mix white and blue and you usually get light blue. Not this time. At the Top Gear Festival in Durban, dressed in white overalls and helmet, The Stig buckled up in Red Bull Racing’s blue RB7 F1 car and sped off. The resultant colour was black as he wowed crowds with some smoky donuts and scorching laps around the specially laid surface in the Moses Mabhida stadium. Asked whether the RB7 was the best car he’d driven, some swore they saw him give a barely perceptible nod. www.redbull.co.za
Vancouver Swapping pedals for paddles at Red Bull Divide and Conquer in Canada. Bryan Ralph 18
FULL THROTTLE BERLIN
Radio host Sakhile Moleshe on current global club trends – from powerful synths to Portuguese recitativo
As an in-demand vocalist famous for working with South African dance duo Goldfish, Sakhile Moleshe travels the world, playing and making music. Twice weekly on internet radio show Globalize Yourself Stereo, Moleshe and partner Xee serve up fresh new electronic tunes from their South African base. Tuesdays are dedicated to smoother tracks, while on Saturdays the tempo rises, getting listeners in the party mood. the red bulletin: Which music trends excite you most right now? Sakhile Moleshe: Aggressive dance blended with Portuguese recitativo, where the singer adopts the rhythms of ordinary speech. It comes from Angola, but you’re starting to hear it in European clubs and people flip out when it comes on. Apart from that, Shangaan electro is exciting. The beat is incredibly fast, double the tempo of rave music, and the dance steps are crazy! Which world city parties hardest? Berlin. Recently I wanted to check out a club there called ://about blank. I arrived at 11pm, but the place wasn’t even open. When I came back at 1.30, there were maybe 10 people on the dancefloor. At 5 in the morning, when I was on my way home, the queue was snaking around the block. Which song do you have on repeat right now? 773 Love by Jeremih. For many years the most exciting house music came from Berlin and London. Now America is striking back with a mix of trap and house beats, powerful synths, a lot of bass and raw rap singing – all put to fast rhythms. This track by Jeremih is very much in that mode. Globalize Yourself Stereo airs every Tuesday and Saturday 7-8.30pm (CET): www.redbullmobile.com/globalizeyourselfstereo
Zeltweg One way to get a great view of the action at the Airpower 13 air show in Austria. Red Bull Skydive Team
New York A Treequencer – a sound tree – in the recording studio for Red Bull Creation Aaron Rogosin
the red bulletin
photography: chris joubert, mark watson/red bull content pool, globalize yourself
If you want to end a university music tour with a bang, Stellenbosch is the place. Few campuses can match the Maties when it comes to enjoying the social side of academic life. Winner of the Red Bull Campus Clash, a nationwide competition for up-and-coming DJs, was DJ Degan. Like all the campus winners, his prize came in the form of recording time at Red Bull Studio Cape Town and the opportunity to work with some of SA’s top producers. www.redbull.co.za
Bullevard
me and my body
clemens doppler
The two-time European beach volleyball champion, 32, plays a numbers game with what goes into – and onto – his highly honed physique
Bullevard
OFF THE SHOULDER
FEEL GOOD INK
1 READY, UNSTEADY, GO I’m 2m tall and weigh about 85kg, but I can weigh 3kg less at the end of a season. It’s important to have strong trunk muscles and the best way to train them is on a Swiss ball, by doing exercises on an unsteady surface. I also have physio twice a week.
photography: philipp forstner
Take-off power is vital on deep sand. I train my leg muscles with various types of squats. When you’re building up your strength, it’s heavy weights and not too many reps – say four sets of six reps of 130kg. Then, when you want to increase your strength quickly, the same exercise with just 100kg, but done explosively. the red bulletin
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All my tattoos remind me of great moments in my life. I got my first when I was 17: the design was, of course, a volleyball player. My volleyball-mad parents wouldn’t have let me get anything else. The model was a player from an American volleyball magazine. Maybe I’ll soon be adding a third number – 13 – under the ace of spades on my right arm, by the figures 03 and 07, the years I won the European championships.
SCREWS LOOSE
2 HIGHLY EXPLOSIVE
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The most injury-prone parts of a volleyballer’s body are the shoulders. Ligaments and joints come under enormous pressure from smashes and hard serves, which is why I work intensively with resistance bands to simulate the ball-striking motion.
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I’ve suffered my worst injuries while playing. I ruptured my left cruciate ligament a month before the 2004 Olympics, and did it again two years later at the European championships. The screws that were put in my knee the second time were taken out when I had an operation on my meniscus in 2011.
www.doppler-horst.com
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illustration: dietmar kainrath
Bullevard
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the red bulletin
b u l l e va r d
kit evolution
target range
’68 STATE
In 1968, this projectile was state-of-the-art, because it was made of aluminium. Advantage: it’s light. Disadvantage: it breaks easily and one bad shot could bend it out of shape.
A bowman’s kit might not seem to have changed much, but advances in archery have kept deadeyes open to new technology
1967 ZOPF X7 RECURVE BOW This wooden bow, from a venerable Austrian maker, now defunct, was the trusty companion of many a top archer in the 1960s. The riser weighs in at 1.8kg, and the Zopf X7 was very stable, but wood had its downsides: it would vibrate for some time after an arrow was shot, and was susceptible to the elements. Less reliable in hot weather, the cold made it brittle, sometimes to breaking point.
RISER SHINE
A bow’s handle is known as the riser. Wooden risers live on in junior and hobby sports; 50 years ago, hand-turned in maple, walnut or rosewood, pros swore by them.
The limbs are block-glued maple, planed by hand, reinforced with glass laminate. Recurve bows, with limb tips curling away from the archer, allow faster shots than straight tips.
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The X7 was developed with input from seventime world champion Frantisek Hadas (above) www.archery.org
the red bulletin
Words: Arek Piatek
ON A LIMB
STRAIGHTEN ARROW
An aluminium core wrapped in carbon fibre makes this arrow more robust and wind-resistant than an aluminium-only predecessor of the same weight.
SEE & STEADY Top parts: the mountable visor is adjusted for the distance to the target. Beneath: three stabilisers maintain balance before and after loosing the arrow.
2012
Photography: kurt keinrath (2), www.bogensport-marktredwitz.de, Action Images/Paul Childs
W&W INNO AL1 RECURVE BOW
HARD CORE
Modern risers are precision mechanisms, optimally balanced to retain their original position after shooting and made from machine-milled aluminium.
This weatherproof bow seamlessly transfers the force generated by the archer to the arrow. Its synthetic limbs absorb vibrations better than wood and the relatively heavy riser (1.3kg) keeps recoil low and the target rate high. At London 2012, South Korea’s Im Dong-Hyun (below) notched a world-record 699 points (out of a possible 720) in the men’s team contest, using his trusty Win&Win recurve bow.
IN PIECES
Detachable limbs debuted in 1963, becoming standard soon after. Pro archers today have bows designed to their body shapes using computer software.
the red bulletin
In Olympic archery, a 12.2cm target centre ring is targeted from a distance of 70m www.win-archery.com
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Bullevard
Where’s Your Head At?
neymar
To-do list: lead Brazil to home World Cup glory; form Champions League-winning partnership with Leo Messi at Barcelona. Fácil. Here’s the stuff Brazil’s wonder boy is made of
Country Life
If Brazil are to win a sixth World Cup as hosts next year, they’ll need Neymar at his best. “I don’t think there’s pressure on me,” he says, bending the truth like a topcorner free kick.
Hey Neymar!
Neymar da Silva Santos Junior was born on February 5, 1992 in Mogi das Cruzes, Brazil. As required by law for all Brazilian footballers, he played soccer in the streets as a boy. You’d think they’d have pitches all over the country by now…
Kicks And Flicks
As the national anthem played before his 225th and final game for Santos, in April, Neymar cried. “It was emotional. The film of my life since I was a kid came to mind.”
In the XI at 11
Groomed For Success
Known in hairdressing circles as the ‘fauxhawk’, Neymar’s mane has drawn plenty of admirers from men’s mags – and that of Pelé, who says it, and aftershave, matter more to Neymar than football.
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Groundhog Ney
Neymar has been nominated for FIFA’s prestigious Puskás Award every year since it began in 2009. Actually, no he hasn’t: in 2009, it was Nilmar on the list. “He’s a top player,” said fellow Brazilian Nil, of Ney. The latter won in 2011 and came third last year.
Tweet Heart
@Njr92 is climbing Twitter’s top 100. At last count, he had passed seven million followers and nudged the Dalai Lama out of 87th place. Cristiano Ronaldo is soccer’s top tweeter, with 19 million followers.
Fantasy Strike Force
“I have a contract with Santos until 2014,” he told Time magazine in February. “I intend to honour it.” Three months later, he did the dishonourable thing and signed for Barcelona for a transfer fee of €57m. www.neymaroficial.com the red bulletin
words: Paul Wilson. illustration: ryan inzana
In 2003, Neymar da Silva Santos Senior moved his family south to Santos, on the coast. Later that year, his boy signed for Santos FC. “The thing I miss most is playing football on the beach with my friends,” said Neymar Jr.
Bullevard
HArd & FAST
Top performers and winning ways from around the globe Maxime Richard of Belgium (centre) put in a blistering performance in Solkan, Slovenia to win the Whitewater Canoe World Championships.
Rough CX: cyclocross events are flat-out with a lot of carrying
Cross but happy
Three-time defending Formula One champion Sebastian Vettel finally broke his German Grand Prix duck by claiming victory on home soil at the Nurburgring.
words: Steve Smith. photography: Brett Rogers, Lance Koudelle, Red Bull Racing, Kolesky/Nikon/Red Bull Content Pool
Road cycling meets mountain biking with obstacles. It’s cool, it’s European, and it’s here Cyclocross – a discipline usually the preserve of Belgian and Dutch cyclists riding across muddy fields – has arrived in South Africa. Thanks to Melvin Neale, Greg Gamble and Grant Usher of Joburg’s Hunter Cycling club, up to 30 enthusiasts now race around a 1km circuit near the Craighall scout hall on The Spruit. CX Sundays have taken place once a month since April of this year and involve completing as many 1km laps as possible within 45 minutes. Sound easy? Think again. “Unlike like road or mountain biking,” says Neale, “you can’t get into rhythm with CX. It’s basically a flat-out sprint, but the obstacles mean you have to portage, so you’re constantly on and off the bike. You suffer… It’s a completely different kind of cycling fitness.” As the discipline is new to SA, not many competitors own proper cyclocross bikes, which look like road bikes, but with higher ground clearance and knobbly tyres. But don’t let that put you off. “You can use any bike you want,” says Neale. “Most of the guys are on mountain bikes at the moment. It’s still a cult sport, but soon we’ll see a sponsored CX race at one of the big bike shows and from there it will develop. It’s just a matter of time.” Race details will appear on the Hunter Cycling website.
low British kitesurfer Aaron Had e of tricks rang full his d use tre) (cen nal off to win the Triple S Invitatio a, USA. the coast of North Carolin
At the ASP Prime Mr Price Pro Ballito in South Africa, local hero Jordy Smith lost to Julian Wilson of Australia in a thrilling final.
www.huntercycling.com the red bulletin
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Bullevard
winning formula
perfect storm
Guaranteed to have a good atmosphere: cloud installation Nimbus Minerva by Dutch artist Berndnaut Smilde, Ronchini Gallery, London
Words: Thomas Schrefl. Photography: eeftinck schattenkerk. Illustration: Mandy Fischer
Here’s the forecast: indoor weather systems and how they’re made in the sky A photograph at his grandparents’ home inspired Amsterdam artist Berndnaut Smilde to create an interior cloud, now a source of wonder at London’s Ronchini Gallery. But how on Earth – or just above it – does this installation work? “Clouds are made up of tiny water droplets which float in the air,” explains Professor Thomas Schrefl of Austria’s St Pölten University of Applied Sciences. “For these droplets to form, water vapour in the air – what we refer to as humidity – must condense around small dust particles. The droplets appear when a relative humidity of 100 per cent is reached or, in other words, when the air cannot absorb any more vapour. “The total pressure of the air, p, is the sum of the partial pressure of the dry air, pd and the partial pressure of the vapour, pv. Once the partial pressure of the vapour exceeds a certain threshold, we reach the point of oversaturation. “This is the turning point when it comes to cloud-making. But temperature also has a role to play. Relative humidity is defined as the relationship of the partial pressure of the vapour to the saturated pressure of the vapour: f = pd/ps × 100. The latter is dependent on the temperature, T, as the solid line, ps(T), in the illustration shows. “When a humid parcel of air meets cold ground, the air cools, the partial pressure of the vapour exceeds the saturated vapour pressure, and clouds begin to form. This part of the process is represented by the horizontal dotted line in our diagram. The point of intersection with the ps(T) curve is what we call the dew point.” in the gallery So how does Berndnaut Smilde get a cloud into a museum space? “With trickery,” says Schrefl. “Oversaturation occurs when additional water vapour is introduced to already saturated air. What Smilde does is intensively humidify the air in the gallery with a water spray. Then he introduces vapour from a fog machine into the space and the reaction occurs. Simple. “To ensure it floats in the correct space, it cannot rise or fall too quickly. The vertical acceleration of the cloud particles, aC, is dependent on the difference in density between them and the surrounding air. If the density of the cloud particle, C, is the same as the density of the surrounding air A, the acceleration is nil – and the cloud floats. “As before, temperature is vital too. Dew point and density are dependent on this variable. This means that for a cloud to form, the temperature must be under 20°C. Et voilà – a cloud-filled room.” More on the cloud artist: www.berndnaut.nl
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Bullevard
lucky numbers
One-Hit Wonders Every musician hopes to have a hit, but for many, that’s where the dream ends. Here are small tales of big flashes in the pan
What do Jimi Hendrix, Iggy Pop, Beck and Norah Jones have in common? They’re all one-hit wonders. None of them has had more than one Top 40 hit in the US charts. Beck is the most successful of the iniquitous bunch, having made it to number 10 in 1994. The song? Loser.
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Spanish flamenco duo Los del Rio formed in 1962, and waited 34 years for their first, and only, hit record. But this one really made it big: Macarena is the most successful song ever by a one-hit wonder. The remix topped the US charts for 14 weeks in 1996, sold 11 million copies worldwide and unleashed a global dance trend.
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History’s first one-hit wonder was Johann Pachelbel and his Canon and Gigue in D, which became a worldwide smash 264 years after the German composer’s death thanks to a 1970 recording by the Paillard Orchestra. It has since gone on to become a staple at weddings. Green Day, U2 and Alicia Keys have all borrowed the catchy chord sequence.
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By the book: Edelweiss
By Harper Lee or Capote?
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Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty had seven Top 10 hits in the UK charts as The KLF. In 1988, they imparted their wisdom over 160 pages of a book, The Manual: How To Have A Number One The Easy Way. Viennese jokers Edelweiss followed the advice and enjoyed a number one in four countries with their 1989 yodelling hit Bring Me Edelweiss.
30,000,000 No no.1: Jimi Hendrix, Norah Jones, Iggy Pop
Harper Lee won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 with her first novel, To Kill A Mockingbird. The novel has sold over 30 million copies, and was made into a film, starring Gregory Peck, which won three Oscars. The author has never written a follow-up, which has only fuelled rumours that large parts of the novel came from the pen of her good friend Truman Capote.
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Pachelbel’s Canon in D
Hey, Macarena
In 1963, commercial artist Harvey Ball was asked to design a life insurance logo. Ten minutes later, so he says, the yellow, round and grinning smiley was born. By 1971, 50 million smiley badges had been sold. The logo may have made Ball world-famous, but it didn’t make him rich. He never applied for a trademark or copyright of the logo and earned US$45 for his work. the red bulletin
words: florian obkircher. photography: ddpimages, rex features, frank w. ockenfels, shutterstock, xavier Martin
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Harvey Ball’s Smiley
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animal instinct Photographing live models can be a vicious business, but Franco Banfi’s subjects actually bite back. The Swiss snapper on the dangers of a life aquatic Words: Arek Piatek Photography: Franco Banfi
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Close up
Eye to eye with a blue shark in the mid-Atlantic, off the Azores Islands
Wet and wild: Franco Banfi takes a portrait of an 8m-long anaconda
uddenly, the leopard seal is aware of the diver. Dropping the wounded penguin it has been chasing, it turns its full attention to the man with the camera. Terrifyingly, the 300kg predator moves at lightning speed to come eye-to-eye with the photographer. If it wanted to, it could kill him with a single bite of its powerful jaw. For Franco Banfi, life and death situations like this are just part of his everyday work. It’s made the 55-year-old from Lugano in Switzerland one of the world’s most in-demand underwater photographers. Over a career spanning 30 years, Banfi has seen every dangerous thing the oceans have to offer and photographed them in close quarters: crocodiles, sharks, giant squids, stingrays, the list goes on. His motivation is simple. “I prefer species that are difficult to photograph. I risk my life for them,” he says. Banfi discovered underwater photography in the early 1980s. “Some friends convinced me to dive in Lake Lugano,” he explains. “The world underneath that surface instantly fascinated me.” Underwater photography – a means of capturing that world – became Banfi’s passion. He taught 32
himself the technical aspects, as well as reading up on as many species of marine life as he could. “To get noticed as a photographer you have to do what no one else has done before,” he says. Which is exactly what he set out to do, swiftly establishing his own modus operandi. “I don’t dash off for the lucky shot; I try to gain the trust of the animals first,” he says. “When dangerous or shy ocean-dwellers tolerate your presence, your images take on an entirely new dimension.” Aged 25, Banfi sold his first photo to an Italian diving magazine. At 34, he won the underwater photography world championships in Cuba. Since then, his photos have become a staple of respected wildlife magazines like National Geographic, BBC Wildlife and Stern. The art of getting close to an animal, says Banfi, is a mixture of science and experience. “Every species reacts differently, but there is one rule for survival that almost always applies: show the animal respect, but never fear.” It was this rule which saved Banfi’s life during the encounter with the leopard seal: “I stayed where I was and held the camera out to him. He swam away.” There are always exceptions, however. “When an anaconda gets aggressive, it’s better to disappear,” he says. “They’re primitive and once they start attacking they don’t stop.” www.banfi.ch
Franco Banfi has 30 years’ experience as an underwater photographer the red bulletin
Dancing with a manta ray
“These giant specimens off the Mexican island of Socorro accepted me after a few days. I laid my hands on them and let them pull me through the water. Their skin is as rough as sandpaper. When I let go, they came back and we set off again.�
Bite-sized image
“Caimans [alligator-like reptiles] grow up to 2m long. To cool off during the day they open their mouths in the water and remain in this menacing-looking position. In Brazil I stalked one of them while swimming. Always from the front, though, because caimans like biting to the side.�
Eye of the tiger shark
“It’s one of the most fearsome animals in the ocean: unpredictable, and with a bite powerful enough to crack tortoise shells. We lured this specimen off the coast of Africa with fish blood. It came dangerously close: you can see the shadow of my camera on its snout.”
Ice diving with belugas
“This photo won a bunch of awards. It was shot in the White Sea, off the coast of northern Russia. Beluga whales are generally scared of people, but this curious, playful guy was an exception. He got so close that I had to keep pushing him away with the camera, just so I could focus.” 35
Credit:
Chasing the impossible
Credit:
“No one has managed to photograph the birth of stingrays in the wild. A marine biologist and I accompanied this pregnant female for a week in the Atlantic, while taking care to avoid the deadly sting. Unfortunately it got away from us. What remains are photos of the animal on its incredibly long search for a spawning ground.�
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The well-fed anaconda
“This photograph was taken in the Brazilian wetlands area of Pantanal. Anacondas wait for their prey on the bank – they even eat crocodiles. This specimen had already eaten and barely took any notice of us. But then it got annoyed and opened its mouth fully in the direction of the camera. That was our signal to retreat.”
Teeth marks in the camera “A saltwater crocodile in a typical lookout position near the shore off Papua New Guinea. I approached from the side, getting closer and closer and then pressed the shutter. Suddenly its head jerked in my direction and it bit into the camera. The marks are still there to this day.”
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Picking up signals
“Whales know when you’re nervous, and it relaxes them when you radiate calm. This photograph is the result of harmony between man and animal. With this sperm whale I knew beforehand that it was going to submerge. I went down first and took the photo while it glided past and looked at me.”
Feeding the predators
“For shark shots you always need bait that you hold out, so they can smell it, but not reach it. In our case it was pieces of fish in cage-like boxes. You start snapping as soon as the predators approach. This photo shows me off the coast of the Bahamas at 15m depth, surrounded by 25 lemon sharks.”
Camera-shy monster
“Giant squids can grab divers with their tentacles and drag them down into the depths. This colossus accompanied us down to 80m, but was cautious. When the camera flashed it jerked away – and slowly snuck up again later.”
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the red bulletin
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Raiza Biza
Rap The World His is not a name South Africans know. Not yet. One of New Zealand’s leading hip-hop stars talks about his new album and the influential years spent growing up in South Africa
a golden era of early ’90s New York After the Ruzibizas moved to New Zealand To map the co-ordinates that pinpoint hip-hop – or his willingness to examine in 2000, Raiza witnessed a quieter Raiza Biza’s music, start with the genre his family’s journey and how it shaped revolution. Local hip-hop achieved new tags on his Bandcamp page. Beneath the music he’s making today. levels of creative and commercial success, the tracklist for Dream Something, the While living in Pretoria, Raiza spearheaded by artists like Scribe, hip-hop artist’s 2012 album, is a list discovered US hip-hop greats like Deceptikonz and 4 Corners. As a student of tags including “african”, “auckland”, Tupac, Nas and Bone Thugs-n-Harmony. of the culture, Raiza soaked up new “hip hop”, “new zealand music” and Their wordplay also offered valuable influences and began to formulate a plan “underground”. They are also English tuition outside the classroom. for where he would take his music. signposts in a story. “Hip-hop uses words a lot more “I started to think about the kind of “When my dad was a young man than other types of music. Listening to rapper I was going to be,” says Raiza. “Am in Rwanda, there was a feeling in the a Tupac song, the first thing you get is I going to be a rapper who follows trends air that war was about to spark,” says and glorifies things of a material the 26-year-old, whose real name nature, or will I look a bit deeper? is Rai Ruzibiza. “There were little That’s the point where I let go of all things that you’d see on the news, of the 50 Cent braggadocio stuff and or you’d hear about friends getting started to look deeper within myself.” attacked. So my dad always knew he This thread of self-examination couldn’t raise his family there. That runs through Dream Something and was one of the things that motivated his latest album Summer, both of him to work hard to get us out.” which can be downloaded free from Dream Something has an intricate his Bandcamp page. On both records, narrative that charts the Ruzibiza he’s wrestling with his fragmented family’s migration from Africa to background and his place in his Aotearoa in New Zealand, a journey adopted country. His observations that connects the dots between the are relayed in a voice subtly MC’s birthplace of Rwanda and then flavoured with Americanisms, Zaire, Zambia, South Africa, Gisborne, Wellington, Hamilton and Auckland. Rwandan-born rapper Raiza Biza makes his music in New Zealand delivered over instrumentals from New Zealand beatmakers like Crime The track Seventh Floor has him, the emotion and then you start to pick Heat Beats, Jay Knight and Si-Res. While taking a trip down memory lane, reflecting up words that connect to that emotion. his lyrical focus is aimed squarely at his on a time when he “moved to Joburg Rap was the best teacher for me, because African past and his New Zealand with no grasp of the English language”. the first English words I learnt were present, Raiza’s internationalism makes Before English lessons came pop directly connected to strong emotion.” him hard to pin down, a conundrum culture, with music and TV providing Living in Pretoria meant Raiza of identity he readily acknowledges. early language tutorials. He chuckles experienced Nelson Mandela’s presidential “When you move from one African as he recalls being glued to the TV show inauguration first-hand, and later country to another, there’s a whole shift MacGyver, a favourite in the Ruzibiza observed how the revolutionary ripples that occurs, but when you move from an household. “I’d say phrases from it before of his presidency affected South Africa’s African country into the Western world, I knew what they meant,” he says. “I burgeoning hip-hop community. it’s insane,” he says. “I was always forced remember seeing the show years later and “South African hip-hop was quite to not get too attached to anything I was thinking, ‘Oh, is that what I was saying?’” angry and rebellious before Mandela,” around – all of which I think will make Nostalgia informs much of Raiza’s says Raiza. “After he came to power, a good album sometime in the future. It music, whether it’s the beats he chooses the musicians were like, ‘Let’s give this definitely made me learn to adapt quickly.” to rhyme over – head-nod-inducing raizabiza.bandcamp.com unity thing a go’. It was a big shift.” instrumentals that throw back to 42
the red bulletin
Additional Photography: Ravi Chand
Words: Sam Wicks Photography: Kristian Frires
AKA Rai Ruzibiza Discography Raiza & Max – Caged Lion (EP, 2012) Dream Something (album, 2012) Summer (album, 2013) MJ lives Raiza Biza’s mother – “whose English was pretty broken”, says her boy – used to sing Michael Jackson songs around the house to spark him into helping with the chores. The B-Side He is considering recording a seasonal companion album to Summer, that gives “a positive or hopeful edge to winter”.
Making A difference
Sports stars like to talk about “giving back to the sport”. Kita ‘Thierry’ Matungulu hasn’t just given back to basketball, he’s used the sport to uplift an impoverished community Words: Sean Christie Photography: Sydelle Willow Smith
H
ow bad was it, the crime?” It’s a poorly phrased question posed at Kita ‘Thierry’ Matungulu, the big Congolese man sitting on the opposite side of the table at Hoops4Hope’s headquarters. “You mean how bad is it? It’s bad, really bad,” he says, and although he looks sincere under his faded green Celtics cap, the statement is at odds with the sound of children playing cheerfully outside in the Crossroads Multipurpose Recreation Centre. They’re playing every kind of game, though clearly the most popular is soccer – hardly surprising for Nyanga, another soccer-mad township on the Cape Flats in South Africa. But what is somewhat surprising in this scenario, is the basketball that’s being played. Matungulu proceeds to relate stories about gangsters who have scaled the
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facility’s palisade fence in order to hustle drugs and mug staff members in broad daylight. It seems a little too vivid, like a Police Academy take on life in the slums – boomboxes, guns and headbands – but then the newspapers do call Nyanga “The Murder Capital of South Africa”. Hoops4Hope, the organisation Matungulu founded with former professional basketball player Mark Crandall in 1995, is clearly doing good work teaching kids sports and life skills simultaneously in a tough environment. But it is only when we meet Thabo Marotola, who has been involved with Hoops4Hope since it conducted its first workshop in Nyanga, that the scale of the achievement comes into focus. “In 1995 I came and saw a group gathered around these two men. I thought, ‘No, this cannot be. There’s a mkwerekwere (a contemptuous term for a black foreigner) and an Umlungu (a contemptuous term for a white person), in my neighbourhood?!’ It was my aim that day to get rid of them,” he says. “It’s true,” says Matungulu. “He disrupted every practice for six weeks
Life coach: Kita ‘Thierry’ Matungulu teaches more than just basketball skills through the Hoops4Hope organisation that he helped found
Matungulu at the Hoops4Hope Philippi branch
and almost single-handedly killed our involvement here.” Marotola was 16 at the time, old enough to have absorbed Nyanga’s particularly vigorous spirit of rebellion against apartheid security forces in the 1980s, but too young and too poor to feel that there was a role for him in the building of the ‘New South Africa’ that had supposedly been ushered in by democratic elections in 1994. He was well along the path to a life of gangsterism. “Kita stuck with me. I don’t know why,” he says. Matungulu’s counter-intuitive faith in Marotola was well placed. He went on to become what Hoops4Hope, borrowing from the lexis of Matungulu’s favourite sport, terms an ‘MVP’ (Most Valuable Player), which means he became responsible for mentoring dozens of children. Now he is an ‘All Star’, a Level 2 FIBA (International Basketball Federation) coach responsible for several teams in nearby Philippi. Matungulu refers to this and other community successes as “Ubuntu in action”. “Archbishop Desmond Tutu explained Ubuntu as meaning: ‘My humanity is caught up with yours,’” he says. “We believe in that here, and Ubuntu has become one of six tools we use to teach life skills to our players. The others are: integrity, responsibility, self-esteem, self-awareness, and a sense of humour,” says Matungulu, whose faith in the African philosophy espoused by Nelson Mandela derives from personal experience.
A
s a young man living in Lubumbashi, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, all I wanted to do was attend an American university, but my plans fell through when the States imposed a travel ban on Congolese nationals,” says Matungulu. His next strategy was to reach America via South Africa, but this too proved impossible. Johannesburg, however, was good to him. “In those first years I spent a lot of time playing basketball in Soweto and was given the chance to be part of the first unified South African basketball team. I thought there was quite a lot of Ubuntu in that,” he says. Matungulu
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Archbishop Desmond Tutu explained Ubuntu as meaning: “My humanity is caught up with yours” also found that, when it came to fundraising for Hoops4Hope, the nation that had denied him his teenage dreams of individual fame responded enthusiastically to his adult ones of community development. “Everywhere I turned I was well received,” he says. It was at one of the Hoops4Hope fundraising events that Matungulu’s life took an extraordinary turn. “We were doing a fundraiser in New York in 2002, and I sat at a table with Doc Rivers, who was head coach of the Boston Celtics at the time. He asked me all about Hoops4Hope that night,” says Matungulu. Months later, back in Cape Town, Matungulu received an unexpected phone call from Rivers. “He wanted to know about Ubuntu and if it could be applied to basketball. I said, ‘Doc, put me on a plane, because this is what we do every day at Hoops4Hope – we apply the concept of Ubuntu to sport,” says Matungulu. The Celtics players took to Matungulu’s teachings, and were soon chanting “Ubuntu” before matches. When the team won the NBA championship that year for the first time in 20 years, the word Ubuntu was given pride of place in the design of the players’ US$25,000 championship rings. Back in Cape Town, Matungulu and Hoops4Hope have helped to create a structure for the development of promising basketball players that did not exist before, by founding school
teams and community clubs, and by kick-starting leagues in which these teams can compete. And given Matungulu’s enduringly strong connections to South Africa’s national team, not to mention the NBA, exceptionally talented individuals from the Cape now have avenues to the highest levels of the sport. One such promising youngster is Litha Ncinisa, who joined the Hoops4Hope programme at the end of 2012, after Matungulu spotted him on court in a league match. Today, Ncinisa is destined for the Americas, to a college either in North Carolina or in Canada – Matungulu’s still working out the details on Ncinisa’s behalf. He seems an easy sell: polite and articulate, 15-year-old Ncinisa stands just over 6ft 7in tall. Given that he’s grown a centimetre every two months since January, he’s likely to exceed the 6ft 7in average height for an NBA player quite soon. “Khayelitsha, where I come from, has a huge problem with gangsterism and drugs, and so this is a huge opportunity for me,” says Ncinisa, though he adds that basketball on its own wouldn’t have saved him. “I needed support at home, and I had that, and I needed support in my sport, and now I have that thanks to Hoops4Hope,” he says. Matungulu’s future plans for Hoops4Hope are refreshingly free of floral notes. “We’ll keep grinding, every day. It’s a grind to win the trust of communities, and to keep the kids in here playing sport and not out there doing drugs. Fortunately, we’ve experienced Ubuntu in our own lives, and so this is what we love to do,” he says. www.hoopsafrica.org the red bulletin
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h undredths
Regular folk drive up America’s Pikes peak in about 45 minutes. In winning The Race To The Clouds, the hill climb up the mountain, French rally legend SÊbastien loeb cut 80 per cent off that time
photography: flavien duhamel/red bull content pool
Word s: W ern e r J ess ne r
photography: flavien duhamel/red bull content pool
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“I want the record,” says sébastien Loeb, “but I know there is no room for even the smallest error”
Sky rocket: Peugeot Sport built an 875hp 208 all-wheel drive prototype for the world’s best rally driver, Sébastien Loeb, to pilot up Pikes Peak
very year in late June, Eric, his wife, Mary, and her mother, Mary-Jo, leave their home in Kansas and cross the state line for an American road trip. This year, Mary-Jo wanted to see Colorado, first the small city of Pueblo, then Colorado Springs and then on to the highpoint – an assault on ‘America’s Mountain’: Pikes Peak. It was on this mountain 120 years ago, on July 22, 1893, that the lyrics to the immortal anthem America The Beautiful came to songwriter Katharine Lee Bates, “and I probably won’t be around for the 130th anniversary,” says the elderly Mary-Jo in the backseat of the Volvo, her white ringlets bobbing in the rear-view mirror. The road winds around the famous mountain, a beloved American holiday destination. One curve follows another
with no end in sight, each of them steeper and narrower than anything the three road-trippers were familiar with in their native Kansas. Mary grips the ceiling handle nervously, but Eric has everything under control. There are hardly any guide rails on the side of the mountain road and Eric has to resist the urge to peer over the edge. Tyre marks scar the narrow curves – so narrow that Eric has to come to a halt to see around each bend. Soon, the family becomes aware of a number of tyre marks leading straight out, over the edge of the abyss. Mary gasps for breath in the passenger seat. In the back, Mary-Jo grins in apparent delight. “Altitude euphoria,” mutters Eric as he navigates the next serpentine turn. “What have they got me into?” An icy wind is blowing when they reach the summit of Pikes Peak; the 12.4-mile ascent has taken them 45 minutes. The three Kansans turn their gaze east, to the Great Plains from where they have come – hundreds of miles laid out before them like a vast, crumpled map. In the souvenir shop they buy an ashtray, a sweatshirt and a few fridge magnets. Then it’s time to start their descent. Some 1,440m below, skilful mechanics are putting the finishing touches to a small fleet of highperformance cars and motorbikes. The following day, these vehicles will tackle 20 of the most legendary kilometres in American road racing, when they take
photography: Alastair ritchie
The wild beast with the huge spoiler zooms, roaring, from one corner to the next
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part in the 91st running of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. The Unsers, the Andrettis, the Millens, all of them have proved their mettle here – in the infamous mountain race to the summit. In the late 1980s, the Europeans left their mark on this race for the first time, pulverising the course record with a succession of rally cars. With four-wheeldrive and upwards of 500hp, they tore through the 11-minute barrier on the gravel road to the summit. The famous road was laid with asphalt in 2012. At this point an ambitious local could manage it in 11 minutes, but that was too slow to break any records. By the end of 2012, the 9 Minute Club – comprising those daring drivers who’d made the summit in less than 10 minutes – was five-strong. New Zealander Rhys Millen held the record with a time of 9:46.164, with French driver Romain Dumas 0.017 seconds behind in second. Making up the five was Japan’s Nobuhiro Tajima and the two motorbike riders, Carlin Dunne of the USA and his compatriot, Greg Tracy. photography: Alastair Ritchie (5), werner jessner (4), garth milan/red bull content pool (2), Flavien Duhamel/red bull content Pool (2)
Everyone’s a winner: from souped-up singleseaters to sidecars, all kinds of vehicles compete at Pikes Peak
he latter pair didn’t use petrol or diesel on their way up to the summit in 2013, instead they trusted their fortunes to electric energy. Indeed, this was in many ways a race made for the electric engine: conventional petrol-burning motors have to cope with performance loss at high altitudes. Despite large turbochargers and advanced electronics, there simply isn’t enough oxygen to burn. Anyone who makes it to these heights having surrendered a quarter of the horsepower they had in the valley has really done their homework. Electric cars don’t have this problem, of course, but their batteries – even in a relatively short race like this – are heavier than fuel engine units. And even if big name car manufacturers like Mitsubishi are now putting their name to some of the electro-projects, this still remains pioneering work: little more than glorified tinkering. Of course, there won’t be a whisper of this when it comes to the overall victory. Not when the challenger is celebrated French rally driver Sébastien Loeb. The main topic of conversation here on the mountain is not whether Loeb can crack the record in his specially developed
By a 300m abyss, Loeb takes a double 60-degree bend at 170kph Peugeot 208 T16 Pikes Peak, but by how much. In training, his car – 875hp strong, 875kg light – burned a few seconds per kilometre from the competition, including the two current record-holders Millen and Dumas. America loves winners and there are huge expectations of Loeb. The 39-year-old is feeling the pressure. A break between two training runs, and the nine-time rally world champion has retreated to his trailer. His blue eyes blaze, thrown into even sharper relief by stubble now turned pepper-and-salt. He sprawls on a bench, relaxed. Although of slender build, his powerful upper arms are testament to the work he has already done, taming both mountain and car. “First I had to establish trust in the Peugeot,” he says. “I had to find out how nervous the car was and what I could do with it. During a test in France we sorted out the major problems – transmission too long; suspension too hard; steering too direct – and on the first run in America the car did everything I wanted it to. I don’t know what the old rally cars felt like on Pike’s Peak, but this one’s insanely fast.” Nevertheless, can he really go at 100 per cent speed here – on these miserly roads clinging desperately to the flanks of the infamous mountain? Loeb hesitates: “Let’s say 99 per cent.” There’s another major drawback: unlike the World Rally Championship (WRC) there is no co-driver to dictate the curves to him during the journey. How well does he know the route? “Even before I came here, I had memorised the sequence of curves,” says Loeb. “I studied on-board videos at home, then I came here with my codriver, Daniel Elena. We drove the route and put together a pacenotes book, just as I would in a normal rally special stage. “In the WRC we only get to inspect the course twice: the first time you put 55
he following day, as early as 3am, a good two-anda-half hours before sunrise, a 1km-long colonnade is working its way up the mountain, past the herd of campervans, which were already in place the day before. Admittedly, the ban on open fires makes hearty weekend fun difficult. Colorado is suffering from severe forest fires and hoping for rain. Up at the summit, it’s bitterly cold. Along the road, yesterday’s meltwater from late-season snow is still frozen. First up are the motorbikes, the riders exposing themselves to the dangers of the mountain without roll cages or any of the protection afforded to their four-wheeled rivals. Supermotos and vintage racing bikes follow, all conquering the mountain to a great show of reverence from the fans. A few dauntless individuals serve to remind us that sidecars still exist, with hearts bigger than anything humanoid. Johnny Wood almost dislodges his passenger, Giorgina Gottlieb, in the 56
penultimate curve; at the finish line she clings to him, sobbing. In the heat of the battle, Bruno Marlin’s passenger, his son Jérémy, leans so far out that the young Frenchman scrapes his helmet visor on the asphalt. American Wade Boyd wins ahead of Japan’s Masahito Watanabe. Rivals on the track, they all embrace once they get to the summit. They’re not racing against each other, but against the mountain and the clock. That goes double for Sébastien Loeb, the first starter among the cars. If all goes to plan, he will win, that much is certain. What’s interesting is the time he does it in. Long before you see him, you hear him. Every change of gear is an explosion amplified by the Rocky Mountain cliffs: a staccato of explosions coming nearer and nearer. Between Devil’s Playground and the summit, the road keeps disappearing and the eyes strain to focus. The silhouette of the Peugeot 208 T16 Pikes Peak should be appearing down there, but it’s already ahead, at a crag further on. The ear has tricked the eye. Later the telemetry will show a peak speed of more than 240kph, the wild beast with the huge spoiler zooms, roaring, from one corner to the next, disappears, reappears, tears past at easily 170kph on a double 60-degree curve, at the end of which yawns a 300m abyss. At the exit, the inside front wheel is exactly on the white line marking the edge of the asphalt. It is an exact, clinical procedure: one of those moments which very few men on this planet can pull off in a car. The clock at the finish line shows an unbelievable 8:13.878, one-and-a-half minutes under the existing record. Membership of the 9 Minute Club is a bit less special today. In second place is last year’s victor Rhys Millen, with a respectable 9:02, which might be an eternity better than his old record, but is still in a completely different league. At 4,300m above sea level, Loeb seems happy and relieved: “I felt good in the car and I decided on all-out attack,” he says. “Pikes Peak was my season highlight, and this record means a lot to me.” He will drive his last WRC event in his native France this autumn, and in 2014 he’ll enter the touring car world championship (WTCC) in a Citroën, which will manage a mere third of the performance of the Pikes Peak Peugeot. The nine-time rally world champion has enjoyed his mad week in this unbelievably powerful, radical car, built just for him. In the meantime, the mountain has reminded everyone why they call this
On top of the world: Sébastien Loeb celebrates at 4,300m above sea level
event the Race to the Clouds. It draws together a mighty contingent in white and grey and gives it a vigorous shake: rain, hail, snow, fog, wind – it takes the whole afternoon to get the last 24 cars up the hill. There’s no hope of a record or even a respectable time now, and how could there be: now it’s the turn of the soapbox cars, the home-built, rebuilt, the jerry-built, the family teams; the products of long winter nights’ tinkering. The spectators greet every last one of them with great respect and genuine enthusiasm, and rightly so. Sébastien Loeb is still up there on the summit, in the middle of a sleet shower and pea-soup fog. Everyone drives down together, whether hobby warrior or record holder. Everyone is equal before the mountain. In the Best Western Hotel in Manitou Springs, where Eric, Mary and Mary-Jo are recovering from their previous day’s exertions, there’s a dozy calm. Mary-Jo snores lightly on the veranda, Mary browses the latest edition of the National Enquirer. With earphones in his iPad, Eric is watching the race online. Bit of a hotshot, this Loeb. Next year, Eric decides, he’ll send the two girls up to the summit on the cog railway. He’ll master the route to the top alone and won’t slow for any curve. How hard can it be? www.redbull.com
Take a seat in Sébastien Loeb’s cockpit and join his breathtaking record drive in The Red Bulletin tablet edition. Download it now for free the red bulletin
photography: flavien duhamel/red bull content pool
together the notes and the second time you’re checking them. Here, the third run onwards was all new for me. I was able to tell Daniel 100m before the next curve what was coming, and he checked it. I would say “120 left” and he would correct me, like “120 left plus”. We drove it together nine times, and the last three times I didn’t make a single mistake.” Perfection is what’s required here and Loeb wouldn’t have it any other way. “I approached Pikes Peak like I do all of my projects: professionally, with a good team and to the very highest standards. I know there is no room for even the smallest error. But I have no interest in just coming here and driving with the pack. I want the record.” There are parts of the course where the road drops 500m into nothingness, with no guide rail. At many of these curves, such as the forebodingly named Devil’s Playground at 4,000m, the cars in the fastest class reach speeds of well over 200kph. “With a car as powerful as the Peugeot, if you steer just a fraction wide, you’re history,” says Loeb. “You have to be precise. It was actually easier before on gravel; you can work much more with the car.” Meanwhile, clouds roll in and the weather service forecasts a 30 per cent chance of rain.
Today’s essential music makers tell the stories behind their beat: Fireside Chats on rbmaradio.com
thrusting
talent World-class fencer Olga Kharlan gets straight to the point in the run-up to this month’s World Championships in Budapest Words: Ruth Morgan Photography: Sergei Chyrkov
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hen she was a little girl, Olga Kharlan dreamed of being a shop assistant or a dancer. Fortunately for Ukrainian sport, both career paths were sliced to tatters the moment she picked up a sword. That epiphany was 12 years ago. Now 22, Kharlan and her sabre have won two Olympic medals – the first a gold at Beijing 2008, when she was just 17 years old – and numerous world and European titles. This month, the girl from Mykolaiv, near Odessa, is dreaming of yet more glory at the World Championships in Budapest, and counting on dried fish, self-help and Marilyn Manson to get her there. 58
the red bulletin: How did you get into fencing? olga kharlan: I clearly remember the day I first heard about it. I was an energetic child and used to go dancing a lot. But when I was 10, my mum said, ‘I’m sorry, but we can’t afford to pay for your dance lessons any more.’ My godfather was working as a fencing trainer at the time so he suggested I go to his club instead. When did you first realise that fencing was becoming a passion? To begin with it was just a bit of fun, but I discovered my true passion for the sport when I started getting results. I had a real thirst for winning. I love that fencing is an
unusual sport, too – you have to trick your rival if you want to win. That’s fun. There are three types of sword in fencing: épée, foil and sabre. Why did you go for the sabre? The épée and foil jab, while the sabre strikes. It’s the only weapon where you can score points with the blade’s edge. It’s a very agile weapon, and as a result the discipline is incredibly fast-paced. We fence with greater energy whereas, with the épée and foil, there’s a lot of standing around and waiting. What do you say to those who claim fencing is not a hugely physical sport? All sports are physically strenuous, and the red bulletin
Olga Kharlan first took a stab at fencing aged 10. Seven years later she won Olympic gold
the thing I can’t resist. Oddly, I don’t like chocolate, but sometimes – and this happens very rarely – I can eat a whole bar of milk chocolate in one sitting. After that, I just want dried fish again. Do you ever want to turn off your alarm, forget the gym and hang out with your friends like a regular 22-year-old? I don’t have much free time to myself, and that’s the hardest part of my profession. When I do get time off, I like to hang out with friends from outside the sport. When we meet, we don’t talk about training or competition. We just go to the cinema, catch up and have fun. Is talking shop a problem with your boyfriend, since he’s a fencer too? Yes, I’m going out with another sabrefencer called Dima, and we often speak about our bouts and give each other advice. My coaches would prefer I was single, but Dima being around has never got in the way. If anything, it’s helped. What sort of music gets you in the mood to do battle? I love listening to music – in my car; when I’m at home; when I’m training. Sometimes I can’t prepare for a match unless I’m listening to something. I have all sorts on my iPod, from Metallica to Justin Bieber. When my boyfriend listens to my iPod, he’s always surprised by the choice of songs. He’s like, ‘You’ve got Marilyn Manson on here?!’ You’ve had a lot of attention for your looks as well as your fencing prowess. Are you happy being labelled a pin-up? I’m very flattered that people appreciate my looks, but feel quite embarrassed when they give me compliments. I really
On the front foot: Kharlan (left) is hoping to win her second consecutive world championship gold
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“If I get recognised it’s only because of my car – because I have my name and the Olympic rings on the number plates” enjoyed being photographed for a Ukrainian men’s magazine – but it did have some negative consequences. My parents were fine about it, but my trainers didn’t understand why we [Olga and her two teammates] did it. Afterwards I said I wouldn’t pose for another magazine like that, but who knows? I might… You still live in the Ukranian town where you grew up: Mykolaiv, near Odessa. Are you a local celebrity? Not really, because fencing still isn’t very popular there. If I get recognised, it’s only because of my car – because I have my name and the Olympic rings on the number plates. [The car was a gift from the Ukrainian Fencing Federation for winning gold.] It’s great when I’m recognised as it means people know what fencing is. Do you think you’ll ever leave your hometown? I’ve lived in Mykolaiv all my life and I love it there. All of my relatives live there and I share a house with my parents and my dog. My mum always has something delicious waiting for me when I get back from competing – I love her borscht. I plan to live my whole long and happy life there. Do you still get nervous before a bout? I always get nervous! Confidence is a weird thing. You can have it one minute and then two seconds later it’s gone. I have to distract myself from negative thoughts. My inner voice helps me. I often talk to myself – but not out loud. How are you feeling about the upcoming World Championships? My goal is to win individual gold at both the World Championships and the next Olympics. I’ll have to work very hard to achieve that, but when I have, I’ll be the happiest person in the world. www.redbull.com
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additional photography: daniel kolodin/red bull content pool
sabre fencing is no exception. You need vast amounts of strength and stamina. We move around with our legs half bent, so there’s constant pressure on the knees and back – which are often injured as a result. Plus we’re constantly bruised from hits. How mentally taxing is fencing? Psychological fitness is just as important as the physical side. Everything can change in a second. So we don’t just train in the fencing hall, we train in the psychologist’s study, too. He gives me strategies to focus my thoughts. Do you miss dancing, your first love, despite all of your fencing success? Maybe I would have become a great dancer. I loved samba and cha-cha, but I’ll never know. I sometimes watch ballroom dancing competitions because it’s so beautiful, but that’s where my interest ends; my heart belongs to fencing. How did it feel winning bronze at London 2012 after gold in 2008? Before London, I thought that if I didn’t win a gold like I did in Beijing, I’d be very depressed. But I realised that once you’re on that Olympic podium, you’re a winner. I’d have liked to be a little higher up, but I’ve got still time to get there. We’ll see what happens in 2016. How strenuous is your training regime? I’m in the gym for about eight hours a day, six days a week. I do general physical training and then fencing training, where we spend a lot of time practising moves and polishing our technique. Can you eat what you like if you’re exercising that much? I don’t often go on diets. I really love savoury food, especially dried fish. That’s
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Photography: ORACLE TEAM USA/Guilain GRENIER
Deadly and demanding, the huge catamarans that will slice through San Francisco Bay in the America’s Cup next month have created a new type of sailor for a new kind of sailing Words: Andreas Tzortzis
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and bracing themselves against the other hull as water whips through. The boat begins a slow tack and more bound across, including Spithill, who joins them on the other side. He steadies the wheel and heads upwind toward Fort Mason. Behind him, three chase boats bearing the Oracle logo swerve in and out of the AC72’s wake at top speed like a motorcade, straining to keep up. Spithill is the skipper of Oracle Team USA, current holders of the America’s Cup. The red-haired Australian became the youngest skipper to win the trophy
when he steered Larry Ellison’s trimaran to victory in the 2010 competition. Next month he and a top-flight international crew of 11 will take on the winner of a three-team selection series between boats from Sweden, New Zealand and Italy in the 34th contest for a trophy awarded since 1851. “I don’t think anyone, even pro sailors a few years ago, could ever predict or think this is where we would end up today,” says Spithill, 34. “From where we’ve come from to where we are is a vertical quantum leap. It’s not a slow the red bulletin
Photography: Cameron Baird/Red Bull Content Pool
he wind in San Francisco Bay barrels through the Golden Gate Bridge like a gang of brawling longshoremen spilling through the doors of a bar. It whips the placid waters of the morning into frosted whitecaps by early afternoon, buffets the regal hills of Angel Island and whistles through the ghostly windows of Alcatraz, blowing the baseball caps off the heads of Midwestern tourists. On the water, boats heel and the edges of their canvas sails flap sharply in the strong gusts. But on the 72ft catamaran with a 260m2 sail speeding past them, there is little sound. The boat the America’s Cup committee hopes will give sailing a shot in the arm begins heeling as the first fingers of wind hit the wing. The 11 members of the crew tuck themselves into an area dug out of one of the two hulls. Paired up around four grinding handles attached to hightech winches, they hold perfectly still. It’s a game of inches as skipper Jimmy Spithill looks up at the sail and wing and then out in the direction he plans to head. The grinders, who operate the sails, move in synchronised motions for a few revolutions, trimming the sail and wing in and out. The only sound is the mechanical crank of the wing as the boat’s hulls begin to rise out of the water. First the windward hull, then the leeward, as it rises up on a 250kg slice of carbon-fibre daggerboard, a manoeuvre called foiling that enables the boats to hit speeds in excess of 39 knots (72kph). Other boats pound through conditions like this, but the AC72 cuts through everything. It’s remarkably stable on top of the water as the speed ticks up and up. Spithill gives the word and the crew spring into action. A tight choreography begins as they bound across the width of the boat, skidding down on the netting
“I don’t think anyone, even pro sailors a few years ago, could ever predict or think this is where we would end up today. From where we’ve come to where we are is a vertical quantum leap” the red bulletin
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“We’re working so hard – we’re on the edge, and when you get to the end of it, you look around and think if you could bottle that up, you’d do well”
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breaking apart. It took more than seven hours to recover the boat from the water. The dangers are set against a backdrop of the sport’s far-reaching potential. These boats are unmatched in their demands on sailors and their design innovation, and they’re set to generate the sort of buzz and TV audiences the America’s Cup, and the sport of sailing, desperately need to justify the hundreds of millions spent in investment each year. To no one is this more apparent than Spithill, who swears he remembers the jubilation that greeted Australia II’s victory in 1983, the first time a nonAmerican boat had won the competition since the first race in 1851. He was three years old. Seven years later, he won his first race on a wooden dinghy that he, his sister and his dad found on a scrap heap. He’s now behind the wheel of a boat costing an estimated US$10 million. His crew hail from eight countries. The fitness levels required of the team are Olympian in this category. And the rush he gets from sailing is unparalleled.
THE FEELING
Photography: ORACLE TEAM USA/Guilain GRENIER
“It was intimidating the first time I stepped on,” says Spithill of the AC72. “We spent countless hours going through the design with the engineers, the predictions, the CAD drawings. But when you step on that and it starts moving, it’s like you’re going from a pony to a thoroughbred. As soon as that boat hits the water, it is alive and it just wants to go. All it takes is as little as 5 knots [10kph] of wind. It’s really demanding because it takes so much energy and concentration. One little slip and this boat will bite you. “You hear the foils start to hum when you go over 40 knots [74kph], and the wind is like being in a hurricane. The guys are working so hard and you’re on the edge, and when you get to the end of it, you look around and just... Yeah, if you could bottle that up, you’d do well.” progression. We’ve just gone ‘Bang!’ It’s like we’ve broken a brick wall down.” The AC72’s increased power also led to tragedy, however. In May of this year the Swedish Artemis Racing catamaran broke apart during a downwind America’s Cup training session. British Olympic gold medal winner Andrew Simpson died in the incident after becoming trapped under the water. His death led to a number of proposed changes in race rules, including a maximum wind speed reduction to 23 knots (43kph), down the red bulletin
from 33 knots (61kph).Crewmembers must also wear life vests with oxygen canisters tucked on the outside, which can give one minute of air if they go under. In October of last year, Spithill and his crew were fortunate to survive their own brush with disaster. On the eighth day of training on the boats, Spithill’s AC72 nosedived in rough conditions as he navigated through its most dangerous manoeuvre – the sharp turn from upwind to downwind – sending the 11-man crew into the cold water of the bay before
THE RESPECT
“You never ever underestimate the boat. You give it a lot of respect and don’t ever relax. You’re 100 per cent focused. With other boats, a lot of the time, it’s like, ‘Hey guys we’re gonna take a break and sit down and relax.’ It doesn’t happen. That’s when an accident can happen. It’s not like you take the wing down and have lunch. “A lot of the time you don’t have the time to say, ‘Hey here’s what’s coming up.’ Or, ‘Get ready for this.’ You need to make 67
each and every decision in a calm way while you’re red-lining the boat. And the guys on board have to make decisions when they’re completely exhausted. It’s split-second and you need incredibly smart guys. You can have the fittest guy in the world on the boat, but if he doesn’t have a strategic mind or is not a good enough sailor to anticipate what’s coming up, he’s not going to make it. You could have the greatest tactician, and if he’s not a great athlete he’ll stick out like a sore thumb. “We’ve had some football players, rugby players and race car drivers on board, and they’re just like, ‘I had no idea.’ Now we’re getting real credibility.”
THE RISKS
“If you get on a 72ft carbon-fibre multihull with a 131ft wing and you don’t think there’s going to be some risk associated with it, there is something wrong with you.” “We always knew there was a chance of capsizing. But at the end of the day, the sailors are on the boat because they want to be on there. They understand that it’s not risk-free. Nothing is. But they do it because they’re people who like to go out of their comfort zone, they like to be pushed and ultimately learn something about themselves. “The most dangerous manoeuvre is the point where you bear away and turn the boat from going upwind to a downwind direction with the wing out. If you didn’t do anything the boat just wants to nosedive. It requires very good co-ordination – if you get it right and if it’s done well, you’re rewarded
with an amazing sort of acceleration – from about 10 knots up to 40 knots [19-74kph]. It’s an amazing feeling.”
THE RESPONSIBILITY “There’s a lot of risk. You make a wrong decision in this boat and it could be catastrophic. The time you have to make a decision a lot of times is split-second. You’re always trying to think a step or two ahead. “No question, there is a greater sense of responsibility than in the past. That’s rare if you look at team sports. You look at MotoGP and Formula One: if the driver makes a mistake, he’s going to hurt himself. There’s not that many sports where you put everyone in danger. I actually don’t know if there is a sport like that. It demands a lot of your attention, for sure.”
THE ARENA
“If you’re a sailor and you’ve sailed in the water around San Francisco, you’ll be ready to roll. You’re going to have a lot of confidence after being pushed hard, dealing with the fog, the ferries, Alcatraz and the currents. The Bay’s personality changes every single day. It’s challenging. Then you throw this boat in and sail it around this course. When you come into the dock, it’s like you’ve really accomplished something, you’ve pushed hard. It’s asked you for a lot, but what an awesome, rewarding experience.”
THE FUTURE
“Finally, sailing is up there with other kinds of sport. Before it bothered me. Don’t get me wrong, I love the fact that our sport is so diverse. People are saying that this is Formula One on the water, and it’s true in terms of engineering and construction, but before we didn’t have that level of athlete to pull it off – now we do. “Honestly, when I go home at night I can’t wait to get up the next day and come here. It is the coolest thing in the world. It’s a big sacrifice on time and your family, but I cannot wait to get in. “What’s crazy is what’s going to happen in another five to 10 years. I used to do a bit of motocross, and you see Travis Pastrana doing the first backflips, and then the first double backflip. It makes you wonder how far your sport can go.” www.americascup.com
Turn the page for 2013 Cup preview
Photography: ORACLE TEAM USA/Guilain GRENIER
“There’s a lot of risk. Make a wrong decision in this boat and it could be catastrophic. That’s rare in sport: there’s not that many of them where you put everyone involved in danger”
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the Bay Arena San Francisco Bay is the most intimate and reliable America’s Cup venue to date. In September the winds howling through the Golden Gate Bridge hit average speeds of 20 knots (37kph), picking up in the early afternoon of each day. The size of the boats and the course taking them close to the San Francisco peninsula guarantees fans on shore will have plenty to look at.
not plain sailing With its consistent wind and renowned beauty, San Francisco Bay is the perfect location for America’s Cup sailors, spectators and TV cameras 70
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The team lowdown
The four teams have decades of America’s Cup experience between them. American sailing expert Kimball Livingston has watched every race since 1980: here’s his run-down of this year’s favourites
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the outcome?
Celebrity sailing enthusiasts make their best guess as to who will win
Luc Alphand (France) The former World Cup alpine ski racer and Dakar Rally winner now spends his time trying to break sailing records
Photography: oracle team usa/Guilain GRENIER, Sander van der Borch, Luna Rossa, Chris Cameron, Picturedesk.com (3), Getty Images. Illustration: sascha bierl
O r ac l e T e am U S A
Em i r at e s T e am N e w Z e ala n d
Golden Gate Yacht Club, San Francisco CEO: Russell Coutts (New Zealand) Skipper: Jimmy Spithill (Australia)
Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron CEO: Grant Dalton (New Zealand) Skipper: Dean Barker (New Zealand)
“Crashing boat number one last October cost Oracle Team USA time on the water, but you can’t count the defender out. They’re a strong organisation, with a deep bench, and they were consistent winners on the 45 circuit [last summer’s preliminary racing on 45ft versions of the current boats]. They’re the only team training with two boats and two crews. They’ll be tough when the time comes and no matter who is on the course, there has never been an America’s Cup so vulnerable to the fortunes of war.”
“Right now the Kiwis have the strongest boat, the most practised team, the most time on the water, and they haven‘t had to deal with the hometown political distractions that surround Oracle. They’re focused, they’re having fun, and they’re of the mindset they have to win in order to stay alive. If Team New Zealand doesn’t win this time around, the government won’t refinance them. They’re the only team with government backing, and without that first $30 million guaranteed, it’ll be a steep slope.”
“The Oracle Team is the favourite for me. They still have a lead in the technology and tactics. Among the challengers, I see Emirates Team New Zealand imposing its culture on the Cup. This new form of modern sailing is good, but it has moved away from its tradition. Sailing becomes more professional in these kinds of projects, which can cost a lot of money and energy. With innovative technology, every detail counts in racing. As I come from sports that are timed – skiing and rally cars – this kind of sailing speaks to me.” M i c k e y Ha r t ( U S A ) The Grateful Dead drummer is head of the event’s entertainment committee and composed the music for this year’s America’s Cup “I’m into the rhythm of the whole thing. It’s like a dance, a ballet on the water between man, ship and the ocean. These guys are at the edge, and they’re rhythm masters. Who wins? It’s a couple of guys racing across the water – the most important thing is that they’ve created this dance. My interest is in what it sounds like sonically. What does the boat and the water sound like? I try to use that when I’m making the music for the Cup.”
L u n a R o ssa C h all e n g e
A r t e m i s Rac i n g
Circolo della Vela Sicilia CEO: Patrizio Bertelli (Italy) Skipper: Max Sirena (Italy)
Royal Swedish Yacht Club CEO: Paul Cayard (USA) Skipper: Iain Percy (UK)
“Max Sirena is a veteran who was in charge of the wing for Oracle Team USA when they won in 2010. The team looks good on paper, but their boat is essentially a copy of Team New Zealand’s first boat, and the Kiwis have moved on and up. The Italians and Kiwis have been training as partners, but if Luna Rossa has the stuff to beat New Zealand, it’s been hard to detect.”
“There have been a number of quiet departures since Andrew ‘Bart’ Simpson was killed in a training crash, and until they launched their second boat they had no idea what they have. They’ve had less time on the water than anybody else and no time at all in a foiling AC72 until their second boat was launched this summer. It’ll be uphill all the way for them this year.”
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A sailor on the San Francisco Bay for much of his adult life, Kimball Livingston is a journalist, author and a three-decade veteran of covering the America’s Cup for various publications. He currently lectures on the race series at UC Berkeley.
E d d i e J o r da n ( UK ) Former Formula One team owner. Superyacht owner “I know the Americans will probably try to cancel the race if the wind is too strong, but I think if it’s windy and the wind is good – and they are allowed to race in it, the Kiwis will win.”
N e v i ll e C r i c h t o n ( N e w Z e ala n d ) Yachting enthusiast and winner of the 2009 Sydney-Hobart race, an annual event over the 1,170km between Australia and Tasmania “If the America’s Cup comes down to a race between Oracle Team USA and Team New Zealand, Oracle has a slight edge upwind, but Team New Zealand is way quicker downwind and reaching. Also, Team New Zealand’s crew and boat handling skills are far superior to all the other teams.” Watch exclusive footage of Oracle Team USA on the water in The Red Bulletin tablet edition. Download the app and issues now for free
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the wild side of town He’s a faceless superstar: a wall-painting nomad, artist and rebel. The Red Bulletin spoke exclusively to ROA in what is his longest interview to date Words: Jasmin Wolfram and Andreas Rottenschlager Photography: Philipp Greindl
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Long spray days: “First my shoulders ache, then my back and then the index finger – that’s from pressing the button of the spray can”
Not pictured: ROA in the Galerie Hilger NEXT in Vienna: “I am a wall-painting nomad”
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the red bulletin: You spray huge motifs onto public walls, often under extreme time pressure. Which parts of your body start to hurt first? roa: I recently worked on a motif in the commercial port in Linz, Austria, for nine days; sometimes 12-hour shifts with no break. First my shoulders hurt, then my back, and then the index finger on my right hand, which is the one I use to press the spray-can nozzle. Of course, a motif on that scale is a mental challenge, too.
“Artists should only create things that inspire them” With fines and prison sentences, not everyone accepts this as an art form. It would be better if people worried less about their privacy or property and saw these artworks as a gift, not something which adversely affects their environment. When you were young, you spraypainted the walls of derelict houses. Now you have artworks hanging in galleries. How do you reconcile those two extremes? An artist is an artist. It doesn’t matter the red bulletin
additional photography: elsa okazaki
ew York; London; Berlin. If you hunt around the world’s great cities, you’ll find ROA’s animal murals on walls in courtyards, sprawled across the side of factories. Inspired in part by the sketches of Charles Darwin, the secretive Belgian street artist paints in simple blacks, whites and reds and has, of late, become hot property. Now, rather than running from the law, he is being offered gallery space by big-name art dealers. Some of his works are the size of several tennis courts, while smaller pieces hang in prestigious venues such as the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. Last year, the Stolen Space gallery in London gave him a solo exhibition. Although his art is publicly displayed worldwide, ROA is a very private man. There are no photos of his face in the public domain. His pseudonym, he says, “doesn’t mean anything”. His reasons for privacy are simple: “Works are more important than people.” When The Red Bulletin meets him, hip-hop is blaring from laptop speakers on the second-floor balcony of the Galerie Hilger NEXT in Vienna. Empty spray cans are strewn across the floor. The sun will be going down any minute and he’s running out of light. ROA has to have his latest installation – an enormous kingfisher with outstretched wings – finished by the following evening. But, as night falls, he finds time to sit down with The Red Bulletin for a rare interview.
How do you go about transferring an A4 sketch onto a multi-storey building? I make my sketch directly on the wall. A wall is like any other work surface, just a little bigger. I find it boring to reproduce something you’ve already painted, so my sketches are mainly doodles. I want to create something new and fresh each time. Many of your works could be painted over. Does that bother you? Of course I want my works to survive as long as possible. But when I leave a place, that’s my job done. The wall doesn’t belong to me and the world doesn’t belong to us. It’s a public place and anyone with a spray can or a tin of paint can change that at any time. Is street art modern art? It’s contemporary, not modern. It doesn’t matter if street art is defined as intellectual or underground, or how seriously it is taken. The main thing is that it happens. The term street art was created by people who had nothing to do with it, similar to a lot of general terms, it merely connects ‘street’ and ‘art’. But street artists have existed much longer. It’s not limited to painting: mime, juggling and music can all be street art, too, so it is a bad term that describes nothing.
In June of this year ROA completed two huge murals in Linz for the Austrian city’s Bubble Days art festival. He spent nine days working on this sketch of a goat
where or how he works or the context in which he performs. The main thing is feeling that desire to create something. It’s not about how great people think you are, or how well you hold your place in the market. It’s nice to have bread, cheese and chocolate spread on the kitchen table every morning. How do you define the term ‘artist’? An artist can do what he wants. If someone comes in and defecates on the floor of this gallery and calls it art, it’s art. Whether the public likes it or not is another matter. A true artist should only create things that inspire him, not stuff that’s easy to sell. I did all sorts of jobs in the past, just to be able to afford spray paint. Now it’s the other way around: I make my money with paint to buy paint. Your art is all about taming wild animals. Why? I don’t actively tame them. Some people think my animals are sweet, others find them aggressive. When I paint the animals, they appear static, but they’re not necessarily dead. People give them their own meaning – that’s what’s beautiful about art. Your motifs all come from the animal kingdom. What is it that you don’t like about people? Animals reveal a great deal about the times we live in, the things that affect us and the way we live our lives as humans.
Vital signs: ROA’s work has given the port in Linz a facelift. Below: his intricate sketch of a mountain goat’s skull
How did the work of Charles Darwin inspire your motifs? Darwin researched different animal species all over the world and was constantly on the move. In that sense, we’re very similar. I’m extremely interested in biology and the vast variety within the animal kingdom. But ultimately, I’m an artist, not a biologist. You keep the details of your private life closely guarded. How much time
“Street art could raise house prices”
do you get to spend at your home in Belgium? It’s got to the point where my real home doesn’t feel like home any more. I’m like a wall-painting nomad. Some of your pencil drawings are reminiscent of the old masters of Belgium and Holland. As somebody raised in the Low Countries, do you see yourself as part of that tradition? We’re all influenced by the conditions we grow up in; the things we see as children. The impressions they make inspire us, even if we don’t realise it at the time. From that point of view, it’s possible that the European school influenced my painting style, yes. Your work fills walls 20m high. How do you get the proportions right? I don’t use projectors or grids. They wouldn’t be any use, because when I’m starting out, I don’t know how the artwork is going to proceed. I find that out while I am painting. I have photos of the animals I want to paint and I look at their skeletons so I can understand their anatomy and proportions. In 2011, you painted in Gambia. What did the people there make of your work? The people are open to creativity, they are not afraid of change. Is this the biggest difference to Europe? Why do Western graffiti artists paint almost exclusively in rundown or backstreets locations? Because these are the places where nobody is bothered by what we do. But they’re also the places that have the most potential for transformation. Now there are owners of properties speculating that street art could actually help house prices to rise. What gets you more excited? The freedom of a legal location or the thrill of an illegal wall? It doesn’t matter if something is legal or illegal. The only thing that matters in the end is that you create something interesting. ROA’s latest exhibition: www.inoperable.at
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Night shift in the studio: among those jamming the late shift is Louis Baker (top)
Breakfast with Blondie, jamming with James Murphy, composing with Philip Glass and then singing a church into awestruck silence. All in a day’s work at Red Bull Music Academy in New York City Words: Florian Obkircher  Photography: Dan Wilton and Christelle de Castro 78
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T
he mixing desk is the size of a car. Its controls, dials and lights reminiscent of a space shuttle. Nearby sit an assortment of speakers, microphone stands and drums, circling the desk like planets around a sun. A man with dishevelled hair and a greying beard is sitting with his back to this musical cockpit. “So you want to know how we get such a dry drum sound, eh?” he asks the crowd with a broad grin. The recording studio is packed to the rafters with listeners. “OK,” he says. “We use a little modern technology: mouse pads taped to the drums.” Cue reverent nods and mutters of amazement from the audience. The man in question is James Murphy, the New Yorker whose DFA label is infamous for setting new dancefloor
trends. As the creative mind behind LCD Soundsystem, he sold millions of records during a stellar career, receiving three Grammy nominations in the process. The 43-year-old producer is currently cutting a new album with Canadian indie rock gods Arcade Fire, but he’s engaged in an entirely different project here this evening. The audience is made up of 31 young, ambitious musicians. The venue is one of the new recording studios at the Red Bull Music Academy in Manhattan. The Red Bull Music Academy has been travelling the globe since 1998. Every year it makes a four-week stop in a musical hub such as Cape Town, Berlin, São Paulo and, as of this May, New York City. The concept is always the same: reboot an old building in the city centre and fit it out with recording studios and an auditorium, then invite 62 young musicians, producers, singers and DJs from all over the world to attend. This group is then split into two, with each half attending for a fortnight. Within this two weeks, they can fully give themselves over to their passion: making music, exchanging ideas and learning from each other. On hand to help participants in each city are big names from the industry. In New York that means people like sound visionary Brian Eno, techno mogul Richie Hawtin, composer Philip Glass and the aforementioned Murphy. “For me, the Red Bull Music Academy is a place of opportunities,” says 23-year-
Speakers in 2013 included (below, from left) Debbie Harry, Giorgio Moroder, and Red Bull Music Academy co-founder Torsten Schmidt
Red Bull Music Academy celebrates the 12th birthday of the DFA label, run by James Murphy (right), with a wild party in New York City
“The Red Bull Music Academy is a place of opportunities” LOUIS BAKER
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old New Zealander Louis Baker. “Making music with like-minded people from 29 different countries? Forging international contacts within the industry? Getting feedback from established professionals? None of that is easy to do back home. But here, it’s all possible.” “As a young musician, it’s easy to feel a little off the beaten track in New Zealand,” he continues. “It’s a great place, but you can feel alone as a creator of art. Here, you soon realise you’re not the only crazy person passionately pursuing your dream. It’s an excellent vindication of what you believe in and what you’re doing.” Baker has now been in New York for a week and a half, but there hasn’t been any time for sightseeing yet, thanks to the packed timetable at Red Bull Music Academy headquarters. “It’s pure stress,” he says. “The best stress you can possibly imagine. You get up at 10. You discuss last night’s party over breakfast. Over the course of the day, there are two lectures given by professionals. Between these, you work on songs or give interviews to the on-site radio station. At night, you record music in the studio or head out to the city’s clubs where music legends and other participants share the stage and the decks with us. It’s amazing.” Baker is playing tonight. After his final lecture is finished, he packs up his guitar and heads with a gaggle of other students towards the grandiose West Park Church on 86th Street. Baker will be the support act for German avant-garde house artist Pantha Du Prince, who gave his guest lecture at the Red Bull Music Academy the day before.
House beatmaster Sinjin Hawke
Full marks at the Academy (from top): house producer Bok Bok from London, kissed by musician Nick Hook; Nigeria’s Kraftmatiks; Scottish dubstep DJ Rudi Zygadlo and Italian producer Jolly Mare
House DJs Pleasure Cruiser (left) and Carrot Green fine-tune a track in one of the nine recording studios
On the way there, Baker admits he is nervous: this is his first ever gig outside New Zealand. An hour later, he’s standing in the wings. He takes a deep breath and then he’s on. Within two minutes he has silenced all the chatter in the pews with a voice as gentle and powerful as Jeff Buckley’s, creating goosebumps throughout the audience with his perfectly crafted folk songs. The crowd hangs devoutly on the young musician’s every word. It is a surreal scene: a man and his guitar putting a flock of hundreds into a group trance. “That guy was incredible,” says Just Blaze after the concert. “We’re going to be hearing a lot more from him.” Blaze has produced Jay-Z, Eminem and Kanye West, and is one of four Red Bull Music Academy studio tutors here in New York available for every student around the
Music non-stop (clockwise, from above left): electro pioneer Brian Eno; revellers at the DFA party; the Red Bull Music Academy newspaper, The Daily Note; New York participant Shadowbox; a masked partygoer earns his stripes
Photography: Anthony Blasko (1)
clock. The 35-year-old first took part in the project as a lecturer in Melbourne in 2006 and was so taken with the atmosphere that this time he wanted to make a bigger contribution and spend more time there. “In the past, a lot of DJs used to cover the labels on their records so nobody could see what music they were playing. You didn’t want anybody to know which record it was,” he says. “But now, through programmes like The Red Bull Music Academy, sharing knowledge has become a much bigger part of culture.” Blaze, whose primary job as a tutor is to help these young musicians in the studio with his technical expertise and experience, says he gets something from his exchange of ideas with the youngsters, too. “I get very inspired when I see a group of young musicians collaborating together, or when I work in the studio with talented kids like Louis,” he says, pointing to the young New Zealander. “Are you coming to Le Baron?” someone asks, holding a taxi door open for him. It’s tempting. Four other students are performing at the venue tonight. But Baker waves them on. He’s had enough for one day. And an important guest is scheduled for the Red Bull Music Academy’s lecture couch the next morning. Not long after breakfast, a woman wearing a black Ramones T-shirt and sunglasses enters the auditorium, a man with grey hair by her side. It’s Debbie Harry and Chris Stein. Blondie. The New York punk icons. Cool personified. The two of them talk for over an hour about what it the red bulletin
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Top: dubstep DJ Skream brings the British bass sound to New York at a Red Bull Music Academy party. Above: British electro DJ Richie Hawtin, a 2013 lecturer. Right: D창MFunK shows off his 21st-century funk at an intimate show
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British participant T Williams (above) has remixed Jesse Ware and Disclosure
“I made a pact with myself to try anything” louis baker
Hip-hop producer Just Blaze (above) is part of the Red Bull Music Academy studio team. How late into the night does he work with the participants? “Usually till 5am,” he says. “But that’s fine. It doesn’t feel like work”
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was like on the Lower East Side back in the ’70s, how Harry originally sold candles to be able to survive in New York. How she and Stein pulled all-nighters with Andy Warhol and the Ramones at Max’s Kansas City nightclub. And how they recorded the Blondie hit Call Me with electronic pioneer Giorgio Moroder, who had sat on the Red Bull Music Academy couch himself a week earlier. Harry grimaces when someone refers to the song Denis. She says she can’t bear it. “You’ve got to understand that she’s constantly singing the lyrics ‘woobiedoo’ in that song,” Stein explains. “That’s really difficult – for anybody.” The auditorium erupts into laughter. The final lecture, by Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, also provides plenty of chuckles. He’s a dub music pioneer, the producer of several Bob Marley albums and a wizard on the decks. A Jamaican who makes reggae sound like it comes from Mars. His outfit helps too: a baseball cap with mirrors attached, and his beard dyed a pinkish red. The 77-year-old paints a charmingly bonkers picture of his world: why reggae is like sex; why all life is reflected in the bass drum. The effect of his cosmic lecture is that, for an hour at least, you think you’ve understood how the universe is interconnected. And all without illegal substances. Later, over dinner, some are still discussing Perry’s wisdom. Others have already holed themselves up in the recording studios. The Red Bull Music Academy is transformed into a musical playground during these evening hours. Young producers dash excitedly from one small studio space to another with drum machines and headphones under their arms. Hip-hop lovers check whether the records they’ve
just purchased at the local flea market will be good for sampling or not. Just Blaze is sitting in one of the recording studios, studying his computer screen. He’s working on a new track with Barcelona-based participant Sinjin Hawke. The two of them put a soul vocal track into the software’s arrangement window and crank up the pitch until it sounds like Mickey Mouse. Blaze says, “It needs a harp.” Hawke nods in agreement. They import the file and press play. A bass music monster comes crashing out of the studio computers. We’re talking about something that would blow the roof off any club. “It isn’t ready yet,” Hawke explains. “But it’s getting there slowly.” In the studio next door, Canadian techno connoisseur Mathew Jonson is taking an audio workshop. The questions everyone wants answers to are: how do Jonson’s tracks get that ultra-rich sound? What does his live set-up look like? And how does he control the huge, sideboardsized synthesiser on his right? The young musicians sit around the studio and follow Jonson’s comments in reverent silence. Then he takes them over to the controls: “Don’t be shy. Play to your heart’s content!” It becomes a wild house-music session within a matter of minutes. New students join in like lions around a fallen antelope. They nab a synthesiser and jam along. Layers of sound cloud overlap, regulated only by a thumping beat. One participant likens it to a hypnotic experience: “It was like climbing into a time capsule.” It’s now 4am, and it feels like rush hour in the studio corridors. Louis Baker is still up, too. He’s just recorded the guitar on an R&B track for Nigerian participant Kraftmatiks. It’s the fifth track he’s worked on with fellow participants since he’s been here. “I made a pact with myself,” he says. “To just try anything, and take on the challenge.” And that really is enough for him right now. Baker flings his jacket over his shoulder. He’s already on his way out the door when someone calls his name. It’s Anna Love, another participant from the US. Baker still owes her a vocal track. “Come on Louis. You promised me we’d record it today!” Anna pleads. Baker gives a quick sigh, thinks for a moment and then trudges back into the studio with a smile on his face. He knows that he can make up for that lost sleep later. But he won’t be able to say the same thing for this experience. www.redbullmusicacademy.com
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Dune bashing
It’s a buggy’s life: speeding over sand at 100kph
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On the expanse of giant dunes outside abu dhabi thrillseekers experience the ride of a lifetime Travel, page 90
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PRO TOOLS
Hi-TECH saviours Compressed-air system “When a fall is detected, the airbag is completely filled to its 4-litre capacity in 30 milliseconds. It knows a rider’s falling before he does.”
Airbag “In a fall, this will reduce the force of impact on your upper body by up to 85 per cent.”
In case of emergency
Arai VX-3 “The face piece can be detached from the exterior, reducing the risk of injury during first aid.” www.araihelmet.com
Telemetry “Statistics are picked up by sensors, which provide information about a rider’s driving – and how to improve it.”
Integration “The compressed air system fits into a hump under the leather, for increased comfort. The whole thing weighs just 650g.”
Neck Brace “It takes a lot of imagination to come up with an excuse for not wearing a neck brace. Leatt make some of the best.”
Stefan Bradl: rides for the LCR Honda team
The perfect back-up
Intelligence “Data is collected from three motion detectors, three turn ratio sensors and a GPS.”
MotoGP German biker Stefan Bradl credits the Dainese D-air with keeping him in the chase for honours – and out of hospital We all know life in the fast lane can be tough. But when you race 1000cc motorbikes for a living, it can be life-threatening, too. Stefan Bradl – the 2011 Moto2 world champ – helped develop the Dainese D-air Racing protection system, a cross between an inflatable backpack and a life vest. He claims it has already saved him from injury many times over.
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“Last season in Indianapolis, I flew off the bike and smashed my shoulder,” says Bradl. “Without the D-Air, I would have broken my collarbone, at least. But I came away with barely a scratch.” Here, the 23-year-old describes the system that gives him the confidence to push his speed – and his boundaries. www.dainese.com
Spine Vest “Full protection while still allowing maximum freedom of movement. This spine-protecting gilet fits under any jacket.” www.pocsports.com
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photography: kurt keinrath, GEPA pictures/Gold and Goose (1)
www.leatt-brace.com
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MEZCAL TIME Mexico’s real favourite drink
You know about tequila, but for a proper taste of Mexico give mezcal a try.
Joy Provision
Words: alejandro garcÍa williams. Photography: Rodrigo jardÓn (2), joy room (2)
mexico city With champagne Showers, fountains and House beats, Joy Room is the hot spot for the rich and Beautiful of Mexico Are you ready for the big time? Close to the centre of sprawling, 20 million-strong Mexico City you’ll find its beating heart: Joy Room. The queues for this vaunted super club regularly stretch several blocks, and each night the venue is packed with more than 800 people. Joy Room has been setting the nightlife agenda in this country’s capital for five years now, and shows no sign of relinquishing that hold. A regular haunt of footballers, world-class DJs and musicians (recent revellers include The Black Eyed Peas, Coldplay and the entire Mexican national football team), the champagnefuelled party usually goes on until dawn, matching anything that New York or Miami has to offer. JOY ROOM Antara Fashion Hall Mexico City, MX, 11520 www.joyroomantara.com
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Happy place: Joy Room, complete with fountain
House beats are the music of choice
Mezcal Danzantes Traditionally a working class drink, mezcal is made from different types of maguey, an agave plant. Danzantes, from the Espadín and Tobalá kind, is clear, smooth and a bit smoky, with 42 per cent proof. Muy macho.
Club hopping Queue too long at Joy Room? Here are nearby nearly-as-good alternatives
FAT CROW Intimate concert hall for 80 people, with acoustic performances. RAGGA Large disco with a younger crowd and a sushi bar. VOILÀ Plays host to some of the best international bands, including Ratatat.
Mezcal Pierde Almas The name of this brand literally means “lost souls”. Made in extremely small batches using traditional equipment and fair trade politics, it’s young but powerful. The average bottle exceeds an alcohol volume of 45 per cent.
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travel
And anoth er thing Abu Dhabi dos
Race With dunes bashed, drivers with spare energy can get back to tarmac with a high-octane track experience at the F1 YasMarina Circuit. www.yasmarina circuit.com
Arabian sights: Abu Dhabi’s desert is best explored on four wheels
Anyone for desert? Dune bashing With climbs and drops of 400m, tackling the world’s biggest sand expanse on four wheels is a rollercoaster ride like no other
Joost Welmers rode with www.xtremedesert.com Prices start from €829 for a two-day tour
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www.rotana.com
whizz
Advice from the inside It’s not a mirage “Surprisingly, I found a beautiful five-star resort in the Empty Quarter,” says Welmers. “It’s truly in the middle of nowhere. Pretty amazing to stay there during your trip. Real luxury after hours of wind and sand.” qasralsarab.anantara.com
Not sick of the sand? Try blokarting, or land sailing, as it’s also known. Find a windswept stretch of beach, stick a sail onto a threewheel buggy and you’re away. www.dreamdays.ae
Rough guide
“There are no warning signs in the desert,” says Maurits Knopjes of xtremedesert.com. “Nothing to tell you about a sudden steep drop or change in terrain, so it’s good to have someone experienced with you. Never drive out to The Empty Quarter alone.”
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words: ruth morgan. photography: extremdesert.com (2), shutterstock (2)
It doesn’t take a genius to work out why the barren dunes outside Abu Dhabi are known as The Empty Quarter, but a lack of population is exactly what makes this part of the world’s largest sand desert the perfect place for dune bashing. This is the sport of driving over huge sand drifts, and while some tour companies offer a quick chauffeured 4x4 ride in the dunes, true petrolheads get behind the wheel of a buggy capable of speeds up to 100kph for two days of unforgettable driving. “I’ve been to deserts before, but nothing like the Empty Quarter,” says Joost Welmers, 29, a digital marketing executive from the Netherlands. “It’s like being on the moon. The terrain is indescribable – and the driving was so exciting. I love adrenalin and this was completely different to what I’ve done before. These dunes are up to 400m high, and very steep, so you get up them at full speed up then drop over the other side – it’s like a rollercoaster. We got faster and faster as the guide worked out what we could handle, and the rushes got bigger. It was so much more than I expected.”
Rare Abu Dhabi is great for steak. The Blue Grill at Yas Island Rotana serves some of the capital’s best cuts in opulent surroundings.
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workout
Best foot forward: Baena hones her skating technique with biomechanical exercises Cecilia Baena, 26, from Columbia, is a six-time inline skating world champion
Want to boost power? Get inline
Words: Ulrich Corazza. Photography: Camilo Rozo/Red Bull Content Pool. Illustration: Henri Irawan
s KATING The reigning women’s inline world champion sees red for danger, gets loaded and is all knees and elbows If you cover over 4,000km a year on your skates and your racing bike, just as Cecilia Baena does as part of her training, then the other elements of your athletic life must support that. In her case, she complements the wheeled activity with three weekly weight-training sessions, which include squats with 100kg, deadlifts of 80kg and 100 crunches. She also regulates her nutrition, never eating when she feels like it and sticking to a schedule. “You have to load up on carbs before long sessions,” she says, “otherwise you’ll lose weight. During competition I mostly eat chicken or fish. Red meat gives me cramps.” The current world champion also has one crucial piece of advice for those who inline. “Never break a fall with your hands, or you risk serious wrist and finger injuries.” Land on your knees and elbows, which should be padded for protection. twitter.com/ChechyBaena
D O T R Y T H I S AT H O M E “These two simple exercises, for just a couple of minutes every day, will improve your technique and develop the explosive strength and stamina your legs need for inline,” says Baena.
1
Bend your leg about 100 degrees, with your upper body leaning forward.
Slowly bend your left knee.
Keep your right foot off the floor, swinging your arms for momentum.
Repeat the exercise five times, then do the same with the other leg.
Sidestep explosively to the right, with your left hand in front of you.
Using the momentum from your arms, take a big jump to the right.
Land on one foot; repeat in the opposite direction, for a total of five each.
2
Get Your Bearings Wheel Good Ways To Skate Great
“I recommend that you clean the wheel bearings on your skates with petrol at least once every two weeks,” says Baena. “If the metal’s too dry, grease up the bearings with a bit of oil. It’s also vital you choose the right set-up: that depends on the surface you’re skating on. Beginners tend to need slower wheels and bearings, but ask for advice in a specialist shop.”
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Start in the same position as for the exercise above.
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city Guide
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“ Tourists here are greeted like family” Dublin For graffiti artist Maser, spending time in his hometown means a stint in prison, haircuts in unexpected places and almost hanging out with Bono Thanks to his occupational camera shyness, you won’t know if you brush past Maser on a Dublin street. Yet he’s a constant in the city. “I was born and raised in south Dublin,” he says. “It’s where my studio is now. It has a great sense of community – even tourists are greeted like family. Through graffiti I’ve travelled a lot, and the more I am away from Dublin, the more I realise what a great place it is. It’s been a huge influence on my work, which is all based on what I encounter in my day-to-day life. In a way, my work is Dublin.” www.maserart.com
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maser’s city lights
1 The Bernard Shaw
South Richmond Street This old pub was taken over by music promoters and turned into a crazy place. My first studio was here. It hosts great art exhibitions, and you can get pizza from a blue double-decker bus in the garden.
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Grove Road
Graffiti artist Maser, who keeps his real name and age secret, is Dublin born and bred
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sense of community. I paint here a lot and people chat to me, there’s good banter. My art isn’t just about the finished piece, it’s the experience, too.
4 Kilmainhan Gaol
Inchicore Road This 18th-century prison inspires me anew every time. The film In the Name of the Father was shot here and 300 years ago, Irish national hero Anne Devlin was imprisoned inside. I painted a portrait of her in Dublin 8.
samhain This pagan festival, held on Halloween, heralds the end of the Celtic summer. Thousands join a huge fancy-dress parade winding its way through Dublin before a huge fireworks display. www.visitireland.com
Fringe Festival For 16 days in September, this festival turns Dublin into a stage for international comedians, musicians and dancers, with 500 events at over 30 venues. www.fringefest.com
Electric Picnic
2 All City Records
Temple Bar This is where I get all my supplies. It’s a great hangout: a record shop that sells graffiti paraphernalia. You can also get a great cup of coffee or your hair cut. There’s a street art gallery there, too.
3 Dublin 8
Area around Kevin Street This is old Dublin. There’s a real
5 vico Road Beach
Vico Road This swimming spot is just next to Bono’s house. It’s an oldschool bathing area: you jump off rocks into the sea. It’s 20 minutes from the city centre and when the days are long it’s lovely. I’ve never seen Bono diving in, though.
Held on a huge estate just outside Dublin, ‘The Irish Glastonbury’ has top acts like Fatboy Slim, Björk, Arctic Monkeys. The Knife and Eels lined up for the last weekend in August. www.electricpicnic.ie
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photography: courtesy of maser (2), the bernard shaw, all-city records, lusciouselopster
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super s ta r D J DJ of The Year* Seth Troxler’s golden rules for music biz survival
Empire Of The Sun were hard to miss when their space-age debut album Walking On A Dream landed in 2008, particularly the catchy single We Are The People. Now frontman Luke Steele and producer Nick Littlemore have released Ice On The Dune, a highenergy symphony of Disney disco. Their influences are as colourful as they are diverse: Littlemore recently reworked Elton John’s back catalogue at his request, and became musical director for Cirque de Soleil’s Zarkana show. These are the songs that get him through those long studio nights.
An empire state of mind playlist nick littlemore of flamboyant Australian duo Empire Of The Sun sees beauty in musical simplicity
1 Dr John
www.empireofthesun.com
2 Brian Eno
3 Ruth
This is a wonderful song from Dr John’s 1968 debut LP, Gris-Gris. I first heard it when I was 21. There’s one incredible section where he and five vocalists each sing the same phrase into a mic positioned between them. The voices keep resonating and create a human echo. I’ve tried to replicate this many times, but never manage it so well.
This is a beautiful, still, quiet song from Eno’s Before And After Science. What I love about him is that he makes things that are so simple and delicate. It’s a style I respond to a lot: things that are very quiet. I always find that the simplest songs are the hardest to write, so have so much respect when they’re done perfectly like this.
Paris has the coolest heartbeat of any city in the world. I grew up in Australia, but there was always an overt French connection in our house. Ruth are a little-known electronic group from Paris, and this track has the coolest vibe. The way the vocal is delivered is amazing. I don’t know what he’s saying and I don’t care; I’m always grooving to this.
4 The Korgis
5 Soak
I Walk On Gilded Splinters
Everybody’s Got To Learn…
Everybody’s Got To Learn Sometime has been covered a lot, but nobody has matched the beauty of the original. There was a remix I’d hear when I was sneaking out to raves in the ’90s, and it wasn’t until years later that I heard the 1980 original. It’s so simple, but that’s all it needs to be. You should put less in the way of the song when it’s this strong.
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By This River
Sea Creatures
Soak is a wonderfully talented young artist from Derry I’ve been listening to a lot. Sea Creatures is a mature work, but she wrote it when she was just 13 years old. This is her coming-of-age song. You get the sense that it’s written from a child’s perspective, but it’s amazingly insightful – the things she’s discovered things about herself and other people.”
Polaroïd/Romans/Photo
w et w et w et music to watch fish go by
Finis Neptune Perfect for the music-loving diver: a waterproof MP3 player with headphones that attach directly to the cheek rather than the ear. This transmits vibrations into the inner ear. Deep house just got a whole lot deeper… www.finisinc.com
1 If you’re serious about making music, you have to give up everything else. No side jobs, no distractions.
2 Always be friendly. If you’re an arsehole, everyone in the industry will know about it in no time at all.
3 Meet a lot of people and make contacts. Most record labels choose to only work with artists they know personally.
4 When you send out a demo, put it together as a package yourself. You need more than a link to your SoundCloud page.
5 Don’t put out more than four singles a year; that’s when press interest starts to disappear. *Seth Troxler was named DJ of the Year 2012 by electronic music magazine Resident Advisor www.redbullmusic academy.com/ lectures/seth-troxler
the red bulletin
words: florian obkricher. photography: universal music (2), finisinc.com, christelle de Castro/red Bull Content Pool
Nick Littlemore: one half of Australian band Empire Of The Sun
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AUGUST 2013 A BEYOND TH
E ORDINARY
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Action!
save the date
don’t miss ink these dates in your diary
8
august
The great Outdoors Three shows – boats, the great outdoors and motorcycles – in one venue over four days. SA’s official outdoor lifestyle show is at the Jhb Expo Centre, NASREC. www.outdoor lifestyle show.co.za
25 august
Endure then enjoy: entrants are rewarded with magnificent vistas
August 23-25
A run with a view
If you’re a trail runner, the Thule 4 Peaks Challenge must be on your calendar. The 24km run along the beautiful Witteberg, near Ficksburg, is as challenging as it is beautiful. They call it a skyrun, which means if your breath isn’t taken away by the views, it’s used for the lungbusting climbs and hectic descents. Also included this year is the Red Bull Pyramid Challenge, an intense 5km hill race. www.4Peaks.co.za
August 16-18 From August 31
Party time on New Beach
August 9-11
Not so fast The Roberston Slow Food And Wine Festival is all about slowly savouring the area’s top wines and traditional foods. Enjoy. www.robertsonslow.com
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The recently upgraded New Beach hosts Durban Spring Break, where a lot of fun is in store. The organisers are keeping tight-lipped about the lineup, but Zulu pop princess Toya Delazy (right) played the two-day festival last year, so prospects are good. www.facebook.com/ springbreakSA
Join thousands in the Blisters For Bread walk to raise funds for impoverished Western Cape children. Choose between 5km, 10km, or 20km events, all starting from Cape Town Stadium. www.psfa.org.za/ blisters_for_bread
6
September
All-action weekend
let’s Dance
Weekends don’t come more action-packed than the Gravity Adventure Festival. Now in its 12th year, the activities on offer at the Kogelberg Biosphere Reserve just outside Kleinmond include kayak races, trail runs, mountain biking, long-distance swimming and a night run. There are short-distance events for kids, while the film festival and live bands should keep everyone entertained in between exercise. www.adventurefestival.co.za
Joburg’s coolest party goes by the name of TOYTOY and takes place every Friday at Capital Music Café in Rosebank. Check the event’s Facebook page for line-up info. www.facebook. com/welove toytoy
the red bulletin
Words: Steve Smith. photography: Kelvin trautman, Shutterstock, Getty Images/Bet, Jacques Marais
Walk the walk
p ro m ot i o n
Must-haves! 1
Second SkinS “Tornado” Shell JackeT Keep warm in the cold and dry in the wet with our newly engineered “Tornado” shell jacket. Windand Water-resistant. Vented under-arms to manage ventilation for maximum riding comfort. The body-fit design ensures minimum resistance. High visibility with a stylish finish let you really stand out. Super lightweight and compact. For info, contact Joe Nesbitt @ 0823447767. R249. 1
2
www.secondskins.co.za
TaG heuer carrera - calibre 36 auTomaTic Flyback chronoGraph This spectacular addition to the TAG Heuer Carrera range is undoubtedly special. For the first time the legendary Calibre 36 movement pulsates inside a Carrera case. And the flyback function makes starting, stopping and resetting the chronograph child’s play. Ultralight sandblasted titanium grade 2, coated with black titanium carbide gives the case an intense racing look, which the perforated black leather strap enhances. For a more classic styling, there is a fine-brushed and polished steel case, complemented by the new H-shaped bracelet in the same materials. The Carrera Calibre 36 Flyback Chronograph, a dazzling newcomer. R79 995. 2
www.picotandmoss.co.za
4
3 puma FuTure Trnmc SlipSTream liTe Zb The PUMA Slipstream made way as an iconic sneaker silhouette in 1988 when it was adopted by basketball players and sneakerheads for its colossal style and unique design. This season, PUMA’s Future TRNMC Slipstream Lite ZB is nearly an all new silhouette. Staying true to its original outsole and hexagon tread pattern, new design elements include patterns arranged in angles and contrast colour-pop to break up the materials. The shoe’s upper is a combination of pony hair and a high gloss snake and zebraprinted canvas, helping to continue this style’s long reign over the high-collared kingdom. R1 299.
www.puma.com 4 SamSunG Galaxy S4 Zoom A joining of the Samsung Galaxy S4 and a highend camera, the Galaxy S4 has a 16 MP main camera and 10x Optical Zoom. Zoom Ring allows you to easily navigate from multiple camera modes to zoom controls, and other key features with a simple ring twist. Built-in Optical Image Stabilizer keeps the camera perfectly still to reduce blurring, Samsung Link and HomeSync let you transfer images to your laptop or cloud for safekeeping, and it also features the Samsung Hub for access to unlimited entertainment. All this in a sleek and stylish design, as a testament to its heritage. From R6 499 or R289pm (subject to contract).
3
www.samsung.com
5
5 Garmin Fēnix perFormer bundle The fēnix Performer Bundle is supplied with a Premium Heart Rate Monitor and an additional Orange Wrist bands. Perfect for outdoor athletes such as trail runners, the Garmin fēnix provides new and advanced training features and real-time performance monitoring, whilst keeping comprehensive navigation skills. With lap and auto-lap function and important performance data including ascent, vertical speed & pace, athletes can track and improve their performance during their outdoor training or expand their GPS reach up to 50 hours with UltraTrac for extended outdoor adventures. Feel 100% confident and stronger with every step and climb you master. R5 899.
www.garmin.co.za/fenix
Time warped: can it be true?
Hair force
Photography: gamma-keystone/getty images
It was the day the world (of competitive hair growing) stood still. On July 31, 1968, above an unseasonably grey Stockholm, Sigrid ‘Wiggy Siggy’ Andersson, home favourite in the world championships, reached down to her left ankle, removed a concealed pair of binoculars and looked down at the judges below. By making – some say mocking – the same pose as the judges looking up at her, she was first disqualified and later reinstated, with a set of perfect 10 scores that won her the title. ‘Shock socks binox rock locks finals’ ran the headline in Svenska Dagbladet.
The next edition of the red bulletin is out on september 3 98
the red bulletin