The Red Bulletin September 2017 - UK

UK EDITION

BEYOND THE ORDINARY

The Dark Tower star’s mission to explore new worlds

DON’T STOP ME

NOW!

SURVIVAL Megan Hine’s wild life lessons

ISLANDS OF

ENDURANCE Through the pain

barrier in Sweden’s toughest race

28

TECH TOYS TO TONY STARK

YOUR HOME SUBSCRIBE NOW!

IDRIS ELBA

INSTINCT FOR

GETREDBULLETIN.COM

RESTLESS SPIRIT

SEPTEMBER 2017 £3.50

THIS IS WHY

CANYON.COM/THISISWHY

CONTRIBUTORS

EDITORIAL

Devon O’Neil

The Colorado-based journalist headed to the mountains of Slovenia to interview alpinist Davo Karnicˇar as he trained for the biggest challenge of his career: skiing the mighty K2 from summit to base camp. “He was the best guide one could have in those mountains,” says O’Neil. “He knew every nook and cranny.”

Read his interview on PAGE 60

Adrian Myers

The photographer from London spent the day with adventurer Megan Hine upside down in the studio.

“We wanted to create a set of images that captured Megan’s strength and determination,” explains Myers, “but also images that reflected her outdoor environment and athleticism. It seemed logical to hang her upside down!” PAGE 74

06

There are many qualities that go to make up those of an adventurous nature, but if we had to choose one unifying characteristic it would be curiosity. An unquenchable thirst for knowledge, understanding and experience is a key component for any artist, adventurer or sportsman looking to set the pace in his or her chosen field – and it’s a quality this month’s featured personalities possess in spades.

For cover star Idris Elba, curiosity manifests itself in the need to immerse himself in disciplines different to his core skills, and this impetus has taken him from DJ booth to race-car cockpit to Thai boxing ring.

For fellow actor Noomi Rapace, it’s about exploring different facets of her own personality and cloaking herself in characters so diverse that it’s often hard to tell where the character ends and she begins.

In the world of adventure, curiosity is at the heart of the stories of both Davo Karničar and Megan Hine.

For the former, it takes the shape of trying to answer a mountainous question he has been asking all his life; for the latter, it’s all about using the experience her restless spirit has given her to solve problems, not just in the wild but in everyday life.

Curious to know more? Read and enjoy…

THE RED BULLETIN

MARCO GROB/TRUNK ARCHIVE (COVER)

Searching for answers

T H E

A M E R I C A N

S O U N DT R A C K

STEVIE WONDER JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE

SUNDAY, OCT 22

SATURDAY, OCT 21

1 A L U M R O F 2017 S GRAND PRIX E T A T S D E UNIT X T , N I T S U A 2 2 0 2 T OC

R FORGET, E V E N L ’L U O Y E AND A RUSH C N IE R E APPENS. P H X E N IN IO T T S A U R A A E IL U S, WHERE EXH A FOR THE UNIQ IC R E M A E H T OF VISIT CIRCUIT

Y AT A D O T D N E K E E W BOOK YOUR F1 .COM T I U C R I C E H .T W WW

CONTENTS September

BULLEVARD Life And Style Beyond The Ordinary

12 Hollywood hero Ryan Reynolds

is so over playing with fire

14 Build your own sound system 15 Room to explore: a unique

hotel experience in the Arctic

16 Drop zone: high-stakes 18 20 22 24 26

kayaking in California Brit actress Sophie Cookson on stress, spies and seduction Bruder EXP-6: too hardcore for the Caravan Club Red Bull Music Academy: back in Berlin for its 20th birthday Athlete Will Claye: making the leap to a new career in rap The ultimate kitchen knife

GUIDE

Get it, Do it, See it 82 Highlights from Red Bull TV

54

86 Time regained: the classic

SPLIT PERSONALITY

Inhabiting new characters doesn’t faze Swedish actress Noomi Rapace: her latest film features seven identical sisters – and she plays them all

chronograph gets a 2017 twist

88 This month's essential dates 90 Inside view: top entertainment

tech for your home 96 Global team 98 Flash tricks for action shots

60

PEAKY BLINDER Davo Karnicˇar has skied down many of the world’s highest mountains, but one continues to elude the Slovenian

JIM KRANTZ, SANDRINE DULERMO AND MICHAEL LABICA, CARLOS BLANCHARD

28 TAKING CHARGE

In the 4,000-year-old sport known as bull leaping, a mistimed jump or imperfect landing can prove fatal

FEATURES

28

Bull leaping

No capes, no swords, but all the perils of a bullfight – with added somersaults

42 Idris Elba

The Luther actor doesn’t do Netflix and chill – his hyperactive mind won’t let him

48 ÖTILLÖ

Swimrun Utö in the beautiful Stockholm archipelago takes your breath away

54 Noomi Rapace

Fighting talk from the kick-ass star of Prometheus and the Millennium film trilogy

THE RED BULLETIN

60

Davo Karničar

70

H ï Ibiza

74

Megan Hine

After a record-breaking ski down Everest, the alpinist is cranking up the danger How do you replace a clubland institution like Space? We meet the man who did This survival expert has your back, whether in the Amazon or on the school run 09

c a r b i n e

//

p r o

b u i l d

R R P

£ 6 3 0 0

i n t e n s e c y c l e s . c o m

BULLEVARD LIFE

&

STYLE

BEYOND

THE

ORDINARY

“I REBELLED AGAINST EVERY ASPECT OF MY UPBRINGING” RYAN REYNOLDS’ ALTERNATIVE PETER YANG/AUGUST

PATH TO THE TOP, PAGE 12

As a child, Reynolds doused himself in lighter fluid and lit a match, all for the sake of a home video THE RED BULLETIN

11

12

one good thing about my upbringing, though: I was the youngest of four kids, so my parents were more experienced by the time they got round to me, and a little more relaxed. They were like, “Let him climb up onto the roof. It’ll be fine if he falls off.”

That’s why I’m pretty much always willing to take risks.

Was there one adult in particular who you learned from?

My grandfather, maybe, even though he had died before I was born. But I heard all the stories about him. He was homeless at 14. He lived in trains and freight cars.

He would earn money doing odd jobs for a year and try to save as much as he could.

The year after that, he would go to school, then he’d live in railroad cars again and work.

He carried on like that until he’d completed his education, and eventually he became a reputable anaesthetist, a really successful self-made man. I can only admire my grandfather’s discipline.

The single-mindedness and tunnel vision that drove him in search of a better life…

That’s really cool.

The Hitman’s Bodyguard is in cinemas from August 18; thehitmansbodyguard.movie

Ryan Reynolds

The Deadpool star on rebellion, pyrotechnics, and being inspired by his grandfather – who went from hobo to respected medical man

“I DOUSED MYSELF IN LIGHTER FLUID AND LIT A MATCH” THE RED BULLETIN

RÜDIGER STURM

he red bulletin: You play the title role in your latest movie, The Hitman’s Bodyguard. Do you have any hired personal protection yourself? ryan reynolds: No. I’m 6ft 3in (1.91m) tall, after all.

I’d just look ridiculous with a bodyguard. Plus, you actually attract more attention with one than without.

So, if push came to shove, you’d play the role of the hero yourself?

Look, I gave birth to our two daughters. That was no easy thing for my penis to deal with – it’s still annoyed with me. It is pretty heroic to squeeze two children out of there. I wouldn’t recommend it, though.

Deadpool [Reynolds’ 2016 Marvel superhero movie] showed us your dark sense of humour. Where does that come from?

I grew up in a strict household and went to Catholic school.

So I rebelled against every aspect of my upbringing.

In what way exactly?

How long have you got? I got my ear pierced at 13, for example, even though my brothers said Dad would kill me. And I doused myself in lighter fluid and lit a match for a home video. I was actually really lucky that time. Don’t try that one at home, kids.

Your father didn’t kill you, obviously…

No, because my older brothers also got their ears pierced, to save my ass.

Hopefully you’ve adopted a different parenting approach for bringing up your own children…

Of course. Children need a certain amount of freedom so that they can discover the world. That’s why I don’t want to force my own tastes on them. I’ll show my children a whole range of things, and then they’re free to explore for themselves and have their own experiences. There was

PETER YANG/AUGUST

T

BULLEVARD Ryan Reynolds, 40, has a dark sense of humour. He says that’s down to his Catholic upbringing

THE RED BULLETIN

13

BULLEVARD

Spinbox

Got the vinyl bug, but not the budget for a high-end turntable? Build a deck in five affordable steps with a project from Taiwan

VINYL SOUNDS FROM A PIZZA BOX 18

14

DANIEL KUDERNATSCH

The Spinbox: not so much hi-fi as DIY-fi. The motor, spindle, connectors and speakers come in a cardboard box for selfassembly. It’s like Ikea meets Tetrapak in a DJ booth

KAO CHI-SHUN

minutes is all it takes to create your own Spinbox.

What you end up with is a record-player that does everything a record-player should and more besides.

In addition to the regular 33 and 45rpm speeds for LPs and singles, it can also do 78rpm for those ancient records gathering dust in your grandparents’ attic. And it comes with all the trimmings: an amp, two built-in speakers and a USB port. Not that you should digitise your vinyl, as where would be the fun in building your own Spinbox if you turn everything into MP3s? And if you want heavier sound, you can attach your own speakers. And all that magic happens in a pizza box.

The Kickstarter campaign will be up and running in August and you’ll be able to order your Spinbox then. kickstarter.spinbox.cc

THE RED BULLETIN

B

ørge Ousland isn’t your average hotelier. First and foremost a polar explorer, he made the first unsupported, solo journey to the North Pole in 1994, and seven years ago completed the first circumnavigation of the North Pole without an icebreaker.

Now, the Norwegian’s vision of a place to explore “the harmony between people and nature” has come to fruition on the tiny 55-acre island of Manshausen, 62 miles inside the Arctic Circle and home to Europe’s largest colony of sea eagles.

“In the old days it was a part of a trading post that officially opened in 1690. So lots of coastal history,” says Ousland, who purchased the island in 2010. “I totally fell in love with the place, with its protected islands, beaches and high mountains. I can do a lot of what I like here: kayaking, diving, climbing, trekking, caving, sailing, fishing, etc.” manshausen.no/en/

Four larch-framed cabins that jut out over the sea and feature floor-to-ceiling glass bring the environment – and the Northern Lights – as close as possible

Manshausen resort

STEVE KING

JUSTIN HYNES

If you want to sample life on the edge of the Arctic, who better than a legendary polar explorer to show you way – in style

WHERE SEA EAGLES DARE THE RED BULLETIN

15

16

THE RED BULLETIN

BULLEVARD First descend a waterfall and then make a sharp left turn: exactly the kind of challenge Evan Garcia lives for, and which he masters in style

R

Kayaking’s gold standard Anyone in love with rapids and waterfalls should head to Royal Gorge, California

ERIC PARKER

DANIEL KUDERNATSCH

READY FOR THE DROP

oyal Gorge is a section of one of California’s best-known rivers, the American River. It snakes through the Gold Country for some 100km and has countless treacherous waterfalls, narrow canyons, tempestuous rapids and deep cascades, but only for a short period of the year after the snow has melted in June. At that point, the river becomes a playground for kayakers.

The spot pictured is known as Heath 1 and demands maximum effort from both paddler and kayak. Why? Because the water here flows damned fast, and after a heart-stopping 20m drop over a waterfall you must veer left and then paddle your way through a narrow, raging gorge.

THE RED BULLETIN

17

MYRO WULFF

ANDREW SWANN

Cookson studied History of Art and Arabic before dropping out to fully concentrate on her acting career

18

THE RED BULLETIN

BULLEVARD

T

he ink had barely dried on her Oxford School of Drama graduation certificate when Sophie Cookson received the call informing her that she’d been cast in Matthew Vaughn’s 2015 hit, Kingsman: The Secret Service.

Fast forward to 2017, and the 26-year-old British actress finds herself sharing passionate screen time with Naomi Watts in the Netflix psychological thriller Gypsy, Gypsy as well as starring in four films, including a return to the roll that kick-started her career, as Roxy in Kingsman: The Golden Circle. the red bulletin: You jumped straight into a major Hollywood film after drama school. What did you learn from the experience?

Sophie Cookson

Whether seducing Oscar nominees on Netflix or playing an action heroine, the Kingsman star stays in charge of her destiny by accepting that its out of her hands

“I THINK MYSTERY IS SEXY”

THE RED BULLETIN

sophie cookson: To stay on your toes. You really don’t know what’s going to happen in life. If someone had told me back then that two months after leaving drama school I’d be cast in a Hollywood production, then I would have laughed my head off. Honestly, there were times when I thought that the effort I was putting in was pointless, but I learned that things can change at any moment. But you need to be very passionate about it, you need to put in the hard work and dig your heels in.

What about the auditioning process?

Nerves are a killer, but you need to know that it’s all in the head. If you go in with the mentality like: ‘I need this, I have to get this’, then it is palpable. You just need to trust in yourself and know that you’re enough.

Do you still get nervous?

We all do, it’s a normal human emotion. I remember going to auditions where I was physically shaking, and that doesn’t look good [laughs].

But you just need to channel that to your advantage – there’s definitely an adrenalin buzz that helps. Things happen in an audition room that weren’t planned, and that often comes from anxiety, which can be a good thing. But in general, it’s just really not worth getting too wrapped up in it all.

I read that you dream about losing a tooth when you’re stressed out?

Yes I do! I haven’t had that dream in a while, but I’ll probably have that tonight now, thanks! [laughs].

One interpretation of dreams about losing a tooth that it represents anxiety over losing control. Do you ever feel like you’re not in command of your destiny?

Totally. I think that’s something we’re all scared of. I think a lot of actors are control freaks, and this is perhaps the worst possible industry in which to be that kind of person, as you’re

subject to [the whims of] a lot of other people. But I guess you just do what you can and try to keep your shit in check, but ultimately it’s not up to you, there are a lot of other forces at work.

So it’s all about taking risks?

Yes, but I’ve eased up on those recently.

What’s the biggest risk you’ve ever taken?

Probably dropping out of university to go to drama school. I just remember having a restlessness and thinking that I would regret this forever if I didn't try. So that was a huge risk.

You’re back as Roxy in Kingsman: The Golden Circle later this year. What can fans expect?

Just even more. That’s really the only way to describe it.

It really is like the first film times 10: crazy cast, more fights, more explosions, everything is bigger, better, more badass and more Matthew Vaughn!

You played quite the seductress in Gypsy – how would you seduce someone in real life?

I think mystery is extremely sexy. But I’m really terrible at that kind of thing. I guess I would try and play it cool, but I think I’d prefer to be seduced to be honest.

Kingsman: The Golden Circle is in cinemas from September 20.

Watch Gypsy on Netflix

19

BULLEVARD

The Bruder EXP-6’s generous wheel travel means even sand dunes present no obstacle

heating unit provide the trailer with light and comfort.

The kitchen has two fridges, that can be accessed from both outside and inside the trailer, and other features include aircon, a full-HD TV and outdoor and indoor showers.

So if your idea of camping heaven is a no–holds barred trek across the badlands, then the Bruder EXP-6 is for you – as long as you have £65,000 to hand. And it sleeps six, so your mates can indulge their postapocalyptic, dystopian, roadwarrior fantasies, too. bruderx.com

MEET THE ULTIMATE ROAD WARRIOR ULRICH CORAZZA

amping – it’s all about sandals with socks, a nice cup of tea from a thermos and toasting marshmallows by the light of an open fire, right? Not when you’re in possession of the Bruder EXP-6 it isn’t.

The Australian-designed behemoth – half military ATVhalf Mad Max’s home away from Thunderdome – takes caravanning to a whole new and very extreme level.

Built for ‘the modern adventurer’ (albeit one who appreciates comfort) the Bruder features waterproof living quarters built on a solid ladder frame. The independent air suspension system delivers a generous 31cm of wheel travel, which means the roughest terrain shouldn’t be a problem, as long as the towing vehicle is up to it. And if the nearest garage is hundreds of kilometres away, there’s still no cause for concern, as the EXP-6 is entirely self-sufficient.

A 260-amp solar panel with storage battery and a diesel

Tow your home around with you wherever you go. The Bruder EXP-6 off-road caravan is the world’s toughest camper

BRUDERX.COM

C

Big Bruder

Hard on the outside, smart on the inside: well-thought-out living space and waterproofed exterior

20

THE RED BULLETIN

COMBED CARBON LAYERING . ENDURANCE GEOMETRY . COLUMBUS FURTURA FORK EXCLUSIVELY DISTRIBUTED ON EARTH BY

FIND YOUR LOCAL DEALER AT CINELLIBICYCLES.CO.UK

22

THE RED BULLETIN

DAN WILTON/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

FLORIAN OBKIRCHER

BULLEVARD

From soul to techno

The Red Bull Music Academy is a series of festivals and workshops melded to a bespoke creative space. In other words, paradise for any musician. For its 20th birthday, it’s going back to where it all began

BERLIN CALLING

For four weeks, it’ll be lectures after parties, then parties after lectures and then lectures after parties again

THE RED BULLETIN

B

jörk showing off her virtual reality exhibition and playing an intimate DJ set.

Iggy Pop chatting in a local theatre about his wild punkrock days. Techno legends Dopplereffekt turning an Olympic swimming pool into a nightclub complete with an underwater sound system…

This is the sort of thing that happens when the Red Bull Music Academy comes to town. It last pitched up in Montreal in October 2016 and for four weeks the Canadian metropolis was transformed into a genre-hopping music festival. Every evening there are concerts, club nights, lectures and exhibitions by both legends and youngsters who think outside of the box.

The Red Bull Music Academy focuses on promoting new talent. Sixty talented young musicians from any genre and from anywhere in the world are invited to the host city each time. There they learn from music legends, exchange knowledge and ideas with their fellow academicians and work together on songs in studio sessions that go late into the night.

Those interested in the academy’s daily routine can find radio shows and articles and video recordings of lectures on the travelling workshop’s website – talks with legends such as Bootsy Collins and Giorgio Moroder and with more contemporary artists such as Will Butler, the mastermind behind indierock stars Arcade Fire.

Having stopped over in Tokyo, Melbourne, New York, Cape Town and São Paulo in recent years, in September 2018 the Red Bull Music Academy will be going back to where it all started 20 years ago: Berlin.

If you’re a musician, you can put in your application until September 4 at: redbullmusicacademy.com/ apply 23

BULLEVARD

He‘s one of the world’s best triple-jumpers. Now, with the release of his debut rap album, the US athlete’s second career is taking off

“MUSIC MAKES ME A BETTER ATHLETE” 24

T

wo silver medals in the triple jump and a bronze in the long jump – that’s the impressive Olympic record of Will Claye. Now, the track-and-field star is going for gold in the music world, releasing a rap album entitled Look What You Created. Here, the 26-year-old explains why writing lyrics improves his athletic performance. the red bulletin: How did you start rapping? will claye: When I was 11, my friends and I started playing around with a karaoke machine, rapping over beats, to help stay out of trouble.

The best music to get pumped up? Will Claye recommends Kendrick Lamar and Schoolboy Q

Does an athlete have time for a rap career on the side?

I put 110 per cent into my training. But too much of anything can be bad. So I like to break it up. Usually I’m recording during the off season, though.

Do you think writing lyrics makes you a better athlete?

Definitely! Thanks to my music, I’m able to come to the competition with a freer mind, because I’m not consumed by the sport. I’m able to take my mind somewhere else and have a break from track and field. Writing lyrics helps me to give everything when I am out there.

Is this a call to action for all athletes, saying they should express themselves?

Yes. Everyone has a creative side – it’s just a matter of letting it out. And don’t be discouraged because you think you lack talent! There’s no such thing as bad art. If you feel free when you’re doing it, that’s all that matters. twitter.com/WilliamClaye THE RED BULLETIN

CARLO CRUZ/RED BULL CONTENT POOL, GARTH MILAN/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

Will Claye

FLORIAN OBKIRCHER

In June, Claye set a personal best of 17.91m, making him the ninth best triplejumper of all time

THE RED BULLETIN PROMOTION

THE FULL IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE IS HERE! CRISP IMAGES & ULTRA WIDE 3D SOUND

Honor 9, Honor’s newest flagship smartphone, not only captivates modern consumers with its gorgeous design, craftsmanship and engineering – the new device’s competitive product specs guarantee superior user experiences. Especially for people with high expectations regarding photography and sound. The Honor 9’s dual-lens camera stands out by delivering exceptional contrast and detail by pairing a 12 megapixel RGB color lens and a 20 megapixel monochrome lens.

Whether it’s a black and white photo straight out of the monochrome lens, a beautiful portrait captured with a wide aperture, or a party shot, photos taken by the Honor 9 are beautiful and ready to be shared with little to no adjustments.

Music and sound enthusiasts will love Histen, the cutting-edge ultra-wide 3D sound field technology. It enables Honor 9 to deliver a natural and vivid, discernibly superior audio performance.

Three different modes allow sound connoisseurs to fully immerse themselves in the blissful experience of soft and quiet music, a cinematic audio performance or grand concert hall acoustics. www.hihonor.com

CATCH THE LIGHT A gorgeous glass back and exquisite texture creating a metallic aurora glow CATCH THE MOMENTS The upgraded duallens camera stands out from the pack and delivers clearer and crisper images

CATCH THE VALUE 3D sound field technology: Outstanding audio performance optimized for you

SPECS

Photo Credit: Honor

Honor 9 features outstanding technology and vibrant design for a techloving generation of consumers.

• 5.15-inch FHD display • 20-MP & 12-MP dual rear cameras • 8-MP front-facing camera • Kirin 960 2.4gHZ octocore processor • 4 GB RAM

• 64 GB ROM + microSD card up to 256 GB • 3,200mAh battery • NFC mobile payments software • EMUI 5.1 (Android 7.0)

BULLEVARD

Y

ou’ve put in the hard yards, done your time climbing the corporate ladder and now you’re sitting on a nice little nest egg. But what should you do with all that hardearned cash? Porsche 718 Boxster S? Statement watch? Bespoke suit?

All are worthy identifiers of conspicuous success but in an age of home curing, backyard smokers, celebrity sous-viders ((sic sic)) and artisan sic charcuterie, and in which the mark of a man is truly made by his skill at the stove, then the only truly extravagant way to treat a nest egg is to hack it to bits with the world’s costliest kitchen gadget. And that

honour goes to the €80,000 Nesmuk Jahrhundertmesser from Solingen, Germany’s official City of Blades.

Fifty different processes go into creating this slicing and dicing masterpiece. Its handle is made from 5,000-year-old bog oak. The 18cm blade is made of Damascus steel and the platinum ferrule is studded with 25 diamonds.

And just in case you’re still not sure, how’s this for a comparison. High-grade Japanese knives are made of 32 layers of steel. This Nesmuk knife has 640!

That makes the knife edge a stunning 0.3 thousandths of a millimetre wide and it is so sharp you can literally split hairs with it. nesmuk.de

Blade of glory

The Nesmuk Jahrhundertmesser is the best, sharpest and most expensive kitchen knife in the world. And that makes it an investment for life

26

ULRICH CORAZZA NESMUK

The blade is cauterised in a ferric chloride solution 10 times to make the pattern on the steel visible

THE SHARPEST KNIFE IN THE DRAWER THE RED BULLETIN

go with the flow in the Southern Alps of Austria

Austria’s sunny south • Petzen.Trail: IMBA Trail of the year 2014 • Longest Flow Trail in Europe (11,5 k) • 1100 meters of altitude

cycling.carinthia.at

LEAP FAITH O F

WORDS: ANDREAS ROTTENSCHLAGER P H O T O G R A P H Y: J I M K R A N T Z

It’s a 4,000-year-old dance – an ancient contest in which the only participant in danger is a young man attempting to evade a charging bull in the most artistic manner possible. The margins are tight and injuries are frequent, but for the bull-leapers of Spain, it’s about a love for the bulls and the thrill of performing in the shadow of potential disaster

28

Bull-leapers combine courage and risk-taking with perfect timing. Pictured: Spaniard Pakito Murillo at Las Ventas bullfighting arena in Madrid

Last-minute evasion: the recorte sees the bull-leaper turn his back on the rushing bull

31

THE CHAMP Eusebio Sacristán, 27, from the Castile and León region is the Spanish bullleaping champion.

His trademark move sees him somersaulting over the bulls

Before bull-leaper Eusebio Sacristán leaves his parents’ home on the morning of an important competition, he says something no mother wants to hear.

“There’s a chance I won’t come home alive.”

He straps on his rucksack and marches out the door. He has just showered and hasn’t eaten a thing in 12 hours. If a bull were to gore him in the arena, there’s a chance he’d need to be operated on.

And doctors prefer to operate on someone with an empty stomach.

32

THE RED BULLETIN

THE BULL A Spanish fighting bull from the Toropasión stable.

The toros bravos can grow to 600kg and sport lethal horns

T

his is the story of los recortadores, Spain’s bull-leapers, young men who confront raging beasts and get out of their way at the very last instant. To be clear, this isn’t bullfighting. It’s unarmed, the bulls aren’t harmed in any way, and the only participant at risk of injury is the jumper.

The first depictions of these head-toheads can be found on wall paintings more than 4,000 years old.

It’s a Saturday afternoon at the start of June, and bull-leapers Eusebio THE RED BULLETIN

Sacristán and Saúl Rivera are sitting in a cattle-breeder’s finca in the province of La Rioja, trying to explain the essence of what their sport is all about.

Twenty-seven-year-old Sacristán is the Spanish national bull-leaping champion.

He is exuberant, has plucked eyebrows and the physique of a high-bar gymnast.

Rivera, who's also 27, is in the top 15 nationwide. He has a brown ring in one ear and speaks in deliberate, cautiously worded sentences.

In 24 hours’ time, Sacristán and Rivera will be competing in the semifinals of the Spanish national bull-leaping championship at Las Ventas in Madrid.

Their opponents will be toros bravos, Spanish fighting bulls, jet black and weighing in at half a tonne.

The bulls will charge at Sacristán and Rivera and try to attack them. What the two men have to do is evade the bulls while showing off their moves. There are classic recortes – evasive manoeuvres where they turn their back on the bull – and then the risky somersaults over the animal, which are Sacristán and Rivera's speciality.

The prize money available to the recortadores is modest when you consider the extremely high risk of injury.

“I love bulls,” says Sacristán when asked why he does it.

Rivera thinks for a moment. “It’s about surviving something that could kill you.”

“It’s not a question of whether you’ll be injured,” says Sacristán. “It’s a question of how often.” Last year he lost out to a bull eight times.

33

THE ARENA Las Ventas in the Salamanca district of Madrid is the crucible of Spanish bull sports. It has a capacity of 23,000

The worst attack occurred on September 16 in Logroño. There’s a video on YouTube, but you’ll need nerves of steel to watch it. You see shaky images of a black bull trampling over Sacristán, who promptly loses consciousness. His colleagues drag him out of the arena.

Sacristán loves showing people the video. There are also about 100 photographs of him in bloodied T-shirts.

He explains, “You get the measure of a bull-leaper by whether he comes back after setbacks like these.”

How can anyone prepare for a day that might end in disaster?

“You do it by having total faith in yourself,” says Sacristán. “I always enter the arena with the attitude that I’m a match for any bull.”

Fitness is a key aspect, coupled with intense practice, endlessly repeating moves either on soft ground or by using trampolines.

Preparedness also involves having a plan in case of an emergency. Rivera says that when a bull attacks, you have to curl up in a ball on the ground and use both arms to protect your head until help arrives.

Sacristán says that’s the official doctrine, but that he couldn’t care less about doctrine. What he’d do after an attack is try to get back on his feet as quickly as possible so he could get the hell out of the bullring.

Rivera and Sacristán crack their fingers and drum their feet on the ground as they talk. Rivera stares at the ceiling.

“Are you thinking about the bull?”

“Yes,” says Rivera.

An hour later, they clamber into a car and instead of heading for Madrid they make a 200km detour towards home.

Rivera and Sacristán want to spend the night before competing with family.

Sunday morning. The Salamanca district of Madrid. Las Ventas rises out of the ground like a vast, round brick fortress.

The largest bullfighting arena in Spain has a capacity of 23,000. The recortadores go on at 12 as part of the warm-up for the bullfights, which are held every year in honour of Madrid’s patron saint, St Isidore. This performance is the first highlight of the season.

Sacristán is wearing a heavy pair of sunglasses as he steps out of the car. He has barely slept a wink and his stomach is rumbling from hunger.

THE RED BULLETIN

It’s not a question of whether you’ll be injured.

It’s a question of how often

THE RITUALS Above: Saúl Rivera kisses his rosary beads before the semi-final in Madrid.

He is religious, as are many other recortadores.

Right: a fighting bull in the bowels of the arena

Rivera trots along behind him, says a quick hello. Then the two of them disappear into the bowels of the arena.

The sun is already high in the sky over the arena. It’s going to be a scorcher.

It’s now 11am. The dressing room has a bare wooden floor and two sky-blue sofas. With every passing minute, recortadores from all over Spain come traipsing in, men aged from their early 20s up to 30, with neatly trimmed beards and footballers’ haircuts. The bull-

leapers are like brothers. There is no rivalry between them. Anyone who comes into the room is met with a long and heartfelt hug. The closer it gets to competition time, the more oppressive the atmosphere in the room gets. Each of the participants has his own strategy for calming his nerves.

Rivera has brought lucky charms: rosary beads, bracelets, tiny talismans, gifts from his mother, sisters and aunts.

He kisses the rosary beads, strokes 35

THE FINCA The Toropasión event-organiser co-op run a farm of 900 cattle, north of Madrid.

Very few people ever venture into the enclosure

the talismans and makes the sign of the cross over every item of clothing.

Sacristán's lucky charm is a nine-yearold pair of underpants that have been patched a dozen times.

The recortadores perform in traditional garb: crocheted stockings, silk bottoms and finely embroidered waistcoats.

The running shoes, which some bullleapers screw spikes into the soles of, are the only breach of style in the outfit.

There is no protective gear.

On the stroke of noon, the bull-leapers march in two-by-two into the blazing light of the arena via a shady gangway.

A quick rundown of the rules: three recortadores go up against a single bull in each round. The jury gives them marks from one to 10 for their manoeuvres. The top two from each group then move onto the final.

Whenever the recortadores are pursued by a bull, they can either jump over the fence or slip behind one of the four boarded walls around the edge of the arena that offer protection.

36

The huge unpredictable factor is, of course, the bull itself. It might run in a straight line, which makes for elegant manoeuvres, or it might pull up and thrust its horns all over the place. That’s when things get dangerous.

The first three recortadores take up their positions in the middle of the arena.

The gate to the bull-pen is opened and a 600kg toro bravo comes storming out into the arena. The first accident occurs within 20 seconds.

Recortador Dani Plata gets proceedings underway with a quiebro – a small step to the side at the very last moment as the bull passes him by. Plata goes for a particularly risky version of the move. He wants to do the manoeuvre on his knees.

As soon as the bull has Plata in its sights, it charges straight at him.

Plata still hopes to get out of the way, but he doesn’t manage it.

The bull tosses him up into the air with its horns. Then Plata ends up under the animal’s hooves. The bull tramples

all over him and jabs him with his horns several more times.

The recortadores go hurrying into the arena and try to divert the bull’s attention onto themselves. Plata somehow manages to pick himself up.

He is in shock. His colleagues drag him off towards the exit.

Within 10 minutes the action resumes.

Round two sees Sacristán enter the arena for the first time. He strolls up to his bull, his hands wedged in his pockets. The body language is clear: “I ain’t scared of you.”

Then Sacristán does something none of the other recortadores has dared THE RED BULLETIN

A tense calm: recortadores wait in the wings at Las Ventas, preparing to go on

The bull-leapers pull on their silk bottoms.

There is no protective gear do today: he turns the tables. Instead of waiting for the bull to attack, he sprints straight at it.

Over the last 5m, Sacristán only takes little steps on tiptoe and then does a somersault with a semi-twist – known as a tirabuzón – over the bull.

THE RED BULLETIN

Sacristán throws his hands up in the air. The title-holder has pulled off the first truly sensational move.

Group four, and time for Rivera to make his entrance. It’s over 30°C in the arena. Rivera also has a specific leap

in mind – the salto del ángel. The bull fixes Rivera in its sights, paws at the sand with its front left hoof and slowly starts trotting towards him. Rivera runs straight at it. And then he makes a serious mistake. He takes off too soon, flails his arms about in the air and lands 37

THE LEAPS Only the most skilful recortadores attempt somersaults over the bulls. Pictured: SaĂşl Riviera and a perfectly executed salto del ĂĄngel 39

Sacristán moves onto the next round.

Rivera doesn’t.

The final sees the top five bull-leapers competing against each other. The manoeuvres get tighter and tighter. The field is now dominated by recorte experts.

Simón Gómez waits for the animal with his arms outstretched and his head flung back, as if meditating. Or there’s Jonathan Estébanez, a flamboyant leaper with sculpted, blow-dried hair who twists and turns around the bull with rubbery agility.

Sacristán's third attempt provides the shock of the final. The bull rams the side of his horn into Sacristán's thigh while he’s airborne. Sacristán manages to land and then hobbles away from the danger zone.

THE ATTACKS Above: bull-leaper Dani Plata gets under an animal’s hooves right at the start of proceedings.

Right: an injured recortador in the arena

to the left of the bull in the sand. The bull turns around as quick as a flash.

Rivera picks himself up and sprints away from the centre of the arena, with the bull in hot pursuit. Rivera launches himself over the fence at the last moment.

While he waits for his next opportunity, his rivals demonstrate recorte after recorte. The Madrid crowd loves the traditional moves and rewards them with vigorous applause.

A few minutes later, Rivera is ready to have another go. This time he takes an extremely long run-up. He dives

headlong over the bull, his arms stretched out perfectly to the side. That’s the salto del ángel. Rivera rolls in the sand and clenches his fist in victory.

A break in proceedings. There is an announcement over the tannoy: Dani Plata, the injured recortador, is being taken care of in hospital.

He has a horn wound in his jaw and a 20cm laceration in one buttock, but his life is not in danger. There is a ripple of applause in the stands.

Soon after, the jury announces those who have made it to the final.

Rivera sprints straight at the bull. And then he makes a serious mistake 40

The awards ceremony takes place in the arena. Sacristán comes third, which is enough to qualify for the national final.

Estébanez is crowned the winner on the back of his super-tight recortes. He carries a golden bull statuette out of the arena.

Back in the dressing room. The rosary beads are taken off, kissed and put away carefully. There’s a smell of fresh perfume.

“It was a good contest,” says Sacristán, sitting on the sofa in nothing but his lucky underpants. His girlfriend and his regular life await him outside.

Recortadores are amateurs. Sacristán and Rivera will go back to work at 7am on Monday morning: Rivera to the production line at Renault; Sacristán to the winery where he supervises the bottle-filling process.

Sacristán says he needs the adrenalin rush. That moment right after the bull has gone past the guys. Just one or two seconds where you look back and realise you’ve cheated death by a margin of 5mm.

Two weeks after the semi-final at Las Ventas, Sacristán is back in Madrid for the grand finale. He shows off his tirabuzón with a shortened run-up – there are less than 10m between him and the bull. He keeps both hands in his pockets as he takes off, while he’s in the air and as he lands. The jury crowns him national champion for the second time in his career.

As Sacristán steps up to accept his trophy, the other bull-leapers form a guard of honour. Sacristán looks up to the sky briefly and promptly bursts into tears. toropasion.net THE RED BULLETIN

Recortadores show their bulls respect.

Bull-leaping doesn’t injure the animals

Winding down after the competition: recortadores are amateurs. On Monday they’ll go back to their regular jobs

“I NEVER SWITCH

OFF” WORDS: RÜDIGER STURM PHOTOGRAPHY: MARCO GROB

MARCO GROB/TRUNK ARCHIVE

Actor, musician, writer, producer, fighter – Idris Elba is a man in perpetual motion.

But for the star of new film The Dark Tower, there’s no other way. “It’s hard for me to sit still,” he says. “When you’ve got a brain like mine – one that’s always building and grasping – to ask it to turn off is odd”

43

“I’VE GOT A BODY AND BRAIN THAT

THINK I’M YOUNGER THAN I AM“

At first, Idris Elba says that he wants to conduct this interview standing up. He finally settles on the windowsill of the hotel suite, but studiously avoids the spacious couch. One thing is certain: the 44-year-old British actor is bristling with energy as we discuss fear, fighting, perfect sleep, lunar travel, and the power of the DJ…

T

he red bulletin: You act, drive fast cars, work as a DJ, practise Muay Thai, and now you’re directing your first feature film.

Why are you constantly challenging yourself? idris elba: There’s a theory that just because we get tired, or because there are a certain number of hours in the day, you can’t fully experience what life has to offer. I’m not satisfied with that attitude: it’s narrow-minded. I can’t imagine the pioneers of human society thinking‚ “Hmm, we’ll do really, really well if we spend our whole lives in this village.” No. You have to go out there and try things; do things.

Still, there are only 24 hours in the day, even for you...

Time management really is everything. Because once you commit to doing things, your time has to be divided up really well. Which is why I’m able to do this interview for The Dark Tower [the new fantasy Western movie based on the book series by Stephen King], even though shooting for my own film starts next Monday.

But you need to set aside time for sleep. You had to take a nap just before this interview, we heard...

Obviously human beings need eight or nine hours of sleep. And I struggle with sleep at the moment. But you can design your body to have less, as long as it’s really good quality sleep.

Would you share your secret?

You have to do a certain type of meditation to clear your mind before you go to sleep, so that your body can really shut down. You just have to imagine sleep as a concentrated way of re-energising.

Is your method scientifically proven?

No, but I do a better job when I have less sleep but of better quality.

Then my brain’s stimulated and I don’t feel so tired.

While we’re on the subject of stimulation, you’re an in-demand DJ, too. How do you get people amped through music?

A good DJ is a vibe-builder; an energy-shifter. I play house music and use the beats to energy-bend. When people go to a club, they’re primed and ready for that environment, but to get a whole crowd tuned into the right frequencies so that everyone’s going “Wow” takes a certain type of skill.

So practice makes perfect?

I started when I was 14. It started off just playing music for my mum and dad and watching their reaction. If I play this song, I get this environment; if I play that one, I get that environment. A DJ has to learn the attributes of a good song, then you put it all together into a nice little package, and people go, “Oh my God, we went there, we went there!”

You can’t always go wild. How do you handle downtime?

It’s really hard for me to sit still. Tomorrow I might have nothing to do, but I’ll go, “Now is a good day to write a song.” We view it as 45

TOWER OF POWER

wrong if human beings can’t turn their brain off, but when you’ve got a brain like mine – one that’s always building and grasping – to ask it to turn off is odd. For me it feels weird. Even on holiday, I would probably. I’ve got a body and a brain that think that I’m younger than I am; probably get my computer out and write. age is just a number. So I felt it would And what happens in your brain when you set a new benchmark, such be interesting to challenge my body again. But when I did it, it was so tough. as you did in 2015 when you broke THE WIRE 2002-2004 the ‘Flying Mile’ land speed record I remember kickboxing as a young man Three seasons playing on Pendine Sands in Wales, or when and never feeling any of that kind of drug kingpin Russell you master kickboxing? angst. I sometimes imagined that if I’d ‘Stringer’ Bell in the It’s kind of like when you get a new continued to train as a kickboxer, I’d cult series gave Elba update for your old phone. You go, “Oh, probably be a champion, because I really his US breakthrough I couldn’t do that before, but I can do it enjoyed it. When I really put my mind to now.” It’s the same casing, same phone, it, no one was going to put me down. but suddenly it has new capabilities.

That fight was a one-off, then?

I love that feeling.

I keep training, but I can’t afford to fight; Your pro kickboxing adventure was it’s super dangerous. I’m 44 years old. impressive. You had no real experience, There are certain things that happen to a limited amount of time to learn, and a man’s body at my age that are really BEASTS OF NO NATION yet you knocked out a younger and detrimental if you fight.

Portrayed an African rebel more seasoned opponent…

In The Dark Tower, you play Roland leader in this 2015 movie.

I had a year to train and mentally face up Deschain, a gunslinger being chased Snubbed by the Oscars, by his nemesis, the Man in Black. to all sorts of problems that were in the but he did win a Screen Are there any opponents you dread way – injury and whatnot. He perhaps Actors Guild Award. in real life? didn’t train as hard because the odds were Only the inevitable: that we’re all going in his favour from the outset. Perhaps he thought I’d be an easier fighter. But to die. My dad died three or four years I knew that this was one fight where ago. I remember looking at him and I could get hurt, and I was dedicated to being really, really baffled. That’s it: the biggest influence in my life ends not letting that happen. up in this box. There are no credits, no Is winning always simply a matter THE DARK TOWER 2017 of putting in the hard yards? music, no fanfare. Your life is just gone.

We won’t see Elba as 007 With every challenge, you have to have He was only 72, and there was so much just yet, although Daniel a clear understanding of what the goal he wanted to do. So I said to myself, Craig has put in a good is. So if you see the goal and that there “When it’s over, it’s over.” There’s no word. But he does play a gunslinger in his new film. are one or two obstacles ahead, that’s second chance. When the man calls you not enough. You have to see the goal and to go, it’s time to go. But f--k that. Up until that point, I’ll do whatever I want. I’ll have a good know that you have to walk from here to there. time while I am here.

Does that require special skills?

Would you ever be interested in living for ever if that You don’t need to be superhuman. I don’t sing, but I can, were humanly possible? and sometimes when I am trying to hit a note, I have to You can live for ever if you plant enough seeds in the picture it to do it. It’s a part of the brain that can materialise soil. The most successful trees are the ones that spread what it sees. The first astronaut was a child thinking that at some point he would be up there on the moon. And the most seeds. he did it. He found the steps towards becoming a NASAAnd your seeds would be? trained astronaut. He got there. That’s the whole process.

My art, my films, my music, my literature – they’re my soul. When you watch a performance by a dead actor, So could you go for a stroll on the Moon? you’re watching their soul again; they’re coming alive.

No, and neither could you, because we never really thought Therefore, they live on in your consciousness for ever. about doing it when we would have needed to.

To some extent, my children are another legacy. I love Are you ever daunted by certain challenges? watching my son. He’s only three years old, but you can For sure. For example, the kickboxing. People asked me, see things that you’ve planted in him. He’s so inventive.

“Was it a sort of a midlife crisis thing?” To some degree, Perhaps he’ll pick up something that I’ve said in an interview, and he might go, “That’s why my dad was always working. Great. I’m going to do that and I can do that. In fact, I can do it smarter than my dad.”

How would you like to be remembered?

People should say, “This guy reminds me of so many things that I want to be doing and I’ve not done yet, because he never sat still.”

The Dark Tower is in cinemas from August 18; thedarktower-movie.com

“YOU CAN LIVE FOR EVER IF YOU PLANT ENOUGH

SEEDS“ 46

THE RED BULLETIN

PICTUREDESK.COM, INTERTOPICS, SONY PICTURES

Idris Elba has hit some high notes during his career to date

“WHEN I PUT MY

MIND TO IT,

NO ONE WAS GOING TO PUT ME DOWN”

ÖTILLÖ Swimrun Utö: extreme island-hopping

48

In the fast-paced endurance event known as Swimrun, teammates literally haul each other to great achievements. And after 65km of cross- country running and a 10km swim between 26 islands in the Stockholm archipelago, the winners of the ÖTILLÖ Swimrun Utö are so exhausted they can't even keep down their victory champagne

NADJA ODENHAGE AND JAKOB EDHOLM/ÖTILLÖ

SHATTER ISLANDS Wo r d s : M ar cu s J o o ns Ph o tograp hy: Jako b Ed h o l m an d N ad ja O d e n hage

It’s the first Monday in September, and the idyllic Swedish island of Utö has switched into low-season mode. The bicycle hire company by the harbour has closed, as have the red kiosks that each summer sell everything from handicrafts to fish and chips made with fresh pike-perch.

Each summer, around 40,000 tourists travel here, 90 minutes from Stockholm, to enjoy the calm. Now peak season is over, the heartbeat should be dropping.

But at the inn in this former mining village, the tempo is rising. The inn, a yellow merchant villa from the 19th century, serves as the finish line for the ÖTILLÖ (as in ‘Ö till Ö’ – island to island) Swimrun Utö, a 65km cross-country run and 10km swim in teams of two, across and between 26 islands in the Stockholm archipelago. All the signs indicate that this year’s winning team will smash the course record and come in under the dream eight-hour mark.

As the digital stopwatch follows the competitors’ advance towards the finishing line – 07:57:31, 07:57.32… – the commentator in athlete’s sunglasses peers out over the fields, not yet spying any competitors in neoprene.

“Will we see a course record? That would be so amazing for the sport,” he says, sparking whistling from the Utö residents in the crowd who rise from their picnic blankets to get a better view.

I

n ÖTILLÖ, Utö is the finish line. But, historically, it is actually the start: the sport was born here. The island also has the highest concentration of competitors globally – 10 per cent of its permanent residents take part each year.

Local brothers Mats and Jesper Andersson got the idea for a long-distance race between Utö and the sailing haven of Sandhamn, 75km away, while relaxing one night at the Seglarbaren (Sailor’s Bar) with the inn’s owner Anders Malm and another friend. They had soon devised a challenge that involved swimming to and running across the 26 islands between the two points, stopping off at five bars along the way. A modest wager was set: the first two-man team to each bar could choose what the next team had to drink.

“We grew up here, and we have sailed, driven speedboats and paddled between the islands, but it has always been from point A to point B,” says Jesper Andersson.

“Now we got the chance to see all the islands, and we realised how fantastic the constantly changing terrain is. Sometimes it’s pure rock-climbing, but then you run through dense yew forests before coming to a straight through grain fields. Then there’s the water, where the current is so strong at times that you can end up 80m off-course when swimming only 50m.”

Michael Lemmel heard about the race when dropping off his car at a workshop with connections to Utö. Lemmel, who has dedicated his adult life to adventure and competed at elite level in multi-sport competitions, saw the potential and soon became the driving force. His friend Jonas Colting, whose sporting achievements include silver in the Ultraman World Championships and several medals in the Long Distance Triathlon World Championships, was persuaded to sign up.

The competitors are in desperate need of refuelling after an exhausting race

50

“The current here is so strong at times that you can end up 80m off-course when you’re swimming only 50m”

Utö rose out of the sea after the end of the Ice Age, around 10,000 years ago THE RED BULLETIN

It’s a gruelling succession of swims and runs

FROM ISLAND TO ISLAND A unique race in a unique place, the ÖTILLÖ Swimrun Utö sees teams of two swim between and run across 26 islands located to the southeast of Stockholm.

Founded in 2006, ÖTILLÖ is one of the toughest endurance races on the planet, and is now a World Championship Series (six races, plus a final in Sweden). otilloswimrun.com THE RED BULLETIN

Norway

Finland Stockholm Sweden

Start Denmark

Total race distance: 75km Open-water swimming: 10km Trail-running distance: 65km Islands to be crossed: 26

Finish

10km

“There were a lot of strange rules in the early years. For example, you had to wear a floatation vest on top of your wetsuit, as if the priority was to ensure nobody drowned,” recalls Colting when we meet in the dining room of the Seglarhotellet, Sandhamn’s sailing hotel, the evening before the race. All around us, the carbs are flying as every competitor shovels down pasta salad from overflowing plates.

“Those first years, there wasn’t even a name for the sport,” Colting continues.

“The winners paddled between the islands on inflatable mattresses. It was a joke, but a funny one, and I have taken part in every race since then.”

Colting says he’s amazed at how quickly the sport has grown since it began 51

The waters around Utö average 11°C around race time

in 2006. There are now in excess of 200 events around the world, and more than 600 teams on tomorrow’s reserve list: only 120 can take part in the three classes – men, women and mixed.

Colting and his teammate and life partner Elin Lilja say – almost in unison – that they’re never so much in agreement as when they compete in Swimrun together. It’s this sense of team spirit – the way they lift each other to a higher level – that gives the event its special charm.

Swimrun requires specialised kit. As well as swimming goggles and a cap, hand paddles, a wetsuit with cut-off arms and legs, and a small flotation pillow between their legs when swimming, participants carry a rope with carabiners to attach themselves to each other. These allow the stronger teammate to haul the weaker when swimming and running.

“But you have to be careful,” says Colting. “There’s always the risk that you might pull your teammate too close and injure yourself. We saw that when a female team fell last year and one of the pair broke her knee on the rocks.

But they kept on anyway and won the 52

“When you wade into the water for the 20th time, there’s so much gel and goo and mist in your goggles you don’t see any thing ”

Teammates must look out for one another, although sometimes this brings its own risks THE RED BULLETIN

women’s competition. Yep, that tells you what sort of fools are doing this,” he says with a smile.

M

ichael Lemmel talks everyone through the race stages and the simple rules, and says there will be “just perfect weather”: 16°C in the air; 13°C in the water. “Have fun!”

One competitor who might disagree that this is “perfect weather” is the year’s big star, German triathlete Faris Al-Sultan.

He lives in the heat of Abu Dhabi and has become a legend in endurance sports for competing whenever he can, like when he won the Iron Man World Championship in Hawaii in 2005 – in Speedos.

“This is definitely not my favourite kind of weather,” says Al-Sultan. “The toughest thing for me here is the unpredictability.

When I compete in a triathlon, it’s often about swimming near a bigger city, then biking out on a motorway and then running on asphalt in the city centre.

It’s easy to get into the ‘zone’. From what I know about the course here, it is forever changing, so you need to keep focus throughout the entire race.”

This year’s favourites – 2014 winners and record holders Lelle Moberg and Daniel Hansson – view Al-Sultan and his Swedish teammate Swedish Peter Oom as tough competition. But Moberg and Hansson believe they have an advantage from having competed together previously, and also from being able to train on the ÖTILLÖ course.

“The most important thing,” says Moberg, “is mental robustness: not being affected by factors such as the weather, the wind and the competition.

“You can’t complain that the rocks are more slippery than in training, or that a gel box or even a fish – that has actually happened! – is rubbing inside your wetsuit,” he says.

“When you wade into the water for the 20th time,” adds Hansson, “there’s so much gel and goo and mist in your goggles that you don’t see anything.

“The equipment is also a compromise.

We cut the arms and legs off our wetsuits so that we can cool off as we run, but you’re boiling hot quickly anyway. It’s not nice. So when we swim, we freeze, and when we run, we cook. That’s probably why it takes a greater toll on my body than endurance competitions that last five days.”

T

he time is 6am, and the sun has just risen over Sandhamn. Also overhead is the media helicopter, which hovers as the starting gun fires and the competitors dive into the water for their first 1km swim, from Sandhamn to Vindalsö.

The pace is furious, and all that is visible are swimming caps and flippers.

But Swimrun fanatic Dennis Blomberg – who, via his employers, sports goods company HEAD, is sponsoring several competitors – can make out the swimmers from hundreds of metres away, in the same way a birdwatcher can detect the difference between, say, a herring gull and a California gull at a distance. When the competitors make land on Vindalsö, Blomberg shouts encouragingly, “It looks so easy! Come on, come on!”

At a major checkpoint at Guns Livs and Nämdö Kök och Bar – a corner store

Swedish duo David Wiksén (left) and Patrik Rung celebrate after finishing in 2016 THE RED BULLETIN

and restaurant/bar three-and-a-half hours into the race, where competitors gulp down broth, coffee, gel and water – he shouts, “Great! Damn, you are looking good! Enjoy it now!”, even though some competitors say they have already vomited from exhaustion.

Beside him stands Lemmel, the competition’s organiser. He’s speaking with the media, both Swedish and overseas, who have come to cover the race, and also with the volunteers. “Oui. Yes. Ja,” he says, switching constantly between French, English and Swedish; from cellphone to walkie-talkie.

Before long, Moberg and Hansson have pulled away from the rest of the racing pack. The gap between them and the next group of competitors, led by teams including Al-Sultan’s, increases to one, two, then four minutes.

A

t the Utö finish line, the commentator spies Moberg and Hansson. As they cross the line, the digital stopwatch reads 7:59:04.

Lemmel is there to greet the victors with a hug. It would emerge later that he greets every one of the finishing teams, of which there are more than 100, in this way.

He hands over the victors’ champagne, stressing the words “World Champions” over the microphone. But neither Moberg nor Hansson have any feeling in their hands, so Lemmel pops the cork.

Inside the inn where the competitors gather for a Mexican buffet, there are many exhausted athletes. Most stagger between the nachos, the guacamole and the grill outside on the terrace.

“Your joints swell up from all the liquid, and you’re scratched all over by the blueberry bushes,” reveals Hansson when I find him in the crowd. He also tells me he has thought more about Swimrun as a sport, and about the importance of working as a team.

“We’re competing on behalf of the Swedish Armed Forces after all, and they want to promote themselves through us, because the way we think is very similar,” he explains. “In contrast to other career paths that prize the individual, such as banking and finance with their bonuses, in the armed forces you have to work together. That’s when you achieve things you didn’t believe you could do. If Lelle and I did this on our own, we would maybe have finished in 8:30, or 8:20 at best. But today was one of those days when one plus one really equals three.

“But sorry if I am babbling,” Hansson adds. “I’m a bit spaced out. I even threw up our victory champagne.”

53

FINDING NOOMI Words: Tom Guise Photography: Sandrine Dulermo and Michael Labica

She’s the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. She’s the sole human survivor of the starship Prometheus. And in her latest film, she plays seven identical sisters who, in turn, must play one character to escape incarceration. But who is the woman behind these complex, kick-ass characters? Who is the real Noomi Rapace?

54

N 56

oomi Rapace can handle herself in a fight. And we’re not talking about one of the fearless female protagonists she portrays: the Swedish actress is a bona fide warrior and real-deal ex-brawler.

“I started doing judo when I was 10. Then I did Thai boxing, kung fu, most forms of martial arts,” she says. “When I was younger I got into fights. I was wild. I fight hard for the things I like and want. And I’m very loyal. But I realised that getting angry doesn’t really help. Now, I’ve learned to fight my battles a different way: I say things with a smile and try to make people understand the way I see it. I get pretty far on that.”

Her duelling days may be behind her, but Rapace’s hellraising history lives on through the powerful acting roles she chooses. ‘I’m drawn to explosive characters that are on the edge, struggling, fighting for something. Not sweet and charming girls,” says the woman that shot to global stardom as Lisbeth Salander – the vicious, computer-hacking heroine of Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy – and who, as Elizabeth Shaw in Ridley Scott’s 2012 sci-fi epic Prometheus, cut an alien out of her own abdomen and went toe-to-toe with mankind’s creators.

For the role of Simza, the knife-fighting fortune teller in 2011’s Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, she even sparred with another legendary hell-raiser – Robert Downey Jr. THE RED BULLETIN

“I fight hard for the things I like and want. And I'm very loyal�

“My focus should be on the scene, the acting, not the way I look”

“We had a lot of fun, but we didn’t really talk so much about the past,” recalls the 37-year-old. “He [Downey Jr] likes kung fu, so I was training with him and his sifu [kung fu master]. I love it. It’s good for my head and body, but I have to be careful because my body wants to build muscles. I coordinate my workouts depending on what character I’m stepping into, and the kind of body I need to have.”

But to judge Rapace, or the characters she breathes life into, on physicality alone is to do her a huge injustice. Every role she inhabits has a deeper level of complexity, often every bit as fragile and vulnerable as they are strong-willed and intent on self-preservation. She has just finished filming Stockholm – also starring Ethan Hawke – a movie based on the true-life 1973 bank heist where the hostages formed a bond with their captors, spawning the psychological term ‘Stockholm syndrome’.

“Before I did the film, I asked myself, ‘How is that possible? What is the mind process in a person like that?’” says Rapace. “She has two kids at home, and a husband, then she falls for this kidnapper, this robber, and switches sides. She defends him and even visits him in jail. But then, when I was doing the film, it totally made sense.

That is the fantastic gift for me as an actor, when I discover things I couldn’t imagine before.

Stockholm syndrome hit me really hard; the fact that I could totally understand how it can happen.”

Rapace subscribes to her own particular style of method acting – “I go quite far into my characters. It’s not like you have to call me their name, but they do affect me” – drawing on her inner self for inspiration.

“It doesn’t matter how far out they are, or how lost they are, I feel it’s my duty as an actress to find the connection. So I dig into myself, even if it’s an unpleasant place to go. I feel like it’s something I have to do if it’s required for my work.” To that end, Rapace is always looking for fresh experiences. “I feel like a sponge: I read people, I collect. I injured myself on a film and I was in hospital and couldn’t move my legs, and I was there in the bed, thinking, ‘Now I know how it is to be in a wheelchair, to be unable to pee, walk or stand up.’ I started to see it from this above perspective of collecting stories or memories, like an emotional photo-book.”

Unravelling Rapace requires a deeper understanding of her unique upbringing. She was born to a Swedish mother and a Spanish father, but her parents separated before she was old enough to remember, so she was initially raised in Iceland by her mother and Icelandic stepfather, before moving to a farm in Sweden and enrolling at a Rudolf Steiner school.

“It’s an alternative school where they value art,” she explains. “It was very creative and free:

THE RED BULLETIN

“I go quite far into my characters.

They do affect me” we made our own books, didn’t have exams, went out to play a lot. But I didn’t learn to read and write until I was quite old. I lived far from school, so I didn’t hang out with friends. My horse and dog were my best friends. I was in my own world.

I was from another dad, I was dark while my sisters are blonde, and my personality was different from the rest of the family, so from an early age I was an outsider. I was strongminded and stubborn, and I knew from the age of seven that I wanted to be an actress, so when I was 15 I left my family, went to the other side of the country and started drama school. I did a TV series at 16 and started making money and living my own life.”

This sense of isolation undoubtedly shaped her latest and perhaps most challenging role – or, to be more accurate, roles. In What Happened To Monday?, Rapace plays seven identical sisters in an overpopulated future with a brutal one-child policy. In order to avoid detection, punishable by enforced suspended animation, the sisters live as one identity, each one venturing out on a different day of the week.

“It was important to separate them so the audience can recognise who’s who, but not go too far,” says Rapace.

“To be real people, not clichés – the sexy girl, the angry girl, the bitch, the nerd, you know? They’re all different versions of me. I created rituals for myself. I had different playlists for each one, different perfumes. I’d shower, take the smell off, put on the new music, and step into the room where my hair and make-up team were. I had to switch very quickly.

“It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Sometimes it was just me in the room with green screens and tennis balls and crosses and marks, with an earpiece, listening to the dialogue I’d pre-recorded in the other voices so that I could now answer them.

I had to have exactly the same timing on every take. I want the audience to forget that it’s one actor doing it; that it’s seven souls living in there.”

But which of the souls is the most ‘Noomi’? “My sister said Saturday, the blonde one, because I’m actually quite girly. People think I’m boyish and tough, but I have this feminine side most haven’t seen. I would say that I’m a combination of Saturday and Wednesday, the one who knows martial arts. So I’m the toughest and the most girly.”

Why is it that Rapace, a strikingly beautiful woman, isn’t drawn to more of these ‘girly’ roles?

“I think vanity is a big enemy of acting. I’m vain, and I find it hard to watch myself without getting hit by my vanity. You want to hide your faults, but my focus should always be on the scene, on the acting. It shouldn’t be on the way I look. So I made the decision years ago to not let my own vanity guide me. Every time I see myself, I’m like, ‘Not again, I look like shit.’ But then I’m like, ‘F--k it, it’s not about trying to be perfect, it’s about truth.’

“But I’m working on something really feminine: a very vain character who cares about her looks. If the character does it, I don’t mind it – it’s interesting. I like to challenge myself. It’s just my personal view of myself – I know that I’m not strong enough to free myself from it. I’m too weak to myself.”

But definitely not weak enough to be beaten in a fight. “I didn’t win,” she admits, laughing. “But it was not so much about winning or losing; it was about reaction. I was reacting against a lot of stuff, I guess.”

Netflix Original film What Happened To Monday? premieres on Netflix on August 18

59

TAMING THE

SAVAGE

Almost two decades ago, Slovenian alpinist DAVO K ARNIČAR became the only person ever to ski non-stop from the summit of Mount Everest to base camp. Af ter that record-set ting descent, he became consumed with the idea of accomplishing the same feat on K2 – second to Everest in height, but considered the world ’s most dangerous peak. No one has ever succeeded in skiing K2 from the summit, but Karničar, at 54, believes now is the time to conquer the biggest challenge of his life

Karnicˇar climbs toward the base of what he calls the most extreme ski line in Slovenia, above his home village of Jezersko

MOUNTAIN

WORDS: DEVON O’NEIL PHOTOGRAPHY: CARLOS BLANCHARD 61

IT IS JUST PAST 8 O’CLOCK ON A WEDNESDAY MORNING WHEN DAVO KARNIČAR BELTS OUT HIS FIRST YODEL.

The noise pierces a thick blanket of fog and echoes off the alpine walls above, bringing life to an otherwise silent basin. Soon the clouds will part to reveal the most extreme ski line in Slovenia, an impossibly steep thread of snow over certain-death exposure. Karničar first skied it in the ’80s. “It looks like all rock and ice,” he says, glancing up at the line when it comes into view. “But if we get a little more snow, you can ski it.”

Early May is warm, fertile and blindingly green in Jezersko (pronounced Yezersko), the 600-person village where Karničar has lived all his life and where we begin our morning. A lot of the locals are farming at this time of year. Karničar has something else on his mind. In a few weeks, he will fly to Islamabad, Pakistan, then trek into the Karakoram Range to the base of 8,611m K2, the world's second tallest mountain, which he intends to ski at the age of 54.

No one has ever skied it from top to bottom, though many have tried, including Karničar, 24 years ago. His skis blew away in a storm at 7,895m, ending his attempt. K2 has also killed two of its most qualified first-descent aspirants, Michele Fait of Italy and Fredrik Ericsson of Sweden, in the last eight years.

62

Scouting terrain from the deck of the ˇ eška kocˇa, or Czech Hut, where his father C worked as the caretaker for 40 years

K2 HAS HAUNTED DAVO KARNIČAR HIS ENTIRE CAREER

Holding a composite photo of himself standing with his skis in front of the Hillary Step on Mount Everest, after he made the only complete ski descent in October 2000

64

Eventually he gave in to his self-belief – to his destiny, he says. This explains why he’s climbing through the alpine fog on a perfectly sunny day in the valley, stopping to smear snow on his forehead, tinkering with his gear, yodelling in anticipation of his greatest challenge.

Many people say Karničar was born to ski the biggest peaks on Earth – including Karničar himself. “It’s my way in life,” he says. He and his four siblings – three brothers and a sister – had an advantage in that regard. Their father, Andrej, was the caretaker of a mountain hut for 40 years, and a locally renowned ski instructor. For much of Karničar’s childhood, a chairlift ran just above the hut, and he often woke before dawn to train. Getting to and from school was more complicated: the only way to reach the valley was by hiking up and down an exposed trail with fixed cables to hold onto, something he and his siblings did every morning and afternoon.

Karničar joined the Slovenian Alpine team as a teenager and competed on the Europa Cup and NorAm circuits, barely missing the World Cup in slalom. After his retirement, he became a coach with the Yugoslav team (Slovenia was part of Yugoslavia until 1991). Then, in the early

’90s, he spent four years as a World Cup ski serviceman for Norway. He also got heavily into rock climbing in his 20s, and eventually he decided to merge the climber and skier in him and tackle technical terrain. He still believes solo rock climbing is one of the best ways to train for an objective like K2, because

Bottleneck*

K2: SKIING THE CESEN ROUTE Of the two routes commonly used to climb K2, the Cesen – or Basque – is much more skiable than the Abruzzi. Each requires you to descend the Bottleneck*, a fatally

exposed couloir just below the summit.

Dave Watson, the only man to ski it, claims the pitch is 60° at the top. “The snow can be funky, and you can’t breathe,” he says.

THE RED BULLETIN

GETTY IMAGES

Karničar has experience on his side, as well as a singular CV. On October 7, 2000, he made the first and only ski descent of Mount Everest from summit to base camp. In 2006, he became the first to ski the Seven Summits in the same style. He’s made first descents all over Slovenia and has two first descents on 8,000m peaks, Everest and Annapurna, which he skied in 1995.

Yet despite his place in history, K2 has followed him like a shadow his entire career. Haunted him, even. It is one of the only 8,000m peaks yet to be skied. Karničar, a father of seven and grandfather of two, knows this could be his last chance.

For years, he swore he would never attempt K2 again, mostly to spare his family the stress. K2 killed one of his teammates in 1993, and he later lost his older brother and best friend to accidents in the mountains. But Karničar’s commitment and unique qualifications stand apart, and every time he let his guard down, K2 pulled him back again, like gravity pulls a skier downhill. “Many times I decide, ‘No, no, no. This is too big of a mountain, too steep, too dangerous. I had better not.’ But other periods…” He pauses.

“Yes, I think it’s possible.”

“It's my way in life," says Karnicˇar. To others, it's clear that he was born to ski the biggest peaks on Earth

“MANY TIMES I DECIDE, ‘NO. THIS IS TOO BIG A MOUNTAIN, TOO DANGEROUS.’ BUT OTHER PERIODS, I THINK IT’S POSSIBLE”

both disciplines demand ultimate accountability and precision. “I don’t risk too much, but it’s very important,” he says. “There’s no one to catch you.”

Karničar’s self-sufficiency has come at a price. During his first attempt to ski Everest, via the Northeast Ridge in 1996, he got caught in the infamous storm that took eight lives and ended up scrambling down the mountain in temperatures of -60°C. He lost two of his fingers to frostbite. (On K2 this summer, he’s using a pair of Scarpa boots that are two sizes too big to increase circulation and prevent frostbite.)

His successful Everest descent four years later, via the South Col route in Nepal – where abundant summer snowfall allowed him to ski the boulderstacked Hillary Step – achieved two things: it turned Karničar into a global hero, and made him promise his family he would abandon his dream of skiing K2.

“I hope that I can keep my promise,” Karničar hedged in a People magazine story from December 2000.

He stayed busy with his Seven Summits quest right through to November 2006, but K2’s allure soon beckoned again.

In 2008, he and his second wife Petra, also an accomplished ski mountaineer, trekked up the Baltoro Glacier to K2’s base camp, just so Karničar could look at the peak. He felt its power wash over him like an ocean wave.

But the following year, during an expedition to 8,156m Manaslu, the world’s eighth tallest peak, his best friend and long-time expedition partner Franc Oderlap was hit on the head and killed by a falling chunk of ice, with Karničar just 10m away. Karničar brought Oderlap’s body home, devastated. Married and raising three young children with Petra, in addition to his three adult offspring from his first marriage (he calls children “the greatest gift”), he again swore off the idea of skiing K2.

“I’d go to bed and start thinking about K2,” says Karničar, “and I’d think, ‘For me, this is absolutely not possible; it’s too much. I must stay here together with my children and do nothing else in this life.’”

What is it about K2 that captivates even the most measured minds? The answer is complicated. First climbed by an Italian team in 1954, a year after the first ascent of Everest, its reputation as the “Savage Mountain” – roughly one person dies for every four who summit – invites both fear and challenge. It’s technically stout, with super-steep slopes over fatal exposure

66

and notoriously brutal weather that often affords just one climbing window in the middle of summer, instead of the spring and autumn windows you can hope for in Nepal and Tibet.

“As far as ski mountaineering goes, I don’t think there is anything bigger than skiing off the summit of K2,” says Dave Watson, an American who, in 2009, at the age of 33, skied from 213m below the summit. He’s still the only person to have skied the Bottleneck, a 60° chute above deadly exposure. “No one can relate to what it takes. It’s like walking on the Moon.”

Sixty-five-year-old Viki Grošelj, the first Slovenian to summit K2 – one of 10 8,000m peaks he has climbed – believes an ascent and descent of the savage mountain “is harder than Everest, with full respect for the highest mountain in the world”.

Even with a small team, Karničar had to raise $90,000 for the upcoming

KARNIČAR READILY ACKNOWLEDGES THE ELEMENT OF COMPETITION: “PART OF THE WISH IS TO BE THE FIRST,” HE SAYS

Karnicˇar has hiked this trail ˇ eška kocˇa since to the C childhood, when he used it to commute to school

“THE BEST WAY THAT I WILL COME BACK IS IF MY FAMILY IS NOT ON MY MIND. I MUST BE COMPLETELY WITH THE MOUNTAINS”

Descending a steep slope during a training day in May 2017: “I don’t need to go to the gym. We have a gym year round,” he says of the mountains around him

DAVO KARNIČAR'S NOTABLE DESCENTS AND EXPEDITIONS

Before I leave Jezersko, I ask Karničar if he has thought about the feeling he might have after a successful descent – like the one he described after skiing Everest, an elation that lasted three years.

“It’s not my motivation, this feeling after,” he says. “Look, I’m not good enough.

I know that K2 is so big that nobody is good enough.” He pauses, then leans forward. His eyes get wide. Lest caution be confused with doubt, he almost shouts it: “But I feel that I can do this!”

1989: Skis the Lauper Route

on the north-east face of the Eiger, a descent Karnicˇar still calls “the hardest one I ever made”. He completes it on slalom skis.

1993: Makes his first attempt to ski K2. Turns back after a storm blows away his skis at camp.

1995: Completes the first descent of 8,091m Annapurna with his brother Andrej, or Drejc. They ski more than 3,353 vertical metres. Drejc loses eight toes to frostbite.

1996: Tries to ski 8,848m Everest from the north side and gets caught in the storm made famous by Jon Krakauer’s book Into Thin Air. Descends on foot from 8,290m when the weather turns; loses two fingers to frostbite.

2000: Makes the first and only complete ski descent of Everest, this time on the south side in Nepal. Skis off the summit at 7am on October 7, with the temperature at -32°C, and continues skiing to 5,334m – a descent of 3,505m over four hours and 40 minutes.

2001: Skis 5,895m Kilimanjaro, the highest peak in Africa, using miniature 100cm skis, alongside his 15-year-old son Tadej.

2002: Skis 5,642m Mount Elbrus, the tallest peak in Europe, which he first skied in 1986 with his late brother Luka.

2003: In January, skis 6,962m Aconcagua, South America’s highest mountain. Then in July, flies to Australia and skis 2,228m Kosciuszko, the tallest skiable peak on that continent. Drejc joins him for the latter descent, their first international trip together since Annapurna.

2004: Skis the highest peak in North America, 6,190m Denali, in May. Later writes, “I think I have never yodelled as much as I did on this mountain.”

2006: Completes his Seven Summits quest on November 28 with a foggy descent of 4,892m Vinson in Antarctica.

2016: Skis the west face of 6,032m Tocllaraju in Peru, arguably the most technical descent in the Andes. Tests folding Elan skis for K2.

2017: Returns to Pakistan for a second attempt of K2, more than two decades after his first.

THE RED BULLETIN

In 1996, after surviving an infamous storm on Everest, Karnicˇar lost two fingers to frostbite

trip, which was funded largely by the Slovenian shopping-mall company Tuš. He has relied on a friend from Slovenia, Boris Repnik, as well as four Pakistani high-altitude porters to help fix ropes and ferry gear to Camp 3 on the Cesen Route, where he expects to proceed alone.

Fitness was the least of his concerns.

Built like an Olympic wrestler at 5ft 8in with coconut biceps, Karničar weighs the same as he did on K2 in 1993 and Everest in 2000: 76kg. “I don’t need to go to the gym. We have a gym year round,” says Karničar of his training, gesturing toward alpine walls from his driveway.

Later, in his living room, when I ask if he is obsessed with K2, he replies, “I try not to be.” But that’s not to say he hasn’t studied prior attempts and learned ways to improve his chances of success. Fredrik Ericsson, for instance, fell when his skis, which were fastened to the outside of his backpack and extended below his waist, bumped the slope in the Bottleneck, knocking him off balance and sending him to his death.

Karničar has worked with Elan, the company that has been his ski sponsor since he was 12, to design a pair of folding skis that he can stuff in his pack’s hip pockets, out of the way and far less susceptible to wind.

Karničar readily acknowledges the element of competition, if only to keep it in check. He probably would not have tried again if someone had skied K2, he says. “I’m clear with myself: part of the wish is to be first.”

The next time I speak to Karničar is by satellite phone on July 7. He’s at K2 base camp and has just finished eating breakfast. Later that day, he would begin a 100km trek to Skardu. It would be the first step in a week-long trip home, one month earlier than planned.

He’s leaving without ever attempting the ski descent of his dreams, derailed by a freak lower-back injury soon after he arrived at base camp. Karničar attempted to move a large rock to make room for a tent. Searing pain shot through his trunk. He gave the injury two weeks to heal, but even then, the pain was still “as bad as before”.

He tested it anyway, twice skiing from Camp 1 at 6,000m, where slopes reach 55°. But after the second descent, he accepted his fate, however crushing, with the same measured resolve he’d expressed before. “I felt that if I must prepare for [the pain of] each turn, it’s too dangerous,” Karničar said at Base Camp. “This mountain is so serious that we must go up completely fit and believing that we can do it.”

Karničar also noted the route was not in prime condition, with more exposed rock than usual between 6,000 and 7,000m. “Because of this section, it would have been very hard to make a real ski descent,” he says. And he has never been interested in anything less than that.

Reflecting on his journey, Karničar, a man of deep faith, does not try to hide his disappointment. “I’m not happy now,” he says. “But I’m happy that I’m healthy, that I can walk. Many people were with me, and many people prayed that everything would be OK. And I’m feeling that it’s just God’s wish that it ends like this.”

After his injury, Karničar has been feeling extra grateful for all that he’s achieved before, including his Everest descent, he says. He sounds like someone who is at peace with his career. But I still have to ask: is he ready to let go of K2, or would he try again some day?

“I’m not ready to answer that,” he says.

69

HÏ TIMES ON THE WHITE ISLAND Eve r y su m m e r, m i l l i o ns of rave r s f l o o d i n to I b iza i n sea rc h of t h e u l ti mate pa r t y. O p e n i n g a n ew c l u b h e re req u i res p e r seve ra n c e.

O p e n i n g o n e i n t h e s p o t p revi o us ly o c c u p i e d by t h e is l a n d ’s m os t l ege n d a r y n ig h t l i fe i ns ti t u ti o n t a kes visi o n , to o. Ya n n Pisse n e m ha s b o t h . T he Red B u l l eti n t rave l l e d to L a Is l a B l a n c a to f i n d o u t w he t he r t he S pa n ia r d ’s l ates t p roj e c t , H ï I b iza , is se t to b e c o m e i ts n ew h o ts p o t…

Words: Florian Obkircher Photography: Rober to Castaño

The light goes out, the music fades.

There’s a moment of silence in a place known worldwide for its vibrancy. Just a second ago, 2,000 revellers danced ecstatically to pumping house music; now they stare expectantly towards the massive stage, where a tall young man in a brown T-shirt walks up to the decks and drops an insistent beat.

The man is Nkosinathi Maphumulo, better known as Black Coffee. The South African producer, whose track Superman was recently sampled by rapper Drake, is a resident DJ at Hï Ibiza, the island’s hottest 70

Black Coffee’s sound is called Afropolitan: colourful, vocaldriven, but techno at the same time

ITS MAIN FLOOR, THE THEATRE, SETS A NEW STANDARD FOR IBIZAN SUPERCLUBS

Besides Black Coffee, DJs such as Eric Prydz and Martin Garrix host weekly parties at Hï Ibiza over the summer

Guests take a break from the dancefloor in the garden with its LED trees

HOW DOES ONE FOLLOW IN SPACE’S HUGE FOOTSTEPS? YOU DON’T

new nightclub. His first tune of the night is Khen & Guy Mantzur’s melancholic deephouse track Children With No Name. For minutes, he lets the tune simmer, adding elements.

The tension builds, a synth melody swells, then… boom!

The kick drum pulses hard and the room is ablaze with light. Red and green patterns splash and spiral around the walls and ceiling; lasers sweep the dancefloor – it feels like being aboard the Starship Enterprise at warp factor nine.

The effect is jaw-dropping.

For Yann Pissenem, it means his plan has come to fruition.

Just three weeks ago, the Spanish entrepreneur opened his new club here in Playa d’en Bossa. Pissenem was already a major figure on the scene, being the founder and creative director of Ushuaïa, the famous beach hotel that hosts pool parties of more than 4,000 people every weekend. Even so, opening Hï Ibiza was a major challenge for the simple reason that it sits on the former site of one of the island’s most hallowed venues – Space, which last October closed its doors after 27 years. This was a place that was awarded Best Global Club four times at the International Dance Music Awards; a place where DJ legends such as Carl Cox had weekly residencies; a place where countless gilded memories of summer excess were minted. How does one follow in such enormous footsteps? You don’t.

“We really are trying to bring something new to the island,” Pissenem says. “I want it to be a total experience. You can’t have an unforgettable party if the music is not first class and the production is boring. All these little details have got to come together.”

This is most evident on Hï Ibiza’s main floor, the Theatre.

The name is a reference to the architecture which, with its ascending circle of booths surrounding the dancefloor, THE RED BULLETIN

“WE’RE TRYING TO BRING SOMETHING NEW TO THE ISLAND” is modelled on ancient Roman amphitheatres. With its kinetic LED screens covering the entire back of the space, and 86 lasers and 300 lights, the Theatre sets a new standard for Ibizan superclubs. The sound system, consisting of more than 100 speakers, is geared to provide a full, round, even sound. Or as Black Coffee says, “In the main room, wherever you are, the sound is the same.”

When asked for his favourite feature of the club, the DJ cites “the energy in the bathrooms”.

His meaning becomes clear when you approach the small, almost hidden space between the Theatre and Hï Ibiza’s second floor, the Club. Here

is a 200-capacity dancefloor, Wild Corner, which resembles a retro-futuristic disco den.

The DJ is in a white spaceshipstyled booth in the middle of the room; the ceiling’s multicoloured light squares pulsate to the beat of party classics, and revellers shake their hips as they freshen up their make-up in front of floor-to-ceiling mirrors at the end of the dancefloor, which is bordered by unisex cubicles.

“I came here for a quick toilet break, but that was hours ago,” says a sweat-drenched young woman with a smile.

At around 6.30am, as Black Coffee and his colleagues wrap it up behind the DJ desk,

the revellers flood the garden near the club’s exit. What was once a parking lot in the Space days is now a paved garden area with palm trees and tepees arranged around two 4m-high tree sculptures with glowing cables for branches – the kind of constructions that would be revered at Burning Man. While some partygoers sit by its trunk and discuss their highlights of the night, others take photos in front of the wonder trees. One guy shouts to his friend with a camera phone, “You should tag it ‘#ibizasnewlandmark’.”

It’s a compliment that Yann Pissenem would definitely be pleased to hear. hiibiza.com 73

FEAR CAN BE OVERWHELMING BUT IT’S MEGAN HINE ON SURVIVING LIFE

WORDS: PAUL WILSON

74

PHOTOGRAPHY: ADRIAN MYERS

NOT A NEGATIVE EMOTION

“YOUR BRAIN CAN’T DISTINGUISH BETWEEN WHETHER YOU’RE BEING STALKED

BY A LION OR FEELING THREATENED BY SOMEONE’S PERFECT LIFE ON FACEBOOK”

O

ne of the world’s leading survival experts and wilderness guides, Megan Hine works behind the scenes on TV shows about outdoor endurance – including those made by the master of the genre, Bear Grylls – scouting locations and setting up challenges for contestants. She also takes private clients into some of the most hostile environments on the planet, and brings them home safely.

Hine has now written a book, Mind Of A Survivor, in which she explores what it takes to survive, and explains how techniques for coping in the toughest conditions can be applied in less hazardous situations. Powerful and inspiring, Hine reveals how to make better decisions, handle stress and get things done in everyday life – lessons learned from experiences such as surviving the bite of a deadly scorpion, being stalked by lions, evading gunfire from armed rebels, and having to cope with ego flares from overconfident reality-show contestants. She tells The Red Bulletin about her adventures, and why The Walking Dead is better than a dozen leadership/management books. the red bulletin: Why do you think it’s possible to use survival skills in everyday situations? megan hine: I’d been wondering what it is about modern life that’s causing people to suffer from stress and depression, and if there was something from the wilderness we can use to heal it. In extreme conditions, people really show their emotions. Say there’s an accident at sea and someone is floating in the ocean, or they’re high on a cliff edge: it’s obvious that they’re going to feel stress and fear, because it’s not a natural experience. So, if you can learn to deal with those extremes, where it’s obvious where the fear and the anxiety are coming from, you can then carry that over into everyday life where we’re now bombarded with so many different stimuli that cause stress.

Isn’t that easy for you to say because you’ve spent a lot of time in extreme conditions?

What I really want to do with the book and my social media channels is make myself and what I do more accessible. If I put up pictures of me playing with helicopters and hanging

off rock faces, people look at that and think, “Wow. That’s really cool, but it’s not something I can relate to.” So I think that through writing a book and through some of the messages I put on social media, I’m trying to make other people aware of the fact that I have the same emotions as everybody else, and I go through the same thought processes, just in a different environment.

So what techniques can we use?

Scenario planning is powerful.

Constantly running yourself through scenarios where you’re the hero of your own life, as such. If you’re thinking clearly about a situation, however crazy it might be, it allows you to become the hero of your own life; it allows you to trick your brain into thinking you’re in control all the time. By thinking about situations, you’ve already separated out that emotion, because you’re going to be the hero. You’re going to manage it.

Your brain can’t distinguish between whether you’re being stalked by a lion or you’re feeling threatened by someone’s perfect life on Facebook.

It reacts in the same way: fear, stress, adrenalin. When I tell people some of my stories, lots of them say things like, “I couldn’t do that. I can’t even handle the school run without getting stressed.” The difference is that mine was a life-or-death situation. You have to do something, otherwise you’re going to die. If you don’t get your children to school on time, yes, it’s not good, but it’s not going to kill you. So you prepare to fight the stress by running through the ways you can cope with it, and when it comes for real, you’re better equipped to cope with it because it’s second nature. It helped me recently when I was caught in the crossfire between two warring tribes in Kenya.

That’s not in your book, is it?

No, this was something that happened after I wrote it. I was working in Kenya with two guys, and we were rigging a rope challenge across a river. A few days earlier, a local guy had been eaten by a crocodile from the river below us.

77

“IF YOU’RE THINKING CLEARLY ABOUT A SITUATION, HOWEVER CRAZY IT MIGHT BE, IT ALLOWS YOU TO BECOME THE HERO OF YOUR OWN LIFE”

Bear Grylls once described Hine as “99 per cent stronger” than the men he knows

So I was on one side, rigging, and the guys were on the other side, and suddenly an explosion of gunfire went off around us. I dived into a little alcove and something ricocheted off the sand next to me.

It was like something out of the movies. At that moment, I realised the gunfire was coming towards me and thought people were actually shooting at me. I was like, “Oh, shit.

We need to sort this out,” and the safest place was over on the other side where the guys were in a bigger cave. So I managed to scramble down through the river and up the other side and into the cave to join the guys. Gunfire was ricocheting off the cave roof; it lasted for about 15 minutes. We found out later that there were two tribes, and one had stolen hundreds of goats from another. Local rangers had set an ambush directly above where we were. So we weren’t being shot at; we were just caught in the crossfire.

And you coped because you had planned the ‘what if’ of being caught in a gun battle?

Not exactly. I’d looked around and thought of where the safest place might be if I needed it, and how to get there as quickly as possible.

In your book, you also outline the idea of a ‘mental box’, compartmentalising difficult emotions. Isn’t that just bottling up negative feelings, and something we shouldn’t do?

From a very young age, whenever I was upset or scared, it’s what I’d 78

do immediately. So my ability to cope with fear is something I’ve developed naturally, through exposure to a huge amount of experiences. Fear is something that can be overwhelming, but it’s not necessarily a negative emotion. It’s a survival mechanism, a subconscious process, and if you’re feeling scared, there’s probably something in your subconscious that’s trying to feed you a thought, or to warn you that something has changed within your environment, or that you’re unsafe. I think it’s important to listen to those emotions, stop and analyse the situation, and then figure out what you want to do with that emotion.

This is the technique you call STOP: sit down, think, observe, plan…

Yes. Sitting down and thinking are the hardest things to do when you’re stressed or scared. To make yourself do it, try heavy breathing exercises.

I learned them from yoga, and they really do work to calm down fear.

Hine says she’s happiest in snowy, mountainous terrain

“In the wilderness, the only person you are in competition with is yourself,” she says

You write about a time when you were on a very turbulent helicopter flight and the breathing didn’t work…

I hate helicopter rides anyway, but this one was really bad. The breathing was not calming my anxiety, and then suddenly the thought of a rose popped into mind.

It was something from my childhood, and the thought of it made me smile and calmed me down. I somehow got a scent of it there, too. That came from my subconscious, but since then, I think of the rose on helicopter flights and it calms me down. Thinking about stroking my dog works in the same way, too. These are powerful images of happiness. If you can hold onto them in tough moments, they can help get you through.

Why do you also believe in the power of the natural world to combat stress?

Because it’s worked for me many times, and it still does, even if that just means going to sit on a park bench. When I’m in London, every day I have to go and find a park somewhere – early in the morning or in the evening, particularly as the sun’s setting, because those are powerful times of the day.

I absolutely recommend that people get out into nature and try to understand it. It doesn’t have to be hanging-off-a-cliff extreme, but going into unfamiliar territory can be a big help. If you and some friends hire an outdoor instructor just for one day, you’ll learn so much: the basic foundation skills of going into the outdoors, like navigation and equipment. You can pick the brains of someone who’s been through that. Then you can go to places and safely just absorb the environment. Wherever you are in the natural world, it’s amazing how quickly the stresses fall away and things are put into perspective.

Megan Hine’s book, Mind Of A Survivor: What The Wild Has Taught Me About Survival And Success, is out now.

Follow her on Twitter: @Meg_Hine

MEGAN HINE’S FIVE ADVENTURES OFF THE BEATEN TRACK (BUT NOT TOO FAR)

Away from tourists and weekend warriors, these are the less obvious, but entirely possible, challenges any self-respecting outdoor achiever should face…

1. WALES

“I genuinely believe the UK is one of the most extreme environments – Scotland, Wales and the Lake District, in particular, because the weather changes so quickly.

There’s something called the hypothermia triangle: when the three elements of cold, wind and wet are unbalanced – and those are typical conditions for the UK – chances are you’ll come down with hypothermia.

You can be out in Wales and experience all four seasons in a day.”

2. VANOISE, FRANCE

“This is an Alpine area comprising a national park, mountain range and Val d’Isère. It’s quite rugged and remote, and there are wolves. Adventuring here is gradually building. I love the mountains; it’s my favourite environment. When I began my career in the outdoor industry, I assumed that I’d end up as a mountain guide. It was what I was working towards.

Then suddenly, you know, I’m working in jungles and deserts and all these other environments.”

3. ASIAN JUNGLES

“If you wanted to try jungle exploration, some areas of Thailand are good. Brunei has jungle areas that are quite benign as jungles go, rather than going straight into the Amazon, where there are a lot more deadly snakes and bugs and dangers.

That’s not to say Thailand and Brunei are easy: as with all these places, you should always go with other people; those who have already got experience. That really is key to a successful adventure.”

4. TORRES DEL PAINE, ARGENTINA

“This is in Patagonia – absolutely one of my favourite areas. Again, the weather systems there are very similar to the UK, so there’s that challenge. Some of the areas can attract a lot of visitors, but that’s because it’s incredibly beautiful. It’s like Wales on steroids. There are areas of Patagonia that speak Welsh, because a Welsh community settled here about 150 years ago.”

5. ARAGON, SPAIN

“You should try a desert environment.

Even in or near Europe, there are some amazing places, such as Morocco and areas of Spain. There is some incredible wilderness in Spain that hardly anybody ever goes to – thousands of acres. I was just working there, down in the Aragon region. There are amazing gorges, great rock climbing, vast areas of woodland and forest. You can drive on four-wheeldrive tracks, or go off and wild camp.”

10%

OFF

YOUR NEXT ORDER WITH CODE: RB0717

guide Get it. Do it. See it.

20 August

RED BULL JOYRIDE

BARTEK WOLINSKI/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

Gravity is no obstacle to the daredevil mountainbikers at Red Bull Joyride, the mother of all slopestyle MTB contests. More than a thousand pro riders will converge on Whistler, British Columbia, to fly through the course – and the air.

Watch it on redbull.tv

THE RED BULLETIN

81

GUIDE

See it Host Kyle Ng (right) tries on a gas mask made from trainers by artist Gary Lockwood (middle)

FROM STREET TO SLOPE

This month, it’s all about doing it in style – whether it be the clothes you wear, your skills with a football, or the bike tricks you land

WATCH RED BULL TV ANYWHERE Red Bull TV is a global digital entertainment destination featuring programming that is beyond the ordinary and is available any time, anywhere.

Go online at redbull.tv, download the app, or connect via your Smart TV. To find out more, visit redbull.tv

82

Ng poses for a portrait during filming in Castel Gandolfo, Italy

THE RED BULLETIN

1 THE RED BULLETIN

September

NEW

SOCIAL FABRIC

There’s an adventure behind everything we wear. That’s the message of this new series, which takes us on a fascinating, surprising and often hilarious journey into the world of men’s clothing. In each episode of Social Fabric, host and streetstyle designer Kyle Ng will explore the cultural DNA of current fashion trends, and dive into the lives of the craftsmen, collectors, celebrities and eccentrics who share a passion for what they put on.

CHRIS LOMAS/RED BULL CONTENT POOL (2), JUSSI GRZNAR/RED BULL CONTENT POOL, NIKA KRAMER/RED BULL CONTENT POOL, MARC MÜLLER/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

August/September

20 18 2

August

NEW

RED BULL JOYRIDE

The world’s biggest slopestyle mountain bike contest returns to Whistler, British Columbia, for another no-holds-barred display of gravity-defying skills. See more than a thousand pro riders compete in this explosive finale to the 10-day Crankworx Whistler festival.

August

NEW

STREETS DON’T LIE

This three-part documentary series follows ex-France and Liverpool striker Djibril Cissé on the search for young, undiscovered football talent. Cissé hits the streets of London, Berlin and Paris to find the best in each city. The prize: a weeks’ training at a Red Bull Academy.

September

LIVE

DISTRICT RIDE

Nuremberg’s old town plays host again to the world’s top freeride bikers in the fifth edition of the city-based slopestyle contest.

Competitors will be performing their best tricks in five different districts, with the audience lining the streets, close to the action.

83

FROST FORGED

Keep the power, lose the weight. The new thin Predator Triton 700 combines superior cooling with exceptional performance for a truly immersive gaming experience. Leave the desktop at home – you don’t need it Gaming enthusiasts have high expectations for the exciting developments of the future; they’re ready for truly amazing performance in a significant upgrade to their next-level experience. Acer’s new thin Predator Triton 700 cutting-edge gaming notebook delivers exactly that. Sandblasted to perfection, the obsidian black body exhibits a design with straight contours and angular front corners.

A vibrant, translucent Gorilla® Glass plate above the keyboard serves as a window into the heart of Acer’s industry-leading AeroBlade™ 3D fan technology.

Take your game with you: the Predator Triton 700 is the first in a new series of thin gaming notebooks

To be the best, you need the best Unlock the true potential of the VRready Predator Triton 700 powerhouse with the latest 7th Gen Intel® CoreTM high-performance processor and NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1080 graphics.

The 15.6in IPS screen with NVIDIA® G-SYNC™ offers vibrant visuals and calms the storm of fastpaced gaming woes by eliminating screen tearing.

Toss on a pair of headphones and transform what you hear. Experience how Dolby Atmos® sound moves around you in three-dimensional space so you feel like you‘re inside the action.

More powerful features Killer DoubleShotTM Pro networking, Thunderbolt 3™ connectivity, USB 3.0, HDMI 2.0 and a DisplayPort connector have you covered. Feel the difference with each stroke: the low-profile mechanical keyboard – heralded by many as essential to gaming – is tactile and responsive, and has just the right amount of push minus the noise. And the RGB backlit keys, which can be programmed individually, create an unique, immersive gaming mood. n

THE RED BULLETIN PROMOTION

1

INNOVATIVE COOLING The Predator Triton 700 combines superior cooling with exceptional performance: the ultrathin, metal-finned AeroBlade™ 3D Fans make this possible without sacrificing the graphics

5 VR-READY

2 REFINED DESIGN

Virtual reality is everywhere, constantly improving and beyond enjoyable. This machine is more than ready, so jump on in

Go big on power and small in form with a 15.6in FHD IPS display, and a thin body that measures just 18.9mm in thickness

3

EXTREME POWER Game wherever, whenever, powered by an NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1080 with Max-Q design and 7th Gen Intel® Core™ i7 Processor

Photos: Acer

4

6 FULL CONTROL PredatorSense™ is the ultimate tool for control.

Take command of lighting, overclocking, game profiles, and more. What more could you ask for?

IMMERSIVE GAMING EXPERIENCE

Low-profile mechanical keyboard with an individual backlight for each key. Feel the difference with every stroke.

Go ahead, have some fun

AEROBLADE™ 3D FAN: SERIOUSLY COOL Up to +35% improvement in airflow1

Ultrathin, metal-finned AeroBlade™ 3D Fan

Thickness of 0.1mm

Keeping nice and cool, even when the action heats up By placing a curved small fin on each blade of its proprietary AeroBlade™ 3D fans, Acer has combined the qualities of a finned axial fan with those of a centrifugal blower fan, allowing for the greatest jump in airflow yet – an astounding 35%1.

1 Performance is based on a comparison with the same dimension of plastic fan. Actual airflow will vary based on site conditions, size of fan and other factors

ACER.COM/PREDATOR

GUIDE Edited by Gisbert L Brunner

Get It

BREITLING NAVITIMER RATTRAPANTE

Twice as sharp

The classic Navitimer design is more than 60 years old, but the Rattrapante’s internal movement remains as sophisticated as it gets, with a second chronograph hand for clocking two sessions at the same time. breitling.com

The Track 1 (limited to 50 pieces) costs a 10th the price of a Singer Porsche

REMIXING THE CLASSICS Rob Dickinson knows about tunes: he was the lead singer of ’90s rock band Catherine Wheel, and is the cousin of Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson. But neither is his greatest claim to fame. That would be Singer Vehicle Design, his LA-based car-modification outfit dedicated to restoring and reimagining pre-1998 air-cooled Porsche 911s with modern carbon-fibre body parts and amped-up engines to the tune of almost £400K a piece. Motoring and chronograph watches share a long history, so when the opportunity arose to rework the latter, too, Dickinson jumped at the chance.

SINGER REIMAGINED TRACK 1

Future retro

The challenge of the chronograph – building a legible stopwatch into a timepiece’s dial – has tasked watchmakers for almost 200 years.

Marco Borraccino, the former head of design at Panerai, envisioned a solution, but it wasn’t until his love of Porsche cars led him to Dickinson that it was realised. On the Track 1, the chronograph takes centre stage with a sweeping larger second hand and two smaller ‘jumping’ minute and hour hands, while the time is pushed to the edges, displayed on two moving bezels. This ingenious mechanism, which uses a diamondnickel coating instead of toothed cogs to generate a smooth yet slip-free movement, called for the talents of a third genius – internal craftsman Jean-Marc Wiederrecht.

Truly, a three-handed solution to reimagining the chronograph. singervehicledesign.com

86

ORIS CHRONORIS WILLIAMS 40TH ANNIVERSARY LIMITED EDITION

Personal best

Since debuting in 1977, Frank Williams’ F1 team has secured nine Constructors’ and seven Drivers’ World Championship victories. Now it can claim another win, with a finely crafted, vintage-inspired timepiece to add to the trophy cabinet. oris.ch

CARL F BUCHERER MANERO FLYBACK CHRONOGRAPH

Jumping back

‘Flyback’ refers to a chronograph hand that springs back to zero at the click of a button, restarting the timer. In this case, it may also refer to the return of this watch’s classic 1970s stopwatch function. carl-f-bucherer.com

THE RED BULLETIN

COMING SOON! BOOM - 800mm Wide 35mm Diameter Bar 35mm Diameter VYCE Stems

# Ulti mate Ri de

GUIDE

7 Do it

August / September to 10 September Bestival It’s the festival that made fancy dress ‘a thing’ and set the Guinness World Record for the most costume-wearers in one place. But if lugging your outfit to the Isle of Wight always seemed like too much hassle, you now have no excuse – this year, it has moved to the more conveniently located Jurassic Coast in Dorset. The xx, A Tribe Called Quest, Dizzee Rascal and pop pioneers Pet Shop Boys head a Bestival line-up worthy of the name.

Lulworth Estate, Dorset; bestival.net

25

to 27 August

MOTOGP BRITISH GRAND PRIX Watch the greatest motorsport tournament on two wheels as it roars its way back onto home asphalt. The action will again take place on the hallowed track at Silverstone, with British rider Bradley Smith hoping to steer the recently formed Red Bull KTM factory team to victory on his 1,000cc KTM RC16.

25 88

August Terminator 2: Judgement Day 3D True story: the liquid-metal effects of the T-1000 might never have been possible if not for the serendipitous invention of a new piece of software, Photoshop. And what better way to revisit arguably the greatest sci-fi action movie ever than in this 4K 3D remastered version, overseen by director James Cameron himself.

UK cinemas; terminator2-3d.co.uk

1

to 30 September Totally Thames The murky brown line that divides the capital finally gets the love it deserves and brings Londoners of all postcodes together in a month-long celebration. This includes an art installation built from river litter, a concert deep in Tower Bridge’s subterranean Bascule Chambers, an exhibition of London’s boatyards, a boat race and a tidal swim. Across London; totallythames.org

8

to 20 September John Legend on tour Gifted his name by beat poet J Ivy after they collaborated on Kanye's debut album, the R&B maestro has long since lived up to the moniker, earning 10 Grammys, a Golden Globe, an Oscar and a baby lookalike meme. Now he's taking his Darkness And Light tour across the UK. Total legend. Various UK arenas; johnlegend.com

THE RED BULLETIN

CAITLIN MOGRIDGE, GOLD & GOOSE/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

Silverstone Circuit, Northants; motogp.com

Clockwise from top: HiSense 65in N6800 4K ULED HDR-Plus TV, hisense.co.uk; Devialet Gold Phantom 4500W high-powered connected speaker, devialet.com; Razer Ornata Chroma gaming keyboard with Mecha-Membrane keys and Razer Orochi mouse, razerzone.com; Logitech Companion universal smart remote, logitech.com; Nintendo Switch games console with Joy-Con Grip; nintendo.com

THE AUDIOPHILE

FROM RETRO VIBES TO FUTURE SOUNDS

Clockwise from top right: refurbished ReVox B77 reel-toreel tape machine, revox.com; Roli modular music-creation system – Loop Block production controls, two Lightpad Block sonic surfaces, Seaboard Block pressure-responsive keyboard, Live Block performance controls, roli.com; Clearaudio Ovation turntable constructed from aluminium and panzerholz bulletproof wood sandwiching 100,000 metal balls that absorb harmful resonance, clearaudio.de; Bang & Olufsen BeoSound 1 360-degree portable wireless aluminium speaker, bang-olufsen.com

THE RED BULLETIN

91

CONNECTED HOME SMART DE VICES FOR INTELLIGENT LIVING

Clockwise from top left: Razer Blade Pro, Razer Blade, Razer Blade Stealth gaming laptops, razerzone.com; Xbox One S with white and Battlefield grey controllers, xbox.com; Logitech G433 gaming headphones with 7.1-surround positional audio, gaming.logitech.com; Nest Indoor Cam with 1080p HD, 130-degree wide-view, night-vision and Talk & Listen, nest.com; Google Home smart speaker with voice-controlled intelligent assistant, madeby.google.com

Opposite page, clockwise from top: Tesla Powerwall rechargeable lithium-ion home-energy battery, tesla.com; Softbank Robotics NAO interactive robot companion, softbankrobotics.com (loaned to The Red Bulletin by Robots of London, robotsoflondon. co.uk); LG Minibeam PW1000G wireless LED projector, lg.com; Anki Cozmo programmable AI robot, anki.com; Sonos SUB smart wireless subwoofer, sonos.com

92

THE RED BULLETIN

GUIDE

GUIDE

Clockwise from top left: Bower & Wilkins 804 D3 loudspeaker in Rosenut veneer, bowers-wilkins.co.uk; SUBPAC M2 wearable physical-audio-feedback system for VR, movies and music, subpac.com; Sony PlayStation 4 Pro 4K HDR games console, playstation.com; Astro A40 TR noise-isolating gaming headset, astrogaming.com; Dyson 360 Eye cyclone-technology robot vacuum cleaner, dyson.com

THE POWER USER

SUPERCHARGED E X TREME MACHINES

Clockwise from top left: Dyson Pure Cool Link Desk smart air purifier, dyson.com; Samsung 55in Q7F QLED Ultra HD smart TV, samsung.com; Microsoft Surface Pro with Surface Pen and Surface Arc Mouse, microsoft.com; Anki Overdrive AI battle car-racing system, anki.com

THE RED BULLETIN

95

THE RED BULLETIN WORLDWIDE

GLOBAL TEAM Editorial Director Robert Sperl Editor-in-Chief Alexander Macheck Creative Director Erik Turek

Editor Justin Hynes

Editor Andreas Rottenschlager

Associate Editor Tom Guise

Proof Reading Hans Fleißner

Music Editor Florian Obkircher Chief Sub-Editor Nancy James

Photo Director Fritz Schuster

Deputy Chief Sub-Editor Davydd Chong

Managing Editor Daniel Kudernatsch Editors Stefan Wagner (Chief Copy Editor), Ulrich Corazza, Arek Piatek, Andreas Rottenschlager Web Christian Eberle, Vanda Gyuris, Inmaculada Sánchez Trejo, Andrew Swann, Christine Vitel

See all the editions at: redbulletin.com/ howtoget

THE RED BULLETIN Germany, ISSN 2079-4258

Art Directors Kasimir Reimann, Miles English

Production Editor Marion Wildmann

The Red Bulletin is available in seven countries. Above is the cover of this month’s Austrian edition featuring MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi

THE RED BULLETIN United Kingdom, ISSN 2308-5894

Design Marco Arcangeli, Marion Bernert-Thomann, Martina de Carvalho-Hutter, Kevin Goll, Carita Najewitz Photo Editors Rudi Übelhör (Deputy Photo Director), Marion Batty, Susie Forman, Ellen Haas, Eva Kerschbaum, Tahira Mirza

Country Channel Management Isabel Schütt Country Project Management Natascha Djodat Advertisement Sales Martin Olesch, martin.olesch@de.redbulletin.com

Country Channel Management Tom Reding Publishing Manager Ollie Stretton Advertisement Sales Mark Bishop, mark.bishop@uk.redbull.com Printed by Prinovis GmbH & Co KG, Printing Company Nuremberg, 90471 Nuremberg, Germany UK Office 155-171 Tooley Street, London SE1 2JP Tel: +44 (0) 20 3117 2000

THE RED BULLETIN Mexico, ISSN 2308-5924 Editor Luis Alejandro Serrano Associate Editors Marco Payán, Inmaculada Sánchez Trejo Proof Reading Alma Rosa Guerrero Country Project Management Helena Campos, Giovana Mollona Advertisement Sales Humberto Amaya Bernard, humberto.amayabernard@mx.redbull.com

Head of Sales Franz Renkin Advertising Placement Andrea Tamás-Loprais Creative Solutions Eva Locker (manager), Martina Maier, Verena Schörkhuber, Edith Zöchling-Marchart Country Management and Marketing Stefan Ebner (manager), Magdalena Bonecker, Thomas Dorer, Manuel Otto, Kristina Trefil, Sara Varming

THE RED BULLETIN Austria, ISSN 1995-8838 Editor Ulrich Corazza Proof Reading Hans Fleißner

Marketing Design Peter Knehtl (manager), Simone Fischer, Alexandra Hundsdorfer

Country Project Management Thomas Dorer

Head of Production Michael Bergmeister

Advertisement Sales Alfred Vrej Minassian (manager), Thomas Hutterer, Cara Schlesinger, Bernhard Schmied, anzeigen@at.redbulletin.com

Production Wolfgang Stecher (manager), Walter O Sádaba, Friedrich Indich, Michael Menitz (digital) Repro Clemens Ragotzky (manager), Claudia Heis, Maximilian Kment, Karsten Lehmann Office Management Kristina Krizmanic, Petra Wassermann IT Systems Engineer Michael Thaler

THE RED BULLETIN France, ISSN 2225-4722

Subscriptions and Distribution Peter Schiffer (manager), Klaus Pleninger (distribution), Nicole Glaser (distribution), Yoldas Yarar (subscriptions)

Editor Pierre-Henri Camy

General Manager and Publisher Wolfgang Winter

Proof Reading Audrey Plaza

Global Editorial Office Heinrich-Collin-Strasse 1, A-1140 Vienna Phone +43 1 90221-28800 Fax +43 1 90221-28809 Web redbulletin.com

Country Project Management Leila Domas

Red Bull Media House GmbH Oberst-Lepperdinger-Straße 11–15, A-5071 Wals bei Salzburg, FN 297115i, Landesgericht Salzburg, ATU63611700

Country Co-ordinator Christine Vitel

Partnership Management Yoann Aubry, yoann.aubry@fr.redbull.com

THE RED BULLETIN Switzerland, ISSN 2308-5886 Editor Arek Piatek Proof Reading Hans Fleißner Country Channel Management Melissa Stutz Advertisement Sales Marcel Bannwart, marcel.bannwart@ch.redbull.com

THE RED BULLETIN USA, ISSN 2308-586X Editor Andreas Tzortzis Deputy Editor Nora O’Donnell Copy Chief David Caplan Director of Publishing Cheryl Angelheart Country Project Management Melissa Thompson Advertisement Sales Los Angeles: Dave Szych, dave.szych@us.redbull.com New York: Regina Dvorin, reggie.dvorin@us.redbullmediahouse.com

Directors Christopher Reindl, Andreas Gall

96

THE RED BULLETIN

SUBSCRIBE NOW!

THE RED BULLETIN BEYOND THE ORDINARY

12 copies for £20

getredbulletin.com

GUIDE

Action highlight

"How does the flash get all the way from the camera to climber Mayan Smith-Gobat on the rock face? I’ll tell you how. You mount the flash on a drone, guide the drone towards your subject and beyond a mountain ledge you can’t see in the picture, connect the camera and flash by wireless… and click."

How to give your flash invisible wings Adventure sports photographer Krystle Wright tells us the trick she used to take this impossible-looking photo

KRYSTLE WRIGHT

Totem Pole, Tasmania, Australia

Makes you fly

The next issue of The Red Bulletin is out on September 14, 2017 98

THE RED BULLETIN

Your perfect turn.

Your edge.

Your holy grail.

Your passion.

I AM MORE THAN ONE

In stores Nationwide www.dare2b.com

DISCOVER A NEW LANDSCAPE OF ADVENTURE S T O R E S N AT I O N W I D E | W W W. S N O W A N D R O C K . C O M

®