The Red Bulletin September 2018 - UK

UK EDITION SEPTEMBER 2018, £3.50

BEYOND THE ORDINARY

TAKE THE

LEAP

Conquer problems like an adventure pro with these game-changing life lessons

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LUCY ADAMS ON PUSHING SKATEBOARDING FORWARD ADAM DRIVER “THE MILITARY MADE ME A BETTER ACTOR” SUSHI AND SOMERSAULTS A FREERUNNER’S GUIDE TO TOKYO

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EDITORIAL

From bare survival to experiencing a new high, becoming one with your surroundings can be life-changing – as the subjects of this month’s The Red Bulletin prove.

In Lessons From The Edge (page 50), nine of the world’s most daring adventurers reveal the mental tips and tactics that have helped them survive some of the most inhospitable terrain on the planet – and could help you achieve your next goal, too.

Chicago-based photographer Zoe Rain is best known for her work with the likes of Macklemore and Chance The Rapper. For this issue of The Red Bulletin, she shot Atlanta trap producer Zaytoven. Page 64

Also, UK skateboarding ace Lucy Adams (page 40) explains how mastering the concrete bowls and jumps of her local skatepark opened up a whole new world of possibility.

And German freerunner Jason Paul (page 74) takes us on a unique tour of his adopted home of Tokyo, where his gymnastic skills have enabled him discover sights that may pass others by. Talents that have helped him – and now you – discover the best food in town.

CONTRIBUTORS THIS ISSUE

MARK BAILEY

The UK journalist has interviewed game-changing athletes such as Usain Bolt and Kilian Jornet, but for our feature Lessons From The Edge he examined the psychology of extreme adventurers. “I was shocked none of them claimed to have innate mental strength,” he says. “Their amazing psychological skills have been honed by practice and exposure to high-pressure events, proving we can all learn from their techniques.” Page 50

MIKO LIM

As a former Tokyo resident with experience of photographing urban athletes, Lim was the obvious choice to shoot freerunner Jason Paul in the Japanese capital. The now LA-based snapper followed the German as he leapt across roofs and flipped over walkways in the megalopolis. The result of their labours? A unique travel guide with a complete disregard for gravity. Page 74 TRISTAN SHU (COVER)

GO FORTH AND CONQUER

Enjoy the issue.

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THE RED BULLETIN

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CONTENTS September

FEATURES

2 8 ‘Mad’ Mike Whiddett

The Kiwi motorhead whose drifting moves are almost balletic

3 2 Butch Locsin

Art is a matter of life and death for LA’s ‘Skeleton of Colour’

3 8 Ben Page

Travel the world, spend a pittance – all you need is a bike

4 0 Lucy Adams

The Red Bulletin talks diversity, defiance and Olympic recognition with the pioneering British skateboard ace

4 8 Charlie Dark

Positive mind, negative splits: meditation as an aid to running

5 0 Lessons From The Edge

What can the world’s most intrepid adventurers teach us about everyday life? Clue: it doesn’t involve drinking your urine

6 4 Zaytoven

The church organist who became one of trap’s most wanted

7 4 Jason Paul

A new perspective on Tokyo – with the freerunner as tour guide

32

MAD SKULLS

64

Inside the world of Butch Locsin, the performance artist whose smokin’ tricks are lighting up the streets of Los Angeles

ALTAR EGO

The rise and rise of Zaytoven, the trap producer with one foot in church, the other in the studio

06

THE RED BULLETIN

BULLEVARD Life and Style Beyond the Ordinary

9 AquaSonic: the concert that

gives new meaning to ‘sub bass’

12 Bigger, better, boulder: climber

Chris Sharma has no fear 14 Holiday with the stars at the Aurora Station space hotel 16 Miss Red’s dancehall dynamite 18 Star Wars’ Adam Driver on curses, cooperation and Quixote 20 An OTT SUV fit for a VIP 2 2 How to negotiate with a narco 24 The motorbike that thinks it’s a World War II Spitfire 26 Survival food you’ll want to eat

GUIDE

Get it. Do it. See it 85 Peaky blinders: what to see and

do in the Colorado Rockies

88 Hit the North: our essential

ADAM FUJIOKA, ZOE RAIN, DAVID GOLDMAN

guide to Tottenham 90 Get fencing fit with Olympian Miles Chamley-Watson 92 This month on Red Bull TV 94 Dates for your calendar 96 The Red Bulletin worldwide 98 Making a splash in Monaco

40 TOP DECK

How bunking off swimming lessons as a child set Lucy Adams on the road to success in skateboarding

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07

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BULLEVARD

GETTY IMAGES

LIFE

&

STYLE

BEYOND

MASTERS OF THE DEEP CUT

THE

ORDINARY

Robert Karlsson performs on his carbon-fibre violin, seated behind a glass harmonica, which is played by rubbing the rims of the bowls

Otherworldly songs, strange subaquatic instruments, and musicians submerged in fish tanks – meet the world’s first underwater band THE RED BULLETIN

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“THE FIRST SOUNDS EACH OF US HEAR IN OUR MOTHER’S WOMB ARE FILTERED THROUGH WATER”

I

n 2004, Laila Skovmand was standing in her kitchen, holding a bowl of water, when an idea struck her: “What if I sang into the water’s surface?” Her initial attempts didn’t sound great, but the Danish musician became determined to find a way to sing underwater.

Five years later, she had exceeded her expectations and formed the world’s first subaquatic band.

At their live show, titled AquaSonic, the five members of Between Music perform submerged in water tanks without breathing apparatus, working with instruments specifically designed for the environment, and playing songs that sound unlike anything heard on dry land.

Since May 2016, the band have been touring their five 1,600-litre aquariums around the world. From Scotland and Denmark to Russia and as far afield as Australia, the AquaSonic concerts have sold out, garnering rave reviews.

How is this even possible?

What makes this underwater music so enchanting?

Between Music’s co-founder and aquatic violinist Robert Karlsson explains all… the red bulletin: Which musical instruments work best underwater? robert karlsson: The first one we tried was a cheap violin in a swimming pool.

It sounded good, but it collapsed after a few days.

We realised that we needed special instruments, so we

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got a violin made from carbon fibre, which is resistant to water. Another instrument we use is the hydraulophone, an organ invented by two Canadians that makes music from pressurised water instead of air.

What challenges do you face when performing?

The water tank is like the body of an instrument, and if you change the temperature of the water or you move your [actual] instrument just a few millimetres, the sound will change. Hence, you need to be extremely precise and focused when you play music underwater.

Surely another challenge is not being able to breathe?

Yes. We learnt breathing exercises from scuba divers and yoga teachers. They taught us how to hold our breath for as long as possible.

How often do you surface during performances?

The time spent underwater depends on how physically active you are. I have a violin solo that lasts for one minute and 15 seconds. For our drummer, 30 seconds without emerging is a long time, because it takes three times the usual power to strike the drum in water. Breathing time is carefully planned into each composition.

How are you able to sing beneath the surface? It would seem impossible…

Laila has developed a technique where she keeps an air bubble in her mouth, and when she feels it’s about to escape, she sucks it back in and sings the next tone.

At first, she could manage only short vowels, but now

she’s able to sing longer melodies and phrases. By inhaling and exhaling that air bubble, she can stay underwater for up to a minute while singing.

Does water have a specific acoustic effect?

Playing underwater definitely impacts on our sound. It gives the violin and other instruments a very lonely quality that reminds me of old records from the 1920s.

People often describe our music as eerie.

Is there anything you can achieve as a musician inside the tank that would be impossible on land?

Sound waves travel much faster in water, so many drums end up sounding like electronic music instruments.

When the player has the hydrophone [underwater microphone] in their hand and moves it towards their instrument, you get all these really interesting acoustic effects that you just can’t produce in the air.

Your AquaSonic shows have been a huge success all over the world. What is it that draws people to the idea of underwater music?

No matter where you’re from or what your cultural differences are, every human being has a deep connection with water. The first sounds that each of us hear in our mother’s womb are filtered through it. That’s why the music we make speaks to people so universally.

betweenmusic.dk/aquasonic

THE RED BULLETIN

B U L L EVA R D

GETTY IMAGES

FLORIAN OBKIRCHER

The rotacorda – designed by a MIT scientist and played by Nanna Bech – has a hand crank to turn a wheel that rubs against the strings. The name translates from Latin as ‘wheel-strings’

Between Music perform AquaSonic live on stage. In the foreground, Laila Skovmand sings and plays the hydraulophone, the first musical instrument to use water instead of air THE RED BULLETIN

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Chris Sharma

INMACULADA SÁNCHEZ TREJO

MAN ON THE EDGE

12

DAN KRAUSS/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

Californian boulderer Chris Sharma clings to the underside of the 8c arch of Cadena Perpetua in Cataluña, Spain. The name of the perilous climb translates as ‘life imprisonment’, but, for the 37-year-old, nothing could be further from the truth.

“Chris climbed the route several times and we worked to find the best positions and movement to shoot,” says photographer Dan Krauss, who captured the shot in March.

“Watching him climb such a hard route so seemingly effortlessly was inspiring.” dankraussphoto.com; Instagram: @chris_sharma

THE RED BULLETIN

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“Some shots were easy to shoot from the ground,” Krauss says. “But I also shot different angles while hanging from a rope” THE RED BULLETIN

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B U L L EVA R D

Aurora space station

THIS COULD BE YOUR NEXT HOLIDAY

Planning a trip away? Looking for something different? Slap down a deposit on a room at the first luxury hotel in space

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Aurora Station has a pressurised internal volume that offers almost six times less space than the ISS

PIERRE-HENRI CAMY

ver since US tycoon Dennis Tito holidayed on the ISS in 2001 for an estimated £15 million, the dream of more affordable space tourism has long been promised. Now you can set a date: 2022, apparently.

“Aurora Station will get you to space quicker and for less money than any option touted so far,” says Frank Bunger, CEO and founder of Orion Span, the US company building the space station, billed as “the first affordable luxury hotel in space”. ‘Affordable’ is a subjective term: a trip to the satellite will cost around £7m – less than half of what Tito and the six other ISS tourists paid, but hardly the cost of your average package holiday.

What you’ll get for your money is a 12-day trip to 320km above the Earth. If that doesn’t sound long, bear

impressive: they include an ISS space-flight engineer, a space-shuttle payload architect, and a three-decade veteran of NASA missions.

Orion Span is so confident that it’s already taking bookings – a fully refundable deposit of £60,000 buys you a place on the waiting list. orionspan.com

Extra modules can be added in orbit, allowing Orion Span to eventually sell long-term living quarters

ORION SPAN

E

in mind the Aurora has a 90minute orbit, witnessing 16 sunrises and sunsets every 24 hours, so, in a way, you’re getting 192 days of holiday crammed into less than a fortnight. As well as seeing both northern and southern auroras, you’re guaranteed sea views – all of them.

The 13m-long vessel will accommodate four guests and two crew inside its 160m³ pressurised interior, all of whom can move freely throughout in zero gravity, enjoy a VR ‘holodeck’, and participate in research experiments such as growing food in space – laying the groundwork for future colonies on the moon and Mars, and gaining souvenir space veggies to bring home.

You can also FaceTime with loved ones on Earth via the station’s high-speed Wi-Fi. Orion Span plans to launch Aurora Station in 2021, with the first trips in 2022 after guests have done three months of training. While that sounds bold, the team’s credentials are

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Standard EU test figures for comparative purposes and may not reflect real driving results.

B U L L EVA R D

Miss Red

“DANCEHALL IS ALL ABOUT NEW SOUNDS”

The red-hot Israeli MC shares four tunes that have influenced her career so far

B

orn in Jamaica in the late ’70s as reggae’s energetic little brother, dancehall is currently enjoying a worldwide renaissance, with superstars such as Diplo and Drake incorporating its syncopated beats into their hits. Further proof of the genre’s global appeal comes from one of its freshest new voices, Miss Red. The Israeli MC’s critically acclaimed debut album, KO – out now – is a sonic hurricane that combines her fierce vocals with the sparse-yet-heavy, bassladen sounds of UK production don The Bug. Here, the 25-year-old lists four dancehall gems that helped shape her style. miss-red.com

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“Super Cat is one of the most important voices from the 1980s – the golden age of dancehall. When I heard his flow for the first time, I was like, ‘How does he do that?’

Not only does he have a great way of chatting over tracks, he sings in perfect pitch. On this tune, he talks about serious stuff, his harsh reality, but delivers the lyrics in a sweet way, creating an interesting balance. That’s something I try to achieve, too.”

“This tune sums up why I love dancehall. The genre has always been about sounding different and experimenting, and this one starts out like a weird techno tune, then gets even weirder. Tiger comes on and he’s shouting; he goes hard, he’s full of energy. The aggressive elements on my album were definitely inspired by this tune. You want to freak out? You want to work off those calories? Put on Rap Pon Rydim.”

RANKING ANN MOONLIGHT LOVER (1982) “Even before she sings about making moonlight love, you get the feeling this is some kinky-ass stuff. You can tell from her flow – it’s cool and laid-back. Her style is very expressive, which is something I create in my own songs, too.

Ranking Ann is a true female pioneer of British dancehall music. To hear a love tune [in this genre] sung by a woman inspired me a lot, because I could relate to it more.”

LADY SAW CHAT TO MI BACK (2007) “Lady Saw’s message couldn’t be any clearer on this raw tune: ‘Whatever you want from me, talk to my ass!’ She always makes it clear that she’s the one in power, which has been very empowering for me and other women in dancehall.

Some of her songs are so sexually explicit that her performances were banned in certain parts of Jamaica.

But, to me, she’s a hero for speaking her mind, being real and not giving a fuck.”

THE RED BULLETIN

FLORIAN OBKIRCHER

TIGER RAP PON RYDIM (1988)

KASIA XACHARKO

SUPER CAT REALITY (1988)

Miss Red says her album delivers the blueprint for a futuristic new dancehall style

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B U L L EVA R D

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Star Wars has made you famous. Does that bring its own pressure?

It’s different kinds of weird.

I lived a life where no one knew who I was, which was great. Now people notice me.

That’s in direct conflict with my job: to be a spy, live life and be anonymous. It’s not productive. How do you live life? I surround myself with grounded people, but I don’t have a good work-life balance.

I don’t know if I ever will.

Did your time in the Marines prepare you for any of this?

The biggest lesson I took from the military to a film set is how to work in a team. It’s not about you; you’re part of something bigger. You have to be there for your partners and ensure you’re doing your best job so they can do theirs. This way you can achieve your mission, and that’s the most important thing. I try to be mindful of people, because I don’t take it lightly that we made a movie.

Why would you? It’s insane.

quixotemovie.com

Adam Driver

“MY JOB IS TO BE ANONYMOUS”

RÜDIGER STURM

the red bulletin: Were you worried about the movie’s supposed curse? adam driver: If anything, I’m more excited to work with people who’ve been trying to make this film for so many years; they have been so tenacious. We celebrated when we passed the first week, because in Lost In La Mancha [the 2002 documentary about Gilliam’s failed attempt to film Quixote in 2000] they only shot a week of footage. I think every movie that’s made is nothing short of a miracle, and we happened to be there.

How did the experience compare to Star Wars?

It’s more controlled on Star Wars, but also more abstract: “Trust us, there is space behind you.” “Your lightsaber looks like it works.” I don’t prefer one over the other.

One has a bigger budget and can make you feel more comfortable, but people aren’t watching the movie thinking, “Hey, they had great catering.

I’m sure his trailer was really nice.” The pressure is just as high. We have to make it

truthful. We’re asking people to give us two-and-a-half hours of their time, and it’s going to last for ever. It better be good.

MATTHEW BROOKES/TRUNKARCHIVE.COM

I

feel pressure eating soup. Like, how do I time this so I’m not burping in people’s faces?” jokes Adam Driver about the perils of constantly being in the limelight. In 2005, he faced a different apprehension as he struggled to fit into New York performing arts conservatory The Juilliard School after being discharged from the US Marines, following a mountain-biking injury.

Now, he’s experiencing a different weight of expectation.

The 34-year-old stars in The Man Who Killed Don Quixote – a film that took director Terry Gilliam almost 30 years to make – in a role that has resembled a revolving door with numerous actors, including Ewan McGregor and Johnny Depp, passing through it. Some have even labelled the production as cursed.

“With every job, I feel pressure that it’ll fail in some way,” says Driver. “I’m riding a horse, diving into a pool of rocks; I crashed a motorbike on a cliff. If something had happened, I would have been contributing to the movie not [happening].”

Has working with Gilliam taught you perseverance?

He’s inspiring to be on set with, because it’s catharsis for him. He has no filter about how he’s feeling – if it’s working or if it’s not, it’s obvious. He creates an atmosphere where everybody is on their toes, but he also encourages people to follow their impulses, to trust themselves. It could very easily have been a dictatorship where he’s like‚ “I’ve been thinking about this project for 25 years – just do what I tell you.”

But he still has an air of not knowing, which was a good lesson. It’s something I’ve noticed not just with him, but with other great directors.

He has achieved world renown as Star Wars’ current villain Kylo Ren, but the Californian actor says fame isn’t constructive to his work

THE RED BULLETIN

Driver, 34: “I do my best to guard my life from the press, but I try to be respectful.

I don’t take anything for granted” THE RED BULLETIN

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Karlmann King

THE NOTORIOUS SUV

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D

o you know what luxury is? Luxury is waste. I allowed myself to waste air.” So says Luciano D’Ambrosio, architect of the Karlmann King, about the aerodynamics of the new SUV – and he knows a thing or two on the subject. As former chief designer at Italian automobile firm Bertone, he has sculpted Lamborghinis, Bugattis and Ferraris. “It was refreshing to get something so provocative,” says D’Ambrosio. “A car where I did everything differently from how I normally would.”

Commissioned by Chinese auto company IAT to envision a vehicle inspired by stealth

fighters, the 60-year-old designed a 2.5m-wide SUV that cannot fail to be noticed.

Built on the chassis of a Ford F550 4x4 and requiring a truck licence to drive, the Karlmann King is wrapped in a polygonal case of carbon fibre and steel, and weighs 4.5 tonnes. That rises to six tonnes with bulletproofing, limiting the output of its V10 engine to a mere 140kph.

“Everyone wants to be fast.

This is not a car to go fast in,” declares D’Ambrosio. It’s also not a car to take the family in – its spacious interior, although peppered with cut diamonds, has only two seats.

Priced at around £1.66 million, it’s the world’s most expensive SUV, although that, too, is an artistic statement.

“I want enthusiasm or disapproval, nothing in between,” says D’Ambrosio.

“If there were no reactions, it would mean I had done something wrong.” Although, with only nine being made, he admits he may get very few reactions: “You won’t see one outside the shopping centre. You’re more likely to see it in an apocalyptic film.” karlmannking.com

THE RED BULLETIN

KARLMANN KING

King of the road: at almost 6m in length and 2.5m wide, this limited-edition SUV certainly won’t blend into the crowd

WERNER JESSNER

Ignore the carbon-fibre shell, the diamond-studded interior and the paltry top speed – this isn’t a car, it’s a piece of art… with a price to match

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B U L L EVA R D

How to…

NEGOTIATE WITH A NARCO

what the options are. For some of these assassins, their government is the cartel.

Is it right just because a government says it right? If you put the boot on the other foot, what’s right and wrong?

It is very difficult to have any empathy with someone who’s personally shot 257 people in the head, but that’s what it is.”

Adventurer Aldo Kane has faced deadly volcanoes, deserts and oceans, but perhaps his most treacherous encounter was with the mind of a criminal

Read the signs

“Unless you’ve been trained, you subconsciously give away what you’re thinking, whether you want to or not. Talk to someone for five minutes and you’ll probably be able to work out when they’re lying, when they’re recalling information, and whether they’re creative or methodical. But hitmen are difficult to read because, by the very nature of what they do, they’re cheating you.”

Be ready for anything

Explorer and former Royal Marine Aldo Kane provides support to film and TV crews in extreme environments

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Don't be too enamoured

“When I was in the Royal Marines, I was taught how to read people, how to gauge reactions, how to respond to violence or step down, and the basics have served me well.

But building rapport with a professional hitman is difficult – a sicario’s job is to get close enough to put two rounds in your head. That type of person is very sneaky, manipulative and untrustworthy.”

Leave your opinions at the door

“You’re there as an observer, so you can’t be judgmental.

It’s easy for us to sit in comfort and safety in our ivory towers, but then you go there and see

Turn others’ vanity to your advantage

“Egos are usually fuelled by people bowing down: if you don’t give them that quarter in the first place, they usually don’t step up to that role. It’s a different situation here, because they’ve got weapons, but it’s their egos that help us gain access to film them. What people do if they feel valued is amazing. So we got the interview, and Popeye is now world-famous for being Pablo Escobar’s right-hand man. It’s a strange, strange world.”

THE RED BULLETIN

MATT RAY

A

s a security specialist for TV travel shows, Kane is responsible for the safety of the crew – but not all dangers are clear cut. When working on The Real Narcos, a Channel 4 documentary about the drug cartels of Peru and Colombia, Kane had to risk-assess the people they’d be interviewing – hitmen, known as sicario, who had to agree to tell their stories on camera for no fee.

“So I’m sat in a café with Jhon Jairo Velásquez Vásquez, aka Popeye, Pablo Escobar’s number-one general,” recalls Kane, “asking him to pass the salt, and chatting about his wife and, occasionally, about the people he disembowelled.”

GEORG ISMAR/AGE FOTOSTOCK, ALDO KANE

In 1992, Popeye was sentenced to 30 years in prison. He was freed after serving 22, but rearrested this May

“As soon as you add drugs to the equation, instincts go out of the window, because people act erratically: self-conscious, weird, paranoid. Then bring in money and the fear of death and you can end up in a very horrible situation very quickly if something goes wrong. You can do as much as possible to mitigate the risk, but it’s right on the edge of what’s acceptable. I’d rather be inside an erupting volcano.”

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VTR Customs

THE SPRINT BIKE THAT SPITS FIRE

Inspired by a fighter plane that changed the course of WWII, one bike engineer built a flame-throwing ride he hoped could win the craziest drag race of all

Weidmann astride his Spitfire, with Mooseder in the background: “The bike is difficult to ride, but good for winning”

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THE RED BULLETIN

PHOTOCAB/ANDRI MARGADANT

TOM GUISE

T

he Sultans of Sprint isn’t your regular motorcycle drag race. Sure, it’s about launching your bike from a standstill and outgunning your opponent along a 200m strip of tarmac, but at this series of five races across Europe, speed is only part of the equation – 70 per cent, to be precise.

The other 30 per cent is divided between creativity and craziness in two challenges: ‘Style & Engineering’ and ‘Scary Factor’, with extra ‘Party Monster Bonus’ points.

‘Scary Factor’ demands a steed whose very presence unnerves your foe; the bonus challenge is crueller – the rider must limbo under a bar set at the height of their bike. This is a contest of substance, style and something else entirely.

Daniel Weidmann had to consider all these factors when devising his entry for this year’s series. As owner of Swiss mod shop VTR Customs, it’s not something he’s unaccustomed to, having entered the tournament in previous years, as well as taking the podium and jury awards at the more sensible Essenza sprint challenge.

But 2018 was different: alongside the usual ‘Freak Class’ (a near-anything-goes category for 1600cc fourstroke hot rods) was the new ‘Factory Class’, where motorcycle marques team up with custom workshops to build a ride that’s 100-percent unique. VTR’s partner was BMW Motorrad, which supplied a brand-new R 1200 R as the base for the project.

“We wanted to build our most complex bike ever,” says Weidmann, who was inspired by his love of WWII fighter planes – specifically the RAF’s iconic Supermarine Spitfire.

Eschewing modern computer design in favour of hand-

THE RED BULLETIN

VTR Customs took actual cockpit instruments from a real Spitfire plane and added them to the bike

The bike frame was dramatically extended and lowered.

Everything from design to bodywork was done by hand

drawn blueprints, Weidmann and his team used hammers, sandbags and a manual wheeling machine to beat raw aluminium into a torpedoshaped body shell reminiscent of the WWII warbird. Genuine Spitfire cockpit instruments were added, including an aircraft starter switch, and – in honour of the plane’s name and the flames that would sometimes shoot from its Rolls-Royce Merlin engine – Weidmann included an actual fire-spitting exhaust system.

Scary Factor achieved.

In order to meet the Factory Class power-to-weight ratio regulations, VTR didn’t tamper with the two-cylinder

boxer engine, but the frame was extended by 20cm and lowered from 130cm to 90cm, making it a bastard to earn the Party Monster Bonus or, indeed, to ride the thing at all.

However, with the bike’s 125bhp heart capable of pushing 257kph, VTR team rider Amelie Mooseder was able to claim second place at this May’s opening Sultans of Sprint event at Monza.

Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few, as a famous Spitfire fan once said. sultansofsprint.com

25

B U L L EVA R D

Survival food

TONIGHT, WE FINE-DINE IN HELL

Over the past 100 years, expedition gear has improved dramatically. Now, the quality of the food has caught up

W

Leo Houlding’s trek to Antarctica was assisted by a kite… and posh pork

“A lot of it was vegan, because he was in countries where you can’t import meat,” says Fisher.

He even factored in the tiniest details in Saunders’ Antarctic supplies: “We packed his food without labels. A sticker weighs oneand-a-half grams. It adds up.”

This leaves just one place uncharted by Fisher: “Space – the origin of dried food. One of our rowers is going into a space habitat in Poland, and hopefully we’re doing the food.

Creating gourmet dishes for space – wouldn’t it be great?” outdoorfood.com

COLDHOUSE COLLECTIVE/ADRIAN SAMARRA, MARTIN HARTLEY

TOM GUISE

hen Captain Scott trekked to the South Pole 106 years ago, his diet consisted of fatty meat and biscuits in a stew. On March 29, 1912, he and his last remaining colleagues died from starvation and exposure.

The team had underestimated the sustenance needed.

When Ben Saunders set off on his trans-Antarctic solo expedition last November (see Lessons From The Edge, page 50), he had done the maths,

packing 65 daily portions of dehydrated food. These included gourmet-like dishes such as orzo Bolognese and porcini mushroom risotto.

The Firepot range was created by John Fisher of Dorset firm Outdoorfood after his experiences of “tolerable” freeze-dried expedition food on a hike in Greenland. “They just mix up dry ingredients,” says Fisher. His solution: to make real meals and dehydrate them. “I said that if I could get it to work by just pouring in water, I’d go into business.”

He had just launched Firepot in February 2017 when a call came in from climber Leo Houlding. “He asked if we could do a menu for his trip to the Spectre in Antarctica.

They were climbing one of the world’s remotest mountains,” Fisher recalls. “We made more than 400 meals for them.”

Outdoorfood has since concocted custom dining for the most extreme situations: vegans rowing the Atlantic, a keto trail-running diet for the Namib Desert, and lunches for cyclist Mark Beaumont’s 2017 round-the-world ride.

Ben Saunders’ Antarctic rations: “I was eating 6,200 calories a day. That’s a lot”

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THE RED BULLETIN

‘Mad’ Mike Whiddett‘s pre-drifting years in motocross earned him numerous breaks and concussions – and, as a result, his nickname

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THE RED BULLETIN

Wild style Drifting expert ‘Mad’ Mike Whiddett is one of the world’s most capable motorsport talents, but this Kiwi has more in common with a ballet dancer than with an F1 driver. Meet the selfconfessed show-off who can turn chaos into a unique, smoke-heavy harmony between man and machine

GRAEME MURRAY/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

Words TONY THOMAS

THE RED BULLETIN

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, of course. But it can also be found in the eye of an automotive storm, wreathed in tyre smoke and at the centre of an explosive mix of forces held in fragile balance by a master driver.

This is the sport of drifting: a onceunderground pursuit born of the petrollaced dreams of young men and women to go fast, then sideways, in pirouettes, and backward into corners, rear tyres screaming as they flaunt sublime skills and dexterity in a manner beyond those used by ordinary ‘race drivers’.

Now emerging from the backstreets to become a pastime if not quite mainstream then at least socially acceptable, drifting is as much about style as it is about speed.

Unlike conventional motorsports, where victory is earned either against a pack of rivals or against the clock, drifting demands mastery of form – technical skill and precision – above sheer speed.

This makes its leading exponents, such as New Zealander Mike Whiddett,

37, both ‘extreme ballet dancers’ (to borrow Whiddett’s own description) and pioneers of a burgeoning discipline that’s populist in origin as well as in the composition of its die-hard audience.

There’s no elitism here: drifting is open to anyone who can scrape together enough cash to buy even the rattiest old rear-wheel-drive banger. After that, the sky’s the limit – top drifting cars are exotic bits of kit with hot-rodded engines, multi-adjustable suspension and drift-specific tyres. But, as drivers and fans at events like this month’s Red Bull Drift Shifters event in Liverpool will surely confirm, drifting gets up close and personal like no other form of motorsport yet devised. The Red Bulletin spoke to ‘Mad’ Mike to gain an insight into what makes a drifting ace… the red bulletin: To a spectator, drifting looks very smooth and controlled. What’s it like for the driver behind the wheel? ‘mad’ mike whiddett: It’s extreme ballet with four wheels. Inside the cockpit it’s crazy. There are certain natural things you do: there are still three pedals – throttle, footbrake, clutch. But then there’s a left-arm hydraulic handbrake, too. And the brakes are set so that the foot pedal is pretty much all front; the rears are controlled by the handbrake.

Drift cars are based on showroom models, but do you have to prepare them in a particular way?

Ten years ago, when I was starting out, I was setting up the car to be slippery with a little oversteer. But now the cars are getting faster and faster, which gives you more power to slide them with. Ours are getting more and more sophisticated: three-way adjustable suspension, specific tyres and so on…

It’s a bit scary how fast it’s progressed.

Are you part of the reason for that?

When I was young and doing motocross, I discovered that I was a bit of a showoff, because I didn’t have a dad around to tell me what was and what wasn’t the best thing to do. Other kids’ dads would be yelling at them, whereas I was always more about the style and being a bit more unique, with my own riding and driving style.

Is precision the most important aspect of drifting?

It’s so important, yeah. In drifting, you’re judged on your line, so you have 29

to stay on it. What inspired me to really pursue drifting was the style [of the sport] and also being able to express my personality through my driving and the car’s design. I’ve always enjoyed building the cars: I’m not just a driver who hops in a car after paying someone else to prepare it. My cars are all one-offs.

Whiddett takes the win at Formula Drift Japan in Suzuka in May this year

But you still want to win, right?

I never chased winning as a priority – that’s what’s so attractive about [drifting]. And I didn’t have a role model – I want everything I do to be a world first. It’s always been more about aspects of character and driving and motorsport – a motorsport culture led by the Japanese. They were the pioneers who turned it into a circus.

Is it hard competing in a judged sport?

Anything judged is subject to normal human error. So we wanted to create an event that brings drifting to the people, which is what you’ll see at Red Bull Drift Shifters. We’ve made a course that’s a giant pinball machine – with the right sound effects. Line, speed and angle are judged electronically, but style is still purely subjective.

Can drifting help you on the road?

Massively. The drifting skills that you use to slide are all about what to do when you break traction. If you break traction, from that moment there’s a whole other dimension before you totally lose control and spin right out.

That can give you confidence if you’re driving down a road and a huge truck suddenly comes at you and, for whatever reason, you break traction.

If you have some sort of idea of how to use power and countersteer, it gives you a huge advantage.

Is drifting mentally challenging as much as it is physical?

It’s very physical in the car, like a workout, but it’s such short-burst intensity. There’s not so much physical strength needed. But the mental focus is ridiculous. Just a few corners… then one little mistake and it’s game over – you’re back on the trailer. Mentally, it’s very, very tough.

Watch Mad Mike show off his skill, speed and precision on a bespoke track in Liverpool city centre on August 19 at Red Bull Drift Shifters, a unique event that’s bringing the world’s best drifters to the UK. For more info, and to book tickets, visit redbull.co.uk/driftshifters 30

A Mazda fan from his teens, Whiddett has driven nothing else since 2007

THE RED BULLETIN

Mad Mike’s top trick: The Wildstyle Ninja Flick “I love reverse entry,” says Whiddett. “It’s my signature move.

The car is snatched really fast and it’s how you start to rear-end into a corner. It’s a similar principle to the Scandinavian flick pioneered in rallying, but much faster and more aggressive. The car goes past 90° to the corner, and it’s rear entry. I’ve been doing it for years, but it’s still very challenging.”

4

THE RED BULLETIN

DAVID ISHIKAWA/RED BULL CONTENT POOL, MILES HOLDEN/RED BULL CONTENT POOL, TYRONE BRADLEY/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

5

Steering

Direction of travel

REVERSE ENTRY The rear wheels are under power, pushing the car against the direction of travel.

Soon, the car will flick around so that the front wheels are in front again and the car can be driven forwards.

Steering

STAY IN THE SLIDE The car is 90° or more to the corner. The slide is controlled by the steering and the driver’s throttle foot spinning the rear wheels

Tearing it up on South Africa’s Franschhoek Pass in his 2016 video Conquer The Cape

Direction of travel

Power

Weight transfer

Power

3

BRING THE BACK OUT Turn right sharply, then perform a ‘clutch kick’ that breaks then reapplies power to the back wheels. The rear swings around and the car is drifting

“It’s like a Scandinavian flick, but more aggressive”

2

SETTING UP THE DRIFT Before entry, steer hard to the left to set up the weight transfer and imbalance that’s key to the drift

Weight transfer

1

CORNER APPROACH Steer to the right for a right-hand corner – not the usual line

Power, steering, direction of travel

31

Holy smoke!

FRANCISCUS LANUDJAJA, HECTOR LANDEROS

Skull masks, smoke grenades, bright suits… These are the trademarks of BUTCH LOCSIN, one of the world’s most exciting new performance artists.

Here, the Angeleno explains the value of patience, why death should be celebrated, and how set-backs can inspire creativity Words FLORIAN OBKIRCHER

32

THE RED BULLETIN

Butch Locsin, aka the Skeleton of Colour, in action. For the past two years, he has been setting up semi-secret performances all across Los Angeles

“The skull is a celebration of the life of the deceased�

During a 24-minute performance, Locsin goes through 40 smoke grenades. This one, which emits smoke from both ends, lasts just 10 seconds

At the Los Angeles River bed, Locsin attached grenades to a rag he found on site: “When you're out in the field, you have to be creative”

FRANCISCUS LANUDJAJA, BUTCH LOCSIN

R

usty rail tankers rest on abandoned tracks in downtown East Los Angeles. It’s likely the graffiti artists who adorned the deteriorating exteriors of these wagons with now-faded tags were the last people to visit this place. Before today, that is.

Right now, there’s a crowd of about 80 photographers crammed together in a line, cameras at the ready, as if waiting for a Hollywood celebrity to show up.

Instead, a man in a green Day of the Dead-style skull mask decorated with sunflowers leaps into the frame. He’s holding two smoke grenades – one orange, one purple – attached to short ropes, which he swings in the air while dancing towards the snapping photographers, creating a wild and colourful spectacle.

After 10 minutes, a police car shows up. A resident living nearby called them, thinking there was a fire, the mysterious skeleton-headed figure reveals later.

THE RED BULLETIN

Two cops approach him. “That’s it for today!” one of the snappers whispers to another, but they make no attempt to interrupt the show. Instead, when it’s over, one of the cops approaches the man in the mask and says. “I follow you on Instagram. You’re so cool!”

For the past two years, artist Butch Locsin, aka the Skeleton of Colour, has been putting on semi-secret performances all over his hometown of LA. Videos of these displays have gone viral, and the 31-year-old is now a rising star on the performance art scene. Recently, CNN youth channel Great Big Story produced a video profile of Locsin, which attracted more than half a million clicks in just a few months, and emo-rock superstars Fall Out Boy hired him to perform in the video for their 2017 song Hold Me Tight Or Don’t.

All this despite the fact he never intended to become a performance artist at all.

the red bulletin: Your career has skyrocketed in the last two years. But who were you before you became performance art’s wunderkind? butch locsin: I was a personal trainer, working in a gym. But then five years ago I decided I wanted to further my education, so I started going to community college. Instead of picking a course related to physical therapy, though, I took art classes, because I love painting. But a lot of my family members and long-time friends had no idea about my artistic passion.

How did you find your feet in the art scene?

It was tough at first. I thought my classmates were a lot better than me, so I would compare my skills to theirs.

But then, after a while, I realised that art is always subjective. If you look at a late-period Picasso and then at his earlier work, they’re just two different types of drawing. I realised that the most important thing was to find my own unique style.

How did you do that?

In my case, limitations have driven my creativity. Life is all about recognising your problems and then finding creative 35

with a new mask, trying to do something different. It forced me to be creative, really pushing me to keep improving and perfecting my art. So far, I’ve done more than 80 performances at photo meets all over Los Angeles.

Does wearing the mask transform you into someone else?

I get a real big high from performing in front of a crowd. I was in denial for a while, thinking the guy behind the mask is the same guy who’s in front of it, but that’s not true. A mask turns you into a different person; in my case, a more empowered one. A person who has the confidence to perform in front of hundreds of photographers.

solutions to them. I wasn’t given anything on a gold spoon; I didn’t have the best camera. But I knew I could make a killer mask, so I did.

And subsequently you turned yourself into the Skeleton of Colour…

When I went to art class, I figured out I wanted to have some iconography that would serve as the voice of my artwork.

Growing up in Los Angeles, Hispanic culture is everywhere, and the tradition of the Day of the Dead has just always really resonated with me – specifically the sugar skull.

What is it in particular that you find most inspiring?

Most people look at the skull as something negative, something related to death – which it is – but the Day of the Dead culture sees the skull as a symbol celebrating the life of the deceased. It’s a positive reminder of what happens to us and what we will become. I love contrasts: life and death, complementary colours – they’re essential to my art and my performances.

36

How did you get into performing?

Actually, it was never my intention to become a performance artist. I just wanted photos of my skulls, of my outfits and the smoke, so that I could convey them onto the canvas myself. Then a friend invited me to a photo meet [a weekly gathering for photographers, held at various locations in LA]. Usually, it was mostly models who would show up [to have their picture taken], but when I arrived there in full gear, the 200 photographers in attendance were very excited about shooting my performance. They loved it and posted the pictures on Instagram. From there, it spread like wildfire.

And you kept going…

Exactly. Two years ago, I’d go to these meetings every week, always showing up

“I don’t sell my masks. They make my act unique”

How much do you sell them for?

I don’t.

You’re an artist who doesn’t sell his art?

I realised very early on that the mask was the key element that separated me from anybody else out there. It’s my trademark.

If I had sold them off early on in my career, I might not be the figure I am today. My advice is: if you have a good thing going for you and it’s the one thing that sets you apart, keep it to yourself.

Sounds good on paper, but how do you make money?

Not selling the masks was a risk, but it went in my favour. In the beginning, I just wanted photos as references for my drawings, then suddenly the performance thing took off, and now the floodgates have opened for me. Instead of selling my artwork – my skulls or my paintings – which is something I still want to do at some point, I get offers to appear in music videos and do advertisements and brand collaborations. I guess that shows how important it is to wait for the right opportunity rather than just the first one.

Instagram: @butch_locsin_from_la THE RED BULLETIN

BUTCH LOCSIN

The umbrella is another of Locsin’s trademarks. He uses it to control the smoke

Do you remember the first skull mask you made?

It took me two weeks to make. It was a bronze/gold-ish colour and kind of simplistic in its design. Some of my masks have a lot of detail, but I keep the vast majority simple. The main material I work with is Styrofoam. The heaviest mask weighs two pounds [almost 1kg], but most are light as a feather, which helps with the performance. The first one I made, the jaw broke off and I wasn't able to repair it. But after that I figured it out. Now I have 35.

1961 Aston Martin DG4GT Chassis no. DB4GT/0157/R Co-starred alongside famed actor Peter Sellers in The Wrong Arm of the Law

REGIST E R TO B I D O N LI N E HEADQUARTERS +1 519 352 4575 UK +44 (0) 20 7851 7070 NEW YORK +1 212 894 1562 FRANCE +33 (0) 1 76 75 32 93

TAK E F I V E

Round-the-world cyclist BEN PAGE on…

SURVIVING ON £3 A DAY

Aged 22, Page set off on a three-year bike odyssey across the globe via the Arctic – and became a successful filmmaker in the process. How did he do it on the tightest of budgets?

Page’s ride was made from old mountainbike parts

bike and rode off. I hated it for six days, then loved it on the seventh. I thought, “If I can cross a country, I can cross a continent. And if can cross a continent, I can cross the world.” I realised that just by setting off I would make it happen.

3 You don’t need a lot of gear

If there’s a piece of kit you’re not using that week, get rid of it. I had one set of clothes and some necessary bits of safety kit, but otherwise a three-season tent, sleeping bag and sleeping mat – and the bike – were all I needed, even when going from 53°C to -40°C. One luxury was a Bluetooth speaker on my handlebars. And a Kindle, which meant I could listen and read at my leisure. The last thing was a little alcohol-burning stove. I had a multifuel one early on, but that broke, so I began making little stoves out of beer cans.

4 Prepare to make sacrifices 1 To go cheap, go by bike Missing out on showers for weeks on end was a sacrifice – though it was other people who suffered most!”

BEN PAGE

Accommodation and transport are the most expensive part of travelling, so if you go by bike and take a tent, all you have to pay for is food. I was eating two or three times more than usual, but it was 20pworth of oats each morning. The handful of times I stayed in a hostel, I had a worse night than in my tent. When you’re up in the mountains, with no one else around, camping is one of the most glorious ways to spend the night. A long day’s cycle is the comfiest pillow you can have – when you’re tired, you sleep really well.

2 There’s nothing stopping you

I’d just experienced a bit of a crisis when the idea hit me: I decided I would cycle from my home in West Yorkshire to the Swiss Alps in a week. So, one morning I threw some stuff into a bag, put it on my

38

A lot of cultural tourism involves food, but I didn’t eat in local restaurants, because it was a bit more expensive than cooking for myself. Sometimes I’d spend a pound on lunch, but not often. I’d also avoid cities, because then you’d need to pay for a hostel. Missing out on showers for weeks on end was a sacrifice – though it was other people who suffered most!

But I got to see some incredible places, and to experience being totally alone.

5 Spend on special moments

I was never short of food, because I ate simply: porridge, then rice or pasta and a stock cube, and maybe some bread at lunch. Carbs were so cheap I’d loads, but you have to give yourself a break.

A real luxury was having the occasional beer. Riding through a village, picking up a beer, camping somewhere beautiful and watching the sun set while sipping away were definitely stand-out moments.

benpagefilms.com Interview MATT RAY Photography CASS GILBERT THE RED BULLETIN

ROLL WITH IT

When LUCY ADAMS stood on a skateboard for the first time, aged 14, she knew she’d found her calling.

Now, with the global spotlight set to shine on the sport when it makes its Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020, the pioneer of the women’s skate scene is pushing hard to ensure it moves with the times Words KIERAN YATES Photography DAVID GOLDMAN

A breath of sea air: Lucy Adams in action at The Level in Brighton

  41

L ucy Adams didn’t skate for three days last week. Now, she’s sitting on the kerb of the car park of Asda in Brighton, reflecting on her loss – in her world, it’s a lifetime. “I’ve been spending the time talking about skating, not doing the skating!” she faux-wails. “Talking about skating” is putting it lightly – she’s the founding member and chair of notfor-profit body Skateboard England, meaning that even when Adams isn’t skating she’s still on a board.

For Adams, skating is a way of life, a lifestyle, the lifeblood that sustains her. From unlikely beginnings – she attended an all-girls’ school in Horsham, West Sussex – Adams has become one of the country’s leading skaters, with signature boards, numerous competition victories to her name, and a legion of fans both in and outside the industry.

In another life, Adams might have been a champion in the pool instead.

The story goes that, at 14, Adams was a successful gala swimmer, regularly winning competitions and training at the leisure centre in nearby Crawley.

Unfortunately for the swimming world, the pool overlooked the car park, and during every other length she would watch skaters through the window.

Eventually, her curiosity became too strong, and Adams decided to defect from water to land – despite the fact that her parents had already paid for her swimming lessons.

“I used to run my swimming costume under the tap and wet my hair so that 42

when my mum picked me up, she thought I’d been swimming,” Adams says. Instead, she became the only girl to join the community of local skaters, harnessing her skills in the park and by watching and re-watching videos of influencers such as US skaters Josh Kalis and Ronnie Bertino.

“Everything became about skating,” she says. “Being at a girls’ school, no one else skateboarded. But for me it started to creep in. My pencil case and textbooks were covered with pictures from skate magazines like Sidewalk – they were works of art. And we bought VHS videos for about £15 from a shop called Streetalk in Redhill [in Surrey]. We watched them all day long – to the point where you couldn’t watch them any more because you’d rewound them so much.”

So, how does a teenage girl with no skating experience infiltrate such a notoriously male-dominated scene? For Adams, it was straightforward: she just did what she wanted. “When I started, it was like, ‘Oh wow, this is exactly what I should be doing.’ I just loved it. I wasn’t that feminine kind of girl, and I didn’t drink or didn’t want to go to parties and chase after boys when I was a teenager, which everyone else was doing, so it really felt like [skating] was for me.

“Yes, there were some guys who did stuff that I didn’t necessarily want to take part in, but I don’t think I ever felt pushed or pressured by anybody to do anything I didn’t want to. They were quite accommodating.”

These days, thanks to Adams’ talent on a board, she’s accustomed to media attention and being interviewed by magazines. Her first real experience of the spotlight came back in 2003, when she was 17, with her unexpected inclusion in a Sunday Times Rich List predicting the multimillionaires of the future. Adams was listed alongside celebrity names such as Keira Knightley, the theory being that women’s skateboarding would, by 2020, have blown up. Because of Adams’ status as the UK’s leading female skater, it was predicted that her earnings would rival those of the legendary Tony Hawk.

“Sadly, I’m not worth the 10 million they imagined,” she laughs.

Although skateboarding’s profile has risen with its inclusion in the 2020 Olympics, it is still very much a male domain, and even the most talented female skater is unlikely to earn enough to live on. “The last time we had a UK championship here in 2013, I think the guy won three grand and I won £400,” Adams says, half-laughing, still incredulous. “It’s a joke, isn’t it? On my big cheque, I just drew another zero and had a photo taken with it like that!

“I was talking to [Hawaiian] pro skateboarder Jaime Reyes recently and she said that back in the day [male skaters] were winning thousands of dollars and she’d get just $200. And it’s [still] the same. But one of the things Skateboard England is going to do is campaign for equal prize money.

There’s no reason it shouldn’t be equal!

Maybe having me as a member [Adams is the only woman on the eight-strong board] has helped, but it seems like a no-brainer – I hope that we’ll see things change soon.”

“I used to watch skating videos all day long” THE RED BULLETIN

Get on board: Adams is bringing more women and girls into the sport

Hitting the deck: Adams has broken both wrists, and one arm in three places, as a skater

A

dams, now in her early thirties, continues to play a major role in bringing more women into skating. Outside the boardroom, she’s attempting to correct the gender disparity via grassroots practice, using the places she knows best – skateparks – to encourage women and girls to take up the sport. She has helped set up a 44

popular all-female group, the Brighton She Shredders, who rent boards to anyone who wants to practise skating in a welcoming environment.

“A lot of young women tell me it’s a safe space, and that without it they wouldn’t have started and kept on skating,” Adams says. “A friend of mine named Marie, along with a couple of

others, has started [sessions aimed at the] LGBTQ community in Seattle, where they do chats about pronouns – it’s brilliant. And there’s a really good project at Projekts [MCR] skatepark in Manchester. They’ve just received funding to go into schools, and they’ve trained girls to lead those sessions.

There have also been a whole bunch THE RED BULLETIN

Different strokes: the swimming world’s loss is skateboarding’s gain

For Adams, the world is mapped in skate spots THE RED BULLETIN

45

Look and learn: Adams skates on campus at the University of Sussex

“Some skaters see it more as an art form than a sport�

of girls’ nights at The House Skatepark in Sheffield. And my good friend Charlotte Thomas [a skater and photographer] has just published a book on female skateboarding, titled Concrete Girls. Things are happening.”

A

dams was skating in her local park yesterday evening and now she’s feeling it in her legs.

Not that it has slowed her down much: it’s 30°C in Brighton and she has already spent the morning on her camo-patterned board at The Level, the seaside city’s famous skatepark.

Now, Adams sits on the kerb, dressed in characteristic baby-pink chinos and grey Vans, her white-blonde hair slicked back.

Between sips from her water bottle, she talks about how the world – including remote or seemingly uninterested places – is, for her, mapped in skate spots.

“Recently, someone at work was going to [small Wiltshire town] Melksham,” she says, “and I was like, ‘Oh, Melksham has a really good skatepark!’ They were like, ‘Lucy, Melksham doesn’t have anything.’ But no, actually, it has quite a good skatepark – I should know.”

Adams describes the geographical differences in skateboarding with a mix of admiration and frustration. There’s admiration in the way she describes the skaters in LA and Japan who she follows on Instagram, and the ways in which an individual’s style is influenced by their specific surroundings. “You

Flipped out: Adams’ board takes a rest

“We need to invest in skating, or get left behind” see some of the top American pro skateboarders coming out of really good park facilities with great transitions and great bowls,” says Adams, “so they have this more flowing style of skating a transition ramp. If you want to go street skating in California, it’s a real challenge, because security is hot on it; all these American pros are heading to Japan and China, because all the access to architecture means they can skate the place. The women there are already skating, honing sharp moves as a result – the street footage online is wicked.”

By contrast, the skater shows her frustration when discussing the scene in her home country, and how it may end up being left behind. Skateboarding’s Olympic debut is a big moment for Adams and all her peers, but also a controversial one. “Within the core community of skateboarding, there seems to be quite a lot of opposition to it being in the Olympics,” says Adams, “because it’s being categorised as a sport, which some people are still

resisting. They feel it’s more of an art form and a lifestyle. But in the format it would take in the Olympics, it’s certainly a sport: you will absolutely be able to see winners and losers.”

F

or Adams, it’s the beginning of a new era; an opportunity for the world to see the excellence she sees daily; a chance for young girls to fall in love with skateboarding like she did. But a lack of government funding may mean there won’t be a Team GB there at all.

“I think we’ve got to be able to see the positives of [the Olympics], and there will be many,” she says. “It’s a global stage that billions of people will be watching. Local governments will see it, and maybe they’ll inject some funding. But at the moment our UK sports funding is led by medal potential, so if you can prove you have that, they’ll invest. We’re saying we need to invest so that we can get up to the calibre of the other nations; we need to produce skateparks that will produce better skateboarders, or we’ll get left behind.

Our best medal hope, a guy named Sam [Beckett, from Norfolk, who in 2016 was the first UK skater to win gold at the Summer X Games], is actually based in the States, because he couldn’t live here and be as good as he is.”

Adams herself doesn’t have the luxury of skating full time – she has a day job in marketing for the RSPCA. “It’s like in any sport: if you’re a professional hockey player and you can do it every day, of course you’re going to be better than if you’re doing a nineto-five job and going to play hockey after work,” she says. “Funding helps all that, and I hope that’s what we see next. I’d love to see some of our girls in Team GB one day.”

Despite the scene’s imperfections and the formidable obstacles still waiting to be overcome, Adams’ passion for skateboarding itself is unchanged by her almost two decades of experience.

On the contrary, the certainty felt by the 14-year-old teenager in a Horsham skatepark is stronger than ever, pushing her on, leading her to the streets at any available opportunity. “I’m still as much in love with skateboarding as I’ve ever been,” she says, simply.

“The most ever, actually.”

Instagram: @lucyadamsskate THE RED BULLETIN

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TAK E F I V E

DJ, poet and running pioneer CHARLIE DARK on…

THE WAYS WELLBEING CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE The founder of urban running movements Run Dem Crew and Bridge The Gap discovered yoga and meditation as a way back from injury.

Now the Londoner is taking mindfulness to those who need it most London creative Charlie Dark started running 10 years ago

2 Stay open-minded

I didn’t want to go to a retreat. Why would I want to hang out with people I don’t know and do yoga and meditation?

But my girlfriend forced me to go. I had this amazing epiphany. I don’t think you get yoga until you embrace everything else that comes with it. You can get yourself into the poses, but if you’re not breathing right you’re wasting your time.

The spiritual side of it, the connection to meditation and how that can inform your own life was suddenly revealed to me. In that moment, a new chapter opened up.

3 Find new ways to cope

I work with a lot of young people.

They wake up and are just immediately angry. They live in environments where they have to put on a mask to survive the day. They could really do with some yoga and meditation. A 15-year-old kid who’s living in a tower block, looking out of his window and seeing his area change, needs another way to cope with the day.

4 Discover mindfulness

1 Train smarter, not harder I’d got to a point where running was all about medals. Now it’s not just about numbers on a watch any more” CHARLIE DARK

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When you’re flying high, you think you don’t have any need for ‘wellbeing’.

The optimism and newness of running for us meant we could do incredible things. There were people who’d gone from their sofa to the finish line of the London Marathon in a matter of weeks.

I’ve seen people go out, run a marathon, spend all night partying, go to work, then do it all again. At some point, something will break. I had an injury to one of my hamstrings, and to my glutes. I saw my body was just broken. It was then I realised running wasn’t sustainable on its own.

When you start running, you tick off landmarks. You can go from never having run to doing a marathon in 16 weeks, and then you plateau. I’d got to a point where running was all about racing and winning medals. It was getting boring because I’d ticked off the landmarks. Now I see it’s part of wellbeing; it’s a lifestyle that’s all connected. Running allows you time to think, to contemplate. Now it’s not just about the numbers on a watch any more.

5 Spread the word

I now run pay-what-you-can yoga classes with my partner – money shouldn’t be a barrier to looking after yourself. I’m training as a yoga teacher, and we want to work with the community in ways yoga studios aren’t. We’ve got lots of ideas. Some of them will work and some won’t. But we’re going to try.

Interview MARK WILDING Photography SIMON R PHOTOGRAPHY THE RED BULLETIN

TRISTAN SHU

Guillaume Galvani gets a unique view of the sunset at Oludeniz in Turkey

LESSONS FROM THE EDGE

Stress and anxiety are on the rise in modern society, and it’s no wonder: every day, we face new mental, financial and social challenges. Adventurers, explorers, survival experts and endurance athletes make a career out of subjecting themselves to extreme situations, meaning they’re highly skilled at dealing with the issues most of us find tough. Here, you’ll find the psychological tools and techniques they use to cope at the very limits of human capability - tips that will make us all better equipped to survive the trials and tribulations of our own day-to-day lives Words MARK BAILEY

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LESSONS FROM THE ED GE

Avoiding risk can hinder our progression, professionally and personally. But, says Guillaume Galvani – the Frenchman who, to achieve our stunning opening shot, hung from a paraglider more than 2,000m above the Aegean Sea near Oludeniz, Turkey, before parajumping off – risk is something anyone can manage. And the results, whether getting a promotion or finishing a marathon, can be great.

“I’m not Superman,” says Galvani.

“I’m just an everyday guy living his dream of flying like a bird.” Risk, he says, can be diminished if you’re willing to put in the time and effort: “With aerial sport comes risk. But risk can be assessed, appraised and even avoided. Would you scale a mountain with no experience? No. But if you develop skills in a controlled way that’s tailored to your mental and physical qualities, you end up with ideas, analyses and experience of how to manage risk and know your limits.”

Once this self-knowledge has helped you squash risk to a manageable size, you’ll reap the rewards. “When I do a wingsuit jump, I don’t need a lucky charm or anyone else,” he says. “I don’t even need complete focus. Once I’m ready to fly, my limits are set and my analyses have been done, I’m in tune with my body and I just focus on my movement.

After that, it’s sheer pleasure.”

“Once I’m ready to fly, I just focus on my movement. After that, it’s sheer pleasure” 52

DAVID LAMA CONQUER YOUR ANXIETIES LIKE A MOUNTAINEER Signing up for your first triathlon or starting a new job is certain to cause anxiety, because you’re leaving your comfort zone. But David Lama, who, in 2012, completed a nerve-jangling first free ascent of the Compressor Route on Cerro Torre in Patagonia, knows that doing scary things is often the best way to live life to the max.

To ensure nagging worries don’t wreck your life goals, you need to know how to defuse anxieties before they grip you. Lama’s solution is to develop mental battle plans for potential scenarios.

“If you know what the difficult parts of a new project will be, and you think of solutions, you can prevent panic,” says the Austrian mountaineer.

“Anxieties come from being afraid

about what might happen, not what is happening. So when I’m standing in front of a big face, I think, ‘How will I respond if my climbing partner or I break a leg at 5,000m? What strategy will I use to get us back down safely?’”

Developing mental blueprints for different situations restores your sense of control: “It’s not about giving into anxieties – it’s realistic thinking, which can help remove them.”

By arming yourself with go-to strategies – from how to fight cramp midway through a bike ride, to what to say on a date if things go quiet – you’re less likely to be swamped by panic.

And while you can’t prepare for every possibility, you’d be surprised how

“The more you test yourself, the less likely you are to be afraid”

COREY RICH/RED BULL CONTENT POOL, GUILLAUME GALVANI

GUILLAUME GALVANI SQUASH RISK LIKE AN AERIAL ATHLETE

adaptable your mental battle plans can be. “In 2016, I was doing a climb on Lunag Ri in the Himalayas when my climbing partner Conrad Anker had a heart attack,” recalls Lama, 27. “That was something I’d never prepared for. But because the situation was similar to a broken leg, I knew how to react and get him down to safety, so I stayed calm.”

His other trick is to test your limits in a risk-free environment before taking on a big challenge. “I grew up sport climbing, so I could test myself without consequences – if I fell, I was protected by ropes and bolts and I wouldn’t break my back. Now, when I climb big mountains, I know my limits.”

Exploring your mind and body in a ‘safe zone’ – whether testing a wedding speech on your housemates, or doing work experience before going for a job – can boost your confidence and keep anxieties at bay. “The more you test yourself, the less likely you are to be afraid,” says Lama.

Lama makes the first ascent of the spectacular Baatara Gorge sinkhole in Lebanon in 2015

LESSONS FROM THE ED GE

your brain into switching off the alarms that want you to stop.”

When her motivation dipped, Buhring used negative self-talk to jump-start her energy levels: “I would say, ‘Come on, lazy bum, get moving.’” And if something disastrous happened, she went into war mode: “I would think, ‘Bring it on. Is that the best you’ve got?’” Sometimes it was best just to laugh: “I would say, ‘Silly girl, look what you’ve done!’ It changed the focus so the problem didn’t feel so bad.”

Arming yourself with different strategies for every scenario – from feeling lazy in the gym to dealing with bad news – can help you rewire your thoughts in difficult times. And the rewards can be big. “There were moments when I was tired and sick, but when I passed through those points I would get a real rush,” says Buhring.

“I thought, ‘Oh my God, I made it.’ I felt euphoria. It makes you curious about what else you can do. It gives you a sense of self-sufficiency. Now I know I can get through anything.”

“I pep-talk myself so I can almost stand back and tell myself what I need” Pictured: Buhring in the Trans Am Bike Race from Oregon to Virginia in 2014.

She finished fourth

EDDY CLARK, DAMIANO LEVATI

JULIANA BUHRING SURVIVE HARD TIMES LIKE A ROUND-THEWORLD CYCLIST

A negative experience, personal setback or bad mood can cause you to lose focus, energy and motivation. But endurance cyclist Juliana Buhring learnt to sail through tough times when, in 2012, she became the fastest woman to circumnavigate the globe by bike. During her 152-day, 29,060km odyssey, she rode through a cyclone in India, escaped frenzied packs of dogs in Turkey and contracted hypothermia in New Zealand.

“You soon learn that everything’s temporary and this bad moment will pass,” says Buhring, now 37.

To steel her mind in dark times, she performed self-talk – a psychological technique that harnesses words and phrases to alter your mood state. “I peptalk myself so I can almost stand back and tell myself what I need,” says Buhring.

She built up a toolbox of different selftalk strategies for different moments – a flexible skill set anyone can learn from.

To fight off pain or boredom, she used positivity: “I would tell myself, ‘This is fun… what a smashing ride,’ which tricks

JEZ BRAGG DISCOVER INNER PEACE LIKE AN ULTRARUNNER Today’s wired-up world can make your head spin, while nagging work pressures gnaw away at your inner peace. But ultrarunner Jez Bragg has learnt that mindful thinking can calm the brain – anywhere from in the office to a body-wrecking 160km race.

“The secret is to focus on where you are and take in your surroundings,” says Bragg, who, in 2013, ran the length of New Zealand on the 3,000km Te Araroa trail, burning through 12 pairs of shoes. “You focus on the views, the weather, how your body feels – any element of the experience.

It grounds you in the moment.”

Centring yourself in the present stops you being worn down by ‘catastrophic thinking’ (ruminating about worst-case scenarios) and gives you better perspective. This technique can help you survive the exhausting 170km Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc – which Bragg won in 2010 – or just get through a stressful day.

“It teaches you to think about the next few steps, not the finish line, and that’s calming,” explains the 37-year-old Brit. Whether you’re on a stress-busting lunchtime walk or trying to cool down after a blazing argument, the secret is to embrace as much sensory information as possible, from sights to smells.

“You enter this dreamy kind of space that helps you relax,” he says.

The technique should be practised often to keep negative thoughts at bay.

“During runs, I have regular selfchecks,” says Bragg, “so if I’m feeling in a dark place I can work out why.”

These encourage you to take control of your moods: “I realise it might be triggered by hunger or a negative thought. So I think, ‘How can I change that?’ Maybe that’s a rest or some positive self-talk. Self-checks stop your mind running away from you.”

Bragg has noticed the benefits in his day job as a construction project manager. “This process really cleans out your mind,” he says. “I daydream, which helps me problem-solve. I come up with some good solutions for my work when I’m out on a hill, because you get real clarity of thought.”

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“I do regular selfchecks – they stop your mind running away from you” Pictured: Te Araroa (‘the long pathway’) took Bragg across volcanic mountains, deep into forests and across rivers

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LESSONS FROM THE ED GE

BEN SAUNDERS CRUSH CHAOS LIKE A POLAR EXPLORER

”In this hostile environment, you know you could be dead in minutes” For all his meticulous planning, Saunders remained at the mercy of the elements on his 2013-14 Antarctica trek

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An overflowing inbox, frantic work schedule, high-pressure deadlines or new responsibilities can leave you feeling like your life is spiralling out of control, but polar explorer Ben Saunders wrestles with real life-ordeath situations every day.

“In polar terrain, you’re completely self-sufficient, so you can feel overwhelmed,” says Saunders, who, with teammate Tarka L’Herpiniere, slogged 2,913km across Antarctica in 2013-14 to complete the longest human-powered polar journey in history. “Antarctica is the coldest, driest, windiest place on Earth, so you feel like an astronaut in space. In this hostile environment, you always know you could be dead in minutes.”

Saunders, 40, says that anyone can benefit from the chaos-soothing psychological strategies he has perfected. During his gruelling 105-day Antarctic expedition, he imposed order

through detailed daily planning and timetables. Whether dodging frostbite or powering through a crazy day at work, structuring your day in minute detail will neutralise stress and boost your sense of control.

“In Antarctica, my daily life rotated around routines,” Saunders explains.

“I would wake up, light the stove, start melting water, pack the sled in a certain way, and then divide the day into blocks of time, stopping every 90 minutes to eat and perform key tasks.

Planning and routines streamline your day so you feel more in control.”

Saunders used colour-coded bags – blue for food, red for goggles and mittens – to stay hyper-organised. “You have to be meticulous: in Antarctica, the consequences of dropping a mitten can be catastrophic,” he says.

Sticking to structured routines can also drag you through a tough day when you’re tired or stressed. “It enables you

ANDY WARD, MARTIN HARTLEY

to operate on autopilot,” explains Saunders. “The Antarctic expedition was so intense, I lost 22kg. But with good routines you know what you have to do, even when you’re not physically and mentally at your best.”

The explorer knows these angstbusting organisational tactics also work in daily life. “Even when planning an expedition, I’m an inveterate listkeeper,” he laughs. “My entire life is organised on an app called Things, so I can keep track of training, sponsors, food and equipment. It takes away the madness, because I can plug into my lists and stay on top of things. You have to see yourself as the CEO of your own business and manage every part of that business to stay in control.”

Whether you’re filing a tax return or finishing a work report, deadlines and time pressures can pile on extra stress.

It’s the same for Saunders: “In 2014, if we’d finished late, the cost of keeping THE RED BULLETIN

”You have to be meticulous: here, the consequences of dropping a mitten can be catastrophic”

the airstrip open would have been $30-40,000 a day.”

According to Saunders, the key is to compartmentalise your thoughts.

“I have learnt not to expend mental energy on things I can’t change,” he says. “In polar environments, you can’t control the visibility, the wind speed or the snow conditions. So I shepherd the limited energy I have towards things I can change: good navigation, moving efficiently, ensuring something important doesn’t drop from my pocket. The rest will fall into place.”

Saunders says everyone should take on new responsibilities – even if that feels difficult – because they galvanise your mind. If a polar expedition is too much, try something else. “Big challenges like marathons give you something to fall back on: the next time you feel stressed, you know you’ve been through worse before and you can power through.”

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LESSONS FROM THE ED GE

MOLLIE HUGHES BUILD ROCK-SOLID CONFIDENCE LIKE AN EVEREST CLIMBER Shyness and self-doubt can block your path to success, but Mollie Hughes overcame such confidence issues to become the youngest woman to summit Mount Everest from both the south (in 2012) and the north (2017) side.

The best way to fortify self-belief – whether for public speaking or a big adventure – is step-by-step. “For me, it started with a simple camping trip at school,” says Hughes. “Smaller trips built up my self-belief so I knew I could get to the top of a mountain.”

Acknowledging micro-successes gives you a bank of positive memories to tap into. After climbing in the Alps and Africa, Hughes felt ready for the

-35°C temperatures and 3,000m drops of Everest. “[During the expedition] I went through my previous climbs in my mind, day by day, to remind myself what I can do.”

This self-belief can help you smash your phobias. “I can now give a talk in front of thousands,” says Hughes, 27.

But if your inner confidence does start to fail, focus on the immediate actions you can take to restore your mental control. “In the Khumbu Icefall, we had to cross crevasses – some of them as much as 4-5m wide and 50m deep – on ladders hundreds of times during our acclimatisation. And, believe it or not, I don’t like heights,” she reveals. “But I just focused on what I could control, like being clipped into the safety rope and moving well.”

Confidence stems from the knowledge that your actions can positively influence a result, so by focusing on the processes of a task, instead of the potential consequences, you can boost your self-belief. “It was still terrifying, but after a few weeks I was moving across on autopilot,” says Hughes.

“Small trips built up my self-belief that I could get to the top of a mountain” Hughes first caught the mountainclimbing bug at 17 when she joined a school expedition to scale Mount Kenya

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“Aboriginal people say westerners’ brains are like tangled fishing nets” In the 2013 TV series Naked And Marooned, adventurer Stafford had to survive for 60 days on the otherwise uninhabited Fijian island of Olorua

HAMISH FROST, DISCOVERY

ED STAFFORD BANISH NEGATIVE THOUGHTS LIKE AN ADVENTURER Nagging, slow-burn anxieties about money, moving house or changing jobs can grind you down. But adventurer Ed Stafford, who, in 2008-10, became the first man to walk the length of the Amazon River, had to spend 860 days knowing that at any moment he might encounter drug smugglers, venomous snakes, or – as on one unforgettable day – be greeted at arrow-point by an indigenous tribe. Don’t assume he’s blessed with superhuman composure, though.

“I tied myself in knots and was constantly battling paranoia and anxiety,” explains Stafford, 42. “My mental shift came when I was later dropped on a desert island for 60 days for a TV show THE RED BULLETIN

[Naked And Marooned] and I learnt psychology to prepare my mind.”

Stafford zeroed in on two anxietyshattering techniques that can help anyone neutralise daily doubts and worries. “The first is meditating daily,” he says. “At home, I use an app called Headspace, which provides 20-minute meditation sessions to encourage you to step back from negative thoughts. I’ve practised the techniques so much that I can now use them in survival situations.

One example is to imagine sitting by a motorway and seeing all your negative thoughts as cars. You learn not to jump in front of them or let them carry you away. It’s better to let them pass by.”

And if it worked for Stafford when he was so tired and hungry he started gnawing on the bones of a dead mouse, it can work for you, too.

His second tactic derives from Aboriginal philosophy. “Aboriginal people believe we have three brains,” he says.

“The biggest is based on your gut and instinct; the second biggest is based on your heart and emotions, and the smallest is your logical brain, which is the one in which most westerners live their lives. They call this logical brain ‘ngan duppurru’ – tellingly, it also means a fishing net tangled beyond repair.”

Stafford realised that, whether you’re battling anxieties at home or surviving on a desert island, you must re-prioritise those three brains. “If you live in your logical brain, you can’t avoid anxieties and fears. It’s better to follow your gut instinct about what is good or bad and what will make you happy or sad, then use your emotional and logical brains as a filter system before taking action.”

Stafford considers this his biggest discovery so far, helping him prioritise his deeper emotional state. “Knowing how to light a fire is no good alone,” he says. “The mind is the most important survival tool there is.”

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LESSONS FROM THE EDGE

RAFA ORTIZ FIND YOUR FLOW LIKE AN EXTREME KAYAKER

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“I always visualise what I’m about to do in thousands of tiny pictures” Pictured: Ortiz braves Spirit Falls in Washington State, USA – a popular spot for kayakers and photographers – in 2017

Domingo, Mexico, that are as high as 27m in places. To achieve maximum focus before a big challenge, he uses visualisation – a technique that works just as well before a downhill ski run as it does on the morning train commute into work.

“I always visualise what I’m about to do in thousands of tiny pictures,” says Ortiz. “The process helps channel your mental resources into a concentrated focus. I think of the lines I’ll take, my reactions, and every little wave or boulder I might encounter along the way. It’s a bit like virtual-reality training, playing a video in your mind. When you

come to do the big challenge, you feel so focused, because it’s like you’ve already done it.”

Visualisation shifts you into a state of laser-sharp concentration so that you find your ‘flow’. “It combines relaxation with focus,” Ortiz explains. “Normally when you relax, you disperse, like when you fall asleep. But visualisation teaches you to combine 100 per cent relaxation with 100 per cent focus. It’s a really intense sensation that gets your mind ready and armed against distractions so that you can be the best you can be in that moment.”

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GREG MIONSKE/RED BULL CONTENT POOL, MICHAEL CLARK/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

To smash a fitness PB, storm through a pile of work or nail your next big outdoor challenge, you need to find your ‘flow’ – that irresistible feeling of intense focus and concentration that allows you to ignore distractions and instead zero in on the challenge before you. This is precisely the mindset that Mexican extreme kayaker Rafa Ortiz taps into when he’s paddling down killer waterfalls, knowing that any lapse in attention could prove fatal.

“You need to know how to adopt an intense, concentrated focus,” says Ortiz, 31, who, in 2012, conquered the 57m-high Palouse Falls in Washington, USA, plummeting at speeds of 130150kph. “That feeling of relaxed focus is your sweet spot for success.

Distractions will still be there, but you’re so focused they don’t bother you. Some of my biggest mistakes in kayaking were because I got distracted.

“We face the same conflict every day, because distractions are growing exponentially – you used to have [rudimentary mobile game] Snake on your phone; now there are 1,000 apps and notifications. Modern life is an attention funnel and it’s wrecking the concentration you need to be successful. But find your focus and anything is possible.”

In 2013, Ortiz used his icy focus to kayak down the world’s steepest navigable whitewater – a sequence of back-to-back drops at Rio Santo

EXPERIENCED DRIVER DEPICTED

WHAT AR E YOU BUILD ING FOR ?

B U I LT T H R O U G H E X P E R I E N C E … E AR N E D O N T H E T R A I L

b fgo o d rich .c o .uk

LESSONS FROM THE EDGE ED GE

BELINDA KIRK ACCOMPLISH NEW CHALLENGES LIKE AN EXPEDITION EXPERT New tests come knocking every day, from training for a sport event to plotting your next career move. But completing challenges is a routine task for British expedition leader Belinda Kirk, who has trekked across Nicaragua, searched for obscure camels in China’s Taklamakan Desert – aka the ‘Sea of Death’ – and managed expeditions for Bear Grylls.

“The key is to break down a challenge into manageable pieces,” says Kirk, 41.

By making the task seem easier, you change your psychological perception of it from a problem to an opportunity.

“When I was 18, I travelled around Africa by myself for a year. If you’d have told me that 12 months earlier, I just would have laughed. But if you break down

a journey into smaller chunks, it feels more achievable. Like a marathon runner, you tick off a mile at a time.”

First, you need to identify your primary motivation – this is the energy source that will drive you on through the hard times along the way. “Are you trying to break a record, achieve a certain result, or just make personal progress?” Kirk says. “Decisions become that bit easier if you know why you want to do something.”

Once your motivation is clear in your head, make your challenge public to create a sense of accountability. “Tell your friends, so you can’t back out,” says Kirk. Social pressure is a powerful psychological weapon: “On my trip to Africa, a guy died on the bus seat next to me. I could have quit right then. But it was the embarrassment I would have felt if went home early that made me carry on – and that trip changed my life.”

Kirk breaks down each new challenge into small parts – routes, kit, timing, skills required, climate, environment

– to simplify the project, but she also develops ‘what if?’ strategies to help prevent failure. “I think about all the stuff that could go wrong, like falling out of a raft on the Zambezi, and how I’d respond. The resilience you need to get through a challenge is really about building up coping mechanisms – having the most effective responses available to overcome each obstacle.”

Good planning is essential, but so too is adaptability: “On one expedition, we crossed a river in Alaska when it was a trickle; however, when we returned, it was a raging torrent. We met a hunter in the area and they helped us create a roped crossing.”

Your ability to overcome obstacles is exactly what will make your achievement so meaningful. “Every problem you deal with raises your resilience and makes success more likely,” explains Kirk.

“After climbing a mountain or learning a new skill, you realise you have been putting ceilings on your dreams and that anything is possible.”

Kirk was skipper of the Seagals, who, in 2010, became the first female team to row non-stop around Britain

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Praise the

LORD OF TRAP Church organist-turned-producer ZAYTOVEN has ascended to godlike status in the hip-hop world.

And he’s done it without uttering a single cussword Words CHRISTINA LEE Photography ZOE RAIN

Von Trap: thanks to his army pastor dad, Zaytoven was born in Frankfurt, Germany

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“The music I made with Gucci Mane was so raw and real it resonated” 66

THE RED BULLETIN

Console leader: Zaytoven’s sound is much soughtafter – and copied

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Life Abundantly Church in America’s Deep South, Sunday service is underway.

Among the 40-strong congregation this morning, like every Sunday, is Xavier Dotson, aka Zaytoven. As Pastor Kendrick Meredith gives his sermon, Zaytoven waits for his cue to sit back down at his Kronos keyboard to play. He stifles a yawn as the churchman quotes Corinthians. Today’s talk is about building your personal dream team. “I pray for this man Zay every single day, because he is in the midst of these wolves,” Pastor Meredith says, indicating to his organist.

“I pray that he will do right.”

The pastor’s words could easily read as pointed commentary on Zaytoven’s seemingly double life. The 38-year-old

inhabits two apparently contradictory personas: the non-smoking, teetotal, church-going family man is also a legendary producer of trap – a style of music that’s synonymous with drugs, violence and deprivation.

Zaytoven first discovered this rap subgenre back in 2000 when he moved to Atlanta; named after the American South slang for ‘drug house’, trap was born out of the area’s distinctive brand of hip hop. Since then, his production work has helped elevate trap into the mainstream, permeating the highest echelons of pop, influencing artists from Beyoncé to Lady Gaga, and winning him a Grammy.

Countless producers in studios everywhere from Atlanta to Latin America and Asia have tried to emulate the Zaytoven sound, and a collaboration with the man has proven to be a rite of passage for marquee acts such as Future, Migos and Nicki Minaj. But Zaytoven is still the same humble church organist he’s always been. It’s just these days he wears a chain spelling out his name in loose script and diamonds.

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T

he first song Xavier Dotson learnt to play on piano was the gospel standard I’m Available To You. He had only had about six weeks of formal music training when it was stopped by his pastor father Joe and choir director mother Lura, because they no longer bear to see him cry. He was just six years old, and his teacher was harsh: “She’d take a pencil and go ‘Pop! Pop!’ on my fingers,” he says as he uploads unreleased songs to his iPod in his basement studio in the south-east Atlanta suburb of Ellenwood. Everything else Zaytoven knows about playing keys, he learnt by ear and from church musicians he met when Joe, as part of the US Army, moved the family to the Mississippi towns of Grenada and Jackson.

As a teenager, Zaytoven bought drum machines with the money he’d earned from odd jobs and from playing the organ at a church led by former San Francisco 49ers linebacker turned pastor Willie Harper. He has played at Sunday service at the Life Abundantly Church in Conyers, Georgia for the past 12 years and recently bought matching chains for himself and his family that spell out a personal motto: “God Over Everything.”

This upbringing might explain why, when singing ‘prophet’ Dianne Palmer told him six years ago, “Your sound is going to be great and travel over nations,” Zaytoven thought she meant the gospel he played. This was after his work with Usher on Papers – from the Grammywinning album Raymond vs Raymond – but before he produced Migos’ breakout hit Versace, which has garnered almost 29 million views on YouTube.

“I wasn’t thinking the rap music sound,” he says. “I thought, ‘Well, I play in church. I’m seen in church.’ I didn’t realise until six months ago that that was what she was telling me.”

It took Zaytoven a long time to realise the extent of his influence outside sacred spaces. Before becoming a full-time producer, some nights he’d only sleep for four hours between sessions at the studio he built in his parents’ basement and shifts as a barber at Stonecrest Mall in the Atlanta suburb of Lithonia. He only stopped cutting hair after Versace took off in 2013. His breakout hit Icy, with rapper 68

Gucci Mane, was dumb luck, he thought.

So was Papers, even after the Grammy.

As trap elements filtered into EDM and pop, he thought his time was up: “Can we not make the authentic music no more?”

Only after Versace, because of how many people would ask for photos and drop off mixtapes, did he consider producing fulltime. This was almost a decade after Icy hit the airwaves.

That may be because Zaytoven never aspired to become a hip-hop producer.

He just loved the music – when he finally got to hear it. “I was listening to rap music when I wasn’t allowed to listen to rap music,” he says. “I had to [be sneaky].

My parents didn’t listen to music with profanity in it. My early favourite had to be Dr Dre’s The Chronic. It was so rough and rugged. It was never about the words – it was how [producers] put the music together that got me addicted.”

When Zaytoven’s family resettled in Columbus, Georgia, he created a studio in their wood-panelled basement to further what was, at the time, merely a musical hobby. He hadn’t anticipated that, once word had spread, as many as 25 people would record there each night. Even at the height of his homemade studio’s popularity, he still kept a barber’s chair down there, offering haircuts on the side.

Things became serious when Zaytoven began recording with Gucci Mane, a former dope dealer who he encouraged to start rapping as a career. Their version of trap on the 2009 track Bricks was a punchy, wonky collision of Roland TR808 drums, canned organs, and Gucci’s visions of his supply dancing in his head (“Bricks! All-white bricks! Off-white bricks! Light tan bricks!”).

They were each other’s biggest fans, to a fault. “Nicki [Minaj, whose 2014 track Want Some More he co-produced] was cool,” he says, “but I was so into what

The church is supportive of what he does outside its walls THE RED BULLETIN

Smiles for Miles: can we expect a trap update of Bitches Brew?

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Zay my name: a friend impressed

by Zaytoven’s piano playing gave him the moniker

I was doing with Gucci that I’d be like, ‘Could you hurry up and finish the song?’” Starting at 8am, Gucci would record up to seven tracks on any given day. Miraculously, that still left time to shop for outfits and get their new song titles airbrushed onto them so the pair became walking billboards for tracks such as Trapstar. That title was prescient: while Gucci’s spells in and out of jail may have overshadowed his artistic merits early on, his music would influence and nurture rappers and producers including Waka Flocka Flame, Mike WiLL Made-It, Migos and Young Thug. Last year, such reach translated to platinum awards for guest spots on Chris Brown’s Party and Rae Sremmurd’s Black Beatles,and for his own track Both, featuring Drake.

And yet, as trap grew in status, both in Atlanta and beyond, Zaytoven doubted his and Gucci’s music was as impressive as their peers’. “[Young] Jeezy and Shawty Redd sounded theatrical,” he says. “When you listened to TI and [DJ] Toomp, there was this worldwide sound. With Gucci Mane and Zaytoven, it sounded like Zay making the beats in his basement, not knowing what he’s doing. Gucci Mane be saying stuff that you can’t make out, off beat. We had the most unattractive music.

But it was so raw and real it resonated.”

After years of success, Zaytoven is still not one to brag. His current basement is only a modest testament to his global 70

“I wasn’t allowed to listen to rap, so I had to be sneaky” reach. The gold award for Versace hangs in his studio, while the platinum plaque for Minaj’s Want Some More faces the pool table. But he might move all this memorabilia into his parents’ old home, which he wants to revamp into a studio for yet more aspiring producers.

L

ike-minded artists have been attracted by his rep. Zaytoven had never heard of two-time Grammy-winning rapper Lecrae when he was approached to work on the album Let The Trap Say Amen. But Lecrae had heard of him. The gospel-inspired hip hop star remembered when Gucci and OJ da Juiceman’s formative trap anthem Make The Trap Say Aye, an early Zaytoven production recorded in 2007, took hold in Atlanta’s Eastside. “I recall being at the bus stop and just seeing people trapping

there,” Lecrae says. “That song was a theme for a lot of the dope boys there.”

Lecrae is further living proof that not all US Christians are staunch conservatives.

Zaytoven’s production on Let The Trap Say Amen makes the values they extol all the more accessible.

“Lecrae is a big-time artist already,” Zaytoven says, “but the message he was trying to get across, to the demographics who need it, still has to have that sound.

The people in my demographic, the ones who are robbing and killing, with the drugs and all, they want to hear the trap.”

It sounds incongruous when someone as devout as Zaytoven talks about ‘his’ demographic in such frank terms. But somehow he has never felt the need to compromise in serving these two seemingly opposing worlds. He has never missed a Sunday service, for example. His friends talk about playing Saturday night gigs in towns hundreds of miles away; when everyone else is drunk at 2am, they say, Zaytoven will be sober, getting into his car to floor-it back to Georgia, ready to accompany the choir. One time, recalls Pastor Meredith, Zaytoven had Snoop Dogg recording in his studio, but got up and left to attend to his church duties.

“I’m the lead musician of the church, and I’ve been there years,” says Zaytoven of his role. “It’s always a place for me to go to, to get back balance and focus.”

When the pastor mentions ‘Zay’ in his sermons, it is without judgement: the church is supportive of what Zaytoven creates outside its walls. One of his fellow pastors once held up a copy of Gucci’s Hard To Kill album at the pulpit – not to criticise it, but to promote it. “People have asked, ‘How do you let him go out and do secular music and come into church on Sunday morning and play?’” says Meredith. “I don’t see him doing anything more than making beats. Don’t you go to a secular job every day?”

Even in the trap community of Atlanta, where he often mixed with dope dealers and felons, Zaytoven was able to find acceptance without changing who he was. Take his choice of creative base: his parents opened their doors to the rappers and producers Zaytoven brought to their basement, but refused to accept much of what usually came with it. So, in his studio, there was strictly no smoking, THE RED BULLETIN

Bling and a prayer: the star producer remains humble, his jewels not so much

no drinking, no cursing and no weapons.

If any of these rules were broken, it would just as often be one of his parents who would come down and rectify the situation as Zaytoven himself.

But far from hindering his progress as a producer, Zaytoven’s insistence on keeping all the apparently contradictory aspects of his life in play seemed to make him stronger. “I think what he was doing,” says his father Joe, “playing in the church, working at the barber’s shop, coming here and making beats and just having people meet him here, [made us] all one big happy family.”

In fact, Gucci would brag to other artists that Zaytoven doesn’t smoke, drink or curse because that’s how he was raised.

Both of them recognise how rare it is to meet someone who is that consistent, who is wholly himself no matter who he meets, who will show up when it counts.

On Monday, Zaytoven and his father will head to the gym. Joe will come back to the house with him to tidy up his already-clean garage. When Zaytoven’s kids peek their heads through the upstairs banister, saying, “Daddy, I’m hungry,” as if straight out of some family sitcom, he will feed them. He will make five beats downstairs, as he did when his daughter 72

“A lot of these guys selling dope, they still got a soul” was six months old, rocking her with one arm as he laid down the beat for Gucci’s 2009 track First Day Out with the other.

Tomorrow, he might attend a studio recording of Nick Cannon’s MTV show Wild ’N Out in town. But, of course, there is also choir rehearsal.

“My dad is one of those guys you can always count on,” Zaytoven says. “When you see me in that small church, that is what is built into me: to be a consistent, dependable person. That’s what I want my character to be.”

Other producers from modern trap’s development in Atlanta have come and gone, but Zaytoven is still at the centre of the sound he helped create. This year might be his highest-profile yet, when his face becomes as recognisable as his sound

is relevant. Last year, Zaytoven’s label, Familiar Territory Records, entered into partnership with Motown and he released his debut album Trapholizay, which he celebrated with a solo tour. And this February, Birds Of A Feather 2, the sequel to the 2012 film loosely based on his life, premiered in the US. Coming up next is an EP with new signee Tiffany Bleu, which marks a return to R&B for the producer.

This staying power is down to his innate talent, sure. But it also speaks to Zaytoven’s almost unique position at the forefront of two very different local communities, and his ability to bring the two closer together. “This music stuff was never a dream or something I was striving to be a part of,” he says. “I feel like God put me in this position maybe because of my character, or because I can influence people in a certain way.

“A lot of these guys, their mama might be in church, and they might have been there too when they were young, but they might have started living a different lifestyle. The church is the backbone of the community, so trap and church meet somewhere in the middle. A lot of these guys selling dope or doing whatever, they still got a heart. They still got a soul.” zaytovenbeatz.com THE RED BULLETIN

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PLAYING ALL THE ANGLES

Racing along rooftops, somersaulting over walls… JASON PAUL gets to know the world’s cities from a unique perspective. Here, the German-born freerunner shares insider tips on Tokyo, the vibrant Japanese capital that has become a second home Words ROLAND HAGENBERG Photography MIKO LIM, EMILY IBARRA

A different view: freerunner Jason Paul, 27, sees a side of Tokyo that few tourists – or even locals – experience

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ason Paul is in flight, his arms spread wide, his legs tucked beneath him, travelling freerunner-style between two staircases, 5m above the tarmacked road below. This is how the 27-year-old moves around the city – like an action hero, or a member of the X-Men. He runs up walls, scrambles over flat roofs and conquers sheer drops. A second after pushing off from the staircase handrail, he lands behind the one opposite, steadies himself by placing his hands on the concrete floor for a second, then turns and grins, giving a thumbs up.

The staircases lead up to residential buildings in a Tokyo side street, and Paul is giving his sign of approval to Miko Lim, the US-based photographer who’s following the German freerunner around his adopted home city to document his energetic escapades. Paul increasingly finds himself spending long periods in the 76

Japanese capital. “Tokyo’s architecture is amazingly diverse,” he says. “From the minimalist to the bizarre, traditional to modern, there’s really a bit of everything.

The variety constantly gives me fresh impetus for new moves and tricks.”

From two-storey wooden houses and steel and glass skyscrapers to concrete bridge pillars, an incredible number of Tokyo’s structures are accessible from the outside via exterior staircases, abutments or flat roofs. And these are exactly the sort of opportunities that Paul is always on the lookout for. Whether he’s training or just out shopping, he’ll find a potential new route up into the unknown of Tokyo’s rooftop world that’s too tempting to ignore. The freerunner is constantly scanning his environment for new surfaces to use, and, as a consequence, forever rediscovering the city from new perspectives.

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Paul takes inspiration from Japan’s freerunning culture, and has been accepted by the local stars as one of their own Watch your step: Paul flips out on a pedestrian walkway in the Shibuya district

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“Tokyo’s architecture is incredibly diverse, from the minimalist to the bizarre“ Going off track: Paul takes off on one of his city tours via the rooftops of Tokyo

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aul first dreamt of Japan in his childhood bedroom in Frankfurt. Back then, when he wasn’t out doing acrobatics off handrails or flying over park benches with his friends, he devoured manga comics. Inspired by the cult 2001 film Yamakasi, in which the action scenes rely on parkour skills, Paul began training every day in his neighbourhood. There was no freerunning scene in Frankfurt at the time, so he had to teach himself all the moves. His perseverance paid off, and the German is now considered to be one of the world’s best freerunners. But individual tricks don’t appeal to Paul: he wants to develop complete choreographed pieces, like in his 2016 YouTube video Last Call For Mr Paul, which has now had more than 50 million views. It shows him performing daredevil stunts in an attempt to catch a flight at Munich Airport he’s in danger of missing. Though it’s a work of fiction, there may be truth in it – Paul is always travelling. He hasn’t had a permanent home for a long time now, instead preferring to move from one metropolis to another: Marrakesh, Sarajevo, Sydney, Bangkok and, most often of all, Tokyo.

In addition to the appeal of its diverse architecture, Paul is attracted to the city for its local freerunning scene – and the unique style it fosters. Global Japanese stars such as Kenichi Sato and Yakuwa Jumpei are famed for their particularly fluid movements; every one of their choreographed pieces comes across like a unique dance. They have long since accepted Paul as one of their own, inviting him to train at their parkour venues and appearing in his films. In 2017’s Jason Paul Goes Back In Time, for example, local freerunners chase Paul through the Edo Wonderland, a cultural theme park done out as a traditional temple complex.

But Paul doesn’t require such a filmic location – he can transform any part of this city into an adventure playground whenever he wants. And so images capturing Paul’s artfulness and energy also show another side to the Japanese capital, one that’s lesser known, far from the tourist spots. And Paul’s gravitydefying superpowers make him the perfect person to offer Tokyo travel tips that even mere mortals can benefit from.

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“I use cities to grow creatively“ Looking up: when in new areas, Paul often gets his bearings from the Tokyo Skytree, the city’s TV tower

TOKYO TO THE POWER OF 8 Ramen with hip hop, a park for parkour, and an island with a view: Paul’s top tips for a weekend in the Japanese megalopolis

A HARD LANDING IN NATURE

The perfect park for freerunners and lovers of other urban sports “From the outside, it looks like a regular park, but Hanegi Park, in the otherwise fairly unspectacular district of Setagaya, is one of my favourite parkour locations anywhere in the world. It’s just overflowing with colourful stairwells and little walls, making it the perfect training location for freerunners.

Tokyo residents chiefly use Hanegi Park for sport. There are a couple of tennis courts and it has its own running track, too.”

Even a hectic city such as Tokyo can offer laid-back moments if you know where to find them

AT HOME WITH THE HEAVYWEIGHTS

GETTY IMAGES (3)

Stare in awe at sumo wrestlers riding their bikes, then leap into action at the Sumida River “I go to Ryōgoku [in the north-eastern district of Sumida] at least once per visit to Tokyo. It’s the area where all the sumo wrestlers live, and I could sit all day on THE RED BULLETIN

“We freerunners aren’t all that complicated generally, but when it comes to clothes we have very specific needs.

That’s the reason why a couple of colleagues and I started our own label, Farang. Our stuff is urban, simple and practical at the same time, making it perfect for our sport and anyone who’s into our style. But what’s that got to do with Tokyo? Well, there’s almost nowhere in the world that influences our designs as much as the secondhand shops in Shimokitazawa [in the western neighbourhood of Setagaya]. It’s my absolute favourite district of Tokyo,

Adachi Kita

Nerima

Katsushika Arakawa

Toshima Nakano Suginami

a bench at Ryōgoku Station, watching these giants cycle through the streets in their noble robes and wander past in their geta [wooden sandals]. I’d probably do it even if there wasn’t a brilliant parkour location just around the corner, too. Right on the embankment of the Sumida River, there are the perfect walls, steps and stairwells to train on. It’s also a good spot to eat your packed lunch by the edge of the water.

Recently, there was an office worker sitting there who was so engrossed in his laptop that he didn’t even notice me and my freerunning mate Kenichi leaping within a whisker of him.”

CHILL IN CLASSIC STYLE

Go big and go home: Tokyo’s sumo wrestlers live in the Sumida-Ryogoku district

Itabashi

Bunkyō

Taitō Sumida Edogawa

Shinjuku Chiyoda Shibuya

Chūō

Kōtō

Minato

Setagaya Meguro

Shinagawa

Ōta

Tokyo Bay

Know your neighbourhoods Tokyo’s 23 ‘special wards’ at a glance You haven’t really been to Tokyo if you’ve never got lost, but this map gives you a rough overview of its main districts. Paul’s photoshoot chiefly took place in Shibuya and Shinjuku

because the place has such an incredibly relaxed atmosphere. I recommend that you go shopping at [used clothing store] Meadow

by Flamingo, then, when that’s done, stop off at Gravy Gyoza to try the little fish balls. After that, you should head to Mother Bar for drinks and nachos.”

Hydro therapy: a visit to a Tokyo bathhouse eases the pain for Paul after a hard day’s freerunning

FEEL THE HEAT

It’s not easy climbing into 43°C water, but it’s worth it “If my Japanese fellow freerunners have taught me anything, it’s respect – respect for each other, but, first and foremost, respect for your own body. As a sportsman, I’m reliant on mine, and being a freerunner too, it has a lot to put up with; all the jumps and the landings on hard ground, in particular, take their toll on the joints in the long-term.

When I’m in Tokyo, I regularly go to one of the traditional bathhouses – or sentō – such as Sengokuyu by Hatagaya Station [in Shibuya] to offset that. OK, so it’s never easy climbing into 43°C water, and my body is as red as a crab when I get out again. But no sooner do I step back out onto the street than I feel reborn.”

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LEAP INTO THE FUTURE What the tourists on the leisure island of Odaiba don’t see

Street eats: the Shinjuku district is bursting with takeaway food joints

PROFESSIONAL TURN-OFFS

Skyscrapers and wooden houses are all well and good, but Tokyo’s side streets are where it’s at

TASTE THE BASS

A ramen joint in Shibuya where hard noodles and hip hop unite “Almost everyone knows Shibuya, chiefly because of the crossing used by 15,000 people every time the light turns green, and no one coming to Tokyo for the first time should miss out on seeing it. But that’s not my 82

PARKOUR THROUGH SOME PAGES Welcome to Japanhattan: the island of Odaiba is home to a miniature replica of the Statue of Liberty

tip. A 20-minute walk away is Usagi, which is my favourite noodle-soup joint. I would recommend the special ramen with pork and bamboo shoots.

First, you order by machine, and then you have to make a critical decision when the waiter asks if you want your noodles ‘soft, thick, flat or hard’. The noodles are really great, but I almost come more for the hip hop that is always blasting out of the speakers. The owner is the brother of hip-hop producer Jun Seba [aka Nujabes], who

died in a car accident in 2010.

He’s a legend in Japan now, and I’m a huge fan.”

Mech my day: this 20m-high Gundam robot stands guard on tourist-magnet Odaiba

A bookshop to lock yourself away in – and not just for the manga comics “When I’m in Tokyo – as in any other city – I upload videos of my freerunning sessions to YouTube; I also post to Instagram and Facebook.

So I spend a lot of time on my smartphone and at my computer, which is why it’s an even greater pleasure to go to Tsutaya Books at T-Site in the designer area of Daikanyama [in Shibuya]. The labyrinth of wooden shelves houses a huge selection of books in Japanese and English, and one of the upper floors has a collection of 30,000 vintage magazines.

I could lock myself away for hours.”

Instagram: @thejasonpaul THE RED BULLETIN

GETTY IMAGES (3)

“The thing I like most about Tokyo is the variety. Shinjuku is a perfect example – an area full of skyscrapers with traditional wooden houses nestling at their feet. One of these houses, right behind Shinjuku Station, is home to Tajimaya Coffee, my absolute favourite café. Ideally, you drink your coffee at the dark counter like the locals, and then head off straight back out into the fray. Then turn into the first side street and drift through the back alleys with all their hidden shops.

“Odaiba [in Tokyo Bay], with its 20m-high Gundam robot statue and artificial beach, isn’t a secret in the truest sense of the word: tourists flock to the island, especially at the weekend. But as a freerunner, I see overcrowded spots from a different perspective. Right by the water, there are little walls and red stone seats that are perfect for jumping off and supporting myself on. From here, you have a beautiful view of passing ferries and the Tokyo skyline. My favourite structure on Odaiba is the Fuji TV building, partly because of the wide steps and handrails for jumps, but mostly for its architecture – it looks like some clunky, futuristic, Sovietera command centre. Visiting Odaiba is a trip to a retro view of the future, starting with a ride across Tokyo Bay on the driverless Yurikamome Monorail. Get a seat right at the front – if none are free, wait for the next train.”

THE RED BULLETIN PROMOTION

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guide Get it. Do it. See it.

Brave climbers are rewarded with spectacular views at Rock Cut on Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park

AURORA PHOTOS/ALAMY

ALTITUDE WITH ATTITUDE The mountain towns of Colorado, USA are the perfect launching pad for breathtaking outdoor adventures – and civilised evening escapades – whatever your timescale. Here’s an insider guide…

Words EVELYN SPENCE

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Do it

24 HOURS It’s hard to beat the weather and access to adventure in Boulder, Colorado, which has 300-plus days of sunshine a year and almost 500km of dedicated bike paths – rent everything from cruisers to 29ers at University Bicycles (ubikes.com).

“Everyone here puts outdoor activities first,” says Eric ‘Hende’ Henderson, a former local guide who now does PR for mountain sports brands including Dynafit and Salewa.

First up in an action-packed day: scrambling the Flatirons, an iconic set of sandstone rock formations. Guides such as Ben Markhart of the Colorado Mountain School (coloradomountainschool.com) can take you on a sunrise blitz up the eight-pitch, 5.4 Third Flatiron, named the “finest beginner climb in the world” by rock-climbing legend and Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard.

From Pearl Street (boulderdowntown. com) – Boulder’s central, busker-friendly, weed-wafty, pedestrian mall – it’s just over an hour to the entrance of Rocky Mountain National Park (nps.gov); don’t leave out the drive to the summit of the 3.7km Trail Ridge Road with its thin air and above-treeline expanse of Colorado 14ers – mountains more than 4.2km in elevation.

Back in town, the path up Mount Sanitas is more popular than Sunday service and rises just short of a quad-torching 400m over a distance of 3.2km.

STAY Denver’s artsy Maven Hotel anchors the Dairy Block, a new micro-neighbourhood of boutiques, cocktail bars and food halls; the mavenhotel.com. The A-Lodge, a refurbished motor inn at the mouth of Boulder Canyon, has the vibe of a climbers’ hostel and the perks of a hotel; a-lodge.com EAT Boulder venue Rayback Collective is the best kind of backyard gathering: food trucks, 30 beers on tap, a fire pit, and live music; therayback.com.

Ten miles up a dirt road from Boulder is the beloved Gold Hill Inn, a log boarding house built in 1872; goldhillinn.com.

There are scores of microbrews on offer at Euclid Hall in Denver, and the roasted duck poutine is legendary; euclidhall.com DRINK The Bitter Bar in central Boulder is a neighbourhood watering hole with the feel of a speakeasy – and happy hour lasts three; the bitterbar.com. If you’re after a big-city vibe, try the Greenlight Lab in Denver, which has an experimental bent, from whiskey cocktails encased in orbs of ice to the furniture itself; greenlightlab.net SWIM The spring-fed Eldorado Pool, tucked beneath world-class climbing routes, first opened in 1905; eldoradosprings.com

Set off on one of Colorado’s mountain biking trails

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THE ROCKIES IN

A LONG WEEKEND Push deeper into the high country, home to journalist and yoga instructor Kim Fuller and pro kayaker Ken Hoeve. “In just a day up here,” says Hoeve, “you can bike in the morning, hike at midday, play golf after lunch, and still have a few hours to paddle.”

Start with an espresso shot at Color Coffee Roastery (colorroasters.com) in laid-back Eagle, where new mountain biking trails leave from town and the multimillion-dollar Eagle River Park (eagleoutside.com) just opened its first whitewater features.

From the teeny town of Minturn – “My favourite little spot,” says Fuller – hike up Game Creek Trail to Vail Resorts’ Game Creek Club (gamecreekclub.com), which serves a great Sunday brunch all summer.

To 14er or not to 14er? Skip it, says Fuller: so many people want to tick one off their life list that summits are more crowded than Interstate 70. Instead, scale the 4,000m Mount Sopris, near the town of Carbondale – Aspen’s cooler, cheaper neighbour.

STAY Marble Distillery in Carbondale has a five-room inn; marbledistilling.com.

Or head to the Shrine Mountain Inn, off Vail Pass, for a slice of the backcountry; shrine mountaininn.info EAT Everyone in Carbondale loves Phat Thai; phatthai.com.

And for smoked trout and elk chops, visit the Pine Creek Cookhouse, a log cabin at the foot of the Elk Mountains; pine creekcookhouse.com DRINK Root and Flower in Vail has 50 wines by the glass; flowerandroot vail.com. Meanwhile, over in Silver Plume, Bread Bar is housed in an 1800s-era bakery; breadbarsp.com

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RON NIEBRUGGE/ALAMY, ROB GREEBON/ALAMY, INCAMERASTOCK/ALAMY, ALI VAGNINI, DUNTON HOTSPRINGS, SHUTTERSTOCK

THE ROCKIES IN

Colorado Rockies STAY On the main drag in Telluride is the New Sheridan Hotel, which was built in the late 1800s, but has rooftop hot tubs; newsheridan. com. For a splurge, try Dunton Hot Springs, a ghost town turned all-inclusive resort; duntonhotsprings.com Go paddleboarding on the Arkansas River…

EAT When she’s in Crested Butte, Fuller goes to Bonez for taco plates and tequila; bonez.com. Nearby, in the neighbourhood known as CB South, Tassinong Farms Food & Wine grows its own hydroponic produce in re-purposed shipping containers; tassinongfarms.com

…then soak up the luxury at Dunton Hot Springs

DRINK For pool tables and a mix of locals, tourists and celebs, try the New Sheridan Hotel (see above). The gritty Victoria Tavern in Salida has a floor covered in peanut shells, and cheap, generous measures; victoriatavern.com

THE ROCKIES IN Encompassing 1,075km2 of awe-inspiring terrain, Rocky Mountain National Park is a dream to explore

SWIM Iron Mountain Hot Springs in Glenwood Springs has 16 mineral pools; ironmountainhot springs.com. And Conundrum Hot Springs in the Maroon BellsSnowmass Wilderness is stunning.

The best way to get your hills-are-alive vibes is the 18km hike from Aspen to Crested Butte – think carpets of wild flowers and above-treeline views.

If you need to assuage your brain, don’t miss the contemporary artworks – and controversial wood-lattice architecture – at Aspen Art Museum (aspenartmuseum.org).

Licence to loaf: Bread Bar in Silver Plume is a former bakery

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A WEEK

Got more time to explore? Start driving.

A week is long enough to road-trip around Colorado’s most dramatic peaks and stop off in its most beautiful and vibrant mountain towns.

From Salida, you can SUP on the Arkansas River, where more than 50 operators send out rafting trips on 160 runnable kilometres of water. Guide Markhart loves billygoating to the bottom of the 820m-deep Black Canyon of the Gunnison (try Cruise Gully if you want rappels; SOB Gully for a steep hike).

Then it’s on to Crested Butte (skicb. com), a funky former mining town that, says Fuller, “has a genuine, end-of-theroad feel to it”. Mountain-bike the iconic singletrack 401 Trail and your knees will brush wild flowers for kilometres on end.

In the breathtaking box canyon of Telluride (telluride.com), clip into the Via Ferrata before descending into the Fly Me To The Moon Saloon (facebook.com/ flymetothemoonsaloon), where the likes of Phish and Sheryl Crow have played.

Much of the Million Dollar Highway between Ouray and Silverton is cut right into the sides of the mountain, and it ends in Durango, home to Ska Brewing (skabrewing. com) and its Happy Hour Yoga: 60 minutes of sun salutations and a beer for 10 bucks.

SWIM Jump, swim, rappel and downclimb waterfalls and drainages near Ouray with Canyoning Colorado; canyoningcolorado.com

Denver is the travel gateway for all the adventures listed here

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City guide

KING IN THE NORTH

By reviving its empty industrial spaces, the north London neighbourhood of Tottenham is well on its way to outstripping Hackney as the city’s premier hub for creatives and nightlife lovers. As ground-breaking clubs, DIY spaces and community projects continue to open in the area, our guide will help you get your cultural bearings Words FLORIAN OBKIRCHER

EAT & DRINK 1. Craving Coffee

After repurposing a former warehouse loading bay in 2014, Craving Coffee has become Tottenham’s coolest place to get your caffeine fix. In the evening the café turns into a bar (try the Smoked Boulivardier cocktail) and local street-food traders take over the kitchen. Unit 3, Gaunson House, Markfield Rd, N15 4QQ; cravingcoffee.co.uk

2. Blighty India Cafe

This India-themed café offers hotdesking and meeting space to local entrepreneurs, as well as hosting yoga classes, drawing workshops and mindfulness courses. The menu is inspired by recipes from the Commonwealth countries, such as the Bengali Breakfast Bombay Hash and The Full Aussie.

266 High Road, N15 4AJ; blightycafe.co.uk

3. The Bluecoats

This local staple (formerly The Pride of Tottenham), based in an 18th-century building, has had a makeover by the team behind Ruby’s in Dalston. With more than 20 beers and ciders served – many brewed locally – and burgers supplied by Lucky Chip, this is a fine place to start your night out. 614 High Rd, N17 9TB; thebluecoatspub.com

DO 4. STYX

STYX, which takes its name from the river bordering Earth and the Underworld in Greek mythology, puts on live gigs and immersive theatre shows. The artisan warehouse space has a pizza parlour and a large terrace with a man-made waterway, making it an ideal summer hangout. 5 Ashley Rd, N17 9LJ; styx.space

5. The Cause

Blighty’s second London café has opened in N15

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Housed in a converted garage, this 400-capacity club promotes hedonism with a conscience, raising money for mental-health charities through its monthly membership scheme. Inside, dancers gather around the cage-like DJ booth in the centre of the dancefloor.

Ashley House Depot, Ashley Rd, N17 9LZ; supportthecause.co.uk

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London Getting to grips with Stronghold‘s climbing wall

CREATE 8. Grow

Using the income generated by its nightclub (which has a 5am licence at weekends), Grow maintains a 930sq-m community garden next to the venue. It’s run as a social space for the local community, and volunteering sessions are held weekly. Ashley House, Ashley Rd, N17 9LZ; growtottenham.org

6. Stronghold

London’s largest indoor bouldering space may be known for its walls that reach up to 9m, but it doesn’t only cater to climbers. There’s a gym and a yoga studio in the spacious former warehouse, encouraging its customers to take a more holistic approach to exercise.

18 Ashley Rd, N17 9LJ; thestrongholduk.com

BLIGHTY INDIA CAFE, BEN GRUBB, SUNY, AL OVERDRIVE

TOM NOON

7. Five Miles

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This fabric warehouse-turnednightclub has hosted some of the world’s most exciting underground dance-music artists since it opened last year. Equipped with a £50,000 state-of-the-art sound system and a dancefloor on stilts – for acoustic reasons – the 300-capacity Five Miles also houses a restaurant, Torshi, which serves Middle Eastern cuisine. The club’s bar has a tap wall boasting 20 craft beers, including some from Hale Brewing, which is based in a shipping container right outside the venue.

39b Markfield Rd, N15 4QA; fivemiles.london

Five Miles offers some 20 craft beers via its tap wall

Can you dig it?

Grow is a garden and club combined

9. The Cove

This drive-in photography studio is home to one of London’s largest infinity coves (a curved, white backdrop space, 11.5m x 9.7m) and hosts some of Tottenham’s most exciting exhibitions and events. Check out AJ Tracey’s music video False 9, which was shot here last year. 50-58 Markfield Rd, N15 4QF; the-cove-studio.com

10. Ten87

Back in the day, bands would rent a studio for a few days to record their pre-written material. But today, a lot of musicians use the recording studio itself as a place to create.

Hence, Ten87 offers leases ranging from six months to three years for each of its 42 studios. Besides offering hi-tech equipment, Ten87 sees itself as a creative hotspot where artists can network and collaborate.

39a Markfield Rd, N15 4QA; ten87studios.com Find out more about Tottenham’s coolest spots, and those in your own town, with the Keys To Your City; redbull.co.uk/keystoyourcity

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Do it GET FIT LIKE A WORLD CHAMPION

“FLEXIBILITY IS KEY”

At 28, Miles Chamley-Watson is the oldest member of the US men’s foil fencing team, but the British-born medallist is determined to stay on the front foot. And he’s relying on tennis balls and salt baths to do it…

Miles Chamley-Watson

At 1.93m tall, with a torso covered in tattoos, ChamleyWatson stands out, especially among the uniformly whiteclad line-up on fencing’s 14m x 2m competition piste. In 2013, he became the first American man to win an individual world fencing championship, having deployed a move now dubbed ‘the Chamley-Watson’ – a round-the-back flick over his shoulder that inspired the sport’s first viral video.

The 28-year-old led the US men’s foil fencing team to five consecutive World Cup wins this season

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Chamley-Watson took individual gold at the 2013 World Championships and team bronze at the 2016 Olympics

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Fitness

M OVE M E NT

“Fencing is like a combination of chess and boxing” “You have to be quick in this sport, but you also need to be thinking about what your opponent will do next. I do boxing and a lot of explosive work like box jumps, and I try to combine that with hand-eye coordination exercises. Everything is very progressive. I do this one drill where I’m working on a sliding machine as my trainer throws two tennis balls at me and calls out which one to catch. Everything we do is catered to what will help me in fencing. Not surprisingly, my handeye [coordination] and reflexes have become a lot sharper.”

FLE XI B I LIT Y

THOMAS PRIOR (2), GETTY IMAGES (2), NIKE

ANDY LEWIS

“I’ve begun doing pilates to open up my hips and my range of motion” “Obviously, flexibility is one of the most important assets in fencing: we need to keep our hips and our glutes loose. In a lot of the Asian countries [Korea, Japan and China are all medal contenders], the top guys can do the splits and recover right away. I’ve only been able to do the splits one way. At my height, it’s a lot harder to get really flexible.

That’s something we’ve worked hard at improving, because it’s so important. When I take long flights, I make sure to get out of my seat and stretch, especially before any big meals.”

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N UTR ITI O N

“I eat six times a day – usually three times before 11am” “To start the day, I have eggs and I make these amazing smoothies with banana, peanut butter, tropical Red Bull, protein powder and coconut milk. Breakfast is fuel for the day – usually around 2,000 calories. For a snack, I have turkey jerky. I get lunch – chicken or some other protein with veggies – sent to the gym. Dinner is high in protein and low in fat, with complex carbs; I’ll do salmon or some other fish, avocado, and brown rice or quinoa.”

SPLURGE ON SUNDAYS Once a week, I eat whatever I want. Anything goes: pizza, gnocchi with cream sauce, a burger… I love Thai food.

And candy. It’s important — I need to give my body other fats besides avocado.

R EC OVE RY

“I really see the pay-off in my fencing if I take care of my body every day” “I‘m a professional now, so I have to really take care of my body.

I stretch every morning and then again every evening. I go to physical therapy every day between a morning workout at the gym and fencing practice in the afternoon. Sometimes I get cupping or acupuncture – it gets deep into the muscles and releases all the [tension]. I’ve been doing those therapies since the 2012 Olympics. I also take salt baths, a Russian sauna once a week, massages, or a float tank and cryotherapy. I use the NormaTec Recovery machine every day.”

RECOVER IN THE AIR “I’ve flown more than a million miles, so I try to be smart: I hydrate, take healthy foods and wear compression socks. And on long flights I sleep. We just came back from China, and I slept for 11 hours straight. The flight attendant thought I was dead.”

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See it

COMING LIVE AND DIRECT

This month on Red Bull TV, we’re going back to basics in the recording studio, landing tricks in the street, and kicking up dirt in wine country…

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.

18 August ON DEMAND

ANALOG IN VIENNA: ALBERT HAMMOND JR Recording an EP in old-school analogue fashion, direct to vinyl, is one of the greatest challenges that a contemporary musician can face in an age where digital technology leaves no artistic boundaries.

Strokes guitarist and solo star Albert Hammond Jr rose to the task at the Supersense studio in Austria this May, laying down tracks in one take – with no overdubs, editing or backing tracks – in front of some of his most devoted fans.

Watch this intimate set on Red Bull TV.

To find out more, visit redbull.tv

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Raw power: Albert Hammond Jr and his band lay it down live at Supersense

The Strokes man released his fourth solo album, Francis Trouble, in March

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MARC SCHWARZ/RED BULL CONTENT POOL (2), BERND BORCHARDT/RED BULL CONTENT POOL, JAANUS REE/RED BULL CONTENT POOL, BARTEK WOLINSKI/RED BULL CONTENT POOL, CHRISTELLE DE CASTRO

August / September

Hear hand-picked music and interviews with influential artists.

This month’s pick is…

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September ON

DEMAND

THE FLARE

See the stars of street skateboarding – from veterans such as Mike Carroll and Rick Howard to young guns like Cody Chapman and Yonnie Cruz – in action in this fulllength video from the makers of the iconic Fully Flared.

LIVE FROM BERLIN

17 25

to 19 August LIVE

FIA WRC GERMANY

Expect high-adrenalin thrills among the vineyards of the Mosel Valley at the Rallye Deutschland, the ninth stop in this year’s World Rally Championship. Can 2016 winner Sébastian Ogier edge it over 2017 champ Ott Tänak?

to 26 August LIVE

UCI MTB WC FRANCE

La Bresse in north-east France is the venue of the finale of the 2018 World Cup. The last time it hosted a Downhill WC race was in 2011, so the DH riders will be looking forward to getting back on its loose, grassy slopes.

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September ON AIR

For five weeks (until October 12) Red Bull Radio will be broadcasting live from the 20th anniversary edition of Red Bull Music Academy, in the place where it all began – Berlin.

Every day, live episodes of some of the station’s most popular shows, including Peak Time with Vivian Host, will shine a light on the most exciting stories and artists from the German capital’s vibrant music scene, as well as the Academy’s 61 participants from 37 countries around the globe.

LISTEN AT REDBULLRADIO.COM

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Do it

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August Tough Mudder 5K Edinburgh Too metropolitan for a muddy obstacle course? One of the toughest endurance events around is coming to town, touching down in Scotland’s capital for a scramble that will leave you clean enough to head back to the office afterwards.

Unless you stay for the craft beer, street food and music.

Holyrood Park, Edinburgh; toughmudder.co.uk

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August/September

August Secret Cinema’s Romeo + Juliet If you haven’t experienced this epic spectacular yet, you have until this date to get your romance on. A massive open-air recreation of director Baz Luhrmann’s Verona Beach spin on Shakespeare’s love story, this is Secret Cinema’s largest-ever production, featuring live bands, DJs, choirs, actors and, of course, 5,000 audience members every night.

Secret location, London; secretcinema.org

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August to 2 September Spin Cycling Festival When it comes to urban cycling, this show delivers all you need, short of an impressive beard.

This includes more than 150 of the best bike brands, bespoke frame builders, a test track, bike art installations and films, with DJs, great coffee, craft beer and food stalls.

Printworks, London; spinldn.com

to 9 September

FIA DRAG RACING EURO FINALS

The moment the second-ever car was built, motor racing was born. But it’s on the drag strip that the quest for speed became an art form, with outlandishly wild vehicles imagined for just one purpose: to beat their opponent from a standing start on a quarter-mile-long (402m) track.

There’s no bigger exhibition of this than the finals of the FIA European Drag Racing Championship, which feature jet cars, rocket bikes, monster trucks, and the ultimate accelerators of all: 482kph top fuel dragsters.

Santa Pod Raceway, Northants; santapod.co.uk

What to do with the last days of summer: hit one more music festival, or embark on a great outdoor adventure? Why not both? Camp Wildfire is a three-day music event and adventure camp hidden within a forest. By day, learn aerial circus skills and swordfighting; compete in archery battles, hovercraft races and a 10K bush survival run, or plunge down a 30m waterslide. By night, let loose to tunes from the likes of Norman Jay and Horse Meat Disco. All you need to prep for the apocalypse.

DAVE ‘DJ’ JONES

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August to 3 September Camp Wildfire

Sevenoaks, Kent; campwildfire.co.uk

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GLOBAL TEAM UNITED KINGDOM

THE RED BULLETIN WORLDWIDE

The Red Bulletin is published in seven countries. This is the cover of September’s US edition, featuring trap star Zaytoven For more stories beyond the ordinary, go to: redbulletin.com

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Editor-in-Chief Alexander Macheck Deputy Editors-in-Chief Waltraud Hable, Andreas Rottenschlager Creative Director Erik Turek Art Directors Kasimir Reimann (deputy CD), Miles English Head of Photo Fritz Schuster Deputy Head of Photo Marion Batty Photo Director Rudi Übelhör Production Editor Marion Lukas-Wildmann Managing Editor Ulrich Corazza Editors Christian Eberle-Abasolo, Arek Piatek, Stefan Wagner Design Marco Arcangeli, Marion BernertThomann, Martina de Carvalho-Hutter, Kevin Goll, Carita Najewitz Photo Editors Susie Forman, Ellen Haas, Eva Kerschbaum, Tahira Mirza Global Head of Media Sales Gerhard Riedler Head of Media Sales International Peter Strutz Head of Publishing Development and Product Management Stefan Ebner Country Management and Marketing Sara Varming (Ltg.), Magdalena Bonecker, Julia Gerber, Kristina Hummel, Melissa Stutz Head of Creative Markus Kietreiber Creative Solutions Eva Locker (manager), Verena Schörkhuber, Edith Zöchling-Marchart Commercial Design Peter Knehtl (manager), Sasha Bunch, Simone Fischer, Martina Maier Advertising Placement Andrea Tamás-Loprais Head of Production Veronika Felder Production Wolfgang Stecher (manager), Walter O. Sádaba, Friedrich Indich, Michael Menitz (digital) Repro Clemens Ragotzky (manager), Claudia Heis, Nenad Isailovi c,̀ Maximilian Kment, Josef Mühlbacher Office Management Yvonne Tremmel IT Systems Engineer Michael Thaler Subscriptions and Distribution Peter Schiffer (manager), Klaus Pleninger (distribution), Nicole Glaser (distribution), Yoldaş Yarar (subscriptions) Global Editorial Office Heinrich-Collin-Straße 1, A-1140 Vienna Phone +43 1 90221-28800, Fax +43 1 90221-28809 Web www.redbulletin.com Red Bull Media House GmbH Oberst-Lepperdinger-Straße 11–15, A-5071 Wals bei Salzburg, FN 297115i, Landesgericht Salzburg, ATU63611700 General Manager and Publisher Andreas Kornhofer Directors Dietrich Mateschitz, Gerrit Meier, Dietmar Otti, Christopher Reindl

THE RED BULLETIN United Kingdom, ISSN 2308-5894 Editor Ruth Morgan Associate Editor Tom Guise Music Editor Florian Obkircher Chief Sub-Editor Davydd Chong Sub-Editor Nick Mee Publishing Manager Ollie Stretton Advertising Sales Mark Bishop, mark.bishop@redbull.com Thomas Ryan, thomas.ryan@redbull.com Printed by Prinovis GmbH & Co KG, Printing Company Nuremberg, 90471 Nuremberg, Germany UK Office Seven Dials Warehouse, 42-56 Earlham Street, London WC2H 9LA Tel: +44 (0) 20 3117 2000 Subscribe getredbulletin.com Enquiries or orders to: subs@uk. redbulletin.com. Back issues available to purchase at: getredbulletin.com Basic subscription rate is £20.00 per year. International rates are available The Red Bulletin is published 10 times a year. Please allow a maximum of four weeks for delivery of the first issue Customer Service +44 (0)1227 277248, subs@uk.redbulletin.com

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THE RED BULLETIN USA, ISSN 2308-586X Editor-in-Chief Peter Flax Deputy Editor Nora O’Donnell Copy Chief David Caplan Director of Publishing Cheryl Angelheart Country Project Management Melissa Thompson Advertising Sales Todd Peters, todd.peters@redbull.com Dave Szych, dave.szych@redbull.com Tanya Foster, tanya.foster@redbull.com

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NICOLAS GANTZ / RED BULL CONTENT POOL

BEYOND THE ORDINARY

SUBSCRIBE NOW TO THE ACTIVE-LIFESTYLE-MAGAZINE Distributed free every second Tuesday of the month with the London Evening Standard.

Also available across the UK at airports, gyms, hotels, universities and selected retail stores.

Read more at theredbulletin.com

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Action highlight

Makes you fly

Red Bull Racing driver Daniel Ricciardo was ahead of the pack – as usual – following his win at the Monaco Grand Prix in May. Only this time it was the press pack, who were at the team’s base to witness his celebratory dive.

And the F1 champion soaked up the attention… before the pool soaked him.

The next issue of THE RED BULLETIN is out on September 11 98

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GETTY IMAGES/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

Pool position

The Arai Chaser-X Hutchy Replica Born, not made.

Extraordinary safety, performance and comfort – ideal for everyday riding.

Performance and precision, time after time. Our limited edition Chaser-X helmet is designed to celebrate the success of road racing and Isle of Man TT legend, Ian Hutchinson. With only 300 models made, the handcrafted helmet features much of the same cutting-edge technology that can be found on the RX-7V. With VAS (Variable Axis System) visor technology and improved glancing-off performance, you’re protected from whatever action comes your way – from a brand committed to relentlessly pursuing gains in protection.

Find your nearest Arai showroom at whyarai.co.uk Model shown: The Arai Chaser-X Hutchy Replica, £549.99

From

£549.99 RRP

> Choice of 7 models > Engineered to exceed European safety standards > Free annual service > 5-year guarantee

Everything you need this autumn, wherever you’d rather be.

The UK’s Number One Outdoor + Winter Sports Retailer

# U NI TE D BYATTI TU D E

Stores nationwide | snowandrock.com