The Red Bulletin October 2013 – ZA by Red Bull Media House

a beyond the ordinary magazine

october 2013 R30

glory Hunters

power boats on the high seas at 250kph

wild loud hot Elliphant

And The Reboot Of Pop

Greg Minnaar vs The World

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THE WORLD OF RED BULL

October 52 leap of faith

Shane McConkey died doing what he loved. This is the story of what happened next

Welcome

cover photography: miko lim. photography: alfredo martinez/red bull content pool, miko lim

You will never forget Elliphant. She is the woman on the cover of this issue, and quite possibly the next queen of world pop. This month we’re blessed with several stories of world’s best, such as the men who race and maintain the ‘F1 on water’ that is the World Powerboat Championship. It has the same high-octane competition as Formula One, but with less fanfare and, some would say, more risk. Back on dry land, we get up close and personal “I realised I with the world’s best mountain bikers as they wanted music gather in South Africa for their sport’s world to be my life, championship, and find that home advantage isn’t not just some always what it’s cracked up to be. Plus, we’ve got side project” ice driving in Finland, the secrets of success on the Elliphant golf course, the biggest failures in box office history, and much more. We hope you enjoy the issue. the red bulletin

THE WORLD OF RED BULL

October at a glance Bullevard 19 news Sport and culture on the quick 24 me and my body Danny MacAskill 26 kit evolution In-car technology 28 Where’s your head at? Star of Thor and Rush Chris Hemsworth 30 winning formula Surfing science 32 lucky numbers Box office flops

Features 34 Elliphant

smokin’ on the water

Behind the scenes of a world championship grand prix in one of motorsports’ greatest challenges: Class 1 offshore powerboat racing

The model-turned-MC leading the charge of new Swedish pop stars

Icelandic actor, director and adventurer Baltasar Kormákur

44 Glory Hunters

The best mountain bikers chase championship glory in Pietermaritzburg

52 On Screen

Shane McConkey’s life on film

62 The Hot Stepper

92 Me and My BOdy

Scottish street trials rider Danny MacAskill has learned the hard way that glory doesn’t come without pain

on location in auckland

Musician Nick Dwyer shares his tips on where you can find the best food and music in New Zealand’s City of Sails

The world’s top stair runner

64 Untechnical Techno The exciting sounds of Elektro Guzzi 66 The Boats That Rock Life on the edge at the World Powerboat Championship

74 Festival Fever

The rise of two Oppikoppi heroes

80 Sasha DiGiulian

Rising star of rock climbing

Action

80 a wheel test

The world’s best mountain bikers head to South Africa to fight for championship glory. One local hero refuses to budge 06

rare air

Hitting the highs with climbing champion Sasha DiGiulian as she scales a rock face next to Waterfall Boven in Mpumalanga

88 89 90 91 92 94 96 98

get the gear Eco-friendly equipment party Montenegro nightlife travel Ice driving in Finland training Get fit for golf My City A musician’s Auckland Playlist Jack Johnson save the Date Events for your diary time warp Man v flight, 130 years ago

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photography: simon palfrader, nathan gallagher/red bull content pool, getty images, sven martin, reinhard fichtinger

40 Man Of Action

IT STARTS WITH YOU

NEW

24h+ DEFENCE AGAINST DRY SKIN. MAXIMUM HYDRATION BODY LOTION & CREAM. With moisturising Hydra IQ, lasts all day long.

contributors Who’s on board this issue

The Red Bulletin South Africa, ISSN 2079-4282

The Red Bulletin is published by Red Bull Media House GmbH General Manager Wolfgang Winter Publisher Franz Renkin Editor-in-Chief Robert Sperl

Caroline Ryder

keith ladzinski One of the world’s elite adventure photographers – he won the Maggie Award in 2013 for best single editorial photograph for his shot of a harrowing ice climb in a gorge in Colorado, USA –Keith Ladzinski joined climber Sasha DiGiulian on an expedition in South Africa. Her goal? Knocking off several first ascents in the striking red-earth terrain, with Ladzinski there to capture the triumph. His snaps of DiGiulian conquering a stunning landscape begin on page 80.

The British writer’s work takes her deep into both fashion and music, with the resulting stories appearing in such in disparate places as The Village Voice and Cosmopolitan. This made her the perfect foil for Elliphant, the on-the-move Swedish model-turned-MC. “It’s impossible to ignore her when she’s in the room,” says Ryder of her subject. “Her star quality is underpinned by an unself-conscious, almost naive, sincerity, and she curses like a sailor.” Read the rest on page 34.

A UK expat who has been living in Dubai for the last 16 years, Ebdon has worked as deputy editor of the Middle East edition of Car magazine, and editor of a golf magazine, a boating and yachting title and two men’s magazines. For this month’s issue of The Red Bulletin, he uncovered the glamour and the grit of top-level powerboat racing (page 66). Ebdon is the father of a one-yearold girl who he and Mrs Ebdon, “a fellow petrolhead”, he says, “hope will be the first female Formula One world champion”.

Editor, South Africa Angus Powers

Editor Paul Wilson Creative Director Erik Turek Art Directors Kasimir Reimann, Miles English Chief Photo Editor Fritz Schuster Production Editor Marion Wildmann Chief Sub-Editor Nancy James Deputy Chief Sub-Editor Joe Curran Assistant Editors Ulrich Corazza, Werner Jessner, Ruth Morgan, Florian Obkircher, Arkadiusz Pia˛tek, Andreas Rottenschlager, Daniel Kudernatsch (app) Contributing Editor Stefan Wagner Design Martina de Carvalho-Hutter, Silvia Druml, Kevin Goll, Carita Najewitz, Esther Straganz Photo Editors Susie Forman (Creative Photo Editor), Ellen Haas, Eva Kerschbaum, Catherine Shaw, Rudi Übelhör Repro Managers Clemens Ragotzky (manager), Karsten Lehmann, Josef Mühlbacher Head of Production Michael Bergmeister Production Wolfgang Stecher (manager), Walter O Sádaba, Christian Graf-Simpson (app) Advertising Enquiries Andrew Gillett, +27 (0) 83 412 8008, andrew.gillett@za.redbull. com

tyrone bradley noel ebdon

Deputy Editor-in-Chief Alexander Macheck

It’s a good thing Oppikoppi only takes place once a year. The Durban-based photographer was left with a soaring temperature when he first shot electro acts gracing the Red Bull Studio stage there three years ago. “It’s really dry and dusty, and three hours into the middle of nowhere, so once you’re in, you’re in,” says Bradley. “But it’s really rewarding getting to document the South African music stars of tomorrow.” See his snaps from page 74.

“ It’s impossible to ignore Elliphant when she’s in the room and she curses like a sailor” caroline ryder

Printed by CTP Printers, Duminy Street, Parow-East, Cape Town 8000. Finance Siegmar Hofstetter, Simone Mihalits Marketing & Country Management Barbara Kaiser (manager), Stefan Ebner, Stefan Hötschl, Elisabeth Salcher, Lukas Scharmbacher, Sara Varming Distribution Klaus Pleninger, Peter Schiffer Marketing Design Julia Schweikhardt, Peter Knethl Advertising Placement Sabrina Schneider O∞ce Management Manuela Gesslbauer, Kristina Krizmanic, Anna Schober

The Red Bulletin is published in Austria, Brazil, France, Germany, Ireland, Kuwait, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa, Switzerland, UK and USA Website www.redbulletin.com Head office Red Bull Media House GmbH, Oberst-Lepperdinger-Strasse 11-15, A-5071 Wals bei Salzburg, FN 297115i, Landesgericht Salzburg, ATU63611700 South Africa office Black River Park North, 2 Fir Street, Observatory, 7925 8005 +27 (0) 21 486 8000 Austria office Heinrich-Collin-Strasse 1, A-1140 Vienna. +43 (1) 90221 28800 Write to us: letters@redbulletin.com

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Tuam otu s , Fren c h P o lyn e s ia

Vantage Point With apologies to Manu Bouvet and surfers everywhere, this might be one of those times when the photographer is more adventurous than the subject. “I took off in my motorised paraglider from an atoll in the middle of the Pacific,” says Ben Thouard. “I’d fly out, see a set of waves, then follow them in. Manu sees a set is coming because I’m getting closer to him.” The Frenchmen’s unspoken teamwork extends to stress management. “I didn’t tell him about the shark under his board or my broken engine.” www.benthouard.com Photography: Red Bull Illume/Ben Thouard

An n ec y, Fr an c e

Out On A Limb Low tech high up was how Pierre Augier and Tim Alongi got the shot. “I used a football shin pad to attach my camera to Tim’s leg,” says Augier, a French lensman. Alongi is an aerobatic paraglider who finished third in his sport’s 2011 world cup and is currently among the best in the world. Augier’s portfolio is thick with action sports imagery, but he is also available for weddings. If you and your intended are the sort to say ‘I do’ before your chutes open/the bungee cord tightens, then he’s your man. www.pierreaugier.com Photography: Red Bull Illume/Pierre Augier

B o u ld e r , U SA

Dirt Dished “Sometimes,” says Dave Trumpore, “the only way to capture the fine details of the action is to literally stick your face and camera right up in it.” There’s mud in your eye. Until recently, the American would have been on the bike and not behind it. His decision to pick up a camera after retiring from pro mountain biking means he sees the angles that other photographers could not compute. Shooting Joey Schusler on home turf in Colorado was, flying rocks aside, a perfect assignment. www.davetrumporephoto.com Photography: Red Bull Illume/Dave Trumpore

c ali fo r n ia , U SA

pipe dream Think ‘log flume photo’ and you’ll see drenched theme-park goers pulling faces at a camera before splashdown. Then there’s this. Every 10 years, they drain the channel that carries felled trees down the mountains at Tehachapi. Geoff Rowley learned when it would next be empty, and called Anthony Acosta: “We’re going.” Four hours’ drive north of Los Angeles, at 4am, they had the place to themselves. Rowley worked the angles with his skateboard, Acosta did the same with his camera. A once-a-decade shot. www.instagram.com/aacostaa Photo: Red Bull Illume/Anthony Acosta

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HAT ADVENTURE T DARIES BREAKS BOUN

yo u r . t n e m o m OR D BEYOND THE

INARY

your moment. beyond the ordinary

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Bullevard Sport and culture on the quick

Singular sounds Daft Punk’s helmets give them a signature look, but it’s not unique (Deadmau5, etc). It’s safe to say that the below bands are true one-offs

Roll and Rock Ezequiel Galasso gives broken skateboards a new lease of life as electric guitars

The Zimmers Fifteen members aged 67 to 89 make these venerable vocalists the world’s oldest band. They’ve covered LMFAO and Beastie Boys.

bilder: rex features, picturedesk.com, mr. gif, yael gottlieb, skate guitar, erwin polanc/red bull content pool, jay nemeth/red bull content pool

The Vegetable Orchestra Tubers, not tubas: this 12-piece outfit makes new instruments for every concert, after which they cook up a delicious veggie soup.

Every passionate skater knows the deal: it’s easy to smash five decks a year. In 2011, Argentinian instrument maker Ezequiel Galasso was approached by pro skater Gianfranco de Gennaro with a stack of splintered planks and a bright idea: add a fretboard to a messed board and make a guitar. Galasso can make an entire sixstring from two decks. Turns out, a skateboard is the perfect length and shape for a guitar neck. Ever since Mike McCready of Pearl Jam played one of Galasso’s creations at a live concert, demand for his instrument has been extremely high. But he hasn’t gone over to automated production: quality is important to him. If you want one of his $1,000 guitars, you’ll have to contact him personally.

Skate work: two decks make one guitar

www.facebook.com/galassoguitars Anamanaguchi Three New Yorkers who make pop punk rock using sounds from a Nintendo Game Boy and its big brother NES console.

Caninus Hard drums, distorted guitars... and two bulldogs on the mic. Sadly, Basil had to be put down in 2011 and the band ceased to exist.

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phototicker

EVERY shot ON TARGET

Have you taken a picture with a Red Bull flavour? Email it to us at: phototicker@redbulletin.com Every month we print a selection, with our favourite pic awarded a limited-edition Sigg bottle. Tough, functional and well-suited to sport, it features The Red Bulletin logo.

Whistler

Martin Söderström hits the heights on a BMX in Canada at Red Bull Joyride. Dale Tidy

The three best-selling books in the history of literature

The little studio that could: the most unlikely, and one of the most crowded corners of music history

a tale of two cities Charles Dickens’ masterpiece, released in 1859. Copies published: 200 million.

Cradle of hits Muscle Shoals is a one-horse town surrounded by cornfields in the middle of nowhere in Alabama. But, as a new documentary shows, music history was forged in this sleepy little backwater back in the 1970s. The Rolling Stones, Aretha Franklin, Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, Wilson Pickett: they all went there to record hits. Keith Richards, one of the many legends who make an appearance in Muscle Shoals, goes so far as to describe it as rock ’n’ roll heaven. Chief among its attractions was a group of four young local musicians who earned a reputation as the hottest rhythm section in the world. In the film, the four men, now of pensionable age, explain how it happened. Fellow veterans, like Richards, Mick Jagger and Jimmy Cliff pay tribute, as do a slew of younger musicians from Bono to The Black Keys. Regardless of age, they all love the Muscle Shoals sound. Muscle Shoals is out now; www.muscleshoalsmovie.com

the lord of the rings The one with moredeveloped Hobbits. Since three vols of 1954-5: 150m copies.

The Little prince Over 140m copies sold of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s 1943 fable. Frankfurt Book Fair: Oct 9-13

“IT HAD TO HAPPEN”

A year after Felix Baumgartner’s historic leap, a new film tells the inside story of Red Bull Stratos the red bulletin: How has life changed for you since? Felix Baumgartner: My private life has definitely suffered. I don’t find it as easy now to go to for a drink with friends. But I’ve built up a network of interesting people to hang around with. On the personal level, I’m the same guy I always was. Mission To The Edge Of Space: The Inside Story Of Red Bull Stratos tells a tale of great pressure... ...and of the great relief afterwards. The strain while we were preparing and during the actual jump was at the limits of what a human being can take. But I never doubted myself. I wanted to go to the stratosphere and come back safely. It had to happen.

What do you think now when you look back at the footage? Sometimes it freaks me out. I think to myself: how did you manage to deal with all the ups and downs! And also that I’ll never embark on a project of that magnitude ever again. But actually, if something came along which fascinated me as much as Red Bull Stratos did, then, well, I’d have to do it again. What would you like those who see the documentary to take away from it? That you can make whatever you have in your head come true – if you give your everything for it to happen. The documentary will be available onlne from October 14 at: rdio.com/redbullstratos

October 14, 2012: on his way into history

WE HAVE A WINNER!

Yamaguchi Unseasonal Japanese weather made Red Bull Kart Fight wet work. Jason Halayko 20

Seignosse Brianna Cope of the US prepares her board for the Swatch Girls Pro in the south of France. Laurent Masurel

Linz

At Austria’s Gugl Games, cyclist Tom Oehler v Olympic 400m hurdles champ Felix Sanchez: Tom won. Enrique Castro Mendivil the red bulletin

bilder: rex features, picturedesk.com, mr. gif, yael gottlieb, skate guitar, erwin polanc/red bull content pool, jay nemeth/red bull content pool

$torie$

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Peak of pain The Red Bull Pyramid Challenge in the eastern Free State allowed runners to pick their own line to the top, but an altitude gain of 850m in the 3km out-and-back sprint was not for the faint-hearted. “My strategy was to go balls to the wall,” said Matthew Kretzmann, who won in 21m 17s. “If you hit the top and you feel like you’re about to pass out, you’ve done it exactly right because you regain strength as soon as you start going downhill. On the way down, you go as fast as you can without killing yourself.” www.4peaks.co.za

LA bound: Moses Adams (centre)

Moses heads to skate Mecca After sewing up the inaugural Red Bull Unlocked title at Durban’s Moses Mabhida Stadium, top street skater Moses Adams will spend a month in Los Angeles skating the famous Berrics park. It’ll be a big change-up from the cracked concrete on the family plot out in Atlantis, north of Cape Town, where Adams practises those trademark nollie heels, tail slides and big spins. “I want to show them what I have and to show that there is talent out here,” he says. “I want to put South Africa on the map.” www.theberrics.com

Bergen

Daredevil go-karters hurtle through the Norwegian mountains at Red Bull Soapbox Race. Vegard Breie

Silverstone

Sound concept: Red Bull Silent Disco

THE PARTY’S IN YOUR HEAD

Red Bull Silent Disco breaks new ground in clubbing No noise complaints and no trouble from the cops, but plenty of party. That was the slightly surreal scene at Nu’Bar in Stellenbosch when South Africa’s first silent disco went down in August. “As a DJ, you listen to the speakers for feedback as soon as you drop a tune,” said DJ Degan, the winner of Red Bull Campus Clash who was doing the honours on the decks. “But when you drop something at a silent party, you don’t hear anything – you just see people going crazy! And instead of the whole crowd jumping, you see how individual groups like a specific song or tune.” Drawing on an overseas tradition of silent disco, when they entered Nu’Bar everyone was issued with a pair of high-quality wireless headphones tuned to the signal being transmitted from the DJ decks. The result was a heaving but completely silent dancefloor (except for when the crowd couldn’t stop themselves from singing along) and the chance to have a conversation at normal volume instead of shouting into someone’s ear. When the local police captain stopped by to check out the suspiciously quiet activity, the clubbers handed him a Red Bull and popped a headset over his SAPS cap. He walked out shaking his head a minute or two later. When the party was over, everyone handed their headphones back, but not without begging for more. Expect the next Red Bull Silent Disco to take place in Stellenbosch in October, this time with two DJs simultaneously playing two completely different sets. All you’ll have to do is flip between Channel 1 and Channel 2 on your headphones, which will glow blue and green respectively, and rock on. www.redbull.co.za

Spanish KTM rider Jorge Martin saddles up at the start of the Red Bull Rookies Cup. Gold & Goose

Haarlemmermeer The Red Bull Studio Connect stage at Mysteryland festival in Holland. Arenda De Hoop the red bulletin

Words: Angus Powers. Photography: craig kolesky/red bull content pool, kevin sawyer/red bull content pool (2), red bull content pool

Uphill struggle: Matthew Kretzmann

JHB 43306 As seen on DStv/SuperSport

1500 live games Over 12 league and cup competitions Expert commentary and analysis

This is where

Full HD coverage Only on SuperSport

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Touch a nerve

me and my body

danny macaskill

The Scottish street trials rider, 27, has wowed millions online with his incredible biking abilities, but has learned the hard way that glory doesn’t come without pain. And a lot of outtakes

1 Armed and

“I tore a disc in my back filming a 12ft jump in 2009, but I didn’t realise immediately. I got bad pain in my back and my left knee too, as it was pressing on the nerve. After an operation to repair it in 2012, it took 10 months to heal.”

Pop your collar

“Three times in six months I broke my left collarbone. First by falling on a pump track, then tripping up a kerb – I had a metal plate screwed to my clavicle that time. The third was on a downhill mountain bike in California. It was raining hard and I lost it, went over the bars and down a 10ft drop.”

dangerous

2 Heel hell

“I’ve broken my right foot twice, my left foot three times and torn ankle ligaments. It happens when you jump down off something backwards and land on an uneven surface. It doesn’t feel as bad as bruising your heels with an impact, though: that’s excruciating.”

Fowl play

“This is an odd one: I was filming in rural Vancouver in 2011 and less than 30 minutes in I crashed off my trials bike. As I landed, my left foot trod in goose shit, slipped and twisted, tearing my meniscus. I needed keyhole surgery to fix it.”

redbull.com/imaginate

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words: ruth morgan. photography: chris parsons

“A couple of years ago, riding a kids’ BMX in a dirt jump competition, I fell and now there’s a pin in my right wrist. Then I crashed my mountain bike and got stones lodged in my forearm muscle. I needed an op and a lot of stitches.”

illustration: dietmar kainrath

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Kit Evolution

Drive Time

How a wheel and a dash became a multifunction infotainment nerve centre

Holding Pattern

What better conjures a vintage sports car dashboard than a trim steering wheel with thin spokes? Beautiful to look at, a workout for the biceps and no thought whatsoever to safety in the event of a collision.

Tune In

Hot stuff

Everyone smoked back then, everywhere, all the time. The cigarette lighter assumes a suitably prominent position, conspicuously labelled CL.

1969

Mazda 110 Cosmo Sport

This avant-garde, two-seater coupĂŠ was the dream sports car of its time, officially sold only in Japan, hence the right-hand-side steering wheel. There was something special in the futuristic lines of this car with its Wankel engine, a status reflected in the interior: round panel instruments and wooden steering wheels were reserved for rare and expensive vehicles. This was the peak of automotive luxury as the 1970s loomed.

A radio didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t come as standard at the time. Even when you shelled out for in-car entertainment, such as the Sharp model built in here, you would not get stereo sound.

Mazda 110 S Cosmo Sport (1967-1972): the first production car with a two-rotor Wankel rotary engine; it managed 110hp

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Special Project The head-up display is projected on a clear panel. Readouts appear to be 1.5m away from the driver. That allows the eye to focus more quickly as it switches between street and data.

Hi-Tech Five

A dial to command the infotainment system, surrounded by five buttons â&#x20AC;&#x201C; one per finger. This means the driver can control applications without looking away from the road.

Easy Does It

photos : kurt keinrath, kurt printer (1)

The steering wheel is a multifunction console. It lets you operate a mobile phone via Bluetooth, and radar cruise control, too, which maintains a constant distance from the car in front.

2013

Net Result

Plug in a smartphone and bring the Internet into your car.

Mazda3

Todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s automotive designers and strategists face a challenge: how to relay a wealth of information to the driver without diverting attention from the road? Mazda3 manages this balancing act with a 7in screen, well-positioned instruments and projected head-up display. The interior also has to meet the highest standards for comfort, safety and ergonomics.

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The new Mazda3 features Skyactiv technology, conserving fuel while increasing driving pleasure www.mazda.com

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Where’s Your Head At?

Chris hemsworth It’s hammer time again as the mighty Thor returns to cinemas this month. But what about that blond lad who plays him? What else has he got going on?

Change Gear

A Hem!

Out now is Rush, with Hemsworth as James Hunt, duelling with Niki Lauda for the 1976 F1 title. Its director, Ron Howard, says it will drive (yes!) new opportunity for the Hemster: “For Chris… a tremendous breakthrough. People in Hollywood have seen him in the movie and offered him dramatic roles.”

Christopher Thomas Hemsworth was born in Melbourne, Australia, on August 11, 1983. His family moved between city, the outback – among, he says, “crocodiles and buffalo” – and Phillip Island, where he, older brother Luke and younger brother Liam, also now actors, perfected their surfing.

Soap Up

Los Hemsworth hermanos have all appeared in Aussie TV soap Neighbours. Chris also did three-and-a-half years on rival venture Home and Away, playing Kim Hyde. Poor Kim: jilted at the altar; Pa may have offed Ma; stalker-killer girlfriend died in a gas explosion caused by candles on a wedding cake.

See Also

With films in the can, Hemsworth only has a dozen film credits; three as Thor, including box office smash The Avengers, and two as George Kirk, Captain’s dad, in the new Star Trek movies. Of the rest, thriller A Perfect Getaway is not a perfect movie, but it’s well worth seeking out.

Oh God

“I’ll find a way to save us all,” says Thor, aka Hemsworth, all cape, chainmail and flowing locks in Thor 2: The Dark World, released worldwide from October 30. With a chin like his, you believe he can take anything on it. Thor point: brother Liam also auditioned for the part (they’re still pals).

Michael Mann (Heat, Ali, Collateral) has just finished filming Cyber, a hacking thriller with Hemsworth in the lead. After that, our man has Avengers 2, due in 2015, and, we imagine, quality time with wife Elsa Pataky, who plays Elena in the Fast & Furious movies, and oneyear-old daughter India Rose.

www.marvel.com/thor the red bulletin

Words: Paul Wilson. Illustration: Ryan Inzana

Hack To The Future

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HArd & FAST

Top performers and winning ways from around the globe

Better than OK: DJ OkZharp in action at Red Bull Studio Cape Town

Sharp sharp!

German F1 driver Sebastian Vettel returned from his summer holiday to win both the Belgian and Italian Grands Prix.

Words: Angus Powers. Photography: tyrone bradley/red bull music academy, Reuters, Ray Archer/Red Bull Content pool, McKlien/Red Bull Content Pool, Picturedesk.com

London-based DJ and producer OkZharp thrives on straddling continents and genres OkZharp’s journey has been a circular one. Born in Cape Town but raised in England, he dabbled in punk, jazz and dub before forming one-third of dubstep group LV in 2000. LV went on to release two albums on the Hyperdub label, but it was a trip back to Cape Town in 2009 that reset OkZharp’s musical compass. “I heard so much amazing music that it was overwhelming,” he says. “I was pretty obsessed with the gqom sound coming out of Durban, and although there’s a really vibrant scene where I live in south-east London, it was inspiring to step out of that. Being slightly out of your comfort zone makes for the coolest stuff, whether it’s making or performing music, or even DJ-ing.” OkZharp now commutes regularly between the UK and South Africa, and has the references and collaborations of the well-travelled. His influences veer between London pirate radio rhythms, world soundsystem cultures and futuristic soul music hybrids, and his work with artists like Spoek Mathambo, OkmalumKoolkat, Zaki Ibrahim, Ruffest and Das Kapital has made him a repeat guest at Red Bull Music Studio Cape Town. Like fellow London DJ Sef Kombo, OkZharp trades strongly on incorporating reworked South African sounds into his music, but he doesn’t come empty-handed when he returns to Africa. His set at Oppikoppi’s Red Bull Studio Live stage turned heads, and a couple of forthcoming releases by SA acts Big Space, Dirty Paraffin and JBS on his new label OKZ should do the same. His impression of Mzansi this time around? “I went to Joburg for the first time and spent two weeks there. It’s like this crazy thing you plug into. People aren’t waiting around. They’ve got creative aspirations and they want to do good stuff. And they’re not just doing it – they want to make it great. That’s inspiring.”

Victory in the MX1GP of Great Britain gave Italian Tony Cairoli his fifth Motocross World Championship in a row.

Daniel Sordo of Spain secured his first win in the World Rally Championship – after 10 years of trying – by a margin of 53 seconds in the Rally of Germany.

A dream run in the Mountain Bike World Championships in South Africa gave the UK’s Rachel Atherton her second downhill gold.

www.okzharp.com the red bulletin

Bullevard

winning formula

The Big Issue

break points “Wave particles usually oscillate in either the direction of propagation, like air particles in sound waves, or transversely, like a plucked string,” says physics brain and sports scientist Dr Martin Apolin. “But waves of water oscillate circularly, which you can see very well if you watch a floating cork (fig. 1). The particles underwater also move circularly, but with a decreasing radius as the depth increases. “Due to this circular movement, deep-water waves are always cycloid in form – think of what happens if you place a dot on a rotating wheel and observe it move (fig. 2). Point a in the diagram shows the dot at half radius; point b on the edge of the wheel. Waves of water have precisely the same form as shown in fig. 2, but in reverse. “Thus we can extrapolate the maximum ratio of h, wave height, to λ, wave length. The length of the wave is equivalent to the circumference of the wheel, ie the rolling distance of one revolution, such that U = λ = 2r π, and the maximum height is h = 2r. Therefore λ = 2r π = h π. For a wave to reach 8m in height, as in the picture, it has to be at least 8πm long, which is about 25m. “To calculate speed in deep water, use vdepth = √ gλ/(2 π) where g is gravitational acceleration (9.81m/s²). So a wave of 25m in length is coming in at 6.25m/s, or about 23kph. The surfer needs to already be travelling at pretty much the same speed if he doesn’t want the wave to roll by him, which is why big-wave surfers often use jetskis to bring themselves up to speed. “Water closer to shore is shallower, and particle movement becomes elliptical (see picture). The speed of shallow water waves is vshallow = √ gd , where d is the depth of the water. As the water gets shallower, the lower particles are constantly slowed down, while the upper particles move on unhindered. The wave breaks on the beach because of this inertia. If you fall, you run the risk of being dragged under the wave by the movement of the water. This means that big-wave surfers need one thing more than anything else: perfect timing.” Point break What does a big wave feel like? “It’s like jumping out of a plane,” says Australian boardsman Ross Clarke-Jones. “The acceleration, the centrifugal forces. You think it’s going to strip the fibreglass off your surfboard.” The big-wave conquerors: www.stormsurfers.com.au

Words: Martin Apolin. photography: storm surfers 3d/red bull content pool. Illustration: Mandy Fischer

How do giant waves form? And what’s it like to surf them? Men who know speak out

Brave: big-wave veteran Ross ClarkeJones at Ship Stern Bluff off the coast of Tasmania

Bullevard

lucky numbers

box office flops

Or, if you will, Unlucky Numbers: movies that wrote cheques their audiences could not cash

2,000

Length of shoot: 18 days. Production costs: $2 million. Box office takings: $30. The independent US thriller Zyzzyx Road, starring Katherine Heigl of Knocked Up and Grey’s Anatomy, drew precisely six cinemagoers to the Highland Park Village Theater in Dallas in February 2006. Union rules led to a release; hiring the theatre cost $1,000.

Crystals and...

Katherine Heigl’s road to hell

120,000 Matthew McConaughey in Sahara

...Tars Tarkas from John Carter

With 1,800 costumes, including a wedding dress studded with 120,000 Swarovski crystals, and over 2,000 visual effects, sci-fi epic John Carter (2012) cost $250 million to make: the fourth most expensive cinema production ever. A worldwide box office take of $282m seems good, but with at least $100m spent on promotion, the Red Planet movie is still in the red.

20.4

In 2011, animated sci-fi movie Mars Needs Moms gave Disney the greatest financial headache in its history. On its opening weekend, it pulled in just $7 million, against the $150m it cost to make (it eventually scraped $39m worldwide). A large part of the cost was the six-week motion-capture process lead actor Seth Green had to endure.

For the 2005 adventure Sahara – a film that would go on to lose $78 million or $105m, depending on which side of a subsequent court case you favour – 10 writers were used, at a cost of almost $4m. About $240,000 was needed to placate local officials on location shoots in Morocco. A 46-second sequence of a plane crash, costing $2m, was cut from the final film.

Millions up in smoke: Cutthroat Island

Crash landing: Mars Needs Moms

On the morning of March 6, 1836, 200 Texans fought in vain against 1,800 Mexicans at the Alamo Mission, in a battle lasting six hours. To recreate it on film for The Alamo (2004), took over a month of filming on the biggest set in US cinematic history: some 20.4 hectares, about 30 soccer pitches. The $107 million movie brought in $26m at the worldwide box office. the red bulletin

words: ulrich corazza. photography: corbis (3), picturedesk.com (3), getty images

Flown in for the shoot, in Malta and Thailand, of Cutthroat Island (1995): horses from Austria, carpenters from England, stuntmen from Poland. Also on the bill: 2,000 costumes, 309 firearms, 620 swords, 250 daggers and 100 axes. Oh, and over $1 million for two full-size replica pirate ships. Final budget: $98m. Recouped at the US cinemas: $10m.

Dennis Quaid in The Alamo

FRIDAY

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FESTIVAL WARMUP WINNER SADHU SENSI ROBIN WOULD JULZ SANCHEZ SIR VINCENT TRANCEMICSOUL THIBO TAZZ HEADPHASE THE KIFFNESS JACK PAROW READY D SIBOT NISKERONE DAS KAPITAL TERRENCE PEARCE

KAT LA KAT BHASHKAR CHRISTIAN TIGER SCHOOL STONE AGE CITIZENS GATEWAY DRUGS THA CUTT REASON AUDIOPHILE 021 FEAT. YOUNGSTA SHAKERS & MOVERS CULOE DE SONG CRAZY WHITE BOY CHRIS JACK MONIQUE PASCALL BOYS NOIZE B-TYPE THE FOGSHOW

THIS STAGE IS RECORDED FOR RED BULL MUSIC ACADEMY RADIO. TUNE IN AT RBMARADIO.COM

WWW.REDBULLSTUDIOS.COM/CAPETOWN

This isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t your mommaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ABBA. Meet Ellinor Olovsdotter, aka Elliphant, the model-turnedMC leading the charge of new Swedish pop stars Words: Caroline Ryder Photography: Miko Lim Styling: Holly Copeland

W E N GIRL 34

â&#x20AC;&#x153; sweden was so rude to me. when I left sweden is when I became a human beingâ&#x20AC;?

the red bulletin

llinor Olovsdotter has the flu. The rising star known as Elliphant often gets sick when she visits LA, she explains, raspy-voiced and half naked, completely unself-conscious about her body. The globe-trotting former model from the wrong side of the tracks is part of a Nordic new wave of fierce dance-pop divas, alongside fellow Swedes Icona Pop, Robyn, Lykke Li and MĂ&#x2DC; who are pushing the pop envelope. 37

Her music is inspired by jamaicaN Dancehall, dirty dubstep, â&#x20AC;&#x2122;90s rock and techno

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In interview, Ellinor Olovsdotter is subdued. It’s on stage, in music videos and during a photoshoot for The Red Bulletin that she really comes to life as Elliphant, a wild, whirling, joyous performer who infatuates the camera with her exuberance. It’s this sense of self that informs her music. Inspired by Jamaican dancehall, dirty dubstep, ’90s rock and techno, her sound has drawn comparisons to M.I.A. and Santigold. She’s also been compared to Rihanna, a likeness with which Elliphant isn’t entirely comfortable. “I’m a bit surprised by that because I would never have thought that people would think that we were alike,” she told Anthem magazine this year. “What I do is more experiential. It might be because of the way I use the words so it sounds like I have a Jamaican Patois dialect.” With her ethereal, Jane Birkin-esque beauty and expletive-tinged honesty, Elliphant brings more to the table than your average pop princess. For starters, she’s lived a real life, growing up in the gritty Stockholm suburb of Katarina-Sofia, her mother a single parent with two kids by two different men, her father with four children from three different women. “My mom was a junkie,” she says. “She had a lot of problems. Sweden was so rude to my mom. So rude to me. The Swedish system killed me. When I left Sweden for the first time, that’s when I turned into a human being. If I had never left and travelled places, this person, Elliphant, would never exist. I would have been angry. I would probably have two babies and be on drugs right now.’’ Despite the hardships she suffered growing up, Elliphant says music was always a big thing in her family.

“My mom loved music and she was into the whole ’90s thing,” she says. “I was pumped with music; we would stand there waiting for her for hours while she was going through albums in record stores. She bought maybe 10 CDs a week when I was a kid. Everything from David Bowie to the B-52s, to early techno to Frank Sinatra. Everything.” Olovsdotter suffered from attention deficit disorder and dyslexia as a child. She struggled at school and couldn’t envisage a happy future for herself until her grandmother took her to India at the age of 15. The country struck a chord with her, she dropped out of school aged 16 to return there on her own, losing herself just to find herself in the colourful, cacophonous streets. She travelled to India regularly in her mid-20s, returning to Stockholm in between trips, where she dabbled in making music and funded her travels with kitchen work. She explored the urban music scenes of Berlin, London and Paris, where she met a Swedish producer who believed in her abilities. “I met Tim Deneve in 2011, just before going to England,” she says. “He is half of the crew Jungle. When I met him in Paris we were really wasted and he put on

“I had all these ideas about music, but I never knew how they would turn out. certainly not like this”

some music and said he wanted to try to maybe write music for other artists, with his producing partner Ted Krotkiewski. Then I went to London and I missed my flight home to Stockholm because of one of the volcanos erupting in Iceland.” A natural disaster turned into an extraordinary partnership, and with Deneve and Krotkiewski’s encouragement, Olovsdotter morphed into Elliphant, writing lyrics and melodies while her producers took care of the beats. “The real history of me and music started the first time I went to India and got into the jam sessions,” she says. “I felt the music and I really wanted to be a part of it somehow. I was into recording sounds. I wanted to create the biggest sound bank in the world. I had all these ideas about music, but I never knew how they would turn out. Certainly not like this.” With “this” she is referring to the break that burgeoning musicians dream of. The right person becomes your ally, the right producer sees your spark. After creating some buzz in Stockholm, Elliphant teamed up with TEN, the Swedish music management company behind Icona Pop and Niki & The Dove. In 2012, Elliphant was unleashed on the world. Track after track of dubstepinspired dancehall, such as Ciant Hear It, Tekkno Scene and breakout hit Down On Life, the video of which was lauded by Katy Perry, who tweeted: “One of the most bad ass music videos I’ve seen in a long time!” After Perry came interest from Dr Luke, the American producer who has masterminded one chart-topping song after another, and has an eye for female pop virtuosos like Perry, Ke$ha, Kelly Clarkson, Britney Spears and Rihanna. Dr Luke signed Elliphant to Kemosabe Records, his imprint at Sony. “I was surprised by his interest in me,” says Elliphant. “He reached out to me. I don’t really know how it happened. I didn’t reach out to him. I think maybe it was because of Icona Pop becoming such a huge thing, suddenly all these big wolves in the industry were hunting for what else they have in Sweden.” If all goes well, Elliphant has a shot at becoming one of Sweden’s biggest exports. But for now, she’s just happy to have a goal in life. “It takes so much effort and so much time to make music, you have got to get something back and get economics to work,” she says. “I realised I wanted it to be my life, not just some side project. Then I did Down On Life and I realised, ‘Let’s do this. Let’s be a performer.’” twitter.com/elliphantmusic

man of

action Film director. Adventurer. Rarely are they one and the same. But on the eve of his second major Hollywood feature, Iceland’s Baltasar KormÁkur muses on the lengths he goes to get the shot and on the metaphorical and literal Everest that’s coming up next Words: Andreas Tzortzis Photography: Hordur Sveinsson

The day Baltasar Kormákur almost died – well, there have been several of them, but we’ll focus on this one – he was working without a stunt double in the cold Atlantic off of the Icelandic coast. Now, it should be pointed out that Kormákur is a director, not an actor. He was shooting the sinking of an Icelandic fishing trawler, one of the pivotal scenes in his 2012 film The Deep, about the lone survivor of that traumatic wreck in 1984. As the front of the boat pitched forward, he opened the door to the downstairs dining area as the cameras rolled and was pushed toward the door frame by an immense rush of water. “I am swimming, holding on for dear life, trying to push myself away from the door. If not, it would have sucked me into the water rushing down the boat,” he says. “It was a moment where you stop yourself and say, “I’m dead if I don’t get out of here.’ ” He’s telling this story in the demiparadise that is the Californian sun40

bleached terrace of the Chateau Marmont’s garden restaurant. Kormákur sits relaxed on a couch, his plaid buttonup showing zero sweat patches. His dusky looks are atypical of the pale complexions of his home country of Iceland, and the alligator boots he’s got on only heighten the impression of, well, a pirate. A sportsman with passions for sailing and the outdoors, he is less calculated than instinctive in his pursuit of moviebusiness success, with a swashbuckler’s zest for the spontaneous and authentic. Which is why his films vary – from the slacker dark comedy debut 101 Reykjavík in 2000 to the intricate thriller Jar City, the box-office-topping Contraband, and the moody soul-searching of The Deep. His second major Hollywood feature, 2 Guns, with Mark Wahlberg and Denzel Washington, is out now. But perhaps his biggest project will be the making of Everest, a chronicle of

the tragic events of May 1996, when eight people died in a blizzard while trying to reach the top of Mount Everest. He plans, of course, to shoot on the mountain, as close as he can get to the summit. the red bulletin: What is it about extreme situations that attracts you? baltasar kormákur: In some way, being a part of it and experiencing it is the way to tell others. If you tell people stories like you experienced it yourself, you are more likely to tell the better story. So what do you plan to do with Everest? I kind of want to tell the story of the Everest inside of every person. I think everyone has that inside them, an event to grasp or something to do, even in risking everything at the same time. I think that is my journey, as well as everyone else’s journey in a different context. For example, I am away from family and home here. What am I doing? Why am I not home with my family? What is this urge or this need to conquer something? I think Everest is a very simple version of this. I think that is why people are so attracted to it. My Everest is this [film]. It goes back to what I was telling you earlier about physicality. You put yourself in the most extreme conditions. And I think in some way you are overcoming a lot of things by doing that. Why do I put myself in danger in the film? Because I need it. I need to feel alive. I need to feel like I did something that day. You’ve been very careful in your approach to Hollywood. 2 Guns will be only your second major feature here. Is this part of a plan? It was a fantastic opportunity. But I don’t the red bulletin

Why do I put myself in danger in the film? Because I need it. I need to feel alive

think of Iceland as a training ground for Hollywood. I am not a strategist. You can only do what comes to you. You can’t say, “I am going to do this and this and this,” and everything will go your way. You have to know when is the moment to say no and when is the moment to say yes. After I did 101 Reykjavík, I was offered The Last House on the Left, the horror movie. But I didn’t want to do that. It might have defined what came after it. That’s the thing: sometimes you define where you go more by saying no than by saying yes. How did the Everest film come to you? Evan Hayes was a producer I worked with putting Contraband together. He sent me the script. I remember when I read it, I thought that was the whole purpose of the journey. I remember I was in the bathtub in a London apartment and I read it and I was like, “Wow, OK. Now what you have searched for is coming.” It’s feeling like your purpose has been shown. This is really what I want to do. This is why I did Contraband. I am not putting that down, but everyone has their dream and their dream project. This is kind of mine.

Kormákur on one of the 100 horses he and his wife breed on their ranch home in the north of Iceland

Has the idea of Hollywood changed since you began thinking about making it here as a young actor in Iceland? The thing is that usually the journey to a place is so long and difficult that when you arrive, the idea has changed in your head. When you are there, it isn’t the same obstacle as when you left home. It doesn’t scare you anymore. It is not the same mountain. Basically, by going up the mountain, the mountain always gets smaller. That is the thing. The journey up the mountain makes the mountain smaller. You’re of mixed parentage: a father who is from Catalonia, in Spain, and an Icelandic mother. Do you think in

Sometimes you define where you go in hollywood more by saying no than by saying yes

terms of identity in your filmmaking? Do you think Hollywood does? No, I don’t think so. It irritates me a lot in Europe when people talk about American film. They don’t take the whole picture. Yes, some of the worst stuff is done here, but some of the best stuff is done here, too. Hollywood is just an idea. Most of the movies are made somewhere else, and most of the finest film does come from Europe, Russia, or wherever the money comes from. It is a global meeting point. So what does success here look like? You become big enough in that environment that they can’t put their finger on you. There are directors like Ang Lee, where you don’t really expect to know what he is going to do next. If you look at Brokeback Mountain and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, is that the same guy? I like that. Ang Lee is also a foreign filmmaker. Do you think that has something to do with it? I think Spielberg does that, too. But he has just become such a big name that people stop seeing it like that. You take Catch Me If You Can to E.T. to Lincoln, which is an incredible variety of projects, to Jurassic Park and things like that. But wouldn’t it be cool if Spielberg were to do a low-budget heroin drama, or another version of Wedding Crashers? Maybe he will. I ask myself why somebody with that much success does not do exactly what he wants to do. Maybe he believes in certain values and that is what he wants to present. I think it is also dangerous when you are running an empire and part of that empire is built on your film’s massive success. You are tying yourself to a certain type of filmmaking. My freedom was to go and do The Deep. I knew it was very successful in Iceland, but I knew it was not going to make any money around the world. I want to keep that freedom. Are you afraid of being defined? You can’t define yourself, like “This is who I am, this is only what I do.” Things define you as you go along. I think if you decide what your journey is going to be, then the journey is not worth taking. The more you plan it, the less interesting it is going to be. It enables you to break through your own personal barriers, then. That is probably what people are breaking. I think in most people’s minds, it is an impossible achievement to go to the highest mountain in the world. I think by doing that, you have broken through those barriers that hold you back. Maybe that is why I jump into the sea. I don’t want to be held by the idea that the director should be in the chair. www.2guns-movie.net

the red bulletin

JHB 43395 As seen on DStv/SuperSport

1500 live games Over 12 league and cup competitions Expert commentary and analysis Full HD coverage Only on SuperSport

This is where

South African champion Tiaan Odendaal in full flight at the 2013 UCI Mountain Bike and Trials World Championships

y r g lo 44

S R E T N U H c h a s i ng a c i r f A al s c a m e to r e k i t, physic b s n a i f a d t n n u u o d t h ey fo a dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s best m e l t r s r e n de r o n r i w u t e s u o b Th , t s d l e a ho refus M art in an d c ra ig K o l esk y sh i p m e d n w o i o p r e m h a n ch v en hometow us P o wers P h o t o g raph y : S a d n a s track Words: Ang

T 46

“if you can nail it for one run, you’re going to get the gold medal. And you have to take every risk, because other people will too” gathered to pay their respects. Afterwards, with seven months of pent-up emotion released, it was back to business. “It’s world champs – there is no bigger race this year and the pressure on the guys at the top is unbelievable,” irrepressible commentator Rob Warner told The Red Bulletin. “On the outside, they might be calm, but on the inside, it’s like full-blown terror. If you can nail it for one run, you’re going to get the gold medal. And you have to take every risk there is, because other people will too.” The riders needed no second invitation. The medical team wound up seeing 20 cases a day: contused lungs, and broken ribs, legs and collarbones topped the list; followed by concussions and a slew of lacerations and road rash. “This cross-country course is something special!” exclaimed Marco Fontana, after leading Italy to the XC

team relay gold medal. “It has really fast rolling sections, handmade rock gardens and tight, technical corners and singletrack. To podium in the men’s race would be really good. If you finish third, you are still a hero. If you are fourth, nobody cares.” Seventeen-year-old Sybrand Strauss clearly didn’t get that memo. He had brought South Africa home in ninth in the team relay: on foot, with a bloodied elbow, blown tyre and snapped chain, almost in tears from the pain after being hunted down by a Russian pursuer in the final straight. Two days later, on the first lap of the men’s XC, Fontana was faced with a replay of his 2012 Olympic Games heroics (where he clinched a bronze medal despite a snapped seatpost) when he went down in the big rock garden and broke his saddle. The man-made the red bulletin

Credit:

hey say Africa’s not for sissies, and Ricardo Pscheidt would probably agree. Seconds after finishing the cross-country world championship race in Pietermaritzburg, the Brazilian rider crumpled to the ground. His trainer propped him up against the barriers, anxiously wiped down his face and loosened the zipper of his jersey. Pscheidt didn’t look good. His eyelids fluttered and his head lolled. Eventually he whispered something to the paramedic who was holding up a certain number of fingers in front of his face. Pscheidt had crashed hard on the fourth of seven laps, and despite suffering a concussion, had pushed on through the pain barrier to finish just ahead of Renay Groustra, the first South African home. It was a spectacularly brave performance, one which blurred the line between risk and stupidity, and which hinted at how much was on the line at these UCI Mountain Bike and Trials World Championships, the first to be held on African soil. But if Pscheidt finished a lowly 46th, how much more was at stake at the front of the bunch? Greg Minnaar would know. Ever since his win in Austria last year, the prospect of defending the downhill world title at a track that was literally in his backyard had been consuming him. Back then, the 2013 world champs had seemed like a once-ina-lifetime shot at glory for Minnaar and Burry Stander, the young cross-country star ranked No.2 in the world. But when tragedy struck and Stander was killed by a minibus taxi while on a training ride in January 2013, the world championships – for South Africans, at least – suddenly became a deeply emotional affair. The day before competition started, a small garden dedicated to Stander’s memory was unveiled track-side, and the international cycling community

KEEPING IT PINNED

Credit:

Above: British rider Mike Jones took a radical line during practice, but recovered to finish third in the 2013 UCI Junior Downhill World Championship. Left: Switzerlandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Nino Schurter put the hammer down from the start in the elite menâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cross-country race

“it’s such a great feeling to be racing at home, showcasing this great sport.” Greg Minnaar

the red bulletin

ONE LIFE “I had to dig deep, man. It hasn’t sunk in. It still feels like just a race win, but it’s bigger than that. We’ve got the whole of South Africa here.” Defending world downhill champion Greg Minnaar (left, and far right) carried the weight of a nation’s expectations on his shoulders, but delivered in sensational fashion in his home town of Pietermaritzburg

obstacles and heavy G-forces in the swooping turns were wreaking havoc. One rider went over his handlebars and smashed a photographer and his camera gear into a river. Race favourite Julien Absalon, unbeknown to his rivals, was riding with three broken ribs, and Manuel Fumic’s charge towards the podium was sabotaged by repeated crashes in the rocks. Only the defending champion seemed untroubled. Nino Shurter dominated from start to finish, destroying the field and reducing what could have been a tactical battle into a desperate scramble for the minor places. Even the trials riders were taken aback by the challenge laid down in Pietermaritzburg. The obstacles weren’t as high as those on the World Cup circuit, but they were creative, fiendishly tough, and were tackled first in lethally wet conditions and then under lights on a bitterly cold evening. The local crowds, new to trials riding, were mesmerised by the sight of cyclists coiled over their saddleless machines, brakes creaking and tyres bulging, hopping and jumping their way around what seemed like a totally impassable course. “The Pietermaritzburg guys really did a good job,” said four-time world champ Kenny Belaey. After breaking his wrist last year, recovering, then fracturing it again, the Belgian had to be content with a bronze medal in the men’s 26in competition. “The course was a lot more technical than in Europe, and it was long. I really liked it. You had to place your wheels very precisely, take off, and then hold on for dear life!” The only riders who knew what was coming were the downhillers – and they not only had the fastest DH track on

circuit to contend with, but Greg Minnaar as well. The Maritzburg course is notorious for the flat, ‘pedally’ transition that links the steep, technical upper section to the flowing lower third, placing as much of a premium on sprint power as on bikehandling skills. Speeds were high, the jumps were big, and with the rock-hard surface complicated by a sketchy layer of dust and grit, if the bike started to slide, you were in real trouble.

hat is downhill racing about? Consider doing the 400m sprint while simultaneously calculating complex maths equations and juggling a few tennis balls. Or, in Pietermaritzburg’s case, try hitting a 20m table-top jump at 73kph, landing a perfect backside on your exit, then carrying that speed flawlessly through the next series of jumps… all while your heart is knocking at 190 beats per minute. As Gee Atherton, the most successful downhiller this season, put it: “There really isn’t an area of your body that doesn’t get absolutely worked over during a downhill race.” Minutes after crushing her rivals by more than eight seconds – and doing her first interview as a world champion while slumped on the grass – Rachel Atherton breathlessly echoed her big brother. “I’m exhausted!” she said, gasping for air. “My lungs and legs… I thought I wouldn’t be

able to walk ever again! It’s just on fire… your body’s wrecked… so much effort! But I’m stoked!” On that Pietermaritzburg course, the fastest riders seemed to float over the rocks, effortlessly lowered by gravity. They glided through the trees, every twist of the track burnt into their brains, and emerged from clouds of dust to bullet past at more than 50kph. What set Minnaar apart was his knowledge of every root and rut and crumbling berm on the hill. That, and the pressure. Minnaar already owned three world championship bronze medals, three silvers, and two golds. But only two riders had ever won three or more DH world titles, and neither of them had won at home. Minnaar started fast, beating Mick Hannah’s scorching time by more than a second at the first split, before giving up most of that in the punishing second sector. With thousands of fans (and the track marshals) urging him on through a cacophony of vuvuzelas, chainsaws and cowbells, Minnaar dredged up some final strength and, despite a rear wheel puncture, stopped the clock less than half a second in the lead. Minutes before Minnaar’s run, Sam Hill had bounced off his bike and face-planted into the dirt. Another favourite, Aaron Gwin, busted his shoulder, and Steve Smith blew his chances in the first corner. That left Gee Atherton to contend, but when it became clear that even he would be hopelessly off the pace, Minnaar leapt up in triumph, saluted his One Life fans, and crowd-surfed into the history books. www.uci.ch

s e k i b t s e t s a f e h t orld w e h t n i

The world champion’s ‘granny gear’ – a monster 42-tooth cog

NINO SCHURTER’S

SCOTT SCALE 700

Saddle, carbon seatpost, pedals and cockpit components by Ritchey

Scott Scale 700 carbon frame with DT Swiss XRC 100 carbon fork. Total bike weight of 8kg

Three-position fork lockout: normal; travel adjustment for steep climbing; and total lockout

Dugast tubular tyres, on DT Swiss carbon rims, pumped to 1.7 bar

Elite men’s cross-country Nino debuted his 650B wheelset at the World Cup in PMB last year, and it was fast enough to carry him to a second straight XC world title on the same track in August. Uniquely, he runs handmade tubular tyres, glued to the rims, for better rolling resistance and weight savings.

SRAM XX1 11-speed drivetrain, with a 36-tooth front chainring

Prologo X8 saddle

JULIE BRESSET’S

BH ULTIMATE

FSA stem and handlebars with silicone grips

Michelin Wild Race‘R Ultimate 27.5x2.25 tyres, pumped to 1.4 bar in the front and 1.5 at the rear

Sr Suntour Axonwerx RL-RC 650B fork

Elite women’s cross-country The most dramatic feature on Julie’s carbon monocoque BH Ultimate frame is the gracefully curved seat tube, which tightens up the rear triangle to deliver superior acceleration and climbing ability. Julie also switched to 650B wheels this season.

Mavic SLR rims

FSA K-Force Lite carbon cranks, 36/24 chainrings, KMC X10SL Gold chain the red bulletin

victory, r e t f a s e d rt, minut mpions reveale i d d n a t ith swea bike world cha ning machines w d e k a e Str ce-win untain a o r m r I i e UC h 3 the 201 e n t s on t n o p m o c t h e k ey

Maxxis Minion DHR II 26x2.4 tyres, pumped to 1.8 and 1.9 bar, front and back respectively

10-speed cassette, without the three biggest sprockets, became a 7-speed 11-19 cluster

Prototype Fox RAD spring shock, unavailable to anyone else at world champs

Santa Crux V10 carbon frame, with carbon Enve handlebars, seatpost and rims

Custom-tuned Fox 40 fork

GREG MINNAAR’S

SANTA CRUZ V10 Elite men’s downhill Greg’s production V10 is probably the most developed carbon bike on the DH circuit: at 14.7kg, it’s 1.5kg lighter than most rivals’. As a puncture fail-safe, Greg ran both tubes and tyre sealant in his wheels – and needed all the puncture resistance he could get.

Shimano Saint drivetrain: 170mm cranks for extra leverage; 39-tooth front ring

“I got the puncture in the last rock section, and I could feel it down the last few jumps!” – Greg Minnaar Shimano Pro Atherton saddle

Fox DHX RC4 rear shock

Continental Mud King 26x2.3 tyre, running at 1.8 bar

Crank Brothers Mallet 3 clip-in pedals Continental Der Kaiser Projekt 26x2.4 tyre, running at 1.8 bar

RACHEL ATHERTON’S

GT WORLD CUP FURY

Elite women’s downhill

Shimano XTR 7-speed 11-23 cassette

Rachel’s production aluminium GT Fury World Cup boasts a oneoff Union Jack paintjob, and a decal of the Welsh flag on the down tube, saluting her mechanic’s nationality. Rachel geared up from her usual 36-tooth chainring to a 38-tooth front blade.

Leap of Faith Shane McConkey died doing what he loved. This is the story of what happened next

Photography: www.carroux.com

Words: Ann Donahue

Shane McConkey and Miles Daisher BASE-jump from the Peak2Peak gondola in Whistler, Canada

“There is no way somebody can see the film of his life and say he wasn’t a loving father and husband”

The cold, hard truth is that in March 2009, Shane McConkey – an innovator in adventure sports, who pioneered the ultimate off-piste sport of ski BASEjumping – died at the age of 39 when his skis failed to properly release during a wingsuit jump in the Dolomites in Italy. At 41 years old, Sherry was left a widow with a three-year-old daughter. Originally from South Africa, Sherry is a petite, sinewy force. She lives in Squaw Valley, California and teaches rehabilitative yoga to athletes injured in ski accidents. Her given name is Scheherazade, a nod to her Persian heritage, and in honour of the storyteller of One Thousand and One Nights. She wears a necklace with several pendants, one of which is Shane’s ring, another imprinted with a quote attributed to Leonardo da Vinci: “Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the 54

earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.” For Sherry, the four years since her husband’s death have been a dark, turbulent blur, with two major moments of clarity: one, that she had to corral her grief in order to set an example for her daughter, Ayla; and two, that despite her husband’s high-risk career, she had to prove Shane’s unquestionable love for his family. the red bulletin: How difficult is it for you to be involved in a documentary about Shane? sherry mcconkey: It’s been hard for me this whole time, but I know deep down inside that it’s what I want, it’s what Shane would want and I want Ayla to have something really incredible. I knew it would take a long time and I knew it would be really trying and hard and emotional. I’m not moving on. I haven’t moved on. It’s because it’s in my face all the time and it’s a constant reminder. But it’s not a bad thing. I’m always going to remember him, whether I like it or not. When Shane first died, I got a lot of negative remarks, comments online, like: “How could he be a good father? How could he love you if he went out and did this kind of stuff?” You just sit and spew about it in your brain. There is no way somebody is going to walk away [from the film] and say that that man wasn’t a loving father and an incredible husband. Has Ayla seen the movie? She’s watched her segments and our wedding. She wrinkles her nose in delight and I’m behind her just like [mimics sobbing]. That was hard for her, and it’s really hard for me to cry in front of Ayla. You know, we’re attached. We had an umbilical cord. And you remember when you saw your parents cry, you freaked out. It’s awful. They don’t cry and when they do, it’s something big. But my friend said sometimes it’s good for her to see that emotion of how I love Shane. So when she saw the movie, I told her, “I have to tell you, I’m going to cry, because it’s really hard for me. I miss Daddy.” You could see it was upsetting to her, but she got it and the red bulletin

Photography: Brigitte Sire, Ulrich Grill/Red Bull Content Pool

herry McConkey remembers a conversation she had with her husband, Shane. It was one of those giddy moments in a relationship, where the questions are quick and unrelenting and the thirst for details – no matter how tiny, no matter how silly – is of the utmost importance. “When you die, what do you want to come back as?” asked Sherry. Shane’s answer was instantaneous. “An eagle,” he said. At that point, Sherry knew all that she needed to know about Shane McConkey. Because she wants to be reincarnated as an eagle, too.

Shane McConkeyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s life and career is chronicled in McConkey, available for download on iTunes on October 8. Left: Sherry McConkey

right after her scene, it goes to Italy, and she was like: “Are they going to show Daddy dying?” Of course, they don’t. But it’s wrenching nonetheless to see the build-up to the final jump. It was a big conversation. I was petrified they were going to show it, and it was not necessary. But it was totally handled appropriately. For me, I would have rather not seen the exit [of the jump] because that was his last moment, and it’s not fun to see him. I’m his wife and obviously I’m going to hate it. If everyone in the world thinks it’s fine, I’m still going to hate it. But it’s beautiful, the scenery, and this is what he did. His last moment was a double flip. I trusted the directors, if they thought it was necessary, but they were going to stop it where I wanted to stop. And they listened to me. What was the premiere like at New York’s Tribeca Film Festival earlier this year? Going to New York, I had this anxiety, more than I ever had in my life. It was like I was going to a wedding and funeral at the same time. I was excited because part of me was going to move on, but it’s also 56

a chapter that’s going to close. I was so nervous for people to perceive Shane the way we wanted them to perceive him. I’d seen it several times, but I was super scared to watch it in front of people. I’d only watched it in front of a couple friends and I would have to walk away. It was super hard. I had an escape route if I wanted to leave and I had my friends around me, and it was just... rad. I looked around at one point, and I was obviously crying, and everybody was. It was like, “Oh. Duh. Everyone is going to cry at this part, because it’s hard, and it’s beautiful.” The movie is going to go on tour and be screened around the US. Are you going to go to any of the tour stops? I’m not sure how many times I can watch the movie. I’m very excited for Squaw. It’s my family here and they are so excited to see it, and they’ve been so unbelievably supportive over the last years. I’d also like to see it in a city and not a sports town like here. There was a woman who stood up in New York and said, “Now I’m going to live my life.” That’s what we wanted. This incredible man was so funny and

Photography: Brigitte Sire, Christian Pondella/Red Bull Content Pool

“There was a woman who stood up after a screening and said, ‘Now I’m going to live my life.’ That’s what we wanted”

Shane McConkey BASE-jumps from the Atlantis Casino Resort Spa hotel, in Nevada, USA

Photography: Red Bull Content Pool

ACTION! McConkey had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in April. More info at: mcconkeymovie.com

the red bulletin

Shane on the big screen For the athletes who knew Shane McConkey, the documentary of his life is an incisive look at following your passions – despite the ultimate cost

Charles Bryan (right) Skydiver, BASE-jumper “The movie was a great experience. I didn’t know Shane for his skiing, as most everyone else did. We were skydiving and BASE-jumping buddies. I only learned of his fame and influence in skiing later on in our friendship. It’s a sad reality, the inherent dangers in aerial sports. All sports, for that matter.”

Miles Daisher (left) Skydiver, BASE-jumper “The film stirred up an array of emotions for me. It was good to laugh at his crazy humour and remember some great moments in our lives. The ending was rough. You knew it was going to happen, even if you didn’t know Shane, as the foreshadowing began at the start of the movie.”

dorky, and he didn’t care what people thought. It wasn’t even the fact that he was a crazy, amazing athlete – it was his personality that was so contagious. How did you and Shane meet? I’d seen him around town, but I didn’t know him. He was a skier, I was a snowboarder: different crowds. We started mountain biking together and then it was inevitable. We had so much fun together. He’s so fun. He was a dork and he made me laugh. But he was famous. Was that weird? He was never famous to me. I’d see his movies or see him on the slopes and be like, “Wow, that was amazing,” but he didn’t seem famous. He was humble – well, not humble, but he knew what he was capable of doing. It was his passion. He wasn’t cocky about it. It was what he loved to do and naturally it just bubbled out of him. I think he’s more famous now. One of the best moments in the film is when you do your first BASE-jump. The first one I did, I was so scared, but then it was amazing. I wanted to do it more, so I did it a couple more times. It’s one of those sports where you really want to be a good skydiver. You really want to be one of those quick athletes in your brain, where you figure out scenarios fast. I feel like you want to start when you’re young and you have more balls. I started when I was 35, which is really old, and then I went to skydiving and I got a little more comfortable with it – and then I got knocked up [laughs]. Now I can’t do it. No way. After Shane’s death, why did you start the Shane McConkey Foundation? At first I just did it to hold something on the anniversary [of his death]. I felt a lot of pressure. People were looking at me: “What are you going to do?” And it was an opportunity to raise money and awareness. We did one of these wacky things he liked to do – taking the mickey out of snowblading and acting like a dork

“ Everyone is going to cry, because it’s hard, and it’s beautiful” 60

Sherry McConkey with her dog, Pedro, in Squaw Valley

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JT Holmes (right) Skier, BASE-jumper “It’s a great tribute and a triumph considering the daunting task of doing Shane’s life and legacy justice. Sure, there was a lot to work with as far as story and compelling content, but the expectations from those who knew him are extremely high. The movie is one to be very proud of.”

Chris Davenport (right) Big-mountain skier “Telling the story of any life lived to the fullest, even a short life, is a difficult task. Shane was the consummate jokester and lover of all things fun. The film succeeds, because even though his passing and the story behind it is sad, the viewer is reminded that having fun in life is of the utmost importance.”

Q&A: Scott Gaffney A longtime friend of Shane McConkey’s, the co-director at freeskiing production company MSP Films, is one of the directors of McConkey

Photography: Brigitte Sire (1), Red Bull Content POol (3), Action Images (1)

the red bulletin: What

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were the challenges of going through all of Shane McConkey’s sports footage? scott gaffney: I get ridiculed by the other guys at MSP Films for being a geek and knowing too much about our footage. But I happened to be there as a cinematographer for roughly 80 per cent of Shane’s ski career. I know what happened where and when, and what his emotions were. But BASE-jumpers are video geeks, too. If Shane and three others went to jump an antenna, three of them probably had helmet cameras rolling. So it took a while, but I knew what meant a lot to him and what was just another shot. How did you work with his widow, Sherry, to create the film? We wanted Sherry to have ultimate say in the outcome. Her interviews were obviously instrumental, awesome and a core to the film. We were all proud with how awed she was by the film in the end. What did having McConkey premiere at the Tribeca festival mean for the film? Just being accepted to Tribeca was affirmation that Shane was someone worthy of attention outside our action-sports world. We are kind of pigeonholed into being ‘adrenalin junkies’, yet Shane constantly dismissed that label. What he did meant so much more to him.

and not taking life so seriously. It’s a competition, a downhill on snowblades, which is ridiculous, and everybody dresses up. Like belly dancers, or whores, or both [laughs]. We do a gala; it’s super fun. [With the proceeds] we’ve started [educational] Green Teams in the schools here, and I want to do more environmentally conscious events. It sounds like a lot of work. It’s a full-time nonpaying job [laughs]. For me, it’s prolonged not moving on, but I don’t think I’ll ever move on. Why should I? I loved him. He was my soulmate. I want Ayla to see that both her dad and her mom were passionate about this world and I’ll continue trying to do as much as I can. I know it’s for some reason, through Shane. He gave me so much. It wasn’t only love and a soulmate – he gave me the courage to do things I would have never done in my life. What have you learned about grief? The only way I’ve gotten through all this grief is obviously Ayla. I want to be a strong mother and I want to show her that her dad gave me the courage to do the things I needed to do. And exercise. If I didn’t have my mountain bike, I don’t know what I’d do. That’s where I can go and get all my anger out or be alone for hours and see how beautiful this world is. I don’t have Shane to get pissed off at any more [laughs], so I get to beat it out on a mountain bike ride. Do you visit Shane’s memorial at the top of Squaw Valley often? Squaw gave him Eagle’s Nest [a challenging ski run renamed in his honour] and it was so appropriate. We had this connection with eagles. We discussed, “When you die, what do you want to come back as?” And we both said, “Eagles, duh.” You get to soar, you get to fly. And it couldn’t be a more appropriate tribute to Shane. The most beautiful view, looking down on one of his favourite mountains in the world. I’ve got pictures of a golden eagle up there sitting right next to the eagle [statue that commemorates McConkey]. I went up there on Shane’s birthday, there was one flying. I went up there on his anniversary and there were golden eagles flying. It’s so weird. I don’t know – I’d never seen an eagle there before and now I see them all the time. www.mcconkeymovie.com

THOMAS DOLD

The Hot Stepper The world’s most successful stair runner thinks like a Shaolin monk, swears by bananas and explains why you should never take the lift again Interview: Andreas Rottenschlager Photography: Alexander Schneider

I grew up in Steinach, a village of 3,000 people in the Black Forest. I was part of the German national mountain running team when I was 17. When I was 19, I took part in my first stair race at the Donauturm [Danube Tower] in Vienna. A lot of mountain runners don’t deal well with steps, but with me it’s always been the steeper, the better. Up to a million people can be cheering you on when you run a marathon, but when you’re in the mountains you can enjoy nature. The fascinating thing about stair running is the minimalism of it. No headwind. No rain. No heat. You can forget all those excuses. Your heart rate is high. The blood runs to your legs. By the time you reach the finish line you’re empty and have forgotten everything. It’s as if someone’s pressed a reset button in your brain. I admire Shaolin monks. They don’t wear smart clothes or drive fast cars. Only the essential things count. If you said to a Shaolin, “This exercise doesn’t work,” he’d say back, “As a matter of principle, everything works.” People once thought it would be impossible to smash iron bars on your head, as the Shaolin do. People also say climbing stairs is too much of a strain. I know Goldman Sachs bankers in Frankfurt who work between the 50th and 60th floor of the MesseTurm [Trade Fair Tower] and walk down to the ground floor to get their pizza. That’s a good 200m of altitude. Anyone who doesn’t drink a bottle of vodka or smoke two packets of cigarettes a day can climb stairs. Make it into a game. Bet who’ll be the first to walk up 50 flights over the course of a week. Put a list up in the office and challenge your colleagues. 62

In 2004, I finished the Donauturm run just 0.695 seconds behind the winner, Markus Zahlbruckner. Markus won a flight to New York. I won a toy truck full of savoury snacks. It’s at times like those when you realise that it all boils down to details. I’m staunchly economical. Costs, time and resources are what count for me. At home, I work out the quickest way

“Taking two steps at a time is like running up a sloping plane” from the armchair to the fridge. When I’m travelling, my luggage is always one step ahead of me on the escalator so that I can get off as quickly as possible at the top. At the Taipei 101 Run-Up in Taiwan, you can win $6,649 in prize money. Minus taxes and even if the exchange rate is bad, you’re still left with $3,000. So basically, a stair runner’s travel costs

eat up all his winnings, and I win practically everything. Which means even when you’re the best, you’ve got to have another job on the side. [Dold works as an athlete manager.] I won the Empire State Building Run-Up seven times in a row. If Usain Bolt was to run it against me, the race would probably be up for him at the 20th floor. [There are 86 flights of stairs in the building.] He’d either be out of breath or struggling with the stairs. Bolt has an incredibly quick stride frequency. The problem with stair running is that you can’t just put your feet anywhere. The length of your stride has to be exactly the same as the step, including when you’re completely exhausted. Before a race, I have muesli with water and bananas. After the race, I go for orange juice and honey to avoid the chesty cough you can get from the dry air. My stair formula is “two for the win”. If you take one step at a time, you’re running a staccato rhythm. If you take three, your movement is too heavy. But if you take two at a time, it’s like you’re flying up a sloping plane. When I’m training, I listen to house music with about 130 beats per minute. Let’s say I’m not that into soft rock. During competition, I don’t expose my ears to noise. If I had an MP3 player on my arm, that’d be an extra 20g to carry. I’ve achieved everything I wanted to achieve. In 2013, I’m being more specific in the competitions I choose to take part in. In February, I won the race at the tallest building in Qatar: 1,304 steps in 6 minutes 32 seconds. What I definitely won’t do is travel somewhere just to come second. My motto is: “All in.” www.thomasdold.com the red bulletin

Born September 10, 1984, Wolfach, Baden-足 W端rttemberg, Germany Height/Weight: 1.79m/ 71kg Stair Well Four-time overall Tower Running World Cup winner; seven-time Empire State Building Run-Up winner; seven-time Sky Run Berlin winner

Elektro Guzzi

Like machines, only better

Flawless techno, played by hand on bass, guitar, and drums, always live, never with synthesizers – and the new album is out on cassette (of course). An interview with the most exciting electronic band of the moment

To experience Elektro Guzzi live for the first time is to question your own eyesight. What you see before you is the classic rock ’n’ roll setup of bass, guitar, and drums. What you hear coming from the stage, however, is hypnotic techno. The Viennese trio plays electronic music without electronic equipment or technique. Guitarist Bernhard Hammer sticks metal brackets on his strings to create unusual sounds, Red Bull Music Academy graduate Jakob Schneidewind puts his bass through standard effects devices and drummer Bernhard Breuer soups up his drum kit with saucepans. The band spoke to The Red Bulletin after their concert at the Sónar Festival in Barcelona.

between the strings, which interferes with the magnetic field of the pickups. And it sounds pretty weird. jakob schneidewind: Apart from that we work with guitar effects, like filter and delay. We’ve been collecting these musical landmines for years. Each of us has a shelf full of them in the studio. You use effects pedals, but no computer. Where do you draw the line? bh: On stage we don’t use sequencers.

the red bulletin: How did the idea of playing techno with rock instruments come about? bernhard breuer: When we started Elektro Guzzi 10 years ago, we were techno fans, but we couldn’t Techno, without a computer in sight: Elektro Guzzi really work with computers. And we That means we don’t have any devices weren’t DJs either. And so we played that dictate the tempo or sequencing. We our favourite type of music with the don’t want to be controlled by machines. instruments we were able to play: js: Our requirement is that every sound guitar, bass, drums. you hear at our concerts is played live But why wouldn’t someone who by us on the stage. No playback or other likes techno just get a synthesizer? additional sound sources. bb: We all come from the experimental And do you stick to that concept in music scene. There, the challenge is to the recording studio as well? draw interesting sounds from your js: Of course. Everything is played live instrument. on the record. There are no additional How do you get those sounds out tracks or instruments. of the guitar? Isn’t that a problem, because after all bernhard hammer: I attach little metal the listener can’t see you and has no brackets to the strings. That changes the idea which instruments you’re using. overtone structure and creates bell-like bb: That’s the challenge right there. How sounds. Or I will put a metal plate 64

do you create the widest possible range of sounds from just three instruments? You need to spend a lot of time researching sounds. The trick lies in how the parts relate to each other and intertwine. js: In principle we’re a drum machine and two synthesizers. That’s all. bb: Or a synth with three modules. Techno has been around for almost 30 years. Isn’t it strange that no one had the idea of playing it by hand before you came along? bb: What Krautrock bands like Can and Neu! were doing around 1970 was very close to the idea of handmade techno. The monotonous beat of drummer Jaki Liebezeit is legendary. One of his fellow musicians once said: “Jaki plays like a machine. Only better.” Your new album was released on cassette and not CD. Is that the logical extension of your computer scepticism? bb: The reason for that is really banal. The album is coming out on a label called The Tapeworm, which only releases cassettes. That was a challenge for us, because you construct pieces differently in terms of length and suspense when they’re going to be heard on cassette. Keeping with the theme, do all of you actually own cassette recorders yourselves? all three: Yes. bh: Mine plays cassettes, but unfortunately a bit too slowly. bb: Which with techno isn’t actually a problem. Techno is always too fast anyway [laughs]. Circling Above (The Tapeworm) is out now: www.elektroguzzi.net

the red bulletin

additional photography: kipC.at

Words: Florian Obkircher Photography: Dan Wilton

Members Bernhard Hammer, guitar Jakob Schneidewind, bass Bernhard Breuer, drums Mario Stadler, sound engineer Location Vienna, Austria Influences Techno artists like Jeff Mills and Basic Channel Albums Live P.A. (2011) Parquet (2011) Elektro Guzzi (2010) Success In 2012 the band was awarded the EBBA Award (the European Commission’s music prize) for new musicians, alongside Anna Calvi and Swedish House Mafia.

Elektro Guzzi, backstage at Sónar: (from left) Bernhard Breuer, Bernhard Hammer, and Jakob Schneidewind, with Mario Stadler in the background

PHOTOGRAPHY: Simon Palfrader

Fendi Racingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 8 LFF8 boat at the UIM Offshore Powerboat Grand Prix in Istanbul, Turkey

Smokinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; on the

water

Life on the edge at the World Powerboat Championship

Words: Noel Ebdon

Powerboats smack across the waves in Istanbul, with Victory 3 out in front

This is Class 1 offshore powerboat racing, the highest class of its type

PHOTOGRAPHY: Raffaello Bastiani, Philipp Horak

he time is approaching midnight on the day of Race 1, and the pits are still buzzing. Mechanics and team members push past one another, some carrying replacement parts for performance machines in the highest class of their type, others carrying race-worn bits that need to be cleaned of seawater and dried. Discarded parts litter the ground, machines destined for the waste bin, when someone gets around to cleaning up. This is not Formula One. There’s less than 12 hours until the second race of the UIM Offshore Powerboat Grand Prix, in Istanbul, Turkey, and the Victory 3 boat has both engines removed. Earlier today, the boat, with its two pilots, driver Arif Saif Al Zaffain and throttleman Mohammed Al Marri, spun out in the first of the weekend’s two races, damaging the engines and creating a substantial job for the Dubai-based Victory Team. “These things happen. It’s OK and we’re fine, although Mohammed took a heavy hit to his head” says Al Zaffain, after his accident. “We’ll be back in the second race, if they can get the engines fixed.” The pits, also known as wet pits in powerboat racing, are in a well-worn area of a working marina. This is Class 1 offshore powerboat racing, the highest class of its racing type, so there are freshly livered team trucks and matching uniforms for the staff. There are no hospitality boxes overlooking the pits. Instead, an unshaven guy in a dirty

Team Abu Dhabi crash out. Below right: Victory mechanics perform last-minute engine checks. Left: the propeller from Fendi Racing’s boat. Above left: a team member tightens the safety harness of Fendi Racing’s Giovanni Carpitella

boats can either spin out and rotate across the top boatlifting crane watches the frenetic activity below him with a look on his face that says he would really rather be at home in bed at this time of night. Under hastily erected spotlights surrounded by fluttering moths, the Victory Team mechanics carry out repairs. A software engineer drops down into the boat’s cockpit to put the electronics through their paces. Victory 3 needs repairs, even though the hull stood up well to being flung at an unforgiving sea at high force. Both engines must be rebuilt, and all parts that aren’t replaced must be flushed of seawater. The team have a busy night ahead of them. Across the way, the mechanics from Fendi Racing sit back in their camping chairs, enjoying a cold beer, revelling in the fact that their boat is prepped, cleaned and packed away, ready for tomorrow. These men know that it could so easily have been them toiling through the night. The sea doesn’t take sides when choosing its victims and water, when struck at speed, is anything but soft and cushioning. It can be as hard 70

as concrete and once it has destroyed your mode of transport, it’ll then try to drown you. The second Fendi Racing boat finished third in the first race, so those responsible can afford a celebratory beverage.

e can download all the engine data to a laptop to figure out where we are slow, and what the engines are doing,” says Stephen Phillips, an electrical engineer for the Victory Team. “But we can only do this before or after the race, as they banned live telemetry a few years ago to try to keep costs down.” Inside the cockpit, it’s damp and smells of drying sweat. The seats, with the driver’s on the right, are very close

together, separated only by a central support bar that runs through the cockpit. On the hull, to the front and to the side of each seat is a slit window. In here, it feels more like a tank than a high-performance racing vehicle. The controls are: two screens showing GPS information, some switches, a racecar-style steering wheel and two hand throttles. There is nothing here that doesn’t need to be here. This is the sort of place most people wouldn’t want to spend more than a few minutes. Powerboat racing is a glamorous, sexy sport, where daring drivers pit their skills against each other in extreme danger, but taking part is hot, sweaty, unpleasant work. Powerboat racing isn’t a young man’s game. Most competitors are over 40; many of their female companions are not. The men, like the women, are here simply for the thrill of it. Adulation and prize money are both relatively small. High-level sponsorship doesn’t exist here. Some teams are the playthings of rich men; others are backed by national tourism boards. the red bulletin

PHOTOGRAPHY: Philipp Horak (3), Raffaello Bastiani

of the water, or catch the edge of a wave and flip over

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The boats have a top speed of 128 knots (255kph). The hull is almost completely out of the water for much of the time. Too little power and the boat won’t ride on the surface; too much and it will flip over backwards. “Keeping the boat up on the keel is critical,” says Ragesh Elayadeth, Victory Team’s manager. “If you can get the boat running on that perfect level, then that’s the way to win.” The power is controlled by the throttleman, using two hand throttles. They are connected to cables that snake off under the cockpit, which in turn are connected to two very large V12 engines, hidden under the rear deck of the boat, each one capable of producing 850hp. The driver takes care of the steering. In making turns, the driver has to steer around tight enough to get around the bend, while the throttleman also uses the twin engines to help turn the boat. If the two pilots are not in sync with one another, and with their vehicle, the boat can either spin out, skipping and rotating across the top of the water, or it can catch the edge of a wave and flip over. 71

powerboat racing ranks among the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most dangerous motorsports

PHOTOGRAPHY: Simon Palfrader, Philipp Horak, Raffaello Bastiani

The action played out close to the rocks in Istanbul as Dubai-based Victory 3 (below) won the race. Team Abu Dhabi (left) came seventh

n Sunday, for Race 2, there are clear skies and it’s hot. Ten minutes before the start, the pilots put on their lifejackets and drop down into the cockpits. Hatches are dropped into place and locked. Starter motors whine and the engines kick into life. A powerboat is designed so that its cockpit remains intact in the event of an accident, but what happens in real life and what happens by design are not always the same. When compared to other forms of motorsport, it ranks among the most dangerous in the world. Since 1972, 25 pilots have been killed racing offshore powerboats, including four accidents in which two men were killed and one in which three died. In the same period, 16 men have the red bulletin

died behind the wheel of a Formula One car, six of them during a grand prix. Out on the sea in front of the marina, the boats head up to the start line, bumping along at low speed behind the pace boat. There’s no explosion of sound, like with the ignition of an F1 engine. With powerboats the sound is like a turbine at low speed, not at all loud or angry. When the flag drops, the roar from the engines is loud, but far lower pitched than at an F1 start line. With their tiny windows and spear-like fronts, the boats have an evil look about them. In the first moments of the race, they smack across the tops of small waves. Victory 3 seems to be running without a hitch, not that the bleary-eyed mechanics know this. They are mainlining coffee in the team trailer. After only a few laps the boat of Team Abu Dhabi flips spectacularly, landing upside down in the middle of the course. The crew are OK, ungainly exiting through the escape hatch located on the bottom of the boat for just such an

it’s big & brash. money is the main entry requirement

occasion. The race is quickly brought to a stop with the officials’ red flags. “We’re fine,” says the driver Faleh Al Mansoori, as he walks into the pits after the crash, and leaves without another word. Flipping is just one of the many ways to sink a million dollars to the bottom of the sea in powerboat racing. There’s also ‘submarining’ where the boat launches off a large wave, before nose-diving under the surface. Such are the forces involved, this can often separate the deck from the hull, peeling open a boat like a can of sardines. After the restart, Victory 3 powers home in first and back to top of the championship leaderboard. Fendi takes second place with the winners of the first race, Hub Team Australia, in third. Offshore powerboat racing is big, brash and elitist. Money is the main entry requirement. For that reason it will likely always remain a niche sport. Yet that’s what makes it interesting. It is more exclusive than F1, but also more about the race itself than that which surrounds it. Back in the pits, the head has been removed from one of the Abu Dhabi boat’s engine blocks and a mechanic is handcranking the engine, firing a fountain of water out of the piston chambers. A mechanic carries a piece of broken bodywork away from the repair area. “Another long night,” he says. The final round of the 2013 World Powerboat Championship takes place in Dubai on December 5-6: www.class-1.com

“The thing you must understand, in our culture, when people drink and you don’t play the music they want to hear, you could end up six feet under” the red bulletin: How was Oppikoppi for you? trancemicsoul: I was a bit nervous, because Oppikoppi is my first big festival in South Africa, but I’m glad the people were open-minded and didn’t judge me. They were like, “Let’s let this guy do his thing.” It was amazing – it was my first time and it was great to be a part of it. I am humbled by that. In South Africa, we have these stigmas and divisions because of race and Oppikoppi can be a place to get many races together and share ideas. Music is an important part of life and Oppikoppi can bring people together. I am used to DJing to the black market, so when I started at Oppikoppi the crowd was not getting into what I was playing. I had to divert to more upbeat house with some electronica and they came together to party with me. 74

Trancemicsoul

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WORDS: Lloyd Gedye

“The Oppikoppi crowd really brought the energy and I was feeding off that and really got lost. I fell into a trance and let things go… a little freestyling” the red bulletin: How was Oppikoppi for you? drop the lime: It’s difficult when you play festivals in countries you have never been to before because you don’t know where the crowd’s ear is. But it was phenomenal. Seriously epic. It’s like you are transported into another village. The energy from the crowd was great and the artists I met, both South African and international, were cool. The whole experience was pretty surreal. I had a lot of people telling me, “Oh man, you are going to South Africa, you better be careful, there are bandits and lions and tigers everywhere.” It was ridiculous – I was imaging some post-apocalyptic video game. But my stay in South Africa has been incredible. It was a blast. Just being at the festival is enough; it’s like a dream.” the red bulletin

Drop The Lime

Credit:

â&#x20AC;&#x153; People want to see a performance, not just a DJâ&#x20AC;? Trancemicsoul

Credit: photography: Tyrone Bradley/red bull music academy

“ It’s a blessing and a curse that I have so many influences” Drop The Lime

perceptions and introduce them to something new. They might just like it. South Africans seem so divided musically. What will it take to get them dancing to the same beat? It’s just like this Red Bull Stage at Oppikoppi. It all comes back to the people who come to the festival. If they come here like a rock, then it won’t work, but if they open their minds, then we can dance together. There is a lot of talent and a lot of music that we can share. aised in the township of Shoshanguve, Trancemicsoul, aka Clement Phaswane, began his music career by DJing a brand of soulful house with hints of jazz. With Pretoria’s house scene dominating in South Africa, Trancemicsoul has established himself as a promising talent and when he got an opportunity to attend the 2013 Red Bull Music Academy in New York, it really upped the ante. The young DJ has returned to South Africa determined to push his sound and his performance to new heights. Oppikoppi 2013 was a step in this new journey, with his first major festival performance in South Africa. How did your career get off the ground? Where was your first DJ set? trancemicsoul: I was buying records from an early age, but I didn’t have any turntables. Then I got an opportunity to have a practice session in front of people and it was tough. It was a 21st birthday party in Shoshanguve and there must have been over 500 people at the party. I was so nervous. DJing with turntables is not like CDs – it was hard! People were like “What is this guy doing?” The thing you must understand, in our culture, when people drink and you don’t play the music they want to hear, you could end up six feet under. But I got better and I got more practice. I learned not to go out there until I was ready. Talk to us about South African house? Currently in South Africa people are so confused about house music – now even kwaito is becoming more up-tempo. I think when people listen to anything uptempo, they call it house, but there are big differences between types of house. For me, at the moment, it has to be rough and hard, and drawing influences from techno. I want to change people’s

Pretoria’s house scene had been dominant lately. Why is that? Most of the successful house DJs, like Vinny da Vinci and Christos, come from Pretoria. That’s what we grew up listening to. Everyone wanted to be like those guys and I think that is why Pretoria has such a big house scene now.

“I am from the townships and to go to a city as developed as New York and to see the culture clash in New York, it opened up a new path in my life. It took things up a level”

I am from the townships and to go to a city as developed as New York and to see the culture clash in New York, it opened up a new path in my life. It took things up a level. There were a lot of amazing speakers there, like Questlove. Hearing him speak, I realised we are the same. Listening to him tell his story and how it was all in the mind – you need to change your mindset to go somewhere. I always used to be into soulful house, but since I went to the Red Bull Music Academy in New York, I saw how important music gear is to push the boundaries. With soulful house, it’s a bit of piano or bass, but with other technologies, you can really do a lot. Did you catch any special gigs in New York? I saw Pantha Du Prince & The Bell Laboratory. Wow! These guys said, “Come to this event, it’s being held in a church.” I said, “Ah, come on, I don’t go to church when I am back in South Africa.” But it was a deep house gig, they said. I had no idea that house music could be performed live like that. It was amazing. What I noticed internationally is that people want to see a performance, not just a DJ, so you need to figure out how to turn your songs into performance. You also played a DJ set in NYC. How was that? I am used to 118bpm house, so playing for people in New York was strange – they are more into electronic house and hip-hop, and I play soulful house. So I showcased soulful house from South Africa and the people jammed to it. They didn’t know the records, but they danced.

Where does your jazz influence come from? From my parents. I grew up listening to Ray Phiri and Bra Hugh Masekela. I like to fuse this influence with my music.

What is your favourite city to play? I am based in Pretoria, so I play there most often. But I have been to Cape Town a few times and I liked the attitude of the people. I think Cape Town is probably my favourite at the moment.

What was the Red Bull Music Academy in New York like? It was amazing! I still remember getting the email at 1am. I woke my parents up and said, “I’m going to New York!” They said, “How are you going to go to New York, we don’t have money?” I said, “No, look here, I have been chosen!” It was incredible. I mean,

When can we expect an album from Trancemicsoul? In 2015, I think. You know record labels these days: they don’t want to really take part. It’s more like, “You do the album and bring it to us.” So I’m doing the album bit by bit and it’s costing a lot of money. Maybe we can get it out in 2014, but for now I’d say 2015.

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merging from New York’s drum ’n’ bass scene, Drop The Lime, aka Luca Venezia, made his name in the breakcore genre before a move to Berlin pushed him towards underground techno and house. Back living in New York, Drop The Lime has of late been touring the world, mixing rockabilly riffs with rumbling bass. On top of that, he has a deep house alias, Curses, as well as a label, Trouble & Bass, which are taking up more and more of his time. In August, he performed his first DJ set on the African continent at the Oppikoppi music festival in Limpopo province. the red bulletin: How did your career get off the ground? drop the lime: My first proper gig was a party called Concrete Jungle; it’s actually a weekly party in New York that still happens. I played with DJ Soul Slinger and Pish Posh and I was 19. I was deathly nervous and it was on turntables, too. So I had all my records and someone stole this promo of some track I had called Skyfall. It was a bad-ass tech-y drum ’n’ bass tune and I was like “Where is it? Where is the promo?” Then one of the DJs after me played it. I was mad of course, but I loved that first experience of DJing and it was like, “Oh, this is cut-throat!” – you may steal a record off someone and you play a better set because of that. I loved that bandit vibe. For those unfamiliar with your work, give us a rundown on your musical journey? I started out in bands and then when I got involved in DJing, I was playing drum ’n’ bass. Then I got involved in mixing that drum ’n’ bass sound with more experimental music. In 2004, I moved to Berlin and I was exposed to the underground techno and house

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that was coming out on the Get Physical and K7 labels. It blew my mind and I got really involved in producing sounds like that and mixing them with my love for British drum ’n’ bass. Then I missed the whole band thing and so I returned to my roots, which was rockabilly and blues, and began mixing that with house and techno sounds. My first release with this new style was Hot As Hell and it came out on Ministry Of Sound in 2011. It just built and built and I started touring it with a live band. How did you come up with the idea to mix rockabilly and house? It’s like a blessing and a curse that I have so many influences. I was raised listening to classical music – Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash. I have also always been a huge fan of Western movies and the soundtracks done by Sergio Leone

“‘Oh man, you are going to South Africa, you better be careful, there are bandits and lions and tigers everywhere.’ It was ridiculous – I was imagining some postapocalyptic video game” and Ennio Morricone – they just struck a chord with me. Every summer I would go to Italy because I am half-Italian and I used to go near where those films were shot, so there was a close connection for me. I liked the vastness of the music and combining that with the tension and release of electronic music. Tell us about your debut album Enter The Night, which was released last year? A lot of the songs were made two years

before the album came out, but I kept changing them and building them up. I was known for DJing these bass-heavy sets and I had an album that was all that and then it just hit me that an album should be more than just a DJ-friendly compilation. And at the time I was getting back into rockabilly and blues in a big way so I went on a trip to New Orleans on my own and went to some crazy speakeasies and saw amazing live music. So I then went back and redid the whole record and created new songs. It was all about me reconnecting with what got me into music in the first place, which was rock ’n’ roll. Your record label, Trouble & Bass, will be seven years old in September, right? Yeah, it’s been a crazy journey. We have just started signing all these new kids like Tony Quattro, Doctor Jeep, Lucent, and Shox. It’s really exciting because the music we were first producing and releasing was UK-inspired house and grimy beats and it’s now coming back in a new way. Labels like Black Butter Records and Four Forty Records are all giving a new twist to the old grimy thing. It’s very exciting. This next year is going to be a big one for us because we have a lot of new projects. I am always very hands on with the A&R of the label. What does your own future hold? I am balancing two projects. I have another alias, Curses, which I use to play a bass-ier, deep house kind of vibe and I just got off a 10-city tour with that, so I am juggling the two. Whichever takes a longer, greater path, then I’ll go with that. What is your favourite city to play? That’s too hard to answer. There are too many good ones. Once you start going back to places, you build a family, you connect with people, and you see them over and over again. So you start associating that city not just with the party, but with all the people you are going to see. New York doesn’t count because I live there. So, off the top of my head, I would say Sydney is a place I love and I have close friends there. Another great one is San Diego. Also Los Angeles, Paris, London… it’s hard to name just one. The 20th Oppikoppi festival is in August 2014. Visit: www.oppikoppi.co.za

DiGiulian scaling the Jack Of All Trades route in Waterval Boven, South Africa

The new kid on the rock in adventure sports is a pintsized student and aspiring writer. The dizzying highs and bloodied fingers of climbing champion Sasha DiGiulian

RARE AIR

w o rds : I a n M a c l e o d p h o t o gra p h y : K eit h Lad z i n ski

ust above the tree line, but still short of where the sunlight begins, Sasha DiGiulian clasps onto a sheer sandstone cliff. Perhaps “clasp” isn’t the word. She’s too poised and graceful. The American rock climber moves on. She’s never in one place for long, and her attack of Rodan in South Africa – a route no woman has yet completed – is no different. A swivel of the torso, a deft repositioning of her pointed right foot and a controlled pull on the grips brings her closer to the light. She finds new holds with her agile fingers: pink painted nails on one side, chalk dust and ripped skin on the other. Practically unbeatable as a junior climber, DiGiulian made her mark on the senior stage when she won the 2011 climbing world championships in Arco, Italy, aged 18. She is also the holder of three US national titles and the world’s top-ranked female outdoor rock climber. But it’s the 20-year-old’s achievements outside of competition that have gained her notice in the rest of the action sports world. Her taming of the inhospitable, spiked wall known as Pure Imagination, situated in Kentucky’s Red River Gorge in October 2011 made her the first American woman ever to climb a 9a route. How hard is a 9a route? Put it this way: more than 50 women have been to space; DiGiulian is one of three with a 9a on her record. She is also the youngest of them. “I don’t really know what I’m capable of,” she says. “But I like to find out.” All of this before entering her second year in college. Around this time last year, she knew exactly where she 82

wanted to go on her summer holiday. She’d heard stories of a rocky playground in South Africa, around 300km east of Johannesburg, near the town of Waterval Boven (‘above the waterfall’ in Afrikaans), known as a climber’s haven. “You find lots of vast faces and ledges here,” she says. “You also need plenty of really technical footwork. And I’ve never used so many crimpers, which are tiny holes you can only get a few fingers or fingertips into.” Now on the brown-orange rock line about 5km out of town, DiGiulian has one more manoeuvre to execute before reaching the crux. Her 13 years of training and competing mean this is routine. Her 5ft 2in frame shimmies up the stone with ease. Growing up in Virginia, DiGiulian did everything from swimming to soccer to tennis. But it was another of her childhood pursuits that convinced her to dedicate herself to climbing. “At the time I was beginning climbing I was also a competitive figure skater,” she says. “And to practise certain jumps we would wear a safety harness like the one we used at climbing. But I remember

Social climber: Sasha DiGiulian, 20, scaled a huge rock face next to Waterfall Boven in South Africa while on her break from college

“I don’t really know what I’m capable of. But I like to find out”

DiGiulian is a threetime winner of the World Climbing Championships

every time I put it on, all I could think was that I’d rather be at climbing practice.” With the African sun slowly edging down the rock face, DiGiulian has reached a rest point on Rodan. Hardly permission to kick back and take in the view; this is just a momentary pause. Arjan de Kock, the world-class South African climber playing host and partner on this trip, first saw a 16-year-old DiGiulian in 2009, “doing some really hard climbs” in Spain. “Above all, she’s driven, focused, and very amped for life,” he says. “Now she also has this ingrained confidence that she can climb at the limit. And her passion means she is taking climbing to a whole new audience, too.” Following a year-long break after high school to travel and climb, she was accepted at Columbia University in New York City, where she’s majoring in creative writing with a business concentration. “I see myself climbing for the rest of my life,” she says, “but sports marketing has my eye as something I’d like to do one day.” For 84

now she lives a juggling act, keeping her sports, studies and everything else in the air at once. In “city girl” mode, DiGiulian cycles and runs for general fitness, and five days a week she visits the indoor wall at Chelsea Piers on Manhattan’s West Side. When her schedule permits, she travels to competitions on weekends. “Sasha’s climbing career doesn’t seem to dominate her life,” says her room-mate Ariana Dickey. “I would say that Sasha finds as much time as any other student for fun. And even during this summer, while she’s been travelling the world, she finds time to check in with me, see how I’ve been doing.” There’s a reason a woman hasn’t conquered Rodan, a rocky outcrop in trout-fishing country, not far from South Africa’s eastern border with Mozambique and the Kingdom of Swaziland. DiGiulian’s petite build and agility are assets for sure, but parts of the route are better served by height and brute force. Even the accomplished De Kock struggled

The American climber recently recovered from a finger injury. She completed the first ascent of Rolihlahla on her return to action the red bulletin

“Each time you’re realising the formerly impossible is possible”

here earlier… and then WHOOOOOSH. For a moment the world’s top-ranked female outdoor climber is drifting in thin air, with only a rope saving her from falling to the rocky path 10m below. DiGiulian lets the rope harnessed to her waist take the strain, looping her back to the rock. She eases the impact with a balletic left leg. Rodan has won this time. But there are other climbs to conquer. Earlier on her South Africa trip, while hiking between routes one morning DiGiulian spotted what she calls “this proud and intimidating black rock face that was striking. There were no chalk marks, but the rock jutted out like it was asking to be climbed.” She and De Kock consulted with locals and determined that they were looking at a route first noted in 2008 called ‘Overlord’ and was yet to be conquered. “It looked so aesthetic, I thought, ‘Why not try it?’” Overlord is arguably more difficult than Rodan. Divided roughly in half by a giant overhang, it demands several big reaches, segments of crack climbing, and a long portion of diagonal slithering across a sheer rock face.

For three days the duo returned to pay homage to the Overlord and survey their latest challenge. “It was a new experience for me,” explains DiGiulian. “When you’re working on a new route, you’re constantly trying to work out if you can climb a rock line. In a way, unlocking the sequence is like solving a puzzle. You have to whittle down each move and then make links to create one solid line. Each time you’re realising that the formerly impossible is possible.”

hree days of painstaking progress and “gnarly falls” and at last the Overlord acceded. “I SENT!” – climbing lingo derived from ‘ascent’ – was DiGiulian’s elated proclamation on Twitter. Following shortly after her with the second-ever ascent of the route was De Kock, and the climbing buddies agreed to rate the line an 8c – technically just short of Sasha’s best, 9a, but on uncharted territory. Time-honoured climbing lore says that the first to complete a route has the privilege of assigning its permanent name. DiGiulian used the opportunity to pay respect to her host nation’s founding father. “I named the climb Rolihlahla,” she says. “It’s Nelson Mandela’s middle name. He’s one of the great men in history, and it’s moving to be here at such a critical period for the country.” At the time, Mandela was receiving treatment at a Pretoria hospital. Appropriately, the name translates from the vernacular as ‘Trouble Maker’. “I really like that spark,” says DiGiulian. “You’re out there taking big, dangerous falls. You’re making trouble! You’re going up there and causing a ruckus on the wall, defying gravity, defying fear. It’s a new form of rebellion.” As she left the area at the end of her successful day of climbing, DiGiulian took another look at the Rodan, the one climb she couldn’t conquer. “Whether I have time to do it on this trip, I’m not sure,” she says. “If not I’ll do it next time.” A few days later, the perpetually kinetic DiGiulian took off for the steel and glass mountains of Manhattan. She’ll be back in South Africa one day, and Rodan will be waiting for her. www.sasha-digiulian.com

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WINGS FOR EVERY TASTE.

CRANBERRY. LIME. BLUEBERRY. AND THE EFFECT OF RED BULL.

Sound investment: the keys to making music on an iPad. Music, page 94

Where to go and what to do

ac t i o n ! T r a v e l / G e a r / T r a i n i n g / N i g h t l i f e / M U S I C / p a r t i e s / c i t i e s / c l u b s / E v e n ts

Lap land Hurling a supercar around Finland’s frozen lakes takes driving to the next level

photography: ARNAUD TAQUET

Travel, page 90

Slide rules: ice driving fun in a Lamborghini Gallardo

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Action!

going green

get the gear

earth-friendly gear

made in the shades Look good and feel good in these sustainable bamboo sunglasses; buy them and a pair of glasses is donated to someone in need. wearpanda.com

Jason McCaffrey is director of surf at Patagonia

Out with the Neo surfing patagonia’s eco wetsuits are manufactured with plant-based products

take an eco hike Made from recycled materials, the Earthkeepers GT has the traction and stability needed to trek through the worst of conditions.

With a goal of reducing the amount of environmentally harmful neoprene in wetsuits, Patagonia worked for four years with Yulex, a company based in Arizona that taps the natural rubber of the guayule plant. The result is a high-performance garment, 60 per cent of which is made from biodegradable, non-synthetic rubber. The only indication? It smells vaguely of eucalyptus – all the better for leaving it in your car. “I did the Pepsi challenge with our surfers,” says Patagonia’s director of surf, Jason McCaffrey. “I sent them the new suit without saying anything. And they were like, ‘Yeah, it fits great. Same old, same old...’ ” McCaffrey couldn’t hope for a bigger compliment.

timberland.com

ski the treeline With an incredibly low carbon footprint, these sleek all-wood skis are a great ecofriendly option for the slopes. Photography: Jeff Johnson/PAtagonia, Kanoa Zimmerman/Patagonia

grownskis.com

Naturally good After Patagonia was successful in revamping its popular R2 front-zip wetsuit into an eco prototype with the new material, the company invited the rest of the industry to use Yulex with a goal of eradicating neoprene in a few years’ time. It’s next challenge is to make wetsuits 100 per cent renewable.

Guayule Grows in arid climates, like southwest America

Biorubber Ideal for those who have allergies to latex

Wool The interior is lined to keep the wearer warm

www.patagonia.com

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Action!

party

Block party: Club Maximus is in Kotor’s city walls

monte movies Three films to put you in their place

Slav to the rhythm

Words: florian obkircher. Photography: radoje Milic (4)

KOTOR Monaco comes to Montenegro with a superclub of models, yachts – and ancient city walls Sexy house beats, a powerful sound system, flashing laser beams, moving video screens, go-go girls and a dancefloor full of supermodels. A night in Kotor’s glitziest club promises sensory overkill. Maximus is the night-time companion to the noble harbour on the Montenegrin coast. By 2014, Kotor will have 50 landing stages for superyachts: more than Monaco. Maximus won’t just impress the well-heeled clubgoer. The club is built into the city walls, which date from the Middle Ages and are a major part of the city’s status, since 1979, as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The walls, which are 2m thick, once protected Kotor from the Ottomans. Now they ensure that a nightclub’s neighbours are not disturbed. MAXIMUS Stari Grad 433, Kotor, Montenegro www.discomaximus.com

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The Dark Side of the Sun Brad Pitt’s first lead role, shot in Montenegro in 1988, before the wars in the former Yugoslavia broke out. A lightweight romantic drama, but there are great sunsets.

With a capacity of 4,000, Maximus regularly hosts big-name concerts

Get Ye r C oat, Dragi Three chat-up lines in the local language

1 Your eyes are the same colour as my Porsche.

Casino Royale The most famous film to be set in Montenegro wasn’t even filmed there. When Daniel Craig is supposedly hounding his way through Kotor, he is actually in the Czech Republic or the Bahamas.

Tvoje ocˇi imaju istu boju kao moj Porše.

2 I’ve lost my number. Can I have yours? Izgubio sam svoj broj. Mogu li da dobijem tvoj?

3 Don’t I know you? You look like my next girlfriend. Da li se znamo, jer puno licˇiš na moju budu´cu djevojku?

Smash & Grab A 2013 documentary about the Pink Panthers, a gang of jewel thieves with their roots in Serbia and Montenegro. They bagged half a billion dollars’ worth of loot in more than 500 raids.

Action!

travel

Cold play: 100kph in a Lamborghini Gallardo on a frozen lake in Lapland

And anoth er thing The Finnish Line

Excite Adrenalin to spare? Jump on a snowmobile and power through a forest in search of the Northern Lights. www.experienceisosyote.fi

Snow drift

While children dream of a trip to Lapland to meet Father Christmas, adults are sent into a similar frenzy by the thought of going there to drive at 100kph on ice. Not that kids are forbidden from swapping Santa for supercars. “Last year we had an 11-year-old driving a Lamborghini,” says Daniel Eden, owner of D1 Ultimate-GT, a motorsport tour organiser. “There are no rules or regulations on frozen lake circuits at all. Anyone can get behind the wheel.” But it’s adults who most commonly layer up for a sub-zero spin. “I’ve driven lots of race and high-performance cars before,” says German entrepreneur Frank Scheelen, who travelled to Finland last year, “but this is how you learn to really push a car to the limit. There are no barriers on the lake, and I had four-time WRC champion Juha Kankkunen by my side giving advice as I went, the car was our classroom. “The Porsche 911 was great, you’re essentially drifting. But most fun was the Lamborghini Gallardo. It’s so powerful. You have to be quick-witted to stop it spinning at 100kph, but that’s Prices start from where the adrenalin kicks in. €3,569 (plus tax) You really feel the power of for an all-inclusive three-day, two-night the car. It was actually an emotional experience. I know trip including one full day at the track. I won’t find the freedom of www.ultimate-gt.com driving like that anywhere else.” 90

Eat “Did he say turn left at the snowdrift?”

Advice from the inside Cold as ice

“Be aware of the weather,” warns Daniel Eden. “As soon as you arrive in Lapland it hits you. It might be as low as -40°C. Even though we send out info on how to prepare, many still turn up at the airport in T-shirts; we’re all dressed like Eskimos.”

Home improvement

“Every driver should try it,”

says Frank Scheelen. “On ice you can safely push the car, find where the limits lie. Then you’re a better driver on the street and in a racecar. I’m calmer now. I know what to do in almost every situation.”

For a most Finnish of feasts, it has to be reindeer, whether that’s reindeer ravioli, sautéed neck or a simple steak. www.monterosa.fi

Explore For a break from engine noise, take a husky-drawn sled out to explore the wilderness in almost total silence. www.visitrovaniemi.fi

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Words: Ruth Morgan. Photography: arnaud taquet, juha kankkunen driving academy, Shutterstock (3)

ice Driving Ever wondered why the Finns excel at motorsport? For them, drifting a Lamborghini around a lawless frozen lake racetrack is child’s play

Action!

workout

What you putt in GOLF Flexibility and air-dried meats are key elements in the make-up of a champion golfer

Words: Ulrich corazza. Photography: getty images, chris garrison/red bull content pool. illustration: Heri Irawan

In 2010, aged 17 years and 188 days, Matteo Manassero became the youngest winner of a European Tour event at the Castello Masters in Spain

Matteo Manassero puts in the hard yards for the year-round slog that is professional golf. “Training should consist of both endurance and strength exercises,” says the Italian, who turned 20 in April, the month before he won his fourth European Tour event, the BMW PGA at Wentworth. “The most important thing in golf is to have springy muscles, especially in your hips and legs. So I go for a low number of explosive reps, about eight.” Manassero tops off his training with Pilates and stretches, to give him the core stability and flexibility he needs. What’s also important before a five-hour round of golf is a nutritious feed: “I’ve got into the habit of eating a bit of bresaola [the beef equivalent of prosciutto] and white rice.” twitter.com/manasseromatteo

the aim gam e don't be green on the greens What’s the formula for the fewest putts? “On the one hand, it’s a matter of technique,” says Manassero, “but mainly it’s a matter of confidence in getting the ball in the hole. You can only get that by practising. My routine consists of 15 minutes of putting technique exercises, 20 minutes of putts from 1.2m and then 20 minutes from 6m.”

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Pitch perfect: Manassero uses Pilates to keep in the swing of things

co r e valu es “Two things I always include in my training routine,” says Matteo Manassero, “are squats and various Pilates moves.” Here’s how to make like Matt.

Stand with your feet pointing slightly outward and shoulder-width apart, and a barbell on your shoulders. Pick a weight you're comfortable with.

Bend knees and squat. Breathe out on the way down; in on the way up. Never fully straighten your back or take your knees past 90º.

Lift both legs and bend your knees about 90º. Lift your upper body off the mat, with your chin down to your chest and your hands on your lower legs.

Stretch your legs while making semi-circles with your hands above your head and tensing your stomach muscles. Repeat 12-15 times.

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city Guide

Douglas Stre

Nick Dwyer’s work has taken him to more than 70 countries, but he’s never happier than when he’s hanging out in the Auckland suburb of Ponsonby. The DJ, TV producer and musician used to be embarrassed when overseas friends came to visit him. “If you hang out with musicians and artists you get instant and inside access to the heart of a city.” he says. “They know all the coolest spots. I used to freak out when friends came to my town because I didn’t know where to take them. There wasn’t much happening.” Not anymore. The city has been transformed in the last few years. “We’ve got some really cool places to go now,” says Dwyer. “Britomart in downtown Auckland has really taken off, the dining in the city has improved and Ponsonby has gone through some incredible changes.” 92

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TOP FIVE MY Auckland HIGHLIGHTS

1 CONCH RECORDS & CAFE 115a Ponsonby Road “The team at Conch is keeping the spirit of the local independent record store alive. The music is always on point and their backyard café serves the most amazing Central/South American cuisine.”

organic coffee beans in this converted 1930s post office, so the coffee is incredible. I love my meat, but this is the one place where I’m happy to embrace my inner vegetarian.”

4 GOLDEN DAWN orner of Richmond C & Ponsonby Road “This place reminds me of a cool, hipster beer garden in Berlin. They’ve got a great music policy and the outdoor area has a cool vibe in the summertime.”

water

Another ferry ride will take you to the sleepy seaside town of Devonport. North Head was a military stronghold during World Wars I and II, and the old tunnels and the views back across the harbour make this a popular day trip.

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2 EL SIZZLING CHORIZO 136-138 Ponsonby Road “Corra, the owner is from Argentina and used to have a food truck on Waiheke Island. We think we have a barbecue culture in New Zealand, but Argentinians are the barbecue masters.” 3 KOKAKO CAFe & ROASTERY 537 Great North Road “They roast their own top-quality

5 FLOTSAM AND JETSAM 86 Ponsonby Road “‘One man’s trash is another man’s treasure’, or so the saying goes, and that’s certainly the case at this second-hand store. Old cookbooks, paintings and knickknacks are crammed into a space that rewards a good rummage.”

U2 wrote a song called One Tree Hill in honour of their New Zealand roadie Greg Carroll, who died in 1986. In 2000, the Auckland volcano the song was named after became No Tree Hill, after Maori activists attacked the tree with a chainsaw.

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Photography: richard edghill, graeme murray

AUCKLAND Music and food make Nick Dwyer’s world go around. he shares his tips on where you can find the best of both in New Zealand’s ‘City of Sails’

There are 48 volcanoes in the Auckland region and Rangitoto Island is the most well-known. Catch a scenic ferry ride across Auckland Harbour and climb to the summit, 260m high. Run fast if you see smoke.

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Arch Hill

“Happy to embrace my inner vegetarian”

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Nick Dwyer: tracking down his hometown’s best beats and bites

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Capetown, One Tree South Africa Auckland Hill

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music

Pop art Jack Johnson: songs covered around a beach campfire near you

Music and surfing are Jack Johnson’s areas of excellence. He qualified for the Pipeline Masters surf championships in his home state of Hawaii when aged just 17, the youngest man in the field. Yet rather than pursue a life on the ocean waves, he went to California to study film and make music. Johnson’s first five albums of summery folk songs have sold 15 million copies worldwide. To mark the release of a sixth, From Here To Now To You, the 38-year-old reveals inspirational songs for you, here, now.

Chords and boards Playlist Jimi Hendrix confused him into playing guitar. Fugazi filled him in on punk. The surfersongsmith on music that moves him

Musicians swapping vinyl for oils

Bob Dylan is currently exhibiting at the National Portrait Gallery in London. Can you pick out his work, and match the others with their mainly musical creators?

www.jackjohnsonmusic.com

2 Fugazi

3 Michael Kiwanuka

“I often went camping with my dad when I was a kid and always had the tape of the Hendrix album Electric Ladyland in my Walkman. It had auto reverse so I’d fall asleep with that album on. I found this song incredible. I couldn’t work out how he was making the noises on his guitar. It was pure magic and it made me want to start playing guitar myself.”

“One time I was listening to the radio on the way to school and this song came on and hit me in a big way. It was different from anything I’d heard. Such a driving sound, with that teenage energy to it where I felt, like, if we [him and his friends] get together and turn our amps loud enough, we can sound like that. I think I formed my first band because of that song.”

“Michael’s voice reminds me of Bill Withers and Otis Redding, but it’s unique. Also, he’s the sweetest human being I’ve ever met. I hung out with him in Australia at a festival. My wife and I got a babysitter so we could go and watch him play. He’s one of those guys where now that I got the chance to know him a little bit, I love his music even more.”

4 Tame Impala

5 Violent Femmes

“Four years ago in Australia, some guy gave me his band’s first album and it was all I listened to on the rest of our tour. Lonerism, their second album, is even better. Tame Impala took a sound off The Beatles’ Revolver album and made a genre out of it. I don’t mean that in a way that every song sounds the same, but it’s like they took that sound and built a new branch on the same tree.”

“When I was 12, my older brother made me my first mixtape. It included this gentle song by Violent Femmes, which I still like to play now at soundchecks. I like how there’s so much energy in the song. It has a punk mentality, but it’s on acoustic guitar. Sort of like, you can get a lot of energy, but still play acoustic instruments. I learned a lot from them.”

Feels Like We Only Go Backwards

Waiting Room

Rest

Good Feeling

Patti Smith Marilyn Manson

keyed u p Portable piano, man

Miselu C.24 This will make the iPad a must-have for travelling musicians with the emphasis on the travel: a two-octave keyboard that connects to the tablet and doubles as a protective cover. Ingenious and genius. www.miselu.com

Paul McCartney

Bob Dylan

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Words: florian obkricher. Photography: universal music, picturedesk.com (3), Rex features (4), reuters, getty images

1983... (A Merman I Should Turn to Be)

Answers: A - Patti Smith, B - Bob Dylan, C - Paul McCartney, D - Marilyn Manson

1 Jimi Hendrix

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save the date The event he invented: Ryan Sandes at Red Bull Lion Heart 2012

don’t miss ink these dates in your diary

15 october

ride time The Berg & Bush Great Trek is a three-day, 205km mountain bike race from Sterkfontein Dam to the Tugela River. It’s perfect for riders who want to race solo or in a smaller field. www.bergand bush.co.za

26 october

November 9

Ups and downs

The brainchild of endurance trail runner Ryan Sandes, Red Bull Lion Heart is the most innovative trail run in South Africa. A field of 150 runners will be whittled down by a time trial and a series of heats until the fastest eight men and women contest the final. Anyone hopeful of a place on the podium will have to contend with the unpredictable Cape weather up and down Lion’s Head.

www.redbull.co.za

november

October 19-20

Sweet dreams Head to the ‘Wood Between The Worlds’ for the Gaian Dream psytrance party held near Caledon just over 100km from Cape Town. www.organik.co.za

October 14

November 2

Testing times

Super showdown

South Africa, the No.1 ranked Test team in the world, open their summer with two Tests against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates. No less than four limited-overs series follow, and the next time the Proteas pull on their whites will be for the Boxing Day Test against India, where the return of Hashim Amla (right) to his old Durban stomping ground, Kingsmead, will be worth watching. www.cricket.co.za

The 2013 South African superbike series is set to come to a screaming crescendo in the last race of the season at the Kyalami track in Gauteng. Cam Peterson and his MV Agusta will attempt to hold off Lance Isaacs’ Kawasaki (above), but with only a handful of points separating the two riders, and 25 points up for grabs for the winner, this one could go down to the wire. www.motorsport.co.za

Film time More than 150 award-winning movies, shorts and documentaries will be screened in and around the Mother City for the Cape Town International Film Festival. Workshops and discussions will also feature. www.films-forafrica.co.za

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Words: Angus Powers. photography: Craig Kolesky/red bull content pool, chris christy, getty images, 38Indesign

high time The Matroosberg Challenge is the SA Skyrunning Association’s first sanctioned event. It takes place near Ceres in the Western Cape, offering 36km and 2,200m of elevation gain over spectacular trails. www.skyrunningsa. wordpress.com

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Must-haves! 1 2

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http://shop.jetboil.com/index.php/solcooking-system.html 3 NixON blASTER The Nixon Blaster. Bigger, better, louder, prouder and all without any bothersome wires or cords to get in your way. Mobile portability built tough to withstand the elements to take it anywhere. Grab it and go to a house-party, skate park, snow park or beach --- Bluetooth connectivity means there are no limits to where it can go. With an ultra-rugged build and long life battery, plus an intergrated microphone for hands free wireless voice calls. R1 500,00.

www.nixon.com 4 iNviCTuS by PACO RAbANNE Experience the thrill of victory with Invictus, the new fragrance for men by Paco Rabanne. A sensual and compelling scent with a fresh woody signature. R720 for 50ml and R905 for 100ml.

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5 TAylORMADE SlDR DRivER Longest TaylorMade driver ever. Lowand-forward centre of gravity promotes high launch, fast speed and low spin for huge distance. Easy SLDR movable weight promotes up to 30 yards of shot shape adjustment. Increase or reduce the loft 1.5 degrees with 12-position loft-sleeve. Modern-classic shape with charcoal-gray crown. R 4 499.

www.taylormadegolf.co.za

Time warp The Wright stuff

Photography: imagno/getty images

On a hill in north-east Germany in 1893, Otto Lilienthal (below) embarked on a series of human-powered glider flights that would break distance records and inspire a sibling duo of inventors in America, dreaming of taming the skies. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The world owes to him a great debt,â&#x20AC;? said Wilbur Wright, of Otto, whose man-can-do attitude will be seen, 120 years later, at the Red Bull Flugtag in the Islamic Art Museum Park in Doha, Qatar, on November 1.

the next issue of the red bulletin is out on November 5 98

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