The Red Bulletin UK 11/20

UK EDITION NOVEMBER 2020, £3.50

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BEYOND THE ORDINARY

DON’T MIND THE GAP THE ASCENT OF URBAN CRACK CLIMBING

SAWEETIE SHOOTING HOOPS WITH US RAP’S RISING STAR

HEAD FOR HEIGHTS How JUSTINE DUPONT is taking big-wave surfing to the next level

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Editor’s letter

This month’s cover star, Justine Dupont (page 32), has dedicated her life to being able to take on monster waves and live to tell the tale, and is now at the forefront of a generation of wave riders pushing the limits of what’s possible in the water. The French big-wave surfer narrowly missed out on setting a new Guinness World Record for a ride in Nazaré, Portugal, earlier this year, a decision that caused some controversy. But, for Dupont, it was a good reminder that trophies and titles aren’t what drive her to do battle with 20m-high walls of water – “It’s about the journey,” as she puts it.

This is a philosophy that would resonate with world-class free solo climber Robbie Phillips (page 42), who, when the planet went into lockdown, switched his usual record-breaking climbs in exotic locations for an unlikely new setting – the underside of a public footbridge in Edinburgh – in a move that may help him conquer mountains.

Then there’s US rap star Saweetie (page 50), whose own path to the top started when she filmed herself rapping in her Jeep and has since led the Californian to charttopping success.

We hope you enjoy the issue.

LAKIN STARLING

“Connecting with Saweetie and talking about some of the things that Black women navigate in life – specifically in the music industry – was great,” says the Brooklynbased writer, whose work has been published by Teen Vogue, Esquire, Vulture and Pitchfork. “It was a delight to learn more about the many experiences that have shaped her into such a boss.” Page 50

RICK GUEST

“Shooting Justine Dupont was a total pleasure,” says the Brit, who specialises in photographing elite performers. “She’s the most incredible cocktail of contradiction; strong but vulnerable, beautiful yet completely unassuming. She rides waves over 20m tall on a small piece of shaped foam.

To watch her surf is to see the human spirit in its purest form.” Page 32

RICK GUEST (COVER)

ENJOYING THE RIDE

CONTRIBUTORS THIS ISSUE

Balanced view: photographer Rick Guest shoots Justine Dupont, the world champion surfer who’s not about to be knocked off her perch Page 32

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THE RED BULLETIN

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CONTENTS November 2020

10 Gallery: riding wrecks in Florida;

it’s all spokes and mirrors in Lyon; mountain-biking magic deep in a German forest, and a touch of flare on a Russian mountaintop 16 Boss hog: Queens of the Stone

Age frontman Josh Homme picks his perfect soundtrack for hellraising on two wheels 18 Extreme E: the zero-emission

electric SUV that performs like Beckham in his prime – and even sounds a bit like him, too 21 Surf’s out: the artist who’s

filtering surfing iconography through a new, queer lens 22 Welcome to the pleasure dome:

floating luxury pad Anthénea is like no hotel suite you’ve ever seen (outside a Bond film) 25 Covering every situation: the

C-FACE smart mask takes your phone calls, projects your voice and even translates your words

26 Josephine Anderson

The Canadian filmmaker gives a crash course in surviving a fall

28 Alex Thomson

The loneliness (or otherwise) of the long-distance yachtsman

30 Jen Gurecki

Meet the CEO making women’s ski gear that “doesn’t suck”

32 Justine Dupont

She may have missed out on a world record, but the big-wave surfing titan isn’t crestfallen

42 Robbie Phillips

Hanging tough with the Scottish free solo climber who has cracks in his armoury

TYLER STABLEFORD

50 Saweetie

How the Californian won respect by playing hardball, both on the sports field and in the rap game

56 Iceland’s volcanoes Climbing glaciers and driving blind in the land of fire and ice

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56

Frozen assets: exploring the volcanic landscape of Iceland

67 On the nose: British professional

surfer Mike Lay transports us to longboarding heaven – otherwise known as Sennen Cove in West Cornwall 71 Take it on board: surfwear for

the discerning wave-rider

74 Space-age kicks: Under Armour’s

mighty morphing football boot

75 Fully loaded: how Call of Duty:

Warzone changed a gamer’s life 76 Ascent packing: our edit of the

best climbing gear you can buy

78 Brave soles: the barefoot runner

who’s breaking records 80 Vibes, vibes, vibes: the workout

putting the fun back into exercise 81 Swing ting: shape up with the ‘fitness axe’ named The Chopper

82 Phone-free zone: raise your game

with an entry-level camera

84 Reclaim the streets: a gear guide

to modern urban living

94 Essential dates for your calendar 98 Breaking bird: wildstyle B-Boy

moves on the streets of Tokyo 09

SEBASTIAN, FLORIDA, USA

Hull and high water For Italian wakeboarding champion Massimiliano Piffaretti, any surface is an opportunity to showcase his skills. As luck would have it, the Italian came across this abandoned boat (a victim of 2019’s Hurricane Dorian) during the Red Bull pro wakeboard team’s South Florida Loop Trip in June – a 350km adventure along the Sunshine State’s Intercoastal Waterway – and Floridian snapper Bryan Soderlind was there to capture the moment.

Serendipity – don’t you just love it?

Instagram: @thegoldenbear

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BRYAN SODERLIND/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

LYON, FRANCE

Wall of confusion In Lyon’s Place des Célestins is a portal to another world. Gaze through a periscope set into the concrete of the city square and this is what you’ll see (minus rider Clement Boero – he and photographer Yohan Minary will have gone home by now). With its rotating circular mirror, artist Daniel Buren’s work Sens Dessus Dessous (Upside Down) transforms an underground car park into an optical illusion for those above. Instagram: @yohan_minary

YOHAN MINARY/RED BULL ILLUME, ANJUNA HARTMANN/RED BULL ILLUME

HESSE, GERMANY

Time to reflect “Mirror, mirror on the floor: who is knocking on the door?” asks downhill mountain-bike rider Anton Wünscher cryptically in his Instagram post of this photograph, shot in the forests of Germany’s Taunus mountain range.

The technique employed by Frankfurtbased photographer Anjuna Hartmann to reflect Wünscher and the vibrant copper-toned setting certainly lend the image a fairytale-like quality. anjunahartmann.com 13

MOUNT ELBRUS, RUSSIA

Energy to burn

When you’ve just smashed two records, no one would begrudge you a spot of showboating. Admire the flare, then, of Russian mountain-running colossus Dmitry Mityaev, caught in the Caucasus here by Moscow-born photographer Danil Kolodin. The appropriately titled Elbrus Race involves a 111km run up Mount Elbrus – Europe’s highest peak – with a climb of 5,600m. In July this year, Mityaev ran it in 13 hours and 19 minutes, smashing the record by two hours and 34 minutes.

This was clearly a breeze, for he kept going, covering a further 30km to complete the circuit and take the ‘world cruise record’. “As soon as I crossed the finishing line, I knew that when you’re well prepared you’re able to do marvellous things,” says the 28-year-old.

Instagram: @danilkolodin

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DANIL KOLODIN/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

JOSH HOMME

“Judas Priest is better than sex” The Queens of the Stone Age frontman shares his essential soundtrack for motorbiking on the open road – or in heavy LA traffic

Judas Priest

Cheap Trick

Dean Martin

Breaking The Law (1980)

Surrender (1978)

Mambo Italiano (1969)

“You haven’t lived until you have driven down Hollywood Boulevard [playing] this so loud that you’re freaking people out, you know? From the reactions of people on the street, you know who you would hang out with. You know exactly who you would be friends with. It’s definitely like a calling card.”

“I never really understood Judas Priest until I started riding motorcycles. Listening to Breaking The Law on a motorcycle is like a gift from above. Seriously, driving through the city with this song on, wearing a helmet so no one has a clue who you are, is just wonderful. One of the best things ever. Probably even better than sex.”

“On the Harley, I can listen to my favourite music – like the first three albums by Cheap Trick. They’re so fucking good, and I’m like, ‘Yes and yes – and go!’ They’re flawless from start to finish. Especially [1977 single] Southern Girls – that song was written to be played on a bike while making your way through traffic. So why sit there? Put it on and let’s go!”

“I love listening to Dean Martin on my bike, because I don’t think anyone does that. It’s a special thing when you know you’re doing something that is not done often. Mambo Italiano turned up to 20 on a motorcycle is the tits, as they say. You can hear Dean smiling as he’s singing – that is so special. I mean, talk about bringing joy to the world.”

Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (1976)

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THE RED BULLETIN

ANDREAS NEUMANN

AC/DC

MARCEL ANDERS

When US rock titans Queens of the Stone Age take time off – as they are doing right now – main man Josh Homme likes to rev up his beloved motorcycle collection, which includes a museum-piece Falcon, an Exile chopper, and a Harley with giant speakers. The 47-year-old calls the two-hour ride between his Palm Desert home and Burbank studio his “meditation” – the best way to clear his head, get inspired and get loose. Standing 6ft 4in-tall (1.93m) in his leather jacket, biker boots, steel helmet and dark sunglasses, Homme is a hellraiser not to be messed with.

Here’s what he listens to while riding his hog… qotsa.com

Commemorating the very first aviators and explorers sharing their heritage with Longines.

French explorer Paul-Emile Victor led numerous expeditions in the polar regions. During his adventures on the glacial ice caps, he placed his trust in Longines watches to keep the time and determine his geographical position.

In 1936, ethnologist and pilot Paul-Emile Victor started researching the bitterly-cold polar regions. He set his sights on Eismitte, Greenland and left to cross the huge ice cap together with three friends.

Victor’s aim was to better understand the physics of the earth. In later expeditions, leading a scientific collective, he researched the fragile relationship between the oceans, the land and the atmosphere.

Working in one of the most inhospitable regions on earth, required highly specialised tools. Victor and his crew endured up to –40°F temperatures for over 49 days at a time.

His Longines chronometers continued to work accurately — helping him to calculate the longitude when he dared to cross the Greenland ice cap. “ These watches made the difference between failure and success ”, Victor later stated.

How we face the fall is what separates the pioneer spirit from the rest. Falling with elegance, when all the odds are stacked against you. Trying, failing, fighting and triumphing with elegance. This is what’s remembered, what remains — when all else has been stripped away.

The Longines Spirit Collection was crafted to embody precisely this. A careful blend of elegance, tradition and performance — with the same distinct features that were tailored to assist the very first aviators: from the proofed accuracy to the oversized winding crown, to be adjusted easily while wearing gloves; prominent high-contrast numerals; and hands with luminescent coating, for night time flying.

A powerful reminder that the pioneer spirit lives on.

Emission control The race to reverse climate change just went from 0 to 60 in 4.5 seconds

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The specs of the Odyssey 21 are pretty much everything you’d expect from an SUV built for racing – this 550hp, 1,560kg, 2.3m-wide off-road beast is capable of clawing up a 130 per cent gradient at 200kph from a standstill. The surprise comes from its engine: a drone-like whine from two electric powertrains. This zeroemission E-SUV has been created for Extreme E, a new global rally championship from Alejandro Agag, one of the founders of electric car-racing series Formula E. The Spaniard hopes to do more than just entertain race fans – he wants to save the world.

“With Formula E, we had the idea of promoting electric cars for the cities; with this, we wanted to showcase the damage happening through climate change and pollution to

THE RED BULLETIN

TOM GUISE

ODYSSEY 21

MCH PHOTO, EXTREME-E.COM

The zero-emission, sustainably powered Odyssey 21 E-SUV: here to save the planet (kind of)

the most remote locations,” he says. “We’re taking an electric race to the most damaged corners of the planet.”

In what might seem a counterintuitive move, each of the five race locations was chosen to highlight a specific environmental crisis: melting ice caps, desertification, ocean pollution, vanishing mountain ice, and deforestation. Any unavoidable environmental impact from this ‘race without a trace’ will be offset by initiatives including plastic clearing on Dakar’s beaches and planting a million mangroves in Senegal. “The result is better than without a trace,” promises Agag.

Part of that promise are Odyssey 21’s fuel cells, which are powered by hydrogen from sunlight and water. This can be sustainably produced on location, but will also be carried to the races aboard a floating base of operations.

“That’s the message: that we can generate our own energy without pollution,” says Agag.

“If we can do it in the Arctic or the Amazon, everyone can do it wherever they are.”

Extreme E is also planning to be the first motorsport with true gender equality; each team comprises one male and one female driver, who take turns on each lap. “They are equally decisive in the victory,” Agag says.

Having tested the Odyssey 21 at this year’s Dakar Rally, the first race of the Extreme E series is scheduled for Saudi Arabia next March, barring any complications due to COVID-19 restrictions. But even in that regard Extreme E has one advantage. “No spectators,” says Agag of a decision to prevent unnecessary damage to the locations. “Many other motorsports are doing a lonely version of their own races without spectators. We planned that many years before any of this happened.” extreme-e.com

UP TO -40°C FOR 49 DAYS When Paul-Emile Victor was researching the ice-cold arctic region in 1936, his Longines chronometers continued to work accurately – helping him to calculate the longitude when he dared to cross the Greenland ice cap. “These watches made the difference between failure and success”, Victor stated.

Paul-Emile Victor

LOU BOYD STEPHENARTHURMILNER.COM

Ever since the early ’60s, when The Beach Boys released their debut single Surfin’ and two Californian boys spent The Endless Summer (as documented in the seminal surf movie) searching the globe for the perfect wave, the world of surfing has been largely a hyper-masculine environment, with an emphasis not only on sand, sea and getting stoked but also on sex and how the sport can sell it. With his new book of surfing images, A Spiritual Good Time, Californian artist Stephen Milner has subverted this narrative, creating something more accessible for the LGBTQ+ wave-riding community and beyond.

While growing up as a gay surfer in the Long Beach scene, Milner’s love for the sport was forever tinged with the feeling that surfing wasn’t open to him. “I’ve always been interested in the narrative behind surf culture,” he says, “but it was only when I got to grad school that I picked up the idea of portraying gay identity in the sport. My work is centred around the idea of what masculinity in a community is all about, exploring the idea that it’s a really fragile concept, and what that means.”

Using a mix of old surf photography and homoerotic magazine images, A Spiritual Good Time presents surfing through a queer lens, offering an alternative perspective of its manly camaraderie and portraying a different kind of intimacy between the subjects.

“As a young adult, I would look at surf magazines and romanticise about being on that wave, going to that place, or being like those surfers, but THE RED BULLETIN

STEPHEN MILNER

Sea of love

This Californian artist is reframing the hyper-masculine iconography of surfing to present a new queer voice within the sport

I could never really identify with them,” Milner says. “I was always focusing on the guys who were watching the main [surfer] from the sidelines, and I’d take note of their closeness. In my images, I cut or expanded those details to make them look a lot more intimate, or just to confuse the overall idea.”

He is now looking beyond A Spiritual Good Time to the future of queer representation

in surfing. “I’m just a very small voice. I’m a white gay male and that’s a tiny part of the LGBTQ+ spectrum,” says Milner. “I think so many more people need to have their voices carried and lifted. I’m excited to have contributed this first small piece to talk about, but I’m also really excited to see what else is out there.” meteoroeditions.com/ A-Spiritual-Good-TimeS-Milner 21

Suite harmony Who said luxury, ocean exploration and saving the planet can’t co-exist? The creator of this floating hotel disagrees Not so long ago, eco-friendly travel was little more than a matter of forgoing a few basic comforts – maybe choosing the train over the plane, or not booking that nice hotel because of the CO2 emissions involved in getting there. These days, environmentalism has gone high end, and now there’s a new ethical way to explore the world, in the form of Anthénea – an opulent, floating podshaped hotel suite that cleans the ocean as it goes.

The creator of Anthénea, French naval architect JeanMichel Ducancelle, got the idea after seeing something similar in the 1977 James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me. “The pod is a refuge, a cosy cocoon of love,” he says. “Thousands of natural sites on the planet 22

have remained inaccessible due to their remoteness and the difficulty of staying there for a long time. Anthénea allows you to settle there.”

Available as a one-, two- or three-cabin suite, Anthénea is fitted with extra-large circular beds, rounded sofas, kitchen facilities, and a bath or shower.

Upstairs is a convertible circular solarium with views of the horizon, while below is the pod’s most impressive feature – an underwater observatory with a 360° panorama of the ocean.

“To live in the heart of wildlife, you have to blend in with the landscape,” says Ducancelle. Charged by solar power, Anthénea’s electric motors can cover 5-6km at a time with no noise or pollution; the pod anchors via sand screws to avoid damaging the subaquatic ecosystem, and its water stations release only clean water into the ocean.

“True ecology is knowing how to manage resources. Every home should only consume what it is capable of producing.

This is the most important factor of living harmoniously with this planet.”

Ducancelle’s pods can be rented on the Côte de Granit Rose in Brittany, France, from around £250 a night, or, for the wealthier ecowarrior, purchased at a starting price of £400,000. anthenea.fr THE RED BULLETIN

ANTHÉNEA-ALCOVE BY THE SEA

ANTHÉNEA

LOU BOYD

Patrons are requested to allow extra time for room service – the staff are not strong swimmers

TRAVEL THE ROAD LESS TRAVELLED

Featured Lights Toro Mk12, Diablo Mk12 & Trace R DB

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BEYOND THE ORDINARY The next issue is out on Tuesday 10 November with London Evening Standard.

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

Read more at theredbulletin.com RICARDO NASCIMENTO / RED BULL CONTENT POOL

May I help you?

C-FACE: the smart alternative to talking extreeeemely sloooowly in a VERY LOUD VOICE

C-FACE

Face the future In a socially distanced world, a robot manufacturer has made a mask to bring us all together

EN.DONUTROBOTICS.COM

LOU BOYD

When it became clear, earlier this year, that face masks would soon be an essential item in our everyday lives, sportswear brands, fashion outlets and textiles producers got to work creating their own versions. One Japanese firm, Donut Robotics, went to the next level, inventing C-FACE, the world’s first ‘smart mask’ that works with smartphones.

When attached to any conventional face mask, the device keeps you not only safe but connected – it takes calls, records minutes of meetings, projects your voice to your or someone else’s smartphone, and even translates your words into eight languages.

Donut Robotics’ business plan looked very different at the beginning of the year. The company, which was founded THE RED BULLETIN

in 2014 by CEO Taisuke Ono and engineer Takafumi Okabe to “solve social problems through robotics”, and which initially operated out of a garage in Kitakyushu, southern Japan, was working on a contract to build a fleet of customer-advice robots for Tokyo’s Haneda Airport. But when the pandemic hit and people stopped travelling altogether, it had to shift focus.

“For years, we worked hard to develop a robot,” says Ono. “Now we’ve used the technology to create a product that responds to how [COVID-19] has reshaped society.”

C-FACE is equipped with translation software originally designed for the airport robot – the supported languages are Japanese, English, Chinese, French, Korean, Thai, Bahasa, Spanish and Vietnamese – as well as technology that can decipher speech by mapping face muscles, The mask, which also has Bluetooth and contains a Wi-Fi router, listens to the spoken words and transmits the information to a corresponding mobile app as text in your chosen language.

Donut Robotics’ campaign on Japanese crowdfunding platform Fundinno was expected to reach a total of £50,000, but it surpassed that figure within just seven minutes. “We stopped after 37 minutes when we’d reached ¥28 million [£200,000],” says Ono. “We hope that our device will be useful in a society where people naturally practise social distancing.”

C-FACE is set to go on sale in Japan in early 2021, with a release in the US, China and Europe to follow. en.donutrobotics.com 25

Josephine Anderson

Legends of the fall The bike-shy Canadian director interviewed some of mountain biking’s leading lights to find out how they get back in the saddle Words RACHAEL SIGEE

Photography JACKIE DIVES

It’s a bright Sunday morning, and filmmaker Josephine Anderson is at her home on Bowen Island, just off the coast of Vancouver, Canada.

Thanks to its rugged landscape dotted with forests and lakes, mountain biking has become a way of life here – but not for Anderson. “Mountain biking has always scared me,” she says. “Many people I know locally do it, but I’ve always been nervous.”

Fuelled by a desire to explore this subculture her own way, Anderson made the short film On Falling. It follows three Canadian pro bikers – Enduro World Series medallist Andréane Lanthier Nadeau (known as ALN), downhill world champion Miranda Miller, and MTB rider and Olympic medal-winning ski-cross athlete Brittany Phelan – as they reflect on the risks they take with their bodies, their often bonecrunching crashes, and how (and why) they get back on their bike.   : What were the origins of the project?  : I wanted to understand why people are willing to take risks that I’m not. I was quite intimidated coming into that world, because it’s got a cool factor and I’m kind of a nerd. It was like, “How do I find a way to connect with these folks? Will they let me in?” But all three were so generous and willing to open up their worlds. Trust grew the more time we spent together.

Why did you focus on crashes?

Probably because I’m not a mountain biker. Competition details and career

26

achievements were impressive but less interesting to explore filmically than their internal experience and, specifically, how they face crashes.

Was it an easy subject to discuss?

I learnt pretty early on that it’s not a popular topic. These riders spend so much time psychologically moving past a fall and not letting it define them; not letting it overwhelm their mental game when they descend the next hill. They put so much delicate effort into learning how to manage their sense of fear. Ultimately, the film is an exploration of vulnerability and how they combine that with incredible power, dominance and fortitude. It’s because of their willingness to be vulnerable, both to the physicality of the sport as well as to their own internal process, that they’re able to keep showing up.

Your core crew was all female.

Was that important?

I was once asked, “Are you a feminist filmmaker?” Labels make me a little uncomfortable, but it’s definitely important to me to give space behind the camera to women creators, so the cinematographer was female and so was the producer. We worked with some amazingly talented men, too! But the core crew was female, and there’s something beautiful that comes from that gaze when it’s given space. Especially in action sports, where it’s maybe less common.

The film closely focuses on the riders’ bodies – their strength, their scars. What was the reasoning behind this approach?

I’m interested in the subtleties of how we express ourselves and how

we try to demonstrate what’s going on inside. Words can only go so far – they’re just a fragment of the whole picture. We wanted to use the camera to observe each rider up close and get a sense of intimacy, unlike more typical mountain-biking films where you might see distant whole-body shots against a stunning landscape.

We have some of that, but I wanted to draw attention to their humanity and their individual idiosyncrasies.

Why do you think these athletes take such massive risks?

In part because they just love the adrenalin. They love the speed, doing tricky moves, using their bodies to do difficult things. The joy of that physicality is second nature to them. But then you get injured in a way that’s so demoralising, and often it’s followed by depression.

There’s the negotiation of why you keep doing it when you have to go through these periods of extreme personal difficulty. They keep a vision in their mind’s eye of what it is they love about it, and as soon as they get back for that first ride, it’s a relief and a joy once again.

So it’s not about being fearless, but overcoming fear?

It’s a cycle of resilience and learning that they can experience extreme pain yet still rediscover their courage.

I don’t think anyone feels zero fear – they’re not psychopaths. But they can get to a place where they’re figuratively riding that line between their fear and letting go. This is the specific dance that makes them feel like they’re alive and reminds them of their strength of character.

Did the experience make you more likely to take risks?

I still don’t see myself mountain biking! But making this film [made me see] that ruminating and dwelling on something in a downcast way should only have so much space in your life. It was a really beautiful reminder to lighten up and let those experiences flow past more freely so you’ll be open to the next thing. josephineanderson.ca/work#/onfalling

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“I learnt early on that crashing isn’t a popular topic” THE RED BULLETIN

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Alex Thomson

The Vendée Globe race involves months of isolation, hard graft and unforeseen problems.

And that’s why this solo sailor loves it Words RUTH McLEOD

In 2018, solo sailor Alex Thomson slept through his alarm and crashed his boat. “I had an electric-shock wristband that hadn’t charged,” says the Brit. “I woke up with the boat on the rocks in Guadeloupe.” Such are the pitfalls of sailing alone, as well 46-year-old Thomson knows, having competed solo for much of the past two decades. He has been rescued by helicopter after capsizing, witnessed 18m-high waves, and seen his £6m yacht Hugo Boss badly damaged.

Such experiences have made Thomson one of the world’s most accomplished sailors, and he’ll need every ounce of his knowledge during this year’s Vendée Globe. The roundthe-world race starts and ends in Les Sables d’Olonne, France, once every four years. Alone and unsupported, skippers must navigate more than 40,000km of tumultuous seas and fierce winds – it’s not unusual for 40 per cent of racers to retire. After twice failing to finish, Thomson came in third and second respectively in the last two events, only missing the win due to a broken foil. This year, the Gosport-based sailor aims to become the first-ever non-French winner.   : What’s the biggest challenge of solo sailing?  : Finding the right techniques to do everything. At first you can’t comprehend how you could do it all yourself, but once you’ve got a toolbox of techniques it’s not so bad.

How tough is the Vendée Globe?

It’s the single most difficult sporting challenge left in the world today. It’s

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a true test of a person’s physical and, more important, mental strength.

Why is mental strength so vital?

You must be able to keep your eyes on the prize when you’re not only exhausted but emotionally drained, too. You have to get each and every decision right. I work with sports psychologist Ken Way, who gives me tools for specific challenges.

Can you give an example?

When you’re in the Southern Ocean, 3,000 miles [4,800km] from land, going down big waves very fast, you are aware of your own mortality. In the dark inside the boat, your mind can wander; you’re imagining what is ahead of you. Ken taught me to visualise myself not being in the boat but at cloud level so I can see there are no big waves, no icebergs.

It lowers my heart rate so I can sleep.

What attracts you to this race?

The most interesting part of the Vendée Globe is getting to the start.

It’s a design race, like F1. The boat costs six million quid, and if it’s slow, that’s a big problem. To win, you need experience not just at sea but with the right people who make the right choices. That’s fascinating.

How would you describe the boat?

It’s a credit card with a mast! No, it’s amazing. It’s incredibly fast. We can easily average 30 knots, or 33mph [53kph]. That doesn’t sound fast, but it can feel like 1,000mph [1,600kph].

Being at sea for more than 70 days must take its toll…

I get sick of freeze-dried food, but the objective is not to lose weight.

What gets you through it?

For me, it’s the competition. Out of 30 boats, you’ll have 10 that could win, 10 that could podium, and then 10 adventurers. I’ve always admired the adventurers who just take part.

I’m not sure I could do that.

Are you going to win?

I’d definitely stick some money on myself, but I’m wary of saying I’ll win. Just making it to the start of a Vendée is incredible, and if you finish you’re part of a select group – more people have been into space.

Does luck play a part?

I say you make your own luck by getting the detail right.

Has solo sailing changed you?

Yes, I’m more humble. Everyone should, at some point in their life, be out on the ocean with no land in sight. It makes you appreciate how small you are. I’ve never met a Vendée skipper with a massive ego – nature beats it out of you. When I finished second, there were 50,000 people wanting to shake my hand.

But when I’m on a 60ft [18m] boat – which seems big inside the marina, but is bloody small as soon as you’re out of sight of land – anything can happen. There’s no room for ego.

Is it still possible to have fun?

That’s a big part of it for me, racing the boat. To have what I consider to be the world’s best toy built for me feels outrageously ostentatious. I have to pinch myself every day. We call it a work of art, the boat. To be part of its creation is a privilege.

The Vendée Globe starts on November 8; vendeeglobe.org.

Follow Thomson’s progress at alexthomsonracing.com/the-hub

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ALEX THOMSON RACING

Going it alone

Your legs are emaciated [by the end] as you haven’t walked anywhere, but your upper body becomes bigger.

Sleep is a challenge. During a race like the Vendée, I get 20-40 minutes every two-to-four hours. The hardest part is the first few weeks, but then you find a rhythm. It’s incredible how humans can adjust to anything.

“It’s incredible how humans can adjust to anything” THE RED BULLETIN

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Jen Gurecki

Change is out there Meet the American adventurer and CEO who’s on a mission to make the world a fairer place, one snowboard at a time Words LOU BOYD

Photography CHARLIE SHOEMAKER

Jen Gurecki has never been one to accept the status quo. The Nevadabased adventurer and entrepreneur has spent much of her life working to break down barriers in adventure and action sports. In 2014, angered by the traditional ‘shrink it and pink it’ approach to women’s snow gear, Gurecki launched Coalition Snow, a ski-and-snowboard company that designs equipment for women that “doesn’t suck” and champions the work of female athletes and creators.

More recently, the 42-year-old – who describes herself on Instagram as a “PhD dropout” and “adventure addict” – turned her hand to publishing; in January last year, she and Coalition Snow’s creative director, Lauren Bello Okerman, created Sisu, an outdoors-focused publication that presents diverse and rarely heard voices and experiences from the action sports industry. We chatted to Gurecki about the importance of disrupting the industry you’re in, and what action sports must do to become more inclusive and open.   : What was the inspiration behind your ski company?  : Coalition [Snow] has always been a grand social experiment. What would happen if women decided to make skis and boards? Women don’t usually make

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hard goods – it’s not something we’re encouraged to do and there’s no pipeline of mentorship. We’re encouraged to make beanies and cute sweatshirts. I thought it would be interesting if women decided to get out of their lane and do something that’s really maledominated. How would the industry react? And the community? Would there be customers? There’s the social-justice side of me that’s all about being curious, but there’s also a side that’s just going, “Let’s see what would happen if we fucked things up a bit.”

What has been the reaction to Coalition Snow?

The industry continues to not really know how to handle us, because we’re an unapologetic, bold, feminist ski company. We’re not the nice-girls-next-door ski company.

How have you approached designing snow equipment for women?

When we first started out, the go-to strategy for women specifically was to take the man’s version [of a product] and shrink it, pink it and soften it. Women were tokenised by the industry as they realised it was an emerging market. We’re not doing that; we’re going to make the gear that we want. We’re not pretending to have some brandnew technology or some crazy intensive R&D [research and development]; we just make shit we like and that we know other women will like. People ask why our gear is women-specific. It’s because we’re women and we make it for us.

Why did you feel it was important to create another outdoorsfocused publication with Sisu?

There are a couple of reasons why we started it. Coalition has grown into a platform, and over time it’s become clear that when we say things, people listen. Just talking about ourselves or snow sports was really limiting, because there’s so much else happening in the world, and if you have a commitment to justice, equality, diversity and inclusion, that means opening up our platform and allowing other voices rise to the top. We look at the magazine as blank pages to fill with non-normative perspectives that have always been there. Take [US non-binary photographer and artist] Shoog McDaniel, who identifies as queer and fat. Their photography celebrates others who identify as fat, queer, Black or Brown. It deviates from the ‘climb it, conquer it, suffer from it’ mentality that is in so many photographs [of people] in the outdoors. Their work is not only refreshing, it’s revolutionary.

Do you think that action sports as a sector is gradually becoming more inclusive?

I think that there are many more conversations about inclusivity and diversity happening in the outdoor industry as a whole, particularly in the US, but not so much in snow sports. There’s a lot of box checking happening, instead of real systemic change. Real change is messy and hard and takes a lot of resources.

It takes everyone to really look at themselves, be open to the idea that your experience is valid and real, while also knowing that people have completely different experiences.

Consider the systems you uphold in your recreation and your daily life, and whether they make it difficult for other people to get involved.

Then you can start to break down those systems. coalitionsnow.com; sisumagazine.com

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“We’re not the nicegirls-nextdoor ski company”

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Words PATRICIA OUDIT Photography RICK GUEST

Water woman Last November, JUSTINE DUPONT took on a monster wave more than 20m high at Nazaré in Portugal. Three months later, she did it again and became a contender for a Guinness World Record. Here, the big-wave surfer digs deep about a career that’s changing her sport for ever

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Leading light: at 29, Justine Dupont is one of the most respected names in surfing

Justine Dupont

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ovember 13, 2019 will be forever etched in Justine Dupont’s memory. That was the day the big-wave surfer from Lacanau – a coastal town near Bordeaux, southwest France – took on the biggest wave she’d ever witnessed and came out the other side, still standing. That day, when Dupont let go of the rope that had towed her to the top of the 20m-high monster, everything felt right. She became a tiny speck upon this fearsome, frothing giant, in her own world as she sped across the wave, impervious to its roar, senses alert to the slightest vibration.

“I sense it quickly when something changes,” says Dupont, 29. “After all, when I’m on the wave I have nothing but my own instincts to assess my speed.”

And here, in Nazaré, Portugal – which, in just a few short years, has become the destination for big-wave surfers – she was as quick as she’s ever been. “You can’t imagine it,” she says. “I pick up incredible speed in the endless succession of little waves, as if a shadow is on my tail.”

Dupont first took to the waves in Lacanau at the age of 11 and has since become one of the world’s most versatile waterwomen, with titles in almost every surf discipline. Last year, she became SUP and paddleboard world champion, and she has finished second in the Longboard World Championship (achieved at just 15) and the 2016 Big Wave Tour Pe’ahi Challenge in Hawaii, as well as winning numerous individual titles at national and European levels, and four World Championship titles with the

French team for SUP, longboard and surfing. But it’s chasing big waves – the biggest waves – that has become her real passion. Dupont has worked diligently to learn how to tame these thundering walls of water, in pursuit of those few incredible seconds of adrenalin. She has scouted out the best big-wave hotspots, such as Belharra in France’s Basque Country, Mavericks in California, Mullaghmore in Ireland, Jaws in Hawaii, and, of course, Nazaré in Portugal, where she now lives.

Three months after conquering her first 20m wave in Nazaré, Dupont was back for more. On February 11 this year, as part of the Nazaré Tow Surfing Challenge, she found herself being pursued by a furious swell once again. “I knew it was more than 20 metres high,” Dupont says, “and that my partner Fred, who tows me out on a jet ski, had gone for the right wave.

It just kept taking shape beneath my board as I was surfed down it. I could sense that behind me it was growing, flattening out and burrowing a lot more than usual. I had this great power all around me.

I took a line closer to the trough, headed down to the base of the wave and got ready for the explosion to come behind me. The foam swept over me. I felt like I was part of the wave, and I was happy to come out of it still upright on my board.”

That effort earned Dupont the award for Women’s Wave of the Day, and for Performance of the Year at the 2020 Big Wave Awards. But – after months of deliberation and assessment involving a

“[After Nazaré in February] I wondered what our limits are as humans. Are we really now surfing the biggest waves on the planet?”

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All in the mind: monster waves hold no fear when you’re in the zone, says Dupont

Calm before the storm: Dupont takes a brief pause for thought on the steps at Nazaré

“Patience is essential in a sport like mine. Then the longest wave might last for 20, 30 seconds.

It’s a brief moment, but it’s magical”

Justine Dupont

Break time: Dupont has been riding waves since her schooldays in Lacanau, southwest France – she began at the age of 11

panel of experts – it was decided that Brazilian Maya Gabeira had broken her own record for the biggest wave ever surfed by a woman, for her performance on a 22.4m-high wave at the same contest. Dupont’s wave was judged to be “two to three feet smaller”.

For Dupont, the decision was a controversial one – not only due to the difficulties in getting exact measurements from photos and video footage, but also because Gabeira didn’t finish her ride. But she’s not going to dwell on it. “The season is starting,” Dupont says, “and I know I can surf even bigger waves without waiting for any records for them.”    : Did you fear being swallowed up by the monster waves at Nazaré?   : Whenever I’m on a wave, no matter how powerful or big it is, I’m in the zone and concentrating 300 per cent. I only ever think of the three or four metres ahead of me. When I’m on the crest of the wave, before I surf down it, I take in all THE RED BULLETIN

the information I can – the shape, the speed, the incline – and work out my line based on where I’ll be able to find the energy to surf for as long as possible.

There was a lot of turbulence with the November wave, because of the wind. The choppy water was getting hard. It felt like being in a field with really steep bumps that you had to negotiate extremely carefully at speed. But the February wave gave me greater freedom to do what I like most – finding a nice line with my board sideways on to get the right angle for more speed, like boarding through powdery snow. If I’m too frightened, that means I’m definitely not ready yet, and there have been times when I’ve changed my mind. It can also come with hindsight. When I was going over my GoPro footage for one of these waves, I saw things in two stages. The first shows my face in total concentration. I’m living in the moment. I’m on maximum alert. All my senses are heightened.

The second shows a smile that means, “I’ve done 37

Justine Dupont

it. I’ve just been through the most critical phase of the wave.” I’m emotional and then I knuckle down to end the wave well and safely. In those few seconds, my brain goes through so much.

Big-wave surfing involves a lot of waiting around for those few seconds of pleasure…

Patience is essential in a sport like mine. Then the longest wave might last for 20, 30 seconds. One day I should wear sensors to measure the intensity of those moments, to see how my heartbeat is affected.

It’s a brief moment, but it’s so crazy and magical.

You narrowly missed out on the Guinness World Record for the biggest wave surfed by a woman.

How important are titles like that?

Four years ago when I came to Nazaré, I had no clue about the world record, so I didn’t originally have it as a goal – I just wanted to push my own limits. I was unhappy about the decision, as Maya [Gabeira] didn’t finish the wave and that doesn’t make sense to me. Having a record for someone who falls on a wave doesn’t push the sport in a good way – it puts the safety team in danger. For me, the sport is about performance and safety. There was a lot of confusion [regarding the judging process], and I don’t want to represent the [World Surf] League if it’s a league that doesn’t represent my values.

It’s not about winning – if the other person wins because she or he gets a bigger wave, then well done to you, but that’s not the current situation. I’m not looking for a record any more, or not this kind of record that doesn’t make sense for me. It’s about the journey, learning about myself and pushing my limits; it’s about how I work with my team and improve my sport.

And this is very much a team sport, even though you’re alone on the wave…

Yes, I have the extreme good fortune to experience all this with my partner, Fred David, who’s a world champion bodysurfer. I couldn’t do it without him by my side, and he gives me complete confidence in my decisions. We know each other so well that we don’t even need to speak when we’re in the water. Fred works the jet ski. In case of a large swell, Clément Nantes, who’s a lifeguard, is on hand with a second jet ski should Fred lose sight of me. There’s also someone keeping an eye from the clifftop.

Eventually, to improve safety, we’d like to have our own ‘watchman’.

What drew you to Nazaré, where you’ve been surfing for four seasons now?

Nowhere else has the same intensity. No two seasons are ever the same. You think you know the wave, but it’ll always surprise you. There are large swells two or three times a month, especially from October to March. Sometimes there are fantastic conditions for ten days in a row where you might spend up to six hours in the water. On good days, they’re the most perfect [waves] in the world. It’s a pretty crazy shared experience. There’s a real spirit of solidarity.

That must also come from doing something with a lot of potential risk. How do you mitigate that?

The two jet skis and the watchman on the clifftop are the basic set-up. When the waves are really big, there’s an emergency doctor on standby on the beach, as well as the lifeguards who are sometimes present. We’d like for there to always be a doctor there. We’re working to that end with the local authorities, who take our concerns very seriously, but they only send back-up when the waves are higher than 15 metres. At that height, things are already very tense in terms of risk.

Did you ever consciously say to yourself, “I’m going to surf the biggest wave in the world”?

Yes, when I started surfing at Nazaré. I was lucky – the waves were perfect to start on, and I reeled off a number of little sessions to get accustomed. The more experience I had, the more the swell grew, as if by magic. And it’s still good at Nazaré even when the waves are small, unlike at places like Belharra, where the waves only break at eight metres.

How do you build up to surfing at Nazaré ?

I didn’t just want to focus on the size of the waves – that’s not the most important criterion. The way you tackle it, the work you have to put in, the way it looks... those matter more than size; feeling you’re really surfing rather than just coming down the wave. Before I came to Nazaré, I practised wherever I could – first at Belharra, where I took things slowly.

The risk there is drowning, so I worked on my underwater resistance by regularly doing freedives.

And then came Jaws...

I arrived there in November 2018 after a fantastic start to the winter in Nazaré. I was full of confidence and I took on a really good wave. As I was going back out to sea, a run of waves struck me in the head. I was

“I’m not looking for a record any more.

It’s about the journey, learning about myself and pushing my limits” 38

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All in the mind: monster waves hold no fear when you’re in the zone, says Dupont

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Natural high: Dupont at Nazaré in November last year, as shot by the late Rafael Riancho, a legend on the local surf scene

RAFAEL G. RIANCHO/ RED BULL CONTENT POOL

“When I’m on the wave, I have nothing but my own instincts to assess my speed”

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Justine Dupont

Lean on me: Dupont and her rock, Fred David

in the wrong place at the wrong time. I fractured my shoulder and damaged my knee. That was the end of my winter. Frustrating, but it’s part of the game.

Do you ever have doubts?

It happens! I often ask myself questions: “Does what I do make any sense? Is it too dangerous?” As things stand now, I don’t have doubts. I’ve never gone into the water feeling fear in the pit of my stomach.

When I think back to competing in February and that record-breaking wave, it was a magical day. It was when I looked at the footage later that I got frightened and started to question myself. It was weird looking at the pictures; it was almost too much.

I wondered what our limits are as humans. Are we really now surfing the biggest waves on the planet?

Does ego come into it?

There definitely has to be some ego. When I was young and out on the water with my big brother, I always wanted to compete against the boys. When you confront the biggest waves, you’re chiefly doing it for yourself, to learn how to master your emotions and conquer your fear. In this environment where you have to make quick decisions without hesitation, you get to know yourself better and more quickly than anywhere else. It’s a distillation of life. But the crazy thing in this sport is that we’ve transcended gender issues. It doesn’t matter whether you’re male or female – all that’s important is surfing big waves.

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To get to your level takes years of preparation.

How do you train ?

Five years ago I joined BCO [Biarritz Chasse Océan], a freediving club in Biarritz, to learn and train, and I’ve been to the tank at La Teste-de-Buch in Gironde several times, too. Then I did some specific exercises to learn how to conserve oxygen. I’ve made quite a lot of progress in bodysurfing with fins thanks to Fred, which gives me confidence when I get struck full-on by a huge wave. I also do short runs, and I go up and down stairs for some cardio. And I mustn’t forget CrossFit for core strength, and weighttraining at the gym to work on my legs with squats.

Then in the evening I do yoga and stretches.

What does this season hold for you?

I can’t wait for the season to start. Catching the big waves isn’t the hard thing – that was this summer, waiting to hear about this [world] record! I come from shortboarding and I do longboarding and stand-up paddleboarding, so I really want to work on my lines when I surf a big wave, to add some performance. I’m lucky to have [US big-wave champion] Kai Lenny and [Brazilian pro] Lucas Chianca as references in the sport, and I really want to push that way. For me, success is about being happy and proud about the things you’ve done.

I’m so proud of my performance and my team.

My goal hasn’t changed – it’s to surf huge waves. justinedupont.fr 41

INNER CITY LIMITS

Free solo climber ROBBIE PHILLIPS had planned to scale even greater heights this year, but lockdown forced to him to break new ground somewhere unexpected Words MATT RAY

Photography NADIR KHAN

Phillips ‘jams’ beneath a bridge in Murrayfield, Edinburgh – climbing by wedging his hands into cracks or, as he describes it, “hanging off your bones”

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Robbie Phillips

“I’m not the most physically strong climber, but I’ve never found a climb I can’t cheat my way up”

I Phillips demonstrates jamming, flexing his thumb into his palm to expand his hand in the gap. “It’s 90 per cent technique,” he says

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t’s a clear August morning in Edinburgh, but here on the banks of the Union Canal something isn’t quite right. Normally during this month, the city would be teeming with visitors to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

This year, it’s quieter. There’s a jogger on the towpath, a woman walking her dog, a group of kayakers on the water – all enjoying the opportunity to get outdoors after a long summer of lockdown. But that’s not what’s unusual. Next to Meggetland Old Bridge, a footbridge built from the city’s familiar grey sandstone two centuries ago, is the newer, less picturesque, concrete river crossing, and there’s a man beneath it. Only he’s not on the path or in the water, but hanging from the bridge’s underside, seemingly crawling across the flat surface like a fly.

Look closer and you can see his hands and feet carefully feeling for their next invisible anchor, with the occasional pause to let one arm or leg hang.

To the untrained eye, what the man is doing seems impossible; to someone with an understanding of climbing, his purpose is clear – he’s free soloing.

And it’s something Robbie Phillips is very good at.

The Scotsman, now 30, has been climbing for half his life. From competing in national challenges at the age of 15, Phillips quickly progressed to long, demanding lines up entire mountainsides such as the 900m Paciencia – one of the hardest routes on the North Face of the Eiger – and the 457m El Niño on Yosemite National Park’s El Capitan; climbs rated at 5.13b and 5.13c respectively. To put that into context, a rating of one is a hike, a five is technical rock-climbing, and anything above 5.12 is reserved for the elite. The letters after the number denote a finer grading of difficulty – from a, the easiest, to d, the most hellacious.

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Phillips at the ‘Pablo Smokes Crack Crack’ urban climbing line this August: “The bridges have made me a better climber”

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Robbie Phillips

Last summer, Phillips completed the legendary ‘Alpine Trilogy’ of 5.14a big-wall climbs in the Alps, first ascended in 1994 by climbing titans Stefan Glowacz, Beat Kammerlander and Thomas Huber.

“At the time, they were the limit of hard rockclimbing in the Alpine environment,” says Phillips in his Edinburgh lilt. “They’ve since been surpassed in difficulty, but this feat has still only been accomplished by a handful of climbers. And only once by a British climber – me.”

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isually speaking, Phillips meets all the expectations of a modern-day free soloist – he’s tall and gangly, but muscular in that peculiar way that comes from pulling oneself up vertical rock faces. The Scot is affable, his face young but weathered by his many adventures, his hair surfer-scruffy – a look that’s in keeping with his taste for short-sleeved Hawaiian shirts and living out of a van. His Ford Transit is stuffed with climbing gear and books, and a wall-mounted Beastmaker fingerboard to practise those onefingered dead hangs.

“I’m not the most physically strong climber, but I’ve never really found a climb I can’t cheat my way up,” Phillips says with a big grin. “I always look for ways around pulling hard.”

One of those ways is crack climbing, which involves following continuous cracks in the rock and ‘jamming’ his hand inside the crack instead of hanging onto the edge, then widening his palm by flexing his thumb inwards to secure it. “The beauty is that your hand is locked in there, so you’re hanging off your bones rather than gripping onto a small hold and tiring out your muscles,” he says.

It’s a subgenre of rock climbing with a reputation for being burly, bad for your skin and very challenging, but, as Phillips puts it, “There’s something about a long fault line running through otherwise blank rock that looks amazing.”

It’s a fix that Phillips had trouble satisfying on his native soil because, while cracks are readily found in big granite walls like those of El Capitan, they’re far harder to locate in the UK, and difficult to replicate on training walls. “The best crack climbers come from the US as there’s so much [available] in Utah and California, and Squamish in Canada,” he says. “In the UK, there isn’t much to match that. And crack climbing in Scotland is almost non-existent.”

Almost, but not quite. Early this year, Phillips was roaming the Union Canal to find where he’d parked his trusty van, when he came across a far more local crack-climbing solution than he’d ever imagined.

“I took a wrong turn and ended up on the canal towpath beneath Meggetland [New] Bridge,” he says. “I saw these cracks running straight through it, formed by gaps between the slabs of concrete, and my first thought was, ‘You could climb that.’” Within the hour, he’d done exactly that. “It was the best climbing I’ve ever found in Edinburgh.”

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“There’s something about a long fault line running through otherwise blank rock that looks amazing” Phillips tackles the Meggetland New Bridge route on Edinburgh’s Union Canal: “When I first climbed it, I was determined not to fall off into the canal, because it’s shallow and probably full of shopping trolleys”

“My hands look like an MMA fighter’s,” says Phillips, laughing, as he encases his battle-scarred fists in strips of white fabric climbing tape. It’s that same morning in August, and he has brought us to the scene of his discovery. Jamming both hands between the concrete slabs on the underside of the bridge, he elegantly swings his body out over the brown water, sticks both feet into the gap, and starts to painstakingly work his way across to the opposite bank, hand over hand, foot over foot.

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The traffic along the canal has been building all afternoon, bikes weaving between walkers, and just as Phillips reaches the opposite bank, an entire column of runners wearing race numbers threads along the narrow towpath. The climber’s face becomes a mask of effort as he’s forced to stay jammed in the crack until they pass.

“Jesus,” Phillips says afterwards, “I actually got my hand stuck, and then that race came through.

I was like, ‘I can’t hang here any longer.’” He shows THE RED BULLETIN

the red-raw patch on his wrist where the skin has worn through. “That was good training… in suffering,” he laughs.

Climbers get to name the rock routes they open, and Phillips brings a sense of humour to his. The Meggetland New Bridge line was duly christened the ‘Troll Toll’, because trolls live beneath bridges and there’s always a price to pay in crack climbing.

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Robbie Phillips

YouTube videos of Phillips’ exploits have energised an urban climbing movement: “Hopefully, this sport will grow and create more opportunities for climbers in the city”

concrete edge of this bridge crack was cutting away at the back of mine,” says Phillips of that first ‘ascent’. “Now I have two scars on the insides of my wrists, like I’ve been crucified.”

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hile Phillips was thrilled by his inner-city climbing epiphany, his year held far bigger plans. “My goal,” he recalls, “was to climb Eternal Flame on Trango Tower.” This route up one of Pakistan’s most famous granite walls was first ascended in 1989 and successfully free-soloed in 2009 by Thomas Huber and his brother Alexander. “Put bluntly, it’s the Everest of big-wall rock climbing,” says Phillips. “Like El Capitan, but at high altitude. There are few higher faces that have technically hard rock-climbing.”

En route, Philips went to Joshua Tree National Park in southern California to seek out the desert’s incredible rock formations and apply his irreverent naming convention to some unclimbed lines.

There’s now a highball boulder out there with a route called ‘Yoda’s Head’. “My plan for Joshua Tree was to climb the classic corner Dihedron, which hasn’t had a second ascent since [pioneering US climber and BASE jumper] Randy Leavitt opened it in 1997,” says Phillips, “but our trip was cut short.” As a global pandemic shut down the world, he was forced to return to Edinburgh.

Then the British Mountaineering Council asked the outdoor community to put climbing on hold.

Phillips was grounded.

“I was disappointed, but I didn’t angst about it,” he recalls. “Climbers are used to adapting to an everchanging environment. You could say it’s just part of the sport.” Instead, he turned to Leavitt, who he’d been chatting to through Instagram to prepare for Dihedron. “Back in the ’80s, he and [fellow US climber] Ron Kauk found this car park in LA with big cracks going through the roofs. In the evenings they would train on these cracks, and Randy said it enabled them to learn better techniques for climbing natural cracks out in the Mojave Desert. That they were doing similar stuff to me back in the ’80s showed that what I was doing wasn’t mad – people have done this before, for similar reasons.”

When the climbing ban was eventually lifted, a travel restriction remained in place. “In Scotland,

“Climbing in urban areas opens it up to everybody, because you don’t need to pay money to go and climb it, or even any gear” THE RED BULLETIN

we had a maximum five-mile [8km] radius we could travel in,” Phillips recalls. But he’d also begun to see the concrete structures of his hometown in a new way. “The canal bridge crack opened my eyes to the possibility that you can climb something in the city and have almost the same experience you would in nature, at a crag.” Then he found something better – 11 climbable parallel cracks under a bridge leading into Murrayfield Stadium, this time without a drop into dirty water. Together with climbing partner and filmmaker Culann O Brien, Phillips documented the development of the routes on the pair’s YouTube channel. Word began to spread.

Beneath the Murrayfield bridge, you’ll find broken glass from booze bottles and other urban flotsam. Graffiti reading “Pablo smokes crack” is sprayed onto the concrete, providing the inspiration for Phillips’ name for the climbing route: the ‘Pablo Smokes Crack Crack’. And alongside that are other markings – chalk indicators left by climbers who have followed in Phillips’ wake.

“I’d go down there and find these random people with climbing shoes and bouldering mats jamming along the cracks,” says Phillips. “The other day, there were four groups of climbers visiting from Glasgow and Newcastle. I was like, ‘Holy shit, where did you come from?’ They’d seen it on my Instagram.”

Now, Phillips receives daily messages from people around the world, showing him urban climbing lines they’ve discovered in their locales. “I got one from a guy this morning. It was a picture of this art installation he’s been using as a bouldering project for the last 10 years. Climbing in urban areas opens it up to everybody, because you don’t need to pay money to go and climb it, you don’t need any gear, you don’t even need to wear climbing shoes if you don’t want to. You can just go there and try it.”

He now spends his days touring Edinburgh by bike, looking for new urban structures to scale. “The community is growing, and it’s nice to feel I had a part to play in that,” Phillips says. “It’s not going to be hundreds of climbers coming from around the world to climb the bridge, but I definitely think it’ll be something. I’m even working with the Scottish Mountaineering Club on a guide to the routes.”

And he’s not limiting his urban climbing to just Edinburgh. “Culann and I are keen to visit a city with someone who knows it well, to explore more ‘buildering’ opportunities,” he says with a grin.

Meanwhile, this year’s goal to climb Eternal Flame has been pushed back to 2021, but he’s OK with that, because it’s a climb that requires solid crack technique. “The first time I went to Yosemite, I really struggled on easy crack climbs,” Phillips recalls, candidly. “It has always been a weakness for me. The locals laughed at me and didn’t believe that I was a professional climber.

The bridges have made me a better climber, and an infinitely better crack climber.”

Follow Robbie Phillips’ buildering exploits on his YouTube channel and Instagram: @robbiephillips_ 49

THE SAWEET LIFE

After a summer of viral hits, breakout US rapper SAWEETIE opens up about fame, identity, love, her new album Pretty Bitch Music – and the work ethic that made her desire for success become reality Words LAKIN STARLING Photography GL ASKEW

Carving a career: “I resented my childhood, but it prepared me for this business,” says Saweetie. “It made me a strong young woman”

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In the zone: Saweetie plays ball outside Red Bull headquarters in Santa Monica, California

Saweetie

W ith a growing legion of fans and an ability to smash the internet with rap hits, it may be hard to believe that Saweetie has always been the underdog.

But proving others wrong with her quiet charm, laser focus and work ethic has fuelled the 27-year-old Californian’s ability to beat the odds. Though Saweetie’s virality created a pipeline to stardom, it would be wrong to assume her path to success was swift or easy.

Up until 2016, the fledgling star – born Diamonté Quiava Valentin Harper – was an undergraduate student at University of Southern California (USC) with big dreams. When she wasn’t in class – or working one of her three jobs – she was uploading Instagram videos of herself rapping in her Jeep. Gradually, Saweetie built a buzz on social media, and in 2017 she dropped the video for her debut track, ICY GRL. Sporting long platinum tresses, a fur coat and expensive-looking satins, she embodied an attitude and luxury that she ultimately manifested into reality.

The viral video catapulted Saweetie into the spotlight, and she hasn’t looked back. She built on her early success with last year’s multi-platinum-selling single My Type and this summer’s Tap In, tracks

THE RED BULLETIN

They always kept their house clean.

When people say stuff like, “What makes you wanna empower women?”, these are things that were just regular for me growing up: women in my family, all different types, shapes, sizes, even attitudes. But, no matter the circumstances, there was always love and support.

that capture northern California’s upbeat spirit and encourage listeners to have fun and self-confidence. And now everything Saweetie has learnt about her artistry, from those early days to her subsequent EPs to the present, has been put into her debut full-length album, Pretty Bitch Music, out later this year.   : You’ve brought a lot of fun to social media while we’ve all been in lockdown. How has that been for you? : I always tell people that if I wasn’t an artist I probably would post, like, once a year. Why? Social media used to cause me a lot of anxiety – especially when I first popped off, because there were so many people with things to say.

But then I realised that social media is an imaginary world. Once I was able to develop my mental toughness and learn how to steer through social media, it became fun for me.

Your family regularly features on your social media. Which members have been the most influential in your life?

I had really young parents who were always out working, so definitely my grandmothers, on my Filipino/Chinese side and then on my Black side. It was really them who raised me. They come from different cultures, but they had the same work ethic. They were always working. They were always getting their hair done. They always smelt good.

What was your childhood like?

I used to move around as a little kid because my parents were so young [her mother gave birth at 17], so everybody would babysit me. But it just made me develop a tough skin.

It made me an adapter, because if you’re constantly changing environments as a little kid you never really become comfortable. I resented my childhood – I don’t feel like I grew up as a regular kid – but it prepared me for this business.

I’m persevering, no matter what.

It made me a strong young woman.

What kind of problems did you face?

Because I went to college and I can speak properly, people feel like they can question my ‘authenticity’. But who says a girl like me can’t go to college? Who says a girl like me can’t wear long nails because I got an education? I’m like, “Damn, I’ve always been this girl.” But what really stripped me, as a woman of colour, was college. When I went to San Diego State [University] – and especially USC – it was predominantly Caucasian, and I felt like I couldn’t be myself. It took me about a year or two to feel comfortable about raising my hand and participating in class, because I came into college talking so much slang.

[College] made me robotic, because I felt like I had to be what society expected a student at a prestigious university to be.

You also played a lot of sport – when did that start?

I came out of the womb playing sports!

On my grandmother’s side it’s all boys,

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“Who says a girl like me can’t wear long nails because I got an education? Damn, I’ve always been this girl” so the girls are pretty much tomboys because we’re always kickin’ it with them. I used to race in the streets with no shoes on. Tetherball [like swingball without racquets], kickball [a mix of football and rounders], baseball… whatever was around for us, we played it, or we made up our own game. My dad used to tell me I smelt like “the great outdoors”. I would come in with mud all over my jeans and tree branches stuck in my hair because I was climbing trees.

Did playing sport have a lasting impact?

I had to fight in the athletics world because I was always the new girl, and people weren’t welcoming. I had to prove I was athletic. I told one of the girls [in the college team], “I’m gonna take your spot,” and I did. I always had that competitive edge. It [created] my determination, my ambition, and my ability to persevere. It made me mentally tough.

When did you decide you wanted to be a rapper?

Definitely when I was a sophomore in high school. These boys were rapping in class, and I was like, “OK, y’all cool, but I’m gonna go home and write my own rap.” So I came back, and when I spat my shit in Algebra 2 the whole class went crazy, so I thought, “Wow, maybe I could do something like this.”

During college, you began posting Instagram videos of yourself rapping in your car. Were you actively trying to make it big?

It was like, “I can’t afford the studio.”

I had a rough start because [my first] engineer just outright sucked. I was like, “I’m tired of wasting my money, so I’m gonna just record online.

Everybody knows I wanna rap, so I’m just gonna start posting it.” That’s why I was using all of these classic beats, because I didn’t have connections to any beat makers.

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A lot of new artists struggle to break through, but you’ve had hit after hit in the US. What’s your formula?

I have no secret formula. When I meet upcoming [female artists], I try to share as much as I can, because I feel like I made a lot of mistakes early in my career; I’d had no guidance. You have to be headstrong, you have to believe in yourself, and you have to be comfortable with making your own mistakes. Work hard, develop a great team. And you should always have someone to go to who is insightful and can play devil’s advocate. I do my own treatments. I pick my beats. I co-produce a lot of stuff.

There’s a common denominator between great workers and artists. Nothing that I’m doing is new.

Is gender still an issue in the rap scene?

[An identifier] that I would love to just be removed from the conversation is ‘for a girl’ or ‘for a female rapper’. Like, we’re just rappers, and our fanbases, our charts and our numbers all prove that we’re equals.

I used to hate the comment – especially at USC – “Oh, you’re pretty for a Black girl.” No, just say I’m pretty. It’s a back-handed compliment, and although ‘for a female rapper’ isn’t as in your face, you’re still telling me that female rappers aren’t doing their part. But we are. And we have to do that, plus more, because we have to get our weaves done, we have to do our lashes, our nails. You know that shit takes five to six hours a day. That’s a lot. And lots of money. My overhead is somebody’s tuition per month, so quit playing with us, because we really go hard.

A lot of people, especially men, are upset by women rapping about their bodies.

Your lyrics – on the track Pretty Bitch Freestyle, for example – definitely celebrate your sexuality…

I remember when I did the [2018] song YUSO with Kid Ink and Lil Wayne, and I was so proud of this moment. I was like, “I’m gonna hop on that nasty song, because I got some

Running in the family: sporting talent is in Saweetie’s blood – her grandfather Willie Harper played American Football professionally for the San Francisco 49ers THE RED BULLETIN

Saweetie

she’s too this or that.” You’ve gotta block those people out and just do you.

You’re in a relationship with fellow rapper Quavo. Is that difficult because you’re both public figures?

It is difficult, but it feels very grown-up.

I feel like this is my first relationship where we’re very mature about a lot of things, which is important, especially in Black love. Communication is really important. I struggled with expression, because as a kid I was taught to just suck it up and move on. But you can’t do that in love – it just builds resentment.

Healthy Black love was important to us, and we know that we wanna stick together. It’s not about being perfect, it’s about being healthy. It requires both people to participate, otherwise it’ll fail.

shit to talk.” I always tell myself that if I’m gonna be nasty, I’m going to be like Missy [Elliott]. I love Missy – she’s nasty, but she’s gonna make you laugh with it.

I worked really hard so that my bars were creative, fun and, in my opinion, tasteful.

But when YUSO dropped, I got negative responses like, “She’s classy, she can’t be talking like that.” Yes, I went to school, but when I see my man, I’m gonna get freaky. I just call them ‘confused fans’, because your mama nasty, your grandma nasty, your great grandma nasty, too.

Celebrate whoever you are as a woman, because people say, “Oh, she’s too conservative. Oh, she’s too nasty. Oh, THE RED BULLETIN

“I used to hate the comment [at college], ‘Oh, you’re pretty for a Black girl’”

How would you describe your debut album, Pretty Bitch Music?

It took me so long to start saying ‘bitch’ in my raps. If I’m going to use this word so my listeners can have that much more relatability to me, I’m gonna let them know what ‘bitch’ stands for. So that’s why I broke it down: BITCH means Boss, Independent, Tough, CEO… and I’m from the Bay [Area], so the H stands for Hyphy [a style of hip hop that originated in northern California]. My fans say I make them feel pretty, confident, like they should go out and get their bag, so it’s like I make ‘pretty bitch music’.

I have all these layers and all these moods that can be shown in my project.

I do like the finer things in life, but I’m also a tomboy. I’m also a family woman.

I also can get my feelings hurt. I do have emotions – I’m not some just robotic pretty girl. I’m a human, and through these songs – whether they’re sentimental, personal, uplifting or fun – you’ll be able to get that.

And the sound?

I didn’t have the right guidance at first.

But with this new project and working with people who truly know me, I’m finally able to have everything interconnect. At first, I didn’t know how to have my personality come over a beat, which was super hard when it wasn’t a beat of my own. I’m learning how to take a song into my own hands and execute it the way Saweetie would.

Saweetie’s debut album, Pretty Bitch Music, is out later this year.

Instagram: @saweetie 55

MOVING MOUNTAINS

Exploring the glacier covered volcanoes of Iceland is a relentless uphill struggle – one that’s as dangerous and unpredictable as the ash-and-lava-spewing peaks themselves Words MARK JENKINS Photography CARSTEN PETER

What a blast: Iceland’s Bárðarbunga volcano erupts from beneath the Vatnajökull glacier

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Iceland’s volcanoes

W

e’re lost in a whiteout on the side of this century’s most famous volcano, Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull. A blinding snowstorm rushed over us in a matter of minutes and we had to turn around to avoid driving straight into the crater. We’re descending steeply into a white void when our superjeep – a jacked-up four-wheel drive with balloon-like tires – loses traction. Now we’re sliding sideways down the glacier.

This is the fourth time I’ve explored this geographically remarkable country, but I’m more used to climbing glaciers than driving up them. This time, I’m here to scale some of Iceland’s many volcanoes – but it’s doubtful we’ll make it to the top of Eyjafjallajökull today. The windshield and side windows are a smear of snow and fog, and I feel sure we’re about to plunge into a crevasse. “Do you know where the crevasses are?” I ask my Icelandic guide.

Sanguine as the Viking he is, he grins: “Most of them.” Karl Ingolfsson has spent more time on glaciers and in blizzards than anyone I know. “Glaciers thrive on whiteouts and bad weather,” he says.

“They wouldn’t exist without them.”

Perhaps Ingolfsson wouldn’t exist without them either. As an accomplished skier, ice climber and mountain guide, glaciers are his natural habitat. Built like a polar bear, with a bald head and mischievous blue eyes, he isn’t even looking out the windshield; he’s hunched 58

THE RED BULLETIN

“You must never underestimate climate or geography.

They are our destiny”

Rock of ages: this drone photograph captures the surface formations around the entrance of the Kverkfjöll cave

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“Eruptions are our most popular form of entertainment!�

Breaking point: Icelanders, who mark history by volcanic events, know that explosive change is a constant

Iceland’s volcanoes

MARK JENKINS

Safe set of wheels: the superjeep is ideally suited to Iceland’s terrain – unique to the island, this beast handles snow and glaciers with ease and also meets strictly enforced environmental standards

over the wheel, staring at the tiny GPS screen. We’re on the eastern flanks of Eyjafjallajökull, the volcano that – when it erupted 10 years ago, spewing 500 tonnes of ash into the air every second – closed airspace across northern Europe for a week, the region’s largest air-traffic shutdown since WWII. Our goal had been to drive up the glaciated volcano and circle the crater rim, examining any changes since the 2010 eruption. Zero visibility, which we’d experience many times in the coming weeks, turns us back.

“We should be crossing our uphill tracks,” says Ingolfsson, talking directly at the GPS. “Open your door and see if you can spot them.” I swing it open and the storm envelops me. Leaning my face close to the moving glacier, I attempt to identify old tyre prints. “Nothing,” I shout.

“No problem,” Ingolfsson replies. For more than an hour, we travel blind, Ingolfsson navigating exclusively by GPS. We don’t drop out of the storm clouds until back on volcanic rock. He turns the superjeep so we can see the storm cap over the volcano. “We’ll try again when the weather improves,” he growls, disappointed.

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I

celand, a stark Arctic country with only 360,000 inhabitants, sits directly on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a 16,000kmlong crevice that separates the North American and Eurasian plates, allowing magma to bubble up from deep within the Earth. The island itself is entirely composed of lava, but it’s so far north that 11 per cent is covered by glaciers.

Big air: local mountain guide and all-round force-of-nature Karl Ingolfsson checks the superjeep’s oversized, balloon-like tyres, which inflate and deflate dependant on terrain

This unique combination creates unique challenges for the Icelanders. By their standards, the Eyjafjallajökull eruption was quite small, yet 100,000 flights were cancelled due to the ash plume being blown south. “It was almost a joke how efficient it was at [doing] maximum damage,” says Páll Einarsson, a leading volcanologist at the University of Iceland in Reykjavík. An eruption 100 times more powerful occurred a year later, from the Grimsvotn volcano, 140km northeast of Eyjafjallajökull, but caused less disruption due to larger ash particles and different weather conditions.

Grimsvotn has erupted at least a dozen times in the past 100 years. Further back, in 1783, Laki, a fissure on the southwest side of the volcano, exploded, emitting toxic clouds of sulphur dioxide that produced sulphuric acid rain. More than half of Iceland’s livestock was wiped out, leading to a famine that killed about 25 per cent of its population.

“And Grimsvotn is just one volcano,” says Einarsson. “We have 33 active volcano systems in Iceland, with an eruption occurring about every other year.

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Iceland’s volcanoes

Eruptions are our most popular form of entertainment!” Einarsson tends to see volcanoes much like people, with their specific temperaments and behaviours.

“Hekla is ready to blow!” he says. This small volcano has erupted more than 20 times in the past millennium. “Hekla is more dangerous than Eyjafjallajökull,” says Einarsson, “because it has such a short fuse. Most volcanoes give considerable warning before they erupt but, on Hekla, the time from the first earthquake swarms to the actual eruption can be 20 minutes.

Anyone on Hekla, a popular volcano for hikers, would not have time to escape.”

T

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The writer: Mark Jenkins

GETTY IMAGES

his dire forecast inspires Ingolfsson to take me for a drive up Hekla.

Awake before dawn for a proper Viking breakfast – two slugs of cod liver oil washed down with a big bowl of skyr, a sour yogurt – he checks the weather on his computer. “Fog, then a bit of righteous sun, then cold wind, maybe some real snow,” he says cheerfully, rolling his Rs, his accent sounding a little Scottish.

“Iceland has four seasons: morning, day, evening and night.” We drive east from Reykjavík, the world’s northernmost capital, home to two-thirds of Iceland’s population. “We have three geographic zones: inhabitable lowlands, where humans live; uninhabitable highlands, where almost nothing grows; and glaciers, where nothing lives,” Ingolfsson tells me as we speed towards the hills.

With an area of 7,700km2 , and a maximum thickness of 950m, Vatnajökull is Europe’s largest glacier, filling much of southeastern Iceland. It’s actually an ice cap comprising dozens of glaciers and covering two volcano systems, Grimsvotn and Bárðarbunga. Iceland has more than 250 named glaciers, and climbing them is a unique experience, though it’s essential to go with someone like Ingolfsson who understands the inconstant environment, as glaciers shift and collapse. “Never underestimate climate or geography,” he once told me after an ice climb inside a glacier cave on Langjökull. “Climate and geography are destiny.”

On our way to Hekla, we stop at a roadside diner for a classic Viking lunch: mutton soup and a hunk of dense bread.

The wind is cuttingly cold, but Ingolfsson is inured. I’m wearing mountain boots and a wind parka; he’s in a holey sweater and sandals. “Sandals and ski boots are all you need in Iceland,” he says. Fortified, we set out in our superjeep, winding

Award-winning American author, journalist and climber Mark Jenkins has been on more than 50 expeditions around the world and related his adventures in publications including The Atlantic and National Geographic. Highlights include reaching the summit of Everest, the first ascent of the highest peaks in the Arctic Circle, and the first descent of the Niger River’s headwaters in West Africa. He has also travelled to Iceland several times to climb its glaciers and mountains.

But, even for a seasoned traveller such as Jenkins, this trip to explore some of the country’s many volcanoes was like no other he’d experienced.

markjenkins.net

THE RED BULLETIN

Iceland’s mix of lava and glaciers brings unique challenges Frozen in time: Jenkins explores an ice cave. The dark striations in the ice are layers of volcanic ash deposited over the millennia

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Going clear: fine conditions such as these make for good driving, but as soon as a snowstorm whips up, you’re travelling blind

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THE RED BULLETIN

Iceland’s volcanoes

MARK JENKINS

through high, barren, rust-coloured hills and up into the snow. Ingolfsson drops the double transmission into ‘crawler gear’ and we begin to ascend. The superjeep is unique to Iceland, although a few have been exported to Antarctica. They look similar to a customised, big-wheeled offroad vehicle, but ORV travel is prohibited in this environmentally sensitive country.

Superjeeps are designed exclusively for travel over snow and self-healing glaciers, not redneck mud-hogging. For flotation, the tyres are exceedingly wide and soft.

Halfway up the vast white cone of Hekla, we become bogged down in deep snow. “Drop the tire pressure to 7psi,” says Ingolfsson, adjusting his wraparound glacier glasses. At my left knee is a vertical metal rack with six switches on the front, pressure hoses extending out the back. The hoses weave through the vehicle, plugging into each tyre and the air pump. There’s a deflation switch, an inflation switch, and a switch for each individual tyre. I flip the deflation switch and open the gauges for all four. As the tyres deflate, they begin to grip the snow and the superjeep lurches uphill.

We’re traversing an eye-searingly white side slope when the superjeep, keeled over like a sailing boat in a strong wind, begins to lose traction on the uphill side.

Ingolfsson orders me to drop the rightside tyre pressure to 3psi. I hang out the window and watch as the huge tyres basically go flat, the rubber wrinkling, and begin grabbing the snow like claws.

Ingolfsson has been glacier driving since he was a boy and can feel the consistency of the snow through the chassis.

We swing back to the northeast ridge of Hekla and the tyres start to spin out.

The angle is so severe it feels like the superjeep is about to flip over backwards.

“I don’t think we can make it,” I say. He winks. “Drop the pressure to 2psi for all tyres.” I do so, but they continue to spin out. Ingolfsson opens his door, stands

“Iceland has four seasons: morning, day, evening and night” THE RED BULLETIN

the ice, which doesn’t bother Ingolfsson in the least. “It’s just like being on skis,” he says. The man has been imperturbable in every situation we’ve faced together.

He has ice in his veins. Back on a black road, he checks the forecast. “Everything has changed, of course,” he says. “We’ve got a window of decent weather. I think we should try Eyjafjallajökull again.”

W Fire and brimstone: the Bárðarbunga eruption began in August 2014 and lasted for a whole six months, polluting the Icelandic air with toxic sulphur dioxide gas

up and gets his substantial body weight forward of the cab, steering with one leg.

“You need to get out on the front bumper,” he yells. I jump out, climb my way up the snow and pull myself onto an aluminium platform that juts out from the front bumper. He had this perch specifically designed for redistributing weight and balance. My body weight gives the front tyres just enough traction and we slowly begin to bounce our way up the icy snow.

Improbably, we drive right to the summit of a mountain that is a steep tramp for hikers in the summer. We park, get out and walk around. Heat from the belly of Hekla has melted the snow from the top of the volcano. The black rocks are rimmed with icicles, and steam rises from holes in between. It does feel as if this volcano could blow at any moment.

“When Hekla blew in 1104, the Celtic monks of Iceland began spreading the word that Hekla was the passageway to hell,” Ingolfsson remarks. “Sailors steered clear for centuries. “The eruption in 1693 killed off many trout, salmon and ptarmigan [a gamebird],” he continues, as if it happened just last week. “The eruption in 1947 lasted 13 months and spread lava over 15 square miles.”

Driving down from the summit of Hekla, we start to slide and I’m tempted to get out and walk. I think we might roll, but we don’t. We just keep slipping on

e have metaphors about building a life on solid ground. Icelanders know better. In this country where chess is a national sport, hákarl (putrefied shark) a national dish, and the otherworldly weather a national conversation, Icelanders expect change, even explosive change, and expect to figure out how to deal with it. According to a 2020 UN report, Iceland is the world’s fourth happiest nation – despite being covered with glaciers and volcanoes.

“Change, not stasis, is our status quo,” Ingolfsson tells me.

I’m probing along the crater rim for crevasses. After Eyjafjallajökull erupted in 2010, the caldera collapsed, snow fell and the glaciers began to grow again.

Ingolfsson has sent me out ahead of the superjeep with an avalanche probe to ensure we avoid any unseen crevasses.

“Don’t get too close to the crater’s edge,” he warns. “You never know where heat from the volcano has hollowed it out underneath.” Peering over the lip into the snow-filled caldera, I see steam rising from small black holes.

I’ve probed for crevasses on mountains around the world, but I’ve never needed a snowbridge that could support the weight of anything more than a human.

Now Ingolfsson, in our hefty superjeep, is crawling along behind me as we circumnavigate the rim of Eyjafjallajökull one pole punch at a time. Ingolfsson and I manage to completely traverse Eyjafjallajökull and then, without stopping, continue on up Mýrdalsjökull glacier to the top of Katla, another notorious Iceland volcano. On the summit, Ingolfsson steps out in his sandals, dropping into the snow. We are surrounded by brilliant whiteness that curves off to the horizon in all directions.

“When this one goes again, it’s predicted to be 10 to 100 times bigger than Eyjafjallajökull,” says Ingolfsson, almost joyful at the uncontrollable geological exuberance of his country.

After all, it’s this turbulent geography that has made him who he is.

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Endura introduce the fourth generation of award-winning MT500 Waterproof Jacket as chosen by Rachel, Dan and Gee Atherton. Slicker, sharper, Hi-fi Sci-fi that stands firm side-by-side with our awesome helmets and protection. This kit is committed, feature-packed and delivers monster breathability. (40000g/m2/24hr) According to Gee ‘It’s a must. Unless you know it’s an absolute hot dusty beach summer, it goes in the bag for sure.’

The collection includes the coveted Onesie which Rachel uses for race training. ‘I would say if you’re born in the UK you should be given an MT500 Waterproof Onesie at birth because you need it all the time.’ Turns out it’s even suitable on and off bike for Dan, ‘Honestly, no joke, I wake up in the morning and I put it on, and that’s me, all day on the diggers.’

What sets this latest iteration apart from the pack are the collection’s eco credentials using an environmentally friendly PFC free DWR treatment. This fabric is also certified as MadeKind, having been produced in a way that eliminates harmful substances from the supply chain and the environment. #ForceForGood

endurasport.com

VENTURE

JAMES WARBEY

MATT RAY

Enhance, equip, and experience your best life

LONGBOARD SURFING Sennen, West Cornwall

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VENTURE Travel

“A ‘hang ten’ is one of the most special feelings in surfing – you’re totally in balance with this energy that’s breaking through the water” British pro surfer Mike Lay

J

ust around the corner from Land’s End – the most westerly point in England – lies Sennen Cove. The sands are golden, the water is crystal clear and, when there isn’t a sea mist, the sun shines brightly. But the real beauty of Sennen is that it faces perfectly west, so the Atlantic swell rolls straight in, bringing uninterrupted yearround waves to this Cornish beach.

I grew up in Sennen and still spend my time surfing and working as a lifeguard here. In summer, there will be thousands of people on the beach, so I look forward to autumn and winter when it’s less crowded. In October, the water is around 13-15°C, so you need a thicker wetsuit – 4mm or 5mm. In my teens I surfed competitively around Europe, and now,

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at 29, I freesurf across the world on the same global ambassador team as [Australian multiple world surfing champion] Mick Fanning and [US-based pro surfer] Rob Machado, but Sennen is my favourite place to longboard.

In longboarding, as the name suggests, an extended board is used – anything between just under 3m to around 4m long, as opposed to a 2m regular shortboard. It’s a completely different approach to surfing – one aimed less at ripping and tearing a wave and more at building a harmonious relationship with the surf. This harks back to surfing’s roots in Hawaii, where really long, heavy wooden boards were ridden thousands of years ago.

After the shortboard revolution in 1966, longboard development stopped

and the sport became super underground until about 20 years ago. Now, at Sennen, we have this radical new crew of mainly young, female longboarders, including Izzy Henshall and Maisie Marshall, who are just surfing so well, so happily, that the positivity in the water is tangible. It’s a change from years past, when the water was filled with grumpy middle-aged men struggling to get their high-performance shortboards to work on British summer surf.

To shortboard, you must have pretty good waves. With a longboard, because of its volume, you don’t need as powerful a wave, which means you end up catching way more. That’s what first attracted me – I wasn’t interested in reducing my wave count. With a longboard, you can make the call to go and surf on what someone else might think is a really bad wave, but with a smile on your face. The most rounded surfers nowadays are those who ride both long and shortboards.

While you control a shortboard by leaning in and applying your weight to your front or back foot, on a longboard you make fewer radical changes of direction and, because of its length, you need to actually move around the board to make that happen. This involves cross-stepping – walking to the front of the board by shifting your body weight from one leg to the other.

Once there, you can experience one of the most special feelings in surfing: nose riding. As the surf anchors the back of the board, you’re literally standing in mid-air. From here, you can perform a ‘hang five’ where you put one foot (five toes – hence the name) over the nose, or a ‘hang ten’ where you put both feet next to each other on the very tip of the board. In that moment, you’re totally in balance with this energy that’s breaking through the water, and achieving something that just feels super unlikely.

But to achieve true harmony you have to catch a ‘green wave’ – that moment THE RED BULLETIN

JAMES WARBEY

End game: Mike Lay toes to the nose – the pinnacle when it comes to longboarding

VENTURE Travel

Tough breaks: in West Cornwall, as Lay knows too well, some breaks make you work harder for rewards

Chairman of the board: surfing is tough. Surfing with style is even tougher. But Lay makes it look easy

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VENTURE Travel

Finding your nose Mike Lay reveals how to get your ‘log’ on and hang five

ALWAYS THINK SAFETY FIRST – longboards are bigger and heavier with longer leashes, so you can have a really bad surf if the waves are too big. Chest-high is good, but ask a lifeguard for advice.

Cold comfort: fortunately for surfers such as Lay, winter guarantees wild weather in Kernow

Mike Lay is a pro surfing ambassador for Finisterre and Reef, as well as an RNLI lifeguard; finisterre.com 70

Longboard locales Sniffing out the UK’s best nose rides SENNEN COVE, CORNWALL Lay’s favourite longboarding beach is best surfed in autumn when the crowds are thinner, at low- to mid-tide.

BANTHAM BEACH, SOUTH DEVON An Atlantic swell magnet between Salcombe and Plymouth, with shifting sandbanks and riptides, but when the waves are smaller you get ridiculously long rides.

STAND NORMALLY with your feet perpendicular to the centre line (stringer) of your board.

BAY OF SKAILL, ORKNEY A stunning point break where the North Sea butts heads with the Atlantic. And at the southern end of the bay is Skara Brae, a spookily well-preserved village from Neolithic times.

SAUNTON SANDS, NORTH DEVON Famous among longboarders looking for mellow, chilled-out breaks and endless waves.

CHRISTINA LOCK

RATHER THAN SHUFFLING, put your back foot over your front foot, to move towards the nose.

In November last year, monster waves as high as 10m were recorded at Sennen

START WITH JUST ONE STEP, but practise stepping backwards, because many people skip that.

If you manage two steps forward, you’ll essentially be nose riding.

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JAMES WARBEY, GETTY IMAGES

before the wave breaks. When learning to surf, you’re confined to the tumbling whitewater bucking the back of your surfboard and you really have to concentrate just to stand up. It’s a giant step to go from the whitewater to the green wave, but it unlocks the door to all of surfing. Catching your first green wave is the most significant moment in a surfer’s life; mine came at the age of 11, during an activities week at Cape Cornwall School.

That first time on a green wave, I remember not really being able to process how monumental the moment was. But I realise now it was a pivotal one. As soon as you’re on it, the whitewater stops messing around with the tail of your board and you’re suddenly weightless, feeling a frictionless glide on the surface of the water. It sparks something close to a positive addiction.

The sea has given me everything I have. It’s also my release from the myriad stresses of everyday life and the ultra-connected society we’re now living in. It’s my refuge. When I drive down the hill at Sennen and see those waves as I turn into the car park, it’s an evocative feeling. Then I decide which board to use for that session, my wetsuit goes on straight away, and I run all the way into the sea.

VENTURE Equipment SURF

Tame the waves

TIM KENT

Cutting-edge kit to shift the tide in your favour

For those small-wave days when you need longboard glide with shortboard portability, there’s the midboard. The LIB TECH Pickup Stick (lib-tech.com) is your 7ft solution to catching waves in all conditions. Also pictured (left to right, from top left): VANS Surf Boot 2 Hi V, vans.co.uk; FINISTERRE Blasius swimsuit, finisterre.com; LGSC Bushmaster surf hat, lgscapparel.com; BOOST SURFING Electric Surf Fin (capable of 16kph), boostsurfing.com; OAKLEY Latch sunglasses, oakley.com; Shower In A Can, shower-in-a-can.co.uk; O’NEILL Women’s Hyperfreak FUZE (Front Upper Zip Entry) wetsuit, oneill.com; SLOWTIDE Valen beach blanket, slowtide.co.uk; RVCA Club 17in shorts, rvca.co.uk; SLOWTIDE The Digs changing poncho, slowtide.co.uk THE RED BULLETIN

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CAPTURE THOSE EXTRAORDINARY MOMENTS

UK photographer Nigel Danson

W

hether traversing the peaks of a mountain range, the depths of a forest floor, or just spending a day exploring new trails close to home, these spiritual moments can often become the source of life-long memories.

Recalling these experiences instantly evokes the emotions you were feeling at that time and place, but recollections can fade with time, and capturing these life-affirming moments isn’t always easy.

Reaching for your smartphone can often shatter the tranquillity of your surroundings with incoming notifications; an action camera isn’t always up to every job required; and the bulkiness of a DSLR might keep

you on the well-trodden paths and away from the undiscovered.

The Nikon Z 5 is the answer to all of these issues. The go-to camera for adventure seekers, it’s robust and lightweight, with a highperformance mirrorless lens capable of capturing those offthe-cuff moments that stick with you for ever, shot after shot, expedition after expedition.

It’s not just made for amateur explorers, either, as professional landscape photographer Nigel Danson explains. One of an elite group of artists selected by Nikon as a ‘Z Creator’, he relies on the Z 5 to take his photography to the next level when he’s in the thick of nature, and it has become a firm favourite in his extensive kit bag.

“The images produced by the Z 5 have incredible dynamic range and enable me to have flexibility in the edit and final production,” he explains. “Ultimately, I have more creative control, and in landscape photography that’s everything.”

One of Danson’s favourite features of the Z 5 is the ability to shoot in full frame, meaning it has a large image sensor the same size as in a 35mm camera – a quality usually reserved for devices twice its price. “I’m often printing 2-3mlong images for clients. This, along with shooting in low light, is where full frame stands out from a cropsensor camera.”

The Z 5 is a piece of kit that goes everywhere Danson does, regardless of conditions. “As a landscape photographer, I’m often in harsh

environments of rain, snow and sub-zero temperatures,” he explains.

“I’ve always relied on Nikon weather sealing, and the Z 5 is no different.”

This weather sealing means the camera is protected against dust, dirt and moisture, particularly around all the moving parts and buttons, enabling Danson to use it wherever his inspiration takes him: “It allows me to concentrate on getting the shot and not worry about the camera getting wet or cold.”

As well as requiring something adventure-proof, Danson needs his camera to be lightweight and comfortable. The Z 5’s magnesium alloy skeleton helps to strike an optimal balance between durability

NIGEL DANSON

Ensure your memories of epic adventures stay as fresh as when they happened, with the Nikon Z 5

PROMOTION

Bigger picture: the Nikon Z 5 will take your outdoors photography to the next level

and lightness, removing any barriers between him and those remote, hard-to-reach spots.

“Less weight is critical when climbing a mountain in Iceland or the Faroe Islands to get that epic sunrise, but the feel of a camera is also important to me – it’s a tool for doing a job and has to feel right in the hand,” he adds. “What I like is that you have a smaller and lighter form factor than a DSLR, without losing out in usability.”

Add in one of the best in-camera image-stabiliser systems and a pointand-shoot automatic setting, and what you have is a camera that is ready to capture those once-in-alifetime moments – whenever and wherever they occur.

FACT FILE

NIKON Z 5

24.3 megapixel sensor ISO range of 100-51,200 (expandable to 102,400) Full frame 4K movies Vibration reduction Hybrid autofocus Silent mode Weather sealed Eye-detection autofocus Dual SD card slots OLED viewfinder Wi-Fi & Bluetooth

VENTURE Equipment The sole plate is light and flexible with conical studs to enable nimble changes in direction

PERFORM

Leagues ahead In European folklore, a pair of seven-league boots grant their wearer the magical ability to traverse immense distances in just a few sprightly steps. Under Armour’s latest football boot imparts similar powers, albeit of the more scientific kind. The inner lining is ‘auxetic’ – it becomes thicker, rather than thinner, when stretched – to mould exactly around the foot, expanding and contracting with movement to erase friction. This ‘Clone Adaptive Technology’ was debuted by UA in the material 74

in Anthony Joshua’s boxing boots, before being used in Virgin Galactic’s spacesuits. In June this year, Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold wore a special pair of these boots emblazoned with ‘Black Lives Matter’, and he’s equipped with the ‘Beta Red’ edition (pictured) for the new season. Having already won two major medals – for the 2018-19 Champions League and 2019-20 Premier League – here’s hoping he makes even greater strides. underarmour.co.uk THE RED BULLETIN

TIM KENT

UA Clone Magnetico Pro FG football boot

VENTURE Gaming PLAY

Soldier of fortune

ACTIVISION

TOM GUISE

In February this year, Liam Lunt was ready to quit playing Call of Duty. By August, he was the game’s highest-earning player…

The summer of 2020 brought much we’d rather forget, but it’ll also be remembered as the moment when video gaming came to the rescue. Playing online provided a means of staying connected, having fun, and – at least in a virtual sense – getting out there, and there was no bigger game this summer than Warzone. By August, the free-to-play battle royale mode of first-person shooter Call of Duty: Modern Warfare was pulling in 75 million players. Twenty-threeyear-old Liverpudlian Liam Lunt was one of them.

Within two weeks of Warzone’s March release, Lunt had won a $60,000 charity game in support of COVID-19 relief. Then, in May, his team took $50K in a Warzone grand final, followed by $33K in another charity game (with $100K going to the Equal Justice Initiative). This made Lunt the game’s highestearning player – a statistic all the more astonishing when you consider he only won his first $1K (playing previous edition Call of Duty: Black Ops 4) little more than a year earlier, on a PC loaned by a friend. That was his cue to quit his oil refinery job and become a full-time player and streamer on Twitch under the moniker ‘Jukeyz’.

But grinding out a living on Warzone takes more than just surviving on a battlefield – you need to stay sane in your everyday life, too. By February this year, Lunt was ready to quit. “My girlfriend was like, ‘What are you doing with your life?’” he recalls.

“It was a good question.”

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Chop zone: ATV vs helicopter in Warzone (Segways and milk floats are hotly tipped for the next DLC)

Always be yourself

Playing for keeps: Lunt’s stellar gaming career began on a PC loaned from a friend

Here, Lunt shares the lessons he’s learnt as a pro gamer.

Play with confidence

Clocking up game time is key to improvement, but Lunt also cites confidence as a crucial factor: “Players start panicking, and a millisecond mistake can cost you the whole game. When I’m loading into the map and there are 150 people in there, I put myself into the mindset that I’m the best in that lobby.

If I can do this, anyone can be good enough.”

Lunt says livestreaming has helped his playing by keeping him grounded. “The people in my feed know me and can tell if I’m not being myself.

Some have sat there with me for 16 hours straight.

I just stream so others can watch; I never look at my analytics. Other streamers ask me, ‘How can I blow up?’

I say, ‘Don’t worry about getting subscribers. You’ll be going to bed with that affecting you.’”

Stick to your convictions

“When I started doing this full-time, people in the Call of Duty community were saying to me, ‘You can’t do this for ever.’ My friends were like, ‘Grow up. Get a job.’ I ended up losing my girlfriend. But I was making money, and I thought, ‘I can make money from people watching me play, too.’ My friend Tommo was selling a PC, and he was like, ‘Just pay me back in instalments.

I’ll help you start streaming.’

That was May 2019. Those friends are now like, ‘Wow, you were right.’”

Keep some balance in your life

“I’ve been so deep into the game that a few months ago I got really run down,” admits Lunt. The trick, he says, is to recognise that, and to understand that even if your hours will be different you need structure. “During the day in the UK, the streams are not that active. It’s at night, when I’m playing my friends in America, that I’m at my happiest. So I get a routine, a good sleeping pattern.”

It’s not antisocial

The perception of gamers is changing, says Lunt, with lockdown playing a big part in softening people’s attitudes.

“In the past few months, a lot of people from Liverpool have been coming to my stream, and seeing support from my city really helps. Pre-lockdown there weren’t many Scousers who recognised me. Now I’m the main gamer in Liverpool.”

Call of Duty: Warzone is free to download on PC, PS4 and Xbox One. Follow Lunt’s livestreams at twitch.tv/jukeyz

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VENTURE Equipment

CLIMB

Height of style The beauty of free-soloing a sheer mountain face is you don’t need much kit. The flipside is... you don’t have much kit. Most of us will never know the thrill of scaling the 914m granite wall that is El Capitan in Yosemite National Park wearing little more than a T-shirt, shorts and chalk bag, as US free-soloist Alex Honnold did in three hours and 56 minutes in 2017. But there are plenty of ways to get our bouldering fix, both on indoor walls and outdoor rocks, and even in our city streets (see Robbie Phillips’ urban crack-climbing exploits on page 42). Whichever finger-busting route you take, that modicum of gear needs to be chosen wisely – garments need to be loose-fitting, but without a risk of snagging, and if you’re outdoors they must provide weather protection without clamminess. Bags must be snug and accessible, and shoes grippy, sticky and flexible. Here’s what you need....

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TIM KENT

Look good next time you’re free-soloing El Capitan

VENTURE Equipment

Opposite page (left to right, from top): TOPO DESIGNS Women’s Classic tee, topodesigns.com; MARMOT Women’s Alpha 60 jacket, marmot.com; HIPPYTREE El Cap chalk bag, hippytree.com; YETI Rambler 36oz bottle with Chug Cap, uk.yeti.com; KAVU Woodway five-panel camp cap, kavu.com; SNAP Women’s Chino Pants climbing trousers, snapclimbing.com; MONTANE Women’s Fleet waterproof jacket, montane.com This page (left to right, from top): THE NORTH FACE Fanorak 2.0 packable jacket, thenorthface.co.uk; SNAP Big chalk bag with TPU waterproof coating, snapclimbing.com; ADIDAS Five Ten Hiangle climbing shoes, adidas.co.uk; MARMOT Men’s Transporter SS tee, marmot.com; MONTANE Men’s On-Sight shorts, montane.com; YETI Hopper Flip 12 soft cooler, uk.yeti.com

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VENTURE How to…

Get back to nature

“I looked to nature and saw that people who didn’t wear shoes, such as tribes, had really wide feet. Ours have become really narrow, so it’s important to let them open up and create mobility and strength. The foundation of my running is ground living – spending more time sitting and stretching on the floor.

I find having a really solid practise helps to re-enforce our natural movement patterns. I don’t even have chairs at home.”

Know your toes

Ultra-endurance athlete Tony Riddle wants to transform us from ‘zoo humans’ to ‘wild humans’, starting by running without shoes Tony Riddle wasn’t always destined to become a runner.

When he was born in Reading Hospital 46 years ago, Riddle was one of the longest babies on record. “I’d taken on an adaptation in the womb,” he says. “I’d curled my feet under my armpits, so I was born with a heavily inverted foot.” Three months of plaster casts and a period in leg braces followed.

The result, unsurprisingly, is that as a child Riddle “couldn’t wait to get my shoes off”.

It was only natural, then, that he would become one of the leading voices of the barefoot movement, which the lifestyle coach and Pilates teacher sees as a part of ‘rewilding’ the human body.

Following a barefoot run from 78

Land’s End to John O’Groats last year, Riddle set his sights even higher this summer when (again shoeless) he smashed the National Three Peaks Challenge – summiting Ben Nevis, Snowdon and Scafell Pike, with a total ascent of 3,064m. He ran the distance of 780km – including the run from peak to peak, for which he wore only ultra-thin shoes – in a record time of nine days, seven hours and 18 minutes.

“I believe in getting running back to its natural state,” says Riddle. “The Peaks are the kind of surface we would have always run barefoot. I want to prove the human potential of what we can achieve.”

Chill out

“Running barefoot is about more than minimising injury – it’s about recovery, too. I do a lot of breath work. After a run, first I let my body cool down, then I take an ice bath.

It’s important to rid your body of any tension, because when we become tense the relationship between our feet and the ground is ‘hardon-hard’. You have to relax so that your feet maintain a degree of malleability.”

Don’t run yourself down

Tony Riddle A self-proclaimed ‘natural life-stylist’ for the past 18 years, Riddle uses ancient and modern techniques to promote health and wellbeing. Information about his talks, workshops and retreats can be found at tonyriddle.com

“[On my run] between Land’s End and John O’Groats, some parts of my feet started to wear. One day I split the skin between the first and second toes and it became tough to even stand. Then I sprained my ankle. I drew on everything I knew – breath work, cold immersion, mobility – to get out of ‘victim mode’ and back into the body. I changed the narrative from ‘Poor me, I’m not going to be able to do this,’ to ‘I’m healing. Give me a day off, then I’ll be able to do it’.

I was broken and hobbling, but I still crossed the finish line.”

Tony Riddle is an ambassador for Vivobarefoot shoes (pictured); vivobarefoot.com THE RED BULLETIN

TOM WARD

Rewild your run

“There are more than 7,000 nerve endings and receptors in the sole of your foot. It’s a sophisticated system that relays information to your brain. Putting a layer of rubber between your feet and the ground numbs the sensory experience, which stops your feet making the right calculation as to what muscles, tendons and suspension systems need to do when encountering a hard surface. You have to practise to get your feet compliant, building up this resilience over time. I’m always thinking about how to lift my feet off things without pain or injury.

It’s about pulling away from rocks rather than pushing off.”

CHRISTOPHER BAKER

ADAPT

“As a Pilates coach, I used to see the same injuries: knee, lower back and neck.

I wondered what the cause was and realised a huge issue was not understanding the feet. The big toe has this huge leveraging and pivoting capability. If that’s off, it affects the 26 bones, 30 joints and more than 100 muscles, tendons and ligaments of the foot, and up through the ankle, knee, hip and pelvis. It’s about actively altering this. If the big toe isn’t straight, the foot rolls in and creates overpronation.”

Sole search

PROMOTION

ENVE’s Foundation AM30 wheelset is available in two sizes: 27.5in and 29in

THE WHEEL REIMAGINED

The latest release from wheel supremos ENVE will make you rethink carbon wheelsets for life When tackling the toughest trails, you need peace of mind that your wheels are able to withstand impact after impact, ride after ride. Enter the latest release from industry leader ENVE – the Foundation AM30.

This USA-made carbon-fibre wheelset achieves the holy trinity of all-day comfort and compliance, lightning-fast acceleration, and gravity-rated strength. It does so thanks to uniquely shaped and tuned 20mm-deep carbon rims that are laced to Industry Nine’s 1/1 hubset using double-butted Sapim Race spokes. And if that doesn’t already sound like a bombproof build, the moulded spoke holes are offset to inhibit fatigue, boosting hardiness

and durability, while external nipples prevent the piercing of tubeless tape on the gnarliest of impacts.

One of the coolest features is the wide hookless-bead rims, developed

by ENVE to boost impact resistance and prevent pinch flats. In practice, this gives riders the freedom to

shred insert-free, reducing weight and improving the overall experience.

All of ENVE’s products are crafted to inspire confidence, and are rigorously tested by pros such as DH World Cup winner Amaury Pierron, but the company also understands that mishaps can happen. As well as a five-year manufacturer’s warranty, ENVE offers a Lifetime Incident Protection Scheme, meaning that if you break it, they’ll replace it. So if your wheelset fails because of a crash, or even by accident, the ENVE product will be replaced at no cost, protecting your investment and providing prolevel support, even if you don’t have the backing of a pro team.

A modern mountain wheel in every respect, the Foundation AM30 offers ENVE’s best-in-class features at a fraction of the cost of its pioneering M-series. Available in 27.5in and 29in models, and able to run 2.3-2.6in tyres, the wheels will slot perfectly into any trail, all-mountain or enduro rig.

For more information on where to buy ENVE products, contact: info@saddleback.co.uk

VENTURE Fitness

Why so serious?

Forget running tech and blind ambition, says Nike’s head running coach. Focus instead on what makes sport fun in the first place: improvisation and creativity You might not be familiar with his face, but if you‘re a runner there’s a good chance that Cory Wharton-Malcolm has motivated you on one of your park loops. The 41-year-old Londoner is a head running coach for Nike’s Run Club app – it’s his voice that pops up when you hit certain waypoints during your run.

But instead of coming across like a disembodied drill instructor, Cory’s soft-

yet-super-enthusiastic voice thanks runners and offers motivating phrases. This is very much in line with his overall approach to fitness; in Cory’s opinion, working out is too serious, too focused on measuring performance, too obsessed with winning.

He’s onto something: a US study in 2013 found that more than 35 per cent of children playing youth sports quit after the first year. The primary

Good vibrations Cory’s five-step guide to Vibercise Pick a music track – one that makes you want to jump around, turn it up or sing along Loosen up your mind, body and vocal cords with light movements.

Bounce from side to side on your toes, whispering, “Vibes, vibes, vibes.” Repeat three-to-four times Pick a tool to help amplify your vibe. Your relationship to it is not unlike that of a conductor and their baton. Sometimes the tool picks you – a favourite of mine is wooden spoons, which chose me during a bake-off Keep bouncing, but now your tool of amplification comes alive. Do whatever movement feels right with your upper body. This stage is known as ‘The Simmer’ Move your whole body – yes, all of it – to the music. If you want your vibing tools to be drumsticks, so be it; if you want them to become wings, flap them like a bird. Just let the music take you

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Try Vibercise with Cory on Instagram: @bitbeefy

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GEORGE TEWKESBURY, DAVID STEGENGA

EXERCISE

reason? They’re not having fun. “When I started running, I realised quite quickly how boring it was,” Cory says. “So I turned it into a game.”

In the beginning, this meant going into sprint mode whenever he saw a lamppost, or doing spontaneous dips at park benches. Then, in 2012, he founded Track Mafia, a weekly running club that embraces his experimental approach. “I don‘t know how long a run will be, or for what distance,” Cory says, “I’m just going to blow my whistle, and when I do, you sprint.

When I blow again, you stop.

I tell people that running is a great representation of life: you can be as prepared as you like, but anything can happen.”

In 2018, Cory graced the front cover of Runner’s World magazine and was heralded as a pioneer. This year, during lockdown, he extended his philosophy to home fitness.

His weekly Vibercise workouts on Instagram – two-minute sessions using household items such as spoons, baking trays and bowls, all soundtracked with drum-andbass tunes – are as hilarious as they are addictive.

“The idea was to combine my experiences as an oldschool raver with the fact that during lockdown many people didn’t have access to proper exercise equipment, to bring a little sunshine to people’s lives,” Cory says. “Exercise is supposed to release all of these beautiful chemicals in your body. I think we forget that sometimes.”

FLORIAN OBKIRCHER

“When I started running, I realised quite quickly how boring it was”

VENTURE Equipment TRAIN

An axe to grind ChopFit The Chopper

TIM KENT, CHOPFIT

“I’d only chopped wood a handful of times before the concept came to mind,” says Jon Spillman, the creator of this axe-inspired fitness tool, who is not a lumberjack but instead a personal trainer from Austin, Texas.

“I was looking for a new workout and came across videos of boxer Floyd Mayweather doing a hardcore woodchopping workout.” Swinging weights isn’t new in fitness, but The Chopper’s benefits come from that hatchet head – a metal core inside hard rubber – increasing its weight by not only moving its mass away from where you hold it, but also by offsetting it from the centre. “It’s 4lb [1.8kg], but when people guess they say around 10-15lb [up to 7kg],” says Spillman, explaining how the heft is adjusted by moving your grip.

This simplicity extends to a lack of fitness-tracking gimmickry or Bluetooth, but it does come with an app of routines that fully explore axe motions, including chop squats, lunge chops and jumping jack chops.

It’s the perfect accessory in a year that has seen the home-gym scene explode, though not recommended for 2020’s other big pastime: DIY. “It’s durable,” says Spillman, “but I wouldn’t recommend hammering anything at home.” chopfit.com

Kick some axe: The Chopper can be used in strength or cardio workouts, says Spillman. “We’ve taken moves from woodchopping – swinging from your shoulder across your body – and blended them with bodyweight movements” THE RED BULLETIN

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VENTURE Equipment CAPTURE

Straight shooting Beginners’ cameras that take professional photos The Ricoh GR III Street Edition launches in 0.8 seconds for catching spontaneous moments

Sony’s a6100 24MP APS-C mirrorless camera is paired here with the SEL35F18F largeaperture lens

The Nikon Z 5 is compatible with the brand’s standard Nikkor F-Mount range of lenses

From top: the SONY a6100 (sony.co.uk) uses AI-based subject-tracking for action photos; the RICOH GR III Street Edition (ricoh-imaging.eu), with its grippy case and focus-and-snap touchscreen, is perfect for on-the-fly street photography; the NIKON Z 5 (nikon.co.uk) is a full-frame mirrorless with all the capabilities of a high-spec DSLR

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THE RED BULLETIN

TIM KENT

When future generations study the early decades of the 21st century, they’ll have plenty to look back on – with more than 50 billion photos shared on Instagram, we live the age of the democratisation of photography. But, while the smartphone has put a camera in everyone’s pocket, a dedicated device remains the essential tool of the committed photographer. Today’s entry-level cameras make that craft even easier.

PROMOTION

THE CLOCK NEVER LIES

BORIS BEYER

The Canyon Sender CFR moves the needle of downhill MTB

While downhill bike courses haven’t changed dramatically in the last 15 years, the same can’t be said for the tech needed to ride them. The days of riders wrangling aluminium-framed 26ers down a slope have been consigned to the history books, replaced by superlight carbon-fibre 29ers or headturning mullet set-ups.

One person who knows this best is Fabien Barel. A three-time downhill MTB world champion, the Frenchman witnessed the sport’s evolution during his racing career, and is now pivotal in its future in his role as performance director for Canyon CLLCTV, a collective that brings together riders of every discipline and skill.

“The biggest changes in the last five years revolve a lot around the bike set-up,” Barel explains.

“Moving to larger wheel sizes has meant riders and mechanics have been able to focus on optimising the bike’s suspension to achieve more speed with less need to consider comfort and vibration damping. The bikes have also been getting longer, offering additional stability so World Cup riders can push the limits at higher speeds.”

The new 2021 Canyon Sender CFR is the manifestation of these performance-focused improvements and the culmination of hours of testing by the likes of four-time Australian downhill MTB champion Troy Brosnan and British pro Tahnée Seagrave.

But rather than tweaking what has gone before, the Canyon Sender CFR moves the entire needle.

Packing a weight-shedding fully carbon frame for the first time, the geometry repositions the rear shock closer to the ground, lowering the bike’s centre of

Above: Tahnée Seagrave on the Canyon Sender CFR

gravity without losing any of the front triangle’s stiffness or confidence-inspiring handling.

“The suspension kinematic of the Sender CFR has been one of the key areas of development,” adds Barel. “It now offers more support for the riders so they can push harder on track, and has the capability of running an air or coil shock.

“This, combined with the increase in wheel size, as well as a longer reach measurement, creates a really stable platform that the Canyon CLLCTV racers can feel confident riding, even when right at the limit.”

Discover the Canyon Sender CFR at canyon.com

VENTURE Urbanites

COMMUTER

OK COMMUTER As the world changes, so we adapt. And as we turn to new modes of urban transport, our garments need fit and function for active living while still suiting the city Photography DAVID GOLDMAN

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VENTURE Urbanites The MATE X 250 (mate.bike) is a fully folding, eight-speed, 250w electric bike designed in Copenhagen, with fat-tyre wheels capable of speeds of up to 48kph.

Jake wears OAKLEY Portal X sunglasses, oakley.com; ADIDAS Terrex Techrock GORE-TEX PRO rain jacket, adidas.co.uk; THE NORTH FACE Recover 1968 Bottlesource long-sleeve T-shirt, thenorthface.co.uk; TOPO DESIGNS Dirt Pants, topodesigns.com; COLUMBIA SH/FT OutDry boots, columbiasportswear.co.uk

Models: NIKITA at W Model Management; JAKE YOUNG, @jayoung1_

VENTURE Urbanites

Nikita wears &SONS Atlantic Watch Cap beanie, andsons.co.uk; FILSON Swiftwater Rain Pullover jacket, filson.com; OSPREY Archeon 25L backpack, ospreyeurope.com; KAVU Mapleton trousers, kavu.com; STANCE Rockbound Outdoor socks, stance.eu.com; VANS UltraRange EXO Hi MTE shoes, vans.co.uk. Jake wears BBCO Stone Cold Not Sober Beer Hand cap, bbcoheadwear.com; SA1NT Works twill vest, eu.saint.cc; DICKIES Life Sacramento relaxed long-sleeve shirt, dickieslife.com; CHROME INDUSTRIES cycling gloves, chromeindustries.com; &SONS Virgil chinos, andsons.co.uk; STANCE Smoke Shack Hike socks, stance.eu.com; VANS UltraRange EXO Hi MTE shoes, vans.co.uk

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VENTURE Urbanites

TIMBERLAND Pullover windbreaker jacket, timberland.co.uk; CHROME INDUSTRIES Madrona 5 Pocket pants, chromeindustries.com THE RED BULLETIN

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VENTURE Urbanites

JACK WOLFSKIN 365 Hideaway Fleece jacket, jack-wolfskin.co.uk; OAKLEY Coldfuse sunglasses, oakley.com; TISSOT Chrono XL watch, tissotwatches.com

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VENTURE Urbanites

&SONS Atlantic Watch Cap beanie, andsons.co.uk; FILSON Featherweight Down vest, filson.com; KAVU Devon shirt, kavu.com; MARMOT Zephira tights, marmot.com; STANCE Freemont Pass Hike socks, stance.eu.com; DANNER Trail 2650 Mesh GTX shoes, danner.com THE RED BULLETIN

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VENTURE Urbanites

&SONS Atlantic Watch Cap beanie, andsons.co.uk; TOPO DESIGNS Dirt Shirt and Long Sleeve Pocket tee, topodesigns.com; HIPPYTREE Moab pants, hippytree.com; TISSOT Supersport Chrono watch, tissotwatches.com

ARC’TERYX 7 Panel Wool Ball cap, arcteryx.com; SALOMON Transition Down Hoodie jacket, salomon.com; HOWIES Maros organic checked shirt, howies.co.uk

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VENTURE Urbanites The SUPER73-RX (super73.com) is an electrically power-assisted cycle (EPAC), or, as its Californian creators call it, a “street-legal electric motorbike” with a 250w motor capable of reaching 25kph.

An additional 2,000w off-road kit pushes that top speed up to 45kph.

Jake wears HIPPYTREE Paragon hat, hippytree.com; OAKLEY Portal X sunglasses, oakley.com; FINISTERRE Fourier insulated gilet, finisterre.com; OUTDOOR RESEARCH Wilson shirt jacket, outdoorresearch.com; &SONS The Original Elder Henley shirt, andsons.co.uk; OLYMPVS Sorbtek 365 jeans, olympvsjeans.com; STANCE Smoke Shack Hike socks, stance.eu.com; DOLOMITE 54 Surround shoes, dolomite.it

VENTURE Urbanites

This page: sitting alongside the MATE X 250 and SUPER73-RX is the Berlin-built BENNO RemiDemi (far left), a 250w ebike with a top speed of 25kph, nine-speed Shimano brakes, and a on-board computer delivering five riding modes Opposite page: clockwise from top left: Nikita wears TOPO DESIGNS Nylon Camp hat, topodesigns.com; OAKLEY Coldfuse sunglasses, oakley.com; COLUMBIA Sweet View insulated bomber, columbiasportswear.co.uk; BERGHAUS Voyager Tech tee, berghaus.com; TISSOT Chrono XL watch, tissotwatches.com. Jake wears HAGLÖFS Skuta jacket, haglofs.com. Nikita wears

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VENTURE Urbanites

DRAGON Opus sunglasses, uk.dragonalliance.com; ARC’TERYX Cerium LT Hoody jacket, arcteryx.com; MARMOT Cabrillo long-sleeve shirt, marmot.com; HELLY HANSEN Campfire pants, hellyhansen.com; STANCE Freemont Pass Hike socks, stance.eu.com; COLUMBIA Facet 45 OutDry shoes, columbiasportswear.co.uk; Jake wears HELLY HANSEN Moss anorak, hellyhansen.com; HEIMPLANET Motion Ellipse 25L backpack, heimplanet.com; &SONS Frontier Anti-Bac Raw Denim jeans, andsons.co.uk; MERRELL MQM Flex 2 GORE-TEX shoes, merrell.com; MIZU M9 stainless steel water bottle, mizulife.eu. Nikita wears HOWIES Barryher jacket, howies.co.uk; FINISTERRE Wenn Smock shirt, finisterre.com; MARMOT Zephira tights, marmot.com THE RED BULLETIN

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VENTURE Calendar

13

October to 31 January

THE MURDÉR EXPRESS Fans of immersive experiences have been starved of their fix for much of 2020, but one train is ready to board again. Expect cocktails, dining and colourful travel companions – one of whom may be a killer – on this (not actually moving) trip to France.

Pedley Street Station, London; funicular productions.com

13 October onwards THE MOMENT “A Dogtown and Z-Boys-esque origin story about freeride mountain-biking” is how this film was pitched to its director and former pro rider Darcy Turenne. And that’s what she made – a featurelength documentary about how three Canadian crews in the late ’90s took a sport rapidly moving towards sanitised racing and rode it off a steep woodland drop, outraging the bike community with their recklessness and unleashing an attitude and excitement that defines modern MTB. As one observer in the film puts it, “Some bike companies wouldn’t warranty frames bought in British Columbia,” due to the number of trashed bikes coming out of the province. redbull.com

13

October onwards INSIDE STORY: A SEASON WITH RAJASTHAN ROYALS The Indian Premier League is the world’s most watched cricket tournament, and the Royals are its biggest team, with million-dollar signings including England’s Ben Stokes.

In a year that’s upended the sport and seen the contest relocate to Dubai, this three-part series provides fascinating insights behind the scenes of the Royals’ 2019 season. redbull.com 94

17

and 24 October

CAMDEN OKTOBERFEST London’s legendary market borough is known for its eclectic fashion, and lederhosen will be the order of the day as The Electric Ballroom transforms into a Bavarian beer hall for the welcome tradition of drinking from steins and eating big sausages.

The Electric Ballroom, Camden, London; camden oktoberfest.com THE RED BULLETIN

VENTURE Calendar

13

October onwards VANS PRESENTS PROPELLER

13

“Skateboarding was invented in these shoes,” says veteran skater Anthony Van Engelen of the wafflesoled footwear that has become inextricably linked to the sport. Directed by skate-movie legend Greg Hunt and featuring Vans-sponsored riders from ‘old gods’ such as Steve Caballero to 21-yearold Rowan Zorilla, this is not so much a history of skating as a celebration of its soul. redbull.com

October to 13 December

DARCY HENNESSEY TURENNE, RED BULL CONTENT POOL, BARBICAN, VANS, BIRAN HALL/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

LIVE FROM THE BARBICAN It’s been a brutal year for the arts, but in July the Barbican reopened its exhibition halls, and now it has introduced a hybrid format – ‘From our Hall to your home’ – for its autumn season of live concerts. In addition to slimming down the number of attendees to a socially distanced sixth of its usual 1,950seat capacity, the London venue will livestream each performance on a payper-view basis, with 48 hours to rewatch each show. The line-up features a broad crosssection of musical acts, including Irish band The Divine Comedy, Scottish multiinstrumentalist Erland Cooper, sibling string septet the KannehMasons, and jazz tenor saxophonist Nubya Garcia (pictured).

The season ends with guest conductor Dalia Stasevska joined by Professor Brian Cox, who – accompanied by music – will be musing on the cosmos and hopefully not reprising Things Can Only Get Better, his 1993 hit as keyboard player for pop group D:Ream.

Barbican, London; barbican.org.uk THE RED BULLETIN

13

October onwards ANAKIN’S TEKKEN ACADEMY You might think your button-mashing battle strategy when playing Tekken is acceptable, but Hoa ‘Anakin’ Luu – the fighting game’s highest-ranking US player – begs to differ.

In this six-part series. he takes us from basic button familiarity to being able to read your opponent’s mind. redbull.com 95

Imprint

GLOBAL TEAM

THE RED BULLETIN WORLDWIDE

The Red Bulletin is published in six countries. This is the cover of our Austrian edition for November, featuring Hawaii-born ‘waterman’ Kai Lenny.

For more stories beyond the ordinary, go to: redbulletin.com

The Red Bulletin UK. ABC certified distribution 153,505 (Jan-Dec 2019)

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Editor-in-Chief Alexander Müller-Macheck Deputy Editor-in-Chief Andreas Rottenschlager Creative Director Erik Turek Art Directors Kasimir Reimann (deputy CD), Miles English, Tara Thompson Head of Photo Eva Kerschbaum Deputy Head of Photo Marion Batty Photo Director Rudi Übelhör Production Editor Marion Lukas-Wildmann Managing Editor Ulrich Corazza Copy Chief Andreas Wollinger Design Marion Bernert-Thomann, Martina de CarvalhoHutter, Kevin Goll, Carita Najewitz Photo Editors Susie Forman, Ellen Haas, Tahira Mirza General Manager & Publisher Andreas Kornhofer Managing Director Stefan Ebner Head of Media Sales & Partnerships Lukas Scharmbacher Publishing Management Sara Varming (manager), Ivona Glibusic, Bernhard Schmied, Melissa Stutz B2B Marketing & Communication Katrin Sigl (manager), Alexandra Ita, Teresa Kronreif, Stefan Portenkirchner Head of Creative Markus Kietreiber Co-Publishing Susanne Degn-Pfleger & Elisabeth Staber (manager), Mathias Blaha, Raffael Fritz, Thomas Hammerschmied, Valentina Pierer, Mariella Reithoffer, Verena Schörkhuber, Sara Wonka, Julia Bianca Zmek, Edith Zöchling-Marchart Commercial Design Peter Knehtl (manager), Simone Fischer, Alexandra Hundsdorfer, Martina Maier, Julia Schinzel, Florian Solly Advertising Placement Manuela Brandstätter, Monika Spitaler Head of Production Veronika Felder Production Friedrich Indich, Walter O. Sádaba, Sabine Wessig Repro Clemens Ragotzky (manager), Claudia Heis, Nenad Isailovi c,̀ Sandra Maiko Krutz, Josef Mühlbacher MIT Michael Thaler, Christoph Kocsisek Operations Melanie Grasserbauer, Alexander Peham, Yvonne Tremmel Assistant to General Management Patricia Höreth Subscriptions and Distribution Peter Schiffer (manager), Nicole Glaser (distribution), Yoldaş Yarar (subscriptions) Global Editorial Office Heinrich-Collin-Straße 1, A-1140 Vienna Tel: +43 1 90221 28800, Fax: +43 1 90221 28809 redbulletin.com Red Bull Media House GmbH Oberst-Lepperdinger-Straße 11-15, A-5071 Wals bei Salzburg, FN 297115i, Landesgericht Salzburg, ATU63611700 Directors Dietrich Mateschitz, Dietmar Otti, Christopher Reindl, Marcus Weber

THE RED BULLETIN United Kingdom, ISSN 2308-5894 Editor Ruth McLeod Associate Editor Tom Guise Culture Editor Florian Obkircher Chief Sub-Editor Davydd Chong Publishing Manager Ollie Stretton Advertising Sales Mark Bishop, mark.bishop@redbull.com Fabienne Peters, fabienne.peters@redbull.com Printed by Quad/Graphics Europe Sp. z o.o., Pułtuska 120, 07-200 Wyszków, Poland UK Office Seven Dials Warehouse, 42-56 Earlham Street, London WC2H 9LA Tel: +44 (0) 20 3117 2000 Subscribe getredbulletin.com Enquiries or orders to: subs@uk. redbulletin.com. Back issues available to purchase at: getredbulletin.com.

Basic subscription rate is £20.00 per year. International rates are available. The Red Bulletin is published 10 times a year. Please allow a maximum of four weeks for delivery of the first issue Customer Service +44 (0)1227 277248, subs@uk.redbulletin.com

THE RED BULLETIN Austria, ISSN 1995-8838 Editor Christian Eberle-Abasolo Proofreaders Hans Fleißner (manager), Petra Hannert, Monika Hasleder, Billy Kirnbauer-Walek Publishing Management Bernhard Schmied Sales Management The Red Bulletin Alfred Vrej Minassian (manager), Thomas Hutterer, Stefanie Krallinger anzeigen@at.redbulletin.com

THE RED BULLETIN France, ISSN 2225-4722 Editor Pierre-Henri Camy Country Coordinator Christine Vitel Country Project Management Alessandra Ballabeni Contributors, Translators and Proofreaders Étienne Bonamy, Frédéric & Susanne Fortas, Suzanne Kříženecký, Claire Schieffer, Jean-Pascal Vachon, Gwendolyn de Vries

THE RED BULLETIN Germany, ISSN 2079-4258 Editor David Mayer Proofreaders Hans Fleißner (manager), Petra Hannert, Monika Hasleder, Billy Kirnbauer-Walek Country Project Management Natascha Djodat Advertising Sales Matej Anusic, matej.anusic@redbull.com Daniela Güpner, daniela.guepner@redbull.com Thomas Keihl, thomas.keihl@redbull.com Martin Riedel, martin.riedel@redbull.com

THE RED BULLETIN Switzerland, ISSN 2308-5886 Editor Wolfgang Wieser Proofreaders Hans Fleißner (manager), Petra Hannert, Monika Hasleder, Billy Kirnbauer-Walek Country Project Management Meike Koch Commercial & Brand Partnerships Manager Stefan Bruetsch Advertising Sales Marcel Bannwart (D-CH), marcel.bannwart@redbull.com Christian Bürgi (W-CH), christian.buergi@redbull.com Goldbach Publishing Marco Nicoli, marco.nicoli@goldbach.com

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

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Action highlight

Phat among the pigeons

The next issue of THE RED BULLETIN is out on November 10

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LITTLE SHAO/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

B-Boy Victor caused a flap on the streets of Tokyo, Japan, when he dropped to the pavement to bust an impromptu move. As can be seen in this shot by Paris-based photographer Little Shao, the Mexican didn’t have the foresight to clear a space first. Rest assured, no pigeons were harmed during the taking of this photo. For more breaking news, go to redbull.com

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