The Red Bulletin_1301_ZA

Ryan Doyle / Fetish / Ryan Gosling / Heaven’s Basement / Neymar / Tame Impala / Sebastian Vettel / Charli XCX

A BEYOND THE ORDINARY MAGAZINE

EXPECTING TO FLY

Behind the scenes (and into the water) at Cape Town’s Red Bull Flugtag

HANK MCGREGOR

What drives the world’s greatest paddler

SECRETS OF THE CITIES ABOVE, BELOW, EVERYWHERE

The place hackers finding new ways to see the world

D ow nl t he oad

t abl i s s u et e FOR

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THE WORLD OF RED BULL

January 24

RYAN GOSLING How the Canadian actor got the indie cred and mainstream draw other movie stars would kill for

56 “SECOND IS NOTHING” An uncompromising attitude has helped make Hank McGregor one of the world’s greatest paddlers

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CHARLI XCX The ’90s revival princess on purveying angel pop, balancing on big shoes and telling Coldplay what to do

COVER PHOTOGRAPHY: BRADLEY L. GARRETT PHOTOGRAPHY: GETTY IMAGES, CHRIS SAUNDERS, FRANÇOIS-R. THEVENET

WELCOME The Red Bulletin prides itself on travelling to some of the remotest places on Earth in search of adventure, but when we went on an urban exploration with the place hackers, we found it at the centre of cities where hundreds of thousands of people pass by every day.

Making more of a lone grand tour was freerunning ace Ryan Doyle. His diary of a wonders-of-the-world parkour trip makes for splendid reading. And then there is Bridge Day, ‘the Woodstock of BASE-jumping’, at which 450 enthusiasts of the giant leap head for a gorge in America and take the plunge at the world’s largest event of its kind. Enjoy the issue.

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TRULY OFF-PISTE Lovers of great snow head for the heliskiing at Russia’s eastern edge, edge, with an eye on rumbling volcanoes and frozen hair

THE WORLD OF RED BULL

January THE WRIGHT STUFF Red Bull Flugtag has done what commercial airlines find difficult to accomplish: put the fun back into flying

ME & MY BODY Motocross champion Mohammed Balooshi battled breaks, bruises and bees to get to the top

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The Red Bulletin

Tablet App Ryan Doyle, Sébastien Ogier, Place Hackers, Heaven’s Basement and Neymar in action on video.

Free for Android & iPad

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THE SECRET SIGHTSEERS Unknown areas above, around and below our cities are being uncovered and reclaimed by groups of fearless urban explorers.

The Red Bulletin joins one such crew to find out how – and why – they do it

08 The month’s best images 14 Bullevard: sport, culture and more 18 Meet the ice-music maker 20 Kit Evolution: ski gear 26 Basketball free-throw physics 28 Lucky Numbers: winning streaks

PHOTOGRAPHY: NAIM CHIDIAC, KOLESKY/NIKON/LEXAR, MARIA ZIEGELBÖCK, ADVENTUREWORLDWIDE.NET

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HELMUT MARKO The Red Bull Racing guru reveals what makes Sebastian Vettel so special, and what’s next for F1

THE WORLD OF RED BULL

January “ We drove

four hours to the Great Wall of China so I could do backflips along it ”

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PARKOUR ON TOUR Freerunner Ryan Doyle toured world wonders, but instead of standing in front of landmarks, he got on them and did what he does best

86 TRAINING WITH THE PROS

There’s no going backwards when it comes to being a forward: goal-happy Brazilian striker Neymar reveals his health-and-fitness formula

70 HARD ROCK LIFE

Four young Brits are struggling to make their mark in heavy metal... and then Papa Roach takes them on tour. Get down to Heaven’s Basement

more 84

GET THE GEAR

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WORLD

97

KAINRATH

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MIND’S EYE

IN ACTION What underwater Global goings-on photographer Ernst 96 SAVE THE DATE Koschier needs to shoot with the fishes Events for the diary

88 BAND WATCH

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OVER THE EDGE

Once a year, 450 BASE-jumpers dive from a bridge over a gorge in America’s Appalachian mountains. Veterans use a human catapult.

Rookies sit quivering back in the hotel. Welcome to Bridge Day

A Cape Town quintet emerge from obscurity to present their fans with a new album

90 NIGHTLIFE

Our cartoonist

Kevin McCallum ponders retirement and picks up his pen

A glamorous club, an exotic cocktail, a midnight snack, the best in music and much more – we’ve got everything you need to get you through ’til dawn

PHOTOGRAPHY: SEBASTIAN MARKO, PHILIP PLATZER/RED BULL CONTENT POOL, GETTY IMAGES

Body & Mind

te tO n PA s s , u sA

PriVate iDaHo As photographer Mark Fisher explains, you need three essential elements to capture an image like this: a clear sky, long exposure time and an early start.

A really early start. While shooting a ski tour in eastern Idaho, these things came together. “I love that you can see the moon in the distance,” says Fisher, “and how the headlamps paint the trees with light.” It’s untouched landscapes like this that bring snowboarders and skiers from around the world to these mountains. www.fishercreative.com Photography: Mark Fisher

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Li e n z , Au str ia

Hanging on

His ascent of the Cerro Torre in Patagonia may have earned him a nomination for the 2012 National Geographic Adventurer of the Year award, but free climber David Lama hasn’t rested on his laurels.

Due to its high-risk nature, he’s dubbed his latest route, in the Lienzer Dolomites, ‘Safety Discussion’.

Together with climbing partner Peter Ortner, Lama set first ascent using only six bolts on 10 climbs at the very top end of the difficulty scale.

Vote for Lama as Adventurer of the Year: www.david-lama.com Photography: ASP Red Bull/Florian Klingler

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O e r li ko n , Sw it z e r lan d

in the frame

Pictures of skaters risking life and limb are 10 a penny, but this shot of Swiss boarding virtuoso Luc Kämpfen shows a true master at work. The picture, taken by Markus Schweingruber, was a favourite in the Wings category at the most recent Red Bull Illume, the world’s premiere action and adventure sports photography competition. This year’s edition has just opened and you can submit your own pictures until April 30.

For further info check www.redbullillume.com Photography: Markus Schweingruber

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Bullevard Sport and culture on the quick

How Very English Where else would sport’s most unusual world champs take place?

WORLD PEASHOOTING CHAMPIONSHIP, WITCHAM Five shots through a blowgun at a target 12ft away. Maple peas, nice and round, are preferred.

WORLD TOE WRESTLING CHAMPIONSHIP, ASHBOURNE In which the idea is to push your opponent‘s foot off the contest board by only using the big piggy.

HEROES ZERO IN Once again targeting box-office bonanzas: the super-men and witchy women of the blockbusters shaping 2013 at the movies Superheroism is still a winning formula for movie success. Last year, Avengers Assemble and The Dark Knight Rises each raked in over US$1 billion at the global box office. In 2013, Robert Downey Jr is once more slipping into his armour (Iron Man 3, in cinemas worldwide from April), Chris Hemsworth again swings his hammer (Thor: The Dark World, November) and Superman is back with a new face, that of Henry Cavill (Man Of Steel, June). But the comic-book heroes can expect tough competition from the realm of fantasy. There’s James Franco as the Wizard of Oz (Oz: The Great And Powerful, March) battling it out with witches Mila Kunis and Rachel Weisz, before Peter Jackson once more sends his hobbits back on the road (The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, December). Out in space, director JJ Abrams oversees the return of Chris Pine as Captain Kirk (Star Trek Into Darkness, May). www.imdb.com

WORM CHARMING CHAMPIONSHIP, WILLASTON Using vibration (made by tools, or even music) who can lure the most worms to the surface?

Three men and a brittle lady: Superman, Iron Man, Thor and The Wicked Witch of the West

PHOTOTICKER

EVERY SHOT ON TARGET

FOLDING BIKE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP, OXFORDSHIRE After a Le Mans-esque standing start riders, wearing collar and tie, race over an 8-mile course.

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

Barbados The line in the left hand provides the necessary pull; the can in the right gives an essential push. Christopher Pilgrim

This is trap

A three-stop tour of a hot musical genre

Turski, or not to ski: that is the question

PHOTOGRAPHY: REX FEATURES (3), ACTION IMAGES, WARNER BROS, PICTUREDESK.COM (2), DISNEY/PLANET PHOTOS, GETTY IMAGES, GRAEME MURRAY/RED BULL CONTENT POOL, MAGNUS HASTINGS, LIONSGATE FILMS

D-Day at the X Games Four X Games gold in a row? No woman has ever managed it (only Shaun White, of course, has done it in the men’s competition).

Kaya Turski, a Canadian Kaya Turski freeskier, has already fulfilled a very important pre-condition for title number four, having picked up the last three slopestyle golds. “The first, in 2010, is my favourite,” says the 24-year-old. “After getting bronze in 2009 it was all I thought about for a year.” The closest? “The third, in 2012.

A trick went completely wrong on the first two runs. For the third run, I was dead last at the start and thought, ‘OK, you can’t win every time, just do your best.’ So that’s what I did and, hey, gold!”

Is anything better than gold? “My parents. They make the X Games special for me. They’ve been to every single one and I swear they get at least as worked up as I do. I can’t even imagine doing X Games without my parents.” www.kayaturski.com

BAAUER, HARLEM SHAKE The dubstep bass goes deep, the hip-hop beats bounce: this hit has put the 23-yearold producer on the trap throne.

MAJOR LAZER, ORIGINAL DON (FLOSSTRADAMUS REMIX) This remix set off the whole trap hype.

Diplo, in his Major Lazer guise, is a major force behind the genre.

TNGHT, TNGHT Red Bull Music Academy alumni Hudson Mohawke and Lunice have produced the cleverest, heaviest trap track so far.

TOUGH GAL Jaimie Alexander is carving out a niche as one of those rare blooms of cinema: the articulate action movie beauty. Here she shoots off about boys, girls and the sharp end of antiquity American actress Alexander, 28, is mixing it with the big boys. After coming to prominence in the sci-fi TV show Kyle XY, in 2013 she will star alongside Chris Hemsworth in the Thor sequel, reprising her role as Sif, and with Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Last Stand, in which Ahnuld plays a former LAPD cop battling the Mexican Mafia.

What’s it like being on the set of an action movie?

It’s quite a boys’ club, but I’m used to it. I grew up with four brothers. I read comics and played with action figures, and then in school I was always in the wrestling team.

Do you get a lot of fan mail from young men?

Sure, but also a lot from young women, who identify with my role in Thor. That means a lot to me.

Can you use a weapon?

The knife. I’m not a huge gun person. In a knife fight, you’re right up close with your opponent. I like that; it’s almost like a dance.

It sounds frightening!

I collect knives. I always buy one at a flea market in whatever city I’m filming in. Large, antique knives with beautiful engraving.

Thankfully I’ve never had to use one in real life.

The Last Stand is in cinemas worldwide from January 18

Upright citizen: Jaimie Alexander in The Last Stand

WE HAVE A WINNER!

Belfast Strong winds and thick mud gave the 400 mountain bikers in Red Bull Foxhunt plenty to contend with. Predrag Vuckovic

Manfeild The smoke may now have cleared, but there’s plenty of tyre rubber left at the Manfeild Park Raceway in New Zealand. Andrew Mills

Montpellier Get up to get down, in France: the Battle of the Year, known as the ‘world cup of breakdancing’, did not disappoint. Markus Berger 15

B U L L E VA R D

Star turn: David Rigby

Look Ma, no hands

Big. Bigger. Small Faith47’s work usually occupies a lot more real estate. Literally. The acclaimed SA graffiti artist normally chooses large urban walls as her canvas.

She’s had gallery exhibitions overseas but not tried it at home until now, with her recent showing at David Krut Projects in Parkwood.

She describes the installation of found objects, studio artwork and monotype prints: “My experiences of Joburg as a representative African city, the streets full of endless possibility, but also the evidence of the harsh realities of day-to-day life.” www.faith47.com In the brightness of dark days: oil and graphite on wood

Sofia Bulgaria’s National Palace of Culture hosted regal riding from Matti Lehikoinen at Red Bull Ride the Palace. David Robinson

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Ryan Sandes heading through Lady Grey on the Salomon Sky Run

DOING THE HOMEWORK Winning a 100km ultra trail race isn’t just about athletic ability. Just ask Ryan Sandes The stats don’t lie. But they don’t tell the whole story either. On paper, the recent Salomon Sky Run appeared to be yet another Ryan Sandes victory.

His time of 12hrs 36min didn’t just win the 100km race, it broke the record by 2hrs 20min. Simply another display by a superior athlete.

Well, firstly the stats don’t tell you that the Salomon Sky Run is one of the toughest single-stage trail ultras.

Starting in the Eastern Cape town of Lady Grey, the route quickly ascends the Witteberg mountain range and follows the ridge line with over 4,500m of climbing at an altitude of 2,500m. “It’s the toughest terrain I’ve ever run on,” says Sandes.

“There’s no path to follow. You have to navigate your own route. You’re running through thick grass and

San Francisco The Red Bull Flugtag Californauts team, with track star and competition judge Alysia Montaño. Christian Pondella

rocks, hoping you don’t step into a hole.” Then there’s the weather – this year’s race saw the 198 runners deal with rain, hail, wind, thunder and even a little snow.

And secondly, those stats don’t mention the two weeks Sandes spent preparing in Lady Grey. “I’d never done the Salomon Sky Run before – or any 100km race in South Africa for that matter – and I wanted to win it. Because I was unfamiliar with the route, and because it’s self-navigated, I could either follow the more experienced guys for 90km and then make a break for the last 10, or I could arrive two weeks early and recce the route. For a race like this one, you need to do your homework. Which I did.” www.ryansandes.com

Cape Town Resolve is as vital as running shoes at Red Bull LionHeart, a race in knock-out rounds up and down Lions Head mountain. Craig Kolesky

WORDS: STEVE SMITH. PHOTOGRAPHY: PIERRE MARQUA, KOLESKY/NIKON/RED BULL CONTENT POOL, FAITH47

Halloween Jam – hands down the premiere BMX event in the country – was again held at Gum Trails in Durbanville. Winner of the best quarter-pipe trick was David Rigby. He explains his “Flair No Hander” – it starts as a backflip and then twists mid-air, landing the right way round. All done with his hands above his head. “The key is to keep the bike stable. I don’t want the front wheel to flop around so I grip the frame with my knees; the handlebars are tucked into my stomach. On landing I grab the handlebars and the brake at the same time so I can control the exit speed.”

Halloween Jam 2012 at www.redbull.co.za

b u l l e va r d

Me and my body

mohammed balooshi

1 MID-RACE BUZZ

On day five of last year’s Dakar Rally, a bee flew into my ear. It was the most painful thing I’ve ever experienced, and I was terrified, as I didn’t know what had happened. A doctor came and pulled it out, and I managed to finish the stage. But man, it was a big bee! I still have it at home in a jar.

The 33-year-old motocross champion from the UAE has battled breaks, bruises and bees to get to the top www.redbull.com

5 Set the right one in

On the 2012 Dakar Rally, I crashed and fell down a hole, breaking my right hand and dislocating my right shoulder, which meant four operations and physio for months.

I was the first Emirati to compete there and, inshallah, I’ll be back one day to finish.

2 Back-end business

words: ruth morgan. photography: Naim Chidiac

4 Last leg

I’ve broken my nose, numerous ribs and my left forearm very badly; my hand was literally hanging off my arm… In fact, my right leg is the only part of me to have survived unscathed.

And I’m touching wood as I say that.

Mohammed Balooshi is in injury-free action on The Red Bulletin tablet app.

Download it now for free

I broke my coccyx and compacted four vertebrae coming off my bike in 2008. I couldn’t sit or lie down for months. But I won a local championship final two weeks after the accident – standing up on my bike the whole way.

3 Breaking bad

In 2009 I overshot a triple jump at a race in the UAE. My left ankle took the force of the impact and shattered into eight pieces. One piece of bone went up into my shin and I needed an operation. The surgeon put in metal pins to reconstruct xxxxxxxxEt, velitplates utpat.and Uptat.

Ommy nulla corem and nowesto it works again. quamit,zzriliquis od dofine consed enim nibh

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b u l l e va r d

Cold play: the man who invented ice music

terje isungset

This Norwegian makes instruments out of nothing but ice, and extends an invitation to a festival of frosty soundscapes Born May 4, 1964, Geilo, Norway Pre-Ice Age Isungset was a percussionist with Norwegian jazz band Orleysa, and played with saxophonist Karl Seglem in a trio called Utla before – yes! – putting that all on ice.

The Rider The must-list for the musician’s overseas concerts: blocks of ice of various sizes, a refrigerated workspace, an electric chainsaw. He also takes Norwegian ice along with him.

If You Only Buy One… Winter Songs (All Ice Music, 2010)

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Every January, Terje Isungset invites jazz musicians from all over the world to his home town of Geilo, Norway, to join in with his unique music show: the openair Ice Music Festival. All the instruments – horns, cellos, xylophones and many others – are made from ice that he carves from a small lake near the town. the red bulletin: When did you first get the idea for this? terje isungset: It was 1999.

I had been commissioned to perform a concert in a frozen waterfall. I designed instruments for the concert, made of stone, wood and ice, and I haven’t been able to get the sound the ice made out of my head ever since.

What is it about the sound of ice that fascinates you?

The low frequencies, I find it very meditative and warm. There’s no

other music like it. Nothing comes close to the sound the ice makes.

What ice sounds best?

River and lake ice: the clearer, the better. Artificial ice can’t compete from the sound point of view.

How are the instruments made?

Blocks are cut from the ice, using a chainsaw, and then they’re fashioned with simple knives.

What are the ideal conditions?

No wind, and -20°C. If it rains, the ice doesn’t sound at all. Too warm, it melts. We organise the festival for when there’s a full moon in January, as that’s when it’s coldest.

Do instruments really melt during performances?

Yes, they melt, or break, which is why it’s important for ice musicians to be able to improvise. Normal instruments are predictable; ice instruments aren’t.

What instruments do you make?

Wind, percussion and string

instruments. Apart from the strings and the machine head [the tuner], everything is made of ice.

Can they be tuned normally?

Yes. It’s helpful when you’re working with singers, and you’re performing songs composed specifically for ice instruments.

The wind instruments constantly detune live, in any case. As soon as you blow into a horn, the bell gets bigger.

Are they hard to make?

A xylophone takes five hours to make. The smaller the parts of an instrument, the finickier it is.

The smallest are only 5mm in size, and break very easily.

Where do you store the instruments during the festival?

In igloos, because of their constant internal temperature.

Igloos are a perfect place to make the instruments, too, because they’re quiet. You can hear your own heartbeat.

What happens to your instruments after the concert?

We give them to the audience and say, “Drink them.”

Ice Music Festival: January 24-27, Geilo, Norway: www.icefestival.no

words: Florian obkircher. photography: DDp

music, in freeze-four time

WINGS FOR EVERY TASTE.

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

B U L L E VA R D

KIT EVOLUTION

Binding Contract

PERFORMANCE

The lack of steel edges (only introduced in 1928) combined with unsteady boot binding, had a direct impact on skiing methodology: abrupt changes of direction weren’t how things were done back then. It was more a gentle swing.

The relationship between ski and ski boot is a bedrock of winter sports, and one that has changed in as many ways as it has stayed the same

HANDIWORK

In the late 19th century, regular shoemakers made ski boots, which were alpine boots made suitable for skiing using more rigid leather, a sole with several layers of stitching and metal fittings where the boots met the binding on the skis.

COMPOSITION

FLEXIBILITY

Thonet’s wood-bending technology, which was originally developed to make chairs, also came in handy when making sporting equipment.

c. 1899 THONET SKIS; LEATHER SKI BOOTS In 1852, German cabinet-maker Michael Thonet was awarded a patent for a technique “to give wood any curve or shape through cutting and regluing”. Later, he received another patent for a system of bending wood using steam.

His company, which is still famous around the world today for its furniture, used the technology to produce sporting equipment, such as sledges, tennis racquets and skis. The maker of the boot is unknown. www.thonet.com

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PHOTOGRAPHY: KURT KEINRATH

Solid wood skis, made of beech or ash, were pre-stressed to give them better manoeuvrability.

Skis made from glued layers of wood appeared in 1900; those made by gluing plastic and wood layers together made their debut in 1946.

PERFECT FIT

The boot is tailored exactly to the foot at a fitting. A special high-tech polymer makes for improved temperature stability (when compared to regular plastics) and vibration absorption.

LEVERAGE

With a simple flick of the lever mechanism, this hybrid ski turns from a cross-country freeride rocker into a downhill racer, capable long, aggressive, sweeps.

IN THE LAYERS

The core of the ski is still made of wood.

Stretched over it is an outer layer of superlight, super-strong aluminium alloy, strengthened with a layer of carbon fibre.

BUOYANCY

Positive pre-stressing on the wide blade means that this rocker ski floats along better on powdery snow.

2013 FISCHER HYBRID 7.0 SKI; FISCHER VACUUM BOOT The old wooden skis had a flat bottom. As skiing evolved, so did the shape of the ski, so that skis were classified as flat, rocker (with a convex cross-section) or camber (concave cross-section). Camber is good for tight turns on hard snow, and requires greater skill on the part of the skier; rocker is best for wider turns, and gives greater stability. Hybrid skis have variously shaped areas for greater all-round performance. wwww.fischersports.com

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B U L L E VA R D

Khuli Chana on the Joburg stage

HARD & FAST

Top performers and winning ways from around the globe

British snowboarder Aimee Fuller had a promising start to the TTR World Snowboard Tour as she retained her title at the O’Neill Pleasure Jam in Schladming, Austria.

Three wins (two downhill, one Super-G) gave US skier Lindsey Vonn a second consecutive World Cup hat-trick at Lake Louise in Canada.

Italian golfer Matteo Manassero, 19, became the first teenager to win three European Tour events.

The event at Nasrec Expo Centre saw Admiral & JahSeed take the victory belt

THE SOUND GUY It’s time to acknowledge the unsung hero behind SA’s Red Bull Culture Clash 2012 Sound engineers are an under-appreciated lot. Think about it: how many times, after listening to a great live show or DJ set, have you sought out the sound guy and said, “Well done mate, great job.” The reality is, it doesn’t matter how well the act up there on the stage performs – if the sound isn’t set up and mixed to perfection, you can forget about it.

Imagine, then, being the guy who had to sort out the sound for November’s Red Bull Culture Clash. He wasn’t dealing with one stage, but four. The event saw four acts, representing four different music genres, on four different stages, all going up against each other. It was Admiral & JahSeed (dub reggae) v DJ Cleo (Kwaito) v Goldfish (dubstep) v Khuli Chana (hip-hop). Between the stages was the audience, whose decibel-o-meter-measured responses decided the winner.

What made the job of sound engineer Adriaan van der Walt even tougher was the event’s location. Red Bull Culture Clash was held at the Nasrec Expo Centre in Joburg, a huge, highceilinged warehouse not built for creating good acoustics.

“Making sure I balance the sound of Khuli Chana’s band to the other three DJs is one thing,” says the hard-working Van der Walt. “Bands usually tend to overpower DJs. But the real challenge is to recreate the feel of a night club in a large, open venue like this. The 12m-high ceilings are a problem, but I think we’ve got a good loud-but-still-clear sound going.”

Judging by the crowd response, Van der Walt got everything spot on. The overall winning act was decided by way of a close contest between Goldfish and Admiral & JahSeed, with the dubsteppers just managing to garner a few more decibels and grab the Red Bull Culture Clash title-winning belt. www.redbullcultureclash.co.za

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WORDS: STEVE SMITH. ILLUSTRATION: DIETMAR KAINRATH PHOTOGRAPHY: BEWEGTEZEITEN.DE, ROLAND HASCHKA/Q PARKS, GETTY IMAGES (2), FABRICE BOURGELLE/RED BULL CONTENT POOL, SARAH GINN/RED BULL CONTENT POOL, STEVE STILLS/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

“I’m the luckiest man in the world,” said German wakeboarder Frederic von Osten after winning the World Cable Championships in the Philippines.

YOU CAN‘T JOIN EVERY RED BULL EVENT. BUT SOON YOU CAN. WITH THE WORLD OF RED BULL APP.

COMING SOON www.redbullmobile.com/worldofredbull

B U L L E VA R D

WHERE’S YOUR HEAD AT?

RYAN GOSLING

Hailed as the best actor of his generation, the Canadian has both the indie cred and the mainstream draw that most movie stars would kill for. Here’s how he did it

HI S NA ME ME AN S ‘LI TTLE KI NG , YO UN G GO OS E’

Said Ryan Gosling, in 200 7: “It’s not like people looked at me and though t, ‘Here’s a movie star.’”

Born to Mormon parents in London, Ontario, on November 12, 1980, as a youngster he was thrown out of school for throwing knives like Rambo, took Ritalin for ADHD and worked in his uncle’s Elvis tribute act. Acting and ball et (which he still practises) became his passions.

FACE VALUE

Gosling is that rare movie star who is both a really good actor and really good looking.

His handsomeness has led to several internet shrines, with pictures often captioned with a slogan beginning “Hey Girl” and going on to dispense unofficial Goslingisms.

One site has spawned a book, Feminist Ryan Gosling: Feminist Theory From Your Favorite Movie Dude.

THE END IS NIG H (ISH )

HEY MICKE Y!

Aged 12, he was cast in kids TV variety show The Mickey Mouse Club.

This entailed leaving Canada for America, where he lived with the family of fellow Mouseketeer Justin Timberlake; Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera were also on the show then. More junior acting roles followed, including the star turn in Young Hercules. Fledgling Gosling clips abound online.

Playing a drug-addicted teacher in Half Nelson in 2006 secured Gosling a Best Actor Oscar nomination. Two more films followed, then a three-year hiatus during which he bought and renovated Tagine, a Moroccan restaurant in Beverly Hills. He has a further, more permanent, break planned. “If I’m still acting at 46,” he told The Daily Telegraph in September 2011, “I’ll be surprised.”

IN DI E SE NS IB LE

changed Gosling’s cultural tastes pressed k cler when a video rental “I wanted to d. han his into et Blue Velv ng passed bei e make things that wer that mindof , said he le,” tab the under t to be wan n’t did “I blowing VHS tape.

-Nazi Jew neo his ce Hen .” lves she on the sing maybein The Believer, cross-dres rubber and , ngs Thi d Goo All in killer l Girl.

Rea The doll lover in Lars And

A GIR L AND A GUN

AGAIN ST/WITH TYPE

After small roles in big movies, and vice versa, Gosling met Hollywood head-on three times in 2011 with comedy Crazy, Stupid, Love, George Clooney-directed The Ides Of March and Drive, in which he played a Tinseltown stunt driver mixed up with crime. In this year’s The Place Beyond The Pines, he’s a motorcycle stuntman and new dad mixed up with crime. Totally different.

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ster Squad Out worldwide from this month, Gang in the vein flick ers mobb ’n’ is a vintage-style cops ial. Gosling ident Conf LA and bles ucha Unto The of wanna take is the squad’s ladykilling crackshot. “You st woman of hone an make and this all from away me “No ma’am,” me?” says Emma Stone, vamping it up. take you to bed.” to g hopin just was “I ng, Gosli ts retor gangstersquad.warnerbros.com

WORDS: PAUL WILSON. ILLUSTRATION: LIE-INS AND TIGERS

YOU WIN SOM E…

“That’s the guy from The Notebook!” gasps the girl videoing Gosling using his undeniable charms to break up a heated argument on a New York stree t back in 2011. In that film, a 2004 Hollywood weepy, the same charms help Gosling to win over the girl.

However in Blue Valentine, a 2010 indie weepy, those charms are of no help to him whatsoever.

YOU CAN’T COACH DEDICATION. WE ARE TEAM SUPERSPORT.

Don’t want to push it.

Just a little tap.

Goosen thinks he’s given too much but the green’s slow.

He’ll talk the ball in.

In the right spot to catch that

JHB 39513 © Getty/Gallo Images As seen on DStv/SuperSport

and the crowd cheering.

Behind every drive, every pitch, every three-footer is a team that is just as driven. www.supersport.com

The aim game: Boston Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo at the free throw line

b u l l e va r d

Winning Formula

Hoop dreams

A free throw is, on paper, basketball’s easiest shot. So why do so many fail.

Our sports scientist has it figured out

illustration: Mandy fischer. photography: Andrew d. Bernstein/getty images

Journey into space “Technique plus nerves of steel are what’s needed when a professional basketball player takes a free throw,” says physicist and sports scientist Dr Martin Apolin of the Physics Faculty of the University of Vienna. “In the NBA, most players make 75 per cent of their free-throw attempts, although Boston Celtics star Rajon Rondo has a far lower average percentage. The question is: what launch angle offers Rondo the greatest likelihood of the ball meeting its target?

“In the NBA, the ball has a diameter of 23.9cm (db) and the inside ring of the basket is 45cm (da). Were the ball to fall through the middle of the ring, there would be 11cm of space either side of the ball. But there is a lowest angle under which the ball must approach for it to pass through the basket without touching the sides. This can be calculated as sinβ = db/da bzw. β = arcsin (db/da) – in our example the angle is around 32° (fig 1).

“The trajectory of the ball can be determined with the equation y = –gx²/(2v²0 cos²α) + x tanα + h0, in which g is the acceleration due to gravity (9.81m/s²), v0 the launch velocity (m/s), α the launch angle, x and y the horizontal and vertical components (m) and h0 the launch height (m).

The basket hangs at 3.05m, the free throw line is 4.19m from the centre and Rondo is 1.85m tall, so we can estimate the ball’s centre of gravity at launch at 2.20m. lord of the ring “Solving the above equation for v, gives the correlation between launch velocity and launch angle (fig 2). Here we assume that Rondo will throw the ball through the centre of the ring. For the angle of approach to be greater than 32° and for the ball to pass directly through the basket, the launch angle α must be at least 47°.

If the approach is steeper, then Rondo must launch the ball significantly faster, which will generate inaccuracy.

“By what extent could Rondo increase or decrease steepness with the same velocity without touching the ring? This can be solved through simulations in which the angle is modified until the ball hits the ring. Fig 3 shows this: at around 47° Rondo has no room for deviation. Between 48° and 53° there is a ‘window’, which allows an angle inaccuracy of 6-8°. If the throw is steeper, the allowable inaccuracy drops severely, to as low as 2°.

“Fortunately, the ‘window’ falls in the range of minimum velocity. Which is handy, because when Rondo throws at a minimum angle of 47° and with the least exertion, he automatically reaches the angular range with the greatest allowable variation. These observations are also applicable to taller players who struggle with free throws, although the launch angle needs adjusting downwards.” www.bostonceltics.com

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B U L L E VA R D

LUCKY NUMBERS

THE STREAKS

Defeat leads to defeat, triumph follows triumph. Momentum is one of sport’s most mysterious elements – and these are its most momentous occurrences

The 1981 World Open in Toronto ushered in a new era in squash: the final saw 17-year-old Jahangir Khan beating Australian Geoff Hunt, who had been the sport’s dominant force throughout the 1970s. The youngest winner in the history of the tournament clearly developed a taste for victory.

In the ensuing five years and eight months the Pakistani won 555 games in a row, the longest winning stretch in professional sports.

Jahangir Khan

Khan’s record may well be threatened

by Dutchwoman Esther Vergeer, who has been at the top of the women’s world wheelchair tennis rankings since 1999, and has, at the time of going to press, played 470 undefeated matches.

Vergeer has won all 21 Grand Slam tournaments she has entered, and won them resoundingly. In her last eight Slam finals, the seven-time Paralympics gold medallist has bagged the ‘double bagel’ – a 6-0, 6-0 win – a total of six times.

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The Chicago Cubs are the only team in Major League Baseball to go more than 100 years without winning the World Series: they last got lucky in 1908. The Cubbies can nonetheless take pride in one positive record. In 1935, they won 21 games in a row – the longest winning streak ever in MLB, which, sadly, was only enough to get them to the World Series, which they lost 4-2 to the Detroit Tigers.

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Patience was a virtue for the first fans of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the NFL. They lost all 14 of their matches during their debut season in 1976, and in the following year they went on to lose their opening 12 games. The team became the butt of jokes for every sports fan and talk show host in America before salvation finally arrived in their 27th game: a 33-14 win at the New Orleans Saints.

Chicago Cubs

470

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17

Chip Beck

There are all-time great NBA stars, such as Dennis Rodman, Wilt Chamberlain and Shaquille O’Neal, who are hardly heroes of the free throw line, but Chris Dudley trumps the lot. In 1990, playing for the Cleveland Cavaliers and the New Jersey Nets, the centre fumbled 17 of his 18 free throws, 13 of them in a row, which ‘surpassed’ Chamberlain’s dirty dozen. Particularly embarrassing was an ‘air ball’, which didn’t even hit the board. Dudley’s explanation?

“I just had too much going through my head.”

Esther Vergeer

Chris Dudley

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

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At the 1991 Las Vegas Invitational, Chip Beck played the round of his life, with 59 strokes.

There have only been 12 scores of 59, of which Beck’s was the second, and one of 58, in the history of major tour tournament golf. In 1997 and 1998, the American missed the cut in 46 consecutive tournaments. He threw in the towel and took a job in insurance sales, before the golf coach Jim Suttie convinced him to pick up the clubs again. Today, Beck, 56, has a successful career on the PGA Champions Tour.

WORDS: ULRICH CORAZZA. PHOTOGRAPHY: GETTY IMAGES (5), PICTUREDESK.COM, DIGITALCITIZEN.CA

555

THE SECRET SIGHTSEERS Unknown areas above, around and below our cities are being uncovered and reclaimed by groups of fearless urban explorers.

The Red Bulletin joins one such crew to find out how – and why – they do it

London, UK THE SHARD Perhaps one of the most notorious and impressive ‘place hacks’ of recent times is the London Consolidation Crew’s infiltration of London’s Shard skyscraper in April 2012. “It was pretty daunting,” says Otter, photographer and explorer with Silent UK. “I struggle climbing 30-floor buildings, but over 72 with an additional crane? The mind was willing, but the body weak.”

Almost half an hour of stairwells later, they reached the summit and scaled the rooftop crane. Their reward? The most exclusive and breathtaking view of London.

Photograph: Bradley L Garrett/ www.placehacking.co.uk

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When you look suspicious, people get suspicious.” With confident strides belying jangling nerves and the first turbos of adrenalin, the exploration team crosses the busy street towards a tall barbed-wire fence at the end of a cracked driveway. The route veers off the path and disappears into the nearby undergrowth.

Darting into the bushes, a gap becomes visible at ground level behind a dense thicket. The team quickly passes through the makeshift entry point and breaks cover. One set of decrepit iron steps later, and the vulnerable open spaces of the yard are replaced by the eerie, cool silence of the decommissioned labelling plant.

Inside the building (above), which ceased to exist as a business in a Brussels suburb some five years ago, evidence of infiltration is everywhere. “Someone has always been there before you; nothing is ‘exploration’ in the sense of finding something undiscovered by humanity,” says Koen L, this expedition’s leader, shining his Maglite on a collection of beer bottles on top of a smashed control desk. “But we all take different experiences away with us.”

This is the essence of urban exploration: marking out new territories in the world behind the barriers.

Boundaries have been breached for centuries. Long before razor wire and security cameras dared explorers to discover forbidden locations beyond, inquisitive minds sought to discover

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hidden and unseen places. The urge to explore is inherent in human nature.

“We are all born explorers,” says researcher and urban explorer Dr Bradley L Garrett. “It’s a natural, almost primal instinct when we’re young to spend time exploring the environment around us. But then, as we grow older, the social conditioning sets in. Explorers are people who ignore this or choose to rediscover those suppressed natural instincts.”

Urban explorers, also known as the UrbEx community, are thought to number in the tens of thousands. They climb cranes and bridges, descend into subway networks, infiltrate monuments to industry and commerce old and new.

Wherever there’s a sign which says “No”, there’s a team of adventurers saying “We don’t care”. These groups have been around in the US and Europe since the 1960s, but there has been a surge in last dozen years.

The UrbEx bible, Access All Areas, was published in 2005, and urban exploration is now a global underground movement connected via websites and forums sharing info, photos, films and experiences.

“Some people explore to fight the system,” says Koen L. “Some see it as urban archaeology, discovering secrets of the industrial pyramids. For others, it’s like playtime, exploring with friends.”

Most urban explorers adhere to good-practice guidelines found on UrbEx websites. Others feel that rules run contrary to the essence of urban exploration. “Trying to make rules or codes among people who exist because they don’t follow rules or codes is somewhat hilariously paradoxical,” says

Moses Gates, an experienced explorer and author of upcoming memoir Hidden Cities.

When it comes to the rules of the legal system, however, urban explorers seem to be united in breaking them. The legalillegal argument has little impact on the planning and execution of a mission, other than to change the risk-reward ratio. Explorers believe everyone has the right to access public infrastructure, by which they mean anything funded or maintained by public tax money. Some extend this to corporate property and anything that noticeably affects the community or society around it.

In April, Garrett and the London Consolidation Crew climbed to the top of The Shard: at 330m, London and Europe’s tallest building. The publicity they received generated backlash within the UrbEx community. “Some say we are exacerbating the security culture by publicising our exploits, which leads to more locations getting sealed and locked down,” Garrett says.

“I don’t see that evidence yet; we’re still out every week cracking new places, but maybe in time that will happen.”

“It’s getting tough to find new locations,” says Koen L, exiting through the hole in the fence outside the Brussels labelling plant, satisfied with the four hours spent exploring and photographing every level, every ransacked office and storage bay. “But the world’s a big place and when you look beyond the fences and walls, it becomes even bigger.” www.placehacking.co.uk

Photograph: Benita Lipps

“ Just walk in like you own the place.

London, UK The Walbrook Of the city’s 20 or so subterranean rivers (some are disputed, more mythical than covered by concrete), this one is found right at its heart, under the financial district.

“It’s one of the oldest of its kind in London,” says urban explorer Silent UK, who took this shot of his fellow explorer, BambooPanda, in 2009. All explorers use nicknames and aliases, to keep their methods secret and ensure that their exploration efforts can be recognised anonymously.

Photograph: Silent UK

Action

LIVERPOOL, UK WEST TOWER “At some point in 2006 it became clear to us that the major development sites in any big city could be easily accessed,” says Adventure Worldwide’s Snaps.

“Typically, we’d climb such landmarks for the view and also for the sense of freedom and excitement.” The construction site for Liverpool’s West Tower, soon to be the city’s tallest building at 140m, proved too tempting back in 2006. Here, explorer Frank enjoys the panorama and serenity from the crane on top of the tower, two years before it was completed.

Photograph: www.adventureworldwide.net

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ZELJAVA, CROATIA UNDERGROUND AIRBASE A massive underground airbase on the border between Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina was built for the Yugoslav air force in 1968. Codenamed ‘Objekat 505’, it was one of the largest and most expensive military construction projects in Europe at the time, with huge tunnels and hangars where Mig jets were stored and maintained. Despite attempts to destroy the facility, it can still be accessed and explored.

Here, explorer Urban Fox is seen in one of the tunnels, giving an idea of the sheer scale of the installation.

Photograph: www.adventureworldwide.net

ANTWERP, BELGIUM METRO SYSTEM Australian urban explorer Dsankt ascends from an unfinished section of the Antwerp metro system. “We had found the huge shaft leading down to the unfinished metro tunnels below, and so had spent a day buying the necessary rope kit to get down into it,” says photographer Snaps.

“In the end it became a long night, and we climbed out just before dawn.”

Photograph: www.adventureworldwide.net

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MOSCOW, RUSSIA UNDERGROUND RIVER After exploring the underground Neglinnaya River, Steve Duncan and his crew exited through a sewer manhole at the edge of Red Square. The river was originally a key waterway in the Russian capital, until the early 19th century when it was put underground. Shortly after surfacing, the US explorers were caught by Russian military police. “Even though the Cold War is over,” says Duncan, “they still aren’t happy about Americans running around under the Kremlin.” The police deemed the explorers mad, not malicious, and let them go.

Photograph: Steve Duncan

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LONDON, UK Down street Closed in 1932, this disused Underground station is in the heart of London’s Mayfair. Bradley Garrett went there as part of a five-man team in February 2011. “We sat on a ledge over a 20m drop into darkness,” says Garrett. “Trains would pass through the tunnel below us, pushing a warm wind laced with black dust into our faces... with no ropes, we descended on bolts and rusty pipes.”

Photograph: Bradley L Garrett/ www.placehacking.co.uk

ST PAUL, USA UTILITY TUNNELS “The soft sandstone [under the ‘twin cities’ of St Paul and Minneapolis] made it easy for the cities and private companies to build more tunnels than under a city on hard rock,” says Steve Duncan. This is an obsolete telephone network tunnel with active water supply pipes.

Photograph: Steve Duncan

MOSCOW, RUSSIA METRO SYSTEM POWER TUNNELS Moses Gates wriggles into a ventilation shaft. “It’s so difficult to get in without getting caught or being killed by trains, but our local guide had figured out this back door into the Metro,” says Gates’s fellow explorer, Steve Duncan.

Photograph: Steve Duncan

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VIENNA, AUSTRIA FLAKTURm The Nazis built eight Flakturms, or flak towers, during World War II in the cities of Berlin, Hamburg and Vienna, serving as large, above-ground, anti-aircraft gun turrets and air-raid shelters capable of shielding tens of thousands of people from Allied air raids. While most of them remain outwardly intact, the interiors tell another story. “A section of the inside of the one we infiltrated in Vienna had been blown to pieces,” says Snaps. “This photo shows Urban Fox standing amid the wreckage, giving an idea of the sheer size of this thing.”

Photograph: www.adventureworldwide.net

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NIAGaRA, CANADA NIAGaRA FALLS The power generation relics at Niagara Falls are particularly interesting to explorers as they chart the attempts to harness the raw power of the falls. This photo shows the ‘outfall’ of the William Rankine power station. This tunnel would once have returned water from the power station, which entered near the brink of the falls, back into the river at the bottom of the gorge. “The highlight of the exploration was managing to rig a rope up into the bowels of the power plant, eventually emerging on the mothballed turbine floor,” says Snaps.

Photograph: www.adventureworldwide.net

LONDON, UK Heron TOWER The third-tallest building in England’s capital, after The Shard and Canary Wharf’s One Canada Square. “When we visited, the city was covered in fog.

Visibility was almost zero, but that added its own charm,” says Silent UK. The top of Heron Tower’s mast is 230m above ground; just visible in this shot is explorer Speed, during a 2008 place hack when the building was still under construction.

Photograph: Silent UK

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the doctor E

Interview: Herbert Völker Photography: Maria Ziegelböck

Dr Helmut Marko His job title is Red Bull Racing Motorsport Director, but he is an adviser, analyst, stringpuller and mediator. He’s also an authority on team operations, and has a canny knack of getting to the heart of what makes motor racing tick

Is In Session

very story of great triumph has many components, and the success of Red Bull Racing is no exception. A vital and lesser-known line of force in the world champion team is that of Sebastian and The Doctor.

Red Bull Racing Motorsport Director Dr Helmut Marko, 69, a school friend of 1970 Formula One world champ Jochen Rindt, came through the ranks in the all-guns-blazing era of F1, to drive for the BRM team. Losing the sight in his left eye, during a Grand Prix in 1972, put paid to Marko’s Formula One promising driving career. That led him to work behind the scenes in the sport he knows and loves. Among his diverse talents (he also heads Red Bull Racing’s young driver programme, through which he met Sebastian Vettel about 10 years ago) is an ability to assess racing holistically, laying bare all possible connections to improve tactics and strategy. What a great thing to talk about. the red bulletin: Why are you known as The Doctor? helmut marko: During my racing career, I completed a doctorate in law.

That was somewhat unusual, and I think the media liked saying there

Additional Photography: getty images

It was a team effort that won Red Bull Racing and Sebastian Vettel their third consecutive constructors’ and drivers’ Formula One titles. Advising Vettel, as he has done over a decade, was Dr Helmut Marko.

Here he reveals what makes Seb so special, and what’s next for F1

ONE: SINGULAR SENSATION It’s a good number to end the season on, as Sebastian Vettel and The Doctor head off for an all-too short winter break

was a Doctor Marko on the grid.

There were not that many doctors among the Le Mans and Formula One drivers. The name stuck, as a sort of label or first-name substitute. Everyone around here knows ‘The Doctor’, and they are not referring to medical care.

You have the reputation for understanding art and creativity, as well as the deeper secrets of motor racing, but you are regarded as very cool and aloof. Does that bother you?

You’ll never make it in Formula One if you are only addicted to beauty.

Few would argue with the fact that you are a mentor in the racing life of Sebastian Vettel, for about 10 years now. You met when he was a boy with braces. How did he get the warmth and security that a young person needs in his development?

He was certainly well looked after by his parents. Young people with a penchant for love and security stay as long as they 43

EVERYTHING WILL BE ALRIGHT At Singapore, race 14 of 20 in 2012, new technology, speed and motivation turned Red Bull Racing’s season around

can in what you would hope is their protected zone. Others are inclined to strike out early and make their own way.

But you don’t need all that much TLC. It is enough to recognise their strengths.

Creating an artificial atmosphere of softness and cosiness just doesn’t fit in the world of Formula One. When was the first time Vettel talked to you on a more informal basis?

No idea, really. It just happens over time without any great fuss.

How did your relationship develop into what is obviously a stable partnership?

First and foremost, we have a business partnership at a very clear, open and honest level. If he has problems, he comes directly to me – and vice versa if I have concerns. This works in a very professional manner. And, of course, you get a lot closer personally, no question.

Do you enjoy having a good chat?

Sure, but I don’t broadcast that fact.

It is characteristically Sebastian to hold ‘Vettel the race driver’ up to the public, and he wants to keep his personal life private. Quite rightly so, too. But it also has to do with the fact that he is so incredibly focused on his job, so he needs the rest and the time off. He has to withdraw into himself so that he can then call upon the thing that no other driver has, in qualifying or during a race. I’m very well aware of the way Sebastian prepares, so that 44

gives him a great deal of personal freedom to do what it takes to achieve the best performance.

Towards the end of the season, the PR circus must have tested the limits of his patience.

You have to give him credit for the way he handles that. He could earn a lot more money if he would make more PR appearances. He is very reticent to do that. Outside his normal obligations within our team programme, he tries to only do those things that are fun.

You seem to float freely through, or above, the tightly interwoven structure of a Formula One company. There, it is about combining a sports strategy and technical direction with a political and economic vision. And, in the thick

“I told my people,

‘Boys, there is no need for Vettel if we can’t give him the car he needs in order for his skills to shine’”

of it all is you, the analyst. Where do your analyses end up?

In the team, with the drivers, the boss.

Unlike the others, I am able to focus on the big picture.

And, regarding the ‘boss’, what role does Dietrich Mateschitz play in the team during the season?

If I tell him that it would be helpful if he showed up occasionally, then he does. A visit to the factory, or a racetrack, can work wonders for motivation. He is the greatest when it comes to motivation, he’s knows exactly what to do. He came to two races in 2012: Barcelona and Monza. Afterwards, he thought it would be better if he didn’t come any more, because those were precisely the two races that yielded the worst results. I wouldn’t go so far as to say he is superstitious; let’s just say he is more of a spiritual man. I know that Didi gets very excited and jittery when he watches a race on television, and he also knows very well the difference between bad luck and an error – how a performance looks over three races, and suchlike. If things are not going so well for us, he inspires us. Instead of venting, he says, “Don’t worry!” not, “You must…” He’d rather say something uplifting and encouraging.

As opposed to some other teams… …which is none of our business.

Without rehashing the entire 2012 season, can we touch on a few aspects:

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“WE CAN DO IT!” Vettel show his delight in Singapore.

This was the beginning of an outstanding winning streak of four victories in a row

Photography: Getty images (4), Markus kucera

little vettel In 2002 Sebastian raced his last karting season. The previous year he was crowned German and European junior champion

the overall thoughts and reactions of the main characters, for example?

The year was characterised by the fact that we couldn’t always make full use of the speed we had available. The beginning was rough, then came the high of Bahrain [race four of 20], and just when we thought, ‘We’re back’, came Valencia [race eight], with that stupid alternator damage when we were clearly leading. Then Vettel’s next alternator problem, in Monza [race 13].

We were about 40 points adrift then, but there was no finger pointing; in fact it pulled the whole team closer together, and everyone said, “We can do it!” No one more than Vettel: “We can do it!”

How irritated was the team’s chief technical officer, Adrian Newey, during this dry spell?

Very irritated, and so he increased his work rate – which was already significant. First, he concentrated on understanding the relationship between the car and the tyres, which was a very, very finicky job this year. Secondly, there was his response to the supposed illegality the front wing. Third, he had to deal with the prohibition of the “exhaust blowings”. This was perhaps the hardest setback for us, because we were absolutely brilliant when it came to using the exhaust. (Our old method has actually been reinstated, albeit in a modified form.) Lastly, we can say that, at that stage of the season, the ideal Vettel set-up had yet to be found.

It is quite different from that of the Webber cars. Only with that set-up can you see the incredible, 110 per cent Vettel in qualifying.

How was your own state of mind during those weeks?

The tension was there, but problems make me even more focused than usual.

The harder it gets, the calmer I see things,

but my sleep suffers. I told my people, “Boys, there is no need for Vettel if we can’t give him the car he needs in order for his skills to shine.” Everyone made such an incredible effort, but for a while even we didn’t quite understand what was going on.

Did the team principal, Christian Horner, lose his nerve?

Horner is generally the counterbalance, but I think his nervous energy was stretched to the limits at the last race.

You could have cut the atmosphere with a knife before the last race – around the team, not Vettel himself.

At what moment did the team feel that they had turned a corner in terms of performance?

In Singapore [race 14 of 20], no question. Adrian Newey and his team found the all-encompassing solution in the harmony between the tyres, the front wing, the exhaust. This lent the drivers confidence, and was most noticeable in qualifying. Vettel was already ahead by 13 points when the Abu Dhabi nerve-killer came [race 18]: too little fuel in his tank after the qualifying, shoved to the back, hammer through, mistake under safety car, change wing, thundered back from last place again. Under these circumstances, third place was, of course, fantastic, but it wasn’t enough to give us any relief. So everything ratcheted up for the last race in Brazil.

It was in Brazil that arguably the most exciting moment of the season took place.

Not for me. Vettel is sent into a spin by Senna in the first lap, which may have given the fans the ultimate thrill, but I became very quiet. I see that the engine is running, the damage is quickly assessed, then I see he’s in 19th place, with most of the race to go, he’s two seconds faster than the guy in eighth,

FORWARDS AND BACKWARDS The breathing space which Vettel gained in the US Grand Prix (above) was almost used up in Brazil (left), when he collided with Bruno Senna at the fourth corner of the race

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which is where he has to be – and that’s what preoccupies me. Thanks to a great team effort, we also managed the additional pitstop and so on.

How did you gauge Vettel’s state of mind during the ups and downs of the season?

Sebastian’s driving was virtually flawless.

But he is a phenomenon: it is always like that. After the summer break, his performance curve shoots up. That’s what happened in previous years, too.

I don’t know how he does it, but to keep doing it cannot be a coincidence.

That brings us back to his method of preparation, the way he shuts himself off from the rest of the world, so that he can still call on reserves that other drivers might not have: Fernando Alonso, for example, who is busy with politics and funny comments. Vettel ignores it all, he doesn’t read the newspapers, or the internet. And that’s the point, you see, we concentrate on our job: to make the fastest car and the best team possible.

How does Mark Webber cope with the changing situations?

“Seb’s driving was almost flawless. It is

always like that.

He’s phenomenal.

I don’t know how he does it, but it can’t be coincidence” form, it seems to me that Mark’s form somehow flattens out. Then, if some technical mishap occurs, like with the alternator for example, he falls relatively easily into a downward spiral. No driver remains unaffected by this, because the tension is palpable. In 2010, it was particularly extreme. Webber headed into the final race with better chances than Vettel, and he probably carried

easy, of course; this would gnaw away at anyone’s confidence. It’s more than understandable.

Is it better to have arch rivals or good buddies on the same team?

The important thing is that both are somewhere close in speed so that they push each other, and that the technical crews understand each car’s limits.

Almost all drivers have track preferences: better on one, less so on another. The better the driver, the smaller the variation.

If you have two equally strong drivers, then you know where you stand with the car. For harmony within the team it is of course easier if the two get along. So in the meantime, we have found a modus vivendi. Sebastian and Mark work constructively together in tuning the cars: all information is freely available. They are not likely to go to dinner together, but that is how it is in most teams, and it’s totally OK. Two alpha males can never really understand each other.

Where do you stand on the argument that there is a world’s best driver and his name is not Vettel. Vettel himself

Proof positive Marko says it’s nonsense when people say that Vettel is fast, but can’t overtake. He showed otherwise in Abu Dhabi (above) and Brazil

It seems to me that Webber has on average two races per year where he is unbeatable, but he can’t maintain this form throughout the year. And as soon as his prospects start to look good in the world championship, he has a little trouble with the pressure that this creates. In comparison with Seb’s rising 46

the disappointment of his defeat into the 2011 season, which is so easy to understand. Something that I think is also very important is that for much of his career, Mark was never in a top team, but he was always regarded as a high flyer if he only could get into the right team. Then Red Bull puts him in a car – a possible winner – and suddenly along comes this young kid and he snatches the booty from under Mark’s nose. Psychologically it’s not

remains admirably cool on the subject.

There is a lot of nonsense being said.

“Vettel can’t overtake.” Ridiculous; just look at Abu Dhabi and Brazil. “He is only able to win because he’s sitting in a Newey car.” We have two Newey cars, so why aren’t we clinching one-two at every race? Then the comment of the great Jackie Stewart that Vettel must go to another team to prove himself. This is said by someone who scored all his greatest successes in just one team, Tyrrell. I can’t take it seriously. We at Red Bull Racing are not just a bunch of civil servants. As long as we provide Sebastian with a car and an environment in which he can become world champion, he will probably stay with us. If both do

Photography: getty images (2), gepa-pictures.com

TWO ALPHA MALES, ONE DIRECTION Relations between Webber and Vettel might not extend to cosy dinners, but they’re harmonious enough for an efficient working relationship

out of the rut Early races weren’t great, but after a first win of the season at the fourth race, in Bahrain, Vettel, and Christian Horner, moved up a gear

not fit, then we have to come up with something fresh. But we have a very good junior programme, and maybe some day someone else will become champion in our car.

The old gentleman, Enzo Ferrari, railed against the British ‘garagisti’0 as virtually worthless Formula One opponents. How do you think he would have taken to a drink manufacturer as the superior force today?

I believe that there is no way old Enzo would have liked such defeat, but he would acknowledge the performance of the opposition – and then would whip his boys accordingly so they’d do everything to beat us. But not with such actions as we have recently experienced.

Alonso is constantly involved in politics.

I believe we saw the stress he was under towards the end of the season. Saying things like, “I’m competing against Hamilton, not Vettel,” and “I’m up against Newey,” these psychological skirmishes. We said, “Just ignore him.”

You have gained a reputation as a clever and thoughtful observer of Formula One. What do you think about its current state?

Eighty-five per cent of the races run really well. A prime example was in Austin, Texas, where an entire city and an entire state were whipped into an excited frenzy about the race. The race was the event, there was this

excitement about the future. Generally, the state of Formula One is OK, there are exciting races. The drag reduction system (DRS) has certainly helped. KERS [recovering kinetic energy through braking] is a very complex thing, but of course it also contributes to the show. As for cost reduction, we are happy to have it, but it should not amount to the unilateral pruning of the aerodynamics, which is clearly our strength. Chassis and engine: they have to be as one, in a package. Basically, 2013 will remain stable technically. It is important to have a car that is fast on all circuits and, above all, reliable.

Reliability plays an increasingly important role. One cannot afford

“It is important to have a car that is fast on every circuit and that is, above all, reliable.

R ­ eliability plays an increasingly important role”

any DNFs. That’s Alonso’s secret – he experienced not one technical defect in 2012. The big change comes in 2014, with the small, six-cylinder engines. The prognoses are that similar power outputs to today will be reached, with a higher contribution of KERS, and less fuel consumption. This will result in a ripple effect to the outside world, something that commercial car companies also need to integrate into their strategies. KERS brings at least a doubling of available auxiliary power – through logistical and technical progress. The batteries will become lighter, they can store more capacity, and yet are smaller.

Let’s finish with a personal question.

Do you find yourself ever thinking how your life would have been if your career as an F1 driver had not been halted by chance with one flying pebble in 1972? You were, after all, touted for big things.

I never play the ‘what if’ game because of my lost eye. There is simply no point in thinking about it: it just happened.

One has enough examples of highly successful racing drivers who fail in their lives after they retire because they don’t know how it will go on. For me there’s a clear choice: to do something completely different. It goes on, everything goes on. That, incidentally, is a very good motto for our team. www.redbullracing.com

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once a year, 450 BASE-jumpers dive from a Bridge over a gorge in america’s Appalachian Mountains.

overthe

edge

48

veterans use a human catapult. rookies sit quivering back in the hotel. Welcome to Bridge Day Words: Andreas Rottenschlager Photography: Julie Glassberg

Free-fall festival: “You feel like a gambler who’s hit the jackpot”

cott Haynes stands on a scaffold 3m high in the garden of the Holiday Lodge Hotel and takes another deep breath. He wants to practise his jump. One final time.

Haynes has close-cropped black hair.

His face is hidden behind green-rimmed sunglasses. He isn’t very big, but he comes across as extremely fit. He is hanging on a harness which has two bungee cords attached to the back of it.

The cords are meant to cushion his fall.

He stretches his arms up, to either side at a 45-degree angle, and looks straight ahead of him. He says, “Three, two, one – see ya!” then hops off the platform. The bungee cords extend and Haynes lands gently on a mattress.

It may look like a children’s gym exercise, but in an emergency this procedure could save Haynes’s life.

The 23-year-old from New York is training for his first BASE-jump.

His technique when he jumps will

decide whether his descent goes like a breeze or ends in disaster.

BASE-jumping is considered the most dangerous form of parachuting.

The acronym stands for the platforms from which the jumpers leap: buildings, antennas, spans (bridges) and earth (cliffs). Free fall only lasts for a few seconds and there’s no point having a spare parachute; there isn’t enough time for it to open.

“BASE-jumpers are happy people,” Haynes says, removing his harness after practice. He studies English at Utica College in New York, and would like to teach after graduation. He is one of 450 jumpers to have secured a slot at the Bridge Day Festival, where, for six hours, BASE-jumpers leap off the New River Gorge Bridge near the city of Fayetteville in West Virginia. It is all legal and watched by about 80,000 spectators.

Bridge Day is the BASE-jumping scene’s Woodstock: a huge show in which worldly wise veterans, nervous beginners and fearless swashbucklers all take part.

Since 1977, when the bridge opened, it has taken place on the third Saturday of every October. The participants in the 2012 event have made the Holiday Lodge Hotel in Oak Hill their headquarters.

For two days, this backwater town of 8,000 people becomes the centre of the BASE-jumping world.

Anyone who wants to jump on Bridge Day has to have done at least 100 skydives. Skydiving is the precursor to BASE-jumping. You leap out of a plane and are in free fall for minutes. You learn

PACKING THE PARACHUTE IS A RITUAL – EACH AND EVERY TIME. WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO

Left: Waiting on the jumping platform Above left: Training on the bungee cord. Correct posture saves lives Above right: Fold, tweak, secure, Ace Henderson packs his parachute

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IS FOLD A PIECE OF CLOTH INTO YOUR RUCKSACK SO PERFECTLY THAT YOUR LIFE CAN COUNT ON IT how to stabilise yourself in the air and how to control the parachute.

Haynes has 110 skydives to his name, plus the course he did for BASE-jumping beginners. “You learn how to deal with emergencies,” he says of the training course, “like when one of your lines gets wrapped around your parachute and you go into a tailspin.”

Haynes says that there are two kinds of people. “Some like to have both feet on the ground. Others start dreaming of flying when they’re children.” Haynes definitely belongs to the latter group, but has concerns about his debut BASE-jump.

“I’m in a complete panic,” he says, going on to explain that he’s jumping “because it makes me feel alive. Anyone who’s had that feeling of happiness once can’t escape

it. It’s like a gambler who’s hit the jackpot.”

He says that some skydivers would sell their clothes to be able to afford a new parachute: “They display classic symptoms of addiction.” Haynes has travelled to Oak Hill, even though there isn’t a single hotel room available. So he will spend the night before his first BASE-jump in a tent in the garden of the Holiday Lodge.

In the hotel’s lobby, jumpers have requisitioned every square centimetre of space, kneeling down on the carpet in front of their parachutes, pulling any creases straight and spreading their lines out neatly next to each other.

Most BASE-jumps performed beyond Bridge Day are illegal. It is rare to witness the BASE-jumping scene as openly as here. If you want to become

a BASE-jumper, you have to prove yourself in a sort of caste system by assisting jumpers you know. Then you look for a mentor, an experienced BASE-jumper who will prepare novices for their first jump, explain all the risks and shatter false expectations.

Dan Blakeley is one of those mentors.

He is packing a parachute for a fellow jumper; he earns US$50 for each such ‘pack job’. Blakeley is a brawny guy with a firm handshake and soft facial features.

He has done more than 6,000 skydives and 500 BASE-jumps, and initiated about 50 jumpers in the art of the latter.

“I don’t care how much experience someone has,” Blakeley says. “Some people just shouldn’t become BASEjumpers. I find out how quickly a person 51

makes decisions. For example: someone knocks over a drink and the glass rolls off the table. Is that person the type that catches it? There are people who are clumsy by nature. To those people I have to say, ‘Sorry, no.’ The worst thing that could have happened to my sport was YouTube. Kids see a spectacular BASEjump, but what they don’t see is the years of work and training that come before it.”

Blakeley has seen friends die, and he almost drowned a couple of years ago when he landed in the water after a jump from a bridge went wrong.

But he has never thought of stopping.

“BASE-jumping is my life,” he says, “I love it when my heart begins to race.”

Blakeley has stopped discussing the dangers of his sport with other people, but he will happily explain to anyone he thinks is truly interested that, “BASE-jumpers are not crazy people who are tired of life. I plan to die on my porch when I’m old and grey.”

The jumpers in the Holiday Lodge

are afflicted by a strange combination of hyperactivity and tension. They all have their own ways of dealing with the pressure: going to bed early, asking like-minded people for advice, cracking open a third can of Bud Light.

It is quiet on the first floor corridor when Ace Henderson is packing his parachute. It is a ritual, each and every time. What you have to do is fold a piece of cloth the size of a tent into your rucksack so perfectly that your life can count on it.

Henderson is a quiet master of his craft. There is something meditative about watching him. He lays down flat on his parachute to squeeze out any air.

He smooths out any creases, secures the folded parachute with pegs. Henderson moves his fingers with the precision of a surgeon as he tenses the lines in parallel along the ground and then places them in a figure of eight. You can’t help feeling that he is taking care of an old friend.

The procedure takes about 40 minutes,

T

he BASE-jumpers begin leaping from the bridge at one minute intervals from 9am. It is a surreal spectacle: bodies falling, parachutes popping open and then a gentle drift down towards the river. The jumpers either tip-toe tentatively off the bridge or confidently perform somersaults.

Some look serious. Some make faces.

A lot of them shout, “See ya!” before taking the leap. It sounds as if they are trying to reassure themselves.

The first highpoint of the day comes at 10am. Donald Cripps climbs onto the platform. At 83, Donald is the oldest jumper in the field. He is a small man with a friendly face. Cripps was already a pensioner when he started skydiving. Before that, he served as a technician with the US Navy. Today, he is attempting his second BASE-jump, and shows no sign of nerves. He is probably the most relaxed participant this year. He did his first two parachute jumps in the

Left: Tension builds in the queue Right: Three down, hundreds more to go

Additional photography: vertical visions

‘I do’ she says. the bride and groom jump togeth er, the wedding complete

then Henderson closes his rucksack.

“I wanted to do it properly,” he says.

The next morning, the drive from the hotel to the New River Gorge Bridge takes less than five minutes, after which cars get stuck in a throng of people.

Bridge Day is a local festival, too.

The streets are lined with hot-dog stands. Parents carry children on their shoulders. Cameras are busy clicking. People marvel at the brave participants and their crazy hobby.

The New River Gorge Bridge stretches for almost a kilometre over the New River Gorge National River. The spectators head towards the middle of the bridge where the jumping platform juts out from the edge of the road. It is a drop of 267m down to the river basin.

The jumpers look out over an impressive panorama of red and brown deciduous trees, dotting around a hilly landscape stretching out as far as the eye can see. Rescue boats circle down below on the river. Viewed from up here on the bridge, they look like little toy ships.

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Sssssss! After the short, loud hiss, the steel arm goes up early 1950s, during the Korean War. Most of the people here weren’t even born then.

Cripps waves to the crowd. “Have a nice day!” he says, and promptly jumps off the bridge.

Anyone who thinks that the show from the jumping platform can’t be topped is later disabused when the human catapult is fired. The organisers have allocated 24 places for this monstrosity, a prototype which has been painted a gaudy red and whose design can only make you think of machines familiar from pictures 54

and Nesbitt is catapulted from of Middle Age sieges. The contraption is powered by compressed air.

At 10.45am, Joe Nesbitt makes himself comfortable sitting backwards on the ejector seat. He only answers questions from bystanders in incomplete sentences. “Wanted to try something new,” he says, when asked what drove him to this. His version of, ‘No, he hasn’t told his family,’ is, “I’ll send them a photo after.”

Sssssss! After the short, loud hiss, the steel arm goes up and Nesbitt is flung from the bridge in a high arc. The man turns out to be the consummate pro. He

action

Left: From launch to ’chute, including, top left, a catapult Right: Scott Haynes after his first jump: “There are people who dream of flying.”

Below left: Wet but soft, for one day a year, the New River in West Virginia becomes a landing zone

the bridge in a high arc does three backflips and then opens his parachute. You wouldn’t mind seeing the look on his parents’ faces when they see the photographic evidence of all this later.

At 11am, the wacky emotional highlight of the event: a wedding ceremony on the abyss. Erika Terranova swigs nervously from her water bottle every 30 seconds. She is wearing a white hoodie and a lace ribbon in her hair.

Erika is about to marry Patrick Steiner and then jump off the bridge strapped to her new husband. The wind blows snippets of the vows of fidelity down

from the platform towards the crowd.

“I will always support you... believe in you... respect you.” At 11.15 on the dot, Erika and Patrick are man and wife.

The tandem harness is placed on the bride. “I do,” says Erika. You can hear the fear of the jump wrapped up with pre-wedding nerves.

Shortly afterwards, the bride and groom plunge downwards towards the New River, the crowd cheering them on, and the ceremony is complete.

At 2pm, with an hour to go until the end of the event, the queue for

the jumping platform goes on and on. Spectators who want to watch the last jumpers from below squeeze into one of the yellow school buses making shuttle runs from the bridge to the riverbank. The vehicles creak their way down the winding roads into the valley on a journey that takes about 20 minutes. Those getting out at the end of the ride are rewarded with a garishly grotesque mixture of drama and ecstasy: jumpers who land too quickly are dragged over the broken stones of the shore, still attached to their parachutes. Just a few metres away, rescue boats pull jubilant BASE­-jumpers out of the river.

At the edge of the landing zone – soaking wet and with a broad grin on his face – is Scott Haynes. He has jumped twice today. At breakfast he ate a cereal bar. He couldn’t manage to get anything else down. “I assume you know what BASE stands for?” he asks. “I’m going to start looking for an antenna, a building and then a cliff.” www.officialbridgeday.com

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Action

First first, second nothing is

is

That’s an uncompromising attitude. And it’s one that has served Hank McGregor well. It is what has made this South African one of the world’s greatest all-round paddlers Words: Claire Lindsay Photography: Chris Saunders

Walking the walk: Hank McGregor takes a stroll through his home town of Durban, here crossing Anton Lembede Street

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Action

h

ank McGregor’s accomplishments read like an events guide to the great flatwater, river and surfski paddling events across the globe. He has a highlights reel that boasts multiple wins in iconic local river marathons like The Berg, The Fish and The Dusi; he’s been the SA Flatwater champ, and the World Marathon champ.

And then there are his exploits on the ocean. McGregor has been the SA Surfski champ, he’s won World Cup surfski races, and claimed top honours in Hawaii’s brutal Molokai surfski race across one of the roughest ocean channels in the world.

As a man, McGregor commands respect. As a competitor, you can add an element of fear to the mix, too. His is an extraordinary talent. And it’s one that has an extraordinary foundation.

McGregor’s innate understanding of the ocean and love of all things water have very early beginnings – he spent the first two years of his life on a yacht with his parents. In his day, Hank’s father, Lee McGregor, was a top South African paddler, and from the beginning, McGregor Senior took on the tough dual role of father and coach. He instilled in his son the motto of “First is first, second is nothing”. It’s a hard, uncompromising philosophy to impart on one so young, but it’s one that has seen Hank achieve more than most even dream of.

“It was always hard to please him, and often difficult to distinguish whether I was talking to my coach or my father.

When things went badly, he was always there to support me, but the coach side always came through, telling me I could do better. My dad has always been my mentor; his ability to never lie down in a race and to fight right to the end, definitely gave me that winning bug.”

It was with his father that McGregor won his first major title. At the age of 15, he partnered McGregor Senior to victory in the 1995 Cape Point Challenge – a race that starts from Cape Town’s Scarborough beach, navigates Cape Point, and finishes 50km later at Fish Hoek.

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“My father’s ability

To neVer Lie doWn in a race and To “That was my first taste of senior victory and I haven’t looked back,” says McGregor.

McGregor’s unconventional upbringing continued aboard a 42-foot yacht bound for America. At a time when most young men that age are discovering girls and playing the odd bit of sport, Hank spent his 17th birthday in the middle of the ocean helping his parents sail around the world. An opportunity to relax a little and give his training programme a break, one might think?

That wasn’t in the McGregor gameplan,

fighT righT To The end, definiTeLy

GaVe Me that wiNNiNG buG”

Action

however. Each day he and his surfski would bail off the yacht and train for twothree hours – sometimes with as much as 5.5km of ocean below him and 3,200km of water between him and dry land.

Sailing would also provide what was to be a defining moment in his life. The family’s yacht capsized 600km off the South African coast. For 14 straight hours, Hank bailed water with a bucket until the yacht eventually

righted itself. Not only did the event leave behind some nerve-racking memories, but it afforded him time to think about what he had achieved in his short life, what he still wanted to achieve, and at the same time endowing him with an immeasurable sense of self-belief.

“Faced with death at 17 years old, I realised that there was so much I wanted to do with my life. I remember thinking that if I ever get out of here, I want to

“faced with death

aT 17 years oLd, i reaLised

ThaT There Was so much

i waNted to do with My life”

win as many races as possible, and I want to be Junior World Marathon Champion. It’s hard to explain how you feel, knowing that there is no one to help you other than yourself – never mind the will to win, the experience also gave me a great will to survive.”

And win he did. The 1996 Canoe World Marathon Championships in Sweden saw Hank standing on the top of an international podium for the first time, claiming the Junior World Marathon crown – the first of many prestigious titles to come.

In the seasons that followed, McGregor accumulated race victory after race victory, culminating in 2011 – a racing year other competitive paddlers only dream about and one that he describes it as his “golden year”.

In the space of 12 months, McGregor entered 50 races and only lost three of them. Wins included a record-breaking seventh consecutive Berg River Canoe Marathon win, an epic 244km of paddling over four days, from Paarl to Velddrif, in the Cape winter. In 2012, he went on to make it eight Berg victories in a row and nine in total.

“My earliest paddling memory was paddling down the Berg River in a guppy canoe when I was six years old, and shooting Klei rapid. I remember saying to everyone on the trip that I was going to win this race, and nobody believed me.”

They believe him now. McGregor has won every national title on offer; and, of course, the ultimate victory in his eyes, that World Marathon Championship crown.

“I think being crowned World Champion in 2011 was the highlight of my paddling career,” he says. “My first win as a senior had a couple of And strolling through the unique Indo-African blend of the famed Indian market in Bertha Mkhize Street

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Action

of the 2010 Umkomaas Canoe Marathon he punched fellow competitor Jacques Theron, after McGregor and his partner Grant van der Walt had an on-river altercation with Theron and his partner Piers Cruickshanks. “When you are racing as hard as you can over an ultra-distance event [70km], fatigue does set in. This leaves you vulnerable to everything around you, especially pressure, and when things don’t work out how you want them to, sometimes you can flip a switch.”

T

“I would like to

be remembered as somebody different,

as a tough competitor and someone who raced to the best of their ability”

60

McGregor poses with his canoe outside one of the many dodgy hotels along the back streets of South Beach

discrepancies as Manuel Busto [multiple World Marathon champ] was disqualified, and so I wanted to win another title to set the record straight.

Last year I did it, in the strongest marathon field ever assembled, a field which included every World Champ crowned in the last decade.”

McGregor’s competitive nature and never-say-die approach in a sport where such attitudes abound has also resulted in a few well-publicised incidents best categorised as ‘controversial’. At the end

he consequences of his actions were high – a year ban from competitive paddling that was later reduced to six months. An even bigger deal was McGregor’s highly disputed disqualification at the 2012 World Marathon Championships in Rome, where he fought back after an early unplanned swim to finish third.

McGregor was subsequently disqualified and cited for an ‘overzealous’ portage after a Portuguese competitor fell on the technical course.

“The much-spoken about portage on the course was definitely partially to blame – there was a very fine line between who had the right of way and who didn’t, especially when everyone was giving it their all down a 45-degree ramp to land on a jetty. On the upside, the International Canoe Federation [ICF] is now looking at setting new rules for the disqualification process.”

At the age of 34, McGregor has ticked every box that young 17-year-old sailor set for himself. He wears an aura of calm and self-belief that’s well earned: “I would like to be remembered as somebody different, as a tough competitor and someone who raced to the best of their ability. Someone who – whether I won or lost – tried my hardest. I’d like to be remembered as someone who played fair, and as a tough competitor who was difficult to beat in any paddling discipline, on any day. I guess I would like to be just remembered and be given credit for how I raced.”

And there are still more races to come.

The man who is probably the best allround paddler in the world has a couple more challenges in mind before he gives way to the youngsters. This year will see the ICF’s first-ever Surfski Ocean Racing World Championship race, to be held in Porto, Portugal. Guess who has set his sights on being its inaugural champion. www.teambest4.co.za

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BEYOND THE ORDINARY THE RED BULLETIN

Champion freerunner Ryan Doyle turns over a new leaf for his sport: a grand tour of world wonders with a twist. Instead of standing in front of the landmarks, he got on them and did what he does best. From Rio’s favelas to the Colosseum, this, first-hand, is his excellent adventure Photography: Sebastian Marko

Interview: Ruth Morgan

ON TOUR

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1/ china Shaolin monks, roasted tarantulas and Jackie Chan adventures As the martial arts capital of the world, China has influenced me and my parkour style a lot. Internet censorship there makes it hard to tell how many freerunners are active; I was told there are lots, so I was keen to see for myself. The first time we went, we lost our equipment, it rained, and I got a leg infection and had to go to hospital.

The second time was great. After a 14-hour flight to Beijing, we did the four-hour drive to the Great Wall. I’ve always dreamed of doing backflips along it, so that was the first thing I did. After that, in a traditional Chinese garden, I had the honour of training with a Shaolin monk, a kung fu master. He taught me several stances and forms, and then got out a pair of nunchucks.

I had a go with them, and I was awful.

Being in China made me think of great martial artists. So, with four parkour athletes in the city, we put together a Jackie Chan-style action sequence for the camera. Their parkour level was high and it was great fun.

The variety of food at Beijing’s night market amazed me. Pig’s ear stew, grilled baby snakes, roasted centipede, deep-fried tarantulas. I ate a tarantula, and guess what? It tasted just like chicken.

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DoYle’S DiarieS The freerunner’s daily thoughts and drawings I’m lucky in that parkour gives me the chance to go away on incredible trips, and when I do, I always keep a diary of my travels. I use it to record ideas as soon as I have them, things I want to say, or things I want to research and learn about the places I visit. I’ll write down elements of a culture or concept that I don’t understand fully, then I can look into it when I have more time. There’s a lot of personal stuff in there: drawings to remind me of moves or scenes; thoughts and observations that might not make sense to anyone else. I could put a lot of this stuff on my phone or a laptop, but there’s something I just love about having all these thoughts and memories on something as tangible as paper.

2/ JorDan Where Indiana Jones had his Last Crusade, the parkour is first-rate The desert makes for such a soft landing.

On concrete, you can’t get too high or your body will pay for it, but on sand I was able to get a lot of air time for some double twists and big jumps.

Some parts [of Petra] look modern as they’re protected from the wind; others have been completely eroded. It’s over 2,000 years old and until the 1980s people were living in its caves. Our guide was born in one.

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3/ inDia Spreading the word of parkour in a land of culture clash Here, it struck me how much parkour can make me feel completely comfortable in a place that’s alien. As soon as I got up onto the rooftops and started leaping around, I began to feel completely at home. Because in other respects, India was a crazy place, a country of so many firsts for me. In Delhi, everything was so hectic and fast-paced, and from there we travelled for a few hours south to get to Agra. Here, I experienced a surprising first: eating curry for breakfast – and I loved it. I think I might continue doing it at home.

And I couldn’t leave India without trying out Bollywood dancing. I got a lesson that ended in a performance, with four backing dancers and my dance teacher: now he wants to visit Liverpool so I can teach him parkour.

There are lots of videos online of skilled Indian freerunners, but in ratio to the population, it’s not a huge movement. I think this might be linked to the number of people who have regular internet access, because that’s the main way that parkour has spread, and is spreading, around the world.

Visiting the Taj Mahal was something I’ll never forget. It’s breathtaking.

The surprising thing is it’s actually in a very poor area, but then the huge divide between rich and poor in India is impossible to ignore. It was striking to see very poor children playing near something so grand. Travelling changes your perspective. I was constantly surprised in India, which was often due to my ignorance, but I left with a new appreciation of many things.

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What the Romans did for parkour: build the first and best place for it I try to sketch on my travels, and especially enjoyed doing that in Rome with the Colosseum, which could have almost been designed with parkour in mind. Sadly, it’s so ancient I couldn’t start flipping off it, so I went into the city for that.

When I’m freerunning in different places, my style evolves and changes depending on my surroundings. I take home new things from every place I go. There were so many opportunities in the Italian architecture, new ways of getting up buildings and getting from one to another. While I was there, I definitely developed an Italian parkour style; I loved playing in that city.

I met an Italian parkour athlete, who is a biochemist by day and practises parkour as a hobby, for exercise, and to escape from reality in the centre of Rome. He reminded me that parkour isn’t just about getting from point A to point B, but about setting goals and achieving them. Improving your problemsolving in this way can actually help in other areas of life.

Whether it’s getting across a city, or doing a job application, what you need to do is find the most efficient way of doing it.

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ADDITIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY: PREDRAG VUCKOVIC/RED BULL CONTENT POOL (2)

4/ iTalY

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5/ brazil From beach to city centre to favela: flipping everywhere Doing parkour on Copacabana beach in Rio was incredible.

Everywhere you look there are iconic scenes: the beach itself, with the view of mountains coming out of the water; Sugar Loaf Mountain; and Christ the Redeemer overlooking it all. But the first thing I think of about my time in Rio is an incredible massage I had there: I really needed one then.

There’s a strong team of freerunners in central Rio, and they took us to spots around the city, but most memorably for me, they took me to meet a capoeira crew in a favela. Capoeira, the Brazilian martial art, has been a big influence on me and my style of parkour: it’s where it all started for me. I never thought that one day I would train with capoeira masters in the heart of a favela. I was nervous going there, because everyone told me it’s dangerous, but the parkour guys took me under their wing and threw us a party.

The father of one of the crew cooked an amazing barbecue one night, with about 10 different types of meat. We had a proper shindig – the drinks were flowing, they had a DJ all sorted out. It’s not something most visitors to Rio get to experience, and I’m grateful for that.

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6/ mexico The end of the world? Not quite. But an injury very nearly put paid to the trip Mexico has a thriving parkour scene, so I had a lot of friends there from previous trips, but I’d never been to Chichen Itza, the ancient Mayan city: it’s a masterpiece. The only downside to the trip were the injuries I got on day one. One of the first moves I tried to do was at a market. I saw a metal bar I wanted to do a trick off, and I got up there, but it had been baking in the sun all day. My hand was almost branded to the metal as I hung and swung, ripping a huge flap of skin from my palm.

I had to use my wristband as a bandage. Later the same day, I rolled my ankle training with a few parkour locals. Over the next few days, though, I managed some great freerunning sessions.

I was especially glad to be back in Mexico in 2012. I’ve always been interested in the Mayan calendar and the predictions about the world ending last year. I saw all the ‘prophecy 2012’ merchandise, and couldn’t help thinking that, if we’re all still here in 2013, it will all be worthless. I first heard about the prophecy when I was 14 years old, and remember thinking that I had to try and experience as much as I could before 2012 ended, in case it was all over. I think I’m doing alright so far.

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7/ peru Ancient wonders are a perfect spot for a thoroughly modern sport It took two aeroplanes, a three-hour train ride and two coaches to get to our hotel: two solid days of travel.

But it was worth it.

Machu Picchu, the lost city of the Incas, was deserted when it was found, and still nobody knows why.

It’s steeped in mystery, just stunning, and deserves to be on the world wonder list.

Machu Picchu is also 2,430m above sea level and, though I didn’t suffer from altitude sickness, it’s still quite hard to do parkour with so little oxygen in the air – so that was interesting!

You can really feel it; it makes you lightheaded. The uneven nature of the ancient stones meant that I wasn’t running on a flat surface, as I usually would, so that added another new element. I had to watch my step.

Much of the site is sacred, and I didn’t want to do any damage to it. But I found the perfect place to do a move called a kong gainer, one of the most dangerous in parkour.

You have to change direction three times, and if you don’t choose your location wisely, there’s a strong chance of injury. Turns out, the best place in the world to do the move is a huge, ancient Inca stone in Peru.

See Ryan Doyle freerunning around the world on The Red Bulletin tablet app. Download it now for free

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Heaven´s basement

A Hard Rock Life

Four young Brits struggle to make their mark in heavy metal.

They fall flat on their faces, get back up again, and then Papa Roach takes the band on tour.

Heaven’s Basement have arrived

Singer Aaron Buchanan screams into the microphone with his fists clenched, his mane of blond hair shaking. Sid Glover is kneeling on the floor and thrashing the living daylights out of his guitar.

On drums, Chris Rivers is even more energetic. The fervour with which Heaven’s Basement make heavy metal is admirable. Bon Jovi, Deftones and Papa Roach have all taken notice, and taken the band on tour. The band – Rob Ellershaw, on bass, completes the line-up – have their debut album out next month. the red bulletin: When did you become committed to rock? glover: I was given a guitar when I was four. I even used to take it to bed with me. It’s like a third nipple. rivers: There’s a video of me playing drums to an Aerosmith song in my room when I’m six.

I’ve got my top off and I’m using my bedside lamp as a spotlight.

You’ve since traded up: one of your first gigs was at the City of Manchester Stadium. rivers: Yes, it was, but we weren’t the main act. glover: Bon Jovi were on tour.

A local radio station chose the support band; a prerequisite was that the band had to come from Manchester. We lied, and got the job. rivers: They gave us 15 minutes, which wasn’t enough, from our point of view. glover: When Bon Jovi’s manager heard our soundcheck, they actually doubled the time we had on stage.

You’ve got a reputation as a fantastic live band. What’s your secret? buchanan: What sets our favourite bands apart, like Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and Aerosmith, is the magic they create when 70

they play. I’ve learnt how to sing and move on stage by watching Freddie Mercury. rivers: The most important thing is not to do things by halves. If you want to break your guitar, then smash the living daylights out of it. If you want to dive into the crowd, hurl yourself right in.

Stage presence: frontman Aaron Buchanan and lead guitarist Sid Glover

How did you cope when your lead singer quit suddenly in 2010? glover: He walked out on us a week before we were due to go on tour, so we asked the frontman of a band we were friends with to step in at short notice. That guy lost his voice after a few concerts – at which point I grabbed the microphone myself without further ado.

How did Aaron come on board? glover: We listened to hundreds of singers. We were looking for more than just an excellent frontman. We were looking for someone who was willing to give it his all, and we found that in Aaron.

Were there initiation rituals? glover: Of course! First, he moved into the house we all lived in. Then we got him as drunk as possible to see what would happen, to make sure that he didn’t go

mad. He had to cheat his way past the security staff at a venue in Nottingham and get backstage. We had to be sure that he’d be willing to jump off a cliff for the band. ­If you don’t jump, you’ll never fly.

Do you still all live together? rivers: Yes, it brings us together. Other bands get cabin fever on the tour bus, or at the recording studio, but that doesn’t happen to us. For us, it’s the normal state of affairs, and it’s incredible how this blind trust and chemistry comes across on stage.

People said that it was like Aaron had been in the band forever from the first shows we did with him.

What about the times when things didn’t go right for you? rivers: It wasn’t always easy. One time we ran out of money for food when we were on tour; we were so hungry, we stole chocolate bars from petrol stations. When we played with big bands, we’d sneak into their dressing room and eat the leftovers from their catering. It might sound bad, but in the end those are the adventures you most like reminiscing about.

Now you’re only hungry for success. rivers: Recently someone asked us what we’d do if people hated our records.

I know that’s not going to happen. But I didn’t have to think for a second what our response would be: carry on doing the same thing. We’re in top form. We want to impress people with our live show – and it’s working. Our concerts are getting bigger and bigger every time.

Debut album Filthy Empire (Red Bull Re­cords) is released in February: www.heavensbasement.com You can watch the video of Heaven’s Basement’s session at the Red Bull Stu­dio London on The Red Bulletin tablet app. Download it now for free

Additional photography: getty images

Words: Florian Obkircher Photography: Thomas Butler

Heaven’s Basement (left to right): Sid Glover, 24 (lead guitar); Rob ‘Bones’ Ellershaw, 25 (bass); Chris Rivers, 29 (drums); Aa­ron Buchanan, 22 (lead vocals)

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THE WRIGHT STUFF Returning to South Africa for the first time in a decade, Red Bull Flugtag has done what commercial airlines find difficult to accomplish: put the fun back into flying Words: Steve Smith  Photography: Craig Kolesky 72

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lying is hard.

And when you land on it, so is water.

Embracing these two truths were participants at last month’s Red Bull Flugtag, the Cape Mayans team.

The Cape Mayans were one of the teams tipped to win at the event.

Their cheeky moniker – a nod to the ancients’ predicted apocalypse – and the fact that their craft appeared to have some flying ability, had garnered a fair amount of hype.

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As it turned out, a sort of Mayan apocalypse would come to pass, albeit a little early and not quite as global as anticipated. Just as their airplane looked to be gaining some lift, its launch cradle tumbled off the runway, clipping the rear of the plane and flipping its wide-eyed pilot eyed tail-first into the salty brine of Cape Town’s V&A Waterfront harbour. Cue much whooping, laughter and applause from a crowd of around 200,000 people.

It’s a reaction that for two decades has characterised the many Red Bull Flugtag events across the globe, as teams of would-be aviators have propelled themselves off an elevated ramp over an open stretch of water, harbouring at least some thoughts of actual flight. Naturally, most do little more than fall off the platform into the water, but that’s kind of the point. Actual distance flown is only part of the criteria on which teams are judged – creativity,

Team SWEEf-KREEF The men in hats (clockwise from top left): Inus Smuts, Enje Scherman, Leon Bester and Jaak Erasmus spent hours crafting their plane for the event at Cape Town’s V&A Waterfront (below)

showmanship, the design of their craft and pre-flight antics all count as well.

Flight is incidental. This event is all about entertainment. Over the years, thousands of people dressed in anything from sumo thongs to Chuck Norris garb have attempted flight in aircraft modelled on, inter alia, giant sombreros, a flying pub, various insects, the odd pig and, unsurprisingly, a high proportion of bulls.

Fully embracing that proud tradition was Team Sweef-Kreef. As one of the 41

“ The SweefKreef starts monstrous festivities wherever it goes. Be afraid… be very afraid”

teams participating in the first Red Bull Flugtag to take place in South Africa for 10 years, Inus Smuts and his wingmen Leon Bester, Jaak Erasmus and Enje Scherman came up with the concept of a giant flying crayfish (kreef in Afrikaans) as the vehicle to glide them to glory. In the weeks leading up to the maiden flight, in a small warehouse filled with glue fumes, they manufactured one of the ocean’s more mysterious crustaceans. Before the event, an ominous-sounding message appeared on the team’s Facebook page: “All we know for sure is that the Sweef-Kreef inflicts awe upon anyone who lays eyes on it. The Sweef-Kreef is a flying crayfish that starts monstrous festivities wherever it goes. Be afraid… be very afraid…”

Right.

“Our idea was to choose something that was the most unlikely thing to fly.

Something ridiculous,” says Inus, the head Kreef. “We’re all Afrikaans, we 75

Team tiger moth Pilot Craig McLeod (above left) and team member Josh Horwitz (above right) helped Team Tiger Moth achieve a flight distance of 16.35m. If it wasn’t for problems on the runway (above), they could have flown further

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all go diving at weekends and we’re always coming up with crazy ideas and concepts. Someone said, ‘Let’s build a crayfish’ and that was it.”

Aerodynamic skills, however, were clearly not one of Team Sweef-Kreef’s strong points. While the craft did have wings that approximate the profile required for flight, the various other crayfishy bits attached to the fuselage seemed likely to negate any lift the wings might muster.

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aving drawn the short straw – his teammates laugh when this is mentioned – Jaak Erasmus is the man tasked to pilot the craft, although “pilot” is probably not the right word. Rather, Erasmus will be “occupying” the Kreef in what promises to be a very brief flight.

“My piloting strategy is to think light,” says Erasmus. “And use that tail mechanism thing. We have a tail mechanism. I’m not really sure if it works, though.”

Amazingly, that tail mechanism thing might well be the one nod to aerodynamic lift that could actually work.

Technically, the term is “an elevator” and it’s also part of Team Tiger Moth’s design.

These guys are from The Cape Town Flying Club and they are approaching Red Bull Flugtag in a completely different manner to that of Team Sweef-Kreef. But they’ve still got the fun part right: the Moths have even written a poem for the occasion called The Tail Of Sabina, boasting the immortal line: “As she looked to the light, a tear streamed down/ She longed to soar and not be on the ground.” Make no mistake, this team believe they can fly.

Sitting in their workshop in a hangar at Cape Town International airport, among welded aluminium wing spars and wooden ribs, team leader Craig McLeod sketches wing angles and talks aerodynamic coefficient formulas as he lays down their approach to breaking the current Red Bull Flugtag distance world record of 69.79m, achieved at the German Flugtag event in May 2012 by a design based on a modified hang-glider.

The Moths have plugged numbers into the formula for lift and, taking into account the maximum 8m wingspan allowed by Red Bull Flugtag rules, come up with a well-thought out and precisely engineered, low-speed/high-lift aircraft.

“The whole idea behind this aircraft is to try and break the record,” says McLeod. “The wingspan is right, the weight distribution is right, the centre

“ in the cockpit, there is a big metal support beam in front of me. I do not want to be in it if the plane nose dives” of gravity is right and we have a control surface with the elevator. We also have guys who can push the aircraft along the ramp at the required 20kph. We’ve even been practising this – I strapped myself into one of those airport luggage trolleys and they pushed me along a measured distance. Providing the conditions are right, this aircraft can fly a long way. We’ve worked out that this aircraft can lift about 150kg.

From a flying point of view, once the

aircraft has left the runway, the idea is to drop the nose, pick up speed, apply the elevator to pull up the nose and then, using what’s called ground effect – it’s like a balloon of air pocketed between the water and the underside of the wing – we will glide it past the record.

But everything needs to be perfect, from the push and let go off the runway, through to the weather conditions.”

It’s that last factor that’s perhaps the most crucial element for participants.

The perfection of the push and let-go matters naught if there is a tailwind, as no aircraft will be able to fly no matter how spot-on its design. Lift is based on airspeed over the wing. Say you need 40kph of airspeed to lift off, you’ve got to generate that by the guys pushing you. Typically they’ll reach around 18-20kph in the 30m length of the runway – the rest is generated as the aircraft initially drops nose down off said runway. However, even a light 28kph tailwind means a forward velocity of 84kph is now required. And that’s impossible within these constraints.

At an airport, aircraft would simply take off into the wind from the opposite end of the runway. With Red Bull Flugtag, the ramp only points one way…

“I’m worried the aircraft might be a bit heavy,” says McLeod. “But the thing that’s really freaking me out is the wind. The usual summer Cape Town wind is a south-easter, and that means a tailwind. I’m flying the aircraft and, in the cockpit, there is a big metal support beam right in front of me. I do not want to be in it if the plane nosedives 77

Clockwise from top-left: Team Sweef-Kreef hit the water earlier than hoped; Team Tiger Moth lift off with grace; Team SweefKreef pilot Jaak Erasmus analyses what went wrong; Team Tiger Moth’s pilot waits to be rescued

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“ Ja, the nerves are kicking in. But If we don’t fly, at least the crowd will get to see a giant crayfish dive into the water” flying in figures 2002: The year Red Bull Flugtag was last staged in South Africa 1992: The year the first event was held (in Vienna) 123: The number of Red Bull Flugtag events that have been held around the world 100: The distance in metres each crew member must be able to swim unaided to qualify for the event 69.79: The current flight distance record in metres. Set at the event in Mainz, Germany, May 2012 41: The number of teams to make the final cut from 400 entries.

8: In metres, both the maximum wingspan and maximum length allowed 6: In metres, the height of the runaway above the water 4: The number of people in each team (one pilot; three ground crew) 0: The number of polluting polystyrene, hydrocarbon-based products (oil, fuel, grease, oil-based paint, paraffin), paints containing lead or mercury, and paper-based products such as Papier-mâché allowed in the construction of each aircraft

straight into the water. It is going to hurt. I’m praying there is no wind.”

Unlike the Cape Mayan’s chants, McLeod’s prayers are answered – at least the “Please God, let there be no wind” part, that is. After several days of the Mother City’s usual summer south-easter wind, Red Bull Flugtag Sunday begins still and hot. At times there’s even a slight headwind. Unfortunately, that was all the divine help the Tiger Moths would enjoy.

The rest of their day was peppered with technical difficulties. Firstly, a late launch time meant many hours waiting in the baking sun, which caused the plastic wing sheeting to delaminate, and their launch cradle began to buckle and come apart just as they were wheeling it on to the runway. Frantic gaffer taping and rope tying by McLeod’s teammates was enough to hold it together long enough to endure a frankly awful pre-flight dance (compulsory for all teams) and relatively successful launch. The Tiger Moth would be one of the few airplanes to demonstrate actual flight, though its 16.35m was a long way short of the 69.79m record. Beside the wind, McLeod’s other concern was Tiger Moth’s weight. “We were probably 10 or so kilos over the ideal weight and because our launch cradle was compromised, the guys just couldn’t push it fast

enough. Still, no one was injured and we had an incredible day.”

The Kreefs, on the other hand, were more than ready to return to their natural habitat. Dressed in red body paint, royal blue codpieces and sporting crayfish tails that look more like mini quilted duvets, they execute a surprisingly well-choreographed dance. It’s a left-field Bollywood-meetsBlur-meets-Poseidon mash-up that somehow gels and gets the massive crowd roaring its approval. Perched between the Kreef’s eyes, despite all the bravado and pre-flight shenanigans, pilot Erasmus is looking a little nervous.

“Ja, the nerves are kicking in. But we’ve lubed the launch cradle with plenty of Vaseline,” he adds by way of self-assurance. “And if we don’t fly, at least the crowd get to see a giant crayfish dive into the water.”

As it turns out, the throng of spectators don’t get to see a giant crayfish nosedive. Instead, they’re witness to an attempted 360-degree loop. Erasmus applies “that tail mechanism thing” with way too much enthusiasm, flipping the nose up so rapidly that it immediately inverts the Kreef as it leaves the runway. Halfway through this spectacular flip, it runs out of forward velocity, stalls and Erasmus and the Kreef plummet into the water upside down. It looks both painful and hilarious. As they do with most attempts, the crowd cringe and laugh at the same time.

“Owwww! Wahahahahaaa!”

All the contestants, however, are unhurt and, one by one, fished out of the harbour by the many rescue teams on standby. After a long day it’s Team #BullsEye who are awarded first prize for their dartboard-themed get-up, phallic dance routine and impressive 17.09m flight winning the most points from the panel of celebrity judges.

And so ends another extremely successful Red Bull Flugtag. Sure, there’s something hugely entertaining watching people nosedive, backflip, or get unexpectedly catapulted from their craft into water. But added to the amusement is an appreciation of the pilots’ bravery – they’re being pitched into the harbour from as high as 10m depending on the height of their launch cradles – and the time and creative effort each team has put into their entry.

Appreciative applause reverberates around the V&A over and over again. www.redbullflugtag.co.za

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Photographer Ernst Koschier plunges the depths to shoot with the fishes: more on page 84

Contents 82 TRAVEL Heliskiing on Russia’s eastern tip 84 GET THE GEAR High-tech tools of an underwater snapper 86 WORK OUT How to train like a top soccer player 88 THE SOUNDS OF 2013 The return of Cape Town quintet Fetish 90 NIGHTLIFE Everything you need to get you through ’til dawn 94 WORLD IN ACTION What’s coming up in sport and culture 96 SAVE THE DATE Events for the diary

PHOTOGRAPHY: ERNST KOSCHIER

98 MIND’S EYE With columnist Kevin McCallum

more body & mind

A permanent snowy landscape: Kamchatka is a skiing lover’s paradise

Away days

Truly off-piste

Spectacular travel adventures

kamchatka, russia Lovers of great snow head for the heliskiing at Russia’s eastern edge, with an eye on rumbling volcanoes and frozen hair. Even the journey there is epic

The turbines on the huge Mi-8 helicopter make a deafening racket. An artificial snowstorm blots out the sun and the walls of the Hotel Antarius in Paratunka, in Russia’s Far East, begin to shudder.

For the guests at the hotel, this is the sign that they have their first day on the slopes in Kamchatka ahead of them. A day of skiing on the Russian peninsula offering fluffy, super-fine, powdery snow, metres deep, and fantastic downhill slopes stretching from altitudes of 3,000m down to the beaches and fjords of the Pacific Ocean.

Most skiers here have taken the world’s longest domestic flight just to arrive on the snow: eight-and-a half hours, from Moscow to PetropavlovskKamchatsky, the region’s largest city and administrative centre. Although 82

most visitors are from Russia, natives of ski-loving countries like France and Germany are also well represented here.

The total area covering the Kamchatka peninsula is bigger than the UK and it is hemmed in by the North Pacific Ocean, the Sea of Okhotsk and the Be­ring Sea; its exposed position the reason for the wonderful quality of its snow. The skiing area accessible by helicopter is the size of Switzerland: mountain ranges stretching for 800km, from the island of Paramushir in the south to the volcanoes of Shiveluch and Alney in the north, with a neverending choice of downhill routes.

The snow here falls from the sky in big, fat flakes, and can fall so much that those out skiing are endangered. Safety and avalanche

training – how to use things such as folding shovels, collapsible probes, avalanche transceivers and rucksacks with inflating airbags – is given on the helipad, which, although covered in deep snow, is the only open, flat area near the hotel. Otherwise, on all sides, the place is surrounded by birch forests. After the training, Russian sparkling wine and biscuits are served by the pool, which is steaming, as are the volcanoes on the horizon Unfortunately, the first day turns out to be a so-called ‘down day’, when the helicopter can’t fly due to the snow. So

Not all the locals are approachable

words: Barbara gruber, oliver nitz. photography: Andrey Britanishskij (2), François-R. THEVENET (4)

The helicopter waits in the valley below to take skiers to the next departure point the skiers head for the Krasnaya Sopka ski resort, with its view of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky harbour and the ice-breakers out on the horizon in the North Pacific. An old ski-lift, marked ‘made in Czechoslovakia’, clanks jerkily uphill. The journey down is through more birch forest on an unprepared slope; there are no such things as snow groomers here. In the evening, a trip to the fish market yields red caviar. Back at the hotel, some relax in the sauna with a bottle of Kamchatsky Pivo, the local beer; others watch an opera on TV in a communal room with its wonderfully comfy sofa.

The next morning is not a down day. The Mi-8 transport helicopter, a shuttle bus in the sky, takes the group to the summit intact. Skiers jump out in turn and are given a few final tips from the ski guides. It is eerily quiet after the helicopter leaves, when for a short while the air smells of powdery snow and gunpowder.

The volcano smouldering in the distance adds a whiff of sulphur vapour.

After the skiers hear the word “go” from the guides, they head off, separately, down varied courses spread out before them, which converge in troughs and valleys far below. The helicopter is waiting down in the valley to take them to the next departure point. Though most of the talk runs something like, “That was the best run in my life!” the next downhill turns out to be even more spectacular.

On the flight back to the hotel, when everyone is out of breath and out of energy, it becomes clear why swimming gear was added to the list of things to bring. The helicopter lands in the middle of snowy nowhere, more precisely Nalychevo, a thermal spring with a small wooden bathhouse. Everyone is given a bathing cap, otherwise their hair would freeze. Beer and fish is served, and the stresses of the day melt away in the steam, the smiles and snowball fights.

And then, the day’s greatest problem arises: the water has warmed feet so much that they can’t fit back into ski boots that have frozen solid. It is a tiny torture after a fantastic day’s skiing.

Forget ski-lifts: the only way to get around here is by an Mi-8 helicopter

HELISKIING IN KAMCHATKA Getting there An eight-and-a-halfhour flight from Moscow to PetropavlovskKamchatsky, the capital of the Kamchatka region of Russia. The ski resorts are about an hour’s drive outside the city.

The green here is a forest of birch trees

Russian après-ski: smoked fish

Terrain Kamchatka has slopes of all levels of difficulty.

The big downhills are positioned among active volcanoes – the largest, Klyuchevskaya Sopka, is 4,750m high – at altitudes of 500m-3,000m, and come down to sea level through forests

and over glaciers.

Tour organisers Heliski Russia (www. heliski-russia.com), Vertikalny Mir (www. vertikalny-mir.com) and Arlberg Alpin (www. arlbergalpin.at) offer a range of packages including full-board accommodation, helicopter time and skiing led by experienced mountain guides.

Formalities You’ll need to apply for a Russian tourist visa (valid for 30 days).

russia

Kamchatsky

Not just mountains, but volcanoes here too

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more body & mind

Get the Gear a pro’s essentials

Sea snapper Ernst Koschier The underwater photographer from Austria needs a boatload of high-tech equipment to take pictures of his shy subjects

1. Seacam Superdome port I use this when I want to get a split shot – an image that is half above water and half below. The dome is made out of high-strength, light metal and is perfect for fisheye lenses and wide-angle zooms.

2. ReefNet SubSee magnifying lens, dioptre 10+ Most fish don’t appreciate having a camera shoved in their faces. I can use these plug-in lenses with the Macro Port and they’ll give me 3.5x magnification, meaning I can shoot them from a distance.

3. TillyTec LED W26 back-up light (and batteries) Unlike air, water absorbs light and the deeper you go, the more colour you lose.

To compensate, I use these LED lamps. They’re waterproof to a depth of 200m and are very bright with a luminosity of 6,000 lux, comparable to a 25-watt halogen bulb.

wear two. The computer provides all the essential information to keep me safe on the shoot and during the return to the surface .

7. SEACAM camera housing The Bentley of underwater camera housings, this is my most valued companion. It weighs almost 3kg and is made of a twice-hardened, surfacedensified, anodised alloy.

It’s just about unbreakable.

9. INON Z-240 V-4 flash I like these because they are small and manageable. The light makes focusing easier.

For close-ups of shy creatures, you can put a red lens in front of the bright focus light.

4. Nikon D800E camera This 36-megapixel camera can produce amazing shots, even in poor light. The housing is robust, essential for surviving 230 hours a year underwater.

10. Nautilus lifeline A waterproof emergency call system with GPS and radio can be a lifesaver.

It’s always in my jacket pocket when I dive.

5. Scubapro Seawing Nova Gorilla fins I’ll usually take about 20kg of equipment down with me, and that means moving around or reacting quickly can be problematic. These light elastomer fins propel me through the water with minimum effort and are very good against strong currents.

11. Atomic Aquatics STi regulator Not all regulators are as light as this one, plus it ensures consistent breath resistance – even if I’m upside down at any depth.

6. Suunto D6 diving computer On long, repetitive dives, my safety depends on my diving watch, which is why I always

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8. Kowalski LED 620 torch This 20-watt diving torch is made from seawater-resistant aluminium. A dimmer switch can take the brightness from 20 to 100 per cent, plus the battery lasts for around 70 minutes.

12. Atomic Aquatics mask Nothing matters if I can’t see properly. This custom-built mask is distortion-free and made of soft silicon, so it fits my face perfectly. www.ernstkoschier.com

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Ernst Koschier’s expeditions to Indonesia, South Seas and Papua New Guinea can last up to six months. He’s chalked up over 3,000 dives since 1983

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photography: PHILIPP FORSTNER

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MORE BODY & MIND

WORK, REST AND PLAY During the season, down-time is as important as training to ensure Neymar is on perfect form for each 90-minute match.

“When we don’t have matches we do a lot more gym work,” he says, “but during the season a lot of your training comes on the pitch.”

Goal getter

WORK OUT TRAINING WITH THE PROS

NEYMAR DA SILVA SANTOS JÚNIOR

There’s no going backwards when it comes to being a forward: the goal-happy Brazilian footballer, 20, trains constantly to stay on top of his game The man known simply as Neymar is no stranger to tough training sessions. He’s had a football at his feet for as long as he can remember and joined São Paulo club Santos FC, with which he shares a name, at the tender age of 11. Fast forward to 2013 and he’s one of the world’s most talented players, having scored more than 100 goals for Santos since making his debut for the senior team in 2009. He also helped the Brazilian national side to a silver medal at the 2012 London Olympics. But it’s not as easy as he makes it look. “It’s a lot of hard work,” he says. “As much as it can appear like we are just having fun – which in my case is also true – there’s a lot of training involved, which means constant commitment and sacrifice.

“When I’m not playing or training for Santos, I’m with the Brazil team, so training and matches dominate all my time. It means being away from the family, which is hard, especially Davi Lucca [Neymar’s 15-month-old son]. I also wish I could eat what I like, but as we have matches almost every weekend we must eat a balanced diet, with protein, carbs and salads, every single day. But essentially, I think that doing what you love is the key to great performance, and I love playing football. This is my job, but it’s also lots of fun.”

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FRIDAY 10am: Breakfast 11am: Tactical training on the field with teammates 12pm: Technical training 1pm: Lunch Afternoon: Rest 7pm: Dinner

TUESDAY 9am: Breakfast 10-11am: Tactical training on the field with teammates 11am-12pm: Technical training – working alone or in small groups on shooting, passing, dribbling and other technical skills.

12pm: Lunch Afternoon: Rest 7pm: Dinner

SATURDAY 9am: Breakfast 10am: Coach’s speech 11am-12pm: Rest 12pm: Lunch Afternoon: Rest 3.30pm: Snack 6.30pm: Match SUNDAY Day off

WEDNESDAY 9am: Breakfast 10am: Coach’s speech 11am: Rest 12pm: Lunch Afternoon: Rest 6pm: Snack 9pm: Match THURSDAY Rest and recuperation until…

3pm: Jogging around the field 4pm: Hydrotherapy using water jets for an intense massage to aid muscle recovery.

7pm: Dinner

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WORDS: RUTH MORGAN. PHOTOGRAPHY: GETTY IMAGES, PICTUREDESK.COM

The hopes of a nation are pinned on Neymar shooting Brazil to World Cup glory in 2014

MONDAY Morning: Rest Noon: Lunch 1-4pm: Rest 4-5.30pm: Tactical training on the field with teammates 5.30-7pm: 11-a-side practice 7pm: Dinner

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Still got it: the band earned rave reviews when they returned to live action in April 2012

THE SOUNDS OF 2013 #1

Born again

Fetish This Cape Town quintet have emerged from obscurity to present their loyal fans with a dark and beautiful new album. Frontwoman Michelle Breeze explains the band’s unexpected revival

Fetish’s first album in six years, Little Heart, was released last year

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Michelle Breeze is in a grey place. And that’s a good thing.

Compared to the drug-fuelled darkness she explored a decade ago, the grey of London is infinitely brighter. “For the last 11 years, I’ve worked here parttime for a health food company,” she says as she chews on a banana.

“I love the city. I don’t mind cold weather – I even like the rain.

Grey is my favourite colour, it kind of suits my temperament.”

You might remember Michelle Breeze. She was the captivating singer with Fetish, a band that for

a few years were the alternative darlings of South African music.

They released three acclaimed records, opened for Lenny Kravitz, Skunk Anansie and Smashing Pumpkins… And then vanished.

It was a familiar disappearance: big-in-SA band leaves for London; doesn’t make it; splits up. But it’s probably what saved her.

“Whenever I come back to Cape Town I’m fine for the first few weeks, then slowly but surely this darkness starts to creep in,” says Breeze. “I don’t know what it is. Maybe it’s the environment;

the memories. I don’t know.

It just rubs me up the wrong way.

The old stuff starts creeping in; the insecurities, the unease.”

The news of Fetish returning from obscurity with a new album has come as a welcome surprise.

Given the geographic challenges – Breeze and guitarist Dominic Forrest live in London; the other three band members reside in Cape Town – and the fact everyone is now involved in new musical projects, the prospect of another Fetish record had been filed under Wishful

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“It felt like a family getting back together.

It was fulfilling”

Thinking. “It was never something I planned to do,” says Breeze. “In fact, it was something I wanted to avoid at all costs. The only way I can explain it is that I was in a certain place at a certain point in time. Someone mentioned to me that the people at Digital Forest Studios in Cape Town were fans of the band and wanted to us to record some tracks. They asked if I was interested and I said, ‘Yeah, maybe.’ Within six months it had spiralled into a full album.”

Making the album involved plenty of frantic emailing and some creative travel planning, especially with all band members – except for one – now adding parenting skills to their musical ones. “Dominic and I got together

in London to write all the music,” says Breeze. “We then took it back to Cape Town and recorded the whole album in two weeks. It was hardest I’ve ever worked, but it was also very enjoyable. It felt like a family getting back together. It was fulfilling on an emotional level. It felt like we were completing something.”

Little Heart sounds more mature than the band’s other albums. Breeze’s lyrics are dark and brooding as ever, but they’re less introspective and more reflective of the world in which she now lives.

“I find a lot of my earlier songwriting quite indulgent and really focused on only one issue,” she explains. “You

can’t sustain that and it doesn’t have much space for growth.

The kind of people you reach is quite small. There’s more observation on this record than any of my other writing.”

There’s a warmer, less polished sound to it too. Forsaking the usual individual-takes-with-aclick-track approach, most of the songs on Little Heart have been recorded in one take with vocals, drums and guitar all laid down at the same time.

“Dominic and I think they are the strongest songs we’ve written.

And on a personal level, I feel like I have finally said something that’s not so much about me.”

And that says a lot about the Michelle Breeze of 2013.

Need to know THE LINE-UP Michelle Breeze – vocals Dominic Forrest – guitar Jeremy Daniel – bass Ross Campbell – drums David Fiene – keyboards

DISCOGRAPHY

Little Heart (2012) Remains (2006) So Many Prophets (1999) Shade Of A Ghost EP (1999) Fetish (1997)

WORDS: STEVE SMITH. PHOTOGRAPHY: CARLA DASILVA, THUMPA.NET

The story so far After forming in 1996, Fetish quickly developed a loyal Cape Town following with their dark, angsty sound and the brutally introspective songwriting of mesmerising lead singer Michelle Breeze.

National acclaim quickly followed with the release of their self-financed debut album, and by the late ’90s they had signed to Virgin records, recorded two highly regarded records – the Shade Of A Ghost EP, followed by second album So Many Prophets – toured with major international acts, garnered three SA Music Awards and enjoyed three top 10 hits.

International fame beckoned and Fetish went on to have a crack at Europe. But it cracked them. Breeze and guitarist/songwriting partner Forrest took their music to London while the rest of the

band stayed at home. It didn’t work out. The reasons are not uncommon: personal differences, pressure, drugs.

By 2004, with the band members living in different hemispheres, the break-up was official. Their creative legacy, however, lingered.

A slew of unreleased tracks were reworked by producer Chris Tuck and Forrest into Remains, an album everyone thought would bookend the output of another great band now demised.

2010, however, saw an unexpected rebirth. The band reconnected in London and found the old mojo still there. By April 2012 they had recorded a new album and played two gigs back home.

The album, Little Heart, was released later that year. More SA gigs are planned for 2013. www.fetish.bandcamp.com

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Nightlife Whatever gets you through ’til dawn

OUT NOW

DO IT

The ’90s revival princess

Ski World Cup, Moscow

Charli XCX As stylish as she is self-assured, this 20-year-old purveyor of melancholic angel pop loves the Spice Girls and will gladly give Coldplay pointers about stage presence She is a woman on the verge of a breakthrough. Charli XCX, says the blogosphere, is the new Lykke Li. She's also good enough to open for world’sbiggest bands, say Coldplay; they took her on their European tour. All this before her debut album’s out. Along with the likes of Sky Ferreira and Grimes, she’s one of a bunch of new female musicians who are combining kitschy pop with the avant-garde.

The Spice Girls and experimental electronica don’t have to be mutually exclusive: Charli XCX’s dark synth pop hymns prove that.

THE RED BULLETIN: Do you like being described as a leading light of the ’90s revival?

CHARLI XCX: I was always a big fan of the Spice Girls. When I was little, I wanted to be their sixth member. I really love the cheesy pop music from that period, but also grunge and the cyber-rave culture.

What's your favourite fashion relic from that era?

It’s Buffalos [platform trainers], but I also like that really bad braids and shell suits are coming back into fashion.

Has this soft spot for the ’90s left its mark on your album?

Yes. Even though my music doesn't really sound that ’90s. I think of The mixtape Super Ultra is out now; the debut album is due in February: www.charlixcxmusic.com

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my music as melancholic angel pop.

Did Coldplay singer Chris Martin give you career tips?

No, but he complimented me on my music. Actually, I gave him advice.

He has this cool dance step which he’d only do once during the show.

I said to him: “It’s really gangster, you should do that more!” I think he stopped doing it after that.

FOLLOW-UP: On January 29, a FIS World Cup race will take place in Luzhniki Park, the area around Russia’s largest stadium in the centre of Moscow.

LAUNCH PAD: The 16 best men and women on the World Cup starting list will battle it out in instantknockout rounds on a steel-frame piste 56m high.

RUG UP: Fans and competitors take heed: temperatures in Moscow can drop as low as a bone-chilling -40°C at this time of year.

THEY SAID IT...

“Walking at night is the best way to get ideas” JK Rowling, author

WHAT SUP?

Wellness January is the traditional month of detox.

Drinking the creamy, ice-cold Wellness is the equivalent of two yoga sessions and a weekend’s fasting. Probably. It certainly feels like it’s doing good on the way down, leading a trickle of refreshing wellbeing along your spine. Kombucha tea is said to help liver function, while the pineapple juice contains a performance-enhancing burst of vitamins and minerals. Honey and plain yoghurt deliver a natural energy kick. It certainly tastes delicious – which many things supposed to be good for you do not.

CLUB OF THE

WORDS: FLORIAN OBKIRCHER, ULRICH CORAZZA. PHOTOGRAPHY: IMAGO, CLUB ELEVEN (4), FOTOSTUDIO EISENHUT & MAYER

MONTH

CLUB ELEVEN B1F/B2F Thesaurus Nishiazabu 1-10-11 Nishiazabu, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0031 Japan www.go-to-eleven.com

CLUB

10/10 with a plus one Eleven Behind the giant neon lights of party neighbourhood Roppongi, you’ll find the hidden pearl of Tokyo’s nightlife

The club's name refers to…

The number of people working here when we opened the club. Also, we love the rock comedy film This Is Spinal Tap, and its legendary amps that “go up to 11”.

Oh, and our address is 1-10-11.

You will find us in…

Nishi-Azabu, not too far from the party district of Roppongi. It’s more of a residential area. The club is located

INGREDIENTS 80ml kombucha tea 40ml pineapple juice 50ml plain yoghurt crushed ice 2tsp honey optional garnish: edible flowers

METHOD Put the tea, juice, yoghurt and ice into a blender, then add the honey (it goes in last, otherwise it sticks to the bottom of the jug).

Blend until smooth.

Pour into a glass and garnish with flowers

a bit far from train stations and due to that, not too many kids come around. Eleven, rather, is for adults.

Our regulars are…

Not just party lovers, but dedicated lovers of music. A lot of our guests understand music very well.

The craziest night was…

At the club's opening. We had 1,500 people in – and that was on a weeknight. The DJ was Studio 54 house legend François K. Let's talk about the bathrooms for a moment, because…

We put in more women’s loos, so that the ladies don’t have to spend so long standing in line.

We usually start really going…

From one o’clock in the morning, when there are usually about 800 people already on the dancefloor.

Patrons can chill out in…

Our upstairs lounge, on sofas secretly located behind the stairs.

Interview: Yuko Ichikawa, owner

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DIAMOND VIBRATO GUITAR PEDAL “This is used with pretty much all of the guitars on Lonerism.

It wobbles the pitch and makes the guitar sound like a rickety little boat on the ocean. It’s a woozy sound that you’ll hear throughout the album, a kind of seasick vibe which gives the impression that the whole thing is about to fall over. It also made the bass sound like a hungry stomach, which was weird but cool.”

TAKE 3

‘Sounds like shooting lasers’ Tame Impala The Australian band rebooting the ’70s with psychedelic sounds far groovier than the originals. Kevin Parker, the band's leader, declassifies his secret studio weapons Tame Impala’s latest album, Lonerism, is a collection of songs blowing in on dreamy electronic breezes, thick with otherworldly orchestration.

Making a record like this requires a musical palette of many colours, and a lot of kit. The band’s lead singer and main songwriter, the multi-instrumentalist Kevin parker, painted his groovy psychedelic vistas in paris, recording most of the album there on his own, and indulging fully his love of vintage instruments and equipment. With total commitment to the music, something else had to give. “I had my whole studio freighted over from Australia,” he says. “So there I was, in this tiny apartment, unable to move for wires, instruments and production equipment. I was basically sleeping on the amps.” parker, a self-confessed guitar geek and effects wonk, will also tell you that his much-travelled gadgets are tools of discovery in a never-ending quest for new sonic experiences. “As long as there are undiscovered sounds, I’ll never stop searching and experimenting.” here, the chief Impala identifies the three most important pieces of equipment used in the making of the album.

Lonerism (Modular Recordings) is out now: ww.tameimpala.com

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SEQUENTIAL CIRCUITS PRO-ONE SYNTHESIZER “An analogue synth from the 1980s. I fell in love with it from the moment I first touched a key. It sounds like it’s shooting laser beams. A lot of the lead lines on the album are played on this. I never buy instruments specifically for a song, but this just seemed to fit perfectly on all of them.

I paid over the odds for it, though, after a bidding war on eBay. I couldn’t let it go.”

DBX 165A COMPRESSOR “Another gem from the 1980s.

This compressor makes the drums sound like bombs going off. It’s like Led Zeppelin’s John Bonham playing a hip-hop beat. Just a monstrous sound, like you’ve stuck a microphone up the backside of a drum kit.

The 165A is a sonic doomsday weapon. I don’t use it to control the volume; I set it tightly and aggressively, and that way, the drums become really urgent and immediate.”

NIGHT SNACK

Zanzibar Samosas In Stone Town, the heart of Zanzibar’s capital city, the favourite street food is an Indian import from over the sea MAKIng SAMOSA FIT The dough for samosas is a mix of wheat flour, water, salt and oil. It is rolled out into rectangular shapes, which are folded at the corners, filled and then folded again before being sealed and fried. The filling is usually vegetarian: potato and chickpea with onion, or a vegetable curry spiced with cumin and mixed herbs. The triangular patties are served piping hot and accompanied by chutneys.

Words: Nick Amies, Klaus kamholz. photography: getty images, dbx, diamond, pro-one, Fotostudio Eisenhut & Mayer

IN THE FORODHANI GARDENS When the sun goes down in the Forodhani Gardens, on the edge of Stone Town, the street traders set up food stalls. A ramble through the night market might not be as mouthwatering as expected, as you will see meat lying unrefrigerated on tables and pre-grilled fish waiting to be reheated before serving.

But the samosas are a safe bet, veggie or not, because they come out of the fat fresh and hot.

FIRST SAMOSAs, then party Kendwa Beach, an hour’s drive north of Stone Town, is one of Zanzibar’s most popular beaches.

Full-moon parties, which go on until dawn, are often held here.

Taxis and buses shuttle groups of postprandial people from the market to the edge of the Indian Ocean – across which the samosa has established itself as a staple on two continents.

a triangular world Samosas are also a central part of Goan cuisine. In parts of the Middle East and Africa, samosas are known as sambusas, and in Portuguese-influenced countries – from Mozambique to Brazil – they’re called chamuças and often filled with lamb or chicken.

SAMOSAS: A POLITICAL ISSUE That samosas are now widely enjoyed in Western culture has been viewed with suspicion by some. In 2011, an extreme Islamist rebel group controlling a small town north of Mogadishu, in Somalia, banned samosas, because their three-sided shape is also a Christian symbol representing the Holy Trinity.

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World In Action January/ February 2013

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Sport 11-27.01.2013, SPAIN

Handball World Championships The battle to be crowned the world’s best male handball team takes place every two years, with this year’s tournament staged in Spain.

The top 24 handball nations will clash over 76 matches, in six different cities, with the final held at the 16,500-seater Palau Sant Jordi Arena in Barcelona. The defending champions are France, who also won gold at the 2012 Olympic Games.

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FIS Men’s Skiing World Cup

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The Hahnenkamm races are a fixture on the World Cup tour watched by more than 100,000 spectators each year. The highlight of the weekend is the 3,313m downhill race on the Streif course, said to be the world’s most difficult. Anyone who wins goes down in history as a skiing great.

After the retirement of Didier Cuche of Switzerland, who took victory in the last five downhills, there’s been much speculation about who has what it takes to be the new champion.

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2 Aksel Lund Svindal battling with the Streif 24-27.01.2013, BUTTERMILK MOUNTAIN, ASPEN, USA

France’s men are the dominant force in handball

Winter X Games XVII

15-20.01.2013, MONACO

WRC Monte Carlo Rally First run in 1911, this is one of motorsport’s classic events, alongside the Le Mans 24 Hours and the Indianapolis 500. The weather has a big impact: if it’s dry, it makes bombing along the tarmac a pleasure; if it rains or snows, it’s diabolically slippery.

The highlight of the rally is the night stage over the Col de Turini, an Alpine pass littered with hairpin bends.

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The biggest stars of the freestyle skiing, snowboarding and snowmobile scenes consider an X Games medal a sufficiently enticing incentive to come up with daring new tricks. At last year’s event, Shaun White, who already had 11 golds, scored the maximum-possible 100 points with a perfect superpipe run in the final. In the Snowboard Big Air, Canada’s Mark McMorris and Torstein Horgmo of Norway both completed triple-corks (spins on three axes). McMorris pipped Horgmo to the gold.

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Tricky tarmac in the French Alps

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A blaze of colour at the Filipino Mardi Gras 17-27.01.2013, CHRISTCHURCH, NEW ZEALAND 13.01.2013, LOS ANGELES, USA

Golden Globes

The Golden Globes kicks off the awards season for the 70th year running. Presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the globe statuette is one of the industry’s highest-profile prizes and is a good gauge for who will win at the Academy Awards in February. One of this year’s award-winners is already known; Jodie Foster will be the fourth-youngest actress in history to be given a lifetime achievement award.

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03.02.2013, MERCEDES-BENZ SUPERDOME, NEW ORLEANS, USA

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Super Bowl XLVII

Last year, around 800 million people watched the New York Giants beat the New England Patriots 21-17 in Indianapolis – the largest TV audience for a one-day sporting event. New Orleans will be the venue for the 47th NFL final. It’s the 10th time the city has hosted the Super Bowl, tying with Miami for the most Super Bowls staged.

R&B star Beyoncé Knowles’ performance during the half-time show has been confirmed and, despite current economic problems, TV advertising records are expected to be broken, with each 30-second slot going for almost US$4 million.

PHOTOGRAPHY: DDPIMAGES, GETTY IMAGES (3), PICTUREDESK.COM (2)

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World Buskers Festival The best buskers in the world congregate every year at the World Buskers Festival, which in 2013 is celebrating it’s 20th anniversary. It features a line-up of old- and new-school street performers, including 30 international acts from nine different countries. Shows are staged both indoors and out, all over the city. As well as musicians, the festival showcases jugglers, mime-artists, stilt-walkers and stand-up comedians in Christchurch’s streets and parks. Last year, they entertained more than 300,000 people.

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09-10.02.2013, IVREA, ITALY

Storico Carnevale di Ivrea They do carnival somewhat differently in this small town near Turin, in northern Italy – by hurling oranges at each other. The tradition harks back to a popular uprising in the Middle Ages, when the citizens drove out an evil tyrant who ruled the town using a weapon good enough to eat. Back then, the people mostly fired beans at the passing carriages, but now it’s 4,000 oranges flying through the air at the annual Battle of Ivrea. Participants wear full-face helmets to prevent head injuries.

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Culture 09-12.01.2013, GRONINGEN, NETHERLANDS

Beyoncé: star of the Super Bowl half-time show 14-20.01.2013, KALIBO, PHILIPPINES

Eurosonic Noorderslag Ati-Atihan 8 Anyone who loves carnival, but finds Rio de When a band is asked to perform at Eurosonic, it’s a bit like a law student getting a place at Harvard, as only the very best newcomers are invited to Europe’s most important festival for up-and-coming talent. For fans, it means 300 live concerts in three days, along with presentations and conferences on the future of pop music. An absolute must this year will be the concert by British band Chvrches, whose dreamy synthesizer pop is already being touted as one of the musical highlights of 2013.

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Janeiro too crowded and touristy, should book themselves a flight to the island of Panay in the Philippines. The small town of Kalibo really comes into its own during the second week of January, with costumes, loud music, parades and parties. For hundreds of years, the island’s various indigenous peoples have come together at this Filipino Mardi Gras to pay homage to the Santo Niño, the Child Jesus, and compete with each other as to who can wear the most colourful traditional costume.

Low-flying vitamin C bombs in Ivrea

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Save The Date

January & February 2013 JANUARY 19 & 20

Touré tour Malian guitarist and singer Vieux Farka Touré returns to South Africa for two gigs as part of his 2012/13 world tour. Vieux was last here to perform at the opening ceremony of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Since then, his third studio album, The Secret, and The Tel Aviv Session album, with Israeli pianist and singer Idan Raichel, has made the Vieux a bona-fide world music superstar. He plays Joburg and Durban. www.vieuxfarkatoure.com

FEBRUARY 9-10

Running Eagle Afriski – currently the only ski resort in Southern Africa – is set to host a new trail event this year.

The 51km Soaring Eagle Trail Run can be tackled in one of two ways: in one go, or over two days, 28km on the Saturday and 23km the next day. The kicker here is the altitude, with the race taking place at around 2,000m in the Maluti mountains. www.afriski.net

DJs/multi-instrumentalists Goldfish at the first CTEMF FEBRUARY 12-17

Electronic tonic After an acclaimed inaugural event last year, the Cape Town Electronic Music Festival is back. At the time of writing, the organisers were still confirming the line-up, but they assure us that all the broad genres of electronic music will once again be covered. At the launch event in 2012, festivalgoers enjoyed three days of house, techno, hip-hop, dubstep and electronica, and more of the same is promised this year. The venue remains the V&A Waterfront and, like last year, there will also be two days of music workshops. These are open to the public and will cover all aspects of the business, specialising in the electronic genre. www.ctemf.com

FEBRUARY 23

SA’s premier motor racing competition may have lost its big-name sponsor, but the Super Series will still go ahead in 2013 with a nine-round season that starts on the testing Kyalami track. All the big guns will be there: Bridgestone Production Cars (below), Formula Volkswagen single-seaters, V8 Supercars, Shelby Can-Ams, the VW Polos of the Engen Volkswagen Cup, and the 600cc Supersport and 1,000cc Superbikes. www.motorsport.co.za

JANUARY 31 –FEBRUARY 4

No paddle, no worries Having a multi-stage music festival with loads of bands playing is great – until you realise half the acts you want to catch are playing at the same time as all the other bands you like.

The cool thing about Up The Creek is that, while there might be three stages, music is only playing on one at any given time, so you don’t have to miss a thing. Unless you’re chilling out in the water, that is: the UTC is held on the Breede River just outside Swellendam, making the event one of the coolest SA summer festival experiences. www.upthecreek.co.za

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Rock out then chill out at Up The Creek fest

WORDS: STEVE SMITH. PHOTOGRAPHY: ROWAN PYBUS, ACTION IMAGES, UP THE CREEK

Day of thunder

illustration: dietmar kainrath

K a i n r at h

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here are few better ways to get on the wrong side of professional sportsmen and women than to ask them when they might think it would be a good time to call an end to their careers. The avalanche of age, the encroachment of faltering faculties and form, the shove in the small of the back from the new generation of stars, and the inevitability of an end that is nigh; these are not subjects easily broached nor welcomed. Well, by most, that is.

There are some who would be glad to retire, who have planned for a future in the hereafter that is regular life. But there are others who have not, who quite like playing Peter Pan – being forever young. That’s me, too. I’m a Peter Pan. I’m living the Peter Pan life. I go to work in shorts and T-shirts. For over a decade I’ve been available to travel anywhere at the drop of an airline ticket, ready to do anything to see something new, smell the air coming off a new shore, taste the local beer in a bar (I can say “large beer” in every single language – I point to the beer tap and a large glass at the same time) and stadiums are my offices.

I live a life less ordinary and it fits me well. Mostly. Sometimes I wonder about giving it all up, I ponder whether my time doing this might come to an end.

A few years ago, the mother of an international cricket player asked me if I liked what I did. I told her I did. She then asked me if I had ever thought about doing anything else. I looked at my shorts and T-shirt, the large beer in front of me in a bar in a club I was not a member of, but was allowed access to because of what I did for a living.

“It doesn’t seem too bad from here,” I laughed. But I’ve often thought about her questions. Do sports writers, any writers, for that matter, have a time limit? Will there come a point when we sit back, having hit ‘send’ on a piece we know is perhaps our best work ever and say: “That’s it. It’s time to retire now.”

Mind’s Eye

He Had A Good Innings Kevin McCallum ponders retirement, remembers Björn Borg, and picks up his pen

Should we, too, go out at the top? What of CEOs who make record profits? Social media network founders who have their companies valued in the billions? When should they step away. When do we know it’s time to say goodbye?

In 2011, Graeme Smith, the captain of the South African cricket team, asked me that very question. It was after the Cricket World Cup and he was in a dark yet happy place. His team had just been knocked out of the tournament by New Zealand in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He’d not returned home to give the grieving, seething angry masses their pound of flesh, and had been accused of running away. That was unfair considering he’d been the one to front up to all the media in Dhaka, taking the heat for his team

and their coach, Corrie van Zyl, but he realised it was a PR nightmare, one that he eventually had to face up to.

He’d gone to Ireland with his girlfriend, Morgan Deane. He proposed to her, getting the family’s permission.

He had time to think, and during that time in Cork he wondered if it was time to give up the captaincy of South Africa.

He asked me what I thought. My reply was simple: if you’re not enjoying being captain, then you won’t be good at it. As soon as the joy of doing something that is hard really well wanes, then it is time to give it up, for you will be letting not only yourself down, but those around you.

Gary Kirsten, the new coach of South Africa, convinced him to stay on. He sensed he had much, much more to offer.

However, some do not, and it can be truly sad to watch as the pace of the game to which they were once so attuned leaves them running to stand still. Take that sadness, add a few adjectives, analysis and some hard truth, and you have the makings of the sort of article from sports writers that hurts. Although, we do get it wrong. Last year, a senior cricket writer suggested that Jacques Kallis was finished and should call it a day. The big man keeps rolling on.

I admire those who go out at the top. It takes bravery and a rare selfawareness. Björn Borg (that silly ‘return’ in the 1990s excepted), Annika Sörenstam, Alain Prost, Lou Gehrig, Andre Agassi, Steffi Graf, Victoria Pendleton, Muhammad Ali and John Elway all realised their time had come.

There might have been more to come, but the enjoyment wasn’t what it once was. It was time to say goodbye, to leave us with memories, which is why I’m not ready to say goodbye yet. I need to keep writing about those memories, to remind us all of how great we can truly be.

Kevin McCallum is an award-winning sports journalist and acclaimed columnist for the Independent Newspapers group

The Red Bulletin South Africa, ISSN 2079-4282: The Red Bulletin is published by Red Bull Media House GmbH Editor-in-Chief Robert Sperl Deputy Editor-in-Chief Alexander Macheck General Manager Wolfgang Winter Publisher Franz Renkin UK & Ireland Editor Paul Wilson Contributing Editor Stefan Wagner Editor, South Africa Steve Smith Chief Sub-editor Nancy James Deputy Chief Sub-editor Joe Curran Production Editor Marion Wildmann Chief Photo Editor Fritz Schuster Deputy Photo Editors Ellen Haas, Catherine Shaw, Rudolf Übelhör Creative Director Erik Turek Art Director Kasimir Reimann Design Martina de Carvalho-Hutter, Silvia Druml, Miles English, Kevin Goll, Peter Jaunig, Carita Najewitz Staff Writers Ulrich Corazza, Werner Jessner, Ruth Morgan, Florian Obkircher, Arkadiusz Piatek, Andreas Rottenschlager Corporate Publishing Boro Petric (head), Christoph Rietner (chief-editor); Dominik Uhl (art director); Markus Kucera (photo director); Lisa Blazek (editor); Christian Graf-Simpson, Daniel Kudernatsch (App) Head of Production Michael Bergmeister Production Wolfgang Stecher (mgr), Walter Sádaba Repro Managers Clemens Ragotzky (head), Karsten Lehmann, Josef Mühlbacher Finance Siegmar Hofstetter, Simone Mihalits Marketing & Country Management Barbara Kaiser (head), Stefan Ebner, Johanna Jenewei, Elisabeth Salcher, Lukas Scharmbacher, Peter Schiffer, Julia Schweikhardt, Sara Varming Advertising enquiries Deirdre Hughes +35 (0) 3 86 2488504. The Red Bulletin is published in Austria, France, Germany, Ireland, Kuwait, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa, Switzerland, the UK and the USA. Website www.redbulletin.com Head office: Red Bull Media House GmbH, OberstLepperdinger-Strasse 11-15, A-5071 Wals bei Salzburg, FN 297115i, Landesgericht Salzburg, ATU63611700. UK office: 155-171 Tooley Street, London SE1 2JP, +44 (0) 20 3117 2100. Austrian office: HeinrichCollin-Strasse 1, A-1140 Vienna, +43 (1) 90221 28800. Printed by CTP Printers, Duminy Street, Parow-East, Cape Town 8000. Advertising enquiries Anthony Fenton-Wells, +27 (0)82 464 6376, or email anthony@tfwcc.net Write to us: email letters@redbulletin.com

The next issue of the Red Bulletin is out on february 5 98

Illustration: Albert Exergian

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