The Red Bulletin US 03/21

BEYOND THE ORDINARY

U.S. EDITION MARCH 2021, $5.99

BEYOND THE ORDINARY

ABOVE BEYOND AND

How 76ers defensive specialist MATISSE THYBULLE is raising his game—and his voice—to make a difference in Philadelphia

THE RED BULLETIN 03/2021

SUBSCRIBE

NOW D E TA I L S

INSIDE

Control Dials The tension throughout the support cables in each leg is adjusted by two dials incorporated directly into the waistband; adjust the support level on demand for any activity or instability.

RepreveÂŽ Fabric The K1 is constructed using a custom-designed RepreveÂŽ yarn. This environmentally conscious fiber is made from plastic bottles and then knitted into a breathable and high-stretch fabric.

Integrated Support Cables Cables are integrated seamlessly into the K1’s fabric, mimicking the natural support of your muscles and ligaments. The result is anatomically correct joint support that moves with your body throughout your entire range of motion. This makes it the most comfortable joint support product on the market.

THE FUTURE OF KNEE SUPPORT

All the support of a traditional knee brace within the comfort of a compression tight.

STOKODESIGN.COM

EDITOR’S NOTE

A WHOLE NEW BALL GAME Basketball is sublime for a bunch of reasons. One of them is how the sport is surrounded and vitalized by a sophisticated culture that intersects with style, politics, music, social justice and other important elements of modern life. This duality—the synergy between sports and existential matters—is on display in our cover story, “The Disruptor” (page 22), which examines how Matisse Thybulle, a second-year pro with the 76ers, is making a big impact in Philadelphia both on and off the court.

CONTRIBUTORS THIS ISSUE

ALEX BHATTACHARJI

“I’ve always been fascinated by people like Chris Matthews who know how to make the elite even better,” says the Los Angelesbased writer, whose work has appeared in Esquire, WSJ and Rolling Stone. “He calls his approach the Art of Shooting, but it’s clear he is scientific.” Page 32

GAVIN BOND

The British photographer was surprised by the chaos of the Mint 400. “It was three dusty days I won’t forget,” says Bond, who has shot covers for Rolling Stone and GQ. “It was my last shoot before the pandemic hit. Wearing a mask to avoid inhaling dust didn’t really prepare me for 2020.” Page 70

With the Philadelphia skyline looming in the background, photographer Michael Muller works with 76ers guard Matisse Thybulle to set up our cover image.

04

JEN SEE

“During 2020, COVID required us all to be uniquely flexible in our lives,” says the Santa Barbarabased writer, author of our feature on elite home gyms. “It was inspiring to see how top athletes adapted to the pandemic and created their own unique spaces to stay fit and focused.” Page 38 THE RED BULLETIN

MICHAEL MULLER (COVER)

The beauty of hoops culture is also explored in “Lethal Weapon” (page 32), a profile of Chris Matthews, the world’s most in-demand shooting coach. Working with top pros and music and Hollywood stars, the man called Lethal Shooter is a pop-culture phenomenon and an expert helping elite athletes elevate their craft. Both stories underscore how basketball is bigger than just a game.

Copyright © 2020 MNA, Inc. All rights reserved.

TH E TR AC K D O ES N ’ T MAKE ITS E L F FAM O U S .

WHAT AR E YO U BU I L D I N G F O R ?

150 years of engineering progress. Check it out at www.BFGoodrichTires.com/150years .

CONTENTS March

FEATURES

2 2 The Disruptor

Matisse Thybulle is making his name as an NBA defensive specialist and an unexpectedly impactful content creator.

3 2 Lethal Weapon

How Chris Matthews—aka Lethal Shooter—became the most in-demand shooting coach pro hoops has ever seen.

3 8 Homeward Found

Five world-class athletes share how they utilized their homes as beacons of fitness during the ongoing pandemic.

4 8 Powder Keg

Chilean photographer Jean Louis de Heeckeren shares stunning images of the volcanic mountains of his homeland.

6 0 Continental Drift

Selema Masekela explains why it’s time for Africa to slide into the surfing spotlight with an inside look at his new book.

7 0 Time to Rally

The Mint 400 was one of the last motorsports events held before

lockdown last March. Now this desert rally is revving up again.

60 MAKING WAVES

The new book Afrosurf celebrates Africa’s overlooked culture and surfers like Senegalese pro Chérif Fall (right).

06

THE RED BULLETIN

22

RECORDING HISTORY Thybulle documented his experience inside the NBA bubble through a popular vlog that also captured players’ discussions to help lead social justice efforts.

THE

DEPARTURE

Taking You to New Heights

9 A journey from homeless youth to pro snowboarder 12 How gratitude saved the

life of a former freeski pro

14 Skateboarding in the

snowy forests of Vermont

16 Taking the plunge in a Romanian salt mine 18 An innovative smart guitar that (almost) plays itself 19 The Rig: A game-changing

adventure wheelchair

20 QOTSA frontman Josh Homme shares top tunes

GUIDE

Get it. Do it. See it.

81 Travel: Backcountry skiing at three powdery paradises 84 Training tips from snocross pro Nick Lorenz

86 Dates for your calendar 88 The best new fitness gear 96 The Red Bulletin worldwide

MICHAEL MULLER, NICOLE SWEET, JEAN LOUIS DE HEECKEREN

98 Skydiving in Norway

48 ALL-TIME HIGH

Stretching 4,300 miles, the vast terrain of the Andes holds a bounty of spectacular descents.

THE RED BULLETIN

07

LIFE

&

STYLE

BEYOND

THE

ORDINARY

CHRIS SEGAL

THE

“I KNOW I’M A UNICORN”

Behold Ryan Hudson’s amazing journey—from homeless youth to pro snowboarder.

THE RED BULLETIN

Hudson rips through deep powder at Snowbird, his home resort in Utah.

09

J

ackson, Wyoming, is 1,000 miles and 10 light-years from where Ryan Hudson grew up.

Hudson, a professional freeride snowboarder, is visiting the mountain town in late December to carve turns on the notorious steeps at Jackson Hole and work on a yet-to-be-announced video project. “I feel such a strong connection to the mountains,” says Hudson, 31. “When I plug into the mountains it feels like all the negative energy I’ve had all day just disappears.”

This sounds like a universal expression of the majesty of the outdoors from an elite mountain athlete, but Hudson’s path to enlightenment is far from universal. Fittingly, he’s coined a hashtag, #Streets2Peaks, that distills his journey and his mantra.

To be blunt, Hudson did not have a childhood like most pro snowboarders. The first 14 years of his life—living in San Diego with his mother and four siblings—often were defined by homelessness and instability. When he was 15 he secured legal emancipation from his mom and enrolled at the Toussaint Academy, a housing and education center for at-risk and homeless teens.

The trajectory of Hudson’s life changed one day in 2004 when he went on a trip, organized by the center and a nonprofit called Outdoor Outreach, to visit a ski resort

10

in the San Bernardino Mountains. “There aren’t a lot of words to express the reality of being in the mountains and feeling snow for the first time,” he recalls. “The air and the clouds and the people were different. I suddenly felt part of a community that was different. I felt like I was in love. I got out of the van and jumped into a pile of snow.”

There would be more mountains of snow in his future. Already a gifted skateboarder, Hudson picked up snowboarding quickly, and the combination of his verve and his backstory got him lots of attention. Life changed rapidly. At 19 he was living at Utah’s Snowbird Resort and riding 100 days a year; a year later he became an ambassador for The North Face; and at 21 he was competing as a sponsored athlete. Quite literally, he’d gone from streets to peaks.

But bigger peaks were in his future. At the 2012 winter Outdoor Retailer trade show in Salt Lake City, Hudson met mountaineering icon Conrad Anker, who had summitted Everest three times. Impressed

by Hudson, Anker invited him to join a 2013 expedition to climb Mount McKinley in Alaska, the 20,310-foot beast widely known as Denali. The team was led by Anker, noted mountaineer Phil Henderson and acclaimed writer and climber Jon Krakauer.

Even now, Hudson can visualize glimpsing the summit—and never reaching it. He and Krakauer had pushed on alone and were bonding— Hudson was feeling strong and sharing the story of his climb from shelters to brand ambassadorship without a clue that he was chatting with the author of Into Thin Air. “We were 200 feet from the summit, and I was about to tear up because Jon and I were

having our bro moment,” Hudson recalls. “But Jon turns around and says, ‘This is great, but we’ve got to get out of here.’ Suddenly the clouds turned black and there were 60-mile-per-hour winds.”

The situation went from bad to worse as they descended to meet the rest of their group.

Lightning began pounding the mountain. The air and their gear bristled with electricity.

“Conrad took command,” Hudson says. “For 10 minutes we laid face down in the snow.

It went from one of the best moments in my life to one of the most terrifying moments.”

The lessons Hudson learned high on Denali—that the mountains are more than a playground; how skills can save your ass at high elevations— increased his attraction to the mountains. “I had this feeling that I really was in my element up there,” he says.

“That felt more like home than the streets I grew up on.”

A lot has transpired in the years since that climb—more triumphs and skills; a longterm move to Utah; and topshelf sponsors like Jones Snowboards, Smith, Vans and Discrete Clothing. And there have been times, especially in 2020, of instability. “No doubt, I’ve had financial challenges this year,” Hudson says. “But I’m OK. I’m used to not having a lot of stability.”

Still, Hudson’s commitment to #Streets2Peaks has not wavered. “I come from nothing and I am addicted to the mountains,” he says.

“There is no plan B.” To make plan A succeed, he’s focusing on his backcountry education: working on his avalanche certification and riding as much as he can in the Wasatch backcountry. He’s been invited to be filmed in Jeremy Jones’ next film, a sequel to Ode to Muir that will feature pros showing their backcountry THE RED BULLETIN

AUBREY PETERSON, CHRIS SEGAL

T H E D E PA RT U R E

Hudson has been invited to be filmed in Jeremy Jones’ next film, a sequel to Ode to Muir.

“EVERY DAY I THINK ABOUT HOW THE MOUNTAINS MOVE ME.” chops in the remote wilds of California’s Southern Sierra.

Hudson has some longerterm plans, too, which include a push toward financial stability as well as a second chance at Denali’s summit. “I have to go back and conquer that thing,” he says simply.

As our call winds down, the conversation turns to race.

It’s a tough topic for Hudson— his Black experience is part of THE RED BULLETIN

where he comes from and has defined many of his struggles in life and sport and his own advocacy, but he wishes he could just enjoy his time in the mountains without peering through the lens of race. “I know I’m a unicorn and every day something reminds me of that,” he says. “I’ve had an endless number of interactions making note of the whiteness of this sport, and eyeballs are

on me all the time. There’s almost like a cultural misunderstanding of who is allowed to do these things.”

In the end, Hudson is committed to his own journey and to blazing a trail for future wintry unicorns. “Every day I think about how the mountains move me,” he says.

“This is not some exclusive thing—we all belong here.”

—Peter Flax 11

T H E D E PA RT U R E

After a 2013 ski accident, Shaw, 34, has built a career as a coach and motivational speaker.

#TeamCoast2Coast

RISING TO THE CHALLENGE

From wheelchair to 10K: Former freeski pro Mike Shaw says gratitude saved his life. Now he wants to run across Canada with 1,000 fellow athletes.

O

ne year, four months, 17 days.

That’s the time that passed between Mike Shaw being told he’d never walk again and him taking part in a running event. In December 2013, the Canadian freestyle ski coach had a ski accident that left him paralyzed from the neck down. Instead of letting the doctor’s diagnosis

12

crush his spirit, he started intensive training almost immediately after his surgery.

Three months later he walked out of the hospital. Then, 16 months later, he participated in the Wings for Life World Run—and, incredibly, managed to run 10K. The global event, organized by the charity foundation of the same name, is particularly close to

Shaw’s heart, as 100 percent of the sign-up fee goes into spinal cord research. “There is no cure yet,” says the 34-year-old.

“Really, I got lucky, but it’s still part of my life. I still can’t fully feel my legs and hands—I lose my balance 50 times a day.” In order to get others motivated for the Wings for Life World Run, the British Columbian started #TeamCoast2Coast, a THE RED BULLETIN

countrywide initiative to get participants to virtually cross Canada together. Here the motivational speaker and book author talks about the power of community and how gratitude is the antidote to misery. the red bulletin: After the surgery, the doctors said you’d never be able to walk again. What made you disagree with their professional opinion? mike shaw: I’m a real optimist. If things aren’t working out at the moment, it just means they’re not finished yet. Skiing’s very nature taught me to bounce back. To progress, you have to crash

ROYCE SIHLIS

FLORIAN OBKIRCHER

“I DECIDED TO FOCUS ON THE GIFTS, NOT THE GAPS,” SHAW SAYS.

Shaw is building awareness for spinal cord research through a virtual running community in Canada.

THE RED BULLETIN

and pick yourself back up. You get to the top of the run again and hit the jump one more time. It’s the mindset I’ve cultivated over time.

In your book, Never Part of the Plan, you say gratitude got you through the toughest times. Can you elaborate?

A few weeks after the accident I fell into a really dark place. I was getting wild spasms; I was in a lot of pain. There were times I just felt like giving up.

Then I learned to use gratitude as a tool, and it was mindblowing. I decided to focus on the gifts, not the gaps. Being thankful might seem counterintuitive when things are gloomy. But that’s when the power of gratitude is the most significant. In the hospital I didn’t have to look far to see someone who was worse off than me. It’s about reframing, changing your perspective. When you’re dealing with a sense of uncertainty and you feel stuck, try to be grateful, even for things that seem obvious. Trust that when one door closes, four doors will open. And they all open to a balcony with an ocean view. It ramped up my progress immensely.

In 2017, you started #TeamCoast2Coast, a Wings for Life World Run community with big ambitions. How did that come about?

I told my friend Jim Mullan, who lives in Halifax and is also quadriplegic, about the Wings for Life World Run. He said, “How cool would it be if we could get enough people together to virtually run the distance from Vancouver to Halifax, coast to coast, 5,500 km across Canada?’ It was a month before the event, but we went online and managed to recruit 100 people for #TeamCoast2Coast. The next year we got a bunch of Wings for Life ambassadors to support us and activate their networks, and by 2019 we had just over 900 registered runners doing nine organized

“I got lucky,” Shaw says of his injury. “But it’s still a part of my life.

I lose my balance 50 times a day.”

app runs across the country. In the end, we were only 100 km shy of our goal. This year we want to get to 1,000 runners and smash it!

Would you encourage people to follow this example?

For sure! Teaming up and setting a communal goal is extremely motivating—and people are already doing that.

It’s so inspiring to see people starting teams with friends and family all over the world, running apart yet united via the app. Being part of this global community and seeing the heart that people bring to the event, it’s powerful.

You run together for those who can’t, and the only person you try to beat is yourself.

WINGS FOR LIFE WORLD RUN WHAT IS IT? A race involving thousands of people around the world all starting at exactly the same time. You run as far as you can until a (virtual) Catcher Car passes you.

WHEN IS IT? The next edition will take place on May 9. You can take part either via the app (on your own), together with friends or at an Organized App Run. If the prevailing conditions allow, you can also participate at one of 12 global Flagship Runs.

Sign up and start your own team at wingsforlifeworldrun.com

13

T H E D E PA RT U R E

Burlington, Vermont

TREE SPIRIT

PETER CIRILLI/RED BULL ILLUME

Have you ever looked at an atmospheric image of a frozen landscape and thought it was lacking that certain something? Like, say, a dude on a skateboard? That was photographer Peter Cirilli’s motivation for shooting this picture of skater Levi Glenney in their local forest. “I took a similar photo the year before, but with no action, just as a landscape,” says Cirilli, “and I couldn’t help but think how much better it would look with someone on a snowboard or a skateboard. I really wanted a skateboard, because I felt the contrast from season to sport would help catch the viewer’s eye.” cirilliphoto.com

15

Turda, Romania

DEEP DIVE A former salt mine turned tourist attraction, Romania’s Salina Turda is a subterranean wonderland with structures that glow like mutant sea anemones in the gloom. But Red Bull Cliff Diving ace Rhiannan Iffland was only here for the lake, 360 feet below ground.

“We ticked a ‘world’s first’ box: the firstever underground dive into a salt mine,” says the Australian of her October 2020 plunge, captured here by Joerg Mitter.

“The water is 17 percent more dense than seawater, so the impact is different. It pushes you straight up to the surface.”

Instagram: @rhiannan_iffland; joergmitter.com

JOERG MITTER/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

T H E D E PA RT U R E

  17

REVOLUTION IN MUSIC Without the electric guitar, there would be no rock ’n’ roll.

And now this innovative axe is changing the tune once again.

T

he history of musical instruments is one of great invention.

From the piano, which evolved from the harpsichord around 1700, to the first electric guitar—built in the 1930s— the instruments we now see as commonplace were all considered subversive and revolutionary in the beginning.

Now London-based inventor and designer Anthony Dickens is testing the limits

Motor-driven disc with 128 magnetic slots for picks

18

The player can mute strings manually as they’re struck by the picks

The signal from each string can be processed differently thanks to a hexaphonic pickup

Six buttons to produce notes or chords

again with his Circle Guitar, a self-picking instrument with an electric motor that can play chords at speeds of up to 250 bpm—faster than a human and with more precision.

Dickens, 45, says he wanted to explore the “sonic possibilities” of redesigning this iconic instrument and the way it is played, to create new sounds and even new genres of music. “I’m interested in taking traditional instruments and using mechanical interventions to change or augment what you’d normally do,” he says. “If you look at any classic instrument, they’re all designed around the ergonomics of the human body. But altering that might take the playing of that instrument into a new realm.”

While the neck of the Circle Guitar retains a familiar look, the body features a mechanical “step sequencer” disc that spins beneath the strings and is “programmed” by the player with interchangeable picks to produce different melodies and rhythms. “Initially, people think it’s just a self-strumming guitar and your right hand doesn’t have to do anything, but that’s not the case. What the right hand does now is make two-handed chords, vary the harmonics or mute the strings. You get the precision of techno or house with the lovely, imperfect sound of a string that is different each time it’s plucked.”

The instrument has already been tested by Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien, and Muse maestro Matt Bellamy is in talks to produce it commercially.

“A lot of traditional musicians hate [the guitar],” Dickens says. “It’s interesting how a lot of those people love the music from the past and have a fixed idea of what instruments should sound like. A lot of their heroes were agitators in their time. When music progresses, it’s never initially accepted.”

THE RED BULLETIN

ANTHONY DICKENS

Circle Guitar

LOU BOYD

T H E D E PA RT U R E

T H E D E PA RT U R E

Ready to roam: Cambry and (inset) Zack Nelson with his liberating invention.

The Rig

LOVE MACHINE

Zack Nelson built an off-road wheelchair so his wife could go on adventures. Now they’re selling them to people all over the world.

I

LOU BOYD

t might look like a customized dune buggy, but the all-terrain vehicle pictured above serves a vital purpose. This adventure wheelchair, named the Rig, was built by Zack Nelson for his wife, Cambry—who is paralyzed from the waist down—so they could explore the great outdoors together.

Cambry, a former equestrian vaulter, broke her back in 2005 during a bad dismount, leaving her unable to walk again. For many years, Cambry believed her disability would prevent her from ever finding a partner, but then, in

THE RED BULLETIN

2018, she met Zack. She could tell from the start that he wasn’t a typical date—the Utah-based DIY enthusiast runs his own YouTube channel, JerryRigEverything, where he takes products apart and customizes them for his 6-million-plus subscribers. It didn’t take long for Zack to turn his engineering eye to her chair.

“I think it’s safe to say Zack was thinking about this from our first date,” says Cambry. “I remember him looking around the dining table at my wheels and thinking, ‘What upgrades could we do to that?’ ”

In reality, he was trying to find a way to help Cambry get back on the trails she loves to explore. “I looked into outdoor wheelchairs, but they were $15,000,” he says, “and when you’ve just started dating someone, you’re not quite ready to drop that amount of money. Then I realized I could take two electric bikes, splice them together and make my own version.”

The result of Zack’s experiment is much more than that. The Rig features a sturdy aluminum frame, a detachable bumper and 4-inch-wide offroad bike tires that can drive over forest floors, gravel and even packed snow. And with a top speed of more than 12 mph and a maximum battery range of 35 miles, it can keep pace on a bike ride.

“I just took off on it and there was no resistance,” says Cambry. “I was like, ‘OK, we can really go places now.’ ” The pair got married in September 2019, with a ring Zack had forged from the titanium of Cambry’s first wheelchair.

Zack has now started to produce the Rig commercially, keeping the price down to $4,750—the cost of Cambry’s original vehicle. “In the U.S., if something goes through medical insurance it’s marked up a ton,” says Zack. “Ours is not a medical device, and it’s mostly made from bike parts that are already mass produced.”

At that price point, the Rig won’t make the Nelsons any profit; instead, the aim of this passion project is to give others the freedom Cambry now enjoys. “It’s only been sent out to a few people so far,” she says, “but the coolest thing for me is the look on people’s faces when they receive it; that feeling of being overwhelmed by all the places they can go.

It opens so many doors.” notawheelchair.com 19

T H E D E PA RT U R E

Playlist

“JUDAS PRIEST IS BETTER THAN SEX” Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme shares his essential soundtrack for motorbiking on the open road— or in heavy L.A. traffic.

W

20

JUDAS PRIEST “BREAKING THE LAW” (1980) “I never really understood Judas Priest until I started riding motorcycles. Listening to this song on a motorbike is like a gift from above. Seriously, driving through the city with this song on, wearing a helmet so no one has a clue who you are, is just wonderful. One of the best things ever. Probably even better than sex.”

CHEAP TRICK “SURRENDER” (1978) “On the Harley I can listen to my favorite music—like the first three albums by Cheap Trick.

They’re so fucking good, and I’m like, ‘Yes and yes—and go!’ They are flawless from start to finish.

Especially this song and [1977 single] ‘Southern Girls’—that one was written to be played on a bike while making your way through traffic. Put it on and let’s go!”

DEAN MARTIN “MAMBO ITALIANO” (1969) “I love listening to Dean Martin on my bike, because I don’t think anyone does that. It’s a special thing when you know you’re doing something that is not done often. ‘Mambo Italiano’ turned up to 20 on a motorcycle is the tits, as they say. You can hear Dean smiling as he’s singing— that is so special. I mean, talk about bringing joy to the world.”

THE RED BULLETIN

ANDREAS NEUMANN

AC/DC “DIRTY DEEDS DONE DIRT CHEAP” (1976) “You haven’t lived until you have driven down Hollywood Boulevard [playing] this so loud that you’re freaking people out, you know? From the reactions of people on the street, you know who you would hang out with.

You know exactly who you would be friends with. It’s definitely like a calling card.”

MARCEL ANDERS

hen rock titans Queens of the Stone Age take time off—as they are doing right now—main man Josh Homme likes to rev up his beloved motorcycle collection, which includes a museumpiece Falcon, an Exile chopper and a Harley with giant speakers. The 47-yearold calls the two-hour ride between his Palm Desert home and Burbank studio his “meditation”—the best way to clear his head, get inspired and get loose.

Standing 6 feet 4 inches tall in his leather jacket, biker boots, steel helmet and dark sunglasses, Homme is a hellraiser not to be messed with.

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

Get a GEICO quote for your bike and, in just 15 minutes, you’ll know how much you could be saving. If you like what you hear, you can buy your policy right on the spot. Then let us do the rest while you enjoy your free time with peace of mind. geico.com/cycle | 1-800-442-9253

Some discounts, coverages, payment plans, and features are not available in all states, in all GEICO companies, or in all situations. Motorcycle and ATV coverages are underwritten by GEICO Indemnity Company. GEICO is a registered service mark of Government Employees Insurance Company, Washington, DC 20076; a Berkshire Hathaway Inc. subsidiary. Š 2021 GEICO

“My rookie season was far from normal,” admits Thybulle, who was photographed in Philadelphia on October 23, 2020.

22

THE DISRUPTOR

Matisse Thybulle is an up-and-coming force in the NBA, making his name as a tenacious defensive specialist and unexpectedly impactful content creator.

Words PETER FLAX  Photography MICHAEL MULLER

D

efense wins championships. It’s a maxim that has been stated and restated by legends like Michael Jordan and Bear Bryant. When it comes to hoops, rimshaking dunks and 30-foot 3-pointers may get you on SportsCenter, but it’s ultimately hard to win if you can’t stop your opponent. To be truly great at defense—especially at the highest level of sport like the National Basketball Association—one must be selfless, vigilant, relentless, adaptive.

These are things that Matisse Thybulle understands but infrequently discusses.

This, perhaps, is part of the code of being a defensive specialist in the NBA—to quietly take care of business without a ton of grandstanding. “Defense isn’t something people focus on,” says Thybulle, 23, who counts Kemba Walker and Kawhi Leonard, both four-time AllStars, as the toughest assignments he’s had so far. “There’s a reason there are not 24

so many people doing it. It’s hard work.

It’s not sexy and you’re only noticed when you don’t do your job. But I’ve always embraced it.”

Thybulle, a second-year pro with the Philadelphia 76ers, earned some welldeserved national attention in 2020 for his tenacious D—and for the way he leveraged his voice and his platform and his creative talents. “My rookie season was far from normal,” he laughs. “I’m happy for the success I had on the court and the little success off the court. I experienced a lot in one year.”

Kicking back at home in Philadelphia, Thybulle is reflecting on the past, present and future on a phone call on a midDecember afternoon. The Sixers played their first preseason game—against the Boston Celtics, who knocked Philadelphia out of the playoffs earlier in the year— the night before. Unlike the abbreviated but successful 2019-20 NBA season,

which famously took place in a bubble in Orlando, Florida, the 2020-21 season is set to unfold with games in NBA cities.

So, in a sense, Thybulle just played his first semi-conventional NBA game in ages—on the hardwood of the Wells Fargo Arena, the Sixers’ home court.

“Life is almost normal,” he says. “It’s close. We’re playing basketball like we normally do, but it’s happening so fast.

It’s been hard because we are expected to play at a certain level.”

The night before, Thybulle got his minutes against Boston and made all his stops and the Sixers won, 108-99.

There’s a new coach—Doc Rivers, who led the Celtics to an NBA championship in 2008—and half his teammates are new. “I like to keep things as simple as possible,” he says. “Last year it was to make a name for myself and establish myself. This year I want to continue to grow my role.”

THE RED BULLETIN

“Defense isn’t something people focus on. It’s hard work. It’s not sexy.

But I’ve always embraced it.”

Thybulle may be a defensive specialist but he’s hardly afraid to take it to the rim if given an open lane.

“I didn’t know that this dream—to play in the NBA—would be a reality until pretty late.”

F

or a long time, Thybulle did not seem destined to be a professional basketball player. Though he was born in Arizona, he spent most of the first decade of his life in Australia, where he was more interested in swimming than hoops. His family moved back to the States in 2005 and settled in a suburb of Seattle. There, Thybulle says, his love for the game increased. “I liked playing with my friends in middle school, but I really wasn’t that good at it,” he admits. He had size and was as athletic as hell, but he couldn’t consistently make layups until he was in 8th grade. “Basketball was 26

always something I loved but I never thought I was good enough to play at a higher level. I didn’t know that this dream—to play in the NBA— would be a reality until pretty late.”

Things began to change in high school. Because Thybulle had come late to the game and still struggled to score consistently, his father, Greg—a Haitian immigrant who had never played basketball competitively—encouraged him to focus on defense. “I told him: There will always be someone who will shoot the ball better than you,” Greg recalled instructing his son in an

interview with ESPN, “but there will never be a better defender than you.”

The approach worked. In just his second varsity game, played late in his freshman year, Thybulle was asked to defend Zach LaVine, an area All-American who would go on to star at UCLA and end up an NBA lottery pick (and now plays for the Chicago Bulls). With college scouts in attendance to see LaVine, the unheralded frosh guarded the superstar like a glove.

Thybulle was on the radar.

By the time he graduated from high school he was 6 feet 5 inches tall—with an extraordinary wingspan over 7 feet— THE RED BULLETIN

As a rookie, Thybulle averaged 4.7 points and had 94 steals; only 14 NBA players had more steals.

GETTY IMAGES

Thybulle, who struggled to make layups in middle school, wound up a first-round pick in the NBA draft.

and had shown more than enough development as a standout defender to be a prized recruit for major college teams. Powerhouse programs like Gonzaga and Cal pursued him but he ultimately chose to stay close to home with the Washington Huskies. Thybulle’s arrival coincided with a new coach and some very strong recruiting, and the Huskies quickly improved from being fodder for better Pac-12 Conference foes to being contenders.

Thybulle’s impact was enormous.

Though he evolved to be a consistently decent scorer, he forged a reputation as THE RED BULLETIN

a defensive specialist. His coach began to call him the Disruptor for the havoc he was creating on the court. Within the Pac-12, he ultimately broke single-season and career steal records that had been set by future NBA Hall of Famers Jason Kidd and Gary Payton, respectively. In his senior year, Thybulle averaged more than 3 steals and 2 blocks per game, something no NCAA player had done for decades.

Ever modest, Thybulle says he didn’t think his NBA dreams would possibly come true until his junior year at UW. “In college I watched a few teammates go pro,” he says. “I didn’t get caught up thinking about it—I focused on getting better. I had to wait my turn and put my head down and continue to work and grow before I could see it as a realistic thing.”

It became a very realistic thing on June 20, 2019. That’s when NBA commissioner Adam Silver called out his name as the 20th pick in the NBA draft.

The kid who had trouble knocking down layups in middle school was now a firstround pick and a Philadelphia 76er.

A

rookie season is always a bit strange and memorable, but the 2019-2020 NBA season was famously strange and memorable. As with so many other things, a virus thousands of times smaller than a grain of sand altered the narrative of the season. On March 11, 2020—a little more than a month before the regular season was scheduled to end and the playoffs begin—the league suspended play due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Many professional and elite sports staged pandemic comeback schedules, but very few were as distinctive or successful as the NBA bubble. Starting in early July, the entire league quarantined itself inside Disney World in Orlando for three months of play that would culminate in an NBA Finals series. It was an ongoing international story—many of

the most prominent professional athletes on the planet ensconcing themselves at Disney amid a backdrop of COVID-19, social justice upheaval, political instability and a general disruption of life as Americans knew it. The public interest in intimately understanding the NBA bubble was sky high.

Perhaps without fully understanding where it might lead, Matisse Thybulle stepped right into the maw of that massive cultural curiosity. Before he even flew down from Philadelphia to Orlando, he had decided that he would bring along his beloved Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, a gift he had given himself after the NBA draft, and chronicle his experience inside the NBA bubble with a vlog he’d publish on YouTube.

This was not out of the blue for Thybulle. “My friends and I had started doing this sort of thing, with photography and video, in college,” he says. “We would wander around Seattle taking photos or shooting B-roll and then editing it and syncing it to music. So I had a foundation of skills and knowledge.”

Thybulle pauses for a minute and then laughs. “But back then we just shared it with each other,” he notes. “It was different what I shot in the bubble.”

In the first episode of his vlog, Welcome to the Bubble, Thybulle is in his car, a bit frazzled, enduring the rookie ritual of getting all of his teammates takeout from Chick-fil-A before their flight to Orlando. There is something intimate and honest and gently absurd about the whole thing. Then, surrounded

by NBA stars, Thybulle chronicles the rest of their journey, capturing the camaraderie and personality of his teammates in the strangest of times.

The vlog was an immediate hit. The nine episodes of Welcome to the Bubble have been streamed a total of roughly 8.5 million times on YouTube. Surely part of the series’ success was how it brought fans into the unvarnished reality of life for NBA players inside the bubble—the realities of their quarantine, the cornhole competitions and golf cart hijinks, the endless joking and bullshitting. And Thybulle himself comes across as this intensely likable figure, too—young and honest and open to the world, ready to play hard and create something artful.

27

Thybulle was deliberate about how he brought social justice into the series. “It was very intentional.”

Thybulle says that his father helped shape his views on voting: “Not many people know someone who was directly impacted by a dictator.”

COURTESY OF MATISSE THYBULLE

But just as Thybulle intended, the series struck a deeper chord. The NBA bubble occurred as players and American culture at large were grappling with George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and Jacob Blake and the systemic problems that led to their deaths. While athletes in some sports struggled to speak their minds, or faced resistance from their leagues, players in the NBA and WNBA helped lead the conversation about social justice. Welcome to the Bubble captures this effort from the inside. In one scene, as members of the 76ers discuss how they want to effect real change, Thybulle offers a mission statement of sorts: “We got over the hump of ‘oh, we’re in the bubble, what’s life like?’ ” he narrates behind the camera. “We don’t just want to be a distraction; we want to continue this conversation about whatever needs to be reformed or changed.”

This combination—of entertainment, comedy, honesty, intimacy and social justice documentation—brought the rookie guard a ton of attention. He was feted by Michael Strahan on Good Morning America and interviewed at length by Jimmy Fallon. Throughout it all, he appeared completely focused on his basketball-related responsibilities but also cognizant of larger forces at work and his own creative impulses.

Even now, four months after all that attention, Thybulle is still absorbing the scale of the reaction to his vlog. “There were plenty of out-of-body experiences,” he says. “I mean, I was on Fallon!” But

he’s also measured and deliberate about how he brought social justice into the conversation. “It was very intentional. I wanted to be as intentional as possible.

When we decided as a league to go back in play, we wanted to do it with the things that were taking place in the country. There was some heavy shit where we wanted to talk about real change. It’s been a cool shift; you saw a lot of it this year—athletes taking control of their platforms.”

For Thybulle, the fight for social justice went far deeper than the conversations shared through his series. In June, wearing a mask and an “I Can’t Breathe!” T-shirt and hoisting a cardboard sign simply declaring “Vote,” the rookie marched peacefully in Philadelphia with his adopted hometown community. The message on that sign resonated deeply all year for Thybulle. When NBA players began wearing jerseys with social justice messages on them, he opted to wear his Sixers 22 jersey with VOTE emblazoned on the back.

When asked why the issue is so personal and important to him, Thybulle says it goes back to his childhood. “Voting is really important to me, and my dad definitely had a massive influence on that and making me think about what it’s like to not have one,” he says, describing how his father came to the States from Haiti long before he was born. “Not many people know someone who was directly impacted by a dictator. So of course I want to help empower Americans to take control of their voice.”

Of course, we are talking in December, after the election for which he had tried so hard to drive the vote. He knows that Philadelphia played a major role in the final outcome. “To be in PA, which was a huge swing state and somewhere that has struggled with the issues we’re dealing with—it’s big,” he says. “I was embraced by this city and I’ve embraced it back.

Philly is my home now.”

N Thybulle was a visible force at a peaceful social justice protest in Philadelphia on June 6, 2020.

THE RED BULLETIN

ow it is 2021, and in some ways, everything is different for Thybulle—he and the rest of the league are no longer playing in a bubble and there is no huge election looming and he doesn’t have a big YouTube series blowing up and he’s finally not a rookie anymore. But in other ways, his priorities remain the same—getting better as a defender and a team player, exploring his creative interests, speaking his voice when it matters.

“I like to keep things as simple as possible,” says Thybulle, noting his 2021 goal is to grow his role.

No thanks to the continued effects of the pandemic, it’s unclear when exactly the Tokyo Games will finally take place— but when they do, Thybulle will be representing Australia on the hardwood.

“I have an Olympic dream and I’m glad I have dual citizenship in Australia,” he says. “There’s quite a bunch of Australian guys in the NBA.” He’s still planning to create and share vlog content, but nothing for now with the cadence or focus of Welcome to the Bubble. “I try to keep in perspective that YouTube and video making is not my job,” Thybulle says. “I’ve just been focused on basketball and family and my health. I want to keep going with the videos, but I’m going to do it in a way where I don’t lose sight of basketball.”

The 2020-2021 season has gotten off to an uneven start—there’s a significantly different squad in Philly and a new coach and a new routine. Coach Doc Rivers has said that the team isn’t quite ready to fully execute his half-court offensive schemes and instead has asked them to focus on defensive effort and transition offense. This plays in well with Thybulle’s defensive-oriented game, which is hard to assess just poring over box scores. In any case, after the first 10 games of the season, the Sixers were 7-3 and sitting atop the NBA’s Eastern Conference.

Thybulle is young enough that he still gets a thrill stepping onto the floor at Wells Fargo Arena, the Boston Garden and other fabled facilities. “It’s pretty amazing,” he says. “I started playing as a kid—watching it and dreaming. It’s amazing that my life has taken on that dream.”

29

“I started watching and dreaming as a kid. It’s amazing that my life has taken on that dream.”

30

Although he plans to keep making content, Thybulle is focused on “basketball, family and my health.�

Matthews currently has clients on 14 NBA squads and four WNBA teams.

LETHAL WEAPON How Chris Matthews—aka Lethal Shooter—became the most in-demand shooting coach the NBA and the rest of basketball culture has ever seen.

Words ALEX BHATTACHARJI

COURTESY OF @LETHALSHOOTER

Chris Matthews never expected

to watch the highlight of his basketball career on television. It came on the NBA season’s opening night, a few days before last Christmas, when the Los Angeles Lakers’ players and coaches received their championship rings. Matthews, aka Lethal Shooter, had tutored more than half of the title-winning team on the method he calls the Art of Shooting. He coached forward Kyle Kuzma and guards Quinn Cook and Talen Horton-Tucker, and “I worked in the off-season with AD for a few weeks,” he says, referring to All-NBA power forward Anthony Davis. Matthews also instructed several now-former Lakers: guard Avery Bradley, who signed with the Miami Heat, and swingman Danny Green, who was later traded to the Philadelphia THE RED BULLETIN

76ers. The Sixers also signed center Dwight Howard, one of Matthews’ first students several years ago. Watching from his home in L.A., Matthews was excited for each of his students. “I was blessed to be able to help them achieve a goal,” says Matthews. “I come in here and there just to help those guys.”

But Matthews only became overcome with emotion when Kentavious CaldwellPope, the Lakers’ starting shooting guard, kissed his diamond-encrusted ring before placing it on his finger. Matthews calls this “the most satisfying moment I ever had.” He had started working with Caldwell-Pope the year before the Lakers’ championship season and helped lift him out of a slump. After strong shooting in the pandemic-shortened regular season,

Caldwell-Pope excelled in the playoffs: Over the course of the title run, he made more 3-pointers than almost every Laker in history, save for Kobe Bryant in 2010.

“And am I the person getting the ring?

Am I the person that’s re-signing with the Lakers for money?” he says of CaldwellPope’s three-year, $39.1 million contract extension. “No. But to see him win in life is what it’s all about for me as a coach.”

In less than five years, Matthews has leveraged this commitment to become the NBA’s most in-demand shooting coach. Regardless of who wins the next title, Matthews will likely have more reason to celebrate. There is hardly a team in the league without a past or current client on their roster. But Matthews’ influence goes far beyond pro 33

Matthews played professionally abroad for seven seasons before finding his true calling as a coach.

Matthews worked with two-thirds of the Lakers team that won the 2020 NBA title.

players. Driven by his dazzling shooting exploits on social media, Matthews has attracted a massive following and has begun teaching his Art of Shooting—a creative skill he practices with a martialarts-like discipline—in the worlds of fashion, entertainment and celebrity.

It’s ironic for Matthews, who toiled in relative anonymity as a player, to find fame as a coach, but not unheard of.

What will be unprecedented is being able to pick a coach—like one nicknamed Lethal Shooter—to play alongside all-time greats in an upcoming release of NBA 2K.

M

atthews can’t pinpoint the exact moment he realized he was playing his last game, but by the time the ball touched the bottom of the basket for his 50th point, there was no doubt. Competing alongside and against an array of NBA aspirants and European pro-league vets, Matthews was ostensibly using the EBA (the Eastern Basketball Alliance) game in 2016 as a tune-up and showcase for international scouts. “I knew in my heart that I was never going to try to go back overseas again,” he says.

34

Matthews, a 6-foot-4 shooting guard, had played internationally for seven years but was increasingly hampered by a series of injuries. That night, as he drained jumper after jumper, Matthews convinced himself he could not only perform at a high level but also leave on a high note. “I could walk away feeling good about myself,” he recalls thinking. “I won’t feel any regret.”

When the final buzzer sounded, Matthews had put up 60 points, a performance the announcer prophetically referred to as “putting on a clinic.” Soon after the game, Matthews’ friend Kevin Séraphin, a veteran NBA big man fighting to stay in the league, made a fateful suggestion: “Man, you need to show me how to shoot like that.” Matthews had heard comments like that since he was a playground prodigy growing up in the D.C. area, always taking them as a compliment. But Séraphin wasn’t merely giving his friend props; he was proffering a genuine professional opportunity. More than a few tips or pointers on 3-pointers, he wanted one-on-one training.

After a successful trial period in D.C., Matthews moved to Paris with Séraphin,

who was born in France, for the offseason. Matthews took to the role of taskmaster, driving the 6-10 Frenchman, a former first-round draft pick, as hard as he worked himself, and discovered he had a keen diagnostic eye. “That whole summer we attacked all of his deficiencies and his understanding of the art of shooting,” Matthews recalls. “He started seeing a huge change in his shot.”

Indeed, after working with Matthews, Séraphin increased his field goal shooting from .410 to a career-high .551. Matthews’ basketball connections were not surprised. “Friends in the NBA said, ‘You’ve always been talking to us about shooting in your spare time.’ ” he recalls. “I’m looking at them like, ‘Damn.

I guess I was doing that,’ but I never really thought about it because I wasn’t in coach mode.”

Soon, Matthews found himself in that mode full-time. While in Paris he got a call from All-Star center Dwight Howard, who wanted the same juju Matthews had brought to the journeyman Séraphin.

Long plagued by erratic free throw shooting, Howard shot above .700 for extended stretches under Matthews’ tutelage. Gradually, more and more people around the league noticed, and the messages on Matthews’ phone kept piling up. For Matthews to become a successful shooting coach, he didn’t have to let go of his past as a player so much as embrace it.

Matthews grew up in a series of hardscrabble sections of Washington, D.C., and College Park, Maryland, just across the District line. “Those areas made me who I am today, because my neighborhoods were very tough,” Matthews says. “I watched friends die.

My best friend got killed.”

As a child, Matthews learned the basics of shooting from his father, who worked with him on mechanics. By the time he was in middle school, Matthews’ deadeye shooting had prompted his father to begin calling him “lethal,” an expression the young man would later THE RED BULLETIN

COURTESY OF @LETHALSHOOTER

build into a nickname and a brand. As a teen, Matthews was taken under the wing by Delonte Taylor Sr., a local legend in the DMV (as the D.C./Maryland/ Virginia metro area is known), who scrapped and scraped to the NBA after paying his way to an open tryout camp.

Without Taylor’s mentorship, Matthews says he would never have become the player or person he is. Starting in high school, Matthews began to pay it forward. “I remember helping my teammates in practice with things that they were doing wrong,” says Matthews.

“You’re not looking at it as trying to coach. You’re just trying to help your friend and your teammate.”

Among those in the locker room with Matthews was Kevin Durant, who was a couple of years behind him at National Christian Academy in Fort Washington, Maryland. Matthews saw greatness early in the future NBA MVP, a fellow student of shooting with a work ethic that mirrored his own. “To watch Kevin in high school, you couldn’t miss how demanding he was, even in practice,” Matthews says. “He was skinny. He was frail. People used to try to foul him really hard in practice or get him out of his game, but he would never back down.”

That resolve was something both Durant and Matthews learned in their hometown. “I think coming up in the DMV area,” Matthews says, “gave us the mindset that we want to make it out of somewhere that a lot of people don’t make it out of. We got to give it everything we have.”

Matthews also has shared his Art of Shooting with Michael B. Jordan (left) and Chance the Rapper.

After that, Matthews spent two seasons of college at Washington State, then transferred to St. Bonaventure. As a senior, Matthews came into his own, shooting better than 39 percent from downtown and setting the team record for 3-pointers made in a season with 101 (in 31 games), which led the Atlantic 10 Conference. The improvement was the result of a rigorous daily routine he had developed. Matthews would wake up and work out with the team manager on the court before class, hoisting several hundred shots. At lunchtime he’d skip the cafeteria. “I would eat a snack and have the manager pass to me,” Matthews says. “I’d make 200 shots at lunch.” After a full practice with the team, Matthews would stay on the court to work on form shooting—a slow, methodical, mindful exercise that emphasizes fundamental mechanics. The difference was eyeopening, even for him. “When I first started doing that program, I was like,

Matthews’ clientele runs the gamut from NBA athletes like Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Danny Green (left) to big names in music like Marshmello—anyone who loves hoops and wants to shoot better.

THE RED BULLETIN

‘Hold up. I’m fucking draining all these shots,’ ” he says. “I just made that my formula. I was mad that I didn’t do that my whole career.”

Bypassed in the NBA draft and unsigned as a free agent, Matthews quietly took his talents overseas. He played in leagues in Canada, Russia, China, France, Mexico, Bolivia, Peru— even Iceland. In seven years as a pro, Matthews suffered a series of careerthreatening injuries: a broken ankle, knee surgery to repair his MCL and a collapsed lung resulting from pulmonary edema, which kept him hospitalized for a month. Matthews was rushed off in an ambulance after waking to find he couldn’t move his legs. Matthews was trying to work his way back from that when he decided to give up his playing career. To this day he feels the lingering effects of the scar tissue in his lungs. “It was a lot of trauma to my body.”

W

hile it never led him to the NBA, Matthews’ time overseas gave him an appreciation for other cultures and their approach to hoops. “I feel like Europe helped me mentally with understanding the game of basketball,” he says. “I already had the fundamentals, but I just love how they took the time to break them down in practice.” On off days he would watch youth clubs train, to study their approach. “The one thing I respected the most was the level of teaching.”

That experience helped inform his own approach to instructing clients in what he came to call the Art of Shooting, which focuses on retraining his pupils mentally, physically and neurologically. It’s not enough to shoot well; Matthews wants clients to burn the motion into their muscle memory, where your synapses trigger movements in a pattern learned through repetition without deviation.

35

HOW TO SHOOT MORE LETHALLY Five tips from master coach Chris Matthews.

Matthews customizes his coaching approach for all his clients, who range from adolescents to NBA All-Stars. But these tenets underpin his Art of Shooting, which aspiring Lethal Shooters can use to get and stay on target.

FORM SHOOTING IS YOUR FRIEND According to Matthews, the best way to improve is a daily diet of the techniquefocused drills known as form shooting, “to get the dynamic of the fundamentals down.” Stay conscious of each step in the shooting process—dip, jump, cock, release and followthrough—and how it feels. And go slow. “Take your time. If you rush something, you’re never going to master it,” Matthews says. “If you’re shooting fast, how can you feel your mistakes?”

FIRE AT CLOSE RANGE Good long-range shooters are born close to the basket. Matthews suggests you start by form shooting near the rim—like NBA pros do during shootarounds, and his clients do during coaching sessions. “People think my training is about 3-pointers, but I don’t even let my clients shoot 3s in practice.” Shoot straight on from the wings and sides; once your shot starts feeling comfortable, you can begin moving back a bit.

DIAGNOSE EVERY DEVIATION Ideally, Matthews says, “as you form shoot, you’ll feel everything you’re doing wrong.” But everyone benefits from having another person observe and critique their shot. If you can’t find someone, take an iPhone video of yourself. The key is to identify inconsistencies in your motion—e.g., your elbow flaring, variations in the release point, the position of your guide hand—and correct them.

THE PROBLEM IS NOT IN YOUR HEAD One big misconception Matthews hears too often: “That kid can’t shoot because he’s overthinking.” Says Matthews: “I think that’s bull.” A perfect mindset is useless without proper form. If a shooter’s brain gets involved, it’s because he’s aware something physical is amiss. “His mind knows that he doesn’t know how to shoot the basketball properly.”

SWISH AND REPEAT You need to train your muscle memory by taking lots of shots. He has his pro and elite clients make 500 shots a day, and suggests aspiring shooters make 200 a day during the week and 250 on weekends. Note that Matthews has clients shoot until they make (not take) that many shots. It’s key to keep these drills separate from any strength and endurance training or shooting around you do for fun. “People go to the gym just shooting a basketball thinking that’s a workout,” Matthews says. “That’s why there’s not a lot of elite shooters walking the Earth.” —A.B.

36

Matthews says he analyzes the shooting of every player in the NBA, even if they aren’t clients.

“Anybody that you might feel can’t shoot in the NBA hasn’t been consistent,” Matthews explains. His gift is the ability to see those inconsistencies, however imperceptible, and correct them. While he is still studying the league’s rookies, he says he has cataloged every veteran’s strengths and weaknesses. “If they’ve been in the NBA for a while, I know exactly why they’re missing.”

Matthews watches NBA, WNBA and NCAA games, taking notes and studying clips and analytics on Synergy, the data analysis tool used by elite coaches. His research on players extends far beyond those he works with currently, because everyone who competes is a prospective

client. “I write down what I would do to help that person just in case they hit me up.” That attention to detail and obsessive preparation has paid off. Just this summer, two NBA players approached him with a dose of skepticism, texting, “What do you see wrong in my jump shot?” Matthews replied, “Four things,” and gave each hyperspecific criticism.

“They were like, ‘Oh shit—that is it!’ ” Such mastery has helped Matthews amass an unparalleled roster of clients.

Most of them are now referred to him by NBA teams and agencies—players across the league, such as De’Aaron Fox, Hassan Whiteside, Kenneth Faried and dozens more. He also works with WNBA stars like THE RED BULLETIN

COURTESY OF @LETHALSHOOTER

He coaches everyone from NBA All-Stars to 40-something executives to gradeschool kids.

Candace Parker and Skylar DigginsSmith, and select college and top-flight high school players. He has taught a world champion boxer (Ryan Garcia) and an actor who starred as one (Michael B. Jordan) to knock down shots. He’s coached all-stars of rock (Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea) and hip-hop (Chance the Rapper, Kanye West, Chris Brown and Drake). And he’s taken the shirt off a fashion designer (his client Mike Amiri, founder of Amiri, foolishly bet Matthews $50,000 he couldn’t make a long-distance trick shot). In addition, Matthews has appeared in over a dozen commercials, and he recently signed a multiyear deal with NBA 2K video games.

He’s taught clinics and hosted events for corporate clients such as Nike, the Jordan Brand, Spalding, Stance Socks, the NBA, the NBA Players Association—and now Red Bull.

Matthews will train everyone from 40-something executives to grade-school kids. As he puts it: “If anyone’s touching a basketball, I’m training them.” Although most of it is to earn a living, the work he does for free is among the most rewarding. “People don’t see me post it, but training kids and doing stuff for the community, that’s as satisfying as a client signing a $50 million contract,” he says. If it sounds like Matthews finds his work fulfilling, he does. Although he hears frequent speculation he will join the NBA coaching ranks, he doesn’t sound like a man in a rush. “If the right opportunity came with a team, I’m not saying I wouldn’t take it,” he says. “But that’s just not something I want to do right now.”

Like everyone in the basketball world and beyond, Matthews’ life and work have been upended by the pandemic.

During last year’s playoff bubble and the early part of this season, the NBA’s COVID protocols have prohibited independent contractors like him from using team facilities, forcing Matthews to work virtually in L.A. Often he’ll get a text after a game asking what he noticed. “I’ll go back in Synergy and re-watch every clip,” THE RED BULLETIN

Matthews says. “I dissect every play, text it to that person and hold a Zoom call with my flat screen in the background, breaking down everything I saw.”

The separation and reliance on remote learning led him to begin developing a Lethal Shooter instructional app aimed at top athletes and aspirants alike, “anyone who wants to train like a pro,” he says. “It’ll show them what it takes to become an elite shooter.” He’s been shooting footage of drills, mechanics and form shooting for the skills-training app, which he expects to be released later in 2021.

Matthews enjoys being on camera but never takes it too seriously. He chafes at the notion of being “Instagram famous”— though, with 1.6 million followers, he is.

Matthews’ @lethalshooter handle began as a way of showing his exploits as a player but has evolved as he has, to include motivational quotes, photos celebrating his clients and their accomplishments and, this summer in particular, expressions of support for Black Lives Matter protests. Most of all, though, it features displays of Matthews’ shooting prowess that range from the sublime to the ridiculous: Blindfolded with a sweatshirt and pointed toward the basket—swish. From the rooftop of one building across to a basket on another— swish, swish. From one boat in the open ocean to another, carrying a basket and floating away—swish, swish, swish. And so on. Coming soon: An out-of-this-world shooting exhibition while floating in a spacesuit at NASA’s Zero Gravity Research Facility. It’s all good fun. “I just post what my followers like to see,” Matthews says.

“And they like to see me shoot.”

Before the New Year he posted a video showing him in a gym hoisting and draining one corner 3 after another. It landed on Instagram just after a video of Steph Curry hitting a remarkable 105 straight corner 3s went viral. The timing led some to speculate that Matthews’ video was an answer to Curry’s, the start of some hot-shooting flame war. Not so.

“I wasn’t even intentionally trying to post at the same time,” Matthews says, noting he had scheduled the previously shot video to upload during the holiday break.

Matthews doesn’t hit 105 3-pointers in total, much less in a row. The video shows him training as he is, smooth and systematic, consistently precise but not perfect. It includes his misses—one in his first 10, two of 35, and three of 66 in all.

The video, just like his shooting 63/66 from downtown, was not exceptional. It was Matthews, “just getting back to training so I can start getting back in the flow” ahead of video shoots for his app.

Instead, the video reflects the routine performance of a shooter whose longest streak is 48 straight 3s but who regularly makes 90 of 100 from downtown.

Still, the popularity of Curry’s video, and @lethalshooter content, reflects how basketball culture has evolved to celebrate shooting as much as it does dunks.

Matthews is glad to see the NBA rely on metrics he studies, like true shooting percentage (a weighted aggregate of 3-point, field-goal and free-throw percentage), and prize his skill set.

“If I were younger I’d have a chance of making the NBA because the 3-ball is appreciated so much more now than it was back in the day,” says Matthews, who personified the type of 3-and-D player general managers now covet. “If my only job was to play defense and hit corner 3s—I can make a living doing that.”

Matthews still receives contract offers to play overseas, many inspired by his shooting displays on social media. But seven years removed from his last game, he no longer has the itch to suit up; he’s flattered but focused on the task at hand.

“I like knowing I have options to play,” Matthews says. “But I like seeing all the people I’ve coached ball out even more.

Together they make way more shots than I ever could.”

Matthews has a Lethal Shooter app coming out later this year.

37

Two ACL replacement surgeries sparked a sharper focus on fitness for freeskier Johnny Collinson.

Homeward Found

Whether it was constructing a sophisticated setup or creating a regular routine with minimal equipment, five world-class athletes share how they utilized their homes as beacons of personal fitness during an unprecedented year.  Words JEN SEE 38  

THE RED BULLETIN

During Collinson’s time at home, his fitness videos on social media have grown in popularity.

versatile. In search of a wider range of exercises, Collinson turned to his kettlebells. Less familiar to him, these accessories inspired Collinson to explore new movements, which kept him motivated.

Fall brought colder weather, which forced Collinson to change up his routine. His heated basement offered a more comfortable workout space, but the smaller area limited the equipment he could use. “I can’t really bring my barbell and plates down there,” he says. So Collinson increased his kettlebell workouts and added stretch-rubber bands to his arsenal. He turned it into a game: “What can you do to feel like you’re getting some exercise with the least amount of things?”

Though he has enjoyed the challenge of modifying his workouts to fit whatever space he can find, in December, Collinson began building a weatherproof, indoor gym in his backyard. “I think having that dedicated space is so important,” he says.

The new setup will allow him to use everything from barbells to bands.

Collinson will also have access to a squat rack for the first time since he canceled his gym membership back in March.

Now that snow has returned to the Wasatch Range, Collinson has turned his energy back to his first love. “More than anything, I’m excited to have snow locally again and just be out exploring,” he says. “My whole professional career has been spent on the road, so there are so many places that I’ve never been, right here at home.” Over the long term, Collinson is determined to keep building on the fitness knowledge he’s gained this past year.

JOHNNY COLLINSON FREESKIER

NATE CAHOON(2), RAINER HOSCH

A

lifetime in the mountains has schooled freeskier Johnny Collinson in adapting to unpredictable conditions. This past year has tested those skills, as Collinson shifted from chasing big-mountain powder runs all over the world to staying fit at home in Cottonwood Heights, Utah. Two ACL replacement surgeries had sparked an interest in fitness, and in 2020, Collinson doubled down and began working toward a degree in exercise science.

THE RED BULLETIN

“It’s been cool to keep learning,” the 28-year-old Collinson says. “It has become a really cohesive thing that’s helped me come up with tangible goals for skiing using this education I’m getting through fitness.”

During the summer, the warm weather meant that Collinson could use his garage as a workout space. “I bought barbells and kettlebells,” he says. “I was really stoked to have a barbell and weight plates for that specific training.”

But he found that setup wasn’t especially 39

SASHA DIGIULIAN ROCK CLIMBER

Sasha DiGiulian always wanted her own climbing gym; COVID’s arrival sped up the process.

W

hen Sasha DiGiulian set out to transform her garage in Boulder, Colorado, into a climber’s playground, she did not know how much time she would spend at home in 2020. A sport-climbing world champion with more than 30 first female ascents to her credit, DiGiulian, 28, typically spends at least nine months of each year traveling. Though she had planned for some time to build her own climbing gym, COVID’s arrival forced her to speed up the process.

“Even before knowing that we wouldn’t have access to gyms, I wanted to have my own space to focus and train, and to have my coach and my friends come over,” she says. “It was kind of serendipitous.”

Universal gymnastics mats cover the entire floor of DiGiulian’s garage, and climbing holds of various shapes 40

decorate the walls. A campus board, which climbers use to increase finger strength, stands in the middle. “It’s a set of wooden rungs, and you’re supposed to pull your body weight up vertically with the tips of your fingers,” she says.

DiGiulian also uses a hangboard, which mounts to the wall and has various ledges that she holds with her fingertips.

These are all elements commonly found in climbers’ gyms, but DiGiulian’s garage goes well beyond the basics. A rotating treadwall allows her to climb as much as 3,000 feet in an hour without leaving her one-story garage.

Then there are her two app-controlled climbing walls. A Kilter Board leans at a 45-degree angle and a series of handholds and footholds dot the wall, similar to a traditional climbing wall. But each hold also has an LED light, and using a phone app, DiGiulian can set up

a variety of climbing routes. By following the lights—yellow for footholds, blue for handholds—DiGiulian completes the climb. Her Moonboard uses a similar method to create different routes and adds more variety to her training.

“My coach can be at his house and he can be running my training session from afar,” she says. “It’s based on which climbs he’s putting into the app for me to do.”

As it turned out, the year had more surprises in store for DiGiulian, even beyond the disruptions that COVID has created. In May she underwent the first of four reconstructive surgeries on her hips to correct dysplasia. Since then, DiGiulian has used her basement gym setup for physical therapy, as she looks forward to returning to the towering rock walls she loves most. “One of the things I’ve been practicing this year is learning patience.”

THE RED BULLETIN

FRANCOIS LEBEAU

DiGiulian’s gym includes various holds, a rotating treadwall and two app-controlled climbing walls.

“One of the things I’ve been practicing this year is learning patience,” DiGiulian says.

THE RED BULLETIN

41

Since his SCI, Paul Basagoitia has brought the same energy to his recovery as he did to his freeriding career.

“You just have to be taking it day by day,” Basagoitia says.

42

THE RED BULLETIN

“A set of dumbbells and a workout bench— you can do a lot with just those two items,” Basagoitia says.

recovery that I did to my bike career.”

Basagoitia finds it helpful to have his home gym in a visible place, too, rather than tucked away in the garage or the basement. Because he sees his workout space every day, Basagoitia is more likely to step inside and do the work.

Now almost six years later, Basagoitia, 34, walks into his gym every morning.

His equipment ranges from simple dumbbells and foam rollers to more sophisticated machines. His CoreAlign, a Pilates machine, allows him to do a variety of leg and core exercises. A GForce vibration plate helps him work on his balance. “I still have a lot of paralysis on my right side, so my balance is still not there all the time,” he says.

Basagoitia has also found the vibration plate helps improve the poor blood circulation his spinal cord injury causes.

More important than fancy machines or equipment, though, is consistency.

“A set of dumbbells and a workout bench—you can do a lot with just those two items,” says Basagoitia. He believes that progress comes from putting in the work every day. The reward for Basagoitia’s five years of concentrated effort is winning back the independence that he feared his injury had taken from him. These days, on a typical afternoon, Basagoitia can most likely be found outside, ripping his local trails on his ebike.

“Being patient is the thing I learned the most,” he says. “Once you start putting a time on recovery and you don’t hit those milestones, you start becoming depressed—you just have to be taking it day by day.”

PAUL BASAGOITIA MOUNTAIN BIKER

DEWEY NICKS

I

n October 2015, Paul Basagoitia suffered a spinal cord injury that left him paralyzed from the waist down while competing at Red Bull Rampage, the freeride mountain bike competition.

After spending three months in the hospital, Basagoitia prepared to head home. “I got home on my birthday,” he says. “It was a relief, but it was scary at the same time.” He wanted to continue the recovery he had begun in the hospital, so he could live independently. He also hoped to learn to walk again.

On one of his final days at the hospital, Basagoitia went to the gym where he had

THE RED BULLETIN

spent many hours doing physical therapy.

Carefully, he cataloged the equipment.

Then he bought the pieces he felt had benefited him the most. “When you sustain a spinal cord injury and you have no movement from the waist down, you would do anything to walk again,” he says. The cost of the equipment he ordered felt like a small price to pay.

When he returned to his home in Minden, Nevada, Basagoitia assembled his gym in his trophy room. “I wanted to see all the memories of what I accomplished in the bike world,” he says.

“I wanted to bring the same energy to my 43

LETICIA BUFONI SK ATEBOARDER

“When I’m home, I don’t want to drive in traffic to go skate—my goal was just to get home and not leave.”

44

DAVID WALTER BANKS(2), ATIBA JEFFERSON/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

G

rowing up, Brazilian skateboarder Leticia Bufoni dreamed of having a skatepark in her own backyard.

In 2016, she finally got her chance. As she shopped for a house in her adopted hometown of Los Angeles, she studied each backyard carefully. Even before she signed the papers, she had the plans for her skatepark prepared.

Three weeks after she moved into her new place, she began building her dream park. “I didn’t have a bed,” she says. “I was sleeping on a mattress.”

From start to finish, the setup took almost two months to build, from ripping up the existing landscaping to pouring concrete to constructing the skatepark’s features. Even before COVID, Bufoni, 27, wanted to be able to do all her workouts at home, so she also built a gym in her garage.

“The main goal was to stay home when I’m not traveling,” she says.

“When I’m home, I don’t want to drive 30 or 40 minutes in traffic to go skate— my goal was just to get home and not have to leave.”

A layer of concrete raises the whole installation several feet above ground level, and the skatepark’s highest point stands even with the neighborhood fence lines. The park includes multiple ledges and rails, a short staircase and ramps on either side. Looking slightly out of place, a pool sits between Bufoni’s street course and a mini-ramp that runs along the side of her house.

Bufoni says it has helped her sharpen her skills to have her own skatepark.

“I’ve learned new tricks and trained for

competitions,” she says. “Before I go out filming in the streets, if I want to practice a trick, I just go to my backyard and practice.” About a year and a half ago, Bufoni updated her backyard park with the help of California Skateparks, who are designing the course for the Tokyo Olympic Games. “Since then, I haven’t changed anything,” she says.

“It’s perfect now!”

As a kid in Brazil, Bufoni had a flatbar rail that her father built for her. She would take it out to the street in front of her house and skate for hours. “You can also build a little ledge or a small ramp and put it on the street and skate,” she says. As a street skater, Bufoni finds spots to skate just about everywhere she looks.

“If you only skate one place every day you’re going to get bored.” And learning new tricks doesn’t necessarily require a perfect backyard skatepark, either.

“You can just be creative,” she says.

“You don’t have to depend on a wave, you don’t have to depend on snow, you don’t have to depend on anything—you just bring your board and you can skate everywhere you go.”

THE RED BULLETIN

In the backyard of her home in L.A., Leticia Bufoni built the skatepark of her dreams.

THE RED BULLETIN

  45

“It’s just me and the ground—that’s how I feel when I walk into my garage.”

46

THE RED BULLETIN

Terry Adams spent 2020 working on a fitness plan and using his empty garage as a training facility for riding his bike.

Determined to get fit, Adams did not take rest days, and he stripped down his diet as well. He laughs as he describes his initial missteps.

“I was just eating cans of tuna and white rice,” he says. “Thankfully, I had someone pull me back to reality. ‘Wait, you need rest days! And you can’t just eat tuna for the rest of your life.’ ” Working with a coach, Adams refined his training plan, while still staying true to the simplicity that appealed to him.

“One of the only pieces of equipment I have is a pull-up bar,” he says. Each morning at 4, he meditates for 25 minutes. Then he completes a cardio workout in his backyard pool, before spending 30 to 40 minutes in his laundry room doing pull-ups and push-ups.

Finally, he heads to the garage, where he works through a series of core exercises on a mat.

“It’s just me and the ground out here—that’s exactly how I feel when I’m walking out to the garage to do the workout or get on the bike,” he says.

“Let me just lock the door on this garage and work on this art form that I fell in love with when I was a kid.”

Now 37, Adams feels like 2020 has been his best year yet. Thanks to his new strength and fitness, Adams feels quicker, more flexible and more creative on the bike. “It’s been definitely one of my best years on my bike and one that I’ll remember for the rest of my life,” he says.

His peers agreed. At the end of 2020, Adams received the NORA Rider of the Year Award.

TERRY ADAMS BMX FL ATL AND

TERRY ADAMS(2), JUSTEN WILLIAMS

T

erry Adams has spent a lot of time in his garage in Hammond, Louisiana, in 2020. A flatland BMX rider, Adams can do his sport just about anywhere. “All we need is a flat surface, so my garage is my training facility for riding my bike,” Adams says.

“It’s just completely flat and there’s nothing in there.” Adams spends four hours each day with his bike, creating his intricate dance-like maneuvers.

This past year Adams added a fitness program to his daily routine, as part of a two-year effort to improve his overall performance on the bike. “After my son

THE RED BULLETIN

was born in 2018, I had the goal that I wanted to be the best I’ve ever been on the bike,” Adams says. Not content to show his son the trophies from past successes, Adams wanted his son to grow up seeing him ride. A minor back injury in January 2020 provided extra motivation for Adams.

In designing his fitness plan, Adams brought a characteristic obsessiveness and a minimalism borrowed from flatland riding. “When the workouts first started, it was very Rocky Balboa style,” he says.

Adams did 100 each of push-ups, sit-ups and pull-ups. Then he ran a mile.

47

Active Minutes

The Araucanía Region in south Chile is a wild place, with pristine water lagoons and plenty of backcountry to explore. It’s also a land of volcanoes, including one of its most active, Villarrica.

(A 2015 explosion forced the evacuation of 3,400 people.)

Pictured here, mountaineer Linden Mallory descends Villarrica to the lake of the same name.

48

POWDER KEG

With peaks topping 22,000 feet above sea level and a range stretching more than 4,300 miles, the vast terrain of the Andes holds a bounty of natural wonders—and spectacular descents.

For most of his life, Chilean photographer Jean Louis de Heeckeren has been capturing the volcanic mountains of his homeland. Here is a taste of the best runs Chile has to offer.

Words and Photography JEAN LOUIS DE HEECKEREN

Serious Business

“The mountains in Chile are enormous, with incredibly long ski runs, but the high altitude is no joke,” says Heeckeren. “This is my cousin, Nicolas de Heeckeren, giving it his all on the way to El Pintor near Santiago.”

51

Steep Decline

Freeskier Thomas Samsing speeds down a couloir in the backcountry of Valle Nevado resort.

August 2018: Hawaiian big-wave surfer Kohl Christensen gets in the mood for some big-mountain snowboarding at Cajón del Maipo.

“The Patagonian climate can be gnarly, and the climbing routes are tough, but it’s worth it,” says Heeckeren. “Here, at Camp 2 on Monte San Lorenzo, on the border with Argentina, we’re on an expedition to ski one of the most dangerous but beautiful mountains at the end of South America.”

THE RED BULLETIN

53

54  

Heaven Sent

The northerly winds in the Andes shape the snow, forming heavenly wind lips, like this one Nicolas de Heeckeren is smashing.

“Near Santiago there’s an abundance of good, dry snow and stunning rock formations. In this photo, my brother Paul de Heeckeren sends it on La Parva mountain, with El Pintor in the background. El Pintor (‘the painter’) was named because of the great palette of colors of its rocks.”

Natasha Woodworth and Linden Mallory inspect Villarrica’s crater. The volcano is also known as Rucapillán, which means “great spirit’s house.”

56

THE RED BULLETIN

Holy Ground

Thomas Samsing is ready for a scenic run, with El Plomo in the background. The Incas used the mountain as a ceremonial site during the 15th century.

Shadow Play

Snowboarder Fito Santa Maria toys with light and dark in the backcountry of the Central Andes.

58  

The new book Afrosurf celebrates an often overlooked part of surf culture.

Co-publisher Selema Masekela explains why it’s time for Africa, with 19,000 miles of shoreline and strong traditions, to slide into the sport’s spotlight.

Words FLORIAN OBKIRCHER

TATE DRUCKER, NICOLE SWEET

Continental Drift

Ones to watch: Sung Min Cho (facing page), a coach at Surfers Not Street Children, is set to become Mozambique’s first pro; Senegal’s Chérif Fall (at left) is the first Black surfer to have won the West Africa Tour twice.

61

T

he legendary documentary The Endless Summer (1966) follows two American surfers, Mike Hynson and Robert August, as they travel the world in search of the perfect wave. On their way to South Africa, they stop off in Ghana. The pair arrive with their surfboards at Lambadi Beach and, seemingly much to the bewilderment and astonishment of the locals, ride the waves.

The film suggests that the Ghanaians have never seen anything like it before. But if you look closely, there are local boys surfing on pieces of scrap wood in the background when Hynson and August arrive at the beach—a fact that the film never addresses.

Far from being insignificant, this detail is part of a bigger problem: Surf culture has historically been defined by images of blond hair and blue eyes.

Afrosurf—a new book co-published by TV presenter, activist, musician and passionate wave rider Selema Masekela and the team behind African surf brand Mami Wata—aims to change that. For the first time ever, they’ve comprehensively documented the surf culture that exists along Africa’s vast coastline, from Morocco to Somalia, Senegal to Mozambique, South Africa and beyond.

Incorporating more than 200 photos, 14 thought pieces and 25 profiles on some of the continent’s best surfers, the book challenges popular surfing stereotypes. For example, contrary to popular belief, surfing was not first documented by Captain Cook’s botanist in Tahiti in 1767. In fact, the first known account of surfing was written during the 1640s in what is now Ghana. “This is a book that I believe will redefine and expand how the world looks at surf culture,” says 49-year-old Masekela.

62

Liberia’s unspoiled beaches gained the surf community’s attention via the 2007 documentary Sliding Liberia (sliding is their term for surfing), which featured local pioneer Alfred Lomex.

THE RED BULLETIN

ARTHUR BOURBON

“It’s always been like, to be taken seriously as a surfer, you had to have blond hair and blue eyes.”

THE RED BULLETIN

63

“I remember stepping out of the elevator with a surfboard and the whole lobby froze.” the red bulletin: How did you come up with the idea for the book? selema masekela: My father [South African jazz legend Hugh Masekela]’s dying wish was that I continue his work in fostering people’s relationship with— and eagerness to explore—the continent of Africa. After his death [in 2018], I was trying to figure out how to unfold this legacy. Then I realized my way to do it was through surfing. We began a conversation about how the book could use surfing as a lens through which to showcase the beauty of Africa as a whole; to show these images and tell stories never told before.

For the Bikoumous, surfing is a family affair. Kelly (above) learned the craft from his father, Patrick, a passionate surfer himself, who owns a beach restaurant in Pointe-Noire, Congo.

Established in 2012, Bureh Beach Surf Club was the first of its kind in Sierra Leone. “Very few people knew what surfing was when we opened,” says co-founder Jahbez Benga.

64

to be taken seriously as a surfer, it would be best if you had blond hair and blue eyes. That’s the identifiable marker of what a surfer is—despite the fact that surfing [as we know it today] was invented by Southern Polynesians.

And was also, as we learn in the book, pioneered by Ghanaians. How has this important aspect of surfing history been ignored, even within the scene?

There are all these weird ways in which history gets whitewashed and edited conveniently to make it look like a certain sector of people did things first because they’re greater, more talented or blessed by God. It’s a mix of all these different things that we’ve been convinced of, right? This has led to misconceptions. I see people have to negotiate with images of African people surfing and doing it at a very high level.

It’s like “Huh?” When I first learned to surf, people would ask, “How is it that you would learn how to surf, when THE RED BULLETIN

GREG EWING, ALAN VAN GYSEN

Why did you feel it was necessary?

From when I was young, right up until the present day, 99.9 percent of images [meant to show what] surfing looks like haven’t included anyone who resembles me. It has always been like, if you want

people like you don’t even swim?” If you look at surf movies, the majority of them are rooted in this idea of [white] people going to exotic lands and searching for incredible waves as the natives gather on the beach and watch them in disbelief. Then they leave. The Endless Summer is a classic example.

Was your plan to reveal the history of whitewashing in surfing?

Our intention is not to say, “Hey, everything you’ve been told about surfing is a lie.” We want to expand the lens of how we perceive surfing, and grant people access to the richness of Africa. This book is just a scratch on the surface of the surface.

Why is that?

In South Africa, for example, surfing was an activity that was distinctly regulated by apartheid. I remember they tried to arrest me at North Beach in Durban in 1991. This was after the separation act [the Group Areas Act, which, between 1951 and 1991, assigned racial groups to different districts] had been lifted, so technically I was allowed to be there. But the idea that I was there, doing “their thing” without caring, so incensed the cops that they watched me for three days before finding some ridiculous and antiquated charge to try to arrest me on.

That’s how it was back then. I remember

In 2018, South African Mikey February— born in 1993, a year before his homeland’s first democratic election—became the first African of color to qualify for the World Surf League Championship Tour.

South African surf pro Grant “Twiggy” Baker says that African surf culture is about to explode, just like the Brazilian scene did 10 years ago. Would you agree?

Totally. The “Brazilian Storm” was one that mainstream surfing didn’t see coming. The Brazilians were always looked at as a nuisance, because they were culturally different. Their level of passion for surfing was different, and people didn’t understand the how or the why of what it took for them to get to the world stage. When the Storm arrived in 2011, it turned everything upside down. It was very difficult for the surf community to actually stomach and accept the dominance and the level of performance that the Brazilians were bringing, to the point where they would make excuses about [the South Americans’] style. I never thought that Brazilian surfers would be part of the global teams of the world’s biggest brands, but now they are dominating the World Surf League Championship Tour. I think the African Storm is developing.

Africa has the youngest population and it’s a massive continent. It’s not a matter of if, but when, it happens.

Why now and not 10 years ago?

Because there are role models now.

In 2018, South African Mikey February became the first non-white African surfer on the World Tour. That opened the door to possibilities for young indigenous African kids across the continent, as well as Black surfers around the world.

It was powerful. Before Mikey, they didn’t know they could look like that and do that. Across Africa, surfing has historically been viewed as a white people’s sport.

THE RED BULLETIN

65

“In Africa, there’s a powerful reverence for the ocean.”

In Afrosurf, well-traveled photographer Alan Van Gysen reveals his favorite African surf spots, including this South Angolan beach with its “3 km of waves and empty walls.”

MARTIN CAPRILE ,DJIBRIL DRAME

Aita Diop’s waveriding skills won her a scholarship with the International Surfing Association, so now the 15-yearold Senegalese can focus on her passion.

“I feel free and happy in the ocean. It is my playground,” she says.

67

Running through the profiles like a golden thread is African surfers’ spiritual connection to the ocean.

This idea of surfing as a sexy leisure experience doesn’t exist in African culture; instead there is a very powerful reverence for the ocean. When my father was young and first started playing these regional tours through the South African townships, my grandmother would ask him to bring back a jar of seawater from certain provinces. That was her one request. And she would keep those jars on a shelf in her living room. My father wrote a song titled “Mami Wata,” an ode to the spiritual energy of the ocean.

Does this spiritual aspect impact on people’s approach to surfing?

Community and closeness are ubiquitous in indigenous cultures. In South Africa’s case, the Ubuntu philosophy is all about a bond of sharing that connects all humanity. If you apply that mindset to surfing, you’re going to end up with something completely different.

stepping out of the elevator with a surfboard and the whole hotel lobby froze. Everyone stared at me and stopped moving. It was not something they ever thought they’d see.

And that was only 30 years ago.

But even in South Africa right now, there are still plenty of people who look at Black kids surfing as some sort of a charity activity. They view it as some kind of benevolent act taking place. It’s like they’re holding the door open for people to enter something, as opposed to it being just as much theirs as it is yours.

68

In the book, several surfers say that a strong trait of African surf culture is that there is none and they’re making it up as they go along.

I agree. Not being saddled by magazines or years of generational inheritance like, “You have to do it this way or you’re not doing it right,” allows a different approach. The beauty of not knowing any better is where the magic happens. It’s the same in art, music and life in general: Having no governing body, real or perceived, dictating what’s right has always been key to creating cultureshifting moments.

What future do you see for surf culture in Africa?

It’s going to be about the ways in which surf communities across the continent craft their own definition of African surf culture, from starting brands that appeal to others around the world to redefining the surf tourism economy. Right now it’s dominated by expats from America and Australia who go to these countries and hire locals but dictate how the economy looks. What if these were businesses run by Africans as opposed to outsiders who come in and create this top-down situation? There’s a huge opportunity for local cultures to build and shape their own version of the service economy.

THE RED BULLETIN

MAGNUS ENDAL, MARCO GUALAZZINI

“In 20 years’ time, I can see there being as many Black Africans on the world surfing tours as there are Brazilians now,” says South African big-wave champion Grant “Twiggy” Baker.

Do you think that this sense of community makes you a better surfer?

If you look at all of the world’s best surfers, regardless of race and culture, many of them come from adversity; many had to overcome something in order to become great. Kelly Slater had a broken home, with alcoholism in his family, so surfing became his oasis. Or look at the stories of these Brazilian surfers. Many of them come from very strong communities in their favelas, right? They all managed to overcome economic strife. When we learn how to couple our culture with talent, hard work and opportunity, that’s when we rise.

“Morocco is a surf nation. We have 3,000 kilometers [1,860 miles] of coastline and world-class waves,” says Ramzi Boukhiam, who will represent his country in surfing’s debut at the next Olympics.

“When we learn to combine our culture with talent, hard work and opportunity, that’s when we rise.”

In 2015, photographer Marco Gualazzini visited war-torn Mogadishu in Somalia.

Today, women, surfers and the youth of Mogadishu pack Lido Beach (above), indicating a growing sense of optimism. The beach has become the symbol of the city’s rebirth.

THE RED BULLETIN

In his essay, Mikey February says, “I feel like African surf communities are going to be the ones to influence a lot of people around the rest of the world instead.” Do you agree?

Yes. Mikey says that African expression is very raw and honest. There’s no bullshitting, no trying to impress anyone.

And that’s important to consider, because all your experiences on land shape you into who you are when you stand on the board. That’s what you’re expressing.

It’s the food, it’s the music, it’s the dance.

It’s the culture and traditions. It’s all these things you can’t re-create anywhere else, and it will influence the way you surf. It’s why Brazilians have the flair that they do, and why the Tahitians do the dance in the manner that they do.

Essentially, it’s what gives surfing its richness and depth and diversity. It’s what makes surfing so cool. mamiwatasurf.com/pages/afrosurf

For TV presenter Selema Masekela, surfing is more than just a sport.

All profits from his book will go to African surftherapy organizations, including Waves for Change and Surfers Not Street Children.

69

Time to Rally It was one of the last big motorsports events to take place before last year’s global lockdown. Now, as the world tries to shake off its stasis, the Mint 400 is revving up again. America’s oldest desert rally has endured throughout the nation’s many upheaval and remains as wild as ever.

Words TOM GUISE Photography GAVIN BOND

Bryce Menzies tackles the 2020 Mint 400 in his trophy truck, a vehicle capable of jumping more than 150 feet. “You’re doing four laps of 100 miles,” says the two-time overall winner (2013 and 2018).

“It’s an iconic race.”

71

A 428-mile blast through the Mojave Desert, the Mint 400 began in 1968 as a PR stunt to promote the annual deer hunt of Las Vegas hotel and casino the Mint. But the event, which starts and finishes just beyond the glare of the Las Vegas Strip, soon transformed into something bigger: the “Great American Off-Road Race.” “I first went in 2018,” says British photographer Gavin Bond. “It was the 50th anniversary, and I knew nothing about it.

My producer in L.A.—this English guy called Skinny—is an amateur petrolhead. He got one of those competition trucks and entered, so I went along. I fell in love with the race and knew I had to go back to shoot it.” And that’s what he did in March 2020. What Bond didn’t know at the time was that the motorsports scenes he’d capture would be among the last before everyday life transformed forever—two weeks later, the world went into lockdown.

A year on, the world has changed in many ways, but against the odds, the Mint 400 is back. This isn’t the first time the event has been in peril—for two decades it didn’t run at all. When casino owner Jack Binion bought the Mint hotel and casino in 1988, he shut down the race, as he believed it negatively impacted on his businesses. It wasn’t until 2008 that the rights were bought by Matt and Joshua Martelli, filmmakers of the successful viral motorsports series Ken Block’s Gymkhana.

Today the Mint and many surrounding casinos are long gone, replaced by entertainment complexes. But the race endures, just as it did throughout the era of the Hollywood macho man—the likes of Steve McQueen and James Garner took part—and also the birth of gonzo journalism; it was while covering the Mint 400 for Sports Illustrated that author Hunter S. Thompson was inspired to pen his ode to the lost American Dream, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. “You couldn’t have anything more ‘America,’ ” says Bond of the race. The photographer set out to document a sporting event, but, like Thompson, he found something more raw and fascinating. The Mint 400 is scheduled to take place March 3-7 in Las Vegas; themint400.com 72

THE RED BULLETIN

The day before the main race, bikes take to the field. “They were part of the original Mint 400, mixed in with the cars, which was crazy,” says co-owner Matt Martelli.

“That stopped [in 1976] for insurance reasons.

We brought them back in 2018.” Two vintage classes (1980-90, and earlier) are mixed in with pro and amateur riders, a women’s category and even father/son teams.

“Bikes have always been the gateway to offroading. Most racers started on one.”

“It’s definitely a family affair.

One guy rides one truck, the son rides in the other truck, and the daughter rides the bike.”

Photographer Gavin Bond

Left: Red Bull driver Seth Quintero waits by his UTV Pro N/A (utility terrain vehicle, non-aspirated; meaning it isn’t turbo- or supercharged). In 2019, at age 16, the Alabamaborn rider entered the history books as the youngest Mint 400 winner in the UTV Pro Turbo category. “This shot is before the race.

It’s hot and they just want to get out on the track,” says Bond.

Quintero failed to finish in 2020 after crashing out.

Opposite page: A mix of trophy trucks and UTVs in action.

74

THE RED BULLETIN

THE RED BULLETIN

  75

Above: “The calm before the storm—a 400-mile war in the Mojave Desert for the next six to 12 hours,” says Martelli of the race start. “As these guys drive around, helicopters are flying around, getting intel on the race and explaining to the drivers who they’re chasing,” says Bond.

“That’s how much money they throw at this thing.”

“I had radio info that Bryce Menzies [pictured this spread, far right] was about to refuel, so I raced back and got this great shot of Red Bull waiting there with the fuel lines ready . . . but the car just didn’t stop.”

Left: “There are three pits: two in the desert; this one is by the start,” says Bond.

76

THE RED BULLETIN

“These trucks come in with pieces hanging off them,” says Bond.

“The guy underneath is fixing something that fell off during the race. The colors you can see are from the lights of the stage where they receive their prize. Even if you come in 15th, you get a little medal.”

THE RED BULLETIN

77

Joseph Jepsen of the Diamond J Racing team in his Alumi Craft open-wheel buggy. “This is in Class 10—the ‘racer’s class,’ with equal cars—which is very competitive,” says Martelli. “I’m shooting with a long lens,” says Bond.

“But I’m probably closer than I should be. You’re out in the middle of nowhere with five or six other photographers, all trying to get the best shot, and sometimes you get led astray.”

“There are no boundaries in the middle of the desert, just flags,” says Bond of photographing the Mint 400. “Suddenly you find a car hurtling toward you and it doesn’t control itself very well. You just have to dive out of the way. It’s definitely dangerous.”

79

NEED TO CONQUER A MOUNTAIN OF WORK? FREE

Gain insights to improve the way you work at www.wingfinder.com

AS

SE

SS

MENT

guide Get it. Do it. See it.

DOUG MCLENNAN

BEYOND THE ROPES If you want to carve thigh-deep snowy turns without social-distancing concerns, try backcountry skiing at these three powder paradises.

Words HEATHER BALOGH ROCHFORT

THE RED BULLETIN

Earn that descent with a lift-free climb at Bluebird.

  81

G U I D E

Do it

After a successful two-week soft launch last spring, Colorado’s first backcountryonly ski resort opened on New Year’s Eve, proving that “inbounds backcountry” isn’t an oxymoron. Located 2.5 hours northwest of Denver on 1,200 acres of private land in north-central Colorado, Bluebird aims to reduce the barriers to entry in the sport. “We believe backcountry skiing is difficult and dangerous to learn, but it doesn’t need to be that way,” says co-founder Erik Lambert. “So we combined the amenities of a ski resort with the benefits of the backcountry and the benefits of a guide service to solve the problem.” The result: avalanche-evaluated backcountry terrain suitable for beginners and advanced skiers alike. While Bluebird doesn’t do any type of avalanche blasting or snow grooming, its ski patrol and dedicated team of volunteers does monitor the conditions to encourage guest safety. This includes mechanical practices like compaction and ski

Inbounds backcountry at Bluebird.

82

cutting that harden the snow to prevent depth hoar, a persistent weak layer of snowpack frequently responsible for avalanches.

“We’re pretty conservative about what’s open and what’s not,” Lambert says.

“We can give people the same reasonable expectation of safety that any ski area would.”

Still, Bluebird isn’t like other ski areas. After securing a (noticeably cheaper) day pass, skiers laden with the Big Three (avalanche beacon, avalanche shovel and probe) are checked by ski patrol before beginning the uphill journey. No chairlifts exist at Bluebird, so everyone must climb the mountain in order to ski down. Perched on the side of 9,845-foot Bear Mountain, Bluebird offers a variety of ungroomed terrain ranging from beginnerfriendly mellow meadows to steep drops and tight aspen glades for more experienced folks. (Diehard skiers can hire a private guide to venture into an additional 3,000 acres of gnarly, unmitigated terrain.)

The ski area even has a trail map with the oft-referenced symbols like blue square and black diamond commonly

Powdery bliss at Stevens Pass.

used at standard ski resorts.

This ensures backcountry newcomers feel welcome with skiing suited to their abilities.

“Ultimately, we have four goals: improve access, reduce barriers, reimagine backcountry education and create a social hub for the backcountry community,” Lambert explains.

There’s an added bonus, too: Bluebird is highly sustainable. Not only is the mountain entirely humanpowered (no snow machines either), but the few scattered buildings are all semipermanent and removed at the end of the season. The two larger structures at the base and the few geodesic-dome warming huts scattered on the mountain are all deconstructed in April and rebuilt every November to comply with the landowner’s lease requirements. Since the

region is used for cattle grazing in the summer, the buildings must disappear until the next ski season.

Make it happen: Due to the lack of man-made snow, Bluebird has a shorted season and closes at the end of March. Until then, it’s open Thursdays-Mondays and does not require any advance reservations. Season passes, 4-packs and 10-pack day passes are all available on the website.

Lift-Served STEVENS PASS, WASHINGTON

If you prefer face shots and sleeper pow with a side of chairlifts, Stevens Pass Ski Area is the backcountry mecca for you. Situated 90 minutes east of Seattle with a base elevation of 4,000 feet, Stevens Pass is a traditional, chairlift-driven resort known

THE RED BULLETIN

MATTHEW ROEBKE, CASTNER PHOTOGRAPHY, SILVERTON MOUNTAIN

Human-Powered BLUEBIRD BACKCOUNTRY, COLORADO

Backcountry Skiing

for delightfully inaccurate weather reports that dump more snowflakes than predicted. But while everyday skiers come for the standard inbounds terrain, powder

hounds know that the best stuff exists beyond the lift.

The epochally scary-andexposed Seventh Heaven chairlift sweeps skiers uphill to the area’s top ridgeline, known as Cowboy Ridge.

From there, all that stands between the intrepid and their bliss is a quick bootpack to the gates separating the ski area from the backcountry.

Suited for advanced skiers only, stashes of steep-anddeep technical turns await through a series of often spicy and occasionally deathdefying chutes that empty skiers back to the inbounds terrain. “You get everything at Stevens: awesome glades, steep lines and beautiful views,” says Seth Yates, a marketing pro based in Seattle. “And the chairlift does the work for you.”

Make it happen: Pay attention to the state’s rules regarding outside visitors, as they are fluid this year. Stevens Pass Ski Area is requiring reservations with season pass holders taking priority, so be sure to plan ahead—and don’t forget your avy gear if you’re leaving the groomers.

Silverton has thousands of acres accessible only by hiking or helicopter.

THE RED BULLETIN

Heli-Served SILVERTON, COLORADO

At first glance, Silverton Mountain may look like a traditional ski resort with a single chairlift winding its way up the slope. But Silverton isn’t for the faint of heart. While the scruffy two-seat chairlift (retired from California’s Mammoth Mountain) provides access to 1,819 acres of avalanchecontrolled backcountry terrain, the heart of Silverton beats in the additional 22,000 acres that are only accessible by hiking or helicopter. These wild-andsteep slopes are often referred to as “vertigo-inducing” due to their sheer and impossibly steep nature. Combined with 400 inches of annual snowfall and a summit elevation of 13,487 feet, Silverton isn’t for beginners or even intermediate skiers. In fact, the terrain is so advanced that the mountain only allows guided group skiing (maximum of eight people) for most of the winter.

“Deep and steep doesn’t begin to describe that place,” says Javier Pineda, a paralegal from Frisco, Colorado. “Silverton offers solitude, stoke and a hunger for more.” Skiers wanting to level up on the adrenaline can also catch the heli.

Silverton is the only ski resort in the continental United States to offer single-drop helicopter runs.

It’s like an à la carte menu filled with powder refills.

Make it happen: Both helicopter (seven days per week) and guided seasons (Thursdays-Sundays) are up and running until March 14, 2021. For folks wanting to visit unguided, that’s available five days per week, March 17-April 18.

KNOW BEFORE YOU GO Arm yourself with the proper gear and safety equipment to ensure your return to the parking lot.

SAFETY GEAR

Avalanche Beacon Don’t leave home without one.

We like the Black Diamond Guide BT beacon for its multiple-burial search capabilities.

Shovel Plastic is lighter but aluminum is stronger during backcountry rescues. A good option is the Ortovox Pro Alu. Probe Used to pinpoint the location of a buried individual. Choose a probe that’s longer than 2 meters; we recommend the Black Diamond Quickdraw Tour Probe 280.

Backpack Avalanche backpacks are pricey but may be worth it if you’re caught in a slide. Our rec: Osprey’s new Soelden/ Sopris Pro pack.

SKI GEAR

Skis Consider the terrain you’ll ski before making your selection. We’re loving the WNDR Alpine Intention 110s and their commitment to the environment. The brand ditched petroleum-based plastics in favor of algaebased bioplastic.

Bindings Alpine-touring (AT) bindings are different from regular ski bindings, so you’ll need a new set if skiing uphill. We like the Salomon S/Lab Shift MNC 13 bindings.

Ski Boots You’ll also need a pair of AT boots that are comfortable on the uphills while still crushing the descent.

We suggest the Tecnica Zero G Tour Pro.

83

G U I D E

Do it TRAIN LIKE A PRO

“IT’S ALL ON ME” Nick Lorenz reveals how he prepares for the high-impact sport of snocross.

Nick Lorenz is a star in the high-speed sport of snocross racing. At speeds of up to 60 mph, he maneuvers his snowmobile around a tight, technical course, expertly threading through a pack and sending it high over a series of jumps. “Racing is high intensity and high heart rate,” he says. Growing up in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Lorenz spent his winters riding snowmobiles out on the trails (and riding motocross bikes in the summer). At age 7 he began racing snowmobiles. “I fell in love with the sport,” he says. He turned professional when he was 18. After two years of injuries interrupted his progress, Lorenz, now 22, competed in his second full year in the Pro Lite class in 2020. Last February he scored his first pro victory at the Seneca Allegany AMSOIL national championship series event.

“When I’m out there on the track, it’s my fitness and my racecraft,” says Lorenz. “It’s all on me.”

84

“Once the light turns green, it’s whoever can hit the throttle the fastest and get to the corner first,” says Lorenz.

THE RED BULLETIN

Fitness

R AC EC R AF T

“The race start is half the battle” “If you get off first, you’re not stuck behind people where you can’t see. With the hole position, I can set the pace for the whole field.

I do a lot of testing for starts, and having really good clutching is key.

I had a hole-shot device made so that I can practice. It’s a handlebarand-throttle setup, and I can practice going off a red light. I’ll repeat that a few times the week prior to a race and even on race day. It helps me get used to the muscle reflex of hitting the throttle and watching the light disappear.”

CAR D I O

RYAN TAYLOR/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

PETER FLAX

“A long cardio workout is a good mental test” “When there’s no snow, I do a lot of work on a rowing machine. I also ride my road or mountain bike for up to two hours. I use the road bike for interval workouts. My motocross bike is a total body workout that’s similar to snocross. The dirt bike’s a little easier on the body, so I use it for cross training. It’s good for timing, endurance and in-themoment decision making. I have a Polar heart rate monitor. I use it to track my sleep schedule and my resting heart rate. Then I know how I need to train the next day.”

THE RED BULLETIN

STR E N GTH

“I strength train twice a week” “We stop racing in March, and I typically start training again in May. I have a couple strength days each week. I do a 4,000-meter row or a 2-mile run to start off and get warmed up. I work with kettlebells and do squats and do a lot of body-weight stuff like push-ups. I do a new set every minute for a total of 10 minutes.

I also do a lot of knee stability workouts, like single-legged Roman deadlifts, so that I can build balance and strength in that area.”

“I EAT SNACKS THROUGHOUT THE DAY” “For breakfast I’ll have eggs, turkey bacon, yogurt and oatmeal. And then lots of carbs. A favorite is Jack Link’s protein snacks, and I like granola bars. After working out, I have a protein shake. I like chocolate protein and I hate mixing it with water. My go-to for my shake is unsweetened vanilla almond milk.”

R EC OV E RY

“Yoga helps keep me loose” “After I do a hard workout, I like to stretch and roll out my muscles.

Snowmobile racing is super rough on your body. If I’m riding—on test days and riding days—I’ll do yoga afterward. If I ride four times a week, I’ll do yoga every night. It gives me flexibility and mobility.

It keeps me loose and I just get to know my body more. I’ve had a couple of knee surgeries and other surgeries, so if I don’t stretch and do yoga, I notice it.

I wake up the next day and I am a lot tighter.”

85

G U I D E

See it

16 March

MARCH MADNESS Despite some foreseeable (and unforeseeable) hurdles, the NCAA has committed to a tournament in 2021, but it will look very different and all games will happen in one central location—Indianapolis.

Thru April 5; ncaa.com

Available now SKATE AFRICA Kenyan capital Nairobi has more than 60,000 homeless kids. But some, like Ezra Nyongesa— known as Balo—and his friend Samuel Mwangi, are using skateboarding to get themselves off the streets. “We gave Balo a skateboard, and within months he knew how to kickflip,” explains George Zuko, who heads up the Skateboarding Society of Kenya, which built the Shangilia skatepark and an orphanage to help educate the children, give them a better life, and unlock their talents on a board. It’s just one of the true-life stories in this two-part series about skateboard culture in Africa. redbull.com

16

March SXSW ONLINE Last year, the organizers of Austin’s beloved film, music and interactive media fest made the difficult but necessary decision to cancel the event as the country went into its first COVID lockdown. Now, with cases skyrocketing, SXSW is doing what many festivals have been doing for the past year: making it virtual.

As of press time the lineup has not been released, but there will be film screenings and music showcases.

Thru March 20; sxsw.com

86

Available now

BRAD BINDER: BECOMING 33 The 25-year-old South African MotoGP rider, in 2020, became his country’s and team Red Bull KTM’s firstever rookie winner.

“Racing is the only thing I’ve ever wanted to do,” he says in this doc that tracks a career that began as a karting champ—at age 8. redbull.com

THE RED BULLETIN

Calendar

Available now LIFE OF KAI

Available now

CHENAI GWANDURE, GETTY IMAGES(2), RED BULL CONTENT POOL, SEMTEX, MATTIAS HAMMAR/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

HIP HOP RAISED ME

In 2016, Britain’s John Fairbanks, better known as hip-hop broadcaster and author DJ Semtex, released Hip Hop Raised Me—his definitive book on the history of rap music and its influence on four decades of culture, as well as on his own life (Semtex’s career began as a party promoter for popular nightclubs in the U.K.), featuring iconic photographs, memorabilia and interviews with artists like Kool Herc, Wu-Tang Clan, Eminem, Kanye West, Jay-Z, Nicki Minaj, Kendrick Lamar and more. Now, the 46-year-old presenter of Capital Xtra’s Fridaynight hip-hop show has launched a weekly podcast of the same name. “These are indepth conversations, no agenda,” says Semtex. “New cuttingedge artists, A-list artists, architects of sound. Moguls. Icons.”

It debuted in January with Public Enemy’s Chuck D (who wrote the book’s foreword) discussing his own experiences in the hip-hop community.

On all major podcast platforms; djsemtex.com

THE RED BULLETIN

Born in Maui, Hawaii, to a Californian windsurfer (his mom) and surfer (his dad), Kai Lenny has grown up among the waves and at 28 is a surfing superstar. What is it like to live such a life? Find out in this series, as a camera crew shadows Lenny for four months during the 2019-2020 surf season, as he intends to fulfill an ambition to become the world’s best bigwave surfer. It introduces us to his wave-loving parents, his coach and his high-performance training regime to take on Code Red swells in Hawaii, heats in the World Surf League and the greatest challenge of all—the gigantic waves at Nazaré, Portugal. redbull.com

Available now THE MOUNTAIN WHY Californian pro freeskier Cody Townsend was in the middle of a mission to climb and ski the “Fifty Classic Ski Descents of North America”, as detailed in the 2010 book of the same name, when 2020 ruined his plans. Realizing his three-year timeframe was now unachievable, he decided to continue his quest—accompanied by fellow skiing pro Michelle Parker (pictured)—in a socially distanced and altogether more exerting way. So, the pair bike-packed 1,662km across America with climbing, skiing and camping gear, to tick off three of the classic ski runs in Oregon and Washington State before the last of 2020’s skiable snow ran out. Why? The answer lies at the heart of this film. redbull.com

87

SPRING INTO ACTION Whether you’re at home, on the trail or out on the run, here’s the gear you need to hit your fitness goals this year.

Words JOE LINDSEY

PELOTON BIKE+

Peloton’s new spin machine keeps the original’s compact footprint and whisper-quiet flywheel. But the larger, 23.8-inch touchscreen has upgraded speakers and rotates 360 degrees to make it easier to use Peloton’s library of yoga, strength and off-bike cardio classes. The Auto-Follow setting automatically adjusts pedal resistance to follow the class you’re in. Apple GymKit integration pairs seamlessly with an Apple Watch to share workout data. $2,495 plus membership ($39/month); onepeloton.com

G U I D E

H O M E

BOSE PORTABLE SMART SPEAKER

Earbuds aren’t for everyone. This speaker uses Bose’s legendary wizardry to create immersive 360-degree sound from one lightweight unit— only 8 inches tall, it fits anywhere in a home gym or workout space. It connects seamlessly to any Bluetooth-enabled device to crank the tunes for your workout. Voice activation offers quick, midplaylist switches to fit your mood. And with 12 hours of play time per charge, it’ll outlast any marathon exercise session. $350; bose.com

NORDICTRACK COMMERCIAL 1750

This update to NordicTrack’s top-selling treadmill is a perfect running partner. With 18 degrees of incline control and speeds up to 12 mph, it’ll dish out interval sufferfests. But with customizable cushioning, it’s great for recovery walks. It’ll instantly adjust to changes in your iFit workout; Google Maps integration lets you hike worldwide.

Other iFit classes offer yoga and cardio through the HD touchscreen. $1,799 (includes one year of iFit membership); nordictrack.com

F I T N E S S

INDO BOARD ORIGINAL TRAINING PACKAGE

Hunter Joslin designed the original balance board in 1975 to help train surfers, but his ingenious creation will hone balance, strength and proprioception for any sport. This package features a 30x18-inch oval deck made from durable birch plywood. The roller and inflatable cushion offer varying levels of difficulty. Use on its own or to add zip to kettlebell or medicine ball workouts. From $181; indoboard.com

TANGRAM SMART ROPE

Jumping rope is one of the most powerful cardio workouts you can do. Tangram’s Smart Rope captures metrics that most activity trackers can’t, thanks to sophisticated sensors that capture every jump. LED lights keep track of your workout so you can focus on form and fitness, or competition with friends through the Smart Gym app. The durable rope is tested tougher than conventional versions, and a single charge lasts up to 30 days. $80; tangramfactory.com

ECHELON ROW-S

It’s hard to beat rowing for a full-body, lowimpact workout. The Row S spices it up with live and on-demand classes; a 22-inch touchscreen for vivid virtual environments (it pivots if you switch from rower mode to other Echelon FitPass guided workouts like Core, Boxing or Meditation); and a leaderboard for real-time races. A toggle on the handlebar lets you adjust resistance without stopping midstroke. Starts at $1,640 plus membership ($40/month); echelonfit.com

It’s hard to beat rowing for a full-body, low-impact workout—and the Row-S spices it up.

THE RED BULLETIN

89

G U I D E

W E A R A B L E S

SENSORIA SMART SOCK V2.0

CORE BODY TEMPERATURE MONITOR

Raw fitness can take you far as a runner, but bad form limits even great ability. This smart sock has textile sensors that track cadence, foot strike (heel, forefoot, midfoot) and impact score.

Sensoria’s app dashboard (iOS only) translates metrics into graphics, with trend analysis to offer insights—like how your form changes with fatigue so you can refine your stride. The odometer function even alerts you when your shoes are shot. $199/pair; sensoriafitness.com

LEOMO TYPE S

This powerful multisport computer might reshape your rides and runs. With two or five (Sensor Kit Pro version) remote sensors you can put anywhere on your body, it records metrics like speed and distance—and tracks proprietary indicators to optimize pedal stroke or running economy. It offers real-time feedback, so you assess changes to shifts in bike fit and stride.

The Android OS even handles calls, emails and texts. $449 (two sensor kit); leomo.io

Your body temp shifts during workouts, offering insight into your health, performance and recovery. This noninvasive monitor, tested at the Tour de France, allows smarter heat training and adaptation. Real-time data display (via iOS or Android apps, or Garmin/Wahoo integration) indicates if you’re going too hard for conditions, while long-term tracking helps you acclimatize to hot climates. $280; corebodytemp.com

FITBIT INSPIRE 2

This compact new fitness tracker features everything you need to stay on top of your health. Think metrics like breath rate, heart-rate variability (a measure of factors like stress) and a workout intensity map that displays which heartrate zones you’re working out in. Sleep metrics help keep tabs on your rest and recovery. It’s waterproof for swim sessions. The streamlined shape and stylish band options make it perfect for all-day use. $80; fitbit.com

SUUNTO 5

Few sports watches are more versatile than this.

With over 80 sport modes (and customizable options), it’s ready for any activity you can dream up. GPS navigation on the watch or paired to a phone offers precise route planning. Adaptive training guidance adjusts intensity based on past activity to help you meet your goals. And 24/7 sleep and stress tracking keep tabs on your recovery and freshness, so you’re at your best for your next adventure. $329; suunto.com

Sensors on the Leomo Type S give you real-time data on your pedal stroke or running economy.

90

THE RED BULLETIN

GARMIN VIVOACTIVE 4S

Don’t let this compact sports watch (available with either 40 or 45 mm bezels) fool you; it packs 20 preloaded sports apps into its intuitive navigation for everything from swimming laps to hitting the links. The 4S tracks a massive range of metrics like pulse oxygenation, hydration and sleep. Powerful built-in GPS and capacity for up to 500 songs lets you leave the phone at home.

Livetrack incident detection and assistance give you peace of mind when you’re out there solo. $350; garmin.com

Garmin’s Vivoactive 4S is stylish and compact—and extremely capable.

The name is long and the price is steep, but these Nikes are likely to give you a PR.

NIKE AIR ZOOM ALPHAFLY NEXT%

Yeah, the name is a mouthful, but if you want a PR in your next long race, the data is clear: This is the shoe to get there. Academic studies show the proprietary ZoomX foam blend and carbonfiber plate helps runners shave several percent off their time on average, and the latest version, which features Zoom Air pucks under the forefoot, may be faster yet. It’s not cheap, but there’s a reason even non-Nike runners are picking them for race days. $275; nike.com

G U I D E

F O O T W E A R

ALTRA OLYMPUS 4

Altra’s founder, Golden Harper, invented Zero Drop with a simple idea: Your feet sit flat, so why do shoes lift your heel? But Zero Drop isn’t just for minimalist-shoe lovers. The Olympus 4 features 33 mm of EVA midsole cushioning for all-day comfort. The Vibram MegaGrip outsole features meaty lugs for sure grip and a wide, extended tail for braking traction on steep stuff.

And the mesh upper, cushioned tongue and wide toe box cradle your foot. $170; altrarunning.com

BROOKS ADRENALINE GTS 21

GTS stands for “go-to shoe” and the latest version of the beloved Adrenaline is exactly that: a daily road driver that strikes a balance between support, cushion and durability. DNA Loft foam with a 12 mm heel-toe drop softens even hard heel strikes, while molded guiderail supports channel your power into forward motion. The Air Mesh upper fits perfect from day one and keeps your feet cool even in summer heat. In men’s and women’s versions. $130; brooksrunning.com

UNDER ARMOUR PROJECT ROCK 3

High-intensity gym workouts require a stable foundation. The Project Rock 3 features UA’s Tribase construction and stability chassis, which improves support for explosive moves, whether it’s on the circuit, free weights or CrossFit. The knit, socklike EnergyWeb upper and TPU heel counter hold you locked in and secure for noslip confidence, and the HOVR foam provides exceptional energy return, ideal for HIIT cardio sessions. $140; underarmour.com

SCARPA SPIN ULTRA GTX

The new iteration of Scarpa’s highly regarded Spin line adds a Gore-Tex Invisible Fit waterproof liner that’s bonded to the upper rather than sewn in as a bootie. The result: a lighter, more flexible membrane that preserves the supple, socklike fit of modern knit uppers but still fends off rain and creek crossings. The dual-density midsole and TPU insert offer cushion for hard landings, stability for tricky terrain and protection against rough trails. $169; scarpa.com

HOKA ONE ONE BONDI 7

When you want ultimate cushion, look no further than the most-padded shoe from maximalist evangelists Hoka. With a huge 31 mm of EVA foam in the heel and a modest 4 mm drop to the toe, the Bondi 7 has maximum bounce in a feathery 8.9 oz package. A TPU overlay adds structure to keep your stride mechanics intact, and the beveled heel design offers smooth transitions for rearfoot strikers. For men and women, and in regular and wide lasts. $150; hokaoneone.com

When you want ultimate cushion, look no further than the mostpadded shoe from Hoka One One. THE RED BULLETIN

93

G U I D E

A P PA R E L

TRACKSMITH SESSION PANTS

Don’t call it a running tight. These pants are cut with a semi-form-fit silhouette that seamlessly goes from a run to lunch with friends to a nap.

And the Italian-made Veloce fabric is soft, light and wonderfully stretchy, great for the gym or yoga. Mesh ankles breathe during high-intensity exercise to prevent bothersome cling, while zippered side pockets and a secure rear pocket hold your phone and keys without bouncing. In men’s and women’s styles. $118; tracksmith.com

SMARTWOOL MERINO SPORT ULTRA LIGHT HOODIE

Ward off the chill on dawn patrol hikes with this ultralight windshell. The recycled-nylon shell features a snug hood, reflective elements and DWR coating for wind and weather protection, with vented panels on the back and underarms.

Zippered waist pockets keep your keys secure, and the 5.2 oz hoodie packs into one for easy storage when it warms up. Available in men’s and women’s styles. $130; smartwool.com

LIFEPROOF LIFEACTIV ARMBAND Keep your phone—your workout playlist, your GPS run route, your whole digital life—in easy reach with this comfortable, secure armband.

Ditch clunky plastic sleeves that mess with touchscreens; the QuickMount system lets you securely fasten the phone with one quick click, and remove with a twist. The system sits flush to your arm to limit bothersome bouncing, and the universal sizing fits biceps up to bodybuilder size. $50; lifeproof.com

PRANA BECKSA 7/8 LEGGINGS

OUTDOOR VOICES POWERHOUSE BRA

You may need two pairs of these versatile favorites from Prana because you’re going to live in them. The environmentally friendly bluesigncertified Becksa fabric features a soft, ribbed texture and flatlock seams for comfort. The 1x1 compression ratio offers perfect fit and support.

The high-rise cut flatters all body types, and two side pockets and a hidden key pocket in the waistband keep valuables secure. Available in standard and plus-size ranges. $89; prana.com

When you’re really moving, you need ultimate support. This sports bra features molded cups and honeycomb mesh fabric for the perfect amount of compression and structure for highmotion activities like running, CrossFit and dance.

Adjustable straps, five band sizes and three cup sizes ensure a proper fit for all body shapes and sizes. The front zipper means no more fighting to get into the bra, and the inside clasp keeps you securely zipped. $24; outdoorvoices.com

These Tracksmith pants are great for running, yoga, the gym, lunch with friends or even a nap.

94

THE RED BULLETIN

PEARL IZUMI ROVE SHORT

Pearl Izumi’s Rove shorts are ideal for a ride—and a bunch of other uses.

This riding short is for more than just bike trips.

A gusseted crotch keeps seams out of the way for riding, but the cotton-nylon Oxford fabric features an ideal amount of four-way stretch for fitness classes. The waistband sits higher in the back for full coverage on the bike or in downward dog. With a straight, fitted cut and 12.5-inch inseam that sits just above the knee, this fashionable short looks equally at home working out or around town. $90; pearlizumi.com

GLOBAL TEAM Head of The Red Bulletin Alexander Müller-Macheck, Sara Car-Varming (deputy) Editors-in-Chief Andreas Rottenschlager, Andreas Wollinger (deputy) Creative Directors Erik Turek, Kasimir Reimann (deputy) Art Directors Marion Bernert-Thomann, Miles English, Tara Thompson Designers Martina de ­Carvalho-Hutter, Kevin Goll, Carita Najewitz Photo Editors Eva Kerschbaum (manager), Marion Batty (deputy), Susie Forman, Tahira Mirza, Rudi Übelhör Digital Editors Christian Eberle-Abasolo (manager), Elena Rodriguez Angelina, Benjamin Sullivan Special Projects Florian Obkircher, Arkadiusz Piatek Managing Editors Ulrich Corazza, Marion Lukas-Wildmann Publishing Management Ivona Glibusic, Bernhard Schmied, Anna Wilczek Managing Director Stefan Ebner Head of Media Sales & Partnerships Lukas Scharmbacher Head of Co-Publishing Susanne Degn-Pfleger Project Management Co-Publishing, B2B Marketing & Communication Katrin Sigl (manager), Mathias Blaha, Katrin Dollenz, Thomas Hammerschmied, Teresa Kronreif (B2B), Eva Pech, Valentina Pierer, Stefan Portenkirchner (communication) Creative Services Verena Schörkhuber-Zöhrer (manager), Sara Wonka, Julia Bianca Zmek, Edith Zöchling-Marchart Commercial Management Co-Publishing Alexandra Ita Editorial Co-Publishing Raffael Fritz (manager), Gundi Bittermann, Mariella Reithoffer, Wolfgang Wieser Executive Creative Director Markus Kietreiber Project Management Creative Elisabeth Kopanz Art Direction Co-Publishing Dominik Uhl (manager), Stefanie Werth, Andreea Parvu Commercial Design Peter Knehtl (manager), Simone Fischer, Martina Maier, Alexandra Schendl, Julia Schinzel, Florian Solly, Stephan Zenz Subscriptions and Distribution Peter Schiffer (manager), Marija Althajm, Nicole Glaser, Victoria Schwärzler, Yoldaş Yarar Advertising Manuela Brandstätter, Monika Spitaler Production Veronika Felder (manager), Friedrich Indich, Walter O. Sádaba, Sabine Wessig Repro Clemens Ragotzky (manager), Claudia Heis, Nenad Isailović, Sandra Maiko Krutz, Josef Mühlbacher Finance Mariia Gerutska (manager), Klaus Pleninger MIT Christoph Kocsisek, Michael Thaler Operations Melanie Grasserbauer, Alexander Peham, Yvonne Tremmel Project Management Gabriela-Teresa Humer Editor and CEO Andreas Kornhofer Editorial office Heinrich-Collin-Straße 1, A-1140 Vienna Phone +43 1 90221-0 Web redbulletin.com Published by Red Bull Media House GmbH, Oberst-Lepperdinger-Straße 11–15, A-5071 Wals bei Salzburg, FN 297115i, Landesgericht Salzburg, ATU63611700 Executive Directors Dkfm. Dietrich Mateschitz, Dietmar Otti, Christopher Reindl, Marcus Weber

96

THE RED BULLETIN USA, Vol 10 Issue 5, ISSN 2308-586X is published monthly except combined January/February and July/August issues by Red Bull Media House, North America, 1740 Stewart St., Santa Monica, CA 90404.

Periodicals postage paid at Santa Monica, CA, and additional mailing offices.

ATTENTION POSTMASTER: Send address changes to THE RED BULLETIN, PO Box 469002, Escondido, CA 92046.

Editor-in-Chief Peter Flax Deputy Editor Nora O’Donnell Art Director Tara Thompson Copy Chief David Caplan Publishing Management Branden Peters Media Network Communications & Marketing Manager Brandon Peters Advertising Sales Todd Peters, todd.peters@redbull.com Dave Szych, dave.szych@redbull.com Tanya Foster, tanya.foster@redbull.com Printed by Quad/Graphics, Inc., 668 Gravel Pike, East Greenville, PA 18041, qg.com Mailing Address PO Box 469002 Escondido, CA 92046 US Office 2700 Pennsylvania Ave. Santa Monica, CA 90404 Subscribe getredbulletin.com, subscription@us.redbulletin.com.

Basic subscription rate is $29.95 per year. Offer available in the US and US possessions only. The Red Bulletin is published 10 times a year. Please allow four to six weeks for delivery of the first issue.

Customer Service 855-492-1650; subscription@us.redbulletin.com

THE RED BULLETIN Austria, ISSN 1995-8838 Editor Wolfgang Wieser Proofreaders Hans Fleißner (manager), Petra Hannert, Monika Hasleder, Billy Kirnbauer-Walek Publishing Management Bernhard Schmied Media Sales & Partnerships Thomas Hutterer (manager), Alfred Vrej Minassian, Franz Fellner, Daniela Güpner, Gabriele MatijevicBeisteiner, Wolfgang Kröll, Nicole Okasek-Lang, Britta Pucher, Jennifer Sabejew, Thomas Gubier, Johannes Wahrmann-Schär, Ellen Wittmann-Sochor, Ute Wolker, Christian Wörndle, Sabine Zölß; Kristina Krizmanic (Team Assistant)

THE RED BULLETIN France, ISSN 2225-4722 Editor Pierre-Henri Camy Country Coordinator Christine Vitel Country Project M ­ anagement Youri Cviklinski

THE RED BULLETIN Germany, ISSN 2079-4258 Editor David Mayer Proofreaders Hans Fleißner (manager), Petra Hannert, Monika Hasleder, Billy Kirnbauer-Walek Country Project Management Natascha Djodat Media Sales & Partnerships Thomas Hutterer (manager), Alfred Vrej Minassian, Franz Fellner, Gabriele Matijevic-Beisteiner, Nicole Okasek-Lang, Britta Pucher, Jennifer Sabejew, Thomas Gubier, Johannes Wahrmann-Schär, Ellen Wittmann-Sochor, Sabine Zölß

THE RED BULLETIN Switzerland, ISSN 2308-5886 Editor Wolfgang Wieser Country Project Management Meike Koch Commercial & Brand Partnerships Manager Stefan Bruetsch Advertising Sales Marcel Bannwart (D-CH), marcel.bannwart@redbull.com Christian Bürgi (W-CH), christian.buergi@redbull.com

THE RED BULLETIN United Kingdom, ISSN 2308-5894 Editor Ruth McLeod Associate Editor Tom Guise Culture Editor Florian Obkircher Chief Sub-Editor Davydd Chong Publishing Management Ollie Stretton Advertising Sales Mark Bishop, mark.bishop@redbull.com Fabienne Peters, fabienne.peters@redbull.com

USPS STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT, AND CIRCULATION (required by 30 UCS 3685) Publication title: The Red Bulletin Publication #: Volume 10 Issue 5, ISSN 2 308-586X Filing Date: 10/1/2020 Issue Frequency: Monthly except for 2 issues, Jan/Feb and July/Aug Number of Issues Published Annually: 10 Annual Subscription Price: $29.95 Complete Mailing Address of Known Office of Publication: 1740 Stewart St., Santa Monica, CA 90404-4022 Contact Person: Laurie Levasseur Publishing Mangement: Branden Peters Editor-in-Chief: Peter Flax Owner: R ed Bull Media House GmbH at Oberst-Lepperdinger-StraBe 11-15, A-5071 Wals bei Salzburg, FN 297115i, Landesgericht Salzburg, ATU63611700 Known Bondholders. Mortgagees and Other Security Holders Owning or Holding 1% or more of Total Amount of Bonds, Mortgages or Other Securities: None Tax status: Has not changed AVERAGE NUMBER OF COPIES EACH ISSUE DURING PRECEDING 12 MONTHS a. Total Number of Copies (net press run): 395,015 b. Paid and/or Requested Circulation: 340,127 / Newsstand Sell-thru: 491 c. Total Paid and/or Requested Distribution: 340,618 d. Non-Requested Distribution: 25,118 / Sampling: 19,951 e. Total Free Distribution: 45,069 f. Total Distribution: 385,686 g. Copies Not Distributed: 9,329 h. Total: 395,015 i. Percent Paid or Requested: 88.3% Issue Date for Circulation Data Below: August/September 2020 a. Total Number of Copies (net press run): 321,052 b. Paid and/or Requested Circulation: 315,252 / Newsstand Sell-thru: 250 c. Total Paid and/or Requested Distribution: 315,502 d. Non-Requested Distribution: 520 / Sampling: 280 e. Total Free Distribution: 800 f. Total Distribution: 316,302 g. Copies Not Distributed: 4,750 h. Total: 321,052 i. Percent Paid or Requested: 99.7% I certify that the above statements are correct and complete.

Peter Flax (US Editor-in-Chief)

Disclaimer If you subscribed to The Red Bulletin magazine in the USA either by mail, online or other method, we may send you offers through direct mail that we feel might be of interest to you and/or share your name and mailing address and certain other information, such as when you first subscribed, with reputable companies that provide marketing offers through direct mail. If you do not want us to send you any offers from third parties through direct mail or share your personal Information with other companies so that they can send you direct mail offers about their products and services, please write to us at the street address or subscription email address above. Please note that even if you opt out of receiving promotional direct mail offers, we may continue to send you service notifications by direct mail that are related to your The Red Bulletin account(s).

THE RED BULLETIN

SUBSCRIBE NOW!

THE RED BULLETIN BEYOND THE ORDINARY

10 issues for $12

getredbulletin.com

Wingin’ it The county of Møre og Romsdal in Western Norway is home to Mardelsfossen, one of Europe’s tallest waterfalls. The merest mention of the word “fall” last August was enough to get Marco Waltenspiel, Marco Fürst and Max Manow of the Red Bull Skydive Team pulling on their wingsuits and flinging themselves into the void.

To see these super fly guys in action, drop into redbull.com.

98

The next issue of THE RED BULLETIN is out on March 16.

THE RED BULLETIN

PETER SALZMANN/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

Action highlight

So you, yeah you, wipe that sleep out of your eyes.

Wake up. Gear up. Click in. Now, fly.

It’s a new day, and there’s daylight to burn.

It’s time to rise.

SHOP THE DAWN PATROL COLLECTION.

Mattias Fredriksson Vatnahalsen, Norway

And whether you like it or not, adventures don’t fit conveniently into a 9 to 5.

BD Athlete Tobin Seagel

FOR THOSE THAT RISE.

To live, is to rise.