The Red Bulletin April 2017 - UK

UK EDITION

BEYOND THE ORDINARY

THE MIKE HORN ADVENTURE RULE BOOK

ULTIMATE

EXPLORER

SAVED BY THE BELL

JAWBONE STAR JOHNNY HARRIS FIGHTS BACK

MAX VELOCITY

WHY VERSTAPPEN IS ON THE FAST TRACK TO F1 GREATNESS

FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK

FACEBOOK.COM/THEREDBULLETIN

APRIL 2017 £2.50

S IM ONE B A RR AC O

VIDEO STABILIZATION

WATERPROOF

VOICE CONTROL

CONTRIBUTORS

EDITORIAL

Alberto Van Stokkum

Chris Brinlee Jr

While shooting the photographs for our Mike Horn feature (and front cover), Brinlee Jr got an assist from Mother Nature. “Once we hit 60-70 degrees of latitude, the ‘golden hour’ lasted eight hours because the sun stayed so low in the sky,” says the Los Angeles-based snapper and budding adventurer. The roiling seas were less accommodating, however, and he spent most of his first day on Horn’s ship, Pangaea, bent over a sick bucket. SEE PAGE 32

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Follow your own path The personalities in this month’s Red Bulletin may be reaching for the top in vastly different fields, but they have one thing in common: they’re all taking on big challenges and doing it their way.

Our cover star, Mike Horn, currently midway through an epic pole-to-pole quest, encapsulates this ethos with a simple belief: “I don’t believe that the easiest way is the best.” Meanwhile, fast-rising Swedish rapper Ängie’s uncompromising style and refusal to play by the usual music industry rules has caused controversy, but also brought success.

Here in the UK, actor Johnny Harris has travelled a tough path to the top, but his unflinching honesty in dealing with his demons has now resulted in a superb new boxing movie referencing his youth.

Finally, Formula One champion-in-the-making Max Verstappen refuses to let criticism of his battling and bruising race style deflect him from the ultimate goal: championship glory. “You have to be ruthless if you want to achieve something in F1,” he says.

All come from different worlds, but all share the same vision: that the only truly satisfying way to reach your chosen destination is to steer your own course. Enjoy the issue.

THE RED BULLETIN

SEBASTIAN DEVENISH (COVER)

“Female characters feature a lot in my work,” says the Spanish photographer and filmmaker. “They’re what inspire me most.” It comes as no surprise, then, that Von Stokkum enjoyed the shoot with Swedish hip-hop enfant terrible Ängie.

And obviously the fascination was mutual, as Ängie agreed to pose outdoors in Stockholm on a freezing January morning, wearing only a pink nightgown. SEE PAGE 4 4

footwear in stores nationwide

www.dare2b.com

CONTENTS April

FEATURES 32

Mike Horn

Setting sail with the South African explorer as he embarks on the greatest journey of his life, Pole2Pole

44 Ängie

The rude-girl rapper talks drugs, oral sex and Lou Reed

50

‘Mad’ Mike Whiddett

58

Drama Park Lane

South Africa’s Franschhoek Pass holds no fear for the Kiwi king of drifting. His mantra: focus, focus, focus Behind the velvet rope of the London celebrity hangout

64 Johnny Harris

For his screenwriting debut, Jawbone, the British actor and filmmaker delved into his own troubled early life

68

Adam Bridle

76

Max Verstappen

Born in South Africa, made in Mexico: how one man conquered the world of lucha libre – no mask required Fighting talk from the Red Bull Racing driver who, at just 19, is poised to become one of F1’s all-time greats

44 ÄNGIE

Look who's toking: The Red Bulletin meets the provocative rap princess behind the most risqué song of 2016

10

BULLEVARD Life & Style Beyond The Ordinary

14 Steering F1 into the future 16 Hollywood progeny Ireland 18 20 22 24 25 26 28 29 30

Basinger-Baldwin cuts loose How to sleep for success Skills on demand? Actor Tom Payne has the technology Leroy Bellet: the surf snapper who gets closer to the action A bike fit for a McQueen The humanitarian side of Hollywood star Sean Penn LaFerrari Aperta: a rare beast Room with a view-and-a-half Top tips from a party pro Street food, Michelin class

GUIDE

Get It, Do It, See It 84 Watches for tough times 86 What’s on Red Bull TV 88 90

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96 98

this month Our diary of events that you won’t want to miss Active wear: essential kit for those on the move Global team BMX goes off the wall

DIRK COLLINS, ALBERTO VAN STOKKUM, PETER J FOX

MIKE HORN

When the extreme adventurer set off on his latest Antarctic quest, photographer Chris Brinlee Jr joined him to document his perilous endeavour

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MAX VERSTAPPEN

Formula One has a new hero. He’s Dutch, he’s 19, and motor racing is in his genes. Ready for Max power?

THE RED BULLETIN

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The ultimate adventure isn’t defined by limits. It is found by breaking through your own perceived barriers, as you ride off into extreme terrain on the most powerful production offroad bike available – the new KTM 1290 SUPER ADVENTURE R. Look beyond what you thought was possible!

Please make no attempt to imitate the illustrated riding scenes, always wear protective clothing and observe the applicable provisions of the road traffic regulations!

The illustrated vehicles may vary in selected details from the production models and some illustrations feature optional equipment available at additional cost.

THE NEW DEFINITION OF ADVENTURE Photo: J. Fruhauf

BULLEVARD LIFE

&

STYLE

BEYOND

THE

ORDINARY

JEREMY JACKSON

CLEMENS STACHEL

The Walking Dead star talks about his latest movie, MindGamers

TOM PAYNE, JESUS AND THE DALAI LAMA: “I WOULD LOVE MORE PEOPLE TO FEEL EMPATHY” PAGE 20 13

BULLEVARD NEUTRAL A useful button for when a driver arrives in the box for a pit stop.

DIFFERENTIAL Allows

control over the differential that sends power to the rear wheels, regulating the speed of the wheel on one side in respect to the other side.

TEAM RADIO Puts the driver in radio contact with his team. For much of last season, this was heavily restricted, but it came back with a bang in late 2016.

DISPLAY SCREEN

This OLED information panel can display multiple pages of data on speed, lap time, difference to the leader, battery energy status, etc.

BRAKE BALANCE

Using these dials, the driver can shift the brake bias to either the front or the back. With modern F1 cars, harvesting energy from braking phases, balancing between the right feel for the driver yet still recovering enough energy for good lap times, is essential.

Hot wheel

Controlling a Formula One car involves a bit more than merely pointing it in the right direction. With its myriad buttons, dials and switches, today’s F1 steering wheel is a tech-head’s dream

WELCOME TO MISSION CONTROL 14

DRINK In extreme races

(eg, the heat of Singapore), drivers can experience fluid loss of up to 4kg. A two per cent loss in body weight can impair cognition, so getting fluid on board is crucial.

FUEL MIX

Need full-fat burn or fuelsaving leanness? You can set your preference – though the maximum fuel load is 105kg.

THE RED BULLETIN

SOFTWARE OPTIONS

These, on either side of the wheel, move the selection of the multifunctional rotary by increments of -10 (left button) and +1 (right button).

PIT LANE SPEED LIMITER Immediately

drops the car to the speed required by F1’s strict pit lane limits.

TORQUE ADJUSTMENT Allows

the driver to control torque delivery from the engine.

All Change

Formula One in 2017 will undergo its biggest set of regulation changes since the introduction of hybrid engines in 2014. This time, though, the emphasis has been shifted to chassis and aerodynamics. The bigger, more aggressive cars will be fitted with fatter tyres, which will increase grip and provide extra downforce. The front wing is also wider and more sharply raked to help drivers follow rivals. The rear wing is lower, while a larger diffuser will significantly increase downforce at the rear. It all means they’ll be faster, with lap times set to fall by 3-5 seconds. It also means they’ll be a lot more physical to drive, as the recent spate of Instagram pics of drivers working at muscle-busting training regimes attest. redbullracing.com

FAIL Puts all the car’s

RED BULL RACING

JUSTIN HYNES

systems into fail-safe mode.

TYRES The different tyre

types in use (dry, wet, etc) have varying characteristics.

This switch is used to set the car up accordingly.

CLUTCH SETTINGS

If it’s not engaging properly, the driver can adjust the clutch with this switch.

THE RED BULLETIN

ERS ACTIVATION

The modern F1 car has a suite of energy recovery systems – this deploys them.

ENGINE MODES

Allows the drivers to engage a particular set of engine performance parameters for different circumstances.

CLUTCH One of 2016’s

big changes was that drivers must control starts with a single clutch-pull paddle rather than using complex software. This led to more unpredictable starts and more position changes. But there are still two paddles for use when turning left or right.

MULTIFUNCTIONAL ROTARY Ask an F1

engineer what’s governed by such multifunctional switches and the silence is deafening. This mystery device governs a host of software changes that influence car behaviour. No one, however, will reveal just what those influences are.

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W

hen you’re the daughter of a blonde bombshell and a blue-eyed charmer, then you’re likely to inherit some stunning attributes. For Ireland Basinger-Baldwin, whose parents are Oscar-winning actress Kim Basinger and razor-tongued actor Alec Baldwin, her genetic traits are enviable: she’s a staggering 1.8m tall, with aquamarine eyes and the curves of a Bond girl.

But 21-year-old Ireland is also the product of her parents’ rocky divorce and a bitter battle for her custody, which left her with a fractured sense of identity.

After checking herself into rehab in 2015 for “emotional trauma”, Ireland emerged from the darkness with a stronger outlook on life and a closer relationship with her family. With a healthier head and heart, she immersed herself in her modelling career and embraced a new sense of self-confidence thanks to the encouragement of those around her.

“I never looked in the mirror and thought, ‘You’re so hot,’” she said afterwards.

“It took a lot of other people to believe in me before I could believe in myself.”

And if her Instagram feed is any indication, her admirers clearly believe in what they see: a beautiful, poised young woman unafraid to enjoy life – and have a little fun.

Follow her @humancrouton

California girl

Long in the shadow of the break-up of her film-star parents, the model-turnedactress is ready to forge her own path

IRELAND BASINGERBALDWIN BREAKS OUT

Photography DOUG INGLISH

On her left arm, Basinger-Baldwin has a tattoo of one of her idols: David Bowie

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BULLEVARD

The perfect drink before that nap: an espresso

Turn over

For the sleep coach, there is only one proper position to sleep in and that’s on the side opposite the hand you write with. “The reason goes back to our primeval instincts. I’m right-handed, so if I sleep on my left side, I’m better able to protect myself in case of a surprise attack.” The position signals to your brain that you’re safe and helps you enter the sleep phase.

Nick Littlehales

has trained football teams such as Real Madrid and Manchester United to sleep right. Here are three simple tips for the perfect recovery

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Napping has a bad reputation, which is unsubstantiated, says Littlehales. Before the light bulb was invented people would sleep a shorter period at night, but also around noon or early evening. Hence he recommends controlled recovery periods between 1-3pm and again between 5-7pm. Tip: drink an espresso before you nap. Its effect only kicks in after 20 minutes and it’ll give you an energy boost when you wake up.

THE RED BULLETIN

ROBERT SPERL

Drink coffee

What should you do if you’re a top sportsperson and can’t sleep the night before a big game? Littlehales’ tip is surprising: don’t sleep. Don’t put pressure on yourself.

Meditate. He also tells his athletes to watch footage of their great achievements, anything that relaxes them, because you can regenerate even when semi-conscious and still produce your best.

But, he stresses, it’s important to catch up on any missed sleep as soon as you can.

Find more tips in Littlehales’ new book, Sleep (Penguin Life); sportsleepcoach.com

GETTY IMAGES

SLEEP LIKE A PRO FOOTBALLER

Don’t sleep

WINNING. WITH. TECHNOLOGY.

+

GREG CALLAGHAN WINS IRELAND EWS 2016 AND TWEEDLOVE INTERNATIONAL 2016

RIDING A CUBE STEREO 140 29’ER

BULLEVARD

He breathed new life into The Walking Dead, playing Jesus. Now, in the movie MindGamers, actor Tom Payne takes on the role of a neuroscientist who can link human minds

DOWNLOAD A NEW TALENT 20

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he red bulletin: MindGamers is about a computer that can transfer abilities from one human to another. Would you want to use one in real life? tom payne: Yeah, I would love to be able to paint and draw, so I’d love to download that. I’m constantly amazed at how talented some people are, and how they can interpret reality or just make something up. I’m so envious of people who can paint and draw.

THE RED BULLETIN

JEREMY JACKSON

Cloud messiah

If an online marketplace for skills did exist, what would you be able to offer for others to download?

I consider myself a person with a lot of empathy.

Sometimes I’m amazed when people don’t have that, and they can’t put themselves in someone else’s shoes and understand where that person is coming from. So I would love more people to feel empathy in the way I do. Yeah, that’s something I would probably upload.

Who did you identify with when you were getting started as an actor?

I didn’t have any heroes in the traditional sense. Actually, the first person I really had a reaction to was the Dalai Lama. When I was 19, I visited Australia on a trip, and I went to see him. The energy he exudes is really cool.

But don’t you have to be a bit selfish as an actor?

Yes, you do! On The Walking Dead, you have to look after yourself to a certain extent, and understand where the camera is at a certain time; that’s a skill in itself. It’s like that because the show has such a big cast. It can mean that I intentionally move into the frame or into the focus of a scene.

In The Walking Dead, you play Jesus, a character for whom solidarity and compassion are important.

Which of the show’s other characters could do with a hug every now and again?

Daryl, definitely. Daryl urgently needs a big hug. mindgamersmovie.com

CLEMENS STACHEL

Scientists will read the moods and emotions of filmgoers wearing MindGamers headbands at the movie’s premieres in New York and Los Angeles on March 28

ARE YOU DRIVER ENOUGH? THE OFFICIAL TIRE SUPPLIER OF DAKAR RALLY It doesn’t matter when or where. If you’re competing on our tires, we’re going to tell you to prove it. Because the title of “Driver Enough” isn’t given – it’s earned. #DriverEnough BFGoodrich.co.uk @BFGoodrichEurope

@BFGoodrichEU

™

S. PETERHANSEL (FRA), J. COTTRET (FRA)

DPPI © 2017 MNA, Inc. All rights reserved.

DOMINATION I S IN OUR DNA .

LEROY BELLET/RED BULL ILLUME

ANDREAS ROTTENSCHLAGER

BULLEVARD

Multitasking

Leroy Bellet shoots pro surfers by shadowing them on his own board.

Great idea – except for the danger

CAN YOU SPOT THE HERO OF THIS PICTURE?*

A

nyone hoping to showcase the savage beauty of surfing needs to get as close to the professionals as they can, while they’re on the waves,” says Australian photographer Leroy Bellet.

But then he would say that: this 18-year-old snapper has a particularly risky method of capturing top surfers in action.

Instead of swimming into the water and waiting for the surfers, as many of his counterparts do, Bellet has a jet-ski launch him into the same wave so that he can chase down his targets on his own board, Nikon D810 at the ready. “I’m surfing while I’m composing the picture,” he explains. “So there’s a high risk the shot will go wrong.”

It took Bellet four months to get this shot of surfer Scott Dennis, photographed off the coast of New South Wales.

“I kept coming off the board,” he reveals. “I wrecked two of them, and I ended up in hospital three times.”

So why does he keep at it? “Surfing beats getting stuck doing paperwork.

I’m not a fan of office jobs.” leroybelletphoto.com

*It’s the man behind the camera: fearless 18-year-old wave-rider Leroy Bellet (above)

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BULLEVARD

The desert racer

The movie legend and motorsport fanatic called the custom Metisse MK3 “the best-handling bike I’ve ever owned”.

He should know – he built it

teve McQueen rarely needed his stunt double.

But Bud Ekins was good for two things – McQueen’s motorcycle fence jump in 1963’s The Great Escape, and introducing the star to the Metisse MK3, the first dedicated motocross bike, which McQueen customised for the Baja 1000 desert race.

Half a century later, Gerry Lisi, Metisse’s current owner, got a call. A one-off replica of the McQueen Desert Racer he’d built for a London shop window was generating buzz.

“Three times a day, someone wants to buy this bike,” said the shop manager. It spurred

Lisi has the frame number of the original. “If anyone has that, it’s worth a lot”

Lisi to build a limited run of 300 – authenticating the machine from family footage supplied by McQueen’s son, Chad, and endorsed with the King of Cool’s signature.

So far 100 have been sold, including to an oil tycoon, and former Secretary General of FIFA, Jérôme Valcke. metisse-motorcycles.com

METISSE

TOM GUISE

THIS STEVE MCQUEEN BIKE IS THE REBIRTH OF COOL

S

The frames are built from scratch and fitted with reconditioned Triumph 6T engines

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THE RED BULLETIN

BULLEVARD Don’t just stand there, do something: Sean Penn gets his hands dirty in Haiti

GETTY IMAGES

RÜDIGER STURM

T

he red bulletin: You’re well known for your humanitarian activities, and last year you made a film, The Last Face, about aid workers. Are you trying to save the world? sean penn: If there ever was a moment in time when I thought I could do that, I’m now old enough not to be able to remember it.

But you’ve done an enormous amount of relief work in regions that have been struck by catastrophe, such as Haiti, southern Pakistan and New Orleans.

What qualities do you need to get involved in that sort of thing?

I just think of myself as a facilitator, meaning I look for proactive people who have the talent required to do something for their fellow human beings.

And even though you’re a Hollywood star, you’re

THE RED BULLETIN

Sean Penn happy to play second fiddle in instances like these?

I’ve worked in the past with Clint Eastwood, who is also a jazz man. With jazz, you have four or five people jamming onstage, creating something magical. But if one of them says, “I can do that better than you,” then he screws it up for everyone else because you can’t make any more joint discoveries that way. You’ve got to be a team player.

What’s the biggest obstacle?

People aren’t as keen to show their love now as they might have been in the past. We have a generation where everyone wants to make their own mark rather than just live. The only solution to this is compromise.

Just saying “me, me, me” all the time doesn’t work. jphro.org

The actor and filmmaker tells us where relief operations, jazz and the wisdom of legendary Hollywood gunslingers overlap

HOW TO SAVE THE WORLD THE CLINT WAY 25

BULLEVARD

LaFerrari Aperta

Only the super-rich can get their hands on this supercar, right? Nope, not if you know the right people...

TREASURE HUNTING

26

market. Ferrari makes buyers [of these cars] sign a document stating that if you sell it within 18 months you won’t get another – you’ll be blacklisted. I don’t expect to find an Aperta for sale before 2018. When I do, I hope to be the first broker to trade one.”

And he won’t be short of takers. Two clients are each offering €6m.

“No one will sell it for that,” Tom grins. “It’s

already worth three times what it cost off the production line – €7m.”

For €7m, Hartley Jr can help stick an Aperta on your driveway, but only in 2018. Want it sooner?

You’d better hope an owner either dies or has a bust-up with Ferrari, or that one of the lucky 200 decides they hate the car.

The last option seems somewhat unlikely. auto.ferrari.com

FERRARI

ore than just a fighter jet for the road, Ferrari’s LaFerrari Aperta was built to celebrate the marque’s 70th birthday, making it a 350kph, 949bhp instant museum piece. Price of entry: €2.3m. Chances of getting your hands on one: nil. Before the roof-off version had even made its debut in September, all 200 had been sold, to an ultra-exclusive band of collectors. Unless you got an invitation, ownership is out of the question – no matter how rich or famous you are. Unless…

Enter Tom Hartley Jr. The 33-year-old Englishman has his showroom in rural Derbyshire in the UK, but deals in supercars across the globe. Having left school when he was just 11 to join his father trading in sportscars, he’s sold more supercars than probably anyone on the planet. Biggest result to date: a 1957 Ferrari Testa Rossa at nearly €39m.

“There are consequences to selling your car early to take advantage of the massive premiums on offer,” he says. “Not a single Aperta has come on the

ADAM HAY-NICHOLLS

M

Black beauty: the LaFerrari Aperta reaches 200kph in seven seconds

BULLEVARD

Edgy architecture

You’ll need both a head for heights and an extreme sense of entertainment to enjoy the Kanin Winter Cabin in Slovenia

HOW’S THIS FOR A REAL CLIFFHANGER?

T

hree agonising attempts were what it took the Slovenian army to lower this extraordinary shelter by helicopter and fix it in place at an altitude of more than 2,500m on Mount Kanin.

The weather at this exposed spot on the Italian border can be extreme, with hurricanestrength winds and torrential rainfall, and some winters bring 10m of snow. So, why would anyone want to place a hut here? First, because people love a challenge, and second, the 360° view from the surrounding mountains to the Adriatic when the sun shines is simply breathtaking.

JANEZ MARTINCIC

DANIEL KUDERNATSCH

The wood and aluminium hut, designed by Ljubljanabased architecture firm Ofis Arhitekti, is just 2.4m wide, 4.9m long, and accessible only by scaling the mountain on foot, or by helicopter. It can, however, sleep as many as nine people, so that party with a real edge is firmly within reach.

For more info, visit bovec.si

At Kanin Winter Cabin, you’ll sleep above a precipice in the mountains of Slovenia

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THE RED BULLETIN

BULLEVARD

Professional showgirl: Kaite Estaba performs for DJ Skrillex and at NYC’s biggest clubs

PHOTOS COURTESY OF NICHOLAS RHODES/NICKYDIGITAL.COM

ANDREAS ROTTENSCHLAGER

1. Be a detective

“So you want to get on the guest list at your favourite club? Find out the name of the party promoter and write them a polite, amusing email. You’d be surprised how often it works.”

2. Get there early

“The rule of thumb is that the action only really gets started halfway through a club night.

The main DJs play between midnight and 4am, but if you’re in the club before then, you can discover some new and exciting acts.”

3. Drink with style

“Barkeepers and promoters know where the best afterparties are. But if you’re so drunk that you can no longer speak, the chances are you won’t be invited.”

THE RED BULLETIN

Club code 4. Sound it out

“You can tell a good club by the quality of its sound system.

If you can still talk to your friends even though the DJ is playing at regular volume, you know the sound system is top quality. If your head hurts, then it probably isn’t.”

5. Think analogue

“Technology, gadgets and apps are having an effect on party culture, too; there are plans afoot for holographic go-go dancers and virtualreality parties. My tip is: leave your phone in your pocket.

Look people in the eye, and have fun in the here and now.”

For more on Kaite’s club nights, go to instagram.com/ teamkittykoalition

Kaite Estaba is a New York nightlife top cat with her go-go crew Team Kitty Koalition. Here are her tips for a great night out

PERFECTING THE ART OF PARTIES 29

BULLEVARD

Street food

For 35 years Chan Hong Meng ran a popular but unheralded food stall in Singapore. Then he got a call from the world’s most famous restaurant guide

hinatown, Singapore. There are dozens of people cooking up a storm on every corner here. It’s a culinary voyage of the senses: Malay, Chinese, Tamil. It’s what every guidebook tells you about the vibrancy of the city state’s street food scene and a plate of food here will set you back about two Singapore dollars (£1.20).

In the midst of the panoply, though, one stall stands out, it’s difference marked by the queue snaking its way past neighbouring stalls. The line leads to the inconspicuous shop front of Hong Kong Soya Sauce Chicken Rice & Noodle.

This does exactly what it says on the tin. The owner, Chan Hong Meng, has run the place for 35 years and cooks Chinese style, in honour of the man who taught him how to work a kitchen.

Two dishes are served: Cantonese chicken in soy sauce or crispy barbecued pork and the simple ingenuity he brings to the first won over testers from the Michelin guide and in 2016, they awarded Chan a coveted star.

At the awards ceremony, Chan, who initially thought the call from the guide was a prank, stood on stage next to fêted French chef Joël Robuchon, who was picking up a third star for his nearby Resorts World Sentosa outlet where dinner starts at 500 Singapore dollars.

So has the fame changed Chan? Not a bit of it. He’s still in the kitchen 17 hours a day with his two assistants, cooking 180 chickens (30 more than before the award).

The queues may be longer but Chan Hong Meng is still serene in his apron, working wonders with his knife at the stall in a corner of Singapore’s biggest food court.

Chan Hong Meng in his takeaway, serving Michelin-starred chicken and pork

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ROSLAN RAHMAN/AFP/PICTUREDESK.COM

ROBERT SPERL

A MICHELIN STAR TO GO

C

Android Wear and other marks are trademarks of Google Inc.

CONNER COFFIN

Ultra-Rugged 100 Meter / 10 ATM Water Resistant Smartwatch Customize yours on nixon.com

LAST OF HIS KIND Explorer MIKE HORN’s voyages to the planet’s most extreme regions have inspired many. Among his fans is photographer CHRIS BRINLEE JR, a budding adventurer who sailed with Horn to Antarctica and discovered that overcoming the impossible requires nothing more than taking the first step

Words: Andreas Tzortzis Photography: Chris Brinlee Jr 32

South African-born Horn moved to Switzerland in his mid-20s and set his sights on a life of adventure.

Twenty-five years later, he has no plans to stop

Two years ago, Chris Brinlee Jr had a desk job at an advertising agency in Santa Monica, and would dream of another life – a life like Mike Horn’s, in fact. The South African explorer had built a career out of adventure, accomplishing feats like swimming the Amazon and circumnavigating the Arctic Circle by foot and sail.

All of Horn’s expeditions keep sustainability and conservation in mind. On his trip to Antarctica, he planned to collect ice samples for researchers. His sailing boat, Pangaea, featured an all-star international crew, including Poland’s Jacek Proniewicz (inset), the engineer responsible for keeping it all running

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Brinlee Jr hadn’t yet met Horn.

In fact, he hadn’t even heard of him. All he knew was that the day job wasn’t going to cut it any more.

So he sold all his belongings, moved out of his loft in downtown LA, and went backpacking in northern Europe, then climbing in the Himalayas, followed by mountaineering trips throughout the country. Pretty soon, he was making a living on the road with little more than a camera and a savvy Instagram strategy.

“I think a lot of people – especially millennials, which is my generation – feel trapped and under this pressure where they have ideas of things they want to do, but not necessarily the courage and know-how to go out and get them,” he says. “Even taking little steps, anything that pushes you out of your comfort zone, can give you the courage to do more.”

Those little steps eventually led Brinlee Jr to an ice-climbing expedition in Alberta, Canada

with Horn, courtesy of a local tourism board. Six months later, he flew to Cape Town to meet Horn, and tagged along for the explorer’s three-week voyage to Antarctica – where he would attempt to be the first man to cross the continent unassisted.

“Pole2Pole is simply everything I’ve done in my life as an explorer, in one expedition,” says Horn. “To rewrite history in polar exploration was maybe the main idea. I always wanted to cross Antarctica solo and without support. And to do that as just part of a massive expedition where you’re not only crossing Antarctica but crossing the North Pole, crossing deserts in Namibia, in Botswana… I'd like to look into a mirror and see what I’m doing now. That’s important in life; when you really feel that you’re doing something that you want to see, it makes it natural. And when it’s natural, it becomes easy to do and the obstacles just fall away.”

Horn grew up in Johannesburg, South Africa and spent much of his youth outdoors; he later joined the military and followed this with a sports science course at university. However, at the age of 24, bored with what was shaping up to be too conventional a life, he decamped to Switzerland, where he learned to ski and paraglide and committed to a life of adventure.

The list of Horn’s subsequent accomplishments is simply jawdropping. It includes travelling the length of the Amazon – a distance of almost 7,000km – in 1997, fishing and surviving off the environment, with only a glassfibre flotation device known as a hydrospeed, or riverboard, to cling onto; and then there was that 20,000km solo circumnavigation of the Arctic Circle five years later, dragging a sled and using a kite to propel him forward. He has also trekked to the North Pole with a Norwegian explorer, using nothing more than skis in the deep heart

“POLE2POLE IS SIMPLY EVERYTHING I’VE DONE IN MY LIFE AS AN EXPLORER, IN ONE EXPEDITION”

“THERE’S A CHANCE OF FAILURE, AND THAT EXCITES ME. IT’S THAT UNKNOWN of the Arctic winter; completed in 2006, that was a first.

Horn is a living, breathing motivational speech, possessed of a bounding energy and death-grip handshake that makes younger men wilt. He’s a survivalist who can draw on a deep well of experience in the most extreme conditions – like the time he barked like a dog in his tent in the middle of the North Pole to discourage a curious polar bear.

Most revealing, however, is what his expeditions have taught him about the impossible. Namely, that it might not exist – at least not in the context of exploration.

“My philosophy in life is that once I have an idea, I plan it,” says Horn. “And once I’ve done the planning of the expedition, I go out and do it. And once you go out and do it, that creates the momentum and inspires people. You can just start planning something and then get on and start doing it.”

Once people are inspired, the sponsors come on board, and the financing of it becomes easier.

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Mercedes-Benz has been a big supporter of Horn, as has the watch company Panerai. The financing culminated in his most ambitious venture: Pangaea, a 35m-long, ice-floe-proof sailing boat that he likes to refer to as the SUV of the oceans. To build it, he employed around 200 tradesmen in a São Paolo slum, a method that was not only cost-effective, but entirely gratifying to a man who wants others to share in his passion for pioneering.

Which brings us to Cape Town on November 19, when Brinlee Jr joined Horn and a crew of 10 others to document part of the explorer’s Pole2Pole trek. One of the burning questions Brinlee Jr had was: why not just fly there?

“I wanted to get to the Antarctic like [Ernest] Shackleton did, like [Robert Falcon] Scott, like [Roald] Amundsen,” explains Horn. “That makes expeditions risky – not just because you can’t get to where you want to go, but because other people’s lives are involved. I don’t always think the easiest road is

the best road for me. I think that through overcoming obstacles, you gather knowledge, and through this knowledge you gather, you have the power of decision.”

The crew spent the next three weeks sailing through the Roaring Forties, the Furious Fifties and the Screaming Sixties (the numbers refer to degrees of latitude). Every marker more than earned its name, with squalls and 6m-high swells buffeting the boat. Brinlee Jr, who had never been on a sailing boat before, spent the first day or so puking into a bucket. Crucial parts like hydraulic pistons and rudders failed, requiring repair and maintenance. They eventually hit ice – a lot earlier than planned.

“We would come up to the ice floes and the boat would smash into them and just vibrate through

The passage between Cape Town and Erskine Bay brought swells of up to 10m and winds touching 100kph. The conditions took their toll on the boat, which was beset with maintenance problems such as a hole punched through the hull (right) by the retractable rudder as it was jostled around while ice-breaking THE RED BULLETIN

THAT WE’RE AFRAID OF. AND IT’S THE UNKNOWN THAT MOTIVATES ME”

THE RED BULLETIN

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Standing 35m high, Pangaea’s mast offers the best perspective when navigating your way through tricky ice fields

“ONCE I HAVE AN IDEA, I GO OUT AND DO IT. AND THAT CREATES THE MOMENTUM AND INSPIRES PEOPLE” the whole ship,” says Brinlee Jr. “I had the foremost cabin and the bow would raise up to 3m and shake as we were trying to sleep.”

One thousand miles off the Antarctic continent, Horn and the crew began the slow, tortuous process of navigating the heaving, cacophonous floes that squeezed and rolled around the boat. They would use a pike to hack ice off vital systems such as the rudder.

This got Horn thinking.

“You often wonder, ‘What am I doing here? Why don’t I just wait?’ You can’t just wait your whole life,” he says. “That’s why we can do what we want to do – because we’re going out there to find the solution. We’re not waiting for the solution to come to us.”

Horn’s travels in the Arctic have brought him first-hand experience of global warming, from a battle that erupted when a grizzly bear encroached on polar bear territory – possibly driven there by warming temperatures – to chunks of glacier ice breaking off in the North Pole.

Among his goals in Antarctica will

Top: Proniewicz scouts a path through the ice in the dinghy. There were issues with both the rudder – the hydraulic arms of which (above) were damaged during ice-breaking – and the hole in the hull caused by the rudder (below). Repairs cost the crew half a day

be to collect water and ice samples for researchers. Before setting off for the South Pole, Horn and his Young Explorers – a programme he hosts on Pangaea – sailed around, tagging sharks.

“In 25 years of exploring, I’ve seen a lot of change,” says Horn, the father of two daughters, who serve as part of his expedition support team from their home in Switzerland. “And that’s a short amount of time. That’s why it’s important to do plankton tests, to take water samples while we go around the world to places where a lot of people can’t go.”

After 21 days, Pangaea reached the continental shelf, and a euphoric crew began preparations to send Horn on his way. He experimented with the kite that would drag him and his sled across the glacier, THE RED BULLETIN

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“I WANTED TO GET TO ANTARCTICA THE WAY SHACKLETON DID...

THAT MAKES EXPEDITIONS RISKY“

Horn’s predecessors in his polar journey also serve as his role models.

Ernest Shackleton’s attempt to cross the Antarctic from sea to sea failed in 1914 when his ship, Endurance, was trapped and destroyed by ice. The British explorer led a heroic rescue of all 28 men aboard

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The hull of Pangaea is constructed from aluminium, making it less susceptible to tearing than one made of steel. Horn uses the weight of the hull to press down and break through the ice

“I DON’T ALWAYS THINK THE EASIEST ROAD IS THE BEST ROAD” Horn at the very beginning of his 5,000km journey across the Antarctic, powered by skis and a kite. He took enough provisions with him to last three months

FROM POLE2POLE

1. MONACO, FRANCE MAY 8, 2016

Horn will take approximately two years to travel – by land and by sea – almost 40,000km from the South Pole to Greenland, across six continents. The purpose of the journey is both educational and environmental, highlighting the issues facing our changing planet and collecting research samples at some of his more hard-to-reach destinations

3. BOTSWANA JULY 15 – AUGUST 15, 2016

Horn leaves Monaco on his sailing boat, Pangaea, and heads for Namibia

2. NAMIBIA JUNE 1 – JULY 15, 2016

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Arrives in Walvis Bay before embarking on a trek across one of the world’s oldest deserts – the Namib – on foot

Walks across the Okavango swamps on a constant hunt for food and fresh water as he navigates a long-forgotten route

3

2

4. CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA AUGUST 15 – NOVEMBER 2016

4

As he prepares for Pangaea’s Southern Ocean passage, Horn spends some time on a sharktagging mission

5. ANTARCTICA DECEMBER 2016 –FEBRUARY 2017

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Crosses the Antarctic continent solo by ski, via the South Pole, following a route pioneered by the explorer Amundsen.

Races to finish before winter sets in

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6. NEW ZEALAND MARCH – MAY 2017

7. AUSTRALIA MAY – JUNE 2017 Plans another sharktagging venture, in addition to studying coral and highlighting its degradation, before making his way through Papua New Guinea

Exploring Fiordland, home to the southernmost fjords on the planet

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8. INDIA SEPTEMBER – OCTOBER 2017

Intends to scale some of the 8,000m ‘virgin’ peaks the Indian government recently opened up to be climbed for the first time. Then it’s on to Borneo and Indonesia

THE RED BULLETIN

9. ARCTIC OCEAN & GREENLAND MAY – AUGUST/ SEPTEMBER 2018 Plans to undertake a solo crossing of Greenland, before hopping aboard Pangaea for the trip home

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and Brinlee Jr and the crew staged a taste-test evening to help Horn pick out the food he’d take along.

By the time you read this, he will have completed his solo, kitepowered crossing of the Antarctic – a distance of around 5,000km – all the while dragging a sled stocked with enough food and fuel for three months. And he’ll be the only person ever to have accomplished that feat.

Then it’ll be off to Greenland via a route that takes him through New Zealand, India and past Indonesia. All the way, he’ll be guided by a drive that recalls another age, one of wild curiosity fuelling enormous risk-taking.

“There’s a chance of failure… that’s what excites me,” he says.

“It’s that unknown that we’re all afraid of. And it’s the unknown that motivates me.”

Before Horn set off on skis, he told Brinlee Jr about an icecap in Patagonia, and another in Greenland that would provide the photographer with a good starting point if he began training for a similar expedition. The 28-year-old lensman took notes. “I put myself in his shoes,” he says. “And it galvanised what I want to achieve, and the type of experiences I want to continue to push myself to do.”

In the coming months, Brinlee Jr plans to traverse, by ski, Denali National Park in Alaska, before climbing Mount Denali – North America’s highest peak at 6,190m – in spring. But he also aims to slow down a life of travel and adventure that has included around 200 flights in the last few years.

“There’s the actual unknown, where people have never been before, and then there is the inner unknown, which is what one discovers when venturing into these experiences,” he says.

“I think that, for the average person, they don’t have to venture to the South Pole to discover the experiences, because they can discover them internally if they push themselves out of their comfort zone. That’s something Mike is very adamant about, and something I can relate to in my daily life, too.”

For the video series on Horn’s crossing, head to redbulletin.com 43

ÄNGIE IS EVERY POP TALENT SHOW’S WORST NIGHTMARE: A PROVOCATEUR WHO THRIVES ON CONFLICT AND COULDN’T GIVE A DAMN ABOUT THE RULES. AND THAT’S WHY THE YOUNG SWEDE’S CAREER IS ON A DIZZYING UPWARD TRAJECTORY

“I’M NOT GONNA BE BARBIE” WORDS: FLORIAN OBKIRCHER PHOTOGRAPHY: ALBERTO VAN STOKKUM STYLING: SOO-HI SONG 44

“THERE’S NOTHING MORE BORING THAN PERFECTION“

ngie has fan clubs in Brazil and Russia, even though her music isn’t given airtime there. British newspapers, from The Sun to The Guardian, have carried reports on the 21-year-old Swede, even though she has only released two songs.

So how does that work? Simple: Ängie does all the things a young, up-andcoming pop star isn’t meant to do; she confounds expectations and doesn’t take the business all that seriously.

The Stockholm-based rapper began making music professionally two years ago after she sent a local producer a video she shot of herself in the bath, spitting nonsensical rhymes. Soon, she was recording her debut single, Smoke Weed Eat Pussy, in the studio of charttopping producer and DJ Avicii, and signing a record deal with industry giant Universal Music. The salacious, expletive-laced track was just too hot for some radio stations to handle, but it was still a hit thanks to YouTube and the British press, who declared it the most risqué song of 2016.

It was an unusual start to a career, and yet that suited Ängie down to the ground. Because, as she reveals, if you want to be successful, you have to make demands of your audience. the red bulletin: How does one become the most controversial pop star of the year? ängie: In my case, it was very simple.

I just sing about the things I most enjoy.

So is your recording debut, Smoke Weed Eat Pussy, something of an autobiographical statement?

It was at the time I wrote that song. My girlfriend had just left me, and I had 46

a lot of time on my hands; I was very active sexually at that point.

There have always been lyrics about sex and drugs in the music business.

Why do you think your song in particular proved so inflammatory?

Because I’m a girl who’s into flowers and pink clothes, and girls who are into flowers and pink clothes don’t normally sing about weed and oral sex.

Your music videos are full of that kind of contradiction. In one scene, you’re a princess in pastel-coloured dresses, and in the next you’re showing off your tattoos and smoking. Do you like playing around with stereotypes?

Totally. Because there’s nothing more boring in life than perfection.

Imperfections are perfect! You’ve got to surprise people to be successful in life. You have to create contrasts.

Don’t such erratic antics unsettle your audience?

On the contrary; I think that’s how you arouse people’s curiosity. Take Rihanna: she only really got cool when she started letting her inner thug shine through.

She stopped being this typical girl. And I’m not gonna be a Barbie doll, either.

People should see me as I am – with all the stripes I have on my ass.

Er, what?

I recently posted a picture of my stretch marks on Instagram. This girl saw it and wrote to me, saying, “I’m so happy that you show that on Instagram, because I feel so bad about mine.” And I was like, THE RED BULLETIN

“LISTENING TO MY MUSIC IS NOT THE BEST IDEA IF YOU LIVE A VERY CONSTRICTED LIFE“ “Girl! Every other girl has them – just wear them with pride!” I want to give young women self-confidence like that.

I want to show the world you can be beautiful with your imperfections.

Where does a 21-year-old get the confidence to stick her middle finger up at show business and reject its perception of beauty?

I learned that from this guy [she points to a tattoo on her right arm: the name ‘Lou Reed’ encircled by a heart]. He was an ingenious songwriter and the coolest guy ever. Lou Reed didn’t give a damn about anything. And he just loved giving journalists hell in interviews. I hope he would be proud of me.

How proud are your parents of their daughter’s career?

My father doesn’t like me singing about drugs. But my mother is my biggest fan.

Recently, and without my knowledge, she had a T-shirt printed with my pink hemp-leaf logo on the front.

While we’re on the subject of weed, why has it featured in both your songs

to date [Smoke Smoke Weed Eat Pussy and the follow-up, Housewife Spliffin’]?

I suffered from a severe attention deficit disorder when I was a teenager. Doctors prescribed tablets, but I don’t trust chemical stuff. Smoking helped me out of my depression. It also helps me creatively.

If it weren’t for weed, I would probably never have started writing songs.

Why is that?

It sends my brain into a spin.

Most people would probably take that as a reason not to indulge…

Let me put it another way: it opens up the parts of my brain I can’t open myself.

It’s like you’re exposed to things you don’t want to feel, but that you need to feel in order to find yourself. It’s weird.

And what about the other main topic of your songs?

Do you mean oral sex? It’s an important subject. It’s totally undervalued.

How do you mean?

Men pay too little attention to a woman’s pleasure during sex.

What’s the reason for that? Is it because men are insecure?

Oh, please! We’re all insecure. And the only thing that helps you get over your insecurity is gaining experience.

So, would it be appropriate to ask you for some tips?

It’s very simple. Speak to your girlfriend.

Switch off macho mode. Ask her what it is she likes. And, just as importantly, don’t think that your technique will work on every woman.

Most young musicians are very cautious as they go about establishing their career, because they don’t want to blow their chances with radio stations.

But then you go and release singles with lyrics that are too racy, even for the night-time slot…

There’s nothing I could possibly care less about than radio.

But isn’t radio airplay the cornerstone of every music career?

That used to be the case. But now people are discovering new music on YouTube.

That’s why the most important part of my artistic work is making super-cool videos and playing with visual ideas as much as I possibly can.

But there are comments on your own YouTube channel from people who think you take things too far. What do you say to them?

I’m with Lou Reed on that one, too.

He once said, “Maybe listening to my music is not the best idea if you live a very constricted life.” Ängie’s new single, Spun, is out now; facebook.com/lilweedhoe 49

The art of...

‘Mad’ Mike Whiddett, the Kiwi risk-taker who tore around South Africa’s Franschhoek Pass at speeds approaching 250kph, understands focus.

To maintain it while drifting at such insane speeds, he says, you need to see the car you’re driving as an extension of your body Words: Jazz Kuschke 50

TYRONE BRADLEY/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

Whiddett’s Mazda SP3 RX-8, BADBUL, greedily guzzles South African tarmac

TYRONE BRADLEY/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

Smell the burn as Mad Mike screams through a corner of the iconic Franschhoek Pass in South Africa’s Cape winelands

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...losing control

All focus and control: the 36-year-old drift star began racing motocross when he was just six

Whiddett’s one-year-old daughter, Jett, gets a taste of local drifting action

CRAIG KOLESKY/RED BULL CONTENT POOL, TYRONE BRADLEY/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

“As much as I want to be wild, I have to be mentally focused” MAD MIKE WHIDDETT

D

rifting may look like a sport that requires the driver to lose control, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.

It is, in fact, a sport that requires an entirely new level of control. At 248kph and 8,800rpm, you need to have your wits about you. This is how world-renowned Kiwi drifter ‘Mad’ Mike Whiddett attacked the corners of the Franschhoek Pass, near Cape Town in South Africa, driving BADBUL – his quite insane triple-rotor Mazda SP3 RX-8 – in September last year.

The ‘Mad Mike’ moniker, given to him by a commentator during his previous career in freestyle motocross, is now something of an oxymoron: behind the wheel, Whiddett appears ice-cool and ultra-focused. According to the 36-year-old, when he climbs into the driving seat he has to remove all fear from his mind. “You can’t think about the risks,” explains Whiddett. “Back when I used to do freestyle motocross, I’d think a lot about the what-ifs, and I had a lot of crashes.”

The excitable Kiwi has made his name through managing his fear in challenging situations such as these. In the lead-up to last year’s attempt, he was in fine form, explaining the difference between drifting passes and drifting tracks: “You go to race tracks and you push beyond your boundaries, and if you slide off the track

THE RED BULLETIN

you have run-offs and sand traps, K-rail and tyre walls.

Here, if you slide off the road, it’s game over.

“Drifting is hard – you always need to be thinking about the next corner, because you set the car up for the turn on the previous one. All the while, though, you also have to be thinking about exactly what you are doing at that point in time. Now, it’s just like natural instinct – I consider the car an extension of my body.”

Whiddett also believes that maintaining focus has as much to do with the right preparation as it does with on-the-track concentration.

“I used to listen to music and was always very hyped,” he explains, adding that he has a far calmer approach these 55

“When you’re behind the wheel, you have to be 100 per cent confident... because with the smallest error, it could easily be game over, and not just for the car” Welcome to Cape Town: BADBUL was shipped directly into South Africa from Whiddett’s appearance at last year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed

Mad Mike on fear, focus and setting up the next corner...

TYRONE BRADLEY/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

When a ‘regular’ driver loses grip, they panic and try to countersteer to get the car back on track, but for you it’s about purposefully letting the wheels go, right?

Drifting is a unique form of driving – it’s beyond the limit of traction – so to the uninitiated it looks as if you’re out of control.

But it’s quite the opposite, actually. It’s a whole new level – another dimension or sense of control, if you wish. Drifters learn how to control the car when it’s not in control.

How do you even begin to learn something like that?

When I first started, cars were more set up to be slippery. It was all about cool, noisy, powerful engines, and we would just take grip out of the cars so they would slide easily. Today it’s different.

The Mazda RX-8 has a lot of power – over 800hp at the tyre – and that power is needed just to overcome the grip of the Nitto tyres we run. We have grippy tyres to make accurate, dynamic turns, and then very powerful engines to overcome that and initiate the drift.

Those tyres can’t last too long…

They don’t! For Franschhoek Pass, we swapped from the Nitto NT05R, which is the tyre that we race on, to the NT555R. It’s a harder compound, but also a high-performance street radial.

Thanks to the compound, instead of only being able to do three or four corners, as we would in competition, we were able to drive about 10 per set.

There’s obviously a lot of preparation for something like the Franschhoek Pass project…

Oh yeah. Of course there’s the car and parts and stuff, but the mental prep is crucial, too. As much as I want to be wild, I have to be switched on and mentally focused. As soon as you’re thinking about that danger element and what could go wrong, that’s the moment when things usually do go wrong. When I was in freestyle motocross, I was young and I’d think about those sorts of things, and I crashed a lot. Broke a lot of bones and had a lot of concussions…

So now you don’t get scared?

With sports psychology and all the things I’ve been doing to train my brain and get myself in focus, I’ve learned to wipe fear. I mean, I get scared, for sure. But when you’re behind the wheel, you cannot be scared – you have to be 100 per cent confident and 100 per cent focused, because with the smallest error it could easily be game over, and not just for my car. Another element of drifting is that while you’re in a corner and focused on what you’re doing right then, you’re already setting up the car for the next corner.

What’s next for you?

As a driver, you want to progress and just keeping going faster.

Every time you hit a corner, you want to enter faster and with more angle. That’s what we’ll keep working on.

The short film of Whiddett’s drift project, Conquer The Cape, required meticulous preparation

The belly of the beast: inside the cockpit of Whiddett’s Mazda SP3 RX-8 drift machine

days. “In terms of competition, I could visualise the win, but I wasn’t always visualising the way there – you have to get to the finish line first.”

The Franschhoek Pass, located between Franschhoek and Villiersdorp, is arguably one of the Cape’s most spectacular passes. Originally known as ‘Olifant’s Pad’ – a reference to the route that elephants would take to cross the mountains into the valley to calve – this path was followed by herdsmen and, later, by settlers on horseback. It was only in 1822 that Lord Charles Somerset ordered the pass to be built, making it South Africa’s first properly engineered road.

Today, the 14.9km route, with its famous tight hairpins and sweeping views, is a Saturday morning favourite for bikers, cyclists and drivers alike. This relative peace was shattered by Whiddett revving some 800-plus horsepower. If you’re going to put your life on the line on Franschhoek Pass at close to 250kph, you might as well look cool doing it, right? And it’s hard to imagine anyone looking cooler than Mad Mike in his Mazda drift machine. Whiddett has won a string of titles in BADBUL, and completed numerous world-first drives, this attempt being the latest to add to the list.

“There is only so much you can do before you arrive,” he explains. “Google Earth, some photos, maps… you know, that sort of thing. With most of the stuff we’re doing, something like Franschhoek Pass, you only really get a feel for it once you’re on the ground.”

Whiddett travelled with a full back-up crew and almost an entire vehicle in spare parts for the project. “The drive itself was just crazy,” he says of the pass. “I can compare it a bit to Conquer The Crown – a very successful project we did back home that was a game-changer for drifting because of the credibility the sport got for the precision driving. The scenery is very similar, but this road was far more raw, with like massive cliff-drops and not much run-off. Not much space for error.”

The pass was, of course, closed for the project, which took place under very strict control. Whiddett drove some of the corners in both directions and at times was entering in sixth gear and at well above 200kph.

Watch Conquer The Cape, the short film on Mad Mike’s Franschhoek Pass drift project, at redbull.com 57

King of clubs How can you tell you’re at a top-flight club?

Sei Moon, director of upscale London nightclub Drama Park Lane, is a man who knows – stars like Leonardo DiCaprio, Usain Bolt and Rihanna pull all-nighters at his celebrity haunt Words: Florian Obkircher Photography: Alex de Mora

Hot dancers, plenty of celebs and hip-hop beats: London club Drama Park Lane has the recipe for success

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The DJ decks at DPL are often ambushed by stars. Usain Bolt once played hip-hop tracks here

“Idris Elba grabs the mic. Rita Ora dances at the decks. That sort of thing happens here all the time�

What makes a club world-class?

These eight things, according to Sei Moon…

The dancers show off their twerking skills every hour on the hour at the decks and on the glass balcony

1. Brand awareness “What makes a really good club different from a merely good club? The merely good club will find you with huge billboards and advertising, but the really good club you have to seek out yourself. High visibility doesn’t necessarily attract the best people, and you can’t have a great night out without good company. There’s no neon sign at the entrance to Drama Park Lane, which is the opposite of glamorous. And look at our entrance; you have to go through a car park to get into the club. We learned this reserved approach to outward appearance from [legendary NYC club] Studio 54. They were one of the first ones who didn't do much promotion of their club. It was word of mouth.”

2. The best DJ line-ups “Anyone can book a star DJ, especially big clubs with thousands of revellers. But you can tell a top club by the popularity of its DJs in relation to its capacity. In 2016, we had big names like Guy Gerber and Major Lazer [whose Lean On is the second most-streamed song on Spotify with around 900 million hits] for a crowd of 300. That way, you know artists are enjoying their gigs at a given club. When Major Lazer’s Diplo played here, he spent the entire night – in between DJing – Snapchatting our performers. And having someone like him, who has seen pretty much everything, doing that speaks for itself.”

The gilded back room of the club has been hired out by stars such as Drake.

The price: £25,000 for the night

3. A topnotch sound system “Don’t get too impressed by size: you can’t see a good sound system, you have to feel it. Test it on the dancefloor.

What does the sound feel like?

Do you have to roar in the ear of the person you’re dancing with? Both would be signs of poor sound. We have a fully immersive Funktion-One sound system, and because of our L-shaped layout, we have more speakers than most clubs.

What was important for us during its installation was that every point in the club would have top-end sound and you’d never hear any fluctuations.”

4. Elements of surprise “You work hard, stuck on your hamster wheel five days a week. What do you want on the weekend? You want to escape.

You want to be surprised. And that’s exactly what a top club should offer. It’s not unusual at Drama Park Lane for stars like Idris Elba to grab the microphone and start rapping.

Or for Rita Ora to be dancing at the decks. Or for Usain Bolt to decide to storm the decks all of a sudden and play some hip-hop tunes. Why do they do it? It’s not because they’re bound by any contract. It’s because, just like all the other people in our club, they’re enjoying that anything-ispossible party moment.”

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7. Incredible interiors

5. Length of the queue “No one wants to spend the night outside instead of on the dancefloor. That said, avoid any club without a queue. You wouldn’t eat in a restaurant with only one person inside, and it’s the same with a club.

To cut a long story short, if there’s no queue, it’s a pretty clear sign that people don’t actually want to be at the venue. My recommendation is that if you want to get into DPL, show up by 10.30 – half an hour before the doors open – as there’ll be 100-plus people in the queue by 11. The dress code is smart casual. If you look good, we’ll let you in.”

6. Location “In this fast-moving business, it’s often impossible to make conclusions about a club’s quality based on its history.

Our club is quite young; it’s only been going for a year and a half. So what to do if you’re a man about town?

Check out the club’s location, because a venue is usually a reflection of the area it’s in.

With regard to DPL, ours is the only club on Park Lane, the most expensive street on the Monopoly board. The club is right beside Hyde Park, in the basement of the London Hilton On Park Lane hotel. There’s not a lot more to be said about how exclusive DPL is.”

“There’s no single look that marks out a top club. But one thing that all world-class clubs have in common is the idea of being a work in progress, so regulars feel they’re having a brand new experience every time. When you enter DPL, it’s almost like walking into a gallery.

Every three months, we invite an artist, such as British pop-art icon Ben Levy, to change the club’s look with installations, as we believe art has a very viable and important connection to hospitality. Also, we have the coolest bathrooms you will ever see. They were designed by an artist named Doodle Man. It’s a fully immersive toilet-art experience!”

8. Size and intimacy “When people talk about top clubs, they often think of these massive venues in Ibiza that are full of thousands of people every night. But I believe that most millennials prefer to spend time in more intimate spaces than in these massmarket clubs. At the end of the day, club size is also the reason why celebrities such as Drake and Andy Murray have made repeat visits to DPL. It’s cosy here, and they feel at home.” dramaparklane.com

Dancing hours at this party paradise: 11pm to 3am, Thursday to Sunday

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DJ Hennie V is seen as the ‘President of Nightlife’ back home in Toronto, and his fans include Lady Gaga and Kid Rock

On Fridays, the party has a hotel theme with the bar staff dressed as chefs and the dancers playing maids

“Avoid any club that doesn’t have a queue outside. You wouldn’t eat in an empty restaurant, would you?”

Filmmaker JOHNNY HARRIS says his latest movie, Jawbone, is a love letter to amateur boxing.

It’s also an homage to his own incredible journey from boyhood bouts to homelessness to acting stardom Words: CHRIS SULLIVAN Photography: SAM BARKER

“In many respects, the film is a love letter,” says Johnny Harris of his new movie, Jawbone. “It’s a love letter to all those who, for very little reward, coach kids in these anonymous little gyms, youth clubs and fringe theatres. They’re the heroes: altruistic, benevolent people who are still making a difference.”

Written by and starring Harris, and set in the back streets of South London, Jawbone is a modern-day film noir that, while as tough as a butcher’s dog, delivers an underlying missive of redemption and hope. It tells of 40-year-old Jimmy McCabe [Harris], a solitary alcoholic who, having lost his mother, is evicted from his council flat, sleeps rough and, seeking succour, returns to the old boxing club where he trained to win the junior British Amateur Boxing Association Championships.

“He has lost everything apart from his memories,” explains the 43-year-old Harris. “The boxing club is his church 64

– a place of faith, full of like-minded people who all believe in the same thing.”

Jawbone might be viewed as an autobiographical work; in his youth, Harris trained at celebrated South London boxing club Fitzroy Lodge – where much of the movie was filmed – and won the ABA Championship at the age of 16.

“I was a bright kid, but I was scared in secondary school and never went, so I left at 13 and joined the local gym,” reveals Harris, who was born in Lambeth.

“Then my mum spoke to my trainer, Mickey Carney [who sadly died in 2011], and he fixed me up with a locksmith apprenticeship. After work, I trained as much as they’d let me, and I won the ABA Championship. If I hadn’t done the boxing, I would have been f**ked.

“There are aspects of my past in the film, but it’s not autobiographical,” he clarifies. “It’s a personal film. I didn’t want to get bogged down with facts, but

Styling by DEBORAH LATOUCHE; Grooming by CELINE NONON Jacket: BLOCK AND LAST; Jeans: MATTHEW MILLER; Scarf: NICHOLSON WALCOT

“HELPING OTHERS IS A BEAUTIFUL THING TO ASPIRE TO”

THE RED BULLETIN

THE RED BULLETIN

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“The blows are real, as are my black eye, the cuts and the blood”

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THE RED BULLETIN

Jacket worn under coat: BLOCK AND LAST; Jeans: MATTHEW MILLER ; Boots BLOCK AND LAST

I wanted it to be parabolic: simple, easy to grasp, but also full of detail.”

Harris’ insistence on nailing the minutiae is best vindicated by Jawbone’s climactic unlicensed bout. “I’d seen boxing films that had massive budgets but got the fight scenes wrong,” he explains.

“I wanted a unique fight scene that could stand next to the best.”

To achieve this, Harris turned to former WBA featherweight champion Barry McGuigan. “Barry made it work,” he says. “Not only did he immerse me in the world my character inhabited, but he prepared me for the fight scenes as he would have done for a real fight. Even though it was choreographed within an inch of our lives, we really went for it.

“My opponent, Luke Smith, who’s a real fighter, wasn’t scared to take a good shot, or to give one. After my background as an amateur, my training with Barry, and the smashed nose and broken hand I received while sparring with Barry’s son Shane, I was ready,” he adds. “So we just went for it and made the fight as authentic as we could. The blows are real, as are my black eye, my cuts and the blood; also, Luke bust a rib. But it didn’t really matter, as that’s what we signed up for.”

Although Harris is clear that Jawbone isn’t autobiographical, the echoes of the filmmaker’s own life are undeniable – not least his character’s slide into alcoholism and homelessness. Following his exploits in the ring as a youngster, Harris drifted through life. He “fell in love with a beautiful French girl and ran away to Paris”, where he washed dishes, loafed about and began to indulge in heavy partying. On his return to the UK, he enrolled, on a whim, on a drama course at Lambeth’s Morley College, where he met Craig Snelling, an acting coach who saw his potential and helped develop it.

“After that, I began working in fringe theatre,” continues Harris. “I did all the greats: Ibsen, Pinter, Beckett, Shakespeare, Miller. Then, in 2000, I got a nice part in [British film] Gangster No. 1 and I thought I’d made it. A few weeks later, I was back working on building sites and drinking like a lunatic. I was sleeping on people’s couches, then rough, then on couches again, living hand to mouth.

I felt so ashamed of myself for taking advantage of people’s kindness.”

Eventually, he divorced himself from even that kindness, becoming homeless.

As he later told The Guardian, “I just didn’t want to be around anyone. I felt

SOUND EFFECTS

Jawbone features the debut film score from Paul Weller. Here, the Modfather explains how the soundtrack came about....

How did you come to write the music for Jawbone?

A mutual friend, Mark ‘Bax’ Baxter, knew that I’d love to do a film score, but not for something mainstream.

So he introduced me to Johnny, who outlined the story. I was so vibed that I began to construct the main theme and soundtrack straight away.

What were your influences?

I didn’t have any real influences, but I understand the power of the dynamics of music in tandem with film. I’m tired of seeing these films set in London with banging techno soundtracks. I saw this as more abstract, evolving from tenderness and calm to violent and disturbing, capturing the film’s emotions. Each section would be a mood that would work randomly, sometimes rambling and unresolved [like the film’s central character, Jimmy McCabe], sometimes jarring, or, at other times, in harmony with the scene’s emotion. I also wanted it to be symphonic, not with an orchestra, but with electronic instruments and random sounds.

An electronic symphony. I was lucky, as I was given a lot of slack.

Why did this film appeal to you?

I can relate to boxing, as in the middle of the ‘violence’ a fighter has to stay calm and controlled. My dad was a boxer as a young man [and a good one at that; he won 200 fights and had ABA titles to his name], so I related to the story and also to the theme of alcoholism, which I’d suffered from. And I instantly liked Johnny Harris; he’s a very intense but extremely soulful fella. He really wants to make a difference, and he’s done that with Jawbone.

more comfortable not going home, which bled into me sitting out all night, which then bled into me sitting out until the sun came up, and then I was homeless. Part of me thought I was a tortured genius, but really I was just a sad fella who thought booze was my friend.”

Acting work was still coming through, however. “I was doing little roles here and there,” he smiles. “I would have given up if I could have done anything else.” Then, in 2006, director/writer Paul Andrew Williams cast Harris in his British crime drama, London To Brighton, which was released to glowing reviews. Perhaps seeing light at the end of a hazy tunnel, three months after the film’s release Harris gave up booze for good. “I’d genuinely believed that if I quit drinking, it would be the end of my life,” he confides.

“But it was just the beginning.”

Soon, Harris was being cited by acclaimed director Shane Meadows as one of Britain’s best up-and-coming actors, and he won a part in Meadows’ milestone TV series This Is England ’86. “I was working in a café when I got the call,” smiles Harris. ”I had to borrow the train fare to get to Nottingham for the audition.”

Harris received a BAFTA nomination for his performance as abusive father Mick, and substantial roles followed. In 2012, he played the dwarf Quert in Snow White & The Huntsman, alongside Ray Winstone and Ian McShane. Harris could envisage parts for the two actors in his writing debut, so he bought a MacBook and got to work. “I had to do it,” he says.

“I was turning down all these scripts that I didn’t like, so I had to shut my mouth and write my own. Then synchronicity kicked in and it all came together.”

While the script for Jawbone has its own arc, it undoubtedly travels a parallel course to the actor’s own; in some ways, it would be impossible for it not to. Whether there was any catharsis involved, Harris is unsure, but he’s quick to pinpoint the lesson that both have to teach.

“In life, you get out what you put in, and helping and caring for other people when you can is a beautiful thing to aspire to,” concludes the actor/writer. “In the film, Bill [the gym owner, played by Winstone] and Eddie [the cornerman, played by Michael Smiley] don’t have to help Jimmy, but they do, and they’re better for it. I’d like to think the same has happened to me… and it’s made my life a lot happier.”

Jawbone is out nationwide on May 12; facebook.com/jawbonethemovie

“In life, you get out what you put in” THE RED BULLETIN

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Reckon that lucha libre can’t really be all that violent? Think again. WWE this is most definitely not

68  

BEHIND THE

MASK South African wrestler Adam Bridle travelled to Mexico intending to stay for a few months. Eight years later, he’s still there. The reason? He knows that in the Mexican ring, the more you risk, the more you stand to gain­ Words: Alejandro Serrano­ Photography: Paolo Marchesi

“What I like the most are the aerial moves.

They were invented in Mexico” Adam Bridle ROPE TRICK Bridle pounces on his opponent, Argenis, with one of his trademark leaps

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T

he lighting manager at Mexico’s Arena Naucalpan, an indoor sports venue to the north-west of the capital, reckons he’s seen just about everything the technicolour world of Mexican wrestling – also known as lucha libre – can throw at a man.

“You see and hear all kinds of things,” grins Rey. This includes everything from butter-wouldn’tmelt Mexican families bellowing the foulest obscenities at fighters, to droplets of wrestlers’ blood falling onto the spectators, to flying fighters who crash into the crowd when they’re hurled out of the ring. “We have hundreds of damaged chairs, whole rows that have been crushed, and mangled tables back there,” says the man also known as El Virus.

“I’ve even had to shave someone’s head while they were unconscious,” he adds, without batting an eyelid. “In matches,

a masked wrestler fights an unmasked one. If the unmasked one loses and he has long hair… it’s goodbye to those locks.”

Getting an unexpected haircut is nothing, though, compared with a fighter being unmasked – a huge humiliation in a sport defined by the often extravagant mystery surrounding those taking part.

“People go crazy,” explains the fighter known as Argenis, “because they take everything away from [the unmasked fighter]. According to the rules, wrestlers who unmask their opponents are automatically disqualified. But the real loser is the unmasked fighter, because the mask represents his honour.”

For this reason, Argenis has never allowed himself to be photographed without his mask.

However, not all wrestlers are like this. Adam Bridle is one such fighter. But then, there’s plenty about Bridle that sets him apart from the steady stream of local fighters losing their hair and their teeth in a sport that, while designed to deliver maximum melodrama, can be every bit as physically demanding and traumatic as a bloody and bitter mixed martial arts match-up.

First, he’s not exactly a local.

In fact, the 29-year old hails from

THERE BUT FOR THE GRACE OF GOD The luchadores take big risks with their lives every time they step into the ring.

Here, a fighter finds time for reflection and a silent prayer before battle begins

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Walkerville, 30 minutes south of Johannesburg.

Second, unlike most luchadores, Bridle has no qualms about fighting unmasked. Third, Bridle is a well-known figure at Arena Naucalpan, has a lot of followers, and, after eight years of hard work under the ring name of Angélico, is getting results.

The South African belongs to the wrestling organisation Lucha Libre AAA, which, alongside the Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) – or World Wrestling Council – has kept the sport alive in Mexico. In 1992, the late Antonio Peña, one of the most important bookers from the CMLL, founded Lucha Libre AAA with the aim of promoting the sport even further. Thanks to this initiative, wrestlers like Bridle and Argenis – his rival for our photoshoot – have been able to capture the attention of filmmakers such as Robert Rodríguez, who invited them to take part in the TV series Lucha Underground, aired by the El Rey Network in the US. But why would a South African leave his own country to learn to wrestle? Bridle explains that in the beginning he lived with a group of Japanese wrestlers who had a dojo above Arena Naucalpan. “It was the only place I knew in Mexico,” he says. “My Japanese housemates were very strict and would go to bed at 11pm.”

Gradually, he built a level of trust with the best fighters, who saw how the sport intrigued him and how determined he was to take part. Over time, he set his sights on the high-risk fighting style and learned as much as he could. the red bulletin: How did you first get a taste for wrestling?

When I was about six, my grandmother took me to a WWE wrestling show at Sun City. I can just remember something being awoken within me that day, and that feeling hasn’t left me.

You travelled to Japan, the US and Mexico to learn to wrestle. How did you end up staying in the latter? You’ve been here eight years… adam bridle: I think it was because of the style – I like the wrestling in Mexico best. It’s not as slow, and it focuses less on body mass, unlike in the US. It has always appealed to me more.

Which aspects in particular?

What I like most are the aerial moves, which are riskier. This practice is typically associated with lucha libre. In other parts of the world, they use aerial manoeuvres like front or backward rolls, and all these moves came from Mexico. When I watched wrestling as a child, I was drawn to that style the most, largely because it was high-risk.

Is there an artistic element to the Mexican style of fighting?

Of course there is. In fact, all four wrestling styles have it: European, American, Japanese and Mexican. I consider all four to be a unique art form. Each has a defined format, a way of telling a story, and its own way of interacting with people.

What story does lucha libre tell?

If you compare it to American wrestling, which tells the most simple story of good guys versus THE RED BULLETIN

Bridle, the South African luchadore who’s playing the Mexicans at their own game

“Argenis’ speciality is somersaulting from the ropes” Adam Bridle Unmask a fighter and he loses everything, even though it’s his opponent who’s disqualified.

Legendary Mexican wrestler El Santo only revealed his face at the end of his career

bad guys, lucha libre focuses more on a high-risk narrative: the more risks you take, the greater your chances of winning over the audience. It’s about which fighter makes the most dangerous moves to gain the fans’ respect. People like that, because you have to expose your body to win.

Are Mexican mentors different from those in other countries?

Of course. One hundred per cent. The way you’re taught to fight, and even to think about wrestling, is unique. In America, it’s all about the psychology of telling a story in a way that people will understand. In Mexico, they never teach you how to tell a story; what they care about is having wrestlers who dare to do somersaults and turns, who dodge their opponent, and who know how to move in general. It’s all about being as agile and as entertaining as possible.

So the audiences don’t care as much about the battle between ‘good and evil’. Would you say that lucha libre flows more smoothly?

In my opinion, lucha libre is like a circus version of professional wrestling. When you go to a match, you see the masks, the moves that you won’t have seen anywhere else before, exotic people, female wrestlers and even midget wrestlers, all in one show.

What’s the attitude of wrestlers in America?

It’s harder. People are used to trampling all over one another in order to get to the top.

So it’s more individualistic?

A lot more. Here in Mexico, they’re much more interested in helping you to go beyond your limits.

And if you compare it to Japan?

What story do they tell there?

The main story focuses on strength and your level of bravery.

The audience wants to see how much of a battering you can take before you give up. The training over there is the hardest and strictest of all; the Japanese are unrivalled in terms of discipline.

It’s very difficult to become a professional wrestler in Japan.

So if Japanese wrestling is the most difficult, why did you decide to stay in Mexico?

When I started here, my trainer, Negro Navarro – one of the world’s best-known trainers of wrestling holds – taught me an infinite number of holds; he had a book with about 400-500 different types. This was like an encyclopaedia of wrestling for me, which you can’t access anywhere else in the world. That’s one of the special things about lucha libre.

TRICKY TURNS Not only can you slip and break a bone, but if you perform this move incorrectly you can injure your neck for life. According to Bridle and Argenis, several wrestlers have died after falling badly.

You can end up unconscious with fractures and pulled muscles, or, more commonly, cracking your head open on the floor, or on the chairs that are thrown at you.

THE RED BULLETIN

So you realised that these guys had something special?

Yes, I had a feeling. I had trained in Europe and South Africa before that, but when I got to Mexico I felt there was a lot more history behind the sport. The trainers and masters have a different mentality when it comes to fighting; there’s more information and freedom.

I was lucky because I didn’t choose them, they chose me.

Really? And why do you think they chose you?

Perhaps because I wanted it more.

When I showed them how keen I was, it was clear I was desperate to open as many doors as I could into lucha libre. My mind was completely open to learning.

I would stay on for hours after the class had finished. I was always the last to leave, and I would spend the whole time asking questions. When they saw how determined I was, they became eager to train me.

It’s like they had a lot to share, but they weren’t willing to teach just anyone…

Yes, that’s how I feel, because the first three months of my training were very different from the months following that period.

It was almost as if I was on probation, and once they saw that I had goals, they liked that and they opened themselves up to me fully. They didn’t hold anything back; they constantly gave me more and more information.

But how did you persuade them to share their wisdom, especially with you being a foreigner?

If you show someone the respect they deserve – basically, they had been doing this for 23 years, while I had only been doing it for one – and if you’re humble and you come with an open mind and a willingness to learn, people see that. But it’s not just about that. I also learned a lot from them as people; I learned about their life experiences. They told me stories about how they had managed family life, fame, money… The relationship has to become very personal, and that only happened because they could see I wasn’t arrogant at all. I found a more shared way of thinking, and I liked that about Mexico. elreynetwork.com 75

THE BOY WHO WOULD BE KING

At just 19 years old, Red Bull Racing driver Max Verstappen already has one Grand Prix win and several podium finishes to his credit, and many are tipping him to become one of Formula One‘s greats. But just what is it that makes him so special?

WORDS: JUSTIN HYNES

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of Formula One’s finest drivers there are often standout moments that serve to either rubber stamp greatness or to push a young driver from the category marked ‘one to watch’ to that labelled ‘champion-in-waiting’.

Think Jackie Stewart’s 1968 German Grand Prix win in the wet, a staggering four minutes clear of his nearest rival; Ayrton Senna’s first-lap rise from fifth to the lead in the rain in the European GP at Donington in 1993, which served as a mesmerising reminder of the Brazilian’s skills, or Michael Schumacher’s blistering qualifying performance to claim seventh on his debut for the lowly Jordan team at Spa-Francorchamps in 1991.

For those who last year stood trackside in the pouring rain at São Paulo’s Interlagos circuit, such a moment arrived almost three hours into a Brazilian GP repeatedly neutralised by safety-car periods and stoppages.

With 16 laps remaining, Red Bull Racing’s 19-year-old driver, Max Verstappen, pitted for wet weather tyres and dropped to 14th place. However, over the course of the remaining laps, the Dutchman scythed through the pack as if he had found a dry line where none existed. Within five laps he was seventh, and by the time the flag was waved on lap 71 he had risen to third behind Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg and race winner Lewis Hamilton.

Verstappen’s Brazil performance was a signal moment, the point at which the sport’s youngest-ever driver arrived. “We witnessed something very special,” Verstappen’s team boss Christian Horner said. “It stands out to me like Ayrton Senna in Monaco.”

Three-time champion Niki Lauda added: “Verstappen was outstanding. I knew the guy is good, but he proved to everybody what he can do.”

Six months earlier, the young Dutchman had announced himself loudly, with a jaw-dropping maiden win on his first outing with Red Bull Racing, in Spain, but his performance in São Paulo perhaps said more, for it not only came at the end of a tough race, but it closed out an intensely difficult period for the youngster.

In the weeks running up to the race, his aggressive, no-holds barred driving had seen him criticised by many rivals – veteran Kimi Räikkönen lambasted him in Belgium and four-time champion Sebastian Vettel called him “a bastard” in Mexico. His style had caused the sport’s governing body to issue new guidelines on defensive driving. And he had been vilified by the media as an accident waiting to happen. Brazil blew the criticism out of the water.

So much so that Senna’s own teammate, 10-time grand prix winner Gerhard Berger, likened the youngster to the legendary Brazilian.

“When I see Max, Senna comes to my mind,” said Berger after the race at Interlagos. “This is the first time I say something like this, because I was really close to Ayrton and I think he was the greatest. I’ve always respected that and so I avoided comparisons, but with Max it’s hard not to.”

This month Verstappen heads into his third season in Formula One, his first full campaign with putative front-runners Red Bull Racing. The regulations for 2017 are changed hugely, moving the pendulum away from engine and back towards the traditional chassis and aerodynamics strengths of Verstappen’s team.

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IN THE CAREERS

Max attack: "When you're young you try to get the best result all the time. You've got a lot of fire inside"

Your father, Jos, gave you that guidance. As an F1 driver he had the reputation of being very singleminded. Was he a hard taskmaster?

Sometimes he was quite hard on me, but I’m happy he was because it brought me to where I am now. He was not all “you have to win”, or “you have to be this way or that”. It was about preparation, making sure I was putting in the effort and not just seeing it as a fun thing. At one point, it becomes your profession and you need to go for it. But in terms of results, he was never pushy.

There’s an old adage in F1 that says if you’re good enough, you’re old enough.

Do you think you would have benefited from a year of GP2 or GP3 before F1?

No. I think it would even make it more difficult. You need a bit of luck [to get into F1] and if you’re not at the right team at the right time… maybe you have a bad season and then people think different of you. I was pretty happy with how I did it. It was a risk to jump in that early, but I was confident I could do it.

Ahead of a season in which he might turn breakthrough into achievement at the highest level, The Red Bulletin caught up with the Dutchman to analyse his rise and where it might take him in the future…

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Verstappen has a chance to reach F1's peak in 2017

“I COULD EASILY HAVE BECOME A FOOTBALLER, BUT VERY EARLY ON I REALISED G0-KARTING WAS THE WAY TO GO”

THE RED BULLETIN

DAVID CLERIHEW/RED BULL RACING, VLADIMIR RYS

the red bulletin: Let’s go back to your earliest memories of driving. You first sat in a go-kart aged four.

Was racing something you were programmed to do? max verstappen: I had a choice, because it’s your decision to tell your parents that you want to race or not. I could easily have become a footballer, but very early on in my career I realised that go-karting was the way to go and that’s what I liked. My father never pushed me. I remember when I was four years old, I called him and said: “I want to start driving go-karts.”

His first answer was “No, we have to wait until you are at least six years old.” But I kept pushing and two or three weeks later I got my go-kart.

Your father was a Formula One driver and your mother, Sophie Kumpen, was a champion karter.

Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers: The Story of Success, posits the idea that great sportsmanship is learned, that 10,000 hours of practice make up the “magic number of greatness”. Is that true?

Is it nurture rather than nature?

That sounds a bit too easy. First you need the talent. If you don’t have talent then it will never work. You can do a million hours of practice; you still won’t get there.

Of course I’ve been lucky with my parents and you need the right guidance around you with the right people.

They need to teach you from a very young age and guide you in the right direction, but you have to have a talent. Just repeating the same task over and over again won’t get you all the way there.

“YOU NEED TO BE RUTHLESS IF YOU WANT TO ACHIEVE SOMETHING IN FORMULA ONE. IT DOESN’T COME JUST BY ITSELF“

Pass Master

Four overtaking moves that mark Verstappen out as a future F1 great 1. Vs Marcus Ericsson – Chinese Grand Prix 2015 In just his third GP, Verstappen made his name as a no-holdsbarred racer, closing hard on the Swede before launching a do-ordie move under braking into the chicane. They banged wheels, but Verstappen emerged ahead.

2. Vs Felipe Nasr – Belgian Grand Prix 2015 At Spa, Verstappen chased down Sauber’s Felipe Nasr and made a move around the outside at the high-speed Blanchimont corner.

He clattered over the kerbs, ran alongside Nasr all the way up to the Bus Stop chicane and then blasted past down the inside.

3. Vs Nico Rosberg – Brazilian Grand Prix 2016 In torrential rain, Verstappen found grip where no other driver could. As Rosberg hugged the inside line through Turn 3, Verstappen dived out of the spray and powered around the outside of the German. Jaw-dropping.

4. Vs Sergio Perez – Brazilian Grand Prix 2016 To claim a podium place he needed to pass Perez. He tried to overtake the Mexican around the outside of Turn 10 and despite skidding across the kerbs, held on. He then ran side-by-side with Perez to eventually pass the Force India man through Turn 12.

THE RED BULLETIN

After your first season, at Toro Rosso, you were last year drafted into Red Bull Racing just before the Spanish Grand Prix. In doing so, you displaced Russian driver Daniil Kvyat. Those were momentous career moves for both of you. Is Formula One a cruel sport?

With all the experiences my dad had, he always told me that you have to be prepared, that it can be a hard world. But at the end of the day, you have to do the best job for yourself as a driver; you have to get the best opportunities for yourself.

So yeah, it is cruel, but many drivers have experienced those kinds of things.

You won on your first outing with Red Bull Racing, took seven podiums, scored 204 points and finished fifth in the Drivers’ Championship last year.

Where did you improve last season?

I think just the experience you get from race to race. It’s not one single thing where you say I really learned this or that, because I think everything is already at 95 per cent, and every time you improve one per cent on one small element and then another one per cent somewhere else. You try to get to 100 per cent. You don’t know when that will happen, but it’s about working slowly towards that.

It wasn’t all wine and roses last year.

You came in for a lot of criticism as well. Were you surprised at some of the things people said about you?

It didn’t matter to me. Everybody can have his or her opinion.

It reached the point where at the driver’s briefing in Austin your rivals took you to task. How did that feel? Did you want to stand up and walk out?

Yeah, but I’m pretty relaxed. They can say what they want. I will not change my driving style. They just have to deal with it.

You wouldn’t feel pressure to change?

I don’t think you can. It’s like with a footballer: if you’re a striker you can’t suddenly become a defender. Your nature is to be a striker and even if you were told that you had to become a defender, the striker in you would come out. That’s just how it is. So, no, I won’t change for anyone.

Does it sow any seeds of doubt, though, and how do you banish those thoughts?

I never had that issue. You have to look to yourself and not listen to other people, just to the people you trust. After that, you have your own confidence, so why

would you change? As for doubt, it’s pretty simple.

I just do what I like, and that’s driving a racing car.

The most important thing is still driving the racing car.

F1 has a pretty short memory and in Brazil you were hailed at the next Ayrton Senna. Was there any feeling of revenge?

No, because that’s F1: you’re only as good as your last race. One race they talk really positively and the next race it’s really negative. That’s why it’s better to not read any media. I’m not on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram.

In São Paulo you were finding lines nobody else could. How did you do that?

It’s just common sense. It’s something you learn in go-karting. You always try different lines and my dad taught me especially to do that in the rain – the location of the grip can change very quickly. Once you have the confidence that you’ve found the grip, you brake later, brake harder; you generate more temperature. The temperature goes from the disc into the rim, heats up the tyre and it gets just better and better.

So why wasn’t anybody else doing that?

I think a lot of the older guys maybe just forgot, through not doing a lot of karting and not practising a lot in the wet. Maybe they were thinking about more complex ways to become faster, when in fact it’s pretty basic.

Let’s talk about those older guys. The criticisms levelled at you came from drivers such as Vettel and Räikkönen, yet when they came into F1, the same criticisms were levelled against them, with older rivals saying they took too many risks and needed to calm down. Have they forgotten the fire of youth?

I think when you get older you do tend to get a bit more conservative. That’s pretty normal. I think when I’m like 65 I’ll be the same! When you’re younger you try to get the best result all the time, you’ve got a lot of fire inside and maybe when you get older that’s less and less the case.

So would you say that your style at the moment is one of acceptable risk or over the line?

The first one. I think I am on that at the moment – acceptable risk.

Do you have a ruthless streak, the instinct needed to be a champion?

I think so, yeah. You have to have that instinct if you want to achieve something in Formula One. It doesn’t come just by itself. You have to work for it and fight for it on track and off track.

You’ve got a tough opponent in teammate Daniel Ricciardo. That relationship between drivers is always easier when the team isn’t battling for major honours. How will it be if there is a title in the offing?

You have to respect each other on and off track and I think we are doing that really well. Even when you start fighting for a world championship, I think it will always be there because respect is the most important thing between drivers. From there, you just have to find out on track who is the fastest, but in a fair way, and I’m pretty sure that between me and Daniel that will be the case.

You’re 19 now. You’ve won a Grand Prix, finished fifth in just your second season, you’re mentioned alongside F1’s greats and you could be doing this for another 20 years. Where does the talent end?

I don’t know. Hopefully it ends when I retire. Hopefully until then I’ll just keep improving. redbullracing.com 81

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guide Get It, Do It, See It

Go West

CHAD WADSWORTH/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

AMERICA, WE’RE COMING Berlin-based breakdance group The Flying Steps sell out venues all across Europe. Now the group want to break through in the US. Accompanied by Red Bull TV, they embark on their most important tour so far. See page 86

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83

GUIDE Edited by Gisbert L Brunner

Get It The watch’s face bears the name of Mike Horn’s latest mission, Pole2Pole

ROLEX OYSTER PERPETUAL EXPLORER

Peak performance Mountaineer Ed Viesturs has scaled all 14 of the world’s ‘eightthousanders’ without bottled oxygen. But he did utilise this 39mm stainless-steel timepiece, guaranteed for five years of service at any height. rolex.com

WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH There are tough-guy watches, and there’s a Panerai. In 1936, the watchmaker created the Radiomir for the Italian navy’s frogmen, using tech from the first true waterproof wristwatch: the Rolex Oyster with screwlocked crown. Over time, Panerai’s military timepieces grew in appeal among civilians and celebrities. After Sylvester Stallone’s Luminor survived the rigours of his 1996 film Daylight, he gave friends autographed editions. One such recipient was Arnold Schwarzenegger, who wore it in his movie Eraser, ensuring its hard-man pedigree.

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PANERAI LUMINOR SUBMERSIBLE 1950 3 DAYS GMT AUTOMATIC TITANIO

Strong armed Epic is a word too often overused, but it’s perfectly justified when describing our cover star, explorer Mike Horn. Arguably the most travelled man alive, Horn has solocircumnavigated the equator without powered transport, trekked to the North Pole in perpetual winter darkness without dogs or motors, travelled the length of the Amazon by riverboard, and lost fingertips to frostbite. But his most epic feat began last May: a two-year solo circumnavigation of the globe via both poles. This watch, built specially

by Panerai for Horn's voyage, has a 47mm titanium case, is waterresistant to 300m and houses a twin-barrel movement with a threeday power reserve. The run has been limited to 500 pieces; it’s unlikely the other 499 will endure quite the same thrashing. panerai.com

HAMILTON KHAKI AVIATION CHRONO WORLDTIMER

High flyer

In the dramatic opener of the Red Bull Air Race World Championship 2016, Nicolas Ivanoff triumphed.

His precision timing might be due to the steel-case quartz watch he designed with his team sponsor, Hamilton. hamiltonwatch.com

ORIS HAMMERHEAD

Hidden depths

In a bid to prevent their extinction, marine scientist Jérôme Delafosse has been fitting hammerhead sharks with trackers built by Oris.

The watchmaker has also made a timepiece – limited to 2,000 and water-resistant to 50m, naturally – to support his work. oris.ch

THE RED BULLETIN

GUIDE

See it

COME ALONG FOR THE RIDE Skiing, snowboarding, rally driving, mountain biking – watch the best of the best go head-tohead on Red Bull TV

WATCH RED BULL TV ANYWHERE Red Bull TV is a global digital entertainment destination featuring programming that is beyond the ordinary and is available any time, anywhere.

Go online at redbull.tv, download the app, or connect via your Smart TV. To find out more, visit redbull.tv

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March/April

2 THE RED BULLETIN

April

LIVE

FREERIDE WORLD TOUR

Join the world's best freeskiers and snowboard freeriders in the Swiss Alps for the finale of the Freeride World Tour as they compete for individual event wins, as well as the overall title of World Champion in their respective gender categories and disciplines. Red Bull TV will be live-broadcasting the event from the fifth and final tour stop in Verbier.

FREERIDEWORLDTOUR.COM/TERO REPO, FREERIDEWORLDTOUR.COM/THOMAS BEKKER, BARTEK WOLINSKI/RED BULL CONTENT POOL, @WORLD/RED BULL CONTENT POOL, CHAD WADSWORTH / RED BULL CONTENT POOL

2 7 13

April

LIVE

CRANKWORX NZ

Watch the kick-off event of the 2017 Crankworx Quest for the Triple Crown in Rotorua, New Zealand, where the elite of freestyle mountain biking will take on the lush trails of this rider-favourite course.

to 09 April

LIVE

WRC, STOP 4

See the world’s best drivers pitted against some of the toughest and most changeable conditions on the planet on the fourth stop of the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC). The action takes place in the scenic surroundings of Corsica, France.

March

PREMIERE

FOLLOW THE STEPS

An all-access documentary series on the Flying Steps, one of the top B-Boy companies in the world. Vartan, leader and founder of the four-time world breakdance champions, faces his ultimate challenge: a breakthrough in America.

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GUIDE

Do it

23

March /April April London Marathon Can’t stand the crowds in central London?

The only way to beat them on this day is by putting on a number and running past them.

The legendary 42km-plus London Marathon course takes in the city’s best sights, from the Old Royal Navy College and Tower Bridge to the London Eye, Big Ben and, at the end of it all, Buckingham Palace. If you prefer to spectate, get a prime spot early. The race starts from three points in Greenwich, Maze Hill and Blackheath at 10am.

London; virginmoneylondonmarathon.com

14

to 16 April

6 HOURS OF SILVERSTONE

If F1 can be described as the 100m of motorsport, then the World Endurance Championship is the marathon – a nine-round series in which blistering pace is balanced against chess-like strategies designed to eke the maximum out of available resources. The 2017 tour gets underway with the 6 Hours Of Silverstone, a 1,000km-plus endurance race where Porsche will kick off its title defence in the top 900hp-plus LMP1 category. So put the kettle on, open the crisps and settle in – the long haul begins here.

Silverstone, Northamptonshire; silverstone.co.uk

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London becomes a gamer‘s paradise for 10 days, with playful events spread across the city. For the most fun, head to Somerset House from April 7-9 for Now Play This, featuring everything from board games to multiplayer installations and classic and experimental video games.

Somerset House, London; somersethouse.org.uk

6

to 9 April The London Coffee Festival Featuring more than 250 artisanal coffee and gourmet food stalls, this is a weekender that’ll get you buzzing. And to keep you occupied in your caffeine-fuelled state, there are latte art workshops, tastings, the Coffee Masters barista tournament, plus DJ Norman Jay pouring out tunes at Friday’s Espresso Martini Party.

Old Truman Brewery, London; londoncoffeefestival.com

13

to 16 April Tall Ships Regatta A trip to Greenwich is a great way to learn about our seafaring heritage – especially on Easter weekend, when more than 30 sailing ships set off for Quebec for the 150th anniversary of the Canadian Confederation. Enjoy live music and a sail down the Thames – but be sure to hop off before they leave for Canada.

Cutty Sark Gardens, London; royalgreenwich.gov.uk

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VIRGIN MONEY LONDON MARATHON

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March to 9 April London Games Festival

THE ONLY RACE WHERE THE FINISH LINE CATCHES YOU £35 EARLY BIRD OFFER UNTIL 25TH MARCH

IN CAMBRIDGE OR WITH THE APP WHEREVER YOU ARE

7TH MAY, 2017, 12:00 P.M. 100% OF ALL MONEY RAISED GOES TO SPINAL CORD RESEARCH

WINGSFORLIFEWORLDRUN.COM

ACTION APPAREL From the moment ancient man strapped animal skins to his feet, clothing has been engineered for performance. Here’s the ultimate evolution of our fitness fabrics

Jaybird X-3

Nixon

Bristol backpack

When it comes to trekking to all corners of the Earth, Nixon has long had our backs. This durable tan-coloured carry-all is a prime example, made from British Millerain waxed cotton hemmed with riveted leather. nixon.com

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Finding great in-ear headphones for extreme physical activity can be more gruelling than the workout itself. These make the grade. Wireless, they won't get torn out of your ears by a random arm movement; superergonomic fins and tips lock them securely into your ear canal; and a hydrophobic nano coating and airtight seams ensure they can withstand any conditions you throw at them. And with eight hours play from a quick 15-minute charge, there's plenty of weather and workout time you can put them through. jaybirdsport.com

THE RED BULLETIN

GUIDE Adidas Z.N.E. 90/10 Jacket Gameday performance is 90 per cent mental and 10 per cent physical. It's a belief Adidas has woven into the fabric of this jacket, literally. The design has inspirational comments from athletes like Man United's Paul Pogba (pictured) on its inner lining. adidas.com

THE RED BULLETIN

91

ACTION APPAREL

Vans Gilbert Crockett Pro 2 With a skating style that makes him look like a 'drunken cowboy', Vans pro Gilbert Crockett is unlike his peers. Now he has a shoe to match – its Wafflecup outsole offers good grip, the suede-covered toe-cap ensures durability, and cushioned sockliners deliver comfort no matter how sober your style. vans.com

Oakley Jawbreaker The outlandish design of these cycling sunglasses is guaranteed to turn a few heads, but one of them won't be yours, thanks to the incredible peripheral vision afforded by that massive wraparound visor. Designed in collaboration with pro sprint cyclist Mark Cavendish, they provide a 44 per cent greater field of view than regular sunnies, plus total eye protection and unrestricted airflow. The lenses can also be swapped out quickly and easily to cater to changing light conditions. oakley.com/jawbreaker

Mons Royale Redwood VT Sheep seem happy to sit outside whatever the weather, thanks to their amazing fleece.

Woven from merino – wool from one of the toughest breeds – this tee keeps your temperature regulated whether it's hot or cold. And this cool New Zealand brand guarantees you're no sheep. monsroyale.com

Adidas Tech Fit Tough Long Tights

Lululemon Surge Light Jacket A running jacket designed for any pace and conditions. Made from lightweight breathable mesh with laser-cut vents, it wicks away sweat and packs up tightly enough to fit into its own pocket when conditions heat up. lululemon.com

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A second skin that does a hell of a lot for your actual skin, starting with keeping it dry.

The hydrophilic synthetic/ cotton fabric combo draws heat and sweat to its outer layer where it's quickly evaporated, while strategically placed, ultra-soft seams prevent chafing. This stretchy, supportive base layer even delivers UPF 50+ UV protection. adidas.com

THE RED BULLETIN

GUIDE

DC Shoes Conover Pocket T-shirt The T-shirt has long transcended its undergarment origins to become an eternally cool form of wearable self-expression. This natural design strips the trusty tee back to its essence – an understated piece of work (and workout) wear – with just a chest pocket and double-layered hem delivering a stylish statement to match any loud chest print. dcshoes.com

Skullcandy

Crusher Wireless

Over-the-ear headphones with a powerful physical presence all of their own. Memory-foam pads shape and seal around your ear, while you can literally feel the bass as it thumps out of drivers that can be custom-tuned. Wireless and with 40 hours on a single charge, you can head out into the wilderness, while noise isolation means your surroundings won't distract. skullcandy.com

THE RED BULLETIN

Quiksilver

Reebok

Rio Negro

InstaPump Fury

The hoodie was born as a piece of US high-school athletic wear in the 1930s. Its design has changed very little since then, but its image has transformed. This example combines the finest of all the immortal hoodie's elements – it's sporty, comfy, warm, but most of all, damn cool. quicksilver.com

Rarely does something stay fresh, but Reebok's Pump shoes have remained punk since 1991, when NBA star Dee Brown inflated his footwear before slam-dunking a victory before a televised audience.

Today's shoe employs the same pump-up system for the perfect fit, combined with modern support technology like a shock-absorbing midsole and graphlite arch. You can also customise your own designs, and that is very fresh. reebok.com

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ACTION APPAREL

GUIDE

Montane Sonic t-shirt Less is more with this shirt – less weight, moisture and odour thanks to anti-sweat wicking, and less sun exposure thanks to built-in 50+ UV protection. montane.co.uk

Puma

Nike

Ignite Limitless Extreme Hi-Tech

This street-running shoe is designed for pavement pounding and parkour powering. The hightop design incorporates a thermoplastic polyurethane ankle support, the upper features a Kevlar-inspired mesh, and crystal rubber pods on the sole add extra traction, delivering uncompromising urban performance and cool street style. puma.com

Under Armour Threadborne Fitted ¼ Zip Born to be the ultimate workout shirt – comfortable and cooling, with anti-odour fabric that delivers compression without cling, its breathable fabric draws sweat away while staying dry. underarmour.com

About as cutting edge as T-shirt technology gets – mesh fabric for enhanced, targeted ventilation, raglan sleeves for an increased range of movement, and flat stitching for added comfort against your skin. nike.com

OnePiece Out Hoodie From the maker of the ultimate slackerwear – the onesie – comes this proactive piece of outdoor clothing. Double layered for extra warmth, it's knitted from sustainable cotton, intended to better the lives of farmers and the environment. And that's far from slack. onepiece.co.uk

94

Pro Hypercool

Adidas Tango Player Icon Shorts Save goals and the world in these silky soccer shorts. Climalite fabric keeps you cool and dry, while the recycled fibres help the fight against climate change. adidas.com

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GLOBAL TEAM

THE RED BULLETIN WORLDWIDE THE

REAL

ACTION STARS

Editorial Director Robert Sperl Editor-in-Chief Alexander Macheck

Stunt performer Matt Mullins takes a hit from his wife, Alicia Vela-Bailey, who doubles for Gal Gadot in Wonder Woman

D!

TH U

Words: NORA O’DONNELL Photography: DAVID HARRY STEWART Talent liaison: XAVIER QUIMBO

54

The Red Bulletin is available in eight countries. This feature on stunt performers and their fitness regimes is in this month’s South African editon.

See all the editions at: redbulletin.com/ howtoget

Creative Director Erik Turek Art Directors Kasimir Reimann, Miles English

THE RED BULLETIN United Kingdom, ISSN 2308-5894

Associate Editor Tom Guise Music Editor Florian Obkircher Chief Sub-Editor Nancy James Deputy Chief Sub-Editor Davydd Chong

Production Editor Marion Wildmann

Country Channel Management Tom Reding

Managing Editor Daniel Kudernatsch

Advertisement Sales Mark Bishop mark.bishop@uk.redbull.com

Web Kurt Vierthaler (Senior Web Editor), Christian Eberle, Vanda Gyuris, Inmaculada Sánchez Trejo, Andrew Swann, Christine Vitel Design Marco Arcangeli, Marion Bernert-Thomann, Martina de Carvalho-Hutter, Kevin Goll, Carita Najewitz

Printed by Prinovis Ltd & Co KG, 90471 Nuremberg, Germany UK Office 155-171 Tooley Street, London SE1 2JP Tel: +44 (0) 20 3117 2000

Photo Editors Rudi Übelhör (Deputy Photo Director), Marion Batty, Susie Forman, Ellen Haas, Eva Kerschbaum, Tahira Mirza Illustrator Dietmar Kainrath Publisher Franz Renkin

THE RED BULLETIN Austria, ISSN 1995-8838

Advertising Placement Andrea Tamás-Loprais

Editor Ulrich Corazza

Creative Solutions Eva Locker (manager), Verena Schörkhuber

Proof Reading Hans Fleißner

Country Management and Marketing Stefan Ebner (manager), Magdalena Bonecker, Thomas Dorer, Manuel Otto, Kristina Trefil, Sara Varming

Country Project Management Thomas Dorer

Marketing Design Peter Knehtl (manager), Simone Fischer, Alexandra Hundsdorfer, Mathias Schwarz Head of Production Michael Bergmeister

Advertisement Sales Alfred Vrej Minassian (manager), Thomas Hutterer, Corinna Laure, Bernhard Schmied, anzeigen@at.redbulletin.com

Repro Clemens Ragotzky (manager), Claudia Heis, Maximilian Kment, Karsten Lehmann

THE RED BULLETIN France, ISSN 2225-4722

Office Management Kristina Krizmanic, Petra Wassermann

Editor Pierre-Henri Camy

IT Systems Engineer Michael Thaler

Country Co-ordinator Christine Vitel

General Manager and Publisher Wolfgang Winter Global Editorial Office Heinrich-Collin-Strasse 1, A-1140 Vienna Phone +43 1 90221-28800 Fax +43 1 90221-28809 Web redbulletin.com Red Bull Media House GmbH Oberst-Lepperdinger-Straße 11–15, A-5071 Wals bei Salzburg, FN 297115i, Landesgericht Salzburg, ATU63611700 Directors Christopher Reindl, Andreas Gall

96

Proof Reading Hans Fleißner Country Product Management Natascha Djodat Advertisement Sales Martin Olesch, martin.olesch@de.redbulletin.com

THE RED BULLETIN Mexico, ISSN 2308-5924 Editor Luis Alejandro Serrano Associate Editors Marco Payán, Inmaculada Sánchez Trejo Proof Reading Alma Rosa Guerrero Country Project and Sales Management Helena Campos, Giovana Mollona Advertisement Sales Humberto Amaya Bernard, humberto.amayabernard@mx.redbull.com

THE RED BULLETIN South Africa, ISSN 2079-4282 Editor Louis Raubenheimer Chief Sub-Editor Nancy James Deputy Chief Sub-Editor Davydd Chong Country Project and Sales Management Andrew Gillett Advertisement Sales Andrew Gillett, andrew.gillett@za.redbull.com Dustin Martin, dustin.martin@za.redbull.com

THE RED BULLETIN Switzerland, ISSN 2308-5886

Production Wolfgang Stecher (manager), Walter O Sádaba, Friedrich Indich, Michael Menitz (digital)

Subscriptions and Distribution Peter Schiffer (manager), Klaus Pleninger (distribution), Nicole Glaser (distribution), Yoldas Yarar (subscriptions)

Editor Andreas Rottenschlager

Editor Justin Hynes

Photo Director Fritz Schuster

Editors Stefan Wagner (Chief Copy Editor), Ulrich Corazza, Arek Piatek, Andreas Rottenschlager

THE RED BULLETIN Germany, ISSN 2079-4258

Proof Reading Audrey Plaza

Editor Arek Piatek Proof Reading Hans Fleißner Country Channel Management Melissa Stutz Advertisement Sales Marcel Bannwart, marcel.bannwart@ch.redbull.com

Country Project Management Leila Domas Partnership Management Yoann Aubry, yoann.aubry@fr.redbull.com

THE RED BULLETIN USA, ISSN 2308-586X Editor Andreas Tzortzis Deputy Editor Nora O’Donnell Copy Chief David Caplan Country Project Management Melissa Thompson Advertisement Sales Los Angeles: Dave Szych, dave.szych@us.redbull.com New York: Regina Dvorin, reggie.dvorin@us.redbullmediahouse.com THE RED BULLETIN

p: Tim Zimmerman

BRANDON REIS 154 OG SKATE BANANA lib-tech.com

GUIDE

Action highlight

In his new video, Walls, British BMX legend Sebastian Keep defies gravity. A prime example is Keep’s jump over the railing of a pedestrian bridge, landing on – yes, on – an exterior wall at the height of 9.7m, before dashing down a ramp into the street. How does the stunt end? Check out the video at redbull.com/bike

“It’s a whole new way to use your bike”

GEORGE MARSHALL/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

Croydon, England

Makes you fly

Pro BMX rider Sebastian Keep, 34, lands his spectacular tricks on walls

The next issue of The Red Bulletin is out on April 11 98

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Take a test drive | Visit mitsubishi-cars.co.uk to find your nearest dealer 1. The offer relates to an ASX 2 and requires a minimum 20% deposit. 0% APR Personal Contract Purchase (PCP) only available on a new ASX 2 registered between 29th December 2016 and 29th March 2017. Retail sales only. 0% APR PCP offer shown is for an ASX 2 petrol with metallic paint (OTR price £16,709) and requires a £4,825 Deposit and a £5,800 Optional Final Payment. With PCP you have the option at the end of the agreement to: (a) return the vehicle and not pay the Optional Final Payment. If the vehicle has exceeded the maximum agreed mileage a charge per excess mile will apply. In this example, 6p plus VAT per excess mile above the maximum agreed mileage. If the vehicle is in good condition (fair wear and tear) and has not exceeded the maximum agreed mileage you will have nothing further to pay; (b) pay the Optional Final Payment to own the vehicle or (c) part exchange the vehicle subject to settlement of your existing credit agreement; new credit agreements are subject to status. The example is based upon an annual mileage of 10,000 miles. Credit is subject to status and only available to UK residents aged 18 and over resident in Mainland UK and N. Ireland. This credit offer is only available through Shogun Finance Ltd T/A Finance Mitsubishi, 116 Cockfosters Rd, Barnet, EN4 0DY. Finance Mitsubishi is part of Lloyds Banking Group. Offer not available in conjunction with any other offer, subject to availability, whilst stocks last and may be amended or withdrawn at any time. Fuel figures shown are official EU test figures, to be used as a guide for comparative purposes and may not reflect real driving results.

ASX 2 fuel consumption in mpg (ltrs/100km): Urban 38.2 (7.4), Extra Urban 57.6 (4.9), Combined 48.7 (5.8), CO2 emissions 135 g/km.