The Red Bulletin 04/19 UK

UK EDITION APRIL 2019, £3.50

BEYOND THE ORDINARY

BARKING MAD The twisted genius behind the cruellest ultramarathon

X-LARGE

MTB GEAR GUIDE

THE A-TEAM The Athertons and the bike they‘ve built to dominate 2019

FRESH DRY DURABLE

S TA N C E . E U . C O M

EDITOR’S LETTER

THE ART OF REINVENTION

“A lovely bunch of nutters” is how photographer Dan Wilton describes the Athertons, who he shot in Malaga. “It was an ace day, apart from slipping face first into one of the spikiest bushes I’ve ever encountered.” Page 56

A surfer in search of a challenge, Sérgio Cosme (page 70) became one of Nazaré’s best rescue pilots; in 2017, he towed Rodrigo Koxa to the biggest wave ever surfed.

After Lazarus Lake surmised he’d never be the greatest ultramarathon runner (page 44), he endeavoured instead to become the most fiendish race-planner. Actor Brie Larson (page 26) kindled an Oscar-winning CV from two decades of casting rejections. And sports-climbing legend Liv Sansoz (page 8) channelled a career-ending injury into a quest to scale every four-thousander in the Alps.

We hope you find inspiration in these stories.

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CONTRIBUTORS THIS ISSUE

TOM WARD

For his story on the infamously difficult Barkley Marathons, the Brighton-based writer travelled to the backwoods of Tennessee to meet the race’s equally notorious creator. In Lazarus Lake, he encountered a personality as complex as the route of the world’s most torturous ultramarathon. “I’d heard a lot about Lazarus, and he didn’t disappoint,” Ward says. “He’s bizarre and colourful.” Page 44

KONSTANTIN REYER

The Viennese action-sports photographer rode pillion on the 200hp jet ski of Nazaré big-wave surf rescuer Sérgio Cosme, even diving into the cold Atlantic waters to capture close-up shots of the Portuguese saviour in action.

“What impressed me most is Sérgio’s happiness,” Reyer says.

“He’s putting his life in danger saving others, but is always calm, with a smile on his face.” Page 70 DAN WILTON (COVER)

Adaptability. It’s one of humanity’s greatest talents: the capability to change up to survive, thrive, and ascend to the top of the food chain. Our cover stars, siblings Rachel, Gee and Dan Atherton (page 56), are a textbook example. Switching from BMX to downhill MTB after a move to the country, they’ve become the sport’s all-time greats. What to do when you’ve achieved all your bike can deliver? Reinvent the bike. And resculpt a mountain to train up the next generation of champions.

THE RED BULLETIN

NEW IN STORE AND ONLINE NOW: JACK-WOLFSKIN.COM

CONTENTS April 2019

70

KONSTANTIN REYER

For Nazaré’s elite surfers, Sérgio Cosme is their personal emergency service

BULLEVARD

FEATURES

08 Back on top: French

2 6 Brie Larson

Screen hero, real-life inspiration 30 Yann Pissenem

Revitalising Ibiza’s party scene 3 4 Jayda G

From killer whales to killer tunes 3 8 Steel Warriors

Fighting knife crime with fitness 4 4 Lazarus Lake

Tracking down Mr Ultramarathon 5 6 The Athertons

The first family of downhill MTB 70 Nazaré jet-ski rescue

Saving lives in the big-wave capital 82 Root Manoeuvres

Mountain-biking kit you must own

climber Liv Sansoz’s 82-summit triumph 12 Wrap culture: the edible packaging revolution 14 The ‘Poké Ball’ that reveals the mysteries of the ocean’s depths 16 Shauna Coxsey on why her 2020 Olympics dream is within reach 18 Rebooting the server: robot waiter OriHime-D 20 Relative strengths: Joseph and Ranulph Fiennes are on a mission 22 Seeing red: the Mars Curiosity rover 24 Charlotte Gainsbourg’s French film classics

THE RED BULLETIN

GUIDE 96 Border force: running

the length of China’s iconic Great Wall is like racing back through history 100 Follow the drill: Hypervolt – the fitness innovation used by elite athletes to regenerate sore, stiff muscles 102 Inside the terrifying Resident Evil 2 videogame reboot, and the psychology of fear 104 This month’s highlights on Red Bull TV 106 Essential dates for your calendar 110 Dark arts: motocross by moonlight

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BULLEVARD STYLE

Liv Sansoz

THE MOUNTAIN COLLECTOR

One year, 82 summits, each more than 4,000m high. How one climber learned to love the mountains again following a terrible injury 08

BEYOND

I

THE

ORDINARY

n September 2018, Liv Sansoz stood on top of Aiguille Blanche de Peuterey – one of the mountains in the Mont Blanc massif – having completed one of Europe’s toughest climbs, then jumped off the rock face and paraglided back home to Chamonix. The flight marked the moment Sansoz became one of only a select few humans in history

to have summited every one of the Alps’ 82 mountains higher than 4,000m. “Flying is one of our oldest dreams,” she says. “To combine it with climbing is special to me.”

This endeavour, three years in the making, was all the more remarkable considering Sansoz’s decorated career as a competitive sports climber had come to a sudden THE RED BULLETIN

STUART KENNY

&

MIKE DOUGLASS

LIFE

Sansoz on Pointe Carmen, one of five rock ‘needles’ on Mont Blanc’s Arête du Diable (Devil’s Ridge)

and dramatic end in 2001.

After winning multiple world championships and world cups, she was forced into early retirement after being badly belayed – secured by a safety rope – by a climbing partner, falling more than 9m and cracking a vertebra in her neck.

“It stopped me competing at a moment when I was one of the best female sports climbers in the world,” Sansoz recalls. For the next six years, the injury to her back and nervous system left her unable to climb. Most crucially, she Sansoz: “My body is not as strong as it used to be. But I’m very determined” lost her heart for the pursuit.

“But you learn from these things,” she says. “As my myself on the edge, thinking injuries healed, I realised I could climb on big walls and that if I could jump, I would.” do all sorts of other things.

The idea of tackling all of So that’s what I did.” She the Alp’s four-thousanders – took a Master’s in Cognitive the 82 peaks recognised by the Psychology and learnt to International Climbing and skydive and BASE jump.

Mountaineering Federation as standing 4,000m or higher In the years that followed, – came to Sansoz in 2015 Sansoz slowly regained her when, after summiting the confidence and love for the Schreckhorn in the Bernese outdoors, combining her Alps, she found herself in total passion for climbing with a awe of the view. “I realised curiosity for flight. “Being a climber often means you’ll how beautiful all the summits be in a very high place,” she around me were and how says. “Sometimes, in locations little I actually knew about like El Capitan, I would find them,” she says. “I decided

“TO SHARE AN EXPERIENCE IN THE MOUNTAINS WITH THE RIGHT PERSON IS SO SPECIAL”

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THE RED BULLETIN

MIKE DOUGLASS

To climb the 82 Alpine four-thousanders, Sansoz had to adopt a different – less competitive – mindset

there and then to summit all of them.” She began her mission in 2017.

Sansoz had to relax her competitive mindset, focusing instead on summiting the Alpine giants on her own terms. “You can’t really compete in the mountains, because it’s never the same conditions,” she says. For her ascent of the mountains – from ground level and without the use of lifts – Sansoz climbed with a total of 22 different partners, who were as important to her as the climbs themselves.

“To share an experience in the mountains with the right person is so special,” she says.

“I miss something when I climb a badass wall by myself, whereas even climbing easier routes with someone I really, really love is something much more valuable.”

It’s these individual experiences with her partners, rather than the achievement of the 82 summits, that Sansoz looks back on most fondly. “I learnt a lot about how to climb, because there are many different ways to approach a mountain and many ways to love a mountain,” she explains.

“All of my friends brought a different perspective.”

That Sansoz, now 42, conquered the Alps’ most treacherous mountains regardless of her injuries is the ultimate testament to not only her love for nature, but her strength of character. “All of those injuries did make an impact on my body,” she says.

“I can’t trust it like I used to; it’s not as strong. But I’m a very determined person, and I think that’s where I make up the difference. When you really want something, you make it happen.” livsansoz.net

STUART KENNY

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B U L L EVA R D

This innovative way of wrapping and carrying food grows from waste, is edible, and could help save the planet

The Scoby has a number of uses, from edible wrapper and biodegradable bowl to eco-friendly shopping bag

I Roza Janusz created the Scoby for her graduate project at uni in Poznan

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magine growing your own carrier bags, or being able to eat the packaging you buy your groceries in. This is the vision of Polish designer Roza Janusz, the creator of a new, environmentally friendly way of wrapping food – the Scoby.

Janusz envisages a world where our products aren’t manufactured then turned to landfill, but are instead grown and reused. The graduate

developed her innovation while researching sustainable alternatives to plastic. Named after the substance it’s made from (it stands for ‘symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast’), the Scoby grows from local waste, meaning it demands nothing of the planet, but enriches it instead. “It can be adjusted to the environment,” explains Janusz. “In Poland, it’s fed with agricultural waste from potato and apple farms; in Indonesia, it will be from coconut producers.”

The process of making a Scoby sounds unappetising: Janusz grows it in a sugary liquid containing a culture of bacteria and yeast, to which waste is added and left to ferment. After two weeks, thin membranes grow, which can then be moulded to whatever dry or semi-dry food you want.

Flexible and translucent, the Scoby will keep its contents fresh for up to six months, has a faintly vinegary taste when eaten, and can be cooked with the food it encases.

“I think we’ll start thinking about grown packaging in a similar way to food, looking at where it comes from and how it was produced,” says Janusz.

“Imagine buying a sandwich with ingredients that were made no more than 10km away, including its wrapping.”

In the fight to protect the environment and reduce waste, gone are the days when simply using a tote bag was a sign of an eco-warrior; we must think bigger and weirder if we’re to make an impact, says Janusz. “We live on a very small planet, and we have to produce in ways that best utilise the limited space and resources we have. I wonder what shopping at IKEA will look like if more products are grown. Maybe one day we’ll all be saying, ‘Excuse me, my lamp isn’t ripe enough.’” makegrowlab.com THE RED BULLETIN

MARIUSZ RUTKOWSKI

ALL-YOU-CANEAT PACKAGING

LOU BOYD

Wrap superstar

CANYON.COM

DISCOVER THE ALL-NEW STRIVE 2019

T H E S H A P E S H I F T E R STAGE 2.0

B U L L EVA R D

The occupants of the ocean are mostly hidden from us, but this new underwater ‘Poké Ball’ aims to catch ‘em all – safely

1

2

The polyhedral-shaped RAD nears a fragile sea organism

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The RAD’s five hinged ‘petals’ gently fold around the subject

he oceans cover 70 per cent of the earth’s surface, yet it’s estimated that 95 per cent are still a mystery to us, containing hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of undiscovered species.

Scientists from Harvard University’s Wyss Institute hope to change all that with a new invention dubbed ‘the Poké Ball’, designed to explore more of the seas than has ever been attempted before.

The Rotary Actuated Dodecahedron (RAD) underwater sampler was inspired by the Japanese art of origami, applying its principles to deep-sea

3 Safely enclosed, the creature is analysed and photographed

robotics. Using a polyhedral collection mechanism, the sampler’s soft edges fold around any animal it hooks, safely capturing delicate creatures and leaving them unharmed. “Some deep-sea animals, like sponges, can be 15,000 years old,” says collaborative author David Gruber. “The dream is to enclose these creatures, take 360° imagery, and then make a 3D print at the surface.”

It’s hoped the RAD will soon include a ‘toothbrush’ to tickle its prisoner and reveal its full genome before it’s released unharmed. “We wonder if a jellyfish would see this as an alien abduction or a medical check-up,” says Gruber. “We want to handle every organism we study with the greatest of care, and to respect all marine life.”

So far, the RAD has caught squid, octopus and jellyfish at depths of 700m, but the plan is to develop the device to examine bigger animals, bringing us one step closer to discovering the elusive mysteries of the deep. wyss.harvard.edu THE RED BULLETIN

LOU BOYD

POKÉMON OF THE DEEP

T

MONTEREY BAY AQUARIUM RESEARCH INSTITUTE (MBARI)

Creature catcher

CHRISTINA LOCK

The RAD is designed to safely capture and study soft-bodied sea animals

HELIX DROPPER SEATPOST

VYCE STEM and BOOM BAR

Scott Beaumont 2011 - 2018 4X National Champion

ULTIMATEUSE.COM

LOU BOYD OLAF PIGNATARO/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

Coxsey has fought back from injury – she snapped a tendon in her right ring finger last January – to be ready for Tokyo 2020

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THE RED BULLETIN

B U L L EVA R D

Shauna Coxsey

BALANCING THE SCALES

Shauna Coxsey is the UK’s most successful competitive climber ever. A multiple gold-medallist in bouldering, she’s only the third women on the planet to scale a route graded 8B+. Now, the 26-yearold from Runcorn is preparing for the 2020 Olympics, where she will have to compete in not only her own sport, but also against the best in the world at speed climbing and lead climbing. “I thought long and hard about it: Tokyo 2020, the first Olympics to feature climbing as a sport – but three disciplines, not one,” she says.

“It’s like asking Usain Bolt to run a marathon, then do the hurdles.

But speed climbing and lead climbing will really compliment my training for bouldering, so I don’t see them as a detriment, more a positive thing. It’s all or nothing, after all.” redbull.com THE RED BULLETIN

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B U L L EVA R D

AT YOUR SERVICE

The little robot helpers developed to provide job opportunities for the less able-bodied

S Kentaro Yoshifuji, who cofounded Ory Laboratory in 2012, has drawn on his own experiences to help others

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cience fiction tells us that robots will eventually rise up, take control of our jobs and society, and make all human life redundant.

But in the Minato-ku district of Tokyo, Japan, there’s a fleet of real-life robot avatars with far more benevolent intentions: these automatons are helping people with severe disabilities to work within the service industry from the comfort of their own home.

The 1.2m-tall OriHime-D, developed by Tokyo start-up Ory Laboratory, is operated remotely by a worker with

a debilitating condition such as ALS – the most common form of motor neuron disease – who is unable to enter into conventional employment.

It may look like any other service robot, but behind its expressionless face are built-in cameras and speakers, so the human operator can hear, see and control its actions.

The operator, who earns a wage of 1,000 yen (£7) per hour, is able to interact with the customer, take orders and more, via software that allows them to type instructions by moving their eyes.

The mastermind behind the innovation is Ory Laboratory

THE RED BULLETIN

ISSEI KATO/REUTERS, ORYLAB INC

OriHime-D

CEO Kentaro Yoshifuji, who was inspired by his own experiences of social isolation following a stress-induced illness in his childhood. “I want to create a world in which people who can’t move their bodies can work, too,” said Yoshifuji at the launch of a pop-up ‘robot café’ in the Japanese capital last November. “Why have one body if you can have two?”

Created in collaboration with the non-profit Nippon Foundation and Japan’s biggest airline, ANA, Ory Laboratory’s café was based on the one in the 2008 sci-fi anime series Time of Eve – an imaginary place where androids and humans work together as equals – and completely run by OriHime-D waiting staff. Although this was merely a temporary trial, a permanent venue is being planned in time for the opening of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics. It looks as if the robots might be on our side after all. orylab.com

LOU BOYD

Left: OriHime-D – bringing coffee, not the destruction of humankind. Below: the eye-tracking control screen

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B U L L EVA R D

Joseph, were you apprehensive about the Nile expedition? j: I had some concerns.

Would I cut it in this role?

Would I choke at a snake or scorpion? Putting those dangers aside, it was really more that, not really knowing Ran, would we be compatible? It’s a month on the road together – if that chemistry doesn’t work, it’s a problem.

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“WE’RE MORE OR LESS THE SAME PERSON”

Take one world-famous explorer and his soft-living actor cousin, and throw them into a deadly adventure together.

Meet the Fiennes boys…

Ranulph, did you ever wonder whether Joe, as a pampered actor, would shape up to the challenge? r: I don’t know any actors, so I didn’t know what to expect.

But I believe that our shared DNA meant it would never be a disaster. We’re more or less the same person, because of the amount of DNA we share. j: And now you have to prove that by doing a Shakespeare play. It works both ways.

“I HAD SOME CONCERNS: SNAKES AND SCORPIONS” Joseph Fiennes

What was the heat like? r: Contrary to what people think, more of my expeditions were actually in the extreme heat than in extreme cold. The British media are much keener on the colder stuff for some reason – I’ve never really worked out why. So I’m quite used to the heat. j: I was thinking more of the cobras and scorpions at first, then you forget to drink water.

It’s the small things that can catch you unawares. Staying hydrated is so important.

Would you do it again? r: Not this expedition. There is something I’d like to do with Joe, but I don’t know that he’d like that type of danger. j: I’m not going to stand on an ice floe, fighting polar bears, if that’s what you’re thinking.

Fiennes: Return to the Nile is on National Geographic, Wednesdays, 9pm. Watch the rest of the series on catch-up now; nationalgeographic.co.uk THE RED BULLETIN

LOU BOYD

the red bulletin: How are you related to each other? ranulph: I think – and Joe might correct me on this – that our grandfathers were brothers [Ranulph and Joseph are third cousins]. joseph: That’s right. There are lots of us and we’re fairly distantly related. Ran is always travelling, so we’ve only met a couple of times.

Ranulph & Joseph Fiennes

Tell us about the newly discovered tombs in Minya, Egypt, which contained one of Thoth’s high priests… r: The man we were following through the tunnels had only discovered them eight weeks before. By the time we got there, it was safe, but he went in not knowing whether the whole thing was going to fall in on him. Extraordinary. j: It was wildly exciting to know we were among the first few people to go into the tombs, and certainly the first crew to film them. It’s one thing to be claustrophobic, but the feeling that something could fall on you… I felt vulnerable. It’s indescribable getting close to the sarcophagi, these mummified bodies, and seeing the skull of somebody who died 2,000 years ago.

They were brilliantly intact. It felt like you were encroaching on their privacy. r: For some reason, their mouths were all open and they all had their teeth. Imagine being 2,000 years old and still having a full set of teeth!

JACK BARNES/NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

A

t 75 years old, Sir Ranulph Fiennes is often hailed as the world’s greatest living adventurer.

From summiting Everest at the age of 65 – the oldest Briton to do so – to discovering a lost desert city in Oman known as the Atlantis of the Sands, he has accomplished more in his life than most. His 48-yearold cousin, Joseph Fiennes, has been on a rather different journey as an actor of stage and screen, most famous for 1998’s Shakespeare In Love and, more recently, The Handmaid’s Tale.

Incredibly, the famous relatives had barely met before this year, when they embarked on a mission to retread Ranulph’s 1969 White Nile expedition, on which the explorer traversed the world’s longest river in two hovercraft. The two men talked to The Red Bulletin about what it was like adventuring together, including the time they entered an ancient Egyptian tomb that contained the mummified remains of a high priest of the god Thoth...

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Curiosity rover

MARTIAN CHRONICLES

22  

NASA

LOU BOYD

The Mars Curiosity rover takes a moment out from its work collecting rock samples to capture a cheeky selfie on the Red Planet in this glorious 360° shot. Launched in 2011, the rover landed at Aeolis Palus in Gale Crater on Mars on August 6, 2012. Curiosity is one part of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission, aimed at determining whether the planet could ever have supported life, as well as establishing the role of water, studying the climate and geology, and helping to prepare for eventual human exploration. mars.nasa.gov

THE RED BULLETIN

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THE RED BULLETIN

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B U L L EVA R D

JE T’AIME MOI NON PLUS SERGE GAINSBOURG (1976) “I first saw this at 18. My father was still alive and I told him how blown away I was by its aesthetics.

[I Love You, Me Neither] is clearly about my parents’ relationship [Birkin plays the lead]. I found the sex scenes funny; I wasn’t shocked at all. I think of my parents as the perfect human beings – because of their faults, not despite them.”

Charlotte Gainsbourg

“I’M ALL ABOUT EXTREMES”

A NOS AMOURS MAURICE PIALAT (1983)

A

s the daughter of iconic French songwriter Serge Gainsbourg and British actor Jane Birkin, it was perhaps inevitable that Charlotte Gainsbourg would pursue a career in the arts – after all, she made her singing debut (on her father’s scandalous 1984 track Lemon Incest) aged 12.

Following award-winning roles in films such as Lars von Trier’s Antichrist (2009) and Melancholia (2011), a string of critically acclaimed albums including Stage Whisper (2011) and Rest (2017), and collaborations with the likes of Beck and Daft Punk, Gainsbourg, 47, has become an icon in her own right. Here, she lists four French films that opened her eyes… charlottegainsbourg.com

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JEUX INTERDITS RENÉ CLÉMENT (1952)

LES QUATRE CENTS COUPS FRANÇOIS TRUFFAUT (1959)

“This film [English title: Forbidden Games] was one of my first very strong emotional experiences. It’s about kids living through the war [WWII] and how they handle the situation in a playful, innocent way. There’s something just so mesmerising about it, and I still know every line. This film is what made me become an actor.”

“[The 400 Blows] is fun. It looks spontaneous – like all Truffaut had to do was keep the camera rolling – but obviously it wasn’t.

That requires great talent from the director and the actors: JeanPierre Léaud, Claire Maunier and Albert Rémy. If you haven’t seen this movie, stop what you’re doing and watch it. You won’t regret it.”

THE RED BULLETIN

COLLIER SHORR

The arthouse movie star and musician shares some of her favourite French films

MARCEL ANDERS

“I adore Maurice Pialat, especially the realism of his cinema, which is evident in this film [To Our Loves] centred on childhood. He’s the reason why I prefer directors like Lars von Trier over all these Hollywood people: I don’t want to stay on comfortable ground, I want to push boundaries, I want to go to extremes.”

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Brie Larson is going from strength to strength. In 2016, the Californian – born Brianne Sidonie Desaulniers (her father is of French-Canadian descent) – won the Best Actress Oscar for her performance as a kidnap victim in the drama Room. Now she’s starring as the titular hero in Captain Marvel – the first film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe with a solo female lead, and a role that the studio’s head has called “the most powerful character the [movie series] has ever seen”.

Larson’s seemingly stratospheric ascent prompted The Hollywood Reporter to label her, in 2016, “Hollywood’s fastest-rising actress since Jennifer Lawrence”. But, in fact, it took the now 29-year-old more than two decades of rejection before most audiences even knew who she was.

“I’ve been to more auditions than I’d like to admit,” says Larson. “From the age of seven to 15, I auditioned a couple of times a day. And at almost 100 per cent of them I was told, ‘No.’ And yet I stayed committed – probably because I don’t know how to live without this job.”

This is a lesson that has stripped Larson of any illusions about success. “My fear of success was that life would get too easy,” she admits. “Now [that misconception] makes THE RED BULLETIN

ZOEY GROSSMAN

BRIE LARSON The Hero’s Journey

She’s playing the most powerful Marvel superhero on screen so far, but the Oscar winner herself is all too aware of the fragility of success

“If my life is inspiring to people, that’s cool; if not, that’s OK, too”

“I tap into those moments of rejection. I’m grateful they happened” 28

THE RED BULLETIN

Brie Larson

me laugh, because of course it’s not easy. Life is always going to be complicated; there are always going to be hard spots.” the red bulletin: What did you learn from those years of rejection? brie larson: The tough stuff teaches you a lot about yourself. It makes you re-evaluate. When you’re doing things that work, your brain just says, “Keep doing that.” It’s not until you’re faced with something that scares or challenges you that your brain has to reorganise and go, “How do I work with this?” I can tap into those moments of rejection and pain, and put them into a film.

I’m grateful those things happened.

ZOEY GROSSMAN

Do you still fear rejection?

I’m scared of the unknown, just like everybody else. I don’t know what will happen when this movie comes out, but I’m also the type of person who, if something feels uncomfortable, wants to get closer to it. I’m always intrigued by things that seem unknown and dangerous. I feel that it’s important to try to experience as much as I can – that’s my job.

Let it Brie: her career in quotes UNITED STATES OF TARA (2009) On missing out on the role of Kate Gregson in the TV pilot: “Toni [Collette, who played Kate’s mum] was my acting hero, and I’d felt like nobody in the world could do that role but me.

When I didn’t get it, I felt I didn’t understand reality any more.” [Happily, Larson was given the part in the subsequent series.]

21 JUMP STREET (2012) On playing student Mollie Tracey: “She’s the female… I don’t want to say ‘lead’ – that feels like something everyone else can say, but I can’t or else I’ll pee my pants. ‘Love interest’ sounds good.”

You’re starring in two of this year’s biggest movies: Captain Marvel and Avengers: Endgame [out in April]. Has the uncertainty of life lessened?

I feel it all the time. I’m human, so it’s all part of the experience.

There’s a high failure rate in my job – pick any shot from one of these movies and I will have had to do multiple takes for it, and most won’t have made the cut.

But that’s part of what I love about what I do: I get to make a ton of mistakes to achieve the final result; it just takes time.

KONG: SKULL ISLAND (2017) On the physical training: “I had trained when I did Room, but [that] was about trying to get myself wiry and small. For this, it was about bulking up.

You sit differently in your body when you have that kind of strength.”

How have you developed your strength?

That’s such a personal quest. I do judo – not just because it gets my heart racing, but more for the mental experience. It’s a physical representation of what it’s like to be in the real world. But I’m always questioning what strength means. It’s not just about brute force; sometimes being vulnerable is the strong thing to do. It’s a complicated thing to learn how to own yourself.

The way to untangle is to first understand yourself. The rest will follow.

CAPTAIN MARVEL (2019) “I’m over the first female blah, blah, blah. Like, ‘Wow, maybe women can actually do the same things that dudes can.’

The more we talk about it, the more we perpetuate the myth that it’s an impossible task. No, it wasn’t like that before, because it was wrong.”

THE RED BULLETIN

ROOM (2015) On the Oscars buzz: “It seems so far removed from my reality. Even talking about it feels like planning your dream wedding when you don’t have a boyfriend: there’s just no point.”

How could someone become a superhero in their own life?

I’m not entirely sure. A couple of years ago, I started seeing the world through wider eyes and realised there was a lot of change I wanted to be part of. I asked a friend, a full-time activist, what I could do. She said, “What’s the thing that only you can do? That can be your revolution, your form of activism.” And that was [telling] stories through movies and art. It’s different for everybody, but the trick is committing to it.

Do you ever crave a more normal existence?

I wouldn’t want a mundane life, but I do sometimes wish there were more definable checkmarks to say what’s good and what’s not. Sometimes I yearn to be an athlete, because if you’re a sprinter you have to run the fastest, and then you know who’s best. With my profession, it’s more abstract: it’s about what I’m feeling at a certain moment; what critics and the audience are feeling. I live in a process of trust that my creativity will find a way and I’ll get another job. I make meaning out of it by putting it back into my work. That’s what keeps me sane.

You’ve become a role model for other women.

How do you cope with the responsibility?

I don’t think it is my responsibility. I’m going to live the life that feels authentic to me, and hopefully that will bring me happiness or, at the very least, contentment. And if that’s inspiring to people, cool; if not, that’s OK, too.

What’s the greatest lesson you’ve taken from your experiences so far?

That life is going to be everything: you get it all and can’t pick and choose. I make sense of the confusion and pain by making art. But [life is] also miraculous and takes you places you could never have guessed. As much as I long for more structure and control, if I had to choose between getting nothing and getting everything, I would choose everything.

Captain Marvel is in cinemas now; Avengers: Endgame is out on April 25; marvel.com 29

YANN PISSENEM Paradise Won

With his daytime parties, the founder of Ushuaïa Ibiza Beach Hotel and Hï Ibiza has changed the face of the island and reignited the global club scene. Here, he reveals how sleeping on a bar floor and going to the opera in his youth helped him become La Isla Blanca’s ultimate nightlife mogul Words PIERS MARTIN

If you were one of the three million tourists who holidayed in Ibiza last summer, chances are you paid a visit to one of the clubs run by Yann Pissenem. For the last decade, the 44-yearold French nightlife entrepreneur has been revitalising the island’s party scene, creating daytime open-air events that have triggered a global trend from London to Berlin.

In 2008, he set up Ushuaïa Ibiza Beach Club in Playa d’en Bossa with this new afternoon-partying concept in mind; its closing party in 2010 drew 14,000 revellers. The following year, Pissenem opened the 4,500-capacity Ushuaïa Ibiza Beach Hotel, which he describes as “an amusement park for adults”, 30

THE RED BULLETIN

“I try to be myself…

I don‘t want to hide what I think and feel“ “We created something that would unite two generations of clubbers” Opposite page: club mogul Yann Pissenem. This page: the stage at Ushuaïa Ibiza Beach Hotel – the ultimate day-and-night party

THE RED BULLETIN

31

Yann Pissenem

and where, during the day, the party flows from the poolside Rumour has it that after Ushuaïa Ibiza Beach Club’s first to the main stage until midnight. In 2017, the same team season in 2008, you still slept in the bar with your dog… launched Hï Ibiza, a transformation of one of the island’s Yes. I came to the island for the summer, so I had no winter most cherished clubs – Space – into one of its most lavish house. As I had all my equipment in the beach club, I decided and technologically advanced nightlife experiences. to stay there with my dog, with no light or electricity. I slept on the floor for four months.

Pissenem has come a long way since his first teenage job at McDonald’s in northeast France. “I cooked a lot of burgers and Many nightlife entrepreneurs seek success in Ibiza, but burnt my hands a lot,” he says from his Ibiza office, where he’s most fail. What’s your secret? putting the finishing touches to this season’s schedules. Last You have to control all aspects of the process and be on top year, the line-up of resident DJs included some of the world’s of your game from the first draft of an idea until the clients biggest names, from David Guetta to Martin Garrix and Kygo. are leaving your venue. Any mistake can destroy the whole What’s crucial to his success is a strong sense of control, experience. We talk about every detail of every event in terms Pissenem says. He oversees every aspect of the 250-plus shows of creation, marketing, development and operation. his nightlife and entertainment company, The Night League, will produce at their Surely you can’t various venues, through control every aspect which some 1.5 million of the 250-plus shows people will pass during you put on each year? the summer season. “If I’m lucky to have the I’m not on top of the support of a great team, details, I get nervous,” which includes my admits the Frenchman, brother, who is a who trained as a lawyer production genius. He’s before cutting his teeth in the hospitality the closest person I have industry during in my life, and he turns Barcelona’s mid-1990s my ideas into reality.

We discuss concepts for post-Olympics boom. shows, then he comes Pissenem is a techno back with 3D plans and fan at heart. “We would scenographies. drive to Belgium to rave in forests,” he recalls of his youthful adventures.

What life Pissenem’s laser-drenched superclub Hï Ibiza, reborn from the ashes of Space in 2017 “I used to listen to lesson has had Nirvana and U2, too, but electronic music has always been my life.” It’s this passion the biggest impact on your career? that’s driven Pissenem to the top of his game.

What did that motivate you to do?

I decided to create something during the daytime, in the afternoon, which enabled us to unite two generations of clubbers.

The young get the opportunity to party in the sunshine; the older crowd don’t need to wait for the 5am headliner to play.

32

My mum’s an English teacher with a huge knowledge of art, so my parents took me to the theatre once a week and the opera once a month. They taught me the value of culture and continuous learning.

What else do you think you still need to learn?

I must stay engaged with the tastes of the younger generation – especially in my business. I follow all the new talents and try to figure out who is pushing the limits of dance music.

What’s a typical day for you during party season?

I’ll wake at midday. Then I’ll have to read and reply to all of the emails and the messages I’ve received while asleep. Then I’ll have a shower and rush to Ushuaïa. When I get there, I’ll speak to the team. The event then starts between 5pm and midnight. Next, I’ll cross the road to Hï Ibiza and stay until 8 or 9am. I’ll get home, feed my dogs, then relax for 20 minutes – I can’t get to sleep straight away – and I’ll see my wife and my baby. Then repeat for 120 days straight.

The grand openings of both Ushuaïa and Hï Ibiza take place on Saturday, May 18; thenightleague.com THE RED BULLETIN

ROBERTO CASTANO

the red bulletin: What led you to Playa d’en Bossa? yann pissenem: I first came to Ibiza in 1994 to party and see the island. I returned in 2008 with my brother, and we discovered that everything was different: no more afterparties, nobody dancing beneath the sun. I saw a gap in the market and started looking for a beach club. One of my friends said there was an opportunity to buy a venue in Playa d’en Bossa, which at that point felt like the end of the world, because it was an empty beach. I came up with the name Ushuaïa, after the southernmost city in Patagonia, which is dubbed “the end of the world”.

MOUNT VISION

• ALL MOUNTAIN TRAIL BLISS • TRAIL POPPING, PLAYFUL FUN • UP, DOWN, AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN

RULE THE RIDE

JAYDA G Dropping Science Words FLORIAN OBKIRCHER and LOU BOYD

Born in the mountains of Canada, near Vancouver, Jayda Guy was never the most likely candidate for a career as a global DJ. Her first passion was marine biology, a direction that led her even further from the planet’s musical hubs. “I wanted to do lots of field work,” says Guy, who has a Master’s in Resource and Environmental Management, specialising in environmental toxicology. “So I ended up in a lot of isolated places where arts and culture really weren’t a thing. Thank God for the internet.”

Her new life began when she took up DJing as a hobby between her studies, and she hasn’t looked back. Since her first release under the name Jayda G in 2015 – on Australian label Butter Sessions – she has co-curated the label Freakout Cult, 34

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FARAH NOSH

Jayda G is exciting the club music world right now with her vintage drum-machine funk and her infectious enthusiasm on the decks. But a career as an international DJ isn’t the only thing on her mind: this queen of good vibes wants to use her rising profile to promote a greater good

“If you engage people in a positive context, they’re receptive”

started her own imprint (JMG Recordings) and is now on the cusp of dropping her debut album. But the ebullient Jayda G hasn’t deserted her environmental interests. Here, the DJ explains how her music is linked to her scientific work, and how, while having a good time behind the decks, she’s bringing together her two worlds to create something new. the red bulletin: When you played at [online club platform] Boiler Room in London in 2016, your set began with the sound of orcas. Where did that idea come from? jayda g: They were field recordings from a station up in Alaska. I found them on a research page that had multiple different orca calls and clicks and stuff. I used the same website [to source] some of the orca calls on the album, because it’s my background; that’s what I researched.

36

How do you draw together the worlds of music and science on your debut album [Significant Changes, out this month]?

The album is really just a commentary on my experiences. There are two tracks, Orca’s Reprise and Missy Knows What’s Up, that are dedicated to my [university] thesis. Being in the sciences and learning about the environment and researching the impacts on it, you hear the most positive things, so it’s about promoting understanding in a greater social context, too. Missy Knows What’s Up contains a sample of a woman speaking about a court case where various environmental groups sued the Canadian government over its responsibilities to protect endangered species including killer whales.

THE RED BULLETIN

RAFE SCOBEY-THAL

“I can’t DJ without dancing – I just inherently enjoy it”

Jayda G

Creativity and scientific thought are commonly seen as opposites, associated with different hemispheres of the brain, but you seem to have forged a symbiotic link…

In my lifestyle, each has helped me with the other. I’d work on my thesis and end up procrastinating, but I’d do that by making music, and that would give me the brain space to go back to the science. It was a mental break that would continue to feed and energise me.

The nightclub is a place of escapism. Is it possible to promote an environmental agenda there?

It’s probably the perfect place, because at a club people are supposed to be the most open, the most free and able to let go.

If you’re able to engage people in a positive context that way, they’ll hopefully be more receptive.

You never prepare for your sets, relying instead on gut feeling. Is that about challenging yourself?

A little bit. But also, when you’re DJing, you have to read the audience – that’s your job – and see what kind of vibe you can create out of that. When you come to a common place energywise, that’s when things really pop off, when you get those high points where everyone is in it together, experiencing the same thing. That’s when magic happens.

Which do you enjoy more: the lab or the nightclub?

In terms of field work, you have to be observant. That’s the number-one thing you’re taught as a biologist: you must have a good eye and look for things.

As a DJ, you’re also observant of your surroundings, your environment, so there’s definitely a commonality. It just so happens one deals with animals and the other with people.

Is it true that your interest in marine biology came from watching [the 1993 movie] Free Willy as a kid?

Yes, 100 per cent. Are you kidding me?

I totally would watch Free Willy as a kid.

That film has charismatic megafauna and Michael Jackson [on the soundtrack] – what more do you want in life? I was always interested in biology, in nature, in my environment and in my surroundings, and it just stuck.

THE RED BULLETIN

There’s a YouTube video filmed at Boiler Room at the 2017 Dekmantel Festival where you’re dancing enthusiastically behind the decks. Have you always done that?

When you’re in that Boiler Room [environment], you’re surrounded 360° by people feeding you energy, and that’s an amazing place to be. You’re able to take that wherever you want. You’re reading the room – I’m not going to dance and be into it if it’s a dead room – but there is an element of it that I just inherently enjoy. I can’t DJ without moving. I don’t understand how people can – that’s an anomaly for me. How are you supposed to beat-match if you can’t feel the beat?

It’s another type of symbiosis, then: you need the audience as much as they need you?

Yes, 100 per cent, of course.

So, we’ve returned full circle, back to science…

Love it!

Jayda G’s debut album, Significant Changes, is out on March 22; Instagram: @jaydagmusic 37

On average, a tonne of knives is seized by the Metropolitan Police each month. The charity STEEL WARRIORS has found a way to steer this negative trend in a positive direction – by melting down the weapons and using the metal to create outdoor gyms. Its aim: to divert kids from the lure of gangs and into the world of physical fitness Words RACHAEL SIGEE 38

DAVID CLERIHEW

BLADES OF HOPE

Calisthenics world champion Jay Chris in action at Langdon Park. Opposite: the melting process at Newby Foundries

oughly the size of two football fields, bordered by trees, council estates and a train station, Langdon Park in Poplar, east London, is a pretty nondescript patch of green. But between the children’s playground and the BMX track stand around a dozen gymnastics bars. Nothing special, you might think at first glance.

Take the time to read the metal plaque attached to this outdoor gym, however, and you'll discover that 57 per cent of the steel used comes from melted knives.

Fuelled by gang violence and drugs turf wars, knife crime in England and Wales is currently at its worst levels on record: the most recently figures for London in particular – covering the period from June 2017 to June 2018 – reveal almost 15,000 offences, 91 of them homicides.

And each month, it is reported, police in London confiscate up to a tonne of knives.

Steel Warriors, a charity initiative founded by PR executives Ben Wintour and Pia Fontes, aims to address the two

“The Langdon Park gym has literally turned a bad thing into something good”

40

THE RED BULLETIN

DAVID CLERIHEW

Above: a Steel Warriors ambassador and cofounder of calisthenics group Barsparta, Jay Chris is himself a reformed gang member. “Calisthenics has taken me away from all the bad people,” he says.

Left: Chris performs one of his sport’s classic moves: the human flag THE RED BULLETIN

main motivations for young people carrying knives – personal protection and muscle-flexing bravado – by encouraging them to instead build confidence through sport. Since its opening in November 2017, the charity’s Langdon Park outdoor gym has become a hub for the local community and a destination for calisthenics experts and personal trainers such as Dominic Hardcastle. The 18-year-old bodybuilding enthusiast has no doubts about the social benefits of his local park gym: “It’s made of knives. It has literally changed a bad thing into something good.”

The busiest times at the park are weekdays at 5pm; this is when you’ll find groups of teenagers taking turns to perform sets of straight-leg raises on its sloping benches. Dotted among them are a few impressively built young men – the kind you might expect to spot flexing in the free-weights section of your local gym. But here they’re offering up their time for nothing, teaching new moves and proper technique to whoever they see eyeing up the bars and equipment.

Having previously had to travel more than half an hour to his nearest gym, Hardcastle and his brother – also a personal trainer – watched excitedly as the Steel Warriors site sprang up on their

doorstep, and he’s passionate about its accessibility. “I feel like it should be open to everyone, because it’s so easy to do, but you get so much out of it,” he says.

“Bodyweight activities are all natural; people have been able to use and move their own bodyweight for centuries. It’s about being in touch with your body and building core strength, which everyone should have. That’s why I think there should be calisthenics parks everywhere, especially Steel Warriors ones.”

While planning the gym, Wintour and Fontes consulted with the Metropolitan Police and local youth centres. “We tried to ensure it was in a gang-neutral zone, so that it wasn’t under the ownership of a particular group,” says Wintour. “We had to make sure we reached everyone we needed to, but also that it was a space where people felt safe to exercise.”

Although their plan of melting knives and creating a gym from the recycled steel might sound straightforward, it proved quite a challenge. “It’s very easy to come up with an idea, but very difficult to figure out how to execute that idea,” Wintour explains. “We were extremely lucky and got in touch with a [structural engineering] company called Hayne Tillett Steel. They were the people who 41

Strength-building exercise: Steel Warriors co-founders Pia Fontes and Ben Wintour oversee the casting of the composite metal into gym components at architectural metalworking firm Alloy Fabwelds in Essex

figured out how to turn all these knives into something that structural; something you can hang off.”

O

nce handed over by the police, the knives were transported to waste management company Inciner8 in Southport, where any wood or plastic on the handles was separated from the steel by smelting in giant incinerators. Next, the steel was sent to Birmingham’s Newby Foundries, where it was processed into a composite metal suitable for use. Then Essex-based architectural metalworkers Alloy Fabwelds cast this into components, which, finally, were assembled by fabricators from gym equipment specialists Rebel Strength.

Despite the obvious logistical challenges, none of those involved have required payment, as Wintour explains: “All these companies have been doing this pro bono, which is amazing. It’s very difficult to find people who are willing not only to take on this task but to do it for free.” The goal now is for Steel 42

“We’ve always said our ambition is to fail; to one day run out of the knives we build with” Warriors to expand: there are plans for eight more parks across London, in the boroughs worst affected by knife crime.

Wintour hopes that the project could go countrywide; he and Fontes are in talks with Nike and property developers British Land about potential collaborations that could make this a reality.

“We’ve also had conversations with other police forces about supplying us with knives,” says Wintour. “Sadly that’s one thing we’re just not running short of. We’ve always said that our ambition is to fail; to one day run out of the knives we use to build with.”

Wintour admits he was initially concerned that the recycled steel might be too brittle, but he has been reassured

by the fabricators that it’s the strongest they’ve ever worked with. Support for Steel Warriors’ flagship site has been just as robust: it has been backed by the likes of Metropolitan Police commissioner Cressida Dick, calisthenics giant Jay Chris, and world heavyweight boxing champion Anthony Joshua.

But, more importantly, the people who use the gym on a daily basis are convinced. “I’ve been there from the very beginning and it’s more like a club,” Hardcastle says. “Everyone’s going there to train and also to socialise. Because everyone who goes there has made good friends. There are people who have been training in calisthenics for 14 years, and then brand-new kids coming through, and old women. Everyone’s coming – people of all ages and sizes.

“But it’s not like the older people are looking down [on others]; they’re learning from the younger ones, too.

It’s neutral, and everyone is respectful.

Everyone is helping everyone else out.” steelwarriors.co.uk THE RED BULLETIN

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LAZARUS LAKE has been called a sadist, a hillbilly redneck, and a maverick of trail running...

Words TOM WARD Portraits JEREMY LEIBMANN

He’s the creator of THE BARKLEY MARATHONS, the toughest, most tortuous ultramarathon ever devised 44

F

rozen Head State Park in Tennessee is an area of rugged beauty, covering more than 97km2 and located just over two-and-a-half hours east of state capital Nashville, in Morgan County. It is also, as Lazarus Lake will fail to inform you, in a completely different time zone to Nashville, being one hour ahead.

Thus, when Lake calls to ask why we’re late to a meeting we thought we were about to arrive early to, we’re understandably worried. After all, Lake has a reputation for being secretive and sometimes difficult.

Have we blown it before we’ve even begun?

It turns out we needn’t have worried. We find Lake in his car, parked outside the Frozen Head visitor’s centre, looking relaxed and happy to meet us. Dressed in jeans, a plaid shirt and a red woollen beanie with the word ‘Geezer’ emblazoned across the 46

front, Lake appears to be in no rush to get moving. His eyes dart mischievously behind his metal-rimmed glasses and a cigarette dangles from his mouth amid a tobacco-stained beard. He walks with a loose shuffle – the gait of a man in no particular hurry – and his voice is a laid-back Southern drawl.

At this time of year, Frozen Head State Park is all bare trees swaying from the sides of mountains rising up around us. We’ve agreed to meet here because it’s the home of the infamously brutal – and eccentrically pluralised – Barkley Marathons, aka The Race That Eats Its Young, as it was called in the title of a 2014 Netflix documentary. But more on that later; right now, Lazarus Lake is feeling loquacious. Things Lake wants to talk about include, but are by no means limited to: college football, the origins of Osage oranges, the natural history of American geography, spikes in wild bear fatalities, the local cicada population, America’s declining roadside rest stops, and THE RED BULLETIN

ALEXIS BERG (2), SANDRA CANTRELL

Step back in time: Lazarus Lake – then plain old Gary Cantrell – treads the trails of Tennessee in the early days of his long career as an endurance runner

Runners must battle through snow, sleet, rain and fog. Often, it’s difficult to see as far as 10m ahead

The gruelling Barkley Marathons has attracted runners from as far afield as India, New Zealand, Lithuania, Russia, Japan and Tajikistan

Lake at lunch with Dr Pepper.

Opposite: a cake baked by a Barkley entrant, with the catchphrase Lake uses on race day

“Why would anyone want to do this, you might ask?

Why would anyone not want to do this?”

Dr Pepper knock-offs. Oh, and despite having competed in his youth as one of the first ultramarathon runners, going on to found six unique races, and having just completed a 126-day, 5,100km, coast-to-coast trek across the United States, Lake wants to make it clear that he doesn’t particularly like exercise.

“I can’t stand it,” he says with a laugh. “It signifies doing something pointless, at the end of which you have nothing to show. Instead of lifting weights, I built rock walls. I accomplished the same thing, but at the end I had something to show for it.”

ALEXIS BERG

L

azarus Lake is a contradiction. The Tennessean devised the most infamous ultramarathon in existence, but he prefers to slow down and hike a trail rather than run it.

He smokes like a chimney, buys his beef by the cow, and continually has a bottle of Dr Pepper to hand. He also loves butter. “I’ve never eaten something and thought, ‘That could use less butter,’” he says. “You know when you’ve got too much butter? It’ll tell you – it just slides right off.” Not for him today’s academic nutritional debates.

Perhaps it was Lake’s individual brand of off-kilter humour that prompted him to create the Barkley – renowned as one of the toughest ultramarathons around. Physical and mental fitness are essential components, yes, but it would be remiss to attempt it without a sense of humour, too. Founded in 1986, the Barkley is a looped ultramarathon beginning and ending at a yellow gate located at the start of the Frozen Head trail.

It consists of five laps, each roughly 32km (although runners maintain each loop is actually a full marathon of 42km).

The first two laps are run clockwise, the second two anticlockwise and – should you make it that far – the fifth and final lap is run in the direction of your choosing. Each loop contains almost 3,700m of clime and an equal descent, for a total of 37,000m of elevation change – the equivalent of climbing and descending Everest twice.

THE RED BULLETIN

The race is traditionally run on the closest Saturday to April Fool’s Day and starts at some point between midnight and noon.

A conch shell is blown to notify runners that it will begin in 60 minutes’ time, then Lake lights a cigarette to kick things off.

The trail changes each year, but it will always include iconic obstacles such as Testicle Spectacle hill, Danger Dave’s Climbing Wall (an area of exposed routes and sandy banks), and Rat Jaw (a slope of tree stumps and razor-sharp briars). Runners are outfitted with a compass and a map with which to navigate the course, and GPS is banned. At points during each lap, competitors must locate a certain book that has been placed along the route, and retrieve the page that corresponds to their race number. Not only is this the only indication that a runner is on the right track, but the counting of the pages post-lap is a sure-fire way for Lake to know a runner has indeed hit every checkpoint. As the race takes place in March, runners must battle through snow, sleet, rain and fog. Often, it’s difficult to see as far as 10m ahead.

The Barkley must be completed inside 60 hours, which limits runners to brief pit stops between laps, when friends and family will force food into their mouths, soothe their scratched legs and attend to their blistered feet. Then it’s back to the race.

The record time for the course belongs to American runner Brett Maune, who finished it in 52:03:08 in 2012. To date, only 15 competitors have ever completed all five loops.

“I think that people who go through this are better for it,” Lake says. “They’re better for what they’ve asked of themselves.”

The plan, he claims, was never to make the Barkley the hardest race in the world; it was simply to test what people could do.

The idea came when, in 1977, James Earl Ray – the assassin of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr – escaped from Tennessee’s Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary, sparking the state’s biggest-ever manhunt. Ray was captured in the woods 54 hours later, having covered less than 13km. Convinced he 49

could achieve a distance of 160km in the same timeframe, Lake set up the Barkley – and the rest is history.

Not that getting accepted is simple. Each year, runners from all over the world apply to take part, but only 40 make the line-up, including one “human sacrifice” who Lake says has no business competing. To win a place, potential competitors must write an essay about why they deserve a place, and pay the nonrefundable entry fee of $1.60 (around £1.20). Those who are accepted receive a letter of condolence. On race day, first-timers must bring with them a car number plate from their home state, while the rare few who have completed the Barkley are asked to provide a packet of Camel cigarettes. Those who have taken part before but failed to finish must supply an item of Lake’s choosing. In the past, this has included a plaid shirt, a white dress shirt, and socks; this year, he thinks he might ask for an off-brand Dr Pepper clone, for which he has an addiction.

While Lake is aware that he could charge more, keeping the fee low makes for an eclectic mix of entrants – one of whom is Washington DC native and 2017 Barkley winner John Kelly, who happens to be setting off around Frozen Head as we pull up. Slim and serious, Kelly sees the Barkley as the pinnacle of 50

trail running. “It’s about being able to seek your limits,” he says.

“You’re not going to finish the race with mental resilience alone.

Nor is it just about being physically skilled. No matter who you are, or how physically skilled you are, you’re going to want to quit at some point.” Kelly finished the Barkley on his third attempt. “I was in a delirious state. It took a while for me to be able to sit down and say, ‘No, you did that. It really happened.’”

That, says Lake, is entirely the point. But he hasn’t always been such a sadist. “I feel like I should receive some sort of compensation,” Lake begins when asked to share details of his early life. “Compensation from Oklahoman parents who would have a child – who’d done nothing wrong – in Texas, and leave them forever branded with the fact they’re a native Texan, like it or not. It’s a brand that just… there it is. What are you going to do?” he sighs. As per most of his responses, Lake delivers this with a completely straight face. And it’s as straight an answer as can be expected of him. Witness, for example, his response to an enquiry about his age: “What year was I born? I don’t remember.

I was really young.” (Further investigation has revealed he’s 64.)

What Lake will share is that he was born Gary Cantrell in San Marcos, Texas, where his father was assigned to the Edward THE RED BULLETIN

ALEXIS BERG

FIVE laps, each roughly 32KM. Each loop contains almost 3,700M of climb, and an equal descent, for a total of 37,000M of elevation change – the equivalent of climbing and descending EVEREST twice

Once a week, Lake walks a round trip of 32km to eat at this roadside rest stop.

Opposite: a runner shows his Barkley battle scars

Scenic route: American runner John Kelly descends the Rat Jaw on his fifth and final loop in 2017, still hours away from becoming the 15th person ever to finish the Barkley Marathons 52

THE RED BULLETIN

ALEXIS BERG (2)

Gary Air Force Base. (He later adopted Lazarus Lake as an alter ego to safeguard his first personal email account – “Like I have all these big secrets to protect,” he laughs.) The Cantrells lived near student housing, and a young Lake hung out with football players, confirming a lifelong love of sports.

Then, in 1966, there was a piece on the evening news about a new craze called jogging. Lake’s father and his friends would head down to the local track to attempt a sub-eight-minute mile.

The first time Lake went along, he outran his old man. “I’d never beaten him in anything,” he says, laughing. “We were a very competitive, sports-oriented family and the kids weren’t allowed to win. When the kids did win, they knew they’d won.”

Reasoning that he must be a good runner, he took up track and cross-country, which led to road races and then marathons, with Lake competing in everything from state-wide events to international runs. Eventually, Lake decided that the ultramarathon was where he would excel. The closest ultras to Tennessee, however, were in Miami and Philadelphia, so Lake decided to start his own, the Strolling Jim 40, in 1979.

In the intervening years, injury and the accumulative damage of a life pounding pavements have ruled him out of running.

Though he still gets the occasional itch, Lake knows his talents lie elsewhere. “I wanted to be a good runner, but I was never better than average,” he says. “It turns out I do a lot better as a race co-ordinator.”

Now retired from his day job as an accountant, he runs five races each year in addition to the Barkley Marathons, including the Barkley Fall Classic (a sort of beginners’ equivalent) and Big’s Backyard Ultra, an endurance race in which competitors try to complete as many laps of a 6.7km loop as possible, setting out every hour on the hour. Fail to set out again at the start of the hour, and you’re out. In 2017, the winner managed 456km.

Although his running days are behind him, Lake remains active.

The day after our meeting at Frozen Head, we catch up for lunch in the middle of Nowheresville, Tennessee, at a roadside rest stop that functions as a general store, antiques boutique and the best fried-chicken joint going. Ancient farming equipment hangs from the walls, and the crowd is mostly old boys in dungarees.

At least once a week, Lake will walk 16km to eat here, then go home the same way. But this pales in comparison with the epic cross-country walk he completed in September 2018. Following 10 months of recovery from an ankle injury, Lake had decided that he wanted to hike through 12 states. And despite his doctor pointing out that the femoral artery in his left leg was no longer functioning, Lake was determined to see it through.

“Why would anyone want to do this, you might ask. Why would anyone not want to do this?” he says over a hamburger and a Dr Pepper. “I’d always intended to do it, but I was so busy; you have your family, your job… I realised that if I didn’t do it now, I wouldn’t be physically able to do it.”

B

eginning in Newport, Rhode Island, and following Route 20 to Newport, Oregon, the trek only took Lake one week longer than the expected 120 days. Walking 12 to 14 hours a day, he lost a total of 18kg. Often, strangers would offer to crew sections of the trip. In the western deserts, people would stop and give him water. He marvelled at the thousands of stars visible from the empty planes of Nebraska.

He took a detour to Wisconsin when the gravel trails of Illinois proved too sharp to walk on, and hit a late-stage hurdle when he THE RED BULLETIN

“No matter who you are, or how physically skilled you are, you’re going to want to quit at some point”

Kelly catches his breath at the finishing line of this mentally and physically draining ultramarathon, as Lake watches on

discovered that Oregon was mostly desert, not lush woodland as he’d believed. In between, he tackled every mountain range the country could throw his way. And then there was the small matter of fracturing his hip almost 700km from the end. An awkward twist of the body was all it took, Lake says. Deciding he was too close to turn back, he soldiered on.

“The first two weeks after I got home were a blur,” he says.

“I think I just sat in my chair. All my life, at school or work, I wanted to be outside. Now it’s finally the other way around.”

We pay the bill and bid goodbye to the rest stop. Lake has to return home and sift though a pile of entry forms for the upcoming Barkley. He may no longer run, but his days are still packed with logistics and his own wanderings. It’s unlikely that he’ll slow down any time soon.

“A lot of people live their life as if they want to turn in their equipment in mint condition,” Lake says, lingering over one last cigarette. “I want them to look at me and say, ‘My God, everything is worn out.’” He smiles. “You only get so much life; it’s how much living you can pack into it that counts.”

And just like that, Lazarus Lake climbs into his car and disappears down the road into the backwoods of Tennessee.

Back into legend.

The Barkley Marathons traditionally takes place on the last Saturday before April Fool’s Day, though the official date is only revealed to successful entrants; barkleymarathons.com 53

HIKING STRATEGY

FOR SEA VIEWS:

CALL OF THE WILD

Seaford to Eastbourne

For urbanites, countryside trails can feel a million miles away – but adventure is closer than you think

Hiking is a great way to unwind over a weekend: it’s accessible, inexpensive and can be as extreme as you want it to be. When you’re stressed out from the pressures of work, there’s no better way to disconnect, whether you’re climbing a technical route up a coastal cliff or stomping down muddy paths in farmers’ fields.

Physically, a good day of hiking strengthens the core, improves blood pressure, strengthens the muscles in your legs and hips, and enriches the soul. The desire to be among nature is in our DNA, and research shows that hiking has a positive impact when it comes to combating the symptoms of stress and anxiety.

Even if you live in the heart of the city, a decent trail or real taste of the countryside is probably less than an hour away. These hikes are doable in one day and perfect for giving you the space to replenish your creativity and energy in time for a new week.

This is frequently described as the most amazing hike in England, and it’s easy to understand why. Spend a whole day climbing the hills of the southeast of England and ramble along stony paths to take in the white cliffs of the Seven Sisters, Beachy Head and Cuckmere Haven.

FOR GREEN FIELDS:

Lewes via West Firle

LACE UP

The adidas TERREX Free Hiker has taken the stretch and water resistance of a running shoe and added a rubber outsole with a powerful grip on wet and dry terrain, ready for serious hiking.

The cushioning on its full-boost midsole makes it possible to go straight from your busy commute to a weekend on a rocky trail.

Rolling meadows are easier for city folk to find than you might imagine, and this 24km hike, just a short journey from London, has them in abundance. The walk takes in 360m of ascent, spread over three steep hills, so hiking shoes with a sturdy grip are a must in order to reach its secluded valleys. And, in between, there are long, mainly level paths where you can relax and breathe in the country air.

FOR WOODLAND PATHS:

Epping Forest

If you’re feeling the need for trees, Epping provides more than enough, along with pastures full of black fallow deer, hares and skylarks.

This forest walk is dotted with pubs for a pint along the way, and connects to the lovely village of Houghton.

Even better, it’s directly connected to London by the Central Line.

FOR HISTORIC TRAILS:

Hastings

The adidas TERREX Free Hiker

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You’ll struggle to find a more versatile hike than this route close to Hastings.

The walk offers all types of terrain, from country parks, coastal paths and rugged climbs to forest trails and railway tracks. Follow the full 10km route and you’ll be rewarded with the ruins of Hastings Castle. adidas.com/terrex-freehiker

THE RED BULLETIN

THE RED BULLETIN PROMOTION

On the trail with TERREX technology

THE RED BULLETIN

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Rachel, Gee and Dan Atherton have ascended to the top of the downhill mountain-biking heap. Now they’re aiming to redefine the sport itself.

And it all starts with a bike...

The newly created Atherton Bikes team: (from left) Gee, youngest sibling Rachel and eldest brother Dan

MOUNTAIN G.O.A.T. Words JESS HOLLAND Photography DAN WILTON

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February 2019, Malaga, Spain: the Athertons secretly test the prototype of their new bike

“Dan raced down that road in the blind hope that somehow he’d get to the landing.

There was no chance in hell he was going to make it” Gee Atherton

veryone but Dan knew he could never land the trick. This was back in the mid-’90s, when a 13-year-old Dan Atherton had turned a piece of common land on the outskirts of his village in Devon into a BMX utopia filled with trails and jumps. He obsessed over bikes, doodling them in class, building them in his lunch hours and riding them after school. Over time, his obsession had caught on among a gaggle of other local kids, who followed him around with bikes and spades, asking about the day’s plans.

Dan had built a jump with a landing that must have been 12 to 15m away, according to his younger brother Gee, who was among the group watching in terrified suspense. Dan strapped on motorcycling body armour, climbed onto his bike and began pedalling towards it as hard as he could. “There was no chance in hell he was going to make it,” Gee says.

Sure enough, as Dan flew into the air, he got twisted up, bailed from the bike and hurtled to the ground. “It was this enormous crash,” recalls Gee. “It wasn’t going to end any other way. But he just came racing down the road at it, in this blind hope that somehow he might get to the landing.”

It’s this approach – what Rachel, the youngest Atherton, calls “full commitment, no matter what, to everything in life” – that turned Dan into a pioneer of downhill mountain-bike racing and inspired his siblings to become two of the sport’s brightest stars. Between them, the trio have racked up more gold medals than you can count on both hands, in a discipline that involves shooting down hills at breakneck speeds, flying over rocks and navigating sharp twists and turns. In fact,

59

Rachel alone has more than 10 first-place titles in World Cup and World Championship races.

All three Athertons are based in Wales, but we catch up with them at a villa outside Malaga on Spain’s Costa del Sol, with mountains in the distance and a pool in the backyard.

Propped against a wall is a prototype bike – the first produced by their fledgling company, Atherton Bikes. Even at an initial glance it’s a magnificent beast, but, like all their ambitions, there’s more to it than meets the eye.

“The lugs – the bits connecting the carbon tubing – are all 3D-printed in titanium,” says Dan. “Which means you’ve got huge design flexibility; you can change the geometry, the size, the way it rides, all at the click of a button. They’re connected with a special adhesive that makes the bike very light and strong, and each one can be custom-built.”

This is a huge step up for the Athertons, the biggest since forming their own race team in 2003. “Let’s start a bike company – sweet!” says Rachel of a seemingly simple plan that demanded expertise beyond even their own. “So we partnered with guys we’ve met over the years,” says Gee. One of these was Dave Weagle, the inventor of what’s considered to be the world’s greatest mountain-bike suspension – the DWLink – and Ed Haythornthwaite, a former World Cup mechanic of Dan’s, who founded Robot Bike Co, the company that pioneered the 3D-printing bike technology.

“No one else in mountain biking makes a bike like this,” says Rachel. “The idea is to race them this season and bring them to market this year – a downhill and a trail bike. And with this technology it’s quick to turn them around: anyone who orders one could have it in two to three weeks.”

This is just one of the projects the Athertons are immersing themselves in. They’re also mentoring a new generation of racers – two are at the villa with the rest of the gang – and Dan is opening a giant bike park in Wales this spring. “We’re just waiting for the weather to clear up,” he says.

“It’s basically this huge mountain in the middle of Wales,” says Gee. “Dan and a massive crew have developed it. Four different downhill tracks, 700m of elevation, the longest in the UK – some are seven or eight minutes long. You ride to the top in Land Rovers and trailers, unload them and ride down.”

“Dan has wanted to do this for years – the kind of allmountain experience you get with skiing,” says Rachel. “You go on the mountain, explore, do different runs and spend the whole day there. And it’s giving riders a venue to train for World Cups. Dan is famed for building the hardest technical tracks – it’s the perfect place to train.”

This is an ambitious slate of projects, and, according to Gee, it all stems from an attitude Dan has had since he was a kid pedalling at full speed towards an impossible challenge.

“If I think of an idea and can’t see the step-by-step as to how I would achieve it, I’ll struggle to get my head around it,” Gee says. “But Dan will see a goal in the distance and be like, ‘Right, that’s what we’re going to do,’ whether that’s starting our own team and travelling the world racing bikes or building this entire track from scratch in an enormous forest in the Welsh hills. Or starting our own bike brand. That’s all from Dan. He has the ability to throw us into a project with no idea of how it could work. Like, ‘I can definitely do this.’

“It’s meant he’s had some horrific injuries over the years, because he’s tried such ridiculous things. Even to this day, with

“Our mother was a proper alternative hippy who gave us the freedom to explore and do what we wanted” Rachel Atherton 60

THE RED BULLETIN

Dan on being the family designer and technician: “We've all got roles we've fallen into naturally�

Gee tests out the new ride on the Andalusian dirt. “The plan,” he says, “is to race these bikes in a constant state of development”

“It’s like meditation when you’re in the zone.

Senses are heightened, and you can feel your breath and every inch of your body. You’re so wired” Rachel Atherton 62

Family Atherton tune their baby at the Spanish villa.

“To be able to give people the same bike that we ride is so cool,” says Gee. “It’s what this bike company is all about”

“We were told, ‘If you want to be champions, you have to live like champions.’ We built a garage and a gym to replace our ghetto set-up” Rachel Atherton

the stuff he tries and the speed at which he’ll hit something, he has this mad, fearless approach; a belief that self-confidence will power you through. And often it definitely doesn’t.”

Dan attributes this spirit to the close bonds he shares with Rachel and Gee: “It comes down to never doubting yourself.

Because we have our family around us, we’ve always had that ability to rid ourselves of self-doubt, giving us the confidence that we can actually do it.”

First family

As a kid, Dan started out riding BMXs, as well as go-karts, quad bikes and anything else that generated speed and was accessible to him. When he started travelling at weekends to competitions, his siblings followed in his tracks, and it wasn’t long before they were winning regional races.

It was when the family moved to Devon – far from any BMX track, but close to woods and slopes – that the trio switched to mountain biking, specialising in four-cross and downhill racing. Together, the Atherton siblings graduated from local competitions to national and then global events, and all three left school after their GCSEs to dedicate themselves to riding full-time.

It was a bold move, but they had the discipline to take it seriously, drawing on traits inherited from their parents who, says Rachel, were always “very outdoorsy, very sporty and active”. She describes their mother as “a proper alternative hippy” who “gave us the freedom to explore and do what we wanted” – and who didn’t freak out too badly when they came back with bleeding heads and broken bones. Their father was a head teacher who also taught PE, and he encouraged them to work hard and strive for excellence.

At first, their training was self-directed and ad hoc – there wasn’t much in the way of infrastructure or role models for

A for ambition: to realise their bike, the Athertons sought out benchmark talent like suspension pioneer Dave Weagle and 3D-printing bike innovator Ed Haythornthwaite.

“Working with people this good is exciting,” says Gee

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intensive training in the mountain-biking world – but by 2006 Red Bull had begun supporting the Athertons, providing specialised psychological and physical coaching. “That really changed the game,” Rachel says. “They said, ‘If you want to be world champions, you have to live like world champions.’

We built a garage for the bikes and a gym, instead of the ghetto set-up we had before.”

One of the siblings’ most striking qualities is their harmonious dynamic. When compliments come their way, they tend to highlight each other’s strengths above their own.

“He’s the pioneer,” Rachel says of Dan. “Gee and I learned from his mistakes.” Dan replies, “You learnt from me for a week and then you overtook me.”

Dan attributes their lack of conflict – for the most part – to the fact that the three of them “learnt early on that as a trio we were more powerful. Having Gee and Rach around gives me confidence. You almost feel that you don’t need anyone else; you know you’ve got that 100 per cent loyalty”.

On the flip side, Gee adds, “It keeps us all grounded, because there are always people there who will never let you believe your own hype. It’s useful, because it stops you thinking, ‘I can cruise for a bit.’ We’ve all got this feeling that we haven’t achieved enough yet. We always feel we have to take things a bit further.”

Hills and troughs

This restlessness explains why Dan, Gee and Rachel are up in the Andalusian hills on a cold but bright February afternoon, the scent of wild rosemary in the air and the sea sparkling beneath them as they bomb down rocky paths, kicking up

“To have these projects that are our own has brought renewed vigour” Dan Atherton 66

THE RED BULLETIN

“Having Gee and Rach around gives me confidence.

You almost feel like you don’t need anyone else; you’ve got 100 per cent loyalty” Dan Atherton

Clambering to the top: “You’ve got to continue bringing in things that keep you fresh, keep your mind going and keep you challenged,” says Rachel

THE RED BULLETIN

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frozen, because your brain is at this different level.” She adds, “That’s why the sport is so good for you. It lets you switch off.

There’s no room in your brain to worry.”

The flip side of all this Zen bliss is the many, many injuries.

Rachel has had around 10 operations on her shoulder and has been hit by a pick-up truck; Gee cracked a vertebra and dislocated a hip in a British championship race; and when Dan broke his neck, he was so blasé about the injury that Gee had to persuade him to call an ambulance. “I was like, ‘You need to find a piece of wood and carry me out,’” Dan remembers.

“Afterwards, I was in a halo [neck brace] for three months.”

During his recovery, Dan says, he used to video himself on his phone at night, telling himself, “Don’t ever get back on your bike.” But, he adds, “Somehow your body forgets.”

All three Athertons agree that once that ‘never again’ feeling has worn off, the worst part of being injured – worse than any physical pain – is not being able to ride. “That outlet is so good for you mentally,” Rachel says. “When you’re injured, it’s taken away. There was a period of about four years when I had surgery every year, and it did make me question if [riding] was worth it. But as soon as you get on your bike, it all comes flooding back. You get that big smile on your face and you think to yourself, ‘This is what it’s all for.’”

Bike to the future “We’ve all got this feeling that we haven’t achieved enough yet” Gee Atherton

clouds of reddish dust. They’ve been testing the prototype of their new bike all winter, “working with the engineers, adjusting things, making new things”, says Gee. “The plan is to race these bikes in a constant state of development.”

“We’ve got six weeks to get it really dialled before the first World Cup,” adds Rachel. “Healthy stress” is what she calls it.

“You have to keep challenging yourself. We’ve been racing World Cups for 20 years, and it’s the same thing: flying down mountains as fast as you can. You’ve got to keep bringing in things that keep your mind going.”

Witnessing in person what downhill mountain-bike racing looks like – even at speeds that are nowhere near full-tilt for these champion riders – would seem more than enough to keep most people’s minds going. The trails are steep enough that they’re hard to climb on foot without slipping, and they’re full of rocks, sudden drops and sharp turns. To gain a sense of what it’s like to tackle these trails at speed, search online for last year’s Red Bull Foxhunt: you’ll see Rachel whooping as she hurtles down a mountainside, overtaking almost 200 other female riders on the way. Filmed from a helmet-mounted camera, the footage captures the action vividly enough to give viewers a contact high.

There’s a lot of technical skill involved. To make incredibly precise split-second decisions as you’re flying down a hill, possibly in the pouring rain, involves “getting into that rhythm where you can process information and let it flow through your mind”, says Gee. “You can’t pause and reflect.”

Rachel agrees: “It’s like a meditation when you’re in the zone. Your senses are so heightened, you can feel your breath and every single inch of your body. You’re so wired. When I crossed the finish line at the World Cup, it took me a good 10 to 15 seconds to process what was happening. I was totally 68

Seventeen-year-old Norwegian athlete Mille Johnset has that smile on her face when she returns from a ride on the same day the Athertons put their new bike through its paces.

A recent graduate of the Atherton Academy – a training programme that Red Bull helped the siblings set up – she has been racing mountain bikes since 2011. Today, Johnset is a fully fledged member of the Atherton Racing team, and she’s staying in the Malaga villa to prepare for the upcoming season.

“Rachel has been an idol of mine since I was 10,” she says, remembering the day she opened up her Instagram account and discovered that her biking hero had begun following her.

Johnset sent a screenshot to all her friends: “I couldn’t believe it.” Now, she’s rubbing shoulders with the first family of her favourite sport on a daily basis, chopping vegetables as the Athertons mill around clutching mugs of peppermint tea and accidentally burning pizzas. “It’s pretty unreal.”

Charlie Hatton, a 20-year-old from the southwest of the UK, is another Atherton Racing member who’s training in Malaga with the family, and who will be competing in the same World Cup races as Gee this year. “It’s crazy,” he says. “You watched videos of them as a kid, and now you’re here.” When Gee won his first World Cup race, Johnset points out, she was three years old, “and he’s still on the podium”.

Helping these young riders excel is part of what the Athertons are excited about in this next phase of their careers and lives. “That’s the vision,” Rachel says. “Dan has used Gee and I as guinea pigs over the years, developing us into these world-class racers. Now, he wants to keep doing that with the junior riders, giving them the tools and the venue to reach the top steps of the World Cups.” Dan agrees: “Now it’s about trying to push the sport to the next level.”

All three Atherton siblings will be racing in 2019 – Rachel is defending her World Cup title – with a level of enthusiasm that is enhanced by their entrepreneurial activities. “To have this new drive and these new [projects] that are completely our own has brought renewed vigour,” Dan says. “I could never have anticipated how motivated I am right now. I’m jumping out of bed in the morning. It’s mad.” athertonbikes.com THE RED BULLETIN

2019 RANGE AT SARACEN.CO.UK

SARACENBIKES

2019 ArIeL LT

Jet-ski pilot Sérgio Cosme rides out to Nazaré’s big-wave spot in fine spirits, despite the everpresent danger

The Big Calm

Surfing the world‘s largest wave demands nerves of steel, but when things go wrong you need SÉRGIO COSME. The Nazaré jet-ski rescue pilot pulls fallen surfers from the Atlantic before they‘re crushed by 10-storey-high walls of water.

And he has less than 15 seconds to do it Words ANDREAS ROTTENSCHLAGER Photography KONSTANTIN REYER

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Good views: Cosme observes the Atlantic from the NazarĂŠ lighthouse. In the event of an emergency, he and his colleagues must correctly assess wave heights and distances within seconds

Riding giants: from October to March every year, the world‘s largest surfable waves break off the coast of the Portuguese town of Nazaré

I

t’s a cool morning in late December and Sérgio Cosme is standing at his bedroom window, lost in thought.

Sipping an espresso, he’s staring out at the spot in the ocean where he almost died in 2017.

Cosme’s house is on a cliff overlooking the sandy, ochre-coloured beach of Nazaré, a small resort 120km north of Lisbon where a spectacular force of nature plays out each year. This is where, from October to March, some of the largest waves in the world surge out of the Atlantic: dark grey giants up to 30m tall and weighing thousands of tonnes.

They attain such enormous heights because of the 230km underwater canyon that points straight at Nazaré like an arrow. Waves accelerate in the trench, which becomes shallower just before the shore, and then leap over its flat end as if taking off from a ski-jump.

This is Cosme’s workplace. The place where he almost died.

THE RED BULLETIN

Cosme is 39, with narrow shoulders, and weighs 60kg in a dripping wetsuit.

The Portuguese is one of the most experienced jet-ski operators at the world’s biggest big-wave location. It’s his job to look out for the handful of elite athletes who ride the waves off Nazaré in the winter months. As waves this size can’t be paddled out to with brawn alone, big-wave surfers are taken out to these walls of water by jet-ski operators such as Cosme.

Serving as a taxi service is the first job of an operator; the second is a lot riskier. If a surfer comes off their board, the jet-ski pilot has to find them in several thousand square metres of turbulent sea, retrieve them with the rescue sled that’s attached to the back of the vehicle, and get them out of the danger zone as quickly as possible. Failure means both will be buried by the oncoming wave.

The time between two waves in Nazaré is 10 to 15 seconds. If the surfer doesn’t

“Serving as a taxi service is the first job of an operator; the second is a lot riskier” 73

“You always have a good plan.

But in Nazaré you have to change it all the time”

PEDRO CRUZ/WSL BIG WAVE AWARDS

Nazaré, November 8, 2017: after pulling Rodrigo Koxa into the wave, Cosme (right) prepares for pick-up as the Brazilian sets a new world record for the largest wave ever ridden by a human

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Practice makes perfect: Cosme (right) and recordbreaker Koxa rehearse a pick-up in Nazaré harbour

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THE RED BULLETIN

An inside look at Cosme’s jet ski: “I need at least 200hp under the hood to feel safe in Nazaré”

return to the surface straight after he comes off his board, the rescue window becomes even smaller. The operators only have fractions of a second to come to a vitally important decision: will they make it to the surfer before the next wave hits?

Or should they turn back and watch it roll over him before trying again at the next opportunity? That’s the challenge the job presents: keeping a cool head so that others survive.

Cosme’s day begins in Nazaré’s old fishing harbour in a garage that looks like a mixture of a secondhand surf shop and a bachelor pad: there are sodden wetsuits, half-eaten packets of crisps, and a shower drips in the corner of a wet room.

He has rented three garages like this to maintain his five jet skis. When we visit, he’s bent over the battery of a bilious green Yamaha VX, a machine that has a top speed of 100kph, weighs 300kg and generates 110hp. “Not nearly powerful enough,” he says. “Out on the water, you need 200hp or more.”

The Nazaré waves can toss jet skis into the air like toys, rip off their seats, or shatter their plastic cladding. So, before Cosme ventures out onto the water, he

“Cosme’s garage is like a mixture of secondhand surf shop and bachelor pad” THE RED BULLETIN

straps down all the flaps and removes all the freestanding parts, such as the rear-view mirrors.

Quite aside from the rather unappetising prospect of being crushed to death by a wave that weighs many tonnes, there is, annoyingly, the fact that it’s difficult for him to steer the jet ski through white water when he’s on his rescue missions. When a wave breaks, this surf location turns into a massive sea of foam. The whitewash is made of water and air, which means the jet-ski propeller has trouble generating any propulsion in it. Cosme has to get the jet ski going with just the right amount of gas, or it won’t move. “It’s like driving your car in the winter,” he says. “If you put your foot down too hard on an icy patch of road, the tyres are going spin.”

The difference in this case being that there’s an avalanche rolling in behind Cosme’s vehicle.

He puts on his life jacket. A gas canister fills it with air as soon as he pulls the ripcord. Next, he straps on a belt with two flippers attached to it. The flippers are Cosme’s last resort in a worst-case scenario where the jet ski capsizes, both he and the surfer end up in the water, and the wave tosses the vehicle in their direction. Should this happen, Cosme would put on the flippers and try to fight his way back to shore using sheer brawn alone.

The jet-ski pilot is remarkably cheerful for someone who is confronted with extreme danger with such regularity.

He smiles a lot, constantly peppers his phrases with a chummy “Yeah, brother!”, and likes to end his sentences with “Yuhu!”, an ebullient Portuguese cry 77

“A surfer may get the wave, but the jet-ski rider is an unsung hero” A late tour before sundown. Cosme will never be as famous as the people he is protecting.

Still, he says, “I cannot think of a better job than saving people from the waves”

Gone in 15 seconds How a Nazaré jet-ski pilot gets a surfer to safety in the sliver of time between two giant waves

Wave 2 Jet ski and surfer escape incoming wave

Wave 1

Surfer grabs rescue sled behind jet ski

Wipeout!

Jet ski locates dismounted surfer

Jet-ski pilot tows and releases surfer

15s 10s 5s

CHRISTINA LOCK

s wave n e e betw Time

of cheery enthusiasm. As Cosme explains, “I just can’t imagine a job that would be better than saving people’s lives. Let’s go down to the pier. Yuhu!”

He discovered his love of speed before his first day at kindergarten. Cosme grew up in Lisbon and Santa Cruz, on Portugal’s Atlantic coast. He was given his first minimotorbike when he was three, and first climbed onto a surfboard at 14. A vivacious kid who often took tumbles and would proudly show off his bruises to his mother, he quit a career path in engineering and took part in motocross and car races.

At the same time, he began to take his friends out to the waves on a jet-ski.

But it was only in 2013 that Cosme brought together his passions for the ocean and motorsport – in an extremely unspectacular way. It was a Google search that changed his life, when he found a course for candidates to train up as rescue operators in big-wave surfing. Cosme rose to the bait: “I had hundreds of hours of jet-ski experience on the Portuguese Atlantic coast, and I also had a good sense of timing and distance from my time in motorsport.” He got through the course.

Within a year, he was patrolling the waves off Nazaré, which were already attracting the world’s best big-wave professionals.

Cosme earned himself a reputation as one of the leading operators in the area THE RED BULLETIN

0s

“When I turned to look for Fabiano, the wash had swallowed him” by saving more than a dozen people and notching up two world records. In 2017, he took Brazil’s Rodrigo Koxa out to the biggest wave anyone has ever surfed – 24.38m – on the same day 36-year-old British surfer Andrew Cotton suffered a wipeout that smashed him into the sea floor, breaking his L2 vertebrae and leaving him helpless in the water. Months later, Cosme was on patrol as the second rescue operator when Maya Gabeira set a new female world record of 20.72m.

“Making life or death calls in milliseconds; not many people have that skill set,” says Cotton, who returned to surf Nazaré again this year. “Sérgio does it numerous times on a daily basis. He’s a surfer, but he’s a more committed driver. He didn’t come here as an expert, but, in a period of five years, he’s become one of the best guys out there – and for not much reward. A surfer may get that wave, but the rider is an unsung hero.

It’s a thankless task and quite mentally taxing. Sérgio does this for passion, not ego or money.”

Cotton’s faith in Cosme is such that he likens their relationship to a marriage: “You trust him to rescue you, but also to pick the best waves. You want someone who can make the right decisions, has the commitment – everything you would choose in a wife or a husband. It can be quite an emotional relationship.”

“I can offer my surfers the greatest possible level of safety in any type of wave,” Cosme says. “But, in Nazaré, there are situations where you might have to change even the best-made plans within a matter of seconds.

The day Cosme almost died had started out with a sense of achievement. On January 4, 2017, he tugged Brazilian surfer Fabiano Tissot out to a deepgrey, 7m-high wave. Tissot pulled off an elegant ride. He glided down the steep wall of the wave, out of the danger zone. Then he grabbed his rescue sled and gave the jet-ski pilot the sign to come and get him. That’s when everything began to go wrong.

“When I turned around to look for Fabiano, the whitewash had already swallowed him,” Cosme recalls. He hit the throttle. The jet ski started to roll, veered to one side and tilted. Cosme was hurled into the sea.

The raging wave launched the 300kg jet ski straight towards him. Cosme got into a roll and was being tossed around like a ping-pong ball in a washing machine. The jet ski struck him on the head and chest. Just as he was about to 79

Cosme guides one of his jet skis ashore at the harbour: “I like the adrenalin in the water. Some people might not understand, but that’s what drives me”

“Anger won’t make a situation better. You’re wasting energy” black out, he pulled the ripcord on his life jacket and surfaced in a cloud of white water: “I didn’t know which way up I was.” He didn’t have time to get his bearings; the next wave was already looming, and within seconds it had crashed down upon him with all its force.

Cosme tried to keep calm and drift in the ocean. Contrary to every instinct in situations like this, he managed to open his eyes underwater. He read the seafloor, sought a way out, and dragged himself ashore with pain in his chest and head.

Ask Cosme how it’s possible to survive such situations and he’ll simply say, “By staying calm.” Yet that terse reply masks the discipline that allows big-wave surfers and jet-ski operators to maintain this vital mental attitude when they’re pulled 80

underwater by a huge wave and held there for several minutes. Surfers come up with a ‘happy place’ mentally stowed away for emergencies like these – memories of a beautiful place or a happy experience that they can summon up on demand, and which allow them to relax and so to survive.

Cosme knows the technique, but as he was being tossed around by the waves that January 4, his initial thought was, “Fuck.” But then the training kicked in.

He banished all thought of fear and panic from his brain; as a lifeguard and a student of yoga, he’d worked on the skill for years. The million-dollar question remains how one summons up calm in situations that whip up the very opposite of tranquillity in body and mind.

The best way to learn is in small steps, Cosme explains. He practises daily. “You should instantly do away with thoughts that are of no direct use in a difficult situation. Say you’re in a traffic jam, or your boss is getting on your nerves: of course it’s annoying, but, from an objective point of view, anger isn’t going to make the situation better. You’re only wasting energy. Push the irritation away.

My years of experience in the water may help me in a disaster, but when it comes to staying calm I draw on the power of simple memories.” So you can start this kind of training straight away and with relative ease. Yuhu!

That evening, Cosme does a few gentle circuits around the cliffs, home to Nazaré’s fortress and the red lighthouse – the vantage point for camera crews, TV reporters and tourists on big-wave days.

Cosme gets back dripping wet. He smiles and shunts the jet ski onto his pickup trailer: a soaking wet guy who will never be as famous as the people he risks his life for, who earns enough to pay the rent on three garages and a house, and who is sometimes invited to dinner by a restaurant owner he knows because the poster of his worldrecord-breaking tow hangs on the wall there. So, what is it about his job that makes him happy? What is success for a person such as Cosme?

“All my surfers sitting safe and sound in my garage in the evening,” he replies.

The definition of a good day.

Instagram: @sergiocosmico THE RED BULLETIN

ROOT MANOEUVRES The mountain-biking gear you need to hit the trails over the weekend Photography DAVID EDWARDS

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Jack wears LEATT DBX 4.0 All Mountain jacket, DBX 5.0 shorts and DBX 4.0 V19.3 Steel helmet, leatt.com; OSPREY Raptor 10 backpack, ospreyeurope.com; MADISON Alpine long-sleeve jersey, madison.co.uk; SPECIALIZED LoDown gloves, specialized.com; CANYON Strive CFR 9.0 Team bike, canyon.com Sylvia wears BELL Sixer MIPS helmet, bellhelmets. com; OSPREY Salida 8 backpack, ospreyeurope.com; ENDURA Singletrack hoodie and Hummvee Lite gloves, endurasport.com; CUBE Square Baggy Shorts Active, cube.eu; SPECIALIZED Stumpjumper Comp Alloy bike, specialized.com

GIRO Montaro MIPS helmet, giro.com; ZEAL OPTICS Magnolia sunglasses, zealoptics.com; SCOTT SPORTS Trail MTN WB 40 jacket, scott-sports.com; CUBE Edge Trail X Action Team backpack, cube.eu; ION PRODUCTS Scrub Amp ¾ LS top, ion-products.com

CUBE Badger helmet, cube.eu; 100% Glendale Soft Tact Raw sunglasses, ride100percent.com; ZÉFAL Z Hydro XL hydration bag, zefal. com; ION PRODUCTS Traze Amp CBlock SS top, ion-products. com; BLISS PROTECTION Arg Vertical elbow pads, blisscamp.com; TSG Mate gloves, ridetsg.com; ENDURA MT500 Spray Baggy Shorts II and MT500 knee protectors, endurasport.com; IXS Socks 6.1, ixs. com; SHIMANO ME7 shoes, shimano.com; YETI SB150 bike, yeticycles.com

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The DMR Sect is like a BMX with mountain-bike wheels – a jump bike light enough for trick fans, yet rugged enough to take on the hills

DMR Sect bike, dmrbikes.com

MET Roam helmet, met-helmets.com; 100% Speedcraft sunglasses, ride100percent.com; SPECIALIZED Therminal Alpha jacket and Andorra Comp shorts, specialized.com; EVOC Neo 16L protector backpack, evocsports.com; ENDURA Singletrack Core Print tee, MT500 gloves and Coolmax Stripe socks, endurasport.com; ION PRODUCTS Raid Amp II shoes, ion-products.com; SPECIALIZED Stumpjumper Comp Alloy bike, specialized.com

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BLUEGRASS EAGLE Legit Carbon helmet, bluegrasseagle.com; TSG Presto Chopper goggles, ridetsg.com; ENDURA SingleTrack Durajak jacket, endurasport.com; EVOC FR Lite Race 10L protector backpack, evocsports.com; LEATT DBX 2.0 jersey, leatt.com; DAKINE Thrillium bike shorts, dakine.com; ION PRODUCTS Traze gloves, ion-products.com; STANCE Endo Crew bike socks, stance.eu.com; FIVE TEN Sleuth DLX shoes, adidasoutdoor. com/fiveten; INTENSE Tazer eMTB bike, intensecycles.com

Some consider electric mountain bikes to be cheating, but with the Tazer’s powerassistance adding little more bulk, we’d call that a clear advantage

INTENSE Tazer eMTB bike, as opposite page

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GIRO Montaro MIPS helmet, giro.com; ZEAL OPTICS Magnolia sunglasses, zealoptics.com; SCOTT SPORTS Trail MTN WB 40 jacket, scott-sports.com; CUBE Edge Trail X Action Team backpack, cube.eu; SPECIALIZED LoDown gloves, specialized.com; ION PRODUCTS Scrub Amp ¾ LS top, Scrub Amp shorts and Raid Amp II shoes, ion-products.com; STANCE bike socks, stance.eu.com; SPECIALIZED Stumpjumper Comp Alloy bike, specialized.com

Clockwise from top left: DMR DeathGrip grips, dmrbikes.com; CUBE Cubetool 20-in-1 multitool, cube.eu; EXPOSURE LIGHTS Diablo MK10 Blue LE helmet light, exposurelights.com; USE Vyce Stem, ultimatesportsengineering.com; DMR Vault Brendog flat pedals, dmrbikes.com; HALO Chaos Wide Boy wheels, halowheels.com; GUSSET S2 alloy pedals, gussetcomponents.com; HALO Chaos Wide Boy wheel, as before

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From left: USE Boom Carbon handlebar, ultimatesportsengineering.com; RENTHAL Fatbar Lite Carbon Zero Rise handlebar, cycling.renthal.com; DEITY Blacklabel 800 handlebar, deitycomponents.com; USE Helix 30.9 165mm dropper post, ultimatesportsengineering.com

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Items as on page 85

Models JACK HURRELL @ Premier SYLVIA FLOTE @ Nevs Grooming ROSE ANGUS Photo assistance NEIL PAYNE

MORE WIIINGS WITHOUT SUGAR.

guide Get it. Do it. See it.

MUSCLING IN

SCARE TACTICS

DON’T MISS IT

PAGE 100

PAGE 102

PAGE 106

Hypervolt is the fitness rehab tool athletes are swearing by – and not just because it hurts

How survival-horror game Resident Evil 2 could save you in real life (zombies not required)

The best in live music, comedy, gaming and five-a-side football – plus a fantasy feast

GOING TO GREAT LENGTHS

ADVENTURE MARATHONS

The Great Wall Marathon – a 42.2km race along the ramparts of China’s most iconic structure – is a truly unique challenge PAGE 96

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The numerous steps and uneven surface of the Great Wall Marathon make it a unique challenge

EPIC MARATHONS

HITTING THE (GREAT) WALL Brian Metzler is no rookie when it comes to marathons.

But will the hazardous terrain and 5,164 steps of one of the wonders of the world prove an insurmountable barrier?

J

ust 30 minutes into China’s Great Wall Marathon, I feel as if my fitness is failing me.

I’ve run dozens of marathons before, but I’ve never been so gassed at the 6K mark of a race as I am now. I’m breathing so hard that I’m starting to feel dizzy,

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and it feels as if my heart is about to beat out of my chest.

Suffering this blurry-eyed exasperation, I finally crest an arduous climb and start running downhill over ancient steps handcarved from massive blocks of granite. But about 20 strides into

Brian Metzler takes a breather before yet another ascent

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China

TRAVEL TIPS

CHINESE CHECKS

Snack on a scorpion, and be careful how you place your chopsticks in that bowl of rice – here’s a little local knowledge for your trip to the Middle Kingdom

Huangyaguan Pass

Some sections of the course are so steep that hand-over-hand climbing is required

Beijing

China

The race is held on the Huangyaguan section of the Great Wall, about 120km east of Beijing

GO LIKE A PRO SIX TIPS TO AVOID ANY CHINA CRISES

ADVENTURE MARATHONS, GETTY IMAGES

Runners pass through Chinese villages, attracting local spectators as they go

the descent, I trip on the edge of a step and am suddenly skittering out of control. I stay on my feet, but I veer to the right and crash hard into the metrehigh stone edging on top of the wall. As I hit the cold, textured rock, I badly scrape my right knee, ribs and forearm while frantically trying to get a grip to avoid what would certainly be a life-threatening 10m fall into the forest below.

I’ve run plenty of big city marathons around the world, but I prefer races that are set in amazing places: rugged routes in the French Alps, the remote trails of Chile’s Torres del Paine National Park, and the oxygen-

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I’ve never been so gassed at the 6K mark of a race as on the Great Wall deprived, high-altitude terrain of Colorado’s Rocky Mountains.

This particular race is run on portions of the Huangyaguan section of the Great Wall of China, about 120km east of Beijing, in the mountainous region known as Yellow Cliff Pass. I’ve always wanted to see the Great Wall, so running such a unique and difficult marathon made perfect

1. Learn the history Visit Tiananmen Square and play Beethoven’s 9th Symphony in your earbuds in homage to the student uprising of 1989

4. Respect your rice Never stick chopsticks straight upwards in a bowl of rice – this is similar to a practice that honours the recently deceased

2. Eat like the locals Feast on Peking roast duck – Beijing’s famed speciality – but also stop by the city’s Wangfujing food court and snack on a scorpion on a skewer

5. Be aggressive in lines It’s common (and not rude) for locals to cut into queues for restaurants, trains and so on. Be forceful, or miss the bus!

3. Beware the air pollution Smog is a problem in Chinese cities, especially Beijing, which is why locals wear breathing masks on bad days

6. Expect to be snapped Everyone in China has a smartphone, and many people take photos of visitors without asking – and that includes your waitress

GREAT WALL MARATHON STATS 2,500 The maximum number of runners in the Great Wall Marathon. Last year’s event was a sell-out 3:09:18 The course record set in 2013 by three runners who finished together: Jorge Maravilla (USA), Jonathan Wyatt (New Zealand) and Dimitris Theodorakakos (Greece) 19 The number of finishes for Denmark’s Henrik Brandt, the only person to run every edition since its inception in 1999

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GET READY

5,164 STEPS TO SUCCESS

The Great Wall Marathon is one of the world’s most challenging. Here’s how to reach peak fitness and conquer it yourself

PREPARATION TRAINING PLAN Prepare by following a 16- to 20-week plan that accounts for multi-hour endurance and aerobic strength HILL WORKOUTS Do strength and hill training. You’ll be ready when you’re fit enough to tackle all the stairs in a skyscraper

THE RACE WARM UP You’ll stretch to songs such as ‘Party Till We Die’ blaring through loudspeakers as the race MCs lead a high-energy dance session CLIMBING Sections of the course along the Wall are so steep that you’ll have to use a hand-over-hand climbing technique just to keep your balance SNACKS Hard-boiled eggs and roasted seaweed thins are common pre-race morsels for the locals

DURATION Expect the race to take 30 to 40 per cent longer than your best marathon time on the roads SWEETS Many locals eat Golden Rabbit Candy for an energy boost. These milky sweets are wrapped in edible rice paper, and each provides 25mg of carbohydrate COURSE The race runs through many traditional villages, where there’s a good chance you’ll see a local wringing a duck’s neck to prepare a meal

A sense of relief and shared achievement greets the competitors at the finish line of this gruelling race

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Wonder Wall: the race traverses 42.2km of the fortification’s 21,196km total length

sense as the cornerstone of a week-long trip to China.

During the first few kilometres, I’m overwhelmed by the scenery, the sense of place and the connection to history this race affords, but all this is channelled into the back of my mind by the downright laborious running. The 42.2km route includes more than 900m of vertical gain and entails running up and down 5,164 stone steps set by peasants, soldiers and convicts almost 1,500 years ago during the Northern Qi Dynasty.

I run on through brick beacon towers built into the Wall every few thousand metres. The towers, where guards once lit fires and smoke signals to warn of invaders, are treacherous obstacles, most featuring labyrinth-like stairwells or steep steps. Luckily for me and my Wall-worn body, though, one of them serves as an aid station, offering runners bottled water, wrapped pastries, bananas and, oddly, cherry tomatoes.

What becomes apparent after 15 minutes running on the Great Wall is that no two sections – and, for that matter, no two strides – are remotely similar, something I had discovered almost to my own demise. The surface is

comprised of an endless path of dissimilarly placed rough-hewn stones that prohibit me from developing any kind of running rhythm. In some places, it’s similar to a cobblestone road, but in others it produces a cadence that makes it more akin to running on hot coals. There are also ridiculously steep stone stairs that demand a hand-over-hand climbing technique to avoid tumbling out of control in the wrong direction. Combined with the distraction of spectacular mountain scenery, and of snippets of about a dozen languages being spoken among the endless flow of runners, it’s a sensory overload that requires extra attention to focus on the task at hand.

I finish within a few moments of a Chinese man wearing a New York Yankees cap. Although we don’t understand each other’s language, we embrace at the finish line in a gesture that acknowledges our shared sense of struggle and accomplishment; an understanding that the Great Wall Marathon is a one-of-a-kind adventure that demands a lot, but gives back much, much more.

Run the Great Wall Marathon yourself on May 18; albatros-adventure.com

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ADVENTURE MARATHONS

CORE STRENGTH Make sure you do core strength exercises to provide stability for steps and uneven terrain. You won’t get by on just strong legs and lungs

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KNOW-HOW

LOOSENING UP WITHOUT THE DRILL No vibrationmassage device handy? Make these part of your routine FASCIA ROLLS If you want to stay loose, think of your fasciae. Long overlooked, these form the connective tissue beneath the skin and provide stability in the musculoskeletal system. We now know that giving your fasciae a foam-roller workout accelerates muscle recovery.

Taking the ‘no pain, no gain’ philosophy to the extreme, we present a recovery tool that literally beats the aches out of you

I

t looks like a hammer drill. And, in a way, that’s what it is: a piece of high-tech kit that pounds away at stiff muscles at 3,200bpm to loosen tissue. In other words, Hypervolt is not for the faint of heart. Yet athletes as diverse as US skiing queen Lindsey Vonn and British ultrarunner Tom Evans swear by its regenerative powers. “It’s one of my main recovery tools,” says Evans. “I use it after a session to kickstart the recovery process.”

Hypervolt is the invention of former basketball coach Anthony Katz. The American has been seen as a rising star in the fitness industry since he launched his first recovery device – the Hyperice, a cutting-edge combination of cryotherapy and compression for reducing swelling and healing tissue – in 2012.

Being cordless, the Hypervolt can be used to precisely target specific muscle areas

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The Hypervolt weighs one kilo, and the battery lasts for three hours, so it can aid recovery on the move

Katz’s sports-massage device similarly embodies his philosophy that recovery is as important for the body as working out.

Hypervolt is cordless, enabling the user to treat the exact muscle areas affected, loosening those that have stiffened, while relieving muscle ache and improving blood flow within the tissue.

The speed can be set according to which part of the body is being massaged (full power for hips and buttocks) and there is a choice of four head attachments. “The different heads mean that I can use it all over my legs, allowing me to train harder in the following session,” says Evans. “And it’s portable and quiet, too, so you can use it anywhere.”

So there is a difference between the Hypervolt and a hammer drill, after all. hyperice.com/hypervolt

HYDROTHERAPY After your workout, do five 30-second showers alternating between hot and cold water. Icecold water stops your muscles aching, and hot water aids your circulation.

GOOD NUTRITION Protein is the basic building block of muscle. Low-fat meats, tofu and fish accelerate the growth of muscle cells after your workout.

“I use it to kickstart the recovery process after every session” Tom Evans, ultrarunner

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FLORIAN OBKIRCHER

HAMMER TIME

HYPERVOLT

HYPERVOLT

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SCARE SCIENCE

THE FEAR ADVANTAGE Resident Evil 2 will terrify you. You’ll also feel great – and it could even save your life

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ames are designed to stimulate us, and the Resident Evil series has a specific technique: scaring the shit out of us. When the original Resident Evil 2 came out on the PlayStation in 1998, it became the benchmark for the ‘survival horror’ genre. Now, 21 years later, the remake has tuned up the terror with cinematic techniques, claustrophobic spacial sound, and an over-the-shoulder viewpoint that immerses the player in a living nightmare that feels more real than before. Why would any sane person seek that out? Ask the three million players who bought the game in its first week. Better still, let horror psychologist Dr Mathias Clasen explain how scare tactics elicit psychological positives…

THE JUMP SCARE You’re walking down a darkened hallway when – BAM! – undead dogs crash through a window. This is a brute-force shock tactic, though many horror fans dismiss it as a cheap shot. “The ‘startle response’ is driven by the ‘fear system’, evolved over millions of years to keep us alive,” says Clasen. “It’s hardwired into the brain, which is why it’s rare to see a horror film without a jump scare.” The amygdala – the brain’s terror centre – pumps adrenalin into the body, increasing blood flow to the muscles. In short, it produces a rush.

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“Boo!” Jump scares boost adrenalin

DISORIENTATION RE2’s frequent switching of camera angles is subliminally disturbing.

“High perspectives impart a sense that [the character] is exposed to whatever horrible event is going to happen,” says Clasen. This enhances our empathy with them, delivering emotional rewards when they survive grave encounters. “‘There is no horror without love,’ as Stephen King has said. You need to be invested in a character for it to work.” A study also showed increases in serotonin (the happy chemical) when hated characters get their comeuppance.

SUSPENSE Anticipation of a terrifying event is often worse than the event itself, unless you’re actually being stalked by a predator. Because of our past as prey, suspenseful horror induces a state of ‘hypervigilance’ or high alert.

“As a horror film unfolds, you know something bad is going to happen – you don’t know what, but you know it’s there. We learn what it feels like to be really afraid and how to cope with negative emotions.” This increases the heart rate by around 14bpm, making RE2 an ideal aerobic warm-up. It also boosts production of white blood cells (important for

Eye eye, this looks familiar

fighting infections), and hematocrit levels – associated with improved cognitive function and endurance.

SOUND DESIGN As film director and ‘Master of Horror’ John Carpenter will tell you, the soundtrack is everything. A study by the University of Amsterdam showed that eerie music causes an ‘alarm reaction’, making muscles tense, ready for fight, flight or filling our pants. As well as creaking stairs and guttural voices, horror soundtrack techniques include infrasonic sounds outside normal hearing range. “Anxiety makes us pay attention to things that are not good for our wellbeing,” says Clasen.

“There are people born without the ability to feel fear. But they generally don’t live to a ripe old age.”

EXPERT PROFILE

MATHIAS CLASEN Doctor of Horror

A professor of human behavioural biology and evolutionary and cognitive psychology at Denmark’s Aarhus University, Clasen is also a scholar of horror fiction, having written a PhD dissertation titled Monsters and Horror Stories: A Biocultural Approach and many books on the subject, including Why Horror Seduces.

Resident Evil 2 is out on PS4, Xbox One and PC

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THE UNCANNY VALLEY We’re innately unsettled by anything that looks almost, but not quite, human. This effect is known as ‘the uncanny valley’, and zombies lumber through it. “We don’t know whether we’re in danger or not, so we’re creeped out,” says Clasen. “In tests, macaque monkeys were exposed to images of zombified macaques. They reacted very strongly, suggesting the biological phenomenon cuts across primate psychology – a mechanism evolved to save us from infection.

And we know zombies are infectious.”

The uncanny valley, therefore, trains us to recognise potential threats.

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March/April B-Girl Sayora from Kazakhstan gets busy at BC One Camp Zurich 2018

B-Boy boomerangs and baby freezes, the stars of snow sports in Switzerland, and a global go-to guide – just some of this month’s highlights

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April ON DEMAND

ABC OF… RED BULL BC ONE

Dive deep into the history of this one-of-akind event. ABC of… Red Bull BC One brings you up to speed on all things breaking, from its origins to the B-Boy and B-Girl battles of today. Crank up the volume and enjoy.

to 31 March LIVE

FREERIDE WORLD TOUR VERBIER

Red Bull TV is a global digital entertainment destination featuring programming that is beyond the ordinary and is available anytime, 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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See the world’s best freeride skiers and snowboarders face off in the ultimate test of speed and skill at this grand finale on the legendary Bec des Rosses.

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March ON

13 March ON AIR

23 WATCH RED BULL TV ANYWHERE

THE FEDERATION SOUND

DEMAND

HUBERTUSJAGD

Mexican-born Olympic slalom skier, pop star and celebrated art photographer Prince Hubertus von Hohenlohe is your guide to undiscovered and emerging hotspots around the globe.

Brooklyn’s Max Glazer has travelled the globe with Rihanna as her tour DJ, and worked with everyone from Sean Paul to Vybz Kartel. On his weekly Red Bull Radio show (every Wednesday, 9pm GMT), this worldwide authority on reggae and dancehall brings a wicked arsenal of dubplate specials, fiyah remixes, and in-depth interviews with iconic artists including Chronixx and Major Lazer’s Jillionaire.

LISTEN AT REDBULLRADIO.COM

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LITTLE SHAO/RED BULL CONTENT POOL, NICOLE FARA SILVER/RED BULL CONTENT POOL, SERVUS TV/GEORG KUKUVEC, FWT

A BREAK FROM THE NORM

Hear handpicked music and interviews with influential artists.

This month’s pick is…

Cleaning, lubing, taping, sealing, valving

Peaty’s GOT YOU COVERED HIGH-PERFORMANCE, ECO-FRIENDLY PRODUCTS FOR YOUR MTB AND ROAD BIKE

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March/April

to 30 March AMP London Annie Mac has an ear for a good tune. The Irish DJ spends her weeknights hosting an eclectic mix of hip hop, grime, indie and EDM on Radio 1, and the rest of her time serving up the same on her Annie Mac Presents albums and at Lost & Found festival in Malta. Now she’s launching a four-day London event, with more than 40 acts across 14 venues including XOYO, Printworks and Hackney Empire (the latter in aid of Art Against Knives), plus talks on topics such as ‘Feminism and Rap’.

Across London; anniemacpresents.com/london

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Mar onwards

RED BULL NEYMAR JR’S FIVE

If football stats are your thing, try these: Red Bull Neymar Jr’s Five is the world’s biggest five-aside tournament, involving more than 6,000 teams in 65 qualifiers across 40 countries. Each game last 10 minutes – if one team scores, the other loses a player – and the final takes place in the Brazilian star’s hometown, São Paulo. The UK qualifiers run until May – sign up below.

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to 14 April Now Play This Think games are getting a bit samey? Head to one of the freshest arcades you’ll find.

Set in the stately surrounds of Somerset House as part of the London Games Festival, this celebration of experimental game design lets you interact with, play, or just chill to artistic takes on the concept, this year built around the theme of community. Somerset House, London; nowplaythis.net

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April to 29 Sep Underbelly Festival For more than a decade, the arrival of Underbelly’s upside-down purple cow on London’s Southbank has heralded some of the finest affordable live entertainment around. This year, its unabashed mix of cabaret, circus and comedy includes the rapid-fire Chortle’s Fast Fringe, featuring 28 stars of the 2019 Edinburgh Fringe; Yummy, a drag show that claims to “make Ru Paul’s Drag Race look like an Amish funeral”, and Podcast Live, which brings some of the funniest examples of the craft to the stage. Southbank, London; underbellyfestival.com

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April to 2 June Dinner Is Coming With the final season of Game of Thrones airing in April, what better time to enjoy a sumptuous banquet set within a perverse immersive parody of the show (tagline: “A Bannister always clears their plate”). You may find the TV series’ gore hard to stomach, but the food here is easily washed down with plenty of claret. The Vaults, London; thevaults.london

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SIAN SMITH, MARCELO MARAGNI/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

Across the UK, redbullneymarjrsfive.com

GLOBAL TEAM

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The Red Bulletin is published in seven countries. This is the cover of April’s French edition, which features blind MMA fighter Adola Fofana from Switzerland’s Cage Academy For more stories beyond the ordinary, go to: redbulletin.com

The Red Bulletin UK. ABC certified distribution 154,346 (Jan-Dec 2018)

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Editor-in-Chief Alexander Macheck Deputy Editors-in-Chief Waltraud Hable, Andreas Rottenschlager Creative Director Erik Turek Art Directors Kasimir Reimann (deputy CD), Miles English, Tara Thompson Head of Photo Fritz Schuster Deputy Head of Photo Marion Batty Photo Director Rudi Übelhör Production Editor Marion Lukas-Wildmann Managing Editor Ulrich Corazza Editors Christian Eberle-Abasolo, Jakob Hübner, Arek Piatek, Stefan Wagner Design Marion Bernert-Thomann, Martina de CarvalhoHutter, Kevin Goll, Carita Najewitz Photo Editors Susie Forman, Ellen Haas, Eva Kerschbaum, Tahira Mirza Global Head of Media Sales Gerhard Riedler Head of Media Sales International Peter Strutz Head of Commercial & Publishing Management Stefan Ebner Publishing Management Sara Varming (manager), Magdalena Bonecker, Manuela Gesslbauer, Melissa Stutz, Mia Wienerberger Communication Christoph Rietner Head of Creative Markus Kietreiber Creative Solutions Eva Locker (manager), Verena Schörkhuber, Edith Zöchling-Marchart Commercial Design Peter Knehtl (manager), Sasha Bunch, Simone Fischer, Martina Maier Advertising Placement Manuela Brandstätter, Monika Spitaler Head of Production Veronika Felder Production Wolfgang Stecher (manager), Walter O. Sádaba, Friedrich Indich, Sabine Wessig Repro Clemens Ragotzky (manager), Claudia Heis, Nenad Isailovi c,̀ Maximilian Kment, Josef Mühlbacher Office Management Yvonne Tremmel IT Systems Engineer Michael Thaler Subscriptions and Distribution Peter Schiffer (manager), Klaus Pleninger (distribution), Nicole Glaser (distribution), Yoldaş Yarar (subscriptions) Global Editorial Office Heinrich-Collin-Straße 1, A-1140 Vienna Tel: +43 1 90221 28800, Fax: +43 1 90221 28809 Web: redbulletin.com Red Bull Media House GmbH Oberst-Lepperdinger-Straße 11-15, A-5071 Wals bei Salzburg, FN 297115i, Landesgericht Salzburg, ATU63611700 General Manager and Publisher Andreas Kornhofer Directors Dietrich Mateschitz, Gerrit Meier, Dietmar Otti, Christopher Reindl

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THE RED BULLETIN Austria, ISSN 1995-8838 Editor Christian Eberle-Abasolo Proofreaders Hans Fleißner (Ltg.), Petra Hannert, Monika Hasleder, Billy Kirnbauer-Walek Country Project Management Manuela Gesslbauer Media Sales Management Alfred Vrej Minassian Sales Promotion & Project Management Stefanie Krallinger

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

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

THE RED BULLETIN Mexico, ISSN 2308-5924 Editor Luis Alejandro Serrano Associate Editor Inmaculada Sánchez Trejo Managing Editor Marco Payán Proofreader Alma Rosa Guerrero Country Project Management Giovana Mollona Advertising Sales Humberto Amaya Bernard, humberto.amayabernard@redbull.com

THE RED BULLETIN Switzerland, ISSN 2308-5886 Editor Arek Piatek Proofreaders Hans Fleißner (Ltg.), Petra Hannert, Monika Hasleder, Billy Kirnbauer-Walek Country Project Management Meike Koch Advertising Sales Marcel Bannwart, marcel.bannwart@redbull.com

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

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EMIL SOLLIE / RED BULL CONTENT POOL

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Smoke machine Night rider returns: Chilean motocross ace Benjamin Herrera ramps up the drama beneath a moonlit sky. The 24-year-old and his younger brother Diego are rising stars of the SuperEnduro scene – an extreme mix of supercross, trials and enduro racing. For more, check out Herrera’s Instagram: @benja_herrera8

The next issue of THE RED BULLETIN is out on April 9 110

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JEAN LOUIS DE HEECKEREN/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

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