The Red Bulletin US 04/21

BEYOND THE ORDINARY

U.S. EDITION APRIL 2021, $5.99

BEYOND THE ORDINARY

THE GAME THE RED BULLETIN 04/2021

CHANGER

Pro cyclist JUSTIN WILLIAMS aspires to do more than win big races—he’s out to transform bike racing in America

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Dan Patitucci BD Athlete Hillary Gerardi

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With the sun setting over Malibu, Joe Pugliese captures Justin Williams in repose.

EDITOR’S NOTE

SEEING THE LIGHT 04

Bicycles are simple tools.

They’re just two wheels and a frame, a handlebar and some pedals. And yet there’s something magical about them; even today physicists don’t fully understand why they’re so stable in motion. These machines can multitask as transportation workhorses,

race vehicles, instruments of self-expression or toys for recreation. Bikes can help people get fit, lose weight, find grit, express individuality and otherwise change their lives for the better.

Two features in this issue demonstrate the power of bikes to truly move people.

THE RED BULLETIN

CONTRIBUTORS THIS ISSUE

JOE PUGLIESE (COVER)

Williams did some hard sprint efforts on Saddle Peak with Pugliese on his tail.

Our cover story, “Power Broker” (page 22), profiles Justin Williams, a pro bike racer whose life has taken him from a tough L.A. neighborhood to become one of America’s top criterium racers. And along the way, he’s transforming the demographics and future of his sport.

In a similar vein, “Taking the Leap” (page 34) explores the past, present and future of Formation, a groundbreaking event that is changing women’s place in the freeriding mountain bike universe. The story details the history of this landmark event and offers some wisdom on how women want to express themselves on bicycles.

In short, bikes can take you where you want to go.

We hope you join the ride.

THE RED BULLETIN

PARIS GORE

EVAN MAJORS

Already a veteran of shooting Red Bull Rampage, Gore was excited to shoot the first Formation. “I knew many of the riders prior to Formation, so it was really exciting to see them all challenge themselves in new ways,” says the Bellingham, Washingtonbased photographer, who has shot for National Geographic, Bike and Outside as well as brands like BMW, Patagonia and Arc’teryx. “The way the women supported each other brought a unique vibe to the whole event.” Page 34

“After interviewing Blxst, it was clear to me that he’s an artist I think we’re going to hear a lot from in the future,” says Majors, who profiled the rising hip-hop star. “I think he’s going to be one of those rare artists who is going to move fluidly between all genres of music as a producer and songwriter—he has that ‘it’ factor.” A part-time writer who has penned features for Bleu magazine, Majors is a casting director and talent executive who resides in Los Angeles. Page 9

JOE PUGLIESE

DUSTIN SNIPES

The Los Angeles-based photographer has shot presidents, Hollywood legends and moguls but has long had a personal passion for bike racing and jumped at the chance to shoot Justin Williams. “I’ve known Justin and his brother, Cory, since they were junior racers,” says Pugliese, who has also photographed Kate Courtney and Ken Roczen for The Red Bulletin and shot covers for The Hollywood Reporter, Fortune, Variety, Outside and many other titles. Page 22

“I spent months researching night-sky photography,” says the Los Angeles-based portrait and sports photographer, who after meticulous preparation was able to capture an extraordinary shot of the Red Bull Air Force descending over Marfa, Texas, on a starlight night. “I feel very fortunate to get to work with people who continue to push the boundaries of creativity.”

Snipes’ work has appeared in ESPN The Magazine, Sports Illustrated and The New York Times Magazine. Page 44 05

CONTENTS April

FEATURES

2 2 Power Broker

Champion cyclist and sprinting specialist Justin Williams wants to do more than win big races. He wants to change his sport.

3 4 Taking the Leap

How the women of Formation, a groundbreaking event in Virgin, Utah, transformed freeride mountain biking forever.

4 4 Bright Lights

In Marfa, Texas, one photographer sets out to capture a different kind of flying object: the Red Bull Air Force.

5 8 Raising the Reef

A group of young Polynesians are fighting to protect the world’s reefs against the effects of global warming.

6 8 Driving Change

An unlikely alliance between motorsports and eco-activism spawned a new racing series with a mission to save the planet.

44 SHOOTING STARS Strange lights have long attracted curious visitors to Marfa, Texas. This time it was the Red Bull Air Force.

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THE RED BULLETIN

26 ANGYIL

Tyler Blevins—known to his tens of millions of Fortnite fans as Ninja—knows how to balance his fame and stay grounded at home and on the road.

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SPRINTING AHEAD

JOE PUGLIESE, KELSEY WILLIAMS, DUSTIN SNIPES

“I like to win, but I’m more interested in pursuing a greater good,” says Justin Williams. The gifted bike racer put on his Red Bull helmet for the first time on January 20.

THE

DEPARTURE

Taking You to New Heights

9 L.A.-grown artist Blxst

carves out his own lane

12 A British curator puts

diversity in the picture

14 Autumnal mountain biking

in the forests of France

16 Ice-cool surfing in Alaska 18 Body-positive surfers share

their fight for recognition

19 Common shares top tracks

with the power of change

GUIDE

Get it. Do it. See it.

81 Urban escapes: How to find

close-to-home adventures

84 Fitness tips from freeride

MTB prodigy Jaxson Riddle

86 Dates for your calendar 88 The best trail-running gear 94 Helmets for all seasons 96 The Red Bulletin worldwide 98 Rallying in Saudi Arabia

58 REEF RESCUE

In the South Pacific, cultivated coral is fixed to a dead or damaged reef with a few dabs of marine cement.

THE RED BULLETIN

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LIFE

&

STYLE

BEYOND

THE

ORDINARY

THE

BLXST OFF

KOURY ANGELO/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

The L.A.-grown, multihyphenate artist carves out his own lane —and makes no apologies.

Since the release of his debut EP, No Love Lost, last September, Blxst has been busy working on his forthcoming LP.

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T H E D E PA RT U R E

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iving in L.A. can feel like a vacation—the sun-soaked days, towering palm trees, vast mountain ranges and beautiful beaches. It’s lovely for many people, but in South Los Angeles, there is a different existence, one that is distracting and dangerous and surrounded by gangs. This was the reality for the multihyphenate rapper, singer, songwriter and producer Blxst, who grew up near 75th Street and Central Avenue.

“When I was young, living with my mom, my school was eight blocks away from my house,” says Blxst. “It was literally between two gangs, where anything could happen on any street.”

The twentysomething artist has been singing for as long as he can remember, but September 2020 marked the release of his debut EP, No Love Lost, on Red Bull Records.

In just a week, the collection, which seamlessly blends rap and R&B, picked up 4 million streams and reached 75 million streams as of January.

The deluxe version, which dropped in December, features bonus tracks with Ty Dolla $ign, Tyga, Dom Kennedy and Bino Rideaux.

His versatility, DIY ethos and singsong, melodic funk sound have been compared to the “King of Hooks”—the late hiphop legend Nate Dogg.

Growing up, Blxst dreamed of playing in the NBA, but he eventually fell out of love with basketball. To escape the trappings of South L.A. street life, he relocated to the Inland Empire with his dad.

The Inland Empire—or “the IE”— is a short drive east from Los Angeles, but worlds away from South L.A. Known for its harsh deserts, mountain towns and sprawling suburbs, the IE is where Blxst picked up a new love—skateboarding.

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“I was definitely invested in skateboarding,” Blxst says during a phone interview on MLK Day. “I was skating every day, like to the point where I thought it was going to be my future—until I got a reality check and broke my ankle.

That led me to picking up a laptop. I started recording myself and taught myself how to make beats when I was around 16 years old.”

The change of scenery allowed Blxst to hone his craft and his sound, but more importantly, learn how to be his authentic self. “Living in the IE was the complete opposite of South Central,” says Blxst. “It was more suburban. The school system was strict, but it also made me keep to myself. I didn’t really know anybody out there, so that’s how I fell into the pocket of being home and just creating music.”

For Blxst, the decision to lean into his music career eventually paid off, but it wasn’t without contention from some of the people who were closest to him. After the release of his first single, “Who Would’ve Thought,” in 2016, and his 2019 breakout hit, “Hurt,” Blxst’s rising success and the amount of time he spent focused on his work caused some friction with friends and family.

“Sometimes people around you can’t understand,” Blxst explains. “It takes separation for elevation. Being away from everyone gave me a different perspective, a sense of discipline. I decided I wanted to do things for myself and have a different dedication towards my music.”

With this newfound focus, Blxst teamed up with R&B sensation Eric Bellinger to produce the 2018 track “By Now.” In return, the singer appeared on Blxst’s single “Can I.” Picking up on this

momentum, Blxst joined forces with Bino Rideaux for the collaborative Sixtape in 2019. To date it’s generated nearly 5 million total streams, flaunting fan favorites such as “Selfish” and “Bacc Home.”

“I felt the pressure early on trying to build my foundation,” Blxst says of his career beginnings. “I didn’t even know where I was going to lay my head at a certain point. I was just trying to follow through with the plan, just strategizing and executing and believing in myself.”

It was around this time that Blxst came to a difficult fork in the road, where he had to make a choice between the people he loved and chasing his dreams. “That’s what a lot of No Love Lost is about,” Blxst says. “It’s saying ‘no hard feelings’ to my loved ones, to my friends—that I had to take time away from them to be self-sufficient and support myself. Sorry, not sorry.”

But it’s also that type of perspective and selfassuredness that’s led Blxst to find his own lane in an already crowded hip-hop space. “I create music for the soul,” Blxst says. “No matter what genre it is, it’s going to be intentional.

I create what’s missing in the game. I feel like people are missing that love connection, that honesty, that soulfulness, and I want to be that.”

As he wraps up work on his first full-length album, set to be released later this summer, Blxst continues to stand firm in his own truth as an artist. “[My music] is about being authentic and being real with myself,” he says. “I’m opening up and giving the listener an opportunity to know that they’re not alone, no matter what emotion they’re feeling.

I just want to be able to show people that it’s cool to feel, it’s cool to love. It’s cool to be who you are.” —Evan Majors THE RED BULLETIN

KOURY ANGELO/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

“I create music for the soul,” Blxst says.

“No matter what genre it is, it’s going to be intentional.”

“IT’S COOL TO FEEL. IT’S COOL TO LOVE. IT’S COOL TO BE WHO YOU ARE.” THE RED BULLETIN

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T H E D E PA RT U R E

Bolanle Tajudeen

This U.K.-based creative, activist and entrepreneur is reinventing the education system with her Black Blossoms School of Art and Culture.

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hen Bolanle Tajudeen began frequenting galleries and museums eight years ago, while studying PR at the University of the Arts London (UAL), it changed her life. She fell in love with art. But it was the inequality the Nigerianborn Londoner encountered in both the education system and the mainstream art world that prompted her to become a curator. “I was around so many creatives of color, but I didn’t see their work reflected in the industry,” she says. At UAL, Tajudeen began displaying the work of Black artists for Black History Month. By 2019, she’d hosted successful exhibitions and taught a sell-out course, Art in the Age of Black Girl Magic, at Tate Britain. Yet she was struggling: “I worked in a fried chicken shop to pay the rent. I was applying for museum and gallery roles and not getting them. I grew up in [public housing], so I had to build my own network. No one knew I was broke.”

Fast-forward to 2021 and the 32-year-old has found a way to bypass traditional institutions and promote a more diverse perspective on art. Her Black Blossoms School of Art and Culture curates affordable, accessible online courses that aim to decolonize, deconstruct and democratize the education system. And, Tajudeen says, that’s just the beginning.

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the red bulletin: What does art mean to you? bolanle tajudeen: I never went to galleries growing up— they didn’t feel like spaces for me. But art was everywhere.

At Nigerian parties, the way people would tie their head scarves was artistic. Even how the boys would hang around our [home]—compositionally, it was an aesthetic. I feel seen when I see art that speaks to me or has been made with me in mind. I’m very political, but I’m over standing on a soapbox.

I believe art can be a tool for change. It speaks to me being a woman, being Black, being a mother. Art helps me articulate feelings that I might not be able to with words.

What hurdles did you face in becoming a curator?

I’m not from a curatorial background. I’ve educated myself. I’ve taken courses and attended conferences and artists’ talks to really understand the history of Black art in this country. And I’ve got a teaching qualification. But I didn’t want to study art history. The courses don’t talk about the things I want to discuss. I didn’t want to spend more money just to learn about old, dead white guys.

Was that sentiment why your Tate Britain course sold out?

It was one of the first courses of its kind at any major institution.

Is that why you founded your school, Black Blossoms?

I first thought about it while working as an education officer at UAL after my studies.

I wanted to decolonize the curriculum, get more authors of color on reading lists, more [minority] lecturers teaching courses. Then, when [COVID] closed museums and galleries, I decided to teach online. I realized I knew so many great experts and this was our chance to make a change.

For me, the pandemic took away the power of universities and other institutions. We can all be curators now; we’ve got Zoom, and people are doing courses at home in a way that felt unnatural in 2019. Before, I never had the confidence, the social clout or the capital to say, “We don’t need the backing of an institution—we can do it ourselves.”

What has been the response?

Amazing. People have said it’s revolutionary.

What’s next?

I’m working on opening 40 artist studios, a gallery and a website where artists and writers of color can write about the art world. My ideal would be for all Black households in Britain to have a Black Blossoms subscription. A lot of Black people don’t feel comfortable in museums and galleries—this could be their entry point.

Basically I’m hoping for a mini Black Blossoms empire! black-blossoms.online THE RED BULLETIN

ALEXIS CHABALA RUTH MCLEOD HAIR: SHAMARA ROPER, @SHAMARA_ROPER; NAIL TECH AND MAKE-UP: JENELLE ROPER, @JENELLEROPER

MAKING ART HISTORY

It focused on the historical and contemporary practices of Black female and nonbinary artists, using the Tate collection and work outside of that, too. I put a lot about activism in there; how artists have responded to social upheaval and political change.

It spoke to people, as there was nothing else like it.

“GROWING UP, GALLERIES DIDN’T FEEL LIKE SPACES FOR ME.”

THE RED BULLETIN

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T H E D E PA RT U R E

Brioude, France

FALLING INTO PLACE In life, sometimes everything just comes together. Take Jean-Baptiste Liautard’s last-minute assignment to shoot mountain biker Amaury Pierron. Following a flight from Vancouver, then a long drive, the photographer arrived in south-central France, tired and short of ideas. Enter a sudden snowstorm. “I remember running in every direction, trying to figure out the shot I should do and the lighting needed,” he says, “but I’m glad I had time to set up everything before it stopped snowing.

We were even lucky with the fall tones of the trees perfectly matching Amaury’s gear and bike.” Thank you, Mother Nature. jbliautard.com

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JB LIAUTARD

Yakutat, Alaska

CHILL WAVE Action sports photographer Dom Daher was working at the Freeride World Tour in Haines, Alaska, when he received a text from former freeride medalist Anne-Flore Marxer. “She said it was pumping in Yakutat and we should go right after the event,” recalls the Frenchman. “So the next day we flew there—in a very small plane.”

Yakutat in southeast Alaska has a population of just 600—“the town cop knows everyone’s home phone number by heart,” reports Daher—and a wave that local surfers keep a fiercely guarded secret. Nevertheless, resident teacher Andrew (pictured) was on hand to add a human element to this dramatic shot. domdaher.com

DOM DAHER

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AHEAD OF THE CURVE The plus-sized women board riders fighting for recognition in the surf community.

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he true surfing community has never been as tanned and toned as the marketing lets on.

While brands push the image of six-packs and supermodels, anyone who has surfed California’s breaks will know that the wisest surfer in the water is often some crazy old dude on a longboard. Now, a new online movement is giving a platform to a surfing

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demographic that has too long been overlooked: plussized women. A growing collective of professional board riders, including Brazilian Silvana Lima and American Bo Stanley, as well as amateurs such as fitness coach Kanoa Greene and online influencer Elizabeth Sneed, are pushing a new narrative in surfing that has space for women of every size.

THE RED BULLETIN

LOU BOYD

Body-Positive Surfers

Texas-born Sneed, who owns the Instagram account @curvysurfergirl, only began surfing three and a half years ago after moving to Honolulu for work. She quickly fell in love with the sport and then looked for role models to follow. “But there are no images of curvy female surfers online,” Sneed explains.

“So I got in touch with surf photographer Tommy Pierucki and asked if he wanted to create some shots.”

Six months later, Pierucki’s images of Sneed have been viewed by more than 18,000 followers on her Instagram and have sparked a global trend for surfers to post their own photos with the hashtag #curvysurfergirl. “We have to believe that we’re worthy and belong in the surfing community,” says Sneed.

“You don’t have to stress out about your body or your insecurities. Seeing women of different body types in the water is so encouraging.”

The body-positive surf movement is about more than self-confidence and good vibes, though. Sneed says that in her early days of surfing she struggled to even find performance gear that fit her. She now hopes the world’s biggest surf brands will finally pay attention. “This movement is a direct communication to them that there are women in this demographic who have a demand for surfwear and activewear [made for] the water,” she says. “Every single person who follows my Instagram is testament that something needs to be done.

“I hope there are more photographers who will be inspired to turn their camera towards curvy women and create more images of people like me, so that in the near future we have a lot of curvy surfers out there shredding.

We need to show all women, of every shape, that there’s a future for them in surfing.”

TOMMY PIERUCKI

On board: Social influencer Elizabeth Sneed is among those challenging outdated surfing stereotypes.

T H E D E PA RT U R E

Playlist

SING THE CHANGES

Rapper, actor and activist Common shares four songs that embody the sound of revolution.

S

MARK LEIBOWITZ

FLORIAN OBKIRCHER

ocial activism and promoting positivity have long been trademarks of Lonnie Rashid Lynn Jr., best known as rapper and actor Common.

The Chicagoan, a regular on the frontlines of protest in 2020, is the author of two best-selling books, has appeared in films including 2014’s Selma—for which he co-wrote the Academy Awardwinning song “Glory” and starred as civil rights leader James Bevel— and has recorded 13 albums. With his latest, A Beautiful Revolution Pt.1 (out now), the 49-year-old Oscar, Emmy and Grammy winner wants to heal and inspire those affected by racial and social injustice. Here he lists four classic tracks with the power to change the world. thinkcommon.com

JOHN LENNON “IMAGINE” (1971) “This song has always resonated with me because I’m a dreamer and I really believe in a better world, full of love, compassion and happiness. Imagination is a powerful tool. So many things we create start off as an imagined thought or hopeful feeling. John’s inspiring words make me feel like change can happen. That, to me, is one of the seeds of revolution.”

THE RED BULLETIN

QUEEN LATIFAH “UNITY” (1993) “The end result of revolution should be unity. Throughout history there’s been an imbalance of male energy and dominance that has negatively affected the world. Queen Latifah is empowering women, telling them they’re queens and they should demand respect.

The revolution is nothing without women in power, in leadership roles, with respect and honor.”

YASIIN BEY (FKA MOS DEF) “UMI SAYS” (1999) “Mos played this to me before it came out, and I remember telling him, ‘This is one of the greatest records I’ve ever heard.’ It felt so soulful and uplifting. When I think of this song—especially the lyric ‘My Umi [‘mother’ in Arabic] said shine your light on the world’— I see it as an act of revolution.

If you’re shining your light on the world, that’s part of it.”

GIL SCOTT-HERON “THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED” (1971) “I was really young when I first heard this song. It was unique to me, because I’d never heard spoken word on a song before.

As I got older, I really took heed of what he was saying. Gil ScottHeron represents the true core, heart and purity of what revolution is: being unafraid, courageous, clever and having power in what you say.”

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TEAM WORK 7-Eleven employees give back to a local Feeding America food bank in 2019.

HUNGER GAINS How 7-Eleven and its customers are set to fight hunger through an innovative campaign.

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he past year has doled out a lot of harsh and unexpected adversity and demanded adaptions that no one could have imagined before the world turned upside down. Take the problem of hunger. Already a sweeping systemic issue in the U.S., things got tougher when the pandemic brought a steep rise in unemployment and triggered an increase in demand for food assistance. Feeding America® has projected that more than 50 million people, including 17 million children, could be food insecure due to the ongoing economic fallout from COVID-19.

There are no easy solutions to a problem of that enormity, but 7-Eleven is stepping up with a new campaign, a collaboration between the conveniencestore giant and Feeding America, the largest domestic hunger-relief organization in the country, that at once draws attention to the issue and promises to make a positive impact. Through an inventive program that will run from February 24 through April 27, 7-Eleven—the company that invented to-go coffee and self-service soda fountains—expects to help provide an estimated 20 million meals* to the Feeding America network of food banks.

*$1 equals at least 10 meals secured by Feeding America on behalf of member food banks.

PROMOTION

“BRANDS CAN SIMULTANEOUSLY BE A FORCE FOR GROWTH AND FOR GOOD.”

FEEDING AMERICA, 7-ELEVEN

“I’m a big believer that brands can simultaneously be a force for growth and for good,” says Marissa Jarratt, 7-Eleven’s Chief Marketing Officer. Noting that 7-Eleven has roughly 10,000 stores in the U.S., while Feeding America is a nationwide network of 200 food banks, Jarratt sees an obvious synergy between the two community-based organizations.

“7-Eleven franchisees are small business owners who really care about their communities and have a daily relationship with customers that’s deeper than just transactions, so this is a great chance to make a difference.”

Here’s how the program will work. With every purchase at participating stores and via the company’s 7NOW delivery app, 7-Eleven customers will be able to round-up to contribute to

the program—and thanks to zip code analysis, all the proceeds will be digitally routed to the nearest Feeding America member food bank. 7-Eleven will separately be making its own donations—last year the company helped to provide 1 million meals and donated more than $1 million in organic juices to 21 food banks in 13 states.

In order to drive engagement, 7-Eleven will be running a number of customer activations during the two-month program. Some will be exclusive to members of the company’s 7Rewards loyalty program, but others are open to all. Every Friday, for instance, the company will help provide one meal to Feeding America with the purchase of any large fountain, coffee or Slurpee drink. And to celebrate Pi Day—March 14 if you need help with the math—every participating store will be selling large pizzas for (wait for it) $3.14 and providing a meal with the purchase of each pie, whether it’s delivered or purchased in-store.

Jarratt is excited how a few of 7-Eleven’s key partners have stepped up with creative prizes— what she calls “prizes that money can’t buy”—like a one-on-one virtual date with NFL Hall of Famer Emmitt Smith. Or an all-expenses-paid trip to Iceland (“when travel is back, of course,” says Jarratt) to see the Northern Lights. Anyone who rounds-up their change and scans their 7-Eleven app upon checkout in-store, or orders a delivery order through 7NOW and opts-in to round-up is eligible for these and other sweet prizes.

In the end, though, this partnership isn’t about a fantasy vacation or even a deliciously affordable pizza—it’s about community engagement to help fight hunger. “Food insecurity has long been a problem in America but it’s spiking right now,” says Jarratt. “At 7-Eleven we talk often about wanting to activate awesome. Getting 7-Eleven franchisees and our customer and the company to work together to help provide millions of meals—that’s awesome.” —Peter Flax

HELP IS IN STORE The program will urge customers to give—and ensure donations help provide meals to people in the same community.

POWER BROKER Justin Williams wants to do more than win big races. He wants to change his sport.

Words PETER FLAX Photography JOE PUGLIESE

“I like to win, but I’m more interested in pursuing a greater good,” says Williams, who was photographed in Malibu, California, on January 26.

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I

It’s true that you can’t really win important bike races without raw watts, without unbridled speed. But it’s also true that you can’t come close to your full potential as a racer without something intangible—let’s call it racecraft. This amorphous term helps describe one’s ability to master tactics, to assess the competition and the course and the moment, to intuit several chess moves in the future. A bike racer who has an aptitude for racecraft has a huge advantage because he fully understands where to position himself for success.

Justin Williams understands racecraft. He triumphantly posts up at a lot of bike races after a turbocharged sprint in the home stretch, but those wins are almost always set up through tactical acumen—knowing how and when to conserve energy, how to move fluidly toward the front, how to marshal teammates or foresee obstacles. In a similar manner, Williams, 31, has developed an acumen to chart his own course to break free from and possibly transform the often-inflexible sport in 24

which he competes. “I want to change the sport of bike racing in America,” he says without swagger. “It has to be different, so it’s more vital and appeals to a broader group of people. It’s a lot of responsibility to take on that change, but I stopped letting people control what my destiny is going to be a long time ago.”

On his unconventional and ambitious path, Williams has founded his own team and a development squad, both of which seek to win races but also provide better opportunities for young Black and Hispanic athletes. He simultaneously lives the lives of a professional athlete, a businessman and a content creator. And Williams is fully invested to both defend and grow the distinctive American discipline of criterium racing. “I obviously like to win but I’m more interested in pursuing a greater good,” he says. “I made some sacrifices—I let go of some other dreams to get here, but I’ve known for a long time that I want to be more than just a great athlete.”

Including track and junior titles, Williams has won 11 U.S. national championships and is the reigning criterium champ.

On January 20, Williams celebrates his new helmet with (from left) Payson McElveen, Colin Strickland, Reggie Miller and Kate Courtney.

interview several years ago, he told me about how his father didn’t exactly make it easy for him at the start. His dad insisted that he ride on an indoor trainer nearly every day for two months and then took him on a pretty brutal maiden voyage—a 70-mile loop up to Malibu.

After the young teenager got disabling cramps, Williams’ dad left him on the side of the road until an aunt drove up to get him. Williams expressed more bemusement than trauma when he recalled this story. “I understand what my dad was trying to convey,” he told me in that 2017 conversation. “Racing bikes is hard and you need to be serious about it.”

Over time, Williams got pretty damn serious about it. He won a bunch of junior national titles on the track and had success on the road, too. He was on a professional squad as a teenager and after a few years was invited to join the prestigious Trek-Livestrong U23 team in Europe. For so many promising young elite racers, competing in big European events on a legit team is the equivalent to making the major leagues. But despite some promising results in races, Williams AARON BLATT

F

rom the beginning, Justin Williams was the farthest thing from a typical American bike racer. He was born in South Los Angeles and was raised on 39th Street at a time when everyone still called the neighborhood South Central.

His family was from Belize, which actually has a pretty crazy bike racing culture. His father, Calman, had some success as a racer. But it’s safe to say that very few kids in South L.A. imagined themselves racing bikes—it was an activity that existed in a distant universe.

But sports were important from the start. “I was lucky enough to grow up with a massive family,” Williams says, noting how he was always playing in the alley behind their apartment building with his brothers and “like 15 or 20 older cousins.” Naturally, when many of them came together to form a Little League team, they called themselves the Alley Cats. Williams saw the value in that community early on.

Williams was into football initially, but he had issues with injuries and his mom’s disapproval. That’s how he got into cycling when he was 13. In an

“IT’S NOT ENOUGH FOR ME TO JUST DO SOMETHING ON MY OWN.” 26

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struggled. It can be tough for any young athlete to adjust to a new culture, but it was different for a young Black man from South L.A. with immigrant parents.

“Going over to Europe made me feel really isolated,” he says now. “It was a mix of people making me feel like I didn’t belong and my own odd kind of experiences with being different.”

There were too many challenges and not enough support, disappointments that ultimately would inform and motivate future career moves in the sport.

“When I was over there I just kept thinking if there was a way that I could continue to do the thing that I love doing,” he says. “I was thinking about Southern California and criterium racing.”

In the following decade, after a period of ups and downs and team dramas that have been described elsewhere as his “wilderness years,” Williams eventually carved out his place as one of the top criterium racers in the U.S. In 2016 and 2017, despite some tension with his team, he won a combined 30 races. And in 2018, racing as a sort of privateer with

With three other Red Bull cyclists (and an NBA Hall of Famer), Williams hits the road.

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a sponsorship from Specialized, he finished in the top 3 in a remarkable 30 out of 35 races, found immediate success in Red Hook criteriums and won national championships both on the road and in the criterium.

For those who don’t know the criterium discipline well, these races involve multiple laps on a closed course.

They typically last an hour or two— significantly shorter than a road race at the same level—and tend to be flat, relentlessly fast and full of sharp turns.

“It’s a fast-moving, high-stakes chess match where if you make a mistake, you’re sliding across the ground in a millimeter-thick piece of fiber that does very little to protect you,” says Williams.

“From the start I loved how the physical element reminded me of football. You know, when you’re playing wide receiver and you have a corner on you trying to jam you on the line; in a crit you often have to put a shoulder into somebody to slightly shift them. It’s a contact sport.”

Colin Strickland has felt that shoulder. Now a winning gravel racer, Strickland used to compete against Williams in criteriums all over the country. “Justin’s assertive when he races—he knows what’s his and takes it, but he’s never a dick,” says Strickland.

“There’s a culture of self-importance in U.S. racing culture but he’s not like that.”

When asked to assess the strengths of the newest rider to strap on a Red Bull helmet, Strickland quickly outlines Williams’ physical gifts and his racecraft.

“Physiologically, he’s got a knockout punch,” Strickland says. “He comes out of the last corner and he can throw on afterburners and punch it in a worldclass way. On the intangible side, he’s

a master of navigating, brilliant at positioning his bike and body. So with 200 meters he’s in the winning position.

He’s just a master of the craft of racing.”

And yet, despite all his racing success, even with dozens of victories including two national titles, Williams ended his 2018 season wanting something bigger. “Winning all those races was fun, but I wanted to start a new chapter and share that experience,” he says. “It’s not enough for me to just do something on my own. I need to create something, to grant opportunities to people who I love that I know deserve it, while simultaneously putting criterium racing on the map.” This is how L39ion was born.

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here is a conventional, well-trod path for professional bike racers looking for results, money, fame and other markers of success: Join the biggest, best-funded, most prestigious team you can and leverage its resources to pursue common interests. It’s a system that has operated for decades, but generally speaking it hasn’t exactly served the interests of athletes like Justin Williams.

That’s why Williams and his younger brother Cory—himself a super-talented crit racer—decided to start their own team. One that was focused on criteriums and had roots in their community and gave opportunities to people of color and otherwise exploded the stereotypes of how a racing team operates. Cory suggested the name Legion, and it stuck. “It was this perfect balance of something serious but unintimidating that I immediately

“JUSTIN IS GIVING A WHOLE DEMOGRAPHIC AN ASPIRATION TO GET INTO BIKE RACING.” 28

wanted to be a part of,” Williams says.

“When we show up to races, it says that we’re not messing around, but it’s subtle enough where we can shape our own identity in using the word.”

Williams has always had an interest in typography and design and he went to work to shape the team’s logo and identity to shape a stronger narrative.

“Legion” became “L39ion” to reflect his family’s roots on 39th Street in South L.A. And the image of a lion was integrated into the branding of the squad—symbolizing both his childhood Alley Cats team and an icon of Rastafarian culture in Belize. The whole backstory and vibe was light-years away from the traditional aesthetic of European teams, where everyone wears a matching tracksuit to dinner.

Anchored by the Williams brothers, the L39ion squad has a diversity that reflects the vitality of a big U.S. city like Los Angeles, a vitality that has been nearly absent in American bike racing culture. They also started a development squad called CNCPT—which assembles young Black and Hispanic athletes as well as some cool creatives into a racing team. Among many other things, Williams is making personnel decisions on both teams, building sponsorship relationships, managing schedules, executing content plans—all while trying to win races at the highest level.

“Justin is literally giving a whole demographic an aspiration to get into bike racing,” says Strickland, who himself turned down a WorldTour opportunity to chart his own path in the U.S. domestic scene. “If younger athletes don’t see someone who looks like them, they likely don’t consider a sport. Justin is such a selfless, positive person—and he’s a winning machine—and he likes to spread the gospel of cycling. Being a Black athlete in our sport is a rarity, and he could help change that.”

Of course, in this game, having good intentions and a cool story will only take you so far—the concept only takes flight THE RED BULLETIN

Williams founded the L39ion team, lined up sponsors and created the team’s branding.

Since the small Black community in cycling helped him in a big way, Williams is determined to pay it forward.

if the team wins bike races. That box, fortunately, has been checked. In June 2019, wearing his L39ion kit, Williams rocketed out of the final corner at the USA Road National Criterium in Hagerstown, Maryland, to win with a big margin. He thus again earned the Stars & Stripes jersey given to national champions, a title he still holds since the race was not contested in 2020.

The last official result that Williams had before the virus changed everything was last March at the Tour de Murrieta, a big weekend race series in California.

There, the team founder played the role of team player. When the dust settled, the final omnium standings had Williams finishing third, with his brother Cory on the top step and another young teammate, Tyler Wiliams (no relation), in second—a L39ion sweep. Justin Williams was no longer playing by someone else’s rules, and he was winning.

The pandemic has shut down road racing in the U.S. for about a year now, but Williams is hopeful that he and the team will take up where they left off when it does. He hopes to defend his national crit title this summer. He’s definitely thinking about the 2024 30

Olympics in Paris, which might have a finale that suits pure sprinters.

In any case, the downtime has given him the bandwidth to get control of his team management role—and to ponder the future. “Last year I was teetering on this fine line, like can I be an athlete who wins a national championship while also managing the logistics, the management and the vision of a pro team,” he says.

“And now it’s transitioning to this place where all I have to do is manage the vision. I have the people in place to help me, and I just have to manage the vision and make sure that we stay true to what we’re trying to accomplish.”

It’s happening. On a cool, sunny day in January, Williams went for a ride in the hills above Malibu—not so far from where his first training ride went sideways two decades earlier—with a small squad of Red Bull cyclists. His

buddy Colin Strickland was there, as were mountain bike powerhouse Kate Courtney and gravel and XC marathon racer Payson McElveen. NBA Hall of Famer turned cycling fanatic Reggie Miller was there, too. There, up in a spot known as Saddle Peak, with a backdrop of big sky and big ocean, those riders surprised Williams with his Red Bull helmet and welcomed him to the family. All of these athletes had spoken up and written testimonials about Williams to help make this moment happen. “Justin is an extremely talented athlete with great results, but I’m equally if not more impressed by the many ways he is working to redefine what it means to be a professional athlete,” Courtney says.

“He’s such a nice human,” Strickland adds. “Red Bull is like an amplifier—you plug in and whatever you’re doing gets

HE’S EYEING THE 2024 PARIS GAMES, WHICH MIGHT BE SUITED TO SPRINTERS. THE RED BULLETIN

ANATOMY OF A CRIT

Defending national champion Justin Williams deconstructs a high-level criterium bike race in his own words.

In the beginning, it’s chaotic and people have so much energy. I’m just dodging grenades as people take bad corners. I’m usually just looking for a space to save energy, hold momentum and prepare myself for what is coming later. As a sprinter, I need to be as explosive as possible at the end of the race. But in the beginning— man, people are crazy. It’s four guys fighting for an apex that’s wide enough for two riders. Or riding through it as fast as they can, wasting energy and then slamming on the brake, creating this accordion effect.

Fortunately, in the middle of the race it settles down and you start to see more dominant riders finding their way to the positions that they want to ride, where they can kind of manage what they’re doing. If it’s to go up to the front, they take the front. If it’s to wait for the sprint, they’re toward the middle. And all the people who early on rode above the level that they’re supposed to are now just looking for anywhere to hide and they’re not thinking anymore. You can see on people’s faces—when your heart rate gets above 175, it’s hard to think about your next move.

Usually with about three laps to go, the field starts to accelerate and the real contenders lock into the positions that they need to be in. If my team is strong, I have five guys in front of me. And then with one lap to go, there’s two scenarios. If my team’s done it right, it’s strung out and we’re going 35 miles an hour, and my guys are taking their final pull in their effort to get us the win. If they do their job perfectly, we’re in a straight line going 35 and it’s my job to go from 35 to 40 and then to 42 or 45.

In other races, if my team falls short—maybe they did too much work early, maybe the course is difficult—then it’s this pinball game to try to find position and be in the right place. But that can be volatile because we’re fighting for position on every turn. And when I don’t have a team around me, that becomes nuts, man. But that’s one of my specialties, that’s the reason I’m still able to capture a lot of wins when I race on my own. I can put out the watts to compete with the best in the world, but really, navigating through chaos is my real talent.

DANNY MUNSON

Then there’s this moment of calm right before everyone tees up for the finish. If that’s a sprint, that moment of calm ends pretty quickly and then it goes back to a

chaotic environment like it was in the beginning. But now you’re doing it with the guys who can actually win the race. So it becomes a little more intense because these guys are a bit more skilled.

Williams, wearing the jersey of the reigning national champion, wins the first criterium at Oklahoma’s Tulsa Tough in June 2019.

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louder. Justin is a super-exciting athlete, but results are limited. To do something bigger we need people who will advocate for change.”

To that end, Williams and Strickland have spent training rides and other conversations brainstorming and plotting how to reimagine and grow the sport of criterium racing in America. Williams imagines a format that resembles other professional leagues, with wellorganized and well-funded franchises in big cities competing against each other in spectator-friendly contests.

Strickland imagines race courses being built in these cities that can host these races and weekly community crits.

Both of them imagine a future where young people of color have a venue to get involved in the sport. “The culture of our sport needs a serious shake-up,” says Strickland. “Justin has the business savvy to make something happen. He’s not just looking to make money; he legitimately wants to change and grow the sport.”

This is the racecraft—having the foresight when you’re going hard as hell to think through your next moves.

Williams isn’t satisfied being the Black kid from South L.A. who struggled in Europe but came back to be America’s crit king. He wants to be more than the guy who bounced around teams and finally started his own pro squad. He wants more young people to get the opportunities that he had to battle for, to see the sport he loves grow to reach its full potential.

When asked to explain where this hunger comes from, Williams takes it back to 39th Street. “I will always remember my parents really going out of their way to help people when I was growing up,” he says. “Like there were people who would come live in our house for a month while they got on their feet if they were moving to America from Belize. So I think seeing my parents sacrifice so much, to go out of their way to help people even when they would get nothing in return really shaped me. And then seeing it happen or feeling it happen to me when I got into cycling, the way the small Black community in cycling really helped me, reinforced that.

So naturally, I knew what needed to be done, to pay it forward. It’s never seemed clearer what I’m trying to accomplish— to attract younger people from different backgrounds to the sport. This is bigger than me or the team. This is big.”

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WILLIAMS WANTS MORE YOUNG PEOPLE TO GET THE OPPORTUNITIES HE HAD TO BATTLE FOR.

If all goes well, Williams hopes to defend his criterium national championship this summer.

Taking the Leap

PARIS GORE

How the women of Formation transformed freeride mountain biking forever. Words JEN SEE

Hannah Bergemann drops into the top of her line at the inaugural Formation in October 2019.

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a staircase made for giants formed out of rock layers, none of them laid straight.

A steep chute sent her hurtling down until, at last, Bergemann arrived at a final jump. She soared over the gap cleanly, her bike’s suspension compressing under the force of the landing.

Bergemann had come to Virgin for Formation, a freeride camp for women.

The groundbreaking October 2019 event brought together six of the world’s best freeride mountain bikers and gave them the opportunity to ride in the storied Utah terrain made famous by Red Bull Rampage. A few of the riders, like Bergemann, had ridden there previously. But for the others it was all new.

Certainly, it was all the riders’

first opportunity to work collaboratively to push the boundaries of their sport.

After five days in the desert, the women of Formation had transformed the landscape of women’s mountain biking. No longer could anyone say that women lacked the skills to ride the intense and unforgiving terrain of the Utah desert.

They had united to create the foundations for women’s freeride to fly. Together, they had created a new beginning.

“It gave me confidence to start from a blank slate on the mountain and make it into something rideable that pushed my limits,” says Bergemann. “There hasn’t been a lot of space for women to pursue freeride—I feel like this is the start.”

KATIE LOZANCICH, PARIS GORE

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he sun had just begun to rise near Virgin, Utah, when Hannah Bergemann began to climb. Shouldering her 35-pound downhill bike, Bergemann walked steadily up a narrow desert ridgeline.

When she reached the top, she looked down the line that she and her dig crew had patiently carved out of the red desert sand, peeling back layers of prehistoric stone. If Bergemann felt any nerves, she didn’t show them.

Then she began to ride.

With precision, Bergemann followed the narrow track unwinding along the canyon wall as the landscape blurred beneath her wheels. She hit her first jump, flying over the gap. The ground dropped into wide-open air beneath her.

Then came a series of ledges,

While getting down the canyons near Virgin requires skill and verve, the trip up demands simpler grit.

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Veronique (“Vero”) Sandler throws down a suicide no-hander near the bottom of her line at Formation.

It was the riders’ first chance to collaborate to push the boundaries of their sport.

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ormation’s roots go back to 2017, when Rebecca Rusch traveled to Rampage as a guest. A decorated endurance mountain biker, Rusch had never seen the iconic event in person. She stood in awe of the riding skills on display but couldn’t help wondering why no women were competing.

She began to ask questions. “I was the pot stirrer,” she says.

Rusch learned that Rampage had never specifically excluded women.

But none had ever qualified.

“I felt like I had to be the one to push. I was not a freeride athlete, so it wasn’t like I was out for myself,” she says. “I had no skin in the game; it was just the right thing to do.”

With that push, the conversation about where women fit into the Rampage picture began in earnest.

“There were some hard conversations,” Rusch recalls.

The next year, a crew of Red Bull athletes, female gravity riders and Rampage veterans gathered around a table to discuss the idea of a women’s event in Virgin. Should women be added to Rampage?

Should there be a separate event? No one knew exactly what equality and inclusion for women looked like in the context of Rampage.

“I think people just could not picture what it would look like for a woman to ride it,” recalls Katie Holden, a nowretired downhill pro who was at the table that night. “It’s just this dude environment.

It’s hardcore, and it’s gnarly.”

Holden had her own history with Rampage. Like many female riders, Holden had started her career as a racer, but it had never felt like

the right fit. When the offer to partner with women’s brand Liv came along in 2013, she jumped at the chance to do something new. She became a brand ambassador and built a portfolio of travel, filming, clinic events and freeriding.

Holden’s new role also opened the way to chase her dream of qualifying for Rampage.

“There wasn’t a path to Rampage for women, because it had never been done before,” she says. “I just tried to spend a lot of time out there and be a sponge and learn as much as I possibly could.”

After spending several years digging at Rampage and riding the terrain in Virgin, Holden put all her chips on the table. Together with a filmer and photographer, Holden went to the desert to make a movie she hoped would score her an invite to

Rampage. “I put everything into it,” she says. Her attempt ended quickly, though, when she crashed and tore her calf muscle. “It was really emotional,” she says. “I realized that dream was not going to come true.” Two years of injuries followed, while the level of riding at Rampage rose exponentially.

Even as Rusch began asking questions, Holden still felt the sting of regret. “I had wanted to be the girl who made Rampage,” she says. At the same time, she had begun to come to terms with what had gone wrong for her. In retrospect, she could see that though she came close to reaching the heights required to compete at Rampage, she didn’t have the perfect skill set to do it. And she saw that her approach had isolated her in crucial ways.

PARIS GORE, MICHELLE PARKER

Vero Sandler digs her line in the desert sun.

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The first pioneers at Formation (clockwise from top left): Vero Sandler, Tahnée Seagrave, Vaea Verbeeck, Micayla Gatto, Vinny Armstrong and Hannah Bergemann.

So when the chance came to design a women’s event in Virgin, Holden was all in.

Here was a way to put her experience to work and build a space for women to succeed.

“I don’t like to say that I failed, because I don’t really believe in failure, but my experience was a stepping stone for Formation,” she says. On a drive to her mom’s house on Whidbey Island from her home in Bellingham, Washington, Holden pulled over to sketch the outlines of a women’s freeride camp. By the time she arrived, she knew: Formation was on.

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hen New Zealander Vinny Armstrong stepped off the plane in Las Vegas, she’d never seen the desert. “It feels like a different planet,” she says.

Known for her stylish airs, she stood at a crossroads in her career at the time. “I was

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really tossing up whether I was going to keep trying to be a World Cup racer or do a freeride career,” she says.

The six riders invited to Formation came from diverse corners of the mountain biking world, but most shared a background in World Cup downhill racing. As Holden considered riders, she felt the experience of learning World Cup tracks and dealing with the pressures of racing would help them navigate the steep challenges posed by riding in Virgin. Holden also felt the need to prove that women could handle riding the area’s unforgiving terrain. She wanted to set them up for success. “A lot of people didn’t believe in Formation before Formation came to be,” she says. “So I felt like we had to make it perfect in order for people to jump on the train.”

The sandstone walls of the canyons around Virgin are

marked with tracks and jump lines that riders have built over time. During its 12-year history, Rampage has used several sites in the area, and the remnants of many features remain. “It was exciting just to see all that in front of my eyes,” says Veronique Sandler, who is based in the U.K. and focuses on filming. She recognized a number of the jumps from seeing them in Instagram clips from Utahbased riders such as Jaxson Riddle and Ethan Nell.

On the first day, the women headed to one of the original Rampage sites to acclimate to the terrain. “Just getting used to the exposure—there are times when your brain just

goes ‘no, that’s just not even something I’m going to try,’ ” says Canada’s Vaea Verbeeck, who won the overall at the Crankworx series in 2019.

Riding in the desert, some of them for the first time, the group tested the traction and braking points as they began to uncover the desert’s secrets.

“It takes a bit to get used to it, because you still get heaps of grip, even while sliding and drifting everywhere,” says Armstrong. “It’s just so sick.”

The first day also let the women reconnect. All six riders knew one another from past events, but typically they spent their time competing against each other. From the start, Holden envisioned

All six riders knew each other but they typically just competed against each other.

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Formation as a collaborative effort to raise the level of the sport. The women embraced the concept. “We were legit standing next to each other, discussing everything together, brainstorming together, trying to make it work together—for each other,” says Verbeeck.

The next day, the women and their crews headed to the 2015 Rampage site and began digging the lines they planned to ride. An often under-

appreciated element of Rampage is the skill required to dig tracks and features into the walls of the canyons. “One of the hardest parts is seeing raw terrain and being able to visualize how to turn it into something you want to ride,” says Bergemann.

Both Bergemann and Sandler spend hours digging at home, but working in the desert was different. “I do a lot of digging but it’s so different out there,” says

Sandler. “Casey Brown was injured unfortunately, but she’s done digging at Rampage before, and she had tons of tips for us.”

After three dig days, the women had created three very different lines. Bergemann and Canadian freerider Micayla Gatto went big with exposed, high-consequence features. Bergemann and her dig team built a long, steep track with multiple drops and gap jumps. With help from THE RED BULLETIN

PARIS GORE

With Sandler looking on, Tahnée Seagrave drops into an exposed ridge drop.

“A lot of people didn’t believe in Formation until Formation came to be.” —Katie Holden

Rusch, big-mountain skier Michelle Parker and motocross racer Tarah Gieger, Gatto sculpted a fast chute down the narrow spine of a ridgeline.

Her line included two blind step downs.

Across the canyon face, Sandler, Verbeeck, Armstrong and British World Cup racer Tahnée Seagrave collaborated on a flowing track that they dubbed the “party line.”

These riders sought space to show their style and throw a THE RED BULLETIN

few tricks into the mix. “At first, it was like, ‘this looks crazy!’ ” says Verbeeck. “But by the time we rode it, we didn’t know how easy it would feel.”

Their line included a series of drops, an arcing berm and a jump line at the end.

“Every line showed each rider’s personality, and that’s what I really love about freeride,” says Brown, who competed in Proving Grounds, a Rampage qualifier, in 2019, and attended Formation in a

supporting role, due to a broken collarbone. “It’s an art form rather than just a race.”

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s the first of two riding days began, Bergemann set an early standard. Her line was done; she was ready. “I was super stoked and eager to get on my bike after several days of digging and thinking about riding,” she says. As the other women prepped in the parking lot, Bergemann

soared over the gap of her final jump. Seeing Bergemann ride, Parker, who was present to mentor the riders, recalls thinking, “Oh, it’s so on now.”

For Holden, the moment felt like validation. “It gives me chills just thinking about it,” she says. “It was the first riding day and there was so much tension. All of a sudden, we all saw Hannah grease the gnarliest line. It really set the tone for the whole thing.”

But learning to ride the steep terrain had its challenges. Like her peers at Formation, Gatto had raced World Cup downhill. In 2014 a severe concussion put her racing career on hold, and she redirected her energy to filming, bikepacking and hitting big jumps in her spare time. “I was just feeling like I want to ride big chutes and big ridgelines,” she says. “It was always this pipe dream to go and see Rampage and ride out there.” Formation offered a chance to chase that dream.

Gatto built a vertigoinspiring line with steep dropoffs on either side. It included a heavy double drop. To make the first drop meant sending her bike flying off the edge of the cliff line. As she committed to the drop, Gatto could not see the landing, which sat far below her with its edges falling away into a steep canyon. If she missed her narrow landing patch, Gatto would plummet into the canyon below. “It’s just so scary, that fear of crashing, because if you crash, you’re done,” she says. Gatto ended up skipping the first big drop.

Across the canyon face, Armstrong wrestled with a similar dilemma. As she rolled up to one of the drops on the party line, all she could see was sky. “I couldn’t see the landing until my front wheel was nearly in the air,” she says. After nearly missing the 41

landing spot on her first run, Armstrong began setting out small rocks to guide her like the lights of a runaway.

Each evening at Formation, the riders and support crew gathered for a series of roundtable discussions. One night they talked about fear. “I learned a lot about how the other girls deal with fear and the processes they go through,” says Sandler. The sessions proved intense. As she has thought about future editions of the event, Holden has wondered how she might preserve the knowledge sharing, while giving the riders more downtime.

The insights into managing fear have had lasting value.

“All these emotions we feel pushing boundaries, we’re all doing similar things,” says Gatto, who found inspiration from Parker. When she prepares to ski a big line in

Alaska, Parker channels the confident voice in her head.

“I named my confident person Chad,” says Gatto. “Every time I went to try something, I could hear the girls yelling, ‘Go Chad!’ ” Since Formation, Gatto has continued to hone the mental side of her game.

Next time, she wants to make sure she’s ready to hit every big drop.

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or women’s freeride, Formation was just a beginning. “I’m super excited to go back, because we know we can definitely trust the terrain more and go a bit harder,” says Verbeeck. Both Parker and Rusch are eager to repeat their roles as diggers and mentors, too, while Holden is already jotting ideas in her notebooks as she drives around Bellingham.

“I was frickin’ blown away by the talent and the skill of

In five days, the women had transformed the landscape of women’s mountain biking.

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these women,” says Rusch.

“Seeing it up close was just really inspiring for me. I want to go back so much.”

The riders all say they’re ready for more chances to lift their freeride progression.

Brown, for example, values the pressure that competitive events put on her to hit new features, but she’d love to see more events that share Formation’s noncompetitive nature. “I think a lot of women get out of the sport because they feel that the only places to participate at a higher level are contests and not everyone is made for that,” says Brown.

She is hoping to see more space for women in freeride events such as the Fest Series.

Already Formation has changed career trajectories for some of the women. “Even in the past year, the industry has invested in women in a way that they haven’t before,” says Holden. Shortly after Formation, Bergemann and Sandler received invitations to travel to India with Teton Gravity Research and ride in their high-profile film project, Accomplice. Bergemann now

has sponsorship support from Red Bull and Transition Bikes to chase her freeride dream.

Armstrong says new doors have swung open for her, too, and she’s shifted her focus away from racing to freeride.

After the COVID gap year, planning is underway for Formation 2021 to happen this fall. Though she may tinker with the details, Holden expects the event to look similar to the 2019 edition with a combination of digging, riding and roundtable discussions. She remains committed to keeping Formation a noncompetitive event. Holden has found a deep satisfaction in bringing her own experience with Rampage full circle and showing the world just what women riders can do.

“I just have this full-body high from knowing that women can ride there, and people believe and know that women can ride there now,” says Holden. “To see a collective of women look good out there—once people could see that, it just changed everything.”

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PARIS GORE

The athletes, dig crews, organizers and mentors who together made Formation a reality celebrate the breakthrough event.

Vero Sandler shows her classic style as she charges down the mountain.

Space Oddities

Those squiggly lines in the night sky aren’t UFOs, but four members of the Red Bull Air Force: Captain Jon Devore, Amy Chmelecki, Jeff Provenzano and Sean MacCormac. The team was photographed on November 15, 2020, near Marfa, Texas.

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Bright Lights In the remote town of Marfa, Texas, strange lights have long attracted curious visitors from around the world, but one photographer set out to capture a different kind of flying object—the Red Bull Air Force.

Words NORA O’DONNELL Photography DUSTIN SNIPES

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attractions as potential backdrops, Snipes and the Red Bull Air Force settled on the historic Cibolo Creek Ranch, which spans 30,000 acres and provides plenty of room to arrange a shot from a faraway distance. Snipes also consulted with the International Dark-Sky Association to decipher the best time to capture the Milky Way as it moved along the sky.

But even after calculating the perfect nighttime position, Snipes still had to figure out how to photograph illuminated bodies falling from more than 10,000 feet in the air with only a few minutes on the clock. The entire setup used nine cameras, including six Canon 1 DX Mark III DSLRs that Snipes mounted to a custom-built base that allowed him to shoot a 180-degree view.

The final result is otherworldly, but the following pages also provide a glimpse into the monumental effort it took Snipes and the Red Bull Air Force to pull off this feat.

“Whenever I do shoots like these,” Snipes says, “I always think of that JFK quote about going to the moon—that we didn’t do it because it was easy, but because it was hard. You don’t want to just sit there and do a cakewalk all day.”

Los Angeles-based photographer Dustin Snipes (pictured) first traveled to Marfa in September 2020 to scout potential locations for his shoot with the Red Bull Air Force. “It took months of planning,” he says. “There were a lot of moving parts.”

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ROSS MORALES

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ike many a wild adventure, it all started with a crazy idea.

In the high desert of West Texas, the veil of the Milky Way drapes over a night sky bursting with stars. Near the small town of Marfa, the high elevation and lack of light pollution make it the perfect spot to view such astronomical wonders— and to examine some of its mysteries. For more than a century, locals have observed strange, pulsing orbs of various hues, commonly known as the Marfa Lights. Maybe they’re UFOs or simply atmosphere reflections; the fun lies in the speculation.

Which is why photographer Dustin Snipes leapt at the opportunity to capture the Red Bull Air Force against this celestial landscape. What if these worldclass skydivers embodied this phenomenon and actually became the Marfa Lights? “The crazier the idea, the better,” Snipes says. “Because that means it probably hasn’t been done before.”

The L.A.-based photographer spent months planning out the concept, weighing hundreds of variables with a team of experts. “More than any shoot I’ve done, there were so many unknowns,” Snipes says. After scrutinizing iconic local

Wide Angles

Snipes and the Red Bull Air Force settled on the historic Cibolo Creek Ranch for their shooting location. The rugged, 30,000-acre property allowed Snipes to set up his cameras 2 miles away from where the skydivers planned to jump.

“The ranch went on forever. We drove all over the place—there were endless possibilities.”

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Southwest of Marfa’s town center, the Cibolo Creek Ranch sits nestled in the Chinati Mountains. Starting in the 1850s, Cibolo was a cattle ranch and trading post, but since the 1950s, Hollywood has occasionally used the location in films such as Giant and There Will Be Blood.

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RED BULL AIR FORCE

The Red Bull Air Force did one daytime practice jump while Snipes set up his equipment on the ground. Here, Captain Jon Devore and Sean MacCormac capture GoPro footage from the air. Each team member has logged more than 20,000 jumps over the past two decades.

“The crazier the idea, the better. Because that means it probably hasn’t been done before.”

Gearing Up

DAN WIX

Shortly after sunset on November 15, Snipes readies his gear for the first of three evening jumps by the Red Bull Air Force. Red lights are an essential tool for night photography because they prevent the shooter’s eyes from readjusting.

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“You’re in the middle of nowhere. And then you look up and see the most amazing stars ever.”

Under the Milky Way

The abandoned sign of the Stardust Motel is one of Marfa’s most photographed attractions. At one point, Snipes considered it as a potential foreground for the Red Bull Air Force, but the nearby landing site was too unsafe. “And there would be too many telephone wires in the shot!” Snipes jokes.

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RED BULL AIR FORCE

To make themselves visible in a moonless sky, the Red Bull Air Force wrapped themselves in LED lights, but they also added pyrotechnics to help show the speed and energy of the team while they are in freefall. The added effect makes the skydivers appear like human comets.

During the three jumps, Snipes had the skydivers experiment with using just the LED lights in some shots and pyrotechnics in others.

“The LED just looked like squiggly lines,” he says. “But the pyro added so much randomness and gave it more of a mysterious look.”

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“When there are shoots with this many moving parts, you have to think differently.”

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Made to Order

To capture the Red Bull Air Force with a panoramic view, Snipes built a customized mount for six Canon 1 DX Mark III DSLR cameras. Each camera took eight different long-exposure shots of the jump from start to finish.

The mount had to be light enough to travel but sturdy enough to hold all the equipment. It took Snipes five days to build it.

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“We needed more pyro, so we asked the athletes, ‘Can you be on fire any longer?’ ”

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Burning Man

RED BULL AIR FORCE

To fully achieve a comet-like effect, Snipes needed the skydivers to shoot pyrotechnics for as long as possible. No one on the team balked at the request. The trickier part? Seeing the landing area when it’s pitch black outside. Only the headlights of two pickup trucks marked the spot.

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Money Shot(s)

This image is actually 48 photos perfectly stitched together. Six cameras each took eight long-exposure shots, following the Red Bull Air Force as they jump from the airplane, go into formation and finally disappear behind the mountains. “The result is an abstract light painting with an endless night sky,” Snipes says.

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“There were so many unknowns with this shoot. But you do it because it’s hard to do.”

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KELSEY WILLIAMSON

New life: Cultivated coral is fixed to a dead or damaged reef with a few dabs of marine cement. This is applied using a form of piping bag.

Raising the Reef

A group of young Polynesians are fighting to protect the world’s reefs against the effects of global warming, one piece of coral at a time.

Words RUTH McLEOD and CHRISTINE VITEL Photography RYAN BORNE

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Deep concerns: 22-year-old Taiano Teiho (left) and one of his fellow Coral Gardeners set off on a restoration mission.

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ach time freediver Guillaume Néry disappears into the underwater world, he learns something new. It is this seemingly limitless potential for exploration that fuels the Frenchman’s passion. And being underwater gives Néry a feeling he can’t find on land. “It’s this sense of zero gravity,” he says. “When I’m descending, there’s a moment when I’m suspended in space and time, and it really feels like I’m flying. There’s a sense of freedom—it’s transformative.

I’m switching from a landbound human to an aquatic one.”

This desire to learn is what has drawn Néry to the island paradise of Mo’orea, around 25 miles from Tahiti in the South Pacific. That and something else unique to the underwater world: coral. For the past seven years, the 38-year-old has come here with his partner—fellow 60

freediver Julie Gautier—and daughter Maï-Lou, whom the couple want to raise close to nature. “I’m lucky enough to have been freediving for more than 24 years now,” says Néry, who has four freediving depth world records and two world championship titles to his name.

“I’ve traveled the world, had experiences in every kind of underwater environment, from oceans to lakes, under ice. But there’s really something special about tropical areas. It’s the biodiversity you witness, especially here in French Polynesia. The extraordinary examples of life you find underwater here are almost all due to the coral reef system.

It’s an entire, complex ecosystem. It’s really something amazing to witness.”

But when Néry visited in 2019, after a rise in water temperature caused by global warming, he found that 30 percent of the coral had died. “Dead coral is monochrome,” he says. “There’s no color.

It’s a place with no life at all, like a desert.

Sometimes you’ll see a fish pass by, but it’s only looking for somewhere else to go. I knew this global warming episode wasn’t natural; it was due to human activity. The scientists say there will be more episodes like that. The ocean is resilient, but there’s a limit. If things change too fast, there’s a big chance most of the world’s coral will disappear. When I realized that, I was terrified.” Now his visits here have become about more than underwater exploration; he’s fighting for the reef’s survival.

Néry is working with an organization known as the Coral Gardeners, who, as the name suggests, tend to and cultivate coral. They have shown Néry how to replant broken coral, and in return he has taught the group breathing techniques that allow them to remain underwater for longer periods while they work. This is a symbiotic relationship that the Coral Gardeners—a team of young Polynesian THE RED BULLETIN

Coral dilemma: Freediver Guillaume Néry became an ambassador for the Coral Gardeners after a 2019 visit to French Polynesia, where he witnessed the devastating effects of global warming firsthand.

“The more of us who are concerned about this, the bigger the change can be.”

Second chance: Fragments of damaged coral are collected by the team, then transported here to the “nursery table” for assessment.

World of difference: The seabed is home to in excess of a thousand distinct species of coral, and more than 170 of these can be found in French Polynesia alone.

surfers, freedivers and fishermen—are keen to foster; after all, it’s a philosophy they’ve learned from the very coral they’re trying to save. “A coral is an animal, a polyp,” explains Taiano Teiho, a 22-year-old member of the coral restoration group. “It lives in symbiosis with a plant-based life form, the zooxanthella. This is a form of microalgae found in the coral’s tissue.

The polyps provide shelter for the microalgae, and in exchange, the photosynthesis the microalgae perform will provide 90 percent of the nutrients the polyps need to create the coral’s calcareous exoskeleton.

“The one cannot live without the other. When water temperatures rise, the zooxanthella creates toxins that the polyp can’t live with, so it then rejects the microalgae. This leads to coral bleaching, as it is the microalgae that creates the coral’s colorful THE RED BULLETIN

pigmentation. All you’re left with is the calcareous skeleton—a dead coral.”

The breakdown of this relationship in the world’s coral reefs is a fitting metaphor for the ruinous effect human activity is having on the natural world. “In the worst-case scenario, we’d see the loss of all marine life, from the smallest fish to the largest marine mammals, as we would lose the nutrient input that comes from the sea,” says Teiho. “We would also lose more than half of the oxygen we breathe if all organisms, such as phytoplankton, which photosynthesize, died. That’s why we have to act now.”

“The coral reef has been our playground and our school. It has taught us respect.”

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ne reason why action is happening now on Mo’orea is local surfer and freediver Titouan Bernicot, who founded the Coral Gardeners. “The Polynesian people have always had a strong link to Mother Nature,” says the 22-year-old, who has lived on the island since he was 3. “I’ve grown up surfing, freediving, spearfishing, diving with sharks. The coral reef has been our playground and also our school. It has taught us humility and respect.”

Bernicot, the son of Tahitian pearl farmers, has a house on the beach so that he’s as close as possible to the sea, and to the coral garden he has created beneath the surface. “I’ve spent a lot of time learning how to build up [the coral] and finding out more about the underwater ecosystem,” he says. “The coral creates such varied architecture. It’s like a big city where coral, every species of fish, every crab and octopus has an important 63

Depth charge: Teiho keeps a watchful—almost paternal—eye on the coral cuttings in his care.

“Our nurseries are like little gardens underwater where the coral will adapt themselves.”

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role to play in managing the balance of the reef ecosystem. It’s really like a [conventional] garden, but instead of birds we have fish, and instead of a dog there’s the shark and stingray.”

Bernicot has been tending to his garden since he was 16. It was then that a day’s surfing changed his path in life.

Bernicot, his younger brother and a friend had rowed out to the reef break in his small aluminum boat. “And as we were waiting for waves, we saw something

really weird under our feet,” he says. “All the corals were white—they’d bleached.

That was the first time we’d seen this.

“That same afternoon, I googled it and discovered two things. First, I learned that corals aren’t simple stones; they’re living organisms, and they were turning white due to global warming. This could be the first ecosystem on our planet to collapse, even as soon as 2050. And it wasn’t happening only on my island of Mo’orea but everywhere in the world— THE RED BULLETIN

he met a local who was replanting broken coral and showed him how to do it. Bernicot set to work on his own underwater garden. Next, he sought advice from marine biologists working at Mo’orea’s two scientific research centers: the Gump Research Station, administered by the University of California, Berkeley; and the preeminent French institution CRIOBE (Center for Island Research and Environmental Observatory), which has facilitated the study of marine life in Polynesia for more than 30 years and now works in partnership with the Coral Gardeners. But what they told Bernicot wasn’t what he wanted to hear. “I knocked on the doors of all the scientific and research institutions,” he says. “Everyone told me to finish high school, then do a three-year biology degree, then a master’s in marine biology and then, ‘If you’re sharp enough, go and do a Ph.D.’ There’s a real need for scientists—today, we work hand-in-hand with them—but that’s just not me. I’m more of an entrepreneur.

I told them they were crazy, I couldn’t do that. It killed my motivation.”

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at the Great Barrier Reef, at the Florida Keys, in Indonesia, Egypt, the Maldives.

Second, I learned that the coral, these little organisms, gave me everything I need in my life. From the best moments surfing reef-break waves, freediving and swimming with sharks, to the fish we eat—the reef feeds my family and my community. It also brings tourism and develops our economy. It protects our coastline by acting as a coastal protection barrier, stopping 97 percent of the waves’ THE RED BULLETIN

energy, preventing erosion. Coral reefs are also home to a quarter of all the species we know of in the ocean. Reefs are like the rainforests of the sea. Scientists estimate that 70 percent of the oxygen we breathe comes from a healthy ocean. The most shocking thing? Almost no one on our island realized this. That’s why the Coral Gardeners exist.”

That day, Bernicot decided he would devote his life to helping protect the coral around his island. On the beach,

t was actually a stint away from his island home that eventually gave birth to the Coral Gardeners. Feeling defeated, an 18-year-old Bernicot consented to his parents’ wishes that he study business in the southwest of France. He lasted two weeks. “I couldn’t stand it,” he says. “There I was, all alone in my little apartment in Bordeaux. I’d left my island family, my dogs, my friends, my corals. I called my parents and said, ‘Sorry, but I won’t be going back to school.’ They told me, ‘Titouan, we believe in you, but you won’t have any more money from us now. You have to support yourself.’ That was a shock.”

Bernicot decided he would somehow pay back his parents the €7,000 they’d spent on his business course, then return to Mo’orea to try to help save the coral reef. Aptly, it was the South Pacific Ocean that provided the means: Tahitian pearls.

“I went to the business center of the town and created a jewelry company the next day. I went to every hotel, every winery, every house, to sell my Tahitian pearls.”

With the earnings, he paid his parents, his rent, then took a surf trip to Morocco.

His remaining money went into founding the Coral Gardeners in 2017, following his return to Mo’orea. “I still didn’t know it could be my life plan or my career,” he says. “There was no business model to 65

“Reefs are like the rainforests of the sea.”

International rescue: The Coral Gardeners plan to expand their reef relief work from a localized concern to a global mission.

KELSEY WILLIAMSON

achieve that, except becoming a marine biologist, and I didn’t want to do that, so I had to reinvent everything.” But Bernicot has always had a head for business. At the age of 11 he started his first company, selling stickers at school. The proceeds bought him his little aluminum boat.

“I’ve always had the feeling that nothing is impossible. If you work hard and connect with the right people, you can achieve your dreams. And I’ve never worked so hard as this. Day and night.”

Bernicot’s team has now grown from one to 20 full-time staff, who are paid a fair wage for their long hours, and all profits are reinvested into the company to fund the planting of coral, raising awareness worldwide, and innovation.

Over the past four years, the group have planted more than 15,000 corals on the north side of Mo’orea. When they set off on a restoration mission, they start out by collecting pieces of coral scattered in the water. Destroyed chiefly by swells and human activity, these “fragments of opportunity”—as the team call them— are taken to a nursery, where they will regenerate, stabilize and grow in the best conditions possible over several months.

These provide cuttings that are then replanted on damaged or completely dead reefs. The coral is wedged in a small crevice where it can survive alone. Marine cement is dabbed around the coral to strengthen it and keep it in position.

“We like to say it’s a second chance for damaged coral,” Teiho says. “Plus it’s bringing new life to a dead coral head.”

The Coral Gardeners monitor the replanted coral closely and record their observations to build a more detailed picture of how the changing environment affects them. There have already been breakthroughs. “People often ask, ‘OK, global warming is killing corals, so why are you planting them? They’re going to die anyway,’ ” says Bernicot. “Well, the scientists here found something super exciting this past couple of years: species of coral they’ve called super corals. Super corals are genotypes of coral that [can tolerate] the rise in water temperature. During a bleaching event, some of these corals are not dying— they’re more resilient. Our nurseries are like little gardens underwater where the coral will adapt themselves. We monitor them and let them grow for 12 to 18 months until they’re an ideal size. Then we’ll put them back onto a damaged reef in the hope that they’ll grow. If so, a THE RED BULLETIN

Local hero: Titouan Bernicot spurned a potential career in business to save his island’s reef.

couple of years later they could spawn. If we see this, it’s game on. Then they’ll be populating the reef around them.”

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owever, Bernicot and his team know that replanting alone won’t be enough to stave off the potentially catastrophic effects of global warming. “We have a few little signs of hope,” says Bernicot, “but planting corals itself won’t save the reef, which is why we’re trying to also raise awareness.

Basically, we need more people to give a shit about coral reefs. If we really want to help the reef, we need to create a worldwide movement of collaborative action at the same time as planting resilient corals.”

To this end, the Coral Gardeners have already amassed a following of more than 500,000 on social media and through their coral adoption program—their main revenue stream—whereby people pay to adopt a particular coral, for which

“We want to reach a figure of a million super corals planted back onto reefs worldwide by 2025.”

they’re sent a picture, GPS coordinates and regular updates. More than 21,000 people have adopted so far, and that number is rising daily. There’s also an innovation center headed by Drew Gray, a former director of engineering at Uber and the first hire made by Elon Musk when developing Tesla’s self-driving car.

The Californian is using his tech acumen to improve restoration of the reef, better monitor human impact and bring adopters closer to their coral—soon they’ll be able to see it growing online.

“We have big plans,” says Bernicot.

“We want to reach a million super corals planted back onto reefs worldwide by 2025. That will mean opening 30 international branches in Indonesia, the Maldives, Seychelles, Philippines, Egypt, Australia, Hawaii . . . and more in the islands of Tahiti. We’ll need hundreds of people planting corals every day. What’s beautiful is the people planting coral in our team are local fisherman, freedivers and surfers, so they’re really comfortable in the water, and then they learn from the scientists. They’re doing their ideal job, restoring the reef. It’s beautiful to watch as a coral gets bigger and there are fish and crabs in it—that’s why we started, and it’s what stimulates us to do more.

Tomorrow we’re talking to 50 kids on our island. I want them to have the same feeling I had at 16; to fall in love with the corals and the ocean and want to help it.”

And then there’s the awareness that is being spread by ambassadors such as Néry and other athletes and influencers who have been moved by the Coral Gardeners’ ambitions and appreciate the urgent need to highlight the issue.

“Adopting a coral, especially for kids, is a very good way for them to understand how important it is to protect it,” says Néry. “Change has to happen locally first, and then, if many people act, it can grow into a huge wave. I see the Coral Gardeners as pioneers in this work. The more of us who are concerned about this, the bigger the change can be. That’s why I’m helping.

“I used to be a very optimistic person, then I had a phase where I was very pessimistic, and today I think that I have —that we all have—to give as much positive energy as possible. We each have our own way to make an impact, then we’re connecting, trying to combine our actions and skills for the same cause. It’s only together that we can create hope.” coralgardeners.org 67

Motorsports and eco-activism: two camps that rarely play together. But thanks to an unlikely alliance, here is the surprising story of a race—an actual race, with revolutionary vehicles—to save our planet from ecological destruction.

Words RICHARD FLEURY

JORDY RIEROLA/SPACESUIT MEDIA

DRIVING CHANGE

The Extreme E teams come to grips with the Odyssey 21 E-SUV for the first time on January 15 at MotorLand in Aragón, Spain.

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rdinarily, race cars are heard long before they are seen. But not this one. It emerges silently from the fog like a manta ray gliding through the ocean, before melting back into the gloom with a faint mechanical sound.

Spain’s MotorLand Aragón lies midway between Barcelona and Madrid. Pre-COVID, this racing complex drew massive MotoGP crowds. But today, in the final weeks of 2020, it’s almost deserted, save for these mysterious vehicles drifting and bouncing around a makeshift dirt circuit. They resemble overgrown radio-controlled buggies but sound unlike anything you’ve heard—quiet at low speed before accelerating into a Scalextricmeets-Star Wars-podracer whine. And yet, these electric-powered SUVs are built for a race that’s even more outlandish than they are.

Extreme E is billed as “the race for the planet.” Its bold aim is to reinvent motorsports as an environmental force for good, highlighting the world’s ecological crisis with zero-emission SUVs racing wheel-to-wheel in far-flung locations messed up by mankind, from felled rainforests to beaches littered with ocean plastic. The series kicks off this April in the desert sands of Al-Ula, Saudi Arabia, followed in May by a beach race in Dakar, Senegal. In August, Kangerlussuaq in Denmark hosts an Arctic X-Prix, before Extreme E moves to Santarem, Brazil, in October, for a competition on soil where the Amazon once stood. The finale is at the melting glaciers of Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, in December.

Carving around ecologically scarred sites in 4x4s might sound like a counterintuitive way to save the planet, but Extreme E’s bumper-sticker motto is: “We race without a trace.” “We drive on rocks and sand,” says its mastermind, Alejandro Agag. “Cars cannot break sand, cannot break rocks. There’s no damage.”

The series’ founder and CEO promises his team will leave these “front lines of the climate crisis” in better shape than they

Left: Sébastien Loeb sizes up his Team X44 SUV for the first time in Aragón. Right: The ABT Cupra XE team car in action.

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“Cars cannot break sand, cannot break rocks. There’s no damage.”

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found them, investing in environmental projects at each destination. And it aims to be totally carbon neutral by the end of 2021. The concept is seen by sponsors and host countries as a win-win; governments have welcomed it with open arms. “It’s green, you promote their country for tourism, and it also gives a good image,” says Agag. “For a politician, it’s a no-brainer.”

He’s speaking from experience: The suave and savvy 50-year-old Spanish businessman enjoyed a promising career in politics before becoming a major player in motor racing. It’s an unlikely backstory for an environmental champion, but, as the founder of electric streetracing series Formula E, Agag has done plenty to wean motorsports off fossil fuels and into eco-rehab. This commitment to leaving no damage in its wake means Extreme E will have no ticket-buying spectators, but its impact will be felt.

Media buzz was already growing when, in September, Formula One megastar Lewis Hamilton announced his own team and it went stratospheric.

Make no mistake, Extreme E will be very big indeed.

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f you’re serious about making a splash as a green A-lister, you need your own boat. Jacques Cousteau had the Calypso. Greta Thunberg has her zerocarbon yacht. Conservation organizations Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd boast entire fleets. Agag has a 30-year-old former Royal Mail ship upcycled into a “floating paddock.” Cars aren’t airfreighted to races but transported inside the 6,767-ton RMS St. Helena.

Agag scrolls through his phone to show The Red Bulletin a picture of the vessel after her multimillion-pound refurb, sporting a new black, white and green paint job. He’s particularly pleased with the slogan across the hull:

When Lewis Hamilton announced his own team, the buzz went stratospheric.

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“Not electric … yet!” The engines have been converted to run on low-sulfur marine diesel, cleaner than the heavy diesel (basically crude oil) commonly used in shipping. RMS St. Helena can cruise on one engine to lower fuel consumption and emissions and, says Agag, will one day run on biofuel. Traveling by sea rather than air generates a third of the carbon emissions, but what happens as this ship sails is more amazing still.

In steel shipping containers onboard are hydrogen fuel-cell generators— portable emission-free power sources that can charge the cars either at sea or at the race site. “Green hydrogen is produced by solar panels or wind, depending on location,” explains Agag.

“We’ll prove you can power remote areas with clean energy.” He hopes this offgrid technology might one day supply emergency power to disaster zones.

RMS St. Helena sleeps 110 in 62 cabins, and her 20-meter swimming pool has been stripped out to make space for a science lab inspired by Cousteau’s Calypso.

This is not just for show—Extreme E has also employed a committee of climate experts to provide education and research.

Since her 18-month refit in Liverpool, the ship has been in strict quarantine.

After virus outbreaks obliterated the cruise industry, Agag is not taking any chances—a stowaway microbe could scuttle the entire adventure.

Organizing a global racing series of this magnitude was never going to be easy, but doing it during a pandemic was a huge undertaking—an ever-changing obstacle course of travel restrictions, border closures and COVID testing. “It’s been challenging,” admits Agag. “Like walking with a [200-pound] backpack.

But soon the backpack will drop.”

And yet, even as the world ground to a standstill, his big idea gained traction.

Motorsports aristocracy wanted in.

Alongside seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton, F1’s Nico Rosberg and Jenson Button also have their own teams, while Red Bull Racing’s engineering guru Adrian Newey leads another. From rallying, the roster includes two-time world champion Carlos Sainz and Sébastien Loeb, the sport’s most-successful-ever driver.

“They were waiting for this opportunity, hoping for off-road to become an actor in the climate action we need,” says Agag. That opportunity has finally arrived at MotorLand as they get to test their cars for the first time: “Today, we see an idea become reality.”

All 10 teams have the same car: the Odyssey 21, built by French firm Spark Racing Technology and powered by dual Formula E motors. This is the teams’ first test at full power—400 kW (536 hp). “I’m happy with their reliability,” says Agag, smiling. “Normally with new technology and so many cars, a lot of things go wrong.

But the only thing that has is the fog.”

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CHARLY LOPEZ/SPACESUIT MEDIA

drivers on the planet as drones hum around them like mosquitoes. These will capture the action during the spectatorless races, streaming it live around the world. Away in the distance stands a lone figure. “Oh look, a nine-time world champion peeing,” deadpans Agag.

Sébastien Loeb has done and won it all. After dominating the World Rally Championship for a decade, winning the Race of Champions three times and finishing second in the 24 Hours of THE RED BULLETIN

Le Mans, the Frenchman retired in 2012 but then went on to smash the Pikes Peak record in his first try, and come runner-up in the Dakar Rally. But driving for Lewis Hamilton’s X44 team will take him to places, such as Patagonia, where he’s never raced before. “It’s something completely new and I wanted to discover that from inside,” says rallying’s serial achiever. “If we want motorsports to continue in the long term, it’s good to take new directions. This is one.”

The Ganassi Racing car goes through its paces. It’s since had a redesign to resemble Team Ganassi’s GMC Hummer supertruck.

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At 3,600 pounds, the Odyssey feels heavier than the highly developed, astonishingly quick WRC cars Loeb is used to. “It’s quite technical to drive,” he says. Usually reserved, rarely smiling, he’s nonetheless clearly thrilled. “We have to fight with the car sometimes. But that makes it exciting. I think in the desert it will be really fun.”

From those who’ve left an indelible mark to those just beginning to make theirs, Extreme E’s drivers are diverse by design. The youngest is 22-year-old Brit Jamie Chadwick; the oldest, Spaniard Carlos Sainz, is 58. This is also the first motorsport to feature a 50/50 gender split. Male and female racers compete on equal terms, inspired by the mixeddoubles format in pro tennis. “I liked the format because the men and the women are equally decisive for victory,” Agag says. “So I thought we should play this championship as teams—one man and one woman doing two laps, one each.”

One of the championship’s youngest drivers, 23-year-old Catie Munnings, describes Extreme E as “inspirational. It’s going to encourage girls to have a serious career in motorsports at the right age.

And for young drivers, it’s the future.”

Munnings got her career off to a flying start, winning the European Rally Championship Ladies Trophy in 2016 in her first season, the first British driver to claim a European title in almost 50 years.

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But, after a tough first year in Junior WRC in 2020, she’s joined the Andretti United Extreme E team with World Rallycross champion and fellow Red Bull driver Timmy Hansen. “Women aren’t in the teams just for the media,” she says.

“Everyone’s been picked on merit. All that money, that development, the hours —it’s pointless unless you’ve chosen someone because you think they’re fast.”

Temperamentally, Munnings couldn’t be more different from the low-key Loeb.

While the taciturn rally deity is unlikely to get his own talk show anytime soon, the chatty Munnings has already hosted her own children’s TV series: Catie’s Amazing Machines. While she’s clearly thrilled to be in such company, and confesses to having done double-takes while hanging out with some of her sport’s greatest names, the Brit isn’t fazed by the caliber of the competition: “We’re all just drivers learning a new car.” But then, this is a woman who won her first

“If we want motorsports to continue long term, it’s good to take new directions.”

international rally after surviving a massive crash, and took her Biology finals the day before qualifying.

Today’s test is a data-logging exercise, but one pair seem to be having more fun than is necessary: the American team owned by NASCAR’s Chip Ganassi.

Drivers Sara Price (a former dirt-bike champion) and off-road racer Kyle LeDuc are going all-out with big jumps and gravel-pinging tail slides. A camera crew is showered with grit as the car careens around a bend. They’re finally ordered out of the way by an anxious marshal, who warns that the Ganassi car spun out of control earlier after “popping a tire off.”

It takes up to two hours to charge Odyssey 21’s batteries for 20 minutes of testing. Range remains a perennial problem for electric cars, so races are short at just two 16-kilometer (10-mile) laps. On X Prix weekends, each team is allowed one full charge for the day’s two races. After a few spirited test laps, a plasticky electrical whiff emanates from the Ganassi car. They all seem to do it, but it’s not a smell anyone would want coming from their fuse box at home. Most electric cars today are powered by lithium-ion batteries, which, on rare occasions, have caught fire, even exploded, in a reaction known as “thermal runaway.” But safety is a priority in any motorsport, and Extreme E has a team trained to extract drivers from electric vehicles. Agag insists the THE RED BULLETIN

CHARLY LOPEZ/SPACESUIT MEDIA, EDER FERNANDEZ/SPACESUIT MEDIA

Extreme E’s CEO Alejandro Agag (left) takes a break at the Aragón test circuit to chat with race legend Sébastien Loeb.

“Women aren’t in the teams just for the media.

Everyone’s been picked on merit.”

British driver Catie Munnings wraps up a test.

“We’re not in this for commercial gain—we believe in it.”

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Odyssey 21’s batteries, made by the British company Williams Advanced Engineering, are extremely safe, explaining that Spark’s own test driver rolled his car earlier and experienced “no problem at all.”

Lithium ion presents another concern.

Mining for “white gold,” as lithium is known, has a devastating impact on ecosystems around the world. Agag is fully aware of the issue but takes a pragmatic view that climate change is the more pressing threat. “The most urgent thing is not pollution caused by minerals, it’s CO2 in the atmosphere,” he says. “We have to make a choice, and that is to try to cut the CO2 in the atmosphere and the toxic particles coming from cars. For that, batteries are the solution. Are they perfect? No. Are they better than a diesel car in the city? Definitely.”

Adrian Newey has been converted to the cause. His cars have won more than 150 Grands Prix and secured four consecutive F1 drivers’ and constructors’ championships for Red Bull Racing between 2010 and 2013. The 62-year-old engineer and designer (left) has stood at the pinnacle of racing since the 1980s, when F1 teams ran, in his words, “on a diet of cigarettes, coffee and beige polyester.” Fossil fuels have been the lifeblood of his exceptional career. Now, as “lead visionary” of the Veloce Racing team, Newey has been presented with a new challenge. “[Extreme E] is an interesting concept to combine technology with conservation,” he says.

“We know we’re damaging the planet.

Everybody is grappling with how we reverse that process.”

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EDER FERNANDEZ/SPACESUIT MEDIA, EXTREME E, ISAAC FORCELLA-BURTON/VELOCE RACING

With Odyssey 21’s plant-fiber shell lifted, its tubular frame is revealed.

For Newey, climate change is a complex engineering problem, but he’s skeptical about battery technology as a long-term solution: “It’s not quite the panacea that governments make it out to be.” He believes the automotive industry has been “press-ganged” into embracing it. “But it will grow and mature, just as the combustion engine did,” adds Newey. “And other sources will creep in —hydrogen being the most obvious.”

He’s a big advocate of hydrogen and would like to see it fueling Extreme E as soon as season three: “Hopefully, by then, the boat will be converted to hydrogen and become very sustainable.”

Newey was introduced to Extreme E by his racing-driver son Harrison, who helps run Formula E champion Jean-Éric Vergne’s Veloce team and its esports sister company. “A huge number of people watch gamers competing and audience figures are massive,” says Newey Sr. “Hopefully, Extreme E will appeal to the same demographic.”

Agag, a gamer himself, definitely had Gen Z’s digital natives in mind when brainstorming both Formula E and his new venture; he even lifted a few tricks from video games. Take “Hyperdrive,” where the Extreme E team that performs the longest jump on the first jump of each race gets a speed boost to deploy at will. “That’s from Mario Kart,” he admits.

“Alejandro has shown tremendous vision,” says Newey. “I wouldn’t be involved if I didn’t think it had something to offer. We’re not in it for commercial gain—we believe in it.”

But how did a career politician metamorphose into a planet-saving motorsports visionary? Intelligent, charismatic and ambitious, by the age of 25 Agag was a rising star in Spain’s center-right People’s Party and had been appointed as political aide to Prime Minister José María Aznar. He was elected an MEP three years later and married the PM’s daughter Ana Aznar —after reportedly proposing in her father’s offices—in 2002. The nuptials were attended by Spain’s king and queen as well as its celebrated crooner Julio Iglesias, Rupert Murdoch and members of the world’s political elite. Tony Blair and Silvio Berlusconi were witnesses.

Though strongly tipped as a future party mover-and-shaker, Agag had, by then, already quit politics. He never returned.

Decamping to London, armed with his book of stellar contacts, he moved into motorsports, thriving in the notorious

For Agag, the climate fight should be “above politics.”

Everyone has a role to play. shark pool of F1 and forging a reputation as a formidable dealmaker. In 2002, alongside Flavio Briatore (then managing director of Renault), Agag snapped up Spanish TV rights for F1; in 2007, as part of a consortium with Briatore, F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone and steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, he acquired EFL Championship soccer team Queens Park Rangers; and the following year he bought an FGP2 racing team. “Being a politician never leaves you completely.

It helps you create agreements and places where people can meet,” says the man with the golden SIM card.

The next chapter was Formula E, which he started with FIA president Jean Todt in 2014, partly in response to motorsports’ growing image problem.

In the 2019 Formula E documentary And We Go Green, Agag is seen reclining on a sofa, puffing on a fat cigar as he recalls, “I tried to convince a company to become a sponsor for Formula One. And in every email they said, ‘We cannot be involved, because it’s polluting.’ I thought, ‘We have a problem.’ ”

As Greta Thunberg’s generation approaches the age that Agag was when he entered politics, the environment continues to climb the world’s political agenda. For Agag, the climate fight should now be “above politics.” From Extinction Rebellion to ExxonMobil, everyone has a role to play.

Sports, he believes, can be an agent of change. “Out of the 25 most-watched TV programs in history, 24 have been sporting events,” he says. “It has the possibility to spread the message in a much wider way.”

Imaginative, driven, seriously wealthy —he dug into his own, evidently very deep, pockets to fund Extreme E—and not so much well connected as plugged directly into the international power grid, Agag is clearly a man who can sense which way the wind is blowing.

And right now, it’s blowing very much in his favor.

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ipping across the sand in an elderly open-top Land Rover, Extreme E’s sporting manager, Guy Nicholls, shouts directions to his driver over a roaring sea wind: “Turn right at the porpoise.” To the vehicle’s left is the Atlantic Ocean; on the beach to the right a badly decomposed dolphin carcass. The sorry cetacean’s final resting place is an ugly tide mark of plastic detritus that stretches into the hazy distance.

“It’s tough to see this,” says Nicholls as the driver steers inland.

Senegal’s coastline—more than 430 miles long, including estuaries—is drowning in plastic waste. The whole of Africa is choking on the stuff. It clogs roads, pollutes soil and contaminates animal feed. Rain washes it into waterways and eventually the sea, where it’s ingested by marine life or spat back onshore by the tide. According to an industry report in 2019, almost 360 million tons of plastic were produced the previous year—more than the combined weight of every human on Earth at the last estimate. Plastic can take up to 1,000 years to biodegrade, and it doesn’t only harm dolphins; it breaks down into tiny shreds that can affect human development, reproduction and health. A 2019 study by the University of Newcastle, Australia, found that the average adult consumes the equivalent of a credit card every week, and microplastic particles have been found in the placentas of unborn babies.

Nicholls and his team are at Senegal’s Lac Rose beach for their first site survey.

In May, they will be followed by the whole traveling circus. The Ocean X-Prix will transform this sprawling sand pit into a buzzing techno-village. Container trucks will shuttle race cars, service vehicles and equipment from RMS St. Helena, docked at the capital, Dakar, an hour’s drive away. And 70 air shelters— those giant inflatable tents used by relief organizations and murder investigation teams—will house the race command center, driver change area and garages.

As sporting manager, Nicholls’ first job is to sketch a circuit onto this “huge canvas” that’s practical, televisually appealing, exciting and safe. Mapped out by pairs of flags—“rather like downhill skiing”—each five-minute lap will send drivers out along the beach, returning on bumpier, jumpier inland terrain. “It allows them to go one route or another,” explains Nicholls, who will return in a few weeks with racing driver Timo Scheider and a fast dune buggy to fine-tune the course. “It’s up to them—the shortest distance between two points is not always the quickest.”

At Lac Rose, Senegal, a volunteer collects plastic waste to make an “ecobrick,” which can then be used in building construction.

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Shipping plastic waste to Africa is cheaper than recycling it. Out of sight, out of mind.

traditional dresses, but plastic trash is everywhere; scruffy goats and bony cows graze on it as they wander the roadside. Africa leads the world in its ban on plastic—last year, Senegal prohibited all water sachets and plastic cups—so why is it still so ubiquitous?

One reason is that the continent remains among the developed world’s favorite dumping grounds. Shipping plastic waste to Africa is cheaper than recycling it. Out of sight, out of mind.

Senghor has devoted much of his adult life to cleaning up his homeland. After studying and working in Canada, he came back with an idea to turn plastic waste into building materials. His fix is simple, ingenious and low-tech: filling soft-drink bottles with compacted plastic waste.

Cemented into walls, these “ecobricks” make strong, long-lasting structures.

Now, with Extreme E’s support, Senghor’s organization is helping Niaga reinvent itself as a sustainable community or “EcoZone”—a living lab showcasing environmental initiatives while improving lives. Working with schools, Senghor incentivizes children by gamifying litter picking. Every ecobrick made can be redeemed for money for community schemes. If successful at the Pink Lake, the project will expand, perhaps into

CHARLY LOPEZ/SPACESUIT MEDIA, RICHARD FLEURY

Below: The Team Andretti United race car. Opposite page: Senegalese fisherman Abdou Karim Sall surveys the mangrove swamps in his pirogue.

Behind the dunes lies Lac Rose, or the Pink Lake. Today its salty water is rusty gray, but pigmented algae sometimes turns the lagoon a shocking cotton-candy hue. For many years it marked the finish line of another famous—or, more accurately, infamous— off-road race. If Extreme E promises a greener future for motorsports, the bad old days of the Paris-Dakar Rally embodied its grubby excesses. The spectacle of wealthy westerners speeding through impoverished African countries, leaving dust, destruction and deaths in their wake, did little for the sport’s environmental reputation. But it brought visitors and international attention. Since the Paris-Dakar left Africa in 2009, the local community has felt its loss.

“It was one of the biggest events showcasing Senegal, but when it left people didn’t reinvent the destination,” says Senegalese eco-entrepreneur Stephan Senghor. Pink Lake is no longer a tourist hot spot, and the neighboring village of Niaga faces “a cocktail of challenges—people are living with the bare minimum here.”

Niaga’s dusty main street is alive with activity and color, its shops and stalls trading everything from truck parts to

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“The mangrove is good for the community and for the Earth.”

other African countries. “This is the first time they have a race where a project comes with it,” he says. “It’s about how we can be side by side, doing stuff together.

Everything is possible if we want it to be.”

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bdou Karim Sall was “born a fisherman” in Senegal’s Saloum Delta, a four-hour drive from Dakar. A physically imposing man with a piratey past, the 55-year-old once kidnapped a Chinese sea captain.

For decades, foreign commercial fishing vessels have looted West African waters.

Each one can sweep 250 tons of fish into its nets daily—50 times what a local boat catches in a year. So Sall boarded one of these mega-trawlers and abducted the captain. He was jailed the next day, but a mob of angry fishermen persuaded police to let him go. The episode made national headlines, forcing the government to negotiate a solution.

“To solve problems, you have to create other problems,” Sall says, matter-offactly. That was 30 years ago. Today, he insists, his swashbuckling days are over: “Sometimes it’s necessary to do bad things. But I was younger; I wouldn’t do it again.” However, he’s still banned from China. “They will never give me a visa,” he laughs, looking distinctly unconcerned.

Sall grew up in Joal, a fishing port responsible for more than a quarter of Senegal’s entire annual catch. From the town’s plastic-strewn beach, he launches a long wooden boat called a pirogue.

According to one origin story, this traditional Senegalese fishing vessel gave the country its name (“sunu gaal” means “our pirogue” in the West African language Wolof). Its shallow draft is

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perfect for navigating the estuarine backwaters where the mangroves grow.

It’s hard to overstate the importance of the mangrove ecosystem to both fishing and the environment. The mangrove is the only tree that can grow in salt water.

Its tangled roots are a habitat for crabs and shellfish, and a vital nursery for young fish. Mangrove forests create a buffer zone, protecting the land from the sea while sucking up 10 times as much carbon dioxide as the rainforests. “The mangrove is good for the community and for the Earth,” says Octavio Fleury, scientific director of Oceanium, the nonprofit reforesting Senegal’s swamps with help from Extreme E. When a decade-long drought raised salt levels in the 1970s, large swaths of West Africa’s mangroves died. Senegal alone lost more than 100 million, replaced by lifeless salt flats, empty apart from the tire tracks of smugglers driving across the delta at low tide from neighboring Gambia. “It was terrible,” says the Frenchman. “A little change like salinity and all the mangroves can disappear.”

Oceanium pays schoolchildren to collect “propagules”—the mangrove tree’s spearlike buds—and plant them in neat rows across the delta mud at low tide. “The idea is to make restoration easy,” explains Fleury, “but we need the population to be involved, to understand the importance of a healthy environment.” Led by Senegal’s environment minister, Haidar el Ali, Oceanium enlisted 150,000 people from 500 villages, planting 173,000 acres across Senegal. Last year, for the Extreme E project, they planted another 156 acres—roughly 120,000 trees.

While growing up, Sall saw the mangrove forests disappear, but he knew little about their importance. When asked if he’d help plant a million, he replied, “What’s the point?” A decade on, his commitment to the cause is total. Thanks to Sall, more than 500,000 new mangrove trees are growing in the Saloum Delta.

The kids call him Mister Propagule.

But Mister Propagule was not always Mister Popular. When Sall established the waters around Joal as a government-backed Marine Protected Area in 2004, local fishermen hated him.

“I was everyone’s enemy,” he says. But now, as president of the Fishermen’s Association of Joal and the Committee of Marine Reserves in West Africa, he’s a formidable champion of both the fishing industry and the environment. “To manage local communities here, you need two sides to your character,” he says. “One that is a fighter, and the other with the knowledge to help them understand.”

Sall benefits from Oceanium’s finances and resources, but his local influence is invaluable. “And his mystical support,” says Fleury with a smile, as the bow of Sall’s pirogue noses through overhanging branches. Senegal is predominantly a Muslim country, but the supernatural poetry of voodoo and gris-gris, spirits and sacrifices remains very much alive. Deep in the mangroves are sacred sites. Sall believes the forest genies who live there have always protected his home. Now is his time to return the favor.

If Extreme E is an attempt to “greenwash” motorsports, it is an extraordinarily elaborate and expensive one. And does it really matter? As its founder will tell you, politics is the art of the possible. It’s quite possible that Extreme E will make a real difference in the fight against climate change. After all, how many sports can claim to get motorsports magnates, climate scientists and mystical eco-pirates all working together to save the planet? extreme-e.com 79

guide Get it. Do it. See it.

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URBAN ESCAPES To put it mildly, traveling to find genuine adventure in the past year has been understandably tough. These close-to-home adventures from six big cities are wild without being irresponsible.

Words DAVID HOWARD

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Now’s the time to cross the Grand Canyon off your bucket list.

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New York City: Off-road immersion

The idea of plunging a fourwheel-drive monster down rutted trails and barely-there roads into the wilderness holds a certain timeless allure. But if you don’t know a butt-scratcher (a trail obstacle that scrapes a truck’s rear end) from a brake fade (what you really don’t want to happen heading straight down a mountain), you might want to bone up before heading into the great unknown. And even people with some experience behind the wheel of a 4x4 will find something useful in the weekend-long Overland Fundamentals course run by Northeast Off-Road Adventures.

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Offered monthly on select weekends in the Catskills, the course includes outdoor chalk talk, workshops and behindthe-wheel instruction in the outfitter’s park, which features an obstacle course.

This last part of the curriculum—referred to as “woodland driving skills”—is the fun part. But you’ll also learn basic maintenance, trip planning and how to recover a vehicle from various sticky situations. Socially distanced primitive camping and vehicle rentals are available.

If you get hooked, you can next sign up for an immersive course on overland travel, which involves a vehicle equipped for multi-night expeditions (usually a tent on the roof). There are also non-

driving-centric classes, like wilderness survival, first aid and something called antikidnapping and hostage survival. No prior experience needed. From $700; nyoffroaddriving.com

Atlanta: Hang gliding 101

Think of a weekend at hanggliding school as a socially distanced way to get all doped up on adrenaline. It’s a sport with a high learning curve, but Lookout Mountain Flight Park delivers the goods during an action-packed twoday tutorial (we won’t call it a crash course). Sign up for the weekend package and you’ll spend daytime hours in Ground School, learning the fundamentals of winged

flight, and on the bunny hills, working your way skyward on training flights. In the evenings you’ll join the teachers on instructional tandem flights, when the opportunity to defy the laws of physics crystallizes in dramatic fashion. The goal, if you’re game, is to get good enough to go thermalhunting—soaring up to cloud bases as many as 10,000 feet above the surface of the Earth. Located 30 miles from Chattanooga, the 41-year-old flight park is centrally located between Atlanta, Knoxville, Nashville and Birmingham.

The park is outfitted with COVID-friendly cabins and a campground where it’s easy to pitch a tent far from others. $399; flylookout.com

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DEAN FUNK, GETTY IMAGES

Hang gliding in northwestern Georgia is a fun way to raise your game.

Urban Escapes

Los Angeles: Climbing in J-Tree

The story goes that Joshua trees got their names from the 18th-century Mormons—who, on their westward journey, found themselves in the Mojave Desert. The pioneers, possibly hallucinating by then, saw the gnarled limbs as reaching out in supplication, guiding them toward the promised land. Climbers feel a fervor for the granite that dots expanses in the national park.

Joshua Tree is all about lowercase-d democratic climbing— meaning there’s something for everyone, from sport and trad climbs of almost every difficulty to legendary bouldering options. If you’re looking for an entry-level experience, the outfitter Cliff Hanger can get you oriented and safely on the rock. A fullday session spans nine hours and is customized to whatever kind of climbing you seek.

Shoes, harnesses and helmets (and a gourmet lunch) are provided. To ensure pandemic safety, Cliff Hanger keeps trips small and never mixes groups, while keeping everything distanced and sanitized. $395 per person or $500 for two; cliffhangerguides.com

Miami: Float the Everglades

Summer is no time to be out in the open sun in Everglades National Park. But in springtime, meandering among the crocodiles and dolphins in a kayak or canoe makes for an idyllic day trip or overnight escape. Temps hover in the mid 80s and drop into the comfortable 60s at night throughout March and April.

The optimal choice is the Hell’s Bay Trail, a 13.5-mile odyssey through a magical but disorienting mangrove estuary and a collection of diminutive bays. You’ll follow 160 PVCpipe trail markers to keep your bow pointed in the right direction amidst a maze of islands and creeks with wishbone intersections. Just leave plenty of time to snap photos of crocs, blacktop sharks and roosting pelicans.

Overnight, crash in one of the park’s chickees, essentially a dock on stilts with a roof.

Stow a cooler of beer, some food and a tent and crash at one of the two sites on the trail. Each site has two chickees (outfitted with portable restrooms) that hold parties of up to six. (Reserve a spot at reservation.gov.) You

can look forward to shaking off sleep to the sounds of dolphins breaching for air.

Rent boats from Flamingo Adventures, which will also deliver them to and from the put-in and takeout. Two-day rentals start at $92; flamingoeverglades.com

Phoenix: Bag the Grand Canyon

There are weekend adventures, and then there are tell-yourgrandkids epics. As one of the world’s most iconic geographic features, the Grand Canyon plainly falls into the latter category. Fortunately, the national park has carefully thought-out pandemic strategies that have kept it open to hikers and campers, allowing for some astonishing beauty and mind-boggling perspective during this otherwise challenging time.

There are two approaches for experiencing the canyon in a quick turnaround time: One is to drive up to the canyon the night before, get an early start and do an epic dayhike.

From the North Rim, the North Kaibab trail to Roaring Springs is a full-day, 9.4-mile excursion to an idyll 3,050 feet below your starting point.

Otherworldly climbing abounds in Joshua Tree—less than three hours from Los Angeles.

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At the springs, cross the creek and soak in one of the many pools of cold, glass-clear water. Or, for an overnight, head all the way to the Colorado River on the South Kaibab (7 miles) or Bright Angel (9.5 miles) trails to Bright Angel Campground, which is limited to half capacity during the pandemic (you’ll need a permit in advance). The park has made things easier for hikers by installing drinking-water filling stations in high-traffic areas, but you should still bring plenty of water as well as something to treat water from other sources, just in case. nps.gov/grca

Chicago: Jump out of a plane

What better way to celebrate being alive than by doing something that feels like a near-death experience—but is actually totally safe? Toast the arrival of spring—and the looming end-game of the pandemic—by plunging out of an aircraft via Skydive Midwest’s “Learn to Skydive” package. After a brief training class, you’ll pair up with an instructor, climb aboard a small plane and head for the heavens above Lake Michigan.

First up is the mad adrenaline rush of free fall, where gravity asserts itself at speeds of up to 120 mph. Once the chute opens, just settle in with vistas of the suddenly nearbylooking skylines of Chicago and Milwaukee. For those who find this sort of thing addictive, Skydive Midwest offers classes in which you can become a licensed skydiver in as few as 25 jumps. The outfitter, located in Sturtevant, Wisconsin, is 60 miles north of Chicago and 30 miles south of Milwaukee—and is accessible via public transit. Skydive Midwest has a set of carefully thought-out COVID policies. $239; skydivemidwest.com

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TRAIN LIKE A PRO

“I CAN ALWAYS GET BETTER” Freeride mountain bike prodigy Jaxson Riddle shares how he trains to send big lines.

The first time Jaxson Riddle went out to Virgin, Utah, to ride the terrain made famous by Red Bull Rampage, he was 15 and took his BMX bike—the only bike he had. Riddle promptly sold it and bought his first downhill rig. In freeride mountain biking he had found his sport. Now 20, Riddle has turned the challenging Virgin terrain into his playground and dreams of one day competing at Rampage. A typical day for Riddle might include hitting jumps at the Snake Hollow Bike Park in Saint George, Utah, where he lives; building a new line in Virgin; mastering a high-consequence aerial maneuver; or maybe offering friendly advice to kids at the local skatepark. “I take a lot of inspiration from freestyle motocross,” says Riddle. “I just try to bring those tricks to mountain bikes.”

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“There really isn’t a right or wrong way to do this sport,” Riddle says. “With freeride, you can be as creative as you want and build whatever you want.”

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Fitness

O N TH E B I KE

“I don’t really have a set program.”

“I do it in little steps.”

“I have a lot of respect for people who have a routine and can stick to it, but for me it’s different every day. I try to ride every day, but I don’t have a set amount of time that I spend on the bike. Either I go out to Virgin or go to the skatepark.

Then I go ride dirt bikes or go skate.

I just got into skating, and it’s been awesome, because it keeps everything fresh. You expect to be good at something new, because you’re good at riding bikes, but it’s not how it works. There’s always something you can learn.”

“I’ll just watch a video, like a hundred times. Then I’ll visualize it when I’m out there. I do it in little steps. If it’s a Superman, I’ll do a no-footer. Then I inch my way to the Superman. I ride the jump a couple of times and envision myself doing the trick. I try to work it out in my head at the top of the run-in. Then I’ll go to the jump and try to do what I just visualized. If I keep trying, and I’m making the same mistake without progress, I’ll take a break until I can come back with a different mindset.”

D I G DAYS

JEN SEE

“Digging is like strength training—and a rest day.”

PETER JAMISON/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

N EW TR I C KS

I go out to Virgin with an open mind and find features that draw from motocross and BMX. I try to imagine how to bring ideas from those sports to mountain bikes. It usually takes three or four days to build a new line, depending on if it rains or is super dry. We attack a line for three days in a row, from sunup to sundown. In the summertime, when it can hit 110 degrees in the middle of the day, we go out there at 4 in the morning.

That’s super draining.”

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“FOR RECOVERY, I TRY TO KEEP IT SIMPLE.” “There’s a sick river spot in Virgin—it’s basically freezing, so it’s like cold therapy. I also get regular massages and do stretching as well. I don’t do yoga as much as I should. I need to get more consistent with it, because I need a lot of hip mobility to do tricks. I do foam rolling and I try to stay on top of stretching.”

PR E PAR I N G TO C R AS H

“I have to be as good at crashing as riding.”

“With repetition, you learn how to crash and what not to do. Learning how to push your bike away, so there’s no chance of it landing on you, is helpful. You don’t want that thing hitting you. I try to be calculated and not try things that I don’t know will work. I try to think of the things that could go wrong, so I’m ready. And then I’ll breathe three times, in and out, and just try it. Usually it works out. I try to have it pretty dialed. I’m not going from square one to square five.”

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Calendar

25 April

ACADEMY AWARDS

April WRESTLEMANIA 37 Like this year’s Super Bowl, the premier event in pro wrestling is happening at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida. So yes, there will be spectators, but the venue will be at limited capacity—with it likely that empty seats will be filled by cardboard cutouts. But after that, the WWE will not return to its regular touring schedule of ticketed events until at least the second half of 2021. One noticeable absence from this year’s WrestleMania will be John Cena, who recently told reporters he couldn’t attend due to his commitment filming Peacemaker for HBO Max in Vancouver.

Way to powerslam us right in the heart, Mr. Cena. wwe.com

Happening now RED BULL CAPTURE POINT Move over, National Geographic.

Indoor kids, this new photo contest is your turn to shine. (And let’s face it, a lot of us are indoor kids right now.) Now through May 2, you can submit in-game photos from some of PlayStation’s most visually epic titles, including God of War, Demon’s Souls and more. Just upload them to Twitter using the hashtags #RedBullCapturePoint and #Contest for a chance to win some sweet cash prizes. redbull.com/capturepoint

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Available now

DESIGN AND CONQUER Matt Jones has really embraced the WFH life. The 26-year-old mountain biker spent last summer turning his garden into an epic dirt track. Now, in this four-part series, he seeks the help of fellow pro bike legends Kriss Kyle, Gee Atherton and Kye Forte, in a quest to master three neverbefore-achieved tricks. redbull.com

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GETTY IMAGES(2)

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The smell of buttered popcorn, trailers, a laughing audience— remember those things?

The theater industry has been hit hard this past year, but thank heavens for streaming services and innovative virtual film festivals to keep our eyeballs occupied. The Academy Awards will look very different this year, with reports that Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh has been hired to reenvision the ceremony, which will air on ABC. oscars.org

The 11th iteration of the Saucony Perigrine adds some sweet updates to a classic shoe.

WILDLY CAPABLE

As spring finally arrives, we round up the best new trail running gear so you can head for the hills in comfort and style.

Words MICHELLE HAMILTON

G U I D E

S H O E S

HOKA ONE ONE SPEEDGOAT

SALOMON SENSE RIDE 4

LA SPORTIVA KARACAL

ADIDAS TERREX TWO PRIMEBLUE

SAUCONY PEREGRINE 11

ALTRA LONE PEAK 5

Named for the winningest 100-mile runner on earth—Karl “Speedgoat” Meltzer—the fourth iteration of this popular shoe delivers a stable, cushioned ride with good traction. It boasts Hoka’s trademark pillowy cushioning, 3Dprinted overlays for midfoot support and a wider toe box for increased comfort. An updated mesh upper improves breathability. Count on the Vibram outsole and 5 mm lugs for grippy ascents and confident descents. $145; hokaoneone.com

These shoes offer a responsive ride for long distances. Comfort comes from a wide toe box and the sock-like, seamless Primeknit upper (made from upcycled ocean waste). The midsole contains Boost beads, a polymer that increases shock absorption without sacrificing energy return. The Continental rubber outsole has a grippy lug profile that’s optimal for routes with a road and trail mix. $180; adidas.com

The updates to Salomon’s classic trainer offer a cushier, more breathable and responsive ride for long-distance terrain. The retooled heel collar is more secure and adds padding in the heel for comfort. An anti-debris mesh upper provides ventilation, while the Optivibe foam absorbs impact and decreases muscle fatigue. And with decoupled rock plates to guard against sharp objects and a grippy outsole, it’s ideal for daily dirt and epic adventures. $120; salomon.com

It’s hard to go wrong with the 11th iteration of this consistently popular trail shoe. Devoted fans love its claw-like grip (thanks to aggressive lugs and tacky rubber), just-right midsole cushioning and the 4 mm offset that yields an uninhibited, fast ride. This version adds a breathable, ultralight mesh layer that acts like a gaiter, keeping trail debris out. Runners in climates with sloppy conditions should consider the Peregrine 11 ST (soft terrain). $150; saucony.com

The just-launched Karacal is a zippy shoe with long-mile comfort and best-in-class grip. Built on a roomier last, the wider shoe increases comfort, as does the dua-density compressed EVA in the midsole and a cushioned tongue. While not the lightest trail option, a hardened EVA rock guard that runs the full length of the shoe and medial and lateral counters provide stability, while varied-length lugs let you barrel over rocky terrain and sloppy trails. $130; sportiva.com

Newly updated, Altra’s most popular trail shoe (now in its 10th year) offers a compelling mix of features: The zero-drop, wide toe box and a 25 mm stack Lone Peak devotees love, paired with a revamped Altra Ego foam midsole that allows for max energy return and a responsive ride without an overly cushioned feel. The MaxTrac outsole provides a reliably toothy grip, letting you feel grounded and protected, with the freedom to fly. $130; altrarunning.com

The Two Primeblue has a sock-like, seamless upper that’s made from upcycled ocean waste.

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A P PA R E L

BUFF TRUCKER CAP

Iconic style has technical cred with a low-profile, moisture-wicking headband that keeps sweat out of your eyes and a dark underbill designed to help protect your eyes from sun reflecting off snow. The 100 percent polyester front panel is breathable and quick-drying and the mesh back allows for air circulation. Choose from modern mountain to retro-style graphics. Plus, Buff is donating 2 percent of sales to UNICEF projects combating COVID-19. $28; buffusa.com

PATAGONIA NINE TRAILS SHORTS

Performance meets sustainability in these lightweight shorts. Made from 91 percent recycled polyester and 9 percent spandex, they wick away moisture and breathe, thanks to quick-drying fabric and a relaxed fit. Both men’s and women’s models feature a lightweight liner and elastic-and-drawstring waist. Three zippered pockets offer ample space for phone and keys (men’s; women’s has one zipper pocket). A DWR finish fends off light rain. $65; patagonia.com

OISELLE FLYOUT TRAIL TANK

This just-released piece offers women who run something new: a tank specifically designed to pair with a hydration pack. The wider cut in the shoulders and back (vs. racerback) provide chafe protection and moisture management in a stylish muscle tank. Made with a proprietary blend of polyester, tencel and spandex, the durable technical fabric is designed to withstand variable weather and high use, yet is also lightweight, soft and comfy. $48; oiselle.com

INJINJI MIDWEIGHT TRAIL MINI-CREW

Toe socks may seem gimmicky, but fabric between toes helps prevent hot spots and blisters. The toe sleeves keep your toes drier— and therefore less prone to blisters—and also splay your digits into a more anatomical position, providing better stability and comfort.

These socks include a snug double cuff that blocks out dirt and grit, and a mesh top for breathability. Woven with a blend of Coolmax, nylon and Lycra fibers, they prove to be both flexible and durable. $16; injinji.com

ORTOVOX MERINO WINDBREAKER

This lightweight windbreaker is an ideal outer layer for spring’s changing mountain weather.

The mix of merino wool and nylon provides solid wind protection and temperature regulation for warm and chilly days. An adjustable hood keeps wind out without blocking your view, and long cuffs offer hand protection. Pocket lovers be warned: There’s only one zippered breast pouch.

But the jacket stuffs into said pocket for easy carrying when not in use. $228; ortovox.com

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G U I D E

A P PA R E L The stylish ease of the Tracksmith Harrier belies a layer with technical credentials.

TRACKSMITH HARRIER LONG SLEEVE

The beauty of this top for the shoulder season— besides its clean, classic look—is the 89 percent merino wool. The soft wool fabric is a temperature regulator; it’ll keep you toasty on cool spring days and prevent overheating if things warm up. The merino-nylon blend guards against stink, so you can wear it to brunch postrun. New colors for spring include stonewash, melon and tamarind. $82; tracksmith.com THE RED BULLETIN

Merino wool is a temperature regulator, keeping you comfortable when it’s cool and when it’s warm.

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AC C E S S O R I E S

The Petzl Iko Core is the headlamp reimagined.

PETZL IKO CORE

Petzl has managed to squeeze a ton of light out of a reimagined lightweight lamp body. The Iko Core weighs a mere 79 grams, and the thin strap is more like a crown, sitting low and snug (no bounce!) thanks to a tiny bungee in the back.

Fewer contact points improve air circulation and reduce pressure points. Seven LEDs produce up to 500 lumens of light and the rechargeable battery lasts 2.5 to 100 hours, depending which of the three levels you use. $89.95; petzl.com 92

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G U I D E

AC C E S S O R I E S

COROS APEX 42MM

TAIGA TERRA

CAMELBAK ZEPHYR

SALOMON SENSE PRO 5 W

This watch delivers the must-haves without sticker shock. Count on accurate GPS, long battery life (25 hours), crack-resistant sapphire glass and a customizable trail-running mode with time, distance, elevation gain and loss, cadence and calories. If you upload a route, arrows provide direction—or head out without a plan and when you turn around it plots a route to the trailhead. Bonus: New updates include track and strength training modes. $300; coros.com

This vest may feel light and airy, but it’s a workhorse. It features 11L of gear capacity, including the main pouch and stretch pocket in the back and six pockets in the front for quick access to phone, fuel and shades. Poles attach easily, and you can add a 2-liter bladder to boost the 1-liter fluid capacity to 3. Mesh body paneling aids ventilation and adjustable straps allow for a custom, stable fit. Unisex and women’s versions. $150; camelbak.com

Taiga began as a quest by two outdoorsmen for a durable adventure cooler that could keep food fresh and drinks cold for days. Now they’ve released the first sustainably built, highperformance, hard-sided cooler, made with hemp (rather than oil-based polymers) to reduce carbon emissions during manufacturing.

The 27-quart Terra holds ice for up to 10 days— ideal for weeklong camp-and-runs. It’s bearsafe, too. $199; taigacoolers.com

Women eager to return to trail racing will welcome this new hydration vest. The no-fuss, minimalist pack hugs the body without restricting movement, thanks to stretchy, durable fabric and just-right cut. More elastic and space around the chest eliminates pressure points and sealed seams help prevent chafing. It features a whopping 10 pockets. Two 500 ml soft flasks fit securely up front. Also in a larger size and two men’s models. $160; salomon.com

BLACK DIAMOND DISTANCE CARBON Z RUNNING POLES

Runners wanting the energy-saving benefits of poles without excess weight will appreciate the lightest choice in BD’s collection. The carbonfiber shafts weigh in at a mere 5 ounces each (for 110 cm). They assemble quickly and break down into a packable 13 to 17 inches (depending on full length; seven sizes are available). If you want adjustability, opt for the Distance Carbon FLZ poles. $169.95; blackdiamondequipment.com

The lightest running poles from Black Diamond are carbon fiber and weigh a mere 5 ounces.

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Peace of Mind

These innovative helmets—for biking and snow adventures—all have cool tech to keep your brain safer if things go south.

Words PETER FLAX

S-WORKS PREVAIL II VENT

This update to the Prevail, long beloved by roadies for its comfort and performance, has upgraded ventilation and impressive safety features. The helmet can accept an ANGi crash sensor (sold separately) that will detect a crash and (when used with an iOS or Android app) text specified contacts with your location. The minimalist MIPS SL system, exclusive to Specialized, integrates MIPS crash protection into the helmet padding. $250; specialized.com

The Prevail II Vent’s add-on sensor can detect crashes and alert contacts in your phone.

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G U I D E

B I K E

BERN HUDSON

Helmets for commuters tend to be heavier on style than safety-driven innovation—and just kind of heavy—but the Hudson includes the MIPS protection system as well as integrated LED lights, which are water resistant, USBrechargeable and can flash or pulse. The Hudson also has 13 strategically placed vents, including two clever U-lock-compatible vents in the rear that make it easier to secure your lid when you’re not riding. $120; bernhelmets.com

POC TECTAL RACE SPIN

SMITH TRACE

RUROC RG1-DX

ANON MERAK WAVECEL

This striking half-shell mountain bike helmet features a tech called SPIN—Shearing Pad Inside, if you must know—that uses proprietary silicon-infused pads that absorb rotational impacts. The Tectal, which is shaped to cover your temples and the back of your head, also includes an integrated RECCO reflector that search-and-rescue teams can use if they’re looking for you in the wild. All this and a pretty cool goggle clip. $220; pocsports.com

Using and elevating the MIPS System, the Trace contains Smith’s innovative Koroyd honeycomb lining, which improves how impacts are absorbed. The helmet—good for road or gravel riding or bikepacking—also has a proprietary antimicrobial lining with sweat-activated odor control. The VaporFit retention system allows you to micro-adjust the fit with a dial. The Koroyd system tends to run a bit hot, so 18 fixed vents help keep things cool. $250; smithoptics.com

S N O W

GIRO GRID MIPS

This helmet debuts Giro’s proprietary Spherical technology—which allows the inner and outer liners to rotate separately to redirect impact forces away from the brain and means the Grid can combine dense foam (for high-speed crashes) and less dense foam for slower tumbles. This protection is tucked in a helmet that’s got backcountry cred—it’s lightweight, well vented and comfy thanks to a Polartec liner.

Available for women as the Envi. $280; giro.com

This isn’t a helmet to fly under the radar in. But don’t let the postmodern storm trooper vibe fool you; the RG1 is full of tech to bolster safety and performance. Inside the surprisingly light ABS shell is an integrated Rheon gel liner—a liquid that hardens on impact—and a RECCO reflector for search-and-rescue ops. The helmet comes with an integrated Italian-made goggle unit with magnetic, anti-fog lenses so you can see as well as be seen. From $350; ruroc.com

Two new helmets from Anon, including the highend Merak, are the first in the snow category to utilize WaveCel technology, a system that has a cell-like layer between the shell and lining that can flex, crumple or slide to minimize impacts.

The Merak also has clever features like the Fidlock magnetic strap buckle, which can be easily used with one gloved hand, and niceties like a cozy Polartec liner and 19 vents, eight of which are adjustable. $320; burton.com

Don’t let the postmodern storm trooper vibe fool you— the RG1 is full of safety and performance technology.

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GLOBAL TEAM

THE RED BULLETIN WORLDWIDE

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Action highlight

After his 14th overall victory in the world’s most iconic rally raid, French driver Stéphane Peterhansel (pictured here in Saudi Arabia during stage three on January 5) could officially change his name to “Mr Dakar.” But it’s probably not worth the passport hassle, given all the global travel he has to do. Africa, South America, the Arabian Peninsula—the 55-year-old has conquered them all at Dakar. See him in action at redbull.com.

The next issue of THE RED BULLETIN is out on April 20.

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MARCELO MARAGNI/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

Done and dusted

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