The Red Bulletin May 2013 - NZ

a beyond the ordinary magazine

MAKING SPIDER-MAN SWING

Secrets of the stuntmen beastwars

hardest rocking band in nz

BPAike rs’ raDise the best

mountain bike trails on earth

MAY 2013

COREY MARTINEZ / OPPOSITE TOOTH HANGER

BARGE LS AVAILABLE NOW

ETNIES.COM

THE WORLD OF RED BULL

May 26

world’s best bike trails

cover photography: john wellburn/red bull content pool. photography: mattias fredriksson, universal

From Canada to Asia, the best mountain biking locations on Earth, as chosen by pros in the know

Welcome

There is no let-up in the popularity of cycling, and mountain biking in particular is booming.

MTB fans are as likely to fly halfway around the globe as go for a ride in their local park: our globetrotting Bikers’ Paradise guide is your passport to the world’s best off-road cycling. Also experiencing a peak in popularity is a Hollywood actor who has overcome serious personal problems to become a worldwide box-office star. In an exclusive interview with The Red Bulletin, Mark Wahlberg talks about his beliefs, his background and the right time to tell the kids that Daddy was in jail. And still at the movies, we’ve got a rare peek behind the curtain with the people who combine science, illusion and raw physical prowess to make the likes of Wahlberg look great on screen: the stuntmen. All this and much more. We hope you enjoy the issue. the red bulletin

42

Olga Kurylenko

The star of action and art-house movies on modelling myths and flying spaceships with Tom Cruise 03

THE WORLD OF RED BULL

at a glance Bullevard 06 12 15

16 20 22 24

58

photos of the month news Sport and culture on the quick where’s your head at? Star of

The Hangover Part III Bradley Cooper kit evolution Scooters through time me & my body Derek Wedge winning formula Skate science lucky numbers Unbreakable records

Features

Eat, sleep, ride

On the west coast of Scotland, a group of top-level riders have made the ultimate commitment: they’ve colonised a skatepark to live their sporting dreams 24/7

26 Bikers’ Paradise No better biking on Earth

38 Mark Wahlberg

Exploring the dark in life and on film

42 Olga Kurylenko 44 C asey Stoner

Swapping two wheels for four

54 Gautam Gambhir

Cricket’s deep thinker speaks out

44 A champion reborn

After thrilling the world on two wheels in MotoGP, Casey Stoner now races touring cars in Australia. We ask him why

76 one giant leap

A Belgian adventurer journeys into the Peruvian Andes to leap from a secret waterfall and make history – or be it

56 Nick Ryan

‘I nearly died making a movie on K2’

58 Lost Boys Of BMX

The riders who live in at a skatepark

68 Cold Warrior

The man who thrives below freezing

72 Katherine Sparkes

Mixing business with philanthropy

76 One Giant Leap

Amazon waterfall BASE-jump

More Body & Mind

84 Swim the world

Pools carved in ice, 1km long, 57 storeys up, in paradise or as wild as the deep blue sea: the world’s most splendid swimming 04

68 as cold as ice

After years of sub-zero record-breaking, Wim Hof believes that cold is just a state of mind and being freezing is easy

84 travel World’s best swim spots 86 g et the gear A stuntman’s essentials 88 training Squash tips from a pro 90 n ightlife Food, drink, music & more 94 s ounds of 2013 Beastwars 96 save the date Events for the diary 97 kainrath Our cartoonist 98 mind’s eye With Russell Brown the red bulletin

photography: greg funnell, edge photographics, marcel maragni/red bull content pool, corbis, henny boogert

Star of Oblivion and To The Wonder

D U BAI , UAE

ALTITUDE TRAINING When British architect Tom Wright designed the helipad at the luxury Burj Al Arab hotel, he did not foresee it being used by other motor vehicles. Spanish freestyle motocross champ Dany Torres warmed up there ahead of the Dubai stop of the Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour. Anyone can pop a wheelie, but Torres tricked out 321m above the Arabian Gulf: bold moves.

Full 2013 tour info: www.redbullxfighters.com  Photography: Balazs Gardi/Red Bull Content Pool

07

PU R MAMARC A , ARG E NTI NA

F1 goes wild

“I couldn’t go flat out. We were going through a village, after all.” It wasn’t a normal day behind the wheel for Infiniti Red Bull Racing’s Neel Jani.

The Swiss-Indian driver took the 800bhp RB7 on a show run in the north-west tip of Argentina. (Also on Jani’s South American schedule: donuts on a runway before a fighter jet landed in his tyre smoke.) His drive through the village – its inhabitants prefer ‘town’, but let’s not quibble – ended on something of a high note.

“A storm broke out and things got really exciting.”

Neel’s logbook: www.neel-jani.com Photography: Gustavo Cherro/Red Bull Content Pool

08

AL AI N , UAE

DESERT WAVE The oasis town of Al Ain, on the border between Oman and the UAE, is an hour’s drive from the sea and yet is becoming a surfing hotspot. At the Wadi Adventure Park pool, the artificial breakers created at the touch of a button can tower up to 3m high.

Australian surfing ace Sally Fitzgibbons was impressed in the desert: “It’s like surfing on Mars.”

Artificial surf’s real deal: www.wadiadventure.ae Photography: Trent Mitchell/Red Bull Content Pool

10

Bullevard Sport and culture on the quick

Anyone for Venice?

From June 1, the Venice Biennale will showcase the work of 150 artists from 37 countries.

Here are four top talents of note

1. Sarah Sze Representing the USA with signature works: site-specific sculptures of everyday items.

2. Tavares Strachan For The Bahamas, his installation includes a video re-enacting a 1909 North Pole expedition.

Wood you believe it How to make something old very, very new indeed As far as Ferruccio Laviani is concerned, furniture is at its most interesting when tradition meets modernity. And ‘meets’, for the Italian designer, is two artistic eras colliding without airbags. “I feel like the rebellious son from a good home who takes his grandmother’s heirlooms to a squat and makes something new out of them,” says the 52-year-old. This approach was writ large in F* The Classics!, his recent collection for Italian furniture store Fratelli Boffi, which featured a series of pieces that reimagined venerable home furnishings in exactly the manner as the name suggests.

A chest of drawers and an occasional table with what appear to be holes made by a laser beam. Tables with parts from 1753 and 2053. Most impressively of all, there is Good Vibrations, Laviani’s handmade oak cabinet (right), which gives the impression of being on pause on VHS video. “I like the idea of having an item of furniture in the home that looks like it’s suffering from interference,” he explains, “that really strikes you when you walk past it.”

Furniture for the digital age: Laviani’s wooden cabinet

www.laviani.com 3. Joana Vasconcelos Aptly for Venice, the Portuguese pavilion will be floating, says the artist, noted for her fabric work.

phototicker

EVERY SHOT ON TARGET

Have you taken a picture with a Red Bull flavour? Email it to us at: phototicker@redbulletin.com 4. Akram Zaatari The still and moving image artist is showing Letter To A Refusing Pilot on behalf of Lebanon.

12

Every month we print a selection, with our favourite pic awarded a limited-edition Sigg bottle. Tough, functional and well-suited to sport, it features The Red Bulletin logo.

New York

BMX biker Edwin De La Rosa cruises through the streets of the Big Apple.

Stan Evans the red bulletin

Fresh as ever

Music of 10, 20 and 30 years ago that still dazzles

2003: FOUR TET, ROUNDS A gentle electronica masterpiece, never to be surpassed as the ideal soundtrack for cocktails on a space station.

New kid on the block: Sebastian Fuchs (right) has partnered with Julius Brink

photography: ferruccio laviani, Guardian News & Media ltd., tavares Strachan, getty images, picturedesk.com, imago (2), tim lüdin/red bull content pool (2)

The Olympic champion’s choice When Jonas Reckermann retired, Germany’s beach volleyball Olympic champion Julius Brink had to find a new partner. The man he Sebastian Fuchs chose is Sebastian Fuchs, who is 26, 2.03m tall, with long arms and a jump as good, anyone’s. Former indoor volleyball player Fuchs can’t wait to begin the quest for gold at Rio 2016 with his new workmate. “Of course, it’s highly motivating to form a team with the best defensive player of the last four years,” he says. “Julius is a wonderful sportsman who gives 100 per cent in every training session, every rally.

He’s an example when it comes to attitude.”

They are friends as well as colleagues.

“I’ve come to know Julius as a very helpful, fun-loving person. Team spirit is extremely important to him and I now get to make the most of that on a daily basis.” www.fivb.org

1993: PJ HARVEY, RID OF ME Accused of being both “bloodless” and “bloody”, this cry of rage from a 24-year-old is pure rawness on record.

IN HER SIGHTS Beitske Visser, 18, is Europe’s most talented female racing driver. Having sweated a Schumacher, she now wants a crack at Vettel the red bulletin: In 2012, you finished eighth in the ADAC Formel Masters, the a German open-wheel series, winning a race as both a rookie and the only woman on the grid. Are you setting your sights seven places higher this year? beitske visser: Absolutely.

It’s realistic, too, because I’ve learned to adapt well to faster, formula-style racing cars.

What comes next?

The Formula One World Championship title. That’s what I want.

Sebastian Vettel will have something to say about that.

He’s my idol. It’d be a dream to race against him. We have followed a similar path, as he was a member of the

Red Bull Junior Team before he raced in Formula One. NASCAR star Danica Patrick is considered the world’s best female racing driver.

Do you look up to her?

I do, but of course I want to be better than her.

You’ve already made one well-known racer squirm: Ralf Schuma­cher. How did that come about?

At a kart race in Germany, I led for much of the race and he was in second. He knocked me off on the last lap and got a 10-second penalty. He got angry and protested. The penalty was cancelled, but it was funny to see how annoyed he was that a young lady was quicker than him. www.redbulljuniorteam.com

1983: TALKING HEADS, SPEAKING IN TONGUES The moment when art school punks dipped a toe into the mainstream lingers on and on.

Dreams of F1: Beitske Visser

WE HAVE A WINNER!

Nogaro In France, Sébastien Loeb began the FIA GT Championship with a PB in qualifying.

François Flamand the red bulletin

Colombo The six captains with the trophy at the Red Bull Campus Cricket World Final in Sri Lanka. India won.

Dimitri Crusz

Pretoria

Arms aplenty at South African street dance contest Red Bull Beat Battle.

Mpumelelo Macu

13

Bullevard

Barny Young in training

River Wild

The event is in its evolutionary phase

Trolley good Nick Williamson was part of the winning team at the last Red Bull Trolley Grand Prix in 2011 and he has some simple advice for this year’s hopefuls. “The key is to build something fast and strong and that makes it to the finish line,” he says. “Your trolley has to corner well and it helps if it stops when you need it to.”

The fourth Red Bull Trolley Grand Prix will be held in Auckland Domain in November and entry details will be available on the Red Bull website later this month. www.redbull.co.nz

Shapeshifter helped bring in 2013 at Coromandel Gold festival in Whitianga

Seeking thrills

When he’s not making music, Shapeshifter frontman P Digsss gets his kicks from his big boys’ toys Paora Apera, aka P Digsss, is making the most of his time before Shapeshifter hit the road to promote their new album. When The Red Bulletin visited him at his home in Muriwai on Auckland’s west coast, the 38-year-old had just finished building a drift trike by welding together parts from an old BMX. On his days off from the drum ’n’ bass band, the former pro skateboarder is an action sports fanatic. He’s an expert snowboarder, a keen surfer, a novice kiteboarder and owner of three Ducati Superbikes. the red bulletin: You’ve one day to live: how would you spend it?

P DIGSSS: I’d ride a Ducati really fast on a racetrack, or on the autobahn. If there was monstrous surf, I’d go tow-in surfing.

You’ve obviously got a need for speed?

I’m into anything that gives you an endorphin rush.

I like that you can control the chaos.

Do you still get a buzz from making music?

Hell yes! Music feeds me so much. After a while without it, I feel like something’s missing and I’m not getting the right stoke.

I think that’s why I ended up with so many toys: they scratch that itch.

Chief Shapeshifer P Digsss

Shapeshifter’s new album, Delta, is out May 31: www.shapeshifter.co.nz

Photography: gradient and Water, scott Taylor (2), Red bull content pool

Four NZ kayakers are attempting to become the first to paddle the length of the Chimbu River in Papua New Guinea this month. Two of the paddlemen, Jordan Searle and Barny Young, have unfinished business in PNG, after time ran out on a similar trip in 2011. “We’re looking forward to finishing what we started,” says Searle. The 25-year-old from Hokitika isn’t as excited about living in the jungle for four weeks. “It’s terrifying,” he says. “There are ridiculous amounts of tropical nasties over there.” www.gradientandwater.blogspot.co.nz

If you only knew

how much pacifying power the local countryside has, you could already be soaking up its energy.

Mikulov

stories.czechtourism.com

Bullevard

Where’s Your Head At?

bradley cooper

He’s gone from Bradley Who-per? to major movie star – and a great actor – in four short years. Women want to be with him, men do not want to be on a stag party with him

The Artist

Cooper has excelled playing pill-poppers alongside Robert De Niro: in Limitless and, most impressively, in Silver Linings Playbook.

Without Daniel Day Lewis doing his thing, Brad’s work in SLP might have won him an Oscar. Said De Niro: “He is very good and is going to get better and better.”

BC: 1975AD

Bradley Charles Cooper was born on January 5, 1975, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

He bears scars from typical boyhood injuries, and for a while carried marks from mental anguish. “I was ashamed of so many things,” he told The Hollywood Reporter, of his at-times uncomfortable upbringing.

Brad Vibes

Bradley Copper is goodlooking: there, we said it. All who know him say he’s no alpha. “People think he is playing a version of himself, and that couldn’t be further from the truth,” said Hangover director Todd Phillips. “He is very vulnerable… there’s a warmth to him you would never know.”

Rue Bradley

Cooper speaks fluent French, honed during a six-month university exchange in the Aix-en-Provence, and dusted down for French media. He later studied at the Actors Studio in New York. In 2011 he became the first graduate of the drama school to be a guest on TV chat show Inside The Actors Studio.

Future Cooper

words: paul wilson. illustration: lie-ins and tigers

Warm Streak

Early TV work includes kissing, and being brushed off by, Carrie in Sex And The City, and a stint presenting the travelogue Globe Trekker, including an eyes-averted dispatch from a Croatian nudist beach. His first role of note, also on TV, was as a journalist/spy on 46 episodes of Alias.

Cured by Hangover

In 2009, the douchey groom in Wedding Crashers – that was who Bradley Cooper was then – Ed Helms from the US version of The Office and stand-up Zach Galifianakis starred in a bachelorweekend comedy called The Hangover. A world laughed; The Coop flew onto the A-list. the red bulletin

Aged 12, Cooper saw The Elephant Man – “[It] haunted me… I could not stop crying.”

He played the role on stage last year, and hopes to do so again on Broadway in 2013.

He is also working on a script of the sci-fi novel Hyperion, “A specific thing I fell in love with,” he said.

Eight-figure Deal

Released in May, The Hangover Part III sees Cooper leading the Wolfpack on a trilogy-ending, hair-raising, giraffe-harming adventure.

The first two films took almost US$1 billion at the global box office; each of the three stars was paid US$15 million for this final hurrah.

www.facebook.com/thehangover

15

KIT EVOLUTION

scoot sweet

The kid brother of the motorcycling family has aged gracefully, retaining its good looks and getting fitter with each passing decade

CLASSY CHASSIS

Rumi acquired knowledge in aluminium processing through its work making components for the aviation industry. Its die-cast aluminium scooter bodywork was years ahead of other firms using welded steel.

BRIGHT IDEA

The Formichino’s 10in wheels made it nimble.

The headlight was linked to the fork via a cable that meant the bike lit bends as it was turning into them: very advanced for 1954.

THE HORSES

Two-cylinder, two-stroke engine with a double downdraft carburettor: music to the ears of scooter riders of the day. With 6.5bhp, the little terror could comfortably reach 100kph.

1954 Rumi Formichino 125 Italian manufacturer Rumi, based in Bergamo, began building scooters and motorbikes after World War II and got the country moving again. Spectacular in terms of both style and technology, the Formichino, Italian for ‘little ant’, is seen as the pinnacle of the scooter art. The company shut up shop in 1962 and its founder, Donnino Rumi, returned to his actual vocation as a sculptor and artist.

16

The simple elegance of a single dial and a fuel tank on which was mounted the sole headlight www.formichino.com

the red bulletin

Bullevard

EASY RIDE

Adjustable windshield, storage under the seat: this is a bike designed to be comfortable and practical. Optional extras include heated seat and handlebars, a top case and tyrepressure monitoring.

GREAT BODY

BMW combines die-cast aluminium bodywork with steel.

The 15in rear wheel is held in place by a swinging arm, while ABS disc brakes function as reliable anchors.

POWER UP

photography: kurt keinrath

Two-cylinder, four-stroke, eight-valve, automatic gearbox, electronic fuel injection, catalytic converter: the BMW’s quiet engine generates 60bhp and accelerates to 175kph.

2013 BMW C 600 Sport Maxi-scooters combine the motorway capabilities of a motorbike with protection from the elements and the practical components of a scooter. They are seen mostly in cities and suburbs, but also have the potential to be opened up on winding country roads.

The BMW C 600 Sport is almost 10 times more powerful, weighs over twice as much and is about one-and-a-half times bigger than the Formichino.

the red bulletin

A comprehensive set of gauges and digital readouts controlled by an onboard computer www.bmw.com

17

Bullevard

HArd & FAST

Top performers and winning ways from around the globe Euro Enduro: Chris Birch on his way to fourth place at Red Bull Romaniacs 2012

A week after finishing second in the bouldering event at the Military Winter Games, Kilian Fischhuber of Austria registered a Climbing World Cup win in Millau, France.

At a Saber World Cup event in Antalya, Turkey, Ukrainian fencer Olga Kharlan (second from left) won after narrowly beating American Olympic champion Mariel Zagunis.

A Hollywood-scripted victory for Marvin Musquin at the Indianapolis 250 Supercross: the French motocross racer overtook every other rider to go from dead last to first place.

18

The Hard Way NZ rider Chris Birch is preparing for his first X Games on a bike track of his own making The lack of an endurocross track in New Zealand didn’t stop Chris Birch from accepting an invitation to the X Games: he just went out and built one. It took Birch about six weeks, with long hours operating a bulldozer and a digger, to transform a patch of industrial land in East Auckland into an endurocross playground. It took Birch less than 30 seconds, on his first training ride, to learn how brutal the sport can be. He was launched over the handlebars riding over logs, the first of many falls as he learns the skills needed to ride endurocross.

The 32-year-old Aucklander is one of the best extreme enduro riders in the world, but he’s something of a rookie when it comes to endurocross. Endurocross is obstacle course racing on a dirt bike. As well as racing each other, riders have to negotiate obstacles including water jumps, loose rocks, firewood, tractor tyres and massive pine logs.

“The biggest logs are about a metreand-a-half in diameter, so it’s like riding into a brick wall,” says Birch.

Birch is hoping to make the final in his first X Games appearance in Los Angeles in August. When he gets home from America, he plans to open up his track to other New Zealand riders, by invitation only.

“It’s pretty gnarly,” explains Birch, “and I don’t want people breaking bones on my new track.” www.facebook.com/ ChrisBirchNZ Stateside ride: Birch will be at the 2013 X Games in LA

Photography: mihai stetcu/red bull content pool, predrag vuckovic/red bull content pool, getty images, heiko wilhelm, nffu.org, cudby s./Ktm images. Illustration: Dietmar Kainrath

Hawaiian surfer Carissa Moore emerged victorious at Bells Beach to secure two wins in a row in Australia (the other was at Margaret River) and take the lead on the ASP World Championship Tour.

may – 2013 Issue 76 marc wIllers steve prIce

www.skysport.co.nz

1st xv breakdowN m a y – 2 013

Issue 76

New ZealaNd $6.00 incl. gst

EVERYTHING SPORT. NEWS, PICTURES AND GREAT STORIES. CALL 0800 759 759 TO SUBSCRIBE

Bullevard

Me and my body

derek wedge

The Ice Cross Downhill World Champion, 30, on muscle, hustle and homemade safety equipment www.redbullcrashedice.com

DREAD ALERT

3

My hair is my trademark.

I’ve been letting it grow for 15 years and have had dreads for the last 10. Sadly, they’re not very practical for ice cross downhill. I had to cut a hole in the back of my compulsory race helmet to accommodate them.

SICK TRICKS

4

Aged four, I was hit by a car and broke my right leg.

After that it grew slower than my left leg, and it played a part in the herniated disc I suffered two years ago. My back still isn’t right – I feel queasy doing jumps on the ice. I have to work hard to keep my back strong.

1 THIGH STAKES

2 SLIGHT ADVANTAGE I weigh 69kg and took over from 100kg monster Kyle Croxall as Ice Cross Downhill World Champion: size isn’t everything in our sport. Croxall hustles opponents; I rely on speed, thanks to strong leg muscles and a relatively light upper body.

20

LIFE MAP

5

So far, I’ve walked away from the Ice Cross Downhill World Championship just with cuts and bruises, but I have other, longer-lasting physical mementoes. The scars on my elbow and knee are from skating. The tattoo by my hip shows my mother’s initials.

the red bulletin

Credit: words: arkadiusz piatek. photography: Thomas Stöckli

Hurtling down an ice track on skates at 60kph means that heavy crashes are inevitable. Even if you don’t fall, pain is guaranteed. Your thighs burn from the strain for minutes after every race.

/redbulletin

e a beyond th

ordinary m

agazine / M

aY 2013

lupe FiascO

P ANd O -H IP H N O S IP H S F LY IN G S P A C EU IS E H IS R E A L L O v E W IT H T O M C R KO Olga Kurylen

b iPkA reardissE ’ TH E bE ST

M O U N TA IN b Ik E TR A

IL S O N EA R TH

Your MoMent.

Beyond the ordinary

FREE DOWNLOAD

Flipping marvellous: “The kickflip is my favourite trick,” says pro skateboarder Torey Pudwill

Bullevard

winning formula

the kicker

photography: Atiba Jefferson/Red Bull Content Pool. Illustration: Mandy Fischer

A skater and a scientist reveal the secrets of the kickflip, skateboarding’s classic trick

PHYSICS ACTIVITY “If you want to take off on a skateboard, you have to use its leverage,” says Dr Martin Apolin, physicist, sports scientist and lecturer at the University of Vienna. “The board tips up over its rear axle if you shift your weight onto the back foot (fig. 1 and 2).

“As the leverage at the front is much longer, the board’s centre of gravity, CoG, located roughly in the middle, rises much more rapidly. Even if the tail, the rear end of the board, touches the ground, that doesn’t prevent this movement occurring. Due to inertia, the board flips up and takes off, a bit like if you were to hit down on the prongs of a fork. The board now rotates anti-clockwise around the depth axis. But how do you get it to rotate around the longitudinal axis too?

“The angular momentum, L, of an isolated system, eg the skateboard, is constant. Or to put it another way, the board cannot begin to rotate around the longitudinal axis by itself.

It needs to be set in rotational motion by torque, M – that is to say, a force that works independently of the body’s centre of gravity. Thus M = ∆L/∆t. Our skater does this by bringing his front foot over the outer corner of the nose (the front end of the board). This makes the board spin around its depth axis and around its longitudinal axis (fig. 2 to 5).

“Now skater and board fly through the air in isolation until the board has spun once around its longitudinal axis. During this stage of flight, the skater makes use of inertia once again. The skater and board’s horizontal speed is preserved during the free flight because air resistance is negligible. At the end of the trick (just after fig. 4) the skater touches the board with his rear foot, stops it – thus again producing torque – and gets back on.

“To put that into numbers, the board’s longitudinal rotation lasts about 0.2 seconds (from fig. 2 to just after fig. 4), meaning it has to rotate at some 5rps or 300rpm! While doing so, the board also turns up to 90 degrees around the depth axis, in a clockwise direction. At the moment the skater ‘gets back on’ the board, at the highest point in its trajectory, we can calculate the change in height using h = (g/2)t² = 0.2m. A vertical ‘kick speed’ of v = √ 2gh = 2m/s is therefore required. If you kick off more slowly, the board will need to rotate more quickly. The challenge is to quickly co-ordinate two rapid partial movements.”

PHYSICAL ACTIVITY “An average skater has to practise the kickflip for about a year before mastering it,” says US pro skateboarder Torey Pudwill (left). “The best way to train first is on grass. You can land the trick safely there, then gradually build in confidence.”

Put “pudwill kickflip” into YouTube to see the man in action: www.youtube.com

23

Bullevard

LUCKY NUMBERS

the unbreakables Some records are there to be broken. Others, meanwhile, are there to be forever puzzled over and admired from afar. Like, very afar

2,857

Michael Phelps

Wilt Chamberlain

The best ice-hockey-player of all-time is, fittingly, a Canadian: Wayne ‘The Great One’ Gretzky, who broke 61 NHL records in his career (1979-1999). Some of those marks have been bettered, but the 2,857 season points he scored in his career – 894 goals and 1,963 assists – will never be topped. The leading active player, Jaromir Jagr, has 1,653 points.

An Olympic gold medal is the peak of many careers in sport.

Exceptional athletes like Larisa Latynina (gymnastics), Mark Spitz (swimming) and Carl Lewis (track and field) scooped nine of them. US swimming star Michael Phelps brought his career to a close after the 2012 Olympics with 18 golds. He amassed a total of 71 medals at Olympics, World Championships and Pan Pacific Championships.

Jack Burke

100

“He looked like a Rolls-Royce in a field of Volkswagens,” said racetrack manager Chick Lang, of the fastest flat racehorse in history. Thoroughbred stallion Secretariat romped home 31 lengths ahead of the rest of the field at the 1973 Belmont Stakes in 2m 24s, winning the US Triple Crown in the process. No other horse has ever run the 1.5-mile course in less than 2m 26s.

Georgia Tech annihilate Cumberland

111

Andy Bowen and Jack Burke met in a New Orleans boxing ring on April 6, 1893. There still wasn’t a winner after seven hours and 19 minutes, there being no fixed number of rounds in a bout at the time. When the gong sounded for round 111, the two human punchbags, at this point boxing with broken knuckles, remained in their corners. At 4.43am the judge called no contest: after all that, it was a draw.

24

On March 2, 1962, basketball legend Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points for the Philadelphia Warriors against the New York Knicks. Only Kobe Bryant of the LA Lakers has ever scored more than 75 points in an NBA game: 81, against the Toronto Raptors in January 2006. Of the 22 instances of a player scoring 65 points or more, Chamberlain did it 15 times.

222

Secretariat

Wayne Gretzky

Cumberland College took to the field against Georgia Tech in Atlanta on October 7, 1916.

Cumberland had discontinued its American football programme, but not fulfilling the fixture would have resulted in a then-huge fine of US$3,000. A hastily assembled team conceded 32 touchdowns and lost 222-0. It could have been worse: it was 126-0 at half-time. the red bulletin

words: ulrich corazza. photography: getty images (3), picturedesk.com (3)

31

18

Today’s essential music makers tell the stories behind their beat: Fireside Chats on rbmaradio.com

Mountain-bike heaven: pick your favourite venue and ride until the sun goes down

26

the wo r l d ’ s b e st bike trails

Breathtaking views, great journeys, uninterrupted mountain biking. Where should you go if time and money are no o b j e ct ? H e r e a r e e i g h t d r e a m d e st i n a t i o n s for that ultimate adventure on two wheels

Photography: ale di lullo

Words: Werner Jessner

1

Wilde rne ss trail frase r rive r cA Na da

BRITI SH COLUM BIA is th e mountai n bi ke r’s greate st natural playground

local guide Darren Berrecloth Freeriding legend

getting there British Columbia is the mountain biker’s greatest natural playground. Your starting point is Williams Lake, a seven-hour drive north-east of Vancouver. The Fraser River stretches for almost 1,400km, from the Rocky Mountains to Vancouver. The locations Berrecloth refers to can only be reached by boat. costs River trips start at C$125.

Accommodation A tent by the river. when to go July to September. off yer bike Salmon fishing and then a barbecue with eagles, bighorn sheep and bears for company. www.jetboatadventures.com

28

photography: John Gibson/Red Bull Content Pool, Mattias Fredriksson (2), Credit: Crispin Cannon/Red Bull Content Pool (2), Ian Hylands/Red Bull Content Pool (2)

“My bike and I travel the world, always on the lookout for the perfect location. The mighty Fraser River, Western Canada’s lifeline, is practically in my front yard and provides perfect conditions. The ground is hard enough to shape crazy lines, but still soft enough for good grip.”

2

Th e c las sic wh i stle r ca na da

“Whistler has history in the MTB world.

It was the first place where a ski resort became a full-on bike resort in the summer.

That means the trails there have grown and evolved to a greater extent, too. Because of Whistler’s reputation, people from all over make the move to town.

There are always people here keen to ride, which is another big reason why Whistler has one of the best riding environments.”

local guide Brandon Semenuk 2012 Freeride Mountain Bike World Tour champion

People move to wh i stle r for th e mountai n bi ki ng

getting there Just under two hours by car from Vancouver. accommodation From hotels to apartments, Whistler is ideal for every budget and every group size. costs Day passes start at C$56. when to go June to September. off yer bike There is no off yer bike. In summer, everything here revolves around mountain biking. You can have a good time people-watching as you sit and have a beer and eat burgers downtown. bike.whistlerblackcomb.com

3

non-stop gri p big wate r usa

local guide Darren Berrecloth Freeriding legend

“I sought out this destination for [new mountain biking film] Where the Trail Ends for three weeks. The bentonite terrain is navigable every which way and when it comes to scenery, Utah is one of the most beautiful places on Earth. Even though I grew up by the water, I’m discovering the magic of the desert more and more.”

30

getting there Flight to Las Vegas or Salt Lake City, then a threeto four-hour drive. Big Water is a designated recreational area, so biking here is not just allowed, it’s encouraged. accommodation Big Water is a small town with just over 400 inhabitants.

There are a few rooms for the few tourists. costs Free to ride. when to go Pretty much all year round. off yer bike The Grand Canyon may be unbikeable even for the most experienced freerider, but it’s still worth making a detour for (at about 320km south). www.bigwatertown.org

photography: Scott Markewitz/Red Bull Content Pool, Ian Hylands/Red Bull Content Pool

Utah i s one of th e most beauti ful plac e s on Earth

4

HIMALAYAN FOOTHILLS Mustang n e pa l

“Sick downhills, flowing single trails and sleek cross-country routes against the breathtaking backdrop of the Himalayas. My favourite trail leads to what used to be the royal city in Mustang, Lo Manthang, which UNESCO has described as unique.”

Trai ls with a breathtaki ng mountai n bac kdrop

photography: Blake Jorgenson/Red Bull Content Pool (2), Credit: christoph malin, richard bull, holzknecht seefeld

local guide Mads Mathiasen Tour guide

getting there Mustang lies in the shadow of Annapurna. The nearest airport is at Jomsom, and the nearest large one at Kathmandu. Here you start your journey with guides. accommodation In tea-houses run by locals.

Alternatively; camping. costs The Upper Mustang permit costs US$500 and is valid for 10 days. You should budget for between US$100 and US$250 a day in Nepal. when to go Mid-April to the end of June. off yer bike Contemplate the fragility of man while standing in the shadow of Dhaulagiri and Annapurna, respectively the world’s seventh- and 10th-highest mountains. www.himalayan-trails.com

5

Alpi n e vari ety Tyrol aust r i a

“Thanks to our mountains, the conditions for biking in the Tyrol are ideal.

The infrastructure has not been up to scratch, but that is changing now. The Nordkette mountain range near Innsbruck, Steinach am Brenner and Serfaus combines scenery with fun riding.”

local guide Georgy Grogger Bike-park developer

getting there Fly to Innsbruck or Munich. accommodation Widely available at all price points: this is a place geared for visitors. costs Day tickets for the bike parks cost around €30. when to go Late summer, with its clear air, bright colours and well-rutted tracks. off yer bike Innsbruck has an almost Italian sense of urbane relaxedness (helped by a large population of students) to counter the cliché of men yodelling in lederhosen. www.tyrol.com

Conditions for bi ki ng i n th e Tyrol are i deal

33

6

th e oth e r pe loton alpe d’ hue z f r a nce

local guide René Wildhaber Six-time Megavalanche winner

“Megavalanche in Alpe d’Huez is the world’s biggest downhill marathon and is open to both amateurs and professionals. About 2,000 bikers make a 2,500m descent from the summit of Pic Blanc. The quick riders manage it in 50 minutes; slow ones take half the day.”

getting there A classic mountain drive around 21 hairpin bends made famous by the Tour de France. Nearest airports are Turin and Grenoble. accommodation An apartment or hotel will form part of the package you book to take part in the race. costs The race and lift ticket costs €55. when to go Megavalanche week is July 8-14, 2013. off yer bike Tartiflette, the speciality of the French Alps, made with onion, potato and bacon under a ton of melted cheese.

It could feed an army. www.megavalanche.com

34

A 2, 500m de sc e nt, i n 50 m i nute s or half a day

photography: Stefan Hunziker, Lukas Maeder/Red Bull Content Pool

7

hotte st peaks Turpan, Gobi de se rt CH i na

local guide Jack Ho Tour guide and organiser

Credit: photography: John Wellburn/Red Bull Content Pool, graeme murray/Red Bull Content Pool (3), Jack Ho

Mountai ns as i f made for downh i ll

“The flaming mountains of Turpan look as if they were made for downhill.

They form a picturesque playground, as you can see in Where the Trail Ends. Turpan is the hottest place in China.

Even the toughest mountain bikers lose their enthusiasm in summer temperatures of over 40 degrees.�

getting there Beijing, then a domestic flight to Urumqi, then a three-hour drive to Turpan. accommodation In a hotel. Budget for US$50 per night. costs Visa US$120, domestic flight about US$400, shuttle buses on site depend on the route and number of people. when to go March, April and October are when the temperatures are most bearable. off yer bike Turpan lies on the Silk Road which means the most varied of cultures have left their mark here for 2,000 years. www.wherethetrailends.com

8

woodlan d paradi se Rotorua n ew z e a l a n d

Th e be st-value top- c las s trai ls

local guide Brook Macdonald World-class downhiller

“Rotorua’s got it all: endless XC trails and a great downhill course. Both are just a few minutes out of town and you can ride them all year round. Only Whistler is better – especially its downhill – but Rotorua is a lot better value.”

getting there Auckland and its airport are four hours’ drive north. accommodation Motels, cottages and lofts attuned to bikers’ needs very close by. Alternatively, hire a mobile home in Auckland. costs Shuttle bus NZ$10. when to go January, when it’s summer and the weather is warm. off yer bike Relax in Rotorua’s thermal springs. www.riderotorua.com

More mountain bike action in The Red Bulletin tablet edition

37

mark wahlberg

from

sinner to saint Words: Rüdiger Sturm Photography: Dewey Nicks/Trunk Archive

Mark Wahlberg is quiet – his gestures, his glances, his fading sentences – and the reason is obvious: lack of sleep combined with an overdose of interviews.

But there’s an underlying intensity that cannot be extinguished by temporary fatigue. It’s exactly the same kind of presence the 41-year-old has on screen. He seems innocuous at first, but his authenticity creeps up on you, and it feels more real than with 99 per cent of other actors. That goes for his roles in thrillers and dramas 38

In a good place: having seen the grittier side of life, Wahlberg is now on the straight and narrow

such as Three Kings, The Departed, The Fighter and Broken City, as well as the blockbuster comedy Ted and this year’s Pain & Gain, in which he does both funny and fierce. This quiet force doesn’t stem from his Hollywood experiences, or from his days rapping as Marky Mark. It is the aura of a person who has fought much harder battles. the red bulletin: Is it fair to say that you used to be a bad boy? wahlberg: Let’s say, I was a petty criminal for a while, but I was lucky enough to be able to get clean, unlike most of my friends from that time, who are dead or in jail.

Today, the only real vice I have is golf.

You even served 45 days of a two-year sentence for assault. How does a jailbird become a Hollywood star?

Sometimes I ask myself that question.

I just had a drive and a desire to turn my life around. I was completely committed to do something positive.

Not that I ever thought I would have this kind of journey. But I worked very, very hard. Coming from nothing inspires you to go out there and make something happen. Some people are complacent and content with the situation that they are in, but I had other plans.

When exactly did you decide to change your life?

It’s a process. Hearing the sound of the jailhouse doors closing – that was one of those moments. For me it was like, “Wow, this is not where I want to be. This is not the direction I want to go in. I have to start to get my head in the right place.”

Isn’t that easier said than done?

Of course, because I still lived in the same neighbourhood after I got out. I didn’t want to be in the gang anymore, but I had to see those guys every day. And if you are not with them, you are against them.

It becomes that much more difficult.

What happened? Were you attacked?

I had quite a few confrontations and altercations, but I didn’t want to fall back into that whole thing. And now I want to inspire other kids to do the same. It’s why I created a foundation for children in difficult neighbourhoods in the Boston area where I grew up.

Is this why you choose to play characters on the wrong side of the law – this year’s Broken City and Pain & Gain being just two examples?

Yes, it is, because for these I am able draw on my life, and I always try to find roles that I can identify with. Here I use all of 40

my experiences in a positive way, and because of that I can convey the feelings of these characters better than through some technique or method. Whereas sometimes, when I see other actors playing such parts, I go, “This doesn’t ring true to me.”

So you’re revisiting your old demons when you’re acting?

Exactly. For me, acting is exploring a dark side of myself, and that’s why I like extreme characters. The whole thing is therapeutic. At the end of a day of work, I like to feel gratified by having exorcised my aggressions, my passions, my emotions – so I can say that I have tamed my demons.

To what extent are your children aware of what you experienced?

They are still young: nine, six, four and three. And I’m not telling them anything until I have to. I will wait until the last possible second.

But you will tell them about it?

I certainly don’t want to hide my past.

But I don’t want it to make it seem: “Daddy went through bad stuff and he came out OK. We can do what we want, it will work itself out.” Because that’s not the case. I don’t know any other success stories of people who survived the kind of place I grew up in and the choices that I made and still have the freedom and the luxury to talk about it.

Will you be more understanding if one of them wrecks your car?

We’ll see. We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.

Overall, your jail time seems to have had a pretty positive effect on you.

Not with regards to my relationships with women. I was a very nice guy early on – the first time I fell in love, and when I was in jail, she denied me, she didn’t want to wait for me. I don’t want to blame her now, but my heart was broken, and I decided: I am never giving my heart to a girl any more. Everything, but not that. And I ended up hurting a lot of people along the way. It was not until I met my wife and we had our daughter that I went, “Oh my God, this is

building

t h e gr e at

wahl

Mark Robert Michael Wahlberg was born in Boston, USA, on June 5, 1971, the ninth of nine children. By the age of 14, he was freebasing cocaine. Two months before he turned 17, he attacked a man with a piece of wood, and served 45 days of a two-year jail sentence. Aged 20, he had a US number one hit single, Good Vibrations, as frontman of Marky Mark and The Funky Bunch. The eighth of those nine Wahlberg kids, Donnie Wahlberg, of New Kids On The Block, produced his younger brother’s record.

In 1992, he appeared, splendidly sixpacked, in Calvin Klein underwear adverts that resonated worldwide. He parlayed that fame into acting, first with a small part in a 1993 TV film, The Substitute; his first lead role, in Fear, came in 1996. A year later, as porn star Dirk Diggler in Boogie Nights, he showed his acting chops and more besides. Star turns in films as diverse as Three Kings, Planet Of The Apes and I Heart Huckabees followed. Playing a diamond-hard cop in The Departed in 2006 won him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination. He has produced four TV shows for HBO, including Entourage – based on his Hollywood experiences – and Boardwalk Empire. the red bulletin

Serious side: “My faith and belief are set in stone”

happening to me for a reason.” So now I have the utmost respect for women and I teach my boys that. They shall not take the path that Daddy took.

What is the most important lesson that you’re teaching your kids?

To love and to serve God. From this, everything else will follow.

So you are a believer?

I’m a practising Catholic. I go to church every Sunday, because I have a lot to repent. You have a long way to go if you don’t want to end up in hell. I start the day by getting on my hands and knees and reading my prayer book.

My faith is what has enabled me to be the father and the husband that I am. To accomplish all the things that I have set out to accomplish, personally and professionally.

What do you say when other people don’t take your faith seriously?

Everybody’s entitled to their own opinion.

I’m not going to change mine. I am a pretty open-minded guy, but my faith and belief are set in stone, even though I don’t try to beat people over the head with it.

A lot of Christians were willing to die for their religion. Would you be able to?

I would hope so. But you never know.

Remember what Jesus said to Peter: “Before the cock crows, you’ll betray the red bulletin

me three times.” And he did, even though he was one of his most beloved apostles.

Are there other situations in life when your faith comes in handy?

Dealing with loss, dealing with heartache.

My sister passed away the same day my first daughter was born. My dad passed away – those are difficult things to deal with, but because of my belief in heaven I wanted to celebrate the life and the experiences that I had with him. So my faith helps me to realise what’s important.

Do you think your dad is alive in some other form of existence?

Oh my God: I see him so much in my younger son. Even the way he moves

“hearing the jail doors close was a lifechanging moment”

around, the way he talks. He is grumpy.

My son’s got this old man thing going on. It’s incredible. He has all my dad’s mannerisms. My wife sees it, too.

As a devout Christian, you must be familiar with ‘turning the other cheek’.

What does a former gang member and current action star make of this?

It is hard to put into practice, but I try to as much as possible. But it’s hard, because there is a part of me who is like, “You do something to me, I’m going to mess you up and then maybe you can forgive me.”

When was the last time somebody had to forgive you?

That would be my wife. My sons are obsessed with paintball guns, and they asked me whether they could shoot somebody. I said no, but I have a friend who has been in a couple of movies, where he takes real punches. He is very tough. So they went, “Can we shoot him?”

I said, “You have to ask him.” So he said yes, and we started shooting at him. We were dying laughing, and we got it on video where we kept watching it. Until my wife found it. She was so upset with me. I got yelled at no end. I was in the doghouse for that for a long time.

Your wife calls the shots. Have you made many sacrifices for her?

I had to make some tough decisions, for sure. When I met her, I was living with five or six of my friends in an apartment, but I knew that there could be something special with her. So I decided that I was going to move out of that apartment and buy my first home. All of my friends were planning on coming with me, but when I actually bought the house, I said, “I hate to break it to you guys, but you are not coming with me.” I got rid of all of them.

Don’t you miss those times?

Those guys were bad influences, we were all partying too much. You’d be amazed how much you can accomplish once you stop drinking and going out at night.

Sometimes I’m up at 4.30 in the morning to play basketball; at 6.30 I get the kids out of bed and get them off to school.

Are they nice kids, as opposed to the young Mark?

Of course – but my four-year-old always tries to punch me in the nuts. Sometimes he gets me when I’m not looking, and it really hurts. Then again, when I see him I can’t help but laugh, and that’s the best medicine. Everybody should laugh and smile a little bit more.

Then make us smile right now.

Just think of me filming Boogie Nights, with a huge rubber penis glued to the real one. www.brokencitymovie.com www.painandgainmovie.com

41

Name Olga Kostyantynivna Kurylenko Born November 14, 1979, Berdyansk, Ukraine Languages Russian, English and French First role Carole, in a 2001 episode of adventure TV show Largo Winch. The credits misspelled her as ‘Kutylenko’.

Serious role Marina, Ben Affleck’s lover in art-house drama To The Wonder (2012).

“ I can dismantle a Rohrbaugh R9 pistol in eight seconds”

Olga Kurylenko

Future Perfect The Franco-Ukrainian actress, darling of both action and art-house movies, talks modelling myths, firearms and rallying in spaceships with Tom Cruise Interview: Andreas Rottenschlager

Olga Kurylenko’s new film is the sci-fi action flick Oblivion, in which she co-stars with Tom Cruise. The former model has form in big-budget adventures: her career took off in 2008 when she played the role of agent Camille Montes in Quantum Of Solace: a no-nonsense Bond girl who goes through blood, sweat and bullets to avenge her parents’ murder.

photography: universal

the red bulletin: Can you still take a Rohrbaugh R9 pistol apart in eight seconds? olga kurylenko: The weapon I used in the Bond film? Of course I can. I spoke to my shooting trainers quite recently. They’re still amazed today how I could dismantle the thing so quickly. By the end of filming I could do it quicker than them.

When did you last call Daniel Craig?

I haven’t ever. He never gave me his number!

What’s your most vivid childhood memory of Berdyansk?

I would swim in the sea until I was blue in the face. I used to spend whole days on the beach when I was a child. My mother couldn’t get me out of the water.

A modelling scout discovered you when you were 13 and you moved to Paris alone when you were 16. What did your mother give you for the journey?

She said, “Be happy. You’re going to see Paris. That’s your reward, even if your

Olga Kurylenko was born in Berdyansk in southern Ukraine, a grey, industrial city on the Sea of Azov, in 1979. Her parents divorced when she was three, and she grew up with her mother and Space time: Kurylenko with Tom Cruise in Oblivion grandmother in an apartment they career goes wrong.” She could never have shared with several adult relatives. She afforded to send me on such a trip. There’s learned to play piano and took ballet a Russian saying: “See Paris and die.” I’ve classes. These were the final years of always been fascinated by the city. a collapsing Soviet Union.

Two years later you were on the cover of Vogue. What do you think of find-aYou grew up in very modest model TV shows? circumstances. How did that affect you?

If I had a daughter, I wouldn’t let her take When you’re living on the breadline, you part in them. I don’t think competition learn at some point to deal with it. You is good for children’s minds, when you realise how little you need to survive. constantly have to wonder what will happen I think it’s harder to come from a rich if you lose. I just started working. I would home and then become poor. I can afford take my daughter to one side and explain a comfortable lifestyle now. But I don’t need to her how the business really works. any more than I was used to in the past. the red bulletin

In Oblivion, Tom Cruise plays one of the last men standing on a destroyed planet Earth – a human version of the Pixar robot Wall-E. Alongside him appears Kurylenko, playing a mysterious woman who emerges from a crashed spaceship. The film, set 60 years from now, is a blizzard of special effects hiding an interplanetary conspiracy.

What will life be like in 2073?

I hope that our planet will still be here.

Maybe we won’t drive cars any more, but fly through the air on bubbleships [the futuristic spacecraft featured in Oblivion] instead. That would stop us getting stuck in traffic jams in the morning.

What is Tom Cruise like?

Tom is the consummate professional. He doesn’t just come onto set and act. He discusses every single scene, right down to the finest details. We sat down at a table before we started filming and ploughed our way through the script. Both of us had the opportunity to make suggestions regarding our characters or to improve the dialogue. Tom is very conscientious about his work and he expects the same commitment from the people he’s working with.

What was the greatest challenge on the set?

We had this bubbleship prototype.

The cockpit was suspended on a crane.

It could be rotated to simulate the nosedives you see in the film. It felt as if you were sitting in a washing machine on the spin cycle. It took me a month of training to finally stop feeling sick!

Oblivion is out now: www.oblivionmovie.com

43

BRAVE NEW WORLD Why does a world champion change sports at the peak of his powers?

At Casey Stoner’s first Supercars race after his successes on two wheels, The Red Bulletin finds out

photography: Mark Horsburgh

Words: Josh Rakic

44

46

the red bulletin

photography: Getty images (2), Mark Horsburgh

Clockwise from above: Stoner is surrounded by fans at the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide; (l-r) Jamie Whincup, Casey Stoner and Mark Webber in the pitlane during the Top Gear Festival in Sydney, Australia; the reluctant celebrity poses by his Holden Commodore during the launch of the Dunlop Development V8 Supercar Series in Adelaide

the red bulletin

ead lowered, a low-slung cap worn as a sort of protective visor, it’s obvious Casey Stoner is uncomfortable. He’s trying to nudge his way through a heaving crowd desperate to get a piece of the two-time MotoGP world champion.

Politely smiling and waving for photographs, putting his signature to paraphernalia along the way, he struggles through the noise on the most pressing of adventures – that of the prerace bathroom search. There’s a sense of anxiety around the self-described introvert, because while Stoner, at 27, has a dozen years of Grand Prix motorcycle racing behind him, fame and fortune remain uneasy companions.

Today, in Adelaide, on the second of two race days at the Clipsal 500, he has no chance of avoiding the limelight.

Stoner is the star attraction on the weekend of his eagerly awaited V8

Supercars debut, driving for the Triple Eight Race Engineering team in the Dunlop Development V8 Supercar Series.

Stoner’s defection to the second tier of Australian touring cars from the highest level of two-wheeled racing with the Honda factory team, is as exciting for local fans as it is disappointing for MotoGP. It is no coincidence, and testament to Stoner’s standing in his home country, that Australian broadcasters are in Adelaide to show a race from this series live for the first time.

When Stoner’s decision was announced, it was a puzzle. Why pick a little-known Australian series instead of the World Rally Championship, NASCAR or IndyCar? “I’m not looking to go out and beat the world again. I’m looking to race where I can enjoy life and settle, and not drag the family around the globe,” says Stoner. In 47

“i’m not a hero.

I’m just a bloke who likes his family, fishing, racing and winning”

48

the red bulletin

the red bulletin

photography: Getty iamges (2), Daniel Kalisz, Mark Horsburgh

Clockwise from left: getting mentally and physically prepared for a race; Stoner picks up speed during race two of the Dunlop Development V8 Supercars Series; taking the wheel; these boots are made for racing

the team truck, away from the hustle, his baby daughter Alessandra a bundle of smiles on his knee. “V8 Supercars is something I’ve enjoyed watching for many years and I’ve always had an interest in racing in this championship.”

Stoner says that, well into his teenage years, he largely kept to himself and, other than the company of wife Adriana, spent most of his eight years in MotoGP in relative isolation. It’s not that he is anti-social, it’s more to do with the fact that he finds solace in his home life.

“Some people want to be famous and be well-known and go to all the parties and be seen in all the magazines, but that’s not us,” Stoner says. “It never has been. I’ve loved motorbikes and cars since I was a kid and just happened to be pretty good at it. It’s never been about the money for me. I’m not a hero, just a bloke who likes fishing, bikes, a few beers with his mates, his family and racing. And winning,” he says, with a grin.

He’s not pretending to be an I’m-notfamous superstar. One thing Stoner is not is false. At home, wearing simple blue jeans and plaid shirt, with the trademark short-back-and-sides that’s served him well since he broke into MotoGP in 2006, Stoner is everything he claims to be and nothing more. He doesn’t easily adapt to change, nor pretend to. On his move from Ducati to Honda, after the 2010 MotoGP season, he took with him as many key 49

50

Clockwise from above: Casey takes time out With fellow Australian champion Jamie Whincup; round one at the Clipsal 500; on goes the helmet and he’s ready to race

Stoner’s car and motorcycle race number, arrived at Honda after working for Ferrari and Renault in F1, at the same time as Stoner. Along with superbike rider Chaz Davies and Alpinestars athlete support manager Chris Hillard, he forms Stoner’s group of close friends. The three are in Adelaide to offer their support.

“If you are one of the few let in to that circle, it’s something that must be treated carefully and respectfully,” Edwards says. “In private, away from the limelight, Casey has a great sense of humour and is a very warm and generous person. It’s a shame that 99 per cent of people will never see this side of him.”

Stoner’s only special request is an insistence on lactose-free meals, but he does it to prevent a serious allergic reaction that would sap his strength.

Where possible, he eats what’s served to everyone else in the Triple Eight garage.

He prefers not to stand out, but rather be an equal part of the team. He persistently refers to “us” rather than “me” when speaking about his racing. He knows what he likes and, more specifically, he knows what he doesn’t like – being a hero.

“Many people misunderstand Casey and especially his attitude towards the media and fans,” Edwards says, “but I know he is genuinely grateful for the people who support him. He’s just very shy and he honestly doesn’t like all the attention. With the media, he

photography: Mark Horsburgh (2), Daniel Kalisz

staff as possible, to stay surrounded by people who had earned his trust over several years. Those who know him well viewed his move to V8 Supercars with some trepidation, knowing that from a work standpoint at least, he would be well out of his comfort zone.

“He’s very careful who he lets in to an incredibly small circle of trust,” says Honda Racing communications manager, Rhys Edwards.

Edwards, who has the number 27 tattooed on his left wrist, in honour of

the red bulletin

“It’s a shame that 99 per cent of people don’t see what Casey is really like”

the red bulletin

51

Power ranger: Stoner has been following V8 supercars as long as he has motorbikes

52

the red bulletin

photography: Mark Horsburgh (2)

understands it’s part of his job, but that doesn’t mean he has to like it.”

On race weekends, Casey Stoner, Superstar, shows up for high-paying corporate partners and fans. Around those he knows and works with, Regular Casey Stoner laughs loudly and talks openly, taking as much interest in the people he’s talking to as they do in him.

Begin a conversation on Australian sport, one of his favourite subjects, and, as can be the case in his press conferences, he’s quick to give no-holds-barred opinions.

In the immediate aftermath of Saturday’s race, Stoner is being chauffeured in a golf buggy from the garage to a press conference. (In Saturday’s race, Stoner made up 16 positions, from starting 30th to finishing 14th, in his second-ever race on four wheels. On Friday, starting 12th, a burst tyre ended his race after only a few laps.)

Talk turns to the plight of the Socceroos, Australia’s football team. As the national team’s problems are being solved, an Italian fan spots Stoner and gives chase.

Lugging a large bag and a camera, the fan charges after the golf buggy. From the back of the buggy, Stoner’s media man calls out to explain they can’t stop, that Stoner is already running seriously late for a press conference – which is true – but the fan pushes on regardless.

With the hot Adelaide sun beating down, it seems only a matter of time before the tifoso calls it quits. He doesn’t.

He’s covered half the track, overcome grass and dirt and at least two securityenforced zones he had no place entering.

The media man alerts Stoner.

“Really? That’s commitment,” Stoner says, with genuine astonishment. “I’ll pay that. Stop the cart.” The driver halts and Stoner welcomes the fan with a friendly arm over the shoulder.

“All I want is a photo, please,” he squeezes out in between deep breaths.

“Casey, you are my favourite – my hero. I love the way you race.”

This kind of thing happens many times over the weekend. The Italian marathon man didn’t have memorabilia to be signed and then sold on eBay. “A genuine fan, the type I can appreciate,” Stoner says. “He didn’t expect anything or demand anything.

He tried his best, was polite and showed he was a genuine bike fan. I get that. It’s all the fans who put three replica bikes in front of you and just expect you to sign them without saying so much as ‘hi’ or ‘thank you’ who get to me.”

There’s a sense that, after years of worldwide travel, being back on his the red bulletin

“fans who want bikes signed with no ‘Hi’ or ‘thanks’: they get to me” home soil is making Stoner happy.

He didn’t come back to Australia for the money, knocking back a $15 millionplus offer to remain in MotoGP, and leaving the peak of one sport for the mid-range of another.

“If I could live anywhere in the world, anywhere at all, it would be Australia,” he says with utter certainty, with his wife Adriana in total agreement.

“I love it here and always have. And if I never had to go back overseas, I probably wouldn’t. Expect for the US. We love visiting America. But

The Spec V8 Supercars Cars with 5-litre, 600hp V8 engines that push the speedo needle to 300kph, are found at the start line of the Dunlop Development V8 Supercars series, Australia’s second-tier touring car championship. In 2013, there are seven race weekends, each with two races. Of the 30 drivers competing this year, 14 drive a Ford Falcon, and 16, including Casey Stoner, drive a Holden Commodore – souped-up versions of cars that are touchstones of Australian motoring.

I couldn’t be happier to be home. It’s been so long since we’ve had our family and friends living so close by.”

Stoner is a laconic Australian who, if not for his notoriety, wouldn’t look out of place behind the counter of a tackle shop with a straw hat. Away from racing, he drives a Holden Commodore – the Australian everyman’s classic, which happens to be the regular version of his ride in V8 Supercars. He won five BMWs while in MotoGP – two of which he gave away – yet he’s more excited talking about Holdens and Subaru compacts.

Like his fellow red-blooded Aussies, Stoner isn’t immune to the allure of brute power and the roaring noise of a V8 engine. He has followed V8 Supercars for as long as he has motorbikes. With his move to race cars, his bucket list is all but completed before his 28th birthday.

Returning to his hotel after Saturday’s efforts, Stoner points out the garden where he proposed, “clumsily” he says, to Adriana. He is a man content. In that frame of mind, and given his previous achievements, then you’d say it’s sooner rather than later that the champion of two wheels will be tasting success on four. www.v8supercars.com.au

53

gautam gambhir

The Leader Cricket is the most mentally demanding team sport – so try being captain of the most scrutinised team in its most scrutinised league. One man excels at it

Roger Federer is called Roger Federer, not Roger Genius, and therefore does not have to live up to his name every time he lifts a racket. (That he lives up to the name Roger Genius almost every time he’s picked up a racket is because he is a genius, not a Genius.) Conversely, with a surname that suggests ‘flash of lightning’, and an ego that burns equally bright, Usain Bolt was born to be the fastest man alive. So pity poor Gautam Gambhir.

The Indian batsman’s surname means ‘intense’ or ‘deep’ in Hindi. That sums up his approach to cricket, for better and for worse. He is a thinker, in a game that gives pause for thought, and won’t be the last cricketer to have to brace himself under the weight of his mind’s work. Yet steely focus has made him a fearsome player, opening the batting for clubs and country, and a respected leader.

He is the captain of Kolkata Knight Riders, reigning champions of the Indian Premier League, world cricket’s most scrutinised competition, and he has been vice-captain and stand-in captain of the India national team. Only seven players have scored more than his 20 hundreds for India. Despite being dropped from the national side earlier this year, he is still spoken of as a potential future India captain. On the day his demotion was announced, he immediately took to Twitter to congratulate the players who took his place in the squad.

Equally rare is the sportsman, like Gambhir, who uses social media to announce the books he’s choosing from to fill the rest of a day after practice: biographies of Hitler and Australia batsman Justin Langer, Malcolm Gladwell’s instinct book Blink, something by Hindustani literature great Premchand. Gambhir also likes to put in extra training sessions on top of his teams’ compulsory work-outs.

54

“Practising on my own is a personal decision.” says Gambhir. “Everyone thinks about their game in their own way, and you have to do what you feel is best for you.”

In 2007, when he was dropped for the World Cup, what he felt was best for him was to give up cricket entirely.

“It’s not about what I have achieved. It’s what the team does” “Ask any sportsman, and he’ll tell you he wants to play in the biggest events.

Missing the World Cup, I feel even now that I should have been in that side, and for a time then, I thought, ‘I don’t want to play cricket, I want to do something else.’

I think it was a blessing in disguise that I didn’t have any other options, so I turned

around and said to myself, ‘Forget about worrying if you play for India or not. For now it’s about scoring runs, for my club, my state or India, and going back home happy. That will give you maximum happiness.’ When I started doing that, everything fell into place.”

Six months after that low point, Gambhir was back playing for India, top-scoring for them as they won the 2007 World Twenty20 tournament, including 75 off 54 balls in the final victory over Pakistan. In 2009, he was briefly the number one ranked Test batsman in the world. In the 2011 World Cup final, he anchored India’s home-soil win over Sri Lanka with 97, again top-scoring in the biggest game.

“It’s not about what I have achieved,” says Gambhir, and when he talks, he looks you straight in the eye. “It’s what the team does. I’ve always thought about the team first. We want to see India get back to the number one world Test ranking. In 2011, we were number one and it was a great feeling. When you are part of the team that slips down to number three or number four, it hurts you big time, and the way we performed overseas was humiliating.

My goal is to get India back to number one.”

In the meantime, there’s the notinconsequential task of defending the Indian Premier League title. Despite suffering from jaundice at the start of the competition, Gambhir was in fine run-scoring form in the early matches.

“I think being captain helps to get the best out of me when I’m playing. I want to make players feel important, because it’s not a successful captain that makes a successful team, it’s the other way around.”

Leading from the front, Gambhir is gambhir and all the better for it. www.redbullcampuscricket.com the red bulletin

additional photography: getty images

Words: Paul Wilson Photography: Andreas Jakwerth

“I think being captain helps to get the best out of me when I’m playing”

Born October 14, 1981, Delhi, India India Debut April 11, 2003, in a one-day game versus Bangladesh in Dhaka.

He opened the batting and scored 11 Highest India Score 206, in a Test match against Australia in Delhi, October 2008 No Film Favours Despite playing for Kolkata, a team partowned by Bollywood legend Shah Rukh Kahn, Gambhir will not be tapping up his boss for a job post-cricket: “I love watching movies, but I would not want to be in them.”

nick Ryan

High Drama While filming on K2, the director came close to those whose story he tells in a gripping new movie about the mountain’s fatal draw

Before location shooting in Pakistan for his award-winning film The Summit, Nick Ryan felt the need to make out a will. It remains sealed, but he endured potentially fatal oxygen deprivation and a death-defying helicopter ride high in the Karakoram mountain range.

Ryan, an energetic 43-year-old Dubliner, lived to tell two tales: his world altitude record for filming from a helicopter – flying close to the summit of K2 – and a raw, harrowing documentary of a doomed 2008 expedition on the same peak.

The film’s success in January at the Sundance Festival, where it won a Best Editing award, led to the rare accolade, for a film of this type, of a general cinema release in the USA this autumn. Seamlessly splicing reconstruction footage with video shot on the expedition, Ryan tells the story of the 11 climbers who lost their lives in one disastrous day on the world’s secondhighest, and most dangerous, mountain.

“For a lot of people, this is kind of a first-world problem,” says Ryan, of the fateful trip, though he could just as easily be talking about his own experience.

“It’s a choice to climb a mountain, and people can find it hard to sympathise with those who do it, but I hope people see the film and feel differently” Climbers in his film talk of ‘summit fever’, the impulse to strike for the top of a mountain even when conditions suggest otherwise. The syndrome could explain the crew’s excitement after a week spent waiting for clearance at a Pakistani army base 70 miles from K2.

Ryan, cameraman Stephen O’Reilly and engineer Mike Wright, and a team of army pilots agreed to set off for a glacier beneath K2 at dawn on their final day.

Gambling that once they got close to K2 no one would head back, Ryan manned the joystick controls of the Cineflex camera as the pilots climbed 56

for the fabled Bottleneck area near the summit, site of the ’08 tragedy. “When you see K2, it strikes fear into your heart,” says Ryan. “It stands out on its own like a big, jagged tooth. It’s like looking at a monster that has been haunting you for years.

“I had oxygen, but not enough for an entire flight. You’re meant to put the mask to your face every five minutes,

“Looking at K2 is like looking at a monster that has been haunting you for years” but I was so busy operating the camera that I forgot to take any. I’m looking at the Bottleneck and I hear, ‘Mr Nick, we can’t fly any higher.’ I said, ‘How high are we?’ The pilot said, ‘23,500 feet.’” That’s 7,162m, about 1,200m above the safe operating ceiling of the single-engined Eurocopter Ecureuil. Ryan knew then why his pilots’ squadron is known as

the Fearless Five. O’Reilly, in a second helicopter, shot still photos at 7,620m.

The euphoria didn’t last. A subsequent lower-altitude flight, with Wright taking O’Reilly’s place in the second helicopter, almost ended in tragedy. Ryan began to feel what he thought was the onset of flu. Wright’s Ecureuil suffered engine failure and plummeted towards earth.

Remarkably, the pilot managed to crashland on a tiny platform without injury.

When Ryan’s chopper doubled back to search, they were amazed to find Wright and crew waiting safely for them.

After landing, Ryan’s pilots toiled to clear a clogged fuel line, as his socalled flu morphed into hypoxia – the altitude sickness caused by a lack of oxygen, which can be fatal. Getting Ryan down to a safe altitude took priority, and the pilots again pushed the envelope in a treacherous take-off.

As the helicopter weaved in and out of massive glacial boulders, in the struggle for lift, Ryan found himself detached from the peril of his situation by the dizzying effects of his illness. It helped him to understand the kind of decisions faced by fellow Irishman Ger McDonnell who, having achieved a life’s ambition to scale K2 in 2008, died on the descent trying to help fellow climbers to safety.

McDonnell broke the mountaineer’s golden rule about protecting your own life first, a decision central to the story of The Summit and one for which Ryan now has greater empathy.

“Anybody watching the film would like to think that they would do what Ger did. Everyone thinks they would do that, but we’re showing a situation where that isn’t always the case. What I thought of the climbers and what they were doing in 2008 versus what I think in 2013 is quite different. I hope people get that.” www.thesummitfilm.com

the red bulletin

Film Stills: Nick Ryan

Words: Declan Quigley Portrait: Clíona O’Flaherty

Peak performance: Nick Ryan’s The Summit is out later this year

Name Nick Ryan Born April 21, 1969, Dublin

Credit:

Directing Pilots Aside from The Summit, Ryan has made two shorts about airmen: A Lonely Sky (2006) and The German (2008) Two By Two Ryan was invited to search for Noah’s Ark on Mount Ararat by Apollo astronaut James Irwin. Unfortunately, he couldn’t go. (Irwin went, several times, but did not find it.)

THE L O ST B O YS O F

BMX On the west coast of Scotland, a group of top-level riders, led by one of the world’s best, have made the ultimate commitment: they’ve colonised a skatepark to live their sporting dreams 24/7 Words: Ruth Morgan Photography: Greg Funnell 58

Wild ride: BMX pro Kriss Kyle at the Unit 23 skatepark, Dumbarton

Good friends: Kriss Kyle (right) with French rider Maxime Charveron (centre) and fellow Unit 23 resident Scott Quinn

At midnight on a Wednesday, on a small, dark industrial estate in the Scottish town of Dumbarton, the Unit 23 skatepark is lit up like a beacon. Inside a brick and corrugated iron warehouse, the Rolling Stones’ Let’s Spend The Night Together merges with cheers and the sound of wheels on wood, as Kriss Kyle seems to defy gravity on his BMX, topping 20ft ramps and riding along walls with a fluidity that makes the bike seem like part of his anatomy.

Kyle and about 20 of his fellow Unit 23 regulars are enjoying a late-night session on the virgin birch of the newly refurbished Hall 1, which they have helped build over the previous six weeks. A love of BMX has created an unlikely family at Unit 23, a group of professional and amateur riders – joiners, airport workers, welders and others – from across Scotland, the rest of the UK, Ireland and beyond. They whoop their approval as new lines are found, riders 60

exchanging fist bumps and grins at the platform that runs around the bowls, marking the top of the skatepark. They began riding as soon as they finished working on the park, at 8pm, and show no signs of slowing down, excitement about their new playground dismissing the inevitable aches in their thighs. In any case, there’s no pressure to leave, no closing time. Many dedicated sportspeople claim to live and breathe what they do, but Unit 23 has become a home for Kyle and many of the others here in the most literal sense. It’s where they eat, sleep and ride every day.

For Kyle, it’s the realisation of a dream he had from the age of 10, when his feet first touched BMX pedals. Back then, his mother resorted to going in search of her errant son at the local concrete skatepark at mealtimes, with a foil-covered plate of food in one hand and a knife and fork in the other, determined to get him out of

the saddle for long enough to eat. Then, one Saturday morning when he was 15, Kyle left his small hometown of Stranraer and never looked back. He had no money, no job, no qualifications, no fixed address, just a small bag of clothes and his BMX. The only thing he knew for sure when he caught the 07.13 train that day was that he wanted to ride his bike.

Today, a 20-year-old Kyle is one of the world’s best young riders, with numerous high-profile sponsors, a passport full of stamps and YouTube videos of his innovative, fearless riding attracting tens of thousands of views. But most importantly for him, he’s got what he always wanted: he can ride his bike all day, every day.

“Ever since I’ve been at Unit 23, I’ve been living the dream,” says Kyle, in soft Scottish tones, his wild brown hair kept in check with a black elastic headband. “Living the dream” is a phrase he uses a lot. He the red bulletin

Taking a break: Kyle (left) hangs out with Jason Phelan (centre) and another Unit 23 regular

Above: Kyle shows camaraderie with local riders. Below: Downtime in the lounge. Right: Kyle in the refurbished Hall 1

plans to have it tattooed on his neck in the coming months, the latest in a growing collection inked over his 5ft 6in frame. He has the logo of one of his sponsors, bike company BSD, on his left hand, and on the other is a “wee crab”, symbolising his nickname. His most recent was ‘Live’ and ‘Life’, writ large in capital letters just above his knees, done here at the Unit with the tattoo gun that often does the rounds after hours. Yet there’s no boastfulness in these words: they’re affirmations of a life Kyle still can’t believe is his. “I didn’t think I could be a pro,” he says, “I didn’t think anything could come of me riding my bike. It wasn’t about that. I just wanted to ride, so I did.”

When Kyle arrived at Unit 23, bag-inhand and homeless, he was already a familiar face. “I remember the first time I came to Unit 23 – I’ll never forget it,” he says. “I was 13, but I was so small. I could not believe how big the ramps were: back 62

the red bulletin

“I didn’t think I could be a pro.

I just wanted to ride, so I did”

High times: Kyle’s incredible speed allows him to get to the top of the wall

House guest: Maxime Charveron in the boys’ bedroom

“It was scary being 15 in a massive warehouse by myself at night, no money, surviving off what I found in the cafe”

home they were tiny. I just wanted to be here riding all the time.” What started as an arduous eight-hour round-trip up and down the west coast of Scotland every weekend, on six trains, stretched to four days at a time, then a week, then two weeks… “I’d get up at 6am, go up to Unit, ride the whole day,” Kyle says. “Then I’d go back to school and sit there thinking ‘What am I doing here? I’m just wasting time.’” When owner Chick Mailey offered rent-free lodgings at the skatepark, Kyle jumped at it, becoming Unit 23’s first permanent resident. Without the luxury of a bedroom, Kyle slept on the sofa in the office. “It was scary,” he says, “being 15 in a massive warehouse by yourself at night.

I had no money to eat, I was surviving off what I could find at the Unit café, but it had to be done. I was never worried about leaving home or dropping out of school, I don’t know why. It’s not that I had a plan or knew I would make it.”

The story wasn’t quite the same for Kyle’s parents, Veronica and Alec, who worked at Kyle’s school as a learning support assistant and janitor respectively. They thought Kyle was staying with friends and Veronica would phone him daily, asking

Chow do you do: Jason Phelan (left) in the kitchen with fellow Unit 23 riders

65

him when he was coming back, pleading with him to go to school. “It was a nightmare,” she says. “His teachers would say, ‘Where’s Kriss?’ and I had to make excuses. He never sat a single exam. He just wouldn’t go. When he eventually told me he was living at Unit, of course we worried about him. His dad used to say, ‘If anything happens to him it will be our fault.’ And I said, ‘But what can we do?’

We couldn’t have pulled him back home.

Kriss is strong-willed. He would have lived in a cardboard box if it would get him into a skatepark. But I was also happy he was doing what he loved, and he’s done so well.

I’m proud of him, we love him for it.”

Today, four years on, Kyle’s example has been followed by other BMXers keen to experience the round-the-clock riding and lawless lifestyle Unit 23 has to offer.

There are no training regimes or nutritionists here, just a skatepark that’s resolutely oldschool, a place created by riders, for riders.

“This place is unreal,” says Jason Phelan, an affable 26-year-old pro rider from Ireland, who’s lived at Unit 23 for just under a year. “After Unit closes at 10pm, it’s empty and we have these great little sessions.

Then there’s all the banter and randomness that goes on in here. I’m usually at the centre of it. I wish I’d moved here years ago.”

Unit 23’s inhabitants sleep at the back of the warehouse, beyond the two huge halls of ramps and bowls. First come the mismatched sofas of the communal lounge, which are always littered with duvets.

An intriguing array of detritus covers the floor: a car jack; numerous old socks; a shop dummy’s leg; a discarded hospital gown – all left over from Unit 23’s infamous parties. John Deans is a 23-year-old BMX rider who works at Glasgow airport, and who often sleeps in the communal lounge for weeks on end. “Being here is like being a kid with an empty house,” he says, “except it’s all the time.”

Further down the hall, in the garage at the back of the warehouse, is the large makeshift breezeblock structure Mailey had built to house two bedrooms. There’s one for Kyle, his prize as first arrival, and a larger communal room that’s currently home to Phelan, Scott ‘Quinny’ Quinn, a 25-year-old pro inline skater from Charlton, Scotland, who’s been at Unit for three years, and George Eccleston, also 25, a BMXer and ramp builder from Sheffield. French pro rider Maxime Charveron has also come to stay with his friends, bagging a place on the sofa.

The rooms could belong to any 20something males – dirty clothes, unmade beds – but step outside the bedroom door 66

King of his castle: Kyle in the garage next to his bedroom

and you’re in a garage. There’s a ScoobyDoo-themed ice cream van parked here, and several long-forgotten cars, including a neglected VW MK2 with ‘I wish my bird was this dirty’ carved into the dust on its passenger door. Beside it is a muddied dirt bike Phelan was riding around the communal bedroom last night. This morning, all five riders crowded around Quinn’s phone, laughing at footage of Phelan’s late-night antics, which ended with him wheel-deep in a chest of drawers.

This passes as a normal Tuesday night. “I’m constantly laughing when I’m here,” says Kyle. “Each day is amazing. Everyone’s so close, we’re like brothers, like family. I’ve had the best childhood ever.” Charveron chips in, in his thick French accent: “There is no place in France as free as this,” he says. “It is why I come here.”

The riders have owner Mailey to thank for their BMX utopia. “Chick’s attitude is

Kriss Kyle Since getting his first proper bike for Christmas, when he was 10, all Kyle has thought about is BMX. His parents would take him to watch competitions, and his mum, Veronica, still has an extensive school project Kyle did on BMX aged 11, with detailed drawings of his ideal bike and set-up. Now Kyle is living his dream, residing and riding at Unit 23.

the red bulletin

“I’ve thought of leaving, but I know I’d regret it” the reason that we’re all here,” says Eccleston, “You come through here once, and you don’t want to leave. Everyone’s mates. It has become the centre of BMX in Scotland because of him.”

Mailey, a former crane hire company owner, is himself a BMXer who never outgrew his love of the sport – the Peter Pan to the Lost Boys his skatepark attracts.

He passed on his passion to his two sons, Chaz and Connor, and when both suffered bad injuries street riding, he decided to sell his business and create a place where they could ride safely. “It’s certainly not about the money,” says Mailey. “You don’t get into this business for that. For me it’s about not lying on my deathbed thinking ‘I didn’t spend enough time with my kids.’

I go to work with them every day.”

Mailey has become a surrogate father to many more. He turned 46 last week and received Dad cards from almost all the riders at Unit. He supports many of them, employing around 15 in some capacity or other to enable them to ride, and gives them all free rein of the chaotic kitchen, which each mid-morning fills with loud banter and the smell of cheese toasties. He and his sister Dot also make sure there are meals on the table twice a day for the extended Unit 23 family, the riders sitting on the long benches in the café together to eat. “It’s well known that if you come and you’re prepared to help out a little bit, you get to stay,” he says.

“The bedrooms are their domain, they get left to it. I’m quite happy for them to be here. It’s a two-way street: I help them and they help me. It’s a good community.

There’s a cracking atmosphere here.”

This environment has benefited Kyle immeasurably. All-hours access to Unit 23’s facilities has improved his inventiveness and skill on a BMX, and brought competition wins, online recognition, a signing with Red Bull and promotion to the Nike Pro team, as well as the BSD and Unit 23 teams. He is now one of the few British riders to compete internationally. “He’s one of the top riders in the world right now,” says BSD owner Grant Smith. “He’s something special.

He has a natural ability that’s very rare.

The first time he was at Unit, I remember being blown away by this tiny guy who was so good on his bike. And he’s so the red bulletin

stoked on riding. Some guys do it as a job, but he genuinely wants to ride all the time. That sincerity is obvious.”

But Kyle’s is a rare case. “Kriss is big time on the scene,” says Eccleston. “When we see kids asking for his autograph we give him a ribbing. We keep him grounded.”

Eccleston and most of the riders at Unit 23 have had to find other forms of income to support their passion. Even Phelan, a rider on several pro teams, including Nike’s, only began to make a living from BMX three years ago, having dropped out of university in Liverpool to ride, then spending years working various jobs, including as a postman and football steward. Chaz and Connor Mailey and Eccleston have trained as joiners and build skateparks to keep themselves close to BMX. “Kriss is one in a million,” says Chick Mailey. “It was plain to see from the first day he came here. He just has a different style of riding and his progression has just been so quick. But there’s only a handful of guys in the whole of the UK who can make a living out of it. You get a lot of kids that say, ‘I just want to get sponsored and drop out of school’, but you know it’s not going to happen for them, they’ll need their education and you do feel a responsibility in trying to steer them that way.”

For Kyle, single-minded persistence has paid off. With his life now split between travelling to compete and make BMX videos (in the next two months he’ll be visiting France, Spain, Argentina and Australia) and coming home to his Unit family, ‘living the dream’ is an apt motto.

“I don’t think about how long I’ll be at Unit,” says Kyle. “Me and Jason talked about getting a flat next year but, to be honest, I know I’d regret it. I’ve got this amazing skatepark I can ride when I want, I can literally get up and on my bike, I can party here with all my friends. I’ve got absolutely everything anyone could want.”

At 3am on the Wednesday night, Hall 1 has cleared of riders, who have either gone to bed, exhausted from the night’s exertions, or sit in the lounge with beers.

Only Kyle and Phelan remain, each run topping their last as they get to know the new ramps and contours of the park.

“This is the best,” says Phelan, “who else gets to do this?” The refurbishment of Hall 1 marked Unit 23’s 10th birthday; it has been a decade, too, since Kyle first fell in love with BMX. Though so much has changed for him during that time, much has stayed the same. As he drops in for another run, he’s grinning. Now more than ever, he just wants to ride his bike. www.unit23skatepark.co.uk

67

He’s as

cold as ice Wim Hof believes that feeling cold is just a state of mind and – after years of sub-zero record-breaking – that being freezing is easy for everyone

Words: Andreas Rottenschlager Photography: Henny Boogert

68

Credit

O

nce, when Wim Hof was still a young man, visitors to the Beatrixpark in Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, took him for dead. One winter morning, the 20-year-old swam out to the middle of the pond and disappeared. A minute passed. Then another. Someone called the police.

“They thought they were going to have to recover a body,” says Hof, “but I was fine. I was sitting at the bottom of the pond meditating.”

Hof is in his Amsterdam apartment sipping tea. He is 54 and bearded. His muscular pecs are bursting out of his

All in the mind: with meditation and concentration, Wim Hof can sit on an Icelandic iceberg

T-shirt. Newspapers call Hof the Iceman.

He has set 20 cold-related world records, climbed Kilimanjaro bare-chested, jumped into frozen lakes without a diving suit and run several marathons barefoot at temperatures of -20°C. Hof sits and pours sugar into his tea. “Everyone can learn to do what I do,” he says.

fire from within

Hof explains that his anti-freeze method is a combination of breathing technique, meditation and decades of training under extreme conditions.

Normally, if a person’s temperature falls below zero, the body draws blood from the limbs and pumps it toward the heart. The risk of frostbite is high, and continued exposure can lead to death.

Not for Hof. The Dutchman believes that by meditating, he can influence his autonomic nervous system and blood circulation and thus maintain a constant body temperature, even in subzero temperatures or icy water. He calls it “turning up his internal thermostat”.

The Iceman showed the world how the method works in November 2011 in New York. In order to break his 20th world record, Hof clambered into a Plexiglas box and was packed in up to his neck in 680kg of crushed ice.

He wore no protective clothing; the coat of ice enveloped his bare skin.

He meditated, his gaze trained straight ahead. He breathed in and out steadily.

Passersby stopped and watched.

He remained in the box for one hour, 52 minutes and 42 seconds – longer than anyone else had ever managed before him. Then the assistants broke the Plexiglas and Hof stepped out of the ice.

So how did he do it?

“When I’m freezing, I visualise heat in my body,” he says. “I imagine it increasing with every breath, like a fire spreading inside me. It is a show of strength, it is ongoing communication between body and mind.”

Do you feel cold in the ice?

“No. The only danger would be if something distracted me and my concentration lapsed. Then I’d be cold straight away.”

What would you do then?

“I’d pump heat into the relevant body part.”

Hof knows that some of the things he says sound crazy: a “thermostat in his head”; “fire from within”.

Though he’s been exposing himself to extreme cold for 30 years, people’s lack of faith still works him up. “I’ve been 70

Ice bath: taking a dip in frigid Icelandic waters. “I’ve been called crazy,” says Hof

called crazy, a liar. You can’t imagine how much resentment I’ve come up against.”

Hof must have genetic advantages, his critics said, that there was no way he could influence the autonomic nervous system or generate heat from his thoughts? Hof had to prove them wrong.

the iceman experiment

Dr Peter Pickkers is a thin man in his mid-40s with closely cropped hair and a pleasant voice. He does research at the St Radboud University Medical Centre in Nijmegen in the Netherlands.

On April 18, 2011, Pickkers appeared

Testing times: “This showed that what I do isn’t hocus-pocus,” says Hof the red bulletin

fight. Doctors believe Hof’s breathing technique – hyperventilation followed by holding his breath – could be responsible for the discharge.

Pickkers is smiling in the TV report. Hof, by contrast, is seen crying.

He can now explain that “those tests mean more to me than the records I’ve broken. They show that what I do isn’t hocus-pocus,” he says.

merciless and fair

on Dutch TV. “We have extraordinary news,” he told reporters.

He was talking about the Iceman.

Pickkers and his team had tested Hof’s resistance to the cold during an 80-minute ice bath. The astounding thing was that while Hof’s skin temperature dropped from 28°C to 5°C, the change in his inner body temperature was minimal, from 38°C to 37°C. Their findings also showed that Hof’s oxygen intake doubled while he was in the ice bath. Hof was sitting still, but his blood was pumping like he was running a marathon.

In another experiment, the scientists investigated whether Hof really was able to influence his autonomic nervous system. Doctors injected him with a biochemical endotoxin that brings about short-term flu-like symptoms in humans.

The Iceman planned to fight them off through meditation.

The TV report shows Hof lying in bed two hours after the injection with sensors the red bulletin

He insists anyone can do what he does: “Start with a cold shower every morning” all over his body. He tells the doctor he feels nothing more than a light headache.

But the real sensation came out later in the lab. Hof had managed to fight off the endotoxin attack by producing large amounts of the stress hormone cortisol – something people cannot normally actively control.

Cortisol is released by the body in extreme situations, for instance if you’re suddenly involved in a street

An icy wind is whistling through the broadleaf trees in Flevopark in Amsterdam. Hof wants to show us his new bathing area. It is a murky pool, surrounded by jogging paths and hedges, a little over a mile east of downtown. Hof says the water temperature is 3°C and that he’d like to swim a lap after jumping in.

Nobody should leap into icy water without preparation. That would be stupid. But Hof insists that anyone can eventually learn to do what he does. As with all things, you just have to start small. “A cold shower every morning,” Hof explains. Five seconds is fine; you can increase the length of the shower as time goes on.

Hof has begun teaching his methods – effective breathing, deep concentration, walking barefoot in the snow – in workshops that attract people from all over the world, from normal folks to serious athletes, like Olympian Elisabeth Willeboordse, a Dutch judo bronze medallist, and kickboxing champion Gökhan Saki, also from the Netherlands.

“Our bodies can deal with much more than we think,” says Hof. “Cold is the best tool to help you train your physique and your concentration. It is merciless but fair.”

When asked about his own first experience of the cold, the Iceman tells the following story: “My mother was pregnant with twins but had no idea there were two babies, as she had no ultrasound examination.”

Hof’s brother, Andre, was the first to be born that day, April 20, 1959. A few minutes later, his mother began to scream for a second time; Wim was coming, and no one was expecting him.

“I was born in an unheated corridor between the recovery area and the delivery room,” says Hof. Then he pauses.

“The ironic thing is, doctors have told me since that I must have almost frozen to death there.”

Cold training with Hof: www.innerfire.nl To see the Iceman experiment, search YouTube for ‘Wim Hof scientific’

71

katherine sparkes

Bright Spark Swimming with sharks, 20,000 football shirts and baked buildings in Thailand: the MD who takes pleasure in business success Words: Ruth Morgan Portrait: Shamil Tanna

O

n an unseasonably cold spring Tuesday in Bristol, Katherine Sparkes is sitting in a café staring out at swimmers braving the icy waters of an outdoor pool, worrying about her front crawl. In September, she’ll be taking to chilly Californian waters to swim from Alcatraz to San Francisco, battling strong currents and avoiding sharks, and she’s a bit rusty.

“When I kick my legs I somehow manage to go backwards,” she says.

“I’ve got a long way to go. When I see any sort of water now, I feel like I should be practising.”

This year, she’ll also be taking part in a nighttime rollerblading marathon in Paris, a 260km bike ride in Italy and climbing a mountain in Brazil, for what will be a total of 13 challenges in aid of her charity, the Flamingo Foundation. She runs it alongside her innovative company Flamingo, which specialises in corporate social responsibility, and which Sparkes founded when she was just 22. If anyone can take on these varied new skills, she can. “I’ve become a jack of all trades,” she says. “One minute I’m in a corporate meeting with CEOs, the next I’m up a ladder grouting tiles in a centre for the elderly, or sleeping in a hammock in Kenya.”

Sparkes ably fits into these disparate worlds. Today she is dressed smartly, makeup applied, patent beige heels in place, looking every bit the company director, but she’s the first to admit she prefers khakis and kids in Kenya. “I’m far happier in the middle of nowhere, 72

wearing combats and rolling around with the local children, with my hair all over the place,” she says.

Thanks to the success of her business, Sparkes often shows her non-corporate side. Now 32, she’s travelled to Africa to help build schools and to Thailand to construct children’s playhouses from

“I always knew that I wanted to do something that helped people” baked mud. She has also run numerous successful projects, collecting everything from suits for homeless UK jobseekers and bras to use as currency, helping widowed women in Africa start their own businesses, to unwanted musical instruments for needy children around the world. Sparkes and her Flamingo team match businesses up with these

sorts of sustainable charity projects, which they often come up with, and then run.

“Corporate social responsibility is about giving back to the community in which you operate,” Sparkes says. “We help all sorts of companies do that. We make sure our work is sustainable, with a long-term impact. Until 10 years ago, no one in the UK had heard of the term CSR, including me. I was just doing something that had always made sense to me: if a company does something good, they get the rewards as much as the people they help. They get great, cost-effective press coverage, awards, a better profile – young people are more likely to work for socially responsible companies. Everyone benefits.”

It’s a neat model that works.

Sparkes’ business has grown year-onyear since she founded it, bringing her a long way from the basement of the shared flat where she started out. At 22, she was a journalism graduate dipping her toe into the world of PR in London, with no experience of running a company. “I always knew I wanted to do something that helped people,” she says. “When I realised there was something in this idea I just started it. People have this idea that entrepreneurship is really difficult to get into, but that’s a myth.

I didn’t have any money, I didn’t have a five-year business plan. All I had was a second-hand computer.”

It helped that Sparkes had childhood experience of making something from nothing. As a girl, she collected aluminium cans for charity appeals, and organised the red bulletin

Age 32 Born Bristol, UK Top 10 Named one of JCI’s Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the World 2012 Top tip Become a trustee for a charity: “People think you can’t do this until you’re old, but charities love having young, dynamic people on the board. It will give a great overview of how a business is run.”

Helping hand: Sparkes’ philanthropy reaches worldwide, including (left) Build-A-SchoolIn-A-Month in Kenya

“I’ve always cut out the red tape.

We don’t have long, ineffective meetings: we crack on” in these pubs, including donations from famous people and MPs, so the chain got great publicity, then we distributed these to townships in South Africa in time for the World Cup. We then took 10 pub managers from the company out to Cape Town to meet the kids they’d helped. It was brilliant. They’d never experienced anything like it. We encourage this handson approach; we don’t want companies just to hand us an oversized cheque.”

From top: Shade Aid, through which unwanted sunglasses are given new homes in developing countries; the Little Learners project, encouraging disadvantaged youngsters to be excited by reading

various collections and fundraisers at school. “I guess that kind of evolved into what I’m doing now,” she says. “I struggled with the idea that you spend most of your life working, as I wanted to be able to do something good with most of my time. The solution was to find a job that would allow me to do that.”

Sparkes’ first client was the owner of a large pub group where she had worked part-time. After eventually persuading him to employ her, he was sold on her business model, and is still a client today.

“We did a fantastic project with the pub group for the last World Cup,” she says.

“They wanted to promote their showing the football on TV, but that’s not interesting to the press. Instead, we came up with Project Fair Play, which asked people to donate unwanted football shirts to kids in Africa. We got 20,000 shirts collected 74

In good company Katherine Sparkes was recognised one of Junior Chamber International’s Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the World in 2012, alongside other young achievers including: Bobby Kensah, UK After a tough upbringing, Kensah devotes his time to tackling youth issues including knife crime, bullying and gang involvement. He also established the Phase One Network to help disadvantaged young people find work.

Tendai Concilia Wenyika, Zimbabwe Social activist Wenyika is the founder of both the Zimbabwe Young Women’s Network and the Zimbabwe Entrepreneurs Youth Association, inspiring young people to become community activists and fight for their voices to be heard.

Aisling Neary, Ireland Nurse Neary uses her medical skill around the world, reaching the remote and underprivileged.

She also raised the money to build the first school in an impoverished Ghanaian village.

www.flamingo-creative.co.uk www.jci.cc the red bulletin

Additional photography: Flamingo Creative (3)

M

any of Sparkes’ clients have received awards for their involvement in CSR, and last year, she herself was honoured, when she was recognised

by Junior Chamber International, a voluntary organisation for young people effecting positive change. “With past members including Al Gore and John F Kennedy, an award from JCI is a highprofile accolade. They named Sparkes one of their Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the World for her work in CSR and community action.

“It was a huge award to get,” she says.

“I never thought I’d be chosen. It was really exciting going out to Taipei for the awards ceremony, and it was inspiring to spend time with the other winners and share ideas. A great experience.”

Sparkes may now have an international award, an office in Bristol, five members of staff and up to 20 freelancers working for her at any one time, but, 10 years on, her general business philosophy hasn’t changed. “I still don’t have a business plan,” she laughs. “Any plan I make is redundant the following week. I think a lot of it is about gut instinct and being quick to adapt and evolve. We can shrink and grow as needed, and I’ve always cut out the red tape. We don’t mess about with long, ineffective meetings: we crack on. It’s about having an impact, planting a seed with these companies that will hopefully grow.”

With her business thriving, Sparkes is no longer a jack of all trades, but a master of one. All she needs to do now is nail that front crawl.

FATE DOESN’T ASK. IT COuLD ALSO bE mE. Or yOu. David Coulthard.

13-time Formula 1 Grand Prix Winner and Wings For Life Ambassador.

SPINAL COrD INJury muST bECOmE CurAbLE. In funding the best research projects worldwide focusing on the cure of spinal cord injury, the Wings for Life Spinal Cord research Foundation ensures top-level medical and scientific progress. We assure that hundred percent of all donations are invested in spinal cord research.

your contribution makes a difference.

Donate online at www.wingsforlife.com

Free advertisement.

One giant leap

With 10 seconds of untravelled airspace between him and a meeting with mermaids and a giant snake, a Belgian adventurer journeyed into the Peruvian Andes to leap from a secret waterfall and make history – or be it Words: Armando Aguilar

photography: Marcelo maragni/red bull content pool

Cedric Dumont BASE-jumps off the Gocta waterfall with photographer Jhonathan Florez behind him

T

he girl walking down the side of the road is probably no older than five or six, but she is brave. She could reach out and touch the cars and lorries passing by, the vehicles whipping up gusts of wind that force her to close her eyes. The road is a rural track in the Amazonas department in the north of Peru, and in one of those cars is Cedric Dumont. He is heading for Gocta, which, depending on who’s doing the measuring, is either the third-, fourth- or fifth-tallest waterfall on the planet. What isn’t contested, though, is that Gocta is one of the best-kept secrets of the Andean foothills. For centuries, inhabitants of the nearby villages of San Pablo and Cocachimba had such respect for Gocta that the outside world only found out about it in 2006.

If you want to see the Gocta waterfall for yourself, first you have to fly from Lima, the Peruvian capital, to Tarapoto. Then comes a nine-hour journey, mainly by car on unpaved roads with many bends and passes and obstacles, like the road on which the little girl was walking. In the Peruvian mountains, pedestrians call the shots. They stride purposefully along the sides of the roads, where often only a thin strip of grass 77

separates the two lanes. If there is no pavement, then those who would use it simply have to place their trust in God and walk in the road, which is one of the most breathtaking routes in South America, taking in the luscious rainforest, glorious orchid forests and the heavenly Lake Pomacochas.

The drivers here know what to expect. They move deftly, to avoid the families, the groups of dawdling children. At one point, an old woman is walking and does not want to be overtaken. There is a constant stream of traffic in the other direction. The driver behind her blows the horn cautiously and says, to whoever will listen, “Can I get past?” The old woman doesn’t flinch. The driver blows his horn again.

“Please!” Without giving the person harassing her so much as a glimpse, the old lady takes a step towards the side of the road.

After nine hours in the car, the village of Cocachimba appears in the dying evening light.

The sky is overcast, so Cedric Dumont can’t see exactly where he’ll be going next morning. Out there in the darkness is the Catarata del Gocta, all 771m of it (that’s the measurement, given in 2006, that makes it the third-tallest waterfall, after Angel Falls in Venezuela and Tugeal Falls in South Africa). The Belgian BASE-jumper intends to reach Gocta, and then jump off it.

“When I found out how tall and inaccessible this waterfall was, I understood straight away

that it was the perfect place for a big project,” he says. “It is without doubt one of the greatest challenges of my career.”

Dumont has already completed more than 2,000 BASE-jumps, and wants to be the first to BASE-jump from Gocta. If he succeeds, it will be the first BASE-jump of any kind in Peru.

S Heavy going: the approach through the rainforest

78

hortly before six in the morning, before sunrise, a 4x4 takes Dumont from Cocachimba, on a dirt road that laboriously snakes its way up the mountain, to the remote village of San Pablo, the last stop on the journey to Gocta. Here, the village houses cluster around a main square with a fountain in the middle. Concrete paths lead from the fountain to the square’s corners and edges. They give the impression of rays of sunlight, yet the sunflowers in the square

For locals, Gocta is home to a mythical creature, which is why they kept it hidden from the world.

Therefore Dumont (above right) and Florez approached the BASE-jump with humility

photography: renzo giraldo/red bull content pool, marcelo maragni/red bull content pool

are still asleep, heads down, in their beds.

Heavy luggage is loaded onto mules before the final ascent begins. Dumont is accompanied by his friend and fellow BASE-jumper, Jhonathan Florez. The Colombian has regularly leapt after Dumont with a camera, and plans to become the second man to BASE-jump from Gocta, just a few seconds after the first.

Walking alongside the mules, Dumont has a nervous, boyish light-footedness. He is not the type to storm up a mountainside full of tense anticipation, fearing nothing. He has a tattoo on his right calf: a skull, with one eye crossed out, the other scratched out, next to a red heart. “It keeps death at bay,” he says.

Dumont has leapt off the 431m-tall Jin Mao Tower in Shanghai and 327m-tall Vilnius TV Tower in Lithuania, but the Gocta jump is something else. “It ranks among the five most technically demanding jumps I’ve ever done. It is a really special challenge.

You don’t know the surroundings and you don’t know what to expect. There’s an element of the unknown in the air and the unknown always somehow creates an element of fear.”

One thing Dumont and Florez know for sure is that they have to jump while the waterfall is in the shade. “The higher the sun goes, the warmer the water gets,” says Florez. “The rising air creates turbulence which could unbalance the parachute and make it collapse in on itself.

The hardest thing will be descending in the gully. The waterfall creates strong winds and the rock face is very close.”

“There’s no escape route,” adds Dumont.

“No margin of error. The jump has to be perfect. There’s a good chance of injury, or even losing your life.”

The weather on the final ascent is pleasant.

For the first 2km, the paths aren’t particularly steep. They wind past mud brick houses that look like they have grown out of the ground, like the sugar cane, potatoes, cassava, coffee and bananas in the fields nearby. Agriculture is still the mainstay of the economy in this region, but the locals have recently begun to see Gocta as another source of income: an impressive quirk of nature hidden from the outside world for a long time, but which can now be celebrated, and monetised.

German engineer Stefan Ziemendorff came to Cocachimba in 2002. He was working on a project to lay fresh water pipes in the most remote areas of the Amazonas department.

Ziemendorff came across the Gocta waterfall and immediately grasped how significant his find could be. Ziemendorff only made an official announcement regarding Gocta’s existence four years later, in March 2006. The delay was mainly due to the reticence of the locals in revealing a place for which they had great respect. “We 79

were afraid of the waterfall,” explains Bartolomé Trauco, one of the muleteers making the journey with Dumont and Florez. “A long time ago there was a mermaid there, a mythical creature, who sang songs we couldn’t understand. It was a music unlike any other. The mermaid would seduce people with her music and anyone who went near the waterfall would disappear.”

According to legend, the mermaid was accompanied by an enormous snake; together they stood guard over a pot of gold inside the waterfall. “We were too innocent to know how significant it was,” says Trauco. “We thank God that nature has gifted it to us so that we’ll be able to earn a living more easily in future.”

H

aving walked and scrambled for almost 4km, Dumont’s party reaches an altitude of about 2,200m. The sun

Dumont: “Jumping off Gocta was the biggest adventure in my life”

80

breaks through the gaps in the drifting cloud cover and illuminates the mountains. A light haze hangs over the ravine. The view is superb.

It is as if the gates to paradise have opened.

“This is why I love this sport so much,” Dumont beams, taking it all in. “You have the ideal excuse to get to know new people and places. I am a nomad. I love nature.

I love living in nature and everything that goes with that. It’s just fascinating.”

There isn’t much time to sit and marvel.

It is almost 9am, with almost 2km to go to the jump site. The plan is to be there by 11, before the sun heats Gocta’s waters, increasing the unwelcome turbulence.

From this point, the landscape changes dramatically. Cliff faces and ravines are left behind, ahead is the rainforest. The

route becomes shaded. Huge ferns sway overhead. There is a path with paving stones made out of huge pieces of rock, which makes progress over the moist ground a little easier.

There’s a history of lugging at altitude in this part of the world; look at Machu Picchu.

After more than three hours of walking from San Pablo, here is Gocta. It is 10.30am.

The waterfall has two sections: a lower section 231m tall, an upper 540m tall. Dumont will jump from the upper section, after negotiating a narrow path leading up to it, covered in interwoven branches and roots. This vegetation gives the ground underfoot a softness. One foot wrong, into a hole between branches, could easily cause a fall.

The last 15m of the journey are its most difficult. Dumont has to abseil his way the red bulletin

photography: enrique castro-mendivil/red bull content pool, renzo giraldo/red bull content pool, marcelo maragni/red bull content pool

Launch pad: safety gear is needed for last part of the trek

Gocta is a very dangerous place from which to BASE-jump.

The wind and the spray from the waterfall create turbulence that could easily force jumpers against the cliffs

down from the end of the branch-strewn path to his chosen jump point. He slips on his jumpsuit and parachute, but then takes off both of them immediately. Something isn’t right. He puts the suit and parachute back on, then takes them off again twice more before finding out what the problem is. Part of his balaclava was pinching him between his T-shirt and suit.

“It might seem as if I was overdoing it with the balaclava,” Dumont explains later, “but in this job, every little detail matters. You have to concentrate on every little thing, no matter how tiny. This isn’t about winning and losing. This is about surviving.”

With all of his kit in exactly the right place, Dumont abseils down the steep slope until he reaches the jump site: a narrow promontory,

Job done! Dumont (right) and Florez after the jump

barely 50cm wide. The wind is whistling now, and Dumont shoots a glance into the abyss.

“I was curious as to what it would be like.

Being here and knowing that you’re doing something that nobody has ever done before you gives you a sense of emotion and fear.”

He pauses for a few seconds.

“What do I think about just as I’m about to jump into the void? I find myself in a state of perfect meditation. I banish negative things from my head and try to have positive thoughts.

It’s a mental game.”

Five, four, three, two… Dumont bends his knees slightly, leans forward and jumps.

“When I saw him jump, I thought to myself, ‘He’ll be smashed to pieces,’” Bartolomé Trauco, the muleteer, says afterwards. “I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s good that there are brave people who are willing to take such risks.”

Dumont quickly reaches a speed of descent of 200kph, and comes within 20m of a bulge in the rock face. That is dangerously close.

“You don’t think of the speed when you’re falling. Your brain processes everything very quickly. Every second seems a lot longer than it actually is. You experience a distortion of time.”

For the 10 seconds he is in free fall, Dumont brings his spirit in tune with nature.

“I’ve always wanted to be able to fly,” he says. “I’ve flown planes and helicopters before, but for me the best thing to fly is my body.

Being in direct contact with your environment is indescribable. It’s something profound which takes over. It’s what I live for.”

When Dumont opens his parachute, his face looks untroubled. A sense of joy rushes through his body and he calls out, in Spanish, “How cool was that!” The jump was a success. “Climbing over the mountains, trekking through the rainforest and then jumping off Gocta. That was really epic. That was the biggest adventure in my life.” www.cedricdumont.com

81

Flight of fantasy: what it takes to make Spider-Man fly on page 86

Contents 84 TRAVEL The world’s most amazing swimming pools 86 GET THE GEAR Stunt co-ordinator Andy Armstrong’s tools of the trade 88 TRAINING How squash champion Karim Darwish gets match-fit 90 NIGHTLIFE Whatever gets you through ’til dawn 94 THE Sounds of 2013 Wellington metal men Beastwars 96 SAVE THE DATE Events for your diary 97 KAINRATH Cartoonist’s calendar

photography: Rex features

98 MIND’S EYE Columnist Russell Brown

83

more body & mind

1. HIGHEST

MARINA BAY SANDS, SINGAPORE From the rooftop infinity pool, hotel guests watch the metropolis teem 200m down below. www.marinabaysands.com

Away days

Swim the world

Spectacular travel adventures

A kilometre long, 57 storeys up, surrounded by ice, in paradise or as wild as the deep blue sea: these are the world’s most superlative pools COOL POOLS

6. PARADISE

5 4

1 3

84

6 2

ALILA UBUD, BALI Perched over the Ayung River, on a hillside terrace in an area of lush rainforest, an infinity pool its occupants hope lasts forever. alilahotels.com/ubud

the red bulletin

more body & mind

2. WILDEST

BONDI ICEBERGS, AUSTRALIA Waves break into this ocean pool, tucked in the corner of Sydney’s Bondi Beach. www.icebergs.com.au

3. LARGEST

words: ulrich corazza. photography: Corbis (3), imago, reuters, mauritius images

SAN ALFONSO DEL MAR, CHILE Plenty of room poolside at this resort: five years in the making and, at 1,013m long, 20 times the length of an Olympic pool. www.sanalfonso.cl

5. HOT AND COLD

BLUE LAGOON GRINDAVÍK, ICELAND Stay warm testing the thermal spa’s energising properties: even in winter (average temp, -2°C), the mineral-rich water’s a balmy 40°C. www.bluelagoon.com

4. THE DEPTHS

NEMO 33, BRUSSELS, BELGIUM This 34.5m-deep indoor pool has caves and viewing areas for filming and diving instruction. www.nemo33.com

the red bulletin

85

3

10

6 4

2

words: florian Obkircher. photography: annie collinge

1

Action men: Andy Armstrong and his son, James (right), are currently working on The Amazing Spider-Man 2

86

the red bulletin

m o r e b o dy & m i n d

get the gear a pro’s essentials

How SpiderMan swings Stunt co-ordinator Andy Armstrong makes cars explode and superheroes like Spider-Man and Thor fly through the air. His is no ordinary workshop

9

7

1. High-speed winch Whenever Spider-Man swings through the air, he is pulled by this winch, on a tiny strand of the cable on the black spool.

We can pull in literally hundreds of feet of cable and it will pull at a constant speed up to 20ft/s.

2. Crash-test dummy The art of stunt designing is to make something look as dangerous as possible while keeping it repeatable and as safe as possible. We work out that fine line with plastic dummies that weigh the same as a person.

3. Ratchet It runs on compressed air or nitrogen and allows us to pull or throw the stuntman backwards and forwards a long way. You see it used in a lot of movies, if there’s an explosion and someone is blown backwards.

8

5

4. AMSPEC stunt pads These big, soft pads are where the stunt performer or actor can land if we don’t need to see the ground. Nowadays, we use them more and more, because they can be digitally removed.

5. Action Factory fire gel It’s a water-based flameretardant that we put on exposed skin in a fire scene. It will stop flames licking across your body and causing a lot of damage. It usually dries up after 40 seconds, which sounds a lot, but if you’re on fire for 20 seconds it feels like three minutes.

6. NOMEX overalls We use the same fire-resistant overalls as racing drivers, but under our clothes, so the stunt looks as authentic as possible.

When we were making Hoffa, I warned Danny DeVito, who was directing and acting, about the fire scene. But when he saw me on fire he forgot his part and shouted, “Put him out!”

the red bulletin

7. Toy cars With every vehicle stunt we do, we always start off placing toy cars on a map everywhere a real car is going to be in the movie.

We play the scene with each stunt driver moving the car he’s going to drive in the scene. It’s literally like children playing with toys, but it makes everybody understand what the action is.

8. Fire extinguishers We have at least two fire extinguishers next to every person at the point where they are going to be set on fire and other fire extinguishers where they are going to move to. We also have people hidden with fire extinguishers between the two points. On a big film set with a lot of explosions, we’ll get through 100 fire extinguishers.

9. Apple iPad We shoot every action sequence on video and put it onto an iPad, so when I go on the film set and we do the real thing, everybody from the camera operator to costumes can see what’s going to happen. You could be 20 minutes describing it or two minutes looking at it on an iPad. For a film like The Amazing Spider-Man 2, I have 200 prerecorded scenes on my ‘bible’.

10. Hybrid device A neck-restraint system for car crashes made of carbon fibre.

You wear it on your shoulders, so if you have a hard impact or get upside down, your head can’t extend too far and break your neck. In The Green Hornet, my son, James, did a very violent crash. He’s driving a pick-up truck, the back gets blown up, and it somersaults and lands on its roof. Wearing one of these, he was uninjured.

Taurus World Stunt Awards, May 10, Hollywood. Details at: taurusworldstuntawards.com

87

more body & mind

The winner of 22 squash tournaments trains 20 hours a week on court

Karim Darwish’s off-season training MONDAY 9am: warm-up run of 2km in 8 minutes, then 15 minutes of stretching.

9.45: on-court footwork drills: about 50 reps total of various moves.

11.30am-1pm: technique work, eg stroke drills.

6-7.30pm: practice matches with Egypt national team teammates.

TUESDAY 6-8pm: national team practice; stretching; an hour’s massage.

WEDNESDAY 9.30am: the ‘champion killer’, about 40 mins total: 4 x 800m (each at 2m30s-2m40s), then 5 x 400m (7075s), then 6 x 200m (30s), with 1 min break between each individual run.

12-1pm: solo on-court technical training, eg practising drop shots.

6-7.30pm: national team practice.

THURSDAY 9.30am: circuit training, with 4 sets of the following: 12-15 leg presses, shoulder shrugs and bicep curls and tricep curls; 30 dead lifts; 40 sit-ups.

11am-12.30pm: technique work.

FRIDAY Day off.

Training with the pros

Against The Wall

Karim darwish To be world number one takes love of your sport and devotion to it – and that includes breaking through the pain barrier

“Squash is my life,” says Karim Darwish, 31, who held the world number one spot for 11 months in 2009, the year he won his first team world championship (a second came in 2011).

He works on his strength, speed and stamina in the off-season, in June and July, at home in Egypt. “I want to give 120 per cent every time I train, so I can call on that 100 per cent every time I compete. Sometimes getting out of bed in the morning hurts, but that shows I’m making progress,” he says. It’s a regular wake-up call-to-arms if, like Darwish, your training features a routine known as the champion killer. www.psaworldtour.com

88

SUNDAY 9-10.30am: circuit training.

11am-12.30pm: technique and tactics.

6-8pm: national team practice.

MY TRAINING TIP

It’s all about movement “The most important thing in squash is footwork – and that starts with the correct choice of footwear. The shoes need to be extremely light, well padded and mustn’t slip. I currently wear Asics Gel Blade 3. You run about 15km over the course of a squash match, which makes it all the more important to learn to be economical in the way you move.

The best way to do this is with some on-court training. Sprint from the centre of the court and back, to each of the four corners in turn, then repeat that set of four shuttle runs eight times.”

Darwish’s data checked at the Thalgau training centre, Austria

the red bulletin

words: ulrich corazza. photography: Tomislav Moze/Red Bull Content Pool

work out

SATURDAY 9.30am: running: 8 x 400m (68-72s each, with 1 min break between), warm-down and stretching.

11.30am-1pm: technique and tactics.

1-1.45pm: solo shot training.

6.30-8pm: national team practice.

/redbulletin

MAY 2013 a beyond th

e

gazine ordinary ma

M aK ING aN sPIDer-M sw ING

secrets of the stuntmen be astwar s

hardest r o c k in g b a n d in n z

SubScription offer

12 MontHS + WHere tHe trAiL enDS DVD, bLu-rAy DiSc AnD DigitAL DoWnLoAD in fuLL HD

Simply go to www.getredbulletin.co.nz The gift may vary depending on availability.

for onLy

$ 31 20

m o r e b o dy & m i n d

Nightlife Whatever gets you through ’til dawn

out now

Action

“I have a soft spot for pitiful heroes” Talib Kweli The rapper whose rhymes educate and entertain in equal measure is back with another slice of hip-hop gold Talib Kweli was an outsider from the start. When he first appeared on the scene with his socially conscious rap, in 1995, the Brooklynite stood in stark contrast to the gangsta scene with his poetic, politicised lyrics. Now the 37-year-old is one of the world’s most admired and successful rappers, seen as a hip-hop scholar, yet one who, for all his profundity, still knows how to get a party started. His new solo album reflects this split personality.

The Red Bulletin: The chanting which opens the album is like a demonstration.

Talib Kweli: The force behind the Arab Spring impressed me. That comes across especially in the intro and the outro. The album is like a day in one’s life. It’s about politics, relationships and my place in the music business.

What are the advantages of releasing music on your own record label?

There was more money [on major labels] in the 1990s. Back then I spent a lot of time in the studio creating, whereas now I have to be a businessman, too.

I like the challenge, and it

Talib Kweli's new album, Prisoner of Conscious, is out now: www.talibkweli.com

90

also gives me independence. Kendrick Lamar, who appears as a guest rapper on my new album, became successful first on the internet, without the support of a major record label.

You studied to be an actor. If your new album was a film, who’d be the director?

Wes Anderson. He’s very consistent, but surprising at the same time. In his films there are always characters who first come across as pitiful, but very quickly you find yourself rooting for them. We both have a soft spot for that kind of hero.

Dark runs The in THING: With the calendar of daylight-hours races full to capacity, nighttime runs through major cities are becoming increasingly popular.

START RIGHT: In summer, post-midnight conditions can be ideal: not too hot, less distraction as the city sleeps. Allergy sufferers enjoy the fact that the pollen count is usually lower at night.

WATCH OUT: Running at night requires greater concentration, because of the darkness. The biological clock also has to adjust to running late, which should be accounted for during training.

Headlamps and hi-vis kit are recommended.

they said it

“ Life is something that happens when you can’t get to sleep” Fran Lebowitz, American writer

the red bulletin

what sup

Vanilla Garden “This drink has an ingredient, parsley, which, at first glance, you’d think has no place in a cocktail,” says barkeeper and cocktailsmith Michael Steinbacher from the Mayday Bar at Hangar-7 in Salzburg. “However, the herb combines perfectly with ginger ale and Angostura bitters.” An almost non-alcoholic drink (the bitters are 44.7 per cent proof) with a sharp taste at first, the Vanilla Garden develops an incomparably tangy flavour, with parsley and vanilla overtones.

Club of the Club

month

photography: DOROTHY HONG/Vision Music, getty images, fabrik (3), Fotostudio Eisenhut & Mayer

Gateway to another dimension Fabrik Every weekend, 3,500 clubbers turn a former factory outside Madrid into a rave village ruled by world-class DJs Scantily clad men breathe fire alongside scantily clad women dancing in giant cocktail glasses. Laser beams whoosh above the crowd as ceiling-mounted cannons fire volleys of dry ice onto the dancefloor. The huge sound system thumps out trouser-shaking bass while the DJ is enthroned on the stage, his 3,500 subjects in thrall to the beat.

Fabrik is the embodiment of the superclub, a dance music palace whose literally dazzling light show gives it the impression of a gateway to another dimension. In 2003, Daniel Perellón opened Fabrik on the outskirts of Madrid, with the sole aim of creating a venue that could rival the best clubs in the world. He succeeded, and a decade on he’s still running a worldclass operation. In addition to the three floors – each of which would already count as a large club on its own – there are small restaurants,

the red bulletin

Ingredients

Method

4 lime wedges 10 parsley leaves 2tsp vanilla sugar 120ml ginger ale Angostura bitters Crushed ice

Muddle the lime, sugar and nine of the parsley leaves in a caipirinha glass. Add a dash of bitters, ginger ale and crushed ice. Stir until the sugar dissolves.

Dip the last leaf in sugar; garnish.

an in-house boutique and several chill-out and VIP areas. Such an expanse demands an appropriately commanding master of ceremonies: on Saturdays, leading techno and progressive DJs such as Umek, Steve Bug, Ben Sims, 2manydjs and Carl Cox are at the decks. Sunday nights are for costume parties, with themes including the world of Tim Burton.

When Alice in Wonderland is dancing to throbbing house beats with Edward Scissorhands, the portal to another world has been well and truly opened.

Fabrik Av de la Industria 82 28970 Humanes de Madrid, Spain www.grupo-kapital.com/fabrik

91

m o r e b o dy & m i n d

Nightlife

1

On the rise: Phoenix's Thomas Mars (left) and Deck D’Arcy

Dan Flavin (1933-1996)

“My wife [Mars is married to film director Sofia Coppola] gave me a Dan Flavin étude, a study, for my birthday.

It’s very inspiring for the light show we’re working on. The beautiful thing is, I heard that neons are not going to live forever. Some colours, I think red and black, die faster than others. Flavin is very popular now, but his works have a short lifetime.”

2 Donald Judd (1928-1994)

“He lived in Texas and worked in furniture and architecture, and now there are manuals on the internet that tell you how to make your own pieces in his style. So you question the value of the object: he didn’t do it himself, he just made the plans. These wooden pieces can be incredibly hard to craft, but anyone can make them.”

Take 3

“Some colours die faster than others” Phoenix The Grammy-winning indie titans like their modern art as they like their songs: cool, original and provocative When Paris four-piece Phoenix conquered America in 2009 and sold two million copies of their art-pop fourth LP, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, they were as surprised as anyone.

Before this breakthrough, the band had struggled for almost a decade, despite a

92

promising start in the ’90s as label mates of Daft Punk and Air. “We were a bit lost in our own world and we thought no one was listening,” says frontman Thomas Mars. Now the group – Mars, bassist Deck D’Arcy and guitarist brothers Laurent Brancowitz and Christian Mazzalai – are back with fifth album Bankrupt! that repeats the winning formula found on Wolfgang.

Recent fortunes have meant they’ve been able to indulge their common interest in art. “We are all into these very American artists like Dan Flavin and Edward Ruscha, the postbeatnik generation whose work is instinctive and fresh,” says Mars, of his passion for late20th-century American minimalism. “When people ask us why we called the record Bankrupt!, I’m tempted to give an Ed Ruscha answer: because it’s just there.” Here, Mars tells The Red Bulletin which post-modern US artists get his creative juices flowing. www.wearephoenix.com

3 Edward Ruscha (1937–)

“With these super-American artists, it’s all or nothing when they talk. I love that when Ed Ruscha talks, he doesn’t give anything away. People ask him why he paints, why he chose blue for that layer, and he says, ‘There is nothing to explain.’ For us, it’s comforting there’s no added cerebral element, that it’s all there; nothing else. I met him once and he’s very cool.”

the red bulletin

Night snack

Mexico Shrimp­ Cocktail Veracruz style On Mexico’s Caribbean coast, there is one street food dish that rules above all others

words: klaus kamolz. photography: getty images (4), corbis (2), ddpimages, imago, Fotostudio Eisenhut & Mayer

SHRIMPS, SHRIMPS, SHRIMPS Bubba, Forrest Gump’s friend, could talk endlessly of shrimp dishes. He would be in heaven in the Mexican state of Veracruz, a paradise for seafood lovers.

There are tacos with shrimps, omelettes with shrimps, rice with shrimps. You can grill them, fry them, bake them or eat them raw. But the local speciality is a cocktail, served everywhere, as a matter of course, in the glassware of fine restaurants or in a plastic cup on the street.

OUT THE PINK This is not the shrimp cocktail you’re thinking of, drowning in a thick, pink mayonnaise-andketchup sauce. The Veracruz shrimp cocktail is much lighter and fresher. In brief: boil the shrimps and marinate in garlic, spring onion, chili, olive oil and lime juice. Purée tomatoes, dice avocados and chop coriander; stir together with chili sauce to make the base of the dish. Top with the shrimp, and you’re done.

Queue for crustaceans: people go loco for coctel de camarones in Mexico

the red bulletin

HOW IT’S MEANT TO BE The cocktail, or coctel de camarones, as you’ll find it on restaurant menus and the boards

by palapas, the Veracruz snack stalls, comes with the crisp accompaniment of salty crackers (or tacos or nachos) and, for afters, a toro or el torito, a drink made with evaporated milk, fruit (guava, mango, berries, whatever’s around) water and a generous glug of white rum.

CLOSE RELATIVE A variation of the shrimp cocktail, which also contains crab and lobster, is known as vuelve a la vida, which means ‘back to life’. This is because that three-seafood cocktail is a particular favourite with those trying to cure a hangover.

93

Vinyl analysis

The sounds of 2013 # 5

Beastwars (from left): Matthew Hyde, James Woods, Clayton Anderson and Nathan Hickey

beastwars Loving LPs – their own, and of others – keeps the Wellington metal men focused on a band’s most important element: the music

The band’s third LP, Blood Becomes Fire, is out now

94

Thumbing his way through a stack of vinyl, Matthew Hyde, grizzled frontman of Beastwars, retrieves a copy of Rough Diamond, by country crooner Delaney Davidson. It was a present from his bandmate, drummer Nathan ‘Nato’ Hickey, and is part of the band’s tradition of gifting records on birthdays.

The day The Red Bulletin connects with the Wellington sludge metal outfit, bass player Clayton Anderson is celebrating his 38th birthday with barbecue and brews. A band-curated package of LPs has been assembled. “I got him Dead Skeletons, you know, those Goths from Iceland. It’s a doublealbum of madness,” says Hyde.

“I’m going to keep it a bit

straighter,” Hickey adds. “I’m heading to the record store after this to get him a copy of PJ Harvey’s Let England Shake.”

True vinyl junkies, Beastwars are committed to putting their own riff-driven hypnotic metal into the groove. The group released their 2011 self-titled debut on vinyl, a limited-edition LP that came etched with a subliminal message. “Not many people have seen this,” says Hickey, “but engraved on one side is ‘Obey the riff’ and on the other side is ‘Long live the beast.’

“I feel like everything you do, you should be doing it for the music, and that’s what I mean by ‘Obey the riff’ – the music comes first and you forget about all

the industry bullshit and all the jumping through hoops.

“Basically, I approach it like: what would I want my favourite band to do? It’s just seeing things from the position of a music fan.”

What would Hickey’s favourite band do? Beastwars have treated fans to a glow-in-the-dark 7in single, a Beastwars craft beer brewed in their honour, enough black T-shirts to clothe an army of metalheads, and a blood-red vinyl edition of their new album Blood Becomes Fire, which sold out in under three hours.

“This whole thing has been driven by our fans,” says Hyde.

“Without those people buying a T-shirt or a record or coming to a show, none of this would have

the red bulletin

m o r e b o dy & m i n d

Words: Sam Wicks. Photography: Nic Staveley, Alexander Hallag

“ Our fans don’t need a calculator to work out what time signature our music’s in. It’s primal” happened. It’s totally a reaction between the band and the fans.

They grow it.” (Those fans also purchase the band’s the music.)

Drawing inspiration from metal heavyweights like Black Sabbath, Melvins, Kyuss and High On Fire, Beastwars’ fusion of hard rock and brooding, down-tuned doom metal won the band the allegiance of the metal community and alternative music fans.

According to Hyde, it’s their honest-to-goodness respect for the basics that has led to a broad cross-section of music lovers embracing the band’s sound.

“I reckon because people stopped making [riff-driven music], people miss it,” he says, “so they’ll come out to a live show to seek out that noise. I mean, one of the things I’m proudest of is our fanbase. I’ve seen guys in their 60s come along to see us, and then there are 18-year-old kids.

“With the riff thing, it seems that with heavy music’s development everything’s got heavier and faster, more complicated and more technical – and everyone’s a virtuoso. So we’ve just stripped it right back.

Our fans don’t need a calculator to work out what time signature our music’s in. It’s primal.”

Beastwars began its life as an instrumental trio, but it was the addition of Matthew Hyde’s throat-shredding vocals and shamanic stage presence that delivered unbridled power to the group’s heavy signature riffery.

All eyes are on Hyde when he stalks the stage, arms flailing as if to placate the metal gods.

“For most of the gig, I’m seeing the back of Matt, so I don’t really see much of what he’s doing,” says

the red bulletin

All front: adding singer Matthew Hyde sparked Beastwars’ success

Hickey. “But I do remember one show where he turned around and faced me. I recognised the face and the body, but I didn’t recognise the person. And I thought, ‘No wonder people want to come to see us play.’”

“It’s hard to explain, but it’s almost like a ceremony,” reflects Hyde. “It’s like trying to remove yourself from this world, like you’ve let some madness into you and brought it back from the other side. It can be absolutely terrifying.”

While Hyde’s possessed frontman presence evokes punk and metal masters like GG Allin and Glenn Danzig, his guttural growl is entirely his own. Despite the brutal workout he gives his larynx with every show, it appears to be unstoppable.

Aged 42, he’s in a veteran class of metal frontmen, an unlikely candidate to chalk up a latecareer win. Yet his wizened exterior belies a fire-in-thebelly passion for the sonic clout that Beastwars pack.

“When you’re young, you want success, but that never happened for me,” Hyde says. “I just became old, and then this happened, which was a complete surprise.

I was making music throughout that time with some success and some failures, but maybe I had to grow old for this to really work.”

Need to know THE LINE-UP Matthew Hyde – vocals James Woods – bass Nathan ‘Nato’ Hickey – drums Clayton Anderson – guitar Discography Blood Becomes Fire (album, 2013) Tower of Skulls (single, 2012) Beastwars (album, 2011)

The story so far “We played to no one, but at least we had Matt in the audience – apparently he was singing along, making up words,” says Nathan Hickey, 33, of Beastwars’ first show. It’s hard to imagine the band minus Matthew Hyde’s unhinged roar, but they began as an instrumental trio – James Woods, 43, on bass; Clayton Anderson, 38, on guitar – playing Wellington venue San Francisco Bath House.

Once Hyde, 42, completed the line-up, Beastwars developed their sound. “It feels like we were practising for two years before we played our first gig with Matt,” Hickey recalls, “and then a friend of ours said, ‘Will you play at my 30th?’

It was in the hull of an old

tugboat on the Wellington waterfront. It went off, and all kinds of people started offering us gigs.”

The band parlayed the cash they made from those shows into Beastwars, their debut album, recorded in four days with producer/engineer Dale Cotton. Released in 2011, the album was a finalist for the Taite Music Prize in 2012. It also won the band a supporter in the form of the Hallertau craft brewery owner, who brewed the group their own drop. Beastwars play NZ and Australia dates in May in support of John Garcia’s post-Kyuss band, Unida. Armed with their new album Blood Becomes Fire, the band also headline 12 shows nationwide this month. beastwars.bandcamp.com

95

m o r e b o dy & m i n d

Save The Date May 2013 MAY 20-22

Guitar gods Tenacious D don’t do subtle or serious. The metal band, a vehicle for the actors and comedians Jack Black and Kyle Gass, have been hitting the high notes since 1994, before Black found fame in Hollywood. Their South Park meets Spinal Tap schtick can be juvenile and near the knuckle, but it’s often very funny, and both men are musically adept. The band’s third album, Rize Of The Fenix, was nominated for a Grammy last year; expect to hear much of it live on successive nights in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch this month. www.tenaciousd.com

Hip-hop to it: Afrika Bambaataa hits Auckland this month MAY 9, 10

MAY 12

Obstacle alert In America, obstacle course runners can face up to Tough Mudder, Race The Reaper and You May Die. Now the increasingly popular pastime is making its mark in New Zealand with O Rock, a 6km obstacle race at Sir Barry Curtis Park in East Auckland. Competitors will tackle many challenges, including a cargo net, crawling under barbed wire, walls and running through tyres. Fancy dress is optional, but encouraged. www.orock.co.nz

Old school The man credited with laying down much of the template for hip-hop culture is making a rare visit to New Zealand. As part of a tour marking the 30th anniversary of his game-changing, Kraftwerk-sampling song, Planet Rock, Afrika Bambaataa will be making a stop at The Studio in Auckland. Last year, the iconic DJ and producer from the Bronx was appointed a visiting professor at Cornell University in New York, which has one of the world’s largest hip-hop collections. www.iticket.co.nz

MAY 9-11

Just for laughs

Comedian Arj Barker

96

MAY 19

Great outdoors The Xterra Auckland Trail Run/Walk Series celebrates its 10th anniversary this year with six events from May to September. The off-road contest visits some of the most spectacular forests and regional parks in and around Auckland, starting at Shakespear Regional Park, followed

by Riverhead, Woodhill, Waiuku and Whitford, before the series finale in Hunua on September 1. Athletes of all abilities are catered for, with four course options to choose from: short (5-8km), mid (10-14km), long (1620km) and super-long (21km plus).

Participants hot-foot it across cold trails

Given that this takes place in winter, runners expect to get cold, wet and dirty, knowing full well their efforts will be rewarded at the finish line with a Speights and a hot sausage. www.totalsport.co.nz

the red bulletin

Words: robert tighe. photography: MO DAOUD, Emma Andrews

Arj Barker can do no wrong. Since starring in Flight Of The Conchords as Dave, the pawnshop assistant with an opinion on everything, the American has been adopted by Kiwi audiences as one of their own. He supported the Conchords on their record-breaking tour of New Zealand last year and he’s back this month at Auckland’s Sky City Theatre.

His new stand-up show, Go Time, is one of the highlights of the NZ International Comedy Festival. www.comedyfestival.co.nz

illustration: dietmar kainrath

k a i n r at h

the red bulletin

97

H

ere’s something you may not know: for 27 years in New Zealand, homosexual acts between two men were a crime punishable by death. That was the span between the new nation’s adoption of English law on the matter in 1840, and the passage of the Offences Against the Person Act 1867, which reduced the penalty for buggery to mere life imprisonment. Flogging and hard labour were added in 1893 and that’s how things stayed for another 70 years or so.

It seems unthinkable now. Yet the first serious attempt to remove the crime of homosexuality from the statutes was not made until 1974, the year that colour television arrived in New Zealand. It failed in Parliament, as did the next two attempts.

It wasn’t until 1986, the year that GST was introduced, that the Homosexual Law Reform Act became law.

Reform came only after a vicious political battle, but who would turn back the clock now? There’s a forgotten story here, too: by the time the New Zealand Parliament found its humanity, it was years behind the New Zealand people.

In 1978, Victoria University researcher Richard Bowman set out to do what no one had yet done in New Zealand – or Australia, for that matter – survey ordinary people on their views regarding homosexuality.

The results stood in stark contrast to what had gone on in Parliament in the preceding years. Bowman surveyed nearly 500 people, in the inner suburbs of Wellington and in Hamilton. Threequarters of them thought homosexual acts should be removed from the Crimes Act. The politicians who shunned law reform and, in 1977, specifically ruled homosexuals out of protection under the Human Rights Act, presumably thought themselves to be standing up for social order and the will of the public. Bowman found that 80 per cent those surveyed said the Human Rights Act should be extended to offer protection on the basis of sexual orientation – something that would not happen for another 14 years.

Mind’s Eye

At The Heart Of Minds They know what we’re all thinking, says Russell Brown, and that’s a good thing Many things have changed since the 1970s, not least among them the fact that people know a lot more about what people actually think. It can be perilous to regard polling as the whole truth, but there’s no doubt that public polls steadied the courage of the MPs who voted for the Civil Union Act in 2005.

It’s what’s happened since then that is remarkable. Pew Research, a leading light in the gathering of global public opinion, recently published a report that showed that in the past 10 years, Americans’ views on same-sex marriage have radically shifted. In 2003, only 33 per cent of them were in favour; in 2013, it’s 49 per cent, with only 44 per cent opposed.

Part of the change was attributable to the arrival of the ‘millennials’, those born since 1980. But 28 per cent of those now supporting marriage equality say they have changed their minds in

that time. It’s the kind of shift in social attitudes that once took generations.

So what has changed to change minds in this way? The greater visibility of public opinion through polls is one thing.

The inexorable effect of incremental change is another: the sky did not fall with civil unions and New Zealand did not become “the sodomy capital of the South Pacific”, as National MP Norm Jones predicted, in the wake of a reformed law.

But there’s a more powerful accelerator than simply waiting for the experts to tell us what we all think – finding out what we all think directly. In an age when we are all publishers, everything we say online is an editorial. And the shortest editorials of all, the 140-character thoughts of Twitter, find each other, aggregate and proliferate with dizzying speed.

The first two readings of Louisa Wall’s marriage equality amendment bill became surprise cross-media events, as users of social media – some of them in the same room, at parties – anointed obscure National MP Chris Auchinvole a new star, after he delivered his witty, thoughtful speech in favour, on Parliament TV. Each incremental change, no matter how small, becomes the platform on which the opponents of the next change fight their battles. Opponents of civil unions held that legalisation was enough. Those arguing against marriage equality declare now that civil unions provide all anyone should need.

I suspect we will see similar accelerated shifts in popular standards in the years to come, mostly on social issues, because human rights questions tend to have more ‘right’ answers than those around politics or economics. It’s easier to rail against globalisation than to work through all the consequences of doing so.

But one thing seems certain. Be they good or bad, the speed at which new ideas spread will continue to approach the speed with which we can conceive them.

Russell Brown is a media commentator and blogger living in Auckland

The Red Bulletin New Zealand, ISSN 2079-4274: The Red Bulletin is published by Red Bull Media House GmbH General Manager Wolfgang Winter Publisher Franz Renkin Editor-in-Chief Robert Sperl Deputy Editor-in-Chief Alexander Macheck UK & Ireland Editor Paul Wilson Contributing Editor Stefan Wagner Chief Sub-editor Nancy James Deputy Chief Sub-editor Joe Curran Production Editor Marion Wildmann Chief Photo Editor Fritz Schuster Deputy Photo Editors Ellen Haas, Catherine Shaw, Rudolf Übelhör Creative Director Erik Turek Art Director Kasimir Reimann Design Martina de Carvalho-Hutter, Silvia Druml, Kevin Goll, Carita Najewitz, Esther Straganz Staff Writers Ulrich Corazza, Werner Jessner, Ruth Morgan, Florian Obkircher, Arkadiusz Piatek, Andreas Rottenschlager, Robert Tighe Corporate Publishing Boro Petric (head), Christoph Rietner (chief-editor); Dominik Uhl (art director); Markus Kucera (photo director); Lisa Blazek (editor); Christian Graf-Simpson, Daniel Kudernatsch (app) Head of Production Michael Bergmeister Production Wolfgang Stecher (mgr), Walter Sádaba Repro Managers Clemens Ragotzky (head), Karsten Lehmann, Josef Mühlbacher Finance Siegmar Hofstetter, Simone Mihalits Marketing & Country Management Barbara Kaiser (head), Stefan Ebner, Stefan Hötschl, Elisabeth Salcher, Lukas Scharmbacher, Peter Schiffer, Julia Schweikhardt, Sara Varming. The Red Bulletin is published in Austria, France, Germany, Ireland, Kuwait, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa, Switzerland, the UK and the USA. Website www.redbulletin.com. Head office: Red Bull Media House GmbH, Oberst-Lepperdinger-Strasse 11-15, A-5071 Wals bei Salzburg, FN 297115i, Landesgericht Salzburg, ATU63611700. UK office: 155-171 Tooley Street, London SE1 2JP, +44 (0) 20 3117 2100. Austrian office: Heinrich-Collin-Strasse 1, A-1140 Vienna, +43 (1) 90221 28800. Printed by PMP Print, 30 Birmingham Drive, Riccarton, 8024 Christchurch. For all advertising enquiries, contact Sales Manager Brad Morgan, email brad.morgan@nz.redbull.com Write to us: email letters@redbulletin.com

The next issue of the Red Bulletin is out on June 4 98

the red bulletin

Illustration: Albert Exergian

m o r e b o dy & m i n d

peugeot .co.nz

IS BACK ARRIVING IN NZ JULY 2013

To find out more and register your interest now, visit peugeot.co.nz/contact-us

NEW PEUGEOT 208 GTi