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48
riders of the storms
The big-wave surfers risking their lives to find and conquer the largest waves in the world
Andrew Chisholm (cover), aaron feaver
Welcome
The Red Bulletin celebrates the best in sport, adventure, music and culture, and this month we feature some of South Africa’s (and the world’s) finest. We meet up with new Big Wave world champion Grant ‘Twiggy’ Baker and the rest of the hard-charging posse pushing the limits of big-wave riding. We check out Noisia and DJ Shimza, two of the hottest acts at the recent Cape Town Electronic Music Festival, and hang with Katlego Mphahlele, leader of a champion dance crew with plenty to prove at the upcoming Red Bull Beat Battle. We also take you backstage at Nitro Circus Live, the wildest action sports show on Earth. Plus: Seth Rogen chats about his new movie, MotoGP world champ Marc Marquez goes training in a vineyard, and much more. Enjoy! the red bulletin
“ I live for being on stage. The exchange with the audience”
chrYsta bell, page 42
05
may 2014
at a glance Bullevard 10 look and listen This month’s edition of The Red Bulletin starts on the right note with a 14-page musical interlude
24
Features 24 Inside track
World champ at 20: is Marc Marquez rewriting the rules of MotoGP?
Marc Marquez
The world MotoGP champion takes The Red Bulletin for a spin around his private practice grounds
38 He’s got the moves
Master dancer Katlego Mphahlele
40 The odd couple
Seth Rogen and Zac Efron fight for the right to party in their new film
42 Femme fatale
Hypnotic music muse Chrysta Bell
48 Big-wave riders
Taking on the world’s highest waves
60 Drum major
60 85 He plays concerts almost five hours long: Martin Grubinger is the greatest drummer in the world
64 DJ Shimza and Noisia
At Cape Town Electronic Music Festival
row like a pro
World-class oarsmen Mario Gyr and Simon Schürch outline a winning formula by revealing their training secrets
70 Game boys
The Starcraft II stars of Seoul
76 Nitro Circus Live
Travis Pastrana’s extreme show hits SA
Action
76 the circus comes to town
When Travis Pastrana brought his freestyle athletes to South Africa, The Red Bulletin went along for the ride 06
64 Noisia and Shimza
Dutch imports Noisia and leading local talent Shimza on their appearances at the Cape Town Electronic Music Festival
84 85 86 88 89 90 92 94 96 98
travel Truck racing in Colorado training Get fit like a rower get the gear Two-wheeled tech party The best club in Sweden My city What a DJ loves in Bern enter now Wings For Life World Run music Foster The People’s top tunes new games Wolfenstein save the Date Unmissable events magic moment Out-skating gravity
the red bulletin
jim krantz, christoph meissner, lukas meader, Luke Daniel, chris saunders
the beat master
Marathon drummer Martin Grubinger
Contributors who’s on board this issue
The Red Bulletin South Africa, ISSN 2079-4282
The Red Bulletin is published by Red Bull Media House GmbH General Manager Wolfgang Winter Publisher Franz Renkin Editors-in-Chief Alexander Macheck, Robert Sperl Editor, South Africa Angus Powers
Editor Paul Wilson Creative Director Erik Turek Art Directors Kasimir Reimann, Miles English Photo Director Fritz Schuster Production Editor Marion Wildmann Managing Editor Daniel Kudernatsch
christoph meissner
jim Krantz Shooting the 21-year-old MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez, was a labour of love for the award-winning photographer, as he is a passionate motorcyclist. From the beginning of the shoot, at the Spanish vineyard where Marquez has a practice track, the chemistry between the two was evident. By the end of the day, each man would say of the other: “This guy is crazy.” Krantz was so inspired that he went online and booked superbike lessons back home in the US. His Marquez portoflio begins on page 24.
In order to capture still images of the incredible high-speed drummer Martin Grubinger (40 beats per second is his record), Austrian lensman Meissner prepared a set of drumsticks embedded with LEDs. “We only had 10 minutes,” says Meissner. “Luckily Grubinger is a pro. He played until both the sticks broke, but I had all the pictures I needed.” See page 60.
The Capetonian snapper likes to focus on social documentary photography, where he uses the camera as a sort of magnifying glass to explore the life and times of his subjects. This month he trained his lens on the South Africa leg of Nitro Circus Live tour. “Glimpsing the personalities of these extreme sports superstars creates a deeper respect and understanding for what they do,” says Daniel. “These are humble individuals who put their bodies on the line for our entertainment.” Read the story on page 76.
08
Assistant Editors Ulrich Corazza, Werner Jessner, Ruth Morgan, Florian Obkircher, Arek Pia˛tek, Andreas Rottenschlager Contributing Editor Stefan Wagner Bullevard Georg Eckelsberger, Raffael Fritz, Sophie Haslinger, Marianne Minar, Boro Petric, Holger Potye, Martina Powell, Mara Simperler, Clemens Stachel, Manon Steiner, Lukas Wagner Design Martina de Carvalho-Hutter, Silvia Druml, Kevin Goll, Carita Najewitz, Esther Straganz Photo Editors Susie Forman (Creative Photo Director), Rudi Übelhör (Deputy Photo Director), Marion Batty, Eva Kerschbaum Repro Managers Clemens Ragotzky (manager), Karsten Lehmann, Josef Mühlbacher Head of Production Michael Bergmeister Production Wolfgang Stecher (manager), Walter O Sádaba, Matthias Zimmermann (app) Advertising Enquiries Andrew Gillett, +27 (0) 83 412 8008, andrew.gillett@za.redbull.com
Printed by CTP Printers, Duminy Street, Parow-East, Cape Town 8000. Finance Siegmar Hofstetter, Simone Mihalits
roger young luke daniel
Chief Sub-Editor Nancy James Deputy Chief Sub-Editor Joe Curran
The South African journalist and filmmaker is one of those annoying jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none guys who has thrown raves, parties and glass objects, made films, lived on the streets and generally wandered around aimlessly through his life. At this year’s Cape Town Electronic Music Festival, he interviewed Noisia and DJ Shimza “in a car backstage, using some towels and clothes as makeshift soundproofing so I could hear them above the music”. Head to page 64.
“ These are humble individuals who put their bodies on the line” LUKE DANIEL
Marketing & Country Management Stefan Ebner (manager), Elisabeth Salcher, Lukas Scharmbacher, Sara Varming Distribution Klaus Pleninger, Peter Schiffer subscription price: 228 ZAR, 12 issues, www.getredbulletin.com, subs@za.redbull.com Marketing Design Julia Schweikhardt, Peter Knethl Advertising Placement Sabrina Schneider O∞ce Management Kristina Krizmanic
The Red Bulletin is published in Austria, Brazil, France, Germany, Ireland, Kuwait, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa, Switzerland, UK and 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 South Africa Office Black River Park North, 2 Fir Street, Observatory, 7925 8005 +27 (0) 21 486 8000 Austria Office Heinrich-Collin-Strasse 1, A-1140 Vienna. +43 (1) 90221 28800 Write to us: letters@redbulletin.com
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Let’s Twist and shout
K a n y e, ! go h o m e c h a n c e t h e r a p p e r
The new rhyme minister
10
jess baumung
Acid Rap, released last year, showed Chance The Rapper to be full of soul. He raps about missing his mom’s comfort food and high-school kids getting shot with equal zeal. He has brains, a great vocal range and a subtle sense of humour. His first mixtape was called 10 Day, after the length of his suspension from school: don’t be surprised if he eventually releases My Month Off After Headlining Coachella. He turns 21 on April 16.
johannes lang
A mixtape turned Chicago’s Chancelor Bennett from promising young performer into new hip-hop hope
p o p q u i z
Who said that? These words will go down in history, but which musical megastars spoke them?
e Rit a , y to lov n It ’s e a s e is a f a e ve r yo n t o n t u b
The Kosovan-born Londoner is involved with what the press loves to call a ‘feud’ with Rihanna. Ri snubbed Rita at Grammy afterparties earlier this year. We would be delighted to broker peace
Music’s Secrets Out Ondrea Barbe/Corbis Outline
Big names answer the music business’s big questions in a new behind-the-scenes film What motivates sound visionary Brian Eno? How does James Murphy, ex of LCD Soundsystem, run his record label? Why does disco legend Giorgio Moroder suffer from stage fright? These questions and more are answered in full and from the horses’ mouths in a new feature-length documentary, What Difference Does It Make?
Filmmaker Ralf Schmerberg lurked with camera when the Red Bull Music Academy pitched up in New York last year, bringing together young musicians and huge names from the industry. His film is a study in talent, a reveal of musical secrets and, above all, a passion project. Watch the film in full at rbma15.com
“I’ve always been famous, it’s just no one knew it.”
lady gaga
Rihanna
Beyoncé Knowles
2 “I am a god. Now what?”
Kanye West
Robin Thicke
David Guetta
3 “I believe in free love and that’s just how I feel.”
LANA Del REY
Miley Cyrus
Grimes
ANSWERS: 1. Lady Gaga 2. Kanye West, 3. Lana del Rey
ER ’ RE O OR A : A D
corbis, getty images(2), Universal Music, Steven Taylor, Alix Malek, Nicole Nodland, sony music, Chad Wadsworth/Red Bull Content Pool(2)
1
Celebrating 15 years of Red Bull Music Academy, the film had a sametime, differentplace premiere in more than 60 cinemas globally
GUANTANAMO | + | METALLICA The US’s ‘torture playlist’ at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp included Enter Sandman by Metallica and American Pie by Don McLean.
Supermarket | + | 50 cent Music encourages purchases, but retailers advise against playing hip-hop because the gangster image rubs off on consumers and shoplifting increases.
Editor
u
as been m u sic h , r e fo r b m cha hoped to r t u re e r h ave v e e h t n o t ld ou flo or a ke r s w e dance ys it s m a w From th in abused sed and
Photographer
tu
c i s u m e h t rn
Illustratorgetty images(4), picturedesk.com(2), shutterstock(2), Corbis(2) flickr.com
s! r a e y m rs! my ea
BULLEVARD
Illustrator
n w o d Photographer
Editor
Burgers | + | Pavarotti An Australian burger joint banishes lurking teens by playing opera and classical music. The strategy works, but the neighbours aren’t too happy about it.
Kim Jong-Un | + | Modern Talking North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un is said to have loved German synth-pop duo Modern Talking when he was a boy. His favourite song was Brother Louie.
young jong song
13
BULLEVARD
4 /4 T I M E T R AV E L
REMEMBER THESE?
Partying like it’s 1989, cringing at 1999 and not quite believing the music of 2009 is already half a decade old
5
25 YEARS
Depeche Mode, Personal Jesus You aren’t doing much wrong if you get covered by Johnny Cash. Nirvana, Bleach The Seattle grungesters’ album was a critical hit, but it didn’t achieve chart success until after their follow-up, Nevermind, was released. Miles Davis, Aura A concept album from music’s Mr Cool. The title track only uses 10 notes. Music for your mind, not your body.
YEARS Eiffel 65, blue At least the band happily admits that the colour was chosen just as randomly as the rest of the lyrics. Da ba dee. Lou bega, mambo no 5 How did he manage to talk Monica, Erica, Rita, Tina, Sandra, Mary and Jessica into anything with this trashy tune? Christina aguilera, genie in a bottle Another Britney wannabe with a decent tune. She’ll fade away like the rest of them. Hindsight, eh?
lady gaga, bad romance Oh oh oh oh ohhh oh oh-oh ohhh oh-oh it’s apparently your best, but we prefer Poker Face – and the meat dress. Susan boyle, i dreamed a dream Shy spinster + talent show + YouTube = rare recipe for success. Kraftwerk, the catalogue Deluxe box set rerelease of eight seminal electronica albums. It’s the music of the past, but it still sounds like the future.
15 YEARS
KO M A*
Lucky DJ
dietmar kainrath
Our resident artist, Kainrath, pays honour to Daft Punk and Avicii
*KOMA: KAINRATH’S OEUVRES OF MODERN ART
14
the red bulletin
BULLEVARD
P o l i t p o p
Power ballads
What do world leaders listen to before they send armies into battle? Or when they’re pretending to listen to a translated speech through headphones? Work it harder, make it better. Do it faster, makes us stronger. Yes, you can.
She’s standing right in front of me. Speaking words of wisdom. Let it be me! Oh Nikita Khrushchev I don’t love you so!
Angela Merkel HAS A LOT OF TIME FOR The Beatles
Vladimir Putin LOVES Elton John
Barack Obama LISTENS TO Kanye West
The Chancellor of Germany listens to classical music when she’s cooking. But Merkel was a Beatles fan back in her wild days. She bought her first Fab Four record in Moscow. The only thing she still has in common with the band now is her haircut.
The Russian president wanted to make it clear just how open-minded he was when it came to music before the Olympics. “Elton John is a wonderful musician. Millions of us love him, regardless of his, um, sexual orientation.” Just to be clear, Putin did not say this.
In 2009, the US president called the rapper an idiot because he interrupted the MTV VMAs as Taylor Swift was accepting a prize. But they’re back on good terms now. “Kanye West’s music is outstanding,” Obama gushed last year. “I’ve got a lot of his stuff on my iPad.”
15M SECONDS OF FAME In YouTube’s global talent contest some amateur musical uploaders are more successful than others
Getty Images(3)
1. Five Canadians and one guitar for a cover of Somebody That I Used to Know, by Gotye. (156 million views) 2. Look up ‘cute’ in the dictionary and you see this: a five-year-old Japanese boy playing I’m Yours by Jason Mraz on the ukulele. (63 million) 3. You can hit big even if you don’t sing. A frustrated video editor in Taiwan resigns by dancing one night in the office to Kanye West’s I’m Gone. (17 million)
the red bulletin
15
B U LLE V AR D
P e r s o n a l i t y t e s t
Which star are you?
Behind the music is a star with the same kind of likes and dislikes as the rest of us. Find out who you really are
Rainbow
N
Give peace a chance?
D o y o u l i ke
N
warrior?
Y
dictators?
Y
Friend of Jesus? N
Y
Y
Drugs: just say yes?
L i ke k Kid Roc
Eminem
N
N
Manson
N
Y
Meat is
Marilyn
Fa c e b o o k ?
Y
Hate your veggies?
est Kanye W
murder? Y
Y
N
hicks Dixie C
ga Lady Ga
Yes
Y
16
N
Justin
BONO
Timber
lake
Rihann
a
No the red bulletin
Universal Music(3), warner music, corbis, getty images(2), Tom Munro, A-way
N
BULLEVARD
FROM THE MAN WHO BROUGHT YOU SUCH SONGS AS
“WHO” — “WHAT” — “WHEN” — “WHERE”
dow LOAD n
“WHY”
Fleischli & Turbin Inc.
NOW COMES
new York &
Corbis
Los AngeLes
be like beck Beck’s Morning Phase, was kind of not his 12th album. After his 11th, 2008’s Modern Guilt, came Song Reader, 20 songs only available as downloadable sheet music. songreader.net the red bulletin
17
B U LLE V AR D
sister act
What of Bey’s little sister, Solange? Her last record was the 2012 EP True. Since then, her sense of style has eclipsed her music (two appearances in Vogue’s Best Dressed list) and this year the 27-year-old became Art Director and Creative Consultant for Puma
orld - d a te w her 1 32 n m o 0 1 le 2 p S$ peo g ove r U million in o s w s t o r g in ,g te r t ain arch 2 7 af te r e n It e n d e d on M t s e r n o w. é ca r te r Sh B eyo n c Mrs Ca e h T , r to u
18
getty images, picturedesk.com
oh, t h
y e b e h t e b l l ’ t a
B U L L E V AR D
W h a t L y r i c s R e a ll y M e a n
Double standards
getty images(2), Corbis, klar archiv
david kellner
What musicians say and what we hear them say aren’t always one and the same thing
Born in the Usa
Fight for your right
bruce springsteen The unofficial American national anthem. But have you actually listened to the lyrics other than the chorus? The song tells the story of a Vietnam War veteran who can’t find a job. Doesn’t sound quite so patriotic now, does it?
beastie boys The Beastie Boys intended that their song (You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party) would poke fun at party anthems like I Wanna Rock by Twisted Sister… but they accidentally wrote the mother of all party songs instead. What a drag.
the red bulletin
Big In Japan
Nikita
Alphaville Not an anthem to the overseas success of the German synthpop band, but the tale of lovers in despair. The worst of the pair’s problems arises when one suggests getting the money for drugs by entering the oldest profession in the world.
elton john If this song makes you think of a deadly but gorgeous female assassin on TV or in two films (French and remake), you should know that despite Elton John wooing a female Russian soldier in the track’s video, Nikita is a male Russian name.
it whatmeans now?
19
BULLEVARD
E u r o v i s i o n s o n g c o n t e s t
Continental divide Splitting 740 million people into lovers and haters, this year it’s in Copenhagen on May 10. Below: a roster of ‘legends’
super apps From marvellous melodic games to DJ decks for your mobile: five music apps to download right now
12 F IN L A
point
ND
s
Scratch on your touchscreen: DJAY 2 will make a real DJ out of you instead of you just putting on your old playlists.
With 100,000 radio stations and two million podcasts, TUNEIN makes sure you’ve always got new stuff to listen to.
Half game, half synth creates splendid electronica to soundtrack a sci-fi movie: this is MUSYC.
Hard rock Hallelujah
Lordi (Athens, 2006) They rocked to first place like Tolkien’s orcs in platforms. In March, they released a seventh album, To Beast Or Not To Beast. That is the question.
celine Dion
Ne partez pas sans moi (Dublin, 1988) She made quite the impact winning 28 years ago: as much for the size of her hair as the power of her voice. sweden, 10pts
Ukraine, 8pts
Waterloo (Brighton, 1974) Napoleon did surrender, as did the rest of Europe then the whole world to the best-selling pure pop band of all-time.
Dancing Lasha Tumbai (Helsinki, 2007) Very possibly a work of avant-garde art: Andriy Danylko performing as Verka Serduchka, a lady of a certain age in a futuristic astronaut outfit, who immediately earwormed her way into European hearts. Sieben, sieben, ein, zwei, tanzen!” How did it only come second?
Abba
20
Verka Serduchka
FIGURE is an easy-to-use music-maker thick with bass, synth and drums. In five minutes, you can be the new Calvin Harris.
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picturedesk.com(3), interTOPICS
Get SONGKICK and never miss out on concert tickets again. It tells you about your favourite bands’ tour plans.
Switzerland, 4pts
B U L L E V ARD
Make music, not war Pedro Reyes takes guns decommissioned by the Mexican army and transforms them into musical installations with an anti-violence message. For that, he deserves a 21-gun salute, or a symphony, as he would call it.
y z a r c s d n u o s
pedro reyes, Courtesy Lisson Gallery, London(4), Alexander Koller, Anna Stoecher(2)
t ’s p lay orin g: le b e r a no e r at tle an d p ia o u r get t c e h Drums t d it ar s an gun-gu
playing the tuber The Vegetable Orchestra of Vienna makes instruments out of vegetables. The downside is that their creations rot and new ones have to be made fresh for each performance, but at least there’s always soup after a concert.
the red bulletin
21
B U L L E V AR D
t h e n e x t s u p e r s ta r s
Sonically sci-fi
A combination of the oboe and a hologram, the holophonor will sadly only be available in the 31st century. At least if we’re to believe the makers of Futurama, that is.
Almost famous We’ll be hearing more from these up-and-comers in 2014, as they fight to enter the pop circus’s big top
Mø What do you get if you cross electro, indie pop, soul and street vibes? The answer is summed up in two letters: MØ. The Dane’s trademark is a braided plait, which she swings like a propeller. In our view, she’s about to take off.
Royal Blood So rock music’s over, is it? You won’t say that when you listen to Brits Benji Talent and Mike Kerr. Vocals, bass and drums: simple, but effective. The Arctic Monkeys agree and promptly snapped up the duo as a support act.
h i g h -t e c h s o u n d
Future music now
BOOM - BOOM - BOOM - BOOM - BOOM BOOM - BOOM - BOOM - BOOM - BOOM BOOM - BOOM - BOOM - BOOM - BOOM BOOM - BOOM - BOOM - BOOM - BOOM BOOM - BOOM - BOOM - THWACK
SEABOARD
rubber soul You bend and distort sounds on the Seaboard’s sensitive keyboard as it if were half-guitar, halfpiano, surfing through the octaves by swiping your fingers. The harder you press the rubber keys, the more intense the sound. roli.com
tenori-on
Light music A hand-held synthesizer that produces notes and melodies after you draw patterns on its grid of LEDs. Japanese artist Toshio Iwai, a video games developer, debuted the device in 2007; it’s now made by Yamaha. global.yamaha.com
eigenharp
electro blow Both a musical instrument and software controller, played somewhat bassoonlike via 18 keys and mouthpiece. It lives at the intersection of electronic music and jazz, and is so much better than that description. eigenlabs.com
dietmar kainrath, sascha bierl
What will the music of tomorrow sound like? That will depend what it’s being played on. We take a look into the instrument-making laboratory
James Marcus Haney
FKA Twigs She went up to London aged 17 to be a dancer. Instead, she took steps as a singer, winning people over with her gentle voice, trip-hop beats and surreal videos. Now dancing has been set aside; we’re all the better for it.
From Metal Cats by Alexandra Crockett, published by powerHouse Books
Hook ed Alexa on a felin n e show dra Crocke : Metal Ca in ts by t meta g the soft t, a photo lm b s in Ma usicians ide of hea ook , is v y by p owerH publishe yd ouse Book s
M y v a e H
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p rivate e, b ut in g a t lair s n ive o , with A g gre s s m e dian a o e C r l a a s t e n m u sicia Black M . Metal . This is e a f id s o s in e th luf f y tie s on t sid e, f h eir kit t Hard ou h it w p ug gle u th ey s n
23
MARQU inside track The reigning world MotoGP champion sits atop his sport aged just 21. He took The Red Bulletin for a spin around his private practice grounds – hidden in a Spanish vineyard words: Werner Jessner photography: jim krantz
24
EZ
“MOTOCROSS TEACHES YOU TO BE CREATIVE,” SAYS MARC MARQUEZ. “THE COURSE CHANGES WITH EVERY LAP. YOU’VE GOT TO IMPROVISE CONSTANTLY. IT’S A SKILL THAT HELPS YOU WHEN YOU’RE ON THE CIRCUIT”
26
“I CAN’T REMEMBER MY FIRST TIME AT A RACETRACK. I WAS ONE. MY FATHER HAD ALREADY TAKEN ME ALONG TO A MOTOCROSS RACE”
28
30
“TRAINING IN A GROUP IS MORE FUN. THE CHALLENGE IS TO BE FASTER THAN EVERYONE ELSE – AND THEY WANT TO BEAT THE WORLD CHAMPION”
“WHAT’S MY DEFINITION OF THE PERFECT DAY? SOME MOTOCROSS IN THE MORNING, A DIRT TRACK AROUND LUNCHTIME, A BIT OF MOTOGP IN THE AFTERNOON AND DINNER WITH A BEAUTIFUL WOMAN”
T
T
hirty years ago, a young man burst onto the road-bike racing scene and smashed all records to smithereens. He made his debut in the sport’s top flight, Grand Prix motorcycle racing, when he was 19 and was world champion by the age of 21. The experts were convinced that his records would never be broken. The whizzkid was called ‘Fast’ Freddie Spencer and the secret to his success was a youth spent honing his motor skills on US dirt tracks. Dirt-track bikes have no front brakes. You steer by opening up the throttle and shifting your weight and you’re always drifting slightly sideways. In 2013, another young man made his mark in MotoGP, as top-flight racing has been known since 2002. He was so good that the usual route to the top was bypassed: rookies have to work their way up in satellite teams before they’re given a ride with the big factory teams. But Honda saw the future in Marc Marquez, the reigning champion of the lower Moto2 class. At just 20 years of age, he would ride alongside experienced fellow Spaniard Dani Pedrosa for Repsol Honda. Marquez finished his first race on the podium. Then he won his second race. Last November he became the youngest MotoGP world champion in history at 20 years and 266 days. Like Fast Freddie, dirt track was also the secret to his success. The cradle of Marquez’s achievements is the vineyards surrounding his hometown of Lleida, about
the red bulletin
150km west of Barcelona. Hidden among the grapes that go to make the Costers del Segre wine is a welltended dirt track and a motocross course, with changing rooms and a small canteen. Not a typical spot to find a world champion, a man who now can’t go anywhere outside this place without being recognised. “The first photo you have taken with a fan tends to set off a chain reaction,” Marquez says. “I saw a banner in the stands in Spain once that said, ‘I’ll take my underwear off if you have your photo taken with me.’ Last year I autographed a woman’s breasts, a man’s backside, a baby and a €500 note. The person it belonged to presumably hoped it’s going to increase in value.” Marquez, his younger brother Alex, a successful Moto3 rider, and Tito Rabat from Moto2, are all training here in Lleida. “They want to beat me,” says Marquez, “and I want to be half-a-second per lap quicker than them.” He says the competition here is as merciless as if it were a MotoGP race. “I love battling it out hard. I don’t get as much out of a race I’ve won by four or five seconds as one that gets the adrenalin pumping and is decided on the final turn. Like [in 2013] when Jorge Lorenzo edged me at Silverstone on the last turn, that didn’t annoy me. There’s a limit, but it depends on the situation. Everyone will try anything on the last corner.” As for his opponents: “Lorenzo’s strength is his consistency and [Valentino] 33
34
“I HAVE A REPUTATION FOR BEING RUTHLESS WHEN OVERTAKING. BUT THAT’S HOW IT SHOULD BE, AS FAR AS I’M CONCERNED. ANYONE WILL DO ANYTHING TO BE AHEAD AT THE LAST CORNER. THAT’S WHAT IT’S ALL ABOUT”
“THAT MOMENT WHEN YOU’RE JUST ABOUT TO CRASH LASTS ForEVER, ESPECIALLY IF IT’S LOOKING LIKE A BAD ONE. YOU FIGHT, FIGHT AND KEEP ON FIGHTING AND THEN BANG! EVERYTHING HAPPENS in A FLASH”
As the reigning MotoGP World Champion, Marquez has the right to race number 1, but decided to keep his favourite 93
Rossi is particularly strong on the last lap.” Marquez is aggressive; he drifts and often looks like he’s not in control. “I have to ride like that if I want to be quick. A rounded, relaxed style doesn’t work for me.” Though Marquez has won world champion titles in MotoGP, Moto2 and the 125cc categories, he still lives at home, and sleeps in his childhood bedroom, with posters of FC Barcelona and Valentino Rossi on the walls. “Rossi was my idol. Dani Pedrosa was my yardstick.” He has since left both in his wake and is now the main rider at the Repsol Honda team. “Maybe it’ll be harder this year because everyone’s expecting great things of me. But I like pressure.” He has also now adjusted to his employer’s Japanese way of doing things. “The Japanese love to evaluate and discuss things. I wanted to change the handlebar grips at the first test. That was nothing to do with how the bike itself was performing; it was purely a matter of my own personal taste. They had to have a meeting to get them changed. But that meticulousness is what makes Honda successful.”
Gold & Goose/Red Bull Content Pool
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arquez, who loves “big-balls” tracks, like Phillip Island in Australia with its blind bends that he takes at full throttle, combines fearlessness with impressive serenity. “I sleep incredibly well the night before a race. Nine, sometimes 10 hours.” His only concession on race day is “blue underwear when I’m practising and red when I’m racing.” Just a few days after that relaxed afternoon in Lleida, Marquez becomes the trending topic in motorsport, after breaking his leg while riding on the dirt track. “It was a bit of a stupid crash,” he admits. “A friend came off his bike in front of me; I managed to avoid him. That should have been that, but I turned round to check on him – which is when my foot got stuck on the edge of the track and I broke my right fibula.” He hopes to be fit to defend his title in the 2014 MotoGP season. Missing almost all of the preseason hasn’t given him too much cause for concern: he dominated the MotoGP test prior to the injury. But does the break mean the end of Marquez’s dirt-track racing? “Hang on! That was the first time I’ve ever been injured on one.” And how does he plan to occupy his time until the start of the season? “Maybe I’ll finally apply for my motorbike licence.” The quickest man in the world on two wheels is permitted to drive a car on the road, but not a motorbike. motogp.com
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katlego mphahlele
Master dancer
Katlego Mphahlele was a key member of dance crew IDA as they powered to Red Bull Beat Battle glory in 2013, but this year’s Battle is shaping up as an even bigger opportunity to showcase his sbujwa moves and beat-mixing skills
Katlego Mphahlele (aka Sii) might only be 23, but he’s been a professional dancer almost half his life. Growing up in Tembisa township, east of Johannesburg, dance was a way of life: polishing moves on the street, earning a buck at corporate gigs, and building a profile by competing on TV dance shows. A master of sbujwa and pantsula, Katlego’s life got real when he was thrust into fatherhood at the age of 20. Spurred on by the arrival of a baby boy, Sii had little choice but to continue to dance his butt off to support his kid. He has toured Europe, made cameo appearances on Culoe De Song’s music videos, built a reputation as a producer and, of course, helped IDA – Indigenous Dance Academy – make history when they became the first non hip-hop crew to win Red Bull Beat Battle last year. IDA’s champion crew has since dissolved, but all the main members have regrouped and will be defending their title on June 7, this time as Prophelaz, and they’ll be dancing to beats produced by Sii’s house band, Drumetic Boyz. the red bulletin: Why did you leave IDA? Katlego Mphahlele: We left IDA a month before last year’s Red Bull Beat Battle for certain reasons, like the overall transparency of management. But because we had already auditioned and qualified, we couldn’t change the name, so we danced as IDA and formed Prophelaz after winning. Has the crew’s split benefited or disadvantaged you? It has benefited all five crew members: we have grown tremendously since then and we all know what we are working for. 38
What progress have Prophelaz made? We were back-up dancers in Culoe De Song’s Make You Move video as well as in his new video No Contest, which we shot two weeks ago. Beatenberg have also shown interest in having us dance in their upcoming video. How does performing in the streets compare to taking your dance overseas? Only your peers and screaming groupies will respect you for street dance. Our parents only began taking us seriously when they heard we were going overseas with this; we got props from young kids to senior citizens when we were in Europe.
“If I had a nine-to-five job, I would be fired in three months. I’ve always believed in doing what you love” Where did you tour? We went to France in 2011 for three months when we had a dance theatre show called uKjika with the old IDA crew. I went to Switzerland in 2011 to DJ at a club called Cancun. And three of us were in Italy three weeks before the 2013 Beat Battle as back-up dancers for PJ Powers. Tell us more about Drumetic Boyz… Drumetic Boyz is a DJ duo consisting of William ‘Widjo’ Chilimba and myself. We formed the duo because we have so much in common: we’re both dancers, producers and house DJs. And the spot in Tembisa where people would watch you battle…
That’s when my friend Lehlohonolo, a pantsula dancer, and I were known as the best dancers in the hood. There was a block of flats where we hung out and there was a specific corner nearby that became our turf and no strangers would chill there unless they wanted beef. Sometimes the place would transform from empty to packed in minutes. But how did you play music? Each crew would pop out R4 and we would select eight tracks from a jukebox (four for each crew) then battle until all those tracks were done. Once guys from Alexandra came to our turf, started the jukebox and began dancing in the streets; we had no choice but to defend our turf. Two minutes later, there were hundreds of spectators. Even the police would watch us battle. Didn’t they try to break it up? The cops didn’t chase us away because they were fascinated to see young people dancing like this instead of doing drugs, alcohol and crime like other kids in the hood. Would you take a nine-to-five job if you were offered one? If I had a nine-to-five job, I would be fired in three months. It’s not for me. I’ve always believed in doing what you love. I’d only sit in an office if I was talking to a client or the boss. Dancing, DJing, producing… that’s my life. What can we look forward to at Red Bull Beat Battle 2014? Prophelaz is made up of the original IDA members who won the 2013 Red Bull Beat Battle. We rehearse four hours a day, Monday to Friday, so you will definitely see new moves and hear new beats produced by Drumetic Boyz. redbullbeatbattle.co.za the red bulletin
Sydelle Willow Smith
Words: Mooketsi Nthite
Stepping out: Katlego Mphahlele has taken sbujwa and pantsula from the townships to the stages of Europe
The
odd Couple Seth Rogen and Zac Efron fight for the right to party in their new film, Bad Neighbours Words: Ann Donahue
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Seth Rogen
Zac Efron
Jeff Vespa/Contour, picturedesk.com
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alk, bonk, sprawl. Walk, bonk, sprawl. Seth Rogen, the king of smart stoner comedy, is filming multiple takes of a scene on a quiet residential Los Angeles street. He’s walking across the front lawn of a tidy renovated Victorian house, minding his own business, when an oversized inflatable exercise ball slams into him and knocks him off his feet. Walk, bonk, sprawl. Rogen overexaggerates the impact for effect, launching onto a safety mat. A stuntman takes a few turns, pushing the pratfall even more. The crew laughs appreciatively when director Nick Stoller yells “Cut!” By contrast, the swarm of paparazzi across the street could not care less. All of their the red bulletin
telephoto lenses are trained not on Rogen’s repeated flailing, but on his co-star, Zac Efron, as he stands motionless in the background of the scene. This is the set of Bad Neighbours, with the irresistible comic pairing of Disney-pretty-boy-turnedadult-pretty-boy Efron as a Machiavellian college fraternity boss and everyman Rogen as a sort-of upstanding family guy. The comedy, also starring Rose Byrne, is generating a lot of buzz with its Old School-meets-TheHangover trailers. Here, Rogen and Efron come clean about making a dirty comedy. the red bulletin: Are your characters essentially the generals in a war between a family and a fraternity? seth rogen: My character is a new father, and he and his
wife used to party together a lot and I think they’re having a hard time now that their lives are drastically changing. They just get their first house and then a fraternity moves in next door. At first, it raises all of our temptations, and then it turns into contempt. Zac Efron: We’re a pretty rambunctious group of guys. We actually burned down our other [fraternity] house. My character is the president of the fraternity and he’s coming to grips with how quickly his adult future is coming and that he’s not going to get to be the king of the world anymore. How does this compare to what you’re going through in real life? SR: I definitely relate to it. Me and my wife don’t have any kids, and this is probably why we don’t have kids. We’re afraid that we won’t be able to do any of the fun shit that we like to do right now. There’s some raunchy stuff in this movie: dildos, babies eating condoms, pornographic garden shrubbery, you name it. Rose Byrne, who typically plays angelic characters, is in the middle of all of this [as Rogen’s wife]. What’s she like?
“Zac’s a lot tougher than I thought” Seth Rogen SR: She gets right in there. I think she says some pretty dirty things herself. We really didn’t want it to be a story about the naggy wife stopping the husband from doing stupid fun shit. ZE: Seems like a pretty perfect wife. SR: You almost believe she would marry me.
“Seth puts himself out there. He’s just a great guy” Zac Efron ZE: She’s so quick: she has fantastic timing. In the dancing scenes with the fraternity, she was so damn funny. She really went for it. Was this a deliberate choice on everyone’s part to change up the kind of roles they’re known for? ZE: I did a movie with Dennis Quaid [At Any Price], and I asked him ‘If you could go back to your younger self, what would you tell him?’ He said to just keep doing as many different types of movies and you can, and always change it up. I only wanted to be in a comedy if it was something I believed in. I believed in Seth and Nick Stoller [director of Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Get Him to The Greek]. SR: We won’t let you down, Zac. ZE: I don’t think you can. SR: Oh, yes we can. What made you laugh hardest during filming? SR: The fraternity is always throwing these crazy, ridiculous themed parties. They throw a De Niro-themed party where everyone dresses as a different character. Davey Franco’s De Niro impression is pretty staggering. What have you learned about each other that you didn’t know before? SR: Zac’s a lot tougher than I thought [laughs]. ZE: I think Seth put himself out there pretty well. I knew a lot about him. He’s just a great guy. SR: I’m really racist. I keep that under wraps. Bad Neighbours is out worldwide from May 8: neighbors-movie.com
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Lingerie designer: Dollhouse Bettie Robe designer: Oscar de la Renta Red Dress designer: Nima Shiraz
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Real FEMME
fatal e
Chrysta Bell is a n inte r n ationa l woma n of m yste ry. A hypnoti c presen c e wherever she goes, he r ghostly gigs ar e inh a bited by the wei r d king o f H ollywood Word s: Arn o Raff ein e r P h oto g rap hy: A ar o n Fe av er 43
C
hrysta Bell has hair the same ruby-red colour as freshly spilled blood. Her gaze is hypnotic. Everything about her seems mysterious. Her close collaborator is David Lynch, the American film director and musician who has always had a similar air of intrigue. Lynch produces Bell’s music and a recording of his voice introduces her on stage: “Wow! She sings like a bird! Isn’t she unbelievable?” A purple velvet curtain billows behind her, with blackand-white images projected onto it. The projection stops and thereafter the show is all about Bell: her voice, her theatrical hand movements, her tears. There’s a splendidly eerie feeling in the room when she performs. Bell’s album, This Train, is the result of working with Lynch for more than a decade. The journey takes in guitarcovered cloudscapes, reminders of a golden age of jazz divas, trip-hop and blues. Lynch’s musical direction sets the pace: slow motion, super-slow motion, emergency stop. In Lynch’s studio in Los Angeles, as in all aspects of his work, transcendental meditation creates the vibe. He plays a song sketch, pulls a sheet of paper with words on it out of a black case and then asks Bell to come to the microphone. He gives instructions, along the lines of: imagine you’re a sportscar! 44
“I l i ve for being on stage. The exchange with the Audience. the rush of not knowing i f you’re going to fall on your face or soar to the sk ies is very appeal ing”
On track: Bell’s album This Train is the result of a 10year collaboration with film director David Lynch
Bittersweet: Bell touches everything she does with a delicate hand of darkness
“I’m g o o d w i th death. T ears fo r m e are not n ec essarily a sign of sad n ess. I beli eve i n reinca rn ati on . I do bel iev e t hat t here are cycles”
“He would feed me, basically,” she says. “Whether it would be with anecdotes about other things that were completely separate, or by bringing associations like Elvis Presley or Elizabeth Taylor or a classic car or a certain way the night air felt – this would all be food for my process.” When the first of these sessions took place, in 2000, Lynch was yet to out himself as a solo musician (after various collaborations, his first solo album Crazy Clown Time came out in 2011; a second, The Big Dream, followed in 2013). Bell was the vocalist in a swing band that regularly played the Continental Club in Austin, Texas. As a child, she hung around her stepfather’s studio and became a session singer in her early teenage years. She worked as a model, then gave acting a try and played a small part in a Jet-Li kung-fu movie. In 1998, aged 20 and with her first record deal, her agent set up a meeting with Lynch so that he could hear her demos. The career she had always really wanted was underway. “I live for being on stage,” she says. “The exchange with the audience, the rush of not knowing if you’re going to fall on your face or soar to the skies, is all very appealing to me.”
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he certainly has the personality to go with the looks and the voice, touching everything with an elegant hand of darkness. Her favourite drink is unfiltered sake, she named her 2010 debut album Bitter Pills & Delicacies and her record company, La Rose Noire, has a tear on its logo. What it is for her that makes the bitter so sweet? “I’ve been with many people through the death process,” Bell explains, and that gaze of hers leaves no room for doubt. “I’m good with death. Tears for me are not necessarily a sign of sadness. I believe in reincarnation. I do believe that there are cycles.” Bell’s current cycle is one of touring. She has performed in 27 countries during the last two years. What she’d most like to do is to give a weekly concert in the same location, ideally in Berlin. It’s the perfect place for someone who so readily brings to mind images of that city in the wild 1920s, an era in which femmes were so much more fatale than any wrecking ball is today. chrystabell.com
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BIG RIDERS Wanted: surfers to conquer previously impossible waves. Essential: weather app, surfboard, 4x4 and unshakeable ability to stare death in the face words: Fernando Gueiros
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bruno lemos
Big Wave World Tour champion Grant ‘Twiggy’ Baker surfs Jaws, a swell near Pe’ahi, Hawaii
a long a 15km stretch of the Kamehameha Highway, on the North Shore of Oahu in Hawaii, you can find and understand the history of big-wave surfing. If you tell a Hawaiian you’re going to this place, they’ll say, “So you like big waves, right?” Here is where you’ll find the big-wave surf break called Waimea, and about 80km southwest, on the island of Maui, there is the Pe’ahi break, known as Jaws, which in the last 20 years has become a place where surfers can ride waves 60ft high. Surfers like Carlos Burle, from Brazil, and Grant ‘Twiggy’ Baker, from South Africa, visit the Hawaiian Islands every December and January, ready to tackle the giant breaks. Burle, 46, is the former big-wave world record holder. In 2001, he rode a 68-footer on the surf break known as Mavericks, off the North Californian coast. His record was broken in 2008, then in 2012, the American Garrett McNamara set the current high watermark: a 78ft wave surfed at a recently discovered break at Praia do Norte, in Portugal. (In February this year, English surfer Andrew Cotton surfed a huge wave in the Portuguese break; at the time of writing, officials were deciding if Cotton would be the new world-record holder.) Burle, McNamara and Cotton surfed these monster walls of water using towin, a surfing technique first seen in 1992 in which a jet-ski – usually ridden by a fellow big-waver; McNamara was towing 50
carlos burle
The 46-year-old Brazilian is waiting for Guinness World Records to confirm if he or Englishman Andrew Cotton has surfed the world’s biggest wave – set in the same waters. Burle pulled off his feat on the same day he saved a fellow surfer from drowning.
the red bulletin
picturedesk.com, brian bielmann
Wall of water: Carlos Burle rides the famous Nazare wave off the coast of Portugal
the red bulletin
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GREG LONG
At 30, Long is one of the youngest of the current wave of top surfers. The Californian came to prominence when he took victory in the notoriously challenging Eddie Aikau Invitational, a contest that only takes place in Waimea when the waves are at least 20ft high.
Cotton in February – pulls the surfer into the ocean so he can more easily catch fast-moving waves. Tow surfing changed the big-wave scene. “It’s the only option when the waves are too big to paddle,” says Burle. “Plus, the crowds want to see carnage, big drops, big wipeouts, ultimate rescues.” Twiggy Baker, 40, has been a pro bigwave rider for more than a decade. He doesn’t use tow-in, preferring instead to paddle under his own steam. “Paddling is the true spirit of big-wave surfing,” says Baker. “It gives you a better sense of what you’re trying to achieve. More people are coming back to paddle surfing and tow surfing, unless it’s for the biggest wave in the world, has less meaning.” The current paddle surfing record is a 61ft wave, caught by an American surfer, Shawn Dollar, in Cortes Bank, 160km off the California coast. Baker believes it will be very hard, if not impossible, to go beyond this mark. At 30, American Greg Long is but a youngster compared to Baker and Burle. Born in California, he is the wonder boy of the big-surf community and a winner of the Eddie Aikau Invitational, a contest that only takes place in Waimea when the waves are at least 20ft high. He won it in 2009, the last time it was held and only the eighth time it has been staged in 31 years. In 2012, Long was swallowed by a 40ft wave in Cortes Bank. “Since that session,
Hawaiian surfer Shane Dorian has been testing a pioneering new buoyancy suit that could save lives. Below: The Mavericks Invitational is one of the world’s most keenly contested big-wave surf contests
where I basically drowned,” he says, “I’ve struggled to get my head back in the game of riding big waves.” He was found unconscious at the foam after a dramatic rescue operation. “After that, I felt like I wanted to ride a wave,” he says, “but at the same time, I didn’t. It was a year-long struggle to find perspective in my life and find what big waves meant to me, again, and why I was going to continue doing it.”
blowing, after a rainy morning. Out on the ocean, the waves are 6-8ft high – kids stuff for Baker, who just a few weeks earlier conquered waves 30-40ft high to win the Mavericks Invitational, a long-standing big-wave surf contest. Mavericks was discovered, in the cold Californian waters of Half Moon Bay, in 1975. For 15 years, only one man surfed it, and when Jeff Clark shared his secret with some surfer friends, Mavericks became one of the main big-wave spots in the world. “Every place has its dangers,” says Baker, with a chicken teriyaki sandwich in his hands. “You need to stay calm: that’s the game.” At Mavericks, the danger is a big hole in the middle of the break that can suck you down and you can’t get back up. Two experienced surfers have drowned like this, and there have been many more non-fatal accidents. “The greatest big-wave surfers in the world go to Mav’s to test their limits,” says Baker. Big-wave surfers are always ready for that test. When storms appear on the radar, which doesn’t happen very often, they usually only have two or three days
Short Breath, Deep Breath Twiggy Baker parks his blue 4x4 outside Malama’s supermarket, in Haleiwa, a town on the North Shore and walks to the bakery next door. A fresh breeze is
“Every place has its dangers. You need to stay calm: that’s the game”
david stewart, todd glaser, billabong
history of modern big-wave surfing
Hawaiian kings went first in the 1700s; there was a tipping point nearly 60 years ago and the bar was raised again in the 1990s.
1956 American surfer Greg Noll, known as Da Bull, is photographed dropping a 15ft wave on a huge wooden longboard
in Waimea Bay, Oahu, Hawaii.
1963 Noll and Mike Stange surf the feared Third Reef Pipeline, with waves as big as those surfed in nearby Waimea by Noll.
1972 Surfers from Australia and America look for
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Australian surfer Laurie Towner is dwarfed by Shipsterns Bluff, a daunting big wave near Tasmania
“you need madness and safety. it’s calculated insanity”
to arrange the travel and assemble the gear and get to the beach in shape both physically and mentally. “Short breath, deep breath,” says Baker, describing his breathing pattern before he enters into the water. “This is for the oxygen levels. You stay calm this way.” Most big riders stay relaxed and fit through similar habits. “One of the staple activities is yoga,” says Long. “From a physical standpoint, you’ve got the strength, flexibility and balance, and then you delve into the mental and spiritual philosophies behind it, and you get into world of trying to control your mind and your thoughts. It’s the panic in big waves in the ocean that is your biggest enemy – and what will kill you in the end.” Besides yoga and breathing exercises, big riders spend time swimming, paddling, spear fishing, freediving, doing heavy cardio workouts and running on sand. To Hell And Back Carlos Burle is grinning. He drops a 6ft wave on his longboard. He’s surfed waves more than 10 times higher than this one, but he paddles precisely on his way back to the outside of the break. His years of experience learning how to read the ocean make him a wise and consistent surfer. Alongside him now, his wife, Ligia, is benefiting from his advice about positioning. “There are times we’re far apart, like when I spent 20 days at Nazaré, for instance,” says Burle, of his marriage, “but when we’re together like now, I try to make up for that and stick real close.” Back home, in Waialua, after a long session of stretching and helping his youngest son, Reno, play a video game, Burle remembers the worst of those 20 days at Nazaré, the Portuguese coastal town from which big-wave surfers head out to the Praia do Norte break. It might also have been the worst day of his life.
big waves outside Hawaii. Breaks like Rincon, in California, and Petacalco in Mexico, were registered for the first time.
andrew chrisholm
1986
At the recently discovered Todos Santos shallow reef in Mexico, US surfers such as Tom Curren and Mike Parsons surf waves 18-20ft high.
1991 Laird Hamilton, Buzzy Kerbox and Darrick Doerner begin to surf big waves on smaller boards (enabling greater control), towed by motorboat.
1992 Pe’ahi, a break commonly known as Jaws, in Maui, Hawaii, is surfed by Hamilton and Kerbox, with the
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TOP FIVE NEW SPOTS Recently discovered breaks point to a big future for big-wave surfing
Belharra, France Has everything that big-wave hunters are looking for: “It’s a safe place to surf even when it’s big. It’s not so risky and you can surf here even on the biggest days,” says Twiggy Baker. Close to Biarritz, in France, Belharra became big news in big surf after a monster paddle session in January this year.
Nazare, Portugal Garrett McNamara has studied the waves off Praia do Norte, near the town of Nazaré, for four years. The wave known as Nazaré Cannon is a new frontier of tow-in surfing. The wall of water is huge and, according to big rider Carlos Burle, who surfed Nazaré in October 2013, there’s no hope of paddle surfing here.
Punta Docas, Chile “The Chilean coastline will surely yield more breaks like this,” says Burle. “There are a lot of inhospitable places.” The latest find is Punta Docas, north-east of Santiago. The water is cold, but the waves can reach up to 60ft. Is this the first step in Chile becoming the world centre of big-wave surfing?
Shipsterns Bluff, Tasmania Perhaps the most jaw-dropping wave of all time, this nasty reef produces double- and triple-up waves (with two or three lips over the surfer’s head, as seen on the opening spread of this article). Surfers take their chances not only with a huge wave but also with the rocks on which the waves can crash.
Mullaghmore, Ireland The freezing waters off Ireland are bearable thanks to modern wetsuits. Less easy to take is some of the most intense wave activity in the world. You must be quick to enjoy it, though. “I’ve got there and seen perfect surf breaking over the rocks,” says Burle, “but, half an hour later, there were only rocks.”
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Burle was riding the jet-ski that towed Maya Gabeira, one of few female big-wave surfers, on the morning of October 28, 2013. The waves were 60-70ft and Gabeira, a 27-year-old from Brazil, got up on her board on the second one of the day. Her board bounced on the water three times, she lost control and was thrown down into the ocean. She was assaulted by three massive waves in a row and disappeared underwater for about four minutes. After spotting her, Burle tried to reach her on his jet-ski, which was towing a rescue
board, but failed. “I saw her moving, which showed she was alive, but when I saw her again I realised she wasn’t reacting.” After another wave series, Gabeira was floating and then was gone again. Burle got to where he thought she would surface: “I knew she would come up.” He leapt off the jet-ski, spread his arms to grab her and attached himself to her life vest. “When the tide dragged us, I firmly locked both feet in the sand and held Maya. Then the wave came then I lost my footing and shook about,” he recalls. the red bulletin
Grant ‘TWIGgy’ baker
Grant ‘Twiggy’ Baker is South Africa’s most decorated big-wave surfer. He won Mavericks Invitational for the second time in January of this year, and is the 2013/2014 Big Wave World Tour champion.
alan van gysen, brian bielmann
“Paddling is the true spirit of big-wave surfing” He lost his footing twice more as he dragged Gabeira to the beach where he was joined by a lifeguard, who had been unable to attempt a rescue because he lacked the gear to do so in those conditions. Gabeira underwent CPR until an ambulance came. “It wasn’t the right way to rescue her, but everything turned out all right,” says Burle. Gabeira was awake and safe when Burle went back into water later the same day. He surfed a 78-footer – a world record contender currently under review the red bulletin
help of jet-skis: 60ft waves now surfable.
1992 Jeff Clark reveals his surfing of Mavericks, in Half Moon Bay, California, for over 15 years. The secret is out, it becomes a big-wave touchstone.
1992 A feature in Surfer
magazine calls Mavericks the ‘Voodoo Wave’, cementing its reputation.
1998 The ISA Big Wave Championship is held in Todos Santos, Mexico, on waves of 25-35ft. Brazilian Carlos Burle is the champion.
with Andrew Cotton’s, in the same spot, four-and-a-half months later. “That day,” says Burle, “I went to hell and came back.” Big Gets Bigger Twiggy Baker does approve of one aspect of tow-in surfing: it has taught the paddle surfers more about safety in big waves. “The rescue gear used on tow surfing is very important for paddle surfers,” he says, referring to inflatable suits and the jet-ski support at rescuing. “You need the madness, but you need 57
Paddle vs Tow-in It divides big-wave surfing in two: should surfers reach the heights under their own steam, or be pulled towards walls of water by jet-skis? Tow-in surfing technique was established in 1992, when jet-skis were first used to pull surfers so that they could catch faster-moving waves. Before that, paddling was the only way to reach the big ones. The biggest ones, surfed from the 1950s to the early 1990s, were 20-25ft high. With the introduction of tow-in, waves of 40, 50 and 60ft were ridden. It was as if mountain climbers found higher peaks than Everest. Tow-in became the centre of the big-wave community. But paddle surfing is now experiencing a resurgence. “I’m never going to be the one that agrees that something is impossible,” says Greg Long. “If someone 10 years ago would have told me you were going to
go paddle into 20ft Jaws, that would have seemed impossible.” In 2011, Hawaiian surfer Shane Dorian took paddle surfing to another level, when he propelled himself into the Jaws break at Maui using only his hands and surfed a 57ft wave. Some surfers think paddle surfing is finite. “One thing I’m sure of,” says Carlos Burle, “is that paddling with the arms is limited. Giant Teahupoo, when it’s more than 25ft? Can’t be done paddling. Nazaré, 78ft tall? Impossible.” “If you are trying to put a number on it, I think anything over 60ft on the face you’re getting into the tow-in realm,” says Long. “But given the proper conditions, say if you find the perfectly glassy day at, say, Cortes Bank, you could try and paddle into a bigger wave, and you probably could.” That tow-in has led to significant progress in big-wave riding is undeniable. Previously unreachable spots were surfed
to have fully considered all possible safety aspects. It’s calculated insanity.” Carlos Burle believes that an essential part of being human is to push limits, and technology has played a part in big-wave surfers regularly doing just that. “Lighter and warmer wetsuits, inflatable suits, better boards, rescue teams, radios, gear that can let you go to inhospitable areas. It’s all good.” The planning and preparation for a big-wave surfer is laborious. You can count on the fingers of two hands how many big-wave swells happen during one year. “It’s challenging getting to the right place, trying to drop some waves and getting back alive,” says Baker. “It’s a tough lifestyle, to keep it up and keep travelling. There is no money involved. The great pleasure is simply being there.” Surfing big waves, especially the ones yet to be discovered, requires nautical permits, local knowledge and organised 58
2000
and new records set. New technologies and gear entered the game, which surfers of all types now use. “Paddle and towin are two different sports that helped each other and they both progressed,” says Grant Baker, who, like Long, Burle and all other big-wave surfers, is excited about what is to come. “The future will see paddling even bigger and tow-in taking the action to places we never thought would be viable.” Big-wave world records Paddle 2005: 55ft (Shawn Dollar, Mavericks, California,) 2011: 57ft (Shane Dorian, Jaws, Hawaii) 2012: 61ft (Shawn Dollar, Cortes Bank, California) Tow-in 1998: 68ft (Carlos Burle, Mavericks, California) 2008: 77ft (Mike Parsons, Cortes Bank, California) 2011: 78ft (Garret McNamara, Nazaré, Portugal)
A tow-in session with Laird Hamilton (below), in Teahupoo, Tahiti, becomes the world-famous ride – and accompanying pic – known as The Millennium Wave.
2009
The Big Wave World Tour is launched.
2011 Danilo Couto, Shane Dorian and Ian Walsh surf a huge Jaws swell with 55-60ft waves, with no tow-in: paddle surfing is back on the agenda.
2011 Shane Dorian invents an inflatable flotation vest, based on airline life jackets, that gives big-wave surfers an extra level of safety – and the freedom to go higher.
safety crews. You need 4x4s, jet-skis, plenty of surfboards 9-12ft long, wetsuits and safety equipment. During a big-wave competition, the logistical difficulties and costs are less thanks to the involvement of surfing associations and local communities. The Eddie Aikau Invitational and Mavericks Invitational have been good for the sport of big-wave surfing. They are fixed points in an otherwise random universe, places where crowds can gather and media can report for big-wave surfing’s increasing global fanbase. For many years, they were the only regular competitions, but they were joined by events at big-wave spots Todos os Santos (Mexico), Dungeons (South Africa) and Pico Alto (Peru). “It pushes us out of our comfort zones,” says Greg Long. “We’re all friends, but when prize money is involved, a competitive instinct naturally arises, with 45 minutes to catch a wave during a heat. Then, at the end of the day, when we get back to the pier or wherever, it’s all friendship and fun.” After further big-wave spots emerged, during the last decade, a tournament was announced to take in the world’s big breaks. Former surfer Gary Linden promoted the first Big Wave World Tour in 2009/10; Carlos Burle was the first winner. “The BWWT got bigger and it’s still growing,” says Burle. “We all owe Gary for this. What he’s doing is awesome.” From the 2014-15 season, which begins in August this year, the tour’s organisation is under the rule of sports marketing company ZoSea, which performs the same task for the ASP World Tours, regular surfing’s most prestigious series. Changes made by ZoSea include better webcasts and media coverage, increased marketing and new rules, such as the wave coefficient, which means that a bigger wave face is worth more points. “Previously, at Chile’s or Peru’s contests,” says Long, “if you weren’t there on the cliff you didn’t get to see any of it until a couple of weeks later, when the photos and video eventually came out. So the new regime is going to be a good thing, I’m sure.” Back at Burle’s house in Waialua, Reno eats his popcorn and Ligia steps into the kitchen, where Burle is seated at the table with his laptop open. On the screen, twinkling red, yellow, and green colours indicate weather forecast radars monitoring storms around the globe. He studies the map, looking for a next move, shakes his head and complains about the winds. When the red spots move into the right places, then it’s time to move. bigwaveworldtour.com
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beat master He eclipses Keith Moon for frantic drumming and plays concerts nearly five hours long: Martin Grubinger is the greatest percussionist in the world
Words: Andreas Rottenschlager Photography: Christoph Meissner
here are nights when Martin Grubinger collapses from exhaustion behind two soundproofed doors in his rehearsal room. Sleep gets the better of him after he spends anything up to 14 hours at his percussion instruments. “I’ve been known to drop off at my marimba,” he says, “and one time I just lay down on the floor next to my drum kit. You play until you are completely exhausted. Eventually your upper body just keels forward. And then you wake up again a few hours later.” Grubinger, 30, is sitting in the small kitchen on the ground floor of his house in the small town of Neukirchen an der Vockla in Austria. The walls are painted white and there’s the smell of coffee. Grubinger comes across as remarkably fit for someone who spends the night in a music rehearsal room. He has a boyish face, smooth skin and ruddy cheeks. Plump veins throb on his lower arms. Martin Grubinger is the world’s most radical percussionist. He can play several percussion instruments at virtuoso level. He is one of the best in the world at interpreting the marimba, the XXL version of the xylophone. The New York Times called him a “master of the high-speed chase” for his ability to make 40 beats a second on the head of a snare drum. Grubinger is the only kind of musician who plays marathon percussion concerts with classical orchestras that last for hours. His heart pounds away at a rate of up to 195 beats per minute and his weight can drop by up to 2kg during a show. Last year, he performed 68 concerts on three continents. His playing has left its mark on a whole section of instruments. Before Grubinger came along, percussionists played in the back row of the orchestra. Now composers are writing pieces just for him. Some of them are so complicated that only he can play them. “What appeals to me is taking things to the limit,” he explains. “I want to know what I can get out of my body and the instrument. As the soloist, you’re playing with 70 musicians in the orchestra. You have to get every single note just right over a period of several hours. You need to be as fit as an endurance athlete, otherwise there’ll be too much acid in your muscles and you won’t have the strength for minutes of frantic activity at a time. 61
“But at the same time, you also have to be able to play with feeling, to convey phrasing and volume. You’ve got to be able to do it all, from playing the cymbals almost inaudibly to going mad on the pipe snare – 140 decibels is as loud as a jet fighter taking off.” Grubinger grew up in the Austrian town of Thalgau, near Salzburg, the son of a professor of percussion. As a boy, he heard his father’s pupils practising in the family home. He says that he learnt music in the way other children learn to speak. Aged 12, he passed the entrance exam for a private university of music in Linz. That meant regular school lessons in the mornings and undergraduate courses in the afternoons. He left school as soon as he could, aged 15, without graduating and the register showing that he had missed 680 hours’ of lessons. He then spent most of the next six years either in the university’s rehearsal rooms or his bed, so that by the age of 21, he was a virtuoso percussionist, playing internationally in competitions and with orchestras. But this wasn’t enough, so he devised a challenge for himself: play six concerts in a single evening, including three premieres, at the Golden Hall of Viennese Music Association, the most famous concert hall in the world. In all, that would be four-and-a-half hours of extremely complex music – 600,000 notes in a single evening, no sheet music. Grubinger would learn the concert by heart. “I’d like to give the drums a new identity,” he said. “You’ll kill yourself,” said one of his former professors. At 6pm on November 17, 2006, Grubinger took to the stage of the Golden Hall and positioned himself in the middle of a semi-circle made up of 200 percussion instruments: conga drums, bongos, kettledrums, cymbals. Accompanying him was the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra. He began drumming. The veins in his neck began to bulge and sweat dripped from his face onto the heads of the drums. During the
On the beat: “Learning marathon concerts is like learning choreography”
breaks, he dipped his hands in ice-cold water. Afterwards, he was unable to remember large parts of the evening – “I’d got into the flow. I was watching myself drumming. My hands knew by themselves where they had to go” – but he had pulled off this tour de force. His hands were shaking as he took his bow. One review likened his performance to climbing Mount Everest without extra oxygen. The percussion marathon had made Martin Grubinger famous. It’s dusk in Austria and Grubinger is looking out of a window at coniferous trees and gentle hills in the rock-star house he had built last year. The living area on the first floor is made up of three glass cubes. On the ground floor, the rehearsal room measures 200m2. Lead doors keep the music in check and the windows are triple-glazed. Visiting musicians can practise here round the clock. Grubinger had a bedroom built for them. A delivery ramp leads straight to the rehearsal room. “I need that to survive,” he explains. He takes six tonnes of equipment with him when he’s on the road with an orchestra. “You’d go mad if you had to drag stuff up to the first floor.” With a packed 2014 concert schedule, Grubinger has to practice, so at about 9pm, he heads for his rehearsal room. There’s just one point to clear up: how do you learn 600,000 notes by heart? “You break the concert down into movements. You break the movements down into units of four bars each. You
THE CONCERT THAT MADE HIM FAMOUS LASTED FOUR-AND-A-HALF HOURS, DURING WHICH he PLAYED 600,000 NOTES 62
then practise those four bars, for weeks if necessary, at the lowest level you can set on the metronome: 35bpm. You practise those four bars until they become second nature. Then you practise the next four. Learning marathon concerts by heart is the same as learning choreography.” Grubinger doesn’t use music stands. “I don’t like them. They get between me and the audience. Music stands block off my power.” If you want to understand what Grubinger means by his power, type the words “planet rudiment” into YouTube and click on the top result. Rudiments are technical exercises as practised by percussion pupils during lessons. Planet Rudiment is a piece Grubinger wrote that ramps the technique up to the extreme. At his concerts, he usually saves it for last. In the video, Grubinger stands in front of a black pipe snare. He takes a deep breath and then starts to rap his drumsticks on the taut drumhead. The tempo rises until his sticks disappear in a blur. He also twirls the sticks in his hands time and again; he does tricks so quickly that your eye can barely keep up. In the middle of this frantic activity, Grubinger kneels down by the drum, rolls the left drumstick out of his hand and onto his left forearm and drums that against the drumhead using the right drumstick. Grubinger stands up again, never missing a beat. He builds to his finale, pectoral muscles twitching, face contorted into a grimace. He is now drumming for all he’s worth and it sounds like machinegun fire. He ends the piece with a single, resounding thwack on the drum’s metal edge, then gasps for air. In four minutes, everything you need to know about him and his 10-year concert career: speed, precision and virtuosity, all pepped up with a hint of crazy. martingrubinger.com the red bulletin
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The Cape Town Electronic Music South African electronic dance biggest acts in the world. This year, local talent Shimza perfectly 64
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Festival aims to showcase music and attract some of the Dutch imports Noisia and leading epitomised that ambition the red bulletin
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oisia owe a lot to their creative vision. The Dutch drum ’n’ bass team of Nik Roos, Martijn Sonderen and Thijs de Vlieger came up with their collective name by reading the word ‘vision’ on an upside down VHS tape. The trio got together in 2003 and have also released tracks under other names, including Drifter and Hustle Athletics, but their 2010 album, Split The Atom, was a classic, incorporating many off-genre influences and experiments while staying rooted in the DnB ethos. Apart from remixing Skrillex, Labrinth, deadmau5 and The Prodigy, Noisia also produced the music for the epic DmC Devil May Cry Xbox and PS3 video game, and continue to play major festivals and sign up rising producers like Neosignal, Posij and The Upbeats to their three record labels (Vision, Division and Invincible). The Cape Town Electronic Music Festival was Noisia’s first South African appearance in eight years, and Nik Roos took time out to chat to The Red Bulletin. the red bulletin: How was the Cape Town Electronic Music Festival for you? noisia: We arrived two days before, and we did a talk in Langa [as part of the CTEMF Open End Workshops] and afterwards we went on a tour of the township where we spoke with the people, not only about the way of life but also about the music, about how big house music is here and how it fuses with other things. Kwaito sounds really amazing. We’ve got to get our hands on some of that. So that day was really inspiring, and we definitely will remember it. Can electronic musicians limit themselves by staying too loyal to a single genre? In a way, but drum ’n’ bass has always been the thing we love the most. We love a lot of other stuff, make a lot of other stuff, but there’s nothing like drum ’n’ bass for us, and I’m happy to call it drum ’n’ bass and have a little border around it. There’s nothing wrong in really identifying yourself with a sound.
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“ Once we know what the song wants to be, then we go and make it. The doing part is not that hard, but the knowing is sometimes difficult”
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“It was old-school house music and I just fell in love with the sound. That’s why I’ve been a house DJ ever since”
here is no such thing as an overnight success, but early in his career DJ Shimza’s brand of skilful mixing caught the attention of SA house maestro Black Coffee, and resulted in Shimza supporting him and even playing relief during Coffee’s record-breaking 60-hour set in Soweto. After studying at Soul Candi Music, the Thembisa local was soon being talked about in the house scene, and a weekly slot on YFM’s YTKO followed. Shimza recently signed to Black Coffee’s Soulistic Music label and is fast gaining a reputation internationally, having played Miami, Lisbon and Paris. At his annual One Man Show in December, held in aid of Thembisa orphans, Shimza and guests DJ all night for thousands of fans. CTEMF was Shimza’s first major festival performance in South Africa. the red bulletin: How was the Cape Town Electronic Music Festival for you? shimza: I’m not really one for playing for different crowds. I’m always in my comfort zone where I know what people like, but seeing a different crowd of people going down to what I do was amazing and I was humbled. It’s a great festival. I’m hoping I’m back here every year! And the rig? Can we not even go there? It’s amazing, bra! It’s every DJ’s dream to get to a party and the sound for the people is proper. The sound, the set-up, everything was just on point. Can electronic musicians limit themselves by staying too loyal to a single genre? No. It’s just amazing how house music has taken me to where I am today. I mean, 10 years ago I didn’t even think I’d be in Cape Town playing for a different crowd. What new stuff have you been spinning? The boys from Durban who are just making music to get it out there; they’re still learning while they’re doing it, and a lot of them sample me, too. I play a lot of Culoe De Song, I play a lot of Black Motion, I play a lot of Cuba, and I play a lot of Fearless Boys. So it’s a whole lot of unknown guys and obviously guys who are in my age group who are still trying to make it.
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When the three of you make music together, do you fall into roles or do you work as a unit? We all have our own individual work ethic, and we do a lot of work individually, but when it comes to important songs and important decisionmaking within songs, we do a lot of it together. Once we know what the song wants to be, then we go and make it. The doing part is not that hard, but the knowing is sometimes difficult. But once you feel you’re on solid ground, especially when you’re working with another person, and you both agree that this is the thing, then working it out is a matter of problem-solving. The further you get in the track, the more practical the whole thing becomes. How does making remixes or coming up with your own tracks differ from producing music for games? It varies completely. When you make music for a racing game, there are often just tracks playing in the background, but for DmC Devil May Cry, specifically, you’d have ambient music when you’re puzzle-solving, but when fighting happens there’s a transition into fight music. If you make dynamic music for a game, which is triggered by game play, then there have to be loops. But there’s also a lot of room to do things that just, you know, could be massive washes playing over that aren’t rhythmical at all. Is there any equipment or software which has totally surprised you? The Audeze LCD 3 headphones. They have some weird technology in there, like a big vacuum around your ears, I think. But they’re an amazing tool for making music. Because the sound is right on your ears, there’s this
immediacy that you can’t get when you’re working with speakers. I will gladly mix a whole song on them. Where’s EDM going in the future? What I hope is that when the big wave passes, people will realise that there is more specific music which they really like, which they really want to make an effort to build. At this scale, it’s easy for music to be run commercially by companies and big cartels. I just hope that from beneath that, something else also rises up from the belief that with your people, in your city, and with your connections on the internet, you can build foundations for specific music that isn’t as mainstream as some EDM now. Of your work, what do you rank as the most groundbreaking or original? I would rather leave that to the music lovers. Let’s flip it another way. For me, personally, I don’t have any records on my wall, except one – and that’s our first release on our own label, which was The Tide. That first independent
release is what a lot of people know us from, and they still associate us with that track from that era. What talent should we be looking out for at the moment? The names to watch are the Annix guys: Konichi and Decimal Bass. Especially Konichi, he’s making some really fucking cool tracks. It’s kind of like a new jump up. It’s very UK, it’s very raw, it’s very dry, really powerful and amazing. And your greatest influence? The Prodigy. They’ve done music across many genres, but nobody could ever classify it. It’s more like you recognised The Prodigy regardless of what tempo it was. That ability to be an act which transcends genres, I think is really amazing. As is their punk-rock attitude in music, something which is lacking from so much electronic music. twitter.com/Noisia_nl
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“I’m still hustling my way up, and I’m really happy that people are warming up to One Man Show”
What at CTEMF leapt out at you? I was playing my afro house and people were going crazy for it, and after me, there was the electronic band HVOB, and people were still going crazy for them. So it just shows you that music is one big language that’s understood by everyone. Is an album due out at any point? I don’t want to be rushed to do something that will just be out there, because I have to have one out there. It’s one thing having an album, but when you get to clubs and you can’t even play your music? So I’m looking for something that I’ll be able to play when I go out. As soon as I’ve got that and my gut tells me that I’m sorted, I’ll go for it. I’m more of a DJ than a producer. My DJing speaks more for me than my producing side. And travelling internationally? I’ve been to Angola a lot. The first time I went there, I made sure I proved myself. I’ve been to Portugal, and am going back to play the Docks club in Lisbon, and then I’m playing in Paris at a club called Djoon. It’s one club that I’ve always dreamt of playing at, and just seeing myself on a Djoon flyer is crazy. It’s like something I’ve been longing for and when I see that, it just overwhelms me. Does travelling affect One Man Show? Not really, because everywhere I go, whether it’s Cape Town or Miami, I learn, so I know how to plug whatever I’ve learned back into the yearly show. I’m happy that people know about the One Man Show. It’s been five years and people are starting to catch up to it. They know what’s going on, but we have challenges when it comes to sponsorship. You say ‘we’? When I say ‘we’, I mean me, myself and I. I want to do something I’ve created. I don’t want someone to tell me what it’s going to be. I need to be that guy because I’ve got a vision and I know what level and what standard to put it at. For now, I’m still hustling my way up and I’m really happy that people are warming up to it. And your greatest influence? DJ Monde is one of them, the late DJ Monde. Iggy Smalls, Kabzela, DJ Fresh, all the DJs who were playing on this mix show called Mad Half-Hour on YFM. DJs from different hoods would get there and play for 30 minutes and it was a battle type of thing. But I’m also from a family where my brother used to collect vinyl from friends and that was the only thing that was playing at home. It was old-school house music and I just fell in love with the sound. That’s why I’ve been a house DJ ever since. twitter.com/Shimza_dj
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Game Boys I n a n o n d esc ri pt h ou se i n S e ou l , te e n a g e rs s pen d t h ei r d ays a n d n i ghts p l ay i n g rea l -t i me sc i -f i v i deo g a m e S ta r C raf t I I . We l come to e -sp or ts, w h e re sta rdo m m ea n s ho u rs i n f ro nt of t h e comp u te r, a si x-f i g ure ba n k a cco u nt an d psyc h i c s p re d i ct i n g w h e n you ‘ l l g et a g i rl f ri en d Word s: A n n Do n a h u e P h otog ra p hy: M a n c h u l K i m
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mong athletes, the frustration of losing is palpable. Top tennis players like Novak Djokovic have argued with umpires after late fault calls; some of the world’s best golfers, like Rory McIlroy, have stormed off the course after fluffing important shots; and high-profile footballers, like Mario Balotelli, have been banned for intimidating referees after narrow defeats.
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Seung Hyun Lee’s irritation takes the form of a wrenching low simmer. Sitting in a cafe in the hip Samseong-dong district of Seoul, he just watches his sundae melt, chunks of kiwi floating in vanilla ice cream. He can’t eat. He didn’t get much sleep. “I think one of the reasons we failed is that I was desperate to win the game,” he says. Lee is a video game player. He is 16 years old, but this is not your average teenager playing an average video game. Lee is a professional gamer, a champion of the Global StarCraft II League and a two-time champion of the Major League Gaming Pro Circuit. In the past two years, he has won seven major tournaments and taken home close to US$200,000 in prize money. Last night, Lee’s loss was shown on four television networks in South Korea, with tens of thousands more people watching live streams of the matchplay on the Internet around the world. The game Lee plays, StarCraft II, is a military science-fiction strategy game. Imagine chess with aliens and colourful explosions. Two players meet online, raise their own armies and try to outwit each other as the battle unfolds in real time over a futuristic map. StarCraft II is Lee’s everything. He plays under the name Life. He lives in a training house with his 16 teammates in the red bulletin
Seung Hyun Lee is one of the top professional video game players in the world. His game of choice is StarCraft II and he plays under the name Life
a suburb of Seoul, where they eat, sleep, and breathe the game. There is no time to hang out with friends, no time for a girlfriend, no time for family apart from a quick phone call. His constant focus is to excel at playing video games, so when Lee loses, it is not just a strike against his skills; it’s something more profound. It’s a rupture of his entire way of life. If getting back to winning form means practising more than the 14 hours a day that he already spends in front of the computer, Lee is going to do it.
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he StarTale house, which takes up two floors in a mid-rise building in Incheon, about 40km west of Seoul, could be pictured next to the dictionary definition of ‘nondescript’. It is grey. It is blocky. It is made out of concrete. It is located near the industrial shipping port, the airport and there is a hairdresser across the street. It is a place with zero distractions. Throughout Seoul, there are a dozen of these training houses, each packed with young men who play video games professionally, all funded by a corporate sponsor that pays for rent, food, and an astronomical electricity bill. In return, the sponsors receive TV and online exposure across a video-game-obsessed nation – and, increasingly, world. Video gaming is an immense business, with an estimated US$63 billion of global
I f g e t t i ng back to wi n ning for m m e a n s p r actis ing m o r e tha n the 14 h o urs a day t h at h e al r e ady s p e n d s in fr on t of t h e c omp u te r , Le e i s g o i ng to d o it revenue in 2012, according to American entertainment industry research firm DFC Intelligence. That’s almost twice the amount of money brought in by theatrical movies – global box office revenue last year was US$34.7bn. Most of the millions of people who play video games are casual gamers – you know who you are, Candy Crush fans – but there is an emerging class of players, like Lee, who make serious money and earn global acclaim by winning tournaments. “He is the best player by far – he’s so consistent, and since he’s so young, if he brings the right attitude to the table, he’s going to dominate the scene for a long time,” says Thomas Kilian, a member of the broadcast announcing team that provides the English-language play-byplay of video game competitions for online Korean network GOM.TV. South Korea is ground zero for professional e-sports, thanks to the
Lee and Choco the cat in the training house
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country’s outstanding IT infrastructure. During the 1990s, Korea invested in public utilities and laid thousands of miles of fibreoptic cable. In real-world terms, this means that while someone in Cape Town is having trouble downloading a small attachment on their smartphone, someone in Seoul is watching live highdefinition TV on theirs. Another reason for South Korea’s video game dominance is the PC bang culture. A PC bang (pronounced ‘bahng’, Korean for ‘room’) is a huge gaming centre and cafe filled with computers. “For middle school students and high school students, there’s not a lot of things for them to do,” says Ji Sung Choi, the 25-year-old captain and elder statesman of the StarTale team, who plays under the name Bomber. Teenagers gather in the PC bang after school to play games as a cheap form of entertainment, and as they get older, the obsession carries over into following pro video gamers and watching matches on TV. Into this perfect cultural and technological mix came StarCraft II in 2010. A sequel to a game first released by Blizzard Entertainment in 1998, StarCraft II allows players to compete over the internet – and with the quick broadband speeds in Korea, there isn’t any crashing or stuttering in the gameplay, even when hundreds of thousands of people are playing online simultaneously. More than 5.1 million copies of the game have been sold at a list price of US$39.99 – it’s the equivalent of the select few summer blockbuster movies each year that earn US$200 million. Lee and Choi both started playing video games at PC bangs, where they realised they were good enough to beat their friends and good enough to beat most of the strangers they played online. StarCraft II games are played online at Battle.net and on servers hosted by Blizzard. Data collected by the servers – who plays who, who beats who and what kind of strategies are employed by the winner – are noted by Korean e-sports coaches, who also read message boards to find out which players are generating discussion. “If a player is popular online, it means there are a lot of eyes on them,” says StarTale team coach Hee Won Yun. If a gamer creates enough of a stir, he is recruited to join one of the professional training houses in Seoul. It is in those houses where playing video games evolves from a hobby into a rigorous preparation for competition. It’s war college for e-sports. the red bulletin
Above: the StarTale team in training. Below: the studio at GOM.TV in Gangnam, where tournaments are broadcast
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he foyer of the fourthfloor entrance to the StarTale house is a tangle of two things: shoes and trophies. While 20 pairs of shoes are haphazardly scattered throughout the corridor, the trophies are lined up in cabinets and on shelves, sometimes stacked two or three deep. E-sports don’t have an off-season – there are dozens of professional video game tournaments each year. Members of StarTale travel across the world collecting wins: everywhere from the USA to China, Germany and Sweden. From down the hall comes an incessant click-click-clicking. Inside the main StarCraft II training room are a dozen computers, with a professional gamer staring into each screen. Lee doesn’t notice when a large group enters the room. Like his teammates, he’s wearing headphones with the sounds of the game cranked up. A giant portable air conditioner churns from the corner – it’s there to cool off the computers, not the players.
“ I g o to a sp ecia l ise d h ig h school fo r vi d eo g a me p l aye rs. I f I have to p l ay, I d on’ t have to g o to cl ass” Lee and Choi spend their downtime in Seoul’s Seonjeongneung Park
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A typical training day in the StarTale house begins at 11am. The team plays until 3pm and takes a one-hour break for eating and exercise. Then there is a second training set of four hours, with a one-hour dinner break at 8pm. The team then plays from 9pm until 3am, when it’s time to go to bed. Lee’s schedule is a little bit different because he is still in school, so he attends classes in Seoul three times a week. “It’s a specialised high school for video game players,” he says. “They are OK if I just go to four classes in the morning, and they support us. It really surprised me. If I have a game, I don’t have to go to school.” For some people outside the world of professional e-sports, it’s a dream lifestyle. Skipping school to play video games all day? Really? But being a top professional means relinquishing every other interest outside of the game. “I don’t actually hang out with friends,” says Lee. “My days are always dedicated to gaming.” As the players get older, they gain some perspective on their careers. While they don’t regret putting in the red bulletin
a big deal. But if I lose it a couple of days before, then right away I get on the internet and order the exact same one.” For the two hours each day that the players are awake and not gaming, the StarTale team retreats to their living quarters two floors above the training room. It has a certain frat-house vibe. (While several women are professional gamers in Korea, they don’t live in the training houses.) There are two sets of bunk beds in each bedroom and dumbbells are scattered around the floor. StarTale’s fluffy cat, Choco, lounges on a battered white leather couch in the living room. “I love the cat!” says Lee. “But I don’t think he’s a cat that has a happy life because he never gets out of the house.”
Lee has been practising even harder to bounce back from recent defeats
the hours gaming requires, the toll such focus takes becomes more apparent. “Every night I dream about StarCraft,” says Choi. “It’s really torturing me. My day is filled with training and training, and even in my dreams I’m playing it.” But the amount of practice is essential. In StarCraft II, it’s the only way to predict the potential outcomes of the game. Each player selects one of three alien races to play at the outset. Each of those races then has dozens of weapons that could be deployed, so StarCraft II has almost endless permutations of gameplay. Just like any other big game preparation, before tournaments, professional gamers watch tapes of their competitors in an attempt to work out their opponent’s default tactics and weak spots. Beyond faultless mental concentration, playing StarCraft II requires the rare ability to use a mouse and a keyboard with jaw-dropping speed, measured in ‘actions per minute’ that, in elite circles, translates to issuing 300 commands in the game per 60 seconds. It’s like trying to juggle 10 flaming pins, a concentrated blur of keyboarding clacking and mouse clicking. Professional gamers tweak their keyboards and mice to their own personal specifications and carry them in fitted, padded bags that are guarded like a Stradivarius violin. “If the equipment doesn’t fit me well, it really impacts on the results of the game,” says Lee. “If it gets stolen or I lose it on game day, it’s the red bulletin
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ee lived with his family until he moved into the StarTale house just over a year ago. He never sees or spends the money he earns from winning tournaments, because it goes directly into a bank account managed by his parents. He’s jittery and brash, quick to laugh and be the centre of attention wearing his goofy sunglasses, but just as quick to bury his head in his smartphone. His allor-nothing personality mimics his style of gameplay: his offensive strategy is the equivalent of going all-in in poker on every hand. There is taunting in his game, too: at the start of one of his matches last year, he created a star pattern with one of his pawns in homage to his team. Upon joining, Lee promptly fell into his role of being the picked-on youngest of the StarTale house. “I feel to the bone that I’m the little brother,” he says. “It’s always the little brother that has to do all of the cleaning.” And being an e-sports prodigy doesn’t make you immune to pranks, it turns out. “I hate it when they
“ M y day i s fi l l e d wi t h tr a i ni n g a n d t r a i n i ng, a n d e ve n i n m y d r e ams I’ m p l ay i n g Sta rcr a f t”
hide my stuff,” he complains. “That’s what they do every day. It really angers me. I don’t like my stuff getting lost.” Much of the pressure to succeed falls on Lee and Choi, who are at opposite ends of their careers. Lee is the promising upstart and Choi is the veteran. Choi is thoughtful and reflective, appreciative of what gaming has brought him: the chance to travel the world, to earn money as a young man, to go skydiving, even though he was afraid the wind would blow off his glasses during the freefall. He intends to start his compulsory military service in two years, when he turns 27. The interactions between Lee and Choi – a blend of empathy, advice, and banter – are emblematic of how the members of StarTale perform three roles in each other’s lives: co-workers, friends and family. When Lee loses, Choi is there to provide perspective. Lee’s loss the previous night was also a loss for Choi, as it happened as part of a team tournament. StarTale was obliterated by AxiomAcer in the Global StarCraft II Team League, a humiliating defeat known as an All-Kill, where one player on the opposing team sweeps four players in succession. “We did research, as always, but I didn’t expect the way they played,” says Lee. “If we were prepared, we could have blocked them. But we didn’t.” Choi was so dejected that at 3am he consulted a psychic in Hongdae, a bar area popular with college students. “He said things look good,” Choi tells Lee the next day as they walk in Seonjeongneung Park, a respite of green amid Seoul’s skyscrapers. “He said life would take a peak in September, and then another in December, when I get a girlfriend.” Lee, still irritated by the loss, isn’t having it. “You know they just tell you what you want to hear because you’re paying them, right?” he asks. “Yes, I know that,” Choi scowls. Thanks to their ruthless dedication, the duo staged significant comebacks at the end of 2013. The psychic proved correct: Choi did reach a career highpoint in autumn, when he won the World Championship Series Season 2 in Germany, earning US$40,000. As for Lee, he won the IEM Season VIII tournament in New York and finished second at the DreamHack Winter 2013 in Sweden, winning more than US$25,000. “Ever since I was very, very young, I wanted to be a professional gamer,” says Lee. “I love it. I don’t have any regrets. I wouldn’t have it any other way.” Follow @redbullesports on Twitter
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the
comes to town
When Travis Pastrana brought th e wo r l d ’s w i l d est t rave l l i n g collection of adrenalin-addicted freestyle athletes to South Africa, The Red Bulletin went along for the ride W o r d s : S E A N C H R I S T I E  P h o t o g r a p h y : l u k e d anie l 76
the showmen
Nitro Circus Live riders celebrate the conclusion of the successful South African leg of the tour at their final show in Johannesburg
“ Y o u r e a l i s e n i t r o c i r c u s i s a s e c o n d fa m i ly w h e n you pull off a world first�
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N Acting up
Clockwise from top left: the Nitro Circus athletes enter the FNB Stadium ahead of their extreme antics; Todd Meyn (left) and Matt Whyatt (right) get some air time; Blake ‘Bilko’ Williams soaks up the adoration of the 30,000-strong Johannesburg crowd; BMX rider Matt Whyatt gathers his thoughts behind the Nitro Circus Gigantaramp; Streetbike Tommy gets proceedings under way; the world famous Nitro Circus Giganta-ramp
othing compares to Travis Pastrana’s Nitro Circus Live. The motorsports legend created the Frankenstein monster of action sports entertainment in 2011, and it’s unlike anything you’ve seen before. There are elements of MTV’s Jackass, there are nods to the motorbikes-in-a-cage act toured by the Barnum & Bailey Circus and the Crusty Demons of Dirt videos of the 1990s, and there are references to the X Games, where Pastrana has won 17 medals. Having breathed life into his wild creation, however, ways had to be found of preserving the athletes while recruiting the right talent and ensuring that Nitro Circus Live remains the most adrenalin-stirring actions sports show on the planet. “It’s rare that anyone who is any good at action sports isn’t on the Nitro Circus radar,” says Pastrana, “but every now and then we are sideswiped by someone from left field.” With his sky-blue eyes, cherubic blonde curls and snowboard tucked under his arm, Brandon Schmidt looks like a refugee from the Sochi Winter Olympics – except that his board has wheels built into the body. Schmidt is a Nitro newcomer, but in many ways he also
embodies the Circus’ founding spirit of anything-goes action sports innovation. Despite hailing from New Jersey, USA, which isn’t exactly known for its favourable snowboarding conditions, Schmidt knew from a young age that he was born to fly, and whether it was on a BMX, skateboard or snowboard, that’s what he taught himself to do. Having followed Pastrana’s remarkable career, Schmidt wanted nothing more than to be a part of his collective of action sports stars. But instead of packing a knapsack and running off down the railway line, he posted a YouTube video of himself doing stunts and tagged the Facebook page of skateboarding star Lyn-z in the hope that Pastrana, who is her husband, would watch and like it – in the non-Facebook sense of actually getting in touch to say so. Pastrana remembers the gambit well. “Lyn-z saw Brandon’s video and said, ‘Check it out, he’s better than 90 per cent of us!’ I thought she was joking, but after about 30 seconds it was obvious that this kid was the real deal.” This was December 2012, and Nitro Circus was evolving fast. To begin with, says Pastrana, the draw of the circus was “mainly the moto side”, the Freestyle Motocross (FMX) riders who set the night on edge with the growling of their 250cc two-stroke engines. However, the aspect of the Circus that has been progressing fastest is without doubt the un-motorised stunts launched from the 17m-high Giganta-ramp by a bunch of youngsters deficient in self-preservation instincts. At first, this happened on traditional equipment like BMXs, skateboards and in-line skates. Later, the acts included an increasingly wild and woolly set of conveyances, including scooters, rocking horses, wheelchairs and a La-Z-Boy sofa. Schmidt seemed a good fit for this, so was invited to join the New Zealand tour, where he was handed the unique contraption he now carries around like a comfort blanket. He was soon using it to do backflips: first one, then two, and finally, one night in Australia last May, a set of groundbreaking three flips. “You realise that Nitro Circus really is a second family the moment you pull off a world first like that, and everyone rushes out and jumps all over you, and it’s completely mad and sincere and amazing,” says Schmidt. Local FMX prodigy Nick de Wit joined up with the crew during the South African leg of the tour and offers a slightly different perspective on circus life to a regular like Australian-born FMX star 79
“ w h a t t h e F M X riders do is like choreographed dancing�
Adam Jones sets off towards the FMX ramp, while Michael Norris soars through the sky ahead of him
th e r ide stuff
Left: Nitro Circus athletes begin their well-earned lap of honour at the end of the night. Below: wheelchair-bound Aaron ‘Wheelz’ Fotheringham takes the plaudits for a job well done
Josh Sheehan, who is the first FMX rider to ruler flip a 450cc four-stroke bike. “Think of what the FMX riders do as being like choreographed dancing,” says De Wit. “Everything that we do has been rehearsed. In competition, the stakes are higher because you push yourself to do what the other competitors can’t. That said, I’m stoked to be a part of this, and can’t wait to see the ‘contraptions’ part of the show. Those guys are insane.” Sheehan describes Nitro Circus as “like a reward” after the stresses of competition, but taxing in its own way. “I’ve spent four of the last five months away from home, so it’s great to get home and do other things. But every time I leave home, I think how lucky I am to do this for a living.” Even if the atmosphere behind the scenes is oddly calm, there has always been a sense of inherent morbidity in circuses – a large part of the audience’s thrill derives from the possibility that something could go horribly wrong. Circus ringmasters typically ham this up, making much of the fact that the net is not in place for a certain act. But Nitro Circus Live emcees take this to
stars o f t h e sh ow
From left: Todd Meyn, Ryan Williams, Brandon Schmidt, James Foster and Christopher ‘Beaver’ Fleming
the red bulletin
the extreme by playing slow-mo videos of disasters (including one of a rider’s leg snapping) before the same tricks are attempted. One could argue that Nitro Circus Live is guilty of promoting disaster. Pastrana says it’s a fine line. “The entire second half of Nitro Circus is composed of riders doing stunts that either they have never done before or that have never been done before by anyone,” he explains. “People need to understand what could go wrong, or they won’t feel what the athlete is feeling. We want them to root for our success and the only way to do that is to show them the struggle. Before heading out to perform, Aaron ‘Wheelz’ Fotheringham, the wheelchairbound darling of Nitro Circus Live, says he has a forward somersault planned. It doesn’t go to plan and he face-plants. “Never mind,” cries an emcee, “it isn’t you and it isn’t me out there, so let’s go!” Are there limits to what athletes are allowed to attempt? “Yes and no,” says Pastrana. “James Foster takes the biggest beating because he tries a triple backflip on his BMX at every show, and crashes about one in three times. That guy is an animal. But some people are encouraged to stick with what they know until they’re more consistent. But if everyone crashes and gets hurt in one show, we have failed action sports and we have failed our fans… plus, no one would be left to tour.”
Pastrana comes close to acknowledging that the FMX act, while incredibly slick, might be on the verge of becoming predictable. “The show is always evolving. There have never been two shows the same. But for us to continue to grow at the rate we have been, we will need to find a way to make the moto landing safer. “On the moto, it’s hard to progress as fast as on the Giganta-ramp because a crash on an FMX bike will end your tour. We have the safest ramps and landings in the business, but I want to make the jumps bigger, the tricks gnarlier and the injuries less frequent. I want to push myself every show and still be able to walk to dinner that night with my wife and little girl.” When the South African shows end in a burst of flame and fireworks, the rush of spectators through the exits is tougher than usual to navigate because so many exuberant kids are grinding imaginary skateboards off every obstacle they can find. Whatever his concerns, Pastrana can take this as evidence that, for now at least, Nitro Circus is striking the right balance between safety and thrilling entertainment. nitrocircus.com
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WINGS FOR EVERY TASTE.
CRANBERRY. LIME. BLUEBERRY. AND THE EFFECT OF RED BULL.
More than a feeling: the subwoofer you wear MUSIC, page 92
Where to go and what to do
ac t i o n ! T r a v e l / G e a r / T r a i n i n g / N i g h t l i f e / M U S I C / p a r t i e s / c i t i e s / c l u b s / E v e n ts Truck non-stop: spend a day in the desert in an off-road vehicle
Sand storm
It might look beachy, but this is no place to sunbathe. the colorado desert provides the ultimate driving test
drivenexperiences.com
TRAVEL, page 84
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Action!
travel
Desert dessert What to do after the truck driving
sail away Swap the dusty roar of the track for the crashing rapids of the Dolores River. The Gateway Resort’s Adventure Centre offers wet and wild rafting, kayaking and tubing. gatewaycanyons.com
DESERT TRUCKS Driving does not come more extreme than careering around the dusty Colorado canyons in a physics-defying truck Deserts can be relentlessly quiet, but not when you’re strapped into a 6.2-litre, V8-powered Pro-Baja truck, flying off sandy ramps at 140kph and catching air time in Colorado’s canyon country. Driven Experiences provides expert tuition at their Emerald Desert Training Facility in Mesa County, on how to handle their customised trucks around an off-road track. “Driving at high-speeds on the constantly changing dirt is a real challenge, as the longer you’re out there, the more holes start appearing,” says Travis Nailor, one satisfied and exhilarated customer. “It’s a battle to find the right line and hit the speed, but when you do, man, what a buzz. It’s a very addictive experience.” A range of driving packages is available, and you can even hire out the whole place, depending on your requirements and budget. Most people stay at the nearby Gateway Canyons Resort (rooms from US$450 per night) because, frankly, this is deep in the desert and there’s nothing else for miles. “Even experienced road racers can’t quite believe what these trucks can do,” says Andrew Hendricks, a Driven Experiences instructor. Prices range from “One described it to me as like US$600 for an driving a Transformer on the eight-lap ride for moon. But it’s like night and day. two passengers, to $2,600 for a full day. Most rookies are scared at first, More info at: driven but at the end of the day you have experiences.com to drag them out of the vehicle.” 84
Pimped-up ride: get your thrills on custom trucks in Colorado
Fly high Fancy a change of perspective? See the aweinspiring Colorado landscape from a helicopter or Cessna plane ride over gaping canyons and soaring mountainous terrain. gatewaycanyons.com
Advice from the inside flying lesson “When you approach a ramp, you think you don’t know what’s going to happen, but keep very calm, it’s going to be OK, just keep the gas on,” says off-road racing legend Chuck Dempsey. “You’ll hit the ramp and fly what feels like 40ft in the air. When you land you’ll feel like there’s nothing that you can’t do or jump, you feel indestructible in this crazy-ass beast of a machine.”
Drive Hard
“Our trucks place a real physical demand on the driver,” says Driven Experiences’s Andrew Hendricks. “If someone is serious about getting all they can out of driving here, I suggest they should work-out hard the week before coming, just to train their body to sweat.”
zip along They’re about 320km away down Highway 50, but the zip lines at Salida are worth the drive: the 695ft-long Leap of Faith line and the superfast Gun Barrel span a 200ft valley. captainzipline.com
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drivenexperiences.com(2), shutterstock
Off off-road
Action!
workout
Row for it: Mario Gyr (left) and Simon Schürch
“We need max strength”
High and dry: about a third of their training is in the gym
IN THE BALANCE A simple way to build quad muscles and balance. Beginners may want stop after step 2 a few times, get used to the movements, and only then progress to step 3
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2
lukas maeder(3), shutterstock
Heri Irawan
rowing A world-class duo on how to win as one. Plus: train like they do “Rowers are different from other endurance sportsmen and women,” says Switzerland’s Mario Gyr, who, alongside compatriot Simon Schürch, won the silver medal in lightweight double sculls at the 2013 World Rowing Championships in South Korea. “We always need maximum strength for every stroke. About 60 per cent of what we do to improve our endurance we do in the water, and 40 per cent in the weights room.” Schürch knows that he and Gyr must match each other exactly if they are to succeed. “We work on our technique to improve our stroke synchronisation, because the more synchronised our strokes are, the more stable the boat is and that means we’re quicker. Your legs are the most important thing in rowing: they generate the most power. As well as up to three hours a day in the water, we’ll work our quads in the gym on the leg-press machine and do squats with a 105kg barbell on our shoulders.” the red bulletin
Stand on one leg, lift the other off the ground and get your balance
3
Bend your standing leg at the knee, put your other leg out in front and bend at the waist
E AT TH I S ! A PRO PROTEIN TIP
SOLID SHAKE
Squat down low, then stand up again. Do five reps on each leg
Rowers have to be large and lean, and thus are among pro sport’s leading guzzlers of protein shakes. If you’re sick of shakes, get a fork and whisk a shot-glass of water with the suggested measure of powder until it goes mousse-like and you can eat it.
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Action!
get the gear
stay alive what you need when the going gets rough
Stop that High-tech brakes mean stopping exactly when required: a necessity on rugged terrain In the frame The chrome steel alloy of the KTM 300 is its strength, but it’s also light, making the bike easy to handle
LS2 helmet “It’s strong and lightweight. I put in long hours on the bike: if my helmet was too heavy it would trash my neck and shoulders.” ls2helmets.com
Leatt neck brace “I’ve had some big crashes and broken a couple of braces, but I’m still walking and talking, so this is doing its job.
Power plant “I can fix anything on this bike,” says Birch. “I carry a tube of Pratley Steel Quickset Epoxy, so if I put a hole in the engine I can glue it back together again”
leatt.com
Essentials of extreme e nduro The kit you need to thrive in the toughest two-wheeled environments on Earth Tough guy: Chris Birch competes in the Hard Enduro series
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Reliability, a smooth ride and the ability to overcome obstacles. These are the qualities Chris Birch needs in a bike. The 33-year-old from New Zealand has been riding KTM bikes since 2003. “You can overheat them, throw them down waterfalls or drive them up cliff faces and they keep coming back for more,” he says.
The new KTM Freeride 350 XC-F is his go-to bike for shorter, sprintdistance races, but for multi-day events like Red Bull Romaniacs or The Roof of Africa, he pulls out his old faithful, a KTM 300 two-stroke (above). “It’s my safety blanket,” he says. “It’s a bike I know very well.” chrisbirch.co.nz
Alpinestars boots “If I’m doing lots of jumps, I’ll wear the Tech 10s. I use these lighter, more flexible Tech 8s when I have to push my bike up a lot of hills.” alpinestars.com
the red bulletin
Action!
party
Töp Tünes Music-making girls of Gothenburg
Yukimi Nagano The vocalist from synth soul band Little Dragon counts Damon Albarn among her admirers. Her group’s fourth album, Nabuma Rubberband, is out on May 13.
No warm beer
Five floors of fun: first-class night out in Sweden’s second city
At the turn of the 20th century, one of the finest residences on Gothenburg’s main drag was a five-storey townhouse occupied by a nobleman and his family. Ten years into the 21st century, it was turned into a club, Yaki-Da. Today, it’s the home of the city’s best night out. Yaki-Da still has links to its glorious past: DJs play in spaces stuffed with antique furniture; bands perform in front of velvet curtains. “There used to be two types of parties in Gothenburg: ones with underground music and warm beer, and the others with good service and mainstream music,” says Sebastian Kapocs, Yaki-Da’s owner. “We want to bring the best of both worlds together.” That means live music outside on the terrace as well as in, and cuttingedge house DJs, such Spanish spinner John Talabot, performing in the ‘living room’ while hip-hop and soul play in the café bar. And you can get a steak at 2am. It’s all in keeping with the club’s name: also the name of a former Gothenburg club, and the Welsh for cheers. Iechyd da! Yaki-da Storgatan 47 411 38 Göteborg, Sweden www.yaki-da.se
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GREEN FAIRY TALES From Yaki-da’s absinthe bar: combine ingredients; enjoy
the Strindberg Margarita 30ml absinthe (preferably La Fée) 10ml Cointreau 20ml sugar syrup squirt of lime juice splash of soda water the Dario Espiga 25ml absinthe 15ml apple liqueur 20ml sugar syrup squirt of lime juice splash of apple juice pinch of finely grated ginger
Anna von Hausswolff Her gigs feel like midnight masses: the church organ is her prime instrument. She calls her music funeral pop. Don’t be put off by this: try new album Ceremony.
Scout Klas This Red Bull Music Academy graduate finds inspiration in Italian horror films. Her sound exists in the space between stuttering hip-hop and subtle electronica.
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yaki-da.se(5), Anders_Nydam
GOTHENBURG The best club in Sweden grew out of frustration with all the bad ones
Action!
City Guide
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GURTEN DOWNHILL TRAIL A downhill biking track close to the city, 2km long and with jumps up to 10m high. There’s a bike wash thrown in for free at the end. How nice. gurtenpark.ch
e
Top five city highlights
carol fernandez (3), club bonsoir, adriano‘s
Johannes Lang, albert Exergian, Sascha Bierl
Swiss congeniality: Carol Fernandez
“It’s where I get my tattoos” Bern A first-rate second-hand drinking den and the only place to eat pizza before sunrise in the most laid-back capital city As a child, Carol Fernandez took piano lessons at the Bern Conservatory and now, she says, “I pep up my sets with keyboard sections.” As a teenager, she DJd in her dad’s record shop: “I ruined all the record-player styluses. He would get so angry.” It was good practice for her first proper night on the decks, aged 22. “It was a small club. I was so nervous that I screwed up 10 of 15 songs. Today, she is sought-after DJ. “I perform 90 times a year, all over Switzerland and Europe, but I always like coming back to my hometown, Bern. It’s so easy-going. You don’t see harried faces on the street; you get a relaxed feeling. What other capital city can offer you that in this day and age?” Quite. Here Fernandez picks her city’s must-seek spots. djcarol-fernandez.com
the red bulletin
1 Club Bonsoir Aarbergergasse 33/35 “This used to be Dad’s record shop! Now it’s a club where underground stars and new talent play. It’s fitted out with second-hand furniture and the drinks aren’t expensive at all.”
basement venue isn’t exactly a secret, but you’ve got to see their giant wine cask – it holds 38,000 litres. And, if I’m not performing, the gallery bar is a cosy place for a cocktail.”
4 Adriano’s Bar & Café Theaterplatz 2 “This place has the best coffee in town; it’s roasted on site, but there’s nowhere to sit and it’s always jam-packed. A lot of Bernese come here, especially after dinner for a macchiato.”
3 Kornhauskeller Kornhausplatz 18 “OK, so this 18th-century
Plunge into streaming water where the River Aar flows through Bern. All abilities welcome, from beginners to would-be instructors. tauchsport-kaeser.ch
STOCKHORN BUNGEE JUMP
2 pronto Restaurant
Aarbergergasse 26 “Even during the daytime, Bern can be pretty quiet. By 2am, it’s completely dead. The one exception is Pronto. It serves great pizza, pita and kebabs.”
DIVING IN THE AAR RIVER
5 Blacksheep tattoo
Gerechtigkeitsgasse 5 “The people at this tattoo parlour are true body artists. They draw the design you want on a pad first and won’t stress you out. I got my latest tattoo here: a clef on piano keys.”
Deep breath, and then step off a rig 134m above a mountain lake. For many, the location of the world’s most breathtaking bungee jump. stockhorn.ch
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Action!
world run
Greatest running myths debunked
IS RUNNING ON TARMAC BAD? IS STRETCHING GOOD AFTER A SESSION? TO MARK THE WINGS FOR LIFE WORLD RUN, SPORTS SCIENTIST DR MARTIN APOLIN BANISHES RUNNING’S MOST PERSISTENT MYTHS
“Running on tarmac is bad for your joints” The truth
Myth
“Always run with a heart-rate monitor ” The truth
Myth
“Stretching eases aches and pains” The truth
No scientific study has ever confirmed this. Furthermore, people who run regularly build up thicker cartilage protection, regardless of the surface they train on. Tarmac also lowers the risk of twisting your ankle.
There is no argument against objectively gauging your performance, but your body isn’t a machine. Performance depends on your state of mind, how well you’ve slept and your form on the day. So, think before you react to a monitor’s readings.
Aches and pains after running are often tears in muscle tissue, which will only by made larger by stretching. What actually would help more is sitting in a sauna (drink plenty of water) or going for a gentle warm-down run.
Myth
Myth
Myth
“Endurance training makes you a slower runner” The truth
‘Quick’ muscle fibres only turn into ‘slow’ ones if you exclusively stick to long runs over a period of years. Occasional sprint training specifically for speed will prevent that happening.
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“You won’t burn any fat if you run for less than 30 minutes” The truth
We burn fat, even during sleep. But we burn it more efficiently after 30 minutes, as then your body is likely to have run out of carbohydrates. That said, to lose weight, you should eat less calories than you burn.
“You should hardly run at all for the last week before a race” The truth
If you reduce your training too much just before a race, your endurance can take a hit. The best thing to do is reduce your training by 50 per cent and rest for the last two days before race day.
the red bulletin
craig Kolesky/Red Bull Content Pool, Christophe Launay/Red Bull Content Pool, Alessandro Dealberto/Red Bull Content Pool, Balasz Gardi/Red Bull Content Pool sascha bierl
Myth
World runners
enter
YOU CAN RACE WORLD-CLASS SPORTS STARS IN THE WINGS FOR LIFE WORLD RUN. HERE’S A FRONT-RUNNING FIVE
an d get training
n ow
“Eating up those kilometres as long as I can” Surf legend Robby Naish has set himself a race target
“Training three times a week – and that includes cross-country skiing” Luc Alphand, former skiing star and racing driver, on his prep
“My target is to run 80 kilometres and win” The goal of ultramarathon runner Giorgio Calcaterra
Global gathering W ings For Life World Run A starter’s gun on six continents: The first worldwide running race in sporting history gets under way on may 4. Anyone who wants to race against the rest of the world can take part. Here are the details 1. THE WAY IT WORKS
4. THE RESULT
In 33 countries, 35 races will all begin at 10am UTC (Co-ordinated Universal Time; 10am GMT) on May 4, 2014. ‘Catcher Cars’ will start reeling in the participants 30 minutes later. The last person in the world to be caught wins.
The last man and last woman running will be crowned global champions and win a special roundthe-world trip. Each country will also record its national winners. All runners will be able to check online to see how they did. “Who in the world ran further than I did?”
2. THE CHASERS
“To send a signal, even though I’m not a runner” Running for those who can’t is important to David Coulthard, former F1 great
“It’s uplifting that thousands of people are running for us” Wheelchair triathlete Marc Herremans on the race boosting spinal injury research
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The ‘Catcher Cars’ will gradually increase their speed at predetermined intervals. Once a runner is caught, or passed by a car, he or she must drop out of the race and the distance run at that point is automatically recorded.
5. THE PARTICIPANTS
3. THE COURSES
6. THE MISSION
They fall into five categories around the world: coastal runs, river runs, city runs, nature runs and runs with a view. The event’s homepage (wingsforlife worldrun.com) gives you the latest weather reports, detailed course information, training plans and a distance-time calculator.
The Wings for Life World Run motto is: Running For Those Who Can’t. All of the money earned will go to the Wings For Life Foundation, which supports worldwide scientific research programmes looking for a cure for spinal cord injury. You can find more information at wingsforlife.com.
Beginners, hobby runners, top athletes and stars, such as former Formula One ace David Coulthard. The aim is to cover as much of the course as you can to help cure paraplegia.
Compete against the rest of the world in the Wings For Life World Run. You can register online until April 20 at wingsforlifeworldrun.com
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Action!
Music
COVER VERSIONS Mark Foster was 18 when he moved to Los Angeles to launch a music career. It was a long time coming. For years, he worked in bars and wrote commercial jingles. Then, in 2010, he and his band Foster the People put their song Pumped Up Kicks online. He says now that they weren’t expecting anything much, but that breezy indie pop tune broke through. Spotify’s most-streamed song of 2011, it reached No 3 in the US charts and has since sold over five million copies. Torches, their debut album of the same year, earned two Grammy nominations. The just-out follow-up, Supermodel, adds multilayered synths and space rock to the indie pop mix. Foster, now 29, let The Red Bulletin in on the songs that shaped him.
Playlist The Beatles took Mark Foster down the rabbit hole, but the Foster the People frontman is a creature of many influences
fosterthepeople.com
1 Beach Boys
2 The Beatles
3 Jeff Buckley
“The first time I heard this song, on the radio when I was a kid, it was unlike anything I’d ever heard. Especially the vocal harmonies. Looking back, it was a significant moment for me. When I was seven years old, the Beach Boys were my first concert. So to be on stage with my favourite band at the Grammys in 2012 was the greatest moment of my life.”
“It’s just one of the greatest songs ever, so simple but so profound. The experimental bridge in that song, when it takes that big orchestral left turn, is incredible. Hearing all these elements coming together, it takes you on a journey. Which is funny, as the song is actually about a trip. I love that, when the lyrics and the story match the music.”
“I remember the first time I heard this song. I was 19, I kept pressing the replay button, the lyrics started to pop out on me and I started to weep, because to me the song is about him predicting his own death. I sang along to it so often, I feel it really stretched my voice. I would even say Jeff Buckley taught me how to sing.”
4 Radiohead
5 The Beatles
“The video for this was on MTV when I was a kid and I’d never seen anything like it. I was so intrigued by this band; they just had a feeling to them no other band had. This song is like a classical piece split into three parts. It’s one of those songs that when I hear it, it makes me just want to quit. Radiohead touched the foot of God with this song.”
“I love to listen to this on headphones. It’s the only way to hear all the different textures and the bending, psychedelic effect on the bass guitar – an amazing sound I’ve been chasing around forever. Listening to I Am The Walrus really makes you feel like you’re a giant egg man on LSD bumbling down the street John Lennon was singing about.”
God Only Knows
Paranoid Android
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A Day In The Life
I Am The Walrus
Playgroup
DJ-Kicks “I don’t like to be on my records, but this was a good idea. All the names of the artists in the mix are written on the wall and then I stood in front of it.”
Grace
S’Express
Theme From ... “One of the first sleeves I did. I remember hearing Mark Moore [of S’Express] playing the promo in a club. I went up to him and said, ‘I love it, can I do the cover?’ The train represents a penis.”
lo u d vi b r ations LITTLE BIG BASS
THE WOOJER A mobile subwoofer that succeeds where others have failed, by converting sound waves into vibrations that oontz-oontz directly into your body. Connect the matchbox-sized device to your MP3 player and headphones, clip it onto your T-shirt and give your chest a bass massage.
Icarus
UL-6 “Icarus made very interesting fractured electronic music. So we messed up every sleeve by hand, reassembled them, then printed the name on a plastic bag. Every single one was different.”
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florian obkircher
‘ I hear it and I want to quit’
getty images
People person: Mark Foster
Musician and designer Trevor Jackson of Playgroup picks three sleeves what he made
JHB 45616/RW As seen on DStv/SuperSport
In 2014 we bring you the greatest sporting events every day. Catch the Brazil 2014 FIFA World Cup, ICC World T20, Vodacom Super Rugby and so much more. Live on your World of Champions.
Action!
games
A world reimagined: Wolfenstein: The New Order
It’s wolf time W olfenstein the classic game gets a next-gen makeover In February 1949, the winners of World War II are blowing the faces off Mount Rushmore. In 1960, a tiny crack appears in the evil machine of Teutonic world government. In Wolfenstein: The New Order, you are the leader of a resistance movement, trying to force that crack wide open and remove the jackboot from the free world’s neck. For those who came of age when gaming came of age, there’s not a lot more exciting than that. The first-person shooter, one of the world’s favourite game genres, would not be where it is today without Wolfenstein 3D, a 1992 PC title which broke ground in terms of its
speedy action and intense gameplay. The following year, the company that made it raised the stakes with Doom, a landmark of technical and gameplay excellence. Without these two, there’d be no Half-Life, Halo, Battlefield or Call Of Duty. In Wolfenstein: The New Order you will find retro-steampunk war machines, a scarfaced, sadistic chief baddie called General Deathshead and the kind of highvelocity yet claustrophobic run-and-gun action pioneered by its predecessors of a generation ago. What’s not to love? Out in the third week of May for Xbox One, Xbox 360, Windows, PS3 and PS4. wolfenstein.com
o u t n ow
Love U Too Can Bayonetta 2 save Wii?
It’s more like Nintendoh!: planning to sell nine million Wii U consoles this financial year, the games firm says it’ll be closer to three million. Nintendo-exclusive titles will help turn gameheads away from Xbox and PlayStation: out soon is Bayonetta 2, a stunning fantasy action game. It proves Nintendo means more than Mario, but would you buy a Wii U to play it? platinumgames.com
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Double the fun
Two screens better than one As your deep-space salvage team scours spaceships for bounty, fending off similar crews and alien creatures, a large screen shows what your men see and a small screen has overviews, ships’ blueprints, stats and info. This is Salvaged, an immersive real-time strategy game that needs a PC and an Android or Apple device. Watch for more dual-screen games. Out in November.
salvagedgame.com
Ti e-I n Try Again Games of movies coming soon (and 35 years old)
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 The open-world adventure based on the previous movie was good; the same team is making this one. Out April 29. theamazingspidermangame.com
Alien: Isolation Survival horror based on the original 1979 Alien movie – an influence you’ll find in most survival horror games. Available late 2014. alienisolation.com
Transformers: Rise Of The Dark Spark To go with this summer’s fourth big-robot film, starring Mark Wahlberg, a third-person shooter of man versus machine. transformersgame.com
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p ro m ot i o n
Must-haves! 1
1 KTM 2014 will be another historic milestone for KTM. After the spectacular launch of the 1290 Super Duke prototype, the company follows up with the long awaited premiere of the production 1290 Super Duke R. Crowning their legendary range of Naked Bikes, the Austrians deliver 1290 Super Duke R, a machine that re-defines the very notion of a streetfighter. The 1290 is the most extreme Super Duke ever and more radical than any of its predecessors. High tech in an aggressive design with unprecedented functionality and razor sharp sporting credentials. It is nothing short of the ideal embodiment of the KTM philosophy: purity, performance, adventure and extreme. KTM 1290 Super Duke R –A new kind of peg to fit none of the existing holes. READY TO RACE!. R179 999.
www.ktm.com 2 Canon PowerShoT SX700 hS Zoom into your adventures – the PowerShot SX700 HS, Canon’s slimmest ever 30x optical zoom camera. The camera is perfect for capturing all your adventures. Combining Canon’s leading lens innovations with an expertly engineered slim, compact body, the PowerShot SX700 HS is ideal for capturing your special moments in the quality they deserve. The camera delivers sharp, high quality photos and vivid Full HD 60p movies, and creative shooting modes add a unique twist to your shots. Sharing your adventures is also simple thanks to integrated Wi-Fi with NFC support. R3 499.
www.canon.co.za
2
3
3 SKinS SKINS has been designed to wrap and support key muscle groups. The seams are bio-mechanically placed to act as anchor points offering focused support and stability to major muscle groups. The wrapping effect and specific compression dramatically reduces muscle vibration resulting in less soft tissue damage. SKINS muscle focus also reduces delayed onset muscle soreness and speeds up recovery. SKINS Engineered gradient compression also has proven circulatory benefits. SKINS is manufactured using the finest quality warp knit moisture management fabrics, which provide wicking properties and enhanced body temperature optimization. SKINS also has 50+ UV protection in all non-mesh areas. SKINS long sleeve R1 199.
www.skins.net 4 GarMin vívofiT Garmin vívofit — A Wellness Band That Makes Every Step Count. Garmin’s Vívofit is a stylish, lightweight wellness band available in 5 trendy colours designed to turn good intentions into lifelong habits. Vívofit is the only wellness band that greets users with a personalised daily goal, tracks your progress and reminds you when it’s time to move. It features a curved display that remains on and shows steps, goal countdown, calories, distance and time of day. What differentiates vívofit from others is the battery life, the replaceable batteries last over one year. Its also water-resistant up to 50m so come rain or shine you never have to take it off. R1899 and R2299 (heart rate monitor bundle).
4 5
www.garmin.co.za/vivo 5 Thule winG Bar The number of family members, like the number of outdoor activities, tends to increase with time -- and space in the car is reduced accordingly. One way to make room for more adventure is to load things on your cars roof. The Thule Wingbar offers the ultimate solution. The lightweight aluminium bar offers a high loading capacity and is virtually noiseless when you drive. It‘s T-Track also allows you to use the full width of the bar and easily fit load accessories. R4 449.
www.thule.com
Action!
save the date
April 25-May 3
Downhill from here From the highveld to Scottburgh beach, the Joburg2C mountain bike stage race offers 900km of jeep track, single track and district roads, with just 10km of tarmac in the journey. From the outskirts of Johannesburg, the trail wends its way to the escarpment and flanks the Drakensberg before dropping through the river valleys of the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast to the Indian Ocean. joberg2c.co.za
May 3
Fight night
May 14
Moonlight mass As per tradition, full moon in Cape Town will be marked by lots of people on bikes taking a leisurely ride to Greenmarket Square. Keen to join in? Meet at 9pm under Green Point circle. moonlightmass.co.za
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All eyes will be on the Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas as Floyd Mayweather Junior (right) drops to welterweight to take on Argentinian slugger Marcos Maidana, who has been making a name for himself as a big-hitting contender with 31 of his 35 victories coming via knockouts (plus three losses). But whether Maidana can go where no man has gone before, and inflict a defeat on Mayweather, remains to be seen. espn.go.com/boxing
May 17
Shark hunt The Crusaders are renowned slow starters to the marathon that is Super Rugby, but their current line-up is stacked with All Blacks and should never be written off. The Bok-rich Sharks have also shown glimpses of what they are capable of under new coach Jake White, and the outcome of this powerhouse clash will have ripple effects throughout the Kiwi and Saffa conferences. supersport.com/rugby
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kelvin trautman(2), nick muzik, getty images(4), tyrone bradley/red bull content pool, craig kolesky
Off road: anything but a smooth ride at the Joburg2C mountain bike stage race
May 10
Match of the day Kaizer Chiefs vs AmaZulu at Peter Mokaba Stadium is the pick of the games on the last day of the Premiership season. Chiefs’ healthy lead at the top of the table was theirs to squander, and even if they can afford to drop points to the Usuthu, they’ll want to sign off on in style. kickoff.com
April 27
Battle commences Red Bull BC One South Africa Cypher reconvenes in Johannesburg when the best B-Boys in the land battle for the right to represent at the Middle East-Africa qualifier later in the year. Expect another face-off between B-Boys boasting power and flair and those with fancy footwork. redbull.co.za
don’t miss ink these dates in your diary
18 april
party time For an Easter egg hunt with a difference, check out the four-day Vortex trance party in the Cape wheatlands. A dancefloor by a river and old oak trees beckons.
April 2
Soul of Stone Soul singer-songwriter Joss Stone jets into Jozi for a onenight-only show at Carnival City. With more than 14 million albums sold and with two Brit Awards, a Grammy and a string of minor acting credits to her name, the English R&B star is squeezing a South African date in before she heads to shows in Mauritius and Australia. Not to be missed. jossstone.com
intothe vortex.co.za
1 may
April 26-27
Tri Cape Town Africa gets its first taste of world-class triathlon action when the World Triathlon Series touches down in Cape Town. Javier Gomez, the Brownlee brothers, and the rest of the world’s best ITU athletes will be in town, taking in a 1,500m swim around the V&A Waterfront and a 40km bike ride and 10km run along the Atlantic seaboard. All eyes, however, will be on local lad Richard Murray, who was ranked fifth in the world last year. capetown.triathlon.org
Rise And Fall After runs overseas, The Rise And Fall Of Apartheid exhibition comes to Museum Africa in Newtown, showcasing the work of more than 70 SA photographers and artists. riseandfall ofapartheid.org
17 May
April 26-28
FA Cup Fever
On the warpath Only hardened athletes toe the start line of the Wartrail Solo Challenge, but relay teams of two or three can also enter. The challenge remains the same: 265km of epic backcountry racing made up of a 65km mountain run and a 125km mountain bike leg followed by a 65km paddle down the Orange River. The route runs from Lady Grey via Balloch to Aliwal North, and it won’t be in a straight line.
The final of the world’s oldest football competition takes place at Wembley Stadium and, like last year when Wigan humbled Man City, a giantkilling upset should never be ruled out.
wartrailchallenge.co.za
thefa.com/thefacup
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97
Magic Moment
Tallin, Estonia, February 22, 2014
“ You’d think that only Superman could do this trick, but not if the world’s upside down” Jaanus Ree/Red Bull Content Pool
Simon Stricker’s dream of defying gravity became real thanks to the reflected glory of a team of backroom boys. “A camera crew worked for two days to create a mirrorinverted set in an old industrial building,” says the 22-year-old Swiss skater. “This is not just a photo, it’s a work of art.”
Simon Stricker, skateboarder
The next issue of the Red Bulletin is out on May 13 98
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