The Red Bulletin May 2018 - UK

UK EDITION MAY 2018, £3.50

BEYOND THE ORDINARY

THIS MAN WILL COMPLETELY CHANGE HOW YOU TRAIN ALL YOU NEED IS A HAIRBAND AND A DECK OF CARDS

Ido Portal teaches movement culture to world champions

PLUS

FOUR WAYS TO WIN AT THE OFFICE

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SURFING BENEATH THE NORTHERN LIGHTS

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THE WORLD’S FASTEST SNOWBOARDER

EDITORIAL

In these modern times, it’s not easy to do something that no one else has accomplished before. But this month The Red Bulletin’s pages are filled with pioneers from very different walks of life who’ve managed just that.

Our cover star, Israeli master of movement Ido Portal (page 30), has revolutionised the way some of the world’s biggest sports stars train, using such unlikely methods as throwing playing cards and imitating a lizard – and the good news is that he can help you, too.

Unorthodox model, unusual location: Swiss photographer Cyrill Matter (right) shot the pictures for our cover story on movement expert Ido Portal in a former palm oil storehouse in Berlin. Page 30

We witness British snowboarder Jamie Barrow (page 58) defy the odds after a life-changing accident and attempt a world speed record on a frozen lake in Switzerland.

And we meet Ben Branson (page 66), inventor of nonalcoholic spirit Seedlip, which is taking the drinks world by storm – and who is possibly also the first person to have ‘SOIL’ and ‘PEAS’ tattooed on their knuckles.

CONTRIBUTORS THIS ISSUE

MATT RAY

The London-based photojournalist watched snowboarder Jamie Barrow set a new World Record for speed. “Whenever I catch an edge riding a snowboard at 50kph, it ends badly,” Ray says.

“So I dreaded to think what was going through Jamie’s mind as he clung for dear life to a rope tied to the back of a snarling Maserati, hurtling across lumpy ice at 150kph – probably ‘Does my insurance cover this?!’” Page 58

CHRIS BURKARD

"Never sleep. Ever.” That was the only rule made by the US director, photographer and explorer when he set off to shoot a team of surfers catching waves beneath the Northern Lights in Iceland’s remote Westfjords. “I've never been so stressed out and excited at the same time while trying to document something,” he says.

“Seeing my friends surf beneath the Northern Lights was like an out-of-body experience.” Page 38

Enjoy the issue.

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CYRILL MATTER (COVER)

BREAKING NEW GROUND

THE LAND OF JOY NEW CAFÉ RACER

Scrambler Café Racer

Finance your own revolution

ducatitrioptions.com

CONTENTS May

FEATURES 30

Ido Portal

38

Under An Arctic Sky

Revolutionary exercise tips from the Israeli movement expert Spiritual surfing off the wild north-west coast of Iceland

48 Egg London

The party never ends for nightlife legend Laurence Malice

52

Chris Sheldrick

Feeling lost? This man has the solution in just three words

54 The Aces

From schoolyard to stage: the Utah pop-rock foursome go large

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Jamie Barrow

66

Ben Branson

72

Sarah Cooper

When a devastating back injury ended his pro snowboarding career, the Brit set himself a new challenge – breaking records The founder of non-alcoholic spirit Seedlip talks antiquarian recipe books, top-notch mocktails and... peas How to be successful in the office (and have fun in the process) – business wisdom from the Google designer turned comedian

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38 SKY’S THE LIMIT

Five surfers and a filmmaker embark on a wave-hunting odyssey beneath the magical canopy of the Northern Lights

NORTH STAR

Meet IAMDDB, the 22-year-old Mancunian whose mix of jazz and hip hop has been called “the future of music”

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BULLEVARD Life and Style Beyond the Ordinary

09 School of rock: Hawaiian surfer 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28

Ha’a Keaulana trains hard Drummer/songwriter Julien Barbagallo feels inspired Shoeshi: footwear you can eat The perilous world of Swedish lake skating Actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan on why it’s good to be bad Revolve: the wheel reinvented Five things you need to know about ‘urban jazz’ star IAMDDB Chinese fall guy Di Huaran Water wings: Flyride is not your standard jet-ski Survival tips for the firing zone

GUIDE

Get it. Do it. See it 82 This month on Red Bull TV 84 Watch the skies: celebrating a

century of aviation timepieces

86 Dates for your calendar 88 Step it up: running gear that’s

sure to go the distance

96 The Red Bulletin worldwide

CHRIS BURKARD, ALEXIS CHABALA, CYRILL MATTER

98 Fighting the flow in Lyon

30 WISE MOVE

Top athletes pay big money to crawl like lizards and roll around like kids for Ido Portal.

The movement coach shares his tips with us

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STYLE

BEYOND

THE

ORDINARY

ROCK ’N’ ROLL

PAUL NICKLEN/NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC/GETTY IMAGES

Running along the ocean floor carrying a 23kg boulder could prevent you from drowning, says Hawaiian surfer HA‘A KEAULANA

Keaulana, 26, performs her boulder workout at a depth of 9m in the Pacific Ocean

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Keaulana (right) and her best friend Maili Makana dive under a wave en route to a surfing spot in Makaha

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“I CONNECT WITH MY HAWAIIAN ANCESTRY THROUGH MY SURFING” Keaulana’s full first name is Kaiha’ale’a, meaning ‘Joyful Dancing Sea’

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PAUL NICKLEN/NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC/GETTY IMAGES

or the watermen and women of Hawaii, surfing is a way of life. And sometimes death. The rolling thunder of the infamous Pipeline on O’ahu’s North Shore can grab a surfer off their board, slam them into the reef and hold their injured body under the water for more than a minute.

It’s no wonder the ancient Hawaiians asked a priest, the kahuna, to anoint their boards and pray for good surf.

Modern islanders, such as Ha’a Keaulana, still observe tradition, but are also more practically minded. The 26year-old surfer, from Mākaha in the west of O’ahu, trains by diving 9m to the ocean floor, grabbing a boulder and running for more than a minute. It’s a technique she was taught by her father.

“I was very young and didn’t really know what it was for,” says Keaulana. “It was just fun at first, and then I realised, ‘Oh, it’s training for if we get held under.’” With around 12 seconds between waves, being able to stay under for a minute after a wipeout can mean surviving a four-wave holddown. “Doing that and moving fills your lung capacity, and the depth prepares you for the pressure if a wave were to push you deep underwater.”

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Her father, Brian Keaulana, knows his stuff – the big-wave rider has appeared as himself in Baywatch: Hawaii and Hawaii Five-O, and, in his capacity as a lifeguard, pioneered jet skis for sea rescue. But his place in surfing legend is eclipsed by that of his own father.

“My grandfather is one of the original beach boys of Waikiki, the birthplace of surfing,” says Ha’a. “That’s what they call the guys who introduced surfing to visitors.”

For most of the 1950s, Richard ‘Buffalo’ Keaulana was the Mākaha International Body-Surfing Champion, and in 1960 he took the surfboard title, too. He was one of Mākaha’s first lifeguards, and in 1976 was steersman of the Hōkūle’a, the double-hulled Polynesian canoe that sailed from Hawaii to Tahiti using ancient navigation methods.

Today, Buffalo is 83 and, as we speak to his granddaughter, he’s hosting the 42nd year of his Big Board Surfing Classic event in Mākaha. “It’s called that because the board can’t be any smaller than 10 feet [3m],” she says. “That’s my grandfather bringing back the cultural connection – not so much radical, just having fun, reading the wave and feeling a connection with the ocean.”

Pro surfers often come in search of enlightenment. “Kelly Slater competed a couple of years ago in the canoe surfing,” Keaulana recalls. But this year brought something else: “Hōkūle’a surprised us on the first day by sailing into the bay.

It was beautiful and spiritual to have it there.”

A reminder, as if she needed one, of her family’s deep connection to the sea. haakeaulana.life 11

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Julien Barbagallo

Before joining Tame Impala, Barbagallo was in French indiepop band Tahiti 80

“GAINSBOURG WAS A POETIC POP GENIUS” The Tame Impala drummer on four songs that expanded his musical consciousness

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ince the late 2000s, Tame Impala have been at the forefront of a psychedelic rock renaissance.

The Australian band went on hiatus after their 2015 album Currents, but Julien Barbagallo, who joined on drums in 2012, hasn’t been idle. The French songwriter recently dropped his third solo album in as many years, Danse Dans Les Ailleurs (‘Dance In Other Worlds’), a set of melancholic gems in the vein of experimental pop savant Serge Gainsbourg. Here, Barbagallo explains how the songs of the late chansonnier – and three iconic groups – influenced his own music…

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AIR SEXY BOY (1998)

“I discovered this prog-rock band at the age of 10. I had no idea what Peter Gabriel was singing about, but I was very impressed by the diversity of melodies and atmospheres they could fit into one song.

Listening to it, I felt like a character in a tale, going on a journey. I was impressed by Phil Collins’ drumming, too – it was complicated and groovy at the same time. It inspired me a lot as a young drummer.”

“I heard this on the radio when I was 14, and it blew my mind.

Coming from Genesis, I hadn’t really listened to [more basic] rock music before. I was like, ‘Wow, the beat doesn’t change throughout, and the melodies are simple.’ That’s what I loved about it, and it inspired me to write my own songs. I was obsessed with the Gallaghers’ rock-star antics, so I bought a fake Gibson Les Paul guitar – I wanted to be front stage.”

“I was hooked on Air – they were the first French band of my generation to become famous internationally. I had no clue this was possible, especially as they embraced their Frenchy-ness. Sexy Boy, with its French lyrics and ’70s soundtrack vibe, is a great example of that. They also showed you can experiment with sounds and make eightminute songs without singing, yet still be successful.”

SERGE GAINSBOURG VARIATIONS SUR MARILOU (1976) “For me, this is the epitome of poetic pop. It’s more than seven minutes long and he’s half singing, half speaking, so you have no melody to hang onto, which is unsettling. The focus is on the instrumental, which is very cool, and the lyrics are beautiful. It took me years to find the confidence to sing in my mother tongue, as it’s hard to compete with Gainsbourg’s genius poetry.”

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FLORIAN OBKIRCHER

OASIS SUPERSONIC (1994)

TAJETTE O’HALLORAN

GENESIS GET ’EM OUT

BY FRIDAY (1972)

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Clockwise from top left: Vans Old Skool; Pharrell x Adidas NMD; Adidas Superstar

P Food for the sole

SHOESHI

Sushi chef Yujia Hu has turned his edible artform into footwear you can feast on. And now he’s showing you how to do it, too

Yujia Hu: feeding the passions of sushi and trainer fans alike

YUJIA HU

CHRISTIAN EBERLE-ABASOLO

Chef Hu’s edible recreation of the 1985 classic Nike Air Jordan 1 comes complete with a seaweed Swoosh

eckish? Why not tuck into a Nike Air Jordan 1? Or a Yeezy Boost 350 V2 Zebra? At Sakana Sushi in Milan, you can order these classic sneakers and more as edible art. For almost three years, Yujia Hu has been cobbling footwear-inspired sushi from raw fish, dried seaweed, vegetables and rice.

“Sushi is already an art,” says the Chinese-born head chef, “and I’m presenting that art in a new way.” When he was 18, Hu had to leave art school to work in his parents’ restaurant, which involved rigorous schooling in the craft of sushi. “I’d do the same thing every day for hours at a time – always the same procedure, the same ingredients.” Now, at 29, Hu has found his calling.

At first, he created portraits of famous people on onigiri (Japanese rice balls) and posted them on Instagram to promote his restaurant. “Then people began to write to me, praising my work,” Hu says.

“That made me even better.”

As a basketball fan, he focused on NBA stars, and then began replicating their footwear, too. His restaurant was soon attracting visitors from around the world. Hu’s ‘shoeshi’ costs €25 (£22) and takes the master itamae up to 45 minutes to create.

“Most difficult are the details on the shoes: the laces, the logos, the eyelets,” he explains.

Hu has even published a book on how to make shoeshi, with recipes and instructions so that others can share his personal torment: “Pleasure at eating, and displeasure at destroying a work of art.”

For more of Hu’s shoeshi, see Instagram: @theonigiriart

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THE WAY WE RIDE. FOR MORE INFORMATION ON CUBE BIKES, AND TO LOCATE YOUR NEAREST CUBE DEALER, PLEASE VISIT WWW.CUBE.EU

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Sweden

Stockholm

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HENRIK TRYGG

TOM GUISE

“When it’s good ice, we want to skate ourselves; we don’t want to take clients,” says Trygg, “I have a friend who does tours and has all the equipment. There are no skill requirements. The slower groups maybe do 30km, the fast ones hit 100. It’s not hard.”

Head to iceguide.se

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“If you fall through, turn around and go back to safer ice,” says Trygg. “The mistake people make is to continue moving forward”

Adventure

SKATING ON THIN ICE

A term synonymous with stepping into danger – except in Sweden, where it’s an outdoor pursuit

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any people don’t know we’re the ice-skating capital of the world,” says Swedish outdoor photographer Henrik Trygg.

“In Stockholm, we skate from November till April. It starts with small lakes and they get bigger until the archipelago, then it’s continuous.”

Trygg has been skating on lakes, rivers and the edge of the Baltic Sea for 25 years.

His speciality is the thinnest virgin black ice. “We don’t like thick, dead ice. We want it pristine, when you can hear and feel it. When it’s alive.”

He means that in a near literal sense. “It cracks and bends. Sweet ice in lakes doesn’t bend that much, but on the archipelago, on salt ice, it’s like skating uphill. It’s like

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waves – the ice is so elastic.”

It emits a laser-like whipping sound beneath the skates: “The higher the pitch, the thinner the ice. Most people stop at three-and-a-half centimetres of ice.” Some don’t.

“If we fall through, we have a floating device – dry clothes in a watertight bag. Also a knife to drag us up onto the ice, and lines to throw to each other. It’s not dramatic – you just change clothes quickly.”

Trygg and fellow skater Mårten Ajne (pictured left) can cover 100km on a typical day.

“Sometimes we go around the lake, sometimes from A to B, but the most interesting tours are A to X. We start in a certain place and don’t know how far we’ll get. Maybe we’ll get stuck on a island and have to call a boat or a helicopter.”

Trygg and Ajne have released books on the subject, but not to profit. “We want to show what’s possible in Sweden, because it gets dark, cold and grey… and there’s always something fun to do.” henriktrygg.com 17

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s Negan in hit series The Walking Dead, he became one of TV’s greatestever villains; he also brought to life twisted vigilante The Comedian in the 2009 movie Watchmen. Now, Jeffrey Dean Morgan is once again flexing his talent for playing largerthan-life brutes, joining Dwayne Johnson and even bigger beasts in city-destroying monster blockbuster Rampage.

Here’s how the US actor stays on the straight and narrow…

I JUST WANT TO HAVE A GREAT TIME When I do a job, I want to be having a good time; Rampage is that sort of movie – I became an actor to do shit like this.

Other than a great western, I always wanted to be in a good monster movie. When I was growing up, there was nothing better than those two things, so these are some of the sweetest gigs of my life.

I LIKE TO KEEP THINGS FRESH I don’t often do one character as long as I’ve done Negan – I like to do a show for a year, then get the hell out. Or I’ll do a movie, which only takes a certain length of time. So with Negan it’s about trying to bring as many different things to the role as possible, keeping it fun and interesting.

EVIL IS ABOUT PERSPECTIVE I’ve never thought of Negan as a villain. I think that, in that world, if you’ve managed to survive so long you must be doing something right. What makes him a villain is that we’ve been following the other characters for seven, eight years and he’s someone who opposes them. That said, I know my job is to be the villain, and evil comes across naturally in a black leather jacket with a baseball bat. But I play him as a guy looking to survive; I find that more interesting.

I FOLLOW SHINING EXAMPLES No one does what Dwayne does as good as he does. He’s this brick shithouse who’s hard as a rock – no pun intended – yet he can make fun of himself, still be charming and light up a room. He works fucking hard.

He disappeared for a week to host Saturday Night Live and then flew to a movie opening, all while playing the lead in this film, too. All that ‘No1 movie star in the world’ stuff is well deserved.

Follow Morgan on Instagram: @jeffreydeanmorgan

Law of the jungle: Morgan, 51, plays government agent Harvey Russell in Rampage

I DON’T LOSE MYSELF I’ve never really done a movie of this magnitude, never had to fight a 50-foot wolf with wings. But I don’t approach it differently to anything else.

Whether it’s Negan in The Walking Dead or someone else, I try to stay consistent to who I am, whatever the job is.

JAMES LUXFORD

Brute force

MATTHIAS CLAMER/CONTOUR BY GETTY IMAGES

“I KNOW MY JOB IS TO BE THE VILLAIN”

Rampage and The Walking Dead star JEFFREY DEAN MORGAN on working to your strengths 18

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Bridgestone launches the brand new Battlax Adventure A41 bike tyre this month in MOROCCO! Read next month’s press to find out what the journalists thought of the tyre.

Already available at your local dealer.

Bridgestone UK For your nearest Bridgestone Authorised Dealer, visit our website www.bridgestone.co.uk/motorcycle-tyres

@bridgestonemoto www.grippingstories.com

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With a diameter of 226m when folded, the wheel is easy to carry and store

Revolve’s isokinetic hexagonal structure expands in a similar way to muscle fibres

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The wheel is easily fitted to most standard bikes on the market

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Most wheels on folding bikes are 400500mm in diameter.

Revolve is a full 665mm

A FRESH SPIN ON THE WHEEL

The full-sized bike wheel that shrinks to the size of this magazine – not so much a reinvention as a revolution

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s a vehicle designer for Audi, Alfa Romeo and Maserati, Andrea Mocellin has had his share of eureka moments, but the best occurred on a bike in Tokyo.

“There was nowhere to chain it up, so I had to drag it up to my tiny apartment,” says the German, recalling

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a familiar torment. A folding bike, he realised, was only part of the solution; the wheels, too, must fold.

The epiphany came from a classic toy. The Hoberman sphere is a geodesic ball with scissoring joints that contract it to a fraction of its size.

Mocellin took this principle and, three years and dozens of prototypes later, came up with Revolve – a 665mm wheel that uses robotic joints to shrink itself to a mere 226mm, taking up 60 per cent less space.

Press a button to release its magnetic locks and it springs open. Revolve only works with airless tyres, but then, they’re also less likely to puncture.

Mocellin sees a big market for the collapsible wheel.

“The millennial generation no longer goes on holiday in the classic sense,” he says. “They’re more explorer than tourist.

They’re spontaneous. That’s why we need foldable modes of transport we can take everywhere and store easily.”

This includes storage in a backpack, or an overhead locker on an aeroplane.

Aside from its use with bikes and wheelchairs, Mocellin believes his invention could even herald new disruptive modes of transport. That eureka moment is yet to come. revolve-wheel.com

The compact size of Revolve when folded makes it extremely portable THE RED BULLETIN

WERNER JESSNER

Revolve

RECORDING O LYM P I C D R E A M S

SEAMASTER PLANET OCEAN PYEONGCHANG 2018 EDITION

Since 1932, OMEGA has known that the Olympic Games is a stage for dedicated athletes to reach their dreams. That’s why we love our role as Official Timekeeper and why we’re so passionate about providing trusted precision in every single event.

Exclusively at OMEGA Flagship Boutiques and selected retailers worldwide

IAMDDB has won acclaim with her EP trilogy: Waeveybby, Vol 1; Vibe, Vol 2; and Hoodrich, Vol 3

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iana DeBrito, aka IAMDDB, is one of the most hotly tipped artists in the UK. Julie Adenuga, DJ and tastemaker at Apple radio station Beats 1 has declared her the future of music, and the BBC ranked her third in its prestigious Sound Of 2018 poll (which has, in previous years, kicked off the careers of artists including Adele and Sam Smith). IAMDDB has released three EPs, on which she mixes bouncy trap beats with smooth soul vocals, but she has yet to record her debut album.

Here are five more things you need to know about the 22-year-old Mancunian…

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ALEXIS CHABALA/KINTZING

FLORIAN OBKIRCHER

IAMDDB has been making music for most of her life. She recorded her first song at the age of 11, and four years ago released a pop track, This Moment, under her real name.

But it was in 2015 when she had her musical epiphany.

While on a six-month trip to Angola to visit her father, she joined his Afro-jazz band and went on tour, which included a private performance for the Angolan presidential family.

“From there on, I focused on learning more about myself, and that journey has lead me to where I am today,” she told Diss magazine.

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On her return from Angola, DeBrito enrolled at university, but then quit the course after just an hour. While sitting in the lecture hall, she had the sudden realisation that she’d already found her purpose in life – music. Feeling inspired, she went home, sat on the floor of her living room with her laptop, and wrote and recorded the lyrics to a new song in just a few hours.

Leaned Out – a hazy, soulful hip-hop tune recorded with Mancunian producer Inka – would be her breakthrough single; the track’s DIY music video currently has more than six million views on YouTube.

IAMDDB

WHO’S THAT GIRL?

If you haven’t already heard of IAMDDB, it’s time to listen up. The urban jazz purveyor from Manchester is a superstar in the making

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Having been raised on her dad’s musical diet, IAMDDB describes Bob Marley as her biggest influence. She even jokes that the reggae artist must have been her father in a past life. “Everywhere we went, Bob Marley was always playing,” she told the BBC. “The way I write, the way I harmonise, everything is essentially inspired by him.”

Marley’s influence is most evident on tracks such as More, which has hints of his mellow phrasing. Her favourite song by the Jamaican legend? Waiting In Vain.

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IAMDDB was showered with offers from record labels after being shortlisted in the BBC’s Sound Of 2018 poll, but turned them down to remain independent. As an all-rounder – she writes every song and directs the visuals herself – creative control and authenticity is key to success. “We all know that if you sign to labels, you’re going to have to compromise somewhere down the line,” she said in an interview with the BBC. “But DDB don’t do compromising, I promise you!”

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IAMDDB’s artistic mission is to empower young women.

In her songs, she asks her listeners to embrace their vulnerability, and to stand up against bullying. “The amount of people that put me down, it’s mad!” she told Trench magazine. “It’s endless, the negativity. The way I see it is, it’s only people who aren’t happy with themselves that do that.” Now, sharing her experiences and connecting with fans through music is her main goal.

IAMDDB is collaborating with Red Bull Music to stage concept shows in four UK cities – Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester and London – from April 16-19. For more information, go to redbull. co.uk/flightmodelive

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Sky dive

LEGEND OF THE FALL

At the age of 60, Di Huanran dives into the Mudan River below Diaoshuilou Falls in Heilongjiang Province, China.

Di first took the dramatic leap in 2008, breaking the Guinness World Record for highest waterfall dive – at 12.19m. He has returned to do it again every year since.

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TOM GUISE

SkyPixel member Shen Min shot this on a DJI Mavic Pro drone and came second in the Pro Portrait category. skypixel.com THE RED BULLETIN

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Zapata Flyride

IS IT A BOAT? IS IT A PLANE?

No, it’s a flying jet-bike that barrelrolls at the touch of a button. Best of all? Zero skill is required to pilot it

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ranky Zapata is renowned for many things. In 2012, the French businessman basically invented the hydroflight industry with his Flyboard – a device that straps to your feet and uses water pumped from an attached jet-ski to propel you into the air. Then, in 2016, Zapata took it a step further, swapping water for aviation fuel to create the Flyboard Air, a flying machine he piloted non-stop for more than 2km,

Franky Zapata has brought hydroflight to ordinary folk.

In Advanced Mode, adept users can even perform a double barrel roll

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breaking the Guinness World Record for the furthest hoverboard flight. In 2017, the French authorities barred him from flying the craft, saying it “failed to comply with the minimum rules for operation of an aircraft”. But before all of that, Zapata was a jet-ski pro, and now he’s come full circle – creating a flying machine out of one.

This time, the authorities are unlikely to intervene.

The Flyride uses the same water propulsion system as the Flyboard, but unlike that device and the even more outlandish Air, which require a high level of skill, Zapata says there’s no training necessary. Using gyroscopic stabilisation, the Flyride selfbalances like a drone, can take off and land automatically, and, at the touch of a button, performs its pièce de résistance: a barrel roll.

Capable of hitting 35kph, the Flyride is the safest bet for those keen to taste the (longpromised) jet-pack future. But at $5,340 (£3,860) without hoses, attachments and the requisite jet-ski to power it, for most of us it may still prove to be a mere flight of fancy. zapata.com THE RED BULLETIN

TOM GUISE

The Flyride is steered in the air with handlebars, exactly like a regular jet-ski

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How to…

SURVIVE BEHIND ENEMY LINES

and kill, but most of our work is sitting, watching, listening.

You’re the eyes and ears, which often means watching a compound for 10 days and passing back information.

Boredom is the biggest killer in a survival situation, so I break down the timescale – you need downtime, but you can’t afford to get complacent; in a war, it will get you killed.”

Few locations in the world are more perilous than a war zone. Former commando Aldo Kane has advice on how to make it out alive

Conceal your position “When you’re a sniper, you compromise yourself as soon as you take a shot. It doesn’t take much for people to start working out where you are, or they can just start blowing up the most likely places.

Some forward positions are petrifying, like when there are only two of you at the top of a big cement tower and you can hear people at the bottom start to climb it, then back down.”

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Be invisible “Your job is to move effectively from A to B in broad daylight without being seen. You’re so in tune with the environment that you become part of it.

You don’t only listen with your ears; by turning your head to the side, you can tell where the wind is coming from. You smell like your environment and look like it, because you’ve altered your camouflage. You sound like it. I walk on the sides of my feet, even at home, because it creates less impact and noise on the ground.”

Prepare for boredom “Warfighting is 95 per cent boredom. People think a sniper’s main job is to shoot

Accept vulnerability “You run the risk of enemy contact and also blue-on-blue – not everyone who’s on your side knows where you are and what you’re doing. You’re in a vulnerable position for days, on a diet of dry biscuits and paste. You poo into plastic bags and pee into bottles, because everything that goes into that observation post with you comes back out with you, too.”

Follow Aldo Kane’s adventures on Twitter: @AldoKane THE RED BULLETIN

MATT RAY

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efore he became a behind-the-scenes expedition leader for TV and film, Aldo Kane was a commando sniper in the British Royal Marines. During the Iraq War, he was one half of a team that infiltrated enemy territory and set up a 10-day observation post.

“Two men can’t take on an army, so the game is simple: don’t be seen, stay alive,” says the 39-year-old Scottish adventurer. “You’re moving through unexploded minefields, and the pair of you are on your own, so you have to be confident in your own resourcefulness to make it to the hide.”

ALDO KANE

Kane served in Iraq in Operation Telic, fighting behind enemy lines as part of a reconnaissance troop

Stay aware “We were ambushed in Iraq.

It’s one of the most hair-raising experiences – loud and scary.

But in a firefight we get the rounds down, keep moving, basically dodging bullets, and at the same time we need to take a step back to see the bigger picture. Are there any teams moving around that way? Are we calling up ammunition resupply? Are we on comms to get these two casualties out of here?”

Ido Portal, movement guru: “To hell with what other people say!”

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“I’ve been thrown out of gyms on many occasions” Monkeys, comedians and children inspire him, and he earns six-figure sums through his private training sessions. Movement expert IDO PORTAL gives top sports stars’ minds and bodies a workout. The good news is that his teachings will work for you, too Words ANDREAS ROTTENSCHLAGER Photography CYRILL MATTER

“I work with wooden sticks a lot,” Portal explains. “You can balance them, throw them, and they’re light and cheap”

Portal at The Red Bulletin’s photoshoot in Berlin: “I teach things that will scare you”

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o understand why movement coach Ido Portal is so successful, you only have to take a look at his diary.

Two weeks before we met in Berlin in early March, Portal was in the United States, correcting professional baseball pitcher Michael Lorenzen’s throwing technique. A week after that, he was in Bulgaria, tweaking the motion choreography on a multimillion-dollar Bollywood production. During the course of our conversation, Portal sends text messages to US two-time Olympic gold medal-winning swimmer Anthony Ervin, a client he has trained with for many years.

Ido Portal is the founder of Movement Culture. The Israeli teaches human body movements in all their variety, rather THE RED BULLETIN

than individual disciplines such as yoga or CrossFit. Portal first came to the attention of the wider public in 2015 when he prepared mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor – now a worldwide star – for his world title fight in the featherweight class. Portal had the tattooed Irishman crawling along floor mats like a lizard and catching playing cards mid-flight. McGregor won the bout by a knockout, 13 seconds into the first round.

Since then, top sports stars have been queuing up to pay Portal six-figure sums for two-week private training sessions.

Companies including Google and Facebook fly him in to train their staff.

But when Portal is sitting opposite you in his T-shirt, trainers and rucksack, he resembles a PE teacher more than a highflier. The former soldier doesn’t want to reveal his age, but he is happy to share the basics of his teaching.

“If you want to be normal, I’ve got bad news for you. You are normal. You’re Homer Simpson!”

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“FIGHT, DANCE, STROLL AROUND THE SUPERMARKET” The Movement Culture principle

the red bulletin: You’re an internationally renowned movement teacher, but you were once thrown out of a gym, right? ido portal: I’ve been thrown out of gyms on many occasions.

Why? For doing handstands on the machines, for example. That happened to me in Berlin. The member of staff was concerned I might hurt myself. But I’m more secure on my hands than most people are on their feet. I can maintain my balance on one hand for a minute.

Most people can’t do that on one leg.

But you’re not all about performing spectacular handstands. You teach top sports stars about movement.

What is it exactly that most people are doing wrong?

They don’t see movement as a form of exercise. People don’t think about their body, because it’s just there, right up until the moment that it gives up on them. But break your ankle and you’ll soon become painfully aware of your corporeality again.

You’re the founder of Movement Culture. What’s the meaning behind that term?

Movement Culture covers everything we know about human movement: breathing, fighting, dancing, sitting, strolling around the supermarket in the morning…

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“Take this muscle next to my elbow – it won’t look like this in a book on anatomy” You developed your method during a backpacking trip around the world that lasted several years, studying under various experts including circus performers, yogis, martial artists and dancers. How did you find the people you wanted to train you?

I searched for them according to subject.

For instance, I wanted to learn to balance from a handstand expert, someone who had devoted their whole life to handstands. I thought he would have the answer to the balance question. But what I actually discovered was that he had the answer to the handstand question, but he wasn’t all that steady once he went back to balancing on his feet. I want to understand movement as a whole. That’s what drives me on. The experts were a disappointment surprisingly often.

But were there also teachers who surprised you in a positive way?

Monkeys and little children.

Really?

When monkeys come bounding out of a new enclosure at the zoo, or small children walk upright for the first time, they have to apply what they know

about movement in a completely new context. It’s movement at its most raw, and it’s extremely exciting. Whereas grown-ups usually want to specialise; they want to improve upon what they can already do.

But there must be one adult who you could say was a shining example as an all-round talented mover?

Maybe Jackie Chan. He can fight, dance, perform acrobatics and sing, and he’s kept it up as he has become older. Also Charlie Chaplin, of course. Chaplin was an acrobat, a daredevil and a stuntman all in one. He acted in an extremely physical way. He could walk expressively in a number of different ways and express emotions using just his facial muscles. Today’s actors should train their movement more, just as amateur sportsmen and women and office workers should.

“YOU CAN EVEN TRAIN YOUR HAIR“

On movements that awaken the senses If I can’t train with you personally, what can I learn from your courses?

Movements you don’t yet know. See this muscle by my elbow? [Portal points to a firm lump the size of a marble.] It’s the pronator teres, the pronation muscle.

It doesn’t look like this in books on anatomy. People don’t use it often, but it’s quick [He makes a lightning-fast manoeuvre with his left hand, and there’s a small hiss – psshh! – like the sound of air escaping from a bicycle pump when you give it a quick, hard push.]

THE RED BULLETIN

Multi-talented Portal: “I can teach you 15 different ways to roll around the floor”

“Charlie Chaplin is an idol of mine. He was an acrobat, a daredevil and a stuntman all in one”

How can we get one?

The exercise to develop it is opening a bottle that’s screwed very tightly. Another exercise for rarely used muscles is pulling a hairband over the thumb and little finger, then trying to remove it without using the other hand. These small movements have a huge effect. My courses work on every part of the body: the ears, eyes, hair…

You can train people’s hair?

Yes. Close your eyes. Then get your training partner to move their hand just above the back of your arms. You’ll start using the hair on your arms as sensors to work out the position of this other hand.

Freestyle dancer: Portal ran a capoeira school when he was younger. But he has now moved away from individual disciplines THE RED BULLETIN

And what do you gain from that?

A new sensory perception. Something you could have done at any time, but never have. It’s the same with fears: if you feel uneasy during an exercise, that’s exactly what I’m going to focus on.

That doesn’t sound like much fun...

Fun is no guiding principle for life.

Discovering something new is much 35

Ringmaster: Portal devotes anywhere from six to eight hours a day to his movement exercises. And here we see the results

“Our instinct to play is deep within us. That workmate of yours who’s always clicking his pen? That’s his body screaming, ‘Let’s play!’”

martial arts bout, you never know if your opponent is going to hit, throw, kick or choke you. When I throw playing cards at you, you have to predict the direction of their flight. But the cards are constantly changing direction. So you also constantly have to change plan.

You also had McGregor crawling over floor mats like some kind of lizard.

Was that one of those ‘animal moves’ from the world of fitness?

‘Animal moves’… [Laughs.] That’s a sexy term. But that exercise wasn’t about him being a lizard.

better. My favourite philosopher, Slavoj Žižek, says, “Why be happy when you can be interesting?”

What was it about?

I want to make the fighter aware of his connection to the floor. The floor can become the enemy in the ring, and the last thing you need in there is another enemy. By getting them to crawl, I turn the floor into their friend.

Is that why top sports stars pay so much for your tuition, because you teach them completely new things?

For example, there are the videos online of you throwing playing cards at mixed martial arts world champion Conor McGregor…

It was an exercise I used to teach him how to switch quickly from plan A to plan B – or even plan C. During a mixed

In one of your YouTube videos, you and your students are rolling around a meadow, like little children playing...

That’s because play is an essential part of our lives. Our instinct to play is so deep within us we can’t get rid of it. That workmate of yours who’s always clicking his pen? That’s his body screaming, “Let’s play! Let’s play!” But most people answer, “No, I’m a serious grown-up.”

HOW TO BE SUPPLE

Three pieces of training equipment Ido Portal swears by

Movements that make us smarter

But if we all rolled around on the ground in the park, passers-by would call an ambulance...

That’s a shame. We live with this superego, judging ourselves all the time through the eyes of society. That stops us pursuing our passions. And that’s how people become depressed. But I think we’ve reached a point where more and more people are saying, “To hell with what other people say!”

And you approve of that?

I say, “Be a weirdo.” Conor McGregor is a weirdo. Elon Musk is a weirdo. If you’re normal, I’ve got bad news for you.

What’s that?

You’re normal! You’re Homer Simpson!

There’s something wrong with you if you don’t want to roll around on the ground.

The positive effect of movement on our brains is an increasingly common topic in your videos. Which movements help make us smarter?

Any movements that you have to learn how to do for the first time. So become a beginner! Our brain is a powerful weapon. It constantly creates new neurological connections when it has to learn new things.

So, would you be smarter if, after a 30-year break, you started rolling around in the park again like a child?

That sounds romantic, but actually it isn’t that easy.

1. Tennis balls

That’s a shame…

But I could teach you 15 different ways to roll and how to string them together.

Your brain needs a long-term plan that respects your body’s complexity. Then it will work.

2. Gymnastic rings

And what if I don’t want to wait that long?

Take a sheet of paper and write a short story while you count out loud from 20 down to zero. That’s a good way of managing different sources of information at the same time, and it helps with sport, too. If that’s too easy, write on a specialist subject and count down from 100 to zero by repeatedly subtracting three.

When no partner is available, the next best thing is a reactive, only semi-predictable object like a tennis ball. They bounce, you can juggle them, or smack them against the wall.

Plus, they’re free; I always steal old tennis balls off courts.

The pinnacle of upper-body training.

You can work above or below them.

They always turn 360 degrees towards your weakest point. The rings always want to get one over on you, and that makes you even stronger.

3. Wooden sticks

These are great for learning manipulation, and for use as a tool.

The making and harnessing of tools is part of what makes us human.

A stick and a rock were probably the first things we used.

THE RED BULLETIN

“OUR BRAIN IS A WEAPON”

Follow Portal on Instagram: @Portal.Ido 37

Epiphany: Timmy Reyes catches an Icelandic break beneath the Northern Lights

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LEADING LIGHTS

When Iceland’s only pro surfer was invited by photographer and filmmaker CHRIS BURKARD on a once-in-a-lifetime surf trip into the wilds of his homeland, he said yes in an instant. The resulting expedition – to surf beneath the Northern Lights – was tougher than he’d ever imagined. But it also provided one of the best experiences of his life Words ANTHONY ROWLINSON Photography CHRIS BURKARD

Aboard the sailboat Aurora, Heidar Logi (far left) listens as captain Sigurdur ‘Siggi’ Jonsson outlines the journey north

eidar Logi has a love-hate relationship with the North Atlantic wind. It’s like a wild, drunken, unpredictable friend.

It roars. It’s volatile. It has a quick temper. But, for a professional surfer such as Logi, this volatile paramour is something like the ideal partner; one that takes him places no one else can. On a good day, they’re perfectly matched: wave-maker and wave-rider in harmony.

It’s for this reason that Logi has been tempted into some of the most bitter waters on the planet. Because when it blows just so, the North Atlantic wind will create breaks so perfect that any soul-surfer would be enticed by their allure.

No matter that Iceland’s waters can drop as low as -8°C before freezing: “The cold is just something I’m used to,” says the 25-year-old, whose only barrier to the core-sapping chill is a 7mm wetsuit (and inborn hardiness). “For me, it’s not really the issue. If you’re surfing in Iceland, it’s more like, ‘How good are the waves?’ and ensuring you enjoy them while they last.”

No matter, either, that there’s no surf shop on Iceland to serve its 330,000 natives (of which barely 40

two dozen are surfers – Logi, who lives in Reykjavík, is the country’s first and only pro). What matters is that winter waters off to the east and north-west coasts of the island offer some of the world’s purest, most singular surfing experiences.

There’s the location: Icelandic surf is desolate even by the already faraway standards of a sparsely populated volcanic isle that sits near the top of the globe. Then there’s the clean-breathing freedom, with no one to spoil your set; you might be surfing a break that has never been surfed before. But here’s the rub: you have to find it first.

It was the promise of undiscovered riches that attracted Logi and a crew of four fellow surfers, plus American photographer, adventurer and filmmaker Chris Burkard, to Iceland’s most uninhabited region – the far north-west – in search of their perfect break, which they were determined to ride at night beneath the Northern Lights.

The North Atlantic wind had other ideas, however: the trip, conceived by Burkard, coincided with the island’s worst winter storm in 25 years. It was so severe that at one stage of their trek, which involved a pair of 4x4s, the six travellers had to take refuge in

Surfing here is only for the most hardcore

Justin Quintal ends an impromptu surf session en route to the northwest coast. “Justin got desperate to surf on our trip,” says Logi. “He tried to ride a river bore wave!”

a roadside cabin shelter for two days to escape the 260kph gusts and ensure their own safety.

A less determined group might have reflected during this enforced pause that perhaps the journey wasn’t such a great idea after all; that there’s a reason why so few islanders live in the far north-west, and why surfing in Iceland is considered to be only for the hardest of the hardcore. But to abandon would have been a betrayal of Burkard’s core philosophy of ‘embracing uncertainty’ – and anyway, they’d already had a taste of what might lie ahead.

A couple of days earlier, before Storm Diddú hit land, Logi, Burkard and co had discovered a perfect offshore break and sailed out to it. They surfed briefly, but, while at sea, storm clouds – and warnings of worse to come – had intensified, forcing them to abandon their yearned-for epiphany. This weather front would prove to be The Big One – the quartercentury special that closed harbours and forced Icelanders to lock down their homes.

“I remember being on the boat,” Logi recalls, “and we’d just started to paddle out when the captain, Siggi, called to us urgently and said, ‘We have to go back – now!’ What was about to hit us was absolutely

the worst snowstorm in Iceland for 25 years. When we got back to harbour, it was still not too bad, but by the time we’d been into a store and come out, there were these wild winds. It was some of the craziest weather I’ve ever witnessed – and I’ve lived in Iceland all my life, so there’s not much weather that surprises me.”

More pragmatic, less driven men might have heeded these warnings, abandoned the lure of distant waves and sought fulfilment elsewhere. Instead they became more committed, prevailing over treacherous roads, and were rewarded with what they might one day reflect upon as the most euphoric experience of their lives: riding with friends in heavy, Arctic-cold waters in star-bright darkness, beneath the Northern Lights.

It took singular determination for this adventure to become reality, and even then, Logi admits, there was a little luck involved. “Surfing in Iceland is a gamble,” he says. “There’s a lot of time spent chasing waves, so you can make yourself completely sad, or you can really get lucky. When you do, you can find the most incredible experiences – maybe the best of your whole life.”

Watch Under An Arctic Sky, Burkard‘s documentary about this epic adventure, now on Netflix

Untouched and largely uninhabited, Iceland's Westfjords region offers virgin territory for ambitious surfers, if they’re brave enough.

“I don’t really want to advertise Iceland as a surf destination, to be honest,” says Heidar Logi, the country’s only pro in the sport

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“The call went out: ‘We have to go back – now!’”

Reyes carves in temperatures of -6°C. The Aurora sits behind the break shortly before weather alerts warn of a huge offshore storm, meaning a retreat to the harbour

“The wind is volatile; it has a quick temper”

Logi: “I grew up being told the water is dangerous. But I've found something that’s special to me”

“There have been times when chasing waves has felt frivolous, maybe even selfish, compared with other ways we could spend our time,” says Logi. "But when you see your friends catch the swell of a lifetime in the middle of nowhere, it's inspiring, which makes it all totally worthwhile”

Below deck on the Aurora. When a bunch of passionate and idealistic young surfers chase the dream of distant surf, the wildest of storms is unlikely to stop them – even if they were briefly forced back to safety on land THE RED BULLETIN

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You might surf a break no one has surfed before

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THE RED BULLETIN

The sky looks green, but it’s just a trick of the light as Logi and Quintal paddle through darkness to surf in near-freezing, sub-zero waters.

“This is what we live for,” says Logi. “We were looking up at the Northern Lights and seeing a million stars – some of them shooting stars – for maybe an hour and a half. You have to remind yourself that, even though you’re cold, this is a special moment to be enjoyed.

I told myself I would stay for as long as the Northern Lights were there – and I did” Photography: Chris Burkard/Massif THE RED BULLETIN

47

LAURENCE MALICE, the nightlife legend behind iconic after-hours club Trade and, later, Egg London, has an uncanny ability to predict trends.

Here’s how he stays ahead of the curve…

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to the M25 motorway in the late ’80s/ early ’90s] that went on until dawn, and I saw a gap in the market – there were no legal club nights doing that. I was hosting my own illegal parties in a famous London sauna, and I had this fear of being busted, so that gave me the drive to go legal.

the red bulletin: You know London’s nightlife like nobody else. Tell us about your early days as a promoter… laurence malice: When I started out, there were loads of illegal M25 raves [ad hoc parties in warehouses and forests close

In a recent interview, you said, “Clubs for me are about two experiences: voyeurism and exhibitionism.” What did that mean in the context of Trade?

People like to watch other people, and others like to be watched. Today’s best THE RED BULLETIN

RYAN DINHAM, SIMON HARRIS

DANCE THE NIGHT AWAY

In London’s fast-paced nightlife scene, 15 years is an eternity. But Egg London hasn’t only survived for a decade and a half, it’s at the forefront – in 2017, the King’s Cross venue won Best Large Club at the DJ Mag Best Of British Awards.

Egg London’s success is mostly down to one person: Laurence Malice, the flamboyant party promoter who, in 1990, launched the UK’s first official after-hours party, Trade. This iconic club night at legendary London venue Turnmills attracted many big names from music and fashion – from Bjork to Alexander McQueen, Madonna to Jean-Paul Gaultier.

When Turnmills closed in 2008, Trade lost its permanent home. But Malice already had another project: in 2003, he launched Egg London, a club with a 1,000 capacity and a 24-hour weekend licence.

Egg is now a global nightlife empire with franchise parties in New York and Ibiza, and a music label and recording studio.

FLORIAN OBKIRCHER

Superclub Egg London, a converted former warehouse in King’s Cross, first opened its doors in 2003

“London’s nightlife is the healthiest it has been in the last 15 years”

energy, and which stayed open until – or past – 6am; also, multiple outdoor spaces, different rooms and various bars. At that time, most places in London were dark, dingy and quite smoky. After many seasons in Ibiza, I felt I could bring a Balearic feel of the same standard to London.

What has been the secret of your longterm success?

Hard work and effort. Also, I witnessed the introduction of the smoking ban in other countries, so I wanted a club that embraced the al fresco culture that London was quickly adapting to at the time. The key ingredient, though, is the team behind the club. It’s so important to have a strong group of people around you to keep the vision going.

example is [techno temple] Berghain in Berlin. People go there to take in all the characters as well as to enjoy the music and the sound system. In that sense, Trade was very much the predecessor to Berghain. As Trade became busier, word spread, and that’s how it all kicked off.

We made it to the US, and we even appeared in a Sex And The City episode dedicated to Trade. That was surreal.

What made you want to start your own nightclub?

The motivation was job security, and to have a place where I could form my own opinions and follow my artistic vision.

The building in King’s Cross [where Egg London is situated] was part of a crimeridden industrial estate frequented by prostitutes. But I chose the premises because they were affordable and I had an inkling about future investment in the area. I knew it would eventually become the business hub it is today.

What was your aim for Egg London?

I wanted to create a legal nightclub in London that had a certain sound and

PUT THE NEEDLE ON THE RECORD

Three significant tunes in the story of Egg so far, as chosen by Laurence Malice

Jeff Mills The Bells

This track is basically why I built the club.

I wanted to establish proper techno nights in London because, at that point, real and relentless – and legal – techno parties were non-existent.

“Night-time clubbing will never lose its mystique” 50

Tiga & Zyntherius Sunglasses At Night Egg was one of the most prolific clubs for hosting electro nights in the early days, and this track typifies its sound back then. This month [March], we’re hosting Tiga for the first time, which we’re looking forward to.

The Advent Exchange

A recent release on our label, What Comes First. This track embodies the current sound of Egg.

One recent trend on London’s club scene has been daytime parties.

What do you make of that?

I was actually one of the first people to popularise the daytime scene in London.

[In 1993] Lee Freeman and I started DTPM, a polysexual daytime event at Villa Stefano, which grew to be a massive brand on the London scene. And the trend has grown as licence restrictions have been put in place. Daytime events are a lot easier to control, as people seem to behave themselves a bit more. But the night-time trade will always be there, too, because that’s when the characters come out to play. Night-time clubbing will never lose its mystique.

What’s the most important life lesson you’ve learnt while working in nightlife?

Keep your ear to the ground, constantly evolve, and definitely don’t take things too seriously. Who wants to be boring?

After all, it’s just a disco.

egglondon.co.uk THE RED BULLETIN

RYAN DINHAM

Egg London will celebrate its 15th birthday on May 5 with guests including Radio Slave and Daniel Miller

Last year, GQ magazine stated that London has the worst nightlife in Europe. What’s your take on that?

London’s nightlife is the healthiest it has been in the last 15 years. There are more nights on offer than ever before. People are streaming into London because of the weak pound. When the 24-hour licensing laws came in [in 2005], that opened up clubbing opportunities in London so that ordinary spaces, like an old warehouse, could obtain a temporary licence. Even though many traditional clubs may have lost their licence, they can still move to another location and host their event.

The ethos of the club night can move somewhere else; as a result, there’s no shortage of exciting nights right now.

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TAKE FIVE

What3Words co-founder CHRIS SHELDRICK on…

NEVER GETTING LOST AGAIN The 36-year-old Brit has re-mapped the world, and it’s changed the lives of everyone from Glastonbury Festival-goers to Mongolian postal workers

I had a cup of tea with a mathematician friend of mine, and we realised that if you divided the world into three-by-threemetre squares, 40,000 words would give enough combinations to label every square with a unique set of three words.

3 Re-map the world

With our grid, we created a layer you could add to any map in existence.

We chose the words at random. We use shorter words in towns and cities – my London office is at INDEX-HOME-RAFT, for example – and longer words for rural or mountainous areas. You’ll find the really long ones, like DODECAHEDRON, in Antarctica or the Arctic. And we offer What3words in 22 different languages.

4 Locate your audience

You can’t really use What3Words on your own, so we look for innovators who will introduce it to groups or communities.

There are many sports enthusiasts who go off the beaten track, and now every place in their world has an address. We teamed up with the Glastonbury Festival – after all, it has 200,000 people in a field with one postcode! And we’ve worked with Mercedes to provide a simple way to speak an address into its car navigation system.

Sheldrick and his team launched What3Words in July 2013

5 Go global 1 Get annoyed by your problem

With our grid of three-bythree-metre squares, we created a layer you could add to any map in existence” CHRIS SHELDRICK

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I ran a live music business for 10 years and found it amazingly difficult to get musicians where they needed to be. The address system didn’t work well for the kinds of places we would go: big concert venues with lots of entrances, or rural locations. If I had 40 people coming, I’d get 40 phone calls saying they were lost.

2 Find a simple solution

I tried to get them to use latitude and longitude, but it’s annoying in practice. I wanted a human-friendly way of using it.

We’ve been to the Philippines, met the Tongan government, and it’s being used in the deserts of the Middle East, Africa and Mexico. Pregnant women in the townships of Durban can now let ambulances know their location when they go into labour.

And we’ve worked in Mongolia, where the postal service has big problems finding its customers in such a huge expanse. We want What3Words to be the global standard so that anyone in any country will understand a three-word address on a contact page, then get exactly where they need to go.

what3words.com Interview RUTH MORGAN Photography LEVON BISS THE RED BULLETIN

INNOVATE OR DIE.

Get Your Ticket: pioneers.io/pioneers18

Real deal: The Aces rock out on stage in Washington DC

ELIZABETH BROWN, ALEXANDER BORTZ

THE ACES ARE WILD

They may only be in their early twenties, but poprock quartet THE ACES have been playing for more than a decade. And now they’re ready to break out…

Words DAN HYMAN 54

THE RED BULLETIN

Class act: “I don’t think any of us ever thought we couldn’t do this,” says singer Cristal Ramirez (bottom right)

T

he Aces have always known they were talented, but lately the female foursome are surprising themselves – like when they find themselves on tour with a bigtime, industry-established act and realise they’re actually more confident and stage-ready than the headliner.

“It’s funny sometimes when we look at each other and remember, ‘Oh my gosh, we’ve been doing this together for 12 years,’” drummer Alisa Ramirez says of her elder sister Cristal, the band’s singer and chief songwriter. “It’s really just second nature to us at this point.”

When most kids were playing hide-andseek, the Ramirez sisters were making music. From the age of eight, Alisa and Cristal were jamming at the family home in Provo, Utah; studying their favourite Disney bands on YouTube, and working towards becoming the female versions of the boy bands they idolised.

“We didn’t see any girls,” Cristal remembers with exasperation. “We would analyse performances by, like, the Jonas Brothers and think, ‘We want to do that.’”

It turns out they could: after recruiting childhood friends Katie Henderson (lead guitar) and McKenna Petty (bass) in middle school, The Aces had no problem booking shows as kids in Utah, as many of the state’s venues are alcohol-free and cater for all ages. By their early teens, the pop-rock foursome were headlining the biggest venue in Provo, a pretty mountain town that offered few other distractions.

“There was a lot of confidence from a very early age,” Cristal says. “I don’t think any of us ever thought that we couldn’t do this, or were afraid to ask for shows.

It was like, ‘Of course we’re going to play this venue. We’re a good band.’”

Now in their early twenties, the seasoned bandmates are finally having their breakout moment with the release of their debut full-length album, When My Heart Felt Volcanic, this month. The Aces admit that being in a band in middle school was as much about the rock-star fantasy as playing music. But once in high 56

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Clockwise from top left: Cristal Ramirez (vocals), McKenna Petty (bass), Alisa Ramirez (drums), Katie Henderson (lead guitar)

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ELIZABETH BROWN (4) FACEBOOK @ESTORIEPHOTOGRAPHY

“Young girls come up to us crying and saying we inspire them” school, and particularly when their peers began contemplating traditional careers, they doubled down on their efforts.

“I remember thinking, ‘This is too special to let go,’” Alisa recalls. They had long been workhorses – playing shows together at every opportunity, and practising constantly in Henderson’s basement – but the decision to forgo college and instead focus on the band upped the ante. “Things got more intense,” Cristal explains.

Without industry ties, the teenagers became their own greatest champions: they sought out professional connections, linked up with experienced producers and, as the buzz around them intensified, record labels soon came calling. In 2016, The Aces signed to Red Bull Records and, after releasing last year’s I Don’t Like Being Honest EP, the band was propelled into the critical conversation. The two breakout singles Physical and Stuck have between them notched more than seven million streams on Spotify and confirmed the band’s trademark sound: tight harmonies, massive hooks, buoyant guitars and propulsive percussion.

“It was a three-year process of really digging deep and trying a few different things,” Alisa says of the countless songs she wrote with her sister for the album.

Highlights include the reverb-drenched rocker Lovin’ Is Bible and the arena-ready Volcanic Love, both inspired by the ’80s new wave and pop that all the members of the band love.

Given the sisters’ observations as children, the fact that women are still severely under-represented in rock is not lost on The Aces. Still, the band take pride in inspiring today’s young female musicians. “For every weird comment we get about being female, we have, like, five young girls coming up to us crying and saying they’re so inspired by us,” Petty says with pride. “And that’s why we’re doing it.”

When My Heart Felt Volcanic is out now on Red Bull Records; redbullrecords.com 57

Life’s a drag: Barrow attempts to break his own Guinness World Record in St Moritz

SEARCHING

JAMIE BARROW’s snowboarding career was cut short by a crash that injured a disc in

Words MATT RAY 58

Photography GIAN PAUL LOZZA

FOR SPEED

his back. What he did next redefined him as an athlete, and saw him go faster than ever

ll is tranquil in the Swiss village of St Moritz as the morning sun illuminates the valley and a few dogs skid excitedly across the surface of a frozen lake.

Suddenly, the ambient birdsong is broken by a rumbling bassline: the Maserati Levante S – a high performance 4x4 SUV with 424hp in a V6 Ferrari engine – announces its unlikely presence long before coming into view. The jet-black machine rolls onto the lake, emanating power, almost daring the ice to crack beneath its weight.

A lone figure, snowboard tucked under one arm, strolls out onto the surface wearing a full-face helmet emblazoned with the Union Jack, looking like a knight about to face down a dragon. Today, the formidable foe is the lake itself, or more specifically the 900m straight of groomed ice that cuts along the recently run White Turf horse-racing track. Jamie Barrow is about to pit his nerve, strength and skill on a snowboard against raw speed as he’s towed by one of the world’s fastest SUVs at full acceleration.

Barrow is no stranger to challenges that would make most wince – in fact, he’s hoping to break his own Guinness World Record today. But then, the 25-yearold was born with an unusual thirst for speed. In his early snowboarding career, he went shoulder-toshoulder with fellow competitors in the tough sport of boardercross, braving undulating, unpredictable courses for Team GB. Barrow joined the junior team after shining at a freestyle training camp, aged 13, before being promoted to the senior squad.

“I was always someone who’d go fast,” says the Brit, who was born in Switzerland. “My coach was like, ‘Right, go and do a warm-up run,’ and I always 60

Barrow: if Maserati made humans…

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�Doing crazy stunts and getting scared distracts me from my injury�

Barrow still suffers chronic back pain from his snowboarding accident in 2013, but seeks relief from his sport rather than by taking daily painkillers

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“The doctor said I wouldn’t be able to run again, let alone snowboard.

I was devastated” But giving up snowboarding was never an option.

Instead, Barrow changed his outlook – and his training – and indulged his need for speed

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Mad dash: Barrow’s second run in the St Moritz valley took him over 150kph

just straight-lined the slopes. He would go, ‘No, no!

You’ve got to turn and actually warm up, Jamie.’

I was always into the speed.”

Though speed lit up his brain, Barrow was always aware of the risks. “In boardercross you’re going over jumps just as big as in big air competitions, but you’ve got four other people right next to you going over rollers, banked corners, jumps – kind of like Mario Kart!” he says. “If there’s someone else in the line you’re taking, you have to take a bad line. Anyone who does boardercross knows that. They love the adrenalin – but it scares you, too! It was pretty much designed for me. I absolutely loved everything about it: the danger, the speed – I found my element.”

Three consecutive British Junior Championship titles later, Barrow had the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics in his sights, and carried the 2012 Olympic Flame through Bath, where he lives. But in January 2013 disaster struck. ‘My binding broke on a banked corner,” says Barrow. “I slipped out and a big shock of pain went straight up my back. I unstrapped my board, stood up and collapsed.”

The hospital’s diagnosis was grim. “They said, ‘You’ve destroyed a disc in your lower back.’ Slipped, torn, crushed, dehydrated – and there was a small fracture on the side, which technically I still have as it’s never healed.”

Barrow had been seriously injured before and expected to bounce back. “Then the doctor told me that it would never get better – I’d be in pain for the rest of my life. He said I wouldn’t be able to run again, let alone snowboard. I was absolutely devastated.”

Snowboarding meant everything to Barrow. He realised he couldn’t accept defeat. “Not having a big goal to work towards was just killing me,” he says.

“I wanted to prove the doctor wrong – I wanted to go snowboarding and push myself.” So, he decided to THE RED BULLETIN

attempt the downhill speed record, just three months after his accident. “It's just straight down a hill and it’s not bumpy, it’s flat. You just bend your legs and hold that position for 30 seconds until you get to the bottom. I was like, ‘Right, I could do that.’”

Thinking about the challenge was one thing, doing it was quite another. The slope Barrow chose for his record, Switzerland’s Mont Fort, is so steep it’s better described as a cliff. Great for speed, but if you fall here you don’t stop until you’re at the bottom.

“I definitely have a need for speed,” he says, “but just before I did the first downhill record, I was told that two snowboarders had come the weekend before and crashed. Both broke their legs, and one went into a coma – and they went slower than I was planning to. The nerves beforehand were horrendous. I found myself standing at the top, looking down this hugely steep slope and thinking, ‘What am I doing?’ My arms and legs were shaking in fear. But I went for it.

Once I was going down, I was fine; in fact, I felt great.”

Barrow clocked a time of 151.6kph to set a new British snowboard downhill speed record. Then, in April 2016, he broke his own record to set a British best of 152kph. Barrow may have found his limit in the downhill, which is largely down to aerodynamics, but it inspired him to set other world records and has led to today’s showdown on the ice.

We’re in a race against time as the rising sun creeps across the lake, warming up the surface, which will rob the Maserati’s Pirelli Scorpion tyres of some of their ferocious grip, despite the addition of ice spikes.

This car can go from 0-100kph in 5.2 seconds, and utilising all of that potential will be key to success.

Barrow’s snowboard has been customised, too, with a stiffer construction, a longer side cut and additional length – 161cm rather than his usual 156cm. “It gives me more control at speed and creates less chatter,” 63

Born trailblazer: “When I was a kid, I’d always get a Guinness World Record every Christmas,” says Barrow, “and I said to my parents, ‘One day, I’ll be in that book’”

The fearsome Maserati Levante S

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he says. “But at those speeds any bump makes the board go.” Because the Guinness officials require the laser timers to be halfway down the course, the high-powered car only has 400m to get up to speed.

Barrow’s confidence is high as he sets up for a test run at 100kph, faster than his previous World Record. Maserati’s rally driver gets into the front seat and Barrow straps into his board. The pair set off smoothly enough, but the wrench is visible as the tow rope goes taut and the engine roars into life – the gear change sounds like the air tearing as the car leaps forwards and Barrow is engulfed by a massive white cloud of snow and spray.

The car turns around at the end of the track and catapults back up to speed. Although the lake seems pan-flat, a closer look reveals a pattern of ridges and bumps, which launch the SUV into the air. “Those bumps are pretty hard on the knees!” reports Barrow as he pulls up at the end of the run.

Watching him, it’s easy to forget he lives with chronic back pain, eschews daily painkillers THE RED BULLETIN

“There’s no telling how far we can go until we push it to the very limit”

Even a speed demon needs downtime…

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(“They’re addictive”) and still can’t train squats or deadlifts, so has to find other leg and core exercises to do. He has also built up the strength in his arms for this challenge, because the ideal body position only allows him to hold on with one hand.

“It’s mind over matter, 100 per cent,” he says. “It happens with so many athletes that an injury just completely ruins them. I think you need something to distract yourself. Just take the same passion and love for something you had from before and try to direct it down a different route.

“Another reason why I’m doing these crazy stunts and getting scared is because it distracts me from my injury. It’s going to be with me for the rest of my life and it can be really disheartening, but what’s the point of constantly complaining? You might as well say, ‘Right, I’ve got it now, so how do I deal with it?’”

Suddenly, the radio crackles into life – the World Record has been broken on the practice run and Barrow’s arm hasn’t been pulled out of its socket, so it’s time to put the hammer down. “The biggest problem is the spray being thrown up behind the wheels,” he says. “If I’m in it, I can’t see the bumps until I’m on them.”

Barrow is fighting the pull of the tow rope and holding an edge on his board to stay out to the right.

But will he still be able to do this as the acceleration increases, the tow cable pulls his arm down, and he fights to hang on? “If I do catch an edge, I’ll be pulled face-first into the ground,” he says, rather matter-offactly. “But there’s no telling how far we can go until we push ourselves to the very limit.”

As the car revs up for another run, Barrow asks the driver to reverse so that he can squeeze an extra bit of run-up out of the track, almost backing him out onto the main road. This time, the acceleration is savage and it’s hard to believe he’ll be able to hold on. But somehow he does, and he clocks a top speed of 151.57kph in the process. The average of the two runs is slightly lower – 149.65kph – but the old record has been roundly thrashed.

“My hand was slipping off!” he laughs afterwards.

“I had to grab with two hands and hope I didn’t get pulled over. But it was awesome.” Even speed demon Barrow is surprised by the ferocious speed of the Maserati. “I’m amazed at how fast we were able to go over such a short distance.”

This won’t be the end of the story. “Now all we need is a longer track with harder snow,” he says.

“We want to go at 200kph. I know I can go faster.”

If Jamie Barrow has a motto, that’s definitely it. jamiebarrow.com 65

Revolution in a Bottle

In just two years, Seedlip founder BEN BRANSON has transformed bar menus around the world with the invention of a crazy-but-brilliant product: the first-ever non-alcoholic spirit Words GILLIAN FERGUSON

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Photography RICK RODNEY

Seedlip Spice 94: the blend that started it all for Branson

THE RED BULLETIN

“There was this fear of the unknown out there”

Green-fingered: peas advocate Branson shows off his unique tattoo

B

en Branson arrives at Bibo Ergo Sum, a slick new Art Deco-inspired cocktail lounge in West Hollywood, California, wearing the uniform of the contemporary CEO: a black hoodie and jeans. His jawline is covered with almost enough scruff to qualify as a beard, and his signature mop of tightly wound curls spills out from beneath a camouflage baseball cap.

It’s been a little over two years since the 35-year old Brit – whose regular abode is a 14th-century cottage in rural Buckinghamshire – launched Seedlip, a meticulously crafted line of sugar-free, calorie-free, non-alcoholic distillates that aims to answer the conundrum of what to drink when you’re not drinking.

After sliding into a booth, Branson rummages in his backpack and unearths a small, delicate book with a beautifully marbled cover and four very worn leather corners. Before opening it, he slips on two white gloves. This is, after all, the book that changed his life, and one can never be too careful when handling fate.

It was the autumn of 2013 when Branson stumbled upon The Art Of Distillation, a 17th-century text devoted to the curative properties of distilled spirits, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic.

“This is back when alcohol was a medicine,” he says carefully turning the brittle pages of the tome, first published in 1651. “If you were rich enough, you’d have your own physician and your own still room, and a guy who would get everything from the garden and prepare these medicines for you.”

The concept of non-alcoholic distillates intrigued him, but it wasn’t until he was served “the most ridiculously horrible mocktail” that the non-drinker began to wonder, “How can it be in this day and age that you can’t get a decent grown-up drink if you’re not drinking?” Maybe, he thought, someone else feels as annoyed about this as I do.

It wasn’t long before he’d connected the dots, quit his job at a branding agency and set off on a path to create

a non-alcoholic spirit that you would actually want to drink. He interviewed distillers, botanists and historians; purchased a copper still, and used that same, centuries-old copy of The Art Of Distillation he carries in his backpack as his guidebook for making long-forgotten non-alcoholic distillates from ingredients such as lemon peel, cardamom, oak and cascarilla bark.

“I emailed the top 200 bars and hotels in London and said, ‘I’m looking for places that do good non-alcoholic cocktails, because my friend is pregnant.

Can you send me your menu and prices?’”

The responses ranged from, “We don’t have a list,” to, “We’ve got Coke, Sprite and Pepsi,” which only hardened his resolve. Friends told him he was crazy.

“You name it, I’ve heard it,” he says of all the sceptical reactions he received along the way. “‘This will never sell.’ ‘What’s the point?’ ‘This is never going to work.’ ‘No, I don’t want to bottle it for you.’

“There was this fear of the unknown out there, but I was just absolutely, single-mindedly driven to see it through.

I thought, ‘If it fails, it fails, but at least I won’t have any regrets.’”

A

lmost two years to the day after he embarked on this madman’s journey, Branson walked into Selfridges in London with his first case of Seedlip Spice 94, a woodsy blend of all spice, cardamom, oak, lemon and grapefruit. The department store had ordered 800 bottles, and Branson was there to put them on the shelves in person.

“I remember going home to my fiancé after I put the bottles on the shelf and saying, ‘I give up. I don’t want to do this any more, I’m so spent.’” But within three weeks, Selfridges was sold out. The next 1,000 bottles sold in three days, and the demand never slowed.

Branson now bottles two flavours, Seedlip Spice 94 and Seedlip Garden 108, which combines hay, spearmint, rosemary, thyme, and peas from the Branson family pea farm in Lincolnshire where he spent his youth. (The latter is brilliant over ice with tonic water and a slice of grapefruit.)

The Seedlip Spice 94 is added with the sugar to make a simple syrup

Branson wondered, “How can it be in this day and age that you can’t get a decent grown-up drink if you’re not drinking?”

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The Sleight of Hand: a mix of cold-brewed black tea, wine tannin, demerara sugar, Seedlip Spice 94 and a touch of smoke

The finished drink, as prepared at West Hollywood cocktail lounge Bibo Ergo Sum

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A background in branding for major drinks companies gave Branson the edge when launching Seedlip

seasoned bartenders another canvas for crafting complex zero-proof drinks.

Consider the Sleight of Hand, a creation that Daniel Zacharczuk, bar manager at Bibo Ergo Sum, calls “a whisky drinker’s non-alcoholic drink”.

Essentially, it’s a mix of cold-brewed black tea, a bit of wine tannin (“the grape skin texture that leaves a dry, sticky feeling in your mouth”), and a rich, simple syrup made from demerara sugar and Seedlip Spice 94. The finishing touch is a dramatic infusion of smoke that floats like a garnish on the surface of the cocktail, giving you all the pomp and circumstance of mixology but minus the alcohol.

W

“You name it, I’ve heard it: ‘This will never sell… What’s the point?’”

His bottles are now behind the bar in 15 countries – from Denmark to Hong Kong – and in the last year alone, the number of stockists has grown from 150 to more than 3,000, including 170 Michelin-starred restaurants and the top three establishments on the 2017 World’s 50 Best Bars list.

If you ask him what catapulted Seedlip to global success, Branson is quick to credit larger cultural shifts. “It feels like 99 per cent of this comes down to timing,” he says. “We’re not trying to slam something through a closed door – people are already in this frame of mind where what you eat and drink 70

is more important to you, where things come from is more important to you, and how you live your life is more important to you.” Ten years ago, it was about boozing until 3am, but today, “it’s all green juice and the gym,” he says, “and that’s cooler now than saying how late you were out last night.”

Simultaneously, cocktails morphed from utilitarian, two-ingredient ‘well drinks’ – those made using the cheapest alcohol behind the bar – to elaborate, considered creations; and bartending, once considered merely a temporary job, emerged as a celebrated profession. So when Seedlip hit the market, it gave

hether a guest is taking a night off, pregnant, or simply doesn’t want to drink alcohol, bartenders still want to offer a considered experience, and Seedlip “provides another opportunity,” says Zacharczuk. “To be able to reach behind you and say, ‘I have something new for you, and I think you’re really going to like it – it tastes like green peas, or this tastes like juicy wood,’ is a breath of fresh air.”

“It’s really simple,” Branson explains.

“This is something that so many people at the forefront of food and drink understand. You want your guests to have a good time and not feel left out.”

For Branson, who is quick to profess his love of food and restaurants, being embraced by the world’s best eateries has been gratifying beyond his wildest dreams. “Seedlip to me is like a game of Snakes and Ladders,” he explains. “It’s highs and lows. But how we approach making a drink is the same way that a chef approaches a plate of food; it speaks to growing and produce, to great ingredients and provenance.”

In January, Branson announced plans to build an experimental nursery and laboratory in Lincolnshire at his family’s farm. It’s an investment in research and development, but also an opportunity to investigate Branson’s true passion, soil.

Seedlip – named after the old-fashioned baskets from which farmers would sow seed by hand – is Branson’s sneaky way of turning around the giant oil tanker that is industrial farming. At this rate, “there are only 60 harvests left,” he says. “No one is talking about it in the drinks industry, but we’ve got to save our soil.”

In the meantime, he’s planning his next tattoo: ‘SOIL’ inked across his left knuckles, to match ‘PEAS’ on his right.

seedlipdrinks.com THE RED BULLETIN

KHAKI X-WIND

AUTOMATIC SWISS MADE

HOW TO APPEAR SMART IN MEETINGS

WITHOUT REALLY TRYING Google designer turned comedian SARAH COOPER – who walked away from a prestigious tech career to write business satire – offers ridiculous but surprisingly wise advice on how to look like a genius in the conference room Words SETH ABRAMOVITCH Photography KLARA FUCHS

Funny business: Sarah Cooper is willing to go to absurd lengths to help you succeed in the workplace

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Call the shots: an illustration from Cooper’s 100 Tricks To Appear Smart In Meetings

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tune of five million page views – the book is filled with winking observations about corporate confabulations. She’s currently hard at work on a follow-up, How To Be Successful Without Hurting Men’s Feelings, an ironic guide for women in the workplace, timed conveniently to the #MeToo era. (It too began as a post on her blog: “9 Non-Threatening Leadership Strategies for Women.”)

As a black woman who has successfully planted flags in two notoriously whiteand male-dominated kingdoms – tech and comedy – Cooper has demonstrated a knack for defying odds and expectations. She credits this, in part, to her upbringing. In 1980, when she was three, Cooper’s parents – her dad was an engineer, her mum worked in human resources – moved the family from their native Jamaica to the United States, settling in Maryland. Growing up, she was really into performing. “I wanted to be a singer at first,” she says. “But I was told I didn’t have a good voice, which was difficult. Then I found theatre.

I was on stage a lot in high school.”

When Cooper announced her plan to major in theatre in college, her parents intervened – “They wanted me to be able to make money” – and convinced her instead to follow a business track. She ended up getting an economics degree.

“That turned out to be as useful as a theatre degree would have been,” she says. In her final semester, she took a multimedia design course and fell in love with it. That ultimately led her to a master’s degree, and a job at Yahoo.

Google wasn’t the first tech job Cooper abandoned: at 30, she quit Yahoo to pursue acting. But that didn’t go too well.

“I moved back in with my parents, as most 30-year-olds do,” jokes Cooper.

Like singing, however, acting wasn’t quite her bag. “I’d show up to auditions and was really bad at it – just awkward on camera and I didn’t really know what I was doing.” She found her way to an open-mic comedy night in the hopes that the sheer terror of it would help make her more comfortable in her own skin, and ultimately a better actress. To her surprise, she took to that environment fairly naturally.

“My material started out about being a single girl – a lot of dating stuff,” Cooper says, reflecting on those early comedy THE RED BULLETIN

SARAH COOPER

here’s a joke Sarah Cooper tells in her stand-up act about the single biggest – and arguably craziest – decision she’s ever made. It goes like this: “I read one of those articles online that says you should follow your dreams and quit your job, so I quit my job. But then I realised those articles are written by people who want your job.”

If you’re an aspiring comic who pays the rent by waiting tables or driving for Uber, the premise of the punchline might be a bit of a stretch. But before walking away from it all back in 2014, Cooper had the Holy Grail of technology jobs – leading a design team at Google Docs, the Google word processor accessed by more than a billion users worldwide. “Everybody thought I was crazy,” she recalls.

These days, no one is questioning Cooper’s sanity. Just six months after her departure, she landed a book deal, which led to the 2016 publication of 100 Tricks To Appear Smart In Meetings: How To Get By Without Even Trying. Based on a blog post that went viral – to the

“Your comedy is taken from your life.

The more you live, the more material you have�

“If you don’t smile, you’re seen as a bitch” routines. “And then I was doing stuff about my family being immigrants, and how my Jamaican parents didn’t identify with African-American culture. How they were black, but didn’t really see themselves as black, and how that had an effect on my identity.”

COOPER’S PRO TIPS Winning in the workplace is no joke – usually.

Here, Cooper explains four of her best hacks to help you act like a total boss at your next meeting

Just do the maths

“I’ve never actually been able to do this, but I’ve seen someone do it and I thought it was hysterical. Basically, if someone says, ‘25 per cent of people click on this button,’ you just say, ‘Oh, about one in four.’

People are really impressed with your quick maths skills.”

The PowerPoint takeover

“Asking the presenter to go back a slide is great, because it doesn’t really matter what you say after that. As soon as you say, ‘Can you go back a slide?’ everyone will think you noticed something on that slide that everyone else missed. Then you can just say something like, ‘Oh, uh… what do these numbers mean?’ It looks like you’re really paying attention.”

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SARAH COOPER

B

ut living with her parents and earning nothing on the stand-up circuit – not only was she was not being paid for those early gigs, she had to lure her friends to the club to buy drinks to even get stage time – got old fast. So Cooper decided to return to her “fall-back career” and eventually scored a job at Google’s headquarters in New York City.

The rumours were true: Google was a dream office. “They take a lot of time to make a work environment that’s extremely comfortable,” she says.

“There were little work nooks. There was a library. There were, like, hidden walls you could open up, where you could go and work or take naps, which is what I would do a lot of the time. There were cafeterias on every floor, serving breakfast, lunch and dinner.”

And yet, despite all of that, the tug of the spotlight proved too strong to ignore.

So, after long days spent configuring the Google Docs toolbar, Cooper would head out to top New York comedy clubs. At one gig, an established pro named Todd Glass gave her some valuable advice. “He said, ‘Your comedy is taken from your life,’” Cooper recalls. “‘The more life you live, the more material you have. You can’t just shut down your life.’’’

So Cooper kept at her tech career, all the while mining for material. Her targets included the company’s coders (who are “so proud to work at Google, they have sex with their badges on”) to its diversity problems (“We call the new employees ‘New-glers’, old employees ‘Gray-glers’, and black employees ‘David and Sean’”).

During this burst of creativity, she returned to some notes she’d made seven years earlier, while working at Yahoo.

There, a co-worker had been drawing a Venn diagram on the whiteboard in a meeting. The labels of the two circles and their ‘sweet spot’ intersection have long since faded from memory, but what stuck with Cooper was the diagram itself – she still remembers how animated the room

VSSLGEAR.com

became as participants discussed the two overlapping circles laid out before them.

During her subsequent years in tech, she noticed other, similar manoeuvres: once, someone stopped a lively exchange dead in its track and encouraged everyone to “take a step back”. Someone else pushed his Herman Miller Aeron chair away from the table and began to pace with purpose around the conference room. A junior exec stormed out of the meeting entirely to take what appeared to be an urgent call. Each time, she observed how the perpetrator came away with a kind of glow – a halo of competence.

Cooper eventually amassed 10 of these tricks and posted them to [online publishing platform] Medium. “It took off. Just went crazy, crazy viral,” she says of ‘10 Tips to Appear Smart in Meetings’.

Soon after, she launched her website, The Cooper Review. And before long, she left Google for her new role of workplace satirist, which, with the exception of the comic strip Dilbert – of which Cooper is a huge fan – is a surprisingly underserviced comedy subsector.

Step up and step back

“This is a great one: when everyone is throwing out a bunch of ideas and you don’t really have anything to contribute, you can just stop everyone and say, ‘Guys, guys, let’s take a step back here. What problem are we really trying to solve?’

Everyone will try to answer that question, and they’ll think of you as someone who really took control of the meeting.”

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or the upcoming How To Be Successful Without Hurting Men’s Feelings, Cooper has pulled from her experiences on two vastly different but overwhelmingly maledominated playing fields. “In comedy, I was often one of very few women performing at the shows,” she says. At first, she says, she was trying to emulate what the male comics were doing. But that wasn’t working. “It takes a while for you to realise that, wait a second, I can just be myself and it’s OK if I’m bringing a different energy to my comedy.” It wasn’t all that different on the corporate stage. “You feel like, OK, he’s a VP and he got there by doing what he’s doing.

But that’s not how I want to lead the team or run this project. You need to follow your own path.”

Rather than smack her audience over the head with messages about female empowerment, Cooper takes a slyer route. “The book is about the double standards that women face in the business world,” she says. “For example, there’s this thing about women smiling: if you don’t smile, you’re seen as a bitch.

So you’re supposed to smile, but not too much. What I do is offer really bad 78

Walk the walk

“This is something I saw a lot of people doing at Google. If you don’t sit down at the table and instead go over to the window and lean on the wall, or just pace around the room, people wonder what you’re thinking about and you appear smart.”

advice: ‘Try to find a smile somewhere in-between, even if it makes you look like you’re having a stroke.’ It’s really just making fun of all of the contradictory women’s business advice that we’ve been getting for so long.”

Guys do not get off easily: another chapter, ‘Men’s Achievement Stickers’, offers adhesive rewards to dole out around the office. One of them reads, ‘I didn’t show my penis to anyone today.’

While Cooper herself was never harassed, she says she wasn’t at all surprised to read one former Uber employee’s account of sexual harassment at the ride-share giant, which set in motion a chain reaction that ultimately led to the resignation of its CEO, Travis Kalanick, in June 2017.

“I think a lot of women read that and thought, ‘Yeah, that makes sense,’” says Cooper. “But for men, it was like, ‘Oh my God, that really happens?’ I think her blog post inspired a lot of people to come out and say what’s happening. For a long time, women just brushed it aside. Especially if you want to focus on your career and not become, like, the face of a movement.”

These days, Cooper finds herself a popular face on the corporate speaking circuit, where a little levity goes a long way. She was recently flown in to speak at a digital security conference in Las Vegas, where she had to follow Kevin Mitnick – a legendary hacker who has done time in prison.

“It was like going up after the David Copperfield of the tech world,” says Cooper. “But the conference organisers were like, ‘We need something that’s, you know, going to be like a kind of a palate cleanser.’” She gave a 30-minute talk on the future of tech, “but really, really satirically. Just completely making fun of raw water and Bitcoin falling and rising and falling and rising. And the robots killing us. All in the guise of, ‘This is the future.’”

Cooper’s future looks decidedly sunnier. But despite her successes, she remains as wearily pragmatic as one might expect for, well, a Google designer turned comedy writer. “You never really ‘make it’,” Cooper says. “It’s a grind, no matter what you do and no matter what level you’re at. It’s all about just trying to get to the next thing.”

thecooperreview.com THE RED BULLETIN

SARAH COOPER

“I’m making fun of all the business advice women get”

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WRC RALLY ARGENTINA

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First run in 1980, Rally Argentina is a tough mix of mountainous roads and soft gravel (pictured: Estonia’s Ott Tänak, who finished third last year). Watch the fifth stop of the 2018 World Rally Championship on redbull.tv

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GUIDE

See it

GOING DOWN A STORM

Downhill mountain biking in Croatia, rallying in Argentina, and running for those who can’t – see all this and more on Red Bull TV this month

WATCH RED BULL TV ANYWHERE

Red Bull TV is a global digital entertainment destination featuring programming that is beyond the ordinary and is available any time, anywhere. Go online at redbull.tv, download the app, or connect via your Smart TV. To find out more, visit redbull.tv

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22 April

LIVE

UCI MTB WORLD CUP CROATIA

A new location awaits the elite of downhill mountain biking at this second event on the 2018 World Cup calendar.

The island of Lošinj, off the coast of Croatia, provides a unique backdrop to the competition as the course winds its way along rock-strewn tracks, through the picturesque streets of the medieval city of Veli Lošinj, and finishes at the harbour. Watch around 300 competitors tackle this new challenge live on Red Bull TV.

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April / May

France’s Myriam Nicole at the World Cup in Leogang, Austria, last June

Aaron Gwin (USA) celebrates his win in Val di Sole, Italy, last August

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BARTEK WOLINSKI/RED BULL CONTENT POOL (2), JAANUS REE/RED BULL CONTENT POOL, KIN MARCIN FOR WINGS FOR LIFE WORLD RUN, GOLD & GOOSE/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

Hear handpicked music and interviews with influential artists.

This month’s pick is…

28

to 30 April

LIVE

WRC RALLY ARGENTINA

This fifth stage of the World Rally Championship always presents one of the series’ biggest challenges with its combination of narrow, rocky roads; river crossings and rutted gravel. Catch all of this year’s action live.

MOVEMENT FESTIVAL LIVESTREAM

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May

LIVE

WFL WORLD RUN 2018

Wings For Life World Run, the simultaneous global race in aid of spinal cord injury research, returns for another year. See thousands of participants worldwide run for those who can’t – and try to evade the Catcher Car.

May

LIVE

MOTOGP ROOKIES CUP

Jerez in southern Spain once again hosts the opener of the Rookies Cup season. The wishbone design of this classic motor circuit culminates in a hairpin turn, then a dash down the straight to the finish line. Don’t miss it.

26 May ON AIR

Staged in Detroit, the birthplace of techno, the annual Movement festival is North America’s premier celebration of electronic music. This year’s Red Bull Music stage will feature Diplo, Modeselektor, Laurent Garnier, DJ Premier, BADBADNOTGOOD, DJ Holographic (pictured) and others. Red Bull Radio will be documenting the festivities for three full days (May 26-28) via livestream, with DJ sets and live performances.

LISTEN AT REDBULLRADIO.COM

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GUIDE

Get it

Watches

This limited-edition watch comes with either a desert-brown leather strap (pictured) or a stainless steel bracelet

OMEGA SEAMASTER RAILMASTER

Track and field

In this case, railway tracks and electric fields. Built for railway employees, the original 1957 Railmaster could withstand 1,000 gauss of magnetism. This updated model is capable of enduring a field 15 times stronger. omegawatches.com

SQUADRON LEADER

Hamilton is an enduring name in the story of aviation.

Founded in Pennsylvania in 1892, the company first took flight in 1918 when it supplied watches for the new US airmail service between Washington and New York.

Eight years later, a Hamilton was on the wrist of Richard E Byrd – the first pilot to fly over the North Pole – and of aviators Hegenberger and Maitland for their distance-record-setting transpacific flight from the US mainland to Hawaii. By the 1930s, it was the official watch of four US airlines. So, a century after taxiing off, it’s no surprise that Hamilton is the official timekeeper of the Red Bull Air Race.

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RAYMOND WEIL TANGO 300

Deep dream

HAMILTON KHAKI X-WIND AUTO CHRONO LIMITED EDITION

Flight facilities

To celebrate 100 years of in-flight service, Hamilton has released a timepiece built with the rigours of the sky in mind. The X-Wind is so-named because of its driftangle calculator – a complex mechanism with a rotating bezel that, in combination with your plane’s instruments, calculates crosswinds. The stainless-steel case frames a large 45mm face featuring luminous numerals that are easy to read during day or night flights, and inside is Hamilton’s first chronographic movement to employ a silicon hairspring, which is anti-magnetic and less susceptible to shocks, providing greater durability and longer-lasting accuracy. Only 1,918 of these watches have been made – a nod to the year Hamilton’s airborne saga began. hamilton.com

The number in the name signifies the depth this diver’s watch can endure – 300m. With a stainlesssteel case and bracelet, and sapphire crystal glass, it also performs well at shallower social engagements. raymond-weil.co.uk

PORSCHE DESIGN CHRONOGRAPH 911 TURBO S

Sporty number

There are driving watches and then there’s a chronograph that matches the 911 Turbo S with its livery and materials (titanium case, carbon dial, seat-leather strap) and a back that replicates the wheels. porsche-design.com

THE RED BULLETIN

YOU NEED TO HEAR THIS.

EARL SWEATSHIRT AND KNXWLEDGE STAY INSIDE TUNE-YARDS PRESENTS C.L.A.W PEAK TIME WITH VIVIAN HOST

AWFUL RECORDS WITH ZACK FOX

LISTEN NOW.

GUIDE

Do it

20

to 21 April Sonica 2018 Looking for a mind-expanding festival experience? Here’s a very different kind. Audio-visual installations and performanceart shows at Sonica 2018 include 176 snails making music with lights on their backs; silentdisco-style opera NYXdelica; and an experiment in mechanically induced synaesthesia, described as a ‘concerto for a single laser beam’, from Australian AV artist Robin Fox. Kings Place, London; sonic-a.co.uk

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April / May April Garage Brunch Everyone loves a bottomless brunch, and that includes fans of garage music. That’s the idea behind this breakstep breakfast – an hour of unlimited cocktails, Garage Fried Chicken (or Quorn), Bo Selecta Apple Tarts, and tunes from resident DJs Policy, Swiss and Lonyo, plus guests (past events have seen the likes of The Menendez Brothers and MC Creed). Secret location, London; garagebrunch.com

20

25

to 27 May MCM London Comic Con With the recent successes of Black Panther and Wonder Woman, comic-book movies have transcended pop culture to become truly culture-shifting – but don’t expect the legions of Star Wars, Batman and Harry Potter cosplayers to take themselves any more seriously. Do expect famous guest speakers from TV and film, plus cool games and exclusive collectible merchandise. ExCeL, London; mcmcomiccon.com

May

FESTIVAL OF FITNESS

Billed as ‘the London Marathon meets the Notting Hill Carnival’, this Virgin Sport event will see 16,000 runners compete in a 21km half marathon past iconic East London landmarks like the Hackney Empire, Broadway Market and London Stadium, with bands and DJs along the route, before gathering on Hackney Marshes for live music, food, craft beer stalls, and fitness activities including an attempt at the Guinness World Record for largest shadowboxing class.

Hackney, London; uk.virginsport.com

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April Brixton Disco Festival Some say disco never went away, but one thing’s for sure: it’s definitely back, as this new South London festival of strutting funk and soul demonstrates. Taking over Electric Brixton, POW Brixton, the Ritzy Picturehouse and the Black Cultural Archives, headliners include Jocelyn Brown, Joey Negro (pictured right), and iconic Studio 54 and The Gallery resident Nicky Siano.

Brixton, London; brixtondiscofestival.com

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THE RED BULLETIN PROMOTION

C

ycle sport in Ticino is booming.

Many hardened pros call Ticino home, and the region in southern Switzerland was chosen to host the MTB World Championships at Monte Tamaro. But you don’t need to be an athlete to ride here; it’s also the perfect location for a cycling holiday.

There’s the great climate, beautiful lakes, and the stunning backdrop of The Alps.

And the varied terrain, along with a wealth of new cycle and MTB paths, means there are options for everyone, regardless of biking ability. With tours of Lake Lugano and Lake Maggiore starting at an elevation of 200 to 300m, there are endless options for those on two wheels.

Out of the saddle, try the new Capanna Monte Bar mountain hut – located at an altitude of 1,800m – for unparalleled views to be enjoyed with a post-ride drink. mtb.ticino.ch

SWITZERLAND TOURISM 2017

Mountain Biking in Ticino Plan your itinerary with the offroad map app SwitzerlandMobility.

Pedal along routes that wind through breathtaking landscapes – the many valleys, lakes and rivers leave you spoilt for choice. Two of the most popular routes are Lugano Bike (Route 66), and Alta Verzasca Bike (Route 399). mountainbikeland.ch Lugano Bike (Route 66): Monte Brè to Ponte Tresa, 120km One of the most attractive single trails is a high track around the Val Colla above Lugano that leads through the fairytale forests of Malcantone and past the imposing Monte Tamaro. The tour takes in lush meadows, large lakes and some of the region’s most famous mountains, and guarantees spectacular panoramic views.

The first part of the ride on the ridge between the Pairolo and Gola di Lago is a biking classic thanks to the impressive scenery, while the section between Monte Brè and Rivera offers plenty of variety. Plus, you’ll find picturesque villages and historic monuments along the way.

THE RIDE OF YOUR LIFE

A trip to Ticino is repaid with stunning scenery, varied trails and unforgettable adventures

A drink at the Capanna Monte Bar mountain hut, at an altitude of 1,800m, comes with unparalleled views

Alta Verzasca Bike (Route 399): Brione Verzasca to Sonogno, 9km This fairly flat track opened in 2015, and leads through the upper part of the Verzasca Valley. Expect varied up and downhill stretches, though it’s technically easy and suitable for all. En route from Brione Verzasca to Sonogno – both typical mountain villages – you can take in the area’s rich history while immersed in nature. Sonogno offers plenty to see, from the beautiful Froda waterfall and the Val Verzasca museum, which houses local objects of historic importance, to the Casa della Lana (House of Wool), where guided tours are available.

GUI D E 1 HOKA ONE ONE MACH

Hoka One One is known for its distinctive fit and feel. The Mach delivers a speedy, responsive ride thanks to its lightness (231g), low heel-to-toe drop and dual-density midsole (softer heel, firmer forefoot). £120; hokaoneone.eu 2 NEW BALANCE 890 V6

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With its low heel-to-toe drop, stiff midsole and light weight (225g), the New Balance 890 v6 is a snappy shoe for tempo runs and race day. Built on a redesigned last, it allows a little more room in the seamless engineered-mesh toe box, greatly reducing the risk of blisters. £105; newbalance.co.uk 3 PUMA SPEED 600 IGNITE 3

RUN WILD

The Ignite 3 has a superbreathable mesh 'Netfit' upper that allows you to change the lacing to tailor your fit, and energy-return cushioning that puts extra pep in your step. £100; eu.puma.com

Whether you’re hitting the road or traversing rocky terrain, we rounded up the best shoes, tech, apparel and accessories to get you sprinting to the finish line

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Words TISH HAMILTON Photography DIMITRI NEWMAN

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All shoe styles featured are available for both men and women

ROAD

UNDER ARMOUR HOVR SONIC CT 4

The new streamlined Sonic combines a bouncy layer of HOVR foam from forefoot to heel, and has a sensor in the right midfoot that connects to the MapMyRun app to track speed, distance, cadence and stride length. £100; underarmour.co.uk 5 ASICS GEL-NIMBUS 20

There’s a reason why this classic neutralcushioned shoe is on its 20th iteration: devoted fans love the FlyteFoam midsole, the forgiving gel pods in the rearfoot and forefoot, and the mesh toe box, which provides wiggle room.

This platinum edition commemorates the 20th anniversary of the cult favourite. £150; asics.com

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6 NIKE EPIC REACT FLYKNIT

What runners want: deep cushioning and exceptional energy return without extra weight. What Nike delivers: an irresistibly cool package with a form-fitting Flyknit upper and snappy React foam outsole. Get in line. £130; nike.com 7

ON CLOUD X

Dash to the gym for a workout in this firm, lightweight shoe with its distinctive tube-like underfoot cushioning system (on a cloud, get it?), uncomplicated breathable mesh upper and reinforced midfoot, which keeps you solid during lateral movements. £125; on-running.com

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TRAIL 1 SALOMON S/LAB ULTRA

This update to the bestselling Sense Ultra series offers a better fit thanks to a redesigned, friction-free, seamless inner bootie wrapped with midfoot-supporting external Sensifit 'wings'.

Stick lugs concentrated at the heel and forefoot secure your landing and propel your push-off. £150; salomon.com

2 SALEWA ULTRA TRAIN 2

3 LA SPORTIVA BUSHIDO MOUNTAIN RUNNING

Designed for speed hiking and mountain training, the Ultra Train 2 takes its cues from kindred adventure sportifs: the mountainclimbing-inspired lacing system dials in fit, and the mountain-bike-like, Michelin-designed sole ensures traction and grip on wet and slippery surfaces. £125; salewa.com

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SAUCONY KOA TR

This neutral hybrid trainer transitions smoothly from tarmac to trail thanks to the full-length bouncy foam that cushions your footfall and a low 3.5mm lug height that rolls on the road but bites nicely in dirt. An oblique toe box adds stability by allowing for maximum ‘splay’ on toe-off. £120; saucony.com

When your trails traverse roots and rocks, you want burly Bushido protection: outsole lugs wrap the midsole for added traction and stability, a thick TPU toecap limits stubbing, and a glove-like, rigid midfoot cradle prevents slippage.

Despite all the armour, it makes for a surprisingly aggressive and nimble run. £120; sportiva.com

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TECH 1 GARMIN FORERUNNER 235

Veteran marathoners and hobby joggers alike love the classic Forerunner 235 for its ease of use, accurate all-day activity tracking, optical heart-rate monitor, seamless uploading to Garmin Connect, and easy syncing with Strava and other brag apps. Bonus: it just looks like a serious runner’s watch. £249.99; buy.garmin.com

3 JAYBIRD RUN TRUE WIRELESS SPORT HEADPHONES

4 SKULLCANDY METHOD BT SPORT EARBUDS

Comfortable and sweatproof, with minimal on-ear controls, these earbuds offer clean, crisp sound quality, particularly in the mid and high ranges. And if you’re the type to let your buds drain, Jaybird’s handy five-minute charge option will buy you an hour of run time. £169.99; jaybirdsport.com

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These smooth-sounding, Bluetooth-enabled earbuds connect to a collar worn round the neck, with control buttons at the tips. Bonus for longdistance haulers: they’re also sweat- and weatherresistant, and last an impressive nine hours on a single charge. £39.99; skullcandy.com

2 BOSE SOUNDSPORT FREE WIRELESS HEADPHONES

Bose delivers up to five hours of powerful bassforward audio with simple on-ear controls, and waterrepellent mesh ports keep sweat from shortcircuiting your playlist.

The SoundSport Free fits securely thanks to interchangeable ear tips, and stays put with fins.

Props for the sleek LEDindicator charging case. £179.95; bose.co.uk

FITBIT IONIC

This intuitive smartwatch tracks the distance, pace and duration of runs, rides and pool swimming with its built-in GPS, and also monitors your heart rate.

Plus, it raises the smart bar in a few key areas, with storage for 300+ songs, support for apps such as Starbucks and Fitbit Pay – on which you can upload a credit card – and an impressive battery life of more than three days.

That said, its chunky look might not appeal to all. £299.95; fitbit.com

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HUAWEI WATCH 2

Rugged and sporty, this Android Wear 2.0compatible watch has a built-in GPS, an NFC chip, a customisable app display, and all the functionality you would expect from a smart fitness watch, including workout tracking, a heart-rate monitor and pre-installed workouts. And you can make and receive calls and texts with the 4G version. £279; consumer.huawei.com

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GUIDE ICEBREAKER FLUID ZONE LONG SLEEVE ZIP 1

This sweet, form-fitting, light Merino jacket has flat zipped pockets and breathable wide-weave zones across the back and under the arms to keep you cool when things heat up. £140; uk.icebreaker.com 2 NIKE SHIELD CONVERTIBLE RUN JACKET

This hip-length, rainresistant, full-zip hoodie tucks into a handy pocket with a crossbody utility belt for easy portability when not in use. Zipped pockets keep your phone, keys and cards secure. £94.95; nike.com

2XU MID RISE 7/8 COMPRESSION TIGHTS

PATAGONIA HOUDINI JACKET 4

Featherweight, comfortable and breathable, the Houdini lives up to its namesake by offering remarkable wind protection and water resistance, and packing down into a tiny pocket with a carabiner loop. Nice trick! £85; eu.patagonia.com

APPAREL

SAXX KINETIC RUN 5IN SHORT 6

For guys in need of a loose pair of shorts with a comfortable, well-designed liner that keeps everything in place: the nine mesh panels in the ‘BallPark Pouch’ do the job nicely, and the reverse seams eliminate chafing. £56; saxxunderwear.com

5 UNDER ARMOUR THREADBORNE STREAKER

Thanks to UA’s proprietary MicroThread technology, this soft, flat-lock-seamed shirt dries almost as quickly as it wicks away sweat without chafing. £26; underarmour.co.uk 5

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In addition to 2XU’s expected quad, glute and calf compression, these fun tights for women provide a wide waistband that supports your midsection and hides a next-to-body pocket for essentials such as a credit card. £80; 2xu.com

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GUI D E 1

BUFF PRO RUN CAP

Running in the sun? The Pro Run Cap keeps your sunglasses secure in side slots, boasts a ray-busting UPF 50+ rating, vents your noggin via laser holes, and wicks away sweat before it can drip into your eyes. £24.66; buff.com

2 USWE VERTICAL 10 HYDRATION PACK

The mesh harness keeps you cool, and multiple pockets stash your phone and snacks, but this pack’s genius feature is the 1.5litre Shape-Shift hydration reservoir. Thanks to its wide slide-top opening, you can load it with ice for a run on a hot day, then turn it inside out upon your return for easy cleaning. £163; uswe-sports.com

3 OAKLEY FLAK DRAFT PRIZM ROAD SUNGLASSES

These high-definition, rosecoloured glasses in Oakley’s classic Flak line provide reliable ventilation with their semi-rimless design.

And you can quickly swap lenses (sold separately) with the easy-to-use trigger-release system. £160; uk.oakley.com

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ACCESSORIES

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4 STANCE MINIMALISM CREW SOCKS

Stance’s clever combo of quirky design and technical functionality has earned this young company a cult following in the world of running. Minimalism crew socks live up to the promise with anatomically engineered left/right foot specificity, compression, light cushioning and a modern-art-inspired pattern. £17.21; stance.com

5 NIKE DRI-FIT TEMPO 360 FLASH RUN GLOVES

Silky Dri-Fit gloves keep your hands warm and dry on cool days, while the touchscreen-compatible tips of the first finger and thumb let you tap your device. The distinctive stripes add high flash. £25; nike.com

6 ADIDAS ZONYK AERO MIDCUT PR

Perfect for the around-town multisport athlete, these lightweight, high-contrast specs have a contoured midcut that protects your eyes from flyback on the trail or on the roads.

A detachable foam bar absorbs sweat. £115; adidassporteyewear.com

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THE RED BULLETIN WORLDWIDE

FRANCE MATTHIAS DANDOIS

The French BMX rider who became a comedy star, how to run faster with the power of positive thinking, and a pictorial history of skateboarding – just some of the highlights from our issues around the globe this month

From BMX champion to movie star: the 28-yearold rider talks about his unlikely move into bigscreen comedy

KTM/PHOTOSDAKAR.COM

Laia Sanz, KTM-Werkspilotin: 100 Prozent Zielankünfte beim härtesten Motorsport-Event der Welt – also 100 Prozent richtig gemacht

DIESE FRAU SCHLÄGT 9 VON 10 MÄNNERN BEI DER RALLYE DAKAR Weil sie ihre Träume lebt, obwohl ihr alle davon abgeraten haben. Die Spanierin LAIA SANZ und ihr 15-Punkte-Programm für ein erfolgreiches Leben an der Spitze.

Text WERNER JESSNER

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AUSTRIA LAIA SANZ The Barcelona-born KTM Factory Racing Team rider gives us her 15-point strategy for staying on top of your game

Freddy Lau, Kino-Grenzgänger und Hobbygolfer, beim Red BulletinShooting in Berlin: „Neugier ist der beste Antrieb für ein interessantes Leben.“

„ICH DARF DAS EIGENTLICH NICHT SAGEN …“

“WHAT IS THE SKATEBOARD? I’D CALL IT A PHILOSOPHY”

… aber für The Red Bulletin tut er es doch: FREDDY LAU, 28, prägender Schauspieler seiner Generation, erzählt von seinem Leben zwischen Baukränen, Wettmafia und Filmset. Eine Begegnung in 20 Szenen.

Text ANDREAS ROTTENSCHLAGER

Fotos DAVID FISCHER 33

GERMANY FREDDY LAU The German actor talks movie gangsters, climbing cranes, and real-life inspirations

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SWITZERLAND JIM ZBINDEN As Geneva skate museum Pulp68 looks for a new home, its boss shows us treasures from his collection

THE RED BULLETIN

May

GLOBAL TEAM UNITED KINGDOM

Ido Portal, movement guru: “To hell with what other people say!”

“I’ve been thrown out of gyms on many occasions” Monkeys, comedians and children inspire him, and he earns six-figure sums through his private training sessions. Movement expert IDO PORTAL gives top sports stars’ minds and bodies a workout. The good news is that his teachings will work for you, too Words ANDREAS ROTTENSCHLAGER

Photography CYRILL MATTER

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UNITED KINGDOM IDO PORTAL The left-field movement coach on the benefits of ‘being a weirdo’, and why he threw playing cards at Conor McGregor

USA THE DAWN WALL How the duo of Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson completed the world’s most difficult rock climb on Yosemite’s El Capitan back in 2015

EL SECRETO ES LA PASIÓN La mayoría de los atletas e investigadores del deporte coinciden en que la clave para lograr un mejor desempeño –correr más rápido, aguantar más kilómetros, por ejemplo– está en la mente.

JUAN LUIS BARRIOS, el mejor fondista mexicano en la actualidad, no opina lo mismo. Para él, el corazón es el que domina y el que te hace sacar lo mejor de ti. Cuerpo y mente son los que hacen caso

El atleta mexicano se destaca por su resistencia al correr los maratones más pesados... y lo disfruta.

Texto KARINA RODRÍGUEZ Fotografía MAURICIO CARRANZA 48

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THE RED BULLETIN

MEXICO JUAN LUIS BARRIOS The medal-winning Mexican mid- and long-distance runner shares his secrets on how to get faster inside your head – and on the track

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The Red Bulletin United Kingdom, ISSN 2308-5894 Editor Ruth Morgan Associate Editor Tom Guise Music Editor Florian Obkircher Chief Sub-Editor Davydd Chong Publishing Manager Ollie Stretton Advertisement Sales Mark Bishop, mark.bishop@redbull.com Printed by Prinovis GmbH & Co KG, Printing Company Nuremberg, 90471 Nuremberg, Germany UK Office 155-171 Tooley Street, London SE1 2JP Tel: +44 (0) 20 3117 2000 Subscribe getredbulletin.com Enquiries or orders to: subs@uk.redbulletin.com Back issues available to purchase at: getredbulletin.com Basic subscription rate is £20.00 per year. International rates are available The Red Bulletin is published 10 times a year. Please allow four to six weeks for delivery of the first issue Customer Service +44 (0)1227 277248 subs@uk.redbulletin.com

Editor-in-Chief Alexander Macheck Deputy Editor-in-Chief Andreas Rottenschlager Creative Director Erik Turek Art Directors Kasimir Reimann (Stv. CD), Miles English Head of Photo Fritz Schuster Photo Director Rudi Übelhör Production Editor Marion Lukas-Wildmann Managing Editor Ulrich Corazza Editors Stefan Wagner (Chief Copy Editor), Christian Eberle-Abasolo, Arek Piatek Design Marco Arcangeli, Marion Bernert-Thomann, Martina de Carvalho-Hutter, Kevin Goll, Carita Najewitz Photo Editors Marion Batty, Susie Forman, Ellen Haas, Eva Kerschbaum, Tahira Mirza Commercial Director Franz Renkin Advertising Placement Andrea Tamás-Loprais Creative Solutions Eva Locker (manager), Verena Schörkhuber, Edith Zöchling-Marchart Country Management and Marketing Sara Varming (Ltg.), Magdalena Bonecker, Julia Gerber, Kristina Hummel, Melissa Stutz Commercial Design Peter Knehtl (manager), Simone Fischer, Alexandra Hundsdorfer, Martina Maier Head of Commercial & International Publishing Birgit Gasser Production Wolfgang Stecher (manager), Walter O. Sádaba, Friedrich Indich, Michael Menitz (digital) Repro Clemens Ragotzky (manager), Claudia Heis, Nenad Isailovi c,̀ Maximilian Kment, Josef Mühlbacher Office Management Kristina Krizmanic, Yvonne Tremmel IT Systems Engineer Michael Thaler Subscriptions and Distribution Peter Schiffer (manager), Klaus Pleninger (distribution), Nicole Glaser (distribution), Yoldaş Yarar (subscriptions) Global Editorial Office Heinrich-Collin-Straße 1, A-1140 Vienna Phone +43 1 90221-28800, Fax +43 1 90221-28809 Web www.redbulletin.com Red Bull Media House GmbH Oberst-Lepperdinger-Straße 11–15, A-5071 Wals bei Salzburg, FN 297115i, Landesgericht Salzburg, ATU63611700 General Manager and Publisher Andreas Kornhofer Directors Dietrich Mateschitz, Gerrit Meier, Dietmar Otti, Christopher Reindl

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Action highlight

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Frenchman Tom Dollé, 17, performs a blunt: a 180° turn in the air, with the kayak as vertical as possible, before landing in a back surf

PIERRE-HENRI CAMY

Hawaii sur Rhône, a static wave just 15 minutes from the centre of Lyon, is exceptional both in its location and its power. “A surf spot will change according to the swell and the tide, but here the shape and size of the wave are dictated by the bottom of the river and its flow,” says lensman Kevin Saussure, who shot freestyle kayaker Tom Dollé in action. Instagram: @tomdolle

”When you attempt this move, things can get a bit tricky”

TOUS DROITS RESERVES-KEVIN SAUSSURE

Lyon, France

Makes you fly

The next issue of THE RED BULLETIN is out on May 8 THE RED BULLETIN

THE NEW HOME OF GAMING AND ESPORTS IN THE UK

REDBULL.C O.U K/GAMINGSPHERE

THE ALL NEW GENIUS

ANY TRAIL. ANY TIME. NO SHORTCUTS When designing the all new Genius, we wanted to finish with a bike that was perfect for our backyard. We wanted a bike that could clear any climb and tackle any descent.

A bike for any trail, any time. What we got is exactly that, and much more. Capable, lightweight, fun, the all new Genius is just calling for the mountains.

SCOTT-SPORTS.COM © SCOTT SPORTS SA 2018 | Photo: Scott Markewitz