The Red Bulletin June 2014 - ZA

JUNE 2014 R30

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Shot with Nokia Lumia 1020

Norwegian ice “First time here in north Norway and it has been really incredible.

We found some amazing terrain here and lots of ice, just ice falls everywhere. And the light is incredible. I have never seen light like this. Just like amazing sunset light all day long.

With the amount of gear I already have in my back for ice climbing, it is great to have the Nokia Lumia along, just to have it in a pocket, when you need to go light and get some shots.

So, after the climb the boys came down and I started packing my gear. I had a quick scan for the pictures and I found some amazing shots on there. Zooming in a picture after, I just couldn’t believe the details we saw in this white shot. Some great stuff, I think.”

– Ray Demsky, Red Bull photographer

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Photo: Heli Putz

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THE WORLD OF RED BULL

24

F1’s New Generation

Go inside the 2014 cars to understand why this year’s champion will be crowned

Welcome

A football season already full of surprises and excitement is about to be topped by the world’s favourite sporting tournament. Whatever happens in Rio – and everyone’s got an opinion on that – the game itself will continue to evolve and grow. Which is why it’s the perfect time to look to the future of football, which we do in our cover story this month (and there’s another 13 pages of footy-related goodness in our opening Bullevard section). World-class athleticism is also on display as South Africans Conrad Stoltz and Dan Hugo continue to set the bar high in Xterra off-road triathlon, and Somizi Mhlongo seeks out the best cuttingedge dance talent at Red Bull Beat Battle.

Plus: the man who invented parkour, F1 and much more. We hope you enjoy the issue.

04

“I’ve learned how to win” Conrad stoltz (left), page 66 the red bulletin

June 2014

at a glance Bullevard 08 world football special There’s that international tournament coming soon in Brazil, right? Here’s all your pub conversation ammo

Features

58

24 Torque talk

Straight out of the pit lane: the transformation of Formula One

36 Somizi Mhlongo

the future of football

He broke barriers with his dancing; now he’s judging the new generation in Red Bull Beat Battle

What next for the world’s favourite sport: can it still be beautiful?

getty images (cover), peter clausen film, Ross Garrett, getty images(5), Klaus Fengler/Stefan Glowacz GmbH, miles donovan (cover) Markus Berger/Red Bull Content Pool, Jim Krantz

38 The parkour maestro David Belle invented it: now he’s taking it to the next level

08

50 Trail of the Jaguar

A journey through the Mexican jungle to kayak incredible waterfalls

58 Soccer’s next goals

Technique and tactics are changing, how will this affect the game?

76 out of the darkness

When you decide to climb your way out of one of the deepest caves in the world, there’s no place to go but up

66 Who rules Xterra?

Most World Cup theme songs are terrible. Can Jennifer Lopez break the curse of global disharmony?

38 87 Train like a pro

Olympic beach volleyballer Julius Brink on the elements of his exercise regime that you can do too the red bulletin

The battle for off-road triathlon supremacy between master, Conrad Stoltz, and student, Dan Hugo

Lo expectations

Leap of faith

David Belle started parkour. Now, in a new movie about the sport, he wants the world to follow in his footsteps

76 Rock in a hard place

The first-ever climb of the world’s second-largest underground cave

Action 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 94 96 98

get the gear Mountain bike wishlist training Get fit for the beach party Clubbing, Shanghai style my city A musician’s Montevideo Music Nas and his favourite sounds Watches Which is NASA’s choice? sunglasses Pick of the new crop gaming Street Fighter is back save the Date Unmissable events magic moment Plane insane

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Contributors who’s on board this issue

The Red Bulletin South Africa, ISSN 2079-4282

The Red Bulletin is published by Red Bull Media House GmbH General Manager Wolfgang Winter Publisher Franz Renkin Editors-in-Chief Alexander Macheck, Robert Sperl Editor-at-Large Boro Petric Editor, South Africa Angus Powers

Editor Paul Wilson Creative Director Erik Turek

klaus fengler

raphael honigstein The Munich-born, London-based football writer and author is best known for his Bundesliga columns and podcast appearances for The Guardian and for reporting on Premier League matches for Süddeutsche Zeitung. In a press versus Chelsea coaching staff fivea-side game in 2007, Honigstein bore down on Jose Mourinho, who was playing in goal. Sadly, he was caught in two minds and the eventual shot more closely resembled a backpass. Read his future of football story on page 58.

“I was impressed by the gigantic scale of the place,” says the German photographer, of the 160m-deep deep Majlis al Jinn cave in Oman. Fengler was with extreme climbers Stefan Glowacz and Chris Sharma during their expedition into the second-largest cave chamber in the world. His pictures, often of snow or rock, or both, and the intrepid explorers thereof, have appeared in the likes of Alpinist and Men’s Health.

We’ve got him on page 76.

“Parkour isn’t a sport, it’s the school of life,” freerunning pioneer David Belle told our writer, who was well and truly schooled during two days of full-scale, intense parkour lessons in Belle’s hometown of Lisses, France. “I learned how to jump without fear across gaps 6m wide and from roofs 8m high,” says Lisetz, a frequent contributor to The Red Bulletin. He survived (there were no claims for ice packs and bruise lotion on his expenses form) to write a fine story on Belle’s crew, on page 38.

06

Photo Director Fritz Schuster Production Editor Marion Wildmann Managing Editor Daniel Kudernatsch Chief Sub-Editor Nancy James Deputy Chief Sub-Editor Joe Curran Assistant Editors Ulrich Corazza, Werner Jessner, Ruth Morgan, Florian Obkircher, Arek Pia˛tek, Andreas Rottenschlager Contributing Editor Stefan Wagner Bullevard Georg Eckelsberger, Raffael Fritz, Sophie Haslinger, Marianne Minar, Holger Potye, Martina Powell, Mara Simperler, Clemens Stachel, Manon Steiner, Lukas Wagner Design Martina de Carvalho-Hutter, Silvia Druml, Kevin Goll, Carita Najewitz, Esther Straganz Photo Editors Susie Forman (Creative Photo Director), Rudi Übelhör (Deputy Photo Director), Marion Batty, Eva Kerschbaum Repro Managers Clemens Ragotzky (manager), Karsten Lehmann, Josef Mühlbacher Head of Production Michael Bergmeister Production Wolfgang Stecher (manager), Walter O Sádaba, Matthias Zimmermann (app) Advertising Enquiries Andrew Gillett, +27 (0) 83 412 8008, andrew.gillett@za.redbull.com

Printed by CTP Printers, Duminy Street, Parow-East, Cape Town 8000.

Peter Clausen alex lisetz

Art Directors Kasimir Reimann, Miles English

The managing director of German production company and creative agency Peter Clausen Film has overseen over 4,000 projects, the latest of which is a stunning CG film explaining the new rules of F1, starring Infiniti Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo. The Australian driver turned out to be a dab hand in front of the green screen. Our selection of exclusive images from the film, which also compares 2013 and 2014 cars, starts on page 24.

“ I learned how to jump without fear from roofs 8m high” Alex Lisetz

Finance Siegmar Hofstetter, Simone Mihalits Marketing & Country Management Stefan Ebner (manager), Elisabeth Salcher, Lukas Scharmbacher, Sara Varming Distribution Klaus Pleninger, Peter Schiffer subscription price: 228 ZAR, 12 issues, www.getredbulletin.com, subs@za.redbull.com Marketing Design Julia Schweikhardt, Peter Knethl Advertising Placement Sabrina Schneider O∞ce Management Kristina Krizmanic

The Red Bulletin is published in Austria, Brazil, France, Germany, Ireland, Kuwait, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa, Switzerland, UK and USA Website www.redbulletin.com Head Office Red Bull Media House GmbH, Oberst-Lepperdinger-Strasse 11-15, A-5071 Wals bei Salzburg, FN 297115i, Landesgericht Salzburg, ATU63611700 South Africa Office Black River Park North, 2 Fir Street, Observatory, 7925 8005 +27 (0) 21 486 8000 Austria Office Heinrich-Collin-Strasse 1, A-1140 Vienna. +43 (1) 90221 28800 Write to us: letters@redbulletin.com

the red bulletin

20

14

It’s coming: 64 matches, 12 cities, Brazil, June 12-July 13

football special

RD L u i s SU a R E Z

The Phantom of Rio The best forward in the world will be the most feared man this summer

08

Ryan Inzana

The shock from 1950 still reverberates in Brazil. Uru­guay won the World Cup that year, in Rio de Janeiro, beating the hosts in the final at the Maracana Stadium in front of 200,000 weeping fans. Brazil burnt their old white jerseys after the game and didn’t play another match for two years. That wound may heal with a win for the team now in yellow and blue, in this year’s final – at the Maracana. But Uruguay are in excellent form, ranked in the top 10, with an attacking force led by the man who is probably the world’s most dangerous striker right now, Luis Suarez. On the back of his fantastic season for Liverpool in the Premier League, leading his country to victory in a final against Brazil would reduce the Maracana, and an entire nation, to tears once more.

the red bulletin

W C RE W IN D

LAST TIME OUT Quick refresher on what happened in South Africa four years ago

f i n a L This (above) was basically Holland’s tactic against Spain. The Spaniards’ response was to score the winner after 116 minutes and win 1-0.

s e m i - f i n a l Spain’s Carles Puyol said “Pick that one out” after heading home to beat Joachim Low’s Germany 1-0 in Durban 17 minutes from time.

ole, J-lo

getty images(6), imago(3), picturedesk.com, imago

The beautiful game has one less-than-beautiful tradition: official World Cup songs. This year’s is a trend-bucker. The catchy We Are One (Ole Ola),

by Pitbull, Claudia Leitte and Jennifer Lopez, is sure to get into your head this summer.

Put your flags up in the sky

Show the world we are one

(put ’em in the sky)

(one, love, life)

And wave them side to side

Ole ole ole ola

(side to side)

Ole ole ole ola

Show the world where you’re from

Ole ole ole ola

(show ’em where you’re from)

Ole ole ole ola

1934

The nearly men History tells us you can excel individually at a World Cup, but all for nothing

Guillermo StAbile Eight goals for Argentina, lost the final.

1930 the red bulletin

matthias sindelar Austria’s finest could only lead his team to the semis.

q u a r t e r - f i n a l A man wearing an ill-fitting suit passed himself off as the Argentina manager and presided over a 4-0 defeat to Germany.

1950

leOnidas Top scorer with seven; Brazil lost in the semi-final.

1938

ademir Eight goals, but not in the final, where Brazil lost 2-1.

1958

sAndor Kocsis Scored 11; Hungary lost in the final.

1954

Just Fontaine Best-ever topscorer with 13. France came third.

Josef Masopust Oldest living final netter, 83.

Czechs lost 3-1.

1962 09

A European team has never won the World Cup in South America. But Brazil have never won it in Brazil.

Pelé himself thinks his home country will win the World Cup. That’s the same Pelé who thinks the German team are better.

SEVEN REASONS BRAZIL WILL WIN And seven reasons why they won’t.

Everything points to a home win, but look at it another way, everything points against it, too

1966 10

gerd muller Came up short in a thrilling semi-final.

1 9 78

Johan Cruyff Total football wasn’t enough for the Dutch.

1 9 74

rob rensenbrink Hit the post as Holland miss out again.

Brazil-born Diego Costa has scored more goals in 2014 than Ronaldo did when he was at his best. He chose to represent Spain this year.

Julio Cesar is Brazil’s No 1 goalie. Right now his club side is Toronto FC in Canada, which is about the 666th best team in the world.

Neymar scores at least one goal in every other match he plays for Brazil. Which means Neymar is off target one match in two.

1 9 70

Eusébio Nine goals were not enough to win it for Portugal.

In 2013, Brazil won the Confederations Cup. No winner of that tournament has gone on to win the World Cup the following year.

Lionel Messi has never scored a goal in Brazil. Yet he scored three the last time he played against Brazil.

1986

ALain Giresse Part of all-star France side at a loss in semis.

1982

Zico Best Brazilian of his time missed a pen in quarters.

1994

Claudio Caniggia The Argentina star shone until a final defeat.

1990

roberto baggio Skied a pen so that Italy lost the final.

Ronaldo Brazil took a risk on his fitness in the final – and lost.

1998 the red bulletin

picturedesk.com, GETTY IMAGES(7), imago(2)

home (dis)advantage

F o o t b a l l e r q u i z

S U B S B E N C H

Thinking Man’s Game

GAME OFF, SWITCH ON

Think you know your tatts as well as your stats? Solve these star player puzzles if you can…

A. Wayne Rooney B. Cristiano Ronaldo C. Hulk 2. Who devised football’s most awful yet ingenious haircut: a walrus ’tache, so his son could more easily identify him on TV? A. Ronaldo B. Roberto Carlos C. Rivaldo

3. Which non-smoking Frenchman owns a shisha bar in the Channel port of Boulogne-sur-Mer?

5. Which shy dressingroom dancer isn’t currently romantically linked to a singer?

A. Karim Benzema B. Franck Ribery C. Mathieu Valbuena

A. Mesut Ozil B. Gerard Pique C. Neymar

4. Which notorious hard tackler had this sign tattooed on his calf to warn players from other teams?

6. Which fashion victim wears diamond earrings, though only off pitch due to regulations?

A. Daniele de Rossi B. Sergio Busquets C. Pepe

Where to turn when there’s no footy on t he t w ee t spot

OPTA SPORTS twitter.com/OptaJoe will give you statistics till the cows come home.

A. Alessandro Diamanti B. Joshua Brillante C. Mario Balotelli

r e a d t he b o o k

2

6 4

ANSWERS: 1 B, 2 A, 3 B, 4 A, 5 C, 6 C

1. Which footballer owned a Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano (yes, the one pictured below) for about a year before he totalled it?

THE NUMBERS GAME: WHY EVERYTHING YOU KNOW ABOUT FOOTBALL IS WRONG Football works in ways beyond our comprehension.

Comprehend them thanks to this splendid unstuffy analysis.

L i s t en t o t he a p p

Who is it?

Body parts and a trip to the body shop

CORBIS, GETTY IMAGES(5), PICTUREDESK.COM DIETMAR KAINRATH

1 2 0 02

oliver kahn German keeper made only boob in the final.

talkSPORT During June and July, the radio station will be a prime source of news, interviews and live broadcasts.

2 0 10

Zinedine zidane Ifs and butts meant France came second.

Diego Forlan Five goals took Uruguay only to the semis.

“Which team do you support?

Bull-garia?”

w a t ch t he f i l m

SHAOLIN SOCCER The most underrated football film ever made.

It deserves a replay.

2006 the red bulletin

11

Wat c h i n g o n T V l i k e u s

the away team Some of the world’s best players represent countries that didn’t qualify for Brazil.

This XI could give all the teams a game 10

5 9

1 3 2 6 4

11 6

7

C 8

1

2

3

sa mi r H a nda n ov i c

A l eksandar Ko l arov

Dani el Agger

Position: Goalkeeper National team: Slovenia Club: Inter Milan Current value: €24m

Position: Right-back National team: Serbia Club: Manchester City Current value: €12m

Position: Centre-back National team: Denmark Club: Liverpool Current value: €14m

4

5

6

7

8

9

b r a n i s l av iva novi C

davi d a l aba

nemanja mati C

Aaron Ramse y

Mare k HamSIk

Gare t h Bale

Position: Centre-back National team: Serbia Club: Chelsea Current value: €16m

Position: Left-back National team: Austria Club: Bayern Munich Current value: €32m

Position: Midfielder National team: Serbia Club: Chelsea Current value: €25m

Position: Midfielder National team: Wales Club: Arsenal Current value: €20m

Position: Midfielder National team: Slovakia Club: Napoli Current value: €40m

Position: Forward National team: Wales Club: Real Madrid Current value: €80m

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the red bulletin

imago, getty images(11)

10

o f f i c i a l G a d g e t r y

Don’t cry, Zlatan!

The Swede has been to two finals: these greats never made it at all

spray it, ref!

When association football began in 1863, refs relied only on whistle and flags. In the century-and-a-half since, various inventions have made their lives a little bit easier

Headsets

Bert Trautmann Alfredo di Stefano Never played for West Real Madrid star who Germany, and missed missed two finals for out on the 1954 win, Argentina (didn’t enter in 1950 or 1954) and two because manager Sepp for Spain (1958, didn’t Herberger wouldn’t pick foreign-based players. qualify; 1962, injured).

Since 2006, the referee on the pitch and the fourth official on the sidelines have been able to discuss refereeing decisions.

Or make jokes about the players.

DISPLAY BOARD

Eric Cantona Playing in the French second division in 1986, France didn’t qualify in 1990 and 1994 and he’d retired by the time they won on home soil in 1998.

Looks like a 1980s iPad but is actually a digital soother: there has been less friction since it was first deployed, at the 1998 World Cup, to show how much stoppage time is to be played.

George Weah Never made it, despite 20 years in and out of the Liberia national team. They had to pull out of 1994 qualifying due to UN sanctions.

LINE MARKER SPRAY PAINT

“ O ne thing i s for sure , a World C up without m e i s nothing t o watch”

imago(2), Getty images, corbis

tom mackinger

10

Zl ata n I b r a hi mov i C Position: Striker National team: Sweden Club: Paris Saint Germain Current value: €15m

After it was tested to mark free kicks at last year’s Confederations Cup, the mousse will be used on the pitch in Brazil. Or is it just a free advertising ruse by Gillette?

Z I brahimovic

DIVE DETECTORS 11

C

R o b ert L e wa n d ows k i

MORTEN OLS EN

Position: Striker National team: Poland Club: Borussia Dortmund Current value: €42m

Position: In charge of Denmark since July 2000, he is the longest-serving international coach

the red bulletin

And here’s our suggestion. Sensors in footballers’ socks and boots determine whether a player is fouled or faking it. For a real infringement, the ref gets an ‘Ow!’ signal in his ear.

“We don’ t need s atellites , G PS and a chip in the ball” Michel Pl atini , UEFA president

13

D E C I S I O N M A K I N G O N T H E S P O T

TAKING THE PERFECT PENALTY Seven minutes into the 2006 World Cup final. Zinedine Zidane chips a penalty just right of centre.

The ball hits the underside of the crossbar. Italy’s keeper Gianluigi Buffon, having dived away to his right, looks on helplessly as the ball bounces behind the goal-line and it’s 1-0 to France

The spin made Zidane’s ball bounce back up onto the bar and out of the goal.

Never see that happen again.

Aiming a penalty kick into the top corner is a certain goal. But it takes nerves of steel to go for it.

14

1 Only one in 15 World Cup goals has come via a penalty. To date, there have been 150 World Cup penalties in regular time.

2 The first shoot-out in a World Cup was in the 1982 semi-final between West Germany and France. The former won, obviously.

3 In 2013-14, about 83

per cent of pens were scored in the Premier League; 70 per cent of spot kicks are scored in World Cup shoot-outs.

? Why doesn’t the

goalie just stay in the middle when facing a penalty? Because only one in 12 penalties is aimed there.

the red bulletin

getty images(2)

pena l ties 3 f acts : 1 q u estion

I N AW E O F T H E S C O R E

Goooaaal!

The one that started it, the one to end them all and the purest: three goals that have rightly gone down in history I LL U S T R A T I O N : M a r t i n U d o v i c i c

T H E F I R S T G O A L

Montevideo, Uruguay, 1930 There were barely 500 fans present when French insideright Lucien Laurent scored the first goal in the first World Cup, volleying in a cross from the edge of the penalty area against Mexico. An historic goal, of which there are no photographs or film footage, though newspaper reports said it was a gem of a strike.

France went on to win 4-1.

16

T H E G R E AT E S T T E A M G O A L

Mexico City, Mexico , 1970 Scored after a string of nine passes four minutes from time. It builds from defence, then Clodoaldo dances past four players in midfield; Rivelino to Jairzinho, to Pelé, who flicks a final pass into the path of Carlos Alberto.

The full-back races to smash it first time into the far corner, to make it 4-1 and seal Brazil’s third World Cup final victory.

T H E G R E AT E S T S O L O G O A L

Mexico City, Mexico, 1986 Diego Maradona had barely featured in the first half of Argentina’s quarter-final clash with England. After 51 minutes, he scored the ‘Hand of God’ goal that put Argentina 1-0 ahead. Four minutes later, he dribbled past five defenders and went around goalie Peter Shilton for one of football’s greatest scores. Argentina went on to win the match 2-1 and the tournament.

f o o t b a l l b y t h e n u m b e r s

Nil is better than one And why you should always celebrate a goal with both arms in the air Source: The Numbers Game, Chris Anderson and David Sally, Penguin Books

10 Games you’d have to watch to see one goal in the Premier League scored straight off a long corner kick. It’s no better at World Cups, so take a short corner.

44

Percentage of lucky goals, found in a study of 2,500 pro goals, where ‘lucky’ is defined as something happening that the goal-scorer hadn’t intended.

31

Australia beat American Samoa 31-0 in 2001, the biggest-ever win in World Cup qualifying.

5

The best comeback ever.

In their 1954 World Cup quarter-final match against Switzerland, Austria went from 3-0 down after 25 minutes to 5-3 up after 34 minutes, and they won 7-5.

60 Average minutes of play in a football match. Play is interrupted, or the ball is out of play for half an hour. So how come there’s only ever about five minutes’ stoppage time?

28

Years of World Cup football before there was a 0-0. Brazil and England eked out the ‘groundbreaking’ bore draw on June 11, 1958.

0

From 2001-02 to 2010-11, a clean sheet earned more points than scoring a goal in the Premier League.

2

If a player celebrates after scoring in a penalty shootout by raising both arms in the air, he unsettles the other team’s penalty-takers demonstrably more than if he just pumps a fist.

getty images(2)

FOOTBALLERS IN KOMA*

* KOMA: Kainrath’s Œuvres of modern art

18

the red bulletin

RED BLOODED PERFORMANCE INFINITI Q50 EAU ROUGE CONCEPT www.infiniti.co.za

INSPIRED PERFORMANCE

Model displayed: Infiniti Q50 Eau Rouge Concept. This is a concept car and is not available for purchase.

Concept cars are automotive studies and may look different when released. For more information on this and the Infiniti Q50, visit www.infiniti.co.za

f o o t b a l l t r u t h s

just the facts World Cup-winning teams are scoring fewer goals on the road to victory. But more and more people get to see them. Plus: where will the rain affect your team this summer?

Goals by Winning teams

continental divide

game of extremes

5 4

Brasilia 8mm 1,200m

ITA

4.17 3.75

bra

av e r a g e g o a l s p e r g a m e

3.17 3

2.57

19

Ger 2

10

1.14

europe

1

URU GER Bra BRA SPA 1930 1954 1970 2002 2010 15 goals 25 goals 19 goals 18 goals 8 goals 4 games 6 games 6 games 7 games 7 games

9

s. America

spa

Cuiaba

Porto Alegre 19°C

arg fra

Recife

manaus 31°C

eng

0

Manaus

Recife 390mm 10m

São Paulo r a infa l l in june

cuiabA 570,000

uru

Brasilia

Porto Alegre

e l e va t i 0 n

m a x i m u m d a i ly t e m p e r a t u r e i n JUNE

SÃo Paulo 11,000,000

popu l at ion

Ronaldo’s record “When you swap shirts after the match , you expect it to smell bad because of the sweat, but Beckham’s smelled really nice” rona l d o, 2002

15 goals 11 with his right foot, three with his left, one header. He is the all-time world cup top scorer

wc 1998

wc 2002

wc 2006

how we’ve followed the matches

from 1954

from 1930 Live radio commentary (Europe)

Newspaper reports and pics

LIVE

LIVE from 1966

Live black-andwhite broadcasts in some countries

Worldwide broadcasts of live games

from 1994 from 2010 Online match reports

from 1970

from 1934

LIVE TV reports – up to a week after the match

Matches broadcast live in full – and in colour from 1978

13.07.2014 Action replays and slow motion introduced

About 900m people predicted to watch final on TV and online Corbis

Cinema newsreels

Live games in both 3D and HD

20

the red bulletin

JHB 45967 As seen on DStv/SuperSport

2014 FIFA WORLD CUP BRAZILTM ON SUPERSPORT LIVE STREAMING ON supersport.com

Get front row seats to all the action on the go with DStv mobile Walka 7 or live streaming on the SuperSport app. Watch all the highlights on Catch Up using your DStv Explora.

supersport.com

OFFICIAL BROADCASTER

S u r p r i s e pa c k a g e s

‘We will take you down’ No World Cup has ever had as many dark horses as this year’s: five unfancied football nations could do great things in Brazil

The dark horses What have they got going for them?

Nickname by fans: Football insiders say:

B E LG IU M

USA

C O LO M B IA

B O S N IA

They’re young, hungry

Close-tohome advantage.

They’re better than Croatia,

talented.

U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!

The Red Devils

The Yanks

“In the last couple of years, clubs have spent

“Head coach Klinsmann is

and scariy

€250 million on Belgian internationals.”

Possible best player ?

Trump card?

Achilles heel?

Eden Hazard: outmaradonas Maradona

Goalkeeper

Thibaut Courtois is probably the best man between the sticks in the world right now.

Increasing pressure to succeed.

a great motivator, but not much of a tactician.”

Jozy Altidore: a poacher like

Gary Lineker Big tournament experience Five first XI regulars have more than 80 caps each.

Too many easy games in qualifying give a false sense of ability.

Colombian fans have never had to travel so near to attend the finals.

but about as unknown as Iran.

Los Cafeteros

The Dragons

“Have you seen my original 1994

“Technically the players are

(the coffee growers)

E N G LA N D

It’s the first time since 1966 that no one’s expected anything of them. Perfect opportunity to play without any pressure, at long last.

The Three Lions “If more

Carlos Valderrama Panini sticker?”

Jackson Martínez: the thin Ronaldo

The defence

on a par with the Brazilians.”

Miralem Pjani´c:

the new Zidane

The attack

English players played abroad,

the national team would be better.”

Steven Gerrard: the inspirational captain’s got it all

Youth

No other South American backline let in so few goals during World Cup qualifying.

Edin Dzeko and Vedad Ibisevic scored 18 goals between them in 10 qualifying games.

Ross Barkley, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Raheem Sterling bring fresh ideas.

Radamel Falcao’s left knee.

Ibrahimovic! The best footballer eligible to play for Bosnia plays for Sweden.

Only won one of seven penalty shoot-outs in international tournaments.

TRINIDAD & TOBAGO Smallest nation to reach the World Cup. In 2006, T&T earned a 0-0 draw against Sweden, but lost 2-0 to Paraguay and England.

22

WALES Surprise package in 1958, only going out to eventual winners Brazil in the quarterfinals by a score of 1-0.

Beat that, Gareth Bale.

HAITI In 1974, the Caribbean side led 1-0 against Italy, but lost 3-1, then lost 7-0 to Poland and 4-1 to Argentina. Third worst finals record. the red bulletin

getty images(3)

One-hit wonders: THEY MADE IT TO FINALS BUT HAVE YET TO GO BACK

k i n g s o f f o o t b a l l

who’s the greatest Brazil, with a rating of 2,113 points, and Spain, with 2,086, are the two best teams in the world According to Elo Ratings (as of April 1), which, unlike other ranking systems, calculates a team’s strengths with the precision of a chess computer. Backdated scores have been calculated for all countries, and only Hungary have managed greater: Ferenc Puskas’s magical Magyars notched 2,166 points, after beating Uruguay in the semis of the 1954 World Cup. David Ruiz and Iker Casillas can be glad not to be facing them. eloratings.net

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No one takes you closer to the 2014 FIFA World Cup™ than SuperSport. Watch all 64 matches live on two dedicated 24-hour high-definition channels.

the red bulletin

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Still trying to get your head around the new rules of F1?

Our insider access to the Infiniti Red Bull Racing garage means you can know everything about the 2014 cars and what they can do photography: Peter Clausen Film

NEWPOWER 24

GENERAT

ION

Making F1 transparent: the inner workings of the RB10 raced in 2014

by Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo

1

Aerodynamics Some people turn their noses up at the new noses on the 2014 cars, but 2013’s stepped noses didn’t look that good either. Engineers moan that wings can’t now generate as much downforce and the car’s aerodynamics have been reined in too far. But that’s good, because it means driving the cars as if they’re on rails is over. Sliding is back.

RB10

RB9

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driving Position The new aerodynamic regulations with the flatter nose also have an effect on the driver’s position. As Infiniti Red Bull Racing driver Daniel Ricciardo explains: “My feet are positioned in a lot further in the RB10 than in previous F1 cars.” There’s also a minimum weight requirement of 690kg, but that’s car plus driver, so lightweights have a slight advantage.

3

Turbo engine Instead of 2.4-litre V8 engines that screeched around grand prix circuits from 2006-13, we now have 1.6-litre V6s with a maximum 15,000rpm. A turbocharger uses the exhaust flow to blow fresh air into the engine, hence the whistling noises. Why smaller engines? To challenge teams to be more efficient with less engine capacity.

4

controls Every driver input ‘interferes’ with the perfect output of an engine. It’s a team’s job to minimise that interference, and the new regulations haven’t made this any more difficult.

Thanks to the increase in torque, which comes from the turbo and the ERS system (see point 6), one driver’s weapon has become more deadly: his foot on the accelerator.

efficiency An F1 car now has eight gears (plus reverse), rather than seven, but instead of being able to change gear ratios to suit each track, ratios are selected at the start of the season and can be changed only once. Only 100kg of fuel is now available per race and the rate of flow is limited to 100kg an hour. This is another test of the teams’ ability to do more with less.

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5

ers Replacing KERS, the Energy Recovery System is in two parts: MGU-K, which captures kinetic energy generated during braking (essentially what KERS was), and MGU-H, which collects the engine’s heat energy.

Both systems charge batteries. This boosts power by 163bhp for a maximum of 33 seconds per lap.

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exhaust The days when you could use exhaust fumes to seal a diffuser on the vehicle floor, and thus increase downforce, are over. Whatever flows from the exhaust now has to end up in a central pipe above the engine cover. The extra spoiler above the exhaust, known as a monkey seat, helps with downforce, but not like a diffuser would.

tyres Since the engines now have more torque, meaning the tyres can wear more easily, Pirelli has come up with stiffer, harder, more complex structures that ought to be at least as durable as their predecessors were. They also have a greater contact surface and work in a broader range of temperatures.

There are six types of tyre, four dry and two wet.

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reliability A driver has five power units per season. Each has six elements: engine, MGU-K, MGU-H, energy store, control electronics and turbo. If an extra element is needed, a driver will incur a 10-place grid penalty at his next race. If the entire power unit needs replacing, he’ll start from the pit lane. The gearbox has to last for six consecutive events, otherwise there’s a five-place penalty.

the red bulletin

RB10

10

lap times The aerodynamics are worse and the cars are heavier, but they are more powerful, which in practice means that they are slower through the corners, but quicker in a straight line. The 2014 cars will soon be doing lap times as quick as their predecessors.

RB9

the red bulletin

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somizi mhlongo

The judge

Somizi Mhlongo is one of four judges dance crews will have to impress to walk away with top honours at Red Bull Beat Battle

Born in Soweto into a showbiz family (his parents are actors Mary Twala and the late Ndaba Mhlongo), Somizi Mhlongo didn’t have it as easy in the entertainment industry as some might think. “I took dance seriously at a time when it wasn’t taken seriously,” he says. “But I didn’t know I could dance until I auditioned for the musical Sarafina in 1992. I went to the auditions as an actor, but it’s there where I discovered my dance talent.”

Choreography followed, and Mhlongo’s career took off. He now owns Buyani Dance Company and is able to “pick and choose” what he choreographs. But away from the commercial gigs and the scandals (his reality TV show was cancelled by Vuzu in February), the qualities that originally marked Mhlongo out from the rest haven’t changed, and they’re exactly what he’ll be looking for in this year’s champion Red Bull Beat Battle crew. the red bulletin: Take us back to the start of your dance career… somizi mhlongo: I’ve been in show business for 30 years. I started out as an actor, then went into musical theatre where I danced, acted and sang. My first choreography work was at age 15 as assistant choreographer for Sarafina.

What are some of your career highlights?

My big break came from choreographing Miss South Africa in 1998, and then I went on to do Miss World in 2001.

After that I worked on the launch of MTV Base in South Africa, where I choreographed Will Smith’s live act in 2005. I also did the 2010 World Cup opening and closing [dance routines], and worked on [singers] Brandy and Kerri Hilson’s shows in South Africa.

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What would you say is your most important contribution to the local dance industry?

I think I took dance to a level where it is now taken seriously. I also broke barriers by becoming the first black dancer to do a whole lot of things, which in turn gave young black dancers the confidence to feel that they could also make it locally and internationally.

Where does your inspiration to dance and choreograph come from?

Everywhere! I club a lot, I go to parties and chesa nyamas in the township where I see people dancing. I’m always in ‘kasi, so I’m in touch with what’s in and what’s not.

“I think I took dance to a level where it is now being taken seriously, and I broke barriers” How would you define South Africa’s dance style?

You can’t pinpoint one dance style and brand it “South African”, because South Africa is multicultural. There are elements that could be taken from traditional, sbhujwa and even South African hip-hop dance styles. We are a fruit salad of people and so is our dance style.

How have you seen the local dance industry evolve?

Before, dance was regarded as a hobby, but today it’s taken seriously. Nowadays, you can earn a living from dancing. I employ about 20 dancers full-time. We rehearse between 15 to 20 days a month.

How can young people become dancers?

Take it seriously: go for classes and go for training, because the competition is stiff out there.

As a gay black man, did you encounter much resistance in the dance industry?

Gay, dance, same thing! While growing up, people always associated men dancing with being gay, so I’ve never had any issues.

And if you were a straight male dancer?

Yep, there you might find challenges. It also depends on the style you dance. For instance, if you dance sbhujwa, pantsula and hip-hop, then it’s OK because those are seen as ‘manly’ dances, but when you dance contemporary, ballet and jazz, some people start questioning your sexuality.

Why was your reality TV show, Raising The Bar, cancelled earlier this year?

While on set in public, I bumped into someone who was spreading rumours about me. And while the cameras were rolling, I confronted that person and it turned violent. I was disappointed in the station for cancelling it, because what part of that incident was not my reality?

You’ve been a Red Bull Beat Battle judge since the competition started in 2011. What do you look for in a champion crew?

Originality, creativity and showmanship.

Dancers should also stand out and be allrounders: versatility is key. As a dancer, you won’t survive dancing one style. For example, the group that won last year [IDA, a sbhujwa crew from Thembisa] were versatile and entertaining. I’m looking for dancers who you could take anywhere in the world and have people say, ‘Wow, where are they from?’ Beat Battle doesn’t want to give the world exactly what it already has. redbullbeatbattle.co.za the red bulletin

chris saunders

Words: Stefanie Jason

Somizi Mhlongo will be on the judging panel at the final of Red Bull Beat Battle in Joburg on May 31

D av i d B e l l e a n d h i s friends invented pa r ko u r . N ow, sta r r i n g in the sport’s highest profile movie and more pas s i o n at e t h a n e v e r about his incredible invention, he wants the world to live a n d p l ay by h i s r u l e s

make the

l teo tah e pn e x t level w o r d s : a l e x l i s e t z  p h o t o g r pa h y: j i m k r a n t z

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Parkour is a sport and, to its practitioners, a way of confronting fears and conquering obstacles in all aspects of life

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“ my fea r t el ls me ex act ly

how far I ca n go ”

FIR ST RUL E OF PAR KOUR :

FIN D yo ur B A L A N C E

The basic training for every move is achieving stability, physically and mentally

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the red bulletin

W David Belle (front) invented parkour as a teenager. Now he wants to share his experiences with youngsters all over the world

the red bulletin

hen David Belle is invited to a barbecue on a roof terrace, a switch will flip in his head.

He will divert his attention away from the smell of steaks, the other guests’ small talk, the admiring glances at his physique. Instead, his brain will be scanning the support column leading to the scaffolding leading to the lorryloading bay leading to the pavement.

As the host offers ketchup, he’s working out the way to get everyone to safety should the barbecue burst into flames.

If a three-year-old clambers onto the fire escape on the sixth storey of the building opposite, he will take a matter of seconds to stop the kid falling. He thinks the way that he thinks because he invented parkour.

It’s thanks to Belle that, in cities around the world, you see people in trainers and tracksuits practising for hours at a time trying to perfect a jump over a handrail or working out how to get over a wall. Parkour is the art of efficient motion in urban space. The aim is to find the fastest, most efficient and most elegant way from A to B on foot, without means of transport.

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“Parkour isn’t dangerous,” says David Belle, “because the people who do it for real know exactly what their bodies are capable of and what they’re not”

DANGEROUS? ONLY IF YOU DON’ T KNOW WHAT YOU’RE DOING David Belle (left) sees himself as a guardian of his sport’s pure teachings. “Not everything that looks like parkour,” he says, “actually is parkour”

“ e v e r y t h in g pa rkour”

THA T I AM TOD AY, I AM BEC AUS E OF

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fear yo ur fr ien d

to wa rn use you of dan ger and it bec om es Difficult jumps require mental preparation: a visualisation of every stage of the move in the finest detail. Only then can they be pulled off successfully

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the red bulletin

But for many of those who do it, parkour is more than that. Getting over obstacles, mastering challenges and taming fears makes parkour a school of life which to the rest of us looks like a really cool thing to do. “Everything that I am today,” says Belle, “I am because of parkour.”

SPREADING IN LEAPS AND BOUNDS The capital of the parkour world is Lisses, a small town with a population of 7,000 situated 30km south of Paris.

This is where 41-year-old Belle lives and where, 17 years ago, he and his Yamakasi Crew, which took its name from a word meaning ‘strong men’ in the Congolese language of Lingala, began with a couple of acrobatic moves that grew into a globally recognised subculture. A good portion of that fame comes from the movies.

In 2001, seven of the crew’s nine founding members starred in the action film Yamakasi: Les Samourais Des Temps Modernes. The two Yamakasi missing from the cast list had already left the group to pursue their own careers in cinema. Sébastien Foucan developed the acrobatic art of freerunning – a parkour variant that promotes flair and worries less about the rule concerning most efficient movement – which he showcased in an incredible chase sequence for the 2006 James Bond film Casino Royale.

Belle, too, had a solo career, which began in earnest in 2004 with the action drama District 13, written by Luc Besson and directed by Pierre Morel (Taken). He was also getting work as a stuntman in films, such as Crimson Rivers 2: Angels Of The Apocalypse and Transporter 2, and refining the parameters of parkour.

Being able to move efficiently was not an end in itself, he began telling an everincreasing number of fans and students.

Parkour is about être fort pour être utile, being strong to be useful, being ready for when others might need help.

For young, potential traceurs, as the practitioners of parkour are known, Belle became an idol. Millions would click on his YouTube videos and watch in awe as he jumped with ease from one block of flats onto another, a distance of 6-7m with a drop of 40m below.

But Belle, 41, with the musculature of a boxer and the sleek grace of a panther, doesn’t care much for personal fame and recognition. His burning desire is to have the whole world go mad for parkour. “Parkour’s potential has barely been tapped,” he says, “because anyone, anywhere, can learn it and they don’t need any equipment.” the red bulletin

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Traceurs from around the world meet to train together at this housing estate in Lisses, near Paris.

The ‘Private Property’ sign serves a mostly decorative purpose

A R T I S T S O F S U R V I VA L This year could be the most important year in the history of parkour since 1997, when the Yamakasi Crew formed. Belle wants to start a foundation to make the parkour scene more interconnected and promote up-and-coming talent. He hopes to publish a book on the history of parkour with Yamakasi member Charles Perrière. And he wants to help parkour break out from its Western roots.

First stop will be China, where he aims to spend the next few months building parkour training areas and holding workshops for up-and-coming traceurs with the help of local promoters.

“Parkour’s future is in China and Russia,” says Belle. “People there are growing up in a society that demands a lot of discipline and hard work of them, but they still yearn for some freedom and self-fulfilment. With parkour they can combine the two.”

Belle knows what he’s talking about here. He is the son of a soldier who served with the French army in Vietnam, and his own childhood was one where self-development and discipline were equally important educational goals. He is still inspired by his father, Raymond, who died in 1999. “‘You can do anything you want,’ he told me, ‘as long as you do it with complete commitment.’”

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The younger Belle knew exactly what it was that he wanted to do. He wanted to pick up on an idea of his father’s and fine-tune it. Raymond turned the Méthode Naturelle – the French army’s standard training practice – into a system of attack and escape for the jungle. Raymond had even come up with a name for his obstacle-course training, which involved negotiating ditches and fallen trees under a hail of bullets: le parcours.

‘ F E A R I S YO U R F R I E N D ’ Belle is now a father figure, both to the guys from the Parkour Origin crew, whom he trains for up to eight hours at a time, and to the hundreds of traceurs from all over the world who descend on Lisses every year to get a glimpse of his tricks and learn from them.

The fact that the neighbours don’t

complain comes down to another parkour core value: respect. Any urban space used for training purposes has to be left as it was found. Traceurs repair any obstacle they damage.

With its open stairwells, railings and low walls, Belle’s housing estate, the Résidence du Mail de l’Ile-de-France, is the perfect place to try out some of the basic moves of parkour. You can practise passements, the vaults over obstacles, as well as your saut de precision, or precision jump, and the tic tac, launching off an obstacle.

“The most important thing to remember is that you build up very gradually,” says Charles Perrière. The 39-year-old heads a parkour school, Culture Parkour, in Paris and he knows how to give his pupils the confidence the red bulletin

there is so m uch potent ial in thi s sport . it ’s now here near been tappe d

Using this technique, Belle has mastered drop jumps from heights up to 8m.

To him, the basics that every parkour beginner has to internalise until they become second nature, and which enable him to do what he does, are nothing unusual and within the grasp of everyone who does or wants to do parkour. “You start training for parkour with balance exercises,” explains Belle. “If you can keep your balance, everything else will come naturally.”

R E L U C TA N T H E R O

they need to succeed. “You have to work with your fear,” he tells them. “If you don’t know yourself well, you’re a slave to your fear. Use fear to warn you of danger and it becomes your friend.”

Perrière is a master of one of parkour’s most spectacular moves, the saut de fond, a drop jump from a great height. First, he visualises every phase of the move in his mind’s eye: “The more experience you have, the more detailed your imagination becomes.” Then he jumps neatly – “you have to jump, not fall” – straightens himself out, keeps his eye on the ground, lands with knees slightly bent and cushions the impact with his whole body.

“If you’ve got room, you can add a roll.

If you jump from a height of anything above about 1m 70cm, you have to.” the red bulletin

Evocative comparisons come thick and fast when Belle talks about parkour.

The mind of a traceur is a knight, he explains, and his body his horse.

A traceur, he says, is like a samurai: calm on the outside but always ready for action on the inside. Or they’re like pianists because their brains make the right decisions without them thinking. Belle is so convincing in conveying parkour’s emboldening and inspirational guiding principles because he is their own most eager follower.

“I was a shy kid. I was wary and solitary,” he says. “And I was impatient, too. If I didn’t get something straight away, I’d forget about it.” Belle reinvented himself thanks to parkour.

He says that every successful move increased his self-confidence. Training with other traceurs on a daily basis did away with his antisocial behaviour.

Repeating the same exercise hundreds

of times over and over again, he says, taught him discipline and patience.

“Hmm, OK,” he says, rethinking, with a smile. “Maybe not so much patience.”

A PA R KO U R B L O C K B U S T E R Last summer, Belle underwent a serious test of self-discipline and his ability to rise to a challenge. He had let his training slide over the previous winter, was 10kg overweight and had been feeling unhappy with his life. Then the phone rang. It was Luc Besson.

“David,” he said, “you still remember that film project we talked about a couple of years ago, don’t you?”

“You mean the Hollywood remake of District 13?”

“Exactly,” said Besson. “We start shooting in two months.”

Brick Mansions, in cinemas worldwide now, has every chance of giving parkour its biggest boost in awareness since Casino Royale. Belle stars as an ex-con who teams up with a cop, played by the late Fast & Furious star Paul Walker, to take down a criminal gang in a dystopian future Detroit housing project.

“I studied English for four hours a day and trained for the stunts with Paul for three hours,” says Belle, who also devised the choreography for the fights and the chases. In the opening scene, he leaps through a closed window and into another one. During another pursuit, he shows off a combined drop jump and gap jump (saut de détente), leaping from a height of almost 5m over a chasm 7m wide.

“My fear,” says Belle, “told me exactly how far I could go.” facebook.com/brickmansionsmovie parkour.com

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the trail jaguar

of the

Big cats, roadblocks, the descendants of the Maya: just three encounters on a journey through Mexican jungle to kayak off incredible waterfalls words: ARMANDO AGUILAR photography: ALFREDO MARTÍNEZ FERNÁNDEZ

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T he road from San Cristobal de las Casas to Ocosingo, in the Mexican state of Chiapas, is blocked by people protesting against public transport reforms. “In Chiapas, if you want to get from one place to another, you really have to want it,” says Rafa Ortiz, certainly Mexico’s number one extreme kayaker and possibly the best in the world.

“It’s part of the adventure that makes this state so wonderful. This might be part of its magic.”

Ortiz and his team are trying to get to Agua Azul, five waterfalls 10-15m high, and one of the great places for extreme kayaking. So they plan a new route, avoiding the roadblock, which will take them from San Cristobal de las Casas, through Montes Azules, and to the town of Tumbala, the closest place to the falls. It’s a long trip, more than 52

10 hours, so they decide to stop in Lacanja, a town in the heart of the Lacandona Jungle with thousands of years of history and home of the hack winik, the ‘real men’. Direct descendants of the Maya, and legendary in Mexico, they see themselves as guardians of the balance between nature and mankind.

People here are used to tourists, which is why, when the truck with the kayaks rumbles in, Mario Chambor, one of the real men, comes closer to greet the visitors with a smile, followed by a group of excited children. “Me and two of my kayaking buddies were wearing almost all of our kit,” says Ortiz, “and we stood out because of all the bright colours.” The kids look at these strange, colourful men with a mix of astonishment and fear, and the

Big Banana Kayaking down the Agua Azul falls is the second challenge in the project Rafa Ortiz calls Red Bull Chasing Waterfalls. In the first, he successfully navigated down the 47m-high Big Banana waterfall in Veracruz.

the red bulletin

“The falls are a monster that watches you and waits to duel with you�

strong urge to touch the visitors to see what they are really made of. “It was very cool,” says Ortiz. “When they finally dared get closer, they wanted to wear our helmets, climb onto the truck to touch the kayaks.

They were very excited, and so were we.”

Ortiz explains the reasons for his trip to Chambor, who immediately proposes a walk around a nearby waterfall, in an area usually kept secret to outsiders.

The next day, Chambor leads the visitors and some locals into an area thick with trees 50m high, ferns and orchids, full of animals and soundtracked by the songs of invisible birds. This place is yet another example of Mexico’s incredible biodiversity. “I always want to get to waterfalls and just throw myself down them in my kayak,” says Ortiz, “but ultimately, the trip to the falls is almost always the coolest part.” He could feel the connection to nature of his hosts. “We walked through the wilderness without analysing what was going on in our surroundings, thinking we were going to post it all on Facebook when we got back to the city, and so on. They are really inside the wilderness, they listen, they smell, they feel.”

t he ‘real men’ see themselves as guardians of the balance between nature and mankind 54

DIFFERENT RUSH Rafa is one of only two men to descend the Palouse falls in Washington, USA. They are 57m high. The highest fall in the Aqua Azul is only about 15m high, but Ortiz experienced a different rush there. “Some trips stand out because of the challenge, but I came back from this one with great energy and a replenished soul.�

“ nothing will ever top this. winning the lottery? that means nothing to me�

“we pulled him out of the river and gave him cpr for four minutes” But, rounding the bend that brings the Agua Azul in sight, the team let out a collective ‘wow’. The waterfalls, whose name means blue water, are a beautiful shade of turquoise.

Beauty here is only skin deep. “Rivers are classified from 1 to 6 in terms of difficulty, where 1 is still water and 6 is death,” says Ortiz. The Agua Azul falls, he explains, are ranked 5 or sometimes 5+, requiring a high level of technical ability and even more courage. “In that moment, right at the mouth of the fall, sometimes I doubt myself a little and I think, ‘Why am I here again?’ But then I grab the oar, and I tell myself that this is a challenge I must conquer.”

life lesson Rafa Ortiz feels that kayaking down waterfalls equips you with the tools to deal with life’s other difficulties. “Your first reaction is: don’t do it!

But you take a risk, everything turns out OK, and the feeling of having overcome a challenge is the most satisfying feeling a human being can experience.”

Suddenly, Chambor stops, and with a single outstretched arm, forbids the others from advancing.

He crouches down, touches the earth, looks ahead and then around, sniffs the air. “A jaguar just passed through here,” he says. There, fresh and obvious to those who know what to look for, are the prints and the traces of a creature whose species is on the verge of extinction. “In moments like these,” Ortiz says, “you realise how little we care for nature. Whereas the natives don’t just get involved now and again: they live it every day, and they suffer much more than we do, because it’s their wilderness that is disappearing.”

The group reaches the falls, and although it’s not the kind Ortiz would kayak over, it’s perfect for having fun in the water with the native children who came along. They paddle, try on helmets and are thoroughly entertained, as is Ortiz. “Everyone wanted to climb onto the kayak at the same time, they were very excited, and they jumped into the water with no fear at all. The children spoke very little Spanish, but to introduce someone to kayaking and share the fun with them, you don’t need a verbal language. Smiles are more than enough.”

Back in Lacanja, the team bid farewell to the real men and get back on the road to the Agua Azul falls. They are worried that recent rising river levels may scupper their plans. “When the water rises too high,” says Ortiz, “it’s turbulent and turns muddy brown, and you can’t paddle in that kind of water.”

F

ear is justified. Last year, Ortiz reached the Agua Azul falls with three other kayakers.

One of the three decided to go down the left part of the river, and steered his kayak confidently to the edge of the falls. The man simply disappeared. The falls swallowed him up and he was underwater for three minutes. Ortiz saw him floating down the river below. “We pulled him out of the water, and right there on the rocks, we gave him CPR for four minutes. We took him to the hospital in Palenque, where they saved his life. The falls are a monster that watches you and waits for a chance to duel with you.”

This is the challenge all extreme kayakers are eager to receive and accept.

Ortiz and people like him live for those few seconds during the fall, before being submerged in the water, to fight against the turbulence that tries to rip away their oars, their kayak, their head from their shoulders. When they overcome the power of the water, and manage to float away, it’s a moment of true glory. “That’s the moment when you turn back, get a look at the monster, and you think, ‘Nothing will ever top this. Winning the lottery? Means nothing to me.” This time, Ortiz wins the duel with the magnificent, turquoise beast and paddles away down the river below with a smile on his face like the children of the real men. rafaortiz.com

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the futu  of football

Cristiano Ronaldo

The Portuguese forward turns 30 next February, and he has every chance of becoming the first outfielder to win 200 national team caps (Iker Casillas, Spanish goalie, might be the first double centurion)

Getty Images

A never-ending tactical battle.

Creating a perfect player. The struggle to make time and space.

Scoring goals. Football is a game of conflicting opinions under one agreement: the game should be beautiful. But what can we expect looking ahead for the world’s favourite sport?

miles donovan

re

words: Raphael Honigstein 59

G Pep Guardiola

The 43-year-old Spaniard was well respected as a player, but is now one of the great managers, winning about 75 per cent of his games in charge of Barcelona and, now, Bayern Munich

ood football is primarily a question of pace. If you run, pass, shoot and think quickly, you will win. The world’s best teams can speed things up in such a way that time itself seems to pass more quickly over the course of 90 minutes. And so football is becoming a time machine, showing us now what the future holds for the game.

In the English Premier League, Liverpool are currently dictating the style of play. Their manager, Brendan Rodgers, has declared speed to be the most important precept of attacking football. The two forwards, Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge, often play with no fixed position in the front third of the pitch; it’s the players’ direction of movement that matters, not where they start from. The envy with which the Reds’ rivals watch their incredibly exciting and successful playing style will, by next season, be replaced by a desire to make a similar impact on the pitch. Small, quick forwards will be in demand on the transfer market whereas last year, traditional centre forwards were highly rated.

the world’s best teams can speed things up in such a way that time seems to pass more quickly over the 90 minutes

Imitation and adaptation

Champion teams of recent years – Spain, Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona and Bayern Munich, Jurgen Klopp’s Borussia Dortmund – all achieved success with revolutionary ideas, setting new standards that became the norm as teams set out to emulate them. “Bayern Munich copied us, just like the Chinese do,” Klopp said, in 2013, when Jupp Heynckes’ team won the league, cup and Champions League treble. Heynckes had instructed Bayern to press forward, and keep the ball deep in their opponents’ half by watching his black-and-yellow rivals.

But successful strategies spawn counter-strategies and reciprocal action. “When it comes to the concept of the game, play doesn’t actually move forward in a straight line, but goes round erratically in circles,” says football historian Jonathan Wilson, author of Inverting The Pyramid: The History Of Football Tactics. He gives the example of Guardiola, who, during his last season with Barca (2011/12), only played two real defenders in a number of games: “But you could also see that formation’s failings. You don’t have space against teams which defend very deep and it also gives your opponents plenty of space to counter-attack.” Wilson says the immediate future belongs to physically strong teams who can move the ball around quickly and not to the passing game, but, “there’ll be a backlash against this, too. Tactics never stand still.”

Getty Images(2)

miles donovan

Poison and antidote

The majestic tiki-taka style of play, as demonstrated by Barcelona and Spain, is passing football with the greatest focus on possession of the ball and can be seen as a reaction to the power football of teams such as Chelsea and Juventus, which was in the ascendancy 10 years ago. Tiki-taka may owe its origins to the aesthetic ideals of iconic Dutch manager and player Johan Cruyff, but Barca and Spain mastered it out of necessity. “We noticed that our players couldn’t keep the red bulletin

Neymar

Aged 22, he is carrying the mantle of the Next Best Player In The World After Messi. After 136 goals in 225 games for Santos, his first season for Barcelona has been full of promise

up with the dynamism of English, French and German players,” says Spanish journalist and author Guillem Balague, who has written biographies of Guardiola and Lionel Messi. “So we had to find another way. The idea was to control the opposition and the game using the ball.” The perfection both teams achieved made it impossible for less gifted opponents to get into the game with rougher tactics. There were other effects, too. Said Miroslav Klose, after Germany lost 1-0 to Spain in the 2010 World Cup semi-final: “When we did get possession of the ball, we were too worn out and tired to move it around.” But tikitaka has given rise to defensive football as an antidote. Chelsea and Inter under Jose Mourinho are just two teams to have reintroduced the bolt tactic, invented by Karl Rappan in Switzerland in the 1930s and which led to the sweeper system that favours collective, zonal defending.

the majestic tiki-taka style can be seen as a reaction to the power football of chelsea and juventus

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Mario Gotze

Will the German attacking midfielder be locked into a Messivs-Ronaldo comparison with Neymar, as to who is the world’s best? Bayern chose him over the Brazilian

it can only be a matter of time before players have artificial tendon implants 62

The false 9

It is even more important for teams of this Hispanic-Dutch school of football, which, as of last summer, includes Guardiola’s Bayern Munich, to have individuals in their ranks who can break through the chain. When Guardiola took over as manager, he wanted to sign Brazilian Neymar from Santos. The 22-year-old was just the guy he was looking for; Neymar’s style of play – fast acceleration, expert dribbling skills, perfect technique, versatility – is similar to that of Messi, who matured into the best player in the world under Guardiola. However, the then president of Bayern Munich, Uli Hoeness, was able to convince his Catalan manager not to buy the South American and to go for his German equivalent instead, and so Mario Gotze came from

Jose Mourinho

If he wins the Champions League with Chelsea, where he says he wants to stay manager for another decade, he’ll be among the all-time greats

the red bulletin

Bundesliga rivals Borussia Dortmund for €37 million. “He’s an incredible player and he’s smart and clever in the 18-yard box,” Guardiola gushed, about the man who plays for the German national team.

The 21-year-old can be the so-called ‘false 9’, a centre forward who drops deep into midfield, the playmaker or play on the wing. Maybe one day he’ll also play in central midfield. Neymar went to Barca and, in the summer of 2013, Real Madrid signed Gareth Bale from Tottenham Hotspur for, depending on who you believe, €91m or €100m. The Welshman guarantees goals but his deadstraight, ground-covering style of play suits Real’s direct game better. Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, in awe of Bale, said that he is, “like a cannonball”.

Getty Images(2)

miles donovan

Time and space

Small, lightweight players like Messi, Neymar and Gotze, and model athletes who could be sprinters, such as Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo of Real Madrid, are increasingly important in the modern game. These are the players who break out of the constraints of modern team football, to find time and space at the right moment to make a difference.

“The tighter things get on the pitch, the more important good anticipation and swiftness of action become,” says Bernhard Peters, director for sport and youth development at Bundesliga team TSG 1899 Hoffenheim. The team, from the Kraichgau area of Germany, is considered extremely innovative and, like Borussia Dortmund, trains its first team and youth teams using a footbonaut. A player stands at the centre of a 14m-square cage, the four walls of which are split into nine, two-panel columns. The two panels in the centre column of each wall are ball dispensers; the other 64 panels are goals. Balls are dispensed randomly, one at a time, and the player has to control the ball and then ‘score’ in whichever of the goals lights up.

The footbonaut allows players to practise exercises they can’t during regular team training “It improves the penetration and accuracy of your passes, as well as your perception and decision-making to optimise your first touch and help you keep possession until you want to pass it,” says Peters. Several top European clubs are thinking of buying one.

As luck would have it

In Germany, long seen as a country of battling players who run and run, footballers are being trained to improve their technique, as in Spain, but Peters the red bulletin

5

p redictions 1

National teams = second tier

We used to see the best football teams at the World Cup. Now it’s the Champions League. Top clubs can choose from a global pool of players and train them far better and more thoroughly than the national team coach who gets his squad together once every couple of months and has difficulty replacing unavailable players. The difference in quality between national teams and elite clubs will continue to get wider.

2

Life in the old dog yet: rebirth of the centre forward As recently as two years ago, it looked like that endangered species, the classic centre forward, already reduced from two to one in some line-ups, and not present at all in many others, might be replaced by the attacking midfielder. But as Bayern Munich show, old-school warhorses like Mario Mandzukic have again become extremely important when up against ultra-defensive opponents who defend very deep. The bruiser can’t be brushed off that easily.

joints 3 Artificial and tendons

Torn cruciate ligaments normally put players out of action for six months. Injured players are bad for results and the balance sheet. The technology isn’t in place yet,

but it can only be a matter of time before professional players have artificial tendon implants that will reduce the risk of injury and bear a greater strain.

4 Defenders As Stars

Defenders earn less and have lower transfer fees than their teammates up front. This is mainly down to distorted perception. Their mistakes stand out, while all the little things they do to prevent danger in the first place are glossed over.

As game data is increasingly analysed, the lads at the back will garner greater respect and tactics that encourage all-out attack or defence will make them more important.

There will be another Franz Beckenbauer, a superstar who emerges from the deep.

5

Shot clock is cominG

More teams will play extreme passing football because there will be more players technically able to do it. Eventually, players will be able to hold onto the ball as easily as basketball and handball players can. That will make necessary the introduction of a time limit for going on the attack, a shot clock, or a change in the rules whereby the referee can award a free kick to the opponents for the offence of “passive play”.

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economics professors Chris Anderson and David Sally showed in their book, The Numbers Game, that half of all goals are more or less flukes. “We have to accept that half of what happens on the pitch is out of our hands,” they wrote.

Football is, at least from a statistical point of view, a game of chance and, “a sport of glorious inefficiency”.

Roughly the same number of goals is scored now as 40 years ago, even though today’s players undoubtedly run further and faster and strike the ball harder. “A dynamic equilibrium between two forces has been reached: between offensive innovation and defensive technology,” say Anderson and Sally.

In October, it will be 10 years since his senior debut for Barcelona. Has he got another 10 years in him as the world’s best? Can he win a World Cup for Argentina? It’s tough at the top...

in the future… football will still be the team sport in which the underdog wins most often 64

doesn’t see a day when there’ll be 11 Gotzes on a single team. “It wouldn’t win you any titles,” he explains. “A team needs different types of players: leaders; those who are important for team spirit; artists.” When it comes to formation, you need the right balance of individual talent in a group tactical scheme. “If you’re lacking one or the other, you won’t achieve long-term success,” Peters says.

Jonathan Wilson says that the time of radical tactical revolutions is behind us and the basics of how football is played will only change slowly. It will remain the most complicated team sport because the relative scarcity of goals means the majority of effort is in vain. American

the red bulletin

Getty Images

Lionel Messi

miles donovan

The nine-second goal

But that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t do all you can to fight against luck.

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers values the work of psychologist Steve Peters so highly that they sit next to each other in the dugout. Football analysis, where every type of player and match data is gathered, is likewise still in its infancy in Europe, but in years to come, it will provide information that will have considerable influence on the sport.

Small yet radical innovations have come from lesser teams because they have to make up for the gap in class with better ideas. We are likely to see more setpiece special moves that led to the goal that RB Leipzig’s Daniel Frahn scored against Stuttgart II in September 2013.

The two Leipzig players who took the opening kick-off, played the ball back to a defender, then ran into the Stuttgart penalty box along with five teammates who ran from the halfway line as soon as the referee blew his whistle. A high, long ball was played in; baffled Stuttgart players were caught napping and it was 1-0 to the home side after nine seconds.

In international football, Chile’s highly complex 3-3-3-1 formation, which national coach Marcelo Bielsa developed in time for the 2010 World Cup, still makes the South Americans one of the hardest sides to beat.

In the future, players will of course be more athletic and have better ball skills, but underdogs will better understand how to minimise the difference in class by using more studied tactics. Football will still be the team sport in which the underdog wins most often. Uncertainty will remain, and that goes a long way towards making the sport so exciting.

Whatever progress is made, even in a thousand years from now, we won’t know the outcome of a match in advance.

JHB 45855 As seen on DStv/SuperSport

2014 FIFA WORLD CUP BRAZILTM ON SUPERSPORT 4 DEDICATED MAGAZINE SHOWS

Get the authentic Brazilian experience. Enjoy all 64 games live, with expert analysis and commentary in 4 languages.

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OFFICIAL BROADCASTER

“The king is dead!

Long live the king!”

So goes the cry when a prince usurps the throne. But in the world of Xterra off-road triathlon, there’s only one problem...

the

king 66

Youth and experience: the rivalry between Xterra stars Dan Hugo (far left) and Conrad Stoltz (this page) shows no sign of fading

isn’t dead

Words: Angus Powers Photography: Ross Garrett

T

his wasn’t in the script. At age 40, wasn’t Conrad Stoltz – the most dominant Xterra triathlete in history – supposed to read the writing on the wall and honourably and conveniently exit stage left? At the peak of his powers, was Dan Hugo – the poster boy of off-road triathlon – not his anointed successor? If so, Stoltz didn’t get the memo. Judging by their rivalry, which has intensified rather than mellowed through the years, this changing of the guard will be neither swift nor painless.

Like all good fairy tales, once upon a time things were very different. Stoltz was a trailblazer for South African triathletes through a decade of racing in France, two Olympic Games and on into the fledgling Xterra scene, where he won the world championship by 10 minutes in his first season. Along the way, he inspired

countless fans and athletes, none more so than the young Hugo, a gifted schoolboy from Stoltz’s adopted town of Stellenbosch.

The pair recognised something of a kindred spirit in each other and became the closest thing to best friends that it is possible for two ultra-competitive men, 12 years apart in age, to be. Hugo doggedly followed in Stoltz’s footsteps, faithfully emulating the great master, until things inevitably, imperceptibly started to change. Maybe it was the natural evolution of two contrasting personalities, or all the years of racing to win. Maybe the fairy tale just ran up on the rocks of reality. Whatever it was, after a blow-up at the South African Xterra championship in Grabouw last year, the Stoltz-Hugo rivalry has never burned more fiercely. For the fans, of course, with the athletes’ differences thrown into such stark relief, there’s no better time to watch two world-class professionals go head to head.

T

hat South Africa, let alone the small university town of Stellenbosch, has produced two Xterra superstars is remarkable. Stoltz has 53 Xterra race wins to his name – more than any other athlete – 10 USA Series titles, and seven world championships (not including the three world title hopes destroyed by mechanicals while leading the race). Hugo’s haul is more modest: 17 Xterra wins and more second places than he cares to remember, the most bittersweet of which came at the 2011 Xterra world championship when the so-called winner was banned for a doping infringement just weeks after the race.

Whatever the odds of two Stellenbosch athletes consistently being at or near the top of the Xterra pile, they were significantly shortened by Stoltz’s incredible longevity in the sport. After all, Stoltz and Hugo are separated by more than a decade, the length of a career in itself, and it is Stoltz’s defiance in the face of age and

I’ve made every mistake in the book.

I’ve learned it all first-hand. I also learned how to win conrad stoltz

I struggle with what I need to do.

It doesn’t come as naturally to me as it does to others dan hugo

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Ian Rodger has made a huge difference to who I am and how i train conrad stoltz

injury that is largely to thank for there being two world-beating South Africans in the Xterra mix instead of one.

Twenty-two years of pro racing has given Stoltz plenty of time to rack up the achievements, but it’s also meant making more than his fair share of mistakes.

“I’ve made every mistake in the book,” he admits. “I’ve learned it all first-hand. But I also learned how to win, and when you know how to win, confidence comes with that. I would never change where I am now for being 20 again: I was literally self-destructing all the time, overtraining because I didn’t have guidance.”

The tipping point came when Stoltz connected with coaching guru Ian Rodger in 2009. “To say Ian saved my career wouldn’t be too strong a word to use,” says

I enjoy building relationships and a natural spin-off is success DAN HUGO

Stoltz. “He’s phenomenal. He’s made a huge difference to who I am, how I train, and what I preach. His approach is not hearsay, it’s not tradition, it’s just science.

My watts have picked up every single year since training with him.” Translate that into the real world: Stoltz has been a world champion (Xterra or ITU Cross Triathlon) every year since 2010.

I

t wouldn’t be fair to say that Stoltz has struggled to adapt to the demands placed on a modern triathlete – the constant search for sponsors, building a profile through social media, juggling training with the never-ending hassle of organising intercontinental flights, visas and accommodation. The guy pioneered

much of it anyway, building a global reputation around his ‘Caveman’ nickname and creating an enviable synergy with long-time sponsors Oakley (20 years) and Specialized (13 years).

It’s just that Stoltz remembers a time before email, the internet and daily skype calls halfway around the world.

“You used to wake up, and the first thing you thought about was training.

You’d come back from training and shower, eat, stretch and nap. And then it would be time to train again.

Nowadays, it’s hard to focus on what is really important. Training sometimes seems like an afterthought.”

That’s something Hugo can sympathise with, although for totally different reasons. Hugo is the epitome of the 21st-century athlete-entrepreneur, hardwired to seek constant stimulation and to live a technicolour life far removed from the monochrome monotony of a Spartan training regime.

“I’ll be really honest with you,” the 28-year-old says. “I really struggle with what I need to do. It just doesn’t come as naturally to me as it does to others. For me to really simplify to where there is very little distraction, very little noise, very little colour – I really battle with that.

I fully understand why that is conducive to excellence, whether you’re a computer programmer or an Xterra athlete. Some thrive with just that, but unfortunately that’s not me. I know my flaws.”

But one man’s flaws are another man’s dreams. Blessed with ridiculously good looks and unerring business instincts, Hugo has sauntered through doors that very few other athletes ever even knock on. From shooting international commercials with Puma to seeding two Stellenbosch start-ups (buttanut.co.za and icecreamcommunity.com), Hugo’s handsome portfolio of sponsors is a prime example of successful brand management.

“Ultimately, it’s about people,” he explains. “Life makes sense when relationships make sense. I enjoy connecting and building relationships and a natural spin-off from that, whether you’re an athlete or a businessman, is success. Not everyone is orientated that way, but the basics you can pick up.

I see myself as an employee and a part of my sponsors’ marketing departments.

Like, ‘I’m one of you guys; how do we generate a return and market in a certain way?’ I really believe I add brand value and affect sales. I need to, for my conscience’s sake.”

Apart from that second place at the 2011 Xterra world champs, Hugo lists his 71

When I grew up, there wasn’t such a thing as a pro athlete conrad stoltz

greatest achievement as breaking even financially in his first season as a pro. It’s a far cry from the school of hard knocks that Stoltz graduated from.

“Once, when a race organiser forgot to pick me up from the train station, I slept on the floor in a police station in France, in my bike bag, with my wetsuit as a pillow,” he says. “Back then, sponsorship was for rugby, cricket, soccer and Nick Bester. There wasn’t a living to be made in South Africa. Fortunately, I had a few cows on the farm and when I really needed money, I’d sell a cow and buy an airplane ticket. Things have changed radically and it’s really cool that kids can now grow up and imagine being a professional athlete. When I grew up, there wasn’t such a thing as a pro athlete. South Africa wasn’t even in the Olympic Games.”

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The master: Stoltz celebrates victory at the 2012 ITU Cross Triathlon world championship in Alabama, USA

the red bulletin

Getty Images

I

ronically, it was Stoltz’s uncomplicated love for what he was doing that first made such an impression on the teenage Hugo.

“It seemed like he was living such a fun life,” Hugo says, reminiscing about how he bought his first set of race wheels from the older athlete, before they started to train and travel together.

“During my first summer in the US, I stayed on Conrad’s floor. Who knows if I would have made it if there hadn’t been that hand up.”

It seemed to make perfect sense: Stoltz was generous in his mentorship, Hugo signed on with Specialized, Oakley and Stoltz’s then-coach Libby Burrell, and the South African firepower at Xterra events soon doubled. But as good a teacher as Stoltz was, Hugo was an even better learner and the gap between maestro and apprentice rapidly narrowed.

Suddenly it wasn’t in Stoltz’s interest to give away hard-earned trade secrets any more, and a series of real and perceived slights started to accumulate as the friendship naturally cooled.

Then everything exploded at the South African Xterra championship 18 months ago. Stoltz, on his way to being well beaten into second place by Richard Murray, inadvertently took a short cut late in the run. Hugo was next in, and with emotions running high on the finish line, asked Stoltz if he would demote himself to third. That he had taken a wrong turn was never in dispute, but for Stoltz to effectively disqualify himself when the course had been incorrectly marked at the crucial junction was expecting too much. While race officials dithered and Stoltz demurred, Hugo lodged an official protest. Within hours, Stoltz was disqualified, Hugo was promoted to second, and the media and Xterra had unwittingly been gifted what they had always privately hoped for: a full-blown rivalry between the best of enemies.

The blowback was both immediate and insidious. Stoltz and Hugo’s shared

winning is a different world. if you win, every decision you made was fine dan hugo experiences of my sporting career,” says one. “Wasted years,” says the other.

“We’ve never really talked it through, but I’d love to resolve it.”

sponsors were horrified, but consoled themselves with the fact that triathlon (unlike, for instance, Formula One or pro cycling) is essentially an individual sport. Sure, athletes might have the same sponsor, but there is no competition for resources and on race day, it’s always been every man for himself.

Proud and stubborn, neither athlete anticipated how much his actions would affect those around him. Living in a vacuum might not exist, but as a pro athlete, living in a fishbowl does. Moving on from that difficult day proved easier said than done. Their own conflicting emotions (anger and frustration, regret and disbelief) were regularly stirred by fans, family and friends. And though neither would like to believe it, the fallout scarred them both. “An incredibly hurtful experience, one of the darkest 74

The student: Dan Hugo crosses the line in first place at the South African Xterra championship in Grabouw, in February this year

xterraplanet.com

the red bulletin

Cherie Vale NEWSPORT MEDIA

B

ut the show goes on, even if the much anticipated rematch at the 2014 South African championship turned out to be a damp squib. A magnesium deficiency meant that Stoltz pulled up with cramps in the swim, and Hugo coasted to a fourth SA Xterra title and the bragging rights that come with it.

Hugo’s not complaining; he’s learned the hard way. “The difference between first and second is a world apart,” he says.

“The social return, the financial return, the emotional return – winning is a different world. If you win, every decision you made was fine. Come second, and you’re haunted by questions until the next race.” And he should know.

Specialized, the headline sponsor of both athletes, aren’t too fazed either.

With the Caveman and the sport’s pin-up on their books, they touch every conceivable market. Moreover, Stoltz and Hugo are virtually synonymous with the brand, which means Specialized are themselves almost synonymous with the sport, despite having never forked out a dollar to Xterra. The bike count at the races tells the story: nearly half of the machines in the transition area are Specialized.

Even Stoltz, the old warrior king, doesn’t fear the future. At worst, he’ll go down swinging. But if his astounding third place at the South African cycling time trial championship in February is any indication, there’s still plenty of raw power left. This is an athlete who has conquered a litany of potentially crippling injuries, including gangrene and a fractured spine – there’s not much he hasn’t seen or fought back from. More than anyone else on the start line, Stoltz knows how to win. And what he knows, the pretenders to his throne would do well to note. The past is never dead. It’s not even past.

p ro m ot i o n

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How do you climb an underground rock face that’s never been conquered when the clock’s ticking and there’s No margin for error?

Just ask these guys…

out of tHe words: Alex Lisetz photography: Klaus Fengler

darkness

77

SUMMIT MEETING Stefan Glowacz, 49, (above right) and Chris Sharma, 33 (below right) climbed a rock face with a difference in Oman: the second biggest cave chamber in the world.

Below left: Glowacz and Sharma at one of the entrances to the Majlis al Jinn cave.

M

MAJLIS AL JINN The giant cave chamber in Oman was discovered by geologist Don Davison and his wife Cheryl Jones in 1983. Jones christened the cave Majlis al Jinn, Arabic for the meeting place of the spirits.

0m

– 50m

158.2 m deepest part of cave - 178 m

– 100m

– 150m

– 200m

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120m

The Statue of Liberty 93m

Majlis al Jinn

ore rope!” shouts Stefan Glowacz. “MORE! ROPE!” But Chris Sharma can’t hear him. Sharma is a couple of metres below the beam of light from Glowacz’s head torch, swallowed up by the darkness of Majlis al Jinn, the second biggest cave chamber in the world. The vastness of this underground cathedral breaks down Glowacz’s words into separate syllables, bounces them off the walls and turns them into a dull reverberation. His face is racked with pain. It is February 28, 2014, with little more than a week left to make a success of a near-impossible mission. He would like the acoustics to be the worst of his problems.

MID 2012, GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN, GERMANY glowacz: “My friend Heli Putz put the idea into my head. He told me about this cave in Oman, the Majlis al Jinn. Felix Baumgartner [the man who leapt from the edge of space in the Red Bull Stratos mission] jumped into it in 2007 and a few other BASE-jumpers had been there since.

The cave is nondescript from the outside: three crevices a few metres across at the bottom of a slope covered in small rocks. But in actual fact, you’re standing on the roof of an enormous vault.

At 160m deep, 310m long and 225m wide, it could almost accommodate Wembley Stadium.

‘Wouldn’t it be amazing,’ Heli said, ‘if someone the red bulletin

The underground vault’s dimensions are huge, as were the trials and tribulations of the climb. The route was always overhanging and often more than 45 degrees steep

abseiled down to the bottom and then climbed back out via the rock face.’ I wanted to be that somebody. But this was not a job for one man alone.

I would need a partner. The best one I could get.

I thought Chris Sharma would be interested.

We had met at a couple of events and hit it off straight away. He is the most creative climber of his generation, one I look up to in the same way I admire my idols from the 1970s and ’80s.”

LATE 2012, SANTA CRUZ, USA sharma: “The phone rang. It was Stefan Glowacz.

The same Stefan Glowacz I’d admired for years.

With every new project he reinvents climbing, even though he’s now been active for decades.

I said yes before he’d even finished his question.”

On the Limit Rope tore Stefan Glowacz’s hands open in a fall (above). Although the injury had a negative impact on his every move, he fought on to the bitter end.

In December 2012, Glowacz drove to the Selma Plateau in Oman in a 4x4, stirring up clouds of dust that hung in the air for minutes. The Majlis al Jinn cave is only 30km from the coast, but to get there meant driving on bumpy gravel tracks and reaching altitudes of up to 1,500m above sea level.

Glowacz realised that he wouldn’t just be facing technical climbing challenges on this expedition.

There would be logistical challenges as well. There wouldn’t be any drinking water for the base camp he’d want to set up here.

Back in Oman’s capital, Muscat, he met with high-ranking officials. They agreed to grant him official permission to enter the cave, their only demand being that he should come back out alive.

Glowacz gave them his word. He had his hands on the official permit relatively quickly by local standards: six months later. sharma: “Today I stood for the first time at the chasm where our adventure awaits us and looked down. You can’t see anything. It’s just blackness.

I threw a rock in and waited for the impact. And waited. And waited. It seems pretty deep.”

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Credit:

FEBRUARY 18, 2014, MUSCAT, OMAN

“WE LIVING C R E AT U R E S A R E N ’ T WELCOME DEEP BELOW GROUND. I T ’S TO O FA R DOWN, TOO DARK, TOO DANGEROUS”

FEBRUARY 19, 2014, MAJLIS AL JINN glowacz: “We abseiled down to the bottom of the cave. Our first climbing attempts showed that the quality of the rock was better than we hoped, but the weak light meant it was hard to see in all directions. You could hardly see the holds on the rock in front of you. You’re climbing blind.” sharma: “Right from day one, I understood how differently Stefan and I wanted to approach the project. I’d like to just climb straight off, but Stefan studies the rock face first, plans the pitches, and co-ordinates the logistics, which is necessary because our project has turned into something huge. There are 20 of us in total on the team,

and we have 700kg of equipment, six lighting balloons and 2,400m of rope. And we’re in a hurry: we’ll have to climb all the routes in just two-and-a-half weeks because the authorities won’t let us stay in the cave any longer than that.

What I can learn from Stefan are analytical thinking and having a commanding overview.

I have to learn these things. We have a project full of questions ahead of us. The biggest question of all is whether we we’ll be able to free-climb such a steep rock face at all.”

The narrow beam of light from Sharma’s head torch scours the rock in front of him. He is hanging upside down about a third of the way up the rock 81

Extreme overhangs, crumbling rock and weak light meant that progress was slow and difficult

FEBRUARY 25, 2014, MAJLIS AL JINN sharma: “Stefan is one tough guy. He wrapped tape around his exposed palms, which must have stung like crazy. But as bad as it was, that fall could have ended very differently. Now I understand why Majlis al Jinn translates as ‘the meeting place of the spirits’. We living creatures aren’t welcome here, deep below ground. It is too dry, too dark, too far down, too dangerous. There aren’t any animals here, apart from a few tiny black bugs.

But I’m beginning to enjoy the challenge. As you have to improvise so much when you’re climbing, you can let your intuition take over. Climbing is actually like meditating for me. A peak sporting performance is the way to find yourself.”

BACK ON EARTH After two-and-a-half weeks, the conquest of the Majlis al Jinn was complete. Local goatherds came to offer congratulations at the cave’s exit.

“ C L I M B I N G I S L I K E M E D I TAT I N G .

P E R F O R M I N G AT Y O U R P E A K L I K E T H I S I S T H E W AY T O FIND YOURSELF” face. Even he, perhaps the best competitive climber in the world, has his limits.

Inserting each bolt into the rock face is a challenge. He moves from one to the next quickly.

“That’s great!” Glowacz shouts out, from below.

The echo reverberates off the walls.

FEBRUARY 20, 2014, MAJLIS AL JINN glowacz: “I was climbing differently from the way I normally climb. I wasn’t falling back on my routine and was more unsettled than usual, which is why I made a mistake. I wanted to hook in my second ascender rope, but when released, it went into a sudden spin. This caused the other ascender to come loose and I was flung down about 10m. I automatically grabbed the rope with both hands, which is the worst thing I could have possibly done.

The rope ripped the skin off my hands to the point that flesh was exposed. I screamed out and dropped a bit further. Shit.” the red bulletin

Sharma is hanging in the fourth of the 13 separate sections, known as pitches, that he and Glowacz have mapped out. He’s climbed 100m so far. The stresses and strains of organising the pitches over a total of 300m are enormous.

Many pitches are on overhangs of at least 45 degrees from the horizontal. No natural light.

No days off. And now he has the toughest section of the whole rock face ahead of him.

Sharma dips into the chalk bag once more.

He will later rate this pitch as one of the hardest he has ever undertaken.

MARCH 1, 2014, MAJLIS AL JINN glowacz: “‘If you do this,’ I say to Chris, ‘then in my view you’re the best climber in the world.’

I can see the ambition in his eyes, but just as he’s a couple of millimetres away from triumph, he has to give in because we don’t have enough time to devote a whole day to a single pitch.

So we organise a way around, even if Chris is a little unhappy about it.”

MARCH 5, 2014, MAJLIS AL JINN sharma: “Yes, it is possible to free-climb in the Majlis al Jinn. Today we managed the final pitch and climbed every single red point, which means that we only used the natural rock structures. We spent six days climbing in all. The rest of the time went on organisation.

It was rough going. We peeked out into the glaring light of the desert. Our crew celebrated and a couple of goatherds gave us toothless grins. We hugged. But Stefan, with his hand injuries, stayed out of the high-fives.”

After they packed up their equipment, Sharma and Glowacz flew to Europe. While celebrating at a small party in Spain, where Sharma has chosen to make his home, they hear that the Majlis al Jinn is to be opened up to tourists.

Perhaps, in three or four years’ time, other climbers will be climbing different routes back out into the light of day.

“Every rock face,” Glowacz explains, “is easier once someone has shown it can be climbed. The hardest thing is imagining the impossible.” glowacz.de

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WINGS FOR EVERY TASTE.

CRANBERRY. LIME. BLUEBERRY. AND THE EFFECT OF RED BULL.

Neil Young’s digital music player MUSIC, page 90

Where to go and what to do

ac t i o n !

T r a v e l / G e a r / T r a i n i n g / N i g h t l i f e / M U S I C / p a r t i e s / c i t i e s / c l u b s / E v e n ts

Life’s a beach impress everyone on your next holiday by working out like a beach volleyball pro

Rutger Pauw/Red Bull Content Pool

Training, page 87

Brinkmanship: follow Julius Brink’s tips to gain a strategic advantage

the red bulletin

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Action!

get the gear Star Trek: the bike that helps Macdonald to podium finishes

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Kit up to get down MOUNTAIN BIKING In the ultracompetitive world of downhill, gear that shaves seconds off race times is vital. Here’s some you can use

facebook.com/BrookMacdonaldMTB trekworldracing.com

To e to hea d Brook Macdonald’s must-have kit

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Five Ten Impact VXi Clipless

the ride thing why this bike makes you better

1 OFF THE SHELF

the Bontrager rims are designed to dent instead of break,” says Buckle.

“Hopefully that helps him get to the bottom of the course without puncturing.”

“Anyone can walk into a bike shop and buy an exact replica of this frame,” says Trek’s Brian Buckle of the Session 9.9 650B. “We want people to be able to ride the same frame as our elite riders.”

4 RUBBER GOAL

2 SPRING LOADED

The Fox RAD DH Shock on Macdonald’s bike is custom-built for him. He’s one of a handful of World Cup riders racing with the prototype part.

“Tyres are nearly as important in mountain biking as in Formula One,” says Buckle. “Brook can choose from seven different Bontrager tyres depending on the conditions.”

3 ROCKY ROAD

“As Brook bombs down mountains and bounces off rocks,

Oakley Airbrake

Bell Full-9 Downhill helmet

“I’ve used Five Ten shoes since I started in the sport, but the change to clipless should help me be more consistent and hopefully faster.”

“These have been called the Swiss Army knife of goggles. They’re customised to fit my face and have great breathability around the nose and an incredible field of vision.”

“It’s designed for motocross, but it’s been adapted for mountain biking and it’s light and durable and it makes me feel safe.”

fiveten.com

oakley.com

bellhelmets.com

the red bulletin

Rutger Pauw/Red Bull Content Pool

Brook Macdonald: on the up and up in downhill mountain biking

“The competition is so fierce now,” says Brook Macdonald, of the UCI Downhill World Cup. “Everyone is going faster and you’ve got to try everything you can to get an edge.” The 22-year-old from New Zealand has made several changes to his setup this year to help him in his quest to be the best in the world. The biggest change is the bike he’s riding, an upgrade from the Trek Session 9 with 26in wheels to the Trek Session 9.9 650B (above) with 27.5in wheels. “With the bigger wheels, I’ll have faster roll-in speeds. It will help smooth out some of the rougher sections and hopefully it will help me gain lots of time,” says the man they call Bulldog. Macdonald is also hoping a switch in footwear will help, too. He is changing from flat shoes to clipless, which, despite the name, attach to the pedals. It’s a significant change for a rider known for his fast and loose style.

Action!

workout

Deep sand, great take-off power: Julius Brink

Shore thing Beach volleyball Olympic gold medallist Julius Brink on how to play – and look – like him

Rutger Pauw/Red Bull Content Pool, HochZwei/Red Bull Content Pool, Markus Berger/Red Bull Content Pool, vario sling.de

Golden sands: Julius Brink is reigning Olympic beach volleyball champ

Through a varied schedule of endurance training, weights, and technical and tactical practice, Julius Brink spends about 25 hours a week honing his body. The team tactics element is all the more important, because the 31-year-old German beach volleyball pro has a new partner this season, in the shape of Armin Dollinger, a 23-year-old fellow German. Brink says that would-be beach volleyballers – you, for three hours a year, on holiday – can certainly learn from the pros. “Play indoor volleyball, which is quicker than the beach version, on a regular basis to improve your basic technique.

Do weight training two or three times a week and work classic exercises such as squats, dead-lifts and pull-overs into your programme, to strengthen your shoulders because they come under great strain.”

Fu ll b o dy w o r k o ut Take a shot at sling training

Core improvement

The sling trainer is a simple piece of kit used for warm-up, strengthening and rehabilita­tion. One way Julius Brink uses it is an effective exercise to improve core stability (below left). Hook your feet into the straps and stretch your body. Push yourself backwards and forwards while keeping your body tense.

G E T V O L L E Y B A L L e r s ’ S h o U L D E RS “Pull-overs with a barbell are a basic exercise when it comes to improving shoulder stability,” says Brink. “I recommend five sets of eight-12 reps each, leaving at least a minute’s break between sets.”

brink-dollinger.de

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A session with the sling trainer is part of Julius Brink’s regular workout routine

the red bulletin

Lie flat on the bench. Hold the bar above your chest with your arms bent slightly. Carefully lower the bar behind your head, maintaining full control.

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As you move to the end position, with your elbows still slightly bent, push your lower back into on the bench and exhale as you return to the start position.

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Action!

party

Jump around: Bar Rouge is the place to be in Shanghai

not just noodles Shanghainese must-eats

Xiao Long Bao Delicate, soupfilled pork dumplings are a staple of the city’s cuisine. You can find them everywhere from street corners to the finest restaurants.

Living the Hai life It’s hard to stay on trend in a city as fastpaced as Shanghai. Yet here, where conspicuous consumption is a competitive sport, one club has endured. This year, Bar Rouge will celebrate a decade servicing a well-turned-out crowd with a high proportion of expats. Certainly, location has been key to this place’s longevity. You’ll find it in the Bund, the city’s historic waterfront, and on its splendid terrace you can sip to the backdrop of a spectacular 180-degree view of Shanghai’s skyline – a sight that has changed much in the last 10 years.

Like many high-end clubs, Bar Rouge, has its own caste system, where VIPs occupy tables groaning with prestige alcohol and everyone else waits at the permanently packed bar. The door policy is strict. “But if you arrive with positive energy and a big smile,” says Deniz Otman, the club’s operations manager, you just might get in.” bar rouge 18 Zhongshan East 1st Rd, Huangpu, Shanghai, China bar-rouge-shanghai.com

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Bar Rouge offers views, drinks and expat pandas

rooms with a view watch the world worldwide

Gansevoort Park Rooftop, New York Clubby twin-level hotel bar, 20 stories above Park Avenue South in the city’s NoMad district, with one of NYC’s best roof pools.

People by Crystal, Dubai Thanks to its 360-degree view of the skyline, from the top of the Raffles Hotel, it draws top DJs like Steve Aoki. Less great: super-strict door policy.

Rooftop Bar, Melbourne Astroturfed venue that hosts everything from DJ events to open-air movies.

A laid-back vibe and great views of the city’s Central Business District.

Shao Kao Shanghai’s street barbecue is popular and a cheap late-night snack. Choose from the vast array of vegetables, meat and seafood on sticks and watch them grilled in front you.

Chou Doufu You can’t avoid getting a whiff of this pungent fermented tofu. A Western equivalent is, sort of, salty blue cheese. To find your nearest vendor, just follow your nose.

the red bulletin

Dave Tacon, Kai Wang, Artbeat Studio(3), shutterstock(3)

shanghai A first-rate nightclub with a superb view of China’s second city. Just stay happy in the queue

Action!

City Guide

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OK, so perhaps Montevideo’s beach isn’t the world’s most attractive surfing location.

But the steady, smallish waves and mild climate make it a good spot for beginners.

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TOp Five when juan’s in town

Uruguay guy: musician Juan Campodonico

Where’s the beef?

shutterstock(2)

montevideo The clash between old and new, and amazing steaks, are what makes the capital of Uruguay so great, says one of its most famous sons Juan Campodonico is a star in his native Uruguay.

The 42-year-old musician has formed successful bands Bajofondo and Campo, produced albums by Jorge Drexler (who became the first Uruguayan to win an Oscar, for the soundtrack to The Motorcycle Diaries) and has composed the music for international TV ads for the likes of Honda. He cannot get enough of his hometown. “What is it that I so love about Montevideo? The magnificent dichotomy between progress and nostalgia. We Montevideans like what’s new, but we also like to wallow in the past.

You can feel that in the city’s music, culture and image.” Here he makes a must-do list for next time you swing by South America. juancampodonico.com; campomusic.net

the red bulletin

1 La Otra Tomas Diago 758 “There’s no factory farming in Uruguay, which means our meat is high quality, and this is the city’s best steakhouse. I recommend the vacio [flank] steak. You mainly get it here and in Argentina.”

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records by old Uruguayan singers such as Romeo Gavioli and Alfredo Zitarrosa. I also go there for the fruit, the books, the wonderful second-hand clothes and live tango music on every corner.”

4 la ronda & El Santa Ciudadela “You might not find a Starbucks in Montevideo, but you will find bars steeped in folklore. Like La Ronda (above) or El Santa. You’ll often see President Pepe Mujica in the latter – as always, without a tie.”

3 Feria de T Narvaja Dr Tristán Narvaja “Legendary flea market. On a Sunday, I rummage through

SandboardinG Mega-popular in Uruguay, not least because of places like Valizas and Maldonado. For sand-sport fanatics, the huge dunes they offer are the best anywhere on the continent. sobrelasdunas.com

City Gliding

2 La rambla

Am Rio de la Plata “The seafront promenade is 22km long, with sandy beaches, large sunbathing areas and a pink granite footpath. You have to go for a walk here.”

olasyvientos.com

5 Parque Rodo Barrio Parque Rodo “People tend to either love or hate this area of the city, which has somehow got stuck in the past. There are 1960s buildings, romantic parks and an ancient fairground. It’s a reflection of Montevideans’ nostalgic soul.”

Want a bird’s-eye view of the Uruguayan capital?

Go straight from Montevideo’s beach into the air on a hang-glider.

We recommend the night-time trip for spectacular sights. arribauruguay.com

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Action!

Music

listen real good Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones grew up in Queensbridge, a rough part of New York City. His father left. He dropped out of school. The classic CV for a career as a drug dealer. Instead, he became Nas, and in 1994, released his debut album, Illmatic, aged 20. It was groundbreaking: no one had told the tough-life tales in such a poetic and musical way before. The album is still lauded as a hip-hop touchstone by critics, fans and fellow musicians, and a 20th-birthday rerelease includes demos, remixes, and unreleased tracks. Nas took time out from the celebrations to remember the music that fired him up back then.

Nas’s Illmatic is 20 this year

‘It sounded like a rhino’ Playlist To mark the special edition of one of the great hip-hop albums, Nas picks the songs that fired him up when he made it

Upgrade your digital music quality now

WooAudio wa7 Digital-analogue converters turn music files into audible sound.

This vacuum tube headphone amplifier does so at higher quality. wooaudio.com

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Public Enemy Rebel Without A Pause

“I saw them live for the first time at an anti-racism rally in Harlem in 1988. With samples of speeches by civil rights campaigner Jesse Jackson and Chuck’s razor-sharp rap, hip-hop never sounded more forceful. Chuck D roared, ‘Soul, rock and roll, co­ming like a rhino,’ during this song and it really sounded like a rhino was running through the club.”

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Stevie Wonder Master Blaster

“I was a kid when I heard this song for the first time, and I thought, ‘Whoever this guy is, he is the greatest music-maker of all time.’ He recorded this song as a tribute to Bob Marley’s Jammin’.

That Stevie would care to do a reggaeinfluenced record like that is incredible.

It was pivotal in me later working together with Marley’s son, Damian.”

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Boogie Down Productions My Philosophy

“When I was a teenager, I used to wonder if rappers could be philosophers.

KRS-One of BDP answered my question with this track.

He showed what an MC can do, what being a rapper is all about. This song was mind-blowing and still is, musically as well as lyrically. KRS-One was a teacher for me. He was like Malcolm X, the Marcus Garvey of our generation.”

dfx Audio Enhancer Software that gives music a fuller sound on your computer, phone or tablet with 3D surround simulation. fxsound.com

Michael Jackson Human Nature

“The way Michael describes meeting a girl in a city in this song is magical. I still wonder what synthesizers he used for it – respect to Quincy Jones, who is the best producer who ever lived.

I used a sample from it for my single, It Ain’t Hard to Tell. Sadly, I never got to meet him in person, but we spoke on the phone a few times.”

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A Tribe Called Quest I Left My Wallet In El Segundo

“My favourite early ATCQ tune is this one. The story is amazing: Q-Tip and the guys take a road-trip across America in his mother’s car. When they get back he realises that he lost his wallet in El Segundo. It was the first time I heard the word ‘grub’, meaning food. Q-Tip is the coolest of the cool and we ended up working on Illmatic together.”

s o u n d b ox the orchestra around you

Ototo

Crowd-funded on Kickstarter, this mini-synth turns everyday objects into musical instruments. Bana­nas, pan lids, items of furniture… anything can be used to generate a sound once it’s hooked up. Sounds are emitted via a built-in speaker. dentakulondon.com

Ponoplayer Rock legend Neil Young says that listening to hi-res music on this forthcoming digital player (he’s a company founder) sounds 30 times better usual MP3s. ponomusic.com

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the red bulletin

pressherenow.com

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Action!

watches

th e N ASA Test Three of the 11 hoops the Speedmaster had to jump through to reach the moon

HEAT/ HUMIDITY

Through space and time: the current Omega Speedmaster ’57 chronograph

High temp: 48hrs at 71°C then 30mins at 93°C. Low temp: 4hrs at -18°C. Ten days in 95% humidity at 20-71°C.

Out of this world

Vibration Three, 30-minute cycles, with the watch in different positions and the vibration frequency varying from 5-2,000Hz.

omega (4), nasa, shutterstock

Alexander Linz

Omega Speedmaster How a piece of precision Swiss engineering became vital kit in the exploration of space Anonymous NASA staff descended on Houston’s jewellery stores in 1964 to buy a bunch of watches, from which they’d choose the one they would issue to their astronauts. They bought timepieces made by Bulova, Elgin, Gruen, Hamilton, Longines, Lucien Piccard, Mido, Omega and Rolex, then put each one through an 11-part test of precision under extreme conditions. The only survivor of that process was the Omega Speedmaster.

NASA designated it as “flight-qualified

by NASA for all manned space missions”.

Astronauts Gus Grissom and John Young were the first men to wear the watches in space, on the Gemini 3 mission, on March 23, 1965. Legend has it that Omega, based in Biel-Bienne, Switzerland, only found out about this a year later, after seeing a photo of an astronaut wearing a Speedmaster.

Today, both American astronauts and Russian cosmonauts wear one.

SHOCKPROOF Top: The centrifuge used in the test programme. Left: Buzz Aldrin wearing a Speedmaster on the moon in 1969

www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/omega.html The only watch “flightqualified by NASA for all manned space missions”

the red bulletin

The Speedmaster with a NASA strap, on a NASA test log. The strap allowed astronauts to wear the watch under or over a sleeve

Six shocks of 40G, lasting 11 milliseconds each and in one of six different directions.

Buzz Aldrin wearing his Speedmaster in Eagle, the Apollo 11 Lunar Module

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Action!

sunglasses

HOW TO LOOK good this season

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RBR 207 Red Bull Racing Eyewear Sebastian Vettel’s sun-blocker-outer of choice, made of XMP, a Formula One thermoplastic

Gloryfy Gi2 DeJaVu Stylish, splash of colour on the inside of the arms and, thanks to G-Flex plastic frames, unbreakable

Police Neymar Jr 1 Deadly in the penalty area: these are the shades sported by Brazil’s World Cup superstar Neymar

Oakley Heritage Frogskins The iridium coating on the lenses reduces reflective glare and increases UV protection

Adidas Originals Malibu A fine pair from the Three Stripes’ heritage line, with a slight retro feel and wide arms

Carrera 89/S Classic aviators with a modern twist.

Reflective grey lenses and metal frames

Smith Optics Approach Not too sporty for everyday wear, not too everyday for sport wear

Michael Pachleitner Group

Here comes the sun

the red bulletin

Sebastian Vettel versus UV rays: only one winner the red bulletin

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Action!

games

Packing a punch: Ultra Street Fighter IV

P l ay Again?

How often do gaming’s icons appear?

Mario Mario Kart 8, out on May 30, after Mario Golf: World Tour. With these, there have been about 200 games (plus format variants) featuring Nintendo’s mascot.

Hadouken!

The thing about a new Street Fighter game is that it’s not really new.

It’s still essentially the side-on, fast and frantic super-powered beat-’emup it was back in 1987, and that’s why the fighting game series is one of the most popular of all video games. Gaming tech advances have only led to improvements in a winning formula, rather than a throwing-out of the Bison with the bathwater.

So, Ultra Street Fighter IV is 2D fisticuffs in a kinda 3D environment, just like the Super Street Fighter games that preceded it. There are five more playable characters in this latest version, including Decapre, a leggy Russian wearing a blue ninja suit and a hat last seen on Concorde stewardesses, making a total of 44 combatants.

Street Fighter nerds either love or hate the fact that Decapre is a clone of Cammy, a veteran Street Fighter character, also playable in USF IV, made flesh by Kylie Minogue in the Street Fighter movie.

The passion of those nerds has also led SF’s maker, Capcom, to tweak this new game based on feedback from the last one, ironing out the gameplay kinks that led to much online discussion. In early June, those who own the last game can upgrade to the new one; the rest of us have to stump up in full.

For Xbox 360, PC and PlayStation 3. streetfighter.com

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up next

Your games dreams come true

Make a million-dollar game for nothing

You can download and use the same tools that leading games developers use to build games such as Unreal – some of them for free. Unreal Engine 4 costs US$19 per month, while the CryEngine from Crytek, maker of Far Cry and Homefront 2, is only US$9.90 per month. All those times you shout at the screen, “If only…”? Put your money where your mouth is.

Sonic There are 30 main games on the blue hedgehog’s CV, plus as many again in cameos and team-ups, including the Mario Olympics games (see above).

unrealengine.com cryengine.com

Showtime

sonicthe hedgehog.com

At E3, know gaming’s future

On June 10, social media will be busy. That is the first day of E3 2104, the 20th and biggest Electronic Entertainment Expo, the trade show at which new games are traditionally unveiled. About 50,000 people are expected over three days at the Los Angeles Convention Center. When is Halo 5 out? Is Nintendo making a new console?

These, and so many more questions, will be answered.

e3expo.com

‘T’ First seen in 1984, along with I, J, L, O, S and Z, and since in a grand total of 54 official Tetris games and countless other unofficial homages and rip-offs. tetris.com

the red bulletin

paul wilson

Ultra Street Fighter IV Fireballs fly in the return of gaming’s most beloved beat-’em-up

mario.nintendo.com

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Action!

save the date

Arjen Robben: key to Bayern Munich’s success.

Can he do the same for the Dutch national team?

June 13

Play it again You might have heard that there’s an international football tournament this June and July.

Match three, on day two, pits defending champions Spain against the No 11-ranked Netherlands in a replay of the final of the 2010 competition.

That match turned into an injury-time thriller (won 1-0 by the Spanish): expect more of the same in the replay.

May 30-June 1

June 20-21

Bring the fire

Smiley faces

Join 20,000 fans for their annual trek to Swaziland to take in the sights and sounds of the three-day musical and cultural extravaganza that is the Bushfire festival.

All profits from the wall-to-wall programme of music, art, theatre, circus and dance are earmarked for NGOs and community upliftment initiatives, so this is a party with a purpose. bush-fire.com

Colourblind – We are the Amazing Race is the new show from Comedy Central. The laughs go down at The Lyric at Gold Reef City and it’s best to bring along a healthy ability to laugh at your own most jealously guarded social, political, cultural, racial and economic beliefs. The rainbow nation’s self-righteous won’t be spared. comedycentralafrica.com

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May 24

Champ of champs The toughest club competition in football reaches a climax at Benfica’s home ground in Lisbon, Portugal at the end of May. Qualifying started 11 months ago, but the Champions League is a tournament guaranteed to test players’ nerves until the final whistle.

With their domestic leagues wrapped up, there’s just one last high-stakes match left in the season for the finalists to focus on. Stay tuned. uefa.com

the red bulletin

getty images(4), Tyrone Bradley/Red Bull Content Pool

fifa.com/worldcup/matches

May 31

Back 2 battle Sunset at Walter Sisulu Square in Soweto: the eight remaining dance crews in the 2014 Red Bull Beat Battle will go head to head for another year’s worth of bragging rights. Crews will be judged on performance, execution, originality and group uniformity. More importantly, South Africa’s best exponents of freestyle, hip-hop, krump, sbujwa and pantsula are on show. redbullbeatbattle.co.za

don’t miss ink these dates in your diary

23 may

Expedition Africa Does mountain biking, trekking and canoeing 500km in teams of four along an unmarked route through the Wild Coast sound like your thing?

Check it out here:

May 24

Milers and milers Take a break from the stage race gravy train and get stuck into a biking format that delivers a very different challenge. Instead of marshalling your energy over three to seven days, you’re in for a single (very long) day in the saddle. The Amarider 100 Miler takes solo riders and teams of four on a 160km trip around Malmesbury, while the 50 Miler (over 80km) is reserved for those less intrepid.

kineticgear.co.za

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june

June 14

Song and trance Globe-trotting EDM superstar Armin van Buuren brings his Armin Only Intense show to Johannesburg on the Youth Day long weekend. Expect a six-hour set from the five-time world No 1 DJ as well as mind-blowing visuals custom designed to bring his new album, Intense, to vivid 3D life. arminonly.com

Comrades In Arms It’s too late to enter, but if you’re in KZN, join the crowds that line the 89km route of the Comrades Marathon. You can cheer on the 18,000 hopefuls taking on the world’s most famous ultra-marathon. comrades.com

21 june

June 14

On a hiding to nothing The international rugby season kicks off when the Springboks host Six Nations also-rans Wales in the first of two Tests in Durban. Wales are a shadow of their former selves and seriously lost their mojo in this year’s northern hemisphere showpiece. When a team loses their way like this, bet on the Boks to put the boot in. supersport.com/rugby

the red bulletin

Top Gear Catch The Stig in action when the Top Gear Festival returns to Durban’s Moses Mabhida stadium for a tyreshredding, pedalto-the-metal automotive experience. topgearfestival durban.co.za

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Greece, March 26, 2014 The Corinth Canal is about 21.3m wide at its narrowest point. Enough to rush an Extra 300S through there, thought Hungarian aerobatics legend Peter Besenyei. The plane has a wingspan of 7.5m.

Besenyei has a hell of an eye.

“ Claustrophobia?

When you’re jetting at 300kph there’s no time for it” Peter Besenyei, world aerobatics champion and Red Bull Air Race pilot

The next issue of the Red Bulletin is out on june 10 98

the red bulletin

Predrag Vuckovic/Red Bull Content Pool

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