The Red Bulletin September 2015 - ZA

SOUTH AFRICA

BEYOND THE ORDINARY

THE FUTURE OF THE SPRINGBOKS

Blood, sweat and big data

LEAP OF

FAITH

RED BULL X-FIGHTERS is back!

PLUS Meet Drake McElroy, the ultimate FMX maverick

SEND IN THE CLOWNS

Rodeo‘s bullfighting bodyguards 02015

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THE RED BULLETIN

26 CIRCUS OF PAIN

In their garish shirts and facepaint, rodeo clowns are the bodyguards of the bullring

Unusual perspectives often produce the most interesting results, as you’ll see in The Red Bulletin this month. In anticipation of the Pretoria stop of the Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour, we go behind the scenes to meet FMX maverick Drake McElroy. And with the Rugby World Cup looming, we take a look at the future of the Springboks with Siya Kolisi and Damian de Allende. Elsewhere, hardcore rodeo clowns tackle raging bulls, and The Walking Dead’s Norman Reedus trades in his usual zombie foes for a rather more alive alligator. Plus, we get life advice from US rapper Ice Cube, The Strokes’ guitarist Albert Hammond Jr, and crazy Zimbabwe-born adventurer Sean Conway.

We hope you enjoy the issue.

06

“I’ve always lived job-to-job.

It’s nice to have a nine-to-five” NORMAN REEDUS, PAGE 62

THE RED BULLETIN

SEBASTIAN MARKO, TYRONE BRADLEY/RED BULL CONTENT POOL(COVER), JIM KRANTZ, MICHAEL MULLER

WELCOME

SEPTEMBER 2015

AT A GLANCE GALLERY

72

12 GOOD SHOTS! Photos of the month

BULLEVARD 19 CRIME SPECIAL Profiling law-breakers – and the good guys who catch them

GRANDMASTER FLASH

FEATURES

Who do the celebrities call when they need a party photographer?

The Cobrasnake, of course…

26 Rodeo clowns

Inside the dangerous, facepainted world of America’s bullfighters

38

52

38 Springboks How state-of-the-art software and a crop of new talent are keeping South African rugby ahead of the pack

MARK HUNTER, CHRIS SAUNDERS, PREDRAG VUCKOVIC/RED BULL CONTENT POOL, UNIVERSAL PICTURES

46 This month’s heroes

The Strokes guitarist turned solo artist Albert Hammond Jr, Rapper/actor Ice Cube and his son, and endurance adventurer Sean Conway

BOK ON TRACK

With young players like Siya Kolisi – and the latest sports tech – driving it on, South African rugby has a bright future

SPECIAL FMX

Pioneering rider, track tester and judge on the Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour, Drake McElroy is a motocross legend

52 X-Fighters World Tour Drake McElroy: the maverick hero of freestyle motocross

62 Norman Reedus

The Walking Dead star on celebrity, Slash and scary-looking ’gators

72 The Cobrasnake

LA-based lensman Mark Hunter on his rise from photo blogger to the stars’ party snapper of choice

ACTION!

83 48 BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

Ducati have really raised their game with their new superbike – the pretty, powerful and clever 1299 Panigale S THE RED BULLETIN

RETURN TO COMPTON

Rapper/actor Ice Cube has high hopes for the NWA biopic – not least because his son, O’Shea Jackson Jr, is playing Dad

79 SEE IT. GET IT. DO IT. The best travel, gadgets, films, games, music, wheels and events. Plus how to fight a forest fire 91 FUTURE GEAR Tomorrow’s tech today 98 MAGIC MOMENT Big-seater BMXing

07

CONTRIBUTORS INSIDE THIS ISSUE

WHO’S ON BOARD

UK EDITION

BEYOND THE ORDINARY

LUKE ALFRED

Serbian expedition photographer Predrag Vuckovic shot his first Red Bull X-Fighters event seven years ago, and has since photographed the best freestyle motocross riders on location around the world.

“Working with FMX legend Drake McElroy was easy,” says Vuckovic, who conducted the shoot on a multitiered course in Greece. “He’s a natural on a bike, which guarantees you’ll get the right picture without any posing. Plus, he built half the track during our photoshoot!” The pictures appear on page 52.

THE WALKING DEAD’S

NORMAN REEDUS

trades zombies for alligators

HOW TO WIN THE RUGBY WORLD CUP

Home nations stars prep for battle

UNMISSABLE

SKY-HIGH

ACTION

VIDEOS, PICTURES, STORIES

The Red Bull Air Race World Championship lands in the UK

REDBULLETIN.COM

Making tracks with an FMX icon

The South African journalist spoke to Springbok Siya Kolisi as part of a feature he wrote about the future of SA rugby. “He was candid about the pain players endure on a daily basis,” says Alfred. More on page 38.

GET MORE

Drake McElroy (left) and Predrag Vuckovic

RODEO CLOWNS

Nose-to-nose with raging bulls

£ 2.50 SEPT 2015

0915Cover-UK_AirRace [P];30_View.indd 1

20.07.15 13:06

THE RED BULLETIN

AROUND THE WORLD

MARK HUNTER

LA-based photographer Hunter was only 17 when he started his nightlife blog, thepolaroidscene.com. Today he’s Katy Perry’s go-to snapper. “She was just a regular party girl and we got along,” he says. See more on page 72.

The Red Bulletin is available in 11 countries. This is the cover of this month’s United Kingdom edition, featuring legendary Red Bull Air Race pilot Nigel Lamb.

Read more: redbulletin.com

IN FOCUS BEHIND THE LENS

“Shooting the future stars of SA rugby gave me great hope” CHRIS SAUNDERS

Big potential: Siya Kolisi and Damian de Allende

08

It’s been a while since Joburg-based fashion photographer Chris Saunders played rugby (13 years, to be precise), but he channelled his inner Springbok for this month’s story about the future of South African rugby. See the results on page 38.

THE RED BULLETIN

JHB 49887/OJ As seen on DStv

RUGBY WORLD CUP 2015.

ALL 48 GAMES LIVE IN HD ON SUPERSPORT. Only SuperSport can ensure you don’t miss a minute of the heart-racing action with a dedicated 24 hour rugby channel, live streaming on the SuperSport App, supersport.com and DStv Now. Plus you get 6 magazine shows to help you keep pace with the Tournament action.

#SSRUGBY The Event Mark is protected by Trade Mark and Copyright. TM © Rugby World Cup Limited 2008 – 2015. All rights reserved.

THE RED BULLETIN WEB HIGHLIGHTS

Channing Tatum’s survival guide In our exclusive web interview, the Magic Mike XXL star lets loose on his career as a stripper and his success in Hollywood.

The 35-year-old also reveals the life lessons he has learned from his actress/dancer wife. redbulletin.com/tatum

EXCLUSIVELY ON

REDBULLETIN.COM Get all our stories instantly

ACTION PRESS, OLIVER JISZDA, MARK HUNTER

Subscribe to our newsletter or follow The Red Bulletin on Facebook, Instagram or YouTube.

FUN SPORTS SPECIAL PICTURE PERFECT

Chessboxing, underwater rugby, competitive lumberjacking, extreme ironing – we bring you a lowdown on 10 sports that should be in the Olympics, with video clips of the action.

In his 12 years as a party snapper, Mark ‘The Cobrasnake’ Hunter has taken more than a million photos for Katy Perry, Steve Aoki and other celebrities. He talks us through his 30 best shots.

redbulletin.com/crazysports

redbulletin.com/cobrasnake

10

THE RED BULLETIN

TALLI N N , E STO N IA

DROP BOX JAANUS REE/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

Drew Bezanson practises ahead of an impressive fifth victory at revered BMX battle Simple Session in April. The 26-year-old BMX park rider learned his skills in the remoteness of his native Nova Scotia, Canada, but after winning recognition much further afield with his genre-defining style – including two ‘Ramp Rider Of The Year’ awards in the US – trips home are a rarity. “I visit Nova Scotia once in the summer and once at Christmas,” he says.

“At this point, I’m so used to being on the go, I get antsy when I don’t have stuff going on.”

More bike news: redbull.com/bike Photography: Jaanus Ree

13

ANAH E I M , U SA

POOL PARTY CARLO CRUZ/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

California-based photographer Carlo Cruz has been taking pictures of B-Boys for the past 10 years, but, even for him, this underwater project was a first. “Breakdance is too fast for the eye,” he says. “It’s easier to capture it beneath the surface.” Cruz sported diving equipment during the pool shoot, and used hand signals to direct Chicago-born B-Girl Ladie One (left) and Sacramento-based VillN. “I was a signlanguage expert by the end of it,” he says.

See all the pics at: redbullphotography.com Photography: Carlo Cruz

15

PL A Z A D E TO RO S , M E XI C O

Dany Torres performs his famous Paris Hilton flip at the first stop of the 2015 Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour in Mexico City. With a freestyle motocross career stretching back 13 years, the 28-year-old Spaniard is one of the most consistent riders on circuit, winning the Red Bull X-Fighters title in 2011 and registering seven top-three finishes on the series overall. Torres has good memories of the Pretoria event, coming second there last year.

South African FMX fans will be looking forward to seeing more incredible feats on September 12. redbullxfighters.com Photography: Joerg Mitter

16

JOERG MITTER/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

IN FULL FLIGHT

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Visual Storytelling

© John Wellburn/Red Bull Content Pool

Beyond the ordinary

SOUTH AFRICA

BEYOND THE ORDINARY

THE FUTURE OF THE SPRINGBOKS

Blood, sweat and big data

THE CAPTAIN OF ADVENTURE ALL-ROUND ACTION HERO WILL GADD IS A LIVING LEGEND IN THE TRUEST SENSE.

LEAP OF

FAITH

RED BULL X-FIGHTERS is back!

PLUS Meet Drake McElroy, the ultimate FMX maverick

SEND IN THE CLOWNS

„IT‘S THE THRILL OF THE CHASE.“

Rodeo‘s bullfighting bodyguards

bodyguards Rodeo‘s bullfighting

CLOWNS SEND IN THE

FAITH

ultimate FMX maverick PLUS Meet Drake McElroy, the

RED BULL X-FIGHTERS is back!

LEAP OF big data Blood, sweat and

SPRINGBOKS OF THE THE FUTURE

BEYOND THE ORDINARY

SOUTH AFRICA

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THE RED BULLETIN BULLEVARD DO NOT CROSS!

CRIME SCENE NO SH*T SHERLOCK

PICTUREDESK.COM

Brilliant, awkward, cold, Benedict Cumberbatch’s narcissistic Holmes has set the gold standard for crime drama heroes You can group us in with the “Cumberbitches”, the legions of Benedict Cumberbatch’s selflabelled female fans who caught on early to the rangy actor’s rising star. Already a TV staple before his breakout as the super-sleuth in the BBC series Sherlock, Cumberbatch has gone on to roles in The Hobbit, been nominated for an Oscar in The Imitation Game, and is in Black Mass, the upcoming film about infamous mobster Whitey Bulger, starring Johnny Depp. But it’s his portrayal of the modern-day Sherlock Holmes that got us onto his bandwagon.

After trying to kill him off, it seems the habit of shutting down promising shows (The Office, The IT Crowd) has finally been bucked and Holmes and Dr Watson (Martin Freeman) are back not just for a 2015 Christmas special, but for a whole Season 4, which starts filming in early 2016 . Elementary.

Cumberbatch’s Holmes has given up smoking and ditched the deerstalker

19

BULLEVARD

THE RED BULLETIN CASTS...

CASTING THE HEADLINES

Johnny Depp could get an Oscar nod for his portrayal of Boston gangster Whitey Bulger in Black Mass. Who would play the other headline-grabbers?

DZHOKHAR TSARNAEV THE BOSTON BOMBER The Chechen immigrant caused an American nightmare and landed on a controversial Rolling Stone cover seemingly as a sex symbol. To balance out the dreamy with the despicable, it’s time to give one of Hollywood’s moody young guns a shot.

Right move: Adam Driver, on the heels of all that JJ Abrams Star Wars glory.

Wrong move: Zac Efron trying desperately to gain some depth.

OSCAR PISTORIUS OLYMPIC HERO TURNED MURDER SUSPECT

RETURN OF THE X-FILES Mulder and Scully are back. Here are a few more pairs we’d like to see

JOHN MCAFEE SOFTWARE MILLIONIARE ON THE RUN He’s in Belize. No, he’s in Guatemala. No, he’s on Vice right now. Wanted for questioning by Belize authorities in connection with the death of his neighbour, McAfee was the global personification of sex, drugs, money and violence for a few weeks. Now he’s existing quietly in Tennessee with a new wife.

SETH ROGEN / BETTY WHITE The potty-mouthed May/ December duo must choose between battling bad guys and… just firing up a big one and ordering in pizza.

Right move: It’s Aviator meets Blood Diamond as Leonardo DiCaprio hits Howard Hughes paranoia levels for a second time.

Wrong move: Ryan Reynolds — too cute.

RONDA ROUSEY / THE ROCK The World’s Most Dangerous Woman and the guy who can battle earthquakes: who’d mess with that?

The adaptive athlete runner on speed blades is accused of murdering his girlfriend.

He says he thought she was an intruder. South Africa finds him guilty of culpable homicide.

Someone who can balance athletic machismo with paranoia and arrogant self-delusion.

Right move: Michael Fassbender, because the man can basically do everything.

Wrong move: Bradley Cooper – just too damn likeable.

KEVIN HART / JANE LYNCH The hyperactive small American actor/comedian paired with the lofty, dry-witted best high school gym teacher in television history.

WE CAN DREAM

Depp in Black Mass: the film is in cinemas worldwide from September 17

20

Season 1 made the Matthew McConaughey renaissance, with some fine acting by comrade-instonerhood Woody Harrelson.

Season 2 was Colin Farrell (fine), Taylor Kitsch (fine), Rachel McAdams (great) and Vince Vaughn (errr…). So why not jump the shark? Tommy Lee Jones provides the gravel, Charlize Theron the gravitas, and Jack Black steals every scene.

CORBIS(5), WARNER, GETTY IMAGES(5)

True Detective Season 3

BULLEVARD

MISS MONEYPENNY

THE ULTIMATE BOND GIRL

Once relegated to being MI6’s most besotted assistant (“You always were a cunning linguist, James”), Moneypenny’s job description has been shaken and stirred with the times NAOMIE HARRIS 2012-current That mysterious Land Rover-driving, train-chasing, rib-breaking sniper babe at the start of Skyfall was revealed at the end of the movie to be none other than the modern iteration of Miss Moneypenny. She returns in Spectre, which hits cinemas in November. We presume she will again take sh-t from no one.

SAMANTHA BOND 1995-2002 PTODD PLITT/CONTOUR/GETTY IMAGES, KOBAL COLLECTION(2), PICTUREDESK.COM

Said that “cunning linguist” line with a straight face. Types.

CAROLINE BLISS 1987-1989 Wears glasses. Books travel. Goes to meetings.

Carries a notebook. Types.

LOIS MAXWELL 1962-1985 Makes calls. Puts on lipstick. Files paperwork.

Begs for jewellery. Types.

Naomie Harris is the first Moneypenny who’s been given a first name: Eve

THE RED BULLETIN

21

BULLEVARD

LA’S WORST DAY

Sharon Tate

Murder In 1969 the actress, who was eightand-a-half months pregnant, was killed by followers of Charles Manson at her home in Benedict Canyon.

Mel Gibson

DUI Who would have guessed that downing too many cocktails at Moonshadows, then driving off and launching into an anti-Semitic rant was a career killer?

Lindsey Lohan

DUI This is the site of her second 2007 arrest for DUI and coke possession, not the site of her first 2007 arrest for DUI and coke possession.

Malibu

Santa Monica Bay

Die Hard

Terrorism Yippee ki-yay, motherf--ker! Bruce Willis’ Christmas is almost ruined as he fights terrorists at Nakatomi Plaza — actually Fox Plaza in Century City.

Santa Monica

CITY OF FALLEN ANGELS

22

TOM MACKINGER

In both fiction and the real world, Los Angeles attracts its fair share of malfeasant creeps.

But what if all of the city’s notorious crimes happened at the same time? Sorry, LAPD, being on duty for the crime apocalypse must suck…

THE RED BULLETIN

Wonderland Murder

Bugsy Siegel

Murder In 1947, mobster Bugsy Siegel was shot to death in his girlfriend’s Beverly Hills home. The crime was recreated in the 1991 Warren Beatty movie Bugsy.

Wonderland tells of four murders in Laurel Canyon, for which porn star John Holmes was tried but acquitted. Boogie Nights, starring Mark Wahlberg, was inspired by Holmes’ life.

CA

LA Confidential

Police corruption A sort-of good cop, played by Russell Crowe, uncovers a prostitution ring run out of a historic Richard Neutradesigned house in Griffith Park.

Griffith Park Nightcrawler

Led Zeppelin

Mayhem If you were in one of the greatest rock bands ever, would you ride your motorcycle through the lobby of the Chateau Marmont? Yes, you would.

Obstruction of justice Jake Gyllenhaal’s creeper Lou Bloom travels around the city collecting gory crime scene footage; his home base is in Echo Park.

Beverly Hills Mid-Wilshire

Downtown

Culver City The Notorious BIG

Murder The New York rapper was the victim of a drive-by shooting outside the Petersen Automotive Museum in 1997.

The crime remains unsolved.

Heat

Bank robbery The movie’s insane 10-minute bank shootout scene features Robert De Niro and Val Kilmer marauding through downtown with assault rifles.

Drive Ray Donovan

Bribery Liev Schreiber’s fictional fixer commits quite a few crimes of his own to help his clients, including springing them out of jail in Culver City.

THE RED BULLETIN

Mob heist Driving a getaway car is no problem for Ryan Gosling’s stunt driver; neither is beating a guy to death. He and love interest Irene live near MacArthur Park.

Collateral

Assassination Hitman Tom Cruise holds taxi driver Jamie Foxx hostage as he completes his kill list around the city. The final chase occurs near the Staples Center.

23

BULLEVARD

RUN AND GUN WHEN CRIME GOES THUD The world’s dumbest criminals

WAYNE WADE HOLLYWOOD, USA The burglar left his mobile phone at his victim’s home and called the number to ask for it back. A detective answered.

You can guess the rest.

PAUL ROBERT BENSON BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND If you’re going to shoplift, make sure you’re not wearing a replica Manchester United shirt with your name on the back.

Guns, Andy Warhol, 1982

WHAT MAKES CRIME GO POP? Why does a case make headlines? These are the five characteristics that can make a crime go mainstream

CONFLICTING EVIDENCE The numbers don’t add up. What he said doesn’t line up with what she said. The cops couldn’t find the weapon. The DNA samples don’t match. “To me, these are the most interesting cases. You’re trying to weigh up the evidence and ask yourself, ‘Am I convinced by this, or more convinced by the other side?’”

2.

COULD HE BE INNOCENT? If there is even a glimmer of a doubt that the defendant is guilty, it’ll inspire widespread debate.

“These cases really put your nerves on edge, because they could happen to any of us. You’re just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

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WHAT WAS THE JURY THINKING? Jurors are thrown into a void where no outside thoughts or opinions are allowed, which often leads to a massive disconnect between public opinion and final verdict. “We get frustrated when we feel that a sense of justice has not been served. It’s when everyone in the world knows something, except the people on the jury. It’s hard to make a perfect system, but the US sure as hell doesn’t have it.”

KAINRATH

4.

THE MORE BLOOD, THE BETTER There’s something about excessive violence and the lurid accounts of a murder that taps into our base emotions. “One of the basic rules of the crime story is that we are looking inside the soul of human nature by looking outside our own experiences, and that’s why these cases are intriguing. When something is really unusual about a crime, people react to it.”

Crimes are…

DIETMAR KAINRATH

1.

3.

5.

THEMES OF OUR TIMES Stories with socially relevant themes that stimulate national debate carry weight above almost all other ingredients. “A crime that strikes a nerve sets off a kind of cycle. It’s like we’ve hit a gold mine; because we’ve had this rush of stories about the deaths of black teenage males recently, every time there is a case that seems like it might fit that pattern, it gets into the media.”

…a matter of perspective.

THE RED BULLETIN

CORBIS, GETTY IMAGES

Celebrated American baseball writer Bill James is best known for turning the sport on its head with his stats-based approach to team-building. But in his downtime, the Moneyball pioneer reads true crime stories — more than 1,000 of them so far — and his book on the subject, Popular Crime, was published in 2011.

In the age of Trayvon Martin and Oscar Pistorius, The Red Bulletin asked James what it takes for a crime to grab the masses by the throat.

PETER WELSH and DWAYNE DOOLAN BEAUDESERT, AUSTRALIA On New Year’s Eve, the pair tunnelled into what they thought was a jewellery store.

It was, in fact, a KFC. They robbed it anyway.

BULLEVARD

SMILE FOR THE CAMERA

THEY FOUGHT THE LAW, AND THE LAW WON Which star was accused of which crime?

Match the celebrity mugshot with the misdemeanour they were arrested for…

6’4”

6’4”

6’0”

6’0”

5’6”

5’6”

5’2”

5’2”

4’8”

4’8”

4’4”

4’4”

3’0”

3’0”

2’6”

2’6”

2’2”

2’2”

1’8”

1’8” WIZ KHALIFA 1

JENNA JAMESON 2

VINCE VAUGHN 3

REESE WITHERSPOON 4

MARILYN MANSON 5

A. FIGHTING IN PUBLIC — B. SUSPECTED DUI — C. CRIMINAL SEXUAL CONDUCT D. POSSESSION OF MARIJUANA — E. DISORDERLY CONDUCT Answers: 1D; 2B; 3A; 4E; 5C

HOT FUZZ

GETTY IMAGES(5), INSTAGRAM(4)

Four police department Instagram accounts to follow

Queensland Police Department

Reykjavik Metropolitan Police Department

New York Police Department

Portland Police Department

Followers: 9.4k Antipodean badassery and a perhaps unhealthy obsession with arresting Captain Jack Sparrow. instagram.com/qpsmedia

Followers: 160k Cute chicks in uniform, officers pulling ollies on skateboards, and puppies. Let’s go to Iceland. instagram.com/logreglan

Followers: 30k See New York’s finest bust bad guys and confiscate evidence through all the right filters. instagram.com/nypd

Followers: 1.1k On patrol in Portlandia with the cutest K9 unit on the West Coast. Also: ironic doughnuts. instagram.com/portlandpolice

THE RED BULLETIN

25

SEND IN THE CLOWNS YOU CAN BE A HERO REGARDLESS OF HOW RIDICULOUS YOU LOOK. BULLFIGHTERS IN ABSURD COSTUMES STOP FALLEN RODEO RIDERS BEING KILLED BY CHARGING BULLS WORDS: ANDREAS ROTTENSCHLAGER PHOTOGRAPHY: JIM KRANTZ

Bullfighter Josh Daries at the rodeo in Clovis, California: “If you’re not scared, you’re crazy”

27

JOSH DARIES’ TRANSFORMATION BEGINS ON A SUNDAY MORNING IN A STIFLING TRAILER ON THE EDGE OF THE RODEO IN CLOVIS, CALIFORNIA. Daries is 26 years old, slim, and has aquamarine eyes. He slips on a jockstrap and wraps bandages around his wrists. He then ties a body protector made of hard plastic onto his upper body and, with both arms fully outstretched, rotates them to check that it’s on properly.

This first part of his transformation is the normal part. For part two, Daries climbs into a pair of washed-out jean shorts. They are three sizes too big for him – XXL – and the ends are frayed. Then he fishes an orange batik shirt covered in dabs of russet pink watercolour paint out of his trunk and buttons it up over his body protector. All that’s needed now to finish the job is some make-up.

Daries draws purple circles under his eyes and onto his chin which he colours in using white finger paint. He takes a selfie with his iPhone to assess the results… Perfect. The transformation is complete. Daries is a gladiator in a clown outfit.

His working day starts an hour from now.

Rodeo riders in Clovis are fighting for prize money of $300,000

28

Bullfighters Daries (left) and Eric Layton on their way into the arena. They both wear hard plastic body protectors under their floral shirts

“YOU CAN’T TELL HOW BRAVE A MAN IS BY WHAT HE’S WEARING” Daries, a former bull rider, is a bullfighter and a bodyguard for rodeo cowboys.

When a bull bucks its rider off, Daries offers himself up as a more enticing target, giving the cowboy time to get to safety.

When it all goes according to the script, at least.

If things don’t go to plan, the cowboy either gets caught up in the retaining straps and gets dragged along by a 900kg bull or he’s lying unconscious on the 30

floor, in which case a second bullfighter has to distract the bull while Daries hurls himself at the cowboy to protect him, hoping that he doesn’t get trampled to death himself in the process.

Bullfighters are the quiet heroes of any rodeo, colourfully dressed men in huge trousers risking their lives to save cowboys. The reason bullfighters still wear outlandish outfits today is because their predecessors, the rodeo clowns,

used to entertain spectators with gags back in the early 20th century.

“It’s part of our history,” says Daries as he clambers down out of his trailer in his painted shirt and white make-up.

Daries arrived in Clovis, a farming town at the foot of Sierra Nevada, a fourhour drive north of Los Angeles, two days earlier in his Dodge pickup truck.

This town of 100,000 people is rodeo THE RED BULLETIN

Daries distracts a bull: “They pay attention to their name�

Above: bareback rider R C Landingham in a splint.

This picture (from left): bullfighters Tim O’Connor, Eric Layton and Josh Daries warm up for the final of the 101st Clovis Rodeo

Daries works as a bullfighter at up to 50 rodeos a year. The make-up is part of the sport’s history. It harks back to a time when bullfighters entertained the crowd as rodeo clowns

mad. Competitions have been held here for more than 100 years. A cowboy adorns the Clovis official seal.

With 20 minutes to go till the rodeo begins, Daries is standing by the side entrance to the arena and stretching his adductor muscles. “Quick legs are my life insurance,” he explains. Daries has to charge at the bull’s rear at an acute angle so that the huge animal will have to turn round before it can take up pursuit.

Centimetres here make all the difference.

“If it catches you with its hoof, it can knock you out or break your ribs,” Daries reveals. In 1989, rodeo rider Lane Frost died after a bull attacked. The broken ribs he suffered had severed an artery.

Daries has been lucky so far: two knee

DARIES SPRINTS. THE SWEAT RUINS HIS MAKE-UP THE RED BULLETIN

operations and various dislocated joints.

Two years ago, a bull slammed its left horn into his chin. Daries was dazed and could barely stand – but he soldiered on.

Five minutes to go. Daries gets down on one knee and prays. “God, protect me, my colleagues, the rodeo riders and all the animals in the arena.”

There are three bullfighters today.

Daries’ colleagues are wearing canary blue and tulip pink. It is the final of the main event: bull riding.

The Clovis rodeo is 150m by 40m and the longer sides are flanked by steel stands.

There are 7,000 spectators here and pop music is blasting out of the loudhailers.

At the bull rodeo, riders have to stay on the bucking animals for eight seconds with only one hand on the reins. The judges give scores based on how elegantly the riders ride and how wild the bull is.

The Clovis Rodeo forms part of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association series, and there’s $300,000 in prize money up for grabs this weekend.

On the rodeo ground, Daries and his colleagues have begun dealing with the riders at a rate of knots. The man in the tulip-pink shirt dashes around between snorting bulls. The bullfighter in canary blue drags cowboys out of

the danger zone. For the riders, the danger is over in eight seconds. But for Daries there are another 19 riders to go.

The sweat ruins his make-up.

A bull called Crystal Deal provides the most spectacular throw of the afternoon.

It bucks and stomps hard on the ground.

The cowboy holds on tight, but it’s no use: he goes flying off the beast’s back after 4.2 seconds. His colourful bodyguards are on hand immediately. Canary man gets the rider upright. The cowboy totters into the safety of the enclosure.

The rodeo winner goes on to receive a cheque for $5,696. But what about the bullfighters? “Not as much as it should be considering the risk,” says Daries.

His reward is no one getting injured.

Occasionally a cowboy buys him a beer.

Two hours after the rodeo, Daries is back at his Dodge, freshly showered and wearing a neatly pressed denim shirt. He has transformed himself back into the person he was before.

And what has three years of lifethreatening work wearing clown costumes taught him?

“You can’t tell how brave a man is by what he’s wearing.”

For rodeo news, go to: prorodeo.com

33

The rodeo riders call their bulls “animal athletes�. Here we see animal athlete Crystal Deal throwing cowboy Christopher Byrd. For bullfighters Layton (second from left) and Daries (right), that means work

35

Left: Layton (left) distracts the bull. The cowboy makes a run for it. Below: The bullfighters each cover 180 degrees of the animal’s field of vision

Above: Josh Daries drags himself back to his trailer after a hard day’s work in Clovis.

He’ll soon get into his Dodge pickup truck and make his way to the next rodeo Left: It’s tough at the top – rodeo riders tend to their wounds. Top PRCA stars earn five-figure sums

THE RED BULLETIN

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The future of the Springboks has been entrusted to a team of geeks and their tracking software, although a steady supply of players ready to run through a brick wall always helps. The Red Bulletin investigates Words: Luke Alfred Photography: Chris Saunders

BOK

TO THE

Big data, big futures: Damian de Allende (far left) and Siya Kolisi (this page) are two Springboks with plenty left to achieve

FUTURE

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Pass class: De Allende has the size and skills to keep any opposition backline honest

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he bone-crunching physicality of modern rugby is matched only by the number-crunching and analysis that accompanies the game nowadays, with mountains of statistics being harvested, interpreted and stored on a weekly basis. In order to stay ahead of the curve, South African rugby has historically relied on a steady stream of hulking, passionate players, but now the Springbok brains-trust are looking to big data to improve the performances of the country’s finest athletes.

Rassie Erasmus – the former flanker who played in 15 of the Boks’ world record 17 wins in a row, as well as in the 1999 Rugby World Cup where the Springboks won the bronze medal match against New Zealand – is the man who is driving the South African Rugby Union’s new digital high-performance approach.

Even when playing at the highest level, Erasmus was always searching for better ways to do things, to the point

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of going out and buying an analysis system derived from the Russian army several years before he retired.

“It was financed by Bankfin for something like R124,000,” he says.

“It came in this big black box and was massive. It was days before it would produce results.”

Erasmus’ inquiring mind remains the same, but technology has moved on since then. Two software systems are now being deployed by SARU: ‘Stratus’, which is used for game analysis; and ‘Footprint’ to identify, track and develop young talent as it grows to maturity and leaves the school environment.

The more conventional of the two systems is Stratus, a game analysis tool that is used to code thousands of matches every season. Matches can be downloaded from SuperSport or from the cloud, with each ‘action’ being coded into the database by one of Erasmus’ hard-working data jockeys.

Go forward: Kolisi’s barnstorming runs in the loose are difficult to stop

THE SPRINGBOK BRAINS-TRUST ARE LOOKING TO BIG DATA TO IMPROVE PERFORMANCES

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THERE’S STILL NO SUBSTITUTE FOR THE INTANGIBLES THAT MOTIVATE YOUNG PLAYERS ON THE LONG JOURNEY TO TURNING PRO The premise is simple, however the conclusions are worth gold; they reveal, for example, whether Australia tend to flood the breakdown or not. The answer is that they do (often with three players), but the answers themselves are far less important that what is done with them

by Springbok management.

As a coach or technical advisor, there are many advantages to having the facts at your fingertips. Firstly, facts take the debate about players out of the subjective realm, rooting it in something tangible.

Coaching decisions like selection choices and substitutions can therefore be defended by the statistics. Stats are also invariably long-view, which means that they’re a cool corrective to the vagaries of short-term memory and, in this way, can often be startlingly counter-intuitive.

South African referee Jaco Peyper, for instance, might be one of those guys fans love to hate. But the numbers portray Peyper as being remarkably consistent.

This means he’s fair, even-handed and therefore trustworthy, qualities which fans choose to ignore during their emotional, short-term reactions to some of his decisions. Little wonder then that Peyper has been chosen to referee the opening match of the Rugby World Cup at Twickenham on September 18.

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ou can have all the highperformance systems in the world, but there’s still no substitute for the intangibles that motivate young players on the long journey to becoming a professional.

“Rugby was the only thing I knew when I was growing up,” says Siya Kolisi, the flank forward who played junior club rugby in Zwide township in Port Elizabeth long before he was co-opted into fancy boarding school and provincial systems.

“There was nothing else in my life. I was inspired mainly by ‘loosies’ – Big Joe van Niekerk, Schalk Burger and Bobby Skinstad. And, of course, Jean de Villiers.

Now I’m there with Schalk and Jean.”

For Kolisi’s Stormers and Springbok teammate Damian de Allende, playing first XV rugby for Milnerton High was

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maybe also not ideal preparation for where he was destined to end up, but it did give him an inspiring glimpse of what the future might hold, if he could muster the determination.

In his first year out of school, things began to fall into place. “In 2011 my club, Hamiltons, paid for me to go to the Rugby Performance Centre in Riebeek West and I only really started gymming then,” he says. “They push you to your limits at the RPC and your conditioning has to be perfect. That was really important for me.”

De Allende is an imposing physical specimen, but that’s not his most noteworthy attribute. His real standout feature is his competitiveness and appetite for pain. “The reason why I like to play at 12 is because it puts me closer to the action,” he says. But De Allende is actually equally comfortable at outside centre. Sheer hunger to play, anywhere, is usually the mark of any ambitious youngster, but unfortunately it doesn’t guarantee he won’t fall through cracks in the system. That’s where Erasmus’ second piece of software wizardry, Footprint, enters the picture.

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ootprint was initially intended to track young players through four phases, from age 15 until they are 21 and hopefully either playing for the Baby Boks or in possession of their first professional contract. SARU are also using Footprint to analyse their talent pipeline, with the aim of sourcing more players from more schools, thus developing the sport more widely and taking care of transformation criteria without resorting to quotas. But Erasmus’ team have found that Footprint has morphed from a relatively straightforward player identification and tracking tool into something with far greater potential.

Information is now coming in from all 14 feeder unions on an almost daily basis as player data is captured and monitored as players progress through the ranks.

Data from a coach’s cellphone or tablet app can be sync’ed with Footprint so that players are accurately ranked across 10

Experience counts: “Before a game, I chill.

I’m not one of those guys who gets hyped up,” says De Allende

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Motivation is priceless: “Rugby was all I knew when I was growing up,� says Kolisi

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Players are ranked across 10 categories, including handling and conditioning

“YOU ALWAYS PUT YOUR BODY ON THE LINE. BUT IT’S LIKE BEING HIT BY A CAR”

Grooming: Laura Kingma/Lampost

categories: conditioning, support play and handling being three of them. If intervention is needed, this can now happen quickly and automatically, thanks to anomalies being flagged by the system.

National age group selectors, for example, don’t have to wait for Grant Khomo Week (at Under-16 level) or Craven Week to rectify a player’s bad habits. And as players get older and improve, they can now be compared against the benchmark norms of senior Springboks like Burger, De Villiers and Tendai ‘Beast’ Mtawarira.

Footprint continues to evolve into a tool that is properly proactive. Player welfare is also on Erasmus’ team’s radar.

“We’re refining all the time,” they say.

“We want to end up being able to not only identify and track players, but also look out for player welfare. We don’t want to find out that a player is about to reach a threshold because of over-training. If there’s a mental block for some reason, we want to have enough information on the database to see that coming.”

Burnout is the last thing on Harold Vorster’s mind after he broke through into the Super Rugby elite this season.

“After my Super Rugby debut, I’d say that I took maybe three or four matches to get used to the pace and the feel of the game,” says the Lions’ promising new centre.

“After that it was all about perseverance and hard work. But by the end of the season and the last two or three matches I was feeling comfortable. It’s important not to get a big head, though.”

While Vorster’s quest to become a Springbok is only just beginning, De Allende’s Bok career is about to take off.

That extra experience counts when it comes to dealing with the pressure. “The enjoyment is important to me,” says De Allende. “Before a game, I just chill. I’m not one of those guys to get hyped up. I listen to rap and hip-hop and take it easy.”

De Allende’s not alone in believing the real challenge of coping with pro rugby is as mental as it is physical.

“You always put your body on the line,” says Kolisi. “It’s like being hit by a car. When you wake up on a Monday or Tuesday morning after a match on the weekend, you think you’re carrying an injury or a niggle. But you’re just sore.

That’s just the way it is.”

That’s just the way it is, and the way it always will be. And that ability to keep on coming back for more is probably still the best measure of a Springbok, even if it can’t be tracked on a spreadsheet. Yet. Follow the Boks at the Rugby World Cup: Twitter @Springboks

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HEROES

“I PREPARE FOR TOURS LIKE AN ATHLETE” ALBERT HAMMOND JR After rock ’n’ roll stardom

almost killed him, The Strokes guitarist got clean and rediscovered his creative mojo

the red bulletin: Kicking an addiction is one thing, but how do you get the creative process working again? albert hammond jr: It took a while. There was a two-year window from when I stopped using [drugs] to when I began to feel normal. I doubted everything I did and I didn’t think I’d play music again. It was really hard. I would have to schedule seeing a movie in my calendar so that I wouldn’t just end up isolated in my room. It sounds a little silly, 46

but my therapist told me to use my eyes as a camera – not to judge anything, but simply to take everything in, like an archaeologist arriving on an alien planet. I did it at parties. I did it when I went out. It became this thing I did, where I would just absorb information. And, ultimately, that was what helped me regain my curiosity.

Would you say that going through all the tough stuff helped you rediscover the talent inside?

When you’re reduced to being on autopilot and then have to

preparing for it as an athlete would in order to win the championship. I practise playing my guitar. I practise singing. I keep my body in shape. I ride my motorcycle and I go scuba diving. But it’s not just about keeping physically fit, because the mind can go sooner than the body when you’re travelling on the road. You really need to keep your morale high.

Do you miss partying like a rock star?

When I look back on those days, sure. There are times when I even miss the darkest moments. But when I think back to that time, I don’t imagine doing what I did then. I think about how

“I TRY TO REMAIN FOCUSED ON SETTING POSITIVE THINGS IN MOTION, AND I’M CONSTANTLY IN SEARCH OF NEW RITUALS” find your way out of it, there can be learning. I had to take baby steps just to want to have fun again. But you have to, because fun is what keeps you from doing the things you shouldn’t be doing. I also had to create more discipline in my life. I wake up, I practise, I exercise. I try to remain focused on setting positive things in motion. These days, I’m constantly in search of new rituals, and that goes for my songwriting, too.

just connecting. And then, after I’d listened to some song or another enough times, I’d hear a line and it suddenly had something to do with a moment in my life. It was like they knew me. I want to have that effect on people.

One way to look at addiction is that you’re pushing your body (and your mind) to its limits. But there are healthy ways to do that as well…

When I’m getting ready to go on tour, I feel like I’m

great it would have been, back then, to be where I am now. If I could travel back in time, I’d take that over all the partying any day. I’m also happy no longer being thrown left and right emotionally. You can live in the middle. You can understand both sides of your emotions, but think about them and grow from them.

I’m more centred right now.

Duff McDonald alberthammondjr.com THE RED BULLETIN

JASON MCDONALD

W

hen Albert Hammond Jr wasn’t performing to stadiums packed with adoring fans as guitarist with millennial post-punk phenomenon The Strokes, he was ingesting a colourful array of drugs. And then the predictable happened. But after pulling back from the brink and getting clean, Hammond Jr has tapped into a deep creative vein as a solo artist. Following the release of his third album, Momentary Masters, the 35-year-old talks recovery and rediscovery.

So, have you reconnected with the reasons you started making music in the first place?

Absolutely. I wanted this record to be multilayered, so you can put it on in the car, with friends, wherever. More than that, though, I wanted it to hit you somewhere, make you feel something, so that you connect to it. When I was 15, music changed my life.

Nothing at school made sense.

Everybody had everything so planned out. It was all about money. And then – boom! – I discovered The Beatles and The Velvet Underground, I connected to their music in such a deep way – it wouldn’t even be thinking,

The title of Hammond Jr’s new album, Momentary Masters, was taken from a book by the late astronomer/ author Carl Sagan

HEROES

“THEY WERE TRYING TO FIT A CUBE INTO A SQUARE” ICE CUBE In the NWA biopic (released this month),

the role of Ice Cube is played by his son, O’Shea Jackson Jr Here, Cube offers some fatherly advice

the red bulletin: O’Shea, why was it important that you took this role?

O’Shea: Because as big as the movie is to everyone, the story of NWA is bigger to me. It’s 48

my family’s legacy, so it was important to get it right.

I wanted some input into the portrayal of my father – after doing my research for 20-plus years, I felt I was qualified.

Then it was about getting my acting tools sharpened… cube: I couldn’t be prouder.

I told him what I was feeling and thinking back then, and he used it as ammunition. He had my temperament perfect in every situation. It was great.

O’Shea, what did you learn from your father?

O’Shea: I learnt courage from watching him lead by example.

rather see Nice Cube than Ice Cube any day.

O’Shea, what inspiration do you take from your father’s career? o’shea: That no matter what they tell me, I should always be true to myself.

Cube, does hearing that warm your heart? cube: I don’t want him to feel like he’s got to live up to anyone but himself. The more you try to please others, the unhappier you become.

Did Hollywood try that with you, Cube, fitting a square peg into a round hole? cube: They were trying to fit a Cube into a square, yeah.

O’Shea, how often does he drop these gems?

“PEOPLE SAY THAT BECAUSE YOU DID THIS MOVIE, YOU MUST BE THIS PERSON. THEY’D RATHER SEE NICE CUBE THAN ICE CUBE” He told me about confidence at a young age. I remember him saying, “It’s what the girls look for. Know what you’re doing.”

You’ve got to have that look.

Did it matter that you didn’t grow up in Compton?

O’Shea: I wasn’t trying to do ’hood research or anything like that. As an actor, what’s important is what your character is thinking. I have so many parts of my father’s character and his mannerisms that a lot of the time it’s

cube: I’m not surprised that I’m now doing movies. My movies are great, they do good, and people watch them over and over again.

On my records, that’s not a character or an actor you’re hearing, that’s real life. But in a movie, I can be anybody because it’s all just makebelieve. What’s astonishing is how people say that because you did this kind of movie, you must be this kind of person. People would much

O’Shea: Man, all the time!

I was going to the zoo one time and he said to me, “Even a lion knows when there’s too many hyenas,” meaning that you should always be aware of your surroundings. He’s got a bag full of them. I love it.

Cube: Be good to your kids.

You gonna be old one day and they’re gonna have to take care of your ass.

Andreas Tzortzis straightouttacompton.com THE RED BULLETIN

UNIVERSAL PICTURES

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in the late 1980s, rapper Ice Cube was at the height of his fame with hip-hop pioneers NWA when film student John Singleton approached him about a role in his movie. Cube was receptive, but he had doubts as filming approached. “I didn’t think I was qualified,” he says now.

“But then I saw my first dailies [raw footage from the day’s filming] and I knew I could do it if I worked at it.” What NWA’s blistering tunes were to radio, Singleton’s Boyz N The Hood was to cinema, and writ large across both was Cube, who bristled with charisma.

His transition from rap to film was seamless, and he went on to set up his own production company, Cube Vision. Now, with Cube’s son, O’Shea Jackson Jr, set to play him in the NWA biopic Straight Outta Compton, the pair talk about how risks can pay off.

not about acting. It’s about making it as real as it can be. cube: When you black in America, you getting the flavour of everything. People look at you like you don’t have nothing, or you come from “the ghetto”. No matter how much money is in my son’s pocket and no matter that he never grew up in the ’hood because he didn’t have to, he’s young and black so he’s seen as a ’hood person. He still feels that pressure. And then some people make you feel not as cool because you don’t come from Watts or Compton.

But it ain’t where you’re from, it’s where you’re at.

When you look at your career arc, are you surprised?

O’Shea Jackson Jr (left), aka rapper OMG, is taking the leap into movies – just like his father, Ice Cube, did at the start of his career

HEROES

“LIVING A NORMAL LIFE SCARES ME” SEAN CONWAY The triathlon athlete, endurance kayaker and professional photographer has dedicated his life to adventure. And, says Conway, so can you

rather than the usual 12 hours. The location is top secret for now.

Can anyone become an adventurer?

Yes. I’m 5ft 8in tall and weigh 65kg. I’m not an Olympian or ex-army. I’m just this hairy kid who wasn’t any good at school sports. Luckily, the bad decisions that I made in my 20s forced me to go in search of something better.

Have any of your missions ever scared you?

Living a normal life scares me. But adventure isn’t always about rowing across oceans and climbing mountains – it’s a way of thinking. You don’t have to quit your job: you have the nine-to-five, but you also have the five-to-nine.

Graeme Lennox seanconway.com

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imbabwean-born adventurer Sean Conway recently became the first person to complete the Ultimate British Triathlon. Having cycled the length of Britain in 2008, then swum it in 2013, he finished the running stage – the equivalent of 38 consecutive marathons – in May. But the 34-year-old, who now lives in Cheltenham, is far from your stereotypical extreme athlete.

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Sean’s no sheep: Conway doesn’t follow others in his quest for adventure

JAMES CHEADLE

the red bulletin: Huge congratulations for your latest success. Did you ever consider giving up? sean conway: I was in a lot of pain, but I knew I could keep going. Physical pain subsides, but the emotional pain of failing stays with you.

How did you become a professional adventurer?

I became sick of just existing and I wanted to push myself.

I cycled 16,000 miles around the world and got into a lot of debt, but I persevered and my life was transformed.

How have things changed?

I still live a simple life. I don’t have a mortgage; I live on a 60ft former RAF boat that I bought on eBay for £2,000. It means I can be more creative with my ideas and run a scholarship that helps fund other people’s adventures.

How will you top the Ultimate British Triathlon?

I’m competing in an Ironman, but it runs over three months

THE RED BULLETIN

THE FLAVOUR OF TROPICAL FRUITS. THE WINGS OF RED BULL.

THE RED BULL SUMMER EDITION.

Just testing: Drake McElroy leads the Red Bull X-Fighters free practice session in his own unique style

LEAP of faith Meet DRAKE McELROY, the freestyle motocross maverick who’ll be first in line to jump into the unknown when the Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour lands in South Africa

WORDS: JAZZ KUSCHKE PHOTOGRAPHY: PREDRAG VUČKOVIĆ

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Tour – get to ride the track. Ahead of Thursday’s qualifying and Friday’s main event, it’s a free practice session that’s crucial to the riders’ safety and the quality of the show many thousands will watch live or via webcast. Without it, the riders would be going blind into first official practice.

“Drake is an exceptional freerider in natural terrain, so I think that’s why he has such an important role in the track-

tuning process,” says South African FMX veteran Nick de Wit, who rode in the first Red Bull X-Fighters event in SA last year.

“He can think up crazy new lines, but I think his ability to go out and hit jumps that have never been hit before, and time them perfectly, sets him apart.”

Like everything else on the Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour, the test session fits smoothly into a complex, well-oiled THE RED BULLETIN

PREDRAG VUČKOVIĆ/ RED BULL CONTENT POOL

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anking hard out of the berm to carry speed into the short run-up before the launch ramp, the rider hits the jump with practised calm, the high-pitched baaarp of the two-stroke engine silent for a long few moments as he flies into a smooth nac nac – whipping the bike sideways and swinging his leading leg back around behind the bike. A little look-back adds some style. It’s a trick from another era of freestyle motocross: not hard to do if you’re an accomplished rider, but still difficult to make look good. This version is a classic, thrown not by a Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour contender wearing full-body riding kit, but by a rider in black pin-striped trousers and a sleeveless denim jacket. This is Drake McElroy, part test pilot, part every rider’s best mate, and a whole lot of FMX hero.

When McElroy leads the testing session on the multi-tiered course constructed in the Dionyssos marble quarry in Athens, Greece, it’s the first chance the X-Fighters stars – the world’s best FMX riders who compete on the Red Bull X-Fighters World

McElroy gets his hands dirty

Work in progress: the course in the Dionyssos marble quarry in Athens

machine. Once the hour-long tune-up ride is done, the riders give their opinions on the ramps and riding lines to McElroy, who in turn feeds these ideas back into the mix.

“Following the test session is a four-hour block during which ramps can be moved and things can be changed,” says McElroy, recalling how in Pretoria last year two big berms had to be added so the riders could generate momentum before take-off. “I’m THE RED BULLETIN

here to be the middle man. Say the riders want to move a jump just a little bit in this direction or they want to put a ramp there, then I go over to the camera guys… but maybe it doesn’t work for them because they planned for something else.

Or maybe it messes up the lighting guy…”

“The first testing session creates a general level of comfort for everybody and sets the tone for the week,” continues

“TO HIT JUMPS THAT HAVE NEVER BEEN HIT BEFORE, AND TIME THEM PERFECTLY, SETS HIM APART” 55

the 34-year-old from Nevada in the USA. “You know, one good ride sesh before you have to gear up and think about official practice and qualifying. It’s also an early opportunity for the riders to suss stuff out for their bikes – they can feel how things are running and what changes need to be made before regular practice starts.”

McElroy speaks so clearly and concisely that if you had never seen photos of him or missed web series such as Drake’s Passage and MotoSoul, you might think you were talking to a marketing manager or an engineer. Instead, colourful ink covers much of his body, his hair is past shoulder length and the grungy punk look that some might call aggressive belies an intelligent, highly creative soul.

A special place in FMX lore is reserved for DMC, as McElroy is known to his fans.

Best remembered for being a pioneer of freestyle motocross, on two wheels McElroy has done it all. He got a Yamaha PW50 for his first birthday and shed the training wheels at age three. By four he was racing. He raced regionally in the USA until 2000, when he morphed into a freestyle rider courtesy of a small event where he “made a little coin for just riding my bike and having fun”.

Later he started carving out his own quirky niche away from the competitive scene. In 2007, aged 27, he told ESPN he wanted to “set himself up to be dangerous for fun instead of doing it for a career”.

That meant more time to focus on his young family and on other passions like art, music, building custom café racers and the Smoking Seagulls, a project he describes as “a bridge between likeminded people who don’t fit perfectly into the mainstream motorcycle market”.

That evolution has now led him to doing dangerous things so that his friends – who perform even more dangerous stunts – can be safe.

“He looks pretty hardcore and has his unique style,” says De Wit. “The first time I rode with him he didn’t have a front fender on his bike. He rides in a leather jacket and jeans. True, unique style.”

On the Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour, McElroy initiated the group testing session – which he now leads – in 2012, when the tour had a stop at Glen Helen in California.

“I could drive to the track because it was in my county, so I brought my bike and I could ride everything with the riders,” he says. “It helped validate my opinion.

I could ride all the stuff and I knew what the guys wanted and how to make it work.

“I could be standing around all day in my casual clothes and saying, ‘Oh, yeah, that might work, or this might work’, 56

but until it’s time to go and your brain is geared for that, it’s a whole different thing. Because I can hit the course with the riders, they’re going to take my opinion more seriously. They see that I went out and hit all the same jumps and I was living the same sh-t they were.”

Having McElroy test the course and act as the riders’ go-to guy meant that track shaper extraordinaire Dane Herron could rely on a single source of feedback instead of a cacophony of rider opinions. And at Glen Helen, at that point the biggest Red Bull X-Fighters track ever built, McElroy’s unique skillset also allowed him to shepherd the wide-eyed Spanish riders – who until then had only seen tight arena layouts – around the course until they found their feet. McElroy’s roving role made total sense and by 2013, he had a bike for each stop of the tour and the testing session had become an institution.

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o radically summarise the Red Bull X-Fighters track-building process: what begins as a vision and a venue develops into a vast CAD drawing, with approximately a month’s worth of material sourcing and infrastructure building going on up until a fortnight before event day. What then happens is a frenetic seven days of track construction by Herron and his expert team of machine operators, and then the fine-tuning of the event week.

McElroy typically arrives seven to 10 days before a Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour stop, sometimes less if it’s for a return venue such as Plaza de Toros in Mexico City. “You get there in real time McElroy: the riders’ go-to guy

JUDGMENT DAY In addition to his track-testing and rider liaison duties, McElroy also sits on the judging panel of the Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour. He is unapologetic about the difficulties of the job. “It sucks,” he says. “It’s definitely not even near a likeable job because you’re there to piss off 11 people, and at the end of the day you’re only going to have one friend. The only thing that qualifies me is that I can back it up. As long as I don’t overstep myself, then I’m a decent judge.”

PREDRAG VUČKOVIĆ/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

“BECAUSE I CAN HIT THE COURSE WITH THE RIDERS, THEY TAKE MY OPINION MORE SERIOUSLY”

Mr Fixit: “There’s always something that comes up that you never thought of. And there’s always more than one way to solve that problem” THE RED BULLETIN

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Marbellous moves: Australian Clinton Moore won the second stop of the 2015 Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour at the Dionyssos marble quarry in Athens

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THE RED BULLETIN

Fan-tastic day: there will be more thrilling action at the next Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour round in Pretoria

“WE MIGHT TWEAK A FEW THINGS JUST TO GET THE RIDERS REALLY STOKED”

ARMIN WALCHER/RED BULL CONTENT POOL, PREDRAG VUČKOVIĆ/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

and you’re dealing with elements of nature and things you cannot do with CAD,” he says. “There are tons of little fires that start and you help put them out and just help bring everything together.

“There’s so much planning that goes into each track, but once you get the ball rolling and the machine is taking off then you need to handle all those little elements on the fly. There is always something that comes up that you never thought of. And there’s always more than one way to solve that problem, so you have to find the best solution, one that works for everyone.”

The track for the Pretoria stop of the 2015 Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour (on September 12) will be totally different to last year’s. “That track is built on a slight slope so you are limited in the directions you can run,” says McElroy. “But they will still change it up. Every year the riders start doing things a little differently and that in turn creates requests. And that’s what’s cool on the tour: they help make the riders’ requests a reality, which improves the show and progresses the sport.”

THE RED BULLETIN

Certain tracks inspire a higher level of riding and fuel the evolution of the sport, but it’s a level McElroy would rather not have a part of any more.

Although he puts himself in the line of fire by hitting freshly built jumps, he prefers to keep it old school. “Have you seen what those guys do?” he asks incredulously. “I love riding: I still ride shows and demos, but the competitive nature of the contest today… I just don’t have the passion in me to keep up on the training and the focus. The risk for reward is not there. Those guys are incredible and passionate, so they make it work.”

But any talk of risk is relative. Every time McElroy fires up an FMX bike, it’s a risky business – because it means pretty soon he’ll be flying through the air, hanging underneath a 100kg motorcycle and about to discover whether the landing ramps have been correctly laid out.

McElroy relishes his role as the ultimate fixer, the guy who steps up to remove the variables so the stars of the show can be 100 per cent confident when the time comes for them to push the limits. “I don’t mind waking up on this tour to do whatever is ahead of me,” he says. “I like picking up shovels and building barrier walls and whatever else has to be done to keep everybody safe.

So you put in that work and when you finally see the riders’ reaction, you know, we might tweak a few things here and there to get them really stoked!” redbullxfighters.com

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RED BULL X-FIGHTERS IS BAC K IN TOWN

Over 20,000 fans are expected in Pretoria

ON TRACK AT THE UNION BUILDINGS Creating the 11,000m² Red Bull X-Fighters track at the 102-year-old Union Buildings in Pretoria will require some 8,000m³ of red African soil – 12,000 tons in total.

That’s 670 truckloads from the dirt quarry located 32km outside Pretoria. The same number of truckloads will be needed to cart the dirt away again after the event.

“Once the Americans get here with their front-end loaders and their bulldozers, they’re able to move an enormous amount of dirt,” explains Coenraad Nolte, who heads up logistics for what will be the fourth stop on the 2015 Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour.

“What we need to do is stockpile dirt. We bring in one truck at a time, 18 tons per truck, so we have to start a month in advance.”

McElroy on site at the Union Buildings

“WE NEED TO STOCKPILE DIRT, 18 TONS AT A TIME”

BALAZS GARDI/RED BULL CONTENT POOL, DOMINIC BARNARDT/RED BULL CONTENT POOL(2)

The red African soil used at the Pretoria track stands out from miles away

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THE RED BULLETIN

JHB/E 10017668JB/

Proud sponsor of Red Bull X-Fighters. *South African specifications may vary. Available October 2015.

To enter the competition join us on Toyota SA. For more product information visit www.toyota.co.za.

Norman Reedus has taken an unconventional path to acting success, steered by a relentless curiosity. Now, even though he’s made it, the Walking Dead star remains an outsider who not even Hollywood can tame. We head to America’s Deep South to meet a man unfazed by fame, but unsure about alligators

NORMCORE

Words: Noah E Davis Photography: Michael Muller 62

Self-confessed “city kid” Norman Reedus takes to the Louisiana swamps in search of ’gators

Cruise control: Reedus mans the airboat – the only way to navigate these shallow, vegetationstrewn waters

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How has Reedus remained so unchanged by fame? Because he was an established man before he was an established star

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Having heard how handy Reedus is with a crossbow, the alligator wasn’t planning to hang around and take any chances‌

N orman Reedus screams through the back roads of Georgia atop a motorcycle. It’s summer, but he’s dressed all in black, looking like a man willing and eager to take on the zombie apocalypse.

The actor is riding to the set of The Walking Dead – the hit TV show in which he stars as crossbowwielding Daryl Dixon – from Senoia, Georgia, his home-from-home during filming. The speed and freedom of the ride produce a familiar blur, the constant motion of Reedus’ life.

Right now, the 46-year-old star is as close to settled as he’s ever been. His myriad other projects, including a nascent art career, have taken a backseat to the regular paycheck and filming schedule that come with being the best-loved character in a global hit show. But the pace of life is still hectic, with every gap in TWD filming filled. Reedus stars alongside Kate Winslet and Woody Harrelson in crime movie Triple 9, to be released early next year, after TWD returns for a sixth season at the beginning of October.

Fame has come late to Reedus, which is a good thing. It has made him a rarity in the acting world – successful and famous, yet still very much the Hollywood outsider with his feet on the ground.

“I’ve never been spoilt,” he says in a hotel on the edge of New Orleans’ French Quarter, looking more skate rat than screen star in the ubiquitous trucker hat and black clothes. “It wasn’t in my game plan to ever think like that, and it still isn’t. I still put potato chips and bread in the refrigerator because I’m used to my apartment having bugs.

“This is the first job where I’m making money and I know I’m going back. I’ve always lived hand-to-mouth and job-to-job. It’s nice to have 68

a nine-to-five instead of trying to find a job to pay the rent this month and doing an art show to cover the next. I’m still that guy… but I made it.”

This is a guy who’ll stop every few steps for selfies in the Loews Hotel or on the streets of New Orleans.

A guy who’ll hop on his bike for a spontaneous solo road trip, or spend an evening shooting a compound bow [the modern, levered type] in his backyard.

A guy who is as keen to interact with an increasingly star-struck barista as he is with his rock-star buddy Slash, the former Guns N’ Roses guitarist.

“Norman’s genuinely curious,” says TWD co-star Melissa McBride, who plays Carol. “He’s always seeking input, and he loves stimuli. He’s so observant of what’s going on around him, of people, of the way things work and what people are into.”

This curiosity is an instinct that has fed and shaped Reedus throughout his life. It could also explain how he’s resisted the changes that so often come with fame: he was an established man before he was an established star.

Reedus is the product of a lifetime of international adventures. During his childhood, he bounced from city to city with his mother as she chased work after her marriage split. When she moved to Japan and married a geochemist, Reedus left high school to join her. (She later taught kindergarten in Harlem, high school in the Bronx, and ran an orphanage in Kurdistan. As badass as Reedus is, his mum might be even more so. He compares her favourably to Mothra, the giant, winged force of nature in the Japanese Godzilla movies.) In Tokyo, he fell in with a French guy, then a band moved into the apartment the two were sharing. Soon, they all took off for London and moved into a squat near Clapham Common, doing shifts at a postcard shop in Piccadilly and making just enough to keep themselves in beer and potatoes.

From there, Reedus moved to Sitges, a city 35km south-west of Barcelona. Today, it’s the West Hollywood of Spain, says the actor, but back then Sitges wasn’t up to much. Neither was his apartment, where saltwater flowed from the shower head. “The place was as big as this,” he says, referring to the two-person dinner table in front of him. “But it was paradise. It was a cool little escape for a while.”

Local women would buy his paintings of stray cats. So are there dozens of Norman Reedus

“I put bread in the refrigerator because I’m used to having bugs. I’m still that guy”

He may look tough, but Reedus admits he’s not cut out for ’gator hunting. “I feel like he could feel my fear,” says the actor

“I’m one of those people who doesn’t want to talk to anyone when work is over. It’s not, ‘Let’s go out for drinks.’ It’s, ‘F--k you, guys, I’ll see you in the morning’” paintings hanging in Sitges? “They’re probably in the garbage,” he says. “They weren’t that good.

Everything was unfinished. I think the women felt sorry for me. They’d just throw me some coins.”

Next, a girl he’d met in Tokyo called to say she was in Los Angeles and that he should join her. He did, but when she began dating an ex-boyfriend, Reedus was on his own. Then he got fired from a job fixing motorcycles. It was at this point that, as has been the case throughout Reedus’ resolutely open-minded life, the next adventure presented itself. While drunk and mouthing off at a party somewhere in the Hollywood Hills, he was asked to appear in a play. On the first night, he was spotted by an agent, and the rest is history.

For eight months of the year, during filming for TWD, Reedus’ day-to-day existence couldn’t be further from the Hollywood stereotype. While the rest of the cast choose to stay in the centre of Atlanta, Reedus retreats south to Senoia, a place he describes as a hippy commune for rich, old white people.

Senoia is a small, isolated town where he knows the neighbours, who have been known to tell any visiting fans to get off his lawn. “I live in Manhattan, so the woods are paradise to me,” says Reedus.

“I ride motorcycles, set off fireworks and shoot my bow from the back patio. It’s magical.”

He’s still living a private life. “There’s that part of him that loves that solitude and absorbing what’s around him and taking it in,” says McBride.

For Reedus, the choice is simpler: “I’m one of those people who doesn’t want to talk to anyone when work is over. It’s not, ‘Let’s go out for drinks.’ It’s, ‘F--k you, guys, I’ll see you in the morning.’” He smiles as he says this, genuine and mischievous in equal parts.

THE RED BULLETIN

Reedus’ low-key, tree-loving lifestyle belies the fact that he’s hugely famous. At the last count, he had 2.4 million followers on Instagram, 1.8 million on Twitter, and was the subject of reams of digital fan-fiction. “I’ve seen myself kissing Shawn [Travis Charpentier], Glenn [Steven Yeun], Rick [Andrew Lincoln], Carol, Beth [Emily Kinney]…” he says.

And yet, far from becoming insular, Reedus is keener than ever to interact. At dinner in New Orleans, the star engages the maître d’ and the server in separate conversations about the Warhol-esque paintings on the wall. He wonders if the woman pictured is Jerry Hall; it’s actually the restaurant’s former owner. Later, he compares notes about Dubai with a serviceman who politely interrupts an interview. Reedus opens the conversation with a sweet and disarming, “Thank you for your service.”

This is the same Reedus who describes holding up a Kiss concert in Atlanta because the rock band wanted to take a pre-show selfie with him before their make-up wore off, but his TWD shooting schedule had made him 15 or 20 minutes late.

So there he was, racing up the highway to the gig with Slash, as one of the biggest bands in the world – and, as a consequence, their legion of fans – waited for the duo’s arrival.

Like any celebrity, Reedus exists in his own world, but frequently – and intentionally – it crosses into the world of regular people. Part of the reason is that he’s always been his own man, making art, running around Manhattan’s Lower East Side with his cool art-world friends, dating supermodel Helena Christensen with whom he has a son, Mingus.

Another factor is his status as a latecomer to the showbiz party. Reedus was a relative unknown until he was in his early 40s. “It’s weird that the show is successful,” he says, considering how his life would be if TWD hadn’t happened. “I really like that idea of flying and making art. I’d probably still be doing that, to be honest. I really liked that time – it was great. And that was up to five years ago.”

And then came the alligator. Reedus stands in the middle of a Louisiana swamp, on a tenuous platform that holds two ramshackle trapping huts that have clearly seen better days. He’s accompanied by a photo crew and a group of animal wranglers, one of whom is a beautiful young blonde woman who was carrying the gator when an ancient plank gave way, plunging her leg into the water below.

Reedus is hardcore, but not that hardcore. “I’m a city kid,” he says. Now he’s holding the animal, arms shaking from the exertion of keeping it aloft and maybe something more. Photos taken, Reedus puts it down. “I feel like he could feel my fear,” he says.

It’s time to depart. As Reedus rides away on the airboat, he turns and waves, cupping his hand like a Miss World contestant, hamming it up for the amusement of not only those who have temporarily been left behind, but also himself. After a powerful blast from the large open fan, he disappears from view, heading for the next adventure.

Triple 9, which stars Norman Reedus, Woody Harrelson and Kate Winslet, is out in March 2016

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Mark Hunter: “Besides Tokyo, Seoul is the party capital of Asia. The whole scene is insane. Especially when it-girl Mademoiselle Yulia is DJing”

FACE TO FACE WITH

A COBRA “When Steve Aoki threw a cake in Las Vegas, he accidentally knocked the flash off my camera into the crowd, too. That’s the danger of photographing him. My equipment ended up covered in champagne and frosting”

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“Model Ingrid launching Jacques Smith’s eye bikini at Swim Fashion Week in Miami. She’s reaching for the on-off switch on the crotch of her bikini.

The show can begin!”

WHEN STARS LIKE KATY PERRY AND STEVE AOKI GO ON TOUR, THEY CALL MARK HUNTER. NO PHOTOGRAPHER CAPTURES A PARTY BETTER THAN “THE COBRASNAKE”, BECAUSE HE SNAPS AWAY WITHOUT MISSING A BEAT WORDS: FLORIAN OBKIRCHER PHOTOGRAPHY: MARK HUNTER

“This group of four friends had got separated at the Fuck Yeah Festival in LA. They were so happy to find each other again that they were rolling around on the floor”

“Me with my trademark moustache and Hawaiian shirt.

The two models are wearing T-shirts from my collection”

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ark “The Cobrasnake” Hunter was 17 when he launched polaroidscene.com, a photo blog on which the amateur lensman would post pictures of wild party nights with friends and celebrities. At the time, 12 years ago, the idea was as new as it was exciting. The site was soon attracting half a million visitors a month, and pop stars began to employ Hunter as a personal party photographer.

The secret of The Cobrasnake’s success? His radical, wartsand-all approach, which gives you the impression you’re right there in the thick of it.

“Shaun Ross [left] is albino, and Winnie Harlow [right] has vitiligo. Both models have done a lot for people’s confidence in the way they look, and in being different”

THE RED BULLETIN

“This young woman got caked by Steve Aoki in Tokyo. The frosting is so slimy it’s not that easy to clean off. I’ve seen people lick it off each other”

“I love this shot – she’s just in the moment. Everything looks perfect, and the pink bubblegum matches her lips.

Just what any photographer wants”

“I’D RUMMAGE THROUGH BINS OUTSIDE CLUBS, LOOKING FOR DISCARDED BACKSTAGE PASSES” “Every year, fashion king Jeremy Scott throws a Coachella party where you bump into celebrities such as Ferras and Katy Perry”

“When I snapped these two ladies at a party in LA, someone was holding an apple bong in front of their faces.

‘Fancy a drag?’”

THE RED BULLETIN

“DON’T ASK PERMISSION. JUST DO IT” Twelve years, 5,000 parties and a million photographs. Mark “The Cobrasnake” Hunter talks us through his journey from bintrawling music fan to personal photographer to the stars… the red bulletin: So, how do you become the world’s most sought-after party photographer? mark hunter: By following my motto: “Don’t ask permission, just do it!” When I got started in photography, I was about 17 and too young to get credentials at concerts, so I’d sneak my camera past the bouncer and into the mosh pit.

And you started the world’s first photo blog devoted to nightlife…

It was out of necessity, because at parties other kids would ask me to email them my photos and eventually there were too many requests. So I started a website and just gave out flyers.

Now you’re Katy Perry’s official tour photographer and regularly take pictures at the fashion parties of star designers such as Jeremy Scott…

I’ve taken pictures at 5,000 parties over the last 10 or 12 years and you get to know a lot of people. In 2004, Katy Perry was just a regular party girl who I photographed when I was out, and the two of us got along. Then, as her fame grew, she wanted me on tour because she was comfortable with me and knew that I would get great shots.

There are online tutorials showing others how to take Cobra-style photos.

What’s your secret?

I never ask for permission when I take a picture at a party. I just shoot. The best shots happen when people don’t even notice I’m there, when the DJ plays some hit and everyone goes mad on the dancefloor. It would be awkward to interrupt their moment and say, “Hey, I’m going to take photos.” I like to add myself to the chaos of an event.

What if someone doesn’t want to be photographed?

If someone blocks my camera, I don’t shoot. It hurts me a little bit, but I’m not a pap. I want to catch the night’s magic moments and show the most wonderful and wild side of the revellers.

How do you get the girls to lift their T-shirts for a photo?

I don’t encourage people to act wild.

They’re the ones encouraging me to take pictures of them while acting wild. I only document it. The funny thing is, I’ve never smoked or taken any drugs in my entire career.

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“Fashion star Jeremy Scott [left] with CL [centre], she’s a huge pop star in Korea.

Remember that name.

She’s about to take the West by storm”

“Cara Delevingne and Kendall Jenner at the Chateau Marmont in LA. Even though she’s in all these Hollywood movies, Cara still makes goofy faces”

“Only moments to go before the start of Jeremy Scott’s New York show and it’s chaos. Only the Hilton sisters, Iggy Azalea and Terry Richardson retain an air of calm”

Still, why do women feel comfortable letting loose with you around?

Mostly I’m in shorts and a Hawaiian shirt. I look silly and unthreatening, not like someone who’s trying to pick up women and take them home. That’s why they have fun acting out around me.

You get paid to hang out with models and stars. Any downsides to your job?

Lots of annoying travel and late nights.

And I hate it when people pose for me.

Any tips for aspiring party snappers?

Be proactive. Early in my career, I’d root through bins outside clubs, looking for discarded backstage passes. Instead of asking magazines to let me photograph a party for them, I created my own blog.

What does a party photographer do during the day?

I run the Cobra Fitness Club with friends.

We organise group hikes and other outings. I play music, and we dance in the sun. You don’t feel like you’re working out, even though you are. thecobrasnake.com; Instagram: @thecobrasnake

“This is a rave in LA at 3am. The club was a sweatbox, full of people dancing half-naked. It was a debaucherous setting – but this girl still looks flawless, which is amazing.”

“At the Moschino fashion party in LA, there was this big teddy bear that people were hugging.

My friend AJ tried to steal its T-shirt, but failed miserably”

“I LOOK SILLY AND UNTHREATENING, NOT LIKE SOMEONE WHO’S TRYING TO PICK UP WOMEN”

“The Purple Fashion party in New York was wild. Just after this photo was taken, the ATL Twins were taking girls back to their room. You can’t beat that lifestyle”

JAMES SPOILED THE ENDING TO GAME OF THRONES FRASER. Go where no one knows.

Travel for the 18 - 35’s.

See it. Get it. Do it.

AC T I O N !

TRAVEL

THE LONG WAY DOWN

Train like a movie stuntman

EIRIK GUSTAVSEN

Ever wondered what it’s like to freefall several storeys, à la Alan Rickman in Die Hard? That’s just one of the extreme new experiences on offer at Copenhagen’s European Stunt School – a place where, in just seven days, you can learn everything from how to fight like Jason Bourne to how to act while engulfed in flames. Be warned, though: it’s not for the faint-hearted…

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TRAVEL

GEAR

WHEELS

CULTURE

HOW TO

EVENTS 79

ACTION

TRAVEL DENMARK

Clockwise from below: Locking swords at the European Stunt School; the aptly named ‘partial to full burns’ workshop; how to disarm a movie gunman with an air punch; a student receives some hands-on training

More to explore High rise

Looking for more thrills? The Urban Ranger Camp, located in a disused shipyard 10 minutes from central Copenhagen, has the world’s highest indoor high-roping course.

Climb and traverse ropes at a dizzying 50m above ground. urbanrangercamp.dk

THE INSIDER

“The most important thing is that you’re up for a challenge, because you will be challenged,” says Jacob Sebastian Malm, founder of the ESS. The intensive stunt workshop is aimed at total beginners, meaning that anyone can learn the tricks of the trade – although you’ll need a decent level of fitness to complete it.

“You’re training for seven days straight in a high-tempo, high-level environment,” Malm explains, “so it’s important that you’re used to physical stuff. You’ll also need the mindset that still finds it fun even when it starts to get painful!”

So many skills are crammed into the course – including martial arts, high falls (from 11m up), acrobatics, sword fighting, firearms, parkour and the daunting ‘partial to full burns’ – that even regular gym bods will find themselves pushed beyond their limits by Malm and his team.

“You could be able to do an Ironman triathlon but still struggle at the aerial work with a harness and wires, because it involves

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Copenhagen, Denmark Copenhagen Want to learn how to perform stunts like a pro? Visit: europeanstuntschool.com

isolating completely different muscle groups,” Malm explains. “Dancers will find it much easier looking graceful in the air.”

Of course, it’s the star attractions that participants find the most challenging, not to mention the most exhilarating. “The burns and the falls are where we really try to minimise the stress,” says Malm.

“They’re super-dangerous, even with all the safety precautions we have in place.

You have to stay absolutely focused, and you can end up mentally exhausted after a day of it. But people love it!”

According to Malm, around 70 per cent of his students return to the ESS to do more advanced courses, or even start searching for work in the stunt industry.

“It’s important for us that people really benefit from it and build a solid training base so they can start putting themselves out there,” he says. In other words? This isn’t just an action-packed week of adrenalinpumping thrills and adventure – it could be the beginning of a whole new career.

Drop zone If learning to throw yourself off a building wasn’t enough, try a bodyflight jump at the Copenhagen Air Experience.

Scandinavia’s only vertical wind tunnel simulates the thrill of skydiving – without the parachute. airexperience.dk

Hot spot Celebrate your new-found status as an action hero with a cocktail at Pussy Galore’s Flying Circus, one of Copenhagen’s most popular café bars, inspired by James Bond’s female foe in Goldfinger. pussygalore.dk

EIRIK GUSTAVSEN

DON’T BE AFRAID OF GETTING A FEW BRUISES, ESPECIALLY DURING THE FIGHT TRAINING. “YOU DON’T TRAIN TO HURT ANYONE, BUT THERE WILL BE POINTS WHERE YOU ACTUALLY GET PUNCHED,” SAYS MALM. “IT EMPHASISES THAT THERE’S CONTACT BETWEEN THE PEOPLE FIGHTING.”

THE RED BULLETIN

ACTION

GEAR

CITY SLICKER Revive the working day with this urban-friendly kit

Quella One 2015 Black fixed-gear bike

The Quella One’s steel frame weighs just 9.4kg, making it easily manoeuvrable and perfect for a city commute.

This sleek edition of Quella’s fixedgear staple will have you zipping through traffic in style. If Batman rode a fixie, it would probably look like this. quellabicycle.com

The Atom battery pack

Skullcandy Grind headphones

Arduboy console

Clip this device to the back wheel of your bike and it will use the energy generated by your ride to charge your mobile devices.

Talk about pedal power. sivacycle.com

These low-profile but immersive cans allow you to pause, play and skip tracks, and answer calls easily with just a tap on the ear cup. Ideal for confined spaces. skullcandy.com

Make your commute more fun with the endearingly retro, 8-bit distractions of this credit-card sized Game Boy throwback.

Just don’t miss your stop. arduboy.com

Gunnar Vinyl glasses

Powell & Hyde jacket

Morpher helmet

Sit in front of a computer all day? These clever lenses filter out the harmful artificial blue light that emanates from the screen, reducing eye strain. gunnars.com

Laugh in the face of impromptu downpours with this lightweight jacket from Helly Hansen, complete with a bike-friendly helmet hood and reflectives. hellyhansen.com

This award-winning helmet folds in half when not protecting your noggin, taking up little more space in your bag than an umbrella.

Handy for bike renters. morpherhelmet.com

THE RED BULLETIN

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GEAR

BACK TO THE FUTURE

Swatch’s new automatic classic

By Gisbert L Brunner Back in 1983, Swatch released its firstever watch – a trendy little number with a mechanism consisting of just 51 parts.

Over 30 years later, the quirky Swiss watchmakers are honouring their streamlined heritage with the Sistem51, a beautifully simple timepiece with the same number of components as the original, all held together by one central screw. Unlike the ’80s classic, though, the Sistem51’s tech specs are bang up to date. The watch boasts an ingenious self-winding movement, meaning there’s no battery required; the automatic motor is powered by the slightest of wrist flicks and will keep ticking for up to 90 hours, even when it’s lying on your bedside table. Of course, this being Swatch, design is a top priority: the collection boasts 12 styles – from the atomic ‘Pink’ to the striking blueand-black ‘Class’ (right) – and each has a transparent back panel that lets you see those 51 parts working together in perfect harmony. swatch.com

FACE VALUE

Premium self-winders that won’t break the bank

By Gisbert L Brunner

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Longines HydroConquest

MeisterSinger Neo

Sinn 556 I

The steel HydroConquest with screw-in crown can resist water pressure of up to 30 bar. Divers will like the unidirectional rotating bezel with distinctive indexes, and the reliable ETA 2824-2 self-winding movement has a power reserve of about 38 hours. longines.com

With only one hand, which marks the hours, the German MeisterSinger Neo is a wristwatch for relaxed timekeepers.

The steel case, water-resistant up to 3 bar, contains a Sellita SW200-1 self-winding movement, very similar to the ETA 2824-2. meistersinger.net

The sporty-looking Sinn 556 I focuses on essential functionality.

The 38.5mm diameter, stainless-steel case contains the same trusty ETA 2824-2 mechanism as the Longines HydroConquest and is comfortably water-resistant up to 20 bar. sinn.de

THE RED BULLETIN

ACTION

WHEELS MOTOR MERCH

Pretty powerful: the Ducati 1299 Panigale S has got the lot

Authentic additions to the journey

Ferrari Store Milan Ferrari fans: flock to the new store in Milan’s Palazzo Ricordi for the Scuderia’s full range of merchandise. Plus F1 simulators. ferrari.com

STREET SMART Bremont Jaguar Collection Bremont have teamed up with Jaguar to create two watches themed on the iconic E-Type.

The Mk I and Mk II timepieces take styling inspiration from the dashboard of the ’60s legend. bremont.com

The Ducati gets a tech overhaul We expect superbikes to be powerful. And pretty. But few can claim to be as powerful or as pretty as Ducati’s latest. The 1299 Panigale S smooths out some of the less desirable features of the 1199: a bigger engine, yes, but also more comfort and, with the S specification, a host of electronic whistles and bells.

Compared with the standard model, the S has forged Marchesini wheels, an LED headlight and, crucially, a smart semi-active suspension system. The electronics suite is a large part of the 1299’s appeal, making the most of any rider’s ability. Linked to clever inertial sensors, the bike constantly adjusts suspension settings and brake parameters in line with rider-selected modes.

The big L-twin engine delivers 205hp, but the on-board intelligence is there to tame it with lean-angle sensitive cornering ABS, wheelie and traction control.

It’s a bike that will appeal to Panigale enthusiasts and also bring more riders into the Ducati fold. They’ve raised their game with this one. ducati.com

BEST OF BOTH WORLDS

The new 911: an easy decision Bentley Collection Bentley is a byword for craftsmanship and it shows in the brand’s latest range of racing goods, from lambskin leather jackets to luxury cashmere scarves. bentleycollection.com

THE RED BULLETIN

In recent years, the joke has been that Porsche release a new 911 whenever there’s an ‘r’ in the month. There are certainly plenty out there, catering to every sub-niche in what’s already a fairly niche marketplace. Now welcome the new 911 GT3 RS – the 911 for drivers who can’t decide whether they want a track car or a road car. The GT3 RS has as much motorsport potential as Porsche believe they can cram into a road-legal model, with a 4-litre, six-cylinder engine producing 500hp, and a bespoke version of Porsche’s PDK gearbox. It’ll do 0-100kph in 3.3 seconds, but perhaps the more significant benchmark is a lap of the legendary Nordschleife circuit in 7m20s. That knocks the Carrera GT into the proverbial cocked hat. porsche.com

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ACTION Book your place: discover the finest comic art at the 2015 Comics Fest

CULTURE COMING ATTRACTIONS The best new games to binge on

Go, go, CS:GO On September 20, South Africa’s top Counter Strike: Global Offensive teams will be battling it out in the MWEB GameZone Master Series Qualifiers. R10,000 in prizes and a place in the grand finals is up for grabs. Watch live at twitch.tv/mwebgamezone

FESTIVAL

Comics come to life at South Africa’s biggest graphic art festival The Open Book Festival, held in several venues scattered around Cape Town’s Fringe precinct (from September 9-13), is one of the hippest literary events on the continent, up there with the Garden City Literary Festival in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. And what gives it the edge, for many, is the cartooning component – the Comics Fest.

The first Comics Fest programme was put together in 2012 by Moray Rhoda, one of the godfathers of the underground comic art scene in South Africa. Controversial artist Brett Murray was there, talking about his infamous painting The Spear, but the real virtue of that event was how it showcased the work of mind-blowingly fantastic but scandalously obscure cartoonists and graphic artists – guys like Sebastian Borckenhagen, who’s since done some incredible illustrated music videos for electro band John Wizards, and Daniël Hugo, who draws storyboards for Hollywood blockbusters, but is practically unknown in South Africa.

At the time, one of SA cartooning’s other godfathers, Andy Mason, said he felt comic art in South Africa was on the verge of its Picnic At Hanging Rock moment, a reference to the classic 1975 Australian movie that put Australian cinema on the map.

One look at the 2015 Comics Fest programme and you might be inclined to agree.

Legendary cartoonist Jonathan Shapiro (Zapiro) is on the bill, as is Anton Kannemeyer, half of the duo that created Bitterkomix. You can pitch up and learn how to draw a comic, or sell one, and if you’re still not convinced, consider that superstar sci-fi writer Lauren Beukes will be there talking to kids about the Wonder Woman comic she’s written, which is set in Soweto. There hasn’t been an event of this calibre in all the history of South African comic art. With that history stretching back to the early 19th century, that’s saying something. openbookfestival.co.za/comics

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Feel the fury Build the ultimate war machine and take on the role of Mad Max in his fight to escape the Wastelands.

Expect vicious on-ground and vehicular combat in this movieinspired actioner, released this September on PS4, Xbox One and PC. madmaxgame.com

Feeding frenzy Durban-based Lighthouse Games Studio’s Shark Attack Deathmatch 2 offers the thrill of aquatic multiplayer mayhem among great whites, ragged tooth and bull sharks. steamcommunity.com/app/330580

THE RED BULLETIN

DAVID HARRISON (5)

DRAWING CARD

CULTURE KING OF CLUBS In his book Electrochoc – finally published in English this month – French DJ legend LAURENT GARNIER looks back on a 30-year career that’s seen him play all the best nightclubs on the planet. Here, Garnier picks his current favourites…

Panorama Bar, Berlin “This is the only place on earth where time warps completely. You enter at midnight and suddenly it’s midday.

The reason is that people are not supposed to use their phones, which helps you to cut yourself off from the rest of the world.”

Concrete, Paris “Right now, the French techno movement is stronger than ever. If you want to experience the scene’s best young DJs, you need to pay a visit to Concrete’s legendary Sunday afternoon parties on their club boat on the Seine.”

Womb, Tokyo “If you’re invited to play Womb as a DJ, it’s a big accolade like a knighthood, because this futuristic club – think the Blade Runner film set – houses one of the best sound systems on Earth.

Besides, the dance-crazy Japanese audience is second to none.”

THE PLAYLIST A$AP FERG New York’s A$AP Ferg embodies a new prototype in rap music. He and his Harlem collective A$AP Mob, led by head honcho A$AP Rocky, are not only changing the face of the genre by injecting trippy leftfield beats into mainstream hip-hop, they’ve also made a successful foray into the world of high fashion. Ferg recently teamed up with menswear designer Astrid Andersen to write the soundtrack for both her spring/summer 2016 catwalk show and a bespoke fashion film, Water, in which he also appears (watch it at redbull.co.uk/ catwalkstudio). The Red Bulletin asked the 26-year-old rapper to talk us through some of the tracks that have influenced his career, plus his own musical milestones.

A$AP Ferg

DMX

Work

Ruff Ryders’ Anthem

“I got into writing poetry as a kid, because I could recite it in front of the classroom and I knew it would make all the girls smile.

It was just for fun at first, up to this song, which started my career. This was my first piece of music that resonated with people all around the world.

I think that’s because I spoke a lot of truth about my father who died: ‘See my daddy in heaven, he be the realest G…’”

“I get nostalgic every time I hear this track, because it reminds me of my youth. I was about 10 years old when it came out.

My friends and I, we would ride through Harlem on our bikes, doing wheelies like the guys in the music video and reciting the lyrics. DMX’s style was innovative at the time. Regardless of what he’s doing now, he planted the seed in me and helped me find my own voice.”

Mary J Blige

A$AP Rocky

You Remind Me

Peso

“In the ’90s, my father designed logos for big hip-hop labels such as P Diddy’s Bad Boy Records.

So he had all the new CDs that came out. This was one of the first songs from his collection that really resonated with me when I was growing up. I love the music video where the girls are wearing baggy jackets and cool kneepads. It was the first time that I saw hip-hop and style coming together.”

“Rocky and I have known each other since we were teenagers.

He was always very talented, but he created a totally new genre with this song. The way that he pitched down the vocals sounded completely fresh. In the music video, we wore black high-fashion clothes mixed with streetwear. It was a monumental time, because I felt like we were doing something big. Turns out I was right.”

THE GADGET

Here Active Listening These wireless earbuds will change the way you hear the world. Connect them to your smartphone via Bluetooth and they’ll tune out specific noises – crying babies, train engines, office chatter – as you listen to music. They’ll also improve your live music experience: you can turn down the volume if you’re standing too close to the speaker, or boost the bass if a club tune isn’t heavy enough for your liking. dopplerlabs.com

ACTION

A$AP Ferg Dope Walk “One recent song that’s had an impact on my career is my current single. It has the line ‘My walk meaner than Cara Delevingne’s’, which sparked a fun battle on Twitter between her and me, and then we decided to shoot a FaceTime video together. In the video, I show her the ‘dope walk’, which is when you see dope heads winding off into dreamland and then they wake up and jump up.”

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ACTION

HOW TO

FIGHT A FOREST FIRE Last summer, firefighter Morgan Reilly tackled a blaze that raged across about a million hectares of Canadian forest – an area almost as large as Jamaica. Reilly leads a crew of four, working with a ‘fire boss’ (“the chainsaw guy who can cut out a helipad in a forest in 20 minutes”) and two ‘swamp donkeys’ (“the crew members on the pumps and hose”). Of the million-hectare fire, Reilly says, “There were hundreds of four-person crews working for months to put it out.” Forest fires are unpredictable.

Reilly’s crew, based in Sioux Lookout, Northwestern Ontario, can go months without seeing flames, or do six months of 19-day field tours with only two days at base in between. “I’m excited about fires,” says the 23-yearold, “but it’s my job to put them out. And I love my job.”

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Stoke the flames “One exciting part of our job is performing prescribed burns: lighting up certain parts of the forest – for example, areas of tornado damage with lots of dead wood – to prevent future fires growing. For the bigger fires, we use a helicopter with a drip torch hanging below it, dripping burning diesel fuel onto the forest.”

Call in air strikes

“We set up pumps on the ground, but we also have aircraft – waterbombers that I can call in to drop 6,400 litres of water per load. As the crew leader, I communicate with everyone on the ground and also in the air. It’s a lot to have to think about at the same time.”

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Be a people person

“We’re ready to go out to a fire for up to 19 days with everything we need: food, clothing, equipment. There’s no cellphone reception and our satellite phones can only be used for work. In these situations, the crew become your family – you’re with them 24/7.”

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Know when to say no

“The hardest part is keeping your cool; if everyone is able to do that, 90 per cent of the time it works out. My first fire, in 2011, was in the other 10 per cent. They flew us to an island on a lake, 500m from shore, where a huge fire was burning. For about an hour, we watched smoke billowing towards us. There was nothing we could do, so we got flown out. By next morning the entire island was burnt out.”

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Feel the burn “The job’s tough on your body. We have to pass an annual fitness test: 31 laps of a 40m course, going up and down V-shaped ramps, carrying 28kg pumps or 25kg hose packs. All in under 14-and-a-half minutes. Not easy.”

THE RED BULLETIN

MARK THOMAS

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p ro m ot i o n

Must-haves!

1 Leatherman SignaL muLti-tooL Coming Soon! Lose yourself in the outdoors. In the all-new Signal, Leatherman’s traditional functional tools like pliers, saw, can and bottle opener, awl, a variety of hex and Leatherman bit drivers, and combo knife blade pair with new preparedness features like a shaped diamond coated sharpener for maintaining your straight and serrated blade, fire-starting ferro rod, and an emergency whistle. Stay ready for the expected (and unexpected) no matter where you are with everything you need right on your belt. R2 230.

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3 garmin Forerunner 225 All heart, all at your wrist. The Forerunner 225 is Garmin’s first GPS running watch that measures heart rate at the wrist. It displays your heart rate zone and beats per minute in real time using a colourful gauge to represent the various zones. A quick glance at your watch is all it will take to know what zone you are training in. The interface will indicate either, grey, your warm-up zone; blue, easy zone for weight control; green for aerobic; orange is threshold (anaerobic); or red which represents your maximum effort zone.

Forerunner. For Runners. R 4 099.00.

www.garmin.co.za

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4 BuShneLL tour X goLF LaSer rangeFinDer ‘Slope Technology when you want it, tournament legal when you need it. A Tour X exclusive, Exchange Technology lets you use our patented Slope Technology when the red faceplate is installed and functions as a USGA conforming device when the black faceplate is installed. Dual Display Technology allows the user to easily toggle between the bright red Vivid Display or sharp black display based on lighting conditions or personal preference.’

Key Features: • Exchange Technology - Slope Technology when you want it, tournament legal when you need it • Dual Display Technology (DDT) for all lighting conditions • E.S.P. 2 (Extreme. Speed.

Precision.) • PinSeeker with JOLT Technology to zero in on the flag • Slope Technology provides compensated distances for elevation changes • 6x Magnification with HD Optics (objects appear 6x closer) • 5 yards-1,300 yards ranging performance (450+ yards to a flag). RRP: R7,499 (including).

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5 thuLe LegenD goPro® BaCKPaCK The perfect carry-all for action cams and accessories which will enable you to capture that brag-worthy footage! The Thule Legend GoPro® backpack has two integrated mounts allowing you to capture the action from multiple angles! The backpack also features a Crushproof, padded compartment which holds up to 3 GoPro® cameras, LCD backpack, remote control, extra batteries and SD cards. R 2 999. www.thule.com 6 riP CurL StaCKeD rFiD 2 in 1 WaLLet RIP CURL’S RFID protech wallet range has built in RFID blocking protection into the material, which stops personal information from being accessed by identity thieves.

STACKED RFID 2 IN 1 WALLET • Twin note • Zip coin • Pull out slim wallet . R730. www.ripcurl.com

ACTION

EVENTS

September 12 Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour Pretoria The Union Buildings, the seat of the South African government, hosts the Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour for the second year running. The most extreme freestyle motocross riders on the planet will gather for another gravity-defying extravaganza in front of over 20,000 fans. Qualifying, which is an event in itself, goes down on Friday September 11, while gates open on the morning of the show day, with the finals getting underway at 1.30pm. Expect all the top names to let rip: Levi Sherwood, Tom Pagès, Josh Sheehan, plus surprise series leader Clinton Moore. With Pretoria and Dubai the only events left on the 2015 Red Bull X-fighters World Tour calendar, this is set to be a spectacular battle. redbullxfighters.com

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September 25 Feel it. It is here

September 26 Inner City Enduro

Cape Town

Port Elizabeth

The much-awaited launch of FIFA16 takes place at MWEB head office in Cape Town. Get some hands-on play with the new FIFA16 while enjoying the chance to pick up tips and hang out with some of the Mother City’s top FIFA players. Snacks and drinks are on the house, and plenty of prizes and goodies will be up for grabs. Space is limited, so log your details at the MWEB GameZone website to secure your ticket. mweb.co.za/games

South Africa’s first inner-city enduro takes place in Port Elizabeth, with top local riders taking on British enduro legend David Knight in a ‘last man standing’ format. The route loops through man-made and natural obstacles, with spectators able to get up close to the thrills and speed of enduro riding. innercityenduro.co.za Enduro rider Wade Young

KOLESKY/NIKON/RED BULL CONTENT POOL (2), MARK SAMPSON/THRIBE

The Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour stops in Pretoria once again

SAVE THE DATE

September 24 Hit the trail Van Gaalen’s Cheese Farm

More action-packed events you won’t want to miss

After a kickass Western Cape event, the Impi Challenge swings back to Hartbeespoort in the North West province for a Heritage Day with a difference. There are five categories – ranging from 20km with 25 tough obstacles, to 10km with 18 obstacles – making this quite possibly the toughest trail run you’ll ever encounter. There’s also a best-dressed competition, which might be a relative term due to the muddy terrain. impichallenge.co.za

29 August Get free

Tough it out in the Impi Challenge

September 12-20 Braai tour

September 3 Art. Street. Party

Around South Africa

Johannesburg

Jan Braai’s national braai tour hits the road, heading from the platteland towards the Western Cape. The official tour is made up of teams of four who will effectively be braaiing for breakfast, lunch and supper, but fans can join the braai whenever the tour stops nearby. braai.com

The First Thursdays arty street party that became an institution among Cape Town creatives has spread its wings to Joburg. Head to Braamfontein for a great night of walking, gawking and talking, with regular refreshments thrown in for good measure. first-thursdays.co.za

Keep riding – there’s a drink at the end of it

September 5-6 Offroad bonanza Cape Town Get down to Meerendal wine estate for a combo of mountain bike and 4x4 events. The two-day festival includes a competitive enduro race and a 5km team relay event on Saturday morning, followed by an Isuzu 4x4 skills coaching clinic in the afternoon. Sunday is all about cross-country racing, with 35km and 60km options.

Then beer and wine await. stillwatersports.com

Club of the month ‘Zone 6’ Venue Soweto

The third and final Quiksilver Get Free surf competition takes place at Port Alfred. Local rippers Mikey February and Beyrick de Vries nabbed the first two titles – who will claim Eastern Cape bragging rights? quiksilver.co.za/getfree

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September Go wide The Breede River canoe marathon is a great winter race: 75km over two days, from Robertson to Swellendam (via Bonnievale). But the main attraction is that it’s largely a K2 event. Many hands make light work. breedemarathon.co.za

On the fringes of Soweto, in Diepkloof ‘Zone 6’, you’ll find one of Jozi’s biggest and best party spaces. ‘Zone 6’ Venue is a lushly renovated double-storey 3000m² warehouse with six bars, numerous VIP areas, a shisa nyama restaurant and a deck area with a heated overflow pool and jacuzzis. ‘Zone 6’ is not where you head for a quiet drink with mates; this is a full-on party venue, which means a stateof-the-art sound system and a main stage for artists playing to crowds of up to 2,500 people.

The gig list includes all the top local hip-hop DJs as well as visiting international acts. zone6venue.co.za

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September Get unplugged The White Mountain music festival brings together South Africa’s top acoustic musicians against a classic Drakensberg backdrop of camping, good food and good times near Giant’s Castle. www.c-weed.com/wmf

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TOMORROW’S

WORLD A S S T A R T U P S A N D I N N O V A T I O N S M U LT I P L Y A P A C E , W E TA K E A L O O K AT T H E L AT E S T T E C H A N D I T S M O S T I N T E R E S T I N G A P P L I C AT I O N S

JOHAMMER J1 What? A revolutionary electric motorbike you’ll be proud to ride Why? It’s time electric bikes got stylish When? Now This electric motorbike has a bold design that makes it stand out – in a good way.

It runs on a lightweight Li-ion battery, and is available in two models: the J1.150 and J1.200. The latter, top-of-the range model covers 200km between charges, and weighs just 178kg. Plus it generates 15bhp and has a top speed of 120kph.

Electric just got sexy. johammer.com

THE RED BULLETIN

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I N N O VA T I O N S

A LIKEABLE ELECTRONIC C O M PA N I O N T H AT H E L P S YOU FORM POSITIVE HABITS

MOTI What? An adorable deskmate that acts as a motivator Why? To help you achieve your goals When? In the near future Moti is an electronic companion that vibrates and flashes with glee whenever you complete a task or learn a new habit. But be warned: Moti employs the human tactic of emotional blackmail when you stray from the right path, looking sad and buzzing angrily. Just try not to reach for the off switch… moti.io

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HANDIII

R E L AT I V I T Y

What? A bionic arm controlled by muscle signals and a smartphone Why? To change people’s lives When? In the near future This is not a prop from a futuristic sci-fi movie – bionic limb technology is here, thanks to the wonders of 3D printing. Japanese company Exiii have developed this smart arm, which uses sensors to capture electric signals from the user’s muscle movement and translate them via a smartphone app. What’s more, the Handiii is expected to cost considerably less than a conventional prosthetic arm when it hits the market. exiii.jp

What? A craft beer ‘teabag’ Why? To make beer taste better When? Now There’s been a microbrewery boom over the last decade, offering drinkers more choice than ever. But now there’s an alternative to forking out on pricey craft beers to drink at home.

Baltimore-based startup Hop Theory have created Relativity, a teabag-like sachet that transforms any beer into a quality brew in just four minutes. hoptheory.com

LUUV What? An attractive stabiliser for your camera that eliminates hand shake Why? For great footage When? Now If your YouTube videos look shakier than the action scenes in a Jason Bourne blockbuster, give this innovative steadicam device a try.

The LUUV is a smart handheld camera stabiliser with universal mount that, thanks to its three-axis, counter-weighted movements, enables you to capture perfectly smooth action footage. Hold it upside down for dramatic shots just centimetres from the ground. luuv-is-awesome.com

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THE RED BULLETIN

I N N O VA T I O N S

I K AWA H O M E ROASTER What? A digital micro-roaster Why? For top-class coffee at home When? Next February This digital micro-roaster takes home coffee-making to the next level: just download an app and roast a batch of IKAWA’s ‘green’ beans at the touch of a smartphone icon. Ten per cent of the revenue from the beans goes back to the farmers, too. ikawacoffee.com

AUDI PROLOGUE PILOTED DRIVING What? A futuristic driving system that puts you in complete control Why? To make your ride sleeker – and safer When? TBC Audi’s prototype ‘car of the future’ stole this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas with its incredible piloted driving system. Its laser scanner, video cameras and ultrasound sensors make parallel parking worries a thing of the past. The ‘digital cockpit’, meanwhile, has a touchscreen display that controls everything from diagnostics to music with a swipe of the finger.

Switches are so 2015. audi.com

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NO MORE DRAGGING A CASE OF DIRTY LAUNDRY AT T H E A I R P O R T

DUFL

MICRO DRONE 3.0 What? A tiny camera drone that fits in the palm of your hand Why? To capture the ultimate group selfie When? November Anyone can join the camera-drone revolution with this little fella.

Sturdy, manoeuvrable and customisable (frame designs include a ‘ferocious dragon’ and a ‘terror wasp’), the Micro Drone 3.0 streams HD images and video to your smartphone or virtualreality headset. Expect to see it buzzing around you in the pub some time soon… igg.me/at/micro-drone

What? A digital valet service Why? To take the pain out of travel When? Available now in the US and internationally in the near future This service saves frequent travellers the hassle of lugging cases of clothing to and from the airport. Send DUFL your clothes in the branded case and a virtual wardrobe will be created. Before you set off on a trip, select the items you want, and DUFL will deliver them to your destination. When you leave, your clothes will be collected, laundered and then stored, ready for your next trip. dufl.com THE RED BULLETIN

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I N N O VA T I O N S

L I F E PA I N T

O R B I TA L I N S I G H T

What? A reflective paint in a can that increases the visibility of cyclists to other road users at night Why? To increase road safety and save people’s lives When? Now “The best way to survive a crash is not to crash,” reads the strapline for Volvo’s latest innovation, and it’s hard to argue with that. The stats on the car company’s website reveal the bleak truth: every year in the UK, more than 19,000 cyclists are involved in accidents.

With this in mind, Volvo have developed Life Paint, a spray that makes cyclists more visible to drivers at night. The paint, which contains reflective particles that are invisible by day but show up brightly under the glare of car headlights, can be sprayed onto bikes, clothing, helmets and bags – and even dog leads and collars. It lasts around a week, but can be washed off at any time, leaving no trace. volvolifepaint.com

What? Technology that monitors deforestation Why? To protect the world’s forests When? Now Californian startup Orbital Insight has partnered with Global Forest Watch to create a system that monitors and flags up suspicious changes around forested areas, such as unexpected new roads.

As the system’s neural network recognises more and increasingly detailed patterns, it will become more accurate at detecting changes and helping to prevent illegal deforestation. orbitalinsight.com

U GA N D A

Mabira Forest Reserve

27 Nov 2001

I N N O VA T O R : JUERGEN FURIAN Meet the Austrian co-founder of the Pioneers festival, a conference celebrating the ideas of tomorrow, held annually in Vienna.

It‘s no surprise to find that the man behind a startup shouting about startups is full of advice for young innovators and entrepreneurs…

THE RED BULLETIN: A total of 1,600 startups from 96 countries applied for the 2015 Pioneers Festival. How do you choose who gets to present themselves?

JUERGEN FURIAN: They have to deal with ideas that will define our futures within the next five years. At the Pioneers Festival, all we talk about is the future. We have given ourselves a broad range

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TRAGO What? A smart water bottle with its own app Why? Perfect hydration When? Pre-order now Two Texan brothers who are “passionate about hydration” have, via a Kickstarter push, proved that a lot of other people are, too. Trago, their smart water bottle, knows how much you should be drinking.

It links to a smartphone via Bluetooth and accurately measures and logs water intake against your calculated ideal for that day. It also takes factors like sleep, weather and exercise into account (it pairs with fitness wearables). Plus Trago predicts how much water you’ll need before a football match or marathon. twitter.com/drinktrago

U GA N D A

Mabira Forest Reserve

25 Jan 2006

OMNI PRESENT What? An interactive system for gift-giving Why? To share a moment When? TBC – in testing When the recipient of a gift opens its box, the lightactivated Omni Present contacts the sender and lets them hear the reaction. frolicstudio.com

KURT PRINZ

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of topics: aerospace, biotechnology, energy, robots. That’s what the industry appreciates about us.

Which industry has the most exciting startups right now?

Biotechnology. That industry has small startups achieving incredible things with not much money. The huge pharmaceutical giants used to invest billions in research to produce a pill 10 years down the line.

Now, small startups are bringing good ideas to fruition themselves.

For example?

Hampton Creek, who are based in San Francisco. They make eggs out of bean proteins. No chickens, no factory farming.

I had breakfast with them recently, and their fried eggs are great.

Startup founders are professional ideasellers, and you know loads of them. Can you give us a tip, like how to ask your boss for more money?

If you have a minute, prepare for that minute.

Argue from your boss’s point of view. And most important of all: be passionate!

THE RED BULLETIN

I N N O VA T I O N S

I N N O VA T O R : VISHAL SHARMA The former Google vice-president created one of the world‘s most complex virtual assistants in Google Now. But, says Sharma – currently working on a secret startup – the revolution is yet to come…

HEXO+ What? An autonomous camera drone that does the arty close-ups for you Why? So that all you need is your flying friend When? Later this year The brainchild of professional snowboarder and filmmaker Xavier De La Rue and tech team Squadrone System, Hexo+ removes the need for a second person to monitor the shots when filming action scenes with a camera drone.

Simply select your preference (close-up, panoramic or circling flight) on the Hexo+ app and the drone keeps you in the frame by following your smartphone’s GPS signal. hexoplus.com

A C L E V E R A L A R M C L O C K T H AT WA K E S Y O U B U T L E AV E S Y O U R PA R T N E R U N D I S T U R B E D

WEINBERG-CLARK XX EDITOR PHOTOGRAPHY ILLUSTRATOR

WA K É What? A clever clock Why? Relationship saver When? Pre-order now This alarm clock eases you into the day with a beam of light and gentle sounds that grow brighter and louder. But that’s not what makes this device essential for couples: controlled via a smartphone app, Waké’s heat sensor detects your exact location in bed, and its parametric speakers focus the alarm sounds in a narrow beam at you only – leaving your other half in peace.

Plus it switches itself off when you get out of bed. luceralabs.com THE RED BULLETIN

THE RED BULLETIN: Even the most advanced virtual PA can’t communicate in a convincingly human way. Why is that?

VISHAL SHARMA: There’s definitely a way to go. A virtual assistant has two choices when it doesn’t understand: it can make a joke out of it and distract you with a new conversation, or it can say, “I’m sorry, I don’t understand what you just said.”

So it’s all about speech recognition?

Human language is so

enormously flexible and expressive – there are millions of expressions and emotions. Virtual assistants try to break down the input and match it the best they can. Some people say speech recognition is a technology that’s always five years away.

I’m not that pessimistic.

How do machines learn?

There are two different models. Say you want to teach a robot how to move: you could create some elements of movement in the robot and embed algorithms that tell it how to use them. Or there are selflearning robots: the robot is given abilities, but it doesn’t know what they are. So you give it a limb with three degrees of movement, then give it a task of getting a ball closer to a goal. The robot has to figure it out. Over time, it builds a model of its limb and what it can do. In some ways, the robot grows conscious of what it is.

What was the last tech that amazed you?

It happens constantly.

When I’m late and my phone tells me about the traffic, it somehow predicts my future and that’s astounding.

SEALEAF What? A floating hydroponic growing pod for food crops Why? To reduce food imports When? 2016 Many of the world’s coastal megacities – Singapore, for instance – import up to 90 per cent of their food due to a lack of local arable land. UK-based scientific team SEALEAF have devised a solution: hydroponic growing pods that sit out at sea and let the sun and rain do the work. This opens up more space (available at lower-thanaverage rents) for local farmers to grow affordable fresh produce for the population. And because of the reduction in imports, it means a smaller carbon footprint, too. swolzak.wix.com/sealeaf

Keep up to date on the world’s latest innovations with Springwise; springwise.com

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Editorial Director Robert Sperl Editor-in-Chief Alexander Macheck Editor-at-Large Boro Petric Creative Director Erik Turek Art Directors Kasimir Reimann, Miles English Photo Director Fritz Schuster Production Editor Marion Wildmann Managing Editor Daniel Kudernatsch Editors Stefan Wagner (Chief Copy Editor), Ulrich Corazza, Arek Piatek, Andreas Rottenschlager Contributors: Muhamed Beganovic, Georg Eckelsberger, Sophie Haslinger, Werner Jessner, Holger Potye, Clemens Stachel, Manon Steiner, Raffael Fritz, Martina Powell, Mara Simperler, Lukas Wagner, Florian Wörgötter Web Kurt Vierthaler (Senior Web Editor), Vanda Gyuris, Judith Mutici, Inmaculada Sánchez Trejo, Andrew Swann, Christine Vitel Design Marco Arcangeli, Marion Bernert-Thomann, Martina de Carvalho-Hutter, Kevin Goll Photo Editors Susie Forman (Creative Photo Director), Rudi Übelhör (Deputy Photo Director), Marion Batty, Ellen Haas, Eva Kerschbaum

THE RED BULLETIN South Africa, ISSN 2079-4282 Editor Angus Powers Chief Sub-Editor Nancy James Deputy Chief Sub-Editor Davydd Chong International Sales Management Lukas Scharmbacher Country Project and Sales Management Andrew Gillett Advertisement Sales Ryan Otto, ryan.otto@za.redbull.com Printed by CTP Printers, Duminy Street, Parow-East, Cape Town 8000 Subscriptions Subscription price R228, for 12 issues/year, www.getredbulletin.com, subs@za.redbull.com Mailing Address PO Box 50303, Waterfront, 8002 South Africa Office South Wing, Granger Bay Court, Beach Road, V&A Waterfront, Cape Town 8001 Tel: +27 (0) 21 431 2100 THE RED BULLETIN Austria, ISSN 1995-8838 Editor Ulrich Corazza Sub-Editor Hans Fleißner Advertisement Sales Alfred Vrej Minassian (manager), Thomas Hutterer, Corinna Laure anzeigen@at.redbulletin.com Subscriptions Subscription price €25.90 for 12 issues/year, getredbulletin.com, abo@redbulletin.at Printed by Prinovis Ltd & Co KG, D-90471 Nuremberg Disclosure according to paragraph 25 Media Act Information about the media owner is available at: redbulletin.at /imprint Austria Office Heinrich-Collin-Strasse 1, A-1140 Vienna Tel: +43 1 90221-28800 Contact redaktion@at.redbulletin.com THE RED BULLETIN Brazil, ISSN 2308-5940 Editor Fernando Gueiros Sub-Editors Judith Mutici, Manrico Patta Neto Country Project Management Paula Svetlic

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Tshwane’s strength lies therich richvariety variety of of its its Tshwane’s strength lies ininthe

natural, historical and culturalheritage. heritage.Its Its natural, historical and cultural warm and pleasant climate – hot summers and warm and pleasant climate – hot summers and winters – makes idealtourist tourist cool,cool, dry dry winters – makes it itananideal destination year round. destination all all year round.

It is the home of jazz and is also renowned as

It is the home of jazz and is also renowned as the country’s capital of performing and visual the arts, country’s capital of performing and visual boasting several art galleries. arts, boasting several art galleries.

The smaller theatres The State StateTheatre Theatreand and smaller theatres regularly variety exceptional regularlystage stagea awide wide variety exceptional productions and feature local andand productionsininallallgenres genres and feature local international artists. international artists.

For shop, Menlyn Park For those thosewho wholove lovetoto shop, Menlyn Park Shopping Centre – one of the biggest retail Shopping Centre – one of the biggest retail destinations in the southern hemisphere – is destinations in the southern hemisphere – is the place to be.

the place to be.

MAGIC MOMENT

“It was a trip back into my childhood” BMX wizard Tyler Fernengel used to come here as a fan of American football; now he uses the abandoned Silverdome as an obstacle park JOE GALL/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

PONTIAC, USA, May 12, 2015 In its 40-year history, the Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan, has been the home of the NFL’s Detroit Lions and even hosted a Papal Mass. Since 2011, the stadium has fallen into disuse. But then BMX pro Tyler Fernengel went exploring in one of his trick sessions. Watch the video: redbull.com/bike

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