The Red Bulletin UK 01/25

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Norman Konrad

The photographer travelled from Berlin to Tokyo to shoot champion ski jumper Ryōyū Kobayashi for this issue, but felt right at home. “My wife’s family lives in Tokyo,” he says. “The location scouting was relaxing as we took a bath in each sento we visited.”

Amy Woodyatt

The London-based sports and adventure writer says her talk with Freddie Meadows about his mission to tame an unsurfed Arctic wave will stay with her: “It was 10 years in the making and felt to him more like a spiritual undertaking or fulfilling his destiny.”

Matt Youson

The motorsport writer went to Red Bull Racing HQ to meet whizz kid Arvid Lindblad. “I’ve interviewed many promising Red Bull Junior drivers, from Vettel to Verstappen,” he says. “Arvid feels like the real deal.”

This month, The Red Bulletin has not one cover but four –each features a giant of their musical genre who, along with their handpicked crew, has been chosen to compete in this year’s Red Bull Culture Clash, the soundsystem battle where there’s only one winner.

As DJ and presenter Jyoty, dancehall star Spice, Afrobeats innovator Teezee and Radio 1’s rap specialist Kenny Allstar take on this unique challenge, we find out what gives each of them their edge.

Facing a fresh test of a different kind is UK motorsport prodigy Arvid Lindblad. We talk to the Surrey-born rising star as he gets a step (or should that be lap?) closer to his Formula 1 dream.

And then there’s Claudia Ziegler, who gave herself a new summit to conquer when she combined her two great loves: climbing and photography. Our feature presents some of the Austrian’s most breathtaking highlights. Enjoy the issue.

The music melee is back for 2025. Meet the four crews spitting bars, throwing shade and dropping dubplate dynamite in a bid for glory Motorsport

Arvid Lindblad

Still only 17, the racing prodigy is about to face the greatest challenge of his career so far: the big step up to Formula 2. Next stop: F1? Climbing

Claudia Ziegler 50

The intrepid Austrian photographer whose work scales heights many others can’t reach – figuratively and literally

The story of a hip-hoploving, fashion-following Japanese ski jumper who dared to fly… and ended up surpassing all the rest

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Cape Town, South Africa

View to a thrill

Sometimes basic is best: in Cape Town, cool views of Table Mountain can be found here in the suitably named suburb of Table View, and Kite Beach is perfect for – yes – kitesurfing. The judges at kitesurfing contest Red Bull King of the Air crave more complexity, however: height, technical correctness, extremity and execution are among the details that separate flawless flyers from subpar sinkers. The view from the table at Table View last December? British-Italian rider Francesca Maini and Italy’s Andrea Principi ruled the air/waves. redbull.com

Sauerland, Germany Forest jump

Treetops: fascinating to birders, a livelihood for arborists, much-loved by trees. Slopestyle ace Erik Fedko is a convert, too. The Above The Trees project last August saw the 26-year-old rider nail Superman Seat Grab Indian Airs, Double Backflip Tuck No Handers, 360 Windshield Wipers, the lot, on a 24m-high course at Green Hill, a bike park set amid lush forest in his native Sauerland. And his most challenging trick? “The Ninja Drop on the 27m-high tree trunk,” Fedko reports. “Super-scary up there.”

Scan the QR code to watch Erik Fedko’s project Above The Trees

Eloy, Arizona, USA Evening falls

Every year, the Red Bull Air Force and Red Bull Skydive Team descend – literally – on Eloy, Arizona, for a training camp. Here we see the pro plummeters taking a dive at dusk. Eloy has become a hotspot for the skydiving community, but maybe someone should inform the city’s earthbound locals – the International Skydiving Commission posted on Facebook that “funnily enough, there were calls about UFO sightings in Arizona after this jump!”. The truth is out there… well, right here, actually. redbullairforce.com; redbullskydiveteam.com

Dusseldorf, Germany

Blue thunder

Blue walls have taken quite a battering in the past 12 months, but here’s one that shows no sign of crumbling. This mur bleu is the travelling support of France’s Karmine Corp, an esports team with a fanbase as formidable as its rep on the European competitive gaming scene. Shot by Antonin Hory at the Rocket League World Championship in August 2023, this image demonstrates the ultras’ unwavering devotion. “It was very intense,” says the Frenchman, himself a member of Le Blue Wall. “We’d come with 500 [fans] to support our team in Germany, our biggest trip. Here, we can see part of the enclosure brandishing scarves towards the stage and the players. [It’s] a way to show the team we’re there to support them until the end.” Guess it beats a cold, rainy Tuesday night in Stoke… Instagram: @antonin_hory_

ArrDee

Coastal flow

The Brighton-based rapper shares four tracks that had a major influence on his (beach) bars

ArrDee is a formidable force on the UK rap scene. The Brighton-born artist –born Riley Jason Davies – burst onto the scene in 2021, aged 18, with his track Oliver Twist, a fusion of grime, drill and UK rap that peaked at number six on the singles chart that June. A mixtape, Pier Pressure, followed in March the next year, debuting at number two on the albums chart. Despite this early success, the now 22-year-old rapper says crafting hits has never been his priority; instead, he focuses on creating sharp, playful lyrics and a sound that’s as much about artistry as it is attitude. “What I care about is creating songs that come from a real place, that live for a long time,” he says. “I’ve got songs that help me when I’m struggling to process emotions. I’d like to do the same for other people.” Here, ArrDee reflects on four tracks that helped him find his unique voice… arrdee.com

Eminem

The Real Slim Shady (2000)

“Eminem is a huge one for me, and this track was one of my very first entries into rap. He’s always showing his lyrical ability with different flows, always bringing a uniqueness. He’s unlike every other rapper and he’s OK with standing out. Also, his bars have humour, but he knows the fine line between having clever punchlines and being comedy rap.”

Eminem Cleanin’ Out My Closet (2002)

“I have to include a second Eminem track because he has two sides that are so different and both were influential on my sound. Cleanin’ Out My Closet was particularly impactful when it came out. That was the first time I saw his deeper, more profound side, where he wasn’t just being humorous, bragging, or focusing on partying.”

Lil Wayne 10,000 Bars (2002)

“It was Lil Wayne who made me fall in love with the art of rap. The first time I thought ‘This is really what I want to do’ was because of 10,000 Bars. It’s a 45-minute-long track of all his written lyrics and you can hear him tearing pages as he spits them. It taught me that to succeed you’ve got to be a juggernaut and cut through the noise.”

Amy Winehouse Love Is a Losing Game (2006)

“I love Amy Winehouse. Even at the height of her celebrity, she created music rooted in her deepest emotions and passions. There have been moments when I’ve got caught up in the industry and it’s been hard to maintain an authentic mindset. When I catch myself feeling that way, I turn back to Amy and focus on creating music for the love of it.”

The first time Laura Kottlowski saw pristine wild ice was in 2008 in the Rocky Mountain National Park. Having moved to Colorado to work in graphic design, the American was pursuing the 14ers Challenge – the feat of climbing all 58 of the state’s 14,000ft-plus peaks – when she set eyes on the glassy surface of that freshly frozen lake. One thought came into her mind: “Why don’t I have my skates with me?”

From that moment on, Kottlowski – a skater since childhood, who competed in freestyle throughout college –has taken her blades on every hike. She’s now in her 17th season of wild ice skating. “It’s just like an epic arena –nature’s arena,” she explains. “This is where the sport began. It’s why figure skating and hockey and skating even exist; it all started outside. It’s just beautiful being taken aback by the awe of the mountains combined with [doing] a sport you grew up with your whole life. The merging of the two is where I find magic.”

Footage of Kottlowski gliding across mirror-like ice in front of majestic mountain backdrops has won her more than 600k followers on TikTok, but along with the awesome alpine scenery come dangers the 39-year-old is all too aware of. In California in 2022, she was among the rescuers trying to save four people who had broken through the ice simultaneously. Kottlowski and another helper punched through the surface during the rescue, but one of the skaters, a 72-year-old man, drowned before they could reach him.

Already proficient in wild ice safety, Kottlowski was motivated to set up her own organisation, Learn to Skate Outside, to educate others.

“I was mad at the community for not having communicated to the masses – or even me, who was an ice nerd – what the full life cycle of ice, from inception to full degradation, looked like, how it feels and

Gliding

In 2008, Laura Kottlowski ditched the rink and began taking her ice skates into the mountains. The results, she says, are magical

how it can change,” she says.

This is particularly relevant to the regions she skates in North America, where the long hours of sunlight can weaken the ice.

Kottlowski practises selfrescue, never skates without a floatation device, grips and a rope bag, and does impactand ice-measuring tests on potential skating surfaces.

Wild skating allows her to explore not only nature but the origins of her sport, too.

“‘Special Figures’ was one of the very first [skating] events in the Olympics, back in 1908,” says Kottlowski, referencing the practice of skating shapes into ice. Now, she skates both historical ‘figures’ – such as the

Pig’s Ear Star from the 1800s – and her own, inspired by snowflakes and mandalas and created using her graphicdesign skills: “I feel like I’m unearthing a bit of history.”

The American has found wild skating a liberating experience in comparison to the formal discipline and competitive atmosphere of man-made ice rinks. “[On the rinks] it was more materialistic, like you had to show off or earn your right to skate in certain sessions,” she says. “Out here [in nature], it’s just for yourself. It’s just about you and the glide. It really shifted my perspective to see it as more of an adventure.”

TikTok: @laura.kottlowski

Wild ice skating

light

Swoon lake: (from top) Kottlowski skates on ‘mermaid’s hair’, her name for the patterns made by frozen-over swirls of snow; Lake Haiyaha in Colorado

In June last year, American Peter Landsman took three flights from his home in Jackson, Wyoming, to the Yukon in northwest Canada. From the airport, he drove six hours to Moose Mountain Ski Resort in Fairbanks, Alaska, where he spent just a couple of hours before leaving. The round trip lasted five days, and Landsman wasn’t even there to ski: it was the chairlift he wanted to see. For ten years, he’d been on a mission to visit all 750 ski resorts in North America, documenting around 3,000 chairlifts on his website LiftBlog – and Moose Mountain was the last one he needed to tick off.

But why has Landsman dedicated a whole decade to this rather niche mode of transport? “They’re just cool machines,” explains the 35-year-old, who describes himself as “definitely a nerd”. ”Each one is customengineered for the mountain that they’re on. And there’s beautiful scenery. It’s a mix of machine and nature that’s pretty unique.” Others agree, it seems – in busy months, LiftBlog gets around 125,000 unique views.

Landsman is surrounded by the ski machinery even in his day job: he works as a lift operation supervisor at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. Having been fascinated by chairlifts since learning to ski aged four, Landsman realised that as a seasonal employee he could spend his weeks off visiting other resorts. First he explored the Pacific Northwest, driving through the night and sleeping in his car, then moved onto the Midwest and Canada, relying on red-eye flights to get him home in time for work.

Visiting all year round, Landsman skis if there’s snow, and hikes if not: “I have a rule that I can’t count it as a ski area unless I’ve been to the top one way or another.” Once there, he takes photographs and collects information including the lift manufacturer, elevation, length, and the

Elevated ambition

Many of us see the chairlift as merely a convenient route from A to ski, but for this American they’re the main attraction

number of chairs and towers. These stats are then added to the LiftBlog database, which has become a valuable resource for ski-industry insiders.

The highest lift Landsman has visited is in Breckenridge, Colorado, reaching an elevation of almost 4,000m above sea level; the oldest, made in the 1930s, can be found in Alaska where some ski areas are only accessible by boat or plane.

Choosing a favourite is tricky, but Landsman plumps for the Peak 2 Peak Gondola at Whistler Blackcomb in British Columbia. “It’s the most remarkable lift in North America for technical accomplishment. It goes straight across a valley

and almost 2,000 feet [600m] in the air. It’s unlike anything else in this continent. It’s the most expensive lift ever built here. It’s just very, very cool.” Although he has a wish list of international chairlifts to visit – including the urban gondola system in Medellín, Colombia, and the world’s highest vertical-rise lift in Vietnam – Landsman’s work at home continues. “Typically, there are around 50 new lifts constructed in the US and Canada each year,” he says. “Right now, there are actually 55 about to open for winter. So I’ll be busy trying to visit all the new lifts as fast as I can.” liftblog.com

LiftBlog

Cable guy: chairlift enthusiast Peter Landsman; (top) just a dozen examples of the mountain machinery the 35-year-old has visited for his blog

FabriCandy

Sweet threads

When faced with the issue of wasted fabric in the fashion industry, a London-based designer came up with a novel solution: instead of dumping the scraps, we could eat them

Jinghan Li and her twin sister are both designers; Li’s work combines design and molecular biology, while her twin works in fashion. For many years, Chinese-born Li watched her sister cut patterns at home, noting the volume of fabric wasted. It gave her pause for thought.

“I think [it makes sense] to fully use the planet’s natural resources,” says the 26-yearold. Small fabric scraps are difficult to reuse in fashion design. What if, Li thought, we could eat them instead?

This was the starting point of FabriCandy – sweets that

Shirt and sweet: Jinghan Li and her FabriCandy creations (clockwise from top left) Denim Delights, Linenergy, ShinyShiny and Above Clouds

Li has created from waste fabrics such as cotton and linen. “These are natural materials that existed before industrialisation,” she says. “The fabric I use is plant-based, so the main component is cellulose. It’s like a chain of millions of glucose molecules bound together with different chemical bonds. The human body can’t digest cellulose because we don’t have the correct enzyme, but we can digest glucose.”

And so Li’s work – part of her master’s degree in biodesign at Central Saint Martins in London, where she’s now based – focused on using the enzyme cellulase to break down cellulose into digestible glucose. “The enzymatic process is fast – it only takes four days to turn the fabric into glucose. But then the liquid must be made solid. I used a dehydrator to remove the water, then I added more sugar and food colouring and boiled the glucose.”

The result is four candy designs, each inspired by the fabric from which it’s created. Above Clouds are made from pure cotton: “They’re very light and soft.” The Linenergy candies form curls that represent the strength of linen fibres, while Shiny-Shiny are spheres wrapped in coloured rice paper, alluding to the vibrant colours in which synthetic cottons are often produced.

The fourth, Denim Delights, are tight twists of candy inspired by skinny jeans: “Like tight jeans wound around your legs.”

While her confectionery would require extensive testing to be officially declared safe for consumption, Li has tried the FabriCandy and says they taste “just like pure sweets”. But for their creator it’s about more than taste. “Food isn’t just sustenance,” Li says. “It’s an interface between humanity and nature, reflecting our relationship with the resources we consume.”

Instagram: @jhli666

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Freddie Meadows

The Swedish surfer on the huge, untamed Arctic wave that took almost a decade to conquer and ultimately changed his life

Words Amy Woodyatt Photography Magnus Nordmo

It was eight years ago when Freddie Meadows caught his first glimpse of a substantial wild wave. Getting there had taken a 30-hour drive then a switch to skis to navigate a remote archipelago in the Arctic Circle. He knew immediately he wouldn’t rest until he’d surfed that wave. It was an unlikely mission – not least because Meadows is from Sweden, a country not known for its swells.

The surfer first became hooked on the sport following a brief introduction in his teens. After “borrowing” a windsurfing board from an unsuspecting neighbour in his hometown of Åhus, southern Sweden, then donning multiple wetsuits, hats, dishwashing gloves and snowboarding gear, he took to the frigid winter waves of the Baltic Sea to perfect his technique. Then, at 16, Meadows moved to Portugal, and the next decade of travelling and competing in warmer waters saw him become his nation’s first-ever pro surfer.

This was when Meadows made another unlikely decision. Despite finding success on far more accessible and hospitable waves, he chose to eschew the more well-worn path of the professional surfer and instead embrace the icy draw of his native waters. It was following his return that Meadows saw the wave –thought to be the biggest in Scandinavia – which he named after the Norse goddess of the sea, Rán. Now he just had to conquer it. Finally, last March, after a failed first attempt and almost a decade of planning, the 36-year-old – accompanied by his surfing friends Andrew Cotton, Nic von Rupp and photographer Morgan Maassen – went back to settle the score in what would become one of the most spiritual experiences of his life…

the red bulletin: Why is surfing in Scandinavia so special?

freddie meadows: It’s one of Europe’s last wildernesses covered with coastline. It’s untapped and extremely difficult to figure out, and yet you can have these incredible runs. I just felt drawn to being here – I love the adventure. There are just a few hours of daylight, and then there’s the cold, the lack of swell, the difficulty of access… All those things have kept it a very mystical place where you don’t know what can happen and where. It’s such a magical experience to surf waves that you’ve never seen before, empty and beautiful and surrounded by this incredible environment.

What drew you to Rán?

Around eight years ago, I turned up on a hunch and saw this world-class big-wave slab. I was too tired and unprepared to surf it [at that time], but I knew it was going to be a part of my surfing journey. As soon as I’d started surfing, I’d thought, “This is what I’m here to do.” And it was the same with Rán – it was so obvious [that I had to surf it]. There are a few things that happen in your life that are just so obvious. At the same time, I was really scared to fulfil that destiny. It’s a serious wave; you have to prepare. The first time I paddled out, I managed to get out unscathed, but I was close to having serious problems. I realised this isn’t the kind of wave you can just turn up to on your own. It’s very isolated.

What makes it so dangerous?

It’s a really heavy wave that comes out of deep water and hits a very shallow granite shelf, and it takes a form that I haven’t seen in other big waves. Any time it’s a first descent, it’s terrifying because it’s the unknown. It’s unpredictable – you don’t know how

shallow it actually is. And it’s so cold. It just feels like no man’s land on the edge of the world – there are whales, eagles and crystal-clear ice water. It’s incredible, but it’s also a very harsh place. You really get to know yourself when you’re scared, at least I do, if you’re allowing nature to challenge and teach you.

How did you finally succeed in surfing Rán last year?

I just decided, “Now is the time to do it.” I couldn’t wait any longer. We sailed out through the archipelago, and once you get out through those last outer islands you suddenly just see it in the distance: this mountain of whitewater and wave. Cotty [Andrew Cotton] zoomed off on the jet ski to have a closer look. Seeing [his size] compared with the wave, it was obvious it was huge. Surfing it lived up to everything I could have ever dreamt of. I was fully focused, and I felt heightened in so many ways. It was a trippy experience – I’d surfed here before, but never at this size, power and thickness. And there was a vibe between us three surfers that was just incredible. Riding the biggest wave in Scandinavia was never a dream of conquest; it was a dream of joining forces with the sea to achieve my greatest potential.

Has the experience changed you in any way?

It was like a prophecy fulfilled within myself. Since Rán, I’ve actually given attention to other sides of my life: spending time with friends, eating good food… I’ve also seen intense personal growth. It’s added strength, belief, durability, resilience. I feel a lot more sensitive, in a good way. I feel like I achieved something that I can be very proud of.

His Rán trip in numbers

Days 10

Hours group spent driving 150

Jet skis used 1 (underpowered and underwhelming)

Hours spent in sauna 12

Average sea temperature 3°C

Temperature range on land

Between -20°C and 3°C

Group snacks 100 boiled eggs; 1kg of moose/reindeer jerky

Hours spent on fika (Swedish for coffee and cake breaks) 72

Total body weight lost by Meadows 5kg

Website freddiemeadows.com

“I felt heightened in so many ways. Surfing Rán was a trippy experience”

Tessa Hulls

The American artist and adventurer spent nine years creating a graphic-novel memoir that forced her to face her family’s ghosts. Now she’s taking the skills she learnt out into the wilderness

Words Jessica Holland Photography Gavin Doremus

Tessa Hulls resists pigeon-holing. The Californian writer, artist and adventurer has been a cook at an Antarctic research station; worked as a DJ; bikepacked solo across the US, Mexico and Ghana, and reported in illustrated form on topics including police militarisation and ecological grief. She prefers to divide up her years into seasonal chunks, she says, bouncing between periods of extreme remoteness and creative connectivity.

So, Hull admits, throwing herself into an all-consuming, nine-year-long project – Feeding Ghosts, an intergenerational graphic-novel memoir about family trauma, published last spring – almost crushed her. To complete the work, she had to master basic Mandarin, travel to China and Hong Kong, study centuries of history, and learn how to draw a whole novel in comic-book form. Hulls celebrated its completion – not long before her 40th birthday – by getting back out into the real world, spending six months on a wilderness residency in Alaska, researching sequoias with scientists in Yosemite, bikepacking around Iceland, and cycling across north America on an idiosyncratic book tour.

The Red Bulletin caught up with Hulls at her home base in Seattle, where the artist was packing for her winter return to Alaska…

the red bulletin: How did the idea for Feeding Ghosts first come to you?

tessa hulls: It’s a story I’ve spent my entire life running from. I ended up an adventurer because I was trying to find a place that was far enough away that I’d be free of my family ghosts. As my life took me to more and more extremes,

I realised there wasn’t anywhere I’d be free of [that history]. I got to a point –it happened while I was on a bike trip – where I knew I was ready to enter this story and survive its telling. I then spent nine years of my life following through on this dictate from my ancestors that I had to tell their story.

Did you have any idea of how difficult that challenge would be?

I knew that it was going to be hard. I don’t think I would have started [the project] if I knew just how hard it was going to be.

Were there points when you wanted to give up?

Every day. I realised I was going to somehow have to give a concise crash course on a century of Chinese history in a medium that requires masochistic brevity. I had to step up to becoming an entirely different person, with a different skill set, to be able to pull it off. I don’t think I would have been able to do that without the confidence I’d gained from all my long-term [journeys] in the backcountry. What got me into the life I lead was biking solo from Southern California to Maine. When you first hop on your bike, you don’t think, “I’m about to traverse the entirety of my own country,” you just get on and ride every day. I think, for me, making this book was a similar process of meeting whatever’s in front of you.

Was there another specific adventure that shaped your life?

That would be the first time I biked out to the end of the road at Denali National Park in Alaska. I had a friend from Antarctica who worked there as a cook, so I asked if I could come out and visit. But I had no idea how massive and wild that landscape was. Being in a backcountry that remote and having

this heart-stopping sense of awe over and over again changed me in a way that I never came back from.

How was your bikepacking book tour? It’s what I needed: to reconnect with community and friendship and motion and dynamism. The thesis of the book, which I didn’t know when I began, was that isolation really broke my mother and my grandma. I found healing through stitching us back into this larger fabric but then putting my body back into a state of connection.

Right now, you’re focused on working with remote science field teams as a ‘comics journalist’. Why does that particular format make sense to you? For Feeding Ghosts, it was the only way to tackle something so dense and complex while also leaving it accessible. What’s beautiful about comics is that you can really shift between the microcosm and the macrocosm, showing relationships and connections. Now I want to use that ability to show how the interconnected threads of the natural world are being both threatened and protected by what we as humans are doing. That’s part of why I’m moving to Alaska.

Is it a daunting challenge creating a new type of career?

I knew that I needed an enormous life change after finishing the book, but it felt impossible to find a career that would fit all my requirements. Then, as I started to heal from profound burnout, it became a no-brainer. Of course I would have to create something; that’s all I’ve ever done. There is no path, so I have to build one. See page 98 for a Tessa Hulls comic strip created exclusively for The Red Bulletin; tessahulls.com

Going the distance

Eight thousand kilometres The distance of Hulls’ first solo cross-country bike ride – San Diego to Massachusetts in 2011 Nine years The gestation time of her memoir, Feeding Ghosts Six-and-a-half months The length of Hulls’ stay in a remote cabin, without phone reception, on a wilderness writing residency in Oregon

Two thousand years The age of the 76m-high sequoia she climbed last September while working as a comics journalist with Californian non-profit organisation Ancient Forest Society

“Feeding Ghosts is a story I’ve spent my entire life running from”

Jordan Rakei

As the musical polymath’s life has changed so has his sound. Here, he talks evolution, working alone and thinking differently

Words Lou Boyd Photography Samuel Bradley

When New Zealand-born, Australian-bred artist Jordan Rakei moved to London in his early twenties in search of progression, he immersed himself in the city’s vibrant music scene. Following collaborations with artists including Loyle Carner and Tom Misch, as well as making his own soulful, jazz-infused pop, the singer, songwriter, producer and multiinstrumentalist established himself as a major player in the capital’s creative circles – a musician’s musician.

Now, a decade on from that pivotal move, Rakei is ready to step firmly into the spotlight on his own. “Earlier in my career, I was all about collaboration,” says the 32-year-old, whose achievements include a Grammy nomination (in 2016, for his work with British electronic duo Disclosure), two sold-out shows at the Royal Albert Hall, and the role of ‘Artist in Residence’ at London’s iconic Abbey Road Studios. “I was taking all these people’s ideas and making it my own thing. But now I’ve progressed, I’ve started asking, ‘What is my individual sound?’”

His latest, fifth album goes some way to answering to that question. The Loop is a collection of genre-defying compositions featuring gospel choirs and sweeping orchestral arrangements, with deeply personal themes. The album, explains Rakei, reflects significant changes in his life: the birth of his son, his move out of London and into the countryside, and gaining a better understanding of his neurodivergence.

the red bulletin: Did moving out of London change your creative process when making The Loop?

jordan rakei: It was nice to have the space to do my own thing and be in my own little zone. When you write with other people in London, there are so many factors involved. The start of this process was very solitary, which allowed me to really focus on nailing down the sound and the story I wanted to tell. It feels like the most authentic album I’ve ever made. It’s completely my vision.

What inspired you when you set to work on the album?

I found myself revisiting lot of the music that I listened to as a child and teenager. The music you listen to between the ages of 15 and 20 often becomes such a core part of your identity, and for me that was gospel and American soul music. It was a completely judgment-free process: if I wanted to explore cheesy R&B one day, I’d go with it; if I felt like experimenting with abstract jazz, I’d do that, too. The idea was to follow my instincts.

You’ve been very open about finding out you’re neurodivergent. Has the discovery given you clarity?

I was only around three or four years ago that I started to think I might be neurodivergent, after I began reading about it. Before that, I didn’t have an explanation for why I thought the way I did, or why my creative process was so different from [that of] other artists. When I was younger, I used to feel like a fraud because I didn’t have that stereotypical experience of getting on stage and pouring my heart out. I struggled to connect with my emotions in that way, which is common for many people on the spectrum. But as I read more and understood more, I realised that it’s just my way of communicating. The method doesn’t matter – when a song carries deep emotional weight for me, it just comes out in my own way.

Did learning about neurodivergence influence your creative process?

Something you often hear from people with any form of neurodivergence is that they harness it as a superpower when they find their ‘thing’. For me, that realisation was that I see the musicmaking process as less romantic or purely creative. It’s very logistical and scientific in my mind. I visualise it – I see where the drums fit, the frequencies, how I need a high element to balance things out. It all comes together logically, and then I add my story lyrically. My music is so internal, and I love the solitary aspect of creating it, controlling all the elements, doing the maths.

How does that work in the studio?

I enjoy looking at the screen during my sessions, with all the tracks colourcoded. I’m thinking things like, “OK, this chord is double the length, so I need to divide that.” When I work with more traditionally creative artists, they watch me doing what seems like coding and they’re like, “What are you doing?”

But I see colours, layers and frequencies. I know that one chord works with another because of the theory behind it, not necessarily because of the feeling. It still evokes a feeling – I’ve just arrived at it in a different way.

That will probably resonate with a lot of creative people… I hope so. Neurodivergent labels are a relatively new concept. If you look back at all the creative geniuses over the last 400 years, I think people would be surprised by how many neurodivergent artists are out in the world, and how many of us have existed for centuries. People are only just beginning to understand these things and harness their superpower. It’s amazing.

Staying in the loop

Name Jordan Rakei

Birthplace Tokoroa, Waikato, New Zealand

Notable collaborations Learn to Fly (2014) with FKJ; Wake Up This Day (2015) with Tom Misch; Ottolenghi (2019) with Loyle Carner

Number of albums Five, starting with 2016’s Cloak Latest album The Loop, released in May 2024 Instagram @jrakz

“My music still evokes a feeling – I’ve just arrived at it in a different way”

RAISING THE ROOF

It takes something special to win RED BULL CULTURE CLASH, the world’s biggest, loudest and most unpredictable music battle. As four heavyweight crews face off in London, we find out what makes each of them such dangerous competition

Touching bass: the crowd at the 2014 Red Bull Culture Clash saw Rebel Sound beat rivals A$AP Mob, Boy Better Know and Stone Love

Cool as ice: Stormzy makes an appearance with the Eskimo Dance crew at Red Bull Culture Clash in 2016

MAKING HISTORY

There are few events where you might see A$AP Rocky arrive on a quad bike, Annie Mac empty a beer over JME’s head, or Usher appear from the wings as a surprise guest.

But at Red Bull Culture Clash, almost nothing is off the table. Rooted in Jamaican sound-clash culture, the rules of the game are simple: four crews, each representing a different musical genre, do battle over four rounds and the crowd decides the winner. But as anyone who’s ever witnessed Red Bull Culture Clash will know, there’s a lot more to it than that.

For any chance of snatching victory, crews must bring the heaviest sound, best tracks, dubplate specials (iconic tracks re-recorded by the artist to big-up one crew or trash another), surprise guests, and a skin thick enough to withstand the mockery from opponents that’s part and parcel of the format.

The inaugural battle, at London’s Roundhouse in 2010, was won by Goldie’s Metalheadz crew; other elites of the industry who have taken to the Red Bull Culture Clash stage include Skream & Benga, Wiley, Stormzy, Wiz Khalifa and A$AP Mob, all writing their own chapter in the rich history of the contest.

In 2014, Rebel Sound – a winning crew comprising Chase & Status, Shy FX and clash master David Rodigan – got TV news icon Sir Trevor McDonald to diss their opposition in front of a 20,000-strong crowd. In 2016, east London rapper J Hus famously took an Uber straight from prison to the Red Bull Culture Clash stage. Rita Ora, Katy B, Tinchy Stryder, Wretch 32 and Sam Smith have all been special guests. And one-off dubs have been created by everyone from Rihanna to Drake.

But even the most on-point insults and A-list contacts won’t secure a win without the sounds to back it up. House, trap, garage, reggae, grime, dancehall – Red Bull Culture Clash has spotlighted all these and more, representing the evolution of British and global scenes in five clashes over the past 15 years. Sets become music history lessons in real time as multigenerational crews spin celebrated anthems and unexpected remixes. Boy Better Know, featuring Skepta, Wiley and JME among others, put in a fiery performance in 2014 that helped fuel grime’s resurgence, inspiring lyrics, tattoos and collabs after the event. And at the last Red Bull Culture Clash, Mixpak – a Brooklyn-based soundsystem bursting with Jamaican clash talent – demonstrated that a non-UK crew could take the crown in the capital, leaving the door wide open as the event returns to London after a nine-year hiatus.

Here, we meet the musical heavyweights leading their crews into battle in 2025, and discover what makes each a dangerous presence on this year’s Red Bull Culture Clash stage…

THE CURATOR JYOTY

Whether she’s beaming out diverse selections digitally or direct to the dancefloor, always expect the unexpected from this Dutch club kid, radio presenter and musical polymath

“I’ll still be clubbing when I’m 50,” laughs DJ and radio host Jyoty Singh at her London home in December. “The club space is where I found who I really was. I’m the strongest version of myself on the dancefloor. It’s where I’m invincible.”

Now 34, Jyoty has been frequenting dancefloors since the age of 16, when she would sneak out to go clubbing in Amsterdam and travel to London at weekends. “I was the music girl, on every guest list, skipping the queue,” she says. “I knew every bouncer in Amsterdam by the time I was 17. Music is just part of my personality.”

Jyoty is fresh from a sold-out show at the O2 Academy Brixton – the London leg of her world tour –and enjoying a rare day off. Based between London, Amsterdam and Sao Paulo, over the past decade she has built a fan base on almost every continent and now has the hectic international schedule to prove it. “I think in the last two years I’ve really not been in a place for longer than a week!” Jyoty says. When not touring clubs and festivals with the biggest names in electronic music, she lets her natural exuberance loose on her weekly radio show on Rinse FM, where she’s billed as ‘Your Real Life Music Filter’ for good reason.

The lifelong music obsessive has made her eclectic taste its own genre, luring listeners and populating dancefloors on the trust that her sets will give you sounds you never even knew you wanted. From a ’90s hip-hop twist on baile funk to a Destiny’s Child track atop a Diwali riddim, Jyoty joins the dots between the genres as she goes, sharing nostalgic classics as well as the spoils of her insatiable hunt for new sounds.

“Come see me if you want to be surprised,” she says. “You literally never know what I’m going to play.

People are like, ‘Why are you here in Hackney Wick at this little 200-cap?’ But I’m always searching for these teenytiny events. Every big [musical] movement starts at small parties, and if you really love music you have to make an effort. Then it’s so much sweeter when you find it.”

Jyoty’s thirst for new and diverse sounds started when she was a kid in Amsterdam. With education high on the family agenda, music became an escape. “Everything I did, I was expected to be the best at it. I’m from an Indian background, so we were never expected to underperform in our household. I was a really quiet, shy kid. A studious kid.”

She discovered mp3 file-sharing staples such as LimeWire and started to access reggae, neo-soul, rock and backpack rap. “I was consuming music all day, every day,” she says. “Over time I developed this huge confidence with music – a knowledge and an understanding of it. Then that started intertwining with me growing and becoming my own person – I found I had my own opinions and wasn’t afraid to voice them.”

When Jyoty moved to the clubbing mecca of London in 2012, it was officially to study a postgraduate course in world history and cultures at King’s College to satisfy her mother. Really, she says, it was because “I obsessed with UK music!” By day, she tested out a list of careers as eclectic as one of her sets, working for an MP, in IT, and as a creative director. By night, she made a beeline for the hottest London clubs. There, she’d spend her nights on the dancefloor or working part-time jobs for extra cash – managing the guestlist at Dalston nightclub The Nest, where she witnessed early performances from the likes of Little Simz – and then at the newly opened Boiler Room: “My job was really to talk to people. I befriended so many people on the door.”

With no aspiration to be a DJ or presenter, her day and nighttime occupations stayed separate - until a colleague at Boiler Room who had just started a breakfast slot at Rinse FM, came to Jyoty in search of a co-host. “She said, ‘You and I chat shit on the door all night – why don’t you do it on radio?’” Jyoty tentatively agreed to give it a go. After just a couple of shows, her friend accidentally overslept one week, meaning Jyoty had to do the show alone. “The producers had to guide me through it – I was not prepared,” she squeals. “But one thing about me is I’m going to get it done. There’s always a way.”

A natural on the mic, Jyoty earned a specialist slot within a year. Sick of Jyoty sneaking her own selections onto the breakfast show’s strict playlist, the station owner initially put her on a month’s trial. Jyoty secured interviews with Los Angeles hip-hop crew The Pharcyde and New York rapper Princess Nokia thanks to connections she’d made while working on club doors, bagging the slot indefinitely. Soon after, she became the first female host at Boiler Room and started curating its shows. And requests to book Jyoty for DJ sets began stacking up at the Rinse FM offices.

There was one problem. “None of them knew I didn’t know how to DJ!” laughs Jyoty. She was eventually

“COME SEE ME IF YOU WANT TO BE SURPRISED. YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT I’M GOING TO PLAY”

persuaded to get behind the decks at the birthday party of a fellow radio host in Peckham in 2017. “Obviously it was awful – I cried afterwards in the toilets,” Jyoty says, screwing up her face at the memory. “But I used it as motivation. I wanted to get good at DJing for myself, because being bad at something wasn’t OK. And I was constantly being asked to play. I really learnt how to DJ when I was on the decks [at nightclubs].”

In 2019, Jyoty was invited back to Boiler Room – not on the door or as host, but to DJ. “That was such a full-circle moment,” she says. “It was a sign that I was getting there. I was motivated.” It proved to be her big break. In the early days of lockdown, her set went viral, attracting more than two million views on TikTok where pent-up clubbers yearning for sweaty dancefloors connected with Jyoty’s surprising blend of sounds.

With her day job on pause, she took her newfound DJ skills digital, streaming on Twitch, filming a YouTube series, creating a following on Instagram and Soundcloud... “I was doing eight-hour streams four times a week,” she says of that time. “I got so much more confident.”

In the past few years, with her radio show and DJ career blowing up, Jyoty has built a global community around her unique sound. It’s epitomised by her touring club night, Homegrown, which also features DJs from across the musical spectrum. “With me, it’s not even a subculture or anything,” she says, “because I’m part of so many different subcultures.” She now inspires in others the love of the club space she developed herself at 17. The day after her O2 Academy gig, she woke to messages from people raving about their night. “I was like, ‘I’d do that 100 times again.’ I’m so blessed that this is my job.”

Now Jyoty’s curatorial nous will make her a formidable force when she leads her Homegrown crew, representing electronic music, into this year’s Red Bull Culture Clash. “I know they got to come for me,” she says. “But it’s impossible to embarrass me. I mean, I come from an Indian household –my mother has been insulting me since birth!

“I actually can’t wait – I’m bringing all my homies on stage. I feel bad for the other teams, because there’s nothing you can pull out of the hat that we don’t have an answer to. I’ve got my team of lions with me, and we’re going into attack mode.”

Flowdan

British MCs don’t come much bigger than this. The son of a soundsystem stalwart, co-founder of grime pioneers Roll Deep, and a Grammy winner for Rumble –his 2023 collab with Skrillex and Fred Again – Flowdan made his Red Bull Culture Clash debut with Boy Better Know in 2014. “Who can actually chat to him?” says Jyoty. “He’s always stayed true to himself.”

Lil Silva Jyoty started out as a fan of this Bedford-based producer before becoming his friend, and she says he was an obvious choice for her crew: “Lil Silva is one of the biggest funky house producers and also the man behind Sam Smith and Adele songs. That’s versatility.”

Stush

High-energy performances, a distinctive vocal style, and a back catalogue that spans UK garage, electronica, hip hop, dancehall and reggae – the south London rapper and MC has it all. Jyoty says, “I wanted someone with an iconic, recognisable voice. Someone who could grab then hold the crowd.”

Conducta

“Conducta is a UK garage heavyweight,” says Jyoty. The producer and co-writer of UK rapper AJ Tracey’s breakthrough track Ladbroke Grove has singlehandedly created a new wave of UKG steppers through his label, his club night, and his skills at the decks. “He’s the perfect person. I needed him.”

THE PIONEER

TEEZEE

The musical maverick from Nigeria has blazed a trail for alternative Afrobeats sounds, making his influence felt across continents

When Premier League footballer Declan Rice walked on stage to present an award at the BRITs in early 2023, it felt like divine intervention for attendee Teni Zaccheaus Jr, aka Teezee. The rapper, songwriter, producer and record exec was promoting the latest track by fellow Nigerian Odumodublvck, a new signing to his label. Its title: Declan Rice. “I go up to Declan afterwards,” Teezee recalls. “I say, ‘Listen, brother, we’re big fans. Watch this video that’s going viral – the song is about you.’ He’s like, ‘What? I love Afrobeats!’” When Rice scored for England on the day of its release, he messaged Odumodu, jokingly crediting him for his success. Later that summer, when Arsenal officially announced the signing of Rice for £105m, Teezee made sure the club used Odumodu’s track in the video; it even featured on Match of the Day. Teezee grins as he recounts the story. “It was just luck Declan was presenting that night. Then it was a real test of following through. If you believe in yourself and the hard work you’re doing, you can make anything happen.”

With this unwavering selfbelief and an entrepreneurial knack for connecting the dots, the 34-year-old has built a reputation as a breaker of boundaries, creating and amplifying new sounds. Now based between London and his hometown of Lagos, Teezee is a pioneer of Nigeria’s alté movement, and is synonymous with the alternative underground

scene in west Africa. He’s toured the world with his inventive blend of Afrobeats, R&B, grime and hip hop; worked with fellow innovators including Skepta, Tems and Kid Cudi; and as co-founder of NATIVE Networks – a festival, print magazine and record label –created a platform for a new generation of African talent.

“Dr Dre, Pharrell… they were the careers I admired,” Teezee says. “I always saw the appeal of operating in the business side of things as much as music.” There were also those closer to his west African roots, like Don Jazzy. As an artist and producer, Jazzy was pivotal in the amplification of Afrobeats and the creation of Nigerian pop songs including D’Banj’s 2012 hit Oliver Twist. “These were the sort of people who did more than just music, like business collaborations, things within the culture,” he says. “It was so important for us to see that was possible.”

Teezee’s eclectic, global sound is a fusion of what he heard while growing up. His father owned a club, and Teezee would hang out there out of hours, pretending to DJ, practising his Justin Timberlake dance moves on the stage, and taking in whatever his dad was playing. “My dad was a big influence,” he says. “He used to listen to a lot of music, from Brandy to 2Pac. He always wanted to know what was current.”

As a teen, Teezee would also scour magazines such as US hip-hop title XXL and spend his money on CDs,

INTRODUCING THE CREW HOMEGROWN

“I’M HONOURED TO REPRESENT MY HOME AS THE FIRST AFROBEATS GROUP AT RED BULL CULTURE CLASH”

cramming lyrics. “I was a nerd of the culture,” he says. “The first time I came to London, it really impacted me. It was the summer [2003] that Dizzee Rascal dropped Boy in da Corner. I loved all those rhythms. I was like, ‘Wow, what kind of sound is this?’” It was in an unlikely setting – Worcestershire – that at 16 Teezee began crafting his innovative take on Afrobeats, making music with two boarding-school friends, Ladi Ladenegan (aka Fresh L) and Bolaji Odojukan (BOJ), as the group DRB LasGidi. He’d relocated to England just as the Nigerian sound was making the same journey, so he found a UK audience receptive to DRB’s music.

“Obviously Afrobeats is my core knowledge because that’s where I’m from,” Teezee says, “but I was as interested in R&B, hip hop and grime. It was about infusing these other things I like – Linkin Park, My Chemical Romance –into my favourite kind of music from back home.”

DRB began selling CDs at school for £1.50, then played shows at universities around the UK when Teezee went to study sociology and politics. “It didn’t matter if it was Nottingham or Kent,” Teezee laughs. “We added something so different to the equation.”

From these beginnings came the birth of alté – taken from the word ‘alternative’ –a term coined by DRB in the early 2010s when they moved back to Nigeria after uni.

“Alté just means alternative forms of expression for young Africans,” Teezee says. “The alté movement was something dear to us; it was another wave of Afrobeats in its own element. We were connecting a lot of unique things we’d learnt to create a new sound. When we came home, we were the first people doing youth culture shows for alternative Afrobeats acts, and it built from there.”

Alté became a buzzword for a burgeoning youth

subculture of music, art and fashion, challenging norms in the culturally conservative country while remaining proudly and distinctively Nigerian. Initially fuelled by a newly reliable internet connection, it has helped to launch the careers of artists including Odunsi (The Engine), Cruel Santino, Lady Doneli and Tems, all of whom featured on DRB’s 2020 album Pioneers. “There was a youth revolution in those 2012 times, when kids started getting proper access to the internet,” says Teezee. “It really helped us change the game, to connect in our minds that you could go beyond what you thought was possible.”

With NATIVE, Teezee has taken the curatorial instinct that shaped his sound and used it to support and promote new voices emerging across Africa in the past decade, such as Lojay, Tiwa Savage, Oxlade and Amaarae. “It’s about unearthing raw talent from the continent that haven’t had the opportunity to showcase what they have. We help them amplify. We’re plugging the gap between the global superstars and the next up-and-coming generation of stars.”

NATIVE Records launched in September 2022 in partnership with American multinational Def Jam, the first time the major label had backed an African business. Just five months later, Declan Rice got 3.5million streams in its first week of release, broke the top 30 in the Billboard US Afrobeats chart, and went to number one in Nigeria’s hiphop chart and number eight in its top 100, earning Odumodublvck the highest debut for a hip-hop track. Teezee was succeeding in changing the game, in large part because he’s never played by its rules. “We’re so much more than strict, rigid rules,” he says. “Nobody can tell you what you can and can’t do. Nobody knows. Not your father, not your mother. Nobody, apart from you, has the answers to your destiny.”

Gathering a powerful NATIVE Soundsystem crew for Red Bull Culture Clash is, then, firmly within Teezee’s wheelhouse. “As the first Afrobeats group to ever do Red Bull Culture Clash, I’m honoured to represent my home,” he says. “I want to reflect the global music industry of today. We’re ready to win.”

INTRODUCING THE CREW

NATIVE SOUNDSYSTEM

NSG

The east London Afroswing team are regulars at the top of the UK Afrobeats chart. “NSG represents what modern Afro music is about,” Teezee says. “They’re descendants of Ghanaian and Nigerian heritage who’ve lived in London and carved out a niche for themselves.”

Spinall

The songwriter, producer and label boss has worked with Afrobeats A-listers including Wizkid and Tiwa Savage and was the first Nigerian DJ to play Glastonbury: “We’re winning with Spinall. He’s the biggest DJ right now.”

Michael Dapaah

NATIVE Soundsystem’s host for the night, the rapper and comedian from Croydon has won millions of fans

with his YouTube series Somewhere in London starring alter-ego Big Shaq, and the rap hit Man’s Not Hot: “He represents the multifaceted Africans in the diaspora.”

Pa Salieu

The Coventry-born rapper and singer of Gambian descent mixes elements of Afrobeats, grime and UK drill, which won him the BBC’s Sound Of award in 2021 as well as work with the likes of FKA twigs: “Pa Salieu is the perfect representation of Afro influence in UK rap culture.”

Brazy

The Nigerian-British artist, who can rap in English, Yoruba, French and Mandarin, performed her ‘Afrosexy’ sound at Paris Fashion Week in 2023: “She brings the newgeneration outlook on Afrobeats.”

THE CLASH QUEEN SPICE

Unwavering energy powered Spice’s rise to the top of Jamaica’s ultra-competitive dancehall scene. Then she brought that subculture to the world

“Clashing is in my blood,” Spice says. “It’s in my DNA.” The Queen of Dancehall doesn’t go into an event like Red Bull Culture Clash feeling nervous. For one, she’s already been part of a winning crew, having appeared with Mixpak in 2016, when she arrived on stage doing the running splits, telling Wiz Khalifa to “Eat mi pum pum”. And she’s been facing up to dancehall’s big guns since her teens in Jamaica, inspired by the island’s legacy of lyrical battles. Now, with 25 years in the industry under her belt, she’s accustomed to coming out on top.

“I don’t normally go into something without knowing I can conquer it,” Spice tells The Red Bulletin from her Atlanta home. Her high-energy performances are known for dazzling acrobatic moves, audience interaction, props and costumes. She’s been known to bring a donkey onstage to add sass to a diss track, and to emerge into the spotlight on a motorcycle. She does the splits and jumps off speaker stacks. “I’m always going to bring a hundred per cent,” she says.

Spice’s rise from impoverished kid in the church choir to big name in a competitive, male-dominated genre known for its explicit lyrics took guts and tenacity. Even more determination was required to cross over into mainstream consciousness, bringing bashment culture to the world. In the past few years, the 42-year-old has been Grammy-nominated, headlined Cardi B’s 29th birthday party, and picked up fans including Madonna and Barack Obama, who named her hit Go Down Deh (featuring Shaggy and Sean Paul) on his favourites list for 2021.

Now, Spice is preparing for a global tour to promote her third album in four years, Mirror 25, its title a celebration of her quarter-century dominance. At the same time, she’s been launching a new Atlanta store for her clothing brand Graci Noir; raising teenage kids as a single mum; selling her Navigational Yearly Planner, a financial literacy guide, online; and running an independent record label and a philanthropic foundation. “I dabble in a lot of things. I’m into real estate right now.”

On top of all that, for the past six years Spice has been a regular cast member on the TV show Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta – the reason she now calls the city home. It seemed a sideways step for some, who asked why a globally successful musician would stoop to appearing on reality TV. But it was part of her masterplan: “Now, I’m recognised throughout the four corners of America. I feel like my mission was accomplished.”

The fuel for this fire comes from Spice’s childhood. Born Grace Hamilton in St Catherine, Jamaica, in 1982, she grew up sharing a one-bedroomed house with five siblings. Her father would play Bob Marley records, and he recognised his daughter’s musical talent as she sang along. But her early life was hit by disaster: the family were left homeless after a house fire, then, when she was nine, her father passed

“WHEN I GO INTO THE WAR ZONE, I TAKE ON A DIFFERENT PERSONA. I FEEL UNSTOPPABLE”

From homeless to greatness: Spice’s life story is a tale of triumph over adversity

away. Spice remembers walking barefoot and going to bed hungry and vows her children will never have to know such poverty. “I’m a fighter, which is why people from my country have so much love and respect for me,” she says. “They’ve witnessed me come from homeless to greatness.”

While still a teenager entertaining schoolmates by banging on desks and improvising lyrics, she was invited to take part in Sting, a legendary annual reggae and dancehall event in Jamaica. The Sting crowd is known for being tough, but she emerged victorious. It was there that her Spice persona was formed, and by her early twenties she was being tapped up to feature on tracks by the likes of Jimmy Cliff and Beenie Man.

Aged 26, Spice got her breakthrough hit with Romping Shop, a 2008 duet with Vybez Kartel that was banned in Jamaica for its ultra-explicit lyrics. Before long, she was signed to independent label VP Records, but theirs was a rocky relationship and it took a decade for her first official album to see the light of day. In the meantime, she put out a wildly successful mixtape, Captured, on her own Spice Official Entertainment label, which also released her second and third albums as soon as she was free of her VP deal. As we talk, Spice has just dropped the video for Hell No, a song from Mirror 25 that lists her no-gos in the bedroom. “There’s this trend going on right now that’s about men just womanising the females,” she says, “so my anthem out now is about putting a stop to this, saying, ‘Hold up, we may wear these sexy clothes and live in the moment, but we have a limit. We’re not taking that disrespect.’”

While the studio has brought hits, the stage is where Spice really shines, and nothing gets her blood pumping like a clash. Growing up, she was influenced by rivalries between the likes of Beenie Man and Bounty Killer, and Mavado and Vybz Kartel. “I was raised on competitive clashing. When I go into that war zone, I take on a totally different persona. It’s that ‘bad gyal’ image where I feel unstoppable, in command.”

Looking ahead to Red Bull Culture Clash in London, she slips into this persona. “I know I’m the winning team,” she says. “As a proud Jamaican woman, ready for anything and going up against everyone there, just let them know. Say, ‘When mi come a UK, everything a-get shelled down to the ground!’”

INTRODUCING THE CREW SPICE ARMY

WSTRN

Following a strong start – their 2015 debut, In2, went double platinum – the west London trio’s blend of Afroswing, R&B, grime, dancehall and hip hop has built a dedicated fanbase. “WSTRN will bring that melodic flow,” Spice says.

Mak10

Formerly the main DJ for legendary grime collective NASTY Crew, the east Londoner is now killing it on TikTok and Instagram with his live DJ sets on the road: “You cannot say grime without saying Mak10!”

Rampage

The trailblazing UK soundsystem does more to fuse Caribbean and British culture than most and hosted early Carnival sets by Wiley and Stormzy: “Ya can’t go round dem!”

Noah Powa

The NYC-based dancehall star is a veteran of Red Bull Culture Clash in Jamaica and the US: “His experience is just what my team needed”

Richie Feelings

The selector from Kingston was an easy choice: “He’s been my personal DJ for over a decade, so our chemistry is what I needed”

Jiggy D

All-star collabs are second nature to the DJ/producer – his DND album gathers dancehall talent old and new: “He knows how to rock crowds”

Loyal Squad

With their mix of dancehall, hip hop and Afrobeats, the DJ collective have a reputation on the street for bringing the party: “The root of clashing involves foundation!”

THE INSTIGATOR

KENNY ALLSTAR

With skill, charm and persistence, the Radio 1 DJ and presenter has earned his place at the top – and brought some of the world’s most exciting rap talent with him

For DJ and radio personality Kenny Enahoro, known as Kenny Allstar, it all started at a house party in Catford, south-east London. He’d decided DJing was his calling, and it was his first paid gig. He was 13. “Seeing everyone spitting on my block in Lewisham, I realised very early on that I didn’t want to be the guy rapping,” Kenny says. “I was shy and introverted. But I loved the music. That was the lightbulb moment for me: the DJs control the music; they’re the orchestrators. I knew that was the role for me, no matter what. I got paid £50 for that party and played for six hours. That became my practice.”

When one of the decks broke, Kenny was forced to interact with the crowd. What would have ended the night for most shy kids instead revealed a talent for flipping potential disaster on its head. “Learning to talk [to the crowd] was another light-bulb moment. Jamaican dancehall DJs are incredible at telling stories through transitions from one song to another. My niche could be that I’m a British boy of Nigerian heritage but I’m juggling like I’m a dancehall DJ. I felt comfortable behind the decks, playing music, talking. That was the only time I never got nervous.”

Today, it’s hard to believe Kenny was ever introverted –

he’s loud, boisterous even, his confidence shaped by almost two decades in the game. At 31, the DJ and presenter has reached the pinnacle of broadcasting –the BBC – as host of Radio 1’s weekly Rap Show for the past two years, the first Black man to land the role since the show began in 1994.

Having helped consolidate dancehall’s dominance into the early 2010s, Kenny would build a reputation as a champion of UK rap talent. In the past decade, almost any British rapper you can name has graced Mad About Bars or Voice of the Streets, the freestyle series he created to put emerging young artists – many of them with no other platform –in the spotlight. Along with Kenny’s ability to sniff out exciting talent, from Stormzy to T.Roadz, the series have made him one of rap’s most important amplifiers. “The one thing you could never take from me is the passion I have for what I do,” Kenny says. “I take risks. I push undervalued parts of rap.” Backing rising talent was as instinctive to Kenny as getting behind the decks. “It was always going to be about community. I built confidence playing these house parties. Then I was looking at how I could make

“THE ONE THING YOU COULD NEVER TAKE FROM ME IS THE PASSION I HAVE FOR WHAT I DO”

this beneficial for the people around me. I knew my next thing was to get on radio.”

Growing up without a TV in the house, radio was everything to the future DJ. “Pirate radio was the soundtrack to my whole estate!” he laughs. “I was always in love with music. Going to Carnival at a young age exposed me to the sounds, and the sounds were what mattered to me. I became the biggest radio nerd ever. There were so many big presenters: DJ 279, Woody, Daddy Ernie. The beautiful thing about radio is that bond you get with a presenter.”

At 16, Kenny was too young to even pay the subs – contributions towards the running costs – that every DJ was charged at pirate radio stations. Not one to be hampered by minor details, however, he asked for a slot on prominent grime pirate station DejaVu FM, telling them he was over 18: “They took my word for it!”

Now he found himself doing a different kind of juggling, keeping on top of his sixth-form studies while also commuting across the city to Leyton, east London, to work the 6am to 2pm shift every Saturday. Kenny laughs at the memory: “All I could think about was, ‘What am I going to play on Saturday?’ I was trying to find my voice. But I was a youth, bro! Why am I doing that shift? Sometimes the next DJ wouldn’t even turn up. And I’m just there doing these graveyard shifts like some mad man. I was broke. I owed them subs. But this was the come-up.”

At least it was, until Kenny’s mum found out. Realising how far he was travelling and why his school grades had taken a hit, she forced him to quit. Kenny being Kenny, he wasn’t off the air for long. “I’m like, ‘OK, if I can’t go all the way to Leyton, let me find a

community radio station in south-east London.’”

Kenny landed a slot at Reprezent, a station known as a springboard for rising talent such as BBC Radio 1Xtra’s Remi Burgz. Now, while also studying for a degree in film, TV and radio at Canterbury Christ Church University and building up his skills and contacts playing DJ sets around the country, Kenny launched his Dancehall Nation show, and included a brand-new format. He’d invite emerging artists to rap over dancehall riddims and productions, uniting his passion for the genre with his desire to champion underrepresented UK rappers. It became known as a rite of passage for the country’s most vibrant talent: Stormzy was the first guest, a year before his 2015 breakthrough. Next was trailblazer Naira Marley, then Afroswing pioneer J Hus. “J Hus came twice in one month, he enjoyed it so much!” says Kenny. “We built a safe haven, a community where artists could have fun. A lot of people started to pay attention.”

It helped win Kenny a slot on national radio for the first time, with a residency at 1Xtra for up-and-coming talent. He was on rotation with three

Snoochie Shy

Calling up the BBC Radio 1Xtra DJ was a no-brainer. “She brings the vibes, the energy and that fearless mic game,” Kenny says.

Andy Purnell

The hip-hop, house and grime DJ has spun for some of the best, from Central Cee to Boy Better Know: “He can read a crowd like no other.”

DJ AG

The Tottenham native who shot to fame with TikToks of star-studded street sets is a formidable force: “He’s the voice of the people.”

Big Narstie

The rapper, comedian and TV BAFTA

“WE BUILT A SAFE HAVEN, A COMMUNITY WHERE ARTISTS COULD HAVE FUN”

winner already tasted victory in 2016 with Mixpak: “Narstie’s a legend. His charisma, his bars…”

Ghetts

Few would want to battle London’s lyrical assassin: “Ghetts is pure fire. His ability to take control of any style of riddim is second to none.”

Cristale

Still only 24, the drill star and actor has won hundreds of thousands of TikTok views with her freestyles: “She’s the future: sharp, fearless.”

MC Bushkin

The north Londoner was a member UK garage and grime pioneers Heartless Crew: “He’s a triple war OG! He’s got that timeless flavour.”

Kenny wasn’t offered a permanent show at the end of his contract. With no money and no show, it was another broken-deck moment. “I had two options,” he says. “To crumble, or just be like, ‘Fuck it, I’m going to show you the streets will always win.’”

other young presenters who chose not to host guests, instead using their time to showcase their own skill and personality. But Kenny stuck with his approach, packing his show with rappers he felt needed to be heard. “The producers weren’t sure – you should have seen the looks I got. But there were so many guys not getting spun on commercial stations, I took the risk on those artists every time. My first guest was [masked London rapper] M Huncho, who came in wearing a balaclava! Then I brought through a Manchester rapper by the name of Aitch. I put my neck on the line.”

Kenny came up with freestyle series Mad About Bars, launched with the backing of online rap platform Mixtape Madness, which set the tone by booking AJ Tracey as its first guest. “That felt like an effyou moment,” grins Kenny. Then, in 2018, it was Voice of the Streets – in which newcomers freestyle for UK rap fans both on the radio and online – that cemented Kenny’s rep as a tastemaker. Launched on the station Radar Radio LDN, the format has featured the likes of Headie One and Rimzee, as well as the next generation of artists including Croydon rapper Pozer, whose TikToks now attract millions of views. The success of Voice of the Streets got it picked up by 1Xtra, as was Kenny at the end of that year. “It’s always been about changing the state of commercial music, platforming these underrepresented voices,” he says. “For me, this was it. This is who I am, I found it. I am the voice of the streets. And it all started at that house party in Catford.”

Now, Kenny is taking his enterprising energy and long list of A-list contacts to Red Bull Culture Clash, where he’ll lead his Voice of the Streets crew into battle, representing – of course –UK rap. “You see me, yeah, it’s all about the music,” he says. “That’s how we’re going to win this thing. We’re more than ready for it. We built it, now we’re showcasing it to the world. I’ve been preparing for this my whole life.”

For more, visit redbull.co.uk/ culture-clash

FAST LEARNER

ARVID LINDBLAD IS A MOTORSPORT PRODIGY ON TRACK FOR THE TOP. AS THE SURREY-BORN 17-YEAROLD GEARS UP TO TAKE ON F2 THIS YEAR, HE TALKS TO THE RED BULLETIN ABOUT GOALS, INSPIRATION, AND SPENDING A LOT OF TIME IN A DARKENED ROOM

Words Matt Youson

“FROM A VERY YOUNG AGE, I WAS DETERMINED TO DO THIS”

Young gun: motorracing prodigy Arvid Lindblad; (opposite) driving Seb Vettel’s Championship-winning car at the Red Bull Showrun in Houston

“THE JUMP UP TO F2 WILL BE A CHALLENGE – THE LEVEL IS HIGH”

On a chilly, overcast Tuesday in December, the Red Bull Junior Team’s newest Formula 2 driver, Arvid Lindblad, arrives at Red Bull Racing HQ in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire. This is a couple of hours’ drive from his home in Surrey, and if he were able to transfer his rare on-track skills to the streets he probably could have made it in minutes. But the national speed limit wasn’t the only hurdle preventing Lindblad letting loose behind the wheel: the 17-year-old wunderkind has yet to pass his driving test. So, having endured the comparatively

sluggish pace of a taxi, he’ll now unleash his talents on a virtual track in Red Bull Racing’s state-of-the-art simulator.

The Milton Keynes site continues to spawn new buildings, gradually taking over more and more of the industrial estate it inhabits. MK7, the structure that houses, among other things, Red Bull Racing’s illustrious collection of Formula 1 World Championship-winning cars, is a monument to success, its walls lined with trophies and pictures of champagne celebrations. But this doesn’t seem to inspire any kind of awe in Lindblad. All the certainties of youth are present in the young driver; though not at all cocky,

he radiates a calm confidence that making the step-up to F1 is his destiny. It’s where he wants to be, therefore one day it will happen.

“I’m a very driven person, and from a very young age I was determined to do this,” he says, gesturing to the building. “Right from the beginning, sitting on the sofa watching it on TV, I wanted to be an F1 driver and win a World Championship – even before I started karting. I wanted to be in one of those cars, winning races.”

This isn’t merely wishful thinking for a member of the Red Bull Junior Team – certainly not for a member who has already made it, almost, to the top of the

pyramid. The team is a performance machine; threaded throughout junior motorsport are Red Bull drivers topping the tables. Alumni dominate the world of racing: world champions in Endurance; in Formula E; in Touring Cars; winners at Le Mans, Sebring and Macau; champions in the Porsche Supercup and Global Rallycross… the list goes on. But it’s in the F1 World Championship that the Junior Team has enjoyed its greatest successes.

Of the 17 Junior Team drivers who have risen into the ranks of F1, five are race winners and two are multiple world champions. And 2024 was a bumper year: Max Verstappen won another Drivers’ World Championship (his fourth), while seven other former Junior Team members raced – a third of the entire field. It’s a list Lindblad, naturally, is very keen to join.

But first he must earn his place. So, over the winter months, his 2024 season in F3 long finished, Lindblad has been doing his bit here in the Red Bull Racing simulator. Part perk, part business for the brightest talents in the Junior Team, this is the best preparation they could get – short of driving the real thing – for their own championships. They’ll also do some heavy lifting for their F1 counterparts; piloting the driver-in-the-loop simulator aids the development of the F1 car and, during a Grand Prix weekend, race support sessions in the sim are a vital set-up tool for the team, who are often working thousands of miles away.

It’s scut work in a darkened room. The sessions are often long, the hours usually anti-social, and the thanks – at least in public – non-existent, but it puts a junior driver at the heart of the team. “Is it helping me or helping the team?” muses Lindblad. “Definitely a bit of both. My work in race support is for them, but I’m learning by doing it. I’ve been extremely lucky to get the opportunity to drive that sim, and I’m being looked after by very experienced engineers.

Rocky [Guillaume Rocquelin, who heads the Driver Academy and was formerly race engineer for Sebastian Vettel] is, of course, very involved. He has helped my development a lot, and there’s obviously a connection to the race team. I think the sessions have been going well –hopefully he’s keeping the big dogs at the team informed of that!”

Lindblad has already been racing IRL for more than a decade – racing drivers, like gymnasts, start young. “I actually started with motocross when I was three,” he says, “but it was dangerous. My mum

wasn’t having any of that, so it ended quite quickly. Then, when I was five, I got my first go in a go-kart and fell in love with it immediately. It’s never wavered since.”

Born and raised in the comfortable environs of Surrey village Virginia Water, Lindblad began his karting career, like most, with a rented ride at a nearby circuit – in his case, Daytona Sandown Park, half an hour’s drive away in Esher. It wasn’t long before he was racing with the illustrious ZipKart team, which had been a starting point for, among others, David Coulthard and Lewis Hamilton. The powerful karting grapevine would eventually bring him to the attention of Jos Verstappen, former F1 driver and father of Max. It wasn’t long before Red Bull motorsport advisor, éminence grise and Junior Team founder Helmut Marko gave Lindblad a call.

With more mature drivers, talk of parental influence might seem irrelevant, but when they’ve only recently turned 17 it’s practically demanded – and greeted with a broad grin. “My dad did a bit of motocross but didn’t have the funding

“MY FAVOURITE TRACK IS MACAU: VERY HIGH SPEED, BUMPY, AMAZING”

to continue,” says Lindblad. “I’ve been more fortunate with opportunities in that regard. But his side of the family, especially my grandad, has always had a passion for motorsport. My mum, on the other hand, is part Indian and the normal stereotype there is to focus on academic prowess. That’s definitely where my mum came from. Motorsport wasn’t on the horizon, so it was a bit of a complicated conversation!”

The young driver is quick to point out that while he’s received a lot of parental support, it’s never been the pushy kind. “Honestly, I think [the push] came from me. My dad certainly provided the opportunity, which I was very lucky to have, but it was me pushing for it. I don’t think it mattered to me whether I was good or not, though doing well probably gave me reason to believe in the dream.”

While Lindblad is gaining valuable experience driving an F1 car in the simulator, his aim, of course, is to sit in the cockpit of the real thing. He got his first opportunity in September last year at the Red Bull Showrun – another rite of passage for an aspiring Junior Team driver – in downtown Houston, Texas.

“It was amazing but also challenging,” Lindblad says. “I was lucky enough to do it with David Coulthard, driving Sebastian Vettel’s World Championshipwinning car from 2012. I was five years old, watching TV from the sofa, when this car was racing and winning titles,

Three’s a charm: Lindblad drove for Italian team Prema Racing in Formula 4 in 2023, then F3 in 2024

“MY DAD GAVE ME THE OPPORTUNITY, BUT THE PUSH CAME FROM ME”

FORMULA FITNESS

THE JUNIOR TEAM WORK AT THE RED BULL ATHLETE PERFORMANCE CENTER IN AUSTRIA TO HELP PREPARE FOR THEIR RACING SERIES. IT WAS HERE THAT LINDBLAD FINETUNED HIS FITNESS FOR HIS F2 DEBUT

“The centre does a lot of rehab work with injured athletes,” the young driver says, “but it’s also a place for testing and understanding fitness from all angles: cardio, strength conditioning, diet and nutrition, mental fitness, even some gym sessions. I first went there at the end of 2021, when I was a little boy.”

NECK AND NECK

“Physically, the move from F3 to F2 is known to be a big jump, and I need to be ready for it. The whole body is important, but I think everyone knows that single-seater motorsport, especially the higher formulae, really tests the strength of your neck. You’ll have seen the funny YouTube videos of F1 drivers lifting weights attached to a helmet. It’s just something we have to do – a lot. The neck is probably the area that F1 drivers work on most, because cornering forces are so intense.”

GUN BATTLE

“Superficially, an F2 car looks similar to an F1 car, but it doesn’t feature power steering, so the steering weight is extremely heavy. That’s going to be a big factor for me this year – compared with F3, it’ll be difficult just to turn the wheel! I’ve been doing a lot of upperbody strength exercises.”

HARD CORE

“While the neck muscles and upper body are the priority, you can’t neglect the core muscles – that’s where stability

comes from – or the legs. The brake pedal in a single-seater requires a lot of effort. To a certain extent, it depends on how the team set the car up, but in any circumstances you put a lot of force through the pedal, so you have to do a lot of reps on the leg press.”

ON TRACK

“The programme I’ve done has prepared me, but nothing gets you as ready to drive the car as actually driving it. Some drivers like to maintain their fitness with karting; I haven’t been in a kart for a long time, but I have been testing old F2 cars as much as possible. I’ve done sessions at the Circuit Paul Ricard in France, the Red Bull Ring in Austria, the Portimão Circuit in Portugal, and I’ve got one coming up at the Circuit de BarcelonaCatalunya in Spain. It’s not easy, but I want to perform – I want to win this year – so I’m happy to throw myself in at the deep end.”

so to have an opportunity to drive it… it’s something I still can’t fathom.”

A four-time world champion, Vettel is a numinous figure for many of the current Red Bull Juniors. For Lindblad, though, inspiration comes from a different source. “It’s perhaps a little controversial given my current position but, having grown up English and partly of colour, Lewis Hamilton was the driver I most related to. Also, he started racing in F1 the year I was born, so irrationally I felt some sort of connection. If I’m being honest, he’s the one I’ve always been a big fan of.

“That said, my mindset has changed a bit as I’ve come through the ranks. I wouldn’t say I have any idols in F1 at the moment, but there’s a group of young-ish drivers who are all extremely impressive to watch. You have Max [Verstappen], Carlos [Sainz], Charles [Leclerc], George [Russell], Lando [Norris], Oscar [Piastri]… They race hard. It’s exciting and aggressive and ever so impressive.”

Lindblad enjoyed an up-close-andpersonal view of the 2024 F1 season as it evolved – the Formula 3 Championship was on the support card at 10 of the Grands Prix, predominantly in Europe but also in Bahrain and Australia. The young driver’s season peaked in July when he rose to second place in the Championship with a double victory on home turf at Silverstone. Mystifying performance issues at the last three events saw him drop to fourth, but Lindblad still ended up top rookie in the final standings. The time-worn adage in junior formulae is ‘one year to learn, one year to win’, although it seems the

modern generation hasn’t much patience for such sedentary progress.

Even by today’s standards, Lindblad’s rise has been rapid. He made his single-seater debut at the first possible instance, shortly after turning 15, late in the 2022 Italian F4 season. He drove the end of that campaign for Van Amersfoort Racing – the Dutch team whose famous alumni includes Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc – before switching to the illustrious Prema Racing for 2023, finishing third with six wins.

“F4 was quite different to karting –a lot of things to get used to,” Lindblad says. “I wouldn’t say adapting to singleseaters was difficult – I wasn’t slow, and I didn’t lack confidence – but it’s different. The seating position is very different: you see a lot less, and suddenly you’re relying on two tiny mirrors, whereas in karting you can simply turn your head and have full visibility of everything.

“You drive in a different way, too. In a kart you’re fully in control, but in a singleseater you have to work with the car. You have to put more faith and trust in it – you can’t simply control it. I’m used to it now, and it feels natural, but you have to think about it at first.”

“I’LL JUST GET IN THE CAR AND DRIVE AS FAST AS I CAN”

Cramming in the most experience feasible in the shortest possible time, Lindblad also contested the 2023 Euro 4 Championship and the F4 race at Macau, where his two victories and two fastest laps from pole position really made the motorsport world sit up and pay attention.

The mention of Macau elicits another smile. “It’s my favourite track, a special place,” he says. “It’s a shame they didn’t have F3 in 2024, because I’d have loved a go at that. The circuit is unbelievable, really raw, and you’re so close to the wall. I really enjoyed Monaco this year. But Monaco gets resurfaced often, whereas Macau doesn’t – it’s a street circuit on genuine streets, very high speed, very bumpy, huge variations in corners. There’s lots of adrenaline. It’s amazing.”

There followed a partial winter campaign in the Formula Regional Middle East Championship, where Lindblad gained a first taste of F3 machinery, and victory in Abu Dhabi, before being thrust into the more powerful – literally as well as figuratively – F3 Championship. Such fast-track development is unusual, but when a driver keeps delivering results, and looks comfortable while doing it, Dr Marko tends not to place impediments in the way. “The conversation with Helmut was, ‘If things go really badly, we’ll do a second year,’ so I didn’t really think about it,” says Lindblad. “I was focused on being competitive straight away. I’m very happy with how I’ve performed, and that’s let me make this step up to F2.”

Traditionally, the jump from F3 to F2 – or GP2, or F3000 – is the big one: faster cars, more power, better competition, a more physical racing environment. It’s more of a stretch (depending on the spec of F2 chassis) than the leap from F2 to F1. So far, Lindblad has only driven the F2 car in the simulator.

“I can’t say what it’s going to be like, because I haven’t driven the car yet – it’s all going to be new. I’ve driven the old spec [2018-2023] of F2 car, but it’s quite different to the current car, which makes it hard to comment. I know the jump will be challenging: the level is high, there are pit-stops, different tyre compounds and lots of other variables. And it’s absolutely a big step towards F1.”

Lindblad knows that if he can make the leap into F2 count, he could be going wheel-to-wheel with the best in the nottoo-distant future. Despite these stakes, he views the task ahead in 2025 with characteristic clarity: “I’ll just get in the car and drive as fast as I can.”

The F2 calendar kicks off in Melbourne, Australia, on March 14-16. Instagram: @arvid.lindblad

Spa session: Lindblad in F3 Championship action at Belgium’s Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in July last year

SHOOTING HIGH

PHOTOGRAPHER CLAUDIA ZIEGLER HAS A PASSION FOR CLIMBING AND THE OUTDOORS THAT’S TAKEN HER TO SOME OF THE WORLD’S MOST REMOTE AND BEAUTIFUL LOCATIONS. HERE, THE AUSTRIAN SHARES A SELECTION OF STAND - OUT SHOTS FROM HER ADVENTURES WITH PROS WHO THRIVE ON THE ROCK FACE

Words Simon Schreyer Photography Claudia Ziegler

CLIMBING

SHEER MAGIC

It’s December 2016, and Austrian climber Mich Kemeter is making the first winter ascent of White Magic, an 8b+ route on the north wall of the Small Barmstein, near Salzburg, created by German rock-climbing legend Alex Huber. But Kemeter is struggling. “It was bloody freezing, only small holds and lots of hard work,” says Ziegler. “Contrary to what we’d worked out, the rays from the rising sun didn’t hit the wall, but they did light up the blanket of fog down in the valley. Bad for us, but it made for a good photo.”

Claudia Ziegler is one of the few women among the world’s top-flight climbing photographers. For the Austrian, her profession is the perfect combination of her two passions. “I first held a camera in my hands when I was six – it was small and red,” says Ziegler (pictured). “Alpine sport came later, in my early twenties.” Born in Vienna and now based close to the climbing hub of Salzburg, the photographer captures the exploits of top athletes across the globe, which allows her to live her own intrepid lifestyle amid nature. “My focus is always on people and emotions,” she says. “Another important thing is light, as well as the form and colour of the rock faces I photograph – I often choose the climber’s outfit before the shoot so I know it goes well with the local colours. I do everything I can to reproduce the very specific vision I have for a picture. But I always plan alternatives – clinging rigidly to ideas makes you unhappy, both in photography and in other areas of life.” More than two decades spent honing her skills has taught Ziegler another important lesson: “If you want someone to open up in front of the camera, you have to open up, too.” claudiaziegler.com; Instagram: @claudia.ziegler

MAN OF MYTH AND LEGEND

Ofer Blutrich is a tiny silhouette as he hangs from the roof of a hollow, flying-saucer-shaped karst grotto in 2020. Climbing is now prohibited here at Keshet (‘arch’ in English) Cave, as it is in many other parts of Israel. Blutrich is just a few moves away from the catharsis of topping out at the end of this very lofty 8a route, named Icarus. “I can’t say a single bad thing about this photo,” says Ziegler. “It looks good to me.”

TOP SHOT

Ziegler accompanied EgyptianItalian climber Wafaa Amer on a trip to Austria’s Zillertal region in 2017. Here, the photographer congratulates Amer after a successful ‘onsight’ ascent, meaning she completed it with no prior knowledge of the route – the ultimate test of a climber’s instincts. “I’m not as strong a climber as the athletes,” says Ziegler. “They attach a rope for me at the top of the route, and I have a technique for climbing it.”

GRAND SCALE

The photographer uses a long lens to capture Amer across the valley. “This picture is not about grades and big effort,” Ziegler says. “It’s about the beauty of the sport in the middle of nature. As a climber, you get to see the most amazing – and sometimes the most remote – areas of the world. An appreciation of this is captured here.”

“This picture isn’t about grades and big effort. It’s about the beauty of climbing in the middle of nature”

“This is a very hard boulder to climb, but Shauna makes the move look so easy”

GETTING BOULDER

A second successive victory at the IFSC Boulder World Cup in 2017 made Shauna Coxsey the UK’s most successful competition climber. Now retired from competition, she continues to push herself on some of the world’s toughest routes, as well as taking time out to work as a commentator, most recently at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Here, Coxsey tackles Low Rider, a V10 problem at Stanage End in the Peak District, photographed in 2015 for Ziegler’s book The Young Savages. “I captured the daily life of this new generation of climbers,” says Ziegler. “I lived with each athlete for a week and followed them everywhere. I love this shot because even though it’s a very hard boulder, Shauna makes the move look so easy.”

HOLEY RELIC

In 2017, Ziegler travelled with Norwegian climber Rannveig Aamodt to Israel’s Yonim Cave. “You don’t just climb the outer wall of the sandstone cave here – there are interior routes, too, where it’s cooler,” says the photographer. “To shoot Rannveig on the Samurai route [7b], I abseiled down into the exit from the cave, which tapers upwards like a cathedral.”

COLOURFUL CLIMB

The shady Amalu Wall in Tafraout is a jaw-dropper, even among the steep rock faces of Morocco’s Anti-Atlas mountains. Its striped orange granite creates perfect conditions for both climbers and photographers, allowing Ziegler to capture this shot of Israeli Inbal Katznelson tackling the Ninja Berber route (7b) in 2019.

DON’T LOOK DOWN

Ziegler is a grade-eight climber on the UIAA scale – this allows her to take the kind of shots a non-climber couldn’t

Here, Lithuanian climber and boulderer Eglė Kirdulytė scales the walls of the Verdon Gorge in southern France in 2015. To best photograph climbers in action, Ziegler must know the rules and techniques of this highly complex sport. The Austrian is at gradeeight level on the International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation’s UIAA scale (British Adjectival grade E4), which allows her to take the kind of shots a non-climber couldn’t.

JAPANESE HIP HOP, HIGH FASHION AND SKI JUMPING. WHAT’S THE CONNECTION? RYŌY Ū KOBAYASHI, THE SKI JUMPER WHO FLEW FURTHER THAN ANYONE HAD BEFORE HIM, WEARING A HELMET DESIGNED BY THE GODFATHER OF STREETWEAR

THE RYOYU EFFECT

Words Tom Guise and Patrick St Michel

Photography Norman Konrad

Styling Masahiro Hiramatsu

SKI JUMPING

Strap star: Ryōyū Kobayashi at Tokyo

food hub Hobo Shinjuku Norengai.

Coat by Masterkey; shirt, top, pants and hat by Bodysong;

shoes by Yoak

Total ledge: ready to jump at Tamano-yu.

Coat, shirt, pants and boots by Toga Virilis

“RYŌY Ū WANTS TO CHANGE THE SPORT ONE WAY OR ANOTHER” – COACH

All eyes are on Ryōyū Kobayashi as he prepares to launch of the bath ledge. The Japanese ski-jumping sensation is standing against a vivid, hand-painted drawing of Mount Fuji on the wall of Tamano-yu, a 70-year-old sento (public bathhouse) in western Tokyo. Kobayashi says he enjoys the occasional trip to these traditional establishments to refresh and relax, though today’s visit feels less of an indulgence with a dozen bystanders standing watching him being photographed.

“I’ve gotten used to it,” Kobayashi says of the attention. Which is just as well, because he’s become impossible to ignore. As well as being the ofcial holder of the Japanese distance record and landing the ofcial third-longest jump ever, the 28-year-old athlete is a two-time Ski Flying World Cup champion and took gold and silver at the 2022 Beijing Olympics (in the men’s normal hill and large hill events respectively). But it’s what happened in spring 2024 that dropped jaws around the world. In Akureyri, Iceland, in April last year Kobayashi ski-jumped 37.5m further than anyone had ever done before.

This leap of a bath might not be the most perilous he’s ever attempted, then, but he jokes that there’s still an element of risk. Standing on a slippery surface in large Toga Virilis boots, with bubbling water behind him, Kobayashi catches himself from slipping before hopping down onto the tiled floor with a grin.

Kobayashi is a laid-back guy. In the changing room at Tamano-yu, he makes small talk with the two stylists prepping him, and chats with everyone involved in today’s photo session. He keeps his sentences short, even when talking with those close to him, like the members of his club, Team Roy (Roy is what Kobayashi’s friends call him). He’s more likely to flash a smile than speak at length.

“When I have nothing to do, I clean up around my house or hang out with friends,” he says. Clubs and wild nights

out don’t interest him much; visits to local museums have become more commonplace during his days of. Recently, he’s been enjoying the endlesssummer fantasy paintings of Japanese artist Hiroshi Nagai and the polka-dotcentric work of Yayoi Kusama.

Despite this easy-breezy approach, he shows no sign of hesitation at Tamano-yu, whether on the potential drawbacks of jumping of a half-centuryold bath or when modelling clothes. He just goes for it.

Kobayashi leaps from the ledge around 15 times, jogging over to the photographer to check the results. “My face looks so funny here!” he laughs at one shot. Shooting wrapped, he talks with the owner of the public bath, snaps some photos with him, and signs a white autograph board in the lobby. Throughout, he seems comfortable being the focus of attention. “When I first met Ryōyū, about 10 years ago, he was nothing like this,” remarks Tomohiro Maruyama, CEO of Team Roy. “He was reserved and often nervous. He’s completely changed in the last decade.”

A decade ago, he was 18 and already an adept ski jumper. When Kobayashi was three, his father built a practice hill in their backyard in Hachimantai, a city in the northeast of Japan’s main island, Honshu. “It was just a metre tall,” Kobayashi recalls. “They needed to move the snow to get the cars out. That’s how it kind of started.”

What it kind of started was a skijumping family. Kobayashi’s older brother and sister, Junshirō and Yūka, and his younger brother Tatsunao all became ski jumpers. “I did a lot of other sports, but they organised camps for ski jumping, so I knew it would get me out of school,” says Kobayashi. “Also, it’d get me out of my hometown.” It was at one of these camps, in 2014, that he encountered Japanese ski-jumping legend Noriaki Kasai, the only athlete to ever compete in eight Winter Olympics. That year, aged 42, Kasai became the oldest-ever skijumping Olympic medallist and the oldest winner of a World Cup event. In 2015, he asked Kobayashi to join his team, Tsuchiya Home Ski Club.

The team’s then coach, Janne Väätäinen, recalls his first impression of the rookie Kobayashi. “He was a good junior ski jumper, but there are many in Japan,” says the Finnish former Olympian. “With Ryōyū, there was something diferent: how smoothly he moved when jumping, or his in-run position [a skier’s pose as they travel

“HIP HOP STARTED FROM A PLACE WITH LESS ATTENTION,” KOBAYASHI SAYS. “I’D LIKE TO CREATE A SIMILAR VIBE IN SKI JUMPING”

before taking of ]… I cannot explain it. But I thought, ‘This is something special.’”

At Kobayashi’s 2016 World Cup debut in Poland, he came seventh, “which is amazing,” says Väätäinen. “Good things happened that season, but the next one was really bad.” That following season, he scored zero World Cup points. It was a turning point for Kobayashi, says the coach: “He put in more efort, trained constantly. He got better.” In the 2018/19 season, the young athlete won every possible ski-jump title, including the overall World Cup and the Four Hills Grand Slam, making him only the third person ever to achieve the latter. “He was bringing ski jumping to a new level,” says Väätäinen.

That season, the Finn departed Tsuchiya Home Ski Club to become head coach of his national team. Then, in 2023, he received a call from Kobayashi: “He was leaving Tsuchiya Home to go fully pro.” Väätäinen left his national coaching role to join Kobayashi in the newly formed Team Roy.

So what does it mean to become ‘fully pro’? “I’d say Ryōyū has been professional since he came to Tsuchiya Home in 2015,” says Väätäinen, “but the Japanese are probably not calling it that. To be pro is to become independent. You’re responsible for your living, prize money, sponsors, everything. No one is in the background to save you.

“I was away for four years, but the success Ryōyū had in that time gave him the confidence to be what he is today. He’s business-minded, for sure. He knows what he wants. He wants to change ski jumping one way or another.”

Kobayashi fiddles with his smartphone in the back seat of his Range Rover as it heads towards Tokyo’s bustling Shinjuku district. He’s not blocking out the outside world, though; instead, he’s excitedly swiping through Spotify to share his favourite Japanese rap tracks.

The ski jumper can seem reserved in more intimate settings, and he answers questions broadly. What’s your friend circle like? “They’re all interesting.”

What are some of your favourite Tokyo memories? “Honestly, every day is fun.” One topic that gets him going, however, is Japanese hip hop. He eagerly runs through a list of artists he loves –AK-69, Bad Hop, JP The Wavy (“He’s so cool”) – then takes out his phone to play a mini DJ set. He bops along to the beats, reciting lines like he’s been passed the mic. “Hip hop made me feel I could be myself,” he explains. “It was OK to be honest. Like I could live in my own style.”

Kobayashi became interested in rap after graduating from high school. His gateway, he says, was Tokyo’s Yuki Chiba, aka KOHH, one of the biggest names in Japanese hip hop in the 2010s (Chiba also featured on Megan Thee Stallion’s latest album). Kobayashi recites bars from his 2015 track Hikouki and the viral hit It G Ma, where KOHH guested with South Korean rapper Keith Ape (he lets out an energetic “underwater squad!” when the topic comes up). “I’ve only been to one of his live shows, on a rooftop in Ginza,” he says. “It was incredible.”

Kobayashi has become tight with many of the Japanese rappers he’s sharing over the car’s sound system: “Sometimes we eat together – AK-69 took me out for sushi three days ago.” While not big on clubs, he enjoys going to festivals organised by his musician friends. “I’ve never made my own music or tried DJing,” he admits. “I’d be interested, though. Hip hop is all about expressing yourself, right? I wonder what it would be like if I did that.” He’s also considering how it could be mixed with his sport: “I want to create a space where [ski] jumping and music coexist. Hip hop started from a place with less attention, so I’d like to create a similar vibe in jumping.”

Hip hop, specifically the homegrown kind, has influenced every part of Kobayashi’s life. Maruyama remembers

Backseat DJ: when Kobayashi is in charge of the tunes, expect Japanese hip-hop bangers.

Top, pants, socks and shoes by Prada

Dressed for dinner: the skijumping ace skips through the streets of Hobo Shinjuku Norengai. Knit, pants, socks and shoes by Undercover

that before the ski jumper got into the genre he was less confident and “dressed plainly”. The music and its culture inspired a new-found swagger; Kobayashi says his fashion style is completely shaped by it: “The way rappers like KOHH would talk about brands in their songs got me interested.”

Recently, he has made in-roads into the fashion world and become friends with Hiroshi Fujiwara, the Japanese designer often cited as the ‘godfather of streetwear’, who collaborated on Nike’s HTM line (the H stands for Hiroshi), a project that reinvented and revitalised classic shoe designs. Also a musician and producer, Fujiwara was – coincidentally – one of the first DJs in Japan to play American hip hop, back in the ’80s. “He’s someone I respect,” says Kobayashi.

It was in September 2023, when the pair were attending an F1 Grand Prix together, that Kobayashi asked Fujiwara if he would design his ski-jump helmet. “He gave a few options,” the athlete recalls. “I chose some. There were just a few rounds of feedback.” He wore the helmet during his record-breaking ski jump in Iceland.

Kobayashi himself has designed clothing items available in the Team Roy store, although he has no interest right now in creating a clothing brand. “What I like about fashion is how you can express your mood,” he says. “It’s about feeling good.” Another of his passions away from the ski ramp is playing golf. Outside of hip hop, Kobayashi says, this is where he’s found many of his latest friends. “What’s my lifestyle like now?” he says, turning the question around from the backseat of the Range Rover before quoting JP The Wavy with a smile: “Wavy. I’m wavy.”

Kobayashi’s career has also brought him into contact with professionals who might seem, at least initially, less attuned to his wavy way of life. “I’m just a farmer from the mountains,” says Bernie Rupitsch. This is somewhat understating the 51year-old Austrian’s credentials – Rupitsch

is a fixer of sorts, someone who can take wild ideas and make them real. In 2021, Red Bull approached him with one such project. “They asked me to build a bigger ski-jump hill,” he recalls. The person they wanted the hill built for? Ryōyū Kobayashi.

In 2019, Kobayashi achieved a jump of 252m – a personal best, the Japanese record, and the third longest in history (the current ofcial record, by Austrian Stefan Kraft, stands at 253.5m). But the location of his jump, Planica in Slovenia, has a hill size of 240m. Hill size (HS) isn’t the height of the hill itself but the distance between the take-of table and the end of the landing zone, after which the slope rapidly plateaus. In other words, things get seriously risky when a skier soars past that point. At Planica, Kobayashi crossed the HS by 12 metres. He was already jumping further than the hill was built for, and there aren’t any others in the world with an HS greater than 240m. Rupitsch intended to build a hill more than double that size.

Fortunately, he had experience: in 2012, Rupitsch had attempted this plan with ski jumper and fellow countryman Thomas Morgenstern. Construction of the hill on Austria’s highest mountain, the Großglockner, was completed but then shut down by red tape from the sport’s governing body. For a decade, Rupitsch couldn’t let go of the idea. “I’d travel the world and think, ‘That could be a nice ski-jumping hill,’” he says.

This time, Rupitsch wanted to ensure nothing could scupper his plans. First, he wanted somewhere remote – not only to avoid interference but for practical reasons, too. “In Austria, the valley started 1,300m up,” he says. “It’s better to fly closer to sea level.” The higher you go, the thinner the air, delivering less lift. But this raised another issue. “In Europe, there are many trees at sea level,” Rupitsch explains. “For me, the rule was: don’t cut the trees.” After two years of searching, he found his hill near the town of Akyureyri in northern Iceland. The Austrian remembers the Northern Lights

“WHAT I LIKE ABOUT FASHION IS HOW YOU CAN EXPRESS YOUR MOOD,” KOBAYASHI SAYS. “IT’S ABOUT FEELING GOOD”

filling the sky as he finally walked on it: “That was a sign.”

In summer 2023, Kobayashi came to see the hill for himself. “It was just rocks,” he recalls, “but I thought, ‘Yeah, this is made for ski jumping.’” Did he see parallels with the hill his father had built for him as a child? Kobayashi ponders the question. “I guess it’s for me but also for the ski-jumping community, to bring more awareness of the sport,” he says.

The ski jumper had just one request. “Ryōyū needed the in-run to be ice,” says Rupitsch of the launch runway, usually made from ceramic. “There’s a hose running beneath that sprays it with water, which freezes. I like ice because we have no construction.” But this also meant that once the hill was built, the jump would have to happen before it got too warm. Rupitsch set a cut-of of the end of April.

Huge, heavy snow groomers were shipped from Germany to move more than 120,000 cubic metres of snow. The start gate, which Kobayashi would launch of from a seated position, had to be custom-milled and rigged to a snow groomer so it could be moved on the day if he needed extra height – and therefore speed – on the in-run. In the final weeks, the groomers were working 24-hour shifts and breaking down constantly. Then, as the April window began to close, a blizzard hit Akyureyri. It briefly brought more snow, but that meant waiting out the weather and regrooming the slope. The spring thaw was rapidly approaching.

“I went to a cofee shop in the mall and ordered 20kg of pretzel salt,” says Rupitsch. “In Austria, if you want to freeze something you put salt on it – it gets really icy before it melts. If it got too warm, I was going to put the salt on the in-run. If not, we’d have a pretzel party.”

The day before the jump, Kobayashi surveyed the site. “All he said was, ‘Thanks for doing this,’” Rupitsch recalls, laughing. “I was quite happy with that.”

“I felt relaxed because of how perfect it was,” Kobayashi explains.

To those unacquainted with the man, Kobayashi’s economical conversation when discussing his sport could be mistaken for a lack of enthusiasm. But to people who know him it’s anything but. “Without passion, you don’t risk your life like this,” says Väätäinen, “because it’s fucking dangerous.” In Akyureyri on April 24, 2024, Kobayashi demonstrated that passion without uttering a word.

It’s the second day of jumping, and although this town – population: less

SUPERFLY THE STORY OF RYO–YU–’S EPIC JUMP

RACHAEL STOTT

Label lover: Kobayashi is keen on fashion, and he designed some of the items in the Team Roy store. But there are no plans for a dedicated fashion brand just yet.

Jacket by Prada

Appetite for success:

Kobayashi at the restaurant

Unagushi Yakitori Ufuku

Yoyogi Ten in Shinjuku. Jacket, knit and pants by Marni

VÄÄTÄINEN

SAYS KOBAYASHI HAS BEEN UP SINCE 4AM, PRACTISING: “HE’S SO CALM

THAT YOU DON’T REALLY KNOW WHAT’S INSIDE HIS HEAD”

than 20,000 – is remote, word has spread. An unidentified drone has been spotted in the sky, and an Icelandic news site has already posted spy shots. Yesterday, Kobayashi made three jumps before the snow got too slushy – the last of these, at 256m, edged past the ofcial world record. Today, he’s been here since 6am, pushing the upper limit further – first to 259m, then to a staggering 282m.

Väätäinen says Kobayashi has actually been up since 4am, practising in the parking lot beforehand. “He’s so calm that you don’t really know what’s inside his

head,” he admits. “I’m sure I’ve been more scared than he has these couple of days.” Väätäinen’s concerns are fuelled by an awareness that the ski-jump season ended five weeks ago: “There aren’t many athletes who can come to a hill like this without jumping for more than a month.”

It’s now 7.18am, and Kobayashi is back at the top of the in-run for his fourth attempt of the morning. The start gate has been raised to within half a metre of its maximum height. Väätäinen doesn’t think increasing it any further will make

much diference – Kobayashi’s speed has been clocked at more than 100kph on every attempt. He also believes the athlete found his form with that last jump. With the sun now fully up, the temperature is becoming a concern, and there’s talk on the radio of adding salt to the in-run. “No salt,” comes the reply. Seated on the start gate, Kobayashi waits for the wind to clear.

“Ryōyū is on the in-run,” comes the message. “3, 2, 1, take-of!” Kobayashi emerges over the crest of the hill, his straightened form craned forward like an arrow, skis in a perfect V. Eight seconds pass and still he’s flying, past the ofcial world record marker, nine seconds, 10… He lands smoothly. “Distance: 291 metres.” Kobayashi has flown almost 15 per cent further than any jumper in history.

With the snow melting fast, this will be his final attempt. Soon, the hill will be completely gone; not that long ago, it didn’t even exist. Later that day, the FIS – ski jumping’s governing body – says the jump doesn’t meet the necessary criteria for ofcial recognition. For Kobayashi, though, that was never the point – he got the world to pay attention to his sport.

“That,” he says in English, “is ski flying.”

Six months later, Kobayashi is posing in front of a large painting of a can of tuna on the side of a building at Tokyo’s Hobo Shinjuku Norengai. As evening falls, the restaurants and bars in this dining hub – converted from an old warehouse and traditional houses –rapidly fill with hungry patrons. Many do a double take at the man in an all-black Prada outfit perched atop a table.

“He’s a natural model,” Maruyama says as Kobayashi adjusts his position. “This is something he really wants to do.”

Kobayashi will happily talk about the immediate future with anyone who asks. Tomorrow he’ll be taking the Shinkansen, or bullet train, out to Kobe. In a week, he’s heading up to snowy Hokkaido to prep for the ski-jumping season. Beyond that, it’s a mystery. “I don’t really think about the future,” he says. “I’m not really sure what I’ll do next.”

As the ski jumper skips along Hobo’s backstreets, people finishing work turn their heads to see why this dude is getting so much attention. A few recognise him and get excited. A restaurant owner asks for a selfie, and Kobayashi obliges.

For Ryōyū Kobayashi, there is no destination, just worlds to explore and impossible leaps to enjoy. “My life,” he says, “is going my own way.”

Making the leap: Kobayashi’s ski-jumping helmet, designed by his friend Hiroshi Fujiwara, the musician and fashion designer often cited as the ‘godfather of streetwear’

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CHASING THE

Splitboarding in eastern Turkey

VENTURE

“At 3,000m, the terrain gets gnarly. Gentle snow gives way to steep, nasty ice sections and our snowboard edges barely scratch the surface. Every step must be deliberate: any mistake will prove critical”

Several soldiers step onto our bus and weave their way up the aisle. One by one, they size us up. The fresh night air mixes with the sharp tang of tobacco and the metallic scent of rifle oil. A gun barrel suddenly pauses right in front of my face as two worlds collide: battle-hardened checkpoint guards meet a busload of snowboarders and climbers from London – the Backdrop crew – all trucker hats and beanies.

“Passports!” they bark. The bus fills with the sound of zips being frantically pulled as everyone produces their documents. One is grabbed, passed down the aisle and disappears into the freezing border cabin outside. We exchange nervous glances. Our driver and local guide start chatting in Kurdish with the lead soldier and the atmosphere suddenly shifts. The passport is handed back, the barrier creaks open and we’re rolling into the night once more.

This is the fifth checkpoint we’ve hit as we skirt the shores of Lake Van, a desolate, 120km-long expanse in eastern Turkey, not far from the Iranian border. Our goal? To snowboard down Mount Süphan, a colossal 4,058m volcano that looms over the north shore of the lake. It’s made possible by using a splitboard – a snowboard that splits into two skis

for uphill climbs. Stick on some grippy skins for traction and you’re ready to tour. At the top, peel off the skins, clip them back together and – hey presto – you’re snowboarding again.

For the past five days, we’ve been acclimatising by climbing smaller peaks and staying at a basecamp hotel in Van – a cosy boutique compared with the place we’re about to check into. The grand building looks like a Bond villain’s lair: gleaming marble, expansive, no expense spared. We quickly realise there’s no power. And we’re the only guests. We locate our rooms by headlamp, trying not to think of the film The Shining.

At 3am, following a short sleep, I drag myself to a Soviet-style conference room as the six of us shovel down breakfast in full mountain kit – avalanche bags and splitboards at the ready – before heading out into the half-light. The first rays of dawn stretch across the landscape, revealing a blanket of snow covering everything as far as the eye can see. It’s properly cold, the kind of sharp chill that bites through gloves. I’m equal parts excited and nervous. We check avalanche transceivers, prep our avibags and double-check our gear.

As we begin our ascent, we stare up at the majestic mass of Mount Süphan silhouetted against the early morning sky. The nervous energy fades as the sun crests the horizon, flooding the world with a golden glow. As any adventurer knows, that first-light moment justifies everything – every checkpoint, every weird hotel lobby, every freezing start. Banter flows, breaking up the eerie quiet. The skins on our splitboards whine, slide and grip beneath us as we climb, a rhythm that’s familiar in this otherwise new environment.

We pause every 1,000m, catching our breath and taking in the vastness around us. Our local guide isn’t much of

VOLCANIC ACTIVITY (Clockwise from above) standing 4,058m tall, Mount Süphan looms over Lake Van – wherever you go in the region, it’ll be there eyeing you; Emerson descends an icy gully on Süphan; a view of his Amplid Milligram splitboard during his ascent; Beale bootpacks after descending the wrong valley; (opening page) Asbury glides down 1,000m of pure powder

a talker, stoic to the core. He’s a Snow Leopard, the title given to climbers who have summited all five of the former Soviet Union’s 7,000m-plus peaks –a mountaineering pedigree that puts us all to shame.

As we climb past 3,000m, the terrain gets gnarly. The gentle snow gives way to steep, nasty ice sections carved by wind. Our snowboard edges barely scratch the surface, meaning every step must be deliberate and cautious: we know any mistake will prove critical. We push on, ducking behind a large rock that shelters us from the howling wind. It’s the perfect spot to strap on crampons, refuel and mentally gear up for what lies ahead: a steep 700m gully that demands our full focus. The chatter fades, replaced by nods and determined glances.

The altitude is starting to wear on some of the group. At 3,700m, Lou [Saddler]’s broken rib from a fall two days earlier is causing havoc; Swanny [Andy Swann], Ben [Atherton] and Rich [Asbury] are losing steam – and their sense of humour. It’s been a gruelling week. Thankfully, my legs still feel fresh. I glance over at Bealer [Andy Beale], our resident mountain goat. He’s game for the final summit push. We exchange a look and nod at our guide, who quickly hatches a plan: the rest of the team will descend, and Bealer and I will aim for the top.

The two of us continue upwards, sticking close beneath the looming peak. The guide takes his own route. Our plan is simple: assess snow conditions here, since this will likely be our descent route. We put in a few cautious turns and it looks decent. The angle steepens sharply, so we strap our boards to our packs and switch to bootpacking for the last 358m.

That’s when the anxiety hits me. I know this climb is well within my ability, but my

Cold Turkey

The Backdrop crew travelled to the area around Lake Van, Turkey’s largest lake, which sits 1,640m above sea level

They flew to Van, via Istanbul, with Turkish Airlines. From £350 return; turkishairlines. com

Local ground support for the trip, including ground transfers, on-mountain route finding and

heartbeat has other ideas. Is it the altitude? Or splitting from the group? Maybe it’s the biting wind? Bealer climbs confidently, disappearing over the ridge. I take a deep breath and follow, bracing against the gusts, plunging in my axe with each step up. It feels weird snowboarding with an axe, but on steep, sketchy terrain like this it’s a must. If I slip, self-arrest is my only back-up plan.

I finally reach the summit, at an impressive 4,058m. As a gale blows around us, we can’t see our guide. A knot tightens in my stomach as it dawns on me: if we’re truly on our own, finding a safe descent will be entirely up to us. Then we spot it – a large face off the summit, a steep 40-something degrees with an icy, windblown entry. And there, struggling with his skis, is our guide.

Relieved, I can now pause to take in the moment. Far in the distance, Mount Ararat rises like a beacon. From here, I can see into Armenia, Iran, Iraq and Syria – a vast, icy stretch steeped in history. I feel small but grounded.

I edge across the steep face, the icy crust making it impossible to turn until I reach softer snow. Picking up speed, I hit the powder and relief turns to pure joy. This is it: the pay-off for that monster climb. The gradient eases and the descent transforms into pure bliss. We’ve got nine kilometres of untracked snow ahead. My legs scream for rest, but the snow is so good I can’t stop. This is what we came for.

We carve endless lines into the pristine powder, our tracks tracing the mountain like brushstrokes on a blank canvas, each turn building confidence and stoking the stoke. Finally, we spot the van and the rest of the group. Inside, they’re all completely engrossed in an old 1980s Kurdish romcom that’s playing on the driver’s battered VHS set-up. As we arrive, they hand us cups of hot tea and we warm up and swap stories.

hotel bookings, was organised via Mt Ararat Trek; mtararattrek.com

Backdrop will be running an onsnow splitboard workshop in France’s Haute Maurienne valley from March 8 to 15. For more info, visit their website, backdrop journal.com

The adventure wraps with the crackle of a barbecue by the lake, laughter echoing into the cold night air. Soon we’ll pile back into the van for another long, winding drive through the darkness. Back to the border, back to the soldiers, back to reality. But, for now, the warmth of the day lingers, the ember of a story we’ll keep telling.

Zak Emerson and the rest of the Backdrop Journal crew are splitboard obsessives with a passion for snow-based nerdiness, finding adventure and spinning stories for their indie snowboard mag, podcast and films

CALLIGRAPHIC LINES Emerson’s legs were screaming after this 9km powder descent of Mount Süphan

Casey wears VÅGA Wind Resistant Feather Racing Cap, teamvaga.co.uk; VALLON Watchtowers Sunglasses, vallon.com; NOTHING Ear (open) Earbuds, nothing. tech; OVER OVER Broken Records Easy Tank and 2 Layer Shorts, overover. co; SUUNTO Race S Watch, suunto.com

RUNNING

LIGHT

Don’t sweat the small stuff – streamline your run with these high-performance essentials

Photography Mads Perch

Jaydon wears KIPRUN Water

Repellent 5 Panels Cap, Care Long-sleeved

Breathable Running T-shirt, 5L Trail Running Bag and GPS 500 By Coros Smartwatch, decathlon.co. uk; OAKLEY Sphaera Sunglasses, oakley.com

wears items as before

Emma

Casey wears cap, sunglasses, earbuds, tank top, shorts and watch as before; STANCE DJ Trooper Light Crew Socks, stance. eu.com; REEBOK FloatZig 1 Shoes, reebok.eu

Thanks to Amy, Casey, Emma, Henry, Jaydon and Meredith

Amy wears items as before

WELLBEING/

AA new generation of sauna is bringing the heat with a mix of Nordic tradition and fresh innovation

We now appreciate the significant health benefits of saunas and cold-water plunges: medical studies suggest that ‘contrast therapy’ can have a positive impact on your heart, blood pressure, immune system, cognitive function and mood. Less appealing, though, is the idea of booking regular sessions at a mediocre leisure centre or overpriced spa. Thankfully, the past few years have seen a sauna revolution sweep the UK, with Nordic-style wood-fired cabins popping up everywhere from floating platforms over rivers to pub beer gardens. The number of saunas in this country has roughly doubled every year since 2018, says Mika Meskanen, chair of the British Sauna Society, and they’re offering more than ever before.

“The UK understanding of saunas has changed,” says Meskanen (pictured), who was born and raised in Finland, where most people sauna at least weekly. “There are more natural and outdoor spots where you

Our pick of unique UK sauna experiences

Beach Box Sauna Spa, Brighton

These converted horsebox trailers, which offer wood-fired stoves, plunge pools, sea access, aufguss and leaf whisks, helped spark the mobile sauna revolution; beachboxspa.co.uk

Wyld Sauna, Liverpool

The UK’s first public floating sauna allows you to cool off with a dip in Princes Dock, a specially cleaned section of the River Mersey; wyldsauna.com

Suomen Merimieskirkko, south London

This small, traditional set-up has kept Finnish sauna alive in London for decades; britannia.merimieskirkko.fi/en

Sawna Bach – The Scenic Sauna, North Wales

Two wood-fired saunas in stunning natural locations beside a beach in Anglesey and a lake in Llanberis; saunawales.co.uk

Haar, St Ninian’s Beach, Shetland Islands

This horsebox sauna nestles in a remote oceanside location on a causeway between Scottish islands; haarsauna.co

can cool off in the fresh air rather than in a gym. People are talking more about the health benefits and how it’s a social option other than the pub.”

From Finland to Korea, a sauna tradition exists in many countries across the world. “The UK is one of the few places where you can experience everything,” Meskanen says, referencing associated creative, sociable and spiritual practices such as life drawing and yoga. Here are his hot tips…

Take your time

Nordic tradition involves alternating between a hot sauna, a cold-water plunge and resting in the open air, but Meskanen doesn’t prescribe the duration of each. “Go with your personal sensation. The important thing is to give yourself a good amount of time. Let go of the pressure of sticking to numbers.”

Wear a hat

“The hottest part of the sauna is higher up. A sauna hat insulates your head against the heat to even-out this effect. It helps stop your hair drying out and the steam burning the tips of your ears. It adds a ceremonial feel, too; there’s a group fashion statement.”

Experience an aufguss

This typically German sauna ritual, says Meskanen, is a theatrical experience around 10-to-15 minutes long. A sauna master adds balls of ice, scented with three different essential oils, to the hot rocks and wafts a towel to circulate each fragrance. “It might be choreographed to music – there’s a show element to it,” says Meskanen. “You even have aufguss competitions with costumes, storylines and special effects.”

Try birch whisking

This Nordic and Baltic practice involves soaking a bunch of leafy branches – typically birch or oak – in water and using it to hit and rub the skin. “It’s cleaning and skincare in one, but using natural materials. And it can be a shared experience if you whisk your friend’s back. When you whisk birch in warm water, it starts forming bubbles, like soap. It also adds a fragrance.”

Get creative

Many saunas offer additional restorative practices such as meditation, breathwork or yoga, and some provide other crossover events. Community Sauna Baths in east London is “on the cutting edge of innovation with this mashing-up of ideas”, Meskanen says. There, you can try life drawing, poetry, hear mythological storytelling or music, sing, and more, all while experiencing the heat of the sauna. britishsaunasociety.org.uk

EQUIPMENT/ SAVE YOUR BREATH

Handheld coach Moonbird can improve sleep, focus and recovery, and ease anxiety, one lungful at a time

With the explosion in wearables, there are more ways than ever to track your health. But amid this deluge of data it’s easy to overlook the basics – breathing, for example. The act of inhaling and exhaling may be something you rarely consider, but it impacts on your heart-rate variability (HRV). A measurement of irregularity between heartbeats, your HRV indicates the balance between your sympathetic (fight or flight) and parasympathetic (relaxed) nervous systems. A high HRV signals the ability to recover quickly from stresses; a low HRV may mean increased anxiety, disrupted sleep and poor focus. Fortunately, slow breathing can help bring the parasympathetic system to the fore, which is where Moonbird comes in. The brainchild of Belgian scientists, this device is a personal respiration coach, guiding you through breathing exercises without the distraction of a screen. It’s uber-portable, too, allowing you to get the upper hand on your sympathetic stressors whenever they strike. moonbird.life

Catch air: Moonbird expands and contracts, giving a tactile indication of when to breathe in and out

www.zellamsee-kaprun.com

EQUIPMENT/ POWDER TOOL

As worn by Freeride World Tour champ Max Hitzig, the K2 Cortex 140 Zonal Boa boot is the ultimate freeski footwear

Max Hitzig is a freeskiing phenom. The 22-year-old German burst onto the international stage in 2022, winning the Fieberbrunn round of the Freeride World Tour (FWT) on a wildcard entry. But this was no fluke. During the following season, he finished fourth overall and was named Men’s Rider of the Year, then last year Hitzig cemented his place at the pinnacle of the sport by taking the FWT crown with a series of creative and mind-bending competition runs.

Hitzig possesses the athletic strengths and technical skills to tackle any alpine and backcountry terrain, as well as the requisite flair and flexibility to pull off tricks that are almost balletic. But, he says, equipment is as key to success, with no margin for error on the unforgiving mountainside.

“The equipment plays a big role because you have to be able to rely on it,” Hitzig explains. “The ski boots are the most important thing – they transfer power and movement from the body to the skis. I’ve had problems with this for years, but last year I finally got the right boots for me.”

Enter American winter sports gear pioneer K2. Hitzig worked with the company to create, test and finesse a pair that would enable him to stand head and shoulders above the rest. The K2 Cortex 140 Zonal Boa boot is the result. Developed to meet

the demands of freeskiing, the Cortex Boa is suitable for riding any section of slope. The boot balances all-day comfort with competitionwinning performance, leaving its wearer confident and in control regardless of terrain or conditions.

The company’s first snug, low-volume model has the power, responsiveness and precision of a racing boot, but

Dial it up: the dual-dial design of the Boa Fit System solves the issue of pressure points on the foot and shin, and each can be effortlessly micro-adjusted on the fly

with practicality in mind, too. K2’s Fast Fit Instep makes them a cinch to get on and off, even in the cold, while the GripWalk Outsole provides ample traction when walking. And with the benefits of the revolutionary new dual-dial Boa Fit System you can finally say goodbye to fiddly buckles on ski boots, achieving a hug-like fit from toe to cuff first time, every time. k2snow.com; boafit.com

Big boots to fill: freeski world-beater Max Hitzig

Light fantastic: the Glyph Interface liberates user from screen, allowing them to stay present in the real world

EQUIPMENT/ CLEAR WINNER

Lights, camera, interaction: the Nothing Phone (3a) Series is a photography smartphone like no other

Nothing beats upgrading to the latest, dull iteration of your current phone. Don’t waste time puzzling over that statement – we’re talking about Nothing, the tech innovator that thinks outside the pocket-sized box. With its transparent shell and visible, luminous innards, a Nothing Phone is the smartphone equivalent of one of those fantastical fish that lurk around the ocean bed – only cleverer (and easier to hold).

The new Nothing Phone (3a) Series ups the ante. Its most obvious USP – revealed through the premium glass back – is the signature Glyph Interface, a feature that gives vital notifications via customisable lights. But the (3a) Series’ beauty isn’t only cosmetic: improved specs include a powerful Snapdragon chipset; all-new Nothing OS 3.0 operating system powered by Android 15; onboard AI engine; and a 50MP four-sensor camera set-up with Sony periscope, 60X ultra zoom, macro mode and a 120° ultrawide field of view. Basically, if you’re after a high-powered photography smartphone that looks like no other handset on the market, Nothing nails it better. nothing.tech

GREEN RUN

Want to reduce your carbon footprint this ski season?

Holiday package pioneer Inghams has nine decades of train travel know-how…

Skiing is the ultimate way to experience nature in winter. Up on the mountainside, you’re able to immerse yourself in the sights, smells and sounds of alpine life as you carve your way through snow-dusted trees or let gravity propel you down a freshly ploughed run before retiring at the end of the day for après-ski fun.

But with ski resorts on the frontline of climate change, protecting that very environment has never been more important. According to carbon consultancy ecollective, winter sports themselves are a relatively low-carbon pursuit. But with flying the default way that most skiers access the slopes, it’s the travel to and from the mountain that accounts for the biggest impact on the planet.

Fortunately, there’s an alternative way to sample the best of Europe’s resorts while minimising your carbon footprint. In fact, the UK is connected to the best spots without any need to step on a plane – research conducted by ecollective

has found that travelling by train can be at least 3.5 times better for the environment than flying.

One travel operator that knows ski-train holidays better than most is Inghams. Founder Walter Ingham is widely regarded as the man who introduced skiing holidays to Britain; his first organised tour, in 1934,

saw a group depart London by train for a two-week trip to Austria.

Inghams has now been a pioneer in ski-train holidays for nine decades. To mark the 90th anniversary of that debut expedition, the travel operator returned to the Austrian Tyrol last December with four-time Olympian and brand ambassador Chemmy Alcott (pictured), setting off from St Pancras International and travelling by train to St Anton via Paris and Zurich. Today, 31 per cent of Inghams’ resorts are reachable by train from the UK, including 24 resorts across Austria, Italy, France and Switzerland.

Stress-free travel, shorter check-in times, increased luggage allowance at no extra cost, plus the freedom to move around on board while taking in the beautiful scenery – doing your bit to protect the planet on your next ski holiday has never been more appealing. Find out more at inghams.co.uk

March

ACerro Abajo translates into English as ‘down the hill’ but, let’s be honest, it sounds cooler in Spanish. As the world’s largest urban downhill mountain-bike race, it’s indisputably thrilling in any language. This will be the third year the competition series has stopped off in Guanajuato, transforming the winding narrow streets and stone staircases of this 16th-century Mexican mining town into an insane 1.2km gravity course. Last year, Colombia’s Juanfer Vélez took the crown while still recovering from a broken wrist. Can he do it again (the winning, not the fracturing)? Watch it on Red Bull TV. redbull.tv

22

March to 31 January 2026

Here’s a fun fact: did you know the ghosts that chase Pac-Man possess artificial intelligence? Each one – Inky, Blinky, Pinky and Clyde – tracks Pac-Man around the maze in their own different way, based on their personality. Impressive for a video game that debuted in 1980, and very apt in 2025. In this immersive experience, players become the iconic dot-muncher, thankfully not taking the form of a disembodied, gobbling head but instead wearing a multisensory vest that tracks their movements and delivers haptic feedback as they try to top the leaderboard. A live deathmatch that you win by consuming everything in your path while escaping AI-powered spooks? Squid Game missed a trick here. Arcade Arena, Manchester; pacmanlive.co.uk

4

March onwards

Peckham in south-east London is home to plenty of famous street art, so word of a new spray wall might excite local graffiti artists – though in this case only if they’re also avid climbers. In bouldering, a spray wall is one densely packed with holds –no ropes or predefined routes, just a steeply angled vertical playground. Nestled beneath a railway arch, Muro – from ‘wall’ in Spanish, or ‘cellar’ in Japanese – is home to the capital’s first Japanese-style spray wall, meaning it focuses on tight moves and flexibility. It’s the passion project of four climbers from London, France and Colombia who wanted to build a community through their sport, and everyone from beginner to expert is welcome. 845-846 Brayards Rd, London; muroclimbing.com

28

March to 17 August Splash!

Pamela Anderson is enjoying a revival thanks to Gia Coppola’s award-winning film The Last Showgirl, but those old enough will remember her as kind of a big deal in the 1990s thanks to Baywatch and that swimsuit (pictured). It’s one of 200 iconic items in this exhibition, subtitled A Century of Swimming and Style, alongside one of the earliest bikinis and a snazzy hoard of Speedos. Design Museum, London; designmuseum.org

21 to 27 April PlayStation

You won’t be required to strum on the PS5 touchpad while Joel from The Last of Us Part II (pictured) plays his guitar, but this musical spectacular will still twang at the heartstrings of every PlayStation gamer. Featuring the soundtracks of The Last of Us, Horizon, God of War and Ghost of Tsushima, these live performances will be accompanied by visuals from the games via cuttingedge projections and multiple screens, with shows in Birmingham, Manchester, Newcastle, Leeds, Glasgow and London. Nationwide; playstation.com/theconcert

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LESSONS FROM THE WILDERNESS

From intrepid artist and adventurer Tessa Hulls

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Red Bull athlete Šime Fantela, sailor, wears the new water-resistant,  windproof, and breathable bonded wool caban jacket ORATA from  AlphaTauri – functional fashion by Red Bull.

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