You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
<strong>UK</strong> EDITION<br />
NOVEMBER <strong>2019</strong>, £3.50<br />
BEYOND THE ORDINARY<br />
SUBSCRIBE: GETREDBULLETIN.COM<br />
DANNY<br />
MACASKILL<br />
10 years of<br />
bike trials<br />
and triumphs<br />
DEEP<br />
FREEZE<br />
Freediving beneath Arctic ice floes
COMPLETE<br />
THE KIT<br />
Buttery soft from the feet up.<br />
Our ultra-soft Butter Blend fabric is available across<br />
a range of categories, including Stance T-Shirts,<br />
Underwear, and of course, Socks. Find our collection<br />
online at Stance.eu.com, at one of our London<br />
Stance stores or one of our great retailers.
#UNCOVERTHEUNCOMMON / @STANCEEUROPE / STANCE.EU.COM
EDITOR’S LETTER<br />
PATH OF MOST<br />
RESISTANCE<br />
Whoever said “Good things come to those<br />
who wait” hasn’t met the stars of this month’s<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Red</strong> <strong>Bulletin</strong>. <strong>The</strong>re’s trail-riding superstar<br />
Danny MacAskill (page 56), who, a decade ago,<br />
worked in an Edinburgh bike shop and dreamt<br />
of making a huge gap jump onto the roof of the<br />
store next door. Two years earlier, Anna von<br />
Boetticher (page 30) tried diving without an air<br />
tank. Today, she’s our cover star, freediving<br />
beneath icebergs. Strongman Mike McCastle<br />
(page 40) reprogrammed his own survival<br />
mechanism to motivate himself to help others.<br />
Japanese band DYGL (page 48) wanted to emulate<br />
their western idols; in the process they’ve found<br />
themselves at war with the hypocrisy of their<br />
homeland’s music industry. Meanwhile, Michael<br />
Kiwanuka (page 26) kickstarted his music career<br />
by walking out on Kanye, and actor Linda<br />
Hamilton (page 24) is battling Terminators and<br />
Hollywood ageism at a youthful 63 years old.<br />
CONTRIBUTORS<br />
THIS ISSUE<br />
MAUREEN O’HAGAN<br />
<strong>The</strong> Pulitzer Prize-nominated<br />
journalist has met many<br />
surprising characters in her<br />
career, but none quite like<br />
strongman Mike McCastle.<br />
“Before I sat down with Mike,<br />
I had a picture in my mind that<br />
turned out to be completely<br />
wrong,” she says. “I don’t<br />
think I’ve met someone so<br />
different from what his list<br />
of achievements would<br />
suggest.” Page 40<br />
STUART KENNY<br />
For the Edinburgh-based<br />
writer, interviewing<br />
Danny MacAskill was an<br />
achievement unlocked. “I’ve<br />
been a follower since 2009,<br />
watching him ride his bike<br />
along railings in <strong>The</strong> Meadows<br />
without impaling himself,” he<br />
says. “Ten years later, it was a<br />
few hundred yards from that<br />
railing that we chatted. <strong>The</strong>y<br />
say don’t meet your heroes,<br />
but if that hero is Danny,<br />
you’re safe.” Page 56<br />
For photographer Tobias Friedrich, shooting in Greenland’s<br />
fjords wasn’t easy: “It was -2°C, so Anna [von Boetticher] only<br />
had 15-20 minutes in such an extreme environment.” Page 30<br />
TOBIAS FRIEDRICH (COVER)<br />
04 THE RED BULLETIN
ARE YOU VEGAN?<br />
SYNTHETIC DOWN INSULATION<br />
NEW IN STORE AND ONLINE NOW:<br />
JACK-WOLFSKIN.COM
56<br />
<strong>The</strong> power of 10:<br />
Danny MacAskill<br />
talks us through<br />
his decade of<br />
spectacular trials<br />
and YouTube hits<br />
CONTENTS<br />
<strong>November</strong> <strong>2019</strong><br />
DAVE MACKISON<br />
08 Fantasy island: psychedelic<br />
paragliding in Bali<br />
10 Ahead of the curve: shadow<br />
skating in Singapore<br />
11 Photo finish: the climbers who<br />
wouldn’t be beaten<br />
12 Perpetual ocean: an encounter<br />
with one of Hawaii’s fiercest waves<br />
15 Can you dig it: Metronomy’s<br />
Joseph Mount shares his four<br />
favourite garden-themed tracks<br />
16 Coffee break: the man who makes<br />
surfboards from takeaway cups<br />
18 Fly by night: check into Tokyo’s<br />
flight-simulator hotel room<br />
20 Balanced view: expert tips from<br />
German slackliner Lukas Irmler<br />
22 Bring the noise: the ‘museum’<br />
conserving sounds of the past<br />
24 Linda Hamilton<br />
Terminator’s Sarah Connor on<br />
reprising her most iconic role<br />
26 Michael Kiwanuka<br />
<strong>The</strong> singer-songwriter whose<br />
route to success wasn’t Yeezy<br />
28 Beauden Barrett<br />
Back in black: home truths from<br />
the New Zealand rugby ace<br />
30 Freediving<br />
Fjord escort: beneath the ice<br />
with diver Anna von Boetticher<br />
40 Mike McCastle<br />
America’s very own Hercules<br />
48 DYGL<br />
Rocking Japan to its foundations<br />
56 Danny MacAskill<br />
<strong>The</strong> Scottish MTB rider revisits<br />
his career highlights to date<br />
70 Pressure drop: American<br />
skydiver Tom Noonan and the<br />
Mount Everest freefall that<br />
became a labour of love<br />
80 Meet Erwan Le Corre, the French<br />
physical trainer whose fitness<br />
regime takes you back to nature<br />
81 In the world of gaming, the<br />
FIFA franchise is a colossus.<br />
We explore how the football<br />
title grew from meagre-budget<br />
minnow to league leader<br />
82 Unmissable dates for your<br />
calendar<br />
83 This month’s highlights on<br />
<strong>Red</strong> Bull TV<br />
85 Equipment: watches for every<br />
terrain, plus the hiking, biking<br />
and grooming kit you’ll want<br />
to be using this month<br />
98 Bird’s-eye biking: freeriding<br />
with a drone in France<br />
THE RED BULLETIN 07
MOUNT AGUNG, BALI<br />
Tripping<br />
the lıght<br />
fantastic<br />
“A trippy full moon in Bali” is<br />
how surf coach Ivan Fominykh<br />
describes this amazing shot of him<br />
paragliding through the air near<br />
Mount Agung, the island’s active<br />
volcano. While it appears to have<br />
captured a psychedelic night-time<br />
light show, the image was actually<br />
achieved thanks to a combination<br />
of clever photography and<br />
specialist equipment. “I took this<br />
shot using an LED light strap,” says<br />
photographer Serge Shakuto. “It<br />
was shot with a 20-second-long<br />
exposure and one strobe light with<br />
a wireless remote.”<br />
Instagram: @shakuto<br />
SERGE SHAKUTO / RED BULL ILLUME
09
SINGAPORE<br />
Curves<br />
and<br />
shadows<br />
Shot from above by drone, this<br />
photo was taken in Singapore<br />
during a session with members<br />
of the country’s tight local skate<br />
scene. <strong>The</strong> image, which uses<br />
shadow play and the natural lines<br />
of the park, is just one in a<br />
collection snapped by photographer<br />
Ebrahim Adam and shortlisted<br />
for <strong>Red</strong> Bull Illume’s Instagram<br />
community vote in June. “Stoked<br />
that three of my images have<br />
been selected,” Adam wrote in<br />
his Instagram post.<br />
Instagram: @ebra_cadabra
BIDEAN NAM BIAN,<br />
SCOTLAND<br />
Saving<br />
face<br />
When climbers Guy Robertson<br />
and Greg Boswell attempted the<br />
summer route at Bidean nam Bian,<br />
near Glen Coe in Scotland, in 2017,<br />
they hadn’t anticipated failure, but<br />
that’s how the day ended. Returning<br />
to the location later that year to<br />
complete the climb, they took along<br />
photographer Hamish Frost to<br />
record their triumph. This shot went<br />
on to win <strong>Red</strong> Bull Illume’s Best of<br />
Instagram category this June.<br />
“It’s awesome for Scottish winter<br />
climbing to get more exposure on<br />
a worldwide stage,” says Frost.<br />
“It’s bold, hard, technical climbing<br />
in unforgiving conditions, and often<br />
it goes without much fanfare.”<br />
Instagram: @hamishfrost<br />
EBRAHIM ADAM/RED BULL ILLUME, HAMISH FROST/RED BULL ILLUME<br />
11
RYAN CRAIG/RED BULL ILLUME
PE’AHI, HAWAII<br />
Rider<br />
on the<br />
storm<br />
Ask someone to imagine surfing in<br />
Hawaii and they’ll most likely think of<br />
blue skies, clear waters, and dudes<br />
throwing the shaka sign. But, as this<br />
image shows, that’s not always the<br />
true picture. <strong>The</strong> dramatic shot was<br />
taken by Ryan ‘Chachi’ Craig, who<br />
captions it “a tale of trying to wrangle<br />
the biggest catch, on the windiest<br />
day, at a notoriously moody and<br />
dangerous spot, Pe’ahi. [Hawaiian<br />
surfer] Nathan Florence trying to<br />
read a turbulent ocean while also<br />
trying to avoid being blown away into<br />
the great blue ocean. What a day”.<br />
Instagram: @chachfiles<br />
13
ULTIMATE COMMITMENT<br />
LYRIK ULTIMATE<br />
Go up faster. Come down harder. <strong>The</strong> Lyrik<br />
Ultimate is the world’s best enduro fork, full<br />
stop. Whether you’re after a big mountain<br />
excursion or the coveted weekend podium,<br />
Lyrik is here to help you conquer.<br />
ROCKSHOX.COM
METRONOMY<br />
Hanging<br />
out in<br />
the green<br />
room<br />
When he’s not writing indie-pop<br />
anthems, you’ll find Metronomy’s<br />
Joseph Mount in his garden. Here,<br />
he picks four horticultural tracks<br />
Formed in 1999, Metronomy have<br />
created their own idiosyncratic<br />
synth-pop style over the years,<br />
influenced by everything from<br />
’60s psych-rock and electronica<br />
to Prince and NERD. <strong>The</strong><br />
British band regularly feature in<br />
music magazines’ best-of-the<br />
year lists, and their albums have<br />
gone top 10 in France as well as<br />
in the <strong>UK</strong>. For their sixth album,<br />
Metronomy Forever, founder<br />
Joseph Mount found inspiration<br />
in his own backyard. “Gardening<br />
is something I’ve become very<br />
involved in,” says the 37-year-old<br />
songwriter, and this passion has<br />
had an impact on his personal<br />
playlist. Here are four of his<br />
green-fingered favourites…<br />
Metronomy Forever is out now;<br />
metronomy.co.uk<br />
GREGOIRE ALEXANDRE MARCEL ANDERS<br />
Talking Heads<br />
Pull Up <strong>The</strong> Roots (1983)<br />
“It’s a pun, isn’t it? It’s about<br />
pulling up the roots when you’re<br />
gardening. It’s what you’ve got<br />
to do with, like, potatoes. In<br />
gardening, I’m sort of the muscle,<br />
and Mariam, my girlfriend, is the<br />
more creative gardener. So I do<br />
things like rotovate, which is<br />
turning the soil. I get rid of weeds,<br />
do big destructive work. That’s<br />
my speciality.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> Kinks<br />
<strong>The</strong> Village Green Preservation<br />
Society (1968)<br />
“Gardening is about seeing yourself,<br />
seeing the human cycle and the<br />
seasons and things like that. This is<br />
a good track to play when you’re<br />
literally getting ready to garden. It<br />
gets you in the mood to grab your<br />
trowel and put on your gloves. It<br />
also reminds you about the futility<br />
of what you’re doing, which is<br />
essentially trying to fight nature.”<br />
Stevie Wonder<br />
Come Back As A Flower (1979)<br />
“This is about wanting to come<br />
back as a flower when you die.<br />
Which is a nice idea, but one thing<br />
I’ve learnt is that growing flowers<br />
is actually one of the least<br />
gratifying things. It’s an incredibly<br />
laborious task, because you’re<br />
always having to split them and<br />
reseed stuff. It’s a super-involved<br />
type of gardening, so I don’t really<br />
do that. I destroy things.”<br />
Miles Davis<br />
Concierto De Aranjuez (Adagio)<br />
(1960)<br />
“As a teenage boy, I’d have breakfast<br />
at 11am on weekends. I’d be listening<br />
to some Miles [Davis] and watch my<br />
parents in the garden. I couldn’t<br />
really understand what they were<br />
doing, but this track is 16 minutes<br />
long, so it’s a good one to get you<br />
into some kind of zone. Like, if you<br />
have a long task – weeding, that kind<br />
of thing – it’s nice. Give it a try.”<br />
THE RED BULLETIN 15
Clockwise from left:<br />
Nolan takes his<br />
surfboard back to its<br />
birthplace for coffee;<br />
the board before<br />
shaping; fin detail; the<br />
Vissla contest logo<br />
SUSTAINABLE SURFING<br />
Dunkin’<br />
without<br />
dumpin’<br />
New Hampshire surfer Korey Nolan<br />
is bringing attention to throwaway<br />
culture through his boards made<br />
from recycled coffee cups<br />
As lovers of the ocean, most<br />
surfers are defenders of the<br />
environment. <strong>The</strong> boards and<br />
equipment they use, however,<br />
are far less eco-conscious, made<br />
from non-recyclable materials<br />
with a large carbon footprint.<br />
One surfer fighting back against<br />
environmentally unfriendly waste<br />
is Korey Nolan, 32, a shaper from<br />
New Hampshire who has created<br />
a board from more than 700<br />
recycled Dunkin’ Donuts cups.<br />
Nolan’s board was inspired by<br />
the profusion of discarded coffee<br />
cups he saw in his local area.<br />
“I wanted to make what people<br />
throw away daily more apparent,<br />
to make them question it,” he<br />
says. “I collected a thousand<br />
Styrofoam cups in less than 10<br />
months, just from family and<br />
friends. <strong>The</strong>y started saying that<br />
I’d made them realise how much<br />
take-out coffee they bought.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> surfboard was created<br />
by compressing the cups in a<br />
mould, which were then set with<br />
bamboo and bio-based epoxy.<br />
Last October, it won second<br />
place in a challenge, hosted<br />
by Californian brand Vissla, to<br />
make a ride-able piece of surf<br />
equipment from garbage or<br />
recycled materials.<br />
But Nolan doesn’t want his<br />
board’s success to encourage<br />
the continued use of Styrofoam<br />
by companies. “If you start using<br />
these items as source material<br />
for boards, you’re still creating a<br />
second-hand demand. Styrofoam<br />
has been around for almost 80<br />
years and every piece ever made<br />
is still out there, because it<br />
doesn’t biodegrade. I want my<br />
board to raise awareness of that.”<br />
Instagram: @koreytnolan<br />
KOREY NOLAN, AARON MCNULTY LOU BOYD<br />
16 THE RED BULLETIN
MAXX-D SYNC<br />
3300 LUMENS<br />
HANDLEBAR MOUNTED<br />
DIABLO SYNC<br />
1850 LUMENS<br />
HELMET MOUNTED<br />
SYNC allows you to control the light with<br />
a remote switch and to make custom<br />
programs in the Exposure SYNC App,<br />
additionally both helmet and handlebar<br />
lights can be simultaneously controlled<br />
with a single remote via Bluetooth<br />
connectivity. App is available in both<br />
iOS and Android platforms.
<strong>The</strong> Superior Cockpit Room at the Haneda Excel: go to sleep in Tokyo and wake up in, er… Tokyo<br />
When touching down after a long<br />
flight, the last thing most people<br />
want to think about is having<br />
to board another aeroplane. But<br />
that’s clearly not the case for<br />
every traveller. Which is why the<br />
Haneda Excel Hotel Tokyu has<br />
just created a guest room that<br />
allows visitors to continue their<br />
flight experience.<br />
Named the ‘Superior Cockpit<br />
Room’, the new space is fitted<br />
with a flight simulator that<br />
mimics a Boeing 737-800 flight<br />
from Tokyo to Osaka’s Itami<br />
Airport. Also on hand is an<br />
instructor with extensive<br />
experience of piloting Boeing<br />
planes, so guests can learn to<br />
fly like a pro.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re is some meaning<br />
behind this madness: the hotel<br />
is connected to Tokyo’s Haneda<br />
International Airport and boasts<br />
a view of two of the main<br />
runways from most of its rooms,<br />
so it’s already a favourite<br />
stopover for flight enthusiasts.<br />
“We wanted to create<br />
something very ‘airport hotel’,”<br />
says a representative for the<br />
Haneda Excel. “Under the<br />
guidance of a former captain<br />
who actually has a lot of flight<br />
experience, you can experience<br />
the operation of the aeroplane.”<br />
A night in the twin-bedded<br />
room costs 25,300 yen (£195)<br />
per night. However, guests<br />
cannot simply book in and<br />
play pilot all night long: the<br />
90-minute flight simulation<br />
costs an extra 30,000 yen<br />
(£230) on top of the standard<br />
room rate and must only be<br />
controlled with an instructor<br />
present at all times. Also,<br />
guests are strictly forbidden<br />
from entering the simulator<br />
unsupervised or touching its<br />
handles at any other point<br />
during their stay.<br />
If you fancy a turn in the<br />
simulator at the Haneda Excel,<br />
you’d better act fast: the room<br />
has been entirely booked up<br />
for its first two months, and<br />
there are only a few upcoming<br />
vacancies remaining.<br />
tokyuhotels.co.jp<br />
HANEDA EXCEL HOTEL TOKYU<br />
<strong>The</strong> ultimate<br />
flying visit<br />
Check into the Japanese hotel with a lifesize<br />
Boeing flight simulator in one of its rooms<br />
TOKYUHOTELSJAPAN.COM/HANEDA EXCEL HOTEL LOU BOYD<br />
18 THE RED BULLETIN
NEW<br />
TRANSPORTER<br />
PACKS<br />
ADVENTUREPROOF PACKS<br />
ospreyeurope.com
“It comes down to a<br />
tolerance of frustration.<br />
You’ll fail a lot before<br />
you succeed”<br />
20 THE RED BULLETIN
L<strong>UK</strong>AS IRMLER<br />
Picking up<br />
the slack<br />
Before you set foot on a slackline,<br />
read and digest these tips from<br />
Germany’s world-record breaker<br />
Irmler walked his first<br />
slackline in 2006 and<br />
has gone on to break<br />
two Guinness World<br />
Records and set various<br />
highline standards<br />
VALENTIN RAPP LOU BOYD<br />
Slacklining is very simple<br />
and, at the same time,<br />
immensely hard. <strong>The</strong><br />
sport may merely involve<br />
walking from one end of a<br />
length of flat webbing to<br />
the other, but only a small<br />
percentage of people<br />
have mastered it. One<br />
of these is Lukas Irmler.<br />
“In the beginning,<br />
slacklining didn’t feel<br />
at all possible to me,”<br />
says the 31-year-old<br />
German. “But I kept<br />
practising and practising<br />
and I started to make<br />
progress. After crossing<br />
my first little slackline<br />
and looking back at it,<br />
I was amazed at how<br />
I’d been able to make<br />
something that seemed<br />
impossible possible.”<br />
Irmler has now walked<br />
some of the world’s<br />
most impressive and<br />
intimidating slacklines<br />
and highlines, most<br />
notably this August<br />
when he set the record<br />
for the longest highline<br />
walk ever: 2,000m at<br />
Ville d’Asbestos in<br />
Quebec, Canada.<br />
“It was a long-standing<br />
dream of mine to have<br />
that pure record,” Irmler<br />
explains. “If you keep<br />
pushing yourself to the<br />
outer limits of the sport,<br />
you push the sport with<br />
you. That was a really<br />
special moment for me.”<br />
Here, Irmler shares<br />
five of his top slacklining<br />
tips. “I think [success<br />
in the sport] comes<br />
down to a tolerance of<br />
frustration,” he says.<br />
“You will fail a lot before<br />
you succeed. You just<br />
have to be passionate<br />
and persistent enough<br />
to keep on going and<br />
continue to believe.”<br />
lukas-irmler.com<br />
1. Take it easy<br />
“Start on a short, low<br />
slackline and practise<br />
until you can get across<br />
without falling.”<br />
2. Ditch the shoes<br />
“Going barefoot will<br />
mean you get a much<br />
better feeling for the<br />
line itself.”<br />
3. Face forward<br />
“Place your feet<br />
forward in the direction<br />
of the line, not facing<br />
outwards. This way,<br />
you’ll be facing the line<br />
and the anchor.”<br />
4. Check your poise<br />
“Maintain a little bit of<br />
a bend in your knees<br />
and ensure that you<br />
keep your arms up high<br />
throughout. People<br />
often forget to use<br />
them for balance.”<br />
5. Keep your focus<br />
“Remain focused on<br />
one point at the very<br />
end of the slackline.<br />
Many people make<br />
the mistake of looking<br />
down at their feet.”<br />
THE RED BULLETIN 21
Above: exhibits range from an 8mm film projector to a manual typewriter. Below left: Chun (left) and Derksen<br />
CONSERVE THE SOUND<br />
Blasts from<br />
the past<br />
<strong>The</strong>se once-commonplace sounds have<br />
largely disappeared from our lives. But,<br />
thanks to an online archive, all is not lost<br />
A corded telephone, the handle<br />
to wind down a car window, the<br />
first Nintendo Entertainment<br />
System games console – their<br />
working noises were known to<br />
you, but your children and/or<br />
younger friends have probably<br />
never heard them. It’s almost<br />
as if they’ve been lost in time.<br />
But, for Daniel Chun and Jan<br />
Derksen, the German founders<br />
of audiovisual communication<br />
agency Chunderksen, the silence<br />
has grown too loud, so they have<br />
set up a “museum of sounds<br />
threatened with extinction”.<br />
Conserve the Sound is an<br />
online audio treasury for our<br />
ears, which showcases objects in<br />
danger of disappearing from our<br />
aural memories. “<strong>The</strong>se days,<br />
the visual dominates and sound<br />
seems to play a secondary role,”<br />
explains Derksen. “We wanted to<br />
change that. Normally people<br />
collect paintings, illustrations,<br />
classic designs or sculptures and<br />
curate them in an exhibition or<br />
museum. But collecting sounds<br />
is rare. We were fascinated by<br />
the idea of creating a multimedia<br />
space or a museum of sounds<br />
threatened with extinction.”<br />
Ninety-nine per cent of the<br />
objects and sounds in this<br />
growing interactive collection of<br />
audio memories (free of charge<br />
to everyone) were sourced and<br />
recorded by the duo themselves;<br />
the rest have been contributed.<br />
“You can send us sounds<br />
you’ve recorded yourself,” says<br />
Derksen. “Just attach them to an<br />
email, or go to the site’s upload<br />
section. <strong>The</strong>re, you’ll find the<br />
information you need on how to<br />
get the right picture of the object<br />
and best record its sound.”<br />
Conserve the sounds dearest<br />
to you and they’ll be available to<br />
our collective memory for all<br />
eternity. Or, at least, for as long<br />
as the website exists…<br />
conservethesound.de<br />
CHUNDERKSEN/CONSERVETHESOUND.DE HANS HAMMER<br />
22 THE RED BULLETIN
9 & 13 NEWBURGH STREET, LONDON, W1F<br />
FILSON.COM/<strong>UK</strong>
Linda Hamilton<br />
Age against<br />
the machine<br />
At 63 years old, the Terminator star is<br />
back, fighting killer robots from the future<br />
and tired attitudes from the past<br />
Words TOM GUISE Photography JOHN RUSSO<br />
To prepare for the role of Sarah<br />
Connor in 1991 sci-fi thriller<br />
Terminator 2: Judgment Day,<br />
Linda Hamilton enlisted an Israeli<br />
ex-commando to train her in martial<br />
arts and weapons handling. “I learnt<br />
to load clips, change mags, verify kills<br />
– it was vicious stuff,” she said of the<br />
experience. Working out six days<br />
a week, she would run 12km and<br />
bench-press 40kg. Co-star Arnold<br />
Schwarzenegger described her<br />
transformation as “extraordinary” –<br />
more so because her regime began<br />
just two weeks after she gave birth.<br />
In the film, Connor defeats a<br />
killing machine from the future. In<br />
real life, Hamilton was battling an<br />
enduring anachronism: the poor<br />
portrayal of women in action movies.<br />
She’s now returning to the role in<br />
Terminator: Dark Fate to vanquish<br />
another stubborn Hollywood monster:<br />
a lack of action roles for older women.<br />
“It’s nice that I’m seen as someone<br />
who opened possibilities for women<br />
in action films, but until this film<br />
I never thought of myself as badass,”<br />
the 63-year-old tells <strong>The</strong> <strong>Red</strong> <strong>Bulletin</strong>.<br />
“I didn’t want to play me as I was,<br />
I want to play me now. It was a<br />
journey of discovering who I am today<br />
and putting that on screen.” And<br />
naturally, she’s doing it all while<br />
pumping a shotgun with one arm.<br />
the red bulletin: What does the<br />
role of Sarah Connor mean to you,<br />
and why return to her now?<br />
linda hamilton: I can’t pretend it’s<br />
not important to me – Sarah Connor<br />
has been the identifying work in my<br />
career – but back then it was just<br />
another job. It’s only years later that it<br />
became this iconic performance. I was<br />
26 when I shot the first one. A lifetime<br />
later I felt it’d be interesting to see<br />
what time has done, who she is now<br />
– more bitter, no longer significant to<br />
the future in the way she knew she<br />
was before. <strong>The</strong>re were many things<br />
for me to draw from, because I have<br />
life experience mapped on my face.<br />
<strong>The</strong> new film ignores the<br />
instalments that followed T2.<br />
Word has it you did, too…<br />
<strong>The</strong>y approached me for the third<br />
one. I read it, but there was nothing<br />
new to say. I wanted to like the films,<br />
but they failed to create characters<br />
people could connect with. It was<br />
because Jim [Cameron, writer/<br />
director of the first two films and<br />
producer of this one] was back at<br />
the helm that I even considered it.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re’s a story that you refused<br />
some lines of dialogue in this film…<br />
That was misleading, because it wasn’t<br />
me versus Tim [Miller, the director],<br />
it was just juvenile dialogue. <strong>The</strong>y<br />
created this artificial rivalry between<br />
these two women [Hamilton’s Connor<br />
and Mackenzie Davis’ Grace] and it<br />
sounded like they were in middle<br />
school. I was like, “It diminishes these<br />
characters. I’m not gonna say it.”<br />
I have an investment in not trivialising<br />
Sarah Connor – I’ve had a relationship<br />
with her for 35 years. I care that the<br />
movie is good, and that’s what I spent<br />
every day trying to do.<br />
You proved that in T2. Do women<br />
approach you about your physical<br />
transformation in that film?<br />
Definitely. <strong>The</strong>y’re like, “My mother<br />
wanted your arms. She lost 60lb to<br />
look like you.” So much attention was<br />
paid to how I looked, but that was just<br />
a small part of what I did as an actor.<br />
It might have even got in my way. I’d<br />
meet with directors who’d say, “You’ve<br />
never played a part like this before –<br />
one that’s normal.” I didn’t want to<br />
play the strong woman after that.<br />
But you hit the gym pretty hard<br />
again for this film…<br />
It was more time-consuming than<br />
on T2. You think you’ll work as hard<br />
and get the same result, but that<br />
doesn’t happen at my age – you need<br />
hormones to put muscle on [Hamilton<br />
took hormone supplements to prepare<br />
for this role, suffering mood swings<br />
and blood-pressure spikes]. I worked<br />
out with an amazing trainer, Mackie<br />
Shilstone, to strip the fat from my<br />
muscles. I gave up carbs, just ate meat<br />
and vegetables, did Pilates, weights<br />
– we focused on the body in motion.<br />
<strong>The</strong> look is different, but still a<br />
warrior at this age.<br />
Did you consider calling Arnie?<br />
At 72, he’s also working out at<br />
a different stage of life…<br />
And at the top of his game. We haven’t<br />
remained in touch much since he<br />
became Governor. You don’t just go,<br />
“Get the Governor on the line.” So,<br />
no, we didn’t consult Arnold. I didn’t<br />
see him until he showed up on set.<br />
Do you think audiences will accept<br />
you as an older action star?<br />
What’s compelling is the authenticity<br />
of the character. I might not look the<br />
same, but I have so much more to say.<br />
We’re obsessed with youth and beauty<br />
but I want to embrace everything I’ve<br />
got going on: wisdom and strength<br />
that doesn’t mean body strength.<br />
A real woman doing amazing things.<br />
What’s next for Sarah Connor and<br />
Linda Hamilton?<br />
I never think about what else I can do.<br />
Even in Judgment Day, creating this<br />
character was an accidental miracle.<br />
Jim wanted me to butch my hair up<br />
while escaping the mental hospital.<br />
I didn’t think we needed that, so<br />
I just threw it in a ponytail. People<br />
embraced that because I didn’t turn<br />
into a guy to play the role; they<br />
embraced Sarah Connor’s feminine<br />
ideal of strength. We don’t have to<br />
look like men to be strong.<br />
Terminator: Dark Fate is in cinemas<br />
from October 25; Twitter: @Terminator<br />
24 THE RED BULLETIN
“I didn’t want<br />
to play me<br />
as I was.<br />
I want to<br />
play me now”<br />
THE RED BULLETIN 25
“I was like,<br />
‘What?<br />
How did he<br />
even hear<br />
one of my<br />
songs?’”<br />
26 THE RED BULLETIN
Michael Kiwanuka<br />
“I’m glad I said<br />
no to Kanye”<br />
How walking out on one of music’s top producers<br />
helped the soulful singer-songwriter keep his feet<br />
on the ground and his career on the right track…<br />
Words BJÖRN SPRINGORUM<br />
It’s safe to say that you’re destined<br />
for greatness when Adele asks you<br />
to support her on tour before you’ve<br />
even released an album. And when<br />
folky London-Ugandan singersongwriter<br />
Michael Kiwanuka’s<br />
debut, Home Again, came out the<br />
year after he joined the awardwinning<br />
singer on her 2011 Adele<br />
Live tour, it reached number four in<br />
the <strong>UK</strong> album chart and went gold.<br />
His second album, 2016’s Love &<br />
Hate – produced by Danger Mouse –<br />
outperformed its successor, topping<br />
the <strong>UK</strong> album chart and affirming<br />
Kiwanuka’s reputation as one of the<br />
world’s most sought-after young<br />
soul voices. Another superstar who<br />
discovered Kiwanuka’s talent early<br />
on was Kanye West, who invited him<br />
into the studio to record together.<br />
As he prepares for the release of<br />
his eponymous third album, the<br />
32-year-old reminisces about that<br />
Kanye moment, and reveals why<br />
he still believes that cancelling the<br />
session was the right decision for<br />
his fledgling career…<br />
the red bulletin: Kanye West<br />
is famous for collaborating with<br />
the world’s hottest and most<br />
talented musicians. How did it<br />
feel when he invited you to go into<br />
the studio with him?<br />
michael kiwanuka: <strong>The</strong> whole<br />
thing was utterly crazy, man.<br />
Photography OLIVIA ROSE<br />
Kanye West, the mightiest figure<br />
in music, invites me to Hawaii…<br />
and I didn’t really understand why.<br />
I didn’t even have my first album out,<br />
and I was only just learning the tricks<br />
of the trade. I was like, “What? How<br />
did he even hear one of my songs?”<br />
I was scared. I couldn’t believe that<br />
he really wanted to work with me.<br />
All I could do was try to second-guess<br />
how he wanted me to be.<br />
His invitation didn’t feel like<br />
a confidence boost?<br />
No, not for me. I arrived at his<br />
studio laden with self-doubt and<br />
disbelief. And perhaps the craziest<br />
thing of all was that he was being<br />
super nice the whole time. He let<br />
me sit in his main room while he<br />
was making music. He was so<br />
quiet and concentrated, and he<br />
worked constantly, almost 24 hours<br />
[a day] – I hardly ever saw him<br />
sleep. He had this confidence<br />
radiating off him, and he always<br />
told me that I could do anything<br />
I wanted to do if I just was being<br />
myself. He actually said that.<br />
So, what happened?<br />
I didn’t believe a single word. I was<br />
positively convinced that I had to<br />
become another person, because<br />
I couldn’t see that he wanted me<br />
the way I was. I went home, even<br />
left my guitar there.<br />
To know that someone that talented<br />
can hear something special in my<br />
music is utterly surreal.<br />
Do you think that in life you<br />
sometimes have to sacrifice<br />
a big opportunity for an even<br />
larger goal?<br />
Well, you never know what would<br />
have happened. But yes, I guess<br />
it can be good to miss out on<br />
something. In the end, everything<br />
got me to the point where I am now,<br />
and I couldn’t be happier. So, in<br />
that sense, yeah, I’m glad I walked<br />
out on Kanye West.<br />
At the time, did it feel like you’d<br />
failed in some way?<br />
Yes, but that’s fine. People who have<br />
always been good at things, and<br />
who have got through life without<br />
any difficulties at all, really struggle<br />
when they fail for the first time,<br />
because they’re just not used to the<br />
feeling. Even Kanye West has failed<br />
a lot of times. Failing early on is<br />
the best way to learn. It’s not exactly<br />
fun, but it’s essential.<br />
Your debut album, Home Again,<br />
was a breakthrough hit, and the<br />
follow-up, Love & Hate, topped<br />
the album chart. With your third,<br />
Kiwanuka, ready for release,<br />
how do you define success?<br />
Ultimately, it’s about personal<br />
satisfaction; a contentment with<br />
what I am doing. I’m able to do what<br />
I love for a living: getting up in the<br />
morning and making music.<br />
And winning a major award –<br />
a Grammy, for instance – isn’t<br />
part of the equation?<br />
Awards are like landmarks: they<br />
keep you on this journey. A Grammy<br />
will never really solve any real issues,<br />
but it can make you keep going.<br />
Kiwanuka is released on October 25;<br />
michaelkiwanuka.com<br />
Why was it so difficult to believe<br />
what he told you?<br />
I think the invitation came too<br />
early in my career. I learnt a lot<br />
from it, though, and I’m glad it<br />
happened that way. Who knows<br />
if it would have got to my head?<br />
Still, it was a great experience.<br />
THE RED BULLETIN 27
Beauden Barrett<br />
Tackling<br />
the myth<br />
<strong>The</strong> New Zealand rugby star can fend off<br />
tough challenges on the pitch, but how<br />
about misconceptions about his team?<br />
Words TOM GUISE Photography GRAEME MURRAY<br />
<strong>The</strong> All Blacks have won more Rugby<br />
World Cups than any other national<br />
team and, as reigning champs, were<br />
favourites again as the competition<br />
kicked off in Japan on September 20.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y are a team with a near mythical<br />
reputation for victory. Which makes<br />
player Beauden Barrett a virtual<br />
unicorn. <strong>The</strong> 28-year-old fly-half and<br />
fullback was core to the Kiwis’ 2015<br />
victory, was voted World Rugby<br />
Player of the Year in 2016 and 2017,<br />
and is fourth on the All Blacks pointscoring<br />
chart in test matches. Now<br />
he’s here to unravel that legend and<br />
dispel a few of the myths surrounding<br />
his own formidable team.<br />
myth 1: To be in the All Blacks, you<br />
need to be the size of the Hulk.<br />
beauden barrett: I weigh 92kg –<br />
size doesn’t matter. Being big doesn’t<br />
mean you’re the boss. Every position<br />
requires a different physique or skill<br />
set: some guys have to be strong to<br />
push in the scrum; others need to<br />
be explosive and jump high to catch<br />
balls in line-outs, or do a lot of<br />
kicking and running. I have to be fast<br />
and powerful. Everyone knows their<br />
role within the team, but there’s no<br />
hierarchy due to size. You learn to<br />
respect the elders and those more<br />
experienced than yourself.<br />
myth 2: All Blacks can only play<br />
for a local club team and not<br />
overseas rivals.<br />
That’s almost entirely true. You<br />
certainly won’t see players in the<br />
<strong>UK</strong> or Europe also playing for the<br />
All Blacks. <strong>The</strong>re have been a few<br />
exceptions where it’s like a little<br />
sabbatical, playing in Japan for a<br />
short time. But I can’t recall a New<br />
Zealand rugby player returning<br />
from Europe to be an All Black – it<br />
doesn’t happen. Once you’re gone,<br />
you’re gone for good.<br />
myth 3: <strong>The</strong> All Blacks are just<br />
about unbeatable.<br />
No team is guaranteed a quarterfinal,<br />
because there are so many<br />
variables. <strong>The</strong>re are a number of<br />
teams who can potentially win [the<br />
World Cup]. This shows the growth<br />
of a lot of countries. It’s interesting<br />
watching the Six Nations and seeing<br />
Wales finish the way they did [they<br />
won]. I know the Japanese are<br />
developing very quickly. <strong>The</strong>y’re very<br />
well coached and will be dark horses.<br />
Our focus is on one game at a time,<br />
and then the pool games.<br />
myth 4: Success has made the<br />
All Blacks arrogant.<br />
You don’t just get selected on pure<br />
form or talent; it’s important to have<br />
good values, too. If you’re a good<br />
person, you’ll be a good All Black,<br />
because when it comes to team<br />
culture there is no place in this team<br />
for dickheads.<br />
time. Every opposition will respond<br />
differently: some will smile, some<br />
look scared. I’ve faced the haka<br />
and it is intimidating – it sends a<br />
shiver down your spine. Because<br />
we understand the meaning of it,<br />
it’s quite emotional.<br />
myth 6: No other nation is allowed<br />
to do the haka.<br />
Oh, look, it’s up to the opposition<br />
what they decide to do. We see it as<br />
a sign that they’re up for a challenge.<br />
But when we see them do it and they<br />
don’t understand the meaning, we<br />
find that it can be disrespectful.<br />
myth 7: You practise the haka<br />
every time you train.<br />
At a low intensity we do it once a<br />
week, the new guys maybe a little bit<br />
more. You can’t lose connection with<br />
it or forget its meaning. It’s important<br />
not to take it for granted, because<br />
we’re in front of millions of people<br />
and we’re going out to win, so we<br />
have to do it well.<br />
myth 8: <strong>The</strong> All Blacks possess<br />
a powerful secret, one that helps<br />
you be the best.<br />
It’s not one thing, it’s a whole lot of<br />
things: hard work, high expectations<br />
and the discipline to live those every<br />
day and enjoy it. If you’re really<br />
enjoying something, you can<br />
challenge yourself. If you’re not<br />
enjoying it, you’re not going to push<br />
yourself to the limits when you’re<br />
training, when you’re playing. You<br />
don’t want to make it fake.<br />
myth 9: <strong>The</strong> black jersey has<br />
special powers. You once said that<br />
when you first put it on, you felt<br />
like Superman.<br />
I mean, there’s no time like the first.<br />
That was certainly the most powerful<br />
but, yes, every time I put it on I take<br />
a moment to gather my thoughts,<br />
reflect and realise what I’m about to<br />
do, because it’s a special time.<br />
myth 5: <strong>The</strong> haka is a technique to<br />
gain a read on the opposition.<br />
It’s about us and what we bring.<br />
It’s about how well connected we are<br />
and how powerful we feel at the<br />
28 THE RED BULLETIN
”You don’t<br />
get picked on<br />
pure talent.<br />
You need<br />
good values”<br />
THE RED BULLETIN 29
COLD<br />
COMFORT<br />
Beneath a frozen fjord in eastern Greenland<br />
exists an underwater realm with a sky made<br />
of icebergs. For some it spells terror, but<br />
German freediver ANNA VON BOETTICHER<br />
sees it as therapy<br />
Words<br />
SABRINA LUTTENBERGER<br />
Photography<br />
TOBIAS FRIEDRICH
Von Boetticher gently<br />
touches an iceberg at<br />
a depth of 12m. Down<br />
here, it’s -2°C. Above<br />
the surface, it’s -27°C.<br />
31
Anna von Boetticher can<br />
hold her breath for six<br />
minutes and 12 seconds<br />
– longer than anyone else<br />
in her native Germany.<br />
But when the 49-year-old<br />
isn’t underwater, she can<br />
barely catch her breath<br />
as the words gush out in unbridled<br />
enthusiasm for freediving, a passion she<br />
only discovered 12 years ago. Since then,<br />
she has set an impressive 33 diving<br />
records in her homeland, as well as one<br />
world record, and earned three world<br />
championship bronze medals. But for<br />
Von Boetticher the appeal doesn’t come<br />
from titles or trophies as much as it<br />
does from diving in unusual locations.<br />
That’s what she was doing in Greenland<br />
this year, plunging into a frozen fjord<br />
with diving partner and photographer<br />
Tobias Friedrich.<br />
the red bulletin: You could dive<br />
anywhere and yet you chose an icecold<br />
location. Why?<br />
anna von boetticher: I’d just been<br />
through a turbulent time and needed<br />
peace of mind, and the best place<br />
for me to find that is in the extremes<br />
of nature. It was in the minimal world<br />
of Greenland that I was forced to<br />
expose myself mentally and physically;<br />
everything else stood still.<br />
Your base camp was in Tasiilaq –<br />
a place engulfed in ice for half the<br />
year. What challenges did you face?<br />
<strong>The</strong> main one was keeping warm when<br />
the outside temperature is -27°C. It’s<br />
better to freedive on an empty stomach,<br />
but I knew that wouldn’t work if I was<br />
standing in the cold for seven hours and<br />
didn’t want to freeze. I had to eat an<br />
extraordinary amount of high-energy food:<br />
peanut butter, porridge, sugar. I wore<br />
layer upon layer of clothing and made<br />
precise estimates of how long I could stay<br />
in the water. It was at the very limit of<br />
the demands you can make on yourself.<br />
condition are you in? What are the<br />
external factors and how do you react<br />
to them? Only then can you make an<br />
objective decision not born from<br />
feelings or ego. Having that sort of<br />
control is one of the secrets to safe and<br />
successful freediving.<br />
How do you push yourself further<br />
from there?<br />
It takes great self-awareness of what’s<br />
happening inside your body. Freediving<br />
requires you to resist the natural urge<br />
to breathe – do I really have to breathe<br />
now or is it a false alarm? You realise<br />
you can override an instinct and do a lot<br />
more than you’d have thought. So the<br />
next time you’ll face a new situation<br />
with greater self-belief.<br />
Do you ever panic when you’re<br />
deep underwater?<br />
I get scared, but I’ve never panicked.<br />
I always react calmly to any problem<br />
and set the fear aside for later. Anyone<br />
can learn this: you just need to expose<br />
yourself to new things. This way, you<br />
learn to deal with the feeling of unease<br />
we all experience, then proceed in spite<br />
of it. Anyone who deliberately exposes<br />
themselves to stressful situations will<br />
eventually acquire greater peace.<br />
Is there any part of your sport that<br />
still surprises you?<br />
Experiencing the underwater world is<br />
intense, beautiful and different every<br />
time. It’s hard to compare it to anything<br />
else. As humans we don’t belong in it,<br />
and yet we can adapt to a sufficient<br />
enough extent to be able to spend time<br />
there. That never ceases to fascinate me.<br />
Instagram: @freediveanna<br />
How do you know when you’ve hit<br />
those limits?<br />
You’ve got to be honest with yourself.<br />
Of course I want to go a metre deeper,<br />
and I do get annoyed when I don’t do<br />
better than last time, but what physical<br />
32
Freediving<br />
“In Greenland, I was<br />
forced to expose<br />
myself mentally and<br />
physically”
WORLD OF THE<br />
ICE GIANTS<br />
On the way down, it isn’t<br />
long before icebergs<br />
and floes block the view<br />
above. This isn’t only<br />
psychologically unpleasant,<br />
it also impedes use of the<br />
usual safety rope<br />
34
Freediving
36 THE RED BULLETIN<br />
GETTY IMAGES
Freediving<br />
Greenland<br />
Nuuk<br />
Tasiilaq<br />
FJORD DIVING<br />
Pictured left: the ice near Tasiilaq, with<br />
a main triangular hole in the centre and<br />
three smaller holes – emergency exits<br />
for the divers – fanned out above it. When<br />
Von Boetticher lost her bearings at one<br />
point, one of these exits saved her life.<br />
A good tip for Greenland: get undressed<br />
at the last possible moment<br />
Von Boetticher defrosts her<br />
frozen feet with hot water<br />
She has to move fast – the ice hole<br />
constantly freezes over<br />
THE RED BULLETIN 37
Freediving<br />
TEST OF NERVES<br />
Von Boetticher lights her way through the<br />
underwater canyon. <strong>The</strong> gorge in the fjord<br />
near Tasiilaq is about 20m long and far<br />
from the ice hole. It’s a risky move requiring<br />
all her experience and mental strength<br />
39
Herculean<br />
Tasks<br />
With his unorthodox techniques,<br />
Mike McCastle has trained<br />
people to unlock their full<br />
potential, including the first<br />
person to cross Antarctica<br />
solo and unaided… and himself.<br />
His own record-breaking feats,<br />
inspired by the 12 Labours of<br />
Hercules, are mind-boggling<br />
journeys to the outer limits of<br />
mental and physical strength<br />
Words MAUREEN O’HAGAN<br />
Photography CAMERON BAIRD<br />
40
Breathtaking feats: using<br />
his unique training,<br />
McCastle, 32, has set<br />
multiple world records,<br />
including flipping<br />
a 113kg tyre a total<br />
distance of 21km
Gentle giant:<br />
McCastle brings<br />
a philosophical<br />
approach to his<br />
strongman tasks
Mike McCastle<br />
If there’s one thing<br />
that winds up Mike McCastle,<br />
it’s when people say stuff<br />
like, “You’re insane, dude,”<br />
or, “That shit’s crazy!”<br />
don’t see it that<br />
way,” the 32-year-old<br />
strongman says calmly.<br />
He’s responding to the<br />
question of whether<br />
it was crazy to try to<br />
“Ijust<br />
break the record for the<br />
most pull-ups in 24 hours, even though<br />
it put him in hospital. Or whether it was<br />
crazy that he set out to pull a two-tonne<br />
truck for 35km through Death Valley, or<br />
to repeatedly climb a 7m rope until he’d<br />
ascended the height of Mount Everest.<br />
He definitely didn’t think it was crazy<br />
when a skinny-ass stranger named Colin<br />
O’Brady asked for training to trek solo<br />
across Antarctica, dragging a sled stocked<br />
with more than twice his weight in food<br />
and gear. Never mind that this task took<br />
the life of British explorer Henry Worsley<br />
in 2016 and was long thought impossible.<br />
From the get-go, McCastle knew each<br />
of these endeavours would bring extreme<br />
suffering. <strong>The</strong>y’re part of a mission the<br />
1.9m tall, 102kg Las Vegas resident calls<br />
the Twelve Labors Project – a homage to<br />
the 12 Labours of Hercules, the ultimate<br />
hero of Greco-Roman mythology. <strong>The</strong><br />
question is: why in the world would<br />
anyone put themselves through all this?<br />
“I’d heard stories about people doing<br />
great things when another person’s life is<br />
on the line,” McCastle says. “I wanted to<br />
test how much I’d be willing to suffer<br />
doing things for others.”<br />
Sacrifice is ingrained in US military<br />
service, and McCastle went into the<br />
Navy after high school, spending the<br />
next 11 years as an air traffic controller.<br />
He also served as a mental and physical<br />
conditioning trainer in a programme<br />
created by the Navy SEALs after 9/11 to<br />
help address a vexing problem: as many<br />
as 80 per cent of trainees drop out before<br />
earning their SEAL Trident. <strong>The</strong> physical<br />
training is notoriously tough, but these<br />
recruits are the fittest of the fit and they<br />
really want to become SEALs, so why<br />
were so many dropping out?<br />
<strong>The</strong> reason is biological. In moments<br />
of fear and stress, the area of the brain<br />
called the amygdala takes over. Part of the<br />
function of the amygdala – dubbed the<br />
‘lizard brain’ due to its primitive nature – is<br />
to identify threatening situations and get<br />
you out. Physiologically, your body reacts<br />
similarly whether you’re facing down a<br />
tiger or engaging in high-intensity training:<br />
your heart rate spikes, you get tunnel<br />
vision and hearing loss; your conscious<br />
brain, laser-focused on becoming a Navy<br />
SEAL, shuts down. <strong>The</strong> lizard brain<br />
doesn’t care about goals, it’s a survival<br />
response. “It happens in a fraction of<br />
a second and gives you no room for<br />
conscious thought,” McCastle says.<br />
43
Moments later, the quitter’s heart rate<br />
slows down and it hits them: they’ve just<br />
tossed away their dreams. <strong>The</strong> realisation<br />
is devastating enough for the Navy to be<br />
concerned about the individual’s wellbeing.<br />
McCastle’s programme introduces<br />
to potential candidates the mental and<br />
physical tools used by SEALs in high-stress<br />
moments. One of these is to focus not on<br />
pain, but on the reason they wanted to<br />
become a SEAL in the first place: to serve.<br />
Back in 2012, McCastle himself<br />
was accepted into SEAL training.<br />
His chances of success seemed<br />
high. Each year, when the Navy<br />
set physical assessments, he always came<br />
top. He’d already learnt the lessons of the<br />
lizard. He also had years of experience in<br />
air traffic control, where you learn to<br />
manage stress; if you let day-to-day<br />
worries distract you in that control tower,<br />
people could die. McCastle was a master<br />
at compartmentalising, at being laserfocused<br />
on the task at hand. He calls it a<br />
‘flow state’: “Your peripheral vision opens,<br />
Time trials: McCastle’s training<br />
challenges include tests of strength,<br />
endurance and mental focus<br />
your mind becomes clear and your words<br />
become more succinct, because your brain<br />
cuts the fat. And you’re very calm.”<br />
Less than two weeks into the training,<br />
McCastle was part of a formation running<br />
in the sand alongside Lake Michigan.<br />
Ahead there was a divot. “Twenty guys<br />
in front of me jumped into this divot and<br />
kept going,” he recalls. “I jumped down<br />
and both of my knees blew out.” He<br />
continued the exercise. His goal, after all,<br />
was to become a SEAL. That afternoon,<br />
his knees were like cantaloupes. He went<br />
to a pool training session and, for the first<br />
time in his life, his mind could not control<br />
his body. Pain shot through his swollen<br />
Around 1,200<br />
pull-ups into his<br />
challenge, the skin<br />
started ripping<br />
off his hands<br />
legs. “I almost drowned,” he says. “<strong>The</strong>y<br />
had to pull me out.” He had torn his right<br />
meniscus and left ACL, and seemingly, in<br />
one bad leap, destroyed his SEAL career.<br />
McCastle went into a deep depression.<br />
At the time, he saw himself as a highperformance<br />
athlete. “<strong>The</strong> problem with<br />
attaching yourself to one identity,” he<br />
says, “is the second it gets taken away,<br />
what do you have left? You’re nothing.”<br />
He returned to air traffic control duties<br />
and was able to re-enter that flow state,<br />
but inside he was raw. McCastle gained<br />
20kg and started drinking to selfmedicate.<br />
Without his strength, he was<br />
worthless. He had been the guy in charge<br />
of fitness assessments on the base, and<br />
now what? He realised he needed a goal.<br />
In December 2013, McCastle set out<br />
on a 50K run in aid of children’s cancer<br />
research. He made it harder by wearing an<br />
18kg vest to symbolise the weight of a child<br />
fighting cancer. <strong>The</strong> run was physically<br />
gruelling, but mentally, McCastle says, “It<br />
felt great. It wasn’t really about me and it<br />
opened the door. I was able to push myself<br />
beyond what I thought I was capable of.”<br />
Later, he learnt a veteran had posted<br />
a record for the most pull-ups in 24 hours,<br />
so he set his sights on breaking it. At the<br />
time, McCastle couldn’t even perform 10<br />
successive pull-ups, but if he had a goal<br />
and a big enough reason, he thought it<br />
was possible. He devoted his effort to an<br />
organisation for wounded veterans.<br />
On a July morning in 2014, he went<br />
to a public park and got to work. Small<br />
crowds came and went; day turned to<br />
night. Around 1,200 pull-ups in, the skin<br />
started ripping off his hands. A buddy<br />
flushed the wounds, packed them with<br />
chalk, and he kept going. His bicep<br />
tendons began to rupture. He kept going.<br />
His urine started to look like “uh, you<br />
know, Irish whiskey”. He kept going.<br />
Seventeen hours in, at rep 3,202, he was<br />
simply unable to grip the bar. He’d missed<br />
the record by around 800 pull-ups.<br />
McCastle was hospitalised with the<br />
life-threatening condition rhabdomyolysis,<br />
caused by muscles that are so taxed they<br />
begin to release toxins. His spectacular<br />
failure made national headlines. McCastle<br />
told himself he was a quitter, a fake. He<br />
was ashamed. How could he tell Navy<br />
sailors they had to do callisthenics when<br />
he’d put his own damn self in the hospital?<br />
“My world was crushed,” he says.<br />
On McCastle’s second day in hospital, a<br />
teenage boy knocked on his door. <strong>The</strong> boy<br />
was facing life-or-death surgery and used<br />
44 THE RED BULLETIN
Squat goals: each of McCastle’s<br />
tasks is dedicated to raising awareness<br />
of a specific cause, including Parkinson’s<br />
disease and wounded veterans
“Find meaning<br />
in everything you<br />
do,” his father<br />
would say<br />
a wheelchair, but he came in with a huge<br />
smile, wanting to shake the older man’s<br />
hand. “He didn’t care that I didn’t break the<br />
record,” McCastle recalls. “He just wanted<br />
to tell me how inspired he was by the effort<br />
I gave for a cause. Even at my lowest low,<br />
I could still positively impact someone.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> boy, who held no records, had<br />
inspired him. McCastle re-examined the<br />
pull-up task, why he’d done it and why<br />
he kept going. “I was doing it to raise<br />
awareness for wounded vets,” he says, “but<br />
if you peel away the layers, I was trying to<br />
regain an identity I’d lost. That’s a very<br />
selfish reason to do anything, because it<br />
was dangerous.” It was the wrong ‘why’.<br />
In classical mythology, Hercules is<br />
a demigod who kills his wife and<br />
children after Hera, queen of the gods,<br />
drives him mad. As penance, Hercules<br />
serves King Eurystheus for 12 years,<br />
performing a series of difficult feats –<br />
the 12 Labours. McCastle saw the story<br />
as a journey of self-discovery, pushing<br />
through struggle to get closer to your<br />
core identity. It wasn’t strength that kept<br />
Hercules going, it was resolve.<br />
A handshake from a kid in the hospital<br />
had given McCastle an idea: he would do<br />
his own 12 Labours, each dedicated to a<br />
cause. <strong>The</strong> point wasn’t to break records,<br />
but to focus on something outside himself<br />
and raise awareness about an issue.<br />
Maybe McCastle could inspire someone<br />
to run a 5K, to keep going in the face of<br />
illness, to overcome self-doubt. “In my<br />
interpretation, Hercules is the story of<br />
every human being on the planet,” he says.<br />
<strong>The</strong> run and the pull-up challenge<br />
became Labours one and two. For the third,<br />
he decided to flip a 113kg tyre for 21km<br />
to raise money for the Wounded Warrior<br />
Project. <strong>The</strong> tyre symbolised the physical<br />
and mental burden these men and<br />
women carry. He trained for six months.<br />
<strong>The</strong> day before the event, he was faced<br />
with another test: his sister called to say<br />
their father had passed away. Raymond<br />
McCastle had suffered from Parkinson’s<br />
disease for years, so his death wasn’t<br />
entirely unexpected, but it was still a blow<br />
to the family. It would have been entirely<br />
reasonable to postpone the event – that’s<br />
how the lizard is sometimes: reasonable –<br />
but McCastle thought about what his dad<br />
would say: “<strong>The</strong>se are your plans, your<br />
aspirations, son.” So, at 4am on a cold, wet<br />
December morning in 2014, McCastle faced<br />
the tyre. Dig under the rubber, deadlift the<br />
tyre, push it over. Dig. Lift. Push.<br />
All-time high: for the<br />
Twelve Labors Project,<br />
he climbed a rope for<br />
27 hours, equivalent<br />
to the height of Everest<br />
If you were standing there watching in<br />
the cold, you might marvel at how a man<br />
could lift 113kg more than 1,000 times<br />
and still keep going. But you would think,<br />
“Well, he is a beast, after all.” What you<br />
wouldn’t see is what’s going on in his head<br />
– the same thing going on in your head<br />
when undertaking a big challenge: fear,<br />
doubt, self-flagellation. Painful memories<br />
started flooding in. Of growing up in a<br />
very challenging household. About being<br />
mercilessly bullied. Dig. Lift. Push.<br />
McCastle thought about his dad: stoic,<br />
robust, a Louisiana-born African-American,<br />
an Air Force veteran who managed a sodacan<br />
factory. He saw how Parkinson’s had<br />
robbed him of his strength, his voice, even<br />
his ravenous mind. Dig. Lift. Push. He<br />
pictured his mum, a Filipino immigrant<br />
who was so driven that she joined the Air<br />
Force in her forties, with two kids.<br />
After his parents separated, a teenage<br />
McCastle helped care for his dad, making<br />
sure he was shaved, fed, bathed. He<br />
remembered finding him on the floor, his<br />
blood sugar dangerously low because he<br />
couldn’t put food to mouth. In a panic,<br />
McCastle quit the basketball team to<br />
prevent a reoccurrence, and afterwards<br />
he felt nothing but shame. He thought<br />
about how he later left his dad to join the<br />
Navy. Quitter, he told himself. Loser.<br />
Dig. Lift. Push. As the physical pain and<br />
mental anguish washed over him, the layers<br />
began to peel back. Raymond McCastle<br />
was a man of few words, interested more<br />
in ideas than in possessions. McCastle<br />
recalls his dad reading to him as a child:<br />
<strong>The</strong> Dialogues of Plato, Viktor Frankl’s<br />
Man’s Search for Meaning, Nietzsche.<br />
“Find meaning in everything you do,”<br />
his father would say. It’s how, and why,<br />
we are able to push through challenges:<br />
because we’re serving something larger.<br />
As he continued, the tyre got lighter.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Parkinson’s? Struggles growing up?<br />
<strong>The</strong>re wasn’t a damn thing he could do<br />
about them today. “I was letting go of<br />
things I didn’t need to hold onto,” he says.<br />
Ten hours in, he’d set what is considered<br />
to be his first world record (there was no<br />
certifying body present). He ate a huge<br />
steak, dragged himself home and slept.<br />
From here, McCastle was possessed by<br />
his Twelve Labors Project. In May 2015,<br />
for 27 hours, he climbed enough rope to<br />
reach the height of Everest, to raise money<br />
for Parkinson’s research. In September<br />
2015, he reattempted the pull-up record,<br />
again dedicating it to wounded veterans.<br />
Wearing a 14kg pack, he did 5,804 pull-ups<br />
46 THE RED BULLETIN
Mike McCastle<br />
without major injury. <strong>The</strong> following May,<br />
he rented a truck, loaded it with 19 gallons<br />
of drinking water and set out for Death<br />
Valley to raise awareness of veteran<br />
suicide. At the time, an estimated 22<br />
veterans were taking their own life each<br />
day; some were his friends. His plan was<br />
to strap a harness to his chest, rig a tether<br />
and pull the vehicle for 22 miles (39km).<br />
“I took it as an opportunity to look<br />
inward,” McCastle says. Hours went by<br />
and the thermometer went up. Every cell<br />
in his body was screaming for him to quit.<br />
Every so often, he would look up and see<br />
a stranger’s taillights in the distance. After<br />
19 hours, he reached his goal.<br />
By 2018, McCastle was physically<br />
drained and ready for a new kind<br />
of challenge. While going to school<br />
to study psychology and working as a<br />
trainer in Portland, Oregon, he received<br />
an email asking for a consultation. Some<br />
guy named Colin O’Brady. You may<br />
recognise the name thanks to his recordsetting<br />
54-day crossing of Antarctica –<br />
Natural talent:<br />
McCastle trains in the<br />
forest for his ascent<br />
of Mount Whitney<br />
“In my view,<br />
Hercules is the<br />
story of every<br />
human being<br />
on the planet”<br />
“<strong>The</strong> Impossible First” – but back when he<br />
met McCastle, he wasn’t so well-known.<br />
O’Brady knew McCastle was the coach<br />
he needed “within two minutes of looking<br />
into each other’s eyes”, he recalls. <strong>The</strong><br />
programme McCastle devised had three<br />
components: strength, endurance and<br />
mental focus. <strong>The</strong> last turned out to be “the<br />
difference between success and failure”,<br />
says O’Brady. For example, McCastle would<br />
make him hold a plank with his hands<br />
submerged in ice and then do a wall squat<br />
with his feet in buckets of ice. Meanwhile<br />
he’d have to put together a Lego set, or tie<br />
dozens of knots, or solve maths problems.<br />
<strong>The</strong>n, with frozen feet, came a balance<br />
test, an agility test, and so on. McCastle<br />
would note all of O’Brady’s errors.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> main focus was just to control his<br />
breathing,” McCastle explains. Controlling<br />
your breath means controlling your mind,<br />
and in moments of high stress it can be the<br />
difference between life and death. Like<br />
when you’re pitching a tent in 130km winds<br />
and -20°C, when your brain is rattled and<br />
your fine motor function is slowed by<br />
frozen hands. If O’Brady practised these<br />
tasks, getting into that flow state, he could<br />
prolong the time it took for the lizard brain<br />
to kick in. “When I got to Antarctica,” says<br />
O’Brady, “I realised this guy was a genius.”<br />
A few times a week, McCastle heads to<br />
Portland’s Forest Park, one of the largest<br />
urban forests in the US. In the cool, misty<br />
air, beneath a canopy of moss-covered<br />
trees that soar more than 60m, he feels<br />
at home. As the trail starts to climb, he<br />
pauses again and again to cinch up the<br />
pack tugging on his shoulders with 40kg<br />
of sand. He’s training for his next labour:<br />
climbing Mount Whitney, the highest<br />
summit on the US mainland, with a 70kg<br />
barbell. Why? Parkinson’s. <strong>The</strong> barbell<br />
symbolises the weight that sufferers carry<br />
as they struggle through the disease.<br />
McCastle knows the disease well. He<br />
knows that, as time passes, everything<br />
about these people’s lives becomes smaller.<br />
Tremors make hands unsteady, brain<br />
function slows; eventually, patients become<br />
disoriented, confused. He spends every<br />
Tuesday morning teaching a specialised<br />
fitness class that includes stability,<br />
strength and mental challenges. Stand on<br />
one leg with a weight in your hand. Count<br />
out loud as you slam a medicine ball. Row<br />
500m while solving simple maths problems.<br />
Hold a PVC pipe like a sword a metre from<br />
a small plate hanging from a bar. Now aim<br />
that pipe through the hole in the plate.<br />
McCastle has thought a lot about what<br />
it means to pursue your fullest potential.<br />
He’s considered the lessons he learnt, not<br />
only from his labours, but from his dad,<br />
his mum, O’Brady, and now from these<br />
sixtysomethings focusing everything they<br />
have on a PVC pipe and a target. Research<br />
has shown that high-intensity exercise<br />
combined with cognitive tasks helps slow<br />
Parkinson’s symptoms. <strong>The</strong>se things will<br />
also help a man walk across Antarctica.<br />
And so, every Tuesday, as he puts his<br />
Parkinson’s students through their drills,<br />
McCastle is filled with gratitude. “I tell<br />
them, ‘You really are changing the world.’”<br />
twelvelaborsproject.com<br />
THE RED BULLETIN 47
Get up,<br />
Stand<br />
up<br />
DYGL have been dubbed<br />
Tokyo’s hottest new<br />
band, and they count<br />
members of <strong>The</strong> Strokes<br />
among their fan base.<br />
But it’s more than their<br />
massive melodies and<br />
effervescent guitar riffs<br />
that make them stand<br />
out. <strong>The</strong> quartet are the<br />
voice of a new generation<br />
in Japan who are tired of<br />
their country’s corrupt<br />
entertainment moguls<br />
and culture of obedience<br />
Words FLORIAN OBKIRCHER<br />
Photography ERIN UEMURA<br />
48 THE RED BULLETIN
Let yourself go: DYGL<br />
guitarist Yosuke<br />
Shimonaka leads by<br />
example during his<br />
band’s gig in Yonago<br />
THE RED BULLETIN 49
DYGL<br />
Top: DYGL fans queue<br />
up to get their CDs<br />
signed after the band<br />
perform in Okayama<br />
What’s different about<br />
the crowds in Japan?”<br />
Nobuki Akiyama thinks<br />
for a moment. <strong>The</strong><br />
musician is crouching,<br />
sandwiched between<br />
speakers and instrument<br />
flight cases. “In cities like London, our<br />
fans dance and sing along, but people in<br />
Tokyo are shy and polite; they don’t want<br />
to bother anyone. At our shows, they are<br />
so quiet I can’t even tell if they liked the<br />
gig. I check the reactions on Twitter<br />
afterwards to make sure they enjoyed it,”<br />
he says with a smile. “You’ll see for<br />
yourself.” He points to the wall of the<br />
small green room. <strong>The</strong> space behind it<br />
is packed with fans waiting for Akiyama<br />
and his bandmates to go on stage.<br />
Akiyama, 27, is the frontman of DYGL<br />
– pronounced Dayglow – lauded to be one<br />
of Japan’s best young bands. <strong>The</strong>ir 2017<br />
debut album, Say Goodbye to Memory<br />
Den, was produced by one of the quartet’s<br />
early supporters, <strong>The</strong> Strokes’ guitarist<br />
Albert Hammond Jr, and praised by music<br />
magazine NME as a “riotous trip through<br />
indie, rock ’n’ roll and punk”. In July,<br />
DYGL released the follow-up, Songs of<br />
Innocence & Experience, recorded in the<br />
band’s adopted hometown of London and<br />
mastered at every music fan’s pilgrimage<br />
site, Abbey Road Studios.<br />
Back in Tokyo this summer, the band<br />
toured 300-capacity venues to hone the<br />
new songs live in front of small audiences<br />
before taking to one of the main stages<br />
at Japan’s Fuji Rock Festival. <strong>The</strong> <strong>Red</strong><br />
<strong>Bulletin</strong> met up with them at Okayama’s<br />
Pepperland venue, which opened in<br />
1974 and has played host to a who’s who<br />
of underground music over the decades.<br />
<strong>The</strong> DYGL gig sold out instantly, fans<br />
packed in like sardines.<br />
Defying Akiyama’s predictions, when<br />
the band start the show it doesn’t take<br />
long for the crowd to come out of their<br />
shell. During the fourth song of the set<br />
(and the new album’s first single), Spit<br />
it Out, fists start pumping the air, and<br />
fans dance and mosh enthusiastically.<br />
Akiyama is visibly delighted. With their<br />
catchy guitar riffs and singalong choruses,<br />
DYGL’s songs defy you to stand still, and<br />
this – encouraging fans to overcome their<br />
inhibitions – is part of a bigger plan that<br />
began almost a decade ago.<br />
Back then, Akiyama was obsessed with<br />
<strong>UK</strong> guitar music, from early Beatles to<br />
groups such as <strong>The</strong> Libertines. He wanted<br />
to play this type of music himself, but<br />
there weren’t many indie-rock role<br />
models for a teenager from Tokyo. “<strong>The</strong>re<br />
were so many bands I was into, but almost<br />
all of them were white,” he says, “apart<br />
from Bloc Party and a few other indie<br />
acts that had people of colour.”<br />
It was the success of French rock band<br />
Phoenix that finally encouraged him to<br />
start DYGL with his college friends Kohei<br />
Kamoto (drums), Yotaro Kachi (bass)<br />
and Yosuke Shimonaka (guitar) in 2012.<br />
“Phoenix got really big in the US; people<br />
didn’t seem to mind their accents,” says<br />
Akiyama. Like Phoenix, DYGL decided to<br />
sing in English, something that made them<br />
50 THE RED BULLETIN
<strong>The</strong> band – (left to right)<br />
Nobuki Akiyama, Yosuke<br />
Shimonaka, Yotaro Kachi<br />
and Kohei Kamoto – met<br />
at university in 2011<br />
“People in Japan<br />
label us as ‘the band<br />
that sings in English’”
DYGL – pictured on<br />
stage at Pepperland in<br />
Okayama – released<br />
their second album in<br />
July to much acclaim<br />
Pepperland boss Iseo<br />
Nose, 72, has advice<br />
for DYGL: “You’re on<br />
the right path, remain<br />
true to yourselves”<br />
52 THE RED BULLETIN
DYGL<br />
“Those in power<br />
don’t care about<br />
the impact of<br />
music. All they<br />
want is control”<br />
outsiders in their own country – “People<br />
label us as ‘the band that sings in English’”<br />
– as well as abroad. Yet the decision was<br />
vindicated. “A cultural paradigm shift<br />
happened around that time: people began<br />
to look over the rim of the teacup and be<br />
more open to minority culture.”<br />
Thanks to the likes of YouTube and<br />
Soundcloud, music lovers now have more<br />
opportunities to discover new sounds<br />
for themselves, and, importantly, have<br />
wider access to music outside the Anglo-<br />
American canon, which explains the<br />
recent success of Korean pop music<br />
in the US charts, a phenomenon that<br />
would have been hard to imagine<br />
15 years ago. People are seeking artists<br />
who feel new and different. And since<br />
being able to gain attention and stand out<br />
are invaluable assets for any musician in<br />
the 21st century, the time seems right for<br />
a Japanese band playing fresher Britpop<br />
than any British act right now.<br />
Akiyama is quick, however, to state<br />
that DYGL’s musical direction is not some<br />
calculated marketing strategy. “Tokyo is<br />
far from the traditional epicentres of<br />
pop culture, like London and New York,<br />
so it feels natural for us to receive foreign<br />
music without bias, and to freely pick<br />
and choose elements from all genres<br />
and countries.” When asked about the<br />
Japanese elements in DYGL’s music, he<br />
replies like a shot: the melodies. “Music<br />
from foreign bands who break through<br />
in Japan is very melodic. <strong>The</strong> Japanese<br />
don’t speak much English, so they<br />
connect with the melodies, not with the<br />
lyrics,” he says. “I think that’s also why<br />
people here embrace our songs so much.”<br />
Although Akiyama stresses that<br />
DYGL aren’t an explicitly political<br />
band and that many of their songs<br />
are about love and friendship, it’s<br />
their more socially aware material that<br />
has gained them the most attention,<br />
especially abroad, since few Japanese<br />
bands grant Western listeners such an<br />
intriguing insight. Take the song Don’t<br />
You Wanna Dance in This Heaven?,<br />
which tackles Japan’s repressive history,<br />
specifically the country’s archaic fueihō<br />
law. Introduced in 1948 to regulate the<br />
sex industry, the law prohibited people<br />
from dancing after midnight at many<br />
venues, but this went largely unenforced<br />
until 2010, when authorities found a<br />
reason to crack down on nightlife and<br />
revived it. <strong>The</strong> law was revised in 2016,<br />
but it remains symbolic of politics in<br />
Japan, says Akiyama: if you strip people<br />
of their right to dance, you strip them of<br />
their freedom of expression. “It shows<br />
that the people in power don’t care about<br />
the cultural impact of modern music –<br />
all they want is to control people.”<br />
This tends to be a systemic problem<br />
in Japan, as Akiyama points out. In one<br />
recent scandal, it transpired that several<br />
THE RED BULLETIN 53
DYGL<br />
Classic tracks:<br />
downtime in a toy shop<br />
before a gig in Yonago,<br />
where the dressing room<br />
awaits (below)<br />
prominent TV comedians had performed<br />
at parties held by an organised-crime<br />
syndicate. This led to the comics’ sacking<br />
by their talent agency, Yoshimoto Kogyo,<br />
Japan’s largest entertainment group.<br />
However, the comedians subsequently<br />
claimed the agency grossly underpays<br />
its artists and had also warned them not<br />
to speak to the media about its alleged<br />
ties to organised crime. Another talent<br />
agency has been accused of conspiring<br />
to keep three former members of the<br />
boy band SMAP off the air because they<br />
had left its management.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> entertainment business is<br />
controlled by these agencies,” Akiyama<br />
says. “As an artist, you’re at their mercy.<br />
<strong>The</strong> big problem is that nobody<br />
challenges them. People are too polite<br />
“People are too<br />
polite to speak<br />
their mind, which<br />
is dangerous”<br />
to speak their mind, which can be really<br />
dangerous.” As a rock band scoring<br />
international success outside this talentagency<br />
system, DYGL see themselves<br />
as able to address such problems.<br />
“Politeness, which is deeply rooted in<br />
our society, isn’t necessarily a bad thing,”<br />
Akiyama continues, “but in these modern<br />
times, when the world is seeming to go<br />
backwards, it’s the wrong moment to not<br />
want to bother someone.”<br />
In the aftermath of the Fukushima<br />
nuclear disaster, big protests in Japan<br />
seemed like an overdue awakening of<br />
a politically apathetic population. But,<br />
eight years on, this hunger for protest<br />
and change has dwindled again. A few<br />
days prior to our interview, the voter<br />
turnout in Japan’s Upper House election<br />
fell below 50 per cent, the second lowest<br />
since World War II. Akiyama is keen to<br />
bring up the issue at tonight’s gig. “Now<br />
we’ve lived in cities like London and New<br />
York, we see Japan’s politics in a new<br />
light,” he says. “Overseas, it’s normal to<br />
discuss politics and voice opinions. Here,<br />
that doesn’t happen a lot.”<br />
At the concert, just before playing<br />
Don’t You Wanna Dance in This Heaven?,<br />
Akiyama makes a heartfelt, humorous<br />
plea to the fans, encouraging them to<br />
speak their minds. “It’s not about the<br />
country, it’s about individuals, it’s about<br />
you,” he finishes. “So say something<br />
if you have something to say. Let yourself<br />
go!” Three minutes later, guitarist<br />
Shimonaka’s T-shirt is off and he’s diving<br />
into the crowd as Akiyama shouts and<br />
lays into his strings. As a role model,<br />
you should always lead by example.<br />
dayglotheband.com<br />
54 THE RED BULLETIN
GIVES YOU<br />
WIIINGS.<br />
ALSO WITH THE TASTE OF COCONUT & BERRY.<br />
NEW
Danny’s<br />
Decade<br />
In 2009, 23-year-old Scottish cyclist DANNY MACASKILL released Inspired Bicycles<br />
– a five-and-a-half-minute film on YouTube that contained “probably the best<br />
collection of street trials riding [the mountain-bike discipline of manoeuvring across<br />
obstacles without a rider’s feet touching the floor] ever seen”. <strong>The</strong> film, which has had<br />
more than 39 million views to date, transformed MacAskill into a global superstar.<br />
Here, he looks back at his greatest moments of the decade that followed…<br />
Interviewed by STU KENNY<br />
ADIDAS OUTDOOR/DAVE MACKISON ADIDAS,FRED MURRAY/RED BULL CONTENT POOL<br />
56 THE RED BULLETIN
Imaginate (2013)<br />
I’d made a few films outdoors, but for Imaginate<br />
I wanted to try something different: to recreate my<br />
childhood bedroom floor and ride these giant toys.<br />
We had a £4million Formula One car and a real tank.<br />
<strong>The</strong> loop-the-loop was Hot Wheels-esque and I’d<br />
never attempted one – they’re disorientating, and if<br />
you watch anyone try on the internet, it always ends<br />
badly. I’d been off my bike for a year after my back<br />
operation, so my riding wasn’t where it needed to be.<br />
Each morning, I’d go into the warehouse, do eight<br />
flip step-downs onto a giant Dandy comic and build<br />
up to the loop. Eventually I got it dialled.
“We went all-out<br />
when we filmed<br />
Inspired Bicycles”
Danny MacAskill<br />
Inspired Bicycles (2009)<br />
This [opposite page] is me launching<br />
off the roof of Macdonald Cycles in<br />
Edinburgh, where I worked from 2006<br />
to 2009. Every day, I’d stand across<br />
the road with my lunch and look at the<br />
gap between the bike shop and the<br />
copy shop. When [director] Dave<br />
Sowerby and I started filming Inspired<br />
Bicycles, I set my sights on bigger and<br />
bigger goals. This gap was one of<br />
those. Before I tried it, I gapped the<br />
curb below – that’s the way I eye up<br />
gaps sometimes. <strong>The</strong> first time I tried,<br />
I overcooked it and landed on my back<br />
on the roof. You can’t overshoot it too<br />
much or you’ll fall onto the rails below.<br />
It was so satisfying when we did it;<br />
one of the standout moments of the<br />
film. Good bang for your buck!<br />
Dave is such a good filmmaker, so<br />
with Inspired Bicycles I felt I had this<br />
big opportunity. We went all-out with<br />
it: the riding was new, and the way he<br />
filmed and edited it to that music [<strong>The</strong><br />
Funeral by Band of Horses]… This tree<br />
[above] in <strong>The</strong> Meadows in Edinburgh<br />
is quite famous among BMXers, and<br />
I dreamt of doing a flare off it for<br />
Inspired Bicycles. In this picture, I’m<br />
actually doing a tap, which is quite<br />
an easy trick. I used to do this in the<br />
dark on my way home.<br />
59
Danny MacAskill<br />
Way Back Home (2010)<br />
I signed with <strong>Red</strong> Bull at the end of 2009, and the idea<br />
for this film came up during one of our first meetings.<br />
I’m from rural Scotland – the Isle of Skye – so locating<br />
man-made concrete in my homeland appealed to me.<br />
In this shot [above], I’m at the foundations of an old<br />
railroad track on the Isle of Raasay.<br />
I remember being a bit disappointed by Way Back<br />
Home at the time. I had ridiculously high aspirations<br />
because of the bar I’d set for myself with Inspired<br />
Bicycles; I even had a plan to jump 140ft [43m] off the<br />
Skye Bridge and into the sea. Dave and I worked so<br />
hard to film some of the crazier ideas, driving 18,000<br />
miles [29,000km] in six months to get to locations<br />
when the sun was right. Looking back, I’m really pleased<br />
with the film. This shot [below] sums it up: we’ve got<br />
wheelbarrows, and there’s a microwaveable meal in<br />
the oven. That was our life back then.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Olympic Torch (2012)<br />
This was a slow year for me. I had a back operation on<br />
a disc I’d torn in 2009, so it was more of a planning<br />
year. One of the cool things that came out of it, though,<br />
was getting involved in the Olympic Torch relay. I was<br />
intending to do a big bike part with [film director] Danny<br />
Boyle in the opening ceremony, but sadly it fell through<br />
because of my health. However, getting to carry the torch<br />
outside Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum was cool. It<br />
was me, the actor James McAvoy and the curler Rhona<br />
Martin. I remember it being quite random, riding my bike<br />
in this white suit with a flaming torch. I practised outside<br />
my flat with a pump beforehand to see if I could do any<br />
tricks. I did a couple of manuals in the end.<br />
DAVE SOWERBY, PA, FRED MURRAY/RED BULL CONTENT POOL<br />
60 THE RED BULLETIN
Epecuén (2014)<br />
This film has a sad story. <strong>The</strong>re was a town on the<br />
edge of this salt lake in Argentina, and in the late ’70s<br />
it had a long drought. Villa Epecuén was reliant on<br />
the tourism the lake attracted, so a canal was built,<br />
connecting it to other lakes at higher elevations. But<br />
then, when the rains returned years later, the town<br />
was flooded. I wanted to make a film that was sensitive<br />
to the residents. <strong>The</strong> town was eerie, but so beautiful.<br />
All the walls are covered in a layer of salt, which makes<br />
the landscape quite uniform. You never knew how<br />
good the structures would be – you could stand on a<br />
huge block of concrete and it’d snap in half – so it was<br />
probably one of the most dangerous films I’ve made.<br />
“Epecuén was<br />
probably one<br />
of the most<br />
dangerous films<br />
I’ve made”
d ann y ma c ask ill<br />
SIGNA T U RE s t amp 7<br />
C R A N K B R O T H ERS . C O M
Danny MacAskill<br />
<strong>The</strong> Ridge (2014)<br />
My friend Stu Thomson, from Cut Media, and<br />
I decided we’d make a little mountain-bike film<br />
on the Cuillin [mountain range] on the Isle of<br />
Skye. I hadn’t spent that much time there,<br />
because it’s so severe you need a proper<br />
guide. <strong>The</strong> first day was a 23-hour shift. Drone<br />
technology wasn’t what it is today – we had<br />
these massive, heavy batteries. Apart from<br />
burning serious calories, it was one of the<br />
easiest projects I’ve filmed. Compared with<br />
technical trials riding, this was so within my<br />
comfort zone and just a lot of fun: rowing,<br />
chasing seals, a couple of more technical<br />
tricks like the front flip over the fence. <strong>The</strong><br />
success of <strong>The</strong> Ridge was as much of a shock<br />
as Inspired Bicycles was: it got about 20<br />
million views in a month, and half of it is me<br />
bloody rowing a boat!<br />
“<strong>The</strong> feeling<br />
I had was<br />
that I was<br />
only going<br />
to clear the<br />
rocks by a<br />
tiny fraction”<br />
STU THOMSON & CHRIS PRESCOTT/CUT MEDIA, DAVE MACKISON/GOPRO<br />
Cascadia (2015)<br />
This [above] is me doing a front flip off some scaffolding we built in El Roque in Gran Canaria. I’d wanted to do a rooftop<br />
video for a while. We walked around Las Palmas and El Roque, knocking door to door, asking if we could look at people’s<br />
rooftops. It’s such a chilled country they were like, “Sure, come in!” Next thing we’d be on their roof. This was the final<br />
shot. I was actually overly confident about the set-up, because I’m not really scared of water compared with the risks<br />
you take on concrete. And it was only 60ft [18m] – I could belly-flop and I still wouldn’t die. But when I turned up, the<br />
run-up wasn’t very big and the rocks carried on under the water. <strong>The</strong> feeling I had was that I was only going to clear the<br />
rocks by a tiny fraction. It was quite a stress, but I sent it and it was maybe the most cushty banger I’ve done. As soon<br />
as I went off the lip, I felt total relief.<br />
THE RED BULLETIN 63
Danny MacAskill<br />
Wee Day Out (2016)<br />
Wee Day Out was a film I’d<br />
wanted to make for a long time.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Ridge opened up this whole<br />
new world of mountain biking for<br />
me, but this time, rather than<br />
relying on scenery, I really wanted<br />
to up the technical difficulty of<br />
the riding. <strong>The</strong> cool thing about<br />
riding a mountain bike is that<br />
people’s perceptions of what<br />
you can do on it, compared<br />
with a trials bike, are a lot lower.<br />
I wanted to take my trials-riding<br />
skills and put them on a mountain<br />
bike – like one of my heroes,<br />
Chris Akrigg, had done.<br />
When I worked in Bothy Bikes<br />
[in Aviemore, Scotland, in 2003<br />
– his first job], this steam train<br />
used to go past my house every<br />
day. So this [above] was a trick<br />
where I would gap from the<br />
railway platform onto the line.<br />
I thought the probability of it<br />
working was very, very low, but<br />
I actually landed it in an hour and<br />
a half – about 100 goes – which<br />
is pretty good for me.<br />
<strong>The</strong> grind on the log [right]<br />
I probably tried 150 times on the<br />
first day and didn’t come close.<br />
We ended up trying that for<br />
another three days. My friend<br />
started rubbing the log down<br />
with Vaseline, because it was<br />
getting so grippy. Skateboarders<br />
have their wax, so we started<br />
lubing up this log. My pedals,<br />
shoes, grips and gloves were<br />
covered in Vaseline. We went<br />
up there on the fourth day,<br />
and then, on the last day, in<br />
the last bit of light, I landed the<br />
trick. <strong>The</strong>n I ended up doing it<br />
four times in a row.<br />
Jumping on a moving hay<br />
bale and rolling down a field<br />
was yet another ‘real good’ idea<br />
I had – again, it was a four-day<br />
one. We got the local farmer to<br />
combine three hay bales into<br />
one big one so it would be heavy<br />
enough to keep rolling with me<br />
on top. It took about 400 goes.<br />
Two of my friends would have<br />
to push the 450kg hay bale to<br />
get it rolling before I jumped<br />
on, then three friends – to whom<br />
I owe a lot – would have to try<br />
to catch it halfway down the<br />
hill. Every single time. It was<br />
madness, basically.<br />
“I probably tried the grind on<br />
the log 150 times on the first<br />
day and didn’t come close”<br />
FRED MURRAY/RED BULL CONTENT POOL<br />
64 THE RED BULLETIN
Photo: Tomás Montes<br />
DANNY MACASKILL<br />
PROFESSIONAL TRIALS RIDER<br />
Tall<br />
Standard<br />
TOTAL STEEL<br />
STEEL FLOOR DRIVE - A MACHINED FLOOR<br />
PUMP WITH A TALL COUNTERPART.<br />
• Steel barrel and piston with machined aluminium base.<br />
• Oversized 3.5-inch gauge (220 psi / 15 bar).<br />
• Varnished wood handle.<br />
• Extra long, high strength hose.<br />
• ABS1 Pro chuck.<br />
• Available in Black, Silver, <strong>Red</strong> and Yellow. Tall in Black only.<br />
ABS1 Pro Chuck<br />
PROUDLY DISTRIBUTED BY UPGRADE BIKES LTD | UPGRADEBIKES.CO.<strong>UK</strong> | 01403 711 611 | WWW.LEZYNE.COM
Danny MacAskill<br />
Kilimanjaro: Mountain of Greatness (2018)<br />
Hans Rey is one of my heroes in<br />
riding, almost a mentor – he’s<br />
been there and done it all. So<br />
when he asked me to join him<br />
in summiting Mount Kenya and<br />
Kilimanjaro in one trip, I jumped<br />
at the chance. I’d had a lot of<br />
bike time that summer, having<br />
just filmed Wee Day Out, but<br />
I wouldn’t say I was particularly<br />
fit. That said, I was about to<br />
climb Kilimanjaro with a 51-yearold<br />
who has a passion for whisky<br />
and beer, so I thought I’d be fine<br />
fitness-wise. It ended up being<br />
a hell of a trip. We made a quick<br />
ascent on Mount Kenya, and I’d<br />
come straight from sea level and<br />
never done anything at altitude<br />
before. I got altitude sickness<br />
and had to be helicoptered off.<br />
<strong>The</strong> next day, we travelled<br />
through to Tanzania to the foot<br />
of Kilimanjaro and, the day<br />
after, started making our way<br />
up. My body fared a lot better<br />
up there. That final climb with<br />
the bike on my back is one of<br />
the hardest things I’ve ever done<br />
– nobody normally carries that<br />
weight at that altitude. Type-two<br />
fun – I think that’s what people<br />
call it. But the beauty of lugging<br />
your bikes up there is getting<br />
to descend 5,000m back down<br />
to base camp.<br />
“This is me doing<br />
a 180 between<br />
some rails on ‘<strong>The</strong><br />
Bridge to Nowhere’”<br />
Seaside Trials (<strong>2019</strong>)<br />
This is a film I made for one of my new partners, Adidas. We had<br />
quite a short time-frame, so I went to a place near Dunbar in<br />
Scotland that I’d scouted for Way Back Home. It’s known as ‘<strong>The</strong><br />
Bridge to Nowhere’ and it crosses a river, taking you to a beach<br />
[and at high tide the bridge is cut off on both sides]. I waded out in<br />
my bare feet and took my bike to get some cool shots. We filmed<br />
between Dunbar Harbour and Glen Coe so that we could have<br />
a contrast between mountain bike and trials. This [right] is me<br />
doing a 180 between some rails. Very easy riding – although it was<br />
very windy – but it made for a cool and unusual shot.<br />
My process hasn’t changed that much in the past 10 years.<br />
Scouting is an important part of making the films – not wasting your<br />
time on things that won’t make it in. But I’m still as ambitious as<br />
ever, trying to come up with tricks that are really out there and that<br />
you’ve never seen anyone else do. Going through the process of<br />
trying to make them work in the way that you hoped is a lot of fun.<br />
It’s been an amazing 10 years and I’ve got enough ideas written<br />
down in my books to last another 50 years.<br />
MARTIN BISSIG, ADIDAS OUTDOOR, DAVE MACKISON<br />
66 THE RED BULLETIN
THE RED BULLETIN 67
guide<br />
Get it. Do it. See it.<br />
BODY MOVIN’<br />
MovNat promotes peak<br />
fitness through natural<br />
movement – we meet<br />
the regime’s creator<br />
PAGE 80<br />
BALLS OF STEEL<br />
How the FIFA videogame<br />
franchise became<br />
as powerful as the<br />
sport it simulates<br />
PAGE 81<br />
ABOUT TIME<br />
Our pick of the most<br />
desirable watches and<br />
wearable gear you can<br />
get your hands on<br />
PAGE 85<br />
EXPLORE HIMALAYA TRAVEL & ADVENTURE<br />
LEGEND OF THE FALL<br />
Record-breaking skydiver<br />
Tom Noonan tells us why<br />
leaping from 7,000m past<br />
the Himalayan mountains<br />
is the true summit of his<br />
freefall experience<br />
PAGE 70<br />
THE RED BULLETIN 69
G U I D E<br />
Do it<br />
Drop kicks: the exhilarating leap from the helicopter marks the pinnacle of the Everest Skydive<br />
EVEREST SKYDIVE<br />
AIN’T NO MOUNTAIN<br />
HIGH ENOUGH<br />
Freefalling is not for the faint of heart. But doing it in<br />
sight of the world’s highest mountain is another adventure<br />
altogether, says record-breaking skydiver Tom Noonan<br />
<strong>The</strong> instant I jump out of<br />
the chopper at 23,000ft<br />
[7,000m], I’m hurtling<br />
towards the ground at 210kph.<br />
A freefall has a certain frequency<br />
to it – a hum that’s reminiscent of<br />
a hairdryer – but I have a helmet<br />
on, so it’s not loud enough to cause<br />
physical damage. <strong>The</strong> dive lasts<br />
45 seconds, but perhaps the most<br />
extraordinary aspect of this<br />
particular jump is that I’m actually<br />
in freefall beside the planet’s<br />
highest mountains. <strong>The</strong> point of<br />
reference is unlike anything else<br />
in the world; as I fall through the<br />
Instructor Tom Noonan has skydived in more than 40 countries<br />
70 THE RED BULLETIN
Nepal<br />
TRAVEL TIPS<br />
NEPALESE<br />
BY NATURE<br />
Nepal is a trekking and hiking paradise, but<br />
the Roof of the World has much more to offer,<br />
including ‘mad honey’ and a tooth fairy<br />
<strong>The</strong> chopper ferries the jumpers up to a summit-equalling height of 7,000m<br />
Nepal<br />
Kathmandu<br />
Mt Everest<br />
Lukla<br />
<strong>The</strong> average daytime temperature during <strong>November</strong>’s<br />
Everest Skydive is around 15°C. Rainfall is low then,<br />
too, making it the best month to visit Nepal.<br />
EXPLORE HIMALAYA TRAVEL & ADVENTURE<br />
Trekkers’ paradise: the village of Namche Bazaar sits at an altitude of 3,440m<br />
sky, the topography of the<br />
Himalaya seems to swallow me.<br />
Once the parachute opens, my<br />
speed slows to about 25kph and<br />
I’m level with Mount Everest for<br />
the next six minutes, not more<br />
than a couple of kilometres away.<br />
A quiet descent near one of the<br />
most awesome forces of nature<br />
on earth is humbling and lifechanging.<br />
It’s an incredible<br />
feeling to be able to experience<br />
something that so few people ever<br />
have the opportunity to try. Yet<br />
it always feels good to land on<br />
the ground safely at Syangboche<br />
Airstrip, 3,780m above sea level,<br />
where the temperature is balmy.<br />
As a tandem-skydive instructor,<br />
I’ve completed roughly 8,000<br />
“As I fall through the<br />
sky, the Himalayan<br />
topography seems<br />
to swallow me”<br />
dives in more than 40 countries in<br />
seven continents. I’ve dived into a<br />
sinkhole in Belize, onto Antarctic<br />
and Arctic ice sheets, and over the<br />
pyramids of Giza – remote locations<br />
are my speciality. But, as the<br />
operational manager, organising<br />
the annual trip to Nepal for Everest<br />
Skydive is a labour of love. For<br />
11 months, I work hard on the<br />
logistics from my office in Florida.<br />
SEE<br />
Several exotic animals inhabit the Himalaya, says Tom<br />
Noonan, but some are more visible than others...<br />
YETI<br />
“<strong>The</strong>re’s a belief the yeti is still out there, but no one has seen<br />
him recently. <strong>The</strong>re are yeti bones in one of the temples.”<br />
SNOW LEOPARD<br />
“Snow leopards are rare. I’m thankful I’ve not seen one, as<br />
I don’t want to bump into one in the middle of the night.”<br />
YAK<br />
“Massive yet beautiful and docile, yaks do the heavy lifting,<br />
carrying all the stuff that people can’t.”<br />
VISIT<br />
<strong>The</strong>re’s plenty to do in Kathmandu<br />
HONOUR THE TOOTHACHE TREE<br />
In a part of town that’s home to many dentists is a chunk of<br />
Bangemudha tree covered in coins. <strong>The</strong>se are offerings from<br />
orthodontically poor locals to Vaishya Dev, god of toothache.<br />
TRY HALLUCINOGENIC HONEY<br />
Procured in the Kathmandu Valley, this rhododendronenhanced<br />
liquid gold is known locally as ‘mad honey’ on<br />
account of its hallucinogenic qualities. It’s also used to relieve<br />
stress and is said to have Viagra-like properties.<br />
EAT YAK CHEESE<br />
Try this surprisingly delicate cheese, which has a mild, milky<br />
flavour and strong herbal notes, at local farmers’ markets.<br />
THE RED BULLETIN 71
G U I D E<br />
Do it<br />
Nepal<br />
THE DIVE<br />
FREE, FREEFALLIN’<br />
<strong>The</strong> music that forms the soundtrack to<br />
the skydive, and the pointers everyone<br />
needs to understand to safely negotiate<br />
the descent<br />
SIGNALS<br />
Since you can’t hear speech during freefall, your<br />
instructor will communicate through the use of hand<br />
signals. <strong>The</strong> first is the most important of all.<br />
Permission to land: Syangboche Airstrip is also the drop zone for Everest Skydive<br />
PULL<br />
Immediately deploy<br />
your parachute<br />
ARCH<br />
Push your pelvis towards<br />
the earth<br />
CHECK ARMS<br />
Bring your shoulders<br />
together in a W position<br />
CIRCLE OF AWARENESS<br />
Observe your heading:<br />
read your altimeter<br />
HEAR<br />
Tom Noonan on the music he and his co-divers listen to<br />
as they prepare to jump from a helicopter at 7,000m<br />
1. JAMIROQUAI<br />
“One time, we were listening to Jamiroquai and half our<br />
group started line-dancing. Any time you put something<br />
on that people can jam to, that’s cool.”<br />
2. TRADITIONAL CHANTING<br />
“<strong>The</strong> mountains are a very spiritual place, full of<br />
awesome energy, so we listen to a lot of local Nepali<br />
music and Buddhist mantras.”<br />
3. SILENCE<br />
“<strong>The</strong> Western world is full of noise. <strong>The</strong>re’s almost<br />
no noise in the Himalaya. To be around such quiet and<br />
calm is unlike anything in the world for me. <strong>The</strong> wind is<br />
the loudest thing you hear. It’s incredible.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> reward is in going back to<br />
Nepal every year to see friends and<br />
live part of my life in the Himalaya.<br />
I’ve been doing it since 2008.<br />
Every <strong>November</strong> or May,<br />
depending on the weather, my<br />
team and I take between five and<br />
10 travellers on an extraordinary<br />
adventure from Kathmandu to the<br />
Himalaya. We fly to Kathmandu,<br />
explore the city for a couple of<br />
days and then take a short plane<br />
ride to Lukla, the gateway to<br />
Everest. We then spend three days<br />
trekking through valleys and<br />
mountains, climbing higher each<br />
day. We do these treks so we can<br />
acclimatise to the altitude. If we<br />
just flew in and tried to make<br />
a dive, we might get hypoxia –<br />
a lack of oxygen that makes you<br />
feel punch-drunk – so we need<br />
to reduce that possibility.<br />
<strong>The</strong> first-time divers have<br />
already committed to a week of<br />
adventure and exhaustion on the<br />
ground, so the skydives are the<br />
cherry on top of the experience.<br />
Personally, I’ve made more jumps<br />
than I could ever have hoped for.<br />
In 2009, myself and two<br />
colleagues set the world record<br />
for the highest parachute landing<br />
when we landed sport parachutes<br />
at 17,192ft (5,240m).<br />
You never forget the first time you<br />
see Mount Everest. In my case, it<br />
happened as I turned the corner<br />
of a teahouse above Namche<br />
Bazaar: as I looked unobstructed<br />
across a 10km-long valley, Everest<br />
stared back at me.<br />
<strong>The</strong> locals on the Nepali side,<br />
the farmers and Sherpas, believe<br />
the mountains are goddesses<br />
who protect them. <strong>The</strong> area is<br />
very spiritual. I refer to the energy<br />
there as <strong>The</strong> Force, as in Star<br />
Wars, and there is something that<br />
resonates at a higher frequency.<br />
Before each expedition, we have<br />
a religious ceremony called a<br />
puja, where a lama [priest]<br />
blesses our equipment.<br />
Before I became a full-time<br />
skydiver in 2006, at the age of 32,<br />
I worked in pensions at a bank in<br />
Boston. But my hero was always<br />
Indiana Jones for the way he gets<br />
into trouble in foreign places,<br />
having fun, living life to the full<br />
and then returning home to a<br />
real-world job for a few weeks.<br />
I still have an office I go back to,<br />
and a classroom that I teach in.<br />
But it’s the people of Nepal I’m<br />
most grateful for. <strong>The</strong>ir purity of<br />
thought and mind makes me want<br />
to be a better version of myself.<br />
everest-skydive.com<br />
EXPLORE HIMALAYA TRAVEL & ADVENTURE PIERS MARTIN<br />
72 THE RED BULLETIN
Ski<br />
Austria<br />
One beautiful Alpine town combines the best of both city and slopes. Here’s how to explore it all<br />
MIRJA GEH<br />
PERFECT PISTES<br />
<strong>The</strong> slopes of Kitzsteinhorn<br />
Kaprun are extremely<br />
popular with freeskiers<br />
THE RED BULLETIN 73
MAGIC MOUNTAINS<br />
Saalbach and its three<br />
neighbouring villages<br />
combine to make<br />
a skier’s paradise<br />
Saalbach<br />
<strong>The</strong> crowd pleaser<br />
A snowsports mecca that pulls out all the stops<br />
Skicircus Saalbach Hinterglemm<br />
Leogang Fieberbrunn is – as its<br />
impressive full name suggests<br />
– a whole lot of ski resort; one<br />
that’s frequented by the world’s<br />
best skiers and snowboarders.<br />
To break down that name,<br />
Hinterglemm is in the same<br />
valley as Saalbach, and Leogang<br />
and Fieberbrunn are next door.<br />
<strong>The</strong>ir combined 270km of pisted<br />
ski runs make the Skicircus one<br />
of the biggest resorts in Europe.<br />
As you’d expect, with such<br />
a large piste map comes a<br />
remarkable range of riding.<br />
Beginner or intermediate skiers<br />
have access to a variety of route<br />
options from most of the 70 lifts.<br />
If you’re an expert, there are<br />
long, challenging black runs –<br />
not least the 12er KOGEL, which<br />
spans 3.6km on gradients of up<br />
to 72 per cent and has been used<br />
as an FIS World Cup route.<br />
Knee-deep off-piste is in no<br />
short supply, either. As well as<br />
the Lycra-clad racers, the world’s<br />
best freeriders come to the<br />
Skicircus to compete in the<br />
Freeride World Tour. <strong>The</strong>y’re<br />
next scheduled to drop from the<br />
Wildseeloder in Fieberbrunn in<br />
March 2020.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Skicircus is worldrenowned<br />
for freeriding, worldclass<br />
for racing, and it has the<br />
tour stops to prove it.<br />
MIRJA GEH (2), DER BRECHER, DANIEL ROOS<br />
74 THE RED BULLETIN
Ski Austria<br />
Resort fact box<br />
Distance to airport:<br />
Salzburg Airport – 90km<br />
Elevation: 1,003m to 2,100m<br />
Total piste distance:<br />
270km<br />
Longest run:<br />
7.5km – Jausernabfahrt slope<br />
(Vorderglemm)<br />
Difficulty: 140km blue (52%),<br />
112km red (41%), 18km (7%)<br />
black runs<br />
Number of lifts: 70<br />
saalbach.com<br />
Ticket alliance<br />
Skicircus Saalbach<br />
Hinterglemm<br />
Leogang Fieberbrunn,<br />
Schmittenhöhe in<br />
Zell am See, and<br />
Kitzsteinhorn Kaprun<br />
THE RED BULLETIN 75
Zell am See-Kaprun<br />
Glacier, mountains and lake<br />
A picturesque winter wonderland that packs a powdery punch<br />
<strong>The</strong> small urban city of Zell am<br />
See has much to offer, including<br />
great shopping and a beautiful<br />
lake with a lovely promenade.<br />
<strong>The</strong> lake, which often freezes<br />
in winter, is a picture-perfect<br />
foreground for views of the<br />
mountains behind. But also Zell<br />
– and specifically the nearby<br />
glacier of Kitzsteinhorn – boasts<br />
some of the Alps’ best freeriding.<br />
<strong>The</strong> pisted skiing in Zell itself<br />
has many tree runs. It’s mostly<br />
an intermediate paradise, but<br />
there are 19km of black runs,<br />
too. A short bus ride to Kaprun<br />
gives you access to the<br />
Kitzsteinhorn glacier, complete<br />
with another 61km and a snowsure<br />
guarantee (the ski season<br />
lasts seven months here).<br />
On a powder day, it’s all<br />
about that glacier. <strong>The</strong> resort’s<br />
‘Freeride XXL’ signposting<br />
system will point you to the<br />
powder lines, whether it’s fluffy<br />
runs, big cliffs or natural pipes<br />
you’re after. Also, two new<br />
cable cars – the K-ONNECTION<br />
Kaprun Kitzsteinhorn and<br />
zellamseeXpress Schmittenhöhe<br />
– have improved links in the area,<br />
paving the way for one of the<br />
biggest ski resorts in the Alps.<br />
Resort fact box<br />
Distance to airport:<br />
Salzburg Airport – 80km<br />
Elevation: 768m to 3,029m<br />
Total piste distance: 138km<br />
Longest run: 7km –<br />
down Maiskogel mountain<br />
from the top<br />
Difficulty: 56km blue (41%),<br />
54km red (39%), 28km black<br />
runs (20%)<br />
Number of lifts: 51<br />
zellamsee-kaprun.com<br />
Ticket alliance<br />
Skicircus Saalbach<br />
Hinterglemm<br />
Leogang Fieberbrunn,<br />
Schmittenhöhe in<br />
Zell am See, and<br />
Kitzsteinhorn Kaprun<br />
FAISTAUER PHOTOGRAPHY, KITZSTEINHORN<br />
76 THE RED BULLETIN
Ski Austria<br />
GLORIOUS VIEWS<br />
From picture-perfect<br />
vistas to first-class<br />
skiing, Zell am See-<br />
Kaprun has it all<br />
THE RED BULLETIN 77
Carinthia<br />
Sunshine and<br />
powder lines<br />
Bordering Italy and Slovenia, this<br />
resort in southernmost Austria<br />
clocks up around 100 hours more<br />
sun in winter than most resorts<br />
further north. But that doesn’t mean<br />
a lack of snow. <strong>The</strong>re’s almost<br />
350km of pisted ski runs between<br />
these four biggest resorts<br />
Bad Kleinkirchheim<br />
This family-friendly<br />
resort has 103km of<br />
slopes, 75 per cent of<br />
which are intermediate.<br />
That said, hometown<br />
Olympic gold medallist<br />
Franz Klammer also has<br />
a World Cup black slope<br />
on the mountain. It’s a<br />
beast of a piste. And you<br />
can explore it with the<br />
man himself, if you don’t<br />
mind an early start. On<br />
selected dates, Klammer<br />
guides skiers around the<br />
mountain from sunrise<br />
until 9.30am.<br />
Elevation:<br />
1,100m to 2,055m<br />
Total piste distance:<br />
103km<br />
Difficulty:<br />
18km blue (17%),<br />
77km red (75%),<br />
8km black runs (8%),<br />
plus 5km ski routes<br />
Number of lifts: 24<br />
badkleinkirchheim.com<br />
Großglockner Heiligenblut<br />
Not the biggest ski resort in<br />
the world, but it does boast<br />
Austria’s biggest mountain.<br />
<strong>The</strong> pointed peak of the<br />
3,798m-high Großglockner<br />
dominates the skyline, just<br />
one of the reasons this resort<br />
is so photogenic. Another is<br />
the 1,500 hectare Freeride<br />
Arena in the area. Come for<br />
the stunning photographs,<br />
stay for the excellent skiing.<br />
Elevation: 1,300m to 2,900m<br />
Total piste distance: 55km<br />
Difficulty: 20km blue (36%),<br />
34km red (62%), 1km black runs<br />
(2%), plus 10.4km ski routes<br />
Number of lifts: 12<br />
grossglockner.at;<br />
heiligenbrut.at<br />
KW JOHANNES PUCH, DANIEL ZUPANC<br />
78 THE RED BULLETIN
Ski Austria<br />
Nassfeld<br />
This is a rarity: a ski resort<br />
with its own microclimate.<br />
Channels from the Adriatic<br />
dump powder on the<br />
mountain, giving Nassfeld a<br />
reputation as the “snow hole<br />
of Carinthia”. Since it’s such<br />
a big area and relatively<br />
quiet, you don’t even have to<br />
rise early to guarantee fresh<br />
tracks. At 110km (plus the<br />
off-piste), there’s no lack of<br />
mountain. Ski from Austria<br />
to Italy and back in a day!<br />
Elevation:<br />
600m to 2,000m<br />
Total piste distance:<br />
110km<br />
Difficulty:<br />
30km blue (27%),<br />
69km red (63%),<br />
11km black runs (10%)<br />
Number of lifts: 30<br />
nassfeld.at<br />
Katschberg<br />
Snow-secure at 2,220m, this<br />
resort between Salzburg<br />
and Carinthia offers riding for<br />
every level. <strong>The</strong>re’s 10km for<br />
beginners, 40km of reds, and<br />
also an impressive 20km of<br />
challenging black pistes. It’s<br />
well worth spending a couple of<br />
days off the skis, too – the area<br />
boasts stunning snowshoe<br />
routes and torchlit hiking.<br />
Elevation:<br />
1,640m to 2,220m<br />
Total piste distance: 70km<br />
Difficulty:<br />
10km blue (14%),<br />
40km red (57%),<br />
20 black runs (29%)<br />
Number of lifts: 16<br />
katschberg.at<br />
THE RED BULLETIN 79
Do it<br />
Fitness<br />
Bark to basics: Le Corre<br />
preaches universal<br />
fitness without all the<br />
technical frills<br />
GET FIT<br />
NATURAL<br />
ABILITY<br />
Three signature moves<br />
to help you master the<br />
MovNat concept<br />
MOVNAT FITNESS<br />
GRASSROOTS<br />
MOVEMENT<br />
Your body wasn’t built to sit around all day. Erwan Le Corre<br />
will help you rediscover its full potential – naturally<br />
According to Erwan Le Corre,<br />
the way we humans move<br />
in our everyday lives is<br />
unnatural and even downright<br />
inhumane. “We sit in the office<br />
for hours at a time,” says the<br />
French-born sportsman and<br />
physical trainer, “then we might<br />
go to the gym once in a while<br />
after work. And that’s all we do.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> human musculoskeletal<br />
system is built for much more<br />
frequent and varied exertion,<br />
however, and if it doesn’t get this,<br />
it becomes sick. So Le Corre has<br />
come up with a fitness regime<br />
comprising all the elements we<br />
couldn’t get enough of as kids:<br />
balancing, jumping, climbing,<br />
crawling, running, throwing,<br />
swimming, diving etc. Performed<br />
either indoors or outdoors, these<br />
play-like exercises help to improve<br />
coordination, balance, strength<br />
and precision skills.<br />
<strong>The</strong> basis of Le Corre’s MovNat<br />
(Natural Movement) concept is<br />
La Méthode Naturelle, a training<br />
technique developed by French<br />
naval officer Georges Hébert<br />
in the early 19th century and<br />
which also gave rise to parkour.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> aim of MovNat isn’t to<br />
make you quicker or fitter,” says<br />
Le Corre, 48. “We want you to<br />
rediscover ancient patterns of<br />
movement.” <strong>The</strong> rest, including<br />
your increased self-confidence,<br />
will take care of itself.<br />
movnat.com<br />
“Increased<br />
natural<br />
movement in<br />
your daily<br />
routine will make<br />
you stronger,<br />
healthier and<br />
happier”<br />
Erwan Le Corre<br />
ELBOW PULL-UP<br />
Instead of hanging from the bar<br />
by your hands, haul yourself up<br />
so your forearms rest on top of<br />
it, hands touching. For one rep,<br />
lift yourself with your elbows<br />
until your chest reaches the<br />
bar. This method limits your<br />
range of motion and increases<br />
the efficiency of the exercise.<br />
POP-UP<br />
Start like an underarm pull-up,<br />
but instead of stopping when<br />
your chin reaches the bar, pull<br />
yourself up until your upper<br />
body is completely above it and<br />
you’re supported by your arms.<br />
HAND SWING-UP<br />
Holding onto the bar with both<br />
hands, lift yourself and hook<br />
one leg over the top. Kick out<br />
your other leg as high and<br />
straight as possible, then swing<br />
it downwards. Push with your<br />
arms at the same time and the<br />
momentum will lift the whole of<br />
your upper body above the bar.<br />
To see the exercises, go to:<br />
youtube.com/user/MovNat<br />
Le Corre’s book, <strong>The</strong> Practice<br />
of Natural Movement: Reclaim<br />
Power, Health and Freedom,<br />
is out now<br />
Nature boy: Le Corre has been compared to a modern-day Tarzan<br />
JESSIKA LE CORRE FLORIAN STURM<br />
80 THE RED BULLETIN
G U I D E<br />
Do it<br />
Gaming<br />
THE FIFA FACTOR<br />
BIGGER THAN<br />
FOOTBALL<br />
Built to be the ultimate football game,<br />
FIFA now shapes the sport itself<br />
Launched on a shoestring<br />
budget in 1993 with a<br />
licence purchased for a song<br />
from football’s governing body,<br />
FIFA has become the world’s<br />
best-selling sports game, with<br />
more than 280 million copies<br />
sold. <strong>The</strong> goal has always been<br />
to translate football – in all its<br />
elegance and complexity – into<br />
video-game form, but FIFA has<br />
transcended that ambition by<br />
influencing the beautiful game<br />
itself. It’s now where clubs scout<br />
new signings, brands hustle for<br />
enviable licensing deals, and<br />
pro footballers discover – to their<br />
delight or dismay – how they<br />
rank on the leaderboard. FIFA<br />
expert Simon Parkin explains…<br />
ITS RANKINGS REALLY MATTER<br />
Before each year’s FIFA launch, the<br />
game’s creator EA releases a list<br />
of the top 100 players, as ranked<br />
by 9,000 data reviewers, who distil<br />
the performance of 18,000-odd<br />
pro footballers into 34 personal<br />
attributes. Such is the clout of the<br />
list that scouts have been known to<br />
use these stats to identify emerging<br />
talent. In this year’s iteration of the<br />
game, FIFA 20, Lionel Messi, Cristiano<br />
Ronaldo, Neymar Jr and Eden Hazard<br />
take the top spots with ratings of 94,<br />
93, 92 and 91 respectively. But for<br />
others the results can be painful:<br />
Rio Ferdinand joked he’d “tear down”<br />
EA’s offices after he was only rated<br />
65 for passing in FIFA 17.<br />
the striker’s run-up in FIFA. “It was just<br />
like playing against him on PlayStation,”<br />
Amelia said. “It was very strange.”<br />
YOU NEED TO BE IN IT TO WIN IT<br />
EA aggressively secures licences for<br />
clubs, players, stadia, and commentators’<br />
voice-overs. What the games firm pays<br />
is a secret (it’s rumoured to be in nine<br />
figures), but sometimes it’s not enough.<br />
This year, EA lost the rights to Juventus,<br />
so resorted to calling them ‘Piemonte<br />
Calcio’ in the game. However, the player<br />
likenesses remain: appearing in FIFA is<br />
about more than money for a footballer;<br />
it’s a status symbol. For FIFA: Road to<br />
World Cup ’98, David Beckham’s<br />
appearance on the cover “was a piece in<br />
the puzzle that led him to be the most<br />
marketable footballer on the planet”,<br />
Andy Bell, founder of sports talent<br />
agency Soap Box London, said in 2015.<br />
EXPERT<br />
PROFILE<br />
SIMON<br />
PARKIN<br />
FIFA PUNDIT<br />
<strong>The</strong> games critic<br />
for <strong>The</strong> Observer<br />
newspaper has<br />
covered video<br />
games and their<br />
culture for 15<br />
years. His book<br />
A Game of Birds<br />
and Wolves, out<br />
in <strong>November</strong>,<br />
tells the story of<br />
a group of women<br />
who developed<br />
a game during<br />
WWII to help the<br />
Allies outwit<br />
German U-boats.<br />
IT’S A CHEERLEADER FOR FOOTBALL<br />
Such is FIFA’s cachet, it doesn’t have to<br />
actively seek big-name endorsement.<br />
NBA star LeBron James Instagrammed<br />
a photo of his sons playing it, with the<br />
caption, “Game is fresh to death!” And<br />
Justin Bieber tweeted at rapper Drake,<br />
“I’m getting nice at FIFA. Be prepared.”<br />
Indeed, the game creates interest in<br />
the real sport. In 2014, an ESPN poll<br />
found that 34 per cent of Americans<br />
became soccer fans after playing FIFA.<br />
“Nowadays,” says FIFA’s creative<br />
director Matt Prior, “people come<br />
to football through our game.”<br />
ITS WORK IS NEVER DONE<br />
“Until FIFA is indistinguishable from<br />
football in real life, we’ll always have<br />
more to do,” says Prior. It’s a quest<br />
that generates heated <strong>Red</strong>dit debates<br />
with every launch. “Some like it simbased,<br />
others want huge scorelines,”<br />
he adds. In FIFA 20, there’s a focus on<br />
‘football intelligence’ with enhanced<br />
natural AI behaviour and ball physics,<br />
plus a street football mode, Volta. Will<br />
people like it? Time will tell. At games<br />
conference E3 in 2013, whoops of<br />
delight greeted the announcement of a<br />
‘never before possible’ feature: players<br />
could now turn their neck to head the<br />
ball at a greater-than-90° angle.<br />
FIFA 20 is out now on PS4, Xbox One,<br />
Nintendo Switch and PC; ea.com<br />
Unplayable but playable:<br />
Borussia Dortmund and<br />
England superstar Jadon<br />
Sancho in FIFA 20 form<br />
ELECTRONIC ARTS SIMON PARKIN<br />
IT HELPS PROFESSIONAL PLAYERS<br />
UP THEIR GAME<br />
Footballing pros have been known<br />
to use FIFA to prepare for real-life<br />
matches. Everton forward Alex Iwobi<br />
said that, when he was starting out,<br />
if a player he’d never played against<br />
was on the other team, he’d “look at<br />
his name and try to remember how<br />
good he was on FIFA”. After saving a<br />
penalty from AC Milan’s Ronaldinho in<br />
2008, Italian goalkeeper Marco Amelia<br />
claimed he’d familiarised himself with<br />
THE RED BULLETIN 81
G U I D E<br />
Do it<br />
October/<strong>November</strong><br />
9<br />
to 10 <strong>November</strong><br />
EVE WRESTLING: SHE-1 SERIES<br />
Regular readers of <strong>The</strong> <strong>Red</strong> <strong>Bulletin</strong> will know EVE from our <strong>November</strong><br />
2018 feature on the all-women, punk-rock, pro-wrestling organisation.<br />
<strong>The</strong> self-proclaimed ‘Riot Grrrls of Wrestling’ deliver all the action and<br />
theatrics you’d expect from the best in big-league brawling, but with<br />
a feminist message of inclusion – that women of any age can get crazy<br />
in the ring and enjoy themselves. And, you know, guys can spectate.<br />
This two-day, four-event fight series will see combatants from around<br />
the world battle to reach the Sunday final. And if you’re a girl who just<br />
wants to have fun (and dreams of the GLOW life), organisers Emily and<br />
Dann Read run training sessions at the EVE Academy in Bethnal Green.<br />
Resistance Gallery, Bethnal Green, London; evewrestling.com<br />
Thrilling EVE:<br />
riot grrrls just<br />
wanna have fun<br />
15<br />
to 29 October<br />
Roundhouse Rising<br />
Festival<br />
Camden’s Roundhouse has a long history of giving<br />
fresh talent a platform; at its opening concert in<br />
October 1966, two promising bands were on the bill:<br />
Soft Machine and Pink Floyd. For the past nine years,<br />
with partners such as Gilles Peterson’s talent discovery<br />
agency and BBC Music Introducing, the venue has<br />
dedicated an annual festival to the cause. This year,<br />
artists such as grime MC Big Zuu and art-pop act<br />
Æ MAK will follow in the footsteps of former Rising<br />
alumni like Little Simz by playing the intimate Sackler<br />
Space, while hip-hop avant-gardist GAIKA headlines<br />
the main stage with a 10-piece jazz ensemble.<br />
Camden Roundhouse, London; roundhouse.org.uk<br />
Rising stars:<br />
Æ MAK<br />
14 28 31<br />
to 27 October<br />
Rebel Vision<br />
Havana<br />
Moon Tour<br />
Picture the immersive experience<br />
of Secret Cinema, but applied to<br />
recreating iconic concerts. Rebel<br />
Vision (aka former music moguls<br />
Andy Cuthbert and Tom Clarke)<br />
deliver this using theatrics, SFX and<br />
cinematics – here, they present<br />
<strong>The</strong> Rolling Stones’ 2016 Havana<br />
Moon gig in Cuba. <strong>The</strong>re’s even a<br />
merchandise stand selling actual<br />
tour memorabilia from the day.<br />
Various cities around the <strong>UK</strong>;<br />
rebel-vision.com<br />
Oct to 23 Nov<br />
Reel Rock<br />
Film Tour<br />
Enjoy a movie with a good<br />
cliffhanger? That’s what you get<br />
at this nationwide film festival:<br />
the best of the year’s climbing<br />
and adventure features, including<br />
four world premieres. One of<br />
these tells the story of two pairs<br />
of freeclimbing titans – Alex<br />
Honnold and Tommy Caldwell,<br />
and Jim Reynolds and Brad<br />
Gobright – going head-to-head to<br />
claim the speed record for scaling<br />
El Capitan’s famous Nose route.<br />
Various <strong>UK</strong> cities; reelrock.co.uk<br />
Oct to 10 Nov<br />
Sonica Glasgow<br />
Is it art? Music? Audio-visual<br />
mumbo jumbo? Or a higher<br />
sensory experience that<br />
transcends mere categorisation<br />
to challenge our concepts of<br />
reality? You may be none the wiser<br />
after witnessing these incredible<br />
sound-and-image performances<br />
from as far afield as Slovenia<br />
and Argentina. It all kicks off<br />
with Aether, an immersive threedimensional<br />
light matrix sonically<br />
conducted by electronic musician<br />
and scientist Max Cooper.<br />
Across Glasgow; sonic-a.co.uk<br />
DALE BRODIE, ZOE HOLMAN<br />
82 THE RED BULLETIN
See it<br />
October / <strong>November</strong><br />
BARTEK WOLINSKI/RED BULL CONTENT POOL, SONSTAR/RED BULL CONTENT POOL, MIHAI STETCU/RED BULL CONTENT POOL<br />
IT’S ALL<br />
FOR THE<br />
TAKING<br />
<strong>The</strong> world’s top freeriders,<br />
breakdancers and enduro<br />
racers all have their eye<br />
on top prizes this month.<br />
Watch the action from<br />
these unmissable events<br />
and more on <strong>Red</strong> Bull TV…<br />
WATCH<br />
RED BULL TV<br />
ANYWHERE<br />
<strong>Red</strong> Bull TV is a global digital<br />
entertainment destination<br />
featuring programming that<br />
is beyond the ordinary and is<br />
available anytime, anywhere.<br />
Go online at redbull.tv,<br />
download the app, or<br />
connect via your Smart TV.<br />
To find out more,<br />
visit redbull.tv<br />
25<br />
This will be Virgin’s<br />
second year hosting<br />
<strong>Red</strong> Bull Rampage<br />
October LIVE<br />
RED BULL<br />
RAMPAGE<br />
Twenty-one members of the freeride mountain-biking elite<br />
will gather in Virgin, Utah, for the 14th edition of the sport’s<br />
biggest and most intense contest. Riders including last<br />
year’s winner, Canada’s Brett Rheeder, will work with their<br />
two-person build crews to shape and perfect their ultimate<br />
lines down the mountain. <strong>The</strong>ir goal: to ride them to victory.<br />
9<strong>November</strong> LIVE<br />
RED BULL BC ONE<br />
WORLD FINAL<br />
For the first time ever, Mumbai plays host to the<br />
ultimate breakdance challenge. See B-Boys and<br />
B-Girls from across the planet go head-to-head in the<br />
Indian city, competing for the <strong>Red</strong> Bull BC One crown.<br />
2to 3 <strong>November</strong> LIVE<br />
GETZENRODEO<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>2019</strong> World Enduro Super Series comes to a<br />
climax with the incredibly popular GetzenRodeo.<br />
Last year, 12,000 spectators travelled to Drebach in<br />
Germany and saw homegrown rider Mani Lettenbichler<br />
take first place. Don’t miss this year’s finale.<br />
THE RED BULLETIN 83
Equipment<br />
Your guide to gear born with purpose, engineered<br />
to achieve, and built with style<br />
SPACE<br />
<strong>The</strong> right stuff<br />
Hamilton X-01<br />
ELEMENTAL<br />
WATCHES<br />
<strong>The</strong> best timepieces<br />
for every terrain<br />
<strong>The</strong> watch you see here is a<br />
vision of the future, but its<br />
creation is steeped in history.<br />
In 1968, American filmmaker<br />
Stanley Kubrick released his<br />
science-fiction epic 2001: A<br />
Space Odyssey. It caused a stir,<br />
and not for all the right reasons.<br />
At the film’s New York premiere,<br />
lead actor Keir Dullea witnessed<br />
around 250 people walking<br />
out, including Hollywood star<br />
Rock Hudson, who apparently<br />
exclaimed, “What is this<br />
bullshit?” But within months<br />
THE RED BULLETIN 85
Equipment<br />
Coated in a molecule-thin film<br />
of condensed vapour (PVD –<br />
physical vapour deposition),<br />
the Khaki BeLOWZERO proves<br />
a perfect choice of watch for<br />
a Martian explorer.<br />
But Scott’s 2015 film <strong>The</strong> Martian<br />
hews closer, particularly in its<br />
adherence to hard scientific<br />
accuracy. For Matt Damon’s<br />
stranded astronaut, Mark Watney,<br />
a watch capable of surviving the<br />
<strong>Red</strong> Planet’s harsh environment<br />
was needed. Hamilton’s Khaki<br />
BeLOWZERO, with its black PVDcoated<br />
stainless steel case, is<br />
corrosion-resistant and capable<br />
of withstanding depths of 1,000m<br />
– although the latter feature is<br />
perhaps less important on Mars.<br />
there were other reports – of<br />
people on psychotropic drugs<br />
coming just to watch the ending.<br />
At a San Francisco theatre,<br />
someone ran through the screen<br />
screaming, “It’s God!” More than<br />
50 years later, and almost two<br />
decades past the film’s dateline,<br />
2001 remains an impressively<br />
prescient prediction of the future.<br />
This is due in part to Kubrick’s<br />
meticulous attention to detail.<br />
A perfectionist, the director<br />
personally commissioned every<br />
aspect of the film’s design, from<br />
the first on-screen instance of<br />
office cubicles, to the cutlery for<br />
the deep-space meals, and the<br />
wristwatches the astronauts wore.<br />
For the latter, Kubrick sought<br />
out watchmaker Hamilton and its<br />
in-house designer, John Bergey.<br />
<strong>The</strong> result was the X-01. However,<br />
the timepiece is barely visible in<br />
the finished film, and prohibitive<br />
costs meant a commercial model<br />
didn’t see the light of day until<br />
2006, when Hamilton released<br />
a commemorative edition –<br />
<strong>The</strong> seconds hand<br />
has a morse-code<br />
message spelling<br />
out ‘Eureka’<br />
limited to 2001 pieces, of course<br />
– built from titanium and sapphire<br />
crystal glass, with a magnetic<br />
wand hidden in the clasp that<br />
calibrates the three smaller dials.<br />
<strong>The</strong> watch, like the film,<br />
would inspire others to dream<br />
of the future. It led Bergey to<br />
create the Pulsar Time Computer,<br />
the world’s first all-electronic<br />
digital watch, in 1972. And for<br />
two other science-fiction<br />
filmmakers it would again lead<br />
to collaborations with Hamilton.<br />
British director Ridley Scott is as<br />
profound a futurist as Kubrick,<br />
although the dystopian vision of<br />
1982’s Blade Runner and the<br />
industrial aesthetic of 1979 horror<br />
classic Alien are the antithesis of<br />
2001’s clean, pure minimalism.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Khaki Field Murph Auto<br />
was designed specifically for<br />
the film Interstellar. <strong>The</strong><br />
movie’s prop watch was<br />
modified so the filmmakers<br />
could control the movement of<br />
the seconds hand in-camera.<br />
Christopher Nolan’s love of<br />
Kubrick’s work is well-documented.<br />
Last year, the British writer/<br />
director struck new 70mm prints<br />
of 2001 from its original negative<br />
so the film could be watched in<br />
the same ‘unrestored’ form as<br />
on its debut. But there’s no<br />
better demonstration of Nolan’s<br />
reverence than Interstellar. His<br />
2014 space epic pays homage to<br />
2001 in so many ways – from the<br />
themes of outer space and inner<br />
self, to robot designs referencing<br />
the monolith, to the tripped-out<br />
multidimensional ending.<br />
But the parallels went one step<br />
further when Nolan commissioned<br />
Hamilton to create a unique watch<br />
for the movie; one that Matthew<br />
McConaughey’s character,<br />
Cooper, leaves on Earth with his<br />
daughter, Murph. Like the X-01,<br />
the watch wasn’t commercially<br />
available at the time of the film’s<br />
debut, but this year Hamilton<br />
released the Hamilton Khaki<br />
Field Murph Auto, the first 2,555<br />
pieces of which came in a jewel<br />
box designed by Interstellar’s<br />
production designer, Nathan<br />
Crowley, to resemble the<br />
‘tesseract’ from the film’s<br />
ending. Also, the seconds hand<br />
features a morse-code message<br />
spelling out the word ‘Eureka’.<br />
It’s a detail Kubrick would<br />
doubtless have approved of.<br />
hamiltonwatch.com<br />
DAVID EDWARDS, TIM KENT<br />
86 THE RED BULLETIN
<strong>The</strong> Super-LumiNova<br />
photoluminescent pigment<br />
on the dial is 10 times<br />
brighter than previous<br />
phosphorescent paints and,<br />
no, it isn't radioactive.<br />
SEA<br />
Finding lumo<br />
Octon Black Watch<br />
Swedish brand Octon donates<br />
10 per cent of all proceeds to<br />
Sea Legacy, an environmental<br />
charity that works to protect<br />
endangered ocean life including<br />
the shortfin mako shark. All<br />
Octon watches are designed<br />
in Stockholm, and this glowing<br />
Aurora Green and black model<br />
– which comes with a choice of<br />
stainless steel bracelet or olivegreen<br />
Zulu fabric strap – has<br />
hands and indexes coated with<br />
black Swiss Super-LumiNova,<br />
which glows 60 per cent longer<br />
than standard lume.<br />
octonwatches.com<br />
THE RED BULLETIN 87
Equipment<br />
LAND<br />
Dust buster<br />
Shinola Runwell Sport<br />
Chrono Black Blizzard<br />
<strong>The</strong> Detroit-based<br />
Shinola company<br />
takes its name from<br />
the famous and nowdefunct<br />
American<br />
shoe-polish brand.<br />
Built from strong, lightweight<br />
titanium, this durable chronograph<br />
is a homage to the tough people<br />
who survived the harsh Dust Bowl<br />
era of 1930s America, its name a<br />
reference to the ravaging storms<br />
of this dark era. <strong>The</strong> timepiece also<br />
comes with a leatherbound book<br />
filled with newspaper clippings<br />
and photos detailing brutal events<br />
of the day. shinola.co.uk<br />
88 THE RED BULLETIN
Equipment<br />
LAND<br />
Trailblazer<br />
TAG Heuer Monaco<br />
Fourth Limited Edition<br />
(1999-2009)<br />
Made famous by Steve McQueen<br />
in the 1971 car-racing movie<br />
Le Mans, the Monaco celebrates<br />
its 50th birthday this year. <strong>The</strong><br />
watchmaker has really pulled<br />
out all the stops for this golden<br />
anniversary, creating five<br />
special versions of the iconic<br />
square-shaped timepiece, each<br />
one inspired by a different<br />
decade, starting from 1969.<br />
Behold then, the newly<br />
released fourth instalment of this<br />
chaptered tribute: a handsome<br />
black iteration with arresting<br />
red and orange accents inspired<br />
by the early 2000s.<br />
<strong>The</strong> stainless steel watch is<br />
presented on a perforated<br />
black calfskin strap that has been<br />
designed to resemble a vintage<br />
steering wheel and is punctuated<br />
with crisp white stitching – a<br />
little detail that watch geeks will<br />
surely appreciate, since they<br />
complement the batons on the<br />
watch face. <strong>The</strong> caseback is<br />
engraved with the Monaco Heuer<br />
logo as well as the inscriptions<br />
‘1999-2009 Special Edition’ and<br />
‘One of 169’.<br />
Inside the case, the sense<br />
of history is kept alive thanks<br />
to TAG Heuer’s famous Calibre 11,<br />
a modern version of the<br />
automatic-winding chronograph<br />
movement that made its debut<br />
in the original 1969 Monaco.<br />
tagheuer.com<br />
McQueen's Monaco gets a<br />
whopping 15 minutes of screen<br />
time in Le Mans. His Heuerlogoed<br />
racesuit was a copy of<br />
one originally worn by his stunt<br />
driver, real-life racer Jo Siffert.<br />
THE RED BULLETIN 89
SKY<br />
Battle ready<br />
Hamilton Khaki Pilot<br />
Pioneer Mechanical<br />
In a further homage to the<br />
’70s (when its predecessor<br />
the Hamilton W10 was<br />
produced), the black dial is<br />
textured to recall camera or<br />
binocular cases of the time.<br />
You may be surprised to learn<br />
that Hamilton, the famous<br />
American watchmaker, supplied<br />
timepieces to the British Armed<br />
Forces in the 1970s. <strong>The</strong> most<br />
popular was the Hamilton W10<br />
from 1973, which is today<br />
reborn in the hand-wound Khaki<br />
Pilot Pioneer Mechanical with<br />
80-hour power reserve. <strong>The</strong><br />
military redux watch – which<br />
comes with a brown leather or<br />
grey NATO strap – stays faithful<br />
to its forerunner with a curved<br />
tonneau case, faded black dial<br />
with beige accents, and cool<br />
mismatched hands: swordshaped<br />
for hours, pencil-shaped<br />
for minutes. hamiltonwatch.com<br />
90 THE RED BULLETIN
Equipment<br />
MATERIAL GAIN<br />
New kit for peak performance<br />
WEAR<br />
Working class<br />
Filson CCF Work Vest<br />
A lot of rugged workwear is designed to look good; Filson’s gear is built for honest-to-God manual labour – it just looks good<br />
because it’s the real deal. <strong>The</strong> Seattle-based company’s CCF Workwear range is built for construction workers, loggers and<br />
farmers – folks who aren’t afraid to get their hands and clothes dirty. This vest is made from heavy, tightly woven duck canvas,<br />
triple-stitched and reinforced with rivets at the stress points. filson.com<br />
THE RED BULLETIN 91
Equipment<br />
HOIST<br />
Harnessing<br />
power<br />
Arcade Guide Slim belt<br />
Never underestimate the importance of a good belt: when<br />
engaging in high-impact sports such as skateboarding,<br />
snowboarding and climbing, it can mean the difference<br />
between a great session and a bad spill. Arcade makes<br />
belts reimagined for action sports – they’re water-resistant,<br />
heavy-duty, and designed specifically for snow pants, hiking<br />
and hybrid climbing trousers. Keep your kecks and your<br />
head held high. arcadebelts.eu<br />
GROOM<br />
Immaculate<br />
concepts<br />
Compact toiletries<br />
Stay fresh on the fly.<br />
Shower in a Can<br />
(shower-in-a-can.<br />
co.uk) packs 20 body<br />
washes into a flightfriendly<br />
100ml bottle,<br />
absorbing dirt and<br />
grease in a foam that<br />
requires no towel.<br />
Solid Cologne<br />
(solidcologne.co.uk)<br />
is a wax aftershave<br />
that comes in eight<br />
fragrances and was<br />
conceived by the<br />
Ancient Egyptians<br />
(minus the tin).<br />
<strong>The</strong> Matador Pocket<br />
Blanket (matadorup.<br />
com) can be carried<br />
on your person<br />
and folds out to seat<br />
up to four people.<br />
HIKE<br />
Wild style<br />
Adidas Terrex Free Hiker GTX<br />
A high-end technical off-road<br />
shoe with style that’s made<br />
for the streets. Featuring an<br />
insanely grippy sole for all<br />
terrains and weather conditions,<br />
an energy-returning insole,<br />
a snug sock-like interior and<br />
abrasion-resistant exterior<br />
reinforcements, this lightweight<br />
boot can take on the toughest<br />
of trails and the slickest of cities.<br />
adidas.co.uk/terrex<br />
92 THE RED BULLETIN
WEAR<br />
Strong look<br />
Saint Unbreakable Stretch Jeans<br />
As a motorcycle clothing brand, Saint<br />
has its priorities right: protection is<br />
uppermost, but, damn, it had better look<br />
good, too. <strong>The</strong> company’s ‘Unbreakable<br />
Stretch Jeans’ are stitched from the<br />
world’s strongest fibre, Dyneema,<br />
a high-molecular-weight material that’s<br />
500 per cent tougher than regular denim<br />
and 15 times more abrasion resistant than<br />
carbon steel; the military has even used<br />
it to armour helicopters and stop bullets.<br />
Spinning this scientific sorcery into its<br />
denim fabric, Saint has created the world’s<br />
first single-layer bike-wear protection<br />
that’s also stretchy and light, and looks<br />
pretty good on a pair of legs. saint.cc<br />
THE RED BULLETIN 93
Equipment<br />
SPORT<br />
Jersey scores<br />
Nike League of Legends kit<br />
Esports is growing in recognition<br />
as a legitimate sport by the day,<br />
and there’s perhaps no greater<br />
measure of this than the world's<br />
biggest sports brand creating<br />
the kits for one of its major<br />
leagues. <strong>The</strong> shirts you see here<br />
are Nike x LPL team uniforms<br />
– bespoke jerseys created for<br />
the 16 clubs in China's League<br />
of Legends Pro League. Each<br />
has a chevron motif on the chest<br />
referencing the most common<br />
map in the game: Summoner’s Rift.<br />
But within that chevron and<br />
throughout each shirt are details<br />
specific to each team and their ingame<br />
skins, from dragon scales<br />
on the black-and-gold Royal Never<br />
Give Up kit to the Cyber Formula<br />
thruster patterns on the sleeves of<br />
Edward Gaming’s dark red jersey.<br />
And, just like on a pro football kit,<br />
there’s also a small gold star<br />
above the team badge on Invictus<br />
Gaming’s white shirt, signifying<br />
their victory in 2018’s League of<br />
Legends World Championship.<br />
All the kits will feature in the 2020<br />
LoL season. nike.com<br />
94 THE RED BULLETIN
PROTECT<br />
A bit off<br />
the top<br />
Closca Helmet Loop<br />
If you want to stay protected,<br />
wearing a bike helmet is<br />
just a smart idea, and this<br />
collapsible concept makes<br />
the decision smarter.<br />
Spanish studio Closca’s<br />
Helmet Loop is made from<br />
three concentric components<br />
that fold into each other<br />
in a second, reducing its<br />
size by 45 per cent for easy<br />
stowing. It’s aerodynamic,<br />
light and durable when<br />
expanded, and the gap between<br />
the parts delivers air flow<br />
when riding and dissipates<br />
shock via micro-movements<br />
on impact. But perhaps the<br />
most amazing fact about<br />
this ingenious helmet is<br />
that its design is based on<br />
the architecture of the<br />
Guggenheim Museum in<br />
New York. closca.com<br />
CARRY<br />
Best of<br />
both bags<br />
Dakine Wndr Cinch Pack 21L<br />
Ever imagined what a hybrid of a<br />
backpack and tote bag would look<br />
like? No need, you’re looking at it.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Wndr Cinch Pack features all<br />
the practical functionality of the<br />
former – including side pockets<br />
and a laptop compartment – with<br />
the top-loading accessibility of<br />
the latter. Next stop: breeding<br />
one that also has the features of<br />
a suitcase. dakine.com<br />
THE RED BULLETIN 95
THE RED<br />
BULLETIN<br />
WORLDWIDE<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Red</strong><br />
<strong>Bulletin</strong> is<br />
published in seven<br />
countries. This is the<br />
cover of <strong>November</strong>’s<br />
US edition, featuring<br />
Atlanta rapper/singer<br />
Yung Baby Tate…<br />
For more stories<br />
beyond the ordinary,<br />
go to: redbulletin.com<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Red</strong> <strong>Bulletin</strong> <strong>UK</strong>.<br />
ABC certified distribution<br />
154,346 (Jan-Dec 2018)<br />
GLOBAL TEAM<br />
Editor-in-Chief<br />
Alexander Macheck<br />
Deputy Editors-in-Chief<br />
Andreas Rottenschlager, Nina Treml<br />
Creative Director<br />
Erik Turek<br />
Art Directors<br />
Kasimir Reimann (deputy CD),<br />
Miles English, Tara Thompson<br />
Head of Photo<br />
Eva Kerschbaum<br />
Deputy Head of Photo<br />
Marion Batty<br />
Photo Director<br />
Rudi Übelhör<br />
Production Editor<br />
Marion Lukas-Wildmann<br />
Managing Editor<br />
Ulrich Corazza<br />
Copy Chief<br />
Andreas Wollinger<br />
Editors Jakob Hübner, Werner Jessner,<br />
Alex Lisetz, Stefan Wagner<br />
Design<br />
Marion Bernert-Thomann, Martina de Carvalho-<br />
Hutter, Kevin Goll, Carita Najewitz<br />
Photo Editors<br />
Susie Forman, Ellen Haas, Tahira Mirza<br />
Head of Commercial & Publishing Management<br />
Stefan Ebner<br />
Publishing Management Sara Varming (manager),<br />
Ivona Glibusic, Bernhard Schmied, Melissa Stutz,<br />
Mia Wienerberger<br />
B2B Marketing & Communication<br />
Katrin Sigl (manager), Agnes Hager,<br />
Teresa Kronreif<br />
Head of Creative Markus Kietreiber<br />
Co-Publishing<br />
Susanne Degn-Pfleger & Elisabeth Staber (manager),<br />
Mathias Blaha, Vanessa Elwitschger, Raffael Fritz,<br />
Marlene Hinterleitner, Valentina Pierer, Mariella<br />
Reithoffer, Verena Schörkhuber, Julia Zmek,<br />
Edith Zöchling-Marchart<br />
Commercial Design Peter Knehtl (manager),<br />
Sasha Bunch, Simone Fischer, Martina Maier,<br />
Florian Solly<br />
Advertising Placement<br />
Manuela Brandstätter, Monika Spitaler<br />
Head of Production Veronika Felder<br />
Production<br />
Walter O. Sádaba, Friedrich Indich, Sabine Wessig<br />
Repro Clemens Ragotzky (manager),<br />
Claudia Heis, Nenad Isailovi c, ̀<br />
Sandra Maiko Krutz, Josef Mühlbacher<br />
Operations<br />
Michael Thaler (MIT), Alexander Peham,<br />
Yvonne Tremmel (Office Management)<br />
Subscriptions and Distribution<br />
Peter Schiffer (manager), Klaus Pleninger<br />
(distribution), Nicole Glaser (distribution),<br />
Yoldaş Yarar (subscriptions)<br />
Global Editorial Office<br />
Heinrich-Collin-Straße 1, A-1140 Vienna<br />
Tel: +43 1 90221 28800,<br />
Fax: +43 1 90221 28809<br />
redbulletin.com<br />
<strong>Red</strong> Bull Media House GmbH<br />
Oberst-Lepperdinger-Straße 11-15,<br />
A-5071 Wals bei Salzburg, FN 297115i,<br />
Landesgericht Salzburg, ATU63611700<br />
General Manager and Publisher<br />
Andreas Kornhofer<br />
Directors<br />
Dietrich Mateschitz, Gerrit Meier,<br />
Dietmar Otti, Christopher Reindl<br />
THE RED BULLETIN<br />
United Kingdom, ISSN 2308-5894<br />
Acting Editor<br />
Tom Guise<br />
Associate Editor<br />
Lou Boyd<br />
Music Editor<br />
Florian Obkircher<br />
Chief Sub-Editor<br />
Davydd Chong<br />
Sub-Editor Nick Mee<br />
Publishing Manager<br />
Ollie Stretton<br />
Editor (on leave) Ruth Morgan<br />
Advertising Sales<br />
Mark Bishop,<br />
mark.bishop@redbull.com<br />
Fabienne Peters,<br />
fabienne.peters@redbull.com<br />
Printed by<br />
Prinovis GmbH & Co KG,<br />
Printing Company Nuremberg,<br />
90471 Nuremberg, Germany<br />
<strong>UK</strong> Office<br />
Seven Dials Warehouse, 42-56<br />
Earlham Street, London WC2H 9LA<br />
Tel: +44 (0) 20 3117 2000<br />
Subscribe<br />
getredbulletin.com<br />
Enquiries or orders to: subs@uk.<br />
redbulletin.com. Back issues available<br />
to purchase at: getredbulletin.com.<br />
Basic subscription rate is £20.00 per<br />
year. International rates are available.<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Red</strong> <strong>Bulletin</strong> is published 10 times<br />
a year. Please allow a maximum of four<br />
weeks for delivery of the first issue<br />
Customer Service<br />
+44 (0)1227 277248,<br />
subs@uk.redbulletin.com<br />
THE RED BULLETIN<br />
Austria, ISSN 1995-8838<br />
Editor<br />
Christian Eberle-Abasolo<br />
Proofreaders<br />
Hans Fleißner (manager),<br />
Petra Hannert, Monika Hasleder,<br />
Billy Kirnbauer-Walek<br />
Publishing Management<br />
Bernhard Schmied<br />
Sales Management<br />
Alfred Vrej Minassian (manager),<br />
Thomas Hutterer, Stefanie Krallinger<br />
anzeigen@at.redbulletin.com<br />
THE RED BULLETIN<br />
France, ISSN 2225-4722<br />
Editor<br />
Pierre-Henri Camy<br />
Country Coordinator<br />
Christine Vitel<br />
Country Project Management<br />
Alessandra Ballabeni<br />
Contributors, Translators<br />
and Proofreaders<br />
Étienne Bonamy, Frédéric & Susanne<br />
Fortas, Suzanne Kříženecký, Claire<br />
Schieffer, Jean-Pascal Vachon,<br />
Gwendolyn de Vries<br />
THE RED BULLETIN<br />
Germany, ISSN 2079-4258<br />
Editor<br />
David Mayer<br />
Proofreaders<br />
Hans Fleißner (manager),<br />
Petra Hannert, Monika Hasleder,<br />
Billy Kirnbauer-Walek<br />
Country Project Management<br />
Natascha Djodat<br />
Advertising Sales<br />
Matej Anusic,<br />
matej.anusic@redbull.com<br />
Thomas Keihl,<br />
thomas.keihl@redbull.com<br />
THE RED BULLETIN<br />
Mexico, ISSN 2308-5924<br />
Editor<br />
Luis Alejandro Serrano<br />
Associate Editor<br />
Marco Payán<br />
Proofreader<br />
Alma Rosa Guerrero<br />
Country Project Management<br />
Giovana Mollona<br />
Advertising Sales<br />
Alfredo Quinones,<br />
alfredo.quinones@redbull.com<br />
THE RED BULLETIN<br />
Switzerland, ISSN 2308-5886<br />
Editor<br />
Nina Treml<br />
Proofreaders<br />
Hans Fleißner (manager),<br />
Petra Hannert, Monika Hasleder,<br />
Billy Kirnbauer-Walek<br />
Country Project Management<br />
Meike Koch<br />
Advertising Sales<br />
Marcel Bannwart (D-CH),<br />
marcel.bannwart@redbull.com<br />
Christian Bürgi (W-CH),<br />
christian.buergi@redbull.com<br />
THE RED BULLETIN<br />
USA, ISSN 2308-586X<br />
Editor-in-Chief<br />
Peter Flax<br />
Deputy Editor<br />
Nora O’Donnell<br />
Copy Chief<br />
David Caplan<br />
Director of Publishing<br />
Cheryl Angelheart<br />
Country Project Management<br />
Laureen O’Brien<br />
Advertising Sales<br />
Todd Peters, todd.peters@redbull.com<br />
Dave Szych, dave.szych@redbull.com<br />
Tanya Foster, tanya.foster@redbull.com<br />
96 THE RED BULLETIN
1 YEAR<br />
getredbulletin.com<br />
£20<br />
BEYOND THE ORDINARY<br />
<strong>The</strong> next issue is out on Tuesday 8th October with London Evening Standard.<br />
Also available across the <strong>UK</strong> at airports, gyms, hotels, universities and selected retail stores.<br />
Read more at theredbulletin.com<br />
LITTLE SHAO / RED BULL CONTENT POOL
Action highlight<br />
Bron free<br />
Freerider Kilian Bron feels totally at home in the French mountain-bike/ski resort<br />
of La Clusaz. It was here on ‘<strong>The</strong> Trace’, the trail he helped to create, that Bron<br />
shot the film Follow Me with fellow Frenchman and drone pilot Tomz FPV. Here, the<br />
rider pulls off a beautiful road gap, captured by photographer Dom Daher.<br />
Instagram: @redbullfrance<br />
<strong>The</strong> next<br />
issue of<br />
THE RED BULLETIN<br />
is out on<br />
<strong>November</strong> 12<br />
DOM DAHER/RED BULL CONTENT POOL<br />
98 THE RED BULLETIN
ALPHATAURI.COM
THE ALL-NEW PRINCESS R35<br />
EXPERIENCE THE EXCEPTIONAL®<br />
PRINCESSYACHTS.COM