The Red Bulletin December 2020 (UK)
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<strong>UK</strong> EDITION<br />
DECEMBER <strong>2020</strong>, £3.50<br />
BEYOND THE ORDINARY<br />
SUBSCRIBE: GETREDBULLETIN.COM<br />
ROCK<br />
GOD<br />
How Nepalese<br />
climber NIMS<br />
PURJA smashed<br />
a century of<br />
mountaineering<br />
tradition<br />
NEW MOVES<br />
WHY CLASSICAL<br />
DANCERS ARE TAKING<br />
TO THE STREETS<br />
STEFFLON DON<br />
THE <strong>UK</strong> RAP STAR ON<br />
DRAKE, DUTCH AND<br />
LYRICAL DOMINATION
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Editor’s letter<br />
LOOKING<br />
AHEAD<br />
“<strong>The</strong> best way to predict the future,” US computer scientist Alan<br />
Kay once said, “is to create it.” And in uncertain times this may<br />
be better advice than ever – no matter what your walk of life. It’s<br />
an idea our cover star Nims Purja (page 32) embraced when he<br />
set out to smash the record for summiting the world’s 14 highest<br />
peaks. His success has changed the face of mountaineering and<br />
stretched our understanding of what humans are capable of.<br />
We caught up with the Nepalese climber in the French Alps and<br />
discovered that even his downtime is high-octane.<br />
Innovating in the face of serious setbacks are the classical<br />
dancers (page 48) taking to the streets of London to perform. As<br />
theatres and performance venues have been shut down during<br />
the pandemic – with those able to open sporadically empty of<br />
audiences – these performers are taking matters into their own<br />
hands. Despite injury, police raids and plenty of uncertainty,<br />
they have created a series of distanced shows that are bringing<br />
their talents to unexpected places – and people.<br />
Plus, Birmingham-born rap star Stefflon Don (page 56) tells us<br />
why social media is<br />
killing creativity, and<br />
how we can fix it. And<br />
we hear about the<br />
thrills and spills that<br />
went into Europe’s<br />
most ambitious bike<br />
film (page 62), from the<br />
riders who star in it.<br />
We hope you enjoy<br />
the issue.<br />
Dual focus: photographer Sandro Baebler keeps Nims Purja<br />
in his sights during our shoot in the French Alps Page 32<br />
CONTRIBUTORS<br />
THIS ISSUE<br />
SANDRO BAEBLER<br />
<strong>The</strong> Swiss photographer may<br />
spend a lot of time shooting<br />
actors in LA, but thanks to his<br />
mountain-village upbringing<br />
he felt at home in the French<br />
Alps with our cover star,<br />
mountaineer Nims Purja.<br />
“Nims was really focused on<br />
the goal of the shoot,” he says.<br />
“Even in the studio without<br />
aircon, he kept on his Summit<br />
suit, built for the extreme<br />
cold, for two hours.” Page 32<br />
ALEX KING<br />
“Lockdown and its aftermath<br />
has been tough for everyone,”<br />
says the Athens-based writer,<br />
who was pleased to be in<br />
London to catch DistDancing,<br />
a programme of outdoor<br />
performances by some of the<br />
world’s leading dancers. “It<br />
was great to link up with Chi<br />
and her team, who, despite<br />
all the restrictions, are doing<br />
everything they can to dance<br />
and entertain in a unique and<br />
inspiring way.” Page 48<br />
SANDRO BAEBLER (COVER), OSSI PIISPANEN<br />
04 THE RED BULLETIN
EDITION
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According to Gee ‘It’s a must. Unless you know it’s an absolute hot dusty beach summer, it goes in the bag for sure.’<br />
<strong>The</strong> collection includes the coveted Onesie which Rachel uses for race training. ‘I would say if you’re born in the <strong>UK</strong> you<br />
should be given an MT500 Waterproof Onesie at birth because you need it all the time.’ Turns out it’s even suitable on<br />
and off bike for Dan, ‘Honestly, no joke, I wake up in the morning and I put it on, and that’s me, all day on the diggers.’<br />
What sets this latest iteration apart from the pack are the collection’s eco credentials using an environmentally friendly<br />
PFC free DWR treatment. This fabric is also certified as MadeKind, having been produced in a way<br />
that eliminates harmful substances from the supply chain and the environment.<br />
#ForceForGood<br />
endurasport.com
CONTENTS<br />
<strong>December</strong> <strong>2020</strong><br />
8 Gallery: vertiginous volleyball<br />
in the islands of Norway; taking<br />
the tube in Tahiti; and riding<br />
rock faces in the Swiss Alps<br />
14 Chop local: New York rapper<br />
Benny <strong>The</strong> Butcher serves up<br />
some home-reared prime cuts<br />
16 Rising inflation: up, up and<br />
away in my beautiful balloon…<br />
to the edge of space<br />
19 Rolling back the years: how<br />
one skateboarding diehard is<br />
preserving its legacy in print<br />
20 Flight of fantasy: experience<br />
all the fun (ahem) of air travel<br />
without leaving terra firma<br />
23 Urban growth: meet the<br />
Vietnamese visionary sowing the<br />
seeds of change in architecture<br />
62<br />
Inside line: the<br />
stories behind<br />
the stunts in<br />
freewheeling<br />
movie adventure<br />
<strong>The</strong> Old World<br />
JULIAN MITTELSTAEDT JMVOTOGRAPHY<br />
24 Sophie Williams<br />
<strong>The</strong> Black activist and writer<br />
on race, momentum, and why<br />
people are listening at last<br />
26 Fantastic Negrito<br />
Inspiring words from the<br />
Grammy-winning guitarist<br />
who has truly lived the blues<br />
28 Jenny Schauerte<br />
<strong>The</strong> downhill skateboarder who<br />
found the path to enlightenment<br />
in the mountains of Turkey<br />
32 Nims Purja<br />
Climbed a peak today? Catch<br />
up! This unstoppable ex-Gurkha<br />
has – and he’ll probably fit in<br />
another two before teatime<br />
48 DistDancing<br />
When lockdown hit, the world<br />
of dance didn’t rest its feet –<br />
instead, it stepped up its game<br />
56 Stefflon Don<br />
<strong>The</strong> Birmingham-born star on US<br />
attitudes to <strong>UK</strong> rap, and why<br />
she’d rather spit bars than sip tea<br />
62 <strong>The</strong> Old World<br />
Behind the scenes of a genuinely<br />
epic, globe-spanning bike movie<br />
75 Hunting high and slow: the simple<br />
pleasures of kayaking off the<br />
coast of the Scottish Highlands<br />
will reconnect you with nature<br />
80 Cold looks: ski goggles that adapt<br />
to changing weather on the slopes<br />
82 One-track mind: how to find mental<br />
solutions for physical challenges<br />
84 On the button: tracing the<br />
evolution of gaming technology<br />
87 Sharp eye: Razer’s Min-Liang Tan<br />
– gaming innovator and cult hero<br />
88 <strong>The</strong> revolutionary Yoga Shred:<br />
old downward dog, new tricks<br />
90 Sound purchase: our pick of the<br />
best small speakers and wireless<br />
earbuds you can buy right now<br />
92 Essential dates for your calendar<br />
98 Board and dodging: skate highjinks<br />
in a giant’s labyrinth game<br />
THE RED BULLETIN 07
FRODE SANDBECH/RED BULL CONTENT POOL<br />
LOFOTEN, NORWAY<br />
Peaky<br />
ballers<br />
What sport instantly springs to mind on seeing<br />
this image? That’s right: beach volleyball. World<br />
Championship medal-winners Anders Mol and<br />
Christian Søren – that’s them playing a rally<br />
between the two peaks – decided there was no<br />
better spot for some pre-match training last<br />
month than Lofoten in their native Norway. <strong>The</strong><br />
150m-high granite pillar known as Svolværgeita<br />
(or ‘<strong>The</strong> Goat’) and the surrounding archipelago,<br />
which sits inside the Arctic Circle, provide a<br />
dramatic setting for this shot, taken by their<br />
countryman Petter Forshaug. But we can only<br />
imagine the scenes when they had to ask,<br />
“Please, mister, can we have our ball back?”<br />
petterfoshaug.com<br />
09
RUSSELL ORD<br />
TEAHUPO’O, TAHITI,<br />
FRENCH POLYNESIA<br />
Blue steel<br />
When one of the world’s top surf<br />
photographers teams up with one of<br />
Tahiti’s most exciting young board riders,<br />
magic happens. It was at Russell Ord’s<br />
photography workshop in Teahupo’o last<br />
year that the Australian snapper took<br />
this jaw-dropping shot of local surfer<br />
Matahi Drollet riding the perfect tube.<br />
Drollet, now 23, was only eight when<br />
he first surfed Teahupo’o’s notoriously<br />
gnarly wave. Thank goodness they<br />
gave the kid a break…<br />
russellordphoto.com<br />
11
CRANS-MONTANA,<br />
SWITZERLAND<br />
Sheer nerve<br />
Some kids have a muddy patch of grass or a yard<br />
at home to kick about in; for others, a trudge<br />
to the local park is necessary. Self-proclaimed<br />
“professional frozen water shredder” Nicolas<br />
Vuignier and his brother Anthony, on the other<br />
hand, had the luxury of Crans-Montana, a twintown<br />
ski resort in the Swiss Alps, on their<br />
doorstep. Here, we see the freeskier on home<br />
turf (or rather, rock) as an adult, caught on film<br />
by Geneva-based photographer Dom Daher. On<br />
Instagram, Nicolas modestly describes this<br />
extraordinary image as a “rainy wallride shoot”.<br />
Who knew defying gravity could become so<br />
mundane? domdaher.com<br />
DOM DAHER
13
BENNY THE BUTCHER<br />
Flexing<br />
his chops<br />
<strong>The</strong> New York rapper and<br />
member of hip-hop collective<br />
Griselda shares four classic<br />
tracks from the Big Apple<br />
that shaped his career<br />
New York hip hop is enjoying a<br />
renaissance right now, and among<br />
those leading the charge is 35-yearold<br />
rapper Jeremie Pennick, better<br />
known as Benny the Butcher. Benny<br />
and his hip-hop collective Griselda<br />
– formed in Buffalo, NY, in 2012 –<br />
have taken up the mantle laid down<br />
by the likes of Wu-Tang Clan and<br />
Mobb Deep in the ’90s, delivering<br />
their own take on the hardcore<br />
East Coast sound. In 2017, Eminem<br />
signed Griselda to his Shady<br />
Records imprint, and last year<br />
Benny inked a deal with Jay-Z’s<br />
management agency, Roc Nation.<br />
With more than 15 years in the<br />
game, payback has been a long<br />
time coming for Benny. Here, he<br />
pays homage to some of the tracks<br />
that helped get him there…<br />
Benny <strong>The</strong> Butcher’s new album<br />
Burden of Proof is out now on<br />
Griselda Records; griseldafxr.com<br />
Marley Marl feat<br />
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool<br />
G Rap & Big Daddy Kane<br />
<strong>The</strong> Symphony (1988)<br />
“My pops was one of the biggest<br />
hip-hop fans alive. He listened<br />
to everything, and I got to take<br />
it all in from the back seat of the<br />
car. That’s how I first heard <strong>The</strong><br />
Symphony. Those keys Marley<br />
Marl took from Otis <strong>Red</strong>ding<br />
were stupid, and the way Kool<br />
G Rap rhymed his syllables was<br />
crazy. A monumental record.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> Notorious BIG<br />
Juicy (1994)<br />
“Juicy was a huge moment for<br />
New York. It came out at a time<br />
when the West Coast had the<br />
game in a headlock, so we<br />
were happy to have a record<br />
like this. I remember being a<br />
kid and whenever it came on<br />
the radio everyone would just<br />
smile. It’s not just one of the<br />
biggest New York anthems<br />
ever, it’s one of the biggest<br />
hip-hop anthems, period.”<br />
Nas feat Lauryn Hill<br />
If I Ruled <strong>The</strong> World (Imagine<br />
That) (1996)<br />
“Hearing Nas and Lauryn on<br />
a record together was special;<br />
there’s no way this would have<br />
been the same without them.<br />
It was so New York – the video<br />
was shot in Times Square – yet<br />
it had an undeniable universal<br />
appeal. It ended up being a<br />
blueprint for so many artists<br />
who wanted to recreate that<br />
same feeling for years to come.”<br />
Puff Daddy & <strong>The</strong> Family<br />
It’s All About <strong>The</strong> Benjamins<br />
(1997)<br />
“<strong>The</strong> first time I heard this, all<br />
I could think about was how<br />
crazy the beat was. <strong>The</strong>n this<br />
verse from Sheek [from guests<br />
<strong>The</strong> LOX] got me: ‘I’m strictly<br />
tryin’ to cop those colossalsized<br />
Picassos.’ I mean, c’mon.<br />
Puff is so good at putting<br />
people together; it’s like he’s<br />
coaching an All-Star team. It<br />
definitely influenced Griselda.”<br />
WILL LAVIN<br />
14 THE RED BULLETIN
Commemorating the very first aviators and explorers<br />
sharing their heritage with Longines.<br />
Howard Hughes,<br />
a famous inventive<br />
pioneer in the world<br />
of aviation, circumnavigated<br />
the globe<br />
in record time, using<br />
his trusted Longines<br />
aviation chronometers<br />
and chronographs<br />
to guide him safely<br />
over land and sea.<br />
In 1935, Howard Hughes was<br />
the fastest flyer in the world.<br />
He set the airspeed record of<br />
352mph (566 km/h). But<br />
what makes Hughes’ story so<br />
especially impressive, is that<br />
the plane he flew in, was of<br />
his own design. Hughes was no<br />
ordinary record-breaking<br />
pilot — he was also an aeronautical<br />
engineer, business<br />
magnate and successful<br />
Hollywood movie producer.<br />
Yet it was his fighting spirit<br />
and courage in the face of<br />
the unknown, that compelled<br />
him to keep pushing forward.<br />
Just a few years later, Hughes<br />
circumnavigated the globe.<br />
His journey took him only<br />
3 days, 19 hours and<br />
14 minutes… and of course,<br />
he was the fastest man to<br />
do so. Hughes always trusted<br />
his Longines astronavigation<br />
chronometer to determine<br />
the exact position of his<br />
airplane at night, in total<br />
darkness and over the many<br />
vast oceans he crossed.<br />
How we face the fall is what<br />
separates the pioneer spirit<br />
from the rest. Falling with<br />
elegance, when all the odds<br />
are stacked against you.<br />
Trying, failing, fighting and<br />
triumphing with elegance.<br />
This is what’s remembered,<br />
what remains — when all<br />
else has been stripped away.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Longines Spirit Collection<br />
was crafted to embody precisely<br />
this. A careful blend of<br />
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— with the same distinct<br />
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to assist the very first aviators:<br />
from the proofed accuracy to<br />
the oversized winding crown,<br />
to be adjusted easily while<br />
wearing gloves; prominent<br />
high-contrast numerals; and<br />
hands with luminescent<br />
coating, for nighttime flying.<br />
A powerful reminder that<br />
the pioneer spirit lives on.
Raising expectations: an artist’s impression of the balloon and capsule – think Major Tom rather than Phileas Fogg<br />
SPACE PERSPECTIVE<br />
View from<br />
the top<br />
This company plans to float its passengers to the edge<br />
of our stratosphere using a space-age hot-air balloon<br />
Sipping a cocktail aboard<br />
a spaceship while admiring<br />
the view of Earth might<br />
sound like something plucked<br />
from science fiction, but from<br />
next year it could become<br />
reality. Space Perspective is a<br />
spaceflight startup co-founded<br />
by married US couple Jane<br />
Poynter and Taber MacCallum,<br />
who plan to send passengers<br />
into the stratosphere in style<br />
in Spaceship Neptune, a<br />
pressurised, eight-person<br />
cabin attached to a 198m-tall,<br />
hydrogen-filled balloon.<br />
Launched from NASA’s<br />
Kennedy Space Center in<br />
Florida, the capsule will travel<br />
to an altitude of up to 30km,<br />
where passengers will have<br />
a couple of hours to gaze<br />
down on their home planet<br />
through Neptune’s huge<br />
windows before descending<br />
back to Earth.<br />
Space tourism first came<br />
into being in 2001, when<br />
American entrepreneur Dennis<br />
Tito bought a flight to the<br />
International Space Station<br />
for a reported $20 million<br />
(almost £16 million), and<br />
subsequently prices have kept<br />
such an experience exclusive to<br />
the super-rich. But Spaceship<br />
Neptune, while only taking<br />
you close to the edge of space,<br />
promises to be far cheaper.<br />
“Our prices will start off at<br />
$125,000 [£98,000], but<br />
should come down pretty<br />
quickly,” says MacCallum.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Space Perspective<br />
experience also feels more<br />
attainable in other ways. This<br />
is not an intense lesson in<br />
space travel – the capsule has<br />
a fully stocked bar on board,<br />
as well as “the toilet with the<br />
best view in the known<br />
universe,” says MacCallum.<br />
“[On Neptune] you can have<br />
a glass of champagne with<br />
your best friend and look out<br />
at the curvature of Earth.<br />
I think that will be a very<br />
moving experience. We also<br />
have Wi-Fi, so it will be the<br />
ultimate social media post.”<br />
Poynter and MacCallum<br />
have worked in space<br />
development for decades,<br />
and were part of the original<br />
crew that spent two years in<br />
the early ’90s sealed inside<br />
the closed ecological research<br />
facility Biosphere 2 in the<br />
Arizona desert, to better<br />
understand the challenges<br />
of intergalactic colonisation.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> more people who think<br />
about the world in the context<br />
of space and the solar system,<br />
the more we’ll see support for<br />
the space programme and<br />
science in general,” says<br />
MacCallum. “Organisations like<br />
Space For Humanity [a nonprofit<br />
aimed at democratising<br />
interstellar travel] are coming<br />
to us to send teachers, poets<br />
and artists, because they want<br />
to break down that barrier.<br />
Having those experiences and<br />
conversations is important<br />
because it makes you think<br />
about our Earth and how we’re<br />
all in it together.”<br />
thespaceperspective.com<br />
SPACE PERSPECTIVE LOU BOYD<br />
16 THE RED BULLETIN
THE PIONEER<br />
SPIRIT LIVES ON.<br />
Why this watch? Well, there is a silicon balance-spring that means resistance to strong magnetic fields<br />
and everyday shocks. Thanks to its improved accuracy and precision, it is a COSC-certified chronometer.<br />
How much do we believe in these stunning members of our new Longines Spirit Collection? We are<br />
delivering each one with a full five-year warranty.
W W W . R A D O N - B I K E S . C O M<br />
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RADON RENDER 10.0 HD SUPREME<br />
6.799 €<br />
All rights reserved | Radon cannot be held responsible for misprints. Radon reserves the right to change prices.Offer valid while supplies last. Company headquarters: H&S Bike-Discount GmbH | Wernher-von-Braun-Str. 15 | 53501 Grafschaft
JEFFREY HALLERAN LOU BOYD<br />
Inside San Diego resident<br />
Kevin Marks’ home sits the<br />
world’s largest collection of<br />
skateboarding magazines.<br />
His enormous library spans<br />
multiple rooms, from floor to<br />
ceiling, with issues fastidiously<br />
filed by title, date and country<br />
of publication, ranging from<br />
the earliest independent zines<br />
all the way to last month’s<br />
Thrasher. It’s a passion project,<br />
certainly, but this collection<br />
is more than a mere hobby –<br />
Marks is on a mission to find<br />
and share with the world’s<br />
board-riders every skate<br />
magazine from history, to keep<br />
the scene’s print legacy alive.<br />
In <strong>2020</strong>, skateboarding<br />
lives online. With millions of<br />
YouTube edits and dedicated<br />
social media channels, anyone<br />
looking to immerse themselves<br />
in skate culture need only turn<br />
to their phone. But back in the<br />
’80s it was a different story.<br />
“My love of skate magazines<br />
originated from the fact that<br />
I grew up skateboarding in the<br />
middle of Kansas,” says Marks.<br />
“I felt very far away from the<br />
culture, but once I found [US<br />
publications] Thrasher and<br />
Transworld [SKATEboarding]<br />
and got subscriptions, they<br />
became my lifeline.”<br />
He moved his growing<br />
collection around the US for<br />
30 years until 2015, when he<br />
decided to put it to good use by<br />
launching Look Back Library, a<br />
public archive allowing access<br />
to like-minded skate fans. “<strong>The</strong><br />
primary mission was not have<br />
them sit in my home,” says<br />
Marks, who previously worked<br />
for a non-profit organisation<br />
promoting skating in Colorado,<br />
as well as singing and playing<br />
guitar in local punk and metal<br />
bands. “It was to build smaller<br />
collections and get them out<br />
to places where they can be<br />
read, like skate shops, indoor<br />
skateparks and skateboardrelated<br />
non-profits.”<br />
Look Back Library is no<br />
longer a singular collection<br />
but a sprawling community of<br />
libraries and exhibits all over<br />
LOOK BACK LIBRARY<br />
Flick through the past<br />
Skate enthusiast Kevin Marks owns the world’s biggest archive of<br />
skateboarding magazines, and now he’s sharing it with all of us<br />
Marks with his trove: “And this one’s about... skateboarding”<br />
the US. On his travels by van<br />
across the country, Marks has<br />
collected thousands of unloved<br />
and forgotten magazines from<br />
homes, as well as set up many<br />
exhibitions and repositories in<br />
skateparks and skate shops,<br />
both temporary and long-term.<br />
“I left San Diego in April<br />
2019, thinking that I was going<br />
to build about four libraries,<br />
but I ended up creating about<br />
30 in six months,” he says.<br />
“It has given me the chance<br />
to work on something I love,<br />
as well as the opportunity to<br />
meet and work with other<br />
skate nerds just like myself.”<br />
lookbacklibrary.org<br />
THE RED BULLETIN 19
Good news: there are cartoons. Bad news: here’s your meal. Worse news: you just dropped your stirrer<br />
AIRPLANE MODE<br />
Fasten your<br />
seatbelts<br />
Prepare for take-off in a new kind of flight simulator.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re are no tricky landings to execute or enemies<br />
to shoot down, but your seat back might get kicked<br />
Everyone has their own<br />
relationship with flying. Some<br />
find it exciting, some relaxing;<br />
others consider the whole<br />
process terrifying. It’s an<br />
experience that has inspired<br />
the world of gaming for<br />
decades, with hundreds of<br />
titles – most recently, the<br />
<strong>2020</strong> iteration of the popular<br />
Microsoft Flight Simulator –<br />
putting the player in the<br />
cockpit to see how they<br />
perform under pressure.<br />
Of course, for most of us<br />
flying is experienced as a<br />
passenger, not as a pilot. And<br />
that’s what games developer<br />
Hosni Auji (below) has<br />
replicated in Airplane Mode.<br />
In the New Yorker’s unique<br />
spin on the flying simulator,<br />
you control none of the action<br />
but instead play the passive<br />
role of an everyday passenger<br />
on a real-time long-haul flight.<br />
Airplane Mode places the<br />
player in an economy-class<br />
seat on a six-hour flight from<br />
New York’s JFK Airport to<br />
Reykjavík, Iceland, or a<br />
shorter two-and-a-half-hour<br />
hop to Halifax, Canada. No<br />
two flights are the same, and<br />
the only certainty is that the<br />
mundanity of the gameplay<br />
will match the reality it’s<br />
mimicking. Babies might cry,<br />
turbulence may occur, and<br />
the Wi-Fi will most likely<br />
drop out; iPhones need to be<br />
charged, movies played and<br />
magazines read. In-flight<br />
food and wine are served,<br />
and the flight tracker on the<br />
screen in front of you shows<br />
how far you’ve flown.<br />
“What I found interesting<br />
early in the process is that<br />
everyone seemed to have a<br />
strong opinion about flying,<br />
more so than any other form<br />
of travel,” says Auji, originally<br />
from Beirut, Lebanon. “At<br />
some level, every part of<br />
flying is unnatural. As a<br />
species, our urge to fly broke<br />
through our evolutionary<br />
limitations. That we fly at all<br />
is crazy; that we fly while<br />
begrudgingly sipping wine on<br />
reclining chairs is patently<br />
absurd. By putting players<br />
in the position where they’re<br />
confronting flight – not how<br />
they’re used to seeing it in<br />
games but more how they see<br />
it in life – we hope to capture<br />
a bit of that absurdity.”<br />
At a time of restricted<br />
travel, it may have surprised<br />
us how much we crave not<br />
only the thrill of visiting<br />
destinations but also the<br />
process involved in getting<br />
there. Auji’s game questions<br />
why we yearn for what is a<br />
tedious and often torturous<br />
necessity. “Our intention<br />
is to give players a unique<br />
gaming experience, and<br />
the flights are meant to be<br />
nostalgic,” he says.<br />
So that players are truly<br />
immersed in the simulation,<br />
there’s no option to pause it<br />
and return later. “We decided<br />
the player would need to<br />
complete the flight in one<br />
sitting – the game doesn’t<br />
save your mid-flight progress.<br />
You will get those air miles<br />
once you land, though.”<br />
playairplanemode.com<br />
AMC GAMES LOU BOYD<br />
20 THE RED BULLETIN
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STAND IN YOUR WAY.<br />
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ford.co.uk
HIROY<strong>UK</strong>I OKI JOSHUA Z<strong>UK</strong>AS<br />
As the booming commercial<br />
hub of Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh<br />
City is a whirlwind of chaos.<br />
But in the eye of the storm<br />
sits a cluster of houses where<br />
humans, trees and birds<br />
coexist peacefully. People<br />
occupy the lower levels, but<br />
the roofs are giant plant pots,<br />
each with trees sprouting from<br />
a thick layer of soil. Chirping<br />
birds nest in their branches,<br />
quelling the noisy invasion<br />
of traffic and construction.<br />
House for Trees is an<br />
experimental project by Vo<br />
Trong Nghia (pictured below),<br />
the Vietnamese visionary<br />
whose commitment to the use<br />
of natural building materials<br />
has earned him the label ‘the<br />
bamboo architect’. Nghia, 44,<br />
wants to see greener and more<br />
liveable cities in his home<br />
country and beyond. House for<br />
Trees’ forest canopy provides<br />
natural shade from the tropical<br />
sun, while the soil absorbs<br />
water and reduces the risk of<br />
flooding. <strong>The</strong> houses were also<br />
cheap to build – each one cost<br />
around £120,000.<br />
“It’s about reintroducing<br />
nature into modern life,” says<br />
the devout Buddhist. Nghia<br />
harnesses mindfulness to<br />
keep his firm’s commitment to<br />
green architecture on track;<br />
his employees’ job descriptions<br />
include two hours of meditation<br />
each day. He also asks that<br />
his staff at VTN Architects<br />
observe the Five Precepts of<br />
Buddhism: no killing, no lying<br />
or gossiping, no stealing or<br />
cheating, no engagement in<br />
sexual misconduct, and no<br />
consumption of intoxicants.<br />
<strong>The</strong> practice of meditation<br />
coupled with a respect for the<br />
Five Precepts makes Nghia’s<br />
20 or so architects “10 times<br />
more efficient,” he says. <strong>The</strong><br />
small team undertakes an<br />
extraordinary number of<br />
increasingly ambitious projects.<br />
In 2016, on the outskirts of the<br />
old port town of Hoi An, VTN<br />
Architects designed the Atlas<br />
Hotel in simple brick, but with<br />
exteriors hung with greenery.<br />
Putting down<br />
roots: House For<br />
Trees resembles<br />
five giant planters<br />
VO TRONG NGHIA<br />
Bloom town<br />
This Vietnamese architect is cultivating inner-city happiness with<br />
flourishing vegetation and a spiritual homegrown philosophy<br />
Three years later, in Da Nang<br />
– another of Vietnam’s fastdeveloping<br />
cities – it gave the<br />
entire 21-floor Chicland Hotel<br />
a façade of lush foliage.<br />
At its HQ in Ho Chi Minh<br />
City, the firm is now working<br />
on enormous green apartment<br />
blocks that will house<br />
thousands of people, and<br />
also office buildings designed<br />
to connect employees with<br />
nature. “I want the whole city<br />
to look like a huge park,” he<br />
explains. But Nghia knows<br />
that for his architecture to be<br />
truly sustainable, his buildings<br />
must be timeless in their<br />
design and long-lasting in<br />
their structural integrity. “<strong>The</strong><br />
most important thing,” he<br />
says, “is that all my buildings<br />
outlast me.”<br />
vtnarchitects.net<br />
THE RED BULLETIN 23
Sophie Williams<br />
Starting the<br />
conversation<br />
<strong>The</strong> author and activist has been talking<br />
about race for as long as she can remember.<br />
Now, she says, people are listening<br />
Words RUTH McLEOD<br />
Photography REBECCA PETTS DAVIES<br />
Sophie Williams is back at her flat<br />
in London after recording the audio<br />
version of her new book, Anti-Racist<br />
Ally. “As a child, I’d listen to an<br />
audiobook every night,” she says,<br />
“so it’s funny to find myself reading<br />
out the ‘written by Sophie Williams,<br />
read by Sophie Williams’ bit.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> situation is all the more<br />
surreal for Williams because at the<br />
start of <strong>2020</strong> the book wasn’t even<br />
part of her plans. In January, the<br />
former chief operating officer (COO)<br />
in advertising started an Instagram<br />
account to build a community for<br />
Millennial Black, her guide for Black<br />
women and business owners, out next<br />
April. On May 28, she posted a set of<br />
slides defining the difference between<br />
being non-racist and anti-racist, and<br />
offering advice for would-be allies.<br />
It blew up. “I saw the number [of<br />
likes] go up and up,” she says. “You<br />
can see on my Fitbit stats, there’s an<br />
evening where I’m going to bed, all<br />
chilled out, then I get a message:<br />
‘Is this your post on Justin Bieber’s<br />
grid?’ My heart rate spikes!”<br />
Since then, Williams, 33, has<br />
gained more than 180,000 followers<br />
and, among many other things, run<br />
a poster campaign in London, set up<br />
an online merch store in aid of mental<br />
health charity Black Minds Matter,<br />
written for <strong>The</strong> Guardian about world<br />
change, and finished both books.<br />
But, as strange as this year has been<br />
for Williams, she was ready. “I’ve<br />
never been good at picking my<br />
battles. I’m someone who’s always<br />
had these conversations. <strong>The</strong> change<br />
now is that people want to listen.”<br />
THE RED BULLETIN: What was the<br />
strategy to get your message heard?<br />
SOPHIE WILLIAMS: Actually, the<br />
reason I felt able to start posting is<br />
because I didn’t think anyone was<br />
listening – I had only a couple of<br />
hundred followers. I really don’t<br />
know what changed that. I made my<br />
first post because the day after the<br />
murder of George Floyd I spent the<br />
day crying. Bad stuff kept happening<br />
to Black people, things that were<br />
literally costing people their lives.<br />
<strong>The</strong>n there was the conversation<br />
about COVID and how that was<br />
disproportionately affecting Black<br />
people, and it all felt like too much.<br />
And that led to Anti-Racist Ally…<br />
Yes, it became clear there are people<br />
who want to start their ally-ship<br />
journey, and I wanted them to have<br />
something physical to refer to. It’s a<br />
deliberately small book, 180 pages,<br />
as cheap as my publisher would<br />
allow. I want people to treat it as a<br />
shareable resource. It’s a beginners’<br />
guide. Every other page has a graphic<br />
statement like, ‘Not being racist is not<br />
enough,’ along with advice. It’s broken<br />
down for people who want to be part<br />
of this but haven’t yet been able. Or<br />
for those who have started and want<br />
to keep up the momentum.<br />
How do we keep it up?<br />
What I’m seeing now, which is scary,<br />
is that people are already losing<br />
momentum in this conversation. It<br />
makes me so sad; it feels like the only<br />
thing that keeps people galvanised is<br />
a new video of a Black person being<br />
murdered. I don’t want any more<br />
videos, but I do want people to stay<br />
interested. I ask them to change oneoff<br />
actions into habits. So if anyone<br />
is donating, I ask them if they can<br />
make it a standing order. You can<br />
make a template for people to write<br />
to their MP – that will help many<br />
others. You can form an accountability<br />
group: on my social, I ask what people<br />
have done that week. Being able to<br />
check in with others and have them<br />
check in with you is really valuable.<br />
Millennial Black addresses issues<br />
faced by Black women at work. Was<br />
personal experience an influence?<br />
Yes, I wrote it because I needed it.<br />
I was a Black COO in an ad agency<br />
and people didn’t know what to do<br />
with me. When third parties came<br />
in, they’d presume I was the person<br />
who’d be taking notes or making the<br />
coffee. [With this book] I wanted<br />
to first of all say [to Black women],<br />
“You’re not alone.” And I wanted<br />
to tell business leaders, “This is the<br />
business benefit of including this<br />
group of people.” I’ve found that<br />
the most effective approach. What<br />
I didn’t want the book to do was tell<br />
Black women they need to change<br />
themselves to succeed. I ended up<br />
speaking to many amazing people,<br />
like [model and transgender activist]<br />
Munroe Bergdorf, [author and<br />
influencer] Candice Brathwaite and<br />
[Star Wars actress] Naomi Ackie –<br />
inspirational Black women from<br />
different industries and backgrounds,<br />
with different experiences.<br />
Can you see change happening?<br />
We’re in a civil rights movement, and<br />
people ask, “How will we know when<br />
we’ve won?” <strong>The</strong>re are no quick wins.<br />
I’m having the same conversations<br />
my mum did, and her mum before<br />
that. <strong>The</strong>se are multigenerational<br />
struggles. But hopefully, together,<br />
we can make iterative changes over<br />
time. I just ask that people read<br />
about race, understand race, and<br />
understand white people are not<br />
raceless people. Letting something<br />
happen and not speaking out is an<br />
action, too. I hope that change<br />
happens – and I want to be part of it.<br />
Williams’ book Anti-Racist Ally is out<br />
now, published by HarperCollins.<br />
Instagram: @officialmillennialblack;<br />
@sophiewilliamsofficial<br />
24 THE RED BULLETIN
“Letting<br />
something<br />
happen and<br />
not speaking<br />
out is an<br />
action”<br />
THE RED BULLETIN 25
Fantastic Negrito<br />
Taking an<br />
outside chance<br />
<strong>The</strong> Grammy-winning blues guitarist reveals how<br />
a hard-learnt education in hustling helped score him<br />
one of the most unlikely careers in music<br />
Words FLORIAN OBKIRCHER<br />
Photography LYLE OWERKO<br />
In 1996, Xavier Dphrepaulezz was<br />
bound for superstardom. After being<br />
taken under the wing of Prince’s<br />
former manager, the guitarist had<br />
just signed a million-dollar deal with<br />
major label Interscope – not bad for<br />
a young man who grew up in a house<br />
with 14 siblings, ran away at the age<br />
of 12, and got involved in petty<br />
crime during his teens on the streets<br />
of Oakland, California. But then<br />
life took another U-turn. His debut<br />
album was a flop. <strong>The</strong>n, in 1999,<br />
a near-fatal car accident put him in<br />
a coma and mangled his strumming<br />
hand; Interscope dropped him.<br />
When Dphrepaulezz picked up<br />
his guitar again several years later,<br />
he had a new mantra: don’t try to<br />
please anyone and don’t chase trends.<br />
He reinvented himself as delta<br />
blues guitarist Fantastic Negrito,<br />
playing raw protest songs, dressing<br />
outlandishly, and making statements<br />
others might find uncomfortable.<br />
This new direction has earned the<br />
52-year-old the Grammy award for<br />
Contemporary Blues Album in 2017<br />
and 2019, and praise from the likes<br />
of Barack Obama and Bernie Sanders.<br />
THE RED BULLETIN: What’s your<br />
aim when you write a song?<br />
FANTASTIC NEGRITO: Basically, every<br />
song I write, I write for my kids.<br />
I ask myself, “What do I want to tell<br />
my kids?” <strong>The</strong> things I sing about<br />
are openness, equality, healing,<br />
accountability, a little bit of the<br />
middle finger. I think we need all of<br />
these things in our toolbox in order<br />
to navigate through this construct<br />
of society. Most importantly, I want<br />
them to know: don’t let anybody tell<br />
you what you can or can’t do.<br />
Is that a rule you live by?<br />
I mean, look at me! I released my<br />
first Fantastic Negrito album at 46.<br />
People in the music industry, they’re<br />
bean counters. <strong>The</strong>y didn’t get it at all.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y’re like, “Wait a minute, you’re<br />
not a rapper, you’re not a pretty<br />
white girl singing pop.” I didn’t fit<br />
into any of these categories, and yet<br />
here we are. So I like to think that<br />
Fantastic Negrito is for all the people<br />
who’ve been told no; all the people<br />
who didn’t get picked for the team.<br />
So Fantastic Negrito is the patron<br />
saint of outsiders?<br />
Absolutely! Aged 12, I ran away from<br />
home and never saw my family again.<br />
I was living on the street. I was<br />
hustling for food, for water, trying to<br />
find an abandoned car to sleep in.<br />
I was hustling to that mentality of<br />
surviving. I wasn’t hustling to rip<br />
people off – although I did do some<br />
of that – I was mostly trying to eat!<br />
When it came time to create Fantastic<br />
Negrito, I picked up the guitar and<br />
was like, “I know how to do this: you<br />
just don’t take no for an answer.”<br />
What makes a good hustler?<br />
It’s someone who gets things done;<br />
someone who turns bullshit into the<br />
good shit. When I was homeless, I<br />
faked my way into the University of<br />
California, Berkeley. I pretended to be<br />
a music student coming to practise.<br />
I sat there and just listened to what<br />
people were playing, to learn. <strong>The</strong><br />
first thing I did after my accident was<br />
lease a grand piano so I could just<br />
clunk with my hands. I don’t believe<br />
in giving up. I’m a lifelong hustler.<br />
How does a two-time Grammy<br />
winner hustle?<br />
I’m still on the outside of things.<br />
People still ask me, “Why don’t you<br />
do something easy, like this ’60s<br />
retro thing?” <strong>The</strong>y’re basically asking<br />
me to make them feel comfortable.<br />
But listen, I don’t give a fuck about<br />
making people feel comfortable.<br />
Being an artist is about confronting<br />
society. Making people comfortable?<br />
That bores the shit out of me. I don’t<br />
care about selling records; what I care<br />
about is liberty as a human being.<br />
What does liberty mean to you?<br />
It’s about not giving a fuck. It’s the<br />
most powerful thing you can do. All<br />
my heroes made their best music<br />
when they didn’t give a fuck, when<br />
they didn’t try. I’m a firm believer in<br />
that. Because when you give a fuck<br />
you lend yourself to this repressed<br />
fantasy that people in power have<br />
of where we should fit. So that they<br />
feel comfortable. Why are we living<br />
in a society that’s openly medicated?<br />
I don’t drink or smoke – I don’t need<br />
that. Because I feel liberated, I don’t<br />
give a fuck. It’s a beautiful thing.<br />
How do you get there?<br />
Through failure and disappointment.<br />
I got there from watching my little<br />
brother killed at 14, seeing him on<br />
the ground with a hole in his head. I<br />
got there from seeing my 16-year-old<br />
cousin in a casket. I got there from<br />
losing my playing hand. But I also<br />
got there from walking the streets as<br />
a kid, trying to find a way. Finding<br />
out who I am, embracing who I am,<br />
then celebrating who I am and, most<br />
importantly, not making apologies<br />
to people for who I am. I don’t need<br />
anybody’s permission, because I feel<br />
amazing. And I want to pass that on<br />
to people who may not feel amazing.<br />
That’s what I want to pass on to my<br />
kids, your kids, your grandkids. I<br />
feel like that’s my mission.<br />
Fantastic Negrito’s third album Have<br />
You Lost Your Mind Yet? is out now;<br />
fantasticnegrito.com<br />
26 THE RED BULLETIN
“I don’t need<br />
anybody’s<br />
permission,<br />
because I<br />
feel amazing”<br />
THE RED BULLETIN 27
Jenny Schauerte<br />
<strong>The</strong> road<br />
less travelled<br />
<strong>The</strong> German downhill skateboarder<br />
came to the <strong>UK</strong> to learn about adrenalin.<br />
She left with the key to inner happiness<br />
Words RUTH McLEOD<br />
Photography TOMÁŠ TEGLÝ<br />
When Jenny Schauerte began<br />
downhill skating six years ago, she<br />
says she found the key to inner<br />
happiness. <strong>The</strong> 32-year-old has since<br />
become one of the world’s best in the<br />
sport, which involves racing down<br />
steep roads on a longboard at speeds<br />
of up to 100kph, often – outside<br />
competition – while negotiating<br />
oncoming traffic. It has introduced<br />
Schauerte to lifelong friends and seen<br />
her travel extensively; she has also<br />
used her passion for sport, adrenalin<br />
and filmmaking as therapy in testing<br />
times. Her latest project, the fly-onthe-wall-style<br />
film Woolf Women, is<br />
the story of a skate pilgrimage to an<br />
ancient monastery in the Turkish<br />
mountains. A celebration of downhill<br />
skating, travel and sisterhood, it<br />
marks the German’s transition from<br />
lone wolf to head of her own pack.<br />
THE RED BULLETIN: You started<br />
downhill skating in London,<br />
which isn’t exactly known for its<br />
mountains. How come?<br />
JENNY SCHAUERTE: I’m from<br />
Bavaria in Germany, but I did my<br />
bachelor’s [degree] in graphic<br />
design in London. <strong>The</strong>n I was<br />
accepted by Central St Martins to<br />
study my master’s in communication<br />
design, and my thesis was about<br />
adrenalin and how it can influence<br />
our emotions. I started doing<br />
research, looking at sports that are<br />
really connected to adrenalin, and<br />
I found downhill skateboarding.<br />
So you had never skated before?<br />
Why did you have such an interest<br />
in adrenalin?<br />
I had some experience. I was three<br />
years old when I first learnt how<br />
to ski, and then at the age of nine<br />
I learnt snowboarding, so actually<br />
I’m a snowboarder. But when I did<br />
the research and found downhill<br />
skateboarding, I thought, ‘Wow,<br />
it’s like snowboarding for summer.’<br />
So I decided to look into it a bit<br />
deeper. I had to know how it feels.<br />
<strong>The</strong> first time I longboarded<br />
properly was in Crystal Palace Park<br />
[in southeast London].<br />
What did you expect to discover<br />
about the effects of adrenalin?<br />
I wasn’t sure at the start. But<br />
experiencing it on my own body<br />
changed a lot. I knew how it was<br />
when I was snowboarding: you don’t<br />
think about anything but what<br />
you’re doing in that moment; you<br />
have to focus. But [downhill]<br />
skateboarding requires even more<br />
focus, because you do fall and crash<br />
a lot at the start. To have that<br />
singular focus and not think about<br />
anything else but what’s happening<br />
with your body right now in this<br />
moment was mind-blowing. It<br />
changed my whole perception of life<br />
in some ways. I was going through<br />
depression and I found [skating]<br />
could really take me out of it. A<br />
regular adrenalin rush is, in my<br />
eyes, the secret to inner happiness.<br />
Where has skating taken you?<br />
Everywhere! First, at an<br />
international race in Bavaria, some<br />
girls who weren’t participating took<br />
me to some backstreets to skate.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y were like, “Wow, Jen, you’re<br />
going super-fast.” In the beginning,<br />
I wasn’t able to properly brake; I was<br />
just going as fast as I could, then<br />
realising, “Shit, now I need to stop!”<br />
Skating with these girls was so<br />
empowering, and I knew I wanted to<br />
keep doing it. <strong>The</strong>n I signed myself<br />
up to a small event in Austria and I<br />
came fourth – in my first race! Little<br />
successes here and there push you<br />
to want more and go faster. I also<br />
got to know the community, and it<br />
was a big family. You feel part of<br />
something, and it’s wonderful – it<br />
really enlightened me. Since then,<br />
skating has taken me around the<br />
world. I’ve seen a lot of Asia, South<br />
America, all of Europe; I’ve been<br />
to the US, South Korea, China…<br />
I started properly skating in 2014,<br />
then in 2016 I came second in the<br />
world championships. I came third<br />
in 2017, and second again in 2018.<br />
<strong>The</strong>n last year I injured my knee<br />
and couldn’t race.<br />
Injury seems like a regular thing<br />
in downhill skating. How fast do<br />
you actually go?<br />
My fastest recorded speed was on<br />
a racetrack in Vermont [USA], and<br />
the police came with a speed gun to<br />
measure it for fun. I reached 62mph<br />
[100kph]. It’s crazy. If you crashed<br />
and you weren’t wearing leathers,<br />
it would shred you.<br />
So what was it that got you<br />
hooked on the sport?<br />
<strong>The</strong> adrenalin, of course. And when<br />
I compete, basically I want to have<br />
fun. For me, skating is about<br />
travelling with other skateboarders<br />
too, sharing that like-mindedness,<br />
talking about roads and mountains.<br />
You get a very different perception<br />
of the world. When I was in London<br />
I met a friend, Russ, from Lithuania.<br />
He was the first person to teach me<br />
to do a slide in the backstreets of<br />
Greenwich Park. <strong>The</strong>n we started<br />
travelling to Wales in my van. You<br />
develop not only a friendship but<br />
you have to trust the other person<br />
with your life. We have to spot for<br />
each other, for example. We have<br />
little systems. When there’s a road<br />
with traffic, we have one person at<br />
each corner, and the first one does<br />
the sign that you can go. If there’s<br />
a car coming, we cross our arms over<br />
28 THE RED BULLETIN
“Skating<br />
changed my<br />
whole perception<br />
of life”<br />
THE RED BULLETIN 29
Jenny Schauerte<br />
our faces to say ‘stop’. Travelling<br />
and living together bonds you. That<br />
was where the ‘wolf-pack’ feeling<br />
began. <strong>The</strong>re are not many of us<br />
[downhill skaters] and people just<br />
don’t know about the sport. So by<br />
making a film I wanted more people<br />
to be aware that we exist.<br />
Who are the Woolf Women?<br />
When I started racing around<br />
Europe, I suddenly met all of these<br />
amazing women. It was incredible<br />
that there were all these girls out<br />
there like me, who love to travel,<br />
skate, and are stoked about finding<br />
a nice road. We skated together and<br />
started bonding. I remember when<br />
I was a teenager I always dreamt<br />
of having a clique or a group who<br />
belonged to me somehow, but I was<br />
always alone until that point. Now,<br />
I’m part of a group who like to<br />
explore, who are open to new<br />
things, and who love nature and<br />
the environment. Other people<br />
just do a lot of talking, but when<br />
we have an idea we go for it. We like<br />
“We’re<br />
fearless but<br />
also curious”<br />
Speed freaks: the thrill of downhill skating is addictive<br />
stepping out of our comfort zone<br />
and feeling the adrenalin. We’re<br />
fearless but also curious. I started<br />
filming everything with my GoPro<br />
because these girls are so cool. I<br />
posted a clip called ‘Woolf Women’<br />
and people really liked it, so the five<br />
of us decided to make a film.<br />
And it came at an important time<br />
for you…<br />
Unfortunately I lost my father three<br />
years ago, which was a real shock,<br />
and I became [depressed] again.<br />
Skating with these women is like<br />
medicine. I knew it would sort me<br />
out and help me process [the loss].<br />
<strong>The</strong> trip is a bit of a pilgrimage to<br />
light a candle for my father on a<br />
beautiful mountain. And the girls<br />
are there to help me push through it.<br />
So it’s not just about crazy skating –<br />
we had a story to tell. At one point,<br />
all the girls were lying on the floor<br />
and we had this big map, wondering<br />
where we should go. We found<br />
Sumela, a beautiful monastery built<br />
into the [Pontic] mountains in<br />
Turkey, and I knew that was a place<br />
my father would have liked to visit.<br />
And no one had ever skated down<br />
from there. So I prepped my van,<br />
Bimbo, and set off on the 10,000km<br />
round trip to Turkey.<br />
Was making the film the medicine<br />
you needed?<br />
It was fucking wonderful. We tried<br />
and failed to fish, and we almost<br />
didn’t get from Bulgaria into Turkey<br />
as we didn’t have the right papers.<br />
<strong>The</strong>n, in Istanbul, we met the one<br />
and only downhill skateboarder in<br />
Turkey, who showed us a few great<br />
spots. When we finally saw the<br />
monastery, the view was worth all<br />
the effort to get there. On Google<br />
Maps’ satellite view, the road down<br />
from the monastery looked like<br />
a dirt path, but when we got there<br />
it was fresh tarmac! It felt like<br />
divine intervention. That was the<br />
real highlight – we skated all the<br />
way down from the monastery to<br />
the valley.<br />
Woolf Women: (from left) Jenny Schauerte, born in Boston, USA, but raised in<br />
Bavaria, Germany; Anna Pixner from Austria; Lisa Peters from the Netherlands;<br />
Jasmijn ‘Jas’ Hanegraef from Belgium; Alejandra Gutierrez from Colombia<br />
What does a Woolf Woman do<br />
when she can’t travel?<br />
I was about to go and race and travel<br />
around the world this year, but<br />
obviously COVID stopped that. For<br />
me, it turned into a chance to create<br />
a base, somewhere I can come back<br />
to after living out of my van for two<br />
years. I moved to Innsbruck, Austria,<br />
as most of the Woolf Women live<br />
here, and outside my house you<br />
can go and climb a mountain. You<br />
can explore in the area you live in.<br />
That’s my advice: now is the chance<br />
to discover all the small adventures<br />
around you that you never imagined<br />
were there.<br />
Schauerte’s film, Woolf Women,<br />
premiered at this year’s Raindance<br />
Film Festival and will be released<br />
next spring; woolfwomen.com<br />
LAUREEN MAHIEU<br />
30 THE RED BULLETIN
<strong>The</strong> Outdoors Beckons<br />
Elite Product Testing | Nims Purja, Osprey Ambassador | Chamonix, <strong>2020</strong>
In 2012, NIMS PURJA<br />
climbed a mountain<br />
for the first time.<br />
Eight years later, he<br />
has changed the face<br />
of mountaineering.<br />
And he’s just<br />
getting started…<br />
Words TOM GUISE and MATT RAY<br />
Photography SANDRO BAEBLER<br />
Higher<br />
purpose<br />
32
Nims Purja on Mont<br />
Blanc, September<br />
<strong>2020</strong>. <strong>The</strong> Nepalese<br />
climber holds the<br />
record for the fastest<br />
ascent of the world’s<br />
14 highest mountains
In 2017, the Gurkhas undertook<br />
an expedition to summit Everest.<br />
For the elite brigade of Nepali-<br />
Indian soldiers it was a pilgrimage<br />
of great significance – a<br />
celebration of 200 years of<br />
allegiance to the British Crown, and<br />
their second attempt at the world’s<br />
highest mountain after their 2015<br />
mission was aborted when the<br />
fateful Gorkha Earthquake<br />
triggered an avalanche that wiped<br />
out base camp and stranded most<br />
of the climbers at Camp One. Now,<br />
this expedition was also in<br />
jeopardy. Unpredictable weather<br />
meant the official rope-fixing team<br />
had yet to fix a route to the summit<br />
that year. No one could ascend.<br />
“I was like, wow,” says Nirmal ‘Nims’<br />
Purja – at the time a 35-year-old member<br />
of the Gurkha climbing unit. “Everyone<br />
thinks, as a Gurkha, you are not only the<br />
bravest of the brave, but that Everest is in<br />
your back garden. Our reputation was at<br />
risk. But secondly, when were we ever<br />
going to get another chance to climb<br />
Everest using British taxpayers’ money?<br />
I decided to lead the fixing team.”<br />
When word spread around camp<br />
about his plan, there was one reaction:<br />
“‘Does he have a clue what he’s doing?’<br />
Nobody knew who I was,” recalls Purja.<br />
“So I led 13 members of the expedition<br />
to summit – the first team to make it<br />
from the southern side that year. We<br />
came back down into Kathmandu and<br />
celebrated with a week of partying.<br />
“<strong>The</strong>n I climbed Everest again, then<br />
Lhotse and Makalu [the world’s fourth and<br />
fifth highest mountains], all in five days,<br />
with two days of partying in between.”<br />
<strong>The</strong>se days, people know who Purja<br />
is. In 2019, he scaled all 14 ‘eightthousanders’<br />
– the official designation<br />
for mountains that exceed 8,000m in<br />
height – in the fastest time he could. <strong>The</strong><br />
record stood at seven years, 10 months<br />
and six days; Purja planned to do it<br />
within seven months. He achieved it in<br />
six months and six days. It propelled the<br />
Special Forces soldier (the first Gurkha<br />
to ever be accepted into the <strong>UK</strong> Special<br />
Boat Service) into the mainstream<br />
spotlight. It also brought criticism from<br />
alpine purists, in particular for his use<br />
of supplemental oxygen.<br />
“I only do that on the final peak.<br />
I climb, setting a fixed line, everything<br />
without oxygen up to Camp Four,” he<br />
retorts. “People were saying, ‘Oh, Nims<br />
34 THE RED BULLETIN
Nims Purja<br />
Nims Purja, the Gurkha<br />
Pictured on his graduation day with the elite military unit at ITC Catterick<br />
in Yorkshire in 2002. “My dad was a Gurkha, my brothers were Gurkhas,<br />
and it’s such a life. People respect that in the Nepalese community.”<br />
NIRMAL PURJA<br />
did Nepal mountains because he can<br />
use helicopters to the base camp.’ I said,<br />
‘OK, fine,’ so I climbed all the Pakistan<br />
mountains without any helicopters,<br />
running from base camp to base camp –<br />
23 days, buddy. All five 8,000m peaks. I<br />
have no problem with critics. If someone<br />
breaks my record I’ll be the first to shake<br />
their hand, but it’s easy to just say it.<br />
“Please write that when Nims said<br />
that, he said it with a smile, OK?”<br />
Purja’s words may read as defiant, but<br />
in person he gives off a different energy<br />
– a restless cockiness that draws people in,<br />
rather than repels them. Sitting in a hotel<br />
room at the base of Mont Blanc, where<br />
he’s spent the summer vacationing, he’s<br />
all smiles. Muscular, as you’d expect, but<br />
diminutive at 170cm tall, the gentlemanexplorer<br />
moustache Purja sported during<br />
2019’s ‘Project Possible’ missions has been<br />
shaved off to reveal a boyish face that<br />
belies his age. “I’m 38, but to be honest, I<br />
don’t really know how old I am,” he says<br />
(Wikipedia also has trouble, putting it at<br />
‘36-37’). “I never celebrate my birthday,<br />
because age is just a mindset, a way of<br />
letting yourself think that you’re getting<br />
old and having that as an excuse.”<br />
If this self-consciousness is surprising,<br />
it’s just one of many contradictions that<br />
penetrate the myth that is Nims Purja. For<br />
example, the stereotype that a Nepalese<br />
climber benefits from a life raised at high<br />
altitude. “I grew up in Chitwan, which is<br />
the flattest and warmest part of Nepal. It’s<br />
almost sea level. We were a really poor<br />
family in a small house with chickens<br />
next door. I didn’t even have flip-flops.<br />
That changed when my two brothers got<br />
into the Gurkhas.” Wanting a better life<br />
for their sibling, Purja’s brothers sent him<br />
THE RED BULLETIN 35
Nims Purja<br />
Annapurna, April 2019<br />
More than 30 per cent of climbers who attempt to summit the world’s<br />
10th highest mountain perish. Avalanche risk forced Purja’s team to<br />
ascend along a rarely-traversed route called the ‘Dutch Rib’ (pictured).<br />
to boarding school, where, by his own<br />
estimation, he excelled.<br />
“I used to be top five; I could have<br />
been first, but I’d finish a two-hour exam<br />
in an hour so I could be first to leave the<br />
test room. But I didn’t want to be a<br />
doctor or an engineer, I had two options:<br />
one was to be the Robin Hood of Nepal,<br />
seeing off those rich people who don’t<br />
pay tax – you know, politicians and all<br />
that – and distributing that money to the<br />
poor.” He chose option two: the Gurkhas.<br />
“Getting in was tough. In my time,<br />
32,000 young Nepalese applied and only<br />
320 made it. I started training at 15, in<br />
a hostel. I’d wake up at 3am and run with<br />
weights strapped to my legs. I had no clue<br />
what that did, but I used to go back to bed<br />
at 5am and pretend I hadn’t left. I passed<br />
the selection on my second attempt.”<br />
Purja’s time in the armed forces – he<br />
joined the Gurkhas in 2002 and moved<br />
to their <strong>UK</strong> Infantry Training Centre in<br />
Catterick (he now lives in Hampshire),<br />
and the SBS in 2009 – is one he is deeply<br />
proud of, but for every detail he isn’t<br />
willing to reveal (“What I can say is I<br />
have been shot; I have been into the most<br />
sensitive operations across the globe.”),<br />
he is candid about one aspect: “I had<br />
what others didn’t have – I could climb<br />
an 8,000m peak in two weeks. When<br />
I got leave I’d empty my savings and go<br />
climb.” Indeed, when Purja finished<br />
partying after his five-day tour of<br />
Everest, Lhotse and Makalu in 2017,<br />
he had to go straight back to work.<br />
“I was supposed to get a heli ride to<br />
a Special Forces mission, but the heli<br />
didn’t come because of the weather, so<br />
I ran all the way from base camp – six<br />
days’ worth of trekking in 18 hours,<br />
NIRMAL PURJA/PROJECT POSSIBLE<br />
36 THE RED BULLETIN
“It’s a thin line<br />
between being brave<br />
or stupid; living in<br />
that moment and<br />
getting yourself killed.<br />
I want to live in the<br />
moment for a long time”
Nims Purja<br />
“I wanted to show<br />
the world what is<br />
humanly possible if<br />
you put your mind,<br />
heart and soul into it”<br />
Purja speed-flying<br />
on Mont Blanc. <strong>The</strong><br />
day before this photo<br />
was taken, he went<br />
into a sharp spiral.<br />
“When a force is so<br />
big, you just have to<br />
roll with that force”<br />
39
“I love what I do to the<br />
bone. And I’m having<br />
so much fun that all<br />
the tiredness goes<br />
away. An 8,000m peak<br />
is where I come alive”<br />
Purja on the summit<br />
ridge of Gasherbrum II,<br />
July 18, 2019 – the<br />
ninth mountain in his<br />
quest to summit all<br />
14 eight-thousanders
Nims Purja<br />
“I CARRY MY FAMILY WITH ME”<br />
Four days before Purja set off on Project Possible, he attended<br />
the final sitting for a piece of body art across his back. It shows<br />
the 14 mountains he intended to climb – from the smallest<br />
(Shishapangma, 8,027m) at the base of his spine to the tallest<br />
(Everest, 8,848m) below his neck. But this is no ordinary<br />
tattoo – it contains the genetic code of his loved ones.<br />
Inked by London tattooist Valerie Vargas in four sittings,<br />
the process – patented in 2016 by former Navy SEAL Boyd<br />
Renner and business partner Patrick Duffy, and known as<br />
Everence – takes DNA (in Purja’s case, from the hair of his<br />
parents, brothers, sister and wife) and encases it in a medicalgrade<br />
polymer to create powder-sized beads that can be<br />
blended with tattoo ink. This ink was used to illustrate prayer<br />
flags marking out the route on his back.<br />
“I wanted to take my whole family on this spiritual journey,”<br />
says Purja. “But it was also a reminder that, if I was about to<br />
cross the fine line between brave and stupid, I must come home<br />
alive to look after my family, especially my mum and dad.”<br />
DAVID SHERPA/PROJECT POSSIBLE<br />
running through the night. At that point<br />
I realised: ‘I think I’ve got something.’”<br />
That something, even his fiercest<br />
critics would agree, is an incredible<br />
capacity for recovery. It usually takes<br />
weeks of living at a high-altitude base<br />
camp to acclimatise to the low-pressure<br />
air as your body compensates, increasing<br />
the haemoglobin levels (the protein that<br />
absorbs oxygen) in your red blood cells.<br />
Only then would you attempt an<br />
8,000m+ summit, and you’d need weeks<br />
to recover. When Purja returned to<br />
Everest, Lhotse and Makalu for Project<br />
Possible in 2019, he summited all three<br />
in 48 hours and 30 minutes.<br />
“My recovery time is really rapid,” he<br />
agrees. “It’s a mindset. I love what I do to<br />
the bone. And I’m having so much fun<br />
that all that tiredness goes away. And an<br />
8,000m peak? That’s where I come alive.<br />
I don’t lose any of my strength. That is<br />
my playground.”<br />
Purja hadn’t even worn a pair of<br />
crampons before the age of 29, first<br />
summiting 6,119m-tall Lobuche East in<br />
Nepal in 2012 without any prior<br />
mountaineering experience. Two years<br />
later, he scaled his first eight-thousander,<br />
Dhaulagiri, and discovered his natural<br />
ability to thrive at altitude. “I climbed that<br />
in 14 days without any acclimatisation,<br />
and I led 70 per cent of the route,” he<br />
says. But Purja isn’t immune to the effects<br />
of the ‘death zone’ – the name given to<br />
that space above 8000m – as he discovered<br />
on his first ascent of Everest in 2016.<br />
“I was in camp to carry all my<br />
equipment and oxygen. People were<br />
taking six weeks to get to that phase;<br />
I was doing it in five days,” he recalls.<br />
“As a mountain trooper in the SBS I knew<br />
THE RED BULLETIN 41
Nims Purja<br />
Everest, 2017<br />
This shot was taken as Purja fixed lines to the summit as part of the<br />
Gurkha 200 expedition. “<strong>The</strong> weather was brutal,” he says. “It’s so painful<br />
that you think you’d rather die, but death isn’t the solution.”<br />
I couldn’t go that fast, but my body was<br />
taking it OK. That’s when I had a<br />
pulmonary oedema [fluid on the lungs].<br />
It’s like drowning. More than anything<br />
I was ashamed, because I had the<br />
knowledge to avoid that, but you don’t<br />
know where your limit is until you push it.”<br />
If that attitude seems reckless, Purja<br />
sees it differently. “It is reckless to many.<br />
Even in the Special Forces I was known for<br />
taking high risks, but risk is not one size<br />
fits all. If a BASE jumper does his stuff,<br />
I can’t do that. You live in the moment,<br />
but that doesn’t mean you don’t do a risk<br />
assessment. It’s a thin line between being<br />
brave or stupid; living in that moment<br />
and getting yourself killed. I want to live<br />
in the moment for a long time.”<br />
When Nims Purja was 13,<br />
he decided to swim across<br />
one of the biggest rivers in<br />
Nepal. “I was just in my<br />
underwear. I wasn’t a good swimmer, but<br />
I was committed and got to the bank on<br />
the other side,” he recalls. “<strong>The</strong>n I was<br />
like, ‘Fuck, now I have to go back again.’”<br />
As he began his return swim, he started<br />
thinking. “I remembered stories of<br />
people getting attacked by crocodiles. I<br />
was so tired – I came to that point where<br />
you have to give up, so I did. And I stood<br />
up. I found I was in knee-deep water.<br />
I thought, ‘Thank God.’” Purja is giving<br />
an example of his willingness to test his<br />
limits, but he’s aware it also shows his<br />
capacity to perhaps reach too far.<br />
In 2018, Purja was appointed head<br />
of extreme cold-weather warfare in the<br />
SBS. “My job was to learn new climbing<br />
techniques and teach that to my fellow<br />
operators,” he explains. “I said to my<br />
command, ‘Since my job is this and I<br />
have so much leave, I’d like 18 days off to<br />
climb the world’s five highest mountains.<br />
It’s good for the unit.’” His superiors<br />
were ecstatic, then they researched what<br />
he was planning. “<strong>The</strong>y told me, ‘You<br />
cannot take the risk.’ I said, ‘Fine,’ and<br />
that’s when I decided to leave the job.”<br />
It wasn’t a decision he took lightly.<br />
“I was the bread earner for my family.<br />
Every month, I sent money directly from<br />
my pay cheque to my parents. My dad<br />
was half-paralysed, and my mum was<br />
living in a room in Kathmandu to be near<br />
the medical facility. For me to give up<br />
everything now was crazy. My brother<br />
called. He said, ‘No Gurkha’s ever made<br />
the SBS – you’re the first. You’re close to<br />
your pension – why sacrifice that?’ He<br />
was furious. He didn’t speak to me for<br />
two months.”<br />
Meanwhile, Purja’s plan, which had<br />
now become Project Possible, hit a wall.<br />
“A friend who was leading the financial<br />
side said, ‘I’m sorry, I couldn’t raise any<br />
funding after trying for seven months.’<br />
I had only two months to raise £750K.<br />
It was hard, going to every sponsor,<br />
begging. I got £1,000 here, £5,000 there,<br />
but it wasn’t enough; no one believed in<br />
the vision. Some said, ‘If you’re a badass<br />
climber, why have we never heard about<br />
you?’ And I’d say, ‘Because I was in the<br />
Special Forces.’ One guy told me, ‘Maybe<br />
you didn’t get sponsorship because you’re<br />
not white.’ It hit me. I said, ‘You could be<br />
right.’ But at the end of the day, it doesn’t<br />
matter. In life there are harder problems,<br />
but you solve the problem. So I<br />
remortgaged the house, I got the biggest<br />
amount I could – 60 grand – and put<br />
10K aside so, should something happen,<br />
it would pay the mortgage. I started<br />
the mission with five per cent of what<br />
I needed. I was driving down the M3<br />
one day with tears coming from my eyes.<br />
I never cry, but I couldn’t stop. All I could<br />
NIRMAL PURJA<br />
42 THE RED BULLETIN
2<br />
6 7<br />
1<br />
5<br />
3<br />
8<br />
9<br />
15<br />
14<br />
10<br />
12<br />
13<br />
11<br />
FAST PACKING<br />
<strong>The</strong> kit that helped Nims succeed<br />
1. One-litre <strong>The</strong>rmos flask: “I don’t<br />
carry any other water bottles,<br />
but I melt snow using the hot water<br />
in this, so I can make two litres with<br />
one and save weight.”<br />
2. Black Diamond Cobra carbonfibre<br />
ice axes: “Very lightweight<br />
and technical. Used for lead<br />
climbing on technical slopes as<br />
well as self-arrest in a fall.”<br />
3. Baseball hat: “Because you need<br />
to protect your head from the sun.”<br />
4. Sunglasses (not pictured)<br />
5. ThruDark bespoke Summit Suit:<br />
“Designed by my two friends from<br />
the Special Forces, this is the third<br />
generation of the Summit Suit<br />
I have been using. It can go as cold<br />
as -40°C.”<br />
6. Beanie hat<br />
7. Lightweight, waterproof 40m<br />
alpine rope<br />
8. Pair of crampons<br />
9. Duffel bag: “For all of my<br />
expedition gear.”<br />
10. Lightweight harness: “Plus all<br />
my climbing equipment: two ice<br />
screws and a rescue system that<br />
includes a Ropeman [mini-ascender<br />
used to climb up ropes], belay<br />
device [for controlling the tension<br />
of the rope attached to a climber<br />
below], sling and Prusik loop [a<br />
separate rope knotted to the main<br />
line that acts as a friction hook<br />
during abseiling].”<br />
11. Thick socks<br />
12. Three different layers of<br />
gloves: “Working gloves and big<br />
summit gloves.”<br />
13. Base layers<br />
14. Summit boots: “<strong>The</strong>y’re black<br />
because when I asked the brand if<br />
they’d support me, they said no. So<br />
I removed their logo with a marker.”<br />
15. Backpack: “I’m designing the<br />
Nims 120 with Osprey. It’ll be the<br />
ultimate daypack for mountaineers,<br />
made of very lightweight material,<br />
small and compact, but you can<br />
make it massive, because we need to<br />
carry the tent, oxygen, everything.”<br />
THE RED BULLETIN 43
“If someone breaks<br />
my record, I’ll be<br />
the first to shake<br />
their hand”<br />
Purja: “Someone said, ‘Do it<br />
next year, Nims.’ Imagine if I’d<br />
tried for this year? If you plan<br />
for the second option in life, you<br />
are already planning for failure”
Nims Purja<br />
think was, ’Why am I doing this project?’<br />
“It was so painful that I just wished<br />
an avalanche would come and kill me.<br />
But it’s not about me. I was doing it for<br />
a bigger reason.”<br />
When embarking on a mission of this<br />
scale, Purja says, you need a purpose.<br />
“If I wanted to just break a record, I<br />
would have said, ‘It’s nearly eight years;<br />
I’ll do it in seven.’ But I wasn’t trying to<br />
be the best; I wanted to show the world<br />
what is humanly possible if you put<br />
your mind, heart and soul into it. And<br />
I wanted to highlight the names of the<br />
Nepalese climbers. For the last 100 years<br />
we’ve been in the background, but<br />
high-altitude mountaineering – eightthousanders<br />
– that is our ground. I felt<br />
I needed to do something about this.<br />
That’s what gives me energy.”<br />
Purja is not of Sherpa ethnicity, but<br />
he identifies with the term as used to<br />
describe any Nepalese who work in the<br />
climbing community. His team consists<br />
wholly of Nepalese climbers, not as<br />
guides or rope-fixers, but as equals.<br />
“When people climb, they want to use<br />
a Sherpa because he knows the route,<br />
he can show you the way. I said, ‘You’re<br />
going to climb that mountain because<br />
this is an opportunity for you too. It’s<br />
equal glory.’ <strong>The</strong>n he’s also climbing<br />
a new peak and, next time, when he’s<br />
guiding, he can charge double.”<br />
Members of Purja’s team are now<br />
rising stars in their own right, like<br />
Mingma David Sherpa, who, at 31, is<br />
the youngest climber to summit all 14<br />
8,000m peaks. “He’s my right-hand man;<br />
one of the strongest Sherpa I have ever<br />
seen,” says Purja, whose team has given<br />
him a new name: ‘Nimsdai’. Dai means<br />
‘older brother’ in Nepali. It’s the name<br />
Purja now goes by, and how he presents<br />
it on his new book, Beyond Possible:<br />
One Soldier, Fourteen Peaks – Life In<br />
<strong>The</strong> Death Zone.<br />
On April 23, 2019, the Project<br />
Possible team summited their<br />
first eight-thousander –<br />
Annapurna in Nepal, widely<br />
considered to be the world’s deadliest<br />
mountain. As they descended, Purja got<br />
news that another climber, Singaporean<br />
doctor Chin Wui Kin, had become<br />
separated from his team at 7,500m. Purja,<br />
Mingma David Sherpa and a third member<br />
of his crew, Gesman Tamang, aborted<br />
their mission to go back up and rescue<br />
him (Chin sadly died in hospital). Two<br />
days later, on Kanchenjunga (the world’s<br />
third highest mountain), they deviated<br />
to rescue two more. <strong>The</strong> stories made<br />
world headlines, alongside a now<br />
infamous photo Purja took of climbers<br />
queuing to summit Everest. “As I ticked<br />
off the mountains,” he recalls, “people<br />
started donating to my GoFundMe.”<br />
More crucially, the sponsors started<br />
rolling in, too. <strong>The</strong>y were finally<br />
believing in his vision.<br />
If Purja experienced any doubt in his<br />
vision, it was at K2, the world’s second<br />
highest mountain at 8,611m. “I checked<br />
the video of where people had given up,<br />
and while I don’t take the word of every<br />
Western climber, when the top Nepalese<br />
climber, who I respect, says, ‘That’s<br />
impossible,’ I think, ‘Fuck, can I make it?’<br />
Other climbers were waiting, thinking<br />
I would fix lines for them, but I didn’t<br />
have to do this. It would have made<br />
more sense to climb nearby Broad Peak,<br />
then everybody could be safe, they could<br />
all go home. But what I remembered<br />
was the <strong>UK</strong> Special Forces selection –<br />
200 soldiers from the Royal Marines,<br />
RAF, Army, Navy – all thinking they’re<br />
the best, but only four make it. If you<br />
listen to those 196 who failed it, you’re<br />
never going to try.”<br />
Purja decided to ascend K2 with two<br />
members of his team. “I said, ‘If we can’t<br />
“I never celebrate<br />
my birthday. Age<br />
is just a mindset,<br />
a way of letting<br />
yourself think that<br />
you’re getting old”<br />
make it, we’ll come back down, you two<br />
will have a rest, and I’m going to take<br />
you two up. And if we don’t make it, I’ll<br />
take you two – it’s going to be six<br />
rotations before I think about giving up.’<br />
But with just one push it was done.” On<br />
July 24, 2019, Purja’s team summited<br />
K2, a mountain that still, however,<br />
remains unconquered in winter.<br />
“It’s because there’s a very short<br />
window,” explains Purja, when asked<br />
why that is. “But of course it’s possible,<br />
buddy. You just need the speed.”<br />
When Nims Purja – who has<br />
been awarded an MBE for his<br />
high-altitude mountaineering<br />
– takes a holiday at Mont<br />
Blanc, it really is just that. <strong>The</strong> highest<br />
mountain in the Alps, at 4,808m, is a<br />
cakewalk for him. Or rather a flight. He’s<br />
spent the summer learning how to speed<br />
fly – a revved-up version of paragliding,<br />
with a faster, lighter wing that can fit<br />
into a small backpack, used by extreme<br />
alpinists. “It lets you get down from a<br />
summit quickly, but with style, flying<br />
right next to the mountain,” he explains.<br />
Purja’s idea of fun is always full-on. He<br />
enjoys hard rock, particularly AC/DC<br />
(“I always played Thunderstruck on my<br />
headset in the Special Forces helicopter,”<br />
he reveals), and just before <strong>The</strong> <strong>Red</strong><br />
<strong>Bulletin</strong> arrived, he’d broken his tail<br />
bone in a hard landing. “I rested for<br />
24 hours, then was flying again,” he says,<br />
nonchalantly. “You’ve got to go with<br />
the energy. It’s like trying to jump off<br />
a moving train – if you don’t run, you’re<br />
going to fall.”<br />
If Purja seems blasé about his process,<br />
he’s deadly serious about his purpose,<br />
and has another to add to the list –<br />
raising awareness about climate change.<br />
“I never used to believe in it,” he says.<br />
“But I climbed Ama Dablam in 2014<br />
and we had snow at Camp One to melt<br />
and cook food. I went back in 2018 and<br />
we had to carry gallons of water from<br />
base camp. I realised, ‘Oh my God, this<br />
shit is real.’<br />
“We are all a part of it. I have this<br />
voice and my power of influencing<br />
people will grow even bigger. I believe<br />
we’ve got these two next decades to<br />
make this change.”<br />
“<strong>The</strong>re’s a solution to every problem.”<br />
Purja’s book, Beyond Possible: One<br />
Soldier, Fourteen Peaks – Life In <strong>The</strong><br />
Death Zone, is out on November 12;<br />
nimsdai.com; Instagram: @nimsdai<br />
THE RED BULLETIN 45
With most public<br />
performance on an<br />
enforced hiatus,<br />
dancers are finding<br />
new platforms for<br />
their artistry –<br />
bringing their bold<br />
and beautiful<br />
moves to some<br />
unexpected places<br />
Words ALEX KING<br />
Photography THEO McINNES<br />
Keeping<br />
in step
Crossing over: the<br />
English National Ballet’s<br />
Francesca Velicu<br />
takes it to the bridge;<br />
(left) Polish-born<br />
dancer Andre<br />
Kamienski, who heads<br />
his own contemporary<br />
arts company<br />
49
DistDancing<br />
“At a DistDancing<br />
show, you<br />
can tell people are<br />
still thirsty for<br />
live performance”<br />
Chisato Katsura<br />
I<br />
t’s an overcast Sunday afternoon in<br />
East London, and a small crowd<br />
has gathered on the towpath of the<br />
Regent’s Canal. On the other side of the<br />
water sits Hoxton Docks, a renovated<br />
warehouse complex turned events space,<br />
with a floating pontoon just outside its<br />
tall wooden cargo doors. To the left of<br />
the pontoon is a barge carrying a giant<br />
yellow inflatable balloon that looks like<br />
some sort of bizarre sea Zeppelin. To the<br />
right is a family of four model sharks<br />
emerging menacingly from the water.<br />
With just a few minutes to go until<br />
the clock strikes three, you can feel the<br />
energy rise in the assembled throng as<br />
they wait to discover what will emerge<br />
from behind the cargo doors. <strong>The</strong> crowd<br />
is here for DistDancing, a new series<br />
of free pop-up weekend performances<br />
created by dancers whose regular careers<br />
have been brought to a halt by COVID-19<br />
restrictions that have shuttered theatres<br />
and venues in the <strong>UK</strong> and beyond.<br />
However, unbeknownst to those<br />
waiting patiently – and socially distanced<br />
– on the towpath, the police are already<br />
inside Hoxton Docks, and the plug is<br />
pulled on the sound system after just five<br />
seconds. What’s more, the organisers are<br />
told they’ll be arrested if they hit play<br />
again. Another van full of police officers<br />
marches onto the towpath and orders the<br />
crowd to leave, just as dancer Rebecca<br />
Bassett-Graham was going to begin her<br />
routine. As the police continue with their<br />
dispersal efforts, the crowd begins<br />
chanting in unison: “Let them dance!”<br />
Inside, there’s an intense back-andforth<br />
between the dancers and police.<br />
Once it becomes clear that only the<br />
organisers would be arrested, not the<br />
performers, freelance aerialist Jackie Le<br />
decides to complete her routine as a<br />
protest. She begins her descent from<br />
rigging hoisted from the roof, hanging<br />
like a spider on a thread as the stand-off<br />
continues on the towpath.<br />
After eight consecutive weekends<br />
of free shows throughout the summer,<br />
this short-lived experimental attempt<br />
to find a way to dance and perform<br />
despite COVID restrictions has been<br />
brought to a close, for now. “At least<br />
we went out with a bang,” says<br />
Chisato Katsura, First Artist of <strong>The</strong> Royal<br />
Ballet, forcing an optimistic smile.<br />
“But it’s depressing, seeing this come<br />
to an end. It feels like losing a baby,<br />
when we had a whole month of shows<br />
planned. And it really doesn’t make<br />
sense: right now, there are hundreds of<br />
people in the parks, going out in Soho,<br />
or sitting on planes. Yet with all these<br />
gatherings happening we’re the only<br />
ones being shut down.”<br />
Raising hoops:<br />
aerialist Annalisa<br />
Midolo wows the<br />
towpath crowd<br />
Rewind a few days and the mood is<br />
more upbeat – despite the pouring rain<br />
outside – at a rehearsal for the weekend’s<br />
performance. In an elegant, woodenfloored<br />
yoga studio in London Bridge,<br />
Katsura leads the session as Francesca<br />
Velicu, 22, and Erik Woolhouse, 24, from<br />
the English National Ballet (ENB), and<br />
Bassett-Graham, 29, from Company<br />
Wayne McGregor, practise their routines.<br />
<strong>The</strong> moment is made even more special<br />
by the fact Katsura has been out of action<br />
since October due to a stress fracture to<br />
her left shin, which necessitated crutches.<br />
First, Velicu and Woolhouse, who are<br />
a couple, practise a breezy duet together.<br />
<strong>The</strong>n, for their solo pieces, Velicu floats<br />
› ANDREJ USPENSKI<br />
50 THE RED BULLETIN
<strong>The</strong> world’s a stage:<br />
Chisato Katsura,<br />
co-founder of<br />
DistDancing and<br />
First Artist of the<br />
Royal Ballet, is<br />
helping keep dance<br />
alive in lockdown<br />
THE RED BULLETIN 51
“I hope people<br />
become more<br />
appreciative<br />
of what dance<br />
brings to<br />
our culture”<br />
Jordan Bautista<br />
across the floor, seemingly as light as<br />
a feather, and spins on one foot in a<br />
pirouette, every bit the classical ballerina,<br />
while Erik dances with a more muscular<br />
and modern energy, throwing out his arms<br />
and legs in wide, sweeping movements,<br />
like a warrior psyching himself up for<br />
battle. Bassett-Graham shows off her<br />
contemporary, almost glitchy solo, with<br />
her body contorting itself into expressive,<br />
abstract shapes, before all three join on<br />
the floor for what will be the show’s<br />
finale: dancing in synchronisation with<br />
one another. You can feel their sense of<br />
joy and excitement at being able to dance<br />
together again after months of lockdown.<br />
“I remember back in March, slowly<br />
everything was cancelled, minute by<br />
minute, hour by hour,” remembers<br />
Bassett-Graham, originally from New<br />
Zealand. “This isn’t just a job to us,<br />
it’s part of who we are as humans. After<br />
more than a week off, you start itching<br />
for that physicality. <strong>The</strong> uncertainty<br />
of not knowing when I would be able<br />
to perform again, or when it would be<br />
possible to dance in a studio with other<br />
people again… all of these things really<br />
started weighing on me.”<br />
For dancers, whose very meaning in<br />
life is to move, the lockdown came as a<br />
particularly harsh blow. Not only were<br />
all their shows cancelled and their<br />
companies put on hiatus, but there was<br />
no way of knowing when they’d even be<br />
able to dance again, let alone in front of<br />
an audience. Often confined to small<br />
shared flats – especially those living in<br />
London – and dancing or training in<br />
bedrooms and kitchens, they did what<br />
they could to stay active and prevent<br />
their bodies from losing the intense<br />
physical conditioning for which they<br />
had worked most of their adult lives.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> whole dance community really<br />
pulled together,” Bassett-Graham says.<br />
“Everything went onto Zoom, and people<br />
began opening up their classes to whoever<br />
wanted to watch.” Across the industry,<br />
the barriers came down, membership of<br />
particular institutions no longer mattered,<br />
and professional dancers became one big<br />
family online, sharing tips, classes and<br />
workshops with each other and legions<br />
of amateur dancers, too.<br />
Woolhouse embraced the change in<br />
routine and the opening of his world<br />
to other forms of dance, music and<br />
movement. At 15, he relocated to the <strong>UK</strong><br />
from Japan to train with the Royal Ballet<br />
School, and he has been in the ballet<br />
bubble of the ENB for the last five years,<br />
training and rehearsing for upwards of<br />
six hours each day. <strong>The</strong> ENB’s season<br />
usually starts with an autumn tour of five<br />
or six cities in the <strong>UK</strong>, then a five-week<br />
“intense marathon” of Nutcracker at<br />
London’s Coliseum, followed by original<br />
shows such as Creature by celebrated<br />
choreographer Akram Khan, which has<br />
had to be postponed due to COVID.<br />
It’s an intense schedule that often<br />
doesn’t leave much time or energy for<br />
anything outside ballet. So, during<br />
lockdown, Woolhouse has taken the<br />
opportunity to expand his repertoire<br />
and dance to other styles of music he<br />
enjoys, including jazz, hip hop and<br />
techno. In July, the ENB returned to<br />
training, albeit in much smaller groups<br />
of around eight to 10 dancers, all<br />
confined to their own personal boxes<br />
taped onto the floor, dancing for just<br />
52 THE RED BULLETIN
DistDancing<br />
“After more than<br />
a week off from<br />
dancing, you<br />
start itching for<br />
that physicality”<br />
Rebecca Bassett-Graham<br />
four hours a day, Monday to Saturday.<br />
It wasn’t only training and fitness but<br />
also performance that flourished – and<br />
continues to flourish – online. <strong>The</strong> ENB<br />
joined other companies in offering shows<br />
for free, with its popular Wednesday<br />
Watch Parties helping to open up ballet<br />
to a new audience. For Velicu, who<br />
originates from Romania and moved to<br />
the <strong>UK</strong> in 2016 after training at Moscow’s<br />
world-famous Bolshoi Ballet, these free<br />
online shows were particularly special<br />
as her mum could now watch all her<br />
performances from back home.<br />
“I really hope the intense interaction<br />
and engagement we’ve had on social<br />
media continues,” Velicu says. “It’s been<br />
so great for bringing in new, younger<br />
audiences. For the first time, people<br />
from around the world can easily see the<br />
work produced in London. My mum is<br />
enjoying it so much, she’s watching an<br />
opera from the Met in New York or a<br />
ballet show from London every day.”<br />
Woolhouse believes the ruptures<br />
created by the pandemic were necessary<br />
for an industry with a tendency towards<br />
elitism. “Dance needs to be more<br />
approachable to the public,” he says.<br />
“Young people nowadays can’t afford an<br />
£80 ticket and a suit to go to the ballet.<br />
That grandness and tradition must be<br />
kept alive, but the industry will die<br />
without the next generation, so I think<br />
something with a more casual atmosphere<br />
is necessary [in order] to move forward.<br />
That’s what’s so great about DistDancing:<br />
you can just drop by with a coffee on the<br />
side of the canal, watch a performance<br />
and realise you really enjoyed it.”<br />
Dance companies around the world<br />
have taken an enormous hit. <strong>The</strong> ENB,<br />
for example, lost two thirds of its income<br />
and was forced to furlough more than<br />
85 per cent of its staff through the <strong>UK</strong><br />
Government’s Coronavirus Job Retention<br />
Scheme. Having received an emergency<br />
grant from the Arts Council that helped<br />
it stay afloat, adapting to a world of<br />
online-only performances is crucial to<br />
the ENB’s survival, as staging shows for<br />
a reduced audience just isn’t financially<br />
viable for most larger companies.<br />
However, Katsura and her Italian-born<br />
colleague Valentino Zucchetti, a First<br />
Soloist at <strong>The</strong> Royal Ballet and co-founder<br />
of DistDancing, remain passionate about<br />
finding ways to bring live performances<br />
back – both for dancers’ and audiences’<br />
benefit. “Online content is a cure for the<br />
moment,” says the Japanese dancer, “but<br />
it’s just not the same effect as in real life.<br />
Online, people click a button and get<br />
what they want; they get bored easily<br />
and there’s no opportunity for those<br />
chance encounters with the unknown.<br />
“As a performer, you feel the energy<br />
of the audience’s applause,” Katsura<br />
continues. “It’s hard to put into words<br />
how it feels to hear 2,000 people<br />
cheering for you. You can be in so<br />
much pain for two hours, but then you<br />
hear the applause and it just pushes<br />
you through to the end. I want to give<br />
performers the opportunity to feel<br />
that audience response again and keep<br />
doing what they love.”<br />
THE RED BULLETIN 53
Stepping out: Velicu has seen<br />
interest from a whole<br />
new audience thanks to the<br />
ENB’s free online content
DistDancing<br />
“Dance needs to be<br />
more approachable.<br />
That’s what is great<br />
about DistDancing”<br />
Erik Woolhouse<br />
Head east along the towpath from<br />
Hoxton Docks and you’ll find<br />
yourself at Here East, a creative<br />
complex that backs onto the River Lee<br />
Navigation and was built for the 2012<br />
Olympics. Here, a corner room has been<br />
turned into a makeshift dance studio for<br />
Company Wayne McGregor’s RESET <strong>2020</strong><br />
programme, which began in August and<br />
offers a free 10-week programme of<br />
ballet, contemporary and fitness training<br />
to both the company’s own dancers and<br />
freelancers who have fallen through the<br />
cracks support-wise. <strong>The</strong> three-and-ahalf-hour<br />
daily programme is a far cry<br />
from Bassett-Graham’s pre-COVID<br />
routine of being on tour for the majority<br />
of the year or rehearsing in London from<br />
10am to 6pm. But getting back into the<br />
studio with other dancers – even if it is<br />
socially distanced – is still very welcome.<br />
One of the freelancers to benefit<br />
from RESET <strong>2020</strong> is Jordan Bautista<br />
(who uses the pronouns they/them),<br />
a 25-year-old dancer originally from<br />
Gibraltar. After dancing with the Polish<br />
National Ballet in Warsaw, Bautista<br />
relocated to London, and it was while<br />
they were searching for work following<br />
surgery that the pandemic struck. Today,<br />
they’re confined to their own square<br />
opposite Bassett-Graham, which has<br />
been marked out on the floor with white<br />
tape so that they and the other dancers<br />
can train in a COVID-compliant way.<br />
Each square has its own barre, a plastic<br />
box for possessions, and a supply of<br />
disinfectant wipes.<br />
When the class is ready to start, the<br />
instructor reels off a list of positions<br />
so fast it sounds unintelligible to the<br />
untrained ear, like an alien language or<br />
the shipping forecast. But the masked<br />
inhabitants of all 18 white boxes move<br />
through their positions in perfect sync,<br />
throwing their bodies into the kicks,<br />
spins and curtsies of the physically<br />
demanding ballet routine.<br />
“I think one of the changes that will<br />
come out of this pandemic is that both<br />
dancers and audiences are going to be<br />
much more aware of how much it takes<br />
to come together and collaborate to<br />
create work,” Bautista says. “I hope<br />
people will become more appreciative<br />
and understand how much work goes<br />
into things, and how much dance<br />
contributes to our culture.”<br />
In mid-September, following intense<br />
negotiations with the council and<br />
police, and considerable support from<br />
the public, the landlord of Hoxton Docks<br />
allowed DistDancing to return. “We’re<br />
still very much on alert, and there’s the<br />
possibility of another shutdown,” says<br />
Katsura. “We had to change our format<br />
and drop the strict scheduling to prevent<br />
a crowd gathering or police intervention.”<br />
Now, in late September, it’s time<br />
for the final show of the relaunched<br />
DistDancing. It’s grey and overcast again,<br />
but because of the lack of notification<br />
there’s no crowd outside Hoxton Docks.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Royal Ballet’s Giacomo Rovero walks<br />
onto the pontoon stage and starts his<br />
routine. Passers-by hear the music, stop<br />
to look, and by the end of his threeminute<br />
solo there are 20-30 people<br />
watching in awe. <strong>The</strong>se aren’t the legion<br />
of fans DistDancing amassed through<br />
social media, but rather new people<br />
stopped in their tracks by a chance<br />
encounter with dance – just as Katsura<br />
and Zucchetti had originally intended.<br />
“Things will never go back to ‘normal’<br />
as we know it; they’ll only move forward,”<br />
Katsura says. “When the theatres shut,<br />
we worried we’d lose our connection<br />
with audiences. But at a DistDancing<br />
show you can tell people are still thirsty<br />
for live performance. <strong>The</strong> connection is<br />
maybe even stronger. I think lockdown<br />
has made people realise how much they<br />
need arts and culture in their lives.”<br />
Fittingly, Katsura is DistDancing’s<br />
fifth and final performer. Due to her<br />
recent recovery, she performs a modified<br />
version of the Emeralds solo from<br />
choreographer George Balanchine’s<br />
ballet Jewels. She avoids going en pointe,<br />
but sweeps her arms gracefully in a port<br />
de bras as her flowing skirt billows<br />
around her, and finishes kneeling with<br />
her arms crossed, facing the audience on<br />
the towpath across the canal. <strong>The</strong> crowd<br />
has now grown to around 50 spectators,<br />
who applaud wildly as Katsura takes<br />
a bow before being joined on stage by<br />
the other performers.<br />
“We’re so grateful to be able to bring<br />
joy to people again,” Katsura says, relieved<br />
at the hitch-free performance. “<strong>The</strong><br />
support we’ve had during the shutdown<br />
has been incredible. To see everyone<br />
come together to keep the arts alive is so<br />
heartwarming. It’s the strength and hope<br />
we need during these dark times.”<br />
ballet.org.uk; roh.org.uk; waynemcgregor.<br />
com; Instagram: @_distdancing_<br />
THE RED BULLETIN 55
“I make<br />
people want<br />
to rewrite<br />
their bars”<br />
<strong>The</strong> multicultural<br />
Birmingham-born<br />
artist has forged<br />
her own unique<br />
style of rap, which<br />
resonates from<br />
London to LA.<br />
Here, she talks<br />
about Drake’s wise<br />
words, the benefits<br />
of speaking Dutch,<br />
and why Instagram<br />
crushes creativity<br />
Words FLORIAN OBKIRCHER<br />
Photography SALIM ADAM<br />
56
<strong>Red</strong> alert: Stefflon<br />
Don never looks<br />
less than 100 per<br />
cent – even, it<br />
would appear, when<br />
doing the dishes
Stefflon Don<br />
When British rapper Stefflon Don arrived<br />
on the scene in 2016, heads were turned.<br />
Her flow on the debut mixtape Real Ting<br />
was seamless, with lyrics that blended<br />
Jamaican patois, East London slang and<br />
US hip hop references. And, in contrast<br />
to the down-to-earth attitude of most <strong>UK</strong><br />
rap, she presented herself as glamorous<br />
and brazen, a superstar in the making.<br />
In November that year, she was<br />
longlisted in the BBC’s newcomer poll<br />
Sound of 2017. Four months later, she<br />
signed a £1.2m deal with a major label,<br />
and in August 2017 her single Hurtin’<br />
Me, with US rapper French Montana,<br />
reached number seven in the <strong>UK</strong> Singles<br />
Chart. Since then, the 28-year-old – real<br />
name Stephanie Allen – has won MOBO<br />
and NME Awards; worked with artists<br />
including Sean Paul, Nile Rodgers, Charli<br />
XCX, Skepta, Drake and Mariah Carey;<br />
and in 2018 became the first British<br />
artist ever to make legendary US hip hop<br />
magazine XXL’s annual Freshman List.<br />
Born in Birmingham to Jamaican<br />
parents, the rapper moved with her<br />
family to Rotterdam in the Netherlands<br />
when she was five, before settling back<br />
in the <strong>UK</strong> – in Hackney – at 14. As a<br />
result, Stefflon Don’s music is a blend of<br />
dancehall, grime, R&B and house, her<br />
rhymes incorporating influences from<br />
London, Jamaica, Holland and America.<br />
She says that growing up among<br />
different cultures opened her mind and<br />
broadened her music and, in that sense,<br />
is the secret to her success.<br />
THE RED BULLETIN: You have an<br />
unmistakable East London snarl, but<br />
you also use Jamaican patois and US<br />
slang. You even rap in Dutch...<br />
STEFFLON DON: That’s because of my<br />
diverse upbringing. I spent most of my<br />
childhood in Rotterdam. People there<br />
speak American English, and I grew up<br />
in a Jamaican household. On top of that,<br />
I had White friends, Turkish friends,<br />
Moroccan friends. People are really<br />
accommodating there, so I’d learn a lot<br />
about their cultures, about their<br />
traditions, their food, their music.<br />
What were the musical influences you<br />
picked up there?<br />
So, Holland used to control Suriname<br />
[the South American country was<br />
under Dutch rule between 1667 and<br />
1975] and the Surinamese culture has<br />
a heavy influence in Rotterdam – similar<br />
to the influence of Jamaican culture<br />
in London. <strong>The</strong> language they speak [in<br />
Suriname] is a mix of Spanish, French,<br />
Dutch and English. Growing up there,<br />
I used to listen to Surinamese songs all<br />
the time; we’d also use their slang words.<br />
I think it even left a mark on my<br />
pronunciation: I was in Spain the other<br />
day and some locals thought I was from<br />
there. I’m not even fluent in Spanish!<br />
Do you think being fluent in Dutch has<br />
had an impact on your rapping skills?<br />
Definitely. When I’m speaking Dutch,<br />
I talk really fast. Because of that, I’m<br />
quick on the tongue when I rap. That<br />
was a big advantage when I started out.<br />
You’re known for your eclectic musical<br />
style – on your new mixtape, Island<br />
54, you even add Afrobeats to the<br />
mix. Wouldn’t music executives rather<br />
you stick to one thing so you don’t<br />
overwhelm your fanbase?<br />
Well, I feel like there are certain artists<br />
you can put on any track – whether it’s<br />
a Latin track or a slow jam or an<br />
alternative song – because their voice is<br />
like an instrument. <strong>The</strong>y hold a certain<br />
sound through their voice, and I feel<br />
like I’ve got that. On my next single, I’m<br />
actually speaking Yoruba [a language<br />
spoken mostly in West Africa]. I think<br />
the audience is going to be shocked –<br />
it’s totally different again. But, for me,<br />
this is something that I’ve always been<br />
experimenting with. As an artist, I just<br />
feel so free.<br />
Two years ago, you made history as<br />
the first <strong>UK</strong> artist to be named on XXL<br />
magazine’s Freshman List. Do you<br />
think your global perspective is the<br />
reason the US audience has embraced<br />
you more than other <strong>UK</strong> MCs?<br />
Definitely! I feel only now Americans are<br />
more accepting of the British accent on a<br />
rap track. Before that, it was like, “I love<br />
when you guys talk, but when someone’s<br />
rapping I can’t take you serious. I feel<br />
like you eat crumpets and drink tea all<br />
day.” Literally, that’s what they would<br />
say to me! But when they heard my<br />
songs, they’d always say, “OK, so you<br />
don’t really sound that British.” And<br />
again, that comes from growing up in<br />
Holland, where I used to speak American<br />
English. Rapping with a real British<br />
accent was actually a challenge for me<br />
in the beginning.<br />
That reminds me of something your<br />
brother, drill artist Dutchavelli, said<br />
in a recent interview about your<br />
family moving back to the <strong>UK</strong> from<br />
Rotterdam: “I had an accent and there<br />
58 THE RED BULLETIN
“Americans would say, ‘I love<br />
when you [Brits] talk, but when<br />
someone’s rapping I can’t take<br />
you serious. I feel like you eat<br />
crumpets and drink tea all day’”
“Thank God I was just born with<br />
confidence. When the [other]<br />
kids used to try me – and they<br />
would try me a lot – I always<br />
stood my ground”
Stefflon Don<br />
were lots of words I didn’t know.<br />
It messed up school for me.” Can<br />
you relate to that?<br />
When I came back, I had the weirdest<br />
accent. I was torn between American<br />
English and Jamaican patois. I told people<br />
here that I was from Jamaica. <strong>The</strong>y were<br />
like, “You’re not Jamaican. What kind of<br />
accent is this?” It was very difficult.<br />
How did you gain acceptance?<br />
Thank God I was just born with<br />
confidence. When the kids used to try<br />
me – and they would try me a lot –<br />
I always stood my ground. And I think<br />
anywhere in life, if someone tries you<br />
and you continue to stand your ground,<br />
they just have to respect you. After<br />
a while, they were so confused at how<br />
confident I was, and that’s what made<br />
them like me.<br />
How can others achieve that level<br />
of confidence? Any advice?<br />
Stay away from people who belittle you,<br />
whether it’s friends or family. Just don’t<br />
be around people who make you feel less<br />
confident. Or at least try not to ask them<br />
for advice if you know that they’re not<br />
going to have your corner. You have to<br />
realise that nobody has the answers to<br />
everything. Believe in yourself – that’s<br />
how you gain confidence.<br />
Someone who gave you advice early<br />
on in your career is Drake. He said,<br />
“Make sure that, whatever you do,<br />
your opponent is scared of you.” Is<br />
that something you still live by?<br />
Yes, 100 per cent. In anything you do,<br />
whether you’re a plumber or a carpenter<br />
or a gamer, you should always want to<br />
be the best. Else why do it? Coming up<br />
rapping, I was in so many situations<br />
where there was a beat playing and it<br />
was like, ‘OK, who’s going to rap on it?’<br />
And I was always ready in those<br />
situations. I always made sure that I had<br />
many lyrics ready, so whoever was on<br />
the mic I would destroy them.<br />
Ruthless…<br />
Yeah, I’ve always had that mentality.<br />
I want to make people want to rewrite<br />
their bars. Because sometimes I used to<br />
feel that way. I’d hear certain females<br />
rap and I’d think, “Oh my God, what I’ve<br />
written is not as good. I need to go back<br />
and rewrite my shit.” That’s how I want<br />
“In anything<br />
you do, you<br />
should always<br />
want to be the<br />
best. Else why<br />
do it?”<br />
people to feel when they hear me.<br />
Because that’s how you keep a healthy<br />
conversation, that’s how you push each<br />
other. If people aren’t challenging one<br />
another, if they just follow others, then<br />
we’re stuck. And that’s what has been<br />
happening for a while. No one is really<br />
trying to be the best. I see a lot of<br />
followers. I see a lot of people who think,<br />
“Oh, this works, this charted. Let me do<br />
something similar.”<br />
Why do you think that is?<br />
As an artist, the way you’re criticised<br />
today is different from when I first came<br />
up. Back then, there were no Instagram<br />
trolls. I wasn’t scared to fail by putting<br />
out videos that might not be what I want<br />
them to be – I just had to do it, because<br />
that’s all I could afford. I can’t imagine<br />
how it is for young artists today with<br />
so many eyes on them; so many eyes<br />
of people who don’t know what they<br />
are talking about, projecting their<br />
insecurities on others on social media.<br />
Platforms like Instagram are responsible<br />
for a lack of creativity in the new<br />
generation of artists. And even for<br />
established ones, it’s very hard to really<br />
say what they want to say, or express<br />
how they feel.<br />
Sounds like you’re talking from<br />
personal experience…<br />
I used to record my family on Snapchat<br />
a lot. I would always speak my mind on<br />
certain topics that got me in trouble a<br />
couple of times. [In 2018, she apologised<br />
for tweets from 2013 in which she said<br />
“dark-skinned” girls would change their<br />
skin colour if they could]. I got in trouble<br />
for stuff I didn’t mean in that way, and<br />
things were taken out of context. It made<br />
me feel like, “Do you even deserve to<br />
really know who I am if you going to take<br />
small parts and use them to make it seem<br />
like I am this person that I’m not?”<br />
That is what the internet has become<br />
now. People are looking at your image<br />
and thinking, “What can I pick up [on]<br />
that’s wrong?” And the second thing is,<br />
“Let me see the comments,” to find<br />
what narrative is being pushed. You’re<br />
not supposed to be yourself. You’re not<br />
supposed to be a self-thinker. It’s all<br />
about playing it safe, about following<br />
others. And I really just want to break<br />
away from that.<br />
Is there a way to make the internet<br />
a place of positivity again?<br />
I actually had a couple of meetings with<br />
one of the heads of Instagram, and one<br />
thing I requested was to take the likes<br />
off the comments.<br />
What do you mean?<br />
<strong>The</strong>re was a time when you could<br />
comment on posts, but you wouldn’t<br />
get likes on your comment. Now that<br />
people are more extreme and meaner in<br />
their comments because they want to<br />
stand out in order to get likes, it’s like a<br />
competition. As a result, you look at your<br />
post and realise that 3,000 people liked<br />
a really hateful comment about you. It<br />
feels awful! I don’t think people realise<br />
how detrimental Instagram is for us<br />
and the next generation. Everyone is<br />
tiptoeing around [the issue] and saying,<br />
“Oh yeah, it’s bad.” But people are so<br />
insecure because of this, people don’t<br />
create because of this, people don’t share<br />
new ideas because of this. It’s a very<br />
serious thing and I wish more people<br />
would speak up more about it and<br />
demand change.<br />
With that said, what’s your strategy<br />
for staying sane?<br />
I’m so blessed that I have my family.<br />
I bought a big house and my [11-yearold]<br />
son, most of my six siblings and my<br />
mom live with me. That’s the main reason<br />
why I’m OK. Also, I consider myself lucky<br />
that I didn’t come up in the social media<br />
age. I have a sense of reality. I know what<br />
it means to be original. I know what it<br />
means to not really give a fuck about<br />
what no one says. And no one can take<br />
that away from me.<br />
Stefflon Don’s new mixtape Island 54 is<br />
out now; stefflondonofficial.com<br />
THE RED BULLETIN 61
French BMXer Matthias<br />
Dandois in Paris, August 2019,<br />
performing a steamroller<br />
barspin trick for the featurelength<br />
film <strong>The</strong> Old World
Come<br />
together<br />
Seven countries,<br />
15 riders, eight<br />
nationalities, eight<br />
disciplines, numerous<br />
wrecked drones,<br />
multiple injuries,<br />
one epic film. Inside<br />
Europe’s most<br />
ambitious bike movie<br />
Words TOM GUISE, STU KENNY and<br />
PIERRE-HENRI CAMY<br />
Photography JULIAN MITTELSTÄDT<br />
63
It’s early morning in Strandafjellet,<br />
Norway. In winter here, you can ski<br />
from the mountain tops to the fjords<br />
below, but right now, in spring 2019,<br />
a blanket of cloud sits atop grassy<br />
cliffs. From it emerges a bike rider,<br />
Martin Söderström, a camera crew<br />
catching his every move. <strong>The</strong> 28-yearold<br />
is one of Sweden’s highest-profile<br />
freeriders, yet, astonishingly, this is<br />
his first feature-length film…<br />
“How is it possible that one of the most influential riders in the<br />
world has never had a big movie part?” German pro mountain<br />
biker Andi Tillmann had pondered in 2018. <strong>The</strong> answer: all the<br />
big ensemble action-sports flicks were made in North America.<br />
“<strong>The</strong>y get to choose their regions and the riders,” says the<br />
32-year-old who, together with his brothers Toni and Michi, has<br />
produced and starred in MTB movies that have been seen by<br />
millions, “so top-level European riders were never featured.”<br />
That was the catalyst for the biggest project the Tillmanns – and<br />
perhaps any European bike filmmakers – had ever undertaken.<br />
Two years later, <strong>The</strong> Old World is complete. It’s a journey<br />
from the fjords of Norway to the suburbs of Berlin and Paris to<br />
the sun-baked dust of La Poma in Spain, gathering together a<br />
roll call of Euro riders never before seen on film. <strong>The</strong> ride wasn’t<br />
without its bumps – injuries, technical malfunctions, a global<br />
pandemic – and the crew learnt a lesson as steep as their handdug<br />
courses. “In Europe we have a very narrow weather window,<br />
and each country comes with its own drone and filming<br />
restrictions,” says Tillmann, whose hair literally fell out due to<br />
stress. “I was blond when we started, now I’m bald,” he laughs.<br />
Here, Tillmann and some of the riders share a glimpse of<br />
what it took to make Europe’s first bike blockbuster…<br />
<strong>The</strong> Old World is out November 22. See it on <strong>Red</strong> Bull TV; redbull.com<br />
Director Andi<br />
Tillmann films<br />
Martin Söderström<br />
in Stranda, Norway.<br />
Left: Tillmann<br />
(centre) with<br />
brothers Toni<br />
(left) and Michi<br />
64 THE RED BULLETIN
<strong>The</strong> Old World<br />
STRANDA,<br />
NORWAY<br />
Riders: Martin Söderström<br />
(pictured), Emil and Simon<br />
Johansson (all SWE)<br />
Discipline: Trail and slopestyle<br />
Tillman: It took a year to<br />
convince the Strandafjellet<br />
authorities to grant us access<br />
– none of the landscape could<br />
be damaged as it’s part of their<br />
slope system. <strong>The</strong> idea was to<br />
communicate that Scandinavian<br />
perfection of control, and our<br />
three riders are proponents of<br />
something called the ‘Swedish<br />
Style’. We developed a special<br />
rig: a backpack with an Arri<br />
Alexa movie camera on a gimbal,<br />
to be carried by a second rider<br />
– me – at high speed.<br />
Söderström: I’d never been to<br />
Stranda. It was surreal to see<br />
the sunrise with my best riding<br />
buddies, Emil and Simon, and<br />
have the course to ourselves. I<br />
was the first rider from Sweden<br />
to go professional, but a lot of<br />
incredibly talented athletes<br />
have come through since then.<br />
I guess some were inspired by<br />
my riding, and that’s become<br />
the ‘Swedish Style’. We ride a<br />
lot indoors during the winter,<br />
because of the weather. That’s<br />
why most Swedish riders<br />
have a technical background.<br />
We do a lot of barspins and<br />
tailwhips. I value my riding<br />
style more than the tricks I do.<br />
I’d rather do less complicated<br />
tricks and have them look<br />
great than not look in control.<br />
THE RED BULLETIN 65
Freeride MTBer<br />
Vincent Tupin (top)<br />
films the ‘summer<br />
segment’ with fellow<br />
rider Robin Delale<br />
in Rhône-Alpes<br />
BERLIN,<br />
GERMANY<br />
Riders: Bruno Hoffmann<br />
(pictured above), Mo<br />
Nussbaumer (both GER)<br />
Discipline: BMX street<br />
CHÂTEL, FRANCE<br />
Rider: Vincent Tupin (FRA)<br />
Discipline: Snow freeride, downhill MTB<br />
Tillmann: Originally, this was a winter-only segment<br />
filmed at Châtel snowpark with a cameraman following<br />
Vinny’s freeride manoeuvres over slopes and jumps.<br />
Tupin: First [in March 2019] it went well. <strong>The</strong>n I<br />
planted my front wheel in deep snow, flipped and<br />
dislocated my shoulder. Eventually we decided to<br />
come back in better conditions the following winter.<br />
Tillmann: [But February <strong>2020</strong>] turned out to be the<br />
shittiest winter of all time. <strong>The</strong> temperature stayed so<br />
high that even the descent into the valley was closed.<br />
Tupin: Plus COVID-19 began closing the resorts. So we<br />
shot on the slopes near my home [in Maxilly-sur-Léman],<br />
with a final section at the end of summer – in the dirt.<br />
Tillmann: We wanted to show<br />
street riding, so sought out toplevel<br />
BMXers, which was tough<br />
because we’re a mountain-bike<br />
crew and their mindset is quite<br />
different; they have their own<br />
filmers. We shot solely with a<br />
handheld camera, to capture<br />
how they use the restrictions of<br />
the city to express themselves.<br />
Hoffmann: Street riding is<br />
often illegal, so usually there’s<br />
only one filmer and you have to<br />
hit and run. But for this we had<br />
permission for pretty much<br />
every spot. That eased some<br />
of the pressure, but the scale<br />
of the production added more<br />
– we couldn’t just ride around<br />
randomly. For me, BMX street is<br />
more accessible than mountain<br />
biking – you don’t need an<br />
expensive bike or special trails.<br />
When you ride a BMX, you see<br />
a city differently. You look at<br />
stairs, rails, ledges. Everything<br />
is a spot. You never stop looking.<br />
66 THE RED BULLETIN
<strong>The</strong> Old World<br />
BMX street pro<br />
Bruno Hoffman<br />
in August 2019:<br />
“I love coming to<br />
Berlin, especially<br />
in the summer”<br />
“When you ride<br />
a BMX, you see a<br />
city differently.<br />
Everything is a<br />
spot. You never<br />
stop looking”
<strong>The</strong> Old World<br />
“It’s difficult to<br />
scout spots for<br />
Chris – he rides<br />
the stuff nobody<br />
else wants to”<br />
MTB trials rider<br />
Chris Akrigg in the<br />
Scottish Highlands,<br />
September 2019:<br />
“Each morning,<br />
the schedule would<br />
change due to<br />
the weather”
SCOTLAND, <strong>UK</strong><br />
Rider: Chris Akrigg (GBR)<br />
Discipline: MTB trials<br />
Tillmann: Chris is known for<br />
his humour and a crazy-yetdedicated<br />
riding style. It’s<br />
difficult to scout spots for him<br />
– he rides the stuff nobody<br />
else wants to, and still makes it<br />
flow. We scouted the Highlands<br />
and the islands, but it was all<br />
for nothing: as we flew in, bad<br />
weather meant that we couldn’t<br />
shoot at any of them. So we<br />
had to work on the fly instead,<br />
finding locations and shooting<br />
on the spot.<br />
Akrigg: <strong>The</strong> Scottish landscape<br />
is so vast, but I don’t need<br />
huge slopes, I dial it down<br />
into bits. When I reach a<br />
location, my mind starts racing.<br />
Sometimes I just need five<br />
minutes to think about how it<br />
could work. It can be hard to<br />
convey the technicality of the<br />
more intricate stuff on video.<br />
Halfway into the shoot,<br />
I jammed a radio antenna into<br />
my ribs, clipped a pedal and<br />
went head over heels. When I<br />
landed, I folded myself in half. I<br />
had a radio, and it sounds funny<br />
but it was down my pants and<br />
got stuck between my thigh and<br />
ribcage. I don’t know what it<br />
did in there, but it wasn’t good.<br />
I managed two or three more<br />
days of riding, but it got to the<br />
point where it was distracting<br />
me so much that I just couldn’t<br />
ride. I ended up taking copious<br />
amounts of painkillers.<br />
“When filming<br />
something like<br />
this, you want<br />
to be on top of<br />
your game”<br />
WALES, <strong>UK</strong><br />
Rider: Rachel Atherton (GBR)<br />
Discipline: Downhill MTB<br />
Tillmann: <strong>The</strong> theme of this<br />
segment was ‘dedication’,<br />
but that took on a whole new<br />
meaning. Our original idea was<br />
to film only with drones, but at<br />
our first session on Cadair Idris<br />
[mountain in Snowdonia] the<br />
wind and rain made that less<br />
than ideal. <strong>The</strong>n the drone<br />
crashed at the first shot, so I<br />
ran down the whole mountain<br />
to get the spare, only to find it<br />
had a software problem. <strong>The</strong>n,<br />
before our next filming session,<br />
Rachel tore her Achilles…<br />
Atherton: I can remember it<br />
like it was yesterday [the injury<br />
occurred in July 2019]. It’s a<br />
process you go through, almost<br />
like grief. You feel angry and<br />
upset, then just devastated.<br />
Getting injured mid-season [in<br />
the UCI Downhill MTB World<br />
Cup], you go from winning<br />
races to almost nothing. It<br />
takes a lot to change your<br />
mindset and focus on the long<br />
road ahead. It was nine months<br />
before I even picked up a bike<br />
Downhill MTB pro<br />
Rachel Atherton<br />
films around<br />
Cadair Idris, Wales<br />
again. When filming something<br />
like this, you want to be on top<br />
of your game. I was nervous,<br />
because I didn’t know if I was<br />
going to be fast or look good,<br />
so I put it off to the last minute.<br />
But I think it was the right<br />
choice, because I did feel I was<br />
riding well when it came to<br />
filming again. <strong>The</strong> first half was<br />
all mountain stuff – outback<br />
riding and big mountains, all<br />
about freedom. <strong>The</strong> second<br />
half was on tracks near my<br />
home in Wales. Having a big<br />
injury halfway through filming<br />
changed the plan a bit, but<br />
hopefully the hard work and<br />
the dedication to return comes<br />
across. To be back up to speed<br />
and feeling like a racer again –<br />
that’s what I’m looking forward<br />
to the most. When you don’t<br />
race for so long, it takes away<br />
who you are. [Racing] is in<br />
my blood. Being back on the<br />
track makes you feel like<br />
everything makes sense again.<br />
[Just weeks after this interview,<br />
Atherton announced that<br />
regrettably, as a result of her<br />
ongoing rehab, she wouldn’t<br />
be racing again this year.]<br />
THE RED BULLETIN 69
PARIS, FRANCE<br />
Rider: Matthias Dandois<br />
(FRA)<br />
Discipline: BMX flatland<br />
Tillmann: In Paris, Matthias<br />
delivered his smooth<br />
interpretation of BMX<br />
flatland. Finding a new<br />
perspective on the city was<br />
hard, as he has filmed so<br />
much here. We developed<br />
a fresh way of filming his<br />
riding style with a gimbal<br />
on a Segway and a 600mm<br />
super telephoto lens to<br />
capture the technicality of<br />
his tricks. We shot a lot in the<br />
outskirts, and the production<br />
car got broken into. All our<br />
laptops and hard drives were<br />
stolen. Fortunately, all the<br />
footage was backed up.<br />
Dandois: Getting clearance<br />
to film in a city like Paris takes<br />
months, but having a big,<br />
professional crew made<br />
things easier. For 20 years,<br />
I was kicked off almost every<br />
spot I rode on, and now – paf!<br />
– authorisations. In Barbès<br />
[in northern Paris], we were<br />
accompanied by police to<br />
ensure our safety, but<br />
nothing happened. When you<br />
film in working-class<br />
neighbourhoods, colourful<br />
characters always show up,<br />
like the drunk guy who gives<br />
you riding tips [laughs].
<strong>The</strong> Old World<br />
August 2019:<br />
Matthias Dandois<br />
performs a onehand<br />
MC circle<br />
in a bustling Gare<br />
du Nord, Paris<br />
71
<strong>The</strong> Old World<br />
LA POMA, SPAIN<br />
Riders: Nico Scholze (GER, pictured left), Dawid Godziek<br />
(POL), Diego Caverzasi (ITA), Bienve Aguado Alba (ESP)<br />
Discipline: Dirt jumps<br />
Tillmann: Dirt jumping has a strong community vibe at this<br />
bikepark [30 minutes outside Barcelona], almost akin to surfing.<br />
We shot with a big cable cam and a crane. Diego arrived with an<br />
injured thumb, then, on the third day of shooting, Nico slammed<br />
hard and broke part of his back. Fortunately, it wasn’t serious.<br />
Scholze: It was a routine trick – a 360 tailwhip on the biggest jump<br />
– but I came up short and went straight over the bars. I was only<br />
just saying to Andi beforehand, “It’s going to be a good day.” I wanted<br />
to show it’s possible to do freestyle motocross tricks on a mountain<br />
bike – there’s a similar rotation and airtime. I watched guys with<br />
FMX bikes on a shoot once, and I knew I could do the same tricks.<br />
Polish dirt jumper<br />
Dawid Godziek<br />
initiates a one-foot<br />
tabletop at La<br />
Poma bikepark<br />
“I wanted to<br />
show the world<br />
it’s possible<br />
to do freestyle<br />
motocross<br />
tricks on a<br />
mountain bike”<br />
72 THE RED BULLETIN
Vink pulls off a<br />
‘flaming’ manual:<br />
“Andi told us to<br />
bring an extra<br />
helmet because<br />
they might set us<br />
on fire. It was still<br />
a bit of a surprise”<br />
KUDOWA, POLAND<br />
Riders: Nico Vink (BEL, pictured right),<br />
Szymon Godziek (POL)<br />
Discipline: Big air<br />
Tillmann: This was the opposite of Norway<br />
– that was about control, but this is about<br />
the edge of control. We filmed big air and<br />
high-speed riding with a crane, a $100,000<br />
[£77K] camera backpack and a Super 8.<br />
<strong>The</strong> insane course will blow people’s minds<br />
– and we set the guys on fire. A stuntman<br />
usually doubles for the actor, but obviously<br />
they couldn’t ride the course. <strong>The</strong> stunt<br />
team only agreed to it after seeing the<br />
athletes wouldn’t panic when set alight.<br />
Vink: I’d ridden through fire, but I’d never<br />
actually been on fire. We had underlayers<br />
that were covered in a protective gel, then<br />
fuel was added to the top layer – that’s<br />
what was set on fire. <strong>The</strong> sections we were<br />
riding weren’t super-long, and there were<br />
two extinguishers at the bottom, but if you<br />
crashed partway you were burning. We had<br />
to do it a couple of times. Sometimes they<br />
didn’t add enough fuel, and once there was<br />
too much. It got a little hot, but I never got<br />
cooked. When you’re riding, it’s all about<br />
being on the limit of control – you’re close<br />
to the edge, but getting away with it. That’s<br />
the line any athlete in extreme sports is<br />
riding all the time. It’s our life.<br />
THE RED BULLETIN 73
OWN THE NIGHT<br />
Maxx-D Mk13<br />
4000 Lumens<br />
Handlebar mounted<br />
Reflex Technology<br />
Diablo Mk12<br />
1800 Lumens<br />
Helmet mounted<br />
TAP Technology
VENTURE<br />
Enhance, equip, and experience your best life<br />
WILLIAM COPESTAKE WILLIAM COPESTAKE<br />
SEA<br />
KAYAKING<br />
Summer Isles,<br />
northern Scotland<br />
75
VENTURE<br />
Travel<br />
“<strong>The</strong> pleasure of a sea kayak is<br />
you’re in the water rather than on<br />
it, which provides a connection<br />
with wildlife that’s hard to achieve<br />
in another boat”<br />
Will Copestake, adventurer and guide<br />
It’s six in the morning and, on the<br />
horizon, the sun is creeping over<br />
a panorama of jagged mountains,<br />
adding a shimmer to the sea. I’m awake<br />
before my guests who, as the dawn<br />
light brings heat to their tents, are just<br />
starting to stir in their sleeping bags.<br />
It’s a typical summer morning in the<br />
Scottish Summer Isles – calm with a<br />
gentle breeze that smells of the sea,<br />
the slow rhythmic rumble of the surf<br />
rolling against cliffs nearby, seals singing<br />
melodically from the rocks.<br />
Since 2013, I’ve pursued adventures<br />
around the world, both personal and<br />
through leading others – from a yearlong<br />
journey kayaking, cycling and<br />
climbing through Scotland to a 1,000km<br />
expedition kayaking through deepest<br />
Patagonia. But it’s the Summer Isles<br />
I call home. As an outdoor activity<br />
provider running our company Kayak<br />
Summer Isles, it’s my job and pleasure<br />
to encourage venturing off the beaten<br />
track and pausing there. We deliver the<br />
confidence and skills to enjoy what’s<br />
around us while visiting remote places<br />
and reconnecting with the natural world.<br />
My day is mostly spent teaching then<br />
leading along natural archways, caves,<br />
cliffs and wild sandy beaches amid this<br />
stunning landscape.<br />
At my side, my mocha pot gurgles<br />
on a stove as I prepare my morning<br />
‘guide coffee’. I was first introduced to it<br />
by a tutor at university, who explained<br />
that the idea wasn’t the brew itself but<br />
allowing yourself a small slice of time<br />
before the day begins. Time to think, to<br />
plan, to gain a sense of calm and place.<br />
It’s a practice that goes hand in hand<br />
with the rising concept of ‘slow tourism’,<br />
the counterpart to ‘tick-list’ landmark<br />
bagging. Drinking a coffee quickly fills<br />
the need, but when you pause to enjoy it,<br />
it becomes so much more. <strong>The</strong>re is a<br />
drive – partially fuelled by social media<br />
– in the travel industry at the moment<br />
to ‘experience’ as much as possible in<br />
a short amount of time. It’s a quick way<br />
to see a lot of great things, and fits in<br />
with the busy lives many of us lead.<br />
But fast travel has huge limitations, too.<br />
Few who do it allow the time to truly<br />
experience the communities, landscapes<br />
and wonders they fly past en route to the<br />
next attraction. Travel, after all, is about<br />
the journey as much as the destination.<br />
During the lockdowns earlier this year,<br />
it was inspiring to see so many of our<br />
neighbours discover the local gems that<br />
have been seldom explored. Encouraged<br />
by necessity to explore nearer to home,<br />
many have learnt more about their<br />
backyard and their own personal<br />
interests in these short months than in<br />
decades of living here. Personally, I’ve<br />
never been at risk of taking the stunning<br />
scenery of the Summer Isles for granted,<br />
as I regularly get to see the expressions<br />
of amazement on my guests’ faces.<br />
Water man: the writer, Will Copestake, knows the Summer Isles like the back of his hand<br />
WILLIAM COPESTAKE<br />
76 THE RED BULLETIN
VENTURE<br />
Travel<br />
How to<br />
get there<br />
<strong>The</strong> Summer Isles – an<br />
archipelago of around<br />
20 islands, rocks and<br />
skerries (islets) – lie<br />
off the northwest<br />
coast of the Scottish<br />
Highlands. <strong>The</strong>y can be<br />
reached by boat from<br />
Achiltibuie harbour,<br />
which is just under<br />
two-and-a-half hours<br />
by car from Inverness.<br />
Slow and low: sea kayaking amid the picturesque scenery of the Summer Isles is the antithesis of ‘fast travel’<br />
Glowing report: awe-inspiring sunsets are commonplace in this part of the country<br />
It’s the last day of our multi-day<br />
adventure, and before setting off we<br />
discuss how to pack a kayak: loading<br />
the boat equally with the weight centred<br />
around the hull, packing multiple small<br />
bags rather than a single large one, and<br />
keeping metal objects away from the<br />
in-deck compass. We finish by packing<br />
the remaining spaces with litter<br />
collected from the foreshore – an<br />
endless stream of ocean plastic brought<br />
in by the waves. It sparks a discussion<br />
on the human impact on such wild areas,<br />
how we ultimately leave our footprint<br />
wherever we travel. Already we’ve<br />
ensured to remove all trace of our tents<br />
and have packed our bagged waste, yet<br />
still a few footprints remain behind. As<br />
THE RED BULLETIN 77
VENTURE<br />
Travel<br />
REAR HATCH<br />
Food supplies, sleeping bag, sleeping<br />
mat, tent poles and pegs, cooking set<br />
(pot, cutlery, bowl and mug)<br />
POD HATCH<br />
Pencil and waterproof notepad,<br />
compass, head torch, night paddle kit,<br />
spare knife and flares, chocolate bars<br />
Kayak loading<br />
<strong>The</strong> formula: well stocked but also<br />
perfectly distributed<br />
DECK HATCH<br />
Medical kit, hypothermia pack, bothy bag,<br />
emergency repair kit, <strong>The</strong>rmos with hot<br />
sugary drink, tarp, quick stove and gas<br />
FRONT HATCH<br />
Food supplies, clothing and spare layers,<br />
boots, tents (but not poles – no metal<br />
items allowed under deck compass)<br />
Lightweight<br />
Midweight<br />
Midweight<br />
Heavyweight<br />
Midweight<br />
Heavyweight<br />
Midweight<br />
Lightweight<br />
a company we won’t use this site again<br />
for a few months, to allow regeneration<br />
between our uses.<br />
A wave breaks over my bow as I push<br />
my kayak from the shore with a whisper<br />
of seaweed beneath my hull. <strong>The</strong> crisp<br />
water catches my hand as I dip my<br />
paddle for the first stroke of a new day<br />
ahead. ‘Psht’ – a seal breaks the surface<br />
behind me as it escorts us from camp.<br />
<strong>The</strong> pleasure of a sea kayak is you’re<br />
in the water rather than on it, which<br />
provides a connection with wildlife<br />
that’s hard to achieve in another boat.<br />
Through connection comes care, and<br />
through care, ultimately, comes a<br />
sense of stewardship to preserve the<br />
environments we enjoy.<br />
When working in Patagonia over my<br />
winter seasons, I admired the Chilean<br />
approach to managing sustainable<br />
adventure tourism, which, just like the<br />
north of Scotland, grew exponentially<br />
faster than the infrastructure to care for<br />
it. Flow, friction, rhythm: slow the flow,<br />
reduce the friction, plan for the rhythms.<br />
Encouraging visitors on a day’s kayaking<br />
or hiking adventure siphons numbers<br />
to a wider area, slowing the flow from<br />
the main roadside. Where busier tick-list<br />
attractions exist, frictions are managed<br />
by facilities and infrastructure.<br />
Understanding the rhythms of summer<br />
booms and winter quiet allows the<br />
chance to adjust and restore.<br />
Seabirds take flight from the nearby<br />
cliffs with a clatter of wings, bringing<br />
a smell of fresh guano that stings my<br />
nose. I don’t smell much better after<br />
a few nights away from the luxuries of<br />
home, but with that minor sacrifice<br />
comes a restoration of energy, rolled<br />
into the soul as the swell rolls life into the<br />
ocean. <strong>The</strong> kinship with our surroundings<br />
and between us as paddlers grows on<br />
the water. When we return home<br />
refreshed by genuine escapism, we will<br />
have a new story to tell with the next<br />
morning coffee.<br />
Will Copestake is an adventurer,<br />
photographer and guide who leads<br />
outdoor pursuits and expeditions in<br />
Scotland, Patagonia, and around the<br />
world. Follow his adventures at<br />
willcopestakemedia.com and learn<br />
how to travel with him at<br />
kayaksummerisles.com<br />
Total ice-olation: when kayaking in Patagonia, you’ll<br />
have entire glaciers and icebergs to yourself<br />
Change of pace<br />
Embrace slow travel<br />
EXPLORE LOCH BROOM AND<br />
THE SUMMER ISLES<br />
<strong>The</strong> nearby towns of Ullapool and<br />
Achiltibuie make a great jump-off point<br />
for some of Britain’s wildest places,<br />
a UNESCO GeoPark, and a thriving hub<br />
of traditional arts and music.<br />
ADVENTURE IN THE CAIRNGORMS<br />
<strong>The</strong> Cairngorms are a good year-round<br />
centre for adventure, with skiing in the<br />
winter and more trails than you could<br />
complete in any holiday. Activities cater<br />
to beginners and experts alike, from<br />
mountain pursuits to watersports.<br />
GET COASTAL IN CORNWALL<br />
With stunning coastlines and beaches<br />
with hundreds of coastal trails to explore,<br />
there’s something in Cornwall for every<br />
interest. Base yourself in one of the many<br />
communities and explore the vibrant<br />
culture, arts and music, as well as walks<br />
and swims along the way.<br />
KAYAK TYNDALL LAKE IN PATAGONIA<br />
Without doubt one of the wildest trips you<br />
can do by kayak anywhere on Earth. This is<br />
real wilderness that takes effort and intent<br />
to reach, with whole icebergs and glaciers<br />
to yourself as a reward. You won’t see<br />
anyone other than the guide for the<br />
majority of this trip. kayakenpatagonia.com<br />
EXPLORE REYKJAVÍK<br />
<strong>The</strong> Icelandic capital offers a fantastic<br />
base to find an adventure that fits you, be<br />
it snowboarding the mountains, soaking<br />
in a mud bath, or learning to guerrilla-knit<br />
a jumper for a tree (yep, that’s a thing).<br />
A short hop from the <strong>UK</strong>, the city is a true<br />
unsung hub for adventure.<br />
WILLIAM COPESTAKE<br />
78 THE RED BULLETIN
ALPHATAURI.COM
VENTURE<br />
Equipment<br />
From top: SWEET PROTECTION<br />
Interstellar RIG Reflect goggles<br />
have a toric lens (more asymmetric<br />
than a standard lens) for less edge<br />
distortion and greater impact<br />
resistance, sweetprotection.com<br />
Flight Path XL Factory by OAKLEY<br />
allow you to switch between seven<br />
lens types for maximum visibility in<br />
all snow conditions. Quick-changing<br />
Ridgelock tech seals the lens as it<br />
snaps into place, oakley.com<br />
ZEAL OPTICS Pando goggles use<br />
Observation Deck tech inspired<br />
by air traffic control towers – the<br />
bottom of the lens tilts towards<br />
your face to increase vertical<br />
peripheral vision, zealoptics.com<br />
RVX OTG by DRAGON ALLIANCE<br />
have a 100-per-cent UV-protected<br />
lens that can be popped out and<br />
locked into place with levers. OTG<br />
means ‘over the glass’, so specs can<br />
be worn, too, dragonalliance.com<br />
TIM KENT<br />
80 THE RED BULLETIN
VENTURE<br />
Equipment<br />
SNOW<br />
Slope into view Switchable-lens goggles for optimal vision on-piste<br />
From top: POC Cornea Solar Switch<br />
goggles don’t feature swappable<br />
lenses; instead, the glass<br />
automatically adapts to the light<br />
for you. Faster than previous<br />
light-reactive technology, the<br />
award-winning liquid-crystal lens<br />
changes its tint near instantly to<br />
suit every condition, from midday<br />
glare to serious cloud cover, and<br />
the whole process is powered by<br />
solar energy, pocsports.com<br />
RED BULL SPECT Magnetron goggles<br />
come with two lenses: contrastenhancing<br />
(shown fitted) for bad<br />
weather, and mirrored (below) for<br />
fair, each with moisture canals to<br />
prevent fogging, specteyewear.com<br />
Enigma Elements Water by KOO<br />
sport a silver mirror Zeiss toric lens<br />
for high glare protection, easily<br />
swappable with the included Sonar<br />
lens (pictured) for better visibility<br />
on an overcast day, kooworld.cc<br />
THE RED BULLETIN 81
VENTURE<br />
How to...<br />
Sophie Radcliffe has<br />
twice completed<br />
Ironman, cycled<br />
from London to Paris<br />
in 24 hours nine times, crossed<br />
the US from coast to coast by<br />
bike, and set a world first by<br />
climbing the highest peaks in<br />
eight Alpine countries and<br />
cycling between each of them<br />
– the equivalent of scaling<br />
Everest five times in 32 days.<br />
And yet she wasn’t always so<br />
sporty. In fact, at school she<br />
was the last person who<br />
wanted to put on sports kit.<br />
“When I was younger, I was<br />
very unfit and never a natural<br />
athlete,” admits the 35-yearold<br />
Brit. “I had a different<br />
body to other girls and felt<br />
uncomfortable about it.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> problem, Radcliffe<br />
came to realise, was never to<br />
do with her body – it was in<br />
her head. And it’s an issue she<br />
discovered is common among<br />
young women: “<strong>The</strong> rate of<br />
drop-out for girls in sport is<br />
huge when they hit 13 or 14.<br />
Body image, eating disorders,<br />
mental health [issues] and<br />
suicide are all rising.”<br />
So, in 2013, Radcliffe quit<br />
her job at a tech start-up and<br />
became an endurance athlete<br />
and motivational speaker.<br />
Today, she runs TrailBlazers,<br />
a not-for-profit youth initiative<br />
that equips teenage girls with<br />
the confidence and skills to<br />
live active lives to the best of<br />
their abilities. “I want to show<br />
them that it doesn’t have to be<br />
about sport itself – it’s about<br />
how you feel about yourself.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> key, Radcliffe says, is<br />
simply starting somewhere.<br />
“Making yourself physically<br />
strong has a knock-on effect<br />
on your mind and the rest of<br />
your life, but you have to start<br />
any sport from a place of<br />
passion and curiosity, thinking,<br />
‘I’m going to find what it is I<br />
love.’ Challenging yourself and<br />
doing things that are difficult<br />
and scary, like a physical<br />
MOTIVATE<br />
Live courageously<br />
In her teens, Sophie Radcliffe hated sports. But then the adventurer<br />
changed her mindset and made fitness an unbreakable habit<br />
challenge, creates adversity<br />
and forces us to find out who<br />
we are. All the things I wanted<br />
to feel in life – confidence,<br />
motivation, feeling energised<br />
– have come from facing<br />
challenges in the outdoors.”<br />
As a friend of Radcliffe told<br />
her the night she quit her job,<br />
“A ship in a harbour is safe,<br />
but that’s not what the ship<br />
was built for. Go sailing.”<br />
You can follow Radcliffe’s<br />
personal journey on<br />
Instagram: @challengesophie.<br />
And check out TrailBlazers<br />
at blazeyourtrail.co.uk<br />
Radcliffe poses with her team during<br />
the Ragnar White Cliffs Relay in 2017<br />
Find your<br />
new path<br />
Five trailblazing tips<br />
from Radcliffe to<br />
help fire up your<br />
mental approach<br />
Try many different<br />
types of sport to<br />
find what you love:<br />
“People say to me,<br />
‘I really have to go to<br />
the gym soon.’ Why?<br />
<strong>The</strong> only way to get<br />
into fitness long-term<br />
is to find an activity<br />
you love. I discovered<br />
that I’m made for<br />
endurance sports.<br />
I just never knew<br />
that before.”<br />
Just get outdoors:<br />
“A great way to do<br />
this is by making<br />
your commute an<br />
adventure. Start<br />
cycling in, or walk<br />
part of the way into<br />
work. Find ways to<br />
spend more of each<br />
day outdoors.”<br />
Help others along the<br />
way: “Throughout my<br />
journey, people much<br />
more experienced than<br />
me took me under<br />
their wing. Those<br />
people helped me so<br />
much. <strong>The</strong> idea of<br />
mentoring and giving<br />
back is crucial.”<br />
Shift your perception:<br />
“What I tell people is:<br />
simply set yourself<br />
a challenge, which<br />
can be big or small.<br />
It can range from<br />
going for a run to<br />
the power of lifting<br />
weights. Discover<br />
the other world of<br />
outdoor and<br />
adventure sports.<br />
Do a boot camp in<br />
a London park, or<br />
burpees while<br />
watching the sunrise.”<br />
Commit yourself to the<br />
fact that it’s a journey:<br />
“I love pushing myself<br />
physically and<br />
mentally. I love being<br />
in the pain cave,<br />
because it’s there<br />
that I find out the most<br />
interesting things<br />
about myself; things<br />
that help me learn<br />
and grow into the<br />
person and athlete<br />
I’d love to become.”<br />
TRISTAN SHU LOU BOYD<br />
82 THE RED BULLETIN
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LITTLE SHAO / RED BULL CONTENT POOL
VENTURE<br />
Gaming<br />
INPUT<br />
Evolution of play<br />
In 1972, the world's first commercial games console,<br />
the Magnavox Odyssey, was released. Its controller<br />
– a box with three rotating knobs – was a revolution in<br />
digital input. Games controllers have come a long<br />
way since then. With the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series<br />
X/S being released this month, three gaming experts<br />
look at how controllers have changed the way we play...<br />
DUALSHOCK 3, 2008<br />
“With the PS3 [in 2006], Sony faltered<br />
with a wireless pad that swapped<br />
vibration for motion controls, but fast<br />
returned with this rumbling DualShock.”<br />
PLAYSTATION, 1994<br />
“<strong>The</strong> first PlayStation controller is an<br />
icon in its own right,” says Tailby. “<strong>The</strong><br />
triangle, circle, X and square buttons<br />
have remained in every iteration.”<br />
DUALSHOCK 2, 2000<br />
Released with the PlayStation 2. “Two<br />
analogue sticks made 3D games easier<br />
to navigate, and rumble [vibration]<br />
made the action more impactful.”<br />
DUALSHOCK 4, 2013<br />
Larger grips, a touch sensitive pad, and<br />
a button to share your gaming moments<br />
with friends. “Absolutely Sony’s best<br />
controller at the time.”<br />
DUALSENSE, <strong>2020</strong><br />
"PlayStation 5's controller is the series’<br />
biggest design departure yet,” says<br />
Tailby, “and it delivers more nuanced<br />
vibrations through haptic feedback.”<br />
PLAYSTATION “I‘ve grown up with the PlayStation’s DualShock controller,” says Stephen Tailby, associate<br />
editor for PS gaming website Push Square (pushsquare.com). “<strong>The</strong> ergonomic hand grips, which gave the device<br />
a unique silhouette, have influenced controller design ever since.” However, Tailby believes that the DualSense<br />
controller, which debuts with the PlayStation 5, will transform that gaming experience. “<strong>The</strong> haptic feedback<br />
and adaptive L2 and R2 triggers [on the top], which make it easier or harder to press down depending on what’s<br />
happening in-game, should enhance immersion in tactile ways. But the fundamentals remain intact – the DNA<br />
of Sony’s very first controller exists in all its successors.” PlayStation 5 is out on Nov 12, playstation.com<br />
SONY COMPUTER ENTERTAINMENT INC, MICROSOFT<br />
84 THE RED BULLETIN
VENTURE<br />
Gaming<br />
XBOX, 2001<br />
<strong>The</strong> ‘bulky’ original Xbox controller. “It<br />
led to a more compact design hitting<br />
the market soon after,” says Gilbert.<br />
“But fans are very nostalgic for it.”<br />
XBOX 360, 2005<br />
“<strong>The</strong> design was modernised, with<br />
additional shoulder buttons and a<br />
headset and add-ons port, and it was<br />
significantly more comfortable to use.”<br />
XBOX ONE, 2013<br />
Gilbert describes the evolution here as<br />
“quality-of-life adjustments. So popular<br />
was the Xbox 360 controller, there was<br />
no need for radical changes”.<br />
XBOX SERIES X/S, <strong>2020</strong><br />
“Improved ergonomics, reduced input<br />
latency, a new D-pad design – the<br />
controller is compatible with Xbox One,<br />
Windows 10 PCs, even Android devices.”<br />
XBOX “<strong>The</strong> original controller didn't get the best reception back in 2001,” says Fraser Gilbert, news editor<br />
for Xbox gaming website Pure Xbox (purexbox.com). “It was bulky and oversized, but it laid the foundations for<br />
what we've come to expect today in its button layout, analogue stick placement and trigger design.” For the<br />
new controller, Microsoft has taken a markedly different approach to size, scaling it to the hand size of an eightyear-old<br />
after finding that worked equally as well in smaller and larger hands. “It’s an evolution rather than a<br />
revolution. <strong>The</strong> popularity of each iteration is a testament to how well the company has refined its controller<br />
over the past 20 years.” Xbox Series X/S is out now, xbox.com<br />
THE RED BULLETIN 85
VENTURE<br />
Gaming<br />
RAZER BOOMSLANG, 1999<br />
<strong>The</strong> first gaming mouse. “Prior to this,<br />
mice had a sensitivity of less than 500<br />
dots per inch; this had 1,000dpi.” In<br />
2000, a 2,000dpi version was released.<br />
RAZER DIAMONDBACK, 2004<br />
Eschewing the ball-on-tabletop<br />
mechanics, this was Razer’s second<br />
optical-sensor mouse. “It was more<br />
precise and reliable,” says Jennings.<br />
RAZER NAGA CHROMA, 2014<br />
Pushing that optical sensitivity up to<br />
8,200dpi, with multiple buttons that<br />
players could map to in-game actions.<br />
RAZER MAMBA, 2015<br />
Razer's first mouse to top 16,000dpi<br />
in optical sensitivity allowed players to<br />
adjust the force of their finger clicks.<br />
RAZER DEATHADDER, <strong>2020</strong><br />
Wireless mice can suffer from<br />
latency, but this switches frequencies<br />
on the fly for a fast connection.<br />
THE GAMING MOUSE It’s difficult to remember a time when games were played using an office<br />
mouse with a ball inside, but that was the state of play before the Boomslang launched in 1999. “It was born<br />
out of necessity,” says games journalist Mike Jennings (mike-jennings.net), who has written for Tech Radar,<br />
Wired, Custom PC, and more. “As PC games became more complex, more buttons and greater precision were<br />
needed.” Since then, gaming mice have diversified for specific genres. “<strong>The</strong> Naga’s extra buttons were ideal<br />
for MMOs [massively multiplayer online games]; the Mamba’s improved sensitivity for twitchy, fast-paced<br />
shooters. <strong>The</strong> demands of gamers have driven innovation – these mice excel where office mice won’t.”<br />
RAZER<br />
86 THE RED BULLETIN
RAZER TOM GUISE<br />
PLAY<br />
<strong>The</strong> game<br />
changer<br />
How one video gamer’s need to<br />
skill-up changed the way we play<br />
Min-Liang Tan is currently<br />
playing Fall Guys: Ultimate<br />
Knockout, the cutesy<br />
multiplayer battle royale game<br />
that has taken the world by<br />
storm. And the 43-year-old<br />
Singaporean has an edge over<br />
his opponents: all the gear –<br />
including the PC – that he’s<br />
playing on was designed by<br />
him and built by his gaming<br />
company, Razer. <strong>The</strong> business<br />
earned him a place on the top<br />
40 list of the most powerful<br />
people in video games in 2012,<br />
and five years later, at 40, he<br />
became Singapore’s youngest<br />
self-made billionaire.<br />
And yet the former lawyer's<br />
success in the industry was<br />
merely born out of the simple<br />
desire to be a better player.<br />
“When you miss a shot, you<br />
never think, ‘It’s my skill,’” Tan<br />
laughs. “I just wanted a better<br />
mouse, so we built one.” That<br />
was in 1999, and the result was<br />
the Boomslang, the world’s<br />
first dedicated gaming mouse.<br />
Today, Razer applies that<br />
same mindset to building<br />
gaming laptops, headsets,<br />
smartphones and more, and<br />
the brand – and Tan – have<br />
generated something akin<br />
to a personality cult. “We<br />
get thousands of photos of<br />
people with Razer logo<br />
tattoos,” he says. “Somebody<br />
even tattooed my face on<br />
himself,” Last year, a fan<br />
even named their son Razer<br />
after the company.<br />
For Tan, though, this is<br />
less about corporate success<br />
and more about community.<br />
“I’ve never thought of myself<br />
as a CEO,” he says. “I’ve<br />
always been a gamer.” And<br />
Tan applies that ethos to<br />
everything he does: “It’s<br />
about finding that competitive<br />
advantage to help you win.”<br />
I’ve learnt to trust<br />
my instincts<br />
“With the Boomslang, we<br />
didn’t set out to make a huge<br />
amount of money. It was more<br />
like, ‘This is something I need,<br />
and I’m sure there are others<br />
who’d want it, too.’ When we<br />
redesigned the gaming laptop<br />
to be super-thin, we got a lot<br />
of hate. Everybody said, ‘This<br />
isn’t what gamers want – they<br />
want something thick and<br />
powerful.’ But we brought in<br />
thermal engineers and made<br />
it thin and powerful. Now it’s<br />
the industry standard.”<br />
If it works for gamers,<br />
it’s for everyone<br />
“It’s cool to see non-gamers<br />
using our products. We’ve got<br />
medical professionals getting<br />
them for their precision, and<br />
I’ve seen a space programme<br />
using our mousepads on TV.<br />
People don’t do competitive<br />
Excel spreadsheets, but<br />
VENTURE<br />
Gaming<br />
Min-Liang Tan: gamer, billionaire businessman and zombie (as<br />
seen in the 2015 gaming spinoff film Dead Rising: Watchtower)<br />
we’ve had requests from the<br />
financial industry saying,<br />
‘Our traders are using Razer<br />
mice and keypads to do fast<br />
actuations. Would you make<br />
office stuff?’ But we’re not<br />
going mainstream – we’re<br />
more interested in the<br />
mainstream coming to us.”<br />
Class of <strong>2020</strong>: the Razer<br />
BlackShark V2 Pro, a state-ofthe-art<br />
wireless gaming headset<br />
Bad ideas are poorly<br />
executed good ideas<br />
“We were the first to go with<br />
the whole matte-black theme<br />
that has become the colour<br />
for gamers. <strong>The</strong>n we added<br />
LEDs, starting with single<br />
colours and then RGB lighting.<br />
Designing with light is<br />
incredibly difficult: if you<br />
use too little, it’s pointless;<br />
too much and it’s garish.<br />
I’m in meetings about how<br />
many millimetres of light<br />
we’re going to put into the<br />
stairway of our new building<br />
– it’s four storeys high, and<br />
we’re doing multiple models<br />
just to get the perfect<br />
amount of light.<br />
Great solutions are<br />
always in demand<br />
“Recently, I slipped a disk.<br />
<strong>The</strong>n I got a whole bunch<br />
of gamers saying, ‘I’ve got<br />
the same problem from<br />
playing too many games.’<br />
I summoned my head of<br />
engineering and said, ‘What<br />
are you gonna do about it?’<br />
And he goes, ‘You should<br />
be asking an orthopaedic<br />
surgeon.’ But I said, ‘You<br />
guys are going to design<br />
something, because I’m sure<br />
other people will want the<br />
solution. Let’s come up with<br />
something good and maybe<br />
it’ll ship hundreds of millions<br />
of dollars of product.’”<br />
Sometimes I need to<br />
keep my mouth shut<br />
“One gamer really wanted<br />
a Razer toaster. I said, ‘Get<br />
to a million likes and maybe<br />
I’ll make it.’ I check in on<br />
him from time to time. <strong>The</strong>n<br />
somebody said, ‘I’ll get a<br />
Razer toaster tattoo,’ and<br />
I made the mistake of<br />
saying, ‘Get 10 people to<br />
do it and I’ll make one.’ I think<br />
today they may have 15<br />
people with that tattoo.<br />
I promised to make it, but<br />
I didn’t say when. We’ve had<br />
some early prototypes, but<br />
it’s not up to par yet, So I’m<br />
still working on it. It’s got to<br />
be the ultimate toaster.”<br />
razer.com<br />
THE RED BULLETIN 87
VENTURE<br />
Fitness<br />
YOGA<br />
Shredding<br />
tradition<br />
Sadie Nardini discovered<br />
yoga to get back on her feet.<br />
Now she’s reinvented the<br />
practice to work for everyone<br />
Sadie Nardini’s fitness<br />
journey started with an<br />
accident. When she was 13,<br />
a man cannonballed into a<br />
swimming pool and landed<br />
on her head, leaving Nardini<br />
partially paralysed. “<strong>The</strong><br />
doctors said I would probably<br />
never walk again,” she<br />
explains. “<strong>The</strong>y stabilised<br />
me and sent me home.”<br />
While Nardini was stuck<br />
inside, day in, day out, her<br />
mother introduced her to<br />
gentle yoga poses, hoping they<br />
would help her body to heal.<br />
And they did – two years later,<br />
she was able to stand again.<br />
Soon, she felt ready to rebuild<br />
her muscles. <strong>The</strong>n Nardini<br />
discovered power yoga.<br />
“All I knew about yoga at<br />
this point was that you lie<br />
around and breathe,” she<br />
remembers. “When I realised<br />
that there was yoga that could<br />
confront and strengthen me,<br />
I found my calling.”<br />
In her mid-twenties,<br />
Nardini began instructing<br />
around the world and gained a<br />
global following as a rock-star<br />
yogini (female master yoga<br />
practitioner), promoting an<br />
innovative approach to<br />
traditional yoga. “I’d play<br />
David Bowie in my classes<br />
– my message would be all<br />
about fun empowerment,”<br />
the 49-year-old Californiabased<br />
instructor says today.<br />
“That wasn’t being done at<br />
all back then.”<br />
Nardini had the idea for her<br />
most recent workout while<br />
running through the airport in<br />
Paris to catch a plane. “What<br />
I’d been doing for 20 years<br />
was endurance-based slow<br />
strength, but I was terribly out<br />
of cardiovascular shape,” she<br />
says, “so I went to a few HIIT<br />
[high-intensity interval<br />
training] classes. It was fun,<br />
but as an anatomy-and-joint<br />
expert I was horrified. Many<br />
of the moves were too hard<br />
on the joints; people were<br />
hurting themselves.”<br />
So she developed the Yoga<br />
Shred, a cardio workout that<br />
takes the flowing movements<br />
of vinyasa yoga as a starting<br />
point – improving core<br />
strength through a sequences<br />
of poses – and burns fat<br />
through high-intensity cardio<br />
exercises, always with a focus<br />
on protecting your joints. “It<br />
makes yoga people superherostrong<br />
and gives cross-train<br />
people more range of motion<br />
and flexibility,” Nardini says.<br />
“It’s a nice way to get all the<br />
benefits of both practices in<br />
only 20 minutes per day.”<br />
Nardini’s Yoga Shred can<br />
be studied at home through<br />
fitfierceclub.com. She’s<br />
offering five weeks of fitness<br />
classes for free with the<br />
code FFCFREEMO<br />
<strong>The</strong> Yoga Shred burpee<br />
in six steps<br />
“<strong>The</strong> burpee is a classic HIIT move, but it can be hard on<br />
the joints,” says Nardini. “Modify it with yoga alignment”<br />
1 2 3 4 5 6<br />
1 Stand halfway up your mat with your feet hipwidth<br />
apart. Place your hands on two yoga blocks<br />
(better for the wrists and shoulders) or the mat.<br />
2 Step back into an extended plank with your<br />
knees bent, feet still wide apart. Lift your abs so<br />
that the curve of your lower back is no longer<br />
dropping towards the floor, which can hurt it.<br />
3 Step halfway up the mat with your feet still<br />
hip-width apart. This will position them beneath<br />
your hips for less knee strain and a more powerful<br />
centre of gravity.<br />
4 Lift with your abs until you are in Chair Pose<br />
(standing like a chair). Pull your knees and hips<br />
back to protect the knees.<br />
5 Press down your heels to firm your glutes, and<br />
stand quickly with ‘Fists of Fire’ (bend elbows and<br />
quickly sweep your fists down beside your hips)<br />
6 Alternatively, jump out of Chair Pose with<br />
Fists of Fire into your hips. If you hop, land with<br />
your hips and knees pulled back to prevent<br />
pressure on your knees.<br />
JAMES ST. VINCENT FLORIAN OBKIRCHER<br />
88 THE RED BULLETIN
VENTURE<br />
Equipment<br />
BLAST<br />
Baby boomers Small speakers, large sound, maximum mobility<br />
Looking for some audiophile advice<br />
on the ideal speaker size and form<br />
factor, and where best to position<br />
it for optimal sound? <strong>The</strong> answers<br />
are: small, anything that looks cool,<br />
and anywhere you can take it.<br />
Today’s Bluetooth wireless<br />
speakers prove that good sound<br />
is no longer exclusive to a wooden<br />
box plugged into a vacuum-bulb<br />
amplifier. Left to right, from top:<br />
JBL Xtreme 3 with 15 hours of<br />
battery life, jbl.com; ANKER<br />
Soundcore Rave Mega party<br />
speaker, anker.com; URBANEARS<br />
Rålis with 20 hours of wireless play,<br />
urbanears.com; SACKIT BOOMit<br />
high-power portable designer<br />
speaker, sackit.eu; ULTIMATE EARS<br />
Boom 3 with an IP67 water- and<br />
dustproof rating, ultimateears.com;<br />
NAIM Mu-so Qb 2nd Generation,<br />
naimaudio.com; BANG & OLUFSEN<br />
Beosound 1, bang-olufsen.com<br />
TIM KENT<br />
90 THE RED BULLETIN
VENTURE<br />
Equipment<br />
IMMERSE<br />
Inner bass Wireless earbuds with big headphone features<br />
<strong>The</strong> ear is home to the tiniest bones<br />
in the human body, and now it can<br />
house the smallest full-spec speaker<br />
systems, too. Miniature audio tech<br />
has made big advances, bringing us<br />
wireless in-ear ’buds with active and<br />
passive noise-cancelling, touch<br />
controls, water resistance, batterycharging<br />
cases, and sound quality<br />
to match over-ear ’phones. Left to<br />
right, from top: X BY KYGO Xellence,<br />
xbykygo.com; RHA TrueConnect 2,<br />
rha-audio.com; CAMBRIDGE AUDIO<br />
Melomania 1, cambridgeaudio.com;<br />
BANG & OLUFSEN Beoplay E8 3rd<br />
Gen, bang-olufsen.com; PANASONIC<br />
RZ-S500W, panasonic.com;<br />
SENNHEISER Momentum True<br />
Wireless 2, sennheiser.com;<br />
TECHNICS Truly Wireless EAH-<br />
AZ70W, technics.com; SKULLCANDY<br />
Indy Evo, skullcandy.co.uk; JBL<br />
Reflect Flow, jbl.com; JAYBIRD<br />
Vista, jaybirdsport.com<br />
THE RED BULLETIN 91
VENTURE<br />
Calendar<br />
10<br />
November onwards<br />
ONE DAY, 4061M & 4478M<br />
<strong>The</strong> numbers in the title of this film are the heights of Gran Paradiso and the Matterhorn – two peaks<br />
in the Italian Alps that ultrarunner Fernanda Maciel summited in one day (August 20 this year), the<br />
former earning the 40-year-old Brazilian a new female Fastest Known Time (FKT). Her achievement<br />
is made all the more profound by the knowledge that her flatmate lost their life on the Matterhorn<br />
only a year earlier, and Maciel suffered frozen eyes while attempting the climb two years prior to<br />
that. Just a day after her ascent, 25 climbers were trapped in a landslide on its slopes. This is an<br />
inspiring, exhilarating movie about overcoming physical limits and personal demons. redbull.com<br />
10<br />
November onwards<br />
PUSHING<br />
PROGRESSION: RED<br />
BULL STREET STYLE<br />
<strong>The</strong> freestyle football scene has<br />
exploded over the last decade, rising<br />
from performance art to pro sport<br />
and culminating in the <strong>Red</strong> Bull Street<br />
Style World Final (to be held on Nov<br />
14). Mixing acrobatics, dance and<br />
dazzling ball control, Street Style<br />
is a form of self-expression for its<br />
practitioners. This film examines the<br />
evolution of the scene from street to<br />
internet to stadium, to discover what<br />
it takes to be the best. redbull.com<br />
10<br />
November<br />
onwards<br />
PLONK GOLF<br />
London’s popular crazy<br />
golf experience brings<br />
its bonkers putting<br />
courses to Peckham –<br />
with social distancing,<br />
of course, and drinks<br />
pinged your way from<br />
the bar. Peckham<br />
Levels, London;<br />
plonkgolf.co.uk<br />
10<br />
November<br />
onwards<br />
HYPERREALITY<br />
VR BAR<br />
Looking to escape from<br />
<strong>2020</strong>? This cyberpunkthemed<br />
gaming dry bar<br />
serves up both the<br />
techno future and the<br />
retro past with three<br />
arenas of VR-connected<br />
play and a classic<br />
computer games<br />
lounge, all with COVID<br />
precautions strictly<br />
in place. London;<br />
hyper-reality.io<br />
92 THE RED BULLETIN
VENTURE<br />
Calendar<br />
MATHIS DUMAS/RED BULL CONTENT POOL, SAMO VIDIC/RED BULL CONTENT POOL, ALAMY, MARK HUNTER,<br />
STEVEN POCOCK/WELLCOME COLLECTION, TOM LEWIS RUSSELL<br />
10<br />
November<br />
onwards<br />
BACKYARD<br />
CINEMA<br />
It’s been a tough year for<br />
cinema, but here you can<br />
catch Xmas films like Die<br />
Hard and Elf, armed with<br />
a boozy hot chocolate<br />
from the heated bar.<br />
Capital Studios, London;<br />
backyardcinema.co.uk<br />
17<br />
to 19 November<br />
OCEAN FILM<br />
FESTIVAL<br />
This world tour of the<br />
year’s most incredible<br />
nautical-themed films –<br />
including documentaries<br />
on a 6,000km row<br />
across the Atlantic,<br />
and subzero surfing<br />
– goes virtual for <strong>2020</strong>.<br />
Passes also grant<br />
access to filmmaker<br />
and oceanographer<br />
Q&As, and behind-thescenes<br />
materials.<br />
oceanfilmfestival.co.uk<br />
10<br />
November<br />
onwards<br />
CHARLI XCX<br />
INTERVIEW<br />
For Charli XCX – like<br />
the rest of the world –<br />
<strong>2020</strong> has not gone as<br />
planned. Having had<br />
to postpone projects<br />
due to the pandemic,<br />
the British pop star<br />
decided to record<br />
a lockdown album,<br />
How I’m Feeling Now,<br />
which she announced<br />
on Zoom in April and<br />
released to critical<br />
acclaim a month later.<br />
But before social<br />
distancing came into<br />
force, she filmed this<br />
interview with US<br />
music journalist Will<br />
L Cooper in front of<br />
a live audience at<br />
the Hammer Museum<br />
in Los Angeles.<br />
A Conversation<br />
with Charli XCX is a<br />
candid and insightful<br />
discussion of the<br />
musician’s work and<br />
career. redbull.com<br />
10<br />
November<br />
onwards<br />
WELLCOME<br />
COLLECTION<br />
This free museum<br />
dedicated to the study<br />
of human experience<br />
reopened in October<br />
with exhibits examining<br />
how that perspective<br />
has changed. US visual<br />
artist Kerry Tribe’s work<br />
Standardized Patient<br />
looks at doctor/patient<br />
dynamics, while<br />
London-based Sop’s<br />
sound project <strong>The</strong> Den<br />
explores enforced<br />
isolation. London;<br />
wellcomecollection.org<br />
THE RED BULLETIN 93
THE ALPS AT<br />
THEIR VERY BEST<br />
Majestic mountains, breathtaking views, perfect<br />
pistes: Zell am See-Kaprun is a snow lover’s dream<br />
Do you ever just close your eyes<br />
and imagine escaping your<br />
day-to-day surroundings?<br />
After the year that we’ve all<br />
endured, more people than ever<br />
will be doing just that, daydreaming<br />
about whisking themselves off to<br />
far-flung locations.<br />
With its awe-inspiring mountains,<br />
expansive lakes, powdery snow<br />
and perfect vistas, the Austrian<br />
ski resort of Zell am See-Kaprun<br />
is certainly a dream destination.<br />
Around an hour and 20 minutes<br />
by car from Salzburg Airport, and<br />
about twice that from Munich, the<br />
picturesque town of Zell perches<br />
Powder play:<br />
fresh snow<br />
is in plentiful<br />
supply on<br />
Schmittenhöhe<br />
in Zell am See-<br />
Kaprun<br />
on the edge of the beautiful Lake<br />
Zell, with the snow-covered majesty<br />
of the 1,965m-high Schmittenhöhe<br />
mountain reflected in its serene<br />
waters. Get your hands on the multiresort<br />
Ski Alpin Card (available at<br />
alpincard.at and other outlets) and<br />
you’ll have access to the slopes<br />
of the Schmittenhöhe as well as<br />
two neighbouring ski areas, making<br />
it your pass to a huge snow-covered<br />
playground with 408km of the very<br />
best pistes in Austria.<br />
Zell am See-Kaprun is a snow-sure<br />
resort, largely thanks to the<br />
Kitzsteinhorn Glacier above Kaprun,<br />
which is open for skiing from early<br />
October to the middle of July. <strong>The</strong><br />
Kitzsteinhorn is the dominant<br />
mountain in Zell am See-Kaprun.<br />
It’s also the only glacial ski resort<br />
in Salzburg, but it’s super<br />
accessible. A new hyper-modern<br />
cable car from Maiskogel to<br />
Kitzsteinhorn provides ski-in,<br />
ski-out access to the glacier right<br />
from Kaprun town centre.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Gipfelwelt 3000 Top of<br />
Salzburg panorama platform, which<br />
is situated 3,209 above sea level,<br />
looks out across the pristine<br />
wilderness of the Hohe Tauern<br />
National Park; to the south, you can<br />
see the 3,798m-tall Großglockner<br />
– the highest mountain in Austria –<br />
while to the west is the glaciated<br />
peak of the Großvenediger. Its<br />
name translates to English as<br />
‘Great Venetian’, believed by some<br />
to be a reference to the Venetian<br />
merchants who once travelled<br />
along this route.<br />
<strong>The</strong> range of skiing on offer in Zell<br />
am See-Kaprun is so vast that,<br />
whatever your preferred style,<br />
you’ll have no problem finding it.<br />
<strong>The</strong> terrain is ideal for beginners<br />
and intermediates, with the runs<br />
in Zell primarily blues and reds.<br />
Schmittenhöhe is great for<br />
intermediate cruising, and the<br />
long red run to the zellamseeXpress<br />
cable-car station is particularly<br />
fun to weave down.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re are also a handful of<br />
black runs that are especially<br />
good to ride in the morning, and<br />
the 1km-long Black Mamba on<br />
the Kitzsteinhorn Glacier is<br />
so-named because it winds from<br />
the Kristallbahn valley station<br />
to Langwiedboden like the<br />
eponymous snake. It’s also by<br />
far the steepest piste on the<br />
glacier, with a gradient of 63 per<br />
cent – and once you’re on it,<br />
there’s no way of getting off<br />
except by riding it out, so be<br />
sure to go in with confidence!<br />
If off-piste is more your thing,<br />
there are marked freeride<br />
routes and information points<br />
on Kitzsteinhorn, and as well<br />
as the huge panoramas on<br />
the Schmittenhöhe you’ll find<br />
the tremendous Trass ride –<br />
a 4km route dropping 1,100m
PROMOTION<br />
ZELL AM SEE-KAPRUN TOURISMUS, KITZSTEINHORN, ZELL AM SEE-KAPRUN TOURISMUS<br />
RESORT<br />
FACTS<br />
Nearest airports:<br />
Salzburg Airport<br />
(76km),<br />
Munich (206km),<br />
Innsbruck (148km)<br />
Number of lifts:<br />
28 (49 including<br />
Maiskogel and<br />
Kitzsteinhorn)<br />
Total piste<br />
distance:<br />
77km (138km<br />
including Maiskogel<br />
and Kitzsteinhorn;<br />
408km with<br />
Ski Alpin Card)<br />
Elevation:<br />
760-2,000m<br />
Highest mountain:<br />
Kitzsteinhorn<br />
(3,203m)<br />
Cross-country<br />
tracks: 107km<br />
zellamsee-kaprun.<br />
com/en<br />
Piste mode: experience the thrill of freeriding on the Kitzsteinhorn<br />
Magical: the view at night from Mitterberg<br />
in altitude and bringing you back<br />
to Zell am See. If you’re around<br />
for long enough, the Ski Alpin<br />
Card also opens up the Skicircus<br />
Saalbach Hinterglemm Leogang<br />
Fieberbrunn, with an additional<br />
270km of pistes, a short bus<br />
ride away. And there’s a natural<br />
snow piste from Saalbach down<br />
to the zellamseeXpress, which<br />
will bring you to the<br />
Schmittenhöhe ski area.<br />
Back in Zell, the architecture may<br />
be traditional – the area has been<br />
continuously populated since at<br />
least Roman times – but this is<br />
a town that certainly isn’t stuck<br />
in the past. Zell’s weekly winter<br />
programme makes it easy to join<br />
in on winter yoga classes, torchlit<br />
walks under starry skies, and<br />
guided snowshoe hikes.<br />
And, if you get lucky, Lake Zell<br />
might even freeze over, giving you<br />
the cue to pull on a pair of skates<br />
and weave and wind your way across<br />
the frozen water against a heavenly<br />
backdrop. Now that’s definitely the<br />
stuff that dreams are made of.
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96 THE RED BULLETIN
Action highlight<br />
Ready to roll<br />
For his latest video, German skater Vladik Scholz (pictured) and his board<br />
buddies Madars Apse, Gustavo Ribeiro and Jost Arens were shrunk to the size<br />
of woodlice and placed inside one of those labyrinth games that involve<br />
manoeuvring a ball around a maze. Or was it the set that was made bigger?<br />
Whatever, the results are spectacular. Watch the video at redbull.com<br />
<strong>The</strong> next<br />
issue of<br />
THE RED BULLETIN<br />
is out on<br />
<strong>December</strong> 8<br />
DANIEL WAGNER/RED BULL CONTENT POOL<br />
98 THE RED BULLETIN
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