Red Bulletin UK

UK EDITION
DECEMBER 2021, £3.50
BEYOND THE ORDINARY
SPIDER
RIDER
BMX renegade
BAS KEEP’s vertical
assault on urban
buildings and
the laws of physics
ALPINE GOAT
THE INCREDIBLE TALE OF
MARC-ANDRÉ LECLERC
LAGOS HIGH LIFE
PARTYING IN THE AFRICAN
CITY THAT NEVER SLEEPS
CASSIE KINOSHI
JAZZ SAXOPHONIST,
AFROFUTURIST, ACTIVIST
SUBSCRIBE: GETREDBULLETIN.COM

Editor’s letter
EISA BAKOS (COVER), SCOTT SERFAS
CONTRIBUTORS
THIS ISSUE
EISA BAKOS
“I witnessed some of the
craziest gaps done on a
BMX,” says the Peckhambased
photographer, who
documented the production
of More Walls for our cover
story. High praise from a man
who has been shooting bike
action for a decade, runs his
own BMX magazine (Endless),
and happily calls Bas Keep
a close friend. “Shooting him
is always easy.” Page 30
MARK JENKINS
The American author and
explorer has journeyed to
some of Earth’s deadliest
regions writing for, among
others, Outside magazine
and National Geographic. His
experience makes his take on
climber Marc-André Leclerc
all the more insightful. “Live
in the world of alpinism and
you, or someone close to you,
will die,” he says. “Michelle
Kuipers deeply understood
her son’s passion.” Page 46
FREEDOM
FIGHTERS
“A lot of us think of the things we’d like to do, but we hold back.
What would you do if you were able to overcome the things
you’re afraid of?” says Michelle Kuipers, mother of climber
extraordinaire Marc-André Leclerc (page 46). Few will ever
successfully tap into that courage. Some examples, however,
can be found within the pages of this month’s The Red Bulletin.
Cover star Bas Keep (page 30) is one of the world’s most daring
BMXers, but it took most of his life to realise his greatest trick,
as seen in his new film, More Walls. On the way, he discovered
something more vital: fatherhood. Jazz composer Cassie Kinoshi
(page 40) uses her music to speak out on issues of diversity in
Britain, but what matters most is that she’s in control of her own
narrative. Photographer Andrew Eisebo (page 58) wants to show
a side of his home city – Lagos, Nigeria – that’s rarely seen in the
media; not of crime, congestion or poverty, but of celebration.
Elsewhere, Louise Vardeman (page 26) pushed herself to the
brink, cycling the route of the Tour de France in the hope it
would pave the way for a women’s event – she succeeded on
both counts. And smalltown boy Kofi McCalla (page 28) followed
his dream of entering the hallowed halls of the fashion world
and advising Drake on what to wear. Enjoy the issue!
Canadian climber Marc-André Leclerc sleeps beneath the stars. For his
unique and amazing story, as shown in the film The Alpinist, see page 46
THE RED BULLETIN 05

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CONTENTS
December 2021
58
Stepping out :
inside the Lagos
party scene
ANDREW ESIEBO
8 Gallery: whitewater wizardry in
Idaho, USA; balletic freediving
in French Polynesia; skiing the
perfect line in the Alps, and
conquering boulder ambitions
in Switzerland
15 Playlist: Music super-producer
Jack Antonoff on the pursuit
of rock/pop perfection
16 Neighbourhood Skate Club: the
skating collective creating a safe
space for board-riding women
18 Radiooooo: the ultra-cool music
player that transports you across
continents – and back in time
21 Quiet Parks International:
protecting the planet’s peaceful
places from noise pollution
22 Letters to the Future: messages
of hope crafted from recycled
waste and age-old wisdom
24 Jesse Marsch
The world-class football coach who
finds comfort in chaos
26 Louise Vardeman
A tour de force in women’s cycling
28 Kofi McCalla
Vlogging streetwear to the masses
30 Bas Keep
An urban masterclass in riding
walls and flipping fear on its head
from the ‘Brian Cox of BMX’
40 Cassie Kinoshi
The multitalented jazz composer
takes us on a voyage of exploration
46 Marc-André Leclerc
How the young Canadian changed
the face of alpinism – albeit at a cost
58 Lagos High Life
Whether rich or poor, partying hard
is a way of life in the Nigerian city
71 Two boards are better than one:
why splitboarding should be your
next snow adventure
77 Canned heat: headphones to covet
78 Inside edge: the Wahoo Kickr Bike
could revolutionise your ride
79 Current account: training tips from
a rising star in slalom canoeing
80 Flash pack: commute in style
82 Bak to the future: innovations in
adventure gear from Vollebak
87 Goggle jocks: the best ski eyewear
88 Pitch perfect: how to master the
latest FIFA release
89 Play to win: next-level gaming kit
90 Let it go: the benefits of showing
forgiveness, and how to get there
93 Essential dates for your calendar
98 Outdoors wisdom from Semi-Rad
THE RED BULLETIN 07

BANKS, IDAHO, USA
White lies
“Nothing brings me more joy than nailing a
shot,” says John Webster. And while this
night action shot might look spontaneous,
the US photographer carefully planned it,
positioning a strobe in the Jacob’s Ladder
rapid on North Fork Payette River, to capture
kayaker Hayden Voorhees in the darkness.
The results speak for themselves: Webster,
like all of this month’s Gallery images, won a
semi-final spot in global photography contest
Red Bull Illume. Instagram: @johnjwebster
JOHN WEBSTER/RED BULL ILLUME LOU BOYD
09

FRENCH POLYNESIA
Water
dance
The biodiverse waters of French
Polynesia are teeming with aquatic
wildlife: more than 1,000 species
of fish, 11 types of dolphin, the
humpback whale… and the lesserspotted
Marianne Aventurier.
As captured in this image by
her husband, photographer Alex
Voyer, the French freediver can
easily match her dorsal-finned
counterparts for poise and grace
beneath the surface.
Instagram: @alexvoyer_fisheye

ALEX VOYER/RED BULL ILLUME, ALBAN GUERRY-SUIRE/RED BULL ILLUME DAVYDD CHONG
SAVOIE, FRANCE
Alpine
air line
Virgin snow is to a freeskier what
freshly laid cement is to a naughty
child: irresistible. “I know this spot
well,” says Alban Guerry-Suire, the
man who shot this exhilarating act
of environmental destruction, “but
we never had the chance to ride it
without any tracks. The clouds were
moving quickly, so I told [Anthony
Robert, the skier] to get ready for my
signal. After 10 minutes… “Go!” He
lost speed on the flat part, but he
managed to catch some air. It was
perfect.” Instagram: @_stonecat
11

AVERS, SWITZERLAND
Magic
marker
“Working with Giani [Clement, the
38-year-old Swiss climber, last August]
during his first ascent projecting on the
‘Stil vor Talent’ [Style over Talent] line,
I quickly realised that the beauty and
logic of line was striking,” says German
photographer Hannes Tell. The location
of the complex route (difficulty rating:
8C/+) is south-eastern Switzerland, in
the bouldering paradise known as Magic
Wood. For this image, Tell conjured up a
composite of 20 shots tracking the climb
at dawn. Spellbinding. hannestell.de
HANNES TELL/RED BULL ILLUME DAVYDD CHONG
13

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JACK ANTONOFF
Sounds
sublime
The world’s hottest music
producer reveals four
songs in rock history he
wishes he’d produced
When music artists such as
Taylor Swift, Lana Del Rey, Lorde
and St Vincent feel like they want
to sonically break the mould, they
call Jack Antonoff. The 37-year-old
New Jerseyite earned his stripes
as guitarist/drummer in indie-pop
band Fun – biggest hit: 2011’s
multi-million-selling single We Are
Young – before making his name
as an innovative producer. The
predominance of percussive
tunes with acoustic guitars and
big choruses in the pop charts
is testimony to his influence. To
celebrate the recent release of
Take the Sadness Out of Saturday
Night – his third album as synthpop
act Bleachers – Antonoff picks
four tunes that sound perfect to
his ears. bleachersmusic.com
CARLOTTA KOHL MARCEL ANDERS
The Waterboys
The Whole of the Moon (1985)
“One of the most perfect
songs ever written. But that
aside, the production of it
carries so much joy; it’s so
alive and bouncy. I would never
have thought those sounds
would match the yearning
and near-rage of [the song’s
protagonist], who just can’t
get what someone else has
– but, against all the odds,
they do. It’s the hallmark of
amazing production: ‘How the
fuck does this work?’”
REM
At My Most Beautiful (1998)
“This is a pure love song
talking about counting
someone’s eyelashes. The
hook is: ‘I found a way to
make you smile’ – such a
simple lyric. And there are
these chamber Beach Boys
elements: tubular bells and
timpani. All the magic of
falling in love is wrapped
up in there. How the fuck
they did that I’ll never know,
but they really bottled up
that feeling.”
Fiona Apple
Limp (1999)
“This is from her When the
Pawn… album, produced by
[US singer/songwriter] Jon
Brion. There’s no better drum
sound and no better playing
– it’s [legendary Californian
session drummer] Matt
Chamberlain. The outfit that
the song is being held in, the
darkness and rage and all of
the percussion… I think there
are two kits at one point, and
they’re panned all crazy. It’s
just a masterclass.”
The Mountain Goats
San Bernardino (2008)
“There are these pizzicato
strings and then the occasional
long swells. It’s the most
genius backdrop to [frontman]
John Darnielle telling the story.
I love it because it makes me
think, ‘Jesus Christ, who
thought of that?’ And I’m good
at the craft. But we’re all trying
something way bigger than
that to capture a feeling that’s
theoretically uncapturable
unless some of this weird
magic happens.”
THE RED BULLETIN 15

NEIGHBOURHOOD
SKATE CLUB
Boarding
pass
Meet the all-woman skate crew packing
out an east London park and creating
more space for female board-riders
When skater Sky Brown
won bronze in the inaugural
Olympic women’s park
skateboarding final in August
this year, it was a watershed
moment. Not only was the
13-year-old Britain’s youngestever
Olympic medallist and
the youngest pro in her sport
worldwide, but her achievement
issued a clear message to
the as-yet-uninformed: yes,
women do skate.
This would hardly be news
if you’ve ever strolled through
Victoria Park, east London.
On any given day you’ll see
Kick start:
Lyndsay McLaren
(far left) builds
confidence in
female skaters
a crew of around 40 women
weaving across the tarmac
on their decks. This is the
Neighbourhood Skate Club,
an all-female skateboarding
collective founded by marketing
director Lyndsay McLaren.
The 33-year-old began
teaching one-to-one skate
lessons in her local park in
April this year. “There was a
huge demand from women
who wanted to learn but felt
intimidated by skateparks,”
McLaren explains. But over
time she spotted an increasing
number of female beginners
skating on their own. “It’s
hard to make friends in your
twenties, thirties and forties,”
she continues. “So I wanted
to start a community of likeminded
women from different
backgrounds who all want to
learn.” And so the club was
formed. The motto: empowering
women through voice,
movement and skateboarding.
McLaren first discovered the
sport after moving to Miami
for university in 2008. But it
was only when she relocated
to New York City that she
found the skateboarding
community for the first time.
“It took over my world. Before
I knew it, my whole friendship
group was skateboarders,”
she recalls. She began entering
competitions and spent the
next two years zipping across
the US, supported by sponsors
including helmet brand Bern.
After moving back to the
UK, it took McLaren a while
to find her tribe again, but
now it’s bigger than ever. The
Neighbourhood Skate Club’s
free workshops and gatherings
draw all levels of skater, from
total beginners to experienced
riders, and the most recent
event ended with a few laps of
the park as one giant crew. “It
was a head-turner,” McLaren
says. “I’m used to negative
experiences while skating –
being catcalled, or people
telling me to watch out – so it
was amazing to see such big
smiles on everyone’s faces.”
McLaren is determined to
create a safe space for women
skaters and other marginalised
groups in what remains a maledominated
sport. Removing
the skatepark setting was key
to making the club more
accessible. “You don’t have to
learn tricks to be a skateboarder.
There’s a simple joy that comes
from just cruising around. With
such a big group of women it’s
really empowering.”
This is a crucial part of the
Neighbourhood Skate Club:
it builds confidence on the
board and beyond. “I want
women to take the lessons
they learn from skateboarding
– the feeling of strength and
sense of self – and apply
that to their day jobs,” says
McLaren, “whether that’s
using their voice to stand up
for themselves or remembering
that it’s OK to take up space.”
neighbourhoodskateclub.
bigcartel.com
LIZ SEABROOK NINA ZIETMAN
16 THE RED BULLETIN

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Radiooooo heads: Moreau (seated), Ferst (centre) and their jet-setting, time-travelling entourage
RADIOOOOO
Time stream
Every song is a product of its time and place.
This music player wants to transport you there
In 2012, Benjamin Moreau was
sitting in his father’s newly
purchased 1960s sports car.
Admiring the vintage interior
– leatherette seats, Bakelite
wheel – the Parisian visual
artist and DJ was, he says,
“transported to another time”.
Then he turned the dial on the
radio and was confronted by
“some abominable commercial
techno music”. It shattered his
idyll but spawned an idea: what
if we could easily access music
from any era, from anywhere
on the planet? What if we had
a music discovery system that
selected tunes from across time
and space instead of by trend,
genre or algorithm? That vision
became Radiooooo.
Accessed via a website or
app, Radiooooo’s interactive
map – hand-drawn by
Passport to tune-isia: Radiooooo
co-founder Ferst works on her
musical map of discovery
co-founder Noemi Ferst, a
visual artist, sound curator, and
Moreau’s partner – is stacked
with hundreds of thousands of
songs. Users choose a location
and any decade dating back to
the start of the 20th century,
then press play. Initially, Moreau,
Ferst and a group of close
friends drew from their own
music collections; they had
been commissioned to create
a musical identity for the global
Le Baron group of nightclubs
so already had “a large and
eclectic collection”, he says.
“We began by digging all
this random and forgotten
music,” says Moreau. “Once
we’d put all that in, we started
calling friends from different
countries, then their parents
began contributing music, too.
Finally, we opened it up to
anyone. It’s become this huge
multicultural, multi-generational
project.” Today, around 1,500
people from across the world
submit records each month.
The project’s gestation has
its own timeline of discovery.
In 2013, the team attempted to
launch it through crowdfunding
site Indiegogo, but with little
success. Radiooooo finally
saw the light of day in 2016,
but lockdown provided the
opportunity for a revamp. The
map now features curated
elements such as themed
‘islands’ of music, and there’s
a ‘taxi journey’ function that
lets you chart a journey across
the globe and enjoy a playlist
of tracks en route.
“The idea is to push people
to share their culture and their
knowledge while engaging
their curiosity about what’s
happening close to them,” says
Moreau. “I’m a French guy, but
I know American music better
than Spanish or Swedish, and
they’re my neighbours.”
So, where to explore first?
Modern Mexican techno is an
untapped genre, Moreau says,
or Korean disco from the ’70s.
“Our musical time machine is
a way to make radio a cool mix
of history and science fiction.
You’re travelling through time
and space and understanding
the story behind all the music
that you uncover.”
radiooooo.com
MAURO MONGIELLO LOU BOYD
18 THE RED BULLETIN

SIGHT-001S

NINA ZIETMAN
The world is undergoing an
extinction-level event. It’s
happening all around you right
now. Stop and listen. Can you
hear it? Beyond the rumble
of traffic, the hum of your
refrigerator, the notifications
from your phone… there’s a
distinct lack of quiet. We’ve
become so accustomed to the
constant cacophony of daily
life, we don’t even notice it.
Silence is endangered,
and the situation is inflicting
massive harm on humankind.
According to the World Health
Organisation, noise pollution
not only damages hearing and
affects sleep, but it increases
the risk of cardiovascular
disease, hypertension, and
cognitive impairment.
“We need quiet for our
physical health and to connect
with people and the world
around us,” explains Matt
Mikkelsen, a sound recordist
and documentary filmmaker
from Ithaca, New York.
Mikkelsen was focused on a
career as a drummer when, in
2012, he met Gordon Hempton,
an acoustic ecologist who has
spent the past four decades
recording the rapidly vanishing
sounds of the natural world. He
instantly became an advocate
for protecting nature’s
soundscapes and spent the
next four years working on a
documentary about Hempton
and his work – 2017’s awardwinning
Being Hear. In 2018,
Hempton founded Quiet Parks
International (QPI), a nonprofit
dedicated to identifying
and preserving Earth’s last
remaining noiseless spaces.
Today, Mikkelsen, 28, is its
Executive Director of Wilderness
Quiet Parks. He and his team
study the levels of humanmade
noise around the globe,
identifying quiet places and
working to protect them.
Those spaces that meet the
organisation’s standards are
presented with a QPI Award
and offered assistance in
areas including maintenance,
park guidelines, management
Noise annoys: Quiet
Parks advocate Matt
Mikkelsen is helping
to protect the planet
from sound pollution
practice, and support for
indigenous communities.
It’s not only humans who
benefit from quiet spaces,
either. “Wildlife is just as busy
communicating as we are,” says
Mikkelsen, “and noise pollution
prohibits their ability to do that
effectively. For example, owls
hunt mainly by hearing mice
100m away. Even a small
amount of noise pollution
halves their feeding ground.”
QPI began its work in
pristine wild spaces such as
the Zabalo River in Ecuador,
but soon ascertained that
quiet places need to be more
accessible. In July this year, it
named London’s Hampstead
Heath the first Urban Quiet
Park in Europe. These spots
aren’t devoid of urban sounds,
but birds tweeting and leaves
rustling make them a haven for
city dwellers. “You shouldn’t
have to book an expeditionlevel
backpacking trip to be
able to find quiet. Quiet brings
a lot of joy. It gives space to
listen, think and feel.”
The non-profit plans to spread
its message across the globe
in 2022 with parks in Canada,
Poland, Namibia, Sweden and
beyond. Mikkelsen hopes the
impact will be felt by all, and he
believes that creating protected
quiet spaces will also help
tackle other problems such as
ocean-plastic and air pollution.
“When you find a quiet place,
it’s a good indicator for the
overall health of an ecosystem,”
he says. “By preventing noise,
we’re preventing all those
other sources of pollution from
having an impact, too.”
quietparks.org
QUIET PARKS
INTERNATIONAL
Enjoy the
silence
Amid the constant chatter about
environmental crises, one team of
ecologists believes we should all shut
up a bit – it could save the world
THE RED BULLETIN 21

LETTERS TO THE FUTURE
The neverending
story
Single-use plastic takes up to 1,000 years to decompose in landfill.
The perfect material, then, to make a book for future generations…
If you could write a letter to
your descendants 100 years
from now, what would you
say? This is a question that
Kumkum Fernando pondered
after watching the 2016
documentary A Plastic Ocean.
“There was a part where
the narrator said that every
piece of plastic ever made
still exists on this planet,”
says the 36-year-old, Sri
Lanka-born creative director.
“A plastic bag I use will still be
there when my great-greatgreat-grandson
is born.”
With this in mind,
Fernando came up with the
idea of creating a book filled
with letters of advice from
his friends to their far-future
family. It would be made
entirely from recycled plastic,
preserving their messages
for the next 1,000 years.
Working in association with
business partner Indraneel
Guha – with whom he
co-founded the Vietnambased
creative agency
Ki Saigon – and local ecoconscious
food franchise
Pizza 4P’s, Fernando
cooked up a plan.
Over the next four
months, letters flooded in
– 327 in total, from 22
countries as far afield as
France, Israel, Mongolia
and Brazil, written by staff,
friends of friends, even
Fernando’s mum. “Most
people wrote about very
personal experiences,”
Fernando says. “Some
revealed secrets, others
shared regrets. The common
theme was that they wished
for a happier tomorrow for
their loved ones.”
No wasted words: each letter was
individually hand-printed onto the
page, then these were hand-bound
One of Fernando’s
favourites came from
Heewon Moon in Korea.
“She wrote a beautiful
letter addressed to her
‘soul daughter’. She said
that if you’re in trouble
right now, just know that
everything will be OK –
this will pass.”
While the letters
express optimism and
hope, the physical book is
a reminder that single-use
plastic never goes away.
According to the United
Nations Environment
Programme, 79 per cent
of all plastic waste ever
produced has ended up
in landfill or the natural
environment. This book is
one way of recycling it into
something useful, while
highlighting its lasting
footprint on the planet.
Each letter was printed
onto a recycled plastic page
made from bags, bubble
wrap and cellophane found
on the streets of Ho Chi Minh
City. Silkscreen printing
was used to preserve the
handwriting of each author.
The book is a thing of
beauty, a kaleidoscopic
time capsule “where each
page is an artwork in
itself”, says Fernando.
Plans are underway
to display Letters to the
Future as an art exhibit in
Ho Chi Minh City. However,
such has been the global
attention, its creators
want to launch a travelling
exhibition and collect more
letters for future editions.
Fernando hopes that
the book will make others
think about their plastic
consumption. “It was
actually a self-realisation
exercise for me. Some of
the plastic we used for
the book came from my
house. Now, when I buy
something, I remember
that it will have a life of its
own long after I’ve gone.”
letters-to-the-future.com
WING CHAN/VAIB NINA ZIETMAN
22 THE RED BULLETIN

Jesse Marsch
Kicking up
a storm
The US-born head coach of German
Bundesliga team RB Leipzig explains why
he welcomes chaos in his life
Words CHRISTIAN SEILER
Photography JULIAN BAUMANN
Jesse Marsch is an extraordinary
football coach, and not only because
he’s from Wisconsin, USA – a place
where ‘soccer’ has a lot less history
than sports such as basketball and
ice hockey. The recently appointed
head coach of German Bundesliga
team RB Leipzig began his career as
a player in Major League Soccer after
graduating from Ivy League college
Princeton with a history degree. He
spent 14 seasons in MLS, winning
three league titles, before being hired
as assistant US national team coach in
2010. Following a spell with Montréal
Impact, arguably his biggest break
came in 2015 when he took charge
of MLS side New York Red Bulls. In
his first season the team enjoyed a
club-record 18 victories, and Marsch
was named MLS Coach of the Year.
Then in 2018, he took a giant leap
into the unknown. Moving to Europe,
Marsch spent a year as assistant to
Ralf Rangnick at RB Leipzig before
stepping up to the head role at Red
Bull Salzburg. The team won two
Austrian Bundesliga titles during
his reign and earned acclaim with
their attractive style of play in the
Champions League. But in June this
year the head coach’s job at Leipzig
– runners-up last season in the
German Bundesliga – came calling.
Now he faces his biggest challenge
yet. But the 47-year-old American
has built a reputation for stepping
outside his comfort zone, even
learning French to coach at Montréal,
and German at Leipzig. Here,
Marsch reveals how he embraces
chaos and copes with the druck…
the red bulletin: How does it
feel to return to RB Leipzig?
jesse marsch: Great. I wasn’t just
assistant coach to Ralf Rangnick for
a year; as New York Red Bulls coach
I often came to Leipzig. I know the
club set-up and the people. I have a
picture in my mind of how I can take
the next step forward with the team.
You’re known for thriving in
unpredictable situations…
My head never works faster than
when there’s chaos all around. When
things are hectic and confusing, you
have to come up with new solutions.
But I also understand that a lot of
people here in Germany like having
everything under control – a perfect
schedule, all tasks clearly delegated.
How do you square that circle?
By finding a balance that suits
everyone. And by instilling a mindset
that we’re constantly learning. Every
match has unpredictable aspects.
The player has to understand every
situation while being able to react to
it physically, at full speed and power.
Has that been the case in your
own career – chaos, then clarity?
I’ve learned a lot when times are
tough. At Salzburg we had to realise
that winning doesn’t always mean
progress. Everyone had to take on
board that complex situations offer
opportunities for self-development.
Do you mean losing matches?
In February 2020, the media were
reporting we were mid-crisis. We’d
won only one of our last six games
and we were out of the Europa
League, but that set a process in
motion. I began to understand how
Austrian football functioned in the
winter; the ideas needed to win games
on bad pitches in bad weather.
Have you developed a European
way of seeing things?
Before I could speak German, I was at
a game in Wolfsburg with [then team
coordinator at RB Leipzig] Jochen
Schneider. I watched an interview with
a player and they used the word druck
about 15 times, and so did the coach.
So I asked Jochen what it meant.
“Pressure,” he said. “As in going in hard
in football?” I asked. “No, in society,”
he replied. “Everyone feels they must
be a success.” Pressure is relative. If
you come to the ground and only talk
about pressure, you can’t play football
or be the coach with a clear head.
You travelled the world for six
months after your first coaching
gig. How did that help?
I realised that more than 99 per cent
of people have zero interest in Major
League Soccer. They don’t care.
People have totally different pressure
– life pressure, not football pressure.
The journey taught me to set the idea
of pressure and success to one side.
What have been some unexpected
sources of coaching inspiration?
When I was still at college I’d speak to
coaches in other sports. I learned a lot
from rowing. Rowers are out on the
water at 5am; they take things beyond
the limit. When they cross the line, all
eight rowers literally collapse. I want a
football team with the same mentality.
How are you instilling togetherness
at RB Leipzig?
Speaking German, for a start. It would
be easier for me to speak English – most
of the players are better at English than
German – but we’re a German team,
so everyone has to adapt. My German
is good enough to be understood.
Does a sense of humour help, too?
Fallibility means being able to laugh
at yourself. There are times when
we’re fully focused on our work, but
we should always have fun and laugh
with and at each other. Yes, a sense
of humour definitely helps.
rbleipzig.com
24 THE RED BULLETIN

“My head
never works
faster than
when there’s
chaos”
THE RED BULLETIN 25

Louise Vardeman
Long road to
equality
In 2019, she cycled the Tour de France ahead of male
competitors to protest about the exclusion of women.
Now, the Brit is seeing change in her sport
Words JESS HOLLAND
Louise Vardeman knows how to
push through hard times. When the
43-year-old from Marlow, Bucks,
first took up cycling six years ago,
it was because she had to give up
long-distance running; the cartilage
in her hip was destroyed. It was a
low point. She’d been in a marriage
that was falling apart, with two kids,
diagnosed depression and shattered
confidence. After “getting to rock
bottom”, Vardeman finally decided to
leave her husband. She channelled
her pain into riding. Two years later,
she was performing at a high-enough
level to represent Britain in the Gran
Fondo World Championships.
That winter, Vardeman saw
a call-out online from a group of
French women who, for the last
four years, had been riding the
Tour de France route a day ahead
of the male competitors. Their aim
was to raise awareness of inequality
in cycling – the Tour de France was
still a men’s-only event. For women,
only a one-day competition had been
allocated, with just one-hundredth
of the prize money available.
Vardeman contacted the group,
and this led to her co-founding
an international branch, The
InternationElles. In 2019, they met
for the first time in Brussels, at the
start of the Tour de France route,
and set off. The 3,500km journey
was gruelling, but the women
persevered, attracting global press,
from the BBC’s Breakfast show to
The New York Times. And at the
finish point, on the Champs-Élysées
in Paris, Vardeman’s boyfriend was
waiting with a marriage proposal.
The pandemic prevented The
InternationElles from repeating
their feat in 2020, but in May this
year it was announced that an
official eight-day women’s Tour de
France will follow the men’s race
in July 2022. Vardeman is not
expecting to ride in the event itself
– she’s an amateur cyclist with a day
job in events management – but she
took part in the 25-hour Red Bull
Timelaps event at the end of October
and is aiming to compete again in
the Gran Fondo next year.
The campaigning was never
intended for her own benefit, she
says, but to inspire a younger
generation: “I hate the idea that
someone might think, ‘I’m a girl,
therefore I can’t do that.’”
the red bulletin: Were there
moments on the Tour de France
route where you hit a wall?
louise vardeman: About three
weeks in, I had a lot of doubt.
I hadn’t slept well, and I started
crying at the top of one ascent.
I had to play music on a speaker to
take my mind off the voices in my
head telling me to go home. As we
approached [alpine mountain pass
Col du] Galibier, I became
overwhelmed. I needed the toilet,
and I was feeling too hot, but I kept
pedalling until I literally just fell
sideways onto the floor. I thought,
“I’m done, I can’t do this any more.”
I couldn’t even unclip my feet from
the pedals. But I realised that I’d
never forgive myself if I got in the
van on the 18th stage out of 21.
If it took all day to do this next bit,
so be it. When we got to the bottom
of Galibier, I felt like something
was pushing me. I just felt strong,
and I ascended the whole thing
without any problem. At the top,
we climbed the sign and took
photographs. It was just incredible
– I’d conquered a mountain.
Do you have the same
determination when it comes to
tackling inequality in cycling?
Yes. Cycling is so traditional,
especially in France. It’s so white
and male-dominated. It doesn’t
help that bikes are so expensive and
cycling clubs are not very inclusive.
There are so many barriers. That
spurs me on.
What other projects have you
been working on?
We did a lot of campaigning about
[the disparities in] prize money last
year, because there’s a big gap there.
For the Strade Bianche [a road race
in Tuscany] in 2021, the men’s prize
pot [for the top five riders] was
€31,600, whereas the equivalent for
women was €6,298. So we launched
a crowdfunding campaign with The
Cyclists’ Alliance and a fan named
Cem Tanyeri. We raised just under
€27,000, which took the women’s
prize pot above that of the men’s.
The pros couldn’t believe it.
Have your cycling experiences
given you greater confidence in
other areas of life?
I wish they did. I lack confidence
with every single thing I do. I want
other people to know that
[competing] doesn’t come naturally
to me. It’s hard, but it’s so worth it.
What advice do you have for others
wanting to make a big change?
You only live once, and if you’re
not happy, you’re wasting your
time. When it comes to making a
difference, you can’t think about
changing the whole world, but little
changes add up. You have no idea
of the ripple effect you have. And
even if you only change one person’s
life, that’s so important.
loukew.co.uk
JOSEPH O’CONNELL-DANES
26 THE RED BULLETIN

“I hate the
idea someone
might think, ‘I’m
a girl, so I can’t
do that’”
THE RED BULLETIN 27

Kofi McCalla
The art of
styling it out
The fashion world is famously impenetrable, but this
YouTuber went from making videos in his bedroom
to waltzing into its inner circle
Words EMMA FINAMORE
Photography LOUIS FRY
Walk around central London dressed
smartly enough and there’s a chance
you’ll be approached by Kofi McCalla.
He might even ask what you’re
wearing. Don’t be affronted, you’re
in prestigious company. Bella Hadid,
Usher and even infamously frosty
Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour
have all been hit-and-run by the
British vlogger – the latter two at a
Balmain show at Paris Fashion Week
last year, where Wintour responded
to his probing with a curt “No”.
But McCalla is the fashion world’s
chancer, creating content through
risk and gamble, and begging others
for forgiveness over permission as
he quizzes them on a handheld
camera for his YouTube channel, The
Unknown Vlogs. What began as a
teenage hobby in 2014 has amassed
more than 120 million views and
made McCalla a leading voice in
the streetwear market – a fashion
subculture that mixes the skate
and sportswear aesthetic with highend
independent brands.
“Streetwear is a community and a
form of escapism,” McCalla explains.
“When I first started, there was no
documentation of streetwear on the
internet. Most of the world doesn’t
get it. I decided to fill that space,
explain it to everyone.”
From revealing first drops of
street brands such as Supreme to
tracking thrift-shop trends in Tokyo
and hitting runway shows for Prada,
McCalla’s videos make the scene
accessible and easy to understand.
In his newest video series, What Are
People Wearing Today, he interviews
style-conscious types on the street,
right across the UK. “I show how the
community celebrates products and
designers, as well as how everyday
people make their own style.”
This has earned him a following
as diverse as those he approaches. In
2019, Canadian rapper Drake DM-ed
McCalla to ask if he could appear in
an episode – something the vlogger
describes as a “Whoa! WTF?!
moment”. But then, McCalla has a
knack for looking past the image,
labels and price tags, and finding
the individual beneath.
the red bulletin: What made
you start filming streetwear?
kofi mccalla: Growing up, I lived
in a town that was closed-minded.
I’d visit the Supreme store in London
and go home like, “Boom, check out
these clothes,” but no one got it.
That’s why I first posted online –
I found an audience on YouTube
that was just getting into streetwear
and wanted to know more.
It takes some courage to approach
the likes of Anna Wintour…
When you have a passion project,
you just want to show the world
“this is my baby”. At that show in
Paris, I wasn’t thinking about what
Anna Wintour would think of me;
I was thinking that I had this
amazing chance to tell her about
my channel and feature her in my
video. I’m always thinking, “I’ve
made it in here, I need to make the
most of it.” Creating content has
been my life since 2014, and it’s
always been escapism for me, but
now it’s something I live off. It’s my
job to run over and try.
Did anyone try to stop you filming?
Definitely. The whole Balmain team
were scared, and just before I walked
up to her everyone behind the camera
was telling me not to. But she’s still
human, and talking to people about
clothes is what I do, so I was just like,
“Anna Wintour. Oh, hey, what’s up?”
What was the inspiration for What
Are People Wearing Today?
Lockdown was tough for us all. As we
went back outside, I wanted to show
people connecting again. This video
series is as much about people as
about clothes. I wanted to give the
feeling that you [the viewer] are the
camera, finding out how people are
doing as well as what they’re wearing.
How do you pick the right person
to approach?
I try to feature people as diverse as
possible. I look at the colour palette
they’re wearing, the silhouette and
what kind of shapes they’ve made
with their clothes. Sometimes I
recognise a random low-key designer,
but once I approached a guy and he
turned out to be wearing almost all
Primark. It’s how you style it.
Where do you find the most
interesting people?
It’s a cliché, but Soho in London.
You can wear anything there and not
be judged. I’m heavily inspired by
Parisian fashion. Thrifting is big there.
Gen Z are thrifting the craziest clothes.
How are Gen Z changing fashion?
They’ve brought more awareness of
sustainability. Is it ethically made? Are
you using real leather or not? They’re
also buying more into people and less
into brands. I think there’ll be a point,
even with high-street brands, where
influencers become creative directors.
Tell us about that Drake DM…
He just messaged me out of the blue.
Of course I’m a fan, but when we met
I was more “Right, let’s get this done.”
He was the one telling my friends he’d
watched my videos. By that point I was
already working with Balmain, Dior…
I felt I was in a position I’d earned.
Watch McCalla’s YouTube channel
The Unknown Vlogs at youtube.com
28 THE RED BULLETIN

“Just before
I went up to
Anna Wintour,
everyone
was telling
me not to”
THE RED BULLETIN 29

Tearing
down walls
Fear, stress, injury, boredom, random
Domino’s Pizza scooters, the sides
of buildings – these are the obstacles
BAS KEEP has learned not just
to overcome, but to ride to victory
Words MATT RAY and TOM GUISE
Photography EISA BAKOS

Bas Keep filming
More Walls in
Selfridges car park,
Birmingham, in
September 2019
31

Bas Keep
W
hen Sebastian Keep was 11 years old,
he discovered an alien artefact near
his hometown of Hastings, East Sussex,
that would change the course of his life.
“I was riding an old-school Raleigh
Burner BMX, looking for hills to go down
as fast as I could, because that’s what we
thought BMX was about,” recalls the
38-year-old today. “Then my brother and
his friends stumbled across this thing
and rushed home to tell us about it, so
we went to check it out.”
What Keep saw blew his young mind:
“There was this metal structure like the
hull of a huge ship, tucked away in this
work yard in some country lanes. You’d
never find it, but it had been there more
than 30 years. At 11, I thought I knew
everything about the world, and yet this
thing felt like it had been kept from us.
Why didn’t we know about it? Why wasn’t
it on TV? It was like finding a UFO.”
Keep and his friends had unearthed
the Crowhurst Bowl. “This guy in the
village, Dennis, had built the ramp to
help out local kids who had nowhere to
skate,” he says. “Even without anyone
doing tricks on it, it was impressive.
I don’t know if you’ve ever seen a vert
ramp in the flesh, but this one was 10ft
[3m] tall. It was terrifying, vertical; you
couldn’t imagine people riding down it.”
He didn’t know it at the time, but
Sebastian ‘Bas’ Keep had begun a journey
to legendary status in BMX as one of its
greatest-ever all-round riders. But, back
in 1994, he recalls, “We didn’t even realise
people did backflips on bikes. At that age
I was bored, playing a lot of football and
annoying the trolley pushers at the local
Tesco. I needed something to dig my
teeth into. When we found the ramp, it
introduced me to something missing in
my life, and to people with a common
bond. These guys took us in and gave
encouragement, teaching us how to drop
into a ramp. The other neighbourhood
kids weren’t friendly like that.”
32 THE RED BULLETIN

Keep at his practice warehouse.
“I like simple tricks done
well, high, and landed smooth”

2
1
3
4

Bas Keep
Anatomy of
the wall ride
“There’s a moment after
you jump when you suddenly
stop. It’s like being on a
rollercoaster – that feeling
in your stomach before it
drops.” To see Bas Keep
perform his signature realityfolding
jump-to-vert, it
seems almost effortless.
But like all magic tricks, the
complexity of what’s being
performed is hidden from
the audience by the magician
himself. Here, Keep breaks
down what’s going on inside
his head during each stage
of this jump…
1. The launch
“This is the moment where the
hard part is done – the decision
to let go of the fear. You can’t
see underneath the level – it’s
completely blind, so you look at
the wall ahead and trust. It’s
a massive mind game.”
2. The air
“In this moment you’ll know
instantly whether it’s going to
be a few glorious milliseconds
of flight, or to prepare for a
crash landing.”
3. The vert
“Once the flight has reached
its apex, you start to plan for
the landing by looking through
the bike frame to line it up with
the wall. You don’t want to be
too close to the wall, but you
really don’t want to miss it
completely and land hard on
the flat ground.”
4. Exit!
“A bittersweet moment of
relief and disappointment –
the job is done.”
Keep and his friends began spending every
spare moment at the bowl, and each
evening Dennis would drive them home.
“We’d all be hungry – we didn’t have any
money to buy food,” says Keep. “But he
helped us out. He helped us fix the ramp
and our bikes. He was a great guy.” Within
a year, Keep could pull off a backflip.
“That was unheard of in the scene back
then – a young kid doing a mature trick
like that. I gained instant notoriety.
Then, in the early 2000s, BMX blew up.”
It’s 8am on a chilly September morning
in 2019. Standing astride his BMX on
the second floor of Selfridges car park
in Birmingham, Bas Keep is staring at
a short ramp leading off the edge of the
storey. Beyond it is a gap barely wider than
the take-off, then a concrete pillar rising
from the level below. He’s in a trance,
gazing into a moment where the cars are
halted, chatter dies down, and the only
movement comes from the flutter of the
white-and-red barrier tape strung between
traffic cones. Then his tyres attack the
tarmac. He powers forward, committed.
“I want to put
my wheels places
where no one
has ever been”
The ramp sends Keep across the gap.
His bike seems to fold space as he spins
through 360°, simultaneously inverting
to face the floor. Both tyres hit the pillar
with a clap, rubber compressing into the
concrete as he hangs there for a heartbeat
before plummeting down the vert. At the
bottom of the pillar is another ramp meant
to launch Keep back out in the opposite
direction. But something has gone wrong.
Suddenly, Keep is not riding at all;
he’s a passenger. His bike piledrives him
into the lower level like a sack of wet
cement. From Mach 3 to standstill in an
instant. As Keep lies crumpled on his
side, the crew rush in, anxiety growing
with every second he remains motionless.
“Fuck, I didn’t see that coming,” he
says, pulling himself to his feet with
more alacrity than expected. At first he
looks dazed, but quickly his expression
sharpens back into focus. A quick roll of
the shoulders and a few strides around
the car park and you’d never believe
Keep was hugging the asphalt seconds
earlier. Soon he’s chatting with his crew
in subdued tones. He already knows
what went wrong. “Not getting the setup
close enough,” Keep explains. “It was
3ft higher than we thought, and it spat
me out. I was too tense, and there was
too much vert. That’s a lethal combo.”
If Keep’s assessment seems matter-offact,
well, he’s been here before. In 2017,
he dropped a guerrilla-style video, Walls,
on an unsuspecting public. It documented
THE RED BULLETIN 35

“As a kid, I would
just huck stuff,”
says Keep. “That’s
why I’ve broken
so many bones”

Bas Keep
Keep slyly setting up makeshift ramps
around UK cities, then launching off
flyovers and overhead walkways to ride
down the sheer sides of buildings. No one
in or outside the bike world had seen
anything like it. Two years and almost
14 million views later, he’s working on
a sequel – taller buildings, wider gaps,
harder drops, More Walls. “People said
to me, ‘You can’t do that again – there’s
nothing else to do,’” reveals Keep. “I said,
“There’s so much more – lots of buildings
that haven’t been ridden down. I want to
put my wheels places no one’s ever been.”
This wasn’t the first time the bike
world decided that Keep had peaked. In
December 2011, he was given a lifetime
achievement award by Ride UK magazine
following a decade of victories at pro
BMX competitions; Keep was just 29. “It
was flattering, but a bit strange,” he says.
“In my acceptance speech, I said, ‘They’re
“Fear is normal.
You have to
understand that
you can use it”
just trying to get rid of me.’ The view is
that when you hit 30 it’s time to step down.
It’s a shame there’s that cultural attitude.
We’re not playing in the Champions
League, we’re expressing ourselves. It’s
a lifestyle sport. And I’m still here.”
Keep was 16 the first time he thought
of retiring: “I’d tell my friends, ‘I’m going
to give up this riding stuff and get a real
job.’ So I worked in a furniture factory
for few years, then a BMX distribution
centre. But I began getting invitations
to contests, so I decided to concentrate
on riding full-time. It was a dream
come true.” Then, in 2005, he become
a sponsored rider for Red Bull. “I turned
it down the first time,” Keep recalls. “I
didn’t really know who they were. Back
then, no one had drinks sponsors. Years
later, they asked me again. By then, I’d
been working alongside them putting
on BMX events and they’d gained more
respect in the scene. I was all up for it.”
Today, Keep is one of Red Bull’s
longest-standing athletes. “They’ve
gained the admiration of a lot of core
BMX riders because of how attentive
they’ve been to the sport,” he says.
“They’d come to us and say, ‘We want
to help you do the stuff you’ve always
wanted to do,’ and that’s so refreshing
to hear. As a BMX rider, you can get stuck
in your niche, but Red Bull told me to
look outside the box – to translate what
I’m doing to a wider audience.
“It’s a bit like Brian Cox, the scientist.
He translates what quantum theory and
the universe are about in a way that we
can understand. He makes it relatable to
us dummies. I wanted to show people
BMX. If you do a jump, it doesn’t look that
big, but if you put it next to something
people can relate to – a bus, in the city
centre, down an alleyway – the scale has
more impact. I couldn’t have come up
with this concept without Red Bull.”
The year after Keep was given his
lifetime achievement award, he attended a
Red Bull BMX contest at the Grand Palais
in Paris. It was the epiphany he needed.
“It must have been the most resources ever
put into a contest course,” he recalls.
“It was beautiful to look at. Nate Wessel,
a famous ramp builder, had been given
free rein to realise every idea he’d ever
had, so he built this ramp that jumped out,
then you rode underneath, back to where
you came from. That’s where I got the idea
for Walls. I said, ‘I’m going to take that
idea to city centres, jump off bridges, and
ride down buildings next to them. I knew
I could do the manoeuvre. The only thing
that would be difficult was getting ramps
to the spots without being caught.”
Keep and his crew have taken a break
from filming and returned to their
operations base – a draughty, graffititagged,
rat-infested warehouse in an
industrial park southeast of Birmingham’s
Chinese Quarter. Inside, creature comforts
are basic: seats ripped from a Transit van,
a monstrous Bluetooth speaker, sheet-
THE RED BULLETIN 37

metal safety signs with legends such as
‘Every 2.5 minutes one person is killed
or injured falling at work’. Towering at
the far end is the most important piece
of furniture – a Walls-style jump-to-vert
platform with an adjustable ramp that
launches into a wooden wall. Duct tape
marks the wall about 5m up, representing
a crucial boundary. “Land above that line
and you’re dead,” says Keep, casually.
It’s here that riding intuition meets
ramp-building expertise, although Keep
admits it’s less of a science and more
a twisted kind of art. “None of us is good
at physics – we just work things out by
looking at tyre prints,” he explains.
This methodology may seem terrifyingly
freeform, but the operation of making
More Walls is positively militaristic
compared with the grassroots techniques
employed for its predecessor. “We wore
hi-vis jackets [for Walls] because people
don’t ask questions if you’ve got one on,”
says Keep of the 2017 film. “It worked
wonders. People didn’t even look at us.”
Nonetheless, the team would arrive
at a location at dawn and unpack the
ramps as quickly as possible. “You
couldn’t take a normal-sized ramp to
some of these places, so we had to scale
it down, make it lighter and thinner,”
Keep says. “But the sound of the drills
at 7am, oh my God, it was so loud.”
For the sequel, the rider and his team
have taken a more above-board approach.
“We’ve got council permissions,” he
explains. “A couple of hours to be at each
spot, everything done correctly. I prefer
it this way because there was more stress
before. When I did the Croydon gap,
there was a guy on a moped. No one had
thought to stop him; this is how guerrilla
we were. I was in the air and could see
him. As I slid down in front of him, he
stopped, looked at me and just carried
on. It’s nice to know I’m not going to
have any collisions with Domino’s Pizza
deliveries this time.”
Apart from filing council applications,
Keep has found other ways to manage his
stress. “I spoke to a sports psychologist,”
he admits. “Going into More Walls, I was
quite stressed by such a big challenge.
It’s something that all BMXers battle
with – that fear of doing something that
could hurt you.” A strict schedule locked
to permitted filming days didn’t help,
either. “‘On October 25, you’re going to
be jumping off that bridge, whether you
feel like it or not’ – that’s not how we ride
bikes. It’s like taking a penalty – the more
38 THE RED BULLETIN

Bas Keep
“I like the
moody, grey
light,” says
Keep of
filming it all
in Britain
“At 16, I told my
friends, ‘I’m going
to give up riding
and get a real job’”
you think about where you’re going to
kick the ball, the more likely you’ll mess
it up. You’re not going with the flow. But
[the psychologist] told me fear is normal.
You have to understand that you can use
it. OK, I’m scared, but I’m also excited
and prepared. That helped a lot.”
It was also a process that helped Keep
when forces beyond his control – namely
lockdown measures caused by the
pandemic – halted filming for more than
a year. “I’m relaxed about it,” he says.
“You can’t waste energy worrying about
things you can’t change. I’d rather spend
five years getting it right than rushing it.”
The break in production also gave
Keep valuable downtime to appreciate
another crucial change to his life: the
birth of his son, Wilson, in 2018.
“Nothing teaches you more about yourself
than having a child,” he confesses. “It
makes you want to preserve yourself –
more so than I ever did. Now, I’m not
scared to say, ‘Guys, I’m not feeling this.’
Maybe it’s taken my mind off the
individual pursuit of my career. Or it
makes you enjoy your work more, because
you can have a mental break from it.”
Wilson has also provided Keep
with many moments of introspection.
“Suddenly your own childhood is back
in your psyche. You remember how you
were. Everything is new to him; the first
time he saw a police car, it was like,
‘Wow,’ and that makes it exciting for
me again. It makes you realise how
much you can love someone, and you
appreciate your own parents more,
too. I’ve come full circle.”
Riding out walls, landing them,
coming full circle – it’s more than just
a bike trick for Bas Keep. Today, he’s
still in touch with Dennis, the man
who opened up this world to him.
“We’re still friends,” says Keep, fondly.
“I think he’s 70 now.” Passing on what
he’s learned is important, too. In 2016,
Keep formed his own bike company,
Tall Order, to do just that. “We design
our products specifically for ramps and
transitions. It’s a niche within a niche,
because street riding is where the money
is, but I’ve never really been a street rider.
“Also, other companies predominantly
sponsor exceptional riders, but I wanted
to sponsor normal, relatable kids who
ride but just aren’t quite there yet. People
are surprised to see how supportive we
are of one another, and on the first day
I started riding I was surprised, too. But
that’s our community. If you started
riding BMX tomorrow, I’d support you
100 per cent, and then you’d teach your
friend to drop in. It’s exciting to see them
enjoy what you’ve been through.”
There’s no better example of that
ethos than a video Tall Order posted to
YouTube last year. It shows Keep meeting
a boy called Connor at a bike park. “He’s
a great kid, and he loved riding his bike,”
says Keep. “He also lives in one of the
most deprived areas in the country. He
was just having a good time riding, but it
was a crap bike, absolutely broken. Lots
of kids give up when their bikes break
like that – it’s difficult to fix them and
you need special tools. I saw him that
day and I was like, ’We’ve got to help him
out,’ so we gave him a bike. When we
asked what he’d do with the other bike,
he said, ‘I’m going to give it to my sister,
because she wants to start riding.’”
Today, the video has almost 3.5 million
views. “But I didn’t want people to
think that was the only reason we did it,”
Keep adds. “And I messaged his mum
on Facebook to say we hoped she didn’t
mind us giving him the bike.”
Back at Selfridges car park, the
More Walls crew have returned for
another attempt. Keep has been
riding the earlier impact out of his hip.
He comes back purposely out of breath,
as if riding helps exorcise the demons of
failures past. “You can’t have any doubt
in your head,” he says, steadfastly.
There’s barely a pause, then Keep hits
the ramp for a second time. His wheels
smash into the vert with the same
intensity, but he rides it out as if on rails.
A few more runs and you can see the
precision dialled into his big air – the
tyre marks on the vert are all grouped
within centimetres of each other, like
rifle shots on a range. “Once you’re
doing it, you’re fine,” Keep remarks.
“It’s like muscle memory.”
To watch Bas Keep’s More Walls,
scan the QR code
THE RED BULLETIN 39

Cosmic
composer
Award-winning composer, jazz
saxophonist and bandleader CASSIE
KINOSHI blends science fiction
and fantasy to construct music that
tells stories about modern society
and the experience of being a young
Black woman in Britain today
Words LOU BOYD
THE MASTER SESSIONS/MQA AND BLUESOUND
40 THE RED BULLETIN

Space is the place:
Cassie Kinoshi is
taking jazz to as-yetunexplored
territories

Cassie Kinoshi
“I will always go
against the urge to
be boxed into
any one discipline”
I’ve just woken up – I didn’t get back
from my gig until 3am this morning,”
laughs Cassie Kinoshi down the phone at
the start of our early Saturday interview.
“Sorry if I sound a bit out of it.” A busy
schedule is standard for the London-based
alto saxophonist, composer and arranger.
When Kinoshi isn’t touring with her
Mercury Prize-nominated 10-piece band
SEED Ensemble, or playing as a member
of the Afrobeat collective Kokoroko or
female-fronted sextet Nérija, she’s
composing and arranging scores for
orchestra, film, theatre and dance, or
creating installations for various festivals
and residences. Weekend lie-ins, it
seems, are not a regular occurrence.
This extraordinary work ethic has
already paid dividends. At just 28, Kinoshi
is among the UK’s most accomplished
musicians. Since graduating from
London’s Trinity Laban Conservatoire of
Music and Dance in 2015, she has enjoyed
astonishing success, including a British
Composer Award (Best Jazz Composition
for Large Ensemble) in 2018, and the
2019 Jazz FM Award for Breakthrough Act
of the Year. Alongside band-leading and
composing, Kinoshi also teaches young
musicians and supports projects that
promote music in the national curriculum.
Having grown up in the leafy
suburban Hertfordshire town of Welwyn
Garden City, Kinoshi moved to South
London a decade ago to study music,
with the aim of composing for film and
television. “I wanted to be exactly like
[American film and TV composer] Danny
Elfman – he was my hero,” she says.
Kinoshi portrays her 18-year-old self
as an enthusiastic and somewhat earnest
undergraduate; she cringes at the memory
of taking sheet music to a recital of
Prokofiev’s Cinderella Suites at the Royal
Albert Hall and reading along with the
performance. From there, her influences
grew more diverse, and soon she found
herself inspired by composers from many
different backgrounds and experiences.
“Someone who’s been really influential
to me is the classical composer Samuel
Coleridge-Taylor, who was half English
and half Sierra Leonean,” she says.
“I also became inspired by the way that
musicians such as Ornette Coleman
and Vijay Iyer have combined their jazz
and classical composition skills.”
Kinoshi’s musical expansion grew
further when she joined the jazz
organisation Tomorrow’s Warriors in her
first year at Trinity Laban, fell in love
with performing, and found her crowd.
“It was such a warm environment to
learn not just about jazz but how to put
yourself into your music; how to connect
with other people and love the music
you make,” she says. This led her to
playing in collectives alongside other
revered UK jazz contemporaries
including Nubya Garcia, Moses Boyd
and Sheila Maurice-Grey, and becoming
the bandleader of SEED Ensemble.
Whether she’s composing for a jazz
collective, a film score or an orchestral
project, what connects Kinoshi’s work is
the way in which it starts conversations
about society. Platforming and protest
has been an element of her music from
the very start – one of the first pieces
she ever composed in school, she recalls,
featured the inflammatory 1968 ‘Rivers
of Blood’ speech on immigration by
British Conservative politician Enoch
Powell. “It’s something I always wanted
to do in my work – to write about my
politics and my personal experience as
a black woman in the UK,” she says.
In her compositions for SEED
Ensemble, the message is more nuanced,
but even the creation of the band was
layered with meaning, with the intent
of celebrating the UK’s vibrant musical
diversity and planting ‘seeds’ of
awareness of underrepresented issues.
“Even though I grew up in a mostly white
area in Hertfordshire, my friendship
group was always different races and
socio-economic backgrounds,” Kinoshi
says. “SEED [Ensemble] is such a mix
of people, and that’s important to me,
because it presents lots of different
interpretations of jazz and improvised
music – and of life.”
The band’s 2019 eight-track debut
album, Driftglass – named after the 1971
collection of short stories by African-
American science-fiction writer Samuel
R Delany – won both commercial and
critical acclaim, along with a Mercury
Prize nomination. A mix of Kinoshi’s
original compositions and improvisation
from various ensemble members,
Driftglass explores modern-day issues
such as race, class and social policy
using themes from science fiction, space
exploration and fantasy.
“Science fiction has always been
a point of escape for me – reading it,
writing it, watching it, listening to
music influenced by it,” she says.
Delany’s words, therefore, seemed
a natural fit for Kinoshi. “I love how
beautiful a lot of his descriptions are,
and how abstract a lot of the themes
are while still being very real,” she says.
“I just thought [science fiction] was
the perfect medium and genre to
KEZIAH QUARCOO
42 THE RED BULLETIN

“Science fiction is the perfect
genre to express how I feel about
my own existence in the world…
that feeling of otherness”

“I’ve always wanted to include
my politics in my work, writing
about my personal experience as
a black woman in the UK”

Cassie Kinoshi
ADAMA JALLOH, KEZIAH QUARCOO
Taking root: Kinoshi (centre) with fellow members of SEED Ensemble
express how I feel about my own
existence in the world. Science fiction
relates closely to feelings of otherness.”
Album tracks The Darkies, Afronaut
and Interplanetary Migration explore
themes of identity and belonging
through poetry and music, while W A K E
(For Grenfell) speaks of the 2017 Grenfell
Tower tragedy – where a fire broke out
in a West London block of flats, killing
72 people – through the words of poet
and Harlem Renaissance leader Langston
Hughes. “Tell all my mourners to mourn
in red,” the poem states within the track,
“’cause there ain’t no sense in my being
dead.” Did these inclusions on the album
start the conversations that Kinoshi had
hoped for? “On a small level, yes,” she
says. “I think that track has allowed the
issues around Grenfell and that whole
tragedy to still be talked about.”
Since its release, Driftglass has
widely been described by reviewers as
‘Afrofuturist’, the artistic style that
explores the intersection of African
diaspora culture and technology. Was
that a conscious stylistic choice, or a
label retroactively put onto her music?
“It’s definitely something that was
put on afterwards,” Kinoshi says. “It’s
something I’m still learning about
myself. I didn’t write it thinking, “This
is African futurism,” though I do see
how some of the tracks can be read
“I’m really inspired
by combining jazz
and classical
composition skills”
that way.” One of Kinoshi’s greatest
influences is Sun Ra, the visionary
1950s jazz composer and bandleader
considered by many to be one of the
pioneers of Afrofuturism. “But I feel
like the way he came by it was really
organic as well,” she argues. “It was
just how he felt about himself and his
music’s place in the universe. He also
didn’t think, ‘Oh, I’d better jump into
this concept of Afrofuturism.’”
Speaking on this weekend
morning, Kinoshi says that while
SEED Ensemble’s current tour is
at its tail end, the schedule isn’t
about to become any less hectic. Over
the next month she’s embarking on an
artist residency at the London Unwrapped
festival – a celebration of the past
400 years of London culture, where
she’ll present Echo, a sonic and visual
installation with artist Anne Verheij;
and an evening of new material with
members of SEED Ensemble and the
Aurora Orchestra. “There are quite
a few layers to it, compositionally and
musically,” she says. “I was approached
by the programme director, Helen
Wallace, to use the space to explore
different layers of my artistic practice.”
Filmed entirely with handheld
cameras, Echo will be an immersive
audio-visual triptych with London as its
main character. “It’s very personal,” says
Kinoshi. “It has a sort of nostalgia about
London, but it’s also a very personal
exploration of myself and on my own
journey in coming [to the capital] and
living and growing up here.” She laughs at
herself: “It all sounds a bit overwhelming,
so I hope people just find their own
interpretation. It is quite abstract.”
Kinoshi’s evening event with Aurora
Orchestra will be more traditional,
however, with new original compositions
performed by principal players from the
orchestra and Kinoshi’s own ensemble.
“I’m really inspired by combining jazz
and classical composition skills, and that
is the inspiration here,” she says. “I was
so happy when Aurora agreed to do it
with me – I’ve wanted to write for them
since university. They’re one of the most
open-minded orchestras I’ve ever seen.”
Will the coming year see Kinoshi
delving deeper into composition and
installation, or heading out on the road
now the world is open and live music is
back? She shrugs. “This year, I’ve put in
a lot of work that I hope will come to
fruition in 2022, on every front,” she
says. “I think the media will always try
to put an artist in a box, because it
makes them more palatable and easier
for audiences to understand, but I will
always go against the urge to be boxed
into any one discipline.”
This suggests more music of all kinds
from Kinoshi, as long as it platforms
diverse voices and speaks frankly about
society. “But I want the choice to always
write about whatever I want,” she says.
“Not just my politics and stuff like that.
If I wake up tomorrow and decide I just
want to write about cake next year, then
I’ll write about cake.”
Cassie Kinoshi’s artist residency at
London Unwrapped takes place throughout
November and December. Echo is being
presented on November 19 and 20;
Aurora Orchestra with Cassie Kinoshi
will be performing on November 27; and
Synthesis, her curated night with three
artists – Lunch Money Life, Joviale and
un.procedure – is on December 10;
kingsplace.co.uk
THE RED BULLETIN 45

Beyond
impossible
Writer and climber Mark Jenkins
ponders the audacious exploits
and soulful purity of Canadian
alpinist MARC-ANDRÉ LECLERC,
whose story is told in the new
documentary The Alpinist
Words MARK JENKINS
Mountain tension: Marc-André Leclerc, shown here
on Torre Egger in the Southern Patagonian Ice Field,
soloed dozens of groundbreaking routes

Higher calling: Leclerc, the
protagonist of The Alpinist, had
a deep thirst for experience that
matched his outsized talents
AUSTIN SIADAK, SCOTT SERFAS
47

Marc-André Leclerc
Leclerc soloed Mount
Robson without telling
the filmmakers. “It
wouldn’t be a solo to
me if somebody was
there,” he later said
“I
as well shoot yourself, because that’s when people
f you’re not young and
brash between the ages
of 17 and 24 you might
are young and brash.” So says Alan ‘Hevy Duty’
Stevenson – hula-hoop virtuoso, twinkle-eyed
raconteur, and unofficial mayor of the rock-climbing
community in Squamish, Canada – describing
Marc-André Leclerc’s exuberant passion for
climbing. “He belongs in a different era – the ’70s
or ’80s, when it was wild. He’s a man out of his
time.” These words capture the boundless joy and
mortal intensity of The Alpinist, a film about one
of the youngest, boldest and best of this breed in
mountain-climbing history.
In the opening scene, we witness Leclerc soloing
a vertical ridge of horrid rock and useless snow,
a delicate, deathly dance. As the camera pans out,
you realise the young climber is more than 1,000m
from the ground, and a nauseous feeling grips your
stomach. Alex Honnold, star of the Oscar-winning
film Free Solo and perhaps the most famous climber
in the world today, is narrating the scene: “This kid
Marc-André Leclerc. Canadian guy. Hardly anyone
has heard of him because he’s so under the radar.
He’s been doing all kinds of crazy alpine soloing.
He just goes out and climbs some of the most
difficult walls in the world. The most challenging
that anyone has ever climbed.”
In 2015, after Leclerc, then 22, made the first solo
ascent of the Corkscrew route on Cerro Torre in
the Southern Patagonian Ice Field, local climbing
legend Rolando Garibotti called it “an ascent of
earth-shifting proportions”. In the film, after Leclerc
solos Mount Robson, the holiest and scariest
mountain in the Canadian Rockies, veteran
expedition leader Jim Elzinga states that Leclerc
is “redefining what’s possible”. Canadian Barry
Blanchard, who pioneered extreme alpine routes
several decades ago, proclaims, “This is the
evolution of alpinism, and it’s happening right
now in our backyard with this young guy.”
Given Leclerc’s otherworldly ability and
equanimity in the face of death, The Alpinist could
easily have been yet another bad outdoor
documentary – headbanging punk rock laid over
some superbody with a chalk bag, pulling a roof.
No wonder mainstream film critics have largely
ignored the genre. For too long, documentaries
in this space have lacked character development,
history, a real narrative. They’ve lacked irony or
hypocrisy, doubt or nuance, betrayal, hatred or all
the other dark things that make us human.
I’ve waited 25 years for outdoor documentaries
to grow up. A handful have transcended the
genre’s action-focused limitations: Touching the
Void (the 2003 documentary of Joe Simpson’s
near-fatal descent of Siula Grande), even with the
reenactments; Grizzly Man (Werner Herzog’s 2005
film about US bear enthusiast Timothy Treadwell),
which has the grizzliest audio of any documentary
ever; Meru (the 2015 chronicle of the first ascent of
the Himalayas’ Meru Peak via the Shark’s Fin route),
with the stunning cinematography of Renan Ozturk;
2018’s The Dawn Wall, a film that finally talks about
the honour of true friendship; and of course Free
Solo. These films laid the foundations for The
Alpinist, which plumbs the depths of a climber’s
craft and creative soul better than them all.
RICK WHEATER
48
THE RED BULLETIN

Hard act to follow: Leclerc became best known
for his audacious alpine ascents, but his skills
on rock were also off the charts

The Alpinist does what all great films do: it tells
a story. The story of a driven young man drawn
inexorably to climb immense, ice-plastered peaks.
Yes, we watch him solo unimaginable lines, ropeless
and as preternaturally calm as the clouds beneath
his boots, but we also see him as a dorky, gangly kid
enraptured by the outdoors. We see him lost and
loaded on acid, tripping into a world he barely
escapes (and only then because of his girlfriend).
We see his boyish visage covered in blood after a big
fall. We see him living in a stairwell like a proper
dirtbag. We see him shy and inarticulate under the
spotlight of nascent fame. Most importantly, we see
Leclerc through the voices of others: his girlfriend,
renowned climber Brette Harrington; his mother,
Michelle Kuipers; and a host of famous Canadian
alpinists. Even the greatest mountaineer of the
20th century, Reinhold Messner, has a few
portentous words: “Solo climbing on a high level
is an expression of art. Maybe half of the leading
solo climbers of all time died in the mountains.
This is tragic and it’s difficult to defend.” In The
Alpinist we get to know, if not fully understand, not
only a climber but a human being – his strengths,
weaknesses, desires and derangements.
One of the first things you learn about Leclerc
is that he’s deeply camera-shy and doesn’t
give a fuck about fame. He truly is a
throwback, as Hevy Duty says, to an earlier
age. Believe it or not, there was a time when top
climbers didn’t tell their followers what they had
for lunch. Pre-social media, you shared your stories
with your actual friends, preferably around a
campfire. On an expedition, you spent time with
your team discussing life, logistics and the weather.
On my last few big trips, my teammates, with the
modern magic of a satellite modem, spent their
evenings sending images of themselves that
masterfully massaged their public personas and
completely misrepresented their actual feelings.
Leclerc couldn’t give a shit. He’d solo something
heinous and not tell a soul.
His disregard for the media was problematic for
the film’s directors, Peter Mortimer and Nick Rosen.
A perfect example is when Leclerc solos Mount
Robson without telling them. When they finally get
him on the phone, he explains, “It wouldn’t be a solo
to me if somebody was there.” It ain’t easy to make
a film about a man who doesn’t care what the world
thinks. He’s like an Olympian who performs in his
own gymnasium, without a single spectator, doing
moves no other human can.
If Leclerc’s cavalier attitude towards their film
frustrated Mortimer and Rosen, they also admired
him for his singularity of vision. “Marc was out there
every day since he was a teenager,” Mortimer says in
a phone interview. “To look at his climbing résumé,
you’d think he must be 75 years old. He can’t resist
the pull of the mountains. When a weather window
opens, he has to be out there. He was on a vision
SCOTT SERFAS
Nature boy: The Alpinist shows Leclerc
the super-gifted climber, but also the dorky,
gangly kid enamoured with the outdoors
50 THE RED BULLETIN

Marc-André Leclerc
“We were capturing
Marc-André when his
potential was becoming
his reality”
THE RED BULLETIN 51

Gripping the moment: only a handful of elite climbers
can free-solo hard rock routes, but free-soloing alpine
routes is even tougher
52

Marc-André Leclerc
Leclerc did his solo
ascents ‘onsight’ – on
routes that he’d never
even sunk his ice axes
into before
JONATHAN GRIFFITH

Hitting his peak: Leclerc atop the famed
Northeast Buttress of Mount Slesse in
British Columbia

Marc-André Leclerc
CLARK FYANS, MARC-ANDRÉ LECLERC
“Some of the climbs
he did were changing
the face of alpinism”
quest. It was pure. He didn’t have time or interest
in thinking about the media or our film. We were
capturing Marc-André when his potential was
becoming his reality.”
Leclerc typically kept only three people in the
loop: his mum, sister Bridget, and Harrington.
They understood who he was and why. He’d
text them from the summit of one peak after
another just to let them know he was safe. “Some of
the climbs he did were changing the face of alpinism,”
says his mother. “He was enough of a climbing
historian to know that, but he had a total lack of
interest in being famous.”
Talking with Kuipers provides an insight into
how Leclerc became who he was. Growing up,
money was tight. “But it’s all about perception,”
she says. “There are an endless number of things
you can do without money; you just have to activate
your imagination.” Without a car, the family walked
everywhere. When it was raining and cold, Kuipers
would create a story that imagined the children as
intrepid explorers escaping someplace dangerous,
or on their way to rescue a friend.
Leclerc was a voracious reader, and from the
age of four he knew the tale of Edmund Hillary
and Tenzing Norgay’s pioneering 1953 summit of
Everest. “He had a fascination with mountains from
the beginning,” says Kuipers. Home-schooled from
third to sixth grade – “Marc-André would drive his
Strong hold: Leclerc on the south-west ridge of
Baby Munday Peak in British Columbia
sister crazy by talking in rhymes all day” – before
skipping seventh, Leclerc was intellectually and
physically precocious, but socially awkward. Aged
14, he worked in construction with his dad to pay
for his climbing gear. At 15, he screwed eyebolts
into the beams in his basement bedroom and began
hanging from his ice tools.
As a youth, Kuipers says, “he spent a lot of
uncomfortable nights out in the mountains, alone”.
He became competent in how to deal with difficult
situations. In the film, we see Leclerc trapped in a
snowstorm in Patagonia but keeping his head and
downclimbing to safety. We see him soloing the
stunning Stanley Headwall in the Canadian Rockies,
hanging precariously but precisely from his tools,
the picks hooked on mere millimetres of rock. His
sangfroid is spellbinding.
But then so is his love for his girlfriend. From the
earliest days of their relationship, Harrington and
Leclerc were inseparable. They lived in the stairwell
together, in the woods together; they climbed and
climbed and climbed. “Marc is interested in intense
experiences, living to the fullest,” Harrington says
laconically in the film. When I speak to her by phone,
she acknowledges that she was the same way, and
this mutual need for life in extremis explains, at least
in part, why they fell so deeply in love. “We matched
in intensity,” she says. “The most meaningful
experiences of my life are the climbs I’ve done in poor
weather, in extreme places. I like that sort of thing.”
Leclerc was the same. “He arrived in this world
enraged to be in the body of a helpless infant,” says
Kuipers. “He needed to start moving immediately. As
soon as he could crawl, we were both a lot happier.”
Notably, however, when Leclerc became a climber,
this wilful rambunctiousness didn’t translate into
a disregard for hazards like avalanches and icefalls.
Leclerc would study every aspect of a mountain to
determine the safest possible line. He would check
the weather incessantly, calculating the exact
number of hours before the next storm and how
many it would take him to get up and down. As he
says in the movie, “You can control what you’re
doing, but you can’t control what the mountain
does.” Kuipers recalls how one day Leclerc bicycled
to Mount Slesse, soloed it three times by three
different routes, but then called to get a ride home
because he didn’t want to cycle across a narrow
bridge during rush hour. “He was not a casual risktaker,”
she says. “He was very clear on how much
he disliked objective risk. Overhanging seracs, bad
weather – he preferred not to take those chances.”
Both Kuipers and Harrington feel the film does
an excellent job in capturing the irrepressible spirit
of Leclerc. Still, Harrington believes The Alpinist
doesn’t fully express his technical mastery. “Marc
put his whole life into rock climbing,” she says.
“More than 90 per cent of the time we were climbing
with a rope. Marc valued all aspects of climbing – aid
climbing, ice climbing, alpine climbing – and wanted
to be really well-balanced.” It wasn’t just about mixed
THE RED BULLETIN 55

Marc-André Leclerc
In The Alpinist, we get to
know not only a climber
but a human being
“We matched in intensity,” says Brette Harrington,
shown here on a climb with her partner Leclerc
climbing or soloing: “Marc could climb 5.13 slab.”
Kuipers agrees. “Yes, Marc-André came into
climbing with a lot of natural skill, but to get to
where he did took years of single-minded
dedication. I remember him practising clipping
a carabiner over and over.” Leclerc practised his
craft hour after hour, week after week, year after
year. As he pulled off bolder ascents, people
expressed dismay at the juxtaposition of his age
and ability – most alpinists take decades to get that
good – but his mum wasn’t surprised. “What is it
that they say, 10,000 hours? Marc-André did that.”
This is self-evident watching him climb in The
Alpinist. Whether he’s rock climbing, ice climbing
or mixed climbing, Leclerc’s movements are
graceful and fluid. No jerky jumps, no too-long
reaches, no desperation. There’s an almost sloth-like
slowness, like a modern dancer performing a
difficult manoeuvre. (I remember a mentor of mine
telling me that to climb fast you must climb slow.)
Experience creates confidence; confidence creates
a calm mind; a calm mind creates a calm body; a
calm body is capable of astonishing climbing.
You can see Alex Honnold climbing with
this kind of self-possession in Free Solo, but
there is a deep chasm of difference: Honnold
is climbing on solid granite, whereas Leclerc
is on the most fickle of substances, ice and snow,
and beneath this fragile layer is the kitty litter they
call rock in the Canadian Rockies. If free-soloing
hard rock routes is only for a handful of the most
skilled climbers, free-soloing hard alpine routes –
with the constant risk of avalanche, serac collapse,
changing conditions, and little chance of retreat –
is in the welkin of the gods.
Furthermore, Leclerc did his solo ascents
‘onsight’ – on routes he’d never even sunk his ice
axes into before. Honnold practised the route
he soloed on El Capitan for Free Solo again and
again with a rope; Leclerc would show up below
a massive mountain face and set off into the
unknown. Would the ice be sticky and ‘thunker’
or hollow and treacherous? Would the snow be
‘styrofoam’ or bottomless mush? Nothing had been
practised, nothing was wired or dialled. Onsight
free-solo alpine climbing is the absolute tip of the
arrow in the variegated world of climbing. There’s
no margin of error, no net – there’s nothing but
you. Imagine you’re an archer and you must hit
the bullseye with every arrow or be executed.
This is onsight alpine free-soloing.
The casual viewer might see Leclerc as an
adrenalin junkie. This is the misconception of most
non-climbers. In truth, adrenalin is the enemy of
good climbing. If you’re frightened, your ‘reptilian’
amygdala – one of the most primitive parts of your
brain – takes control, and your cerebral cortex is
left out of the decision-making. This is when you
do stupid things. A large part of climbing is learning
to control your fear. The very best climbers shut off
their fear like flicking a light switch.
Right before the very end of the film – the actual
coda is a tragic plot twist best left unsaid here – as
we witness Leclerc pulling onto the summit of an
ice- encrusted tower, alone, we hear the voice of his
mother. “A lot of us live our lives thinking of the
things we’d like to do, or the adventures we’d like
to have, but we hold back,” she says with hope and
pride. “That’s what really stands out to me about
Marc-André’s journey. What is it that you would
do if you were able to overcome the things you see
as limitations, or the things you’re afraid of? What
would you do?”
The Alpinist leaves you dumbfounded by
Leclerc’s prowess and nerve – climbers will be
talking about this movie for years to come – but,
unlike other good outdoor films, this is not the
heart of the story. It is the portrait of an artist as
a young man. Like Stephen Dedalus, James Joyce’s
literary alter ego, Leclerc allows us to witness
an awakening – physically, intellectually and
emotionally – of the human spirit. Through ardour
and intensity, he becomes who he dreams of
becoming, right before our eyes.
The Alpinist is showing at cinemas nationwide and
available to stream later this year; thealpinistfilm.com
MARC-ANDRÉ LECLERC
56 THE RED BULLETIN

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The high life
Lagos, Africa’s most populous city, is home to almost 15 million
people. Among them are some of the biggest names of the
fast-growing music genre known as Afrobeats, making for a
party scene like no other. But for revellers in this Nigerian hub
the wealth gap is vast. From the gated compounds to the
shantytowns, photographer Andrew Esiebo has captured it all…
Words and photography ANDREW ESIEBO

“I attended this party in a neighbourhood called
Lagos Island. At the end of each year, they have
block parties playing loud, heavy music; they’re
full of energy but also tension, because everyone
wants a space in the crowd. Everyone is in groups
with their own tables, sitting with others from their
street. I try to be invisible to my subjects, but this
woman was posing in such a way that she wanted
to be seen. Her body language is empowered,
even though she’s not giving eye contact.”
59

Lagos high life
“Lagosians love to party hard”
Andrew Esiebo is internationally renowned
for his photography examining gender
politics, sport, culture and social struggles
within Africa. But the 43-year-old Lagosian
learnt his craft by capturing the people of
his hometown more than two decades ago.
“Lagos has been, and maybe still is, notorious for crime,” says
Esiebo. “When I see stories about the city, they focus on that,
or congestion and infrastructure. I rarely see the global media
highlighting the vibrant culture, tradition and nightlife.”
Esiebo was inspired to document Lagos’ parties after one
night at a DJ set in the city. “It made me aware of the power
of DJs and Afrobeats,” he says. “With the arrival of democracy
[in 1999, after decades of military rule], and as the economy
keeps booming, there’s more money in the hands of people.
One way to express this wealth is through parties – and
Lagosians love to party hard.” More than merely celebrating
Lagos’ nightlife, Esiebo’s photos show the effect of rapid urban
development on its people. “There’s a growing middle class
and more opportunities for young people, but the bid to
improve their lifestyle has led to a high level of inequality.
Some parts of Lagos feel like totally different cities. But
whether rich or poor, people want the same things. Even
a guy who has no money wants to buy champagne.”
Right: “We drink a lot of
champagne in Nigeria.
In 2016, Lagos was the world’s
second biggest consumer
of champagne after Paris. I see
people at parties holding
their champagne bottles till the
very end of the party, even
though they’re empty. This guy
with a big bottle is in Ikeja –
not really a poor neighbourhood,
but also not one of the richest.
In this VIP section, the more
expensive the bottle you bought,
the more privileged the space
they gave you. I find people do
this more often at working- and
middle-class parties because
it’s an aspirational act – they
want to be like the big guys. The
upscale parties actually don’t
consume as much.”
“This is the entrance to
the club/restaurant Spice
Route in the upscale area of
Victoria Island. I took this
photo because I loved the door
– it has this ethnic design, and
it showcases some of the city’s
aesthetic. I also wanted to
capture these doormen. It used
to be that only high-end clubs
had bouncers, but now I go to
places and find there’s always
someone at the gate. They’ve
become a more typical element
of parties across the city, and
I wanted to show that.”
BAPTISTE DE VILLE D’AVRAY
60 THE RED BULLETIN

“Jimmy’s Jump Off is an annual party
supporting hip hop music in Nigeria.
Before the explosion of Afrobeats, hip
hop and reggae were the most popular
styles of music here, and at that time hiphop
DJ Jimmy Jatt made his name. Now
he continues the spirit of the genre through
this party. This is a photo of DJ Nana. It’s
important to me because the DJ space in
Nigeria is very macho; there are not many
women at all – of the top DJs, there are no
more than four or five. I wanted to show
how women are breaking into that space.”

Lagos high life
“Felabration is a week-long festival
that celebrates the late Fela Kuti, founder
of Afrobeat [the West African music genre
born in the 1960s, not to be confused with
Afrobeats]. It takes place every year at
the New Afrika Shrine, a warehouse-like
music space set up by his son. It’s intense,
with thousands of people. Sometimes
you can’t even get in, so they put large
screens outside for people on the street.
Crowds are an important element of Lagos
life; everything we do is always in a mass
of people. To understand the true scale
and energy, whenever you look at a photo
of someone partying in Lagos you need
to remember that they’ll be part of a
much larger crowd.”

63

Lagos high life
“This is a picture of aspiration.
The guy’s T-shirt looks like a Versace,
but you can tell it’s a knock-off. Still,
he’s confident. On one hand, this
shot is talking about fashion – people
want to wear Versace, but it’s not
affordable, so the one way to feel like
you‘re wearing the label is by having
a fake. On the other hand, the guy’s gaze
and the way he’s holding his body have
a sense of connection, and there’s a
feeling of power emanating from him.”

“Cigars are not a common
commodity that you’d find on the
street, but people smoke them
because they aspire to be what they
see on TV and in hip hop. You see
Jay Z and others blunting the cigar,
and guys [in Lagos] like to reenact
it. I’m drawn to documenting this.
For me, this guy smoking the cigar
talks not only about consumption
at parties but also how people
reimagine themselves socially.”
65

Lagos high life
“This photo was taken at a party on Ilashe Island,
a neighbourhood that’s popular for beach houses.
A lot of luxury drinks companies sponsor high-end
parties, and this one was courtesy of [cognac maker]
Hennessy. It was called the All White ‘Privilege Party’
– you took a boat from the island, the theme was
privilege, and you had to dress all in white. It was not
a party for the poor people. I wanted to show the people
there; the dancing and the tensions between them.”
66

68 THE RED BULLETIN

Lagos high life
“This was the earliest
stage of my work on
this project when
I was first trying my
hand at this theme.
These women at the
Jimmy’s Jump Off
party were twins, and
they looked like they
were wearing a party
uniform. The matching
clothes, the high shoes
— their style was so
unique. People in the
city will dress like
this, with bright
colours, patterns and
accessories, but I’d
never seen them
matching it before.”
“I don’t usually do wedding photography, but I wanted to explore these spaces for the project.
Nigerian weddings are huge and super over-the-top, and [the top photo] is a high-end example of this.
I love that it shows how people get into a state of ecstasy through music and dance. People wear
traditional clothing at weddings as well as to church. Some offices let you wear it to work on Fridays.
Nigeria is a multicultural society, and Friday is the day to express all our different cultural identities.
“Wedding parties in Nigeria are also known for people spraying money all over the dancefloor
[bottom photo]. They want to express that they’re rich and anyone who comes to the wedding can
do it. Annoyingly, the government are trying to enforce a new law to stop it – they say it’s abusing the
currency. This photo shows a small example compared with what a lot of people do at these parties.
Sometimes the whole dancefloor will be covered in money.”
THE RED BULLETIN 69

GIVES YOU
WIIINGS.
ALSO WITH THE TASTE OF CACTUS FRUIT.

VENTURE
Enhance, equip, and experience your best life
SPLIT THE
MOUNTAIN
Sierra Nevada,
USA
ANDREW MILLER MATT RAY
71

VENTURE
Travel
“Riding serious lines is an intimate
conversation with nature.
Being present, not having an ego
and accepting what the mountains
are saying is critical”
Jeremy Jones, US pro snowboarder
We live in a crowded world, but
with the power of your own
two feet – and a bit of knowledge
and creativity – it’s still possible
to walk upon untouched mountains,
without seeing any other person, and ride
the best snowboard lines of your life.
I knew by the age of 12 that I would
end up living in the mountains. Growing
up in New England, USA, I’d started
snowboarding at nine; by 16, in 1991,
I’d gone pro. After racing for a few years,
I switched to big mountain freeriding,
doing first descents of the steeps in
Alaska and beyond. Since then, I’ve been
in 50-plus movies on snowboarding.
Today, my home mountain range
is the Sierra Nevada on the US West
Coast, which I’ve explored for more than
a decade. The Sierra is in excess of
640km long and 100km wide, running
north to south, with more than a dozen
major drainages that you can easily
follow into the thick parts of the range.
And with a coastal snowpack that’s
less complex and usually safer than
in Colorado, Utah or Wyoming, it’s
a splitboarders’ paradise.
Splitboarding allows you to ‘split’
your snowboard in half and use it like
skis for climbing. This is faster and more
efficient than walking in snowshoes.
Add in a tent, a sleeping bag, and food for
a few days, and I can get deeper into the
mountain range, where there’s a vast
ocean of peaks that see little-to-no people
in winter. For me, it’s about getting past
the guidebook, and I’ve burned millions
of calories in the backcountry here.
What happens when I walk deep into
the mountains and set up a winter camp
is that I’m presented with what I call ‘the
wonderful problem’. I hit an objective I’ve
been dreaming of for years, only to stand
on top of the peak and see five more
dream lines. This is what the wonderful
ANDREW MILLER MATT RAY
72 THE RED BULLETIN

VENTURE
Travel
A brief
history of
splitboarding
The splitboarding revolution
began in the 1990s when Utahbased
firm Voile released its
DIY Split Kit, which allowed
snowboarders to convert their
boards – by sawing them in
half. Since then, brands
including Burton and Jones
Snowboards have broken new
ground, joined by emerging
names such as Swiss maker
Korua. In 2020, Burton reported
that splitboards were selling
faster than regular boards as
lockdown restrictions
prompted increased interest
in the backcountry.
Splitboards have a reputation
for being heavier, stiffer, and
harder to ride on hard-packed
in-resort snow, but new
refinements are bringing allmountain
versions. Jones has
spent years testing and refining
‘The Solution’ splitboard. “The
board is evolving, but the goal
remains the same,” he says. “It
rides like a normal snowboard
that’s lightweight, but it’s
still stable and durable.”
THE RED BULLETIN 73

VENTURE
Travel
problem means – the more you do here,
the bigger your hit list gets.
Splitboarding took over my life for
a variety of reasons. First and foremost,
I realised that we can only take
snowmobiles and helicopters to about
five per cent of the mountains. These
areas, as well as the areas you could hike
to from the resort’s lifts, have become
more crowded. If I wanted to get away
and ride new lines, I needed to discover
how to walk for long periods and live
deep in the mountains. This realisation
coincided with my awareness of the
effects of climate change on the
mountains, and how much CO2 I was
burning when I went snowboarding.
It’s the reason I started Jones
Snowboards. The better the product,
the further I can go. So when I improve
a design, it’s a huge quality-of-life
increase, because I spend so much of
my life with a splitboard attached to my
feet. This has unlocked so much new
terrain in my backyard. And when I’m
walking in the mountains, my mind is
awake – it’s pretty much where all my
ideas come from, which is why I always
carry a notebook in my pocket.
A key part of splitboarding is
transitioning between walk mode and
ride mode. When walking, we use skins
stuck to the bottom of the splitboard.
It’s important to align these when you
fit them, but also to keep them dry and
warm between uses, stashed in a
pocket, because if they get wet or frozen
they lose their adhesiveness. Glide by
sliding your feet forwards, rather than
lifting them up, and keep a constant
rhythm. It’s also surprising how warm
you get, so the mantra ‘Go bold, start
cold’ applies. Add a layer when you stop
to transition, but remove one when you
start moving again.
Alaska – the location of my latest
film, Mountain Revelations – has so
many peaks that look perfect for
snowboarding, but finding one that’s
safe to ride and walk up is tricky. When
hiking, I’m on the mountain for hours –
as opposed to minutes if you’re dropped
by helicopter – so I need to ensure
there’s not a big cornice or a serac that
can fall on me. Then I figure out if the
snow is stable. Having a clean outrun is
also critical. This means if you fall or get
swept away in an avalanche, you won’t
be pushed over a cliff or into a crevasse.
Riding serious lines is an intimate
conversation with nature. Being present,
not having an ego and accepting what
the mountains are saying is critical.
The Jones
Solution
Splitboard
“The Solution is like my
third kid,” says Jones.
“I put real energy into
freeride shapes that no
other company wanted
to at the time.” Stockist:
snowboard-asylum.com
The split is closed
with a bridge that
eliminates the
need to drill bolts
through it. “This
makes for a way
tighter connection,”
explains Jones.
Jones recently reduced the
carbon footprint of his company’s
boards by almost a third: “We’re
constantly testing new materials
that have fewer impacts on the
environment. Our factory has
gone 100-per-cent solar.”
74 THE RED BULLETIN

VENTURE
Travel
Steel edges carve the snow
better and give harder
bite when side-stepping
uphill, says Jones: “And
when the board is
connected, traction tech
gives added structure.”
SPLITBOARD SOLUTION, ANDREW MILLER, ALAMY MATT RAY
Solid snowboards use 3D
contouring to ‘spoon’ the nose
for better performance, but
no splitboard has had that
until now. “It took five years,”
says Jones, “and at times I
questioned if it was possible.”
I read their subtle signs and understand
their moods, because splitboarding is
a zero-mistake game. The mountains
can change fast, and I need to be hyperpresent
to see those changes. Still, I’ve
experienced rolling down an unrideable,
rock-strewn face where I shouldn’t have,
which almost cost me my life. My mistake
that day was overconfidence – I was in
a rush and not present. Since then, I’ve
developed a backcountry mental checklist.
First, “mountains speak, and wise men
listen” is a [19th century US naturalist]
John Muir quote I live by. Am I present
enough to read the signs? Next [on the
checklist] is patience. Your agenda
needs to be thrown out the window – the
mountains don’t care that your only day
off is Saturday. I don’t say, “I’m going to
ride X,” rather that, “I’m going to look at
X”. I don’t become mentally attached to
a line until I’m dropping into it.
Look for reasons to back down, and
anticipate that the turnaround point
may be at the top of a line you just
spent hours hiking to. Late Norwegian
snowboard legend Tommen Bjerknæs
summed it up best: “Tomorrow is good,
too. Ride for tomorrow.”
Jeremy Jones is a US pro snowboarder
and the owner of Jones Snowboards;
jonessnowboards.com. He’s also the
founder of Protect Our Winters, a nonprofit
working to reduce the effects of
climate change; protectourwinters.org
NEVADA
San
Francisco Sierra
Nevada
Mountains
Las
Vegas
CALIFORNIA
L.A.
Riding the
Sierra
Nevada
Although the mountains are
a backcountry splitboarding
paradise, the best place to
learn may be in resorts
such as Mammoth Mountain
and Palisades Tahoe, which,
on average, get 10m of snow
per year. You can hire
mountain guides to take
you through the process of
walk mode and transitioning
into ride mode. Also, next
door to Palisades Tahoe is
Alpine Meadows, which is
known for its wide-open,
off-piste bowls. All these
resorts are accessible with
the Ikon Pass, which covers
a host of resorts across the
US and Europe.
ikonpass.com;
mammothmountain.com;
palisadestahoe.com
THE RED BULLETIN 75

PROMOTION
YOUR
WORKOUT,
RELOADED
The Compex Mini offers up
muscle stimulation and pain relief
in a pocket-sized package
New Year is traditionally followed
by a ‘new you’ and an annual
reboot of your workout routine.
Going to the gym is tough on
your muscles, though. From your
warm-up to your cooldown, you
stretch, strain, contract and
extend your body in ways that
you simply don’t do when sat
behind a desk in everyday life.
It’s understandable if you want
to push yourself during the limited
time you do have to work out,
maximising every minute to reach
your targets and goals as quickly
as possible. But for every extra
lift you do, or kilometre you run,
there’s an increased chance of
muscle tension, DOMS, and, at
worst, injuries from overtraining.
The Compex Mini solves all
these common problems and
more, enabling you to warm-up
more efficiently, train harder and
recover more quickly. The pocketsized
muscle stimulator is perfect
for use on the go, in the gym or
at home, and is clinically proven
to enhance your fitness – whether
you’re an all-out bodybuilder or a
lean-and-mean endurance athlete.
Muscle stimulation works
by sending safe electric pulses
to your muscle’s motor nerves,
creating low-level vibrations that
oxygenate the muscles, or
slightly more intense contractions
that usually take place when
performing cardio or weightbased
workouts. The strength
and intensity of the pulsations
determine the type of muscle
reaction, allowing the same bit of
kit to be used to simulate lifting
weights during a bodyweight-only
session, flush your muscles
of toxins post-workout, or give
you deep-tissue pain relief in
those extra-sore spots.
The Compex Mini’s small
stature makes it an ideal
bit of kit for those who slot their
workouts into an already jampacked
schedule. The system
is super-easy to control via an
accompanying smartphone app,
and there are six different modes
to choose from, which can be
modified and tweaked to suit your
abilities and training progress.
It comes complete with two
wireless stimulator pods, six snap
electrodes in varying sizes, long
and short snap lead wires and
a charging cable, all in an easy-totransport
carry case. If you’re
completely new to using a muscle
stimulator, the app also provides
guidance on electrode placement
for the best results.
For more information on the
Compex Mini, or to view
the full product range, visit
compex.com/uk
MARK STANLEY/COMPEX INTERNATIONAL

VENTURE
Equipment
JBL Under Armour Project Rock wireless
noise-cancelling headphones, uk.jbl.com
EPOS H6PRO Open Acoustic Gaming Headset
with detachable mic, eposaudio.com
RAZER Opus X wireless headset with active
noise cancelling and internal mic, razer.com
SKULLCANDY Crusher Evo Sensory Bass
with Personal Sound, skullcandy.co.uk
TIM KENT
IMMERSE
Wall of sound
“If music be the food of love, play on,” said the Bard. Clearly he’d have appreciated
these professional headphones, whether gaming, training, or penning a sonnet
THE RED BULLETIN 77

VENTURE
Fitness
RIDE
Rolling revolution
Indoor cycling is great for a home workout. In fact, the makers of this turbo
trainer claim it will give you results as good as – if not better – than your real bike
Turbo trainers have exploded
in popularity over the past
few years, but for dedicated
cyclists these machines raise
one question: how do they
compare with the real thing?
As far as the Wahoo Kickr
Bike is concerned, the
answer is: pretty damn well.
Upload your body
measurements, or a photo of
your bike, to the Wahoo app
and the Kickr’s five-contact-
point system will generate
the perfect fit. Likewise, gear
shifters can be matched to
your bike, or replicated from
brands including Shimano,
Campagnolo and SRAM.
Up- and downhill gradients
and riding resistance can be
automated via compatible
apps such as Zwift. And enjoy
the reassuring simulated
‘clunk’ when you’re shifting
gears. wahoofitness.com
DAVID EMMITE TOM GUISE
78 THE RED BULLETIN

VENTURE
Fitness
ABHI THAKER/RED BULL CONTENT POOL JEN SEE
It takes Evy Leibfarth
90 seconds to paddle a
slalom course. During that
time, she’ll thread through
gates, using her skills and
fitness to navigate whatever
the water throws her way.
“I paddle on whitewater six
days a week,” says the 17-yearold
US competitive canoeist.
“I love the adrenalin I get from
racing.” Her approach has paid
off; in 2019, she came fourth
in the ICF Canoe Slalom World
Championships in Spain and
won bronze in Slovenia – the
youngest woman to take a
medal at a World Cup event.
Then, in July this year, she
made history as the first US
female slalom canoeist to
compete at Olympic level, in
the women’s event debut at
the Tokyo Games.
Slalom canoeing is a mix
of skill, strength and daring in
which athletes must become
adept at reading the water.
“While we do paddle difficult
whitewater sections, so
much of it is technique,” says
Leibfarth, whose father is a
former US Team kayak racer
and instructor. As a young girl
growing up in North Carolina,
Leibfarth would sit on her
parents’ laps as they paddled
easy waters, and soon she had
her own boat; she entered her
first race at the age of six.
“I love the feeling, using the
water to carry you places,” she
says. “It’s not a sport where
you just have to be fast or be
strong; it takes core strength,
flexibility and technique.”
Here, the Olympian reveals
the training needed to develop
that perfect balance…
The acid test
“I often do two sessions on
the water each day. I get onehour
time slots and enter the
water about 30 minutes before
a session. To warm up, I usually
do four 10-second sprints and
a lot of turns – just circling
around and pivots. On the days
I’m doing a lactic workout, I’ll
do 60-second sprints, which
gets the lactic acid flowing
before my interval workout.”
Emulating exhaustion
“I simulate being really tired in
a race. Often in competitions
there will be difficult moves
at the bottom of the course
that I have to paddle when
I’m already tired. I do halfand
full-length efforts on the
practice course; also loops –
just paddling down and around
the course for about an hour
at an aerobic heart rate, which
for me is 155 to 165bpm.”
PADDLE
Rapid results
America’s first female Olympic slalom canoeist reveals
her training techniques for whitewater success
Out of the water
“I do three weight workouts
a week: weighted pull-ups, leg
lifts, that kind of thing. And I
take two [bodyweight training]
straps everywhere so I can do
‘T’s, Y’s and I’s’, creating those
letters with my hands. I also do
two weekly aerobic workouts:
a 45-minute ride or 20-to-
50-minute run, depending
on whether I’m working on
training or recovery.”
Crashing the foam
“I foam-roll my back and do
a lot of yoga for mobility. I’m
not super-great at it, but I’ll
pull up and try to follow a
class on YouTube. I stretch
every day. I love the seal
stretch, where you arch your
back to stretch it out. My
favourite stretch is one
where I lie down and bring
my knees up over my head.”
goevy.com
THE RED BULLETIN 79

VENTURE
Equipment
Clockwise from top left:
MAC IN A SAC Origin
Packable Waterproof
Jacket in White Camo
(and packed jackets in
Black Camo, Ocean and
Yellow), macinasac.com;
RAZER Blade 15 gaming
laptop, razer.com;
APPLE iPhone 13 Pro in
Sierra Blue, apple.com;
BANG & OLUFSEN
Beoplay EQ adaptive
noise-cancelling
wireless earphones,
bang-olufsen.com; YETI
Rambler 36oz (1,065ml)
double-wall vacuum
stainless-steel bottle
with Chug Cap, yeti.com;
TOPL Series 1 Regular
12oz (354ml) reusable
coffee cup, toplcup.
com; MOLESKINE Smart
Writing Set (includes
Paper Tablet A5 Smart
Notebook, Smart Pen
with pen-tip ink refill,
USB cable, and Volant
XS Starter Journal),
moleskine.com;
APPLE iPhone 13 Pro;
apple.com
Opposite page, left to
right: STUBBLE & CO
The Roll Top 20L
backpack in Urban
Green and Tasmin Blue,
stubbleandco.com
COMMUTE
Working wonders
Recruiting the best gear for your rush-hour ride is like building a team
– trust is key. Delegate roles to these hard workers and you’ll breeze it
80 THE RED BULLETIN

VENTURE
Equipment
TIM KENT
THE RED BULLETIN 81

VENTURE
Equipment
Do not disturb:
the Relaxation
Hoodie is inspired
by isolation tanks,
allowing solitude
in any situation
WEAR
Fabric of
space
Getting ready for your manned flight to Mars?
Here’s what you’ll need, from the workwear brand
making garments for every possible future…
“What is that you’re wearing?”
enquires US chat-show host
Jimmy Fallon from behind
his interview desk. Comedian
Jon Glaser is sitting in the
guest’s chair. “It’s a Relaxation
Hoodie,” Glaser says of his
impossible-to-ignore,
taramasalata-pink top. “It’s
specifically designed for
relaxing, down to the fabric,
the aesthetics… You zip it all
the way over your face, put
your hands in the pockets
and just… relax. And Jimmy,
I got one for you.”
The studio lights dim and
both men zip their hoodies
up over their faces and hug
themselves. “Jimmy, I’m so
relaxed right now,” says
Glaser, “and one thing I like
to do when I’m relaxed is sing
opera. Is that OK?”
“We had no idea he was
going to get Jimmy to try
one on,” says Steve Tidball,
who co-founded experimental
clothing brand Vollebak –
creators of the Relaxation
Hoodie – with his twin
brother Nick in 2015, the year
before its appearance on
Fallon’s show. “Glaser is
a gear-obsessive and a big
fan of ours. After that, our
business really took off.”
By their own admission,
this first iteration of the
hoodie – which is now
available in sell-out black,
navy (pictured above) and
electric blue – was a wacky
attention-grabber, not least
SUN LEE/VOLLEBAK, JAMES DAY/VOLLEBAK ALEXANDRA ZAGALSKY
82 THE RED BULLETIN

VENTURE
Equipment
Full Metal Jacket
Waterproof, windproof and... disease-proof? To some degree, yes – thanks to it
being made from 65-per-cent copper. “The milling stage turns the copper into
microscopic rope,” explains Steve Tidball. “Each strand is actually 25
miniature strands, so if you were to unpick it, it would stretch 11km. Copper
hasn’t received the same hype as silver. It’s a magic material with antimicrobial
properties that naturally conducts heat.”
THE RED BULLETIN 83

VENTURE
Equipment
The Mars Jacket
“The outer shell is ballistic nylon, originally used in jackets worn by World War II airmen to shield them
from shrapnel,” says Steve. “The fabric also recalls the look of original spacesuits – their functionality
led the aesthetic. We knew our Mars uniform would require multiple pockets with Velcro, including an
anti-gravity one that opens upside down. In fact, there are pockets everywhere, because in space a
pocket near your shoe is as important as one close to your chest. We’ve also added a horizontal fly [to
the pants], as seen on fighter pilot suits, as well as a vomit pocket, which is just a bit of fun.”
84 THE RED BULLETIN

VENTURE
Equipment
Two heads are better than one: Vollebak co-founders Nick (left) and Steve Tidball
because it came with its own
“pink soundtrack” to help
athletes achieve a meditative
state before a big race. But
then, blue-sky thinking is
a speciality at Vollebak,
where super-strength metals,
fibres and nanomaterials
more frequently found in the
aerospace industries than in
the world of fashion are used
to create sustainable, highperformance
adventure-wear.
The Tidballs’ latest
invention is less blue sky and
more red dust. Conceived to
actually be functional on a
deep-space flight to the Red
Planet, the Mars Jacket and
Pants have been through two
years of R&D and numerous
prototypes. “We’re space
super-fans, and we felt it was
our job to design workwear
for Mars now,” says Steve,
“because when space
tourism takes off, we want
to be at least 30 iterations
in, not at the nascent stage
of development.”
The idea was that those
same features should be
eminently practical on Earth
in the meantime, however. “If
you design for extraordinary
circumstances, you’re
inevitably going to discover
amazing things along the
way,” says Nick. “Memory
foam was invented because
of the Apollo space mission.”
This intersection of
objectives is integral to the
thinking at Vollebak. Perhaps
it comes from the melding of
their twin 42-year-old minds;
the same DNA yet different.
Steve has a degree in art
history, and Nick studied at
The Bartlett School of
Architecture, University
“Getting lost in
a rabbit warren
of research
is what we do”
College London. Before
founding Vollebak, the pair
worked as creative directors
at TBWA – an advertising
agency renowned for its
disruptive ideas – during
which time they masterminded
campaigns for the likes of
Adidas. However, both felt the
opportunities for innovation
were often stifled by the
bureaucracy of big business.
“We worked on brands that
weren’t run by their founders,
but by some old person in a
suit in an office in New York,”
explains Nick.
That changed in 2015,
when the brothers created
the famous ‘floating house’
for Airbnb, sailing a habitable
70-tonne cottage down the
River Thames. “We were
dealing directly with [Airbnb’s]
originators, Brian [Chesky],
Joe [Gebbia] and Nathan
[Blecharczyk]. Working with
a trio who were our age [and
were] fearlessly taking on
the hotels was inspiring. We
realised that businesses are
actually inventions, dreamt
up by people with vision.”
Along with the Airbnb trio,
the Tidballs drew inspiration
from other entrepreneurs,
including Yvon Chouinard
of ethical clothing brand
Mars-a-slacks: the Mars Pants (left) feature external Velcro strips for attaching tools (in space or
on Earth). The Vomit Pocket (right) has a ziploc for safely storing anything (including bodily fluids)
THE RED BULLETIN 85

VENTURE
Equipment
Patagonia, Apple’s Steve Jobs,
and chef Heston Blumenthal.
“Here was a man [Blumental]
with exactly the same food
ingredients as everyone else,
and yet somehow he creates
these amazing dishes,” Nick
enthuses. “It was science,
it was exciting,”
Their own interest in sport
also played a pivotal role.
“We were taking part in
ultramarathons and had a
vested interest in sportswear,
but how do you create a space
in between giants like Nike
and Adidas?” says Nick.
The brothers often felt their
performance and recovery
was marred by the inadequacy
of their kit, which was rarely
engineered to an appropriate
standard for endurance
challenges in the Arctic,
Amazon, and Namib Desert.
“We saw it as our Ithaca – a
journey full of adventure,” says
Steve, citing Constantine P
Cavafy’s 1911 poem inspired
by Homer’s Odyssey. “Vollebak
is addressing challenges we
will face a century from now.
Our entire climate will change,
and we can’t ignore that. The
last time we faced something
this epic was 50,000 years
ago, when humans migrated
out of Africa.
“If we know the weather is
going to change and diseases
will spread, let’s design for
those things. The world is not
waiting for another waterproof
jacket or white T-shirt.”
The Red Bulletin: What
inspires you to create these
unique garments?
Nick Tidball: As a former
architect, I was taught that
all the materials in the world
are yours to play with, and
once you discover things like
meta-aramid and para-aramid
fibres, such as those used in
our Garbage Sweater [derived
from recycled firefighter suits
and bulletproof vests], why
wouldn’t you use them to make
something totally different?
Getting lost in a rabbit warren
of research is what we do.
If we can’t find the answers,
it’s our job to supply them.
“The world is
not waiting for
another white
T-shirt”
What are you looking for
the answers to?
Steve: The three questions
we ask are: can you get
nature to grow you stuff? Can
you make stylish, resilient
things that last longer than
a human being? And what can
you do with the stuff that’s
already out there?
Nick: We’re also reliant on
other industries to create
recyclable ‘loops’ we can
attach to – we can’t be
sustainable on our own.
Electronic waste is polluting
our planet, but it’s rich in gold,
copper, silver and palladium.
However, it’s still currently
cheaper to mine for those
materials using traditional
methods. Someone has to
pave the way for change; we
want to be at the forefront.
Your clothes undergo many
years of R&D, but how do
you cope when things don’t
go to plan?
Nick: When we visit factories,
we chuck water on things,
rip them up, set fire to them…
I get interested when experts
say no to our suggestions,
because it means that they
haven’t done these things
before, which often leads to
new discoveries.
Steve: One thing you’re
trained to do in advertising
is recognise that your idea
might be terrible and you
may have to abandon it, no
matter how attached to it
you are. The key is to exhaust
all possibilities. Our Graphene
Jacket is a case in point. The
challenge with this material
[which is 200 times stronger
than steel, lighter than paper,
and won its inventors,
professors Andre Geim and
Kostya Novoselov, the 2010
Nobel Prize in Physics] is
that the nanoparticles are
scattered over the surface
like tiny Rubik’s Cubes. Only
the material doesn’t behave
the way you want it to –
sometimes these carbon
atoms cluster together, and if
they’re not evenly distributed,
the jacket won’t store heat
the way it’s intended to. The
Italian mill that supported us
with this project is the same
one that created the material
for [US swimmer] Michael
Phelps’ ‘speed suit’ for the
2008 Beijing Olympics.
Reverse engineered: one side of the Graphene Jacket is made from graphene – a superstrong
layer of graphite one atom thick – the other is nylon. Wear it either way around
Now that you’ve made
clothing fit for Mars, will you
be giving Elon Musk a call?
Steve: Actually, two years
ago we rented a huge
billboard outside his office
[in Hawthorne, California]
for a couple of thousand
dollars. We’d just released
our Deep Sleep Cocoon, for
hibernating in deep space.
The poster read: “Our jacket
is ready. How is your
rocket going?” Elon didn’t get
in touch, but NASA did.
So we’re talking to them now.
vollebak.com
86 THE RED BULLETIN

VENTURE
Equipment
PROTECT
Shades
of glory
Blinding rays, biting
winds, stinging snow –
all nemeses of a skier’s
eyeballs when on the
piste. Keep out the lot
with these protective
ski goggles
From top: DRAGON
NFX2 Kimmy Fasani
Signature goggles with
Lumalens Violet lens,
dragonalliance.com;
SPY Marauder Elite
Matte Colorblock 2.0
Happy Blue goggles
with Happy Bronze
and Light Blue Spectra
Mirror lens, spyoptic.
eu; RED BULL BY
SPECT Solo 05 goggles,
specteyewear.com;
SWEET PROTECTION
Interstellar RIG
Reflect goggles,
sweetprotection.com;
POC Zonula Clarity
Comp goggles in
Uranium Black with
Spektris Blue lens,
pocsports.com
TIM KENT
THE RED BULLETIN 87

VENTURE
Gaming
Go on the defensive
Thanks to faster hardware in
the new PlayStation 5 and Xbox
Series X/S consoles, the virtual
player AI in FIFA 22 makes six
times as many decisions as
before. This is particularly
noticeable in defence, where
players work as a unit, moving
around the pitch like an Arrigo
Sacchi-era AC Milan tribute
act. “Consider defenders the
bedrock of a long-term titlewinning
project,” says Pessoa.
“It’s tempting to favour big
names, but a mix of youth and
experience is best.”
SUCCEED
Career
goals
In FIFA 22, you control a
virtual squad of footballing
heroes. Master it and you
could become a legend of
the game yourself
The football season in Europe
may kick off in August, but
for millions of sports fans
around the world it doesn’t
truly begin until the new FIFA
game drops. What began in
1993 as a simple but excellent
football sim has grown into
the biggest-selling sports
video-game franchise of all
time. FIFA is a technological
and licensing juggernaut that
cuts deals with virtually every
governing body in the sport,
and for which an entire 11-vs-
11 football match is recorded
with players wearing Xsens
motion-capture suits. All this
ensures that when one of
your players executes a move,
they look exactly like their
real-life counterpart, right
down to their hairstyle and
the angle of their feet when
they strike the ball.
But for some devotees,
such as Ryan Pessoa, it’s more
than a game; the Man City
esports pro and Red Bull
player has made a career
from his FIFA skills. Here are
Pessoa’s tips on getting the
best out of the most realistic
edition to date, FIFA 22…
Connect the dots
Ask any lower-division
footballer what it’s like to face
Premier League opposition
and they’ll talk about the
“Don’t just
buy Messi,
Mbappe and
Neymar”
Ryan Pessoa
precision of the passing. In
previous iterations of FIFA,
passing was too easy, with
the ball zipping around as if on
a string, but now only the best
players can successfully pull
off those raking 40-yarders.
“Premier League fans should
look to young stars like Phil
Foden and Mason Mount for
their midfield,” recommends
Pessoa. “I’m trying Martin
Ødegaard now he’s signed
permanently for Arsenal.”
The common theme here?
Amazing passing stats.
Remember to look
after number one
Goalkeepers play a mostly
passive role in FIFA. You don’t
control them in the same way
as outfield players, and they
either do their job or they
don’t. FIFA 22 changes the
way they behave, reflecting
personal styles and levels of
the sport so a world-class
sweeper keeper is discernible
from a pure shot-stopper. “It’s
worth getting PSG’s Gianluigi
Donnarumma,” says Pessoa.
“He won Euro 2020 with Italy
and is a remarkably complete
goalkeeper for 22 years old.”
Start a club
Career Mode gives you control
of a club throughout a full
season, but if your favourite
team disappoints in real life,
why play as them and extend
the agony? This year, you
can create your own club,
customising every detail – but
plan for the long haul. “Don’t
just buy Messi, Mbappe and
Neymar,” says Pessoa. “Look
for young players with high
potential. A solid midfielder
or wide player can keep you
going for years.” We hear Red
Bull Salzburg’s Karim Adeyemi
is a bit handy in front of goal...
Take it easy
The most popular way to play
FIFA is Ultimate Team – the
digital equivalent of collecting
Panini stickers, where fans buy
‘packs’ of players to build a
squad worthy of competing in
an Elite Division and real-life
esports tournaments such as
the ones Pessoa plays in. But
all that is irrelevant if you can’t
hold it together. “Take a break
after a loss,” says Pessoa. “Go
straight into another match
and you’ll still be playing the
last opponent in your head.
Come back even a few minutes
later and you’ll play a lot better.”
And the best new Ultimate
Team feature? You can turn
off the opposing team’s goal
celebrations so you don’t have
to watch them gloat.
FIFA 22 is out now on PS5, Xbox
Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, PC
and Nintendo Switch; ea.com
ELECTRONIC ARTS, LUIS GALLO TOM BRAMWELL
88 THE RED BULLETIN

VENTURE
Gaming
PLAY
Level up
Bad kit equals game over.
Whether it’s Valorant on PC,
Half-Life in VR, or Halo
Infinite on Xbox, this gear
will put you in beast mode
Clockwise from top: EPOS
Sennheiser GSP 601 Closed
Acoustic Gaming Headset,
eposaudio.com; RAZER Kishi
Universal Gaming Controller
for smartphones, razer.com;
HTC VIVE Pro 2 VR headset and
controllers, vive.com; RAZER
Wolverine V2 Wired Gaming
Controller for Xbox Series X,
and Huntsman V2 optical
gaming keyboard, razer.com;
LOGITECH G Pro X Superlight
gaming mouse, logitechg.com
TIM KENT
THE RED BULLETIN 89

VENTURE
How To
LEARN
To bury the hatchet
In an age when tempers are frayed and we’re quick to write each other off,
forgiveness has never been more relevant…
William Fergus Martin has
given more thought to
forgiveness than most. Not
because he carries around
a list of names longer than
Arya Stark’s in Game of
Thrones, but because one
day the idea that we could
all benefit from being more
forgiving just happened to
pop into his mind.
“I was writing an article
for a dating site, along the
lines of ‘How to make
yourself happy rather than
try to find someone else to
make you happy,’” says the
Glaswegian author, “and
the idea about forgiveness
came to me unexpectedly.
The next day, I sat in front
of my computer and another
set of ideas sprung to mind.
The material became
enough for a book.”
Forgiveness is Power:
a User’s Guide to Why
and How to Forgive was
published in 2013. Martin
followed this by setting up
a registered charity, The
Global Forgiveness Initiative,
to provide information and
workshops to those wanting
to let forgiveness into their
lives – whether that’s dealing
with gaslighting, self-esteem
issues, or the current
polarising topics of the day.
“There’s the whole vax/
anti-vax issue – people get
angry at those who wear
masks, and vice versa,” says
Martin. “The situation is
bringing out the best and
worst in people. Everything
benefits when we’re more
“Everything
benefits when
we are more
forgiving”
William Fergus Martin
forgiving. It brings peace of
mind, freedom, happiness.”
Easier said than done?
Perhaps not. “People have
fears around forgiveness,
often because no one has
shown them how to do it.
I define it as letting go of pain
from the past.” Here, he
explains how to do it…
Make a list
“The first thing I ask is,
‘Why would you not want to
forgive this person?’ Maybe
you’re afraid because then
you’ll have to put up with
them. Write a mission plan:
‘I want to forgive X for Y.’
You might be unsure you
actually do, but it’s like trying
on a jacket that you’re not
sure you want to buy – you’re
just getting a feel for it.”
Connect with
your emotions
“What are your current
feelings? Maybe you’re
vengeful, or afraid of conflict.
Perhaps you feel guilty about
not wanting to forgive. It’s
a dialogue between the
higher, noble part of
yourself that might want to
forgive and the gut feeling
of hurt. The more honest
you are, the more this will
help reconcile the two parts
of your mind.”
Think of the benefits
“Imagine you’ve completely
forgiven the person – what
would be different? Maybe
you’d get peace of mind or
feel you could be friends
again. It can be a tangible
benefit. You might forgive
your boss, which could lead
to you performing better
at work and getting a
promotion. Adding a benefit
provides motivation, which
can help shift your mindset.”
Rinse, repeat
“Now go back to step one
and see if there’s anything
else you want to add. Maybe
you need to rephrase what
you want to forgive them
for, or perhaps your feelings
have changed. Keep working
through these steps until
there’s a shift in attitude. It
has astonished me how little
catharsis often needs to
happen before people are
ready to forgive.”
Consider next steps
“I can teach people how
to let go of the pain, but
reconciliation is a separate
step. Forgiveness can
include ‘goodbye’ – you can
forgive them, but they might
be too abusive to have an
ongoing relationship with.
You might have no contact
with them, but getting rid
of heavy feelings can make
it clearer what to do next.
Forgiveness is unconditional,
but reconciliation isn’t –
perhaps you could go to
a councillor together.
That’s a different process.”
Martin’s publications,
including the ebook Four
Steps to Forgiveness,
are available at global
forgivenessinitiative.com
GETTY IMAGES TOM WARD
90 THE RED BULLETIN

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PROMOTION
SIX DECADES OF
DREAMING BIG
The iconic Italian brand 3T is celebrating its 60th anniversary
in style, giving you the chance to own a piece of history
Turning 60 brings to mind
slowing down, putting
your feet up, and getting
into things like gardening.
Not for 3T. Although it’s
entering its seventh decade,
the Italian cycling manufacturer
is just getting started, launching
fresh and new concepts that
tap into its history and heritage
of continuous innovation and
the drive to be first.
Founded in 1961 as
Tecnologia del Tubo Torinese
(Turin Tube Technology),
the Italian manufacturer has
built a reputation for designing
light, strong and eye-catching
products – from record-breaking
handlebars used by the likes
of Eddy Merckx, to boundarypushing
road bikes with World
Tour status. Its limited-edition
Dreambox, marking the big
six-0, is the latest in a string
of iconic releases.
The centrepiece of the
Dreambox is a specially created
3T Exploro RaceMax Italia.
The world’s first aero gravel bike
on release in 2020, the Exploro
RaceMax offers riders the speed
of a road bike, but on unpaved
paths. The Italia edition marks
the start of 3T producing
frames in Italy – a process it
began exploring back in 2018.
The carbon-fibre frameset is
engineered and produced at
the newly opened 3T factory
in Lombardy before being
painted in Veneto. Assembly
is also done in-house, and in
collaboration with Campagnolo,
Pirelli, Fizik, Elite and Carbon-Ti,
3T has pieced together a bike
that is the pinnacle of high-end
Italian design.
It doesn’t end there, though.
The Dreambox is a fully stocked
cycling gift box, and comes
with a completely custom and
colour-matched wardrobe
of kit – including Castelli jersey
and bib shorts, Kask helmet, Koo
sunglasses, Fizik shoes and Elite
bidons – while Campagnolo’s Big
Corkscrew could come in handy
after a long day in the saddle.
The Dreambox itself is a
piece of art, too. A solid 200kg
construction, the motorised bike
garage opens and closes at
the click of a remote control
button, and provides a state-ofthe-art
storage solution for the
bike and all the additional gear.
Limited to 60, the Dreambox
is available now for
€19,610. Find out more at
60thanniversary.3t.bike
STEFANO MONTI

VENTURE
Calendar
9November to 15 January
THE SHARK IS BROKEN
Detailing the behind-the-scenes
dramas of Steven Spielberg’s 1975
blockbuster thriller Jaws – including
feuds between its principal actors
and the perpetual malfunctioning of
its biggest star, the mechanical shark
– this West End play has battled
crises of its own, having been
postponed since May 2020 due to
lockdown. But finally the production
is setting sail, written by and starring
Ian Shaw (son of actor Robert Shaw,
aka shark hunter Quint in Jaws), who
portrays his father with an uncanny
resemblance, as seen below.
Ambassadors Theatre, London;
theambassadorstheatre.co.uk
9
NICK DRIFTWOOD, LORENZ RICHARD/RED BULL CONTENT POOL, NATE LAWRENCE/RED BULL CONTENT POOL
9
November onwards
RECKLESS ISOLATION
What to do when you’ve been preparing to
achieve perfect scores in the upcoming World
Surf League Championship Tour only to find
the season cancelled due to a pandemic? For
Californian pro surfer Kolohe Andino and his
friends in 2020, the solution was to score
perfect waves of a different kind, heading
to remote Indonesia to ride gorgeously empty
swells and reconnect with the essence
of what surfing is all about. redbull.com
November onwards
ANNA GASSER – THE SPARK WITHIN
At the age of 15, Anna Gasser decided she’d had enough of her sport. That sport was
gymnastics, and she hasn’t looked back. Today, the Austrian athlete is better known
as a pro snowboarder who has won two Winter X Games, the 2017 Snowboard World
Championships, took the inaugural Big Air gold at the 2018 Winter Olympics, and
became the first woman to score a Cab Double Cork 900 and a Cab Triple Underflip.
Now, at 30, Gasser is expanding her horizons once again, this time with backcountry
riding. This film tracks the legend and shows her amazing ability to succeed. redbull.com
THE RED BULLETIN 93

VENTURE
Calendar
1to 31 December
BACKYARD CINEMA
The Troxy has survived tough
times. Having opened in 1933 as
the UK’s biggest cinema, this east
London venue closed in the ’60s,
later becoming a bingo hall. So
it’s fitting that, after a perilous
period for cinemas, the Troxy is
hosting a festive film extravaganza
including Elf, Love Actually, and a
live ‘Story of Christmas’ pre-show
by George the Poet. The Troxy,
London; backyardcinema.co.uk
9 19
to 20 November
CRIPTIC PIT PARTY
Jamie Hale is a queer/crip poet,
actor, playwright, and the director
of this showcase of music, dance
and spoken-word performances.
Presented by a collective of disabled
and D/deaf artists. the event aims
to inform, celebrate and challenge
preconceptions about their lives. Hale
opens proceedings with Not Dying,
their thought-provoking personal tale
of living with progressive disability.
Barbican, London; barbican.org
November onwards
LONG DAYS
The beauty and elegance of freeskiing has been perfectly captured through countless highproduction
snow films. Sometimes perhaps too perfectly. For this one, Austrian director
Fabi Hyden wanted something more real; the title references the intensive hours that go
into making one of these films. “Some days, the crew starts touring at 1am to ski lines at
sunrise,” Hyden says, “or stays out till dark to shoot sunset sessions.” Long Days features
pro riders from the Legs of Steel ski collective, including the UK’s own Paddy Graham, with
each athlete individually mic’d up, and the real-time 4K footage features zero slow-mo.
The result, says the filmmaker, is “raw and back to the roots of freeskiing”. redbull.com
PALLY LEARMOND, BECKY BAILEY
94 THE RED BULLETIN

GLOBAL TEAM
THE RED
BULLETIN
WORLDWIDE
The Red
Bulletin is
published in six
countries. This is
the cover of our
US ‘Heroes 2021’
edition for December,
featuring Olympic
gold-medallist and
five-time World Surf
League champion
Carissa Moore
For more stories
beyond the ordinary,
go to: redbulletin.com
The Red Bulletin UK.
ABC certified distribution
145,193 (Jan-Dec 2020)
Head of The Red Bulletin
Alexander Müller-Macheck, Sara Car-Varming (deputy)
Editors-in-Chief
Andreas Rottenschlager, Andreas Wollinger (deputy)
Creative Directors
Erik Turek, Kasimir Reimann (deputy)
Art Directors
Marion Bernert-Thomann, Miles English, Tara Thompson
Designers
Martina de Carvalho-Hutter, Kevin Faustmann-Goll,
Cornelia Gleichweit
Photo Editors
Eva Kerschbaum (manager), Marion Batty (deputy),
Susie Forman, Tahira Mirza, Rudi Übelhör
Digital Editors
Christian Eberle-Abasolo (manager),
Marie-Maxime Dricot, Melissa Gordon,
Lisa Hechenberger, Elena Rodriguez Angelina
Head of Audio
Florian Obkircher
Special Projects
Arkadiusz Piatek
Managing Editors
Ulrich Corazza, Marion Lukas-Wildmann
Publishing Management
Ivona Glibusic, Bernhard Schmied, Melissa Stutz,
Anna Wilczek
Managing Director
Stefan Ebner
Head of Media Sales & Partnerships
Lukas Scharmbacher
Head of Co-Publishing
Susanne Degn-Pfleger
Project Management Co-Publishing,
B2B Marketing & Communication
Katrin Sigl (manager), Mathias Blaha, Katrin Dollenz,
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96 THE RED BULLETIN

PROMOTION
BUFF®
It’s always more interesting
when you do things your
own way. Whether you’re
hiking, running, climbing,
or just exploring the great
outdoors, it’s always better
to be an original than to follow
the pack and take the same
path as those who have gone
before you. That’s the way
that new routes are opened,
new records broken, and
previously unknown places
of beauty discovered.
For a company like BUFF®,
being an original is in its
DNA. Led by maverick founder
Joan Rojas, the company
was formed when Rojas
pioneered the world’s first
tubular, back in 1991. Drawing
on the craftsmanship of his
family textile mill, Rojas
developed what became
the company’s Original
Multifunctional Headwear,
in order to protect his head
and neck from the sun and wind
while riding his motorcycle
around the Catalan countryside.
The result not only offered
protection, but was seamless,
stretchable and breathable
– perfect for active people.
Today, this simple piece of
equipment is a prerequisite
for any adventurer stepping
out of the door. What started
with a single tubular has grown
into an international range of
sportswear and lifestyle gear,
which now does as much for
the planet as it does for its
wearer. As well as being made
with high performance in mind,
BE A TRUE ORIGINAL
Go your own way and embrace a life of spontaneity and
adventure with the innovators at BUFF®
every piece of Original
EcoStretch Multifunctional
Neckwear sold is made using
95-per-cent recycled fabric
and created from two recycled
plastic bottles.
BUFF®’s original spirit is
more than just the products
it makes. The company is
a proud part of an outdoor
community of unique and
spontaneous explorers, looking
for adventure and to explore
the world in a way that does
not harm the planet.
Supported by quality
performance wear, and with
innovative spirit, BUFF®
will always be there for life’s
true originals.
For more information, visit
BUFF.com/true-originals

Semi-Rad
Adventure philosophy from BRENDAN LEONARD
“One time, I was trying to prepare for an ultramarathon that was 160km long,
with 7,300m of elevation gain. Where I lived, it was the middle of winter, so my
trail options were pretty limited. I ended up deciding to do 12 laps on a road
that climbed to the top of a mountain near town, to equal roughly 3,600m
of elevation gain over the course of 80km. Most people might think that sounds
ridiculous and maybe borderline psychotic. It’s both of those things, but
in my mind also necessary. When a hiker who had seen me three different times
in the span of two hours asked, ‘What are you training for?’ I replied,
‘Something way worse than this.’”
The next issue of THE RED BULLETIN is out on December 14
98 THE RED BULLETIN

Noise Canceling
Wireless Headphones
www.skullcandy.co.uk/hesh-anc-wireless-headphones

BE REMEMBERED FOR THE CHANCES YOU TAKE.
www.bfgoodrich.co.uk
WHAT ARE YOU BUILDING FOR?