Things got pretty epic recently at the 2015 Red Bull King Of The Air event in Big Bay, South Africa. The best kiteboarders in the world took to the skies and waters, showing off their best stuff in order to take the title. This is a great compilation of the best tricks from the event.
Tag: Red Bull
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Wakeskating the Erie Canal
Professional Wakeskater and Red Bull Athlete Brian Grubb Tackles Historic Waterway, Taking the Sport to New and Compelling Places
What once served as a connector for the Atlantic Ocean to the heartland of America, now serves as a site for the next level of watersports. Professional Wakeskaters Brian Grubb and Andrew Pastura took their skills to the now-retired lock system and surrounding areas of Western New York’s Erie Canal in order to challenge themselves while honoring a piece of US history.
Still relevant but modernized, a lock is a device used for raising and lowering boats between stretches of water with varying levels on river and canal waterways. The Lockport, New York, Locks are the most significant historic site from the Erie Canal era that is still in operating condition. Drawing tens of thousands of visitors to the Niagara region per year, the Lockport Locks Heritage District is on it’s way to be one of three North American restored 19th Century canalways currently in existence.
Wakeskating, an adaptation of wakeboarding similar to skateboarding on water, is a sport usually reserved for riding behind boats, going off man-made rails, pipes and kickers located in lakes and flat bodies of water across the country. The vast lakes and outdoor activities of the Western New York and Great Lakes Region in the summer months give the young sport a home amongst locals but “popping” off the antiquated-but-not-forgotten locks has never been done before.
Red Bull Athlete Brian Grubb, who is considered an innovator and pioneer in the sport of wakeskating, spent ten years of his life in the New England area. He’s won numerous championship titles and brought the sport to the ends of the earth, including the rice patties of the Philippines, the swamps and bayous of New Orleans, the Cranberry Bogs of Wisconsin and the Kimberly Region of Western Australia. He, along with friend and leader of the next generation of wakeskaters, Andrew Pastura, from Cincinnati, can appreciate the uniqueness of a location like the 200-year-old lock system with its 12-foot drop and narrow causeway.
“It’s been a quite an accomplishment and great honor to bring wakeskating to the lock system and the Erie Canal of Upstate New York”, says Grubb. “The large drop from one lock to another was bigger than anticipated but being a part of history made it all worth it.”
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NSFW: The World’s Toughest Adventure Race
This clip is NSFW because it’s too extreme. Ahem. But seriously, Red Bull steps it up again with the Red Bull X-Alps, deemed the world’s toughest adventure race. Athletes must either hike or fly over 100km across the Alps, from Salzburg to Monaco. Fastest time wins. This event will be live-streamed! Stay tuned.
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Felix Baumgartner 22-Mile Supersonic World Record Stratos Skydive
Folks, skydiving history will soon be made.Felix Baumgartner, Austrian aviation specialist, plans to leap out of a space capsule from an altitude of 120,000 feet, rocketing his way at predicted speeds of over 700 mph to the earth’s surface.
UPDATE:
[highlight color=”yellow”]10/14 | 3:42pm EST: And he did it. WAHOO![/highlight]
Quick Essentials
Some quick facts you should know:
> The planned jump is 120,000 feet, or 22 miles above the Arizona desert
> The freefall should be around 5 minutes and 30 seconds. Felix Baumgartner is predicted to break Mach 1, the speed of sound, ripping through the air at speeds of over 700 miles per hour.
> Baumgartner will travel in a 55-story high balloon, built out of a polyethylene plastic that happens to be one-tenth the thickness of a sandwich bag. This balloon is incredibly lightweight and will carry him all the way from the ground up to 120,000 feet.
Check out this CGI video to get a visual sense of what to expect:
[youtube id=”VCqnQq86fkY” width=”600″ height=”350″]
The History: Seven Years, Felix Baumgartner and Red Bull
Called the Red Bull Stratos Project, this multi-million dollar, seven-yar endeavor involves experts in the field of aeronautics, engineering and medicine.
Felix Baumgartner, the protagonist in this epic storyboard, is a 43-year old former Austrian paratrooper who has 2500+ jumps to his name. Baumgartner’s celebrated history of daredevil stunts include world records for the lowest BASE jump and for being the first to skydive across the English Channel. Who comes up with ideas like this?
[youtube id=”r-TCO2IdoTA” width=”600″ height=”350″]
In the video above, you’ll get a stronger sense of the complexities of the project. Joe Kittinger, meteorologist and current world record holder, has been advising Felix throughout the process. In 1960, Kittinger jumped from 102,800 feet, as part of Project Excelsior.
During initial bouts of claustrophobia, Kittinger helped Felix develop a 40-item checklist to help ease his mind. Even though a specially designed balloon carries Baumgartner upward at a speed of 1000 feet/minute, there is significant alone time in the process.
If the jump proves successful, Baumgartner plans to hand his 25+ year daredevil drawers up, to settle down with his girlfriend and to fly a rescue helicopter. The man recognizes that he has been pushing the limits — this is his final hoorah.
Check out this video of Felix Baumgartner performing a 96,000 foot, second test jump over the summer.
[youtube id=”s_SzUnkYcR4″ width=”600″ height=”350″]
The Jump: 22 Miles, 700+ MPH
Click the image below for a play-by-play mission timeline:
What Could Go Wrong
Unfortunately, a lot could go wrong.
For one, Baumgartner could find himself in a flat spin. In low air, high-altitude dives like this, an uncontrolled flat spin could push Baumgartner to an unconscious state. He could face temporary blindness as blood rushes to his head and extremities. Yikes.
It is predicted that Baumgartner will step out of his capsule into temperatures of minus 10 degrees Fahrenheit. As he rockets toward earth, he could experience up to minus 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Fortunately, his custom-designed space suit should protect him up to temperatures of minus 90 degrees.
When Baumgartner’s body approaches the speed of sound, shock-shock interaction could endanger his pressurized suit. Hopefully, because these sonic forces are less intense when the air is thin, it won’t be an issue.
The Skydiving Suit: Custom-Engineered
Any skydive above 62,000 feet requires a pressurized suit. Otherwise, water in the body turns to gas, and the body distends via a process called ebullism.
Not fun.
Red Bull partnered up with the David Clark Company, based out of Massachusetts, to create a custom suit modeled on those worn by Air Force pilots during high-altitude recon missions.
The suit has four layers — a liner, a bladder fitted to Baumgartner’s body, mesh to hold the bladder in place and a flame-retardant exterior. The suit is designed to protect Baumgartner from a fairly large temperature range, -90 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit, with a ventilation hose to provide warm or cool air as needed.
The composite helmet weighs 8 pounds, with a retractable sunshade visor and an integrated heating circuit to prevent fogging. The helmet is also equipped with an oxygen regulator that will pump out 100% oxygen during the ascent and descent. A drinking port will provide Baumgartner with enough water.
Finally, five cameras will live on the suit to film what will undoubtedly be the ride of Baumgartner’s life.
Follow Along in Real Time
The whole shebang will be broadcast live, without feed delay or interference — an engineering marvel, I might add — from Red Bull Stratos.
There are also several tweets from Red Bull – below are a few notables:
https://twitter.com/RedBullStratos/status/255415156702584832
https://twitter.com/RedBullStratos/status/255466402809516032
https://twitter.com/RedBullStratos/status/255313839053221888
https://twitter.com/RedBullStratos/status/255158801370603520
https://twitter.com/RedBullStratos/status/254740216185778176
[photos via Red Bull Content Pool]
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Skateboarding Sealand – The World’s Smallest Country
What do you do when you get access to the world’s smallest country? If you are the Red Bull skate team, you skate it. So they did. Not many outsiders get access to Sealand – a small WWII sea fort settled by Sir Paddy Roy Bates in 1967, but we’re glad the Red Bull team did and had the chance to film it.
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Freestyle Kite Flying in the UAE with Red Bull Kiteforce
Just when you think we’ve covered all the extreme sports out there, I stumble across this video of four guys on the Red Bull Kiteforce squad. A synchronized kite show over the U.A.E. — what a world we live in.
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Red Bull Moments | Bobby Brown Triple Cork 1440
Brought to you from Red Bull Moments, a series of high-definition, slow-motion extreme moments that are shot at 1000 frames per second, this clip features Bobby Brown, two-time X-Games gold medalist, performing an insanely beautiful triple cork 1440. Shot in Alaska.
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Red Bull Art of Motion | Santorini Freerunning
On the Greek isle of Santorini, Red Bull hosts an Art of Motion parkour / freerunning event. The world’s best urban acrobats showcase their skills in the beautiful cliffside and immaculately white city of Santorini. This course was 200 meters long and athletes were given a two-minute session to impress the judges. Winner of the day? Pavels Petkuns from Latvia!
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Inside the Red Bull Flugtag
So, you drink Red Bull, the nectar of the adrenaline gods.
But have you heard of the Red Bull Flugtag? “Red Bull gives you wings” takes on a whole new meaning. Flugtag, German for “airshow” or “flight day,” is a Red Bull annual event where competitors launch homemade human-powered flying machines off a 30ft high platform into a body of water.
The vast majority of these flying contraptions don’t fly more than a few feet from the platform. The event is mostly for entertainment and show—a promotional event for Red Bull more than anything else.
Here are a few images of the event, taken in my hometown of Nashville, Tennessee back in 2007.
Red Bull Flugtag History and Rules
Brainchild of Red Bull owner and billionaire Dietrick Mateschitz (he holds 49% of the company’s shares), the Red Bull Flugtag started in Vienna, Austria in 1991. Due to its success, it has been held every year since and also in over 35 cities around the world.
Anyone is eligible to compete in the event—to participate, each team must submit an application, and their homemade contraption must meet Red Bull’s event criteria. In the United States, for example, each flying machine must have a maximum wingspan of 30 feet and a maximum weight of 450 lbs.
Ultimately powered by “muscle, gravity and imagination,” the aircraft ultimately end up the water, so they must not have any loose parts and must be constructed with eco-friendly materials.
Teams are judged in three categories: distance, creativity and showmanship. Back in 2007, I witnessed the U.S. record for the longest flight in Nashville, Tennessee. Today, that record is held by team “Major Trouble and The Dirty Dixies,” who flew 207 feet in St. Paul, Minnesota in front of more than 90,000 people in 2010.
Bottom line, if you ever have the chance to attend a Red Bull Flugtag event, go for it. You’ll laugh, you’ll be energized and you’ll walk away with a whole new appreciation for gut-wrenching adrenaline, something we at the Nerve Rush HQ value highly.
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Red Bull Takes Parkour to the Rocks
What do you get when you take the great outdoors and the
fastest way to get from point A to point B and put them together? A pretty rocking video, that’s what.
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