NEVER FLY SOLO
NEVER FLY SOLO
Fuel Up: Red Bull’s ‘The Art of Motion’ hits the Greek Island of Santorini.
Put a bunch of highly athletic and just a little crazy twenty-somethings together on the Greek island of Santorini on Saturday 8th October 2011 and what do you get? The annual Red Bull Art of Motion of Freerunners Competition, the first and only free running contest in the world – and what a day it proved to be. Red Bull themselves describe the event best:
“In Firostefani, the world’s best urban artists attempted to blend art and sports together in the unique ambience of this immaculate white city perched on the rocky cliffs. Rooftops, domes, terraces and swimming pools were all part of the 200-meter long course with a height differential of 50 meters that the athletes had to master within a two-minute time limit.”
The sport of free running is not normally thought of as a competitive one by its participants – they see it as simply trying to be as fluid and elegant as possible as they flip, leap and spin over, under and around any kind of obstacle and structure imaginable in their path. But the event on the Greek island managed to fuse the free, unstructured nature of the sport with a competition format, with the participant completing the course in the most elegant, fluid and spectacular style within the time limit being crowned the winner.
In the end the Latvian 20-year-old Pavels Petkuns came out top in the event, finishing his run with an elegant dive into the swimming pool at the end of the course. Yoann Leroux of France and Gaetan Bouillet of Belgium finished in second and third, while the UK managed a respectable effort with Kie Willis and Pip Anderson grabbing seventh and eighth spots respectively out of the fifteen competitors.
Jeb Corliss, a Californian ‘wingsuit pilot’, has taken the sport of skydiving to a new level by hurtling through a narrow slit in the side of the Tianmen Mountain in Hunan Province, China. The 35-year old, whose previous stunts have included jumping from Paris’ Eiffel Tower, Seattle’s Space Needle, and the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, had his 75mph flight through the natural archway broadcast live on Chinese National Television on September 25th.
Corliss says he is aiming to develop a system that allows him to land a wingsuit flight without using a parachute… All we have to say is good luck with that Jeb, we think you might need it – although if he can find a way of doing it then we’ll be first on the scene.
Fuel Up: Thurs, Oct 2011
British Canoe hero Joe Clark has sights set on gold.
Joe Clarke is one of the sporting world’s finest and coolest up-and-coming stars. Joe competes in the K1M (Men’s Single Kayak) category of the Canoe Slalom, and is currently on the UK Olympic Development Programme which hand picks the top young athletes from all over the country as hopefuls for future Olympic Games. Still only 18 years old, Joe balances his hardcore training at Nottingham and at the new London 2012 Olympic course. He is also a familiar face in competition at worldwide, international and domestic events.
The list of achievements already attributed to him is pretty amazing at such a young age. To name just a few, Joe Clarke has been the Junior National Champion every year since 2006, he is the youngest person ever to be promoted to the Premier division and to win a Premier event, he is a 3x gold medalist at the National Premier Races, he holds the record for both the fastest 20m and 100m sprints ever recorded by a junior, he won a gold medal at the British Open Championships 2010 (the youngest person ever to achieve this), he is the overall highest ranked U23 K1M athlete, and he is currently ranked 2nd in the country National Premier Division – the country’s Olympic level. Phew…
Joe would now like to progress from his win at the British Open Championships and achieve a gold medal at the World/European Championships and at the 2012 Olympic Games held in Great Britain. With so many records and achievements under his lifebelt already, Joe is already well on track to achieving his next goal of an Olympic gold medal.
Fuel up: Big Freeze is coming…
“We love music. We love snowsports. So we’ve got BIG respect for the Relentless Freeze Festival”
The festival combines the best in skiing and snowboarding talent with some incredible live music. There’s going to be heaps of snowsports skill on show – something we don’t get to see very often here in the UK! With the FIS Snowboard World Cup and the UK leg of the International Freestyle Ski Big Air Competition running alongside one another, it’s the perfect opportunity to catch some of the biggest flips and spins you’ll ever see on snow (500 tonnes of it!).
Snowboarding sensations Billy Morgan and Jamie Nicholls will be providing the headlines on the 32-metre-high jump, while last year’s Freeze Big Air Ski Champion Jacob Wester will be competing against home-grown talent James Woods, winner of Britain’s first slopestyle skiing medal at a major championship (bronze at the Euro Winter X Games). Come on Jimmy!
And there’s going to be just as much action on the music stages as there will be on the slopes. Awesome headline acts Groove Armada and The Streets are supported by electro-punk band Does It Offend You, Yeah? and having opened for The Prodigy and toured with Bloc Party they’re certainly not one to miss.
If all that wasn’t enough then there’s beatbox trio Duke who have previously supported both Pendulum and Example and joined Prince onstage at the O2, along with a load of other great bands like Dirtyphonics and some guest DJ appearances.
Check out the highlights of last year’s festival below to see why we’re so excited. It’s the biggest snowsports and music festival in the UK and it’s shaping up to be a pretty great weekend – we hope we’ll see you there!
Review by Harry Ward
Fuel Up: Final round of Motocross in Oz
The competitors at the final round of Western Australia’s Motocross Championships at Hendley Park would have needed about a thousand Wingmen after what they had to cope with. Several inches of rain the night before the event meant that the dirt track was transformed into a boggy sludge trail for the riders to face. The events for certain classes were cancelled before the day had even begun – others were stopped soon after starting. However, for the Pro Open Championships – the main event – the show had to go on. Michael Addison’s understandable decision not to ride, having already sealed the title, left five other riders competing for second and third places. But with bikes constantly getting mired in the mud, Louis Calvin took advantage of the conditions to put in an incredible performance and lap the entire field to win on the day and achieve second place in the final Championship standings.
It was an entertaining and amusing spectacle. Check out the video link (watch from 0:40 – 1:40) to see what: Motocross – Oz
Fuel Up: Festival Review 2011
Another summer, another 250+ festivals to choose from… It’s safe to say festival-goers this year certainly haven’t lacked options. But which choice proved to be the best one? Here’s a look at a few of the biggest festivals that took place over the summer.
Glastonbury was muddy as ever, but that didn’t dampen the spirits of those watching headliners Coldplay and Beyoncé, both of whom impressed the crowds despite the latter’s seemingly ill-placed position at the event. U2 pulled out a ‘greatest hits’ set after finally managing to make an appearance at the Somerset festival for a change. The performance on the Pyramid Stage went down well, although the rain storm perhaps slightly dampened the mood. Radiohead provided a ‘surprise’ performance on the Park Stage, showing off new drummer Clive Dreamer in a set that left some complaining about the lack of ‘hits’ – but then it was an unannounced gig. All in all, a pretty good year down in the West Country for festival fans, capped by an impressive set from Pulp (again, unannounced) which left the crowds happy.
Reading(/Leeds), traditionally seen as a festival for teenagers, saw newly-reformed Pulp performing to a crowd that could have been their children. The set went well, however, and paved the way for The Strokes to finish the Friday night in entertaining fashion – an unspectacular showing, perhaps, but well-performed. My Chemical Romance had a very special guest at the end of their set in the form of Brian May, who performed ‘We Will Rock You’ before joining the band for their finale, ‘Welcome to the Black Parade’. But the final say definitely belonged to Devonshire trio Muse, who wowed the crowd with a full rendition of their 2001 album, ‘Origin of Symmetry’ to mark ten years since its release, before hammering through a breathtaking hour-long ‘greatest hits’ set that ended with fan favourite ‘Knights of Cydonia’ and a remarkable display of fireworks above the stage. This was certainly a good year with some good bands on show.
The Isle of Wight Festival saw a large range of acts on show that impressed to varying degrees. This reviewer sums things up best: ‘Kings of Leon played to a forgiving crowd on Friday night, Foo Fighters blew the competition away the night after, Liam Gallagher performed in a Union Jack jacket as Pixie Lott wore an equally ridiculous outfit from the safety of a dry stage on Sunday before Kasabian sent tens of thousands of people home on a high note. Job done.’ (Metro) He goes on to point out some other noteworthy moments, though, such as Chase and Status providing a gig so intense that ‘they had to stop playing for ten minutes to get everyone to calm down’ and allow the removal of some of the crowd from the over-full Big Top tent. Pulp played here in the first of several festival performances over the course of the summer and got their reunion off to a great start – almost as if they never split up. So despite slightly lukewarm sets from The Kings of Leon and The Kaiser Chiefs, and Sir Tom Jones being 25 minutes late on stage, there was plenty enough else going on for everyone to have a good time.
V Festival this year was marred slightly by an uncharacteristic clash between Glasvegas frontman James Allan and several belligerent crowd members who were throwing bottles at the band, ending with them leaving the stage after only four songs. The rest of the weekend passed amicably enough, however, and the generally cheerful crowd enjoyed headliners Arctic Monkeys’ showing on Saturday night before the real feast of the festival the next day – Rihanna, followed by Eminem, with a rare UK performance. The two of them gave the festival crowd a lift and finished the night with a duet performance of ‘Love the Way You Lie’ and then the excellent closer, ‘Lose Yourself’. Elsewhere during the festival, The Kaiser Chiefs and Razorlight both played good sets, while Jessie J, You Me At Six and Noisettes had the crowds singing. An ‘interesting’ weekend but overall worth the trip to Essex.
The Big Chill wasn’t so cool for Kanye West on the middle Saturday of this festival – he launched into a rant at the audience midway through his set to complain about how wrong people are to say he’s arrogant and how badly he is treated by the press, who he says think of him like ‘Hitler’. A bit embarrassing for everyone concerned, although the rest of his set was a big success, with hits like ‘Power’ and ‘Touch the Sky’ really getting the crowd going. The previous day, guitar specialists Wild Beasts provided a powerful, rhythm-driven selection of their top songs that certainly pleased those watching on the Main Stage – followed later on by The Chemical Brothers with a slightly dated set that admittedly contained several classics. Rising stars Katy B and Jessie J were on show, the latter singing despite a broken leg. To round things off, on Sunday night there was a showing by Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin with his ‘Band of Joy’. Combining their latest album with reworked Led Zeppelin hits, the set was a big success with those watching on the Deer Park Stage and they were followed by the innovative Rodrigo Y Gabriela to end a pretty packed weekend on a high.
Review by Harry Ward
Fuel Up: 21 Sept 2011
We love anything Wingman related, spotted this article on Cavendish by ESPN.
“Mark Cavendish was forced to play second fiddle to wingman Mark Renshaw after being beaten by his team-mate on Stage Five of the Tour of Britain.
Renshaw, best known as Cavendish’s lead-out man, outpaced his team-mate to win the sprint at the end of the 111.8mile route from Exeter to Exmouth.
Cavendish, who won the sprinter’s green jersey on this year’s Tour de France, was forced to settle for second ahead of Robert Forster, while Geraint Thomas was fourth as Team Sky maintained their place at the top of the team standings.
Lars Boom retained the overall race lead after finishing in the same time as Renshaw. Cavendish is 34 seconds off the pace with three stages remaining – the sixth stage takes place on Friday between Taunton and Wells”
By ESPN
Fuel Up: 23 Aug 2011
Wingman interviewed by Dorm Room Tycoon
To listen to interview please click here
“Stuart Jolley founder of Wingman has secured an exclusive contract with Boots, to having BBC cameras follow his every move for an upcoming Theo Paphitis fronted series, Wingman has come a long way since Stu’s original idea for a male deodorising wipe as a student.” By WIlliam Channer of Dorm Room Tycoon
FUEL UP: 20 June 2011
Some big air and sick tricks on Mammoth Mountain – a warm up for the Wingman boys at Snowbombing Festival this winter!
