Posts Tagged ‘Red Bull’

At the age of 23 Shaun White is already a veteran of the extreme sport of snow boarding. He turned professional at the age of 13 and is now the biggest name in the sport. Last week he won the gold medal in the men’s half pipe at Whistler – but how much was down to a sponsor with limitless funds, or was it just good luck, or was it the great professionalism that White emulates.

Photo courtesy of Connie Scheer from The Meeting Network

The answer is they were probably all involved – let us explain.

The Red Bull connection

Our old friends Red Bull, White’s main sponsor, generously created a half pipe for White to train on in the middle of the mountains in Colorado – only accessible by helicopter. Fair dinkum and there is no doubt that White used this facility to his great advantage. Check out what was created in this video from redbull

The Good Luck

You could refer to this as bad luck, depending on which side of the table you sit. Two of White’s main rivals, team mates Danny Davis and Kevin Pearce were both unable to compete due to injury. Davis has a spinal fracture after an accident on a quad bike some ten days ago and Pearce is in a bad way after a very bad crash whilst practicing at the end of December. We wish them both a speedy recovery but their absence was for White a bit of luck.

The professionalism of White

Whatever is said about the benefits of a personal training space and the fortunate absence of two main rivals we most certainly bow to the great professionalism of White. He had won the half pipe in Turin in 2006 and wanted to win again. But it had all been done before, snow boarding was deja vu. Not for White, he went up to his private training ground and with his coach, Bud Keene, determined to create something new – a ‘WOW’ factor.

They came up with the dramatic spiraling Double McTwist 1260 which became known as the Tomahawk. White was so far ahead after his first run which in his own words included a “good-sized” backside air, a front double cork 1080, a cab-double cork 1080, a frontside stalefish 540 and a backside 900 to finish that it was all over in respect of the gold medal.

Ever the professional White wanted to show the world what he could do and so in his second run, which scored an amazing 48.4 points, he pulled off the perfect Tomahawk. Incredible stuff and testimony to the professional.

Peetu Piiroinen of Finland was the only one to put serious pressure on White, with a second-run score of 45.0. He finished with the silver medal. The bigger podium surprise was the presence of the American Scotty Lago, who used a big first run to capture a somewhat surprising bronze medal.

We are able to show the Tomahawk in this video from jamieoverlooked and wonder what the flying Tomato will come up with when he defends his gold medal again in Sochi, Russia, in 2014. The Tomato may need more than a Tomahawk.

When you get a line up that includes Terje, Travis Rice, Daniel Ek, Scotty Lago and Torstein Horgmo and throw in the extreme sports ever present sponsors in the shape of Red Bull you are likely to have some thrilling action. And that is what you can see in this thrilling video from extremityTV which shows all the thrills and spills of snowboarding.

These extreme snowscrapers were in action at the beginning of 2009 when Red Bull set up a snowboard park in central New York with a backdrop of high rise buildings – perhaps not the usual environment for snowboarding but it certainly allows many more people to witness the skills of these great athletes and so hopefully it might inspire others to follow in their footsteps….enjoy

If you are a keen snowboarder and extreme winter sports enthusiast and have been wondering what happened to Shaun White between the end of the 2009 winter season and his re-appearance in New Zealand late August, wonder no further…

This is what a powerful sponsor (redbull) can do to on behalf of a top athlete.

Shaun White is an incomparable snowboarder who has constantly taken the sport to extreme levels. He is the first athlete ever to land back to back double corks and remains the only skater to land the body varial frontside 540 (The Armadillo).

He is also the first snowboarder to win back-to-back gold medals in the Winter X-Games Superpipe. He is the first (and only) person to win both a Summer and Winter Dew Cup. He won the Revolver Golden God Award for “Most Metal Athlete” and he has won TransWorld SNOWboarding Rider Of The Year twice, once in 2003  and again in 2006.

Red Bull, a keen extreme sports promoter, has reason to put their faith in Shaun White.

In February 2009 he teamed up with Red Bull to create a custom-made half pipe in the rugged depths of the San Juan mountains outside Silverton, Colorado. This would allow him to work on a series of new tricks that will change the sport forever

This was Project X.

“I’ve had all these tricks I wanted to try. I just needed a place to figure them out,” said White. Not only the place, but the privacy… not only then privacy but perfect conditions… imagine a half-pipe never touched before by another soul…

It took 2 months and 30 heli-bomb dropped avalanches to get enough loose snow to form the perfect pipe.

Not only 30 heli-bombs to move 250,000 cubic yards of snow, but 300 man hours, 7,200 foam blocks and 8,000 lbs of welded steel were used to create the world’s first on-mountain snowboarding foam pit to allow White to practice his death defying tricks.

“You have to keep pushing yourself as an athlete” he says, and in his vocabulary this means pushing himself beyond what has been, to date, considered possible.

He aerial assaulted the foam pit trying out trick after trick allowing the conditions to give him the freedom of seeing whether the tricks in his mind could actually be carried out. And when he had perfected them in the pit, he took them to his very own pipe.

And so, with help from Red Bull, he has taken the sport from today into tomorrow…

A front double cork 10, a switchback 900, double back rodeo and cab double cork 10 are all things to look out for when White performs this year.

That formidable training has already born fruit. He won the NZ Open World Cup late August by pulling off a frontside lein air, backside 900, frontside 720, cab double cork 1080, to a front 1080 in his first run, and a straight air, backside 500, frontside 720, cab double cork 1080, front double cork 1080 on his second run.

With Project X, Red Bull demonstrates how the company is ‘changing the game’ when it comes to investing its marketing dollars. While some brands are investing millions of dollars in signage and presenting sponsorships, Red Bull is radically changing, owning, and creating sports properties and unique concepts of its own.

With Project X, Red Bull takes athlete/partnerships/endorsements to a new level. Both brands (Red Bull and Shaun White) will clearly benefit from this campaign – and this will also help Red Bull’s exposure leading into the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

The might and power of Red Bull allowed this dream to become a reality for White and perhaps one day Silverton too will benefit from Project X. The half pipe is completely visible from the ski area so perhaps one day it can be used by everyone…

You can see more about Project X here: www.redbullprojectx.com

The extreme sport of Air Racing – and notably the Red Bull Air Racing World Championships – has got off to a great start in 2009. Already four races have been held, starting with the Abu Dhabi race which was then followed with races held in San Diego, Windsor Ontario, and most recently Budapest in Hungary.

The 2009 World Championship has 15 pilots competing for the crown of world champion. In each race only 12 pilots will actually compete for race start positions, and therfore qualify for championship points - these pilots being the ten fastest qualifiers and two of the other five pilots who compete in a wild card race to find the fastest two planes.

After four races it is Brit Paul Bonhomme who is leading the title race with 42 points, just ahead of the Austrian Hannes Arch. Nicholas Ivanoff from France and American Mike Mangold are in third and fourth positions with a points tally of 28 and 24 respectively.

The next race is scheduled to take place in Porto, Portugal on the Atlantic coast with the qualifying taking place on Saturday 12th September and race day itself being on the 13th September. The teams then travel to neighbouring Spain for the race in Barcelona on the 3rd and 4th October.

Michael Goulian from Massachusetts claimed the victors podium in the recently completed Budapest race, beating Paul Bonhomme, Kirby Chambliss and Hannes Arch. The racing, as can be seen on the attached video from  Redbullairrace , is not only fast and furious but also extremely dangerous. It was Hannes Arch who was piloting his plane whilst racing in the San Diego event this year when it hit an unlucky pelican. Arch’s plane was severly damaged and not surprisingly the pelican did not survive.

If you are interested in attending one of the upcoming races we suggest you visit the website: the link for which is http://www.redbullairrace.com/cs/Satellite/en_air/Generic/Tickets-and-Hospitality-021242756456959?CategoryName=Red+Bull+Air+Race&p=1238611393596

Felipe Massa has undergone surgery after a horrific 170mph head-on crash at the Hungaroring race circuit outside of Budapest, Hungary. He was hit on the head by bouncing debris which had fallen from fellow Brazilian Rubens Barichello’s Brawn during Saturday’s Hungarian Grand Prix qualifying.

Ferrari, the Formula One champions, said in a statement that the Brazilian was conscious on arrival at Budapest’s AEK hospital and his general condition was stable.

“Following a complete medical examination it emerged that he had suffered a cut on his forehead, bone damage of his skull and a brain concussion,” it said.

After the operation Massa was reported to be stable but the results of further tests are awaited and it will then be decided on the best course of action for the young Brazilian. The accident, which rules Massa out of today’s race at the Hungaroring, brought back grim memories of the crash that killed his compatriot and triple world champion Ayrton Senna at Imola in 1994.

Massa, championship runner-up last year, was hit by a fist-sized spring weighing between 600 and 800 grams, his car, leaving streaking brake marks across the asphalt, ploughed straight on at turn four and into the tyre wall.

Massa, who appeared to have been knocked unconscious before the car left the track, was extracted and taken by ambulance to the circuit medical centre and then by helicopter to hospital.

Photographs of the driver showed his visor half ripped off and a bloody gash over his closed left eye.

Barrichello was reported to have later visited Massa in hospital – below you can see the tragic accident and the reason it happened in this video from  konamigiants

Renault’s Fernando Alonso will now start Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix from pole position with the Red Bull pair of Vettel and Webber in second and third positions and McClaren’s Lewis Hamilton in fourth.

With Massa out of contention for championship points for some time it will be interesting to see whether it is now the Red Bull pairing of Vettel and Webber who bring pressure on Jenson Button’s (who starts in 8th position today) commanding lead.

Current driver standings

All that is left to say is to wish Felipe a speedy and full recovery.

Wingsuit flying is something else. That and BASE jumping. They are about as extreme as our extreme sports go…

“The oldest rule in base jumping is to never ask permission just forgiveness!” Shane McConkey

If you are new to the concept, this is a fabulous video brought to us by redbull and dedicated to Shane McConkey who died on 26th March, 2009 whilst skiing and wingsuit flying in the Italian Dolomites. His death was the result of faulty equipment.

This particular video, which brings the sport so much to life, was taken in New Zealand when Shane, Miles Daisher and Chuck Berry explored unchartered terrain in new Zealand – another incredible Red Bull project.

The Department of Conservation in Queenstown, New Zealand, gave the team permission to film in Sinbad Gully.

As Shane says, in his blog, “Chuck has done plenty of recon work in most of Fiordland over the years so he had a very good idea where we needed to look to find big cliffs for us to jump. It would all be completely exploratory base jumping. Most of the Fiordland area has never seen a base jump. The problem is access. The mountains in Fiordland are impressive. They shoot straight up and maintain a steep angle all the way to the top. Normally base jumpers can find a way to hike to a good exit point usually with minimal climbing required. Not here. Just about everything in the area is steep, rugged terrain that would require at the very least a few days of serious climbing and rope work. We had the time and the gear but didn’t have an exact jump that we knew was possible so we decided to hire a helicopter and went big wall hunting the easy way. We flew straight to to one of the gems that Chuck has had circled on his map. The mountain was called Terror Peak and the cliff just below it was perfect. A 3,400 foot jump to the valley floor with a 1,000 foot start and some fun ledges and terrain to buzz with our wingsuits. An easy jump and flight with some great visuals along the way down.”

And the result of it was that fabulous video, and another sensational place for wingsuit flyers and BASEjumpers to practice their terrifying art!

“Miles coined the jump “Terrorflying” even though the jump was anything but that! For a base jumper, pioneering new jump sites, or what we call “Opening a new object” is perhaps the most exciting aspect of the sport. The sport is still quite young and the base world is still being discovered and mapped. To have the opportunity to open up a new site, and a big one, in a stunning place like Fiordland is an amazing experience. It was one I will not soon forget!” said McConkey.

In a sense, wingsuit flying is a cross between skydiving and hang gliding. Like both of these activities, wingsuit flying requires the flyer to either jump out of an aircraft or off a precipice to achieve a high enough altitude. While hang gliders can coast in for a safe landing, wingsuit flyers have to deploy their parachutes and float the rest of the way to the ground – they simply can’t reduce their speed fast enough for a safe landing without the use of a chute.

­But, until the moment they pull their parachute chord, wingsuit flyers can soar horizontally, like a bird, at high speeds and perform aerial acrobatics – all the while descending at a rate much slower than that of a typical skydiver.

It must be an exhilarating sport – albeit a death defying one.

This is the same crew doing mainly BASEjumps from a cliff they later called ‘Sin Good’  as “it was anything but bad”. The video is from shanemcconkey.

You might have noted the Red Bull wingsuits, the Red Bull Chutes etc. So what has Red Bull got to do with all this?

You all know what Red Bull is don’t you? That sexy slender container that contains an energy drink produced and sold by the Austrian company Red Bull GmbH and sold in over 130 countries.

However, it also has an aggressive international marketing campaign. The numerous sponsored activities range from extreme sports like windsurfing, snowboarding, skateboarding, wakeboarding, wingsuit flying, BASEjumping, surfing, Formula 1 racing, and breakdancing to art shows, music, and video games.

They play a very active role in extreme sports.

We’ll finish with a longish video, also from redbull, of the boys and Red Bull having a ball in China and BASEjumping a Chinese sinkhole… and anything else that looked interesting along the way. It took months of negotiation to get the government to allow the Red Bull Air Force and friends into their borders for the BASE jumping session at one of China’s natural wonders, and although no professional film crew was allowed to accompany them, each diver operated a personal camera with great success:

This article is dedicated to Shane McConkey. He will be sorely missed.