Whoever as a child read Mary Renault’s fabulous historical books “The King must die” and “The Bull from the Sea”, about Theseus, the gallant young Athenian bull-leapers, King Minos, poor mad Ariadne, and tragic Hippolytus, set in Minoan Crete, will love the fact that Red Bull are doing their leaping on Santorini this year, with the crater of the volcano that destroyed Minoan Crete and liberated Theseus and his bull-dancers, as a backdrop. The universe does sometimes come up with these things thank goodness, and although I prefer Vinsanto to Red Bull, I am all for this modern version of Bull- leaping . And who knows perhaps the Ancient Bull Leapers of Minos drank something like Red Bull too?
In case you are wondering where exactly on Santorini this gorgeous view and incredible villa is, well, just ask us…
“The world’s 21 best parkour and freerunning athletes will head to Santorini island (Greece) on Saturday, September 29 2012, to compete at “Red Bull Art of Motion”, the world’s first and ultimate parkour competition. The edgy caldera, the ancient and active volcano, a famous sunset and thousands of traditional white rooftops will provide a unique backdrop.
The athletes will be competing on the world’s most “natural” parkour, rising to the challenge of completing the course while performing their most stylish and most fluent tricks. They will be trying to impress the 4 judges using their fluidity, creativity, style and execution and aiming to advance to the finals.
“Free Running is all about passion; it’s a way of life. There’s hardly an obstacle that I can’t get over – or at least try to get over,“ said Jason Paul (GER) at the warm-up-session on thursday afternoon.
In the competition format on Saturday, the top 8 will aim for perfection in getting over the ‘all-natural’ obstacles – curves, gaps and walls. They will be performing amazing flips, dive rolls, aerial twists and hard drops with one simple goal: cover the distance from the start to finish line as stylish as possible in the hopes of getting on the podium.
Red Bull Art of Motion will be streamed live (15.30 CET) via www.redbull.tv
We say:
Go to Santorini, stay in our villa, read the books but please don’t try the bull leaps from the whitewashed rooftops unless you have drunk Red Bull in large quantities, and no Vinsanto at all…
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