High times

One needs significant athletic prowess to deal with a hangover, I believe. The Olympic Committee should make an event of it, considering how physically demanding any sort of movement during the “morning after” is; especially after you’ve explored Hong Kong nightlife after having desecrated vodka’s relationship with Red Bull.

I’m a little suspicious, though, because I’ve made it this far: on a yacht, wobbling on the waters of Victoria Harbour at nine in the morning. And while both nautical unease and last night’s drunken enculturation are tugging at my nausea, this alco-sweating athlete deserves an Olympic medal for going through the motions.

Of course, like any sports star, I won’t take all the credit. The people at Reebok have saved my soles through a wayward new shoe model: The Zigtech, which, through its zigzagging underside, shuttles energy to the forefoot like a slinky. 

Reebok is also responsible for taking me out to sea this morning to witness the first Red Bull Flugtag (“flying day” in German), Asia’s first go at an Austria-originating competition that has teams of up to four members launching manmade-and-mobilized aircrafts off of a six-meter-high ramp, all in an effort to see who can make them fly — and oftentimes, fall — the farthest.

Flights of freaky: Wet wings for this dragon aircraft at a past Flugtag event.

In a state of post-partying dazedness, there is something validating about watching objects drop. This would hold true for the 42 teams lined up at the Flugtag Village this year. Everyone from MBA students to skater boys answered the call of anyone-can-join, just to take the flying contraptions they’d constructed in little more than a month down. The massive human traffic that had accumulated around the village also proved that a whole lot of people were as appreciative of free-entry, slapstick sporting events as I was. By 12 p.m., a 30,000-strong congregation of whooping spectators had turned the seafront West Kowloon Heliport into Woodstock for countercultural sports enthusiasts. Some spread blankets out on the grass and uncorked wine bottles, while most knocked their inflatable clappers together as the first team pushed their aircraft onto the launching ramp.

The rock star comparisons aren’t unwarranted, however. Before the plunge, a little performance is required of each team. Creativity and showmanship are also evaluated by judges apart from the foremost criterion of distance. Backed by a team’s A.V. clip playing from the massive screen flanking the runway, less than 10 seconds are allotted to pre-flight entertainment, costume-accompanied camp usually employed to match the spectacle of the aircraft.

Fly Like Paper, Get High Like Planes

Despite the coarse gusts of wind and light spittle of rain — a probable sign that the gods were repulsed by the brand-sponsored jackassery that was underway — the teams held the crowd’s attention like only a self-destructive parade could. From a team of suits — a banana suit, sumo suit, and chicken suit, that is — fist pumping to Song # 2 before propelling a winged milk carton off the ramp to one reenacting Braveheart’s blue mooning scene, there was certainly a variety of show but, given the weather conditions, little catching of drift, so to speak. Crash landings were also given a lot of character by a Harry Potter professor (Snape’s On a Plane, as their machine was cleverly called), a flying pig, dimsum cart, and Marilyn Monroe. Not in that order.

Amusement aside, there were also aspirations for actual flight. Since the Flugtag’s first liftoff in 1991, 207 feet had been the record distance set at a Minneapolis event in July, wiping out one previously held for more than 10 years. Teams top-gunning for high performance than cheap thrills kept their contraptions simple and straightforwardly aerodynamic, such as the sleek, kite-inspired machine created by Team Gone with the Wind and a paper plane-looking machine designed by five old scouts. The latter would swoop down to claim its own feat: the first flight in the history of Flugtag where its pilot came out unscathed and un-soaked upon landing.

Reebok For The Alterna-Athlete

As a literal launchpad for its Zigtech trainers, Reebok was also intent on going the proverbial distance through its own flyer, the Reebok Zigtech Getaway. “I don’t think anyone knows what’s gonna happen. It can end in disaster,” said the aircraft’s pilot Jay “Pelmet” Forster at the Flugtag’s makeshift hangar before takeoff, betraying a lack of confidence in his 15 kg aluminum-made Getaway, which resembled a dragonfly out of hell with a little more pomp added through the black feathers lining its glider. By 2 p.m., however, the Getaway was ready for its ascent, sent off into the Kowloon fog by the crowd’s resounding chant of “Reebok! Reebok!”, especially with pert-breasted Hong Kong starlet Chrissie Chau acting as the flight crew’s sexy, spandex-outfitted stewardess. What they’d soon witness, however, wasn’t so much disaster like Forster proposed but a moderate drag down due to the rough winds.

“We were just a bit unlucky, but (the aircraft) was competitive. If I’m not mistaken, we’re second in the Longest Flight,” says Reebok Asia Pacific’s Aussie brand director Steve McPherson when I catch him back on land. A team of Power Ranger-costumed film studies grads who’d covered considerable sea-span through their no-frills aircraft would end up grabbing the grand prize, a certified pilot’s license course.   

“Clearly, Red Bull is fun and bold with events like these. We believe in the same principles in establishing our brand again,” says McPherson, emphasizing the rapturous energy that Reebok is all about these days, signifying its tie-up with Flugtag. It’s a brand that doesn’t have to try too hard, really — tempered ferocity and competitive cool packed into every pair of shoes; like the spirit that drives Matthew McConnaughey when he trains alongside Armstrong.

“While we want to be known as a fitness and training brand, we’re much more about putting some fun back into sports,” McPherson continues. “Yes, we’ve got the Zigtech product, which we’ve positioned as a muscle-conditioning shoe that you can train in longer with less wear and tear on your key joints and muscles. But it’s also bold, provocative, and fun. And the energy effect is what we’re also all about.”

That the Zigtech was being touted as an “energy drink for your feet” seemed apt at this point. Steve reminded me about the Flugtag after-party at a nearby pub later. Though I was still in a post-drunken stupor, not having fully recovered from last night, I was no quitter. I just wasn’t gonna take these shoes off anytime soon.