3421 – TITUS Tornados Camper Tour 2024

It was quite an ambitious plan. Equipped with two camper vans, we were to travel south from Düsseldorf in Germany to somewhere where it was warm. Due to a tight budget and even more limited space, the aim was to meet as many riders from our European TITUS Tornados Bearings Team ‘on the road’ in the two vehicles during the journey and thus get them involved. As three of our team riders had won vouchers for these camper vans at the German Championship 2023 and the guys and girls from ‘Camper Boys’ (now ‘Off-Camper’) calculated the pure value of the goods, we turned three vehicles into two and were able to upgrade one of them. And so, just in time for Easter, the two vans set off south with a crew who had never been on a campervan holiday before. We were to learn a lot!

After detailed planning, the idea for our 10-day trip was as follows; firstly we were going to Innsbruck for two days and then on to Milan. On the first day, however, we only made it as far as Ulm – still Germany – which actually wasn’t too bad. Except for the fact that our fresh water tank was still empty. There was a shower and a toilet in the larger of the vehicles, but we couldn’t use either without water. Luckily we found a petrol station just before our final destination where we could fill up with water, spending the first night under the bridge at the local skatepark. There was a real camping atmosphere, with barbecues and also the first try outs of our toilet – not too much of a good idea.

We spent the first night in Austria next to the skatepark in Brixlegg and the next morning we had the disaster – the toilet was full, and it was REALLY full. In other words, the shit was already running out of the side of the van at the ‘toilet flap’. Of course as TM I was allowed to clean up the mess, which was anything but nice, but some things just have to be done. We spent the second night at the incredibly good Skate Hall, where we not only filled up our tanks with fresh water but were also able to shower in the hall. This was suddenly very luxurious and so we were able to continue our journey to Milan fresh.

Anyone travelling from Innsbruck to Milan knows that the road goes through the Alps. This was a novelty for everyone in our travel group, as none of us had ever taken this route by car before. With Tim Otto, Loco Papi and myself as the driver of the large van and filmer Ansgar Wagemann, Antoni Zeyer, Domi Maul and Deniel Cramer in the smaller of the two vehicles, we landed in a rainy northern Italy and soon began to question Milan. When we arrived in the metropolis it was dry for a second, but as soon as we had parked the two vans in the perfect lot right next to Milano Centrale it started to rain again. The forecast didn’t bode well for the rest of the day, so with a heavy heart we decided to head south. Antibes on the French Riviera was to be our next destination and so we steered the vehicles through unbelievable rain storms in the direction of the estate of Ben Botta, team rider veteran and one of the best hosts you can imagine. We finally reached our destination at 11 o’clock in the evening, but here too it was pouring to the max. Let’s hope for tomorrow.

The next morning it seemed as if we had landed in another world. For the first time we were not only able to marvel at Ben’s property in daylight, but also look up into a cloudless blue sky. Florent Tourdre, also a team rider, had taken extra holiday and so we had two local spot guides who were also part of the team; it couldn’t have been more perfect. As we had skipped Milan, we could now stay in one place for three days in a row and finally concentrate solely on skating. We still slept in the campers, but on Ben’s base, so we could enjoy all the benefits of sanitary facilities and a BBQ in the evening. Suddenly the tour was no longer a ‘gateway tour’ and it felt like a holiday – at least until we continued on to Lyon.

Jérémie Daclin, who else, was our man for spots here, both in terms of “staying overnight” and skate spots for the following day. To break up the six-hour journey a little, we made a stopover at a marvellous bank spot that Florent had recommended to us. On the onward journey, we didn’t really feel like ‘ghetto camping’ again and decided to visit a proper campsite for the first time. Not only was it reasonably priced, but it also provided us with showers, toilets and a real ‘we are campers’ feeling for the first time. Unfortunately we only had one day to skate in Lyon, as we had planned a TITUS ‘Destroy the Spot’ event at the famous Hotel de Ville spot for the last day of the trip, but we made the best of it. The contest also went smoothly and we decided to drive all the way to Germany that evening, which was again very ambitious. But, by midnight, we had crossed the border at Mulhouse and enjoyed our last night in our mobile home.

The onward journey to Düsseldorf the next day went smoothly and when we returned the vans it became clear just how far we had travelled – a total of 3421 kilometres and, when you consider that this figure means an average of 340 kilometres of riding per day, we got a hell of a lot of skateboarding done. No injuries, no accidents, no speeding tickets, no break-ins, we learned a lot for life and met only the nicest people ‘on the road’ – yes, we would do that again!