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CREW Ashley Charles Will Jackson Brian Terada Tobias Wicke Max Gaertig Timo Mrukwia Hannu Cools Damien Croce Rob Harrison.... tour operator Stu Johnson - Props Kay Clauberg - Freedom Ricky Adam - Dig Ben...Soul & Lesbian magazine Day 1 - Basel Not afraid of the unknown, curious of the unfair, the crew assembled with ingeniosity by Rob Harrison, the WTP team manager of the month, is driving to Italy. With a sensitive credit card, two vans and no homan but a Terada, the trip was in good hands. It starts in the rebuilt skatehall of Basel. Rapidly, Timo puts on his swim shorts and his best beach shoes. He shows everyone what is real street with a pegless low rail. Tobias is not so impressed as he is seeing the scene from a 3 meter high wall tap! Hannu, with a painful ass and sexy stitches on his forehead, is driving his machine all over the park, doing the crazy manual combos he is known for. Brian is discovering his mate (alcohol) and takes his pleasure looking at the British colony destroying some tech ramps; with for example a 360 tail tap to nose pick footjam. This one goes for Ashley when Will is doing too many tricks in one for me to remember. But, among all these craps, the best trick goes definitely to Michel Carmona who welcomes us in the park, and gives us the best hospitality. Pasta, comfortable home, videos and candies give us a really good night. If only, Ricky could get out of the bathroom !!! Day 2 - Milano This morning, Stu goes into town to see a old friend of his. Do I have to remember that he is living in Texas ! Well, you probably don't care but it seemed important to me to mention this fact, because Stu is an important person on the tour : he is the moving fish-eye of our souvenirs, so if you want to see real action, get the Props. If you want some additional 'lifestyle' description, read on. On our way to Italy, we are driving through the beautiful mountains of Switzerland. Small houses made of old stones, stream of pure water rushing down the slope of grass ...shiiiittt, it's dark now, I can't see anything ! Ashley get off my page 69, she is my playmate ! We are in the Gothard, the longest tunnel of Europe. After 17km of yellow flashes, we are get through into perfect .....rain. There won't be any riding in Lugano's fantastic bowl, and not much stuff to do in Milano either. Well, at least, we are in Italy, the country of the Dolce Vita and F...§%/<~@! Berlusconi. So here we are, lost in the middle of the wet circus of Milano. Kay 4130 GPS can't do anything for us, we are driving and being driven crazy (the centre of Milan was a nightmare with three cars and one-way streets). Finally, we manage to book an expensive hotel in the center, mostly because we don't have any choice. After all this mess, eating and drinking is mandatory to preserve our mental health. The pizzas are good and cheap in contrary to the beverages. Never mind, we are too thirsty of jokes, smiles and loud conversations. And as usually happens, happened, 3 or maybe 4 excited foreigners come back to the rooms drunk, and the Belgium fried monkey climbs up some wall. it's too much for the director who call us kids (and worse the next morning when I went to check the damage at reception). I am still crying about that, not because I am very sensitive about my age but more because we had to pay the 2 rooms some clients refused to pay because of the noise. Bullshit would say an American gansta ! Day 3 - Milano Anyway, the worst is coming from the dark clouds offering us fantastic showers. We use this wasted time to do a little bit of sightseeing. We see the Dome, the cathedral and all the postcard buildings. Hannu seduces 14 years old girls so I can say that everything is perfect. Finally after a dry hour, the frustrated riders manage to ride a funny spot made up of 3 parallel flat banks. But the rain would not let us enjoy more than a couple of flat tires and it strikes back. Whatever ! It's time to pick up Max at the airport. Late as planned, we are arriving just in time for the delayed plane. 15 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, 2hours and 30 minutes later, Rob puts his hands on his head and comes to us with an ashamed smile, Max is not coming today but tomorrow. We came the wrong day ! (I just wanted to get there early...) Allright, it 's still raining like hell, Hannu and Timo just finished their alternative street Olympic games, Brian and Tobias have drunk all their energy. The only thing we can do is find a city that would love us better. Bologna! and Olaf Pignataro is our next target. In the blue van, Stu'Ipod' gives us interesting music. In the silver van, Will 'high mood' gives us interesting lyrics. It's 3am when we are arriving in Bologna. It doesn't take long to see our guest's floor covered by a very tired team. Outside, at the corner of Via Antonio Bondi and Via Maria Gaetana Agnesi, the smart 'hardcore' sleep in the vans. Day 4 - Bologna Miracle, the pope heard Rob's prayers. It's a marvelous sun that wakes the unlucky tourists. Impatient, (not just impatient, Wicke was already out in the street pulling moves) everyone is willing to ride, anything, anywhere, even a 12 meter wide mini ramp ! The irrational talents and the obvious envy of riding will burn the wood with more tricks than it's possible to relate. Tobias flys for a giant whip but has more fun doing all the nosepick combos possible, or impossible actually. Brian stays quiet as usual but drops for real actions and pulls an unexpected fufanu on a shady guard rail. Of course, Ashley rules the air with style and his unique 'flowtitude'. Will plays with his toothpick to double low kick in the face when Hannu manuals every inch of the platform. He also pulls a complicated over icepick on a small rail. Here are for the tricks news. Besides that, we are pleased to meet finally Italian riders, and mostly Darrell and his afro. After this pretty cool warm up, Olaf introduces us to the wonderful worlds of local criminality with a visit of a curious spot in the Giardino del Gasto. Usually, this secret garden is the base of every drug dealers and consumers, for an hour it will become the base of another kind of addicts. Addicted to height, Hannu plays again the clown but he does also nice lookback on the bumps of the mini snake run. Looking like an empty fountain, the spot allows Ashley to do funny lines before he messes his knee again. Timo who look ghetto with his beard one eighties a big trash can and Tobias does pegslaps on a rainbow wall. That's enough for the first part of the day. It's time to eat pizza and to look at the gorgeous students crossing the campus. So, 15 minutes after the first erection of the day, we are riding the Palazzo of Congressi where you can find all kind of real street spots. The steep pyramid, the long ledge and some curbs amuse the crew but behind this charming scene of 10 people riding under some big buildings, the hannuman works his way down some stairs, up a steep bank and fufanu an unreachable sub box. Not many people saw it live but I can guarantee that this shit was hard. Finally, after hours of intense and pleasant riding, the crew go back to Olaf's shelter. At 10pm, Max is picked up at the train station and brought directly to the bars for a funny night. Unfortunately, we loose our annoying team manager (there is no way I was that bad you twat), I guess because he looks like a Taliban. And here, in the middle of the road, with beer on our hands starts the legendary story of the Flamingo ! This nickname was given to Hannu after a girl asked him in Italian if he was Flemish (we heard flamingo). This was one of the many pieces of the conversation we listened carefully. Indeed, it was exactly like the book 'how to make girls love you' said. Hannu and this charming lady talked for an hour, smiling at each other, finding common points and sexual attraction. Well, at the end, the girl falls in love, kisses him softly, cries and flies away in the stars. Hannu, like the pink bird staying all day in a crappy water, couldn't move, astonished by such a dramatic ending. That night he almost did it. So close, Hannu, better luck next time. Anyway, he becomes the flamingo, the playboy at the top of the love chain !!! Day 5 - Bologna / Modena With Max finally in our luggage, we get back to the Fiera where we rode street the day before. There, Max shows everyone how good he is. Mainly, he does a big 180 over a 8 stairs ledge-rail where Brian pulls a nice feeble to 180 and where Timo unfortunately hurts his foot. In the middle of the afternoon, after crazy tries from Max to do a big manual down a ledge to 180, we ride Modena 'Le Gobbe' concrete skatepark. It looks pretty cool at first, and then when you ride it it's even cooler. The 2 big and large tits are like a spine and allows Tobias and Brian to pull every trick they have in their large pockets. Hannu plays also in this chilling garden and pulls clean an ice pick to tail tap on a thin rail. With the night coming fast, our local guide Marcelo, presents us the best spots. First we look at Hannu jumping a pretty scary pyramid, and then we enjoy Max and Will going down some cool rails. That was actually the problem : 2 riders, 15 spectators. Finally, we stay together, united by the same desire to watch the newest Props live. Damien who didn't have the chance to ride too much today, makes the craziest transfer from a bank to another. It was just unreal to see him driving fast his 150cc 4Seasons and jumping a 5 meter gap. 'Bravo mon gars', like we say at home. In the country of the Majesty Queen Elizabeth, they prefer to say 'Give me the fucking bottle of Tequila you bastard!!!' Actually, this sounds like Rob passing out on the floor and painting his sleeping bag with puke and cozy smell. We are in the wonderful loft of Mister Pagnatero, the god father of all objects, pieces of art and also father of 2 perfect children, Olaf and his sister. It was the time for the second attack of the Flamingo ! In fact, Hannu finds here more than a friend, a soulsister. Then he makes me jealous spending more time with her than with me. Fortunately I am too tired to care, I fell asleep looking at the 2378 objects lost in this giant loft. Day 6 - Brescia Another day and another punch in the face as Tobias would say. We are discovering Brescia concrete skatepark with excitement. The bowls look crazy and for the first time we are thinking that Italy has a serious spot to play with. You just need to drop in to realize that our first impression was wrong, the park is just a compilation of banks. Actually, and the locals agree and regret it, the transitions are so bad that you seem to ride on paving stones. I may exaggerate a little bit but surely this park could have been one of the best around the Mediterranean if only the company in charge of the construction knew what it was doing (it was built by a regular construction firm). Anyway, it was way enough for everyone to spend a great day riding under a heavy sun. And the view of Stefan Lantschner riding the park with American style was sufficient to prove that if you are good, you can ride anything (there was also another Italian guy there, Alex Tisoni, who was riding real good) . Luckily, there are only good riders in this tour and everyone proved it with their own way. Will does a 180 to toothpick over a guard-rail. Ashley pulls his 360 to manual to fakie on the platform thanks to a train horn. Stu catches on camera the crazy feeble to 180 hard way to rollback to half cab whip from Max. Ricky dances during the same trick whilst doing the photo sequence. Tobias crashes hard on a whip to manual to whip drop attempt. But the most spectacular comes from my big guy, the nice and quiet Damien Croce. Used to riding Montpellier Bowl, Damien feels like a jellyfish in this environment. He acts like it when he is doing the best lines, probably never done before. He finished the session with a beautiful drop into a corner ('drop into' - the gap was big in itself, a transfer across and into the snake run!!) to 360 at height back out and over the snake run. He is just too impressive and Stu's fisheye makes it even better looking. 'Bien joué mon gros', like we say at home again. Later, after the daily supermarket mission, we go back to the loft. There, we just chill, drink more Brandy and watch the Italian Banana walking through the loft with just tight white underpants (don't stress, I was there and still have no idea what he's on about). Too sexy for me, I will have horrible nightmares. At that time, Oops Hannu almost does it again with some girl who came to the club for him. But the Flamingo again stands without reaction. He is seduced by the vicious liquid and doesn't realized he misses it again. So close, so lonely, he was the only single of the tour and definitely on a mission. Day 7 - Bergamo Today is the return of the mummy. The crew starts the day with the best rails you could find to do variations on. Max plays with it like it's a skatepark rails and offers us this amazing line : up the rail to barspin out followed by a bunny whip on the flat before getting down the other rail with a tootpick over kind of beauty. After that, only Will could find more attractive. It's hard to explain but Will imagined a very original line which makes him do 2 backwards grind within 15 meter square. First he does backward grind to halfcab down a short rail than he has to turn sharply, more than 90 degrees, before some stairs to get back to the regular rail. It looks so hard to join the two, the turn is harder without brake and the run up too small. Finally he almost pulls one try missing only the halfcab of the second rail. The next try send him backward over the second rail and makes him crash hard on his shoulder. At least dislocated, he has to go to the hospital. Everyone is of course pretty bummed and impatient to know the news. When Will arrives completely strapped with a white upper body soft 'cast', we just can't stop laughing. His injury is not too bad and he manages as ever to keep his typical British flegma. Still, the bad news is that he has to leave the tour and that's a terrible news because he is such a nice guy, funny and brave. He didn't even cried !!! The mummy is on the way back to England, and if it takes him 17 hours to find his home, it takes us 15 euros each to eat at that Mexican place close to Milano train station. On the parking lot, when waiting again and again (piss off) for Rob, we are having this interesting conversation about how often can we wank during road trips. On this particular aspect, Timo seemed to lead the crew even if Ricky stays longer in the shower. Well, I am just kidding, Ricky is clean and smells of a natural flavor, and I stink like a wine-o. So, here we are in Milano again, the city that doesn't like us. Tonight is way better so, and cheaper as we sleep in a youth hostel. Rob should not have been accepted caused of his age (don't worry Ben, you'll be this old soon) but we let him sleep in the room of the 'Cool'. Day 8 - Milano Again Tobias is ready to ride as soon as he is awake. This guy is just too tiring, but what a great guy too. He just makes me laugh with his big face of clown. Everyday he is improving his English and everyday, on his bike, it's the same story : Innovations, non stop actions and emotions. At the Lambra Bowl close to Milano, he does every variation possible on the coping; doing for example a whip to disaster to nose pick to downside whip ! It's insane and it's just one of a million tricks he can do. Same problem for Hannu who ruins the poor volcano with many combos. Ashley on his side is flowing around so easily that he made me want to kick his ass. And What about Brian 'Like usual, he does few tricks but only original and super hard ones. He pulls for example bus to ice pick to up the platform to roll back down a little bank to halfcab cab bus back into the bowl. Brian is a mystery that I am not willing to understand, I just enjoy his riding and his sweet personality. Another mystery is the sudden decision to move to Roma. It's 6pm and we are more than 6 hours far from the mythical capital. But as I just said, this city worths every effort and there is no proposed alternative anyway. So here we are on the road again. After an horrible journey on horrible roads at an horrible speed, we arrive horribly tired at Giordano house. Happy to be alive, we sleep good that night. Day 9 - Roma We knew it was our last day in Italy and we were pretty excited to enjoy the streets of Roma. Max is healthy and we saw rapidly that it's going to be big. As a first bunny up, he pulls clean a 18 stairs rail. We are grinding small ledges on Viale America. Ashley, Hannu and Brian do some dirt tricks up the ledges but we don't really see what is happening in Max's head. He is preparing himself for a giant wall ride down 15 stairs where there is this 1 meter, 30 cm high ledge before it. The first try is pretty scary when he hits the ledge coming out and stacks over the bars. The second is better. The third was incredible - coming with speed and faith, he jumps so high on the wall that he is 3 meters over the ground. This crucial statistic leads him to a harsh landing that hurt his ankle. But the wall was done and the crew got crazy, impressed by the fucking talented kid. It's definitely the trick of the tour for me. We are riding in the middle of the neo-classic buildings, home of different museums. We ride also the famous ledge-rail of the Largo Virglio Testa. Don't ask me what it means, I don't know. But I can tell you that Timo is back. He does smith and sprocket on this ledge and does also the highest grind I have ever seen, at my öbergeildicken tetons height. My buddy has pop and uses it well in his video part coming soon !!! Buy it, god damn. Later, on the way to a visit of the Roman ruins, Damien shows us his unknown street skills with a big feeble down a fast ledge with a kink at the end. Brian follows him with a smooth manual. It's around 9pm and we are enjoying a very peaceful and soft evening. It becomes even more romantic when we ride cool banks and walls on the side of the river, in the middle of a small island. There, we realize how lucky we are to be on that tour and how thankful we should be to the guys at the head of this delicious company that is We the People. I mean it sincerely and I can guarantee that these guys deserve credits. Of course, Rob is like a stone in the shoes (you say that now, after I managed to convince Swiss customs that despite your lack of clothes at the border you were sane, and with us), but I like pain ! Oh, yes I like when you hit me with fresh roses (are these the same one's you stole from in front of the palace, right in front of the cops') ! Thank you Rob for bringing me all the way to the Coliseum. I want to stay there (no worries, next time I leave you there), with my souvenirs. I don't have the energy to relate Tobi's double whip, Brian's decade and Hannu's fantasies in Darmstadt. For me the trip stopped in the bottom of my last beer drunk with my love Timo. We were in front of that giant proof of human bravery and we were thinking about one thing : will the flamingo score one day? Credits I'd like to thank again Rob, Harry and Klaus for their dedication and for giving me the opportunity to live 10 days with such nice personalities. I love you guys, all of you, even you Ashley who steals my bed, even you Will who hates my French origin, even you Tobias who beats me with your stupid game, even you Timo who makes me do bierathlons, even you Brian who doesn't want to give me his bike, even you Hannu who attracts all the girls I look at, même toi Damien à qui je n'ai rien à repprocher, even you Kay who makes my ass warm in your gadgetmobil ... even you Rob who makes me put down my pants every night for your personal pleasure (what!? shared room and he wants not only to sleep naked but to give his pants to Ashley...nearly as amusing as him not getting them back the next day and the Swiss border police's faces when the naked French guy stood up in the back of the van to be identified....Ben was probably the guy who made the most people laugh on the tour). It was good so ! Oh yeeehhh, a damn good trip ! Ben. Click here for more pictures on this article.