TITUS "Battle of the shops" 2023 | 45 Years of TITUS

While pump tracks might not be the first thing that comes to mind for street skaters, it is a fitting place to get your legs warmed up. We began with a casual race, followed by a best trick contest called “Pump the track” over two bumps. In the race as well as the best trick, Mika Möller especially threw down and showed he meant business. Mika lost the final race against Bart Buikman, but then out of nowhere did a tre flip over the double bump followed by a ridiculous frontside flip!

After the track, we went in true “side mission” fashion to a never before skated double set outside an indoor pool in the small town. Originally, this spot wasn’t even planned, but since it was on the way back to the city, why not? Mika once again bossed up with a huge heelflip among the others throwing down. Afterwards, on to the next spot - Stadtwerke.

After many discussions and internal meetings, we came to the realization that you can’t ONLY have super gnarly spots. When we arrived to Stadtwerke, we had a mountain of pizzas waiting for the crew which were gone in about 5 minutes. Also waiting for the skaters were two beautiful ledges which should be skated in a line. Markus Blessing set a high bar with a back nosegrind on the first ledge followed by a kickflip backside noseblunt on the second. Many other amazing lines followed before we jumped back on the bus to head to Berg Fidel. You may have heard of this place as it’s stood for skateboarding in Münster since 1989! Gotta add a little history to the excursion.

Since “The Berg” is mainly about the bowl for transition skaters (and unfortunately there were only a few transition shredders among the crew), another focus was the “Berg Rail”, a big ass handrail next to the bowl. Torsten Ballhause threw down a frontside 50-50. While anticipation was high that 2023 would be the year that the rail sees some new tricks go down, the rail proved just as difficult to skate as always. Jelle Maatman and Antoni Zeyer both tossed boardslides down it regardless. Then, it was time to head to the final spot of the event.

Also a never before skated spot was a nice new parking garage in an industrial area not far from the TITUS headquarters. Here, you’ll find a downhill from one level of the garage to the other. If you don’t turn, you’ll head straight towards a big 10 stair. The “Downhill of Doom” required a first trick to be done into the bank and then a second down the 10. Many were coming close to tricks, but Jelle Maatman finally got a front-shuv into the bank to hefty frontside flip down the stairs. It was Ilya Merkushev who won this event though with a kickflip into the bank and a crazy hardflip down the set. Mad Respect Ilya!

After 7 hours of fierce street skating, the event came to a close. We had no busts and no injuries (Except judge Timo Krone who still threw down in the bowl - Get well soon bro!). In the end, everyone was hyped. Jelle Maatman earned a well deserved MVP of the day and we had an amazing start to summer 2023. Much love to skateboarding!