Featured Traveller: Alan Titone – BJJ Globetrotters

Age: 43

Belt: Brown

Profession: Jiu Jitsu Gym Owner (Karma Jiu Jitsu), Husband, Dog Walker, Cook, Unemployed (the response I got when I asked my wife what my profession is)

How many years in BJJ: 6.5 years

Other martial arts: Karate as kid (was a huge fan of Chuck Norris and Jean Claude Van Damme)

Where do you live: Currently living in Ajax, Ontario — I see myself as a citizen of the world

Where are you from: Born in South Florida, raised in New York city, lived in Arizona for 15 years, Colorado for 8 years, spent three years traveling the world with a lot of time spent in Milwaukee and Ajax, Ontario.

Any fun facts you’d like to share:

• I have trained Jiu-Jitsu in 14 countries on three continents.
• I climbed Mount Kilimanjaro with a friend that is in the process of climbing all Seven Summits.
• No one has seen my chin since 2020.
• I met, married, and honeymooned my wife at BJJ Globetrotters Camps. USA Camp 2023, Arizona Camp 2023, and Camp 100.
• Can drive a full 12 seater van down the winding dirt roads of Italy without crashing or getting stuck.

What inspired you to travel and train?
JIU-JITSU IS NOT ABOUT JIU -ITSU

This is a phrase you’ll often hear me say, because Jiu-Jitsu is cool, but the people I’ve met and the experiences I’ve had because of Jiu-Jitsu are way cooler.

Thankfully the black belt (Howie Spratte) that I started training under is a Globetrotter. He would take us to open mats all over the place, and he promoted cross training with other people and other gyms.

I attended my first Globetrotters camp in 2021 (Arizona Camp). There I met some of my best friends and greatest people in my life — Josh Janis, Meghan Wagner, Rich Sab, Michael Choi, Charles Harriott, Heather Raftery, Jay Pages, and so many more. At the time I also worked in Corporate America (Banking) and I traveled a lot for work. While traveling, I didn’t want to miss out on training, so I started looking up and calling gyms to see if they were open to visitors. One of my favorite gyms I’ve trained at is called Silverback Jiu-Jitsu, owned and run by Daniel Casarez in a small town in New Mexico called Clovis.

By the time 2023 came around, I’d been to five Arizona Camps. I left my first wife, I left my corporate job, and I decided I never wanted to work again. Josh and Meghan invited me to Estonia; so I spent a month in Europe where I hired a mushroom shaman, slept on countless Globetrotters couches, visited the Alps, and saw the Moulin Rogue in Paris, all with Spring Camp in Tallinn smack in the middle of it.

I am grateful and blessed to have encountered the world of Jiu-Jitsu. Without it, I am not sure who or where I would be.

Tell us about your most recent trip and what’s next – where have you been and where are you going?
My most recent trip was to USA Maine Camp 2026 (12 camps later). My wife Raechel and I met at USA Maine Camp in 2023. It will be a camp we attend every year to celebrate our time together. If you’ve been to USA Maine Camp, you know the magic it has, and if you haven’t been, you should definitely add it to the top of your list. Raechel and I met playing the Assassin Game (I stabbed her in the back) on the first day of camp. Later that evening, she met my alter ego, Namaste Nudie, the pro-wrestler at the first ever Forest Fisticuffs. Throughout the week, I took her out to dinner (at the cafeteria where everyone else eats), we did the Yankee Swap, sang karaoke, took care of drunk friends, hung out by the bonfire, went canoeing on the lake, ate really expensive gas station lobster rolls, and cried in the rain when it was time to say goodbye. Now all of these events hold a dominant place in our heart. We love sharing these moments with old and new friends.

What’s next? I love this question. So much so that I have it tattooed on my wrist. I’m always open and ready for the next adventure. Raechel and I opened our own BJJ gym in Oct 2023 called Karma Jiu Jitsu in Ajax, Ontario. We are a BJJ Globetrotter affiliated Gym — all of our travels have inspired us to build the community we have built and continue to grow today. We opened a second gym in Jan of 2026 in Brighton/Erie, Colorado. We plan to continue the grow the Karma Jiu Jitsu brand worldwide.

Our next travels will be to Zen Camp in Poland in 2026 and Spring Camp Tallinn 2027. I look forward to showing Raechel where I met so many of my European friends, had daily ice baths in the Baltic Sea, early morning coffee at the Kofeman Cafe, and trained incredible Jiu-Jitsu at Priit’s gym. In September of 2027, I’m planning a 9-day motorcycle trip across the Gobi Desert in Mongolia. Of course, while I’m there I plan to train at a Globetrotter-friendly gym I already found called Garuda.

What do you enjoy most about travelling?
The experiences, the people, and the spontaneity. I’ve travelled a lot in my life, and I used to try to plan everything out. I would fill every moment of every day with “experiences” and adventures. I would put so much effort into doing ALL of it that I never really got to experience the cool adventures and experiences in between it all.

I travelled solo internationally for the first time in 2023. I bought a one-way ticket to Munich, I booked a hotel for 2 nights, and after that I had zero plans. My obsessive self was SCREAMING at me. I simply kept reminding myself, “It’s all going to work out.” I walked the streets of Berlin at 2am visiting WWII landmarks. I sat through countless random Catholic masses in amazing churches with architectural details and stained glass windows, and I’m not even Catholic. I found myself in a beautiful little German alpine town called Garmisch-Partenkirchen where I stayed at an AirBnB with the best view and the lowest ceilings ever.

I showed up to Moulin Rouge looking for a last minute ticket and the lady at the ticket booth audibly laughed at me — then proceeded to get me a ticket for the next night. I sat in a park for six hours eating prosciutto, cheese, and drinking wine while ducks literally walked at my feet. Globetrotters welcomed me into their homes, made me coffee, offered me a place to sleep, train and paid for many of my meals, instead of letting me pay for them (much to my chagrin).

Traveling before Jiu-Jitsu was fun. Traveling as a Globetrotter is the best experience one can have. You have instant friends, who speak the same secret language and want to show you their little nook of the world. You go from being a tourist to being a local, and with that you get to see more of the culture and day-to-day experiences of life in another place.

Any particularly memorable experiences that made it all worth it?
Second to meeting Raechel at a Globetrotter camp is marrying her at a Globetrotter camp. We had wedding gis, instead of a first dance we had a first roll, and we were surrounded by old friends, new friends, and complete strangers. To this day, people still come up to us and tell us, “I was at your wedding. It was the best wedding I have ever been to.”

Camp 100 was my last opportunity to go to Castle Camp and a way to celebrate our honeymoon in Italy. We joke and say Christian put on our own personal firework show just for us. The hot days by the pool, the slip and slide that led to many incidents of road rash, and the foam party at the end were all highlights of that trip.

Meeting Josh Janis and Meghan Wagner at my first camp has led to such meaningful relationships. At this point we’ve spent so much time together I can’t imagine a life without them.

Walking into Sping Camp Tallinn 2023 and Christian seeing me and saying, “Ahhh, you finally made it to a European Camp.”

Thanks to the Globetrotters, I found a gym on Zanzibar in Tanzania. I was able to spend a bunch of time teaching and coaching these guys and gals who don’t get a lot of access to upper belts in Jiu-Jitsu.

What has surprised you the most while travelling?
I love my parents and everything they’ve ever taught me. But they were absolutely wrong when they told me not to talk to strangers. Also, quit watching the news. The media wants to show you how terrible the world is, and wants to show you all of the bad people. The hospitality I’ve experienced from complete strangers around the world has blown my mind. We are social beings, and Jiu-Jitsu provides a worldwide “third space”. A huge thank you to EVERYONE who I’ve met and interacted with, whether I remember your name or not. I hope you know the impact you have had on me and my life.

Are you a budget traveller – and if so how do you plan for a cheap trip?
I came up with a phrase for the way I am, I call it “Backcountry Boujee”. I love to be in nature, I love to hunt and camp. I have no problem sleeping in a tent. I have slept on many couches and in multiple gyms. However, if I can find a good deal on a first class plane ticket, a nice hotel, a delicious steak dinner or an incredible experience — I am all for it.

Any advice for your fellow Globetrotters?
Say YES! Say yes when someone asks you to go to Iceland with one week’s notice (I didn’t and really wish I did). Say yes when you get invited for dinner. Say yes when someone invites you to their little nook of the world and wants to host you. Say yes when someone wants to roll with you. Say yes to making new friends. Say yes to new experiences. Stories are social currency, go out there and get as much of it as you can. Embrace being uncomfortable. You may meet your best friend, your spouse — you might even figure out exactly who you want to be. And don’t forget to thank Christian for everything he has created. He’s not big on compliments and it’s an opportunity to make an awkward situation.