Our friend Damon Thorley from Thunder Trucks hit me up a few weeks ago and gave me the opportunity to pick my 5 favorite loops of Thunder riders, to be used on Thunder’s Instagram.
After looking through the archives, I selected 5 and sent them over. Here are my 5 favorite loops of Thunder riders, in no particular order, and some reasons as to why they stand out to me.
#1 – Shane O’Neill
I originally made this loop before The Skate Loop was even an Instagram page. Shane O’Neill posted a line on Instagram with this krook nollie flip, and I couldn’t stop watching it, so I made a loop of it and was mesmerized. There are so many things about this clip that amaze me. For one, the trick was done perfect, everything about it. I love how he gets into the krook and is ready to nollie flip out, Shane has so much control over his board and this is a good example of that. It also tripped me out how fast he rolled away, it’s almost like he gained speed by doing this trick, he does it with so much confidence. Shout to Kev Perez too, being all in there with the fisheye makes it look even better.
#2 – Michael Pulizzi
This clip is from a Thunder x PLA video, the list of names in the edit got me stoked, so I watched this video right when it dropped. During that first watch, this clip of Pulizzi stood out, I knew it would make a cool loop.
You don’t really see this trick done very often. I think it’s one of those tricks that can look great if done right, but also might not look the best if it isn’t done perfectly. Pulizzi did it perfectly. I love the way his truck is grinding the side of the rail. I would imagine that having his baseplate grind the rail like that helped with the trick, as it probably gave him leverage to spin out, but it also made the clip sound amazing. That baseplate sound, and how he fully rotated the 270 made this clip great.
#3 Mark Suciu
When this opportunity came up, Suciu came to my mind immediately. There was no way he wasn’t going to be included in these posts. Suciu is known for those “back breaker” tricks, where he somehow twists his body in ways that shouldn’t be possible. Well, here’s another example of that. This clip is from his “Verso” part that broke the internet back in October. Fakie front krooks are pretty common on ledges, and we see different variations of them in video parts all the time, but not half cab flip out. Just thinking about how perfect your pressure would have to be in the fakie front krook, and how challenging it would be to get your hips to rotate enough to do the half cab flip out, had me tripping out on this one. Just one of the many mind melting tricks in that part. The song ended up looping well in this one, which made me even more stoked on it.
#4 Franky Villani
I love Franky Villani’s skating, it’s always exciting to watch. These slappy front noseslide tricks had a stint of popularity, especially on Instagram, but Franky took it to another level. The thing that really blew my mind with this clip, was that he got his truck high enough to get into a 5-0 after being in a frontside noseslide. I also love how he gets into that 5-0 pinched, it looks amazing. Just like that Suciu loop, the song happened to loop really well on this one, which is always nice. This clip is from Franky’s part in Primitive’s “Never” video.
#5 – Tom Karangelov
Tom Karangelov has become known for the effort he puts into searching for spots, and I think that’s really cool. Whether he’s skating a spot I’ve never seen before, or skating a recognizable spot in his own way, it’s rad. In December, NB# released “String Theory”, an amazing video featuring Davis Torgerson, Jordan Taylor, and Tom Karangelov, and that’s where this clip comes from. I’m not sure if that pole just happens to be next to this ledge, or if it was placed there to be a skate stopper, but the fact that Tom found a way to incorporate it into his trick is incredible. When I first saw this clip I couldn’t believe it, he used the pole to pop him up into a krooked grind! So sick. The more I watched it, the more I thought about how scary it would be to try a trick with a metal pole being involved, sorry to put that thought in your head, but it’s gnarly he skated that spot. Just thinking of this trick is sick, and he did it perfect.
Those are my 5 favorite loops of Thunder riders. I hope you enjoyed reading about why I am so stoked on each of these clips. Skateboarding is the sickest. Big thanks to Damon & Thunder Trucks! 🌀
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