Kevin Kowalski’s recent part in Blood Wizard’s The Occult got us thinking about fullpipe loops and in particular, natural fullpipe loops. Fullpipes are often seen as the holy grail of street spot, with many scenes having their own Mt Baldy, complete with it’s own history and legends.
An excerpt from Iain Borden’s seminal Skateboarding and the City gives a complete (at the point of it’s most recent publication) account of the who’s who of fullpipe loopers:
Some skaters have also managed to perform near-full loops in skatepark cradles and the Turningpoint ramp, as well as complete rotations by using high-speed run-ups; for example, in Lifeblood’s Service for the Sick (2014) Kevin Kowalski carves a bowl to segue into a fullpipe, loop over, and then sliding 180 to emerge switch-stance, while in 2016, Chris Cope similarly used an extended charge to encircle a small fullpipe. Most dramatically and against all logic, in 2003, after an infamous failed attempt to loop Mt. Baldy a year earlier, Bob Burnquist did complete a full rotation of a “natural” (not made for skateboarding) fullpipe without any run up. Burnquist achieved this by simply working higher up the sides of a 4m diameter metal pipe before thrusting his body over the top. A decade later, Jimmy Carlin completed the same maneuvre in another small pipe, as shown in Perpetual Motion (Transworld, 2013).
Bob Burnquist was the first to loop a fully circular (a proper fullpipe, not a track-style loop) fullpipe, after breaking bones trying to loop Mt. Baldy before moving onto pushing the limits of the track-based fullpipe, eventually going switch with an air…
Although there are nearly a dozen skaters in the world who can currently complete a track-style loop, to date, looping a full pipe has been an unobtainable feat. To navigate his way around a “natural” full pipe a skater must first generate speed by gyrating back and forth within the pipe. As Burnquist sees it, “it’s like doing a loop and a half, really. By the time you decide (to commit) and put your wheels down on the frontside kickturn, it’s over. You’ve got to think so quick.” - Transworld, December 2003.
Chris Cope’s ender in his 2016 Route 44 part was an incredible street fullpipe loop.
By carving through a lengthy tunnel that led to the desired loop section, Chris built up the necessary speed to perform the loop. This ended up being his first photo in Thrasher and therefore his introduction to the masses, cemented his cult status instantly.
Read our full Extended article on Chris’ part here.
Alex Hallford may be the only UK skater to have done a natural loop, with him having previous form looping an almost vertical skatepark loop at a European comp.
Photo: Andy Horsley.
Watch the full video 👇
The first evidence of his loop being completed was an Andy Horsley-shot Lovenskate advert announcing Alex’s long overdue pro status, before later being published in Transworld. Some time later, the footage appeared as the ender in Neil Turner’s Nottingham scene video, Olde Trip, preceded by some equally incredible and horrifying attempts…
Alex’s effort is even more incredible when you factor in that, due to the nature of the fullpipe, he had to pump back and forth repeatedly to build up the necessary speed and power to loop - as opposed to Chris Cope’s earlier loop having been able to build up the speed necessary through the use of that fullpipe’s tunnel.
In our opinion, the best current fullpipe looper is Kevin Kowalski. It seems as though Kevin has a loop or some variation in each of his parts.
He aired at the top of a loop for the ender in We Must Bleed (2011), looped then pulled it to fakie as the ender for his Service for the Sick (2014) part, and even did a loop very similar to Alex’s in his On One part for Thrasher (2016).
In his most recent part, The Occult Part Three for Blood Wizard, he steps up to another street loop, at the end of a line, in Irvine, Cali.
Here’s what Kevin said about the loop to Chris Gregson for Thrasher:
You got a cover out of it, so fuck it. Alright so back to the Blood Wizard part—I filmed you do your last trick, that natural loop line in Irvine. Let’s talk about how that went.
That was definitely a spot that I found out about and went to quite a few years ago. Going there I thought it might be possible to loop it but I never really went back and tried it or thought about it too much. But when I knew I was working on a video part, that was an idea that crossed my mind that could be really cool. I had skated it before and kind of knew how it felt so I had an idea to make a line out of it where I grind the rail and loop the pipe at the end. It took a few different trips to go there and make it happen. It was a lot to clean up with the leaf blower and a broom.
Spin cycle—Kevin gets loopy in a line in McMinnville, OR Photo: Brook
Weren’t you saying afterwards how it felt like you went through a washing machine?
Yeah, it’s definitely a tight loop and it’s a hard loop to get to and get out of. it was really hard to figure out how to get around it staying on your board and riding away from it. But after a few different trips we managed to make it work and I rolled away and we got the clip that we wanted.
As a kid, that was the first ditch that I ever skated in my entire life. So it was insane for me growing up skating that thing, never even thinking it would be possible to loop it, and then to be able to be the one to film someone like you do it. That was pretty fuckin’ epic for me. So thanks for that.
You’re welcome. That’s crazy that was one of the first ditches you ever skated because it’s not an easy ditch to skate.
My mom lived right down the street. So how many natural loops have you done now?
Oh jeez, I dunno. There’s been a few. Probably three. Two of them were in Irvine.
And then what the third one was in Australia, the loop grind.
Yeah I did a loop grind. That was in Myrtle Creek at the skatepark. But the loop that I did was at that skatepark. Those loops were placed there as just like metal fullpipe loops and they built concrete around them, so I guess in a way that’s technically a natural pipe.
Here’s what we said about Kevin’s part in Blood Wizard’s The Occult part three, in our previous article analysing that video;
Kevin Kowalski continues to get better with age, this time focusing on extended sections in a couple of locations - namely the newer bits at Burnside and his own park, putting together some great lines at each. Each of Kevin’s staple tricks are seen a couple of times; Judos, fastplants, awkward grinds including maydays, fakie 5-0s, sugarcanes and feeble fakies, various inverts and a couple of backside bonelesses that couldn’t be more different - One off the step-up at Burnside, and one dropped into sugarcane!
Is Kowalski the world’s best fullpipe looper at this point? Let us know in the comments below!
These Extended articles will soon be going paid-only, subscribe here for a 20% off early subscriber offer.
Share this article with your friends!