- Prodigy Gui Khury completed three full spins in the air, a feat only accomplished once before, on a longer ramp.
- The pre-teen was already the youngest skater to complete the 900-degree turn, which he did at age 8.
Eleven-year-old Brazil team skater Gui Khury during a training session at his grandmother's farm, days after becoming the first to land a 1080-degree turn, following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), on the outskirts of Curitiba, Brazil, May 12, 2020. REUTERS/Rodolfo BuhrerThe closure of schools in Brazil due to the coronavirus pandemic gave 11-year-old prodigy Gui Khury plenty of time to perfect his skateboarding skills, as he became the first person to land a 1080-degree turn on a vertical ramp.
More than two decades after Tony Hawk completed the first 900-degree turn, Gui shattered a long-standing record by flying off the top of a ramp and completing three full spins in the air before landing cleanly and skating off. The manoeuvre has long been one of the holy grails of skateboarding.
“The isolation for the coronavirus helped because he had a life that was about school and he didn’t have a lot of time to train; when he got home from school he was tired,” the skater’s father, Ricardo Khury Filho, said.
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“So now he is at home more, he eats better and he has more time to train and can focus more, so that has helped.”
During lockdown, Gui’s family makes the 20-minute journey to his grandmother’s house on most days to deliver food and drop him off so that he can train on the vertical ramp, bowl and street course they built in her back garden. It was on that ramp that the pre-teen completed his historic feat.
Eleven-year-old Brazil team skater Gui Khury during a training session at his grandmother's farm, days after becoming the first to land a 1080-degree turn, following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), on the outskirts of Curitiba, Brazil, May 12, 2020. REUTERS/Rodolfo Buhrer
He was already the youngest skateboarder to complete the 900-degree turn, a feat he pulled off aged eight.
“I was like, oh my God, what did I just do?” Gui Khury said on Sunday, two days after achieving his historic 1080. “I was just like OK, I landed it. Now I am going to celebrate.”
The boy’s celebration was “mac and cheese at home” with his family.
Skateboarding great Hawk landed the first 900 in 1999, nine years before Gui was born.
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Hawk was 31 when he successfully completed the trick, calling it the biggest moment of his competitive career.
Fewer than a dozen skaters have achieved the feat in the years since.
American Tom Schaar completed a 1080-degree turn in 2012, but on a mega ramp that gives skateboarders a higher speed and elevation in which to complete all three turns.
Gui’s triple spin was recorded by his parents on their phone and posted on Instagram.
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“I sent it to all my favourite skaters, like Tony Hawk, Bob Burnquist and Neal Mims,” Gui said from his home in Curitiba, in southern Brazil.
“Some posted it on their stories and some actually posted it on their Instagram. I was like, that’s so crazy, because it’s like a once in a lifetime experience.
“It’s so amazing. It’s the best feeling ever.”