Hunter Castona dunker from Wisconsin is someone I interviewed on The Dunk Talk podcast. Over the past year, I have watched Hunter transform from barely landing windmills to nailing an underboth (ball under both legs) dunk, progress that is almost unheard of. We dove into how he went from casual low-rim dunk sessions to standing toe-to-toe with some of the world’s best dunkers in such a short time. Here is Hunter’s journey, in his words and mine, highlighting the key moments and lessons along the way.
Early Years: Low Rims and a First Dunk
Hunter grew up playing all kinds of sports – football, baseball, basketball – but dunking wasn’t always the focus. As a kid, he fell in love with basketball around 4th or 5th grade and started experimenting with low-rim dunking in his driveway. “I was just outside with my friend, having fun on a low rim,” he remembers, noting that he didn’t even realize pro dunking was a whole scene at the time. Like many of us, he and his buddies would lower the hoop to 7 or 8 feet and mimic dunks they saw on TV or imagined in their heads. Those childhood dunk contests built big jumping habits without him even knowing – planting the seeds for his future aerial exploits.
By middle school, Hunter’s competitive fire was lit by seeing others jump. In fact, he recalls the exact moment that sparked his obsession: a classmate touched a height he couldn’t. Not long after, around age 13, he discovered professional dunkers on YouTube and Instagram. Guys like Jordan Kilganon caught his eye with gravity-defying feats (like Kilganon’s famous 360° scorpion dunk)dylan-haugen.com. “My mind was blown,” he says of watching those early viral dunk clips. At that time, Hunter himself could barely touch an 8-foot rim, but seeing the pros opened his eyes to what was possible. From then on, he was hooked. He started following dunk content online and quietly set a goal for himself: one day he would dunk on a 10-foot hoop.
Hunter’s first taste of that goal came at age 15, in either 8th grade or freshman year of high school. He was about 5’10” then and had been inching closer and closer – touching backboard, grazing rim – until finally one day the ball went in. It wasn’t pretty (more of a rim grazer), but it counted. At roughly a 30″ vertical leap, dunking at 5’10” is rare air for a teenager. That first one was off one foot – Hunter was a pure one-foot jumper early on. “I got my first dunk when I was 15,” he says, and from that moment, he was addicted to jumping even more. Every open gym or practice, you’d find him trying dunks whenever he had a chance (even if it meant sneaking in attempts during water breaks). He hadn’t yet started any formal jump training program – he was literally just jumping a ton. But those constant attempts (and some natural ability) were enough to get him his first dunk and a modest repertoire of basic one-handers by his mid teens.
From Pickup Games to Focused Training
In high school, Hunter played on the varsity basketball team through his junior year, but he often found himself more excited about dunking than actual games. He would stick around after practice to throw down dunks or attempt new tricks. By senior year, he decided to step away from organized basketball to focus on his vertical jump and dunking skills. Instead of daily team practices, he spent his time at the local gym (a YMCA-type fitness center) playing pick-up ball and dunking on the side. Every day after the runs, he’d stay late to practice dunks – self-lobs for one-hand and two-hand dunks, basic windmills, you name it. At that point, his “dunk arsenal” was still small – mostly simple dunks and an occasional windmill (he hit his first windmill in 11th grade). But the consistent jump attempts kept pushing his hops higher. He jokes that during those years he was “still a pretty crappy dunker” (as I’d tease him), but anyone could see the potential coming together.
A turning point came when Hunter discovered the dunk community on social media. We actually connected initially through TikTok: I remember scrolling one day and seeing him hit his first 360º dunk (a one-hander). I even commented, challenging him to try it with two hands next time. That eventually led to us DM’ing on Instagram. He asked me if he should make a dedicated Instagram account for dunking (since most of the dunk community lives on IG), and I told him absolutely. Once Hunter started posting his progress online, things changed. Having the dunk world watching, even just a little, lit a new fire under him. “Now that I think about it, yes – 100%,” he says when asked if social media made him more consistent and motivated. Knowing that other dunkers were following his journey pushed him to train harder and keep improving. As fellow dunker Zachary “Z-Dunks” told him after a brief hiatus, “Dude, what happened to you? You’re going crazy now.” Positive feedback and a bit of friendly pressure from the community kept Hunter accountable to his goals.
In late 2022, Hunter made another big move: he joined a structured training program for the first time. Up to that point, his “training” was just unstructured jumping and some general weightroom stuff from basketball. But recurring knee pain (jumper’s knee) was nagging him, and he knew he needed a smarter approach. He signed up for THP Strength – a vertical jump program run by pro dunkers Isaiah Rivera and John Evans – to bring some science and consistency into his routine. At first, Hunter admits, he wasn’t fully bought in. “For the first few months I wasn’t consistent – maybe doing three of the five weekly workouts,” he says. In October 2022, he also had to pause for a sinus surgery, which knocked him out of training for a few weeks. The result: through the end of 2022, he didn’t see much progress. His vertical didn’t budge and his knee still bothered him. But in early 2023, Hunter flipped the switch – he committed to doing every workout, every week, as prescribed. Within about three weeks of consistent full training, he started noticing gains.
“I learned how to land properly and use my body,” Hunter says of those early training months. The program emphasized technique and controlled plyometrics alongside strength work, which helped him transition from being just a one-foot jumper to developing a legit two-foot jump. By re-learning jumping mechanics – how to plant, absorb force, and jump again efficiently – he unlocked new potential. He went from barely dunking off two feet to making two-foot dunks a regular part of his sessions. Even his lingering knee pain began to fade as he strengthened his tendons with slow eccentrics and isometric holdsdylan-haugen.com. This was a critical foundation: it meant he could handle more jump attempts with less pain, enabling him to train harder and more often.
Windmills to Eastbays: A 2023 Breakthrough
Once Hunter dialed in his training and stayed consistent, the progress came rapid. By spring 2023, his weightroom numbers were climbing and so was his vertical. He was routinely squatting and power cleaning heavier weight than ever, and those strength gains started to transfer into his jump. It was around this time that his dunk repertoire really expanded. In the early months of 2023, Hunter went from occasionally landing a windmill dunk to doing windmills almost every session. Soon, even windmills weren’t enough – he set his sights on the Eastbay (between-the-legs) dunk.
By May 2023, only about 8 months after starting structured training, Hunter landed his first Eastbay dunk on 10 feet. It happened in his local gym, after countless tries. Once he got that first one, the floodgates opened – Eastbays became a regular feature of his sessions. In fact, at the end of May, he nailed one on video and sent it around, and everyone in the community took notice. Going from a basic windmill to an Eastbay in a matter of months is wild progression. For context, many dunkers train for years to get their first between-the-legs dunk (it’s a high bar of both vertical jump and coordination). Hunter did it in well under a year of serious training. He attributes it to that consistent workload and fixing his jump technique: “As soon as I started doing every single lift and going consistently, within like three weeks I saw progress,” he says of that period. It also didn’t hurt that he had a dunk session crew forming – by this time I was in regular contact with him, as were other young dunkers giving each other tips and hype online.
All this progress built toward a big milestone in June 2023: Hunter and I both attended The Dunk Camp in Utah. Dunk Camp is one of the premier events in the dunking world – a gathering of pro dunkers, aspiring dunkers, and trainers for a week of training, contests, and networking. It was Hunter’s first time there (and actually his first time meeting most of the dunk community in person). Going in, he didn’t really know what to expect. I remember Hunter telling me he was debating entering the lower rim (9-foot) contest instead of the 10-foot contest because he wasn’t sure he was “good enough” to hang with the top guys. I encouraged him to shoot for 10 feet – and he did.
Dunk Camp 2023 – A Breakout Moment
Dunk Camp 2023 turned out to be Hunter’s breakout. On day one, he tested his vertical jump on the Vertec device: 37.5 inches. This was the first time he’d ever officially measured his vertical, and it surprised a lot of people (including him). With a running vert approaching 38″ at 5’11”, he suddenly realized he was right there with some of the elite jumpers in his division. In the open gym sessions, Hunter started off a bit shy – at the very first pro dunker session, he hung back, unsure if he should jump in with the big names. But pretty soon he couldn’t resist. I was actually on a different hoop with some younger dunkers when I saw Hunter wander over. He promptly threw down a huge one-hand windmill that turned every head in the gym. I remember laughing and (half-seriously) shooing him back to the main court – he was making the rest of us look bad! It was clear he belonged with the top group.
As the week went on, Hunter only got better. He was consistently hitting windmills, 360s, and Eastbays during the camp sessions. In fact, he landed multiple Eastbays on 10 feet that week – including in front of some of his dunk idols. That alone would have made for a great debut, but the real highlight was the Dunk Contest. Hunter ended up competing in the 10-foot contest and made it all the way to the finals. Nearly everyone was shocked – here was a first-timer, relatively unknown before camp, going dunk-for-dunk with contest veterans. In the finals, 3 of the 4 dunkers were coincidentally from Wisconsin (Hunter’s home state), which led Dunk Camp organizer John Evans to ask if they all knew each other. They didn’t – but they sure did after that. Hunter didn’t win the contest (fellow dunker Mason ran away with it), but just reaching the finals at a major event put Hunter on the national dunking radar.
Hunter cites Dunk Camp 2023 as a huge learning experience. Not only did he prove to himself that he could perform under pressure, but he also soaked up knowledge from the pros. He met the likes of Isaiah Rivera (the very same pro whose program he was following) and other elite dunkers he’d admired online. “The best dunk I’d ever seen in person before Dunk Camp was a windmill,” he told me – so seeing multiple guys hit Eastbays, 360 windmills, and more in front of his eyes was surreal. It showed him the levels to the game, and motivated him to keep pushing. It also forged connections that would shape the coming year. Case in point: those Wisconsin dunkers in the contest finals – Hunter, CJ Champion, and JJ – went home and immediately formed a group chat. Along with another Wisconsin native they discovered (pro dunker Jeffrey “Juice” Jordan), they created the Wisconsin Dunkers squad. Suddenly, Hunter had a local dunk crew to train with, just like I had in Minnesota and others had in North Carolina, California, etc. The energy from Dunk Camp carried right on into collaborative sessions back home.
A New Dunk Every Week (Windmills to Underboth)
After Dunk Camp, Hunter’s progress kicked into overdrive. He came home in July 2023 brimming with confidence and new ideas. That summer and fall, it felt like every session he unlocked a new dunk. We jokingly started calling it his “dunk streak” – he managed to hit at least one new dunk in 19 sessions in a row. Some sessions it would be two or three new makes. He was literally expanding his bag of tricks on a weekly basis, which is something you rarely see outside of a handful of world-class guys.
Some of Hunter’s new additions in those months included: a one-hand windmill off the backboard, a two-hand reverse windmill, a “pump” dunk (double clutch) off the backboard, and even a one-foot Eastbay dunk. In August 2023, he checked off the Eastbay off-the-backboard – tossing the ball off the glass, catching it mid-air and swinging it between his legs before dunking. That’s a dunk even some pros struggle with, and Hunter hit it within a year of his first Eastbay. He also pulled off a “double up” dunk (dunking two balls in one jump) and other creative lobs during our gym sessions. We met up for a big session in September 2023 at the National Sports Center in Minnesota, and Hunter went off. He nailed six new dunks that day, including a smooth double-up dunk (after I challenged him to try it) and several off-the-wall variations. His confidence was sky-high, and it seemed like there was no dunk he wouldn’t attempt.
All of this momentum built toward one pinnacle session: October 21, 2023. We had a small group session back in Minnesota that day (myself, Hunter, and a couple others) that turned out to be one for the ages. Hunter finally conquered his “dream dunk” – the underboth-legs dunk. This is the one where you take off, bring the ball under both legs in mid-air (like a double between-the-legs), and dunk it with two hands. It had been Hunter’s ultimate goal since the day he started training seriously. “When I started in late 2022, I told myself I wanted to hit an underboth in 2–3 years,” he says. Incredibly, he nailed it almost exactly one year later.
Dylan (left) congratulating Hunter (right) right after he hit his first under-both-legs dunk in October 2023dylan-haugen.com. This was the culmination of months of hard work and near-misses – a dream realized far sooner than expected. The gym absolutely erupted when Hunter landed it, and that adrenaline carried into the rest of the session.
That underboth dunk was a massive milestone for Hunter. For one, it proved he’d climbed into truly elite territory with his bounce – very few people under 6 feet tall have ever landed that dunk. It also created a ripple effect: right after Hunter’s make, the energy in the gym spiked and I ended up landing my first Eastbay dunk moments laterdylan-haugen.comdylan-haugen.com. The whole session was pure magic. By the end of that day, we were all buzzing at what had just happened: a 15-year-old (me) got his first Eastbay, and a 21-year-old (Hunter) hit his long-term goal dunk. We joked that we needed to retire that night because it wouldn’t get much better. Of course, neither of us retired – but it was a session we’ll never forget. Hunter later reflected, “If you told me a year and a half ago I’d be traveling to dunk with people and hitting underboths, I’d have said you’re crazy.” Yet here he was – doing exactly that.
Hunter’s insane streak of progress did come with a cost: mental and physical fatigue. By the end of 2023, after 19 straight sessions of pushing his limits, Hunter started to feel burnt out. He wasn’t enjoying editing and posting on social media as much, and his body felt the grind of constant max jumps. In early 2024, he had one session he described as his worst in over a year – nothing was landing, his legs felt dead, and frustration set in. That was a red flag. Hunter decided to take a step back in February 2024: he took nearly a month off from posting any content, scaled down the dunk attempts, and focused on recovery. “I just kind of got burnt out…so I took a break off social media for about a month,” he says. During that time he still trained in the weight room and got light dunks up, but without the pressure of always chasing a new highlight. The brief reset was exactly what he needed. By the end of that break, Hunter’s motivation came roaring back and his body felt refreshed for the next chapter.
Hunter Castona’s Best Dunks (So Far)
Hunter’s arsenal of dunks has grown quickly. Here are a few of his standout slams to date:
- Eastbay Off the Backboard – Tossing the ball off the glass, catching it and swinging it between the legs mid-air before dunkingdylan-haugen.com. Hunter landed this for the first time in summer 2023, within weeks of his first regular Eastbay.
- “Underboth” (Under Both Legs Dunk) – A double between-the-legs dunk executed in one jump. Hunter hit this in October 2023, calling it his “dream dunk” and ultimate goal when he started training. It’s now a signature highlight in his reel.
- Double-Up Dunk – Dunking two basketballs in one leap (one after the other). Hunter pulled off a one-hand double-up dunk during a Minnesota session in September 2023, showing off timing and coordination alongside his hops.
- Pump Reverse Off Lob – Catching a lob pass, bringing the ball down and double-clutching it behind his head (“pump”), then whipping into a reverse dunk. Hunter added this to his bag as his finesse and hang-time improved into 2024.
These are just a few examples – Hunter’s always experimenting with new ideas. From windmills and 360s to creative self-lob setups, he’s building a reputation as both a powerful dunker and a creative one.
Ups and Downs: Burnout, Pros, and an Injury Scare
Coming into 2024, Hunter faced some new challenges that tested his resilience. First was the mental burnout from pushing so hard. Thankfully, after a few weeks of stepping back, he came out revitalized. In March 2024, an opportunity arose that would reignite his passion fully: a chance to train with some of the best in the world. Our friend (and fellow dunker) Dom invited Hunter to join a dunk session in Florida alongside Isaiah Rivera and other elite jumpers, since we were all going to be in the area. Hunter jumped at the invite – it was a chance to learn firsthand from the pros he’d looked up to for years.
Group photo from the epic Florida dunk session in March 2024dylan-haugen.com. Hunter (standing, third from right) got to dunk with a stacked lineup of 17 athletes, including pro dunkers like Isaiah Rivera and many of the THP training crew. Sessions like this brought out the best in everyone.
That Florida meetup ended up being legendary. Held at a local Orlando gym, it drew 17 dunkers from across the country – far more than we initially expected to show up. Hunter walked into a gym full of heavy hitters: multiple 50-inch vertical leapers, contest champions, and YouTube-famous dunkers all in one placedylan-haugen.com. Rather than being intimidated, Hunter rose to the occasion. Despite coming off his break, he was flying high that day. He matched dunk-for-dunk with people he used to only see on Instagram. At one point, Hunter casually drilled an Eastbay dunk off the dribble, which caught Isaiah Rivera’s attention. Not to be outdone, Isaiah (who was still warming up) ran in and hit a 360° Eastbay of his own, joking “I can’t let the young buck show me up.” The whole gym loved the friendly rivalry. Later, Hunter came inches from landing another underboth (off a lob) – which had even the pros watching closely. By the end of the session, he’d earned the respect of everyone there as not just a fan, but a peer.
One of the biggest takeaways from Florida came during a conversation on the sidelines. Hunter was chatting with Isaiah and John (his THP coaches) about long-term goals, and John asked Isaiah what he thought Hunter’s ceiling might be. Isaiah looked at Hunter – who at that point had put on noticeable strength and was jumping in the mid-40-inch range – and said “50.” In other words, Isaiah believed Hunter could potentially hit a 50-inch vertical with continued training. Hearing that from a guy who many consider the best dunker in the world was huge. It validated the work Hunter had put in and fueled him to push even harder. He left Florida more inspired than ever, with a new realization that serious weight training would be key to reaching that next level. (Isaiah’s advice: get the squat up around 315 lbs and power clean around 225 lbs – that kind of strength could translate to a 50″ jump for Hunter.)
Right after that high, however, Hunter encountered a setback. About a week after the Florida session – where everyone had gone all-out for hours – Hunter was back home and eager to capitalize on his momentum. He went for a heavy dunk session on 10 feet, pushing through some fatigue. Mid-way through, he felt a sharp pain in his left Achilles tendon. Immediately, alarms went off in his head – we’d recently seen our friend CJ Champion rupture his Achilles, and Hunter had no intention of joining that unfortunate club. So he did the smart thing: he shut the session down right away. “I’m not even gonna try – I’m not risking it,” he said, walking off the court as soon as the Achilles pain flared beyond a mild twinge. This proved to be a very wise decision. Achilles injuries can go from minor to catastrophic in one bad jump, so Hunter’s quick retreat likely saved him.
Over the next few weeks, Hunter focused on rehab and gradual rebuilding. He consulted with his coaches and implemented daily isometric exercises and slow calf eccentric movements to strengthen the tendon. He also dialed back any max jumps – sticking to sub-maximal jumps on low rims to stay in shape without overstressing the Achilles. By late April 2024, he was ramping up again: first a session on 9-foot, then 9’6”, and eventually back to 10 feet. The patience paid off. Hunter avoided serious injury and actually came back feeling springier after the forced rest. In May 2024, he traveled to Missouri for a dunk meetup with some friends (including high-flyer Donovan “Dono” Miller and Josh Ruble) and looked like his old self again. He even threw down a clean Eastbay dunk off the lob – his first “real” dunk attempt post-rehab – which was a huge relief. The Achilles scare taught him an important lesson: listen to your body and live to dunk another day. Hunter now preaches smart recovery and injury prevention to other up-and-comers, emphasizing that taking a short break beats being sidelined for months.
Looking Ahead: Bigger Verticals and Bigger Contests
As of mid-2024, Hunter Castona’s rise in the dunk world is well under way – but he’s just getting started. After recovering from the spring’s ups and downs, he set his sights on new goals for the remainder of the year. First on the list was Dunk Camp 2024 (held in June). This time, Hunter came in as a known name among the amateur ranks, and he was determined to make an even bigger splash. He aimed to break the 40″ barrier on his vertical jump test (having hit 37.5″ the year before) – with an audacious stretch goal of 45″. In his mind, a 45″ vert would put him on par with some of the top dunkers at the event. More importantly, Hunter was gunning to win the 10-foot dunk contest at camp. The stakes were higher in 2024: the winner would earn an automatic invite to a FIBA 3×3 World Tour dunk contest, a pro event. Hunter knew that taking first would mean going head-to-head with a few other rising stars (including his friend-turned-rival Mason), but he prepared a dunk arsenal accordingly. He even had a new wildcard dunk in mind: an underboth off the backboard – essentially combining his dream dunk with an alley-oop off glass for extra flair. “Definitely a hard one,” he said of that idea, but with the adrenaline of a contest, who knows? Hunter planned to give it two solid attempts if the situation was right.
Beyond the Dunk Camp, Hunter’s goals extend to continuing to build strength and keep inching toward that 50″ vertical that Isaiah Rivera projected for him. He’s incorporated more weightlifting into his routine, chasing numbers like a 315 lb squat and 250 lb power clean, knowing that a more explosive base will only push his dunking further. He’s also taken on a role as a co-host on The Dunk Talk podcast (the very show where we first chronicled his journey), providing insights and inspiration to other athletes following in his footsteps. As a dunker who went from anonymous to accomplished in essentially one year, Hunter has a unique story – and he’s eager to help others accelerate their learning curve too.
Perhaps most of all, Hunter Castona is focused on longevity and consistency. He’s experienced the rapid highs of progress and the lows of fatigue and injury, all in a compressed timeframe. Now, he’s learning to pace himself for the long run. With his talent, work ethic, and now a strong support network in the dunk community, there’s no doubt he has a shot at becoming one of the top dunkers in the world in the next few years. Don’t be surprised if you soon see Hunter competing (and podiuming) in major pro dunk contests, or pulling off world-first dunks that make you rewind the video in disbelief. As he’s proven time and again, crazy things can happen in a short time with the right mix of passion and dedication. And Hunter’s journey is just getting started.
About The Author
