When I was a kid, I used to sit with my cousins and watch Dunkademics on YouTube. We would pause the videos and argue about whether the dunks were CGI because there was no way a human was actually doing that. That channel was a big reason I became obsessed with dunking. Years later I would set a world record at Dunkademics in that same gym. Last week, I set a world record at Dunkademics in Billy Doran’s LA gym, on my first jump.
I will break down the full dunk session in a separate article because there is enough there to fill its own post. But the world record is the thing that needs to be talked about first, because Billy already put it on TikTok and it has been hitting the algorithm hard.
Growing Up on Dunkademics
I started watching Dunkademics about ten years ago. I was short, in middle school, and dunking felt completely out of reach for me. My cousins and I would watch those videos and go back and forth: “There is no way that is real. That has to be CGI.” The dunks were that insane. Billy Doran built something that genuinely made you believe the ceiling did not exist in dunking.
About two years ago, when I started my dunking Instagram account, I wrote down a few goals that felt almost impossible at the time. One of them was to dunk in front of Billy Dunkademics. I did not actually believe it would happen. That goal sat in my notes for a long time. My account was just supposed to document my progress, not put me in front of someone with millions of followers. But I kept working.
Getting Called Out to LA
Billy has flown out some of the best dunkers in the world over the years. Getting called to LA is a big deal in the dunk scene. He had been watching my progress for a while, and after I recovered from my injury, he was eager to fly me out. He covered the flight from Dallas, the housing, everything.
On Wednesday morning I had a 3.5-hour session with Tyler Currie, another professional dunker who is also part of the DunkMan League, along with legends like CJ Champion, who is known in the scene for his crazy dunks. That session I went off. There are dunks from that day I am saving for a separate breakdown because they deserve their own space. But the moment that stopped the whole gym was not a dunk at all.
The World Record at Dunkademics Nobody Saw Coming
Billy wanted to test how high I could touch with my head. He set up the Dunk Camp Vert Trainer at 10 ft 2 in, already above the rim. Nobody was sure I could reach it. On the first jump, I hit the entire bell and the top of the trainer.
That came out to 10 ft 5.5 in. The official world record for the highest head touch. I am 6’2.5″. Not a seven-footer. A 51-inch vertical would put me tied for the second-highest vertical ever recorded. Billy, CJ Champion, and Tyler Currie all went silent. Nobody called it. It happened on the first jump. That is the world record at Dunkademics on the books.
Billy made a TikTok breaking down the world record at Dunkademics and showing the raw footage. It has been hitting the algorithm and getting real traction in the dunk community. You can watch it on his Dunkademics TikTok.
What This World Record Actually Means
I want to be straight about something. Kaodirichi is a 6’10” dunker with verticals in the high 40s and can most likely break this world record in a month or two. I know that going in. But right now, I hold the world record at Dunkademics, and that is documented. The footage exists. Billy and two other dunkers witnessed it in person.
For me this is bigger than the number. Between this and landing my 360 under both on a regulation hoop, this stretch has been unlike anything I expected when I started posting dunk clips. I grew up watching Dunkademics not knowing if I would ever be good enough to be considered for one of these sessions, let alone set a record during one. That goal I wrote down two years ago, dunk in front of Billy Dunkademics, I did not just check it off. I broke a world record while doing it.
What’s Next
The full session breakdown is coming, including everything else that went down the same day as the world record at Dunkademics. There is a lot to cover from that day. If you want to follow along on everything happening this summer with the DunkMan League and beyond, you can find all my links on my Connect page. You can also follow Billy directly on Dunkademics YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok to see the full footage when it drops.