For the third episode of Dunk Talk, I (Dylan Haugen) brought on one of my closest friends in the dunk community, Hunter Castona. Hunter and I first connected through TikTok comments, moved our conversations to Instagram DMs, and eventually started training together in person. This over-one-hour conversation covered Hunter’s entire dunk journey from low rim sessions in Wisconsin to landing eastbays at Dunk Camp, and there were a ton of details that I think will be useful for anyone trying to level up their own dunking.
From Wisconsin Athlete to Dunker
Hunter grew up in Wisconsin playing football, baseball, and basketball. Like me, he spent a huge amount of time on lowered rims with his friends before ever thinking about dunking on regulation. Those casual playground sessions gave him an early foundation of timing and body control that he did not even realize was building. He got his first dunk at fifteen years old when he was about five foot ten, putting his vertical somewhere around thirty inches. At that point he had not done any formal strength training at all. His jump came entirely from playing sports and jumping constantly in pickup games and messing around outside.
For years, Hunter had no idea professional dunking was even a thing. He just liked basketball and enjoyed jumping. Eventually he stumbled on videos of guys like Jordan Kilganon and that opened his eyes to what was actually possible. He followed me on TikTok, and one day he asked me whether he should create a dedicated dunk account on Instagram. I told him absolutely yes because posting your sessions publicly connects you with other dunkers and keeps you accountable. He launched his page and started documenting everything, which ended up being a turning point for his progression.
Getting Serious with THP Strength
Hunter played basketball through high school and managed to hit his first windmill during his junior year, but his dunking was inconsistent and he was dealing with knee pain. He tried various flexibility exercises and slow-tempo work to manage it, and after adding proper plyometrics and learning better landing mechanics things started improving. The real game changer came when he left organized basketball and committed fully to dunking. He signed up for a training program through THP Strength in late 2022. The first few months were sporadic because he was not doing every workout, but once he committed to actually following the program his vertical started climbing fast. Within about six months of consistent training he went from windmills to underboth-legs dunks, which is a massive jump in difficulty. Hunter credits the coaching component for the individualized feedback and accountability that kept him locked in.
Dunk Camp 2023 and the 19-Session Dunk Streak
In 2023, Hunter attended Dunk Camp for the first time. He did not expect to stand out. He just wanted to learn from pros like Isaiah Rivera and Jonathan Clark. But the experience was eye-opening for both of us. He recorded a 37.5-inch vertical on the Vertec, which was the same number I tested at that year, and he was landing windmills and eastbays alongside elite dunkers. The camp also connected him with a bunch of athletes from Wisconsin and Minnesota, and after we got home we formed local training groups, Wisconsin Dunkers and Minnesota Dunk Squad, to keep training together. That community aspect made a huge difference in keeping everyone consistent and motivated through the fall and winter.
One of the things Hunter did after camp that I thought was brilliant was his self-imposed dunk streak. He challenged himself to hit at least one new dunk every session. He kept it going for nineteen sessions in a row, adding everything from off-the-backboard windmills to reverse windmills and pump dunks. At camp he had landed his first eastbay, and by late 2023 he was doing eastbays off the backboard and experimenting with pump and reverse variations. That streak forced him to stay creative and push into uncomfortable territory, and it expanded his dunk repertoire faster than anything else he had tried.
Florida Training and the Achilles Scare
Early in 2024, Hunter’s strength numbers were climbing and he got invited to train with THP coaches in person down in Florida. Isaiah Rivera was there and told Hunter that with continued strength gains he might someday be jumping around fifty inches, which was wild for both of us to hear. Shortly after that trip, though, Hunter dealt with an Achilles flare-up that forced him to cut back on jumping for a couple of weeks. He managed it with isometric and slow-tempo calf work before gradually returning to nine-foot and ten-foot sessions. When he and I linked up again in March, he was not at full power but was still putting down quality dunks. By the time we recorded this episode he had fully returned to form, hitting eastbays, backboard variations, and even underboths off the wall in a session with some Missouri dunkers.
What I Took Away from This Conversation
Talking to Hunter reinforced something I have seen over and over in the dunk community: the guys who make the fastest progress are the ones who commit to a structured program and surround themselves with other people who are chasing the same goals. Hunter went from windmills to underboths in six months because he stopped half-committing and actually followed through on every workout. He also built a community around himself that kept the momentum going when motivation dipped. His goals heading into the next stretch included pushing his vertical past forty inches, competing in the ten-foot contest at Dunk Camp, and growing the Wisconsin Dunkers group. He also agreed to co-host future episodes of Dunk Talk with me, which turned out to be one of the best decisions we made for the show.