Watch a woman complete Tony Hawk’s famous skateboarding loop

Twenty years ago legendary skateboarder Tony Hawk completed a gravity-defying 360-degree ramp – The Loop.

The Loop is infamous for its difficulty and the 50-year-old has praised it as a “badge of honour in the skate world”.

Now that badge has just been earned for the first time by a female skater, Lizzie Armanto – take a look.

If that spectacular trick wasn’t impressive enough, in the next video posted by Hawk he explains some of the history behind The Loop, which he first came across from pictures of failed attempts in a magazine.

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Hawk himself hasn’t completed The Loop for 15 years, last doing so on tour in 2003, and has injured himself many times trying it, once breaking his pelvis.

“It’s hard to explain it,” Hawk said. “If you’ve done it, you’ve checked it off the list. I’m not going to get the same gratification.

“It’s not like a trick you do and want to keep doing. And I have paid the price for it.”

Hawk’s latest adventure with The Loop was part of a live virtual reality broadcast in San Diego with NextVR, which allowed viewers to watch the skaters in 3D.

None of the skaters Hawk invited to try The Loop had completed it before, and included in the group was Felipe Nunes, a teenage double-amuptee – seen here practising with stunt pads.

Hawk said they use pads “so people can start to get used to the timing and feel of doing it in its natural state”.

“If you don’t know what you’re doing and you go at it without ever trying it and there are no pads in place, it can be very dangerous,” he said.