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Breaking out
San Diego natives LPrad and B-Girl Mar give local flavor to USA Final coming to Broadway Pier
B-Girl Mar, competing in Seattle
Tomorrow, August 22, San Diego will host the Red Bull BC One USA Final, to determine which breakers will advance to the World Final in Toronto later this year. It’s a first for the city, and breaker LPrad, head of the local Full Force crew, helped make it happen
LPrad and the Full Force crew
“They usually always pick LA when they do a west coast city,” he says. “They never looked our way for something as big as the USA finals. But in 2022, they tapped me to do the lower-level Red Bull qualifier for San Diego. A lot of people came out, and it was an absolute blast. And in the wrap-up meeting, I made a really strong case: ‘Everything you saw here this weekend, we can multiply that. People would love to have a bigger production. And the community here is strong; there are people who were breakers once, and now their kids are breakers.’ They gave me the old, ‘We’ll consider it,’ but look at us now.”
The generational claim was not hyperbole. “When I started, breaking was still really cool for teenagers,” recalls LPrad. “It’s what you wanted to do, because of shows like America’s Best Dance Crew or movies like Step Up. And then maybe five years after that, the interest in breaking died. It was just my generation pushing the community forward.” Even his own interest waned; he stepped away, got back into basketball. “But something always brought me back: a battle opportunity, or a clip on YouTube that inspired me to learn a new move. At a certain point, I was like, ‘This is what I want to do.’ And within the last three to four years, we’ve seen breakers a little older than me who are putting their kids into breaking programs. So our future looks really bright.”
LPrad
Those kids have a head start on L-Prad, who didn’t get started until 2009, when he was 13. “The winter formal was coming up, and I wanted to impress girls at the dance. It would be like my party trick. But the moves were harder to learn than I anticipated, and then when the opportunity arose, I was too shy to throw the few moves I did have. The dances came and went. I think I showcased one time, and there were zero girls crowding around me.”
He didn’t find a girl, but he did discover the joy of competitive dance, and he did find a community. “Some of my classmates had started much earlier, and they were really, really good. They were already joining good San Diego crews. And this one guy, Rion, was part of one of them. My friend would come to me and say, ‘I did a competition this weekend; here’s the video.’ I would watch to see my friend, but I would also see the guy he was competing with. And I’d be like, ‘My friend is good, but this guy is really good.’ Every signature move Rion did, I would think, ‘I would love to have that: a move that looked difficult, but that he could make look really easy at the same time.” With Rion as inspiration and his friend as connection, LPrad started finding events, “and my journey started that way.”
LPrad didn’t make the cut for Saturday’s competition, and after surveying the field, he’s okay with that. But San Diego native B-Girl Mar did make it, by placing third up in Seattle. “A month before, I went to Denver, and I didn’t pass the prelims,” she recalls. “Mentally, I wasn’t feeling my best. Going into Seattle, I had a lot of conversations with friends who were able to unlock things mentally for me, and I felt really confident going in, and that changed everything. It was one of the battles where I felt the most in control and the most in my own strength and power. And I felt really free.”
Freedom is key for B-Girl Mar; it’s why she has her name. “My nickname in high school was Mar Mar. When high school ended, I let it go. Then I went back into breaking” — just six years ago, after years of other dance forms, starting with ballet folklórico. “With breaking, you feel like a child, like you’re just playing. It’s hard, but you’re literally on the floor. I was like, ‘Oh, this feels like little me, having fun.’” And whatever else is going on Saturday — the lights, the friends and relatives in the audience, the competition — she will be free. “It’s like, ‘Okay, I’ve trained for such a long time. Now it’s time to just trust and go for it.’ I like to have places where I can just be free and explore the music and move freely with nothing in mind.”
Her first inspiration came in 2014, when she saw a b-boy doing windmills, “which is a power move. It made me super into breaking, because I’d never seen anything like it.” Even now, she says, “I like to do a lot of strength-based, really big movements. It’s taken years to get the strength for certain movements” — just like it took years for her to really commit to breaking. “It was 2019 or 2020 when I saw a B-Girl in person, JK-47. I’d mostly only seen guys. But when I saw her, I thought, ‘I need to focus on this.’” Covid helped in that regard; she had time to devote up to six hours a day to her craft. “A ton of teachers were giving classes for free. And I did a membership program from Rascal Randi, who’s going to be at this event.”
Now she’s in LA, where the scene is bigger, but she’s eager to compete as an underdog who started in an underdog city, in front of the friends, family, and mentors who helped to start her on her way. “I’ve never been on that big national stage before, but I’m up for the challenge, and I love being a badass. I think it’s going to be fun.”
Nota Bene: LPrad stressed that while Red Bull is a huge deal for San Diego, “the San Diego hip hop scene doesn’t end when the event ends. If you ever want to learn breaking, connecting with a local studio like Culture Shock San Diego is a great way to do that.” Whether your interest is dancing, singing, producing, or DJing, “San Diego is full of opportunities. There’s an event every year called Force of July that’s the perfect entry for beginners, and it’s free for spectators. It’s outdoors at a park. You can stop by, watch a little bit, and enjoy the rest of your day.”
Here's something you might be interested in.
Breaking out
San Diego natives LPrad and B-Girl Mar give local flavor to USA Final coming to Broadway Pier
Breaking out
San Diego natives LPrad and B-Girl Mar give local flavor to USA Final coming to Broadway Pier
B-Girl Mar, competing in Seattle
Tomorrow, August 22, San Diego will host the Red Bull BC One USA Final, to determine which breakers will advance to the World Final in Toronto later this year. It’s a first for the city, and breaker LPrad, head of the local Full Force crew, helped make it happen
LPrad and the Full Force crew
“They usually always pick LA when they do a west coast city,” he says. “They never looked our way for something as big as the USA finals. But in 2022, they tapped me to do the lower-level Red Bull qualifier for San Diego. A lot of people came out, and it was an absolute blast. And in the wrap-up meeting, I made a really strong case: ‘Everything you saw here this weekend, we can multiply that. People would love to have a bigger production. And the community here is strong; there are people who were breakers once, and now their kids are breakers.’ They gave me the old, ‘We’ll consider it,’ but look at us now.”
The generational claim was not hyperbole. “When I started, breaking was still really cool for teenagers,” recalls LPrad. “It’s what you wanted to do, because of shows like America’s Best Dance Crew or movies like Step Up. And then maybe five years after that, the interest in breaking died. It was just my generation pushing the community forward.” Even his own interest waned; he stepped away, got back into basketball. “But something always brought me back: a battle opportunity, or a clip on YouTube that inspired me to learn a new move. At a certain point, I was like, ‘This is what I want to do.’ And within the last three to four years, we’ve seen breakers a little older than me who are putting their kids into breaking programs. So our future looks really bright.”
LPrad
Those kids have a head start on L-Prad, who didn’t get started until 2009, when he was 13. “The winter formal was coming up, and I wanted to impress girls at the dance. It would be like my party trick. But the moves were harder to learn than I anticipated, and then when the opportunity arose, I was too shy to throw the few moves I did have. The dances came and went. I think I showcased one time, and there were zero girls crowding around me.”
He didn’t find a girl, but he did discover the joy of competitive dance, and he did find a community. “Some of my classmates had started much earlier, and they were really, really good. They were already joining good San Diego crews. And this one guy, Rion, was part of one of them. My friend would come to me and say, ‘I did a competition this weekend; here’s the video.’ I would watch to see my friend, but I would also see the guy he was competing with. And I’d be like, ‘My friend is good, but this guy is really good.’ Every signature move Rion did, I would think, ‘I would love to have that: a move that looked difficult, but that he could make look really easy at the same time.” With Rion as inspiration and his friend as connection, LPrad started finding events, “and my journey started that way.”
LPrad didn’t make the cut for Saturday’s competition, and after surveying the field, he’s okay with that. But San Diego native B-Girl Mar did make it, by placing third up in Seattle. “A month before, I went to Denver, and I didn’t pass the prelims,” she recalls. “Mentally, I wasn’t feeling my best. Going into Seattle, I had a lot of conversations with friends who were able to unlock things mentally for me, and I felt really confident going in, and that changed everything. It was one of the battles where I felt the most in control and the most in my own strength and power. And I felt really free.”
Freedom is key for B-Girl Mar; it’s why she has her name. “My nickname in high school was Mar Mar. When high school ended, I let it go. Then I went back into breaking” — just six years ago, after years of other dance forms, starting with ballet folklórico. “With breaking, you feel like a child, like you’re just playing. It’s hard, but you’re literally on the floor. I was like, ‘Oh, this feels like little me, having fun.’” And whatever else is going on Saturday — the lights, the friends and relatives in the audience, the competition — she will be free. “It’s like, ‘Okay, I’ve trained for such a long time. Now it’s time to just trust and go for it.’ I like to have places where I can just be free and explore the music and move freely with nothing in mind.”
Her first inspiration came in 2014, when she saw a b-boy doing windmills, “which is a power move. It made me super into breaking, because I’d never seen anything like it.” Even now, she says, “I like to do a lot of strength-based, really big movements. It’s taken years to get the strength for certain movements” — just like it took years for her to really commit to breaking. “It was 2019 or 2020 when I saw a B-Girl in person, JK-47. I’d mostly only seen guys. But when I saw her, I thought, ‘I need to focus on this.’” Covid helped in that regard; she had time to devote up to six hours a day to her craft. “A ton of teachers were giving classes for free. And I did a membership program from Rascal Randi, who’s going to be at this event.”
Now she’s in LA, where the scene is bigger, but she’s eager to compete as an underdog who started in an underdog city, in front of the friends, family, and mentors who helped to start her on her way. “I’ve never been on that big national stage before, but I’m up for the challenge, and I love being a badass. I think it’s going to be fun.”
Nota Bene: LPrad stressed that while Red Bull is a huge deal for San Diego, “the San Diego hip hop scene doesn’t end when the event ends. If you ever want to learn breaking, connecting with a local studio like Culture Shock San Diego is a great way to do that.” Whether your interest is dancing, singing, producing, or DJing, “San Diego is full of opportunities. There’s an event every year called Force of July that’s the perfect entry for beginners, and it’s free for spectators. It’s outdoors at a park. You can stop by, watch a little bit, and enjoy the rest of your day.”
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