Ginwoo Onodera Just Did What No One Had Ever Done in 16 Years of Street League

Some days you watch a contest and you know you just witnessed something that’s going to stick with you. Sydney, March 2026. First stop of the SLS Championship Tour. And Ginwoo Onodera just rewrote the rulebook.

The Japanese kid — who was still riding amateur not so long ago for Jart Skateboards — landed what no one had EVER achieved since Street League began: seven scores above 9.0. Seven. Out of seven attempts. On his 16th birthday.

Let that sink in for a second.

The Demolition Numbers

Line 1: 9.1. Line 2: 9.4. Then the trick attempts — 9.1, 9.2, 9.5, 9.0, 9.2. Total score after drops: 37.3. Since 2010, since Rob Dyrdek launched this contest machine, since Nyjah Huston, Shane O’Neill, Yuto Horigome, Chris Joslin and the whole crew — no one had strung together seven 9+ scores in the same day. Not one. Ever.

And it’s a 16-year-old kid who just laid that down, chill, in Sydney, like he was turning in his math homework early.

Who is Ginwoo Onodera?

If you haven’t been following, catch up fast because this name is going to be everywhere. Onodera rides for Jart Skateboards. He clinched his first SLS Super Crown in 2025 for his pro debut — yeah, his FIRST Super Crown in his first pro season. The kind of trajectory that reminds you of Nyjah’s early days, when the 11-year-old kid was tearing apart adults on the circuit.

But this, this is a step above. Onodera isn’t just winning, he’s redefining what’s physically possible on an SLS course. His technique is surgical — the pop is violent, the catches are pinpoint, and the style… damn, the style. There’s zero tension in that body. Like gravity decided to leave him alone.

Japan Crushes Everything

We need to talk about the elephant in the room: Japan is colonizing global skateboarding, and it’s not even a debate anymore. At the WST World Championships in São Paulo, early March, Sasaki Toa defended his men’s street world title, while Matsumoto Ibuki — 13 years old, thirteen damn years old — snatched the women’s street world title.

Add to that Yuto Horigome (double Olympic champion, even if he got knocked out in the quarters in São Paulo this time), and now Onodera who’s pulverizing SLS records… Japan has built a machine for training skaters like no country ever has. Americans invented the thing, Brazilians brought it to the streets, and the Japanese are perfecting it in the lab.

Meanwhile, in São Paulo…

The WST Worlds also crowned Sky Brown park world champion for the second time. The 17-year-old British-Japanese skater landed an 88.16 in her first run that proved unbeatable — especially when the tropical rain forced organizers to stop the final. On the men’s park side, it was Spain’s Egoitz Bijueska who dropped a legendary run at 95.83 to clinch the world title.

Europe finally gets a world champion. We’ll take it.

What This Means for the Future

The SLS picks up again in Los Angeles on April 4th. Nyjah Huston, Chris Joslin, Chloe Covell — everyone will be there. But now, everyone knows there’s a new boss. And he’s 16.

The real question: can Onodera maintain this extraterrestrial level throughout an entire season? Because if so, we’re not just watching the future of skateboarding — we’re watching the greatest contest skater of all time in the making.

Skateboarding has always been about kids showing up and setting things on fire. Powell Peralta had the Bones Brigade. Plan B had its kids. And now, Street League has Ginwoo Onodera.

Welcome to the Onodera era. Strap in your trucks.