Ishod Wair: SOTY +13. Still the style god.

Contents

From New Jersey to the Thrasher Cover

Ishod Wair grew up in Burlington, New Jersey. Not Philadelphia, not New York. A working-class suburb where he started skateboarding at 8, on the lawn, because that's all he had. At 13, he joined the Skate Shop Phila team, and three years later Real Skateboards signed him as flow. Real is the team of Tommy Guerrero, James Kelch, Max Schaaf — not exactly a hangout for Instagram hyperactives. It's there, in that quiet locker room, that Ishod learned to let the board do the talking.

In 2009, he turned pro for Real. Three months later, he landed a Thrasher cover with a switch frontside flip that made coffee cups drop across the skateboarding world. The hype hit, but Ishod didn't care. He kept filming, traveling, avoiding contests. No SLS, no X Games. Just video parts, like in the 90s.

SOTY 2013 — Four Parts in One Year, Unprecedented

2013. Ishod is 22. He drops FOUR video parts in the same year: Thrasher King of the Road, Real Since Day One, Nike SB SB Chronicles 2, and Static IV. No one had ever done that. No pro in modern skateboarding history. Four different parts, four crews, four edits, and each one flawless.

Thrasher crunches the numbers and slaps him with the title of Skater of the Year 2013. Back then, he succeeded David Gonzalez and preceded Wes Kremer. Heavy stuff. The ceremony took place in Atlanta, he went on stage, said three sentences, and got off. Ishod doesn't give speeches. He skates.

Ishod's Style, Explained

Ask any pro who has the best style today. The answer is always the same: Ishod. Why? Because he managed to fuse three things no one else can keep together.

Speed + Amplitude + Nonchalance

When Ishod hits a ledge, he's already going. No pumping. No fishing. He lands a trick twice as far and twice as high as everyone else, but his arms stay still. No jump, no shoulder twitch. The trick looks easier than a push. That's the exact definition of style in skateboarding: the gap between real difficulty and apparent difficulty.

Switch Isn't a Circus Trick

The Terrain Doesn't Matter

Oceania, Verdy, and What's Next in 2026

In August 2025, Ishod released a new part on his own YouTube channel, which he called Oceania. The concept is simple: he dug through his hard drive for footage from his trips to New Zealand and Australia — Roll Call, the Nike SB Quickstrike, Geoff Campbell's Internet Birthday — and re-edited it all with his editor. The result is a nine-minute part that makes 80% of recent parts look amateur. At 33 years old.

And on February 21, 2026, Real and Ishod released a capsule of three decks signed by Verdy, the Japanese artist behind Girls Don't Cry and Wasted Youth. Three limited boards available exclusively at independent skate shops for Skate Shop Day 2026. An old-school operation, no global hype drop, just a gift to the community that's been following him for fifteen years.

The Legacy He Leaves in Street Skateboarding

Ishod Wair has never won an X Games. He's never won an SLS. He'll probably never be in the Olympics. And that's exactly why he's important. In an era where skateboarding has been sucked into high-level sports, where teens aim for a medal before a trick, Ishod reminds us there's another path. The path of video parts, travel, the clip that drops six months after the shoot, of style honed in silence.

Meanwhile, he continues. A new pair of Nike SB Ishod every six months, a new part a year, a smile you never see on screen. Thirteen years after his SOTY, he's still skateboarding better than you. Thirteen years after his SOTY, he's still the most stylish. And no stopwatch can measure that.

Four parts in one year for his 2013 SOTY, never done before — which one hit you hardest? Name your favourite Ishod part. Drop a comment ↓