SOTY 2013 Contender #3: Ishod Wair

Ishod Wair is one smooth dude. He somehow makes skating the grimy, rough East Coast spots look like a stroll through the schoolyard. His talent is beyond comprehension for a lot of people, which makes sense as to why he can put some of the toughest tricks together in lines and make them look so easy. For example, one simply doesn't kickflip the LOVE park gap at the end of a line...except for Ishod in his Sabotage 3 Remix (which was technically released for the full video in 2012 but I'd say still plays a role for SOTY 2013). He just so happens to follow that up with a front shove down the gap, no biggie (pun intended as you'll see later...)
Right now, the main argument for why Ishod should be in contention for SOTY is his very recent and appropriately titled Wair N Tear part (above), as well as some clips of gold in The Philadelphia Experiment.
In Wair N Tear, Ishod nonchalantly shreds the streets in so many ways. From finding tight spots to churning out lines for days, Ishod's relaxed demeanor and relatively relaxed spot selection leaves you in a bewildered state of mind because when you least expect it he'll suddenly be skating a hefty gap or huge handrail with that same ease as if it were a flatground trick or a ledge in a plaza. Some of my favorite moments include the line at 0:38 with a very pleasing nollie heel back tail, the surprisingly tall boardslide (I say that because until you look at the rail by itself you couldn't tell from how Ishod casually gets on top of it) at 1:25 right in the middle of a "marathon" line, both frontside and backside nollie flips done flawlessly down a sweet street gap at 2:59, and then from 3:24 till the end he just throws out breezy hammer after hammer until his switch front biggie closer down the LOVE gap. (If I'm not mistaken, that makes 5 tricks down the famous gap. 3 mentioned through these video parts and also the switch flip (3:47) and heelflip (0:22).)
Also, Ishod had quite a few clips in The Philadelphia Experiment: at 0:54 he has a few clips that show off his diverse skill set, at 3:25 he skates LOVE park with a smooth ledge line and a kickflip back lip comparable to ones by Torey (replacing the tornado arms with probably the most gangster-stylish ones you could find), at 4:21 he does a beauty of a frontside heelflip over the iconic tile bump to garbage can LOVE park is known so well for, and at 7:51 he strings a kickflip back lip and a nollie flip crooks where for each he actually slides/grinds for a long distance, unlike so many quick-tappers today. Like I said before: clips of pure gold.
The footage mentioned here alone is already really great, but what makes Ishod such a great contender for SOTY 2013 is his upcoming part in Chronicles Vol. 2. If the hype is real, which I don't doubt for a second, Ishod's part is going to blow some minds. Watch out for this potential SOTY.