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.

Video of the Week: GX1000 Montreal

There were way too many good videos this week, so here's a "brief" rundown.
I'd almost completely forgotten about Dennis Durrant but was so stoked that he's still been skating with that same smooth technical style. Glad to see his latest video part for Adidas International at the beginning of this week with some stupid-tech fakie flip variations into handrails.
Then Ishod Wair came out with Wair N Tear. His style never ceases to amaze me in that nothing he does looks remotely challenging, yet he comes up with some pretty stacked lines. It's almost too easy to overlook his switch front big spin down the LOVE gap because of how smooth it was. (Footage machine alert! Ishod just dropped this and still has what should be a standout part for Chronicles 2)
Through Christopher Middlebrook I came along to this Modus Bearings Portfolio montage, which was great in numerous ways. Footage of Lewis [RIP] that I don't think I've seen before was absolutely priceless, the filming was on point in every clip, John Rattray's nose manual slalom was pure awesomeness, and the assortment of skaters' nationalities from English to Australian coupled with really great clips combined for a very much appreciated 6 minutes of skateboarding.
I hadn't heard of Rowan Zorilla before, but with a standout part in Footage Party I surely won't forget him now. His carefree style and loose trucks with a seriously diverse selection of spots and terrain make for a kind of part that never gets old. Not to mention some pretty gnarly clips in there done in superb fashion.
Magenta turned Koichiro Uehara (who I also hadn't heard of before) pro by dropping this mixtape of his skating on Thursday. Man oh man does he have quick feet! It takes a good amount of skill and practice to be able to ollie as quickly as he does in this mixtape and the couple minutes of street shredding are quite refreshing.
Also, Chris Gregson came out with a super sick part that demonstrates skills of a true tranny ripper. His frontside flips a thing of beauty and his lanky style works very well with all of his ripping. You really have to stop and realize just how fast he's flying around the bowls in some clips because his nonchalance doesn't show it.
Then yesterday, Jordan Hoffart took his much deserved Day Hoff from skating. He's always been one of the guys I love seeing footage from ever since his part in Fun. From hairy out-rails/out-ledges to some of the longest street gaps I've seen (I keep thinking back to his enormous ollie in New Ground), Jordan continues his raw and impressive skating.

Despite all of this rip-tastic parts, I must give the video of the week to the GX1000 crew shredding in Montreal. For one, the vibes of the GX1000 videos are unmatchable. Straight up, raw street skating with the homies in the way all skaters dream about. Any videos the crew puts out are pure gold, and it helps that every guy in the crew totally kills it. One of my favorite things to watch from them is shown right at the start: barging indoor/underground spots with security with legit tricks as opposed to squeezing in an ollie just to run away when the guard peaks his head around the corner. Yonnie Cruz shows everyone how to get the best clips just like this.
Probably the key reason why I love this video is because I've taken a couple of weekend trips to Montreal and have skated around a few of the very same spots from the video. Seeing Antoine Asselin varial flip from the basically the street out and over a post and into a downhill road at 2:09 is ridiculous from watching it. But to have experienced actually bombing the hill after it and knowing the width of those sidewalks makes the trick that much gnarlier. Just like the tricks at the Olympic Stadium: from Yonnie Cruz's switch backside wallride at 0:56 along the very crusty surface to Charles Rivaro's Stadium rooftop miniramp line at 3:14 followed by his super long downramp manual to 50-50. Knowing what the spots are like in person makes the footage exponentially more impressive and exciting to watch. And though I haven't even heard of Charles before, I will know him now from his sick clips and his ender which is too awesome for words.

Finally, I need to shoutout Jake Johnson because I was already pumped for his double glass wallrides at 1:43, but after seeing his latest Alien Workshop ad from this very trip to Montreal, I am utterly astounded. Jake's already shown his sweet wallriding skills in Mind Field, but this wallride takes skateboarding to completely new levels. I've seen Wes Kremer and Silas Baxter-Neal do some pretty long and tall wallrides, and lately I've been digging T-Funk's wallride from his new part, but again I doubt they come close to Jake's latest wallride. The crazy thing is that I've actually skated around that very same plaza in downtown Montreal and never did it occur to me that a wallride could even be done down that entire double set wall. There are plenty of wallriding opportunities in that area, but Jake's seems simply impossible. Let's just say that I am rather eager to see Jake's next video part, whatever it may be.