Ishod Wair Thrives with New Format, Conquers Skate Street
Skate street had the House of Vans buzzing in Brooklyn, N.Y. as it closed down the action on Saturday with some of the best skating in Dew Tour history on a custom built course with the help of California Rampworks. From the words of the athletes and fans, the Toyota City Championships coming to the big apple was a move that will be aptly remembered.
Skateboard Street Final at House of Vans
Taking a new spin on the format, this year for skate street there were three heats of riders taking on three separate zones on the course in 8-minute organized jam sessions. Riders earned a score from each zone, based on a single trick, then the three zone scores were averaged together to determine the overall victor. The catch, scores only appeared once each heat had finished the zone.
Moment of Enjoyment:
With the new format came some curiosity from the skaters as they awaited their scores to drop after each zone was wrapped. Though, the curiosity was anything but anxious as the athletes all appeared very comfortable and in favor of the organized jam formats with scores only dropping at the end of each zone. It was clear that all the athletes were loose the entire event and felt great to try any tricks without major consequences with a fall between attempts.
In short, the entire contest was jam packed of heavy tricks back-to-back that kept the rowd on its toes, but never were the skaters feeling overly pressure — they were enjoying every minute.
Top Tricks:
Chris Cole – tailslide to front 270 out on the flate ledge, tuck-knee indy the bump to bar, bluntslide the A-frame rail, crooked grind the flat bar to manual the high ledge, back 270 lipslide on the 3-flat-2 rail, switch backside lipslide, kickflip back tailslide to fakie on the rail, cab 270 front board, 360 flip 50-50 on the hubba, Sal flip footplant on the handrail, backside 270 noseblunt, switch frontside flip over the 8-stair rail, backside 360 the stairs and a frontside 180 to switch feeble back to regular.
Louie Lopez – frontside 180 to switch feeble down the A-frame, backside smith to back 180 out on the flat ledge, frontside 360 over the bump to bar, backside flip the bump to bar, bluntslide the 3-flat-2 hand rail, frontside hurricane the rail, Barley grind on the rail, 180 switch crooked grind down the 3-flat-2 hubba, alley-oop frontside 180 to switch 50-50 on the hubba, frontside feeble the 8-stair rail, frontside bluntslide, front feeble to back 180 out and a backside lipslide shuv out.
Trevor Colden – backside noseblunt down the 2-flat-3 hubba, backside tailslide, back smith back 180 out, nollie heelflip noseslide, backside 180 nosegrind on the 3-flat-2 rail, crooked grind backside 180 out, backside nosblunt the 8-stair rail, back smith, front feeble, backside overcrook, backside 180 nose grind down the 8-stair hubba and a backside 360 the stairs.
Winner’s Top Tricks:
Ishod Wair – frontside flip the bump to bar, 360 flip to flat from the A-fram ramp, hardflip to flat, gap to backside noseblunt from high to low quarterpipe to revert, backside bigspin to noseblunt, kickflip front board on the 3-flat-2 rail, frontside 180 to switch crooked grind, kickflip back tail to fakie on the 3-flat-2 hubba, fakie kickflip to fakie manual, gap to lipslide from the platform to the double set rail, frontside flip over the 8-stair rail, 270 lipslide on the handrail, kickflip backside lipslide, 270 lipslide and a nollie crooked grind.
Winner’s Quote:
“It was just mellow, bottom line, that’s what I liked about it… I was feeling no pressure the entire time, especially because of the way the format is, jam session, you don’t really have to make every single trick – it is just like regular skating. If you fall once it doesn’t really matter, which is good for me.” — Ishod Wair
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