SLS Unsanctioned 2

When the Run section wrapped, Ishod Wair was trailing outside a podium position in fourth place, while inaugural SLS Unsanctioned champ Dashawn Jordan led the pack with 24.00 points. But Wairstill had some tricks up his sleeve: After missing his first three attempts, he needed something special to challenge Chris Joslin’s commanding lead at 64.00 points. Wair found it with a highly technical switch backside tailslide down the double-kinked ledge and into the bank for a whopping 26.5 points. 

Keeping his momentum on the very last of five Best Trick attempts, Ishod Wair finessed a perfect kickflip frontside crooked grind down the stair rail for 26.00 points and the winning total of 74.5 points. On top of clinching the Unsanctioned 2 victory, Wair also walked away with the Monster Energy H.S.T. (Highest Scoring Trick)Award for his switch backside tailslide down the kinked ledge.

“I haven’t skated a week before this. And I got an old board, new shoes! I thought I was going to do pretty bad, I don’t know,” said Monster Energy’s Ishod Wair on winning the SLS Unsanctioned 2 event.

Ishod Wair is not known as a typical ‘contest skater’. But when he’s on, he’s on! This latest win at SLS Unsanctioned 2 joins competitive standouts like the gold medal in Skateboard Street at X Games Norway 2019, as well as winning the legendary CPHOpen street contest in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2017 and 2019. The certified Thrasher Magazine Skater of the Year (SOTY) also claimed third place at the 2020 Tampa Pro street contest, his first-ever trophy in the high-profile event.

Also making a strong showing at SLS Unsanctioned 2 was Monster Energy team rider Aurelien Giraud from Lyon, France. Working the course with his signature blend of technical tricks and burly transfers, the 23-year-old put down a stacked run, featuring backside nosegrind the bench, 360 kickflips up the Euro Gap, overturned 180 to switch backside 50-50 and backside nosebluntslide the Hubba ledge, frontside lipslide transfer into the bowl corner, huge frontside tweak air on the vert quarter, and blunt kickflip on the quarter pipe for 23.00 points and one of the highest-scoring runs of the day. In Best Trick, Giraud landed a frontside180 to switch backside 5-0 down the Hubba (21 points), but ultimately finished in eighth place.

Thanks to Street League Skateboarding and Thrill One Sports and Entertainment for making this exclusive event happen amid the pandemic. In other positive news, both the SLS World Tour and World Championship are set to come back this fall. Stay tuned!