One of modern skateboarding’s foundational myths is that it originated with street skating.
Street skateboarding as we know it today is a comparatively modern iteration of skating, which mushroomed in the latter half of the 1980’s.
Before then, transitions ruled in the form of scattered vert ramps- and before them, the first generation of purpose-built skateparks, backyard pools and the occasional schoolyard bank.
Street skateboarding may have been the medium through which skating broke out of America, but it was not the dawn of creation as far as four-wheeled radness was concerned.
Vertical skateboarding, halfpipe skateboarding, call-it-what-you-will may have been pushed aside in terms of popularity by the street explosion, but it is one of the culture’s true roots which has remained through fads and downturns as one of the purest expressions of skateboarding there is.
Two facing walls, occasionally a channel or tombstone- but by-and-large a minimalist slingshot to the stars for a particular breed of skateboarder who has to be both fearless and very, very disciplined.
Disciplined, because every time you make a mistake you have to climb a fully extended garden ladder one-handed (which is treacherous enough in itself); but also disciplined because although it may not seem obvious to us on terra firma, vert skateboarders are also momentarily operating in zero gravity at the apex of their parabolic derring-do.
That sensation of weightlessness is such that when the first flip tricks began to appear on vert it was widely assumed that it would be impossible for them ever to be done consistently because the board could drift away like a pen on a space shuttle, tumbling away in a different fashion with every attempt.
Incredibly, given the fact that the dimensions and materials used in the construction of vert ramps (and skateboard themselves, for that matter) have not radically changed in forty years, technical progression in terms of what is possible up there continues to gather pace.
No less an authority on the subject than Tony Hawk noted- and I’m paraphrasing here- that while in Park you can trace a perhaps three-second breather across the flat bottom mid-run, in vert you have no hiding place.
Even while that may be the case, if you go back and look at early vert contests like Terror In Tahoe or the like, people still did stalls to take a moment mid-run. These days, every wall requires a power move.
By way of example: JD Sanchez’s first-place qualifying run into finals here in Paraguay yesterday consisted of 11 video game tricks in 30 seconds. That translates to a trick every two and a half seconds, give or take- less time than it took you to read this sentence.
So it is not hard to understand why a lot of people see vert as skateboarding in one of its most pure forms- and why it is such an entertaining spectacle to witness live: you don’t need to understand anything about the activity to be blown away by the sheer élan of the whole thing.
Which brings us to today’s 2026 Vert World Championship in Asunción, taking place on what is, to all intents and purposes, the front lawn of the presidential palace (that’s the fancy building you can see in the background).
Women’s Finals consisted of three Brazilians, two Europeans, two Japanese and Australian newcomer Jada Ward who you can meet here.
Young Brazilian Luiza Hiumi opened proceedings and did everyone a favour by sticking her first run, which sets a tempo and gives everyone a benchmark to work around.
That may sound like an empty observation, but if you cast your mind back to Men’s Park at the Paris Olympic Games, hardly anyone made their opening runs and it throws everything into disarray as people panic and simple mistakes begin to creep in everywhere.
Imagine being 13 years old and called upon to drop in first at a World Championship: as well as holding it down in the Run section, she made a Christ Air, Body Varial 540 and a Kickflip Indy to Fakie in Best Trick during a mightily impressive World Skate debut.
With opening runs completed, it looked like the final podium could already be locked in, with Mizuho Hasegawa, Shuka Kawai and Lilly Stoephasius setting the early pace. Mizuho, notably, was ten points ahead of the chasing pack already.
On runs alone, it would be hard to argue that those were not the top three and in the correct order. But, much like the introduction of the golden run in Park, Renton Millar’s push to include a Best Trick component in Vert (see here) had the effect of shaking up the snowglobe and introducing a whole new second dynamic.
Helena Laurino, in particular, was not going to go down without a fight and overtook an ever-more-formidable-looking Lilly Stoephasius to push up into the bronze medal position.
Remarkably, by the fourth round of Best Trick, Mizuho’s seemingly unassailable lead had withered and she needed her third attempt at what I think you could describe as a Kickflip Frontside Air to Varial over the channel in order to re-establish her Boss status- now to the tune of a 26-point lead.
You could have been forgiven for thinking that Shuka Kawai would have settled for a comfortable second place in her first World Championship, but she rode the crest of the crowd’s enthusiasm and went all-in for the win on three back-to-back 720 attempts.
When she couldn’t make it gel, Mizuho was already World Champion with a trick attempt in hand, gamely attempted a 720 of her own just for the sake of it- and bowed to her rapturous audience as they acknowledged an undisputed champion when all was said and done.
A class act, the Japanese: they acknowledge the love shown, and skateboarding crowds around the world love them for it.
And so to Men’s finals: as with the Women’s contest, opener CJ Hawker stuck his first run- it would prove to be his only full one- to give the pack something to chase.
It was Spain’s Egoitz Bijueska who raised the tempo with a first run full of venom and intent, but by the end of the Run section the two top qualifiers- USA’s JD Sanchez and Brazil’s Gui Khury- had pulled away from the pack to the tune of a ten-point margin.
With only Gui left to drop in for his last run, JD was the only skater to have broken the 90-point ceiling before Gui pipped him with an absolute heater of a run including one of many 900 variations he delivered tonight, despite looking like he was carrying a loose right shoulder.
Ole-Ole-Ole, Khury-Khury they chanted.
Total radness- and at that point we were only halfway done.
Actually, this is a good opportunity to mention the crowd: they were awesome. What a boost for the Paraguayan skate scene it must be to see an aerial dogfight like this in front of their presidential palace, even as lightning fluttered across a distant sky: they loved it (more on the weather shortly).
Best Trick standouts included Egoitz Bijueska’s Switch McTwist, little Ao Nishikawa’s groundbreaking Double Caballerial which was largely considered to be physically impossible, featuring as it does a grabless 720 rotation (!)- and Gui Khury’s 900 masterclass, the pick of which (for my money at least) was a Tailgrab 900 across an 8-foot channel(!!).
However, the breadth of JD Sanchez's repertoire gave him an originality advantage which brought him home in first place and with it the World Champion crown for 2026.
The storm which had been forecast intervened with one round of Best Trick still to go, but in truth it could only have affected the difference between 5th and 6th place at that point: JD Sanchez was leading Gui by 9 points, who himself led Australia’s Hudson Walker by 20 points, who in turn led fourth-placed Egoitz by 22 points of his own.
“Vert skating in 2026 is shooting through the roof!” MC Renton Millar noted- and he’s not wrong.
Two walls, thirty seconds and nowhere to hide; multiple 540s and flip tricks every 3 seconds becoming standard.
The 2026 Vert World Championships in Paraguay: what an immense experience to behold it really was- watch it all unfold, below!
2026 Vert World Championship Results
Women's
- Mizuho Hasegawa
- Shuka Kawai
- Helena Laurino
Men's
- JD Sanchez
- Gui Khury
- Hudson Walker