I have hung out with Ishod in Sydney, LA, Utah, and New Zealand in the last six months. I have seen the price you pay living at the top, and let me tell you, there ain’t such a thing as a free lunch. Earlier this year, Ishod FaceTimed me and told me he was going to “DUN-ER-DIN” on a Nike trip. I was confused as to what was going on, so I called Geoff (Campbell) and explained I was there at the same time for my Sister’s 40th in Oamaru!

The night before I left, I picked up a Fujifilm GFX100II and took it with me on an adventure. Here are a few pics from the trip and a conversation from when it was all said and done.

You were in Mexico on the Thrasher SOTY trip for Miles Silvas, then straight to New Zealand. From there, you flew to Europe and back home to LA. You were gone for about three months, all up. Let’s talk about that.

I’m used to travelling but this time, I was injured, so it was different. I have never been stagnant this long in my entire life. There has never been a point where I have dropped below a certain point of health. If I think back on my skating my legs were never not good. I thought I pulled a muscle in my ankle, but I actually tore a ligament. So, I waited 4-6 weeks for the muscle to get better. Still, I had to do all this therapy because the tendon was too weak, So I was like, oh shit, it’s not getting better, so when I was in Australia in October last year, I was on that Monster trip. I just had to do my best to show face, kiss babies, this, that and the 3rd because it was a big trip for them, and they wanted me on it.

I also got an MRI on my ankle the day before I left on that trip, so I couldn’t risk hurting it again, as the results from that MRI would have been inconsistent with the state of my ankle if I hurt it more. That was three months of not skating.

When I got home, I got my results: Torn ligament and had to do therapy for 2-3 Months after that. By that time, it was like six months of being hurt. I’ve had three months in a moon boot, broken my ankle twice, had knee surgery, and unless you’ve had that sort of injury, you don’t really know what it’s like to deal with that.

There’s a lot of recovery to get back to where you need to be so you don’t fuck yourself up again. How do you find your weight when
you’re inactive?

I feel I’m about the same because I was off for six months with my ankle injury, but I was still doing physical therapy. It was around the holidays, and I was just drinking a bunch. I was a little overweight, then dropped about 20 pounds and got a lot off my muscle back, so by the time I get all of my muscle back, I’ll be around the same weight as I was but more muscular. I feel you.

I had a boxing fight last year and got down to 91 kg. I was skating good when I was with you at Christmas, and now I’m like 98 kg or something. I notice it when I’m trying to nollie heel — it feels like the gravity pull is higher.

Yeah, on high gravity mode. 

Ishod Wair does a backside overcrook in Dunedin, New Zealand while Joe Brook and Geoff Campbell document. Photo by Colin Evans.

How was South Island? Did you love it?

Yeah, the beaches were so raw, and the food was good. Wild Bean has really got those pies. I wanna go back and do more. It was hard as I was just kinda feeling things out again and wasn’t 100% confident yet.

After leaving NZ, did you travel for three days to get to that island off Portugal?

I went to Madeira, an island off the coast of Portugal, on a Monster trip.

Did you manage to do a lot of skating there?

Yeah, I got a lot of footage there. I got more clips than I did in NZ ‘cause I was just coming back — I was realising my boundaries. I was doing stuff, and I was like, “Oh, I can do this, and I can do that.” My confidence and consistency are here now.

Then, after Madeira, you were stranded in Europe for months with a blood clot in your calf.

I went to Barcelona right afterwards and pulled a muscle in my groin. I was bedridden. I was stagnant in bed for three days, and from being in bed, I developed a blood clot. You can develop a blood clot if you don’t move your body. People can get them on a plane if you’re on a long flight.

They couldn’t help you in Barcelona, so you ended up in Madrid. Then you ended up in Germany. What happened there?

They could help me, but they were being weird, there was a language barrier, and they wanted me to pay a bunch of money. It wasn’t anything crazy like in the States, but they sent me home twice and said that I didn’t have a blood clot. I was like, “What if it’s just forming because this is weird? This feeling is not normal.” They said no and sent me home, then I went back again, and they still said I didn’t, then I went back again, and they were like, “Yeah, you have a blood clot.”

What did it feel like at that point?

I was in the most pain of my life for three weeks. 

Real Skateboards Ad from Thrasher, June 2024. Photo by Joe Brook

So, how did you end up in Germany? Could they not treat you in Spain?

They were trying to keep me in the hospital for 3-4 days. Honestly, my agent kind of saved me ‘cause she was dealing with her doctors in Germany, so everything they would say in Spain, she was making sure it was correct with the doctor in Germany.

They were trying to keep me in the hospital to have doctors administer the Eliquis blood thinner when they could have just had me on prescription pills. But they were acting like there wasn’t a pill for this, and having doctors pull up on me a few times a day and give me a shot in my stomach each visit was like $250 when they could have just prescribed it.

But my agent doesn’t take no for an answer, and she handled it. Then I spoke to a Nike doctor, and he said, “You can fly a short distance if you’re not too swollen and not in too much pain.” I had a few shots of the good stuff at the hospital, so I got on a plane to Germany. When I got to Germany, I was on the proper medication and was instructed to rest in bed for three weeks. The only time I might get up was to go to the bathroom or try and take a shower. If I had to go anywhere, it was in a wheelchair.

What were you doing all day? Doomscrolling?

I was watching TV, going through old photos, or I might get up to smoke weed and look out the window. I was completely flat all day. Getting up was extremely painful, like I said, the worst pain of my life. The last thing I was trying to do was move.

So, that was the worst injury you’ve had?

I’ve never been hurt before. It’s crazy! Like never.

You must have been stoked to get back finally.

Oh yeah. Seeing my dog, my friends, drive my own car — I miss those things when I’m away.

Well, I guess you’re back now, off the blood thinners, and ready to go?

Yeah, I’m about to really get it. I can’t wait to skate in my new shoes properly. I didn’t even get a chance to film a full part — they just had to put out that footage I had.

The shoe is unreal. It seems like it’s been well received, too! You must be stoked.

Yeah, I’m hyped. It’s doing good. Things are good.

I’m happy for you, man.

Aight’ bet.

This interview was first published in Manual Magazine, issue 72, November 2024.

Follow Ishod on Instagram @ishodwair