Two Japanese skaters, Dyake and Kyrie Netsuki, punched their way into Street League Skateboarding's unofficial 9-club during a qualifier round � a run of scoring normally reserved for the tour's established front runners.
Dyake opened with a heelflip backtail bigspin, a trick that demands perfect rotation on the flip, a precisely weighted tail press to initiate the grind, and a clean bigspin out of the feature. The judges rewarded it with 9.3.
"Dyake trying to up that paycheck," one commentator said as the run began. The replay then produced the night's running joke: "Get him, Sinclair. What's it going to be? 9.3, and Dyake just like that becomes a member of the club."
The "club" reference � 9-plus-score regulars � has become SLS broadcasting shorthand for the narrow group of skaters capable of posting those numbers consistently. Dyake's heelflip backtail bigspin is, in technical terms, widely considered harder than the closely related variants that typically score in the 9s.
"I personally think heelflip backtail bigspin is harder," one analyst said on the breakdown. "I'm going to agree with you."
Next up: Kyrie Netsuki, who answered with a matching-spec trick and posted 9.4, briefly topping Dyake's entry.
"Kyrie Netsuki came out swinging 9.4," the commentary lead said. "What does he got? Okay, now that should be in the club. How does that stack up to what Dyake did? I mean, both bigspins out. Both bigspins out. You just don't see the heelflip back tail that often."
The back-to-back 9-plus entries from skaters who weren't on most analysts' pre-event top-seed lists underscore the recurring theme of the 2026 SLS qualifying window: the names driving the highest scores are no longer just Yuto Horigome and Sora Shirai. The Japanese depth now runs multiple rotations deep on the men's roster.
The broadcast ran a comparison frame between the two tricks, focusing on landing quality and roll-away. "He didn't land it as good as Dyake, but it has to be close," one analyst said of Netsuki. "I think they're going to let him in. I think his name's on the list. They got to let him in."
The 9.4 call from the judges effectively confirmed that read.
Both skaters� qualifier entries sit inside the window that historically carries through to finals rounds. With top qualifying runs heading into the 37-plus range thanks to Horigome's tornado 270 nose slide, a 9.3 or 9.4 single trick by itself doesn't lock in final placement � but it does hold a seat at the top of the scoring pool while later runs unfold.
The broader story from the block: the SLS qualifier is now producing 9-plus scores across a spectrum of Japanese skaters, from tour veterans down to less-known names cracking their first entries into elite-scoring territory. "Heelflip backtail bigspin. They're hungry, man," the commentary said, summarising the first group of the qualifier.
Two more attempts still remained for each skater in that heat � meaning Dyake and Netsuki had further margin to protect their positions. Both entered the qualifier's top-four scoring pool with their first 9-plus runs already banked.