Friday, April 30, 2010
M.E.T.H.O.D. MAN!
Jimmy Chiale recently finished a little piece that includes his signature abstract style and a vivid image of Hip-Hop artist Method Man. This is an example of the diversity Jimmy Chiale can achieve as a self-trained Fine Art and Graffiti Artist. He is currently available for custom painted boards with anybody's face or design on the boards. Email us with your request at longboardliving@gmail.com
PUSH !
A good friend of Longboard Living, Todd Tuthill came to visit us when we opened the gallery in March. He came with his hands full from NYC, bringing a little Bustin Boards to Toronto. While he was here to help welcome us into the space he spent some time putting together a few custom painted longboards with his signature style he has used on many custom painted surf boards in San Diego.
Here is a Bustin Cigar longboard he painted with the letters P.U.S.H. likely to represent what we all love truely - PUSH CULTURE.
Push Culture is about riding to get where you are going, or going nowhere at all but doing it fast, free and having the time of your life. Push Culture is about getting faster and stronger while going to the get groceries. It is about pushing uphill, over the hill, down the hill...through the light, in the lights, all night. We push solo and in large groups, pushing is for everyone and it is better than walking.
Thanks Todd for sharing this unique piece of art that gets the mesage out there...Push More, Drive Less!
Available at 74 Oxford - Kensington Market - Toronto - LongboardLiving@gmail.com
Here is a Bustin Cigar longboard he painted with the letters P.U.S.H. likely to represent what we all love truely - PUSH CULTURE.
Push Culture is about riding to get where you are going, or going nowhere at all but doing it fast, free and having the time of your life. Push Culture is about getting faster and stronger while going to the get groceries. It is about pushing uphill, over the hill, down the hill...through the light, in the lights, all night. We push solo and in large groups, pushing is for everyone and it is better than walking.
Thanks Todd for sharing this unique piece of art that gets the mesage out there...Push More, Drive Less!
Available at 74 Oxford - Kensington Market - Toronto - LongboardLiving@gmail.com
A helmet for every board
The season for longboard riding has arrived. Things are ramping up at the Longboard Living shop and as we send more riders onto the street we want to make sure everyone is safe and wearing a helmet. Currently in stock we have Triple 8 Helmets with matte and gloss finishes. All summer long we will offer custom painted helmet services at 74 Oxford. Bring in your helmet to be painted or choose from our selection. Prices start at $50.
Check out this fresh set up by Longboard Living artist, Jimmy Chiale.
Available at 74 Oxford - Kensington Market - Toronto
info@longboardliving.com
Check out this fresh set up by Longboard Living artist, Jimmy Chiale.
Available at 74 Oxford - Kensington Market - Toronto
info@longboardliving.com
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Bustin Boards launches a new deck
Monday, April 26, 2010
More boards out the door
At 74 Oxford there is a board for everyone. Some like the art, some like the unique shapes of custom build boards but everyone leaves happy. We always assure first time riders that they made the right decision to take up longboarding. What an amazing effect it has on a life by enhancing the daily commute, putting you into motion all while functioning as a mobile piece of functional art work.
Here are some new riders who found the right board for them at 74 Oxford, The Longboard Living Gallery
Here are some new riders who found the right board for them at 74 Oxford, The Longboard Living Gallery
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Skate Slate Article (Published)
A recent article by Toronto journalist: Drew Penner has been posted on Skate Slate online magazine:
Longboard Living Launches Ambitious Boards -
by Drew Penner
Though Kevin LeFrank's been skating for eight years -- and just launched a line of longboard decks to be sold at brand spanking new Kensington shop Longboard Living last weekend -- he didn't alway dig oversized boards.
"I always heckled the longboarders as a trick skater, as a joke," says LeFrank, amid the commotion of his April 10 party in the minimal gallery-style shop in the lower level of 74 Oxford.
"It's just something that's frowned upon by trick skaters."
The Barrie-based custom board craftsman whose company Ambitious tends towards functional design, says one day he needed to get across town and decided to give longboarding a go.
It didn't take long for LeFrank to fall in love with a new style of skateboarding.
"It's such a soul thing," he says. "You can go have fun or you can go be serious, but once you get into it, it takes over your life."
His transition parallels the rising tide of interest in all things longboarding over the past several years in mainstream culture. Those who embrace this extreme sport are intensely passionate about it.
LeFrank has pushed from Barrie to Toronto before. His friends are planning to ride all the way from Toronto to New York later this summer.
Sure longboarding is trendy. And hell, it's cool. But most importantly it's a whole barrel of fun: carving up sidewalks, weaving in and out of garbage bags, and narrowly avoiding street vendors. Perhaps most conveniently, it's a lot easier to float across streetcar gutters with giant wheels.
Certainly for participants, the sport is quickly becoming part of what it means to live in the urban sphere.
Franz Lazerte, a 22-year-old Kensington resident, says he's glad Longboard Living opened up in his neighborhood, especially since he's fairly new to this particular form of ripping.
"Originally I got into it because I'm big into board sports in general -- longboarding is a way to apply that in the summer on concrete," he says. "Now I've realized the community here is phenomenal."
After Longboard Living owner Ryan Rubin set up a weekly Wednesday skate session, he's had no problem finding others who share his desire to ride, he says.
"It's a great way to get around and to meet people who have similar interests," he says.
Peter Harrington, an 18-year-old from Mississauga, is another fresh face in the scene. One day his friends headed downtown to pick up a longboard, and he figured he'd build his own.
He picked up the component parts and did his deadliest: fashioning a sturdy, scream of a ride -- shaped like a tombstone.
"There was just nothing really out there that was the same," he says.
In the few short months he's been longboarding, he's started to look at Toronto in a new light.
"When you're walking along the road you just imagine yourself riding down the hill or something," he says, with a characteristic nonchalance. "It changes the way you perceive space -- if you know what I mean."
Vince Gao has been longboarding for more than a year now. The 21-year-old says he picked up the addiction in B.C. where the scene is "a little more raw."
"Here you have to convince people skating is awesome," he says. Luckily Gao doesn't feel the need to apologize for his healthy habit.
He just loves the rush of speed.
"Once you step on a board you're hooked," he says.
Gorini Junior slowly approaches a custom deck with an intricate wood-burnt design, hanging from the wall. It is one of many works of unique skate art on display in the shop today.
The Brazilian grabs the board and carefully inspects it. It's his.
Yes, he thinks, this is the perfect souvenir, and can't wait to ride it along the beach back home.
The image by Champstiles Woodburning depicts iconic scenes from both New York and Toronto, paying homage to the Brooklyn-based Bustin' Boards that inspired Rubin's efforts to popularize longboarding in Toronto.
The city scenes are separated by a fist bump. Below: a New York subway train and the Statue of Liberty loom larger than the heavy skyline presided over by a helicopter. Above: Depicted in front of Nathan Phillips Square, downtown office buildings and even the CN Tower, is the "SkyDome."
An hour later about 20 longboarders are whizzing down the parkade below the Rogers Centre, forming light-speed human chains and practicing board slides.
Having already blasted down Spadina Avenue, like a school of fish never to be hawked by the chinatown fishmongers they pass, it was time to wreck havoc underneath Canada's most famous baseball diamond.
The way they race to the bottom of the garage resembles the whirlpool in a bathtub when the plug is pulled. And when they reach the bottom, they race up.
Some chill on their boards at the lowest level chatting with each other.
Harrington flashes Gao a big grin. Riding his tombstone board, he's a speed demon.
As far as he's concerned, in a modern age where answers aren't always easy to come by, longboarding isn't such a bad one.
"People come from all different perspectives," he says. "It's like everyone is looking for something but they don't know what."
Rubin hopes his easygoing nature and passion for the smooth cruise will help Toronto's pedestrians and motorists to see the city not as a grid defined by rapid transit rails or highway overpasses, but instead as a space of limitless possibilities.
www.longboardliving.ca
Longboard Living Launches Ambitious Boards -
by Drew Penner
Though Kevin LeFrank's been skating for eight years -- and just launched a line of longboard decks to be sold at brand spanking new Kensington shop Longboard Living last weekend -- he didn't alway dig oversized boards.
"I always heckled the longboarders as a trick skater, as a joke," says LeFrank, amid the commotion of his April 10 party in the minimal gallery-style shop in the lower level of 74 Oxford.
"It's just something that's frowned upon by trick skaters."
The Barrie-based custom board craftsman whose company Ambitious tends towards functional design, says one day he needed to get across town and decided to give longboarding a go.
It didn't take long for LeFrank to fall in love with a new style of skateboarding.
"It's such a soul thing," he says. "You can go have fun or you can go be serious, but once you get into it, it takes over your life."
His transition parallels the rising tide of interest in all things longboarding over the past several years in mainstream culture. Those who embrace this extreme sport are intensely passionate about it.
LeFrank has pushed from Barrie to Toronto before. His friends are planning to ride all the way from Toronto to New York later this summer.
Sure longboarding is trendy. And hell, it's cool. But most importantly it's a whole barrel of fun: carving up sidewalks, weaving in and out of garbage bags, and narrowly avoiding street vendors. Perhaps most conveniently, it's a lot easier to float across streetcar gutters with giant wheels.
Certainly for participants, the sport is quickly becoming part of what it means to live in the urban sphere.
Franz Lazerte, a 22-year-old Kensington resident, says he's glad Longboard Living opened up in his neighborhood, especially since he's fairly new to this particular form of ripping.
"Originally I got into it because I'm big into board sports in general -- longboarding is a way to apply that in the summer on concrete," he says. "Now I've realized the community here is phenomenal."
After Longboard Living owner Ryan Rubin set up a weekly Wednesday skate session, he's had no problem finding others who share his desire to ride, he says.
"It's a great way to get around and to meet people who have similar interests," he says.
Peter Harrington, an 18-year-old from Mississauga, is another fresh face in the scene. One day his friends headed downtown to pick up a longboard, and he figured he'd build his own.
He picked up the component parts and did his deadliest: fashioning a sturdy, scream of a ride -- shaped like a tombstone.
"There was just nothing really out there that was the same," he says.
In the few short months he's been longboarding, he's started to look at Toronto in a new light.
"When you're walking along the road you just imagine yourself riding down the hill or something," he says, with a characteristic nonchalance. "It changes the way you perceive space -- if you know what I mean."
Vince Gao has been longboarding for more than a year now. The 21-year-old says he picked up the addiction in B.C. where the scene is "a little more raw."
"Here you have to convince people skating is awesome," he says. Luckily Gao doesn't feel the need to apologize for his healthy habit.
He just loves the rush of speed.
"Once you step on a board you're hooked," he says.
Gorini Junior slowly approaches a custom deck with an intricate wood-burnt design, hanging from the wall. It is one of many works of unique skate art on display in the shop today.
The Brazilian grabs the board and carefully inspects it. It's his.
Yes, he thinks, this is the perfect souvenir, and can't wait to ride it along the beach back home.
The image by Champstiles Woodburning depicts iconic scenes from both New York and Toronto, paying homage to the Brooklyn-based Bustin' Boards that inspired Rubin's efforts to popularize longboarding in Toronto.
The city scenes are separated by a fist bump. Below: a New York subway train and the Statue of Liberty loom larger than the heavy skyline presided over by a helicopter. Above: Depicted in front of Nathan Phillips Square, downtown office buildings and even the CN Tower, is the "SkyDome."
An hour later about 20 longboarders are whizzing down the parkade below the Rogers Centre, forming light-speed human chains and practicing board slides.
Having already blasted down Spadina Avenue, like a school of fish never to be hawked by the chinatown fishmongers they pass, it was time to wreck havoc underneath Canada's most famous baseball diamond.
The way they race to the bottom of the garage resembles the whirlpool in a bathtub when the plug is pulled. And when they reach the bottom, they race up.
Some chill on their boards at the lowest level chatting with each other.
Harrington flashes Gao a big grin. Riding his tombstone board, he's a speed demon.
As far as he's concerned, in a modern age where answers aren't always easy to come by, longboarding isn't such a bad one.
"People come from all different perspectives," he says. "It's like everyone is looking for something but they don't know what."
Rubin hopes his easygoing nature and passion for the smooth cruise will help Toronto's pedestrians and motorists to see the city not as a grid defined by rapid transit rails or highway overpasses, but instead as a space of limitless possibilities.
www.longboardliving.ca
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
LIMITED EDITION T'S
We are running a 100 piece set of this T-Shirt design.
Available in size: XS, S, M, L, XL, XXL
To pre-order email: LongboardLiving@gmail.com
Available in size: XS, S, M, L, XL, XXL
To pre-order email: LongboardLiving@gmail.com
Video Clip: Bombing Spadina
A clip from the post-ambitious launch party skate.
We took it down spadina 20 deep and off to the SKYDOME garage.
Great day.
Longboard Living hosts a group skate every Wednesday night at 7pm leaving from 74 Oxford.
We took it down spadina 20 deep and off to the SKYDOME garage.
Great day.
Longboard Living hosts a group skate every Wednesday night at 7pm leaving from 74 Oxford.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Through the lens
It has once been said, that all photographers should ride a longboard. Well, we are saying it now. The reason is because a board takes you further than your feet alone, allowing you to view any city from different angles and perspectives. You are able to cover more ground and capture more neighborhoods, the beauty of a side street in the city or expose your lens to some evening traffic. Here are some recent shots taken while longboarding in Toronto.
In honor of longboard photography and a special Toronto Longboarding event - the Longboard Living Gallery will be hosting a photo exhibition with photography from the 2003-2009 Toronto Board Meeting by Jonathan Nuss. The event will take place May 7th at 7pm with a skate session to follow.
For more information on the May 7th Event - please join the Facebook Group:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=113964001962418&ref=mf
In honor of longboard photography and a special Toronto Longboarding event - the Longboard Living Gallery will be hosting a photo exhibition with photography from the 2003-2009 Toronto Board Meeting by Jonathan Nuss. The event will take place May 7th at 7pm with a skate session to follow.
For more information on the May 7th Event - please join the Facebook Group:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=113964001962418&ref=mf
New Riders!
The city of Toronto is a better place now that there are more longboards on the road and more happy longboard riders.
We hope to see all of our new riders at the Wednesday Night Side Street Surfing Sessions leaving 74 Oxford at 7PM
We hope to see all of our new riders at the Wednesday Night Side Street Surfing Sessions leaving 74 Oxford at 7PM
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Hey Apathy! Limited Prints
Longboard Living collaborated with a well known Toronto artist that goes by Hey Apathy!
For the spring 2010 season LL is releasing a limited set of black prints on 35" and 42" Side Street Surfers.
Contact info@longboardliving.com for more information.
For the spring 2010 season LL is releasing a limited set of black prints on 35" and 42" Side Street Surfers.
Contact info@longboardliving.com for more information.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Longboard Living x Valerie Starr
Valerie Starr is a new artist at Longboard Living. Here is a collage piece she did. It is very raw cut up, gritty display with scratched pen marks and softened with gold glitter and a thick gel medium finish. Much of Valeries work in the modern design of buidings, cars, boats. This board is complete and available at 74 Oxford.
Model: Tawny Autumn
Model: Tawny Autumn
Longboard Living x Millie Knaff
Millie is an amazing artist. Her father was an artist and friends with Ralph Steadman who happened to be the illustrator for Hunter S. Thompson, need i say more? Talk about taking talent and throwing it off the wall. Millie uses her art to describe her dreams, nightmares and visions of perfection / imperfection. Here are some pieces from a recent show she was part of at The Great Hall on Queen St. West.
Millie recently painted 2 boards in collaboaration with Longboard Living as well and it is great to have such a talented artist in the Longboard Living roster.
Welcom Millie!
Spreading the stoke,
Longboard Living
Millie recently painted 2 boards in collaboaration with Longboard Living as well and it is great to have such a talented artist in the Longboard Living roster.
Welcom Millie!
Spreading the stoke,
Longboard Living
Fresh Deck at 74 Oxford
We just received a shipment of blanks from our custom longboard supplier.
Custom orders will be painted on 35" or 42" drop through boards.
There is a line up of artists ready to get at these so expect to see some new boards in the collection very soon. If you would like to place an order for a custom painted board, email us at longboardliving@gmail.com and we will help you design a custom board and choose an artist with the right style.
Spreading the stoke,
Longboard Living
New Kids on the Block
So a few weeks ago 2 of these guys came in looking for a board. Wanting to know which one was the fastest, which one was the best and which one would ultimately make them the coolest kid at school. The only problem was that they were dealing with lunch money savings and a hand painted complete from the collection would not be the best option. I ordered in some boards in their price range from Madrid Longboards and let them pick. We are happy to meet any riders request for product the best we can and it was awesome to see this dude and all his friends stoked about the new longboards at 74 Oxford.
Spreading the stoke,
Longboard Living
Spreading the stoke,
Longboard Living
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Sneak Peek: Longboard Living x Napalm Decks
A few months ago at the Upwards and Onwards showcase with Jimmy Chiale, the idea came up to do a collaboration with Matthew Napier, Master builder for Napalm Decks. In order to showcase the available work by Napes and custom longboard painting by Longboard Living artist Jimmy Chiale it somehow seemed like a good idea to paint on top of some extremely rare carbon. Its normal use is to line the inside of Rolls Royce jet engines, so why not a longboard? The deck is sure to be a show stopper and will be complete with custom built trucks by GFT. There are a few more surprises set up for this piece. Here are a few pics to tie you over.
Spreading the stoke,
Longboard Living
Post by: Ryan
Spreading the stoke,
Longboard Living
Post by: Ryan
Ambitious Launch x City Session
We would like to officially welcome Ambitious Boards to the Longboard Living family. We have received shipment (from Barrie, ON) of some fresh drop DH and freeride decks. The release party brought out plenty of riders from the Ontario Longboarding community and was followed by a city session.
We bombed spadina 20 riders deep, floating over to the SKYDOME to hit the garage. Lots of laughs, a few spills and a lot more laughs!
Thanks to everyone who came out.
We hope to see you at our weekly Wednesday night Side Street Surfing session leaving 74 Oxford at 7pm.
Our next scheduled event is a photo exhibition in honor of the Toronto Board meeting ft. a selection of photos from Jonathan Nuss.
Spreading the stoke,
Longboard Living
Post by: Ryan
We bombed spadina 20 riders deep, floating over to the SKYDOME to hit the garage. Lots of laughs, a few spills and a lot more laughs!
Thanks to everyone who came out.
We hope to see you at our weekly Wednesday night Side Street Surfing session leaving 74 Oxford at 7pm.
Our next scheduled event is a photo exhibition in honor of the Toronto Board meeting ft. a selection of photos from Jonathan Nuss.
Spreading the stoke,
Longboard Living
Post by: Ryan
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