THE RAD APARTMENT: LONGBOARDING LIVING
On the groovy grove of Augusta Ave, wheels the one stop “shack” Longboard Living. Bringing all feet on deck to the board family. While before the session took place, we got to witness the fellow keen community purchasing and collecting dope dirt as the growth chart is rising in season. Nothing can match seeing other citizenries feel home-like knowing they are on turf with people of selfsame passion. Ryan ( The zenith owner long-board chap) leaves no sight of information out in your future endeavors.
It’s a LONG way to the top if you want to rock n roll.
Announced late summer 2016, Skateboarding is now qualified as an Olympic sport and will debut at the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo. It’s great to see the growing population expanding into different assets of “ pro” To the younger generation that doesn’t have supportive parents to go pro in skate/long boarding what would you say to them? It’s worth getting a job and saving up for. If your parents aren’t going to buy it for you, you still need to get around. That’s the key thing here. I’ve seen kids come into my store decide they want to longboard, go get a job and come back 2 weeks later to buy one. It’s easy to move through the learning curve, become an everyday rider and eventually attend group rides and races. Touching on the non-competitive side comes with wanting to know where the best concrete to jive on is. For the amount of time you spent on earth, what has been the best location you would recommend to long/skateboard? I do like any metropolitan city because you take the movements of surfing and not be surrounded by waves or the beach.You’re surrounded by endless paved roads that lead to; parks, juice bars, art galleries, yoga studios and other awesome places to ride to and from. You can go places on your board in a surf inspired way. New York is amazing and obviously Toronto. I have had a lot of fun in Cancún, Mexico.
Our generation is functioning on the adolescents and use that as fuel. From an extremely knowledgeable guy like Ryan, we wonder what he thinks of kids being gifted boosted boards as a learning place without the old fashioned technique. I have been an active longboarder for many years. Around 15 regularly, in the city for 10. I feel like graduating into a boosted board is a transition, I’m not going to hate on anyone that gets a boosted board because they are so awesome. I think it would be a totally great idea to get a $200 long/skateboard before a $2,000 board, to learn the basics of boarding. It’s always interesting to see what boundary an individual that consumes so much their time into something, would want to be broken. For Ryan, it consists a little on the style side. I almost want to say more into fashion. Anyone can wear a Thrasher T-Shirt, anyone can wear Vans. There is a gap between a number of people wearing vans and have a skateboard with them for functional utility. That’s the boundary because it’s so easy to touch. Tapping into the poser. The non-skater-skater and get them skating.
Let me tell you Longboard Living has the coolest collection of boards. So we have to know, Is there at least one deck that you have customized for yourself or someone else that you think back and be like…that was rad? Oh for sure. When I started Longboard Living, I had a lot of people ask about my board and I wanted it to reflect myself. So I asked some artists to customize one for me and they responded, “what do you want on it?” It was a really hard question to determine. At the time it was bright colors, clouds, the CN Tower and the streets of Spadina. Today we are always customizing boards with spray paint and stencils outside the shop. Since longboarding touches on the artistic side. Do you personally find long boarding is personal therapy and should more people put time into learning it and giving it a go? What happens when you ride a board, you engage in your surroundings, yourself, balance, and control. You’re focusing on something other than your thoughts, it’s the same as meditation and or yoga. It’s the level of getting your blood flowing and oxygen into your system.
Longboarding is all about good vibes and as cool as that sounds there will always be haters who believe anything other than street skateboarding is wrong boarding. What is your take on people putting characteristics when they hear someone is a skate/longboarder? And have you dealt with any negativity regarding that? There is definitely negativity regarding long boarding. It was often for people that can’t skateboard or do tricks. It was often looked down upon. Meanwhile, longboarding is about good vibes and being efficient. It’s quite common for someone to yell out to a longboarder “ DO A KICKFLIP” Knowing very well that longboards are not designed for that trick. It’s that little snicker you will hear.
Last thought. With such a cool place like this comes cool people, I got to know, where is your favorite place to go grab some grub? In Kensington market, it depends on my mood. It can go from, Via Mercant Pizza, Witches Brew Kombucha to Tacos from Seven Lives.
“Dangerous” to Ryan is being outside of your comfort zone and not knowing your limits. As a note from us to you, Sometimes you don’t understand or appreciate the in-depth art and technique into what our generation mainstreams. With such an eclectic vibe that Longboard Living has, your not really understanding the meaning of life if you don’t take the time to see why other tenants of this earth are so passionate about the sport. The average length board is 40” and easy to take with you on your daily journey. Longboard Living has been “spreading the stoke” and building the longboard culture in Toronto since 2008. The links and location to Longboard Living are below.
Thank you to Ryan for taking the time to breeze us into the unthinkable.
“Tapping into the poser” fits this article really well