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88 CONCRETE WAVE WINTER 2012
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Is it a
Christian Chenard-Lemire (left) and Alaric
LeBlanc of Restless Skateboards.
But what about the longboard scene, you wonder?
I am pleased to report that not only is there a thriving
longboard scene in Montreal, but it is one that is
incredibly hospitable to visitors. You just have to experience it – to jump in and grab hold of the “joie de vivre”
that oozes from this city and its inhabitants.
My first visit to Montreal was in 1978 on a school
trip. While it was enjoyable, it wasn’t until 1983 that I
truly fell in love with the city. Montreal is only a fivehour drive from Toronto and a four-hour drive from
New York City, but as you will soon discover, it feels like
it’s in its own unique world.
Numerous people have helped nurture the longboard scene in Montreal. I’d like to introduce you to one
of its founding fathers: Pierre Gravel.
Gravel has lived in the city for about 18 years. Initially from Alma, Lac Saint Jean, a fairly remote
northern town, he moved to Montreal for work. “I
moved with my longboard and I never saw anyone
riding at the time,” he says. “It was only in 1996 that I
started to see other people.” By that time a few shops
had started to carry longboards. “Spin Boardshop had
them, along with Le Roi Lizard.”
THE LANGUAGE OF STOKE
Bob Couet, the owner of Urge Longboards,
stands in his 9' x 6' workshop.
Friday night sessions at Le Taz indoor skatepark
are a must for many longboarders.
90 CONCRETE WAVE WINTER 2012
The official language of Quebec is French, and while
many in Montreal are bilingual, it’s always much more
convenient to communicate in your mother tongue.
Back in the mid- to late ’90s, the Quebec longboard
community hung out on the NCDSA website. Gravel
says, “I met Paul Demers at the forum, along with Jim
Z (Ziemlanski). But after this, we all started to congregate to the Motion Longboards website.”
From there, things moved rapidly to the website of
Top Challenge, a downhill event that took place in the
heart of Montreal. Pierre set up the site, and the Montreal longboard community started to communicate.
Sadly, the site ceased to exist and its entire database disappeared after the death of Top Challenge. Undaunted,
Pierre decided to create a new website, Montreal Sessions, which now has more than 2,000 members.
Helping Pierre were Yann Lhermitte and Fabrice Gaëtan.
“Mike Bottreau, Myriam Arsenault-Jacques and Simon
Benoit are also helping to maintain order,” recalls Pierre.
“Sometimes the forum got a little heated!”
The KebbeK Krew: (left to right) Marco Waldorf,
Stephen Peters, Kevin LeFrank,
Kayla Hill and Pierre Gravel.
WHEN FABRICE MET YANN
Fabrice Gaëtan started longboarding at the age of 30
after he had broken his wrist while bike riding. “I had
met up with a few folks via the Internet. As we started
to go faster, I felt the wheels drifting and I wanted to
push things further,” he says.
Joining up with Fabrice was Yann Lhermitte. Yann had
arrived from the French Alps to study and work in Montreal. “We were just having a blast sliding,” says Yann.
“People used to give us very strange looks. They just
couldn’t understand the gloves or what we were doing.”
Fabrice and Yann took inspiration from Supaflex
videos and adapted what they saw to the terrain of
Montreal. Interestingly, Yann credits Fabrice as his
mentor for sliding, and Fabrice credits Yann as his
mentor for going fast. “We were learning from each
other and it was pure fun,” says Fabrice.
At the time the two were sliding with a fellow Montrealer, Nicholas Senequier. “It was all about going fast
with slides – it was surfing the concrete,” he adds.
I asked Yann and Fabrice about their style of sliding.
“We have a history of putting our hands down when we
slide,” says Yann. “We have a laid-back, low positioning
style. We stretch out.”
Graffiti sanctioned by the city of Montreal for the 'Under Pressure' festival held every August.
AJ Powell proudly shows off his snowskate collection.
WINTER 2012 CONCRETE WAVE 91
Fabrice Gaëtan and Marc Séguin hit a Montreal
cemetery during a snowstorm.
Photo: Martin Duquette
Hanging out after the interview at Underworld skateshop.
In the beginning there were three distinct crews:
Yann and Fabrice’s little group, the guys from Motion
and the KebbeK group. “Dwayne Pereto, Pierre
[Gravel] and Ian [Comishin] would be doing crazy
things in Westmount,” explains Yann.
Dom Mahe over at Motion had a website and there
was a message board there. The board got filled up
with messages, and the gang realized they needed
something bigger. Thus was born the Montreal Sessions website.
During the 2005 Top Challenge, Fabrice organized an
outlaw slide comp. “We knew we had some of the best
riders in the world, so we took the opportunity,” he says.
“We did it the night before and it was amazing. It is the
best souvenir I have from my time in longboarding.”
The one key connection between Yann and Fabrice
other than their riding ability was their skill at capturing
images of the action: Yann has produced a number of
videos, and Fabrice attended school for photography
and was working in a production facility where the duo
spent nights editing film. This unique combination
meant others could get a glimpse into their world.
“We were taking the time to make good videos,”
Yann says. “We used video technology that was a little
ahead of its time and people appreciated it.”
Unfortunately, Fabrice got burned out on the business
92 CONCRETE WAVE WINTER 2012
Dmitri Komarov, Ludovic Tremblay, Maxime Robitaille and
Kelian Duplain at St-Donat in the Laurentians.
Photo: Olivier Séguin-Leduc
If you visit Montreal, it is imperative you eat a smoked
meat sandwich.
Yann Lhermitte faces down old man winter.
Photo: Fabrice Gaëtan
MJ's father runs Urge Longboards
and she loves to slide.
Photo: Bob Couet
Emilie Gascon at the Montreal Slalom Outlaw.
Photo: Olivier Séguin-Leduc
side of longboarding. He left the scene, but there is no
doubt he left his mark. Ironically, he credits longboarding
for getting him back into photography. He is now a fulltime photographer supporting a family.Yann still travels
and competes in numerous events while balancing his
career as an engineer. He seems to be doing well at it. In
November 2011 he held a push race; despite rain and
wind, more than 90 skaters showed up.
“I have a desire to charge hard and keep traveling,”
Yann says. “My goal is to mix my passion for longboarding
with my job.
Bar just down the road from their warehouse. Most of that
conversation will remain off the record.
Restless are spending a lot of time prototyping with
their vacuum press. “It’s a Venturi system, which uses
compressed air,” explains Christian. “We are also using
3D modeling to make our own molds.”
The team at Restless is excited for the future. “We see
the growth of longboarding,” says Christian. “Our idea is
to create a diverse amount of product that appeals to
riders looking for a superior ride.”
WEST COMES EAST
RESTLESS – NO SLEEP ’TIL PJ’S BAR
Restless Longboards was founded in 2004 by Christian
Chenard-Lemire, Alaric LeBlanc, Dither Flores and
François-Olivier Théberge. Originally, they were set up as
an online shop offering custom graphics with different
models. Restless still offers this service but has over time
created a unique longboard brand of their own. I met up
with Christian and Alaric in their R&D facility in Montreal.
We also took time to spend a lunch at the infamous PJ’s
Jim Ziemlanski, Jody Willcock and Ian Comishin are three
individuals who have collectively had a huge impact on the
longboard scene in Montreal. As Pierre explains, it was
Jim who first contacted him to try out a slalom board. The
two traveled to an event in Boston. Pierre has turned a lot
of folks onto the fun you can have with cones. “I got Jim
into slalom, but it was Jim who got me into downhill.”
A year later, Pierre met up with Ian. “Those guys were
younger than me,” Pierre says. “They were fearless! I
WINTER 2012 CONCRETE WAVE 93
Ludovic Tremblay in Quebec City.
Photo: Olivier Séguin-Leduc
Dmitri Komarov plays with the devil's toy in Westmount.
Photo: Olivier Séguin-Leduc
Charles Ouimet at one of the locals’ favorite spots.
Photo: Olivier Séguin-Leduc
started following them but couldn’t go through every
red light like they did. It was fun.”
Ian went on to found KebbeK Skateboards. The
brand has forged a unique place within the scene and
its boards are now sold worldwide.
THE GENESIS OF TOP CHALLENGE
In the early 2000s, Pierre was riding with a longboarder named Frank Fontaine. “He told me he
wanted to start a race and asked me to help out,”
Pierre says. “I hooked him up with Ian and Jim, as they
had been involved with numerous races.”
Frank was passionate about creating something,
Pierre says, but was unsure how to put it on: “He saw the
potential of a downhill race right in the middle of the city.
His choice was Mont Royal. The first dry run of the event
took place in 2002 with 10 racers. I broke two fingers just
a week or so before the event, so I couldn’t ride.”
Top Challenge was ahead of its time, with key sponsorship from Bud Light. Fontaine invested a huge
amount of time and money in Top Challenge, and
repeatedly tried to get Red Bull on board as well. The
energy-drink company had sponsored downhill events
in previous years, but for some reason, things just
didn’t gel for Top Challenge. Still, the memories of that
time are something that will never fade. The sight of
thousands of spectators lining the streets was something to behold.
There is life among the dearly departed. Dmitri at a Montreal cemetery.
Photo: Olivier Séguin-Leduc
A VARIETY OF DISCPLINES
If there is one element about the scene in Montreal
that keeps appearing, it’s the concept of riders
embracing all types of skateboarding. “I am really
proud of the fact that many skaters here are willing to
try different things. I encourage street skaters to try
longboards and vice versa,” says Pierre.
THE DEVIL’S TOY
A number of years ago, skating the “Devil’s Toy” run in
Westmount was pretty easy. Nowadays, it’s a bust due
94 CONCRETE WAVE WINTER 2012
the numerous private security firms that prowl the area.
The spot got its name from a 1966 National Film Board
documentary on the skateboarding scene in Montreal. It’s
a classic, and you’ll cringe at the site of clay wheels hitting
the hills of Westmount. The introduction states: “This film
is dedicated to all victims of intolerance.” Like many things
emerging from Montreal, the film truly was ahead of its
time. Do a quick search on Google and you’ll find it.
LE TAZ
Opened in the spring of 2009, this indoor skatepark is
absolutely massive. The $10 million project also features a second level with a nice wooden kidney bowl.
Friday night sessions are populated by a number of
longboarders who love to carve with their pool decks.
While the infamous Montreal weather can be horrendous from late November to April, Taz is nice and toasty.
Behind Taz is a free DIY concrete park called Area 45
built by a number of passionate locals.
GOING UNDERGROUND
Eight years ago, at the age of 18, AJ Powell moved down
from Laval to attend college in Montreal. He too has had
a front-row seat to the growth of longboarding in Montreal. I asked what made the scene so special.
“It’s definitely not having all the seasons to skate,”
AJ said. “Winter has a huge impact on the scene here,
so you have to be adventuresome.”
HILLS, TRAFFIC AND NERVES
OF STEEL
While there are numerous hills surrounding Montreal,
the truth is that they are the least of your concerns. If you
want to survive longboarding in this city, you’re going to
need to handle the traffic. Montreal is well known as
being an explosive mix of insane drivers and fearless
pedestrians. Both parties seem to have a love affair with
ignoring traffic signals. At times you get the feeling it’s a
scene out of “Deathrace 2000.” Longboarding in this city
requires lightning-fast reflexes and nerves of steel.
Charles Ouimet at the Caserne.
Photo: Olivier Séguin-Leduc
of fixing the gradient on a mountain road. There was a
certain pitch to the road, and Freddy realized that if was
good for a car, then it would be even better for a longboard. A few adjustments later, and presto – the perfect
run. The only issue was that the contractors couldn’t
figure out how they had used all that additional asphalt!
THE NEXT GENERATION
AJ, Yann and Jace Samikov escape the grip of winter.
Photo: Mikael Bottreau
For example, AJ explained, there are 34 kilometers
of underground in Montreal that you can skate. There
are pedestrian tunnels that connect to malls and major
hotels along with huge parking-lot spirals that go deep.
You can skate for hours without going outside, AJ says.
Of course, the sessions at Taz Skatepark also compensate for a tough winter, too. AJ also enthusiastically
rides his quiver of snowskates during the winter. “The
companies making them originally didn’t understand
how the truck should work,” he says. “Now we have a
steering mechanism that works. You should check out
Rocker Trucks.”
Hey, don’t blame Concrete Wave if you hang up your
longboard and take up snowskating full-time!
THE ROOKIE
I’ve known Pascal Jean, a.k.a. “The Rookie,” for a
number of years. He skates it all: parks, hills and cones.
He’s also a big proponent of snowskating. When I met
him at the Taz skatepark he was padding up for a session. I asked him what he’d been up to.
“I have footage of me hitting 73 kilometers an hour
on my snowskate,” he told me. “I’ll send you the link.”
I sense that if more longboarders knew about
snowskating, they would actually look forward to winter.
Besides being one of the nicest guys you’ll ever
meet, Rookie is a highly acclaimed DJ. Tune into his
Rock Therapie podcast.
Racers start very early in Quebec!
Photo: Luc Bertrand
“You have to expect cars to show up in blind corners,”
says Pierre Gravel. “There’s rarely a clean empty street.
Footbraking, sliding and speed-checking are skills you
must possess – because you’ll need them!”
FAST FREDDY
Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to meet up with the
legendary “Fast Freddy” Desjardins on this trip to Montreal. This was a severe disappointment, as Monsieur
Freddy has also been instrumental in building the scene,
including starting up Street Missile Longboards, along
with a race series called Attack. So I wanted to get his take
on things. I also recall meeting him at Top Challenge in
2003 and standing in awe of his ability to party and skate!
There are numerous stories about Fast Freddy. The
latest one I heard was the time when he was in charge
I had an opportunity to interview some of the next generation of Montreal longboarders who are building upon
the city’s strong foundations: Kevin LeFrank, Maxim
Garant Rousseau and Dmitri Komarov.
Kevin is originally from Ontario and now works at
KebbeK. He says the camaraderie is what drew him to
longboarding. Maxim discovered the scene when he visited La Source Attack race. “I ended up finishing fifth
and got addicted,” he says. He is an ambassador for
Loaded. Dmitri, who is originally from Russia (he left
when he was 8) has also been riding for four years.
Since Kevin hails from Ontario, he has a unique perspective on the differences between the scenes. “Both
scenes are friendly, but I find that the Montreal scene is
a bit more inclusive,” he says. “No one pushes anyone
away – it feels like family. There also seems to be a willingness to share spots.”
Maxim comes from Quebec City and also has a different take on things. “Something that is cool about
Montreal is that people actually live in the city,” he says.
“In Quebec City, a lot of people live in the suburbs. Here,
in Montreal, we just grab our boards and go.”
Everyone meets up around the mountain – it’s the
focus that drives the stoke.
“What’s kind of crazy about Montreal is that none of
us are actually from Montreal,” says Dmitri. “Somehow,
we all ended up here and it feels like our town.”
The gang all nodded in agreement when Kevin piped
up with, “Home is where you hang your hat.”
Dmitri has definitely found a place in Montreal and
the longboard community. “Through longboarding, I
learned French,” he says. Talk about the benefits of
immersion!
WINTER 2012 CONCRETE WAVE 95
THE PARTY SCENE
No article on Montreal could be published without a
mention of the party atmosphere that pervades the city.
I’ll be blunt here: Montrealers know how to have a great
time and live life large! But when your bars are open
until 4 a.m., you run the risk of sleeping in and missing
Lord knows what event or race. It’s happened so many
times to so many skaters that people just roll with it.
“It’s not just that there’s a party after each race,” says
Maxim “but there’s also a party BEFORE each race!”
TEAMQUEBEC.ORG
Yann and his magic flying carpet longboard.
Photo: Olivier Séguin-Leduc.
Thanks to the hard work of a dedicated group of riders,
the web is allowing people to get a sense of what is hap-
also creating some extraordinary decks. Vinz over at
Motion Longboards has been manufacturing since 1999
and utilizes a number of substrates in his decks. And be
sure to visit Dom at Free For All BoardShop.
HEARTS IN THE RIGHT PLACE
There are numerous riders of an extremely high caliber
in Montreal. The interesting thing is that there is now an
older group of riders and a younger group. “We are all
friends and we keep a good spirit together. There isn’t
much rivalry. We have different skate companies here
and we all skate together,” says Pierre.
Niko Desmarais has a degree in kinesiology, which he puts to good use!
Photo: Luc-Bertrand
BIENVENUE – YOU ARE WELCOME!
pening in the world of Quebec longboarding. Modeled
after the success of Skate House Media, teamquebec.org
is forging a huge amount of unity. “We are working with
so many different people and we all have the same goal,”
says Dmitri. “It’s really bringing people together.”
LOOK NORTH
The hills in the snowboard areas of Mont Tremblant and
Saint Saveur beckon riders from the city. You can easily
hit 60+ mph, and there’s new asphalt being laid.
A MOVING TRIBUTE
TO THE BIG O PIPE
It’s a rite of passage – practically every skater makes a
pilgrimage to the Big O pipe at the site of the 1976
Summer Olympics. The pipe, originally a corridor for
athletes to walk under, has been sessioned now for
almost three decades. A few years ago plans were
under way to tear it down. Thanks to the hard work and
dedication of Barry Walsh and Marc Tison (two legendary locals), the pipe was spared. The weekend I was
there, crews were in the process of moving the pipe
about 90 feet from its original position due to the need
for the adjacent stadium to have extra space. Kudos to
cheese maker Saputo, who picked up the $63,000 tab.
THE URGE TO SHARE
Yann Lhermitte and I drove out to a town just east of
96 CONCRETE WAVE WINTER 2012
Snowskate enthusiast "The Rookie" has hit over 40 mph.
Montreal called Repentigny. Here we met Bob Couet,
owner of Urge Longboards. Bob makes longboard
decks for small children (under the age of 10). He does
this in a workshop that is 9’ by 6.’ Yes, you read that correctly, he works in a 54-square-foot workspace. The
amount of stoke that Bob has for longboarding is off the
charts. He truly embodies what it means to be a skater.
Bob, merci pour ton hospitalité!
HEAD EAST FOR MORE!
Just three hours down the road and you’ll hit Quebec
City. It’s a whole other experience and definitely worth a
visit if you have the time. We’ll get to a scene report
eventually, but I did want to mention some incredible
folks there who are making their mark on the scene in
Montreal. Miguel “Mig” Marco is not only an exceptional
slalom skater, but he’s created quite a buzz with his
company, Fullbag. The guys at Rotule Longboards are
The scene in Montreal is very welcoming. Don’t be
intimidated if French is not your first language. Even an
attempt to speak just a little French will go a long way.
Before coming, however, it’s a good idea to visit some
websites and get a sense of the place. You’ll find the
hospitality pretty incredible. Pierre and dozens of other
locals have hosted people they’ve only met on the
Internet and formed lifelong friendships. As someone
who has experienced firsthand the generosity of the
locals, I can assure you that your first visit to Montreal
will not be your last.
LAST WORDS
Pierre Gravel
“At almost 50, I am happy to be riding. I still enjoy the ride.”
Fabrice Gaëtan
“I am proud of what’s been accomplished in Montreal. I
did not expect things to get this big this fast. We started
to push the engine and have fun.”
Yann Lhermitte
“Longboarding saved my life. I am living a dream and I
intend to keep riding for a long time!”
Dmitri Komarov
“I had an opportunity to come to either Montreal or Halifax. I’m glad I wound up in Montreal!”
AN INTERVIEW WITH
IAN COMISHIN
Ian enjoys a late fall session.
Photo: Pierre Gravel
OF KEBBEK SKATEBOARDS
So, Ian, you’re a transplanted British Columbian. How
the heck did you wind up in Quebec?
The reason I am in Quebec is that I had a disastrous run
with a skateboard/punk rock tour. It left me and a bunch
of my friends deeply in debt. There was a business
opportunity that came up in January of 2000 that
allowed me to get these debts paid off. It was only supposed to be for one year. But I became a father out here,
so now I’ll be here for at least 20 years.
doing just about everything ourselves. He apprenticed
me on CNC philosophy, which was very rare in the
skateboard world back in the late ’90s and early 2000s.
Jim hung out for a few years, but BC was beckoning him
back too, so he left.
So then it was just you?
I was on my own for quite some time. I then had a long string
of apprentices who came to work with me, but virtually all of
them threw in the towel within a few months, as I can be
very picky and very sloppy at the exact same time. AJ Powell
was really running the show while I helped my friend
relaunch his robotics company in the wind energy industry;
it required a very special sort of shoestring, broke-ass management style that only one who has been in the skateboard
business for 15 years can understand. AJ tried hard, but
when the CNC blew up we had to do more manual work,
and things were tough.
How are Jody Willcock and Jim Z connected with you
and the Quebec scene?
Jim was one of my roommates when I was living in Rossland, BC back in the mid-’90s. Jody I’ve known since
grade three. We were in Cub Scouts together. (Editor’s
note: The thought of Jody being in Cub Scouts boggles my
mind!) We just grew up together as skate rats.
Pierre Gravel at the Devil's Toy.
Photo: Ian Comishin
What were you riding on back then?
We were using these Highway Skateboards that Jody
was building back in Prince George. These were the lowered-platform decks. It was really exciting because it
allowed us to open a whole new style of riding in British
Columbia. We hit big roads – straight-up bombing. No
sliding or drifting. We went as fast as we could.
So what happened next?
About a year later (in 2001), Jody and Jim said they were
interested in moving to Montreal. I had offered to get
some CNC technology for them. They had been borrowing it from a local college in Prince George. They
wanted to build their own. So I said I would help finance
this, but only if they came to Montreal. We started
building boards together.
I assume it wasn’t long before they started hitting the hills.
Jody was very astute in tracking down the location of
runs from the film “The Devil’s Toy.” Jody and another
guy named Jeremy Webb, along with Jim and myself,
would go and skate these runs in Westmount – all from
the film. It was an interesting feeling of nostalgia.
From speaking with people who remember seeing you
guys at the time, your crew had quite the reputation
for speed.
Jody’s design of boards allowed us to go fast. We had
the confidence to go into corners. The lowered platform
helped us push things and not get the wobbles. At the
time this was something unique; it was a game changer.
There was a downhill scene at the time – you had EDI in
California, for example – but it wasn’t focused on highly
technical moves like scrubbing your speed in the corners. It was all about pushing roads to their limits and
having this sort of experience that we didn’t think
existed anywhere else in the world. At least that’s how
it felt to us – pre-Internet days. We didn’t get much
exposure to hard cornering or hard drifting.
How did KebbeK Skateboards start?
KebbeK is actually an offshoot of PM Skateboards,
which I started in 1992. When Jody came out, he had a
contract to build boards for Landyachtz. Since these
lowered boards were so weird-looking for a lot of
people, we decided to introduce a brand that would be
a complementary brand that would compete on a
friendly basis. This would mean that there would be two
companies making lowered-platform boards.
Additionally, Chris Chaput of Abec 11 had asked Jody
and Jim to come up with a board that he was interested
in. This deck became the Smoothcut that was based on
Chris’ public files that he had put on the Internet (a
design he called the Roughcut). It was 2001 when we
launched our first KebbeK speedboard.
What happened next?
Jody left back to BC pretty quickly after moving out to
Montreal, as we found that our friendship was clashing
with our debt management, and frankly, he just really
missed BC life with the great snowboarding and being
close to his family. Jim really helped form the style of
the company as we moved away from subcontracting to
Tell me about the German master craftsman.
One day Tim Brodesser from Germany walked through
the front door and said he was an engineer in woodworking and he wanted to work for free. In the last few
years he has rebuilt the style of production, helped me
to rebuild the CNC machine a few times over, took on
Kevin LeFrank as an apprentice and really brought our
reputation back to where it was in the early 2000s. He’s
now moved back to be with his family in Germany.
Who’s running things now?
We’ve got Stephen Waldorf, Kevin, Marco Peters, Kayla
Hill, Pierre Gravel and myself to try and make all the
rippers their rides.
What about the future?
It’s looking as exciting as it has always been. People love
to talk about where things are going. PM/KebbeK turns
20 years old in 2012. Time is actually kind of standing
still now. Skateboarding is not changing or evolving or
becoming something else, it’s still just skateboarding. It
is to me today what it was to the kids in “The Devil’s Toy”
film shot in 1965: a piece of wood that rolls and you can
stand on it. If you are a personality type who can take
something so simple and utilize it to fulfill one or even
all your aspirations, then you are a skater. CW
WINTER 2012 CONCRETE WAVE 97