Welcome to Living Legends, a new eight-part video series brought to you exclusively by Push.ca and Degree. The idea behind Living Legends is a simple one, we want to honor and document the careers of professional skateboarders and snowboarders that have made a significant impact on their sports but remain in the game.

Our video series has nearly run it's course, but you can still expect one more episode of Living Legends in two weeks, so keep your eyes peeled. Check the bottom of the story to recap everyone we've covered. But before that, watch and read up on our latest Living Legend, Sandbox's Kevin Sansalone.

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Living Legend: Kevin Sansalone [by Pete Andersen]

Kevin Sansalone is the ultimate blue-collar snowboarder. The man never stops. He's up first, home last and is multitasking on at least four major projects at the same time but always gets it done. A founding member of the Seymour Kids crew, Kevin has shaped North Vancouver snowboarding as we know it, dabbled in pro mountain biking and started a snowboard video empire in the process. Hell, he even recently started a snowboard company, Whitegold, utilizing all the product development skills he honed as a part of the Option Snowboards pro team.

Hockenstein photo.

Kevin was born a stone's throw away from Mount Seymour, in North Vancouver, BC, and was sliding sideways on it by age 14 when snowboarding was first introduced to the masses. Snowboarding occupied all of his thoughts and energy for years to come as he moved up the ranks from shop rat for Deep Cove Snowboards to pro snowboarder for Santa Cruz and eventually Option. While with Option, Kevin had no less than nine pro models and was intensely involved with design and production methods on all of them, learning a ton about snowboard manufacturing in the process. When he wasn't in the factory figuring out the perfect epoxy mixture, Kevin was on the hill progressing his riding, not to mention snowboarding as a whole. As a virtual unknown he won the Westbeach Classic in 1998, solidifying himself as a legitimate pro. One of the first to master the backside rodeo, he threw it down switch to earn himself X Games gold in big air in 1999, beating out Peter Line and Kevin Jones in the process. He kept his winning streak alive by taking the Westbeach Classic big air again in 2000.

He and some legends of the North Shore formed the Seymour Kids, or Skids, posse in the early ‘90s. Eventually Kevin bought a video camera and the Skids started filming each other, and within a few years he released the first Skids movie. Only 500 copies of the first installment were made and were distributed as a freebie. Soon after, a knee injury sidelined Kevin and he put together Skids 2, which included 16mm footage and proved the Skids were here to stay. The Skids series evolved into Sandbox, which is now the premiere video showcasing up-and-coming Canadian shred talent along with established pros.

He always seems to have an angle, no matter what he gets up too. Kevin is as sharp as a tack and intuitive to boot. His line-up of entrepreneurial endeavors right now consists of Sandbox Films, Sandbox Helmets and Whitegold Snowboards. He has been a driving force in snowboarding since it's inception and continues to evolve and progress the industry as he sees fit. His hard work and resiliency have helped shape the Canadian snowboarding scene as we know it today. Not to mention, on top of everything, the man is still showing his Sandbox crew, 15 years his junior, how to get it done in the backcountry! Kevin Sansalone is a machine.

We're six legends deep with only one more to go. Review Dennis Bannock, Shin Campos, Martin Gallant, Kale Stephens and skaters Barry Walsh and Paul Machnau. There will be a test. Or not.

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