Mark Gonzales

Early life

Gonzales was born and raised in South Gate, California, United States and is of Mexican descent.

Professional skateboarding

Gonzales entered the skateboarding scene at the age of thirteen in South Gate, California, U.S. At the age of fifteen, as Tommy Guerrero and Natas Kaupas were developing their own styles of progressive street skating around the same time, Gonzales adopted a more modern, innovative approach to skateboarding in a street context (subsequently dubbed "street skateboarding"). He was featured on the cover of Thrasher magazine's November 1984 issue riding a board from the Alva company, his board sponsor at the time, while performing a trick known as a "beanplant".

Vision to ATM Click

Shortly after his Thrasher magazine cover, Gonzales then joined the Vision skateboard team and attained the status of a professional skateboarder. Gonzales won the 1985 Oceanside street contest while sponsored by Vision.

Gonzales proceeded to further influence the progression of street skateboarding with the 1991 Blind Skateboards video Video Days (a company he formed with Steve Rocco in 1989).

Gonzales left Blind after experiencing frustrations that were similar to his time with Vision and then started another company called ATM Click. In 1993, Gonzales created controversy after he appropriated a Vision design that was used for one of his signature model boards for an ATM Click design; Gonzales then proceeded to also use the graphic for Real and Krooked signature skateboard models following his move to Deluxe Distribution.

Deluxe Distribution

Under the Deluxe Distribution company, Gonzales skated for Real skateboards and appeared in three of the company's videos: Kicked Out of Everywhere, Non Fiction, and Real to Reel. In 2002, Gonzales then launched Krooked Skateboards in partnership with the Deluxe company and, as of February 2016, Krooked is an operational company that has released four full-length videos.

In 2007, Gonzales appeared in the skateboarding video game EA Skate and filmed a commercial to promote the game's release.

Sponsorship

As of 2013, Gonzales is sponsored by adidas, Krooked, Spitfire, Independent, and Supreme.

Influence

In the summer of 1986 Gonzales performed an ollie from one wall down to another platform at Embarcadero in San Francisco, U.S. and the obstacle had been known as the "Gonz Gap" since his completion of the trick; the trick also helped to popularize Embarcadero as a location for skateboarders to skateboard. Later that year, Gonzales - along with fellow progressive street skater Natas Kaupas - was the first person to skate handrails. Gonzales was also the first person to ollie the Wallenberg Set, a four-block, nineteen feet-long, four feet-tall gap in San Francisco, California, US.

In reference to the early era of street skateboarding, professional skateboarder Mike Vallely stated in a 2007 interview: "At the time, the best street skaters in the world were Mark Gonzales, Jesse Martinez, Tommy Guerrero, who all three were Mexican kids, and Natas Kaupas, who was a Lithuanian dude that lived at the beach in Santa Monica." In an interview for the Adidas website, Gonzales explained in reply to a question about his influence with the Blind company, "I wanted to work with my big brother doing construction—at the time I felt old, but had a young chick."

In 2006 Gonzales was awarded the Legend Award by Transworld Skateboarding. and the magazine selected him as the most influential skateboarder of all time (followed by Tony Hawk and Rodney Mullen) in December 2011.

Art and writing

London-based art curator Emma Reeves has explained in an introduction that she wrote for Interview magazine: "He makes art all the time, and he has been making art in some form or another for almost as long as he has been skateboarding. But it's rare to see an actual show of the work". An interview that Reeves completed with Gonzales is also published in Interview and he reveals that he likes creating "zines" the most, as "it is the most free thing to do". In 2008, Drag City released a book called The Collected Fanzines that consists of reproductions of old zines that he created together with director Harmony Korine.

Gonzales was featured in the music video for the song "West Coast" by Jason Schwartzman's band, Coconut Records; the music video featured a sequence that was originally filmed in 1998 at a German museum, but was edited for the purpose of the music video with Gonzales' permission. Gonzales also directed and appears in the Coconut Records music video "Any Fun", alongside actress Chloë Sevigny and skateboarder Alex Olson.

Gonzales is also a poet and author, and his published body of work includes Social Problems, High Tech Poetry, Broken Dreams, and Broken Poems. Gonzales has revealed that he is constantly writing poetry.

In 2011, Gonzales designed and painted the London Flagship Supreme (brand) Store. Gonzales (Also known to Supreme as “The Gonz” or “Gonz”) in the early times of the Store being open in New York (1994 and later) would send letters to the store entitled “Supream”. This lead to many collaborations with Gonzales and Supreme, with the latest being in the F/W 17 collection. It is rumoured that Gonzales has many more pieces lined up for the upcoming future.

Personal life

As of 2013, Gonzales resides with his wife and daughter in New York City, New York, U.S.

Filmography

The following is a list of films in which Gonzales appears:

Videography

Gonzales also appeared in the 29th part of the web series "7 Day Weekend", produced by professional skateboarder Dustin Dollin—in the episode the pair skateboard, drink beer and converse while in France.