23 Facts About Mark Gonzales

Mark Gonzales' pioneering influence on skateboarding has caused him to be known as the "God Father" of modern street skateboarding, and he was named the "Most Influential Skateboarder of All Time" by Transworld Skateboarding magazine in December 2011, where Mark Gonzales was placed ahead of Tony Hawk and Rodney Mullen.

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

Mark Gonzales entered the skateboarding scene at the age of thirteen in South Gate, California, US At the age of fifteen, Mark Gonzales would come in to contact with Tommy Guerrero and Natas Kaupas who were developing their own styles of progressive street skating.

Mark Gonzales began pioneering a modern, innovative approach to skateboarding in a street context His street skating actives included taking freestyle and vert tricks and employing them in a street context, developments which would end up causing Mark Gonzales to be credited as one of the inventors of street skateboarding.

Mark Gonzales 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".

Shortly after his Thrasher magazine cover, Mark Gonzales then joined the Vision skateboard team and entered his first contest as a professional in May 1985 at the 'Sacto Streetstyle Contest' held in Sacramento, California.

In 1989, Mark Gonzales left Vision and co-founded Blind Skateboards with Steve Rocco.

Mark Gonzales name was chosen as a slight on his former employer, Vision.

Mark Gonzales proceeded to further influence the progression of street skateboarding with the 1991 Blind Skateboards video Video Days Directed by Spike Jonze, Video Days is often credited as the most important skate video of all time.

Whilst at Blind Mark Gonzales designed the original Blind Skateboards logo which is still used today.

Mark Gonzales would leave Blind in 1993, after experiencing frustrations that were similar to his time with Vision.

In 1993, Mark Gonzales created controversy after he appropriated a Vision design that was used for one of his signature model boards for an ATM Click design; Mark Gonzales then proceeded to use the graphic for Real and Krooked signature skateboard models following his move to Deluxe Distribution.

Under the Deluxe Distribution company, Mark 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, Mark 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, Mark Gonzales appeared in the skateboarding video game EA Skate and filmed a commercial to promote the game's release.

Mark Gonzales was the first person to ollie the Wallenberg Set, a four-block, nineteen feet-long, four feet-tall gap in San Francisco, California, US.

In 2006 Mark Gonzales was awarded the Legend Award by Transworld Skateboarding, and the magazine selected him as the most influential skateboarder of all time in December 2011.

Mark Gonzales is currently represented by Parrasch Heijnen Galley In Los Angeles.

Mark 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 the Stadtisches Museum, but was edited for the purpose of the music video with Mark Gonzales' permission.

Mark Gonzales directed and appears in the Coconut Records music video "Any Fun", alongside actress Chloe Sevigny and skateboarder Alex Olson.

Mark Gonzales's published body of work includes Social Problems, High Tech Poetry, Broken Dreams, and Broken Poems.

In 2011, Mark Gonzales designed and painted the London Flagship Supreme Store.

Mark Gonzales has designed sculptures and paintings for Supreme's retail locations in New York, San Francisco, London, Paris, Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka.