Mark Gonzales

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Mark Andrew Gonzales (born June 1, 1968 in South Gate , California ), also known as The Gonz , is an American skateboarder and artist. He is known in the skateboarding scene as a pioneer of street skating .

Career as a skateboarder

Gonzales came into contact with the skateboarding scene at the age of 13. He had a new, completely different approach to street skating at the time, which earned him a cover photo in Thrasher magazine in November 1984 . At that time it was sponsored by the Alva Skateboards company . His next sponsor was Vision Skateboards.

In 1986 Gonzales was the first skateboarder to use Ollie to overcome a large gap. This Ollie happened in San Francisco , at what was then Embacadero Plaza. In one fell swoop, this place became an insider tip for skateboarders, and the steps soon became known as the "Gonz Gap". In the same year Gonzales also succeeded in skating the first handrails with the skater Natas Kaupas . Another milestone for Gonzales was to skate "switch stance", which means riding in the opposite foot position.

In 1991 Gonzales sparked another wave of modernization in skateboarding. The basis for this hype at the time was the skateboard video Video Days , which he published with his company Blind Skateboards, which he founded in 1989.

In 1993 Gonzales was the first skater to kickflip the Gonz Gap at Embacaderos .

Mark Gonzales is still an active skateboarder today.

Career as an artist

In parallel to skateboarding, Mark Gonzales also began to draw and paint. His work has been exhibited in the Alleged Gallery and the Hournal Gallery (here together with skateboard pioneer Christian Hosoi) in New York. Gonzales also creates designs for the Gonz Country clothing line available in Japan.

Gonzales has appeared in a few films. He wrote stories that were published in Thrasher Magazine and published the book Broken Poems .

In 2007 Gonzales produced the skateboard video Gnar Gnar . It was filmed entirely in the old VHS format. The video was limited to 1000 VHS video cassettes.

honors and awards

  • 2006 "Legend Award" from Transworld Skateboarding Magazine

Filmography

actor
  • 1991: Video Days
  • 1997: Gummo
  • 1997: How They Get There
  • 2001: Southlander: Diary of a Desperate Musician
  • 2014: Atlas Electric (TV movie)
script
  • 1997: How They Get There

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Mark Gonzales. In: Kingpin Magazine. Retrieved April 25, 2020 (American English).
personal data
SURNAME Gonzales, Mark
ALTERNATIVE NAMES The Gonz; Gonzales, Mark Andrew (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American skateboarder and artist
DATE OF BIRTH June 1, 1968
PLACE OF BIRTH South Gate , California