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MARK GONZALES: Most CREATIVE SKATER to Ever Step on a Board?

Skate Rewind

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Mark Gonzales "The Gonz" is one of the key figures in the history of skateboarding.

This video explores how skateboarding evolved from vertical ramps to the streets, and how skaters like Gonz helped define modern street skating through creativity, adaptability, and the use of urban environments.

From early Dogtown influence to the rise of street skating in the 1980s and 1990s, this is a look at how skate culture changed and how new tricks, styles, and perspectives emerged.

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🧱 Footage & Archival Sources:

Mark Gonzales’ Street Phantom - Krooked Skateboarding - 2019
Krooked "Pure Evil Beemer" Skateboard by Mark Gonzales - 2017
Mark Gonzales - Real To Reel - 2001
Mark Gonzales - Real Skateboards Non Fiction - 1997
Krooked Kronichles : Mark Gonzales - 2015
Mark Gonzales, Oceanside '85 Streetstyle Old School Skateboard Competition - Skateboard Stickers Store
Video Days - directed by Spike Jonz - 1991
Sick Boys - Mack Dawg Productions 1988
Mark Gonzales - Hello - 2001

Some archival skate footage used in this video was sourced from publicly available material online and is included for documentary and illustrative purposes. If you are the owner of any content and would like proper credit or removal, please contact me and I will address it promptly.

All rights belong to their respective owners.

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20 Comments

@trent1984 5 months ago

My mom took art classes at the local technical college, and one of her classmates said his favorite artist was Mark Gonzalez, I said he's one of my favorite skaters, he didn't even know the Gonz was a pro skater 😂😂😂

@mattimaranda9638 5 months ago

I like in the movie KIDS when everyone is in the apartment getting high/watching Blind Video Days... they mention how dope this video is and give a shout out to The Gonz as he boardslides the double kink...

Classic.

@jaedo6180 5 months ago

my first board was a vision gonz.

@WilliamJ-o1x 5 months ago

Still have my Gonz bought in Huntington in 86, went all over Europe twice.

@marvinshenk 5 months ago

I lived in SF from 98-2002, and I'd run into Gonz now and then. Got to go skating with him for a couple hours one night in 99 in the financial district. One of my favorite memories ever. There is no controversy. Gonz rules! For me, and most would agree, the skaters that really molded what street skating was going to become are Natas Kaupas, Mark Gonzales, Mike Vallely, Tommy Guerrero, and Rodney Mullen. Mullen still skated freestyle boards up until the World Industries video Rubbish Heap in 91 or so, but street skaters were watching and stealing his tricks and using them on bigger boards in the streets for years before that. Rodney Mullen was like Black Sabbath was to Slayer, Metallica, Megadeth, etc.

@MrJones-qk4nh 5 months ago

Video dazs is a classic. I have no recollection of thecdarkslide in that vid though. Coulda sworn that was a few years later. Wild.

@FamilyFarmCrook 5 months ago

Thank you for the video brother.
Thank you Gonz for skating London back in the day. 180 to fakie 50 50 down the shell centre handrail is monumentous. The first to ollie meanwhile gap. I heard about that in my crew and we could not see it at the time until we saw it on the video. And seeing a complete section riding in London had so much respect.
I rode a couple of Gonz decks, I even cleaned the graphics off one and drew my own.
Goofy foot skaters are the best.

@OverEducatedsp 5 months ago

Gonz had Vision.

@thomaszonkowski2115 5 months ago

Eric Dressen has entered the chat

@galagajunkie 5 months ago

@4:19, look at how small those wheels are! That really brings me back.

@mindtrapped9934 5 months ago

Such a good video. I beg you don’t do click bait. This channel is the only one making this kind of content

@caseylewis2835 5 months ago (edited)

Not only is he possibly the most creative skateboarder of all time, he is definitely the coolest skater to sit and talk with or hang out with. Dude to straight hilarious

@stevenredlon4544 5 months ago

Rodney is incredible but back in the 80's he was in the genre labeled freestyle although in my opinion freestyle was the truest form of street skating because there were no launch ramps or other man made obstacles, freestyle was creating amazing tricks on flat ground, no aid from ramps, slide rails, or anything like that. I was a street skater back in the 80's and really didn't stop until maybe 2020. As I aged I did sidewalk surfing, I was getting too old for tricks. Mark Gonzales and Tommy Guerrero were the guys I looked up to because street skating was all we really had in small town New York unless we went into the city and rode the Brooklyn banks but even that's still street. The Gonz is awesome, he was a true gift to skateboarding and just like Mullen, Natas, and Guerrero, Mark also inspired many of us to skate street.

@TheBlister69 5 months ago

Gonz pioneered street skating and had that Powell street part that blew all of our minds. Seeing someone Ollie like that back then was unheard of.
He’s a skate God. %100.
These guys will be gone someday and part of history

@gloriahancock8358 5 months ago (edited)

Gotta give props to Mullen and Gonz Natas Guerrero for taking it to the streets!!

@anthonygonzalez554 5 months ago

South Gate in the house!
The Gonz is the man 🎉 best ever.

@donuts7627 5 months ago

I remeber as a kid being these guys and Ray Barbee in video clips and being inspired to try anything. They were particularly inspirational for someone growing up in a recession driven Ireland where a combination of awful weather and a lack of good street architecture meant having to adapt random walls and slopes to skate. We had no ramps or parks so a park bench and a driveway slope where gold dust and the Gonz, ray Barbee and off course Rodney mullen were the blueprint