Transworld Skateboarding’s 30 Year Anniversary issue will hit newsstands on 20 December 2011. In celebration of the magazine’s anniversary, the staff at TWS compiled a list of the 30 most influential skateboarders of all time. The issue will feature highlights and interviews of the chosen 30.
TWS has only released one name of the 30 to the public, and that name is San Francisco’s own, Mark Gonzales. Also known as “The Gonz,” he unanimously won the title as the most influential skateboarder of all time and will have his portrait, shot by Brain Gaberman and tweaked by Shepard Fairey, on this month’s anniversary cover.
“The Gonz embodies the sheer essence of skateboarding, and we wouldn’t be the same without him,” wrote TWS in a press release for the issue. A commenter, Ty13x13, to the press release put it more simply: “Gonz is to skateboarding what Jesus is to Christianity.”
Born 1 June 1969, Gonzales broke into the skate scene in a big way by landing the cover of Thrasher’s November 1984 issue at only 15. Shortly after he went pro for Vision Skateboards, a company he chose, according to Kevin Craft at Skateboarder Magazine, because he “liked those animal-print boards. They had the zebra skin, the crocodile skin and the alligator skin.” He thought those were, “dynamite.”
His biggest contribution to skateboarding was taking the skateboard to the streets. Before Gonzales started bombing down hills around cars in San Francisco, boardsliding handrails, pulling off double kickflips, and skating switch-stance, most professional skateboarders were skating vert – half-pipes, empty pools, and other inclined obstacles. But by the time Gonzales and Blind Skateboards - a company he created with Steve Rocco – released Video Days in 1991, vert skating was a thing of the past. Everyone wanted to skate street like The Gonz.
His most legendary feat took place in the summer of 1986. He was skating at San Francisco’s Embarcadero and did an ollie over a gap – now forever known as the “Gonz Gap” - so enormous that it forced skateboarders around the country to see the unlimited possibilities of street skateboarding, paving the way for the future and skateboarding as we know it today.
Eventually Gonzales kick-flipped the Gonz Gap, started riding for Real Skateboards, and then in 2002 launched Krooked Skateboards through San Francisco’s Deluxe Distribution. He does all the art for Krooked, and everyone from Donald Trump to P-Diddy collects his originals.
His latest achievement – TWS electing him as the most influential skateboarder of all time – triggered a Dec 1 launch party with the biggest names in the Skateboard industry attending and celebrating The Gonz, his contributions, and his life. Transworld Skateboarding’s 30 Year Anniversary issue is expected to set record sales.
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