Mark Gonzales: Your Favorite Skateboarder’s Favorite Skateboarder
Mark Gonzales, also known as "GONZ", is an American professional skateboarder and artist. He is known as a pioneer of modern street skateboarding and was named the "Most Influential Skateboarder of All Time" by Transworld Skateboarding magazine. Sem Rubio cut his teeth as an artist by becoming one of the world’s foremost skateboard photographers. He is based in Blanes, Catalunya. Hiroshi Fujiwara is a Japanese musician, producer, and designer. Tom Sachs is an American contemporary artist. Gus Van Sant is an award-winning American filmmaker.
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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".
