Background and career
Mark Gonzales (born June 1, 1968), also known as "Gonz", "the Gonz", and "the Godfather", is an American professional skateboarder and artist. A pioneer in the development of modern street skating, he is considered one of the first street-style skateboarders alongside Natas Kaupas. Gonzales and Kaupas are also credited with the first known boardslides on a handrail. 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 Gonzales was placed ahead of Tony Hawk (2nd) and Rodney Mullen (3rd).
Gonzales was born in South Gate, California, and is of Irish and Mexican descent. Gonzales's first time ever skating was with his cousin's board at the age of 8.
Gonzales entered the skateboarding scene at the age of thirteen in South Gate, California, U.S. At the age of fifteen, Gonzales would come in to contact with Tommy Guerrero and Natas Kaupas who were developing their own styles of progressive street skating. Gonzales began pioneering a modern, innovative approach to skateboarding in a street context (subsequently dubbed "street skateboarding") His street skating actives included taking freestyle and vert tricks and employing them in a street context, developments which would end up causing Gonzales to be credited as one of the inventors of 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".
Shortly after his Thrasher magazine cover, 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. Soon after turning pro, Gonzalez won the 1985 NSA Sure-Grip Beach Style contest held adjacent to the pier in Oceanside, California.
In 1989, Gonzales left Vision and co-founded Blind Skateboards with Steve Rocco. The company name was chosen as a slight on his former employer, Vision. 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. Starring Gonzales alongside Rudy Johnson, Jason Lee, Guy Mariano and Jordan Richter, Video Days paved the way for modern street skateboarding. Whilst at Blind, Gonzales also designed the original Blind Skateboards logo which is still used today. Gonzales would leave Blind in 1993, after experiencing frustrations that were similar to his time with Vision. Gonzales then started another company called ATM Click and followed it with a venture with Ron Chatman called 60/40 who sponsored future Menace skaters Fabian Alomar and Joey Suriel. In 1993, Gonzales created controversy after he appropriated a Vision design that was used for one of his signature model boards for an ATM Click design; Gonzales then proceeded to also use the graphic for Real and Krooked signature skateboard models following his move to Deluxe Distribution.
Under the Deluxe Distribution company, 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, 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, Gonzales appeared in the skateboarding video game EA Skate and filmed a commercial to promote the game's release.
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth (October 2026), in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
