MEET THE NIERATKOS: A BLOW JAY FOR THE GONZ

Kοινοποίηση

If you’re a skateboarder you love Mark Gonzales. It’s that simple. It’s the rule. It’s written on a piece of paper at every skateshop around the globe and you have to sign it before they sell you your first board.

For older guys, like me, it’s obvious where the love stems from. If it wasn’t for The Gonz we probably wouldn’t have gotten to where we’re at as quickly as we did. Sure, some other guy would’ve come along and started doing double set kinked rails and lines flying through traffic, but they wouldn’t have looked as good doing it. Or had nearly as much fun as Mark. Mark Gonzales insisted that we always put the premium on style first, tricks second. In 2011, Many guys can nollie flip nosegrind a handrail with robotic precision, but still make a basic back tail look like dog shit. Mark can make a front board look like the greatest trick ever invented.

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As for young kids, some have no idea why they love Mark Gonzales, but they still do. It’s instinctive, inherent. They see a crazy man punching the sky, goofing around, trying to kickflip a bike, and without any understanding of history they feel the energy The Gonz emits. For that they love him. We all love him. There is no one in the world like him, nor will there ever be again. He is the one and only Gonz. (I recently had to correct a sales rep that referred to a different Gonzales as The Gonz. Read about it HERE.)

Video Days

At NJ Skateshop, my partner and I like to do collaborations with skateboard brands. Not with Swiss Army Knives or bicycle pump manufacturers or mountain climbing jacket makers. We’re skaters; we do projects with skaters. And we’ve done quite a few fun ones over the years with Enjoi, Creature, Stereo, Anti Hero and a bunch of others. But the two most recent ones really hold a special place in our hearts.

The Real New Jersey deck is clean and simple, but the weight of it comes in those four little letters, R-E-A-L. Their recent video, Since Day One, is a not-so-subtle reminder why the brand has and will stand the test of time.

After nearly 8 years in business, the Krooked NJ Skateshop board might be the thing we’re most proud of. We’re honored to have Gonz even write out our name. There were only 60 made and I almost don’t want people to skate them; they mean that much to us.

I’m not sure if you’re aware of the process through which Krooked things are made, but basically it’s up to OG Tommy Guerrero to make sense of all the madness. He receives faxes upon faxes of doodles and drawings from Mark (sometimes detailed drawings, sometimes just a Shmoo or a flower on a page) and takes them all and pieces them together and colors them to make the images we see and know on Krooked decks and tees. It’s a pretty impress collaborative process.

The Gonz has a lot of ties to New Jersey. Throughout the Vision and early Blind days he came to Jersey a number of times for contests and demos and even lived in New Brunswick for a short stint. I had hoped to interview him for this piece and ask him about his memories of New Jersey, but Tommy told me he was MIA somewhere in Europe and there was no way to get a hold of him. So instead I offer you some never before seen Jersey demo photos of The Gonz from the Fall of 1985 and Summer of 1986 taken by Pepe Torres and Howard Horowitz, provided by Derek Rinaldi of Skate Daily.

I’d like to thank Mark, Tommy, and Jim Thiebaud for making these decks happen for us. It’s a real dream come true for a couple skate nerds.

If you’d like to buy either deck or the tees go to NJ Skateshop.

CHRIS NIERATKO

For more stupid go to chrisnieratko.com or NJskateshop.com.