The late Jake Phelps narrating his footage of Mark Gonzales going back and kickflipping The Gonz Channel in 1993. I called it The Gonz Gap when I posted it this morning. Thank you to Maurice Meyer, for letting me know this was called The Gonz Channel back in the day. I totally forgot the word "gap" didn't really come into use until the 90's, I think. This gap at the Embarcadero got its name in 1986, when Mark first ollied it.
This Crazy California 43 blog started when a few ideas bouncing around my head began to merge. Since I've been back in Southern California, I've had the urge to get out and go see some old bike and skate spots, and maybe shoot photos or video of them, and tell their story. I've kind of been held down by outside forces for 20 years now, and I just want to jump in a car and go wander, explore, check out random parts of California, and see what cool stuff I can find. Then the thought came that I could blend these basic ideas, and throw in some mainstream and tourist spots that are interesting, and dig into the stories of those places as well, all in one blog.
Over the last month, the idea blossomed, and morphed into an idea about physical locations, places, and the stories behind them that made them noteworthy. Then there are other places that are just cool to go see in general, like the redwoods, or San Diego Zoo, stuff like that. Places that are fun to just wander around, see what they have to offer, and shoot some photos and/or video.
Digging into these general ideas in my journal, the concept of how an obscure urban location becomes a world famous skate or bike (or other action sport) spot kept popping up. In the world of skates and BMX, there are curbs, banks, sets of stairs, walls, and other urban locations that become famous worldwide. They were built just as utilitarian things, like an asphalt embankment next to a wall when a building is on a hill, or r a set of stairs at a school or park. But when a top BMXers of skater does a trick on them, or over them, and it's captured in photos of video, that utilitarian object can become famous in our subcultures around the world. And people will travel, sometimes from other countries, to ride that wall, or ollie down those stairs.
Thinking about this weird concept, The Gonz Gap at the old Embarcadero in San Francisco was the first street spot to pop into my head. I looked up the story yesterday, and then found the clip above of several skaters at EMB, and then Mark Gonzales nailing the kickflip over the gap. This ESPN article tells the history.
In 1986, when street skating, as a "thing" was about two years old, Thrasher photographer MoFo went to the Embarcadero with Mark Gonzales, one of the main men (along with Natas Kaupas and Tommy Guerrero) pushing street skating early on. Gonz does some cool stuff, then MoFo points to this big gap, "Hey, how bout's trying that?" Mark said it was too crazy. Then Mofo lied and said some other kid had already ollied it, and maybe he should go shoot photos of that kid. Mark takes up the challenge, ollying a big, gnarly, technical gap far beyond anything done at the time. On the third try, he landed it. I heard it called "the ollie heard 'round the world" back then. Suddenly this weird urban park, with all these blocky, concrete ledges, becomes famous around the world to skateboarders, because of MoFo's photo sequence of Mark's ollie.
So we have an obscure urban park, designed for the people of S.F. by an architect. It turns out to be a fun place to skate, and ride bikes. I went there with the NorCal guys a few times myself when I lived up there. The Curb Dogs rode the Embarcadero a lot. Then we have Mark Gonzales, amazing and innovative skater. And we have MoFo lying to him to get a great sequence, a little human drama. When those things, and that published sequence of photos came together, this obscure place became legendary in the skate and BMX subcultures.
Then, people from all over start traveling to that spot, it became a skate and bike tourist attraction. After Mark kickflipped it in 1993, it became a proving ground for top skaters through the 1990's. If you could land a trick at The Gonz, you gained serious credibility in the street skating world. Us Old School guys have seen this happen over and over in 35 years since Mark Gonzales olllied this gap. The Embarcadero got torn down and rebuilt around 2000, but the story, photos, and video live on, and became part of the history of our subcultures. This whole idea intrigues me, and I'll be checking out, and writing about a lot more bike and skate spots, and other, much different places, as this blog continues. Enjoy.
The Gonz- Gonz kickflips it, Gino Ianucci backside flips it.
Curb Dog Dave Vanderspek with a 1-footed bunnyhop over The Gonz in 1987. (at 20:03)
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