"In the mid 80's, street skateboarding became it's own discipline, the first contests were termed "Streetstyle". Specialists like Tommy Guerrero and Mark Gonzales, although they skated everything, became known as the first street pros. It was at this event in Oceanside, California, in 1985, when the world was starting to take notice of this new phenomenon.

We asked The Gonz, before he went on to win the event, what defines street skating?

Footage: NSA Music: Aimless Devices "Hard To Be Nice" (1985), The Second Coming "The Return" (1985)"

Courtesy of Real Skate Stories

"Yeah, Mark was definitely one of the main one's with the juice in this period. He was just naturally progressing the whole of skateboarding (streetstyle wise) based on his youthful instincts and great style/board control (for example, look how stylish and innovative his shifty tweak was on the boneless off the ramp). I don't think he was consciously aware of how influential what he was doing was and would become (and why he is called in many circles one of the fathers of modern street skating)—he was just out there doing what made sense to him.

What really made an impression on me was (besides the application of the kickflip to streetskating) was that he was one of the first ones elaborating on the possibilities of the backside ollie on street (i think it was a contest a year or 2 after this one and there is also VHS of it)- he was doing 90 degree backside ollies up to a ledge about 1.5 to 2 feet high at the contest to 50/50 an pivot stall- which was mind-blowing at the time (if you knew what was up)- I think on some levels it is comparable in magnitude of significance to Natas Kaupas' very first boardslide attempt at a contest in 1986 Oceanside."

"Super cool footage.... When this went down I rode a JFA Don Redondo Lincoln with four times the concave of these Powells and Hosoi's , my buddies all rode those decks but big concave was blowing up and it was underground.... cool video"

"so interesting to see, how outstanding Mark Gonzales already was, back in 85. He had more trick-variety, flow, consistency and speed than the other competitors."