Gary began skateboarding in 1975 and has been riding for 34 years! In the early years everyone, including Gary, was riding it all... banks, freestyle, slalom, backyard pools and skateparks.
In the late 70’s until 1984 Gary focused on Freestyle and discovered many tricks that others were later credited with.
Continuing to skate in the mid 80-90’s he was riding skate parks, ‘street-style’, pools and ditches.
In 2001 he renewed his enthusiasm for slalom racing and began competing on the National level taking several podium finishes.
In early 2004 with renewed enthusiasm for freestyle Gary began to practice heavily. This payed off as he was crowned the California State Champion in 2005. Then in 2007 Gary became the Masters World Champion & 360 Champion at the World Freestyle Skateboard Associations world Championship held in Vancouver Canada. In 2009, the WFSA inducted Gary in to is Freestyle Hall of Fame.
Gary is one of the best all-around skateboarders today and is proud of his philosophy on skateboarding and that philosophy is real simple, go out and ride and have fun.
Gary is most proud of his efforts working with the non-profit he founded, Board Rescue, which he volunteers his time graciously to. Board Rescue places skateboards and safety equipment in to organizations that work with underprivileged and at-risk youth.
Current Sponsors Include:
Click on any of them to visit their sites!
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SK8KINGS (manufacturer of the Gary Holl Pro Model) (contract) -
Etnies Shoes (Flow) -
FREESTYLE Watches (Contract) -
FREESTYLE Eyewear (Contract) -
Khiro (Flow) -
PowerBar (Contract, Team Elite) -
Pleasure Tool Bearings (Flow) -
Giro/Bell helmets (Flow) -
Go Pro digital Hero Cameras (Flow)
Actively seeking sponsors for the following:
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Clothing
Recent Contests Results:
1st- in all three races: ISSA World Record attempts, 25-50 & 100 cone slalom, Santa Cruz, Calif. Sept 2008. Set Masters World Record in the 25 Cone!
1st- World Freestyle Championship in Vancouver-Masters, 2007
1st -360’s WFSA World Championship in Vancouver, 2007
1st - Santa Barbara Ocean Festival, WFSA, CA State Champion, 2005
1st - NorCal Flatland Championship 2005
1st - NorCal 360 contest 2005
2nd - Game of SKATE NorCal Championship 2005
1st - WFSA Freestyle 2004 at SLO
1st - WFSA Game of SKATE 2004 at SLO
1st - WFSA 360 contest at SLO 2004
Recent Media Coverage:
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Concrete Wave Magazine Vol 8 #2, has coverage of the Editors trip to California, in the story Gary is mentioned and there are three separate photos of Gary. -
Concrete Wave Magazine Vol 7 #5 Spring 09, has coverage of gary in the Freestyle Report along with a photo of Gary, Also CW does a review on Gary’s SK8KINGS Pro Model. -
Concrete Wave Magazine, 2009 Buyers Guide, Shows Gary’s Deck in both color-ways. -
Concrete Wave Magazine, Vol7 #3, San Francisco Skate Jam coverage. Photo and name. -
Concrete Wave Magazine, Vol7 #1, Summer 08, Gary’s deck ad for SK8KINGS, Coverage for Board Rescue, and coverage in a story about collecting skateboard decks. -
Concrete Wave Magazine, 2008 Buyers Guide, Gary’s SK8KINGS deck in Mag. -
Skate and Annoy coverage of Santa Cruz skate class, March 2008 -
Concrete Wave Magazine,Vol.6#4,Gary in SK8KINGS ad. -
Concrete Wave,Vol 6 #3, World Freestyle Championship Coverage listing Gary -
Santa Cruz Parks & Rec Skatepark Class Nov 3, 2007 -
Fuel TV runs Show Me your ID commercial featuring Gary Holl (Aug 2007) -
Skatedaily.net Posted story and results of the World Championship in Vancouver (Aug 2007) -
PleasureTool Bearing ad in Concrete Wave Vol 5#5 Spring 2007 -
Silverfish poll on Who is/was the Greatest freestyle skateboarder (Feb 2007)...Gary wins! -
Santa Cruz Parks & Rec Slalom Class Sept 30, 2006 -
2006 ASR Demo, September 10, 2006 -
Concrete Wave, Vol 4, #4 Winter 2005 (on shelves April 2006), two page interview with full color photos, Interview can be viewed here or here. -
Silverfish Longboarding’s recent article on the SK8KINGS in store autograph session and demo can be viewed here. -
Skatedaily.net Gary was listed as the #1 “talented Skateboarders you may never have heard of” as part of SD Top Three. -
Gary’s online web forum is located here. -
WFSA Interview 2004 here.
Some photos on this page Courtesy of the following people:
Farid A. Abraham, Photographer
Judi Oyama
Wally Sueyoshi
Joe Weir