He is one of the original Z-Boys and is well known in the skateboarding community as the one of the pioneers of the vert, or vertical, style of skateboarding, as an adaptation of typical surfing style.

At the age of 19, Peralta became the highest-ranked professional skateboarder. Soon after, he joined with manufacturer George Powell to form the Powell-Peralta skate gear company. With the financial backing of Powell-Peralta, Peralta formed the seminal Bones Brigade, a skate team comprised of some the best skaters at the time, many of whom revolutionized modern skateboarding. He also began directing and producing the first skating demo videos for skaters such as Tony Hawk. The videos he directed for Powell-Peralta were partly responsible for the third skateboarding boom and are widely regarded as some of the best skateboarding videos ever made.

In 1992, Peralta left Powell-Peralta to direct and produce for television full-time. His still-lingering love of the board manifested itself in the film, Dogtown and Z-Boys, an autobiographical documentary film regarding his early days as a skateboarder, and Riding Giants, a 2004 documentary of the history of modern big wave surfing and tow-in surfing. Dogtown won an award at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. Peralta also wrote the screenplay for the dramatic retelling of the Dogtown days in Lords of Dogtown (2005).

Peralta's experience as an entrepreneur and skate demo filmmaker was adapted for the video game Tony Hawk's Underground; Peralta played himself in the game.