I started riding in 1996. I was first exposed the the sport by my best friend Justin Pipper. He lent me his XT board (over sized skate board with huge rubber wheels) and it was love at first ride. He and I started riding off road and not to long after we had our first sponsor, "Stinky's Scooter Shop". In the summer of 1998 Justin and I competed in our first event and the second in US sport history, The MBS Dirt Duel II.

The following year Justin moved to Hawaii and Stinky's went out of business. My skills had progressed to the point I felt confident about approaching Utah's CORE shop, "Salty Peaks". Soon after I was the first dirt board rider to ever be sponsored by Salty Peaks. The next year I started the Salty Peaks L2R program. The program was slow going at first but with hard work and a few years I finaly found the true CORE riders in Utah. We established the world's first shop team and have put more then 1400 people on boards and counting.

-Van DeWitt "Live, Ride, Thrive!"