Van Styles ran a skateboarding camp in Northridge in the summer of 2001. Now he is an in-house director for Video Team and co-owns DeeVa Productions with popular Puerto Rican starlet Dee.
"He is a significant part of the new direction Video Team is going in," Video Team owner Christian Mann told AVN.com Friday. "We are exploring the gonzo market from a different perspective."
The former professional skateboarder met Mann because Mann's kids were among his skateboarding students. The next thing Styles knew he was co-producing Video Team's Skate Trixx line, which was well received and picked up by Playboy. Then Mann gave him a shot to produce and direct Mamacitas and the relationship grew from there.
"He brought with him a sensibility with the demographic we were going after," Mann said.
Styles for the past several months has assisted Mann with Video Team's Internet division, artwork and production. The Video Team boss said Styles' "willingness to learn and desire to educate himself" has been commendable.
"He has an older person's mentality and a younger person's enthusiasm," Mann said. "He is directing exclusively for us, two projects a month."
Mann explained that Video Team is in the process of redefining itself.
"We decided in the fall to make some significant changes to our production direction in response to a changing market," he said, noting the AfroCentric line is undergoing an overhaul. "There is a lot of competition in the ethnic market. It's not acceptable to just rest on your laurels. Either you grow or you go."
And Video Team's commitment to the 22-year-old Styles is a key part of the transition.
"My plan is basically to help reinvent Video Team, help them reach a younger market of porn watchers," Styles told AVN.com Friday.
Styles, who was born in New York and moved to Chatsworth 12 years ago, said he didn't know anyone in the industry except Mann before getting into it. He also had never done any adult video work, but had shot some skateboarding videos. But with some of his initial earnings, Styles enrolled in film classes at UCLA, taking Digital Media among other courses.
"I wanted to develop my skills more and more, broaden my horizons," he said.
"He's a very serious, business-minded guy," Mann added.
In addition to the Mamacitas line, Styles' DeeVa Productions produces Chocolate Cream Pies - Video Team's first internal line - and is developing I Like it Black and Deep in My Ass and Chicks with Kicks.
His upcoming titles include Mamacitas 2(April 10), Chocolate Cream Pies 2 (April 17) and No Man's Land Latin Edition 3 (May 8), all of which are date-in-date releases that he directed and Dee produced.
Mann reports that Chocolate Cream Pies 1 "is selling briskly, better than expected."
Styles, who has 10 years of skateboarding experience and is an avid hip-hop music fan, competed in numerous contests and toured as a sponsored skater for five years. He still skates recreationally and Grind King continues to supply him with product. He said he appreciates Mann's belief in him and adds that it doesn't really seem like work with Mann.
"I always just saw him as a friend," Styles said.
When it comes to shooting, he said his approach is simple: "Make sex as real as it can be."
