An unexpected move from Dak.

By: Brian Tunney

Dakota Roche in a Lotek ad from Last year

According to Lotek's Rich Hirsch, long time team member Dakota Roche has left the team. In a statement from Rich, he said, "Dakota Roche is moving on to bigger things and parting ways with the Lotek family. Good luck homie and thanks for the support over the years."

At the present time, we've had no word back from Dakota about the nature of the split, or where he might be headed. But as soon as we hear back from Dak, we'll spread the word. In the meantime, go snatch up any and all Dakota Roche signature Loteks you can find.

Update: Dakota just Twittered the following: "Incase you all are wondering:" with a photo of a Vans sticker on his downtube. So it looks like Dak has a new shoe sponsor, and that sponsor is Vans.

Second update: Through the magic of Twitter, I was able to get Dakota on the phone for a statement about the sponsor switch, and here's what he had to say:

How did the switch to Vans come about?
Actually, Josh Harrington, Chase Hawk and a couple other dudes put in a good word for me over at Vans, and [Jerry] Badders (Vans BMX TM) confronted me not too long ago about possibly doing something, and the deal seemed really sweet. It was more traveling than I was going to do with Lotek. A lot of overseas stuff, so it just seemed like a good opportunity to travel more and go on some trips with my friends. I'm psyched. I came into the Vans office with my friend, and Vans hooked him up just for being with me. Plus they have a ramp I can ride whenever I want that's only ten minutes from my house, so it's a good fit.