Landyachtz started in the fall of 1997 when Michael Perreten and Thomas Edstrand met up at the University of Victoria. They had been friends and skated together in elementary school but had not seen each other in years. Growing up on the Northshore of Vancouver they were exposed to skating steep hills at a very young age. When they ran into each other, Mike was riding a sweet 40" fiber-glassed board he had made to get around campus. Mike had been living in Whistler and had made some boards in his spare time. Tom had recently been down in California and seen some longboards and wanted to ride one at first site. He was tempted to buy one but thought he could make one instead. Tom was one of those kids that was always drawing and really into art. Mike was very handy and good at building things. They decided to team up and started making some personal rides in Tom's basement. You wouldn't believe how much time went into some of the first boards they made.