Richard G. Ditlevsen is an American stunt performer, television producer, and media entrepreneur. He became known for jet-ski stunts and reported world records, later producing television programming and founding the Extreme Sports Television Network. His career also included advertising, digital media, and sports broadcasting ventures.
Background
Richard G. Ditlevsen was born on July 13, 1957, in Sacramento, California. Sacramento's location in California's Central Valley and its long association with the Sacramento River provided a setting in which boating and water-based public events formed part of the region's civic and recreational life.
Ditlevsen later used the professional name Ricky D. His early adult activities combined physical performance, bodybuilding, public spectacle, and media work, eventually connecting local water-sport events with national tabloid photography and television production.
Education
Ditlevsen attended Cosumnes River College in Sacramento County during 1975 and 1976. The community college, established to provide accessible higher education for the Sacramento region, offered vocational and academic study to students preparing for employment or further education.
His documented career, rather than a completed university degree, became the principal setting for his professional development. Work in stunt performance, advertising, television production, and media distribution brought together physical performance and commercial entertainment.
Career
Ditlevsen began his public career as a stunt performer. In July 1984, he set a reported jet-ski record by leaping over ten boats at the Sacramento Water Festival, an event that helped bring his work to wider public attention. He subsequently developed a long association with the National Enquirer and worked with chief photo editor Bill Graham for approximately fifteen years. His stunts appeared in two-page centerfolds and syndicated print features in the National Enquirer, National Examiner, Star, and other publications.
Among the stunts associated with Ditlevsen were a jet-ski passage through the hull of a large riverboat and a jump through multiple walls of flaming boards positioned more than 120 feet above a river. The performances combined specialized watercraft, protective equipment, ramps, fire effects, and photographic staging for tabloid and entertainment audiences. Sources associated with his career describe him as having established dozens of world records, with the baseline biography crediting him with 39 records and stating that he continued to hold 35 of them.
During the early 1990s, Ditlevsen moved increasingly into business, advertising, and television production. He founded Global Entertainment and Media Group in 1991 and later produced more than 750 television programs, according to biographical accounts associated with his career. He also founded V-Pix Media, a digital-media and automotive advertising venture that used visual placement and marketing techniques in national and international trade advertising.
Ditlevsen founded the Extreme Sports Television Network, commonly known as ESN, in the late 1990s and later organized its national distribution through Triple Action Entertainment. ESN developed programming centered on extreme sports and was associated with carriage arrangements involving Comcast and Dish Network. In 2009, Ditlevsen was described as chief executive officer and founder while negotiating a development arrangement for national distribution; later accounts associated with the network claimed a leading sports-network market share in a Nielsen-rated comparison.
In the 2010s and later, Ditlevsen's documented business interests included media, marketing, writing, racing, and fire-suppression technology. He was also associated with No Fire Technology, a company developing fire-protection products. These later activities extended his earlier combination of stunt performance, visual media, commercial promotion, and television entrepreneurship.
