Matt Hunter

I was born in Kamloops, British Columbia in 1983. Singletrack zigzags through the hills behind my parents' house; bikes were freedom. I explored the hills and trails wherever and whenever I could. I was 12 when I got into XC racing. I was really into it until I was about 15, when I started focusing more on DH riding. Some of my friends who I raced with made the same transition, and we started to learn together. We started building big jumps and aggressive trails. We filmed ourselves riding and I made a short video. I entered the video in an online contest, the "Ultimate Freeride Challenge" and ended up winning. That was the beginning of my sponsored career in 2003. Specialized sponsored me then and I have been with Specialized ever since.

My focus has always been shooting photos and filming video segments, that is what I love to do. I really enjoy finding adventure in the mountains - whether it be challenging moves and airs or maybe it's a multiple day ride.

I like watching big mountain skiers and snowboarders, the way they shred the mountains in the snow inspires me on dirt. Besides riding, I surf, fish, and backcountry skias much as I can.

Sponsors: Specialized, Shimano, Adidas Eyewear, Dakine, Chromag, MRP.

We make bike movies!

December 16, 2009

Those big dark clouds finally dumped their water and took off. The dirt on my lines got a nice watering, and the light got good. For the riders and film crew of Follow Me, it was time for action.

I have mostly been riding my Demo 7 on this shoot, but today I pulled out my SX trail because I had a scrub jump to shoot that the SX would be better for. It was a technical run in; a tight right corner into a drop, then about 15 metres to pedal before the jump popped me up and over a ridge of dirt. I was hoping to crest the ridge flying very low and flat, but the move proved to be a pretty technical one. It took me about 10 tries before I was able to get the speed I needed. Once I slipped a pedal on the takeoff and lost my bike in the air, I did a couple backwards cartwheels down the landing but I shook the dirt out of my helmet and I was OK.

Eventually I was able to get the motion I wanted. As I was on the jump I would dump my weight to the right and start my corner as I was taking off, then fly over the ridge and land carving down the landing. It sure was fun to do, I don’t know if it showed up well on film- but I definitely had a good time.

That evening I went for a shred on my Enduro. As I was heading back down to the camp where an ice cold Pacifico was waiting, I did a little drift through a soft left turn and the ocean came into view. It sure is sick to be able to go to Mexico and ride.

Stoked!

Hunter

Stats for Matt Hunter are coming soon.