Matt Hunter

Recent Matt Hunter Videos:
Matt Hunter's Gear:
  • http://www.specialized.com/us/en/bc/SBCBkFamily.jsp?sid=12DemoFSR&scid=1100&scname=Mountain

    Demo 8

    When you ride this hard, your bike has to ride harder.

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  • http://www.specialized.com/us/en/bc/SBCBkFamily.jsp?sid=12EnduroFSR&scid=1100&scname=Mountain

    Enduro

    Attack the big stuff, the small stuff and everything in between....

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  • http://www.specialized.com/us/en/bc/SBCBkFamily.jsp?sid=12P.Series&scid=1103

    P-3

    Jumps, tricks and berms—as long as you've got the skills.....

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  • http://www.specialized.com/us/en/bc/SBCEqSCLander.jsp?scid=1008

    Tires

    The product that started it all.....

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  • http://www.specialized.com/us/en/bc/SBCEqProductList.jsp?sid=2012EquipHelmetMTB&pscid=1009&scid=1136

    S-Works MTB Helmet

    The lightest certified helmet in the world, worn by 2008 UCI World XC Champion Christoph Sauser...

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Demo 8

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 ski as much as I can.

Sponsors: Specialized, Shimano, Clif Bar, Chromag, MRP, IXS, Fox Racing Shox, Dakine, Contour

This winter has been amazing for me

March 10, 2010

This winter has been amazing for me. December and January are my off-season; I am off my bike for most of the time and it gives me a chance to heal up, spend some time in the gym, ski and surf as much as I can. It started off with an Anthill film trip to Mexico (my last blog entries were about this) and then the mexico trip turned into a family vacation. We surfed, fished and camped our way through the southern Baja. Perfect waves and crispy fish tacos on the beach. I returned home to winter in British Columbia and quickly switched from water to snow. I had many unforgettable days in the snow with my friends backcountry skiing.

I got an email from my team manager at Adidas Eyewear; he was coming to Canada for the Olympics and wanted to get his riders together for some good times and lens testing. A plan was created and before I knew it I was in a helicopter flying to Baldface lodge in the interior of BC. My bike friends Darren Berrecloth, Ryan Berrecloth, Geoff Gulevich, Mike Kinrade and Richie Schley were there. It was really cool to shred powder with the guys I usually shred dirt with.

When I got home from that trip spring had arrived to Kamloops and riding conditions were getting good. I didn't manage to film all the lines I wanted to last fall; it was time to get serious. I spruced up some of my stunts that I had built last year. Fast forward to yesterday....

The Anthill film crew showed up the night before so we could get an early start. Light was just coming over the mountains as we hiked into our filming area. I had built a nice piece of trail that ran along the edge of a cliff. The trail ran for about 80 metres and then ended at the cliff edge. The landing area was about 6 metres below ran out to the valley bottom.

The ground was still frozen hard from last night's frost when we arrived. Frozen ground isn't the best for cornering hard so I waited until the sun had softened it up a bit.

Time for action. I rolled through the corners at the top of the run in and before I knew it I was nearing the take off. The take off for this particular drop was a hard left turn that wrapped around the ridge and then cornered off the cliff edge. I took off to the right of where I had planned. Instantly I spotted my landing. Unfortunately it was about a metre to the right of where I was planning. Time to hold on!

I landed in the rough. The area was not smoothed out into a landing, but fortunately for me it was still quite steep. My Demo 7 took the heavy landing solidly. I held on through the wild runout and arrived unscathed at the bottom. WOOOHOOO!

That was the first thing I filmed for 2010. I went back up and hit the same drop 3 more times until I landed how I wanted, then we went and shot some more of my lines.

I haven't finished up filming for my segment in "Follow Me", I still have a few jumps to film. But I sure had a great first day of filming this year, and I am looking forward to many more.

Below is a photo of the jump I described, my first landing was out of the frame on the left.

Get out and ride!

Matty

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