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

As I write this

May 6, 2010

As I write this I am sitting in the London-Heathrow airport, waiting for a return flight to Canada. I am going home from a trip to Italy for a bike festival. It’s a fun festival, lots of friends there and great Italian culture (food). The mountains around the festival area are really steep and the trails are covered in big loose rocks. The rocks are so loose that climbing is impossible on many of the trails; they roll too often to maintain traction. Overall, the terrain is not as easy to enjoy as the forest and desert trails I am used to riding.

The trails can be really frustrating. I am used to fast riding and generally if I am not riding fast I feel like I am not riding well. So the riding in Italy ends up being a mental game for me, it’s like my brain is split into two teams and they are battling it out as I ride.

One half of my brain is telling me “this sucks man. That last corner was pathetic. I can’t believe how slow this is. Watch out for that rock, you will puncture for sure.”

Pretty bad.

My other half: Whoa, that was cool. It’s fun to roll these rocks all over the trail. Even the straight stretches are tough to stay on track with these loose rocks. More entertaining than straight stretches on dirt. Try and double up those two rocks now. Nice mini backside.”

I guess this makes me seem pretty schizo. Fotunately, I know that my brain does this and I can control it. If I focus more on the good than the bad, I am able to almost cancel out the negative and enjoy the small victories. Instead of thinking about how slow I’m going, I focus on other cool things that are happening.

So the riding in Italy was not my favourite, but it became a new kind of challenge and it was great to ride some different terrain. It was fun to get through some of the rocks without dabbing, it was cool to have to choose lines more carefully, to feel the fork work separately from the rear suspension.

I’m about to board the plane now. In 9 hours I will be back in Canada, and tomorrow I will make it home to Kamloops where I will ride some fast trails and carve some soft dirt. Mountain bikes can travel across so many different surfaces. That’s one of the unique things about them. Surfers only get water. Climbers only get rock. Road cyclists get asphalt. But mountain bikers get to ride all different kinds of surfaces. And it sure keeps it interesting.

Matt

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