Matt Hunter

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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

May mud

May 9, 2011

Riding in the rain isn't something that I do very much. It's not that I have a problem with it, it's simply that I live in a really dry area where it just doesn't rain often. When I do ride in real, soppy, water pouring down in your eyes, torrential rain, it definitely changes the way I ride. I stick to the ground and avoid any wood features or jumps until the deluge stops.

On Saturday I drove to North Vancouver for a cool shop event hosted by John Henry bikes. They had a jump jam at the event, a couple plywood ramps to gravel pile landings on the street in front of the store. I was one of the judges, and there was some serious talent because of the North Van factor.

The practice for the jam went really well, the clouds threatened and drizzled a bit but otherwise it stayed pretty dry. When we decided to start the contest things got really interesting.
The clouds just opened up and the rain started coming down. Loud, huge drops. I was scared and hid under the judges tent.
Well, the riders just kept shredding. They put on goggles so they could see, and really lit up the slippery lips and soft landings. It was impressive to see the riders step up to the challenge of the nasty weather. At one point near the end of the comp, the rain was so heavy that there were small rivers of rushing water flowing around my feet, the tent I was under was at risk of collapsing under the weight of the water, and the landing of the first jump was visibly slumping like a mud slide. One of the riders dropped in, did a nice 360 table on the first jump, pedaled hard through the puddles and threw a big flip whip on the last jump!  It really made me think of how bad ass mountain biking is. It's a sport where a rain delay isn't an option. Deal with it.  Just keep givin 'er!

I returned back to Kamloops that night, the next day was a big race day. The Bicycle Cafe hosts a race every spring called the Unicorn 5000, as you can imagine it's more of a fun event than a serious one. It's a fun local-style event, the race course is top notch and the talent pool runs deep, so it's a really good time.
In past years I have raced the Unicorn, but this year my shoulder still wasn't quite ready for it so I drove one of the shuttle trucks for the racers to get to the top. The weather was pretty nasty again, it rained really hard and the shuttle road became more of a 4x4 hillclimb event. We got so much snow this year that the road had to be plowed so there were snowbanks on either side of the road which was a slippery mud slide. I heard from the racers that the track was about the same.

In the end, the event went off smoothly, and everyone had a good time. In true Kamloops fashion, the sun even came out just in time for the awards ceremony. Some beers were cracked and a lot of muddy faces were smiling. I don't think the spring weather stands a chance against mountain bikers who have been dreaming of riding all winter.

Matt

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