Matt Hunter

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Matt Hunter's Gear:
  • http://www.specialized.com/us/en/bikes/mountain/endurofsr

    Enduro

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Enduro

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

Hermit Crab

May 31, 2011

Well the past few weeks have been pretty amazing for me... I have gone through a transformation very similar in the way a caterpillar turns into a butterfly. Or maybe more like a hermit crab moulting, whatever.
Anyways, I finally healed up my shoulder ligaments enough so that my arm won't fall off when I am gripping my bar and I hit the type of bumps commonly encountered whilst riding off-road.
I started delicately riding my bike around the block and then I took it to the ultra smooth dirt around Kamloops, and I am feeling better every day.
But hold on a moment. This isn't a story about how well (or badly) I'm riding at the moment. It's a story about how riding has affected my brain reecently.
During my "time off", I thought I was doing pretty OK.  Keeping busy, trying to stay healthy, the usual.  But in retrospect, I wasn't really keeping that well. And I know this because of the sheer contrast of THEN vs. NOW.
THEN:
- some days I manage to have some fun
- I'm up to date on the cool new internet videos, yeah honey badger!
- a beer tastes pretty good
- my room is clean
- No, I'm too full for seconds, thanks.

NOW:
- Dude that was the sickest ride! this is the best day EVER!  
- oh, right, I should check my email some day soon
- What kind of beer is this? Oh, warm Pilsner eh? It's unbelievable! best F*&^ing beer ever!
- it would be really great if I could find my bed, I KNOW it's in here somewhere
- Pass me another moose steak, I'm starving!
 
I know most everyone can relate to this state of mind, there are so many reasons that can get in the way of consistent riding.  I know that for me, after a few months away from riding, to be back in it and loving it so much...  The huge increase in my quality of life is just too much to ignore.
Go ride.
Matt

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