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

Iceland: A different Planet

September 1, 2009

My main fear was that I was going to burn my face off in a steam vent. The corner we were shooting photos on was a little off camber and if I went off the trail high-side then I would probably fall into the bubbling geyser that was shooting hot steam 10 metres into the air.

But everything went well. The photo we got was really cool because of the steam and there was a sweet corner on the trail. The mountains in Iceland are crazy perfect for mountain biking. They are almost devoid of vegetation, and they are just really smooth shale rock that is totally perfect for riding. There are all different colours of rock, the moss growing on the rocks is white and neon green, and you can ride almost anywhere you can see. Add to all this the fact that there are geysers of steam rising out of the ground pretty regularly and it all adds up to feel quite like you are riding on another planet. It is really unbelievable.

My enduro is the perfect bike for the riding here. It is definitely all-mountain, we are actually riding THE MOUNTAINS. It's amazing, there is a sweet ribbon of singletrack made by hikers but because the soil is so perfect and because there aren't plants growing, you can just ride anywhere. I love the way I can just use the command post to drop the saddle, flick the switch on the fork and then feel like I am on a long travel bike.

I can't wait to see what we find tomorrow - hopefully more epic trails. Since I didn't see any gnomes today I will keep my eye out for one tomorrow.

So stoked! I'll try and get some pics posted tomorrow of this stunning place.

Matty

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