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

Headed home from Iceland

September 8, 2009

I write this as I sit on the plane flying back to Canada from Iceland. The passenger sitting beside me is a big fellow and I don’t have much room to get comfortable. Although I could really use the sleep, my discomfort gives me a chance to look back on a great trip with some awesome friends.

Our Iceland trip had all the aspects of a great adventure. We had challenges, some bad luck, and we had some amazing fortune. There was solitude and mountains and weather and there was crazy dancing and party crashing. We had mechanicals galore with our big diesel van and my bike performed flawlessly. Water flowed in the doors as we crossed deep fast glacial rivers on the way to remote trails. We patched and cursed at the tires on our van. We were the first bikes to touch and slash unsuspecting hiking trails and we rode through the steam of hissing geysers. The sun peeked through the clouds when we needed it to and the rain poured down, turbocharging the green of the moss for us.

We played some serious practical jokes and had epic laughs. It’s hard to describe the comedy but anyone who has been on a real adventure with great friends understands how funny even the simplest jokes can become.

We had an interesting discussion about the trails in Iceland. They aren’t built for biking. There are hike a bike sections on the climbs, and there are some corners that just don’t work. But the landscape overcomes these imperfections. Being out there in those amazing hills, feeling like you are riding on a different planet… It’s so special that the trail seems less important. It’s more about the mountains. There are glorious sections where the trail flows and there are natural berms and jumps, and those sections are what you remember when you are sitting in the hot springs.

Sterling shot really amazing photos. There will be magazine articles about our trip with all-time pictures. It’s exciting to go out and shoot images that will share the beauty of that place with people who read the articles. We rode all the trails we could but I feel like we barely scratched the surface. There are some real epics that we didn’t have time to hit. We were teased by the sight of the trails on opposing ridges disappearing into the horizon. I absolutely have to go back and explore those places.

Iceland is a tough place to score good conditions, it’s way way up there on the planet. Some of the trails we rode are only open and rideable for 3 weeks of the year! Go too early and they are super soft and muddy with the snow still melting off them, and a week too late and they will be covered up again. I feel so lucky that we had the weather and conditions that cooperated and we had the crew that we did. So stoked.

Keep an eye out for the photos and story to run in your favourite magazine in the next few issues.

Matty

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