Mat Hoffman

Mat Hoffman (born January 9, 1972) is an American BMX rider who was considered one of the best vert ramp riders in the history of the sport.

He was nicknamed "The Condor" and ran the BMX Freestyle brand Hoffman BMX Bikes based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

He was a sponsored rider for Skyway and then Haro Bikes before starting his own brand.

Mathew Hoffman was born on January 9, 1972, in Edmond, Oklahoma to Joni (Geovanna Teresa Papa) and Matthew Hoffman.

He has two sisters, Lina and Gina, and two brothers, Todd and Travis.

Hoffman started out racing motocross with his motorcycle being a Kawasaki KDX 80.1, and eventually moving through various other motorcycles such as Yamaha YZ 80 and a Honda CB 80.

In 1982 at the age of ten, Hoffman and his brothers built their first quarterpipe from plans in an issue of BMX Action Magazine.

Hoffman began entering BMX freestyle competitions in 1985 around the state of Oklahoma as an amateur.

Growing up Mat was a dedicated basketball, football player and wrestler, but around this time he gave up on those and committed completely to BMX.

When he was 11 he got his first real BMX bike, a red Mongoose.

A few years later with a group of friends they started the Edmond Bike Shop Trick Team.

Around this time his father and uncle built a new nine foot quarterpipe for the trick team that they would haul around to events and put on shows.

In the summer of 1985, a Mountain Dew commercial began airing that featured pro California riders Eddie Fiola, Ron Wilkerson and R.L. Osborn.

Hoffman said, "Its flight lasted all summer, and Travis, Steve, and I would surf around channels trying to avoid the shows but find the advertisement. My mom saw how psyched we'd get and called the local Pepsi bottling and distribution center to talk about creating a local form of promotion in sync with the commercial. A few days later we set up our ramp in the Pepsi distributorship parking lot and did a show in full uniform for a couple of executives from the plant. They were stoked, and we were in. We painted a big Mountain Dew logo on our ramp, got jerseys and stickers, and they set us up with a sponsorship through Edmond Bike Shop to keep us flush with parts and inner tubes. In exchange for the Mountain Dew support, we'd do shows at random supermarkets that sold the soda."

In 1986 the Haro Freestyle Team came through Oklahoma on their tour with Dennis McCoy and Tony Murray.

Hoffman said, "They let us ride their ramp with them before the demo, and I unleashed everything I had to impress the famous factory superstars. They paid me the ultimate honor, asking me to ride with them during their demo. This was the equivalent of an aspiring local guitarist being asked by Metallica to come on stage and jam. Afterward, Dennis took Steve Swope and me to dinner and announced that he wanted to bring me on the road for the rest of their tour. I was so blown away I could barely stammer out "sure," and during dinner I was already mentally packing my gear bag for the tour. Dennis made a phone call to tell the guys at Haro the good news. He came back with a weird look on his face that said the call hadn't gone well. Today, I understand how silly it must have sounded when he phoned in his request: "Hey, I found some random fourteen-year-old kid in Oklahoma who rules.

Can we pick him up and take him on tour around the rest of the United States?"

Mat Hoffman first came to the attention of people outside of Edmond, Oklahoma when a letter and photo appeared in the Street Talk section of Freestylin' Magazine's August 1986 issue.

In the letter he mentions being sponsored by Mountain Dew and the image shows him pulling off a one footer over a nine foot quarter pipe.

In 1986 Hoffman entered two national freestyle competitions as an unsponsored rider.

The first was the AFA Master Series Round 2 in his home state of Oklahoma in August.

Mat was prepared to enter as an amateur but his father convinced him to enter as an expert for the competition.

Mat was one of the only riders to wear a full face helmet and JT motocross body armor.

Once he began riding the spectators and other riders understood why he had on the protection.

He finished first in 14-15 expert ramp and stole the show.

He had learned to ride BMX with a few friends and with no professionals for reference other then from magazine pictures.

He remembers: "When I got to that contest I went 'woah, I guess I am going higher than everyone else'."

Hoffman entered his second national competition on June 29, 1986, at the General Bicycles/AFA Freestyle Championships at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

He finished first in 14-15 expert ramp category riding a blue Haro Sport and was the rider everyone was talking about.

In the November 1986 issue of Freestylin' Magazine coverage of the event, Hoffman received a two page photo spread because of his performance.

After the competition he was solicited by over 15 sponsors/bike manufactures to ride for them.

Hoffman said, "Before I'd caught my breath after my run, the team managers from Skyway and Haro had approached with sponsorship offers. Haro wanted to try me out on their B Team, and let me work my way up. Skyway didn't operate like that, I would be part of their factory squad and get to go on tour, get flown to contests, and draw a salary."

In July 1986, Hoffman signed a one year sponsorship deal with Skyway Recreation.

"I signed on the line with Skyway and was soon flown to their headquarters in Redland, California. The team manager had been hyping my skills, and the owners wanted to witness their new kid in action. During the show I slammed so hard I snapped my other collarbone and wound up in the hospital. Luckily, they decided to keep me on the team."

After healing his collarbone, Hoffman made his Skyway debut in August at the IBMXF World Freestyle Championships in Vancouver.

This competition was held in conjunction with Expo 86 the World's Fair.

The freestyle contest was sanctioned by the International BMX Federation and run by the Canadian Freestyle Association using AFA rules.

The majority of the 72 participants were from the U.S. and Canada, with one rider from Switzerland and one from France.

Skyway, Mongoose and Kuwahara sent full squads of combatants, and while most of the other major factory teams had a couple of riders in attendance, there were some serious absentees.

Hoffman finishing second behind Kuwahara's Tim Rogers.