The Most Extreme Athlete on a Bike: BMX Vert Ramp Rider “The Condor” Mat Hoffman
Mat Hoffman has to be the craziest man on the planet. He follows a long line of daredevils starting with motorcycle stunt rider Evel Knievel to skateboarding legend Tony Hawk and many others who push the boundaries with their death-defying aerial tricks. Hoffman is a pro BMX rider and has done some of the most extreme tricks and stunts on his bike. He seems to want to push the limits of what he can do every time he sits on a bike, and he holds the world record for highest distance travelled up in the air on a bicycle. Hoffman has had numerous crashes over the years and some have been so severe that he went into a coma because of them. He will not stop what he does, however, because it is his life’s passion and his reason for being. This is the story of one of the bravest extreme athletes on the planet.
Hoffman started doing tricks on his bike at the age of five. Legend has it that he was perched on a ledge and he was being held by his older brother. His brother let him go and he went flying down the ledge with his bike and managed to land it and not crash. That started a lifelong ambition to do stunts on bikes. Whether this story is true or not, it shows us that this phenomenal manipulator of the bicycle started off doing tricks at a very young age. He progressed and impressed everyone he met with his ability to control his bike, and he turned pro at the age of fifteen (becoming the youngest rider to enter the freestyle BMX circuit). Another anecdote about the great stunt rider says that he entered a tournament at the age of 15 and won the amateur event then immediately turned pro and won the pro event as well. The next day he had a line of 15 potential sponsors waiting for him.
Over the years, Hoffman proved that he was a very capable businessman as well. Being frustrated with having less control over his career in 1991, Mat left his main sponsor and set up Hoffman Promotions and promoted himself from that day forward. His next business venture was to set up a bike company. Early on in his career, he found that he needed an extremely sturdy bicycle to deal with the harsh treatment he gave it. He could not find a good enough one so he set up his own company to produce them. He found that others were having the same problem and his company proved to be a huge success. He has written a book, which might be made into a movie, about his life and he was the first BMXer to get his own videogame (Matt Hoffman’s Pro BMX). What was so impressive about the extreme athlete was that he had set up both of his companies at the age of 20.
For all his amazing stunts on a bicycle which include a 900, a no hands 900 and the highest amount of air ever achieved on a bike, he also crashes a lot. He has broken 300 bones in his body and has been in a coma twice. A lot of people worry that Mat Hoffman might be the first athlete to be killed on a bicycle. This is because of the nature of the stunts he does. A few people have questioned his desire to go just that little bit further and push the boundaries till they break. Psychiatrists say that some professional extreme athletes have a narcissistic streak in them and they desire to do things that will make them famous. There is a certain amount of selfishness and greed in what they do and the reasons they push themselves to the edge is because they think it will make them more famous. Hoffman has two young children and a lot of people have wondered when he will quit the sport that might kill him and leave his children without a father; all for the sake of doing a higher stunt or achieving that unreachable goal.
Even though it may seem negative what extreme athletes do by putting themselves in such danger, it is part of their nature and they live for the thrill of it. These types of people cannot be tied down and told what to do; they find a way to break free and make their own mark in the world. They should be applauded for that fact and here’s to Mat Hoffman achieving even greater heights on his bicycle, that is, if it doesn’t kill him first.
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