Mat Hoffman in air by Spike Jonze 1989
Owning a business is one thing. Owning a start-up bike business because the bikes wont perform as needed is a journey few understand. That is unless you are Mat Hoffman, the original founder of Hoffman Bicycles out of Oklahoma originally. At it’s inception, Hoffman (known as the Condor) needed a bicycle that could withstand his ultimate goals – to break the extreme vert ramp jumping records. However as the newly released documentary film called “Birth of Big Air” chronicles, Hoffman was the one setting the standards to begin with. Like so many entrepreneurs in America, the lack of a solution forces the creation of a new solution. Mat’s journey though included the sacrificing of his own well being beyond every cent earned from winning competition after competition. Typically winnings that were prior to major corporate event sponsorship.
As part of the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival, Hoffman in conjunction with friends and fans (Johnny Knoxville, Spike Jonz and Jeff Termaine) banded together to release the new Espn documentary on Hoffman’s pursuit of setting records. His dedication, near death experiences and focus on a unrelenting need to go where no man on two wheels had ever gone is worth the jump to your nearest box office.
