15 Facts About Mat Hoffman

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

Mat Hoffman is nicknamed "The Condor" and runs the BMX Freestyle brand Hoffman BMX Bikes based out of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

In 1983, when Hoffman was 11 years old, he competed in a contest in Madison Square Garden.

Mat Hoffman had learned to ride BMX on his own and did not have any other riders for reference.

In 1987, at the age of 15, Mat Hoffman became the youngest SPROO to join the Freestyle BMX circuit and was hired to ride for Haro Bikes.

Mat Hoffman developed the Bicycle Stunt series to give riders a place to compete and to showcase their talents.

In 2001, Mat Hoffman competed at the X Games, earning the bronze medal.

Mat Hoffman stunned the industry and fans, alike, when he set another record by successfully completing the first-ever No-handed 900 at the 2002 X Games, resulting in the silver medal.

Mat Hoffman was the first person to ride an oversized ramp in 1993 with his first High Air attempt off of a 24-foot quarter pipe.

When Mat Hoffman achieved 26.6 feet above the ramp in March 1999 to 2001, he had a team of four professional photographers, an elaborate scaffolding system to record the attempt at different angles and had an ABC Wide World of Sports camera crew on-site.

Mat Hoffman is credited with being the first person to perform a double peg grind down a handrail, as documented in the video Head First, released in 1991.

In 2005, Mat Hoffman was elected president of the International BMX Freestyle Federation, the international governing body of BMX Freestyle.

In February 2018, Mat Hoffman was inducted into the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame.

An ESPN 30 for 30 documentary entitled The Birth of Big Air, directed and produced by Jeff Tremaine, Johnny Knoxville, Spike Jonze and Mat Hoffman himself, was released in July 2010.

Mat Hoffman appeared as an unlockable playable character in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 and Tony Hawk's American Wasteland, produced by Activision.