Mat Hoffman

Early life 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.

Career Independent beginnings 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 than 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."

While only 15 years old, Hoffman began construction on an indoor half pipe in his father's medical supply distribution warehouse. He dubbed it The Secret Ninja Ramp and it was made for year round training as opposed to shoveling the snow off his previous ramp. His father donated the space and Hoffman's Skyway salary paid for the materials.

Haro years In 1988, at the age of 16, Hoffman signs a one-year deal to ride for Haro Bikes after the departure of Dennis McCoy and Joe Johnson from the Haro roster freeing up the budget. Hoffman said, "For years, I'd wanted to ride for Haro – the first company to create a freestyle bike – run by the guy who invented the sport. It was a pure respect thing. Adding to the appeal, Haro's roster of sponsored riders was the coolest in the world: Ron Wilkerson, Brian Blyther, Dave Nourie, Joe Johnson, Dennis McCoy... it was the dream team.

Around this time, a new manager entered the bike scene with ambitions of bringing mainstream-level sponsorship opportunities to riders. Despite limited experience in BMX, she began managing several riders, including Joe Johnson and Dennis McCoy. Rumors of major sponsorship deals led McCoy and Johnson to leave the Haro team, creating openings in Haro’s amateur and professional ranks and freeing up part of the team’s rider budget.

As events unfolded over the following months, the expected opportunities failed to materialize. It was difficult to watch two of the sport’s top riders paying their own travel expenses, wearing Adidas tracksuits, and doing demos at Chrysler dealerships to earn extra income while waiting for a rumored Pepsi/Huffy sponsorship deal that ultimately never happened.

But Dennis and Joe's lapse in judgment was my gain-I made a phone call to Rhino and secured a spot on the Haro team. I would remain classified as an am for at least the rest of the year, but I got a pay increase and was making about $50,000 in annual salary -approximately ten times what I earned with Skyway." Kenny Belaey, Terry Adams and Ryan Williams joined Hoffman.

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

Filmography Aggroman (BMX home video by Eddie Roman, 1989) Matt Hoffman's Head First (BMX home video by Eddie Roman, 1991, considered to be the greatest BMX video ever made) Colony of Summer (documentary, 1996) Keep Your Eyes Open, produced by Tamra Davis and starring Spike Jonze (2002) IMAX film Ultimate X (2002) XXX, a Rob Cohen film starring Vin Diesel (2002) Jackass: The Movie (2002) Jackass Number Two (2006) Jackass 2.5 (2007) Jackass Presents: Mat Hoffman's Tribute to Evel Knievel (2008) X Games 3D: The Movie (2009) Jackass 3D (2010) Jackass 3.5 (2011) Waiting for Lightning (documentary, 2012) Being Evel (documentary, 2015)

Television Jackass (2 episodes, 2001) 2004 Kids' Choice Awards (2004) MTV Cribs (1 episode, 2004) Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide (2 episodes, 2004–2006) Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (2005) Wildboyz (2 episodes, 2005–2006) Jackassworld.com: 24 Hour Takeover (2008) Nitro Circus (3 episodes, 2009) A Tribute To Ryan Dunn (TV documentary, 2011) Epicly Later'd: Spike Jonze (TV documentary, 2022)

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

Past projects include three shows produced by Hoffman – Mat Hoffman's Crazy Freakin' Stunt Show and Mat Hoffman's Aggro Circus at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida, and Mat Hoffman's Danger Defying Daredevils at Six Flags Magic Mountain near Los Angeles, California.

The book The Ride of My Life documents Hoffman's story through 2001.

Video games Hoffman worked with Activision to produce the video games Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX (2001) and Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX 2 (2002), the latter released in conjunction with the Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX 2 Tour TV show, which aired on ESPN2 and is available on DVD and VHS.

Hoffman also appeared as an unlockable playable character in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 (2002) and Tony Hawk's American Wasteland (2005), also produced by Activision.

Music videos Weezer – Memories (2010)

X Games competition history