MY STORY
I am the oldest of four boys in the Hunter family. We have all always loved the outdoors and adventure.
MY FAMILY
Being part of a big family has meant I haven’t always had as much as I wanted, or as some of my friends, but I’ve learnt to work hard and appreciate the value of what I do have. Despite our limited finances, we (my dad and I) have developed a few business initiatives which have helped keep my bike/s in working order. My ultimate dream is to ride all over world, and I am prepared to work as hard as necessary to make that dream a reality.
THE BEGINNING
I got my very first bike on my first birthday, that's when my love for riding started. When I was 3 years old I participated in my first bike race. A few months later I got my first pedal bike, which I was extremely happy with, and did the kids Argus which was the first race I did on a pedal bike. The same year I began riding at my local pump track, which initiated my technical skills. By the age of 6 I was able to jump my bike which made riding way more exciting. The next year saw the start of my racing career, when I started competing in the Spur School MTB League.
EARLY YEARS
To subsidise my expensive Mountain biking sport, I began making ramps out of bits of wood that I found lying around. I used these in my garden for extra practice. At 9 I decided to take my riding more seriously and started competing in the Western Province cross-country series.
At the age of 9, I had eventually learnt enough about bikes to begin building my first dream bike from spare parts I had collected from bike shops within my community.
THE CRASH
When I was 10 years old, I had a really bad crash at the Garden Route Trail Park near Sedgefield in the Eastern Cape and, for a moment, thought I was paralysed. After being at the hospital and getting the all clear, I had to deal with the fear of that crash. It took some time before I began to ride seriously again. I did not ride my Mountain Bike for about 18 months.
In the interim I began to ride BMX, which significantly improved my bike handling skills and jumping ability, and has helped me with my downhill racing. I also took up road cycling and did the Cape Town Cycle Tour on a tandem with my mom when I was 10 and rode it on my own for the first time when I was 12.
As soon as I started riding my mountain bike again, I began hitting my local riding spot every day. This coincided with the beginning of Covid, after the first 3 months of hard lockdown, when we were all eventually allowed to venture out of our homes again. I was part of a group that was involved in maintaining the jump-line trail near our home. At this time, I was still on the hardtail mountain bike I had built, and this was no longer able to handle the kind of riding I was doing.
GETTING SERIOUS
To succeed in this expensive sport, I needed to find a way to raise funds. With the help of my dad I learnt how to build websites. At 14, I used this website design skill, to raise enough funds to buy my first real, full suspension enduro bike.
At the start of 2021 I finally had the equipment I needed to take part in the Provincial and National Downhill MTB races and performed really well from the start. I came 3rd in my second race and ended my first season 3rd overall in the series. I was absolutely delighted.
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To hone my skills on the bike I purchased a dirt jumper, which is used for tricks, and learned how to perform backflips, 360’s and all sorts of other fun tricks.
MY PASSIONS
Videography and Film Making
Since I got my first GoPro I have always loved making YouTube and Instagram videos of my riding, things I have built and more. I love being creative with action video and am growing my content on YouTube.
Carpentry and Building Things
Since a young age I have always enjoyed building things with my hands making stuff out of wood because it is cheaper but have made things from steel, glass and other materials. Because I love building things I have started a business to make money from it as you can see below. I also end up doing a lot if little jobs around the house that involve fixing items that are broken.
HUNTER RAMPS
I quickly realized that riding competitively is going to cost a substantial amount of money and I needed a way to fund repairs and pay for the general upkeep of my gear. I started a small business called Hunter Ramps.
We build mountain bike ramps which aspiring Mountain-bikers can use at home, to improve their skills. You can learn to jump in your own backyard. I developed 3 sizes of ramps, for different skill levels. From the profits of this small business, I was able to fund the upkeep of my bike and gear. Please visit my website https://www.thehunters.co.za/ramps
MTB COACHING
Over the past 2 years I have been coaching younger riders to help improve their skills on the bike. I love seeing them conquer new features they haven't done before.
FIRST BIG WIN
It doesn’t always go your way, and at the SA Champs held in Paarl at the beginning of 2022, I crashed in my final run, and this cost me the win. I ended up 4th overall. At the Jonkershoek leg of the SA Cup in April 2022, I took the gold medal by a margin of 6 seconds.
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I was unfortunately unable to afford to get to the other SA Cup races held outside of the Western Cape. In spite of this I still managed to end the season in 4th, having only taken part in 2 of the 4 races in the series. I won the Western Cape Series in the Youth Men (Under 17) category.
THE DREAM FROM HERE....
I love riding……I want to ride against the best in the world and see how I measure up. My goal is to race in the World Cup overseas over the next few seasons.
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For this to work I will need to compete in all races around South Africa.
I appreciate that I will need to do well enough that I score enough points to qualify for the world cup.
Once I qualify with enough UCI points to go to the world championships, I would ideally like to travel to Europe for some of the key races taking place there, also within the next few seasons.