Martha Hucker. Say it fast…

PHILOSOPHY

The way we ride is changing. It used to be all about gettin out in nature and getting fit… Now – well, we’re not tryna go out and crush mother Earth, but we do have head on collisions with her from time to time! We are a new breed of riders, who are in it for the thrills, the adrenaline, the mad hucks and the bad spills, and that other stuff comes second. If you’re a downhill racer, getting into jumping, or just love takin the hard lines and prefer going down to up, you’re part of a growing group worldwide who would have an incredible time if we all rode together!

What we seem to be missing is a sisterhood. Mountain biking is an individual sport, and women still make up the vast minority of participants, which totally sucks. Ever heard of or been involved with roller derby? It’s an all-women sport that’s become a global phenomenon, and the coolest aspect is the massive community that’s built up around it. On the track they’ll kick each others asses, but outside that thousands of people are working together to support each other, learn and progress their skills, and take their sport to the next level. Oh, and they have a totally kick-ass DIY attitude, and get to wear crazy outfits while they skate!

So Martha Hucker is about trying to bring some of that sisterhood to riding. Unless you’re from a bike meccha like Whistler you’re probably used to being a bit of a lone wolf, or riding with the boys. Not to mention the fact that every time you look for videos or results from races of the women riders, you have to search towards the end – we always get second (or last…) billing. Well, not here!

Hopefully this will resonate with others too….

Ride on

Martha

Martha in other media:

Check out Martha Hucker creator Rita Langley talking about the site in Radio Alchemy's Game On podcast.

Martha Hucker tells Mountain Bike dot com to huck off? No really, I didn't, but here's their article.

The legend of Martha Hucker (every alter ego has to have a crazy back story):

Martha Hucker was born on a BMX track at the top of a windy mountain in a cloud of shuttle truck smoke. Her mother was an xc lycra-clad EPO whore who wasn’t even sure which of the QuickStep TDF team fathered her newborn but already hideous baggy-clothed offspring. The child appeared to share none of their genes, and was immediately abandoned to the wilderness of the trails. Martha was raised by bears and grizzly track builders, learning to ride by scrounging wrecked bikes from near the corpses of riders who’d gone too far or too fast…

Now, Martha Hucker has the internet. Technology is an awesome tool for world domination…

MarthaHucker.com

And for those readers not familiar with mountain bike terminology, to ‘huck’ is to ride one’s bike off something high and preferably flat, landing on a much lower surface. Hucking is the easiest way to get airborne on a bike as it requires no effort other than pedalling off an edge, and is typically performed off increasingly high structures by 15-year-old boy ‘groms’ to prove how big their balls are.

Martha Hucker doesn’t need balls for hucking. This site’s about going big on a bike, learning to ride fast and fly high, without any of that male ego crap. But without being too ‘girly’ about it either! You WILL break at least one nail, and helmets give you bad hair… so bring a hat, paint your nails a dark coulour to hide the grease under them, and ride hard!