Place of Birth : Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
My parents have always been really supportive my riding. My mom collects all of the magazine; get photos in and she keeps them in a big Tupperware container with little Post-it notes or the pages I'm on. When I first got really into riding I was blowing off school a little bit and they weren't too happy with that; they wanted me to at least finish my education. But once I started traveling for free, getting checks for riding, and they could tell that I could actually make a living at it, they were a lot more supportive. To sum it up, they yelled for me at the races when I was a little kid and if they go to a contest now I can still hear them yelling.
Matt celebrates his last day of high school with a bar ride on an S&M Holmes he bought from Ike Taylor for $60.
Frontflips.
Matt, Ride US april 2005 : I had only tried them into water, and the only time I could psyche myself up enough to try them on dirt was at contests, so people who only saw me ride at contests thought I was the frontflip guy. The first time I tried one was at a contest in California, and afterwards I got separated from my friends and I was with the California guys. That was the first time I met Josh Stricker, and he said to me. "Yeah, you did a front-flip, but you didn't do anything else." I knew he was right and I was kind of bummed. Nowadays you see people do all of the wildest and hardest tricks, but not too many people are doing front-flips. I don't know if they think it's corny or they don't want to bust their asses. I've got it pretty dialed now and I can usually pull it in a few tries, and I'm really happy about that because I paid my dues on that trick. I crashed on it for years before I pulled one. Now when I pull one I think about how long it took me to learn it and it feels that much better to be riding away.
1997 X-Games.
Matt, Ride US april 2005 : Taking things less seriously is good because when something bad does happen you won't get as pissed off. Stuff that I used to worry about doesn't even matter to me anymore, so why did I even stress in the first place? Like when I went to the X Games in '97 and I didn't make the cut for '98; I still went in '98 and I was so pissed and depressed because I wanted to hit the jumps and be in there. It was such a big deal to me that I wasn't in there riding with my friends. I even used to watch the video from '97 and think, "Man, if I just pulled that front-flip maybe I would've made it in there and wouldn't have to deal with qualifying again." Stuff like that that used to mean a lot to me and I stressed out over it, and now it's not even a big deal. Looking back now. I don't see why I didn't just move on.
Interview in Ride UK february 1998 and BMX Plus! may 1998.
The first backflip to sprocket
Matt Beringer, Ride US april 2001 : I tried a flip fakie in England last year. I didn't know how to do 'em so I accidentally bashed my sprocket and then fell on my head. The idea's been in my head ever since. Then I was trying to steal John Heaton's flip to manual but I couldn't do it because it's too hard; so I got mad and tried flip to sprocket. I landed sprocket first time and I pulled it third try.
Little Devil Criminal Mischief video
Matt : Little Devil shared a portion of the profit from their video with the riders, that was really cool. I wish videos would do that a lot more. When we were filming that was a good motivation, we're going to get paid for this! It helped out too.
Worlds 2002, Cologne, Germany.
Matt : That was amazing. That was like one of the best contests ever that I've been to. Just the crowd was just like screaming and like, it was just nuts.
Interview for www.fatbmx.com november 2002
Matt : I'm 25 years old, I live in Blatent City, Utah-USA my sponsors are S&M, Little Devil, Snafu, Airwalk, Boneless pads.
Matt Beringer candy bar on the cover of BMX Plus! june 2003.
Matt : This grind-down-the-triangle-thing off the roof completely scared me. I've been driving past that thing on the freeway for as long as I can remember, and we've been riding there for a long time. Then about three years ago when Mike Aitken and I were there, he said something about how it would be cool for someone to grind down it. At the time I thought it was totally nuts, but the more I thought about it I really wanted to do it. I had been up there a few times without my bike, but the one time I went up there with my bike it looked so much crazier, and all I could think about were all of the ways I could get worked and what could go wrong. It was pretty stressful, too, because there were two video guys and a photographer pointing their cameras at me, and once they were ready it was all up to me. I stood up there freaking out for like 15 minutes yelling about how stupid I was, and then this girl sitting on the curb yelled up to me, You're not stupid-just do it ! She didn't make me do it, but she definitely helped. Now whenever I drive past that spot I can give it the finger because I know that I never have to climb up that roof again.
