Snow bike pioneer Brock Hoyer can knock another career dream off his bucket list.
The 2017 X Games gold medalist and 2018 X Games silver medalist recently returned from a trip to Japan where he spent eight days in the Asian backcountry riding and filming for an upcoming Trax snow bike film.
“It’s always been a dream of mine to visit Japan,” Hoyer said. “And to be able to do it through snow biking is just unreal.”
Hoyer travelled with 2018 X Games gold medallist Cody Matechuk of Cochrane, Alta., and Trax executive producer Jaya Lange to Otaru, Japan — a city northwest of Sapporo with a population of roughly 130,000 people — where they spent eight busy days riding, and taking in some of the sights around the area.
“We didn’t have to go far [to ride],” Hoyer said of where the group was staying. “We were right there pretty much at the launch point. You could literally shred right up the mountain.”
To help the group during its visit, they had a translator and a riding guide.
“They all had snow bikes,” he said of the sport’s popularity in Japan. “There’s tons of guys over there snow biking — a pretty huge community. One day we went out there were probably 20 bikes out and that was just in one area.”
Apart from filming, Hoyer said experiencing the Japanese culture and people was the highlight of the trip.
“The people were super friendly, super genuine and helpful,” he said. “That was half the fun was all the people we met — just how cool they were. There were a couple guys just riding with us for the love of the sport and riding with their friends and one of the big things is you stop for lunch, make a big point of it, have like ramen of some kind and socialize.”
Hoyer said the latest Trax film should be released in the late summer or early fall of 2018.
Now back at home, Hoyer’s heading to Kamloops this weekend for a Canadian Snow Bike Nationals series race, before he’s whisked off to Florida the following day to help Timbersled, one of his sponsors, unveil its latest bike.
Once he’s back, it’s off to Whistler for five more days of Trax filming, then to Revelstoke for round three of the national series on March 17.
“Of course, after that I’ll be switching back one of my bikes at the end of March to try to get some [dirt bike] ride time in April,” Hoyer said.
