Aaron Lutze Interview

For a 26 year-old, Aaron Lutze has some serious experience under his belt. He has ridden professionally, logged long hours working with Don Hampton at DH Productions, logged longer hours behind the camera filming some of the sport’s most progressive riding and created one of the premier street/freeride sites on the Web.

Now residing in Portland, Oregon, Aaron recently released the eighth volume of his popular series, Match Videozine as well as the first team video in the sport of mountain biking, Atomlab’s Tough As Hell. Bikemag.com sat down with Aaron and asked him some questions on the state of the mountain bike film industry, his career and who is going to be the next big time rider.

How did you get into riding and eventually filmmaking?

I started riding cross country with my buddies when I was in high school. I was 5’2” and totally unathletic. I liked riding but I was so much smaller than everyone so I couldn’t keep up. Then one summer vacation I met a trials rider at a campground in Idaho. He borrowed my bike, a beat, entry-level GT cross-country rig, and hopped up on a picnic table. He taught me how to hop on my back wheel and by the time we got back from that vacation, I was a trials junky.

Around 1998, I started going to nationals and met guys like Jeff Lenosky, got acquainted with the nationals scene, started competing and making my name as a Midwest rider. I made it to the pro ranks and then got interested in demos. Lenosky helped me start doing demos and got me on Schwinn. After that he and Ryan Leech put in a word for me to take their spot on the VANS Warped Tour. After the Warped Tour was over, I got into shooting and editing. Match really started with me going out and filming with my buddies. Jeff started riding with Aaron Chase so we started shooting with him, too. Eventually I started meeting more of the street/dirt guys and shooting more and more with them, which really got Match Videozine rolling into what it is today.

Mountain bike movies seem to be very specialized these days. How do you go about making a film that appeals to all styles and kinds of riders?

A lot of what I make in my videos has always been a reflection of what I like to do. Now that I am living on the West Coast and there’s a lot more of a freeride and downhill scene I think I’ll have more content like that in my movies. I want to make videos that everyone enjoys watching, and I also want to make videos that I am going to have a fun time making.

How do you decide whom to film with?

I have a pretty good crew of friends who I like to work and travel with, who I trust. Most of the time, the people that I call are the people who are going to produce the best riding the most efficiently. It’s really just organizing schedules and figuring out who is going to be where and getting logistics figured out. We normally don’t have an itemized production schedule or anything like that.

What constitutes a good rider to work with?

I think that a rider has to at least be a cool guy to hang out with or at least have some kind of character to him because so much of a road trip doesn’t show up on video. For example, driving eight hours from spot to spot or eating in a restaurant and things like that.

Reader Comments 

Posted Tue Oct28, 2008, 3:06 PM — By maggie

hey aaron its maggie i just wanted to tell you that your amazing and your really hot. oh by the way do u have a girlfriend?

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