Local BMX Dude to Appear on 'Survivor'

Anyone affiliated with BMX in Cincinnati knows Matt Bischoff. The 38-year-old, bearded BMX warrior and all-around good dude hosted one of the region’s best sets of BMX trails in his Anderson Township backyard in the late ’90s.  Since that time, he’s gotten married, had two kids, founded a BMX company called Failure Bikes and built even more backyard trails and ramps. Bischoff has pretty much kept it real, maintaining his BMX lifestyle while growing up and settling down in Cincinnati’s stodgy East Side.  (Full disclosure: The author of this blog has known Bischoff for 15 years and used to shred his trails all the time.) So it only makes sense that his most recent endeavor was to offer his lifestyle to the rest of the world via participating in one of TV’s most popular reality shows (right?). The man who affectionately goes by “Beardo” and “The Beard” is one of 20 contestants on Survivor: Caramoan — Fans vs Favorites, which premiers Feb. 13.  Bischoff couldn’t officially speak with the media on Jan. 11, the day CBS announced the cast, but if he could have he probably would have said something like, “I don’t know, man. Survivor was crazy. It ruuuled.” CityBeat will ask the appropriate CBS PR person for an opportunity to speak with our friend soon.  This particular Survivor format involves 10 new contestants in one tribe trying to out-survive 10 people who previously participated in other seasons of the show but didn’t win. Among Bischoff’s tribes-people are a former Miss Missouri winner, a female racecar driver and former United States Marine Corps Sgt. Shamar Thomas, who is Internet famous for yelling at New York City cops for intimidating Occupy Wall Street protesters. Survivor host Jeff Probst told Entertainment Weekly the weather is a problem during this season and there are evacuations and things “out of the norm.” Probst also said there’s some type of love connection (probably just people infatuated with Bischoff’s massive beard). Here’s Bischoff’s official bio at cbs.com. He answered the question of, “If you could have three things on the island, what would they be and why?” with: “1) My iPod — I constantly listen to music. It is a huge part of my life. I also would want to view photos of my wife and kids. 2) A pen and notebook — to work on song lyrics and keep a daily diary. 3) A video camera — to film myself doing wild stuff!” And here’s 16 seconds of him doing some BMX stunts: