BMX RIDING Going to extremes

By CHARLIE RODUTA
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
early half a mile from a city street, the Ravine is hidden by woods and weeds, marked only by a narrow dirt trail along a bike path. It's a place for them to ride without fear, interruption or supervision.
Last month, after a rigorous nightly street session in a downtown parking lot, Jody Donnelly and a handful of BMX riders were sitting on their bikes talking when a man in a car drove up. Accompanied by his teenage daughter, the man apparently was the owner of the parking lot and yelled at Donnelly for loitering.
"He started saying, 'You skateboarders are punks. You're nothing but thugs and criminals. Skateboarding is a crime, and you guys know it. You're a bunch of thug punks destroying property, and if you don't leave, I'm going to call the police,"' Donnelly recalls.
"We told him we ride bikes, but he said it was the same thing. We told him we weren't doing anything wrong -- we were just talking. And he just went off on us, saying that we're destroying his property."
And when Donnelly asked if he would sponsor a skate park, which would provide bikers a place to ride, the man's response was emphatic: "No, I'm never going to support that stuff. You're a bunch of criminals."
"It's this misunderstanding [of generations]: The guy was yelling about how bad our sport was, and his daughter has probably seen it on TV," Donnelly says. "I'm a firm believer of if you don't like it, don't look. Those people aren't going to stop me from doing what I love. It hasn't stopped me for 14 years."
And it hasn't stopped the growing number of stunt BMX riders.
Underground scene
Donnelly, 32, has remained a part of the underground BMX scene -- even after going on to stardom in the world of BMX. Having ridden here since he was 7, he knows that even if these riders didn't have a place to jump, they would make one.
The Ravine, which has kept the underground BMX scene growing, is a 15-year-old man-made dirt park, home to many BMX riders since riding facilities closed at several local parks. Unlike the BMX racing track sponsored by the Fort Wayne BMX Club at Franke Park, there is no fee to ride at the Ravine, no club to join, no charge for admission and no schedule to follow.
Passage into the Ravine is invite-only: Riders dedicated to the craft earn their keep by maintaining the jumps and keeping their silence.
The younger BMX riders have to sit this one out. Especially once the pros start calling their jumps -- "In-and-Out!"
Heads turn and bodies scatter to make way for Donnelly blasting on his bike over the dirt path and onto the clay-packed launch ramp. He plunges into the dry ravine and emerges seconds later, launching 10 feet into the air, kicking his bike's frame in a 360-degree rotation.
The tailwhip is a simple trick for Donnelly, one of only a few riders on the professional dirt-jumping circuit who has performed a more difficult backflip tailwhip.
But he misses his landing and crashes into a nearby tree. The small group of spectators -- ages 9 to 14 -- groans and gasps before rushing to the fallen rider. The other pros brake their bikes and watch the veteran dust the dirt off his baggy jeans.
Silence is suddenly broken by Donnelly's screaming laughter.
Pros move in
The sun has started to set late Saturday afternoon on the acrewide clearing, with light peeking through the 50-foot sycamore trees surrounding the Ravine.
A handful of the riders mill through even ground, waiting their turn to ride along the 2-foot launches of "In-and-Out," "Matt's Hip" and "Step-Up" -- jumps that lead into the 20-foot dip of the dry ravine, from which the dirt park gets its name. Riders can opt to ride along the 2-foot and 3-foot hills and U-shaped tracks spread throughout the clearing.
The pro riders -- ages 20 to 32 -- roll into the Ravine around 4 p.m., with bikes from specialty companies such as Bully Bicycles, FBM or Poverty Bicycles. Their backpacks contain kneepads, gloves, tools and 99-cent, half-gallon jugs of artificial fruit punch. For most of these riders, the Ravine is their roots. This is where they've been able to practice tricks such as the backflip, the Superman and the tailwhip.
The Ravine has helped many of these riders prepare for the X-Games or Mat Hoffman's Crazy Freakin' Bikers Series. It's a place for them to ride without fear, interruption or supervision.