Putting positive spin on stunts
BMX bikers give the fair some extreme flair and positive messages.
By MATT BIXENSTINE
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
CANFIELD -- The Airwalk Stunt Show is about more than professional BMX riders completing daredevil maneuvers on their bikes.
Sure, team members soar off ramps, pulling back flips, 360-degree spins and other extreme jumps during performances throughout the Canfield Fair.
But equally important are the messages the stunt team -- Joe Prisel, 32, of Cleveland; Dan Hubbard, 33, of Orange, Calif.; Joey Scarborough, 20, and Mike Askew, 17, both of Nags Head, N.C. -- convey when their bikes return to the ground.
"We travel to about 700 schools a year to do our show and speak about saying 'no' to drugs and 'yes' to a healthy lifestyle," Hubbard said. "Basically we just try to use our show for something positive."
The Airwalk Stunt Team, which also promotes riding safety, performs its show, presented by Creative Sports, Inc., at 11 a.m., 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. every day of the fair in the southwest corner of the fairgrounds.
Audience participation
Saturday morning the team braved wet conditions brought on by Friday's rain to perform for fairgoers. As part of the show, Scarborough jumped his bike over five people, including Prisel and Askew, as they lay on their backs.
Cody May, 12, of Hubbard, Robert Naughton, 12, of Columbiana and Randy Bortmas, 11, of Kensington were members of the audience who volunteered to lie down for Scarborough's stunt. None of the three said they were very concerned as Scarborough, without a takeoff ramp, approached on his bike to jump them.
"They've probably been doing this for a long time," Randy said.
Hubbard officially began his stunt team company in 1986, but he said it took a while for BMX biking to garner widespread popularity.
"We've been doing well six or seven years," he said. "Prior to that, we weren't even on the map.
"It's a pretty small world, like any microcosm of a hobby. All the people [professional BMX bikers] pretty much know each other and compete against each other."
Today, Hubbard's creation consists of three full-time Airwalk Stunt Teams based in California, Texas and North Carolina. Bikers from his teams have acted as stunt riders for television shows and have been sponsored by various bike-related companies.
Promoting safety
Despite their rise from obscurity, though, the team members haven't forgotten how to have fun. Several of them found time when not performing Friday to visit Vertigo Skatepark in Boardman. There they spoke with local riders about using safety precautions, such as helmets and knee pads, while biking.
"If you're going to try anything on a bike, you need to be safe," said Prisel, who will compete in this year's Gravity Games Sept. 10-14 in Cleveland. "If all the young kids get hurt [biking], then parents won't want this sport around."
But even with proper safety measures, many of the maneuvers the stunt team attempted Saturday morning at the fair were not for amateur riders.
During the finale of the show, Prisel gestured to his teammates for one last attempt at the ramp. He proceeded to throw a crowd-pleasing, no-handed back flip.
"As soon as I was old enough to ride, I was jumping curbs," he said. "I still do that stuff today."