Greenville's Extreme Park gets extreme makeover

most people from the Triangle are hard-pressed to find a reason to visit Greenville. Yet there are 14-year-old kids from across the country who would give their left Skecher to see the place.

In fact, some of the top extreme athletes in the country have up and moved just to be in Greenville. In the world of BMX bike freestyle riding, where riders do flips and summersaults off ramps, Greenville is known as Pro Town USA.

Greenville? The place just down U.S. 264?

Yup.

Riders began trickling into Greenville in the late 1980s, according to Boyd Lee, the city's director of parks and recreation. Greenville got its big boost as a BMX mecca when Dave Mirra moved there in 1993.

Mirra, the sport's most decorated and celebrated rider, had been hit by a drunken driver while living in California. With a cracked skull, blood clots and a separated shoulder, Mirra moved to Greenville to live with his brother Dave and recuperate. The sport itself got a boost that year when ESPN launched something called the X Games.

Ever since, the sport's top riders -- including Ryan Nyquist, Mike Laird and Allen Cooke -- have been moving to Greenville. Several, especially those from Southern California, like that no valuable track time is lost to commuting. The low cost of living is also a big draw.

But what drew them there in the first place was the town's Extreme Park, one of the first municipal BMX parks in the country.

"We've got 20 pros here," Lee says, "all because of the park" -- a park that has been featured in video games and, within the past year, as part of the Dave Mirra World Tour, which aired on ESPN.

The park recently got a face-lift and will debut Saturday with its grand reopening. Mirra, Nyquist, Allen Cooke and a number of other top riders are expected to attend and put on a stunt show.

As is the case with mountain biking, the new Extreme Park in Greenville's Jaycee Park was built by volunteer labor. Some of the best volunteer labor to be had in the world of BMX.

"Ryan Nyquist designed most of it," Lee says. "And Mike Laird, he's a BMX master craftsman, he built a lot of it."

Lee says the park probably is a $300,000 facility. Because of the volunteer help, though, he says the city probably spent only a third of that.

Lee says the park is roughly 100 feet wide and a football field long. "It's got -- let me see if I can count them -- 10 ramps."

Skateboarders, in-line skaters as well as BMX riders use Extreme Park, which was launched after 100 parents and kids petitioned the city for a place to ride. Today, locals can plunk down $2 ($5 for non-Pitt County residents) and ride with some of the best BMXers in the world.

Kids from around the country come to ride it as well.

"We had one woman who was driving her motor home from New Hampshire to Florida tell us she had to stop in Greenville so her son could see the park," Lee says. "It's made quite an impression."