Jeremy Lusk funeral service scheduled

Funeral services for Jeremy Lusk, the 24-year-old motocross rider who died late on Monday of head injuries suffered during a freestyle competition, are scheduled for 11 a.m. Monday, Feb. 16, at the Revival Christian Fellowship Church at 29220 Scott Road in Menifee.

Lusk was injured during a competition in San Jose, Costa Rica. He is survived by his wife, Lauren, and his parents, who were with him when he died.

As Pete Thomas reported on The Times' Outpost blog, the Jeremy Lusk Trust Fund has been set up within the Athlete Recovery Fund. Donations can be made at athleterecoveryfund.com.

The nonprofit organization's goal: "To provide professional athletes in BMX, FMX and Skate Boarding with financial support after a severe injury and granting funds for rehabilitation, equipment, long-term disability and educational scholarships."

Pete reports that, as far as motocross riders and fans can remember, Lusk is the only freestyle motocross rider in memory to die of injuries suffered in competition. Pete attributed that remarkable record to the high skill level among racers. But Pete also noted that:

The problem is, execution has to be nearly perfect to avoid serious consequences -- and top riders, all of whom have experienced injury and concussion, understand that death is possible. Now a fatality has occurred and the FMX community remains in shock and mourning.

Here's a link to the Lusk obituary that Pete wrote for The Times.

-- Greg Johnson

Photo: Jeremy Lusk performs a jump with his bike during the X Knights 2009 freestyle competition in San Jose's Ricardo Saprissa stadium on Feb. 7. Credit: Jeffrey Arguedas / EPA

X-Games star Jeremy Lusk dies after crash

X Games standout and freestyle motocross rider Jeremy Lusk died Monday of injuries he suffered in a crash over the weekend during a competition in Costa Rica.

He was 24. Pete Thomas has more on Lusk at The Times' Outposts blog.

-- Austin Knoblauch

Photo: Jeremy Lusk performs a one-handed seat grab on his dirt bike during the Moto X freestyle elimination round at the 2007 X Games. Credit: Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times

Tony Hawk skateboard park funding deadline looms

Skateboarders with boards -- but no appropriate place to ride -- have a few weeks left to apply for a Tony Hawk Foundation skateboard park grant. The deadline for the annual grant-making process is March 2 for the awards to be announced in April.

Skateboard star Hawk's foundation has awarded more than $2.3 million to partially fund nearly 400 skatepark projects nationwide in the past six years. The foundation reports that 256 of those projects now are open and being used by an estimated 2.3 million riders annually.

The grants range from $1,000 to $25,000 for the planning and construction of parks. The Hawk foundation focuses its grants on proposals for parks in lower-income neighborhoods. The program is national in scope, and last year awarded $10,000 grants for skate park proposals in Imperial Beach and Ukiah.

Many of the projects that win funding are proposed by skateboarders. Here's how the foundation described the evolution of a park in Needles that was awarded a $25,000 grant earlier in the decade and  opened in 2004:

This project was spearheaded by eighth graders who lobbied the City after spending a year investigating design, safety issues, insurance and liability problems, and fund-raising possibilities. The determination of these youngsters got the City's attention, and for the first time in a long while the needs of the local kids became the focus.

At the time of applying for a grant, they had held numerous fundraisers (including a dinner for local Hell's Angels), approached local organizations, and successfully raised $90,000. The ambitiousness and determination of the young skaters, as well as the immense community involvement was impressive, and the THF Board of Directors gladly awarded them a $25,000 grant.

In all, they spent three years raising money, and when they still came up short of their $200,000 goal, the City stepped up again, donating more money to the project so that the original design would not have to be scaled back. On January 3, 2004, Needles opened its 12,000-square-foot concrete park designed by Wally Hollyday.

According to the foundation's guidelines, "public skateparks should be designed and constructed by experienced contractors. We also believe that local officials should treat public skateparks the same way they treat public basketball courts or tennis courts, meaning that anyone may show up and use them anytime, unsupervised."

Here is a link to the 2009 grant application.

-- Greg Johnson

Photo: Tony Hawk at Spike TV's 2008 Video Game Awards at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City. Credit: Michael Buckner / Getty Images for Spike TV

Crashed Ice is calling all (Canadian) hockey players

This post is for Fabulous Forum fans who live in Canada.

Pamplona has its running of the bulls.

Filene's Basement has its running of the brides.

And, come Jan. 24, 2009, Quebec again will have what we'll call the skating of the hockey players.

If you're the kind of guy or gal who gets a kick out of using your body to deflect pucks traveling at more than 100 miles per hours, chances are good that Red Bull's Crashed Ice is right up your alley. Or, more accurately, right down the 1,500-foot course that resembles a toboggan chute that zigs and zags through the heart of historic Quebec, dropping nearly 200 vertical feet in the process.

Red Bull, which created the contest a decade ago, limits entry to Canadian citizens. The company will hold qualifying rounds in various Canadian cities to cull the top 100 men. The lucky ones will head to Quebec.

Midnight (EST) on Monday is the entry deadline for the lottery that will determine which lucky Canadians will get the chance to speedskate their way down the course that has hairpin turns, moguls, jumps and ledges built into the chute's ice-covered floor. While the four skaters in each heat try to knock each other down. And a boisterous crowd cheers the action.

Here's how Red Bull describes the planned run:

We've sent the country's top scientists and Zamboni revolutionists to the toughest region of Siberia, where they are currently training on a remote compound. As a result they will return tougher, wiser and with a master blueprint on what is sure to be the most entertaining stretch of ice ever touched by a hockey blade.

Sounds not bad, eh? Well stay tuned ... this is a course with a beginning, middle and end you don't want to miss.

If you haven't seen Crashed Ice, here's a link to some Red Bull video. (Click on 'video' and then take your pick.) YouTube and Yahoo also have plenty of footage from past Crashed Ice contests.

-- Greg Johnson

Photo: Skaters approach the finish line during the 2008 Red Bull Crashed Ice contest. Credit: Didier Debusschere/Red Bull Photofiles

Pro wrestling invades L.A., and Samoa Joe talks about the Lakers

TNA wrestling, home of Sting, Christian, the Dudley Boyz (I mean, Team 3-D), Kurt Angle, Samoa Joe, AJ Styles, Consequences Creed, Awesome Kong, the Latin American Xchange (LAX) and a host of others, is coming to L.A., and in this exclusive video, Samoa Joe has a few comments about the Lakers:

They will be in Ontario on Halloween Night, the Anaheim Convention Center on Nov. 1, and in Bakersfield on Nov. 2.

Now, a lot of people laugh at pro wrestling, but if synchronized swimming is a sport, so is pro wrestling. The only difference between boxing and pro wrestling is, at least pro wrestling admits it is pre-determined.

For more info, go to www.tnawrestling.com

-- Houston Mitchell

Swoosh! Nike reverses course on SF marathon winner

Arien O'Connell, a fifth-grade teacher from New York City, ran the fastest time among women in Sunday's Nike Women's Marathon in San Francisco. (Yes, some men ran, too.)

Except, she did not win, because she did not enter the race as an elite runner, and thus did not begin with the other elites. Instead, she ran with the pack of 20,000 regular folks who started a few minutes later.

At first, Nike refused to acknowledge O'Connell's winning performance. Then C.W. Nevius of the San Francisco Chronicle got hold of the story:

"That's pretty weak," said Jon Hendershott, associate editor of the authoritative Track and Field News magazine, based in Mountain View. "Think of the PR they could have had with this girl coming out of nowhere. It sounds like they got caught totally off guard."

O'Connell, who describes herself as "a pretty good runner," had never managed to break three hours in five previous marathons. But as soon as she started at 7 a.m. Sunday, she knew it was her day. In fact, when she crossed the finish line 26.2 miles later, her time of 2:55:11 was so unexpectedly fast that she burst into tears.

"I ran my best time by like 12 minutes, which is insane," she said.

And now, as CNBC's Darren Rovell reports, Nike has come around.

Congratulations to Arien O'Connell, and to Nike, for quickly Just Doing It ... the right thing, that is.

-- Steve Clow

Photo: Runners in Sunday's Fifth Annual Nike Women's Marathon pass near the Bay Bridge in San Fransisco. Credit: Nike

BMX rider Mike Aitken remains in coma

BMX cyclist Mike Aitken of Murray, Utah, remains hospitalized and in a coma after his crash Sunday during a video shoot in Pennsylvania.

Aitken, 25, who won a recent AST Dew Tour dirt competition in Salt Lake City, is in critical condition at St. Luke's Hospital in Bethlehem, Pa.

While attempting a variation of a 360-degree spin, he over-rotated and landed on his head. He has not regained consciousness, and his injuries include a fractured eye socket and jaw.

After the Dew Tour victory, Aitken said that he would put the prize money into a college fund for his son. But Aitken, who on Wednesday was to celebrate his fourth wedding anniversary, does not have health insurance.

BMX riders are generally deemed too high risk for insurance. His website includes updates on his condition and a link to the Athlete Recovery Fund, which is trying to raise money for the Aitken family.

-- Pete Thomas

Photo: Mike Aitken rides during a winning performance at a recent AST Dew Tour dirt competition in Salt Lake City. Credit: Bo Bridges / AST Dew Tour