BMX’s Laguna has tricks up his sleeve

The next reality TV star could be Las Vegas athlete Ricardo Laguna. MTV announced Monday that he will star in "The Ricardo Laguna Project" on MTV Tr3s, the Spanish-English channel.

Laguna is a BMX bike athlete whose family moved to a Vegas trailer park from La Paz, Mexico, when he was 13.

He was president of his class at El Dorado High School.

And he is one of the world's top BMX riders. He also does charity work with kids, runs his own real estate company, sometimes guest-strips at Chippendales, and once went on a few TV dates with Holly Madison.

He's known for his backflip-no-hander.

"You just go upside-down, let go of your hands, say, 'Hey Mom, look at me, no hands,' " Laguna explains.

Here's his most brazen promise: He wants to set the Guinness World Record for the first person to do a bike backflip over the Welcome to Las Vegas sign.

Normally, he jumps about 6 feet in the air, for a distance of 10 feet. To jump the sign, he'll have to get about 25 feet in the air for a distance of 40 to 60 feet.

He's still working on the logistics of finding someone to build ramps, verify the safety and physics, and get government permits.

"This is something I can't rush," he says. "We have power lines in the way. We have a huge sign. We have only so much room to slow down. So there's a lot of elements we have to prepare for."

If it goes astray, it could end his career or his life. But he vows: "I will conquer it."

I tell him: "How Evel Knievel of you."

"We're gonna give him a run for his money now," Laguna says. "He used to just jump. I'm gonna do jumps and tricks."

His MTV Tr3s show begins at 6 p.m. March 14. In it, his mom, Marisela, stresses that she wants Laguna, 29, to retire. She worries. (She has images of family members on her fingernails.)

Laguna has suffered face wounds and had surgeries on his wrists, knees and ankles.

"The doctor says my body looks like a 60-year-old," he says. "But I still feel like I have a 13-year-old body."

He's so accustomed to pain, he doesn't even take Advil.

His girlfriend, Jenny Jones, says she sometimes drinks wine while watching Laguna jump, to calm her nerves.

He practices on two dirt parks, one in his backyard, in the shadow of Sunrise Mountain and the other behind his family's home.

He's also building the course for, and will compete in, his Ricardo Laguna Dirt Challenge at the Extreme Thing music and sport event March 31 at Desert Breeze Park.

And downtown video game bar Insert Coins will name a drink after him during a viewing party of his TV show on March 21.

His career was made possible by his supportive family, he says. When he was 18, he became a PE teacher's assistant. He quit to pursue BMX after his mom told him, "Work's always going to be here, but you're only going to be young once."

"I told my mom, 'If I make less money than that PE teacher's assistant (job), I'll go back to that job.' "

He has never looked back -- except in the literal sense, when he's upside-down in midair on his bike.

Doug Elfman's column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Email him at delfman@reviewjournal.com. He blogs at reviewjournal.com/elfman.