Mathew Olson started hanging out at the city’s skate park when he was 12 years old.

Corey Vanderhoof, 18, performs a trick. Vanderhoof is one of several volunteers who remember older BMX riders helping him to learn tricks during Teen Break and decided to give back. Jillian Danielson/Special to the News-Herald.

Ten years later, Olson’s still hanging out there.

And he’s not alone.

“Pat Tinnell was one of my best friends and I was five years younger than him,” Olson said. “It’s just really reassuring to have someone who is older to give you good advice rather than ‘Get out of here little kid.’ There’s a ton of kids where it is a fine line where they can go down the wrong path or the right path, and things like this in our community really help.”

Olson and a small group of young men could be found tucked away in the farthest corner of Rotary Park during the annual Teen Break event this week hanging out at the skate park. The event provides carnival rides and activities for Lake Havasu City youth during spring break.

All of them men grew up riding their BMX bikes and skateboards at the park during the annual city event. All of them learned how to ride from older BMX role models. All of them said it helped to keep them out of trouble.

And all of them came back this year to make those same differences in younger lives by doing what they do best: riding.

“I know … the kids here and they all look up to me,” said 18-year-old Corey Vanderhoof. “I love to ride. It’s the thing that keeps me out of trouble. I help them the best I can if they don’t understand a trick. I push all the kids to try a new trick.”

Taven Sheffield, 19, also said he remembers his Teen Break years.

“It just really is a positive thing for a lot of these kids, especially kids that aren’t into teen sports. It allows the kids to really express themselves individually,” he said. “These (kids aren’t) terrorizing the town, but all they are doing — more or less — is outreach. It’s actually been a positive influence on me. These kids, if they weren’t out here, they would be in so much trouble. When I was younger, when I was here, I looked up to the BMX guys. It kept me out of trouble. It kept my mind off of things. It’s a workout.”

Donna Carlton, Lake Havsu City recreation aquatics supervisor, tried to stop herself from crying as she talked about the group of volunteers.

She said the group of men in their late teens and early 20s could be across the lake with the college spring breakers.

But they weren’t.

“They said, ‘No, we want to be where we were raised. This is who are and where we belong,’” Carlton said. “We’ve lost a couple, but we have benefited from the ones that we saved big time. I can’t say ‘we saved them.’ They are the ones that have had to make their choices and the way to go.”

Olson said the group not only tries to teach the younger riders BMX tricks, but they also ask them to help pick up trash at the end of the day and to be respectful.

“You don’t need to be disrespectful. You get twice the response out of being polite. You don’t need to be a little jerk,” Olson said, laughing a bit.

The volunteer BMX crew said the community’s riders have outgrown the size and skill level of the park.

“They’ve been here 1,000 times,” Olson said. “They are trying to go bigger (with their tricks).”

Olson and several other members of the volunteer crew wore Pat Tinnell T-shirts Thursday. A non-profit started here four years ago to raise funds to build a new skate park in memory of Tinnell, a soldier who died in Iraq in 2006. The organization has the land promised to them, but has since raised about $145,000 of the needed $1 million for a new park.

“When the park was built, it was great,” Olson said, who now lives in Colorado and tours to compete in BMX competitions. “It’s just really insufficient.”

The group said the park gives riders a local place to go to help keep them off the streets, but since outgrowing the park, riders have resorted to practicing their stunts in local washes.

“There really is a future in this … just as much as any football player or basketball player,” Olson said.

You may contact the reporter at jleatherman@havasunews.com