SAN JOSE — Standing on the edge of the city’s new BMX park at Lake Cunningham Action Sports Park Saturday, Nova Hairston described her excitement as she watched fellow bikers whiz through the fresh dirt jump line, with one word: “Wow.”

“I can’t wait to ride,” she said. “This is gorgeous. Not just how the jumps look, but also the scenery with the trees. You don’t feel like you’re in a city.”

Hairston was one of dozens of BMX riders at the park’s grand opening Saturday — a milestone for the local dignitaries and professional riders who for the past decade have advocated passionately for the new bike park. Their hope is that it offers more than just giving a riders a place to hone their craft. They also want to introduce children to a new sport that gets them out of their homes, off their tablets and, more importantly, keeps them out of trouble.

Hairston, an intermediate rider from San Rafael, started riding BMX ten years ago. Nowadays, that passion includes exposing inner-city kids to the sport.

“Everyone has their own thing in life, what they really love,” she said. “A lot of kids, this is their thing and they don’t have access to it. So getting more parks out there keeps them off of video games, keeps them off the streets. It gives them something to do.”

Angel Rios, director of the city’s Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services, called the park, “the best gang prevention there is.”

“We are just ecstatic today,” he said.

The $2.2 million, 8.5-acre bike park — an addition to the 68,000 square-foot Lake Cunningham Skate Park — is said to include the most riding features of any bike park in the country, with 45 riding elements for all level of riders and ages. The features are spread throughout six riding zones: beginner and advanced pump tracks; a dual slalom track; a dirt jump zone; a slopestyle zone; a skills trail; and a drop zone.

Santa Clara County Supervisor Cindy Chavez said the park “demonstrates complete respect for all types of activities in our community.”

“This kind of park is not just important for the people who use it,” she said. “It’s important for a community to say, ‘there’s room for skate parks, there’s room for BMX parks, there’s room for cricket.’ There has to be room for all of us who live, work and play in this community.”

Chavez, along with Santa Clara County Supervisor Dave Cortese and former San Jose Vice Mayor Rose Herrera were credited Saturday with salvaging Lake Cunningham during the great recession and with championing construction of the BMX park during their time on the San Jose City Council.

“I think we all remember there were a lot of tough times just a few years ago when we weren’t sure if we could keep operating what was happening here,” said San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo. “Rose and a coalition of volunteers really took it upon themselves to find every single quarter under every couch cushion to keep it going. We’re so grateful for the energy of this community to ensure that every kid, whether small or big, has an opportunity to have fun here in San Jose.”

When he was a kid, the only thing BMX pro Peter Brandt said he dreamed of doing was riding and racing BMX. But there weren’t any riding tracks around at the time, so eventually, he made his own.

“To have somebody actually build something that’s this impressive and specific for today’s standards… A kid that’s riding out here could potentially end up in the Olympics or at least have the time of his life, which is so important,” said Brandt, a member of the BMX Freestyle Team, which performed a freestyle show Saturday.