Travis Pastrana sits on his living room sofa. At 15, he looks fresh-faced and happy. He radiates a kind of calm sweetness. But don't be deceived. Pastrana, of Annapolis, is not your normal 15-year-old.

A couple of weeks ago, in fact, he was so far over the edge that he was even judged too extreme for ESPN's X Games. The X stands for Extreme, but when Pastrana took off on his 125cc yellow Suzuki and landed in San Francisco Bay, it was too much for ESPN producers.

"I was just happy," Pastrana said of his plunge after winning the gold medal in the first freestyle Moto X competition. "I didn't know it was going to be such a big deal."

ESPN allowed Pastrana to keep his medal, but refused to show the footage of his jump into the bay and would not pay him the $10,000 first prize.

About $2,500 of the money has gone to pay for fishing his motorbike from the bay. Another $2,500 is being donated to a Save the Bay charity and the rest is being held, indefinitely, until it is determined what other fines may be incurred from the jump that is also against EPA rules, port rules and San Francisco laws.

ESPN president George Bodenheimer said through a spokesman that he didn't want to incite others to imitate Pastrana in future events and pointed to safety issues outside the competition area.

But in its efforts to downplay the incident, ESPN has inadvertently placed the spotlight squarely on Pastrana and his flight.

Since returning home to Annapolis, he has been interviewed widely by the media and last week was invited to appear on Jay Leno's "Tonight Show." He declined for the time being.

All of which could result in a soaring ego. But Pastrana laughs. "My hat size is still small," he says.

That, too, seems extreme, because he has a load of reasons to feel pretty good about himself:

He is a home-schooled student who met the high school graduation requirements three years early. He is now a University of Maryland freshman working toward a degree in speech communications through the Internet and, his parents say, maintaining an A average.

He has defended his amateur national Motocross championship 12 times, won one world freestyle title and the X Games title. He has been riding motorcycles since age 4, when he was given a 50cc bike.

He has been described as "the next great rider" in Motocross, the events of which are contested on an undulating track with elevations as high as 80 to 90 feet. By the time he goes pro this fall, his family expects him to sign a six-figure contract, which would be the largest rookie Motocross contract in American Motorcycle Association history.

He has invented four freestyle jumps -- the Cliffhanger, in which his feet are under the handle bars and his arms are in the air over his head while his cycle soars; the Lazy Boy, in which he puts his feet under the handlebars and reclines, his arms behind his head; the Rodeo, in which he holds the handlebar with one hand, swings his legs straight out front and clicks his heels while waving his other hand in the air, just like he's bull riding, and then lands with no hands; and the Indian Air, in which he does the Superman fender grab (one hand grabs the fender, while the rest of his body is stretched out behind him) and with both legs back as far as they can go, he crosses his feet.

"Getting there is easy," he said, with a grin. "It's getting back on that's hard."

Right now, he is still the only person ever to perform the Indian Air or the Rodeo.

The risky maneuvers come with a price. In the last three years, he has had 18 broken bones and eight operations. Ask him what bones he has broken and he starts at the bottom and works his way up: "My foot, ankle, tibia, knee cap (actually the growth plate in the knee), pelvis, multiple hip fractures, dislocated spine, multiple wrists fractures -- about five times each -- thumb, knuckles, fingers and elbow."

The worst of those, he said, was when his femur came right through his knee, broke his tibia and tore major ligaments. It took nine months for him to heal.

But in the minds of others, his most severe injury came last October in Lake Havasu City, Ariz., when he landed short on a 120-foot jump and separated his pelvis from his spine.

"This is in all the crash tapes," Pastrana said, as he shows the video of the disaster. "My head actually touched my stomach there was so much force."

He seems pleased that his wreck was ugly enough to make the crash videos, and said, he actually likes watching them.

"The crash videos are probably the best videos on the market," he said. "Crashing isn't something I want to do, but you can learn from them. You're scared to a point. But if you have to second-guess yourself, you shouldn't be out there.

"I'm very sure every day that I'm not getting hurt today."

But on that October day, he did get hurt. Landing short, he dislocated his sacroiliac joints by two centimeters, in effect tearing apart the connection between the upper and lower parts of his body.

As his parents watched that day, his dad assumed the worst.

"I thought he was dead," he said.

Robert Pastrana, 50, the brother of former University of Maryland quarterback Alan Pastrana, does estimates for the family construction business, Charles Pastrana and Sons, Inc.

When he was younger, he, too, used to race motorcycles. But now, he said, he can hardly stand to see the stunts.

"I don't like watching," said Robert. "I watch him less than anyone else. It's not safe."

But, he adds, he won't stop his son. "I know what it's like at that age," he said. "No one could have stopped me, either."

Pastrana's mom, Debby, an airline attendant, was shooting him on a video camera when her son crashed. She finished before gasping.

"Whenever he has had an accident, I've been so upset I've dropped the camera and stopped filming," she said. "And every time, I hear, 'Mom, why didn't you get the wreck so we can see what happened?'

"This time, I was thinking about that, and I got it all before I ran. And when he woke up in the hospital and was only half conscious, he asked, 'Do you have it on film?' "

This kid, who is as slim as a length of rope, is one tough teen. He had a concussion once that left him unconscious for 30 hours. Debby said that while she was waiting through that one, she determined the motorcycle riding had to stop.

"But he loves it, and he has a God-given talent," she said. "How can you take that away? He gives 120 percent. He's not reckless. He's not on the street or doing drugs. He's a good kid, who makes good grades. I feel we have to support him."

But there was fear last October. According to Pastrana's personal therapist, Mark Chaput of HealthSouth of Annapolis, cases of people separating their pelvis and spine without neurological damage or post-injury paralysis are extremely rare.

Pastrana spent two months in a wheelchair and two months in rehabilitation, stretching and conditioning his 6-foot-2, 160-pound body back into shape.

It seems ancient history. He is thinking about turning 16 this October. About getting his Maryland driver's license. About the 2000 Ford F250 truck -- his truck -- that should be delivered a couple of days before his birthday.

He's thinking about turning pro and hitting the AMA circuit full time.

"My goal," he said, "is to be a Motocross racer and be the best I can be. I think I've already got a pretty good start."

Pub Date: 7/13/99