When disability meets courage
Aaron Fotheringham in stunt mode
Aaron Fotheringham is a wheelchair user that hasn’t let his wheelchair get in the way of participating in extreme sports. At the age of 14, Aaron Fotheringham was inducted into the Guinness Book of World Records for doing the first back flip in a wheelchair. He calls his method of wheelchair extreme sports “hardcore sitting”.
Born November 8th, 1991 in Las Vegas, Nevada, Aaron was born with spina bifida, a congenital defect in which a vertebra is malformed. When several vertebrae are affected, one is often reliant on crutches or a wheelchair. Aaron has been in a wheelchair full time since the age of 8. He always had a love for extreme sports often going with his brother to the skate park to watch him ride BMX bikes. Eventually, with his brothers urging, Aaron started riding the ramps with his wheelchair. Aaron got a new wheelchair that was lightweight and had a four wheel suspension that cushioned his landings and allowed him to perform the same sorts of tricks that BMX bikers did. Aaron partnered up with a wheelchair company as a consultant to redefine their chairs to real world situations and in return, Aaron received a fully customized wheelchair.
Extreme sports are dangerous to say the least. Aaron has suffered many injuries including a broken elbow. In order to practice new tricks in a safer environment, Aaron first does tricks into a bed of cushioned blocks. Once more comfortable, he puts a ‘rezi’, a harder plastic sheet, over the cushions before he graduating to a regular skate ramp. When asked about practice, Aaron said “I don’t think of it as practice. I think of it all as a fun way of life!” Aaron also performs an 180 degree aerial and is currently working towards fusing both the aerial and back flip into a trick called the ‘flair’. Since his feat with the wheelchair back flip, he has conquered a 350 foot ramp, appeared on shows like Jacked Up where he was paired with a BMX biking star to compete, Secret Millionaire where he received a $20,000 donation, and he appears on the hit show Glee! as Kevin McHale’s wheelchair double.
In 2006, Aaron placed fourth in the intermediate BMX division. He continues to compete in the Vegas AM Jam Series against other BMX bikers. He also recently joined the Nitro Circus and he will be on tour with them next year in Australia.
Aaron has become one of the most famous Extreme Sports athletes in the the genre in spite of being a wheelchair user. He has overcome every challenge to do what he loves most and became an icon and role model for the other wheelchair sports athletes in the process.