Aaron Fotheringham

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Aaron Fotheringham (born November 8, 1991 in Las Vegas, Nevada) is a wheelchair athlete, or 'wheelchair skateboarder' who performs tricks adapted from skateboarding and BMX.

Aaron calls this ‘hardcore sitting’. He is famed for being the first person to successfully perform a back flip [1] in a wheelchair at the age of 14. He performs other tricks in his wheelchair including a 180 degree 'aerial'. He plans to fuse the back flip with the 180 aerial into what is known as a ‘flair’.

Image:Aaron-1.jpg

Aaron has Spina Bifida; he has had a wheelchair since the age of three and although he used crutches early on, he has been in a wheelchair fulltime since the age of eight. He would watch his brother riding his BMX at the skate park and one day his brother told him that he should try riding his chair in the park. Aaron later noted that “I did, and I was hooked”[2].

Aaron got a new wheelchair which was both lightweight and featured four wheel suspension. This enabled him to perform the same sorts of tricks that skateboarders and BMXers can do as the suspension cushioned his landings. Aaron has worked with Colours Wheelchairs to design a custom made chair with shock absorbers and is in Aaron’s words ‘pretty much indestructible’[3].

He now competes in the Vegas Am Jam series in skate park competitions usually competing against BMX riders. He placed fourth in the intermediate BMX division in a competition held at Sunny Springs Skate Park on Aug. 26, 2006 [4].

Aaron’s advice to others attempting to try these tricks is to wear a helmet. He has suffered several injuries performing these tricks including a broken elbow. He tries out new tricks by performing them first into cushions. Then he graduates to a ‘rezi’ a harder plastic sheet over the cushions, before attempting the new trick on a regular skateboard ramp[5].

When asked about having to practice, Aaron responded "I don’t think of it as practice, I think of it as a fun way to live my life"[6].