World’s First Wheelchair Double Backflip by Aaron Fotheringham

posted on Sep 17 by Amelia in the Disability News, Fun, Wheelchair Sports category

We were first awed by Aaron Fotheringham’s performance in 2006 when he accomplished the world’s first single backflip in a wheelchair at the age of 14.  The feat landed him a spot in the record books, and he has been featured at many sporting events inspiring people all over the world.  Since his first triumph, he set a new goal that took even more courage.  After a countless amount of failed attempts over several months including multiple bruises, several concussions and a broken elbow, Aaron Fotheringham, now age 18, has succeeded in performing the world’s first double backflip in a wheelchair.

Aaron Fotheringham was born with spina bifida and as a result is paralyzed from the waist down.  He never let this stop him, though, and his brother inspired him to join him at skate parks at the age of 8.  He spent most of his childhood at the skate park and imitated all the tricks using his wheelchair that the other skaters were doing.

‘I grew to like my chair because it was like having a skateboard with me all the time.’

Clinging onto an extended bungee rope, that pulled him and his wheelchair towards a ramp, he finally fulfilled his second dream of the double backflip at an extreme sports training camp on Aug. 26.

“It was the best feeling ever, I can’t even explain how happy I was,” he said.  “I’d been trying and trying so hard and to finally get it I was like, ‘Whoa, did I just really land it?’ I had to check my camera the next morning to make sure!”

He was excited to call his mom to tell her the big news.  She has always been a huge supporter of her son, although she confesses that it is very hard for her to watch him fall.

He calls the double backflip the “Bible Backflip” because “it takes a whole lot of faith and courage to pull off.”

Aaron Fotheringham also wants to show the world that being in a wheelchair doesn’t have to be a hindrance.

“There’s no reason to look at a wheelchair as a medical device, it’s better to look at it like a bike, we’re on it not in it,” he says defiantly.

Aaron is currently on a world tour for the American TV show Nitro Circus, where stuntman Travis Pastrana and his friends perform nail-biting stunts in different countries.

In other  news that will trouble his mother, Aaron said: “The next stunt I want to do is a front flip and then a double front flip. I’m not going to stop. There will always be another stunt to try.”

Watch Aaron’s first double backflip video below: