The story of Aaron Fotheringham aka Wheelz
Aaron was born with Spina Bifida, a birth defect of the spinal cord, which resulted in him having no use of his legs. He is the third of six children, all adopted.
Aaron never lets anything stop him through the power of manifesting his incredible spirit. Even as a baby and small child, he did anything anyone else his age could do; he just had to figure out how to make it work for him. He rolled over, sat up, and even crawled (on hands and belly, no leg action) pretty much on schedule. Within days of receiving his first walker, he was off and running. Next came crutches, which he mastered quickly. He would put on a Superman cape and blast down the hall on crutches believing, like any other 4-year-old, that he could fly.
Aaron started riding at skateparks at the age of 8 when his older brother Brian, a BMXer, said he should drop in. He had been going to the park with Brian and their dad for weeks, but Aaron would just watch from behind the fence. The first time was scary, and he fell hard, but he was never one to give up just because it wasn’t easy. So he tried again and from then on he was hooked.
“When I was a kid I dreamed about being a pro-skater or a pro-BMX rider, I just loved watching X Games,” he said. “I was born with spinal bifida and it gave me a different set of wheels to try and make it happen.”
At the beginning of his career, Aaron entered and won a few BMX Freestyle competitions, including the legendary 2005 Vegas AmJam BMX Finals, but for Aaron that was always secondary to the joy of riding and hanging out with friends at all the skateparks in Las Vegas.
Aaron now adds new titles to his impressive roster in Guinness World Records. He currently holds the First landed wheelchair backflip (in 2008), and Highest ramp jump by wheelchair (60 cm in 2010), and the Longest duration balancing a side wheelie(manual wheelchair) (18.22 seconds in 2012) titles.
Guinness World Records adjudicator Adam Brown was onsite to verify the attempts, and this his account of how the day unfolded.
“Aaron was very enthusiastic from the start and was excited for the day ahead. He had tremendous faith that his ability and experience would be enough to achieve the records.”
Sources:
- https://youtu.be/U2D6Iy7m7qI
- https://www.aaronfotheringham.com/about/
- https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2018/11/aaron-fotheringham-jumps-70-ft-as-he-sets-three-extreme-wheelchair-records-despit-546678
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