Unstoppable: A New Way of Riding the Skate Park

Aaron tried his first backflip at a training camp at Woodward West in California. He practiced the trick for a whole week, slamming constantly and knocking himself out a time or two, but he was determined. On July 13, 2006 he finally landed his first flip and since has landed numerous times in Las Vegas at his local skatepark. “Aaron used to play basketball, but it was too slow for him,” his mom says.

That was the day a sport Aaron has dubbed  “hard core sitting” was born for him. Since then he’s been ripping up the park and those who’ve seen him are in awe of what he can pull in his wheelchair. Don’t take our word for it though. Check out his incredible wheel chair backflips with your own eyes by clicking here>

Did You Know... Did you know Travis Pastrana was briefly paralyzed?    Read more about Travis and other athletes that have been paralyzed: Click Here>

Aaron is a “hard core sitter” instead a skater or BMXer because he was born with a condition called Spina Bifida. This is perhaps a word you’ve heard, but chances are you don’t know what it means. Spina Bifida is a spinal cord birth defect.  It occurs in the very first months of gestation and about 1/1000 babies are affected by it. The affects are very much the same as a spinal cord injury. The defect can occur at any point along the spinal column.  Aaron's spinal cord stops at about L-2, a location on his spine right about the small of his back. He has some feeling and very little control from his mid-thigh down. This means Aaron has used crutches or a wheelchair his whole life.

When Aaron was eight he dislocated his hip and it wasn’t able to be fixed, so he began using his wheelchair full time. “Aaron was scared to drop in at first, but it was fun too. He just kept at it until he got where he is today,” says his mother, Kaylene Fotheringham. “I worry some, but mostly I want him to have fun and know that he can do anything he wants.  I watch him frequently and he is in no more danger than any kid at the skatepark.”

So how does the ninth grader do it? “I never really thought about it. You have to be able to get hurt and just get up and try it again because if you crash hard it doesn’t feel good. That trick took a lot of crashing to nail.”

And what’s next for the tricky hard core sitting enthusiast? A double backflip of course. He figures if Travis can do it, why can’t he? “Seeing Travis do that made me feel like my one back flip was crap!”

The funny thing about Aaron though is he’s quick to say in spite of his daredevil ways and six years of ripping in the park, he’s scared of heights. He once did a fifteen foot big air ramp and thinks that might have been the limit for him. Forget the 90 foot Danny Way big air ramp. “That is crazy. If I had a parachute maybe.”

Author and Quad Rugby Star Mark Zupan talks about the flip and accessible actions sports for those with physical handicaps. Click Here to Hear the Full Segment