A Very Inspiring Story

We rip on a lot of idiots here at this site, and rightfully so, but sometimes, every once in a while, something really cool happens. And we don't mind giving those things their just due as well. So, next time someone whines about not being able to do something, show them this post.

Las Vegas teen rides 'extreme' wheelchair flip to fame (AP)
It's easy to spot Aaron Fotheringham spinning and hesitating atop the rim of a half-pipe before plunging into the mass of teenage boys zipping around the neighborhood skate park.

He's the one in the wheelchair, the one with the bright yellow helmet, the one who does the back flip that has made him an Internet and international celebrity.

His friends slap him high-fives as they pass on their BMX bikes and skateboards. They call him "Wheels."



Fotheringham, a high school freshman whose mom calls him a very average student, talks about angles and slope, inertia and momentum as he tries to describe how he learned to do his signature back flip.

"Sometimes you have to be precise with speed. And you never want to go in backward."

Fotheringham was born with spina bifida, a defect of the neural tubes that affects more than 70,000 people in the United States, according to the Spina Bifida Association, a Washington-based advocacy group that features Fotheringham on its Web site.

Six years ago, Aaron's older brother, Brian, riding a BMX bicycle, coaxed him into "dropping in" to a half-pipe at a skate park near their northwest Las Vegas home.

Aaron fell, climbed back in the chair and did it again. He got a motocross helmet, elbow pads, a seat belt. Now he practices wheelchair tricks almost every day, sometimes for international audiences.

"It just takes a lot of trials and errors," he says.

"Concussions are temporary," he adds, grinning again, "but backing down is permanent. Not doing it is a missed opportunity."

"It's cool what he does," says Cody Manring, 14, leaning both elbows on the handlebars of his red BMX bicycle. "He's inspiring other people."

Now get up off your lazy ass and do something today!