Guinness Record for wheelchair backflip

Aaron Fotheringham, 16, earned a Guinness World Record last weekend as the first person to land a backflip in a wheelchair. (Click the image to see the full photo by Stephen R. Sylvanie/Special to the Home News.) From the Las Vegas Sun:

To achieve the trick, Fotheringham, rolled down a skatepark ramp to generate enough speed. He then went up another ramp and landed his flip on flat ground.

He first completed the trick in 2006, and has dozens of videos of his backflips, but had yet to make it official...

Aaron Fotheringham, who suffers from spina bifida and has been in a wheelchair since he was 13, came up short in his quest to set a record for most consecutive backflips in 45 seconds. His unofficial record is six back flips in a row, however, he could not get consecutive flips Oct. 25.

"I'm a little bit disappointed I didn't get the consecutive flips, but I guess I'm taking it for granted that I got in the book," Fotheringham said.

Wheelchair athlete's back flip lands him in record book (Thanks, Carlo Longino!)

[#1 posted by hlehmann2 , October 31, 2008 10:14 AM]

I think that if they weren't already in a wheelchair, learning to do back-flips might put them in one.

[#2 posted by cstatman , October 31, 2008 10:39 AM]

totally badass.

MAD PROPS for not backing down, accepting and slouching, but driving to continue athleticism and rocking the ramps.

[#3 posted by Crash! Bang! , October 31, 2008 10:44 AM]

i'm confused. if he's the FRIST!, then wouldnt just doing 1 in a row be a record?

[#4 posted by arkizzle , October 31, 2008 11:15 AM]

Roll on, bro.. roll on!

[#5 posted by EddieR , October 31, 2008 11:28 AM]

this must be even more difficult to do with HUGE BALLS. damn impressive.

[#6 posted by MarlboroTestMonkey7 , October 31, 2008 12:55 PM]

Guess bi-fida is not enough, he's going for the self inflicted tri-fida.

[#7 posted by A New Challenger , October 31, 2008 1:21 PM]

Hmmm.... they need to have a Para-X-Games.

[#8 posted by Cunning , October 31, 2008 1:25 PM]

Clicked for the backflip, stayed for the totally cute love story.

[#9 posted by scaught , October 31, 2008 2:50 PM]

LOL @ #5

nice youtube vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5B5iB67Ld0

[#10 posted by w000t , October 31, 2008 2:53 PM]

@ Crash! Bang!

I thought the same thing: How can one be a record, but several weren't enough to be a record? The article doesn't clarify much, but my guess is that the consecutive backflips in 45s record was previously set sans wheelchair, but he was going to beat it avec wheelchair.

[#11 posted by Takuan , October 31, 2008 3:02 PM]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0436613/

[#12 posted by bolamig , October 31, 2008 3:27 PM]

That literally brought tears to my eyes. The youtube video needs to be linked from the wiki for "Balls to the wind". Mad props fo sho!

[#13 posted by veritasluxmea22 , October 31, 2008 9:14 PM]

I do not want to be there if he ever screws one of those flips up. It's bad enough to see a relatively healthy person not land one, but seeing a paralyzed person? But still, "mad props" is right!

[#14 posted by camfrye , October 31, 2008 9:23 PM]

Careful, man! Doing that, you're liable to break your ba-- um, nevermind.

[#15 posted by sammich , October 31, 2008 11:36 PM]

Veritasluxmea22@13 and Camfrye@14 - He's got spina bifida and he's in a wheelchair, there's no reason to assume he's paralyzed. Just saying. :)

[#16 posted by flytch , November 1, 2008 12:36 AM]

this is totally cool... nuts... but cool :)

[#17 posted by Hagrid , November 1, 2008 2:04 PM]

The Las Vegas Sun has an awesome video about this:
http://www.lasvegassun.com/videos/2008/oct/31/1023/