Aaron Fotheringham was born with spina bifida and has used a wheelchair his whole life. But his years of transportation via four wheels rather than two feet has not discouraged the 21-year-old from becoming well known in the action sports community.

Fotheringham, known as “Wheelz” in the skateboard and BMX world, uses a custom-built wheelchair so he can have a participating role in the culture.

According to an article posted on Crave, the Las Vegas resident’s passion for getting involved was fueled by his older brother’s BMX hobby. One day he asked his brother to push him off a ramp to see how his wheelchair handled the movements. He quickly discovered that he both loved the sport and was capable of doing tricks, but that his wheelchair wouldn’t hold up.

“The wheelchair I started with was pretty heavy, just a standard hospital chair that was a little more sporty, but I destroyed it pretty quick and a bunch of people chipped in and got me a new one, which allowed me to start on the parks more,” Fotheringham told Crave. “I destroyed that one too, so I sent a video to a wheelchair company and they decided to sponsor me. Then it was ultimate freedom.”

The company built him a lime green wheelchair that was created with durability as its focus. It is comprised mainly of titanium, has skateboard-style wheels, heavy-duty back wheels, durable rubber, a suspension system, and has more enduring spokes. Since he found a way to participate without continuously damaging his wheelchairs, he developed the sport of WCMX—wheelchair motocross.

After locking down wheelies, one-wheeled turns, and simple jumps, Fotheringham wanted to advance even more.

Over time, he learned more and more challenging tricks, which started to gain attention in the media and action sports community. He was contacted by the group who created Nitro Circus—an action sports collective that is led by Travis Pastrana that travels around the world performing a number of stunts. Fotheringham ended up being featured in the film, Nitro Circus: The Movie 3D last year. Now, he has been asked to join the live action on the group’s North American Tour, which begins on January 3 in Ontario.

“I came out to practice [for an audition], saw the [Mega] ramp and I was like ‘oh boy’,” he told Crave. “I was like ‘this is show time’ and thought that if I die on the Megaramp, I die doing my dream.”

What makes Fotheringham’s training regimen different from other action sports athletes is that his risk of getting injured is much higher. Because falls at a skatepark could mean the end of his career, he would work on flips over foam pits until he had them perfected. He was able to learn how to do both a front flip and a backflip this way.

“I’ve only been able to land one double-backflip, out of 100 or more tries,” he said in the article. “Every time I try, I get hurt—I break my teeth, I bust my ribs, stuff like that. My favorite thing I’ve learned is how to fall, how to curl up in a ball.”

In addition to planning to tour around North America, he has also toured in Australia.

“It’s cool to see some of the history in my own country and I’m excited to do a tour here,” he told Crave. “I’m so excited to do the North American tour because we’ve never done it before. Every show someone tries something new, or eats it hard—there really is no script.”

For more information about Nitro Circus Live, check out the website.

Image is a screenshot from video by Unit on YouTube