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SCI Superstar: Aaron Fotheringham

“Just when you thought sitting was safe” is Aaron Fotheringham’s awesome tagline. Touring with the Nitro Circus (an extreme sports tour), speaking and doing demos at events and at school, such is the life of your-not-so-average 20 year old from Las Vegas, the very brave soul behind the world’s first wheelchair back flip.

Aaron was born with Spina Bifida, but could never just sit. Wasn’t his thing. After being adopted into a close-knit family as a baby (they adopted 7 kids in total), they’re the reason he’s the extreme adapted athlete he is today.

One of his brothers was into skating, and Aaron would always come along and watch…

After watching everyone have all the fun, at 8 years old Aaron decided it was time to stop watching and he gave a quarter-pipe a taste of his wheels. Sure he fell, but the rest is history. Read this entry

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The ultimate forest riders

How do you like your forest experience? Smooth and easy or rough and dirty?  If you use a wheelchair, there are dozens of mobility devices get that get us out in the woods.

All it takes is some money (definitely some money) and patience while you wait for your order (it’ll be like Christmas when it arrives!).

And don’t think these devices all run on batteries. No siree.  If you’re a paraplegic and love doing as much of the work as you can, just wait till you see the MKII, a super fast off-road mountain trike wheelchair

A double amputee invented the device in the first video, a modification for a Segway that puts a lowered seat on it, allowing people to sit instead of having to stand up to use it.  Watch him take it high speed on forest trails…read this entry

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Breaking barriers with wheelchair breakdance

Back in the year 2000, all you’d see online about wheelchair dance was wheelchair ballroom dance videos or maybe something on wheelchair ballet, but not anymore. Oh no.

Wheelchair dance has come a long way in the last decade, and Auti Angel of Push Girls, one of the best paralyzed hip-hop dancers in the world, has definitely helped make it more popular than ever. So we’ve uncovered a few others.

Mobile phone technology is the reason so much more wc-dance info is online, including the dozens of adapted dance videos that are available.

I’m always searching for videos that prove you can still be a dancer to be reckoned with even if you use a wheelchair, and these following videos do just that.

The first video profiles a young man from France paralyzed in a car accident.  He was a self proclaimed “b-boy” before his injury, so figuring out how to adjust his moves to his body wasn’t something he even needed to think about.

He has invented this leg-crossing method to get into some very cool moves. Watch him perform to Michael Jackson’s “Beat it” and do one of his coolest moves – a wheelchair somersault. Read this entry

by Tiff -

Self-defense, wheelchair style

Have you seen the episode of Celebrity Death match with the tough (and heavily tattooed) quad rugby player, Mark Zupan? He pretty much kicked Chris Pontius’ butt, and it was awesome.

It’s about time the world saw that wheelchair-users can have mad self defense skills. There are a ton of us out there, and you’ll find us at every level of ability (I still have a ways to go).

We can have great upper-body strength, so hey, shouldn’t be all that surprising right? And the following two videos you’re about to see are the BEST of the best when it comes to wheelchair self-defense.

This first video comes from the enlightened self-defense school in San Diego, Jing Chen Koushu. The founder Greg, may be able-bodied, but holy cow is he one of the best self-defense trainers I’ve ever seen for wc-users.

He’s trained Therese Riedel, (a very buff) C5 quad, some of the most intense wheelchair self-defense moves I’ve ever seen anyone her level of spinal cord injury do. Read this entry

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SCI Superstar: Ricky James

One word has been driving Ricky James since he broke his back – perseverance (and he has the entire thing tattooed up his left leg in huge cursive font).

If you know motocross, you probably know who Ricky James is (and maybe knew about him before injury).

He was a rising 15 year old star in the motocross world who started racing at the age of 2 (they called him a “prodigy on two wheels”). He was even home-schooled so he could keep up with his crazy schedule.

Motocross is in Ricky’s blood and always will be. That is why after his accident (he hit a dirt embankment racing Amateurs Nationals in Lake Whitney, Texas), he was the last guy to ever think of wiping his hands clean of the sport he grew up sleeping and breathing.

Are you kidding? “Motocrossers are a different breed,” says Ricky. Read this entry

by Tiff -

Could Tiger Woods play like these guys?

By using either good old-fashioned American ingenuity or the very cool stand-up personal mobility device, the Paragolfer (also known as the Paramobile), the only handicap you have to worry about when you’re out on the links is your number of swings, not your paralysis. See with golf, creativity is key.

It’s funny…so many people think golf is off-limits to people in chairs. But as long as you have the right equipment (and an open-minded golf course that doesn’t think wheelchair-users are the equivalent of lawn-wrecking gophers), you can golf. Really!

All you need is some upper-body movement and determination to get out there.

In this first video, Tim, a paraplegic from Illinois, shows how he’s perfected his golf swing from his manual wheelchair (he doesn’t use any fancy mobility devices either).

By simply twisting his torso to his right (and keeping his legs in their usual position), Tim can swing his club quite impressively (it’s no monster drive, but it flies). And he uses a reacher to set his ball on the tee. Genius! Read this (awesome) entry

by Tiff -

SCI Superstar: Sabrina Cohen

Sabrina Cohen, a C3-5 quad, saw her whole life change on Halloween in 1992 after she left a party with friends. All it took was being a passenger in a car (that decided to suddenly join in on a drag race) for her life to be completely altered.

The car hit a tree, with Sabrina breaking her C3 through C5 vertebrae. But even though she was only 14, she started honing her advocacy skills from the get-go.

In this video you can see one of the first speeches she gave after injury, where she speaks to fellow high school students on the power they have to say ‘no’ to bad decisions.

Despite always holding out hope she’ll get better one day, Sabrina wasn’t about to let her life go on without her. After high school, she went on to graduate with a degree in Communications from the University of Miami and received a masters in Copywriting from the Miami Ad School.

She also started her own ad agency SabCo Productions in 2003. But despite all of her academic and professional success, something was still missing from Sabrina’s life – advocacy. Read this entry

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Getting hitched (on wheels)

Wheelchair-users get married everyday (despite most able-bodied people being shocked).

No, we are not damaged goods; we are some of the most precious cargo around. What’s important is the love that’s shared between two people, not the car you drive.

These two wheelchair wedding videos – one giving advice on planning a wedding if you use a wheelchair, the other showing the coolest first dance I’ve ever seen a wheelchair-user do – prove just how awesome our weddings can still be.

And what I love about these videos is that they’re not about a bride or groom walking down the aisle, the media‘s favorite subject of late (we get it already; people feel cooler when they walk!).

The second video is titled, “A Perfect Wedding Dance – Bride in a Wheelchair” (courtesy of “Shake It” by Metromix) and it shows the coolest first dance I never seen a wheelchair-user do.

The bride Angie is a paraplegic and she hired a choreography company (that specializes in first dances) to create the first dance for herself and able-bodied groom.

From start to finish, the routine is flawless.  It’s an up-tempo song (hip-hop) and she even throws a cute kick in there at the end. You gotta watch it. Read this entry

by Tiff -

My Gimpy Life trailer drops

I don’t mean to be bossy, but you gotta watch this trailer of the upcoming web series (a TV show available online), My Gimpy Life, starring my awesome friend Teal Sherer.

When it comes to disability in the media, I don’t think I’ve seen anything quite as smart, witty and well, as perfect, as this.

She’s a paraplegic actress in Hollywood (in real life) who plays a working paraplegic actress in Hollywood, and it’s a comedy (a damn good one). That’s all you need to know.

Can’t wait for this series to premiere July 31st! Now, prepare to have your mind blown:

by Tiff -

SCI Superstar: Daryl “Chill” Mitchell

Maybe you recognize him from NBC’s Ed or maybe you remember him from when he could walk when he was in Veronica’s Closet.  Or maybe it was that show Brothers on Fox a few years back.

That’s what’s so incredibly blog-worthy (times infinity) about Daryl “Chill” Mitchell is that he’s had this amazingly long acting career, millions recognize him, but he’s managed to do all this despite becoming a wheelchair-user midway through his career.

This was not something he had planned for (obviously). Daryl was a tall drink of water before his motorcycle accident.  Being naturally funny, he was cast in dozens of TV shows and movies in the 1990′s, including The Cosby Show, Law and Order, The John Larroquette Show, 10 Things I Hate About You, Galaxy Quest and Home Fries.  

His career was on fire right before his motorcycle happened in 2001. While riding his bike, he hit loose gravel and wiped out, becoming a paraplegic. But Daryl couldn’t sit still, and he didn’t. Read this entry