Aaron Fotheringham of Las Vegas, or Wheelz, is a four-time winner of the Wheelchair X Games World Championships. He recently landed the first Wheelchair Flair/backflip 180. And he’s coming to Park City this Saturday.
Jared Dangerfield is the programs director of Wasatch Adaptive Sports. He says Wheelchair Palooza is an opportunity to celebrate wheelchair athletes and watch Fotheringham perform and teach tricks, and have an overall party.
“Yeah, so we're, it's open for all wheelchair users and their family to come in and meet Aaron,” he says. “See the tricks that he's doing? Maybe people have seen him on America's Got Talent, where he's done front flips, back flips, all sorts of crazy things. And then we will also be there with Wasatch Adaptive and we'll have mountain bikes and other adaptive equipment for people to try out around Woodward.”
Dangerfield says Fotheringham has many tricks up his sleeve that he will teach.
“So the wheelie is a classic, always useful to get around, but fun in the skate park, learning how to drop into the skate bowls,” Dangerfield says. “He's, he does a trick where you get on one of your wheels. So going off to the side and spinning in circles on one will. I've seen him try to teach people that at the past wheelchair Palooza.”
Dangerfield says where’s there’s a trick, there’s also the potential crash.
“Aaron has a cool mentality. I've been able to meet him before and, you know, falling is part of the game,” Dangerfield says. “And so he is not afraid to not land his first tricks and try to teach people how to crash safely when they're trying new tricks as well.”
Wheelchair Palooza takes place on Saturday September 24th from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Pre-registration is encouraged at http://www.wasatchadaptivesports.org
The event is free for wheelchair users and their families. It’s co-sponsored by Challenged Athletes Foundation. There will be free pizza.
