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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
When Darryl Tait suffered a snowmobiling accident that left him paralyzed from the chest down in 2009, few people would have believed he would one day pull off what he did last Wednesday.

Darryl Tait, inset above, who was paralyzed in 2009 after a snowmobile stunt gone wrong, believes he completed the first wheelchair backflip by somebody with a spinal cord injury on April 5. - photo courtesy of Lawrence Reti

Tait, who now lives in Whitehorse but spent nine years in Yellowknife, landed what he believes to be the first wheelchair backflip by somebody with a spinal cord injury.

"Basically, you know, us people in wheelchairs, we lack mobility, but we don't lack the drive to excel at the things that we love," said Tait. "It definitely helps when you have the support of the North behind you, friends and family. Anything can happen," said Tait of the feat.

See the backflip on YouTube

He said he got the idea to do the flip while bedridden after his accident and watching a video of extreme wheelchair athlete Aaron Fotheringham, who was born without the use of his legs. The difference between Fotheringham and Tait is that Tait had to learn how to use a wheelchair at an older age.

He said he did a flip into a foam pit about a year ago and when he was challenged by friends to do the flip and be able to roll away, he decided to go for it.

It took him a few attempts to land the stunt, wiping out several times before eventually landing it, but he said he was prepared.

"I hit my head pretty good a few times, but I had a neck brace on, I had a full motocross helmet, to take the impact," said Tait.

For the day of the stunt, he had a mattress underneath the plywood ramp to cushion his landing.

He said he had a truck pulling him and his wheelchair at 30 km/h so he would have enough momentum to make the flip. When he finally got it right, he was ecstatic.

"It was just that moment of shock, like 'I'm there!'," said Tait. "I was like, 'well, I did it once. I want to make sure it's not a fluke,' so I rolled into another one just to make sure I had it," he said.

"It was almost like I didn't even care that my legs didn't work anymore, because I was back in that moment having fun," said Tait.

The video his friends took of the stunt and published on You Tube was viewed 1,783 times within a week.

As for people who say he is pushing his luck by continuing with extreme sports, he takes a pragmatic view.

"I'm just doing what I love to do, what makes me happy. Whatever they like to do in their life to make them happy, I'm not going to judge them on anything like that," said Tait.

His parents, Jamie and Barb Tait, who didn't know about the stunt ahead of time, have mixed feelings about their son continuing extreme sports. They are happy and proud that he is doing what he wants to do, but there is always the chance of him hurting himself again. His parents were sound asleep at 11:30 p.m. when their son called to let them know about the stunt.

"Yeah, it's a little bit outside the realm of our comfort zone, but it's always better to hear about it after the fact than it is before," said Jamie. "I'm not especially surprised. His biggest passion in life is adrenaline sports."

"I just knew how excited he was because he was calling us at that hour," said his mother.

She said she sees her son as an inspiration to other people with disabilities.

"People who face those same circumstances can look to people like Darryl and say 'well, if I can get even halfway to where he is living his life, I've succeeded,' she said.

Long-time friend Chris Stapleton, who also enjoys extreme sports, said if the positions were reversed, he doesn't know how he would handle it.

"I can tell you if I was in a wheelchair, I probably wouldn't be that happy and outgoing," said Stapleton.

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