Aaron Wheelz Fotheringham Makes First Jump on MegaRamp in Wheelchair

Wheelchair athlete makes history with 50-foot MegaRamp jump

By: Pete Thomas, GrindTV.com

Lots of history has been made on the MegaRamp, mostly by skateboarders, for whom the daunting apparatus was unveiled a decade ago. This was in the form of first-ever tricks, youngest-to-perform-tricks, and so forth. But during a weekend exhibition in Brazil, Aaron Fotheringham, who has no use of his legs, sped down the MegaRamp's towering ramp in a wheelchair, soared artfully but nervously across a 50-foot gap, and negotiated an incredibly smooth landing, drawing raucous applause from about 10,000 fans.

The MegaRamp, however, is not finished with athletes after the gap. The down-sloped landing leads to a vertical quarterpipe wall, which sends athletes airborne anew. Fotheringham, 21, who was born with a birth defect known as Spina Bifida, nearly stuck his landing on the quarterpipe, too, but lost balance and tipped and spilled down the smooth surface to the flat area below. (It's worth noting that this happens on more than 80 percent of MegaRamp runs by able-bodied skaters and BMXers. Completing an entire run on the MegaRamp is that difficult.)

"Wheelz" Fotheringham, a wheelchair motocross athlete from Las Vegas, had made a special kind of history merely by clearing the gap and sticking the landing, on a big-air device that to this day is attempted only by a brave few top-level action sports athletes.

Inspirational? In the video Fotheringham admits to being nervous before and even during his run. But after all, he's only human.

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WWII bomb detonated in Munich, Germany

This is not a test. This is a video of an actual World War II-era, American-made bomb going off in the center of Munich, Germany.

According to its  description on YouTube, the explosive was discovered on Monday night by workers at the site of a building that was being demolished. Officials realized that the 550-pound explosive could not be defused, and decided on a controlled detonation. In addition, the report notes:

Overnight, 2,500 residents were evacuated from the area closest to the bomb, with others living further away being told to stay in their homes.

Experts decided it was not possible to make the device safe because of its unusual fuse, which operated by means of a chemical reaction rather than the mechanical device that many Allied World War II bombs used.

Spiegel noted that the explosion blew out windows, caused some rooftops to catch on fire, and half of one house to collapse. But there are no reports of injuries. But this will certainly not be the last blast associated with a bomb from the past.

A bomb expert told the publication, "Unexploded bombs are becoming more dangerous by the day through material fatigue as a result of aging and through erosion of safety elements in the trigger mechanisms."

The video shows a spectacular explosion lighting up the night sky in a city neighborhood dense with buildings.

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