Modified Wheels Help Local Man Ride Out Dreams After Paralysis

ORANGEVALE (CBS13) – His enthusiasm and zest for life is not hard to miss.

Trevor Snowden has taken risks for years – the only difference now, he does it in a wheelchair.

"I'm 45 years old, and it makes me feel like I'm 16 again," Trevor Snowden said.

He was once a snowboarder until injured in a competition in 1997.

Snowden overshot a landing, broke his T12 vertebrae and was paralyzed from the waist down.

"When they told me after surgery, I basically accepted it for what it was. Figured it was out of my hands and we'll see what happens," Snowden said.

Unhappy with the wheelchairs out on the market, he decided to invent his own.

"You weren't really discouraged in the beginning because that's all you knew, but after a while you realize you want to do more with yourself," Snowden said.

And this is what came to be.

"Bouncing up and down, you can tell you float a lot easier," Snowden said.

Snowden invented not only a wheelchair with suspension that allows for a little more freedom and movement, but added an electric scooter and a motor – and you have what he calls Trevair.

"People are dubbing it the 'coolest wheelchair ever' and I'm accepting that because it really makes you feel like you have a lot more freedom," Snowden said.

Snowden's done some daredevil stunts with it – like jump over cars.

He calls the sport "Wheelchair Supercross."

"All that suspension allows you to go over obstacles and bumps and jumps," Snowden said.

He even offers a camp at the Cummings Park BMX track in Folsom so other folks can have in on the fun.

Snowden says the payoff is watching kids feel and do something they never thought possible.

He hopes "Wheelchair Supercross" will become a Paralympic sport someday.