In Utah, just when you think the temperature will be perfect today because you’ve had a week of 70 degrees, suddenly it’s 100 degrees outside and hiking sounds more heat stroke inducing than nature’s refreshment. So you stay at home where your disappointment turns to complaining. 

Now imagine you’re in a wheelchair. The day truly is perfect and you have that same craving for time in the mountains.You look at your chair and remember that your stiff, tall wheels would mean you’d spend more time stuck in the dirt than moving over it.

Extreme Motus, a Utah original outdoor wheelchair company, is giving wheelchair-bound people and their families the freedom to leave their house and explore the infinite variety of outdoor activities, just like everyone else. 

And that means everywhere.

How they Started

Extreme Motus opened shop four years ago under the combined genius of Adam Beesley, Dale Pitts and Todd Loader.

Pitts, a retired firefighter, met a family who suffered through a fatal and debilitating accident. One of the young girls was left wheelchair bound and no longer went on school field trips. Pitts developed a wheelchair for her that required two extra people to operate, but allowed her to be as mobile as everyone else her age. 

After years of tweaks and improvements, Extreme Motus now offers their best chair yet: the Emma X3 All-Terrain Wheelchair.

The three wheels are inflated to a maximum 4 psi, which allows for a smooth ride on grass, gravel, rocks, mud and snow, and it can even float on water. 

At an average of 6 feet long and 32 inches wide (other sizes are available based on individual need), it looks massive, but only weighs 50 lbs and can be folded in half for easy transport. 

Extreme Motus Tests

Ryan Grassely and Sam Durst are constantly making videos and showing off the abilities of the chair. They have been friends since high school and now spend their days making sure the wheelchairs can take anything and everything nature can throw at them.

Using Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, etc, they post videos almost daily of the chair in skate parks, skiing, getting through a Dirty Dash, and hiking up and down Arches and Bryce Canyon. 

In the past, Sam, along with his mother, was confined to the car while his family hiked around Utah.

“It changes everything for the whole family,” Grassley said. After Sam’s first test run with the chair in Arches, the whole family dynamic was changed forever. “Sam’s Mom was crying because it had been 36 years of shared disability. The most beautiful places are totally inaccessible to the immobile. It makes nature accessible.”

Orders come from all over the US, Canada, UK, and Australia. The chair is shipped fully assembled and can be used right out of the box.

Grassley is constantly on the phone answering questions about the chair. Extreme Motus isn’t shy about talking about their competition. There are many chairs available that provide increased mobility for the wheelchair-bound, but all come with their pros and cons. Some have tank-like tread to navigate sand, while others mimic a four-wheeler and are motorized. Some have a single wheel and attach to the back of a bike.  

These chairs can weigh several hundred pounds, and can be harder to take on an airplane or too heavy for the back of a van. Every brand has their pros and cons.

Extreme Motus offers loaners so people can test the chair for themselves. The chair isn’t cheap, and insurance doesn’t even come close to covering the cost.

Getting Outdoors

Some states or organizations may offer grants, but the cost is out-of-pocket for most people. “Insurance doesn’t care if a person in a wheelchair ever leaves their house. A lot of people are stuck going to Disneyland for every vacation,” Grassley said. This chair opens up the rest of the planet as a vacation destination. 

“One woman from Montana was crying on the phone. She knew her non-verbal, quadriplegic son is happier in nature, but she couldn’t get him there. Now she could take her son to those places.”

If anything goes wrong with the bike, though not a whole lot CAN go wrong, repairs are easy. A hole in a tire can be fixed quickly with a soldering iron. Brakes can be replaced in any typical bike shop. So far, the bikes have held up to their promise. Motus has yet to see a bike come back with problems or customer dissatisfaction. For more information on these bikes, visit Extreme Motus | All-Terrain Wheelchair Making Nature Accessible, or you can learn more about Extreme Motus on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram.

Feature Image: Sam Durst and his parents, Roger and Christine, on a hike. Photos courtesy of Extreme Motus.