That upside, sideways down feeling

BRADLEY AMBROSE/ Taranaki Daily News

GYRO GYRATIONS: Eddie Brain operates his gyro ride, with his mother Elizabeth Eaton as the test pilot.

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Eddie Brain might be a wheelchair-bound paraplegic, but he felt it was time he got off his butt in the business sense.

So he's designed and had built a trailer-mounted ride-on gyroscope, and he's gone into business charging $5 for a spin in the contraption.

Mr Brain first introduced it at the recent Americarna, where it proved a big success. Now he's intending to set up at Saturday's Multi-Ethnic Extravaganza at Yarrow Stadium, and after that he's going to be a regular alongside the coastal walkway at East End Beach.

It's an exciting new venture for the New Plymouth man, who got tired of sitting around with little to do.

Mr Brain, who lost the use of his legs following a motorcycling accident in England 15 years ago, returned to Taranaki two years ago.

"I applied for several jobs, and to attend various courses at Witt, but I didn't have much luck, and I felt like I was being judged for being in a wheelchair," he said yesterday.

"So I thought, Stuff the lot of them I'll prove that I don't have to sit on my arse all day and live on the benefit."

He recalled being impressed when he watched a ride-on gyroscope in action at a London nightclub, so he conducted his own research which culminated in having one built in Taranaki. Now, he's ready to begin recouping the $20,000 cost of the project.

And to prove just how safe and secure it is, yesterday he let his 76-year-old Auntie Beatrice and his mum Elizabeth have a go."No-one's thrown up yet, because when you're seated in the gyro your stomach is at the centre of it all. So it's not as if you're being chucked around all over the place," he said.