A mobility-challenged individual’s seating needs are as unique as their fingerprint and DNA. Everyone has had a different patient journey resulting in them requiring a wheelchair. Some use a wheelchair all the time, both at home and away, while others use it only for select occasions. Additionally, no two people have the same physique and posture, size and weight, and comfort preferences. With the world’s population now over 8 billion, that means there are conceivably over 8 billion different “perfect” seating configurations!
At Kootenay Columbia Home Medical Equipment (KCHME), our company DNA is focused on offering custom solutions unique to each client. Given this philosophy, when we heard that Colorado’s Ride Designs was bringing their popular Custom Seating Certification Course north to British Columbia in May 2025, we seized the opportunity.
“We are excited to be bringing our certification course on the road to our Canadian friends,” said Ryan Crosby, field sales support manager with Ride Designs. “We feel this is a great opportunity to partner with local suppliers and clinicians to make custom Ride Designs seating more accessible to the masses.”
Ride Designs specializes in developing seating systems that enhance mobility, improve function, optimize posture and protect skin. The company’s advanced systems also help boost postural control and stabilize the pelvis and trunk, often resulting in increased performance, freedom of movement and ease of use.
Through Ride’s commitment to creating and providing seating systems optimized to each user, the company has developed a series of Ride University courses including its Custom Seating Certification Course attended by members of the KCHME team.
During the three-day course, we experienced both hands-on skills training and theoretical insights into a variety of early and late intervention seating strategies. The course also covered different postural tendencies along with handling unique body postures. We were honoured to gain individualized counselling and hands-on experience working with wheelchair users dealing with real-life seating challenges, sharing their unique patient journeys through the prism of the seating challenges and successes they have personally undergone.
Among those representing Ride Designs was Daniella Giles (second from the right in the picture at the top of this page). Daniella is Ride’s North American clinical education manager and the lead instructor at the seating certification course she has traditionally offered out of the company’s home base in Colorado. Combined with over 20 years of experience as a PT, plus both a master’s and a Doctorate in Physical Therapy, Daniella offered the perfect balance of education and real-world insights into how we can help our customers with mobility issues thrive.
(For those keeping score at home, also in the picture at the top of the page and representing KCHME are, from left to right: Jed Tremblay, Ron Spenst, Jocelyn Fast and David Stokes.)
The course also covered the ins and outs of RideWorks, Ride’s unique process for developing custom cushion and back shapes quickly and with incredible accuracy. The RideWorks process reimagines traditional plaster and impression foam simulators with a dual bead-bag and vacuum system that helps to stabilize the pelvis while providing exceptional malleability and enhanced shape accuracy. The system’s ingenious design also automatically creates the necessary reference for the seat contour orientation.
“Optimized seating is one of the most important factors in wheelchair design,” explains David Stokes, co-owner of KCHME. “A properly configured and contoured seat doesn’t just improve comfort, it enhances activities and social life while preventing complications such as poor posture, pressure sores and even respiratory issues. The information and hands-on skills provided by the Ride Custom Seating Certification Course will enable our team to serve our wheelchair clients better, get it right the first time and make a significant difference in their daily lives.”
If you or a loved one is considering improvements to an existing wheelchair or shopping the market for a new one, contact us online or call our closest store location to arrange a personal consultation. We look forward to putting our new custom seating skills to work for you.