Invacare's PinDot Personal Back The Action MVP Invacare's PinDot Pax Bac The Everest & Jennings Epic Kuschall's Champion 1000 The Back from Otto Bock The Quickie Revolution The J2 Back, by Jay Medical Jay's Extreme Back Colours by Permobil's Challenger The Stimulite Lumbar Honeycomb Support

The Case for Rigidity: 'Rigid' Folding Chairs and Backs By Bob Vogel Invacare's PinDot Curved Back Selecting a manual wheelchair used to be fairly simple: Just make a decision between folding and rigid. For active jocks, a rigid was usually the right choice. They're stronger, lighter and handle better. For everyday wheelers, a folder was likely to be best. They're easier to get in and out of most vehicles and they fit in smaller spaces. That's pretty easy. That sharp line between folding and rigid is getting blurred. For such court sports as tennis and quad rugby, rigid chairs still rule. But more and more wheelers--even the jocks, at least for everyday use--are turning to the new generation of "rigid" folders. Outdoor adventurer Mark Wellman likes his Kuschall Champion 1000. He says that with its one-piece flip-up footrest, he can hop in his Chevy pickup (you didn't expect him to drive a car did you?), fold the chair and flip it behind the seat. Yet, when unfolded, the footrest locks the chair's front end, giving the ride a rigid feel. Wellman hasn't broken his yet, so it must be tough. Stripped down, it weighs 25 to 27 pounds. Kuschall's not alone in the "rigid" folder field. Action by Invacare makes the Action MVP, which also has a lock-down footrest to give its ride a solid feel. It weighs 24 pounds. Both the Champion 1000 and the Action MVP fold from side to side, but that's not the only way to tighten up a folder. Basketball legend David Kiley says his Quickie Revolution looks and rides like a rigid when unfolded, yet folds front to back like a high-tech lawn chair when he flips its quick release. It saves needed vehicle space when he's traveling with the kids, he says, and fits in the overhead bin on larger airplanes. That's a big plus if it keeps baggage handlers from losing your chair or turning it into a pretzel. The Revolution weighs in at about 23 pounds. Taking yet another approach, E&J's 27-pound Epic and Colours' 23-pound Challenger have changed from the traditional two cross-braces to three and four, respectively, to reduce torque and increase strength. Both unfold to a snap-in, locked-down position to give them a solid ride. It's not just folding chairs that are going rigid. Did you ever notice how, right after you replace that old stretched-out sling-back on your chair, you feel just a bit taller and can actually reach the dish on the second shelf? That improvement could be permanent. More and more wheelers are discovering the pain relief and posture correction that a rigid backrest can add to their chairs. Although rigid backs have been around for a long time, they were once too high, too heavy and too dorky-looking. Then along came the Jay Active back, followed eventually by others, that was lower, lighter and way, way cooler. As a charter member of the "severe low back pain" club, I had seen the new add-on backs at trade and consumer shows. "I'm an athlete," I thought. "They look different and I don't need one." But after one long day at an Abilities Expo, my back killing me, I was conned into trying a rigid backrest. "OK," I said, "just for a minute because I really don't--hey, this isn't bad, this feels really, really good." I put a rigid back on my chair the next day. "It's simple," says extreme skier and distance handcyclist Matt Feeney. "A rigid back gives you good support and good posture. I just won't use a sling-back anymore." And there's one more advantage to rigid backs. If you bounce down a curb and blow it, it's your boilerplate backrest that hits the curb corner. With sling upholstery, it's your back. Want the lumbar support but not the rigid back? You can compromise. Add-on lumbar supports made by Jay, Invacare and Supracor fit in front of your sling-back. Or there's the PaxBac, an adjustable lumbar support that fits on the back of the upholstery. Crank it tighter for sports, loosen it for loafing. Carole Adler, clinical supervisor of occupational therapy at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose, Calif., says the new back alternatives have changed the way therapists do business. "In the past," she says, "we just accepted that, if a person was a quad or a para, they would develop crummy posture over time. Now, with the different back options, bad posture is totally unacceptable. We position them correctly from the beginning." The Everest & Jennings Epic The Jay Active Back Wheelchair Resources Action MVP: Action by Invacare, 899 Cleveland Street, Elyria, OH 44036-4028; 800/333-6900 Epic: Everest & Jennings, a division of Graham-Field, 3601 Rider Trail S., Earth City, MO 63045; 800/325-4661, 314/512-7058 Challenger: Colours by Permobil, 1591 S. Sinclair Ave., Anaheim, CA 92806; 800/892-8998, 714/978-1440 Revolution: Quickie, a division of Sunrise Medical, 2842 Business Park Ave., Fresno, CA 93727; 800/456-8168, 209/292-2171 Back Resources Champion 1000: Kuschall of America, a division of Graham-Field, 708 Via Alondra, Camarillo, CA 93012; 800/654-4768, 805/484-3595 Jay Extreme, Jay Active and J2 Backs/Jay, Jay Active and Jay Combi Lumbar Supports: Jay Medical, a division of Sunrise Medical, 7477 E. Dry Creek Parkway, Longmont, CO 80503; 800/648-8282 PinDot's PaxBac, Curved Back, S-Back and Personal Back: Invacare Corp., 899 Cleveland St., Elyria, OH 44036-4028; 800/333-6900 Stimulite Lumbar Support: Supracor, 2050 Corporate Court, San Jose, CA 95131-1753; 800/787-7226