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Axeing the Back Pain! Winning Chop’ Photo—John Carnemolla The only truly ergonomic lounge chair on the market! On a daily basis Peter Woodward meets people with varying degrees of back pain, from mild discomfort to debilitating conditions. His business is building ergonomic chairs and specialising in helping people with back issues. Peter’s business, ErgoRAP, has been built on caring about and relieving these issues. His ErgoRAP ™ chairs are in offices all around Tasmania. Peter says “The chairs are hand built to exacting specifications, even the lumbar supports are hand shaped. My upholsterers are craftsmen and it shows in their product.” About two years ago Peter met World Champion Axeman David Foster. David, through his sporting career, had suffered a back injury and was referred to Peter in the hope that he could build David a chair to help ease his condition. Peter duly presented his product, only to find David did not want an office chair, he wanted a lounge chair. As David said, even his custom built leather lounge was not helping and he had all but given up hope of being able to sit comfortably while relaxing of an evening. Peter has a motto “I never say No or can’t” which David knew about. So the challenge was delivered, build a lounge chair with all the features of one of Peter’s office chairs.
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Two years on the chair has been completed. During that time David and Peter became firm allies in the project, to the extent that David also became the test pilot, sitting in a variety of prototypes that had varying degrees of success. “The first one failed in the first ten minutes” laughs Peter. The final prototype was returned to the factory shortly after Christmas 2008 to checked and tested. The chair surpassed everyone’s expectations with no signs of wear, but for Peter, the best moment was when David called the factory to say he was on his way to pick up ‘His’ chair as he could not go another day without it. Considering the chair was in about a hundred pieces this caused some minor panic, but it was restored to its normal state and David is currently refusing to give up his prototype.
Over the development of the arm chair Peter and David felt that it should be made available to all and so, under the ErgoRAP ™ Banner, the ErgoREST Arm Chair has been released. It is built in three seat sizes and appeals to everyone, not just those with back issues. It doesn’t matter if you are 5’ or 6’5” there is a chair to suit you. It adjusts easily to meet most needs and comes with an instructional DVD. To acknowledge David’s input Peter has named this range the ‘David Foster Series’ with a commemorative badge on each chair.
The range was officially launched by the Tasmanian Deputy Premier, Ms Lara Giddings, in May this year. At the function she said: ‘I am pleased to launch this wonderful chair, which is a great example of Tasmanian craftsmanship and a boost for the many people in our community who experience back pain and have difficulty in finding a chair that is both comfortable and looks great.’ Peter says “To sit, in comfort, in any environment, for any purpose, should be the norm not the exception.” |
