SHIM’S RIDE: Helping Close the Gap Between Research and Recovery
From left to right: Nick, Shim, Cole, and Sam — the year Shim's Ride became an annual event (2021).
Why standards of care matter
The spinal cord injury recovery journey starts immediately after the spine is damaged. Generally, the steps are getting to a hospital, surgery, and then rehabilitation. For every step of that journey there is a standard of care that tries to follow best practices. For example: paramedics immobilizing the spine, surgeons performing surgery within 24 hours, nurses following sterile procedures, and therapists delivering activity-based therapy.
There was a point in time when these standards were not obvious and other processes were in place. The improvements possible after a spinal cord injury like mine are still limited, but I can confidently say that my health, progress, and quality of life are much better than they would have been for someone with a similar injury in the past because of these standards.
How it started
My friends started Shim's Ride after I got injured in 2019 to raise money for my medical expenses. The event was so successful that we decided to make it an annual event supporting the spinal cord injury community. Shim's Ride gets bigger every year, raising more money from donations, sponsors, merch sales, and registration.
I am grateful to have amazing friends who put in a ton of work to keep this event going every year, and for the team they built to help run it. Thank you to everyone who has supported and helped us throughout the years.
WHERE THE MONEY GOES
Research is what establishes these standards, but unfortunately a spinal cord injury is very complex and doesn't impact a large portion of the population. These two factors make spinal cord injury research harder to translate into practice than most other areas of medicine. I understand the healthcare system has limited resources, but selfishly I want as many of those resources as possible going into spinal cord injury healthcare and advancements.
Beyond donations, awareness brings more attention that facilitates research in all aspects, such as attracting more talent or advocating for more accessibility (which also requires research). All the small advancements and improvements compound, and on a broad scale they greatly improve the lives of individuals like myself. The proceeds from our charity go to the Praxis Spinal Cord Institute, whose goals directly address this research translation gap by incubating self-sustaining companies that implement research advancements into practice.
From left to right: Nick, Shim, Cole, and Sam — closing down another successful Shim’s Grand Prix at Jonathan Rogers Park, Vancouver, BC (2026).
THANK YOU
Most importantly, I want to say thank you to everybody who supported us. I am very fortunate because of my enormous external support, and I wouldn't be where I am without it, from my friends, family, colleagues, and at this point, with the event so big, many strangers. It helps with my continued recovery journey and I am grateful for all of it.
In my ideal world, my recovery would conclude with the same function I had before my injury, and I believe that one day this will be possible for anyone affected by a spinal cord injury. We are still tallying up this year's donations, but if you would like to contribute or help spread awareness by wearing our merch, our donate page and shop are still open with some leftover stock from the event.
The first photo is of Nick, myself, Cole, and Sam from the year Shim's Ride became an annual event. The second photo is of us this year (we try to get the same pose every year). The last photo is of the whole crew and volunteers.
The entire volunteer crew behind Shim’s Grand Prix 2026 at Jonathan Rogers Park, Vancouver, BC. A special shoutout to the RedKilo cycling team, who represents a significant amount of our volunteer support.