HOLEY SLIDER

It may have been inexperience, it could have been just a case of being naive, but Lino Di Iorio changed the way people slide just two years after taking up the sport.

Di Iorio is the creator of the BalancePlus Slider, an invention that stopped an age-old problem with Teflon sliders.

After taking up the sport at 45, Di Iorio noticed that the slider on his curling shoe had curled up so the edges weren’t on the ice surface. Looking at other players’ shoes, he noticed it was a common problem. “To me, it showed that although the foot is about four inches wide, people were only sliding on about two inches of that.”

Combining his background in physics with an affinity for solving problems, he created the new slider, which has a shallow hole in the centre of it.

“Most people just slide on the ball of their foot,” Di Iorio said. “By adding the hole, that part of the slider doesn’t come into contact with the ice. In essence, the person’s weight is spread out over a greater area.”

The BalancePlus Slider was first used by players such as Kevin Martin and Ed Werenich, who raved about it. That led to a surge in demand for the slider with the hole in it, and Di Iorio’s invention has become the best-selling slider in the game.