The Globe and Mail

Tuesday December 26, 1995

Compared with many sports, innovation has not been all that quick to come to curling. With the exception of a few new ideas in brooms, the equipment has been slow to change. Curlers have come to accept the status quo and continued with tradition.

Perhaps, then, it was naiveté that compelled Lino Di Iorio of Richmond Hill to design a new slider, one that has hit curling circles with a large impact.

Di Iorio is just in his second full year of curling but has already made a name for himself with the BalancePlus slider. According to the designer, this new device provides better balance and corrects instability in the delivery. And some of the top names in the game are agreeing.

Last week, Edmonton's Kevin Martin credited the new slider with allowing him to regain his touch after a mediocre start to the competitive season. Ed Werenich has also been a strong proponent since he first slipped one on this year. And the Agnes Charette team of Buckingham, Que., won the provincial women's title wearing the BalancePlus Slider.

The key to the new slider is a hole in the surface under the ball of the foot. It doesn't seem like much, but Di Iorio believes it results in a major change in how the foot glides during the delivery.

He stumbled on this idea last year, after taking up the sport.

"After Christmas, I noticed that my sliding shoe had curled up so the edges were up in the air," Di Iorio, 47 explained. "I looked at a lot of other people's shoes and saw the same thing. 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 interest in physics with an affinity for problem-solving, Di Iorio decided to see if the problem could be corrected. What he came up with was a slider that has a shallow hole in it. "Most people just slide on the ball of their foot," he said. "By adding the hole, that part of the slider doesn't come into contact with the ice. In essence, the weight is spread out over a greater area."

Just as with large-headed tennis racquets and oversized golf clubs, the player doesn't have to be as precise, there is a wider margin for error.

Curlers who tried the slider immediately noticed they were more balanced coming out of the hack. Werenich, who has suffered from a bad case of the wobbles in his delivery, was overwhelmed by the change the BalancePlus Slider provided. He has gone so far as to say it has revived his curling career.

At first, however, Di Iorio wasn't all that sure that the new slider would work. The first model he made was for himself. He used it in the four to five games he played each week, and for a month and a half didn't tell a soul about it.

"I wasn't sure of the rules," he said, chuckling. "I didn't know if the slider was legal or if I was breaking any [rules]."

But word soon spread and the orders came in fast and furious. At the outset, Di Iorio was making the sliders himself, but with the growing demand he has hired staff to produce them. His wife recently left her teaching job to work for the company.

The manufacture of the new sliders is labour intensive and the cost, more than $50, is not inexpensive compared with other sliders. But Di Iorio doesn't seem to have any concerns. He's one businessman who hopes that his fortunes just keep sliding along.