November 1995
The Curling News

Lino Di Iorio had been curling for barely three months when he struck upon a revolutionary idea. Simple, but powerful.. "I had always enjoyed watching curling," he says. "I decided to go for it and try it last year. I played between 15 and 20 times a month last season, and I always had concerns about my balance while I was in the hack, preparing to throw. Finally, I knew that there had to be a way of improving without depending solely on practicing."

Di Iorio decided to try and distribute body weight around the perimeter of the sliding foot, rather than right in the middle of it. He points to any sliding shoe, and the varying degrees of roundness of the sliding surface, as evidence of a pressure point - the main focus of weight - in the ball of the foot. "My target was to eliminate that pressure point," he says. Di Iorio started experimenting, and hollowed out the soles of a few shoes. He didn't tell anyone until a couple of months later, when a clubmate at his Richmond Hill, Ontario facility tried one of his demos. Di Iorio had created holes - at a diameter of about 1 ½ inches- in the sole of the sliding foot. These prototypes were painstakingly crafted to the specifications of the person's individual delivery, eliminating any possibilities of drift. Di Iorio reports that this first test subject liked the results and asked for his own version immediately. But it wasn't until his older subject became quite excited that Di Iorio decided he had something useful.

Go for it

"I'd noticed Eddie wobbling." Di Iorio says. "he was quite skeptical at first, but he was interested in helping his balance. He noticed a difference in his balance, but then his biggest advantage was an increased takeout weight due to this improved balance."
Thus, the BalancePIus slider was born. Experts for The Curling News conducted tests at the start of the season and confirmed both improved balance and sliding speed; similar findings to virtually all who had heard about it.

Previous attempts Di Iorio is aware of previous attempts to revolutionize sliders. "A lot of stuff that had been added to sliders in the past - like the horseshoe - didn't take into effect the direction of the sliding foot," he says.  "Anything that isn't symmetrical to the line of delivery will cause lateral drift either right or left. The buttons that used to be applied to sliders were for increased speed - they covered less area, therefore you could slide faster, but that concept did not deal with balance at all." Di Iorio is pleased that his invention deals with two kinds of improved performance.  Speed thing "The speed thing was incidental - the goal was to eliminate the pressure point under the ball of the foot:' he reiterates. "As a result, I focused on those who have balance problems, the older or novice players. I believe this will really accelerate a person's learning curve. And the pros will notice a little difference (in balance) but their attraction will be to the increased speed." As for his first year on the market, Di Iorio seems to have covered all the bases. His sliders are available through four distribution outlets. Di Iorio has lined up several top names as product users - in addition Werenich, Alison Goring, John Base, and Paul Savage are on board, and the German national teams are trying them out. And the BalancePlus has made appearances at several Canadian Curling Association-sanctioned camps, in Alberta, Manitoba and Ontario. Big difference George Ernst is a junior curler from Nova Scotia, who tried the slider for the first time at a recent tournament in Boucherville, Quebec. "I just love it," Ernst says. "I found a big difference. I liked the balance and besides, I have a knee problem, and the increased speed helps lighten my slide."