Diederik Hol

Last updated

Diederik Hol (born 10 April 1972) is a Dutch design engineer, designer of the Dual Box inline skate frame and the Narrow Shape Cross-Section (NSX) ice blade, and founder/director of skate company CadoMotus Skating BV. [1]

Contents

Education and early career

After obtaining his engineer's degree in Design Engineering from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, Hol became involved in a graduate project with Interraps - a Dutch producer of inline and ice skates - working on a planned improvement of the first (Viking) clapskate design with the aim of turning a 100-year-old patent into a product that could break ice speed skating world records. In 1995 he made the news with groundbreaking innovations that made regular use of the clapskate possible. [2] He graduated having worked on the Rotrax skate, a complex clap skate conceived as a multiple-hinge frame aimed at controlling deformation and allowing for a more powerful push-off.

Product line designer

After spending time as a designer working on a wide variety of other projects, he was able to return to the niche skate design industry full-time in 1999 when approached by Sportsinline International BV to design an entire product line of inline skates for its Mogema brand. With previous employer Interraps possessing the patent that basically covered all existing inline frames at the time, Hol was driven to come up with something completely new. [3] After a year working on the project, Hol completed the Dual Box inline frame. Results on the product were to come 2 years later in 2001 with the worldwide inline racing success of elite skaters of the period such as Jorge Botero (Colombia), Arnaud Gicquel (France) and Kalon Dobbin (New Zealand) using Dual Box frames in World Inline Cup and World Inline Speed Skating Championship events.

Ice speedskating

Subsequently, Hol returned his design focus to ice speedskating and, based on technologies being utilised in the development of hockey and figure skates, designed the Narrow Shape Cross-Section (NSX) ice blade. The NSX was the first ice skate produced under the Mogema name and was a departure from the traditional rigid, pre-bent racing blades used in longtrack speed skating, providing a straight blade that featured an adaptive radius. The NSX product line was expanded by Mogema in response to growing market interest at the time, however in a traditionally change-resistant ice speedskating market the product never achieved a significant market share.

New business

Following the decommissioning of Sportsinline International by its parent company in 2006, Hol started working for his own company. In February 2007, new skate company CadoMotus Skating BV appeared online and through a global network of distributors in the niche speed skating market with ice and inline speed skates.

In recent years has increasingly shifted his focus to the sport of triathlon. This shift was partly motivated by the popularity of the Omega aero-helmet among triathletes in the Dutch national competition. Recently Diederik developed two types of cycling shoes, based on his expertise in the production of skate and inline skate shoes. These shoes have a carbon sole that improves cycling efficiency, that could lead to faster running times. [4] For the 2023 season, several professional athletes are expected to use the Cadomotus shoes.

Helmets

Most notable of all CadoMotus-products, are the helmets, used by several marathon teams, but also national speedskating teams, like the Japanese Olympic speed skating squad. Safety and aerodynamics were key for the developments of Diederik's helmets. Two Dutch Technical Universities have tested the most recent helmet in various conditions, from long-track sprinting to marathon and team pursuit. The helmet outperformed all competitors currently on the market. [5] For improved safety, Diederik invented the honeycomb structure, which absorbs shocks better than traditional EPS foam and makes it impossible for sharp skateblades to penetrate through the ventilation holes to the head. This makes the Omega helmet one of the safest helmets in the peloton. [6] Due to its aerodynamics, the helmet is also quickly becoming popular in triathlon sports.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Speed skating</span> Competitive form of ice skating

Speed skating is a competitive form of ice skating in which the competitors race each other in travelling a certain distance on skates. Types of speed skating are long-track speed skating, short-track speed skating, and marathon speed skating. In the Olympic Games, long-track speed skating is usually referred to as just "speed skating", while short-track speed skating is known as "short track". The International Skating Union (ISU), the governing body of competitive ice sports, refers to long track as "speed skating" and short track as "short track skating".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clap skate</span>

The clap skate is a type of ice skate used in speed skating. Unlike in traditional skates where the blade is rigidly fixed to the boot, clap skates have the blade attached to the boot by a hinge at the front. This allows the blade to remain in contact with the ice longer, as the ankle can now be extended toward the end of the stroke, as well as for more natural movement, thereby distributing the energy of the leg more effectively and efficiently.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ice skate</span> Boots with blades attached to the bottom for propelling the bearer across a sheet of ice

Ice skates are metal blades attached underfoot and used to propel the bearer across a sheet of ice while ice skating.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Inline skates</span> Type of roller skate

Inline skates are a type of roller skate used for inline skating. Unlike typical roller skates, which have two front and two rear wheels, inline skates typically have two to five wheels arranged in a single line. Some, especially those for recreation, have a rubber "stop" or "brake" block attached to the rear of one or occasionally both of the skates so that the skater can slow down or stop by leaning back on the foot with the brake skate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Inline speed skating</span> Sport discipline

Inline speed skating is the roller sport of racing on inline skates. The sport may also be called inline racing or speed skating by participants. Although it primarily evolved from racing on traditional roller skates, the sport is similar enough to ice speed skating that many competitors are known to switch between inline and ice speed skating according to the season.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Figure skate</span>

Figure skates are a type of ice skate used by figure skaters. The skates consist of a boot and a blade that is attached with screws to the sole of the boot. Inexpensive sets for recreational skaters are available, but most figure skaters purchase boots and blades separately and have the blades mounted by a professional skate technician.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Inline skating</span> Sport discipline

Inline skating is a multi-disciplinary sport and can refer to a number of activities practiced using inline skates. Inline skates typically have two to five polyurethane wheels depending on the style of practice, arranged in a single line by a metal or plastic frame on the underside of a boot. The in-line design allows for greater speed and maneuverability than traditional roller skates. Following this basic design principle, inline skates can be modified to varying degrees to accommodate niche disciplines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Long-track speed skating</span> Competitive skating on a 400-meter oval ice track

Long-track speed skating, usually simply referred to as speed skating, is the Olympic discipline of speed skating where competitors are timed while crossing a set distance. It is also a sport for leisure. Sports such as ice skating marathon, short-track speedskating, inline speedskating, and quad speed skating are also called speed skating.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tour skating</span> Recreational ice skating

Tour skating is recreational long distance ice skating on natural ice. It is particularly popular in the Netherlands and the Nordic countries. It is becoming more popular in areas of North America such as New England, Southcentral Alaska, and Nova Scotia.

NSX may refer to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sports equipment</span> Object used for sport or exercise

Sports equipment, also called sporting goods, are the tools, materials, apparel, and gear, which varies in shapes, size, and usage in a particular sport. It includes balls, nets, rackets, protective gears like helmets, goggles, etc. Since the performer must use a sport equipment, it can also be serve for protection.

Bauer Hockey LLC is a manufacturer of ice hockey equipment, fitness and recreational skates and apparel. Bauer produces helmets, gloves, sticks, skates, shin guards, pants, shoulder pads, elbow pads, hockey jocks and compression underwear, as well as goalie equipment. Some of its equipment, such as its ice hockey skates, are also approved for use in the sport of ringette.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mogema</span> Registered brand trademark owned by Sportsinline International

Mogema is a registered brand trademark owned by Sportsinline International BV, a Dutch company that specialized in the design and production of inline- and ice speedskating products. Sportsinline International was founded by the parent company of the Mogema group to design and produce speedskating products under the Mogema name. The company approached Design Engineer Diederik Hol to design a whole range of ice and inline speedskates that evolved under Hol's direction into Mogema's modern product line.

Dual Box or DualBox is the name for the tubular sidewall inline skating frame, which employs the mechanical properties of the tubular to optimize the performance of a frame or chassis that secures the wheels on an inline skate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roller skiing</span> Sport discipline

Roller skiing is an off-snow equivalent to cross-country skiing. Roller skis have wheels on their ends and are used on a hard surface, to emulate cross-country skiing. The skiing techniques used are very similar to techniques used in cross-country skiing on snow.

Ingmar Berga is a Dutch male marathon speed skater and inline speed skater.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jan Blokhuijsen</span> Dutch speed skater

Jan Blokhuijsen is an Olympic award-winning Dutch long-track speed skater who until 2013 skated for the commercial TVM team.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sjoerd Huisman</span>

Sjoerd Huisman was a Dutch speed skater who specialised in marathon speed skating.

Erin Jackson is an American speed skater, roller derby player, and Olympic gold medalist. Jackson is the first Black woman to win a Winter Olympic gold medal in an individual sport. She qualified for The World Games 2017 in Wroclaw, Poland, where she competed in inline speed skating in various distances on road and track. She also qualified to compete in the 500 meters long track speed skating event at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Michael (speed skater)</span> New Zealand speed skater

Peter Michael is a New Zealand long track speed skater and multiple world champion inline speed skater. He is since 2022 a member of the Dutch Marathon team Team A6.nl.

References

  1. ↑ More than 14 years of innovation by engineer Diederik Hol
  2. ↑ Hol’s skate talk of the day (Oktober 5, 1995)
  3. ↑ Clap Your Skates: Innovation All Along (August 06, 2004) ScienceMag.org
  4. ↑ Advanced triathlon-shoes with know-how from speed skating Trikipedia.nl
  5. ↑ Skating sport chooses slower helmet over aerodynamic miracle Volkskrant.nl
  6. ↑ one makes more skating helmets than Cádomotus Destentor.nl
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.