Clap skate

Footwear

Gliding nicely
The clap skate was invented in 1980 by the Dutch movement scientist Gerrit Jan van Ingen Schenau. Or actually he was the reinventor, because in 1894 it turned out that a patent had been applied for an earlier version of the clap skate. Clap skates are intended for advanced skaters. Normally the iron is attached to the shoe at two points. With the clap skate, only the tip is attached with a hinge, so that the skate can flip. The big advantage? When you push off, you can keep the whole iron on the ice and glide well. In other words: your take-off is longer than with the fixed ice skate, so you can make more speed. In the beginning people did not believe in clap skates, but the results proved otherwise!

Image: © Viking

 

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