Authors: Ben Ruhe
Date Submitted: February 28, 2006
Article Type: Journal

Nop Velthuizen is noted for his all around capability. If he can’t find something he wants, he builds it for himself.

He has made many kites—-including the Gengki which he designed. Also a kite buggy and a kite aerial photography rig. A man-lifter he helped build and was flying dropped him 17 feet to the ground, fracturing his leg. He has written several technical kite or kite-related books. He pioneered in the development of three extreme sports—- kitebuggying, kiteboarding, kiteboating. For wife, Michele, and himself he built three handsome planked kayaks- —two singles and a double. With an ultra-streamlined racing bike of his own design, he achieved a speed of 42 kilometers an hour (25 plus mph). Two bikes he made took him and Michele right across America. For his physics students, he makes fun show distortion mirrors. Not least, he stylishly rehabbed a three-story old house in the North Sea fishing village in Scheveningen, complete with rooftop garden. The list goes on.

All that from a man with given names Norbertus Antonius Joseph. And about that nickname Nop? “It comes from a famous racing cyclist named Norbert and nicknamed Nop,” says Velthuizen. “Lots of Dutch Catholics have three given names which they never use, only in the passport.”

Nop has four brothers and two sisters. His banker father and mother had five children in the space of just seven years. “The priest must have come by,” says Nop dryly, “and asked: ‘What do we have here?’ ”

PDF Link: Journal Issue