Locksport - History

History

Lock picking has been around for as long as locks have, and recreational lock picking has been as well. King Louis XVI of France (1754–1793) was a keen designer, picker and manipulator of locks, physicist Richard Feynman picked locks for fun in the 1940s while employed on the Manhattan Project. Notes from the MIT Roof and Tunnel Hacking community were made widely available in 1991 as The MIT Guide to Lock Picking.

However, as an organized hobby, lock picking is a relatively recent phenomenon. The earliest known organized group of lock picking enthusiasts is the German club SSDeV (Sportsfreunde der Sperrtechnik - Deutschland e.V. or, translated Sportsenthusiasts of Lockpicking – Germany). SSDeV was founded by Steffen Wernéry in 1997. As the group grew in Germany, another group was founded in The Netherlands in 1999. This group, originally called NVHS, and currently called TOOOL (The Open Organisation Of Lockpickers), has also helped to pioneer the collaborative hobby of lock picking.

The term locksport was adopted by lock picking enthusiasts as a way of differentiating what they do from locksmiths, as well as from those who might choose to pick locks for nefarious purposes. As of early 2005, the term had been suggested, but not widely adopted. The creation of the sport group Locksport International in July 2005, founded by Josh Nekrep, Kim Bohnet, and Devon McDormand of LockPicking101.com, helped to solidify the term within the community, and today the term is widely adopted in North America by those who practice the craft for fun and sport. Locksport International is now under the direction of Doug Farre.