I joined my local curling club last Fall, in the learning league, and currently am participating in my first weekly league. It’s a ton of fun! If you’re at all intrigued, maybe look to see if there’s a curling club near you. There’s usually some type of Saturday evening “eat pizza, drink beer, and learn to curl” event that is reasonably priced. My local club has all of the equipment you need to play, so there’s nothing to do but show up dressed appropriately.
One fun curling tradition is “broomstacking.” After each game, the winning team has to buy beer for the losing team while everybody sits around a table and hangs out.
I used to curl when I was in grade/middle school. My parents were members of the Curling club, and it definitely was literally a place for them to drink (they had a built in bar with keg and everything) and hang out. They had a huge projection TV, and I remember watching the Packers win the Superbowl 31 at the Curling club. We did the kids Curling stuff on saturday mornings. It was fun.
I have curled since 2006. My wife got me into the sport when we were dating. Now our two kids are junior curlers. In my opinion it is the best sport! There is a role for everybody on the team and communication is key. But also good sportsmanship is part of the sport. You will meet the most interesting people in curling.
It’s big in Canada, there are curling rinks in most small towns. In Saskatchewan I have a friend from a town of 700 people and they have a 4 sheet rink. It’s what they do in the winter.
I’m Lead so I throw stones 1 & 2 – working on my center guard game. :)
My daughters are doing it, too! They just started in the Fall but they also love it. We struggled to find a sport they would enjoy, so it’s great to see how much they like curling! Awesome that you’ve been doing it for so long! I stink, but I’m really enjoying learning.
That is great that your daughters are playing too! I don’t know if your club has a juniors program but if they can bring any friends to a learn to curl it can make it more fun for them to play with kids their own age.
A great thing about curling is that you will definitely get better with experience. And if you have the opportunity to do any skills clinics I would recommend doing them as they are very useful. Also getting a decent pair of curling shoes helps with the traction versus using sliders. Running shoes don’t provide the same amount of grip.
Curling is something that I enjoy watching during the Olympics, but have never tried. There’s a curling place maybe 20 minutes from me - maybe I should look into classes.
I was the same way and my buddies convinced me to sign up. I was very skeptical, but holy crap it’s fun! It’s hard to explain exactly why it’s so much fun, but it’s really a blast. There’s a lot of strategy and tactics, friendly people, beer, exercise, sliding around on ice, etc. I say this as somebody with zero interest in hockey or other ice sports.
@AK_Guy We do have a juniors program! There are about 35 kids in it, ages ranging from 8-18. There’s a rec program and an “advanced commitment” track. My kids do rec right now. The club also has shoes they loan to juniors, so both of them are learning with proper shoes.
I bought myself some BalancePlus shoes and they make a huge difference vs the sliders, though the sliders were great for learning. Next up is to get a broom.
I had a friend (passed away alas) who curled and would form up a team on their club’s annual bring your friends night. His team included a guy who could curl, a guy who could somewhat curl, and then me. Rocks really do slide very well down the ice. I remember hearing on my first practice shot, “Well, he’s got takeout weight down pat.” I never took up the sport, but enjoyed the few games I played.
Went on a cruise a couple years ago up/down the coast of Norway, and one of the excursions was a Curling learning experience. It was fun! We did look for clubs in the Chicago area, but they all seem to be way out in the 'burbs (or were last time I looked) and I don’t need to drive 60 minutes (plus) each way for that.
Woo! Entered my first bonspiel (the annual club bonspiel) and played 6 games from last Thurs through yesterday. We lost the first two, but then won the next 4 straight, winning the bracket finals! That was super exhausting but a ton of fun!
Thanks! There are a lot of bonspiels going on all over the place. Some of them are “official,” wherein the club has to choose a team to send. I’m definitely not in the running for a position on one of those teams yet. However, there are a lot of more casual/fun bonspiels happening, too, where participation basically comes down to paying the entrance fee for a team. It’s pretty common for a team or two to travel from our club to those, in non-official capacity. There are Seniors teams at the club that are nationally competitive and some of the Seniors played at elite levels when they were younger and still participate as referees, etc. Shockingly, a lot of them are Canadian! :D
Very nice Clay! Way to go. That must have been a large amount of teams in your bonspiel. Six games over 4 days would definitely be exhausting.
For comparison, my family of four played as a team in a bonspiel the weekend before last, and we also lost our first two, won the next game, and then were somehow playing for the C bracket championship (we lost but it went down to the last shot so still exciting). The bracket didn’t make any sense, but as somebody said, it is always good to be playing on a Sunday in a bonspiel.
By the way, the Canadian womens’ national championship, the Scotties, just ended recently, and now the Canadian men are having their national championship (called the Brier). The games are streamed live on Youtube, and there is commentary, except when they cut away for Canadian commercials, at which point it keeps showing the curling action but goes completely silent. Well worth checking out if you have the chance. Some amazing curling prowess on display.
I think if you just search “curling” on Youtube the stream that says Brier and “live” will get you there. It should be one of the top results.
Awesome! We had 32 teams in the Bonspiel. It was a blast but I definitely collapsed into bed last night! Everybody was pretty sloppy by the 6th game. Only 3 games were guaranteed, then it was single elimination. Fun times!
32 sounds about right for that many games. We had 16 teams I think. And we also typically get three guaranteed games. Our club dates back to the 60s and it only has 2 sheets so we get some strange game times for spiels sometimes. Anyway your team did quite well overall, congrats!
