The most interesting thing about curling was the stone. Did you know the stone is made out of real stone? A curling rock is made out granite found underwater off the coast of Scotland (well, the best curling rocks come from there). The granite is mined during low-tide and then shaped. Each rock weighs 42 pounds and they cost about $600 each. The Duluth Curling Club has some of the finest rocks around (or so they say).
Another observation. The ice is not slippery at all. After the ice is cleaned (with a Zamboni type machine), it is sprinkled with water, which creates these little pebbles on the ice surface. For those of you who know the tale (pun intended) of my close encounter with ice, this was happy news.
Okay...so let's curl. To curl you need several thing:
warm sweater or light jacket (duh!)
clean rubber soled shoes (no grit in this ice)
1 rubber gripper (to be placed on your dominant foot's shoe)
1 silicon slider (to be placed on your non-dominant foot's shoe)
1 broom
1 rock
1 sheet of ice
First off, I practiced sliding with the broom as my support, just to get the pose right. It was hard to keep balanced after I pushed off, but it worked. The silicon slider is the only way curlers can really slide on the ice. The silicon makes it extremely slippery. This is why curlers wear a rubber gripper on one foot. Two silicon sliders would be a disaster.
After that we practiced sliding from the hatch with the broom. It's still hard to balance. Must. Strengthen. Quads.
Next I slid out of the hatch with two stones (one in each hand). Much better to balance with, but now I had 84 pounds dragging me down the ice. Those little ice pebbles began to hurt my knee as this point.
After I got the hang of two stones, I moved to one stone and a broom. I held the broom in my non-throwing hand, and used it only to help my balance. I was really leaning into the broom to keep myself upright. I fell a couple of times during this part, but overall it wasn't too bad. It's at this point I learned how to release the stone. The stone is released before you start decelerating. At this point, you find out why the sport is called curling. When a rock is thrown, you give it a very slight turn (a curl), either to the right or left, just before you release the stone. Hence the name curling.
The object of curling is to get as close to the "bullseye" as possible. The ringed area is called "the house". This is where it gets tricky. Each "end" (think inning) of curling consists of eight throws by each team. There are 8 ends (innings) in one game of curling. Only one team can score during each end. The closest stone to the center earns one point. If the team with the closest stone has the next closest stone, they earn another point, and so on. If the second closest stone is the opponents stone, then the scoring team only gets one point. It is possible to earn eight points in an end if your team has all of its eight stones in the house and the other team has none closer than your eight. Does that make sense? Scoring eight in one end is a huge deal in curling.
So the object is to get your stones in the house, while knocking out your opponents stones at the same time.
There are four positions in curling: Lead, Second, Third and Skip
During throws 1-2: lead throws, second & third sweep, skip skips
During throws 3-4: second throws, lead & third sweep, skip skips
During throws 5-6: third throws, lead & second sweep, skip skips
During throws 7-8: skip throws, lead & second sweep, third skips
The sweeping is done to increase the speed of the stone. Sweeping encourages micro-melting, increasing the stone's speed. Good sweepers can increase the length of a throw by about 15 feet. This was really hard for me. A couple of times the stone passed right by me and it was very hard to catch up to.
A friendly end against the group of newcomers was great fun. We won on our last throw by Rory, who got his last throw right in the center of the house.
So I am going to be starting in the new comers curling league. Just like a bowling league, but on ice.
