#9 - Curling (yes, as in "that bizarre Olympic sport")

Anyone who argues that curling is not a sport hasn't tried it!  I guarantee you that I will be sore tomorrow.  I was invited to attend a Learn to Curl lesson by my friends Lee and Sheryl back in February.  Can you believe that all the sessions between then and now were already booked solid?!  Apparently a good number of folks got hooked on this crazy sport during the Olympics and wanted to try it.

Here is some curling trivia I learned tonight:

• The curling stones weigh 42 lbs. and are made of granite.
• The world's sole manufacturer of curling stones is on a small island off of Scotland. They mine the granite from under water, and it takes about a year to complete a stone.
• The Scots invented curling. The earliest known curling stone dates back to about 1510.
• The U.S. has a population of about 3 million people, 35,000 of which curl.  Canadians are the world's curling leaders. With a population of about 30 million, they boast over a million curlers.
• Their are actually curling shoes. Who knew?
• Curling is not played on smooth ice, but rather "pebbled" ice. The surface of the ice is sprinkled with water which freezes in little bumps on the surface. This minimizes the surface contact between the stone and the ice, thereby reducing friction.

There were roughly 40 people in attendance tonight. I quickly discovered that I was the only one of the 40 who was not an Olympic curling junkie.  While they all tossed around terms like "throwing the stone," and "the hack,"  and "in the house," I was still trying to figure out what the main objective of the game was. 

Fortunately, the basics of the sport are very easy to learn.  For those of you who aren't familiar with it, curling is sort of like shuffleboard on ice.  You try to "throw" (glide) your stones into a series of bulls-eye type circles. You can also bump out the other team's stones.

So, why is it a sport, you ask?  When "throwing your stone," you rest one foot in a something similar to track starting blocks, and you push off firmly. My thighs got quite a workout. Then there's the sweeping part.  The sweeping melts the pebbles ever so slightly, thereby producing a very thin layer of water which reduces friction between the stone and the ice. Simply keeping up with the moving stone in order to be able to sweep is a real challenge!  I wasn't skilled enough to really get any "power sweeping" going, as I was usually racing to just catch up with the stone. However, I could imagine that your arms would be quite sore after an intense game of sweeping.

It was really a fun experience. This is truly an opportunity I would have ever explored had it not been for my "40 new adventures" quest.  I just might go back for another session or two.  It was really a lot of fun.