Wednesday, October 14, 2009

My first night of curling

So last night was the inaugural night of curling. First thing I have to say is people were so friendly.

When I arrived, I was greeted, fitted for a pair of specialized curling shoes, ushered into the lounge and introduced to a couple of other newbies. After a few minutes of meeting and greeting, about 30 of us (ages 20's to 50's) gathered on the top floor for a short 45min overview of the basics of the ice, curling etiquette and meeting our instructors. THEN out on the ice we went....

We started slow...good thing it is surprisingly hard to stand on a slider. We were asked to slide around a little, bent down in the ready position and tried to extend into a lunge....my only thought was 'Bambi on ice'. Half of us fell.....everybody laughed. We got a chance to practice a few more times then tried sweeping. Finally we got to practice pushing out of the hack in an attempt to do a proper curling slide. We had instructors with us giving individual help and pointers. There were many falls and lots of laughs but no injuries other than a little pride and some bruised knees.

A couple of quick points: its harder than it looks and this is going to get me better shape. Ottawa Curling Club is a great building and the people are fabulous.

Such a fun night!!!!!!

Can't wait til next Tuesday

4 comments:

  1. The key to curling is to be able to yell "HURRY, HURRY HARD" really, really loud. That way, at least you sound like you know what you are doing.

    You will also feel much better if you have all the proper curling gear: shoes (gotta lose the slider), broom and a big glass of beer.

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  2. Wait - I thought the key to curling was a really hot iron?

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  3. The only sport in the world that us Scots are actually any good at.......

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  4. you scots were lucking to pull off the world championship...lets see how the women do in this march.

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