Please tell me about curling in Canada.

Last year I took up the noble sport of curling. It’s a niche sport in the United States–there are maybe 500 players in the entire Chicago area. After the Olympics are over, it will disappear for another four years.

I get the impression that it’s different in Canada. In the various Olympic discussions, most of the people that I recognize as frequent Canadian posters have indicated that they play.

Is this normal? Is curling something that you’re almost certain to do at some point, growing up in Canada? What sort of games are on TV? Are there professional teams? Do most high schools and colleges have teams, and if so are their games televised?

Are there regional differences, so that curling is more popular in some parts of the country than others? (In the US it seems to be most popular in Minnesota.) Is curling a common cultural touchstone? Even if an American doesn’t play baseball and isn’t a sports fan, he or she will know the difference between a strike-out and a home run. Does the average Canadian “on the street” know the difference between a take-out and a draw?

Can’t help you with Canadian curling, but I was just asking my husband, “where in the hell would someone learn Curling in Chicago??” So… where do you do this? And I also assumed it would be one of those “north shore” sports like Polo or something. Is that true or can any socio-economic group get into the action? Thanks for shedding the light!

Just one Canadian’s take:

I grew up in a small town in Southern Ontario and my parents, like the rest of the town, curled regularly.

Having been curling a few times as an adult, I realize that for them the sport is part sport, and part excuse to get together and drink all day.

Having said that, it is a fun sport that requires incredible amounts of skill, tons of practice, and funny shoes. The hardest thing for me to get used to was the fact that, unlike most other sports, you use your body completely asymmetrically, so the next morning you might wake up with (for example) your right ass cheek, left thigh, left foot, right shoulder and lower back hurting. Also, it is unlikely that your skills from other sports will do you any good in this one because the skills are highly specialized.

Curling is limited by rink availability: you have probably figured out that it’s not the same as regular ice, you need a special rink just for curling, and since it takes up a lot of space and isn’t a big money-maker, they tend to be inconveniently located in the periphery of the city. Most people would have to make an effort to get there - it’s not like basketball (or even hockey) where you can do it in every neighbourhood. Thus I don’t expect there are many school-based teams, but it would probably be fairly easy for any kid interested in getting good at it to join a club (assuming someone is willing to drive them there).

In Toronto, I know you can curl in various sport and social clubs (like Ultimate Frisbee, beach volleyball, softball, floor hockey, etc). The costs are transportation and whatever fees the club charges to use their ice; funny-looking sweaters are optional but most practical. You will also need (but don’t have to pay for) shoes (you can use packing tape on your sneaker if you don’t feel like investing in your own curling shoes) and a broom (clubs have ones you can use, once you get serious you can buy your own).

Suffice it to say your ice rental includes rocks.

My familiarity with the game comes from the fact that my parents curled when was growing up, and so I picked up the game from them (and from watching televised games with them and asking lots of questions). Some people I know in the city who have never picked up a broom really enjoy watching it, and others have no interest whatsoever.

I wouldn’t be surprised if universities had teams but their games are not televised, to my knowledge. The big events that everyone (that is, everyone who is interested in curling) watches are the national championships, the Tournament of Hearts (women) and the Breir (mens).

You should try it. It’s fun. At least watch the championships, which I think are coming up.

HURRY!!!

Now why did you assume that? You’re right–it is a North Shore thing–but I’m damned if I can figure out why. I play at the club in Northbrook, and I think there are two other clubs in the Chicago area that are also up north. I live in the Western suburbs, so I wish I had something closer.

But it isn’t at all a polo-type activity. If anything, I’d describe it as sort of “North country rustic”–like deer hunting or cross-country skiing or something like that. The club membership costs I believe $250 for the first year, so you can’t be completely destitute, but that’s not an inordinate price–26 weeks of bowling would cost as much or more. Once you’ve paid your dues your curling is free, although it’s easy to run up a bar tab!

At any rate, if you want to play, hold the thought until next year! The club holds periodic introductory “learn to curl” sessions, but they’re mob scenes right now because of the Olympics, and it’s too late in the season to get started anyway.

But bookmark the web page and we’ll see you in October!

I can’t say much for or about the sport really (which may tell you something right there) but I am aware of it and know, in a basic way, how it’s played. In this part of the country anyway, it’s doubtful that it’s something anyone is ever “guaranteed” to play at some point; nobody I presently know, nor anyone I’ve ever known, has ever played – or they never volunteered an admission, anyway. It’s not the sort of sport that’s televised very often – you’ll certainly never find “Curling Night in Canada” playing on anything more notable than a local community channel, and even then it may be pre-empted for Ed the Sock.

That’s not to say it’s horribly obscure though. It’s probably more common in
Canada than it is in the US, and it probably gained a bit of notariety after the release of the movie Men with Brooms. I’ve never played and probably never will. As a spectator sport, it strikes me as rather less interesting than bowling, but a bit better than bocce.

I grew up in Toronto as the child of two immigrants from Eastern Europe so all the curling I ever saw was on TV. I’ve never been to a curling rink but I still love watching it on TV.

My high school had a team and my university also has a team.

My dad has been curling for 40 years. There are usually a high number blue-collar participants, and a lot of beer.

My own experiences with curling have been in a “Beer & Butts” league, and more just for fun than for competition.

In Canada, I would put on the same level as bowling. In some places a bit more popular and in some places less popular. Small towns and the east coast seem to favor curling more. I dunno why, but for some reason it seems more “wholesome” than bowling.

Notwithstanding the debaucheries of GingerOfThe North’s family of course :wink: .

I curled twice - I dated a guy who’s family did it as a new years day tradition.

My parents are in a curling league, but they only joined after they retired and moved to the boonies.

I’m inclined to think it’s a lot more popular in rural locals, where there isn’t too much else to do.

Probably because you can’t smoke or drink while playing. (Foreign substances on the ice, and all that.)

I have to disagree with you here, or assume you don’t ever watch TSN. You wouldn’t find curling on every weekend during the season, but every second or third weekend would be likely. There’s even a developing pro circuit now.

Curling is much more significant in rural areas, and in small towns you’re likely to run into very high percentages of people that have curled.

Looking at the logos of the various curling clubs that line the walls of my club, I’d say a larger percentage of American clubs, at least in the Great Lakes region are associated with country clubs than those in southern Ontario.

In Cleveland, curling is an “East Side thing;” both of the clubs in the area in the affluent eastern suburbs.

The three sheet facility where I curl is part of the Mayfield Country Club in South Euclid. I needed two sponsors, and recommendation letters from five members, before I was admitted as a formal member. I can use country club facilities in association with a curling event, like getting lunch or dinner at their restaurant or grill after a game, but I can’t show up in July with my swim trunks and golf clubs. The country club dress code applies; no denim on the grounds, even in the curling facility.

Members include college students and young struggling professionals; it’s not just the East Side crowd. It’s a broad socioeconomic range. The curlers are very social, welcoming, friendly and unpretentious; they’re a great group of people.

Cost? Curling membership is $100 for the first year, and increases for the second year; still, it’s not that expensive. There’s a small monthly country club tab maintenance fee, expenses for parties held through the year, drinks for the losing team, and so on. As Freddy said, it’s easy to run up a bar tab. A good basic fiberglass swivel/performance brush will set you back $50, and shoes start about $100 for a pair. I’d say curling will set me back about $700 this year.

Can you just sit around and watch? (and smoke and drink while watching)??? I’d have to watch for a while before I’d throw down the money to join.

The reason I assumed it was Nort’ Shore was because of the American guys on the Olympic team. They just looked privileged for some reason. That and the fact that I’ve never once known anyone who does it (which is, I assume, because we’re just middle-class folk here in the northwest suburbs). I assumed they’re all named Biff and Wendy.

That’s why they invented the Bonspiel, an all-day curling tournament. Since there are so many games and so many teams, you literally have to spend half the day sitting in the clubhouse, and since everyone else is drinking and smoking, you might as well join in. The games offer a nice break from the drinking, an opportunity to stretch your legs. Good times.

You know, I bet if you just went in on a Saturday, ordered a beer and struck up a conversation, you could sit all day without anyone even realizing you weren’t playing.

That’s a beautiful way to describe it.

I spent most of my childhood in small-to-mediun town of Whitby, Ontario during the seventies. There was a curling club on the north side of town, even when we moved there and the population was 15 000 people. There was another club in the neighbouring city of Oshawa. I always thought of curling as what I would now call a very blue-collar sport, like bowling, and I associated it with middle-aged men, places like the Moose Lodge and the Legion, and Other Stuff My Parents Did. Oddly, I was never aware of it as something high-schoolers did, unlike hockey, baseball, or football. (Basketball’s real popularity came a little later.) So yeah, almost exactly on the same level as bowling.

I find this whole thread fascinating! Who knew? Regular Joes in Canada and “sniff-sniff, puff-puff” in the U.S. I’m going to have to throw the ol’ man in the truck and take a drive over to the one in Northbrook…just to take a peek.

My experience living my entire life in Western Canada is that it is pretty much ubiquitous here. Schools have teams, I’ve known many people who curl regularly (my husband is a fairly avid curler), there are lots of rinks available (well, at least one in each small town and more in larger centres) and that is pretty much the same in a small town, a small city, or a large city. I find that people don’t often volunteer their curling activities, but if you ask around your workplace, you’d probably find a handful of regular curlers. Curl in winter, play ball in summer.

Now, ice skating, that seems to be something that’s more common in rural areas, due to the complete lack of anything else to do.

Now that you mention it, I think that the other two clubs in the Chicago area are associated with country clubs, too. Ours is the only one that’s “free-standing”. This may be why curling in the Midwest tends to be located in upper-crust areas, and has an upper-crust reputation among the uninitiated, even though it’s not a traditional upper-crust game.

Next month my city is hosting the national men’s championships in curling. Now with the sponsorship attached to the event name, it has merged two things popular in Canada, Tim Hortons and curling in the Tim Hortons Brier.

Curling is a pretty common recreational activity in Western Canada at least. For example, even for those who don’t take it seriously, it’s the kind of thing that lots of workplaces have as a winter social/sporting event in the form of funspiels (the merger of fun + bonspiel). In that case it’s as much about the socializing and drinking as about the actual curling. And in my city of a couple of hundred thousand people there are, at a guess, five curling clubs. Personally I’ve never done it seriously, elementary school lessons, intramural curling in law school (laugh if you will but in a student population of 300 spread across the three years there were enough wanting to curl - and drink - on a Friday afternoon that there was an entire intramural league within the population of 300) and the odd social/work funspiels.

In the winter if you’re altogether avoiding curling on television, you’re not paying much attention to the Canadian television sports channels or CBC.