Please tell me about curling in Canada.

In My Humble Opinion
21

I’d say it’s fairly common in Canada, and of no particular socio-economic stratum.

When I lived in Toronto, curling rinks seemed pretty common. It was the bowling alleys that seemed few and far between. True, in Toronto, many were associated with clubs, but while some clubs were the upper-crust type, some were not. Some were actually pretty basic: a rink and a bar and a locker room. From what I could tell, regardless of what club you curled at, all were equal on the ice. And in the bar.

I lived for a while in a small Ontario town (hooray for Stouffville!) and while it did not have a curling rink, it had a number of curlers who would drive to the next small town (hello, Uxbridge!) where there was a curling rink. Or they might head off to other nearby towns to get their curling fix.

I saw curling many times in many places, since my Dad is an avid curler, and when I was younger, I’d sometimes go watch Dad play at the various clubs. He’s 78 now and still curls four to five games a week. Through him and his curling, I got to meet a number of interesting people from all walks of life: at least one nationally-syndicated newspaper columnist, one provincial supreme court justice, a number of lawyers, doctors, and stockbrokers; and plenty of factory workers, truck drivers, retail clerks, and so on. But you didn’t know who did what until you were introduced. Like I said, in curling, all were equal on and off the ice.

I did it for a few years in my teens, but never really liked it. To each their own. But I know that my high school did not have a curling team. I don’t know if my university did. But I’d say it was a pretty common thing to do, and wasn’t at all unusual.

22

Curling is a ubiquitous winter activity in western Canada, particularly in the rural parts. (Course, that’s most of it.) More people curl than play hockey, to give you an idea of its prevalence. Granted, for the large majority of people who curl it’s more social than competitive, but that’s not to say there aren’t a lot of fiercely competitive bonspiels.

23

There’s a big bonspiel this weekend at my curling club. Even though I’m not curling in it – being a new curler and all – we’re still encouraged to take part in the festivities. That includes a formal party at the country club, toga parties at the houses of some members, and hanging out at the club to socialize and learn. A couple of months ago, there was a regional event at the club, and half-full cups of beer were scattered everywhere on the ice side of the window.

24

Well, I grew up with curling but I never played. My dad played. It was kind of a white dad thing to do in the 70s. I haven’t known anyone who played since.

25

Article from the Toronto Star: the hip young urban-affairs commentator, José Lourenço, describes curling as not just for old people anymore.

26

There are a heck of a lot more bowling alleys in Canada than curling rinks. Curling is popular, but it doesn’t lend itself to just playing it every now and then, as does bowling. Curling probably rivals bowling in the number of people in organized leagues, however. Curling, by its nature, requires a degree of organization.

I can’t think of an obvious American counterpart that quite matches the “market space” of curling.

27

Seriously? I doubt that. Certainly not in Saskatchewan. Every town with a population over a couple hundred has a curling rink. There are a few bowling alleys in the cities. I’ll WAG that there are at least 10 times more curling rinks in Saskatchewan than there are bowling alleys. Tranna ain’t the whole country, you know.

28

I overestimated a bit, but not by much. Actually, I underestimated the number of bowling alleys, though I think the majority of them must be two lanes in the back of community centres - there are only 4 real bowling alleys in Saskatoon after all. Anyways.

cite
A bit outdated, but the best I could find, and I doubt there’s been much relative change. Note that curling rinks outnumber hockey rinks, though only just.

29

It’s the dual-ice thing - hockey sheet on one side, curling ice on the other. I guess some places have just curling, but that seems strange to me (not doubting your numbers - I just assume that there’s hockey on one side and curling on the other).

30

I am in no way a serious curler, but while you can’t drink on the ice there is plenty of space around the ice to drink in between shots/ends.

As to the OP, I would say most Canadians have at least tried curling once, regardless of location. I can’t think, off the top of my head, a time in my life when I didn’t know a single seriuos curler.

I would say most Canadians have a general feel for the rules of the game, and you could ask the regular joe on the street what the house or button is, and they would know. I think a take-out and a draw is kind of self explanatory, YMMV.

31

Hell, round here you could say “So the other team was lying three behind cover and I thought what the heck, I’ll try an angle raise on my corner guard and wouldn’t you know it, it froze to their shot rock at the back of the four foot and we ended up stealing one,” and most everyone would know exactly what you meant.

32

Barons, where my parents live, has a population of around 700. They’ve got a free-standing curling club in a quonset. No ice rink, though.

33

Well, this has all been very enlightening for me. Interesting that in parts of Canada curling is considered “retro” . . . but in the United States, since it never had any earlier popularity, it will have to be “now-tro”.

Here’s to good curling between the USA and Canada this afternoon.

34

I’m having a lot of trouble imagining curling as an upper-class country-club sport. I really am. That’s like a gated Tim Hortons or a Canadian Tire Rolls-Royce dealership. It Just Does Not Compute. :slight_smile:

35

Sunspace, you’re in Toronto. There, you’ll find curling at the Granite Club, the Cricket Club, Scarborough Golf and Country Club (G&CC), the Boulevard Club, Mississauga G&CC, Thornhill G&CC, and a few others whose names escape me right now.

But you’ll also find it at Leaside Arena, the Tam Heather, and other places that are a little more public and that have neither golf nor the room to play it. But they do have curling.

36

Here’s a four year old article from ESPN.com that touches upon the country club aspect of the sport in the US.

FWIW, check out the photo of the skip on this Detroit Curling Club Web page. It offers a hint about one very important part of the sport. :smiley:

37

Actually, I’ve probably overestimated the number of bowling alleys everywhere. A bowling alley might have 20, 40 or more lanes; one alley will serve many bowlers. There might be more bowling LANES than curling sheets, I guess. I haven’t lived in Toronto that long; I am from a small town. We’re not all idiots here, ya know.

Having said that, bowling and curling still aren’t a good comparison. Bowling is a consumer product as much as anything else. It advertises itself to the casual fun-seeker. A great many bowling customers go once, twice, maybe five times a year. Curling, by comparison, is not something you just do with your friends on a lark; curling clubs generally aren’t equipped for that and anyway the sport simply doesn’t really work that way. It’s not conducive to a bunch of teenagers showing up to blow off some steam.

You would probably find that more Canadians have bowled at one time or another than curled, but that Canadians who curl have curled, on average, far more times than the average bowler.

38

I was going to say that bowling and curling are not really comparable. I well remember being a teen, and deciding–completely spur of the moment–to go bowling with friends. And we did, many times.

Curling, on the other hand, is not like that at all. No curling rink is like a bowling alley, waiting for customers to show up. One does not “decide” to curl today, on a lark or otherwise. No curling rink advertises, “Sheets available anytime!” You do not walk into a curling rink, rent the funny shoes, and head out to the ice. You generally need to be a member (or equivalent) of the local club. If you are, and you choose to practice during scheduled practice times, knock yourself out. If you are not, you are not curling today until you take out a membership. Speak to the club secretary about that.

39

I missed posting in this thread yesterday because I was, guess what, curling. Tonight, my back’s sore, my arms ache from sweeping 35+ stones, and my groin muscles are weary. In short, if anyone else questions whether curling is “not really a sport” I’m fit to reach through the internet and pull their keyboard apart!

I would disagree with the suggestion that curling isn’t big on t.v. in Canada. I would agree that during most of the winter, it’s not like “Curling Night in Canada”, but during the two national tournaments (the Brier for men, and the Scott for women), followed a month later by the worlds, it gets a lot of air time.

In fact, last year the CBC got into hot water on just this point. In previous years, TSN (our equivalent to ESPN) had the contract for the two tournaments, and put most of the games on, even the routine round-robin games.

Last year, the CBC won the bid, and announced that most of the round-robin games would only be on one of its cable channels, Counry Canada, and only the playoffs and some of the evening games would be on its main broadcast.

Big mistake. They got mail. They got phone calls. They got e-mail. Curling Canada got mail and phone calls and e-mail. Fans wanted their curling, dammit, and outside of the rural areas in Ontario, most of us had never heard of Country Canada cable. (So far as I know, it’s not even available on the prairies through cable companies.) The controversy got into the newspapers and onto the tv news broadcasts. Curling Canada was rumoured to be thinking of cancelling the CBC’s contract if they didn’t increase the number of games that would be available on the main channel. The whole episode sounded to me like out-of-touch CBC honchos who assumed that curling was primarily of interest to rural folk. I hope they’ve realised that’s not the case.

Another episode helps to illustrate the pull that curling has during the nationals and the worlds in Canada. Some years ago, we were watching the evening rounds of the Scott, the women’s tournament, coming from P.E.I., our smallest province, on TSN. Colleen Jone of Nova Scotia ended up in a tie with her opponent, and the match went into extra ends.

So TSN had a dilemma - stay with the Scott until the game was over, or cut to the next scheduled sporting event: an NBA game, between the Vancouver Grizzlies (of late lamented fame) v. (I think) an L.A. team - one that that guy Shaq plays for?

You guessed it - they stayed with the Scott, until the curling match was over. Bear in mind, this was just the round robin, not the play-offs, so while it had some significance for the standings, it wasn’t crucial. Then half an hour late, they switched to the NBA game. I assumed we would join the game in progress. Not so - TSN had enough pull to delay the start of the NBA game until the curling was decided. And it wasn’t tape delay - the announcers indicated that the start had been delayed.

So you had these big basketball players, on their humongous salaries, waiting around to start until the women in PEI had finished throwing their rocks down the ice. :smiley:

One of the nice things about curling is that’s a very open game and culture. There’s no real division between amateurs and pros. Anyone can put a rink together and try to compete.

Several years ago, we were sitting around after our weekly game, and someone mentioned that there wouldn’t be a game next week in our recreational league, because the city tournament was on. Someone else at the table corrected him and and said: “It’s not the city tournament. It’s the opening round of the Brier.” And he was right. Anyone can enter the city tournament. If you win your city, you go on to your region. Win the region, and you can go on to the provincials. Win there, and it’s the nationals, with a chance at the worlds.

40

Northern Piper, you don’t, by chance, play the pipes before a bonspiel and take the glass of Scotch when you’re done, do you?