Video: Watch A Juniors Curling Game At Nashua (NH) Curling Club

Interested in watching a curling game played by youth?  Earlier this month I streamed some of the games of the Nashua Juniors Curling Bonspiel (ages 12+) coming out of the Nashua Curling Club in nearby Nashua, NH, and this is one you might enjoy as it was a well-played game with a nail-biting finish!  My 12-year-old daughter Chloe was one of the players and I tried throughout the game to provide some commentary about what was going on.

One of the great aspects about youth curling is that when the kids go out on the ice to play they are all alone. There are no coaches or adults.  When they go through the door onto the ice, it is entirely up to them.  All the great moments are theirs… as are all the mistakes.  They have to do everything to keep the game going.  They have to do it all.   All we can do as parents is be on the other side of the glass watching…. 🙂

This video gives a good example of youth curling – the game starts at about 7:20 into the video.  Enjoy!  (And please sign up if you’d like to bring this kind of youth sports activity to the Monadnock region!)

Great Story About New Curling Club In Brooklyn, NY

NYT - Curling in Brooklyn

Great post this week in the New York Times about a new curling club starting up in Brooklyn:  “In the Borough of Beards, Lay Down Some Ice, and Out Come the Brooms“.

It reports that they had over 100 people turn out for their November Open House and now are setting up more leagues.  Two sites to learn more:

Congratulations to the folks there on the launch of their new club!

If you’d like to help us bring curling to the Monadnock region of New Hampshire, please fill out our form and let us know!  Thanks!

Youth Curling Open House Saturday, Nov 1, 2014, at Petersham Curling Club

If you have children from age 5 all the way up to 21 and are curious if the sport of curling might be something for them to consider, you can check it out at a Youth Curling Open House happening tomorrow, Saturday, November 1, 2014, at the Petersham Curling Club about 45 minutes south of Keene in Petersham, MA.  You can come by any time between 9:00am and 12noon and actually get on the ice to try it out.   Learn about “throwing” the rocks (we actually slide them), using the brooms and about some of the strategy that many of us find so fascinating… you should even get a chance to play a bit of a game!

Plus you’ll get to meet some of the great youth already playing in the Petersham CC youth curling program and to learn about the benefits of the program.  It should be a great time!  Please see the flyer below for more info (click/tap on it for a larger version).

Getting to the Petersham Curling Club is pretty straightforward. From Keene, NH, just take Route 32 past the Keene airport and follow it all the way down through Athol, MA, and on over to Petersham, MA.  The PCC is right on Route 32. (See the PCC directions page for more info.)

If you can’t make it tomorrow but are interested in learning more, the Petersham youth curling program takes place on Saturdays from now through March.  For a local NH contact, you can email me as I help coaching the “Little Rocks” (ages 7-12) program at the PCC.  You can also connect with the Petersham youth curling program on Facebook.  Youth curling is a great experience – the kids learn a great amount about the sport and have a lot of fun along the way!

2014 youth open house flyer

Curling Season Underway At Petersham Curling Club

petersham-curlingWant to get started curling now?  While we continue the work of building the Monadnock Curling Club, you can get started right now at the Petersham Curling Club (PCC) about 45 minutes south of Keene, NH, in Petersham, MA.

The season has begun there and curling leagues are running all nights of the week and on the weekends. There are leagues for men, women, mixed teams, competitive teams, beginners and youth.  You can contact the Petersham CC to find out how to get more involved. If you have never tried curling before, they do offer “Learn To Curl” clinics from time to time.

Several of us involved with this Monadnock Curling Club effort curl down at Petersham CC because it is the closest curling club to Keene.  It’s a great place and an awesome group of people!

As far as getting there, it’s a straightforward (although winding and twisting) drive down Route 32 (the road by the Keene airport) that goes down through Richmond, NH, then over into Royalston, MA, and then Athol and finally Petersham.  The PCC is right on Route 32 so as long as you stay on the road you’ll get there.

Please do check it out and consider getting started with curling today!

Planning An Organizational Meeting In Early August 2014 (Curling in Keene)

Are you interested in bringing the sport of curling to Keene, NH, and the greater Monadnock region?  We are planning to have an organizational meeting in early August 2014 to bring together as many of the people who have already expressed interest – and hopefully more – to talk about the next steps we need to take to move forward with our vision and our plans.

We are finalizing a date and location – if you would like to be included please contact us so that we can be sure to let you know!

Reminder: Curling Open House TONIGHT In Petersham, MA – Try It Out!

Petersham Open HousesWant to try out the sport of curling TODAY?  As we mentioned earlier, the Petersham Curling Club is having an Open House free to anyone TONIGHT, Thursday, February 20, from 6-9 pm.

Over 280 people attended last Sunday’s Open House and the PCC has posted some great photos online.

The  Petersham Curling Club (PCC) is about 45 minutes south of Keene. Just head south on Route 32 (going down past the Keene airport) and stay on Route 32 all the way down through Richmond, NH, Royalston, MA, Athol and on into Petersham.  The club is located right off of Route 32. More information can be found on the PCC directions page. In good weather it takes about 45 minutes to get from Keene down to the Petersham club.

At tonight’s Open House, you’ll learn how to deliver a stone, the role of sweeping and more. This will be a great opportunity to get on the ice and experience the sport yourself. All you need to bring is a pair of clean, rubber-soled shoes and your enthusiasm!

The Petersham Curling Club is a great place to curl and is where several of us involved with starting up the Monadnock Curling Club all curl.  We strongly encourage you to head down to Petersham, MA, and check out the Open Houses.  And if the curling bug bites you as it has us, please do join the PCC and start playing the awesome sport of curling!

This is where you can get started today and enjoy curling!

And then…  please let us know you are interested in seeing curling come to Keene!

 

Smithsonian: Why Curling Ice Is Different Than Other Ice

curling iceWhat makes curling ice so different than other ice?  What extra preparation has to be done to the ice?  And how does sweeping really work?

The Smithsonian Magazine has a great article out this month that dives into detail about what goes into making curling ice – and how it is different from, say, ice used for figure skating or hockey.  The key part about the ice is:

If curling ice was flat, the stone would move barely halfway across the “sheet,” or curling lane. And that’s assuming the curler is hurling it as hard as possible. Friction would halt the rock within seconds. So, to make the ice more amenable to the sport, devoted ice makers employ a technique called “pebbling.” More or less what it sounds like, pebbling involves freezing small droplets of water across the playing surface between each match.

Curling stones weigh 44 pounds. They are concave, on bottom, which limits the contact they have with the ice. The curling stone’s concave bottom, which limits how much it comes into contact with the ice, and the pebbles reduce friction. Essentially, the pebbles melt a bit when the heavy stone runs across them, creating a micro-layer of water upon which the stone can glide.

The pebbles create the “spin” (or curl, hence the sport’s name) of the stone after it’s released, at least in part; physicists contend that something called “wet friction” also accounts for the curl. Sweepers—those furious ice brushers who’ve become fodder for Olympic memes and GIFS—use a broom to brush the pebbles, thereby changing how the stone spins. Specific techniques melt the pebbles, reducing friction and helping the stone travel even farther and straighter. Naturally, the game changes as the pebbles erode, and sweepers have to constantly compensate.

The article goes on to talk about the efforts made by professional ice-makers (and yes, there are those people) to prepare the ice for events such as the Sochi Olympics.  It’s well worth a read to understand why curling ice is different!

(And if you found that interesting, please sign up to help us bring curling to Keene!)

Great Keene Sentinel Article About Bringing Curling To The Region

Keene Sentinel article about curlingMany thanks to the Keene Sentinel for their great article on the front page of the Sports section in today’s Sunday paper.  It nicely promotes the open house happening today down at Petersham Curling Club and also mentions the work we are looking to do to bring a dedicated curling facility to Keene and the Monadnock region.  The online article strangely didn’t include any photos, but the print version has a few great photos.

If you are visiting this site from the Keene Sentinel’s site or because of the article, THANK YOU!  If you would like to see curling happen in the Keene region, there are three things you can do to help:

1. Visit the Petersham CC Open Houses – The closest place to curl right now is the Petersham Curling Club and to make curling a reality in Keene we need to build a group of people who know how to curl and want to make it happen here.  So please do check out the PCC open houses today from 12-5 and on this Thursday, Feb 20 from 6-9.   If you’d like to do more, please join the PCC and also check out their upcoming “Learn to Curl” sessions.

2. Fill out our interest form – Even if you’ve never tried it and just think it looks interesting, we need to get a sense of how many people are interested in the sport of curling.  We’re also definitely looking for people who would be interested in helping us build the organization in many different ways.

3. Spread the word! – Please help us spread the word that there are people who want to bring the sport of curling to Keene and the greater Monadnock region.  Tell people about the website… follow us on social media (and share/retweet our info)… invite us to come talk to your group (we can explain curling! 🙂 )… just let people know we’re here!

Thank you for visiting – and let’s bring curling to the region!

Reminder – Curling Open House TODAY at Petersham Curling Club

Petersham Open HousesWant to try out curling TODAY?  As we mentioned earlier, the Petersham Curling Club is having an Open House free to anyone TODAY, Sunday, February 16, from 12-5pm.

The  Petersham Curling Club (PCC) is about 45 minutes south of Keene. Just head south on Route 32 (going down past the Keene airport) and stay on Route 32 all the way down through Richmond, NH, Royalston, MA, Athol and on into Petersham.  The club is located right off of Route 32. More information can be found on the PCC directions page. In good weather it takes about 45 minutes to get from Keene down to the Petersham club.

At today’s Open House, you’ll learn how to deliver a stone, the role of sweeping and more. This will be a great opportunity to get on the ice and experience the sport yourself. All you need to bring is a pair of clean, rubber-soled shoes and your enthusiasm!

The Petersham Curling Club is a great place to curl and is where several of us involved with starting up the Monadnock Curling Club all curl.  We strongly encourage you to head down to Petersham, MA, and check out the Open Houses.  And if the curling bug bites you as it has us, please do join the PCC and start playing the awesome sport of curling!

This is where you can get started today and enjoy curling!

And then…  please let us know you are interested in seeing curling come to Keene!

 

Why We Want Dedicated Curling Ice, Part 1: It’s About The Schedule!

Calendar of activitiesWhy do we want dedicated curling ice versus curling on an ice arena?  With the great success happening with Keene Ice’s plans for a new year-round ice arena here in Keene (which is awesome!), we’ve had several people asking this question – and the reality is that we may need to use arena ice as part of our process of starting up, but our end goal is very definitely to have dedicated curling ice in the Keene region.

We touched on this subject in our FAQ, but I want to expand on the reasons.  The primary reason is scheduling. With an arena, you are competing for time with the many hockey leagues, the figure skating clubs, the public skating time, as well as rentals and other uses.  The end result is that you typically only get to have time for curling on one day of the week, and even then at a time of little interest to others, in part because you really need about a 5-hour block of time to do setup/tear-down and play two games. (A typical curling game of 8 ends lasts about 2 hours.)  If you look at the websites for some of the arena curling clubs in the region, you’ll see that they are typically only playing on one or two days of the week.

In contrast, with dedicated ice you can have curling happening on every day of the week – and can also frequently run curling “bonspiels” (“tournaments”) that bring in people and teams from around the region.

Curling Leagues

Consider the schedule of activities at nearby Petersham Curling Club.  Here is their schedule:

  • Mondays – Men’s League with multiple evening games.
  • Tuesdays – Daytime League at 2pm.  Men’s League in the evening
  • Wednesdays – Women’s League
  • Thursdays – “Signature” League (A highly competitive league.)
  • Fridays – Mixed (men and women) League in the evening.
  • Saturdays:
    • Youth Curling League from 9 – 12:15pm
    • Mixed Doubles League some Saturday afternoons
    • Rentals of curling ice some Saturday afternoons
    • Mixed (men and women) League in the evening
  • Sundays – Rentals of curling ice on some Sunday afternoons.  “Under 5” (years of play) social league in the evening.

That makes for a LOT of activity!  And there are other rentals that take place during the day and other activities that happen at the club from time to time.  Here in Keene we would also see curling ice being able to be potentially used by the schools for physical education activities – and we could potentially see our colleges being interested in having some curling activities or teams.

Or consider Broomstones Curling Club in Wayland, MA. They also have multiple leagues playing each day of the week – and their club is full!  You CANNOT join even if you wanted to!  They have a waiting list and simply cannot accept people into their club because they have no room for people to play.  Here is what their league calendar looks like (and this doesn’t include their active youth curling program, their college program or their rentals):

Broomstones_Curling_Club

You can’t build this kind of community and activity around curling with just a few hours of rented ice arena time!

Bonspiels (Tournaments)

For scheduling, the other big issue is the hosting of curling “bonspiels” which are tournaments where teams compete.  I’ll write more about the potential economic impact of bonspiels in another article, but suffice it to say they are a great way to get people excited about curling and to bring in a large number of people from outside the region (and to have them staying in Keene hotels, eating at our restaurants, shopping at our stores, etc.).

A typical adult bonspiel begins with multiple games on a Friday night, has games all day on Saturday and then usually has multiple games on a Sunday as well.  Typically there is also a dinner or other social event involved as well.  The point is that the ice is used occupied for pretty much the entire weekend.

This is a severe challenge to try with an ice arena given the many other needs of the other groups using an ice arena.  The arena curling clubs with which I am familiar are often able to do a bonspiel maybe once a year – or sometimes they are able to get single-day events happening from time-to-time.

In contrast, dedicated clubs can run a bonspiel each month if they chose to do so… all really depending upon their own organizational capabilities.  Some, like Broomstones, do run multiple events for adults, youth (and different levels of youth), seniors, mixed leagues and more.

THAT Is Why

This is really the big reason why our end goal is to have dedicated curling ice here in the Keene and greater Monadnock region – either as a completely separate facility or as part of an existing facility. We want to build a strong curling community and have a financially strong and viable club. We want to have many different leagues and other activities as we outlined in our vision.

Please join us! Help us make this a reality!