Last year, my husband and I, along with two of our closest friends, joined a curling bonspiel after taking approximately two hours of lessons.
At the lesson, which was offered for free through a work recreational organization, we collectively paid little attention to the finer points of the game and proceeded to laugh hysterically about how hard curling was.
We joined a bonspiel knowing full well that we were going to get slaughtered and our only goal was to get at least one point in each game. We made our goal that year and loved the game so much that, we joined a recreational curling league the following winter.
Flash forward to this year, and we played in the same bonspiel again hoping that we would do a little bit better after five months of playing once a week.
This year, our goal was to win at least one game in the tournament.Sadly, that did not happen. However, as my friend puts it, "curling is pure fun." Even when we are getting killed on the ice and our opponents have stopped keeping score because they are beating us so badly that they are embarrassed by it, curling is still pure fun.
I spent my whole childhood making fun of curling. I didn't get the appeal nor did I have any understanding of how hard it is.I am happy to admit that I didn't know what I was talking about.
As a sport, there are no physical limitations to joining a league or playing a game.
There is blind curling, wheelchair curling, senior curling, junior curling, youth curling, men's curling, women's curling and doubles curling. This is a sport that virtually anyone can play.Even if you have bad knees, there are sticks that you can use to throw the rock so you don't have to kneel down in the hack.
I am so grateful that on a whim, we decided to take part in this game. Even if there is no chance that we will ever win a bonspiel (I am being realistic), I am happy to take part in this game.I hope that the Prince George curling leagues continue to grow and encourage new members to play so that next year we could play against extreme novices in the bonspiel and manage to win ourselves a game.
For more information about curling in Prince George, contact the Curling Office in the Prince George Golf and Curling Club at curling@pggolfandcurling.com.
Join us, it is pure fun.
