Arena Curling

 First, let me apologize for not posting in a while. It's the off-season!! So posting may be pretty infrequent. In August it will probably pick up again, since the season will be starting for the husband and I with a trip to Curling Camp in Canada. (More on that later in the summer.)

 This post is about Arena Curling. The husband got a letter in the mail from the Evergreen Curling Club in Portland, Oregon. They are soliciting donations for their new curling club, so they can curl on dedicated curling ice. Right now, and for the past 9 years, they curl on Arena Ice. For those of you that have not seen this before, clubs can rent ice time at a local hockey arena and curl on the hockey ice. As you can imagine, this comes with a whole host of problems. Evergreens letter highlights some of these problems: rental rates are expensive and the scheduling is controlled by the arena, the ice is consistently poor quality, there is nowhere for people to meet before or after a game and socialize together, a ton of work has to go into setting everything up before a night of curling can even happen, plus many more issues.

 Evergreens letter mentions that they have decided to lease empty warehouse space and convert it to a curling club. They note that this is really the cheapest option, and through various fundraising options they hope to raise $300,000. If you want that warm and fuzzy feeling, send a donation! I'm sure they would really appreciate it.

 Receiving their letter in the mail made me think how lucky and fortunate we are in Rochester to have dedicated curling ice. I remember how excited the husband and I were when we started curling, and I remember how awesome we thought it was that we could curl almost any night of the week. If we had to curl on Arena ice - would we have that same level of excitement? It's hard to say. Would I have stuck it out and worked through some of my bad habits if I could only curl once a week and on wonky ice?? It would have been pretty hard to do it.

 So far, curling has become a big part of our lives. And it is taking us to places we have never been before. Along the way, we have met some REALLY great people. I always like to attribute this to our home ice and the opportunities it has given us to further our game.

I'm proud to call him my Skip.

 This is Chris Benway, my Skip for Thursday nights. We almost went undefeated during the last draw. If only he pulled this out during that last game...if only! haha.

 This was recorded during the Last Chance last weekend.

Last Chance Curling and Craziness 4/16/2011

Saturday was the Last Chance to Curl. It's really just a big party before and after they shut down the compressor for the summer. We had some crazy rules curling (All 16 rocks in the house, Red in left side only, Touch center line only, Delivering two rocks,etc.) then we toast the compressor. After the compressor is off, the fun begins - with skating and sliding on anything you can get your hands on. Here are a few pics.

Click here for more pictures.

Pittsburgh Rocks!!

Pictures courtesy of John Zavinski from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

                                                   My favorite pic of me. Go Steelers.    

                                                John I. and I digging in. Nice form.

    Hurry, Hurry, Hurry!!         

                                              Nick W. and I sweeping Johns rock.

Pittsburgh Curling Club      


PS: RIB pics coming soon!

Rochester International Bonspiel

 The RIB was tons of fun! We went 2-2 overall, and ended up competing in the C divison final game. We lost that, and as C runners up, we were given 50th Anniversary RCC pins. The final game was a tough one to swallow, since we were dominating early. We just couldn't hold onto the lead. The game against Machold on Saturday was rough, as you can see, but that one was against people WAY better than us and with more experience. Their skip is a National Play-Downs player!

 Sunday morning was a bright spot, since we beat the Raven team. Their skip is a very skilled player and the rest of the team was playing very well too. But we all dug deep to play real well to make up for being so far behind after the first 3 ends. I really enjoyed this game. And playing against the members of the Raven team was nice, they are real good guys.

 So, aside from some fun nights of curling coming up this week (the club shuts down for the summer this coming weekend), the husband and I are done with being 'First Year Curlers'. Kind of weird...The husband said that the RIB felt kind of like a graduation ceremony. He's not that far off. The organizer of the event made note of recognizing that we are all pretty inexperienced and still played some good games, and we got a round of applause for that. That was nice. Except like my husband said, we can't use 'First Year' as an excuse anymore!

This is how we did:

 *Disclaimer: The husband made this graphic late on Sunday night, and we both were very sore and tired, and our memorys were shot - so the ends might be a little off. But we are 99% sure it's mostly correct!! The final scores are right at least.

 At some point this week I will post pictures from the RIB.

We lost last night. 6-1 for the draw. Came in 2nd place overall. Ugh.

And I completely and totally suck.

I have 24 hours to wallow, and I'm going to take full advantage of that.

Then I just gotta somehow shake it off - tomorrow we start the Rochester International Bonspiel.

Good news is that the club has both the Whipped Cream AND Cotton Candy flavored vodka.

One more to go...

 So, tomorrow night is our last game of the Thursday night draw. We are currently 6-0, and have most likely secured a glass (the top two teams get a glass for winning the draw.) But honestly I would much rather brag about being undefeated in the draw, than brag about a glass. Going 7-0 wasn't really anything I considered until we had our 5th win, so to be this close to it is a little nerve racking. Though, also a little fun!

 Our Skip sent one of his pre-game strategy emails to all of us and in it he said "Keep it simple and play an open game. Do whatever we need to do to keep it a nice open clean game. Get out your hitting shoes." I like his perspective. If we dig deep and play well, that puts a lot of pressure on the other team to match that. I've always liked games like that in the past. You can even feel when the atmosphere on the rink changes, and you realize you have the other guys a little shook up.

 So, no getting lazy tomorrow night. Head up. Steady breaths. Keep thinking. Play hard and we should be all right...