You wanna do some curling?

What’s curling?

Sharks Ice Rink tl;dr

When the last winter Sochi Olympics took place I was actually watching it while visiting Seoul, Korea. One very vivid memory was riding the bus to the airport and watching curling during the hour and the half bus ride.

Who Knew They Had Curling?

While watching I was fascinated by the British team playing the Korean team and the girls staring intensely at the round circle thing trying to get it to the other side of the ice rink.

Therefore, when the opportunity presented itself and a friend asked if I’d be interested in taking an intro to curling class in San Jose? I said,  “Sure, why not?” I mean how many times will I be able to say I’ve been curling before?!

Walking up to the Sharks Ice Rink off 10th Street, I couldn’t even remember the last time that I was at the ice rink besides skating outside in New York this past December, a winter dream of mine, just like the movies. So as I was walking inside I was excited to see what was in store for us.

Since the curling class took place fairly late in the evening with a start time of 9pm, everyone else that normally uses the rink, hockey players, ice skaters and all had cleared the rink by then and the staff that organized the event started setting everything up. For those interested, the class itself is $20 and was put on by the San Francisco Curling Club that puts on curling classes all throughout the Bay Area from SJ to SF to Oakland.

In our particular class there were 68 people and everyone was sectioned off into groups of 6 or 7 per group. For each group there was an instructor who walked us through the basics of the game such as the rules and the round thing was called a stone and actually weighs 42 pounds each! He then also taught us the techniques of how to throw the stone and also the calls that the “captain” makes when they’re on the other side of the rink trying to guide their team where to position and then sweep the stone in attempts to score a point.

Throughout the night we practices throwing multiple times, sweeping the stone to the other side of the rink and also played 4 real games against another team. Something that was interesting is that when we were curling, we actually didn’t even need special shoes or skates! Sneakers sufficed on the ice though I would highly suggest still being careful as it was very easy to slip, I know from personal experience!

Such a fun experience and I’d highly encourage everyone to step out of their normal comfort zone and try new sports or experiences such as curling, you never know how much you can have and the new people you may meet along the way!

F8T Tip Wear layers…. you’ll get sweaty despite the ice.

Curling at Sharks-Solar4America Ice

• 1500 S 10th St, San Jose, N California, USA
• Street View
• 408 / 279-6000

Ever try any Olympic sports?
What’s your story?