Curling has been a part of my life always,
there was never a decision to like curling, it has always been a part of my life. This post today includes some links, including the Scotties, the Briar, Curling Day in Canada and I invite the reader to learn about curling in Canada.
There are over 1500 curling clubs in Canada, and over a million curlers, 800,000 active annually and curling in families is a multi-generational phenomena.
In my mind, as much as Canadians do love and play hockey – Curling is more Canadian than hockey.
Canada has 35% of the world’s hockey players but 90% of the world’s curlers!
As a youngster, my parents and grandparents were curlers and I have curled with them. Longer than I have been taking breaths, my Dad has been sliding down the ice to throw his rocks, and call out “Sweep!”
As a teenager, I played second on our family team, my brother Jim was lead, my Mom was third and my Dad was skip. Sundays we travelled the length of Vancouver to different curling clubs to play in different leagues. I learned to drive on Sundays driving to curling when I had my learners license. 🙂
My son-in-law Tyler, my daughter Mandy are active curlers and Tyler has had his picture taken with curling celebrities multiple times and I shared in his excitement.
Tyler and Brad Gushue, Gold Medal Olympics Curling Champion
This last week has been taken up with the “Scotties” – every day for hours, my son David, my patient wife Susan, and I have been cheering on our favorite women teams as they have congregated in Moosejaw, Saskatchewan this year to compete and decide who can be Team Canada until 2021.
Soon it will be the “Briar” in Kingston, Ontario and more couch time as I watch the men’s champions from across Canada compete to be Team Canada.
Then there will be the world championships and so on to watch. The world comes to Canada for coaches and competitions because in Canada we know curling. 90% of the world’s curlers are in Canada. Now that curling is an Olympic sport, some countries station teams in Canada for full-time training as some countries has no clubs. In order to get better, you need to practice and play and in Canada these teams find coaches, ice, clubs and bonspiels!
Hockey is huge here also, but curling has a special place in Canadian hearts. If you take the time to read the stories in the link provided HERE, you may have a sense of how curling is part of the Canada’s culture. Canada’s new immigrants often share that playing curling made them feel Canadian at heart when they began.
Curling Etiquette
“Imagine if everyone respected their teammates and opponents in life, shook hands after every confrontation and bought each other a drink. Imagine if we all stood still while others were concentrating on their life’s work, offering encouragement, not distraction. Imagine if we celebrated our opponents’, as well as our own accomplishments. No, it’s not a perfect world, but it could be. And it is – on a sheet of curling ice!”
….. Jean Mills
I love curling, I have enjoyed playing, and with pride I see my son and daughter enjoy the game, the culture also. Perhaps I will resume playing now that my health is better, but regardless I will always support and love the game.
It’s more than a game, there is etiquette, a respect between teams, the social aspect on and off the ice. There are terms and language in curling – learn here.
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Curling is for men, women, juniors, seniors, and even people in wheelchairs can curl in Canada! I have met a gold medal wheelchair champion who lives in the Okanagan valley.
Please help me celebrate Curling Day in Canada today,
** I am also celebrating curling internationally because now it is an international men’s and women’s sport. The competition internationally is intense now, competitive curlers come from Norway, Sweden, Korea, Italy, Switzerland, China, United States and so on! While Canada continues to be a constant in international playoffs, the podium now is shared with teams from around the globe!
I loved reading some of the individual stories including this one. click on link here
If you take the time, the curling bug might infect you too ! – thanks for reading 🙂 Dave
Some international curling shots in the video below!
Link here to lessons for new curlers 🙂
Life and Random Thinking 
I grew up in Michigan, close to Canada. We could always catch curling on the local Canadian TV station. 🙂
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Glad you know the game!
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What a great video. I love curling. I only played it in high school and have not done it since. Nor have I seen it until I watched the video. It was so much fun and great team work. I actually saw some geese sitting on the ice the other day and they reminded me of curling. The looked like stones. 🙂
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I like so many things about curling also. I like how you shake hands with the other team and wish them a good game before the game, and again after the game to say thank you.
It’s a reminder that curling is a game, it’s a competition, not life.
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I used to watch football a long time ago. I just lost interest in it. It seems to be only about money now. Plus we got rid of our TV, which gives me a lot more time to be outdoors.
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I enjoy watching the Saskatchewan Roughriders in the CFL. I do also watch the Seahawks but find the NFL kind of ludicrous with their celebration of the NFL (national football league) as a World Championship. It’s a national league, no other nations are invited to play their league, and the reasoning given is that it is a championship of their style of football. It’s like changing the NBA to have bigger hoops and then calling it a world championship of basketball. Plus the NFL has 4 downs for ten yards, a smaller football, and a smaller field than the CFL – I think the CFL game is actually a tougher game for the teams. I think maybe I have thought about this too much,, ha ha
Curling is better, all the same around the world, and the spirit of competition of there without tackling 🙂
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I have never heard of the CFL, but like you said the NFL has turned into something else. I have the best memories of one football game on during the week, and my grandpa would watch it and fall asleep. Now football is on 4 or 5 times a week. To much of a good thing I guess ruined it for me.
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Canadian Football League – a lot less teams than the USA, only a couple games per week
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our family loves curling too. My husband and sons all started when they were very young. What a great game the Scotties final was, a thriller!
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Thriller and heartbreaking. I am looking forward now to the international competition March 14! I bet you are also 👍
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yes, as much as we were cheering for our local Rachel Homan, I thought Manitoba’s Kerri Einerson played really well. Nice to see a new winner!
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Happy Belated Curling Day!
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This is the time for curling competitions on sports networks, at least here in Canada. This weekend is the Men’s briar, very big event all week starting Friday. March 14 – International Women’s competition in Prince George BC, the week after the men’s international competition. There are invitational events regularly on tv for the next two months or so. Lots of curling available on Youtube – Canadian womens stars like Rachel Homan’s team or Jennifer Jones.
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Most Asians have never known much about this sport until the Korean female curling team had competed in the games a few years ago. Then we all went nuts. As usual when it comes to international sports, it was once again, Korea vs Japan, and the battle was fierce. Thanks for reminding me about it.
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Starting March 14 there will be a women’s international curling competition here in my province. It will be televised and I will be watching for certain. I expect Korea will have a team there, will you be watching also in Korea?
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