Yes! Harder!!!!

I went curling last weekend; for the first time. When I told my mom about it, she said she didn't get the game but that smart people must play since one of her very intelligent colleagues plays regularly. I didn't know what to expect but I kept thinking about a bunch of old people getting together to lunge a big round rock down a sheet of ice and then grabbing brooms to sweep... for fun. Didn't sound like that much fun, if you ask me.

The location was in Ajax at a Golf and Curling facility. It was my buddy Sam's birthday and he's curled while he was in school. Really, if you met Sam, I'm sure that curling would be on the bottom of your guessing list. He just doesn't strike one as such a person. Anyways, we get started and I learn about the "sheet"--which is the lane which we play in. Basically, the sheet has 2 ends that keep a graphic on the ground:

You start at the "hack" and lunge off with the rock in hand. You can aim your rock down the "centre line" with the aim to enter into the house--which is the big round target looking thing on the other end too. Imagine the image above, replicated and placed as a mirror image on the short side; that's a sheet. The objective is to get your team's rock(s) as close to the center of the target down the ice, as possible. The center is called the "house".

We play a few games and I'm really starting to enjoy it... my launches are too weak, too strong... I lose my balance during the launch. I sweep frantically on team member's turns and take a wipeout and keep warm by keeping busy. There's a good deal of strategy whereby your team will strategize the team member order, the rock placement objectives, calling the sweeping, angles, curl of the rock... phew! Lots to think about. I can see why my mom said that she thinks highly intelligent people enjoy the game... it requires lots of thinking and it isn't terribly (physically) demanding.

When our session ends, I am disappointed that we had to stop playing! I didn't expect to have much fun with it since I had the standard stereotype/bias in my head. Just goes to show, might as try anything once because I might just enjoy it!