Get your rocks off

Hurry hard to get in shape while pounding
back a few brews at your local curling club

by MALCOLM FRASER

Curling is an ancient sport, with roots dating back to 16th century Scotland and the Netherlands. Two players use brooms to push a large rock (or stone) down the ice towards a target, with help from their teammates—a deceptively simple activity. It’s a peculiar sport, one that manages to have extremely complex rules even as it’s accessible to players at any level of skill.

It also enjoys massive popularity in Canada relative to anywhere else in the world, for reasons no doubt best left to large-scale socio-demographic studies—though it can’t hurt that it’s one of the few sports where drinking beer during games is a normal part of the routine.

Curling teams have four players, who take turns throwing the stone down the ice. The first player, typically the most junior, is called the lead, and the fourth is usually the team captain, or skip, who also determines the team’s strategy and literally calls the shots, indicating the direction that the other players should throw. After that, the rules get complicated, leading to the sport’s nickname, “chess on ice.”

Luckily for the curious, our fine island is home to several curling clubs. The most central of these, the Royal Montreal Curling Club, located right downtown on de Maisonneuve, is also the most venerable—it celebrated its bicentennial last year.

Naturally Canadian

“We get people of all ages, all walks of life, and all levels of ability,” affirms club manager Linda Slade. “Curling in itself is open to just about anybody.” I ask her why this is more the case in curling than in other athletic activities. “In other sports, everybody has to be at the same level of ability,” she muses. “In curling, the skip is the most experienced, and then the ability goes down until the lead has the least. So it’s built right into the structure of the team that there are four levels of ability.”

The club’s schedule is tight, confirming the sport’s popularity. “We curl seven days a week,” says Slade with pride, “from about nine in the morning until about 10 at night.” At the Club de Curling Longue-Pointe, located on a military base in deepest Hochelaga, the hours are even longer, from 8 a.m. to midnight, and available ice time is scarce. “It’s the same level of popularity as always,” claims manager André Laberge, who’s been involved with the club for its whole 40-year history. “The only trouble is fitting people into the schedule.”

What is it about curling that makes it so popular? Wasyl Wysoczanskyj, skip of the Executive League and a member of the Royal club for nearly 20 years, has a few ideas. “It’s played on ice, so it’s kind of a natural Canadian thing,” he reflects. “It’s physically challenging, but also involves a lot of strategy. There’s a good social element to it all—there’s down time, you talk to people during and after the game. And it’s a great way to start the weekend—it releases all the stress from work.”

Private but open

Curling clubs are generally private, members-only affairs—but it’s a deceptive description, as membership is generally open to anyone who cares to apply. At the Royal, applications will be posted for two weeks, and acceptance is conditional only on good standing in the curling community; “If we don’t get any bad feedback,” says Slade, “then they’re accepted as a member.” At Longue-Pointe, prospective members simply have to fill out an application online. Membership fees vary depending on the club and, in some cases, the amount of curling you intend to do.

After joining up, new members will either be assigned to a beginner’s league or can integrate into one of the existing leagues—which are so numerous, Slade says, “I wouldn’t want to have to count them.” Or if you’d prefer to check out the scene with some friends, ice time is also available to groups who want to hold curling events. Unlike many local clubs, Longue-Pointe opens its matches to the public, which also gives the rare opportunity to visit a military base in the mysterious east end of town.

Though the Royal is the only curling club in the downtown area, several other clubs are scattered throughout the West Island, and the South and North Shores. Curling season opens at the start of October, so this is the perfect time to go on down and sign up. Complex yet welcoming, and an occasion to keep in shape while socializing and drinking beer, it’s pretty much the ideal sport to make it through another long winter.