Curling - The Most Deceiving Sport on Earth

This past Sunday I went curling with the Rutland Rocks Curling Club at Giorgetti Arena in Rutland. Let me tell you, curling is a very deceiving sport. First, the ice isn’t slippery at all. The surface is “pebbled” with a fine mist, to create traction for sweepers as well as a surface for the rock to slide on – the concave bottom of the rock would create suction on a perfectly flat surface. The rock essentially slides alone these pebbles. It’s also way harder to get those stones all the way to the other end – 140 feet away. The Olympians barely look like they’re pushing the stone at all, but you really have to get a good slide (a difficult task in and of itself) to get the stone down there. And sweeping is just exhausting, especially at the club level. A lot of sweeping is needed just to get the stone even close to the house, or target, and after doing that as hard as you can the length of the sheet really wears out your arms after awhile. Just getting the basics down are hard enough, but once you factor in the strategy and precision it takes to pull off the shots the Olympians do – wow do I have a new respect for the sport. Still, it’s definitely something I want to try again next season. Pictures from the session hopefully coming soon.

16 or so inches of fresh on the ground so far – more supposedly coming, potentially 35 inches by Saturday. Updates from the Mt. Enzy terrain park will be coming in the next day or two, but the weekend needs to get here so I can ride.