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Your personal crash course in curling

Noah Frank | nfrank@wtop.com

March 9, 2015, 2:04 AM

The Potomac Curling Club is a modest facility, but has over 300 full-time members and offers weekly instruction to new players. (海角精品黑料/Noah Frank)
Surface aside, curling is basically a giant game of shuffleboard 鈥� the table game you see in barrooms, not the asphalt-based one in Florida retirement homes. The details are complex, but the basic object is simple: At the end of each round, whichever team leaves a stone closest to the center of the 12-foot diameter target (called a house) on the other side of the sheet scores in that end, which is similar to an inning in baseball. They score as many points as they have stones left within the house that are closer to the center than their opponents’. (海角精品黑料/Noah Frank)
海角精品黑料/Noah Frank
The ice surface is much rougher than hockey or skating ice. It is intentionally marbled, by dropping water onto it, to help provide more friction. (海角精品黑料/Noah Frank)
The ice surface is much rougher than hockey or skating ice. It is intentionally marbled, by dropping water onto it, to help provide more friction. (海角精品黑料/Noah Frank)
海角精品黑料/Noah Frank
Before investing in expensive curling shoes, players can simply wrap these rubber booties around athletic shoes to take the ice. This gives them much more traction, allowing them to move up and down the ice (mostly) without slipping. (海角精品黑料/Noah Frank)
Before investing in expensive curling shoes, players can simply wrap these rubber booties around athletic shoes to take the ice. This gives them much more traction, allowing them to move up and down the ice (mostly) without slipping. (海角精品黑料/Noah Frank)
海角精品黑料/Noah Frank
Club members' brooms rest along a wall inside the facility. Scrubbing the ice with brooms creates friction which warms and smooths the ice. This serves a dual purpose, allowing the stones to travel further while also cutting down on their curl. (海角精品黑料/Noah Frank)
Club members’ brooms rest along a wall inside the facility. Scrubbing the ice with brooms creates friction which warms and smooths the ice. This serves a dual purpose, allowing the stones to travel further while also cutting down on their curl. (海角精品黑料/Noah Frank)
海角精品黑料/Noah Frank
In order to throw the stones -- 42-pound discs of granite -- one must propel off a starter鈥檚 block like you might see on a track. But only one foot is in the block. The other is used to balance and slide out, down the sheet of ice. Without curling shoes, this is done by standing on a piece of Teflon, cut to shape of a shoe, like an orthotic insert only much, much slipperier. The primary focus at first is simply staying upright and sending the stone in the correct general direction. One that鈥檚 achieved, there鈥檚 the matter of trying to judge both the weight of how heavily you鈥檝e launched the stone with the spin you are putting on it, allow it to curl into place on the other side of the ice. (海角精品黑料/Noah Frank)
In order to throw the stones 鈥� 42-pound discs of granite 鈥� one must propel off a starter鈥檚 block like you might see on a track. But only one foot is in the block. The other is used to balance and slide out, down the sheet of ice. Without curling shoes, this is done by standing on a piece of Teflon, cut to shape of a shoe, like an orthotic insert only much, much slipperier. The primary focus at first is simply staying upright and sending the stone in the correct general direction. Once that鈥檚 achieved, there鈥檚 the matter of trying to judge both how heavily you鈥檝e launched the stone and the spin you are putting on it, allow it to curl into place on the other side of the ice. (海角精品黑料/Noah Frank)
海角精品黑料/Noah Frank
The reason curling stones travel so smoothly down the ice, despite their 42-pound weight, is that the only part of the stone that actually touches the ice is a small inner ring that has been carved out. (海角精品黑料/Noah Frank)
The reason curling stones travel so smoothly down the ice, despite their weight, is that the only part of the stone that actually touches the ice is a small inner ring that has been carved out. (海角精品黑料/Noah Frank)
海角精品黑料/Noah Frank
Surface aside, curling is basically a giant game of shuffleboard -- the table game you see in barrooms, not the asphalt-based one in Florida retirement homes. The details are complex, but the basic object is simple. At the end of each round, whichever team leaves a stone closest to the center of the 12-foot diameter target (called a house) on the other end of the sheet scores in that end, similar to an inning in baseball. They score as many points as they have stones left within the house that are closer to the center than their opponents. (海角精品黑料/Noah Frank)
Players follow the instructions of their team leader, or skip, sweeping when it is deemed strategically advantageous. Stones that come to rest between聽the initial line, called the Hog Line, and the End Line at the back end of the blue circle, or house, remain in play throughout that end. (海角精品黑料/Noah Frank)
海角精品黑料/Noah Frank
Teams play in groups of four, for a total of eight ends. Each player takes two shots per end. Whichever team scored in an end goes first the next end. (海角精品黑料/Noah Frank)
Teams play in groups of four, for a total of eight ends. Each player takes two shots per end, and whichever team scored in an end goes first the next end. Whichever team leads at the end of eight ends (10 in international competition) wins the game. (海角精品黑料/Noah Frank)
海角精品黑料/Noah Frank
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The Potomac Curling Club is a modest facility, but has over 300 full-time members and offers weekly instruction to new players. (海角精品黑料/Noah Frank)
The ice surface is much rougher than hockey or skating ice. It is intentionally marbled, by dropping water onto it, to help provide more friction. (海角精品黑料/Noah Frank)
Before investing in expensive curling shoes, players can simply wrap these rubber booties around athletic shoes to take the ice. This gives them much more traction, allowing them to move up and down the ice (mostly) without slipping. (海角精品黑料/Noah Frank)
Club members' brooms rest along a wall inside the facility. Scrubbing the ice with brooms creates friction which warms and smooths the ice. This serves a dual purpose, allowing the stones to travel further while also cutting down on their curl. (海角精品黑料/Noah Frank)
In order to throw the stones -- 42-pound discs of granite -- one must propel off a starter鈥檚 block like you might see on a track. But only one foot is in the block. The other is used to balance and slide out, down the sheet of ice. Without curling shoes, this is done by standing on a piece of Teflon, cut to shape of a shoe, like an orthotic insert only much, much slipperier. The primary focus at first is simply staying upright and sending the stone in the correct general direction. One that鈥檚 achieved, there鈥檚 the matter of trying to judge both the weight of how heavily you鈥檝e launched the stone with the spin you are putting on it, allow it to curl into place on the other side of the ice. (海角精品黑料/Noah Frank)
The reason curling stones travel so smoothly down the ice, despite their 42-pound weight, is that the only part of the stone that actually touches the ice is a small inner ring that has been carved out. (海角精品黑料/Noah Frank)
Surface aside, curling is basically a giant game of shuffleboard -- the table game you see in barrooms, not the asphalt-based one in Florida retirement homes. The details are complex, but the basic object is simple. At the end of each round, whichever team leaves a stone closest to the center of the 12-foot diameter target (called a house) on the other end of the sheet scores in that end, similar to an inning in baseball. They score as many points as they have stones left within the house that are closer to the center than their opponents. (海角精品黑料/Noah Frank)
Teams play in groups of four, for a total of eight ends. Each player takes two shots per end. Whichever team scored in an end goes first the next end. (海角精品黑料/Noah Frank)

LAUREL, Md. — Every four years, the world gathers to watch the Olympic Winter Games. And while sports such as figure skating and downhill skiing thrill audiences with displays of athleticism and risk-taking, one of the most popular sports is one played by groups of regular people pushing stones down sheets of ice. The sport is curling, one you can try for yourself right here in the D.C. area.

Every Saturday morning from October through mid-April, the small, unassuming building on the side of the National Capital Curling Center in Laurel hosts a Saturday Breakfast Extranvaganza. Those interested in learning about and trying the game can pay $20 for an hour鈥檚 instruction from Potomac Curling Club members, breakfast and a full, eight-end game, which lasts about two hours.

鈥淵ou get to play with members, so this is almost exactly what a league night would be,鈥� says Joe Rockenbach,聽vice president of the Potomac Curling Club, about the experience. 鈥淭his is probably the best way to get in.鈥�

It鈥檚 how Rockenbach himself found the game nine years ago, during the 2006 Olympics. He had a friend working for the Baltimore Sun鈥檚 sports section who told him about it and decided to see what it was like for himself.

鈥淚 went to a couple of these Saturday morning things,鈥� he recalls. 鈥淣ext thing I know, I鈥檓 buying my own broom and shoes, and signing up for leagues, and all that other stuff.鈥�

Potomac Curling Club's Joe Rockenbach says the club is nearing capacity for memberships and had to turn away nearly 20 groups looking to rent the facility this year due to a spike in popularity. (海角精品黑料/Noah Frank)
Potomac Curling Club’s Joe Rockenbach says the club is nearing capacity for memberships and had to turn away nearly 20 groups looking to rent the facility this year due to a spike in popularity. (海角精品黑料/Noah Frank)

Rockenbach, who works for the Federal Aviation Administration, is part of the all-volunteer staff that keeps the club running. Originally founded in 1961 in Cabin John by a group of 11 members of the Canadian Embassy, the Club moved into its current facility in 2002. There are currently 316 members 鈥� including 80 new members this year alone, bringing the Club close to capacity 鈥� who pay annual dues for access to unlimited curling and leagues.

A full-year adult membership runs $490 and also allows you to use club brooms and other equipment for free, including the curling stones themselves. That鈥檚 important, because they aren鈥檛 cheap.

鈥淭he last time I looked, it cost $11,000 for a set,鈥� says Rockenbach.

And that鈥檚 just the stones. Factor in the handles and the shipping all the way from Scotland, the only place in the world they are made, and sets run somewhere north of $16,000.

One member in attendance last Saturday was Andrew Gross, a relative newcomer to the sport who attended his first open house last Dec. 21. A Philadelphia native like Rockenbach, he now lives in Howard County, not far from the club.

鈥淭hese guys see everything so clearly,鈥� he says of the more experienced players. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e looking two or three moves ahead, like in chess. For me, it鈥檚 more like a dimly lit closet.鈥�

But the social aspect is just as big a component of the experience as the game itself. Competitors wish one another 鈥済ood curling鈥� before they start and help each other line up shots during the game. And when it鈥檚 all said and done, the winners buy a round for the losers.

鈥淭he most important part is stacking the brooms,鈥� Gross says. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 when we all go in afterward and have a beer.鈥�

That鈥檚 not to say there isn鈥檛 serious competition rolling through. Kendall Behm, a member of the 2015 U.S. National Championship Team, moved to Bethesda last year and trains at PCC. It鈥檚 also home to a pair of Israeli National Team players who live in the D.C. area. But most members are like Gross 鈥� there for the social aspect and the chance to get better each week.

Abigail Potter and Jonathan Abrams, two of the newcomers on Saturday, commuted from Arlington, about a 35-minute drive early on a weekend morning. While Potter says she wishes it was slightly closer to home, as a former figure skater she was happy to be back on the ice, and enjoyed the community aspect of the game.

鈥淚t definitely has a Midwestern feel here, in the friendly sense,鈥� the Ohio native says.

Just as she does, one of the members drops a plate of fresh-baked cookies on the table to share. Abrams, a golfer, likens the two sports.

鈥淚t鈥檚 addictive like golf,鈥� he says. 鈥淣inety percent of your shots are crap, but one in ten is really good, which brings you back.鈥�

If you want to sign up for a Saturday Morning Extravaganza, you can do so in the next few weeks before the season ends in mid-April. Sign-ups open 10 days before the date and fill up very, very quickly, so be sure to register online right when they open at midnight Wednesday. Slots have filled up in as quickly as six minutes in the past.

For more information about the Potomac Curling Club, or call 301-361-1116.

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