The bar with a curling view

Whatever the weather, the indoor curling rink is here all year round, seven days a week. We meet Ewan upstairs in the bar area of the facility with tilting windows giving the perfect view of the curling rink below. Four curling lanes are set up below. Each lane has two sets of eight stones and two scoring rings at either end of the lane – so you can play a game from either side of the lane.

’90s-tastic video

Now, as you might have realised, we have never played a game of curling nor really understand it. We get a coffee, and Ewan takes us to some rows of chairs in front of a TV to watch a informative, albeit shamelessly ’90s, introduction video to curling presented by a Curling Olympian. The five-minute video goes through everything we need to know about curling: the equipment, the scoring, and the different styles of curling (one of the great things about curling is that there are styles to suit all abilities).

Grippers for winners!

Once the video has finished and we have a better idea of curling, Ewan take us down to the rink to get started. To start off, we need grippers – rubber outsoles that you can put over your normal shoes so you don’t slip on the ice. (Thank God we don’t have to wear stinky shoes like in bowling!)

The ice is a lot different to that found on an ice-skating rink, which Ewan tells us is what makes the “dedicated” curling facility a much different experience to doing curling on an ice-skating rink. Instead of smooth and slippery ice, the curling rinks are sprayed with fine water droplets to create a textured effect. This, combined with our grippers, makes walking on the ice a breeze.

They call him “the sliding sensation”

Curling practice

We go through the three different curling styles with Ewan: the standing style, using a stick, and the slide. And, ya know, we aren’t the type of people to half-arse things! We want to do the style that we HAVE seen people do in the Olympics. We want to do “the slide”!

Despite having visions of being pulled down the lane with stone, thanks to Ewan’s instruction, we actually feel like we get the hang of sliding… It’s just the aiming and actually scoring that takes some practice. Well, Ewan leaves us to playing the game against each other so we have plenty of time to practice!

No sweeping brushes?!

“But, wait! What about the sweeping brushes?!” We hear you cry to your screen right now. Well, you need at least two people on your team to use the brushes and we would rather play against each other than with each other… (Yes, we have a healthy relationship)… So the game is ON!