My Brother's Learning to Curl #5

So last week was my brother's last class and most of the time was spent playing a six end game.  However, for my brother, they only played five and a half ends.  The reason is that, early in the game, like the first few ends, they would throw the rocks down, but because the opposite hack wasn't frozen in yet, they'd have to bring all the rocks back.  Weird, huh.  Another example of something that would never take place at the St. Paul Curling Club or any other dedicated facility.

I was curious about the ice setup, so my brother made a little video showing how they nip the ice by putting rocks in a wooden board and then  pushing it across. 

And here's a picture of how they have to put rocks on top of the hack while it freezes.  Hopefully, some day, someone with a lot of money will decide to help build a dedicated curling club out there so that they don't have to do this.

This is a picture of the scoreboard from the game that my brother played.  He was happy to have played third on the winning team.  Not that it's really that interesting of a picture for you, but good for his team.

My brother thought he played pretty well except for one rock that was supposed to be a raise that instead raised the opponents' rock.  Always a bad feeling to think that not only did you miss the shot, you made it worse.  Also, my brother's lead got all of their rocks in play except one and that was because my brother burned it.  Oops.

Anyway, my brother enjoyed things so much he's playing in the upcoming 5 week league and ordered curling shoes.  I think it's cool that they play with their own team names, which I think would be kind of fun to do here, but I understand the tradition that we have up here.  Another team came up with the team name "Shot Rock Lobsters."  I think that's kind of clever.  Because I like it so much, here are some related "Rock Lobster" videos.