Updates from San Francisco

My brother has now played two games in his current five week league.  His team all has team t-shirts, which are very fun.  (Next year, you can see me play in the extra shirt he bought for me.)  They also all have Tournament Performance brooms.  Not sure if they all have shoes now, but two of them recently purchased the Olson Ole/Fly shoes, and I know they got some colors, but not sure which.  They're a very coordinated and prepared team. 

My brother skipped both of his past two games.  He won his first game, and even made a (lucky) double raise takeout that also required his rock to go through a pretty small port; they scored two for the end.  His team lost the second game pretty badly.  Apparently, the ice was also tough to deal with, but that's what happens with arena ice I guess.  A funny thing he said to me: "You're used to ice that you can see through."  I guess I am and I didn't even realize that one might play without that kind of ice.  Maybe at some point he'll remember a strategy decision or two and we'll discuss that here.

My Brother's Game 5 Recap

This was my brother's last game for this league.  Two of his teammates couldn't make it so he played lead while his skip played second (to practice sweeping more).  Two instructors played Skip and Vice.  Maybe a slightly unfair setup, but I guess it's still an instructional league, so it doesn't really matter.  He was impressed with the opposing team's strategy of throwing a lot of guards and really protecting whatever they had in the house.  However, my brother's team did win their game and they finished their 5 game season 3-2.  Not bad.

My brother felt a lot more confident in his new shoes this time aroiund so that's good.  If you haven't bought curling shoes yet, definitely look into that or make your own. 

His team got some shirts made and my brother got one for me too.  His artist friend drew it and it's very cool.  I'll post it when I get permission from the artist.  (It may also violate copyright, so I'm not positive I should post it.)

My brother's already planning on playing in the next five week league and is still trying to secure a spot for the Golden Gate Bonspiel.  In his words: "I'm surprised at how into it I've gotten." 

My Brother's Game 4 Recap

First, my brother's search for curling shoes is over.  He didn't like the Goldline Shot, and decided to go with the Ultima Sport, which he bought from Steve's Curling.  Funny how he switched from the $70 Eagle to a shoe that costs $125.  Of course, adjusting to the shoe was kind of difficult for my brother and struggled with throwing light enough weight.  However, he thought the shoes were comfortable.

My brother's team lost again.  Their opponents though had three instructors so it was kind of an uphill battle.  (My brother's team is the only one without instructors.)  After the third end though, the score was tied, but then the opposing team scored four in the fourth end.  (The Bond Girls call this the "Fourth End Curse".)  Also, my brother switched places with his lead so that they can get a little more experience at another position. 

A couple other notes:
-The guy that hit his head (described here) is OK, but is sitting out the rest of the league.  Let's hope he comes back.
-Out of the 30+ people who attended the original Learn to Curl clinic, about 20 are now in this league, so that's pretty good for the growth of curling over there.  All they need now is some rich benefactor to help build a club.
-My brother's looking for a spot on someone's team for the Golden Gate Bonspiel.  E-mail me if you know of any openings on any of the teams.
-The Norwegian curling team will be visiting the Bay Area and will be raffling off a pair of pants.  That's a fun giveaway.

My Brother's Game 2 Recap

My brother is already on game 2 after being out of town for game 1.  They won their game and they're now tied for first in their league.  They play the other undefeated team next.  I believe they're the only team with all rookie curlers, so that would be pretty cool if they won their league.

My brother made a come around shot which he was really happy with.  Also (shhh), my brother broke a rule; he started sweeping his opponents' rock before it crossed the tee line.

But that wasn't really the interesting part about the game.  On what I believe was the last shot of the game, the opposing skip fell on the ice.  He was actually knocked unconscious and was taken to the emergency room.  Wow.  Fortunately, he's OK and one of his teammates went drinking with my brother's team after the game.  (It must not have been that bad then or maybe he's just not that good of a friend.)

Random Updates

Due to a lot of snow, our curling game this past week has been postponed.  I guess that's what happens when you live in Minnesota.  We'll follow up on a few other items.

First on the saga of my brother's curling shoe search.  After two weeks, my brother finally received his Eagle shoes from Brooms Up Curling Supplies, but they were too big.  He has since decided to get the Goldline Shot, just like me.  At first, I didn't think he should buy shoes since he'd only get to play like 3 games in them, but it looks like there'll be another league in April, so that'll be good.

And now one of my brother's teammates is interested in getting a broom.  He asked me about the Tournament Performance Broom and the Performance Brush Fiberglass.  I haven't used either before, but both look fine to me.  Anyone have suggestions for a low cost broom that still has the swivel head?

On a related note, my brother's curling league started last week, but he couldn't make it.  One of his instructors subbed for him and his team won.  Good for them. 

And last, Second brought his baby boy to our game the week before.  Someone in Second's family made him this onesie, which I thought was cute.

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.

My Brother's Learning to Curl #4

First, a correction.  In my last post on this, I quoted my brother as saying, "You should see how ghetto it is."  He wants to clarify that he thinks that where he curls is just fine.  The quote was taken out of context a little bit and the line was said in reference to the fact that I would think the place is ghetto.  And relative to the St. Paul Curling Club, it kinda sounds like it.  But to reiterate, my brother likes the place where he curls. 

My brother was the skip for the first time at this last lesson, mainly because his other teammates didn't want to do it.  To sum up how it went, his Facebook status update that night was, "Didn't like being the skip."  Also, he skipped the first end and then made someone else skip the second end.  I guess it was just the constant pressure of coming up with a new shot like every minute. 

He also learned about calling for sweeping.  There was a takeout and the rock started to curl.  He didn't see it until it was too late.  I've been there.  And then sometimes he wasn't loud enough. 

And then he texted later asking about where the broom should go depending on where he wanted the shot to end up.  I'm kind of surprised by the text because isn't this something that should've been covered in the class?  There have been four classes already.  Maybe I'll write more on this in a later post. 

He'll have his last class coming up soon and they're going to play a 6 end game.  Ooh.

My Brother's Learning to Curl #3

"I feel like I'm getting better" my brother says.  That's good to hear.  They had 45 minutes of practice throwing during which my brother continually hogged his rocks.  As a result, during the following two end game, my brother was designated to play lead.  Of course, he overthrew his shots during the game and a center guard became a rock on the button.  Still, that's much better than hogging rocks.

My brother also learned one sign for T line weight.  His skip had actually curled before in Europe (What's he doing in a five week "Learn to Curl" class?) and had his arm across his chest when he called the shot.  The instructor had to explain to my brother what that meant.  Though it's not like one could expect my brother (or I presume any of the other students in the class) to really have that feel for T line weight.  That stuff is so approximate anyways.  On a somewhat related note, I remember my first year, one of my teammates (also a first year) just always seemed to throw as hard as she could.  This was good for takeouts (when she hit the broom), but I remember when I called a shot that wasn't a takeout, I would always be practically begging her to throw it lighter.  I guess I just want to say that if you're playing with someone who's new, I would say that it's easier to call weight relative to their last shot rather than expecting them to really know what T line is (or whatever weight you call).  And be happy that they reasonably hit the broom and that their rock is still in play.

Anyway, then my brother started talking about how they finished the game and then removing the hacks and putting the rocks back in the freezer.  Again, this is something that I can't even imagine doing.  Another quote from my brother: "You should see how ghetto it is."  Not to say that where he curls isn't nice, but I guess I'm really spoiled here.

My Brother's Learning to Curl #2

My brother had his second curling class and he liked that there was a lot of individual attention as all of the students continually practiced their slides.  There was a lot of discussion of the "ABCs" of curling which I had never heard of before:

• Alignment
• Balance
• Curl

A little hokey I think with curl as the C, but I guess if it helps everyone remember things.  One of the drills that helped me out early was sliding with two rocks.  When you're starting out, just being on a slider messes with your balance a little bit, and holding on to two heavy rocks helps you get a handle on that I think.

They also did some drills where they had to try to get a rock between two cups.  I first read about this drill in Colleen Jones' Curling Secrets and will sometimes use rocks instead of cups.  Also, if I'm practicing with one of my teammates, usually one of us will hold a broom a few feet past the hogline.  It's always surprising how sometimes you can still miss the broom even when it's much closer to you. 

One of the big surprises to me from my brother's description of learning to curl is that they spend 20-30 minutes each time setting up the ice.  This is something that I completely take for granted at the St. Paul Curling Club.  But my brother now knows how to put the hack in and things like that.  In his words: "You have it totally easy".

On the number of people with curling gear, only a few people came back with shoes and stuff like that, so I guess the instructors were off on their prediction.  However, my brother is considering getting shoes now, especially if he plays in a league afterward.  I also learned his opinion of curling shoes, which he considers ugly.  On curling shoes that have the velcro on top, he said, "They look like orthopedic shoes."  He has a point there.