Welcome to Curling...you can skip.

Well our first evening curling south of the Equator was incredulous at times, victorious, and ended with some new friends (YAY!!!).

Before we headed on NZ, I had emailed Trevor at the Dunedin Curling Club to see if we would be able to play while we were here.  In his email, he described two leagues - Crampet and Olympic.  I couldn't figure out what Crampet curling was for the life of me, so I thought it must be their lower league and Olympic is their really good league. Crampet curls on Monday nights, so we headed over to check it out. Um, we couldn't have been more wrong.  A crampet is apparently this big piece of metal, shaped kinda like a skateboard that they put in front of the hack.  Instead of getting in the hack and sliding out, you just stand on this metal thing and chuck the rock from there.  I can't even find any pictures online, so we'll head back, get our own pic, and post it later.  Needless to say, we quickly determined Crampet was not for us and opted to return on Wednesday for Olympic aka hack curling.  Regardless, everyone at the club on Monday night (100% men and 97% over 60) was very, very nice and very welcoming.

Back to the club last night for Olympic curling - these were our people.  Teams were already formed a few weeks ago, but the organizer, Dan, knew they needed two spares on a team, so we were good to go.  We met Kathy (from Dunedin, Ontario, Canada) and her husband Nigel (from NZ), and they immediately volunteered Todd to skip! Nigel, whose brother went to the Winter Olympics in Torino representing New Zealand, played lead. Nigel said he couldn't be bothered to learn from his younger brother but was now trying to get into the sport.  I was second while Kathy viced, and Todd begrudgingly skipped.

It's arena ice, it's FAST, and there is a hockey game going on on the next rink over (24" from our sheet) with no wall, so you can't hear anything.  They don't seem to yell stone weights, but since I was trained so well by FL, I can't keep my mouth shut on those.  We got into the swing of it, had a fun time, and ended up winning 8 to 7.  As Todd says, his international curling record is undefeated, so he's thinking about stopping now.

Here's the crazy stuff.  While we were hanging out between stones, Nigel said that in the group of folks on the ice (32 people) there were both Olympic curlers (LIKE ACTUALLY WENT TO THE OLYMPICS) and brand new curlers.  Holy sh!t!  The skip that Todd was subbing for, Warren, had arrived late and ended up skipping for the team we were playing against (that skip is also in charge of the Zamboni and had to do the ice between periods of the hockey game next to us), and HE IS ON THE NEW ZEALAND NATIONAL TEAM!!!!  Apparently, the league organizer, Dan, was also on the NZ Olympic Curling team.  There was also this young lady next to us who was really good (she couldn't possibly have been any closer to the ice when she delivered - I think Sandra M. would have been impressed by her form), and with some Googling this morning, I've found out she's an international curler representing New Zealand as well.  Below are some articles to the folks we were playing with - crazy!!!!

Warren (the skip Todd spared for who skipped the other team)
http://www.odt.co.nz/sport/snowsports/71539/winter-games-new-zealand-representative039s-all-blacks-dream-ice

Brydie Donald (the really good girl on the next sheet)
http://www.odt.co.nz/sport/other-sport/72068/winter-games-donald-carrying-curling-tradition

Dan (the organizer of the league & a Canadian transplant)
http://www.curling.org.nz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=321&Itemid=1

Warren Dobson (our teammate Nigel's brother)
http://www.curling.org.nz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=319&Itemid=1

All in all, we had a fantastic evening.  It was great to be curling again, to be meeting new people (I'm going to start going to water aerobics with Kathy, and Nigel is a hockey ref and is determined to get Todd onto the reffing scene), and to be surrounded by all these great curlers!  Who knew Dunedin, NZ was such a hotbed of international curling!?

I must, however, take a moment to thank all our teachers at the Potomac Curling Club for all their excellent instruction on rules and etiquette. We felt completely prepared, and when we bought our counterparts drinks, we were much appreciated. 

And thanks to Vanessa to driving us (we're still afraid of driving on the left) and staying through our match...she's a trooper.