Curling is so much more than sending rocks down the ice. In 2010 I had the opportunity to watch Curling and wheelchair Curling during the Olympics and Paralympics in Vancouver. I had never closely watched the sport before. I noticed the strategy, the skill and how difficult it was to get a curling stone into that perfect spot. This game was hard. After watching a few games, I began to understand how the scoring worked. As I sat there and watched I wondered could I play this sport? How did one even start? Were special skills required? I’m not really an athlete, I thought.
A few years later an opportunity came up to learn about Wheelchair Curling from Curl BC. I immediately jumped at the chance. I attended an introduction to wheelchair curling session put on by Curl BC, Sonya Gaudet and Gary Cormack who introduced participants to how to use a push stick and deliver the curling rock down the ice. We were then invited to join a curling league at a club of our choice. Simple right?
As a brand new wheelchair curler I didn’t really know how the rules worked or where to start, but relied on new friends and teammates who were willing to let me join their Curling Team with my wheelchair and borrowed stick. I had a lot of fun that first year trying to send my rock down the ice and my teammates sweeping and encouraging me along. I was so impressed by how kind everybody was. I was the only wheelchair curler in that Sunday evening league, but everyone at the Langley Curling Club made me feel welcome. I didn’t know how much I still had to learn, but I was hooked.
Another year later, some friends and I from the South Fraser Active Living Group were all looking to do something together. We decided that all of us would like to participate in wheelchair Curling. Where would we play? How could we all learn to play as a team? Who could teach us? What gear would we need?
I realized that wheelchair Curling is not as straightforward as some other sports. We didn’t visit a sporting goods store, and buy some gear or sign up for lessons at a club. A little more creativity was required. My friends. Marney, Kim, Aaron and I were so fortunate to meet many experienced wheelchair curlers at the Richmond Curling Club who were willing to play with us and teach us the game of wheelchair curling. That was a really good thing because I now learned wheelchair curlers don’t deliver their stones from the hack.
We turned to Tetra for help with our gear. They crafted holders to hold our sticks on the wheelchairs, sticks that suited our abilities and support poles that suited our personal needs.
As we began playing the wheelchair curling game, we learned about the differences between regular curling and what we were playing. Wheelchair Curling has no sweepers and not much yelling.
We were so lucky to be taught wheelchair Curling from many past BC and Canadian champions. They generously shared their knowledge and encouraged our skills. Even more friendships were born, and we all had a great few years playing together in the Worksafe BC league in Richmond. It was a challenge playing when the other curlers could regularly sweep our stones out of play, but we learned a lot, improving our skills and confidence along the way.
We were commuting for more than an hour, each way sometimes for our new passion, and that was tough in the winter. Was there somewhere closer?
Marney approached the Delta Thistle Curling club to see if our South Fraser Active Living Group could have wheelchair curling practices there. They were welcoming and supportive of us joining their Curling club. Our enthusiasm for Curling kept growing and soon we had others come and learn about the sport during Sunday practices. Curl BC has also helped us encourage others to join us. We were all incredibly grateful to our experienced wheelchair curling friends who joined us and helped teach new players. Sometimes we have 10 to 15 people of ranging abilities come out to Wheelchair Curling practice on Sundays.
Six of us, Marney, Kim, Jeff, Kevin, Robert and I now regularly play in the weekly seniors Curling league and some special events at the Delta Thistle Curling club. We regularly work on trying to improve our wheelchair curling skills. Currently, we have one all wheelchair Curling Team. We don’t win very often, but our experience is growing along with our skills. We take pride at being able to make those tricky shots and get really excited when we occasionally win against much more experienced teams.
Regardless of how you curl, this is a positive team sport. It feels so great when you make a good shot and the people on the other team tell you that you did really well. That kindness leads to great friendships and and great chats over a beverage after the game.
It has taken a lot of perseverance to improve our Curling game and continue playing each year. How exciting that this year a group from our group of Delta Thistle Wheelchair Curlers is going to represent BC at the 2025 Wheelchair Curling nationals in Boucherville, Quebec.
I will be cheering my friends on with pride as they compete together at this level for the first time.
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