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My husband and I travelled from Newfoundland to Lethbridge, Alberta to watch the 2022 Brier. We had our Newfoundland flag with us and waved it often. Our friends back home saw us often on tv. As you know, the NL team, as Wildcard and 3 players due to Mark coming down with Covid, won the Brier. When they took photos of the team with the trophy, the photographer came to us and asked if they could use our flag to put on the trophy table.

The story of our grandson and how early he came to love the game and now plays it very well. He is Matt Dunstone and at age 3-4 he learned about curling on our kitchen floor. We had owned a set of these tiny wooden curling rocks about two inches in diameter with handles. We taped curling circles about 12 feet apart on our kitchen floor – after a few days with us playing with him he couldn’t wait to get back to grandma and grandpa’s and practice his skills. He no longer needed us to play with him so after watching for a while we took off to the family room while he kept up the curling – soon he was setting up rocks and attempting specific shots and it wasn’t long before he would be coming in to and get us to watch him throw some rocks -soon we tired of this and told him we could just turn on TSN and watch his shots on TV. We got a lot of laughs from it as he would come running in every so often exclaiming ‘did you see that shot’ – we would assure him that yes we saw it and the shot was really something.!
As Matt grew older he came across an old tape of our 1980 mixed curling championship and would spend hours watching it. Then he got enrolled in pre-school. You may have heard of show and tell and Matt took this tape weekly until his parents got a call from the school and were advised that ‘show and tell’ was very boring to his classmates. He just couldn’t understand that they weren’t enjoying it as much as he was.

Time went on – at the beginning he wanted to come to every practice of Grandma’s team or Grandpa’s, however it wasn’t long before he was on his way upwards and now we just sit back and look forward to the next game.

Matt’s love of the game has never stopped.

Little did we know that when my then 10 year old daughter, Chelsea, started watching the 2006 Olympics that she would fall in love with the game of curling and be a forever fan of Brad Gushue. Or maybe it was the other way around!!
Gushue and his team won the Olympics and this was the start of watching curling and being a couch coach. Chelsea seemed to be catching on to the strategies and would call the plays from the couch.
The following year she joined the Junior Curling Academy in our hometown to learn how to put the plays into action on the ice which was a bit of a challenge.
At a very young age, at birth or shortly afterwards, Chelsea experienced a stroke, a one time incident. She was initially diagnosed with cerebral palsy until at the age of 6, she had a seizure. After thorough investigation, it was determined that she had a stroke. This resulted in right side hemiplegia where she did not acknowledge that she had a right arm or leg. We engaged in physiotherapy; she learned how to walk with a gait by the age of two but did not have control over the use of her right hand.
On the ice, this resulted in lack of balance and not being able to get down in the hack. She learned how to use the delivery stick and enjoyed playing the game all through middle and high school. One summer she attended a curling camp at the Savill Centre in Edmonton. By the end of the week, Chelsea was delivering stones from the hack. She and everyone were very proud of her reaching that goal.
We took every possible opportunity to attend big curling events, especially if Gushue and team were playing. In 2008, the Brier was in Winnipeg and so was Brad Gushue. I reached out to the coach who in turn organized a meet and greet with the team. So we woke up very early and drove the four hours to Wgp. Chelsea was not aware of the plan but sensed I was up to something when I got a phone call and kept looking around. She was totally surprised when I said to follow me as we were going to meet Gushue and team. Being a bit shy and shocked, she hid in the bathroom. I eventually got her to come out and meet da boys!! It was a moment to remember. The photo is of when we met them. I am forever grateful to the coach for answering my email and granting this wish for my daughter.
Chelsea continued to curl at school, coach for the Junior Academy to share her passion. Curling is on the tube or phone to watch all the big events. We have curled as a family and I’m sure that she will offer the opportunity to her two daughters when they are old enough.
Tonight, watching the start of the Scotties, Chelsea asked her girls (5 and 2), “Are you going to watch curling with me tonight?” And in unison, the girls responded, “YA!!”

My wife discovered curling in 2009 when the Brier came to Calgary. I took her to see something she had never seen before in Japan. The skill, the technique and strategy intrigued her. She watched curling on TV for the next few years until I bought her a “Learn to Curl” lessons as a Christmas present. She was hooked from day one. She moved from there to a beginner’s league and eventually became a regular playing on two different teams while subbing on others. The past few years she has progressed to a Tier 1 team out of the Calgary Curling Club. She also particpates and volunteers with the Japanese Curling tournament each year. This year her team is in first place going into playoffs this season. Our TV recorder is nearly full with curling videos that she watches over and over again. She truly has a love of curling. She has been lucky enough to see curling in Calgary and meet some her curling idols such as Jennifer Jones, Brad Gushue or Rachel Homan. Going to watch a week of curling would be a dream come true for her.

It was a beautiful, sunny October morning in 2005 when I headed off to the Winfield Curling Club for our regular Monday Morning Ladies League curling. I took my camera with me to snap some of the idyllic scenes of the reflections on Duck Lake along my route to the Club.

Alas, two of our regular players were not available to play that morning but we did manage to find one spare. I was the Skip. We were fortunate to score on ends 1, 2 and 3 then our opposition scored in end 4, giving us the hammer in end 5. With only my last rock remaining, we had the shot rock but the opposition had two rocks in the house in 2nd and 4th position. I elected to play a draw to score 2 when a player from the sheet next to us said “Hey, did you know that if you did a double take-out you would have an eight ender?” I hadn’t noticed and nor had my teammates as we were focused on how I could draw in and count 2. So obviously a change in strategy! With all the confidence I could muster I delivered my rock and much to my utter surprise and delight I made it!

Someone shouted “Does anyone have a camera?” Luckily, I had mine and was able to snap proof of our accomplishment.

Hi, I am Daniel from Quebec City, this is my curling story that became our curling story.

When I met my girlfriend Marie Josée in 2020 I was a curling fan for more than 25 years and still in love with the sport.

So one day when I was at her place I noticed that a curling game was on TSN so as a real curling fan it was natural for me to turn the volume up to watch it, so from the kitchen a voice said « Oh!!! No!!! Not curling, all they do is yell and sweep. You like this sport ? » Of course I answered yes but did not pay too much attention at her comment, after few minutes she started to ask me many questions, Why are they doing this ? Why are they doing that ? How come there is a hammer on the board ? When do you sweep ? And so on.

The next time I was watching curling her questions kept coming at me in order to understand it better, so I figured that the sport had really got to her attention enough so I offered her a brush as a gift because she was planning to register for a curling course.

After her course she gave her name to play in a regular league…She ended playing lead in my team ever since.

To my surprised she said to me, Hey!!! Why don’t we go to Ottawa ON for the World Men’s Curling Championship and we did.

One day she said let’s go to the Points Bet in Oakville ON and we did, where we stayed there the entire week.

Since she fell in love with the game she proposed to go to the World Women Curling Championship in Sydney NS, once again we stayed the entire week…

To top it up on our way back home to Quebec City from Sydney in March 2024 she told me, why don’t we go to Halifax NS in 2025 for the Canadian Curling Trials for the 2026 Olympics Events…Guest what, we’re going, we got our tickets and AirBnB is booked.

At every events she prepare a binder with Country’s or team’s name in order to get autographs.

Forever curling fans.

Joan (Gushue) Byrne is an amazing and passionate supporter of curling, especially Team Gushue! Her dedication to the sport and enthusiasm for following Brad and his teammates is so fun and lively. From volunteering at events held here in Labrador City, NL- home to Mark Nichols; when Team Gushue won the olympics and brought their gold medals to our town! To watching every rock thrown, even in the middle of girls’ nights, she is on FaceTime with her husband so she doesn’t miss a rock! At any moment while the game is on, she may be texting her sister in law to see if she just saw that shot! Or she is on her landline with her 90 year old Father chatting about each end and how their favorite teams are playing during the commercial break! She truly embodies the spirit of a superfan. She’s a wealth of knowledge about the curling world, with insights into the skips and all the drama of the game. She lives for curling and talks about the game with passion and excitement to anyone who will listen.

She has travelled from Labrador to Kamloops and various places in between to attend 6 curling tournaments and is always like a kid on Christmas morning; so excited as she waits for the tickets to go on sale to see them play live. While attending various games, she gets to catch up with old friends but also meet new ones at the patch! She enjoys going to the live games alone so she doesn’t miss a second of the game by distractions. She also plans vacations around the curling season. You may catch her taking a nap during the day to make sure she can stay awake until the wee hours to make sure she doesn’t miss a beat while games are being played in different time zones! She also watches old games that are being aired in the off season- even though she already knows who won!
No matter where she is, or what she was doing, once a game starts you will find her glued to a screen (sometimes even on a iPad screen when the game isn’t televised) day or night until the last rock hits the ice!

Covid didn’t even stop her from being at a game- she was still in the stands cheering!

My wife and I have been avid league curlers since 1980. My wife is also a big fan of Halloween so in 1992 when October 31 was on Friday our dressed up as Goldilocks and the three bears for our Friday night league game. I was the Skip so I was nominated to be Goldilocks. Oh what a sight I was all dressed up in the dress and pantaloons my wife carefully sewed for me. The bear costumes were warm and fuzzy but, oh oh, the fur shed as the three bears zipped up and down the ice. Luckily our competitors had good senses of humor as both teams lost many rocks due the fur on the ice.

To follow is a personal story about a gift that inspired me to join curling.

In 2018 I received a very special gift from my mom who was a member at the Halifax Curling Club in Nova Scotia. The gift was a Hardline Curling Broom autographed by NS Brier representatives Jamie Murphy, Paul Flemming, Scott Saccary and Phil Crowell.

In 2019, I joined the Sydney Curling Club, as a new member, proud to be sporting my autographed Team NS broom. I have put the broom to good use over the past 5 seasons, curling several times per week and participating in many bonspiels at my home club and at other clubs in the area. One of the highlights this season was getting an eight ender. What a special night for our team.

In addition to participating in league games and bonspiels, I assist with on ice instruction for new curlers at the SCC and have been a board member at the club for 4 years. I have become very passionate about the game, and have volunteered at the Women’s Worlds and the Scotties Tournament of Hearts that were held in Sydney, NS. I have also attended the Continental Cup in Las Vegas and have the Brier event on my bucket list.

Curling is a great sport to play and watch. It also provides an opportunity to enhance active living, contribute to community and make lasting memories. Thanks to my mom and to NS Brier Representatives for this special gift .