Bill Patterson tested the limits of a borrowed pick-up truck by loading it with thirty-two curling stones and driving them from Sudbury, Massachusetts to The Rink at Brunswick Landing for a series of curling demonstrations. The stones, each weighing about forty-two pounds, belong to a curling club in Massachusetts. The club loans the set, and associated gear, to groups looking to start local curling facilities.
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Located just behind Flight Deck Brewing off of Admiral Fitch Avenue on Brunswick Landing, the rink hosted its first curling demonstrations on pair of beautiful February weekends. Sometimes compared to shuffleboard on ice, curling is extremely popular in Canada, and in colder European countries, but is familiar to most Americans only as a curiosity during the winter Olympics. The antic sweeping, the audible strategic discussions and interplay between the players, and the fact that the stones actually slow down as they move into scoring position gives the sport a kind of conversational sociability that is drawing people in.
Under crystal blue skies with temperatures in the upper 20s curling enthusiasts, novices, and passersby joined in for long afternoons of curling in the lengthening winter days. Patterson was gratified by the strong response, “There were many people, from retirees to recent college grads, that wanted to participate in this highly social winter sport. With youth hockey our focus has always been on the school age population, but this really opens things up. Plus the rink is highly visible and near to the amenities at Brunswick Landing. With Flight Deck Brewing, the Cooks Takes Flight food truck, and the fire pit nearby people were destined to have a good time. The consensus seemed to be that while curling is very tough to master it’s also a very friendly sport and easy for the beginner to pick-up and enjoy.”
Patterson spearheads Midcoast Youth Hockey’s effort to build an enclosed, refrigerated rink at Brunswick Landing to support local skating, youth hockey, and to provide practice space for the high school teams at Brunswick and Mt. Ararat high school. “Bowdoin has always been very good to us but local teams have to compete for ice at Bowdoin’s Watson Arena with the college’s own programming, which happens to include a curling club. I started to think about adding a curling venue to our project when I learned that the Bowdoin kids travel to Belfast at least once a week to use an enclosed dedicated curling facility.”
Curling requires a different ice surface than the smooth surface needed for hockey and figure skating. A pebbled ice surface created by specialized equipment is necessary. Belfast has the closest real curling facility. Under ideal travel conditions Belfast is still a ninety-minute drive from Brunswick. Patterson reached out to local curling enthusiasts through the Bowdoin club and built a network including the Bowdoin College Club, The Pine Tree Curling Club of Portland, and the Belfast Curling Club. This allowed Midcoast to track down the stones and equipment and to bring in some talent to guide the events. “We’d really like to build on the enthusiasm we saw these last weekends. We’ve been working on the idea of a rink for Brunswick for many years and it’s great to be able to expand what we can offer.”
Check the rink calendar for the Brunswick Landing Arena for future events, and the photo gallery to see all the fun.
