Have you ever been curling before? Well I have and I think it’s really fun. I went curling at Ardsley Curling Club for a field trip. Our class went to Ardsley curling club. We learned a little about curling in school and practiced in the gym. It was so much fun to try something new. It was on ice but I didn’t fall at all. There were some things that were different from practicing in school and actually going to the curling club.
There were some things that were different at the curling club than practicing at school. For example, practicing curling on the gym floor was way different than actually curling on the ice because it is harder to sweep and deliver the stone on the ice than it is on the floor. Another thing that was different than at school is the stones were a lot heavier and that made it so much harder to deliver the stone, and they looked a lot different. Something else that was different at the curling club than at school was it was a lot harder to get the stones to the house because the gym is a lot shorter than the curling rank and no one in my group got it to the house. But it was still longer than the gym and I remember when I delivered the stone one time it was going fast and I thought it would make it to the house but it stopped and it was SO close, I was saying “dang it, it was so close.” The curling rank is like two times the length of the gym. The last thing that was different at the rank than at school was it was slippery when you had to put something under your foot when you deliver the stone and I fell over because it was too slippery and I lost my balance.
The expectations I had about curling were different than what I expected at the rank. For example, I thought delivering the stone was going to be easy but I was definitely wrong. It was really hard and the stone was really heavy and sometimes I had to move it a tiny bit because it wouldn’t move. Once when I was delivering the stone I fell over and I was thinking to myself “why is this so slippery? I feel like I’m going to fall over.” Then the next thing I know I’m on my side hurrying to get up because I just fell over in front of everyone and I was laughing to myself just so it wouldn’t be so embarrassing. When it was my next turn I was thinking “Please don’t fall over again, that was so embarrassing.” And next thing I know “Hello ice, long time no see.” I also thought that sweeping would be easy but it was really hard because you have to sweep fast and with pressure not just barely touching the ice. It is kind of tiring too and you have to know when to sweep and can’t just sweep at a random time. Another thing was the stones were heavier than I thought they were, about 35 lbs and it was hard to make the stone go far and sometimes it wouldn’t even make it half way. When I saw how heavy they were I was like How am I supposed to even move that? The last thing that was different than what I expected was the rank was shorter than it looks on the tv and I thought it would be easier to get the stone to the end but it wasn’t. The rank was still pretty long though.
I loved the curling trip, it was so much fun. Even though some things were hard to do I still really liked it. I learned to not fall and to deliver the stone better. When I was sweeping I was thinking to myself “this is really hard my arms are getting so tired” but I kept going and it was so close to the house but it stopped right before. Have you ever curled, and if not would you want to?
