SALMON with BROOMS
We took up curling at the beginning of 2008. It's a game of grace and
skill, played on ice, perfectly suited for us :-). See the
Wikipedia article
for a detailed description of the rules of the game. Or go straight to
our movies to see us in action on day 1.
Curling originated in Scotland in the 1500's. We had a taste of
what that was like at
The Pondspiel.
Curling in a Nutshell
What is curling? Lots of people like to call it "chess on ice" which to me doesn't
fit well at all. It's more a "billiards on ice" with 44 lb stones for balls and
you are the pool cue.
I suppose it is similar to shuffleboard, except that while curling you get to wear
a teflon-bottomed shoe and slide along the ice on one foot -- way more fun than
shuffleboard.
Some questions we curlers are routinely asked include:
- Do you sweep or throw the stone?
- Yes. In fact, everyone on the team (there are 4 players) does a bit of both.
Everyone throws two of the eight stones for their team during each end
(an end is like an inning in baseball). When it's not your turn to throw a stone,
you are either one of the two people running along side sweeping the stone
or the one person standing at the other
end of sheet yelling SWEEP at the top your lungs. This person, the skip, also does a little
sweeping at the end of the sheet including trying to sweep opponents stones farther out
of house.
- How far do you throw the stone?
- About 126 feet. The center of the target "house" on the opposite end of the
curling sheet is 126 feet away from the place you start your slide, called "the hack".
You are required to let go of the stone before the stone crosses the hog line 33 feet
from where you started in the hack. Some people slide most of the way, while others
only go a few feet before releasing the stone.
-
Diagram of a curling sheet
- Do you wear ice skates?
- No. We have special curling shoes. One foot has a slippery sole, typically
teflon that allows you to slide on one foot. The other shoe has a gripper sole that
helps you run on the ice without slipping too much. A removable gripper shoe
cover also comes
on and off to cover the teflon sole when you are not trying to slide.
- Why do curling stones curl?
- There are lots of theories floating around.
Here's our collection of science friction theories.
Being scientists and engineers, we're also collecting data
with our home-made curlometer. Details on the workings of the curlometer are not
quite ready for prime time.
Useful Curling Links
Salmon with Brooms
- February, 2014 edition of Duck Soup article
Lynn and Geocaching // alt. link
- Article appearing in The Rivertowns Enterprise on February 21, 2014:
page 1 and
page 2 --
Lynn is in both pictures instructing Scarsdale 5th graders at the curling club.
- Our entry into the World Curling Tour
at the Southern Mixed Doubles //
curlingzone
- 2017 Mid Atlantic Champs Kirchner, Furman, Hall, Salmon //
Mid Atlantic Bonspiel Teams, Oct 4-9, 2017
- Thursday Evening Open League, Fall 2016
-
Cape Cod Summerspiel, July 2014
- Fox 5 News interviewed us on February 5, 2014. Alas the video link is gone.
(www.myfoxny.com/story/24647681/ny-curling-club-members-have-eyes-on-olympics)
this link has transcript from our interview.
- Our delivery that first year :-):
John Movie //
Lynn Movie //
old photos
CURLING: USCA CLUB NATIONALS 2017
We won the silver medals!!!
Team: skip - Leeza Furman, vice - Christi Freeman-Kirchner, 2nd - Alice Yeh,
lead - Lynn Salmon
Read more about it
News 12 Visits Ardsley Curling Club
News 12's Greg Thompson went looking for the answer of what exactly is curling
and found some local experts at ACC on February 8, 2022.
I'm standing around during part of the
interview and they cut to me delivering a stone at 1:42.
See the
link to video clip //
(link 2)
Lynn Salmon <>{
Last update: September 16, 2022
