Curling, that wierd sport

Maniacal

Maniacal

the green Napoleon
Joined
Mar 13, 2005
Messages
18,778
Location
British Columbia, Canada
Rory said:
powerg8 said:
Curling is a weird sport
Click to expand...

I wound up watching curling for hours. It had me totally entranced. I have never seen a sport that so effortlessly combined shuffleboard, hockey, and custodial duties.
Click to expand...

I found this on another forum I go to and thoguht it is an interesting description. Personaly I get bored to death by it, I can barely watch it for 10 minutes, and that was when I was phased out with a headache and exhaustion yesterday. My mom's boyfriend watches it [along with other sports not really meant for TV or are a little boring like golf (which is better in real life than TV by a long shot) and poker.] I do wonder, why do people like this sport? It's wierd and boring (to me, at least). I also find it interesting how, I believe, the Scots invented it but Canada is doing better than them at it [I admit I don't really know much about the specifics].
 
I love it, it's quite a fascinating sport once you get into it, good strategy.
 
When I first moved to English Canada, it was during the Brier. I was completely dumbfounded to see this game on TV basically 6 hours a day. Some of the subtleties of the game still escape me, but I also find it quite remarkable.
 
Curling is incredibly boring to watch, but quite fun to play.
 
azzaman333 said:
Isnt curling that weird game where you brush the floor to make the thingy slow down or something like that?
Click to expand...

You brush the ice to make the 'rock' go faster, less friction.
 
;)

You do now.

The brushing will partly melt the ice, making the 'rock' glide easier etc...
 
thetrooper said:
You brush the ice to make the 'rock' go faster, less friction.
Click to expand...
When you brush the ice, it melts, creating water, so more friction, so it loses a bit of its speed. The strategy is to brush on the side you want the rock to curl...
 
What has less friction

1. A clean ice surface, or
2. A clean ice surface covered by a thin film of water?

Why the heck are people sweeping stones out of the area then, if it is as you say?

The sweeping is done to control velocity and 'leeway' (in lack of a better word).
 
Curling is as much a sport as pétanque is. Actually, curling is simply Ice pétanque from a French perspective.
 
thetrooper said:
What has less friction

1. A clean ice surface, or
2. A clean ice surface covered by a thin film of water?

Why the heck are people sweeping stones out of the area then, if it is as you say?

The sweeping is done to control velocity and 'leeway' (in lack of a better word).
Click to expand...

Well, we skate better on clean ice than on a puddle... when they melt the water on one side, you get an interface between the clean area and wet area, shifting the rock in the direction of the wet area (because of the friction potential, maybe?)

Either way, I've seen scientific studies that show that the sweeping is in fact unnecessary. But we don't tell the curlers, they're a funny bunch,...
 
:yeah:

They are a funny bunch.

But don't you agree? If sweeping has no effect, the entire curling community comes out as a bunch of clowns. You must have seen people sweeping like crazy to get a stone out of the 'house' or whatever it's called.
 
I think it's like winter golf or large field snooker. I think it's quite interesting to watch, especially now at olympcis when we succeed so good at it :) Would be fun to try it but we don't have much of tracks at Finland :sad:

E: I've heard that stone what they've throwing is quite expensive and there are perhaps only two places where they're producing them. First I and my grand pap thought that it had something to do with electricity when they was weeping the floor :lol: You know that those stones would follow static electricity, but we were so wrong :D
 
I never got curling. Just seems like petanque for people who just got way too much money so they'd need a set of 600 $ stones instead of a set of 10 $ inox balls.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom