Stepping out on the ice with the Oklahoma Curling Club

As winter weather covers Oklahoma in ice and snow, members of the Oklahoma Curling Club are right at home practicing their sport in Edmond.

The Coca-Cola Southwest Beverages Porch met with club president Seth Von Tungeln at the Artic Edge Ice Arena to learn more about how the sport brings Oklahomans together.

Q: Can you tell us about how curling works, and the reason behind the name?

A: "A traditional game of curling is comprised of four people on one team. You have your lead, your second, your third, and then your skip, and you take turns with another team going back and forth on who delivers the stones. The curling ice is different than hockey ice because it's pebbled with little dots of water, so that as you push this curling stone down the ice, it actually will curl, and it takes an arc of about four feet. You want to try to get it into the "house," which the house is what people would think of as the target. This curling sheet is about 150 feet long, and it's about 15 and a half feet wide. You keep doing that, alternating, until you get all 16 stones down there, and then whoever's closest to the button, they get that point. Any stone that they have closer than the other teams also counts for points, so long as it's in the house."

Q: You say beginners can learn it here for a low price, can you tell us more about these classes?

A: "It's called "Learn to Curl." Our next Learn to Curl is March 22, it's $35 and you don't need any special equipment. When you come out, we provide you with everything that you need. Come out in a regular pair of tennis shoes, you put on this gripper [that] goes over the soles of your shoes and transforms them into a curling shoe. You don't need a slippery shoe like I have. You have this slider that you put underneath your other shoe, and then we provide a broom for you and the stabilizer you come out. We give you about 30 minutes of safety and basic demonstration, and then we get you on the ice with stones, and we start teaching you how to push out of the hack, or this little thing that you put your feet in to push out of, to deliver the stone down the ice."

Q: What kind of ages and skill levels do you need to be at for this?

A: "I've only been curling for three years, so you don't have to have any major extensive skills to do it. We do try to get the youngest about 12 or 13 years old, and then as far as up to whatever age you feel comfortable. You don't even have to bend down if you don't want to, there is adaptive curling, where you use a special stick to make it easier if you have back problems or knee problems."

Q: Can you tell us about the community that is within these classes?

A: "We have everything from doctors and lawyers to plumbers and city workers, everybody. We have a social league that we just began because curling in Oklahoma, we don't have the delusion that we're going to make it to the Olympics, but we do want to build a community of people making friends. We have a social league that we do every Saturday after our Learn to Curls that runs for three weeks, and you come out, you learn the sport. We have music playing, there may be some alcohol occasionally, but it's just about making friends and having a good time in this sport that we love called curling."

To learn more about curling, visit the Oklahoma Curling Club website.