PHOTOGRAPHY BY NATALEA BONJOUR
WHERE YOU WANT TO BE IN MARCH
March
01
GO: The Kansas City Curling Club’s new dedicated ice is at 2525 N.W. S. Outer Road, Blue Springs. Find a class or open ice time at kccurling.com.
IN THE HOUSE
People sometimes ask DeeAnn Moore, the president of the Kansas City Curling Club, if they should plan to bring their own stones, like you would a bowling ball. It’s a friendly question but one that shows just how little people understand the sport. The answer is definitely not—the forty-pound hunks of smoothed granite come from Alisa Craig, an island off the coast of Scotland, and a set costs thousands of dollars. Every four years, curling gets a big bump in interest thanks to the Olympic games. It’s easy to understand the appeal for coach-locked spectators. You are definitely never going to fly off a ski jump or land even one axel, but maybe you could slide some rocks down the ice?
For the first time, Kansas Citians are positioned to find out, thanks to the local club’s brand-new facility in Blue Springs. It’s the only dedicated curling ice for more than three hundred miles, and it marks the first time Kansas Citians can actually try curling on dedicated sheets instead of attempting it on a rutted-up skating rink at odd hours. If you’ve dreamed of trying the sport, you can now pay $30 for a ninety-minute class at the club. Be warned that it’s a little addictive—harder than it looks on TV but easy enough to keep you trying. And if you lose? Well, by tradition, the winner buys your first drink in the warm room overlooking the ice after all the stones are thrown. —MARTIN CIZMAR
KANSASCITYMAG.COM MARCH 2022
25
