LIVING
Why you should try curling We all know hockey is Canada’s national winter sport, but it’s not the only one newcomers can try By Lisa Evans
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ewcomers are often fascinated by Canadian sports, especially those played on snow or ice. With a long history in Canada and an easy learning curve, curling can be a great one for newcomers to try. In this sport, flat, round stones are slid across the ice toward a target. While one team member slides the stone, the others use brooms to sweep the ice to control the stone’s speed and direction. Richard Dobbs had been in Canada for a couple of years when he was invited to curl at a work team-building event. Dobbs had been physically active in his native country of England and was looking for a sport to participate in now that he was in Canada, but none of the sports he did in the past seemed to suit in his new country. “I used to play recreational soccer, but, in Canada, it appeared soccer was mainly organized as a kids sport and it was played in the summer. In the U.K., soccer is a winter sport,” he says. Dobbs also enjoyed playing cricket, but the sport wasn’t available in his area of Acton, Ontario. Other winter sports like hockey didn’t appeal to Dobbs, who had never learned to skate, and skiing was simply too expensive to do on a regular basis.
Curling is for everyone Curling immediately appealed to Dobbs because it is relatively cheap and is a sport that anyone can learn at any age. “It was something I could go into and play as an adult be-
Clubs also require members to pay for the entire season upfront. “In the U.K., most of the sports I played were a pay-as-you-go format. With my cricket team, we paid game dues every time you played,” he says. Although he probably spent the equivalent of the $400 annual curling club fee on the other sports he participated in in England, it seemed like a lot of cash to drop at once.
Physical and social benefits
Curling swept Richard Dobbs off his feet after immigrating to Canada. Photo by Alessandro Shinoda
ginner and no one would look at me funny or expect me to have curled since the age of five,” he says. Although Dobbs was attracted to curling as a winter sport, it took him three years to get the courage to sign up. “At one point, I drove into the parking lot and turned around and drove back,” he says. Being a newcomer, Dobbs was nervous
about engaging in a team sport where he’d be forced to interact with others and learn about something he knew little about. He also struggled to adjust to the cyclical nature of sports clubs in Canada. “With curling, you sign up for it in October and if you miss October all the leagues are set, the teams are set and there isn’t much opportunity to get into the sport later,” he says.
But it was a worthwhile investment, on several levels. Participating in curling not only provided him with an opportunity for physical activity, it also provided Dobbs with social support he had been missing as a newcomer. “I’ve met an enormous amount of people through the sport,” he says. As one of the most popular sports in Canada, curling also helped Dobbs feel more connected to Canadian society. “To me, it was a very Canadian thing to do,” he says. And although he enjoys the physical aspect of the sport, it’s the social aspect that Dobbs now gets the greatest rewards from. “You get to talk to people. It helps you integrate into the community,” he says. Dobbs enjoyed curling so much, he got involved in coaching when his daughter started to play the sport. He also became involved with the board of directors at his local club and is currently one of 16 representatives across Ontario. “I now know people across the province at all levels of curling that I would never have known before,” says Dobbs.
See this article at canadianimmigrant.ca to connect to curling clubs and more information on the rules of the game.
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canadianimmigrant.ca
February 2016
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