Bay Area curling club sends members to 6 national championships
Bay Area curlers competing in national championships
As sports fans gear up to watch the Winter Olympics in Italy next week, the San Francisco Bay Area Curling Club could also be taking home gold. The club said its members qualified for six different national championship events this year.
OAKLAND, Calif. - As sports fans gear up to watch the Winter Olympics in Italy next week, the San Francisco Bay Area Curling Club could also be taking home gold. The club said its members qualified for six different national championship events this year.
Club members have been traveling all over the country to represent the Bay Area, earning spots at the Mixed Doubles, Mixed Nationals, Women’s Nationals, and Club Nationals Championships. Even junior curlers were able to qualify for U18 championships.
"This is the most national championships the club has ever been represented in. We have members playing in 6 different national championships this year alone," said Cory Fischer, the club’s chair for the communications and marketing committee,
Dedicated curling facility credited with success
Dig deeper:
The club is operated out of a state-of-the-art facility in Oakland, which Fischer said is the first and only facility dedicated to curling in the state of California.
Fischer added the club is 100% volunteer run.
Club members credited its new facility and growing popularity of the sport for its success, which opened in 2022 with the support of the volunteers.
"For many, many years, we rented space in hockey arenas to curl when there was ice available," said Fischer.
The SF Bay Area Curling Club has been around since 1958, but Fischer said after the new facility opened, membership went from around 70 to 265 curlers.
"One of the amazing things about having a place where people can curl 7 days a week, is that people can get really good," he said.
Long-time members agree, including former Board President Kate Garfinkle, who took on leadership after the warehouse was leased and transformed.
"We have people competing in national championships who just started curling when we opened, and before when we were on hockey ice, that never could have happened – you couldn’t get good enough that quickly," she said.
Curling: 500-year-old game making a comeback
The five-century-old game is played with unique ice sheets and needs several 42-pound stones and curling brushes.
For many clubs, curlers have to play at hockey arenas or skating rinks. The Silicon Valley Curling Club partners with the SJ Sharks in San Jose.
SF Bay Area Curling Club members recalled transporting stones in a mobile refrigerator so they stayed cold, and having to repaint and re-sheet the ice just to play.
Curlers spend the season playing in tournaments called bonspiels. The objective of the game is to deliver the granite stones across a lane of ice to the target, or house, at the end. The team closest to the center wins.
For many, the sport’s tight-knit community on and off the ice is what initially attracted them.
After every bonspiel, they get together for what’s called broom-stacking, gathering curlers of every age.
"We sit down at the table with the opposing team and we have drinks and snacks, and we just hang out," said Garfinkle.
Could there be an Olympian in the Bay Area?
Sarah Walsh, another former board president and long-time curler, said she became interested in curling two decades ago when she watched the 2006 Winter Olympics.
Walsh, who also coaches youth, said most people in the United States begin that way, but they stay for the community.
"Everybody knows everybody, you can go out and compete with Olympians," she said.
Fischer said there’s always a surge in interest every four years, coinciding with the Winter Olympics, which is set to begin next week in Italy.
"It’s sort of like Christmas for all of us curlers because everybody else tunes in and pays attention to this sport that we love all the time," he said.
Karina Trainor, 16, said she began curling four years ago when the new building opened, and she fell in love with the sport.
"I ended up being pretty good at it, so I stayed," said Trainor. "I’m looking forward to trying to get to the youth Olympics in a couple of years."
As the momentum of the Olympics is steering a new flurry of curlers, coaches like Garfinkle and Walsh believe there could be a future Olympian in the Bay Area.
"It’s really just a matter of time before one of those kids is traveling to whatever country is hosting the Olympics is 2034," Walsh said.
Garfinkle will leave for Charlotte for the US Women’s National Championship after the Olympics at the end of February.
The club is always recruiting. It’s offering lessons every day of the week starting in February.
If you're interested in getting started, visit the club's website.