Curling terms:
Stone - this is made of a special hard granite that is found only on one small island along the coast of Scotland
Button - This is the name for the center of the bulls-eye
House - This is the circular scoring area I like to call a bulls-eye
Skip - Decides team strategy and plays last
Vice-skip - Assists the skip and plays third
The Second - Surprise, surprise! this person plays second
The Lead - Plays first and either plays a blocking stone or aims for the "button"
Now that we are done with that - there is actually much more to the terminology see the links below - we can move onto the stones and the much awaited pants!
Curling stones as I mentioned are only quarried from one place in the world as they have been for 500 years. This place is an uninhabited island off the coast of Scotland. The blue hone granite is only found here and it is especially hard and it slides true on ice and can stand up to the punishment of hitting other stones, while also preventing any moisture from getting into the stone. The photo above is Ailsa Craig. As the article link below indicates it is possible to run out of this stone and in essence make the sport extinct at some point in the future.
Curling Pants are probably the most intriguing part of this post. The Norwegian team has raised some eyebrows and brought additional attention to their sport this year as they wear the pants pictured above. I personally find the pants AWESOME!!!
Curling links-
About curling: http://assets.olympic.org/AFP/JO2010/infographic/en/data/cu/indexen.html
Equipment, Glossary and History: http://www.olympic.org/en/content/Sports/All-Sports/Curling/Curling-Equipment-and-History/?Tab=0
Alisa Craig/Stones: http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/vancouver/curling/news?slug=dw-curling021810&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
Curling freaking rocks! I've been into it since my friends and I started fangirling the old 90s tv series dueSouth. My friend Erin has gone and curled here in Seattle, and my friend Lacey and I gleefully watched curling while up in Vancouver for a concert in December.
ReplyDeleteI also integrated it into a story I wrote on a writing prompt recently (which meant I had to read the wikipedia entry so I didn't make a total idiot of myself).
Anyway, EXCELLENT POST.