Curling, Curling Stones and Curling Pants!

OK, so once every 4 years anyone not from Canada or Minnesota hears about and gets to watch this intriguing sport called Curling. I admit I joined the every four year bandwagon in 2006 during the Turin games as Curling was shown in the morning before my classes due to the time difference having the games in Italy. I found it pretty entertaining.

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