Sweeping Success: JETAA’s Annual Midnight Curling
It was cold, it was snowy, it was wet, and just plain mucky outside. Yet despite these setbacks, a crowd of 30 or so curling-enthusiasts showed up to JETAA’s Annual Midnight Curling event on Feb 1st, which turned out to be a sweeping success.
To start the night off individuals met at Loon’s Pub, which is located in Toronto’s west end on Roncesvalles Avenue. JETAA members and Japanese community members a like enjoyed a few pints of beer over the blazing hockey game on TV, in a truly Canadian manner before setting off to the High Park Curling Club (http://www.highparkclub.com/)
The weather that evening was slushy to say the least, and the 20 minutes spent walking between venues was wet and long. However, upon reaching our destination we were greeted with the warmth of the 100-year tradition that embodies the High Park Curling Club.
After shimmying onto the ice, our curling instructor for the evening, Josh, gave us some wonderful tips on the dos and faux pas of the sport before letting us venture off into teams. As the majority of the group was new to this great Canadian sport, the instructions of the game may have become lost in translation.
Great thing, well-experienced JETAA players stepped up to the task of skipping their teams and navigating the sheets.
Throughout the night loud shouts of ‘Harder’, ‘Sweep’ and ‘Off’ could be heard, as it should be when playing curling.
Although, the level of knowledge of the game was not at the proficient level, everyone had a fun time throwing rocks and sweeping the sheets.
The best part of curling, one could say, is the end when the winning team buys the loosing team a round of beers!
Text by Judy Cerovski
Photos by Nicholas Jones, Bokeh Photography