"You’ve convinced me. Curling is the greatest sport on the planet."

That was the subject of the email from my boss at 8 o’clock in the morning last Friday. The contents being: “That is all I want to hear at the end of the day” and links to youtube videos – How to Play Curling in 45 Seconds & Dare to Curl, USA Curling (proving it’s not only Canadians who enjoy the sport).

By 8:15am, I was ready to take on the Olympic sport with my fellow employees.

Automatic Reply: Gone Curling

Some Snow employees had never even been to a rink before, but we strapped on our rubber shoe covers, grabbed our brooms, and stepped onto the ice. With beers in hand and a great coach at the Indian Hill Winter Club, my teammates and I were ready to conquer this new sport together.

We split into teams and practiced our curling technique, which definitely requires finesse. The stone is heavy, but easily slides across the full-length of the ice, even with a not-so-perfect performance. Brushing the ice is exhausting if you’re doing it right and can totally speed up your stone – it can go 30-40 feet further than a stone with no sweeping! Scoring is similar to corn-hole, but a very slow process when you’re just learning – points for the stone(s) closest to the bullseye.

There was coaching from the more expert throwers and cheering from everyone. There’s nothing like a friendly, yet competitive game of curling with your best co-workers. Game on!