Debbie Basrak hails from Canada where she had curled quite a bit as a child since it‘s taught in school. When she moved to Park City she wanted to continue that passion and with the help of some friends and her husband, a local club for curlers was born.
Curling is a winter sport played on ice with 42-pound stones. Eric Myers, a club member, explained how to play.
“So generally, you have four people on a team. And you play what's called ends, which is one complete set of stones going from one end to the other end. It's a closest-to sport. So whichever team has their stones closest to the middle at the end of the end, then they end up scoring and you can score as many points as you have stones closer than your opponent. And you continue this for depending on recreationally, we'll play six ends.”
Curling matches usually last two to three hours but due to limited time at the rink, the club only curls for about 90 minutes each league night.
Myers discovered curling growing up in Minnesota. He would play every once in a while with his dad. Myers stopped curling for about 30 years but when he met the Basraks in 2006 he decided to get back into it and has been playing ever since.
Myers said people interested in trying out the sport should enroll in one of the club’s learn-to-curl classes.
“Yeah, so we as a club, we'll do about three or four a year, we usually do during the holiday times when we otherwise would maybe not get all of our league members to show up. So we'll do one like right around Christmas. We'll do one New Year's. We'll do one Martin Luther King Day, we'll do one President's Day weekend. So we try to do at least four or five a year. And then the Park City Ice Arena also offers some on occasion.”
He said that after the introduction classes, people can join the club by simply just showing up.
“So best is just to come on out and introduce yourself. Usually each year we do a fall league and a spring league and usually they'll fill out right. We have six sheets on the ice so we can have up to 12 teams playing. So each league will have anywhere from 10 to 13 teams.”
The cost is $600 for a four-person team. Some teams may have additional players. Curlers can also register as individuals and be placed on teams. Individual signups are $100.
People can also purchase club memberships for $60, which includes a club pin, memberships to the United States Curling Association (USOC), Mountain Pacific Curling Association (MOPAC), US Curling News Magazine and for women the United States Women's Curling Association (USWCA). They also include eligibility to compete in regional and national competitions.
There is no age requirement to join the club. However, people must be 12 or older to take learn-to-curl classes.
More information about the Park City Curling Club can be found here.