Shout out to Norway!

My blog and the CCA article on my team are on the Norwegian Curling Team's Facebook Page.  I think it was the funky curling pants that caught their attention!

Another Eventful Day!

Today was another eventful day for me.  I had 2 interviews at school.  One for the Whig and one for Kingston This Week!  You can check out the Whig article by clicking here.  Kingston is really catching curling fever!

Thanks to all those who are publicizing my blog and helping me make contacts for this week:

Larke Zarichny - Vice Chair of Hosting
Mark Strachan - Curling Coordinator at Cataraqui
Bryan Little - My mentor and teacher at King's Town School
And all my family, friends and curling fans for sharing my site through social media!

Opening Ceremonies

My countdown clock for the Opening Ceremonies is quickly coming to an end.  The Ceremonies begin Saturday at 10:30 am.  I'm so excited that people from Cataraqui will be honoured at the Ceremonies.  Congratulations to Ted Brown, Marg McDonald, Lefty McDonald (who I have had the honour of actually playing against), and Katherine O'Neill.

Friday's events

On Friday, there will be the Hot Shots competition on at the K-Rock Centre.  Every athlete is eligible to participate in the event to see who will drive away with a Ford.  This will be an exciting event even before the tournament starts.  Kerry Galusha from Northwest Territories/Yukon won the Hot Shots last year.  It will start at 1 pm Friday and the final will start on Saturday at 11:30 am after the Opening Ceremonies.

There will be a dinner for the volunteers Friday night before the busy week of curling!  This event can't be successful without the help of the over 400 volunteers.

Entry to the Opening Ceremonies and the Hot Shots are free so I recommend everyone come out and watch it!

Latest Poll Results

In the previous poll, I asked:  Which matchups are you most looking forward to in the Round Robin?  54% of you said that the Ontario vs. Manitoba game will be the most anticipated.  This might be the game that decides first place. After that, 18% of you said you most wanted to see the Ontario vs. Canada game, 13% of you voted for the Canada vs. Manitoba game, 9% of you are looking forward to the BC vs. Canada game and only 4% of you said BC vs. Ontario.

Stay tuned because there will be another poll and much more coming later!

My Tour inside the K-Rock Centre!

The Scotties took over the K-Rock Centre at 12:01 am on Monday to start making the ice. Hockey ice is different than curling ice. First they had to flood it, then it was too slippery so they scraped some ice off. The crew was working all night! They painted white over the lines on the hockey ice. They then sealed the paint with water. Next, they made, painted and sealed the circles (house) and the logos. The painting was all done by hand. The strings (for the centre line, back lines, etc. ) where then put in and were sealed. There was a 1/2 to 3/4 inches of more ice put on.  Around the 4 sheets of ice there is carpet. Under the carpet  there is styrofoam and insulation. They then scraped the ice some more. The ice is expected to be finished on Thursday.

I also learned about the rocks. The rocks belong to the icemaker Mark Shurek (click here for an article about him in The Whig). The handles belong to the CCA. The handles were just used last weekend in the Canadian Juniors and came to Kingston straight from Alberta. The rock handles have lights that indicate hog line violations. The players need to tip the rock to activate the lights. The rocks had to be frozen. The crew sanded the bottom of the rocks to get more curl. Carbon paper was used to map the bottom of each rock. This is used to match the impurity of the rock. They try to match rocks for each position. The rocks for the skip and vice are the best matched.

If the weather doesn't cooperate, then the K-Rock Centre has fans that control the humidity to 55-70%. The surface of the ice needs to be around 24-25 F. Alex also talked to me about dew point. The dew point is the relationship between the humidity and temperature. When it isn't the right temperature, then the ice gets frosty. After 5 ends there is a mopping done to get the frost off the ice. They put the pebble on the ice at the dew point temperature. Everything is monitored by computers and sensors on the ice.  Players can monitor the ice conditions online.

Ice making has a lot of science in it!

When I got there, TSN started setting up their cameras!

Eventful Day!

I had a very eventful and exciting day today!  First there was a CCA article written on my team and I. It was well written and I got a lot of attention for my blog!  Thank you Jean Mills for writing the article and to Candace-Rose Gagnon for taking the pictures!  Then, after school, I got a private tour of the K-Rock Centre and I saw the ice, the media scrum area, the TSN broadcasting booth, the locker rooms,  the statistical benches, and so much more!  Thank you to Brian Ward, Vice Chair in charge of the facilities for giving me the tour, and Alex McKinney, who is the Director of Ice, for explaining how the ice is installed.