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Curling, the ancient sport of granite throwing, has found itself caught up in the tide of
technological advances that seem to be overwhelming every sport. For those that
take a chance at understanding the relationship of technology to their particular
sport and the ability to apply it appropriately the results can be amazing.
Technological advances in refrigeration have altered the game greatly from its roots on
frozen ponds and streams. Every other advance in the game can be traced back
to this origin point. Artificially made ice allowed the game to be moved indoors
and electronic advances have allowed us today to fine tune the ice to such a
degree that rock maintenance is becoming an important factor in any curling club.
The running edge of the rock was always considered an “off-limits” area for anything but
resting on the ice. Unless a chip, pit or crack developed, rocks would go for
years without anything being done to the running surface. Occasionally when it
was determined that the running edges were “worn-out” the rocks were given a
new granite insert. This is usually done after 20 or 30 years of use.
Ice conditions play a big part in why this was happening. Until the last 15-20 years ice
was what we would consider heavy today. Most people that learned the game
prior to 1990 all used a backswing delivery to get the rock down the ice.
This doesn’t allow the finer grain of the running surface to grip and cause the rock
to turn or rather curl. With improvements in ice-making the typical backline
to tee-line times went from 17-18 seconds to as much as 24-26 seconds. The
latter opening the window for the surface texture to come into play.
As the game gained popularity people liked seeing the rocks curl and quickly learned
that sheets that provided a lot of curl was taking the game to a new level. With
slower ice the easiest way to achieve this was by a technique called dishing the
sheet. The outsides would be gradually built up, making the rock move harder
downhill and swinging towards the middle. The rub is that you got very little swing to the
outsides.
With much faster ice it has been found to be better to have the ice as flat and level as
possible and to alter to surface of the running edge to adjust the amount of curl.
This way a rock will curl as much in both directions. This is why treating or
sanding the running surface has become the norm. The sanding isn’t a
complicated process but it requires consistency. The faster ice allows the rock to
stay on the ice surface much longer which allows the texture of the running
edge to grip the pebble. This should also provide some insight as to why
sweeping is so important. When we sweep, we are creating friction that
polishes the pebble for those few precious moments that the rock is travelling,
thus the rock running edge won’t have as much to grip with the result of going
straighter and a bit farther.
Here at the Pittsburgh Curling Club we have ceramic inserts, a newer innovation. The
ceramic gives the PghCC the advantage of cooling the running surface much more
quickly than granite (an important consideration for arena clubs) allowing for
less set-up time. The ceramic however has been found to polish up rather
quickly, thus reducing potential curl. We recently have purchased a sanding jig
and have treated our rocks for the upcoming Tropicurl and season.
Any questions or comments can be directed to club icemaker Rich Ashford at:
icemaker@pittsburghcurlingclub.com
Thanks Rich, Ian, Amanda and Steve!
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