Curlers of Orange County

08/10/2021

We never thought we would know anyone competing in Olympic Games, but there we were, up in the middle of the night cheering for the people we knew or at least had met a few times, from various curling teams around the very small curling world. Two of those athletes were Matt and Becca Hamilton, an awesome brother/sister duo from Wisconsin. They were not only competing in the exhausting mixed doubles event, but also on their respective men's and women's teams, wow! (Matt's men's team, Team Shuster, went on to win Olympic GOLD and curling in the United States will never be the same. It has been growing like a wildfire ever since.) Getting to know an Olympic athlete gives you a completely different viewing experience because you know more fully the sacrifices they have made to be there. It makes you cheer a little louder, celebrate the victories with more gusto, and feel the losses more deeply, right along with them. In two weeks time, Aug 25-27, we get to have both Matt and Becca curling in So California again at our very own Orange County Curling Club facility! They will be on their respective men's and women's teams, competing in exhibition games which will be filmed by NBC Sports Network, for broadcast this winter. We've held Curling Night in America viewing parties before, but this time we get to be the butts in the bleachers. We, the Southern California curlers, will be the fans in the stands, ringing our cowbells, waving our flags, and cheering for all of them. We will be rooting for Team USA, but cheering for all the great shots made out on the ice, because that's what curlers do. That's the spirit of curling.

Tickets for Curling Night in America are available right now at greatparkice.com, come join us! Bring Your Own Cowbell.

(Orange County Curlers, Irvine, California) 08/09/2021

04/06/2020

It was just another boring Quarantine Saturday, until it wasn't. I was scrolling through The Facebook, and I saw this post and my friend, Kori, asking where the welcome mat came from. I thought "Hmmm, that looks like OUR welcome mat. Wait, that IS our welcome mat. HEY MIKE, GO OPEN THE FRONT DOOR!" Imagine our complete surprise and delight to find this amazing Quarantine kit. Not only did our fellow curling club mate, (I'm not going to name him, but his initials are Joel Calhoun,) assemble this incredible pile of goodness, he rode his bike 2 hours round trip from Anaheim to Huntington Beach, with this in a backpack, to quietly deliver it. He didn't even ring the bell. This isn't the first bicycle drive by this Corona Virus Angel. Another curling club member was approached by a neighbor to report "a suspicious man in a bike helmet crouched down by the front door doing something suspicious." Luckily the neighbor didn't shoot him, worse case, or call the police, best case. Again, that was Joel, the Corona Virus Angel, delivering an anonymous gift of life sustaining wine to other club members. How cool is THAT? Reason #767 why the curling family is like no other. What a bright spot in these dark days of lockdown and social isolation. We've paid Joel's gift forward, and will never forget his thoughtfulness.

(The Cassidy Household, Huntington Beach, California,)
04/2020

03/14/2020

It would have been just another Thursday night at league curling, until it wasn't. Like every other curling club, we were up to our arses in alligators and Corona Virus worries. Should we cancel, should we not? Should we crop dust the arena with bleach? Mandate elbow bumps and banish the huggers and the kissers? What to do? This was just before the metaphorical Covid virus s**t hit the fan in a big way. The very next day, all the elite curling events got cancelled, the grand slams got cancelled, the curling clubs shut down for the season early, and life as we know it changed for everyone.

But that night? That night the skip of the team we were playing decided that we might as well laugh as cry. He isn't insensitive to the issue, he knows how devastating this virus crisis is to people and to the economy and he just set out to lighten the mood. He showed up in a full paper suit with a gas mask and rubber gloves and played the first end wearing that outfit. It. Was. Hilarious. He then proceeded to kick our team's butt all around the rink with a decisive 8-3 victory. (That score made ME sick, but I digress.)

The Orange County Curling Club is known for being a fun club. We believe that you can have fun on the ice and still take the game seriously. We believe that every league game doesn't have to be played like a Brier final. The game is supposed to be fun and that is how we roll. As fate would have it, the Great Parks Ice announced the next day that they would be shutting down til the end of March. This is the ice facility that the NHL Ducks of Anaheim practice on. It's figure skating champion Nathen Chen's rink. It's a gorgeous, brand spankin' new, 4 rink facility and shutting it down is a really big deal. But we all have to make sacrifices and pull together during this global crisis. It's a scary, unsettling time and we are bombarded from every angle with reminders of what is happening. Every time we look at the tv, listen to the radio, try and shop for groceries, we are reminded of what we are all facing together. But for one brief evening, we were able to look at the crisis in a light hearted way. Just like our club culture, we believe we can have fun on the ice and still take the Corona virus seriously.

(Sue Cassidy, Brandon Copp, Orange County Curling Club, Irvine, California, March 13, 2020)

02/13/2020

Yes, that’s correct. We have our very own version of Cards Against Humanity. Go ahead, be jealous or better still, come to a bonspiel here and play it with us! (June 26-28, 2020) and check your political correctness at the door. Lol

11/08/2019

"People will often talk about how curling is unlike any other sport in that if you travel for bonspiels or attend World's or Grand Slam events, you will meet and perhaps share a beverage with your curling heroes, the curling elite. Well such was the case last night at Orange County Curling league broomstacking session when we entered a discussion about one of my fav curling FUNdraising events, Frozen Turkey Curling. It is as the name implies: you strap a slider on to a frozen turkey and have a draw to the button contest. One of the new curlers, hearing this, drops THIS claim to fame on us, 'I was the National Turkey Bowling Champion back in the day, when I lived in Indiana...'. Just like that. No biggie. Just NATIONAL friggin' Turkey Bowling Champion, right there, right beside me, having a beer with us like he was a normal human being! Who knew there was such a thing? Not this star stuck Chick. He enthralled us with stories about earning money as the State champion and getting his expenses paid to fly to Nationals where he gobbled up the frickin' NATIONAL TURKEY BOWLING TITLE. I asked for a selfie, of course, as one would in the presence of such sporting greatness, but he lives the quiet life now and I suspected he didn't want to reignite the flames of stardom. Respecting his desire for anonymity, I discreetly snapped this pictorial memento of the one and only 'Matt W.,' which I will cherish always as a reminder of my brush with Turkey Bowling greatness."

(Sue Cassidy, Turkey Bowling Groupie, Irvine, CA, Nov 2019)

07/06/2019

Today is my birthday and I'm excited to have some great curling friends to celebrate it with. We moved to California from Canada and never really had a large network of friends. Curling in Orange County changed all that. We have met so many nice people from around the world through this crazy sport & have tons of friends in our local club. Every year we end up curling in the Hollywood bonspiel on my birthday. One year, at midnight, everyone sang Happy Birthday to me on the ice. Another year, I heard someone call my name and when I turned around to look, I saw our awesome friends holding up "Happy Birthday" signs. It meant the world to me, as someone living so far away from our families. Curlers are just amazing people.

(Hollywood Curling Club, 2017, Sue Cassidy)

04/04/2019

"Our club membership has risen so much since our great Olympic Gold Medal year, I showed up at league one night and realized that there were so many new faces! We just moved to a brand new rink and the bar there isn't finished yet, so we have no place nearby to socialize after the game. My husband and I decided to throw a Curling Newbie Night at our house with food and table top curling and games and prizes, so everyone could get to know all the new people. I think this curling themed wine label that I made is going to be a popular prize! I can't wait to meet all the new curlers and show them how we roll in the OC!"

Sue Cassidy, OC Curling Club, April 2109

03/20/2019

That time we ran a FUNdraiser which resulted in the awesome Waddington Boys performance of Swan Lake
This is the best 3 minutes you spend today.

This video is the culmination of FUNdraising efforts by the Orange County Curling Club. $2000 was raised for two of our club members to curl as the black swa...

11/18/2018

One of our favorite OC Curling Club traditions, we get clapped in to the Posse Bar for the final time.

11/11/2018

"At the OC Curling Club, even our losers are winners. Take for example, the Golden Plunger Award. This perpetual trophy goes to the team that finishes last in league play. It isn't encouraging nor rewarding mediocrity as much as celebrating the "fight to the bitter end, never give up" attitude. Even if you are the worst team in the league, you can play and have a blast. (This Golden Plunger is especially valuable because it is the last one awarded before we move to a brand spankin' new facility in Irvine in December.) Recipients of the Golden Plunger award are expected to add their own little "touch" to it for the next winners. It started off as a spray painted plunger, then it was bedazzled, then a ceramic toilet was added, crocheted "toilet paper"; there's even a miniature alligator peaking out of the toilet bowl pipe. That's how we roll in the OC, where you can be a loser and a winner, simultaneously."

Former Plunger Winner, OC Curling Club, November 10, 2018

10/21/2018

"I'm not quite sure how it happened. One minute I was curling on a Saturday night and the next thing I know, I'm living inside someone's Alexa device. "Alexa, show me how to escape from this thing..."

(Derek King, October 2018, from Sue Cassidy's kitchen Alexa, Huntington Beach, California)