Bay Area Curling Club

Colleen: What’s the first rule of curling? Winners buy first round!
And I was hooked then.
From the learn-​to-​curl clinics to lesson series to instructional leagues, San Francisco Bay Area Curling Club have quite the talent, both on and off ice (and by that I meant imbibing) as well as the nicest people I’ve been curling with.
3 locations to curling at: Oakland, Fremont, and San Jose. DO IT.
P. S. I heard ladies dig guys with a broom. It’s definitely a conversation starter.

Did the introduction to curling at Sharks Ice in San Jose and it was loads of fun. The instructors were very friendly and they had to goal of getting us playing a real game ASAP which was great. Defiantly would recommend.

This is a really fun.
They hold curling clinics, where you go out on the ice and get to learn the rules and techniques of the game. The clinics are 2.5 hours, and at the end, you actually play a game of curling.
They have three locations – in San Jose, Fremont, and in Oakland.
The clinics used to free and open to whoever showed up, but they started becoming really popular and crowded – so you now have to pay $ 15/​person (or $ 12/​person for a group of 4 or more). If it weren’t for the price now, I’d give it five stars.
It’s a blast. There’s actually a lot of technique to curling – more than you can learn at one clinic. They also provide brooms to sweep the ice in front of the rock and make it go further. Sweeping the ice and yelling «Sweep!» at people is a lot of fun. It is actually quite challenging. A lot of my initial rocks didn’t even make it close to the scoring area.
The ice can be quite slippery too. I actually fell down twice – once standing up after throwing my rock and once while sweeping. They were caught on video too – I’d post them here if Unilocal had videos.
Go with a group of friends and bring some warm clothing.

Curling. Is. Awesome.
I had a buddy who Tivo’ed a bunch of the Olympic curling, so on a whim I whipped out my cell phone and searched for San Francisco curling, and the rest was history.
And guess what? They painted some brand new sheets right in the Oakland ice arena.
The instructor pointed out that the #1 rule of curling according to the United States Curling Association Handbook is that the winning team buys the losing team a beer. I did a little fact checking, and found this to be completely false, but I’ll continue to hold on to that fantasy.
Bottom line:
–Throwing 42 pound rocks across 150 feet sheets of ice is awesome.
–The intro classes are run by fantastic and enthusiastic volunteers.
–Post curling beer = instant win.
Check their website, and come to one of the curling clinics!

Due to the popularity of curling at the Olympics, this local, long-​time established curling club has been holding «Intro to Curling» instruction clinics for the Bay Area. They are held in San Jose, Freemont and Oakland at the Sharks-​owned ice facilities.
I attended my first «Intro to Curling» clinic last night and loved it! It was a blast! There were over 100 people there, but they did a good job separating us into smaller groups so we could get more instruction and take turns practicing.
The instructors were really friendly and you could tell they were having a good time as well. They were very encouraging and very helpful.
I liked it so much, in fact, I want to continue on with their more serious, 5-​week course. My friend and I are actually talking about joining a league.
The Intro course is only $ 15…well worth it. You don’t need any equipment, they supply everything.