I'm inside a chilly ice rink in Boston's North End on a Sunday night. There is nobody out on the ice. No figure skaters. No hockey game. But I'm still pretty excited. Paul Aronofsky is sliding a key into a hefty padlock to throw open a hand-made crate. And there are few things more thrilling for a curiosity seeker than when the contents of a locked box are revealed. So what's inside?
"We’ve got some curling stones," said Aronofsky, who is Vice President of the brand new North End Curling Club.
"These are about 42 pounds each, made from granite that comes from Scotland," he explained.
"Isn't there granite in New Hampshire?" I countered. "Isn’t that the Granite State? We gotta get it all the way from Scotland?"
"They all come from this one region in Scotland," he said. "I’m not really sure why."
Maybe it’s because Scotland is where the sport of curling — that shuffleboard-on-ice game that you see every four years during the winter Olympics — was invented. In the 1500s, no less. It’s a fairly popular sport there — as it is in Canada. But here in the USA it’s remained decidedly niche. Not for long, if Aronofsky and Greg Riehle, president of the club, have their way.
"We would like to try and really make it more of a community thing," said Riehle. "It’s a great sport. Anybody can play it no matter how young, how old, and it’s really easy to get into. Nobody takes themselves too seriously when they’re curling so it’s a lot of fun."
Riehle and Aronofsky first came across the sport — where those granite stones are slid 150 feet along the ice toward a target, while teammates furiously brush the ice to alter the speed — the way most Americans do.
"On TV at the winter Olympics," said Riehle. "I saw it on the Olympics, and was just like 'this is just the weirdest coolest thing ever,'" added Aronofsky.
But to actually try their hand at it, they had to travel miles outside of Boston, where they both live. There’s placeson the South Shore. Broomstones Curling Club has been around for decades, but they’re in Wayland. Then there’s Blackstone Valley Curling Club in Hopedale.
"And we both just fell in love with it and decided to curl down there and up in Nashua as well, but those are really the two closest places," said Aronofsky. "So it’s exciting to see something right here in the heart of Boston."
What they hope will become the heart of curling in Boston is Steriti Memorial Rink in the North End.
"I live right around the corner," said Riehle. "And Steriti rink was just sitting here every Sunday night just open and waiting for curling."
And so the work began: Booking regular ice time, leasing dozens of stones and other equipment, getting insurance – and other interested folks on board.
And if Riehle and Aronofsky’s quest to inch curling from a sporting curiosity toward something more commonplace here in Boston sounds Quixotic, don’t be so quick to dismiss it.
"I think there really is a pent-up demand for curling in the Boston area," said Kim Nawyn, Director of Growth and Development for USA Curling, the national body for the sport. Since curling debuted in the 1998 winter games, USA Curling has seen its ranks swell by more than 75 percent. And Nawyn says places like the Twin Cities in Minnesota and New England are target markets.
"We currently have 20,778 registered curlers," she said. "They’re members of 175 different curling clubs in over 40 states in the nation."
Nawyn says that the sport sees a reliable surge of interest in Olympic years, and with the 2018 Winter Games in South Korea just around the corner, the North End Curling Club's timing couldn’t be better.
"We’ve got a couple events around that time that we’re really hoping to capture a lot of enthusiasm about the sport," said Riehle.
The North End Curling Club is 15 strong right now, and they hope to get their numbers up to 32 in the coming months. But their ambitions don’t end there. They envision wheelchair curling nights and bonspiels — curling tournaments against other clubs.
"Later on, we might see if we can get a curling night at Fenway, partner with MIT to get some scientists or physicists to explain the physics of curling," said Aronofsky. "There’s endless amounts of opportunity around here."
But first things first. Simply give folks a place to curl in the city. As far as Riehle is concerned, the rest will take care of itself.
"It’s a lot of fun," he said. "We’ve seen it. If you get people on the ice throwing stones, then they really wanna come back and do it again."
You can get on the ice and throw stones for yourself, as the North End Curling Club holds their first “Learn to Curl” events, November 19 and 26.
What have you been curious about lately? I'm always looking for story ideas, so email me at CuriosityDesk@wgbh.org.
