Curling Season has begun

The days in Canada vary drastically between summer and winter. In summer, the sun shines on us until 9:00 pm or later, but in winter the sun sinks beyond the horizon as early as 4:00 pm. So, now that we are approaching winter and the sun is making shorter daily appearances, I like so many other Canadians, turn to the sport of curling to help get through the dark evenings.

I began curling when I was 11, so obviously I have been doing it for a long time. During my teens and early 20s I was extremely competitive and had some relative success before taking seasonal breaks on and off for travel and other interests. But for the last three years I've become once again addictive and hope to regenerate some of my competitive ways and if I'm lucky, equal some of my earlier success. (So far I've curled seven games in the club, three mixed and four womens and have a record of seven wins - yeah!)

This upcoming year, we host the Olympics in Vancouver. Curling is one of the sports where Canada is hoping to medal in both the women's and men's competitions. Our representative have yet to be determined so all eyes are on our potential teams. Trials begin in November and conclude in December.

In the Toronto area these last five days, an mens elite international curling competition was held - with with five of Canada's top teams competing. I was lucky to have won tickets to the event and saw some fine play. Good practice as well for these Canadian teams before they enter the Olympic trials by playing the top teams from other nations that have already been declared as their country's Olympic representatives.

I'm just home from the finals where Canada's Glenn Howard (the 2007 world champ) won the competition. Here are some pictures from the competition.

Brad Gushue from Newfound and 2006 Olympic Gold medalist.

Alberta's Kevin Martin, 2002 Olympic Silver medalist

The Randy Ferby team from Edmonton Alberta, four-time Canadian and two-time World champs

The Ontario Glenn Howard team, 2007 world champ. (Glenn has won the worlds three times and his vice-skip Richard Hart is a 1998 Olympic silver medalist)