Now Is The Perfect Time To Crokicurl

Now Is The Perfect Time To Crokicurl!

A lovable new game is sliding into the Midwest and beyond. Crokicurl is fun and so easy that anyone can enjoy this fast-growing outdoor game. COVID-19 created many social challenges, but crokicurl helps solve some of them.

Getting active outside in winter is challenging for most people, not to mention in Northwest Wisconsin. Despite 40 consecutive days with a high temperature below zero degrees, can this piping hot new winter game get any more exciting? Altoona, Wisconsin, just hosted the first-ever United States Crokicurl Championship on the only rink in the United States. Old Man Winter greeted each new participant with a crisp low of -16 degrees but warmed the kickoff to a refreshing -5.  

 

Canada Created Crokicurl

Crokicurl is a new winter game that has fastly taken Canada by storm and now targets the United States. It combines two favorite Canadian pastimes of curling and a board game called crokinole.  

The Olympic sport of curling uses a 150-foot-long smooth sheet of ice as a rink.  Each curling lane spans about 15 feet wide, with several lanes on a rink. 38 to 44-pound smooth granite stones glide to a round-colored target on each end. One team member slowly pushes the stone from the starting point. On the opposite end, team members quickly sweep in front of the stones to guide them in the direction they want. Stones that stop closest to the center score more points.

Please excuse my loose translation of the rules as someone who hasn’t played the game but does enjoy watching it.

In crokinole, players flick small chips onto a board, trying to land closest to the center while at the same time trying to knock other teams’ chips off the board. Most Canadians have a Crokinole board game in their house for social times. Even though hugely popular in Canada, very few other countries have heard of it.

 

How To Play Crokicurl

With this in mind, Crokicurl uses a 42-foot octagon rink and 15-pound stones instead of flipping chips to the center. Unlike a smooth curling rink, crokicurl ice can be a little rough, and players don’t use a broom. The rink has four quadrants, with each team facing the opposition, whether playing with two or four players. Avoiding the pipes sticking up around the center makes it more difficult too.  

The goal is to slide your stone into the center hole or as close to the hole as possible. If your stone slides into the center hole, it scores 20 points. The further away from the center, your stone stops equals fewer points. Similar to shuffleboard, it’s legal to knock stones off the target to take points away from the other team.  

Crokicurl uses many different strategies, but the team with the most points wins. Since crokicurl is a new sport, the city of Altoona plans to make a video with beginner tips soon.  

Why You Should Crokicurl

Our world and how we do things are quickly changing, so now is the perfect time to crokicurl. This new sport could not have come at a better time. In fact, I (Tom) think crokicurl fits superbly with how our society is required to adapt to COVID-19. 

First, crokicurl creates the best possible scenario for social distancing, and it’s an outside game. The 42-foot rink divides into four sections with up to four players simultaneously, so plenty of space separates each player. You are playing by yourself, but also with each other at the same time. Under those circumstances, you can still be close enough to converse and safely keep your distance.

Crokicurl can be used as the perfect excuse to get outside since the winter season keeps you inside more than other months. It also gives you another fun reason to do something active to beat the winter blues. 

And, of course, it’s family-friendly.  

Lastly, you don’t need any experience, and it’s free! However, expect a small fee for tournaments and scheduled events.

So, now is the perfect time to crokicurl!

 

Crokicurl In Altoona, Wisconsin

Crokicurl began when Liz Wreford and her colleagues at Public City Architecture in Winnipeg, Manitoba wanted to conform these two games onto an outdoor oversized board game on ice. Without delay, in 2017, the first rink was established in Winnipeg. The sport rapidly caught on and began growing all over Canada; now, the United States expects to see the same excitement. 

Luckily, Debra Goldbach was on the Facebook group Women in Parks and Recreation with members from the U.S. and Canada. Debra is the Altoona Parks and Recreation Manager and has been watching for new winter recreation activities for Altoona. She noticed crokicurl and just knew it would be perfect for Altoona residents. She discussed crokicurl with Mike Golat, the city administrator, and he quickly took the lead to make it happen.

Debra watched a Canadian video about it and immediately forwarded it to Roy Atkinson, the city management analyst and the park’s foreman. Therefore, they both agreed they should start moving forward immediately so it would be ready for the upcoming winter.

Altoona city officials wanted to know more, so they contacted several Canadian cities to understand the game and how to build a rink. After all, they wanted different ways to get their community involved outdoors in winter. In this case, they quickly knew crokicurl fit perfectly.

Besides, they learned building a rink and setting up a crokicurl program is easy and low-cost for Parks and Recreation Departments.  

 

Altoona, Wisconsin, Plans To Expand Crokicurl

 

The city of Altoona wants to help residents find ways to be more active in the winter months. In summer, parks are full, but the challenge is drawing people out in winter. Debra also said the park’s focus for crokicurl is to bring families outdoors in winter. With this in mind, they created Crokicurl Family Fun Nights and other competitions. 

From here, they want to grow the sport with more rinks in Altoona and inspire more people to build rinks across the United States. Equally important, they want Canadians to come down for the championship tournament with hopes to become an international event.  

The fruits of their labor became a reality on February 13, 2021, when the first U.S. Crokicurl Championship was held in Altoona, Wisconsin, at River Prairie Park. Notably, the Mike Peplinski and Ron Parks team took the very first title. These two have been local curling teammates for over twenty years. In fact, Peplinski was on the 1998 Nagano, Japan Winter Olympic team.

 

Here are some more of our stories about Wisconsin that you might enjoy.

Sunflowers In Eau Claire, Wisconsin, Will Make You Happy

Fantastic Ways To Have A Remarkable Wisconsin Cranberry Experience

Artsy Mineral Point Is One Of Our Favorite Small Towns

 

Final Thoughts

 

Altoona Parks and Recreation is very excited about crokicurl, and so are we! It’s perfect for today’s new world with COVID-19 and for getting outside in winter. Better yet, it inspires fun family time since it can be played by all ages. Just as Debra Goldbach mentioned to me, it’s so easy because parents can place the 15-pound stones on the ice rink for the kids, and then anyone can slide them across the ice. 

So for us, It’s two thumbs up!

As always, thanks for reading Now Is The Perfect Time To Crokicurl.

Tom and Kristi