Andrew Woodman, Centretown News
Jean Desjardins (left), sweeps alongside opponent Eric Robard (right) at the Ottawa Curling Club. The historic Centretown club is promoting curling for seniors as a way to stay active.It’s a Tuesday afternoon at the Rideau Curling Club in Centretown. People are gathered around tables, chatting loudly while enjoying a post-match beverage. The one characteristic everyone in the room shares: all are over the age of 60.
Tuesdays are the scheduled competition days for 60-plus league at the club and on just about every other day during the week there is ice time available for leagues of retirees and seniors.
The Cooper Street club is at the forefront of a growing trend to promote curling among seniors.
Former curler and Brier champion Randy Ferbey spearheaded the initiative. The initiative includes a three-year deal to sponsor the Seniors Curling Championships in the hopes of increasing attention paid to seniors curling.
Ferbey also created a brand new event at the senior championships for clubs to participate in and potentially win prizes.
Ferbey recently visited the club to promote the initiative and had nothing but praise for the club.
“The Rideau club is a great little curling club. It’s the kind of place that when I walked into I thought to myself, ‘this is my kind of curling club,’ ” Ferbey says.
When is comes to what draws people to the club, Jerry Ciasnocha has an idea: “It all starts with the ice. If you don’t have good ice people are going to leave.”
Ciasnocha is a long time member and coach with the club.
The ice surface is just one of the many things that draw people to the club. Competition, says 64-year-old curler Diana Favel, is another.
Favel, says that the competitive nature of the curling leagues helped attract her to the club. Favel started curling at the age of eight, but did not start curling competitively again until she was in her 40s.
In 2006, she joined the club after trying out other clubs and not finding them to be competitive enough, she says.
Curling is unusual in the world of sports for the wide range of ages it draws. Favel says that the game allows modifications depending on ability, which is a benefit for those over 50. For example, curlers can use a stick to push the rocks instead of sliding on the ice, which can be hard on the knees.
When first walking into the downtown club it isn’t obviously a sporting venue. When the ice surface lights are turned off, the club looks like a cozy hall, equipped with a full kitchen and bar.
Pierre Mondor, the club’s manager, says this is to help curlers enjoy the social atmosphere as well as the curling.
“We’ve done a lot to properly showcase the club as being one of the best to curl at and to come and enjoy the atmosphere,” he says.
The walls in the rink are lined with various banners awarded throughout the 126-year-old club’s history.
Favel has contributed to the wall of fame by winning four Canadian Masters Championships and has won silver at the senior championships.
Favel says the support she receives from members while away at competitions is something else that’s special about the club. Members will keep up to date with scores online and send words of encouragement through emails or texts, she says.
Mondor says that curlers like Favel draw people to the club because of their success.
He notes that in the four years he has been with the club he has never had to advertise.
“It’s more our members promoting it within themselves and their friends than it is the club pushing it.”