Mini curling rink creates maxi buzz in Toronto

Hockey shmockey.

Outdoor curling is where it's at. At least in one backyard in west end Toronto.

While this nation's imagination will likely never again be captured in quite the way shinny has imprisoned it, one Toronto man might be wondering just how his tiny curling rink has grabbed the spotlight in such a major, hockey-like way. It's a bit of zeitgeist that is carried through to other outdoor curling rinks in Toronto and - of all places - Brooklyn, New York.

29 year old Zack Sandor-Kerr, a man who'd never thrown a curling stone before he unveiled his slice of curling heaven, now describes himself, on Twitter, as a "backyard curling instigator." He has been visited by newspaper reporters, magazine scribes and television stations this week. He's been interviewed by radio hosts. All of them wanting to document the wee rink that takes up the space between his house and back shed in the Toronto neighbourhood known as The Junction.

Novelty is part of it, likely.

Not that anyone ever gets bored of the sight of a gleaming, perfectly-sheeted backyard hockey rink. Perish that thought. It's just that there is no shortage, no shortage at all, of that image. A curling rink, though, that is different.

And Sandor-Kerr's has the extra added quality of being cutesy, as it's only about a fifth of the size of a regulation curling sheet. It also comes complete with homemade stones, fashioned from metal mixing bowls, concrete and PVC pipe.

The Toronto Star did a piece on Sando-Kerr's rink. BlogTO, ran a story on it. CBC television sent a reporter to his backyard to do a live hit during the supper hour newscast.

“We initially got some curious looks over the fence,” Sandor-Kerr told the Star. From those initial glances grew the kind of buzz that the sport of curling could really use, especially in the city of Toronto, where a number of curling clubs have closed over the last few years.

It's a little serendipity for the Toronto Curling Association, this publicity wave for an outdoor curling rink.

The TCA has been attempting to reach out to would-be curlers this winter, with the use of its own outdoor rinks and it appears to be working.

According to the TCA's President, Hugh Murphy, over 1,000 requests for ice time have been made.

“My fundamental objective with this initiative is to eliminate the walls of the curling club – to make the game completely open and accessible to as many people as possible,” Murphy told the Etobicoke Guardian.

Meanwhile, outdoor curling has surprisingly caught the fancy of New Yorkers, too.

In Brooklyn, outdoor curling has returned, at the Lakeside Club, with instructor Wendy Peace telling CBC Radio "Brooklyn is loving curling. And what's awesome is the hipsters are mingling with the oldsters and the youngsters, and everyone in between."

Far, far away from Sandor-Kerr's little sheet of dreams, the Red Square Curling Classic just wrapped up for another year, in Moscow. It is one of the pre-eminent outdoor curling events, with regulation ice, stones and equipment being utilized (You can see some spectacular photos of the event by clicking here). It provides a counterpoint to the simplicity of Sandor-Kerr's fun-sized pad and might make you wonder if a brave new world of curling is being mapped out.

That brave new world would actually be a brave, old one, really.

Curling began as an outdoor sport, centuries ago, on the frozen lakes and streams of Scotland. Through its history it has been played, at times, in a makeshift way.

In the 1700's, it is said, a British regiment melted cannonballs down to form curling stones so they could play at Quebec City.

Inventive, that.

Kind of like a guy filling mixing bowls with concrete, in west end Toronto.

And shoving hockey's well-worn romanticism into the backseat, if only for a few days.