SHUSTAHHHHHHHHHH

A few of you expressed interests in a TR for the curling league that I joined this spring. I was a complete beginner. My wife and I joined the league after a "learn to curl class" and were paired with two other beginners. We were in a 4 week novice league but as it turns out most of the teams were not really novices they just liked the time slot or the limited engagement needed to be in a 4 week league over the normal 9 week league. There were beginners but every team we played had at least some experienced curlers.

We wen't 0-4 but did improve over the course of the league. The last week we lost in overtime which we actually had two shots at winning both with the hammer in the last end where we could have won by 1 and the sudden death throw and lost both.

The biggest problem was one of the randos we got paired up with. He was a med student, didn't drink, didn't show up until right when the match started (common courtesy is to get there and help set up your lane), left immediately afterwards, demanded to be skip, was horrible at every aspect of skipping and curling. Basically everyone had turned against him by the end of the 2nd week when he came out and yelled at the other rando because his sweeping was "lazy" on one of his shots when frankly his shot sucked. Week 4 we got a text message about 30 minutes before our match basically saying he had a migraine and wasn't coming. Everyone was pumped and figured we would win even though our sub was my BIL who had basically never curled before.

The other rando curler we got matched up was awesome. Was fun to hang out with. Brought a thermos of kamikazees the last two weeks. Was supportive of everyone and was fine with switching whether you went 1-3 (1-4 the last week) so that we could all kind of figure out where we fit. We are planning on curling again with him in the next league.

Our scores each week were
W1: 1-4
W2: 2-4
W3: 3-6
W4: 5-5 (Lost in OT)

Some general thoughts on curling. It is really really fun. I will try and break this down into a few categories.

There is a physical component to it which is pretty hard to master. you get better at it over time but getting to the point the Olymipians do where you slide effortlessly and look like you are hardly moving when you throw is very very hard. Direction isn't that hard but weight is quite difficult as a beginner. I was very sore in my thighs after each week. I took one nasty fall in W2, it happens.

In general the people we curled with/against are pretty smart and i would say middle to upper-middle class people. There were a lot of doctor, lawyer, professional type people doing it. I don't know if that was a pro or a con but that was my impression. For all of us, myself included, it seemed a good excuse to drink a couple beers and do something on Sunday afternoon with some new people. Some people were nicer/more fun than others but for the most part everyone was just there to have a good time and compete the best we could at a fairly strange sport. Some people were dicks and one guy complained that one of our teammates was standing too close to the lane( a sweeper standing in the middle off the actual area you would throw in) and distracting him. I thought this was a little ridiculous but I get it.

As far as alcohol goes almost everyone drinks but I would say on average people are drinking 1-3 beers during a match. Obviously the beer stays off the actual curling lane but at our place it was on a cart directly behind one of the ends. Most people stuck around for 15-30 minutes after to shoot the **** and drink a beer. Our curling club has no bar so it was entirely BYOB.

We intend on joining the full 9 week league next session minus the migraine guy. Anyone who is interested in learning about curling or joining a league who has one close I highly recommend doing it. It is a very fun sport with a very low bar to get competent and a very high bar to get good. Anyone who likes to drink a few beers is going to have a good time.

CLIFFS: Curling is fun. If you have a curling league near you go do it.

awesome

Thanks for sharing the experience Wichita.

Would totally do it if there were one in the city, the only one near Chicago is in the north Suburbs which makes it tough to be a weeknight activity.

Ours is at least on Sunday. That helps. Weeknights I think would be really tough in general as you never know what is going on with work and whatever family stuff you have in your life.

Assumed this was bumped due to the huge news out of the curling world that Tyler George is retiring. I hope this means LANDSTEINER gets a promotion to a speaking role for 2022

Yesterday watched a recent episode of Man vs. Food from Duluth, MN.

Featuring the man, the myth, the legend, SHUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUSSSSSSSSSSSTTTTTTAAAAHHHHHH!

Casey Webb ... Himself - Host
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Nick Cleary Nick Cleary ... Himself - Smoking Extraordiniare, Northern Waters Smokehaus
Carl Ehlenz Carl Ehlenz ... Himself - Owner, Betty's Pies
Leif Hinkel Leif Hinkel ... Himself - Master Sandwich Architect, Northern Waters Smokehaus
John Shuster John Shuster ... Himself - 2018 Curling Champion
Shaun Waggoner Shaun Waggoner ... Himself - Owner, The Breeze Inn
See full cast »
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Storyline

Casey Webb heads to Duluth, Minnesota, where he tastes the city's best fish fry, visits a specialty sandwich shop and attempts to finish a three-pound platter of pie and ice cream in 20 minutes.
Plot Summary | Add Synopsis Genres: Reality-TV
Certificate: TV-G
Parents Guide: Add content advisory for parents »
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Details
Release Date: 9 July 2018 (USA) See more »

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8594554/

Check your local listings/On Demand, etc for replays..

Bump

https://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/c...910869?cmp=rss

Haha, I was just going to track down this thread and post that

Koe did not play at all because he could not get on the ice. “He tried to slide, but he fell down.”

The mixed doubles curing championship was at granite curling club in Seattle today. Needless to say I went to meet shustah and Hamilton and get a shirt signed!

The first photo is then retelling the story of the double for 5!!!

Awesome Goofball, would be cool to meet those guys.

I am still curling and our same team from our novice league (that i wrote the upthread TR about) is actually 3-3 in the regular league this year and a half game out of 3rd in a 9 team league. It has been a lot of fun and we have seen a lot of improvement in the last year. We are planning to travel for our first bonspiel this summer. I highly recommend heading out to your local curling club if you have one and doing a learn to curl if you think you might like it.

If nothing else you get to meet a bunch of new people and compete at something that is pretty interesting. I would be happy to answer any questions if anyone here is curious about anything related to getting into recreational level curling.

Goddamn it. Moved 5 months ago and missed out on meeting the GOAT at my old stomping grounds

even shustah's signature is a thing of beauty

How was the Netflix Losers curling episode not about the legend of SHUSTAAAAHH?!?

Nobody cares about some mustachioed douche from 1985.

Because SHUSSSSTAHHH is a god damn winner. He is the the Olympic Gold Medalist. No more can he be called a loser.

Now... why is there not an entire documentary on the struggle to reach the top of the mountain and then getting there all based on the GOAT curler of all time. Well this is something we need to get Dom on.

Despite the title that is what the documentary is about- how people deal with losing (sometimes rebounding to reach great heights.)

Pat Ryan, the subject of the curling episode, celebrated his imminent victory in the 1985 Brier...while his opponent still had one rock left. Opponent then hits the double and wins in the extra end.

But Ryan went on to win the Brier three times (twice as skip) and two World Championships (one as skip) and forced curling to make a major rule change due to his style of play.

Think there's going to be an Oscar winning film based on Shustah.

Still would pay $20 for a 10-minute montage with a really good Pat Summerall impersonator.

That is pretty much the exact opposite of what I would have expected goofballs back to look like

No kidding. Dude is rocking some swol rhomboids and traps. Must be sweeping like a madman

Curling World Cup grand finals currently on NBC Sports live from Beijing. Already 3 games in wtf

Shustah lookin thicc

That is some serious flow on Matt Hamilton