LOS ANGELES – If you've ever wanted to try a new sport, now's your chance: the Hollywood Curling Club — yes, it exists — is hosting pop up curling demos in Pershing Square from now until January.
Curling, that Olympic sport you've seen on TV where people throw rocks down the ice and yell funny things, is experiencing tremendous growth in the States, and the LA events are just one example.
Brought to America both by Scottish soldiers, settlers and Canadian curlers in the early 1800s, the game has flourished in small towns where curling clubs have long been community fixtures.
But now, curling is going mainstream.
"During the last Olympic cycle, we taught 2,500 people curling in three months," Liza Beres, the club president, said.
Like many who attend a Hollywood Curling Club event, the Canadian-born Beres learned to curl after years of watching the sport on TV.
"It never occurred to me, until my friends dragged me out, that this was something you could just do," she said. "I always watched but never, ever dreamed that you could just go and do it."
Now, as head of the club, she's committed to hosting events that help draw new people to the sport.
Their Pershing Square pop-up series takes place on three remaining dates this winter, Dec. 19, Dec. 26 and Jan. 8.
For just over $5 per person, newcomers will get the chance to hit the ice with a curling veteran and learn how to throw a rock and how to sweep, as well as the other basics of the game.
Curlers are provided with all the equipment they need to test the game out.
"It's a chance for people to come out and learn the basics," Beres said.
As the club vice president, Matt Gamboa, said in an email about curling's quirkiness, "There's brooms and sweeping, and yelling, and most people don't really know what's happening if they just tune in."
The first pop up of the season, held Nov. 13, saw about 20 new curlers take the ice. Usually used for skating each winter, the small rink in the center of Pershing Square was modified to accommodate three different hacks.
Hacks are rubber footholds placed into the ice to give a curler something to push against when throwing a rock; that is some of what you'll learn in the pop-up demo should you choose the adventure.
"It was really fun, it was quite interesting how they managed to get the ice," said Jaeden O'Connor, 20, who was visiting from Canada. O'Connor is a participant who had curled before, but wanted the experience of curling outside surrounded by palm trees while on vacation.
That's not a normal setting for most curlers.
Usually, curling is played in places with slightly lower average temperatures.
"Maybe curling could get a good following and get started up in Los Angeles," she said. "I hope it becomes a real sport, and not something people do as a leisurely pastime."
This, too, is the hope of the Hollywood Curling Club, and it's not far from achieving that goal. Club leaders have worked consistently over the last two years to find property to create a permanent home for their club.
They're not alone in wanting to push curling into the country's mainstream.
NBC has made consistent commitments to curling in recent years by adding "Curling Night in America" to its Friday night winter programming, getting more eyeballs on the sport and more skates on the ice.
In recent years, curling clubs have blossomed in places as varied as Orange County, Lake Tahoe and even Las Vegas.
"Curling is like bowling in that it's a very social game," Gamboa said.
That's what the Hollywood Curling Club is hoping newcomers will experience through the Pershing Square events. It wasn't long ago that Beres was at a learn-to-curl event hosted by the club, stepping on the ice for the very first time.
"I was terrified of falling down," she said when recalling her first lesson. "I do remember I hit my knee and there was a huge black bruise."
Beres, who now travels the state and the country to compete against curlers, has fallen in love with what she calls her "curling family," and it's what she hopes others will experience too when they come out to Pershing Square this winter and play the fastest growing winter sport in the world.
Annenberg Media