A Cool Way to Break the Ice

A Cool Way to Break the IceA cool way to break the ice.

"It's exhilarating because it's just really fun to do something that's not typical. A lot of my friends didn't know what curling was."

Liz Greenland is one of the newest members of the Granite Curling Club in North Seattle.

It's been around for more than 70 years, recognized as the fourth-largest curling club in the country and the only facility in the state dedicated to the sport.

"Chess on ice or bocce or a little bit of backgammon on ice. I find your whole body for any age, whether you're 20, 30, or we have 80-year-olds playing, and you can all play together."

Liz picked up the roaring game last fall, looking to try something different and meet new friends.

And thanks to the Winter Olympics, others see this as the golden opportunity to try out curling.

"It's just a neat experience. It's something that you've kind of seen on TV. You don't really know how to do."

Cheryl Crandall runs group events at the club. She says every time the Olympics roll around, curling fever hits hard.

In 2022, membership spiked, welcoming 180 new members, double a typical year.

Now that trend is expected to hit again with more people stepping on the ice.

"We are still kind of just at the beginning of our Olympic bubble, but our events and our ‘Learn to Curl’ and our 'Try Curling' events have increased by threefold from last year. So it's a pretty big increase. A lot of people are excited to come out and curl, and we're really excited to have them."