The Bar is Open...Let's Curl!

Well another volunteer effort took place after the Thursday night league...this time to get the bar open!  

We needed a team of curlers to pick up the compressor and lift it on top of the fridge. Small feat until we found out it was several hundred pounds.

So how many curlers does it take to put together a commercial fridge? 12, plus 3 observers/managers.

Let's watch the progression...

Lift, put it down and talk through it.

Look up at how high they need to go...

Lift, push...

Turn and push...harder, harder...

Smoosh our General Contractor, pull him out, push and slide...

Rotate and flip

Shimmy it in...

Round of applause and our General Contractor is still standing!

Welcome to our curling club...Bar is now OPEN!  Let's curl...

Instructors Take To The Ice To "Learn To Curl"

USCA flew out instructors to certify our Coyotes members for the Level 1 Curling Instructor Certification.  We also had a component for alternative deliveries including a piece from Patrick McDonald, a World Olympic wheelchair curler.

Check out some pics from our "on ice" and "off ice" training!

In the classroom...

Warm ups (that now take place in the warm room)

Group Sweeping Demonstration

Wheelchair stick release

Walking stick delivery

Four Step Delivery...forward press (move the rock and align heal to toe), lift hips (table top position), hips backs (toe to heal alignment), press forward and release.

Forward Sweeping Technique

Eyes up and smile!

And, of course, one of our instructors photo bombed our selfie!

See how much fun we are having?!? This is why you need to come out and play with us & Learn To Curl at Coyotes Curling Club! And yes, we have dedicated ice in the desert.  :)

Sunday, FunDay at our new club!

It's been an eventful Sunday here at our new dedicated ice facility.

As the temperature goes over 100 degrees (38 for the Canadians out there) and the snowbirds depart for cooler weather, little things are continuing to happen around the club.

Like working on the cameras...

Speaker volume and hook-ups being adjusted for both on and off the ice.

No picture--just envision a few if us jammin' out to the 80s party tunes in the warm room as the speakers are being tested. :)

Small solar lights are being "planted" outside around the curbs and walkways.

And the ice rooms cleaned up for our first in house ice class. We had a dozen members come out to learn how to prep the ice for league nights and what is envolved with the larger ice maintenance nights on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Basic ice knowledge...

Tour of all the equiptment and meters to record for the ice log.

Learning all the different jobs of pebbling, sweeping, nipping and even on ice practice running ice patterns with the Ice King!

Finishing just in time for the 4pm Sunday league to start.

For those that took part in construction, we are ordering tshirts this week. If you would like one, please check your email in the next day or two.

And we are still raising funds for finishing off the cost of construction and decorating the warm room. Please consider buying a brick, being part of the Founders Club or just making a simple donation. For more information, please see our website www.coyotescurling.com .

Until next time, curlers...Good Curling!

Let The Desert Ice Bonspiel Begin!

Today we had the Opening Ceremonies for our inaugural Desert Ice Bonspiel at our new Deadicated Curling Club.

The ice was full of 128 curlers plus special guests as the piper played and hands clapped in rhythm.

The teams sang the United States and Canadian National Athems.

The Men's Choir from a local church sang our best rendition of our National Athems yet!

The toast to the piper was given with special guests: Scottsdale Mayor, Tempe Vice Mayor, owner of the Ice Den, Chair of our Bonspiel, our club President, and Club General Construction Manager.

Let the celebrations continue to being Deadicated in the Desert.

Ready for the Desert Ice Bonspiel???

We are putting the finishes touches on for the Desert Ice Bonspiel. What have we been up to?

Well, the TVs are up with comfy donated couches from a local casino. The "tables" were wheeled in (do the pipe spindles look familiar?) from the loading dock and donated chairs from our local member who owns our favorite historic ice cream parlor in town.

Cameras have been installed on the ice over each house. (We are trying to get it ready for streaming video as fast as possible.)

Posters from the past bonspiels are up...

The clocks are up on the ice, looking back on the warm room...

The bar is up and running with our special event permit and donated beverages...

Week one of the leagues have commensed! 

The ice is ready after the dehumidifier made us do another flood...

And we are ready for our first Bonspiel to begin on our ice "Dedicated In The Desert!" See you this weekend--Let's Curl!!!

Open House - Let's Curl!!!

Well it's been an exciting weekend...our club has opened, we had our members Open House, 2 sold out Learn To Curls and Leagues started!

So here are a few looks at the weekend...

We had about 50 members come through our Open House to eat, drink and throw rocks into Open Houses. (Sorry, but I had to make sure you got the  pun in the title!)

Sunday's Sold out Learn To Curl...off ice.

...and on ice with some Wisconsin Alumni!

And the Sunday "Fun Day" league started...

It's a nice view from the warm room!

Speaking of the Warm Room...we are now looking for donor(s) to step forward with helping us with the final touch of this long dream--The Look and Feel. Designing the place has been left to our club members that are an Interior Designer and Landscape Architect. They have put a lot of time into the young, hip, industrial look we are going for. Here are the two designs.

Look and Feel A

Look and Feel B (this has pops of color)

So if you can help fund the tables and chairs or the bar in the warm room, it would be greatly appreciated. This is the fun stuff and we want to have more than a blank canvas soon!  Please contact theskip@coyotescurling.com for more information.

Thanks for coming along this journey of building our dream...it started 11yrs ago with one Canadian who moved to the desert and missed curling. Now we can say we are "Dedicated in the Desert" and open for business! Until next time... 

The End Is Just The Beginning!

Yes, we have great news to celebrate...We have our Temporary Occupancy Permit from the City of Tempe!  (Who is jumping up and down with me?!? Wait...we are all sitting or sleeping after 4 months of living and breathing construction, day-in and day-out at our club. Any many of us have day jobs!). It's pretty spectacular that it was done with almost all volunteering!

After many weeks of working on the little things to pass our inspection...

Our "Construction Manager, Foreman, Teacher to all of us," has been working diligently for weeks on end on the ADA handrails.

And many other club members have worked on these as well.

The carpets are going down in the ice house.

Looks nice, eh? We just need to give the carpets a trim.

After repairs were done on the sprinkler system and the dehumidifier turned on, it was time to run the Ice King and sweep the ice before one last flood.

Also during the overnight "Fire Watch," before the sprinklers were fixed, a few of the ladies decided to chip in, donate and build an IKEA ladies locker room to pass their shift from midnight to 6am.  Turned out pretty good for some sleep deprived gals. We even followed the picture instructions with no extra parts (well that were needed). :) Just a few pictures of our ice to hang (from the blog, actually)!

So we can finally draw a line in the sand and say, "THANK YOU, WAYNE!!!" who has been our construction manager spending every night and weekend for the last 4 months to direct the 100 hard working volunteers to take a big blank warehouse and turn it into a four sheet curling club that we like to call "Deadicated in the Desert."

But it's finally here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Original Drawing)

(Reality)

"The ice is really there!"

(Original Drawing)

(Reality)

The first rock has been thrown...

And we will open this weekend!

So stayed tuned for Learn To Curls (there is one this Sunday!), League Play will start next week and we will start working on our "industrial" decor in the warm room (right now it's still drywalled with primer).  And we hope to see all of you out on the ice soon.  Good Curling!