It's been the stage for hockey players of all ages from around the world.
Now, the McIntyre Curling Club is sweeping in the best young curlers in the country for the Under 18 Canadian Curling Championship. To stage the 42-team event, the club's ice and the main arena now boast curling ice sheets.
What does it take to transform an iconic ice surface into a curling rink?
It's about a four-day process to put in the ice and only takes hours to remove, says Curling Canada director of curling experience Danny Lamoureux ahead of the organization's biggest tournament.
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“We have a saying that the hockey puck doesn’t care about the ice, but the curling rock does," says Lamoureux, adding the change isn't that big of a deal.
"All we do is we paint over all the hockey circles with white paint and then we lay out our lines and we build each sheet of ice with the perimeter foam you see and we just flood all that to get it level, scrape it and pebble it and get it ready to curl. When we’re done we just rip out all the foam, it comes out easy, take the hacks out, the Zamboni goes around, keeps going around until it’s back to hockey ice."
With two Zambonis, he says it takes about eight hours to take the curling ice out.
To maintain the ice for curling, the temperature is colder than hockey and will be adjusted based on how many people are in the crowd.
The McIntyre Curling Club is hosting the Under 18 Canadian Curling Championships in Timmins from Feb. 5-11.
Organizers are looking for a crowded house to cheer on the teams throughout the week.
The action starts on Sunday, Feb. 5 and the gold medal game is on Saturday, Feb. 11. For the opening ceremonies, Timmins' Team Chilton, who won the bronze medal at the Northern Ontario qualifiers, will throw out the ceremonial first rock.
An adult pass for the week is $100 and it's $60 for seniors. Single-day passes are also available. They're available online or at the arena box office.
Some games will also be streamed live on EastLink. Curling Canada + is also carrying some games on its new streaming platform.
The full schedule and details of the Timmins event are available here.
