Summer bonspiel rocks Kelowna Curling Club this weekend

Grab your broom, throw on your curling shoes, and strap on your gloves because this weekend the Kelowna Curling Club is bringing back their annual Summer Bonspiel.

“We’re really excited to have our summer spiel back in action," said Kelowna Curling Club manager Jock Tyre.

"Since COVID, we haven’t been able to do it, but we’ve got teams coming from all over the province, from Alberta Saskatchewan and down into the U.S. coming up here to curl, it’s just nice to see everybody again.”

With curling being a traditional winter sport in Canada, the Kelowna Curling Club has had to beat the summer heat in order to get the ice up to standard ahead of the bonspiel.

“It’s taken us about a week to get the ice installed. It takes a long time because first you have to get that floor down to 20 degrees fahrenheit or -10 degrees celsius, and then you’ve got to slowly layer it. It’s not a matter of just dumping a whole bunch of water on it and off you go, you know, so we’re going to have between 12 and 15 layers of ice," explained Tyre.

The bonspiel serves as a great way to stay cool in Kelowna, but according to Tyre, the summer bonspiel serves a much bigger purpose than just throwing rocks.

“It’s a fun spiel. We play six-end games, they get six six-end games. But the best part of it is because we’re a full-service restaurant, we are providing two lunches and two dinners for everybody, so really what it’s about is catching up with some friends, having a good time – it’s great for all levels of curling.”

For people who are still interested in signing up for the Kelowna Summer Bonspiel, you can head over to Kelowna Curling Club website to register.

The bonspiel runs from July 8-10.