The Community of Curling: Exploring the Granite Curling Club with Bryan Pittard
Curling, often seen as a niche sport, holds a captivating allure that combines strategy, teamwork, and a close-knit community.
In this episode, host Scott Cowan engages in a lively and informative conversation with Bryan Pittard, the outreach person for the Granite Curling Club in Seattle Washington.
Discovering the Technical and Strategic Aspects of Curling:
During the conversation Bryan unveils the technical intricacies and strategic prowess required in curling.
Bryan shares the inner workings of curling, explaining the terminology such as “house,” “draw,” “guard,” and “hack,” which are vital in understanding the game. He emphasizes the importance of rock delivery, the role of sweepers in guiding both speed and direction, and the imperfections in the science of rock delivery, shedding light on the sport’s precision and strategic depth.
Welcoming All Ages and Abilities to Curling:
Bryan reveals the inclusivity of curling, bridging diverse age groups and abilities within the Granite Curling Club. He mentions the age range for participants, starting at around 10 years old and extending into the eighties and nineties.
Bryan highlights the club’s efforts to make curling accessible to individuals of all abilities by offering adaptive curling clinics for wheelchair users and incorporating tools like the stick and establishing seniors’ brackets for those over 50.
Fostering a Thriving Curling Community:
The conversation captures the vibrant and close-knit community of the Granite Curling Club, featuring unique traditions like bonspiels, which are not only tournaments but also vibrant parties celebrating the spirit of curling. Bryan highlights themed events such as the holiday bonspiel and the “off to the races” April bonspiel, showcasing the fun, diverse, and culturally rich curling community. Moreover, the club’s initiatives to foster a diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment within the sport accentuate the community-focused nature of the Granite Curling Club.
Connect With The Granite Curling Club
Visit Granite Curling Club Website
Check Granite Curling Club out on Facebook
Bryan Pittard of The Granite Curling Club Episode Transcript
Hello, friends, and welcome to the Exploring Washington State podcast. My name is Scott Cowan, and I’m the host of the show. Each episode, I have a conversation with an interesting guest who is living in or from Washington State. These are casual conversations with real and interesting people. I think you’re gonna like the show. So let’s jump right in with today’s guest. All right. So I am sitting here by myself, but Brian Pitter Pitter, right? Brian, did I do it right? The first
Bryan Pittard [00:00:31]:
you nailed it.
Scott Cowan [00:00:32]:
Okay. So we’ll leave that in, but anyway, Brian is the outreach person for the granite curling club. And so today we’re going to talk. So Cowan, I would love to hear how you got involved with the sport first and then we’ll work our way into the granite curling club.
Bryan Pittard [00:00:50]:
No. It’s a it’s a great way to start. So my history of curling is a little convoluted. I am a native Floridian, of over 40 years there in the Sunshine Scott, and I first saw curling, out of the blue watching the, Winter Olympics in 2010.
Scott Cowan [00:01:08]:
Okay. Okay.
Bryan Pittard [00:01:09]:
And I was very intrigued. As as many people are, I think that’s their first time in in the US and other countries finding out about curling. And, yeah, I got so excited. I I reached out to my local ice rinks and looked online and found nothing. Nothing at all.
Scott Cowan [00:01:25]:
I’m surprised Florida had ice rinks. So, I mean, you know, I like, you know.
Bryan Pittard [00:01:28]:
You know, it’s funny. A lot of people are, which is very interesting because we actually have a really robust hockey, you know, system. We’ve got the lightning down there, the solar bears. I mean, we’ve got some good stuff. Anyway, none of nobody had crowing.
Scott Cowan [00:01:39]:
Okay.
Bryan Pittard [00:01:39]:
So I forgot about it. I kinda moved on as a lot of people do. 4 years go by 2014 rolls around. Same thing. Curling’s on TV. I get really excited and like, nope. I’m gonna try again. I bet you by now someone’s got a curling club here in the area.
Bryan Pittard [00:01:54]:
And I didn’t even know what that meant. I just knew that was the thing to look for. Well, turns out, no. There was no curling in 2014, and I was in Orlando at the time. So, I reached out to some friends, who kinda knew this and that and found that there was an interest group. Reached out to the interest group, found out absolutely they had not gone anywhere except the Yahoo interest group because that was the thing we used to do. And I talked to the guy. I said, what do I need to do? He’s like, here’s the contact for the ice rink, down near where you are.
Bryan Pittard [00:02:24]:
You should go talk to him about setting up a curling club. No idea what that means. Again, very naive. Go there. Find out what that entails. And, basically, it was the rink will rent you the facility. It was about a $1,000, I believe, for 3 hours of ice. The whole thing.
Bryan Pittard [00:02:41]:
I mean, you get the whole rink, for for whatever you want. Right. You know, figure skating, course, you know, hockey practice. They they do whatever. But they don’t have any curling rocks. They don’t have any curling brooms. They don’t have anything related to curling, so I would have to provide
Scott Cowan [00:02:57]:
all of it myself.
Bryan Pittard [00:02:59]:
Okay. That’s a nonstarter if you have no idea what you’re doing. Right? That’s a kind of a hit you hit the wall. But the curling community in America, specifically in Canada and other countries as well, is so friendly and welcoming and inviting. It did not take more than a month before I was in contact with other clubs, both I found out in Florida, there was a club down in, Cowan, Springs, the Panthers curling club, and there, was a club up in Charlotte, North Carolina. And I got in contact with both of those. They hooked me up with a club in Atlanta, Georgia. And after about, I don’t know, another six months of kind of just percolating, trying to get things going, I started accumulating all the stuff you need.
Bryan Pittard [00:03:40]:
I got rocks from Atlanta. I got brooms and other paraphernalia from Charlotte. I went down and actually tried curling in South Florida, so I didn’t know like, I knew at least something that I was doing. And, in 2015, we got out on the ice. We had only a handful of us at the time, but we grew and grew. And I think, as of last check, Orlando is in the fifties maybe for members, which is a very small club, and and specifically a club that’s out of a hockey rink.
Scott Cowan [00:04:09]:
Right.
Bryan Pittard [00:04:10]:
But it is functional, and they have a tournament every year. They call it it’s called a bond spiel. We we call any curling tournament a bond spiel, but, they have they have a great fun, friendly environment for people to learn curling in Orlando. And since then, there’s been clubs popping up all over Florida. So, very excited to have been played a small part in all that. But then, yeah, I moved out here in 2020, decided, hey. I, of course, can’t stop curling. That’s that’s silly.
Bryan Pittard [00:04:36]:
And found the granite curling club who has been here now over 70 years.
Scott Cowan [00:04:40]:
I saw that they opened in 1951.
Bryan Pittard [00:04:43]:
Yeah. It’s weird. They opened in 51 in a sense, but kinda like we did where they rented a rink and they figured it out. And then years later, I think 10 years, they actually opened the building that we’re in now. And what’s crazy about that is a bunch of members bonded or or they mortgaged their houses in the sixties. They got bonds, class c bonds, to basically fund the building of the club. And these bonds are still out there today. You can’t they’re not they’re not appreciating.
Bryan Pittard [00:05:13]:
They’re they’re exactly what they put in. But if the club ever dissolves, these people who have these bonds or the the the their descendants can cash those in and get their money back. Isn’t that crazy?
Scott Cowan [00:05:24]:
That’s the that is wild.
Bryan Pittard [00:05:26]:
So yeah. No. It’s it’s it’s it’s curling, as I have seen again and again and again from knowing all the different people in so many communities and from the Olympians all the way down to, like, myself, just a regular club curler. We’re all very invested in making it a community of inclusive community of just people who wanna try throwing rocks on ice. Like, you know, it’s a ridiculous thing, and we’re very aware that it’s sort of ridiculous, but we love it, and we’ve really built a a a world around it for
Scott Cowan [00:05:55]:
us. So in doing a little bit of prelim I don’t do a lot of research. I don’t I like to be surprised and amused by when the guest have stories. But so in doing a little bit of, you know, preliminary research here today and or before, you know, I know you’ve seen this and I say this in jest, but cause you kind of say, you know, you think it’s a ridiculous cause you’re okay. But that the video of beavers curling that that just cracked me up. I saw that and I just started laughing and I thought, I, you know, okay. That’s kind of cool.
Bryan Pittard [00:06:25]:
So but it’s especially kind of, like, you know, this area even more. Like, you got all this great wildlife in the Pacific Northwest. I mean, and curling is a winter sport at all. It all just works so well. Right?
Scott Cowan [00:06:36]:
So I wanna know. Okay. So you’re you’re relatively new to the Scott, so it’s not like you’re some grizzled veteran. You’re, you’re, you’re new and your introduction was because of the Olympics, which I think is probably the gateway for a lot of folks. And then you said in Florida, the club that you had a part in starting has 50 members. So one of the questions I had, I’ll just jump to it right now. How about how many members does the granite curling club have?
Bryan Pittard [00:07:03]:
Wow. So you talk about a contrast, and this is actually really good because the curling world existed multiple levels. So Orlando was averaging around 50. I think we got up as high as, like, 81 year for an Olympic year. Granite curling averages in the last, let’s say, 3 or 4 years or more over 500 members. Really? So it’s it’s a substantial size difference. And the big, reason in some ways for that is we’re in a northern climate. Winter’s here Cowan be pretty crappy.
Bryan Pittard [00:07:35]:
This year’s been pretty good, but, like, overall, they can be pretty Scott great for outdoor activities. So as I found out coming from a very sunny climate all year to a climate that’s very Great.
Scott Cowan [00:07:46]:
Occupied waters.
Bryan Pittard [00:07:47]:
It’s great.
Scott Cowan [00:07:48]:
It’s great.
Bryan Pittard [00:07:48]:
Just yeah. It’s great.
Scott Cowan [00:07:50]:
Great. Let’s go.
Bryan Pittard [00:07:50]:
Seattle gloom. Right? Yeah. I’ve realized that, like, curling is so popular in the winter up here. So, like, you know, when the season changes and the world gets nice out, curling stops. Like, we are done.
Scott Cowan [00:08:03]:
Okay. So you guys don’t you guys don’t I mean, it’s open year round, but you’re like, July is kind of a slow month for curling.
Bryan Pittard [00:08:09]:
So it’s not even slow. We actually melt the ice in July August. So the last thing we do is called the summer spiel. It’s a basically, a big old party bond spiel. Then we take the ice Scott, and so the ice out party can be throwing kegs of beer, ice Scott. Like, you just mess the ice up as much as you want because we’re not gonna use it anymore. We melt it. We’re down for about 2 and a half months because we get into September, and then the ice comes back.
Bryan Pittard [00:08:36]:
So the ice comes back earlier because there’s all kinds of prep to get it ready. But by, like, August, September, we’re back hurling. So our club is only down for, like, 2 months. And then during that time, we’re doing other things. We’re refurbishing the interior. We’re holding meetings, planning the new year. I mean, there’s a lot going on, but the membership doesn’t have a curling club to really hang out or curl at. So, yeah.
Bryan Pittard [00:08:58]:
It’s crazy though. I mean, that’s the difference though. I think in some ways, this the warmer climates don’t have as much of a pull towards curling because they have such nice activities that you can do, but I will say clubs like, Phoenix, there’s a club down in Phoenix, Arizona, coyote curling club. They’re very vibrant and active, and they have a nice climate. You know? They have a hot climate. Right? I
Scott Cowan [00:09:20]:
wanna be on the ice in August. Think about that. Yeah.
Bryan Pittard [00:09:23]:
Yeah. Absolutely. No. It’s it’s the best thing when you’re on in the middle of summer, and it’s Yeah. It’s freaking 100 degrees out. You go take a nice cool, you know, sort of adventure on the ice. But, yeah, I know there’s clubs in Atlanta. There’s clubs in Texas, down in Dallas.
Bryan Pittard [00:09:39]:
I believe, Austin has a club. I mean, so so the warmer climates are catching up, but we were definitely behind. But, yeah, up here, curling is so popular, which is fantastic.
Scott Cowan [00:09:48]:
Let’s for for my benefit, but also probably for the people listening, I’m gonna ask you to and, hopefully, you know the answers. The, I kind of like the history, the origin of curling. How, how on earth did this, like you said earlier, throwing rocks on ice, who, who, who came up with this and, and how is it in your opinion, evolved to where curling is at now?
Bryan Pittard [00:10:13]:
Well, it’s a it’s a long story. It actually goes back all the way to the 1500.
Scott Cowan [00:10:18]:
K.
Bryan Pittard [00:10:18]:
And, though there is some thought about maybe it it actually goes back even further to the world of the Vikings. This is like speculation. I don’t think they’ve actually proven this, but they, they basically found in Scotland records that said somebody was trying to see how far they could chuck a piece of ice or a piece of rock rather on the ice of a frozen lock or a frozen moor. And it’s this Scottish competition where they were like, alright. I’m not gonna do the accent because, a, it’s it’s whatever. But also, no. I can’t do it. And they just chucked the rocks, and they figure out who gets closest to the to the to the sheep.
Bryan Pittard [00:10:56]:
I don’t know. To whatever they’re eating.
Scott Cowan [00:10:57]:
Wenatchee they’re eating at. Okay. Alright.
Bryan Pittard [00:10:59]:
Yeah. So that’s the history at least at the early levels. And then later, you see Scotland specifically, the grand, Caledonian Curling Club, I believe. They actually started to formulate and codify the rules of the sport. K. So kinda like golf comes from Scotland and probably had a similar evolution in that sense, and then it kind of spread out. But what’s fascinating is curling really only went to a few places. Obviously, it went to the Cowan, and, it also went to Canada, and it went to the US.
Bryan Pittard [00:11:29]:
So one of our first clubs way back is the Grand National Curling Club in the East Coast, Northeast rather, of the US, which has then spun out and become a whole curling association and it became the National Curling Association for a time and then kinda now it’s just a regional association. But Canada, as anyone will tell you who knows anything about curling, kinda took the idea of the game and just blew it into their one of their beloved sports. I mean, they obviously do hockey really well, and they do curling really well. So, that is shifting a bit. Curling in Canada is kind of on the wane, whereas curling in the US and other countries is growing really, substantially both in numbers and in proficiency. So you’ll watch competitions now that used to be dominated by Canadians, and it’s actually US, Britain, Japan. Gosh. There’s so many countries now with curling competitive curling teams that it’s it’s quite a international sport.
Bryan Pittard [00:12:26]:
So, yeah, the history is, like, you know, a lot of detail in between, but the Olympics, it was like a exhibition sport back in the early 20th century for, like, 1 or 2 years and then it went away. And it finally came back, I believe it was in the nineties. I this is where I should have these dates, you know, memorize, but but yeah. No. And, like, the relatively recent period of of, like, you know, the last 30 years, curling came back and is now an Olympic sport. So, since then, it’s just been growing and growing. So, yeah, that’s that’s kinda like a a quick and dirty overview. I will say one more point to this.
Bryan Pittard [00:12:59]:
The Scotland thing does kind of pervade a lot because some of the terms we use are they’re definitely of Scottish origin. Bon spiel is kind of a interesting, like, portmanteau. They think of, like, maybe some German and some Scott, but, we use a term called the hogline and that’s kind of a weird term that we can get into. But, there, is only really 2 locations that we get granite from for our curling
Scott Cowan [00:13:22]:
rocks. Mhmm.
Bryan Pittard [00:13:23]:
And one of them, the primary one is actually right off the coast of Scotland. It’s an island called Ailsa Craig. And if you look at it on, a picture or a video, it kinda looks like a curling stone floating in the water. It’s this round, like, kinda oddly shaped, big chunk granite, and that’s where 90 or some odd percent of our rocks come from.
Scott Cowan [00:13:44]:
Really?
Bryan Pittard [00:13:45]:
So, I mean, Scotland to this day plays a huge role in the sport of curling in in in that and other ways.
Scott Cowan [00:13:51]:
I was watching this video on how curling stones are made, and all I could think and they were using modern technology. Right? The like, to cut the big the big the big rock down into smaller mandible pieces, a rope that’s diamond impregnated, if you will. And it’s, and, and, you know, all low end technology. I mean, it’s, it’s, diamond bits and bores and, you know, but do you have any idea how it’s curling stones were made before all of this? I mean, think about it.
Bryan Pittard [00:14:23]:
You know, I was
Scott Cowan [00:14:24]:
like, that was the, that was what’s going through my brain. There was 2 things about that video that stuck in my head. Number 1 is how did they make these rocks before? And number 2, how long does one of these curling stones last? Because I didn’t think about this and they were talking about how they kind of rough up the surface so that it doesn’t chip as easy. And then all of a sudden I hear what kind of clicks. It’s like, oh, wait a second. We’re, we’re sliding these down the ice and they’re on occasion coming into contact with other rocks. So there’s some, there’s some, you know, there’s collisions happening. So in your, in your world, how long do these curling stones last?
Bryan Pittard [00:15:12]:
Well, that’s a interesting question. And, of course, it’s your mileage will vary. They are made of a very dense type of granite. There’s actually a couple different types, but, that’s one of the reasons that they only come from that part of the world is it’s just got incredibly dense granite that’s very hard to, chip, which is why they’re using the diamond saw and all that stuff. So rocks will last you years. I mean, I don’t have a precise guess, but I would say probably in the order of, like, decades. Okay. So now what happens though, there’s a lifespan of a rock.
Bryan Pittard [00:15:43]:
Right? So they make a brand new rock from Kayes of Scotland, which is the place I was talking about, Hills to Craig. They get they quarry the rock. They do the thing you saw on the video. Then they sell these to the clubs, and the clubs pay a premium. Those rocks can cost upwards of 600 or more a rock. So you need, 18, rocks in a game, and you do that as, oh, sorry. Not 18. My brain’s not working.
Bryan Pittard [00:16:06]:
It’s, 16.
Scott Cowan [00:16:07]:
16.
Bryan Pittard [00:16:08]:
So it’s 8 per team.
Scott Cowan [00:16:09]:
Right.
Bryan Pittard [00:16:10]:
And so each, we’ll we’ll get into some of the logistics probably, but, you know, that’s a lot of money. Yeah. It’s it’s it’s not cheap to get a whole and that’s for one game. Our club has 5 games that can run simultaneously, plus you always wanna have backups and spares in case something happens.
Scott Cowan [00:16:25]:
Right.
Bryan Pittard [00:16:25]:
But those rocks, once they kinda are kinda wearing down over the years and yeah. Sure. Some of them can get cracked or some of them can somebody might drop them. Somebody might do something else. Anyway, they they will eventually find their way back to a company that will refurbish them and patch them and then resell them to other clubs that can’t afford that level of, expense like mine in Orlando. We actually bought refurbished rocks. We only paid, I think, 200 a rock.
Scott Cowan [00:16:55]:
Do you realize how silly that sounds? We just bought refurbished rocks. I mean
Bryan Pittard [00:17:00]:
Exactly. Right? Cowan. No. It is ridiculous. Again, all of this is ridiculous, and and we’re very aware of it. But, no. I mean so but a good curling rock, even if it’s been refurbished, can last you, again, decades Okay. Of play.
Bryan Pittard [00:17:14]:
And then what happens is that there’s yet another phase. After finally, they’ve kind of really run their course, clubs will either kind of give them or or usually, like, have people donate to the club, and they’ll get to keep a rock. Mhmm. Or they’ll take them back at a Cowan, and they’ll make smaller little ornamental rocks. And I’ve actually got one of those, somewhere in my my man cave here. So, yeah, it’s a it’s there’s a long lifespan for this granite because it’s just so so strong and and lasts so long. So, yeah, that’s and I don’t know how they did it before.
Scott Cowan [00:17:46]:
Yeah. I mean, think of
Bryan Pittard [00:17:46]:
Honest to god, it probably was very rough and and if it’s anything like the way we’ve I’ve evolved our brooms in the sport, Like, it could have been square chunks of rock back in the day. You know? It could have been them, like, who cares? Like, shipping ballast or something.
Scott Cowan [00:18:00]:
You know? And and it was like an antler was the handle or something. Who knows? Okay.
Bryan Pittard [00:18:04]:
So, well, let’s talk about the equipment
Scott Cowan [00:18:07]:
and then we’ll, I’d like to talk about the rules occurring, but let’s talk about the brooms because okay. To the casual observer, myself, watching 2 people sweep the ice in front of a stone. It’s I feel like I’m watching a Saturday night live skit. I just think there’s it’s just kind of I’m waiting for the punchline. Right? And, but what does the sweeping what’s the goal of sweeping and why are you guys doing it?
Bryan Pittard [00:18:39]:
Well, we do it to look ridiculous.
Scott Cowan [00:18:40]:
Okay. I mean, I I thought it was a fashion thing. So okay. Good to know.
Bryan Pittard [00:18:45]:
And it’s funny you said SNL because, actually, I think one of the earliest curling, videos I saw and I forgot about, did you ever watch Second City Television back in the day with, like, John Candy and all them? They actually have several several, at least one, segments that they make fun at curling, and they actually show curling. So if you really wanna go way back Cowan I’ll
Scott Cowan [00:19:05]:
go I’ll go look that up.
Bryan Pittard [00:19:06]:
But it’s it’s it’s really funny. And and, you know, when you know more about the rules, it’s even being better. But so so to your point, though, the brooms are interesting because when you deliver a rock, you’re giving it a certain amount of what we call weight and direction. Right? And that direction is based on the way you slide and then the amount of turn that you give it. You’re going to sort of give a certain amount of distance that it’ll go and a certain amount of, kinda curve or curl to its path. So so that’s great in theory. Right? If you if everybody’s delivery was perfect and if the ice did not change over the course of a game, which it absolutely does as you would expect, you would be good to go. You don’t need sweepers at all.
Scott Cowan [00:19:50]:
Okay.
Bryan Pittard [00:19:50]:
However, we know that things happen, and a rock delivery is not perfect by far a lot of times. It’s it’s definitely a, you know, imperfect science or or sport. So the sweepers are actually trying to help make sure the rock goes further
Scott Cowan [00:20:06]:
Okay.
Bryan Pittard [00:20:07]:
And or straighter or if if and there’s, you know, a little bit more behind this in the last, like, decade, you can actually not just make it go straight, but you can actually make it curl even more in a certain direction. So all of these things are what the sweepers are trying to do.
Scott Cowan [00:20:23]:
Okay. Alright.
Bryan Pittard [00:20:25]:
Does that make sense?
Scott Cowan [00:20:26]:
It does.
Bryan Pittard [00:20:27]:
It does. They Cowan tell your life.
Scott Cowan [00:20:28]:
I’m okay. So so, basically, I’ll give you my layman’s view of what I see curling. And then let’s, let’s talk about how that pertains to the rule. So there’s an individual and they’re they’re going to send the rock down the ice towards, I’ll call it a target. So kind of, with with the center and a couple of rings around it. Okay. And so they kind of, you know, they they I feel like, you know, they want to stick their thumb up in the air to see which way the wind’s blowing and things like that. But I mean, their, their goal is okay.
Scott Cowan [00:21:00]:
So they’re trying to be strategic. Okay. And so they, they send the rock down, but they do this with like a they’re sliding and we’ll, I’d like to have you explain that to me At, and then the sweepers are doing their part to assist, and then the, the rock stops wherever it stops. So then somebody on the other side does the same thing coming back towards me. Okay. And then we keep no. We’re all thrown at the same side, aren’t we?
Bryan Pittard [00:21:29]:
You’re you’re all going the same direction. And then that end is over. You go the other way.
Scott Cowan [00:21:33]:
So let’s say it’s the red team. The red team throws the first rock Cowan then all the blue team’s gonna strategically decide to move the red rock out of the way or, or whatever. And so there’s the strategy component here, but this, with the delivery of the rock, why are people going down on Wenatchee? And at what point can people start sweeping? Can they start sweeping immediately or can they, do they have to stop before the rings, you know, walk me through that.
Bryan Pittard [00:22:03]:
Alright. Let’s let’s talk terminology so we’re all on the same page because that’s definitely one of the biggest challenges in curling is just learning the lingo. The the the targets, which are basically like, like a dartboard looking, you know, concentric rings of different colors, that’s called the house.
Scott Cowan [00:22:17]:
The house. Because of
Bryan Pittard [00:22:18]:
course it is. Okay. You’re putting the rocks in the house. That’s the goal. Maybe. We’ll get to that. So the person delivering the rock is sliding. They actually slide on either knee depending on which, if they’re right or left handed.
Bryan Pittard [00:22:33]:
But if you’re like me and you’re right handed, you’re going down on your, right knee. Make sure I’m I’m remembering this because I do it every I just did it last night, but it’s every time I have to sit there and I’m teaching, I’m like, which one is it? But you’re you’re you’re kinda doing, like, a a lunge is really the closest approximation so that you can come out and really give yourself all the inertia you need to deliver that rock because you’re not throwing even though we call it throwing the rock or sliding the rock. You’re really throwing and sliding your body
Scott Cowan [00:23:03]:
Yeah.
Bryan Pittard [00:23:03]:
That the rock is kinda out front of and then you just release. K. And that’s how it delivers. And then when you release, you’re again rotating your wrist one direction or the other to give it a certain kind of direction and then that’ll help determine the curl. So you’re doing that. Your teammates are sweeping. Yes. They can sweep whenever they want.
Bryan Pittard [00:23:22]:
Usually, there’s no point to sweep until you’ve released, but I have absolutely seen sweepers. In fact, last night, my team, I had a really light rock. It was not going to make it to the other side, without assistance, and they jumped right on it immediately and swept it all the way there. Okay. Not always successfully because there were Scott times I was just really short, which happens. But, the the the lines of play that you encounter, as you as you slide and then as the rock goes to the other side, The first line that you care about is the hog line, and it’s the near the hog line nearest you. And, yes, I said hog. Okay.
Bryan Pittard [00:23:57]:
Because as it’s been explained to me, in Scotland, a we hog, not like, you know, we, but little, but, like, just it it was sort of a term of endearment about, like, it’s just right or the the hog is in that, like, sweet spot or whatever. So the hog lines, there’s 2, the near hog and the far hog determine sort of the valid, period where the rock is in play. So, you have to release the rock before your first hog line, the near hog. Mhmm. And that’s usually, like, a red or some kind of whatever line that’s really close to the house, in front of or past the house. Then it goes all the way and it has to go over the far hog.
Scott Cowan [00:24:36]:
K.
Bryan Pittard [00:24:36]:
And once it’s over, it’s in play. You’re good to go. It may or may not be in the house. Mhmm. It may actually be in front of the house because that’s a defensive maneuver called a guard that you wanna keep other rocks, you know, from hitting other places in the house or just whatever you’re doing, your strategy. But, if it’s in the house, they call it a draw. So you’re drawing a rock into the house. Okay.
Bryan Pittard [00:24:56]:
So yeah. So hog, draw, a house. I think there’s one more term that a lot of people don’t know and it’s called the hack. The hack is the starting block. It’s kind of the thing we push off of the slide.
Scott Cowan [00:25:09]:
Okay.
Bryan Pittard [00:25:11]:
And there’s other stuff. There’s back lines, center lines, different size circles in the house that you can use for measurement, but all that’s kinda fine detail. Overall, the strategy of curling is to put your team’s rocks closest to the center of the house, And it’s called the button.
Scott Cowan [00:25:29]:
Button. K.
Bryan Pittard [00:25:29]:
And it’s not always a real button. Sometimes there’s a penny. Sometimes there might be a little button under the ice, but it is the center point of the house that typically they use as, like, the reference point so you can measure.
Scott Cowan [00:25:40]:
K.
Bryan Pittard [00:25:41]:
And your goal is to put your rocks closest to the thing. Now that sounds pretty simple. Right? We just you just gotta learn to slide and learn to throw, except you’re competing against the other team, and they’re sharing the same play surface. So you could put a rock spot on the button
Scott Cowan [00:25:56]:
And I could knock it off.
Bryan Pittard [00:25:57]:
And then the next team comes along, the other team, and they can knock it out. Right. Right. And so you have to not only think about your delivery and making sure you’re sweeping and all the team stuff’s working, but you also have to consider the strategy of keeping your rocks defended so that they can’t easily be knocked out or rather you’re being aggressive trying to knock the other teams team’s rocks out too. So I mean, that is where curling gets very intricate. Some people have called it chess on ice because of the number of different scenarios you have to kinda think about and be aware of. So kinda like chess maneuvers. It’s that same kinda deal where you’re like, oh, we’re doing this kind of maneuver.
Bryan Pittard [00:26:35]:
Oh, we’re starting with a a a corner guard or a center line guard or back of the house. I mean, you know, so so there’s just a lot of different, like, things that come into play. And that’s really what I think makes curling such a a a a an interesting Scott, not just ridiculous, sure, but it’s it’s got depth, and you don’t realize that when you’re sometimes just watching the Olympics. But, yeah. I don’t know. Does that does that give you guidance?
Scott Cowan [00:26:59]:
Down to
Bryan Pittard [00:26:59]:
the top level.
Scott Cowan [00:27:00]:
Yeah. But we haven’t but what we haven’t touched on is how do we score points? How do we win? Because you, you know, we, you, so I’ve, I’ve sent the rock down the ice, and let’s just say for sake of conversation, I, I landed on the button. I’m right there. Like, good. You’re you’re, you’re going to, I would guess your turn. You’re gonna try to knock me out of that spot. Right. But after we’ve all thrown or, you know, how do we score points? How, and, and, and then ultimately, how do we, how do we win? I mean, how many do we go how many rounds do we go? What what do we do here?
Bryan Pittard [00:27:40]:
So a curling game is usually notionally 8 ends or you can think of them as innings. Mhmm. And that basically is each team of 4 players each have thrown 2 rocks per player. So you throw 16 rocks.
Scott Cowan [00:27:55]:
Okay.
Bryan Pittard [00:27:55]:
And that’s the end of an end. At that time, I want everybody by the way, this is my favorite question. Everyone kinda watches and they’re like, oh, I really wanna I wanna curl, but I don’t wanna do the sweeping or I wanna slide or I wanna do this, but I don’t wanna do Everybody does everything for the most part. Every player throws 2 rocks and everybody sweeps a little bit. The one person who does not sweep enough or enough does not sweep much is the skip. The skip. The skip is actually the sort of the quarterback down at the end sort of directing strategy. So they are the ones who sweep the least, but everybody sweeps and everybody everybody throws.
Bryan Pittard [00:28:30]:
K. The way you score then is at the end of those, ends when everybody is taking their turn, which rocks of which color are closest to the button? If I’ve got 2 rocks, let’s say I’m red, and they are sitting nearest to that button before any other yellow or whatever other yeah. I guess it’s usually the 2 at a time, are there, then you get 2 points.
Scott Cowan [00:28:54]:
Okay.
Bryan Pittard [00:28:54]:
But you, the red team, you’re the only one that gets 2 points. The yellow team gets no points. Okay. And then the other side of that whole thing is, you know, you can, blank or not score and there is a strategic reason for that. It’s a little deep but, I can touch on it. And then you’re also gonna when you score, you give up control of the ice to the next to the other team on the next end. So we have this thing. Like, one more one more term.
Bryan Pittard [00:29:22]:
I should have put this in the mix. The hammer. Everyone loves the hammer. It’s a great great great physical metaphor term. Right? The hammer is the thing that you designate or the the term you designate for the team that has the last shot.
Scott Cowan [00:29:34]:
Okay.
Bryan Pittard [00:29:34]:
So if you get to because one of the teams has to finish. Right? If you throw your team throws the last shot, you have the hammers. If you then score, the hammer goes to the other team. K. And this is a sort of a mechanism to keep curling a little bit more balanced between the two teams. So one team isn’t just gonna run away with it. And it and it shares the the advantage so to speak of having that, last rock placement.
Scott Cowan [00:29:58]:
So,
Bryan Pittard [00:29:59]:
Yeah. So that’s how the scoring works. It sounds so simple that it’s, like, just closest to the pen or closest to the button. But in execution, things can happen like 2 stones are almost at the same part on the ice, or they’re just on the other side of each other, and you actually have to get out a a thing to measure who’s closest. So I mean, you get involved with stuff like that, and and it it can be a little complicated.
Scott Cowan [00:30:20]:
So you said a thing to measure. Is there a curling measuring device that we have to use or, or, yes. Okay. So what is the, okay. So what is the thing called?
Bryan Pittard [00:30:31]:
It’s called a measuring stick or a measuring, it’s like a measure. I mean, I think I’ve only heard people say get the measure or we’re gonna measure. Uh-huh. There might be a better technical term. Honestly, if there is, I don’t know what it is.
Scott Cowan [00:30:43]:
We’ll call it for the
Bryan Pittard [00:30:44]:
But, yeah, it it doesn’t have anything colorful. I think I’ve I think I’ve I think I’ve probably hit all the color.
Scott Cowan [00:30:49]:
Colorful ones for us. Okay. So, so there’s a measure. And so if, if, if, if, if, if you say I’m closest, I go, no, no, no. I am. And we’re, we’re, you know, we’re, we’re agreeing to disagree about who’s closest to the button, then we break out the measure and then we, and then one of us is proven to be correct. What happens in the bizarre thing if they were identical? I mean,
Bryan Pittard [00:31:16]:
I mean, it happens, usually when the measure and I did confirm it is the measuring device. It’s very unadorned and simple. You get it’s so precise Mhmm. That you actually never have a situation, I mean, that I’ve seen.
Scott Cowan [00:31:30]:
Okay.
Bryan Pittard [00:31:31]:
I mean, maybe it is still possible. It must be
Scott Cowan [00:31:33]:
possible. I
Bryan Pittard [00:31:34]:
But you you you get you get such a gradation and then that device that one of them is closer than
Scott Cowan [00:31:39]:
the other.
Bryan Pittard [00:31:40]:
Now let’s say theoretically though that you do tie, and this will happen in a game too. If you if you finish your 8 ends or 6 ends or however many you fit, usually, a game’s like 2 hours
Scott Cowan [00:31:50]:
Okay.
Bryan Pittard [00:31:50]:
For for league play. So if you run out of time, you know, and you’re tied, you gotta you gotta resolve the stuff. And so what will happen occasionally is you will do what they call skip stones or last shot, draw shot challenge. And, basically, it’s one rock per team who gets closest to the button.
Scott Cowan [00:32:08]:
Winner takes all.
Bryan Pittard [00:32:08]:
And you just go one after the other, and that’s it. That’s how you solve. Now what are the chances that you’re gonna tie again? They’re pretty pretty pretty low, but I mean, if it happened again, you do it again, and you just keep kinda iterating. But in practice, I think I’ve heard that happen a handful at times ever. So it’s pretty unlikely
Scott Cowan [00:32:25]:
Alright.
Bryan Pittard [00:32:25]:
That you you get to that extreme case of, you know, who it’s but I will say curling is one of the most, sportsmanly sports. And and I say that to to to say that we believe in this thing called the spirit of curling, and that is fair play and, never rag on your opponents. Always very positive and polite. We shake hands at the beginning of every game, and we shake hands at the end of every game, and we say good curling. Mhmm. You know, good game. We hang out after curling and have drinks together. The losing team always gets a free round of drinks by the by the winning team.
Bryan Pittard [00:32:58]:
Sometimes in the middle of a game, we’ll take a break and do a broom stack. We’ll stack our brooms on the house, and we’ll go upstairs and have a drink in the middle of the game just because we need a Cowan, and it’s fun. So there’s a lot of things like that that really promote a camaraderie Right. Among curlers in that way.
Scott Cowan [00:33:18]:
Okay. That’s awesome. I love this. This is this I’m so glad we’re having this conversation. This is this is great. Now I for the sake of conversation, I’m so you guys are located in North Seattle kinda almost like isn’t that shoreline areas that we we call it? Like, are you right there?
Bryan Pittard [00:33:32]:
It’s so close to shoreline. A lot of times we just say shoreline, but it’s actually technically still in the city.
Scott Cowan [00:33:37]:
So just off of Aurora, where about 128. Right? So yeah. I think 130 Wenatchee cutoff, I think, for shoreline if memory serves me right. Okay. So I, you know, based on this, you know, I’m listening to this episode, I’m driving around my car. I’m in the Seattle area. This sounds interesting to me. I want to find out more.
Scott Cowan [00:33:55]:
How does one get a chance to try the sport at the granite curling club? I mean, I’m sure everybody has it a little different, but at the Granite Curling Club, I wanna give curling a try. How would I go about doing that?
Bryan Pittard [00:34:11]:
So it’s really, unfortunate in our situation because we’re so popular. We don’t have as much free available time for just anyone to show up. Mhmm. Having said that, we have a program, we call it learn to curl Learn
Scott Cowan [00:34:25]:
to curl.
Bryan Pittard [00:34:26]:
That you can at pre pre, you know, sign up dates. You can go and sign up and it’s very inexpensive. I think it’s 25 bucks for an hour and a half. Okay. And you show up by yourself or with a group and you can go out and learn from our instructors, you know, basically how to curl. And it’s very quick so, you know, an hour and a half doesn’t give you a whole lot of time. But if you’re interested, we then roll you into, like, hey. Here’s the membership package.
Bryan Pittard [00:34:48]:
If you’re interested, you can join and dah dah dah dah. So you kinda have a
Scott Cowan [00:34:51]:
chance So I could sign up for an an open lesson if you will. Okay. And yep. It’s $25. Now what about equipment? I’m not gonna, I’m probably not gonna wanna go to the, I’ll call it, the pro shop jokingly, but I’m I’m not gonna wanna go buy my own rock. I I think that’s a little expensive for me.
Bryan Pittard [00:35:10]:
Yes.
Scott Cowan [00:35:11]:
So what about equipment, though? What what equipment does does one need if they’re just gonna go check it out? Can you can you just show up in your your street clothes and go curling?
Bryan Pittard [00:35:22]:
You really can. I think the biggest thing we recommend, you don’t wanna wear heavy boots. You don’t wanna wear slippers.
Scott Cowan [00:35:30]:
Okay.
Bryan Pittard [00:35:30]:
You want just basic tennis shoes, because we’ll actually give you, what they call a gripper that goes on the bottom of the shoe to give you a little more traction on the ice. Okay. You’re not using skates. You’re not using anything like that. You’re just walking on the ice, but it is and it is textured. There’s actually a thing we call the pebble, Another little fun term, but it’s basically like a little surface, like a little like, it’s liquid. It’s like water droplets that give you kind of a texture on this.
Scott Cowan [00:35:55]:
Okay.
Bryan Pittard [00:35:55]:
So it’s not as slick when we have, like, the ice storms here. It’s not like that. It’s it’s much easier to walk around
Scott Cowan [00:36:00]:
on the ice.
Bryan Pittard [00:36:01]:
But, yeah, you you really just show up and, oh, the only other thing I would say is, you know, before you start investing in curling shoes or your own broom, which are the 2 things most curlers will will spend a little bit of money on, you really want to wear stretchy pants because let me tell you a story. My brother came to my 40th birthday, This is a few years ago, and I had a curling party at my club in Orlando, and it was a learn to curl just like we’re talking about. And I got a bunch of people in. I got a, like, a reduced discount because it was my birthday. And, basically, he, went to slide. He had skinny jeans because that was pretty popular then.
Scott Cowan [00:36:40]:
Yeah.
Bryan Pittard [00:36:42]:
Yeah. And he, he ripped a hole right down the crotch, and it was, you know, a little disruptive. He couldn’t really curl anymore, at least in the sense of, he couldn’t he couldn’t slide, without without being very breezy.
Scott Cowan [00:36:57]:
Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah.
Bryan Pittard [00:36:58]:
But the nice thing about curling is, you know, we have these delivery sticks that you can use and, like, it kinda acts like a shuffle board stick where you just slide the rock with a stick Cowan you can just walk. And so he was able to keep curling, in the modified, you know, with that modified delivery. And, yeah. No. He was good to go. So, yeah, stretchy pants are huge. I would definitely recommend yoga pants, joggers, you know, anything that gives you a little bit of flexibility on the ice. I think when if you can do a lunge in it, you’re you’re probably fine.
Bryan Pittard [00:37:30]:
Alright. You know?
Scott Cowan [00:37:30]:
So you mentioned curling enthusiasts. Okay. So I’ve, I’ve gone and taken the hour and a half thing. I’m thinking this is pretty fun. I wanna, I wanna do this. I wanna get involved. You mentioned, we’re going to go at this 2 different ways. You mentioned, you know, membership within the granite curling club.
Scott Cowan [00:37:49]:
Right. But I want to talk about gear because sports sports can be like, have you do golf? I mean, golf can be brutally expensive buying, buying gear. Clubs are expensive. Golf balls are expensive. The plaid pants that you must wear, or, you know, you know, hideously. Well, they’ll just leave it at that. Okay. So what w curling shoes and a broom is, seems that seems really reasonable to me.
Scott Cowan [00:38:15]:
It doesn’t sound like a lot of gear.
Bryan Pittard [00:38:18]:
Nope. It’s really not. I mean, I will say curling, we we try to make curling as inviting as possible. We know it’s special and kinda boutique, but we try to make it as inclusive and Cowan to different levels of income and different socioeconomic. It historically has been kind of a more affluent sport because a lot of early curling clubs were in, country clubs, and they were a little secluded from Yeah. Different society different groups of society. Right? But we, especially in Seattle, believe in equity and in inclusive curling. Right.
Bryan Pittard [00:38:48]:
So, you know, we try to keep the price point as low as we can. We actually do also give back to curling, you know, organize or not curling organization, organizations in our community to help them, you know, come in and experience it for free. Mhmm. We just did that for Lambert House last year and, other organizations. We do an adaptive curling clinic for wheelchair curlers.
Scott Cowan [00:39:06]:
K.
Bryan Pittard [00:39:06]:
People who are from the VA and they wanna just have an activity, they come out. And so So all this makes us say, you know, it’s it’s a very accessible sport in that way, but as a for the price point, you know, you’re spending about $200 on shoes and maybe a 100 and 150 on a broom, and all of this so you don’t have to spend this right away. It’s all stuff you grow into. So, you know, if you don’t need a if you don’t wanna deal with the shoes, you can get a slider and just put it under your shoe and slide on your regular shoe. Club has brooms that we use for our group events or our learn to curls. Group events are basically like, Microsoft will wanna come in and have a corporate Right. Team building thing. So we have a whole robust group events program where we bring in Microsoft and let them use the curling club and
Scott Cowan [00:39:49]:
Right.
Bryan Pittard [00:39:50]:
You know, they pay whatever amount. But, all that to say, you can grow into that sport with very little down and then, you know, pick at it, add to it. And again, you’re spending a few $100 for equipment that will last you years.
Scott Cowan [00:40:04]:
And that’s, you know, it’s, I’m not trying to say a few $100 isn’t significant because it is, but, you know, golf is you can spend a $150 on just 18 holes of golf without the clubs in the ball. You know what I mean? You can do that, and then boom. You can you can spend a lot of money on on activities. That’s that’s interesting that you guys offer I mean, my where my brain went is, like, the brooms are kinda like going to the local tavern and and be using the pool cue that’s sitting here. You’re, like, looking for the one that’s the least warped, you know, inevitably, it doesn’t have a tip on it, and then you see some guy open up, you know, open up his pool cue case, and you’re, like, gonna have in trouble. So I you know, there there must be curling hustlers who come out there and, you know, just
Bryan Pittard [00:40:47]:
Well, I mean, it’s funny you say that because if you wanna Google broomgate
Scott Cowan [00:40:52]:
Broomgate.
Bryan Pittard [00:40:52]:
There was a controversy about 10 years ago maybe, and it got into some interesting weird little, hacks, let’s say, and or equipment in improvements, enhancements, let’s say, that, curlers were using to really get extra powerful scrubbing on the ice that really let you carve up the direction the stone went. And so the curling the broom gate came about because a Cowan, I think it was hard line, introduced this broom and then the, curling regulatory groups, you know, the World Curling Federation, the USA Curling, Club, or USAC. Anyway, all all of these groups started Scott of standardizing what type of broom is the standard competition broom. At Granite though, at Granite Curling here in Seattle, we’re not so precious about that unless it’s a sanctioned event. Mhmm. So if you do wanna come in and hustle with your fancy hard line, you know, which a lot of us have I actually have one myself.
Scott Cowan [00:41:51]:
Okay.
Bryan Pittard [00:41:52]:
It doesn’t hurt. And, honestly, you’re gonna get a little benefit, but it you still gotta be strong. You still gotta have basic skills. I mean, it it makes a difference if you’re at that level of play for a lot of us. Right. It’s not. It’s nothing. It’s funny you used Vincher in the pool cues because, yeah, I I I’m thinking, like, the bowling alley where you show up and you get the shoes and all that.
Bryan Pittard [00:42:12]:
It’s it’s kinda like that once you’re a member. I mean, you really do show up and you can sort of use the club’s equipment, and you’re getting the ice. And membership, you know, isn’t terribly expensive, but I do wanna say it’s it’s also several it’s it’s almost 200 a year for curling for the whole season. And that’s not all you can curl. That’s, like, you know, one basic league and then you add on additional leagues. So, you know, again, we gotta be mindful. It is still a sport that does cost some money. Sure.
Bryan Pittard [00:42:37]:
But in terms of, like you said, golf and certain other, like, more boutique and just kinda whatever sports that there are expenses and there is equipment and, yeah, it adds up. But, again, we’re trying to do our best to make it equitable, and that’s been a a personal passion, of mine in curling is to try to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion in in the sport.
Scott Cowan [00:42:57]:
Well, look, like golf or bowling, These are all, I mean, you have a building. Now for taxation purposes, you want to say you have a building in shoreline, but it’s a Seattle address. So you real estate in Seattle is not inexpensive. You’ve got,
Bryan Pittard [00:43:12]:
oh, no,
Scott Cowan [00:43:12]:
you’ve got a sheet of ice that has to be kept frozen. It has, are you grooming the ice? Do you have a, is it a Zamboni that runs around?
Bryan Pittard [00:43:25]:
We would never let a Zamboni anywhere near our eyes only because Zambonis are not the most precise, instruments for leveling ice. They are good if you have a a hockey rink or larger size space. But what we do is actually hand scrape. So we have hand like, you push them. They are powered too, but you push them by hand
Scott Cowan [00:43:47]:
Right.
Bryan Pittard [00:43:48]:
And you scrape the ice to level it. Yeah. It’s it’s a very fine grain tuning that our ice team, made up of a combination of volunteers and paid, ice professionals, you can say, but, like, they basically are part time, you know, ice gurus. Right. There’s extensive monitoring. We have temperature and humidity probes everywhere. It’s all controlled by software that then reports out all the levels to the ice crew, and then they they adjust accordingly. The dehumidification, the temperature, all of that.
Bryan Pittard [00:44:20]:
It’s it’s it’s a it’s quite a it’s quite impressive when you see what it takes to make level good curling ice. It it is, we pride ourselves on really doing as much as we can to make it like the finest club in the US. Mhmm. And, it’s an ongoing challenge. They’re there every day Okay.
Scott Cowan [00:44:37]:
That was
Bryan Pittard [00:44:37]:
tweaking and balancing and all.
Scott Cowan [00:44:40]:
They’re they’re out on the ice adjusting it every day.
Bryan Pittard [00:44:44]:
Yep. So it is expensive. Like you said, real estate’s expensive. Yeah. Operational Scott of the club are very expensive. We’re very fortunate that we have a very good, not, we we we are prepared for, like, COVID was a challenge for us because we took the club down for a year, but we survived and came back even stronger. We are a nonprofit, so we are, you know, grateful for having the, ability to sort of, keep some of of some of our operating costs lower.
Scott Cowan [00:45:11]:
Mhmm.
Bryan Pittard [00:45:12]:
But, you know, it’s all membership and any kind of, group events that we can sell to Microsoft or other big clients that wanna come in. It it really makes it feasible for us to curl and provide curling in this area.
Scott Cowan [00:45:25]:
That’s awesome. What’s the age range of for curling?
Bryan Pittard [00:45:30]:
Oh, this is my favorite question. So I think on the young side, you can curl when you’re, like, 10. It’s really a strength issue more, than and a maturity issue because, you know, we we’ve definitely had young younger folks than that curl. But usually, we say around 10 is is pretty good to to be able to push that rock because it’s £40 of granite. I mean, you’re not picking it up, but you’re still pushing it. And we do have we do have light rocks for children that are actually, like, not granite, but they’re a composite material and they’re actually very light to push, but that’s a training tool. We we want them to get to Rock. Curling, like, regular curling rocks like the rest of us use.
Bryan Pittard [00:46:08]:
So 10 on the low side, but on the high side, oh my gosh. We are so fortunate to have curlers routinely playing competitively even into their eighties.
Scott Cowan [00:46:20]:
Really?
Bryan Pittard [00:46:20]:
And I would not be shocked if other clubs have curlers even older in their nineties. I mean, obviously, at some point, you know, whether or not they want to keep doing it is is a is a question for them because it is exerting. I mean, you’re doing a lot of work. But I know just thinking back and imagining in my head, you know, the club demographic skew on the older side, and we just are are really blessed to have a lot of retirees and people who have had multi generational family members curl in this area, and they’re they’re curling well except in their seventies eighties. So it’s it’s a really great sport for aging. You you have things like the stick I mentioned. Mhmm. You have, a seniors bracket that’s when you’re over 50, you bet you basically get to compete among all 50 and up.
Bryan Pittard [00:47:07]:
Okay. You know? So you you definitely have ways of making the sport really good and accessible to to you as you age, which is important. So, yeah. No. It’s a it’s a quite an age range of, of curlers. But a lot of lot of young professionals obviously work we’re kind of a good mix. A Lot of our newer curlers are, like, in their thirties and work in the local tech community because we do tend to skew a little bit much that way. But then they again, if they’re sticking around Seattle, they could curl into their well, into their retirement years.
Scott Cowan [00:47:35]:
That’s kinda cool. Yeah. Because I think, you know, the thing I think about is you guys, you guys have a building and it’s just your eyes. So it’s not like you’re, it’s not like you’ve got open skate to, to help subsidize the costs. It’s not like you’ve got a, you know, it’s not like the Cowan are practicing on your ice. It’s not like you’re trying to schedule around the Cowan either. So you’ve got the benefit of it’s your eyes. You have the negative, not negative, but it’s also, it’s your eyes.
Scott Cowan [00:48:03]:
You got to maintain it. If, if a cooling unit, whatever, you know, goes out, it’s your eyes, or maybe now it’s your water. Your pool. Right? Yeah.
Bryan Pittard [00:48:17]:
We have that problem sometimes when the power goes out. It’s a little little dangerous. So we just had that windstorm the other day. And yeah. No. The ice will that’s will stay frozen for a little while. I mean, you’re in the matter of hours. Mhmm.
Bryan Pittard [00:48:29]:
But then it gets to be like, you can’t curl on it at that point. You really have to then wait and refreeze it. So it Cowan be a little perilous.
Scott Cowan [00:48:35]:
So how thick is the ice?
Bryan Pittard [00:48:38]:
Oh, man. See, this is this now we’re getting into expert
Scott Cowan [00:48:41]:
ice wall. Because it’s not like it’s it’s not like 3 feet thick, you know, but it’s gotta be.
Bryan Pittard [00:48:46]:
No. No. It’s heavy
Scott Cowan [00:48:47]:
like It’s
Bryan Pittard [00:48:47]:
less than a foot.
Scott Cowan [00:48:48]:
Yeah. It was good. 4 to 6 inches maybe?
Bryan Pittard [00:48:51]:
Yeah. And there’s different levels. So we we have a concrete floor. We paint that concrete concrete floor white Mhmm. Because if you didn’t paint it, you just have, like, gray and that looks that doesn’t look right. You know? No. Most most ice rinks don’t just have a a gray floor.
Scott Cowan [00:49:05]:
Right.
Bryan Pittard [00:49:06]:
We have our vinyl and other painted, logos and things in the ice. So there’s actually, like, a layer of ice just to kinda set and kind of seal the concrete, you know, and then another layer of the materials I was mentioning. And then you have another layer of ice. So, yeah, you’re you’re definitely definitely in the 4 to 6 inches. I wish I knew the precise amount, but the the thing is, it varies over the season because as we scrape down more and more, we don’t reflood very often. But, about I think once every month or 2, there will be a a we call it a flood Okay. Where they’ll get the water out and they’ll relevel, and they’ll they’ll add a little bit back. So, it’s it’s a it’s a yeah.
Bryan Pittard [00:49:45]:
It’s variable over
Scott Cowan [00:49:46]:
the course of that time. So tell me something about curling that all the listeners are gonna be surprised by. I mean, that’s I know that’s next to impossible because you don’t know. Maybe there’s a curling master that’s listening to this and he knows everything, but no. What’s what’s interesting to you? What’s an interesting factoid about curling?
Bryan Pittard [00:50:10]:
I I am so interested in, like, the minutiae of weird curling, personalities. I think if I had to, you know, say something about curling that’s interesting, that’s that’s that’s that people would be surprised by, it’s the community. It’s the, it’s the bond spiel culture. So I mentioned a bond spiel. As I said, that’s what we call our tournament, but what I haven’t really painted a good enough picture for you is the culture that is around a bond spiel. So, and and this is to me, I think, the most interesting thing because it deals with the people really. We have all kinds of different bond spiels at our club and at other clubs. They are curling tournaments, but really they’re parties.
Scott Cowan [00:50:57]:
Okay.
Bryan Pittard [00:50:57]:
They’re weekend long, gatherings of curlers from by their within our club, which we have 500 mem 550 or whatever members, like, you know, you don’t see the same people. You see the same people because you’re in the same leagues throughout the season, but you don’t see someone in a different league that you may never, you know, encounter. So you get to see a lot of people you don’t necessarily run into all the time. You then also add on to that that bond spiels like I travel to other states. I’m going to North Carolina actually in a month to do a curling tournament, a bond spiel in Charlotte. K. And, a lot of curlers, like to travel to other clubs because then they get to meet new people, get to see new places. And all of this is just for curling, but also for the people.
Scott Cowan [00:51:41]:
Mhmm.
Bryan Pittard [00:51:42]:
The parties are themed, so we actually have, just had, recently a, we call it a holiday spiel. So basically in December, we celebrate all the holidays in midwinter, and that’s our holiday spiel. We’re having our April spiel coming up. Our April spiel is very special because the April spiel is a bond spiel that runs basically 24 hours a day. Most times a bond spill will only run during operational hours from like, you know, 9 AM to 9 PM. But because we have like 56 teams coming, which is a large number, for our for our weekend tournament, it is gonna be running around the clock. You may have a curling draw at 3 AM. You may have a curling draw at 3 PM.
Bryan Pittard [00:52:25]:
It just depends on how you do. Cowan. And that is the structure, but then every year that theme changes. This year’s theme is off to the races, which could mean a lot of different things, and I’m actually somewhat privy to some of the decorations that they’re doing for this
Scott Cowan [00:52:40]:
Mhmm.
Bryan Pittard [00:52:40]:
Which by the way, it takes a team, a village of people to bring together. And so all of their personalities, all of their crafting skills, all of their zany ideas, all get synthesized into this weekend long party that we have.
Scott Cowan [00:52:55]:
So you’re decorating the the the facility. You’re you’re you’re do the do the participants
Bryan Pittard [00:53:03]:
dress? Oh, yes. You see where this is going, I hope. Yeah. So, I will give you another example, one I’m very proud of. 3 years ago, I started the, over the rainbow spiel here in Seattle, which is our, actually, it’s the US’ second ever LGBTQ bond spiel.
Scott Cowan [00:53:24]:
Okay.
Bryan Pittard [00:53:24]:
And we are very proud of that fact. Our friends over in Potomac outside of DC did the first one. They call that the glitter bomb spiel. And, we do this as a charity fundraiser for the Lambert House, which is a Seattle queer queer youth outreach organization. So this year’s theme, and I’m very excited, we are doing musicals. So any team oh, so we’re gonna dress the whole club up like it’s a a Broadway theater. Right?
Scott Cowan [00:53:50]:
Uh-huh.
Bryan Pittard [00:53:51]:
The bar we have we have a bar in our club, by the way. I didn’t mention the bar. You would.
Scott Cowan [00:53:55]:
You did mention you guys sometimes put the brooms and walk off and have a drink. So, yeah, you mentioned that just kinda in passing.
Bryan Pittard [00:54:02]:
So we have a bar, and it’s really cool. It looks over the ice. So you gotta come check it out and see our our our really our really neat bar. It’s it’s like the weirdest, speak easy in Seattle. You gotta know that handshake to get it.
Scott Cowan [00:54:13]:
Okay. Well,
Bryan Pittard [00:54:14]:
that’s alright. But, no, we turned the we turned the bar into and we’re gonna turn the bar into, like, a backstage dressing room experience. We’re gonna have a proscenium arch. We’re gonna have, you know, fake spotlights. I mean, we’re gonna do it up. Right. And then every team is expected, you know, some more than others will actually do it, to come in with a musical that they wanna celebrate. And so, you know, we’re gonna get people dressed up like the Van Trapp family.
Bryan Pittard [00:54:37]:
You know, we’re gonna get people dressed up like from the West Side Story. I mean, you’re gonna get, Book of Mormon. You’re gonna get, Spamalot. I mean, any and all musicals, you’re gonna have teams. And I mean, they’re every every bond spills like this. This isn’t this isn’t the exception. Right? So, like, the humanity, the the the variations in just the personalities, but also then the effort they put in, not just that we put in to run the event, but that they put in to do their costuming and their theming and their wordplay on their team names. And then, like, we had a team during the holidays, but it came in and they were in character.
Bryan Pittard [00:55:12]:
They actually were doing a Hallmark, like, holiday movie, like, you know, experience, and they were all characters from this fake Hallmark movie. And, I mean, it’s wild. It’s so wild what people do in these bond spiels. And this again is not the exception. This is the norm. This
Scott Cowan [00:55:29]:
is the norm.
Bryan Pittard [00:55:29]:
So I think that is the thing people, when they only see the curling on the Olympics Right. It doesn’t even scratch the surface at what we’re doing out there in the curling world as part of our culture and it’s something we want to share with everybody, we really do. And I mean, we actually have, some people who I think are just coming for all these events coming up because they have family in town or whatever, and every time they do, like, they just they just have this look on their face like, where am I? What is going on here? What what what a joyous, crazy, impossible thing that they had no idea existed. So, yeah, I think that’s that’s, that’s the hidden and, yeah. Yeah.
Scott Cowan [00:56:07]:
Okay. So your website has people Cowan watch curling on your website.
Bryan Pittard [00:56:19]:
That’s correct.
Scott Cowan [00:56:21]:
I was a little, surprised by that. I, you know
Bryan Pittard [00:56:25]:
Why are you surprised? I I
Scott Cowan [00:56:26]:
well, for one thing, I mean, the site kinda has an old look to it. It it’s not it’s, it’s kinda got the, you know, web 1.0 look. Now, I don’t mean that disrespectfully. So much. I don’t mean it, you know, but it’s just like, yes, this, you know, I think I saw a thing on it says best, best viewed in Netscape or something. No, just just kidding. I actually was
Bryan Pittard [00:56:47]:
I’m gonna let our web team know that because they’re gonna laugh. One of them might not, but the
Scott Cowan [00:56:51]:
rest No disrespect. But I, I was actually on a website earlier today where the guy actually has it on there. It’s like designed for Netscape. And it was like, okay, that’s kind of funny, but you have, you have the ability for people to watch, you know, streams of, of curling going on And that’s kind of cool. Can the public come in and watch? Is, is that a possibility if somebody wanted to come in and if there’s a, a league going on, can they come in and sit up in the bar and look out the over the ice and watch?
Bryan Pittard [00:57:20]:
So we are bound by Washington Scott Liquor Law that we can’t just serve anyone off the street. Right. But if you wanna come watch and you don’t mind hanging out, and I’ll be honest, if you make a buddy at there at the club and they wanna basically treat you as their guest, then that’s what definitely, opens that up. But, no. Anyone can come in. Anyone we’re we’re very open door. Obviously, we wanna be careful because we don’t want just people just showing up and being disruptive. And that’s actually happened before.
Bryan Pittard [00:57:48]:
So we are a little mindful security, but, so so certainly at the club in person, you can absolutely do that. I wanna talk about the streaming only because that’s my baby. Okay. I actually am I’m gonna I’m gonna let you in on some very exciting news.
Scott Cowan [00:58:00]:
Okay.
Bryan Pittard [00:58:01]:
So the club has had, this viewpoint of the of the curling. And it’s if you go on YouTube and you look granite curling or curling Seattle, you’ll find us. All of our leagues are streamed. All of our competitions are streamed. Bond spills are streamed. We have a viewpoint that people like to call the potato, And I don’t know if it’s because the the house kind of is elongated, sort of looks like a potato. I don’t know. But it’s all 5 games at once.
Bryan Pittard [00:58:27]:
And the first time people tune in and they see that, their eyes just kinda glaze over because it’s so hard to focus on all 5 games at
Scott Cowan [00:58:34]:
once. Right.
Bryan Pittard [00:58:36]:
So as part of a, initiative that we’re doing, I actually just got tech I just got some toys.
Scott Cowan [00:58:43]:
Okay.
Bryan Pittard [00:58:43]:
I just got new cameras, and I’m setting up not just Wenatchee. I’m setting up all 5 sheets that will have their own dedicated curling view.
Scott Cowan [00:58:52]:
Okay.
Bryan Pittard [00:58:52]:
And they’re using 4 k cameras, 60 frames a second. There’s gonna be multiple viewpoints. It’s gonna look a lot more like what you’d see on the, the broadcast, you know, channels for curling, the Olympics or what have you. Actually, the Scottish, Scotty’s rather just wrapped up in Canada. So, you know, not quite that level, but we’re getting there.
Scott Cowan [00:59:12]:
We’re getting there.
Bryan Pittard [00:59:13]:
And so our YouTube channel will really be exciting and refreshed, when we get that deployed probably by next season is kinda what we’re shooting for, but, that you can watch from home. So, yeah, this whole idea that curling to the masses should only early happens every 4 years has really kinda gone away because so many clubs are doing this.
Scott Cowan [00:59:30]:
Right.
Bryan Pittard [00:59:31]:
Competitions are being streamed and and broadcast. I mean, it’s it’s a great era for anybody who just wants to watch curling from anywhere in the country.
Scott Cowan [00:59:39]:
The tech has come down so that it’s it’s affordable. Well, more affordable. I mean, you know, you gotta have you gotta spend money, but it’s not tens of 1,000 of dollars anymore. I don’t know what cameras you’re using, but you can, you know, a few $100 will get you a 4 ks mirrorless camera with a with an adequate lens. What what cameras are you guys gonna use? Just out of curiosity.
Bryan Pittard [01:00:06]:
So right now, I’m prototyping with the Aida. I have a PTZ that’s surprisingly large. I didn’t realize quite how big and heavy those things were when I saw it. I mean, it said on the spec but, you know, you just don’t appreciate it. And that’s gonna be something that’s we we don’t have a PTZ. We don’t have a pan tilt zoom camera right now, so it’s
Scott Cowan [01:00:25]:
very
Bryan Pittard [01:00:26]:
much a fixed viewpoint. So having a PTZ is what lets us have an operator during a broadcast, not only do commentary, which we do occasionally for for bigger competitions, not only can we mic the skips and so we can hear what they’re saying to
Scott Cowan [01:00:37]:
our players. This is cool.
Bryan Pittard [01:00:38]:
But now the broadcaster can actually someone who is a little savvy could sit there with the control and sort of follow a shot down the ice. And so part of the things that’s exciting for me as someone who does streaming and podcasts and just kinda likes to play in media, this lets me kind of do all this cool prototyping of, like, broadcasting stuff Yeah. That I never really would have ever had a chance to. And so that’s another thing with the volunteerism of curling. We’re all coming from different backgrounds. I mean, I work for the US Navy doing software. Others are from Microsoft. Others from Google.
Bryan Pittard [01:01:08]:
Others just work at banks and hospitals, Fred Hutch. I mean, you know, where have you done? So we all come with our own experiences, but these events, these these sort of basic operations in the club, these initiatives like doing the streaming, doing the website even. Mhmm. This gives us gives our members a chance to really put their own skin in the game, to bring their own expertise in, and and learn new crafts and learn new thing. I I really am not a kitchen person. My my partner is the, thankfully, the the kitchen savvy person in our in our house, but I’ve helped out now in the kitchen of the curling club so much that I actually
Scott Cowan [01:01:49]:
and you drink a few beers, you throw a few balls and strikes and you leave. You’re Scott, it’s fun, but you’re not invested. If you were, you guys are more it sounds like you guys are far more hands on. If you’re streaming this, you’ve got, you know, you’ve got these this sounds like it’s a whole lot of fun is really is really what it sounds like. So in an effort to keep this and kind of wrap it up, I know I’m gonna ask you some questions out of order. So here’s the first question. What didn’t I ask you that I should have? What did we skip that we shouldn’t have skipped?
Bryan Pittard [01:02:27]:
I mean, I feel like I I have covered as much of it as I can. I think the only other piece to this puzzle is this we we really are excited about sharing curling with the community and, like we talked about, there’s so many ways you can watch, so many ways you can experience. But any chance that you have to come try it, whether it’s a learn to curl or or a group event. And, again, a group event sounds like it’s this big corporate thing, but we actually have it so we have it dialed in such to such a lower price point that even if you have a small group of, like, 4 to 8 people Mhmm. And you just wanna have a party. You just wanna do a little birthday celebration. We have a lot of birthdays actually that happen at the club. That is a little more expensive.
Bryan Pittard [01:03:08]:
It’s in the little the low 100, but, I mean, you get 3 hours of curling, and you can just do it with your friends. A group event is is really a nice sort of high end, you know, Microsoft or a bigger company or low end sort of way to experience. And we have a robust program throughout the week. On the weekends, we have volunteers and our and our our other, paid employees who will help you facilitate, like, curling. I mean, I love teaching curling. It’s one of my favorite things to do, in the club and, Yeah. I just really hope people realize that and come out and check it out, and it’s all on our website. I was
Scott Cowan [01:03:40]:
gonna say, I wanna make sure that there’s a link in the show notes to the website. But because of that,
Bryan Pittard [01:03:45]:
the only other thing, but let me interrupt you.
Scott Cowan [01:03:47]:
Cause I want you to, you know, I’m going to direct you and I want you to tell the audience where they can find the granite curling club online. Where, where do you guys, you know, where do you guys hang out online? Where’s your platforms?
Bryan Pittard [01:03:59]:
So our website, like you said, definitely needs a little bit of a redress, but it is curlingseattle.org. And that also is typically the, hashtag or the at symbol for Twitter, although or x or whatever that platform is.
Scott Cowan [01:04:12]:
Twitter. It’s gonna always be Twitter. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Bryan Pittard [01:04:14]:
It’s a little stale. I think that platform is kinda diminishing a little bit in terms of terms of interactions, but, like, Instagram and Facebook, we definitely use quite extensively. Actually, our new social media chair, Shannon Brown has, like, brought new life into that platform and to into our socials, doing stories and doing all of this great photography and from events and sharing things. It’s been it’s been really great. So, honestly, if you just go on any of those platforms and look up curling Seattle, you will find us. Mhmm. And then same thing with YouTube. It’s I think it’s at curling Seattle, or curlingseattle, like, livestream or something.
Bryan Pittard [01:04:49]:
I mean, it’s it’s, again, very easy to find. We’ve we’ve done a we’ve gotten lucky, and we’ve done a good job of making sure our SEO is is pretty solid. So Oh, TikTok? Any of those platforms.
Scott Cowan [01:04:57]:
You guys are?
Bryan Pittard [01:04:58]:
You know, I want to do TikTok so bad, but I know for a fact that I’m not of the right, age to really do that effectively, and I think we’re struggling to find. But I will tell you, if you go on TikTok, there’s a lot of good curling TikTok.
Scott Cowan [01:05:13]:
I I I think you could have I think I think the the the activity, the sport lends itself to fun. And so I think it would be from, you know, I’ve been on Tik TOK like twice in my life, you know, and just, I think. Okay. So, so all the social platforms you guys, but really Facebook, your website, and YouTube are the 3, probably the big the big ones for you guys. Okay. Yeah.
Bryan Pittard [01:05:36]:
And Instagram. Instagram. Okay. So I’m going
Scott Cowan [01:05:39]:
to come over and watch curling. I’m going to come over. I’m going to schedule ahead of time with you and, you know, I’m going to come over to the Grant Curling Club and check it out. I’m gonna get a get a lesson in curling, and that ought to be just more fun for everybody else than it will be for me. Just because I’m really uncoordinated on getting me on the ice just in and of itself would be like hippo on roller skates. It’s just it’s bound to be historical. But
Bryan Pittard [01:06:03]:
we all Scott to start somewhere.
Scott Cowan [01:06:04]:
But I’m a coffee guy. So before I get, before I’m going to go stress myself out and put myself on the ice and make a, you know, complete buffoon of myself, I’m gonna be looking for coffee. So gonna put you on the spot. Where should I go for coffee around that area?
Bryan Pittard [01:06:20]:
Oh, there’s so many good places. We’re off Aurora and, 128th. So we’re kind of in the like, there’s a few Starbucks, of course, that’s whatever. We all know there’s Starbucks everywhere. But I think my favorite little, like, not that coffee chain, is Diva Espresso.
Scott Cowan [01:06:36]:
Okay.
Bryan Pittard [01:06:36]:
Yeah. It’s, not walkable. There’s unfortunately not as many that are as that walkable from our club, but, like, it’s about a less than 5 minute drive. Yep. I think you’re heading east and then south. It’s a very cool little coffee shop, great little cafe, very inclusive, very friendly, welcoming to all communities. It’s right next to a dumpling place that I think is, like, was Little Ting’s dumpling house. Anyway, great spot down the road from a a tap room.
Scott Cowan [01:07:06]:
Okay.
Bryan Pittard [01:07:07]:
I highly recommend yeah. Diva Diva Espresso would be the place to go for a quick coffee.
Scott Cowan [01:07:11]:
And you said dumplings, which I live in Wenatchee, and dumplings. We don’t, we don’t have those here. So that’s a shit, but it’s just when actually is kind of, I like living here. Don’t get me wrong. But it’s not a food city. Let’s just put it that
Bryan Pittard [01:07:29]:
way. Gotcha.
Scott Cowan [01:07:30]:
So where’s a great place to grab lunch? I mean, Seattle’s loaded, so I’m I’m always asking this question. So where’s where’s a great lunch spot?
Bryan Pittard [01:07:37]:
So it’s funny because as I was thinking about this, I’ve been to quite a number of places near the club because, obviously, you know, unless we’re getting fed or we’re doing something, it’s like you gotta bring your food. And the one place it comes up again and again and again, every person, like, brings stuff from the spot is El Camion Mexican. Oh. And it’s a food truck that I think they have built out into, like, a little, a little little, you know, stand alone sort of place next to their food truck. But their Mexican is solid. It’s very true. I I’m a I’m a huge fan. I go to San Diego for work a lot.
Bryan Pittard [01:08:12]:
I I love Mexican food. It’s, you know so I’m I’m picky, is what
Scott Cowan [01:08:17]:
I’m saying. Go to. What like, if if, you know, I’m gonna show up. You’re gonna you’re gonna be my trainer. You’re gonna teach me this. So I’m gonna butter you up and say, hey. I’ll buy you lunch. What are you gonna what are you gonna order?
Bryan Pittard [01:08:29]:
Oh, at El Camino? I like the carnitas. I’m a I’m a big fan of carnitas. That’s kinda what I judge a lot of the taco or other other types of yeah. And and I like street tacos. Honestly, street tacos, especially with just onion and cilantro Yeah. I don’t need anything else. I mean, I know there’s others. People like cheese, people like salsa, people like all this stuff, and that’s fine.
Bryan Pittard [01:08:48]:
But a little carnitas with, onion, you know, usually like white onion, but it could be yellow. And a little cilantro on a on a on a corn tortilla, soft corn tortilla is is that’s where I’m at. That’s what I get down in San Diego. That’s where I anywhere I go, that’s my judge of Mexican. So El Camino owns this. It’s pretty great.
Scott Cowan [01:09:06]:
Alright. So what do you like to do when you’re not curling? You you work, you’re in software, but what what other what other activities interest you?
Bryan Pittard [01:09:15]:
I used to have a life outside of curling. I don’t know anymore. I’ve actually talked about this, recently with my partner. So I, I I made I did mention I’m a podcaster. I do a show, if you don’t mind.
Scott Cowan [01:09:25]:
You mentioned it’s
Bryan Pittard [01:09:26]:
called Flame On. It is a, queer comic book drag race deep dive nerd culture in general, but we, you know, we started this about 12 years ago. God, it’s been 12 years.
Scott Cowan [01:09:38]:
Good on you.
Bryan Pittard [01:09:39]:
It’s been a long run. It’s, it’s still an audio only format. I have not moved it to video, and I
Scott Cowan [01:09:47]:
Yeah. I love that.
Bryan Pittard [01:09:48]:
It’s I love radio. I’m a radio freak. I I Tom Snyder, you know, I don’t even god. There’s so many great broadcasters I’ve listened to over the years, but, like, I I really, 2,009 or whatever Adam Curry had thrown the term out, but other people were just starting to play around with it. I just got really into these shows and I was like, I wanna do this. I think we can do this. And my my roommates and my friends got together and we just started doing it and then, that was one version of our show, and then we kind of evolved into a different version. But, yeah, I do another show called Comic Book Bears.
Bryan Pittard [01:10:25]:
It’s basically a bunch of burly gentlemen talking about comic books, deep dives on, comics. And so that’s a big part of my life, doing comics. I used to go to Comic Cons all the time. I know Emerald City is coming up when we’re about to record when we’re recording this, but, I used to go to San Diego, New York. I would go all over and interview people. I mean, I was really working the beat, But these days, honestly, with curling, it’s kinda taken all the oxygen out of
Scott Cowan [01:10:47]:
the world. Do a curling podcast?
Bryan Pittard [01:10:50]:
It’s funny you say that. I actually had thought about it and I’ve been on a few, but one of my good buddies, Neil, he does sweeping affirmations, which is its own curling podcast that’s very much in p r y, very edited, very his voice is perfect. He has this really nice kind of, you know, John Diliberto, I don’t know, whoever your NPR so anyway, he does the show. It’s called sweeping affirmations. He does, his own discussions of curling. It’s a really great resource, and he he also does interviews. So I’ve told him many times. I said, listen, man.
Bryan Pittard [01:11:22]:
If you ever want help, if you ever wanna guest host, if you ever want me to pick this up for you,
Scott Cowan [01:11:26]:
I
Bryan Pittard [01:11:27]:
am your guy. So I I think it’s in my future. I think we will partner and do some kinda curling podcast at some point. But I I also need a break from curling, honestly, because I am on the board. I’m doing the outreach stuff. I do the streaming. I do the the the the bond spiels. It it is kinda something I’m trying to force myself to get back into.
Bryan Pittard [01:11:44]:
So I’m a musician as well, and I do play, different instruments, but I have not picked up any of my instruments in over 2 years. I think since the pandemic era, Cowan I always, you know, had some more free time?
Scott Cowan [01:11:55]:
Right.
Bryan Pittard [01:11:56]:
I was messing around, but it has been a minute. And I think of all the hobbies I’ve had over the years, I think the music is something I really wanna get back to. So, you know, we’ll see how 2024 treats me. Right now, it’s not giving me much time to do that, but, but, maybe you’ll see me playing at the curling club. We’ve actually talked about having a music night or having a a bond spiel that’s like music Cowan and we have
Scott Cowan [01:12:18]:
so much fun. That’d be great.
Bryan Pittard [01:12:20]:
A lot of our members are musicians, and so we talk all the time about having a jam session, a pickup band, a little ensemble. Like, you know, it’s crazy how many musicians come out of the woodwork. But, yeah. I think that’s I think that’s the stuff that’s kind of important about what I do.
Scott Cowan [01:12:34]:
That’s very cool. Alright. So my last question is very important. This is the most important question I’ve asked you all in the last hour. You can’t, you have to answer it and you have to explain your answer. Okay. Cake or pie, and why?
Bryan Pittard [01:12:56]:
Wow. That’s that’s that’s the one. You you told me there was gonna be a surprise. I’m gonna say Cowan I think it’s because, not that I don’t love pie.
Scott Cowan [01:13:11]:
You got me.
Bryan Pittard [01:13:12]:
You for this conversation,
Scott Cowan [01:13:13]:
you you you’re you’re turning your back. You’re you’re Oh. You’re you’re disavowing. Okay. Is cake your final answer? Oh,
Bryan Pittard [01:13:23]:
I I yeah. I think it is because there’s just there’s something about the texture of a good cake whether it’s, you know, vanilla basic birthday whatever or it’s yellow or it’s a rich Dutch chocolate or German chocolate, I should say. And there’s just so many interesting advancements in cake, like, not just textures, but, like, you know, the types of cream, the flavors. I had an ube cake recently.
Scott Cowan [01:13:52]:
Ube.
Bryan Pittard [01:13:53]:
Blew my mind. And I had had ube and other things, but I had never had ube in a cake, and it was really great. Frosting, like, I think I went through, like, up and down on frosting. There was, like, I love I mean, kids love frosting. So I grew up just eating frosting, like, by itself. And then I got sick of it when I took a cake decorating class and realized what is in it. First of all, what what’s in, like, a buttercream? Like, when I saw what’s disgustingly in that stuff, how you make it, I was horrified. And then that turned me off.
Bryan Pittard [01:14:20]:
But then again, like, you you kinda come back around. You discover things like fondant and, you you you know, some people don’t love fondant. I love I love fondant. Like, you just you just kinda see the evolutions. You get exposed to new types of cakes. I watched the Bridge Bake Off. Of course, everyone Wenatchee Bridge Bake Off. And you see some of the modern things they’re doing with pastries and cakes and specifically, you know, cake cake technology.
Bryan Pittard [01:14:45]:
Yeah. I think cake. I think that’s why. Now in terms of curling, I will tell you one of the nicest things I had in addition to my brother splitting his pants on my 40th birthday, my, partner at the time actually made me or had a had a curling stone cake made for me. And, one of our curlers now in granite, her name’s Gracie, she’s a doctor by day and she makes the most amazing, beautiful, like, a a a beer bottle. She made a beer bottle cake for one of our curler friends.
Scott Cowan [01:15:13]:
Wow.
Bryan Pittard [01:15:14]:
She’s made such amazing designs and shapes. Again, that’s why cake is so superior. You can’t get pie to look like that. You can’t get pie to look like a a curling stick. Well, maybe you can. I don’t know. No. So, yeah, I think I think from a presentation, a taste, and just an interesting experience, I think cake.
Bryan Pittard [01:15:29]:
Okay. I think cake. Alright.
Scott Cowan [01:15:30]:
Yeah. There you go. Thank you. Thank you. That’s that’s well, I let me ask you one follow-up to the cake. Favorite cake? Is there is there one that you’re like, oh, you know, I really?
Bryan Pittard [01:15:42]:
I mean, I’m kinda basic with that regards because there’s something about the simplicity of a vanilla cake with, like, maybe a lemon, interior and some nice, like, traditional vanilla frosting. It sounds so boring though as I describe it. I,
Scott Cowan [01:15:59]:
But it’s kinda clean.
Bryan Pittard [01:16:00]:
Wish I like
Scott Cowan [01:16:00]:
It’s kind of fresh. It is. It is
Bryan Pittard [01:16:02]:
a clean Yeah.
Scott Cowan [01:16:03]:
It’s clean. And and
Bryan Pittard [01:16:04]:
it’s fresh. And I think I have family I have my mem I have memories of my family celebrating holidays and having this very straightforward white cake, but they actually put coconut, like shredded coconut on the outside. And that was something special. So I guess let’s let me amend my boring cake to to add the coconut. Okay. Still very white, and I apologize. No. No.
Scott Cowan [01:16:24]:
No. Look, here’s here’s the here’s the truth to this. There’s no wrong answer. It’s it’s it’s I stole this question. I I interviewed somebody in the the files were corrupted. It’s the only episode that we just couldn’t publish. Right? And she was telling me that on her podcast, this is the question that they ask. And I love this question.
Scott Cowan [01:16:47]:
I just thought, you know, it’s so simple yet, you know, I it’s, it’s like asking you, okay, I’m going to break your hand left or right. You, I don’t really want either. Thank you, but no, you gotta pick, you know, what’s it going to be? You know, who’s your favorite kid? You know, what’s, you know, who is your, you know, oh, you have 2 cats. Which is your favorite cat? Well, you know, it’s it’s so simple. And
Bryan Pittard [01:17:08]:
It is. It really gets to the core of people in some weird way. Although, as I say that, I’m like, what does it mean that I’m a Well, here’s the thing.
Scott Cowan [01:17:18]:
Here’s the thing. I I’m gonna go back through the episodes. I haven’t been doing this from the very beginning, but I started, I probably been asking this question for a 100
Bryan Pittard [01:17:28]:
and 50, 200 episodes now. Wow.
Scott Cowan [01:17:30]:
And I want to go back through and get the stats because I will tell you unofficially, my opinion is that pie is in the lead significantly. Like the fact that you said cake made me go, Cause I haven’t heard cake in a long time. And so it’s really interesting. I, I, I need to go back and get the data and start sharing that out. Just
Bryan Pittard [01:17:54]:
I, cause there’s no wrong answer. I’m very curious to see. Yeah.
Scott Cowan [01:17:56]:
There’s no wrong answer.
Bryan Pittard [01:17:56]:
Yeah. I’m very curious
Scott Cowan [01:17:57]:
to see.
Bryan Pittard [01:17:57]:
No wrong answer.
Scott Cowan [01:17:58]:
Yeah, I
Bryan Pittard [01:17:58]:
know for sure.
Scott Cowan [01:17:59]:
And then, but cake or pie, and then, you know, some people, you know, it’s funny, some people it’s like instant answer, like, boom. Other people it’s like, I asked them to, you know, which child are you giving up? Oh, right. So anyway, Brian, thank you so much. This was, this was really informative for me. I think that you have painted a picture that the, the granite curling club and the sport of curling is something that people should probably check out because it sounds like a whole lot of fun. It sounds like it’s very welcoming. It sounds like it’s approachable. I think some sports the problem with some sports to me is that they cloak themselves in pretense.
Scott Cowan [01:18:44]:
They’re not welcoming. Other sports are very urban and they’re not welcoming on the other direction sometimes. Right? And the picture you painted here though, is, is a very welcoming, environment and the activity sounds like a whole lot of fun. And I I I had to come over to Seattle this summer. Well, not not while you’re shut down, but, you know, before that, I don’t I tend not to go to the west side of the state during winter if I don’t have to. And I think I think we’re through that. I mean, we might get one more blast of snow, but, you know, we should be through it at the time we’re recording this. And I I’m gonna I’m gonna set up.
Scott Cowan [01:19:20]:
I’m gonna sign up for class and come over and do this. Cause I think it’d be fun. And I hope other people that are listening will, will maybe we should have an explore Washington Scott class, you know, get people to join up and I don’t know. We’ve come up with something fun to do. So anyway
Bryan Pittard [01:19:35]:
I would love to, do that. And I have one more thing for you. If you do come over for that, you give me a heads up. I actually have a curling coloring book that I will give you. My partner and I made this a couple years ago, and it’s up on Amazon. It’s a bit like a curling coloring book. It is the quintessential little, like, you know, takeaway from these events, and it does pretty much the same job we do teaching. It just gives you that, like, activity coloring kind of reminder
Scott Cowan [01:20:02]:
Okay.
Bryan Pittard [01:20:02]:
And it explains all of this stuff. Stuff. So I’m happy to share that with
Scott Cowan [01:20:05]:
you when
Bryan Pittard [01:20:05]:
you come over here.
Scott Cowan [01:20:06]:
So we have a clear color.
Bryan Pittard [01:20:08]:
It it would be, it’d be it would be my pleasure that really have you come out and and check this out.
Scott Cowan [01:20:12]:
Thank you so much for, for being on the show, and I wish you all the best.
Bryan Pittard [01:20:17]:
Thank you so much.
The Exploring Washington State Podcast is your go-to source for discovering the diverse wonders of the Evergreen State. Whether you’re seeking inspiration for your next adventure, looking to savor local cuisine, or eager to learn about the businesses and artists that call Washington home, this podcast has something for everyone. Join us as we showcase the splendor of Washington State, reminding you that “there is always more to explore!”
