Curl Sudbury purchases new rocks for the first time in 60 years

It's a purchase Tom Leonard has been waiting to make for a decade.

Ten years ago, Curl Sudbury started fundraising to purchase new curling rocks. Recently, the club achieved its $40,000 goal and started shopping.

"We sold our handles for sponsorship money and then we got a pretty good trade in value on our old stones," Leonard said. He's the facility manager and chief ice technician at the club.

"So with the trade in value and what we raised in selling handles and a few other things, we were able to make this purchase."

The old rocks were initially bought back in 1958. Though they served the club well, Leonard says it was time to replace them. He says the striking surface of the old stones were deteriorating in quality.

"It was getting harder and harder to make hits … and make any type of weighted shots ," he said.

"Material was starting to come off the stones when they were hitting."

Due to that, when the club hosted events before the new rocks were bought, replacement rocks had to be brought in. The new rocks means that's not the case anymore.

Leonard says the purchase is "pretty exciting" but also a little sad.

"My whole ice making career here had been with the old stones so it was a little bit sad to seeing those were going to go," he said.

"Having new stones for our clientele is fabulous."

As for the feedback from curlers?

"Everyone likes them," he said. "The curl is awesome on them. They are a little slower than what we are used to but that's where I've got to make adjustments to ice to bring the speed up where everyone is used to."

In addition to the brand new rocks, the club just received news they are getting a Trillium grant of $150,000 to upgrade the curling club.

The money will be used to put a cement pad on what's currently a sand base at the curling rink. That will mean less water will be used to make the ice and it also opens up the venue to be used for summer events that need a big floor space.