Regional high-performance curling centre officially launches at Winnipeg's Heather club

The province's premier and emerging curlers now have access to championship-quality training resources in the heart of Winnipeg.

Curling Canada, CurlManitoba, Sport Manitoba, the Canadian Sport Centre Manitoba and the provincial government jointly announced the launch of the Regional Performance Hub & Development Centre at the Heather Curling Club, in Winnipeg's Norwood area, on Wednesday.

Launching the centre is a key step toward meeting the training needs of Manitoba's National Team Program athletes, athletes with Curling Canada's NextGen program, and elite competitors, according to Curling Canada.

The centre "is transforming how Manitoba curlers train and prepare for competition," with "championship-quality ice and all-day access to the facility" that will help curlers compete on the national and global stages, Curl Manitoba executive director Craig Baker said in a news release.

Then Manitoba premier Brian Pallister pitched the idea of an international centre of excellence for curling in the province seven years ago.

The Heather club has eight sheets of ice, two of which are now equipped with advanced tools, including video analysis, speed traps, smart brooms that provide performance data and championship-calibre stones.

It marks a significant investment in the future of curling in the region, Curling Canada says, and some of the province's top curlers are big fans of the training area.

"It's almost like an online booking system for the high-profile teams to come and use the ice, but the ice is … championship-calibre, and that's one of the most important pieces," 2011 world men's champion Reid Carruthers said during an official launch event Wednesday for the facility, which has been in use since September.

Carruthers, who skips his own team and coaches the Gimli-based team of four-time Canadian women's champion Kerri Einarson, says the amount of curl the stones get on the training ice mimics what his teams see at marquee national and international events.

That generally requires more work from icemaker Greg Ewasko, who Carruthers says spends extra time texturing the stones and experiments with different levels of curl so that the speed of the ice is quick enough for curlers during their practice sessions.

Carruthers estimates 12 to 15 teams in and around Manitoba have been using the facilities since the curling season started in the fall.

"This is definitely a boost for the club and a boost for our province," he said.

Krysten Karwacki echoed Carruthers's sentiments. 

She plays lead on Einarson's team, which is preparing for a bonspiel in Swift Current, Sask., next week.

"I think having this new facility in Winnipeg is amazing — to have great ice that's consistent, great speed and really great curl," Karwacki said at Wednesday's launch event.

"There's lots of different things that we can utilize, like the smart broom and the laser, and all of those things just really help us to become better athletes."

The use of lasers to help see if her delivery of stones is consistently on target has been a big plus, she said.

David Murdoch, a two-time men's world champion and an Olympic silver medallist who is also Curling Canada's director of high performance, says the new regional training model serves as what Curling Canada expects to be a blueprint for similar facilities in other member association regions across the country.

With access to dedicated sheets of ice, training to maintain it and some additional equipment, that model can be implemented in facilities across the country, he said.

Athletes need high-quality ice and advanced technology to train, but "Canadian curlers are disadvantaged simply because of geography and access to training," which often requires significant travel, Murdoch said in the release.

He's optimistic about what the Heather club's training facility, and others across the country, will mean for the development of the sport.

The centres align with Curling Canada's strategic vision of a nationwide network that makes use of existing facilities, while enhancing them to meet the training standards curlers need for success, the organization's news release said. 

Curling Canada did not how much it cost to launch the training facility, or what its annual operating costs will be.