
Business builds backyard curling rink to help 'embrace winter a bit more'
Backyard hockey rinks are a staple of Saskatchewan, but an outdoor curling rink is a much more rare sight.
Malty National Brewing in Regina's Heritage neighbourhood has laid out a sheet of ice in its backyard specifically for curling.
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Co-owner Adam Smith said he hopes it helps people in the Queen City embrace winter and try out the sport in a "very amateur way."
"We're a winter city and I really think we all need to embrace winter a bit more," he told CBC's Joelle Seal.
"We had the space to do something fun like this so that people can come and try something a little different."

The people at Malty National Brewery in Regina have created a curling rink in the brewery's backyard. (Joelle Seal/CBC)
A campfire and some benches surround what he calls an "unofficial length curling sheet," where the stones are replaced with homemade imitations made with galvanized steel handles sealed by ice into buckets from the brewing process.
"They're not from that one quarry in Scotland that all other proper rocks are from, but they're doing OK," he said, referring to the island of Ailsa Craig off the coast of Scotland where the granite used in Olympic curling rocks is sourced.
When Adam asked his seven-year-old son, Rocco Smith, if they should repeat the rink next year, the boy said yes.
Rocco then described his throwing process.

Rocco Smith, 7, stands beside the curling rings in an apparent victory as a homemade curling rock sits in the centre of the house. (Joelle Seal/CBC)
"You would grab a rock, you would put your foot on this wooden pedal at the back and then you would slide and throw your rock," he said.
"I never actually gotten it straight, it's usually right there," he added, pointing midway down the sheet.
Smith said he and another person who worked on the rink may have been the only people who were happy when the stretch of -40 windchill that swept through the province, but it helped them set in the ice that was struggling to hold during the warm weather that preceded it.
WATCH: No backyard shinny: Warm winter leaves outdoor rinks unusable in Nova Scotia
Thumbnail courtesy of Kirk Fraser/CBC.
The story was originally published for CBC News. It contains files from Joelle Seal.