The sport of curling is having its moment during the Winter Olympics, with viral memes of the sport taking over social media. A Bay Area curling club is also benefiting from the surge in popularity, with more people enrolling into curling classes since the beginning of the Olympics.
It’s a busy Monday night at the San Franciso Bay Curling Club in Oakland, after another event teaching people the sport of curling was sold out.
Dan Sculley visited the club with his family all the way from Vacaville.
“We’re enjoying watching it on the Olympics, and we’re looking for something to do tonight,” he said.
And the Winter Olympics is generating quite the buzz around the sport.
The club says more than four times the amount of people has booked curling lessons compared to this time last year.
And their website has crashed multiple times due to high demand.
“For a few weeks this year, suddenly the whole world is watching and enjoying it right alongside us, sharing memes too,” said Corey Fisher, a club member.
And those memes were definitely taking over social media, as people attempt to do their own version of curling inside of their homes.
In Oakland, people were getting the real-life experience of curling with instructor Abby Lin, who will soon be competing in a national curling competition.
“This is just an introductory of how do you curl, how do you throw a rock, and by the end everyone will be absolute pros, ready for the Olympics,” Lin said.
The club plans to add more events like the one on Monday night in the coming weeks, but spots are filling up fast.
For people like Sculley, he plans to take advantage of the curling lessons and already has his sights set on 2030.