Many trace the start of curling taking itself too seriously to when it became an Olympic sport. The Island Shootout wants to bring some fun back to the proceedings this weekend at the Victoria Curling Club, despite the fact this is a major competition with a $22,000 purse, and out of which the winning rinks will earn berths into the men’s and women’s ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ championships in Langley on the road to the 2025 national men’s Brier and women’s Scotties Tournament of Hearts.
Some of the wrinkles include running a beer garden right up the middle of the rink, covering the middle two lanes, and leaving three for competition on either side. That’s what you call getting up close and personal with the curlers. Music will also be played while competition is in progress.
“That’s unheard-of in this era at top-level events. There’s not much like this on tour,” said Chris Baier, Island Shootout co-organizer with Paul Cseke.
“Curling has become super serious in the Olympic era. We want to spice things up and bring back some fun to [high-level] curling.”
There will also be closest-to-the-button and other skills competitions along with non-curling diversions in the foyer such as corn hole, famous as a mainstay staple of football tailgating, and a portable basketball shooting gallery like you see at the PNE and school fun fairs.
“We see this as a community event to showcase our club,” said Baier.
But also make no mistake about the skill level that people will be seeing among the 13 men’s and nine women’s rinks on the pebbled ice, mostly from the host Victoria Curling Club, which has produced the last two ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ men’s champions that have represented the province at the 2023 and 2024 Briers. Baier himself came close this year as the third on the Trevor Montgomery rink, which lost to the Catlin Schneider rink in the all-VCC provincial final in February.
“Despite all the other things we have planned for the Island Shootout, this is all about the curling,” said Baier.
“Look at all the banners we have hanging. We are the top club in ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ now and everyone looks up to us. The Island used to be a tough place to curl but the power base in the province has now shifted to us. Our club is full of really good, young curlers, and they have a big hunger to win.”
That includes Corey Chester and Taylor Reese-Hansen, who are with their regular men’s and women’s fours teams this weekend in the Island Shootout but will pair up later this year in the mixed-doubles Canadian trials for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics.
“We’ve built up a culture of excellence, and such a density of talent in our club the last five-six years, and this field reflects that,” said Chester, the former two-time ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ junior men’s champion.
“This is going to be really enjoyable for fans to watch top-level competition.”
The Montgomery rink, career three-time ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ runner-up, is the defending men’s Island Shootout champion and the Kristen Ryan rink is the defending women’s champion.
The opening ceremony of the 2024 Island Shootout was held Friday night with draws today and Sunday at 9 a.m., 12:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. and the men’s and women’s finals Monday at noon.
