Should Santa's list include a curler

Should Santa's list include a curler ...

Tuesday, December 16, 2003

Adam Daifallah

National Post

'Tis the season, and the curler on your Christmas list needs a gift. This year there are plenty of good ideas for gifts, and with just over a week until Christmas, you had better move fast. Here are some choice items:

1. Asham's Slam curling shoes. These stylish shoes, black with a white saddle, are all the talk this year. Jeff Stoughton's Winnipeg foursome wore them on TV Sunday during the final of the M&M Meat Shops Masters of Curling. The cost is $189, with a slider sold separately. "They're a real hot item," said Audrey Tanner, retail manager at Asham's Curling Supplies in Winnipeg. To order call 1-800-267-5730.

2. Another neat item from Asham's is the curling-rock ice bucket. The ice is held in the base of the rock, while a red handle acts as the lid. These are currently sold out but a new shipment is expected at Asham's soon. Cost: $39.95.

3. For the reader on your list, pick up Open House: Canada the Magic of Curling ($35, Doubleday Canada) by CBC sports reporter Scott Russell. While he is best known as a hockey guy, Russell criss-crossed the country and strung together a series of unique curling stories that reads like an ode to the game. "There's a certain mystique to the game and a democracy that is appealing. I think curling is something that's very, very Canadian," Russell said last week. "I always marvel at the fact that at The Brier, essentially the Canadian championship where they are competing for provincial bragging rights, that you get 17,000 people in the Saddledome in Calgary. It's sort of a national treasure."

4. Ladies' Hurry Hard Thong. This skimpy underwear is available from Atkins Curling Supplies in Winnipeg. "The thongs have been selling like crazy," said Rob Atkins. "We have had to re-order twice to keep up with the demand. Husbands have been buying them for their wives as stocking stuffers, and women have been buying them for themselves and for teammates. We even had the president of the Manitoba Curling Association in the store and she said the MCA is going to have to ban the thongs from competition!" The thong will set you back $11.95, with free shipping within Canada. Call (204) 668-CURL to order.

5. Performance brushes. These flashy items are the hottest brushes in the game right now. The defining characteristic of the brush is its small, oval shape. Its creator is Andre Ferland of Trois-Rivieres, Que."We have sold over 10,000 brushes this year, and we'll end the season close to 15,000," Ferland said, adding that the brushes have become a full-time business for him. To find the retail location nearest you surf to www.performancebrush.com

6. Men With Brooms DVD. This Robert Lantos-produced curling flick starring Paul Gross and Leslie Neilsen, released in 2002, was a hit with curlers and non-curlers alike, and included cameos by Jeff Stoughton and Paul Savage. The DVD was released in September and retails for $25.95. Author Diane Baker Mason also novelized the film in Men with Brooms: A Sweeping Epic (McArthur & Co.) available for $10.99.

7. Crutches. These devices are slowly but steadily replacing traditional curling brooms as the tool of choice when sliding out of the hack. Such elite players as David Nedohin, Colleen Jones and Marilyn Bodogh are using them, and they are becoming more more popular at the club level. One brand, The Stabilizer, is made by Gloucester, Ont.'s Earle Morris (the father of two-time world junior champion John Morris). Three models are available from Morris, ranging in price from $59.95 to $84.95. Call 1-888-648-3862 or check out www.stabilizer.net. Other brands are available at curling supplies stores.

8. A subscription to Canadian Curling News. This venerable monthly -- the game's only national newspaper -- began publishing in 1957 and has just been rescued from extinction by 1998 Olympic curling silver medallist George Karrys. If you subscribe now for two years, you pay $44.25 and get a baseball cap and your name entered into a draw for books and DVD players. Call 1-800-605-CURL or e-mail subscribe@curlingnews.info.

And if you can't find any of these or don't want to make the effort, a nice bottle of whiskey from the local booze shop will do any curler just fine.

adaifallah@nationalpost.com