Altoona continues to make history as U.S. birthplace of Crokicurl

Judith Munson

Contributor

January 20, 2025

ALTOONA – It’s beginning to feel a bit more like winter in the City of Altoona.

The city – which was the first city in the U.S. to build a Crokicurl rink – is again hosting the U.S. Crokicurl Championship from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Jan. 25 at River Prairie Park.

Roy Atkinson, assistant city administrator for the City of Altoona, said Crokicurl is a unique blend of two games: the precision of curling and the strategy of the Canadian board game “Crokinole.”

In Crokinole, Atkinson said players flick discs into scoring rings, aiming to outscore their opponents by landing more discs in the center.

Curling, on the other hand, he said, involves sliding stones toward the center of a target while trying to knock out your opponents’ stones.

Crokicurl combines aspects of each game – with players shooting stones toward the center of the round ice rink, positioning them within the highest-scoring rings by the end of the round.

The sweeping lanes used in curling, Atkinson said, are not a part of Crockicurl.

Inspired to stand out

Altoona’s Crokicurl rink, which opened at River Prairie Park in 2021, Atkinson said, was inspired by a Facebook post.  

He said the city’s now-retired recreation director, Debra Goldbach, saw on Facebook how Crokicurl was taking off in Canadian cities, such as Edmonton and Winnipeg after two city recreation administrators invented it.

Atkinson said when Goldbach saw the interest the sport was sparking in Canada, she decided to look into it for Altoona. 

“We are very interested in creating four seasons of recreation in our community,” Atkinson said. “Winters can be long, people want more to do outside and Crokicurl compliments our other outdoor winter offerings, which include an annual ice fishing tournament, a race up one of our sled hills called the Jelly Bean Hill Climb – which is a lot of fun – and a scavenger hunt at River Prairie Park.”

In addition to hosting the annual tournament, Atkinson said the city offers Crokicurl classes and the public can rent out stones from the parks and recreation department, which is located in River Prairie Park – a fairly new development that offers several dining venues, retail businesses, loft living, a river walk, splash pad, concerts and other events. 

The park, Atkinson said, is located right off of U.S. 53 between Altoona and Eau Claire.

The ice is located in the park’s Front Porch Plaza, which he said is a fitting name as River Prairie Park sort of serves as Altoona’s front porch, sitting right along the outskirts of town.  

River Prairie hosts several events throughout the year, including this year’s Crokicurl  Championships, which Atkinson said is part of the city’s Wintertide event complete with a scavenger hunt, snowman building, puzzle contest and other activities. 

A growing interest

Seeing as how the city was the first in the U.S. to offer Crokicurl, Atkinson said it seemed fitting that Altoona would host the first U.S. Crokicurl Championship in 2021 and each year thereafter.

“We decided to go big right away,” he said. “We had several teams. Our local curling club is very active and helped us recruit teams from around the region for the first championship.”

Now that the sport has gained traction in other communities – including in neighboring Eau Claire and a handful of other cities in the Upper Midwest – Atkinson said Altoona sees Crokicurl teams from all over for the annual championship.

The weather, he said, as always, plays a vital role in determining the success of each event, as Altoona doesn’t have the ability to chill their Crokicurl ice. 

“We’ve kind of had mixed success with the weather,” he said. “We’ve had to cancel a couple of years, because of warm weather. We rely on long stretches of cold.” 

Atkinson said the event’s first year had plenty of cold, with wind chills hitting negative 10.

“And yet, we had people out there playing, and we had a successful tournament,” he said.

With an extended forecast projecting favorable temperatures, Atkinson said organizers are hopeful for a successful 2025 event.

Further details

Atkinson said the Crokicurl championship is open to teams of two players, ages 16 and up – with each player throwing two stones per round.

Play is double elimination with three out of five rounds being played per match in the winner’s bracket and two out of three rounds being played per match in the consolation bracket.

A shot is accomplished by sliding the stones onto the playing surface and releasing them before the starting line.

The stone can be played from any point as long as it is within the player’s quadrant.

Players can put their feet against the side rail while shooting their stones.

The object of the game is for teams to position their stones in the best scoring position on the rink to have a higher total of points at the end of a round.

The Crokicurl ice rink has five-, 10- and 15-point quadrants.

Since opening the rink, and subsequently hosting the U.S. Crokicurl Championship, Atkinson said the sport has grown in popularity, especially amongst those seeking something new to do outdoors. 

The tournament, he said, attracts teams of varying experience levels.

“We have a father-and-son team that participates regularly,” he said. “We have husband-and-wife teams. We’ve also had teams from the curling club come in, including one with an Olympic curling champion.”

Visit the Visit Eau Claire website, visiteauclaire.com, for more.