Tampa Bay Curling Club

About Tampa Bay Curling Club

Tampa Bay Curling Club: Curling Under the Florida Sun

Tampa Bay Curling Club brings curling to Florida’s Gulf Coast. Founded in 2017 by Bernie Skerkowski, the club curls in Wesley Chapel, in Pasco County north of Tampa, at AdventHealth Center Ice, the multi-rink complex then known as Florida Hospital Center Ice. Five sheets are laid out on the rink’s ice for its sessions.

The first season, played on Saturday nights over ten weeks, drew 63 members on ten co-ed teams, and about 80 percent of them had never curled before. That same summer the club was accepted into the Grand National Curling Club, the regional association for clubs along the East Coast. By the fall of 2018 membership had passed 140, making it the largest curling club in the Southeast, and league play has since reached as many as 16 teams and around 150 players.

League play takes place on Saturday evenings, with a fall season running from September into November, and players aged 15 and up are welcome. Learn-to-curl sessions at the rink, taught by Center Ice hockey and curling coach John Drysdale among others, are the usual route into the leagues.