‘It’s a culture, it’s more than a sport’

Joan Baucells looks out onto the ice at the Fort Rouge Curling Club and pauses for a moment, searching for the right words to describe it.

“This is like a cathedral,” he says.

His home country of Spain is world-renowned for its stunning architecture, but none of those buildings have what this one has to offer: pebbled ice, granite rocks and carbon-fiber brooms.

Oh, and don’t forget an in-house restaurant serving fat boy burgers and poutine.

While Baucells, Xavier Boronat, Marc De Vicente and Clara Dominguez look the part in their snazzy Vallvidrera Curling Club jackets and sweaters, their recent trip to Winnipeg marked the first time the Barcelonins had played the sport the way it’s meant to be played — on ice.

“Very difficult, more difficult than we expected. Lots of technique, it’s not easy,” said Baucells.

“Sweeping was hard. My heart was pumping.”

Despite what the name suggests, their “club” doesn’t have a frozen surface. To kick off their annual Fest Major D’Hivern Dels Barris De Muntanya (Winter Festival of the Mountain Neighbourhoods) on the last weekend of February, around 100 people gather inside a local community centre to play floor curling on a vinyl sheet, sliding rubber-and-plastic stones fitted with ball bearings on the bottom so they can glide with ease.

A few years ago, Spanish filmmaker Antoni González Gilabert was scrolling on Instagram when he came across a video of the Vallvidrera crew. It gave him the idea for documentary that highlights their story and also takes them to a place where they can be fully immersed in curling.

Enter Winnipeg.

“They looked at me like ‘Are you serious?’ They had some small news coverage, and small videos on Instagram or Twitter, but nothing like a documentary,” said Gilabert.

“This is like a cathedral.”

“I saw Winnipeg in many movies. And I liked Winnipeg already. You know the movie Universal Language? I love that film, and it was shot in Winnipeg. And I started searching for information about Winnipeg and I saw all these curling clubs.

“And it’s cheaper than other cities in Canada, so it was perfect.”

The founding members of Vallvidrera never envisioned anything like this when they started out in 2018. In fact, the whole thing started out as a joke.

The opening ceremony of their festival sees everyone gather onto an elevated platform and toss a large stone onto a lake to see if it’s frozen. If it is — everyone knows it never will be, this is Barcelona, after all — they’ll use it for curling. If the stone sinks to the bottom — as it always does — they head inside and start the festivities by sitting down for a beef stew breakfast.

“We play a bunch of winter games, but we thought to start with something that really represents winter, like curling for example,” said Baucells, a university criminal law professor.

For the longest time, that’s all it was, but the demand to actually try curling grew so high that they decided to order a few sets of the floor version and it quickly became a smash hit.

“It’s been getting bigger, bigger and bigger and at the end, we said ‘We need to play on ice,’” said Baucells.

“For eight years we’ve been trying to play curling and we have nowhere to play. And Antoni gave us a chance. We’ve been presented this chance to come here and play.”

“I don’t know what you’re doing – it’s very strange. But have fun.”

They had five jam-packed days in Winnipeg before their departure late Tuesday afternoon. They visited four curling clubs — Fort Rouge (where they had their first on-ice experience), Granite, St. Vital and Charleswood — and toured Asham Curling Supplies on McPhillips Street and the Manitoba Curling Hall of Fame & Museum.

“I sent a video to my mother from here and she answered me saying ‘I don’t know what you’re doing – it’s very strange. But have fun,’” said Boronat, who owns a supermarket, with a laugh.

They also met up with one of Manitoba’s all-time greats: Kaitlyn Lawes. The two-time Olympic gold medallist even brought her hardware.

“It was the first time in my life that I got to touch a medal,” said Boronat. “Very impressive.”

“She was very friendly,” added Baucells. “She even came with us on the ice and gave us a couple of tips.”

The difference between an inturn and outturn is far from the only thing they learned from this experience.

“We have seen that it’s more than we expected. We thought it was just a sport like hockey, but there’s a culture around curling that’s very special,” said Baucells.

“Look, after people play, they stay here to eat, drink beer. You can see children, women, men, different ages. It’s a community. It’s a culture, it’s more than a sport.”

“I’d say 50 per cent of the documentary is thanks to (Winnipeg’s) generosity and warm welcome.”

Gilabert had three co-workers from a Spanish production company called La Parcela in town with him and the players. They were all blown away by the hospitality they experienced.

“We were filming a different documentary in New York three or four months ago and everything we wanted we were told ‘No, no, no.’ But here, everything was very easy,” said Gilabert.

“Everyone brought us another contact, or to another location. I’d say 50 per cent of the documentary is thanks to (Winnipeg’s) generosity and warm welcome.”

They’re leaning towards naming the doc The Curling Underdogs and they hope to release it by early 2027 if they can get some more funding. They’re not sure where it will air just yet, but they’ve already had a few other companies express interest in co-producing.

“We would like to come back here to have a premiere,” said Gilabert.

As for Vallvidrera Curling Club, they’re hoping this will garner some momentum and get them onto some actual ice. FC Barcelona’s ice hockey team has a small arena, but according to Baucells and Boronat it’s undergoing renovations and unavailable to the eager curlers. The next closest frozen barn is 300 kilometres away.

In short, you won’t be seeing this squad at the French Alps 2030 Winter Olympics.

“We want to play, but where? It’s impossible to do that,” said Baucells.

“It’s not sustainable. It’s a little bit crazy to play in Spain.”

After a week in a place so crazy about curling it’s almost like a religion, the underdogs from Barcelona left with one clear takeaway.

“The best thing about Winnipeg is the people,” said Boronat.

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