By Gregg Inkpen

With the exception of bobsledding or, for those with some serious skills, snowboarding, there aren’t many games in the Winter Olympics that spectators think they can do—or at least try without risking serious injury. Then there’s the curious phenomenon of curling.

While some may have thought “now there’s a sport I can do,” the opportunity wasn’t always there. But that’s not a problem anymore. The Long Island Curling Club will be hosting two events, one this weekend and another next month, with more dates to be announced.

“There’s been interest in the Long Island area since the last Olympics in Italy,” said Michael Greene, one of founding members of the two-year-old club, which followed upstart clubs in New Jersey, Connecticut and Ardsley, New York. The club has since grown from four members to more than a dozen and is anticipating an uptick in interest now that the previously obscure sport has become popularized.

“It’s quite overwhelming the number of people that want to try it,” Greene said. “People from Queens to Ridge have e-mailed me, mostly beginners, with just a couple with playing experience.”

Soon after the club’s inception, the City of Long Beach Arena began hosting curling matches on Saturday nights, although the local events have since ceased. “People didn’t want to drive all the way to Ardsley and pay a bridge toll each way to play, which I understand,” Greene said.

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Although the arena no longer holds regularly-scheduled 90-minute matches, it is holding an open house event for beginners or experienced players next month while Olympic fever still hangs in the air—and it appears to have spread faster than even the professionals could have predicted.

Although the sport is one of Canada’s favorite pastimes, the chanting crowds doing the wave while packing the arena in Vancouver are raising eyebrows. Like golf, curling has an understated tradition and an etiquette that might be unfamiliar to some fans. Canada’s curlers have reported receiving rock-star-like receptions.

The American curling team, which took home a bronze medal in 2006, has seen better days. Both the men’s and women’s teams have both won only two of seven matches as of Monday morning.

Curling is thought to have originated in Scotland but has been popularized in Canada, second only to ice hockey in television viewership there. The basic idea to curling successfully is quite simple: slide a 42 pound “stone” or “rock,” which is made of granite, into a bullseye-like circle, called the “house,” laid out on the ice approximately 113 feet away across the ice rink.

There is strategy involved such as “taking out” your opponent’s stone—think shuffleboard on ice. Teams consist of four players with at least two of them required to “sweep” the ice after a stone is thrown. Sweeping is done to make the stone travel farther if thrown short of its intended target.

For more information on the Long Island Curling Club log on to www.licurling.com or find them on Facebook.

Curl On:

Mitchell Park, Greenport 115 Front St., Greenport. Saturday, Feb. 27, Noon-1:30 p.m. Free. 631-477-2200.

City Long Beach Arena, 150 West Bay Dr., Long Beach. Saturday, March 20, 4:15-7:15 p.m. $10. 516-208-6136.