Olympic gold medalist Russ Howard applauds the new curling club at the SLS Family Sport Centre and says it's as close as you can get to arena quality ice used by the pros.

Russell was joined by curling greats Grant Odishaw and Laine Peters, of the Academy of Curling, to provide instruction to nearly 120 people and also headlined a Saturday evening banquet.

They had a chance to test the ice in advance and what he saw was an impressive facility that the sport needs more of in Canada to attract new curlers. He believes Cochrane's Phillips Curling Club will become a popular place to develop curlers.

"The ice is spectacular. There's lots of curl, the rocks are consistent, the speed was great, the sliding surface was great. That's as similar as you will get in a curling club to arena conditions. If you want to be a world class player you have to learn to play in arena conditions and curling clubs usual don't usual have them."

"For the icemaker to figure it out that quick is unbelievable but he's got a lot of good tools there. You've got a beautiful facility and I really love the concept of the three little sheets at the far end where you can do some training and not take up the six sheets you actually have for members or rental."

Worldwide, curling is growing in popularity, says Russell, but here in Canada the numbers have dropped, although he speculates it's because we had so many to start with. He believes it might have something to do with the emphasis placed on the pros and believes there needs to be more encouragement for club level curlers.

"I would love to see the pros play the pros and then have an amateur division where you represent your province and you go to the Brier and Scotties. That might bring back that really good club curler that has the itch to represent their province."

Right now, though, he says it's almost a death sentence to represent some provinces at the Brier, using the example of New Brunswick, whom he represented for many years. If the team goes 1-9 or 3-7, it's demoralizing for the athletes, he explains, and doesn't help the sport.

Facilities like the new one here will also help to attract young curlers to the sport. He says he's travelled to curling facilities around the world and ones like this are breeding a lot of youth because it becomes cool to curl.

"I don't think there's any panic button, but what we need to get more of the youth involved is something like this, the Cochrane Curling Club, where you have a beautiful clean, sexier facility than the old quonset hut with no heat or dressing rooms."

Ken Weisner, of the Cochrane Curling Club who chaired the workshop weekend, says it was an important event to promote the new facility.

"The biggest thing, other than the great instruction of these guys--we're learning from world class curlers--is just the exposure of seeing this facility, seeing what they have here, the ice, the rocks... it's invaluable."

Curlers from as far away as Lethbridge were in attendance and one Calgary curler expressed interest in booking ice for practice.

Weisner, a long-time curler and Cochrane Curling Club member, is impressed with not only the ice but the rocks it's equipped with that are similar to what the pros use.

"These rocks are very lively and you can do a lot of things with them. In the old club you would hit a rock and unless you hit it really hard you wouldn't move it very far. Here you hit it with a gentle weight and it moves."

Now they are seeking feedback from participants in part to see if there interest in holding future workshops.

The Academy of Curling offers a handful of workshops annually and upcoming clinics are in Oktotoks, Ottawa and Phoenix, AZ.

"We just love it. It's extremely tiring, but we love the sport so much," says Howard.