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By Emma Miskew

Our 2015-16 season is about to start after what seems like a very short off-season, but I could not be more excited. It was a great summer that started off with a trip to Jamaica, some cottages, some charity golf tournaments, a bunch of time in the gym, and some team training weekends.

In June, Rachel and I made our way out to Boyle, Alta., for the Bryan Mudryk Golf Classic raising money for the Cross Cancer Institute in Edmonton. We got auctioned off as a pair the morning of the tournament and got to play with some great players from Alberta while raising money for a great cause.

We actually had a pretty good score too, thought we might be in the running … except one thing. There was no limit to how many “celebrities” a team could bid on … and since there was one team with 11 players, we really didn’t stand a chance with our six-person team in a best ball tournament! I mean, with 11 balls to choose from it would be really amazing if they didn’t win (that might be my competitive nature talking!).

I also got invited to go to the Team Brad Jacobs charity golf event raising money for the Follow Your Dreams Bursary and the Sault Area Hospital Foundation Maternal Child Fund, which was in Sault St. Marie, Ont., in July. I ended up getting picked second overall, which was quite an honour! But then I found out it was only because I was the only “celebrity” who flew in that brought their own golf clubs, so they thought they were getting a ringer (we ended up winning the honorary most honest award, or in other words, last place).

The longest drive hole was pretty clever — the rules were you had to wear curling sliders on both feet and it also happened to be raining that day. I saw quite a few players wipe out before I got up to hit, so naturally I was feeling the pressure because I wouldn’t have been able to live it down if I had fallen wearing the equipment I do every day all season! With smartphone cameras out all around me waiting to catch something great, I not-so-gracefully stayed on my feet much to their disappointment and somehow got lucky enough to win the longest drive competition for the women.

To finish off the summer, I accepted an invitation to instruct at a curling camp in Moncton, N.B. I didn’t really know what to expect given I had never been to this camp before, but I was looking forward to meeting some new people and potentially making a difference in some eager curlers’ games.

Little did I know that meeting one young girl would actually make such a big difference in my life. She was on a young team fresh out of little rocks, and while I was instructing a session on effective brushing and running the group through drills I noticed how hard she was working sweeping her teammate’s rocks. I had been encouraging the group to try switching their arm placement just to see how it felt during the drill, so she stopped to ask me if she should switch. That’s when I noticed that she had one arm. I was absolutely blown away that from the time I got there she had been doing every drill without complaint and even offering to switch her arm positioning when it would have been way more difficult for her. She was also an amazing thrower — I watched her throw a peel weight takeout with ease while not using a brush for balance. Most find this game of curling quite challenging, but this young athlete made the decision to adapt, not allowing anything to get in her way of playing this amazing sport. I’m excited for the day I see her competing at a national championship!

Now, I’m just excited to get back on the ice with my team and do what I love. The break is definitely nice, and deserved, and I feel lucky that we play a sport where our off-season is during the most beautiful and warm months in Canada. A lot of people think that during our off-seasons we don’t have too much to do, which, at least for me, is the complete opposite. All the planning and training that happens during the summer is definitely more time-consuming than our competition schedule, so I’m happy to get back at it! My team and I are also pretty excited at the addition of the women in three more Pinty’s GSOC events this season, starting off with the Tour Challenge in Paradise, N.L. See you soon, curling fans!