Curling has always been a popular sport in Canada, but most curlers have never seen a curling rink quite like the one Antigonish, N.S. native David MacDonald has created.
The high school teacher loves the sport along with Lego, and so he decided to combine the two.
“I said that between math, curling and Lego, I have the nerd-trifecta covered,” he jokes.
MacDonald has created a detailed Lego replica of a major curling bonspiel - a dream he has held for years.
“To build something from scratch, I never really did that,” he says.
The rink measures a metre by a metre and a half and is made of more than 5,500 Lego blocks, at a cost of nearly $1,800.
MacDonald knew he couldn’t hurry hard during the design and construction.
“I had to figure out how many of each brick I would need,” says MacDonald. “I had to figure out how many studs wide each one was and whether it would fit, given the base plates that I had to work with.”
It’s the detailed pieces that are really the icing on the cake - from the TSN broadcast crew, to the different team jackets on the curlers.
MacDonald’s students at Canso Academy say they are impressed by the way their teacher plays with blocks.
“It’s amazing,” says student Allie Feltmate. “Must have took a lot of time. It’s outstanding.”
“I like the ice, the lanes and the little curling rocks are my favourite,” says student Denise Pellerine.
MacDonald will be taking his Lego curling rink on the road later this month to Kingston, ON for the Scotties Tournament of Hearts. After that, it is on to the Brier in Edmonton in March.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Dan MacIntosh
